In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes that God uses the simple and foolish things of the world to confound the wise. While education and studying are important, the speaker emphasizes that the true power lies in the spirit of God touching someone's heart. The speaker shares their experience at a recent event where they felt inadequate in their teaching, but were amazed by the profound impact it had on people's lives. The purpose of the commandment, according to the speaker, is to love one another with a pure heart, good conscience, and sincere faith. The speaker also highlights the importance of edifying and encouraging others with the simple truths of the Word of God.

All right, so I asked you to open up to 1st Timothy. And the reason I did that is because we're going to go through Paul's first epistle to Timothy. Before I left, you remember we had three weeks together and we were able to make it through Titus. Now, 1st and 2nd Timothy and Titus are known as the pastoral epistles. That is the way they're frequently referred to. And the reason for that is because, of course, Titus, as we studied, and now Timothy, as we will see, they were Paul's co-workers and they were in the ministry with him and they were serving as overseers of the churches. And so the letters that he wrote to them had to do specifically with church matters. And so for that reason, they're referred to as the pastoral epistles. As a matter of fact, in this epistle here, 1st Timothy, chapter three, verse 15, Paul says that I'm writing these things to you so that you might know how to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and the ground of the truth. So these epistles will, as we saw with Titus, so with 1st Timothy, they will deal to a large extent with. How church is to be and what the leadership in the church is to be concerned with and involved with. And so there's there's some great stuff here by way of instruction for the church. And so with that brief introduction, let's just jump right into the epistle. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God, our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope to Timothy, a true son in the faith, grace, mercy and peace from God, our father and Jesus Christ, our Lord. So Paul addresses this epistle to Timothy. He refers to him as a true son in the faith. Now, we first meet Timothy. In the 16th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, remember when we were studying Titus, I pointed out to you that ironically, Titus is never mentioned in the book of Acts. He's mentioned in several of Paul's epistles, as we showed you, but he's never mentioned in the book of Acts. Well, Timothy is mentioned several times over in the book of Acts, beginning in the 16th chapter, there in verses one through three. And let me read it to you. It says, Then Paul came to Derbe and Lystra and behold, a certain disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a certain Jewish woman who believed that his father was Greek. He was well spoken of by the brethren who were at Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted to have him go on with him, and he took him and he circumcised him because of the Jews who were in that region, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. And so here's our first introduction to Timothy. Now, Paul had this is his second visit to the area of Derbe and Lystra. He had gone there previously, and it's quite possible that in his first visit, Timothy, even probably as a teenager at that time, it's possible that Timothy was converted under Paul's ministry because Paul refers to him as a son in the faith. The implication is that Timothy came to Christ through Paul's ministry. And so it might have been that Paul was actually able to lead the whole family to the Lord. But now he's come back again for another visit. Timothy's grown up a bit and Paul senses in him the qualities that he wants to invest in. So he wants to take Timothy with him on the road and he wants to groom him. He wants to disciple him. And in many ways, Timothy would become Paul's successor. And that's what we find, especially in the second epistle that we'll get to a bit later, that Paul is really passing. Ultimately, he's passing his ministry on to Timothy. So we're introduced to him here in Acts chapter 16. But then Paul makes reference to Timothy in several of his epistles in writing to the Corinthians, chapter four, verse 17. He says this to them. He says, For this reason, I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful son and the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ as I teach everywhere in every church. So Timothy was somebody special to Paul. You can see that. And Paul had absolute confidence in Timothy that he could send him somewhere. And Timothy was going to be a proper and accurate representation of the apostle. Now, in writing to the Philippians, the second chapter, verses 19 through 22, he says this regarding Timothy. He says, But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly that I also may be encouraged when I know your state, for I have no one like minded who will sincerely care for your state, for all seek their own, not the things which are of Christ Jesus. But, you know, his proven character that as a son with his father, he served with me in the gospel. So here Paul really. Opens up and shares his deepest feelings about Timothy, actually, when he writes his second epistle to Timothy, he says, Timothy, every time I think about you, I get choked up. I brings tears to my eyes just thinking about you. So Timothy was he was quite a young man, as we can see here. Paul says, I have no one like him. He's unique. He's extraordinary. He he naturally he just has that inclination toward the ministry and toward serving. That's really what Timothy was much like Joshua to Moses. Timothy was to Paul. Remember, Joshua was the servant of Moses. That was his role. And then, of course, he ultimately became the successor of Moses. And so Timothy was to Paul something like what Joshua was to Moses. Now, one more reference, I think, is important to point out in Hebrews chapter 13, verse twenty three, just a brief reference regarding Timothy. But it says this. Now, we don't know who actually wrote Hebrews. There's some people that believe strongly that it is the the work of Paul, the apostle. There are others that are not so certain about that. They attribute it to somebody like Apollos, maybe or or Barnabas. But whoever it was, that's really not the real important point. But there's a reference to Timothy in Hebrews, and this is what it says regarding him. It says, know that our brother Timothy has been set free. So Timothy was a young man who suffered for his faith. He was a young man who, like his mentor, Paul, was also in prison, but he was set free. And so, Paul, he says to him in verse three, he says, as I urged you when I went into Macedonia, remain in Ephesus, that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine. So Paul left Ephesus and went into Macedonia and. He left Timothy there. Now, we don't know how long Timothy was there. It's possible that Timothy was for a period of time the pastor of the Church of Ephesus. Now, that's interesting to me because, of course, we have the epistle to the Ephesians. We have in the seven letters to the churches from Jesus, we have a letter to the Church of Ephesus there. And it would seem that Timothy was perhaps. Remember, Paul spent three and a half years in Ephesus. So Paul was, in a sense, sort of the pastor. He was he wasn't planning to be there permanently. But when he leaves, Timothy sort of steps into that role. Now, I don't think that Timothy remained there permanently. I think he probably ended up following Paul again into different places. As a matter of fact, I know he did. But for a period of time, he was evidently overseeing the fellowship in Ephesus. And so Paul says, now I left you there so you can charge the people there and to warn them about certain things. Remember, Paul said something similar to Titus. He said, for this reason, I left you in Crete that you might set the things in order that are lacking and that you might ordain elders in every city. So these young men were men that Paul could could trust. He had absolute confidence in them. And so he leaves Timothy there in Ephesus to make sure things are the way they ought to be. Now, of course, as Paul is leaving. And I know that feeling because I've left a couple of churches myself. You want so desperately to make sure, at least to the best of your ability, that everything is going to keep going the way it ought to go once you're gone. But but it's it's a battle. It's a struggle. And even Paul recognized in in Acts, the account in Acts, when he leaves Ephesus, he gathers the elders together and he says, he said, I know that after my departure, grievous wolves are going to come in among you, not sparing the flock. And even from among yourselves, they're going to rise up men seeking to draw others after themselves. Paul's. Heart was broken over that, because when you've labored and you've planted a work and you've you've put forth all that effort to see that things are right. Oh, to think that it might just, you know, go the wrong direction on you. It's really it's a real burdensome thing. But Paul has these men that he has the confidence in, so he he's he's charging them. And now here, Timothy, to make sure everything is in proper order, make sure people understand what the church is all about so we can see it perpetuated. So he says that you charge some that they teach no other doctrine, nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies which cause disputes rather than godly edification, which is in the faith. So basically, initially says, first of all, charge them that they teach no other doctrine. They need to adhere faithfully to apostolic doctrine. Secondly, don't let them get caught up in fables. Now, the word fable is the Greek word from which we get our English word myth. Mythos is the word. So he says, don't let them give heed to fables. Now, there's some speculation among the commentators as to just what kind of myths or fables Paul would have been referring to. And and a fair number of commentators sort of go into talking about some of the myths among the Greeks and and some of the aberrant teaching that eventually became known as Gnosticism. And they sort of point to those things as what Paul's referring to. But I happen to disagree with that. I think by the context, Paul is talking more about fables and myths in a Jewish sense rather than in a Greek sense, because he goes on to talk about these particular individuals who desire to be teachers of the law. So that would imply that there's there's a Jewish element here. And of course, as we've seen, as we've studied acts, we've seen it in going through Galatians and Titus. Paul was constantly having to contend with these Judaizers, with these these false teachers that were coming in and trying to impose Judaism upon the new Gentile converts. And so the fables that he's referring to here, I think, are fables that have a Jewish origin to them. So these kinds of fables were composed of frivolous and unfounded stories which the Jews would have regarded as of great importance. Jewish literature is full of fanciful myths regarding the rabbis, as well as fables concerning biblical characters. If you ever have the opportunity to read through portions of the Talmud, for example, you'll find that there's all kinds of wild stories and they are obviously myths, they're fables. But not just regarding the exploits of the rabbis, you also find that, as I mentioned, regarding biblical characters. And so if you read Jewish literature at all, you'll find that quite often there's all kinds of references to Abraham and to Moses and to David and different people about incidents and things that we don't know anything about. And you think, wow, I didn't know that that happened in Abraham's life. My goodness, I didn't know Moses did that. I didn't know that David did those things, too. Well, he didn't. They're myths, they're fables, they're they're things that, you know, they're legends that just sort of were added on to the story. You can find a good example of this in the apocryphal writings. Now, the apocryphal writings are a bit easier to get a hold of. I'm not necessarily recommending that you get a hold of them and read them. You could if you wanted to. But in the apocryphal, which is contained today in the Old Testament of the Roman Catholic versions of the Bible, you can you can see an example of this kind of mythology that Paul is talking about in the book of Daniel. Now we have the book of Daniel in our Bible and in our Bible, the book of Daniel has 12 chapters, right? Well, in the Catholic Bible, the book of Daniel has 14 chapters. And the final chapter in the book of Daniel is regarding a story that is called Bell and the Dragon. Now, Bell was, remember, Daniel's Babylonian name that was given to him by Nebuchadnezzar was Belteshazzar. And so they they've taken that Bell and then there's this obviously mythical kind of story about how Daniel outwitted a dragon. And, you know, when you read it, you immediately recognize that this is something clearly distinct from what we've read up until this point. It's obvious that the mythological aspect of it really begins to to come out there. So Paul said, don't let them give heed to fables or to myths. Now, in making this statement, Paul is indirectly, but absolutely inferring that there is a total and complete contrast between mythology and scripture. Now, there are many people today who want to insist that the Bible is full of mythology. And among the critics, what they have sought to do is what they call to demythologize the Bible. They want to take the myths out of it so we can get down to the real core of it. And then we can keep that and act upon that. And basically, in their opinion, all of the miraculous aspects of the Bible, the supernatural references and events, they refer to all of that as mythology. Now, C.S. Lewis, who was a great scholar. And who spent his entire life studying myths and legends, he said this, he said, I have spent my life. In reading and studying myths and legends, and I find no similarity whatsoever between myths and legends and what is contained in the scripture. No similarity whatsoever. Now, here was a man who knew what myth was. He knew what legends were. He wrote himself prolifically in a mythological fashion, but he was absolutely adamant about the fact that there was no similarity whatsoever between mythology and scripture. And it's so true. And like I was saying, all you have to do is read Bell in the Dragon and you can see so clearly where scripture left off and where mythology began. So Paul says to Timothy, don't let them get caught up. In mythologies, don't let them get caught up in fables. Now, it wasn't a problem that was limited to that particular era, because all throughout the church's history, there have been these kinds of things that have cropped up and people have unfortunately bought into many myths and fables in the church era. I think of some of the myths and fables that were floating about in the medieval period. A couple of examples. Milk from the breast of the Virgin Mary was stored and preserved by the church. Or another example, there were pieces of the cross of Jesus available through the church that had power to cleanse from sin. Now, these are myths, these are fables, these are the kinds of things that Paul said to Timothy, don't don't let the people buy into this stuff. Exhort them, admonish them not to give heed to these kinds of things. But, you know, it's not it's not even relegated back to the medieval period alone, because we still have these kinds of things with us today. I think of the myths and the fables that have built up around the supposed appearance of the Virgin Mary, say, in Fatima, Portugal or Medjugorje in Croatia. And and these are things that tens of hundreds of thousands of people go after. Or remember, what was it a couple of years ago? What was 2000? Actually, it was the the year of Jubilee where the the pope had informed people that if they were to come and visit Rome and pass through this particular door, that that would guarantee the forgiveness of sins. These are myths, they're fables, but people by the droves buy into this stuff today. But it's not limited to. Roman Catholicism or Orthodoxy or one of those various facets of the church, we find it among the Charismatics and the Pentecostal groups. The the fables about the growing legs. And the miraculous dentistry that's going on in some churches and, you know, the fact that people are supposedly praying and as they're praying, they're being sprinkled with gold dust. And you might wonder, what is he talking about the growing legs? Well, I have had numerous people tell me over the years that they went to a healing service and lo and behold, they didn't know it before, but they found out they had one leg that was shorter than the other. And sure enough, they were healed. They you know, they went through a procedure where the the pastor, the elders, the whoever, the visiting evangelist or prophet or apostle laid hands on them. And sure enough, their leg was extended. Now, please, this is a fable. Miraculous dentistry. There are stories going all around the world about people who were coming to worship services and in certain charismatic circles, and they were finding that as they were there, their fillings, their amalgam fillings were being replaced with fillings of pure gold. And these stories were going all over the place, all over the world, this phenomena was supposedly happening. And I can't tell you how many otherwise intelligent Christians would say to me, have you heard about what's going on, how the Lord is giving people new fillings? My question is, why not just heal the tooth completely? I mean, why a filling at all? But I guess God wanted to bless them with a little extra in case financially they weren't doing too well, they could pull the gold out of their teeth. But this kind of stuff and then then this idea not not too long ago, Britain is a place where every crazy doctrine finds acceptance. And not too long ago and the British aren't alone in that. But not too long ago, they were talking about this miraculous thing of people as they were in prayer, gold dust was coming down upon them. And in one incident. A person appeared to have gold dust on them, they took a swipe of the supposed gold dust and they went and they analyzed it and they found that it was glitter. Now, evidently, what happened is the person sprinkled themselves with glitter in order to sort of keep, you know, the myth going. But the leader of the congregation, instead of acknowledging that this was a hoax, he said, well, it appears that they didn't have enough faith for real gold. So God just gave them glitter. Now, these I mean, we're talking about this is modern day stuff. Now, you would think that, come on, does anybody really believe this? Yes. Tens of thousands of people buy into this stuff. Somebody was asking me a question about Benny Hinn the other day, I'll tell you, talk about myths and fables. The stuff this guy claims to have done and all of, you know, this is all mythology, but tens of thousands of people gather to listen to this person. You know, Christians in some way can be the most gullible people in the world, but we shouldn't be. In many ways, we ought to be the most skeptical, because, of course, we have the scriptures and the scriptures tell us what's true and what's right. And if we took seriously the admonitions of scripture, we wouldn't find ourselves being tossed to and fro and torn and, you know, wavering back and forth as to whether, well, is this really of God? You know, is God doing this? I remember back when the whole Toronto thing was going on and all that holy laughter and people being so supposedly drunk in the spirit. And a lot of people were saying, well, do you think this is the Lord? No, it's not the Lord. Absolutely not. There's not any question about it. You can't find anything remotely like it in the pages of scripture anywhere. It doesn't make any sense whatsoever. It brings confusion to people. No, it's in this category that Paul mentioned here, and he said, urge them not to give heed to fables. And then he added endless genealogies. Now, the endless genealogies, there's no absolute certainty among commentators as to what Paul is referring to here, but there are a couple of possibilities. And I think they're probably both highly probable, actually, that some of these false teachers, the Jews themselves were were really into genealogies. And so that some of them would purport to be a direct ancestor of some great person. Within the history of the nation, so they might come forward purporting to be a direct ancestor of Moses. Or of Aaron or of one of the prophets or one of the kings. And they would have some sort of a genealogical record to try to prove their ancestry. There's also another possibility that the genealogy doesn't necessarily necessarily refer to a genealogy in the physical sense. But the rabbis would often claim that their theories could be traced back to Moses. And although you could find a scriptural basis for their theory, yet they would assure you that through word of mouth, the tradition was passed down. And as a matter of fact, the what's known as the oral law, the Mishnah, the Jewish claim is that the Mishnah is the the oral law that was actually passed down to Moses or passed down from Moses. So they would have some fake genealogy that they would use to trace this particular statement or this kind of doctrine back to Moses. So Paul says to Timothy, he says, urge them not to give heed to these kinds of things, not to pay any attention to these things. Paul says this is a colossal waste of time. And as I said, it's happened over and over again in the history of the church that the church gets caught up in things that are just nothing but an absolute waste of time. Back before the Reformation in there was a period known as the scholastic period, and it was during that time that the theologians would gather together and literally. Debate much like the rabbis did back in the time of Jesus and since then, but they would debate things like how many angels could dance on the head of a pen. They truly did debate those kinds of things. Now, talk about a waste of time. But that's exactly what it is, and there's some. Thing that a lot of times will grab hold of of Christian people and get them diverted from the main thing and off into these kinds of disputes and arguments and discussions. And he refers to it here, which caused disputes rather than godly edification, which is in the faith, these kinds of things there, there it's it's useless chatter. All they do is cause disputes and contentions and arguments and nobody's built up, nobody's edified. And there are there are things today. Where people are getting caught up in useless wranglings, speculating and theorizing about things that you can't know anyway, because you're a finite person. And God is infinite and beyond your finding out, I had a friend the other day. Pull me aside and tell me how bad he felt for me that I don't have a firm, systematic theology and that I don't have a clear worldview. And he was concerned that I was going to really have a hard time meeting up with atheists and meeting up with people of different theological persuasions because I didn't have an airtight theological system. And I said, you know, you don't really have to feel sorry for me, I'm OK. You know, I've done all right. I mean, I've you know, I've traveled a bit and I've met a number of atheists and people and, you know, I've done OK, just taking the Bible and the scriptures I know and, you know, I've done all right, I'm OK. But he just you know, he just couldn't he just couldn't believe that I wasn't more concerned to develop an airtight theology. And, you know, frankly, I just told him I don't have time for that. And I don't think that that's what God is primarily concerned with. You know, Jesus didn't send the disciples out to develop seminaries and theological schools where they could sit around and argue and debate with one another the finer points of theology. Jesus said, go out into the world and preach the gospel to everyone. And it's not my airtight theological argument that gets somebody saved. Paul said, I wanted to know nothing among you, the Corinthians, who were really steeped in Greek philosophy and impressed so much by human wisdom. Paul said, I came to you wanting to know nothing except Christ and him crucified. And you know what I've discovered over the years? That God, as Paul said, he uses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. Now, that's not to say that we shouldn't study. That's not to say that we shouldn't educate ourselves. But, you know, at the end of the day, it's not about my education. It's not about my studying. It's not about my ability to argue more efficiently than somebody else. It's about the spirit of God touching somebody's heart. And sometimes it's through the simplest of things. Sometimes it's through just a word. You know, this trip that we just had that we have been talking about tonight, the the event of Creation Fest lasted for three days. And I did a fair amount of teaching at the Creation Fest and preaching as well evangelistically. And, you know, quite frankly, I'll be honest with you. It was one of those times when every time I finished teaching, I wish I never would have started. I just felt like, you know, this is something that a preacher goes through. I don't know if you guys can relate to it, maybe some area of your life where you can identify. But, you know, sometimes when you're teaching and preaching, you just sense that God is with you. It's almost like you're you're unconscious and God just takes over and you couldn't make a mistake if you tried. Then there are other times that are the exact opposite of that, where you feel like you can't think you can't speak. You feel like you're an absolute idiot. You you think you're killing everybody. You're boring him to death and you're boring yourself to death. And you think I've got to shut up as quick as I can before I do any more damage. And I'll tell you honestly, after every session at the Creation Fest, I felt that way. It was just one of those times, you know, and that's the worst. When you go to these event kind of things, that's when you want to be your best. I'll never forget years ago, I went to Hawaii and spoke at one of these big events. There were thousands of people there. And, oh, you know, you're thinking if there was ever a place not to blow it, this is the place we don't want to blow it. But lo and behold, it was probably the worst message I've ever given in my life. Well, anyway, here's the amazing thing in all of it. So that's how I felt with the Creation Fest thing. The response is just been unbelievable, the emails we got. My friend called me from England the other day. He said he said, man, you can't believe what's happened since the event. He said people are coming. And the message that you gave, it's so impacted their lives. And, you know, I'm thinking you're kidding. You're joking. How did that happen? Well, guess how it happened. That's what I'm talking about. It's the Holy Spirit. It's God. This whole thing is about God. And it's not about my ability to articulate, it's not about my great wisdom and understanding and those kinds of things. At the end of the day, it's about God and it's about his spirit. And so that's why Paul said Timothy urged them not to get caught up in this useless chatter. This vain, empty talk that doesn't do anything for anybody, it just causes arguments and disputes. And we don't want to do that, we don't have time to do that. You know, I said to my friend the other day, I said, you know, frankly, I'm just not interested. I don't care. You can be right if you want to be right. I don't care. I'm not going to try to argue you into my theological position. This is what I believe. If you don't agree with me, that's fine. You don't have to agree with me. I don't have time to debate and dispute and sit around trying to figure out things that we can't figure out because we are finite human beings. We're not God. You see, Paul said it's all about edification. Speaking things that are going to be building people up, encouraging them, just the simple truths of the word of God. Now, in verse five, he says. The purpose of the commandment. Is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience and from sincere faith, from which some having strayed have turned aside to idle talk. Desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm. So you see, Paul, he sums it up right here in verse five. Now, the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart. That's what God is after. Jesus didn't come into the world. To redeem us. So that we could become theologians, per se, he came to redeem us so we could know him personally and have a loving relationship with him and we could love one another. Now, the thing about theological dispute and argumentation, you know, so much of it is conducted in an atmosphere that is anything but loving. I mean, I have seen and participated in theological discussion that. Has had the potential to go to fisticuffs. That's certainly not what the Lord is wanting. No, it's the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart. That's the sum of what the Lord is looking for, that we would love him, that we would love one another. And, you know, as Paul would say to the Corinthians, and it's so true, he said, we know that knowledge puffs up. But love builds up. You see, that's what happens. Knowledge tends to to create a prideful attitude. And whenever I become prideful. It's just it's such a sickening thing spiritually. Whenever I think that I'm above my fellow Christians, that those poor souls, they just don't know the truth like I know it. That's that's just nothing but arrogance. And that's what does happen many times with knowledge. Few people can really handle knowledge because knowledge inherently has that tendency to make one prideful. Now, of course, God in his wisdom, he knows how to keep us in check and he can certainly humble us. But but we have to be aware of that. And again, I'm not promoting ignorance. I'm not saying that we shouldn't obtain knowledge. But, you know, I found this. We need to obtain the right knowledge. And I have found that when you obtain the right knowledge, which is biblical knowledge straight from the scriptures without some biased opinion about it, it does tend to keep you balanced. It does tend to keep you in that place of just simplicity and humility. And I can say from my own experience that the people that I know that have gained knowledge and become lifted up with pride as a result of it, they have not most of the time, but in every case that I'm aware of, they have gained their knowledge from somewhere other than the scriptures. There's an outside source or a number of outside sources that they draw from and they begin to take that information and then they begin to interpret the scriptures through that outside information and they become very prideful. But when a person just sticks with the scriptures and just allows the Holy Spirit to minister the word into your life, there's a tendency there toward humility because that's how God works. He keeps us humble. And if we're getting prideful, it's probably because we're not just taking the word as it is, but we're receiving it through some sort of a filter that's giving us a biased view. But this is what it's all about. The purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience and from sincere faith. So that's what the Lord is looking for. And that's so simple, just loving one another, just being right before God, having a pure conscience and having faith that's genuine. Oh, that's it's so simple, but it's so beautiful. It's so powerful. It's so profound when you see it. You know, having spent the time over in Europe this summer, being with friends that I haven't been with for a while and guys who are younger and younger in the Lord and younger in the ministry, I had the opportunity to just observe them, to watch and to listen. And I must say that I was just so blessed and so impressed and and at times just thinking, amazing how profound the things that they would say. And it's just that that work of the spirit in their lives. My friend was telling me about my friend Rafael in Mallorca, Spain, was telling me about his discussions with a local Catholic priest. And the Catholic priest is bought into a very liberal perspective on the faith. And so and a very educated, you know, I think a Ph.D. and all of that sort of thing. And, you know, Rafael's he's as far from a Ph.D. as you'd ever get. But the wisdom and he would tell me about the discussions they have in the in the points that the guy would bring up in the arguments, and then he would tell me about how he responded, I would just think that is amazing. It's just the simplicity, but the but just how powerful and how profound his answers and actually what it ended up doing is just completely silencing the priest. He just said, you know, we shouldn't talk anymore. I can't. You're confusing me with all that Bible stuff. But, you know, that's what it's all about, just the simple thing of loving each other, of having a purity in our lives and of having a genuine faith. And so next time, as we continue on, we'll look more specifically at. What was happening with those who were desiring to be teachers of the law, but as Paul said, they did not understand what they said or the things that they affirmed, so.