Christ's Object Lessons - Chapter 22: Saying and Doing

Pastor David Asscherick is joined by Sarah Lane to discuss Chapter 22 of Ellen White's Christ's Object Lessons, which examines the parable of the two sons. Ellen White explores how Jesus used this simple yet powerful story to reveal the difference between those who merely profess faith and those who genuinely practice it. Through their conversation, David and Sarah unpack the critical importance of developing healthy spiritual habits—recognizing that our true character is revealed not in our words but in our actions, particularly in how we love God and others. The chapter emphasizes that tax collectors and sinners who repent enter the kingdom before religious leaders who refuse to respond to Christ's invitation, demonstrating that what counts is not promise but performance rooted in sincere love for Him.

Guest: Sarah Lane
Scripture References: Matthew 21:23-32
Covers: Chapter 22: Saying and Doing
Original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=721bBkcA9ck
Light Bearers

Transcript

Greeting and Announcements

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey everybody, welcome to with DA and SBSL. I got it.

SPEAKER_03 0:06

You got it.

SPEAKER_00 0:06

I got it right. Sarah Beth Swanson Lane is Brent's wife. I think Brent's only wife, right?

SPEAKER_03 0:13

Last time I checked.

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Okay, just the one just the one wife.

SPEAKER_03 0:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:16

And just the one husband for you. Just one. Uh, we are super happy to have Sarah with us. Welcome to those of you that are tuning on, tuning in rather, on Instagram. Look at how quickly they come up. They're so faithful. Yeah. Just waiting for us to arrive. And tonight I was one minute late. Shoot. And I was one minute late because Sarah's wearing a lovely white shirt, and uh we had not color color coordinated, and I was wearing a cream sweater, and it just didn't work. No, it didn't work. This is much better. So I had to go change. So apologies for that. Welcome everybody. Happy Sabbath. Happy Sabbath. For those of us here in the United States, uh, let's see, we're in mountain time. Yep. And our Sabbath started about two hours ago, or maybe an hour and a half. Yeah. Something like that. And uh we are very much looking forward to studying through one of the parables of Jesus with you. Tonight we're going to be in Matthew chapter 21. Brent says, my favorite wife. Your f oh is he on there? Your favorite wife. Okay, excellent. Hello, Cassandra. Hello, Jan Klomberger. Glad to see you both. Zach Northrop. Zach. Good evening. Dash Alicious. Hi, everybody. Happy Sabbath. Karen, hello. Marlena says, Snow Endeavor today. Yep, we got some snow. In fact, we were we were cooking pizzas in the snow. Yes, we did pizzas again. And I have an answer. Delicious. One to ten. Uh twenty. I love it. I love it. I love it. Tanya says, hello, Sarah and David. Hello, Gabby Abby. Off beat Jimmy World says howdy. Franktown in the house. I love it. I think I'll be Jimmy as James Duncan. Hey James. You got it. Yep, that's right. Snow coming in New York says Victor Mills. Jaron Thurman, my guy. Great to see you, brother. Hello, Avery. Hello, Lisa. Hello, Dodie Balesteros says happy Sabbath. Toronto.

SPEAKER_03 2:12

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 2:12

Canon in the house. KB Phone Tog says happy Sabbath, everybody. Todd Hathaway says hello from Kaiser, Oregon. Awesome to see everybody. Wesley, did you get a winter? Kind of. Well, not really. I think it's supposed to be it's it's snowing right now, sort of flurries. But I think it's supposed to be like almost 70 in the coming week.

SPEAKER_02 2:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:34

So I think we're going to get away without a winter here. And I mean, it's already, what is today? February 20th. 20. It's late February, and we have yet to get a winter. So I don't know what's happening. Uh warm today in North Carolina. Sup, says Lisa. I think that was Rodriguez, which Messi says, Happy Sabbath. Hey, I grew up in Hais. Cheeseburg, South Africa. Christian, my guy. Love you, brother. Thank you for all the prayer. It means the world to me. Have you made a cheeseburger pizza yet? Well, aka Shaggy 99, that's gonna be a little hard because I am a vegetarian.

SPEAKER_03 3:12

I think maybe she means like Impossible Burger.

SPEAKER_00 3:15

Oh, I guess you could do that. Yeah. A cheeseburger pizza that feels almost blasphemous.

SPEAKER_03 3:20

Yeah, I I've had some good wood-fired pizzas that they make with the Impossible Burger or local little pizza place that we took Violetta to last year.

SPEAKER_00 3:27

We made like five or six different kinds of pizza tonight, including what was your favorite pizza tonight?

SPEAKER_03 3:33

I think the green bean and potato. Green bean and potato. Hits the spot. It was good. Jamel A plus.

SPEAKER_00 3:39

Yes, we also made another four cheese, which was delicious. And what did you think of the pear pizza, the sweet pizza? It's delicious. You liked it.

SPEAKER_03 3:47

I did. The fake jam was great.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

You can come back anytime, Sarah. Thank you. Anytime. Our home is your home. Likewise. Um, we are so glad that you are all here, Sarah. Neletus quickly, we met Brent last night. Um, but just to clarify, you have four children.

SPEAKER_03 4:02

Correct.

SPEAKER_00 4:02

You have a boy, a girl, a boy, and a boy.

SPEAKER_03 4:06

Correct. Ages 22, 20, 16, and 14.

unknown 4:12

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

So 22. So you still have teenagers. For sure. Good for you. That's great. And uh any grandkids yet? Oh oh no. No marriages yet.

SPEAKER_03 4:22

No marriages yet, but our oldest son is engaged and getting married in December.

SPEAKER_00 4:26

Oh, so that's coming right up. Getting married in December? Where?

SPEAKER_03 4:29

Yeah, December 20th in northern Minnesota.

SPEAKER_00 4:32

No way.

SPEAKER_03 4:33

They love winter. Hi honors of Annie if you're watching. We love it.

SPEAKER_00 4:36

That is so awesome. They're getting married in northern Minnesota December 20th. And surely, of course, it's gonna be an outdoor wedding. That is awesome. Are they gonna do a honeymoon? Uh yeah, they haven't decided where they're going to be. They're probably gonna go to northern Saskatchewan. I'm just guessing. Northern Saskatchewan, just where they want to go for their wedding.

SPEAKER_03 5:00

That's Edward Island, maybe.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

Oh, that'd be nice, P. Yeah, you'd be like, I was joking. You were joking. Yeah, I wasn't sure. Okay, everybody, we are super glad that you were here. By the way, uh the video from yesterday, the YouTube video from yesterday, uh, a great gulf fix where we looked at the rich man in Lazarus with Brent, Sarah's husband, Sarah's only husband, um, has not yet uploaded. I uploaded it last night. I actually stayed up till almost midnight waiting to get it uploaded. And when I woke up this morning, it was 78% uploaded. And then YouTube told me there was a catastrophic failure. And it just I had to restart the whole thing. And as of right now, it's like I just checked it before I uh started the video. It was like two hours left. So apologies for that, but it should be up soon. It's the longest one we've done. Who knew? Brent could have been long-winded.

SPEAKER_03 5:49

It's not like him.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

Um, but it was it's such a complicated parable. Tonight's parable's simple. Last night was approaching two hours, like an hour and 50 minutes.

SPEAKER_03 5:58

Well, I came in at the end.

SPEAKER_00 5:59

You can at the end that's right going through the rubric. That's right, that's right. Um, Brent said, Do not call me in for the rubric tonight. I guess he didn't want to Okay, fine, we won't call you in. Um, so we're in Matthew chapter 21 tonight. I love short periods.

SPEAKER_03 6:14

It's my future daughter in law. Hey Annie, happy Sabbath. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:17

Annalise 14 says hello, hello. Hey, congratulations. Uh, I've just been informed that you're getting married in December in northern Minnesota. Smart girl. And I just want to say that's very impressive.

SPEAKER_02 6:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:32

Very impressive. And then I've been informed that you're taking your honeymoon to northern Saskatchewan. One. I'm kidding. No, kidding about that part. Okay, Sarah, let's get started. Welcome everybody. Welcome to YouTube, welcome to Instagram. We're gonna start with prayer and it's gonna be great.

SPEAKER_03 6:47

Yeah, I can't wait.

SPEAKER_00 6:48

Somebody just said, somebody just said the DA effect, make your guests long-winded. That's that might be true. That's funny. We might go three hours tonight. No, I'm just kidding. We're not gonna go that. Hey, Evan Sandoval. Oh, nice. Hi, Evan. Good to see you. All right. You have our prayer.

SPEAKER_03 7:07

Have a good happy to do it. Let's

Prayer

SPEAKER_03 7:10

get started with prayer. Oh, good God in heaven. We just want to come before you and ask that the Spirit would be present with David and with me in this room.

SPEAKER_00 7:19

Amen.

SPEAKER_03 7:19

And Lord, be with each person as they meet and as they're listening and joining in from their dorm room or their house, their apartment, wherever they might be, Lord. I just pray that the Holy Spirit would be there, that you would walk before us, and that you would give us your wisdom, give us your insight, and just put our hearts on fire with the love of the Holy Spirit. And Lord, we're thankful as we welcome these Sabbath hours that we can just lift up your name and that we can pause and that we can rest in you and what you have done for us already.

SPEAKER_02 7:51

Amen.

SPEAKER_03 7:52

And Lord, I thank you for this chapter that you've blessed us with tonight. Thank you that you have um just given us these lessons. And I pray that we would take out what you would have us to take out from this chapter, and that we would just feel closer to you when this is done. We love you, Jesus.

Discussion

SPEAKER_03 8:09

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 8:09

Amen. Beautiful. Okay, everybody, we are in Matthew chapter 21. And in our secondary textbook, of course, our primary textbook is the Bible, but in our secondary textbook, Christ's Object Lessons, written by Ellen Wife, we are in chapter 22. Is that right? Chapter 22. We are very simple chapter, really. Yeah. Right? Like the parable is simple. There's not a lot, you're like, what's going on there? It's all very straightforward.

SPEAKER_03 8:37

That's interesting you'd say that because I didn't really, there were parts of it I didn't get until about the third read-through. Yeah, like, okay, this is at surface level, I would agree with you. Yeah. But each time I read through it, there's a little bit more.

SPEAKER_00 8:49

No, I agreed.

SPEAKER_03 8:49

Yeah, definitely some layers.

SPEAKER_00 8:51

A really straightforward title. Saying and doing.

SPEAKER_03 8:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:54

Saying and doing, we're going to be looking at the parable of the two sons. Yeah. We'd had the parable of the two worshippers already. And now tonight, the parable of the two sons, chapter 22. And let's start by reading the section. Now you've got the Bible in here. I do. What uh version do you have?

SPEAKER_03 9:11

I think I have it in the message right now.

SPEAKER_00 9:14

You want something different than the message? Yeah, yeah, do the NIV. Do the NIV. Sure. I'll read out of yours. It's right here. Just start right here in verse 23. How far do you want me to read that? And just read down at the end of the parable of the two sons on the next page. Okay, so we're in Matthew chapter 21, beginning in verse 23, and Sarah's going to read in the New International Version.

SPEAKER_03 9:34

Before I read it, can I just say what my first note was? Yeah, let's hear it. I'm just excited about it. Let me hear it. Summarize things. Talk is cheap.

SPEAKER_00 9:41

Oh, I love it. Talk is cheap. Very good. I love it. All right.

SPEAKER_03 9:45

Here we go.

SPEAKER_00 9:46

Uh let's go. And then you're going to read it in the I'll read it in rights, for instance.

SPEAKER_03 9:49

Until you're right. All right. Jesus entered the temple courts, and while he was teaching, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him. By what authority are you doing these things? They asked. And who gave you this authority? Jesus replied, I will also ask you one question. You know what I love about this? They're arguing with God.

SPEAKER_00 10:10

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn't mention it. Sarah's a lawyer. Oh, Sarah. And I wondered if you like the fact that this is almost like a cross-examination. Yeah. They're asking questions. He's like, Well, let me ask you a question. Jesus, totally. It's got this kind of law court. Yeah. It's got this law court feel.

SPEAKER_03 10:29

Okay. He almost gets a little bit sassy with them, actually. Oh, very much.

SPEAKER_00 10:32

Matthew 21 and 22. I love it.

SPEAKER_03 10:34

Yeah. So he says, I will ask you one question. If you answer me, I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. John's baptism, such a great question. Where did it come from? Was it from heaven or of human origin? So they discussed it among themselves and they said, if we say from heaven, he will ask, then why didn't you believe him?

SPEAKER_01 10:54

Right.

SPEAKER_03 10:55

But if we say of human origin, we are afraid of the people. For they all hold that John was a prophet. So they answered Jesus. We don't know.

SPEAKER_00 11:06

I love it.

SPEAKER_03 11:07

I love that Ellen White says they lied basically.

SPEAKER_00 11:09

Yeah, yeah, of course. They did know that.

SPEAKER_03 11:11

There was no whim that he answered, right? Yeah. All right. So then Jesus responds, Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.

SPEAKER_00 11:19

Interesting.

SPEAKER_03 11:20

And then we start in with the parable. So what do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and he said, Son, go and work today in the vineyard. I will not, he answered. But later the son changed his mind and went. Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, I will, sir, but he did not go. Which of the two did what his father wanted? The first, they answered. Jesus said to them, Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness. And you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.

SPEAKER_00 12:05

Wow, this is a there's also there's a lot going on in this passage. I absolutely love it. And uh I'm gonna read it here in rights translation. Let's see, what uh where did we start? Twenty three three? Yeah. Okay. Uh anti rights translation, Matthew 21, beginning in verse 23. Jesus went into the temple. As he was teaching, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him. By what right are you doing these things? They asked him. Who gave you this right? I'm going to ask you one question, too, replied Jesus. And if you tell me the answer, then I'll tell you by what right I'm doing these things. Where did John's baptism come from? Was it from heaven or from this world? They debated among themselves. If we say from heaven, they said, he's going to say to us, So why didn't you believe it? But if we say from this world, we'll have to watch out for the crowd, because they all reckon that John was a prophet. So they answered Jesus, We don't know. Well then, said Jesus, nor will I tell you by what right I'm doing these things. What do you think? He went on. Once upon a time there was a man who had two sons. And he went to the first one and said, Now then, my boy, off you go, and do a day's work in the vineyard. Don't want to, replied the son, but afterward he thought better of it and went. He went to the other son and said the same thing. Certainly, Master, he said. But he didn't go. So which of the two did what his father wanted? The first, they answered. I'm telling you the truth, Jesus said to them. The tax collectors and prostitutes are going into God's kingdom ahead of you. Yes, John came to you in accordance with God's righteous covenant plan, and you didn't believe him. But the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him. But when you saw it, you didn't think better of it afterward and believe him. I like this translation. It's so good. It's so readable, and it really gives it it to me. I just like the way it makes it kind of come alive. Like the narrative is I love it when he says, uh when he tells the boy to go work in the vineyard. He says, um, um now then, now then, my boy, off you go and do a day's work in the vineyard. You know, off you go. So British, off you go. Um, okay, so let's start by just making a few sort of preliminary remarks here about the whole scene.

SPEAKER_03 14:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:27

And do you have anything that you kind of but you said talk is cheap.

SPEAKER_03 14:30

Yeah, and I thought it was interesting that Ellen White points out this was the last trip that Jesus made into Jerusalem.

SPEAKER_00 14:36

Right, because this is Matthew 21. The triumphal entry has just happened in Matthew chapter 21. This is toward the tail end of Jesus' ministry. And in fact, Jesus is going to tell one, two, three successive parables. The parable of the two sons, followed by the parable of the tenants, which is another incredible parable in Matthew 21. And then Matthew 22 begins with the parable of the wedding banquet. So in rapid succession, kind of like in Matthew 13, where there was parable after parable after parable. This is one, two, three parables in quick succession.

SPEAKER_02 15:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:09

Okay, so this is Jesus' last visit. Um, I love the dialogue, the back and forth here. We were talking about how to almost a law court feel. And one thing I noticed when you were reading in the NIV, something that jumped out to me, yeah, is that they are clearly capable of giving a collective, correct answer. Because when Jesus says to them in verse 31, which of the two did what his father wanted, they just together say, like instantly, the first.

SPEAKER_02 15:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:41

But earlier, when Jesus said, Hey, what about John's baptism? Was it of heaven or for birth? They're like, uh We gotta confer. Well, just a moment, we need to confer here, right? What would they say in the court of law? They say, I'd like to confer with my client. Recess, please, Your Honor. Recess, please, Your Honor. Uh, we don't want to we need to talk this among ourselves. They mute the microphone. Yeah. Go ahead and shake. Do you do that? You go in the courtroom and you do that.

SPEAKER_03 16:02

Yeah, you can mute the mic if we need a break and you can ask for a recess at any time.

SPEAKER_00 16:06

But do you ever say to your client, Oh, yeah, you need to shut up now. You need to let me talk ever.

SPEAKER_03 16:12

Typically the witness is up on the witness stand.

SPEAKER_00 16:14

So, kind of like, what about your client's there? Like, if they're like, are they ever getting agitated and you have to say, hey, like, you need to call it? I just do this. Do you? On a rare occasion. Okay, rare occasion.

SPEAKER_03 16:24

Um before we walk out, of course. I don't usually have to correct.

SPEAKER_00 16:30

But this has that kind of feel, doesn't it? It does. Where they're like, recess, and then they're like, What should we say?

SPEAKER_03 16:35

Yeah. And Jesus knew And fair, really, because they were trying to come up with a dishonest answer, really.

SPEAKER_00 16:40

Yeah, and there was no wind to it. Like a political answer.

SPEAKER_03 16:43

Exactly. They're like, they knew they were in trouble either way that they answered it.

SPEAKER_00 16:46

We don't know. Right. Which of course they did know. Right. But what Jesus is doing there is he's showing that basically here's what he's doing. He's saying, Why should I give you a straightforward answer when you're not really interested in the answer itself? You're trying to trap me. You're trying to lure me into some trap, because at this point she actually says in this chapter that they were hoping that he would say he was the Messiah.

SPEAKER_03 17:10

Correct, so they could kill him.

SPEAKER_00 17:11

Because then they go, ah, ah, now we have a pretender to the throne. They could report him to the authorities. And so they're trying to tack him down. So Jesus knows that they're trying to tack him down, and this is going to happen. The same thing's going to happen in Matthew chapter 22 as well, where he's asked three questions. This is the next chapter, where they're like, Is it is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar? What about this woman who had all these husbands? Who's in the resurrection? What's the great commandment? They're trying a series of trick questions. Trick trick questions. And they're not really interested in the answers. No. So just And they're not very skilled. Excellent. Yes, they're not very skilled.

SPEAKER_03 17:44

And they're up against the God of the universe.

SPEAKER_00 17:47

And Jesus is very skilled. Right. So when he says to them, Well, what about the baptism of John the Baptist?

SPEAKER_03 17:53

He knew that would shut him down.

SPEAKER_00 17:55

He knew that they would not be able to give an answer and it was anything other than disingenuous. So the dialogue is thrilling, and the placement of the parable is really only understandable in the context of the dialogue. In other words, if you just go straight to the parable and you don't read what comes before it, you're going to be a little lost. But in the context, the parable is perfect. Yeah. I mean, it just it just nails it.

SPEAKER_02 18:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:21

And in this chapter, by the way, in Ellen White's chapter, chapter 22, roughly she spends the first part talking about the dialogue over John the Baptist, and then the second part about the parable itself.

SPEAKER_03 18:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:33

So we're going to talk about both.

SPEAKER_03 18:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:35

We're going to talk about all of it.

SPEAKER_03 18:37

The part about John the Baptist is so good.

SPEAKER_00 18:39

I love it. The additional insights that she adds to it just adds all those layers. So good. Um now you said right at the Alt Seth, which I liked. Talk is cheap. Yeah. That's your summary. Do you want to hear my summary? Yeah. What counts is not promise, but performance.

SPEAKER_02 18:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:57

Which is kind of the same thing. Right. It's it's not per promise. I promise I will. Yep. I will go. It's performance.

SPEAKER_03 19:05

Well, and what she wrote is what both of us are drawing out of is words are of no value unless they're accompanied with appropriate.

SPEAKER_00 19:13

Okay. Let's let's go read then. Let's get to chapter 22, page 326. We don't have to read the first paragraph because that's just the retelling. So why don't you read for us the second paragraph, 326, 272 of the original? By the way.

SPEAKER_03 19:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:29

Why does your husband have the old school version and you have the types and symbols version?

SPEAKER_03 19:34

Well, um Is he just a creature of habit? But you didn't buy the others for him. No, because he already had the old school ones. He didn't want an upgrade? He still has t-shirts from high school, David.

SPEAKER_00 19:48

Didn't we already sort of establish that Brent does not like to spend money? We did establish a day or two ago. So yeah. Um so why then don't you read on the 300? He helped me today fix a tire. My tire was flat today, and Brent helped me change my tire. Thank you, Brent. Um, so second paragraph in this chapter in the Sermon on the Mount, can you read that for us?

SPEAKER_03 20:12

Sure. In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ said, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my father in heaven. Matthew 7 21. The test of sincerity is not in words, but in deeds. There we go again. Christ does not say to any man, What do you say more than others, but what do you do more than others? Matthew 5 47. Full of meaning are his words. If you knew know these things, blessed are you if you do them. John 13 17. Words are of no value unless they are accompanied with appropriate deeds. This is the lesson taught in the parable of the two sons. So she comes right out. It seems like in all the chapters recently it's like, boom.

SPEAKER_00 20:54

This is what this is about. This is what it's going to be about. Like yesterday's, you might miss it. Yeah, the yesterday's chapter. Exactly. In the parable of the rich man in Lazarus, Christ shows that in this life men decide their eternal destiny.

SPEAKER_03 21:05

And that's it.

SPEAKER_00 21:06

That's it. And here she's like, it's not words, it's deeds. Yeah. And she draws on numerous passages here. Matthew 7, Matthew 5, John 13. And I really like this line. The test of sincerity is not in words, but in deeds. Now I will say this. There are circumstances, of course, in which uh saying something is meaningful. In fact, I I would have actually preferred that line there to say something like this. Words can be of no value if they're not accompanied by appropriate ease. Because there are some times where somebody's just hurting, they're struggling. And obviously, this is not her exact point, but but you can just say, hey, I'm praying for you, or I'm with you. Or can I pray with you? Or can I pray with you? And pray with them by name. Pray with them by name. See you're learning. God bless you. So, so there are definitely circumstances in which just saying the right thing in a social setting. In ministry. We have to remember speech is also action. It is. Right. It's also action. But her point is that is that meaningless words, the words themselves don't do what deeds do, what actions do. Promise, no, performance.

SPEAKER_03 22:19

Well, the opposite end of that is words have the power to heal.

SPEAKER_00 22:22

Right.

SPEAKER_03 22:23

So that's to your point. They are an action as well.

SPEAKER_00 22:26

Correct.

SPEAKER_03 22:27

We can lift people up or we can cut a person like that with words.

SPEAKER_00 22:31

Speech is an action.

SPEAKER_03 22:32

But you're right.

SPEAKER_00 22:33

If your talk is hollow, meaning that it doesn't have purpose, that's what she's saying. And obviously that's what the parable is about, right? Right. The parable, the problem is not that he said, uh, yes, I will go. The problem that is that he said he would go and then he didn't go.

SPEAKER_02 22:47

Right.

SPEAKER_00 22:47

So and I'm sure that the father was quite pleased. Like if I said to my son, uh, hey, Landon, will you sweep the garage? And he said, Yeah, I'll do it, Dad. I would be, I'd be like, Oh, what a good boy. Yeah. But then if he didn't do it, you'd have to be like, We have to have a conversation. I thought you said you were going to sweep the garage. Okay, let's read the next paragraph. This parable was spoken at Christ's last visit. That's you.

SPEAKER_03 23:08

Oh, sorry, I thought you were reading. Here's our terms. Okay, this parable was spoken at Christ's last visit to Jerusalem before his death. He had driven out the buyers and sellers from the temple. His voice had spoken to their hearts with the power of God. Amazed and terrified, they had obeyed his command without excuse or resistance.

SPEAKER_00 23:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 23:27

And the next paragraph is one of the best in the chapter.

SPEAKER_00 23:29

You loved it. Why don't you read it?

SPEAKER_03 23:30

Because the babies Oh, I love it. I don't mind this. I know. I love it. When their terror was abated, the priests and elders returning to the temple had found Christ healing the sick and the dying. Don't you just love that contrast?

SPEAKER_00 23:44

Yes. I love it. He was doing. He was doing.

SPEAKER_03 23:48

Yep. They had heard the voice of rejoicing in the song of praise. In the temple itself, the children who had been restored to health were waving their palm branches and singing Hosanna's. She's just painting the picture. I love how she does that.

SPEAKER_01 24:01

Beautiful.

SPEAKER_03 24:01

So they're singing Hosanna's to the Son of David. Baby voices were lisping the praises of the mighty healer.

SPEAKER_00 24:08

That's such a great line. It's so good. So you're there.

SPEAKER_03 24:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:11

The moment you read that line, you are there.

SPEAKER_03 24:13

Yeah, exactly. And then she's got all these transition words. It seemed like in this the I don't know, second or third read-through that they've just jumped out, and here's one of the first. Yet with the priests and elders, all this did not suffice to overcome their prejudice and their jealousy.

SPEAKER_00 24:28

Yeah. Jealousy has been a theme through, I mean, we've seen that in Desire of Ages, we've seen it in this book. That Jesus is attracting crowds, Jesus is an effective communicator, Jesus is healing people, Jesus is casting out demons. They're losing their influence. They can feel that they're losing their popular influence. Because especially the religious leaders are populist leaders. The Sadducees are the actual religious leaders from Rome's perspective, but the Pharisees, the scribes, the teachers of the law, they're the populists. They're the ones that are supposed to kind of have the they're the people's champion. But now Jesus is the people's champion, and what we might today call professional jealousy is creeping in. Yeah. And they don't like it. Right. And especially when you know Jesus has driven all of the people out of the temple, they come back and people are singing hosanna's, and the sweet little babies are singing. Jesus is healing. And you would think that they would go, you know what? This guy is the Messiah.

SPEAKER_03 25:24

So I don't want to jump ahead too far. But on page 330, this again was one of the fire paragraphs in the chapter. And it's referring to really what happened here. And he says, Christ had given the Jewish leaders of his day abundant evidence of his authority and divine power. But although they were convinced. They were convinced. That to me just about jump out. Yeah. Although they were convinced, they would not accept the evidence that Christ had shown them. Anyway.

SPEAKER_00 25:53

There's a lot of legal terminology there, right?

SPEAKER_03 25:55

Yeah, the evidence is sufficient. Evidence. Yep. Convinced. Yep. It's like and they want to accept it. So when you go to enter an exhibit into evidence, the other party has to agree and stipulate to it, or the judge has to decide whether or not something is admitted into evidence. So here, the religious leaders, they have all the evidence.

SPEAKER_00 26:16

Right.

SPEAKER_03 26:16

But they're objecting.

SPEAKER_00 26:18

They're objecting.

SPEAKER_03 26:19

They're not stipulating to the evidence coming in, even though they can see it with their own eyes.

SPEAKER_00 26:23

They're convinced.

SPEAKER_03 26:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:25

I love it. Um, what a beautiful scene this is. And the scene is supposed to be, uh, both in Luke's gospel and in Ellen White's retelling of it, a purposeful contrast between the religious leaders of the day that are, again, bent on the preservation of their status, their position, uh, and they are motivated by prejudice and jealousy. And then Jesus is almost oblivious. Right. You know, he's just healing, he's ministering, he's laughing with the children, and none of this is sitting right because Jesus is not just popular, he's kind of irresistible. But they're somehow managing to resist the otherwise irresistible.

SPEAKER_03 27:07

So he's just I can't even think of the right word, but just all this love is just pouring out of it. And he's just connecting with people like the children, you got it and the sick, it's beautiful and the suffering, and the people that are in the downcast of society of connecting with all of them. Right.

SPEAKER_00 27:24

Yeah, that's this chapter has got sinners, sinners, sinners, sinners in it, because Jesus is going to say the tax collectors and prostitutes go into the kingdom before you. To be clear, he doesn't say you can't go in, because as we will see it actually. Exactly. Many of the leaders have a change of opinion, have a change of mind.

SPEAKER_03 27:41

The door was still open to these Jewish leaders. The invitation was still held out. I love it. Christ longed to see them convicted and converted. Do you know what I wrote 37?

SPEAKER_00 27:50

Do you know what I wrote there?

SPEAKER_03 27:51

Tell me.

SPEAKER_00 27:51

Spirit one more year. Yeah. I mean, we've already had a parable on that, right? Like, let's give this one more year.

SPEAKER_03 27:57

I love that Jesus repeats himself in these parables.

SPEAKER_00 28:00

Oh, there is a nobody. I actually thought of second debate. I thought about having uh uh some kind of a diagram that would show how there are significant thematic overlaps in many of the parables. Like, like you can see, but this parable appeals to the newlywed, this parable appeals to the farmer, this parable appeals to the fisherman, this parable appeals to the parent. Like Jesus is very often telling the same or similar lessons, but from a different common again, object lessons from Jesus, lessons about objects. So that somebody's gonna go, oh, oh, the light bulb moment, right? So we're not surprised that there is significant overlap in the punchline of a number of these parables.

SPEAKER_03 28:46

Ruby points out repetition deepens impression, exactly right. And it's a great teaching method. That's why we do quizzes and tests after a while to review.

SPEAKER_00 28:54

Okay, so then the next paragraph, uh, bottom of page 327, the next day. So that this is after the in the temple. Yep. That beautiful scene that we just described. The next day, as Christ was teaching the temple, the chief recent elders came to him and said, now this is like direct confrontation, right? They're you can imagine they've gone back, they've consulted among themselves, like, okay, what are we gonna do? And then somebody comes up with a bright idea. Let's just directly confront him in front of the people. They think they're gonna get the best of it. Yeah. And apparently they've decided to take this tack. The tack is, what right do you have to do this? By what authority? Who do you in other words, what we would say, who do you think you are? Right. Right? And then they're hoping, again, as we're gonna see, that he'll say, I'm the Messiah, and then they're gonna go, We got you. Right. We got because a messiah is just a stand-in word for Mason. Last king when you're anointed, and they're gonna be able to report that to the Romans, and it's gonna look like an insurgency. And the Romans were very concerned about insurgencies.

SPEAKER_02 29:50

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 29:50

Uh so the next day Christ was, as Christ was teaching in the temple, the chief priests and elders of the people came to him and said, Here it is, they've practiced this, they're ready for it. By what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority? The priests and elders had had unmistakable evidence of Christ's power. In his cleansing of the temple, they had seen heaven's authority flashing from his face. They could not resist the power by which he spoke. Again. Just the word picture again. It's incredible. Uh his wonderful beef. By the way, that chapter in the Desire of Ages, the name escapes me right now, but I remember that being one of my favorite chapters in the Desire of Ages because she talks about when the uh people had been driven out of the temple the second time because he cleaned cleansed the temple at the beginning of his ministry and then now at the end of his ministry. And the picture that she paints of all of the sick and the lame and the children coming into the temple courts without all the money changers, without all of the you know, religious uh facade. It's one of the most beautiful chapters. Oh, for sure. Um, so it was wonderful deeds of healing. He had answered their question. He had given evidences, evidence of his authority, which could not be controverted.

unknown 31:00

Right.

SPEAKER_00 31:00

But it was not evidence that was wanted. The priests and elders were, and here it is, anxious for Jesus to proclaim himself the Messiah that they might misapply his words and stir up the people against him. They wished, and here it is, straightforwardly, yep, they wished to destroy his influence and to put him to death. Yeah. Right. They want him gone. This is toward the end of the ministry of Jesus. They have tried to kind of co-opt his influence, they've tried to undermine his influence, they've tried everything, they they get bested at every turn. Yep. It's a little bit like uh the cartoon there. You remember Roadrunner and Wiley Coyote? Yeah. A Roadrunner always gets the best of Wiley Coyote.

SPEAKER_02 31:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:43

I mean, they just keep trying to get Jesus, and Jesus is just continually offsmarting them, but not because he's being deceitful. No.

SPEAKER_03 31:50

Although it is interesting, the word that she uses in the next paragraph is that he evades the issue.

SPEAKER_00 31:55

I thought that was a really read it for us, that whole paragraph.

SPEAKER_03 31:59

All right. Jesus knew that if they could not recognize God in him or see in his works the evidence of his divine character, they would not believe his own testimony that he was the Christ.

SPEAKER_01 32:08

Right.

SPEAKER_03 32:08

In his answer, he evades the issue they hope to bring about and turns the condemnation upon themselves.

SPEAKER_02 32:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:14

Uh I will also ask you one thing, he said, which if you tell me, I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, where was it from? From heaven or from men?

SPEAKER_00 32:26

Yeah. Yeah, he very wisely just sidesteps the issue. Because he knows they don't have a good answer. If he says I'm not the Messiah, well, that's a lie.

SPEAKER_03 32:36

Right.

SPEAKER_00 32:36

But if he says I am the Messiah, it jeopardizes his standing with the people, it jeopardizes his mission. The whole thing could go upside down. So he has to wisely navigate this situation. And he does so by exposing their disingenuous approach by saying, Well, let me ask you a question. That's when we're doing this kind of cross-examination thing. How about this? And he asks them about John the Baptist. Now, John the Baptist's preaching has taken place years before this. Yeah. Like three years before this. Yeah. And John at this point has been imprisoned and John has been beheaded. And so John is a very important figure to the crowds because, in their minds, he was a prophet, he was a righteous man, he was wrongfully, unjustly killed. And so Jesus wisely brings up this kind of hot button issue, and they know they're on the hot seat.

SPEAKER_03 33:29

Well, they know that they're stuck.

SPEAKER_00 33:31

Exactly. No good. Jesus has trapped them in a similar way to the way they're trying to trap him. And notice that the whole thing here revolves around authority. By what authority? Authority? Authority? Well, what about John the Baptist? Was that from earthly authority or heavenly authority? Then we read the police, the priests and rulers were perplexed. They reasoned among themselves, saying, Well, hmm, if we say from heaven, he's going to say to us, then why didn't you believe him? But if we say from men, we fear the multitude. Fear the multitude. For they all count John as a prophet. So they answered and said to Jesus, uh, we don't know. And he said to them, Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. So these are not principled religious leaders. These are, we might say, calculated politicians. For sure. This is a calculated political answer.

SPEAKER_03 34:15

It is. And how many bad decisions, David, are made in the name of fear?

SPEAKER_00 34:19

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 34:20

I mean, people make awful decisions because they're afraid. They're afraid. These guys are really afraid, which is what it boils down to. They knew they were trapped, they knew there was no good answer that was going to please either the crowds are going to turn against them or they want to admit that John was sent from God, thereby saying, well, then why wouldn't you accept his testimony?

SPEAKER_00 34:36

Correct.

SPEAKER_03 34:37

That Jesus is Messiah.

SPEAKER_00 34:38

And the the the punchline here is that John the Baptist testified that Jesus was the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. So if they say John the Baptist authority is from heaven, then they know what the follow-up question is going to be. I'm sure in a courtroom you're often like, okay, if if I'm cross-examining somebody or I'm asking somebody questions and they say this, then I know I'm going to ask this. Oh, yeah, you're sitting there waiting. You're waiting. You're like, okay, I'm ready to pounce. I'm waiting, ready to pounce. So they kind of wisely, I mean Are you lying now or are you lying then? The service been honest, but they do wisely say, uh, well, we don't know. But it's the only thing they could do in that situation because they know they're darned if they do and darned if they don't. And so they say, We don't know, and then she just says expressly here, this answer was a falsehood.

SPEAKER_03 35:24

I love it. I love it. She calls it like she sees it. It's like Jesus. It's a lie. It's a lie, yeah. Travis just said in in response to this, fear not. And I love that one of the most common repeated phrases in the Bible are those two words.

SPEAKER_00 35:37

Yeah. Do you know? Beautiful.

SPEAKER_03 35:38

Thank you, Travis.

SPEAKER_00 35:40

Uh, but the priest saw the position they were in and falsified in order to screen themselves. John the Baptist had come bearing witness of the one whose authority they were now questioning. This is the rub, right? Exactly. Uh they were now questioning. He had pointed him out, said, and said, and uh saying, excuse me, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. John 129. He had baptized him, and after the baptism, as Christ was praying, the heavens were open, and the Spirit of God like a dove rested upon him, while the voice from heaven was heard saying, This is my beloved son whom I'm well pleased.

SPEAKER_03 36:07

And David, just for anybody that's looking what page we're on 275 in the original.

SPEAKER_00 36:12

329 at the top.

SPEAKER_03 36:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:14

Um, so then let's just read one more paragraph because it's the last paragraph before we get to the parable itself.

SPEAKER_03 36:20

Yep. Before we have the transition.

SPEAKER_00 36:23

You got it.

SPEAKER_03 36:24

All right. Remembering how John had repeated the prophecies concerning the Messiah, remembering the scene at the baptism of Jesus, the priests and rulers dared not say John's baptism was from heaven.

SPEAKER_00 36:34

Right.

SPEAKER_03 36:35

If they acknowledged John to be a prophet, as they believed him to be.

SPEAKER_00 36:39

That's interesting. Yep, that's right.

SPEAKER_03 36:41

How could they deny his testimony that Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God, and they could not say that John's baptism was of men because of the people who believed John to be a prophet.

SPEAKER_00 36:50

Right.

SPEAKER_03 36:51

So they said, We don't know.

SPEAKER_00 36:53

We don't know. I mean, they're they're darned if they do, they're darned if they don't. They're in a classic dilemma here. And Jesus has placed them in that dilemma. And then the next word transition is then. So it's in this is very important because this is context. Ellen White does a great job in this book of setting the historical, cultural, and sometimes immediate dialogical context of the parable. And now this parable comes right on the heels of their recalcitrance and their unwillingness to answer a fairly straightforward question. He's setting the stage. He's setting the stage for the story. So then, you want to circle that or underline that, then you've done look what you did. Circle. Look what you did. We both circled it. Right. Then Christ gave the parable of the father and the two sons. When the father went to the first son saying, Go work today in my vineyard, the son promptly answered, No, I will not. He refused to obey and gave himself up to wicked ways and associations. But afterward he repented and obeyed the call. The father went to the second son with the same command, go work today in my vineyard. The son made the reply, I go, sir, but he went not. And the key word here is Sir, or an anti-Rights translation, certainly master. There's a politeness here, right? There's a politeness. Yes, sir. Right? That's what my young boys would have said to me. They would probably still say to this day. And like, yes, sir.

SPEAKER_03 38:16

Your sons call you sir.

SPEAKER_00 38:18

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_03 38:18

Yeah. Huh.

SPEAKER_00 38:19

Interesting. And my kids are polite.

SPEAKER_03 38:21

They are.

SPEAKER_00 38:21

Yeah, they're very polite. Um, it's actually one of my favorite things about the Southeast in the United States. When people do, yes, sir, yes, sir, no ma'am, no ma'am.

SPEAKER_03 38:29

I have it.

SPEAKER_00 38:32

To everybody. To anybody. I was taught by my dad that if you were addressing a person older than you, you refer to them as ma'am or sir.

SPEAKER_03 38:40

Interesting. Yeah. You know, the courtroom, everybody, whether you're married or not, it's miss and mister. It's very formal in how you address people.

SPEAKER_00 38:47

And when you address the judge, your honor. Right. Your honor. Okay. Yeah. I like that. I I think that they're I lived in Australia. Well, I lived in Australia for seven years, and Australia is a very low very casual. It's a very casual, very low culture when it comes to formality.

SPEAKER_02 39:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:04

Right. Like this. But wonderful people. We love our Australian friends. But like they wouldn't like an Australian, most Australians would not refer to me, for example, as Pastor Asherick.

SPEAKER_02 39:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:17

They would call me Daivo.

unknown 39:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:20

All I Daivo, has your dynamite. Like, like it's a it's a just a different way of doing it. But I actually I for me personally, I guess it was just because I was raised this way. I like the yes sir, no sir, yes ma'am, no ma'am. It appeals to me. Yeah. Because I think if we if we speak respectfully, it makes it easier to behave respectfully.

SPEAKER_03 39:40

I think you're right, David. I don't disagree. Yeah. But I can't imagine my children referring to me as ma'am.

SPEAKER_00 39:46

What do they call you?

SPEAKER_03 39:47

Mom.

SPEAKER_00 39:47

But what if you just say, um, hey Anders, I want you to uh sweep the garage.

SPEAKER_03 39:52

You bet.

SPEAKER_00 39:54

It wouldn't say, yeah, Mom.

SPEAKER_03 39:56

Yeah, they might say that. But they're not gonna say fam.

SPEAKER_00 39:58

And they wouldn't say sir to Brent? No. So that's a northern thing.

SPEAKER_03 40:02

Yeah, it it must be just a cultural difference.

SPEAKER_00 40:07

Yeah, he was raised in Louisiana and Texas.

SPEAKER_03 40:09

Somebody suggested that you move down the southeast. I don't know where else you have.

SPEAKER_00 40:13

Now the problem, there's a major problem with the southeast. There's actually a couple.

SPEAKER_03 40:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:17

Um, one of them is there's no mountains. Yeah. So that's a non-starter. Okay. And then the other is it's so hot and humid in the summer that you can cut the air with a knife. Other than that, I love the people. And I love boiled peanuts.

SPEAKER_03 40:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:33

Have you ever had boiled peanuts? It's like a south thing.

SPEAKER_03 40:35

It is a southern thing.

SPEAKER_00 40:36

I love it. Yeah. Violet and are crazy over bold peanut.

SPEAKER_03 40:39

I prefer the pecans that have the praline on them and the south.

SPEAKER_00 40:42

That's sweet. I like sweets.

SPEAKER_03 40:44

I know that's different. Um, okay, so then um And then she's very honest again and very direct. In this herbal, the father represents God.

SPEAKER_01 40:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:53

The vineyard, the church. By the two sons are represented two classes of people. She doesn't talk about classes of people, groups is what she means, right? The son who refused to obey the command saying, I will not, represented those who were living in open transgression of sin. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 41:08

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 41:08

Who made no profession of piety, who openly refused to come under the yoke of restraint and obedience, which the law of God imposes, but many of these afterward repented and obeyed the call of God. Thank you, Jesus. When the gospel came to them and the message of John the Baptist, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. They repented and confessed their sins. The exact opposite of what we just read about. So they're the first liars. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:31

They're the first son. They're the son that says, No way, I'm not, I'm not doing that. I'm not going to obey your stupid rules. I'm not going to repent because the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

SPEAKER_03 41:40

You had two sons, David.

SPEAKER_00 41:41

In moments they were like, hmm.

SPEAKER_03 41:43

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 41:44

I was probably a bit hasty there. They reflected. Yeah. They thought, they ruminated on it. And then they said, you know what? That was a bad decision. They're more thoughtful. That's why Jesus says they go into the kingdom before you. They're more thoughtful. They're like reflecting and think, hmm. I think I reacted impulsively there. I'm going to go I'm going to make a better decision. Yeah. Where the others reflexively say, Yes, sir, with no intention to do it.

SPEAKER_03 42:07

Yeah. Which is lying. That's the falsehood. It is lying. Well we're using the priest.

SPEAKER_00 42:11

My two sons are as different as night and day.

SPEAKER_03 42:13

Yeah, I was just going to say, you have two sons.

SPEAKER_00 42:15

And you have three sons.

SPEAKER_03 42:16

Yeah. I know. Praise God. So if your son, if you asked your sons to do a job, you want them to tell you, do you want him to say no, I'm not going to do it? Or do you want him to say, Yeah, Dad, I'm going to do it. Or yes, sir, I'm going to do it.

SPEAKER_00 42:29

I want them to say they're going to do it and both. I want them to do both. Yeah. But if I had to, if I had to choose one of these options, you would take the first option. You'd have them go, no, I'm not going to do it. I'm busy or I'm not interested. And I'd be like, what? And then they would reflect and they would do it. But my boys were very, they were both competitive. Compliant were wonderful.

SPEAKER_03 42:51

They still are, right?

SPEAKER_00 42:52

Yes, not perfectly compliant. Both of my boys are strong-willed and they want good reasons for things. But when they understand, like sort of arbitrary power didn't work in our home because I said so. Because I'm the dad. And we didn't really play that card. No, I can't imagine. It doesn't really work that way. And so when our boys understood the why of the thing, the rationale of the thing, they were like, okay, yeah, I get it. Which I that's the kind of obedience I think is meaningful anyway. Not just, oh, I'm this is my dad said it. I'm afraid I don't want to get, you know, in trouble, or I don't want to get the belt, which is what I used to get. If I talk back to my dad, oh, let me tell you. Uh that didn't fly. Okay, so that paragraph she talks about the sinners.

SPEAKER_02 43:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:36

The next paragraph she talks about the Pharisees.

SPEAKER_02 43:38

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 43:39

In the son who said, I go, sir, or certainly, master, and when not, the character of the Pharisees was revealed. Like this son, the Jewish leaders were impenitent and self-sufficient. The religious life of the Jewish nation had become a pretense, very important word. Mm-hmm. When the law was proclaimed on Mount Sinai. The voice of God, uh, by the voice of God, all the people pledged themselves to obey. They said, I go, sir, but they went not.

SPEAKER_02 44:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:07

When Christ came in person to set before them the principles of the law, they rejected him. Christ had given the Jewish leaders of his day abundant evidence of his authority, coming back to that point and divine power, but although they were convinced, I guess we read this. It's just crazy that they were convinced, but still they were persuaded, but they would not accept the evidence. Christ had shown them that they continue to disbelieve because they had not the spirit which leads to obedience. He had declared to them, You have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition. In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. And then Jesus does a really, really smart thing. He lures them into giving an answer.

SPEAKER_03 44:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:50

I love this. Is that what you're laughing about?

SPEAKER_03 44:51

The Pharisees. Forgetting the themselves, right?

SPEAKER_00 44:54

For a moment, we're like, oh, wait a minute. He just got us. Uh-huh. And he got us by saying, by telling a very simple story that any parent can relate to, and then saying, okay, so which of the two boys We've been had.

SPEAKER_03 45:06

That's the two boys that did the Father's will.

SPEAKER_00 45:08

Yeah. And then they respond collectively.

SPEAKER_03 45:10

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 45:11

Unanimously, the verse.

SPEAKER_03 45:13

Just common sense.

SPEAKER_00 45:14

Okay, by the way, by the way, in a future parable in Matthew chapter, let me show you this. And stay in Matthew chapter 21. In the next parable that Jesus tells, okay, we're not going to spend any time on it, the parable of the tenants. Is that tomorrow? The one thing. Tomorrow is the the vineyard. Okay, so this is Okay, watch this. We're gonna see this tomorrow, but let me just give you a little flash flash ahead.

SPEAKER_03 45:37

Yes, for the right.

SPEAKER_00 45:38

So you look at this in uh Matthew 21. Look at Matthew 21, verse 40. It says, Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, because Jesus tells a story about this vineyard and what had happened when he had placed responsibility of the stewards of the vineyard, and they had abused their responsibility that had been entrusted to them. So then Jesus asked them a question, verse 40. Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants? And here again, watch this. They just instinctively respond, they know the answer. Yeah. Forgetting themselves, they said, Well, he will bring those wretches to a wretched end. They replied, and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants who will give him his share of prop at the harvest time. And then Jesus is like, Have you never read in the scriptures the stone that the buildings rejected, the same has become the chief quarter? So two times here, here's my point, two times here, Jesus tells them an obvious, straightforward, unmistakable story, asks them the question, and in both cases they give the right answer.

SPEAKER_03 46:34

So in the uh rules of evidence and the exceptions to hearsay, there's something called excited utterance. Okay. And this is exactly this.

SPEAKER_00 46:42

Excited utterance.

SPEAKER_03 46:43

They just they just blurted it out, right? They didn't stop and think about it. They just naturally told the truth.

SPEAKER_00 46:48

Right.

SPEAKER_03 46:49

Because it was without thinking. They were forgetting themselves. They were thinking it they stopped thinking about how to trick Jesus here for a minute.

SPEAKER_00 46:55

Correct. And is that a good thing when you get that excited utterance?

SPEAKER_03 46:59

Well, it's an exception. So it's an easy way to get something in that, or not easy, but it's a way to get something into evidence that would otherwise be excluded if it was said like in the moment that is considered to be more reliable.

SPEAKER_00 47:09

Yeah, it seems like it would have a kind of likelihood of being true because when somebody just blurts it out, exactly. It's not calculated. Correct. So Jesus has done this. He's told two unmistakable stories. And by the way, he trips him up. This is not in a courtroom setting. Well, I guess a courtroom setting would be similar to this. There's a group of people that are around that are looking at him like, come on, give the you know the answer.

SPEAKER_02 47:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:34

So they can't, you know, prevaricate and be like, well, eh, eh. They have to give the answer because everybody in the crowd knows it was the first son that did the world. And they know what's going to happen with those tenants. So they have to give the right answer. And I think what Jesus is doing here, almost like a kind of tube of toothpaste, he's just squeezing them so that he can say, Look, I why won't you just submit? You know who I am, you know that John was a prophet, you know that I'm the Messiah, you've seen the healings, you've heard the beautiful baby voices. Why are you resisting? He's kind of speaking their own language of this kind of cross-examination, who can get the best of who, and that's going to happen in Matthew chapter 22 as well, by the way. He's he's almost playing on their grounds and besting them at their own game. Yeah. Which is smart.

SPEAKER_03 48:24

Several of the last chapters leading up to this one have this theme that we have enough evidence, we have sufficient evidence to make the decision.

SPEAKER_01 48:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 48:32

They had the evidence to make the decision. They they chose to ignore it. But I love the next sentence after they talk about forgetting themselves, and it says, they said without realizing that they were pronouncing sentence against themselves.

SPEAKER_02 48:45

Correct.

SPEAKER_03 48:46

That's a theme in the last few chapters as well. Totally. They can they kind of condemned themselves. Christ gives us the chance to pick. Yeah. We get to decide. Um, it isn't it isn't Christ trying to keep us out. He's doing everything he can to keep us in.

SPEAKER_00 49:02

Yeah, that's right. He's playing their game. I th I think he's wisely playing their game to show them that they cannot best him. And that here's the thing.

SPEAKER_03 49:13

And he doesn't mince words.

SPEAKER_00 49:14

He does not mince words with them. No, and with, you know, Jesus is not getting into these kinds of sharp arguments with the Syrophoenician woman or the woman at the well, though that was also a kind of interesting volley. But Jesus is speaking in ways that were contextually and socially appropriate to the situation. And here they're coming at him hot and heavy with this kind of by whose authority. So Jesus comes at them. Yeah. And when he bests them, this is their language, this is their way. And they're kind of going, wait a minute.

SPEAKER_03 49:45

He perfectly adapts to each situation. Adapts. That's exactly what he's doing. So when he's dealing with somebody who is like the woman at the well, you got it. He's down on the ground, down and talking to her gently. When he's visiting with the children, I'm sure he's telling them stories.

SPEAKER_00 49:59

Exactly right.

SPEAKER_03 50:00

Laughing and telling him dad talks, maybe, right? And when Jesus speaks to him, and then he's talking to these um uh you know, these folks, and he's saying, you know what, guess what? Tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you. And can you just see it like in their minds just spitting at this?

SPEAKER_00 50:16

But but I want to say this. He Okay, if I say this to you, watch this. If I say, Sarah, you can go into the room before me. That's fine.

SPEAKER_03 50:27

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 50:28

But I'm also going into the room. So when Jesus says, Jesus does not say the tax collectors and Harless are going to heaven and you aren't. Because that wouldn't be the heart of Jesus to totally discourage and close the door. He says they go in before you. Yeah. Which implies they can close in you can still come in, but because and her point here. That's what we read. The door was still open. I think that's next. Page to the page then. Page 332. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 50:55

We missed a couple transitions here at the bottom of page 331, original 277 here. And he's describing the publicans and harlots were ignorant, but these learned men knew the way of the truth, yet they refused to walk in the truth in the path which leads to the paradise.

SPEAKER_00 51:09

So then she says at the top of page 332, 278 of the original, that their stubborn hearts were the obstacle. She uses the phrase, they resisted, they refused, right? So there's the obstacle. Then the paragraph, Christ did not say to them, You cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.

SPEAKER_03 51:26

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 51:27

He didn't say, Too bad for you. What he said was that the obstacle which prevented them from entering was of their own creation. The door was still open to these Jewish leaders. The invitation was still held out. Christ longed to see them convicted and converted. And again, this goes back to the parable that we did with Johnny. Spirit, one more year also. Even now, Jesus is not saying it's too late for you, it's too bad for you, the door of probation is closed. He's saying these guys get it, and you don't get it. Yeah. And what they get, this is what they get. It's very simple. They get that they're sinners in need of a savior, and I am that savior.

SPEAKER_03 52:08

And I can help if you know that you have a need.

SPEAKER_00 52:11

Correct. And that's the problem with these folks. That's exactly right. If they're if we're not in a position, if we're not in a posture, as Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, blessed are the poor in spirit, if we don't recognize our spiritual poverty, we're not going to go to Jesus for a need. They're the Pharisees, they have this obstacle, they don't feel the need. They're in this antagonistic, debate-like posture toward Jesus. And then Jesus says, look, these guys are going into heaven before you, which is just as astonishing as what he said in the Sermon on the Mount. Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you can't enter the kingdom. And that would have sounded crazy. And this would have sounded equally crazy. What? Yeah. And one of the commentaries I read earlier today was saying that you could not have selected a group of people to be more calculated to raise the ire of the religious leaders than tax collectors and harlots. Yeah. He doesn't just say you know generically, sinners go in before you. He chooses like the most hated, like you were saying, like spitting, like tax collectors and harlots. Yeah. Why? Because they know they're tax collectors and harlots. Yeah. They know they have a need. And so they respond with a soft, pliable heart to Jesus. Yeah. And you're not doing that.

SPEAKER_03 53:29

Yeah. There's a couple of comments here. Kind of like Jesus, messages to the seven churches. He wants them to repent.

SPEAKER_00 53:36

Correct.

SPEAKER_03 53:36

And Jesus was trying to save people.

SPEAKER_00 53:39

Yeah, that's exactly right. That's exactly right. For sure. Um one of the commentaries that I was reading today talks about how you have the genuinely religious and the conventionally religious.

SPEAKER_02 53:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 53:51

So this the genuinely religious people are the sinners and tax collectors that are drawing near to Jesus to actually hear his words. They are genuinely religious.

SPEAKER_02 54:00

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 54:00

But the conventionally religious are the ones that look the part, talk the part, act the part.

SPEAKER_02 54:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 54:06

They're like the sun that's like, oh yeah. That's and doesn't. Right. So I think that's a really cool distinction. We can be conventionally religious or we can be sincerely or genuinely religious. And we want to be genuinely religious. We want to be those people that That's character. Exactly right. We've quoted James 127 before. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the widows and the orphans and their affliction and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. That's the thing. That's what it means to be genuinely religious. You're you might not be wearing exactly the right clothes, you might not have just the right language, you might not know your theology up and down. Yeah. But you know that helping people and behaving like God has behaved toward us in Christ is the thing.

SPEAKER_03 54:52

That's exactly what page 333 is about.

SPEAKER_00 54:54

Okay, let's go.

SPEAKER_03 54:55

So had the profession of the Jewish leaders been genuine, they would have received John's testimony and accepted Jesus as the Messiah. Amen. But they did not show the fruits of repentance and righteousness. The very ones whom they despised were pressing into the kingdom of God before them.

SPEAKER_00 55:12

Before them. Right.

SPEAKER_03 55:13

Irony.

SPEAKER_00 55:14

And here she makes the point, and the whole chapter kind of revolves around this identity of Jesus. Like who is Jesus? That's what they're trying to trick him into saying. They want him to say, I'm the Messiah. But the truth is, what do you think of this, Sarah? He's already said he's the Messiah, not with his mouth, but with his actions.

SPEAKER_02 55:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:31

With his deeds. He Even when he was baptized, that was the picture. He saw it with their own eyes. But what they want is they just want to tack him down and say, We got you. But Jesus doesn't want to be got by them and he doesn't want to totally alienate them. Jesus is threading a very difficult needle here where he's tr he's trying to draw these people in that are coming, kicking and screaming, if at all, all the while maintaining a really great relationship with the sinners and tax collectors and others who are responding to his overtures.

SPEAKER_02 56:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 56:02

You could have no one could have written this. The reason that we have these stories is that these stories happened. Yeah. Jesus was who he claimed to be. Right. And nobody's smart enough, genius enough to have written the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in this way. Yeah. Jesus was real, my friends. Jesus was alive, my friends. Jesus was the Messiah. That's right. And he is seated at the right hand of God. This is what I'm going to preach on tomorrow in church. Awesome. And I got good news. Soon and very soon, we're going to be in the new heaven and the new earth with our Lord, and we will be among those, the sinners and tax collectors, that have gone into the kingdom.

unknown 56:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 56:41

And I want to be one of those. I feel my need.

SPEAKER_00 56:44

Me too. Sister. You and I both. Amen. Um, okay, so 333, anything else there?

SPEAKER_03 56:49

At the bottom of the page, they had no true love for God or man. That's it right there.

SPEAKER_02 56:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 56:53

I mean, in terms of describing the Pharisees, that's what would that's what the issue was.

SPEAKER_02 56:57

Right.

SPEAKER_03 56:58

No true love for God or for man. God called them to be co-workers with him and blessing the world. What a beautiful image. It's the same thing. He calls us to co-workers with Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 57:10

Correct.

SPEAKER_03 57:10

To be a blessing in the world.

SPEAKER_00 57:12

And these religious leaders are the ostensible inheritors of the Abrahamic promise. They should know that God's plan and promise for Abraham and his descendants was to bless the world. They're not living into that reality. They're isolating themselves from the world. They're judging the world. Right. And cutting themselves off from the world. They're effectively demonstrating that they don't have, as you say, the love for God or love for others, which is actually the very that's where the chapter ends.

SPEAKER_03 57:37

And worse yet, they're the first son, right? Because they're saying they're professing this. While in profession, they accepted the call. I'm at the bottom of page 333, page 278. While they accepted the call, in action, they refused obedience. They trusted to self and prided themselves on their goodness. But they said the commands of God at defiance. They refused to do the work which God had appointed them. That's so interesting because yesterday, one of the phrases that I just loved was that God gives us enough light and grace to do the work that he gives us to do. And she's kind of similarly using a sentence to Yeah, exactly. They refused to do the work which God had appointed them, which he gives them the light and grace to do, right? Yeah. And because of their transgression, the Lord was about to divorce himself from the disobedient nation.

SPEAKER_00 58:24

Yesterday, the word divorce came up. Yeah. It's on page 319. Let me read that and listen to the difference.

SPEAKER_03 58:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 58:30

Page 319 says, When the crisis came, it was revealed that they had divorced themselves from God and had placed their trust in Abraham as if he were God.

SPEAKER_01 58:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 58:41

So they had divorced themselves from God. Look at this now. Yeah. The Lord was about to divorce himself from the disobedient nation. Now there's a very crucial point here.

SPEAKER_02 58:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 58:50

To divorce himself from the nation in terms of their national standing, but not to divorce himself from individuals. That's a crucial point if she makes it.

SPEAKER_03 58:58

And the rest of the chapter wouldn't make sense. It would be inconsistent.

SPEAKER_00 59:01

Correct.

SPEAKER_03 59:02

If you read it that way.

SPEAKER_00 59:03

Because you think, okay, so a divorce. Correct. So a divorce. I know a little bit about this. You know a lot about it. Is a formal it's it's the formalizing of the separation. Correct. Right? Yeah. That's what's happening. Correct. It's not just that we don't live together anymore. It's not just that we are not uh, you know, our finances aren't wrapped up. Divorce is the formalizing of the separation.

SPEAKER_02 59:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 59:26

So Jesus is about ready, because this is the end, not to get too complicated here. This is the end of the 70-week prophecy of Daniel 9, and the formalization of that national separation is about to occur. Now that doesn't mean that the religious leaders can't still respond. Then every Jew that was alive in Jesus' day and continues to be alive to this day, Jews, non-Jews, Gentiles, everybody can still respond. So the divorce is not from individuals, but she, as she expressly says, from the disobedient nation.

SPEAKER_03 59:58

Yeah. So the next paragraph says, May today claim to obey the commandments of God, but they have not the love of God in their hearts to flow forth to others.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:07

Exactly right. Like I've said before, we're in the distribution business.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:11

Exactly. And that's really goes just perfectly along with what she said back on page 333, that they had no true love for God or for man. Right. And she's saying that we're guilty of doing that same thing today if that love isn't flowing out of our hearts.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:23

I love this line in that paragraph, in that same paragraph there. This is the paragraph 334, begins with self-righteous is not true righteousness, self-righteousness is not true righteousness. Right in the middle, she says they do not cooperate with those who are doing God's service. And then she uses this interesting term. They are idlers. Yeah. Idlers. And then in the last sentence of that paragraph, they are living a lie. And these are people that are have the pretense of religion, the vocabulary of religion, the veneer of religion, but not the substance of religion. And they might say the right things, like the son said the right thing. I will go work in your vineyard.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:02

Right. But but in life and character, they deny the relationship.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:06

Exactly right. In life and character, they deny the relationship, and therefore they're living a lie. Living a lie. And then she gets into this right section, which she actually addresses here briefly and then comes back to it on page 337 about habits. Right? This habits thing comes up. Thus the conviction of so this is the paragraph that begins, the promise of obedience, they will appear to fulfill. Yep. When this involves no sacrifice, but when self-denial and self-sacrifice are required, when they see the cross to be lifted, they draw back. Thus the conviction of duty wears away, and known transgression of God's commandments becomes habits. Have you read the book Atomic Habits by James Clear?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:50

Heard of it. Haven't read it.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:51

It's good. It's basically just about the idea that you make tiny little changes and those tiny little changes then sort of aggregate together and make large changes. Yep. And she has a lot to say, both here on 334 and then in a couple pages on 337. In fact, I'm just going to jump ahead and read that chapter. We can circle back. Okay. But just go look at the top of page 337. There's a paragraph that begins, and let none flatter themselves. Yep. Okay, why don't you read that paragraph for us?

SPEAKER_03 1:02:19

And let none flatter themselves. That sins cherished for a time can easily be given up by and by. This is not so. Every sin cherished, you can see, right, the holding it in your palm, you're cherishing it, weakens the character and strengthens. There's talking about character again and strengthens habit. And physical, mental, and moral depravity is the result. You may repent of the wrong you've done and set your feet and right paths. But the mold of your mind and your mold. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:47

Your familiarity with evil will make it difficult for you to distinguish between right and wrong. Through the wrong habits formed, Satan will assail you again and again.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:58

And I wrote here, she's describing in this paragraph, she's talking about neuroplasticity. Yep. She's when you have formed habits, especially lifelong cherished habits, she's like, and then now you're trying to set your feet on the right path. It's harder because you've developed these patterns in your life, these habits in your life that don't make it impossible, but they make it challenging. It's like I used to say to my boys. I I said to my boys their whole lives, I would say, boys, the number one way to not take a second drink of alcohol. Right. Is what?

SPEAKER_03 1:03:33

Never take the first.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:34

Don't take the first.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:35

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:36

Don't take the the best way to ensure that you never have that second drink of alcohol is don't take the first drink of alcohol. Right. Because what happens is, let's say that somebody does take that first drink, and then the second, and then the third, and then the fourth, and then the fifth, and then the one thousandth drink. Can that person, let's say they're an alcoholic, a certifiable alcoholic, can that person become sober and cease to be an alcoholic? Of course they can. But it is infinitely harder to do that than to not take the first drink. For sure. And that's her point here. When we've developed these patterns of cherished sin, the the sort of rules of human uh plasticity, mural plasticity is that when you've done something more and more and more, it gets harder to break out of it. And these religious leaders have been sort of going through this round of pretentious religion, religiosity. And now when Jesus is like, serve the poor, help those in need, reach out to the struggling, they're like, wait a minute, but I just want to stand on the corner. I want to widen the borders of my garments, I want to have my phylacteries, I want to pray out loud. And Jesus is like, Yeah, but that's not the thing.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:37

It was empty because there was no love for God or man. And that's the one thing it requires.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:41

I just think it's important that we bear in mind that we make our decisions, and then our decisions make us. Cumulatively, over the course of our lives, we make decisions, tiny little decisions, and then those little decisions make us. Now, fortunately, even like with the thief on the cross, in the last moments of life, you can literally be saved, but you we make it so much harder on ourselves when we don't obey at the outset, when we don't respond to Jesus at the outset. Doesn't mean you can't respond later, but it's so much easier to respond now, today. You think I always I do, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:19

Okay, did I miss anything that you really like on 335 or 336? Couple things on 335 near the top here, which would be page 280 in the original. By withholding that which God has given us to use in his service, be it time or means or any other of his entrusted gifts, we work against him. That's just last night's chapter, right? Lazarus? Yeah. The rich man, yeah. So Satan uses this, the listless, sleepy indolence of professed Christians to strengthen his forces. And then this paragraph near the bottom of the page on 335. It is not possible for us to drift into heaven.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:53

I love that line. That's good writing. Last night with Brent, um she had that line about. How dwelling in the atmosphere of sin, and how if we're not actively seeking to dwell in the atmosphere of righteousness, the atmosphere of heaven, by default, our natural condition is to dwell in the atmosphere of sin. That's what she's saying here. Yep. Our default, you're not going to just drift per chance into heaven. We have to be actively choosing Jesus, seeking earnestly, seeking him earnestly. And then as we kind of rewire our old nature and our old neural networks, we start making better and better decisions. We become better and better people. Now we're not saved by making better decisions or becoming better people. We're saved by the righteousness of Christ. But it's really hard to make those decisions if we're just living in the miasma of sin. We need them. Like today, we went on a hike. Yeah. Got outside, got some fresh air. Fantastic. It was, it was cold, it was cool. We're at like 7,000 feet here. Perfect for Minnesotans. It's so good. And it just like breaks through. Yeah. You know, it just breaks through. And you're like, wait a minute. And we need those kinds of moments of spiritual emotional sobriety where we go, wait a minute.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:07

And we wake up, like the prodigal son. He came to himself. He's like, wait, what am I doing? I'm hanging out with pigs. I I gotta go home. Yeah. And we have to do that. And then heaven forbid, when we're having those moments of spiritual drunkenness and we've wandered, we that something terrible doesn't happen, and we die in that state. This is why we can't thought there's an we can't wait until tomorrow. She actually talks about that in here. We can't wait until tomorrow to make the decision. In fact, right on the bottom of page 336. Yes. It's a long paragraph that begins the son, who for a time refused obedience, jump all the way down. Yeah. When the appeals of the Holy Spirit come to the heart, our only safety lies in responding to them without delay. Only. It's only a strong word. When the call comes, go work today in my vimeyard, do not refuse the invitation. Today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. Hebrews 4 7. And then this line. So here's something that I like to say to people. So when you're faced with a situation today, a decision today, an opportunity to make a right choice or a wrong choice, which we're faced with these decisions every day. And we keep putting off making the right choice, which is what the religious leaders are doing. They're like, oh no, they keep kicking the can down the road. Now eventually some of them will become persuaded that Jesus is the Messiah and they will return. But the longer we make that decision, the problem is that the person that I am today is not the same person I will be a year from now if I keep making these bad decisions. I'm actually a different person. So the reason that it's not safe to make, as she says, it is not safe to delay obedience is because the person that you will be tomorrow is not the same as the person that you are today. And we have no guarantee that the person I'll be tomorrow or a month from now or a year from now will be able to recognize this particular moral situation that I'm in right now. In other words, we don't stay static. We get moved by the tide of sin and its temptations, its allurements. So if we're like, wait a minute, I'm faced with a morally morally significant, moral, morally consequential decision right now to do a right thing or a wrong thing, you have to do the right thing in that situation for your own sort of neuroplasticity and well-being. Because if you, again, take that first drink, so to speak, then the second, then the third, then the fourth, and the fifth, and the sixth, and then now a hundred days later, you're not the same person that has that sensitive conscience that you had before, and you might not even be capable of making or even recognizing the moral choice that used to be really clear to you a hundred days ago. For sure. So this is why it's very, very I preached, I've preached a number of sermons about this. It's very important that we respond to those promptings of the spirit, those, those when we get the conviction in our soul, we say, wait a minute, I feel a conviction here. Don't put that off because you should be rejoicing that you still have a sensitivity in your spirit to the thing, whatever the thing is. For sure. So anyway, listen to that still small voice. Exactly right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:18

I love the bottom of page 337, jumping ahead. The apostle Peter instructs us as to the plan on which we must work. Grace and peace be multiplied to you, he says, in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as his divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. Through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue, by which we have been given to given to us exceedingly great and precious promises that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:50

These are some of my favorite verses in the whole Bible.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:53

I mean I've never I literally memorized this passage when I was a Christian for like six months. Six months, whereby are given unto us exceedingly great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. I memorized that 30 years ago.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:08

And I just clung to that.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:10

As a new believer, as a new convert, I was like, no, God has given me promises, and God is gonna fill me with his spirit. He's gonna give me a new nature, and I can escape this corrupt, lust-filled world. So these aren't just words on a page, these are the words of God to our hearts and to our souls, and they have power. Yeah. They change us. What you got?

SPEAKER_03 1:11:33

I think we're gonna say that through a trinity, being partakers of the divine nature.

unknown 1:11:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:38

Yeah, she's quoting from Peter 1. I just absolutely love it. Then she has a large section on page 338 about evangelism, how we should enlarge or extend the vineyard. All parts of the earth. Exactly right. It's not just for one small group of people, it's for everybody. Um then she begins to talk about uh on the bottom of that page and the next page, how we should not just begrudgingly obey, but we should be like Jesus. I delight to do your will. Oh my God, yes, your law is in my heart, right? Which is what we were just reading there at 2 Peter 1. Um, and then for me, I can jump all the way down to the bottom of page 339. God's great object.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:20

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:21

And to me, in some ways, you could read this at the beginning and it would make the whole chapter make sense. Why don't you read that paragraph 339-283 of the original?

SPEAKER_03 1:12:33

God's great object, and the working out of his providences is to try men to give them opportunity to develop character. Amen. Thus he proves whether they are obedient or disobedient to his commands. Good works do not purchase the love of God, but they reveal that we possess that love. I can't tell you how many Sabbath school classes I have taught where we get on this topic of works versus faith versus how they play out. And she just she just describes it perfectly at the bottom of this page. And she says, Good works do not purchase the love of God. Thank you. But they reveal that we possess that love. If we surrender the will to God, we shall not work in order to earn God's love.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:17

Amen.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:18

His love as a free gift will be received into the soul, and from love to him we shall delight to obey his commandments.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:26

That's perfectly fair.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:27

That's it.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:27

That unpacks the whole sort of great work. I mean, she basically nails it here, and I love the distinction between purchasing and possessing.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:37

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:38

Our good works don't purchase salvation, but they show that we possess salvation.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:44

So we've accepted him.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:46

And then she closes by quoting at length John 14, that basically says, if, you know, John 14, 15, which we know well, if you love me, keep my commandments. Yeah. And the son says the two sons, you could say the one son said, I love you, but didn't.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:06

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:06

And one said son said, I don't love you, but then reflected on it later and said, No, I do love you.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:12

So Jesus' invitation here is not just to obedience or habit forming, it's to the response of love that will manifest or show itself in these works that are like the works of Jesus, the the behaviors of Jesus, the attitude of Jesus, the kindness of Jesus, the ministry of Jesus. Yep. And to wrap up the chapter, I think your point talk is cheap.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:38

Is exactly correct. And as I was saying, you know, my sort of summary of it was that what counts is not promise, but performance.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:49

I read that line. It's a really great line I read in a commentary from They're kind of two different ways of saying the same thing. Exactly. Exactly right. Yeah. Now let me look at my notes here and see if I there's anything I really wanted to say that I didn't.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:00

Same. I think we covered notes.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:06

No, no, I got it all. I'm very happy. The whole chapter revolves around who is Jesus?

Rubric

SPEAKER_00 1:15:11

Is Jesus the Messiah? And if Jesus is the Messiah, what then?

SPEAKER_03 1:15:15

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:15

What then? Oh, you got a lot of notes.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:19

I think we covered it though.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:20

You got it? You're happy? Mm-hmm. Okay, let's do the rubric then. Are you ready for that?

SPEAKER_03 1:15:24

Love of God in our hearts will flow to others if truly converted. I think we covered that though.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:30

Yep, we did.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:32

And that under the we did talk about the concept of not being able to drift into heaven. Not possible to drift into heaven.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:38

Exactly right.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:39

Cooperate with God, seek Him earnestly, love God and man. And that reminded me of Micah 6.8 to do justice and love kindness and mercy and humbly with our life.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:47

I love it. Beautiful.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:49

Yeah. Okay, rubric.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:50

Rubric, let's do it. Let's do it. Okay, for you, Sarah, what was the point of this chapter?

SPEAKER_03 1:15:56

Yeah. Our true characters are revealed in our actions, primarily how we love.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:01

Yeah, very good. I love the emphasis on love. Um, I thought there are about two classes of people sayers and uh mere sayers and sincere doers.

unknown 1:16:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:11

There's two classes. Yep. Mere sayers, sincere doers. And I want to be a sincere doer. Amen. Which is a lover.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:18

Yeah. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:19

Okay, the person, what do we learn about Jesus in this chapter?

SPEAKER_03 1:16:22

Christ longs to save all. That came across to me the not on the first read necessarily, but as I reread the chapter again a couple more times, it just kept coming across.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:32

Right.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:32

He wanted, he longed to save even the people there trying to get him to say something so they could kill him. She says he longed to save them.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:43

Still open. Yep. Spare it one more year. Yep. Uh I put here Jesus was truly the Messiah because for me, so much of this chapter revolves around their desire to get him for Jesus to say he's the Messiah, but he had said he was the Messiah, not so much with words, but with his actions. It was unambiguous, it was clear, it was unavoidable. The evidence was persuasive and abundant. And Jesus is the Messiah. He is the promised king. He is the promised deliverer, but delivering not from Rome, but delivering from sin and even death itself. Okay, prayer, what you got?

SPEAKER_03 1:17:19

Let's see. Help me to love like you love. Help me to use my entrusted gifts for you. Mold my character daily into yours.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:28

Sensing a pattern here. I said, Father, teach me how to break bad habits and make good habits. Make me a sincere doer, not a mere sayer.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:41

And the habits thing really impressed me. I'm I'm big into it, I'm a goal setter. Are you a goal setter? Yeah. Yeah, I'm a goal setter. And uh I set goals in like all the areas of my life. And when I try to set goals, I think, okay, I can't get to that goal right now, but what's that what's something I could do today that would get me on the trajectory to that goal?

SPEAKER_03 1:18:01

Sounds like the Atomic Habits book that you pressed the right. Sounds a little bit like that.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:04

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:05

Um, how do we practice this chapter?

SPEAKER_03 1:18:07

I initially had be an action verb for Jesus, and then I crossed it out and thought, no, love like Jesus, be coworkers with him.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:14

Yeah. I'm sensing a pattern.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:16

Interactive, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:17

I like your pattern. You're gonna sense a pattern with me too. Okay. Healthy, holy, and wholesome habit formation. You're on the habits. I'm on the love. I'm on the you're on the love, I'm on the habits. But these are two sides of the same. Because if you're loving, you're gonna form good habits, and if you start forming good habits, it'll make it so much easier to love.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:37

Uh the promise. How do what's the promise for you in this chapter?

SPEAKER_03 1:18:41

By his divine power, we may be partakers of the divine.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:45

Ah, serious right there, 2 Peter chapter 1. Yep. I put uh God is happy for people to sincerely change their minds. If sinners who said no, upon reflection, change their mind and said yes, they are enthusiastically received and accepted by God, and they are true sons and daughters. I mean, when Jesus said that the that harlots and tax collectors go into the kingdom before you, this was not just a gotcha. Right. It was a beautiful proclamation that ordinary sinners can just change their mind. They can, upon reflection, make a better decision. And God's like, you're in. Yeah, exactly. You're in. It wasn't just a gotcha, it was an affirmation that God can save anybody and everybody. And she makes the point in the chapter that in some ways it's easier to save the tax collectors and harlots because they know recognize the need. They know. Acknowledge it. Okay, now I sit there as in the let's do the word thing. Yeah, let's see. Okay, thank you, Sarah, for your kind deeds at Light Bears Convocation 2025. You helped me with my suitcase and gave me a ride to the convenience store to buy water.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:53

Aww.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:54

You were a blessing. Oh, what a sweet word. All right, what was your word? Uh 303 Scissorgy says, David, I think your word is habits. Well, we'll have to see. Uh let's see, what do we got here? Cooperate and co-workers. Kudos, Sarah, for remaining even keeled. And I enjoyed your commentary. Thank you, folks. Okay. Pretense. Good word. Yeah, I like that one. Partake. Doer. Evidence. Doer needs. Do is my work. Yeah, these are all very good. Uh now. Oh, I like that, says Christina. Cassandra says. KB Photog says do. Deb Snyder again says pretense. Loyalty says which messy. Oh, I like that. Obedience, doer. DDs. Yep. Very good. Actions. Yep. Love it. Will.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:52

Alright, Earl's got a word here. Grata. Grata dude, I bet it is. Like do it.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:58

Gratidude? Gratitude. Yeah. Obedience.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:02

Abated.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:03

Abated. Reliance. Action. Went. Doers and walk the talk. Three of them. Mold, evidence, and flatter. Flatter. Okay, gotcha. Resist. Delay. Sarah, I loved seeing the marriage of legal and spirit. Amen to that. Action. Surrender. Doer. Gerald Wayne says conjoining. I would have to think about that. Molding profession. That's good. May our profession words become our profession. Action. Love it. Nice job. 303 Syzygy says Duality. That's good. Reveal.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:43

Divorce again.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:44

Alignment. Yes. Divorce. May makes 21.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:49

Nobody said my word, but I think it's because they've used it in previous chapters.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:52

Your word is not love. Your word is character. Am I right?

unknown 1:21:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:58

How do you know? Did you look? No. Oh.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:00

No, because you were talking a lot about character in the chapter.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:03

What was the name of the book Sarah recommended? Divorce and Remarriage in the Church by David and Stone Brewer. Divorce and Remarriage in the Church. Worth a read.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:12

Um performance, cooperate, spirit. Profession would be my second word. Go. Yeah, go is really good. Evidence. Sarah loved your session. Come back. Well, she's gonna be here tomorrow night. How about that? If you agree to come on.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:31

I mean, I'll think about that. Yeah. That's fun.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:34

Real? Oh, another character right there. Martin says character.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:38

Good job, sister. Um I mean, to me, character is the only logical. The only logical word? I'm told no. To me, it's such a logical word, is the way that I should describe it.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:50

Travis says the same thing. Character I copy you. Juxtaposition.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:54

We see the character of the scribes and Pharisees, and we see the character of the others, and it's really about our character.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:59

Thank you for joining us, counselor. Sarah, please do come back. Glad she's coming back. Don't let her think about it.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:05

Um, you know what my word is? Is it too nice?

SPEAKER_00 1:23:08

I couldn't come up with a word.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:09

Well, well, how are we supposed to guess it's a good one?

SPEAKER_00 1:23:11

Well, I would say often here's the words I had. I had authority, I had two, because I like the emphasis on two, idlers, sinners, sincerity. Uh I think I don't love it, but I'm I guess I'm gonna go. I think I'm gonna go with habits.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:30

Danielle, you might have nailed it. We did talk about the possibility of Brent and I both doing it tomorrow night. I don't know that there's really room for three people here.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:38

I may tell you I've done it before. I'm gonna go with habits. I actually hadn't decided on a word, and I was wondering if anything I was hoping somebody would kind of um come up with something and I would go, oh, that's it. Oh, that's just been more time in the whole uh Somebody says about habits or atomic.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:57

Atomic.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:58

This is the only time I didn't have a word at the end, and I guess I'm gonna go with habits. Though I also yeah. And your word was character. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:06

Yeah. I think people may have used character previously, or maybe. I don't know. I I just thought it summarized the entire theme of the chapter.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:13

Yeah, it's I think I think you crushed it. Um thank you, Sarah. No too. You had an opening prayer? I did. Okay, everybody, let's have a closing prayer. By the way, keep me in prayer. I'm preaching tomorrow. Uh let's see, what do we got here? Habit stacking. Please pray. My dog has to pee. LOL. Okay, let's pray quickly. We have a dog emergency here. Father in heaven, we love you and thank you. Thank you for this beautiful chapter and this important parable, Lord. We don't want to just be those that say the religious things, that say the sweet-sounding things. Yes, I will go immediately. But then don't do it. Yeah. Father, even if we've made a bad decision and we all have, help us to reflect. Yeah. To go back and to think long and hard about that decision and then to make a better decision. Father, we are so happy that you didn't say that only the tax collectors and harlots go in, and these others are blocked from the kingdom, but just that they went in first. And Father, whether we're quick to respond to Jesus or we're a little slow to respond to Jesus, or heaven forbid, we're even rebellious and we refuse to recognize Jesus, Father, I pray that every one of us would come around and that we would find ourselves at the feet of Jesus the Messiah.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:27

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:28

All of the abundant evidences that are right there before us, right there in front of us. And Father, we want to respond to those persuasive evidences. We accept them, we receive them, we believe them, forgive us where we have made bad decisions and formed bad habits. Help us to break bad habits and make good habits. And help us to love like you love, to live like you live. And in doing all of this to develop a character like the character of our Lord Jesus, in whose name we pray.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:59

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:00

Amen.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:01

Hallelujah.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:02

We love you all. We'll see you tomorrow night.