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[0:00] A little bit of levity doesn't hurt a thing, and I was kind of amused by this, and I thought you would be too. Never heard of anyone by the name of Hannes before, H-O-N-U-S, except for Hannes Wagner.

[0:13] He was a baseball star, I think back in the 19th century, in the late 1800s. But he was a standout, Hannes Wagner. He was the only other Hannes I ever heard of, except this one.

[0:25] And Mr. Stamm mentioned this in his January 28 devotional. Have you heard the story of Hannes? Hannes was a wicked old renegade who lived in a small country town.

[0:43] When he died, his body lay in the funeral parlor for three days, without anyone even taking notice. Finally, on the day of the burial, a few of his old cronies did stop by to at least pay their respects.

[1:00] As they gathered, the funeral director said, Now, fellas, we can't bury Hannes like a dog. We've got to have some kind of service for him.

[1:12] Won't somebody here take charge? But the silence was profound. So finally, the funeral director himself agreed to take charge.

[1:24] He began by asking whether there wasn't someone who had a good word to say for Hannes before they buried him. Again, there was a deep silence.

[1:35] Till finally, one old man stood up and said, Well, I can say this much for Hannes.

[1:48] He wasn't always as bad as he sometimes was. To be honest, isn't this true of all of us?

[2:03] Some people take offense at Romans 3.22 and 23, which says, For there is no difference. For there is no difference.

[2:13] For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. They think there is a difference, and that they have not been as sinful as others. Ah, but while there may be a difference in the nature or the degree of our sins, Romans 3 is right when it says that there is no difference in this, that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

[2:39] A person may put up a good front, feeling that he is not nearly so great a sinner as others, but whether a bridge is ten feet or a hundred feet short of spanning the chasm, it's still useless, so don't try crossing it.

[2:57] This is why we all need the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace. And we may have this by trusting in the Christ who died for our sins.

[3:12] For by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. So, with that in mind, let's go to James chapter 2 and see what he has to say about faith and works.

[3:27] And before we get into it, I want to remind you of something that is really very, very important. In fact, it is one of the greatest keys to the understanding of the New Testament.

[3:41] And that is, as you go through the Gospels, particularly in the Gospels, you find one demonstration of the supernatural after another. Probably more than anything else, Christ was known for His miracles.

[3:57] In the New Testament, the Gospels records 35 of His miracles that we know of, and I'm sure there were many more that are not included in the text, because what we have in the Gospels is really just a boiled-down version of many of the things that were said and done.

[4:16] And John closes out his Gospel saying, And many other signs and things did Jesus did in the presence of His disciples that are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may know that Jesus is the Christ and that He is the Son of the living God.

[4:31] So, what we have is just a small particle of all of the miracles that Christ performed. And the point I want to make about that is simply this. The essence and the preponderance of miracles is associated with and connected with and is a product of, and don't ever forget this, the Kingdom message.

[4:54] The Kingdom message. We are not preaching the Kingdom message now. This is one reason why we do not have a manifestation of miracles now. As you read the book of Acts and the Gospels, you find one supernatural demonstration after another.

[5:12] That leads some to believe that that's the way things ought to be today. But that's not the way they're supposed to be. And people are confused when they say, Well, God doesn't change.

[5:25] God's just as powerful today as He was back then. Where are the miracles that Jesus performed and that the apostles performed? And the reason they performed them and were allowed to perform them was because the supernatural was a manifestation of verification of the Kingdom message that they were preaching.

[5:46] They were necessary to the Kingdom message. They're not necessary to the Grace message. That's why when the Kingdom message died out, the supernatural manifestation died out with it.

[5:58] Now, I want to offer also one caveat. And that is this. No one is suggesting that God can't do miracles today because this is the Age of Grace and not the Kingdom Age.

[6:10] That's nonsense. God can do miracles anytime, anywhere, any way He wants to. He's not limited. God's not put in a box. He doesn't have to do miracles within a certain time frame.

[6:22] But can't do them in another time frame. That's not true at all. What we are saying is the manifestation of the supernatural in an undisputed way, such as giving sight to a blind man that everybody knew was blind, hearing to a deaf man that everybody knew was deaf.

[6:42] And these people are seeing and hearing, and the lame are walking and jumping up and down, and nobody questioned the validity of the miracles. They were the modus operandi of the Kingdom.

[6:59] They were standard procedure for the Kingdom. They were the order of the day for the Kingdom, but not for the grace of God. The dispensation of the grace of God means that, yes, there are miracles that are performed today.

[7:14] We have doctors who can testify to certain individuals being alive, and they have absolutely no medical reason at all why this person should have survived.

[7:24] But they did. And they're walking around. And you may call it a miracle. And, by the way, I know of a case like that.

[7:35] And it cannot be, and it was not because anybody was praying for him, or because he was praying for himself, because the man was an atheist. As far as I know, he died an atheist.

[7:47] But he was on the receiving end of what the medical team called, we don't have any explanation for this. This guy should be dead. But he was alive. So, and I'm not saying that God did it or that God didn't do it.

[7:59] All I'm saying is that miracles are the modus operandi. They are in keeping with the Kingdom message and James and Hebrews and the Peter epistles and the Johannine epistles and the Revelation.

[8:20] And, by the way, if you want to see a manifestation of the supernatural, big time, read the Revelation, it is going to be replete with supernatural.

[8:32] And you know why? Because that will have been a reversion to the Kingdom message. What are the 144,000 going to be preaching?

[8:44] The church is removed. We're raptured. We're gone. The dispensation of the grace of God is passed. And now, there is a reversion to the Kingdom message, and they will be preaching the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

[8:58] Repent and believe the Gospel. And the focus will be on the coming of the Messiah. And that will be the capstone of it. Make it quick, Joe. What? Okay.

[9:10] In Acts 12, 15, 12, Paul, he preached the grace message, but he started out with wonders and miracles. Because in 12, verse 12, the whole assembly became silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul telling about the signs and the wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them.

[9:31] Right. And what was the purpose of all of this? Really, really got people's attention. I mean, people would sit up and take notice of that. They may not listen to what somebody says, but when they see with their own eyes lame people walking and blind people seeing, you better believe that gets their attention.

[9:51] And it is designed to authenticate the message. Because what's characteristic of blind people seeing and deaf people hearing and all the rest, the lame walking, what's characteristic? That's characteristic of the Kingdom.

[10:03] That's the way it's going to be in the Kingdom. There aren't going to be people ill like they are today. That's one of the manifestations because Christ is going to be here himself during that time.

[10:14] So what I'm saying, and this is very, very important, as you move on through the book of Acts, you find less and less emphasis and less and less demonstration.

[10:24] Why? Because the Kingdom and its possibilities for Israel is growing slimmer and slimmer as the years grow by.

[10:37] And finally it will come to the place of where the cutoff will come and God will say, alright, that's it for Israel. The opportunity extended to them to receive the Messiah whom they suggested be crucified and they were complicit in His crucifixion and the opportunity for you as a nation to receive Him and have Him establish the Kingdom is now gone.

[11:05] It's over. And now, a whole new thing has started and it's called the dispensation, not of the Kingdom, but the dispensation of the grace of God.

[11:22] And this is obvious, as you keep in mind, Acts encompasses 30 years of history. And we've got illustrations like in Peter, like in Acts chapter 12 where Peter is in prison and he's going to be executed because they've already executed John, the brother of James, or James, I'm sorry, James the brother of John.

[11:48] No, no, it was just, I got my James and John's mixed up. He had already been executed in chapter 12 and Peter was scheduled for execution and the angel appeared, led him out of the jail, led him out of the prison and he went to the house and knocked on the door and wrote who came to the door.

[12:05] You remember that story. And Peter is miraculously delivered. But the time is going to come, not far hence from that, there won't be any deliverance.

[12:19] The Apostle Paul is going to be supernaturally delivered from the prison along with Silas in Acts chapter 16 in Philippi and there's an earthquake and all the doors of the cells fell open and it was a miracle and the Philippian jailer was saved as a result of it.

[12:38] But when you fast forward a few years and you arrive at about 68, maybe 67 AD, Paul writes his last letter to Timothy and says, the time of my departure is at hand.

[13:00] He knew his execution was pending. Where is the miraculous release? Where is the miraculous rescue? He goes the way of the executioner's acts and his life is ended.

[13:17] And to me, that is more evidence that that which was to accompany the supernatural was disappearing and the miracles disappeared with it.

[13:28] And I don't want to get ahead of myself here too much, but later in the book of James, I might as well say this, later in the book of James, he gives the illustration and he says, is any sick among you?

[13:47] Let him call for the elders of the church and let him come, let them come and lay their hands on him and the prayer for the sick will raise him up.

[13:58] Do we do that today? Some attempt to, some try to, and in perfectly good faith with sincere belief.

[14:12] And I remember, I remember a man one time who came to the church that I was attending. This was years ago. This was back in the 60s. And he was preaching on this particular passage of scripture.

[14:27] And he was saying that he has gone to different homes and he has prayed and the prayer of faith, et cetera, and took some of the elders from the church and that there were some cases where people were improved.

[14:43] He said, I couldn't say that anyone was actually healed. And then this dear man went on to tell us about the reason that his wife was not with him attending these meetings because he was a traveling evangelist was because she had a severe arthritic condition and she was unable to travel.

[15:03] And, of course, everybody got kind of silent and finally somebody got up the nerve to ask him and they said, well, did you do that? Did you call for the elders of the church?

[15:16] He said, yes, we did. And they came and we prayed and frankly, we just don't know why she wasn't healed.

[15:30] So we just attributed that to the will of God and left it there. Well, that's all well and good but James doesn't say that. James says that the prayer of faith will raise them up and that they will be healed.

[15:43] But, fellas, that is for the kingdom dispensation. That's supernatural stuff that is intended and designed for that. And this is what Paul was talking about when he says we walk, that is, we conduct our daily lives.

[16:00] That's your walk. That's what the Bible means when it talks about our walk. It means the way you live your daily life, we walk in our daily lives on the basis of simply believing not because we see but because we have received the word of God and we simply believe it.

[16:25] That is walking by faith as opposed to walking by sight. When you walk by sight you have to have something to look at. And that was characteristic of the kingdom message.

[16:38] But we're not preaching the kingdom message today. We do not preach to people repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. We preach believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.

[16:50] So let's look at this James passage. It's the faith and works thing and I am satisfied that this too is part of the kingdom message. By the way, all you have to do is read the very first verse of James and see to whom this book is addressed.

[17:06] It's addressed to the twelve tribes scattered abroad. This was a letter that was intended to be circulated throughout the whole Mediterranean world because the Jews due to persecution primarily were scattered all over the place.

[17:26] And if you want to get an idea of how wide the scattering was just read the list of places and countries that all of those Jews were from who attended the Feast of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2.

[17:42] It gives a long list of the places where they lived and they were in Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost as a pilgrimage and they would celebrate the feast and when the feast was over they'd go home.

[17:54] They are scattered all over everywhere. James writes this letter to that clientele. And so does Peter in his epistles writes to the twelve tribes scattered abroad.

[18:06] So let's begin reading if we may verse 14. What a use is my brethren if a man says he has faith but he has no works could that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food and one of you says to them go in peace be warmed and be filled and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body what use is that?

[18:29] Now this is a works demanding faith a works expecting faith and by the way is that not a legitimate concept?

[18:42] Is not true faith supposed to do something? Not just sit there? A true faith seeks to manifest itself through behavior.

[18:57] It is belief belief that determines behavior or lack of belief that determines behavior. And the people from whom society gets the worst behavior are generally people who have the worst belief or no belief because one is the root the other is the fruit.

[19:23] faith if it has no works is dead being by itself. Someone may say you have faith and I have works show me your faith without the works and I will show you my faith by my works.

[19:37] You believe that God is one you do well. The demons also believe and shudder. And this by the way just gives the lie to the common thread that so many many people have.

[19:50] if you ask the average person on the street are you a believer? What they usually think you mean is do you believe in God?

[20:03] And you would be surprised how many people are simply counting on that and that alone to stand them in good stead with God. I believe there is a God.

[20:14] Well, James is saying well, whoop-dee-doo even the devil believes that. I mean, you don't get much credit for that. So don't take comfort in that. But that's exactly what most people think when you talk about belief and when you talk about justification by faith and by believing they tie that with well, yeah, I believe there is a God.

[20:36] Well, it involves far more than that but that's a start at least. Are you willing to recognize you foolish fellow that faith without works is useless?

[20:48] Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? You see that faith was working with his works and as a result of the works faith was perfected.

[21:01] That means faith was completed. It's speaking in terms of a cycle and it is the repetition of a cycle. It is faith and works and faith and works. It isn't works and works.

[21:12] It isn't faith and faith. It's faith and works. Someone has said that if you get out in a rowboat and you're going to row to the other side but you only have one oar on the side and you row with one oar all you're going to do is go around in circles.

[21:32] You need two oars one on each side so that it propels you forward and you're not going around in circles. And someone has likened that to faith and works.

[21:42] We are not saved by faith and works but we are saved by faith that works. And if it doesn't work there's every reason to question whether it is the genuine product because faith that is real doesn't even have to work at working.

[22:07] It just comes automatically. It is part of what you are on the inside and it is manifested automatically outward in your attitude your behavior your demeanor your value system your agenda your disposition everything is reflected on the outside what is truly on the inside.

[22:32] The scripture verse 23 was fulfilled which says Abraham believed God it was reckoned to him that is his belief was reckoned to him for righteousness and we've already looked at this but I just want to emphasize it again that Abraham was justified by faith before he was circumcised and before he offered Isaac he was justified by faith and it was because he was in the sphere of faith that he performed the works that he did.

[23:07] that list that is given in Hebrews 11 which by the way is kingdom oriented and it says by faith Noah what did he do Noah built an ark another way of putting that guys is this and I've used this little phrase at the beginning of all of those in Hebrews 11 where it's called the hall of faith it says by faith Noah by faith Abraham by faith judge by faith and I render that because he believed what God told him he built an ark and because he believed what God told him he left Ur the Chaldees and the because Abraham believed God was even able to raise his son from the dead in order to fulfill his promise you see that that was the kind of rock like faith that Abraham never had but developed he didn't have it in the beginning

[24:09] Abraham was kind of weak in faith in the beginning but in his walk with the Lord he grew strong in faith even to the extent where he was willing to sacrifice his own son and the reason the text gives us the reason he was is because he believed God to the extent that God had told him that through his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed and it was through his son Isaac that was the child of promise and now God is telling him to take him to the altar and sacrifice him and Abraham was going to do that because he believed that promise that God had given how is his seed going to bless the earth if he kills the only seed there is and that is because he believed God would be able to go to the extent of raising his slain son from the dead if need be now fellas that is faith that that is confidence and one of the reasons that

[25:15] Abraham had that kind of confidence is because he had spoken with the deity face to face in a way that we cannot begin to imagine that will do something by for solidifying faith and confidence in you I'll tell you so let us go on you see that a man is justified by works and not by faith only in the same way was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way for just as the body without the spirit is dead so also faith or that kind of faith without works is dead it is the spirit that regenerates that is regenerated when you came to faith in Christ God didn't do a thing for changing your body but he changed you on the inside he changed your human spirit that's what got regenerated that's the part of you that's saved your body has had the price of redemption paid for it but it has not been applied and that's why we are still going to die physically and

[26:34] Romans 8 makes it clear that when the time comes the redemption of the body in addition to the spirit will be a reality and then of course that will be a glorified body so I've got some things I want to run by you then I want to open this for some Q&A just some propositions for you to consider one cannot be a recipient of the grace of that vehicle is a person and his name is Jesus grace and truth came by him John 1 tells us that the law came by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ it is only because of Jesus that God can make grace rather than justice available to us if you want God's grace that is undeserved instead of

[27:34] God's justice that you do deserve you have to embrace the source of that grace and that is Jesus Christ because God has no other way and has made no other way of getting it to you faith is designed and intended to do something to make a difference otherwise what good is it what difference does it make with true faith present works are not forced but an automatic result of true faith in Ephesians 2 8 and 9 we read for by grace are you saved through faith that means grace is the platform grace is the basis how does God's grace get to you what's the pipeline the pipeline is faith is an act of your will whereby you deliberately intentionally make a volitional decision to put your faith in

[28:43] Jesus Christ and you do that the same way you make a decision about anything else this is not some spiritual religious decision it is a personal decision that you make with the same will that you decide whether you're going to buy this house or whether you're going to marry this woman or whether you're going to buy this car it isn't anything specially religious or different it is just an act of your will and that makes it within the ability of all some people get the idea that it has to be accompanied by some feeling or some sensation or something and I well remember the day that I came to faith in Christ December 8th 1956 I didn't feel anything I didn't feel a great burden lifted I didn't feel cleansed I didn't feel like a new person but I had exercised my will and when

[29:44] I said when I got up off my knees and I stumbled through a prayer and I turned to a preacher led me to the Lord Reverend Sweetland and I said well is that it and he said tell me did you mean what you said in the prayer that you just prayed and I said oh yeah absolutely it never occurred to me to try to con God absolutely I meant it he said well if you meant what you said in your prayer then God has saved you and I said okay that's good and when my kid sister was saved I felt that that that really got to me there were tears of joy I felt so relieved for her but people are different you know you don't have to have a certain feeling you just need a certain commitment and sometimes people get this mixed up they think there needs to be some kind of a an aura an angelic visitation a certain kind of feeling a certain kind of sign or something no no no it is a deliberate volitional act of your will it is a choice that you make it is a positive expression and people need to understand that because the belief the belief that results in salvation is no different from the belief that you exercise in anything else and what makes the difference

[31:23] I've often said we are we are saved we are saved by grace through faith but we are we are not saved by faith in faith we are saved by faith in Christ what makes the difference is the object of your faith you realize everybody has faith everybody has faith I remember talking to some people over the years about faith and about Christianity etc and they say I don't buy that stuff I don't have any faith at all I have no faith and I just cannot resist correcting them and I said oh but you do that you have no faith that is your faith that is your everyone believes in something even the atheist who screams to the highest heavens that there is no God he has faith faith is nothing more than confidence it's belief it's belief it's confidence it's reliance it's trust and when when someone when someone exercises their faith it is the object of their faith that makes the difference we are not saved by faith in faith we are saved by faith in Christ and as I've said even an atheist has faith you know where his faith is it's in himself it's in his own intellect it's in his own perception it's in his own understanding he has faith it is faith in himself so everybody puts their trust or faith in something whether it's themselves or their church or Christ or their life or good works or whatever let me put it this way everybody and anybody who is planning on or hoping to go to heaven has something that they're counting on what is it what is it your answer to that question will determine everything if it is the finished work of

[33:39] Christ applied to your account you're home free if it's anything short of that you're in big trouble because Christ is the way the truth and the life faith is nothing more than belief trust commitment or reliance I had something else I wanted to touch on just a little bit and then I'll open it for comments that you may have and that is that is about faith being what I call the coin of the realm the reason that God requires faith and the reason that Hebrews says which by the way is cross dispensational it doesn't matter what dispensation you're in that without faith it is impossible to please him for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him so faith is essential because we do not have conclusive evidence of God's existence of God's creation etc so what is conclusive evidence conclusive evidence means the evidence is so certain and so powerful there is no room at all for doubt do we have conclusive evidence of God's existence today no no

[35:22] I've often said the existence of God cannot be proven and his non-existence cannot be proven either conclusive evidence means there is no possibility of denial or contradiction and by the way this again is where the supernatural comes in and the miracles seeing is believing this kind of thing the time is coming when the evidence will be conclusive and I'll tell you when that'll be when he comes and every eye shall see him there won't be any room for doubt no room for doubt no deniers no atheist then because seeing will be leaving and the evidence will be conclusive so while we do not have conclusive evidence and here's a big difference we do have ample evidence we have more than ample evidence which leads

[36:42] Paul to say what he does in Romans 1 that God is visible through creation that he has made man is able to recognize that this came from someone somewhere somehow I can't make a tree I can't make a mountain where did these things come from how did they get here and the text goes on in Romans 1 and says therefore oh man thou art without excuse because you haven't been given conclusive evidence but you have been given ample evidence and you refuse to act on that you see God will God will provide the evidence that is needed if you are committed to accepting the evidence in advance and this is why I say the problem that the unbelievers had even though they were looking at the miracles of Christ and couldn't deny them and they didn't deny them they didn't deny them their problem was not a lack of evidence it was a lack of will and when we talk about the will that's where that volition thing is again we have one to exercise so coin the coin of the realm is faith

[37:59] God accepts us on the basis not of our conclusive evidence but on the basis of acting on the evidence that is available that would otherwise leave us without excuse and we examine the evidence that is available and we say virtually everything I've looked at points to the existence of God the truthfulness of his word of creation of everything that surrounds it and based on the ample evidence that I have I put my faith and trust in Jesus Christ that's what God accepts comments or questions okay Joe I can't really add to your truth Marv really the way you put it there's no way except in James at the end of James where he talked about rehab he was trying to say that what she did to help those spies get away free that was righteousness for her no she had faith before that because she had heard about the God of the

[39:04] Jews of the Israelite people how he had taken them across the Red Sea she had heard all these wonderful things in the wilderness and you know what she believed that's right she believed so therefore she was a Gentile that believed that that was the true God that the Israelite God was the true God one more thing one more thing I'm going to add here on Ephesians and I think this is the best place that Paul spells it out in Ephesians 2 8-10 for it is by the grace you have been saved through faith and this is not for yourselves it is the gift of God not by works so that no one can boast I want to piggyback on that from Galatians chapter 2 and Paul had a real problem with this I mean he didn't have a problem with faith he didn't have a problem with grace but he had a big problem selling it he really did he got opposition everywhere because they saw it as teaching against the law and a man that teaches against the law deserves to die and they put out a contract on him 30 of these guys 30 of these guys swore an oath that they would not eat or drink until they saw

[40:17] Paul's blood run cold and that's that's that's that's hatred and here in Galatians 2 he says this is this is where he took Peter to task for hobnobbing with the with the Gentiles until the mucky mucks came from Jerusalem and then he separated himself from them and wouldn't have anything to do with them and Paul says nevertheless nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Christ Jesus even we have believed in Christ Jesus so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law since by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified he says the same thing over again about three times he wants to make sure you get it and he says it in different ways if you didn't get it the first time if that didn't hit you then let me hit you with this and he's desperate desperate to get across this truth because it makes all the difference in the world this justification thing by faith it's what set Martin

[41:31] Luther on fire and even though he brought a lot of baggage with him from the Roman Catholic Church infant baptism and the rest of it he really parted company over this justification by faith thing and it lit the fires of Europe and you and I today are beneficiaries of that because almost every one of us here have ancestors that once lived in Europe and Paul got into Europe with the gospel when he crossed the Hellespont 2,000 years ago and preached this gospel and it just spread everywhere and the pilgrims brought it with them in 1620 you want to see something of that read the Mayflower you can get it online read the Mayflower compact and it is loaded with the gospel it's just a beautiful thing so we are all beneficiaries of this gospel that Paul preached and he paid for it dearly paid for it with his life but you know he said

[42:41] I would I gladly spend and be spent for the gospel I'm not ashamed of it I'm not embarrassed by it because it this gospel is the power of God through faith unto salvation how can you be ashamed of that there's nothing like it in the world and this is our message and this this is all we have it's all we have and it's also all we need amen other comments or questions anyone Gary I guess when I read through all the things that Paul said and did and all the challenges that he had giving this across to people you had to think he had to know that he knew that he knew oh you're right absolutely because he couldn't have done that without that you're right you're right absolutely nothing nothing nothing fortifies or emboldens a speaker addressing a group than knowing that he knows what he's talking about he's an authority on the issue

[43:57] I don't care what it is I don't care if you're talking physics woodworking metalworking teaching whatever you get somebody who is schooled in that and has spent a lot of time in it they've got a boldness deservedly so because they know what they know and they know that they know and they want everybody else to know it and it provides a kind of boldness that nothing else will yeah James and also Paul they both thought that Jesus was coming back real soon I mean they were in their lifetime they thought he was coming soon you know but you know that's the Old Testament if you read the Old Testament but of course the mystery the church age they knew nothing about it was never talked about yeah and as long as the food isn't here I'm going to keep on talking this is I'm thinking now we're best to go with this because I probably won't have too much time but well

[45:00] I've examined the conversion account of Paul a lot and I've changed my position on some things I previously thought that he was converted on the Damascus Road and I'm not at all convinced that that's the case having studied it further I think where he was converted was when he got to the house of Annias they led him by the hand because he was blind from the light and they led him to this house on the street called straight this man named I think his name was no street called straight what was the guy's name it was Judas it was Ananias that went to him and laid hands on him it was the house of Judas the different Judas of course and and we are told that that Paul was blind and the text says that he did not eat or drink anything for three days think of that now what was going on during those three days envision this if you will

[46:13] Paul is sitting at this table in this man's house and he is replaying in his mind that Damascus road thing the voice that he heard the light that blinded him the message why are you persecuting me and he replays that over and over and over and he asks himself again and again was that real was I dreaming did I imagine that and each time he would come back to it was real it was true it was Jesus I can't deny maybe he would like to deny it but he can't deny it he can't deny it and another place he says woe unto me right into the Corinthians he says woe unto me if I preach not the gospel he said if I do this thing willingly if I preach this gospel willingly

[47:15]  I have a reward coming in other words I volunteered so I get paid for this I have a reward coming but if by compulsion or by necessity that's a whole different thing and I think what Paul is saying there is listen I did not volunteer for this gig I was drafted going to go to the thing is going to