Matt Slick, Bible Study, Gal. 3 b

Because oh, yeah, we're live, aren't we?

All right, we got started a little bit late here because we're talking about the early days of dating with my wife.

And I was telling great stories on how to get women. And oh, yeah, it'll be obnoxious and irritating.

It works. They were entertained. So anyway, let's see. There's two watching.

If you guys could text me, let me know if you hear me. And we'll pray. And we'll just jump right in.

We're gonna continue on Galatians chapter three, verse 11. That's what we're gonna go to.

So if any of you guys are interested, let me know. And so if you can hear me, hi

Nina or Nina, I'm not sure which way to pronounce it. If you guys can hear me, can you hear me?

Okay, good. All right, everything's good. All right, let's pray. We're gonna jump right in.

There's gonna be some interesting stuff here tonight. There's some interesting stuff you may or may not have heard before. All right.

Lord Jesus, thank you for today. And thank you for this evening. Lord, I ask that you would bless our time together here.

And for those who join us via the web, we ask Lord for your blessing on them as well.

Please open up our hearts and our minds to the truth of your word. And we ask Lord for your wisdom and your grace, your blessing upon us.

And we ask this Jesus, your precious name. Amen. All right. So we're gonna just jump right in to 11.

And then we'll just kind of review as we do. Now that no one is justified by the law before God is evident for the righteous man shall live by faith.

That's Habakkuk 2 .4. So we're gonna review what justification is.

Now, a lot of times, I get a little concerned that I'm repeating myself too much.

But I think it's good for people who don't do what I do. I'm always repeating it through teaching, through radio, through debates.

So we'll go over terms. And if you know them and I ask questions, just volunteer.

But the idea is for you to get to know the terms well enough that you can repeat them automatically.

And you should build it. If you can learn to think in terms of definitions and how they relate to each other, the

Bible will just open up. In fact, a woman called up on the radio show today and she actually started crying a little bit.

I'm not mocking her at all, it was great. But she just was so thankful that she said that she'd been listening to me on the radio for a while and going to the website and that she could understand the

Bible more. But because for years she hadn't been able to understand it. And that's what

I've told people is that, it's not just listening to me, but if you listen to a teacher who knows the theology and knows the terms and can put them together as you're going through things and point and point.

At first, how do you do this? It was like kind of like martial arts. Here's the stance, here's what you do.

It takes a while before it becomes automatic. And then all of a sudden you're putting things together and you're becoming better than some of your parts kind of thing.

So nevertheless, justification is the legal standing before God where the person who is justified is viewed as legally righteous before God.

Legality, law. God gave the law. Don't lie, don't cheat, don't steal, these kinds of things.

This is the issue of the law. The law is a reflection of the character of God. Jesus says in Matthew 12, 34, he said, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

God says, you shall not lie. Out of God's heart is why he spoke this. He cannot lie.

He's the standard of holiness, et cetera, and the standard of righteousness. So we all have a problem in that we have sinned because everybody has fallen short of the glory of God.

Everybody sinned, Romans 3, 23. And the wages of sin is death, Romans 6, 23. So because of this, we have a problem.

We have a spiritual legal problem. The spiritual problem aspect is our fellowship and intimacy with our

Lord is affected by our sin, and we have a legal problem because the judgment of God upon us for our sin, which is breaking the law of God, 1

John 3, 4, that judgment upon us is waiting. And the analogy that Jonathan Edwards, the super, super bright, probably the only world -class genius ever produced in America, Einstein level, but in theology.

He was not a great speaker, apparently. He would hold onto a rope while he was preaching, but people would fall out of their chairs because he was so good at his explanations and his imagery.

And I remember in seminary, someone read some stuff. I still remember the image, and maybe it was college before seminary, but where he talked about the mercy of God, his hand is holding the thread of your life, the way a spider is suspended by a thread over an open flame.

And nothing but the mercy of God keeps that thread intact. And when he lets go, your life ends and you fall into the fire.

And this is the image that he would use. And people were affected by this.

And this is a good thing. I think this is how we need to preach. I wanna preach like this, takes practice. But nevertheless, the imagery will stick with us.

And the flames of fire await all who do not reside and rest and hide in the person of Christ.

And hell was prepared for the devil and his angels. I forgot the verse location. And all who reject

Christ are siding with the enemy and will join him in eternal torment. Matthew 25, 46,

Revelation 14, 11, 20, 10. So we have a problem and the problem is damnation.

And damnation is the proper movement of God upon the sinner. It's the legal, moral, spiritual movement of God upon the sinner, where the sinner is then cast into that place of darkness, damnation.

So God can judge because the law has come forth. And when you break a law, there's a consequence.

So the judgment of God, he is telling us that the law is a tutor to lead us to Christ.

We'll get to that later. But the law being a reflection of the character of God is itself a very good thing.

But it's bad for us because we can't keep it because only God can keep it. The reason he can keep it and we can't is because he's

God, we're not. During seminary, Westminster Seminary, where I got my

MDiv, I remember a professor, and I've said this many times over the years, and I'll continue to say, it was one of the most important things that I learned in seminary.

It was when he got up to the board and said, gentlemen, I'm gonna teach you one of the most important things you're ever gonna learn here in seminary.

I opened my book, got my pencil ready, and he wrote two sentences on the board. There is a God, you are not him.

And over the years, those two statements coupled together, it's true, there is a

God, he's holy, we are not. He's perfect, we are not. He's pure, we are not. He keeps the law, we don't.

The disparity between us is infinite because God is infinitely great, infinitely superior to us.

So the gap between us is infinite. The only way for that gap to be bridged is by an infinite bridge.

That infinite bridge is God himself and the person of Jesus Christ who kept that law. First Peter two, verse two, 22, excuse me, 222.

He never broke the law, he was without sin. So he was made under the law,

Galatians 4 .4, which when we get to Galatians 4, we'll be reviewing this. Made under the law and for a little while lower than the angels,

Hebrews 2 .9. And if you go to Philippians 2, five through eight, it talks about him cooperating,

I like to say, with the limitations of being a man, emptied himself. And he was sent down by the

Father from heaven, John 6, 38. So he had preexistence and stuff like that in the word.

And this is part of the eternal covenant. We'll probably get into some covenant stuff in a week or two. I'm probably gonna take a little tangent at some appropriate point because I need to study covenant more.

It's becoming more of an issue in a good way. I may do that, but we'll see. Anyway, so to be justified then is to be declared legally righteous.

Well, because we cannot do anything that will merit or earn, achieve, get that justification, that right standing, the only way we can get it is if it's imputed to us, if it's reckoned to our account.

Because sin is breaking the law of God, 1 John 3 .4. And Jesus equated sin with legal debt in our father, heart and heaven in Matthew 6, 12 and Luke 11, four.

When he says, forgive us our debts, forgive us our sins. And so sin is a legal debt. So all of this is legal law, legal law, judgment, damnation, these are all legal things.

When I ask people, who are we saved from? The right answer is God. He's the righteous judge.

And what are we saved from? Well, yes, it's true, we're saved from our sin. And we can be saved from the enemy and things like that.

But ultimately we're saved, the what is the judgment of God upon us. And we have to understand that God is the one who is that standard of righteousness and that he alone is the one who can keep it.

And so Jesus, who's God in flesh with two natures, both God and man, hypostatic union.

John 1, 1, verse 14, Colossians 2, 9. We see in him the manifestation of the two natures.

And so he being God and the attributes of both natures ascribed to the single person, we call this the communication of the properties.

I am thirsty, I will be with you always. So then the I claim the attributes of both natures.

So therefore the I had holy and divine qualities and properties. And therefore that means

God is the author of his own law is sitting there under the law, can keep that law.

Furthermore, there's a doctrine called federal headship. Federal headship is that the male represents the descendants, not the female.

So when Adam and Eve were in the garden, she sinned first, but sin entered the world through Adam, Romans 5, 12.

When they hid themselves, the pre -incarnate Christ came to the man and said, where are you?

In Hebrews 7, seven through 10, and it talks about how Abraham paid tithes to, or Levi paid tithes to Melchizedek while in the loins of his father

Abraham, while in the seed of his father Abraham. We see in 1 Corinthians 15, 22, in Adam all die.

We see in Romans 5, 18, through one transgression, there resulted condemnation to all men. Romans 5, 19, through his transgression, the many were made sinners.

So we see representation here. And so Jesus was our representative and he represented the elect because the elect are the ones chosen by God before the foundation of the world,

Ephesians 1, 4. We have been chosen from the beginning for salvation, 2 Thessalonians 2, 13.

And therefore, because he was representing us, the elect on the cross, then it could be said in Romans 6, 6, that we died with Christ, Romans 6, 8, that we're crucified with Christ.

Because if we have died with Christ, we're crucified with Christ, then we have died to the law,

Romans 7, 4. If we died to the law, sin doesn't have any power over us and it cannot be imputed to us,

Romans 5, 13. So all this background is to say that justification means that the righteousness that was earned by Christ, God in flesh, while he was under the law, kept it perfectly.

And because he's divine, there's an infinite quantity, I don't like the word here in this context, but I'm gonna say that for now, quantity of righteousness because of his infinite nature.

And we're in him and so therefore, since we died with him and we're raised with him, then the righteousness that he has is for us because we had that righteousness with him.

And that's how we're justified. And this is why justification is by faith because faith is only as good as who you put it in.

So if you put your faith in me as your justifier, you're in a lot of trouble. Faith is only as good as who you put it in.

So you have to have faith in the true and living God. This is why defending the doctrine of God, the

Trinity is very important and Christology and everything like that. But faith is only as good as who you put it in.

Now, God grants that we have faith, Philippians 1, 29. And the Bible says, having therefore been justified by faith,

Romans 5, 1. So if we're justified by faith, then we are justified by faith when we have faith.

Otherwise, we're not justified by faith. And it's the faith that God grants, Philippians 1, 29. And with that, the righteousness of God is reckoned to our account,

Philippians 3, 9. We have a righteousness that's not our own. A righteousness that comes from God through Christ Jesus.

So you see, the thing is that justification is a legal standing of righteousness before God in the law.

And by me putting all this together, I'm trying to give you guys an overall scope and understanding of how these things relate.

Furthermore, propitiatory sacrifice, propitiation is a sacrifice under the law, according to the law.

It's a sacrifice that removes the wrath. It doesn't make it potentially removed, it removes it.

Expiation is a potential removal, but propitiation is an actual removal. So if Jesus is a propitiation for our sins, but not only ours, but the sins of the whole world, 1

John 2, 2, and also 4, 10, then what we would see is that as a propitiatory sacrifice, he actually removed the wrath of God.

Now, this is consistent with Colossians 2, 14, which says he canceled the certificate of debt, consisting of decrees, which is hostile to us.

He took it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. So the certificate of debt was taken away at the cross because that's where Jesus died with it.

He's a propitiatory sacrifice on the cross, which then removes the wrath of God from us.

And it can only be that it was the elect. So when we look at this, we know from John, as I said at the beginning here, in Ephesians 1, 4, that he chose us in him before the foundation of the world.

You can go to Colossians 3, 1 -5, and Romans 6, 1 -3, and it talks about us having died with Christ.

And because we've died with Christ, Romans 6, 6, Romans 6, 8, then we are free from sin, we're free from the bondage to sin, we're free, we're in Christ, and we're justified.

And we're justified by faith alone in Christ alone, because without that justification by faith alone, it's by faith and our works.

But it can't be by our works because our works are filthy rags. Everything that we do is touched by sin, filthy rags,

Isaiah 64, 6, and everything that we do is touched by sin. No one does good, no one seeks for God, no one understands

Romans 3, 10, 11, and 12, and 1 Corinthians 2, 14. So because of this, the only thing that we have by which we can even approach

God is the faith that he grants us, Philippians 1, 29, and it's his work,

John 6, 28, 29. That, therefore, when we go and put it in Christ and his sacrifice, the faith that he has given us in the work that he has accomplished is what justifies us.

And we have the right standing before God, period. That's how it works, all right?

All right, okay. Next week, there'll be a test on all of this with memorization verses that you gotta get through.

All right, so, all right, that's worth repeating, actually.

So let me start it again. No, you can look at that in a video, but it's, there it is, okay? I just put it together for you.

This is what, when you have this, it makes sense. If you can understand this, you go, I get it. And then we can backtrack and go into why the

Trinity is necessary, because then you have to have a full incarnation, hypothetic union. We can get into other things, but I won't do that.

Okay, let's go to verse 12. However, the law is not of faith.

On the contrary, who practices them shall live by them. So James 2, 10, coincidentally, for whoever keeps the whole law, yet stumbles at one point, is become guilty of all.

Now, what'll happen when I debate people is they will say, I was doing this last night for a couple of hours on Discord.

I was in a room, they're asking me questions. And so one guy said, in Genesis 3, 21 is where God, pre -incarnate

Christ, covered Adam and Eve with skins. It's a covering. To atone means to cover.

There was an atonement there, and it was by his hands. So the Catholic guy told me, he said, baptism's necessary for salvation.

That's where you get saved. And I said, but it's a ceremony, it's a work you do. He says, no, it's the work of God.

Just as God covered them with animal skins, so when we get baptized, it's

God baptizing us through the hands of the person who does it. Well, I just say, show me that in scripture.

It doesn't say that. And I said, what he was doing was the actual physical act of the pre -incarnate

Christ in the garden who actually probably killed an animal, took the skins, put it on him.

That's a direct work of God, but it does not say that by a baptism of somebody upon you, that that's what justifies you.

Now, people go to 1 Peter 3, 21 and Acts 22, 16, 238, but we'll get to that maybe later.

The thing is that what they were trying to do is say that you have to do good works, but they're not really your own works or the works of God.

If they're the works of God, then God's doing them through you. Let me ask you a question. I said, do you drive a car?

Yes. When you drive the car, are you driving the car?

You have your foot on the accelerator, the foot on the brake, you put the blinker on, you turn the steering wheel.

Are you driving the car or is it God driving the car through you? Because if it's not your work, how can you then be credited for it?

How can you then be responsible for something that you're not doing? If you wanna say it's God doing it through you, then, well, that's by inspiration.

Like inspiration, what God threw us. But it was absolutely true that Paul was the one actually doing the writing.

It was just that what he was doing was from God. And that's an apostle. It's not a priest that you wanna say later is baptizing you.

They worked so hard to add some work to the finished work of Christ.

And I gave them an analogy, an illustration. I've done this before here. And I said, look, picture yourself on your knees slowly crawling up a slight hill and there's muck and crap and filth and mud.

And as you're crawling up, you realize, you see blood mixed with dirt and it's trailing towards you.

And you keep moving forward and you're carrying a bag full of your works.

And you are crawling up this hill and then you see the source of that blood because you see the feet with the nails and the blood dripping off that cross into the dirt running down.

And you take your works and you push them out in front of you and you push them out to the cross and say, here's what

I have to offer. I said, this is what you're doing. You're mingling your filthy works with the blood of Jesus in order to be justified before the holy and living

God. And I said, because of this, you're damned because you are not trusting in the sacrifice of Christ but in your own works along with that sacrifice.

So basically you're justified by your works. And we'll see this when we get to Galatians 5 when

Paul says, if you receive circumcision, you're trying to be justified by the law, by one thing. One thing that you add means that you're trying to be justified by a whole bunch of other stuff.

Now, the reason I'm speaking like this is because the gospel must go forth. The gospel must be understood.

The gospel must be proclaimed. The Christian church largely doesn't understand all of this that I'm telling them largely because they don't spend hours like I do studying and debating for decades.

Okay, I get that. So the teachers that God has ordained in the church is to equip the

Christians for the work of ministry. And these are some of the things that you need to learn. This issue of justification, propitiation, imputation and things like that.

You have to understand what these things are and be able to relate them in your own mind and be able to explain them.

It doesn't mean perfectly, but you gotta do that. Because once you do that, when you start reading other things, it'll fall into place.

And this is important. And so Paul's doing this. He says, however, the law is not on the faith.

On the contrary, who practices them shall live by them. Because if you're gonna practice them, then that's how you gotta live.

You're living by the standard of holiness that God has set. And you're actually saying, I'm gonna live by this standard.

I'm gonna keep the standard. What I'll often do with people who are Catholics or Eastern Orthodox or whoever else says you can lose your salvation.

I say, you're keeping the law. Give me these things you gotta do. Give me two or three things you gotta do to keep yourself saved. And I actually say it this way.

I say, give me two or three things. I'm gonna type them out, write them out that you have to do to keep yourself right with the infinitely holy

God. I wanna know what it is you can do. And I actually get a list. Usually I get a list.

Well, you gotta be faithful. You can't do bad things. You gotta go to this tick of sacraments. I say, okay. Now I said, then what

I say is, would you do me a favor? Because usually I'm on the microphone. I'll say, would you please take your microphone and put it towards your shoulder?

Because I wanna hear you while you pat yourself on the back on how great you are, because you're able to do this.

You're able to keep the law. And I set them up and they go, well, no, I don't keep it perfectly. Oh, so you don't keep the law.

Well, I try. Oh, so trying means you're not doing it. So you're now condemning yourself because the standard of righteousness is

God himself. Be holy, prime holy, 1 Peter 1 .16. And he says,

Deuteronomy 27 .26, that you gotta keep all the law. And Paul quotes that in Galatians 3 .10,

which we've already went over last week. And that the issue is that the standard is God's righteousness, not your ability.

That's humanism that's crept into their theological perspective. What they're saying is, I try.

God understands my sincerity and my heart. That's foolishness. Because essentially, that's like saying, well,

God, my heart is good enough to be with you because it's sincere. That's why I should be saved. That with the blood of Christ.

Pat yourself on the back again, you arrogant fool. And that's what I called them last night. Politely, I said, I'm sorry, but I have to say this.

You guys are arrogant fools. You're arrogant in that you think that you are able to please the infinitely holy

God, even in part through your works. And you're fools because this gospel that you believe, the false gospel will damn you to hell.

I said, you need to repent and come to the true and living faith. Paul is laying this out here.

Verse 13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. Having become a curse for us, for it is written a curse is everyone who hangs on a tree.

So the curse of the law is a requirement. And I have an article written about the requirements according to the law, how the sacrifice had to be pure and perfect, et cetera.

We won't get into that now. Verse 14, in order that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the

Gentiles so that we would receive the promise of the spirit through faith. Now he's talking about Genesis 15, six.

Then he believed in the Lord as Abraham and he, God reckoned it to him as righteousness.

Now this is important because Paul, the apostle is trying to argue against the Judaizers in the

Galatian church. He's trying to tell them, you keep the law, you foolish

Galatians, you know, Galatians 3 .1. And you've been severed from Christ. Would that you, those are bothering you would mutilate yourselves.

I think it's Galatians 5 .12, I think. And so he is trying to make the case and trying to show them how bad off they really are in their theological perspective.

And he's saying, look, you have this law, but look, the Bible actually says before the law came,

Abraham was justified by faith. Because see, this is what came first.

And here you are misunderstanding what the whole aspect of the law is. It's not a standard that shows how you can keep your relationship with God.

It's a standard that shows you that you can't keep your relationship with God, which is what we're gonna get to later on here.

And you'll see that become a tutor to lead you to Christ. Verse 15, brethren, I seek or I speak in terms of human relations, even though it is only a man's covenant, yet when it has been ratified, no one sets it aside or adds conditions to it.

So Paul is just simply using everyday language, everyday understanding about covenant, about making agreements.

And man's covenants, he's saying, they're not as important as God's covenants. Even human covenants, though, people abide by the agreements.

They understand that there are obligations they have to keep with their covenants. Now, God had covenanted with Abraham, in you all the nations shall be blessed.

And that's Genesis 12, three. But Paul, in Galatians 3, eight, which we just went over last week, quotes

Galatians 12, three, and calls it the gospel. Now, let me ask you, does that mean that the

Abrahamic covenant is still in effect? In you, Abraham, all the nations shall be blessed, right?

That's talking about the Messiah, the seed. And Paul calls it the gospel. Is the

Abrahamic covenant still in effect? Right? Does the

Abrahamic covenant command that we include children in it? Yes.

Doesn't it command we include infants in it? Yes. Open another door.

Now, verse 16, there you go, that's right. Yeah, I could, yeah.

Now, the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, and to seeds, as referring to many, but rather to one, and to your seed, that is

Christ. So this is where he begins what we call a parenthetical statement.

He's gonna kind of take a little jaunt here to the side. He's gonna talk about some stuff. But he's saying that the issue is spoken to, the covenant is with Christ.

Now, this is enigmatic a little bit. Now, I already quoted

Genesis 12, three, but also in Genesis 12, seven, Yahweh appeared to Abraham and said to your descendants,

I will give this land. And so he built an altar there. Genesis 13, 15, for all the land which you see,

I will give it to you and your descendants forever. And so God is making promises in his covenant with Abraham.

So covenants have agreements and stipulations and boundaries and conditions. There are different kinds of covenants.

Some are conditional, some are not. So my wife and I are married. Here's my covenant sign, my wedding ring.

And our covenant, our marriage ends when one of us dies.

When one of us dies, the other is no longer married till death do you part.

And of course, it can be broken through adultery because the covenant is you'll keep one to another, et cetera.

And since neither one of us are gonna do that, we're stuck with each other. And so death is our only escape, right, honey?

For her. Somebody's not saying amen over there.

So anyway, if you were here before the study started, you'd be amen. Poor woman, she's gonna put up with me.

All right, so verse 17, what am I saying is this? What I am saying is this, the law which came 430 years later.

So Abraham was 430 years.

There's some debates by the exact numbers, but they mean it's really interesting study. And Moses came along and gives the law, the 10 commandments.

Now, as I've said before, I'll say it again, the 10 commandments, the two tablets were not six and four or four and six or five and five, they were 10 and 10.

Because the covenant means that when you make a covenant with somebody, each person gets a copy of the covenant.

So if I make a contract, we sign contract, we each get copies, that's how it works.

And so the pattern of the covenant of the 10 commandments follows the suzerain vassal treaty pattern of the third millennium

BC. I've gone over that before, we'll go into it now. But the covenant documents were put in the

Ark of the Covenant, which is covered with the mercy seat upon which the blood was sprinkled, which is the footstool of God, the

Ark. So in the presence of God, in the presence of people. Now, the law came 430 years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God.

What covenant? The covenant that he's gonna give Abraham the land and descendants and the seed.

And Abraham believed God, it was credited to him as righteousness. Paul's making the case that justification was by faith without the works.

That's what he's doing. He's trying to convince the Jews. Can you imagine if he was trying to write a letter to the

Roman Catholics? It'd be similar, right?

And they would still find a way to mess it up because they gotta have works. Verse 18, for the inheritance is based on law, for if the inheritance is based on law, it is no longer based on a promise, but God has granted it to Abraham by means of a promise.

I think it's a brilliant statement. It's like, oh, that's a good point. If it came by the law, well then it's not by a promise, by faith, by the word, but it's by promise, not by the law.

I mean, I could just see the Jews going, oh, he's got me on that one. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. All right, so if it's by a promise, the implication is there by faith.

And that's why Romans 2, 28, 29, 30, last two or three verses in Romans chapter two says that we who are of faith are the true children of Abraham.

That's why. Like I told you before, when

I first started studying Paul, he actually damaged my faith. The reason he did was because I didn't understand what he was saying and it made no sense to me.

Now, when I read Paul, I really study, I say, boy, was he smart. He was really smart.

Romans is not just a, hey, I'll just read it in one sitting, I'll be fine. No, it takes a while, right?

I've taught Romans I think two or three times in 40 years and it takes a year to go through it, a year.

That's once a week, a year. And it's a great book, there's just so much there.

Now, so why the law then? If the promise by faith is how we're justified, then what do we need the law for?

Well, the law was added, verse 19, because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made.

The law has three major aspects, the civil, moral, and priestly.

The civil law deals with how far a fence post was to be moved and stone walls were moved and the scales are even.

Judicial punishments that come in. Moral law, based on the very character of God, lying is always wrong, stealing is always wrong.

And the priestly law, to anoint yourself with this kind of oil, be clean for so many days before you do this, the priest goes into the temple, offers this sacrament, all this priestly stuff, which is fulfilled in Christ.

So the law was here to show us several things, the character of God and the moral aspects.

It was also to show us the requirements of the purification of the sacrifice to come, because the only way we could be justified is if by God himself were to die for us.

I could expand on that later. But the Old Testament priesthood is the type or the foreshadowing of the true priesthood that was belonging, that belongs to Christ, where he's a high priest after the order of Melchizedek, Hebrews 620,

Hebrews 725. So it shows us, the law shows us the moral character of God, it shows us the righteous character in judgment and the civil aspect, and it shows us the requirements of holiness and purification in the priestly aspect.

And the funny thing is, Jesus fulfilled all of it. He fulfilled the priestly law, we know that, and that's not, we don't have to go too much into that.

He also filled the judicial. He overturned the temple tables, right?

And drove them out with a whip of cords, a scourge. A scourge of cords is if you were to have a rope that's 10 feet long, and you cut it in two foot increments, then you hold them all in your hand by one end or wrap something around one end, you have the several flailing, that's what you use to drive somebody out.

It's not a lethal weapon, but it convinced you to kind of move along, okay?

And so he was doing what was in a sense priestly as well as judicial, plus he'd had some other statements about right and wrong, and the centurion, do your job well, and various things.

So the law is added, and in part, the reason the law is there is another good reason.

It's a really good reason. To show us our sin, to show us ourselves. Now, as I've said before,

Colossians 3, 1 through 17 is my least favorite chapter in the Bible, because when I read it,

I'm convicted basically every sentence. Because I'm not doing that right enough, I'm not doing this well, and I'm not doing what

I'm feeling here. And it's a kind of a gracious spiritual law. Forgive as you've been forgiven.

That's hard to do, you know? Let all anger, and wrath, and malice be removed from you.

You know, everywhere it says something great, I fail. And that's in the spiritual sense.

It's a great chapter, of course. And the law does this, is that it shows us who we are before God.

That's what we have to understand. It shows us who we are before God and before Christ, because he kept that law.

Now, can you imagine for just a moment, what it'd be like to walk around never sinning at all, ever, in thought, word, or deed?

Now, here's my sci -fi novel, right? It's my sci -fi novel, right? I can write sci -fi.

I can get into aliens of the eighth dimension coming in mayhem with special glasses.

You can see with a lightsaber, no problem. I cannot understand what it would mean to actually experience even a moment where I'm absolutely pure and sinless.

I just can't fathom it. But this is who Christ was his whole life, because he was

God in flesh. Now, I'm gonna take a tangent here. Remember this doctrine, the communicatio idiomatum, communication of the properties.

The one person of Jesus had a human and a divine nature, human and divine nature.

The attributes of humanity were ascribed to the person, attributes of divinity were ascribed to the person. So he says,

I'm thirsty, I'll be with you always. So that means the I, the person, had the qualities of being human as well as the qualities of being divine.

The qualities of being human means he could be tempted, but the qualities of being divine means he won't sin.

Some say, well, I think it's Psalm 110. They tempted God, but God can't be tempted. Well, it's like the analogy

I use is I have zero interest in sports, zero interest. So if my wife and I have a date to go out and go look at some computer parts, yes!

And someone offers me tickets to go to the Superbowl on the zero line, is there a zero line?

Zero yard line? I don't know. Is that what it is? Halfway, I guess.

That's how much interest I have. If they said, hey, you want that? I'd go, no, I'd rather go out to the store. I'm not tempted.

I'm tempted, but I'm not tempted. Temptation can be offered, but it doesn't affect me. It doesn't do that.

So Christ could be tempted, but he's not gonna sin because he has the attributes of holiness and divinity.

So this is one of those little answers that's just kind of helpful. Now, by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight.

To the law comes a knowledge of sin, Romans 3 20. Romans 4 15, for the law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, there is no violation.

And that's an interesting concept. If there's no law, there's no violation. If we were to, all of us, take a plane ride someplace and blown off course, and we crashed land just off the beach of a really nice island, what's really nice, it's got running water, it's got some whole bed, it's really great.

And it's a new island, and we happen to be the only ones on it that ever discovered it. Okay, so there's no laws. It's not a nation, it's not a country, it's not a state.

Right? Now, there's the law of God upon us. That's a different case, but we got that.

But the idea is that if there's no laws, you're not breaking any laws. If there's no law, you can't break it, right?

If there's no breaking the law, you can't be imputed with guilt. For the law,

Romans 4 15 brings about wrath, but where there is no law, there is no violation. So if there is no law, you can't violate.

Now, if we've died to the law, functionally, there's no law. So God would see us without sin.

Kind of an interesting little way of looking at it. Romans 5 13, for until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

Now, but the wages of sin is death, right? But the law was given by Moses, right?

God did Moses, right? And how is it that Adam and Eve died? How is it that Adam and Eve died?

This is easy. This is easy, what? The sin is to break the law of God. Yeah, to break the law of God.

So if the Mosaic law wasn't there, how did they sin? I'm misleading you with my question.

I'm mis... Oh, you do what? He told them. He told them what? The parameters of being that...

What were the parameters? Do not eat. Don't eat the tree of knowledge of good and evil. I was misleading you with my question by having you focus on the

Mosaic law, but there was a law given because God said, don't eat.

They broke that law. So the law is there. It's interesting that God, one of the first things he does is speak about what not to do, what to do and what not to do.

And this is a reflection of his character and his essence. With knowledge comes responsibility.

Something the leftist media doesn't understand. And a lot of people don't understand.

With knowledge comes responsibility to deal with it properly. And with wisdom. But without God, they won't have the proper understanding of knowledge or of wisdom.

And they'll serve themselves and they'll listen to the enemy. Did God really say? We don't have to trust

God's word. Let's decide it for ourselves what the truth is. And that's what we see on TV more and more.

So, so Romans 7, 7 -9, you know, what should we say is a law of sin might never be. On the contrary, it would not have come to no sin except through the law.

That's how the law, it's good. The law is a good thing. But unfortunately, it kills us.

And the reason it kills us is because we can't keep it. So we need someone who can keep it. Jesus, God in flesh.

So let me give you an illustration of something. So, Nick and I come over to,

I'm gonna use Mike. We cover your house, Mike, okay? You don't have a house? Okay.

We come over in a year when you've moved here and you have your house. There you go. Cause he's up here looking for a house.

So when you move in your new house and you have this great lamp that you brought from, where are you,

Minnesota? Good thing you're leaving Minnesota. Communist Minnesota.

Anyway, so you had this lamp and Anik and I are over and she brought you some really good cookies cause she's a good cook and something.

And I'm eating them on the way over and she's hitting me in the arm and saying things to me. But that's what happens. We're married and stuff like that.

I can give a whole story about that. No, I'll leave it alone. So we're over your house and I'm gesticulating as I'm talking and I knock over your lamp and I either accidentally or on purpose, it doesn't matter in this sense because it's broken.

And you're a cool guy and you say, Matt, I forgive you for breaking my lamp but pay me $10 for it.

So here's the question. Is that true forgiveness? Because you're requiring a payment, right?

For what's forgiven, right? So Anik is there and Anik's looking good as usual.

And you say, Matt, I forgive you for breaking the lamp. Anik, you pay me $10 for it.

Is that true forgiveness? No. In true forgiveness, who's left to pay for the lamp?

Now in real life, I'll pay for it but cause I'm a nice guy and everything. But we're just an illustration. Unless it's a crappy lamp.

Then forget it. But at any rate. That's all I have. That's all you have? Okay, then we're in trouble. So in true forgiveness, who's left to pay for the replacement of the lamp?

The person who also left in the first place, me. You, right? Okay, so who is my offense against? Right?

Who forgave? Yep, and who pays? Right. So if you transfer it to somebody else, like my wife, it's not true forgiveness.

And if you require payment from the one you've forgiven, it's not true forgiveness. This is just an illustration to show that the one who forgives is the one who pays.

God is the one who pays for our sins because he's the one who forgives. If he's forgiving us, the law must be satisfied and the law requires a payment.

If God does not meet the requirements of the law, then God is unrighteous.

If he says don't lie, and there's no consequence to the lie, then law is not a law, it's a slogan.

Law has power because a law has a consequence if broken. Otherwise, it's a fortune cookie.

It's a wisdom statement. It's a slogan. It has no power behind it. This is why it's called law.

So the one who is the forgiver in the law is the one who pays because you could pay my debt, so to speak, by paying for the lamp yourself as sin's a legal debt that could be transferred.

We've gone over that before. So this is why it follows that Jesus Christ has two natures, both

God and man, is the one who is offended and the one who is under the law, lives the law perfectly, and makes the payment for the broken lamp for our sins and doesn't require it of us, but he does it all himself.

It's true forgiveness, true grace. And so this is what we have in the person of Christ.

This can't occur unless God is a trinity. Now, I may or may not, if you guys want, sometimes

I can talk about the trinity extensively and the one and the many and personhood and essence and stuff like that, economic, ontological, but it just depends.

So anyway, verse 20, now a mediator is not for one party only. Whereas God is only one.

Now, some people say, well, God is only one. It means that trinity is not true, but that just means there's one God. That's another issue.

Verse 21, is the law then contrary to the promises of God? May never be, for if a law had been given, which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on the law.

Galatians 2 .21 is really important. Is it contrary to the promises of God, the law?

No, it's not. If a law had been given, which was able to impart life, then righteousness would have been based on the law.

So the law is not against faith. It's just that you can't keep the law.

That's it. Now you have faith, that's what's left. And the law is equivalent to works, because it's what you do.

That's why Romans 4 .5, to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.

So then the Bible says, verse 22, it says, but the scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ may be given to those who believe.

22 is saying that sin kills everybody, even babies, even those in the womb.

A lot of people don't like that one. But I'll tell you, if you go to Romans 5 .19, it says, through the trespass of the one, the many were made sinners.

The many were made sinners, were made in the Greek is the aorist passive indicative, aorist past tense, passive receiving the action.

Indicative is a fact, statement of fact. So they were made sinners.

It's a fact that Adam sinned, made them sinners. It happened in the past. So this means that all are by nature, children of wrath,

Ephesians 2 .3. Does it mean all babies go to hell? No, Bible doesn't say they do, Bible doesn't say they don't.

So I don't say they do or they don't. I have an opinion, I think they all go to heaven. Can I back it up from scripture?

No, I can't. I'd like that position. Plus Anik and I buried our son as an infant, and I lost my objectivity there.

And so I just say, that's it. And I move on past it. And if any babies are in hell, they deserve to be in hell.

And it's the right thing to do. And if they all go to heaven, then it's by God's grace, and that's the right thing to do.

We leave it up to God. Some people say, well, then you think that potentially they could be in hell?

If God so deems it, yes. Well, that's not right. What standard do you have by which you judge what is right and wrong?

Give us something besides your opinion. And then we get into that. All right. Verse 23, but before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith, which is later to be revealed.

So without faith being taught properly, the law was the one that kept us.

The law was our master. Because the Jews had to go through all of the laws, 613.

Don't do this. You can't go that far. Can't go this. You have to do that. Lift that. Don't lift that. If you sat on a bed with a woman who was menstruating, you had to be outside.

Or if you touch a leper, you have to burn this. You gotta burn that. You gotta walk. It's like all these details.

And so people were captured by the requirements of the law. They were captured and kept in bondage to that law.

And that's what law is, is bondage. So in the New Testament times, our times today, we have cults and false religious systems who put

Christians, visible church Christians, not saying they're really redeemed, but they'll put people under law.

Some churches turn grace into a law requirement. So the

Catholic Church in paragraph 2068 says that you obtain salvation through faith, baptism, and the observance of the commandments.

Paragraph 2070 says that the 10 commandments are an expression of the natural law, and paragraph 2036 says that you have to keep the natural law necessarily.

You have to keep it necessary for salvation. So then they say you go and you receive the grace of God in the sacraments.

But this is bondage, because you've lost some of your grace through your sin, so now you're under bondage to the church that has the authority to then forgive you and give you the grace to re -infuse it in your soul.

You're back under the law, the law of the Roman Catholic Church that keeps them bound by the chains of their sacred tradition and the chains of their apostasy and their heresy, these chains that they wrap around their adherents, their followers, and drag them down with more and more weights of these evil doctrinal chains that they place upon them.

And so the people get so used to carrying it, they don't realize that they are dead and they're enslaved to that great horror, the false doctrine of salvation by faith and works.

And so the church, the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, Mormon Church, they're not a

Christian church, of course, none of them are, but they put people under bondage by changing grace into law, so that in order to get grace, here's the steps you've gotta go through.

So that's bondage. This is why I say regularly on the radio, the

Roman Catholic Church is not Christian. The Eastern Orthodox Church is not

Christian. Mormonism is not Christian. Jehovah's Witnesses is not

Christian. Oneness is not Christian. The finer your doctrinal understanding is, the better you can separate truth from error.

The bad side of this is you become a heresy hunter, a doctrinal czar, and if you don't meet my exact requirements as I understand truth, then you're a heretic, get away from me.

This is a problem that people have when they fall under strengths as well as their weaknesses.

This is why it's important to know what the essentials of the faith are. You die on that hill, but you don't die on the hill of worship on Saturday or Sunday or charismatic gifts or not, or whatever it might be.

And unfortunately, too many people, they do that. They divide over those adiaphora, non -essentials.

So verse 23, but before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith, which were later to be revealed.

Verse 24, therefore the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ so that we may be justified by faith.

Look at verse 27, for all who are baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ.

Now, we're gonna be tackling this section here. I'm gonna read all of it, but I want you to pay attention.

Verse 24 and 27. Now I'll read 24, 25, 26, 27.

Therefore the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, you are no longer under a tutor for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

For all of you who are baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

So people will go to Galatians 3, 27 and say baptism's necessary for salvation. That's how you clothe yourself with Christ.

They don't understand the historical context. Notice it says tutor, T -U -T -O -R.

It says this in Galatians 3, 24 and Galatians 3, 25. Paul is speaking about the

Roman concept of slavery where there were different levels and different kinds of slaves.

And sometimes being a slave in a house meant you were the master of the household. You had respect, even though you were living with that house and you were considered a slave.

And you could actually become a douloi, a doulos by taking your left ear and take, left,

I think it was, or was it right? And taking your earlobe to the doorpost of the master's house, and they would take a wooden or metal thing and they'd punch a hole in it.

And the blood would be shed on the doorpost of the house. What does that remind you of? Yeah, Passover, right?

And it meant that you were voluntarily committing yourself to the master under the service of the master.

Now this is kind of reminiscent of what we do. We're voluntarily committing ourselves for the Lordship of Jesus Christ, our only

Lord and master, Jude 3, Jude 4. And so the tutor was usually a slave, but not always.

And it could be someone in the employ of the master's household, or it could be someone who was a slave in that household who was very educated.

So how could a very educated person become a slave? Voluntarily, maybe the economy was bad. Maybe he said, I'm gonna enter into this large household and I'll be taken care of, and here's my chores, my job.

And they're secure for the rest of their life. It's not like we do things here, but just different.

So the master would then trust that tutor with his child or children, male children, not female children, because the females, they weren't gonna be educated like that.

So the male children would be trusted to that slave to be brought up to read, to write, philosophy, whatever it was, and the ways of the culture of the time.

And when they grew up and were ready to graduate, then they would receive a toga, a cloth, a cloak to clothe themselves with.

It's like some people think that when you graduate, you wear the cape thing with the hat.

They think it might go back as far as that goes because it was a tutor. Once you got to that level, you're giving a new garment to wear.

It was a symbol that you'd graduated. And so the tutor taught you and brought you to the place of maturity.

That's when you got that new clothing, right? So the law has become a tutor to lead us to Christ.

It teaches us, it was teaching us. You're not good enough and you can't do this. You're not gonna be able to make it.

Here's all kinds of laws and stuff. We're skipping over a lot of stuff there, but you get the idea. So that we may be justified by faith.

In other words, the tutor of the law tells us, when you graduate, when you get there by faith, and when you get baptized, you're baptized into Christ.

What does that mean? Because we're already in Christ at his crucifixion. Baptism has to be the covenant sign of entrance into that initial covenant movement of God.

And so by baptism, what they're saying, he's drawing the conclusion or the comparison.

In your baptism, you're clothed with Christ. It doesn't say then that that's when you're justified.

It doesn't say that's when you're saved, but the faith is what justifies you. The law leads you to faith.

And so in your baptism, you're identifying with that faith because the law has shown you, it's not by the works.

And your baptism is a public declaration, is a covenant sign, a ceremony, understanding that you're justified by faith.

You have that garment. That's what he's doing is he is showing that relationship of the tutor and the graduation with the law that leads us to faith.

That's the historical context. And most, basically nobody I've ever talked to knows this.

How do I know it? Reading commentaries. I've had jobs where literally,

I remember I had one job, literally I'd have a commentary open right here. I'd get my desk as a draftsman and I would just like that.

And I would just have a marker and move it down and I'd read and I'd work.

And I had commentaries all the time. I'd go out lunch, commentaries, reading commentaries.

And I'd read a chapter of the Bible, read commentaries, read commentaries. I had a bad. And so I learned a lot of stuff.

I've read so much stuff. And I've learned so many of these things. I forgot where I picked this up about the tutor.

But anyway, it's just stuff like that, right? So that's it. And you can read commentaries now and they'll bring it up.

But now faith has come, we're no longer under a tutor. For you're all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

For all who are baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ. It's not talking about becoming saved.

There is neither Jew nor Greek. There's neither slave nor free man. There is neither male nor female for you're all one in Christ.

Now this is Galatians 3 .28, which is used by some people to say that women pastors are okay because in Christ there's neither male nor female.

Now what's wrong with that interpretation? Yeah. Context, my wife says, there you go.

That's right, context, right? Now what's the context here?

I know it's a tough question. What? Salvation, very good. My wife got that one.

In Christ. There's neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free. There's neither male nor female.

You're all one in Christ. It's talking about your relationship with Christ. Salvation, we're all equal in Jesus.

That's how God sees us, all equal in Jesus. This verse is not about women pastors and elders.

It's about salvation. Neither Jew nor Greek. You get that right there.

Slave or free. Ah, male or female. Whoa, remember in the culture, women weren't as considered as,

I hate to say it this way, as important as the men. Men were the one who worked. Men were the one who produced, generally speaking.

Men are the one who could fight. Women, you just bore children. And what women's job was was to be like the field or the dirt, not that they're dirt, but the field where you put a seed into.

So they didn't understand genetics. So the concept then was that if a man was married to his wife and they couldn't have children, then a servant could be given to the husband.

He just placed his seed in her instead of in his wife and a baby comes forth, well, it's his child.

So therefore the wife is one in union. It's just as much hers. It's not an issue of her genetics.

It was simply, that's where the seed was placed. So the women were often considered just to be that place where the man would sow his seed and then she used to take care of them.

And it's a little bit derogatory in a lot of ways, but it's Christianity that started setting them free from this kind of bondage, right?

You love your wife as Christ loved you. What? Do you imagine the

Muslims were told this? Because in Islam, I think it's 434,

Surah 434, it's okay to beat your wife. It's okay to beat your wife, right?

Now what if they found some new Quranic verse that came out of nowhere and love your wives and be willing to die for them.

Oh man, they'd probably beat their wives to make sure they didn't do anything wrong so they'd die for them.

Anyway, verse 29, I think is the last verse. Good it is for this chapter. And if you belong to Christ, ah, then you are

Abraham's descendants, heirs according to the promise. Yes, I belong to Christ.

I'm a descendant of Abraham and I'm an heir according to the promise. An heir is legal.

An heir is legal. This is according to the law. We are given so much in Christ Jesus.

We're given salvation, we're given hope, justification, he did everything that's necessary.

The law is good, but the law can't save us because we can't keep it. That's why we have faith and we're justified by faith.

And all religious systems that say that faith and our works will save us are the

Antichrist. That's the spirit of the Antichrist. It's not the biblical gospel.

And it's so simple, trust in Christ, that's it. Trust in Christ, your faith in Christ alone is what justifies you.

Doesn't mean it's okay to go out and murder because you're also gonna be regenerated. We follow Christ, but that's where salvation is.

And the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church are magnificently large, ornate structures that hide the true gospel under false logic, platitudes, varying illustrations so that they can justify their false teaching.

And that's the case. But we have faith in Jesus because it's the faith that God gave us.

Philippians 129, and that's sufficient to justify us. Philippians, I mean,

Romans 5, 1. Amen? Amen. All right. All right, so if you guys have any questions out there in internet land, or you guys have any questions here, or comments.

On 28th, when you say that's where they kind of take for a female to be a pastor.

Right. It just reminded me of when Jesus was tempted. Jesus what?

Jesus was tempted by Satan. And so the scripture back and forth, he's trying to use it a different way to probably

Jesus. Oh, yeah. It reminds me of that. Oh, yeah. In fact, it would be, it's an issue of interpretation.

It'd be fun sometime to do a study on how to interpret the scriptures. And I've done that before.

Were you there the time I did it before? During class, I don't think any of you were. And what

I did before at one church, when I was teaching, I was using their facility to teach a study, is

I said, next week, I'm gonna, not that we're gonna do this next week, but this is what I did, if you guys are interested.

I said, next week, I'll just teach you hermeneutical principles, and then I'm gonna assign you all verses.

And then you have to meet in a group, in groups, and come up with something from that verse, using those principles on your own, then you're gonna teach me.

And so we had like, I think 20 people, and we had like four groups of five. And I was able to relax for five minutes.

And, or I mean, for 10 or 15, anyway, about 20 minutes, about 20 minutes. I said, okay, you guys ready?

And they were afraid to say anything. But once they got started,

I, you know, several times I said, I never thought of that. That's a good point. Because they think sometimes they mistakenly think, well,

Matt knows it all. Do I, Nick? No.

So my wife's name was Anique, and we call her short, Nick for short. And so, but it was really enjoyable.

They found themselves, actually, I think we did it for 20 minutes. 20 minutes wasn't enough.

They were getting into it. They were discovering things. They were taking tangents. They were going and stuff. And I remember saying to them, if this verse is what you start off with, but you don't end up there because you went clear over here, the other part of the

Bible, and that's where you started digging in for whatever reason, good enough. Just tell me what you learned there too. That, you know, it didn't matter because it wasn't wrong.

Because you, the Bible's interrelated. And sometimes you wanna take one verse, well, wait a minute, that word, and you go look it over.

Wait a minute. And that's where you get hooked. When we were in Escondido and I'd teach Romans, we would say tangent because we would, sometimes we would do five nights or five, 10, 15 verses a night.

And sometimes one verse would take us two, three, four weeks. It just depended because sometimes these tangents were necessary because they were attached.

And I remember they were so grateful that they were allowed to take tangents because in so many Bible studies, we can't take a tangent, we're on this verse.

And I'd say, no, let's go. Let's go. If we don't come back here for a month, we don't come back here for a month, but everybody's enjoying it.

And that's just, you know, that's to me is study. That to me is study. And, you know, sometimes, and I tell people this, sometimes your tangents lead to a dead end.

That's okay. Okay. I've had many tangents I've taken where, well, I didn't really learn anything out of this.

I learned that I didn't learn anything and it comes a dead end. I'll go back to where I started. Okay. But you always learn a little something, you know, just a little something.

So that's one possibility. Okay, Matt, do you understand, do I understand right if the Jews accepted

Jesus, would the Gentiles be lost forever? You mean if they had accepted

Jesus? That's a good question. And I don't know, because the promise was for all nations.

If the Jews had accepted the Messiah, then we probably would have had to have done something in that economy that was then ratified.

We'd had to join them in something, some way. There would have been hope for us, but I think it'll work.

How's that work with predestining of Gentiles? Well, God works all things out for the counsel of will, his will, and if they had accepted him, that would have been under his will and it would have happened and we'd have been included anyway because the promise was in Genesis 12, three.

Next question. Did you guys enjoy the study out there?

Anybody? No, they don't like to study. No, that's right. Well, let me say that the beginning where I put it all together, you know, you can get this and you can listen to the beginning over and over and over again, and you can see how it works.

You can see how things put together. I can tell you that when this clicks, it's awesome.

And it's just a lot of fun. You've probably already had some minor clicks and a few more clicks. Yeah, I see how that relates.

I know that's what happened with you a lot, Dave, because, you know, he'll come up to me and go, I get it, there's a verse.

I'm like, that's right. And, you know, I'm enjoying it, you know, that's right.

That's right. He goes, it makes sense. It makes sense. And what do you say a lot? How can they not see this?

How come they're not excited about this? He's the one that got me started to study. Yeah, that's why you have to come, because he's tired, but he comes there anyway.

You don't have to come, but at any rate. So you the man, that's what

Demetrix, yeah, ever since the operation. That's appropriate now, isn't it?

Or should I say ever since my self -identification? Can a woman become a part of the board of directors in the church?

I don't see why not, but if the board of directors must be ordained, then no.

So it would depend on what the nuances would be. But if they're under spiritual authority over the men in the church, then no.

So that's a good question. That becomes an issue, but they could be the board of directors of the sandwich -making department.

Oh. Oh. Oh. This is the.

This is the. This is the. He's doing so well. Oh. Oh. I stopped praying for this.

Oh. Oh. Oh. And then what happens? He's down. Whoa. He's just like, oh.

Boy, it was going well for a little bit. Then all of a sudden, he opened his mouth.

See what happened? He stopped praying for me. Did not be chauvinistic. It's your fault, obviously. That's right.

Joanne says, pop him, Nick. Oh, man.

Brick sandwiches, Laura says. Ramones, he's laughing. So the guys are laughing.

The girls are threatening. Man. Whoa. Man. Maybe, you know, if they come out, maybe just get a.

He's staring. No, I was thinking, what's that joke? It says, if your wife comes at you with a knife, just get some mayo and a bread, and bread, and she'll make a sandwich.

Oh, I'm cringing. This is, folks out there, this is how to get yourself in a lot of trouble.

This is good. I didn't dig a hole. Okay. Okay, let's see.

Dre says, it's the law eternal. Some churches teaches it's eternal.

Well, what do you mean by the law? What part of the law? The aspect of the morality, the moral law is always eternal because it rests in the character of God.

So Winston entered the world. That's what I, there's no complete sentence.

I don't know how to answer it. No more pretty cups from Dave Place. Well, we've got these really nice coffee cups that they brought from Albania.

Really nice. My favorite coffee cups. Oh yeah. That's right. That is so nice, the red one and the blue one.

I want more. They are awesome. They make coffee taste better. It does.

It does. That's right. Ew, man. Okay. So got any questions?

Now's the time. When sin entered the world, was it when Satan took a rebellion or when Adam sinned?

Romans 5 .12, sin entered the world through one man, Adam. So that's when it was according to the scriptures.

Okay. Okay. Any other comments or questions?

I'll try not to dig a hole. Oh. Oh.

You mean I'll be going into therapy and convalescence? My wife does make good sandwiches.

She makes, she does. Oh, she does. She's a great cook. She is. They started the sandwich thing when it was a

Vegetales. when Queen Winchard then got kicked out of the kingdom because she wouldn't make her king a sandwich.

That's where I started. It was from there. And I remember, I think I remember her going, uh -oh. So here it goes.

All right. Okay, Curtis says this. He says, sorry, just saw this.

Relationship 324 presents a problem for those who hold to a tripartite division. The law has become, that's just a designation of the entire law.

That's all it is. We designated three parts in order to differentiate certain aspects of it.

That's all. A tutor teacher is inserted by the translator by way of theological template. Really?

So what I'm gonna do is get my Bible program and I'm gonna go there and I'm gonna see if the word tutor is in the

Greek. Okay, which I'm sure it is. The verse is about the law being a pedagogue, which is not a teacher.

They have to know what the tutor is. Why would it say it's a tutor? You have to understand the context. The verse is often interpreted as personal experience from law instead of it functioning as a way to imprison a particular people over time to bring the proved seed into the world.

The OC was one unit. The OC. So Curtis, what church do you go to? Okay, what church do you go to?

It's curious. I'm gonna look it up. None are better than your broken cup. That's right,

Erasmus. The law being a pedagogue, a teacher, which is not a teacher.

Wow. And that's what it says. I have to get my program going here. Come on. Come on.

Here we go. Here we go.

I like when people challenge. Yeah. And let's see what the text says.

I'm always open to being corrected, but notice what I'm doing, going right to the word to see what it says.

This is taking a while. Okay, here we go. Come on. Come on, there we go.

Come on. Waiting for it to load.

Normally I get my Bible program going beforehand. Let's see what else.

Let's see what else. Why the good Lord sent Satan and fallen angels to hell when they rebel, and what is the connection of us going to hell because of sin of one man,

Adam, whereas the devil went to hell? Okay, not sure how to answer that. The, the, the is the character, the is the character of God or the law identifies us as sinners.

Okay, I'm just gonna tell you guys that you're gonna have to write your questions a little bit more clearly. Okay. And why is this not, my

Bible program is kind of freezing. So I'll just have to hold on. We'll get to it. I wanna look at the

Greek. I may have to do a computer trick here.

Oh, there, come on. Wow. There we go.

Okay. Galatians 3, 24.

And it says, the law has become a tutor and a pedagogos, and the word, pedagogos, a leader, which is from ago, to lead, to instruct a teacher of children, a school master, a pedagogue.

That's what it says. There you go. That's what it says. So to say that it wasn't a tutor, that's not correct.

That's what a tutor is in that context. Okay. So that was easy.

This is the character of God or the law to provide all covenant evangelical free. Hi, Matt. God bless. Hi, Curtis is, oh, you're

Calvinistic. Okay. Curtis Cutler and NCT is the law I mean.

It's a, when you guys answer, when you type something out, if I say it's not a complete sentence, don't add a fragment and say that explains it.

Rewrite the entire sentence in a complete sentence. They'll know. Just trust me.

That's how it has to be done. Otherwise you won't get very far. Okay. Okay. Well, anybody else have any questions?

I'll wait and see if these guys. Sure. James, how do they bring up James 2 .24?

You see that I'm gonna have to justify by works. Justify by works. So we just, so.

I see why they go there to argue that. So what do we do? First thing we do is context.

Right. Context. Yeah. What's the context? Starting in verse 14.

Says what use is it my brother, if a man says he has faith, but he has no words, can that faith save him?

Right. So he's talking about the difference between what we call essential and fiduciary, mental assent and heartfelt trust.

He says, you say you have faith. You know, you've got to, if you say to somebody who is in need, go be warmed and be clothed.

You don't give them what they need. You're not helping them. That faith is useless. He says, verse 18 is the critical verse because it says, you show me your faith and I will show you my faith by my works.

So that's the issue. It's on the horizontal. It's justification before people, not before God.

If you're to keep your thumb there and you go to Romans chapter four, verse one, says what shall we say then that our forefather according to the flesh has found for if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

Okay. So Romans four is justification on the vertical, man and God. And James is justification on the horizontal, people to people.

And so James 2 .19 is discussing the issue of false faith. It's essential. You believe in God, you do well.

The demons believe also in tremble. And so he's talking about the false faith. True faith is something.

So you've got to also remember Philippians 1 .29. God grants that we believe. It's a heiress passive indicative, just like I was talking about in Romans 5 .19.

It's an action that's granted to you. And it's an action that you've received. So if God is granting that we have that faith, then the faith is true faith.

But James is not talking about true faith in the sense of justifying faith before God.

It's faith that's being demonstrated before people that it's a real faith. And also when you go to James 2 .24,

it says, therefore man is justified by works, not by faith alone. Well, that's saying you're justified by works.

Who wants to say we're justified by works? No. Make sense?

I heard the argument you had with someone with that, and they kept taking it in your ear. And you didn't answer. I'm like, wait, wait, wait.

So that's what they did. Yeah, okay. So let's see. So -and -so here says, most of my

Arminianist, just say Arminian, friends use John 5 .25, proving that spiritually dead people do have the ability to hear.

How can we rebut these? Let's go to John 5 .25. O -H -N 5 .25.

Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

Probably he's talking about those who died in Christ, those who've died physically, that will hear his voice.

Okay, so that's not a big deal. When Arminians say that, the ability to hear, what condition is it when it says the dead?

The dead will hear the voice of God. So who is the dead? Here's the thing you've always gotta do, Sanji, for example, someone gives a verse like that, and you look at it, and you have to ask questions.

This is part of what it means to interpret scripture. In fact, you wanna do that next week? Yeah. Yeah.

Okay, we'll do that next week. I think it kinda just is, well, I'll teach you how to interpret, and then we'll have a little exercise.

And you can get in groups of two or three, we'll figure it out, all right? So as an example of something, truly, truly,

I say to you, an hour. Now, if what I'd be doing is saying, why does it say truly twice?

And he says, I say to you, but we already know he's the one speaking. Truly, truly, I say to you, it's a really interesting phrase, an hour is coming, 60 minutes, a day, and now is, wait a minute, so it's a time reference that is coming, but it's already here, ooh.

When the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, what does dead mean? Could it be spiritual death?

Could it be physical dead? That's what you have to answer by studying.

Hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. Now, I'm thinking of John 10, 27, 28, my sheep hear my voice and they follow me.

So I'm thinking that the dead are those who are dead and who are true believers in the true faith, they're gonna be the ones who hear his voice, not the unbelievers.

That's how I would see it. So that's just a real quick thing. Blessings, man. If the law is eternal, what will it have in heaven?

Will there be sin? I don't believe there'll be sin in heaven. And the reason I believe that is because,

I'll give an illustration. Now, I don't know what our new nature is gonna be. We're still gonna be human.

The thing is that when something has an essence, in order for it to still be what it is, the essence can't change, otherwise it's no longer what it was.

So if I'm me, I have to be able to have still my own identity, personhood, and my humanity as an essence.

So I cannot be changed to a point where that is no longer true, that I am no longer me.

So when we look at that and we say, well, when we're in heaven, can we sin?

I don't know because the Bible doesn't say, but if it's the case that I have the capability of sinning, but just don't, that's an option, or is it going to be that I don't have the capability to sin because I'm now completely glorified and don't have that ability anymore?

We don't know. Could it be that, as I like to say, one possibility,

I use this illustration, is to say that there's a room, like this room right here, there's that light source, there's this light source, there's a light reflecting off of me and the phone light, and with the lights up and around up there.

So there's lots of little shadows. But what if we took those strings of lights and we had a thousand of them and they were all over everywhere?

There would be no shadows because there's light everywhere. Well, if I were to say that sin is a kind of shadow, and when the presence of the infinitely holy light of God, the shadows disappear, even though the object that could lend itself to give off light doesn't because the light is there.

I mean, give off shadow, but the light is there. So I kind of wonder if the glory of God is such that we won't sin because we're in his light so much that it's not going to happen to us.

We might have the capability. These are just thoughts, I just wondered. I don't know, I don't know. Make sense?

Matt, what can you say about the COVID vaccines? Many people connect the vaccines to microchip, Mark of the Beast. I'm doing a lot of research on the

COVID vaccines now and I'm actually going to probably end up writing a section under the secular movements area on COVID and vaccination.

And the reason is because people are asking me a lot about it on the radio. And so I've spent a lot of time, yesterday

I went through and developed a table on nine vaccines and how much money are made on them, the age recommendations, side effects, the kind they are, mRNA or the different kinds,

I forgot the names. So I haven't even gotten into the bit of studying the statistics of risk, which

I want to get into. And that's a hard one because I think the CDC is hiding some of the information. And then

I've downloaded and looked at the data sets of information on sicknesses and it's undecipherable.

You have to almost take a course on how to interpret 500 ,000 lines of data.

And so it's just been very difficult. It runs up to a lot of dead ends and a lot of stuff. So I had to teach myself principles of vaccination, mRNA, the types of vaccination procedures, the

FDA approval. I've found law, there's a law that says you cannot be forced, federal law, you can't be forced to take a vaccine.

Then I've, you guys heard of the Nuremberg Code? Yeah, I just found out about it a week or so ago.

The Nuremberg Code was developed in 1947 when the Nazis were on trial.

And not that it's spiritually authoritative, but it goes in and talks about what you can and can't do.

And it's very interesting. It's just called the Nuremberg, because the Nazis were performing experiments on people, medical experiments, forcing them to take injections.

And so, anyway, I'm pro -vaccine.

I have no problem with vaccines, but I have a problem with the COVID vaccine so far because I'm not convinced it's that safe.

And I've already had COVID, so why do I need a vaccine? My wife has had it,

I've had it, but I don't need it. They say there's something else that's coming up.

They're discovering that I did this. I forgot, I've got it in my information.

I don't have it all memorized. Some of the three main ones, they have efficacy rates of 94 to 95%.

After six months, it drops down into the 80s, so in the 80 percentile, which means that the effect has gone down significantly.

And then another six months, it goes down more. So that's why they're talking about booster shots.

So now you have another shot in you, and now they're talking about a third booster shot. Now I've figured it out, why?

Because the efficacy of the vaccine is decreasing. So wait a minute, if it's decreasing, why do you have to continue to take it forever?

That's what it is. I'm concerned about that. Plus, I started researching masks a little bit more last night in bed.

I do a lot of reading in bed. And I have my phone, which I want to get one of those, those

Samsung folds that opens out like that. Oh yeah, I covet.

I want to take one of those, rub it on my chest for a while, baby, yeah. Because I use it a lot, and then

I edit and I do stuff. Yeah, Mike's going, how do I get out of here? So, you too.

So I'm a tech geek. I'm a tech geek. Nick was saying the same thing. That she wants to leave too. So when

Nick and I were at a computer store once, for real, I brought her over to look at some motherboards and in the computers.

And there was this one dual CPU. You can have like 128 gigs of RAM.

And I'm like, oh. And there was the box that was under, and she doesn't understand anything.

I'm explaining it all to her, and I go, watch this. Oh yeah. And she just turns around and walks off.

And so I'm taking it. Honey, was it something I said? You want to look at this again? Oh, I have fun.

Okay. Don't know that guy. Okay, so anyway.

Hey, Nick, are we, am I boring? No, she says no, not boring.

Okay, so where was I? So the COVID mask stuff. So I did a lot of research. I was in bed, I was reading through, and then

I go to my computer, and then I transfer the stuff I've read into documents. Turns out the cloth masks, typical cloth mask is 3 % effective.

It does stop some droplets, but it talks, but the size of the virus is in microns.

So what I have to do now is study distances. And I have to train myself how to illustrate distances of fiber relationships, virus, cold, flus, and various things, and then develop a way to illustrate.

I don't know how to do that yet, but I'm going to figure it out. And so, because I want to build a habit so that when people look at this, they go, okay,

I get it. I want to get it quickly. Not to do what I got to do for eight hours and try and figure this out.

So if the fibers in your mask, the gap is like this and the virus is this big, it just passes right through.

And that's the case. Chain link fence. Yeah, trying to stop a mosquito.

Yep, that's a good illustration. Yeah, it's like that. So why wear the mask?

Because there's a false sense of security. And when you are adjusting it, you are putting germs from your hands onto the mask.

Then what do you do with the mask when you go home? You put it in your pocket. Then it ferments in there for a while.

And then you go to another store and they say, you have a mask on. Crap, you reach in with your dirty hands. You've been cleaning the cat box and you put it in like that and you put it over, right?

So now in the thick of these glasses, I could see the germs and crap on it, just be moving almost ready to spontaneously form its own life, living form, the mask, the mask thing.

And so then this is what they want you to wear. And then people don't wash them hardly ever.

And then, yeah, so this is what I'm finding out. It's bad. And then they want to put them on the kids and I think one in a million children, something like that, and can die from it.

But there's no reports of anybody dying or something like that. I think there's one under 18 or something. And yet the flu kills thousands.

And but the economy is not shut down. We don't have to wear a mask. So I'm concluding it is a control device from the left to see how far we will go before we stand up and say, we've had it.

Yeah, it's face diaper. And then you don't have oxygen. But then see, here's the thing.

If everybody wears face masks and the oxygen level is reduced, you become

Democrats. That's what happens to them. You notice Democrats, what's the color for Democrats?

Blue. What happens when your oxygen starved? You turn blue. There you go.

And what's the symbol? An ass. I'm not a

Democrat or a Republican. So, you know, what are you gonna say? What I hear is that you cannot find a white paper anywhere that shows the efficacy of a mask that proves.

You can't find it. You can find lots of things the opposite, but they can't find a white paper.

I can do searches. One of the things I'll do with cults and stuff like that, like I was doing, for example, my

SDA research, which I put on hold for this, I did searches through multiple sources looking for the word imputation.

I only found it in one place, to impute. And there's a Bible that they use. And then they just said one brief thing, three or four or five words about it, and that's all.

Well, I'm gonna write. I searched this, you know, 18 sources, I feel like 18, couldn't find it in there.

Why is that? It's an important thing. And so that's a good point for that as well. Matt, I hear you say text and context.

Can you please explain using an example? Well, I'm talking COVID now, because I'm getting into this, but yeah, context.

Context is always problem. I mean, a problem, always important. We're gonna do a, next week,

I'm gonna teach them how to interpret the scriptures, and then we're gonna do an exercise. We're gonna do that. It'll be an interesting little thing.

We'll have some dead air time, I guess. But yeah, so I have to, what

I'm trying to do is get the documentation from the CDC, from the WHO, from the medical places.

What? VAERS. VAERS is more difficult to find information in now.

It's more and more difficult. Yep. They're making it harder. And so what

I'm doing is when I find something, is I copy the source, and I have a file, and I'm keeping it.

So they're making it more and more difficult. Oh yeah. In fact, someone showed me today that there was a high school,

I don't know what city, don't know what state, but I have to read it, but that on the girls volleyball team, they were gonna require ankle bracelets for your location to make sure that you weren't going places where you shouldn't be, so you get infected with COVID.

And some moms, good old moms, mama bears, set up and said, hell no. And that's what has to happen a lot more.

Excuse me for saying where it is. They need to, people need to, we need to resist what's going on.

We're losing, we're losing our government. We're losing our society. We Christians need to stand up. We need to be united.

We need to move forward. We need to do that. I think what should happen is on like the first of every month, the first of one month a year, whatever it is, we all go down to the

Capitol and with signs and everybody on one day, like on your first, if your last name starts with A, you go down there on that day.

You don't have to, you can go down five days in a row, but the next day, the people last name starts with a

B, then a C, and you do this for three weeks. And it's all over the country. That's what needs to happen.

We need to have a organization that sets this up. We need to have a national movement and we need to fight back.

We need to stand up in front of those stupid, leftist, wacko, morons, CNN, MSNBC. Oh yeah.

And get the schools back because the schools are just leftist, wacko, socialist mills.

You don't think that the Bible anywhere says that heaven is a place for us in the afterlife. Well, 2 Corinthians 5, 8 says to be absent from the body, to be home with the

Lord. And in 2 Corinthians 14, two through four, 2

Corinthians 12, two through four, he was cut up to the third heaven, the very presence of God.

And I'll be getting into that, some stuff. So anyway, I've been, so the

COVID stuff's been interesting. So I have, I've got all kinds of stuff I've been researching.

I'll just sit in there for hours and just, and I'll research this much and only write that much out of it because you have to wade through so much information.

And there's just so much, I'm trying to break it down.

So what I'm probably gonna do is develop a single article that people can then print up and, and or put it in a

Word document so they can download it and they can carry stuff with them. And it has full documentation.

And what I wanna do is do a video on YouTube where I present the information with an opening statement, dear

YouTube, everything here is from the official sources. Here's the information.

Are you going to censor me for the information provided by the original sources?

And if they do, I will announce on the radio and other places, this is exactly what happened. And we can't trust them, et cetera.

So yeah, I'm doing a lot of research on it. I am. And it's like wading through sand.

Yeah, wading through sand. It's been very difficult, very time consuming.

So if you guys have any great things, Nick's been sending me stuff. And plus I wanna have a series of video links.

I have to download the videos to make sure that they're there. What's that? It's a whole thing to do, all that, putting that together.

Oh, it's, this is - But you have to attack, but you have to cover all the sources that they go to and show.

Yep, from their sources. Plus Nick showed me something I never even thought of, but she showed me a picture that on the actual boxes with those surgical masks come in, it actually says, not good for stopping

COVID. So let's wear them because it's COVID. The idiocy, the idiocy of it.

And plus I'm learning about the mask thing. I'm gonna write something up that actually will suggest that you might wanna think twice about wearing a mask unless it's an

N95 mask that's properly fitted. Then it'll work fine. No problem, wear a mask.

If you've ever got an 84 -year -old kid or an 84 -year -old mom or something, a grandma, would it be around? And you don't wanna risk, you know, then get a

COVID, a 95 and fresh clothing and you wash your hands and then you go.

And then when you get there, you wash your hands because the COVID virus can last and it can become airborne and you can collect it.

So there's no guarantee. Yeah, anyway.

So I enjoy, when I get hooked on a project, I enjoy working on it and I'm hooked on the COVID stuff.

I've never done any research like this. Well, actually I have. I've researched evolution, the Big Bang.

I'm having to teach myself about quantum physics. I have to teach about all kinds of stuff in science.

What's that? I like physics. In high school, we had 2 ,200 students and the big high school in Orange County.

And I think it was a junior. And a professor came to me and said, hey, Matt, we're thinking about creating a physics class.

And we're only gonna invite a few students to come in. Would you be interested? Yes. And he said, it's gonna be really hard.

I go, I'm interested. I worked on one problem for two or three days till I solved it.

And so it was only like 20 or 25 of us out of the whole school that were allowed to take it.

And I think I got a B plus or A minus. Trying to remember, it was A minus. At any rate,

I wasn't required to take any science in college, any science or math or anything.

So I just did whatever I wanted. It was a lot of fun. I love physics. And once I had to go to Xerox and they had a room for 30, 40, 50 people.

And they handed you this test and you had to go through this test and just equations, not equations, but little things like a ball rolls here.

It was gonna hit that. What's this gonna do? A lever moves this, just basic mechanics. I just, okay, just doing it.

I'm like 19 years old, 20, just going through it. And right before I got up, a man gets up and he's done just a few seconds before me.

Okay. Turned mine in, went home. They called me up and said, well, you didn't get the job.

I said, okay, you're kind of young and we want somebody more experienced. I said, okay. I said, but how'd the test go?

He goes, oh, she goes, oh, you passed. I said, yeah, you passed easily. And I said, well, how many people passed?

She goes, usually maybe one in 50. It's, people can't pass it.

I said, you kidding me? That was easy. And I'm not just bragging. It was easy stuff. People, they don't know how to, they're not trained, they're not taught.

They don't learn. I even taught a friend at work how to do trigonometry. I taught him.

I said, 20 minutes, I'll be doing trig. And he, 20 minutes, he was doing trig. Anyway, those are good old days.

And I'm an expert at teaching people how to become obnoxious. How to woo and win women by being an obnoxious jerk.

You bought it? Yeah. Have you read any of it? I read the whole thing. You did?

How are you alive and still married? It's beyond me. Did you enjoy it?

I loved, I laughed. I showed it to my mom. Yeah. And so my dad and I did like the, the adopted church.

The test, the questions, yeah. So, Tom said, here's the question. And I said, you're gonna keep the scorecard with this.

I've never saw my mom laugh so hard before in my life that she was crying with that. Well, you're 80%, you know, obnoxious jerk.

Yeah. Well, I scored a hundred percent. So, this is, but. It was a lot of fun with that.

Yeah. Did you like it? The Bolivian slug rat part? That's one of my favorites. The baby stuff when you go to the pet store.

The girl logic. Yeah. Was really good. And then when you said that, like going into the pet store.

Yeah. Going to the pet store, you just find a, you find a cute animal and you just say, with your girlfriend right there watching, you say, that rabbit is cute.

That puppy is cute. Just say it. She'll think you're just wonderful because you said the little baby thing is cute.

Just don't go up to a Bolivian slug rat and say, that baby Bolivian slug rat is cute. It'll backfire.

She'll think, she'll wonder what your children are going to look like. You know, when you walk. So, just stuff like that.

Phone number blocked. What's that? Phone number blocked. Phone number blocked. That's right. That is right.

Okay, guys, we're shutting it down. See you guys. God bless. All right. You're welcome, everybody.