Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
Welcome to our services today here at Faith Ward Baptist Church.
Very good to see you all here on this Sunday morning.
Find your seats, please.
Take your song books.
Go to hymn number 56.
We'll begin this morning.
Hymn number 56.
Number 56,
when we all get to heaven.
Hymn number 56.
Once you've found your place, get out with me on that first verse.
Number 56.
Nice and strong.
Sing the wondrous love of Jesus.
Sing his mercy and his grace.
In the nations,
right in the street.
He'll bring care for us.
Hymn number 56.
Once you've found your place, get out with me on that first verse.
Number 56.
Nice and strong.
Hymn number 56.
Beautiful, beautiful Zion,
We're marching upward to Zion,
The beautiful city of God.
Let those refused to sing,
Who never knew our God,
But children of the heavenly King,
They speak their joys abroad,
They speak their joys abroad.
We're marching to Zion,
Beautiful, beautiful Zion,
We're marching upward to Zion,
The beautiful city of God.
The hill of Zion,
A thousand sacred streets,
Before we reach the heavenly field,
Or walk the golden streets,
Or walk the golden streets.
We're marching to Zion,
Beautiful, beautiful Zion,
We're marching upward to Zion,
The beautiful city of God.
And let our songs abound,
And every tear be tried,
We're marching through Emmanuel's ground,
To fairer worlds on high,
We're marching to Zion,
Beautiful, beautiful Zion,
We're marching upward to Zion,
The beautiful city of God.
Alright, this time we'll go through our announcements together.
If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high.
We'll get to you with one.
On the inside we have our service time.
Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service.
Sunday nights at 6.
Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study.
This week will be in Deuteronomy chapter 29.
We've got the soul-winning times listed there below,
as well as salvations and baptisms.
Across the page next Sunday will be the birthday donuts.
Donuts and coffee in honor of all those celebrating their birthday in the month of February.
Those who participated in the small town soul-winning marathon in Franklin.
Four people went out and had 10 people saved,
and now every door in Franklin has been knocked.
And then we've got some upcoming missions trips this year to keep on your radar.
May 24th through June 6th in Fiji and Tuvalu.
June 9th through 22nd in Lagos, Nigeria.
And December 1st through 7th in Montego Bay, Jamaica.
And that is not how you spell Jamaica.
I don't know what's going on with that.
But that's what we're talking about.
We're talking about going to Jamaica.
So if you're interested in any of these,
the person to talk to is Brother Raymond Cooper.
Specifically for the Fiji trip, you could also talk to Brother Caleb Akinosho.
But these trips are pretty exciting.
If you want to know which one is the easiest,
as far as just cheapest flights, easiest to get there,
it's going to be great. It's going to be receptive.
It would be the Montego Bay, Jamaica trip is going to be the easy one.
The other two are going to be a little more difficult
as far as they're a lot farther away.
The flights are a little more expensive.
There's a little bit more difficulty in getting to these places.
But that being said, for those who are able to make it work,
those are going to be great trips.
So we're kind of expecting the Jamaica trip to be the big one
as far as a lot of people able to show up and go soul winning
in a nice receptive place.
The other two are probably going to be smaller, but still very exciting.
I'm sure many people will be saved.
These are all very receptive places to the gospel
where people really want to hear the plan of salvation
and will listen to you.
On the back, we've got a small town soul winning trip coming up in Eloi
on Saturday, February 24th.
So keep that on your radar.
There's a bridal shower on next Sunday in honor of Aileen
who is getting married to Anselm.
Well, there she is.
All right, so Aileen is here.
So get to know her real quick before the bridal shower.
But even if you don't know her,
then just definitely show up for the bridal shower.
All ladies are invited.
And then, of course, the wedding for Anselm and Aileen
is coming up on February the 9th.
And again, everyone's invited.
Don't be shy about coming out for that.
Keep praying for our ladies that are expecting
that they'll have a safe and healthy pregnancy and delivery.
Other upcoming events are listed down there at the bottom.
That's about it for announcements.
Let's go ahead and sing our next song.
Come lead us.
Oh, wait, one more thing.
Sorry.
We've got the yearbook.
Very exciting.
Brand new church yearbook.
These are located on the back shelf there.
And so right now, let's just limit it to one per family.
After a bunch of time goes by,
we get a little bit more loose with our distribution of these.
But, of course, they're free.
Everything's free.
By the way, everything back there is always free.
We never sell anything at Faith Ward Baptist Church.
Never have, never will.
So everything's free.
Just grab it.
And there's no suggested donation or anything.
The suggested donation is zero.
So all the DVDs and stuff back there are free.
Please be sure to grab one of these.
One per family.
The yearbook for last year.
And with that, let's go ahead and sing our next song.
All right.
Should find the enemy from across your hymnal of Psalm 19 verses 7 through 10.
If you don't have an answer, please raise your hand.
And we'll sing it right on that first verse together.
The law of the Lord is perfect.
Converting the soul.
The testimony of the Lord is sure.
Maybe wise or simple.
More to be desired are they than broken and much mindful.
We're all so that body and the body code.
The fear of the Lord is weak.
Enduring forever.
More to be desired are they than broken and much mindful.
We should never be discouraged. Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful? Who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness. Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Are we weak and heavy laden, numbered with a load of care?
Fresh and sacred's still our refuge. Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do thy friends despise for safety? Take it to the Lord in prayer.
In his arms he'll take and she'll be, that will find us all this day.
All right, at this time we will pass our offering plates around.
As the plates quickly go around, let's turn our Bibles to John chapter 1.
John chapter number 1. As we always do, we'll read the entire chapter, beginning in verse number 1.
Follow along silently with brother Nick as he reads John chapter 1, beginning in verse number 1.
The Gospel according to John chapter 1, the Bible reads,
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made.
And him was life, and the life was the light of men.
And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
The same came for a witness to bear witness of the light, that all men through him might believe.
He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light.
That was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
He came unto his own, and his own received him not, but as many as received him,
to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name,
which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake.
He that cometh after me is preferred before me, for he was before me.
And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace.
For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
No man hath seen God at any time.
The only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him,
Who art thou? And he confessed and denied not, but confessed, I am not the Christ.
And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not.
Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No.
Then said they unto him, Who art thou? That we may give an answer to them that sent us.
What sayest thou of thyself? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness,
Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.
And they which were sent were of the Pharisees.
And they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet?
John answered them, saying, I baptize with water, but there standeth one among you whom ye know not.
He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoes latched I am not worthy to unloose.
These things were done in Bethabara, beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.
The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.
This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me, for he was before me.
And I knew him not, but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water.
And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him, and I knew him not.
But he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him,
the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and bare record, that this is the Son of God.
Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples, and looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God!
And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.
Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye?
They said unto him, Rabbi, which is to say, being interpreted, Master, where dwelleth thou? He saith unto them, Come and see.
They came, and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.
One of the two which heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.
He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messiahs, which is being interpreted, the Christ.
And he brought him to Jesus, and when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon, the son of Jonah.
Thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation a stone.
The day following, Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto him, Follow me.
Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.
Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.
And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?
Philip saith unto him, Come and see.
Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite, indeed in whom is no guile.
Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me?
Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.
Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the son of God, thou art the king of Israel.
Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, Believest thou?
Thou shalt see greater things than these.
And he said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open,
and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.
Dear Lord, Father in Heaven, we thank you so much for this day and allowing us to gather here today at our church.
We pray that you fill Pastor Anderson with the power of the Holy Spirit, help him preach your word boldly,
and allow us to hear and understand the message today, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
Man, last Sunday night I preached on the first half of John chapter 1, and so this morning I want to preach on the second half.
And there's one thing in particular that I want to focus on, and that is the way that time is told in the book of John.
Because time is told completely differently in the book of John than it is in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
And I'm going to prove that to you beyond any shadow of a doubt this morning.
The most powerful evidence is found in John chapter 19, but John chapter 1 and John chapter 4 also have strong evidence
that the way time is told in the book of John is completely different than in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
And what I mean by that is that in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the reckoning of time starts with 6 a.m.
You know, the day starts at 6 a.m., so when we're talking about the third hour, we're talking about 9 o'clock a.m.
Sorry, you're going to have to do a little basic math this morning, okay?
But anyway, you know, the sixth hour is noon. The ninth hour, 3 o'clock in the afternoon.
And this is the way it is in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. There's no question about it. It's very obvious.
But a lot of people wrongly assume that that is the same reckoning of time in the Gospel of John.
But remember, the Gospel of John is written by a completely different author than Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
And not only that, but the emphasis of the book of John is more of a worldwide emphasis, whereas Matthew is more written to the Jews and so forth.
This is more of a worldwide emphasis and the Roman reckoning of time starting at midnight, starting at noon, is used in the Gospel of John.
Just like we use today. You know, if we say it's 3 o'clock, we're either talking about three hours after midnight or we're talking about three hours after noon.
And that is exactly what's going on in the Gospel of John. And I'm going to prove that to you six ways to Sunday.
But first, let's jump into where we left off last week.
It says in verse 29, the next day, John seeth Jesus coming unto him and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
And by the way, when he said that, he wasn't looking at a church. He wasn't looking at a baptistry.
He wasn't looking at a charitable organization that you could sign up to do good works for.
He was looking at the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is salvation.
There's none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven.
It's got to be through Jesus that we're saved. And so he is the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me, for he was before me.
And again, he was in the beginning with God, as we just read, and he was God.
That's why he came before John the Baptist, although John the Baptist was physically six months older.
And I knew him not, but that he should be made manifest to Israel. Therefore, am I come baptizing with water.
And John bear record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and it abode upon him.
And I knew him not, but he that sent me to baptize with water.
The same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same as he which baptizeeth with the Holy Ghost.
And I saw and bear record that this is the Son of God.
Now, what's interesting about this is the picture of the Trinity that we have at Christ baptism,
because we have the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost that are all involved at the baptism.
And not only that, we have three different senses involved.
We have John the Baptist basically experiencing God through three different senses, because he saw the Holy Spirit at Christ baptism.
He saw the Holy Spirit descending like a dove and lighting upon him.
We see the same thing in Matthew chapter three.
He heard God the Father telling him that this is he that baptized with the Holy Ghost.
Of course, in Matthew three, there's that voice from heaven that says, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased.
And of course, he physically touched Jesus Christ as he is baptizing him in the water.
So he saw the Holy Spirit, he heard God the Father, and he physically touched the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so we have all three here, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost in one passage.
Don't let anybody tell you that the Trinity is not a biblical doctrine or that it's made up or not found in Scripture,
because we have frequent reference to all three persons of the Godhead in one passage.
And this is a great example.
And trying to say that they're all the same person is also false, because, of course, we've got all three of them distinctly involved in this story.
It's three persons, one God.
That's what the Bible teaches.
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
So moving on here to the part that I want to talk about this morning, it says in verse 35,
Again the next day, after John stood, and two of his disciples.
And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold, the Lamb of God and the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.
Then Jesus turned and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye?
Like, what are you guys looking for? Why are you following me? What do you want?
Because you've just got these two guys just kind of following him, but they're not necessarily talking to him or, you know, confronting him in any way.
And so he says, What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, which is to say, being interpreted Master, where dwellest thou?
Which is kind of a strange question, you know.
Somebody's following you, and you ask them, you know, can I help you?
Where do you live?
But that's what they said.
So he says, Come and see.
They came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.
So here's the question as we get into this this morning.
Is the tenth hour, is it ten o'clock?
Which is what I'm saying it is based on the Roman time, which I'm going to prove to you is the way all times are in the book of John.
Is it ten o'clock?
Or is this based on the Jewish reckoning of time?
And it's four p.m.
Now, let's stop and think about this for a minute.
We just a moment ago had a verse say the next day after.
So we're on a new day.
John stood and two of his disciples.
He points them to Jesus as the Lamb of God.
They follow him.
They ask him where he dwells.
He says, Come and see.
And it says they abode with him that day.
Now, if it's four o'clock in the afternoon when this happens, does it really make sense to say they abode with him that day when the day is pretty much almost over at that point?
There's only really two hours until sundown.
So it doesn't really make sense to say they abode with him that day if it's four o'clock.
Whereas if it's ten in the morning, it actually makes a lot of sense to say they hung out with him that day.
They do this at ten o'clock.
They spend a whole day with Jesus.
That actually makes sense because notice it doesn't say they spent the night.
It just says they abode with him that day.
Let's keep reading and we'll see how clear this is as we keep moving.
It says in verse 40, one of the two which heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.
He first findeth his own brother Simon and saith unto him, We found the Messiah, which is being interpreted the Christ.
And he brought him to Jesus and when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon, the son of Jonah.
Thou shall be called Cephas, which is by interpretation a stone.
Now look at verse 43, the day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee.
Now it's very clear that everything from verses 35 to 42 is happening on the same day.
It's like the next day and then it lists everything that happens and then the day following this other stuff.
So here's what happens. Ten o'clock a.m. Jesus is met up with these two disciples of John.
They come and see where he dwells. They abide with him that whole day.
Then after they abide with him all day, then they go find someone else, bring him to Jesus.
And you can see how this is all kind of impossible if it's four o'clock in the afternoon to say,
Oh, they spent the day with him and they went and got somebody else, brought him to Jesus.
So really just at first blush, a plain reading of this text says this is ten o'clock in the morning.
Okay, makes perfect sense. Flip over if you would to John chapter four.
Here's a famous story about the woman at the well.
The woman at the well and of course this is a very popular story.
It's a powerful passage of scripture. I can't even count how many sermons I've heard on the woman at the well.
Jesus Christ is traveling from Judea to Galilee.
And in order to go from Judea to Galilee, you have to pass through Samaria.
Samaria is in the middle. The Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.
And yet Jesus, as he's on a pit stop on the way from Judea to Galilee,
he starts up a conversation with this Samaritan woman,
which surprises her a lot because the Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
He ends up preaching to her and not only does she believe on Jesus Christ,
but many of the Samaritans end up believing on Jesus Christ.
And there's that great illustration about salvation being like that living water that once you take a drink of it,
you'll never thirst again.
And by the way, this is why once you're saved, you're always saved.
Because you don't have to keep drinking that water over and over again.
Once you drink it, you are good to go. You have everlasting life.
Nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
And by the way, those who are going to hell, Christ will tell them one day,
Depart from me, I never knew you. Not I used to know you.
So it's a powerful passage for a lot of reasons.
But the thing I really want to focus on is in verse six where it says,
Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus, therefore, being wearied with his journey,
sat thus on the well, and it was about the sixth hour.
Now again, whenever you hear this preached, virtually always,
they're going to have the wrong idea in their head that we're talking about noon.
That we're talking about sixth hour as you would find it in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
This is a different book, different author, different reckoning of time.
So here's the question, just as we looked at the last passage and asked ourselves,
Hey, what makes sense? 10 a.m. or four in the afternoon?
Four in the afternoon made no sense. 10 a.m. made perfect sense.
Okay. Well, here we have the same question again.
Are we talking about noon or are we talking about 6 p.m.,
six o'clock, sixth hour? Which one are we talking about?
Now, I can't even count how many times I've heard preachers get up and say,
Well, you know, the reason that she went there at noon,
because they're on this wrong reckoning, because they will admit
that is not the normal time to go draw water.
You don't draw water at noon because that's the height of the day
and it's probably not a normal time.
Most people would want to get that done at the beginning of the day
or at the end of the day or both.
When it's a little cooler outside, you want to go into your day
and you want to go into your night with water, so you draw water morning and night.
But this is what they said, Well, you know, because this woman has a bad past,
she's avoiding people, and so she's showing up at noon at a weird, oddball time.
That way she'll be the only one there because she doesn't want to face anyone.
Who's ever heard that explanation before?
Tons of hands all over the building, of course.
I've heard it too, but here's the reason why it's not legitimate.
Number one is that the sixth hour is six o'clock in the book of John.
And so doesn't it make a lot more sense to just say she's at the well
at the normal time people go to the well?
But number two, there is no indication in this story anywhere
that this woman is an outcast or a pariah or that she's avoiding people.
In fact, as soon as Jesus is talking to her and she realizes that he's the Messiah,
before she even finishes talking to him, she drops her water pot
and goes, runs to the town and talks to everybody she can
because she's such an introvert, you know, that just is hiding from people.
And again, the problem is you can't just import things into the text that aren't there.
Okay, like, oh, she doesn't want to talk to...
And not only that, when she goes and talks to the people in the town,
even before they've heard anything that Jesus has to say,
they believe that he's the Messiah just based on what she tells them.
They believe based on her word.
Then Jesus stays for two more days and then you have another group of people saying,
hey, we don't believe just because we've heard from you, we've heard them ourselves.
But the people on day one, they believed simply from hearing her testimony.
If she's got such a bad reputation, why does everybody believe her?
And why is she so ready to go talk to everyone?
Again, you have to assume all these things that aren't there.
You have to assume that she's a pariah, assume that she's avoiding people,
assume that she has a bad reputation.
None of these things are actually in the story.
Also, you have to assume that she's the only one at the well.
Where does the Bible say she's alone at the well?
It's just Jesus and her.
It just says that Jesus' disciples went to buy food.
Who knows how many people are around?
It's a conversation between two people.
It doesn't mean that they're the only two people that exist, okay?
And so there are just so many problems with that.
But what's funny is that I've often heard that brought up as, like,
a prime example of why you have to know the culture to understand the Bible.
Because, you know, if you don't understand the culture,
you'd miss out on this key point that this woman's avoiding people
and everything like that.
But it turns out once you get your clock set correctly,
the point doesn't even pan out anyway because it's actually 6 o'clock.
Also, you know, why is Jesus so tired at noon?
Can he go all day or not?
You know, Jesus Christ is a guy who's doing a lot of traveling on foot all the time.
I'm pretty sure he can walk the whole day without getting worn out at noon.
He's already done for the day.
He's already wearied from the journey.
It makes more sense that he's wearied from the journey at 6 o'clock.
She comes to draw water at the absolutely normal time.
Jesus Christ gives her the gospel, preaches under her,
talks to her about the living water.
She runs and tells everybody because she has a good relationship with the people at the town.
They all believe her, so she can't have been that much of a pariah.
And so all of this just makes more sense once you get the right timing involved
and don't just kind of add things to the story that aren't really even present
just in the text as you're reading it, okay?
And so this story is not necessarily the smoking gun,
but again, like John chapter 1, it again lends itself better
when the time is just the normal time, 6 o'clock.
Now some people would object and say, well, you know, there's not enough time.
If it's 6 o'clock, there's not enough time for everything to happen,
for the conversation to happen, for the people to come,
for them to want him to stay, for him to preach to them, and so forth.
But again, there's plenty of time because there's no mention in the text of Jesus preaching to these people.
What actually happens, if you actually read the story,
what it says is that they have this conversation at the well.
How long does it take you to read John chapter 4 out loud?
Because that's how long the conversation was.
So basically, Jesus and the woman at the well are conversing for a couple minutes.
She goes to the town and tells them, hey, come see a man who told me all things that ever I did.
Is not this the Messiah?
They come back, and it doesn't say, then he began to preach to them.
No, no, no, it says they said to him, we want you to stay.
We want you to stay for a few days. We want to hear from you.
And it was all based on what the woman said.
It was not based on what Jesus said.
So if Jesus had preached to them that night, they would have been talking about believing because of what Jesus said.
But no, no, it's only after two days that they say, well, now we believe because of what Jesus said.
The first day, many people believed because of what the woman said.
Okay. And by the way, if this woman has such a horrible reputation, as we've been told,
then why is she so shocked when Jesus tells her her situation?
Well, you've had five husbands, and he whom thou hast is not thine husband, and that sets thou truly to thou hast no husband.
She didn't say, well, sure, everybody knows that. It's the talk of the town.
She said, I perceive that thou art a prophet.
She's kind of busted because it wasn't necessarily something that's just commonly being constantly talked about in the area.
It's not like, oh, yeah, you're that woman. I've been hearing about you.
So that's evidence number two.
Let's let's move on to the third piece of evidence in the same chapter.
Let's jump down to verse forty six.
And so we saw the first evidence was in John, chapter one, where they abode with him that day, not that night.
They were with him the whole day. Makes sense. Ten a.m.
Number two, woman at the well makes way more sense if this took place at six p.m.
That's why Jesus does the preaching on the following day and on the day after, instead of on that day itself.
Then we have this story in John, chapter four forty six, of Jesus performing a miracle of healing.
Look at verse forty six says, So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine.
And there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum.
And he heard that Jesus was come out of Judea into Galilee.
He went into him and besought him that he would come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.
Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.
The nobleman saith unto him, Sir, come down, ere my child die.
Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way, thy son liveth.
The man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way.
Now, at first, this interchange between Jesus and this nobleman has always kind of puzzled me a little bit,
because I felt like maybe Jesus is coming down a little bit hard on the guy at first, you know, by saying,
Well, except you see signs and wonders, you won't believe.
You know, I mean, and then the guy's just like, Come down before my child dies.
Help me out here.
And then when he says your child liveth, it says the man believed the word that Jesus spoke.
So it makes you kind of feel like, Well, why is Jesus being so hard on the guy when the guy does?
It says immediately, you know, believe the word that Jesus spoke.
But if you keep reading a little bit, you're going to see that this guy,
his faith was pretty small when it says that he believed the word that Jesus spoke.
Let's keep going.
It says in verse 50, Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way, thy son liveth.
And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way.
And as he was going down, his servants met him and told him, saying, Thy son liveth,
then inquired he of them the hour when he began to amend.
And they said unto him, Yesterday at the seventh hour, the fever left him.
So the father knew that it was the same hour in which Jesus said unto him,
Thy son liveth, and himself believed in his whole house.
You see how his faith's pretty weak, because the first thing he asked, Well, what time was it?
I mean, if Jesus said, Thy son liveth, and the son's healed, he's on the point of death.
Now he's healed. Now he's alive.
The guy doubts immediately whether this was a coincidence or whether it was truly due to the word that Jesus had spoken.
And so he says, Well, what time did he begin to amend?
And then it's not.
And notice the question that's asked.
It says the hour when he began to amend.
So he's like, Well, what time did he start getting better?
Does everybody understand that question?
But look at the answer.
The answer isn't, Well, he started getting better at the seventh hour.
It's, they said to him, Yesterday at the seventh hour, the fever left him.
Like, you know, he's just healed.
Like, at the seventh hour, he's fine.
He didn't just begin to amend, but rather he's healed at that time.
That's when now the father's like, Okay, all right, now I'm sure that it was it was Jesus.
And so, you know, yes, he did have some faith, but his faith was weak, right?
And so he needed that little confirmation in order to quell some of his doubts.
And so what we have to understand is that there's believing and then there's believing, right?
And look, the disciples said to Jesus, Lord, increase our faith, increase our faith.
And he said, If you had faith as the faith of a grain of a mustard seed,
you could say to this mountain, Be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea and it would be done for you.
So a little bit of faith goes a long way.
Jesus Christ was constantly saying to disciples, Oh, ye of little faith.
So the question is, what kind of faith do we need to be saved?
Do we need a big capital F, capital A, capital I, capital T, capital H, kind of a mountain moving faith in order to be saved?
Or do we just need enough faith to just call upon the name of Christ by faith?
And what tiny amount of faith we do have, maybe we don't have a lot of faith.
Here's the key. We just need to put all of it on Jesus.
So God doesn't expect us to have a lot of faith, but he expects us to take that faith that we do have and put it on Jesus.
Okay, so it'd be like this, you know, it'd be like, and I'm going to use, I've never gambled at a casino in my life.
Just I'm just saying, but I'm just going to use this illustration because I think this illustration does lend itself well to this, right?
You know, let's say I walked in to the casino and I've got 100 bucks and I say, okay, I'm going to put 90 bucks on this number over here.
And then I'm going to put 10 bucks over here, right?
You know, you can't put 90 bucks on Jesus and 10 bucks on Buddha.
You know, 90 bucks on Jesus and 10 bucks on you living a good life or something, right?
You got to put the whole 100 bucks on Jesus.
But here's the thing. You don't have to have 100 bucks.
You can walk in with 50 cents, but you better put the whole 50 cents on Jesus.
And so it's not a certain amount of faith that saves you.
You don't have to have faith that moves mountains.
You just have to put all your faith on Jesus.
And maybe you're of little faith.
Maybe you're kind of like this guy.
Maybe you're like the guy who said to Jesus, Lord, I believe.
He said, look, if you believe I can do this.
He said, Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief.
Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief.
I mean, the guy's confessing, look, I believe, but I've got doubts.
Look, here we see this guy.
The Bible defines him as believing, but does this guy really have a super mega faith?
Not really, but yet the Bible calls it him believing.
You got to put your faith and trust on Christ, whatever faith you have.
We all have our faith in something.
You put it all on Jesus.
You ask him to be your savior.
Boom, you're saved.
That's the gospel that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus
and shalt believe in thy heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
You know, Pastor Jack Hyles, a famous preacher from the 20th century,
he said this.
He said, faith is believing and doubting, but acting on the belief.
You know, you're believing and you're doubting, but you still, you trust Christ.
You go with it in respect to salvation or just even in respect to the Christian life.
Having doubts is part of the human experience.
You know, no human being has perfect faith.
Jesus is telling his disciples, you know, I could put all of y'all's faith in a thimble,
you know, because he's saying if you had the faith of a grain of a mustard seed, what's he implying?
You don't.
Your faith is so small, you know, I'm going to need a magnifying glass to look at it.
And yet these guys turned the world upside down in the book of Acts and beyond.
So that doesn't have anything to do with what time it is.
But I just wanted to point that out about this story.
Now let's do a time check here.
What time was it?
Well, it was the seventh hour.
Okay, so here's the big question again.
Are we talking 1 o'clock as most of the, you know, people who mistakenly would try to use the same clock in John as they use in Matthew, Mark and Luke?
Or is it like the Roman reckoning of time, our reckoning of time, is it 7 p.m.?
Is it 1 o'clock in the afternoon or is it 7 p.m.?
Well, here's how we know that the seventh hour is 7 o'clock.
Because of the fact that they say the fever left him at the seventh hour.
When the fever left him, what do they do?
They immediately say, hey, let's go tell him the good news that his son liveth, right?
So stop and think about this for a minute.
Let's just play the devil's advocate here and let's just play along with the idea that it's 1 o'clock, right?
Okay, so it's 1 o'clock.
Whoa, all of a sudden the fever left him.
He's fine.
He's up and about.
He looks totally normal.
He's healed.
He didn't begin to amend.
He's healed, right?
Let's go tell the master.
We take off, right?
Now, at the same moment that they're having that experience, the nobleman's talking to Jesus at that same time, 1 o'clock.
And when Jesus says, go thy way, thy son liveth, what does he do?
He goes his way.
He starts heading back.
So if at 1 o'clock you have the servants heading to go tell the noblemen and at 1 o'clock you have him heading home,
well, they're going to run into each other the same day, not the next day.
Does everybody understand?
Because we're talking about two places that are about 20 miles apart as far as if you walked from one to the other.
It's about 20 miles.
Okay, so how long does it take to go, say, 10 miles?
Three hours, right?
So basically, 4 o'clock in the afternoon they're running into each other.
Hey, let's say they're slow.
5 o'clock they're running into each other.
Let's say they're really slow.
6 o'clock they're running into each other.
Either way, they're running into each other the same day.
Whereas if it's 7 o'clock in the evening, they're not taking off on a journey necessarily at 7 o'clock.
Or they're not going to get very far because in those days you don't travel in the middle of the night.
It's not safe.
The lighting isn't there.
It's not as controlled of an environment as we have today in America with a bunch of street lights and police and everything.
You don't want to be traveling at night.
They might get a little down the road.
They're going to lodge.
He gets a little down the road, lodge, whatever.
And they don't meet up until the next day.
That makes way more sense.
So again, we're 3 for 3 here that make way more sense if we say 7th hour, 7 o'clock.
6th hour, 6 o'clock.
10th hour, 10 o'clock.
Now, let's go to the one that is beyond dispute.
Go to John chapter 19.
This is the smoking gun.
But as you can see, the 3 that we looked at also support the idea that the clock in John is different than the clock in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
Again, nobody is disputing the fact that in Matthew, Mark, and Luke the day clearly starts at 6 a.m. and the 3rd hour is 9 a.m.
That's a fact.
It can easily be borne out in lots of different passages.
I'm not going to take the time to do that.
I'm taking that for granted this morning because of the fact that nobody is disputing that.
It's obvious that Matthew, Mark, and Luke are reckoning time that way.
But let's face it.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke are very similar to one another.
And the Gospel of John is totally different.
Okay?
This is why Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called the synoptic Gospels.
What does that mean?
Synoptic.
The sin part of that means together like synchronized swimming or something.
Right?
The sin is the with or together prefix.
Okay?
And then we have synoptic.
What does optic sound like to you?
Right?
So Matthew, Mark, and Luke are kind of looking at things the same way.
They're kind of looking at things together.
That's why it's called a synoptic Gospel because they are clearly in sync with one another in many, many ways.
Right?
Like 97 percent of the content of the Gospel of Mark is found in either Matthew or Luke.
Okay?
And so these three are very close together in their narrative.
Whereas John is completely different.
You know, when you read the Book of John it really stands out as being a very different Gospel.
Now of course the other three are very each unique in their own way.
And we need all three of them.
And they're all three very interesting in different ways.
And they all have different details.
Even the Gospel of Mark has a lot of important details that we don't see in the other two Gospels that are the synoptics.
But John stands apart as being very different.
And so it shouldn't surprise us that when we switch authors and we're in a totally different book, time could be reckoned differently.
And we have to understand reading the Bible in general that although the entire Bible is written by God, the Bible is the product of dual authorship.
The Bible is not mechanically dictated by God like Allah supposedly dictated the Quran to Mohammed Pispy upon him.
But rather the Bible is holy men of God speaking as they're inspired, as they're moved by the Holy Ghost.
And the thing about that is that there's both human authorship to the Bible and divine authorship.
Both.
Just as Jesus Christ is both human and divine, the Bible is both human and divine.
So that's why when we're reading something that Paul wrote, it feels different, it sounds different than something Peter wrote.
Because we're getting the personality of the author, but ultimately it's the Holy Ghost who is speaking to us through these men.
And so this is a little bit more complicated. I don't expect the Muslims to be able to figure it out.
But for those of us who are Christians, we have no trouble figuring this out, how the Bible could be both divinely and humanly authored at the same time.
And so what we have to understand is that the Bible is written over the course of approximately 1600 years, right?
Because it starts being written at Mount Sinai around 1500 B.C. and it's finished at the end of the first century A.D.
So we're talking about approximately 1600 years. We're talking about at least 40 different authors, three different languages, 1600 years, and yet it all fits together so wonderfully.
And we have this one leather-bound book, the Bible, and it just works. Genesis to Revelation, it just works.
Why? Because that's God's hand. It's God's masterpiece. It is the very word of God.
And so, therefore, when we read different authors, we can't expect the human terms to always be the same, and so the reckoning of time is different.
Here's the proof. Okay, look at John chapter 19, verse 13.
The Bible says in John 19, 13, when Pilate, therefore, heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the pavement.
That's a really hard word, so the new versions will make that easier, make it easier for you.
But in the Hebrew, Gabbatha, and it was the preparation of the Passover, watch this, and about the sixth hour.
And he saith unto the Jews, Behold your king! But they cried out, Away with them! Away with them! Crucify him!
Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your king? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar.
Now, here's the question. Is it about six in the morning, six o'clock, sixth hour, six o'clock? That's what we've been saying this whole sermon.
Or is it about noon, if it were reckoning time like the synoptic gospels? Is it about six or is it about noon?
Well, keep your finger there and go to Mark chapter 15. Let's go to the gospel of Mark chapter 15 and put together a little basic timeline of the crucifixion of Christ.
Mark chapter number 15, and let's look at verse 25. Here's a real clear statement from the book of Mark about when Jesus crucified.
Mark chapter 15, verse 25, and it was the third hour, and they crucified him.
Now, again, there's no question, there's no dispute that in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the third hour is about 9 a.m.
We're on that 6 a.m. start point in the synoptics. And so, therefore, Jesus Christ is crucified at about 9 in the morning.
Everybody got that? It was the third hour they crucified him. What happens at the sixth hour? Jump down to verse 33.
When the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.
And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying,
Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani, which is being interpreted, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?
Couple verses later, verse 37, Jesus cried with a loud voice and gave up the ghost.
So we can get a very clear timeline from Mark, and this is going to be backed up in Matthew and Luke as well.
Clear timeline in Mark. Around 9 a.m., he's crucified.
At noon, he's already been on the cross. They've already been saying stuff, seeing him, he's been hanging there for literally hours.
And at the sixth hour, or noon, is when there's darkness upon the face of the whole land, and that darkness lasts for three hours.
Okay, so by the time Jesus cries out, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani, he's already been hanging on the cross for six hours.
I mean, he's been hanging on the cross from 9 a.m. to noon, then it gets dark at noon, and then at 3, he's still hanging there on that cross.
Everybody following? So here's my question for you.
If Jesus Christ, at the sixth hour, has been hanging on the cross for three hours, and that's when the darkness comes,
then how can he be standing in front of Pilate at the sixth hour in John 19, and he's not even crucified yet?
He's standing in front of Pilate, Pilate is saying, behold the man, look at him, he's been beaten, he's been bloody, look at him, and they're saying, crucify him at the sixth hour.
Why didn't Pilate say, why didn't he crucify him three hours ago?
Because he didn't crucify him three hours ago, because when it says about the sixth hour, it's probably like 6.30 in the morning or something.
You know what I mean? It's sometime in the morning, it's about the sixth hour, it's 6.25 a.m. or something, when Jesus is standing in front of Pilate,
which makes sense, because by the time they get the cross, and he's gotta, they gotta get the cross together, he's gotta carry it, and then the guy's gotta help him carry it,
they gotta take him to Golgotha, and it makes sense if he's standing in front of Pilate, and they're still going back and forth with the Jews around 6.30,
it kinda makes sense that at 9 a.m. he's getting crucified, and then at noon, the darkness comes, and then at 3 o'clock, he cries out, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?
And so we can see here that in John chapter 19, you either have a contradiction that's impossible to reconcile,
or you just get the clock right, and guess where the clue was to get the clock right? In chapter 1.
It was the tenth hour, well, they abode with him that day, for it was the tenth hour. What does that mean, for? For means because.
Well, they abode with him that day, because it was the tenth hour. I mean, it's 10 o'clock in the morning, so they abode with him that day.
You know, it's like, because the day is ahead of them, and they're able to spend time with Jesus, you know, boy, we would love to hear that conversation that took place for hours and hours where Jesus lived.
You know, it'd be cool to see where Jesus lived, and just to hang out and talk with him for hours and hours and hours and hours, then they go get their buddy, bring him, you know, that all happened that same day,
because then it says, then the next day X, Y, and Z happened. Then we get to the woman at the well. Do we have to make up a story about her being so unpopular that she's hiding from everyone?
Even though it doesn't really fit anything that we actually see in the text, or can we just go with the much simpler explanation that she's at the well at the normal time that you go to the well?
People go to the well in the evening. People go to the well in the morning. She's at the well at 6 p.m., and Jesus didn't get tired after only a half day. He got tired after the whole day.
Okay, and then that makes sense why the Samaritans aren't asking for the preaching right then and there. They're saying, hey, stay with us for a couple days.
Then they hear him preach on the subsequent days. That makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? Then we get to the man whose son is healed.
Again, if it's 1 o'clock in the afternoon, it doesn't make any sense, because then he would have met them on the same day, because they both take off for each other when the boy is healed, both from their own perspective.
They would have easily, even going super slow and stopping at every bucky along the way, they still would have run into each other at some point.
And then, you know, we have, of course, the smoking gun, John chapter 19, which is something that's pretty much impossible to reconcile unless you realize, hey, this isn't the same clock.
6th hour in John is totally different than 6th hour in Mark, because one of them is counting from dawn. One of them is 6th hour of the day, like noon, starting at 6 a.m., which is like a Jewish kind of reckoning of time.
And then John is on the more universal Roman style reckoning of time, which is just 6th hour, 6 o'clock.
I mean, folks, why do you think we call it 6 o'clock? Like, we didn't necessarily just make that up in America or something.
I mean, we invented almost everything in America, but there are a couple things that were invented somewhere else. I'm kidding.
But the point is, you know, obviously a lot of the things that we use today as our measurements of time and units of measure, you know, they're ancient.
They go way back. Like, think about how the Bible talks about miles, right? That's because the mile was a Roman thing.
And so to this day, we still have, and by the way, there's no kilometers in this book. Amen?
Fahrenheit? No, there's no Fahrenheit either. Okay. I'm not going to go too far with that.
But no, you know, we have miles, right? And think about how many units of our measurement are based upon ancient standards.
Like, for example, think about how many things that we do that are not really based on the number 10.
Because, you know, the metric system, everything's 10, 100, 1,000, 10,000.
But think about how many things that we do that are based on, like, the number 60, right?
Or that are based on the number 12 or something, where we have 12 inches in a foot or something like that, you know?
And we have all these measurements. And you say, well, the metric system is so much easier.
Well, yeah, that's why I can see how people of a lower intellect would gravitate toward it, because it's easier, you know?
Those of us that are smart enough, we can handle the yards and the miles and the foot pounds and all of those wonderful imperial units.
We, you know, yeah, but, you know, the Celsius is 100 zero. Yeah, we do 212 and 32, you know?
It's, you know, you wouldn't get it. And, of course, I'm being silly. I'm being facetious.
But the point is, though, that, you know, a lot of the things that we have today as far as time and units of measurement and weight, the pound, the mile, they don't just go back to England.
They go back even further than that. They go back even to the Romans. They can even go back to ancient, you know, Sumer.
They could go back many thousands of years. And so the idea here is that when we say it's 6 o'clock, that didn't just come out of thin air.
That's already a thing, even when the Gospel of John is being written. That's already a thing, calling that 6 o'clock, calling that the sixth hour, and counting from both noon and midnight.
So when it says the sixth hour, just those words alone, the sixth hour, that could either be 6 a.m. or 6 p.m.
We know it's not 6 a.m. in the story of the woman at the well, because Jesus isn't wearied from his journey. It's 6 a.m.
He's not traveling through the night. He's traveling through the day.
So you say, well, you know, I don't know, man, because sixth hour meaning two different things. Yeah, except do you live in America?
Because last time I checked, 6 o'clock means two different things. You know, if I said, hey, let's meet at 6 o'clock, you're like, well, I know you don't mean a.m., but maybe I do mean a.m.
I get up early. And so the point is that this shouldn't really be shocking or foreign to us, because the one that's really foreign is the one in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
That's the foreign one, because we don't do that. We have to do math. We have to sit there and say, oh, third hour, 9 a.m., sixth hour, noon.
Whereas when we read John, hey, just take it easy, buddy. This is why we always tell people John is the easiest book, because in John, 10 o'clock is just 10 o'clock.
And so flip back to John chapter one. We'll just quickly finish up with the chapter. I hope you learned something this morning.
I hope that that is helpful to you as you study the Bible. And you say, well, Pastor Anderson, I don't know how super important this is to me about the time.
But here's the thing. I'm kind of teaching you something about how to study the Bible in general, which is that sometimes each book has to kind of be taken in its own right.
And that you can't always expect things to carry over from book to book. And so this is kind of a good thing to have in your mind as you're reading the Bible that sometimes different authors are looking at things from a different human perspective.
Although the divine perspective is always the same, the human perspective is going to be a little different. And this is why you can't panic when there's a supposed contradiction between Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
You can't just panic and say, oh, you know, it's a contradiction because, you know, it'd be easy to panic about the sixth hour and say.
And I remember when I was a kid, I remember reading Jesus stand in front of Pilate and Pilate saying, behold, the man at six hour.
And I immediately thought, how can he be saying that when he's crucified three hours ago, like and you know what? I couldn't figure it out.
I couldn't because I didn't, I didn't have, you know, anybody explaining this to me and I was a child and I didn't really study the Bible that much.
And so I literally, as a kid reading the book of John, I couldn't figure it out. I was just like, I don't know.
This doesn't make sense to me why Mark is saying he's crucified at the third hour and why John at the sixth hour, he's still standing here.
He hasn't even started heading toward Golgotha yet. They haven't even made the for sure decision that he's getting crucified yet.
And you know what? I responded to that as a kid. I just said, that's it. The Bible is not true. I'm done.
I'm going to eat, drink and be married because tomorrow I die. Is that what I did? No, I just said, you know what?
This is obviously just beyond my comprehension. I don't get it. Whatever. And you know what I did? I just read chapter 20.
And then I read chapter 21. Then I moved on to the book of Acts. Okay.
And this is what I would recommend is that, you know, when you run into something that you think is a contradiction or something freaks you out,
don't just be that one that's just so ready to just jump toward just contradiction, contradiction.
It's wrong. It's false. No, maybe you just haven't learned enough yet.
Because if you didn't know better, this looks like a really clear contradiction.
Just, I mean, the sixth hour is the sixth hour. Well, no, because sometimes the sixth hour isn't the sixth hour.
Sometimes the sixth hour is 12 o'clock and sometimes the sixth hour is six o'clock.
Do you think that maybe there could be other things you don't understand? Other things that I don't understand?
Do you think there could be other things that people are just jumping to call a contradiction?
And what's funny is that when you read, if you read a Bible that has a lot of notes, which I don't recommend,
I recommend just getting one that's just straight text, you know, most stripped down Bible possible.
You know, I like the sword drill edition. You know, who knows what I'm talking about?
Whoa, man, it's only the people who've been in our church for a long time.
The sword drill edition is, it's just, it's just the text and who knows what a sword drill even is.
Okay. Yeah. The sword drill is where they have a contest in church where everybody has to try to find it first.
You know, they'll, they'll call out some random passage of scripture, you know, Malachi one seven or something.
And it's like, go. And then whoever finds it first jumps up and reads it.
So there was a publisher a while back that printed this Bible that was called the sword drill edition because it just,
it's going to help you find stuff cause it doesn't have anything in your way.
There's nothing, uh, you know, superfluous that's in the way.
And so I used to, for years, I would preach out of the sword drill edition and I would buy,
it was like 12 bucks or 10 bucks on Amazon or something.
It was like a little hard back sword. I would use it, destroy it, get a new one.
I until I was, Oh, he's got one right here. This is literally the sword drill edition, right?
This message has been brought to you in part by a Holman publishers and the sword drill edition.
But I literally preached out of a Bible exactly like this. I read this every day for years and years.
Now I've got this really fancy leather bound, but it doesn't have a lot of notes or anything.
What's funny is that if you, if you read a Bible with just tons of notes, I kid you not.
Somebody showed me a Bible the other day where there were literally two verses on the page and the rest was notes.
Next page had like four versus rest was notes. I'm like, this isn't the Bible. I mean, this is just wow.
I mean, there's a little bit of Bible in there, but what's funny and if you,
and if you read it in the original languages at the bottom,
there will sometimes be this apparatus criticus that will speculate about, you know, what's going on with the text.
Now sometimes it'll be based on two different manuscripts being different, but frequently they'll just guess,
Hey, we think this is a mistake. Like a lot. Like there'll be this little DL abbreviation.
This means delete and they're just deleting stuff on like every page with no textual evidence.
Just, Hey, maybe this should be deleted.
And what was funny is I was, I was reading, for example, this week in Isaiah chapter 11.
And what it was was that the end of one verse was kind of similar to the beginning of the next verse.
And they're like, Oh, maybe you should delete this because you know, they might just accidentally repeated it twice.
But really that's actually a poetic device where you actually end one line on something
and then you start the next line on that very thing. And it made perfect sense.
And if you took it out, the passage wouldn't even make sense. And it was just like, come on guys. Really?
But it seems like many of these textual critics and scholars, they're just so quick to scribal error, scribal error.
Oh, we don't understand the grammar. Scribal error. Doesn't require make sense. Scribal error. Right?
Oh, delete, delete, repeated. By the way, that's what they say about Leviticus 20, 10.
Uh, he that committed adultery with his neighbor's wife, even he that committed adultery with his neighbor.
Oh, you know, that's just, that's, they actually repeated that twice.
No, they're basically just driving in the point that it's a specific type of adultery that is punished by death
because it's kind of serious putting someone to death. And so they're clarifying exactly the situation.
There's always a reason. Sometimes things are repeated because God's doing it for emphasis.
Oh, earth, earth, earth. Hear the word of the Lord. Oh, access, scribe.
Scribe got tired and just kept, he got stuck. He was like a broken record. He's just like, earth, earth, earth.
Oh, wait, where am I? And then just kept writing. That's kind of the easy way out.
And you know what? The other easy way out is when you're reading the Bible and don't understand something,
just going contradiction. Don't be that guy, right? Study to show thyself approved unto God.
And look, when I was a kid, I didn't understand it and I didn't have the brains or the tools to figure it out
because I was just a young child. So what did I do? I just trusted God.
And in time, I understood. Later, I understood.
And by the way, that's what the Christian life is like. You put your faith and trust in Christ
and you're not necessarily going to understand every single thing that happens in your life.
You're not necessarily going to understand every single thing that you read in the Bible.
But in the end, someday you will understand.
And when you're 42, you'll understand more than when you were 22.
OK, because, you know, as you see life like here's here's another one that used to always bother me.
It always bothered me why Saul doesn't know who David is in 1 Samuel 17 when he already had met him
and hung out with him in Chapter 16. And that kind of bothered me.
And of course, you know, scholars say, oh, this is a you know, it's a mistake in the Bible.
We got to go to the Septuagint where it just chops out half of it just takes a chainsaw to Chapter 17.
And that fixes everything. Yeah, you could take a chainsaw to 1 Samuel 17 if you want,
if you want to be one of those Septuagint guys. But here's the thing about that.
If you actually would grow up and have a little more life experience, you will meet people, spend time with people,
hang out with people, spend hours with people, go on a trip with people,
spend days with people and have no idea who they are six months later.
You know someone like that? Well, of course, I know him. He's me.
I mean, I'm thinking of one guy in particular. We went on an Indian reservation trip.
This guy's my soul winning partner. We're swimming in the hotel pool.
We're talking. We're hanging out. He comes six months later and he said, you remember me?
I said, I remember you. But I don't I have no idea who you are, though, or where I know you from.
But you seem familiar. Now, look, I meet a lot of people.
But, you know, met a lot more people than me, the king of Israel. Who do you think meets more people?
The pastor of a church or the king of Israel? I mean, the king of Israel is just meeting people, meeting people, meeting people.
Maybe he's just not paying super attention to who's in the band. You know what I mean?
Like he's just like, whatever. He likes the music. He's not necessarily studying the liner notes.
OK, he's just he's got other things to do.
And so, again, people are always so ready to jump in and say it's a contradiction when in reality it's just our own lack of understanding or experience.
You get a little older, you get a little more understanding, you get a little more experience, and all of a sudden you'll see, ah, now I see how that makes sense.
You'll realize that the world the world is not as cut and dried and as black and white as you thought it was when you were nine.
Right? You start seeing, wait a minute, there's a little more nuance. Things are a little more complex than they were when I was a child.
Let's call it there and bow your heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord. Please help us to study our Bibles.
And Lord God, most importantly, as we read our Bibles, help us to have faith that your word is true and not to constantly be just questioning everything and doubting your word, Lord.
Obviously, as human beings, we all have doubts, but Lord, increase our faith, strengthen our faith, and help us not to be so quick to just assume that something's wrong just because we don't understand it.
Lord, help us rather to be patient and have faith and grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and it's in his name we pray, amen.
Amen. Take your hymnals, please. Go to hymn 150. Hymn number 150, my faith has found the resting place. Hymn number 150.
Let's sing it out together on that first verse. Hymn number 150.
I need no other argument. I need no other peace.
It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me.
Enough for me that Jesus saves. This ends my fear and doubt.
A sinful soul, I come to him, will never cast me out.
I need no other argument. I need no other peace.
It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me.
My heart is beating on the Word, the risen Word of God.
Salvation by my Savior's name, salvation through his blood.
I need no other argument. I need no other peace.
It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me.
My great decision feels the same, the loss he came to save.
For me his precious blood he shed, for me his life he gave.
I need no other argument. I need no other peace.
It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me.
Thank you for watching!