We've got our first Sunday school class in the new building, so that is exciting. I'm going to ask if we have a volunteer who is willing to open up in prayer for us this morning. Jeremy, go ahead. Amen. All right, so we are Looking at chapter 16, it's been a few weeks. We did a reformation to history thing, and then last week was our big move over, so we've been out of it now for a little bit, and we'll dig back in here. Chapter 16, we're gonna be on section three, so that's on page 35 of your booklets. And actually before we get started, if I think way back to a Sunday school discussion from probably a month ago, I've been given several occasions that I want to qualify something that I said at that time. The question came up about applause. And I mentioned my own probably dislike about applause. And I meant that, I should qualify here because we asked about well what about for exciting events like a baby or testimony and so forth and I've never ever had an issue with that. So it forced me to reflect a little bit, and I should qualify what I meant. I think applause in a performative aspect is what I had in mind. But if it's an overflow of excitement at a new baby or at an engagement or whatever, I don't see, I personally wouldn't see it in that light. And the reason I reflect on that is because I had a couple of occasions. One, I went to the New Covenant quartet concert in Austin a couple weeks ago, and I applauded after every song, and I thought, okay, well, okay. And every time a couple gets engaged and a baby comes, well, of course, we're excited. And so I think I should qualify and just say, I mean that strictly in a performative aspect, that the Sunday morning worship service is not an expression of performance art. And actually, the more I thought about it, the more I realized the way we do church service, it's just simply never, ever, ever an issue. Because we do congregational singing, not performative singing. And so congregational singing itself entirely solves that issue on a Sunday morning worship service, that it's not performative, it is congregational. And there's deep historical roots for that practice as well, specifically in Protestant circles, why the singing is done by the congregation and not by a few religious professionals up front. So if I overstated the case, or if it sounded like I overstated the case, I wanted to walk that back and maybe qualify what I did and what I did not mean. by that comment, and you're, of course, more than free to disagree with me, but I at least wanted to qualify what I meant. I have zero issues about applauding an engagement or a new baby, or a new believer sharing their testimony for that matter, if that's done to the glory of God. All that said, Chapter 16, section 3, reads as this. Their ability to do good works does not arise at all from themselves, but entirely from the Spirit of Christ. To enable them to do good works, they need, in addition to the graces they have already received, an active influence of the same Holy Spirit to work in them and to will and to do His good pleasure. Yet this is no reason for them to grow negligent, as if they were not required to perform any duty without a special motion of the Spirit. Instead, they should be diligent to stir up the grace of God that is in them. And so we will break that down in pieces here. And our first text is John 15 verses four and five. And who wants to take that? Caleb. So that is in support of this statement here, up to footnote 10. Their ability to do good works does not arise at all from themselves, but entirely from the spirit of Christ. Go ahead, Caleb. John 15, four and five. Okay, thank you, Caleb. So you see there, it's as we abide. There has to be sap flowing through the branches for this to work, okay? What happens if you've got trees on your yard? What happens if there's no sap going through the branches? It's dead, right? It's a matter of time before the wind itself is just enough force to break a dead branch off. If the root of the matter is not in there, it's dead. So, can we do good works apart from the sap of God's Holy Spirit flowing in our members? Do we have the inherent ability to do good on our own? No, we do not. We do not. We need to be grafted into Christ. We need to abide in Christ, as John says here. We need to abide in the vine, because we are the branches. And the Bible uses that kind of language frequently. Yes. Yes. Right, okay, and that's a good one. Don, you also had your hand up. Right. Yeah, and those are important qualifiers because can an unbeliever write a check for $3 million to the cancer ward of the hospital? Yeah. Okay. Will actual good in creation happen as a result of that? Yes, of course. Does it even budge the needle of God's approval? Not one bit. Okay. If that is not done for the glory of God, yes, it benefits creation. Yes, we might say that that's God's common grace. God is working in that to bless His creation. But it does not, nor can it, move the needle of God's approval for that person, not even in the least. Whatever does not proceed from faith is I'm like a wrestler here, I wanna hear it. Whatever does not proceed from faith is? Sin. Sin. The philanthropist man is probably a proud man who loves the fact that his name is now on a plaque when you walk in. Because it's his cancer ward. Does it benefit God's people? Yes it does. Is it also a vanity project? Yes. It does not move the needle of God's approval even if it's good for creation so to speak. So I think that's an important note and of course if an unbelieving person does something kind to another person, that's better than if they do something cruel to another person, right, in terms of creational norms. But again, it does not move the needle of God's approval. If we're not doing it in faith, if we're not doing it for the glory of the Lord, then we're doing it for the glory of ourselves or the glory of man, kind of generically, and it's just one more sin that God holds us culpable for, albeit not as great a sin as if we had done the opposite. But man in the flesh cannot please God. And the Bible says exactly that. In the flesh, without faith, it is impossible to please God. You cannot, you will not please God apart from saving faith. And once we're in saving faith, once we're in the vine, once that sap is flowing through us, then of course, all our actions are to be done to the glory of God and He's actually pleased with them. Because now these acts are being performed by his sons and daughters, and God is pleased when his children do things that benefit creation. There was a hand, so. Right, okay, so picking up this language about abiding in Christ. So is that passive, is the question. And why don't we open that up? Is it passive to abide in Christ? Or is that something that we're actively involved in? Yeah, okay. Yeah. Do you want to? Right. So Janica, it's really Janica abiding in Christ, and yet it's God's work getting you there, right? Yeah, and I think that's a healthy way to look at God's saving actions in our life. It's, well, if God does all the work of salvation, then I'm not involved. Well, that's not true. My mother did 100% of the work of my first birth, and it would be wildly unfair to say I was not involved in there. It was really me who got born. I came out, someone else did all the work, but I was involved. That's how the rebirth works, right? It's actually you being reborn, but someone else does the work on your behalf. And once we are in Christ, of course, with a renewed heart, with renewed affections, we do get busy working for the glory of God. It really is us, but it's the Spirit supplying, right? God works it in so we can work it out. And again, this is a theme we've picked up from a number of different angles, but it's important, because this is a big theme in scripture. Can we see that concept, God works it in so we can work it out? God puts it in you, now you, okay? God put the sap in that branch, now you push out some leaves. Do it. Push out some fruit, okay? Push out an apple, push out a pear. Because you've got everything. God's put it all there. All the sap is there, all the nutrients are there. Now, bear fruit, do it. John McArthur, I think we're gonna have a Q and A session. He posed the question to somebody, who is living your spiritual life? And the person said, well, obviously the Holy Spirit. And I said, McArthur, really? You wanna blame him for all your shortcomings? And the guy said, well, I guess it's me. John McArthur, really? You're digging crap for how far are you gonna go? Yeah, and I think that's correct. We have to see this as a both and, not as a either or. It is actually us living the Christian life, but it's actually being energized and empowered by the Spirit of God. Anything else on this? Then let's move on. To enable them to do good works, they need, in addition to the graces they have already received, an act of influence of the same Holy Spirit to work in them to will and to do His good pleasure. And there we're at 2 Corinthians 3 verse 5. Someone want to take that? Howard and Val, can you take Philippians 2.13 then? And read 12 and 13, that works as a better pairing, I think. Okay, so Howard, 2 Corinthians 3 verse 5. Go ahead once you're there. Okay, very good. It's pretty self-explanatory, isn't it? Our sufficiency is from God, okay? If we have God, we have everything we need. There's nothing to be added to the Spirit of God. And then the passage in Philippians there, Val. Okay, great, thank you. When people get, tripped up over what we've already discussed about, well, is it God or is it man? This is a great passage of scripture to go to, okay? How do you live the Christian life? Who is living the Christian life, me or God through me? And the apostle gives a resounding yes, absolutely, okay? Verse 12, who needs to work out their salvation with fear and trembling? Yeah. You do. You, you must live out the Christian life, and you must do it with fear and trembling. You have to do this. It's commanded. You must work out your salvation. Does it say you must work for your salvation? Is that what it says? No? What do we do? We work it out. We're working out something that God has already put in. So you have to work it out. And how are you able to work it out? Verse 13 answers that. How are you able to do this? How can you do it? Yeah, because God's working it in you. God is giving you a new heart. He is working in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. He's giving you the desire and the ability. The desire and the ability both come from God. If you're in Christ, you have that, now get busy. Don't just sit back. Don't pray for a ditch while you're leaning on a shovel. Get to it. God says so. So these both must be pushed into the corners. They're both obviously true. Anything more on that? Yeah. Yep, yeah, very good. So Audrey's just pointing out to the same truth as really in the second Corinthians passage, if we back up to verse four, it's the same structure as what you see in Philippians. It's us, but not us on our own, it's us because Christ is working in and through us. More on this. Isn't it great to be around new believers? If you're an old believer, isn't it great to see a new believer? All the energy, all the excitement, the new life is just bubbling out, which is what Inge is saying, and it just, it comes out of every pore, and I think us old, tired believers sometimes need a fresh injection of a new believer's energy, so we remember too what, how this actually works. It goes on here, after footnote 11, Yet, this is no reason for them to grow negligent, as if they were not required to perform any duty without a special motion of the Spirit. Instead, they should be diligent to stir up the grace of God that is in them. Okay? And so, okay, here's how some people treat this logic. Okay, well, if it's God working in me, God's not working in me right this very minute, so, I'm checking out. I am going to check out of the Christian life because I'm not just bubbling over with energy to be sanctified. I'm checking out. Is that godly logic? No, not at all. And we probably all know people like that. I'm just not feeling it right now so I'm just gonna check out. And people Sometimes, to a degree correctly, have a negative reaction to approach to the Christian life that says, well, we're just duty and obligation, just duty and obligation, okay? And we certainly don't want to live our lives out of duty and obligation. We want joy, we want to be motivated by the glory of God. But what do we do, because we probably all have had those seasons in this room, where you're not feeling it, Okay? Let's shrink it down to your marriage. Are there days in your marriage where you're just not feeling it? So the right thing to do then is to be careless and lazy and to talk rough to your spouse. Right? I'm not feeling it. Is that the right approach to your marriage? You're not feeling it, so you just check out? What kind of marriage are you going to have if that's the way you treat it? It's going to be a rough marriage. And the longer that nonsense carries on, the harder it's going to be to make that a good marriage again. There is a place for duty and obligation in the Christian life. If you're not feeling it, ask God's help, ask, feel it, feel me, I need your spirit, God, I'm getting dry, I'm getting dusty, I'm getting lazy, I'm getting sluggish, fill me with your spirit, but keep obeying in the meantime. Can you see that? Obey even when you're not feeling it. And if you shrink it down to your marriage, can you see that that's the only reasonable approach to your marriage. Do the right thing even when you don't feel it. Don just mentioned, if you didn't hear him, Don just mentioned if God feels far away you have to ask yourself, who moved? Who moved? Let's look at the texts here. Who wants to take, oh, the confession already jumped ahead to Philippians 2, verse 12, so we've done that one already. But then let's look at Hebrews 6, 11, and 12. Who wants to take that? Lisa and Isaiah 64, 7. Howard. Okay, go ahead once you're there. Okay, very good. So we don't get sluggish, but we show earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, okay? So we need to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises, and so then we just need to stop and ask, how do we inherit the promises of God? According to the author of Hebrews. How do we do it? Through faith and patience. Okay, are you involved in faith and patience? Yeah. It's you who must be patient and faithful. If you want to inherit the promises, it's actually you who must be faithful and patient. And so we persevere through the tough stretches. We persevere through the dry stretches and trust that there will be joy in the morning again. It won't stay dark forever. The clouds don't linger forever. But as Christians even, we do have many seasons where the clouds do hang over us. And we just need to remember that's not forever. The morning will come again. And then Howard, you had Isaiah 64.7. Okay. This is a concept that picks up on what Don had said, and what Don said is correct, and yet, Does God in Scripture pull his presence away? Yeah, he does. Does God give people up to their unbelief? Does he give them more rope to just carry their sin out to the end? Yes, and this is an important theme. In theology, we call that judicial hardening. Okay, so how does that work? Does God turn his face away from people who are living lives that are glorifying God? Does he do that? No, he does not. If, however, a people are intent on offering their small children to Molech so that they get better weather, is God happy to give them more of what they want? Is God happy to say, okay, if you are into fruitless, a death cult, have it, it's yours. I will give you 100 years in a fruitless death cult. And you will find out the hard way how that ends, surprisingly, in fruitless death. God does turn his face away. God does not listen to the prayers of the wicked. Do we have a category for that? If a husband is mistreating his wife, Peter says, I'm not listening to your prayers. I'm not listening to you men. I see the way you treat your wife. I refuse to listen to your prayers. And so, sometimes for us as men, according to 1 Peter, If it feels like your prayers are bouncing off the ceiling, they might be. That is a biblical possibility. It might be that God refuses to listen to you because of the way you treat your wife. That's the Bible. I refuse to listen to you. When Israel is feeling pain in exile, God says, I'm not listening. I am not listening. Because all that's happening so far is you don't like your circumstances, but you are not yet ready to repent. There is a disfavor with your difficult circumstances, but all you want is rescue from temporal bad circumstances. That's all you want. You don't want me yet. And until you want me, I refuse to listen to you. Do we have a category for that? God does not listen to the prayers of unbelievers, does not. So does that have any impact on how we think about interfaith prayer services? 9-11 service at the National Cathedral. We're gonna let a Muslim pray, and we're gonna get a Christian to pray, and we're gonna get a Hindu to pray. Do you think God listened to any of those prayers? I don't think he heard a single one of them. It's just an idolatry circus, and God's not interested in listening. God refuses to listen to the prayers of the ungodly. Once that prayer sounds something like, God, forgive me, I'm a sinner, oh, now the ears are open. Okay, yes, I turn nobody away who comes to me that way. But God's not interested in just temporal rescue from people who have no desire to come to him. And this prayer here is stirring up the grace, or it points us to that, what Howard just read in Isaiah 64, 7. There is no one who's calling upon the name of the God. There's no one who's rousing himself to take hold of God. For God has hidden his face from us, and he has made us melt in the hands of our iniquities. Israel had to feel the weight of their sin. Does God eventually bring Israel back from exile? Yeah, he does. Okay? After 70 years are complete, then you'll repent, then I'll hear you, then I'll restore you. But until we're at that repentance piece, I'm not listening to any of it. Because, Frank, I don't care. You guys begged for me to punish you, and I'm going to punish you until I'm done. And there's nothing unjust about this. So it must be in humble, saving faith, with a desire for the glory of God, that we come to Him. And I'm going to stop there. Do those categories make sense? Does it sound jagged to hear that God doesn't listen to some people's prayers? Does that sound counterintuitive? I think it does sound counterintuitive, and I really believe this, and even I think it sounds counterintuitive, okay? But maybe not, hopefully not. But that's just as that counterintuitivity towards good works, right? Right. That's right. Yeah. So if it feels counterintuitive, by whose standard of justice are we measuring it? We're measuring it by our own standard, right? And I did something really sacrificial, so surely God's going to approve me, right? I did this nice thing. Surely that moved the needle. But if we're not in Christ, it didn't. If we are in Christ, of course God's pleased with his children. Yeah. I tend to think that sounds counterintuitive, and yet the Bible is clear. God does not listen to the prayers of the unrighteous. He just does not. Okay, that's, Kaitlin just asked a relevant question. So, is it that God just simply doesn't hear, or is that his answer is just a firm no? And my understanding would be the second one. God's aware of everything that's happening, right? God tells in Amos, chapter three or chapter four at the beginning, God says to Israel, you only of all the nations of the earth have I known. Okay, well did God know? about Egypt? Well, of course he did. Did God know about, well, of course he knew about Syria, right? He knew all these nations, but you only, Israel, have I known. You're the only one I love. You're the only one that I put my saving purposes into. So I think that's what it means when it says, you alone have I known. It's not that God's not aware. God's certainly aware of idolatrous prayers. He hears them in that sense, but he will not respond. He's tuning it out. That would be the way I would understand it, if that makes sense. But God knows all things. Bryson. How would you define know then? Because it's, I don't, the same word that would be used for, Mm-hmm. Okay, so Bryson is correct in pointing out, okay, well the word known, if a husband knows his wife, there's gonna be a baby crying in a few months. Right? So it's not just, oh, I am aware of my wife standing there in the kitchen. And then a baby happens. There's additional steps. I'll keep it family friendly. But there are additional steps to just being aware of your wife existing somewhere. That's not knowing her in that intimate sense. To know means to put your affections on, to love. And people sometimes triple over that in Romans 8. Those whom I foreknown, I predestined. Okay, so is that God passively observing our actions and then going back and redoing his math like a GPS? No. Foreknown, prognisco. Okay, and that comes over to English, prognosis. Prognosis, knowledge ahead of time. Okay, if someone's sick and the doctor gives a prognosis, he's saying, as best he can, what is yet future. Prognosis, foreknowledge. But in that sense, I do believe it's just like Amos. Of all the nations of the earth, I've only known you. Those whom God foreloved, those whom he put his saving affections on, he predestined. Those whom he predestined, he also called. Those whom he called, he justified. Those whom he justified, he glorified. And so the chain of redemption is all God's work. But God knows his children the same way a husband knows his wife, the same way Yahweh knew Israel in a way that he did not know Egypt or Syria. So there's a lot more texture and depth to the biblical concept of knowing than in our mind we just think of it kind of dry and scientific. Oh, well, I know that two hydrogens and one oxygen make water. It's deeper than that. The infections are involved. Love is involved. The whole being is involved. If I'm understanding you correctly, does that, yeah. Want to give it to a chance, someone hasn't spoke up yet. Yeah, go ahead. Would you also say not only does it hear, does it hear, but it also acts to judge us? Because I don't believe that 9-11 was an accident, and I don't mean that politically. I mean that theologically. I think that was American already had one of their hands to warrant that judgment, and then after God, Right, so Jeremy's asking, if it's an idolatrous prayer, is that further judgment from God? Is that idolatrous prayer one more thing for which God will judge us? And I think, I would think yes. Because God hates idolatry. So if we're praying idolatrously, of course that's a sin. Bishop Beveridge, an old Anglican bishop, in one of his commentaries, I remember there's a line where he just struck me. He said, even our repentance needs to be repented of. I was like, that's heavy. Even my repentance is half-hearted repentance. Even in my repentance, I'm looking for excuses for why I was justified in my bad attitude, right? And so even our repentance needs to be repentant of, and of course, God doesn't forgive his children on the basis of how perfect or how pure their faith or their repentance is. But if people know enough to cry out to God for physical deliverance, they should know enough to say, forgive me for I've sinned. Okay, and that's actually a segue in today's text. Jesus, in today's text that we're gonna preach, completely undresses the Pharisees, and seemingly everybody knows at the end of this exchange who the Messiah is. They've got one correct move on the chessboard, and that's to say, how then can I be saved? And they don't care. They shut their mouths out of embarrassment, They should say, forgive me for I've sinned. They should say, what must I do to be saved? And they don't. They just have head knowledge, and that's it. And a tough social situation causes them to shut their mouths, but they do not care, seemingly. Anything else on this? Section four is a short one, so maybe we can make up for lost time here. Let's go to section four. Those who attain the greatest heights of obedience possible in this life are far from being able to merit reward by going beyond duty or to do more than God requires. Instead, they fall short of much that is their duty to do. And then you'll see a footnote there for A, Going beyond duty, supererogate, which is a word none of us uses. This is a very precise and very technical theological term that means you're talking to Roman Catholics, okay? Which they were. What is supererogate? Okay, here's how Let's go back to the 1500s. We're medieval Christians, and we've been taught primarily by the Catholic Church, and now the Protestants are saying some other things. There's different kinds of merit in Roman Catholicism. There's what's called condine merit, is the first level of merit. So some things that you do are so virtuous that it is morally incumbent on God, God must repay you. That's condign merit. You told the truth in a tough situation. God owes you merit. God would not be just if he did not give you merit for that. God owes you merit for your good works. He has to. Otherwise, he's not God. Condign merit. God must reward your good actions with merit. The next category up is what's called congruous merit, which means God doesn't necessarily owe it to you, but it would be congruent, it would be fitting with his character if he would repay you. It's congruous with your merit. So you did, you did a good action, God maybe doesn't necessarily owe you merit for that, but it would be fitting with his character if he did give you merit for that, okay? So condign merit, God owes it to you, he must. Congruous merit, it's fitting with his character if he would give you merit for that action. And then the great category, supererogatory merit, which means what you did was so virtuous that not only have you saved yourself with your merit, but you have stored up surplus merit that goes into the treasury of merit. that the Pope has the keys to dispense to other people through the sacraments, through penance. This is how indulgences came about, okay? Jesus really loaded up that treasury of merit, because he went way beyond. But Mary put lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of surplus merit in the Treasury of Merit, because she was a very godly woman. And anyone whom the Roman Catholic Church calls saint has also gone above and beyond what they needed to be saved. So they also brought in surplus works into the Treasury of Merit, and now when Brady goes to the parish priest in St. Adolph, and he confesses his sins. I hope Brady never does this, but I just picked on him because he's smirking, okay? And because he lives in St. Adolph. So he can go to his parish priest, confess his sins, and the priest will say, Brady, I need you to do four Hail Marys for me, go through the rosary twice, and then on behalf of Mother Church, I will give you merit to cover your shortcomings. So Brady, you need to be very thankful for what Mary, and St. Dennis, and St. Alphonse, what they have done for you. And the Church, in her kindness, is happy to dispense the surplus merit through the sacraments. It's all by grace. It's all grace. Mother Church is kind. You do penance, you pray the rosary, you go on a pilgrimage, the Church is happy to give you surplus merit from the Treasury of Merit. Okay? That is works of supererogation. You've already done enough good works to get to heaven. Now what you're doing, pushing beyond that, is storing up for other people and the church can dispense it at her good pleasure to others who need a top up. Okay? And maybe it's enough that you can get grandma out of purgatory. Maybe grandma's only got 100 or 200,000 years left. She's like right there. Okay? And the Pope can dispense enough merit to get her out faster. That's how indulgences came about. Yeah, but that was old medieval theology that doesn't exist. Yes, it does. There is an app to date to modernize indulgences. Okay? Indulgences are alive and well in Roman Catholicism today. Lisa? Yes. They would. So Catholics, To be fair, respect the Bible, they love the Bible. How would they interpret a work like that? Well, they would say maybe that's just limited in that particular situation. Maybe those works were not done in good faith. But the concept of imputation, that Christ's righteousness gets applied to us and that's sufficient, they have no category for that. They would say that's illegal fiction. If that's true, God must be evil. Because God is saying something is true that is not true. If the imputed righteousness of Christ covers me, and then God says, on that basis, Matt is a holy, perfect, justified man, which is what we would say, Roman Catholics would say, no, that makes God a liar. Watch Matt. He's not a perfect, justified man. God's a liar. What they would say about our understanding of the gospel is that it makes God a liar. God declares people righteous on the merit of Christ. And they would say, no, it has to be on their own merit. It must be. Otherwise, God is telling a lie about someone's status. There's very little chance. Well, if you do works of supererogation, you can be saved. And even if you can't, here's a popular misconception. Probably won't actually get into the footnotes here. This is a bit of church history. People have a misconception about the Catholic doctrine of purgatory. It's not hell, and it's not hell adjacent. Everyone who's in purgatory is on their way to heaven. Heretics, like me, go directly to hell. Do not pass go, do not collect. I go straight to hell, because I am just completely cut off from other church. At least that's old school Catholicism. Francis probably has room for me in heaven, but he's not actually Catholic, but whatever. Heretics go straight to hell. Super saints go directly to heaven. The vast majority of Christians, like 99.9999999% go to purgatory. And the remaining corruption that we have needs to get burned off. It needs to get purged, purgatory. So only believers go to purgatory. And everyone who is in purgatory will, at some point, be released to go to heaven. But the remaining corruption needs to get purged in the fires of purgatory, and then you go to heaven. So in Catholic doctrine, purgatory is not hell, and it's not hell adjacent. It's a waypoint on the way to heaven. Now you're asking a very unhelpful question, Marina. Okay, so here's where Sola Scriptura makes a difference. Marina just asked, where in Scripture do you get this? And you don't. But remember, in Catholicism, authority is a three-legged stool. Scripture, tradition, and the Pope. So it doesn't need to be in Scripture necessarily if it's in the tradition or if it's in a papal encyclical. That would, we would say yes, they just made it up. To be fair to them, Catholics do respect history in a way that actually Protestants should learn from, because frankly, Protestants sometimes cut ourselves off. Of course, this is idolatry. But what happens is, it's not like it just overnight, the doctrine of purgatory just dropped, right? But people started to speculate, and medieval theology got deeply philosophical. instead of biblical. And so it started to make sense, even if there's nothing in scripture, wouldn't it make sense if God still had to burn off our temporal sins? Yes, eternally you're justified before God. Jesus did accomplish that much. But if you rob a store, even as a Christian, you might still go to heaven, but you still pay a fine or go to jail, right? There's still temporal consequences. So why wouldn't we also apply that to the afterlife? So it starts to slowly, there's no scripture that, no. Yes, and they would appeal to, there's a text in Maccabees in the Apocrypha about someone praying in the afterlife. Do with that what you will, but the Maccabees is not scripture, it's apocryphal. And I, even there, I don't think that's what's actually being taught in that text. But in the Catholic conception, things don't need to really be in the Scripture. It can develop other ways as well. It's 10.15. We defined a term, but we'll go through these verses the next time. And I do want to be fair to Roman Catholicism. Of course, I'm not a Catholic, but I don't want to say something that's not true about their beliefs. It's tough to describe Catholicism today, since the Catholic Church, to a very large degree, is not Roman Catholic anymore. It really isn't. Francis, by any historical standard, Francis is not a Roman Catholic. He is utterly heretical. He is against Catholic doctrine on virtually everything, from sexuality, to the death penalty, basically everything. He is in disagreement with the Roman Catholic Church and they are having a very hard time holding things together and I hope for their sake they elect a conservative Pope next time because this is, well maybe I should say I hope they don't because to watch them crack up and then come our way would be better. But the Roman Catholic Church is in a state of absolute disaster right now because of a very progressive Pope. And that's why Francis will say something really unthought through on an on-the-spot interview on a plane, an interviewer will come to him and he'll say something completely unhinged. And then the cardinals back in the Vatican, the intelligent people, will rush to the mic afterward and clarify in a press conference how what Francis really meant was this, and yes, it's perfectly fitting with historical Catholic dogma. But Francis is an absolute disaster pope, which is kind of fun to watch, but I'll leave it there. I'm dealing now with historical Catholic doctrine that's actually in their documents, not with some off-the-cuff statement that Francis makes. Before I close it off, any questions on this concept of supererogation? And it's maybe important that we keep that in the back of our minds so that we remember what these men were facing when they wrote some of these things in the conflicts of the day so we can make application to the controversies of our day. Let's close in prayer. Father God, we want to thank you for your kindness to us. We want to thank you that your Holy Spirit comes freely to your children and that you motivate holy living in us, that you stir us to love and good works. Lord, that you assure us that we are your children. And Lord, I pray that anyone here this morning who is going through a dry stretch, who is struggling with assurance, or their affections are not stirred deeply by your Spirit right now, Lord, I pray that you would send your Spirit in such a way as to revive them, to give fresh life and fresh energy to them. And at the same time, Lord, those who are doing well, I pray that they would use that energy to dig deeper into your word, to create more good habits, to love our neighbors that much more. Lord, I pray for the health of this church, and I pray that you would send your spirit to work in all of us in a sanctifying way, causing us to overflow in love and good works, causing us to grow deeper in our assurance, in our love of your word. And we ask this all in your strong and powerful name. Amen.