Matt Slick Bible Study 2/3/2022

Oh, I got to put the microphone on where the microphone go the last second there

Right here. You got a Bible up court No, I just had it All right

Okay All right, all right, all right They can hear you on this so they can hear you.

All right, we're gonna do is Is just let people know we're gonna be doing this and We'll do a bit of a bit of an intro.

We'll see how it's gonna go It's gonna take a while a few weeks. I think we will get kicked in back into the issue. Hey car

Her name's Carm. How do you spell her name Carmella? Was it so her name? They call her

Carm and she comes in and it confuses us So anyway, then

Todd's here so hey now people are coming in good, okay, let's pray and we'll talk and we'll get into some stuff

All right Lord Jesus, thank you for tonight And I ask Lord that you would bless it bless the study of your word

And I ask Lord for the time that we study that your spirit would be here. Your presence would be here and That you

Lord would be glorified. I ask for your mercy I ask for your grace and we ask

Lord that you be with us in Jesus name on that. Oh Yeah, there it is the overhead light hold on we can turn the light on a sec right there

There we go toggle switch if you could turn it so it's flat because it glares right there There's the handle on the side.

Nope. Nope right there. You can turn the knob. There you go. All right Okay, so this is our first day back perfect So and you could also raise the intensity if you want by turning the knobs there's knobs

If you want you can just turn them or just see what you think. I think it's a good light Pretty good

Yeah, I could see Bibles, yeah, it looks good All right. So what I was thinking about doing was going through Philippians and starting into that No one really said what they were interested in doing

However, there are times when people like the idea of just answering questions or firing questions. Maybe we'll do one of those sometime.

So What I figured was Philippians for some reason Philippians was sticking in my mind lately and I thought okay,

I'll just do Philippians It's a nice book. There's the devotional material, but there's also good doctrinal material in it

And we'll go through a few verses We'll have to go till at the bottom of the hour and we'll just go through stuff

There's a lot here a lot stuff stuff and we'll see we have some new people over to my right over here basically

Yeah, we're gonna talk some more stuff after the show or after the Bible study here what we're gonna do is to talk about probably libertarian free will and Self -contradiction that some people offer me as rationality and we'll

So, oh he likes it he likes it he's now but for some reason my friends like it when

I insult them I don't know what it is. They get a kick out of it. All right, so Philippi All right,

Philippi is a city in Macedonia if you want to know where that is think of Italy and About where Rome is and then go across the

I think it's the Adriatic Sea and Just go east and then you hit the land and you go in a couple hundred miles and that's about where Philippi is okay, and The Philippi Church had been established by the

Apostle on his second missionary journey and you can find that in Acts chapter 16 9 to 40

There's some other mentions of the Philippi and Philippians Lydia a seller of purple was from Thyatira was converted

She was from that area and Paul was catching the prison there and a Philippian jailer was converted in sx -16 so The occasion of the writing of the

Philippians is interesting Now we don't know exactly but it looks like what happened is that in Acts 17?

when Paul was preaching on the era ariacopas ariapicus and He appealed to Caesar because a riot was going to Rise up.

He appealed to Caesar which meant he was a Roman citizen And so therefore some think that he was taken clear over to Rome That's one view and then he wrote

Philippians while in jail There and we're gonna just jump right into verse 1

Paul and Timothy bond servants of Christ Jesus to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi Including the overseers and deacons

All right so Paul and Timothy Timothy was a disciple of Paul and he worked with Paul and he helped

Paul out a great deal a Bond servant the interesting word here in Greek is douloy douloy and what it means is someone who had

Chosen to stay with his master So sometimes a bond servant

What was designated by? putting the earlobe on a doorpost of the home and then punching a hole in it and it meant that that person had

Purposely committed to staying with that household for the rest of his life and it's called a bond slave or bond servant douloy

So he's a bond servant of Christ Jesus to all the Saints the hagioi and that's the word holy

But they're called the Holy Ones by imputation and by being in Christ. That's I won't get in all that in Christ Jesus were in Philippi including the overseers and deacons a

Greek word for overseer is episcopal or overseers of this episcopal and Deacons would be diakonoi.

Anyway, it says deep bishops and deacons is all he's saying. All right now grace to you and peace from God our

Father and the Lord Jesus Christ Now what's interesting is that Jesus that Paul, excuse me uses this greeting seven times

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ Note what's interesting is that Paul the

Apostle is saying that Jesus is on the same level as God because it says grace and peace to you from God.

God is the one who gives grace God is the one who is gracious and he's saying look He's saying look grace and peace from God and our

Lord Jesus Christ so Paul the Apostle is putting Christ on the same level as God the

Father So both the Father and the Son are the ones who are giving grace

Now we've got to make sure that we don't think the way the Catholics do the Catholics think that grace is a substance

That's infused into you by the participation of the sacraments. That's paragraph 1999 in a catechism of the

Catholic Church and I think it's 2023 also at 1999 for sure And so grace is a substance infused when we say grace from God what we're saying is that God is being gracious that he shows kindness and mercy to us and More than what we deserve in a good way

That's what's going on here. And it's a greeting Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the

Lord Jesus Christ And he goes on he says, you know, I think my God in all my remembrance of you

Well, that's interesting Because what he's doing is thanking God, which means he's praying and he's in he's remembering the

Philippians Now he had started the church and now he probably was in jail and I'll show you why because this has a praetorian guard here so he's in jail and Yet his his concern is for the church in Philippi Hundreds of miles away hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of miles away and it's not like hundreds of miles here

We hop on a plane. We're there in a couple of hours or we drive in a car. We're there in a day This is weeks and weeks of travel to get from one place to another

Without communication except by messenger and So he's thanking

God which means he's trusting God With the Philippians. Oh, that's interesting because a lot of times what we want to do

Is we want to make sure that we are the ones who are taking care of things And so we sometimes usurp what

God wants to do We'll say Lord. I want you to take care of it. But this is how I want it done

I want you to take care of something and this is how I'm gonna put my hands on it What we need to be doing is saying

Lord What do you want me to do and how do you want me to do it and use me as an instrument in your hand? We move forward prayerfully

But what he's doing is thanking God in all of his remembrance of the Philippians. He's thankful to God but this is a thing that Paul is often connected with is his prayer and Thankfulness and you can see it in 2nd

Corinthians 111 for example where he says you also joining and helping us through your prayers so that Thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the favor bestowed on us to the prayers of many

Ephesians 116 do not cease giving thanks for you while making mention you of my in my prayers

Those thanksgiving and prayer are part and parcel of what Paul the Apostle does. It's a good example for us to follow

So there's different ways of praying and all kinds of different prayers we can get into I should do a study on prayer sometimes but anyway

Let's move on to verse 4 Always offering prayer with joy might be prayer for you all so When I read this kind of a thing,

I don't know how others are But do you pray with joy? When you're praying for somebody

Now I gotta say that I really don't this convicts me And I pray for my daughters.

I have two daughters and they're not saved my wife and I nightly we pray for them I don't have joy in my heart now

I Don't because their situation is lost but what he's talking about is the church that he's planted and the believers who are moving towards Christ and walking towards Christ and he is seeing how

They are growing and he has joy in his prayers for them So it's different of different kinds of prayers different purposes of prayers

And there's different levels of prayer but what he's doing is praying and offering those prayers enjoy

For because that's what he says always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all

The prayer is considered an offering What's acceptable to God it's a form of sacrifice

And I'll admit Sometimes just praying is hard sometimes

And I'll be in bed And a couple nights ago. It's in bed. I'm gonna say like, oh,

I didn't pray about whatever get out get on my knees and pray and Wasn't particularly enjoyable

But it wasn't bad. It just I need to do this Sometimes there's not a whole bunch of joy other times there is

I'm so thankful for this and that we had different attitudes But what he's doing here It's just telling him as he's writing to them look, you know,

I've joined with you could you're so pleasing It's such a wonderful thing to hear and this is a form of encouragement

Because he's writing this out We got to remember that people need to be encouraged and they do need to be encouraged

Particularly from the fathers. I think a little bit more but As he is offering prayer.

What he's doing is Submitting his will to God and saying

Lord do with the Philippians as you desire Because he's lifting them up and our prayers always need to be catered to the will of God It's okay to pray

Lord. Please save so -and -so But we always have to say Lord your will not my will be done because he may not want to save somebody and that's a lot of Controversy a lot of people might might say no.

He wants everyone saved 2nd Peter 3 9 Well after we're done with the study guys got questions

You can ask him in text and then we can answer some of the questions or some stuff like that We've got 30 over 30 people watching right now.

So All right now Mm -hmm verse 5 we're gonna get the verse 6 we could talk about verse 6 for a while He says in view of your

Participation in the gospel from the first day until now So what he's doing is he's saying I have joy in my prayers for you because of your participation in the gospel

So here the gospel means the work of God that's occurring through people

For people in a place in a what we call a local church body to participate in the gospel doesn't just mean just believe

But also to make disciples as we were talking about and it is true Because the participation does not mean doing nothing and I don't understand how

Christians can do nothing If you know Christ and he's living in you and you know people are going to hell

How can you keep quiet? That's something I've never been able to understand among Christians now

I get it that some people are intimidated Like my wife is intimidated to get on the radio with me, which

I wanted to do She won't do it or get on TV when I do some a BN sat

TV stuff Not all people can do that kind of thing There are different ways of participating in the gospel from being an honest businessman an honest worker

To a good faithful mom a good faithful dad but we do this because in the gospel of Jesus who died on the cross and rose from the dead and were bought with a price the price of the blood of God 2028

Therefore as ours as we submit to that gospel submit to Christ We are submitting and participating in that gospel message.

The gospel is not it is the death barrel resurrection of Jesus That's first Corinthians 15 1 through 4

But it's also in the the good news that we don't have to keep that law to be saved Of course doing

Galea. That's what gospel means. That's what the Greek word is it means that the whole complete aspect of what that gospel message is to walk forward serving

Christ and Picking up our cross daily and following after him as Luke 9 23 says this is what he's talking about and in fact

Jesus also says in Matthew 10 38 and he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me

Well, that's Matthew 10 38 And that verse I'll tell you kind of bothers me because So you don't take up your cross and follow after and you're not worthy of him

So what does it mean to take up your cross and follow after him? Well, the thing about the cross is in that context in that time a cross was a place of death death to yourself a place of ridicule a place even of mockery in a place of suffering and He who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me

So what he is saying is interesting follow me at the cross Follow me to the cross follow me carrying that cross

Which means dying to yourself Marriage has a way of doing that where you have are forced

Because of proximity of living with someone who's not as perfect as you But my wife this my wife has to deal with and so she has to carry her cross

Marriage does that friendships does it does that? Businesses do that to sacrifice ourselves and to seek the betterment of another miss

Philippians 2 talks about that We'll get into that later So verse 6 is

It's an interesting verse it's probably one of my favorite verses in the book of Philippians From confident of this very thing that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus This is an interesting

Verse there's a lot here So Paul says he's confident of What?

The thing that he says he has confidence in is I didn't turn the light on here. Did I? is

Where's this light? There we go. That's what this whole thing's for. There we go That's a little bit better.

You can see my face better. Don't that's a good idea. But nevertheless From confident this very thing that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ.

Jesus is most probably referred to the father The father who began a good work in you will perfect it until they have

Christ Jesus a lot of you don't know God causes us to be born born again first Peter 1 3

We're born again. Not of our own will John 1 13 God Grants that we have faith

Philippians 1 29 and our believing in Christ is the work of God John 6 29 also in John 14 23

Jesus is the one who is living in us along with the father and We're born again as John 3 3 through 8 talks about by the work of the

Spirit So you see he who began a good work in you? Now Paul the next chapter in Philippians 2 12 and 13 says work out your salvation with fear and trembling for his

God who's working within you both to will to work for His good pleasure so the idea here that we're seeing is that God begins something in us as some cults say in false religious systems like the

Roman Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox They will say that God begins a work in you and you have to perfect it and you should make it to salvation

So last night for over two hours. I was on a chat room Let's just say having a rather energized conversation with a lot of heretics and I Actually wrote out a sentence which

I still have up there And I asked this guy said is this correct that we worked it out and the summation of salvation

And notice what this verse says they would use this kind of verse Incorrectly he who began a good work and you will perfect it.

What he said was that God Continues to grant you salvation

While you if you continue to believe and if you do good works

So You maintain your salvation by the works that you do along with the faith that you have

So this is what cults teach what I actually did was I went to the Book of Mormon second Nephi 25 23

Which says you're saved by grace through faith. That's all you can do and he says yeah, that's true. I went to February 13th 1983 page 12 in the

Watchtower Bible and tract Society and Read where it says that the second requirement for salvation.

I didn't read that part. I said Salvation is more difficult. That is to Conform oneself to obey the laws of God conform yourself to moral uprightness

I said, is that correct and this guy in the East Orthodox Church actually oriental Orthodox. He said yes, it's true

That's correct. And I said God's rather Watchtower cult stuff They make the mistake of thinking that their idea of God's beginning of a work in you means that you have to perfect of your own will and That you are the one who maintains your salvation

But Paul says I'm very I'm confident the very thing that he who began a good work and you will perfect it

He is the one who's perfecting it not you This is something that a lot of people make a mistake

So you got to think about this So God is working his will in us and perfecting us and some are at different levels than others

I've been a Christian since I was 17 and I'm 65 and I've been defending the

Christian faith since 1980 That doesn't mean I have all the answers, but I'll tell you God has changed me a great deal in those years and there's a lot more to go and This is what it means when

God is working You guys know what that is, you know You want to be more loving and you are put in places where you've got to be more loving who does that God?

Be more patient. He teaches you how to be patient one of the crucibles of personal improvement and sanctification itself is marriage and parenting and Then it comes down to other areas of work and relationships and friendships

God is the one who's working because he says in Ephesians 1 11 God works all things after the counsel of his will

If he works all things after the counsel of his will And that means that everything that he is doing in your life in part is to bring you to a perfected faith

Now we're never gonna be perfected because well, we're sinners and we're just never gonna happen But God is the one who's at work in you

This is important for Christians to understand a lot of times They think God doesn't know what he's doing or they think things aren't going the way they want to go

And they don't realize that God is behind everything He could be there directly or indirectly by his direct will or by his permissive

Well, he can bring things about that shape you and make you So that's an issue that we have to understand and I can get into that quite a bit but I'm not really going to Because there's some other issues related to it

So another way that the Lord works in perfecting us is by convicting us of sin

Now I like being convicted of sin. I don't like being convicted of sin I like being convicted of sin because it means

God's alive and working and I'm feeling it I don't like it because I don't like being convicted of sin because it's uncomfortable

I got to make things right and sometimes what he requires of us

To make things right in the conviction that the perfectioning of our faith Can be very difficult

Sometimes he wants us to do things and say things and confess things that we don't want to do

But this is the thing And God who began a good work and you will perfect it will work it will complete it

And he does it through people and doesn't through circumstances and he does it through the convicting the spirit within us

John 168 168 the Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin righteousness and judgment

We're in that world and so therefore we get convicted of our sins as well And if I were to ask you, you know, you've been

Christians for a while. You've done something wrong. You had that conviction and it It's there.

I've had it and I don't like it In fact, I'm so familiar with it that when it begins

I do something wrong I don't realize I've done something wrong or then I realize wait a minute. That was wrong. I started feeling that conviction

I go take care of it right away because I don't like carrying the burden. I don't want having to deal with it It's just it

I'm gonna lose and so the perfection of the

Work that God is done is that this is the work of God that you believe the belief is in Jesus Christ John 6 28 29 he wants us to believe and work for Christ and in Christ and So in that we can rejoice

Now it says until the day of Christ Jesus now the day of Christ. Jesus is his return

The return of Christ Jesus when he comes back he is going to Render to every man according to his deeds now.

The Christians are not going to be judged for damnation But the unbelievers will but both believers and unbelievers are going to be judged according to their works for reward or loss of reward so the

Christians have to realize that God's given us certain abilities and And if we have hoarded our talents and Our resources and not helped others.

We're going to suffer a loss of reward in heaven and If we have helped others and done what's necessary according to God's Word Then we're gonna have a greater reward in heaven

But the increase or decrease of rewards based on our deeds has no bearing on whether or not we're saved in False religious systems it does in Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Christianity, Baha 'i

Islam, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy These that's what they teach that they say your salvation is dependent in part of what you do and a reward of heaven getting heaven is by that and Yeah, anyway

All right, so Philippians 1 6 is a good verse I recommend that you guys

Memorize it Now this is what notice what's happening. Paul is praising God and he's thanking

God But it's this is interesting in the condition and the state that he's doing is look at verse 7

For it's only right for me to feel this way about you because I have you all in my heart since both in my imprisonment and In the defense and the confirmation of the gospel you are all partakers of grace with me

Paul is in prison Now what are they people don't really understand is if you go to verse 13

I'm gonna skip ahead so that my imprisonment and the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else

So back to verse 7 he's imprisoned. He's imprisoned with the praetorian guard.

Who's the praetorian guard? The praetorian guard were the Navy Seals of the

Roman Empire that guarded the palace that guarded the Emperor They were the people you wanted it done.

These were the experts of the experts. That's a praetorian guard and What they would do in Jails different kind of jails is they would chain a person to another person

So a guard would have the prisoner chained to him in Roman system of jurisprudence if the guard

Was chained to somebody or was transporting him or whatever and that person escaped the guard took his place

They were very motivated to not let their captives escape

They took their place and you'll notice that when I forget the exact reference but when

Paul was in the storm in the ship and they were crashing on the ground and the guards

Oh, no, no, sorry, this is in the earthquake and Next and the jails were open and Paul says no don't kill yourselves

Because they eat the people the way it was was hey The guards are saying the jails all came open.

They're all gonna take off We're gonna take their place. They're gonna kill themselves instead I'll say no don't do that because it was part and parcel of what was the system there says we're all still here

Now, could you imagine that? What I mean, you're still here You didn't escape

Well, Paul is imprisoned and in the process with a praetorian guard what they would do is chain themselves

To the prisoner and then when it was time for the guard to switch another guard would be chained

Now, could you imagine being chained to Paul the Apostle? What do you think

Paul's gonna do he's gonna witness and that's why it says in verse 13

We're jumping ahead So that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and everyone else

Even in his imprisonment. He's sharing the gospel. He has an opportunity to share it with people

Notice nothing about this. He is in jail With the praetorian guard of access to high officials

Because they are the guys who will guard the officials of the government Very interesting the imprisonment that we would think that's bad is now being used by Paul to witness to the praetorian guard who may very well then go to other people that they would guard and those

Officials would say I hear Paul's with you. I've heard a lot about him what you like. This is what he says This kind of thing you got to realize that sometimes what we might consider to be evil

God meant it for good just like when Joseph was sold into slave slavery in Genesis 50 20

You meant it for evil God meant it for good We've got to be careful. You know is you know a

Arrested because what I do is illegal, you know Like preach the gospel and say homosexuality is not true and things like that.

I believe I think it's a sin Oh, but come I gonna go to jail if I do go to jail for that. I'm gonna start teaching in jail

I'll just consider it an opportunity to speak the word. That's what I would do So, you know, he says for his only right for me to feel this way about you

Because I have you in my heart Since both of my imprisonment and the defense and the confirmation of the gospel you are all partakers of grace with me

He considers his fellowship with the Philippian people to be so close. He says they're in this heart

He loves them. Wait, shouldn't he be saying? What was me? Get me out of here.

Look how bad off I am. He's rejoicing So whether in or out of prison regardless of the circumstances

Paul Knows how to do what he has to do before the Lord And we are all like that partakers of the gospel of grace whatever situation and station you find yourself in You should use whatever as you have what abilities you have for the glory of God Even if it's uncomfortable

Verse 8 for God is my witness how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus And I pray this that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment

The jails and the guards those places were very very bad largely, they had no way of eating unless relatives came in and fed them and Sometimes if they're nobody would to feed them and they're in a jail

They would starve to death but not really the guards would be allowed to bring food to them

But did they have really big kitchens to give them all this great stuff? No, they would give them slop and they give them crap and old water.

It was a bad place to be Now the praetorian guard these were elites.

So the situation probably was not as nearly as bad as it would been in other situations but nevertheless

His love for the Philippians is abounding more and more and that's the thing love is other centered not self -centered

God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son John 3 16 Jesus says in John 15 13 greater love has no man than this but he lay his life down for his friend

And so he's other centered. He says and in his imprisonment He says and this

I pray that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment Because he already in verse a says how

I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus Which is a very loving thing and he wants their love to grow as well

This is Christian maturity in your situation Not that good you're praying for the benefit of others

That's hard to do but that's the perfection of the good work that God is bringing you to a

Lot of times what we want is for things or situations or peoples to change or be gone so that we

Can get what we want? What but what does God want if he's going to perfect the faith of Christ in us

He's going to do it by working us through various situations and peoples in time

Paul here what he's doing is demonstrating the very nature of love and Incidentally love is a perfect bond of unity

Colossians 3 14 says in that unity that he has with them and They have with him there's that bond and distance doesn't break it

All right So here, you know, it's something to think about would you say that love is natural to the world?

No Because the world cannot know what true love is because the world doesn't know that you're living

God The only way to know what true love is as if the true God who is love

Reveals it to you if you say that you can be loving and you don't know God You're not loving because you're not measuring love by what he is but by an arbitrary

Subjective standard that you yourself think is right or wrong We often do this in our own homes in our own lives.

You're to love me the way I want you to love me And what we're not doing is comparing our love as a standard of God Jesus Christ God in flesh

Who humbled himself to the point of death even death and a cross Philippians 2 we'll get into that at a time and yet He was loving and sacrificial and kind and patient and considered others more important than himself.

We'll get into that Philippians 2 this is what true love really is, but we get so tied up in the

Mundane issues of life and a comfort of our life that we start judging others

By how they're supposed to be when we ourselves are being judgmental and not being loving if you go to to first Corinthians 13

Love doesn't remember sins doesn't remember things wrong suffered. It thinks better of something somebody else

Now I don't like that because I want to be selfish because I want to be prideful because I want to be stubborn

I Do but I also know I don't want to be those there's an internal war that goes on because the truth of who

Christ is as I follow Christ and Pick up my cross daily and follow after him as Luke 9 23 talks about that.

I'm supposed to sacrifice my desires For him and there are times when I don't want to do that, but I do and we all have those times particularly as parents

They get up in the middle of night to change a diaper or to clean up barf or to do whatever we've got to do

But we do it because we're loving That's just a small example But let the knowledge of forgiveness

That we would have for others and being forgiven bring us to that place of confession we should be confessing our sins as Galatians 6 2 says one to another but especially to God because it's against him that we have sinned

And if we're gonna confess our sins to God Because he's working faith in us and the love of God that he's gonna have in us and we're gonna confess our sins

Then we're obligated then to live that confession said

Lot of times what we want to do is confess something and then hold on to it Or confess something that we've done and then beat ourselves up over it which is not good or Confess that we've done something that runs somebody else and then expect them to react a certain way when we humble ourselves we're so selfish in so many ways that we don't understand that godly love is not the standard of the world and We cannot learn what true love is by looking around us.

We have to look beyond us. That's at Jesus Christ That's what true love really is

He says that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment to have the love abound

It's not just hey, I wanted to go bigger. Whoa. Whoa, whoa No to have your love abound means to have the love be like Christ's love for you

These are not empty words. These are serious words The love that Christ has for us.

That's what he means, you know bound bound in love the love of Jesus. How was he loving?

Well, he's patient and kind and gentle long -suffering You know father forgive them but they don't what they do even they're killing him and this is the love that we're to abound in and Then go to verse 10 so that you may approve the things that are excellent in order to be sincere and blameless

Until the day of Christ Jesus or a day of Christ Now later in Philippians 4 some of the most famous verses in the

Bible besides John 3 16 Whatever is honorable, whatever is right and pure good or if you'd let your mind dwell on these things

It's a well -known section of Scripture and Paul talks about this kind of stuff and the thing to where to focus on You cannot perfect your love without Christ being the object of your love

See the thing about God is the only way to know God is if he discloses himself to us

The only way to know what right is is if he discloses, right? The only way to know what good is is if he discloses good

You can't say I know what good is or I'm going to have an intuition of what good is and I'm going to ask if God is that that's idolatry

The only way to know what good is is to look to Christ I wouldn't know what love is is to look for Christ because he is the standard of all righteousness and so if we are going to approve the things that are excellent in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ Jesus Ultimately, our goal is to be looking to Christ in and through all of these things so that we might approve those things that are excellent

What are those things are excellent the things that Christ did and emulate it. That's the standard. That's how we know and that's how we learn

So we're gonna do is go through a few more verses here then we'll quit because there's a lot more later

All right I Hope you guys are enjoying it online over 40 people.

They're good. All right Verse 11 having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God Having been filled having been it's a perfect participle.

I believe it is which means it's an action in the past That's in a continuation in the present particularly having been filled.

That's what it was. That's what it is With the fruit of the right of righteousness, which comes through Jesus Christ now

I didn't check the Greek on this and I should have but in Galatians 522 it says the fruit of the

Spirit is love joy. Peace patience kindness gentleness, etc And there's nine of these things listed so people will often say the fruits

But it's not in Greek. It's karpas The fruit singular the one fruit is love joy.

Peace patience kindness. Now. I don't know. I'm curious No, I should have checked having been filled with the fruit. Is it singular plural?

I think it's probably singular of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God I want you to know brethren that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel

Notice what's going on here? He is in jail. He's imprisoned.

He may be killed the reason is because The Jews you understand this the

Jews were in that sliver of land called Israel the Roman Empire had soldiers all around and about the

Mediterranean area if you were to take a Ship, it was a risky thing across the

Mediterranean because of sudden storms a lot of times But it was expensive and so they would take these long trips and they go around through Israel and because of the geography

Israel is very situated geographically and important. It's a very important area

Because there's desert and mountains makes it very difficult to get through those but Israel is pretty green.

It's like Southern, California You can go through it very nicely and it's not too far from the coast.

I've been to Israel. It's comfortable. It's nice You can go through and you can walk through take a horse through mules cart.

You can go through That's why it's so stinking important for it to be there for the

Romans to be there because Geographically, it's a very strategic location So the

Romans were there but they allowed the Jews to live there so the

Jews and the Romans had a Deal that they worked out the

Romans didn't want trouble out there way out in the middle of of Israel Didn't want trouble so they allowed puppets to be in rule and they were basically

Jews and they allowed the Jews to have their little rules and the Jews Did not want to rock the boat with Rome because Rome could very well come in and kill them all which they did in in the siege of Jerusalem in 70

AD Because Rome had sent people to do this the Jews knew this so when

Paul is preaching and teaching in in Israel he's messing up things but now at the

Areopagus Athens in Greece and he's preaching the Jews are there too but also the

Greeks and the Romans are in control now more trouble because hey, there's all these gods and the

Money that was around selling gods and the items of gods and the sacrifice of gods and Paul comes in goes

Hey, all of its wrong. That is an economy problem. It could cause riots and cause problems

And the Romans did not like that kind of stuff. They would often take care of people Okay, we're just done with you gone executed.

You were done. Paul is risking his life by preaching in that situation

He's risking his life by preaching now If we were to go out to the

Boise Mall and preach we're not risking our lives normally speaking If we were to go to England was called

Speakers corner and preach there's a lot of Muslims out there, but you're not risking your life because it's understood

There's guards around usually I've heard You go to Iran or Iraq and you start preaching the gospel now, you're risking your life

They can kill you. I think it was either Egypt or Iran because there are

Christians in Iran a Christian was thirsty he's walking and He went to a hose at a local house just turn on the hose and got a drink of water

He was just very thirsty And the Muslims found out that a Christian didn't they killed him for it

It killed him for getting a drink of water So that's how it is now it wasn't much different in a lot of situations back then and here's

Paul In the situation where his life is in danger. So I've heard some commentaries from her correctly

He was executed after this so Having been filled with the fruit of righteousness

Which comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God and he says of the Philippians. Yeah, I love you guys and I'm just so delighted about who you are where you are and yet the

Executioner's sword is hanging over his head potentially. It's a serious thing

So, where is his hope it's in Christ not in his physical safety and he's looking to Christ Jesus and he wants the

Philippians to Not weep over him, but to pray for him as he participates in the gospel with them as they pray for him

Where he is, this is what's going on in this whole situation. This is why it's so important And that's why he goes on he says in verse 12

I want you to know brethren that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel One of the things that happened by his imprisonment is the letter of the

Philippians The letter of the Philippians is warm and doctrinal it's beautiful Would he have written it if he wasn't in jail can't say yes can't say no, but we know that in that circumstance

He wrote it he could write and he wrote this to the Philippians and Apparently some other imprisonment situations he wrote other less letters

So now he's forced by God so to speak to sit and do so to speak nothing in jail

And then you write letters at thousands upon thousands and thousands and thousands of people for centuries benefit from He we can't look so short -sighted ly we have to look long term

In verse 13 It says so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and everyone else

So they know who he is. They've heard rumors about his miraculous works Who this

Jesus person is got word got around all over the Mediterranean area He represents

Jesus, you know that people are coming to see him You know that the guards are gonna you know,

I'll let me guard him And you know that officials are going to come in from the house from the palace area the guard area you're gonna come in to meet

Paul that undoubtedly is because it was happening and Over this last verse we'll stop there and that most of the brethren trusting in the

Lord because of my imprisonment Have far more courage to speak the Word of God without fear That's verse 14 how many people would have less fear to preach the gospel if They keep their minds and what

Paul went through and say, you know what he went through. What was he was risking?

I Should have that same attitude You can The more other focused you are that's difficult.

That's part of the perfecting of the faith Philippians 1 6 He says That most of all brothers brethren

Trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment They had their hearts are hurting with Paul in his imprisonment

Have far more encouraged to speak the Word of God without fear I don't know exactly why that would work that way that he's in jail and they have more power

More encouragement to do so There's something about the persecution of the believers that brings more people to witness about Christ When we're comfortable, we want our status to remain comfortable

We don't want to rock the boat, but when the boats already rocking I might as well get involved

I might as well say it because it's gonna happen Anyway, I think that's part of what persecution is that with the preaching of the gospel to power

God to salvation Romans 1 16 This is why I believe that one of the things I suspect is a case that the gospel

Increases through persecution because people realize they don't have the comforts anymore

They're going to then speak out because they're relying on Christ and that's what they're doing that's what they want to do and so they do so the brethren are the believers and So that boldly seeking with a

Paul as well and most probably Getting converts. He probably was getting converts in his prison and he's writing to them

Probably had other letters that he wrote to them like a note or Timothy would have taken work and gone Take a you know a few days by journey and horse

Whatever it would have been to get to the Philippines and say hey now just so you know It wouldn't be just Philippians at back

It would be a circuit that without went through and this is often the case that he would go through a journey because you're gonna

Make it be effective. And so Timothy was probably giving something here there and be gone months at a time.

I think about that Paul would send Timothy out go do what I can't do.

I'll see you in two or three months What's gonna happen to him during that time? Gonna trust

God and Paul is praising God trusting in God And Timothy comes back and reports and he's full of joy

And this is a situation that Paul is in and the book of Philippians came out of it, and I think it's great

I think it's awesome. So we'll stop there at 14 so if any of you guys

Have any questions you can put I can see the text of the questions if you want to do it You guys got here have any questions?

And did you miss me? teaching Miss me. Yeah this year something.

No, we just put up with you and that's good enough So Melissa and st.

Beloved and Jimmy and humbled clay Mark Antonio, that's our people

Wow All right, you're welcome. Jimmy says thanks, man There you go.

Now if you guys have questions type them out Now before the study because what we do already do is keep this going and we have discussions and they often get off the way off topic because you brought up something beforehand which you can talk about and What I can do is set you up for a fall

Okay If you want But yeah, we miss you

Melissa Owen says that's right Good study. Thanks, Laura All right, oh by the way

Laura's how's the little one doing a green kid how's the little one doing All right.

All right. So someone here asked a question. I'm gonna tackle it. You ready? Do we have free will if God predestines everything right so you're gonna be free will right?

Okay Let me ask you If something refutes itself should you believe it if something refutes itself should you believe it?

So here's a statement that refutes itself. There's no such thing as absolute truth

That's an absolute truth statement it refutes itself therefore it's not to be believed right

So a statement or a position that refutes itself should be abandoned, right?

Right, that's right now. All right So if we have no free will

And that means that all of our thoughts are not free If our thoughts are not free, then the questions we have are not our questions

They're just whatever and if they're just whatever they have no meaning because they're not free will questions are not really anything

Something's making you say them But if something's making you say them you can't trust that your thinking is true

If you don't have free will to build a think you can't trust that your questioning is true

You can't trust that your reasoning is true You don't have the free will to be able to understand something or ask the right questions or go through You say it's all predetermined that we don't have any free will

Then it wasn't your free will to ask the question If it's not your free will to ask the question.

It's not your question Something else has to the question, but the questions that you're saying is about yourself, but that means you can't trust your own question

So if you can't trust your own question about questioning about free will then it refutes itself So you ought to not believe the idea that you have no free will and can't make choices or questions

Did you get that My wife does he rolls her eyes or a lot or I mean, did you get that? Pretty much might go through it again if you want

Now what I can do at this point is do what I say to you what I do with the atheists when

I get into this place Go ahead. I'll give you the retort that I usually say Ah, I have things to say yeah things

Whatever you say, I'll just come back and say your brain may just say that Because if you don't have any freedom, then it's chemical reaction necessity

Okay, here's a question the question is and we went down the rabbit hole

Who's we Okay The question

Okay, what why is that the proper why is it the proper question

It's a question, is it the right question? I think it's the right question start, but if you don't have free will how you know, it's the right question

If you don't have the question But did you form it or does somebody cause you to form it?

So it's not your own But if you don't have the freedom to make the choice to ask it you're not really asking it yourself

I'm just saying What's the question The Bible says he is okay.

Yeah And why is it put religion what do you mean by religion

Christianity How does free will get excluded if God knows everything could he know what could he know

He knows I got my finger. Yeah Can he know what free will choices you're gonna make yes in their free will then you said her free will

No, I said does he know your free will choices? You said yes, so you had manager There lose it's an illusion of free choice

So then the questions you're so the questions you're asking is just an illusion So then you don't know anything's true right

Because if it's all an illusion if it's all you got a little here if it's all an illusion you can't know anything's true, right?

But if you can't know anything's true, you can't know that you can't know anything's true Refute itself.

So the premise that you give is ultimately self refuting and you should not believe it I've asked you this question

Think it hurt Nick's brain Yeah, I guess oh so During the time frame that they lived.

Yeah, they made either they made bad choices or God decided That they were gonna go there.

All right, I decided Before the foundation of the world who would be saved Really no, they didn't have a choice for if they were elect or not

Okay Election is God's choice So the Bible teaches that Ephesians 1 for he the father chose us the elect in him

Jesus before the foundation of the world that would be holy and blameless second Thessalonians 2 13 says he chose us

He says he chose us He Says he chose us from the beginning for salvation.

So God chooses us for salvation. It's his work So it was a problem

They make all kind of choices What doesn't matter

I Didn't say by their choices by their works

It really it's regardless they're going to where they're gonna go. Uh -huh. The outcome is determined.

Yep Exactly. So what's the problem? There is no one There's no problem

Lots of the scriptures teach that God is predestined and you go to Romans 9 9 through 23, for example

Ephesians 1 4 through 11 But they really do freely make a choice to believe in Jesus Yes, and I can show you how

All right. I use an illustration of a light bulb. Okay It's called there's called logical priority and temporal priority

So which comes first? Chicken or the egg which comes first regeneration or belief?

We have to be regenerated being born again. We have to believe Now do we freely believe?

Yes, we freely do How can that be if God grants that we believe notice what it says in Philippians 1 29?

He grants that we believe we are actually doing the believing the question that most people ask is well, you have to be a believer first before you can become a regenerate and saved

But that's the case. I'll just use five seconds and that would mean then just as an example

That we have a someone who believes for five seconds before he's regenerated not that it is five seconds, but let's just use that in temporal priority well, and that would mean that there was a

Believer who's not a Christian who's not regenerate for five seconds. That doesn't make any sense

So let's reverse it. Let's say there's a regenerate person for five seconds And then later after five seconds, he comes becomes a believer

Well, then that would mean we have a regenerate person who's not a believer for a period of time and there's logical problems with that That's called logical.

I mean a temporal priority logical priority Light bulb when

I flip the switch Electricity is in that light and the light is instantly there because of electricity

Whenever the electricity is there the light is there but they're simultaneous Okay Electricity is the cause of the light the light is not the cause of the electricity, but they're simultaneous

So electricity is said to be logically prior They're simultaneous but one must be there in order for thing to be there so it's logical priority

Regeneration must be there in order for us to believe the logical priority of regeneration when we're regenerate

We also believe and we freely choose to believe That's the answer it's a solution

Yeah, I do make a lot of science but Other people's like This is the only way it is because it's it's it's good.

I think now I Who That guy. Yeah. Yeah, he's gonna come at them

Anyway, so he has to go according to If you polite say 20 minutes to start 20 minutes rebuttal and then

Go from there. Oh He's ready he's Anyway to argue about what

Well, I I've debated it hundreds and hundreds of times over 30 years

I'm not saying I always win. I'm greater thing, but I'm just saying I know what their arguments are

There's no new arguments that I've heard in years and years and years and they don't make sense because they're not biblically based

They're emotionally based and they have in incorrect understanding Well, it depends what the topic is, but this is a very serious topic but nevertheless back to the free will thing

Free will is the ability to make choices that are not forced They're free according to what your nature is

Want to say it that way because God has free will God has free. Well, no one forces him to do anything.

He's holy, but he cannot sin He's not free to sin people sometimes make the mistake of thinking free milk free will means you have to be able to do both sin and not sin to Build do good and not be able to do good.

That's a free. Well is that's humanism is based on man's ability He is constricted by what he can do

You could only Right Titus 1 2 Right Yeah, he's free because someone's free only insofar as their nature exists

He can't so Free will is the ability to make a choice as not

As Okay, free will is the ability to make choices that are not forced but are consistent with your nature that has

God as a standard Not as man. So an unbeliever is free He's free he can choose choose whatever he wants.

He will continue to choose to rebel against God This is no one's forcing him to so he's at freedom. God knows all the free will choices

He's gonna make I guess a little more complicated to get into ordination causation efficient direct causation things like that But that's another thing.

I've been laid out step by step But the thing is that God's not surprised by anything.

He works all things after the counsel of his will Ephesians 1 11 The free will choice that people have are worked after the counsel of God's will

Both are true Mm -hmm So what happens is from that position that you're talking about that?

You can't be free if God knows you'll be free then open theism Rises open theism is a teaching that the future is open the reason the future is open

God can't know your choices because you can't He if you're gonna make a choice to put on a red shirt or a green shirt on a particular day

And he knows what you're gonna do. You're not free to do anything different and they get it wrong. No you freely choose

And God and there's a lot of different ways to show you things I can force you for example

Freely without violating your free will I can force you to do something think that's possible Sure, I could make you flinch

By getting close put my hand in front of your you know, do that and you'd flinch I didn't

Violate your free will you freely chose to do it? It's a simple illustration But the idea is that God can bring us

Freely to do what he wants us to do just like I can take my daughter it was a little girl and say a half hour before a favorite show and say

I Want her to ask me to be gracious to her not those exact words

But I wanted to do that because I'm gonna say to her please clean up your room before you watch that show I know she can't do it.

It's an eight -day project You know little kids are and she's gonna say but dad I can't I go But it needs to be done and what

I'm looking for her to say is but dad Can I wait or can I do this? I'm gonna be gracious and say yeah, okay

Tell you what, let's watch it together and maybe I'll help you for a little while afterwards And I was able by the circumstances to get her to do what

I wanted her to do without violating her free Well, how much more is God capable of bringing us to do what he desires us to do?

Everyone's listening. So there's this comparison. It's like parent and I and I know what my son son, you know, it's gonna do yeah, but you're not a mission that's true,

I thought I was No All analogies all analogies fall apart, but the analogy is to show you that there is a way

To bring somebody to do something without violating their free will do something that you wanted to do like I can make you flinch

You know or I can go what the heck is that and you look over there And so I got you to do what

I wanted you to do God can do that because he has all means at his disposal A lot of Christians don't like this because they don't like the idea of God being sovereign.

They want the sovereignty themselves The biggest battle most Christians have is with themselves and God They're Christians.

They submit to God, but the battle is in submitting to God in his sovereignty in all things

Realizing how great he is Most Christians don't realize it not I realize it and I can tell you all about that's not

I'm saying It's just that a lot of Christians. They have this low idea of God He's the blonde hair blue -eyed

Caucasian surfer dude dressed a woman's nightgown asking for permission to come into your heart That's not who he is

He is the one in control and yet you're free at the same time Okay, let me teach you something.

Okay, you ready? so direct proximate efficient Okay Direct causation

God says let her be light His will his action his doing light exists

God Created the heavens and the earth his will he created the garden his will by his action

Now the Falls gonna occur So by God's direct action. He put the garden there and The planet's in the solar system every day.

Okay direct creative act of God He put Adam and Eve in there to made in his image

I could talk about what that means It was called the communicable attributes, but he's in there in God's image

That means they have the ability to make choices Otherwise, you're not in his image Proximate is that God allows them to be in the garden and he allows

Satan to come in the garden Right God is not forcing them to do anything.

He just simply allows it Yes, he does that's right

No, yes One thing at a time. Let me teach one thing at a time The so the proximate cause is that the situation is arranged by God's permission as well

But he does not force Adam to take the fruit That is done of his own

Freewill choice therefore. He is what's called the efficient cause of his actions

God is the direct and proximate but not the efficient cause of his actions in Theological circles and we discussed this we discussed the issue of God's causation

How can he cause someone to do something and not be the moral one responsible and this is how?

By him not being the efficient cause the actual freewill choice of rebellion is not by God but by Adam furthermore

I'm of the opinion that the only one who cannot sin is God All sentient beings will sin.

This is why the angels are elect Chosen not to fall the ones

No, he didn't release him No, he didn't release him. He allowed him to come in. Let me ask you.

Why would God do that? Oh the illusion of choice, so then he made

Adam eat the fruit So did Adam was

Adam forced to do it was he forced to eat the fruit

Where he's going to do it Did he the question is did he force

Adam to choose The answer is no Did Adam do of his own free will? Yes, therefore.

It's not God's fault Well, these are the things that I'll just tell you that theologians have wrestled with and dealt with for centuries and This is the answer

There's the answer In first Samuel 24

No What does it mean release the beast

What is it No He created angels and one of them was

Lucifer and he allowed them to Rebel against him and they became fallen angels of their own free will

No bug there's no mistakes with God There has to be

Here's the problem there's a creator Here's a question

I'm gonna ask you I'm gonna ask you something. Okay, where do you get your logic from by which you hold

God accountable for? his actions So these are basic things to talk about people have answers for them

I've given you answers. Now. The stamp thing is you don't like the answers. You're judging God. You're saying he's the one who's responsible

So I the question is you are assuming of your own thinking in your own will

That there's a standard of righteousness that you know that God himself must adhere to You're saying

God should not have done this and who are you to say? What God should and should not do

You understand you're not hearing what I'm saying I do this with atheists a lot Atheists will say to me

I heard something. No, what was that? Oh, okay

So I said a the atheists will say to me. How do you know your God kills babies?

They'll accuse them all kind of stuff evil and and I'll say Okay What's your point?

Well, he's bad You're an atheist, right? Yeah. Okay. So what standard of bad do you have by which you can judge somebody else?

Tell me what it is See what standard of you've got to make a judgment

They don't have a story. Okay Don't we're talking external you're talking about internal on X.

What do you have that you can judge God by where's the universal standard of righteousness?

So they have none you have none, okay, so now here's a problem now, it'll say to me what let's go and we'll do an internal examination

Because they're screwed So the internal examination is that God does what he desires?

But you think it's wrong, which means that you're you're putting an external standard, which you've already said doesn't work

You're injecting it internally and then you're saying this is why God is wrong You're still using the external standard if you say

I'm using the internal standard by his own standard I'll say show me where God says you can't do that Are you complaining?

Okay Yeah Yeah, are you submitting to it?

Are you submitting? Yes. Good. So are you are you? Look at it you say

You gotta create a world that's a fallen angels. Yeah, there's a sense in yes

That's another discussion believe it or not There's a

There's a sense in which that the answer is yes, there's a sense in which he answers. No. Yes He has the capacity to do different things

But since he does everything best That's second best then it's almost like saying well

He could only have done it that way because that's what's best and then we get that's that's a very low way of saying it

Well, these are discussions worth having If God's omniscient omnipotent and omnisapient all wisdom then that means that wherever he's created is the best

And there's a reason for it Well, so I Actually want to release the beast you want to talk about that then read 2nd

Thessalonians 2 and Revelation where God Actually sends a diluting influence on people and in Revelation where the

Antichrist a false prophet and the beast Are actually released in order to do what

God wants them to do You You're in an interesting way you're kind of stumbling ahead

Into better theology without understanding the things that go along with them No, I'm no

I'm just saying that You're getting ahead and you get it a lot of it because you see what it says

But you're not accepting a lot of it says You're having struggles with it and this is one of the things that people go through like Dave here had some issues and then finally when you submit you

Yeah, and you start once you relax you go. Okay, so he does this but there's more to it

Because he's loving so wait a minute. Why would he lovingly allow Satan to come in?

Did he Why would he choose to allow them to come in? That's a question

We can't just say because he wanted to trick people Show me the scripture because what people will do is complain and say this is why he did it

Well, show me that in the scriptures because God is self -revealed if we want to know his reasons We've got to go to his word

And if you don't go to his word, it's nothing more than conjecture and guessing and it doesn't really mean anything So you have to go to his word why he chose to do it now he does say he created us for his glory

Isaiah 43 7 and It also says he works all things after the counsel of his will

Ephesians 1 11 and he causes all things were to get up for Glory for those who are called according to his purpose Romans 8 28 which means even the fall of Satan and the fall of Adam and Eve are for his greater glory

Which I can get into some possibilities of that. Okay, Todd Merkel and God only works good

Works in his elected children Always because he God can't do anything bad I still can't understand why

God chose me Laura. Yeah, I can't either. Oh, you mean about yourself?

Yeah. Yeah, I know Laura That's what I say to a friend of mine Nathan. I'll go man.

Why did God choose you cuz I know I don't know what it's just a He chose us out of the kind intention of his will and he actually says why he chose us with Romans 9 22 and 23

But you have to relinquish to God What belongs to God Let him do what needs to be done in the sense of letting in your own mind and heart and you'll do a lot better Good and you guys have any questions

Laura said brat Laura knows

I love her Laura and I've had lunch together

I Was nice meeting Lauren her hubby and getting the privilege of preaching at her church

I'm thinking about coming down to Salt Lake and see Bill McKeever. I'm gonna go down to Provo to Please answer

Noel's question. How do you know if you are one of the elect? easy These things are written so you may know you have eternal life life first John 5 13

The unbeliever does not accept the things of God for their foolishness to him. He cannot know them first Corinthians 2 14

What are those things of God the Trinity the deity of Christ hypostatic union? Justification by faith alone in Christ alone is physical resurrection that he died for our sins

These are the spiritual things that we trust in furthermore Paul said that in Philippians 1 29 that he grants that we believe and in John 6 29

Jesus says this is the work of God that you believe on him whom he has sent So the issue is it becomes from God that we're believing in Jesus.

We're believing in Jesus We're believing in what he did we're trusting in what he did because the faith that comes from God is always sufficient to justify us

So we know we're one of the elect if we believe these things and we trust in these things

Because that's what the believers do and that's how you know Okay Wow, look at that one.

I got in a conversation with my boss and a supervisor tonight about Jesus being perfect And no sin even shared the scripture and all they said was it wasn't true and started talking about religion

Is there anything else I could have helped them? They said it's not true, right? They said back the same most people say

Bible written by man blah blah blah. Okay, so they said it's not true. I would just say How do you know that?

You made a statement. I know it's not true Well because it can't be true it's your opinion so you're judging this by your opinion without you have any facts

That's what you do with them and they get mad and they walk away Okay, Matt Please answer

Noel's question. How do you know if you're one of the like I did she is really questioning this I already did Okay, I know it takes a time for it to go through the system

Hopefully you heard it. What if God although willing to demonstrate his wrath met your Romans 922 and it says demonstrate his wrath

Make his pet patients known endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepare for destruction and he did so That he might bring glory upon the glory upon the vessels of wrath created for mercy

Matt the man if eek The man if eek what is men if eek?

Magnificat it's man a fi Q and agnostics

Marcantonio Naturapuni had questions about Catholics. Oh play. Okay. Good Matt. Where have you been for so long missed you man,

Devin a Little bit overworked burned out holidays got a lot going on and I'm feeling better.

Are you may? Manifick I Don't know what man if eek means

M -a -n -a -f -i -q. I use the restroom to somebody's a restroom. See if you can explain them.

We'll come back. We'll do some Q &A. All right Oh, did you have questions to date were you guys talking about something before?

Yeah I was looking on some notes. I had a question for him.

I couldn't I couldn't make sense of my question from like three weeks ago Oh All right

Okay, what was your question? Let's see Matt. Can you know? He's not one of the elected and one.

No, he's not one of the elected. I think so bill If someone I don't know that's a good question though.

Can they know to not one of the elected? That's a good question I'm not sure how to answer that because what if you commit blasphemy the Holy Spirit, but then that means you believe in God Which it kind of brings up a yeah, it could be a tough one to answer.

I'm just Right and so that's a toughy yeah, that makes sense.

All right, let's see He would say no could anyone who has never

Been exposed to the Word of God be saved. Yes. What about a baby in a womb who dies?

That could anyone yes Matt managing in Arabic means hypocrite.

I Lift it up, but that wasn't what the word was

So I don't know. It's sort of me thinks we have a troll. Okay, we have trolls We can get rid of them.

I can you know, if he thinks a troll Laura Laura's paying attention They get a troll just get rid of a Laura Menafeek is a person who in public and in community shows that he's a

Muslim but rejects Islam or Propagate against it either in the heart or among the enemies of Islam.

Oh, that's interesting a moon I think Matt maggot fake is mo Okay. Well, I'm certainly not a

Muslim. Oh So it says man a fake. Okay, Jonathan Harki. The Bible alone has truth

That's not necessarily true because you're gonna have a math book they're gonna have truth in it two plus two is four

Unless your co -workers accept. This is truth. They have no foundation. That's ultimately true Hey, Matt Delahunty says we can't be absolutely certain about anything which is self -refuting

Yeah, of course you can't be yeah, I think I've talked about that We're in the wrong channel for me to delete him

So, who should I delete if you Laura if you say delete somebody I'll just do it right now just let me know We're gonna add something

We treat them all the same with love patience kindness now where to go special Privileges for the people who are believers because the world will know that you're my disciples with a love you have for one another and He's talking to the believers

Yep I would say my wife is certainly elect.

She certainly has shown the signs of regeneration I mean, you know,

I'd say Brock Dave here probably close That's pretty high

I don't know I was wondering So This off it's a common question people so you can't know if you're elect because you might give up your faith

You really can't know. Well, then why is the Bible so you can know you have eternal life? Because of our faith in Christ that something comes from God Yeah, you did

Yep Well, we talked about you know, you and I doing a little bit of something together financially go

Okay, I think you're so up to that Yeah, cuz you know pagan sleep heathen slime dog, you know,

I call him HSD a heathen slime dog, you know But I don't know.

I don't know that kind of stuff if you're truly a Christian and you were elect You were a prideful atheist, yeah now you're not now you're confessing

Christ, right? By God's mercy, it's all we can say I tell people

I don't I'm a perfect example. I went straight even pagan.

So right Well, you see I'm not in production. I'm in sales Explain I tell people what the gospel

God's one is in production. He's when it makes people Christians I'm in production. I mean,

I'm in sales not production That's all no problem.

Okay, let's see How come I have doubt about my salvation because you're probably the Christians who were saved

Are the ones who doubt because it's something that's kind of natural and generally if someone thinks that they keep their salvation by being good

That's why they would have doubt if however You're thinking you should be better than you are That often causes people to have doubt because they're thinking

I should be better than what I am, which is a sign of being regenerate Want to be saved and sure

I am I have doubts about well, you know what to be honest Chuckie, so do I sometimes It's hard.

I have a lot of depression because of abuse. Ah Chuckie What I'd recommend is you get a counselor and go see somebody and talk and I'm not dismissing you.

I'm just saying It's good to talk to people who are trained and know that you can talk to you and work through some things

Trust me on this. Okay, I was never abused like that, you know Nick Nick Nick and so All right, how was one saved if he or she has never heard of Christ through what means

They're always saved through Christ. Can an infant be saved? Can a baby be saved they die?

Yeah, they can be so We are important because they wonder people they want to know

But people have I've been answering questions for decades people have different understandings different levels different that they have questions they want to know

That's okay No, it's okay. It's all right Chuckie we will keep you in prayer.

Good. Melissa says thanks for entering Matt. You're welcome Chuckie. Seriously Chuckie I'm not saying that's not be dismissive

But it's just good sometimes and people who've had trauma when they're younger to talk it through Let me give an example

I moved 26 times before I was 12 and went to 12 different elementary schools and my last name was slick

And I got beat up and chased. I didn't stop having Dreams of being murdered. I was 35 years old

Okay, till I was 35. That's when I stopped having dreams of being murdered. I remember the last dream what it was and I had seen someone too and I talked to them

For a long time about things and through things to process stuff. It's just what we do sometimes

You know and my wife as an example Sometimes I have something to work through or think through I'll talk to her about something and she knows that I'm just processing it

There's something cathartic about just processing things Usually when I talk to her about stuff, she just stares at me

It's a flatline because I'm talking about something esoteric and and she probably returning the favor because one time

She told me about a dress. She was interested in it some store and I did this for a full minute

Nothing for a full minute and then she said are you listening to me? And I went What happened you were talking and then

I went blank, you know arm hit We are me

I buy stuff for myself she does this is what I this is what I wear on the house Yeah, I wear

I wear sweats around all the time and there's a reason though you have to reason it Because I autistic

Have asked burgers. I'm hyper sensitive to touch and I need clothing.

That's extremely soft And so jeans are uncomfortable for me. They rub But I can wear them but and so I have to wash clothes several times

To make sure that they can like I had a shirt a new shirt Which I washed and I had to take it off because it's got the little navels in the back.

I can't take it That's why So it's got to be soft hundred -percent cotton

What's that Yeah, I used to have those I Yeah, I wore them out till they fell off All right, let's see what else somebody said

Matt instead of being called a Calvinist I like to think myself as believing in the doctrines of grace.

Yeah, I do too. I I also say yes, I'm I hold to reform theology or the five solas or the doctrines of grace or Biblical theology or I believe in what

Jesus taught There's different ways of saying that Um My phone definitely will keep me awake

I turn everything off and listen to white noise to go to sleep. Yeah, I have ringing in my ear

So I always have noise my Matt you've helped me a lot with my doubts. I Always turn to calm for answers for years.

That's because you're so smart Yeah, that's a that's a gimme Good economy smart

There's a half a smile kind of creeping up there Okay, and Manifique, oh, that's what you know

Reformed I like the world won't fall Okay. Well, anyway, that's about it.

Let's anybody's got any more questions What's that Yeah, we can wrap it up the formal piece

Help you find the five. What are the five solas? So Lafitte so faith alone Scripture alone

Christ alone grace alone What's the fifth one? scripture faith grace faith alone grace alone

Scripture alone grace alone. I Did big faith grace

Great faith alone grace alone Christ alone scripture alone.

Oh man Mm -hmm. I hate it when I draw a blank so Lafitte.

So the grottier. So the scriptura Monifique has nothing to do with Islam.

Okay, so to tell you guys who are listening

I'm on Clubhouse answering questions and on discord answering questions

You guys ever want to get in when you think is an honor honorary word?

Okay didn't mean to pit you on the spot Okay, love this.

Thank you Matt and everyone here. This has really been helpful Good night all grace one in JC.

Amen. I think that's a good segue to quit something Hit pause or hit done on this and by God's grace next week.