Ezekiel Part 43

And then before we get started, I received a gift from the Setnas family to Pastor Chris on the occasion of your 10th

anniversary at Kongsvinger, and a big thank you.

So I'm assuming I need to open this up carefully.

All right, hold on a second here.

Opening carefully is what I'm doing.

Don't worry, I'll mess it up anyway, because I'm gifted in that way.

Hold on.

Oh, wow.

The Roseboro Coat of Arms.

What?

Is that for real?

Huh.

Okay, we now have a new Roseboro Coat of Arms.

So the cross, it's a confessional Lutheran cross.

The Verben Dominate Aeternum, the word of the Lord endures forever,

vidia mei.

Hydra Fortitude, that's water.

Cauldron, willingness to do battle.

Hopefully not with witchcraft.

Okay.

These all have fine.

The Cloud, faith and consistency.

The book, The Bible, Learning and Willingness to Listen, that's there.

And Escarbuncle, that means leadership.

And then a key, one in service of the church.

That is really nice.

I'd say it's also because you're on the internet so much.

Right, so the Cloud also means internet.

Right.

That's a hand -drawn, right?

It looks like that was hand -drawn, yes, and it's really well done.

And then Elizabeth, she took, I think, a poem or a hymn, Christ has still

redeemed me through hardships, though hardships come.

You know how to write in cursive, that's like a dark art.

Many kids your age don't know how to do cursive anymore.

We were required to do that when I was a kid.

You do that nowadays and people are sitting there going, why is this in hieroglyphics?

Okay, that's very nice.

Oh, you wrote it?

Wow, that's amazing.

Really well done, thank you.

Who's your pastor?

I want to talk to him.

That was like, yeah, exactly.

You said what it took me 45 minutes to say, you said it in like just one page.

If you like the Cliff Notes version of today's sermon, it's right here.

Okay, very good.

And then, thank you for being our pastor.

Oh, that's Brianna.

Very cute.

And then let's see here.

I've got a letter from the Setnas family, but I will read that at another time.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate the thoughtfulness.

Thank you.

And all of you who sent in your thank yous that got put into that notebook, thank you

very much.

It's very, very humbling to read all of those things.

And I would remind you that I am nothing, Christ is everything, and the one who plants, the one who

waters, they are nothing.

It's Christ who gives the increase.

Okay.

Just had to theologically set you people straight.

That's what I do.

Okay.

So today, you'll remember last week we ended up talking about the resurrection.

We worked our way through a portion of Ezekiel 37, that much abused passage of

Scripture, and we noted that Ezekiel 37 and the valley of the dry bones and God raising those bones

to life has nothing to do with your dead dreams at all.

But every time I hear that preached that way, I just do a facepalm and you just pray for these people.

It's just like, what on earth?

And if you remember in the sermon today, I referenced John 5.

Let me point this out.

So when we talk about we confess that we believe in the resurrection of the dead, it's important to understand

something, and that is that the resurrection of the dead is not merely for

Christians.

That's the terrifying part of this.

All right.

And let me explain.

So I have to go to the Gospel of John, which means I have to slow down and read what I'm doing here.

John 5.

And so again, 24 is where I started in the sermon today.

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.

He does not come into judgment but has passed from death to life.

Always remember that, okay?

Last part, though, of this little section, Jesus says,.

Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and is now here when the dead

will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.

Now, important to note here, Christ in this first portion is

not only talking about corpses hearing the word of God.

Instead, this is dealing with the spiritual reality that we all find ourselves born into, which is

oh so fun.

And let me explain what that is using a biblical text because if I don't have a biblical text, I've got nothing

to say.

Listen to this.

And you were what?

Dead in trespasses and sins.

Now, how dead is dead here?

Okay.

Is it mostly dead?

Right?

Will Miracle Max be able to bring you back?

No.

So here's the thing.

We have to keep this in mind is that when Scripture talks about how we are

regenerated, we are raised from the dead spiritually.

So a good way to put it is this, is that everybody is physically

alive and spiritually dead when they are conceived and when they are born.

Okay?

Physically alive, spiritually dead.

Christians, then, are the only ones who are physically alive and spiritually alive

but in a body that is dying.

Okay?

In a mortal body.

Then, when we die, Christians are spiritually alive.

Truly, we are alive in Christ and we are at his throne but we are physically dead.

And here's the terrifying bit.

Since hell itself is described as death, okay, everybody who is in

hell eventually, so when we go past the resurrection, they may be physically alive but they

continue spiritually dead and dead for eternity.

So you'll note, you were dead in your trespasses and sins in what you once walked following the course of this world, following the

prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work, and the sons of disobedience.

This should sound familiar because this is our epistle text, right?

Okay?

Among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind.

And watch this.

We were by nature children of wrath like what?

The rest of mankind.

Does God owe any of us anything?

No.

Not at all.

And so you're going to note, this helps us understand a proper biblical anthropology.

Anthropology meaning a study of humans, right?

Of men.

Okay?

So biblical anthropology tells us that every one of us were born and conceived dead in trespasses and

sins and by nature children of God.

God has to do something.

So as I was pointing out in our text here, Jesus says truly, truly an hour is coming and now is

here when the dead will hear the voice of the son of God and those who hear will live.

That isn't pointing to the resurrection.

It's pointing to the preaching of the gospel.

All right?

If we're going to talk about death and resurrection, we've got to talk about the spiritual aspect of this too, right?

So when we were dead, we were not mostly dead.

We were truly dead.

Dead, dead, dead.

And here's the thing.

How active are corpses, by the way?

You're going to note, since I have been at Kongsvinger, and Don, I think this is just rude of you all, you've never

invited any of the people out in the graveyard to come in for coffee or anything like that.

Okay?

We never include them in Bible study.

What are we thinking?

Right?

You'll note that dead people don't do anything.

And so when we believe that people have the ability to

become Christians based on their own volition, this is not what the

Scripture says.

This is not what the Scripture says at all.

And so, in fact, this past week I did a, it wasn't really technically a debate, but

it kind of turned into one a little bit, on infant baptism.

These evangelicals invited me on, and I had Corey Minor playing the opposite.

I hate to say this.

I think Corey did not know what he was getting into.

He did not because there were no biblical texts that could support any of the things that he said, and so he showed up to a

sword fight with his logic.

It's like, if we're going to discuss baptism, we have to use biblical texts.

So here I am wielding the sword of the Word of God, and he's just kind of trying to poke holes in what the Scripture says.

It's like, this is not a good way to do this.

And so Ephesians 2 was one of the texts that we talked about.

And so a proper soteriology, big, highfalutin, $5 theological word.

I always like to say that if you're an aspiring seminary student and there's a

girl that you like and she's theologically minded, throw around terms like soteriology and she'll swoon for you.

Because girls that like theology are just a little bit nerdy, and that's fantastic.

The nerdy girls, I'll take them anytime.

I'd happen to marry one.

All of that being said, you'll note, anthropology is that we're all dead in trespasses and sins by nature,

children of God, and then a reminder that the word but here, it's the second word in the Greek

sentence because but is a post -positive.

That means it can't be the first word in a new sentence.

But that being the case, but God being rich in mercy, and I always like to point this out, the word God here,

theos, it's in the nominative, and my Greek students will know.

Nominative means that's the subject of the verbs, okay, what connects.

God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses and sin,

made us alive together with Christ.

Who made us alive together with Christ?

And if you say, I did because I made a freewill decision to ask Jesus into my heart, you get to wear the dunce cap.

No, okay, no.

Okay, who made us alive together with God?

Remember, theos, God, is the nominative noun in the sentence.

That means God is the one doing the doing.

God has made us alive together with Christ.

All right?

By grace you have been saved and raised us up with him.

Who raised us up with Christ?

God did.

And seated us with Christ in the heavenly places.

Who raised us up and seated us with Christ in the heavenly places?

God did.

Did you do any of that?

No.

No, not at all.

This was something given to you.

So that in the coming ages, watch this, God might show the immeasurable riches of his grace

in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.

Now, this is kind of a fun bit.

In the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace.

Have y 'all ever experienced a spoiled child,

okay, and what their parents do to them?

Okay.

Well, if you've seen the Harry Potter movies, Dursley, you know, oh, man.

Is it Dudley?

Dudley.

I mean, he's got a room full of presents.

And before he opens them, he's counting them to see if he has more than he had last year.

He has a fit if he doesn't, okay.

And so there's the Dursley parents.

They're just showering this kid with gifts.

Now, here's the thing.

In this life, that's a guaranteed lose situation.

You're supposed to discipline your children and raise them in the fear of the Lord.

Here's the thing.

In a world after the resurrection where there is no sin, God's intent is to show the

immeasurable riches of his grace.

A good way to think about it is that he's going to be a doting God who is constantly

outdoing himself and showing us the immeasurable riches of his grace in the world to come.

And since we can't get spoiled, that's kind of cool.

Okay.

And it's like, Jesus, you didn't need to give me another gift.

Oh, yes, I did because I love you so much.

And I want to show you the measurable riches of my grace.

Okay, Jesus.

Okay.

Right.

It's so awesome.

God outdoing himself constantly.

You'll note that when it comes to God's grace and mercy, his love and kindness, he doesn't sit there and go, all right, I'll just give you,

here's just a little bit of love.

Here's a little forgiveness.

Right.

No, he gives way more.

Right.

And so then we hear these words.

For by grace you have been saved through faith.

This is not your own doing.

What's not my own doing?

Being saved.

The whole thing.

The kit and caboodle.

So grace is not my own doing?

Is the faith my own doing?

Nope.

God even grants that.

And if you're struggling and sitting there going, well, what about repentance?

I mean, that's got to be my part, right?

No, not exactly.

Okay.

Let me explain.

If I were to go to Acts chapter 11, when Paul was called on the church,

called on the carpet by the circumcision party, again, the party you don't want to go to, okay, and he had to

explain himself to why he went into the house of a Gentile, okay, at the end he explains how

Cornelius and his family, they received the Holy Spirit, they were baptized, and all this kind of stuff.

And so the circumcision party, their final words were this.

Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to

life.

Oh.

And since we define, I think biblically so, that repentance is going to be comprised of two

things, true sorrow and contrition for sin as well as at the same time confident

faith that God forgives and pardons our sins.

Since faith is part of repentance, trusting in God for the forgiveness of our sins, God is the

one who has to grant it.

So when we come back then to Galatians 2, for by grace you have been saved through faith.

This is not your own doing.

It's the gift of God.

It is not a result of works.

I don't know how anybody can suffer from self -righteousness in the visible church if they would just read this text.

What do you mean it's not my own works?

What do you mean God doesn't want me to boast?

The self -righteous would be offended by this, and they are.

For we are whose workmanship?

Whose workmanship are we?

His.

God's.

If God is the one who's made us, we are his workmanship.

He's given us the faith.

He's forgiven us.

He's pardoned us.

He's done everything.

What on earth do I have to brag about?

Not a thing.

Have you guys figured out what my standard answer to when you say things like this?

That was a great sermon, Pastor.

Here's my answer.

That was a great text.

I have really good material to work with, and boy, does the Bible make me look a lot smarter than I really am.

Right?

Listen, he who plants, he who waters is nothing.

Zip. Zip. Nothing.

Right?

God is the one who...

So here's the thing.

Everything you do in life, God has given you the ability to do it.

Whether it's being an engineer, God help us.

We need those people, but man, that's a dark art.

Right?

Okay, whether it's being a computer programmer, or a delivery person, or a stay -at -home mom, or a police

officer, or a carpenter,.

Or if...

The idea here is that when you are doing your vocation, who is it that gave you the breath to

be able to breathe while you're doing it?

Who gave you the brain that makes it possible for you to understand how to do those things?

Okay?

I'm a pastor.

I'm a theologian.

I'm an apologist.

This is why I look with suspicion on people who are good with Excel spreadsheets.

But thank God somebody understands that stuff.

Right?

I do better with words in a Bible.

This is how God has made me.

But here's the thing.

The fact that I'm able to do that, it's all a gift from God.

I've received it.

You've received it.

So is there anything we can boast about?

Nothing.

And you'll note that when it comes to good works, this is an important thing.

Hang on a second.

Let me see if I can find this text real quick.

Do you feel like I'm on a soapbox and on a little bit of a rant?

I could be.

Hang on a second here.

Unworthy.

All right.

I'm going to look for the word unworthy.

And I'm going to look.

Ah, here we go.

This is a great one.

Okay.

So Jesus, will any one of you, this is Luke 17, who has a servant plowing or keeping

sheep, say to him when he comes in from the field, come at once, recline at the table.

No, this is not how servants are treated back then.

Right?

Okay?

Will he not rather say to him, prepare supper for me, dress properly, and

serve me while I eat and drink?

This is what servants do.

And afterwards, you can then eat and drink.

Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded?

Have any of you, I mean, have any of you, like, what was the name?

Remember Downton Abbey?

Okay.

But how long ago did that thing come out?

Okay.

And in the first season of Downton Abbey, I mean, they kind of show all these servants in this manor and stuff like that.

At what point did the master of the manor of Downton Abbey say thank you to any of the servants

for doing all the things that they were supposed to do?

I never heard a single thank you from any of those people.

Right?

So Christ is pointing to something here.

Okay.

So will he not rather say, prepare supper for me, dress properly, serve me while I eat and drink?

And then afterwards, you can eat and drink.

Does he thank the servant because he did what he's commanded?

No.

So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say,

we are unworthy servants.

We've only done what it was our duty.

Oh, boy.

Well, this just flips good works on its head if you're into the self -righteous thing because if you're into the self -righteous thing, you think

your works are a currency where you earn a thank you from God and an attaboy and keep it up, sir, all that kind of stuff.

At the end of the day, when you obey God's commands, you are an unworthy servant because you're

only doing what you were told to do and what's your duty.

But I didn't cheat on that test.

Good on you.

And you're still an unworthy servant.

Keep not cheating.

Right?

You kind of get the idea.

Right?

So...

Huh?

Oh, I assure you, people would riot if I preached this during a funeral.

You know, let's just say this.

I have upset a few people because the way I preach my funeral sermons, okay?

People are shocked who do not understand how funeral sermons work that I really don't spend time preaching about the

person that I preach about Jesus.

I've had people, like, legitimately get angry and call me all kinds of horrible things for doing that.

I just want to let you know it's a thing.

So when you do what you are commanded to do by God, please reference Ten Commandments, okay?

Your attitude afterwards is, well, I've only done what I've been told to do.

What's my duty?

So I'm still an unworthy servant.

And yet we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works.

They are very valuable for my neighbor, not for me.

Right?

Okay.

All right.

Let me come back here.

Coming back.

Like I said, I felt like I was on a rant.

And I think I am.

All right.

So coming back to the Gospel of John.

Still talking about the resurrection.

So truly, truly, I say to you.

So amen, amen.

Lego, hooman.

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

they will live.

For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son also to have life in Himself.

And He has given Him authority to execute judgment because He is the Son of Man.

Do not marvel at this.

For an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice

and come out those who have done good to the resurrection of life,

those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

Now I want you to think about this for a second.

We just read last week in 1 Corinthians 15 that we will all be resurrected in

bodies just like Jesus's.

These are incorruptible bodies.

These are indestructible bodies.

My body right now is far from indestructible.

It is very, very destructible.

Okay?

And I feel destruction sometimes for something stupid.

Okay?

Have you ever just bent over and went,.

Oh no, I can't get up.

Honey, it's going to be a week before I can walk again.

Okay.

I have.

It's embarrassing.

Okay?

But we, everybody, the just and the unjust are all raised in the same kind of

body that Christ was raised from the dead in.

Amen.

But here's the thing.

Those who go to the resurrection of judgment, they get tossed into the lake of fire along with Satan.

And if they're resurrected in an indestructible body, how long do they spend in the lake of

fire?

Forever.

This is what we have all earned.

I've earned this multiple times.

I've lost track of how many times I've earned this.

You've earned it.

That being the case, the mercy of Christ is huge.

It is the kindness of God that leads us to repentance.

Rather than giving us what we deserve, he gives us mercy, grace, and life all as a gift by

grace through faith.

Amen.

Right?

So you'll note then, so Christ talks about those hearing his voice and being raised from the dead

spiritually, then those hearing his voice and being raised from the dead physically.

So salvation is immeasurably amazing.

I think it's incalculable just how gracious, merciful, and kind God is

in not giving us what we deserve.

And that puts Christ's suffering on the cross on a whole different level when you consider that he truly bled and

died and suffered in the place of every human being.

It's amazing when you consider it.

Let me come back to Ezekiel 37.

Ezekiel 37.

So we read the valley of the dry bones.

So let me just, for review's sake, go back to verse 11.

So then he said to me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.

Behold, they say, our bones are dried up.

Our hope is lost.

We are indeed cut off.

Therefore prophesy and say to them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh, Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from

your graves.

And we just all do the Napoleon Dynamite reaction.

Yes.

Okay.

I will raise you from your graves, O my people.

I will bring you into the land of Israel, And you shall know that I am Yahweh.

And when I open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people, I will put my spirit within you, and you shall

live.

And I will place you in your own land, And then you shall know that I am Yahweh.

I have spoken.

I will do it, declares Yahweh.

So is this going to happen, yes or no?

Yes.

Does God ever lie?

No.

He never lies.

Ever.

Not at all.

So this is going to happen.

You can bank on it.

Okay.

Next oracle here from Ezekiel.

The word of Yahweh came to me, Son of man, take a stick and write on it, For

Judah and the people of Israel associated with him, And then take another stick and write on it, For

Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, And all the house of Israel associated with him, And join them one

to another into one stick.

And this is the days before duct tape, So I'm not sure how he's going to pull this off.

Duct tape is a miraculous product, by the way.

It can just about fix anything.

And so join them one to another into one stick, That they may become one in your hand.

And when your people say to you, Will you not tell us what you mean by these?

So the people watching Ezekiel, He's got these prophetic things that he

does.

So why are you taking two sticks And putting them in your hand And making them look like one stick?

What does that even mean, Ezekiel, right?

So here's your answer.

Thus says the Lord Yahweh, Behold, I am about to take the stick of Joseph, That is in the hand of Ephraim,

And the tribes of Israel associated with him, And I will join with it the stick of Judah, And make them

one stick, That they may be one in my hand.

And when the sticks on which you write Are in your hand before their eyes, Then say to them,

Thus says the Lord Yahweh, Behold, I will take the people of Israel From the nations among which they

have gone, I will gather them from all around And bring them to their own land,

And I will make them one nation In the land on the mountains of Israel.

Now hold on a second here, Noah.

I'm gonna note, You listen to every single dispensationalist

person, okay?

They'll say,.

This is the prophecy that was fulfilled in 1948.

God did that exact thing.

He took the Jews after World War II, And he brought them back to the land of Israel, And now they are,

Ah, this is the fulfillment of it.

And then Roseborough speaks up and goes,.

Well, not really.

What do you mean, not really?

Well, there's details that are not fitting.

Well, what do you mean there's details not fitting?

Did you read the text?

Yes, I read the text, But I stopped right there at the end of verse 21.

You should keep reading.

What do you mean I should keep reading?

Well, when you keep reading, You can recognize that this can't be 1948.

This has to be talking about a future event.

And by the way, Who is Israel according to the New Testament?

Y 'all are.

Y 'all have been grafted into Israel.

Mazel tov.

So verse 22, I will make them one nation In the land on the mountains of Israel, And one

king shall be king over them all, And they shall no longer be two nations And no longer

divided into two kingdoms.

They shall not defile themselves anymore With their idols and their detestable things Or with

any of their transgressions, But I will save them from all the backslidings In which they have sinned,

And will cleanse them, And they shall be My people, And I will be their God.

Does this sound like 1948 to you?

Nope.

Okay?

This is like when I get up in the dark.

And I try to put my socks on without light.

Okay?

And then I'm shocked to see That I've got pirate socks on one leg And I've got shamrocks on the other.

It's kind of embarrassing, okay?

They don't go together.

Not that I've ever done that.

Ever.

No.

I put my socks on in the light today.

My wife has started doing something, I think, out of mercy.

And so when she takes the laundry Out of the dryer now, She doesn't just throw my socks Into

my sock bin.

I have a bin.

And she actually takes them and goes, Okay, this sock goes with this sock, And she folds them together.

It's idiot -proof.

It's glorious.

Okay?

So the embarrassing things that I was doing While she was away in Florida Will not be happening anymore.

As long as she's around.

May God give her long life.

Okay.

Anyway, you get the idea.

So when we read the rest of this text, Is there a king over the people of Israel right now?

Which king do you think that's referring to?

Jesus.

Okay?

That's referring to Jesus.

Okay?

They will no longer, And by the way, he says all of the tribes of Israel.

Currently, okay, If you were to travel to Israel, And you ask the people living there,

What tribe do they trace themselves back to?

What's the majority three that they're going to talk about?

Judah's one.

The Kohens, that's the Levites.

Okay, so Kohen in Hebrew means priest.

So those are your Levites.

And then the third are going to be your Benjamites.

Now you might get somebody who claims to have, You know,

relations going back to Simeon or Naphtali, But they are rare, really rare.

Okay?

Because what happened to the northern kingdom?

God evicted them.

They got the eviction notice, And God brutally just marched them out, Just scraped them right out of there.

And the people who were left were kind of half -breeds Between Syrians and Jews,

or Israelites, And they became the Samaritans.

Okay?

So that being the case, there's not a lot of people who can trace.

But here God is talking about the restoration of all of the tribes of Israel.

Northern kingdom, southern kingdom, has that happened?

No, it hasn't.

Okay, and they shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols.

Well, has that stopped?

No, it hasn't.

You'll note that Tel Aviv is not known for its morals.

Even among Jews, Tel Aviv is the city that you go to If you want to kind of live a loose sexual

lifestyle.

So that's still happening.

They still defile themselves.

Have they abandoned the false teaching of the Pharisees?

And the Talmuds?

Nope, they haven't done any of that either.

This clearly isn't talking about 1948.

So when did this happen?

It didn't happen yet.

When will it happen?

The resurrection.

And here I'd like to point this out.

Y 'all don't know which tribe you're in, by the way.

I don't know which tribe I'm in.

And I don't get to pick my own.

So, you know, if I had to pick, I'd pick Gryffindor.

But that's a different story.

Is that a tribe?

Never mind.

Right, right.

Roseboro is the first of the new house of God, known as the house of Gryffindor.

Slytherins are not permitted.

Just saying.

All right, and then God says, I will save them from all their backslidings.

And here I've got to reiterate.

Backsliding is not, first and foremost, dealing with people who dance, drink, smoke, or

chew.

Backsliding is backsliding by not hearing the word of God, not believing it, and believing falsely

and embracing idolatry.

That's what backsliding is all about.

I will save them from all their backslidings in which they have sinned.

I will cleanse them.

Who does the cleansing again?

God does.

Note when it comes to salvation, who's running all the active verbs?

God is.

And by the way, in the Greek and the Hebrew, when it comes to salvation, we on the receiving end, all of our

verbs are passive.

We are receiving these things from God.

We are not actively doing them.

They shall be my people.

I will be my God.

And oh, it continues, my servant David shall be king over them and they shall all have one shepherd.

The people of Israel today, are they known for their love of Jesus?

No.

As a whole, 8 % of the people living in Israel believe in Christ.

8%.

And most of them are people visiting.

Okay?

Right?

8%.

Okay?

My servant David shall be king over them and they shall all have one shepherd.

They shall walk in my rules, be careful to obey my statutes.

They shall dwell in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob where your fathers lived.

They and their children and their children's children shall dwell there forever.

And David my servant shall be their prince forever.

Now here we go again.

This makes it sound like there's procreation in the new earth.

There is.

Marriage is not the institution.

I don't know what the institution is.

I just keep telling you.

We Lutherans, we have this thing that we do.

Are you ready?

Here's the thing that we do.

When we have texts, we believe the texts.

When we have no texts, we don't say, let me figure it out using logic.

Okay?

It just doesn't work that way.

The stork will bring them.

Right.

See, Maryland, that sounds perfectly reasonable.

Not exactly, but you get the idea.

Okay?

So the idea here is this.

There's children and children's children and they're dwelling forever.

David shall be their prince forever.

That's Jesus.

I don't know how the arrangement's gonna be.

I just don't know.

So let me give you an example.

So in theology, there is a problem and it is such a well

-known theological problem, it has a label.

And the label for the problem is this.

It's called the crux theologorum.

Crux theologorum in Latin means the theologian's cross.

All right?

And so here's just the questions for the crux theologorum.

When the gospel is preached, like for instance, when Paul went into a synagogue and he

preached and showed them for months from the word of God that the Messiah is Jesus, they rose from the

dead, he fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament.

Here's the question.

Why is it that some believed and some not only didn't believe,

became hostile and tried to kill him?

Why is it that when the gospel was preached, some believed and some didn't?

Okay?

Calvinist.

They've come up with a solution.

Here's the solution.

Well, we got together, and using the laws of logic, we put a syllogism together, and we

figured it out.

We believe that people are predestined to believe in God and that they are elect,

and if anybody isn't elect from God, they're elect to damnation, and that's the reason why they don't believe.

Well, it's just that you're right.

They only used half the biblical facts, and then they kind of, like, fabricated the rest with logic and silly

putty and tin foil and some duct tape.

Okay?

And so Lutheran sits there and goes, you cheated.

What do you mean we cheated?

The Bible nowhere teaches that people are destined to damnation.

There's no biblical text that says it.

Well, it has to be true because that's the only thing that makes logical sense, they say.

And so as young Mr. DeBoer pointed out,

they got half the facts, right, and I pointed out they fabricated the rest, okay?

The people on the other end of the spectrum here who believe that you have to make a free will decision,

they've created a doctrine as well, all right?

And the doctrine is called Provenient Grace.

And so here's how Provenient Grace works.

They say in order to become a Christian, you must make a free will decision to accept Jesus.

But because we are dead in trespasses and sins, we cannot choose Jesus, so they've invented this brand

new doctrine.

You can't find it in the Bible, and it's called Provenient Grace.

And here's how it works.

God takes your sinful nature and hits the pause button.

And the pause button lasts for only a short amount of time, and while you're paused, you can make a decision for Jesus.

Okay?

I kid you not, okay?

Don.

Provenient.

Grace, how sweet the sound that paused.

The sinner like me.

Wow.

Please send that to me.

It's on Discord.

Good, okay, good.

Okay, that means I have to log into Discord again.

Right?

Now, by the way, how did the Lutherans solve the crux theologorum?

Answer, we don't.

Okay?

Instead, we embrace what the Scripture says, and it seems contradictory.

Scripture says Christ died for the sins of what?

The whole world.

It's not his will that who should perish?

Any should perish.

We embrace that.

And it's also true that everybody who goes to hell, it is their own damn fault.

How is that possible?

That's contradictory.

I don't know.

I have biblical texts that say both, and so the crux theologorum, the Lutheran just sits there and goes, I'm just gonna confess what the

text says and not solve the problem.

Call me lazy.

Okay?

So the idea here is that we're bound by the Word, and that also means we're bound by the limits of

what God reveals in his Word, and if he doesn't reveal something, we don't sit there and go, let me figure it out.

I'll speculate for you.

Okay?

This cracks me up when people say, you know, infants can't have faith.

Well, John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit when he was an infant, and Jesus says, unless you have the faith of a child, infant in

Greek, then you can't even be saved.

So I'm pretty sure that infants can have faith, plus they have that whole psalm that says, from my mother's breast you cause me to

trust in you.

Right?

Well, how is that even possible?

I don't know.

The God who raised Jesus from the dead might be able to give life to dead sinners as well, even if they're infants.

Just saying.

Right?

Yes.

Well, because the scriptures teach the doctrine of the Trinity.

Oh, I don't know.

See, that's the thing.

So many Calvinists have kind of mixed in sound doctrine, biblically, with stuff that's based on logic

and that you just can't do that.

All right, I have to end here because I gotta head off to Emmanuel.

So, good to see you all.

Lord willing, we will see you all next week.

Peace.