The Bible Provocateur
The Bible Provocateur
LIVE DISCUSSION: Foolish & Bewitched (Part 2 of 4)
Grace or law? Faith or works? In this riveting discussion on Galatians 3, we dive headfirst into Paul's passionate confrontation with believers who were being pulled away from the pure gospel. The apostle's famously direct question—"Who has bewitched you?"—opens a window into understanding how easily Christians can be led astray from salvation by faith alone.
The conversation unpacks Paul's masterful rhetorical strategy as he asks the Galatians to remember their own experience: "Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?" This simple question cuts through confusion and brings clarity about how salvation actually works. Through personal stories and biblical analysis, we examine how modern movements emphasizing Torah-keeping or Hebrew roots often parallel the very error Paul was addressing two thousand years ago.
One participant's powerful observation becomes a centerpiece of our discussion: "You trust Jesus enough to save you but not enough to keep you?" This question challenges beliefs about losing salvation and reveals the inconsistency in trusting Christ for initial salvation while relying on our own efforts to maintain it. We also explore what it means to "guard your heart" against teaching that undermines grace without becoming closed-minded.
Whether you're wrestling with questions about law and grace, concerned about modern religious movements, or simply wanting to understand Galatians better, this episode provides biblical clarity on issues that continue to challenge Christians today. Join us as we recapture the liberating truth that changed history—salvation comes through faith in Christ alone.
Yeah, but like it is being vulnerable just to show you know everybody here in the life, like it's very true and I was definitely guilty of that.
Speaker 2:So Angie go ahead sister, I see you. Thank you for that, meg. By the way, go ahead, I can be vulnerable about mine.
Speaker 3:Mine was the complete opposite. I was married to an unequally yoked man and he was very and I didn't realize how I accepted certain behaviors or certain things and I had to look at my own sin to see where was I at in this and I had to forgive him. So that was very hard to do to do someone that was just really out to still kill and destroy you, um in those. But what it did is it also brought me down to my knees seeking God and the Holy Spirit just yanked me up out of there. So I mean, I was the opposite on that part, just to share that vulnerability, and I'm still kind of you know the aftermath, but I see God restoring things in such a beautiful, glorious way that I was thankful.
Speaker 3:People didn't understand why I was thankful for my ex, and I go, you don't get it. He was the catalyst that boomeranged me to Christ. You know, that made me not just become a single woman because I had to be out from the yoke of an unequally yoked man, but it yoked me to Christ and now I'm his bride. So that was a beautiful thing. And just to say, on the opposite side of that, it worked both ways, but God will pull you out. And I was shaken, just like Meg says. I was shaken and saying, oh Lord, where was I at in that part? Because I had to have not just vulnerability to share this with you all, but responsibility and accountability of my own sin.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, you know it's, it's and it's it's funny because you know, generally speaking, you know when, when, like because I notice right now that you, you know the women really get what we're talking about. I know the men do too, but the women have a tendency to be able to, just won't admit it yeah, yeah, men won't admit it, you know, and I'm one of those kind of guys that hates admitting it.
Speaker 2:But, uh, you know, um, but you know, you get to a point with certain age where you start to understand things and you get a wife or a partner that is really instrumental in helping you see yourself, and so, and that's what this is what Paul is doing right here, he, he is faithful to these people. Because he is, he is putting himself out there willing to jeopardize those relationships for the sake of the truth of the gospel. And this is what we all have to do. Stop being afraid of what people are going to say or what they're going to think. I don't care if they're your family or your wife or your husband. The truth is the truth. And so, and yeah, you may be within a context of a familial relationship and you may have to take a more cautious route, because you have to live with these people, but you can't back down from the truth. You have to always maintain that, and Paul was willing to let his relationships go sideways, but he knew the significance of what it means to tell them, because this is about their relationship with the Lord, not necessarily their relationship with him, you know. So he goes on in verse one still, and he says he goes who has bewitched you? That you should not obey the truth? Now, here's the thing. Somebody mentioned something about obeying the truth, and Mariah was talking about this, thinking that obeying the truth means obeying some set of laws or whatever. But here's the thing Paul is addressing their obedience to the truth, which is what the gospel is all about. That is what you should obey. Taking anything from the gospel or adding anything to it and believing it, and believing it that it is something that is necessary for your salvation, this is disobeying the truth. And so this is the theme that he's doing.
Speaker 2:He's going on and he says how is it that you have been bewitched, that you should not obey the truth before? Notice what he says here, before whose eyes Jesus Christ has clearly, has been evidently set forth, crucified among you. Paul said he is saying that you understood clearly. So he said you know. He said I know what you have been told and taught, and I know that you believed it and embraced it wholeheartedly. But now you've been bewitched and been put under this spell, and now what was clear to you has somehow become clouded and obscure. You've lost sight, you don't know where you're going, you have lacked, you have exercised a tremendous lack of judgment which can threaten your very souls. And this is what he's dealing with. He cares for these people, he cares for the church, it's clear.
Speaker 2:But he says that Christ has been evidently set forth, crucified, among you. You knew so how this happens. He's like I got to know. Where do I go to defend you? Where do I go to shake you out of this stupor? Some people won't be shaken out of it. Pride keeps them ingrained in it. Some people will repent and recognize. Let me go back to my first understanding, because, paul, what he's saying is right and I know it within my spirit. Lisa was asking about are these people truly spirit-filled people? Well, the way you know is when you see how they respond, and that response might not be immediate, might not be today, might not be tomorrow, but if it comes, then we, we, we will know by their fruit that they have come to their senses and this is all I got a question, brother jonathan.
Speaker 1:so in verse one where he's saying, before whose eyes Jesus Christ had been evidently set forth, crucified, among you, are he saying to these people that there are some people who had witnessed his crucifixion?
Speaker 2:No, he's talking about people who witnessed the gospel being preached to them, in other words, the witnesses to the gospel itself preached to them. In other words, the witnesses to the gospel itself. Oh, you know. In other words, there are those who can testify on paul's behalf, basically because they're witnesses that they were taught the truth. You see what I mean. So he says who's been with you that you cannot obey the truth? Before whose eyes jesus christ? Before whose? Whose eyes Jesus Christ has been clearly said? Um said before you. So, in other words, there were people who witnessed what Paul had taught them. Whether they embraced it completely or not, people heard what he taught. They heard what the apostles taught. There were witnesses to the fact that you received the gospel message and what you are embracing now is not what you receive. Does that make sense to me?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah. So what they're saying is like they at one point clearly understood the Bible, but now, all of a sudden, they're confused about it. Okay, I see it, I see it Okay sudden they're confused about it.
Speaker 2:Okay, I see it, I see it, okay, and this is what happens. This is what happens sometimes, too. When you get to talking to people without without burrowing burrowing into the word of god yourself, people have a tendency to listen, to obey the last thing they heard from somebody else first, when what they say should be measured up against what they had been taught in the word of God, what they've been taught. There's no way you can come to the conclusion that these guys are coming to have come to that Paul's arguing against, if they understood what God says about what Abraham believed and, like Brother God's word brought up earlier, is that we're going to find out later on that Abraham becomes this model of what justification by faith is all about, and we talked about it briefly in one of the last two sessions. So it's really a hard thing sometimes to understand.
Speaker 2:But the key thing is and what's humbling to me and what should be humbling to us all, like somebody else said earlier that we have to be careful ourselves so as to not become deceived or bewitched, because it can happen to any of us. That's what Brother Greg was saying. It can happen to any of us. To this day. It can, no matter how long you've been a Christian. How many people have you heard that said they were preachers for 20, 30, 40 years? They've been Christians 30, 40 years and then, somehow in their minds, they came to their senses and realized that this gospel message that they've been believing all this time is not true.
Speaker 4:Devil.
Speaker 2:That's the devil there, and that's and that's, and believe it or not, you mentioned the devil and I failed to talk about this earlier, but this is what paul is intimating by being bewitched. He's almost addressing this thing from a from a from. This is something that can only come from Satan himself. Sister Lisa, go ahead.
Speaker 5:Well, I was just going to add. That being said, as you guys pointed out, greg as well, everybody's in a different place in their walk, but if we truly do belong to the Lord, he'll bring us back, he will show us truth. So, although, like I've said to you many times, I don't want to hear any the stuff that I believe now. I believe wholeheartedly and I believe that the Lord placed certain people in my life to confirm that stuff. You guys are all amongst that, and I don't want to hear someone, even if they're in this life, say, well, be careful, because you can lose your salvation. I just don't want to hear that at all. I know it's. I'm not that I'm, you know. I know that it's a possibility for me to be led astray.
Speaker 5:That being said, I also am confident that I'm on to Jesus because of what he did, so he's going to bring me back. I just don't want to go through any of that. You know what I mean. I'm trying to save myself the trouble.
Speaker 2:Well, you know what that's called. That's in Proverbs 3.23, where it says guard your heart with all guarding or out of it of life, with all guarding or out of the issues of life. So you know, when you go to these, when you go to the Old Testament scriptures, you hear about the watchmen. Right, you know the watchers, the watchmen, they're guarding the castle or guarding the temple or whatever it is they're guarding. They're called watchmen. But here, here now, in this new Testament era era, we ourselves are the temple of Christ, we're his body, we are his temple and the Holy spirit resides within us. And, like you're just saying and describing, we are to guard our hearts with all guarding. We now have to become these watchmen over our own hearts.
Speaker 5:Over others.
Speaker 2:And so when he says guard your heart with all guarding, it also means the word keep Keep your heart with all keeping. So keeping and guarding is the same word. It means to protect. And so when people tell you you're not keeping the law, they're not understanding what the keeping part is. Because if you understand what I'm saying right now about what those words mean, you understand that the law is not something, that keeping is not about the obeying the law. Keeping is about guarding it, protecting it, holding it true. Because if you don't understand what law keeping is about, then you don't understand what Jesus Christ did Doesn't mean you're not safe, it just means you don't understand the full import of what he did. Keep your heart with all keeping, for out of it are the issues of life, so know. So that's a good point. Meg, did you want to add something to that? Did I cut you off? I couldn't. I don't remember if I cut you off or not.
Speaker 1:Hey, I'm just saying like, that is the guarding of our hearts, but it's also our fellow brothers and sisters and that's why we're given the command to love our neighbor, as yourself, because I can't tell how many times I've went and lived and you got to get out of here. They're speaking nonsense and I'll drop because, like, because there are people who sit and, because of a lack of understanding, people want to understand so bad that if they listen to something else and they are justified in their minds and they're like, okay, I might be good with this, instead of going back to the scripture and and lining it up, this is where the error occurs, right, and then they sit in it and then over time, it becomes man. I'm concrete on this. You said something very profound, brother jonathan, and I think that everybody needs to hear that people know what they believe, but they don't know why. And as believers, it is our responsibility to diligently search the scriptures and not only know what we believe but why we believe it.
Speaker 1:So, we can then tell others and defend why we believe it our faith.
Speaker 2:Amen, right, so in this, so the last part of this verse. As I said already that I'll move on to verse two. Uh, greg, you might be right, but I'm gonna do my best to get through all four or five verses. But you know, once again paul says jesus. Jesus christ has been, has been evidently set forth, crucified among you. So you get this idea, you, you get this picture of like going to a play or going to watch a movie or something, and the story just unfolds and you saw it. So you know what happened and you can go back and tell it, and you can go back and review it, whatever. But this is what Paul's saying. He says the evidence of all this was set forth before you. Clearly, that's what he means by the F, but it was evidently, it was clear that Christ was crucified among you.
Speaker 2:And so it's funny the lengths that ministers have to go to in order to make believers understand the simplest fact Justification is by faith alone, and this is what this is what. Like you talk about an epiphany or Eureka moment. This is what happened to Martin Luther, and we are sitting here having this conversation right now, today, cause Paul brought this up and dealt with this, hearing it from the Lord Jesus Christ himself he could. He ratified what he believed, that it was totally consistent with what the other apostles heard. And then, down through the ages, it comes to us, and then you get Martin Luther comes along and it hits him like a ton of bricks and he changed the church forever at that moment, at that time. And so here we are now still talking about this very important doctrine justification by faith. It hasn't changed. It hasn't changed. The truth doesn't evolve, it always remains, and so that's why we are always able to rely upon it. The gospel is not one of one of these kind of things, even though people try to make it this way, where you start this chain, where you tell someone in one ear something and then you see where it ends up at the end.
Speaker 2:Well, the word of God. Men have tried to put it out. They tried to burn them, the books, they tried to extinguish the word of God. They tried for centuries and have never been able to do it. And if you have people in politics who want to burn books and take books out of libraries and schools and all that kind of stuff, they may do whatever they will, but one thing's for sure, I know this If they do, they will only leave people to read one thing they can't destroy the word of God. That's something that God will never let man touch. But God has allowed the wicked one to come in there and plant seeds that people have taken and added to the word of God in order to dilute it, to get you being distracted from the truth Again.
Speaker 2:This is what thele Paul is dealing with right here, and he's not playing around about it. So in verse two he says this only what I learned of you. In other words, this is what I want to know. Please tell me this Did you receive the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Now notice what he lays out there.
Speaker 2:He lays out a concept that is not just a concept, but a truth. Which is that the only possibilities whereby a man can receive the spirit? It is only by either the works of the law or it is by the hearing of faith, or it is by the hearing of faith. Which is it? Which is it? So, when somebody comes and tells you I'm a Torah keeper and I like to say Yeshua all the time, every time I open my mouth, I like to say Yeshua, I like to say the Torah, I like to say Shalom. When I get through talking to you, that's all well and good. I'm not knocking people who do that, but, generally speaking, when you hear certain Christians talk like that, they're telling you what they believe and so my radar goes up immediately in the hopes that I'm wrong in my assessment. I hear people in here all the time, you know, using these words Yeshua and Shalom and the Torah and whatever because they think somehow that connects them to Judaism, to being Jewish. The silly thing about it is true Christians, true Christians, whether they be Jew or Gentile. They are the true Jews.
Speaker 2:Paul is also going to address that In this book who Israel really is, because the real Israel of God Are those who are justified by faith that they are the true Israel. Somebody's telling me to be careful. I don't need to be careful. This are the true Israel. Somebody's telling me to be careful. I don't need to be careful. This is the truth. The Jewish nation of Israel. They are not God's people, according to the word of God, but the true Jews are all people who believe by faith, whether they be Jew or Gentile. Believe by faith, whether they be Jew or Gentile. But so I appreciate the warnings.
Speaker 3:But the word of God is the word of God. Sister Angie, go ahead. Yeah, I agree with you, brother, on that part, because I did Torah classes and I was just sitting there looking at how more they were about legalism than they were about faith in Jesus Christ. Now I've learned some of these words. Well, yeshua is the same thing as Jesus or Jesus or whatever different language you say it in. It's the spirit. That doesn't matter. It's what you believe in, what your faith is in. Is it Christ or is it in the law?
Speaker 3:And when I was doing that, I had to get out of that class because I was like, oh, no, no, no, no, I'm clashing with this in my spirit because I'm not a follower of that law, I'm the follower of Christ. So, you know, I do have one of those. It's for Jewish and Christians, but it does say some of those words. But I know what Paul is saying here. Say some of those words, but I know what paul is saying here. I know what the word is saying here. So, yeah, I see where your radar comes up, because I have a sister that converted to judaism and she kept doing that stuff and I was like, wait a minute, I'm, you know so. So, yes, you do have where you're guarding your heart in those ways, because it does to me. It has my spirit.
Speaker 3:Go. Well, what's up? The sermon comes up let me listen to what you're saying first, and then you go to the word of god and go well, that's not true. Well, this is not true. That's not what. And galatians kept up a lot when I was living in that house. It kept coming up. It kept coming up. I was like I'm just gonna get so deep into this. So I know and I'm not deceived, you know so it was awesome, but I'm just saying it was. It also led me to go in to get Galatians, because so I mean, you can appreciate those kind of things happening. But I agree with you on that when you hear those words, you gotta watch. I'm a Torah keeper. I'm like, hang on a second right.
Speaker 2:God's word.
Speaker 4:God's word, go ahead I was gonna say again, reiterating based on faith. How can you be god's chosen people, as the jews claim to be, if you reject the faith of jesus christ, you can't be their chosen people. He's telling them that in john, chapter 8, verse 45, who they actually serve, because he says you are of your father, the devil. That's right that's right.
Speaker 2:This is the thing that this is. And so I get a lot of people, like one brother or somebody said earlier, to be careful and I think that he's probably talking about because of who might hear what I'm saying. But here's the thing the modern day believers in Judaism, they have no problem telling us that the Messiah that we believe is the Messiah is not the Messiah. We don't get condemned for that, I mean. They don't get condemned for that, I mean. But if we say that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, we gotta be careful what we're saying, because we're going to offend those who belong to the other persuasions. But here's the thing, brethren we should not acquiesce or bend to this nonsense. They can kill my account all they want to, but they cannot kill the gospel.
Speaker 1:They can't kill the truth I'll start alive, brother jonathan we'll, we'll merge and go on there there you go, listen, we, we it.
Speaker 2:It doesn't matter to me, but I'm going to tell the truth. And if god knows and if god has put me in a place to tell the truth, then I'm not worried about what they do and neither should you, neither should you. We don't run. The Bible tells us in Matthew 16 18 that the gates of hell shall not prevail against us, meaning we are on the offense at all times and should always be on that, and then those gates can't stand. We are not getting it down, and that passage is something that people get in reverse. No, we're the ones on the offense and there is no defense against the Christian church, there's no defense against the gospel. None, nothing can stand. This is why Paul can say we are more than conquerors. It's enough to be a conqueror. How do you deal with being more than a conqueror and not being excited about that? Let them bring on what they bring on, but we're going to tell the truth and we're not going to stop. We're not going to stop.
Speaker 2:Paul asks this question. Please tell me this you think that losing your salvation is biblical? Now, after we told you about grace and you were saved by grace through faith alone. Now you're saying that you need to do something else to be saved. You're saying that, oh, you need to have this second work of the Holy Spirit, a second work, because the first one wasn't good enough. So now you need a second work that allows you to speak in tongues and see visions and all that. And you need that in order to demonstrate or to prove that you've been saved or to be saved. You mean to tell me that I need to stop eating steak and bacon and crabs and if I don't, I'm going to be damned to hell, even though I have received salvation by grace, through faith.
Speaker 2:So Paul says he goes to them. He goes to these very people. He goes to these very people and he asked the question right here in this verse. Let me ask you a question. He says did you receive the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Paul is putting him in a position to process this question in their mind and formulate an answer, and then listen to yourself answer it, and he lays out the foundation which clearly establishes that it is either by works of the law or by the hearing of faith that they receive the spirit. So which one is it? It's not both, it can't be both, and Paul establishes that premise in the question. And so they have to go back and process in their mind. I have the spirit of God. I was told that if I believed by faith, I would receive the spirit. So when I received it, when I received it, was it by the works of the law or was it by the hearing of faith? Does faith tell you, when you hear it, that you need to do something else to be saved other than to have faith and to trust in God, something else to be saved other than to have faith and to trust in God? This is what people need to ask themselves today, and if you are bewitched, you won't know to answer that question.
Speaker 2:But Paul is trying to use logic, something that a lot of people tell me you shouldn't use. You're using too much logic. The bible is spiritual, not logical. No, the bible, the bible is spiritually logical. But to the spiritual there is nothing logical about the triunal nature of god to the human mind. Nothing at all about the tri-unal nature of God to the human mind. Nothing at all. But God's people, they hear. They hear the people that claim to be God's people, that say that you need to do this and do this and do that on top of the grace of God. These are not God's people.
Speaker 1:You know, I asked somebody on live today a question and it was similar to something like this and it was you know, you trust the Lord enough to save you. You put your faith and your trust in Jesus Christ, but you don't trust him to keep you Right. And he was just dumbfounded, he and I asked him. I said so you trust in jesus christ as your lord and savior to save you, but you don't trust him to keep you right, like it makes no sense. Logically speaking, just like you said, just like paul was speaking to these people right here, paul, was going in.
Speaker 2:He, paul was going in, he was going in, he was going in hard and he didn't hold anything back. Super bowl what say you, brother?
Speaker 7:yeah, so I've just been mulling this over, um back in verse one, or let's see, here we're talking about verse two. Did you receive the? Uh, let me ask you only this. So, reading this, I'm wondering if paul is kind of being a little facetious with them by asking who did this to you? Um kind of like, you know, when adam and eve fell and god was like where are you right? Yeah?
Speaker 6:I see that so.
Speaker 7:so, paul is like who? Who did this to you? Right? You guys are doing this to yourself, yeah, yeah, you didn't. You're you're losing faith that you are saved by grace alone, right? You're reverting back to your old ways, right? And so did you receive the Holy Spirit by the law or by faith, because you've already got it.
Speaker 6:So how did you get it? So why are you going back to the law, to?
Speaker 2:keep it Absolutely. Yes, sir, Go ahead brother.
Speaker 6:Thank you. What did Jesus say we were in danger of if we were simply to just call our brother a fool? Foolish, Right? I mean, he is right on the razor's edge with his anger righteous anger at the Galatians for being so confused and mixed up over the simple, simple grace that he has taught them and brought to them. Right, I see one of the things that you're teaching has done tonight is it helped me to see Paul's aggravation with the church at Galatia for them so quickly departing from what Paul had brought to them so lovingly? No wonder he was angry, oh yeah.
Speaker 4:He was angry and it was a righteous holy anger, he was Brother Greg thoughts.
Speaker 5:If you think Paul's using strong language now wait until you get to Galatians 5.
Speaker 2:Oh, I know, yeah, yeah, he uses some very strong language and I'm really happy that we we get to read it, because it's not something I want to hear.
Speaker 1:You didn't say that you liked Brother Jonathan's sweater today, that's all right.
Speaker 2:That's because it's not pink. That's our light moment for the night.
Speaker 1:That's funny, though I was waiting for him to say something, so I had to say it in his place.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so what the galatians understood, what paul, what see, when paul asked this question. This is why I loved it, because if you, if anybody here, is a student of philosophy, um, and you know, and I like philosophy, and you know, a lot of these modern philosophers were, were that we know about today and read about today. Some of these guys were paul's contemporaries. So it's not, it's not, shocking that paul would use this sort of socratic method in trying to get these Galatians to understand what he wants them to understand, and he does it, and he frames it in the form of a question. That's the Socratic method. I want you to understand the truth, but I don't want to tell you the truth, because that's going to you're going to be more resisting. But let me ask you a question whereby the conclusion should be natural in your mind and you answer the question for me.
Speaker 2:Jesus did this a lot. Jesus did this a lot. In fact, I'm working on a study for us that deals with just the questions that Jesus asked throughout the scriptures, just the questions, because the questions were the questions that he would ask would turn out to be internal sermons that we tell ourselves when we, when we answer the question within, because Christ knew that when he asked these questions, there's only one conclusion that you could come up with, the one you did not want to hear. But now your conscience is affirming the very truth that you resisted, and this is what is brilliant about the way philosophers talk and deal with these things. But Paul put he put this in the context of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 3:You know, I call it internal spiritual spankings, because when you get yeah, when you get those thoughts thinking you're like wait a minute, hang on a second. I was incorrect. Here I go standing in the Word of God. But that also is and I want to refer back to when Jesus told the Samaritan woman nobody spoke to her at all in that village, but how does she get everybody's attention? Could he be the Messiah? Could he be? It was a question to get them thinking and they got curious and they wanted to find out for themselves right so.
Speaker 3:I love how that that's all done in that way. But I say, when you get those questions and you're having to think about it, you do get spiritual space right and it's good, yep, so so.
Speaker 2:So I mean, he see, I love the, you know the, the question that he asked, because it's like, for the reasons that I already, I already said, but just think about what, what, what must've been going through their head when the, when the question was was asked did you receive the spirit by the works of Moses or did you receive the spirit by the hearing of faith? And here's the thing I had a conversation the other day with a brother who was who, who. We were discussing what hearing means. So what I want to do is I'm going to have a little. I mean to me all this is fun, but I want to have a little, a brief, short exercise, no sermons, but I want to ask everybody what. I want to ask everybody what you think hearing means in Galatians 3, verse 2. What does hearing mean when Paul says did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? What does hearing mean? Let me start with you, mariah.
Speaker 3:What does hearing?
Speaker 5:mean. What does hearing mean?
Speaker 3:It reminds me when I'm thinking of this. It reminds me of believing. It reminds me of Isaiah, where it says you know who has believed our report?
Speaker 6:Who has heard our report? Who has believed it? I'm sorry, that's all right. We can come back to you, okay, thank, you.
Speaker 5:We're good with that, Sister Lisa. What does hearing mean? A command?
Speaker 2:God gave the command To hear, to hear those who would believe. Okay.
Speaker 5:You there, you there Lisa?
Speaker 2:Yes, I'm here. I'm sorry. All right, that's all right hearing. What does it mean? Did you answer it already or did I? Or did I miss part of what you were saying?
Speaker 5:well, god is, it's a gift from god. So those who would believe he's giving it to us. I don't know what, how, how to say. It's like he's commanding our hearing right.
Speaker 2:The belief.
Speaker 5:Right.
Speaker 2:God's word. What's your answer to that question? How do we define hearing? What does hearing mean? Or tell me what it is not.
Speaker 4:Well, I would say that hearing is first understanding that, like we said before, there's no way that you're righteous, that the only way you're righteous is through His grace. That's hearing His word, because once you understand that by no work of your own can you get salvation, and you've heard His word and understand that you'll never be perfect. You've heard His voice. Because of that fall in the garden, you will never be able to return to him. It's only through his graces and then his love that you'll be able to do that. That's hearing. That's what I take it to mean.
Speaker 2:So I I don't know, I may be wrong, but no, not wrong at all, but we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna add to it, sister mig, your thoughts hearing. What does it mean?
Speaker 1:okay. So hearing essentially refers to the message of the gospel. Right, it is the word of, of christ preached, but we, I think we have to use this hearing with romans, chapter 10, 17. So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of christ. The question in our minds is why is hearing said twice? It it's because that first hearing has to be granted to you, just like, just like it opened the, the Lord opened their minds to receive the parables and receive the scriptures. So, when it comes to, faith comes by hearing. I'm going to grant you hearing. Now you can hear to receive the word of God.
Speaker 2:Okay, brother Jeffrey, what's your thoughts Hearing? What does it mean, or what does it not mean?
Speaker 6:Jonathan, my thoughts are