Speakers:
Brian R. Kenyon, Hiram Kemp & Michael Clarke
Automated Transcript:
Amen. We appreciate your being here for this session. Of course, last couple of years, as we’ve had the ladies classes, we’ve had competition, but that’s all right. It’s all good. Cause we’re all studying God’s word. And just to give you a little background of the session here, we’d started a number of years ago. I could spend about 10 or 15 maybe by now,
maybe even longer than that, rather than having an open forum, which of course we are kind of open anyway, but we’d focused on the lessons that, you know, were, were given in the forums, the question and answer period, as we have it now kind of evolved the same time about that. We started doing the three back-to-back-to-back lessons and you know,
if you have your, your program, you fold it out. You see today we have, since you have been raised and then tomorrow we’ll have false views of the resurrection and then Wednesday and an evangelism, evangelistic, a forum on the resurrection and then on Thursday due to the resurrection power. And then we have those lessons from Philippians, but each of those are kind of a major sub topic of the lectureship.
And so we, we have those questions dealing, preferably dealing with those issues there again, to help us all, as we focus on the power of his resurrection throughout the whole week. And of course the, the, yeah, even as a lectureship director, I mean, there’s, you know, there’s, I think I’m 32 plus three, plus a question and answers,
you know, which we don’t have manuscripts for that, but 32 lessons plus the three ladies’ classes, that’s 35 lessons, 35 topics on the subject. But even with that, you can’t really cover it all. And so a lot of times these questions will arise that maybe relate to a lesson, but they don’t have a whole lesson to themselves or anything like that.
And so we deal, we’d like to deal with the questions now, of course, the start off when we answer these questions and as you’ll see, and we just have a few today and these might spur some more and you know, we can take time on some of the various aspects of these questions. And of course like where the BC car used to say,
no preacher got fired for quitting early, you know, so, you know, it’s okay if we finish early, just as long as we don’t bother the lady’s class over there. Okay. But really, and also, you know, we’re not here and you’ll see that sometimes with these questions, I don’t know, but sometimes questions, brethren may have a different view on a certain topic.
And again, as long as that view’s not unscriptural, there are plenty of areas in the Bible where we can have differences of opinions and still be in fellowship. And so we’re not here to, you know, this is the, the church of Christ position, or this is the FSAP position, or this is the brotherhood position that you have to believe it this way or you’re wrong.
You know, for example, why did naked Demas come to Jesus by night? You know, well, the text itself does not say it says about others. People like him, that they were afraid of the Jews or whatever it might be because he worked all day long. He didn’t have time to go during the day. So he went at night,
there are a number of reasons, and we can have a different view on that. Why? Because the Bible doesn’t explicitly tell us. And as long as our view, doesn’t violate, you know, plain Bible pastors or principles, then we can have a different view. And so we may see some of that in questions, but all of us will for sure,
give a Bible answer and you know, some, and again, there’s room areas of judgment and some of these. And so we’re not here to say, you have to agree with us that, you know, this is the official brotherhood position or whatever, but we’re here to, just to kind of study the Bible. And I remember when Jackie was talking about this in the beginning of this section here,
Jackie, steersman the director who proceeded me. He would explain it like, this is just think of it as a Bible study. You know, we have these three guys that just spoke on these topics and you know, they study these topics. They’ve written a chapter except for Michael. We appreciate him, but he’s got some knowledge on the topic as he showed,
you know, these guys, this topic is fresh on their mind. And so what better people to help answer these questions, then those who presented the lessons. And so just think of it as a good time to study the Bible. Okay. And so we have two main questions here today so far, and by the way, if you are listening online,
we do have, you know, you can send a question through the website. There’s a place there to text. Some of you may have our numbers. I think, well, my number is not on the brochure, but the office number is, but anyway, you can email the school. You can, you can electronically submit questions as well. And just Ted or whoever gets them,
just send them on to me. And I’ll take a look at my phone and get those. And so that’s another way to, to, to answer the questions or to ask questions. All right. So we have two questions here. We’ll just go one at a time. And they do deal with the resurrection. At least one of them does though.
Not necessary necessarily not the lesson that we had today, but it’s good. It’s very game. All right. So this question is what is the best way? The first question? What is the best way to teach a Jehovah’s witness? That Jesus rose bodily. All right. And so let’s see Josh, let’s see, Josh had an appointment at four.
I don’t think he’s here. All right. So w w we’ll turn it over to you too. I’ll leave the question right up here. And I may make some comments at the end, but right there it is. This question says, what is the best way to teach a Jehovah’s witness? That Jesus rose bodily. There’s a lot where we can say about this.
I start by saying, there’s a sense in which you teach a Jehovah’s witness to that Jesus rose bodily, the same way you teach anybody else. And so you’re dealing with the same ideas. I hesitate to say on any question, this is how you teach X because Jehovah’s witness come from different stripes and different backgrounds. How do you teach an atheist that God exists?
Well, know the arguments, the true arguments for God’s existence and whoever you run into, you’ve got to present those a certain way, but there’s no catch all, you know, argument for any group or individual, because they’ve got to deal with the same evidence. But what I would say is the way to prove that Jesus rose bodily is by looking at the new Testament documents.
This idea about Jesus being a flesh and blood human being and rising from the dead was a problem in the minds of some in the first century, it starts protal. Gnosticism starts about midway through the first century and is full-blown by the second. But that’s why you see passages like John chapter one and verse 14, the word was made flesh and tabernacled among us.
The gospel writers are trying to show Jesus was a real life flesh and blood human being. He lived his entire life. That way. John 1934 says he was pierced in his side and out came blood and water. Jesus really died. And so the flesh and blood Jesus Christ died. He was buried. But then the new Testament goes on to establish and prove that that same Jesus Christ who died and was buried that flesh and blood Jesus Christ was raised from the dead.
And so there’s a lot of preparatory work to do before this. But first, do you believe what the Bible says about Jesus is the Bible, the true and inspired word of God. George dealt with that in his lecture, but once we can establish that and we can prove that Jesus really died the new Testament, doesn’t just say that Jesus was raised.
It anticipates this argument and it shows that Jesus was really raised in the flesh in Matthew 28. There’s already this idea that maybe the disciples stole the body and I don’t want to steal anybody’s thunder. There’s an entire section of the lectureship on false ideas about the resurrection. But then there are statements that say this Jesus was raised. For example, acts chapter two.
When Peter is preaching and he quotes from Psalm 16, it says that you won’t leave your chosen one in Hades or suffer his flesh to see corruption. His flesh, that same body would be resurrected by God and go on to live. When Jesus saw his disciples in Luke 24, maybe they were a little hazy on if this is really him. And so he says,
see that as I, me and myself, a spirit doesn’t have flesh and bones. As you see me have Luke 24 39, and then he sups with them and he ate with them to show, Hey, this isn’t a Mirage. This isn’t a, maybe I rose from the dead Jesus. The Christ really died in that same Jesus. That’s why Paul Peter says it in acts 2 36,
this same Jesus whom you crucified was made Lord in Christ because don’t get it mistaken. It’s the same Jesus. A lot of people wore that name in the first century. And so the apostles go to great lengths to say, Jesus of Nazareth, the same Jesus that was crucified by Pontius. Pilot is now raised from the dead. And so you take acts 2 30, 1 Paul’s statement in first Corinthians 15 verses one through 10.
He was seen by the 12 and above 500 brethren. Last of all, seen as Paul, an apostle born out of due time, you take all of those passages with Jesus’s own statements and Luke 24 39 about him not being a spirit, but being flesh and blood Thomas and John 20, put your hands here and see and feel, be not doubtful, but believing that a design myself and based on that,
we’re supposed to believe. And so that Jesus rose bodily, the gospel hangs and falls on this. The reality of Jesus being the Messiah hangs and falls on whether or not he really was from God as he claimed to be that he died the death, the old Testament said he would. And did he really rise from the dead? And the gospel said that he did in the new Testament,
bears that out. So One of the things that I started trying to drill into the members where I was at locally for five years was what Hiram alluded to at the very beginning of that. If you don’t believe the Bible, what good does it do for that person who doesn’t believe the Bible to have thousands of scriptures thrown at them? And as much as I am a fan of Bible study and gospel preaching and listening and learning verses of the text,
if I’m studying with someone who’s an atheist that says the Bible is not the word of God, quoting that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth is not going to do much for that person until I take him to the realization that it is the word of God. And so one of the writers from a secular standpoint that we would all agree has done a lot of groundwork on this subject of the resurrection is Lee Strobel.
He’s not a Christian the way that we would intend and hope for him to be, but he wrote a little four question article, as far as the things that he would give to try to help prove the resurrection from a secular standpoint, he doesn’t really provide many scriptures with this, but all of these four are necessary to consider as well. And the first one was that he said it is evident from the sources that we have outside of the Bible,
that Jesus was at the very least executed. We have countless sources that show that a man named Jesus from Nazareth was executed. Well, if Jesus of Nazarus was neck as was executed. And we read in the scriptures that there was a man named Jesus of Nazareth who was taken and crucified executed. There’s some validity there there’s some strong evidence that Lee is talking about,
which was helping him as his atheism was starting to fade away. It was through this investigation that that happened. But the second thing that he claimed was that news spread quickly. In fact, he wrote that the, that a man from Oxford said it took more than two generations in the ancient world for legends to develop and wipe out a solid core of historical truth.
Yet there is a report of the resurrection preserved in first Corinthians 15 three through seven, that comes far too quickly after Jesus’s death. If this was a legend, then Paul’s talking about it very quickly. It’s it’s being recorded as fact way faster than it would normally be recorded throughout the legends of history. And the third thing that he left was at the tomb was empty Hiram made it a very good point there.
When he talked about the idea of that maybe the body was stolen. If you really wanted to put a nail in Christianity’s coffin and just blow up the idea of new Testament, Christianity, bring the body out and show it to everybody. If you can present Jesus, his lifeless body, that is the biggest death blow that could have ever been dealt to Christianity.
And since they couldn’t do that, then something had to have happened to it. And the apostles died over the knowledge of his resurrection, over the idea of teaching and preaching the new Testament church as the way, the truth, the life, as what Jesus said in John 14, six, why would you die for something that really didn’t happen? Why would you give your life up?
Why would you risk your life for something that didn’t actually take place that is a lot to hang your hat on? And these apostles and all of those in the first century, there was no body to present because that body had risen and had left this earth. And therefore they could not stamp out Christianity in that way. But the final one that Lee mentioned,
that’s also very interesting to consider or what we would call an eye witness account. If you can find an eyewitness proving, something happened, the argument becomes stronger yet again. And he said that he found that there are nine ancient sources inside and outside the new Testament, confirming the testimony of the disciples that they encountered, the resurrected Jesus. In fact, one of the things that I love the most is that the,
the medical doctorate and the medical journals that are out there have written things such as Jesus was dead before he was even pierced in the side. Well, if Jesus died and you can’t find the body, where did it go? That’s the easiest question to really ask. But what HIRA mentioned is so important, one thing that we need to remember if I study with someone and I showed them all of these arguments,
show them all of those passages and they still look at me and say, I don’t believe it. Jesus talked about dusting off the shoes that we wear and moving on to the next place. And sometimes that becomes a requirement, a, an unfortunate one, but there are many people out in the world that will just tell you flat out. I don’t care what it says.
I don’t care how you prove it. I don’t believe it. And that’s an unfortunate place to be, but truly we can prove both scripturally and secularly that Jesus was a man who lived on this earth and did die. And his body went missing, but we know where it went. And so can everyone else, if they’ll simply look at the facts,
okay, Appreciate that. And I believe Lee Strobel was a investigative reporter. He wasn’t religious or anything like that back when reporters really did a job, you know, nowadays they don’t do much of that, but, you know, and I think he’s got a series of books. I don’t know. Yeah. The case, the case for yeah. Create a case for.
And he just, he just gives a lot of secondary evidence, just, you know, if you were to build a case as a reporter, you’d show up all this evidence and that’s what you would give. And that’s what he does. And there’s really good value value in that kind of a study. And so we appreciate that. And of course,
I never thought about this until now. And he was talking about this about, you know, present the body of Jesus if you had that’s one way sure. Way to do it. And remember, if you go thumbing through those old 1800 pictures of all those Outlaws, you know, we’ve got some Missouri folk here where a lot of those guys seem to hide out,
you know, but when they kill them where they do, you know, they lay them out on a board, they take a picture, bullet holes in their head and all that stuff. I’m sure we’ve seen that kind of gruesome and all that, but what does that do? It proves that guy’s dead, you know, and, and they could have done that with Jesus said they couldn’t because he really rose from the dead.
And as was mentioned, tomorrow’s forum tremendous, the Swoon theory, the hallucination theory and the conspiracy theory. And well actually, well, depending on the program, you have there’s adjustment of speakers in order of that, but there’s no way and put out, add to that fact, remember pilot or hair, let’s see pilot sealed. Yeah. Pilot had the grave sealed,
paid people to lie about it, and the grave was still found empty. And so there is no way it’s impossible for Jesus not to have risen. And that might not be proper grammar, but that’s just the fact of the matter is impossible for Jesus. Not to have risen as he said. And also of course, George, Beall’s not here, but he gave the lesson this morning about the,
well, he spent most of his time on if God exists showing that God does exist, but the whole syllogism is if God exists, if the Bible is his inspired word, and if the Bible teaches such and such about the resurrection, then we can know that such and such is true. And whether it be JW Jehovah’s witness, or whether it be a,
an atheist, whether it be a denominational person or a Buddhist or whoever, that’s still the same syllogism, the same formula. If God exists, if the Bible has inspired word and it teaches such and such to be true, then we can know that that is true. And so with some Jehovah’s witness, we may have to start with the existence of God.
And I know when I was in school here again, brother steersman, you know, of course, I don’t know if he’s the first one to say that I’m sure he’s not, but he said about 99% of religious error either involves a false view of the nature of God or a false view of the nature of man. And when you think of Jehovah’s witnesses doctrine that their doctrine involves both of that,
both of those things, they don’t see human nature correctly, or the nature of God correctly. You know, their God is a, a, there, Jesus is a created being. In fact, one of the ladies that we study with sometimes when I make it to the coffee shop, Bible study, Hillcrest coffee shop over here, there’s lady that tends to it has the new world translation.
And if you look at their, their version of Colossians one 16, it says, you know, and he is a creator of all things, but they add the word other and they used to put it in brackets, all other things. And let me see how it used to be one way. And one way they just put it in a Tallix.
And then one, one version, they started putting it in, in parentheses. And I guarantee you in my lifetime, they didn’t take away both the princes and the Italians. And they’re just going to put in there, he’s creator of all other things. And, and so what that, the reason why they add other is because of Jesus has created,
but he created all things. Then that would be, he created himself. And how ridiculous is that? And so again, the Jehovah’s witnesses doctrine and, you know, their, their view of Jesus has kind of skewed to begin with. So if they start out with a false view of Jesus, then a resurrection is going to be false. But again,
it all goes back to if God exists. And of course we know he does, and we can prove that. And proof of God’s existence is not because the Bible says so because you know, there’s other documents that say things too, that aren’t true, but you know, we can, we can, we can know that God uncaused, uncreated creator exists before we even opened one page of the Bible.
And that had a lot to do with Georgia’s lesson this morning about the bumblebee and all he’s showing there is design. You know, we can look. And I remember, boy, I remember this Jody apple actually went at night, gave a lesson right here in this auditorium, a lectureship several years ago. And he’d pointed out things in this, in this room,
this light, you know, nothing in here can ex can explain, you know, in here can explain it exists because of itself, nothing in here. And then he said, if you just take the roof off of this building and you see the stars and it was at night and all that, you know, nothing out there that we can see can can account for its own existence.
It had to be something beyond that. And that’s something we know as God, but that’s all that those cosmological teleological and all those arguments, that’s all they are is those are called apriori before reality. You don’t have to, they’re just logic, reasoning, you know, whatever. But, but anyway, when you start off with a flawed view of Jesus,
then your view of his resurrection is also going to be flawed. All right. Well, the next question here Okay. This is a more of a request. It wants us to compare the two scriptures and explain a number. The first scripture is Matthew six 13 also paralleled in Luke 11 four and do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
And then compare that with James one 13. Let no one say when he is tempted that I am tempted by God. And so the question or the desire to request is compare these two scriptures. All right. So James one 13 and Matthew six, 13, This is a good question. In fact, a few years ago, the Pope wanted to change this first and amend it because of the fact that it taught this idea of Matthew six,
13, Luke 11 and verse four, lead us not into temptation. And it seems to be problematic. It goes back to an idea that Brian mentioned a few moments ago about the nature of God. I know the king James, for example, in Genesis 22 in verse one says, and then after these things to get, did God tempt Abraham, but that doesn’t mean the saw in Genesis 22, 1 means to test or to try Abraham with the sacrificing of Isaac.
And so this question really hinges on knowing the character of God. And then we can talk about what Jesus is asking for us to pray for, but the text to go go-to first is James chapter one because in James chapter one, James is speaking about how we view the temptations and trials of God. You might even say, this is a big window into what’s going on in the book of job.
And what are his three friends misunderstand about God? And the thing that gets got the hottest in the book of job is these misunderstandings of who he is, how he operates and whose fault it is that things are messed up in the world and Jobe and his friends speak wrongly about God and God has to straighten it. Well, James one, three through 18 is really a preventative text as spiritual,
preventative maintenance to say, don’t mess this up about God. Once you have that, whatever’s taught in Luke 11, four, Matthew six, 13, can’t contradict this reality of who God is by nature and what he does. And so James says, let no man say, when he’s tempted, I’m tempted by God, God can’t be tempted with evil.
Neither does he attempt any man, but every man is tempted. When he’s drawn away of his own lust and entice them and Luz conceives, it brings forth sand sand. When it’s finished, brings forth death. And in verse 16, we often don’t include it, but that’s James’s punchline do not be deceived or do not. Err, my beloved brethren.
Don’t get this wrong about God, who is God, then verse 17. He’s not the one giving you temptation every good and every perfect gift comes down from above. From the father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Meaning God gives good things today. And guess what? He’s going to give tomorrow. Good things.
And guess what he’s going to give the next day. Good things. That’s all he does. That’s all he gives never temptation, but good things of his own wheel. He brought us for by the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creation. James says, listen, you’re going to have trials James one, two through 11.
And then he says, when those things happen, don’t blame it on God, God doesn’t tempt any man. God’s never been tempted. He doesn’t know what that’s like. Jesus being tempted in Matthew four. And Luke four is a different situation because he took on flesh. He says, our problem with Sans comes about because of our own loss. We’re enticed and less graduates.
It brings forth sand, sand brings forth death. Don’t be deceived. Don’t ever find yourself in an attempt and situation and say, well, maybe God’s done this to me. And he’s trying to see what I’m all about. James says, God, wouldn’t do that. God. Wouldn’t dangle evil in front of you with the hopes that you would cave in and cower and stumble and fall because God is always giving good things.
And God has always given good gifts. Verse 16 is your verse. Do not be deceived. When hardships come in life, Christians sometimes say, well, maybe God’s tempted me. Maybe God, God doesn’t do that. God gives good things when you receive good things. Never doubt. There’s not a, maybe this came from God according to James. It did.
But when we attempted, we never need to doubt our question. This is not from God. If that’s the case, then what is Jesus saying? And Matthew six, 13 and Luke 11 verse four, the verse doesn’t need to be amended or change. We can’t change it. Jesus says what he says in these verses when he’s teaching us how to pray.
And in this model, prayer, he’s saying, there are things we need from God. We need food. We need our provisions. And we also need to be not led into temptation, but instead to be delivered from evil, that’s the request. That’s what Jesus says. Evidently what Jesus is saying that we need to pray to God for is that in his Providence,
we wouldn’t be put in these compromising situations. You think about first Corinthians 10, 13, there is no temptation that’s taking you, but what’s common to man. But God is faithful. Who won’t allow you to be tempted above your ability, but we’ll make a way of escape. What Jesus is saying, you and I should pray for is God, you control the universe.
Give me my daily bread, deliver me from evil. Don’t allow me to be put in these tempting situations. Don’t lead me into temptation, but instead provide the way of escape. Deliver me from evil or from the evil one. Get me out of the devil’s grass, whatever you have to do to get done. But Jesus is not praying that God’s character would be such that he’d be on his best behavior as it relates to you and me.
And we wouldn’t be put in bad opportunities or in bad situations because God wouldn’t do that. Jesus is saying, God lead me. Not into temptation. Deliver me from the evil one, coupled with everything else in the Bible, Jesus is saying, pray for God’s Providence to be aligned in such a way that we would see those ways of escape, that God would lead us into those areas where we would be further from temptation as we could possibly be.
And then Paul says, we need to see them and take them first Corinthians 10, 13. And so James one 13 says, God, doesn’t tempt anybody. God, he’s not tempted with evil. It’s not his fault that we fall into tempting or enticing situations. And we can’t sort of fix that up with the prayer from Jesus to say that he does,
that’s not his nature. That’s not who he is. We do face temptation, but it’s not God’s fault. We live in a fallen world and Jesus accepted and realize that. And as his disciples are praying, he’s saying now you’re going to be surrounded by evil, but pray that God would lead you into the way that would ultimately be out of the grasp of the evil one and not into,
into his grips. Well offense did you have From the place where God tests Abraham. So how does that work in with good gives good gifts and the testing that goes along with it too? Yeah. So the testing of Abraham in Genesis 22, think about this. Abraham has no Isaac. If it’s not for God, right? Genesis 21 5, God gave him Isaac to begin with furthermore,
and we’ve got this in the text. God was not going to allow Abraham to do what he would later for bid. And that is in child. Sacrifice. Tempting is to dangle evil in front of one to hope that they would succumb. It’s what happened with Jesus and Matthew four and Luke four testing just like in school is to provide the tools necessary and then provide an opportunity for one to see whether or not they’ve advanced or they’ve grasped the certain materials so that they can show,
Hey, I’ve passed every teacher that has ever given a test and you get teacher gives the test with the hopes that the students will pass and do well. Temptation never works that way. Temptation is always dangled with this idea in mind. I hope you fail. I hope you stumble. What happens in Genesis 22 is God really rooting for Abraham. Do the right thing.
Show your faith in ways that you haven’t before every other time before this, when Abraham faced hardship or difficulty, he wiggled out of it, or maybe he went his own way, or maybe he thought about Abraham solution. And for the first time in the last time in Genesis 22, and if you look at verse 16, the text says, now I know that you fear me because you haven’t withheld your son.
Your only son from me, Abraham gets it now, trust God, no matter what. And God always does. What? First Corinthians 10 13 provides a way of escape. And that’s what he provided for Abraham. It was a test to see if Abraham really trusted that the God that gave Isaac would preserve Isaac, no matter what. And Hebrews 11,
17 through 19, and keeping with the theme of the resurrection says Abraham, that God was able to raise his only begotten son. Abraham’s only begotten son from the dead, from which he received him in a figure that is to say in Abraham’s mind, he went through with it. Isaac was as good as dead because he was going to do what God said after walking with God for some 25 years,
he trusted God, you can do it, but it wasn’t a temptation to do evil or to sin. It was a testing of Abraham’s trust, ultimately, and him and Abraham’s language throughout Genesis 22, bears that out. God’s going to provide a sacrifice. God’s God’s going to do this. And he’s trusting God for the first time in a unique way.
He trusted God before. But in Genesis 22, it’s a unique opportunity for Abraham to really shine forth. And after that, he’s never tested again. He gets it. He trusts God faithfully. And so it’s not a temptation do evil. It’s a test to press through and do us, right. I do a lot more traveling than I used to.
And it means I go to cities that I’ve never been to before. And I have to get on roads and highways that I’ve never been on before. And I nearly killed myself at least once or twice when I first get to a new city, because I don’t know how to drive where I’m at yet. And sure enough flew in from Tampa into Tampa.
And I’m on my way here to Lakeland, almost gotten to Rex because I missed one exit, missed another. I needed a guide. And when I look at the Christian walk, what brother Jaime was talking about? A difference between a test and temptation. If I follow the guide that has been given to me to follow the Lord, follow his word,
I will never stumble. And first Corinthians 10 13 tells me that not only is it that there’s this way of escape, part of the reason there’s this great way of escape is I have numerous examples of people who escaped. I have numerous examples of Abraham saying, I will kill my son because God’s going to raise him from the dead. How’d you know that Abraham I didn’t,
but I believe that God would do it. I can avoid looking at that woman because I know what’s going to happen to my marriage. What might happen to my life? Because I see what David didn’t do. And I can look at temptation and realize that while God will never tempt me, that does not mean that God does not allow me to be tested.
And the difference between a test and a temptation is the temptation is specific to each individual person. The test is all of us. We’re all going to be tested. We’re all going to have things that we have to deal with, but you’re tempted by things that I’m not. I’m tempted by things that you’re not. And what will hurt you as a spiritual person may not hurt me as a spiritual person.
I find it interesting that Satan had a litmus test with job. He tried to take all of his wealth first and it wasn’t really until he took basically everything that Joe finally said, okay, God, I have some questions for you. And job’s mindset was in the very beginning. If God didn’t do this to me, maybe that’s just how God works.
God gives God can surely take away. But at the end of the book, I find it, the response that we all need to have when we think that God might be doing something to us, job says at one point at the end of the book, I’m going to cover my mouth so that I stopped speaking because I don’t know what I’m talking about.
And in the most loving way that I can possibly say it may be. Sometimes we just need to cover our mouths and stop attributing things to God that Satan’s done to us. And that’s really the main point. We’re not tempted by God. We are tempted by the devil. God allows a test only for one reason. If I only followed God because I was programmed to do so,
then that’s not true love. That’s not a true understanding of following after him. If I was born into this world with no hope of doing anything else in life, but being a righteous person, then it’s not a choice. Then there is no temptation. There is no difficulty. And then Jesus wouldn’t have needed to come anyway. But there is one person who has lived on this earth that was tempted in all points,
as managed, tempted, and was able to say no. And if I can make my life more like him, first Corinthians 11 one, and imitate him as Paul imitated him, I too will find myself more victorious than more of a, in the last column, if you will. So definitely God does not tempt us, but we do need to be concerned with the idea that temptation still exists.
Yes, brother. When do you say y’all in the garden of Eden? When Lord, you know, he, not that he is apple, we know we gave him total eat enough and you know what? You got a devil know, coming back and forth with no, I say, you know, you can eat this apple, you won’t die or whatever.
What will you say? That he was tempted because she had a choice. So, you know, we all got a choice in life. And what would you say that Eve had a choice? Not any, Yeah, absolutely. She had a choice not to eat the fruit. Yes. In fact, if you look at Genesis chapter three and you look at verse six,
I find it interesting that when we talk about this moment, when she realizes what she’s got in front of her, with that fruit, it says when the woman saw that the tree was good and that lust of the eyes, that’s less of the eyes, isn’t it. And when she looked at it and that it was pleasant to the eyes, it was something that would fulfill a desire for her.
You’ve got less of the eyes. You’ve got the lust of the flesh. It’s good for food. Good for the eyes. It’s a tree desirable to make one wise that’s pride of life. And then I go back to first, John chapter two in verses 15 and 16 and find that the devil doesn’t have an updated playbook. You won’t talk about a man who is so just absolutely telegraphed.
It’s the devil. He has three ways. That’s all he ever uses. And if I can remind myself, anytime one of those three things pop up, this is a temptation. This is something that’s trying to keep me from the Lord. Then I can do what Eve didn’t do. But also we don’t give Adam enough credit for this. Either the there in the Hebrew,
in the original language mean that Adam was standing next to her. Here’s the husband, the man of the house. And he doesn’t tell her, no, he doesn’t tell her not to do this. He is just as culpable for what happened as Eve is it’s not just that Eve committed a transgression and therefore Eves the worst one. Adam ate. Also,
they both had punishments leveled against them. And from that point forward, it no longer became a test of obeying God to the fullest extent on one command, which was very simple. Don’t eat of this tree. It now became do all of these other things as well, because you’ve allowed to send, to enter into the world. And now all of these horrible things are coming upon you and the temptations are just going to be more rampant.
And so we definitely have our work in some ways cut out for us because it’s always happening. But we definitely have the greatest playbook to be able to be victorious. Yeah. You know like Jesus, when you get in the desert, you go into the Bible that you could Fight the battle. That’s right. We said that God knows. And God says to him,
I, I will go. But he, he says, nobody can tempt God, but you know, and devil was trying to test what could you go right into the word and share that with 100%. If I’m not in the word of God, when I’m tempted, I’m going to have a much more difficult time to get away from that temptation. That first Corinthians 10,
13, those escapes, like I mentioned, they’re found in the word of God, anything that happens to me in life, whether I’m addicted to drugs, I’m addicted to something else I’m addicted to just sin in general, the words got the answer to keep me from it. And if I’m not involved in that, it’s kind of like when Jesus said,
whoever looks upon a woman and Les, after her has already committed adultery in his heart. He’s not saying that the actual act of adultery has been committed between those two people. He’s saying that if I make my mind always thinking about committing adultery, what happens if that woman that I think about that way comes up and gives me the opportunity. Now I have the chance to do what I’ve always been thinking about doing.
And I’ve already been conditioning, my heart and my mind to say yes to something that I’m supposed to say no to, which is where that purity is supposed to come into play. I can’t look upon a maid. Like job’s said, I’ve made a covenant with the Lord. Why should I look upon a maid? I can’t do those types of things because of the relationship that I have with God.
But those things may still creep in. And if I have to go back to the word of God to remind myself why I better do that for the higher hiring, you got something else. Just take a few seconds. I wasn’t gonna Spend a lot of time on this, but whenever we talk about temptation, there is one thing to keep in mind.
We should be careful not to give the devil too much credit. What James says in James one 14. And I’m not saying Michael said this. I’m just whenever temptation comes up, every man is tempted when he’s drawn away of his own lesson in Tice. And then with us conceives that leads to sin. Sin leads to death. We probably wouldn’t be impressed to read through the new Testament and see how often really,
or how little the new Testament attributes your saying in mind, directly to the devil. Now the conditions are here and the devil wheels and influence. There’s no doubt about that, but God lays the fault of our sins at our feet because the devil can be overcome. The devil is not omniscient. People say things like, well, the devil knows what I’m tempted with.
Evidently he doesn’t because in Joe, he’s just shooting at the sky. Maybe this will get them. Maybe that’ll get him. He does the same thing with Jesus in Matthew, chapter four, if he knew, well, Jesus had no weakness, but he’s just trying different things. We reveal more to him by our lust and the things that we’re after than we probably ever think that we do our own lesson and Tice draws us away.
And then maybe the opportunities provided so that we can stumble into those things. But the devil doesn’t know as much as God, it doesn’t know everything. He doesn’t know everybody inside and out. Paul actually says, we’re not ignorant of his devices. Second Corinthians two 11. And so temptation doesn’t come from God. The devil uses it, but we’re drawn away of our own lesson in Tice.
We live in a fallen world. So the conditions are here. There’s no doubt about that. This isn’t eaten. We live in a fallen world, but we make decisions. And we put ourselves in situations where we’re more likely to give in and surrender. And so the prayer to be not led into temptation is get my heart in such a condition through studying the word and being around God’s people and learning from these examples so that I don’t have the same appetite that I’ve always had before.
My conversion for wicked things. You’re asking God to change your spiritual appetite so that you’ll desire the things that God desires and then temptation won’t be as much of an issue. We will be tempted in the flesh, but our, as our desires change, what we’re drawn to will be changed. And that’s the goal for the Christian. And so we don’t need to say the devil does it.
The devil makes me do this because the new Testament, doesn’t say that James says, God, doesn’t tempt you. And you might expect in verse 14 for him to say the devil, but he doesn’t. He says, it’s on you, your own lesson in ties. And that’s the hard thing Calvinism says, you’re born this way. The Bible doesn’t say that.
And there may be. We sometimes pick up on it and say, well, maybe the devil. And then the new Testament says, look in the perfect law of Liberty, it’s you, you’re your biggest problem. And I’m my biggest problem. And the devil’s influence in that. He has something to say about that obviously, but we make our own choices.
And because of that, we sometimes find our selves in bad situations. All right, appreciate those two brothers and all the insight they had with that. And I just remember several years ago, someone was discussing this and I thought they made a really good distinction that, you know, God never solicits us to sin. You know? And so that, that,
that the testing is one thing to grow in faith and opportunity to grow in faith, but he will never solicit us to sin. He never throws that out there at us for, for sin. And of course it was mentioned first Corinthians 10 13, which is a tremendous passage in that passage. If you look at all the details in that, there’s no temptation,
temptation taken us such as common to man. In other words, there’s nothing we face that other people haven’t faced. And I like Michael’s expectation about all the examples of writing here that we need to overcome. And sometimes we think of, you know, David, Abraham, Joe, these guys as some kind of supernatural beings, you know, they weren’t,
they were just like us, you know, this great there in the Bible and all that for us to learn from. But they, they, they had the same desires and everything like us, even Jesus, all points tempted like we are yet. He never yielded without sin. And so, you know, although we have temptation, there’s no sin.
We have to commit none at all, but we all do no, no temptation taken you such as common to man, but God is faithful and will with the temptation, provide a way of escape. And so if we yield to temptation, it’s nobody’s fault, but us and that passage just eliminates. God has done all these things to keep us from sin.
But again, it’s up to us and it’s our free will. Johnny had something to say, It’s really a dangerous thing when we start to over-exaggerate wireless in terms of its workers and influence me. So now it’s similar to what happened when he’s getting himself. You gave me the woman you gave me as opposed to myself who was at fault. So we can do that to ourselves.
Sometimes when we try to give the devil more, more of what he’s already got, this is on us. And when we start to blame everybody else, there’s no sense of penitence in our own life. And we’ve got to come across things. Yeah. And of course, some of us are old, old like me. And remember that old comedian flip Wilson,
you know, the devil made me do it. You know, he made that, he made that statement famous there, but yet it’s all on us. And, and Mike was mentioning, Michael was mentioning in the garden and you know, both Adam and Eve blamed, blamed someone else. You know, the woman that you gave to be with me,
you know? Yeah. The serpent. Yeah. And then the woman. Yeah. And then the woman said the serpent beguiled me, but who made the serpent? You know, verse one, God made the serpent. The serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made. And so, but who is blamed for the first sin for the,
what we often call the fall of the man, it’s not easy, but it’s Adam for about one man, Romans five 12 by one man sin entered into the world and by sin. So death passed upon all men because all have sin and then verse 17 by one man verse 19 by one man. And so Adam bears the brunt of it all. And rightly so,
because as Michael was saying the actual grammar there, he was right there with her. And when he was given the punishment is because you have hearkened to the voice of your wife, Genesis three 17, because you have hearkened to the voice of your wife. And that same thing was said about Sampson. He finally gave in to Delilah and see the results of that.
But anyway, good session we had and two questions, but a lot of good information on that. So we appreciate that. Appreciate Mike Michael for a pinch hit and doing a great job. I say like a walk-off home or maybe on the pinch hitter had come in, coming out of the dugout. All right. But anyway, but we do continue to pray for a forest and a forest will be in the same slots.
Well, the afternoon slot for sure. But he’ll be in another slot. I don’t know. We’ll figure that out next year. All right. Well, we appreciate that. We will break here. Let me have a prayer first before we break. But just a few, of course, when we do break delays, classmates still be going on. So make sure you don’t bother them.
Most of us know not to get the women upset. So, you know, but some single guys like Johnny May not know that. So be careful. Alright, so don’t go making a bunch of noise over there, but anyway, we appreciate your being here and the rest of the program for tonight, we have two speakers tonight and David steersman and both of these are here.
They have been in the house today. So I know they’re here, David steersman will speak. And if you see the seven o’clock and actually this, this began with the ladies classes, we have some post-resurrection lessons, you know what Jesus did after he rose from the dead and Brittany right now is wrapping up angelic words at the empty tomb. And then we have on Wednesday lady’s class,
cause tomorrow we’re going to have the appreciation dinner in there. So they don’t have a place to have a class. But the reason Lord’s words with the women at the empty tomb, and then on Thursday, the risen Lord’s words with Mary and then so the 7:00 PM sessions each night, we have that same, the arisen Lord’s words with all the way across.
And David will be speaking tonight with Thomas and we often called doubting Thomas. And so there’s some good lessons to be learned there and.
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Brian R. Kenyon, Hiram Kemp & Michael Clarke
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Amen. We appreciate your being here for this session. Of course, last couple of years, as we’ve had the ladies classes, we’ve had competition, but that’s all right. It’s all good. Cause we’re all studying God’s word. And just to give you a little background of the session here, we’d started a number of years ago. I could spend about 10 or 15 maybe by now,
maybe even longer than that, rather than having an open forum, which of course we are kind of open anyway, but we’d focused on the lessons that, you know, were, were given in the forums, the question and answer period, as we have it now kind of evolved the same time about that. We started doing the three back-to-back-to-back lessons and you know,
if you have your, your program, you fold it out. You see today we have, since you have been raised and then tomorrow we’ll have false views of the resurrection and then Wednesday and an evangelism, evangelistic, a forum on the resurrection and then on Thursday due to the resurrection power. And then we have those lessons from Philippians, but each of those are kind of a major sub topic of the lectureship.
And so we, we have those questions dealing, preferably dealing with those issues there again, to help us all, as we focus on the power of his resurrection throughout the whole week. And of course the, the, yeah, even as a lectureship director, I mean, there’s, you know, there’s, I think I’m 32 plus three, plus a question and answers,
you know, which we don’t have manuscripts for that, but 32 lessons plus the three ladies’ classes, that’s 35 lessons, 35 topics on the subject. But even with that, you can’t really cover it all. And so a lot of times these questions will arise that maybe relate to a lesson, but they don’t have a whole lesson to themselves or anything like that.
And so we deal, we’d like to deal with the questions now, of course, the start off when we answer these questions and as you’ll see, and we just have a few today and these might spur some more and you know, we can take time on some of the various aspects of these questions. And of course like where the BC car used to say,
no preacher got fired for quitting early, you know, so, you know, it’s okay if we finish early, just as long as we don’t bother the lady’s class over there. Okay. But really, and also, you know, we’re not here and you’ll see that sometimes with these questions, I don’t know, but sometimes questions, brethren may have a different view on a certain topic.
And again, as long as that view’s not unscriptural, there are plenty of areas in the Bible where we can have differences of opinions and still be in fellowship. And so we’re not here to, you know, this is the, the church of Christ position, or this is the FSAP position, or this is the brotherhood position that you have to believe it this way or you’re wrong.
You know, for example, why did naked Demas come to Jesus by night? You know, well, the text itself does not say it says about others. People like him, that they were afraid of the Jews or whatever it might be because he worked all day long. He didn’t have time to go during the day. So he went at night,
there are a number of reasons, and we can have a different view on that. Why? Because the Bible doesn’t explicitly tell us. And as long as our view, doesn’t violate, you know, plain Bible pastors or principles, then we can have a different view. And so we may see some of that in questions, but all of us will for sure,
give a Bible answer and you know, some, and again, there’s room areas of judgment and some of these. And so we’re not here to say, you have to agree with us that, you know, this is the official brotherhood position or whatever, but we’re here to, just to kind of study the Bible. And I remember when Jackie was talking about this in the beginning of this section here,
Jackie, steersman the director who proceeded me. He would explain it like, this is just think of it as a Bible study. You know, we have these three guys that just spoke on these topics and you know, they study these topics. They’ve written a chapter except for Michael. We appreciate him, but he’s got some knowledge on the topic as he showed,
you know, these guys, this topic is fresh on their mind. And so what better people to help answer these questions, then those who presented the lessons. And so just think of it as a good time to study the Bible. Okay. And so we have two main questions here today so far, and by the way, if you are listening online,
we do have, you know, you can send a question through the website. There’s a place there to text. Some of you may have our numbers. I think, well, my number is not on the brochure, but the office number is, but anyway, you can email the school. You can, you can electronically submit questions as well. And just Ted or whoever gets them,
just send them on to me. And I’ll take a look at my phone and get those. And so that’s another way to, to, to answer the questions or to ask questions. All right. So we have two questions here. We’ll just go one at a time. And they do deal with the resurrection. At least one of them does though.
Not necessary necessarily not the lesson that we had today, but it’s good. It’s very game. All right. So this question is what is the best way? The first question? What is the best way to teach a Jehovah’s witness? That Jesus rose bodily. All right. And so let’s see Josh, let’s see, Josh had an appointment at four.
I don’t think he’s here. All right. So w w we’ll turn it over to you too. I’ll leave the question right up here. And I may make some comments at the end, but right there it is. This question says, what is the best way to teach a Jehovah’s witness? That Jesus rose bodily. There’s a lot where we can say about this.
I start by saying, there’s a sense in which you teach a Jehovah’s witness to that Jesus rose bodily, the same way you teach anybody else. And so you’re dealing with the same ideas. I hesitate to say on any question, this is how you teach X because Jehovah’s witness come from different stripes and different backgrounds. How do you teach an atheist that God exists?
Well, know the arguments, the true arguments for God’s existence and whoever you run into, you’ve got to present those a certain way, but there’s no catch all, you know, argument for any group or individual, because they’ve got to deal with the same evidence. But what I would say is the way to prove that Jesus rose bodily is by looking at the new Testament documents.
This idea about Jesus being a flesh and blood human being and rising from the dead was a problem in the minds of some in the first century, it starts protal. Gnosticism starts about midway through the first century and is full-blown by the second. But that’s why you see passages like John chapter one and verse 14, the word was made flesh and tabernacled among us.
The gospel writers are trying to show Jesus was a real life flesh and blood human being. He lived his entire life. That way. John 1934 says he was pierced in his side and out came blood and water. Jesus really died. And so the flesh and blood Jesus Christ died. He was buried. But then the new Testament goes on to establish and prove that that same Jesus Christ who died and was buried that flesh and blood Jesus Christ was raised from the dead.
And so there’s a lot of preparatory work to do before this. But first, do you believe what the Bible says about Jesus is the Bible, the true and inspired word of God. George dealt with that in his lecture, but once we can establish that and we can prove that Jesus really died the new Testament, doesn’t just say that Jesus was raised.
It anticipates this argument and it shows that Jesus was really raised in the flesh in Matthew 28. There’s already this idea that maybe the disciples stole the body and I don’t want to steal anybody’s thunder. There’s an entire section of the lectureship on false ideas about the resurrection. But then there are statements that say this Jesus was raised. For example, acts chapter two.
When Peter is preaching and he quotes from Psalm 16, it says that you won’t leave your chosen one in Hades or suffer his flesh to see corruption. His flesh, that same body would be resurrected by God and go on to live. When Jesus saw his disciples in Luke 24, maybe they were a little hazy on if this is really him. And so he says,
see that as I, me and myself, a spirit doesn’t have flesh and bones. As you see me have Luke 24 39, and then he sups with them and he ate with them to show, Hey, this isn’t a Mirage. This isn’t a, maybe I rose from the dead Jesus. The Christ really died in that same Jesus. That’s why Paul Peter says it in acts 2 36,
this same Jesus whom you crucified was made Lord in Christ because don’t get it mistaken. It’s the same Jesus. A lot of people wore that name in the first century. And so the apostles go to great lengths to say, Jesus of Nazareth, the same Jesus that was crucified by Pontius. Pilot is now raised from the dead. And so you take acts 2 30, 1 Paul’s statement in first Corinthians 15 verses one through 10.
He was seen by the 12 and above 500 brethren. Last of all, seen as Paul, an apostle born out of due time, you take all of those passages with Jesus’s own statements and Luke 24 39 about him not being a spirit, but being flesh and blood Thomas and John 20, put your hands here and see and feel, be not doubtful, but believing that a design myself and based on that,
we’re supposed to believe. And so that Jesus rose bodily, the gospel hangs and falls on this. The reality of Jesus being the Messiah hangs and falls on whether or not he really was from God as he claimed to be that he died the death, the old Testament said he would. And did he really rise from the dead? And the gospel said that he did in the new Testament,
bears that out. So One of the things that I started trying to drill into the members where I was at locally for five years was what Hiram alluded to at the very beginning of that. If you don’t believe the Bible, what good does it do for that person who doesn’t believe the Bible to have thousands of scriptures thrown at them? And as much as I am a fan of Bible study and gospel preaching and listening and learning verses of the text,
if I’m studying with someone who’s an atheist that says the Bible is not the word of God, quoting that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth is not going to do much for that person until I take him to the realization that it is the word of God. And so one of the writers from a secular standpoint that we would all agree has done a lot of groundwork on this subject of the resurrection is Lee Strobel.
He’s not a Christian the way that we would intend and hope for him to be, but he wrote a little four question article, as far as the things that he would give to try to help prove the resurrection from a secular standpoint, he doesn’t really provide many scriptures with this, but all of these four are necessary to consider as well. And the first one was that he said it is evident from the sources that we have outside of the Bible,
that Jesus was at the very least executed. We have countless sources that show that a man named Jesus from Nazareth was executed. Well, if Jesus of Nazarus was neck as was executed. And we read in the scriptures that there was a man named Jesus of Nazareth who was taken and crucified executed. There’s some validity there there’s some strong evidence that Lee is talking about,
which was helping him as his atheism was starting to fade away. It was through this investigation that that happened. But the second thing that he claimed was that news spread quickly. In fact, he wrote that the, that a man from Oxford said it took more than two generations in the ancient world for legends to develop and wipe out a solid core of historical truth.
Yet there is a report of the resurrection preserved in first Corinthians 15 three through seven, that comes far too quickly after Jesus’s death. If this was a legend, then Paul’s talking about it very quickly. It’s it’s being recorded as fact way faster than it would normally be recorded throughout the legends of history. And the third thing that he left was at the tomb was empty Hiram made it a very good point there.
When he talked about the idea of that maybe the body was stolen. If you really wanted to put a nail in Christianity’s coffin and just blow up the idea of new Testament, Christianity, bring the body out and show it to everybody. If you can present Jesus, his lifeless body, that is the biggest death blow that could have ever been dealt to Christianity.
And since they couldn’t do that, then something had to have happened to it. And the apostles died over the knowledge of his resurrection, over the idea of teaching and preaching the new Testament church as the way, the truth, the life, as what Jesus said in John 14, six, why would you die for something that really didn’t happen? Why would you give your life up?
Why would you risk your life for something that didn’t actually take place that is a lot to hang your hat on? And these apostles and all of those in the first century, there was no body to present because that body had risen and had left this earth. And therefore they could not stamp out Christianity in that way. But the final one that Lee mentioned,
that’s also very interesting to consider or what we would call an eye witness account. If you can find an eyewitness proving, something happened, the argument becomes stronger yet again. And he said that he found that there are nine ancient sources inside and outside the new Testament, confirming the testimony of the disciples that they encountered, the resurrected Jesus. In fact, one of the things that I love the most is that the,
the medical doctorate and the medical journals that are out there have written things such as Jesus was dead before he was even pierced in the side. Well, if Jesus died and you can’t find the body, where did it go? That’s the easiest question to really ask. But what HIRA mentioned is so important, one thing that we need to remember if I study with someone and I showed them all of these arguments,
show them all of those passages and they still look at me and say, I don’t believe it. Jesus talked about dusting off the shoes that we wear and moving on to the next place. And sometimes that becomes a requirement, a, an unfortunate one, but there are many people out in the world that will just tell you flat out. I don’t care what it says.
I don’t care how you prove it. I don’t believe it. And that’s an unfortunate place to be, but truly we can prove both scripturally and secularly that Jesus was a man who lived on this earth and did die. And his body went missing, but we know where it went. And so can everyone else, if they’ll simply look at the facts,
okay, Appreciate that. And I believe Lee Strobel was a investigative reporter. He wasn’t religious or anything like that back when reporters really did a job, you know, nowadays they don’t do much of that, but, you know, and I think he’s got a series of books. I don’t know. Yeah. The case, the case for yeah. Create a case for.
And he just, he just gives a lot of secondary evidence, just, you know, if you were to build a case as a reporter, you’d show up all this evidence and that’s what you would give. And that’s what he does. And there’s really good value value in that kind of a study. And so we appreciate that. And of course,
I never thought about this until now. And he was talking about this about, you know, present the body of Jesus if you had that’s one way sure. Way to do it. And remember, if you go thumbing through those old 1800 pictures of all those Outlaws, you know, we’ve got some Missouri folk here where a lot of those guys seem to hide out,
you know, but when they kill them where they do, you know, they lay them out on a board, they take a picture, bullet holes in their head and all that stuff. I’m sure we’ve seen that kind of gruesome and all that, but what does that do? It proves that guy’s dead, you know, and, and they could have done that with Jesus said they couldn’t because he really rose from the dead.
And as was mentioned, tomorrow’s forum tremendous, the Swoon theory, the hallucination theory and the conspiracy theory. And well actually, well, depending on the program, you have there’s adjustment of speakers in order of that, but there’s no way and put out, add to that fact, remember pilot or hair, let’s see pilot sealed. Yeah. Pilot had the grave sealed,
paid people to lie about it, and the grave was still found empty. And so there is no way it’s impossible for Jesus not to have risen. And that might not be proper grammar, but that’s just the fact of the matter is impossible for Jesus. Not to have risen as he said. And also of course, George, Beall’s not here, but he gave the lesson this morning about the,
well, he spent most of his time on if God exists showing that God does exist, but the whole syllogism is if God exists, if the Bible is his inspired word, and if the Bible teaches such and such about the resurrection, then we can know that such and such is true. And whether it be JW Jehovah’s witness, or whether it be a,
an atheist, whether it be a denominational person or a Buddhist or whoever, that’s still the same syllogism, the same formula. If God exists, if the Bible has inspired word and it teaches such and such to be true, then we can know that that is true. And so with some Jehovah’s witness, we may have to start with the existence of God.
And I know when I was in school here again, brother steersman, you know, of course, I don’t know if he’s the first one to say that I’m sure he’s not, but he said about 99% of religious error either involves a false view of the nature of God or a false view of the nature of man. And when you think of Jehovah’s witnesses doctrine that their doctrine involves both of that,
both of those things, they don’t see human nature correctly, or the nature of God correctly. You know, their God is a, a, there, Jesus is a created being. In fact, one of the ladies that we study with sometimes when I make it to the coffee shop, Bible study, Hillcrest coffee shop over here, there’s lady that tends to it has the new world translation.
And if you look at their, their version of Colossians one 16, it says, you know, and he is a creator of all things, but they add the word other and they used to put it in brackets, all other things. And let me see how it used to be one way. And one way they just put it in a Tallix.
And then one, one version, they started putting it in, in parentheses. And I guarantee you in my lifetime, they didn’t take away both the princes and the Italians. And they’re just going to put in there, he’s creator of all other things. And, and so what that, the reason why they add other is because of Jesus has created,
but he created all things. Then that would be, he created himself. And how ridiculous is that? And so again, the Jehovah’s witnesses doctrine and, you know, their, their view of Jesus has kind of skewed to begin with. So if they start out with a false view of Jesus, then a resurrection is going to be false. But again,
it all goes back to if God exists. And of course we know he does, and we can prove that. And proof of God’s existence is not because the Bible says so because you know, there’s other documents that say things too, that aren’t true, but you know, we can, we can, we can know that God uncaused, uncreated creator exists before we even opened one page of the Bible.
And that had a lot to do with Georgia’s lesson this morning about the bumblebee and all he’s showing there is design. You know, we can look. And I remember, boy, I remember this Jody apple actually went at night, gave a lesson right here in this auditorium, a lectureship several years ago. And he’d pointed out things in this, in this room,
this light, you know, nothing in here can ex can explain, you know, in here can explain it exists because of itself, nothing in here. And then he said, if you just take the roof off of this building and you see the stars and it was at night and all that, you know, nothing out there that we can see can can account for its own existence.
It had to be something beyond that. And that’s something we know as God, but that’s all that those cosmological teleological and all those arguments, that’s all they are is those are called apriori before reality. You don’t have to, they’re just logic, reasoning, you know, whatever. But, but anyway, when you start off with a flawed view of Jesus,
then your view of his resurrection is also going to be flawed. All right. Well, the next question here Okay. This is a more of a request. It wants us to compare the two scriptures and explain a number. The first scripture is Matthew six 13 also paralleled in Luke 11 four and do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
And then compare that with James one 13. Let no one say when he is tempted that I am tempted by God. And so the question or the desire to request is compare these two scriptures. All right. So James one 13 and Matthew six, 13, This is a good question. In fact, a few years ago, the Pope wanted to change this first and amend it because of the fact that it taught this idea of Matthew six,
13, Luke 11 and verse four, lead us not into temptation. And it seems to be problematic. It goes back to an idea that Brian mentioned a few moments ago about the nature of God. I know the king James, for example, in Genesis 22 in verse one says, and then after these things to get, did God tempt Abraham, but that doesn’t mean the saw in Genesis 22, 1 means to test or to try Abraham with the sacrificing of Isaac.
And so this question really hinges on knowing the character of God. And then we can talk about what Jesus is asking for us to pray for, but the text to go go-to first is James chapter one because in James chapter one, James is speaking about how we view the temptations and trials of God. You might even say, this is a big window into what’s going on in the book of job.
And what are his three friends misunderstand about God? And the thing that gets got the hottest in the book of job is these misunderstandings of who he is, how he operates and whose fault it is that things are messed up in the world and Jobe and his friends speak wrongly about God and God has to straighten it. Well, James one, three through 18 is really a preventative text as spiritual,
preventative maintenance to say, don’t mess this up about God. Once you have that, whatever’s taught in Luke 11, four, Matthew six, 13, can’t contradict this reality of who God is by nature and what he does. And so James says, let no man say, when he’s tempted, I’m tempted by God, God can’t be tempted with evil.
Neither does he attempt any man, but every man is tempted. When he’s drawn away of his own lust and entice them and Luz conceives, it brings forth sand sand. When it’s finished, brings forth death. And in verse 16, we often don’t include it, but that’s James’s punchline do not be deceived or do not. Err, my beloved brethren.
Don’t get this wrong about God, who is God, then verse 17. He’s not the one giving you temptation every good and every perfect gift comes down from above. From the father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Meaning God gives good things today. And guess what? He’s going to give tomorrow. Good things.
And guess what he’s going to give the next day. Good things. That’s all he does. That’s all he gives never temptation, but good things of his own wheel. He brought us for by the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creation. James says, listen, you’re going to have trials James one, two through 11.
And then he says, when those things happen, don’t blame it on God, God doesn’t tempt any man. God’s never been tempted. He doesn’t know what that’s like. Jesus being tempted in Matthew four. And Luke four is a different situation because he took on flesh. He says, our problem with Sans comes about because of our own loss. We’re enticed and less graduates.
It brings forth sand, sand brings forth death. Don’t be deceived. Don’t ever find yourself in an attempt and situation and say, well, maybe God’s done this to me. And he’s trying to see what I’m all about. James says, God, wouldn’t do that. God. Wouldn’t dangle evil in front of you with the hopes that you would cave in and cower and stumble and fall because God is always giving good things.
And God has always given good gifts. Verse 16 is your verse. Do not be deceived. When hardships come in life, Christians sometimes say, well, maybe God’s tempted me. Maybe God, God doesn’t do that. God gives good things when you receive good things. Never doubt. There’s not a, maybe this came from God according to James. It did.
But when we attempted, we never need to doubt our question. This is not from God. If that’s the case, then what is Jesus saying? And Matthew six, 13 and Luke 11 verse four, the verse doesn’t need to be amended or change. We can’t change it. Jesus says what he says in these verses when he’s teaching us how to pray.
And in this model, prayer, he’s saying, there are things we need from God. We need food. We need our provisions. And we also need to be not led into temptation, but instead to be delivered from evil, that’s the request. That’s what Jesus says. Evidently what Jesus is saying that we need to pray to God for is that in his Providence,
we wouldn’t be put in these compromising situations. You think about first Corinthians 10, 13, there is no temptation that’s taking you, but what’s common to man. But God is faithful. Who won’t allow you to be tempted above your ability, but we’ll make a way of escape. What Jesus is saying, you and I should pray for is God, you control the universe.
Give me my daily bread, deliver me from evil. Don’t allow me to be put in these tempting situations. Don’t lead me into temptation, but instead provide the way of escape. Deliver me from evil or from the evil one. Get me out of the devil’s grass, whatever you have to do to get done. But Jesus is not praying that God’s character would be such that he’d be on his best behavior as it relates to you and me.
And we wouldn’t be put in bad opportunities or in bad situations because God wouldn’t do that. Jesus is saying, God lead me. Not into temptation. Deliver me from the evil one, coupled with everything else in the Bible, Jesus is saying, pray for God’s Providence to be aligned in such a way that we would see those ways of escape, that God would lead us into those areas where we would be further from temptation as we could possibly be.
And then Paul says, we need to see them and take them first Corinthians 10, 13. And so James one 13 says, God, doesn’t tempt anybody. God, he’s not tempted with evil. It’s not his fault that we fall into tempting or enticing situations. And we can’t sort of fix that up with the prayer from Jesus to say that he does,
that’s not his nature. That’s not who he is. We do face temptation, but it’s not God’s fault. We live in a fallen world and Jesus accepted and realize that. And as his disciples are praying, he’s saying now you’re going to be surrounded by evil, but pray that God would lead you into the way that would ultimately be out of the grasp of the evil one and not into,
into his grips. Well offense did you have From the place where God tests Abraham. So how does that work in with good gives good gifts and the testing that goes along with it too? Yeah. So the testing of Abraham in Genesis 22, think about this. Abraham has no Isaac. If it’s not for God, right? Genesis 21 5, God gave him Isaac to begin with furthermore,
and we’ve got this in the text. God was not going to allow Abraham to do what he would later for bid. And that is in child. Sacrifice. Tempting is to dangle evil in front of one to hope that they would succumb. It’s what happened with Jesus and Matthew four and Luke four testing just like in school is to provide the tools necessary and then provide an opportunity for one to see whether or not they’ve advanced or they’ve grasped the certain materials so that they can show,
Hey, I’ve passed every teacher that has ever given a test and you get teacher gives the test with the hopes that the students will pass and do well. Temptation never works that way. Temptation is always dangled with this idea in mind. I hope you fail. I hope you stumble. What happens in Genesis 22 is God really rooting for Abraham. Do the right thing.
Show your faith in ways that you haven’t before every other time before this, when Abraham faced hardship or difficulty, he wiggled out of it, or maybe he went his own way, or maybe he thought about Abraham solution. And for the first time in the last time in Genesis 22, and if you look at verse 16, the text says, now I know that you fear me because you haven’t withheld your son.
Your only son from me, Abraham gets it now, trust God, no matter what. And God always does. What? First Corinthians 10 13 provides a way of escape. And that’s what he provided for Abraham. It was a test to see if Abraham really trusted that the God that gave Isaac would preserve Isaac, no matter what. And Hebrews 11,
17 through 19, and keeping with the theme of the resurrection says Abraham, that God was able to raise his only begotten son. Abraham’s only begotten son from the dead, from which he received him in a figure that is to say in Abraham’s mind, he went through with it. Isaac was as good as dead because he was going to do what God said after walking with God for some 25 years,
he trusted God, you can do it, but it wasn’t a temptation to do evil or to sin. It was a testing of Abraham’s trust, ultimately, and him and Abraham’s language throughout Genesis 22, bears that out. God’s going to provide a sacrifice. God’s God’s going to do this. And he’s trusting God for the first time in a unique way.
He trusted God before. But in Genesis 22, it’s a unique opportunity for Abraham to really shine forth. And after that, he’s never tested again. He gets it. He trusts God faithfully. And so it’s not a temptation do evil. It’s a test to press through and do us, right. I do a lot more traveling than I used to.
And it means I go to cities that I’ve never been to before. And I have to get on roads and highways that I’ve never been on before. And I nearly killed myself at least once or twice when I first get to a new city, because I don’t know how to drive where I’m at yet. And sure enough flew in from Tampa into Tampa.
And I’m on my way here to Lakeland, almost gotten to Rex because I missed one exit, missed another. I needed a guide. And when I look at the Christian walk, what brother Jaime was talking about? A difference between a test and temptation. If I follow the guide that has been given to me to follow the Lord, follow his word,
I will never stumble. And first Corinthians 10 13 tells me that not only is it that there’s this way of escape, part of the reason there’s this great way of escape is I have numerous examples of people who escaped. I have numerous examples of Abraham saying, I will kill my son because God’s going to raise him from the dead. How’d you know that Abraham I didn’t,
but I believe that God would do it. I can avoid looking at that woman because I know what’s going to happen to my marriage. What might happen to my life? Because I see what David didn’t do. And I can look at temptation and realize that while God will never tempt me, that does not mean that God does not allow me to be tested.
And the difference between a test and a temptation is the temptation is specific to each individual person. The test is all of us. We’re all going to be tested. We’re all going to have things that we have to deal with, but you’re tempted by things that I’m not. I’m tempted by things that you’re not. And what will hurt you as a spiritual person may not hurt me as a spiritual person.
I find it interesting that Satan had a litmus test with job. He tried to take all of his wealth first and it wasn’t really until he took basically everything that Joe finally said, okay, God, I have some questions for you. And job’s mindset was in the very beginning. If God didn’t do this to me, maybe that’s just how God works.
God gives God can surely take away. But at the end of the book, I find it, the response that we all need to have when we think that God might be doing something to us, job says at one point at the end of the book, I’m going to cover my mouth so that I stopped speaking because I don’t know what I’m talking about.
And in the most loving way that I can possibly say it may be. Sometimes we just need to cover our mouths and stop attributing things to God that Satan’s done to us. And that’s really the main point. We’re not tempted by God. We are tempted by the devil. God allows a test only for one reason. If I only followed God because I was programmed to do so,
then that’s not true love. That’s not a true understanding of following after him. If I was born into this world with no hope of doing anything else in life, but being a righteous person, then it’s not a choice. Then there is no temptation. There is no difficulty. And then Jesus wouldn’t have needed to come anyway. But there is one person who has lived on this earth that was tempted in all points,
as managed, tempted, and was able to say no. And if I can make my life more like him, first Corinthians 11 one, and imitate him as Paul imitated him, I too will find myself more victorious than more of a, in the last column, if you will. So definitely God does not tempt us, but we do need to be concerned with the idea that temptation still exists.
Yes, brother. When do you say y’all in the garden of Eden? When Lord, you know, he, not that he is apple, we know we gave him total eat enough and you know what? You got a devil know, coming back and forth with no, I say, you know, you can eat this apple, you won’t die or whatever.
What will you say? That he was tempted because she had a choice. So, you know, we all got a choice in life. And what would you say that Eve had a choice? Not any, Yeah, absolutely. She had a choice not to eat the fruit. Yes. In fact, if you look at Genesis chapter three and you look at verse six,
I find it interesting that when we talk about this moment, when she realizes what she’s got in front of her, with that fruit, it says when the woman saw that the tree was good and that lust of the eyes, that’s less of the eyes, isn’t it. And when she looked at it and that it was pleasant to the eyes, it was something that would fulfill a desire for her.
You’ve got less of the eyes. You’ve got the lust of the flesh. It’s good for food. Good for the eyes. It’s a tree desirable to make one wise that’s pride of life. And then I go back to first, John chapter two in verses 15 and 16 and find that the devil doesn’t have an updated playbook. You won’t talk about a man who is so just absolutely telegraphed.
It’s the devil. He has three ways. That’s all he ever uses. And if I can remind myself, anytime one of those three things pop up, this is a temptation. This is something that’s trying to keep me from the Lord. Then I can do what Eve didn’t do. But also we don’t give Adam enough credit for this. Either the there in the Hebrew,
in the original language mean that Adam was standing next to her. Here’s the husband, the man of the house. And he doesn’t tell her, no, he doesn’t tell her not to do this. He is just as culpable for what happened as Eve is it’s not just that Eve committed a transgression and therefore Eves the worst one. Adam ate. Also,
they both had punishments leveled against them. And from that point forward, it no longer became a test of obeying God to the fullest extent on one command, which was very simple. Don’t eat of this tree. It now became do all of these other things as well, because you’ve allowed to send, to enter into the world. And now all of these horrible things are coming upon you and the temptations are just going to be more rampant.
And so we definitely have our work in some ways cut out for us because it’s always happening. But we definitely have the greatest playbook to be able to be victorious. Yeah. You know like Jesus, when you get in the desert, you go into the Bible that you could Fight the battle. That’s right. We said that God knows. And God says to him,
I, I will go. But he, he says, nobody can tempt God, but you know, and devil was trying to test what could you go right into the word and share that with 100%. If I’m not in the word of God, when I’m tempted, I’m going to have a much more difficult time to get away from that temptation. That first Corinthians 10,
13, those escapes, like I mentioned, they’re found in the word of God, anything that happens to me in life, whether I’m addicted to drugs, I’m addicted to something else I’m addicted to just sin in general, the words got the answer to keep me from it. And if I’m not involved in that, it’s kind of like when Jesus said,
whoever looks upon a woman and Les, after her has already committed adultery in his heart. He’s not saying that the actual act of adultery has been committed between those two people. He’s saying that if I make my mind always thinking about committing adultery, what happens if that woman that I think about that way comes up and gives me the opportunity. Now I have the chance to do what I’ve always been thinking about doing.
And I’ve already been conditioning, my heart and my mind to say yes to something that I’m supposed to say no to, which is where that purity is supposed to come into play. I can’t look upon a maid. Like job’s said, I’ve made a covenant with the Lord. Why should I look upon a maid? I can’t do those types of things because of the relationship that I have with God.
But those things may still creep in. And if I have to go back to the word of God to remind myself why I better do that for the higher hiring, you got something else. Just take a few seconds. I wasn’t gonna Spend a lot of time on this, but whenever we talk about temptation, there is one thing to keep in mind.
We should be careful not to give the devil too much credit. What James says in James one 14. And I’m not saying Michael said this. I’m just whenever temptation comes up, every man is tempted when he’s drawn away of his own lesson in Tice. And then with us conceives that leads to sin. Sin leads to death. We probably wouldn’t be impressed to read through the new Testament and see how often really,
or how little the new Testament attributes your saying in mind, directly to the devil. Now the conditions are here and the devil wheels and influence. There’s no doubt about that, but God lays the fault of our sins at our feet because the devil can be overcome. The devil is not omniscient. People say things like, well, the devil knows what I’m tempted with.
Evidently he doesn’t because in Joe, he’s just shooting at the sky. Maybe this will get them. Maybe that’ll get him. He does the same thing with Jesus in Matthew, chapter four, if he knew, well, Jesus had no weakness, but he’s just trying different things. We reveal more to him by our lust and the things that we’re after than we probably ever think that we do our own lesson and Tice draws us away.
And then maybe the opportunities provided so that we can stumble into those things. But the devil doesn’t know as much as God, it doesn’t know everything. He doesn’t know everybody inside and out. Paul actually says, we’re not ignorant of his devices. Second Corinthians two 11. And so temptation doesn’t come from God. The devil uses it, but we’re drawn away of our own lesson in Tice.
We live in a fallen world. So the conditions are here. There’s no doubt about that. This isn’t eaten. We live in a fallen world, but we make decisions. And we put ourselves in situations where we’re more likely to give in and surrender. And so the prayer to be not led into temptation is get my heart in such a condition through studying the word and being around God’s people and learning from these examples so that I don’t have the same appetite that I’ve always had before.
My conversion for wicked things. You’re asking God to change your spiritual appetite so that you’ll desire the things that God desires and then temptation won’t be as much of an issue. We will be tempted in the flesh, but our, as our desires change, what we’re drawn to will be changed. And that’s the goal for the Christian. And so we don’t need to say the devil does it.
The devil makes me do this because the new Testament, doesn’t say that James says, God, doesn’t tempt you. And you might expect in verse 14 for him to say the devil, but he doesn’t. He says, it’s on you, your own lesson in ties. And that’s the hard thing Calvinism says, you’re born this way. The Bible doesn’t say that.
And there may be. We sometimes pick up on it and say, well, maybe the devil. And then the new Testament says, look in the perfect law of Liberty, it’s you, you’re your biggest problem. And I’m my biggest problem. And the devil’s influence in that. He has something to say about that obviously, but we make our own choices.
And because of that, we sometimes find our selves in bad situations. All right, appreciate those two brothers and all the insight they had with that. And I just remember several years ago, someone was discussing this and I thought they made a really good distinction that, you know, God never solicits us to sin. You know? And so that, that,
that the testing is one thing to grow in faith and opportunity to grow in faith, but he will never solicit us to sin. He never throws that out there at us for, for sin. And of course it was mentioned first Corinthians 10 13, which is a tremendous passage in that passage. If you look at all the details in that, there’s no temptation,
temptation taken us such as common to man. In other words, there’s nothing we face that other people haven’t faced. And I like Michael’s expectation about all the examples of writing here that we need to overcome. And sometimes we think of, you know, David, Abraham, Joe, these guys as some kind of supernatural beings, you know, they weren’t,
they were just like us, you know, this great there in the Bible and all that for us to learn from. But they, they, they had the same desires and everything like us, even Jesus, all points tempted like we are yet. He never yielded without sin. And so, you know, although we have temptation, there’s no sin.
We have to commit none at all, but we all do no, no temptation taken you such as common to man, but God is faithful and will with the temptation, provide a way of escape. And so if we yield to temptation, it’s nobody’s fault, but us and that passage just eliminates. God has done all these things to keep us from sin.
But again, it’s up to us and it’s our free will. Johnny had something to say, It’s really a dangerous thing when we start to over-exaggerate wireless in terms of its workers and influence me. So now it’s similar to what happened when he’s getting himself. You gave me the woman you gave me as opposed to myself who was at fault. So we can do that to ourselves.
Sometimes when we try to give the devil more, more of what he’s already got, this is on us. And when we start to blame everybody else, there’s no sense of penitence in our own life. And we’ve got to come across things. Yeah. And of course, some of us are old, old like me. And remember that old comedian flip Wilson,
you know, the devil made me do it. You know, he made that, he made that statement famous there, but yet it’s all on us. And, and Mike was mentioning, Michael was mentioning in the garden and you know, both Adam and Eve blamed, blamed someone else. You know, the woman that you gave to be with me,
you know? Yeah. The serpent. Yeah. And then the woman. Yeah. And then the woman said the serpent beguiled me, but who made the serpent? You know, verse one, God made the serpent. The serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made. And so, but who is blamed for the first sin for the,
what we often call the fall of the man, it’s not easy, but it’s Adam for about one man, Romans five 12 by one man sin entered into the world and by sin. So death passed upon all men because all have sin and then verse 17 by one man verse 19 by one man. And so Adam bears the brunt of it all. And rightly so,
because as Michael was saying the actual grammar there, he was right there with her. And when he was given the punishment is because you have hearkened to the voice of your wife, Genesis three 17, because you have hearkened to the voice of your wife. And that same thing was said about Sampson. He finally gave in to Delilah and see the results of that.
But anyway, good session we had and two questions, but a lot of good information on that. So we appreciate that. Appreciate Mike Michael for a pinch hit and doing a great job. I say like a walk-off home or maybe on the pinch hitter had come in, coming out of the dugout. All right. But anyway, but we do continue to pray for a forest and a forest will be in the same slots.
Well, the afternoon slot for sure. But he’ll be in another slot. I don’t know. We’ll figure that out next year. All right. Well, we appreciate that. We will break here. Let me have a prayer first before we break. But just a few, of course, when we do break delays, classmates still be going on. So make sure you don’t bother them.
Most of us know not to get the women upset. So, you know, but some single guys like Johnny May not know that. So be careful. Alright, so don’t go making a bunch of noise over there, but anyway, we appreciate your being here and the rest of the program for tonight, we have two speakers tonight and David steersman and both of these are here.
They have been in the house today. So I know they’re here, David steersman will speak. And if you see the seven o’clock and actually this, this began with the ladies classes, we have some post-resurrection lessons, you know what Jesus did after he rose from the dead and Brittany right now is wrapping up angelic words at the empty tomb. And then we have on Wednesday lady’s class,
cause tomorrow we’re going to have the appreciation dinner in there. So they don’t have a place to have a class. But the reason Lord’s words with the women at the empty tomb, and then on Thursday, the risen Lord’s words with Mary and then so the 7:00 PM sessions each night, we have that same, the arisen Lord’s words with all the way across.
And David will be speaking tonight with Thomas and we often called doubting Thomas. And so there’s some good lessons to be learned there and.