Let every open ear attend and
broken heart rejoice. The trumpet of the gospel sounds
with an inviting voice. O all ye hungry, starving souls
that feed upon the wind, and vainly strive with earthly choice
to fill an empty mind. Eternal wisdom has prepared a
soul-reviving feast, and with your longing appetites the rich
provision tastes. O ye that pant for living strength,
and pine away and die, here you may quench your raging thirst
with springs that never dry. Rivers of love and mercy here
in rich ocean join, Salvation in abundance flows like floods
of milk and wine. Ye perishing and naked poor who
work with mighty pain, to weave a garment of your own that will
not hide your sin. Come naked and adorn your souls
in robes prepared by God Wrought by the labors of His Son and
died in His own blood Dear God, the treasures of Thy love are
everlasting mines Deep as our helpless, miseries are, and boundless
as our sins. The happy gates of gospel grace
stand open night and day. Lords, we are come to seek supplies
and drive our wants away. Amen, that's why we've come here
today. We've come to be refueled, to hear the word of God, to encourage
and to edify us, but also to hear and to learn of him so that
we might take those supplies, as it says there, and go out
to the world and to share the gospel, amen? All right, how
about you turn to hymn number 97. Hymn number 97, and again, In number 97, we'll sing this
to the doxology. Hang on just a second, I'm trying to remember the tune.
"'Tis finished, the Messiah dies. Cut off for sins but not his
own. Accomplished is the sacrifice. The great redeeming work is done. Finished are by transgression
his. And purge the guilt of all our
sin And everlasting righteousness Is brought for all His people
in Tis finished all my guilt and pain I want no sacrifice
beside. For me, for me, the lamb was
slain. And I'm forever justified. Sin, death, and hell are now
subdued. All graces now to sinners give,
and lo, I plead the atoning blood for pardon, holiness, and heaven. Amen. Does anybody have a song
that you'd like to sing this morning? How about hymn number 134? In
the Gap. In the Gap. In the Gap. 134. The title in here is Christ the
sinner's hiding place. But we all know this, and I've
sung this in other song books, is Hail Sovereign Love. So we'll
sing it to the tune of Hail Sovereign Love. Hail Sovereign Love that first
began. Those keen to rescue fallen men. Hail matchless free. eternal
grace that gave my soul a hiding place. Against the God who rules
the sky, I fought with hand, uplifted high, despised the mention
of His grace, too proud to see a hiding place. But thus the eternal counsel
ran, Almighty love arrest that man. I felt the arrows of distress,
And found I had no hiding place. Indignant justice stood in view,
To Sinai's spot, three miles I flew. But justice cried with
frowning face, this mountain is no hiding place. Ere long a heavenly voice I heard,
and mercy's angel form appeared. She led me on with flaccid pace
to Jesus as my hiding place. Should storms upset, for thunder
roll, and shake the earth from pole to pole, no flaming bolt
could donk my face, for Jesus is my hiding place. On Him, almighty vengeance fell,
that must have sunk a world to hell. He bore it for a chosen
race, and thus became their hiding place. A few more rolling suns
at most will land me on fair Canaan's coast where I shall
sing a song of grace and see my glorious hiding place. Can't wait for that day. Me too. our hiding place. You know, we
can't hide anywhere else. As it says there, it definitely
isn't in the law. We can't go to the law and our good works
as a hiding place because we'll never be found righteous doing
that. All right, does anybody have a song before we move on? Let's bow and have a word of
prayer. Our gracious Heavenly Father,
we come to you once again this morning so grateful for all that
you are. You are majestic in name, you're
majestic in power, you're majestic in love, you're holy, you're
without blame, you're gracious, you're mighty, you're our God.
We come this morning, Father, before you and asking that you
might help us today in our efforts to worship and praise you. We
pray, Father, that you would enable us to lift our voices
to you, to attend our mind and our heart to what you have to
say, to speak the truth about you. Father, for edifying not
only of the saints, but mostly father for your exaltation. We
ask for that you would guide us in that today. Without you,
we cannot worship the way that we should. Without you father,
nothing would happen here except vain exercise of religion. So father, we pray today that
you might help us. We thank you for Jesus Christ,
our hiding place. We thank you that we have a refuge
in time of storm. We thank You that we have victorious
lives through Jesus Christ who has died for us and His blood
is atoned for our sin, has cleansed us from every stain, that has
reconciled us to God, that has brought forgiveness before a
holy God who has justified us, that we might be clean and right
before our God. and that that imputed righteousness
that we have received by you and you alone, Father, will stand
for us no matter what happens in this life, no matter how often
we fail. And our hearts don't want to
fail you, Father. We truly do want to be obedient
to you. But Father, we know that the flesh is weak, and we often
come up short of your glory. And so we are thankful today
that the righteousness of Christ has been given to our account,
and that the transgression of all of us have been filled up
and has been taken away by Christ. So Lord, we just ask today that
you'd be honored and glorified in all that we do and all that
we say. Help me now, Father, to bring this message that you
might give me the words to say, that you might keep me from error,
and Lord, that you might bring to remembrance the things of
your scriptures. for the edifying of your saints and for the exaltation
of your son. It's in his name that we pray. Matthew chapter 28, if you would. Matthew chapter 28. We are starting
a new subsection this morning in our study of the ecclesia
or Christ's church, Christ's ecclesia. I told you guys that this has been
a long time study. It's been over a year's study preparing
for this and I told you it would be a lengthy study and it surely
has been a lengthy study and we still have a lot more to go.
So hopefully it's not getting old to you and you're ready to
move on. But I wanted to do a thorough
study of what it is to be a part of a New Testament church, what
that New Testament church is as what the Bible teaches it
to be. So often we hear in churches
all over the place and in preachers and in books and sermons, we
hear that the church, the word church is used as all the elect
of God everywhere. But the Bible doesn't teach that,
and we've seen that very vividly as we first began on the nature
of the church, we see that the nature of the church was not
a universal invisible body of people. It wasn't a universal
visible body of people, but it was a local visible assembly
of people. Specifically, a local visible
assembly of believers who have been baptized, scripturally baptized,
who have come together in joint fellowship under the doctrines
of Christ in unity to serve and to worship the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we meet today as a church. We are the New Testament church
here in Joplin. Anybody who meets together under
those conditions is considered the Lord's church. Different, it's not the same
as being the Lord's elect, being part of the family of God, and
it's not the same as being the kingdom of God. The church is
separate from those two things. Matter of fact, the church is
made up of the family of God. You can't be a member of the
Lord's church without being a believer, and you cannot be a member of
the Lord's church if you're not in the kingdom. You have to be
in the family and the kingdom to be a part of the Lord's Church.
And so, we've seen in the first section of our study on the Ecclesia
that the nature of the Lord's Church, and in all 118 verses
in the New Testament where the word Ecclesia was found, there
was no place it was found as a universal and visible body.
It was always, in its context, found as a local visible assembly. Then we looked after that, we
looked at when the church began. We saw that the church did not
begin in the Old Testament. It did not begin with John the
Baptist preaching. It did not begin with Pentecost,
but it began whenever Jesus was baptized. He came up out of the
water, began his earthly ministry, and he called those first 12
disciples who he made apostles. and laid within the church first
apostles. And that's where the church began
with the preparation or with the material that John the Baptist
prepared for Jesus. He began building with that material. Those who had repented and believed
upon Christ, John preached a gospel New Testament message. A lot
of people think John the Baptist was the last of the Old Testament
prophets. He wasn't. They believe that,
some people believe he was in a transitory position. But John was the first of the
preaching of the gospel. And we found that in the gospels
where it said that this is the beginning of the gospel, John
the Baptist. We find that his baptism and
his ministry was the ministry of heaven. God sent John to baptize. God sent John to preach. He was
a minister that was ordained and sent by God. to prepare a
people for the coming Christ, for the coming Messiah. And that
he did, and whenever that Messiah came, the friend of the bride
turned over the bride to the bridegroom, and the bridegroom
began to build the church. And so we saw that as well. And then we just finished up
last week, we finished up looking at the gospel of the church. And we found that there is no
other gospel but the gospel of Jesus Christ that he taught,
that he delivered once to the saints. And that faith that was
once delivered to the saints has been perpetuated from year
to year to year in every generation by the Lord's New Testament churches.
And that those churches have preserved that word through its
preaching, through its teaching. And also as people have kept
that word in writing through the Bible and preserving of God's
Word in it. And so today we're going to begin
to look at the commission of the New Testament Church, or
the commission of the Lord's Ecclesia. And we're going to
be looking at Matthew chapter 28. And before we kind of get
into the in-depth look at this commission, there is a little
bit of grammar that I wanted to share with you guys, a little
bit of Scholasticism, I guess I should
say. You know me, I'm not big on Scholasticism
as far as that it has any sway on whether a man is a preacher
or not. You definitely do not have to be a seminary degree
person. That does not make you a pastor. It does not make you a preacher
because the seminaries have no authority to do that. Plus, it
doesn't make you a better pastor or preacher to have that knowledge. Because a school of men cannot
impart teaching, only the Holy Spirit can teach. And there are
men who are a lot less educated that have a lot more spiritual
discernment and understanding of God's Word than some of the
most mighty, scholastic, learned men that are out there. And so
we do not believe that Seminaries or education as far as biblical
education in colleges and things like that and And everything
makes the preacher or makes one any more smarter of God's Word
You can amass a lot of knowledge about things but remember whenever
you go to a seminary and you sit underneath one of those men
And teachers you can very well be sitting under somebody who
is not a believer and is out there teaching from a man's wisdom
perspective. We know people that have even
confessed that they're not believers, but they're teaching Bibles courses
in colleges, and they're teaching from their understanding of things,
and their biblical persuasions and everything. Just a side note
on that, they're pressing to make it where public schools
can now teach the Bible in there and everybody's just happy about
that and clapping and You know, that's an amazing thing. We really
want that in there and to some degree I understand that I mean
anything that would teach biblical principles Especially as far
as being kind to one another loving each other being considered
of each other, you know Worshiping God things like that will always
make a society better in a moral or a human aspect to some degree,
okay? It's much better to teach people
to love your husband, to love your wife, to love your children,
to love God, than to be gay or queer or, you know, be a dirty
thief or, you know, whatever, you know, that they're trying
to teach kids now in public schools. But should we as true Bible believers,
people of God be happy that the government, the school system
is gonna teach the Bible, that really doesn't bring a whole
lot of good to anything other than you're gonna have a lot
of people who are not called to God teaching the Bible. And
the public school is gonna be in charge of telling your kid
what that Bible says, and that is the job of the New Testament
church, not the school system. That is the job of the parent,
That is the job of the church. The parents, first and foremost,
are to teach the children. And then those children, whenever
they come with their parents to church, they hear the gospel
preached by men who are called of God, gifted by God to preach
and to teach the word of God. And only as the Holy Spirit gives
teaching do they understand those things. So anyway, that's my
rant for today. But anyway, on to scholasticism. to what I was talking about,
there are a few things we need to understand about the Bible
whenever we're interpreting the Bible and we're looking at scriptures
and studying the word of God. And we here at our church, as
everybody knows here, we use the King James Bible. And there's
a reason that we use the King James Bible. It isn't just because
we're old fashioned, okay? That's not necessarily the reason
why we're here. And it's not because of some
legalistic reason. Okay, the reason that we use
the King James Bible is because we believe that this Bible is
the preserved Word of God as it has come from the manuscripts,
the Greek manuscripts that were not tainted through the heathens. That it is the right manuscripts
that that should accompany any translation of those scriptures.
We also hold to the King James Bible and its predecessors, every
Bible, and I'm fine with anything that is properly translated from
that line of manuscripts. I'm good with that. Of course,
we know there were other English Bibles before the King James
Bible that were translated from those manuscripts, the received
text. And in that translation, in those
translations, we see some wording in there that to some is archaic. And one of the reasons a lot
of people doesn't like the King James Bible is because to them,
the language is too old. It's archaic. And they have a
problem with the these and the thousand, the vines and the yee
and all that kind of stuff. And I wanted to address that
today because it's very important that we understand the distinctions
in these and why that's very important. Did you realize that
the thee and the thou and the thine in your Bible is there
for a reason? That it is very important? You know, whenever King James
Bible was written back in 1611, The thee and the thine and the
thine was not the common language. Actually, that language at that
time had already passed away. That was archaic language even
in 1611. The 15th century, by the 15th
century, that had already gone away. The only thing that thee
and thine and thy and ye was used in is like poetic literature. and religious literature. And
the King James translators used that archaic language on purpose
in here, and there is a reason for that. In the Greek and Hebrew,
the languages that the Bible was actually written in, the
Old Testament was written in Hebrew and Arabic, and the New
Testament was written in Greek, okay? And both of those languages
are actually no longer used today. Those languages are gone away. The Hebrew that the Hebrews used
today is not the same as what it was back then. The Greek that
is spoke today is not the same as the Greek that was spoke back
then. And so God preserved that in his word. He used two languages
that is no longer in use anymore. At the time it was used, but
it's not used anymore. Well, in the Greek language,
in the New Testament, it was written in Greek. In the Greek
language, there is more specific, does everyone know what a pronoun
is? What a pronoun is? Pronoun? I'm not a grammar scholar,
I can tell you that. I'm not even a high school grammar
person. I mean, I've about flunked out
of grammar. But anyway, a pronoun, is a word that takes the place
of a noun, right? If you remember back to your
grade school or high school, a pronoun is a word that takes
the place of a noun, a proper noun, okay? My name is Mike,
that's a proper noun, right? A noun is a person, place, or
thing, okay? So my name is Mike, but what
would be a pronoun? that would take the place of
Mike. Well, you could say his. That's my car out there, right?
Okay, so there would be a pronoun. That's his car. Whose car? Mike's car. Okay, so his is taking
the place of Mike. Okay, that's your car. Okay,
that's a pronoun, your. It's taking the place of mine,
your car. Okay, so we have pronouns. Now, In the Greek, there are
specific pronouns that were used to distinguish between singular
pronouns and plural pronouns. If I say his, is that singular
or plural? Singular, right? Singular meaning
one, plural meaning many, right? If I say they, What do I mean? Is that singular or plural? It's
plural, right? If I said we, it's plural, right? Okay? Now, here's the downfall. In our English language, singular
and plural pronouns have, we don't have as many distinctions. We can't tell whether it's an
object of the sentence or a subject of the sentence. as well as they
could in the Greek language. They had specific words that
whenever they said that, you knew it was a singular and you
knew that it was a subject or an object. The subject of the
sentence or the object of the sentence. The subject of the
sentence is the person doing it. The object of the sentence
is something that's being done on, right? The object is the
object of the verb. The verb being the action, the
action being done to the person, right? So, these pronouns in
our English language is hard to understand. You know why?
Because I can take the word you and I can mean you, glory. Or I could say you, meaning this
group, right? So in our language, the word
you can mean singular or it could mean Plural. So it's kind of
hard. Your. Your glasses. Or I can say, your Bibles. Right? I could be talking about
a group. Bring your Bibles. I've been
talking to everybody. So it could be a plural. So it's
kind of hard to understand that. Well, all the modern translations
that have sought to make the Bible more readable have replaced
the thee, the thine, the thy, the ye with you, your, yours,
and have put that in there. And in English, to us, it's hard
to delineate are they talking singular or are they talking
And some people might say, well, what really difference does it
matter? Who cares? Who cares if we need to know
whether it's singular or plural? Well, it does make a difference
because, number one, it is the Word of God. We should study
every word and understand what's being meant there. But second
of all, it can throw off your understanding of that. And here
in a minute, I want to read you a scripture that I had a lot
of misunderstanding about. until I learned this and actually
just of recent. I mean, it's not been long that
I've understood this. But look there on your paper,
I give you a chart there for those who are watching by TV
or by Facebook. We've got a chart here. If you
would like this, leave a comment underneath the Facebook post,
leave a comment and I can send you this. And I've also got another
little work book thing here that i can send you as well i didn't
print this out for everybody else my printer was kind of being
weird on me this morning and wasn't connecting and i only
got some things printed but not everything so anyway if you would
like a copy of that let me know in the comments below and i will
get it to you the rest of y'all the second piece that i'll make
sure you get that next week but if you look at that first chart
you'll see there that the word thou is singular, the word thee
is singular, the word thy and thine. So we have the pronouns thou, thee, thy, and thine, right? And then we have the pronouns
ye, you, your, and yours. Now here's an easy way to remember
this, okay, when you're reading scripture. Any of the pronouns
that start with T are singular. Any of the pronouns that start
with Y are plural. Now the King James translators
recognized that in the Greek that there were certain words
for plural and certain words for singular. And so they used
those thee, thy, and thine in that language because that preserved
this from the Greek language. From the Greek language, it preserved
not only whether it was singular or plural, but it also preserved
whether it was the subject or object of the sentence. So the Greek grammatical structure
is preserved through this archaic quote-unquote archaic language.
Our modern translations doesn't do that. It doesn't preserve
the grammatical singulars and plurals and objects and subjects
like the King James Bible does through that quote-unquote archaic
language. So whenever someone says thou
or thee or thy and thine, if you'll see there on your chart,
thou is singular. It means you. You see, thee is
singular. It means you. But you'll notice
that it's not the same. Thou and thee is not the same
thing. is the subject of a sentence.
The is the object of a sentence. You see the phrase there? Thou
are lovely. Thou are lovely. So thou is the
subject of the sentence. That would be like me telling
my wife, you know, you are lovely. Well, who is lovely? Well, she
is. It's talking about her. Well, the object of a sentence
or a phrase The, I gave it to thee. So thee now is the object
of the verb. I gave, that's the verb, thee. So the action was done to somebody. This, whenever I said thou art
lovely, I'm making a statement, a fact about a person. Thou art
lovely. But then if I say, I gave it
to thee, you're the receiving person. The action is being done
to you. So it keeps that grammatical
structure of the Greek for us just in the way that the word
is used, just the word that's being used. So I'm going to say
thee and thou are the same thing. Well, and thy. Thy is the same
thing, but look on your chart there. You'll see that thy means
your. It's a possessive. If I say you are lovely, That's
a statement of fact, or I gave it to you. That is something
that was done to you. But if I say your, that means
now it's talking about a possessive. That's your car. Okay, it's a
possessive now. Now look at the word thy there. Open thy mouth. So it'd be your. Possessive. Okay? Now look at the word thine. The
word thine, it's also singular. And it's also a possessive. But
if you'll notice there, you'll see when there's no word or no
following word in the sentence or phrase, or when the following
word starts with a vowel sound. So what's mine is thine. Open thine eyes. So you'll see
that Thine is always used whenever there's a word that follows,
it starts with a vowel. You remember Jesus used that.
For thine is mine, is followed mine. And so it's a possessive,
it can mean your or yours. What's mine is thine. He's saying
what's mine is yours. What's yours is mine. Does the
new translation say yours? Yes, it does. And word for word,
yes, they're using that. But yet, sometimes you cannot
distinguish between all the you, whether or not it's talking to
the plural, or whether it's talking to the singular. Whenever someone
says thine, it's talking about singular. One person. Whenever
Jesus said, what's mine is thine, and thine is mine, He isn't saying
what's thine as in a bunch of people. See, if I use that as
a plural here, I would have said, thine is this building. So this building belongs to the
church, okay? Doesn't belong to one specific
person, it belongs to that. Well, that would be wrong, because
the word thine is singular. Thine would mean that it was
talking about someone specific. But see, if we use the English,
the regular English, and I say, yours is the church, or this
church is yours, who's it talking with? It could
be talking about you as a group. But I could also be talking about
you as a person. But see, when we see the word
thine, we know that's talking about one person. One person
possesses. So whenever Jesus said, thine,
mine, or thine, thine or mine, then he was talking about one person,
okay? Now look at the ye's. Everything
that starts with a Y is plural. Everyone thinks ye is speaking
of one person, but it's not. It's speaking of a collective
or a group of people. It's a plural. It's the plural
form of you. The subject of a sentence or
phrase. Look at the verse that it gives
there. And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set
you free. It's a collective. It's a plural. And you've heard me mention that
before, that that ye, and you'll hear it here later, that that
word ye is a plural but it means a specific, it can be a group
that somebody's taught. So, like I would say, ye are
the church in Joplin. That's talking to you as a collective
group. It's plural in the fact that
it's not one specific person, but it is one group of persons,
okay? Then you see the word you, your,
and yours, they're all plural. The word you in scripture is
the object of a sentence. Ye is the subject, you is the
object. Your and yours, again, those
are the possessives, but it's plural possessives. See, we've
seen up here, we've seen thou is singular, and it's the subject. The is singular, and it's the
object. By is singular, and it's possessive. And thine is singular, And it also is possessive. This one is possessive here with no vowel. This is possessive
with a vowel after. Okay? Now, the ye here we see
is plural. And I'm writing this basically
for those who are watching who can't see what we're looking
at on our deals. So we see ye is plural, and it's
the subject. We see you is plural, and it's
the object. Your is plural, And it's possessive. But notice there on you, on the
possessive part, okay? It's a possessive adjective.
It's a possessive adjective. Repent ye therefore and be converted
that your sins may be blotted out. Okay? So it's a possessive adjective.
However, yours, still plural, still possessive. Well, I just
do not, my mind just does not want to add the other s's in
there. But it's a pronoun. It's a possessive pronoun. The
battle is not yours, but God's. So, ye, you, your, and yours
is not saying the same thing. Thou, thee, thy, and thine is
not saying the same thing either, okay? Thou and ye are not the
same thing. Thee and you are not the same
thing. Thou and yours are not the same thing. Thine and yours
is not the same thing. They are different. And what
makes them different is the Greek work behind these. These keep
the Greek grammatical structure also in the Hebrew also. The
Hebrew, the same. Now, what I didn't get to print
out for you guys is some examples of where this is seen in scripture and why it's
so important. Another thing I'd like to add
to this while we're doing this is you find in the scriptures
there is a The words that have like The words that have like EST
or ET or Like walketh He waketh in the morning, okay? Verbs... Verbs that end in E-S-T Okay? Verbs that end in E-S-T or S-T Those verbs are second person
singular present tense action. So, second person present tense action. Okay? Now, the ones that end
in E-T-H, or TH, verbs again, verbs, is, these are third person singular
present tense action. So first person, third person, present tense action. Okay? So, now I know that's a bunch
of heebie-jeebie, jargonous type stuff, and we're not here to
learn grammar, but it is nice to know that in your King James,
you don't have to be a Greek scholar to learn grammar, the Greek grammar.
If you learn this stuff right here, it's easy to see that whenever
I see the word thou, that means that's a singular. It's talking
about one person. and it's the subject of the sentence, not
the object of the sentence. If I see the word thee, that
too is singular, and it's the object of the sentence, not the
subject. And I see thine, I say it's singular, that's possessive.
I see thine, it's singular, it's possessive. Same thing with thee,
but then whenever I see a word like walketh, walketh, okay,
that would fall under here, a verb that ends in E-T-H or T-H, well
that's third person, present tense action. And it's singular. By the way,
all these are singular. I know that don't make much sense,
but these are all singular. So with that, you can know what
the Greek grammar behind that is without having to go to a
lexicon, without having to go to some book to tell you, you
know, and then that makes the difference. Whenever we see that
someone walketh, in the way of the ungodly. He's talking about
someone outside of you. He's talking about a third person.
Okay, third person. But it's a present tense. It
means it's going on right now. And it's singular. All right, so that's your grammar
for today. But let's look at some of the
verses in scripture where this might make a difference. Turn
with me if you would to Jeremiah chapter 5. Jeremiah chapter 5. We're going to look at this for about
another 10 minutes here and then we'll take a break. I know somebody
needs to check their sugar here in a minute. Jeremiah chapter 5, if you would. Look at verse 13. Start in verse 13. It says, and the prophets shall
become wind, and the word is not in them. Thus shall it be
done unto them. Wherefore, thus saith the Lord
God of hosts, because, and here's the first word, because ye speak
this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and
this people would and it shall devour them. Now, if you'll notice
there, there is the term thee, or excuse me, ye, in there, and
there is the term thy in there. Ye and thy. Now, at first glance, as we're
reading through this, we can mistakenly interpret this that
he is saying Because Jeremiah spoke this word, I will make
my words in thy mouth fire. But look at the context. And
the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them. Thus shall it be done unto them. Wherefore, thus saith the Lord
God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, what word? The word that they were speaking,
those prophets, that were not of God. Thus saith the Lord God of hosts,
because ye, that's, remember, that's a plural, and that's a
subject. Because they, that group, those
prophets, because ye speak this word, behold,
I, God, will make my words in thy, Jeremiah, Mount fire. And this people, the prophets,
who spoke the word, but the word of God wasn't in them, but they
still spoke a word, And this people would, and it
shall devour them. So basically he's saying, whenever
you get up there, Jeremiah, and you speak, my words are going
to, it's going to burn down whatever they say. Their words are going
to be like wood. Your words, because I'm going
to speak through you, they don't speak my words. They're speaking
something else. So what's he saying? The truth
is going to overcome the false. But see, if we didn't think that,
we'd think that he's talking to Jeremiah. Because ye, Jeremiah,
speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire.
Because you're speaking them, I'm gonna make them fire. So
that sounds like that God is responding to Jeremiah because
Jeremiah spoke these words. Now God's gonna turn them into
fire. But he's not saying that. He's saying because those people
are speaking that word, I'm going to make your words like fire,
and it's going to burn up their words, like wood. Turn with me through the Acts
chapter 13. Acts chapter 13. Now, there is
a reason why this little grammar lesson is going on today, guys.
It has to do with the Great Commission. So, I will be getting there next
hour. to get there. Acts chapter 13. Look with me if you would. Verse
34. In fact, let's back up so you can
see what the context is here. Go back to verse 26. Men and brethren, children of
the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you feareth God, to you
is the word of this salvation sent. For they that dwell at
Jerusalem and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the
voices of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath day, they
have fulfilled them in condemning him. And though they found no
cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be
slain. And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him,
they took him down from the tree and laid him in a sepulcher.
But God raised him from the dead. And he has seen many days of
them which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are
his witnesses unto the people. And we declare unto you glad
tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers,
God hath fulfilled the same unto us, their children, in that he
hath raised up Jesus again, as it is also written in the second
Psalm, thou art my begotten, thou art my son, this day have
I begotten thee. Okay, so what's he doing here? He's appealing to the Old Testament
and specifically Psalms whenever it was talking about David. but
he's fixing to let us know what this meaning is, but pay attention
here, verse 34. And as concerning that he raised
him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption,
he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of
David. Now look there if you would,
the word you, Remember, you is plural
and it's the object, something I'm giving you, the object of
the verb, right? The action is being done to somebody. So, if we didn't realize in the
King James that this is holding the plural in the Greek, you
could look at that in English and think it's saying you singular,
right? You'd think that God is saying
to the risen Christ, I will give you the sure mercies of David,
just speaking to Christ himself. But he isn't referring to Christ. God's speaking to all the people. So Peter, whenever he was speaking
this thing, and he said that, whenever he said, and that's
concerning that he raised him up from the dead now no more
to return to corruption, He said on this wise, I will give you
the sure mercies of David. Because Jesus has risen from
the dead, you, plural, he will give the sure mercies
of David. So he's talking plural, but if
you're looking at that, you might be thinking that he's talking
about Christ. He's gonna give Christ. He was talking to Christ. No, he was talking to the people
there. Because it was plural. Look, if you would, at 1 Samuel.
1 Samuel chapter 17. First Samuel chapter 17. Look down if you would at verse
40. And this is the story of David
and Goliath here. Look at verse 40. 1 Samuel 17 verse 40. It says,
and he took his staff in his hand and chose him five smooth
stones out of the brook and put them in a shepherd's bag, which
he had even in a script with his sling, and his sling was
in his hand, and he drew near to the Philistine. And the Philistine
came on and drew near unto David, and the man that bared the shield
went before him. And when the Philistine looked
about and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth and
ruddy and of a fair countenance. And the Philistines said unto
David, am I a dog that thou comest to me with stage? Now I use the
word thou, so that means he's talking specifically to David,
not to the whole army of Israel, but he's talking to David specifically. He said, am I a dog that thou
comest to me, comest, okay, that's EST, right? Thou comest, that
second person, present tense action, Okay? That thou comest to me with staves,
and the Philistine cursed David by his gods. And the Philistine
said to David, come to me and I will give thy flesh, there
it is, thy, that's singular, possessive, your flesh, David,
he wasn't speaking to all of Israel, he's speaking to David,
thy flesh unto the fowls of the air and to the beasts of the
field. Then said David, here it is, verse 45, here's where
I want you to see some distinctions. Then said David to the Philistine,
thou, singular, speaking of the Philistine, comest to me with
a sword and with a spear and with a shield, but I come to
thee, again, singular, but if you remember, thee, singular
is the object, I come to thee, He's the object of the word,
I'm coming to you. So the action's being done to the Philistine. But I come to thee in the name
of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom
thou hast defied. Whom thou, singular, hast defied. So we look here, David was not
just telling Goliath that God would deliver him up. but all
the Philistines as well, because look at the word you there, verse
45. But I come to thee in the name
of the Lord God, the God of the armies of heaven, whomst thou
hast defiled. Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't, I need
to read on. This day will the Lord deliver
thee into mine hand, and I will smite thee, and take thine head
from thee, and I will give the carcasses of the host of the
Philistines this day, and to the fowls of the air, and to
the wild beasts, that all the earth may know that there is
a God in Israel." So we see here that... It has to go down in line with the
verse. Keep reading down here. For all the assembly shall know
that the Lord saves not with sword and spear for the battle
is the Lord. Ah, here it is. and he will give
you into our hands." Okay, there's the word you there. That word
you is plural. So he wasn't just speaking to Goliath. Whenever David made
that pronouncement, yes, he was talking to Goliath specifically,
but then he also said that the Lord would give the whole Philistine
army into the hands of the Israelites. And if you didn't think that,
you just think it was the Goliath there. All right, let's
look at a couple more here and we'll take a break. Look with
me back at Luke chapter 22. Now this is the one that I was
telling you that I thought it meant one thing for a long time
until I learned this about the Greek Hebrew. grammar and how
it's preserved in the King James in this, what people call, archaic
language. And also, by the way, the thee,
thy, thou, and all that stuff, this isn't terms used for royalty,
okay? Some people think that's terms
used for royalty. But look at Luke 22 and look
down at verse 31. Now, this is before the Lord's
crucifixion. there in Gethsemane that evening after the Lord's
Supper, and him and Peter is speaking together. Look there
at verse 31. It said, And the Lord said, Simon,
Simon, behold, Satan hath desired you, that he may sift you as wheat. Now for a long time, I thought
he was talking specifically of Peter. That Satan wants to sift
Peter. But if you look there, the word
is you. That's plural, right? So he's talking about all of
the disciples. Satan wants to sift all disciples. Now notice here, it says, Simon,
Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift
you as wheat. but I have prayed for thee, that's
singular, that thy singular faith fell not. And when thou, singular,
are converted, strengthen thy singular brethren. So what he's
saying here is Satan has desired to sift the whole group of disciples,
but yet Christ has prayed for Peter, that Peter's faith would remain,
and so that whenever Peter's faith is strengthened, he'll
turn around and strengthen those whom Satan sifted. Now, I don't
know about you, but me for a long time, I believed that he was
talking about Simon specifically. Simon, Satan wants to sift you,
and whenever Satan sifts you, I've prayed for you so that whenever
you repent and turn back, you go strengthen your brethren.
But see, it's not talking about that. He's talking about the
whole disciples. Satan wanted to sift the whole disciples.
But see, if you look at that in the common new versions of
the scripture, you'll think that he only wanted to do that to
Peter. Look at John chapter 3 and verse
7. John chapter 3 and verse 7. This
is Jesus talking to Nicodemus. And he said, marvel not that
I said unto thee, singular Nicodemus, ye must be born again. Then he
used the word ye, which is plural, right? So he wasn't just speaking
about Nicodemus needed to be born again, but he was talking
about all of those religious leaders. See, remember, Nicodemus
came on behalf of the religious leaders. Remember back in verse
one, there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the
Jews, The same came to Jesus, the same who? The ruler of the
Jews. He came on behalf of the Jews.
He came on behalf of the Pharisees. He was a ruler, a leader, a respected
religious man within the Jewish community, within their religion,
within their worship. And so Nicodemus came on behalf
of them to ask these questions of Jesus. He was their representative,
their messenger. He came in their stead. And so
Jesus said, listen, don't mock, you know, he used singular. Marvel not that I said unto thee,
Nicodemus, you, ye must be born again. So he wasn't just saying
Nicodemus needed to be born again, but he was talking about everybody. And lastly, let's look at John
chapter four, excuse me, John chapter 14. John chapter 14, verse nine. John chapter 14. Let's start with verse eight. Philip
saith unto him, Jesus, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth
for us. Jesus saith unto him, Philip,
have I been so long with you That's plural. And yet hast thou,
singular, not known me, Philip? So he wasn't
singling just Philip out as being with Philip. He said, have I
not been with all y'all so long that you, Philip, don't know
who I am? Have I been so long with you,
and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me
hath seen the Father, and how sayest thou then? Show us the Father." So he said,
I've been with all you guys. So he was addressing kind of
everybody, but also singling Philip out. But he said, have
I not been a long time with all y'all? If he used Southern speak,
that's what he'd be saying. Have I not been with y'all all
this time, and yet you don't know who I am, Philip? He that
has seen me has seen the Father. And how say you, Philip? Show
us the Father. Believest thou not, Philip? So
he's talking about Philip. Believest thou not that I am
in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak
unto you all, y'all, I speak not of myself, but the Father
that dwelleth in me, he doeth the work. Believe me that I am
in the Father, and the Father in me, or else believe me for
the very works sake. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
now he's talking to the whole group again, he that believeth
on me, the works that I do, shall he do also in greater works than
these shall he do, because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever
ye, speaking of them, the whole group, it's plural, Whatsoever
ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may
be glorified in the Son. If ye, the whole group, shall
ask anything in my name, I will do it. If ye, the whole group,
love me, keep my commandments. Who's supposed to be keeping
the commandments? How many of y'all have used to turn, if ye
love me, keep my commandments, to speaking to individuals? I used to hear that all the time.
My granny used to say that to me. You know, whenever she would
be wanting me to do what was right and to obey, she'd say,
remember, Jesus said, if ye love me, keep my commandments. But Jesus wasn't talking to a
specific person. He was talking to a group, right?
He was talking to the disciples. He was talking to the church
at that time. If ye love me, keep my commandments,
and I will pray the Father, and he shall give you, the church,
the group, another comforter, that he may abide with you, the
group, forever. Even the Spirit of truth, whom
the world cannot receive because it seeth him not, neither knoweth
him, but ye, the group, knoweth him, for he dwelleth with you
and shall be in you." See, some people say, well, wait a minute,
I thought the Holy Spirit was already in. He's not talking about an
individual person there. He's talking about the church.
The church hadn't came down at Pentecost yet. empowered and
dwelt in the church as the people, the gathered assembly, the local
visible assembly. But see, if you don't know this
right here, these archaic words that the King James preserved
and know the grammatical structure of the Greek and Hebrew behind
these things, you would think he's talking to individuals,
but he's not. He's talking to a collective
group of people, the church right there. The Holy Spirit was gonna
be sent to the local church as a comforter. Now, does he also
comfort the individual? Absolutely he does. But Jesus
was specifically here talking about the church. And who was
gonna be in them? Well, it was gonna be the church.
He had not yet sent the spirit to the church in that fashion,
but every one of those men had already received the Holy Spirit
in them as born again believers. He said, I will not leave you,
the church, comfortless. I will come to you, the church,
yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more. But ye, the
church, see me, because I live. Ye shall live also. At that day,
ye shall know that I am in the Father, and ye in me, and I in
you. He that hath my commandments
and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me, and he that loveth
me shall be loved in my Father and I will love him and will
manifest myself to him. So we see that these terms here
help keep us on track on knowing plural versus singular and whether
it's an object or whether it's the subject. And so don't discard,
don't discount these archaic words. It's just not
archaic. And no other modern translation
holds that. But if you look, all those Bibles,
the King James, the Bishop's Bible, the Great Bible, the Tyndale
Bible, the Geneva Bible, the Wycliffe Bible, all those used
these terms, and some of them weren't even still popular in
that day, they used these terms to preserve the Greek and the
Hebrew because they realized that in English it did not preserve
the grammar of the Greek and Hebrew and so it threw off the
understanding of some of the verses and so they resorted to
using this archaic language because in this archaic language it did
preserve in English the Greek and Hebrew tenses and pronouns,
singular and plural, subject and object of those words. And so that's one of the reasons
why we love the King James Bible and we use the King James Bible.
And a lot of people that use the King James Bible may not
even know this. But it is helpful to us to be able to see this
and you don't have to go to great Hebrew school necessarily to
learn what this is. The King James Bible is a a concordance
all in itself. Not only using this, but if you
look up that word, whatever that word is, and you find whatever
the Greek or Hebrew word behind that is, look it up every place
it's found in the King James Bible and see how God uses that
word. How did God use that word? That's what we did in those 118
verses. We looked at ekklesia, that was
the Greek word that God used behind the English word, church,
And we found that everywhere that ecclesia was used, that
that referred to a local visible congregation of people, not a
group of, you know, elect all over the world, but a group of
local gathered assembly people. And so whenever we see that,
then we don't have to go to dictionaries to have it defined for us. It
was good. We've seen that the dictionaries
prove that that was the understanding of the day. But we had God's
word defined for us, right? We now believe that the church
is a local congregation of people, not a group of everybody everywhere. Why? Because God's word defined
that for us. We let God tell us what that
means instead of what Strong's tells us that means. What Worst
says it means. What Green says it means. What
John Gill says it means. What Matthew Henry says it means. We let God determine what that
means. Why? Because he's the one that
spoke it, right? Alright, well let's take a break and we'll
come back in and we'll actually jump into the exposition of Matthew
28 and we will continue on.