Sunday School - Patial Notes On Matt 7 - Part 4

Let's pray as we study God's word. Father, we thank you for coordinating this work, instructing us through your word, leading us along the ground.

Lord, we thank you for all the other teachings and instruction that's happening in this house today as well. We pray,

Lord, that you help us to have an unbinded heart, attention towards the call of thy commandments and the counsel of thy word.

Bless us with those on our way. Pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. So we're going to continue a little bit on our notes.

As a reminder, next week actually we're going to be changing the synodic school format for three weeks.

We're going to be teaching on baptism as we're evaluating the doctrine of the church in relation to baptism.

We're going to be studying more definitely how we can teach two of those lessons and then probably teach one of them as well.

So we'll be talking to you about baptism as we're joining the synodic school for the adults next week or about three weeks.

But today we're going to continue on my notes on Matthew 7. Did you all get the notes here?

Now this one is a scripture -based psalm of Matthew 7. I would actually say it's probably the scariest, one of the scariest texts of life.

And you'll know why in a second if you're reading it. Matthew 7 .21 says that everyone that says the psalm to me,

Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. But he that does it will look like a father, which is in heaven.

The companion to that, or the parallel to that, Luke 6, verse 26 says, And why call you

Lord, Lord, and do not do the things which I say? Why would that text be so scary?

Or why should it be scary? Because we should fall in that category of saying

Lord, Lord. Yeah, do you call Jesus Lord? You do. You've got to watch your life.

Emmanuel, do you have something? Oh, yes. It's very possible to,

I guess, fall into orthodoxy and be self -deceived. Yeah. Deception. All kinds of whatever it is.

Did it fall teaching or lifestyle? Categorized in that same ditch that Jesus talks about here.

He says, is that what they call me, Lord, Lord? You know what's scary about that? He says talk about people.

Generally, he says talk about people who think they're a believer. He says talk about people who think they're a believer. He says talk about people who think they're a believer.

He's talking about people who call him Lord. Who think they're

Christians. Who think that they are on his side. Who think they're going to go to heaven when they die.

He says, and then everyone says Lord, Lord, but he just does what?

The will of my Father. The will of my Father. Now, within some circles in general, there's a lot of folks that fall into the hyper grace category and didn't know what hyper grace is.

I kind of heard about it. Basically, the idea the idea is they're taking grace to the point where since I'm in Christ and he sees me holy, therefore, this is a nutshell.

Therefore, everything I do is seen as holy. But more particularly than that, grace basically teaches that.

It teaches that false dichotomy of Romans 6. If I sin, grace will not.

Right? So it doesn't matter how much I sin, because grace is always going to come out more.

The more sin, the more grace. That's hyper grace. It doesn't matter how

I live, essentially. Grace will always win the day. That's true in principle.

Grace will always win the day for the believer, but it will always win the day for the unbeliever.

And that's what Jesus is addressing here. It is an unbelieving sin. So don't think this is a Christian. It's not really a

Christian. I would say it's taken on the magnitude of Christianity without responsibility.

Which is the most common form of Christianity today. The key principle of this parable is the doing or acting upon the words of God or the will of God.

Jesus says, but the one that does the will of my Father. The reason I bring up this hyper grace is because people say that a lot of evangelicals think it's heresy if we talk about doing or repentance.

Right. If we talk anything about doing, literally in my previous church, one of the leaders, he says, you talk too much about worse.

You're always talking about worse. You're always talking about doing, doing, doing, and we're covered by grace.

And that really worried me. Because it's a fundamental misunderstanding of our relationship between worse and grace.

There is a lot of doing in the next verse. Yeah. It's doing under a false assumption.

True. True. That's right. And so what's at stake here is is knowing the will of God and doing it.

Jesus puts it this way in John 23, in the high priestly prayer. Anyone know that verse by memory?

John 17, 3. This is eternal life. There, knowing you, the only true

God. And then what you said, Jesus Christ. And so Jesus says, this is eternal life.

Here's what it is. Knowing. Knowing you, the only true

God. That's eternal life. Eternal life is being in a relationship with God. Being in a relationship with Christ.

Knowing Him. Thereby knowing His will for us. The Bible says in 1

John 2, verse 15, that the world is passed away, so are its desires, for he who does his will,

God, shall abide forever. That's John 2, 1 John 2. It says the world is passed away, but what stands forever?

The Word of God. The Word of God. And those who obey the will of God, they shall abide forever.

That's eternal life. There, knowing you, the only true God. Knowing God. Knowing His will.

That's eternal life. And so therefore, that's the great distinction between the one who is in Christ and the one who is not in Christ.

The one who thinks he's in Christ may not truly know

God. Not be truly present in a relationship with God.

And we can distinguish this person by what he eats.

Remember, that's what was preceding this whole conversation that has led up to Matthew 1, verse 1.

Christ is shut up. Christ is nullified by the fruit. Good fruit resists good fruit.

Bad fruit resists bad fruit. This is talking about, you know, some of the commentaries think this is talking about two types of Christians.

I don't think that's the case. I don't think that this is a discussion of two types of Christians. Good Christian and bad Christian. If you've ever read this book,

I forget who's the author, it's called Bad Christian. I can't remember who's the author.

But the whole premise of the book is that there's two types of Christians.

There's good Christian and there's the bad Christian. So you're still a Christian. And I agree to some extent.

But I think we're all categorizing

Christians in two camps. That's not helpful. And it creates a false dichotomy.

And so Jesus says again in Luke's version of this account, Luke 6, verse 6,

Why call me Lord if you do not do the thing which I say? And so the key principle of this verse is in the doing or acting of the words of God.

Jesus says Why don't you do the things which I say? So the words.

You're listening, but you're not doing. I've heard we've all felt that.

When you tell your child what to do, they don't do it. So why didn't you listen to me?

Why didn't you do as I said? And Jesus is essentially saying that there are people who listen and hear

Him who hear but don't do. And that's what Christ's concern is here.

Why do you call me Lord if you don't do the things which I say? Now what's interesting is the connection between the title

Lord and doing the things which I say. Because a

Lord in the ancient world was someone who had great authority over the Lord's business or the government.

You had a lot of authority, so what you said carried weight and it was expected to be done.

And yet, as it is usually the case in religious contexts in life, we treat commandments as mere suggestions.

Right? Whereas you wouldn't treat your boss with such indignation and disrespect when he asked you to do something.

And Jesus brings this up in that context. Why do you call me Lord, Supreme, King, but you're not doing the things which

I say? You're not treating me as a Lord. You're not observing me as a Lord. You're not in relationship with me as a

Lord. Because He's saying that you're not doing what you have to do. Because if you truly believe that I'm a

Lord, you listen and obey. And that's the heart of the crisis.

Bringing you here to life. Any questions so far?

Thoughts? It's interesting that this is so early in his ministry.

I just now thought about it that he's saying to do the things I say, but he's just come out of the wilderness, right, at this point.

This is the end of the Sermon on the Mount and immediately after the Temptations. He hasn't said that much, so it's kind of prospective.

He's got a couple years and he's going to say more. That's right. But he's clearly establishing himself as Lord, right?

He's not mincing words here. He's not seeker -sensitive kind of guy.

Where he's like, well, if you want to follow me, that'd be great, but hopefully it works out for you, because he's establishing himself as Lord.

You know, this is a key concept that's taught throughout the Bible as well, not just in the New Testament but in the

Old Testament as well. When Israel received the commandments of God on Sinai, one of the key words that's used often is a

Hebrew word called Shema. Anyone know what the word Shema means in Hebrew? What does it mean?

Hear. What else? Obey. Hear, obey, listen. Right?

So it's used quite a bit, actually. In the New Testament actually, there's a different word that's used, obviously it's a different language, but it's also used as a word in general with a similar connotation.

The New Testament uses the word look. Look, see.

So the Old Testament was listen, New Testament says look, see. And these are both very much connected.

What's interesting is that in the Old Testament, when the word Shema was used, it was often used almost in a double sentence.

Shema, Shema, listen, hear, hear. It is essentially a command.

It's a command to listen. It's a command to obey. So it's not just hearing.

The Shema doesn't mean to listen and maybe you do, but the concept behind the word

Shema, as it is similarly used in the New Testament, the word look is used in the

New Testament, is to listen so that you may be observed.

Look so that you may see and observe. So for instance, one of the great things I love in Revelation is,

Revelation chapter 21, there's a scene where you have these miracles presented and God says, look,

I'm making all things new. Look, see, I'm doing this.

This is what our minds are producing. Look so that you may believe. Look so that you may do.

And that's why actually the way Revelation poses a command, did you know that? Revelation poses a command.

And so the key to the word is these prophecies. And so it actually begins with that command too,

Revelation chapter 1 verse 3. It says, blessed are those who obey the words of the prophets. And it closes with the same blessing that I mentioned off in the morning after changing the words of the book.

And so the doctrine of Ecclesiastes is a concept throughout the Bible of listening, looking, not just the intent of observing passively, but to engage in what

God has commanded. And so this is exactly what we're teaching in Paul's Shema, which says, if you hear obey, then these great blessings will follow you.

But if you don't obey these words, then these curses will follow you. Now, where did we find the idea of blessing and cursing in the

Old Testament? Leviticus? Deuteronomy. Why don't you turn to Deuteronomy chapter 31?

Actually chapter 30. Deuteronomy 30. It started in verse 15.

Deuteronomy 30 says in verse 15, Let's stop there for a moment.

God says, I set before you life and death, blessings and curses. He says, if you obey, if you keep

His commands, then you shall live and multiply, and you will be blessed in the land that He has given you to inherit.

And so the idea of the covenant blessing that God established in Zion demonstrates that part of the equation to having all the blessings afforded by the covenant was obedience.

It says in verse 15, But if your heart turns away and you are not heard, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them,

I declare you today that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going to inherit or to possess.

And I call the heaven and earth to witness against you today that I set before you life and death, blessing and curse.

Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live in love with the Lord your God, obeying

His voice, holding fast to Him. For He is your life in the length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the

Lord has sworn to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give you. And so the covenant blessing had two conditions.

You can obey and if you obey you can be blessed.

But if you disobey, you'll be cursed. What does that mean to be cursed? What does that mean to be cursed?

Wasn't there the punishment that the curse would be, they would get the plagues of Egypt?

Yeah, right. So if our hearts got to some of the calamities that the

Lord brought to Egypt, certainly. But there's a deeper connection here in regards to God saying what

God has protected His people from in the covenant, even in the New Testament covenant, is the effects of the curse of Adam.

Okay. And God has given His people a covering in His covenant.

But He said, if you disobey, you're not going to be blessed, but the effects of the curse will be on you, full force.

You'll be cut off from the land, you'll be just like God had in the Garden. You will not live long, just like God cut short the days of Adam, He'll cut short your days as well.

You see the parallels that's there? He's allowing them to be engaged fully in the transgression of Adam by removing the blessing if they are not obedient.

But if they're obedient, God says, I'm going to let you live long in the land.

So instead of removing you from the land, you're going to inherit it and you're going to live it long, unlike God in the

Garden. You're going to also possess and multiply, what was

God's commandment in the Garden? Multiply. And then also the land that you're entering will be blessed as well.

What happens in the Garden? The thorns and the mistletoe invade the land. But the parallels appear clearly, and so the

Lord is saying to the people, if you don't obey me, I'm going to hand you over to this curse.

But if you listen and obey, I'll spare you, not all of you, but I'm going to spare you from many of the woes of Adam's transgression,

Adam's curse. So blessing and curse, grace and disobedience, all of that fullness of labor in Deuteronomy chapter 3.

It's really magnificent. And I would say, I would pretend to that the principle in Deuteronomy 3 is still true today.

The principle of Deuteronomy 3. What do I mean by that? I mean, just as Jesus says, why do you call me

Lord? If you're a Christian, you do hold

Christ in your hands. And you know what? He'll bless you. He'll bless you.

He never promises... So here's an interesting thing.

Jesus says in Matthew 10, let's turn there for a moment. Mark 10,

Mark 10. Let's look at verse 3.

Turn to verse 1. Peter says, See, we have left everything in all of you.

Jesus said, Truly I say to you, there is no one who has not a house, or brothers, or sisters, or mother, or author, or children, or lands for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, or lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come, eternal life.

Many who are first will be last, and last will be first. What did Jesus preach there? Blessing.

The blessing of obedience. If you follow Christ, He's saying, you will receive a hundred times more.

Now, this is all related in the prosperity gospel, saying, we seek God to be help, wealth, prospering, get that regular labor you need, get that regular 3 ,000 square pounds, that's all you want for today.

Is that what he's teaching here? No. He does say blessing, but also what's mixed in there?

What's the blessing? Persecution. Right? And then persecution actually is my blessing.

So, God says, I'm going to promise you, yes, houses, inheritance, brothers, sisters, you can church, so I'm going to bless you in church.

So, if we're leaving brothers and sisters, he's saying, we're going to get a hundred times more, because you're going to become almost a brother to the church.

And you'll still, and God will bless you, even in the midst of persecution, he's saying. So, persecution is not a sign of not being blessed, it's a sign of not being blessed.

But the point here is, Jesus is still saying, if you obey me, if you follow me, for the sake of the gospel, you will be blessed.

He never promises not to bless people. So, on the other side of obedience, it's always blessing.

God says, if you listen, if you obey, I will bless you. Okay? And so, when you ask yourself the question, like, between through your heart and heart,

John, you ask yourself, you know what? Will God bless me? And God blesses obedience, even when it's hard.

Any thoughts or questions on that? Yes. What I just read.

Many more verses in the last verse. It means that, you know, if you're the first in line at lunch, you're going to be blessed.

Yes. I was going to say, we went to Israel years ago, and we were visiting the

Knesset, and the Jewish man that led us in was a Christian.

Because he saw we were with a Christian group, and he said, yes, but the first will be last, and the last will be first.

And he said, I'm a Christian also. He was Jewish, but he was talking about Israel until the fullness of the

Gentiles came in. You know, one way to look at that is when

Jesus says, the first shall be last, and the last shall be first. This is kind of talking about priding positions in life.

It's going to be true that those who are kind of self -indulgent, who are the first ones to put so much pride in one's possessions will all be the last ones in the kingdom of heaven.

I think this is talking about generally Christians. I don't think this is talking about people who are not saved, saved or unsaved.

This is talking about the economics of God's kingdom, that many who and this is why

Jesus tells us in Psalms when we were fighting about what was the greatest. Right? He says, this is going to be at your right hand.

This is going to be the greatest among us in the kingdom of heaven. And he says a similar true statement in that regard.

You know, the first is going to be last. If you're going to be the first one, if you're going to be the one in life now, you know, check your heart because you may be last.

Right? So, I think generally what Christ is teaching here is humility. Right?

So, it's okay to not be the first one. I try to teach my kids that, right? My son, Eli, is really competitive and he always wants to win.

He always wants to be first place. And that's not always a good mentality to have because it can create pride and other things that can complicate your life later on.

Is that going to help? Yes. Oh, I was going to say, can it also mean like serving?

Yeah, sure. This is a application. And I'd have to say more in depth to make a definitive statement as to what was the exact context of that statement.

But certainly, there's a wide application for it. That's smart.

That's smart. Now, what do you think the word

Lord means? Give me the answer, Trevor. Give me some words that come to your mind.

Yeah. Yeah. So, you know there's actually a couple of words in the Greek to describe a similar position.

So, the word that's used and used most probably is Prius. And Prius is used kind of in a couple different ways.

It can mean Lord as in someone who is very similar to how like in Spanish culture we use the word

Lord. The word Lord is Señor. Now, if you are treated to someone who is older than you, you call them

Señor. It's tied to respect or dignity. Señor can also mean someone who has property, kind of like an

English way of interpreting Lord as someone who has property. But it also, again, in the

New Testament, it's used that way as someone who is just kind of respected and dignity.

But it's also used in a very particular way as it relates to Jesus. So, in the New Testament, unlike the

Hebrew Bible, we don't have a way of translating

God's name. So, in the Old Testament, God's name is what? Yahweh.

Yahuah. Yuhay. Tetragrammaton. Now, those four letters don't appear in the

New Testament. Actually, that's not true. It does appear four times in the shortened form, so the word hallelujah in the

Greek. You know, sometimes when you read the true English readings of hallelujah, you have the

H -A -L -L -E that hallelujah, and then you've got alleluia, A, that's spelled with A.

That's because it's a translation of the Hebrew versus the Greek. And the

Greek word for alleluia, alleluia, is used four times. And at the end of that phrase is a shortened form of the my name,

Yahweh. And in Hebrew, it's Yah, and in Greek, it would be translated as I -A -O,

I -O. So the tetragrammaton technically is the sentence in the

New Testament, but generally speaking, the New Testament does not bring over the

Hebrew reading of God. Instead, what the New Testament writers seem to have done is take the divine name and kind of either substitute it or translate it as kurios.

And we know this because when the New Testament writers look at the Old Testament, and the name Jehovah, Yahweh, is there, it's often in the text.

It's a Hebrew word. Now, why is that significant? Because the New Testament writers,

I think, were trying to do all they could to associate Jesus with the

Yahweh of the Old Testament. So that when we say Jesus is Lord, we're actually saying Jesus is Yahweh.

Jesus is Jehovah. That's what the New Testament writers were attempting to do by using the title

Lord in relation to Jesus and also in relation to the tetragrammaton of the Hebrew Bible.

Does that make sense? So this is important because when

Jesus calls himself Lord, I believe he's not just claiming to be someone of some form.

He's not just a sir. He's not just a master. He is a master. He does everyone.

He is the Lord of all the Old Testament. Does that make sense? But the

Lord does mean master. I mean, it's a boss, it's a mercyer, a person who has authority over you, who can tell you what to do.

So that's a general rule of thumb. Whether we're talking about Jesus as Yahweh or we're just talking about him as Lord, depending on the colloquial understanding of the day, it still means someone who has authority over you.

And so the only thing that I call Jesus Lord of your mouth is impressing him or God because anyone can say that.

Now one of my favorite scriptures that I share awfully with my believers is from Romans 10 and 9. Does anyone know what

Romans 10 and 9 says? If thou wilt confess thy mouth before Jesus, leading thy heart like us, raising up the dead, thou shalt be saved.

It's a great salvation text that I always go to because it lays out beautifully how one is to be saved.

You confess your mouth. What else needs to be accompanied? The heart.

And that's where so many people fail. That's what Jesus is addressing. There are many who lift their mouth saying,

Lord, Lord. But I truly believe in their heart that God has raised this one from the dead.

So I had a great experience yesterday. I was... I spoke to a

Muslim for about an hour. So if you go to the malls nowadays, you're going to see tables, free speech areas.

And the Jehovah's Witnesses are all on those tables. But they had another group that was there that said the

Jehovah's Witnesses were a Muslim group. Man, I thought they were Christians for a second. The guy was wearing an American hat.

And, you know, he was talking. He was very evangelistic. That's on the table. It was the

Prom. It was Islam and all this stuff. And I was just fascinated by it. It's such an engagement.

We talked for over an hour at the table. And one of the reasons

I brought this up is because the Muslim and I think it was

Mustafa. Maybe it was Mustafa. We were talking about the basis by which God completed it.

Because they're saying God is merciful and God, you know, they're from a repentance. And this is almost like a gospel presentation.

But I said, on what basis can God complete it? On what basis?

What he came down to, he said, well, we have to we have to repent. We have to be held accountable.

And that's why it's so important that we submit to God. And he has this little sheet in there that shows the five pillars of Islam.

You know what I mean by Islam? Islam has five pillars. Which essentially is the five steps to having a right standing before God.

And I said, have you kept these five pillars? He says, no.

He says, of course not. I'm like, well, that's good to know. But that also means you're in trouble. Because I'm in trouble.

I can't keep five pillars of Islam. You can't keep five pillars of Islam. So what do we do? On what basis can God give us?

Well, you have to repent of your sins. Okay, repent of my sins. What am I breaking and what am I going to do? What if I die and it's a great one of these commandments and I don't have time to repent?

Where do I go? Right? They can't answer this question because again, they have no basis for forgiveness.

And it's because they don't believe that Jesus is Lord. They don't believe that Jesus was raised from the dead.

They don't believe that Jesus is the atoning Messiah for our sins of humanity. And what it really comes down to is issue authority.

And that's my closing argument with Mustafa, this Muslim man. My closing argument with him as we're talking is we have two different affordances.

You follow Muhammad, I follow Jesus. Jesus said these things that are recorded in the Bible. Here comes

Muhammad 500 years later, not living in Jerusalem, not speaking the language, telling us what Jesus actually said.

Who am I going to trust? Jesus, the New Testament Christ, or Muhammad, who comes 500 years after the fact?

Did he speak the language? Had I never prior to that even been in Israel? Why should

I trust in him when I have the authority to be the Lord of the Jews? He's Lord.

He's Lord. That's my closing argument. Come to know

Jesus as Lord. He was kind enough to let me take a picture of him. Did he answer that?

That's Mustafa there at the wall. Remember the writing from Mustafa?

He had his shirt on. Yeah. Did he answer that last question? Which one?

Why would you trust Muhammad, who was never there and doesn't speak the language? He was kind of really rare with that.

He said, basically, he looked up at the ground and was like, how many languages do you have in the original

Bible? I said, the original writing of all?

You don't understand the Bible. It's not a book. It's a collection of books. There's 66 books here written over 50 hundred years by 40 different authors.

I said, you don't understand the Bible. Because the book of Islam, the Quran, it's not a collection of books.

It's actually one word, one rendition, and it was never even written in the time of Muhammad.

Muhammad had recited it. And that was the way in which it was passed down from Muhammad's generation to the next generation.

It was different than the Quran. It was all through a verbal tradition. And so, he was trying to make that as an argument to say, well, we can trust the

Quran because we have the original Quran because it was recited and it was under a chain of...

And then you guys have so many manuscripts, various translations. And I said, I don't have time to get into this completely.

I said, next time we can exchange a little information. And he gave me a challenge. He said, if you can prove that there's an insistency in this book,

I will leave Islam and I'll become a Christian. And I said, deal. Yeah. So...

We studied some of the Muslim doctrines a couple years ago in Sunday school. And I don't quite know how to describe it.

They don't understand the Quran as something that was developed. It was like, it was always

Allah's work. And so it comes down in one piece. Boom. And that's how they get away from the redemptive story.

In comparative religions, an imam came to our class and he said, when we asked him about it, he said, it's presumptions to think that Allah will forgive you.

It's wickedness to believe he won't. What? It's almost like the

Catholic where you find out if your cup had enough righteousness in it, you could go to heaven instead of purgatory.

And he kept saying that our position was inconsistent. And we focused primarily on the merits of the redemptive doctrines of Jesus Christ.

The Muslims don't believe that Jesus died with the cross. The Quran says he did not appear to die.

He didn't die. Some scholars theorize that it was actually Judas that got replaced.

So God swapped Jesus with Judas, and that means Judas got the cross. And that's because the best army in the world at the time was

King Kabul. I mean, you could trick them. Right. And so we have to consider the way that Christ died, the way that he rose from the dead, obviously.

Now, interestingly enough, they do believe in an ascension that God had taken Jesus to heaven.

So he never died, but he was taken to heaven. They believe in a weird ascension, which is not the true ascension.

And so we're going to hear what it came down to. Who do you trust? You can trust Muhammad, or you're going to trust Jesus because Jesus spoke and spoke his word.

And we can trust that. We can trust the revelation of his word. And that's why it's so important that we, as Christians, recognize his authority.

He has spoken and given us his word. And we are to follow him not just by claiming that we're

Muslims, but believing in our heart. And what's interesting from Romans 10 is that what results, the

Bible says, is a, let me read that to you from Romans 10. It says in Romans chapter 10 verse 9,

Because if you confess your mouth, that Jesus is Lord of the earth, and now raised from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified.

And with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the scripture says, everyone who believes in him will not come to shame.

For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. For the same Lord is the Lord of all, the same as the riches of all, all of them.

For everyone who calls the name of the Lord will be saved. So what results in believing in one's heart is justification.

And when one speaks with their mouth, what results is salvation. Now what's interesting is notice the order in verse 9.

In verse 9 the order is confessing your mouth and believing in one's spoken word. Mouth.

Mouth. Mouth. Heart. You see this almost weird flipping of the scenario.

Because one can't truly confess their mouth unless they believe in their God. But it's when the heart and mouth aligns, that's which results not only in justification but in salvation.

Really the law is the word of God through the redeeming word of Jesus and the word of the

Holy Ghost. Any questions so far? Let's turn over to the next page.

Now there is a blessing for those that obey. And there is a curse for those that don't obey.

James makes the same point when he says in James chapter 1.

But be doers of the word and not only hearers. If you're only hearer of the word,

James, what are you? Fool and also deceived.

You're deceived. But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

For if any be a hearer of the word, but not a doer, he is like a man beholding his natural face in a glass.

He beholds himself and goes his way and surely forgets what manner of man he was.

But whoso looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the word, this man shall be blessed in his day.

Not very different from what God promises in our own chapter 3. Neither at all.

James continues on this shaman by adding that it's not enough to only hear

God's word, but also we are required to do or keep this.

Now let me ask this fundamental question. We are all reformed and we believe in that it is by grace alone.

How does this not contradict Solomon? How does this not contradict by grace alone?

Because we are taught about hearing, obeying, worse. Yes. I believe what keeps it consistent is the regeneration of the

Holy Spirit. Say that again. I believe what keeps it consistent is the regeneration of the

Holy Spirit. So you're saying God expounded that a little more.

The only reason why people engage in good works is because they've been regenerated and since God regenerates them, they believe.

The good works would flow through what the Lord Jesus has done for the Holy Spirit in their lives.

It wouldn't add to our salvation if he says so. That's right. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9.

By grace you've been saved through faith not by what you say and what you boast. The next verse says that we're saved for good works which

God prepared in the next day's walk. There's no conflict. They're together.

You're saved by grace. You want to follow and do what Jesus says. Why do you do it? To be saved? No, you're saved by grace.

Because of that grace. That's right. He said that we are enabled by the

Holy Spirit but it's also freely given in the word what those things are.

Amen. So we're not saved by obedience but obedience is a sign that we're saved.

That's the difference. That's what was appealing to the Muslim yesterday.

There's not enough good works to appease God. To appease God. You can do as many works as you can but it's still beyond because God requires perfection.

Where does it say that God requires perfection? I said the Lord Jesus Christ the great prophet he said be perfect just as your

Father in heaven is perfect. God requires perfection. God's law according to the revelation of his word says the law of the

Lord is good righteous, holy, perfect. And that's the standard.

And so even the Muslim can't be consistent because he thinks well God, he's merciful, he has no basis for forgiveness.

That God can forgive him has no basis for forgiveness. Because there hasn't been a satisfaction of righteousness that has been made so that God can forgive.

And that's the great error of this law. There's no basis for all to be good.

There's no basis for it. In Christianity we have a basis for it because there was another righteous one who paid our debt and it is through his perfect obedience, through his perfect love that we may have life.

But it's in that conversion of receiving the ransom and sacrifice of Jesus Christ that we receive this grace and it's grace that leads us on to good mortal obedience.

Does that make sense? The Quran only describes Allah. It never really says what he does.

That's why you're saying it has no basis because there's no description of this person, if you will.

But it's kind of sketchy. There's no narrative of what he's actually done in history.

Why would he forgive? What has he done to appease his own wrath?

That's right. It says in Quran chapter 6 verse 3 and 4

Here Therefore Here Here therefore for this reason and observe to do it

Notice what's happening here is observing to do that it may be well with you and that you may increase mightily as the

Lord your God your Father has promised you in the land that flows with no kind. Here always always

The Lord our God is one Lord. And so the command is the greatest command which the

Muslim they also have a similar confession. I think the greatest confession, the greatest article of Islam says that Allah is one.

That there is no God but Allah. And so they did what their view is.

We also got a little bit into a tip of the hat with the trinity. They said you don't believe that God is one you believe the

Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. That's three. That's three gods. And he thought because it wasn't logical to him that therefore it can't be consistent and therefore it can't be true because it has to be logical it has to be consistent.

And I said you know sit down with me for a little bit longer and you know we'll help you out with that.

The Lord, what is at the heart of the Christian faith is the trinity of Islam.

The New Testament writer Paul, he puts it this way in 1 Corinthians chapter 8. He says but Allah's God is a trinity of one

Lord Jesus Christ. And there is but one God, the Father. Through whom, for whom, by whom all things exist.

He has given us the trinity of Islam there in the text. One Lord, one God. Elsewhere Paul even talks about in 1

Corinthians chapter 8. One Father and one

Spirit. Well, these are three persons. Father, Son, and Spirit.

Yet verses in Romans 6, it's still true. The Lord, our

God, is one. One Lord. We're not talking about three gods we're not talking about three gods, we're talking about three divine persons.

Co -being, sharing, and the one essence, nature of the one true God. Now, is that a little bit hard to comprehend about our minds now?

You betcha. What else would you expect from the transcendent almighty, omnipotent creator

God? The cast between you and the creator is greater than any cast in your eyes would even value.

That's how big of a difference it is between the creature and the creator. So yeah, if it gets a little bit confusing, that's okay.

I can't wrap my mind around the concept of eternity let alone the intricacies of the doctrine of the

Holy Trinity. Yet, it is what is clearly affirmed in Paul in the Holy Scripture. So we accept.

We accept what has been revealed to us. Why? Because we're not a Lord. He is. He spoke.

He has given us his revelation of himself and of his word. And so, suffice to say all these things, do not just be hearers of the word as he did himself, but also be doers of the word so that you may look to the perfect law of liberty and have peace.

Any last thoughts or questions? Yes. I hesitate to raise my hand because I know I talk too much.

It's all very exciting to me. I was going to say what you said about Pharaoh Israel.

They called it the Great Shema. And they recited every Passover. So even a

Jew that never opened their Bible knows that passage if you need it for evangelism.

The Lord our God, the Lord is one with Joshua's grandpa, lived with us. He said it says the

Lord is one. How can you say there's a Trinity? And there's two words for one in Hebrew. Echad and Yahid.

And one is composite unity and that's what they used for the Lord our God is one. But they've actually changed it in some congregations to Yahid just so they don't have to deal with that question.

But it says come let us go down. I just want to add that she's right.

They recited every Friday night for Sabbath. When I was a little kid, we learned the Shema. Didn't even know what the words were.

We didn't... It's in Hebrew. We had to say it.

It wasn't even important if we knew what it meant in the language we understood. We learned it right away.

It's the John 316 of Judaism. Yes. Yes, that's right. But they don't really know what it means.

No. Oh. Pastor Josh, were you done?

Yeah. Doesn't the usage of the word senior kind of spill into English as senior?

It can be. There's certainly a connection there. Senior can mean someone older or above.

Right? I'm not sure if that's a direct correlation between English and Spanish.

Is that it? Thank you. John? Regarding the

Trinity, it's kind of like if we're creatures or we're made by God, we're told clearly that we don't tell

God how to make us. He makes us how He wants to make us. for whatever use

He designed whatever He purposes. But analogously, or logically, the

Trinity doesn't make sense. But analogously, God designs things the way He wants to design them.

And there are analogies that show that three equal one. That the logic doesn't apply.

It exists in every person. We're conceived by the father, the mother, and the child in the womb has its own separate

DNA. There's three different DNAs that make the one child. You can't take one away and have the person.

It takes three people to make one. Ultimately, every analogy will come to this.

But the one that I found to be the most helpful is the concept of time. We speak of time in the singular.

We don't say what time is it, unless you're a kid. We say what time is it. And yet time is distinctly past, present, future.

Yet it's all equally time. The essence is the same.

And so, I would say even that is not perfect. Not nearly close. But it's a hopeful picture to some degree of the intricacies and the unity of the

Trinity. We'll touch on this more in the future.

Let me pray for us and get ready for service. Father, we thank you, Lord, for your goodness. Thank you,

Lord, that we got to look into your word. And Lord, we pray, Lord, that we would not just be hearers of the word, deceiving ourselves, that we would not be like those on that great day.

We would stand before you and say, Lord, Lord, we would not do this in your name. We would not do that in your name. And you would speak to us the most horrifying words that we've heard in history.

The part of me you work with always is, I never knew you. Lord, may it not be so. May we know you, the power of your resurrection, and enjoy the fellowship of the saints, the fellowship of your suffering.

We pray, God, that you help us. We pray, Lord, for Mustafa, the Muslim man I spoke to for an hour yesterday. We pray,

God, that you would enlighten his soul, enlighten his spirit, to know the truth of who you are, that he would not trust in a baseless gospel of the

Lord, a gospel that actually has the power to save. And we pray, Lord, that you would just continue to minister to him and other