And I explained the word that's in the footnotes there, supererogate, and so this morning is the test of what these definitions mean. So, in Roman Catholic theology, which is what these guys were working with, there are three types of merit in their system. There is congruous merit, um, condign merit and supererogatory merit. Margaret, you had your hand up already. Yeah, it's very, very quiet. I can hear that too, but I think that might be because of Sunday school. So we're going to have to, yeah, I hear it even for myself. It's very quiet, but I think we'll, I think we'll have to get used to that so we can not distract upstairs. Um, so, Does anyone remember what those three different types of merit entail? Congruous merit, condign merit, and supererogatory merit. No? I'll go over them once more. Congruous merit is a merit that says that our actions would be in keeping with God rewarding us. So if we do the right thing, it would be in keeping with God's character for him to reward us for those things. In condign merit, your merit is so good, it's so meritorious, that God is morally obligated to repay you. And this word supererogate, that refers to going so far beyond what is necessary for your salvation that God actually sets the surplus righteousness aside and puts it in the treasury of merit, which the Roman Catholic Church has access to and can, through penance, through almsgiving, through different things, they can access those surplus good works and apply them to you or to a loved one who is currently in purgatory and rush their process in purgatory that much faster. So in Roman Catholicism there is a significant category called works of supererogation, which means you go way above and beyond what is necessary for your salvation. You're storing it up. You're building up the treasury of merit. And so that word does warrant definitions so that we know what these men are facing and what they are disputing in their time here. Any discussion on that before we move on to the text here? Okay, so the question is, in that second category of condign merit, where God is morally obligated to repay you for your righteous actions, is that like the Word of Faith movement? And the Word of Faith movement, of course, comes from the charismatic world. Which basically says it treats God like a vending machine you do the right things your wife will stay 24 forever You do the right things you're getting a Camaro you do the right things. You'll never get cancer right the word of faith movement is Hot garbage to use a theological term and Roman Catholics are not charismatic in that sense so it would be a little bit different because they would tie it at least in their mind, they are tying it to works which are actually meritorious, whereas the Word of Faith movement isn't even concerned about that. You put that picture of that corvette up on your wall that you want, and by thinking positively, it's basically the power of positive thinking is what it is. So you look at that corvette every day on the wall, you're thinking corvette thoughts, you're manifesting and God will give you essentially what you're manifesting. Whereas at least in Roman Catholicism, as much as I disagree with this, at least they would tie it to something actually righteous. You go help at an orphanage, God owes you temporal blessings. He must, it's in his character. He wouldn't be God if he didn't owe you those things. And that's why anecdotally, probably if many of us know devout Roman Catholics, There is a cause and effect mindset that they have that almost starts to look superstitious to us. Does anyone know Roman Catholics where you think that looks like superstition? If you do this, this will just happen, because God owes it to you. I certainly know Roman Catholics like that. To us, it looks superstitious. To them, that's how their system works. God owes it to you. Anything further on that? Then let's look at the texts here. So I will read the statement and then we'll go through the texts. Those who attain the greatest heights of obedience possible in this life are far from being able to merit reward by going beyond duty and or to do more than God requires. Instead, they fall short of much that is their duty to do. And there we have Job 9, 2, and 3. Who wants to take that? Job 9, 2, and 3. Sonia. And then Galatians 5, 17. Who wants to take that? Galatians 5, who's got it? Caitlin, then Dave, you can take Luke 17, 10. So go ahead, Sonia, Job 9, 2 and 3. Okay, very good. Aside from the verse, if we actually zoom out and remember who Job is and how Job's life went, Job was a righteous man. If the Roman Catholic system is correct, God owes Job to not fall into those circumstances. If condign and congruous merit are a thing, Job should have never experienced that much difficulty, because after all, he was a righteous man. God is the unrighteous one in this contest. God let a righteous man fall into hard circumstances. God is evil, okay? And that objection would apply equally to the word of faith movement. If God lets a righteous person get sick or die, God is the evil party. And then they have to do all kinds of weird stuff about Satan being more powerful than God, and all kinds of weird stuff. I don't think it was full-fledged word of faith, but certainly, certainly charismatic stuff. Locally here in Winnipeg, our most well-known charismatic health and wealth preacher died at the age of 59. It's interesting, nobody in the family, nobody in the church ever says what got him. interesting 59 is an awfully young age for a righteous man to die and Word of Faith people can never actually answer why any righteous person would ever die I've never yet heard a satisfactory explanation because if you have enough faith God will heal you he will Evidently no one has had enough faith to warrant eternal life yet So Job, as himself, his life, what we know about him, stands as a very clear example of God does not work on so-called merit, he works on grace. And then what Sonia actually read, if one wishes to contend with God, one could not answer him once in a thousand times. And I think this is worth thinking about too. How often do we have the why me God objection? Does that sound familiar to any of us? Why me? Why do bad things happen to good people? And you all know my answer to that. That's never happened, ever. Nothing bad has ever yet happened to a good person. In all of human history, not once. And you could say maybe once, but he volunteered for it. But there are simply no good people for bad things to happen to on this earth. Impossible. The whole objection is based on a false premise. There are no good people for bad things to happen to, and Job is an answer to that. Job, the Bible says he was a righteous man, he was. And yet Job himself says, if me and God got into an argument about what's just, and we did that a thousand times, I wouldn't even walk out victorious one time. And by our self-centered way of thinking, we think God might have been heavy on Job. And I even think that in the closing four chapters of Job, where God finally is ready to answer Job and says, okay, Job, now you dress for action like a man, I'm gonna question you. I've been on the witness stand this whole time and you and your friends all have this false sense of wisdom. You get on the witness stand and I'm gonna question you. Can you buckle Orion's belt? Can you make an ox lay down? Can you make a deer push her fawn out? Can you make an eagle soar? Can you do this? Were you there when I measured out the foundations of the earth? Can you make it snow? And finally, after two chapters, Job says, I'm sorry. I repent. I will not ask you any more questions. And then God let up, right? No. Two more questions of just body blow after body blow. God, can you do this? Can you do this? Can you do this? Can you do this? Essentially saying, I am God. And Job says, then I saw God, and I despised myself. Interesting. Job never got an answer. God actually never answered the why me question. God just basically said, you're Job, and I'm God. You leave the God things up to me. You shut your mouth. You have no right to question why me. I made you out of the dust, I owe you nothing. What I decide to do with your life is right. Now you will silence your objections. I'm God, you're Job, let's both do our job. Job is a reminder that we should never think in terms of our own personal merit, Dave. And through our egalitarian democracy of the West, how do we bring back that concept to people who, they are well-meaning Christians. and this, you know, there's no hierarchy in the world whatsoever. And they really don't have a concept for a God who is just. They read the Bible through such a different lens than all of history would have read it. And how do we answer these people? How do we get Right so Dave is Mentioning that many in the Western mindset. We have no concept of hierarchy Right in our concept all people are equal and of course. There's a sense in Which that's biblically true. We're equal in terms of value, but I'll commit it to the record men and women are not equal They're not Are we equally valuable before God? Yes. But Tanya is a much better matriarch and nurturer than I am. We're not equal. I'm physically stronger than she is, and my mind works for dominion. We're not equal. And that's what egalitarian means. It just means everything is equal. Everything is flat. That's just false. That's a lie. It's not true. People are not equal. Okay? Ray Bork happened to be a better defenseman than I ever could be. We're not equal. We're not the same. Right. Warren Buffett's a smarter investor than me or you. We're not equal, but we've been taught that from kindergarten on, that we're all equal. You can do whatever you set your mind to. False. It's a lie. But we've heard that so often that we take that assumption as fact before we start reading the Bible. and then you end up with interpretations of the Bible that are not biblical. Because before the Bible has formed your worldview, you're coming to the Bible with a worldview that you're just assuming is correct and forcing it in there. So Dave is asking, how can we recapture Hierarchical view of the world in which God is clearly at the top and what he does and what he says is right and I Guess my quick answer would be we make evangelicalism reformed again That would be a great help a reformed view of God is clearly based in the classical Christian world that's actually biblical God is meticulously sovereign I would also pastorally in terms of how this actually looks, a lot of times what people will do, and you see this a lot when there's tragedy or painful things, people have an instinct to remove God from difficult providences immediately. And so what you'll have happen is people say, no, God didn't want this to happen, right? A major car crash, no, God didn't want that to happen. The advantage on a very surface level is, okay, God's not guilty of evil. Phew! Dodged that bullet. But then just stop and think about that for a minute. The consequences of that are absolutely horrific. God's not sovereign. This happened for literally no reason. This was a fluke. There's no meaning in this event whatsoever. It's just a... Or, yeah, and so I often tell the story that John MacArthur tells. There was a large Word of Faith church in L.A., not far from his church. And he noticed a large number of young people from the Word of Faith church, including the pastor's kids, start coming to MacArthur's church. And at first he thought this was some kind of a sting operation or something. Why are these Word of Faith people in my church? This makes no sense. And they kept coming and coming and coming and they weren't making any trouble. So he requested a meeting with them. And he talked to the pastor's kid and he said, well, here's the thing that happened. An apostle, And whenever someone's advertising a modern-day apostle, make sure to run fast. There haven't been apostles for 2,000 years. But an apostle came to this Word of Faith church and had a word from the Lord that this pastor was destined for international ministry and God was going to do great, large things with him. And a week later, that pastor died of a heart attack. And so now people have questions. So they asked the apostle if his prophecy was false or not. And he said, no, no, the prophecy was true. But here's what happened. The devil was so threatened by your father's future ministry that he killed your father. Okay. That's a very thin surface layer, shallow way to get out of this dilemma. But now think of the consequences of that. Satan is stronger than God. God is trying his best to do this thing and Satan just keeps overpowering him. God keeps losing arm wrestles to Satan. So what's designed to give surface level comfort at first makes the world chaotic and meaningless. There's literally no meaning to any tragic event if that reading of God's providence is true. And in terms of the contemporary evangelical scene, because the whole point behind Arminian theology is to, on the surface level, is to remove God from evil. The whole thing is predicated on God not being sovereign in that meticulous kind of a way. God's in charge, but he's not in control. So they're trying to remove God from evil, maybe with good intentions, probably with good intentions, but you end up with such a sub-biblical theology that the Bible itself actually anticipates. In Romans 9, Paul says, you know, if God, he's anticipating an objection, why do you still find fault for who can resist God's will? Paul knows Arminian theology is on its way, and he asks the question. He knows this objection will come to my theology. The Bible anticipates this objection. And Paul's answer is kind of like God's answer to Job. Who are you, O man, to answer back to God? God's God. He made you out of the dust. He owes you nothing. Burn. Yes, so Vern just shared a Joni Eareckson Tada quote that God permits things he hates to accomplish things he loves. Okay, Joni Eareckson Tada has a reformed view of God, and that's true. God frequently ordains that evil happen in order that good may come. God frequently does that. What is, get to ground here, but just think, thought experiment, what is the most evil and unjust action that has ever happened in the history of the universe? The crucifixion of Christ, and what does Peter say in Acts 2 and 4? Together in the city against your Lord and against his anointed, these lawless men crucified the Son of Glory in order that your plan, okay, according to your definite plan, Peter says. God meticulously designed every detail of the most horrific act that happened in human history. So God's evil? No, because it says it happened by the hand of lawless men. These guys are evil. God drew the plan up that way in order to accomplish what he wanted, which was the redemption. Grant. And he provides that timing. It's not always our timing. We can't see ourselves. So therefore, and another just an interesting note that as a result of my testimony in McGregor yesterday, I met with the elder from the EMC that has quit five years ago. And he said upon becoming in the membership of the, or in the leadership, he found that the church through the EMC wasn't reaching out to the people And he said that the oldest generation of the people that had quit coming to church when they reached out, wanting to know if they should remove their name from the membership list, the older generation was most concerned that they were going to have to do salvation by removing their name from their membership list. And it was just like, it's just truly out of that lens, right, of how it's about, in all the most bohemian sense of God and so the power of living God in prayer, right, it's remarkable. Yeah, no, that's good. Grant just shared about people in a denominational context of which I am deeply familiar, people who had quit going to church and old people being concerned that someone's salvation would be affected if their name was removed from a membership role, which is a roundabout way of saying you're saved by being a church member. And church membership is biblical and important, but it's downstream from salvation. It's not cause and effect of salvation. That's interesting. Let's keep going. Who had Galatians 5.17? Kaitlin. Okay, so there we see that war against body and flesh in Galatians 5, 17. And so again, if our flesh was capable of desiring and doing good things, would this verse be in the Bible? If you had the power to choose, okay, from now on, I am going to desire good things and I am going to do good things. If that was possible, Would what Caitlin read just now, would that be in scripture? It would not be. There would be no war between the flesh and the spirit, because we can just make our flesh what we want it to be. After all, we're Westerners. We serve no sovereign here. Right? Even God himself can't be sovereign. I just am the master of my destiny. I just choose what I'm going to do, and then God is obligated to recognize that. And I like to quip, and this is worth thinking about. I didn't understand this the first multiple times I meditated on it, but I think it's gripped me now. And so I'll say it, and you can chew on this. If the rebirth happens after you make your decision to follow Jesus, why is the rebirth even necessary? If you're born again as a result of your decision, why do you have to bother be born again? Why would God make anyone be born again after their decision? because you've already shown in your flesh you can please God by making that decision. So why would God have to make you be born again if your flesh is perfectly capable of obeying Him? The rebirth must, absolutely must be before your decision to have faith in Christ. It must be. Okay? I don't know if that's a It took me several times to think that through. I thought, no, that's just a bit of an overstatement. But it's true. Why would your nature need to be changed if your old nature is capable of pleasing God? Why would that need to happen? Right. A lot of people probably don't know what the rebirth means. That's probably true. Yeah. Right. Yeah, so there's probably a lack of clarity about what it actually means to be born again, or what the rebirth actually means. That's probably fair. More on this. Then, Dave, you had Luke 17.10? So likewise, he, when you have done all these things which are commanded you, say, we are unprofitable servants, we have done that which Okay, this is a significant verse. So let's try to keep in mind, let's get out of the Western world, let's escape North America in the 21st century for a little bit, and let's go to the real world, okay? So let's escape this one, let's go to the real world, the biblical world that actually exists, and think about this. Everyone in this room is made from the dirt. We're made from the dirt. God graciously breathes life into us. He gives us a garden to have dominion over and to enjoy forever. He gives us a woman to be fruitful with and to help in that dominion mandate. He gives us every available tool, every mineral, everything that he buried in the earth for our disposal to do work for us, animals to tame, fossil fuels under the ground that would take us centuries to discover and do an incalculable amount of work of lifting people out of poverty. All these benefits that God has given us out of sheer grace, Do we have any cause after we raise our fist to that God, man from the dirt, and we start negotiating with God what he owes us? Does that make any sense? Who are you, oh man, to answer back to God? And we're gonna say, well, I did this, I did this, I did this, therefore, God, you owe me. Does that make any sense whatsoever? If we kept covenant with God perfectly, if our first parents and everyone after them did exactly, exactly, meticulously, perfectly every word God commanded, what would he owe us? Absolutely nothing. You're just dirt doing what dirt does. That's it. God owes you nothing. You just did the bare minimum of what I gave you to do. I owe you nothing. Nothing. God would owe us, if we were perfectly obedient, he would owe us as much gifts as he owes gravity. It's just doing its job. That's it. There's no moral virtue in it because we're just doing what we needed to do as the bare minimum requirement from the beginning. God owes us nothing. Nothing whatsoever. And that's what this verse points to. If we did everything, we are still unworthy servants. We have only done what was our duty. That's it. If you've got a job for one of your kids to do, they need to make their bed and that's just the cost of living at home is you need to keep your room tidy. And then your kid kind of does a half-hearted job of making their bed. Do you throw a big celebratory party because there's this great virtue that they've done of just doing the bare minimum to stay living at home? Maybe we do because we're twisted in our thinking, but we certainly oughtn't do that. Makes no sense. They're just doing the bare minimum. Just doing what the cost of living here is. And so it is with God's covenant in creation. If we obeyed it perfectly, we're just doing the bare minimum to remain in that state. That's it. There's no merit owed from God to man ever under any circumstances. And so you can see if you're in that Theological world and you're seeing the world through biblical eyes rather than looking at the Bible through enlightenment rationalistic North American eyes it starts to look quite different doesn't it and Then if you've got a whole medieval system built on God owing people merit for their good works. Can you see how incredibly distasteful that is and and why that warrants a very specific mention of the doctrine by name, works of super-irrigation, why that is warranted right in here. Because again, keep in mind what was happening right before the Reformation. You've got this treasury of merit, of all these surplus works of super-irrigation, that Jesus banked in there for you, Mary banked in there for you, St. Eustace banked in there for you, St. Anne, you know, every, go through Manitoba, all these Catholic towns, they're all saints, they all put, and to be a saint, that means they put some deposits, so just travel Manitoba, St. Pierre, St. Marlow, St. Anne, they all did something for you to bank extra merit in the treasury of merit, and now, because the church has the keys to the kingdom, that means if you do, the right sacramental things in the Roman Catholic system, the Pope can open that merit and apply it to you. And what was happening at the Reformation was you have people who could not read, and they just have to go with what their parish priest says. And the parish priest comes through because his cathedral building project is running a major deficit. And he comes through and he says, can you not hear your grandmother shrieking in the flames of purgatory? Do you not hear your unborn, stillborn child shrieking? Do you really want them to endure that for millions of years? Of course you don't. Thankfully, Mother Church has a way out for them. You can't buy forgiveness, however, however, because Mother Church is so gracious. In exchange for your good work of almsgiving, we can access the treasury of merit for you. I can get your stillborn baby out of purgatory. Your grandmother is gonna be saved 100,000 years of shrieking as the flames of purgatory are lapping up against her. You can get her out of that. You can't buy it, but we can give it to you in exchange for almsgiving. It's a distinction without a difference. But that's how it was presented. You can't buy it. We will give it to you for free after you give to the church, however. It was buying forgiveness, just with extra steps. And that's what just infuriated Luther. And sometimes people think, well, Luther sure seems angry at times. You bet he did. You bet he was angry. seeing old widows give their last penny to the church to get their grandmother out of purgatory, you bet he was angry, and with just cause, I would say. With just cause. And that system exists today, yes, in the Roman Catholic Church, but also in the mindset of a lot of evangelicals. Maybe not purgatory, but certainly God owes me. Certainly, if I'm righteous enough, things are gonna go good for me. And that's just such a lie from the pit of hell, it's hard to explain. It is angering. And if it doesn't make you angry, then read your Bible until you are angered at human merit, getting us to heaven, faster or at all. As you can tell, I get wound up about this because history is not just dry and dusty and boring. Those were real people. Those were real people with nerve endings and emotions and love and family lines just like everyone in this room. They were real people. It's not just a black and white grainy photograph. They were actual people that were crushed under the weight of that system. And how could they know better? There was no Bible to read. The priest said it, that settles it. So Jeremy's saying how do you do the accounting on the Treasury merit and the good thing is Jeremy you don't have to worry about that There are very gifted people working on these things at the Vatican Lady like you or me. We don't need to know the wonders of what happens at the Vatican So don't sweat it there's intelligent people working on it and Dave. I may have mentioned this before, but I was talking to someone who was here yesterday. To say exactly that, there's people working on it, and you were talking before about the charismatic. In reality, all charismatics, the apostles, that they are in essence just the pope and the elites. Right, everyone's a Pope now. Everyone's the Pope now, yep. Yeah, and that's precisely what I find so distasteful about listening prayer and that kind of stuff. Because once someone has a word from the Lord, there is just no rebuttal. If God told you, I can't say anything. I can't even correct you with scripture, because now it's just God's word against God's word. There was a hand here, Lisa. Okay So Lisa's asking about the concept and now we got to put our thinking hats on here a little bit and make some distinctions Lisa's asking about the concept about I gave a lot to the church and the Lord has blessed me Okay, I believe that's true actually I And I've seen it happen in real life He's gone so I can sing his praises now. My grandfather was somebody like that. I I was amazed at the end of the year, and their pool table was just full of donation requests. And how many tens of thousands of dollars left at the end of the year, I don't even know. And he never sung his praises about it, and yet there was always plenty of money for a house and a car. And that was general, and then you travel around and you talk to people, and I didn't even know grandma and grandpa knew them, and they told me, oh yeah, your grandpa gave me a loan when I went bankrupt today. I had no idea. And I do believe God blessed my grandfather financially. Where I think this is different is I don't see that as a mechanical thing. I think in the providence of God it would have been just as right or just as fitting if my grandfather went bankrupt on his own farm after that generosity. It's once we start thinking like God owes this, but there is a reaping and sowing principle in scripture. A stingy man will have his things taken out of his hand by force. A generous man Frequently is blessed by God with more so that he can give more and I think that's John Wesley's concept. Is that this isn't Wealth is not just for us to store up for ourselves and It's also not that we give in order that we can get but frequently it does happen that the more you give the more you get and But if you let that process stop there, you're still thinking selfishly. What if the more you give, the more I get? Oh, that means I can give more. That was John Wesley's concept about this. If God does reward your generosity, that just means he's putting a responsibility on you to do it again. Now I'm gonna trust you with five talents. Let's see what you do with five. You did good with two. And then you did good with three. Now you're gonna get five. Let's see how... So it's still, whenever the process stops with me getting stronger or richer, we're thinking in man-centered terms. If God is pleased, and he doesn't owe this to anyone, but if he is pleased to return someone's generosity it's for the purpose of being generous again not just to say okay well now my bank accounts bigger because I gave more that would be a selfish way of thinking and I don't know if that makes sense so this isn't denying that there is genuinely a reaping and sowing principle in God's world that's true but it's not mechanical and God doesn't owe it to anyone and if he does if you do reap as a result of your sowing that just means that little bit more crop goes in the ground next year so that we can do it again it can be with yes sure if somebody is gifted musically and they work hard at that and God gives them a harvest on their work, okay, that's not just, okay, well now I'm really talented. No, no, how can I bless others with this gift? You're right, it's not just money. It's any ability, anything that God puts in our hands to leverage for his kingdom. But the goal is always to get it back into God's hands. And if he gives us more, then there's more for us to give back. Great. Right, so Rob just mentioned the importance of giving from the heart, and I think that's a biblical concept too, right? God loves a dutiful giver, right? God loves someone who says, it's my duty to give. Here I go, writing out another check, because I'm filled with the joy of the Lord. That's what it says in Corinthians, right? No, what does it say? God loves a? Cheerful, there we go. heart's disposition to just say I'm gonna give so I can get, that's a sick logic. If I can say I can give because this is good for God's kingdom and then God, you know, price of milk goes up by ten cents a liter and it all is back in my bank account anyway, that doesn't mean I get to keep it, okay? Now, Yep. Yep. Yep, and that is right. Rob just mentioned, again, that sometimes, and this is probably true in many of our experiences, where we feel like there's nothing more to give, and then we do it anyway, and somehow the bills still get paid. Somehow there's still time, you know, if it's an investment of time rather than money, there's still time to take care of what we didn't think we had time for, right? God's math seems to accommodate those things. Yes, if he can turn five fishes and two loaves into a meal for thousands, surely we can find time and money in our budgets for the kingdom as well. We're at 10.13, so we probably best not bite off a new section here. So why don't we bring this in for a landing and then we can enjoy some coffee and fellowship time. Why don't we close in prayer and then we can move on. Father God, I want to thank you for today. I want to thank you for the opportunity to gather with your people on your day where you have summoned us out of the world, you have called us together to meet and to edify fellowship with one another, most importantly to be fed from your word and to grow. I pray for each one here this morning. I pray that we will be fed by the nourishment of your word, that we will be encouraged, that relationships will be strengthened, I want to pray specifically for Kenan this morning as he's going to bring the word. Lord, I pray that you would give him what he needs. Give us open minds, give us receptive hearts. Lord, I pray that you would continue to build your kingdom in and through this church and through the people here. As you already have, Lord, we want to be faithful to that still. I pray that we would never take a mechanical view of your blessings or think that things are owed, but rather when you are pleased to gift us, Lord, I pray that we would be thankful, that that would motivate thanksgiving and joy in our hearts, and that we would be pleased to return it back to you yet again. Lord, I pray that you would find us to be faithful stewards. Thank you for your mercy, we thank you for your grace, and we commit the rest of this time this morning into your fatherly and kind hands, and we pray this all in the strong name of Jesus, and amen.