Key Advent Texts from Isaiah and Micah, Paul, Demas, Alexander

And greetings welcome to the dividing line it is Wednesday we're cramming three programs into the week before Christmas because it's the week before Christmas and Wife and I intend to oh

And the wife and I and the wife and I intend to Be with the grandkids

For well, we had them in our place last year this year. We have to go to where they are and so We didn't even put up a real tree this year.

I Bought a little I almost you know, I almost got I Man, I was looking at I almost hit hit the button at Amazon.

I almost got the Charlie Brown Christmas tree They've got they've got the little one and it's got it's got one little thing on it.

So it's it's great I almost got it just because I mean, that's great. It's it's it's a great

Christmas tree But I got one of the it's it's total of three feet tall, but the the base is like this big

So it's about two and a half foot tall Fiber optic thing. That's all we did except, you know, cuz my wife was like, well, we're not having the kids over so, you know, it's just us and you know and we're not gonna be here and and Stuff and then she ends up going nuts outside with there's there's

Christmas things hanging on But all this all this stuff outside just not inside it's like Whatever fine see we got we're just the opposite outside looks terrible inside.

We've got it all decorated The only thing I haven't done yet is the train. I don't have the train. Yeah, you know We've got a couple trains

I the thing that just bugs me is they're not that I'm in the same size So I guess you have little trains running around bigger trains, but oh, that's the best way to do it

You just use your imagination I have n scale train so that we have cats we have cats and no kids

I have a N scale trains about that. Yeah, I Remember when

I got my first train set at age 5 and all the adults played with it and I there's actually a picture you

Say there's a there's a picture of me because they put it on the table and here I am looking over Over the edge and my train set and all the adults

Doing their thing is probably explains how I am the way I am today. Yeah, the trains all about me

It's not about the young. It's about me. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, so of course my parents had the same tree for 45 years 45 years it was so old

We had to stick toothpicks into the holes because the the things you put the branches into wore out It's had to put toothpicks and keep them.

I'm just going Anyway Anyhow all the anti Christmas, you're all bunch of pagan guys are running around their hair on fire right now going

I don't really care. I Don't really care because I have a post -tenebrous

Lux Tyndale Greek New Testament Lambskin and I just use some of their

Bible butter on it. So it's it's just And you don't

No, I don't think so, I don't think so, I don't think so, I don't know anyways what in the world are we doing here?

All right. Um, so our website was under attack and that we're still working on fending all that off There's just people in the world that have nothing to do in life

So that's why we posted the live links and stuff on You know straight to YouTube and put it on Facebook and Twitter and stuff like that Because those guys are pretty much immune to that kind of thing

So whoever is out there doing that get a life You know, it's it's the holidays then if some other people

I'd like to tell it get a life. That's another story If you have your Bible I'd like to you know

It's Christmas. Um, and so I'd like to Think about some of the things that the scriptures say

That are extremely relevant to so many of the groups that we deal with over the years

Anytime we delve into the text of scripture, we're we're doing things that will be helpful to doing apologetics

And this is you know, this is rather practical so many Christians today are in families with skeptics and unbelievers that Especially this time of year you can end up in some fairly serious conversations in fact

It might be one of the only times during the year when you have even the opportunity to have conversations and it might be the

Subject of Christmas and of the incarnation is what will allow you to open up certain areas of conversation as a result

Some of the more common attacks statements of skepticism You want to be prepared for and I think all

Christians should be prepared and aware of of these things so For example, and this is one of the most important ones

Cold water is so good when New Testament writers when

Matthew especially Cites from the Old Testament More and more people this was again.

I keep contrasting these things but my grandparents

Did not have to deal did not have to minister in a context

Where even 1 % even a half of percent of The population

Would have been exposed to skeptical Scholarship as a part of their upbringing in their education now

It's the vast majority of people we're dealing with have been exposed to a skeptical upbringing and hence,

I Would imagine that many people in my grandparents generation certainly my great -grandparents generation lived

Where they could quote from Isaiah 714 and never get pushback

Never from anybody Isaiah 714 therefore the

Lord himself will give you a sign behold a and Alma ha Alma and Alma will be with child and bear a son and she will call his name

Immanuel and so The normative presentation of this text if a

Christian is even familiar with it Will be Oh virgin birth

And Emmanuel means God with us which means Jesus is God and he's with us and therefore there's the deity of Christ and Like I said,

I would imagine only a few decades ago if you had been presented with that Almost no one would have had a pushback

Now that's not the case and we have to be prepared we have to be aware of what the text is actually saying what its context is so that its true meaning can be defended and presented and understood and That we don't find ourselves defending things.

We shouldn't defend So, for example, even atheists are aware of the fact that That the

Hebrew term Alma in Isaiah 714

Does not technically Mean virgin and when you when you hear that when you get that It is by the way

It is you know how dry It got where was that?

I Think up like Mount Lemmon or something. I saw something from the news

During that last that last cold front that came through the dew point got to almost 50 degrees below zero

Do you have any idea that that there's no there is no water in that air at all

It is dry right now Dry dry dry dry dry. So if you see me chugging down the water, there's there's a reason for that It is very very very dry in in the desert right now now

When you hear someone say that Alma does not mean virgin the

Immediate thought is to defend what you Thought you had been taught in the past and that's how many

Christians find themselves in situations of defending What you don't need to be defending

What in fact you can't defend because it's not true Alma In the

Hebrew language can simply mean a young woman a young woman of marriageable age There is nothing that demands that it mean

Virgin But it doesn't exclude Virgins, it's just a young woman of marriage marriageable age.

The assumption would be if she's not married that she's a virgin so Within the that that context the assumed meaning if unmarried would be of a virgin, but it could also refer to a young woman of marriageable age who has

Been married and therefore wouldn't necessarily be a virgin. So what does that mean?

Because if you've just been taught well, here's the virgin birth plainly laid out for us in The Old Testament you need to understand something about citation of the

Old Testament and the utilization of the Old Testament in the New Testament and this is a huge area this is

Let's just put this way. It's an area pretty much outside of Christmas Turkey or whatever it is you do for Christmas Discussion at the table probably

It's it's a big area Entire books huge books tomes have been written on this particular subject, but What you don't need to be doing as a

Christian is attempting to argue against the lexical meaning of Alma Who was it recently?

I was in a debate. Oh Yeah, I was with the fellow at Jason's Church The former

Mormon former Christian now off into some other weirdness He brought up Alma and Was trying to say something about and I was saying no

The word means a young woman of marriageable age could be virgin might not be virgin. That's not what

Matthew was quoting from It's like what? Despite the fact that Matthew is writing to Jews He is quoting from the

Greek Septuagint and the Greek Septuagint has a specific term right here

And I guess we're not gonna be putting these up. But Well, I thought we had had other people working on the site

Okay. In other words rich wasn't paying attention before He's distracted with other things so I It's so small who's gonna see that behold the

Virgin the Parthenos the Parthenos and gastri shall be with child and shall bear a son and you shall call and The name shall be called to him

Emmanuel so here you have the term Parthenos We are familiar with the

Parthenos in in Athens and Parthenos is the specific technical word for Virgin it does not mean young woman of marriageable age and This is what

Matthew is quoting from he's quoting from the Greek Septuagint. So When he makes the connection

To the virgin birth of Christ He is accurately representing What the version of the scriptures that he's quoting to his audience?

represents, so the question is the relationship between Parthenos and ha

Alma is Parthenos a Verifiable verifiably accurate

Translation of Alma. Well Alma is not as specific as Parthenos But the

New Testament writer quotes the more specific Application Because its fulfillment is being found in a very specific application

In the virgin birth of Jesus now, there is no question that there was an initial

Fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah 714 you have to read it in context

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign because The the king had been told to give ask for a sign he wouldn't do it

So the Lord himself will give you a sign behold a virgin will be a child and bear a son

She will call his name Emmanuel He will eat curds and honey at the time

He knows enough to refuse evil and choose good for before the boy will know enough to refuse evil and choose good

The land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken so There is no question that in the original context this is a

A given sign to the king

That he does not have to fear the two kings that he's fearing and that before the boy will know enough to refuse evil to choose good

What's what's that two three something like that? The land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken so there something's gonna go on back home and There will be deliverance for the king

And so What does Emmanuel mean well,

I won't go into it right now, but especially if your Bible software will allow you to do this you will see that this is a phrase that occurs a number of times between Isaiah 7 and 11 especially in chapter 8

And It's interesting that the chapter 8 portion is quoted by Peter in 1st

Peter 3 15 in the Text that we from whence from whence we get our emphasis upon apologetics

Which actually identifies Jesus as Yahweh at least in the best text of the New Testament it does point being that you have

This emphasis upon a

Real fulfillment in history, so you have to have a theology of inspiration that allows for a fulfillment in history

But not a final fulfillment and when you look at all messianic prophecies Okay, I won't say all but almost every single messianic prophecy as Applied in the

New Testament there was a lesser fulfillment in the past Couple of couple of exceptions, but not too many so Be aware of the fact that if you're going to quote

Isaiah 714 and Matthew's citation of it then be aware of what the background is and be aware of what some of the objections could be and Be prepared to say well, you know

Yes, there was a initial fulfillment back then But there's a greater fulfillment in Christ and and that's why

I have over the years a couple times preached a sermon where I've gone from Isaiah 6 to Isaiah 11 and Just shown all of the each chapter each chapter has a messianic text within it that the

New Testament writers picked up and That includes the phraseology of Emmanuel which by the way if you're gonna say see

Emmanuel means Jesus is God be careful because there's lots lots and lots and lots of Hebrew names with L as a part of it and That doesn't mean that those people were

God Emmanuel God with us would

By default be God is on our side. God is with us. God is blessing us. We are God's people, etc, etc

It is only in seeing how that is used with a number of different Texts That you start seeing that it's not just God is on our side

But God is with us once you start seeing Isaiah chapter 40 and stuff like that you start seeing

That there is a greater fulfillment to come but it's always important to know the background and I think there are just a lot of people they just run into Christians and they they find the

Christians are proof texting a little text here and proof texting a little text there and they've never looked at the context and that that doesn't that doesn't impress you need to know what the context is and When you can all of a sudden that can open up huge doors

Really really can I can really open up opportunities and I'm really hoping that a lot of you will have the chance

To have some great conversations with your unsaved friends and relatives and To be able to do so to his honor and glory

So we have that in Isaiah chapter 7 Isaiah chapter 8

I did not have this queued up. So let me just see if I Yes, here's here's the first God is with us is 8 10

Which is translated for God is with us in the NASB But you can see right here

Emmanuel Emmanuel with us God And That's in Isaiah chapter 8 verse 10, but then you go a little bit

Just below that and here's the text you're looking at You are not to fear what they fear or be in dread of it.

It is the Lord of hosts. It is Yahweh Yahweh sabba oath whom you should regard as holy harosh and This section here in Right here

Korean out on a gasset a is Is what is quoted by Peter in first Peter 314 going into first Peter 315

But it's Christ as courios that you are to sanctify the Byzantine manuscripts have a different reading but the earliest reading

Very strongly presents the idea of Jesus as Jehovah at this point

So you you continue on and as I recall Yeah, then you go straight into chapter 9 and we we know what is found in chapter 9

But it's good to know this too. I mean, I've never I've only run into one or two people who knew this

But here you have our great text That we all know for a child would be born to us the son would be given to us the government rest on his shoulders

And his name will be called wonderful counselor mighty God eternal father prince of peace two things

Be aware that if you brought up the Greek Septuagint in talking about Isaiah 7 notice the

Reading in the Greek Septuagint Megalos bullies Angelos The great

Angel of his will probably a reference to one of the archangels so instead

There is there is clearly a It's not even it's not even variant and that's not really them that's hardly the best

I mean it is a variant technically But there is a Diversion a diverse tradition that is being followed in this particular stream of the

Greek Septuagint. How's that? I've always wanted to do a Use the the the

Gurtengen Septuagint to Delve a little bit more deeply into this, but I just haven't gotten around to it yet But you

There's a there's a connection between the two, but you know great will be his his rulership

Peace a lot of the same terminology is used, but it's not a direct translation of The Hebrew It is at the beginning of the universe, let me take that back at the beginning the verse it is but there seems to be a divergence in The tradition that's behind that's being translated by the the

Greek section. So you have a pideon egg again a again a thing Here at the beginning a a yellowed will be you allotted to us

So a child will be born to us standard term for birth but then a son will be given to us and There you have been

Nathan To us so I I've said many times before I can't prove this beyond a shadow of a doubt

But I really do lean toward seeing here Something more than mere

Hebrew parallelism it could be parallelism and what is parallelism parallelism is the fact that Is the reality of Hebrew writing?

Where you will restate something in a parallel fashion? To enrich its meaning you'll find this throughout this altar

So This could just be parallelism a child born to us the Sun will be given to us

But there might be more to it than that The child who is born. That's the standard term for birth

That's the standard term for a little baby. Who's who's just been born the child will be born to us But a son will be given to us

Now is that a a full -on Annunciation of the

Trinitarian doctrine of the relationship of the father and son no full on revelation of the incarnation no, but is it possible there's more here than just merely the idea of Hebrew parallelism, it's just just poetry

I Think it is quite possible That in light of its fulfillment in the

New Testament. You do have the giving of the Sun here I think it's at least valid to see it in the light of what what comes later and His titles that are given to him such as Sar Shalom Prince of Peace El Gabor mighty

God Aviad it's let me let me mention this to in passing

I wasn't planning on doing all this but Aviad very frequently throws people for a curve

Eternal father Jesus isn't the father. So how can he be called eternal father? Well, you'll notice that in Hebrew it is one

Phrase Aviad and It refers to The father of eternity remember that the term father in the

Tanakh is Primarily used of God when it's used of God is primarily used of God in the sense of creator former maker so if Avi Avi You know

Abba father from Aramaic. So Avi if is being used in that sense, then this would be that the father of eternity the maker of eternity and that would

Fit very very well with Colossians chapter 1 by him where all things made at heaven or so and so forth

So What you need to remember is the Trinitarian names of Father Son and Spirit our

New Testament names You do have you know kiss the Sun lest he be angry with you and you have a few little references like that but since this is a phrase and It's a descriptive phrase

I think it would be best understood as Father of eternity that is the one who created time which would fit with the fulfillment of of Jesus in Colossians chapter chapter 1 and then of course

Sar Shalom Shalom peace The very same term Irene that Paul uses in Romans 5 1

Established by the death of Christ by justification by faith in him Irene He is the

Prince of Peace he is the one who brings he brings peace in Isaiah 9 so Just a couple of these texts and then of course, we do have one that really doesn't have a

Primary and then secondary fulfillment. It doesn't have a

Lesser fulfillment and then a greater fulfillment and that is the text that The intertestamental

Jews were well aware of and saw as an unfulfilled messianic text

Micah 5 2 and When The wise men come and Herod inquires.

Where will the king of Jews be born? This is immediately where they go So that's really clear evidence in the middle of the first century

That the Jews understood this text in that particular fashion But as for you

Bethlehem of Ratha New America Sarah goes too little to be among the clans of Judah From you one will go forth for me to be ruler in Israel.

He's goings forth from long ago from the days of eternity if I recall correctly The ESV has a different reading there.

No, but you Bethlehem of Ratha who are too little to be among the clans of Judah What was

I reading recently? That had It had the translation was not least

Amongst the clans of Judah something along those lines Is is what

I recall it it's saying I thought it might have been I thought might have been

ESV but Yeah, I see the

NET has seemingly insignificant Among the clans of Judah Yeah, so it's an interesting interesting

Hebrew phrase there but the point is they pointed to Bethlehem and this is the reason that You know the wise men go there and then you have the dream and you have

The murder of the little children and the flight of the holy family and and All the rest that stuff going on within within that context of Micah 5 2 but as for you

Bethlehem of Ratha too little to be among the clans of Judah From you one will go forth for me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth from long ago from the days of eternity

You know, some people get upset with me and that's a I upset all sorts of people

I may need another glass of water before I get that here It is just Ridiculous, I am really struggling the

Why would people get upset with me? Well, there's a lot of reasons The older I get the more reasons people seem to find but one of the things is that I sort of I Make you have to do a little bit more work.

In other words, you know You used to just be able to quote some verses and then that James Whitefella came along and said well you need to remember that the context this is this the context that is that and be prepared for that and until That prepares you for a witnessing situation and then

I hear from those folks going man. I'm glad you told me about that So here's another, you know

Maybe one of your favorite verses and you may not like to be told how people abuse it or interpret it in a different way

But I'm just trying to help out honest. It really am because the

Jehovah's Witnesses Understand this term right here

So goings forth Activities Origination To see the

New World Translation And you know what? I have got to order I've got to order the new

NWT. It's been years and I need to I need to order that especially because for some reason the

The electronic version on my phone keeps crashing but Great.

I just realized this is the eye strain version That they're

I guess they're silver now I need to I need to get that Excuse me everybody just remember in Star Trek Wrath of Khan Yeah, yeah when

Kirk has to get the thing out to read the the stuff for Reliance Computer code anyways

I'm letting far too many people know that I am a complete utter geek about that. So, um

Let me get there we go There it is, that's what

I thought the New World Translation of Jehovah's Witnesses Says and you

O Bethlehem of Hrotha The one too little to get to be among the thousands of Judah from you

There will come out to me the one who is to become ruler in Israel whose origin is from early times from the days of time indefinite and So a

Jehovah's Witness, I mean what what year did I get this date? I didn't write it in there

That's shame. This is the 84 revision. So Yeah, I need to wonder if you can just get those off of Off of JW org

JW dot Amazon That's where you that's where you get the nice the nice version

I Wonder if anyone's ever sent Jeffrey Rice a New World Translation to be to be

Well, but remember remember when I met with that Jehovah's Witness guy remember

I've told the story many times before where DL Took me to meet with this

Well, it was with an employee of his but his employee brought this elder along and he was the guy that slipped me a

Handwritten note of Greek To test if I could read it No, it wasn't upside down.

He just miswritten one letter, but he had been carrying it around in his New World Translation and So when

I said, yes, I can read that he says really and so he opens up his New World Translation He gets out this yellow piece yellow piece of paper

I think it was yellow naturally, but Opens up and slides it over to me and says what does that say? Now that it is hard to read a fragment when you don't know what a context is or anything else but thankfully he had

Taken it from the New Testament and I said, well you miswrote that letter right there, but it it says let no one

Deceive you with empty with empty words and he looks like he looked like he had seen a ghost

He said I've been carrying this thing for more than 20 years No one's ever been able to read you the first person who was ever able to to read that correctly

Well, once I introduced myself to him found out he knew who I was and he's a Jehovah's Witness that wishes he could do in apologetics for Jehovah's Witnesses what

I do and We ended up you know, we ended up having a very very interesting encounter and and conversation and So I just you know,

I just just wonder if somebody like that would you know want to have that really really really nice The only the only

New World Translation like it, you know, can you imagine? So I don't think Jeffrey would do it

I think he'd do it for me because he'd know how I would use it. I don't I doubt it. I don't know

I don't know Remember I think

Yeah, I'm 99 % certain this was that I think this was done by our Jehovah's Witness friend because my

Back when I was first learning the languages, this is one of this is actually two different volumes have been bound together

Biblically break is jerk at stucco tensia and I was partnering with heretics

Well, but we were doing it to open up doors of witness to this guy And yeah, I also did a really very very good job

I mean, this is the 1980s so yeah a couple of my initial

Greek New Testaments were done by we're actually done by a Jehovah's Witness. So There you go anyways, what were we talking about so Moses is in the bulrushes and The point is that The New World Translation has

The term origin and so a Jehovah's Witness will go to Micah 5 2 and we'll say see he began

This is his origins are from long ago But from their perspective

Jesus is Michael the Archangel So he's the first and greatest of God's creations The only thing that God created directly is

Michael the Archangel who becomes Jesus So it's through Michael the

Archangel that everything else is created So they will use Micah 5 2 now, there's nothing in that specific

Hebrew word that demands the idea of origination or creation But there are a number of Old Testament texts that Jehovah's Witnesses Especially will utilize

Unitarians as a whole who aren't Jehovah's Witnesses Will utilize to try to say that this is indicative of an point of origination

Micah 5 2 is one of them. So you need to be aware of that In the same way the the assertion being from from days of long ago

From the days of eternity going back into The eternal past it's not really discussing anything other than the one

Who obviously isn't just a human leader? Because these will not be words used of a prophet a king

Anybody like that? That's why I say this is one prophecy. It doesn't have an initial and then later fulfillment a lesser fulfillment greater fulfillment type theme involved and The intertestamental

Jews knew that that's why when Herod says where will the king be the Jews born Bethlehem?

Bethlehem they brought him this specific prophecy and They were exactly right in what they said there.

So there you go all right, a couple of Old Testament texts proper to our season and then yesterday

And thanks to everybody who wished me well yesterday my daughter put up a tweet that has over 400 responses this morning to it birthday tweet,

I very much appreciated that and Jeff put up a real nice thing and had like a hundred and fifty hundred sixty

Comments on it and and I appreciate all that I'll just be perfectly honest with you once you get to this age birthdays just ain't what they used to be

And one of the only reasons that I even notice it anymore A couple years.

It'll be the big six. Oh, we'll do we'll do something. You're you're right there. I mean You don't look a day over 70 either.

So I think it's really good so You know between now and then it's the sort of like Just glad glad to have gotten through yeah, thanks.

Yeah glad to have gotten through Grecian formula works. There's there's your there's your there's your proof.

Oh Yeah, oh hey, you know, he's he's put his head way down look at look at you mate

You may think you still got your hair, but I'm glad you weren't pulling a little bit farther back cuz son Yeah, you might want to be making sure to wear a hat when it's sunny outside that's all

I could say Or you could you could end up getting a pretty good sunburn yourself once again remark about my rocking proper

Sweater today. Just saying. Yeah. Yep. Some people can just only handle so many colors at once.

So anyways Yesterday I did my I have a tradition

I started when I was 43. So this is the 14th year. I've done it of Trying to climb 100 feet on bike for every year of age

So the first year was 4 ,300 feet than 4 ,400 feet and the problem with that is the older you get the harder it gets it's

Well, aren't you at some point gonna run out of Arizona? No, no, because I did

I did mine yesterday inside. So I did Zwift and Zwift has mountains you can just climb over and over again and just keep on going and and well

I do that even when I was gonna do South Mountain But it was it was cold yesterday it was literally cold yesterday and so I'm sort of glad I did it inside Some reason the older you get the less your muscles want to work in the cold.

That's my that's my experience anyway but before I got on bike

I posted a little something on Facebook and the more

I looked at it the more fascinated I've Become with this so very quickly. We only have about 15 minutes

Second Timothy chapter 4 Paul's writing to Timothy his end is near He even says that He probably knows this is the last time that he will have any communication with Timothy is these the last words?

He's gonna say to Timothy You don't waste your time

Now he does seem to hope That Timothy will be able to get to him and bring him the the cloaks and the parchment and stuff like that But he also recognizes that may not happen

Make every effort to come to me soon second Timothy 4 9 for Demas Having loved this present world has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica now.

I'm not going to go over this because We looked at Demas I don't know about six months or so ago in regards to apostasy and It is very plain to me that Demas is

Abandonment, I mean you look Demas for me abandoned deserted

Loving the present age and has gone to Thessalonica. So The emphasis upon me he has abandoned

Because he loved this present world Crescens has gone to Galatia Titus Dalmatia.

Nothing negative mentioned about them Only Luke is with me

Pick up Mark and bring him with you for he is useful to me for service now

There's a lot that could be said there. There's a lot about restored relationships. There's a lot about grace. There's a lot about You know the whole concept of restoration and redemption because it's obvious That the issue of Mark had been

Important in Paul's life. It had been what caused a dispute Between Paul and Silas and Paul and Barnabas and Sorry Paul and Barnabas and Yet here years down the road

Peace has been made that something has happened. Well, maybe we find out someday. I don't know

But something has happened and Mark Who had been rejected by Paul for having turned back is now considered useful to me for service that There is a lot there about someone who has been

Who fails in ministry and then gets a second chance? There's grace there.

There's restoration. That's that's great Ticket guess I have sent to Ephesus when you come bring the cloak which

I left at Troas with Karpis and the books Especially the parchments the membranas the parchments

Again there's some all sorts of speculative stuff that's been done there this is This is practical living stuff and The parchments would they have been blank parchments for writing or things that are even written we don't know there's all sorts of speculation

About how all that works But then we have this Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm the

Lord Repay him according to his deeds now notice something. I Noticed this while I was translating it the the term repay

Apodos I here in the national 28th is simply the future so the

Lord Will repay him. He's stating a fact but Apodo a

Which is found in the majority text is subjunctive. So it's expressing the desire made the

Lord Repay him according to his deeds Not a major variant there's a lot of places where the subjunctive in the future sort of coalesce and things like that so But you might see some difference in some translations the result

The point is this there is a man named Alexander the coppersmith and we do not know whether Alexander was inside the church or outside the church because you could interpret what is said either way when it when it says

He vigorously opposed our teaching he did me much harm those

Could be understood as Alexander was a coppersmith and so he was part of the trade guilds and the decrease in idolatry

You know remember what happened with with all the silversmiths and stuff like that and causing major problems

So it's possible to read it that way It's possible. He was sort of like an early Celsus type type guy that we're gonna encounter in the second century later on a inveterate enemy of the church who actually

Listens enough to find out something about what Christian belief is and starts mocking it Like you have in many atheists today a few of which

I've debated Or he could have been within a church maybe he's being just being called a coppersmith just just means that he was not a

Quote -unquote professional minister prophet, whatever it might be But Hence maybe had some funds

Sometimes people with money end up causing problems a lot of a lot of ways they can end up causing problems

Maybe he was It doesn't specifically say he was part of the Judaizers that that's probably not not the case

But he in some way vigorously opposes our words literally But our teaching and our doctrine would probably be the way to understand that and what's interesting is

Not only is this person's judgment Announced and Paul doesn't say oh,

I I hope he doesn't you know, I hope the Lord will be merciful to him or something He doesn't say that. He says the

Lord will repay him according his deeds It seems like there was a consistency in Alexander's behavior

That would indicate he wasn't just a you know, like You know

Paul would go into the synagogue and he would Present the gospel and he would go in more than once but there there came a point in time where he said, okay

I've warned you I've given you the message now. I'm going to the Gentiles and And he and he moves away

There comes a point in time when you have someone who is either a false teacher or Is a person who is seeking to?

Damage Christian ministry for whatever reasons That the the regularity of this behavior over time

Becomes indicative of a person who is Truly in opposition and is going to be staying in that position in other words a person who's not so much an object of evangelism as An object of warning and that's what

Paul says to Timothy be on guard against him yourself Be on guard you

Timothy There him also you guard

So Here's the type of person who even with the passing of Paul is not going to is not going to stop

The opposition is going to continue and And the next generation and the next generation as long as that person's around and so Paul says

He did me much harm and it makes it does cause us to sort of stop for a moment and wonder

Why does the Lord allow this? Because every generation here you have an

Apostle who's seeking to establish the church and he's we would say he's doing so much good

Why would the Lord allow such a thorn in the flesh For one of his one of his

Apostles Well, Alexander wasn't the only one I'm sure there were many many many

Paul had a long list of enemies But the reality is that God has not decreed for his church that sail through calm waters upon calm seas with The light fluffy clouds above there are storms and there are challenges that have to be undertaken and We know the name of one of those people in the early church

Alexander the coppersmith Not a good name To call somebody Alexander the coppersmith, but they still live today and they still do what they do notice the

Apostle was I think a Hurt man at my defense

No one showed up No one showed up, but all deserved me.

May it not be counted against them now I don't know if Luke was there or not

Luke's with him now But if Luke was there even Luke didn't come

Because there's something in that in that Not to them may it be credited.

May it not be counted against them Only way I can understand that phrase is that somebody should have been there

But they weren't Why well notice this the Lord stood with me and strengthened me

The Lord will rescue me out of every evil deed will bring me safely will save me safely literally it's

So sigh will save that's so Joe. So Terry ology will save me into his heavenly kingdom and Into the presence of his of his glory forever and ever so Paul didn't lose faith

The Lord stood with him The Lord accomplished what he wanted to accomplish But I cannot help but read

Demas has left me. He's abandoned me and my first apologia. There it is and my first apologia

Polygya is how it would be pronounced in Greek, but my first polygya Um Nobody showed up May it may it not they all deserted me and that's that's

That's not a nice term Because it's the exact same term used of Demas so ouch

Verse 16 Well It's related

No, no, no, it's the same. I'm sorry. It's the exact same one They deserted me May it not be held against him

That's that's someone who's been abandoned by his friends He was a human being

Lord stood with him Lord Lord strengthened him But you don't think that he lost sleep over that you don't think that he tossed and turned on that Whatever was he laid on and that Roman prison cell?

You better believe he did and If the

Apostles experienced that why should we expect beds of ease? Why should we be surprised that the

Alexander the coppersmiths and here's here's the point Why didn't they show up could it have been fear of the

Romans, of course Could it also have been Paul is attacked so much.

I Want to keep my distance. I Want to keep my distance keep my options open

Is that possible? I don't think we can tell necessarily from the text but the point is this when you have

People like Alexander the coppersmith doing what Alexander the coppersmith does The Process is the punishment

So many people have been speaking against Paul and so many lives would have been told about Paul and so much slander would have been thrown his direction

That the natural tendency of a lot of people would be I just you know,

I just don't want to get involved I you know, I and the result is here

One of the most important Apostles the Lord left alone at his defense his first defense left alone

Something to think about Something to consider the

Apostle was not above feeling abandoned and That's the term he used

Not only as someone who loved the present world and went after the things that world But even of brothers because he said may the

Lord not hold it against them He doesn't say made the Lord not hold that against Demas Because he's loved this present age

But May the Lord not hold this against them.

I think May have I can't prove it May have included

Luke himself I'd like to think that it didn't

I'd like to think that Luke was traveling got there after the first defense. I don't know you know, it's always a way around everything if you want to but but the point is

This Has been going on from the beginning and we shouldn't be overly surprised by it We should not be over surprised by him.

All right, so my plan as things stand right now is to Do one more program this week on Friday at 11 in the morning

Because in the afternoon I have to pick up the wife who's flying it back in she's up Should be up with the grandkids already

She has she takes her grandmotherly duties very seriously and Has just made it her practice even when

Clementine lived in Georgia to try to be out there wherever Clementine was for her birthday, which is tomorrow in fact

It is birthday alley in our family between the grandkids and me We've we've got it covered 14th 17th and 19th and 2 on the 19th

Which is pretty amazing So she's up there to have fun with the grandkids

I am a little bit jealous on that but we're going up we're driving up on Monday, so I'll get to Wrestle around the kids and I'm been thinking about some stories to tell them

My favorite picture of 29th of 2017 on Facebook was the kids sitting on the couch

And I was telling them the purple ape story, which they still asked me to tell them But once you've told the purple ape story, there's no

There's no going back to it. I mean you can't you can't do it more than once It's just somewhat anticlimactic if you know what the end is

So but if you don't if you're gonna be a grandfather and you don't know the purple ape story It's a necessary study necessary you just need to be prepared got to do it so Anyways, so we're looking at 11 o 'clock on Friday.