If you've got your Bible and your handouts, I want to get through some areas. We want to talk a little bit then of understanding the TULIP that Calvinism believes. It's the five points of Calvinism. They call it a TULIP. It's an acronym for their five points. We talked a little bit last week and that and again I'm not gonna get into all the verses because we're gonna take every verse one by one I'll just do a kind of a summary thing so you can kind of get a good feel. This is what they believe This is their system that they're putting on the scriptures and then we're gonna go into history We're gonna study about Augustine. We're gonna study about where Augustine got this theistic terminism how it got into the church, how Calvin and Luther picked it up, so we're going to do some history. And then once we set that foundation, then we're going to tackle the scriptures one by one and show you how to parse them out so that they don't get taken out of context on you. Anyway, I think I touched on this last week of their point of the tea and tulip is total depravity. To understand total depravity, sometimes pastors don't know what they're talking about and say, oh I believe in total depravity too, and they don't know what they're saying. Total depravity for a Calvinist means that the person has total inability to respond to God. Even if God initiates the call, they cannot respond. So, total depravity means total inability. Now, from an evangelical standpoint, from a biblicist standpoint, what do we say about this? Well, we say that people have a sin nature. There's no doubt about that. And that sin nature affects all of them. It affects their soul, it affects their emotions, it affects their body. We're dying physically. So, yes, the sin nature has affected all of us. And we're going to die because of the sin nature, because the sin nature makes us sin. It gives us a desire to sin. Okay. That still doesn't mean I can't respond to God if He puts the call out. To them, they're saying, you can't even respond. And I talked a little bit about last week about them misusing the point of Lazarus' death and not understanding what dead means. Dead in sin means separation. Your sin is separating you from God. And so, here's what you have to understand. Even though we possess a sin nature, we have the ability to respond to God. So let me give you an analogy. I cannot call the President of the United States, okay? But he can call me. Now, here's the question. If the President of the United States calls me, can I answer the phone? Of course. And I can answer the phone and respond back. That's the biblical understanding of us. No one seeks God on their own. We don't take the initiative. God takes the initiative. But God says, I put out the call to everybody. I want all to be saved. So the call goes out to everybody. So use the phone analogy is this. Can people pick up the phone and answer God's call? Yes. Of course they can. Can they not pick up the call? Yes. So a simple analogy, that's what the Bible teaches, but yet the Calvinists say, hey, no, he puts out the call, but you can't even answer the call. Does that make sense? He puts out a call that I can't answer. I can't even, I'm dead because I can't pick up the phone. I'm dead. So is this initial call by God a joke? Is it some kind of sick joke? Hey, I'm gonna put out the call, but I know you can't respond. So because you don't respond, I have to make you born again and then you can believe in me. I have to change your nature without permission from you and your will and I treat you like a robot and I flip a switch in you and then you can believe in me after I flip the switch. The flipping of the switch is making the person born again. So you're born again before believing. Is that what the scriptures teach? No, the order is reversed. The scriptures teach, believe and you will have eternal life. Believe and you will be born again. That's how it is. That's the order salutis in salvation. But Calvinists mix the order up and say, you must be born again first and then you can believe. You will find no scripture to support that. It's just from a philosophical situation, an idea that they come up with. Okay, so that's just a little bit. Let's take a few scriptures on the next page there on your handout, just to give you some broad understanding of how they're misinterpreting the scriptures. And again, we'll drill down more, but I wanna give you some other examples of how this is misused. They'll highlight 1 Corinthians 2.14 which says, "...but a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised." Okay, question, real simple. Who is 1 Corinthians written to? Believers in a church, and he calls them saints. He doesn't say, hey, I'm writing a letter, and I know about half of you are unsaved, and the other half is saved. He says to the saints, he talks to them as believers. Some are carnal, which Calvinists don't accept. But they are saints. They are believers. He calls them that. And he's trying to make a point to the carnal believers in Corinth of saying if you act in your flesh and your carnality, which basically means you're operating by the sin nature, then you won't accept the things of God that I'm telling you. It won't make sense. Okay, question. How many natures do you have inside of you as a believer now? The one nature that is your old man or the sin nature, what's the other one? Your new nature in Christ. You were given that new nature when you were born again. and you believe, born again, you're given a new nature. So there's two natures inside of you, one of sin, one of the flesh, and one of the spirit. Notice what Paul is trying to tell them. If you operate in the flesh as a believer, then spiritual things won't make sense to you because you're operating and thinking in the flesh. That's true. That's very true. You have to be in the spiritual mode of the new nature to understand the things of God. That's why immaturity is a problem for believers because they can't understand deep spiritual things. They can't understand the meat of the Word. They can only understand the milk of the Word. And so he's saying, as long as you guys stay carnal, or another word would be immature, you're not going to grasp the higher things that I say to you spiritually. because he says they're foolish to you and you can't understand them because they are not spiritually appraised. The only way that you and I can spiritually appraise like a teacher like Paul or a pastor preaching is if I'm in the spirit and I'm growing and maturing. That's what Paul's making. He doesn't say unbelievers can't understand anything spiritually. That's not true. That's not even the argument Paul's making. So, It's a problem. Okay, let's do the next one, just as an example. I'm not going to drill down too far, but I just want to show you as an example. 2 Corinthians 4.4, the God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. So basically, they use this passage to say, see, Satan has blinded their eyes. They cannot see. What's the problem with that? First off, this is what I would say. If they can't respond to God anyway because they're dead, then why would Satan bother to blind them who are already blind and dead? There's no point in blinding them. There's actually no point of Satan's temptation because they're dead and can't respond. So why would Satan blind someone that's already dead? See, they got a problem there. So anyway, we go further. In this text, Paul is not talking that unbelievers can't get through their blindness. He is saying this is the fact of unbelievers who keep rejecting the truth, the God of this world blinds them, but is there ways out of the blindness? Of course there is. In fact, in John 1, 9, it says that the light goes to every man. Jesus says, I draw all men to myself if I am lifted up. John 16 says the Holy Spirit convicts people of sin, righteousness, and judgment. And then Acts 16 points out that one of the ladies had her heart opened by the Lord. Okay, so what does that all mean? The problem is when you just isolate a passage and don't take in the other passages, it's called a pretext. and then you can create a false doctrine from that. So when you balance 2 Corinthians 4-4, this blinding is real, but the unbeliever can get out of the blindness if they respond to the light that's given to them. If they respond to the Holy Spirit's conviction, if they respond to general revelation, if they respond to the word of God, guess what'll happen to the blindness? Goes away. So it's not a position that you can't get out of, it's a position in the state that you're in, but you can get out of it based on other texts. We'll get more into that. Go on the very bottom of your page right there, just another one to highlight. Romans 3, 10 through 12. There is none righteous, not even one. There is none who understands. There is none that seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become useless. There is none who does good. There is not even one." So let's say, based on that look, there's no one that seeks God. No one will seek Him, so God has to seek Him. That's true in one sense. God does have to initiate seeking people. It's true. But then you have other passages that say, like in Acts 17, let me read it real quick. And this kind of starts balancing things out and you start realizing, wait a second, you guys are isolating a text. So if I turn to Acts 17, let me see, it's Paul's speech. on Mars Hill, Paul says this, then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious, for I was passing through and considering the object of your worship, I even found an altar with the inscription to an unknown God. Therefore, the one whom you worship without knowing him, I proclaim to you, God who made the world and everything in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands." Okay, keep following with me. "'Nor is he worshipped with men's hands, though he needed anything, since he gives to all life, breath, and all things. He has made from one blood every nation meant to dwell on the face of the earth.'" Now, listen real closely. and has determined their pre-appointed times and their boundaries of their dwelling." So God, He's telling them, He put you here at this time and this geographical location for what? He's going to answer it. In hope that they might seek Him or grasp or grope for Him and find Him. though he is not far from each one of us. Did Paul just contradict himself? He said in Romans, no one seeks God, but then he says in Acts 17 on Mars Hill, he puts you in the times and seasons so that you would actually seek him and find him and grow from him, though he's not far from any one of us. What's going on? Is that a contradiction? How can in one sense Paul say, you can't seek God, and in another sense he says, of course you can. Is that a contradiction? See, the Calvinists don't want to deal with that contradiction. They're just going to put their system on, say, no one seeks God, and that's the end of the story, and Paul was just generalizing or something like that. No, I don't think he was generalizing at all. I think Paul's very consistent with what he's saying. So, therefore, what am I to conclude? It's not a contradiction. Paul must mean something else. And if I look at the context of Romans 3, I will start to understand Paul's context. This concept of that there is none righteous, not even one, is true, and Paul is using and talking to the Jews and using their basis of understanding righteousness as keeping the law for righteousness' sake. And so basically he's saying there is none righteous who keep the law. That's not how God's working. He's working based on faith, not you keeping the law. So the context is the Jews who keep the law for righteousness, who think they keep the law for righteousness, okay? So it is, there's nothing to understand. There is none who seeks for God. All have turned aside together and have become useless because they're seeking righteousness through works, through the law. There is none who does good by the law because they can't keep the law. There is not even one. Okay, so let me parse that out then. What is Paul saying based on the context? He's saying this, we lack the initiative to see God, so God takes the initiative. So what Paul says in Acts is he's presuming that God has already taken the initiative to reach out to the Greeks and they just need to respond because Paul knows that God has put the call out to everybody. And so because God has put the call out to everybody, then you have the responsibility to respond. That's what he's doing in Acts 17. Okay, so God takes initiative, and then the other point that Paul's making is no one can merit salvation by works of the law. And you would know that, right? There's no way to attain righteousness by good works or the law. You have to do it by faith in Christ, right? Okay, so when I put this all together in context, it doesn't say what the Calvinists think it says. And it doesn't imply that, well, God then, you can't respond at all, and so God has to regenerate you. That's not what it's saying. It's that you don't take the initiative. I didn't take the initiative. God took the initiative, and He's already done that. It's a blanket initiative already. It's already out there. So what does people have to do? Just respond, because the call is already out. So, if that makes sense. Anyway, let's move on. Unconditional election is what they believe. Unconditional election. Now what they misunderstand about the Hebrew understanding of election is they make it primarily individual and they attach phrases to it that make it seem that it's before the foundation of the world. And so they end up concluding that people are elected to salvation based on no merits or works in eternity past. God had already decided who He's going to save and who He's not. And He did this in the past, and so that, in their terminology, they call the saved ones the elect, or the chosen ones, and then they call the unregenerate, that were never chosen, basically the unregenerate, and they're destined to hell. They have no chance of salvation, because you have to be elect. Now, the problem with that is it's obvious. God created a majority of human beings to destine them to hell and didn't give them the opportunity to get saved. Does that sound like the God of the Bible? It does not. It sounds almost like a pagan deity that controls the world through fate. That's pagan. If God is a God of love, and I'm getting philosophical here, if he's the God of love, love doesn't do evil things to people and play jokes on them in an evil way. I'm gonna treat you good for your physical life, but boy, I can't wait to get you into hell and burn you up. I mean, seriously, that's what you're dealing with in that mentality, that these creatures were destined for hell. which is the majority of people. And by the way, the Calvinist can get even more extreme. There's a hyper-Calvinist and the extreme Calvinist that will even say, everyone who dies before the age of accountability, children, babies, are destined to hell because they have to receive Jesus. And because they didn't receive Jesus, that child, that baby's automatically destined for hell. Oh, I know, they'll punt it off and say, well, you know, it's just a mystery, and God only knows who these people are, but based on our understanding of scripture, since they didn't come to faith in Jesus, we have to say theologically that the baby and the child is in hell. That's how creepy they are. It's scary, but that's the majority of reformed churches, and it's the majority of churches and pastors who are confused on this. Can you imagine a pastor who believes in this garbage getting in front of the congregation and saying, you know what, any of you who have lost children in a miscarriage, infant death, child has died of cancer or leukemia, sorry man, they're in hell. Because they didn't live to receive Christ. That's a cult. I'm sorry, there's no other word for that, other than occult. That is not the God of the Bible. Because they said if he was chosen, he would have lived, or she would have lived to receive Christ. Wow is right. Wow is right. Hey, let me ask you this. Just a little you know right now, you see the problem of Calvinism? Do you understand how serious a threat this is to the church? And by the way, the neo-Calvinists are on the rise. They are your real enemies right now. Because not only do they pump that garbage, Israel, they actually conduct their church like it was Israel, like a new Israel. Because the church has replaced Israel, they think they're governing things as the new Israel. And by the way, they'll push a form of dominionism, which means that we're going to take back the country and establish Mosaic law. Is there a problem establishing Mosaic law? Is that a problem? If you hear people tell you, you know, we need to go back to the law of God. What law are you talking about? Are you talking about the law of Messiah that we're under? Or are you talking about the law of Moses? Well, the law of Moses, you know, we need to stone people. And okay, I'm talking to a reformed person that has blended Israel and the church. And you do that, it is deadly. You know how deadly it was? All you guys have to do is study history. What did the pilgrims do? Do you remember the famous thing that happened in Salem, Massachusetts? They went on witch hunts because they thought they were the new Israel. And what did Israel, what was Israel told to do to witches? Murder them, kill them, get them out of the land. So if they suspected someone as being a witch or whatever it was, they killed them. So you had the Salem witch trials. What did they do to the Indians? Because they thought they were Israel, they saw the Indians as the Canaanites. What did God tell Israel to do to the Canaanites? So they did it to the Indians. They had no problem slaughtering people. And I'm not saying the Indians didn't have their fair share of stuff that they were doing as well, no doubt about that. But you see the problem of blending Israel and the church? You start acting like Israel, and now they saw themselves as that America was new promised land, and they're gonna go in, tater chip, let her rip, just like Joshua did. You see how dangerous that is? There's denominations and Reformed churches that believe that right now. And they're trying to get involved in what's called the Seven Mountain Mandate and try to recapture these areas of society to usher in Mosaic Law. What does Paul say about the Mosaic Law? He says that in several places that the law of Moses has been rendered inoperative because of the cross. We are now under the law of the Messiah. And by the way, the law of the Messiah has about 1,200 laws. So we're under a new legal system. The legal system of Moses is inoperative. We don't apply that to us. We apply the law of Christ or the law of the Messiah or the law of the Spirit on us, and there's about 1,200 of those. We don't do law for salvation. We do it to know how to obey and how to act. But nonetheless, that's the confusion, as you can see. Let's look at some of these passages just briefly and see how they take them out of context real quick. Let's do, let's jump down to Romans 8.30. He goes, and these whom he predestined, he also called. And these whom he called, he also justified. And these whom he justified, he also glorified. Now, again, that passage is taken out of context. And if you read it in isolation, without the context, it'll seem to say that these people were predestined before the foundation of the world. And these people were elect. But if you read the whole context, if you go back to verse 29, it will actually tell you what they were predestined for. They were not, according to the Apostle Paul, predestined to salvation. It's that when one believes, they get the predestined package, if that makes sense. Predestination has to do with what the believer receives that God has already determined in eternity past. So, as you can see the golden chain in there, one of the things God has destined for us who believe is that we will be justified, sanctified, and glorified. And glorification has to do with adoption and receiving a new body and having eternal life. That's the package deal. That's what you get as a believer. Now, the way to understand predestination is to understand when you go to a job interview. If you go to a job interview, the boss has already determined that if I hire somebody, they're gonna get this financial package, this is how much we're paying, this is the benefits they get as far as vacation time, sick leave, and all that stuff, and perhaps we're gonna give them a retirement plan. Regardless of who comes through that door to apply for that job, this is what the boss has predetermined that people get. Right? That's what's predetermined, the package. So in comes some candidate, he rejects the offer, says, no, this is not right for me. Then you don't get the prepackage. Another candidate comes in and says, yes, I'll take the job. Great. Here's the package you get. And so when once someone believes, the package that God has predetermined is given to them. at that point. And that's how to understand that. And so if you read the, you know, the verse before and the verse after this, that's what he's trying to say. And guess what? It is predetermined for every believer to be conformed to the image of Christ. That's part of the package deal. That's what God wants. Now, here's the deal. God could have saved us and not put that deal in. I'm going to save you, but I'm not going to conform you to the image of Christ. I'm not going to sanctify you. I'm not going to glorify you. I'm going to save you, but you're not going to be like my son. He could have easily done that, but he decides to do it. And he says, my son's going to share his inheritance with you as well. That's part of the package deal. He could have not done that. There's so many things God could not have done if He didn't want to, but He did. And so, to understand predestination, you're talking about the package plan. Let's do one more real quick. Yes, go ahead, Luby. It would be, yeah, I think what we would say is the guy took the job, he's part of the company now, but he's a bad employee. Question, are there good Christians and bad Christians? See, in Calvinist world, there's only good Christians. Good, because only believers never apostate. They never get into habitual sins. They never get into long-term issues. They don't have issues, in fact, because they're a new creation in Christ. All things have passed away. And so, they don't have these problems that they used to have. So, there's only, in the Calvinist world, good Christians. Do you buy that? No. I'd like them to spend some hours with me the last 20 years in counseling people. I don't know what they say, I don't understand, but because people have troubles, they have issues, they're working through them, and I would never put them in the category, well, you're just not saved. You're just not saved, you need to get saved. That's crazy talk. People struggle, everyone struggles. So, when we talk about bad Christians, what I'm not saying is like they're going out and doing morally bad things, even though they can fall into sin and do that. What I'm saying is they're carnal. They're carnal, which means they're operating by the sin nature, the flesh. They're not operating by the new nature, and that's what the problem was in Corinth. A lot of them got saved, and they're just operating according to sin nature. They never really changed or grew. And so, Paul was trying to correct all of that. They were saying, well, then you're wrong. We were wrong and you're wrong. You really are not part of the elect. We misinterpreted that. Yeah. So a lot of people, that's what causes doubt into a lot of Calvinists is because they get into habitual sin. which, because we all do, or we get into issues in our life that we can't solve, apparently, and then you start doubting your salvation. Well, I guess I'm not saved because I wouldn't be struggling like this. So it puts, it's what we call spiritual abuse. To make someone doubt their salvation because they can't break a habit or they can't get out of it, that's spiritual abuse, because they would just say, well, I guess you're not saved. You need to get saved. What do you do with that? That's crazy. I have, I believe in Jesus. Based on the good works that you do, you'll be rewarded accordingly. But you're absolutely right. In the Calvinist system, your life has already been decreed what you will do. Hence, you can't gain more or lose any because it's all set. Bingo. So if you get rewarded a lot, it was already predetermined you would get rewarded a lot. If you don't get much, it's because it was predetermined that you wouldn't function correctly. Because it has to be. They say God decrees everything. There's nothing out of His control. Basically, there's no freedom. And hence, the kind of Christian life you and I live is based on His decree. How do you like those apples? That, by the way, nothing you do is part of your free will. He has determined the way your Christianity is going to live. So here's my question. What if He predetermined that I'm going to be a carnal Christian for the rest of my life? What hope do I have? You don't. Don't even try. Go home and watch TV. because you're not going anywhere. I mean, that's the outworking. Now, they're not gonna take their arguments out to the natural outworking of it, but that's what I wanna do. It's a flawed system. It doesn't work. It's not consistent. I saw a hand somewhere. Roy. It's inconsequential, Roy. It's completely, oh, they'll say it's gonna happen, but what am I being rewarded for? Something I was decreed for? It doesn't make sense. That's the inconsistency of the system, is the system doesn't make sense. And when it doesn't make sense on other biblical fronts, like rewards, Bema Seed, then you know there's something wrong. God's plan is completely consistent across the board. But when you see a man's plan, It only goes so far. It can't cover all the nooks and crannies, and so it fails to address everything. Anyway, let's do one more, and then we'll take a break real quick. Ephesians 1, four through five. Again, I'm not gonna drill down too far. I'm just gonna give you some of these ideas. Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. What were we chosen to be in Him? Saved? What does it say? holy and blameless before Him. He predestined us to adoption. That's the package, by the way. Remember, predestination has to do with the package. He predestined us to adoption. You know what adoption is? Resurrection. That's part of the package, right? If you believe in Jesus, you're going to be resurrected and you have eternal life. As sons through Jesus Christ to Himself according to the kind intention of His will. Now, The phrase there I want you to focus in on, and again, I'm gonna go more in depth with it. Look what it says. He elected us, plural, not you, singular, us, plural, and notice the phrase in him. Here's my challenge, go through Ephesians and mark how many times Paul uses the phrase in Christ or in Jesus or in him. I think it's like 27 times. When you see the phrase in him, that is a technical term that Paul is employing. He's not just throwing it out there. Because it's a technical term, it means something other than in, the preposition in, and then Jesus. The technical phrase means that once you get into the body of Christ, you're afforded the things that He planned before the foundation of the world. Let me ask you this question, real simple. When did you become in Christ? Before the foundation of the world? Is that what that passage is saying? Because if you just keep reading, and this is the thing I want you to all know in hermeneutics, simple. If the verse doesn't make sense, just keep reading. The biblical author will then explain himself, and then you'll totally get what he's saying. So he's using this phrase in Christ, right? Okay, let me find Ephesians real quick. I like this Bible you guys got me, it's nice. It's got the big lettering, like four-point font, 14-point font or whatever. Ephesians 1, same context. Let's start with verse 13. In Him, you also trusted after you heard the word of truth. When did you trust Jesus? He just said it. After you heard the word of truth. the gospel of your salvation. So, you trusted Christ, not in eternity past, you trusted Christ when you believed the Word, right? In linear time in history. at the point that you got saved, yeah? That's what he's pointing out. In whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. So at that point, the Holy Spirit sealed you when you believed. Okay, that's the earnest for your redemption, the earnest for your resurrection. The Holy Spirit has sealed you, who is a guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption and the purchased possession through the praise of his glory. So that being said, Notice he uses, in him you also trusted. In him is a technical term, and basically what Paul is saying is, when you believed, you were placed in him. Because he's using the technical phrase. The technical phrase means to be within Christ's body. metaphysically, not literally, but metaphysically, we call it being in the body of Christ. In the body of Christ means I'm part of a corporate body who then is predestined to have certain things from God. And the technical phrase, in Christ, is your key to understanding Ephesians 1. So with that being said, if I look back and he says in verse 4, Where is it at? Just as He chose in Him before the foundation of the world. Before the foundation of the world refers to who? Him or us? When did we come to faith? When we heard the word. So what's this before the foundation? It has to do with the pre-packaged plan of God that those who are in His Son will get this package. But you have to be in the Son to get it. You entered by belief. And because of that, you are now considered the chosen. Now, I know that sounds backward a little bit, and just hold the thought before we take a break. When we come back from the break, I will show you how being called chosen comes after the fact, after you believe. And we'll see that in Matthew 22, okay? So hold on to your questions, we'll come back in about five minutes, okay? Take a break, about five minutes. Open your Bibles, you can follow along with me in Matthew 22. And this parable explains the order of what it is to be called and respond to the call and then what the person is called after they respond. And so I want to read it for you. You can just listen or you can follow along in your Bibles. It is Matthew 22, and it says this, and he, Jesus answered and spoke to them by parables and said, the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding. And they were not willing to come. Notice the term willing. Have you noticed that? The invitation goes out, but the ones who were on the guest list, they don't want to go. What does that say about man's freedom? They can resist the call of God. The invitation is the call of God in the parable. He's putting the invitation out to everybody, but there are some here, and he's primarily talking about the religious leaders in the context, that are not responding to the invitation to salvation. Okay. Again, he sent out other servants saying tell those who are invited talking about the Israelites See I have prepared my dinner my oxen my fatted cattle are killed and all things are ready to come to the wedding Everything's prepared talking about the messianic age by the way But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm and another to his business. They made excuses. They didn't come. They got business to do, right? I'm too busy, the idea. And the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them. So not only did they reject the call, but they turned on his servants, which were the disciples, the prophets, and whatnot, okay, and burned up their city. Oh, sorry, and sent them back up. I went too far. But when the king treated them spitefully and heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies and destroyed those murderers and burned up their city, referring to 70 AD that would come later on. Then he said to his servants, The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. The idea of being not worthy is they didn't consider themselves to be worthy to accept the call. I know it sounds funny, it's a way of talking, but... It's a spiritual dig, if that makes sense. It's a dig on them. Oh, you think you're not worthy, receive this. And it's kind of a dig towards the Messiah, a dig towards coming by faith in the Messiah. Anyway, therefore, go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite them to the wedding. I'm referring to the Gentiles, okay? So those servants went out in the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. Did you notice that? Not just the bad, but both bad and good. So we're talking about different sets of morality. Those who are moral and those who are immoral. It doesn't matter because the moral and the immoral both need correction, right? Because they're imperfect. And the wedding hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. So he said to him, friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, bind him hand and foot and take him away and cast him into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. So, they had to deal with that guy because the guy tried to sneak in without having proper wedding garments, and then he ends up giving the principle for the parable. For many are called, but few are chosen. Okay, so unpack that principle with the parable, and then you will understand what it means to be chosen. using that phrase, okay? It's a phrase that comes in time, not before the foundations of the world. Christ is before the foundations of the world. Let me ask you some diagnostic questions about the parable. The invitation went out to both Jew and Gentile, did it not? The highways represent the Gentiles. The people on the wedding list were the Jews. The invitation has went out to Jew and Gentile alike. All of humanity basically has a invitation to the wedding, okay? In the Jewish culture, when you were invited to a wedding, it's not like you went out and went to the men's warehouse or you went to Nordstrom's or whatever to buy your clothes to go to the wedding. The obligation to provide wedding clothes was on the host. So if you were invited, they would present you garments when you came into the gate, that these are your wedding clothes. And then you can see the parallels with the spiritual aspect. We do not possess our own righteousness, therefore, we must have a foreign righteousness in the metaphor of clothes and have that put on us to have that righteousness. Now, there's another metaphor for clothing that has to do with rewards, but I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the righteous clothing of the Messiah that's put on those who come into the gates. Question, how did you get into the gate? You responded to what? The invitation. Who took the initiative in the parable? The wedding host. The wedding host is God. The wedding host took the initiative to send the invitation out. And as you can see, the people in the text, some of them said, I'm busy, I'm gonna go do this, I'm gonna go farm, I'm gonna do my business, and they rejected the invitation. They resisted the invitation and said, no, I'm not coming. But then the other ones came. Okay, so the way you got into the wedding was that you accepted the invitation. Once you're inside the gate, now you're getting clothes put on you which represent the righteousness of Christ. But what about this old boy that came through the gate and no one gave him wedding clothes. What is that? Who is that? Who would crash the wedding to where, hey, we knew who responded to the invitations. They said they were coming, they RSVP'd, but this, we got this one old boy who came, and he didn't RSVP, and he came in, and he's not on the list to receive wedding clothes. Who is that? Someone's crashing the party, or someone at least thinks they're crashing the party, because what did the host do to him? Tie him up and throw him out into outer darkness. Get him out of here now. He doesn't belong here. Why? Why doesn't he belong? He wanted to be there, but what is it that he refused to do? He didn't accept the invitation, because if he had accepted the invitation, he would have been on the list to get close. and there would be clothing available to him, but he didn't accept the invitation. Therefore, there's no clothes for him. So, what is he doing in here? He is crashing the party, so to speak, because he's trying to earn his way into heaven and rejecting the offer of the invitation, but just barging in on his own self-righteousness. And no one's getting to heaven on their own self-righteousness. So the parable shows you, you're not coming in that way. Get out. You can only come in by accepting the invitation and the host has to give you the wedding clothes or Allah, the righteousness of the Messiah, if that makes sense. The principle, that's all clear, yeah? Therefore, if that's all clear to you, when Messiah says, many are called, but few are chosen, chosen for what? So the many who are called is what in the parable? The invitation. Right? The many who are called, everyone's called, as you can see from the parable, everyone's called Jew and Gentile, come to the wedding, I'm inviting you, get on the wedding list, I'll put you on, I'll make sure you get close if you respond to the wedding, which is the righteousness of Christ. But few are chosen. Who are the chosen in the parable? The one with the wedding garments. Yeah? But how did they get wedding garments? They accepted the invitation. Many are called and those who receive the call and accept the call are chosen for what? the wedding feast and are chosen to be given garments for the wedding or garments of righteousness. So, question then, let's back up and do an understanding of what it means to be chosen by God. When, according to the parable, are you chosen by God? Before the foundation of the world or what? When you accept the invitation of faith to accept Messiah, then you get the moniker, the called one. Many are called, few are chosen, okay? And the chosen represents you are chosen for what? See, everything's consistent in the Bible. The garments represent what? It's not only just the righteousness of Christ. What did I say predestination refers to? The package. So, when you receive the package, you get the righteousness of Christ, the foreign righteousness, it's forensic righteousness, and you get the whole package. You will be conformed to the image of Christ, you will be justified, sanctified, glorified, and adopted, and you will have everlasting life. That's part of the package. So, the clothing not only represents the righteousness of Christ, it represents the package that you get. Hence, You have now been chosen because you responded to the invitation and you were chosen to receive the package. Because everyone who believes will be chosen to get that, because that was what was predestined. And the parable explains this so clearly. that you can't mistake it. It's consistent with what I've even shown you from other passages. Well, what Paul is using as far as predestination, chosen. You were chosen when? In Christ. But in Ephesians 13 and 14, it tells you when you were chosen. It's when you believed and you were placed in Christ. Being sealed with the Holy Spirit means that you were placed in the body of Christ and sealed in there. That happened when? When did you get saved? Whenever you did, right? I was saved at 19. So that's when you were chosen to get the package. Now, question. Why is this misunderstood? This is an easy parable. You can read it on your own and you can parse it out. It's just as easy like we did tonight. Simple, right? Or is it too simple? He did. Many are called, but few are chosen. I don't know, but I'm not going to argue with God the way He tries to explain things. I think God's pretty clear on the thing. Well, you know why it's hard, John? It's not because we can't understand it. You know why it's really hard? It's because we don't know the Hebraic understanding of the words. You have to understand a Hebrew wedding. I don't know, I've never read the Reformers or even Augustine commenting on this passage and giving the Hebraic understanding that you don't show up with your own clothes, the host gives you his clothes, and that we only understand that from the Jewish perspective. No, I think it should have been translated that way. But what was lost in the Catholic Church in early Christendom is they divorced themselves from the Hebraic understanding of a marriage feast. So if you interpreted a marriage here and you interpret it in like today's modern thing, the idea of the clothes, we don't do that. We expect you, if we invite you to a wedding, to get your own clothes. But you see how that would foul up the idea of salvation and the idea of getting something in your salvation? The host provides it, whereas we go to weddings and we provide our own clothing. If you interpret it as a Gentile, that's where you would totally mess the parable up by not understanding the Jewish roots to that. And then also not misunderstanding the Jewish phraseology of being chosen or in Christ. In Christ is a technical term which means the body of Christ, that you have to be in Christ, metaphorically speaking, to receive everything. So if you're a believer, you're in Christ. In Christ, I get a new nature, I get authority, I get a calling, I get all kinds of stuff from Him, but I have to be in Him. So let me give you another metaphor to think about. Being in Christ, I want you to think about this. It has to do with you got invited to go on a cruise ship, so to speak, and you took the invitation, now you got on the boat, And the boat's heading in a direction. Now, you have the freedom to do whatever you want on that boat. And all the things that are on that boat have been given to you. Everything's free. Everything on the boat is free. You work for the Messiah. You do what you need to do on that boat. But that boat's going in a different direction. That boat represents being in Christ. This is the predestined navigation that the boat is taking you to. Salvation finally in glorification and adoption and everlasting life. That's where the boat's heading, but you have to be on the boat to get it. And every believer gets in Christ or in the boat and then is afforded all the benefits of the boat that's heading in a direction, a predetermined direction, if that makes sense. That's the best way to understand being in Christ. It's somebody that didn't want to go the way God laid out. Absolutely, yeah, it's on that level. And it's the idea that, you know, there's a lot of people that say they're Christians, but they say they believe in Jesus, but really it's works-based, and it's them. Whether it's false teachers, false prophets, or just false Christians, or you know, fake. That's what's, you're, get out of here. You're coming in on your own righteousness. Jesus said it another way that, And he's talking about the narrow path, and he was talking about many people forcing their way over the gates or over the fence. They're trying to force their way over. Instead of going through the door, they're forcing their way over the fence to try to get into it. What was he referring to? The same type of person, the religious leaders in that day who were trying to earn salvation, and they were trying to force their way by climbing over the wall. And what did Jesus say about him He's referring to a sheet pan, right? What did he say about the way you get in the sheet pan? I am the door. I am the gate. You don't get in the sheet pan except you go through me. And that's the same thing about the parable of Matthew 22. It's consistent with that principle. You must accept the invitation by faith. Yeah, Dennis. Okay. If you're a Christian, you have no works. Is that a possibility that you can believe and not have any works? Yes, it is. Thief on the cross had no works. I mean, he made a confession, but the thief on the cross died right after that. And there's been a lot of deathbed conversions where people got saved right on their death and they died and they don't have any works. So are they a believer? Are they in heaven? Yes, of course they are. Do they have rewards? Nope. That's how God is fair, because salvation is given to all. It's on the basis of Christ, but rewards is on the basis of works. You've got to keep both separate categories. Even though it would seem, Dennis, that someone would get saved and they would want to do something with their life in terms of rewards and working for the Lord and serving for the Lord, It is a very good possibility there are believers who got saved and have not done a single thing once they got saved. It is very possible for that. So we have to hold that out. Even though it seems outrageous and crazy, there are people like that. But when they get into the kingdom, I'm sorry, they're picking up gum off the ground for the rest of eternity. I mean, there's no rewards. They have no ruling, nothing, no authority. They are what's called, according to Jesus, least in the kingdom of heaven. as some will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. There is status in heaven, by the way. There are levels of authority, levels of rulership, levels of responsibility, and those people who did no works, they're right down on the bottom. Oh, they're in heaven, but they're in the bottom, and they will forever, for all eternity, be on the bottom, never to get out of that position, because your rewards are eternal. Your rewards are not temporary, but eternal. They go on forever, everlasting. I don't know if that makes sense. Any other questions before I wrap things up? Yes, back there. Uh-huh. I can explain that in just, if you'll give me a little bit. James is referring to believers. The whole context of James is he's talking to believers. So when he says, yes, James points out that faith without works is dead, the famous passage. And what happens is that's typically misinterpreted by a Catholic position. Catholics look like you don't have any works, so you're not saved or whatnot. And a lot of Calvinists will say that and interpret that as well. Well, if you don't have any works, then that faith is dead. Problem is, it goes all the way back to this. James is written to who? Believers, but what kind of believers? Hebrew believers. There are five Hebrew books that are specifically written to Jewish believers. James, Hebrews, 1 and 2 Peter, and what, Jude? Those are all Jewish books written to Jewish believers. Period. That's who the audience is. They're not writing to Gentiles, okay? Okay, that being the case, James is a Hebrew book. Therefore, James is using Hebraic language in James, and this is where Gentiles fail to understand that. So, he gets into chapter 2, and he says, faith without works is dead. What he has been beating the drum about in chapter 1, and then he concludes in chapter 5, is this. There are believers who are not obedient, and because they're not obedient, it's introducing the death principle into their life, and they're gonna die quickly. or they won't live a full extent because they keep introducing the death principle. And he goes, basically in chapter one, that if you follow him, what he is saying, he is saying he's given the order of how death occurs in somebody. It starts in the mind, it starts in the heart, then when sin gives birth, it gives birth to death, he says in chapter one. So he's talking to believers about killing themselves through sin and lack of obedience and not good works. So every believer would attest that if you get off the path, you're gonna kill yourself. You're just literally gonna kill yourself. Whether you do drugs, drink yourself to death, addictions, whatever it might be, you're gonna kill yourself. You're gonna die early in your Christian life. That's the whole point of James. So we're not even talking about salvation. Okay, then you move into chapter two, and he's gonna make the point that faith without works is dead. Again, dead to the Hebrew means what? Separation. And in the context of what James is saying, he is saying because your faith is separated from your works, good works, and you have a faith but there's nothing good happening. In fact, there's only bad stuff coming from your life, disobedience. Then you're introducing the death principle and Because your faith is dead or separated from good works, and you've introduced the death principle, your faith is inactive. Your faith is not producing what it's supposed to produce, which is life by obedience. Your faith is not working. It's arrested. It doesn't mean they're not a believer. It's just when someone's faith is dead, they cannot produce good works. It doesn't mean they're not saved. It means they cannot produce works. If your faith is alive, it actually will produce good works in the life of the believer. Hint. So to understand James, you understand the Hebraic context, and you have to understand he's not referring to a salvation issue of doubting whether or not you're saved. He is doubting whether the person's faith is active. How do you make your faith active? You ever felt dead in your faith, like you just don't be motivated to do anything? You felt, you know, you just don't wanna do, you know, you don't wanna read your Bible, you don't wanna pray, you don't wanna go to church, you don't wanna go to Bible study, you just don't wanna do anything. That's someone with dead faith. It doesn't mean they're not a believer, but how do you stoke faith? Through the Word? Through the Word. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word. Paul will tell Timothy, you must stoke, fan the flames of faith. to keep it burning, to keep it alive, to keep your faith active. Otherwise, it dies inside of you. How do you do that? Well, it's the same thing that the other passage was saying. You have to start studying the Bible. You have to get into the Word. And by getting into the Word, it actually fans the flame. I know that sounds counterintuitive because the person doesn't want to get into the Word, but the very thing they're doing by not getting into the Word is the very thing that's killing their faith. So the longer you go without reading the Bible, the more the flames of your faith die. The more you're into it and studying it, the more it fans it up. I know it seems simple, but if someone's lacking motivation, it is right to say, you need to read your Bible, dude. You need to get in, not just cursory, you need to start studying it, and you need to start applying it to your lives. Now, let me make this caveat. A lot of people read the Bible, but they simply read it and they don't know how to apply it to themselves. They don't understand the principles that are working, they don't understand how it works into their lives. Well, how do I learn that? You gotta go to a Bible study, you gotta have a teacher. Why do you think he gave the church teachers? Why did he give the church pastors, apostles, prophets? Those who have the teaching gift, they're able to connect dots because the Holy Spirit's showing them how to connect the dots. And then that teacher can then tell you, this is how you apply this. There's the principle. And so when people try to do Christianity on their own, and they don't have the gift of teaching, which is a big issue, then they can get lost because they don't know how to translate a passage and then apply it. I don't want you to be dependent on teachers. I'm just saying, how are you going to learn Hebraic context if you don't have a teacher? Yes, you can read books, but do you know what books to read? You get what I'm saying? You have to do a lot of research into this, and then you could be independent. And that's the goal. The goal in here for everybody is to become independent in your Bible reading so that you can make application and discern what the passage is telling you. That's the goal. Yes, and the more you read, the more you study, the more you will understand the Bible. Of course, that totally makes sense. And obviously you have the Holy Spirit that will help you as you engage in the scripture. You're not just sitting there alone. If you study the Bible and you're reading this, and you're communicating with God, I don't understand this passage. Please show me what this passage means. He'll either bring something to your attention or he'll put someone in your life that will tell you what that passage means. That's how it works. But you have to be reading it. to get into it. Anyway.