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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Now, again, for the sake of time, I'm not gonna explain everything. Here's another one that would take a while, but it's important to realize, is how elder, bishop, pastor, overseer are all the same. Okay? They're different words in the Bible, use them all kinds of different ways, but the bishops are the elders, and the elders are the bishops, and they're the pastors, and they're the overseers. And it doesn't really matter which word you use, it's describing the same person consistently throughout the Bible. And so, yeah, they're different words, but they mean the same thing. It's not like four different offices. We don't have the overseer of the church, who's been over the bishop, who's been over the elders, who's been over the pastors. No, no, no. It's the same guy. It's the same person that we're talking about. But again, I'm not gonna explain that in detail this sermon. I've explained others. Here's one that I want to talk about, is grace itself. And in Ephesians, chapter number 2, verse 8, for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. So, according to the Bible, we have a definition of grace kind of built in to this particular verse structure. And it's important because Calvinists and others will try to twist what grace even means. But what does grace mean? I want to borrow the board for just a second. Just to illustrate this, but... And again, grace can technically have a couple different definitions or uses. He talks about someone like walking gracefully. That would be different than what we're talking about here in this particular passage. But just for consistency's sake, I'm not gonna explain all that. I'm just gonna focus on when we're talking about grace in context of salvation. One way to word grace, or a definition of it, would be unmerited favor. Unmerited favor. Now the problem is, most people can't even speak English, so when I say that, it meant nothing to them. Okay? Unmerited. Is that a word? Okay. So, what's another way to word something that's not merited? I'm gonna say it's favor... without works. Or you could say favor with no works, or by no works. You could say it all kinds... I'm not gonna raise comfort up here and say that through and by are different words or something. Favor without works. Now, when... I'm gonna write this better just so no one thinks I'm saying with. I'm just gonna say no works. And in fact, you could almost say, simply put, that grace literally just means no works. Now why I say that, think about what this verse is actually saying in verse number 8. For by grace are you saved through faith. Now, it continues. This is still one sentence when we get to verse 9. It's saying not of works. What is the not of works in reference to? It's in reference to the word grace itself. It's explaining that grace does not have works. What's another way to explain how grace means no works? It's not of yourselves. Not of yourselves is the equivalent to not of works. And both of them are defining for you what the word grace literally means. You could almost reword this sentence to just say, for by no works are you saved through faith. That's literally what it's saying. For by no works are you saved through faith. That's what grace means. Favor with no works. It's not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. Otherwise you could boast. That's how it's literally defining this particular word. Go back to Romans and look at chapter 11 for a moment. Go to Romans chapter number 11. And look at verse number 6. It gets even clearer here. Romans chapter 11 verse 6. And it says, and if by grace then it is no more of works. Notice how it's defining grace. Grace is no more of works. Otherwise grace is no more grace. It's basically saying like if there's works then the word grace doesn't even mean grace anymore. Because the word grace literally is meaning no works. None. That's what grace means is no works. And then it says but if it be of works then it is no more grace. Otherwise work is no more work. It's just helping you understand how words have definitions. And it's saying works or work cannot mean grace. It's not equal to grace. And it's so funny is Calvinists all day long. They'll get up in the quote Ephesians 2 8 9 and they'll say God gives you the grace to do the works. And you're like what are you talking about? Like grace means no works. Anytime you see the word grace in the context of salvation you should literally be able to just substitute the phrase no works. And it will still make sense. For by no works are you saved through faith. But think about their sentence. Because they're saying God gave you the grace to do the works. God gave you the no works to do the works. But God is helping me to do works by not doing work. It's like it doesn't make sense. Why? Because they totally eliminated what the meaning of this word even is. So when you understand the meaning of grace is literally saying it's no works. Yeah these are different but they're the same. And once you understand that grace means no works there's no way to ever argue for works or repenting of your sin or any of this stuff to have anything to do with salvation. It's a complete gift. It's not of yourself. And so it just helps us understand these words better. Go if you would to Matthew 19. I want to show you another one that's pretty popular here. Matthew 19. And I feel like this is one that a lot of people have probably heard. Who's heard someone teach or say that there's a difference between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven? Who's heard this stupid? Okay yeah. We're going to destroy that. Okay. This is really bad and really stupid. I even heard Kent Hovind teach this. I've seen a video where he's trying to explain how, you know, salvation is a free gift. But if you don't have the works you're not going to get into the kingdom of God. It's like what are you talking about? He tries to make this distinction and act like well the millennial reign of Christ only those that have all the works are going to get into that one. No. I'm getting into anywhere I'm getting into because of the blood of Jesus and my faith in him. Number one. But here's the sad part. If you don't get into the kingdom of God you're not getting into the kingdom of heaven either. Okay. Or vice versa. Because it's the same thing. Now look at Matthew chapter 19 verse 23. Then said Jesus and his disciples, verily I say unto you that a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. Okay. So rich men are going to have a hard time getting into the kingdom of heaven. Verse 24. And again I say unto you it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man enter into the kingdom of God. Now that should just instantly destroy their doctrine. I mean you really think that Jesus is trying to say like well there's these two different places that are hard for rich men to get into. No. It's the same thing. Okay. Go to Mark chapter number one. Go to Mark chapter one. Let's show how it's saying the same thing in all kinds of different sections of the Bible. Look at Mark chapter one and look at verse 15. It says in Mark 1 verse 15 and saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ye and believe the gospel. What does at hand mean? It means it's right here. It's something that you can have at moments notice. You can have it right now. It's close by. It's from a timing perspective and from an accessibility perspective. It's both readily available now in the present tense time wise. It's also available from an accessibility perspective of you can acquire it at that particular moment in time as well. That's what it's trying to say. The kingdom of God is like right here. You can get it. Now, keep your finger here because we're going to go back and forth with Mark and Matthew. But go back to Matthew as well and look at Matthew chapter number three. So, if you have this idea like Kent Hovind that the kingdom of God is this like thousand year millennial reign and then later it's like the kingdom of heaven and that's completely different. Well, then you couldn't say that they're both at hand. First of all, you couldn't even say that they were at hand when Jesus said this. You would call Jesus a liar. Because he's saying something's at hand right then. The millennial reign was not at hand. Welcome to 2023. I feel like it's been a while since Jesus made that statement on this earth and we still haven't gotten to that millennial reign kingdom. So, my interpretation would be that he was talking about something that was actually available to them when he made this statement. Okay. Look at Matthew chapter three verse two. Jesus is saying, repent ye for the kingdom of God is at hand. Or is this John the Baptist? I might have said that wrong. But either way, it doesn't even matter because, yeah, this is John the Baptist. John the Baptist is saying, repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. So, in Matthew chapter three, we have John the Baptist saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And Mark chapter one, we have Jesus saying the kingdom of God is at hand. Look at chapter four verse seventeen. We'll get Jesus actually saying it. Verse seventeen, from that time Jesus began to preach and to say, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Now, if you understand the timeline of the Bible, Mark chapter one and Matthew chapter number four here is kind of picking up at the same time. So, these are parallel passages. This is the same time when Jesus is going around. He's saying, hey, the kingdom of God is at hand. He's saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Why? Because it's the same thing. What is the kingdom of God? What is the kingdom of heaven, Pastor Shelley? It's simply put, it's the royal priesthood. It's those of us that believed in Jesus Christ and were entered into His kingdom at the moment that we got saved and we believed in Jesus Christ. That is the kingdom of God. And, of course, we're all in the kingdom of God. Now, there's going to be more fulfillments of this in the sense that, sure, eventually we will have a millennial reign and we'll all be gathered together. We won't be scattered anymore as a kingdom. We'll be gathered together with Christ and we'll literally have His kingdom on this earth and then eventually we'll have the kingdom of God coming from heaven down onto the earth through the new heaven and the new earth. But let me tell you something. The kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven that is at hand is us being saved and we've entered into that kingdom of heaven. And we're preaching the gospel of the kingdom of heaven. The entrance into that kingdom is through the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's why it's the same thing, folks. There's no new thing here. Look at chapter 13 of Matthew. Go to Matthew chapter 13 and look at verse 24. Let's get even further evidence of this. Matthew chapter 13 verse 24. Another parable put forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like another man which sowed good seed in his field. Okay. Flip your finger there and go to Mark chapter 4. Mark chapter number 4 and look at verse 26. So it's talking about a man which sowed good seed in his field. Look at Mark chapter 4 verse 26. And he said, So is the kingdom of God as if a man should cast seed into the ground. So when he's giving the same parables, and one is the kingdom of God and the other is the kingdom of heaven, look at verse 30. And he said, So he's constantly using these parables. And in Matthew he's saying kingdom of heaven. Mark he's saying kingdom of God. It's the same place. Go to Matthew chapter 19 and Mark 10. Now here's the thing. If I type in an internet software, I say kingdom of God, kingdom of heaven, it's not going to pop up any verse that disproves that doctrine. So the only way for someone to actually realize that these are the same places, they have to do something. They have to read the Bible. And a lot of false prophets and false teachers probably don't know how to read the Bible. They don't know how to read the Bible. They don't know how to read the Bible. And a lot of false prophets and false teachers pray on people because they've never read the Bible at all. If you read the Bible, you'll notice these connections and you realize this is talking about the same place. Matthew 19, look at verse 23. Go ahead to Mark 10, look at verse 24. Verse 25. So notice, every time he's bringing up these parables, he's using kingdom of heaven in one chapter, kingdom of God in another book, but it's the same concepts, it's the same talking points. I want to show you one more and then we'll move on. Matthew chapter 11 and Luke 7. Go back to Matthew chapter 11 and look at Luke chapter 7. Now this one, again, I don't know how you could gainsay anything I showed you so far, but honestly, this one should really shatter any idea that they're not talking about the same thing. Look at Matthew chapter 11, verse 11. Notwithstanding, he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. Now look at Luke 7, verse 28. So notice, when it's bringing up the exact same point about the exact same person in the exact same context, it just uses one kingdom of heaven, the other one kingdom of God, and it also is saying that they're equivalent in their value, meaning it's not like, oh, the super special Christians get in the kingdom of God and the other ones don't get into the kingdom of heaven. Look, no, it's just talking about the same thing. And of course, you know, there's a lot of ways to interpret these verses about John the Baptist and people being greater. I think that, you know, one possible interpretation of this is just he's simply talking about those of us post the gospel, going out and preaching the gospel and preaching, you know, the word of God. We have an opportunity to do greater things than John the Baptist. Another context of the fact that people being saved are better than anybody that's on earth, that's another way to interpret this. But no matter how you interpret this passage, you have to recognize that kingdom of heaven and kingdom of God are used interchangeably. It's the same place, folks. And really, this is the last one I'm going to give you this evening, but go to Luke 23. It's this idea of paradise. And what does it mean? OK, paradise. And what does it mean? Now, some people say that paradise is Abraham's bosom. Maybe Sarah thought that. I don't know. You know, she just really liked Abraham. But, you know, this is not what the Bible teaches what paradise is. There is a stupid teaching out there that paradise is the secret compartment in the middle of the earth. It's super hot. It's like, dude, people are complaining about Texas being hot. Can you imagine being in the center of the earth? Like, that's not cool. OK, I don't think there's a secret AC department down in the middle of the earth with all the lava. That's the super cool paradise called Abraham. Why would it even be called Abraham's bosom? Can someone that believes that doctrine just explain to me why some random compartment in the middle of the earth is just randomly called Abraham's bosom? Abraham's chest. This just reminds me of Abraham's chest. It's like, that's just weird. OK. But the Bible makes it clear that paradise is the same as heaven. Heaven. Yeah, they're different, but they're the same. OK, now look at Luke 23, verse 43. It doesn't say anything about Abraham here or his bosom or anything like that. It sounds like, you know, based on the context, since this guy thought he was going to die and go to hell, that's talking about heaven. I think anybody from a plane reading the text when they read this verse would think like, oh, he's saying heaven. Now, go if you would to Revelation chapter two, go to Revelation chapter two. And some people then say, well, this is a proof text that Jesus went to heaven. When he as soon as he died. You know, I understand why you might think that about this particular passage. You know, Jesus Christ told us in John chapter number three that while he was talking with Nicodemus, the son of man was in heaven. So somehow the son of man was in heaven when Jesus was talking with Nicodemus and John chapter number three. Well, it stands to reason that if Jesus was in heaven in John chapter number three, he was also in heaven here in Luke. Like somehow he could be in both places at the same time and say, how can somebody be in two places at the same time? They're God. OK, now, some people say this is just talking about the father or the Holy Spirit. I think it's just literally talking about Jesus because the title given to him in John chapter three is the son of man. That's not a title of the father. It's not a title given to anybody other than the Lord Jesus Christ. And you say, well, how in the world can Jesus literally be in heaven and be on earth? Well, great is the mystery of godliness. God is manifest in the flesh. You know, how in the world can the God of the universe become a baby? I can't understand that. How can a virgin concede? I don't know. That doesn't happen. It's just not something that's realistic. Right. How can someone come back from the dead? I don't know. How can any of these things work? I don't understand them. But you know what? I believe all of them by faith. OK, so the same way that I believe any verse by faith, I believe the same verse that says Jesus was in heaven in John chapter three makes sense that he was in heaven. Also, when we read about here in Luke, here's another few verses that the Bible talks about. It talks about some people being tormented in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the land and the lake of fire. How is Jesus with us in heaven when people are also in hell in the presence of the of the lamb somehow? Sounds like, again, Jesus can be in more than one place at the same time. OK, so I'm not really afraid of the idea of Jesus possibly being in multiple places at the same time. But another thing that's clear in the scripture, and I'm not proving this today, but is that when Jesus died, his soul descended into hell. That's just what the Bible says. OK, so to reconcile all of those, you know, when he's looking at the guy saying, hey, today you're going to be with me in paradise, that was absolutely true. And of course, when he went to heaven, hey, the son of man is in heaven and he's with the son of man. It's also true that as soon as Jesus Christ died, his soul descended down to the lower parts of the earth. The reconciliation of this is not Abraham's bosom and not a place called paradise. Because paradise in the Bible is consistently just heaven. Look at Revelation chapter two, verse seven. He that hath in here, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. Now, why do we even need Abraham's bosom being mentioned in Revelation chapter two when we're already in the New Testament? Why? Because we're talking about a place called heaven. Go to Revelation 22. It says that the tree of life is in the midst of the paradise of God. And frankly speaking, I mean, just look at the dictionary. Paradise is going to tell you, like, synonym, heaven. Okay? Unless you have a Ruckmanite dictionary, then it might tell you something weird, okay? Revelation 22, look at verse one. And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, receding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life. Now, where did it say in Revelation chapter two the tree of life was? In the paradise of God. So you'd have to tell me that this also is Abraham's bosom. But you know what? In the previous chapter, it told me that God saw a new heaven and a new earth, and what he's seeing in this vision is that throne of God descending out of heaven onto the earth, and that's where he's seeing the tree of life, and that tree of life is where? In the paradise of God, because we're talking about heaven. Now let's prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt. Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 12. The word paradise is only used three times in the Bible. We've already read two of them. Both of them seem pretty clear that we're referencing heaven. The third proves it beyond any shadow of a doubt, that when we use the word paradise, we mean heaven. When we use the word heaven and the context of it being where God dwells, it's paradise. Now the Bible does talk about multiple heavens. There's a first heaven, which is like our sky. There's kind of a second heaven, which is like our universe in the sense of space and outer space. And then there's a third heaven, which is where God dwells. So when we look at 2 Corinthians chapter number 12, we're talking about Paul having had a great vision. I think he's referencing himself. You could argue he's talking about someone else, but either way, he's talking about a vision of someone going to heaven. Look at verse 4. How that he, talking about this person, was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable words which were not lawful for a man to utter. He explained to him what let's go brandon means. No, I'm just kidding. But notice something. He was caught up. It didn't say he descended down into Abraham's bosom. He was caught up into paradise. But if we go back to verse 2, it says, I knew a man in Christ above 14 years ago. Whether in the body, cannot tell. Whether out of the body, I cannot tell. God knoweth. Such and one caught up to the third heaven. Notice using the same language. Caught up to paradise, caught up to the third heaven. So what is paradise? It's the third heaven. It's the place where God dwells. Specifically, it's super clear. And so there's no way to ever convince me of this stupid Abraham with bosom doctrine. This is not biblical. And you know, again, why do a Bible study like this? It wasn't necessarily a traditional sermon. But I think it's good to just realize that a lot of things in the Bible can be described with different words, but they're talking about the exact same thing. And so we have to be careful that we don't try to invent new definitions or new ideas or new concepts just because the wording is slightly different. Sometimes God uses slightly different wording to help us understand the exact same concept. Right? Hey, he's wanting us to understand what grace really means. It's no works. He's wanting us to understand what congregation means. It means church. He's wanting us to understand all these different ideas. And you'll praise God for how the King James Bible is translated in such a way that helps us. What if they translated this every single time it had a word that uses the exact same word every time? You'd actually have less understanding. It's nice that they use synonyms, that they use some different language, and that sometimes when we're even talking about the same concepts, we have different wordings so as to fully grasp exactly what God is trying to communicate to us. That's another reason why I believe the King James Bible could never be redone. There's no way to match the purity, the quality, the integrity, the poetry, the beauty, the doctrinal integrity and accuracy of the King James Bible. It's a pure masterpiece. And we should believe the scriptures that we have and not listen to some heretic that's telling you there's a difference between through faith and by faith. Wow. Go back to New Zealand, okay? And you know how you should go back? Swim, please. Alright, let's close in prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for giving us the Bible and giving us just all these different ways to understand the same concepts so that we could have a sure foundation to stand on, we could have a clear understanding. I pray that we would study to show ourselves approved, that we'd actually rightly divide the scripture, that we wouldn't give ear to nonsense and foolish questions and foolish ideas, but rather we'd put all of our trust in the clear statements of the Bible and we allow the Bible to define itself. Thank you for giving us such a pure, wonderful English translation that we can read every single day. I pray that we continue to read and study it all the days of our life. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. For our last song of the evening, we're going to go to 329, Take Time to Be Holy. 329, Take Time to Be Holy. Song 329, Take Time to Be Holy. This song is called Take Time to Be Holy. Take time to be holy, speak up with my Lord. Abide in Him always and feed on His Word. Make friends of God's children, help those who are weak. Forgetting and complete is blessing to seek. All right, we're going to pick up the pace a little bit on that second verse. Watch me now. Here we go. Take time to be holy, the world rushes on. Spend much time in secret with Jesus alone. By looking to Jesus, like Him thou shalt be. Five friends in the club of God, His likeness thou see. Take time to be holy, let Him be thy guide. And run not before Him, whatever be time. Enjoy all his sorrow, still follow thy Lord. And look into Jesus, still trust in His Word. Take time to be holy, be all in thy soul. Each thought and each motive, beneath His control. Thus led by His Spirit to fountains above. Thou soon shall be fitted for service above. Thank you all for coming. God bless. You are dismissed.