Key Life Network

Steve Brown: Thank you, Matthew. Hi, Pete.

Pete Alwinson: Happy Friday! Here it is.

Steve Brown: You finished your book yet?

Pete Alwinson: Yeah, but we are still editing. Yeah, I know.

Steve Brown: The gift that keeps on giving is guilt, you know.

Pete Alwinson: Okay, I'm putting a note right now. We got to get this fired out. We got to get it done.

Steve Brown: Just because you put it on your phone doesn't mean you'll do it.

Steve Brown: Listen, since I've been there and done that, I'm not going to stand in the crowd throwing the rocks.

Pete Alwinson: Oh, man.

Steve Brown: I've given that up a long time ago.

Pete Alwinson: All right, we're getting on it.

Steve Brown: I mean, I really do. I'm really looking forward to that book. Your first book, Like Father, Like Son, is still changing lives. And if you guys haven't read it, you ought to get it.

Steve Brown: And also, go by fortruth.com for all things God and all things Pete Alwinson. As you know, Pete comes in and we answer questions on Friday, and we do love your questions. We love to talk about them, we love to think about them.

Steve Brown: But I would give you a caution that 50%, 49% of our answers are wrong. And we don't know which 49% is right or wrong, and which 51% is right.

Steve Brown: So you got to get your Bible out and like the Bereans, you need to open it and make sure that you do some checking. Well,

Pete Alwinson: Amen.

Steve Brown: No.

Pete Alwinson: I mean, you were wrong a lot.

Steve Brown: I wasn't.

Steve Brown: Well, I was wrong one time when I thought I was wrong.

Pete Alwinson: Man, you repented of that, thinking you were wrong.

Steve Brown: Listen, we do like your questions. You can ask a question by calling 1-800 Key Life or 1-800-539-5433.

Steve Brown: A dear lady, I used to didn't give those numbers, who is blind, wrote me and said, you know, for those of us who can't see, you can't give out those letters, you got to give out the numbers. So it's 1-800-539-5433.

Steve Brown: Call anytime, follow instructions and we sometimes put your question on the air. Or you can send your questions to Key Life Network, Post Office Box 5000, Maitland, Florida 32794.

Steve Brown: In Canada, it's Key Life Canada, Post Office Box 2060, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 6J8. Or you can email your question to steve@keylife.org.

Steve Brown: And I've said it so many times. It's kind of like your favorite joke.

Steve Brown: You want to tell us that joke?

Pete Alwinson: No.

Steve Brown: Yes, it's a funny joke.

Pete Alwinson: No, I'm not telling it.

Steve Brown: It ends with the word you know.

Pete Alwinson: Oh.

Steve Brown: So, so you know what I'm going to say. Send money. We need it. If you can't, say a prayer. And if you can't, we understand. Okay. Pete, lead us in prayer and we'll get to these questions.

Pete Alwinson: Let's do it. Let's do it.

Pete Alwinson: Father, we do come into your presence now in this end of the week, so thankful that we belong to you, so thankful that we're your children. And that we could say that. Lord, we are humbled by the fact that you loved us and that you've redeemed us, and you really have changed our lives.

Pete Alwinson: And so, Lord, we honor you, we praise you, we will worship you this weekend. Be with our leaders, pastors, teachers, priests, worship directors, all those that are preparing, even right now. And Lord, we pray that that time together as your people would be a glorious time.

Pete Alwinson: Until then, Lord, you know our needs. You know that we need, we need your wisdom, we need your forgiveness, we need we need guidance for our key relationships. How to be good husbands and wives, how to raise our children, how to be good workers.

Pete Alwinson: We ask, Lord, that your word, as Steve said, would be opened up to us, that we could live productively and in a way that glorifies you in this world. We commit this time of Q&A to you now, grateful again that we belong to you. All through Jesus, and in his name we pray. Amen.

Steve Brown: Amen.

Steve Brown: Pete, this is an email and it gets into all kinds of issues. This person writes, in reading through the Old Testament, it seems that God chooses his people according to his purposes and plan. However, in the New Testament, it would seem that the sacrifice of Christ opens that choosing to all, yet this is apparently contingent on our response to the sacrifice of Christ.

Steve Brown: Am I correct in thinking then, by way of Christ's death and resurrection, God has chosen everyone, and then somehow it becomes up to us? John 3:16.

Pete Alwinson: Wow. I mean, that's a that's a deep theological question, right there.

Steve Brown: It really is. I don't think he knew or she knew how deep it is.

Pete Alwinson: It really is.

Steve Brown: First, let's deal with everybody went to hell until Jesus came, right?

Pete Alwinson: No.

Steve Brown: No.

Pete Alwinson: No.

Steve Brown: The New Testament is clear that the covenant people of God is not a new thing. And salvation was available before Jesus came.

Pete Alwinson: Mhm.

Steve Brown: Now, it was expedited by the blood of Jesus Christ. That's always true. You don't get to heaven except through the blood.

Pete Alwinson: Mhm.

Steve Brown: That's settled. It's clearly biblical, clearly true.

Pete Alwinson: That's right.

Steve Brown: But the Old Testament, people say they look forward to the coming Messiah and trusted in, and they were saved. No, they didn't. Some did, some didn't, but that's not the basis of the salvation.

Pete Alwinson: So, how were they saved in the Old Testament times?

Steve Brown: Their faith was accounted as righteousness, and that's Hebrews 11.

Pete Alwinson: Mhm.

Steve Brown: So, so it's still exactly the same thing.

Pete Alwinson: Mhm.

Steve Brown: Our faith becomes far more defined, far more clear as we get into the New Testament and in fact, the Word becomes flesh and Jesus is where we put our faith.

Pete Alwinson: That's right.

Steve Brown: That's right.

Pete Alwinson: That's right. So, so we look back in faith, they looked ahead in faith.

Steve Brown: Yes, and it was clear or less clear depending upon who they were.

Pete Alwinson: Yeah.

Steve Brown: Some of them would not have, but Hebrews 11 makes it clear that it's the faith.

Pete Alwinson: That's right. The trust. And essentially, the trust in God, not in their own works.

Steve Brown: Exactly. And Jesus isn't mentioned in that 11 chapters. So he's talking about Old Testament saints who are saved.

Pete Alwinson: Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.

Steve Brown: Yes, that's true.

Pete Alwinson: So there is that, there is that looking ahead.

Pete Alwinson: And and now as we think of this this question then, it reminds me of what we're teaching at Forge now about in Ephesians 1. So go to Ephesians 1 and read verse 1 through 14, and you'll see that whole calling of of God before the foundation of the world. So there's there's some powerful teaching here.

Steve Brown: Oh, they're really yeah. And there's not a period there in the Greek.

Pete Alwinson: It's not. That's right.

Steve Brown: And I know the scholars don't, but I do. Paul just couldn't stop.

Pete Alwinson: He couldn't. That's right.

Steve Brown: He got so excited about this message that he forgot to put in any periods.

Pete Alwinson: Oh.

Pete Alwinson: You know, there's something to that. When you read Ephesians 1 3 through 14, and particularly when he jumps into that praise, he is ecstatic. He's already finished Colossians, he's already finished Philippians, probably, and Philemon.

Steve Brown: I agree.

Pete Alwinson: And and he's just kind of overwhelmed. I mean, I kind of think that that might have been the order. And then he writes Ephesians. He's just stunned by the grace of God.

Steve Brown: It really is.

Pete Alwinson: But there is calling there and there's some details there. Go read that, and then you'll see.

Steve Brown: Yeah, and then and the scripture teaches responsibility and freedom as this guy or lady suggested in the question.

Steve Brown: But it also teaches God's absolute sovereignty.

Pete Alwinson: That's right.

Steve Brown: And those are hard to reconcile.

Pete Alwinson: That's right.

Steve Brown: And if you've never stood before God and been confused, you're probably worshiping an idol.

Pete Alwinson: Mm.

Steve Brown: God is perfectly capable of working out that difficulty, even if Aristotle couldn't. So it's there.

Pete Alwinson: That's right.

Steve Brown: Okay, then that brings another issue that's a part of this. He seems to say that the death of Christ.

Steve Brown: And it's not different from what Augustine or somebody said, the blood of Christ is sufficient.

Pete Alwinson: Uh-huh.

Steve Brown: For all sin, efficient to the elect.

Pete Alwinson: Yes.

Steve Brown: Or something like that.

Pete Alwinson: It's sufficient for all, but efficient only for the elect.

Steve Brown: And so he seems to suggest, and I don't know if I'd go there, but I understand what he's saying, that when Jesus died, that covered everything, all sin in every place and every time, and but you have to reach out to it.

Pete Alwinson: So it's up to us.

Steve Brown: Yeah, kind of. And I, you know, I I'd probably want to flesh that out a little bit more. But I'm okay with that. I can go that way.

Pete Alwinson: Well, when you get to Ephesians 2, yeah, so we we dealt with Ephesians 1, then when you get to 2, and the Apostle Paul says you were dead in your trespasses and sin. And so he shows us how spiritually dead people can't resurrect themselves.

Steve Brown: That's right.

Pete Alwinson: Dead. And so, so ultimately, the Christian praises God for accomplishing in his life something that we can't do ourselves.

Steve Brown: That's true.

Pete Alwinson: Yeah.

Steve Brown: That's true.

Steve Brown: And it'll always have questions.

Pete Alwinson: We always will. We always will.

Steve Brown: And that's okay. His thoughts are not our thoughts and our ways are not his ways.

Pete Alwinson: That's right. That's right.

Steve Brown: And Isaiah is right about that.

Pete Alwinson: Yep.

Steve Brown: This is when an email when God from the beginning of time knew Adam would sin, why did he create Adam at all?

Pete Alwinson: Ha ha. We we should write a book about that. That we know the inside, you know.

Steve Brown: Yeah, well, you ask him. I'm not sure. He did it for his own glory.

Pete Alwinson: Yeah, that's the bottom line, best answer.

Steve Brown: That God would be glorified.

Pete Alwinson: We we really can't, I think when we get to heaven, we may well be able to discern more. But at this level from the scriptures and for our P-brained minds at this point to grasp such a a lofty issue. But it is ultimately for his glory.

Steve Brown: It really is. Bottom line. In fact, that's what everything is for.

Pete Alwinson: That's right. Revealing his goodness and grace.

Steve Brown: And, you know, when you when you look at the the history of salvation, you realize that the dark side, the adversarial side, is necessary for his glory. Or it would be a sham and a pretense.

Pete Alwinson: So true.

Steve Brown: Okay.

Pete Alwinson: True. Yeah, that's great.

Steve Brown: Well, we don't have time to sing or do another question. So you want to whistle or something?

Pete Alwinson: No, that would be obnoxious.

Steve Brown: But we have a great God. We got to go. Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.