The Why of Faulty Assumptions and the Remedy

[0:00] Would you to Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 22. We are currently engaged in what we are identifying as faulty assumptions, and you cannot believe how important they are and how involved they are.

[0:14] Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 22. And we're going to begin with verse 23 through verse 33.

[0:25] On that day, some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him and questioned him, saying, Teacher, Moses said that if a man dies having no children, his brother as next of kin shall marry his wife and raise up an offspring to his brother.

[0:49] Now there were seven brothers with us, and the first married and died, and having no offspring, left his wife to his brother. So also the second and the third, down to the seventh.

[1:04] And last of all, the woman died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife of the seven shall she be? For they all had her.

[1:15] But Jesus answered and said to them, You are mistaken. He might very well have said, You have made a faulty assumption.

[1:29] You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures or the power of God. For in the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.

[1:42] But regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read that which was spoken to you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

[1:56] God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. And when the multitudes heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.

[2:06] And all they had done, of course, was to make some faulty assumptions. A faulty assumption is something that you embrace, receive, and accept to be true.

[2:19] But it isn't true at all. Yet, if you go on and act on it, believing it to be true, not only will you be mistaken, but you might suffer greatly for it, depending on what the assumption is about.

[2:35] And we have a similar kind of situation in Luke's Gospel. Well, why don't we stay? Let's stay right here in Matthew. We'll go to Luke in a moment. But in Matthew chapter 28, Matthew chapter 28, we have a gross, faulty assumption.

[2:58] And I'm going to read these 15 verses, beginning with verse 1. Now, after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave.

[3:12] And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred. For an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. And his appearance was like lightning and his garment as white as snow.

[3:26] And the guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men. And the angel answered and said to the women, Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified.

[3:40] He is not here, for he is risen, just as he said. Come. See the place where he was lying and go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead.

[3:53] And behold, he is going before you into Galilee. There you will see him. Behold, I have told you. And they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to report it to his disciples.

[4:07] And behold, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshipped him. Then Jesus said to them, Do not be afraid.

[4:19] Go and take word to my brethren to leave for Galilee, and there they shall see me. And while they were on their way, behold, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all that had happened.

[4:34] And when they had assembled with the elders and counseled together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers and said, You are to say, His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.

[4:55] You got it? That's your story. That's what you tell them. And, if this should come to the governor's ears, we will win him over and keep you out of trouble.

[5:07] And they took the money and did as they had been instructed. And this story was widely spread among the Jews and is to this day.

[5:21] And I would just add to that, and continues to this day. Here is a gross, faulty assumption that was made by the Sadducees and the chief priests, the rulers, and it was simply this.

[5:38] They assume, they didn't know this, they assumed that Christ's body had to have been stolen by his disciples for a couple of reasons.

[5:52] Number one, there isn't anybody else who would have done it. So, they are the most likely suspects. And the only other possibility is, he really did rise from the dead.

[6:05] But that's unthinkable. That's completely unacceptable. Unthinkable. And I do not have any doubt at all that that's what they believed. They didn't know the mechanics and the details about it, but there was one thing of which they were absolutely certain, and that is, he didn't really rise from the dead.

[6:29] And we know he didn't. That's just not possible. So, the only other alternative for the body being absent is, somebody had to come and take it away because dead bodies cannot get up and walk away.

[6:44] This was a faulty assumption on their part. The truth of the matter was something that they obviously never even considered.

[6:55] considered. And do you know, there are some people that don't today. I remember years ago when I was a young student at Cedarville University and worked in a shoe store for John Alderson in the old Wrens building downtown Springfield.

[7:13] I was selling shoes up a storm on Saturday, getting ready for Easter. Young man came in and wanted to buy a pair of shoes. And we got to talk. I don't know how the subject came up, but I was a student at Cedarville at the time.

[7:27] And he said, oh yeah, that's that religious school, isn't it? And I said, well, yeah, it's a Christian school. And I said, where are you tending? And he says, I'm at Antioch University. I said, okay, Antioch.

[7:40] Yeah, I've heard about that too. And we started talking a little bit. And I said, well, you're getting these new shoes for Easter? And he says, actually said, I don't believe that stuff.

[7:52] I said, you mean Easter? You don't believe? Oh, no, no, no, no. Well, I was kind of taken back because at the time I hadn't been a believer myself more than a couple of years.

[8:07] And here I was just in my early 20s. And I said, you don't believe in the resurrection of the dead? And he said, no, I don't believe that. And I said, well, I'm kind of, I'm speaking out of my naivete, you know, I said, I'm kind of shocked to hear that.

[8:26] I thought just about everybody did. But he made it quite sure that he didn't believe that. And I said, well, the Bible talks about the time coming when the graves are going to be open, the dead in Christ are going to rise.

[8:40] No, no, no, no, no. He says, no. That's pretty much been disproved, all of that bunk. And I said, well, what if you're wrong? And he said, well, I don't think I am wrong, but I have a plan in mind just in case I am wrong.

[8:57] And I said, well, what would that be? And he said, I'm going to be cremated. So if there is a resurrection of the body, mine won't be there.

[9:11] Hmm. Can you imagine that? God is foiled. I can just see the Almighty saying, boy, that one got away because he was cremated.

[9:25] Well, we don't worry about that. Do you realize that this thing that we're talking a lot about now and it made some just absolutely stunning discoveries about DNA, the deoxyribonucleic acid?

[9:38] It's a fascinating thing to know that your DNA is the formula for making you.

[9:51] That's pretty mind-boggling. And that formula will not make anybody else but you. And God has your DNA on file.

[10:06] And all he has to do is bring it up. And for those who were buried at sea and were fish food for the last 2,000 years or whatever, not a problem.

[10:19] Nobody's going to escape that. Well, that's not my message. But I'll throw it in for no extra charge. Now come over to Luke 19 because these things called faulty assumptions have just absolutely taken over.

[10:35] In many respects, they've taken over the world because they're not only false assumptions regarding spiritual matters but regarding political matters and everything else too. Luke chapter 19 and verse 11.

[10:48] Jesus is just about to make his entry into Jerusalem on what is commonly referred to as Palm Sunday. And the text actually begins in verse 11 and it says, while they were listening to these things, he went on to tell a parable because.

[11:10] And that's a word that you really need to pay attention to. It explains to us why Jesus is telling this parable at this time.

[11:23] Because he was nearing Jerusalem and they supposed. Who were the they? Well, the context makes it quite clear. The they, the 12 apostles who are going to be accompanying him to Jerusalem.

[11:38] And the text says that they supposed, which is another word for a faulty assumption, they were convinced, they believed, they thought, they supposed that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately.

[12:00] And the parable that he gives them explains why that's not going to be the case at all. Why there is going to be an absence of the king for a lengthy period of time and then he will return.

[12:15] So they are laboring under a faulty assumption. And when Jesus went riding into Jerusalem on that donkey and the people were throwing the palm branches and the garments in the way for the animal to walk upon, which was the equivalent of rolling out the red carpet for Jesus, the apostles, I'm sure, were elated because people were shouting, Hosanna!

[12:42] Hosanna! Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna to the son of David. They knew that Jesus was a direct descendant of David the king who had died a thousand years earlier.

[13:01] And the apostles, after Peter took Jesus aside and rebuked him for saying he was going to be crucified and Jesus responded by saying, Get thee behind me, Satan, you savor the things of men, not of God.

[13:15] Peter was innocent in what he was saying and he really believed what he was saying was true. But Peter was laboring under a faulty assumption and when all of those accolades were given by the people, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if Peter didn't sidle up alongside Jesus riding on that donkey and said, See?

[13:35] See? I told you the people love you. It's going to be wonderful. But it was all due to a faulty assumption.

[13:47] So, we are currently engaged in what we are identifying as faulty assumptions. As the word implies, it is something that is assumed, believed, accepted as true, but it is not true at all.

[14:03] It is a faulty assumption. And the reason it is so critical to understand faulty assumptions is because much that is held to be true in Christendom is not true at all.

[14:20] Yet, a plethora of false assumptions are derived from a misunderstanding understanding of what the Bible actually teaches. Believing something, anything, no matter how sincerely, does not make it true.

[14:38] It doesn't matter how much you want it to be true. If it isn't true, it isn't true. And it isn't going to become true because someone believes it. We are living today in an age where people actually engage in the idea that you can create your own reality.

[14:56] It is stuff and nonsense and it can be very dangerous. So, why do people, why have people, why do people still operate doctrinally on faulty assumptions?

[15:12] What is the genesis of faulty assumptions? Number one, it stems from a misinterpretation of a given passage of scripture that is falsely believed to be teaching something it isn't.

[15:31] If that interpretation is arrived at by a respected leading authority, it eventually winds up in a statement of faith and is assumed to be true.

[15:43] It may not be true at all, but over time it becomes entrenched as true and is to be believed.

[15:54] And everybody knows that the birthday of the church was on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2. I mean, everybody knows that, except it isn't true.

[16:11] It's a major faulty assumption. We've looked at it in the past, we'll not take it now, but we will later, we will get to it. So this is the genius of most faulty assumptions.

[16:25] Secondly, if good faith and sincerity are not in question, how then did these respected and sincere leaders arrive at wrong interpretations things, upon which doctrine came to be built.

[16:41] And by the way, it's very, very important to note, and I want you to remember this all the way through this series of the faulty assumptions, the vast majority of faulty assumptions are made by good, honest people who are sincere in their belief, and they are not trying to peddle anything that is not true.

[17:03] they really believe it themselves, but that doesn't make it right. And there are literally, and this is not hyperbole, I'm not exaggerating, there are hundreds of faulty assumptions in the Old and the New Testament, and you would be surprised how many people are staking a lot on many of them, and they just have no basis in fact at all.

[17:30] So, if good faith and sincerity are not in question, how then did these respected and sincere leaders arrive at their wrong interpretations upon which doctrine came to be built?

[17:42] And you can just cover the walls with these faulty assumptions that we'll be talking about, and by the time we get through with this, you are going to be so tired of hearing about faulty assumptions, but I don't know how else to do it.

[18:03] And I am committing to giving you this information, because as I mentioned earlier, this is my last hurrah for you before I be leaving here.

[18:15] And I just want to make sure that I leave you with something that is very, very valuable. And this is what the Lord has revealed to me to leave behind.

[18:28] thought. So you're going to hear about faulty assumptions and faulty assumptions, because faulty assumptions also beget faulty assumptions. These things go into business for themselves, and they multiply, and they spread out, and they greatly impact our culture.

[18:48] How did they arrive at these? Number one, they based their interpretation upon incomplete information. And this is especially true of the Jews.

[19:00] So in our examination of this subject, the faulty assumptions, we are going to look at a number of faulty assumptions. We've already considered just a couple that the Jews have made in both the Old Testament and the New.

[19:16] And they led the way with a lot of faulty assumptions. Jesus corrected them in that passage we read earlier. It says, you do err, not knowing the power of God, nor what Moses had written.

[19:29] For if you had known what Moses wrote and understood it, you would have believed me. So they were operating on the basis of faulty assumptions. The Sadducees falsies, there is no resurrection, we don't believe in it.

[19:40] And by the way, there isn't any such thing as angels either. You know that? You understand that? That's just another faulty assumption the Sadducees made in rejecting both angels and the resurrection.

[19:51] So they made them based upon incomplete information, but they didn't make them dishonestly. And that's one of the things that makes these faulty assumptions so dangerous.

[20:03] They were made by people of good faith. They didn't know they were making a faulty assumption. They assumed honestly, sincerely, that what they were believing and teaching was true.

[20:16] And as I've said, if that faulty assumption is in the mind and heart of someone who is in a leadership position, respected, well-known, well-versed, well-educated, well-spoken, and so on, that just gives more credibility to it.

[20:37] And it makes it easier to believe. Well, if Dr. So-and-so believes that, it must be so. That's good enough for me. And you'd be surprised how many people feel that way.

[20:49] The experts say. And how many times have the experts been proved wrong? So, they based their interpretation upon incomplete information.

[21:03] And secondly, they reasoned with a skewed and warped intellect that we all possess. And my intellect, is as warped and skewed as is anybody else's who has an old sin nature.

[21:19] And we all have one. The only thing that can adequately correct our skewed logic and thinking is an infusion of the truth of God and the word of God.

[21:33] Because God's thoughts are not our thoughts, saith the Lord, neither his ways our ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are his ways higher than our ways. So we've got to come to the book and get our authority from that, and even then, it has to be properly interpreted.

[21:55] Even then, it has to be rightly divided. All kinds of faulty assumptions are made by people who do not rightly divide the scriptures.

[22:06] And they do not see often the inconsistencies that are there in their thinking. they take, for instance, the law of Moses and what Moses said, and there it is in black and white, and that's what the Bible says, and that's what we ought to do.

[22:19] Well, no, we don't sacrifice animals. We don't do that. Well, no, we don't actually have to keep a kosher kitchen, but we, well, no, we don't really have to keep the Sabbath. Now, wait a minute, wait a minute.

[22:32] What are you going to do with all of these things? It's in the book. You see, there are things in the Bible, many, many things that are in the Bible, that are there for our go and do likewise.

[22:52] And there are many things in the Bible that are not go and do thou likewise, but they are written for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the scriptures, might have hope.

[23:05] But that doesn't mean you are supposed to go and do what that text says. You've got to rightly divide it. Otherwise, you're going to go out and round up all of the gay people and stone them to death.

[23:21] And if you come across any juvenile delinquents who will not listen to his father and mother, you stone him to death, too. Where do you get the authority for them?

[23:32] Well, it's right there in the Bible, black and white. Sure it is. So why don't we do that? Well, that's not for us. Why isn't it for us? And once again, this issue of right division of scripture comes into play.

[23:51] And three, they relied heavily upon the findings of leaders from the past and tradition. That is a big, big item. Tradition.

[24:01] for they failed to, as I've already said, rightly divide the word of truth, as Paul reminded Timothy in 2 Timothy 2.15.

[24:16] The question, why do people, Christians of every sort, including Protestant and Roman Catholic, as well as Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and others continue to operate under faulty assumptions?

[24:36] I mean, the truth is out there. The truth is available. Do you have any idea how many hundreds of millions of copies of the Bible have been printed in every imaginable language? The truth is out there.

[24:47] It's available on every continent. 2 Corinthians 4.3 talks about the blinding power of Satan, who blinds the minds of those who believe not, so that the glorious gospel of Christ does not shine unto them.

[25:04] And this is part of that fallen intellect that we all have. In addition to wrong thinking, and screwed up logic that people use to reach conclusions, in addition to that, his infernal majesty is out there with his demonic hordes, sowing the seeds of doubt and confusion, roaring about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may desire.

[25:32] Paul says we are not ignorant of his devices. The principal thing that Satan is all about is deception. Deception, destruction, and death.

[25:46] That's what he's all about. Those are as opposite from God as you can get. And he is sowing the seeds of discord and disbelief and confusion and fragmentation.

[25:59] Why do you think there are, as I've pointed out to you in the past? And by the way, here's an update of the book I shared with you earlier.

[26:14] Picked it up just yesterday, hot off the press. You can look at it if you want after the service, but I can't lend it out yet because I'm not finished with it. But it is the essential handbook of denominations and ministries.

[26:28] And there's got everything you can imagine in here religiously from soup to nuts. And it's just got the whole nine yards and all of the denominations and the positions that all of them take and everything.

[26:40] And why is all you know, you know who just loves this stuff? Satan does. because his game plan is divide and conquer.

[26:54] And when you've made a division, then divide the division and then divide the division that comes from that and keep the body of Christ so fragmented that they cannot get anything together or present any kind of the united front.

[27:13] And people on the outside look in on all of these differences and say, ah, those Christians, they can't agree on anything. Who would want anything to do with them? Look at all this different stuff.

[27:26] And the only thing that they all have in common is that every one of them thinks that they are right and all the other people are wrong. Who wants anything to do with an outfit like that? And the devil just rubs his hands with glee because we're playing right into his game plan.

[27:41] And it all starts with faulty, assumptions. And people promote them and people hear them from well-polished speakers who are well-thought-of and well-educated and the next thing you know they buy into it and lo and behold what he has been teaching finds its way into a doctrinal statement of the organization and that becomes their official position.

[28:11] religion. And God only knows how many different doctrinal statements we have, some overlapping, some similar, and some greatly dissimilar from each other all within this thing that is supposed to be called Christendom.

[28:30] And when I say Christendom I'm thinking in a very broad general way that includes all Roman Catholics and all Protestants. Now of course all Roman Catholics and all Protestants are not true believers or true Christians at all.

[28:46] But the world regards them as such and that's the way we're talking about them so that it will be understood. Within the larger bodies of Protestant and Catholic there are numerous true born-again believers and people who are going to be in heaven with us.

[29:05] And there are also great numbers who are not believers. believers in Protestantism and in Catholicism because many are into churchianity rather than Christianity.

[29:17] And churchianity will not get you anywhere. So tradition is a powerful factor and tradition always has a leg up on truth.

[29:32] because tradition is in your comfort zone. You hear that? That's important.

[29:44] Tradition is familiar territory. And we can live a lot easier with familiar territory than we can with this.

[29:56] What's he saying? That can't be true. The reason I know it can't be true is because that's not what I've always believed.

[30:09] It's amazing. You say, how can anybody think like that? Listen, that's what skewed logic does. That's what I'm talking about. That's what warped thinking produces.

[30:22] People reason this way. Really? I mean, it might sound like it's so bizarre and so crazy to you, but for a lot of people, this is standard operating procedure.

[30:35] This is just the way they think. I've always believed that. It must be true. I couldn't believe it if it wasn't true. So it's true. Amazing. When push comes to shove, tradition trumps truth nearly every time.

[30:54] shouldn't work that way, but it does. Because tradition operates within the sphere of your familiar comfort zone. And hearing something new and different for the first time sends up a red flag.

[31:11] And you know what? It should. It should. It is just as wrong to embrace something that is new and different and accept that as true.

[31:24] It is just as wrong to do that as it is to embrace something simply on the basis of tradition. Just because it's exciting and new and you've never heard it before, it doesn't make it true.

[31:40] It might too be a lie, something that you want nothing to do with. So what we are talking about here is developing a discerning spirit. And let me tell you something, that is something that is sadly lacking in Christendom today.

[31:55] Discernment. People don't see the need for it. Well, I let the experts handle that. You would be surprised of how many Roman Catholics there are who say, my salvation, my eternal life, that's in the hands of the church.

[32:14] That's in the hands of the priest. I delegate that to them. They look out for my soul. They tell me what I need to know and what I need to do and the sacraments and all of that.

[32:26] And I submit my eternal well-being to them. I mean, listen, if you've got a real plumbing problem in your house, don't try to fix it.

[32:39] Call a plumber. Bite the bullet. Financially, bite the bullet and call a plumber and let the expert fix it. Same thing if you've got an electrical problem.

[32:53] You might get the shock of your life if you try to fix it. So call in an expert and let somebody who is a licensed electrician, let him fix it. You have a question about your soul, about eternal life, about forgiveness of sins.

[33:09] Hey, don't try to tackle that on your own. You're too stupid. Call an expert. expert. Call a priest. Call a rabbi. Call a preacher. You entrust your soul to him.

[33:22] This is called religious outsourcing. Or you outsource it. You trust it to somebody else. Listen, you don't entrust the eternal well-being of your soul to any preacher or priest or rabbi.

[33:39] this is something that God holds you responsible for. And you know why we know that? Because he has given you the gift of volition.

[33:55] He's given you the power of choice, the ability to make a decision. And he's provided the information upon which you can make it. And it all comes from this thing called the gospel.

[34:09] the truth of God. Thankfully, the truth does break through, especially if and when right division is applied in the reaching of an interpretation.

[34:24] Why? Why does all this matter so very much? And you're going to hear this time and again, deliberately. Not because I can't think of anything else to say, but because I can't think of anything else more important to say.

[34:41] And that's why you're going to hear it and hear it and hear it. And as I've told you before, you're going to hear it so much, it isn't that you're going to just try to remember it.

[34:54] You're going to hear it so much, you're not going to be able to forget it. That's my goal. goal. The reason it all matters so very much is because doctrinal truth, the things God wants us to believe, is arrived at through the interpretation of Scripture.

[35:18] It then becomes something not only to be believed and embraced, but it also becomes the rationale for our behavior.

[35:30] Our attitude and actions are determined by what we believe and accept to be true. You see, truth embraced does a job on you.

[35:46] It's supposed to. Truth is supposed to work and worm its way into our hearts and minds so that it affects us.

[35:59] It impacts our attitude and our actions. It makes a difference. It isn't just dogma out there floating around. It is intensely practical.

[36:12] Your doctrinal position goes a long way to determining the kind of person you will be. Is that important?

[36:23] wrong thinking and wrong believing arrived at by having made faulty assumptions leads to wrong doing.

[36:38] Is that important? Can you not see the vital and practical relationship of it all? And anybody who says doctrine is dry.

[36:53] I want something that is practical. Listen, you can't get more practical than doctrine. We are encouraged, we are admonished in scripture to give ourselves unto sound doctrine.

[37:11] Take it in. Live it out. It makes a difference. The word of God is not provided to us for nothing, but for something.

[37:23] It is that word which comes from God that is like the rain and snow that returns not thither, but waters the earth and makes it to bring forth and bud that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater.

[37:35] So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth. It shall accomplish that which I please and it shall prosper in the thing whereunto I sent it.

[37:47] God expects doctrine in our soul to make a difference. December and traditional season of Christmas is going to demand an examination of the faulty assumptions of the Jews, particularly in regard to the person and work of Jesus Christ.

[38:13] And following this, we will also engage the faulty assumptions of the Roman Catholic Church and the faulty assumptions of the Protestant Church. And the reason we're taking them in this order is because this is the order in which they occurred.

[38:27] And the faulty assumptions of the Jews begin all the way back in the Old Testament. Actually, even predates the Jews. You know where the first faulty assumption is? I think we already studied this. And I get this a little mixed up because I've done some of these things in material that I've prepared for radio on Christianity Clarified.

[38:48] But the first faulty assumption occurred in Genesis chapter 3. Eve made a faulty assumption that what Satan told her was true.

[39:05] And she acted on it. And she also made the faulty assumption that what God told her was was not true.

[39:17] Hard as that is to believe. Yet, she chose to believe Satan's lie over God's truth. Two faulty assumptions.

[39:30] And we today are consequential of those faulty assumptions and everything that went with them. So, no, I am not anti-Roman Catholic and no, I am not anti-Semitic or anti-Jewish and no, I'm not anti-Protestant, I'm not anti-denominational, but I am anti-error and we all ought to be.

[39:57] So, we are going to examine these things in some detail and I trust that when we come out on the other side, you will have a much clearer picture because if there's anything I want you to be able to do and I know many of you already have this, but I'm not satisfied until I think everybody does and that is a sense of discernment where you can hear error and see error and be able to spot it as error and that's a valuable thing.

[40:32] This country right now, our nation, has a great many problems confronting it and you're aware of that as I am.

[40:43] You know, there's the southern border thing and all that goes along with it and that's just the beginning of the challenges that face this nation but I am convinced that the greatest deficiency and the greatest challenge that the United States of America faces is the ignorance and the apathy of its citizenry.

[41:11] You would be absolutely amazed at how many Americans have no idea what's going on in this country. They are so wrapped up in their own little individual world that they just, well, I don't care anything for politics or government or anything, have no interest in that, I just, you know, I just pay my taxes as I have to and just go merrily along.

[41:34] These people are a huge detriment to our nation. As a citizen of the United States of America, you owe it to yourself and you owe it to God to know what's going on, to be informed and you've got to be careful of your source because they've got a thing today called fake news and you know why it's called fake news?

[42:00] Because it is, because it is and that means that coming upon the truth sometimes can really be hard to do. But I'll tell you what, the discovery of truth has its own rewards and there is nothing more precious, more priceless for this planet than truth.

[42:27] And when you really pursue truth, you just pull out all the stops and you say, I'm going to go where truth leads me and you follow that and you continue to follow it and you're going to end up with Jesus Christ who is the way, the truth, and the life.

[42:51] So, in the pursuit of truth, you are automatically going to ferret out error. there are a whole lot of things out there that are not worthy of being believed.

[43:07] As I've often said, well, I don't know who said it, but I was just quoting that someone said that error and a lie can get clear around the world while the truth is still putting on its boots.

[43:23] truth is and that's true. So, we are going to be in for what I think will be a wonderful, exhilarating, enlightening, and informative ride.

[43:39] And I'm excited to get into this material for you. This is the kind of thing I wish we had three hour sessions for, but we don't. And now I'm going to take a couple of moments for Q&A. If anybody has got anything they'd like to share, feel free.

[43:50] Okay, here comes our roving microphone with a pair of young, sturdy legs that I envy.

[44:05] If the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection or angels, what the heck did they believe and why were they part of the Sanhedrin? Well, the Sadducees were the shakers and movers.

[44:20] Most of them were the chief priests. And the Pharisees were different. You know, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, they had some animosity between them.

[44:32] But when it came to the person of Christ, they joined forces against him. The Sadducees were primarily the religious establishment of Israel.

[44:45] And Caiaphas and Annas and this crowd, they were the Sadducees. The Pharisees, even though it's probably not commonly understood, the Pharisees were a lay movement.

[44:59] They were a group of lay people. They were not actually a part of the religious establishment as such, although some of them certainly had influence.

[45:10] But make no mistake about it, it was primarily the Sadducees who were the shakers and movers. they were the ones who made the decisions. And they were the ones who confronted not only Christ, well the Pharisees did too, but the Sadducees did.

[45:26] And also the Acts, in the book of Acts, the apostles, they confronted them. And they were primarily responsible for the stoning of Stephen.

[45:37] The Sadducees were part of the Sanhedrin. this was an elite group of 70 individuals who were the most learned, the most respected, the most revered, the most authoritative, etc.

[45:53] in the land of Israel. And they were the ones who were responsible, by the way, for the stoning of Stephen in Acts chapter 7. So their beliefs, in other words, let me put it this way.

[46:06] I think we could say, with some degree of accuracy, that the Pharisees, for the most part, represented the right wing, and the Sadducees, the left wing.

[46:18] The Sadducees were the real liberals of their day. The Pharisees were more along the conservative line. And they did reject, they tended to reject the supernatural, and they rejected the existence of angels and the possibility of the resurrection from the dead.

[46:37] Other comments or questions? John up here. To follow Roger's question, were they both part of the priesthood, or just one side of them?

[46:57] The priesthood? The Pharisees were not part of the priesthood. No. In order to be a priest, you had to be of the tribe of Levi in order to be a priest.

[47:11] And the Sadducees, who made up the Sanhedrin, primarily the Sanhedrin, they were from various different tribes, probably all, probably some from all 12 tribes.

[47:26] There were 70 of them. And they formed a big semi-circle. In other words, they were the equivalent of our Congress in their day, or the equivalent of today's Jewish Knesset.

[47:40] So where was the priesthood in all that? Well, the priesthood, the priest was supposed to be a direct descendant of Levi, who was the third-born son of Jacob.

[47:53] and the first high priest was Aaron. He was a Levite. Moses was a Levite also. Moses was from the priestly tribe.

[48:04] So if you were a Levite, if you were going to be a priest, you had to be a direct descendant of Levi. And when the north seceded from the Union, from the south, the ten tribes, they established a new priesthood, and they established a new king, neither of which were legitimate or nor recognized.

[48:33] And out of all of the kings that the north had, not a single one of them was a godly individual. Not a one. Not a one. In the south, they had some good kings and some bad kings, but that's a different subject.

[48:48] Okay? So actually, the Sadducees were not religious leaders per se, but almost like political leaders.

[48:59] Yeah, well, they had religion. They didn't have the real thing, but they had tradition. And they had, yeah, I think it would be safe to say that they were political animals as much as anything.

[49:17] They were the ones who were primarily in bed with the Romans. And it was, it was largely due to the willingness of Rome to allow this power block to maintain itself.

[49:37] And on one occasion, I don't know if it's in John's Gospel, or I think it's in John's Gospel, where the priests and the Sadducees are exercising real concern, and they make the statement, I can't give you the exact quote, but this is in the ballpark, they make the statement that if we do not nip this thing in the bud, Jesus of Nazareth being the Messiah, if we don't put an end to this thing, the Romans are going to come into it, and they will take away our place.

[50:16] They had a place that was cushy, a place that gave them a lot of perks, and a lot of recognition, and a lot of favors, and so on, because they were in bed with Pontius Pilate, they were in cahoots with them in much the same way that, what do they call them, I can't even think of the name of them, but this was the French during World War II, who sided with the Germans, and against their own people, remember, and I think it was at the Vichy government, yeah, and they were in bed with the Germans, and the Germans allowed them as Frenchmen to stay in control and in charge of the government of France as the puppets of the Germans, well, that's exactly what was going on in Jerusalem, in Israel at the time.

[51:15] Someone else? In the back, this will be our last question or comment. Roger. in Luke 20, when Jesus is talking about the vineyard, there was three servants he sent.

[51:35] Was that related to somebody else in the Bible? Prophets or whatever? The three servants before he sent his son? You're in Luke 20?

[51:47] Yeah. Verse 9. Verse 9. Verse 9. Verse 9. Verse 9. Verse 9. Verse 9. Verse 9. Verse 9. Well, I think that these servants are simply prophets that are speaking in regard to the coming of the Messiah and he's saying that he is saying as much that God has sent prophets to inform Israel and they rejected the prophets' message.

[52:23] and you can go through the Old Testament the four major prophets and the twelve minor prophets and see that virtually every one of them with the exception of Nineveh or with the exception of Jonah every one of them had their messages rejected and what Jesus is saying is that the prophets they did not listen to so God pulled out all the stops and he sent the ultimate authority for them to listen to he sent his own son and they didn't listen to him either and you know why they didn't faulty assumptions and their minds and their eyes were programmed against him because this Jesus of Nazareth did not fit their schedule did not fit their game plan for who and what the Messiah should be like he didn't measure up in their estimation they made the faulty assumption that Jesus therefore could not be the Messiah and they acted on that and when they carried it through they crucified him that's why faulty assumptions can be so very deadly may we stand please father we are so grateful that you are alone the purveyor of truth and we recognize we recognize that we are all certainly myself included we are all prone to faulty assumptions there are things that we think we have right and we don't have them right at all they're wrong and we can even go on and build a superstructure upon an unworthy foundation and more than anything else we pray for this group of believers right here that we will be able through the right division of scripture and the application of consistent hermeneutical principles be able to see and understand the truth for what it is and sort out the error thank you for being the purveyor of truth the provider of truth the revealer of truth we want to be recipients of that truth we love you for being the truthful

[54:50] God that you are and we extol everything that the scriptures reveal about you and we look forward to times of exciting discovery that lie ahead just miss us now we pray in Christ's name amen