WEBVTT 00:00:09.359 --> 00:00:14.240 Welcome to ECB's weekly sermon podcast. ECB is 00:00:14.240 --> 00:00:16.519 an international church in Bangkok, Thailand, 00:00:16.719 --> 00:00:19.760 with dozens of nationalities worshiping together. 00:00:20.059 --> 00:00:22.920 We invite you to connect with us from wherever 00:00:22.920 --> 00:00:27.140 you are through our website, ecb .asia, or our 00:00:27.140 --> 00:00:31.000 mobile app. And now we pray that you are blessed 00:00:31.000 --> 00:00:35.840 by this week's sermon. Well, good morning. It's 00:00:35.840 --> 00:00:40.090 good to be together again. As you know, during 00:00:40.090 --> 00:00:43.170 this month, we've been doing this series called 00:00:43.170 --> 00:00:45.850 Walking with God, which is a set of personal 00:00:45.850 --> 00:00:51.570 reflections after this summer trip with our School 00:00:51.570 --> 00:00:53.710 of Apologetics Crossroads, which, by the way, 00:00:53.770 --> 00:00:57.070 there's a table downstairs that you have as soon 00:00:57.070 --> 00:00:59.729 as you come out with the map. That's Crossroads' 00:00:59.869 --> 00:01:02.189 table. You can ask questions about the courses 00:01:02.189 --> 00:01:06.879 that we're going to be having. But before we 00:01:06.879 --> 00:01:08.980 start this study today, I just would like to 00:01:08.980 --> 00:01:12.140 first just bring my heart to the Lord together. 00:01:13.060 --> 00:01:19.359 Lord, as we open your word, I ask you in Jesus' 00:01:19.500 --> 00:01:22.939 name to use me in your power, in your grace, 00:01:22.959 --> 00:01:29.579 in your strength. Reach our hearts. And Lord, 00:01:29.659 --> 00:01:33.760 bring salvation to those that do not know you. 00:01:35.659 --> 00:01:37.920 We pray in the powerful name of Jesus. Amen. 00:01:40.140 --> 00:01:43.140 When we started this series of walking with God, 00:01:43.200 --> 00:01:46.379 the idea was to create a space almost like if 00:01:46.379 --> 00:01:49.019 we were sharing a cup of coffee, reflecting together, 00:01:49.280 --> 00:01:51.400 talking about certain things that were in my 00:01:51.400 --> 00:01:55.680 heart. And so far, you keep coming back. So I 00:01:55.680 --> 00:01:57.920 think you like the coffee or you like the reflection. 00:01:59.780 --> 00:02:03.359 Today, the thing that I want you to get from 00:02:03.359 --> 00:02:10.500 this time of reflection, is love the truth. Not 00:02:10.500 --> 00:02:14.259 everybody loves the truth. But if you're a follower 00:02:14.259 --> 00:02:21.159 of Jesus, truth should matter to us. And we live 00:02:21.159 --> 00:02:23.240 in a world that there are so many opinions about 00:02:23.240 --> 00:02:27.479 everything, and the worldviews are so different, 00:02:27.599 --> 00:02:32.800 that many followers of Jesus have abandoned truth 00:02:32.800 --> 00:02:37.110 for opinions. I have abandoned the scriptures 00:02:37.110 --> 00:02:40.030 for the words of the latest published book of 00:02:40.030 --> 00:02:46.270 the experts. But what we need to remember is 00:02:46.270 --> 00:02:50.689 that followers of Jesus have been known and must 00:02:50.689 --> 00:02:54.349 be known for loving the truth. In the book of 00:02:54.349 --> 00:02:58.810 Psalms, it summarizes the word of God like this. 00:02:58.849 --> 00:03:02.949 Would you read it with me? Your word is a lamp 00:03:02.949 --> 00:03:08.210 to guide my feet. And a light for my path. What 00:03:08.210 --> 00:03:11.169 happens if you get rid of the lamp? And if you 00:03:11.169 --> 00:03:14.310 get rid of the light? What do you get? Darkness. 00:03:15.710 --> 00:03:18.229 And I've met Christians throughout the years. 00:03:18.889 --> 00:03:22.750 That got rid of the lamp. Stopped trusting the 00:03:22.750 --> 00:03:27.229 light. And they ended up getting lost in the 00:03:27.229 --> 00:03:30.849 path. The path of darkness. Decisions in their 00:03:30.849 --> 00:03:34.840 lives that were not aligned with the Lord. soon 00:03:34.840 --> 00:03:39.900 to realize that they lost their way. Why? It 00:03:39.900 --> 00:03:43.919 all begins by the attitude that we have towards 00:03:43.919 --> 00:03:47.860 truth and towards the scriptures, which is the 00:03:47.860 --> 00:03:54.020 source of truth for us. In the book of Acts, 00:03:54.199 --> 00:03:57.800 we find that at the beginning of the Christian 00:03:57.800 --> 00:04:01.080 movement, when the first Christians started preaching 00:04:01.080 --> 00:04:04.310 the gospel and the good news, about salvation 00:04:04.310 --> 00:04:08.289 in Jesus. These good news that redefine everything 00:04:08.289 --> 00:04:13.349 because the message was that God who had created 00:04:13.349 --> 00:04:16.470 the world loved humans so much that he became 00:04:16.470 --> 00:04:19.910 a human himself in order to take upon himself 00:04:19.910 --> 00:04:28.889 our sin, our shame, our fears that bound us. 00:04:31.500 --> 00:04:34.220 And he took all of that and he died on our behalf 00:04:34.220 --> 00:04:36.600 and he resurrected and he overcame the power 00:04:36.600 --> 00:04:39.399 of darkness. And now he has the power to forgive. 00:04:39.639 --> 00:04:43.439 He has the power to transform. He has the power 00:04:43.439 --> 00:04:48.699 to make you new. Anyone who confesses him as 00:04:48.699 --> 00:04:54.339 Lord and Savior. And that message was proclaimed 00:04:54.339 --> 00:04:57.079 by the Apostle Paul in his second missionary 00:04:57.079 --> 00:05:01.449 journey throughout the region. of what is nowadays 00:05:01.449 --> 00:05:06.410 the area of Greece, and some areas of nowadays 00:05:06.410 --> 00:05:11.170 Turkey. And if you zoom in into this map, you 00:05:11.170 --> 00:05:13.430 will see that region of Greece that he went to, 00:05:13.490 --> 00:05:15.470 and you will start recognizing some of the names 00:05:15.470 --> 00:05:18.089 that are found in the books of the New Testament 00:05:18.089 --> 00:05:21.709 in the Bible, like the Thessalonians, Thessalonica, 00:05:21.910 --> 00:05:26.350 or Corinth, the Corinthians, Ephesus, the Ephesians, 00:05:26.389 --> 00:05:29.560 Philippi, the Philippians. It's because in this 00:05:29.560 --> 00:05:31.720 second missionary journey, the Apostle Paul went 00:05:31.720 --> 00:05:34.220 to that region and started preaching this good 00:05:34.220 --> 00:05:39.000 news of salvation in Jesus. And we are told that 00:05:39.000 --> 00:05:42.019 when he got to Thessalonica, there was some drama, 00:05:42.139 --> 00:05:44.939 some opposition he got there. So then he went 00:05:44.939 --> 00:05:49.259 to a city called Berea. And in Berea, he had 00:05:49.259 --> 00:05:52.160 an experience. And then he went from there to 00:05:52.160 --> 00:05:55.819 Athens. And in Athens, he was able to preach 00:05:55.819 --> 00:06:02.199 the gospel again. But something happens in that 00:06:02.199 --> 00:06:06.139 journey that brings light to this idea of followers 00:06:06.139 --> 00:06:10.079 of Jesus being people who love the truth. And 00:06:10.079 --> 00:06:12.279 I want you to read with me this whole section 00:06:12.279 --> 00:06:15.079 to see. Not out loud, but follow me as I read. 00:06:15.439 --> 00:06:17.980 This is what it says. As soon as it was night, 00:06:18.420 --> 00:06:22.000 the believers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. 00:06:22.220 --> 00:06:25.100 On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. 00:06:25.199 --> 00:06:28.199 So they left. Thessalonica, because of the danger 00:06:28.199 --> 00:06:31.480 that happened, arrived to Berea and they are 00:06:31.480 --> 00:06:35.500 going to try to engage with the Jewish community 00:06:35.500 --> 00:06:39.720 in that town. Where did you find them? Well, 00:06:39.759 --> 00:06:42.379 in the synagogue. So they went to the synagogue 00:06:42.379 --> 00:06:45.620 to start preaching the message of salvation in 00:06:45.620 --> 00:06:51.079 Jesus Christ. And the text says, now the Berean 00:06:51.079 --> 00:06:55.339 Jews, where of, how can I put it? More noble 00:06:55.339 --> 00:06:59.019 character than there was in Thessalonica. These 00:06:59.019 --> 00:07:03.600 people were a little bit nicer. For they received 00:07:03.600 --> 00:07:07.220 the message with great eagerness, and they examined 00:07:07.220 --> 00:07:11.420 the scriptures every day to see if what Paul 00:07:11.420 --> 00:07:16.620 said was true. Now, when we talk about organizational 00:07:16.620 --> 00:07:20.339 values in companies, we talk about... Values 00:07:20.339 --> 00:07:23.540 and cultures. What was one value that these people 00:07:23.540 --> 00:07:31.660 had? They care about. Truth. And because they 00:07:31.660 --> 00:07:33.920 care about truth. When they heard the message 00:07:33.920 --> 00:07:38.120 from the apostle Paul. They wanted to know. Is 00:07:38.120 --> 00:07:40.800 this true or not? So they spent every single 00:07:40.800 --> 00:07:44.079 day looking at the scriptures. To see. To be 00:07:44.079 --> 00:07:47.180 able to corroborate. Whether what Paul was saying 00:07:47.180 --> 00:07:52.790 matched the word. Which means that what was the 00:07:52.790 --> 00:07:57.129 source of truth that these people had? It was 00:07:57.129 --> 00:08:02.449 the scriptures. What we have now in the Old Testament 00:08:02.449 --> 00:08:07.129 part of our scriptures. And we are told that 00:08:07.129 --> 00:08:09.350 as they started listening and as they started 00:08:09.350 --> 00:08:11.509 corroborating through the scriptures what Paul 00:08:11.509 --> 00:08:15.569 was saying, it matched. Then, as a result, many 00:08:15.569 --> 00:08:18.569 of them believed, as did also a number of prominent 00:08:18.569 --> 00:08:23.360 Greek women. and many Greek men. So because they 00:08:23.360 --> 00:08:27.600 were able to see it was true, now they were able 00:08:27.600 --> 00:08:31.660 to start following Jesus. And that's a very important 00:08:31.660 --> 00:08:35.980 thing. Because we do not follow Jesus because 00:08:35.980 --> 00:08:40.019 we are religious people. We do not follow Jesus 00:08:40.019 --> 00:08:43.019 and call ourselves a Christian because we were 00:08:43.019 --> 00:08:48.389 born in a Christian family. We follow Jesus Because 00:08:48.389 --> 00:08:53.129 it's the truth. If it's not the truth. We're 00:08:53.129 --> 00:08:57.190 wasting our time. From the very beginning. The 00:08:57.190 --> 00:09:00.289 message of salvation. And the message of the 00:09:00.289 --> 00:09:02.850 scriptures. Was rooted on the understanding. 00:09:02.950 --> 00:09:06.330 That we are talking about. Verifiable things. 00:09:06.429 --> 00:09:08.929 This is true. You can read the scriptures. And 00:09:08.929 --> 00:09:15.549 see whether this matches or not. By the people 00:09:15.549 --> 00:09:19.120 in Thessalonica. Were not like the Bereans. They 00:09:19.120 --> 00:09:23.200 did not like truth. They wanted to be proven 00:09:23.200 --> 00:09:27.360 right. They wanted to hear something that would 00:09:27.360 --> 00:09:30.799 confirm what they already believed. And whenever 00:09:30.799 --> 00:09:33.980 they met Paul and they had this message that 00:09:33.980 --> 00:09:37.240 had to force them to question whether what they 00:09:37.240 --> 00:09:40.419 believed was true or not. They didn't like that. 00:09:41.279 --> 00:09:45.419 So the text says. But when the Jews in Thessalonica 00:09:45.419 --> 00:09:47.919 learned that Paul was preaching the word of God 00:09:47.919 --> 00:09:52.679 at Berea, some of them went there too, agitating 00:09:52.679 --> 00:09:56.240 the crowds and stirring them up. They wanted 00:09:56.240 --> 00:10:01.019 to cause trouble. They wanted to silence Paul 00:10:01.019 --> 00:10:08.679 and his friends. In this trip, we are told that 00:10:08.679 --> 00:10:12.759 the contrast between these two groups of people, 00:10:13.230 --> 00:10:16.389 Those that love the truth, care for the truth, 00:10:16.570 --> 00:10:20.129 search for the truth, and those who oppose it. 00:10:20.870 --> 00:10:24.309 And they became very political and very militant 00:10:24.309 --> 00:10:28.769 about it. The believers immediately sent Paul 00:10:28.769 --> 00:10:32.750 to the coast, but Silas and Timothy stayed at 00:10:32.750 --> 00:10:36.029 Berea. Those who escorted Paul brought him to 00:10:36.029 --> 00:10:39.759 Athens. And then left with instructions for Silas 00:10:39.759 --> 00:10:42.740 and Timothy to join him as soon as possible. 00:10:43.259 --> 00:10:47.000 And here is where the names come up. The Apostle 00:10:47.000 --> 00:10:50.519 Paul had his friend Silas, but they had an apprentice. 00:10:50.600 --> 00:10:53.659 His name was Timothy. He was going with them. 00:10:53.759 --> 00:10:57.879 He was learning how this whole ministry of sharing 00:10:57.879 --> 00:11:00.279 the gospel with people and making disciples was 00:11:00.279 --> 00:11:03.740 like. And this experience was very significant 00:11:03.740 --> 00:11:08.600 in his formation. Later, the Apostle Paul is 00:11:08.600 --> 00:11:11.220 going to write to Timothy two letters that we 00:11:11.220 --> 00:11:14.600 have in the Bible in the New Testament. And we 00:11:14.600 --> 00:11:18.980 will get to read one of them today. And he's 00:11:18.980 --> 00:11:21.879 going to reflect on these experiences and the 00:11:21.879 --> 00:11:26.159 significance of truth for those who follow Jesus. 00:11:28.600 --> 00:11:31.779 So what Paul does is that he goes to Athens. 00:11:32.399 --> 00:11:34.679 And when he gets there, he sees all these Greeks 00:11:34.679 --> 00:11:38.279 worshiping all these different deities. They 00:11:38.279 --> 00:11:41.860 had a God for everything. A few years ago, I 00:11:41.860 --> 00:11:45.120 had the privilege of going to Athens and seeing 00:11:45.120 --> 00:11:48.440 the Agora and seeing the temple. And you climb 00:11:48.440 --> 00:11:51.179 to the mount there and you get to see everything. 00:11:51.500 --> 00:11:55.139 But there was an area where Paul had visited 00:11:55.139 --> 00:11:59.570 and they have a... plaque there, a big one, with 00:11:59.570 --> 00:12:01.950 the quotation from the book of Acts describing 00:12:01.950 --> 00:12:05.169 how the apostle Paul went there and saw that 00:12:05.169 --> 00:12:08.649 and exactly what he said. It was fascinating 00:12:08.649 --> 00:12:11.269 to see the text of the Bible in a public place 00:12:11.269 --> 00:12:14.509 like that. And it's because all of this is history. 00:12:14.690 --> 00:12:17.870 This happened. But we are told that when Paul 00:12:17.870 --> 00:12:21.409 arrived there and he started trying to engage 00:12:21.409 --> 00:12:24.669 people with the good news of who Jesus was and 00:12:24.669 --> 00:12:27.960 what he came to do, There was a group of philosophers 00:12:27.960 --> 00:12:32.720 from the school of the Epicureans. And they heard 00:12:32.720 --> 00:12:35.019 Paul, and they were wondering, we never heard 00:12:35.019 --> 00:12:37.779 this, and they like ideas. So I said, let's talk 00:12:37.779 --> 00:12:40.179 more about it so we can hear what this new idea 00:12:40.179 --> 00:12:45.340 is about. The founder of that school, Epicurus 00:12:45.340 --> 00:12:50.720 himself, is a man that will come at the end of 00:12:50.720 --> 00:12:54.620 this study. So remember... Paul in Athens, remember 00:12:54.620 --> 00:13:02.419 the school of the Epicureans. How amazing to 00:13:02.419 --> 00:13:06.799 discover that from the very beginning, people 00:13:06.799 --> 00:13:09.639 that became followers of Jesus became followers 00:13:09.639 --> 00:13:14.360 of Jesus because they cared about truth. And 00:13:14.360 --> 00:13:17.059 people who refused to follow Jesus, they did 00:13:17.059 --> 00:13:20.720 not care about truth the same way. What they 00:13:20.720 --> 00:13:26.269 wanted, Was to be proven right. And this is a 00:13:26.269 --> 00:13:28.610 challenge. And this is the beginning of the spiritual 00:13:28.610 --> 00:13:31.809 journey. And perhaps you are in that place of 00:13:31.809 --> 00:13:36.929 your journey. Because when truth matters, it 00:13:36.929 --> 00:13:41.070 can become difficult. When you realize that Jesus 00:13:41.070 --> 00:13:44.649 is really true. And that this message is real. 00:13:45.330 --> 00:13:48.330 And that you need a savior. And that your religion 00:13:48.330 --> 00:13:50.850 cannot save you because only Jesus can save. 00:13:52.220 --> 00:13:55.340 Suddenly you are confronted with the possibility 00:13:55.340 --> 00:13:58.820 that your whole upbringing has been shaped by 00:13:58.820 --> 00:14:03.000 a religion but not by truth. And what will you 00:14:03.000 --> 00:14:09.759 do with that? It may mean that you have to confront 00:14:09.759 --> 00:14:13.299 this reality and walk away from things that you 00:14:13.299 --> 00:14:21.019 used to treasure. But what matters most? Truth? 00:14:22.509 --> 00:14:32.909 Or your feelings. Truth. Or traditions. Followers 00:14:32.909 --> 00:14:39.409 of Jesus. Are called. To love the truth. And 00:14:39.409 --> 00:14:43.070 later the apostle Paul. Writes to Timothy. Now 00:14:43.070 --> 00:14:46.309 Timothy. Is not the apprentice anymore. Now he's 00:14:46.309 --> 00:14:49.309 been serving God for a long time. Now he is leading. 00:14:49.730 --> 00:14:54.149 A church in Ephesus. And Paul now is in prison, 00:14:54.210 --> 00:14:57.049 he's in Rome, and he writes these letters to 00:14:57.049 --> 00:14:59.809 Timothy. And in fact, the second letter that 00:14:59.809 --> 00:15:02.690 he wrote to Timothy is the last letter before 00:15:02.690 --> 00:15:10.909 Paul died. And he tells Timothy, Timothy, I need 00:15:10.909 --> 00:15:14.970 you to do this. Keep reminding God's people of 00:15:14.970 --> 00:15:18.409 these things. Warn them before God against quarreling 00:15:18.409 --> 00:15:22.830 about words. It is of no value. and only ruins 00:15:22.830 --> 00:15:26.289 those who listen. We followers of Jesus do not 00:15:26.289 --> 00:15:28.809 engage in just arguing for the sake of arguing 00:15:28.809 --> 00:15:31.450 and proving them wrong and proving ourselves 00:15:31.450 --> 00:15:37.750 right. No, that's not what we do. We're not militants. 00:15:38.669 --> 00:15:42.690 So tell the people there in Ephesus, the followers 00:15:42.690 --> 00:15:48.289 of Jesus, to don't act like that. But you, Timothy, 00:15:49.039 --> 00:15:53.019 Do your best to present yourself to God. As one 00:15:53.019 --> 00:15:57.559 who has been approved. Like a worker who does 00:15:57.559 --> 00:16:03.620 not need to be ashamed. One who correctly handles 00:16:03.620 --> 00:16:10.039 the word of truth. You need to know the truth. 00:16:10.440 --> 00:16:12.980 You need to walk the truth. You need to live 00:16:12.980 --> 00:16:17.700 the truth. So be a kind of follower of Jesus, 00:16:17.740 --> 00:16:21.620 Timothy. That is not engaging in all that nonsense. 00:16:22.460 --> 00:16:25.899 You are a man of truth. And you have nothing 00:16:25.899 --> 00:16:30.279 to be ashamed of because you are walking with 00:16:30.279 --> 00:16:34.899 the truth. But you are the kind of person that 00:16:34.899 --> 00:16:38.019 knows it. You know the scriptures. You know how 00:16:38.019 --> 00:16:41.080 to manage it. If this was a tool, you know how 00:16:41.080 --> 00:16:42.940 to use it and you can teach others how to use 00:16:42.940 --> 00:16:50.950 it. Be that kind of follower of Jesus. avoid 00:16:50.950 --> 00:16:53.929 this kind of godly chatter because those who 00:16:53.929 --> 00:16:57.009 indulge in it will become more and more ungodly. 00:16:57.110 --> 00:17:00.309 Just talking about the latest theory of that 00:17:00.309 --> 00:17:03.029 and that book and that view and all this stuff 00:17:03.029 --> 00:17:07.809 that has no relevance. All that stuff. Focus 00:17:07.809 --> 00:17:12.849 on the truth. Why? Well, because some of these 00:17:12.849 --> 00:17:15.569 people start teaching things that are not true. 00:17:16.589 --> 00:17:19.809 And they're teaching Will start spreading like 00:17:19.809 --> 00:17:22.730 gun green. Starts infecting everybody. And people 00:17:22.730 --> 00:17:26.369 die of it. Among them are people like Hymenaeus 00:17:26.369 --> 00:17:29.309 and Philetus. Who have departed from the truth. 00:17:30.890 --> 00:17:33.789 These were people that said we are followers 00:17:33.789 --> 00:17:36.150 of Jesus. And they sat there at your church. 00:17:36.309 --> 00:17:39.269 And they went to the worship services. And they 00:17:39.269 --> 00:17:42.130 tried to help in different ministries. But now 00:17:42.130 --> 00:17:45.509 in their journey they stopped caring about the 00:17:45.509 --> 00:17:50.039 truth. And they started entertaining ideas that 00:17:50.039 --> 00:17:53.539 were contrary to what the scripture said. And 00:17:53.539 --> 00:17:55.700 they started teaching this falsehood to people. 00:17:57.440 --> 00:18:03.759 And they stopped loving truth. And what happens? 00:18:03.940 --> 00:18:07.420 Well, they say that the resurrection has already 00:18:07.420 --> 00:18:11.359 taken place. Which it hasn't. This is going to 00:18:11.359 --> 00:18:13.500 be later in the future. But they say, oh, it 00:18:13.500 --> 00:18:15.660 already took place. So they are destroying the 00:18:15.660 --> 00:18:19.359 faith of some people. They are confusing them. 00:18:20.400 --> 00:18:23.299 Now they do not know who to believe. Because 00:18:23.299 --> 00:18:25.359 they are all quoting the scriptures to prove 00:18:25.359 --> 00:18:32.059 their point. And deception entered. Nevertheless, 00:18:32.059 --> 00:18:38.119 God's solid foundation stands firm. Remains the 00:18:38.119 --> 00:18:43.539 same. Sealed with this inscription. The Lord 00:18:43.539 --> 00:18:47.559 knows those who are his. So are you a follower 00:18:47.559 --> 00:18:50.220 of Jesus truly? Is Jesus your savior and Lord? 00:18:51.240 --> 00:18:54.180 Good. The Lord knows you. He knows you are his. 00:18:54.720 --> 00:18:56.960 So you don't need to walk in fear and shame. 00:18:58.039 --> 00:19:01.160 But the second one. Everyone who confesses the 00:19:01.160 --> 00:19:04.180 name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness. 00:19:05.960 --> 00:19:10.809 You must walk the truth. That you proclaim. You 00:19:10.809 --> 00:19:16.230 must live the truth. That you believe. Because 00:19:16.230 --> 00:19:18.650 the moment you say you believe the truth. But 00:19:18.650 --> 00:19:22.069 you don't live it. Now your life becomes the 00:19:22.069 --> 00:19:24.650 very reason. Why people walk away from Jesus. 00:19:25.569 --> 00:19:28.130 Because the only Jesus they know. Is the one 00:19:28.130 --> 00:19:30.750 they can see in you. And they don't see Jesus 00:19:30.750 --> 00:19:41.819 in you. Truth. Timothy. Don't forget how important 00:19:41.819 --> 00:19:47.420 it is. So become a person that knows it, knows 00:19:47.420 --> 00:19:50.920 the scriptures, and trusts the scriptures. Because 00:19:50.920 --> 00:19:55.019 the scriptures is the source of truth. Your worldview 00:19:55.019 --> 00:19:57.680 must be shaped by the scriptures, not by the 00:19:57.680 --> 00:20:01.019 latest theories of everything. Let the scriptures 00:20:01.019 --> 00:20:05.099 tell you whether what that person is saying is 00:20:05.099 --> 00:20:07.640 compatible with it or not. Because if it's not, 00:20:07.819 --> 00:20:15.940 then it's not true. And what happens is that 00:20:15.940 --> 00:20:18.920 as Paul writes these things to Timothy, and Timothy 00:20:18.920 --> 00:20:21.440 now is engaging and growing in his faith, they 00:20:21.440 --> 00:20:25.480 leave these things for us. We discover something. 00:20:26.680 --> 00:20:29.259 That there are people who do not know the Lord, 00:20:29.440 --> 00:20:31.799 who are very militant, that are going to oppose 00:20:31.799 --> 00:20:35.279 you because you care about truth. And secondly, 00:20:36.269 --> 00:20:39.490 There are people within the Christian community, 00:20:39.529 --> 00:20:42.869 they say they are Christians, but they do not 00:20:42.869 --> 00:20:45.650 know the truth, they do not love the truth, and 00:20:45.650 --> 00:20:48.109 they are infiltrating false teaching inside. 00:20:49.470 --> 00:20:53.670 And because those two things happened, we followers 00:20:53.670 --> 00:20:57.690 of Jesus have to care about truth. Otherwise, 00:20:57.829 --> 00:21:02.369 we will leave the path of the light and we will 00:21:02.369 --> 00:21:08.180 be wounded. What are some of the common things 00:21:08.180 --> 00:21:10.440 that cause people to start walking away from 00:21:10.440 --> 00:21:12.839 the truth? No longer trusting the scriptures. 00:21:13.160 --> 00:21:17.720 No longer believing in what God says. First one 00:21:17.720 --> 00:21:23.819 is ignorance. You may have a Bible, but you do 00:21:23.819 --> 00:21:26.019 not know the Bible. You don't read the Bible. 00:21:26.079 --> 00:21:28.079 You wait until Pastor Pablo preaches on Sunday. 00:21:29.920 --> 00:21:36.599 And that's all the food you have. And because 00:21:36.599 --> 00:21:39.920 we don't really know the word, then we start 00:21:39.920 --> 00:21:41.920 believing things that are not true, but we do 00:21:41.920 --> 00:21:47.259 not know. And it happens all the time. Let me 00:21:47.259 --> 00:21:49.400 say, for instance, let me ask you a question. 00:21:49.480 --> 00:21:52.400 Don't give me the answer out loud. Just think 00:21:52.400 --> 00:21:57.579 the answer, okay? Where does it say in the Bible, 00:21:57.640 --> 00:22:00.619 in the Old Testament or in the New Testament? 00:22:01.559 --> 00:22:06.420 Which one? This quote. God helps those who help 00:22:06.420 --> 00:22:11.039 themselves. Okay, you got it? Old Testament or 00:22:11.039 --> 00:22:15.359 New Testament? Ah. If you know the scriptures, 00:22:15.460 --> 00:22:19.779 you said, neither one, Pastor Pablo. That's not 00:22:19.779 --> 00:22:23.339 in my Bible. And some of you are saying, oh, 00:22:23.519 --> 00:22:27.000 it's not? I thought it was Old Testament, maybe 00:22:27.000 --> 00:22:29.039 a proverb or something. Didn't Jesus say that? 00:22:31.740 --> 00:22:33.579 Isn't it God helps those who help themselves? 00:22:34.039 --> 00:22:36.299 I read it somewhere. It sounds so right. That's 00:22:36.299 --> 00:22:40.480 a very poor theology. And then we're praying 00:22:40.480 --> 00:22:42.259 for our brothers, you know. It's like, may the 00:22:42.259 --> 00:22:44.180 Lord bless you because, you know, God, you help 00:22:44.180 --> 00:22:46.839 those who help themselves. So please help my 00:22:46.839 --> 00:22:50.440 brother. And we start even quoting things that 00:22:50.440 --> 00:22:53.319 are not even in the Bible. You see? Ignorance. 00:22:55.339 --> 00:22:57.740 Things we say, you know, that sound right, but 00:22:57.740 --> 00:23:02.000 actually they are not. One of the ones that I 00:23:02.000 --> 00:23:04.539 find very intriguing is when people say, you 00:23:04.539 --> 00:23:10.119 need to be like Jesus but with skin on. And it's 00:23:10.119 --> 00:23:15.019 like, wait, are you a Christian? Do you believe 00:23:15.019 --> 00:23:22.640 that Jesus died and resurrected? Then he resurrected 00:23:22.640 --> 00:23:29.089 in a bodily form, he had skin on. So why? Why 00:23:29.089 --> 00:23:31.470 do you tell me I need to be like Jesus but with 00:23:31.470 --> 00:23:34.809 skin on as if he didn't have skin? I don't understand. 00:23:37.069 --> 00:23:39.529 See, it sounds good, but it's poor theology. 00:23:39.670 --> 00:23:44.630 You see that? The scriptures matter and ignorance 00:23:44.630 --> 00:23:48.029 can slowly make you susceptible to deception. 00:23:50.829 --> 00:23:54.680 The other one. is the sense of conspiracy. Pastor 00:23:54.680 --> 00:23:56.839 Paolo, we know that throughout years of history 00:23:56.839 --> 00:24:00.579 and all the political powers, people have changed 00:24:00.579 --> 00:24:04.900 the Bible. You cannot trust what you read. It 00:24:04.900 --> 00:24:08.819 has been changed so many times by so many people. 00:24:09.359 --> 00:24:13.480 So this idea that the text is corrupted, so then 00:24:13.480 --> 00:24:16.779 I cannot really trust what I'm reading. And the 00:24:16.779 --> 00:24:20.059 third one is the idea that Actually, the Bible 00:24:20.059 --> 00:24:23.380 is a myth. It's not really history. It's just 00:24:23.380 --> 00:24:27.799 an ancient book like other books. It's not actual 00:24:27.799 --> 00:24:31.180 history. It's just myth. That didn't really happen. 00:24:31.819 --> 00:24:36.319 Pastor Pablo, you don't really believe that God 00:24:36.319 --> 00:24:39.839 created humans out of the dust of the earth and 00:24:39.839 --> 00:24:43.740 that there was a flood with Noah and all that 00:24:43.740 --> 00:24:47.759 stuff? That God parted the waters with Moses? 00:24:49.609 --> 00:24:51.730 You don't really believe that there was all this 00:24:51.730 --> 00:24:53.730 stuff happening. I mean, it's just a metaphor, 00:24:53.730 --> 00:25:00.329 isn't it? And all of these ideas then start keeping 00:25:00.329 --> 00:25:03.589 people from really engaging with the truth because 00:25:03.589 --> 00:25:08.150 you cannot grab it. You don't think it's true. 00:25:10.789 --> 00:25:14.630 And suddenly, we throw away the lamp, the light, 00:25:14.730 --> 00:25:19.259 and we find ourselves in darkness. Not knowing 00:25:19.259 --> 00:25:25.079 to turn left, to turn right, we feel lost. And 00:25:25.079 --> 00:25:27.660 we got to experience part of this, as you know, 00:25:27.680 --> 00:25:30.359 in this trip to England as part of our Crossroads 00:25:30.359 --> 00:25:34.960 training. This trip was the conclusion of the 00:25:34.960 --> 00:25:37.859 year and a half of classes in Crossroads. Eight 00:25:37.859 --> 00:25:40.819 courses, five sessions each throughout the year 00:25:40.819 --> 00:25:43.380 and a half. And by the way, we are starting again 00:25:43.380 --> 00:25:47.339 the last Sunday of August, course one. So if 00:25:47.339 --> 00:25:49.220 you start in the middle of the training, you 00:25:49.220 --> 00:25:51.839 can continue until you complete all. If you have 00:25:51.839 --> 00:25:53.660 not done the training, you can start course one. 00:25:53.839 --> 00:25:55.700 And if you want to learn more about it, go to 00:25:55.700 --> 00:25:57.680 the table downstairs and talk to Roshanak about 00:25:57.680 --> 00:26:01.940 it. But we went into this trip because the training 00:26:01.940 --> 00:26:05.119 for Crossroads has the goal of equipping Christians 00:26:05.119 --> 00:26:08.700 to learn how to think critically about issues 00:26:08.700 --> 00:26:13.319 of worldview. How to engage then intelligently 00:26:13.319 --> 00:26:16.119 with people in conversations and how to love 00:26:16.119 --> 00:26:20.299 compassionately. Because when we are equipped 00:26:20.299 --> 00:26:22.500 and we understand, then we can engage and guide 00:26:22.500 --> 00:26:27.559 people in truth. So we went there for this purpose. 00:26:28.980 --> 00:26:31.460 And one of the things that we did in that trip, 00:26:31.599 --> 00:26:35.000 as I mentioned in the study last week, is that 00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:38.339 we went to Charles Darwin's home, which is a 00:26:38.339 --> 00:26:41.329 museum. Because one of the ideologies that we 00:26:41.329 --> 00:26:45.329 were studying was the ideology of Darwinian evolution 00:26:45.329 --> 00:26:49.670 as the origin of species. Now, if you missed 00:26:49.670 --> 00:26:52.289 the study last week, go to our website or our 00:26:52.289 --> 00:26:54.910 app and watch so you catch up more on the content 00:26:54.910 --> 00:26:57.390 of this. But one of the things that we discovered 00:26:57.390 --> 00:27:01.509 is that Darwin himself, until he was 22 years 00:27:01.509 --> 00:27:04.109 old, he considered himself a Christian. He considered 00:27:04.109 --> 00:27:06.779 one who believed in the Bible. And it was in 00:27:06.779 --> 00:27:09.059 his 20s that he abandoned the faith completely. 00:27:10.599 --> 00:27:13.220 And later, as an adult, after he got married 00:27:13.220 --> 00:27:16.119 and he had kids, that's when he identified himself 00:27:16.119 --> 00:27:19.339 as an agnostic, no longer believing in the Bible. 00:27:19.400 --> 00:27:24.160 But his journey was progressive. But he wrote 00:27:24.160 --> 00:27:28.119 about it. And it's very interesting to see. Because 00:27:28.119 --> 00:27:31.940 as he writes his wrestling, you can see the window 00:27:31.940 --> 00:27:36.720 into his mind. And this is what he said. I can 00:27:36.720 --> 00:27:41.279 well remember often inventing daydreams of all 00:27:41.279 --> 00:27:44.559 letters between distinguished Romans and manuscripts 00:27:44.559 --> 00:27:48.980 being discovered, which confirm in the most striking 00:27:48.980 --> 00:27:55.579 manner all that was written in the Gospels. Look 00:27:55.579 --> 00:28:01.299 at the dates when he lived, 1809 to 1882. Think 00:28:01.299 --> 00:28:03.839 about the historical context in which he lives. 00:28:06.029 --> 00:28:09.329 They believe at that time that the universe is 00:28:09.329 --> 00:28:13.009 eternal. There's no beginning, no end. That was 00:28:13.009 --> 00:28:17.109 the scientific establishment at that time. Because 00:28:17.109 --> 00:28:19.789 to believe that the universe had a beginning 00:28:19.789 --> 00:28:24.529 would be to agree with the Bible. So no, the 00:28:24.529 --> 00:28:31.009 universe is eternal. Okay. Israel and Jerusalem 00:28:31.009 --> 00:28:34.349 was under the Ottoman Empire. So there was no 00:28:34.349 --> 00:28:39.700 archaeology. Going on in that area. So he's reading 00:28:39.700 --> 00:28:42.279 the Bible. And he wishes there was some kind 00:28:42.279 --> 00:28:46.079 of evidence. Some kind of discovery. That corroborated 00:28:46.079 --> 00:28:51.660 the Bible. But there was none. So he had to imagine. 00:28:52.660 --> 00:28:54.940 And he would daydream sometimes. Wouldn't it 00:28:54.940 --> 00:28:57.839 be cool if there was a Roman letter. That mentioned 00:28:57.839 --> 00:29:00.460 Jesus or something. And it's like wow. It happened. 00:29:00.740 --> 00:29:06.069 It's real. But he got tired of imagining. And 00:29:06.069 --> 00:29:11.410 never actually discovering. But I found it more 00:29:11.410 --> 00:29:14.069 and more difficult with free scope given to my 00:29:14.069 --> 00:29:18.089 imagination to invent evidence which would suffice 00:29:18.089 --> 00:29:23.369 to convince me. He gave up. And then he started 00:29:23.369 --> 00:29:26.930 looking at the Bible. I had gradually come by 00:29:26.930 --> 00:29:30.990 this time to see that the Old Testament from 00:29:30.990 --> 00:29:35.480 its false history of the world. Did you pick 00:29:35.480 --> 00:29:38.819 on that phrase? The Old Testament is not God's 00:29:38.819 --> 00:29:42.240 word. It's just a myth. It's a false history 00:29:42.240 --> 00:29:47.640 of the world. Did not happen. Abraham, no, did 00:29:47.640 --> 00:29:52.039 not exist. Cyrus, all this stuff, no evidence. 00:29:52.140 --> 00:29:55.680 That didn't happen. The history of the Old Testament 00:29:55.680 --> 00:30:00.539 is fake. So the Bible and the Old Testament and 00:30:00.539 --> 00:30:03.079 all this stuff was no more to be trusted than 00:30:03.079 --> 00:30:05.880 the sacred books of the Hindus or the beliefs 00:30:05.880 --> 00:30:09.960 of any barbarian. They're all the same. They're 00:30:09.960 --> 00:30:16.299 not historical. It's just myth. And that's how 00:30:16.299 --> 00:30:23.119 he thought. So for him, the choice he would pick 00:30:23.119 --> 00:30:25.019 from these options was, I believe the Bible is 00:30:25.019 --> 00:30:30.900 myth. That's why I don't. is true. And therefore 00:30:30.900 --> 00:30:34.119 he had to create in his mind and imagination 00:30:34.119 --> 00:30:41.220 another version of the history of humanity. And 00:30:41.220 --> 00:30:47.819 he came up with his theory. This matters because 00:30:47.819 --> 00:30:52.740 as we were engaging in these spaces, we are trying 00:30:52.740 --> 00:30:58.640 to understand is Is the Bible really true? Can 00:30:58.640 --> 00:31:03.980 we trust the text? And who translated the Bible 00:31:03.980 --> 00:31:10.960 anyway? Is this really historical? Is there any 00:31:10.960 --> 00:31:15.880 evidence? Is what Darwin said really true or 00:31:15.880 --> 00:31:21.640 not? So we engaged in going to different places 00:31:21.640 --> 00:31:24.400 and we went to the British Library, we went to 00:31:24.400 --> 00:31:27.200 the British Museum in London because there were 00:31:27.200 --> 00:31:29.519 things there that you will see in the rest of 00:31:29.519 --> 00:31:33.799 this study that helped us understand a little 00:31:33.799 --> 00:31:37.559 bit more of this so that we can be like the Bereans, 00:31:37.579 --> 00:31:42.039 people that love the truth, not just live by 00:31:42.039 --> 00:31:44.859 theories of people that reject the scriptures. 00:31:47.880 --> 00:31:52.180 What we discovered is that the text of the Bible 00:31:52.180 --> 00:31:57.259 is actually very reliable. This idea that it 00:31:57.259 --> 00:31:59.299 has been changed throughout the centuries, there's 00:31:59.299 --> 00:32:04.299 no way we can tell, that's not true. And it's 00:32:04.299 --> 00:32:09.680 fascinating to see. Part of preparing to this 00:32:09.680 --> 00:32:13.900 trip was watching this documentary that is called 00:32:13.900 --> 00:32:17.079 Fragments of Truth. Now, take a picture of it. 00:32:17.769 --> 00:32:20.690 You will go to YouTube and you will type fragments 00:32:20.690 --> 00:32:23.069 of truth and you have homework to do this week. 00:32:23.150 --> 00:32:26.630 You will watch this entire documentary. Excellent 00:32:26.630 --> 00:32:32.569 work. Very well done. And it's a group of Christian 00:32:32.569 --> 00:32:36.410 scholars that take the time to explain to you 00:32:36.410 --> 00:32:39.589 the development of the biblical text and the 00:32:39.589 --> 00:32:41.769 manuscripts and where they came from and where 00:32:41.769 --> 00:32:46.539 they are stored today. The errors in transcribing 00:32:46.539 --> 00:32:49.720 copies and different things. A lot of good information. 00:32:51.480 --> 00:32:53.680 But I'm going to point only a couple of things 00:32:53.680 --> 00:32:57.759 in this section for us. First is that you have 00:32:57.759 --> 00:33:01.240 to remember that the Bible has two sections, 00:33:01.359 --> 00:33:04.759 the Old Testament and the New Testament. The 00:33:04.759 --> 00:33:08.059 Old Testament was originally written in what 00:33:08.059 --> 00:33:14.700 language? Hebrew. And the book of Daniel had 00:33:14.700 --> 00:33:17.059 a couple of sections in Aramaic that is very 00:33:17.059 --> 00:33:21.200 similar to Hebrew. The New Testament, in contrast, 00:33:21.579 --> 00:33:27.599 was written in what language? Greek. So the original 00:33:27.599 --> 00:33:31.640 books of the Bible were written in these languages. 00:33:32.720 --> 00:33:37.579 And they have complete different history behind 00:33:37.579 --> 00:33:42.019 them. The Old Testament. It's one thing that 00:33:42.019 --> 00:33:45.359 is very important because the Old Testament was 00:33:45.359 --> 00:33:47.900 what Paul was using when he went to the Bereans 00:33:47.900 --> 00:33:57.079 to teach. Did you know that in 1947, there was 00:33:57.079 --> 00:34:00.019 a discovery in these caves that you can see the 00:34:00.019 --> 00:34:03.420 picture here in an area called Masada, very close 00:34:03.420 --> 00:34:13.340 to the Dead Sea in Israel. stored in these caves 00:34:13.340 --> 00:34:18.519 all these old scrolls that came to be known as 00:34:18.519 --> 00:34:23.579 the Dead Sea Scrolls. And they contain the Old 00:34:23.579 --> 00:34:28.500 Testament that we have today, but in Hebrew. 00:34:29.420 --> 00:34:33.980 And they dated to the first to the third century. 00:34:34.039 --> 00:34:36.400 It was a long collection that had been written 00:34:36.400 --> 00:34:41.760 throughout several centuries. First to the third 00:34:41.760 --> 00:34:51.179 century before Jesus. Which means that we can 00:34:51.179 --> 00:34:57.400 know what was the text of the Old Testament that 00:34:57.400 --> 00:35:02.039 circulated during the time of Jesus. We can look 00:35:02.039 --> 00:35:05.159 at the text that Paul would have used to go to 00:35:05.159 --> 00:35:12.820 the Bereans. There's about 900 scrolls and manuscripts 00:35:12.820 --> 00:35:19.519 and more than 25 ,000 fragments. It's a huge 00:35:19.519 --> 00:35:22.320 collection. And you can see this today if you 00:35:22.320 --> 00:35:24.519 go to Israel, to Jerusalem. It's in the museum. 00:35:24.599 --> 00:35:27.179 And you can see all of that. And also, they take 00:35:27.179 --> 00:35:29.219 some of these collections and they travel around 00:35:29.219 --> 00:35:33.360 the world for displays in some museums as well. 00:35:33.619 --> 00:35:38.179 So, what's amazing is that today we can know 00:35:38.860 --> 00:35:43.579 Whether the text we have today matches that ancient 00:35:43.579 --> 00:35:51.840 text. And guess what? It does. I had a dear friend 00:35:51.840 --> 00:35:59.079 that went to Israel. And she got me a gift. And 00:35:59.079 --> 00:36:02.119 I have it in my office. But this is a replica 00:36:02.119 --> 00:36:06.380 of Dead Sea Scrolls. With a jar. So if you've 00:36:06.380 --> 00:36:08.550 never seen anything like this. I'm going to put 00:36:08.550 --> 00:36:11.210 it here in front so you can see it at the end 00:36:11.210 --> 00:36:19.650 of the study. Just don't take it home. Can you 00:36:19.650 --> 00:36:22.449 trust the text? Yes. But what about the New Testament? 00:36:22.829 --> 00:36:24.349 Well, the New Testament is a whole different 00:36:24.349 --> 00:36:27.690 beast because it was written in Greek. And it 00:36:27.690 --> 00:36:30.210 was written throughout a different timeline because 00:36:30.210 --> 00:36:35.539 it's after Jesus, not before Jesus. And right 00:36:35.539 --> 00:36:39.159 now, we have such a large collection of manuscripts 00:36:39.159 --> 00:36:46.360 and copies from long periods of time. The calculation 00:36:46.360 --> 00:36:50.679 is that we have a total of 2 .5 million pages 00:36:50.679 --> 00:36:55.840 of manuscripts, 5 ,800 actual complete manuscripts, 00:36:56.239 --> 00:37:02.739 including several fragments of manuscripts. And 00:37:02.739 --> 00:37:06.820 these things have been written in different materials. 00:37:06.980 --> 00:37:10.320 The oldest are the papyrus. This was before the 00:37:10.320 --> 00:37:16.599 invention of paper. The papyrus. Then the material 00:37:16.599 --> 00:37:21.860 that was animal skin is called parchment. So 00:37:21.860 --> 00:37:23.760 we have some manuscripts written in parchment. 00:37:24.400 --> 00:37:26.980 And then the later ones are written in paper. 00:37:27.460 --> 00:37:30.659 So you have... copies of copies throughout different 00:37:30.659 --> 00:37:33.559 countries, different regions. And if you want 00:37:33.559 --> 00:37:35.960 to know more about this part, watch the documentary 00:37:35.960 --> 00:37:39.559 I just told you about fragments of truth. But 00:37:39.559 --> 00:37:41.880 what's amazing is that if you put them in the 00:37:41.880 --> 00:37:45.139 timeline from the time of Jesus until now, there's 00:37:45.139 --> 00:37:48.260 a continuity, there's a consistency of copies 00:37:48.260 --> 00:37:54.079 and copies and copies. And the oldest ones, the 00:37:54.079 --> 00:37:58.670 oldest fragment that we have, Evidence of the 00:37:58.670 --> 00:38:05.550 New Testament is this papyrus, P52. Let me say 00:38:05.550 --> 00:38:11.710 that I got the number right. P52. P for papyrus 00:38:11.710 --> 00:38:14.610 and 52 is the number because they're all coded. 00:38:15.250 --> 00:38:21.309 And this papyrus dates to the year 150 and is 00:38:21.309 --> 00:38:24.309 part of the Gospel of John. And you can read 00:38:24.309 --> 00:38:26.309 it and it matches the John that you have today. 00:38:27.179 --> 00:38:29.440 Now, the Apostle John wrote the Gospel of John. 00:38:29.559 --> 00:38:33.599 He died when he was in his 90s. And the Gospel 00:38:33.599 --> 00:38:39.239 circulated. Most of these copies and manuscripts, 00:38:39.400 --> 00:38:42.639 it's estimated that they had a lifespan of about 00:38:42.639 --> 00:38:47.559 100 years. So you can calculate, John dies when 00:38:47.559 --> 00:38:50.420 he's in his 90s. He writes the Gospel of John 00:38:50.420 --> 00:38:52.900 during that period of time, 100 years. By the 00:38:52.900 --> 00:38:56.260 time this papyrus is copied, The Gospel of John 00:38:56.260 --> 00:38:58.519 is already in circulation. They are parallel 00:38:58.519 --> 00:39:03.780 to each other. And we have a copy of it. In fact, 00:39:03.780 --> 00:39:06.199 if you want, you can buy a replica of it and 00:39:06.199 --> 00:39:08.260 put it in my office. I'm sorry, in your office. 00:39:10.940 --> 00:39:18.280 It's amazing. We have all this stuff. But that's 00:39:18.280 --> 00:39:21.340 just a little fragment. Lots of fragments like 00:39:21.340 --> 00:39:25.130 that. But what about a whole collection? Imagine 00:39:25.130 --> 00:39:28.050 finding the entire collection of the Gospels, 00:39:28.110 --> 00:39:33.329 all of them written in Greek. Wouldn't it be 00:39:33.329 --> 00:39:38.570 great to find something like that? Well, you 00:39:38.570 --> 00:39:40.849 don't have to try to find it. It's there already. 00:39:41.610 --> 00:39:45.329 It's called the Codex Sinaiticus, and it's from 00:39:45.329 --> 00:39:50.440 the year 350 or so. It's in that era. So by the 00:39:50.440 --> 00:39:54.340 year 300s, we already had the full collection 00:39:54.340 --> 00:39:58.500 of the New Testament put together. And the most 00:39:58.500 --> 00:40:01.440 amazing thing is that today you can go to the 00:40:01.440 --> 00:40:04.039 British Library and actually see it. And that's 00:40:04.039 --> 00:40:06.980 what we did. We went to the British Library. 00:40:07.059 --> 00:40:10.000 We had some lectures there. We were able to see 00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:17.860 the actual original collection from the 300s 00:40:17.860 --> 00:40:25.500 in Greek. Now, I brought a copy of it. It's a 00:40:25.500 --> 00:40:30.039 smaller version of it from John chapter 1. And 00:40:30.039 --> 00:40:32.719 if you want to see it, I also keep it in my office. 00:40:32.760 --> 00:40:34.739 I brought it here. I'm going to put it here so 00:40:34.739 --> 00:40:38.960 you can see what these manuscripts look like. 00:40:39.239 --> 00:40:42.679 And you will see the ancient Greek. Just don't 00:40:42.679 --> 00:40:50.530 take it home. That's really amazing that we have 00:40:50.530 --> 00:40:53.969 so many copies of manuscripts and things. And 00:40:53.969 --> 00:40:56.550 once you compare them to the Bible that you have 00:40:56.550 --> 00:41:03.889 today, guess what? They match. So when we say, 00:41:03.989 --> 00:41:06.889 well, you know, I'm not sure I can trust the 00:41:06.889 --> 00:41:11.889 text. Yes, you can. The idea that the text has 00:41:11.889 --> 00:41:14.909 been corrupted and there's no way to find out 00:41:14.909 --> 00:41:22.780 is a myth. Dr. Wallace was one of my professors 00:41:22.780 --> 00:41:25.079 on New Testament and Greek in Dallas Theological 00:41:25.079 --> 00:41:28.239 Seminary. And after he was specializing in Greek 00:41:28.239 --> 00:41:30.559 for many years, he realized, you know, we need 00:41:30.559 --> 00:41:32.860 to make these manuscripts available to people. 00:41:33.059 --> 00:41:35.579 So they started a nonprofit organization called 00:41:35.579 --> 00:41:37.579 the Center for the Study of the New Testament 00:41:37.579 --> 00:41:40.619 Manuscripts. And they go throughout the world 00:41:40.619 --> 00:41:44.699 scanning in high definition all these documents. 00:41:45.039 --> 00:41:47.420 They find them in lots of different locations. 00:41:47.460 --> 00:41:50.429 There are still many to be scanned. And they 00:41:50.429 --> 00:41:53.530 have this website where you can go online. You 00:41:53.530 --> 00:41:59.750 go to the csntm .org and then you can search 00:41:59.750 --> 00:42:02.650 for any of these manuscripts. And you get to 00:42:02.650 --> 00:42:05.869 see high definition. Now that is for those of 00:42:05.869 --> 00:42:09.690 you that love all this kind of stuff like me. 00:42:09.750 --> 00:42:12.489 It's like, where were you when I was in seminary? 00:42:12.750 --> 00:42:15.030 It would have been so good to have this access, 00:42:15.210 --> 00:42:16.769 you know, like that. Let's see the manuscript. 00:42:16.929 --> 00:42:23.780 Wow, there it is. Public, available to anyone 00:42:23.780 --> 00:42:33.179 that cares for truth. So if you are one who has 00:42:33.179 --> 00:42:35.980 been wondering whether I can trust the text, 00:42:36.139 --> 00:42:45.599 I'm here to tell you, you can. We know. But the 00:42:45.599 --> 00:42:49.039 other realization that really hit us when we 00:42:49.039 --> 00:42:51.969 went to England, was the realization that the 00:42:51.969 --> 00:42:55.889 text was very costly. Because do you realize 00:42:55.889 --> 00:42:58.489 that not only many people throughout the centuries 00:42:58.489 --> 00:43:01.769 had to write, some people were persecuted for 00:43:01.769 --> 00:43:04.889 having this text, so they hid them in scrolls. 00:43:05.869 --> 00:43:09.489 But all of that was in Hebrew and Greek. Did 00:43:09.489 --> 00:43:11.190 you realize that you can read your Bible now 00:43:11.190 --> 00:43:18.989 in English? How come? Did you know that there 00:43:18.989 --> 00:43:23.090 was a, period of time in church history when 00:43:23.090 --> 00:43:27.610 the Bible was only translated into Latin. And 00:43:27.610 --> 00:43:31.550 if you were a follower of Jesus, the only Bible 00:43:31.550 --> 00:43:37.769 that you could hear was Latin. It was considered 00:43:37.769 --> 00:43:40.710 wrong to translate the Bible into any other language 00:43:40.710 --> 00:43:43.329 because the fear was that it was going to dilute 00:43:43.329 --> 00:43:45.710 doctrine and people were going to misunderstand 00:43:45.710 --> 00:43:49.050 things and only the elite could have control 00:43:49.050 --> 00:43:54.940 of that. But there was a man called William Tyndale. 00:43:56.000 --> 00:44:03.360 He lived in England, and he was studying theology 00:44:03.360 --> 00:44:06.940 and the scriptures, and he had this idea. Wouldn't 00:44:06.940 --> 00:44:11.840 it be great that that boy working on the field 00:44:11.840 --> 00:44:15.460 could have access to the scriptures in his language, 00:44:15.539 --> 00:44:20.500 in English? Wouldn't it be great that someone 00:44:20.500 --> 00:44:24.000 could actually translate from the Greek into 00:44:24.000 --> 00:44:27.139 English? That would be awesome. But there was 00:44:27.139 --> 00:44:31.739 a big problem. It was illegal. You couldn't. 00:44:32.739 --> 00:44:36.360 So he left England and escaped to Germany. And 00:44:36.360 --> 00:44:39.960 when he's in Germany, he starts translating from 00:44:39.960 --> 00:44:44.639 the Greek to English. And he translates the first 00:44:44.639 --> 00:44:51.159 New Testament in English. But then something 00:44:51.159 --> 00:44:57.219 happened. As the New Testament got printed, he 00:44:57.219 --> 00:45:00.139 went, he was there and the New Testament, some 00:45:00.139 --> 00:45:03.940 of the copies made it into England. And when 00:45:03.940 --> 00:45:05.800 the authorities started seeing this happen, they 00:45:05.800 --> 00:45:10.039 burned them. In fact, we only have three surviving 00:45:10.039 --> 00:45:13.639 copies of the original prints of that New Testament. 00:45:14.659 --> 00:45:17.289 Tyndale's New Testament. And actually in the 00:45:17.289 --> 00:45:19.170 British Library, they have one of the copies 00:45:19.170 --> 00:45:26.070 and you can see it right there. And it so happened 00:45:26.070 --> 00:45:32.869 that this year is the 500th, 500th, is that right? 00:45:33.449 --> 00:45:37.429 Anniversary of the translation of the New Testament 00:45:37.429 --> 00:45:40.969 into English. And we're right there in the middle 00:45:40.969 --> 00:45:49.849 of it all. 1526, first New Testament in English 00:45:49.849 --> 00:45:54.650 ever. But it came to a cost. Because then he 00:45:54.650 --> 00:45:59.550 was persecuted. He was imprisoned in an area, 00:45:59.610 --> 00:46:02.969 in the area known today as Brussels. He was there 00:46:02.969 --> 00:46:06.710 for over a year and he was condemned for heresy. 00:46:07.449 --> 00:46:11.190 Because he translated the Bible from Greek, the 00:46:11.190 --> 00:46:15.769 New Testament from Greek to English. He was tortured. 00:46:17.510 --> 00:46:24.750 He was strangled to death at the pole. And then 00:46:24.750 --> 00:46:30.670 he was burned. And one of the last prayers that 00:46:30.670 --> 00:46:35.650 he said was, Lord, open the eyes of the King 00:46:35.650 --> 00:46:39.969 of England. And three years later, the King of 00:46:39.969 --> 00:46:48.679 England made the English translation legal. Did 00:46:48.679 --> 00:46:51.659 you realize that the Bible that you have in your 00:46:51.659 --> 00:46:58.500 phone in English is only possible because people 00:46:58.500 --> 00:47:03.360 love truth and were willing to die for it? Perhaps 00:47:03.360 --> 00:47:07.800 you never heard the name William Tyndale. Now 00:47:07.800 --> 00:47:11.940 you know. And you need to know who he was. Because 00:47:11.940 --> 00:47:15.739 that was the preamble for us to have access to 00:47:15.739 --> 00:47:18.840 study the truth. So the scriptures in English. 00:47:20.059 --> 00:47:27.079 500 years later and here we are. Wow. That's 00:47:27.079 --> 00:47:29.840 really amazing that that happened. And exactly 00:47:29.840 --> 00:47:35.199 this year. But what about the content? Is the 00:47:35.199 --> 00:47:37.900 history of the Bible reliable or is it a false 00:47:37.900 --> 00:47:43.559 history? Like Darwin said. And this is where 00:47:43.559 --> 00:47:46.559 I feel so bad for Darwin because I wish he would 00:47:46.559 --> 00:47:50.239 have been born just a few years later. His whole 00:47:50.239 --> 00:47:52.539 idea would have changed completely because so 00:47:52.539 --> 00:47:59.000 much archaeology has developed since then. And 00:47:59.000 --> 00:48:01.539 a huge collection of that biblical archaeology 00:48:01.539 --> 00:48:05.019 is found in the British Museum. That's why we 00:48:05.019 --> 00:48:08.090 went there with the team. We went to the British 00:48:08.090 --> 00:48:10.949 Museum. We had lectures there. And there's so 00:48:10.949 --> 00:48:12.449 much I cannot tell you all of it because I don't 00:48:12.449 --> 00:48:16.070 have enough time for it. But as you go into the 00:48:16.070 --> 00:48:20.570 spaces, you know, think about Genesis. The Bible 00:48:20.570 --> 00:48:22.610 starts with creation and the fall of humanity. 00:48:22.829 --> 00:48:25.130 Sin enters the world. And then people get so 00:48:25.130 --> 00:48:27.809 corrupted that God decides to destroy the early 00:48:27.809 --> 00:48:30.949 world with water. Like the Apostle Peter says, 00:48:31.030 --> 00:48:33.090 the ancient world was destroyed by the flood. 00:48:33.820 --> 00:48:36.300 So this global flood destroys the world, and 00:48:36.300 --> 00:48:39.159 then God calls Noah and his family to start populating 00:48:39.159 --> 00:48:41.539 the earth again, like he had done to Adam and 00:48:41.539 --> 00:48:44.000 Eve, and now the earth starts being populated. 00:48:44.079 --> 00:48:49.119 But at the end of that section in Genesis, who 00:48:49.119 --> 00:48:51.920 is the main character that the narrative of Genesis 00:48:51.920 --> 00:48:56.000 focuses on now? He's known as the father of the 00:48:56.000 --> 00:49:00.280 faith. What's his name? Abraham. The rest of 00:49:00.280 --> 00:49:03.969 Genesis focuses on Abraham. Because God gives 00:49:03.969 --> 00:49:07.869 the promise of the Messiah, Jesus, coming through 00:49:07.869 --> 00:49:14.630 his descendants. Abraham was the earliest person 00:49:14.630 --> 00:49:16.269 that we'll have in the Bible after the flood. 00:49:17.469 --> 00:49:22.769 And he came from a city called Ur of the Chaldeans. 00:49:22.909 --> 00:49:28.230 You are Ur of the Chaldeans. Wouldn't it be great? 00:49:29.550 --> 00:49:32.050 If there was some kind of archaeological evidence 00:49:32.050 --> 00:49:35.369 that there was a place called Ur. From those 00:49:35.369 --> 00:49:39.369 years. Well it is great. And it is there in the 00:49:39.369 --> 00:49:43.530 British Museum. We have the archaeological evidence. 00:49:44.090 --> 00:49:47.050 Of Ur of the Chaldeans where Abraham came from. 00:49:48.510 --> 00:49:53.590 And you can see it right there. Wow that's very 00:49:53.590 --> 00:49:58.670 early. We're talking about Genesis. Yeah. And 00:49:58.670 --> 00:50:02.130 they have. Things from the Assyrians, from the 00:50:02.130 --> 00:50:04.949 Mesopotamian cultures. They have things from 00:50:04.949 --> 00:50:08.909 the Babylonians, from the Persians. All this 00:50:08.909 --> 00:50:11.510 stuff, everything that is in the Bible in the 00:50:11.510 --> 00:50:15.469 Old Testament, you find archaeology there in 00:50:15.469 --> 00:50:18.809 the British Museum. And we got to see the famous 00:50:18.809 --> 00:50:24.530 Cyrus Cylinder. Now, the replica of that one 00:50:24.530 --> 00:50:28.360 was... Cost more like $2 ,000 to be able to buy 00:50:28.360 --> 00:50:32.280 that one, so I didn't bring that with me. But 00:50:32.280 --> 00:50:41.099 that is the one evidence of the time in which 00:50:41.099 --> 00:50:45.500 King Cyrus from the Persian Empire sent people 00:50:45.500 --> 00:50:49.360 back to their countries to start building their 00:50:49.360 --> 00:50:52.780 temples so that he could have the favor of the 00:50:52.780 --> 00:50:56.880 gods. And he writes this in this cylinder that 00:50:56.880 --> 00:51:00.440 was discovered in Babylon. And it's fascinating 00:51:00.440 --> 00:51:03.099 because in the Old Testament, prophet Isaiah 00:51:03.099 --> 00:51:08.059 prophesied King Cyrus by name centuries before 00:51:08.059 --> 00:51:11.380 he was even born. And he prophesied that he is 00:51:11.380 --> 00:51:13.679 the one that God is going to use to bring Israel 00:51:13.679 --> 00:51:16.820 back from exile, back in Jerusalem to build. 00:51:17.420 --> 00:51:19.500 And that's exactly what the book of Ezra said 00:51:19.500 --> 00:51:21.980 it happened. And now we have the evidence that 00:51:21.980 --> 00:51:25.619 actually he did that for many different nations. 00:51:26.679 --> 00:51:32.960 And his name is there. Fascinating. And as you 00:51:32.960 --> 00:51:37.559 enter the British Museum display area, the first 00:51:37.559 --> 00:51:41.719 thing that you see is the Rosetta Stone. Now 00:51:41.719 --> 00:51:45.059 the Rosetta Stone is now my mouse pad in my office. 00:51:47.980 --> 00:51:50.000 The Rosetta Stone has nothing to do with the 00:51:50.000 --> 00:51:52.079 Bible directly. It doesn't mention anything about 00:51:52.079 --> 00:51:54.679 the Bible. In fact, it's an Egyptian document 00:51:54.679 --> 00:52:02.619 that was discovered, praising the pharaoh. But 00:52:02.619 --> 00:52:04.739 what was interesting is that it's written in 00:52:04.739 --> 00:52:09.599 three scripts. You have the Egyptian hieroglyphics, 00:52:09.599 --> 00:52:12.320 and then the next paragraph says the same thing, 00:52:12.420 --> 00:52:16.500 but in the official kind of legal... language 00:52:16.500 --> 00:52:21.500 of Egyptian, and then Greek. So three languages. 00:52:22.940 --> 00:52:26.360 And why does that matter? Well, because until 00:52:26.360 --> 00:52:30.099 that point, we couldn't translate hieroglyphics. 00:52:31.380 --> 00:52:33.980 We could see them, but we had no idea what they 00:52:33.980 --> 00:52:36.719 meant or how to interpret them. But now we know 00:52:36.719 --> 00:52:40.119 Greek, so we can look at the Greek and say exactly 00:52:40.119 --> 00:52:42.800 what it says and start comparing things, and 00:52:42.800 --> 00:52:45.179 we know the other language. So it's like, oh, 00:52:45.420 --> 00:52:50.360 maybe this is what it means. And that is the 00:52:50.360 --> 00:52:53.739 key that opened for archaeologists, the ability 00:52:53.739 --> 00:52:58.699 to translate hieroglyphics. And this is what, 00:52:58.760 --> 00:53:06.179 it gets so cool. You have to see this. The Bible 00:53:06.179 --> 00:53:08.699 says in the Old Testament that all these nations 00:53:08.699 --> 00:53:13.400 have pagan gods. And you have lots of those names 00:53:13.400 --> 00:53:18.019 in the Bible. But when Moses is called by God 00:53:18.019 --> 00:53:23.940 to leave the area where he is, to now go with 00:53:23.940 --> 00:53:26.880 the Israelites out of Egypt and lead them out 00:53:26.880 --> 00:53:30.599 of Egypt, Moses says to God, but what's your 00:53:30.599 --> 00:53:34.039 name? When I go there and tell the Israelites, 00:53:34.179 --> 00:53:39.869 you know, God has sent me, what do I say? God 00:53:39.869 --> 00:53:44.769 says, my name is Yahweh. And that is going to 00:53:44.769 --> 00:53:47.349 be my name forever. If you read your Old Testament, 00:53:47.630 --> 00:53:51.070 often you will say, the Lord says, and the word 00:53:51.070 --> 00:53:54.469 Lord is in capital letters. Well, actually, that's 00:53:54.469 --> 00:53:57.050 the English translation. In the Hebrew, it's 00:53:57.050 --> 00:54:04.369 this. Yahweh says. This is the 15th century before 00:54:04.369 --> 00:54:09.010 Jesus. That is when Moses lived. That is the 00:54:09.010 --> 00:54:11.250 time when God told him, this is my name, my name 00:54:11.250 --> 00:54:17.309 will be Yahweh forever. Well, you have the Pharaoh 00:54:17.309 --> 00:54:21.989 of the Exodus and his grandson builds a temple 00:54:21.989 --> 00:54:27.510 in the area that is now Sudan. And there's a 00:54:27.510 --> 00:54:32.369 place in Sudan called the Solib Temple. And the 00:54:32.369 --> 00:54:35.929 grandson of that Pharaoh now builds this temple. 00:54:36.619 --> 00:54:42.920 And he is building in the temple some drawings 00:54:42.920 --> 00:54:48.380 and words, but with hieroglyphics. And that was 00:54:48.380 --> 00:54:52.400 discovered. And when it was discovered, because 00:54:52.400 --> 00:54:54.260 now we can translate, they could look at the 00:54:54.260 --> 00:54:58.059 hieroglyphic and start making sense of it. And 00:54:58.059 --> 00:55:00.219 they started putting the sounds to it and trying 00:55:00.219 --> 00:55:03.199 to translate it. And it's like, okay, that's 00:55:03.199 --> 00:55:07.000 definitely the why. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And 00:55:07.000 --> 00:55:11.219 then that's ah, yah, yah. And that other symbol, 00:55:11.260 --> 00:55:13.780 that's the woo, woo, isn't it? Yeah, it is yah, 00:55:13.940 --> 00:55:18.079 yah. And that bird symbol is the eh sound. Okay, 00:55:18.159 --> 00:55:25.260 wait. What? Yahweh. And the whole translation 00:55:25.260 --> 00:55:30.619 was land of the nomads of Yahweh. This was a 00:55:30.619 --> 00:55:35.219 group of people that he mentions. There was a 00:55:35.219 --> 00:55:38.000 group of people that were nomads known as the 00:55:38.000 --> 00:55:42.980 nomads of Yahweh. And the Israelites were nomads 00:55:42.980 --> 00:55:47.500 until they got later in the promised land. And 00:55:47.500 --> 00:55:50.679 this is the first time in history that we have 00:55:50.679 --> 00:55:54.659 the name Yahweh outside the Bible. And it dates 00:55:54.659 --> 00:55:58.159 to the 15th century before Christ, the same time, 00:55:58.340 --> 00:56:01.099 the same period of time in which Moses lived, 00:56:01.139 --> 00:56:06.139 the same century. And all of that because of 00:56:06.139 --> 00:56:10.079 the Rosetta Stone, the British Museum. You see 00:56:10.079 --> 00:56:15.699 how this is amazing? And just to conclude, there 00:56:15.699 --> 00:56:19.179 was a whole section of Greece in the museum where 00:56:19.179 --> 00:56:21.780 we have so much good stuff there. But this was 00:56:21.780 --> 00:56:28.340 the sculptures of the philosophers. And I ask... 00:56:29.199 --> 00:56:31.059 You know, Socrates, if I could take a selfie 00:56:31.059 --> 00:56:32.920 with him, he didn't answer, nor did he smile. 00:56:33.619 --> 00:56:38.500 And so I took that as a yes. And yeah, that's 00:56:38.500 --> 00:56:42.420 Socrates. That's what he looked like. So you 00:56:42.420 --> 00:56:44.920 have Socrates, and then you have this other guy. 00:56:45.659 --> 00:56:48.199 But then you go to the third one, and look at 00:56:48.199 --> 00:56:56.219 his face. His name? Epicurus. He is the founder 00:56:56.219 --> 00:57:02.079 of the Epicurean School of Philosophy who taught, 00:57:02.360 --> 00:57:06.820 eventually, these philosophers in Athens that 00:57:06.820 --> 00:57:13.320 Paul met to share the gospel with. And actually, 00:57:13.460 --> 00:57:16.960 there was no pictures during that time, but you 00:57:16.960 --> 00:57:19.300 can see his face. This is what he looked like. 00:57:21.179 --> 00:57:25.250 The Bible comes alive in archaeology. So we had 00:57:25.250 --> 00:57:27.690 to take a picture next to these people, so famous. 00:57:29.489 --> 00:57:34.030 You see how this works? We need to be like the 00:57:34.030 --> 00:57:36.570 Bereans. They receive the message with great 00:57:36.570 --> 00:57:38.789 eagerness and examine scriptures every day to 00:57:38.789 --> 00:57:43.690 see if what Paul said was true. Can I trust the 00:57:43.690 --> 00:57:46.909 text? Yes. Well, can I trust the content? Yes. 00:57:47.130 --> 00:57:53.659 Why? Because it is true. will have so much evidence 00:57:53.659 --> 00:57:58.579 for it that to believe it was myth, that will 00:57:58.579 --> 00:58:02.199 not be true. To believe that it's a conspiracy 00:58:02.199 --> 00:58:04.960 and the text was changed, that will not be true. 00:58:06.179 --> 00:58:09.079 So if these things have kept you from engaging 00:58:09.079 --> 00:58:11.880 with the scriptures, with the word, and study 00:58:11.880 --> 00:58:15.000 it and learn and become like Timothy, a mature 00:58:15.000 --> 00:58:19.460 follower of Christ, let those obstacles for once 00:58:19.460 --> 00:58:25.579 be removed. And trust the scriptures. Because 00:58:25.579 --> 00:58:28.639 we followers of Jesus love the truth. And therefore 00:58:28.639 --> 00:58:33.019 we trust the scriptures. Would you stand up with 00:58:33.019 --> 00:58:40.300 me. And read together as we close. Let's read 00:58:40.300 --> 00:58:44.360 it together. Your word is a lamp to guide my 00:58:44.360 --> 00:58:50.219 feet. And a light for my path. Today, perhaps, 00:58:50.380 --> 00:58:54.760 this verse has to become a prayer for you. Will 00:58:54.760 --> 00:58:59.579 you tell the Lord, Lord, today I commit that 00:58:59.579 --> 00:59:06.619 your word is going to be the lamp and the light 00:59:06.619 --> 00:59:10.139 that will guide my path. I have not been reading 00:59:10.139 --> 00:59:15.199 it, studying it, learning it, trusting it. And 00:59:15.199 --> 00:59:18.909 that's why I am where I am, Lord. Guide me with 00:59:18.909 --> 00:59:23.230 truth. And that's what I ask, Lord, for your 00:59:23.230 --> 00:59:27.170 people. Especially I ask, Lord, for our young 00:59:27.170 --> 00:59:34.829 friends here who are maybe in school, maybe preparing 00:59:34.829 --> 00:59:38.650 to go to college or in a college break. They're 00:59:38.650 --> 00:59:42.489 being bombarded by ideologies and myths that 00:59:42.489 --> 00:59:47.059 tell them the Bible is not true. And I ask you, 00:59:47.099 --> 00:59:49.760 Lord, that today you strengthen their conviction 00:59:49.760 --> 00:59:53.159 and their faith. And that you guard their heart 00:59:53.159 --> 00:59:57.659 from deception. And that you lead them to lay 00:59:57.659 --> 01:00:00.219 a foundation that will be strong for the rest 01:00:00.219 --> 01:00:03.320 of their lives. That they can walk and live in 01:00:03.320 --> 01:00:09.059 the light, not in darkness. Guide us, Lord. In 01:00:09.059 --> 01:00:33.700 the name of our Lord Jesus, we pray. Amen. If 01:00:33.700 --> 01:00:36.559 God is calling you to support our ministries, 01:00:36.599 --> 01:00:39.300 you will find giving options on our website. 01:00:40.099 --> 01:00:43.559 And remember to join us next week. God bless 01:00:43.559 --> 01:00:43.800 you.