Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Bible Study on this Thursday night. Glad you're here. I'm Randy White. And this says Thursday night Bible study. We have a good time as we gather around a great big electronic table gathered from across America and around the world to have a good time. Many of us do it live. A lot of people do. It archived. Either way, we're going to have a good time of study tonight in the Book of Colossians. You have an outline available for you here in our what is it? 11th session. And I think we're going to go for all the way down to verse six. But I spilled over into the third page. Sometimes that means we don't make it all the way. But, hey, Thursday night, we're a little more flexible, so I bet we can do it, can't we? And glad that you're here. Glad to have in our live studio audience, Bruce Myrascue from Green Bay, Wisconsin, sitting right here in the studio, along with their daughter Madison, who happens to be our intern here in Towson, New Mexico. And we're delighted that, of course, she's here every week. Johnny on the spot right here, ready to go. And now she's getting her mom and dad in Bible study. They've been following us for a long time now, and we appreciate having them right here with us in the studio. And we welcome you, too, whether you're in the studio or you're off in the distance some place. It's good to have you. Before we get started, just a couple of announcements that we've got here. Let's start with the farthest away first of all, all the mysteries of the Bible. That is our sermon for can you believe it, June 5 only what, two weeks from now or something like that? I'll get it over here. All the mysteries of the Bible. And by mysteries, we're going to look at the word mystery tonight. And we are looking at these issues which require revelation and are told to us to be a mystery. Mark that on your calendar, June the fifth. And then we go to let's back up a Sunday, May the 29th, Memorial Day weekend. We're going to ask a question about life and death, and that is does God number our days in the Because You Ask series. But this Sunday, May 22, transhumanism the coming ethical issue. That's what we're going to look at. So that'll be kind of an interesting thing. And it's a prophecy kind of thing that we consider what is going to be the impetus that causes God to say, now's the time, could it be transhumanism? We'll look at that. But tonight we're here for Colossians, rightly, divided verse by verse for the 11th time of gathering here. I don't know if we're going to have two more sessions or one more session. I'll tell you next week. How's that? But we're in the last chapter of Colossians and still got a little golf, but it's much better than last week. So we'll definitely be in Colossians next week. We'll just see how it goes. And with that, let's jump here into the scripture. We've got the blue letter edition right over here of the King James. That blue letter, as you know, I'm going to make that just a little bit larger. That blue letter is my interpretation of what belongs to us, what we can take and run with. We can go to the bank on that kind of stuff. This is not specific to some other individual or it's not specific to some group of people that we could not have been a part of. We couldn't have been a part of the nation of Israel, but we could be a part of the Church at Colossey. And so we understand often that Paul is speaking in a very general sense to Gentile believers. And so we are as he talks, for example, about Masters. And we'll see that in just a moment. So we've got King James. We use much of that. We might look into a little bit of Greek here with the new barrier linear. We might even come over to the Young's literal translation. But this will be our bread and butter right here as we take verse by verse. Now, last week on the outline, I had chapter three, verse 18, going down to chapter three, verse 25, as a section. And I looked at it last week and decided, no, I'm going to shift here and start a new section with Masters and going on that these Masters continue in prayer. Well, I misread it as I began to study this week. I said, no, this really we need to make the division after chapter four, verse one. So last week's outline, verse session ten will say the section goes through chapter three, verse 25, and there we put the line, I'm going to change that now. And this week's outline is correct and make it chapter three, verse 18, through chapter four, verse one, and put the line right there. Of course, this is one of those times then when we would look and say it was an odd place to put a chapter break right here. That beginning as we back up here to verse 18, where again we were last week, and he talks about wives, and then he talks about husbands, and then he talks about children and he talks about fathers and he talks about servants for a few verses. And then he talks about Masters. It just goes into the same. But then when we get to chapter four, verse two, he begins then more broadly to say, hey, I want you Colossians to continue. And it gets much more broad here than just speaking of the Masters has been going through. So instructions for relationships. That's really what we talked about last week. We're going to add one more piece to it, and that is for the Masters. In chapter four, verse one, Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal, knowing that Ye also have a master in heaven. Here is the simple instruction here. Now remember, we mentioned last week, I think in connection to the what is it about verse 22 or so may be wrong on that. We mentioned that somewhere between 30 and 50% is the estimate that 30% to 50% of the Roman Empire was in the servant category, the Dulos category. Now obviously, then he would spend a number of verses he spent as we talked about last week, it begins in verse 22 down to verse 25. He spends more time on servants than he does on husbands and on wives. But it's a great portion of the population. Now where there are servants, there are Masters. And so here he comes. That was the servant or the Dulos is the Greek word, the Dulos category. Here are the Masters or the curios category, curios. Now, curiosity is the same Greek word that we use for Lord. As a matter of fact, you may remember that curiosity is the word, that is the word from which we get the English word Church comes from curiosity. Curiosity is often translated the Lord. And in fact, down here it says you have a curiosity in heaven, speaking about the Lord at the end of the verse, and that which is the Lord is curiachas. And from curiosas we got the word Church. It's the Lord. This belongs to the Lord. So he speaks to the curiosity. Now obviously, once again, if there are 30% to 50% of due loss, then there's a pretty sizable curiosity category as well in this social strata of the ancient first century Roman Empire. And to these Kryos, the Masters, excuse me, he says give to your servants that which is just and equal. Now, of course, you can understand in our world today, probably someone's going to jump on that Karl Marx and say, oh yeah, everybody should get a living wage and everybody should get the same wage. Well, when you really look at this, this is certainly not at all what it is saying, but it is saying that every servant should be treated justly and should be given that which is just. You should not cheat a servant because you can cheat a servant. And there are certainly possibilities for a curiosity to be able to cheat a duels in some circumstances. And he says don't do that, do what is righteous before God and that which is just and that which is equal, that is for the work that they're doing. Never in the Roman Empire. And we don't see any indication of Paul giving this idea either. But in the Roman Empire, there was never this idea where all of the Dulos category was given an equal wage. But he does say, hey, if you're digging a ditch, give him the ditch diggers salary, give him the ditch diggers pay and give them to them equally as they carry out their work. So make sure you do that, which is just and equal. Now, I don't know, by the way, any capitalist who would argue with this, this is not something that is a socialist, Marxist, Communist kind of verse. That is something that they would like to jump on, obviously. But it would be a straw man to say, oh, the capitalist Korea, he doesn't want to give what is just and he doesn't want to give what is equal. Sometimes he has the possibility of not doing that. But any capitalist with any decency to him or her whatsoever would say, yeah, a worker ought to be paid their just wages. And as a matter of fact, I would venture to say that if you put capitalism and socialism side by side and see who gets treated, in which society does the Dulos category, a segment get treated with justice and equality, is it in socialism? You're smoking something if you believe that. And by the way, Bernie Sanders has been smoking something and he has been since the 60s think that, oh yes, Russia or Venezuela, all these countries, they're just the icons of justice and equality for the working class, that you just honestly, you have to be a special kind of stupid to believe that, but you have to be a special kind of stupid to believe in socialism. Later on, we're going to get to the passage that says, always let your speech be seasoned with Grace and salt. I already put the salt in. I'm pretty good at the salt parts. Now, he obviously is saying something that any righteous curiosity would come along and say, that's what I want to do. This is how you treat people. And this is how I want to treat people. And is there more of an opportunity perhaps for someone who is a curiosity to mistreat people in regards to this justice and equality? I suppose there probably is more power and authority and ability for the curiosity. So he brings it up and he reminds the curiosity to give unto your servants that which is just an equal. Knowing you also have a master in heaven. You have a curiosity. You are, in the sense, the due loss, as Paul often calls himself, the due loss. You got a master. So remember this, don't forget this, how this works. Now, I think this little segment at the end, it reminds us in a sense of the balance that's given all the way through this passage, going back to chapter two, verse 18, three, verse 18. Excuse me. Remember, it starts out saying, Wives, submit to your husbands, but husbands love your wives. It balances out. It says, Children, obey your parents. Oh, fathers, don't provoke your children. It says, slaves or servants, excuse me, obey your Masters. Ah, well, Masters, give to your servants. And there is this equality that goes about and that is where we begin. Even last week when we talked about wife submitting into your husband's and talking about how this is not demeaning at all for the woman, it's not putting her into some sort of second class status. Remember, we talked about nobody considers the President of the United States to be second class because of their vice instead of the Mr. President. So what we have in the entire passage is this balancing out. So God has given certain authoritarian positions and structures of society. He has done that so that we don't kill ourselves. But he has balanced it in every way. I think that, again, where you find a society that's described, say, from chapter three, verse 18, to chapter four, verse one, wherever you find that society, there is very little, if any crime. There is a great degree of prosperity and there is a great degree of promise, opportunity for all who are involved. It really does become the place where it is safe to bring a child into the world. The child is going to be raised in a manner that is going to give that child an opportunity for the future. And then that child is going to have to work his way from the bottom, but he's going to have great opportunity all the way through boy, girl, slave category, master category, whatever it is. There's going to be this system of God given relationships in society that works. Now, the challenge is, of course, that our postmodern society doesn't want anybody to have any kind of authority over anyone else. And that always leads to a dictatorship, always leads to poverty, always leads to crime, always leads to problems. And you can just see that by any kind of study of civilization today or down through the ages. So this completes then what Paul says about what do we call it, instructions for relationships. Again, that's all pretty simple. I wonder how much of the issues of society that say maybe a therapist would work with family counselor or whatnot, how many of them would be addressed just by this passage right here and take those. Very simple again, does it even take up a column in the scripture? I don't know. I doubt it very simple and say, let's just make this as the foundational relationships. I read a book many, many years ago, and it's not a rightly dividing book. And I was not a right divider at the time. In fact, I read this in seminary, but the book, I just happened to pick it up off the shelf one day in the library. I was walking through and saw that and thought, oh, that looks like an interesting book. It was called Foundations for Reconstruction by Elton Trueblood. Trueblood was, if I'm not mistaken, he was a Quaker. I may be wrong on that, but I think he was a Quaker. And he wrote right after World War II, and it was about reconstructing Europe, basically, how do we reconstruct a society? What would the foundations for reconstruction be? And he, as a Quaker Minister, put forth, hey, this would build a good society. Now he built it off the Ten Commandments. The foundation for reconstruction were the Ten Commandments. And honestly, I would have to say that even though we're not under the law, he did a pretty good job of helping a person understand the Ten Commandments. If you're studying the Ten Commandments, foundations for Reconstruction, I think would be a pretty good way to go. And if you want to apply them to our society, he did it better than anyone else. Now, I'm a right divider these days, and I would do that a little bit differently. But if I were writing the book Foundations for Reconstruction, I might look at it and say, let's just take Colossians, chapter three, verse 18, down to chapter four, verse one, and let's make that our foundations for reconstruction. Wouldn't you agree with me that our society could use a little reconstruction these days? And where are we going to go? How are we going to find it? What foundations are we going to use? What if we just went back and said, hey, here's what we'll start doing in our families, in our churches, in our public schools, through our government representatives, and whatnot here's what we'll promote. Wives, submit to yourselves to your own husbands. This is fit in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives. Be not bitter against them. Children, obey your parents and all things, for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. Servants, obey in all things your Masters according to the flesh, not with eye service as men pleases, but with singleness of heart fear in God, whatsoever you do, servants do it hardly as unto the Lord, not unto men. Knowing that of the Lord, you shall receive the rewarded inheritance. For Ye serve the Lord Jesus Christ. He doth wrong servants, he shall receive the wrong for which he has done. There's no respect of persons. Masters, give unto your servants that which is just an equal, knowing that you also have a master in heaven. There's our foundations for reconstruction. Let me ask, if that was so adopted and so taught and so prevalent in a society, how different would that society be even in a single generation? It would be a completely different world. Remember? I don't know, a number of weeks or months ago now, I don't know. We talked about putting everybody on two buses, remember? And one bus was those who reject the first five words of the Bible. And the other was the group that accepts the first five words of the Bible. In the beginning, God? No. In the beginning, God, yes. Which bus you're going to get on? And then we sent him off to a fair and Noble land to build a country and imagined with just that in the beginning, God or no God, with just that as the starting place, imagine what a different country it would be. Well, what if we added chapter three, verse 18, to chapter four, verse one, and they adopted that as their belief system again, it would be an unbelievably different world. I wonder if I could get elected to any public office with this as my platform. I don't even know if I could get a $10 donation from the political world anyway. Might from you. But the political world again would look at this and say, oh, this is so politically incorrect. I suppose if I decided to run for office here, I'm running for office the governor of New Mexico. I'm not that special kind of stupid. But if I said, hey, I'm going to run for office governor of New Mexico, I need some political advisors. Go out there amongst all the people who have a career political advisors and say, I've been a preacher all my life. I've been preaching family values. I'm going to go out there and tell wives to submit to your husband's. I'm not even working for you. If you will say that. There would not be a single political advisor in all of America would say, yeah, this is a good idea. Why? Because we have so rejected these principles in our society that I would venture to say these are not even popular and in some places not even accepted at the seminary. I can tell you for a fact that why submit to your husband. That's not acceptable. In a lot of the big box seminaries we'll talk about something else. We want to actually go there and attack it because we need to get the old people's donor money. But that is not a value that we would hold. Our society has rejected this. It would be some pretty good foundations for reconstruction. Now went from Bible study to preaching. And now we go back to Bible study, if there is a difference. Colossians, chapter four, verse two. Can I get an Amen? Right. Chapter four, verse two, begins this section, which goes down to verse six. And that's where we will go to tonight. And I'm just calling it request from Paul concerning life and Ministry. He asked the Colossians to do some things. And he starts out in verse two, telling the Colossians instructing, commanding, if you want to use that word for them to continue in prayer and watch in the same. That is watching prayer with Thanksgiving. That's a pretty simple verse. It doesn't take a lot of I need to know the Greek words on this. It's just continuing prayer and watch in the same with Thanksgiving. Be prayerful. Colossian Church, be prayerful. Body of Christ. I've left this in the Blue Letter. I think that we can put ourselves in the shoes. The Colossian Church here, and he wants us, the body of Christ, the members of the body of Christ to continue in prayer and watch in the same that is watch in prayer with Thanksgiving. Here we will do one Greek word watch. It's the word Freyo. And you're exactly right. The English name Greg or Gregory comes from this one who is alert. One who is watchful is Gregoryo. So continue in prayer. Be Gregorish, watchful alert. Looking around in prayer with Thanksgiving. Now, Paul on a number of occasions perhaps someday will enumerate them. But on a number of occasions, Paul says, hey, I want you to pray. Don't forget, pray prayer without ceasing. Continue in prayer. And these instructions come up again a handful of times, enough to say Paul wants us to pray. It would be hard to say no. Prayer is not a thing for those in the body of Christ. But the other thing that's kind of interesting to me is Paul never gives any further instruction about it. Continuing prayer, prayer, pray without ceasing. That's about the same thing. So let me spend a few verses here or a chapter or so let me spend that now telling you how to continue in prayer. Now with that, I would say prayer then because he tells us to do it and never tells us how. Prayer must not be rocket science. I think that he doesn't explain it because it really is just sort of a simple thing. I remember reading another book years and years ago from John R. Rice, the fundamentalist pastor evangelist, I guess he was. And it was just called prayer asking and receiving, prayer asking and receiving. And it was about how prayer is asking and receiving. And that was it. Now, this was before prayer was adoration and confession and Thanksgiving and supplication and all these formulas that we have for prayer that came about. I did a little study on prayer one time and it was about the 1960s, 1970s that prayer became a very complicated thing. And you got these prayer notebooks and prayer closets and prayer lists and all these kind of stuff. Before that, prayer was just kind of asking and receiving. Again, I think here just the brevity of all of this says it's not rocket science. Now that said, let's go back a little bit. Wives, obey your husband's. Husbands love your wives. Children, obey your parents. Wives, submit to your husbands, excuse me. And husbands love your wives. Children, obey your parents. No instruction on that either. Why? Because it doesn't really need a lot of instruction. We can get it. We would rather it be more complicated. Amen, ladies, rather than just submit to your husband's. Couldn't you have used the word like, I don't know, propitiation or something like that that we couldn't figure out instead of submit or obey for the children or for the husband's love reminds me of a joke. Remember the old couple married years and years and she died and went to heaven first and she got up there. This is not a theologically correct joke. She got up there and they said, well, there's just a little bit of test you have to go through. And if you can pass this test, then you could get in and said to this dear sweet lady, she said, how do you spell love? And she said, oh, I know this. My husband and I were married for 72 years. Love everyday. Lo ve welcome your home. Well, as it happened, a few years later, her husband died just at the time, things got a little busy in heaven. And so they asked her to come be in charge of the pearly gates. And he arrived and there she was and she said, oh honey, so good to see you. It is wonderful here. I'm so glad that you're here. There's just a little test you have to pass before you could get in. How do you spell Czechoslovakia? It's not Czechoslovakia. This is a simple little deal here. We husbands would rather couldn't you make a Czechoslovakia because love is too simple. Husbands love your wives. All of this becomes so simple as it's given. So continue in prayer, watch in prayer, be Gregorian in prayer and the same with Thanksgiving. Okay, so pray, do it. And what a simple thing. And might I even kind of say it's sort of liberating to think about prayer simple. I'm just going to look around, be watchful and with Thanksgiving, let God know what I'm seeing and what I kind of think the needs are and leave it at that and make it simple. Now he goes on versus three and four, I have put in black letters or left in black letters. Now, the reason that I did that is because three and four, it's almost a parenthetical statement. The parentheses is not here. But he didn't say, hey, I want you to continue in prayer. I want you to be watchful in the same with Thanksgiving. And then he kind of throws in a personal prayer request now because he was asking them to pray for him. And you and I are not praying for Paul today. Paul is long gone. He is absent from us. So there's no way we could really apply this in a direct way. So I have left this in black. But he gives his own prayer request which gives us some insight into Paul, who is the guy we follow. So they're important verses. He says with all praying also for us that God would open unto us a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ for which I also am in bonds. Okay, I want you to pray. I want you to continue in praying. I want you to be watchful in prayer with Thanksgiving. Ah, would you pray for us? Would you pray for us that God would open a door of utterance. That is an opportunity, an opportunity to utter something, an opportunity to speak. And he defines it. A door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ. We're mystery people. We want to certainly know about this, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds. Now, the mystery of Christ, the question we would give and of course, I mentioned where is it? A few Sundays from now, we are going to talk about all the mysteries of the Bible. So the mystery of Christ. What is this mystery of Christ that we have right here? The term is used in one other place, the mystery of Christ. And that is Ephesians chapter three, verse five. And I want us to go ahead and go there and see if we can determine exactly what the mystery of Christ is Paul speaks about in chapter three, verse verse, actually, I want to start in verse three. Excuse me, chapter three, verse three. How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery, as I wrote before, in a few words, whereby when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known under the sons of men, as it is now revealed under his Holy Apostles and prophets and spirit. Now from these verses I am taking again, he says he made a revelation, known by revelation, he made known unto me the mystery. And then in the next verse, he says that you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ. I am from these two times that the phrase is used, mystery of Christ. I am taking the mystery of Christ to be the same thing as you and I would call the Pauline mystery. So to go back to verse three here, praying for us that God would open up a door of utterance to speak the Pauline mystery, the mystery that he has given to me, the mystery which in Colossians chapter one, verses 24 through 27, again was not made known unto men. It's been hidden God, all these things in Colossians one and in Ephesians chapter three, so a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ. Now, this is Paul's desire, of course, is that he would be able to tell people about the mystery. He's in prison. Now, clearly, he can write letters. He's got people coming and going. But he'd like every opportunity, every open door, to be able to speak and to be able to speak the mystery of Christ and to be able to carry that out. Now what's somewhat interesting here, he says this mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds, this phrase right here, for which I am also in bonds, could almost make you say, Ah, the mystery of Christ is not the Pauline revelation, because why was Paul in bonds? Now, let's follow my logic here so far. I'm saying, based upon Ephesians chapter three, the mystery made known unto me. I have knowledge, therefore, the mystery of Christ. I paraphrase that just a little bit that I am taking this to be the Pauline mystery. But when we read in the Book of Acts, he is really not in prison because of the Poly mystery. Or is he? Let's look at that. And I want to dig in and it's a little bit of a chasing a rabbit, I suppose, but we got to chase the rabbit because it's right here for which also I am in bonds. Why is Paul in prison? Now he appears here to say, I am in prison because of the Pauline mystery. Was he in prison because of the Pauline mystery? Well, let's look at Acts chapter 26, verse six. And here Paul is before Agrippa, if I'm not mistaken, and he is giving defense. And he says, Now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers. Well, wait a minute. Are you in prison because of the hope of the promise made unto our fathers, or are you in prison for a mystery that our fathers didn't know anything about? Which one is it? Now, again, let's jump back here to verse three. The appearance is either mystery of Christ is not the Pauline mystery, or we've got some explaining to do because this part doesn't look Pauline. If you use Acts, chapter 26, verse six, as the standard to say, okay, why is Paul in prison? Now let's walk through this just a little bit and try to figure out was Paul in prison because of the Pauline mystery and see if we can carry this out just a little bit. Now, Paul claimed that he did not teach the Pauline mystery in Jewish audiences. He stands and gives the defense. Let's go back to Acts, chapter 26 here. And so he says, I'm judged for the hope of the promise made unto God our fathers, that is for the resurrection. If you go down to let's see, chapter 26, let's go down to verse 20 in this. So here he's giving the same testimony and he talks about the road to Damascus experience. And whatnot verse 20, after this heavenly vision, what did he do? He showed first unto them of Damascus and that Jerusalem and throughout all the coasts of Judea and then under the Gentiles, what that they should repent and turn to God and do works meet for repentance. Now, that's not Pauline mystery stuff. That is Kingdom stuff, that's stuff of the fathers, the promises of the fathers. I mean, that's Sermon on the Mount stuff. This is John the Baptist stuff. This is Apostle Peter stuff. This is the prophets kind of stuff. And so he told them in Judea, then to the Gentiles, repent, turn to God, do works meet for repentance. Now, again, if I stood in my pulpit on Sunday and I said today I'd like to share the gospel, I'd like us to go to Acts, chapter 26, verse 20. Now that we've seen about the death barrel and resurrection of Jesus Christ. What do you need to do? Well, you need to turn to God. You need to repent, first of all, and you need to turn to God. And you need to then do works meet for repentance. If I preach that, you who are right dividers would say he slipped back into his Baptist ways there. That's not right. Division. This is standard evangelical garbage that he's putting forth. And you would rightly call me on it and say, wait, did you give up on right division? You're not doing that anymore because this is not right, Division. This is Jewish stuff. This is Kingdom stuff. Now, Paul is saying in 26th, he's saying, I am in prison because of the hope which was given to the fathers. What have I told the Jews? I told the Jews the same thing the high priest tells the Jews. I told the Jews the same thing that the scripture tells the Jews the same things that the Father has told the Jews. He says, I'm innocent of the charges. That's chapter 26, verse 20. We go on down to say, verse 22. Having therefore obtained the help of God, I continue unto this day witnessing both a smaller grave, saying, no other than the things, none of the things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come. Now, is Paul saying here I only preach the mystery? No, he's saying he didn't preach the mystery, saying, none of the things and those things which the prophets and Moses did say should come. So is Paul in bonds because of the Pauline gospel? It looks to me like he's in bonds because of the Kingdom gospel. Now let's put this together and say, okay, well, how do we reconcile then, the fact that Paul says, hey, it's this mystery of Christ for which I am in bonds? Again, I think our options are to decide the mystery of Christ isn't the Pauline mystery, but that's not the easiest thing to do. Maybe we could decide Paul is just delusional. None of us are going to go there, I'm sure, because we trust the scriptures. Or we could say, hey, we've got something in which both of these forces are at work and we got to figure out how they're both at work. Let's walk through some propositions in thinking about a clear reading of the Book of Acts. Let me see here if yeah, I'm just going to bring up your notes right here and maybe you can see this. I'm not sure, but it's on the second page of your notes. But let's walk through a clear reading of the Book of Acts, talks about the following, and turn off all those little funny characters there that you don't need to see. There we go. Okay, number one, we read the Book of Acts. We see what Jews knew about the mystery as delivered from Paul. What was act 15 all about? Paul, you're talking about some things out there that are not in our books. I don't know where you got this info, but this is not ours. That's from the Jews to Paul. Jews knew about the mystery as it was delivered from Paul. Number two, Jews questioned the veracity of the mystery. Again, that's kind of what Acts chapter 15 is about is, hey, Paul, you come along. You seem to tell us that you've got this mystery. Is there any truth to it? Did you really get a mystery or have you just gone off the reservation? What's that all about? You could read that in Acts, chapter 15 and Galatians, chapter one and two. Then going on number three, unbelieving Jews detested Jews who taught Jesus as the Christ. This is a little bit separate issue from one and two. One and two. Jews knew about the mystery and questioned the mystery, ended up, of course, coming across and saying, yeah, we believe in Jews anyway. We believe Paul actually got a mystery. Now, unbelieving Jews detested Jews who taught Jesus as the Christ. Let's look at Acts chapter four, verses one through three. It says, as they Spake unto the people, the priest and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them. This is Peter, James, John being grieved that they taught the people and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. Now, again, what was our point? It is that unbelieving Jews detested that Jesus was taught as the Christ, as the Messiah. So here they heard, hey, you're preaching through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. So what did they do? They laid hands on them. This is not the kind of anointing that Paul and Bartebas got. This is arrested. They laid hands on them, put them in hold until the next day. For it was even tied, albeit many of them which heard the word believed. And the number of them was about $5,000. Now, again, as we work our way through that find the right direction to go, there we go. Unbelieving Jews detested Jews who taught Jesus as the Christ. We see it now. We could go for another example. We won't look there, but Acts 26, nine through twelve. This is back where we originally started with Paul before again, I think it's a gripper. And Paul gives the testimony of what he as an unbelieving Jew did to Jews who taught Jesus as the Christ. He pursued them to the ends of the Earth in order to wipe them off the face of the Earth. Unbelieving Jews detested Jews who taught Jesus as the Christ or as a Messiah. Number four, unbelieving Jews had no qualms about fabricated charges and excessive punishment against those who taught that Jesus was the Christ. Now, just again, a simple reading of the Book of Acts says Jews hated Jews who taught that Jesus was the Christ. Once again, if we're in chapter four there's verse four, let's jump down to verse 17 and it says, but to spread no further among the people, let us straightly threaten them, that they speak henceforth to no man in this name. Now what are they going to do? Straightly threaten them? Now, as you read the Book of Acts, you could take that little phrase right there. Straightly threatened them. And how did the authorities straightly threaten them? Well, James, they cut his head off. How they did it, Peter, they would have cut his head off, except that an angel came down and opened the gates of the prison in the middle of the night. Do you remember that? So it was not a problem. Then again, at all for the unbelieving Jews to fabricate charges and give excessive punishments against those who taught. And here's a couple of examples. We went to 417. You could go to twelve one through three and twelve one through three. Of course, in verse three it says, because he saw that it pleased the Jews. This is where James dies in chapter twelve. And he cut James head off. And it pleased the Jews. And the politician Herod said, let's cut another head off. I don't care what the guilt or the innocence is. I have no qualms about fabricated charges and excessive punishment. This makes me politically gives me some political poker chips. I'm ready to go with it. That's the state. In the Book of Acts number five, with Peter, the Jews arrested him on unrelated matters. Did they arrest Peter saying, you are teaching that Jesus is the Christ? No, they arrested him about the delayed man and healed and under what name it was all these unrelated matters. But the testimony about Jesus was the real issue. You're talking about Jesus. We want you out of here. I don't care what the charge is. I don't care if we pay the witnesses. Doesn't matter. We throw justice out. You like Jesus, we hate Jesus. We hate Jews who love Jesus. We're going to get rid of you. That's the story of the Book of Acts. And so the testimony of Jesus was the real issue with Paul. They use the same strategy. I think that's key right there with Paul. They use the same strategy. They use the mystery to accuse Paul of teaching Jews to abandon Judaism. But Paul had never done such thing. The real issue was that Paul believed that Jesus was the Christ. Now here's Paul believing that Jesus is the Christ. And they hear Paul out there is teaching a freedom from the law. So what do they do? They Trump up some charges, they fabricate some charges and they go on. Speaking of Trump, they go on a witch Hunt and bring this up, number six. So in summary, Paul is in bonds because of the mystery, because the mystery was the pretense for the arrest. But Paul was never under any charges related to the mystery, but for simply believing the prophetic word. And Paul in Acts 26, verse six said that he was. Now, with that, you may or may not have followed it, but let's jump back to verse three here. So the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds. Had Paul just believed that Jesus was Messiah and taught that Jesus was Messiah, I think he probably would not have been in prison, but he was in prison for teaching that Jesus is Messiah. But that's not what they use. Remember, by this time, Peter wasn't in prison. As far as we know, Peter, he wasn't arrested till later, and that was by the Romans. If tradition goes, we don't know of any arrest of Peter by the Jews outside of that one in chapter twelve. So now Peter has gone in all this, but the Jews are saying, this guy Paul, we know how to Trump up a charge on him. We know how to go on a witch Hunt on him because this is Jewish law he's breaking, telling people to come into the Temple. Remember that? Oh, he lets people into the temple who shouldn't be here. And Paul says, I never did such thing. And he defends himself. They're trying to say, you're not Jewish. How did they get that? Excuse me? They're trying to say, you don't have to be Jewish. How did they get that from taking what Paul's preaching about the mystery, twisting it, perverting it, and ending up being able to use that as a charge that he wasn't a faithful Jew and trying to put him to death anyway, at least getting rid of him on these fake charges against Paul's Judaism. And so they took the Pauly mystery, twisted it, used it as if he was teaching that to the Jews. Now, there's something interesting here, and that is that you and I, of course, believe in the transition or the overlap, and this position is impossible without an overlap, in my opinion, is the book of Acts. Makes no sense without an overlap. But here is Paul arrested by Jews for Jewish things, but they don't have any Jewish things against him. So they take some of the Gentile things and accuse him of doing that with the Jewish people. And Paul says, no, I teach nothing else to the Jewish people than the Jewish things, which says, we got to rightly divide Paul. We got to look into Paul's literature and say, hey, did Paul go to the Jews and say, hey, Jews, we're free from the law? No, he did not. He himself claims he did not. Did Paul clearly say to Gentiles, we're free from the law? Absolutely, he did. So you have to put these together. So I think what you've got here is I'm in bonds for the mystery of Christ. I'm going to keep that as the Poly mystery. I'm in bonds for the Poly mystery. Well, yeah, they were using the polymers against him, twisting it, perverting. It happens some today, too, by the way, doesn't it that people who are Pauline are accused of all sorts of wickedness which they don't hold to, nor do they teach. But there's such an allergy in Christianity towards anything Pauline that they will use that against the person. Okay, so number four, verse four. Excuse me, that continuing on that I may make it the mystery of Christ manifest as I ought to speak. Now, I'm praying for an open door of utterance. I want to be able to tell people about the mystery of Christ. It got me in a lot of trouble, but I'd like to do it again. I don't know. It kind of reminds you of the kid who makes a ramp to jump over the Grand Canyon, whatever his own Grand Canyon that he's built there and doesn't quite make it, but he gets up and says, I think it needed to be a little farther. So let's go at it again. Paul just got this. Go get him, spirit that I may make it the mystery manifest as I ought to speak. The word manifest, by the way, it's kind of interesting. It's the word find out, which is somewhat of a I don't know that I want to say a supernatural word. However, I defined it here, that it's always used non, not in things that will appear naturally, but either by supernatural power or this confluence of events that brings about this serendipitous moment in which all of a sudden you can see something. So manifest is a very different word. In fact, the other word that could have been used here is it optimale. And that has, like the ophthalmologist that has to do with coming to view here. He doesn't say that I may make it come into view, but that I may make it manifest. Manifest is something that you would only use. Really. You've got to have an amazing turn of events to get this to be well known. And here, as I've pulled up the 49 times that this is used, and again, it's not just a normal appearance. Let's just take some of these at random. I don't know. Here's John 21, verse one. After these things, Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the sea of Taibarius. And on this wise, he showed himself. Now this is after the resurrection when they're out fishing, remember? And boom, there's Jesus, he manifested himself. He showed himself. I don't know. Let's try two Corinthians, chapter two, verse 14. Thanks to be to God, which also causes us to triumph in Christ and maketh manifest the Savior of his knowledge by us in every place. Okay. Maketh manifest the Savior. Again, these are things that it's not necessarily always supernatural, but it's. Wow, what a turn of events brought this about. And it can certainly be supernatural as well. I don't know. Second Timothy, chapter one, verse ten, perhaps, but now is made manifest by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Okay, so according to his own purpose and Grace which you've given us to Jesus Christ and now is made manifest by the appearing of Jesus Christ. Again, these kind of, shall we say, amazing turn of events that gets it to this place. So he's praying that there's such a door of utterance given that he could speak in such a way so as to make manifest as how to speak. Now that says that I hate to use this in terms in our modern society the way it is, but he says this has got to be a God thing. I need a God thing to happen so that I can teach people about this mystery and I can make it manifest. And that is, again, exactly what we've got there. Let me close that window out and get it out of your way so that I make manifest as I ought to speak. This in a sense really is not only the open door, but give me the words that I need to speak to bring about this ability to see and understand the mystery, to make it manifest. On a practical note, these two verses right here, even though these are about Paul, I think that anybody who understands where is it the mystery of Christ, anybody who understands the mystery of Christ ought to pray for anyone who teaches the mystery of Christ that they would have an open door of utterance to speak the mystery and to make it manifest and give them the right words to do it. Have any of you noticed that trying to talk to somebody about the mystery is not the simplest thing, to find the right opportunity to do it and then to be able to say it in the right way so not to scare them off right from the beginning, we need that. I can tell you as a right dividing pastor of a traditionally not right dividing name on the Church. As a matter of fact, I got just yesterday. I haven't had time to answer it yet, but I got last night an email from someone and it was about right dividing. The guy says, hey, I needed this book. And I stumbled on Dispensational Publishing because you published the book and I got the book. He didn't tell me what book it was, but he says, I got the book and I got to looking on your website and I said, I think this is a right divider here. And he jumped over and found Randy White and got to our teaching Ministry and he says, this is the right divider. I'm the right divider. He's the right divider. One word subject line on his email was Baptist question Mark. I totally agree with his evaluation, by the way. So here I am, a right divider in a place that's not typically inhabited by right dividers. So I know the difficulty of having people in the audience that don't have a clue. Not only are we a right dividing Baptist Church. But we're on the tourist strip, the sidewalk. I can't tell you how many people walk by in tourist season and they stop and take a picture of our little Church because they say we don't have them like that in Alabama. Wow, look at that. And they take a little picture. And a lot of times I'm actually impressed about how many times they come to Church on Sunday and here they come and they bring all their maybe their Baptist ways or their Methodist ways or whatever their evangelical ways, they bring them in. And I can see the wheels turning sometimes, especially when it's an especially rightly divided sermon, they're thinking, I think I'm going to get seasick here what's going on on this kind of thing. And there's such a perplexing note now, many times I would say the first time they hear and a lot of them, they're just here for the weekend and they're gone. So they only hear it once. But many times the first time they hear I've mentioned this before, they say this is wonderful, actually, somebody who's actually teaching some content, I love it, and they just eat it up. But then they come back the second week, the third week, if they're more in the area, the second week, the third week, and oh, this is I'm just they're slurping it up like a dog at the pond. They're just going for it somewhere. Three, four weeks in they go. You can see it in them and it's at what do you say in Alabama, Catherine new gate, Myra is from Alabama originally. Now she's in Wisconsin. But Alabama is more fun to make fun of. They look at it and literally I have had sometimes I'm quicker at it. Sometimes it takes three or four weeks. But I have had people get up and walk out of the sermon on many occasions. And I can tell I never stop and say, Ma'am, why are you leaving? But I can tell the way they've been looking at the outline in their Bible and they've been circling and they've been communicating pretty loud and clear until finally they pack it all up and they're out. Now, all that little illustration to say, if you're a right dividing preacher, you want a door of utterance. And then when it comes that you might make it manifest as I ought to speak to be able to do it. Now I give my illustration as a preacher, but we can stop and have testimony time right here, couldn't we? And you all could talk about yeah, I tried to explain this to my brother and now he thinks I'm in a cold. And I tried to explain this to my neighbor and he won't talk to me anymore. And I tried to explain this to the lady down the street and she just says, praise God, bless your heart, and moves on. And I can't get it across to anybody. So this prayer not only for the opportunity, but that when I get the opportunity, I would make it manifest as I ought to speak, because words are the way we got to do it. You can't display the mystery. You got to speak in the mystery. So as I ought to speak the words, this is an adverb here as I ought to speak. So again, I say that to say pray for right dividing preachers and right dividing people like you. We ought to pray for one another. Hey, give us a door of utterance and then help us figure it out. How in the world are we going to do this thing? Because there's typically so much unlearning that's got to be done before you can even begin any learning to carry it out. Now, again, I know so many of you. You have the exact same testimony, preacher or not, you have the same testimony. Now here, beginning in verse five, he comes together and he begins to put it together in a way that is for all of the co options for me and you. Once again, he's not just talking about a prayer for himself. So he comes back and he says, walk in wisdom toward them that are without. Redeeming the time. I think that them that are without is probably referring to those who don't know the mystery of Christ. Walk in wisdom towards the people who don't know. It's kind of been the subject matter. Redeeming the time. This redeeming the time. Redeeming. I like it. It's agariza the Agora is the marketplace. The purchasing of the time is the word. And you could obviously take this in a general sense, just you and I are to be redeeming the time. There's a better Bible verse for that. If he's in 516 here. I think it's specific to when we are with those that are without. We need to have wisdom so that we can redeem our time with them. And he's going to go on to add to this here in verse six in just a moment. But somebody doesn't know the mystery. Your passion is to share the mystery, but you want them to be able to be manifest to them, and so you want to be able to speak as you ought and so walk in wisdom with that. A couple of things I have given on the outline. Let's go back here to the outline. Usually I don't put it on the screen here, but we are tonight. A few questions of analysis might help us to determine the best redemption of time toward those who are unknowing. I'm walking in wisdom here's. Some questions for analysis. Number one, do they have the prerequisite knowledge to understand the mystery? If not, our time is better spent explaining the work of God in previous dispensations rather than to try to make our own dispensation clear. I think that if they don't understand dispensations, they cannot understand our mystery dispensation. So walk in wisdom. Rather than jumping right to Pauline truth, let's back up and say, hey, did you know that you can go back through the scripture and see that time is kind of divided into these various eras? And it came with the revelation of a new mystery, a revelation of a new knowledge. Like, for example, if I just want to jump to the easiest one. For example, do you know that when God revealed the law, he did it quite mysteriously, didn't he just showed up and he gave them something that they didn't have, a word that they didn't have, that word that they didn't have. Wow. Changed everything, didn't it? And you back up a little bit. You see, he did the same thing with Noah. After Noah got off the boat, God showed up, gave him a word that he didn't have. It kind of changed things, made a whole new we would call it a dispensation in the Bible. Lay that groundwork so that when you come along and say, Paul received the mystery, a word that hadn't been given, they don't look at you and say, what's up with you? Paul receiving some kind of mystery. Well, if you've laid all the groundwork, this is what God has done a number of times. I mean, he shows up to Abraham. He says, Abraham, let me tell you something that nobody knew before. I'm going to make out of you a great nation. I'm going to give it to you by promise, and your descendants will be, well, nobody knew that before. So if you lay that groundwork, by the time you get to Paul and our dispensation, it makes much more sense. So ask, do they have the prerequisite knowledge? If not, let's not just jump into mystery because we're so excited about the mystery when we start there, they'll just be confused and they'll think we're cuckoo. Number two, do they have a teachable spirit, or are they blinded by denominational or cultural manifestos that hinder their ability to understand the word of God in its literal nature? If they're not teachable, pray for an opening of the mind. But probably it's not all that worthy to spend your time there. It's a bad investment. That time is way too expensive. Walking wisdom towards those who are outside. And by this, I kind of think, what if you get someone who if the Westminster Confession does not say it, then it is not true. Well, you can't even teach them dispensationalism. So you got to just sort of pray, hey, Lord, open their mind somewhere someday, and I pray I'm right there to do it. Walk in wisdom. Redeeming the time. Number three, ask, is this the time or place to correct their thinking? A caustic or untimely response to error? Rarely corrects thinking. Proverbs 20 511, as well as verse six that we're about to get to reminds us of the value of a word fitly spoken. So walk in wisdom redeeming the time. You're sitting there in the Bible study. And somebody really loves the Lord, doesn't know that much, loves the Lord. And they say the wrong thing. Walking wisdom towards those who are outside. Is this really the time to chop them off at the knees? Now, I tell you, I'm a good chopper. Maybe I preach to myself right here. But you do. And I think that you all agree with this. And maybe if you followed our Ministry sometimes you've probably seen me preach in places that were not right dividing places. And I get invited out to the Bible Church, the Menonite Brethren Church, or whatever it is. And when I'm there, I don't just dump the whole right dividing load right on them. I kind of sneaky in there. Everything I say is true. But you have to walk in wisdom with all that. And you have to decide, is this the time or the place? Number four. Let me not go to number four yet. We write dividers, are passionate about what we've learned. And I think for good reason. It really has changed our life. But with our passion, we can become kind of sharp tongue. We can become caustic. We can forget about timing, throw caution to the wind. We're going to deal with this right here and now. And I think it is a matter of Grace to say as Paul was praying, Lord, help me to manifest it as I ought to speak. Not as I want to speak, but as it behooves me to speak. Number four. Then walking in wisdom. Are they eager to learn the content of the word. And to learn a clear and simple way of understanding the word? If so, the investment is worthy in every way. You find someone who just really wants to know, what does the word say? Now, there is a good opportunity in redeeming the time. Now, one more. And I know I'm going a little long here tonight, but no extra charge. So he then says, Let your speech be always with Grace seasoned with salt. That Ye may know how you ought to answer every man. So it comes here in verse six. And it's all right with that topic that we've been talking. First of all, Paul says, hey, give me a door of utterance that I might make manifest, speaking as I ought. And then, hey, you with outsiders also. You should take some wisdom, redeeming the time that you might jumping down to the end. That you might know how you ought to answer every man. That when you answer your speech ought to be always with Grace seasoned with salt. That you may know how to answer this little word right here, all the way with Gray season with salt. We have a comma here. And I understand it's appropriate if we look into the Greek right here. Here's the always let your words be always with salt seasoned. Now, let's just take this is the word Grace, and this is the word salt. The Greek word Inn can be translated in with buy and a whole bunch of other ways. Let's go with in. Let your word always be in Grace. Salt seasoned. Salt seasoned. Now, salt, of course, is a preservative. Salt makes something taste good in Grace salt season. It I don't know. Men do. Sometimes your wives say, well, the doctor said you need to cut down on salt. And so here's your green bean straight out of the can. There they are. You want to say, honey, in Grace salt season it there's a Grace to salt. But if you put it together and the way I'm going to put this together is you kind of got two things. You've got Grace and you've got salt. Now, when we think of salty speech, this speech is a little salty. Maybe we're thinking of cutting like a sailor. And I don't think that's obviously not in view here, but a person whose speech is a little salty, let's take it. They're direct it, bites a little bit. They don't beat around the Bush. Here it is. You know what he's thinking? Well, why? Well, the speech is a little salty, I'll tell you that. In Grace, salt seasoned, really. Again, there's this sort of balance to it all in the Grace and the seasoning and putting all that together in the right way so that you may know how you ought to answer every man. And we'll stop right there. I think understanding that really is in so many ways the prayer that we would desire, that we would know how we ought to answer, especially in this issue of making manifest the mystery a speak the mystery as much as anybody, I suppose. And yet, wow, it's a hard thing to do. I think of some of my friends from the former life, the dominational world. I haven't figured out at all how to express to them how to explain to them what the mystery is. It always seems to go right up against a brick wall. What's up? I can't get it through. And all of us, I think, who've done it at all, whether on a professional basis or just a layman's basis, we all say, how in the world can I express this? Part of the challenge is either they don't want to hear it at all. Oh, yeah, it's lunchtime as if they know it, and you're thinking, you don't even know what I'm talking about, you don't get it at all, and it's just not there. You know what I'm going to do someday Besides look at the clock and see what time it is. What I'm going to do someday is invite probably two other pastors in addition to myself and take a few passages of scripture. Maybe we'll do a book or something or some select passages of Scripture, and we're not going to have a debate over different views of looking at it. But I'm just going to say you preach it. You preach it. You preach it. Well, we'll have three sermons. You got 20 minutes, 30 minutes, whatever. You got to preach these four versus the scripture. Go for it. Let's spend and see who goes first. Now I'm going to have selected a good die hard Southern Baptist, Baptist born and Baptist bred. And when he's gone, he'll be Baptist dead. And I might get maybe I would get a good independence fundamentalist, King James only who's not a right divider. And then I'll do it as a right divider. You know what I think people will go away saying did they even preach the same verses of scripture that was so totally different. There will be some truth in all of them, no doubt. But maybe that would highlight or bring to the surface this issue. That right. Dividers really are coming from a completely different paradigm and maybe help some people see it. If nothing else, it'll be kind of fun. Thanks for being here for Colossians. Rightly. Divided Sunday, transhumanism becoming ethical issue. That will be kind of fun to look at and figure out. And I want to say Hi to you before I go here tonight. If you haven't put in a chat to say hello, well, go ahead. Now is the time to do it. Let's take a look and see who's with us here tonight. Like Jim in Piedmont, South Carolina. Dr. Mike and Lorna up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Neal in Volcano, Alberta, Canada, thanks for being here. And Everton, Debbie in Sholo, Arizona, do you know Everett and Debbie, that Gregory Watchful and Laurie are headed your way this weekend. Just thought I'd let you know. They're here in Towers right now, but they're going to solo for the weekend. Bev and John up in Roberts, Wisconsin, here with us tonight. Thanks. Chuck in Weatherford, Oklahoma. Oh, from the seat of the tractor. It's good. Hope you're getting it plowed out there. Cliff and Family in Ontario, thanks for being here. Gerard. The Kingdom of the Netherlands, thank you for being here. From probably the middle of the night over there. Keith and Deb in the Ozarks, always good to see you. Linda in Lexington, always good to see you as well with us. Jerry in southwest Georgia, thanks for being here. Beth up in Marshall, Michigan, just finished my ice cream cone and now have two hands to type. That's good. I hope it was good. What kind was it, Beth? Neapolitan? No, I don't think so. Buttercream butter pecan? Probably not. Is there a favorite Michigan ice cream? Alabama, Wisconsin, pecan parlor. I'll go for that. Scott down in Texas, good to see you. And Edith in Missouri. I know. Zarks of Missouri, thanks for being here. Also, Debbie and Darryl, Crystal Springs, Mississippi, thanks for being here. There's Herb in Louisiana. And Sherry's recovering from her eye surgery, doing pretty well, I understand. And Herb had a treatment today. That also went well. I understand. Herb praying for you. Filling Dream in Lexington, Kentucky. Thanks. Good to see you. Darlene out in Chula Vista, California. Good to you, Chris. And Forney Texas, always here with us as well. Good to see you. Rotten and Denise in Memphis, Tennessee. And Nicholas up in Bowling Brook, Illinois. Eric been praying for Eric's mom who had been in the hospital and had some surgery recovering now. Glad to hear that. Alex in London, glad you're here. Good morning. Top of the morning to you from London, the emails. Jack and Theresa down in Houston, Texas. Thanks for your presence here. And Nancy, Ed, Lisa and Forrest, the right divider from Pueblo West, Colorado, the hall family in Auburn, Kentucky. Thanks. Jodie and Rich coming tonight from Pensacola, Florida. Welcome. Crystal Springs. Let's see. I think I already said that, didn't I? Wabashaw, Minnesota. Good to have the Petersons here with us. And who did I miss and all that if I missed you? Sorry about that. I'm glad you're here tonight. And as I think I mentioned at the beginning of the hour, did I mention our live studio audience? Bruce and Myra here, but they're headed back to Wisconsin tomorrow. Madison, fortunately staying and we have appreciated their visit and no Madison has also. And you, thanks for being with us tomorrow. We'll have asked theologian looking forward to that. 10:00 a.m. Mountain time. And then, of course, transhumanism coming up on Sunday after the book of Philippians, next week will either be the last or the next to the last book of Colossians. We'll figure out where we're going on Wednesday nights. We're going to the feasts of Israel, the various feasts of Israel, and we're going to look at not only the biblical feast but also the feast that they carried out that happened to have some mention in the Bible. And that'll be Wednesdays starting next week. So come and join us. Very glad to have you. Let me lead us in a word of prayer before we go tonight. Heavenly Father, we are grateful for the gathering around the great big electronic table here tonight. We're grateful for your watch care over us. We're grateful for those like Urban Sherry and their recovery and for Eric's mom and the surgery that she's been through and the recovery there for Bob and Linda, whose house has been spared so far from this forest fire in New Mexico, just right up on the porch. And yet the house is still there and still standing. And we're grateful for this and so many others. Having a father that we could lift before you and ask you to give them your watch care. We're grateful for these who join us on this Thursday night, as so often they do, and join in some Bible study. We do pray, dear Heavenly Father, that there would just be not only a door of utterance but the ability to know how we ought to speak in order to make manifest the mystery that you have given to Paul and that we would be faithful in doing so. And that our speech always would be with Grace and season with salt and that we would be with wisdom toward those who are outside redeeming the time, dear Heavenly father. And this is something that takes a lot of understanding of people, a lot of understanding of the word, a lot of counsel from others. A lot of encouragement from others. And we pray that tonight this has been helpful to us. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen. God bless you, ladies and gentlemen. God will be with you till we meet again. And I'm looking forward to meeting again. Maybe as soon as tomorrow morning been a blessing seeing you. We'll see you soon. Bye you.