A New Gospel

Life, Ministry and Teachings of Jesus Christ Unit 2: The Beginning of the Ministry of Christ, Jewish Conflicts, and the Kingdom of God Lesson 1: A New Headquarters, Disciples Called, and Ministry throughout Galilee

As Christ began the next phase of His ministry, He sat down in the synagogue in Nazareth and opened the scroll of Isaiah, reading the words predicting His coming. He read, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach good tiding to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.

As He continued, saying, “today has this Scripture been fulfilled in your ears,” the members of the synagogue could not believe what they had heard. Here was the son of Joseph, proclaiming the bringing of liberty as if He were the Messiah. They attempted to bodily throw Him over a cliff, but He miraculously passed through the mob, unseen and undetected.

Christ left Nazareth behind Him, establishing Capernaum as His new base of operations after being abruptly driven out of His hometown. Isaiah the prophet also foretold the next step in the ministry of Christ. In Isaiah 8:23, we read, “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali toward the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people which sat in darkness saw a great light, and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death, did them did light spring up.”

From that point forward, He focuses His attention on Galilee, returning to Capernaum time and again. He even referred to the city as His own hometown, as we read in Matthew 9. It’s likely that He stayed as a guest at the home of Peter and his wife, along with Peter’s mother-in-law. Peter and Andrew were originally from Bethsaida but had settled more recently in Capernaum.

We read in Mark 4 and Luke 4, of the many miracles that Christ did in this area, including the casting out of demons, and the healing of many sick. He also began to work with and train His disciples. He chose four of His disciples from Capernaum, including Peter, Andrew, James, and John. In time, He would also call Matthew, a publican, working at the customs’ house, collecting taxes and tolls from merchants and fishermen. It was a humble beginning for the work of the Messiah, the Son of God.

Lecture: Disciples Called and Initial Healings Dr. Roderick Meredith

Greetings again, class. Glad to get back with you, and we’re going to pick up in the Harmony of the Gospels where we left off last time. Remember, we’re going right through the teachings of the Son of God, and there’s nothing more important than that. The direct teachings of Jesus Christ, in this class, as we go right through the gospels of Jesus Christ, and using this Robertson’s Harmony, which gives you the four different accounts side by side, as best they could lay it out, as far as harmonizing them, showing the same times where He was saying this and doing that.

So, we came down last time, to the last class, to page 32 in your Harmony. Let’s pick up again. Christ had just had to be rescued by God, actually. It was after His first sermon, you remember. They tried to throw Him down off the brow of the hill, there in Nazareth. They did not appreciate what Christ taught. He was not popular. Of course, God shows us, we will be persecuted for righteousness sake. So, God had that example for us, even in His Son and His life.

Now, Section 40, of the Harmony, Matthew 4:13, at the bottom of page 32, “Leaving Nazareth, He came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the borders of Zebulun and Naphtali; that it might be fulfilled which is spoken by Isaiah the prophet, ‘the land of Zebulun, and the land of Naphtali, toward the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people which sat in darkness saw a great light.’”

Remember, they saw Christ coming. The Son of God came to that area, and that’s why this was written ahead of time. “And to them which sat in the region and shadow of death, to them did light spring up.”

Now going ahead into new material now, turn to the next page in Mark 1:16. “And passing along by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon, casting a net in the sea: for they were fishers. And Jesus said to them, come after Me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.” Of course, these were not just out for fun on Sunday afternoon. They were professional fishermen, and Christ called working men at that time. Of course, there weren’t all kinds of clerical people at that time anyway. But He called these fishermen, sometimes farmers, sometimes shepherds and others to serve in God’s work during those years. “Straightway they left the nets and followed Him.” The point I would like to bring out here, as you turn back to page 23, you’ll see that they already knew Jesus. They didn’t just see some stranger coming by, and He said, “Come follow Me,” and had some religious look on His face.

They knew about Him. They knew what He was teaching already. No doubt, there was a lot more interchange. Remember all we find here in the Bible is just the highlights. They must have had some long talks. They knew what Christ was doing, and had a sense that He was a great servant of God. They didn’t fully understand He was the Messiah. We know that later. But He must have had a great impact on them to have them give up their profession and follow Him. All of us have to learn to give up our lives and follow Christ, even if it, in fact, means changing jobs or losing a job because of the Sabbath, or whatever.

That’s what they did. That’s what we need to be willing to do.

So, going on then, you see at the bottom, “He called them,” in verse 20, and then picking up in Luke’s account, why it shows that, “… to pass, while the multitude pressed upon Him, and heard the word of God, that He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret.” Remember, the lake of Gennesaret, and the Sea of Galilee, and the Sea of Tiberius are all different names for that same big lake. We normally call it the Sea of Galilee, but in places, it’s called by different names that Jews used, and other nations had given it. The Romans called it the Sea of Tiberius. That same big lake is where Jesus taught. “And He saw two boats standing by the lake,” so He called these men out of their fishing boats.

“Simon answered and said,” in verse 5, here, of Luke’s account, “Master, we’ve toiled all night, and took nothing: but at Thy word, I will let down the nets. And when they had done this, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes.” They’d fished all night and taken nothing. So all of a sudden, this miracle happened, and their nets were breaking, and they had to beckon to their partners to help them. That probably never happened before in all their lives. They sensed this was God. This was the finger of God, and they sensed that right there. They filled the boats with fish, “so they began to sink. But Simon Peter, when he saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” Simon was a big, apparently physically big, very hearty man, and God used him as the leader over the original twelve.

He had a natural sense of leadership, and God used that, even though John was more sensitive spiritually, more perceptive, as you see in a number of places. Peter had the leadership, and God gives spiritual gifts according to natural ability, as we’ll see later on. I think that’s mentioned way back in Matthew 25, toward the end of the Harmony. Peter had that, and God used that in spite of Peter’s weaknesses. But he was very open-hearted, and he said, “Depart from me… a sinful man.” Maybe Peter had been drinking heavily, or been in fights, and all kinds of things. We don’t know. He’d been a normal, big, working man, a big fisherman. God called him out of that.

“For he was amazed and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes….” So they all came along with Jesus, and He said, “Fear not, from henceforth, you will catch men.” You don’t need to catch fish professionally anymore, but men. “And when they had brought their boats to land, they left all,” which we’ve got to do. It’s kind of a lesson in here, to give your life to God. “They left all, and followed Him.” Going ahead now, in Mark’s account on the next page, page 34, “[They went to] Capernaum; and straightway on the Sabbath day, He entered into the synagogue [to teach].” Of course, He then taught them with “authority, and not as the scribes.” They mention that.

Of course, then a demon came here, and cried out, “What have we to do with you, you Jesus of Nazareth? Are you come to destroy us?” So, the demons recognized Jesus Christ. They recognized the power of God’s spirit in this man. “And Jesus rebuked him, saying, hold your peace… come out of him.”

So, the unclean spirit came out with a loud voice, apparently yelled out, as the spirit came out, and they were all amazed. They said, “What is this? A new teaching! With authority, He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.” Brethren, as we learn the truth of God, as we get closer to the end of this age, we’re going to see more things like that. Even recently, in the Living Church of God, we’ve had a lot more healings in the last six months or so than we’ve had before, and we’re going to have far more as the years go by, plus demons coming out of people through the power of God. So they came to Capernaum, and in Luke’s account, He was teaching on the Sabbath day. Remember, always, Jesus taught on the Sabbath day, the seventh day Sabbath the Jews kept, that was the day that God had given from creation, and Christ, setting us an example, kept that day. He didn’t keep any other day, and He taught them with authority. It tells again about this demon being cast out, and people were astonished.

Going on at the bottom, in Mark’s account now, “And straightway when they were come out of the synagogue, they came into the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon’s wife’s mother [was] sick of a fever.” So, Simon, Peter, was supposed to be the first Pope (the Catholics try to teach, which was ridiculous). He was not any kind of a pope. He was a fisherman. He didn’t have some big papal throne and didn’t act like he was God in person, or something like that at all. He was a normal working man who began to teach the truth under Jesus Christ, and he had a wife. He was not some celibate pope, although most of the popes down through time have not been celibate, as a matter of fact. He was a married man. He had a mother-in-law.

“Simon’s wife’s mother lay sick of a fever…He came and took her [hand] and raised her up… And at even, when the sun did set, they brought [all these people that were sick and demon possessed]… And all the city was gathered…at the door.” So, it was a tremendous occasion here. They must have had several score people, at least, or maybe hundreds, from all around the neighborhood probably, coming and standing around, as they heard these things that were happening. In Matthew’s account, Peter’s wife’s

mother was sick of a fever here, verse 14. “He touched her hand.” So, He laid His hands on her. God heals through human instruments. Back in James 5:14, it tells you to call for the elders of the church. Of course, the elders lay hands on someone, anoint them with oil, olive oil, as a symbol of the holy spirit, and then God honors that and heals according to your faith. But here, He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose up then and apparently gave them some food.

“And when even was come, they brought unto him many possessed with [demons], and He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all that were sick.” Dozens, apparently, of people were healed by Christ.

God poured out His spirit in an unusual way, obviously, on the very Son of God to show His power, to show that this was the Messiah, so they could finally figure that out.

“That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our [sicknesses].” As you read this back in Isaiah 53:4, you will see that this was prophesied about the coming Son of God, that He took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses, and “by His stripes, we [were] healed.” It says back there, “we are healed”, and it quotes it later on, that “by His stripes, we were healed” (back in Peter). So, we have to understand that and realize that this is talking about that very thing, that God heals us. You find, here, it was because of the stripes of Jesus Christ. Christ at the end of His life was crucified, and just before then, and we’ll explain that thoroughly when we get there, but they scourged Him. The official Roman scourging, terrible whipping, often tore a man’s hide right off.

Christ went through that suffering to pay the penalty by our physical carelessness, our mistakes, our sins, whatever you want to say. He took that on Himself, and “by His stripes we were healed.” So, we do need to understand that. That’s a very important principle brought in right here, this healing that He performed, was fulfilling that very thing that Isaiah had prophesied.

Then, over in Luke’s account, it says, “And when the sun was setting,” (verse 40), “all they that had any sick with [different] diseases brought them to him.” Different diseases! It didn’t make any difference. Is it cancer? Is it leukemia? Is it AIDS? Is it diphtheria? Is it smallpox? It didn’t make any difference to God. This was the power of God, and that power’s still here today, to those who are willing to trust God, obey God, and believe. We’ve got to believe. “According to your faith,” Jesus said, over and over. “According to your faith, be it unto you.” “So they brought to Him [many sick] and He laid His hands…” again the laying on of hands, “…He laid His hands on every one of them, and healed them.” So many times, Jesus healed people back there that probably did not have perfect faith, frankly, because this was showing the power of God as Christ began His ministry. Once you’re in the church and understand, “unto whom much is given to him, much is required”, God says back in Luke 12:48. Of course, you’ve got to do more if you have the understanding, and God wants us to build faith.

Then, continuing in Mark at the bottom of page 35, “And in the morning, a great while before day, He rose up and went out, and departed into a desert place, and there prayed.” Way early in the morning.

Jesus, no doubt, rose up as many farmers do, at four or four-thirty in the morning. They didn’t have great long parties at nightclubs at night. They didn’t have the same kind of artificial lights, incandescent lights, as we have today. They had candles and various things of that sort, oil lamps, but they no doubt, went to be a lot earlier. When the sun goes down, that’s a signal you might think about going to bed pretty soon.

That’s what they did. So, Jesus may have been in bed asleep by 9:00 at night, and then got up after maybe seven hours’ sleep at 4:00 the next morning, and got up very early. You see, He never broke God’s law. He kept good health by keeping the laws of God. He had a positive attitude. He put His faith in God. Therefore, He had sound sleep, and His body probably didn’t require more than six and a half or seven

hours of sleep. So, if He was asleep by 9:30, he could easily get up at 4:00 the next morning and feel just vigorous all day long, and pray for an hour or more, no doubt, many, many times, maybe even before other people got up. He was out behind some big stump or behind some big rock on the side of a hill or in some private room, praying to God. He rose up “a great while before day” and prayed. He talked to God constantly. He must have said, “God, I’m down here. I was with You from eternity, but I’m surrounded by this flesh. Please help Me, guide Me, lead Me through Your spirit. Jesus poured out His being to God, over and over again. The Bible shows that very clearly.

“And Simon and they that were with him followed after him.” So later on when they got up, they tried to look for Him and found Him. So they said, “All are seeking you.” Maybe that was an hour or two later when they got up and found Him, and people would be up seeking Him. Where is this Messiah? We want Him. “And He said, let us go elsewhere to the next towns, that I may preach there also; for to this end came I forth. And he went into their synagogues throughout all Galilee.” He just went around that whole area of Israel, preaching, and casting out demons. Of course, in Luke’s account, in the right hand column, verse 43, “He said unto them, I must preach the good tidings of the kingdom of God.” Good tidings. The coming government of God will straighten out all these problems. No more wars, and hate, and fighting, and robbery, and rape, and viciousness of human beings between each other. It’s all going to change. “… preaching the kingdom of God to the other cities… for [this purpose] I was sent.” So, He went around.

In the center column, Matthew fills in this detail, in verse 23, “And Jesus went about in all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching,” and He was doing three things. He preached the gospel of the kingdom of God, as it says, the good news of the coming government. Remember, kingdom means government. I spent four years of my adult life in Great Britain. Two of my older children were born there. I was stationed over there, the longest time was straight through for about two and a half years back in 1973 to 1975. I came back from the United Kingdom of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. The United Kingdom of Great Britain, you know. England and Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, called the United Kingdom. A kingdom means government.

There will be a literal government set up on this earth under Jesus Christ, as you read back there in Daniel 2. It describes the four great world-ruling governments, and then the fifth kingdom is that great rock that comes down, described in verse 44 of Daniel 2, and that is God’s government, to take over all the other governments and to rule on this earth forever. All of us can be part of that government, if we give our lives to God and have Christ live in us, and grow in grace and in knowledge “unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” We can show God we mean it, and if we grow in that way, then He will give us tremendous opportunities in the kingdom of God. We’re not saved by growing or by our works. We’re saved in the sense of forgiveness of past sins through Christ’s suffering, through Christ’s blood on the cross. But many Protestant ministers get that all mixed up. There’s a difference between your forgiveness of past sins and being justified or made right, and later on being given authority in God’s kingdom. That’s based on how much you overcome, and how much you grow, and qualify in that sense, by growing and overcoming.

So, He went about “preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of disease…” Number two, He healed every disease. It didn’t make any difference. “…all manner of sickness… And the report [went out] into all Syria: and they brought to Him [those] that were sick, holden with [various] diseases and torments, possessed with [demons].” So some were demon-possessed. That’s the third thing He did.

Number one-preach the gospel. Number two-heal the sick. Number three-cast out demons. That’s what He did, and as He sent His disciples out in Matthew 10 (we’ll see later) and in Luke 10, the other seventy also, who were not Apostles, He told them to do the same thing in effect: preach the gospel, heal the sick, cast out demons. So, He healed all these people, and the great multitudes followed Him. Then in Mark, in the left-hand column, down at the bottom on page 36, there came a leper. Horrible disease! Stinking, rotting flesh. Very embarrassing and humiliating. “…and kneeled…” he said, “if you will…” He must have just said that in a plaintive way. Normally lepers weren’t supposed to come around the other people, and he heard that this was Jesus, the great prophet, and maybe had come to realize that He was the Messiah. “If you will, you can make me clean.” Did Jesus say, “No I’m too important?”

No, He was moved with compassion. Christ often had a great deal of just outgoing concern for others.

Say often, He always had that. He was “moved with compassion, and He stretched forth His hand and touched him and said… I will.” We find in Hebrews 13:8, it says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.” What is Christ’s will? “I will, be thou [healed].” So, He healed this man, and it’s always His will to heal, if we have faith.

Some people, if they’re old, or there’s certain reasons that God has in mind, He may not heal them until the resurrection. You know, when the life of Hezekiah was extended for fifteen years, when he was about to die. You read that whole account carefully, and you’ll see he lived up to age, what? 97? No, 54. He was about to die at about age 39, and God blessed him powerfully and gave him fifteen more years. But on the other hand, many people back at that time did not live to age seventy. Most people do die in their fifties, sixties, seventies, and eighties. Some live into their nineties. We don’t all die at exactly age seventy. So, God may let people die, and certainly they will be healed later, if it’s not their time now. But in most cases, He heals us now. So don’t assume He may let you die, but He will let some die, as they get older. I guess you know what I mean. If someone started to get sick, and every time they started to get sick, they somehow rushed to get the minister, they could keep on living to 120, or 150, or something, if they did that. That’s not God’s promise. But normally, in normal lifespan of a person, He will heal them.

“I will, be thou [healed],” He was saying, in effect. So, the leprosy departed, and He straightly charged this man, don’t go out telling people, but go to this priest and offer this sacrifice. He was kind of an interim period between the old covenant and the new, and He had this man do the normal sacrificing, the thank offering, as a witness, to these religious leaders of the Jews, as for a testimony to them. But this man, being carnal and excitable, didn’t do what Jesus said, necessarily. He went out right away, and began to tell everybody, Jesus healed me. Jesus healed me. So, He couldn’t enter into the city. Jesus had to stay out in the country places because people would swarm over Him, and He couldn’t really teach them in a normal way. So, He went out into the desert places, “and they came to Him from every quarter.”

It says over in the right-hand column, of Luke here, at the bottom here, in verse 15, “But so much the more [the report] went abroad…concerning Him, and great multitudes came together to hear.” So Jesus didn’t have a television and radio and great big billboards saying, “Jesus is coming to town.” The word got over, all over this area of the world, this man is the healer from God. This is the great prophet, Jesus of Nazareth. People would came swarming out of the cities once they heard about those miracles. They were still carnal. Carnal, by the way, doesn’t mean terribly evil. It just means normal, cut off from God. Carnal means physical, fleshly, literally. Most of us here in American know of chili con carne. Chili with meat. It simply means, carne, meat, fleshly, the normal, human mind of man. That’s all most of us have.

We don’t have God’s spirit until we’re really converted and conquered by God. So, these were normal people. They weren’t excessively evil. They just were excited about the physical. People see physical things. It’s hard for them to believe in the invisible God. So, God showed He was there in this man by healing. So, they came out to hear and to be healed of their infirmities.

“But He withdrew Himself in the deserts, and prayed.” Interestingly. Every now and then, it just mentions that, you know, one of these writers, because they saw Jesus. They were with Him. They remembered He didn’t just go out there to preach. He went out to pray. Here, Jesus, this young man, 30, 31, 32, 33 years old, He’d disappear, and the disciples, Where’s Jesus go? Then they’d find Him up behind some big rock over in the hillside. He’d been praying, maybe for hours sometimes, crying out to the Creator, as His Father, asking for the love, and out-flowing concern, and the faith, and the courage, and the wisdom, to carry on , in the flesh, as the perfect example to be our Savior, and to be the example He should have been right there, and to pick the disciples, to found His church, to bring the gospel of the kingdom, the new message of the new covenant, and all those things He came to do.

Then we go on at the bottom of page 37 in Mark’s account, “And when He entered again into Capernaum after some days, it was noised that He was in the house.” What house? No doubt, Peter’s house. He apparently used that as His landing place. He didn’t have His own house. He says later, the Son of Man does not have a house. But He did stay in this house. “And many were gathered together, so that there was no longer room for them, not even about the door.” They just swarmed around that house. “And He spoke the word…” What word? Well, the whole message was based on the Old Testament, we call it the Old Testament, that was the only written word of God, and He would explain and expound that and magnify that. You find back in Isaiah 42:21, as some may have already mentioned to you, but I may turn to that today, if you haven’t got that in your notes and your mind, it’s a key scripture. Isaiah 42:21, it talks about this coming Messiah. It says in verse 18, “Hear, you deaf; look, you blind, that you may see.

Who is blind, but My servant?” That is, they looked on Him like He didn’t understand. He didn’t teach their normal ideas. The Pharisees and Sadducees looked down on Him. “Who is blind but My servant, or deaf as My messenger whom I send? Who is blind as He who is perfect and blind as the Lord’s servant?

Seeing many things, but you do not observe; opening the ears, but he does not hear.’ The Lord is well pleased for His righteousness’ sake.” This One who was to come. The people would not fully recognize, which they didn’t. They crucified Him instead.

“He,” the coming Messiah, verse 21, “will magnify the law and make it honorable. Did Christ do away with God’s law and say the Ten Commandments are done away? No! No way! We see all the way through as we go through the Harmony, He magnified. You put a magnifying glass on a snowflake, and you see a whole different world in there in a sense, if you get especially a big magnifying glass, all kinds of intricate details you could never see with the naked eye. Through God’s spirit, Jesus magnified God’s law. He said, you’re not only to not commit adultery, you’re not even to look on a woman to lust after her. You young men, having passed before your eyes, hundreds and hundreds and thousands of ads and all kinds of things on television and movies and Internet, these women half-dressed and wriggling around, and you tend to lust after these women. You’re living in an age where it’s very hard to do that.

You have to guide your mind and ask God to help you bring every thought into captivity to Christ. You see all kinds of violence. You say, whoa, I’m going to get that guy, and the movie builds it up to where you want to get back and get even, and so forth. So, you’ve got to guide your mind through God’s spirit.

Christ magnified the law. He showed the law was all the more binding. That doesn’t do away with God’s law, if you don’t even look on a woman that way. It means you don’t even think the thought, let do the

act. So, Christ magnified the law. That’s the exact opposite of doing away with God’s Ten Commandments, the spiritual law of the great Creator. We need to really understand that.

So anyway, “He spoke the word to them. And they came bringing to him a man sick of the palsy, born of four [men].” Here they were so zealous. “And Jesus seeing their faith said… Son, your sins are forgiven.”

So that was unusual. They weren’t used to anyone saying that. He was, of course, God in the flesh. They didn’t understand that. “But there were certain… scribes sitting there…” that said, who is this man saying this? This is blasphemy. “Who can forgive sins, but one, even God? And straightway, Jesus, perceiving in His spirit,” continuing here in verse 8 of Mark 2. There is a spirit in man, and God tells us that back in 1 Cor. 2, a spirit in man. There’s a spirit essence joined with your human brain. An animal does not have that. Jesus in His spirit, no doubt guided by God’s spirit, had that perception of what they were thinking.

So He perceived that “they so reasoned within themselves.” And he said, “Why do you reason these things in your heart. Whether is easier to say to the sick… your sins are forgiven; or to say [rise up] and walk?” You see. He’s showing here, the healing of sickness is like the forgiveness of sin, because you’re being forgiven, maybe all kinds of carelessness, even of your ancestors, you inherited certain weaknesses, you add to those, by breaking God’s laws, and one is a type of the other. The healing of sickness and the forgiveness of sin. One is a type of the other. So “whether is easier to say… your sins are forgiven; or to say, [rise up]… and walk. But…” (verse 10), “…that you may know that the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins, He said to [this sick man], I say to you, Arise, take up your bed… go to your house.” So, He did do that. He rose, and they were all amazed. They’d never seen it like that before.

Over in Luke’s account of this, near the end, it says in verse 26, they were “glorifying God. And amazement took hold [of them],” the top of page 39 now, Luke 5:26, here in the Harmony, and they were amazed, “and they were filled with fear, saying, we have seen strange things to-day.” Not fear of a monster, but fear of a sense of awe. The fear of God is the beginning of knowledge. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of God is the beginning of understanding. You will read all those things in the first ten chapters of the book of Proverbs. To have that awe of God, then you can begin to have correct knowledge. Then you can have correct understanding of what that knowledge means, and the purpose of God. Then you can have right wisdom to make right decisions based upon that understanding and the specific knowledge that God gives. Wisdom. It all begins with the awareness of God as the central fact of your existence, the awe of the great Creator.

Well, we’ll stop there today, and then pick up in the next class. So we’ll be dismissed. Do your reading, and keep up. Put it first. There’s nothing more important than drinking in of the words of your Creator.

Christ was God in the flesh. So feed on Christ. Learn these things, and make them part of your life, students, and you’ll be very blessed. So, we’ll end the class right now. We’re dismissed, and we’ll pick up next time.