How To Study The Bible

A little bit of a sidestep from what we've been doing here, and that is study Bibles. Have you ever noticed you go into a Christian bookstore, they've got just a whole wall full of a gazillion different kinds of study Bibles. I mean, it's dizzying. Nancy and I were yesterday looking at a Christian bookstore. Oh, it's amazing. It's phenomenal. And why do you think they've got all these different kinds of study Bibles? What's driving that? Okay, money is one of the things, yeah. Okay, it's money maker, yeah. Ah, okay. Yeah, in other words, somebody's gone through and they've done all this work and you get these 20,000 footnotes, so that's one reason.

What's another reason that's driving this study Bible craze? Ah, yes, and so here's the Holy Spirit Bible. Kind of amazing, or the spirit-filled study bible. It's funny, you look in the pages. I don't know. Anyway, it's kind of strange. And what else do you think is driving it? Why all these study bibles?

Here in the last 20 years, 10 years even, there's just been an explosion of study bibles. Yes, and I think that's one thing, is the confusion of Christianity feeds that. We've talked in the past about all these thousands of denominations, and the reality is you've got all these denominational perspectives reflected in all these footnotes. I've even seen some of the study Bibles, one of them for example is the Dake study Bible. Lots of warnings about this thing. And even the Spirit-filled Bible is one coming out of the charismatic movement. And here's something else. What was the problem...

Paul starts off in the first chapter of Corinthians, and what is he talking about? One of you says, I follow Peter, another says, I follow Paul, and so what do we do? We have study Bibles. I follow John MacArthur, I follow Jack Hayford. We do the same thing where the Bible ends up following a man. So we've got study Bibles named after people and it's like, wait a minute, we're getting something way upside down.

It doesn't mean what it says anymore. Excellent, excellent point. The judges, each individual judge has kind of taken their own subjective approach to this thing. That's what happens when you study the Bible, people read that and they say, well I read that in the Bible, so they liberalize the original intent of the thing. Yes, yeah. The way it works, however, they kind of, oh well, they pick out one verse or something and say, that's it. Yes. The point that you make, is one that I've recently seen an article on where a fellow was saying, you know, the same thing has happened with the Bible as has happened with our Constitution.

Instead of asking the question, what was the original intent? Because really it's singular, isn't it? The original intent was to write a document that had one meaning because there was a message, a specific message to be conveyed. And rather than looking at what was the original intent, People take it every single direction that they can and you end up following all these little splinter groups. and following people instead of following the Lord and what did God intend to have said. And that's an excellent point.

I'll tell you one more story. When I was in law school, we were talking about true prophets and we were just beginning to get into the abortion issue and we were tracking that. And so may I forget what my comment was, but the professors, I said, where did they actually find the story of abortion?

And I don't see it. It's in the penumbra. And that's a good word to remember. In the shadow. Kind of where we are with all these Bible books. You say, well, it's kind of in the shadow there. It's inherent, right? Yeah, Hen Umbra, which is a good way to say this is the way we sandwich in a meaning that was never intended. And that's an important perspective because what's happening now is people are putting more emphasis on those shadows than what was the original message, what was originally intended. Something else that's driving this thing too is most of the big Bible and Christian book publishers these days are actually owned by secular outfits.

And what they have driven into Christianity, not just in that realm, but also like the church growth movement, things like that, is the stuff that they taught me in business school. And I told a conference earlier this year, I was in front of these people, I said, I went to school and got my MBA and learned how to do all these things. I said, don't you dare do that to your church, okay?

And what we've done is we've, because what they do is they say, what's the market out there? Let's segment the market. That's exactly what they do. And so what they'll do is they design churches that way. They design study Bibles that way. What are the different market segments? And now how do we feed those market segments such as to maximize our sales?

And what that does is it feeds a diversity of teachings and understandings instead of saying, what was originally intended. Because Paul's exhortation to the Corinthians, who had a multitude of different teachings, all interbraided and interwoven, Paul's message to them was, I urge you to say the same thing so that there will be no doctrinal divisions among you.

And that is not what these study Bibles are propagating. Now, I have several study Bibles at home. I don't use them except for occasional reference to say, okay, what does this guy say? What does that guy say? Because ultimately, the study Bible notes are not inspired. It's God's Word that's inspired. And that's the mistake that many people can make. The notes are not inspired. It's God's Word that's inspired. And the fact that they're printed on the same page confuses a lot of people's thinking. They end up thinking, well, this must be inspired when in fact, All they're getting is inspired confusion.

Alright, let's dig into it. The thing that we left off with, we're here, what, on our sixth week or thereabouts on John chapter 3, and the question that we left off with was, what's the nature of the kingdom of God? And the truth is, we could study that until the Lord takes us home. because it's a huge subject. But I think we want to boil it down in this case to a basic understanding of what did Jesus mean and what would Nicodemus have understood when that phrase, Kingdom of God, is used.

Now, here's a question. Is the phrase, Kingdom of God, anywhere in the Old Testament. Anybody check that out? The phrase, Kingdom of God, is not in the Old Testament. But it is repeatedly in the New Testament. What happened? Why is it that we've got this phrase repeatedly in the New Testament and nowhere in the Old Testament? Is it an invention? Where did it come up? How did it arise? They took the concept. We say the identification.

You don't find that phrase in the Bible. You don't find the word rapture in the Bible. But they took a concept and gave it a handle that people would understand. Scripture clearly teaches the concept and what they did is they in and they're discussing it They finally arrived at this phrase. It was a handle if you will That when they would say that everybody knew what they meant even shortened and we'll look at a passage in that like that in a minute even shortened to just say the kingdom and Everybody among the Jews knew what it was Here's something else I cannot find, maybe you found otherwise, I cannot find any place in the New Testament, where we got the phrase, where it defines it.

How about that? And I think one of the things that you'll discover is where Scripture doesn't define something, or even assumes it, frequently it's because the audience that it was written to so commonly understood it that they didn't have to define it. Does that make sense? So what would happen instead of saying, all right, let's define the kingdom of God, it would be, in the context of the culture, a dumb thing to do.

Why are you defining that? So the kingdom of God concept was so well understood, so universally accepted, that they didn't even have to define it. And when somebody said kingdom of God or even just kingdom, It was all in everybody's minds. Everybody knew what you meant, because it was so well understood. Now, if it's so well understood, what was meant?

Let's take a look at something here. Here's God's covenant with David, and this is really at the root of it. 2 Samuel 7, 8-17, especially verse 16, and this was before 970 B.C., so around 1000, if you want to just remember round numbers, around 1000 B.C., the Lord promised to David a house, a kingdom, and a throne. Those three things. So then, here's Isaiah, and this is frequently quoted around Christmas time, Isaiah 9, 6 and 7, for a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us, there will be no end to the increase of his government, or of peace, and on the throne of David, and over his kingdom, etc. And again, here's this kingdom idea brought up, and so they're all looking for it. It was promised to David, 970 BC. Here it is prior to about 722 BC, Isaiah writes this prophecy, and now we come down to Luke 1, 32 and 33, here's the angel Gabriel speaking to Mary, and saying that she is going to give birth to a son and call him Jesus, and then it says, and he will be great and will be called the son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end. So this idea of this kingdom thing is well-entrenched. Do you remember, Jesus had twelve disciples. One of them was Simon the Zealot. And what were the Zealots about? They were a special group among the Jews.

And what were they trying to do? They were trying to set up the kingdom. So here's one of Jesus' disciples, and their action was not to deal with it politically, but their action was to try to deal with it essentially with sort of guerrilla-type warfare. They would, according to the various accounts, they would come up into a group and find someone who was a supporter of Rome, and they were cloak and dagger. They'd come up with a knife hidden under their, you know, garb, pull it out, stab this person in the crowd, and then just kind of sneak away and take them out. And what were they trying to do?

They were trying to bring in the kingdom by taking out the people who were opposing their efforts. Simon the Zealot wanted to bring in the kingdom. Now, what was the Pharisees' approach? Was their approach the military approach? No. What was the Pharisees' approach? What were they trying to do?

Yes, if we get them, what we brought up and matter of fact one of the things I handed out among you, the culture of the Pharisees was, their thought was if I can get everybody to believe the same thing what the Pharisees teach, for one day in all of Israel, then the Messiah will come.

You see that? Now you've got the Zealots who say, get rid of the people who are opposing this thing. You've got the Pharisees who are saying, we've just got to get people persuaded here. Then the Messiah will come and he'll take care of this stuff. We don't need to go and do like the Zealots are doing.

So you can kind of see the tension. The reality is both of them are wanting what? To bring in the Kingdom. in just different ways, but they both wanted the kingdom. It was so ingrained into their thinking. Now, we take a look at this, and this is what their mindset is.

Here's Revelation 3, 7, talking about Jesus, and this is some decades later, right? Jesus, who has the key of David. This is the one who can unlock it. He can bring in the kingdom, because the key of David goes back to this promise to David, and bringing in the kingdom. Jesus is the one who can unlock the way into the kingdom.

That was the whole thinking. Now, is that the only thought of the kingdom when people think of the kingdom? Is there another concept of the kingdom that was understood and prevalent in those days? Yeah, sure. The Old Testament. Okay, now let's take a look here. You're right, there was a concept of heaven. Let's open your Bibles to Psalm 103, 19, and there's a reference to it, by the way, in the handout, and hopefully people have copies of it here. This is the comparison of the church and the kingdom. This was from prior weeks. This should be one you have.

In Psalm 103, 19? Sure. Why is David always so exponentially mentioned rather than Solomon? Solomon was much bigger than David. Yes. What's interesting is David is mentioned, and I'm pulling this number off the top of my head, but somewhere over a thousand, I think around eleven or twelve hundred times in scripture. I mean, just amazing. Why is he so much more important? Okay, here's the key. Solomon was more powerful. Solomon was the one that built the temple. But David was the one who was the focal point of prophecy, and not Solomon. The focal point in terms of this is the one to whom the house, the throne, the kingdom was promised.

And so there was that aspect of it. Another thing, too, is that previously there was Saul. and his line was cut off. David was the head of the Davidic lineage, if you will, that carried on the rest of the kings. Even after Israel split off, the rest of the kings were descended from and through David, for those who were kings of Judah. So it was through him that the Messiah would come, it was based on his line that both the first and the second coming of Christ would be founded.

So that's why David is focal, even though you're right, Solomon was a more powerful king, and a wealthier king, and was the one that built the temple. But as important as Solomon is, David is even more so, in terms of the big picture and the long-term picture.

Okay, we have the Kingdom of God, This is bringing in this political reign, essentially what we would call, from our perspective, the Second Coming of Christ, setting up the Millennial Kingdom. But there's this other concept. Somebody read that passage in Psalm 103, verse 19. Okay, a simple verse, isn't it? But let's think, how is that different from the millennial kingdom that the Jews were all thinking about?

Okay, and not only that, his kingship is established in the heavens, but it's over all, and it doesn't have to do with personal choice, it's just God's sovereignty, isn't it? So there's actually two aspects of God's kingdom. One is a universal or general kingdom. And really, the people driving down the street that don't know the Lord are part of that kingdom, aren't they? It simply means God is sovereign. It simply means that from the beginning of creation to the end, God is over all. And so there's that aspect of the kingdom of God that's universal. And so people would use that sense of it But the other aspect of the kingdom, which is more focused on what we're looking at here, is this coming kingdom. Do you see the difference there? Now, here's where it comes into play. What kind of a kingdom was Nicodemus looking for? What did it take to get into the kingdom of God as Nicodemus perceived it? What did it take? to get into the Kingdom of God, as Nicodemus perceived it. Keep the law, right? And that's just a follow-on to what?

What was the Jewish mindset in terms of, you know, I'm a child of God if I'm a Jew, if I'm descended from Abraham. In other words, it's all, what's your genetic background? And then you can fine-tune it a little better if you keep the law. But the bottom line is, if you've got the right genetics and you keep the law, you're in.

It's all physical, isn't it? It's all right here and now. That's actually more like this other concept of God's overall. Jesus is saying, no, there's a spiritual aspect here, Nicodemus, that you're entirely overlooking. You see that? So what Nicodemus had in mind was very genetic, physical, earthly, period. What Jesus was talking about was instead, there's a spiritual hoop here, and if you don't go through that, you're not there. You see the difference?

So when they're using this phrase, Kingdom of God, they're talking about two different things. And it's because Nicodemus doesn't understand the spiritual element of this Kingdom of God that this whole discussion goes on. And even the word Jesus used, anothen in the Greek, it means two things, born again and born from above. And because the word actually means two things, Jesus was using it this way, born again from above.

Both meanings at the same time. And Nicodemus was just trying to think, because he was thinking of the kingdom as physical, right? So he was thinking, okay, born again physically, right? See, he was thinking physical all the way. And so that's why he's coming back with, wait a minute, I've got to go back into my mother's womb and be born again. What do you mean, Jesus? You see that? You see the question mark? Exactly. That's exactly right.

Nicodemus was only looking at what you can see. See, feel, touch, taste, hear, etc. That's all he was looking at. And so his solution is, how do I get born again? No, that didn't work. This whole thing was puzzling. Everything Jesus was saying was puzzling. And he was taking this word that means, you know, born again from above, and simply pulling it down to a physical level. And that's exactly the way his question comes back at Jesus, doesn't it? You see that? No wonder he's puzzled. No wonder it's not making sense to him, because everything he'd... This guy is an older man, okay?

In order to be on the Sanhedrin, everything he had ever been taught Or, because Jesus later on calls him the teacher. He uses a definite article. Are you the teacher of Israel and you don't understand these things? Everything Nicodemus had been taught and had himself taught was all physical. And now he's being told by Jesus, you know, I realize that you would spend decades studying this thing but you don't understand. What a thing to say, huh? What a thing to say. This is amazing stuff. This is amazing. In the Jewish mindset, real tough to comprehend.

And even after spending lots of time with Jesus, turn to Acts 1.6. Even after spending lots of time with Jesus, the disciples were slow to catch on. Chapter 1, verse 6, book of Acts. Somebody read chapter 1 verse 6 for us. There you go! Now, let's ask, what's the context? What had happened leading up to what Winnie just read for us in Acts 1-6? What's the context? Historically, what had just happened? Exact same mindset, and that's a good point. I'm sorry, what? That's right.

In other words, here's the disciples, they had spent about three years with Jesus, okay? About three years with Jesus. I mean, we're talking, you know, out on the boat, camping overnight, traveling around the country, you know, going to different people's houses, hours and hours and hours and hours and hours with Jesus.

They had thought, this is the guy who's going to start the kingdom, and then they're totally blown away to see this guy that's going to start the kingdom crucified, just in utter despair, and I'm sure just having no idea what to do. Here he is, three days dead, and then he resurrects, and oh, finally, our hope is restored, right? Our hope in what? What's their hope? He's going to establish the kingdom.

So here's the question in Acts 1-6. Alright, we've been through all this stuff, Lord, and boy, you really shook us there, but we're sure glad you're back from the dead, and now that you're back from the dead, are you now going to restore the kingdom? Do you see that? And to Israel, and Israel is physical, earthly, historical, glued to that land, And so here's the disciples who are of all most spiritually enlightened, right? And their question, are you going to do it now?

Yeah. You can sure see where a division between the Pharisees and the Pharisees would come up here about eternal life. If things were so physical, What difference does an eternal life make? This kingdom, so this must be. Right, to see where the Sadducees would go with that.

Yeah, we've got all these different groups. Let's back into that for a little minute here. Here's one of the disciples, we brought him up before, Simon the Zealot. He's with this group asking this question, what's Simon the Zealot thinking? when this question has arrived. No, it's there shortly.

It's time, and he's been going out and joining these groups that are kind of doing guerrilla warfare, taking people out, and pulling political strings, and doing behind-the-scenes kind of paramilitary stuff to try to make this thing happen. And finally Jesus is going to pull it off. Jesus is going to lead the group that's really going to do it. And so he's thinking, man, I'm in with the right crowd.

Right? Okay, now let's put ourselves in somebody else's shoes. Matthew, what was he? Tax collector. For who? The Romans. Oh, man. Here's the tax collector for the Romans. And his very livelihood up until this time of walking away from it was based on collecting taxes for the Romans. And so here's this question. What does this question mean to him as a Roman tax collector?

They were for the Romans. They're going to throw out the Romans. Matthew's taken a leap because his very livelihood had depended. So this is kind of a real shift of perspective for him, isn't it? This is massive. Here's a guy who's helping collect taxes from the Jews for the Romans. And the question here is, are you now going to boot out the Romans? And, boy, Jesus, you better pull this off or I'm going to... cooked goose. You see that? So there's that. Now, let's take a look at it from somebody else's perspective.

Several of these guys were Galilean fishermen. What do they think about this whole thing? They're probably divided. Some of them probably follow the Pharisees and some of them probably follow the Sadducees. Well, let's ask this. Two of them. Two of them. Well, okay.

James and John, what was the requested position? When you come in your kingdom, you're going to what? Can we sit on the right hand and on the left? In the kingdom, right? Their thought is, Jesus, are you now going to set up the kingdom? Because we're going to sit on the right hand and on the left. See that? You see what's going through their minds? The question they're asking here is hitting various disciples differently. Each one of them, based on their background, is coming up with a different thing.

We see this more from John, because James didn't live very long. We find in the book of Acts that he got killed. But James and John were the ones who were connected with the Pharisees and with the Sanhedrin, and had connections to get into the high priest's house when Jesus was being put through the trial with those guys.

So now, here's these guys. They figure, man, we're connected up, you know, high up in this whole thing, and we know the right people. And so now Jesus is going to pull it off. I mean, we're really up there, and we're going to sit in the right and the left. You see, this whole question of the kingdom is hitting all these disciples in different ways. But regardless of what perspective they come with, it's all central to their thinking. You see that? It's central to their thinking.

And it was so tightly interwoven that it was just a few decades, less than the time, you know, say between, it was about the time between now and 1960, if you look back in history, about that period of time, from these questions to the time when the Jews rebelled against Rome and Rome came and put the rebellion down. That's how central this whole thing was. And even then, there was all these divisions. Do you know when Rome came and put down the rebellion, that the Jews killed a half million of their own people for not wanting to join in against rebellion against Rome?

I mean, that's how big this thinking was. So this question that Jesus was talking about was not a small, minor, tiny little person. This was very much in the center of their thinking. You see that? So what Jesus is talking about isn't some little minor issue.

This has to do with eternal issues, it has to do with what's going to happen to my family, my house, my job. What's going to go on in my future? You see all that? What's going to happen to earth? What's going to happen to the country I'm in? It's the kind of thing that makes us all think kind of like the 9-11 event did. Kind of start thinking about it. What's our country and what counts? Those kinds of issues. You see that? This was not a little minor issue off in some theological school. This has to do very much with how I live and who I am and what my future is. That's the kind of thing that Jesus was addressing. Major, major, major issue.

It hasn't changed much, has it? Really, yeah, because you bring up an excellent point. It hasn't changed much because all of us are asking the same kinds of questions that Nicodemus and Jesus are wrestling with in this conversation. What's my security? What matters? What's important? What's going to become of me? What's going to become of my family? What's going to become of the people I care about? What about the land that I'm in? We sing songs about America and the land that's this way and that way and beautiful and all those kinds.

It's those same kinds of concerns that Nicodemus and Jesus are pointing to here. Nicodemus' thinking is entirely earthly. Jesus is saying there's a spiritual element here that has nothing to do with being physically born again or doing the right thing or any of that. you see that certain groups that think the kingdom is already here and then you've got fundamental people that are still wrapped up in their very thinking and then when they read Revelation all the plagues and everything coming and still thinking earthly and they are not resting I guess people tend to look for a It is not just a Jewish issue, is it?

And you make an excellent point. This is not just a Jewish issue. It is a universal human issue. And this is the Jewish flavor of it. That's why the Antichrist is a real challenge. Yes. Because everybody hopes that there will be somebody to pull it all together. Yeah. Who is going to pull this off? That's why we had Charlemagne, Charles the Great, and then of course Napoleon. Yeah. And even the various names, the Roman Empire was like, they pulled it off for centuries. And various names, the Caesar, the Kaiser, the Tsar, they're basically all Caesar.

How do I recreate this thing? What would be the difference of being in the kingdom, and of the kingdom, and part of the kingdom? Well, I think, you know, this is where, I mean, we could spend a whole bunch of time studying this whole, you know, what is this kingdom concept about? Because, in fact, it runs all through the pages of scripture, from the very first book of the Bible, all the way from the very beginning.

That is the problem, because the believers say, bring it on. Bring it on tomorrow. Come Lord. Yeah, that's right. Our hope here is a kingdom, but the heavenly kingdom. That's right. We're looking at these same questions too, aren't we? And I often say, I don't know if I've ever solved it for myself, but it's kind of a passive Christianity. Uh-huh, uh-huh. Yeah, yeah, right.

For every political religious group that existed then, we can think of a parallel now. Are there not almost paramilitary groups now who want to fight for America and they'll have kind of our militia type groups and they're stacking up AKs and M16s and things like that? That's the zealots. And the others say, oh no, we've got to pull this off a different way and we'll get things ready and get everybody spiritually prepared and that's more like the Pharisees. Today, that would be more the group we call the Reconstructionists or post-millennial people. They want to get things ready for the kingdom. We'll make things good enough that Jesus has to come back. So there's various views among people now that really almost directly correlate with the groups that were in existence then. It is really nobody's question. Should there be this kingdom? It's a question of how do you bring it about? How is it going to come about? That's where people differ.

But ultimately, the issues that Jesus and Nicodemus are wrestling with are very current issues. This isn't just some 2,000-year-old issue that passed away. It's very relevant, very current, and it has very much to do with the kinds of answers that people are coming up with now, doesn't it?

Adam doesn't change much, Eve does. That's a good one. Adam doesn't change much, Eve does. That's a good one. I'll have to think about that one. That's a great perspective. So when we read verse 3, somebody read verse 3 for us. John 3, 3. Read that aloud for us.

John 3.3, yes. Go back to our passage there. Okay.

Now, how is Nicodemus thinking of it? Unless a man be born again, he can't see the Kingdom of God. Okay, so what's Nicodemus thinking? Yeah, everything's physical, right? So, we're going to be born again. So you can see how he's trying to make this work out. It just doesn't click. Yeah? Yeah, yeah. This is an instance where the answers that Nicodemus was coming up with in his mind just did not fit his concept at all. Yeah, Nancy?

When the Jews were talking about the Kingdom of God, were they thinking specifically this little land of Israel only? Yeah, the promised land, not the world. We'll be getting into this more as we get into Revelation. The little land of Israel is not what the Old Testament prophets describe.

As you read the Old Testament prophets, and I'm briefly summarizing, the land of Israel in the millennium extends all the way up to Damascus, all the way east to the Euphrates, In other words, we're talking taking up Jordan and a good chunk of Iraq, and then down to Egypt at the other end.

So you're talking about taking up chunks of several nations now that are now vehemently opposed to the Jews' dominance there. So that's one thing. We're thinking this little tiny country that's struggling to keep its its dimensions beyond single-digit miles. Instead, we're talking about something that takes up a good portion of the Middle East. Helmut mentioned Solomon. Solomon's kingdom had a pretty good extent.

What is described by the prophets of this millennial kingdom extends way beyond that, taking up good portions of what is now other nations. So that's one aspect of it. The other aspect of it is that the Old Testament prophets described the Gentile nations coming to Israel to see the Messiah. And so Israel is not just a matter of expanding the boundaries of Israel, but it's Israel being the spiritual capital of the world, and Jerusalem being at the center of it. You see that?

So when we talk about Kingdom of God, it's like, man, all are sitting there fighting for borders and boundaries and squabbling with these people. I mean, here the Romans came in, I think it was about 63, 68, somewhere in there, where the Romans came in and took over Israel. About 40 BC, the Parthians came in, took it back and then the Romans pushed them out. So the Jews for a long time are doing this back and forth, people fighting over them, running past them.

Where they are geographically makes them a nice place to just walk through. while you're going somewhere else, you know? And so, what we see happening here, here's the situation, the Messiah is going to lay these borders out way far out from where they are, and it's not going to change. We're not going to get people tromping through us. Everybody will come to us because we've got the Messiah. not just of the Jews, but of the whole world.

And so you start thinking what their perspective of the kingdom is. I mean, that's just like, what could be better than that? And we're a shoo-in because we're descended from Abraham. Wow. We're there, see? You see that? So, verse 4, look for ten more things. Verse 4, look for ten more things.

Let's pray. Lord, we're thankful that, well, it's very clear that even the disciples themselves did not understand. Though there is much for us to learn and much for us to have insight to, you have indeed revealed a great deal to us, and thank you for the understanding that we can have through your word and through the work of your Holy Spirit. And Lord, thank you that other than, aside from the world's wrestling with this issue of what is the kingdom and who is the king, Lord, that we can have an understanding and a knowledge and not only that, that even now we can behold that one who is to be king. We just thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.