 Hey, you know what, I gotta start this off right. Awesome, awesome, awesome. Awesome, she says, hi, grandpa. That is my granddaughter right there. What is that on your, what is that? Wait a second, what is that? Is that a, yeah, hold on, I gotta make this bigger. I got, you didn't mess up the live stream already. That's my baby. What, is that a, are those little devil horns on your head? Okay, you getting the spanking. You getting the spanking, little girl. That's my baby. Okay, we gotta work on this, on that part though. I don't know. You messed the whole thing up. I was going to, I love you, sweetheart. One of the more important things, the most important thing when it comes to being a Christian, after you have become a Christian, not becoming a Christian, but after you have become a Christian is utilizing the one thing that we all have in common. That is his word. Unfortunately, there has been a race from different sides from those on this side, from those on that side, from those over there, from those back there. There's been this race to kind of minimize the importance of the scriptures. Now, none of the people who do so will say that that's what they're actually doing. They'll tell you they love the scriptures, but they'll also impugn and kind of attack others for really reading it more so. I put the little poll up, and it's really a silly poll when you think about it because there's really only one obvious answer. Can you possibly study the scriptures too much? Well, the obvious answer is no. Now, I did see what that one being said. Yeah, he said, yes, if you're studying it incorrectly. But the Bible was given to us to study his word, to learn of him. We're gonna look at some very important passages in the Bible to tell us exactly how important it is. We're gonna look at a few clips from some people who they ought not to have said what they said. And I'm not saying it disqualifies them, but it might. It shows a severe lack of judgment. It shows a selfishness on their part, whether intentionally or unintentionally, because all we have is the word. We do have the Holy Spirit. The problem is, I have the Holy Spirit, you have the Holy Spirit. And let's say you and I disagree. If you and I disagree, both as believers with the Holy Spirit, then how do we settle an understanding of the scriptures? Well, I've got the Holy Spirit and you don't. No, I've got the Holy Spirit, you don't. No, we both have the Holy Spirit. So if we both have the Holy Spirit, well, then what do we turn to figure out what the word is saying? Matter of fact, even people who don't have the Holy Spirit, we look to the word because it is a source of truth. Now, it's not to say, and I think people have misunderstood this, when we say that people who don't have the Holy Spirit cannot understand the scriptures. No, it matter of fact, there is no passage that says that the people who don't have the Holy Spirit cannot understand the scriptures. Now, we are told, we do know that people who don't have the Holy Spirit, they have a hard time accepting the Holy Spirit. I mean, accepting the scriptures. There are even those who have made fun of people who spend time in studying the scriptures and they say that our Trinity is not the father, the son, the Holy Spirit. Our Trinity is the father, the son, and the Holy Scriptures. That's what they'll say. Well, here's the foolish part about that. The same Holy Spirit is the one that gave us the Holy Scriptures. And so what we have as a body of believers in common is the Holy Spirit, who gave us the word and so we don't separate what he's done. Now, the problem is when you say you're doing something and you say it's led by the Spirit and I disagree or I don't see that in the scriptures, you want me to take your word for that. My daughter's in here and she almost knocked the light over. I think I'd rather the cat come in here. Now she has this look on her face. But I would rather, I would much rather you never take my word for it. As a matter of fact, I would like for you to be like Paul. Remember, Paul is the one who commends the Brains, who when he goes to them and acts, don't even have this on the screen. No, I don't, for some reason I didn't put it on the screen, but Paul goes to, this is Acts 1710. And he is the one who is now obviously Paul has a spirit. Paul is full of the spirit. We know so that he is so much full of the spirit that he's even commissioned by the Lord to give us scriptures. Peter says that his scriptures are on par with other scriptures. Peter calls Paul's writing scriptures. The only way that that can be the case is if they are God, breathe. We're gonna look at that in a second because the scriptures are breathed out by God, meaning by the Holy Spirit. And so to minimize that in any way, shape, or fashion is absolutely wrong. And those are people that I would caution anyone to listen to. Now, sometimes they do so because they really can't get around argument. For example, we're gonna look at one particular gentleman who has, he's made a response. Matter of fact, I think he's made two responses to me. One by name, this other one without my name being mentioned, but it's clearly in response to me. When you have an argument and you cannot find the words in the scriptures to back up, to buttress your argument, well then two things. You either don't have a legitimate biblical argument or maybe you ought to spend some more time studying. If you still feel confident that you are right and that I'm wrong or someone else is, well then fine. Fine, there's no time limit that you have to be right at this very moment, but you're only gonna be right by the scriptures if it's by today, if it's by tomorrow, doesn't matter. I'm not gonna hear you out if you don't have the scriptures. As a matter of fact, we had a gentleman that came home before who I asked him to give me an example. He says, well, it's not in the scriptures. I said, well, we're not taking your example then. I don't care what your experiences are. I don't care what you think, what you believe, what you feel. I don't care what you've been told. If it's not in the scriptures, well then it doesn't matter. It says, though it does not exist. Proper interpretation is important. Matter of fact, I'll use John MacArthur when he said on this, I think it was perfect. The importance of careful biblical interpretation couldn't be overstated. It's impossible to overstate it. Misinterpreting the Bible, listen, is essentially no better than not believing it. Exactly right. It's it's misinterpreting is essentially no better than not reading. You might as well not even have the Bible. You might as well not even have the Bible if you're going to read it the wrong way. Now, I've said before that one of the more important things we have to do as a body, as a believer, is to figure out what our hermeneutic is. And hermeneutic is not something one gentleman says that it's fleshly, it's man-made. No, it's not. All it really is is just a name, a title, given to something that we already do. We just don't know it. We all have a hermeneutic. We all just don't, pretty much for the most part, know what it is. But I want you to know what it is. I want you to define it. I want you to stick to it. And then you'll see if the way you read the scriptures are the right way. For example, when you read English, we understand there's a certain way that we read different things. And if we're told, let's say for example, let's say if we're reading a menu or we're reading directions, we're reading cooking instructions, we're reading something about how to fix something on the computer. What have you? Well, we understand that we're gonna take what it's saying literally. It's not trying to get us, if I'm looking for instructions or manuals to a car, it's not trying to give me a deep meaning. It's, there's no poetry in there. There's no idioms in that. Are you with me? Now, if I'm reading a book or novel that is, let's say a book of poetry, with an understanding what sort of genre is being, is being, is being employed here. Now, we have different genres in the Bible and we wanna be aware of those when we come to them, but the Bible tends to, for the most part, let us know when we are there. Are you with me? By the way, Charlie and Kat, thank you for the super chat, I appreciate that. Says the person without the spirit does not accept the things that come from the spirit. Amen, of God, but considers them foolishness and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the spirit. Now, there are people though who are going to say that, did I do that? Yeah, I just, I just, I pushed a button and realized what this button did. I didn't even know what this button is doing. Still getting used to the whole lay of the land. I didn't realize the button would do it what I just did. Anyway, I better be careful for I accidentally turned the whole thing off, which I almost didn't one time before. But people who want to go off emotions do not like it when people go back and use the Bible or delve deep. Isaiah says, what is your hermeneutic? My hermeneutic, which I would certainly recommend that you all would adopt, because as far as I can tell, it's the only one that is consistent. And the thing is, those that disagree with my hermeneutic, I asked them what theirs is and I find that theirs is not consistent. My hermeneutic is what I, what we call the literal grammatical historical hermeneutic. It is a dispensational hermeneutic. Didn't mean that I'm dispensational or dispensation list, but it is a dispensational meaning that it takes into account history, which the historical part, meaning that there is something, there's a chronology, there's a story, there's history to what's unfolding here in these scriptures. And so we can recognize that when someone is speaking, who they're speaking to, where they're speaking to them at when, then that matters. For example, if in the book of Leviticus, he's speaking and we take that here today, we don't take that as though it's to be applied to us. He's speaking to them, to the Jews back then, and he's speaking to them in regards to servicing the law and being under the law. Are you with me? Same thing with Genesis. And Genesis is prior to the law, we understand what's happening. What they're being told to do, if it's a command for them, we understand it's a command for them. And in many cases, some cases it's not to be applied to us. And so I have a literal grammatical historical hermeneutic. What I mean by literal, literal is I take the word for what they mean. We're gonna, and I'm gonna cover this some more because one gentleman attempts to explain to the people that he's teaching what a hermeneutic is, and he doesn't do a good job of it. He doesn't do a good job of it. And so therefore he probably needs to pull back on that, get an understanding, the title of his lesson that I just happened to catch was hermeneutics versus the Holy Spirit or something like that. And it was wrong. It was just, first of all, it's a false dichotomy and he straw man's a lot. Either intentionally or unintentionally, I think I would say probably unintentionally because he doesn't know really what hermeneutics are and really he's probably never had someone to show him how you ought to focus on reading the Bible. And it shouldn't take that, but the problem is when we read the Bible, we have this tendency to wanna read into it our own emotions, our own presuppositions, our own background, what we've been taught and so forth and so. But the literal portion of it is we take the words, these words mean what they mean. But not just mean what they mean, we need to see the tense, the voice, the mood, if it's a verb, the case ending and so forth. Are you with me? Well, if it's a noun, these things matter. We need to look at the grammatical setup. We need to look at the syntax, the ordering of it. That's the literal portion of it, the literal, the grammatic, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, that's a grammatical. The literal is it's saying this, this and this. So we take it to mean just that. So when the Bible speaks of, and I had this issue a lot of times with my Calvinist buddies about this issue of Israel or not, not since they Calvinists, but those who would agree that they believe that Israel has replaced the church. And then I say, well, so you're saying Israel, doesn't Israel in this passage doesn't mean Israel? Well, if that's the case, when does Israel never mean, when does Israel not mean Israel? I take it to mean literally, that's what it is. Or when it says it's thousand year reign, I take it to mean mean and literal thousand year reign. I believe the prophecy of this time of Jacob's trouble, Jacob's trouble, this tribulation is literally seven years. I can't find the Bible giving me a number and then me turn around and saying, now I disagree, I think it's more figurative because if that's the case and there is no consistency in that, well, then maybe should we take it figuratively that Jesus was dead for three days or that Jonah was in the belly of the well for three days or that it wasn't literally six days of the creation. So I want to be consistent with my literal view of it, my grammatical view and the historical. Now I've even given this, I've left it up here, I guess for a good reason, this issue here with this Old Testament timeline to even draw out and show the historical aspects of how in this case, the Old Testament is, I put this up before so we can see how the Bible is laid out. One at the very top, I don't know if you all pay attention to that, but at the very top, we see the time that these writings took place or when it was done, but the period of time that it's covering. And so those things are important and it helps us to form a basis for our understanding what we see. Now, if you think that the Bible is not important, I want to get to the point, eventually I'm gonna play a clip, that is just really her. I think he's trying to be cute, not being cute, he's trying to be profound. This person I'm gonna show, this is obviously, this is Andy Stanley who is, I don't know what's going on with Andy Stanley. Andy Stanley had a good education. Andy Stanley had a wonderful training, but Andy Stanley is the guy that walks in the room and thinks that he's the smartest person and he wants to show you how profound he is. So much so that he says some ridiculous things. I want to, we should unhitch from the Old Testament. No, we shouldn't. But Andy Stanley has a hermeneutic that is bent towards interpreting scriptures in light of today's world, to being appeasing. He wants to kind of bring people in. He is, if there ever was a secret sensitive church, it's his. He and Mr. Purpose driven life. That's just kind of how he does things. And so he makes a statement that it's an old, I think it's about two or three years ago, but it helps to prove the point. But because of the way that pastors have leveraged, the Bible says the Bible says the Bible says, like saying the constitution says, the company handbook says, we've said that the Bible is the authority because the Bible says the Bible teaches the word of God. Because of that language, consequently most Christians, most thoughtful Christians believe what's in the Bible. Are you ready for this? Because it's in the Bible. And you have to help them change that. Real illustration. Ask the average, how crazy does that sound? The layman, Simran says, do you think that he is progressive dispensational? Well, that is what DTS is, a progressive dispensational school. I'm not sure that Andy is. I don't know what Andy is. I don't know that Andy knows what Andy is. Andy is whatever makes him look the smartest, profound and more accepting by the world. He's getting that way at a more rapid pace and it's just uncomfortable. He really is. Justin Healand, thank you for super chatting says, Andy Stanley unhitched from the New Testament. Yeah, he's unhitched from the entire Bible. He really is. But let's get back to what he was saying and go ahead, I'll give you guys some time to kind of pick your jaws up because I know your mouth was wide open when he says what he just said. Matter of fact, let me just play it again. Average person in your church or your uncle like this because it's in the Bible and you have to help them change that. Real illustration. Ask the average person in your church or your uncle or your aunt or your grandmother who loves Jesus. Hey, do you believe Jesus died on the cross for your sins and rose from the dead? Yes, I do. Why do you believe that? Because the Bible tells me so because it's in the Bible. That is the wrong answer. We do not take the New Testament document seriously because they are in the Bible. These documents were included in the Bible because of who wrote them, when they were written and what they contained, right? I mean, we believe that we take those documents seriously because of who wrote them, not because they're in the Bible. It's a silly argument. It really is. As a matter of fact, it's really almost semantically what he's trying to get at. He's telling us to change our approach for the benefit of the people that are hearing. Why? Because for many people, the Bible has fallen out of favor. That's why you will hear people say, can you prove that who God is or prove Jesus without using the Bible? My response is, no, and I don't want to. And if you don't want me to use the Bible, well then, sorry. Now I'm not telling the kick rocks, but basically kick rocks. I'm not, this is what I have. That's all I've got. All I got is this word. Now I can try to give you some sort of, you know, colorful way of putting it, but then that depends on how eloquent the speaker is. I don't have to rely on my eloquence to convince someone. I give them the word. If they take it, that's fine. If they don't, that's fine. I wish they would, but that's not, the ball is not in my corner. I have now put the ball in two people's corner, in mine and God. That's it. I don't have to worry about whether someone's going to accept it or not. As a matter of fact, I even know that people are not going to accept what the word says. The Bible has become a pejorative. It's a dirty word. The sad part is, it's become a pejorative, a bad meaning, even amongst Christians. We think we've got this anti-intellectualism that is crept into the church, and it bothers people. Why? Because we will not accept your foolishness. We will not accept the things that you're doing. And we go look for the scriptures to see if it says so that we're the problem. No, you're the problem, but I understand there'll be more and more people like that, including people who are inside the church, who are going to disagree with using the scriptures. Now, what he's saying is we shouldn't say it says so because we shouldn't say the Bible says so. This is what it is because the Bible says so. He says we should say what it is because John said so, because Mark said so, because Paul said so. Well, where Paul's writings found? Where are, are you with me? By the way, all of Paul's writings aren't in the Bible. They're not. All of Luke's writings are not in the Bible. Just the ones that he wanted us to have. And so the Bible is the collection, is the word, is the book that he left for us. And so this is him just trying to be again, cute, but also profound. Hmm, Andy, I think you're on to something. We all should just change that and adopt your world view. No, we should not, Andy. No, we should not. As a matter of fact, if we did, we find ourselves becoming more in leagues with the LGBT community like you want us to be. But that's a whole other story for another day. But I want to go to the genesis of this problem, which is interestingly enough in Genesis. Genesis chapter three, verse one. Now the serpent, and we can stop there. Now the serpent, now the, who is the devil? He says now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, indeed, as God said, that is the beginning of this whole little deconstruction movement of the atheists, the agnostics, even with people who are considered to be Christian, but are not, or maybe they are, but they are adopting some of the views of the world. Did God really say that? Is that really what the word of God says? Is that it? Which is why I have a literal, grammatical, historical, hermeneutic. Yeah, that's literally what it says. You want it in Hebrew and they get mad at that. You want it in the Greek, they get mad at that. You want it in English? Well, what I think it means, and this is how we stop, but what I think it means. Who is God to you? Well, to me, God is, well, how we get past the to me or I think is what he said. And take it just how he says it, as literally as we possibly can. So, when the Bible says that that's a tree, we don't have to spiritualize or allegorize, huh? That's not really a tree. What it really is, it's a spiritual tree. What it is, he wants us to look at the branches of life. No, no. Again, God does not think that highly of our intellect. Now, people think that what we're doing is thinking highly of our intellect. No, we are relying on his word rather than ours. Anyway, thank you for the super sticker. I appreciate that. Let's go back to it, what he says. He says, did God say you shall not eat from any tree of the garden? Well, sure. But again, someone wants to distort if God actually said that. Does the Bible actually say what we say it says? Now, in this case, the Bible wasn't there and you're gonna hear someone say something absolutely moronic. Again, what I have prided myself on of late over the last couple of months is some kind of way I have found or been blessed maybe, I don't know, fortunate enough to find some doozy statements that people have made. You know, the guy who said that when God told Adam to be fruitful and multiply, he said it to a person that didn't have a body, that kind of foolishness, or that again, Jesus was 85% of his life was out of order, that kind of foolishness. Now, there's always some foolish stuff by some people who you don't even begin to take seriously, like Apostle David Taylor or Benny Henson. You expect that cat-curve, Catherine Crick. You expect them, but there are some people, you know what, let me give this guy a little bit of the benefit of the doubt and so you expect more. You expect more, but you're gonna hear something. It's like, wow, he said it and not only did he say it, he meant it. And he's so off that next week he, as was a few others like him, will be featured in a video that I think is harmful and destructive and is part of the problem in our community. I'll leave that to the side, but Satan said, did God say? Is that what God said? Now, somebody, she did the right thing. Eve, who at this time had no sin. She said, no, yeah, God did say, let's put it back on the screen. She said, God did say, the woman said the serpent from the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat, but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said. She repeats, God has said. She repeats, and in the Hebrew, Amar Elohim, which is, he said, God, God said, you shall not eat from it nor touch it. So she did the right thing. She repeats, makes, she verifies it herself. This is what the word is, and she lets him know. But then Satan does the next thing, which is why you have to have a good hermeneutic, which is why you have to have good interpretation, which is more than that, why you have to lean on what the word says. It, can I be what I think, what I feel? I'm pondering, it may be, no, you've got to lean on what, as we say, thus saith the Lord. And so what does Satan do? Verse four, the serpent said to the woman, you shall surely not die, you surely will not die, for God knows that in the day that you eat of it, from it your eyes will be open, and you will be, oh, there it is, like God, knowing good and evil. Well, that's what we want to be anyway. I mean, after all, who didn't want to be like God? Matter of fact, I want to be God. Huh, Satan? We get that from you. When you said that I will ascend and be like the most high, what do we all want to be like God? Naturally we do. Now, as born again believers, we don't. But prior to that, naturally we want to be the people that control our own destinies. We want to be self-made men. We want to be the rulers of our own world, those kind of things. And so here comes Satan. So what does he do? He taps into her desire. He taps in her desire. So you know what? I think you're right. You might be right. Matter of fact, I want you to be so right that if I'm wrong, I want someone to be wrong with me. Here, husband, eat that. And so he is the, again, he's the father of lies. Even of these distortions. Where am I reading from? That was from Genesis three. Genesis three, one through six. Someone asked, where was I reading from? So you want to hear something absolutely this. I used to think this word was a cuss word. I used to think this word that I'm getting ready to say was a cuss word. It's not a cuss word. It's one of those intellectual words. But I like the way it sounds. You want to hear something really asinine? You want to hear something really asinine? Backwards, ungodly. There are people that really do not like others using the word of God. And holding others to the word of God. They don't like that. They really don't like that. I've found such a person. His name is Michael Wal, is it Walrund? Am I spelling right? Yeah, Michael Walrund. I think it's Junior. He's in New York. We'll get back to you New Yorkers in a second, but let's just hear what Michael has to say. We have become so fixated on the right rituals, the right rules, and the right ceremonies that we forget we follow the radical revolutionary teachings of the poor Jewish carpenter. We've become so fixated on antiquated language and doctrine disconnected from the teachings of Jesus. Now, before I continue, notice he says we've become fixated on antiquated language. There's nothing like destroying the words that were used before I get to my argument. So whatever you're reading from, it's antiquated. It is of no use because it's outdated. So I'm on the wrong side of history. Madically, on antiquated language and doctrine disconnected from the teachings of Jesus that we dogmatically profess that we've forgotten that God is still speaking and that everything heard by God cannot always be cross-referenced in scripture. I need to help somebody today. There are some Christians who say things like, if it ain't in the book, it ain't real. What are you talking about? You mean to tell me, you got the audacity to think that everything God wants you to know can only be found in the Bible? Okay, help me out, guys. Chasi Chasi, thank you for the super chat. Help me out, guys. Everything, I might be wrong on this. Everything that God wants, I've got the audacity to think that everything that God wants us to know is in the Bible. Not everything that he's done. Everything that he has said, I know that everything that he has said is not in the Bible. I know that there were conversations more than likely between God and Adam and that aren't in the Bible. I recognize that. Moses spoke with the Lord and everything that he said to Moses is not written. I get that. But he just said that we have the audacity to think that everything that the Lord wants us to know. In other words, there's something that he wants us to know that he hadn't told us. I'm gonna have to take a trip to New York. I'm going to have to take a trip to New York and see what's happening up there. All right, senior kind red, aren't you in New York? I'm gonna have to go up there. Proverbs, where are you? Are you in New York also? I'm gonna have to go there. Rod Rowe, thank you for the super chat. But let's continue with what he's saying. When you worship the Bible more than you worship God is called Bibliolatry. Somebody may be saying- Now, that's also another slight, another dig. When you worship the Bible more than you worship God. Coffee and tea, thank you. My question is, how do you know about God? How do, okay, fine. Because he would think that all of us are just, that we are idol worshipers. So all of you, three, four hundred people in the chat, you idol worshipers in the chat. How do you know anything about God? I think that everything I know about God comes from here. Now I've experienced him outside of the Bible. And I'm gonna get to that in a second because they straw man us into thinking or thinking that we have no reliance or thought about the Holy Spirit or His power. Monty, thank you for the super chat. So I'll get there in a second. But everything that I know about him that I can know about or how he's revealed himself, he has revealed himself. God has revealed himself in a few ways. One, he's revealed himself in nature. I can go outside. I see that there's trees. I see that there's birds, the sky, the air. There's people walking around. So many people that I look at, I'm just wondering they could not have been created by God but they have been. There is the air that I breathe, the different seasons. You look even past our atmosphere. You can see outer space. I know that God, the Bible says, Paul says also, Psalm says that he has been revealed in nature. Also, he has been revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. He's also been revealed in that regard as well. But then the principle way that he has revealed himself to us that we can know him is by his word. Let me give you an example. Let me give you a real good example. Let's go to, because someone's gonna try to fight this fight between the word and faith. He doesn't do so. He's just absolutely out to dinner, not thinking of anything, but someone else is. But I wanna go ahead and jump the gun real quickly. I wanna go to Hebrews 11. This is the hall of faith that they say. There's now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the convictions of things not seen. For by it, the men of all gain approval. We believe that you must have faith to please God. What it says as a matter of fact in verse six. However, I got a question. Do you all think that we have what some have called us or have ascribed us? Do you, would you call our faith blind faith? Is there anyone out there that would call our faith blind faith? Well, no, as a matter of fact, it's the opposite of blind faith. We don't have blind faith. We have faith that is based off of something. Matter of fact, our faith is the assurance of things that are hoped for. There's a conviction. The things that we have not seen, but it's based off of something. Let me continue. Verse three, he says, we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible. How do you know? How do I know? How does anybody who's especially a Christian, how do we know that God created the earth? How do we know that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth? How do we know that? There's only one way we can have faith in that. It was written. It was written. We read it and we believed it. That's it. How do we know that Abraham Lincoln was a 16th president? How do we know that? Not one of you. Not one of you were there. Matter of fact, your parents weren't there. Your grandparents, if they're still alive, they don't know. They didn't witness it. The only way we can know these things is if it was written. And so we place validity in the historical accounts that were written, well, even more so in the biblical accounts that were written. That's the only way. Amen, Angela. That's the only way. The only way we believe because we read it in what? In Andy Stanley, here's a problem. We read it in the word of God. How do I know that in the beginning, God created the earth? Because the Bible said so. And he doesn't just say it in Genesis. Jesus says so. John says so. So we know the right of Hebrew says so. We know how the earth was created and who created because it was written. We read it and we believed it. Now, depending upon your hermeneutic, you might allegorize it. You might spiritualize it. Well, maybe not. I'm not sure if that's what he meant in the beginning he created because it could have been done that. And so folks, let their minds run wild. Do not get into the habit of trusting your minds. You're not that smart. You're not that clever. You're not that intelligent. That's why we've got people to run around saying, yeah, there were people that predated Adam. But it literally says the opposite if we just look at the scriptures. I asked this question at the very beginning of our Bible study classes. I'll ask certain questions such as, when was Satan? When was Satan kicked out of heaven down to the ground? Or when were angels created? Now, people will give an idea. I think this. I think that. And I'm looking for the I-thinks. But what I'm really looking for, the correct answer is I think this. But I don't know. Or I'm not sure. As long as somewhere in your hands you have, I don't know, I'm not sure. But then you're good. Because the Bible didn't say. The Bible didn't tell us everything. So I'll agree with the man if he was saying that. But the Bible does tell us everything that he wants us to know. Not everything that could be known, but everything that he wants us to know. And being smart Christians, as you all are, means that I am open to the I don't know. I'm not sure. The Bible doesn't say so. So I'm fine with that. And so when someone says that God is performing a move, well, then if we see how he moves in the Bible and doesn't line up, well, I don't know about that now. Because what you're saying doesn't line up with that. That's why I say now. That's why I've adopted this whole thing that I am a biblical continuationist. Yep. Yep. I'm open to all of the movings of the spirit. Just as long as it's done biblically. You wanna go to speaking in tongues with your languages and it looks like the Bible. Okay, amen. You have the gift of healing and it's just like the Bible. Amen. Now someone's gonna say, people have literally got mad at me for saying that. Wait a minute. You mean to tell me you're mad at me because I wanted to look like the Bible? They don't have to look like the Bible. Who told you it has to be just like it was in the Bible? So, cause you say so and it didn't look anything like the Bible. I'm supposed to go with that. This issue of being slain in the spirit. Who are you to put God in the box? God, God will limit himself. God will say what he will do and what he won't do. If he says he will do it, then he will. If he says he won't, then he won't. But who are you to create a new God, to fashion a new God? Isn't that one of the first 10 commandments? You have created a God of your own hands, your own making. So that's why we have the word. But let's continue listening to this guy. So what are you saying, pastor? We don't need the Bible. I'm not saying that you don't need the Bible. I'm saying put it in its proper perspective. You sitting up here talking about Abraham, Isaac and Jacob quoting Ezekiel, Malachi, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. You are talking, we preach every week about folk who had no Bible. Sometimes I gotta make sure that I'm not drinking coffee when I'm watching some of these clips cause it's like I'm getting ready to spit it out on the computer and it just short circuit everything and the whole broadcast will go off. So he just said that we're talking about people who have no Bible. When I said asinine, I mean asinine. I want to say a few other words, but let me ask you a question. Two things, one, God actually did write something to Moses, number one. He actually did write something to Moses. But more than that, they're literally hearing from God. And we know that they are speaking on behalf of God and hearing from God because of the power that comes along with what they were saying and what they were doing. This guy really said that. Sir, with all due respect, you are a horrible preacher. You are absolute. When it comes to being a pastor, you're rotten. You're rotten. There's no way around it because you are impugning the scriptures and impugning someone who has a love for the scripture. Moses had no Bible. Joshua had no Bible. Abraham had no Bible. All they had was a word from God they heard and a feeling in their heart. And here we are telling folk to stop trusting what they feel and stop trusting what they hear. You can be saved and stupid. You can be saved and stupid. That's right. That is so right for my new best friend, Mike Todd. You can be saved and stupid. Or let's just put it kind of the way that Vodibachan puts it. Because everybody knows if you really wanna love God, you gotta be ignorant. That's true. You're not supposed to think. Matter of fact, you see in some of the charismatic movements some of the camps, they'll tell people to turn off their mind, stop thinking, just let go and let God. Well, I need to make sure. Remember, the Bible says to test the spirits to see if they are from God. Can you all help me out? Is there a passage anywhere that says we ought to test the word to see if it's from God? No, we see the word. We're not commanded to check the Bible, are we? But we're commanded to check these spirits to make sure not that they aren't of God, not that it's not of God, but we wanna make sure. How do we make sure? Not by your spirit, because it doesn't say so. It doesn't say try the spirit by the spirit or test the spirit by the spirit. No, it doesn't say that. It says to test the spirit. How do we do so? By the word of God. Now, there's a brother. I didn't know, he made a video. I forgot that he was on the channel. People were saying, yeah, he was on the channel. I forgot. I forgot. And then he made a video, called me out, which was fine, called me out, called Alan Parr out on this issue of eternal security, which was, hey, no problem. I saw poor, I didn't see all of it. I may have seen all of it, or portions of it, and asked him, listen, let's have a conversation. Then he said, I'm not gonna have a conversation with you again. Again, I guess he did come on. So I went and looked and looked and looked. Oh, sure enough, there he was. He had a conversation. And when I answered his questions, I gave him scriptures. And he did not do, listen, I think he's a nice guy, but he did not do a very good job with responding to my, matter of fact, in some cases even sound like he agreed. But you know what happens when you go back and you just started thinking, the reason why I could have overcome this over, has any of you guys, rest of you fellas, you men, have any of you men ever been in a fight and you lost a fight? And then what are you doing after the fight, especially if your buddies were there? Well, see what happened was, see, you know, my shoe wasn't on tight. Yeah, I didn't eat breakfast. And so I was weak. No, I thought my mother was calling me. So that's what happened. No, see what happened was, the guy, he used karate. And I don't know karate. He used Kung Fu. Well, I know Kung Fu too, but see, he used tiger style and I use crane style and just it doesn't match. Sometimes it's all about the matchups. Yeah, that's what that was. And so when you give them something, they'll come back and say, well, you're relying too much on your head knowledge. You're relying on, as he says, hermeneutics. And so he literally puts a video together or teaching and it's entitled hermeneutics versus the spirit or hermeneutics or I forgot. I forgot. Just Sam says, I don't know karate, but I know crazy. Yes, I am. Age is a tiger style. That's right. I've got a little bit of both. I've got tiger, I've got crane. I've got scorpion. You know, yeah, y'all's from the five venoms. I've adopted all of those. And part of the Shaolin temple. I'm sorry, I'm going back to the old karate stuff, which by the way, so let me young folks, if you want to just have a blast from the past, just go back and watch some of the old kung fu stuff. Proverbs, I got a 40 caliber. All right, yeah, drunken monkey, drunken monkey. Anyway, I want to play this clip. This is his brother, Michael Thomas. He calls himself apostle Michael Thomas. Hold another conversation. Hold another conversation. But listen to what he says and let's compare what he says with the scriptures. Matter of fact, we're going to see why he needs to gain a further and a better understanding of hermeneutics, how to interpret the Bible. Let's draw some words, hermeneutics, exegesis, interpretation, he needs all of that because you're going to see him make some errors in his understanding of some scriptures and may put the scriptures up so we can kind of see where they're saying. It's like, that's not what they're saying at all. But you're, and you're applying them, you're misapplying them incorrectly. But let's just go ahead and listen to what he has to say. Interpretation of words. Like I may go and look up grace in the Greek. Now I'm formulating my message on salvation saved by grace based on whatever the Greek's definition of grace is. Are you all understanding that? So that becomes my hermeneutic. That becomes my method of study. Now let me just say this, that is not hermeneutics. Going back and looking up a word in either Hebrew or Greek or the few cases there are made, that's not hermeneutics. That can be a portion of it, which is like for mine, the literal grammatical historical, but that is not hermeneutics. So if I find out what the word is, let's say, for example, we're talking about salvation. If I talk about the word believe, and then you say, well, to me, this word means this, and I say, well, to me, it means that. Well, how about we go and look at what it says? Well, this word means this, but then we've got to look and see, is it a noun or is it a verb? If it's a verb, we want to see the tense of the verb. We want to see the mood of the verb. We want to see the voice of the verb. By the way, this isn't something that we don't understand in English because we do. If I say, if I use the word run, but I say running, you all know what that is. Now, maybe we don't, we can't put in, in the right terminology what this word is in English because if you're like me, we're growing up, going to English class, we didn't pay attention to all those words, predicate, predicate, nominative and so forth, prepositional phrase and so forth. I never forget I was teaching GED class in prison and when I told them what a preposition was, they couldn't get it. I said, y'all, just think of two words, pre and then position, key in on the word position. It's like they heard something brand new, like Santa Claus just came in and gave him some gifts. I'm like, oh, okay, position. Yeah, so in, through, above, under or the word, so we know these words, we use them, but maybe we don't know the definition of the word. We don't know the right terminology. And so if I look at the word, I wanna see if it's, what tense it's in. I also wanna see what voice it's in. If this is active, if it's passive, if it's middle, if it's passive, let's say if it's the word hit, if it's passive, I was hit or with me. And so these are things we already understand in English. And so when we apply those same terms or those same understandings to Hebrew, Arabic and Greek, it makes sense. We already do those things. We're just giving a definition to things that we don't know what they're called. All right, with me. And so his understanding already off at the very beginning is a little bit flawed. Amen, without considering the context that that word is being used in that particular verse. Are you all working with me? So now we're understanding the hermeneutic, right? So why would I pit these two against each other, hermeneutic against faith or hermeneutic against faith? Why would I? Why would you pit that? Why would you pit hermeneutics against faith? Well, here's the reason why because he's up first to do it. He's not the first to do it. Because if I use proper biblical interpretation, sound interpretation and there's no way to rebut that, well, it's because you don't have faith. How do I know? How would he say or others have said it that this person doesn't have faith because you don't believe what I believe? You don't believe what I believe, but you don't have faith. I'm gonna cover that in a little bit. I guess each other. Well, because I have recently entertained people that solely depend on their hermeneutic. By the way, he's literally speaking of me. That's who he's entertained. Right, to bring them to certain conclusions that does not give leeway to faith. And the Lord showed me this, that the enemy is attacking our faith. No, no, the Lord didn't show you that because I know he's not necessarily calling me or people like me, the enemy, but he's saying the enemy is using people like me to attack the faith. No, first of all, he makes us this great straw man that we don't have faith. We do have faith. I'm gonna show you my faith in a little bit. I'm gonna show you my faith in a little bit. I'm gonna do what Paul did a little later on. But we're gonna do this issue of faith. But because I look at the scriptures, you tell me I don't have faith. By the way, you need to understand, brother Michael, the reason why I look at the scriptures, why I delve into the scriptures, why I invest time into the scriptures, even software to help me go through the scriptures even more so, is because I have faith in God's word. I love it. I love his word. I love it more than anything else. Even, listen, y'all won't believe this, but I happen to love it more than I love my coats. I really do. Now my coats, I love my coats. I do, but I love God's word more. I love God and how I can become, there was a person who said this. I thought it was so wonderful how they explained this. He said that this guy, true story, apparently, he was married to a woman who they came from different backgrounds, different languages. And she did not speak the same language as he did. She was learning, but her English was a bit broken. And so she would say words that weren't quite right. And he would try to say words in her original language. They knew enough to communicate, but not enough to communicate thoroughly. And so what did he do? Now he tried everything to show how much he loved it, all our flowers and gifts and things like that. But what he did to figure out or to get her to see how much he loved her was he learned her language, her literal language, that way he can communicate with it because he understood that communication between the two is the most important thing. I can't communicate with God the way I'd like to, but he can communicate with me. And the best way that I can get a communication from him is his word. Well, what about the Holy Spirit? Well, obviously the Holy Spirit, but how do I know what I'm hearing from the Holy Spirit? How do I know? How do you know you single guys that that woman is the right one? How do you know? Well, the Lord is telling me, you sure? You sure it's not the fact that you got a short skirt on and everything is fitting tight? What have you? That's not what's talking to you? No, that's the Lord. Lord have mercy. That's what talking to me. Or how do you know that should I go take this job? Well, they're paying 20,000 a year more. We know that we rest not against flesh and blood. And so there are times where we get these other voices that come to us. Also remember, because they never seem to hear this. We've never said that we disagree with their being demonic activity. Obviously there are. How do you combat it? Why do they come at Corey with these straws? No, they don't just come at me with it. They'll come at you with it. Because it's the only argument. How do you, have y'all ever seen, yeah, yeah. I don't want to say hating, but you ever seen somebody who didn't like, let's say there's a scene contest and she's up singing and she sounds wonderful. And her competitors, arms crossing, you know, she's sleeping with the piano player. Just want to impuner. If she get her family paid for it. You've got to figure out something. If you cannot get around the words, then it's got to be something else. The only, it's the only thing left. So when you follow the pattern, I'm not saying he's following the pattern of Satan, but let's be honest, why things behind, ultimately behind this, because where do we see the Bible ever say? Ever, tell me the time where the Bible ever impunes someone for studying too much. We see the Bible impugning people for a misuse of the spirit or misunderstanding of the spirit or hearing some negative or some bad spirit. We see the Bible say, but we never see the Bible cautioning. The Bible never cautions anyone on studying the scriptures or reading too much. Never, never. Now, they're going to try to say that what we're doing is worldly knowledge. No, it's not. Our knowledge is based on this. Remember Paul says, grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord. Not a worldly intellect, which is what they try to do. How can reading the scriptures be commiserate with a worldly understanding, worldly knowledge? That's not the case at all. I need y'all to see this before, amen, even as we progress, the enemy's intent is to attack our faith and he will use hermeneutics to do so. Give me a scripture. I know that's hard, but give me a scripture where you're gonna say that he will use hermeneutics to do so or Bible interpretation. I think it's really what he wants to get at. Our understanding are going into, give me a scripture. Give me one, you will not be able to. And the Lord beginning to show me, he says, now what did you know of me based on academic knowledge that brought you into salvation? Nothing. My faith. Did you already say it? He said, what did you know of me that brought you, let me display it again. Tells me. Intent is to attack our faith and he will use hermeneutics to do so. And the Lord beginning to show me, he says, now what did you know of me based on academic knowledge that brought you into salvation? Nothing. I wish I was there in the audience. What did you know based on academic understanding that brings you to, how do you know to confess that Jesus is Lord? How? What made you place your faith in Christ versus placing your faith in Allah, Muhammad, Buddha? What made you? Well, somebody somewhere, it was because of the word. How should they hear without a preacher? What are they preaching? The message. But two things. Let me put this past up. I do have it. Acts 17, 10. The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea and when they arrived, they went to the synagogue of the Jews. Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica. Why? For they received the word with great eagerness. Uh-oh, here it is. Examining it. Examining the scripture's data to see whether these things were so. I wanna go another passage. Romans 10. We've covered this passage before. And this is where good Bible interpretation comes in. Look what he says. By the way, this is speaking of, this is speaking of people coming to Christ in salvation. And he just told that we have to place our faith in Christ. How should they hear without a preacher? And the preacher must be sent. Look what he says on verse 16. However, they did not all heed the good news. This is Ewan Galeo, the report for Isaiah. Look what Isaiah says. Lord, who has believed our report, our message, our words? So faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. Now, let me help you out, brother Michael. Your faith comes how? By the way, I know what you're gonna say. You're gonna say by hearing and by hearing as though it's a verb. It's not, it's not a verb, it's a noun. This is where good hermeneutics and Bible exegesis comes in. Let's put it on the screen again. So faith comes, by the way, you don't get faith and then read, you get the message of the word and then get the faith. One pre-sees the other and then even after that, the same word butchers and builds up your faith. But look what he says. So faith comes from this word hearing. Most people are taught that this word hearing is a verb, but it's not. Look in the bottom left-hand corner, guys. This is a noun. It is a hearing, a sound, a report. Faith comes from this report. That's why he repeated what Isaiah says. Who shall believe our report? Faith comes from the gospel, the message. The power emanates from that. Are you with me? Your faith is a result of that message, sir. Nothing else. Not some great preacher, not some great singing. Because if that were the case, then I've got to ask you, how did you not become a Muslim? How did you not become a Jew? Not, not. How did you not become, why aren't you an atheist? Well, your faith is based off of something. Are you with me? So let's go back to what he said. My faith tells me that over 2,000 years ago, there was an individual named Yahshua. No, your faith doesn't tell you that. The Bible tells you that. The word tells you that. And then you believed the word. We call him Jesus, same person, right? That Yahshua died, went into the earth for three days. I want to know two things. How did you know what to call him to and how did you know how long he went to the earth? That word, that word, that extra studying of the word. Matter of fact, it even took some Greek scholars to make sure that we can take it from the Greek and put it in the English or the Spanish or the French or the German. That word that you might accuse us of being too dogmatic, of trying to use our hermeneutics, yeah, that word. That's faith telling me that. That is beyond my logic. We haven't begun in the spirit. Look at that. Are you now made perfect by the flesh? Are you now made perfect by the hermeneutic? Now I want you all to see this. The clip shift, he's talking to this other body who's also an apostle. They're saying Galatians, matter of fact, what pastor was that? I think it was Galatians 3-3. You see, I keep going hermeneutic in there. Okay, so let's go to Galatians 3-3. I know he meant well, but that was really a bad study lesson. That matter of fact, that would go down as one of the worst day lessons I've ever seen. Why? Because he tried to usurp the word. And the problem was there were people that were clapping. Let's go to, yeah, he said hermeneutic equals a flesh. Let's go to Hebrews, I mean, Hebrews, Galatians 3. Let's start in verse one. You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? This is the only thing I want to find out from you. Did you receive the spirit of works by, I'm sorry, by the works of the law or by hearing with faith? Wait a second, wait a second, wait a second. Y'all see what's right there? There's that word again, that word hearing. Did you receive what you have? Did you receive the spirit by not the verb hearing, but by the noun, by the report with your faith? Your faith in the report, in the word, in the message. That's what brought that about. He says, did you or by the hearing with faith, are you so foolish having begun by the spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? And what does he say he gets cute there? Let's back it up a little bit. Because it's a fleasty methodology. Died, went into the earth for three days and got up, that's faith telling me that. That is beyond my logic. Flesh haven't begun in the spirit. Look at that. Are you now made perfect by the flesh? Are you now made perfect by the hermeneutic? You see I keep throwing hermeneutic in there because it's a fleasty methodology. It's something that man has come up with. I don't wanna come up with conclusions. I don't need a methodology to come up with conclusions. I need God to reveal the word. You need God to reveal the word? Well, he did. The problem is that we got folks that see it this way or see it that way or see it that way or whatever. And so to keep out the confusion, to get an understanding, you have to have a method by which you read. How do you read? Listen, if I put something in English, you are employing a hermeneutic. If I put a noun with a verb, with a direct object and an indirect object because of the syntax, because of the order of that, you're employing a hermeneutic that tells you what's happening. Mary kicked the ball over John's head. The order of it, the noun, the subjects, the verb, the placement, that you are employing a hermeneutic and you know what you're not doing? You're not allegorizing what I just said. Now, we understand that there are idioms that are in place. There are figures of speeches. If I said, what's it like outside? Man, it's burning up out there. I understand that the sun has not caught the earth on fire. I get that. I'm saying it's hot. Figure of speech, idiom. Are you with me? If we say, bless your heart. Now, we could mean, Lord bless her heart, or we could mean, bless his heart. He just, poor baby. He ain't getting it. He ain't getting it. He a little short today. Because we employ some of these methods and tools in our languages. But here it's straightforward. And what's happening is you're using this incorrectly. You are literally saying using this to describe someone who is using a sound hermeneutic. You're using this to, this is not what's happening here in Galatians 3. Paul is talking about people who are trying to be perfected by the works. Yes, you're right, Robert. That lady, that, oh, that's his real mother. I heard him call her mom or mama, but you know sometimes you say that. I didn't know, because you know, back in Church of God and Christ, we'll call somebody mother. And I don't mean that's my birth mother. I didn't know that. Okay. Well, maybe that was, maybe after he had a discussion with me, he felt some type of way then talked to her and like, no, mama said, I don't know. I'm imagining. I'm just making up. I don't know, but she's wrong. He's wrong. They're all wrong. This passage is not having anything to do with people who are growing and learning by the word. These are people who are trying to be perfected by works, by the law. Michael, this passage, Galatians Paul is right because these Judaizers have come in and have tried to corrupt them, tell them that they have to adhere to the law. That's the point. You've taken this whole passage. I don't know. This passage should not have been used. Again, one of the worst Bible studies ever because of what you're trying to do. And the fact that you try to undermine the word, studying the word or hermeneutics. And whatever he reveals, that's what I'm concluding. Come on somebody. I don't need my own conclusion. Hallelujah. But you began in the spirit. And now you're in the flesh. Now you don't believe nothing's spiritual? I'm sorry. I pushed the button. I pushed the wrong button. I did tell you though guys before that when you mess up, do it a second time. That way it makes it look like you meant to do that. There we go. So now I can say I meant to do that. I didn't even forgot what he just said. Oh, are we denying the spirit? Have we denied the spirit? No, we, no. No, we have not denied the spirit brother. No, we have not. But you've got this issue where you think, thank you. What soup, thank you for the super chat. But what software this is, this is accordance Bible software. I also have Logos Bible software, but I don't, I use it outside of this because it doesn't show up well enough on the computer. So I use accordance. It just works far better on the screen. So, but anyway, it didn't do it. I pushed the button the last time to move it and it didn't do this. I'm still learning this dog on software. Anyway, but we believe in the move of the spirit. We really do. That's a straw man. That's a real straw man. And whatever he reveals, that's what I'm concluding. Come on somebody. I don't need my own conclusion. Hallelujah. But you began in the spirit. Now you're in the flesh. Now you don't believe nothing spiritual? Nothing that takes faith. You don't believe none of that? We all have a hermeneutic, right? But that cannot be my soul methodology of understanding God. Well, it's not our soul methodology. It helps with our interpretation. Got a couple of books over here. I think you all might want to just check out some of them are old, some of them are new. Y'all remember Dr. Cohn came on before when we were talking about different issues in interpreting the Bible. He's got a book called Prologana. It's by basically two Greek words, pra and lego, which is the first words or just it's about hermeneutics. It is, it's on biblical hermeneutics and method. Very good book. This is an older book, very old book by Roy Zook. Basics of biblical interpretation. Very good book. I would recommend you get either one of these books. And then also this one, this is by Mal Couch, classical evangelical hermeneutics. Very good book as well. And what it does is, it's not telling you what to think. It's just like, these are some things you ought to consider. How do you know that this doesn't mean this or doesn't mean that? How to avoid reading into it maybe your own preconceived notions. If I've always thought that this meant that then when I get to this passage and I'm wrong, I'm gonna still think that it means that unless I have a device to help me to get past that. That's all. When we do, when we have the Bible said that thing and I personally, I like the way we do the Bible studies because what do we do? We start from the beginning and we want you to divorce your mind from any preconceived notions. Well, how do you do that? Well, here's how. When we start off, you know what you can do when we're in Genesis, you can't go to Revelation. You can't go to Matthew. You can't go to any book. All you can do is go with the book that we're in right now or what we've read prior. So when we get to Exodus, all you can look at is Genesis or Exodus or you could also look at Job. Why can't you look at Job? Even if we haven't gone to Job because Job is a complimentary book to Genesis. And so what happens is people might wanna say this but you haven't earned it. We hadn't gotten it yet. The Bible hadn't told us that yet. We are learning because the truth is the truth in Genesis. However they understood the truth in Genesis, it was still the truth. Whatever God told the people in Genesis and in Exodus, it was the truth. Now we have more truth, more revelation since then but that didn't mean that what was told to them in Exodus or Genesis or Job is any less truth. Are you with me? And so there are different ways that you can get people to kind of divorce themselves from their preconceived notions. The Bible tells me to study to show that I self-approved of God. So we're not, come on somebody, we're not throwing study away. But what I am saying, this is what I am emphatically saying that if I study without the spirit of God then I am studying wrong. That's what I'm saying. If I'm studying without the leading of the spirit as I search the scriptures then I'm relying upon logic and human understanding. And according to the Bible, not according to Michael, according to the Bible, what we just read that all of these senses are insufficient. First of all, the Bible doesn't say that these senses are insufficient but the part that bothers me the most and let me just, let me read a passage. Let me read a couple of passages. One, we do use the Holy Spirit but let me say this. Let me use a passage about Paul or Paul's telling us what we ought to do. He says in Ephesians 6, 11, put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. Let's drop down and let's look and see what he says. Let's go to verse, let's go to 15. Having shod your feet with preparation of the gospel of peace in addition to all taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one and take the hymn of salvation. Look what he says, and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God. You bet it, and by the way, we've heard it preached many different ways but the only offensive thing that we're taking is the sword which is the word. When Satan came to tempt Jesus, which was a dumb thing to do, what did Jesus do? Vanquish him? No, gave him the word. Gave him the word. What are we to do the word? Now, he would say, or I think straw men, and impugn the fact that, or state, or try to get people to believe it, don't have the Holy Spirit, or don't trust in the Spirit. Can I borrow a page from Paul's book, if you don't mind? Let me borrow a page from Paul's book and I wanna use the scriptures first. Let's go to 2nd Corinthians, chapter 12. He says, You know what Paul just got through doing? Paul just went through a little litany of things that he's done and gone through to kind of verify to give proof. Can I go ahead and do a little bit of boasting kind of the same way Paul did? See, I didn't grow up with things handed to me. It was rough growing up, real bad. Matter of fact, I never spoke, I haven't spoke a lot about the fact that there was a time where I was homeless. What got me through that, my faith, my faith, again, the same thing is I still have another two plus years because I'm supposed to get out of prison, but I'm out. How did that happen? What because of my faith, my trust in the Lord? While I'm sitting there reading the Word, how do you sit in your jail cell or in the shoe and read the Word? What would make you while you're in prison read the Word and read the Word and preach the Word and share the Word and go tell other people about the goodness of the Lord who are going through all sorts of horrible things who might be faced with either having been raped or getting raped or someone's trying to kill them or their mother was killed, their child was killed. How do you do that? How do you still stay faithful to the Word? Oh, I just said it by faith because if you love him enough, you'll go to him enough and you will teach him enough and you'll talk about him enough and you'll share him enough and that will be what will get you through whether you get delivered physically, you certainly will be delivered spiritually. And so when you come and give this insult that someone like myself only relies on the Word, head knowledge know what I know is brought about by my heart, my love for the Lord, the faith. And so when you say that, brother, you have no clue about what you're saying and you certainly don't know the scriptures. You should be ashamed of yourself for telling anyone or trying to pit the two. No one is over here trying to put head knowledge against the Holy Spirit. They go hand in hand if the head knowledge is of his Word and all we ever preach about is his Word. That's all we talk about. You should want to delve into the scriptures just as much as a matter of fact, you should make it your goal. Make it your aim to beat me and anyone else in learning the scriptures. You should wanna be the baddest thing on two wheels. You should wanna learn more Hebrew, more Greek, more Bible history, all of those things. Your love should compel you to wanna delve deeper in there. When Paul was dying or on his way to die, what did Paul say? I wanna go there because this is probably where we're gonna end up at. But I want to go there and I want you to see what Paul is asking for. Now he's also gonna tell people about certain heretics, about folks who look out for him. But for some reason people have this idea that using our head, getting an understanding is wrong. Vodibachem said it well. The United Negro College Fund is a motto. A mind is a terrible thing to waste. Modern American Christianity has a different take on that. We just believe a mind is a terrible thing. Let's just put up the scriptures. Let's go to 2 Timothy. Let's start in chapter three. Let's start in verse 14. Speaking about Timothy says you, however, continuing the things you have learned and become convinced the things you have learned. Notice he says continuing the things that you have learned become convinced of knowing from whom you have learned them. That from your childhood you have known. Look what he says, the sacred writings, that's reading, that's studying, which are able to give you wisdom that leads to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Notice what Paul doesn't do. Paul doesn't pit studying the scriptures against faith. No, they go hand in hand. As a matter of fact, one produces the other and then after you have the faith, you'll also wanna grow more in studying his work. Look what he says, he says all scripture by the way the word for scripture is the Greek word graphate, which is the writings, the things that we're studying. All of those writings are inspired by God. They are fair, new style, literally God breathe and profitable for what teaching, reproof, correction for training in righteousness. So when you say that we don't have faith, our faith is brought about because of his work so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. Now let's go to what Paul says. This is good here. This is golden, because I want you to see what Paul does, what he says later on. He says, I saw you charge you in the presence of God and men, and of course, I'm sorry, Christ Jesus who is a judge, the living and the dead to do what? By his appearing in his kingdom to do what? To preach the word. Preach the word. You can't preach the word if you don't know the word. You can't preach the word if you don't study the word. I'm sorry, that's just the facts. He says, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season. How do you, how are you ready? As old said we say, if you stay ready, you don't have to get ready. Paul says, do that. He says, be ready in season and out of season. He says, reprove. That is when someone who doesn't know the scriptures and they're wrong, prove them right. Help them to understand it. And if they don't want to get it, Paul has something for them. He says, rebuke them. Rebuke that person. You are saying something that goes against scripture so we rebuke that person. Not in a negative way. We want them to learn the word and to exhort them. That means to encourage them. He says, how? With great patience and instructions. Why? Why, Mr. Thomas? Or Mr. Waldron? Or Mr. Andy Stanley? Why? Because the time will come when people will not endure sound doctrine. The word for doctrine is from the Greek word, d'doschaleas, which is guys, a teaching. Teaching is not a bad word. I understand, like he said, a mind is not a terrible thing to waste. I'm sorry, it is a terrible thing to waste. I had it backwards. He says, they will not endure sound teaching, but instead wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires. We don't wanna do that. We wanna stick to the word because the word brings us closer to sound doctrine. Now, look what he says in verse six. He says, for I am already being poured out as a drink offering and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight. I have finished a course. I have kept the faith. By the way, this has kept the faith. We come to see the other day. This is Tetelecha, Tain, Piston, excuse me, Tetelecha, which is I have kept, I have guarded the belief, the teachings, the tint of the faith. That's very important. In the future, he says, there is laid up for me. There is laid up for me in the future, a crown of righteousness with the Lord, which the Lord, the righteous judge will award me on that day. And not only me, but also who also love his appearing. Now, look what he says. I want you to focus on this. Brother Michael, look at this. He says, make every effort to come to me for demons having loved this present world has departed me, deserted me, I'm sorry, and gone to Thessalonica, Christian has gone to Galatia, Titus, Dymatia. Only Luke is with me. Here it comes. He says, only Luke is with me. Notice what Paul asks him to do. He says, pick up Mark and bring him with you for he is useful to me. But Titus, I'm getting to his name. I have sent it Ephesus. When you come, bring the cloak which I left at Troas with Carpus and the books, especially the Parchments. Bring me some comic books. Bring me a newspaper. Bring me a sports illustrated. Bring me the latest edition of Vogue or Ebony or Time of Life. Bring me those books. No. Paul says, bring me the books, especially the Parchments. What do you think Paul wants to read? What do you think, Paul, someone's trying to, what do you think Paul wants to read? A Spider-Man comic book? No. He wants to read and study the word. Isn't that amazing? Paul is on his way out, getting ready to die. Do you know somebody, Michael, that has had the Holy Spirit like Paul has? Have you know someone that's written almost half of the New Testament? Someone that the Lord appeared to and said that he will suffer things for me? Do you know someone that was personally visited by Jesus, attested to by the scriptures? Do you know someone like that? Full of the Spirit. Do you know someone who either in the body or in the Spirit was taken to the third heaven? Do you know someone like that? I don't. And look what he's waiting on. He's not relying on, I got the Spirit. I got enough of the Spirit. No, I wanna learn some more. I wanna read some more. Shame on you forever, letting it come out of your mouth. That you wanna pit hermeneutics, which by the way, you butchered the definition of it. But shame on you, because I know where you're going, though. Shame on you for wanting to pit teaching and learning the scriptures against the Spirit. They go hand in hand. I don't know anybody who really loves a Lord who doesn't love his word. If you don't love his word, you don't know the Lord. If you love the Lord, you love his word. That's what it is. And I'm bothered at the fact that you don't know this yet, but I'm encouraged at the fact that you've got time to get it. I don't know about Andy Stanley. He's dug in. This guy, Waldron, this guy is a pretty progressive Christian. May not actually be one. We can look at his wife as well and who he hangs out with and who he promotes because he promotes some doozy things. But I do believe, having a conversation with you, I do believe that you probably are a believer. I can't say for sure. I wouldn't bet my left arm or I wouldn't bet my left arm. I don't know. You could be, you might not be. But if you are, if my hunch is correct, just my hunch, just my hunch, Spirit hadn't told me that you are. But if I'm correct, if I am correct, I believe that there's gonna be a desire for you to study more, not based on your mother or anyone else or some outsider. No, because you have a love for him that draws you closer to him. And I believe, sir, that if you want to grow in that level, like Paul says, we'll grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord. We're gonna put, we're gonna take that sort of the word. That's what we're gonna do. And we're gonna be barrens. And we're gonna, we're gonna admonish others to be the same way. We want to relish. And Paul, as a matter of fact, before I go, can I, can I just read some passages? Can I just read? Second Timothy 2 15. Let me just read these for you real quick. I just want to, I'm not gonna put them on the screen right now, but y'all take my word here in the Bible. Second Timothy 2 15. He says, be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. Or how about this one? This is a doozy right here. Hebrews 4 12. For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, the piercing and piercing as for the division of soul and spirit of both joints and marrow and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. That's the word. Romans 15 for, for whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instructions so that through perseverance and encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope. Through the reading and encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope. Titus 2 1. But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Teach what accords with sound doctrine. Now my daughter shows up. That's my baby Bailey. She said, what a nice camera you have. Who focus it? Y'all should know when it comes time to focus my camera. Is that a picture of the cat in your thumbnail in your icon? I guess it is a picture of the cat. When it's time to focus the camera, Bailey comes in and she focus. She has a, it's a gift. She just bam, that's real quick. When I do it or someone else does it, it might be a little blurry. She's got that, just, I don't know how she does it. Just bam. I can wake up in the middle of the night and she'll do it. She said, what? Oh, okay. Dinner is in the microwave. Amen. Thank you, baby. That's, that's my sweet heart. She's a bit disrespectful sometimes, but I love her to death. If y'all mess with my baby, I'll kill you dead. I'm kidding. No, I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding. Listen, in Jesus' name, I'd hurt you if you hurt Bailey. They said, hello, Bailey. So anyway, the most important thing that you've got in your possession, or I should say the most tangible, the most concrete thing that you have in your possession is the word of God. I pray you have the Holy spirit. You can demonstrate that by your willingness to learn more of him, but this issue of being anti-intellectual, this issue of the word and the spirit are at odds with each other, that, my friend, is a lie from the pit of hell. And again, as we started off, where does that come from? It comes from Satan himself. We see the pattern of it in the Garden of Eden. Did God really say that? Is that, no, trying to thwart the word, twist the word. I'm sorry. I'm not saying I'm sorry, but I am never gonna back down from looking at his word and sharing his word and comparing what you do, what you say, what anyone else does, or what anyone else says, or what I do or say, I will never back down from comparing those things with the scriptures. Amen.