Happy Father's Day to all of the fathers who are in our midst who may watch this today or some other day.
This world, this nation needs more good fathers.
In Ephesians chapter 6, Paul writes, for fathers not to provoke their children to wrath, but to bring them up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord.
But in Hebrews chapter 5, the Hebrew writer points out as he is writing to the Christians that while he desired to speak to them about deep things, about spiritual things, that he
was unable to because he says in Hebrews chapter 5 and verse 12,
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God.
And you have come to need milk and not solid food.
For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.
But solid food belongs to those who are of full age.
That is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
The Hebrew writer says if you want to get to a point where deep spiritual things like he was reasoning about concerning the priesthood of Christ and the connection to Melchizedek
are things that are a part of your
ability to learn, understand, grasp, and materialize and synthesize into your knowledge of the Word of God, you must begin first with the basics, you must begin first with the milk,
and you must use them, and you must not be satisfied with just learning them, for he says you must become teachers of them.
because it is by reason of use that we develop the skill with the Word of God.
If you turn over to 1 Peter, sorry, 2 Peter.
2 Peter chapter 1, Peter writes concerning the Christian graces, seven things which are not earth-shattering in their enumeration.
He says we are to add to our faith virtue, to our virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness
brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.
None of those things are earth-shattering topics of Scripture.
But Peter writes, For if these are yours and abound, you will neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For he who lacks these things is short-sighted even to blindness and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.
Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure.
For if you do these things, you will never stumble.
for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly in the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." And then he says, for this reason, I will not be negligent
to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth.
Yes, I think it is right.
As long as I am in this tent, he means alive on this earth.
to stir you up by reminding you, knowing that I must shortly put off my tent, just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me.
Moreover, I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my disease." Peter said, I'm putting in place in the hands of others the
responsibility
to not only remind you of these things, but to keep reminding you of these things.
In our lesson last week, we began with the questions on the back of this little card about who is God?
Does God exist?
Who is the Holy Spirit?
Does He exist?
Who is Jesus Christ?
Does He exist?
The questions on this card, questions in this little booklet.
are things that for most of the Christians in this room you have known, you have been reminded of, and you are knowledgeable about them and have been for decades.
One of the members came up to me last week after the lesson.
said, I really enjoyed that.
She said, of all of the times, all the years that I've been a Christian, I don't remember a single time where we've been taught how to study the Bible with someone else.
That's a sad declaration of the work of the church to equip saints to do the work of the church.
one of the things that soldiers do.
in the modern military by comparison to the ancient times.
They have a requirement to go re-qualify.
You know, soldier, someone who's in the Army perhaps, or the Marines, has been introduced to a firearm before.
If they've been in the military for 15 years, they are pretty well introduced to what a handgun does and what a rifle does.
They're uh not requalifying because they've never loaded a firearm before.
They're requalifying because in order to do their job, they have to be qualified to use it.
And as we take the time, yes, even on Father's Day, to go through this training on how we sit down and study with someone who is lost, we are to be reminded it is not because we
don't know these truths.
It's because sadly most of the people we meet every day don't have a clue.
but we must be qualified to teach them.
Not qualified by way of uh a list of some standards, but qualified by reason of use.
Same way that person in the military has to go out to that range and use up some ammunition until they are again qualified by reason of use.
We noticed
our religion or our authority and religion last week and the Holy Spirit's role in guiding the apostles in all truth.
We're gonna go back and look at just one or two slides from each section.
We read in John chapter 17 verse 17, if you've got one of little green booklets, hopefully you've got yours with you from last week.
We'll continue filling it out.
But we read that Jesus said concerning,
the Word of God as he prayed to God the Father, sanctify them through thy truth, thy Word is truth.
Truth originates with God the Father.
while we recognize our roles as fathers on this day.
May we be always reminded that our greatest, our single most important role as a father is to teach our children how to obey God.
so that they can teach others how to obey God.
Deuteronomy chapter 6, God lays out through Moses to Israel that role, that when they rise up, we are to teach them the word of God.
When they sit down, we are to teach them the word of God.
When we're walking down the way, we are to teach them the word of God.
When they lay down, we are to teach them the word of God.
As fathers, this is our commission.
God the Father gave His Word to Jesus Christ.
John chapter 14 verses 23 and 24 we read, answered and said to them, If a man loves Me, he will keep My words.
And My Father will love him.
And we will come unto him and make our abode with him, he that loveth Me not, keepeth not My sayings.
And the word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father's which sent Me.
The teaching that came from God the Father came to Jesus Christ, and truth and revelation originates with God the Father, and from Him it went to Christ.
In John chapter 12 verse 48, we are reminded that Jesus said, that he that rejecteth me and receiveth not my words hath one that judgeth him.
The word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.
Why?
because God the Father was the originator of that word.
So we'll be judged by the words of Jesus.
Revelation came from the Father to Christ, but from Christ to the Holy Spirit.
In John chapter 14 verse 26 we read, but the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your
remembrance, whatever I have said to you.
The apostles were going to be reminded of the words of Jesus by the work of the Holy Spirit.
and they were not being reminded of the words of Jesus alone, but Jesus' deliverance of the words of the Father.
So, came from the Father to the Son, from the Son to the Holy Spirit, but it didn't end there.
John chapter 16 verse 13, Jesus said to the apostles,
but whatsoever he shall hear, that he shall speak, and he will show you things to come." Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would guide the apostles into all truth.
Revelation came from the Father to the Son, from the Son through the Holy Spirit to the apostles.
That's where we left off last week.
You notice page four of your booklet.
The inspired word is our only guide in religion.
In John chapter 20 verses 30 and 31, John writes as he's nearing the conclusion of his record of the life of Christ.
He writes in many other signs, truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book.
But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life through His name.
These things are written that you might believe.
And that believing...
or that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that you might have life through His name.
There are many in the religious world around you every day.
that do not believe that the book that you hold in your lap or in your hands is sufficient for belief and eternal life.
But John tells you his letter alone is.
1 John chapter 5.
1 John chapter 5, as we open the pages of Scripture, we read in verse 13, these things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you
have eternal life and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.
These things are written.
back here on the sheet.
Someone may have answered as you sat down to study with them.
If you were to die tonight...
Are you sure of where you will go?
And they may have said, nope, not sure.
Yet John says it is in here.
that we can know.
The word there means, with certainty.
whether or not we have eternal life.
Romans chapter 10.
Paul as he's writing about the work of Christ and the salvation that came through Christ.
writes, so then faith comes by hearing.
and hearing by a still small voice in the night.
Isn't that what you write?
That's not what he said.
Faith comes by hearing what?
the Word of God.
So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
James chapter 1.
In James chapter 1 and verse 21.
James is going to write to these Christians in the first century.
And we read in verse 21, "'Therefore lay aside all filthiness, an overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls.'" What's
able to save your souls?
The implanted or the engrafted word.
1 Peter chapter 1 verse 23.
Peter says that we are born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.
How is one born again according to the text?
By the word of God.
Should you go to any other source to learn how to be saved?
And the answer is no.
you know, in all the studies that I've done.
I've never made it just this four pages in.
and had anyone answer yes.
By the time they get here, they've gotten the point.
The book they're holding in front of them is the answer.
They just got to figure out what the book says.
Not a single person has ever said yes.
Second Timothy chapter three.
Paul writes to Timothy as Paul is nearing the end of his life, and he says, scripture is given by the inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Does the Bible thoroughly furnish us to every good work?
Yes.
Do we need additional revelations to make us complete before God?
No.
Do we need the Book of Mormon to make us complete spiritually?
No.
Do we need church traditions, manuals, creed books, confessions of faith to make us complete spiritually?
You know, just recently, a new pope was put in in the Roman Catholic Church.
over the last 20 years.
You'd have one pope put in and he'd say one thing about church doctrine.
You'd have the next pope put in, he'd go the other direction, say the exact opposite thing.
You'd have the next pope come in, he'd change it right back to the way it was.
But he'd argue about something else.
And these individuals claim to be the presence of Jesus Christ in the flesh and speak with his full authority.
My question is, why doesn't Jesus make up his mind what his doctrine is, if that's true?
Why does the church, according to them, keep having all these arguments about what's true and what's false in religion if Jesus Christ was vicar in the flesh in the form of the
pope?
The answer is because they don't represent Jesus Christ.
They represent church, doctrine, and politics.
And you don't need that in order to know how to be safe.
2 Peter chapter 1 verse 3.
According as His divine power hath given us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him that called us to glory and virtue, has God given us all
things that pertain to life and godliness?
Yes.
Since God has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness in the Bible, should any other source be used as our
religious authority?
No!
Revelation, all truth.
originate with God the Father, came through Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ commissioned the Holy Spirit to deliver it to the apostles.
The apostles wrote it down, the apostles and prophets in the first century wrote it down.
in the Bible.
If you want to be guided into all truth, if you want to have assurance of salvation, if you want to be born again, it is in this book and nowhere else.
Now, there's some cautions in Scripture about this book.
Deuteronomy chapter 4, way back there in the Old Testament.
And if you're studying with someone who's unfamiliar with the Word of God, they're going to go, where's that book?
Way back there.
By the way, when you're studying with someone, if you've not noticed it or if you've not thought about it in a while, show them that, uh
Right back there at the beginning of their Bible is a table of contents.
So if they're trying to find where a book is, put a tab in the table of contents, and then they can scroll down to Deuteronomy, page 156.
It'll help them figure out where these things are.
But the book of Deuteronomy says, as God spoke through Moses to Israel...
you shall not add to the word which I command you.
Neither shall you diminish aught from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord our God which I command you.
Would you please God if you added to or deleted anything from His word?
No.
doesn't matter how smart you are, and it doesn't matter how smart or intelligent or theologically sophisticated any individual who's ever lived is.
They are not smart enough to add to the Word of God.
and be right.
though many have tried.
Galatians chapter 1 verses 6 through 9, a passage that we dealt with in our Bible class this morning.
Paul writes a condensed version of this on the screen, but though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you, then that which we have preached unto you, let him
be accursed.
Will we be accursed if we add to or take away from the Bible?
Yes.
Leviticus chapter 10.
Another one of those Old Testament passages.
This one is on the occasion of the very first worship assembly in Israel under the commandments of the Law of Moses.
Very first one.
Leviticus chapter 10, we read in verse 1, "...Nadab and Abihu the sons of Aaron each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before the
Lord, which he had not commanded them." So fire went out from the Lord and devoured them and they died before the Lord.
What was the command?
Don't add to my commandments.
Don't take away from them.
What was their violation?
They did what they were not commanded to do.
These men offered strange fire before the Lord which He commanded them not.
Did they alter God's commandments?
Yes.
Was God pleased with them?
No.
Must we be careful how we handle the Word of God?
Yes.
2nd John 9.
all the way over at the other end of the Bible.
John is going to write.
whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God.
He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son.
If we do not abide in the doctrine of Christ, is God pleased?
No.
Do you want to please God?
You're probably going to feel a little awkward when you're sitting down studying with someone when you ask them those questions.
Do you wanna please God?
But you're asking them for a reason.
Because quite often what we as humans do is we allow information to come into our hearts, our minds, and we think, that's great.
And then we do nothing with it.
We don't apply it.
We might even sit and think about someone else who needs to hear that.
And don't think about ourselves needing to hear it.
So you're providing them an opportunity to actually answer the question, do you want to please God?
Because if they say yes...
They've just agreed to all the consequences of the things they've just learned.
They may not fully understand it yet, but they've just agreed to it.
Matthew 15.
Matthew chapter 15 and in verse 9, we read, in vain.
They do worship me.
Now, this is one those passages where you need to add a little bit of context.
Jesus is speaking about the Pharisees, about these individuals who hold their traditions as what a person must do to obey God.
And Jesus says, in vain they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
Their worship to God was unacceptable because they taught the doctrines or the commandments of men instead of God.
Matthew chapter 7.
Matthew chapter 7 and verse 21.
Jesus says, everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
Who will be allowed to enter heaven?
He who does the will of my Father.
basic question, do you want to go to heaven?
If they say yes, then what should they do?
The will of the Father.
Hebrews chapter one.
Because one of the things that the denominational world will not teach people.
is the difference between the Old and the New Testament.
They don't treat it any different.
And as a result, they fallaciously teach a lot of things that the New Testament gives them no authority to teach.
Hebrews chapter 1, verse 1, God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken unto us by his Son,
whom he has appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds.
God formerly gave his revelations to the fathers by the prophets.
But today he speaks to us through his Son.
Matthew chapter 28 verse 18.
Jesus has been crucified and resurrected.
He's about to ascend back to heaven and he tells his disciples, Jesus came and spake to them saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
So the question is how much authority did God give Jesus?
All of it.
John chapter 12.
We're reminded, verse 48, passage we've already discussed, Jesus said, "'He that rejecteth me and receiveth not my words hath one that judges him.
The word that I have spoken, the same will judge him in the last day.'" Will we be judged by the words of Jesus?
Yes, we will.
John chapter 1, verse 17, as John is introducing
the reason he's writing about the life of Christ.
John points out that the law, the Old Testament law, was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
The law was given by...fill in the blank.
You know, most people, they would have never known this prior to the time you sat down and discussed it with them.
Law was given by Moses.
Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
Hebrews chapter 9.
Hebrews chapter 9 verses 15 through 17.
We read beginning in verse 15, for this reason, he is the mediator of the new covenant by means of death.
For the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
For where there is a testament, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.
For a testament is in force after
Men are dead since it has no power at all while the testator lives.
According to the text, is Jesus the mediator of the New Testament?
The New Covenant?
Yes.
By the way, that would be a great opportunity
for you to scroll in your Bible as you're sitting there looking at them and talking with them.
and show them where that begins.
that this came into authority, this part right here, after Jesus died.
that up until that point, this was the authority.
But now, this is.
When did the New Testament of Jesus go into effect?
At his death.
Hebrews chapter 8.
Hebrews chapter 8 verses 6 and 7, "'But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry,' speaking of Jesus, "'by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was
established on better promises.
For if that first covenant had been faultless, there should no place be sought for the second.'" Is Jesus the mediator of a better covenant than the old one?
Yes.
If the first covenant, the Old Testament, had been faultless, would God have given us the second, the New Covenant, the New Testament?
No.
Verse 8 of that text, the fault that is identified isn't a fault with God's Word, but with those who tried to keep it.
Verse 8 points out that it was the people who were the fault in the covenant because they couldn't keep it.
God's law was perfect.
Be sure you don't leave them with the impression that the Old Testament is flawed in some way.
It's not.
But it was a law that the people who it was given to could not keep perfectly.
And therefore it condemned them.
Hebrews chapter 8 verse 13, in that he sayeth a new covenant, he hath made the first old.
Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready.
to vanish away.
When God gave the new covenant, did He make the first one old or no longer in force?
Yes, He did.
chapter 13.
We're speeding through this.
You won't do this in the study.
We're speeding through this because eventually people want to eat lunch on Father's Day.
Acts chapter 13 verses 38 and 39.
By the way, you might remember that Rob always encouraged you to feed people before you study.
Because if you wait to feed people after you study, they'll cut the study short to go eat.
Acts chapter 13 verses 38 and 39, be it known unto you,
Therefore, men and brethren, that through this man, Jesus, is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which
you could not be justified by the law of Moses."
Paul tells the Jews that there were things you couldn't be justified, you couldn't be forgiven of by the law of Moses.
Can we be justified by the law of Moses?
No.
In Galatians chapter 3, verses 11 through 13, And the law is not of faith, the of Moses, but the man that doeth them shall live in them.
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law.
being made a curse for us it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree." Is the law of faith, the Law Moses, is the context there?
The answer is no.
It was a law that if you kept it perfectly, it justified you.
If you failed to keep it perfectly, it condemned you.
Did Christ redeem us from the curse of the law?
Yes.
So we can't go back to the Old Testament to teach us how to be saved because we're redeemed from the law.
We're freed from the curse of the law.
We can't use the Old Testament law as our pattern for salvation.
Colossians chapter 2 verse 14.
By the way, don't miss that all these things are going to line up and answer to a problem that they will invariably present you with.
They haven't noticed it yet.
They're going to bring it up at some point.
And that is, can't I be saved like the thief on the cross?
All of these passages answered that, don't they?
Because the thief on the cross lived and died before this was under authority.
You can't be saved the way the thief on the cross was saved.
Everyone who wants to be wants to go back and live under this law, but you can't.
It no longer has any authority.
It's old.
It's been removed.
All of these things set that precedence before it ever gets brought up.
Colossians chapter 2 verse 14, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross.
When was the bond written in ordinances abolished?
Speaking of the Law of Moses, when Jesus was nailed to the cross.
Ephesians chapter 2 verse 15, having abolished in His flesh the enmity,
even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace." What did Jesus abolish in his flesh?
The law of commandments, the law of ordinances given by Moses.
Galatians chapter 3 verses 23 through 25,
We were kept under the law, shut up, under the faith, which would afterward be revealed.
Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
But after that faith has come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.
Now that faith has come, are we under the law?
No.
There are going to be things that you might
They're trying to understand it.
They've got this quizzical look trying to figure out what do these things mean?
Help them understand what a tutor did.
The one who was tutoring them was to bring them to knowledge, but once they had the knowledge, they didn't need the tutor anymore.
That was what the old law did.
Romans chapter 7 verse 4, Wherefore, my brethren, ye also become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the
dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
When I get to this passage, I usually go back and read
Romans 1 through 4, because Paul uses marriage as the analogy.
He says, while your spouse is alive, you're married to them.
But when your spouse is dead, you're no longer married to them.
You're no longer under the law to them as a spouse.
They're dead.
And he uses that to illustrate the fact that we are no longer under the law of Moses.
We're free from the law.
Paul says you have become dead to the law by the body of Christ, therefore you're free to be married to Christ.
You cannot be married to both at the same time.
Romans chapter 7 verse 6, a few verses down, but now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held, that we should serve in the newness of spirit and not in
the oldness of the letter.
Paul says now we are delivered.
from the law.
In the New Testament, the law is the New Testament, the law spiritually binding today.
As soon as they answer yes, you've solved a whole lot of questions.
They haven't asked them yet, most likely, but they will.
And when you bring them back here and show them that they already know the answer, they'll go, oh, right, that makes sense.
Revelation came by the Father to the Son.
The Son sent the Spirit to deliver that revelation and remind the apostles of that revelation to guide them into all truth so the Holy Spirit delivered it to the apostles
and the prophets in the first century church.
and they put it into the words of Scripture that we know as the New Testament, the New Covenant that came into effect after Jesus died.
And that is the law, that is the covenant that we are under today.
In this lesson we've learned that the teaching of Jesus was from God.
Jesus received all authority from God in heaven and on earth, over all flesh, and over the church.
We will be judged by the teaching of Jesus, not by the law of Moses.
You're not going to appear before God on the final day
and he's not going to ask you, you offer all of the appropriate sacrifices that I commanded at the temple in Jerusalem?
I'm not going to ask that.
He's going to ask, did you obey my son?
Did you keep His commandments?
Jesus said, if you love Me, keep My commandments.
We will be judged by the teaching of Jesus.
The apostles were inspired by the Holy Spirit in what they taught and wrote.
The inspired word is our only guide in religion.
We must not add to or take away from the Word of God.
And the New Testament is the law which we are under and by which we are judged.
It is also the law whereby one can be born again.
They can die to sin, rise to walk in newness of life out of that watery grave of baptism.
Why is it?
that the thief on the cross could have his sins forgiven without baptism?
You're going to get asked that question at some point.
If you study with people long enough, you'll get asked.
Two things they assume which they don't have any textual evidence for.
Number one, that the thief was never baptized.
The text tells us that while John the Baptist was teaching and preaching at the Jordan River, all Israel came unto John in order to be baptized.
And specifically, many of those who had done things that were against the law came to John to repent and to be baptized.
And under the Old Testament, Old Covenant, that baptism of John was such that when they were baptized by John, they did not need to be rebaptized once Jesus' law came into effect
because it was in preparation for the coming of the Messiah.
So they argue he was never baptized.
They can't prove that.
There's no text anywhere that tells them that.
And there's plenty of evidence that points to the other thing.
Because, by the way, what does the thief say about Jesus?
He identifies that he is well aware that that individual on that cross in between him and the other thief was coming into his kingdom.
This man had heard the preaching of the kingdom.
This man was well aware of who Jesus was.
And this individual was fully knowledgeable of the fact that dying on that cross was not gonna stop it.
to say that that individual had no acquaintance prior to that moment with Jesus is foolish.
Either this man had heard John, or he had heard the disciples, or he had heard Jesus himself.
Unfortunately, he had lived his life in a way that had led him to being on a cross as a thief.
So the first thing is, you can't declare that this man was never baptized.
You have no knowledge.
Second thing is that the New Covenant came into power, into authority after his death.
and after His resurrection.
having come into authority after his resurrection, did the thief die before the New Testament covenant was the binding law?
And the answer is yes, because we know from the text that the soldiers made sure to expedite all of the deaths of the people on the crosses because the Passover was going to
come.
so that man didn't outlive that day.
Thirdly, Jesus had the authority to command that person's sins be forgiven.
He is the King.
He has all authority in heaven and on earth.
Therefore, I will grant you one thing.
If Jesus Christ personally tells you your sins are forgiven, I'll accept it.
But if he didn't say that to you in person, you're going to have a hard time trying to argue that with him.
because he'll remember if he said it or not.
But what did he say?
He said, that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.
He that believeth not shall be damned.
If you have need of the invitation this morning, why not come now?