The Bible Provocateur
The Bible Provocateur
LIVE DISCUSSION: All Promises to National Israel - FULFILLED (Part 3 of 5)
What if everything God promised to national Israel has already been fulfilled? This provocative question forms the backbone of our theological exploration that challenges popular systems like dispensationalism and Christian Zionism head-on.
Through a careful examination of Joshua 21, Joshua 23, 1 Kings 8, and Nehemiah 9, we uncover a consistent biblical theme: "Not one word has failed of all the good promises" God made to Israel. These declarations aren't isolated proof texts but represent a cohesive message throughout Scripture that God has already delivered on His covenant promises to national Israel.
The apostle Paul brings brilliant clarity to this discussion in Galatians when he explains the true purpose of the Mosaic Law. Rather than being a means of justification, the Law served as a "schoolmaster" to reveal our transgressions and lead us to Christ. This temporary measure was always designed to point to something greater—justification by faith alone.
Most powerfully, we discover how Christ is creating one new people from both Jews and Gentiles. When Jesus spoke of "other sheep not of this fold" and promised "there shall be one flock and one shepherd," He was unveiling God's ultimate plan: a unified body of believers where "there is neither Jew nor Greek." This revolutionary understanding helps us properly interpret prophecies like Isaiah 45:25, where "all the seed of Israel" being justified only makes sense when we recognize the true Israel consists of all who have faith in Christ.
Join us as we explore these rich theological truths that not only inform our understanding of Scripture but also transform how we view God's ongoing work in the world. Rather than looking for future fulfillments of promises to a particular ethnicity, we can celebrate God's present work of building His church—the true Israel that includes people from every nation who put their faith in Christ alone.
Matthew 12, verse 16, or let me see verse 18. Behold my servant, whom I have chosen, my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my spirit upon him and he shall show judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not strive nor cry, neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed shall he not break and a smoking flax shall he not quench, till he has sent forth judgment unto victory. And in his name shall the Gentiles trust.
Speaker 2:Amen. So that verse right there, the new that confirms that that is Jesus, and Isaiah 42, 1 through 4. So when the Hebrew Israelites say that to Israel, take them to Matthew.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, it's true, it's very true. So good, good, good, good passages, and they are definitely tied into what we're talking about here, because Christ was that, you know, the Messiah that and, uh, the one with whom the the authority of Judah as a lawgiver, christ would be the one that will continue to fulfill that role, um, as King.
Speaker 2:Amen, and that's why Paul calls it the law of Christ, because he is shadow Right, the law giver.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so. Now, 1 Kings 8, verse 56. And again, all I'm doing in these verses is continuing to beat a dead horse. So this is the third one of the five that I want to present, and it says in 1 Kings 8, verse 56, blessed be the Lord who has given rest to his people, Israel, according to all that he promised. Not one word has you see that rest was given, that Mosaic promises were filled and that this also sort of echoes what we read in Joshua 21 and also Joshua 23.
Speaker 1:So again we have this theme that's being continued here, that the promises that God made to national Israel God has already delivered on, which means one that there is nothing else to be looking to for national Israel. But what we're to be looking to is happening now, which is God building his church, which is the spiritual Israel which Paul, even in Galatians that we're dealing with in this series, this exposition that we're doing, we're going to find out he talks about. He deals with it in Romans, chapter 2. He deals with it in Romans 9. He deals with it in Romans 6. He deals with it in Galatians and particularly he deals with it in Galatians, chapter 6. But we're going to show how he when we get to dealing with Hagar and Ishmael and Isaac.
Speaker 1:But we're gonna see this theme that Paul continues to build and make the reality is everything that pertains to national, physical, earthly Israel. God made promises to them and he has fulfilled every single one of them. There's not one that is left unfulfilled, and these are the kinds of things that I challenge people a lot about on this issue, and these are hard to resist. They're just hard to resist because you have to explain what these passages mean. If the promises that God made to national Israel have not been fulfilled, then you have to explain these passages, and I'm willing to consider alternative perspectives on these things, but I don't see how it can change from what the clear language articulates. And again, the floor is open. If I'm missing something, please speak now or forever Hold your peace.
Speaker 2:No, you're doing good, bro. The only thing I'll add so all the things that you just read about was fulfilled. That Moses said. I mean, would that be Deuteronomy 32, 21 as well, or is that a future prophecy? That's where I'm hung up at right now.
Speaker 1:Let me go there. Deuteronomy 32, 21?. Yes, sir.
Speaker 2:That's just the verse where he rouses them to jealousy with another nation. That's all that is. Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:I do believe that definitely comes under the new, under the new covenant. Okay, sure, okay, yeah, it definitely comes with a new covenant. Because this, again, this is where we start dealing with that, this where christ, because, like, when he, when he comes, when he comes and he begins his ministry and in john 3, 16 this is where I usually start with this, with this, with this conversation, um, because he says that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. He got he, he, he loved, so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Now, to you and I, to all of us here who are Gentiles and not jews by birth or nationality or culture, this is good news to us. But when jesus says god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, etc. Etc.
Speaker 2:This was not good news to the jews hey, that's why it says they are the jews are our enemy, because of the gospel that.
Speaker 1:That's right. This wasn't good news, because here's the thing what did the Jews understand about them and their relationship to God versus Gentiles and their relationship to God and to the Jews? What did they think? What was their mindset? They were like we are God's people. Moses was our father, Abraham Isaac, Jacob. They were our fathers. We are their sons, Not you, Gentiles. You guys are dogs. Literally, you're dogs. It was given to us to inherit the earth. They still believe. There's an element of these groups that still believe that the earth belongs to them by divine right.
Speaker 2:Raging war today, absolutely.
Speaker 1:You have dispensationalism, you have Zionism, and both of them, sort of, are friendly to one another because they have the same sort of notion that there's still something left to be done with that nation and that physical land and a physical people. God is done with that. These verses that I'm trying to lay out here prove this clearly, clearly, and it is. I have never experienced anyone who has tried to mount this argument about God having a special dealing with Israel that is yet to come, because the promises haven't been fulfilled. When they look at these verses, they go silent, and this is why Go ahead.
Speaker 2:Brother Jonathan, sorry to jump the gun, but we read Galatians 3, 24 through 29.
Speaker 1:Galatians 24. I'm sorry, Galatians 3?
Speaker 2:3, 3, 24, 3, 29, based off what you're just now saying, like that whole chapter, like you started in that chapter, but the whole chapter, like right, it just reflects on everything we're talking about tonight, I think wherefore the law was a school, our school master, to bring unto us.
Speaker 1:To bring us unto Christ, in order that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith has come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster, which is the law, for you are all children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, not by law, for as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. So verse 28,. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ, and if you be Christ, then you are Abraham's seed. If you are Christ, you who are in Christ are Abraham's seed and heirs, according to the promise.
Speaker 2:Now I'm going to go back and read 19.
Speaker 1:Wherefore, then serves the promise. Now, wait a minute, go back and read 19. Wherefore, then, serves the law. It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made, that being Christ. And it was ordained by the angels in the hand of a mediator. And so and this is a great verse that the sister brought up, which we're going to get to in the next few days, but it's a good point to bring up right now, because Paul says here, in verse 19, as Candy brings up, he says so what does the law serve? What is the? What is the? What does the law do? What was the law here to do? And Paul says here it was added because of transgression, until the seed should come to whom the promise was made. It was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. But he makes it very clear what the law served, what his purpose was. It was added because of transgression, to reveal transgression, not to find justification, but to find condemnation with the prospect of finding justification through another means. And that's what the law was for. You know so. But it's a, it's a beautiful picture that is being painted by by paul and, frankly, by the word of god when we look at it as a cohesive unit, because that's exactly what it is a cohesive unit. It doesn't conflict with with itself in any kind of way, in any way. So in first kings 8, 5, 6, we see that the rest was given. The mosaic promises, plural, were fulfilled. And, and he dovetails on top of what josh said in Joshua 21 and in Joshua 23.
Speaker 1:So now we take us it takes us to the next verse that I wanted to bring out, the next verse because see and I'm bringing out a multiplicity of passages, lest anybody accuse me of cherry picking there is no, there's no cherry picking here. There's no, there's no cherry picking here. So in in nehemiah, chapter 9, nehemiah, chapter 9, verse 7, listen to what the word of god says you are the lord, the god, who chose abram and brought him out of Ur, ur, of the Chaldees. You found his heart faithful before you and made with him the covenant to give to his offspring the land, and you have kept your promises, for you are righteous. We see here that Abraham received the land that was promised. We see here that God is praised. He's praised for his covenant fulfillment.
Speaker 1:Is there anything that I am missing here? I'm going to ask the question again. Does anyone say I'm cherry picking? But once again, so far, this is the fourth verse that I've laid out and there's nothing here said. Nothing here said about a promise of God justifying the nation of Israel, the physical, earthly nation of Israel, justifying them by works of the law. There's nothing here said about it.
Speaker 1:It was never the intent, and in the verse that Sister Candy just gave, in Galatians 3.19, he clearly says what then serves the law? What's the purpose of the law? To expose the transgression? To be a schoolmaster? To teach and instruct, to teach what the need for justification, for something that goes outside the confines of law keeping, to go outside the context of human effort, salvation being the result of human effort. The law kills, but the Spirit gives life. This is what we're doing.
Speaker 1:If there was a salvation, if there was salvation that could be obtained by the keeping of the law, then what purpose would the coming of Christ have served? But there's no indication, no indication, nowhere and anywhere in the scripture that God ever intended for men to be justified by the works of the law. And Paul points out in no uncertain terms that justification is by faith alone, not by the works of the law, not by the works of any law, as I said earlier, whether it be civil law, moral law or ceremonial. No law can justify man. And if you take the gospel, the grace that we know about salvation by grace through faith, if you add anything to that, in other words if you say yes, I hold to that, I hold to that, but I also hold that these other things or one other thing or whatever, two other things must be added to it in order to complete what grace has begun, then that gospel is no longer the gospel and it cannot save. And anyone who teaches that Paul says let him be accursed.
Speaker 4:And that's the Catholic Church.
Speaker 1:That's a whole bunch of different churches.
Speaker 4:I mean there's a lot of people but there's a lot of Catholic Church. I mean Catholics period. They believe in a works-based gospel.
Speaker 1:And works-based. I think it was Greg that said last night there's this urge, there's this element within the DNA of humanity that needs, where men feel they need to do something to To feel that what has been given to them was merited. We are bred, as I said in previous messages. We are bred, even as Americans, as capitalists. In a free enterprise system. We look down on people who we don't want to offer them charity. We want to tell them to lift up their bootstraps.
Speaker 1:That mentality pours over into our understanding of what the Bible teaches, but they are conflicting ideas. Christ was about the poor, he was about bringing healing to the sick, but he also taught us about greater riches and better treasures than those things that are to be found in this earth, and so we have it incumbent upon us to search and to seek those better things than Abraham and Jacob and Isaac and Samson and Noah and Lot and all these people. We need to seek what they were seeking, something better than the promises that God promised and fulfilled even under the old covenant. Brother Jeffrey comments, thoughts, ideas.
Speaker 4:Big Gravy hasn't talked yet either. I wanted to hear from him. Big Gravy, I know you have a lot of gravy to give us right now. I've been listening the whole time.
Speaker 1:Go ahead, Gravy Anything you want to add.
Speaker 2:That, meg. I told Meg earlier, brother. I said I'm just going to sit below and listen.
Speaker 1:Meg is a troublemaker.
Speaker 2:No, Big Gravy, you're coming up.
Speaker 4:No, I just he's got to tell it like it is. Yes, Big Gravy never comes up, and he needs to because he has good stuff to add.
Speaker 1:He does, but Big Gravy probably had a big day today. You know how he makes the rounds and he's like you. You guys get around.
Speaker 4:We just clap hands and go to the next one.
Speaker 1:But he'll speak when he's ready. I know, big Gravy, he'll speak when he's ready.
Speaker 2:You know it's very obvious that the subject tonight, at least for a person especially, to know and trust that God always keeps his promise Always brother. He is faithful, yep, regardless of anything else that's working. He's always doing what he says he's going to do, yep, and I think that's why my favorite verse I'll save it to the end. I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 1:You're going to be the reason why I got that ingrained in my head. Now I can never I'm forever going to memorize that.
Speaker 4:And you'll say it exactly like that. I hear big gravy every time I read that scripture or think about that scripture.
Speaker 1:You know what I told him before and my brother was encouraging me on some other things we were talking about one day and he goes, just like Big Gravy said. I'm like what? What do you know, my brother? He listens to these lies every day, every day, and he gets mad when I don't post one. But he likes the discussion that we all have and we engage in. But he remembers, like believe it or not and I know this is a little sidebar right now, but, believe it or not, almost everybody on here. He knows Greg, he knows Candy, he knows Meg, he knows Big Gravy, he knows Jeffrey, you know all the regulars he knows. He knows.
Speaker 4:It is so funny but he threw Big Gravy out and I'm going like don't mention anything to me that Gravy said hey, we need to get him on the panel one night. Just give him one night. He needs to come.
Speaker 1:Man Meg, I've been trying, but my brother is. He is stubborn, but he says he's going to and he wants to, but I don't know what it's going to take to make him do it, but he says he's going to do it. My brother is a very structured person. He probably has a date in his mind to the hour and the minute that he's going to do it. And that's when he'll do it, not a minute sooner. That's my brother. He's crazy.
Speaker 4:I love him but he's nuts, but he's meticulous in a good way. You're meticulous too, though, yeah, but my brother's different. I wouldn't say meticulous, I would say precise.
Speaker 1:Well, that's the thing I try to be and I try to know. We live in a time where everybody is always they're nitpick, they nitpick everything. You know you get people going like, well, this word means this and this is what it meant in this context, this is what it meant here. You know. So you know. I know that every time I push that live button I get that countdown to three, two, one.
Speaker 1:I told you, as I told you the other day, I get a little nervous literally every time, because I don't want to be a clown. I just don't want to be that way. I want to be as meticulous as I possibly can and be as precise as I possibly can, because I owe it to the body of Christ to be that way and make my best efforts to bring only the truth. And I know that I will fail from time to time. I know that. I know that. But it will not be on my conscience that I didn't honestly do all due diligence and come to the most thorough interpretation of things you know in the word of God and to try to make it as simple to understand and grasp as possibly as I possibly can.
Speaker 4:Is my wife listening tonight, Brother Johnson, since y'all are in the hotel?
Speaker 1:No, I think she's sleeping. She might have my headphones on so she can't hear me. She don't want to hear me talk about this all day long. I can do this all day, brother, greg, go ahead she don't want to hear me talk about this all day long.
Speaker 3:I can do this all day. Brother Greg, go ahead. I'm just going to offer a perspective. It might take me a minute, but I'll try to be brief and then, if anyone has any insights or input, that would be great, because it's just a perspective and I'm honestly just looking for feedback.
Speaker 3:So it seems to me that up until and after the flood, like from creation to Babel, right, god dealt with humanity as a whole. Well, let's say this from from the garden to the flood, he dealt with humanity as a whole. Right before the flood, he handpicked Noah, right. So he was only dealing with Noah and his family. Right. Then the flood. Then, after the flood, he's dealing with humanity as a whole again. And at Babel, when God gets, you know, when they decide, no, we're not going to spread out, we're going to gather here in the city, he gets fed up with all of humanity, confuses languages and disperses them, right. So he's not dealing with any nation or anything, he's just kind of fed up. But at some point he selects Abraham, right. So now again, he's dealing with, you know, abraham and his line. Eventually, you know, he's dealing with just the 12 tribes and Israel right and primarily still leaving the other nations to their own right.
Speaker 3:Then, at the cross, it seems like, you know, there's a switch Now. It seems like the gospel primarily goes to the Gentiles, you know, even though it was to the Jew first, then to the Gentiles. But it seems like the gospel primarily goes to the Gentiles, you know, even though it was to the Jew first, then to the Gentiles, but it seems like there's more Gentiles because there are more Gentiles right, there's more of us. But I'm leaving room at the end, not for, like, a return to, like building this third temple and returning to animal sacrifices and go, not, not that.
Speaker 3:But you know, now, like, so, right out at babel, right, god left all the nations in darkness. Then he selects abraham and then he selects israel so let's just go there and he decides that he's going to deal just with israel. Leave all the other nations in darkness Now, because Israel's rejected the Messiah. He leaves them in darkness and the light primarily goes to the Gentiles, but maybe right before the second coming, he gives them light too. So there's a fulfillment where there's a huge conversion of Israel, but not back to the mosaic covenant, but, you know, coming into christ, coming into the new covenant you know this, this that's why.
Speaker 4:that's why, greg, where all this dispensationalism comes in, because, like you will hear from the dispensational view, like I was debating somebody one time on, and when they're talking about I think it's chapter 14 in Revelations, when an angel comes and starts giving the everlasting gospel, they will tell you that this gospel is different than that of Paul. They will tell you that all of these times that God dealt with man warranted a different way of salvation. People got saved in different ways. Well, that's not the case, and if you really read Scripture, face value with the Holy Spirit, as we're all supposed to do, you can clearly see this stuff.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, I totally hear you and I totally agree, like I agree that there's always, always has been and only ever will be one way of salvation. I'm not saying like maybe I didn't say it right. What I'm saying is that, like, the blindness that's now on Israel gets taken away, they recognize Christ right, and you know they come into the new covenant. I'm not saying they get saved any differently than we do. I'm not saying that. I'm saying that they just get, you know, their sight returned to them, so to speak, and they get saved the same way we do, through faith in Christ.
Speaker 1:Well, here's how I look at it, way we do through faith, faith in christ. Well, here's, here's how. Here's how I look at it. So it's going to be. So. One sister, a banana pancake, she, she made it. She made a reference to romans 11, verse 25 and 26, where paul is explaining the union between the, the jew and the Gentile. Now I just read a verse that talks about these two groups becoming one, and we see this theme playing out in the New Testament over and over, especially in Paul's epistles that the Jewish nation, the Jews and the Gentile alike in Christ become one people. They become one people. I don't think there's anybody that would doubt that. I mean, am I right in that, greg, or do we agree on that or no?
Speaker 3:I must be just not saying, I just must not be presenting my thoughts.
Speaker 1:No, I think I get it. I think I get what you're saying and I think you're right. I think you're completely right. But here's the thing when you look at Isaiah 45, this is what it says here. It says in Isaiah 45, verse 25, in the Lord shall all of the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory. How can that be true? There's only one way that verse can be true. So when you hear that, how can that verse be true? Because here's what we know for a fact. It says here that in the lord, all of the seed of israel shall be justified and shall glory all of them. But can we say that all israel? When we look at the nation of Israel, can we say that all of them shall be justified?
Speaker 3:totally agree, right. So in that isaiah 45, it's, it's, it's prophesying the, the true israel right, the, the, the remnant those who have faith in christ right do you think it's the remnant of the nation of israel, or do you think it's all?
Speaker 3:well, it's obviously includes them, but so let me refresh. So it's the fulfillment that, um, everyone, jew or gentile, who is in christ, are now the people of god. Right, that's what israel means. Israel means the people of god, god's covenant people. Now, like pa, paul redefines or maybe further defines what that means, the covenant people of God in the new covenant is not limited to a particular ethnicity. Right, the Israel now in the new covenant includes Jew and Gentile.
Speaker 1:Right, and that is the new covenant Israel.
Speaker 2:So I have a question, go ahead, brother. So in Romans 10 and 11, it says a couple things. It says the first one is I quoted earlier Israel is our enemy because of the gospel. And then it says that Israel is blinded until the fullness of the Gentile Right. Is that the same Israel and Isaiah? That all shall be justified, that's right.
Speaker 1:That's the point I'm making, because we know for a fact that all Israel, according to the flesh, are not justified. And it also says that all, and it also can't be that all Israel is saved, because otherwise, what happens to Judas? What happens real safe? Because otherwise, what happens to judas, what happens to king saul, what happens to jezebel, what happens to ahab, and we go on and on.
Speaker 1:So and big gravy pointed out, and I want to read this in in in john, chapter 10, verse 16, where christ himself says and other sheep which I have, in other words not just my sheep of the people of israel, the lost sheep of the house of israel, but he says and there are other sheep that I have which are not of this, fold them I must also bring that they shall hear my voice and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. And and in romans 11, verse 26, paul says and in this way shall all israel be saved. In other words, how is all of israel going to be saved? How is all of israel, as isaiah 45, 25 says, how is all of them going to be saved? Just like here, here in John 10, 16, when Jesus says it is going to be fulfilled when Gentile and Jew alike are combined into one body and there are one fold in Christ.
Speaker 1:Christ laid down his life for his church collectively. He didn't lay down his life for the Jews separately and for the Gentiles separately. They are one, and this is another thing that Paul is dealing with. He is dealing with unification of all God's people, regardless of ethnicity, whether they are bond or free, rich, poor, jew or Gentile they are one.
Speaker 4:So, and I think it's important to see that in Romans 11, because a lot of people don't see that there's three people, three types of people. There's the elect remnant right, it's in verse 5 through 7. Those are the regenerated, chosen by grace that are persevering, they are kept by God. Then we see in 7 through 10, we, the israelites that are hardened, right, they're unregenerate, they're unbelieving, they're already lost. Right. But people get confused when they say about the broken off branches. Those are the professing unbelievers right, they're already judged. Right. But then we get to 17 through 22, and it's they're grafted in. So they're standing by faith. Right.
Speaker 2:Then future israel will, everybody will believe at the appointed time, right they're not yet saved, but god's plan will continue and that's the oneness of of that that's why, go ahead, brother go ahead I just want to say I believe that's why jesus said the first will be last and the last will be first, because he went to the lost first.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's exactly right, but. But. But he and he says you know God, you know the scriptures make it clear that there is a remnant of those among the Jews who are called according to the election of grace. You see what I mean. So the thing about is you know? No, no Christian is going to be telling the truth if they say that God is done with the Jews. In other words, there is, but there is an election. There is a remnant according to the election of faith, and that election comes out of the same election whereby God has made both Jew and Gentile that he has ordained to be saved in Christ before the foundation of the world. But the whole idea is that that we now are one body. He laid one foundation of the prophets and the apostles, one foundation, and all of the lively stones are built upon that foundation, whether they be Jew or Gentile.
Speaker 4:When dispensation, I got a question question. So when dispensationalists state that they're going to deal with that, god is going to deal with israel, okay, are they? What are they? Are they referring to the nation israel, the? I mean, like, what are they referring to?
Speaker 1:They're referring to the physical nation of Israel, which is pretty much anybody who lives in that land, whether they're European or not.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so like all the Jewish people that have unalived since Christ resurrecting they're, they're all lost, right? Or that's why they think that they're going to deal with them differently? That's why I don't know.
Speaker 1:The nation of Israel. Whatever you think they are, whatever anybody thinks they are, they are not now getting any. They are on the same equal footing as all people, same equal footing as all people. And this is this is what, and this is what christ was saying in john 3 16 that god loves all people without distinction. The exception is no longer that the the. The exception that many of the jews held, the exceptionalism that they held to wrongfully for so many years, is wrong. And the Messiah who they expected, he comes and he says it. He says it.
Speaker 4:Exactly, and so in Matthew 21, Matthew 1 21, when he says shall save his people from their sins yes, exactly. So when we think about that scripture, you'll see some people who will say, oh, they were talking about the jews when he said that. Absolutely not. We are forgetting that jesus christ is god in the flesh. So when he says his, he is saying both Jew and Gentile. He knows the plan right.
Speaker 2:So that's coming through.
Speaker 4:He said my sheep know my voice Amen, and they know not a stranger, they hear his voice and they follow him.
Speaker 1:They don't contemplate following him, they follow him. Amen, and no other voice will they heed oh, that's a good one too, randy.
Speaker 4:Randy in the comments said he's no respecter of persons that's what that means.
Speaker 1:That's what that means. And he, he, he. What he's looking for is hearts that are faithful, those who heard the word of truth in the heart. That's what Paul's talking about in Galatians. Were you saved? Who has bewitched you? Did you come to faith by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Which one is it he goes. Only this I want to know. I want you to tell me. Explain this to me. Why is it that you've been saved by grace but now you're starting to add and lean onto these beggarly elements that I have destroyed already? That has been destroyed.
Speaker 4:To finish in the flesh what was done in the spirit.
Speaker 2:They're trying to fulfill the law when only God can fulfill the law, exactly when only God can fulfill the law.
Speaker 1:Exactly and see if Christ, if Christ, fulfilled the law, because I always tell people sometimes. I heard this sermon, one of the greatest sermons I ever heard in person. A guy named Tom Lyons, amazing preacher. He opened up this sermon and this was his opening words and you could hear the church sort of collectively gasp Because he says we are saved by works. Now, I'm a reformed Baptist. So when you so, when you say we are saved by works, I'm sitting back there going like, oh, this is going to be good, this is good, but he goes. We are saved by works. And then he goes into this is going to be good, but he goes. We are saved by works. And then he goes into. But we're not saved by our own works, we are saved by the works of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is his works whereby we are saved and justified before God. So if there are still