The Bible Provocateur
The Bible Provocateur
LIVE DISCUSSION: Exposition - Galatians 1:1-5 (PART 3 of 4)
The subtle ordering of Paul's greetings reveals a profound theological truth—grace must always precede peace. This isn't coincidental but reflects the spiritual reality that reconciliation with God begins with His unmerited favor before producing peace between the Creator and His creation. Like the formless void in Genesis awaiting divine illumination, we exist in spiritual darkness until God sovereignly declares "Let there be light" in our hearts.
This conversation challenges popular notions about modern apostles and prophets through a careful examination of Ephesians 2, where Paul describes the church as being "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets." Since no building requires multiple foundations, this indicates the apostolic foundation has already been established. The biblical qualification for apostleship required direct appointment from Jesus himself, as exemplified in Paul's Damascus road experience, making modern apostolic claims highly questionable.
At its core, Christian ministry serves one ultimate purpose—preparing people for death. Not in a morbid sense, but in the profound reality of readying souls to stand before God with peace and reconciliation. This preparation involves "dying here first" to self, sin, and worldly attachments so we might truly live in eternity. The substitutionary atonement of Christ, who "gave himself for our sins," guarantees this reconciliation isn't merely offered but effectively secured for those who are His.
The discussion reveals how Scripture alone "thoroughly furnishes the man of God for every good work," challenging trends toward additional revelations, prophecies, or apostolic declarations. True believers recognize one another through their reverence for God's word and their desire for spiritual growth—not through claims of special authority or revelation. When we embrace the complete sufficiency of Scripture and the finished work of Christ, we find ourselves properly equipped for both life and death.
peace. And what's interesting and I want to challenge you to look at this when you start reading his epistles that grace, peace, or grace, mercy and peace, in these greetings they are always, always in that same order, always. So here's what I mean. When you look at verse three, paul says grace to you and peace. There is no peace with God apart from his grace, peace. You don't get peace first and then you get grace. You get grace first and then comes peace. Now, in the greetings, when you see mercy, you will see mercy coming in between grace and peace. Now, in the greetings, when you see mercy, you will see mercy coming in between grace and peace. You will see grace, mercy and peace unto you, but you will always see it in that order.
Speaker 1:And so when you see grace, it means that unmerited favor, that gift that God has given you, that salvation that he has given you, that you did not earn, that you did not lay hold of of your own effort, of your own will, of your own desire, of your own DNA. It doesn't matter if you were a Jew, born in Jerusalem, it doesn't matter if you were rich or poor, it doesn't matter what language you speak. Grace is given to individuals from all nations, tongues and kindreds, and that is what Christ clearly explained when he talked about how God so loved the world. This is what he's talking about. He's telling his people you got it wrong. The father loves you, but he also loves people from these other nations, and so he says grace. In other words, grace be to you. In other words, the grace of God be with you. In other words, that continued unmerited favor of the Lord be to you. And peace. And peace means that you have been reconciled to God. Reconciled, that means that the war is over.
Speaker 1:The war, what's the war? The war is the battle between man in his sinful state and God in his holy and righteous position that he is in. But it is his grace that must begin in us, to work in us in order for us to obtain mercy, which is the turning away of his wrath or having his wrath appeased, so that we ourselves do not have to succumb to it because of our unrepentant sin. And when we do, we have peace from God.
Speaker 1:The whole idea, the reason why we preach, the reason why we teach, the reason why we have fellowship, is to encourage one another to be at peace with God at all times Lay down the weapons and the resistance against him. We preach in order to stop the resistance and this is why our whole, our whole role as Christians, is to glorify God Through Jesus Christ. Our entire role, our entire role Is to educate men and women and children, to prepare them For death. We are preparing them To die. We are preparing them to die. We are preparing them to change the quality of their existence so that they can stand before God and know that their relationship with him is one of peace, one of reconciliation.
Speaker 2:God makes his spirit and his ministers a flame of fire. They purify like metallurgy with the preaching of the word. It's all about the truth, the light God said let there be light In God was the life and the life was the light of men. It shined in the darkness and the darkness comprehended it not. You see the Trinity, what people call the Trinity I don't use the word much right there in Genesis 1. God created the heavens and the earth and that earth was without form and void. There was darkness first when the Holy Spirit moved in. What does the Holy Spirit do? One of the functions To guide us into all truth.
Speaker 2:We started out primitive on this planet, real primitive. We didn't invent the deal yet. Primitive on this planet real primitive. We didn't invent the deal yet. We didn't have complex language. Starts off with Adam's a gardener. His first son becomes a farmer, his second son domesticates animals. He's a shepherd. Eventually, in Cain's descendancy, got artificers of brass. Eventually got the Tower of Babel. It's about the light. You got God, the creator, the Holy Spirit that guides into all truth, and Jesus, the light. They both start off with the same three words John 1 and Genesis 1, so we're talking about the same exact thing to start off with right you know, beginning, yeah, he said.
Speaker 1:He says you know, you're right, because in in the in Genesis 1, he says in the beginning, god created the heaven, the earth. But he goes on, he says oh, heavens, plural, right. But he says here in verse 2, he says the earth was without form and void, darkness was upon the face of the deep and the Spirit of God on the face of the water. Hold on one second. So here's the thing, and I like what you're saying, brother, because it you know, because this is something that I like to talk to people about, right along the lines what you're talking about, when you look at Genesis to me, you see the first, see the first. You get the first hint of what salvation is like. So when it says that the earth was without form and void, that's us, before we know Christ, we're without form and void, we haven't been shaped and we're empty. There's nothing to us, we are just shells of human beings without form and void. And then it says and darkness was upon the face of the deep. Again, that's us covered in darkness, living in darkness, and that darkness runs deep. And you can look at this whole thing. But what I'm saying is you get to see that this, that there's this pattern that that god has made his word um convey to us in so many places of the word of god.
Speaker 1:And he starts with the opening two verses of genesis the earth was without form and void, so was man without form, and Darkness was upon the face of the deep. We were born in darkness, born under the cover of darkness, and live in it, live in it. And then it says and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. The spirit of God, he must move first. And when the spirit of God moves, that's when God says let there be light. And when God says let there be light, there is light. And God doesn't ask you if you want to be enlightened. He says let there be light, and now you are enlightened. And this is why I dispute so vigorously against these people who are always talking about their free will. Did this, their free will, did that? You know that's not. That model for salvation is nowhere in the scriptures, nowhere.
Speaker 2:Nowhere, nowhere. Key component here, that's in Isaiah 66 and 1. It's an idiom used in many places in the Bible. It's a figure of speech and it's very useful through the Bible to explain things. What does Isaiah 66 and 1 say? Actually, I don't have it memorized, but it says something like the heaven is my throne. Therefore, god says something like that the heaven is my throne, the earth is my footstool. Where are you going to prepare a place for my rest? That's a real bad paraphrase there. So when you look up in the sky, we don't see a large chair up there. You see a chair up in the sky. When you look up, you see a footstool. When you look at the ground this is a figure of speech from Isaiah 66 and 1. The heavenly people and the earthy people, those with the power and those subject, those in favor with God, the greater light in the lesser light.
Speaker 2:you could even say it that way amen brother, you had to have an earth, the israelites and what they call the heathen. With jesus, you have a heaven and earth that shall never pass away. Well, jesus, words will never pass away. You have the christians who reign with christ in heavenly places and the non-christians two different covenants, heaven and earth. Listen, oh, heavens, give ear, oh, earth. You see any eyes, ears up in the sky? I don't see no ears up there. When I look up there, it's a figurative language talking about the people in the throne and the people, the ruling and the rule.
Speaker 2:It starts off with genesis. One god created the first, the heavens, the other solar systems and galaxies that existed before this one, where the angels and god were, got it footstool. Humanity was without form and void, we had no society and structure and dealings with one another and our minds were primitive. The Holy Spirit, the guides and the all-truth moved into that metaphorical waters, the darkness over the face of the deep, and God said let there be light. And there was light Again. John 1, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was with God and the word was God.
Speaker 1:The same was in God's beginning. The same.
Speaker 3:Let me show the people let me get some other ideas in here banana pancakes you're there, sister, I'm here what are some of your thoughts?
Speaker 1:what are you thinking so?
Speaker 3:far. Yeah, I really like the verse you started with, because anytime I state the fact that you know, I don't like there's nothing left to prophesy, like on the apostles. I just got rubbed off the wrong way when I even began walking with Christ because everyone had the title apostle. So from the beginning I knew there was something fishy with that. But what always tripped me up was the verse in Ephesians where it says chapter 4, verse 13 and 14, or 12 and 13, where it says until the perfect and then the word unity there. So I was like okay, well, if the prophets and the apostles are listed there, then could there still be some. But definitely chapter two that verse really drilled it down for me where it's like okay, but the foundation is there, like we're already building the church.
Speaker 1:So well, you know, and the point I was making there and and I realized now that you it up that I failed to complete making that point about the foundation of the prophets and the apostles is that when you, because it says in verse, it says in verse, I think it was 12. It'll come back to me, but anyway, when he talks about the apostles, right, and them being the prophets and the apostles being the foundation he talks about, he says right before that that we are the household of God, his household, and then, right after that, he goes and says that this house of God is built upon the foundation of the prophets and the apostles, meaning that once the foundation is laid, the construction of the house can't be built until the foundation is completed. It is necessary for the foundation to be completed before you can start building anything. Start building anything.
Speaker 1:And so what happens is, if the foundation is the prophets and the apostles and the Lord tells us that that foundation has already been laid, then that means there are no more apostles and no more prophets to come after the fact, because the church is being built upon that very foundation and no house and Meg can attest to this being in the construction world.
Speaker 1:no, house has more than one foundation there, one foundation, and so we as believers are lively stones on that foundation, with the lord jesus christ himself being that cornerstone of that, of that, of that on top of that foundation, and the church is growing up and this is what the temple of God is. And it's so sad to hear so many people talking about the expectation of a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem, not realizing that we are that temple and we are lively stones, not dead, cold stones that are pulled out from mountainsides or from underground. We are the lively stones and jesus christ is that cornerstone, that rock of our salvation that holds the whole building, fit together neatly into one body, like you just read about, when he talks about us coming together in the unity of faith, and so this is significant yeah, also something that really and that's why I joined I okay, I got to hurry up bedtime and get in here, because the like people get really heated when you say the modern day apostles and prophets.
Speaker 3:They're like, no, but they get really heated and, like I try to with my limited knowledge that I had, I'm like, okay, well, the only people that ever called themselves apostles actually walked with jesus, right. So, like megan gave the definition, uh, it was like a charge given to them directly by jesus and even paul. You know, I was trying to find the verse, but whenever jesus spoke to him, was it audibly like where the rest of the people were like witnesses in this event?
Speaker 1:In which event With Paul.
Speaker 3:Yeah, when he was blinded on the road to Damascus.
Speaker 1:No, there were those who saw what was happening, but they didn't understand what was being said. So Christ was speaking to Paul.
Speaker 6:They heard thunder.
Speaker 1:But they heard something. Yeah, they didn't hear the words that got articulated to Paul. They just heard the thunder. That's what they heard. And then God went ahead and he ended up. He blinded Paul and then he told him to go to who? Was it Priscilla and Aquila to receive his sight?
Speaker 6:No, Ananias right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm sorry, ananias like witness that we need for it to be like okay, yeah, only the people that walked with and were spoken by, uh, like direct command from jesus by jesus christ.
Speaker 1:Right, that's. That's the important part here. Yeah, and I got it wrong. It's ananias, that's right. And it's crazy because, when you think about it, paul was a person who facilitated the killing of Christians. And so God goes to him and says hey, I want you to open up Paul's eyes. He must have been thinking are you sure you got the right person? You know what I mean, because they were running from Paul, and now Ananias is told to open his eyes.
Speaker 1:And it's a beautiful thing because you're seeing that unity beginning to develop and grow in the early, in these early days of the growth of the church, and so it's a beautiful thing because that's what you see now. So, and here's the thing, and this is something that everybody listening should take comfort in, because I know, like all of you, that there is so much, there's so much disagreement, there's so much hostility among those who call themselves believers. But know this, know this the true believers are always in unity, always. That unity can't be broken. It can only be built and strengthened. And so the problem is, you have so many who put on the same clothes we do, but they're not like us.
Speaker 6:Yeah, they love me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Side of the platter but not the inside of the cup in the platter.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. You know, so it's. It's one thing that I want to make, though. So don't. So we, we, I don't want.
Speaker 1:I'm hoping that we can be a lot less discouraged than many of us really are sometime, because we don't. We are not called to be in unity with everyone who calls themselves a Christian or who pretends to be of the sheep, but the scripture tells us plainly to test the spirits to see whether they be of God, and so when you get around people, other Christian people, there's a sense of fellowship that is felt in a very real way that is hard to describe, and I know that all of you know what I'm talking about. You know, when you're in a company of good, solid, god loving people that love the word of God, that esteem Christ, cheap among 10,000. There are others who all they want is something whereby they can lay hold of, so that they can be right about something in this world where they're rejected everywhere else, you know, so you get.
Speaker 1:You get these certain people who also want to find a way to be in the kingdom of Christ and, at the same time, be in the kingdom of the world. You know, this is why I feel sorry for some of these people, like you know, I'll mention it like this like this this gospel singer, kirk Franklin, be in the kingdom of the world. This is why I feel sorry for some of these people. I'll mention it this gospel singer, kirk Franklin, this guy, I don't understand him, I just don't. But there's a lot of these entertainers who go and do all these wicked things, say these wicked things, play these wicked parts, sing these wicked songs, and then they're getting awards for those very things that are cursing God and then thanking God for giving them the benefit of the glory, for giving them their gift.
Speaker 2:It must be tough being in the limelight. The lead singer for the Newsboys, a contemporary Christian artist, recently confessed to doing all kinds of drugs or whatever he did on tour or something like that you know.
Speaker 1:So a lot of these, so a lot of these people you know, we, we, I don't know anyway, in other words, don't be discouraged by them. Don't be discouraged by them because we know who our family is and we know them. When we are in, we are with them, and that doesn't mean we don't disagree about things. But there's a different spirit about how true Christians, you know, are knit together and how we get along. It's like, you know, there are a lot of people that are smarter than me and you know, and when they're talking and they say something to me that may go contrary to what I'm saying, I may go like OK, show me how you're coming up with that.
Speaker 1:I want to know, and when that happens, I love it. I love it because you have to be open to the fact that you don't know everything. I don't know everything, and I know that everybody here will say the same thing desire. There's a desire to feast at God's table and to try all these different things on this table and to make sense of it all, because there's so much for us to learn, there's so much for us to take glory in learning.
Speaker 6:Amen. It's called esteeming others higher than yourselves, that's right.
Speaker 6:Absolutely. And the Holy spirit that is inside of us, I can tell you, you know, when you know, when you know, the spirit recognizes the spirit Right. The other thing is that the spirit that is inside of us cannot accept untruth, right? So when you hear something and you start getting sick to your stomach or you're just like, oh my goodness, it's just like it's it, you get to a point where it rejects it. You can't the. The spirit will reject the nonsense. Right for you, right right.
Speaker 1:I mean, it's one of these kind of things where, like the one gentleman earlier you know, who started with me talking about there are multiple gospels, I can't, we, we can't, we can't really have a meaningful conversation if we, if you can't, if we can't get past that, you know. And the other thing that we have to be careful, careful about, is is saying that, ok, well, I say there are multiple gospels. I don't say that, but I'm just saying, if you're the person that's saying this wrong thing and you're saying, well, there are multiple gospels, and I try to convince you, well, if that's true, there are multiple ways of being saved, and that can't be true. There's only one gospel, and that same gospel has saved everyone who was saved, whether they're an Old Testament saint or whether they're a New Testament saint. The same gospel has saved all who are believers.
Speaker 1:Now, if you come to me saying that there are multiple gospels, we're not going to be able to talk about anything else. Now you might say, well, this is what I believe, that's just the way it is, and I think that's what it is. And then you might say, well, like a lot of people do, well, that's all right, it doesn't really matter anyway for salvation. So it doesn't really matter. And here's what I say. Every truth in the word of God has a necessary connection to our salvation. Every false thing that we embrace willfully, every false thing that we embrace, it has some effect on the salvation that we think it had, that we think we have. So this is why, when I had the discussion a couple of nights ago about tongues, when these people run around talking about speaking in tongues, you're saying that revelation is still open. You're saying that that God is still has something to say, that his word has not communicated to us. I can't deal with that.
Speaker 1:There's no fellowship I can have no fellowship with somebody going around saying he's an apostle, or somebody else saying I'm a faith healer or any of these other things, because you're saying that the word of God was not and is not sufficient.
Speaker 5:Can I just add something to that? I couldn't agree all the more, by the way, god bless, I haven't spoke to you for a while. How?
Speaker 1:are you? I'm doing well, how are you sister?
Speaker 5:Good, thank God, I did come off TikTok for a while and there was too many heretics so I had to come back. I had to fix everybody, um yeah.
Speaker 5:So people say all the time um, oh, that's secondary, oh, it's secondary yeah if you, if you believe that everything that you believe as a christian, in your theology, in your doctrine, comes from the bible, it's no longer secondary. Because if you, if you believe it comes from scripture, how is that secondary? I completely agree with you. Like I'm sick of hearing the excuse of the false ecumenicalism of, oh, I mean, it's secondary, it's secondary. No, most of these things, what you think is secondary, is actually a false gospel. Right, like, do you know what I mean? Honestly, keep preaching it, I love it.
Speaker 1:Yep, I agree. I agree, sister, and this is something that I think that we all should, that we all as I know you do, because I've heard you many times that we have. This is the word of God God gave us and it couldn't be laid out until the finished work of Christ was finished. And when he ascended on high, he sent his Holy Spirit, as he said he would do. And he said his Holy Spirit will do what Testify of me John 15, 26. He is coming and he's going to testify of me, the things that I have told you. And then we have this word, we have it all codified in this word, the whole word of God, all that we need to do, which Paul tells us thoroughly furnishes the man of God for every good work, not some, not most, not 75% or 80%, but throughly furnishes the man of God for every good work.
Speaker 1:The problem is the generality of those who call themselves Christians are lazy. Of those who call themselves Christians are lazy, just lazy. They don't read, they don't study, they don't take the time to do the hard work. When you go into the military, you drill and drill and drill until you get your military bearing perfect. This is what you do so? In our faith we are supposed to continue to drill and drill and drill, meaning that we study the word of God, we seek his face in prayer, we seek fellowship with people and we sit under the ministry and under the preach word in church services and you got people arguing about we don't need to do that anymore, we don't need to do this anymore.
Speaker 1:But my thing is, why would you not want to? But there is no aspect of what we there's no aspect of what is needed for our salvation that is not found in the word of God. And I hesitated because I was about to say contained in the word of God. Well, everything that the word of God is is everything that God has to say to us. So I don't need a pastor or not a pastor, but somebody telling me he's an apostle, so that I can give him some kind of high esteem in my mind, that he holds on par with the apostles that Christ called. Nor do I need to hear a prophet. Somebody comes up, a prophet who can tell me what's going to go on. In my life I've had people come to me and tell me I have a word for you from God. No, you don't. I have a word, and it's in 66 books. You don't have a word for me. I don't want to hear it. You're a medium, you're a mesmerizer medium, you're a mesmerizer, you're an idiot, you know.
Speaker 5:That's so funny.
Speaker 6:Yeah, I know I'm over here.
Speaker 5:I have a word. No, you don't. It's so funny. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:No, it's true. Whenever somebody comes telling you that that they got a word for you, they got something that God told them to tell you, and I'm like, no, well, god can tell me, he can tell me himself, and he does that how. When I'm in the word of God, when I'm engaged in prayer and the Holy Spirit is working through me, making the word of God make sense, it's laborious and the truth is, the true servant of God is going to love it because it is food for his soul. It is food for his soul. So any inclination that somebody is going to have that's going to try to take me down a path to tell me that they got something. There's some nutcase girl in here that's always wearing some kind of doily over her head, calling herself a prophetess. She's not. She's not a prophetess of anything. It's silly. We have the word of God and we have a savior that died for us and a savior that rose for us and he said that the Holy Spirit I'm going to send to you to seal you and to enable and to testify to the things about me and lay them on your heart to understand. You have Christians that think they know everything about the Bible and never read a single word out of the Old Testament. And I don't understand that. And it would really greatly affect the way you really interpret things in the New when you've understood the Old. But people don't want to do it. They want to be, they want somebody else, they want to be Christians through someone else's effort or somebody else says and you need to go and study and learn the Word of God for yourself.
Speaker 1:Now, in Galatians 1, verse 4, well, verse 3, paul says Grace be to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. So once again, you see already twice in the first three verses here that Paul puts the Father and the Son on equal footing. Equal footing. Not only does he put them on equal footing, but he separates them as distinct persons God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. And not God the Father, who is the Lord Jesus Christ, but God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:But notice in verse four when he says and our Lord Jesus Christ, verse four, he says who gave himself for our sins. He says who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil world according to the will of God the Father. And let me tell you something. Verse four is a sermon in and of itself. In fact, it's multiple sermons. Let's start with the first three words, or verse four who gave himself? Who gave himself? And then it says he gave himself for our sins. And the biggest word in these first six words of verse four, the biggest word and the most important word is for words of verse four. The biggest word and the most important word is for it says the Lord Jesus Christ gave himself for our sins. Now, when I say for what are we saying? What is Paul saying when he says that the Lord Jesus Christ gave himself for our sins?
Speaker 6:That he is the atonement.
Speaker 1:He is the atonement Amen.
Speaker 5:Why we can't be going around telling people that Jesus has died for their sins. Because if the sins of every man has been atoned for, then they've been atoned for. It's atonement. They're out with God, they've been reconciled unto God. So when it says he's died for your sins, if he's died for everyone's sins, well, hell's going to be empty.
Speaker 1:Right, hell will be totally empty. It says that the Lord Jesus Christ. He says he gave himself. He did it. He gave himself for vicariously, substitutionarily, as a substitute for our sins. That for encompasses atonement. What does atonement mean? Well, look at the word Break it up. It means at one. Atone means at one. You were made one.
Speaker 1:Tyndale had no word. There was no word in the English language that described the word atonement. That was written in Greek. There was no word for it. But the word conveyed or carried with it the connotation of being made at one, reconciled, made in unity with Christ. He gave himself for us, he went in our stead.
Speaker 1:So here's the thing it is impossible. It's impossible for him to give himself for your sins and hold you under the sword of penal retribution if he gave himself for your sins. So what I'm saying is if Jesus christ died for everyone, like my sister said, chosen, then no one would be in hell, no one would be there. Does that remove their obligation to submit? No, it doesn't. But it also means that the lord is under no obligation to redeem anyone when death and sin is, when death because of sin is what we all deserve. Christ, when he said God so loved the world and he gave his only begotten son. He goes down two verses later and says those who believe not are condemned already. I hate that verse. They all, they, they, they have to that never. That voice is never connected with 316.
Speaker 6:I think it just stops at 316, and then that's it.
Speaker 1:That's it. But see, that's what the world does and that's what these people who do, these Christians who do. They go around telling everybody oh, jesus loves you Whatever. And so they think, well, if he loves me, then it would be kind of weird for him To punish me later. But they misunderstand. They think, well, if he loves me, then it would be kind of weird for him to punish me later. But they misunderstand. Jesus didn't die for everybody and this is why all of these Arminian, these people whose theology is Arminian, they don't understand it and these are not God's people. I hate to say it. These are not God's people, I hate to say it.
Speaker 1:These are not God's people, for the reason that somebody else said earlier, when a true blood-bought Christian, redeemed by Christ, sealed by the Holy Spirit, when they hear God's word, there's something about it that they recognize. So you see this, when you see in John 10, when Jesusesus talks about my sheep hear my voice, my sheep hear my voice and they know me and they follow me. Do they go straight from time to time? Sure, but what happens when they go astray? He goes out and brings them back. They don't come back on their own. He has to go get them. Say, hey, hold up, you're going off into the wrong farm. But even when they go out, they still only understand the voice of their one and only shepherd and they will always respond to his voice when they hear it and they will respond with joy and happiness and absolute glee. Jesus Christ gave himself for his people. He gave himself. He didn't like it wasn't an offering in the sense of here it is, take it if you want it. That's not how it goes.
Speaker 1:This other guy came to me the other day. John or revelation, chapter 3, says jesus says I stand at the door and knock and whatever. And I had to tell him. Go back and read the passage. He's talking to believers. He's talking to believers who are going astray and he's trying to compel to come home. There are many Christians right here right now, perhaps listening, saying you're a Christian, but either nobody knows you're a Christian, or people that you hang around with forgot you were a Christian, or people that are around you they feel, hey, you can be a Christian all you want to, as long as when you're with me, we can do what we always do. But every one of you, every one of us, we need to understand. We are here right now to be prepared for leaving here. That's what we're doing. When you have faithful people that are trying to share with you the word of God, the whole purpose is to get you prepared for death, to die. Die here first, and you'll live there next.
Speaker 4:That's exactly right. But let me just offer just one bit of advice, a pro tip. You don't want to start a witnessing encounter by saying prepare to die. It all goes sideways from there.
Speaker 1:Actually, that might be a good way, that might be a good opening. Because be a good opening? Because you know, but I what I heard you saying though greg always puts things in a really good way and it takes me a second to catch the humor, but it's true, you know, the thing is, we need, we need to take what we're talking about very seriously. And when we read verse 4 in Galatians, when it says that Christ, when it says that the Lord Jesus Christ gave himself for our sins, this sits with the Christian, the true Christian, differently than does that with people who say, oh, this is just some casually thrown out death that I did in the hopes that people will come to me. But see, the true blood-bought people know that they have been bought, they know that he is their substitute, he went in their place and if he went in your place, there is absolutely nothing.