Now as we continue with our studies in the Word of God, I want this week to direct our attention and our studies regarding a number of things based upon a text found in Paul's second letter to Timothy, chapter two, verse fifteen. It reads like this, Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Now I want along with that verse to read a verse from Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, first Corinthians chapter ten, reading it verse thirty-two, give none offence, Neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the Church of God. May God be pleased to bless to us the reading of these verses. Let us bow for a moment of prayer. Our Father, we turn to thee. As we approach thee in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we spread before thee our requests, and we do so with thanksgiving. For all the blessings thou hast lavished upon us, we give thee our heartfelt thanks even now. And if there are some blessings we have received, for which we have failed to give thanks, wilt thou forgive us for this? And accept of our thanks now for everything thou has granted to us. As we turn to thy words, speak to our hearts now for the Lord Jesus' sake. Amen. Now I want you to remember that when Paul wrote this letter to Timothy, this second epistle to Timothy, that Paul was now nearing the end of his pilgrimage here on earth. His days were numbered. He was coming near the time when he would take his departure and go to be with the Lord. Now that being so... He is writing here to his young friend Timothy. That doesn't mean that Timothy was a little teenager. Of course not. He was a man of quite mature years at this time, but about thirty years younger than Paul, and he had these years before him in the will of the Lord, years in which he would spend in service. He would have difficulties to face And at the time when Paul was writing to him, Timothy already had faced many difficulties. And so Paul is writing this his last letter, and he's sending it to Timothy, whom he calls his son in the faith. Now in chapter two of this very, very important and interesting document, we find that The Apostle is giving great instructions to this younger man. And when we come to verse fifteen, he uses the figure of Timothy as being a workman. And he instructs them here that as a workman, he's to be very diligent. And his diligence is to be exercised in this, that the day will come when his work will be put under review. He will require to place his work there for inspection. And so he says, Now you be diligent, Timothy, so that when the day comes when you've got to present your work for inspection, that you'll present yourself and you'll be approved unto God, that God will be able to put his stamp of approval upon the work you have executed during your lifetime. But now he gives them some advice and a certain principle he will require to follow. Now the principle to be followed is this. If you have to receive God's approval, then you'll have to handle correctly the word of truth. Now might I say here and now, that all of us who claim to be Christians today should look forward to the fact that one day we'll have to stand at what is called the Bima of Christ. That is the judgment seat of Christ. Not to be judged, of course, for our sins. I hope you recognize that, dear Christian friend. Your sins were judged at Calvary. God who knew them laid them on his beloved Son, and believing you are free. If Christ bore the burden and bore the judgment at Calvary, then these sins will never again be raised against you. For some people raised the issue, what about the sins I've committed since I was saved? Well, these do not affect your salvation, but they do affect your fellowship, and that's why John tells us there's a principle in Christian living that goes like this, that if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That is restorative forgiveness. Some people have never learned the difference between redemptive forgiveness and restorative forgiveness. But if you have obtained redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins, then you're a member of His family. And out of that family, you will never be turned. So once you're a member of God's spiritual family, you're there for eternity. But your fellowship may be impaired by sin, and so there's the need for keeping short accounts with God. But now, that being so, we look forward to the fact that our life of service will be put under review. The quality of the service we have rendered will be inspected, and there will be rewards for service. Now then, that seems to be what is in view here when Paul says to Timothy, Now you are a workman. Now, as a workman, you'll have to be very diligent in view of the fact that someday you're worked. will be placed under review. It will be inspected. And you will only receive the approval of God if you keep in view this principle that you must handle correctly the word of truth. Now, might I say to all my listeners today, it's a strange thing that in the latter part of this twentieth century, we are facing great problems in the professing church. Young people are growing up today who have been mistought, so to speak, or not taught at all, so therefore they do not understand how to handle the Word of Truth, in fact. So many men have cast doubt upon the Word that our young folks growing up today hardly know if the Bible is the Word of Truth. Well, let me make it perfectly clear where I stand. The Bible is the authentic revelation from God. It is the inerrant word of the eternal living God. That's where I place my feet today on that solid foundation. I accept the Bible as the authentic revelation from God. It is the word of truth. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I am the way... the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. And so we should keep this in mind that Jesus Christ is the living Word, and he is the truth. The Word of God is the written Word, that is the Scriptures. Here we have the written Word, and the written Word is also the inspired truth. Now the written word and the living word either stand or fall together. If you cast doubt upon the authority of the written word, then you're going to cast doubt upon the authority of Jesus Christ the living word. And if you reject the written word, then you'll have to reject Jesus Christ the living word. You cannot accept one and reject the other. If you say that you accept Jesus Christ the living word, then you must accept the scriptures, the Bible, as the written word. You cannot have one without the other. They either stand or fall together. So therefore, we are handling now the word of truth. But some men have taken this word, and they have handled it deceitfully. They have huckstered the word. Now, to try and illustrate this, suppose a man bought, will say, a whole barrel of the finest butter, farm butter, fresh farm butter. But he also bought an equal amount of some kind of manufactured margarine. And he took the margarine and the butter, and he mixed them together. When his customers came in, he sold them the mixture and called it finest butter. And people bought it, thinking it was butter. While it was a mixture of butter and margarine, that man hocks stirred the right genuine article. What did he do? First of all, he changed the quality of it. And then he deceived his customer. And then perhaps he made a much higher profit. That's what you call hoxtering. Now, some men have hoxtered the Word of God. In plain words, they have diluted it down. They have mixed it with something else. They've taken the truth and they've mixed the truth with error. If this is what they've been giving out to those that listen to them, then, of course, they've deceived the customer. They may make a tremendous profit on it, but remember they've got their God to face. Someday we'll stand at the judgment seat of Christ. and our work will have to be put under review. It will pass through the fire and be tested correctly. Now we do not want to be like those that huckster the truth. We want to be like what Paul says to young Timothy. We've got to be diligent in view of the fact that one day we're going to present ourselves before God and we want to be workmen that will not be ashamed. But then if we're going to reach that objective, then we'll have to know how to handle the Word of God correctly. Now, with that in view, I read to you the verse from First Corinthians chapter ten, where Paul writing to the Christians at Corinth says, Give none offence, neither to the Jews nor to the Gentiles nor to the Church of God. Now notice here he mentions three distinct classes of people, the Jews, the Gentiles and the Church of God. Now a lot of people have never learned when they're reading through the Bible to distinguish between these three groups of people. That's why so many things have been taught which do not fit in with the whole tenor of the teaching of the Bible. For example, now when you begin to read through your Bible in the book of Genesis, you don't read anything there about the church. In fact, you don't read anything about the Jews. All you read about is that there was a race of people. Who had developed from the first pair Adam and Eve. And Adam was made in the image and the likeness of God. And from Adam and Eve there developed a race of people upon this earth. Even that race was not divided prior to the flood. Because you had only the one race. They're not even called Gentiles. They're not called the nations. They are just the people that developed from Adam the human race. But now after the flood, and remember the human race had been in existence for at least sixteen hundred years before the flood came, now after the flood there appears to be divisions in the race. that develop from the sons of Noah. But I'm not so much interested at the moment with the fact that there may have been ethnic groups that develop from these sons of Noah. But I am interested in this, that when you come to Genesis chapters ten and eleven, you discover there that the whole race is divided up into various groups. of nations. Now from then you have the nations of the earth, but then still you've got nothing about the Jews, but when you come to Genesis chapter twelve you're the call of a man called Abraham. Now from Abraham right to the end of the book of Genesis you follow through then the development of a particular family coming from Abraham through his son Isaac and through his son Jacob, and Jacob had twelve sons who ultimately became the twelve figurative heads of the twelve tribes that formed the divisions in the nation of Israel. But remember, they're not looked upon as a nation in the book of Genesis. It's only when you come to the book of Exodus that there you're introduced to a nation that was born in a day. A nation that was redeemed from the bondage of Egypt, brought across the Red Sea by the mighty power of God, constituted one nation under God. From there on, from the beginning of the book of Exodus throughout the Bible, You're following then God's record of a particular nation, the nation of Israel. Now, over against that nation whom God had segregated, God separated that nation from the other nations. Now, it's these other nations that are called the Gentiles. In contrast, to the one elect nation that we know as the nation of Israel. Now we cannot at the present time go into details regarding that nation, but there are very interesting things recorded about them. But that is how that nation began. Now you still don't read anything about this other group called the Church. Nothing about them in the Old Testament at all. Only when you come into the New Testament. And one day when the Lord Jesus Christ was wending his way towards Jerusalem, where he was going to be crucified, he said to his disciples, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Now then, if he said, I will build my church, it's obvious the church was not in existence at that time it was still future this was a prophetic utterance from the lips of the Lord Jesus now it's only when you come into the Acts of the Apostles that you begin to read about the church on the day of Pentecost when Pentecost was fully come that was the day When the Holy Spirit came down from heaven, and all these Christians, these believers if you like, because they were not even spoken of as Christians at that time, they were believers. And all the believers there were baptized into one body by that one Spirit. And so that was the commencement of that group of people called the church. Now the church is neither Gentile nor Jew. The church is made up of people who are drawn from amongst the Gentile nations and from amongst the Jews. And the middle wall of partition is broken down and they're welded together into a spiritual unity. For the church is a spiritual body. Paul recognizes these three distinct groups. And he said to the Corinthian believers, Be sure of this. Be very careful in all your manner of life. No matter what you do, be careful that you do not give offense. Don't give offense to the Jews. Don't give offense to the Gentiles. And certainly do not give offense. to the Church of God. Of course, I agree that's a very high standard, but it's God's standard, and we must not lower it in any way. The point we want to make here is that there is a distinction between the Jews, the Gentiles, and the Church of God. There is a distinction in the way they commenced. There is also a distinction in the way that they continue. And there definitely will be a distinction, a difference in the way that they reach their climax or consummation. So far as the church is concerned, the church commenced when the Holy Spirit was given on the day of Pentecost. Now the church's testimony on earth will conclude. when the Lord himself descends from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God. At that time the dead in Christ shall rise. We who are alive and remain shall be changed, and together we shall be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. So shall we be forever with the Lord. So the consummation of the church is this, that the Lord himself would come and take them home to his father's house. They will be forever then with the Lord, looked upon as his bride, who after the marriage supper of the Lord, which is called in the Bible the marriage supper of the Lamb, and the bride becomes the Lamb's wife. So the church then is the wife. of the Lamb. But then when the church has been translated, the Jews will still continue. Now you do not get the name Jew to begin with in connection with the nation of Israel. They're not called Jews until the time of the Babylonish captivity. But nevertheless, if we speak of the Jews today, we're speaking of those who represent that nation of Israel. Now that nation will continue even after the rapture of the church. And after the church has been raptured, the Jews will continue and will be God's testimony on earth during the end period. But now the consummation of that nation will be this, that the promises made to them shall yet be fulfilled in spite of what some people have tried to tell us. If we rightly handle the word of God, we realize this, that God will keep his promises. He promised to Abraham that he would make his name great. He promised to Abraham that he would make of him a great nation. He promised to him that in him would all nations of the earth be blessed. And then later on when David, who was a descendant of Abraham, came to the throne and was the king over that nation, God made a promise to David that his throne would be established forever. And so it is that if there's to be an everlasting throne, there will have to be an everlasting king to occupy it. And the day will come when Jehovah shall give unto the Lord Jesus Christ the throne of his father David. And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom there shall be no end. No one will take it from him. And so when the disciples asked the Lord Jesus Christ the question after his resurrection, they said, Won't thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? They were quite exercised about this, and perhaps they had a right to ask that question. There was no question in their mind that the kingdom would be restored. What they were asking was when? Now you see, we must learn then to make a distinction between the Jew, the Gentile, and the Church of God. There is the nation, over in contrast to the nations. But out from amongst the nation and the nations, God has called the people for spiritual blessings. And He has blessed us with every kind of spiritual blessing in Christ in the heavenlies. The blessings for Israel were here on earth and pertained to a land and pertain to a law. But now the blessings for the church are in Christ, and they are spiritual blessings, and no one will ever take them from us. So you must learn in rightly handling the word of truth to make distinctions between the Jew, the Gentile, and the church of God.