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Common Myths About Eternal Rewards · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Ask Pastor John podcast. You all
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  Speaker 1: send us some really good Bible questions, and to ask
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  Speaker 1: a really good Bible question, you have to send us
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  Speaker 1: perplexing texts, and that's what you do with great frequency.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you. I've said in the past that our most
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  Speaker 1: asked about text in the entire Bible in our history
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  Speaker 1: as a podcast is Romans nine twenty two. We talked
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  Speaker 1: about that in ABJA seventeen twenty. Roman's nine twenty two
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  Speaker 1: is a text just rife with questions. Well, the third
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  Speaker 1: most asked about Bible text in our inboxes Tewod Corinthians
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  Speaker 1: five to ten, a text about some form of final
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  Speaker 1: judgment for believers that says we must all appear before
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  Speaker 1: the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may
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  Speaker 1: receive what is due for what he has done in
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  Speaker 1: the body, whether good or evil. We're reading that in
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  Speaker 1: our Bible reading tomorrow, and we know that rewards will
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  Speaker 1: be unequally distributed in heaven. That's been well covered on
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  Speaker 1: the podcast over the years, as you can see in
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  Speaker 1: the APJ book pages three sixty three, three sixty four
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  Speaker 1: that section. But Carolyn has another angle in mind to
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  Speaker 1: this question about how rewards ebb and rise in an
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  Speaker 1: angle we have not looked at yet. On the podcast
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  Speaker 1: based on this text, Pastor John Hello Carolyn writes, based
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  Speaker 1: on Tewo Corinthiens five to ten, can we lose rewards
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  Speaker 1: in heaven that we previously accumulated in life? Like Let's
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  Speaker 1: say I have a great year and serve the Lord joyfully,
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  Speaker 1: but the next year I sin grievously, like sexual sin
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  Speaker 1: for example, as I understand my Roman Catholic friends, those
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  Speaker 1: past rewards would get washed away by the later sin.
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  Speaker 1: Or more subtly, I've heard elderly people in my life
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  Speaker 1: suggest something similar, not for sin, but in becoming an
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  Speaker 1: intellectually incapacitated in later age and being unable to really
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  Speaker 1: live a fully fruitful life for Christ, that the works
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  Speaker 1: they did all their life would slowly ebb away. Would
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  Speaker 1: the incapacities of later years or the sins of a
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  Speaker 1: future year negate or cause to wane the rewards earned
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  Speaker 1: from previous years.
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  Speaker 2: My answer, and I'll try to show that it's biblical,
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  Speaker 2: is no, the good works of a true Christian will
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  Speaker 2: never be canceled out, not by anything. The good deeds
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  Speaker 2: will always have their reward that God considered fitting when
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  Speaker 2: we did them. So that's my thesis. Now there are
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  Speaker 2: a couple of terms in what I just said, a
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  Speaker 2: couple of critical, crucial terms that I need to clarify
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  Speaker 2: because if you get them wrong, it will make sense.
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  Speaker 2: True Christian, I said, true Christian. The works of a
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  Speaker 2: true Christian will never be canceled out. Not a fake Christian,
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  Speaker 2: not a hypocritical Christian. True Christians are born again. They're
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  Speaker 2: elect before the foundation of the world. They are persevering
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  Speaker 2: in faith to the end of their lives. It doesn't
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  Speaker 2: mean that they have the When I say persevering it
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  Speaker 2: to the end in faith, I don't mean they have
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  Speaker 2: the same zeal for Jesus in every phase or season
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  Speaker 2: of their life, not that they have the same strength
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  Speaker 2: of faith in every season. I'm just saying they persevere
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  Speaker 2: in genuine faith. To the true Christians. According to Romans
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  Speaker 2: eight thirty, those of me Predestiny justified, and those of
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  Speaker 2: me I mean, those of you Destiny called, and those
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  Speaker 2: of me called He justified, and those of me justified
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  Speaker 2: He glorified. Nobody falls out. Everybody perseveres to the end,
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  Speaker 2: according to God's promise in Romans eight thirty and that means,
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  Speaker 2: for example, that a person may go to church for
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  Speaker 2: twenty or thirty years and look like a Christian, and
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  Speaker 2: then that person may commit apostasy and totally reject Christ,
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  Speaker 2: live all the rest of their fifty years in rebellion
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  Speaker 2: against Christ, and perish, and according to one John two nineteen,
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  Speaker 2: that person was never born of God. Because people who
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  Speaker 2: are born of God, that is, who are truly Christian,
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  Speaker 2: are kept by God from turning away and never coming back.
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  Speaker 2: Jude one twenty four, one of the greatest doxologies, celebrates
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  Speaker 2: this keeping power of God. Now that means that all
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  Speaker 2: those presumed religious and good deeds during those twenty or
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  Speaker 2: thirty years of hypocrisy were not viewed by God as
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  Speaker 2: the kind of thing he rewards, even though people saw
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  Speaker 2: them that way. Specifically, they were not works of faith
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  Speaker 2: because there was no true faith, and the only thing
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  Speaker 2: that gets rewarded in the Christian life is works of
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  Speaker 2: faith because everything else is sin. According to Romans fourteen
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  Speaker 2: twenty three, God doesn't reward sin, so there's no thought
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  Speaker 2: of any rewards being canceled because that hypocrite was not
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  Speaker 2: storing up any rewards in the first place. So that's
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  Speaker 2: the first term true Christian that needs to be clarified
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  Speaker 2: in my first statement. The other crucial term that I
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  Speaker 2: used was the reward that God considered fitting when we
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  Speaker 2: did the good deeds. He sees a good deed, he
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  Speaker 2: sees it exactly for what it is, and he deems
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  Speaker 2: it appropriate to reward. So God knows all our motives,
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  Speaker 2: and our rewards won't simply be owing to an outward act,
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  Speaker 2: but to the relationship between the outward act and the motivation,
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  Speaker 2: and God sees it at all. We can't see it,
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  Speaker 2: but God does. He knows exactly the quality of every
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  Speaker 2: single deed that a Christian does. So Paul says in
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  Speaker 2: First Corinthians four, verse five, do not pronounce judgment before
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  Speaker 2: the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things
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  Speaker 2: now hidden in darkness and disclose the purposes of the heart.
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  Speaker 2: Then each one will receive his commendation from God. So
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  Speaker 2: God knows the inward and outward quality of our deeds
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  Speaker 2: way better than any human being does, and his assessments
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  Speaker 2: of what should be rewarded is perfect. Those assessments are perfect,
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  Speaker 2: and because they are perfect, they can never change. He
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  Speaker 2: doesn't make any mistakes. He's like oops I shouldn't have
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  Speaker 2: thought that one was going to be rewarded, but he does.
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  Speaker 2: Let me give three more reasons why. I think it's
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  Speaker 2: a mistake to say that a true Christian can lose
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  Speaker 2: rewards in heaven which they would have had except for
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  Speaker 2: some downturn in strength of their faith or dementia in
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  Speaker 2: their old age. So here are my three reasons. First,
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  Speaker 2: there are texts in the Bible that make promises that
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  Speaker 2: are unqualified concerning this. For example, Matthew ten forty two,
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  Speaker 2: whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup
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  Speaker 2: of cold water, because he is a disciple, I say
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  Speaker 2: to you, he will by no means lose his reward.
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  Speaker 2: If he's in six' eight, says whatever good anyone does,
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  Speaker 2: this he will receive back from The. Lord so and
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  Speaker 2: so those are unqualified. Promises we better be careful lest
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  Speaker 2: we Cancel god's promises by some kind of theology of reward.
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  Speaker 2: Loss here's the second. Reason it is a matter Of
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  Speaker 2: god's faithfulness and justice not to forget what he has
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  Speaker 2: regarded as something to. Reward here's WHAT i Mean hebrews six.'
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  Speaker 2: ten god is not unjust so as to forget your
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  Speaker 2: work and the love that you have Shown in his
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  Speaker 2: name in serving. The saints seems to me that. Clearly
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  Speaker 2: promising as time, Goes forward god can change his mind.
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  Speaker 2: On this god's not going to. FORGET that i think
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  Speaker 2: one of the reasons we as we. Grow older i'm
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  Speaker 2: thinking to, MYSELF here i think about this question. A
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  Speaker 2: lot one of the reasons as we go older the
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  Speaker 2: question becomes urgent whether we will receive rewards for the
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  Speaker 2: deeds we did thirty, years ago LIKE when i was,
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  Speaker 2: a pastor is because we feel the reality of our
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  Speaker 2: present experience as our, true life even we feel it
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  Speaker 2: as our. Only life because the life we lived thirty
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  Speaker 2: years ago is so distant and almost all of its
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  Speaker 2: details and feelings good, and bad. ARE gone, i mean
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  Speaker 2: you may have ten memories from nineteen, seventy two but
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  Speaker 2: we can't help but feel as THOUGH if i get,
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  Speaker 2: any rewards it's just going to be, For TODAY like
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  Speaker 2: i was a, jerk TODAY or i did something good
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  Speaker 2: today is faithful TODAY our i was red Hot for
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  Speaker 2: jesus today AND yesterday i. Was cool but what happened
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  Speaker 2: forty years, ago good that's just so far gone in.
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  Speaker 2: My memory but here's the. Crucial thing the life you lived, ten,
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  Speaker 2: twenty thirty forty fifty years ago is as real and
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  Speaker 2: present before the Face of god as though you were living.
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  Speaker 2: It today it counts with him as much in his
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  Speaker 2: mind for your rewards as what you are. Doing today it's,
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  Speaker 2: that real it's that Present, to god and no sin
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  Speaker 2: that you commit today if you are A, true Christian
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  Speaker 2: changes god's assessment of what he regarded as a good
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  Speaker 2: deed to be rewarded fifty. Years, ago, finally third and
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  Speaker 2: this may be the most important thing for people to.
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  Speaker 2: Think About and i'm thinking especially because the person who
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  Speaker 2: asked this question referred To Her roman, catholic friends and
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  Speaker 2: this may be where the. Stumbling happens the main reasons
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  Speaker 2: people think that present defects in faith and zeal and
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  Speaker 2: love and obedience can cancel out past virtuous acts is
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  Speaker 2: because they think of rewards, as earned not. Freely given
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  Speaker 2: they think of good deeds, as meritorious so good deeds
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  Speaker 2: earn merit on the positive side of the ledger, of
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  Speaker 2: life and bad deeds, diminish merit so that when the
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  Speaker 2: merits and the demerits are, added up the de merits
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  Speaker 2: in later life can cancel out some of the merits in.
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  Speaker 2: Early life that's totally a wrong way. To Think why
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  Speaker 2: why is it a wrong way? To think because not
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  Speaker 2: only is our Conversion, to christ our, new birth, our
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  Speaker 2: faith or repentance a gift of totally, free grace but
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  Speaker 2: so are all our virtues and. Good deeds christians never
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  Speaker 2: earn anything Good. From god everything good that they do
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  Speaker 2: is a gift of Grace. From god what do you
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  Speaker 2: have that you did? Not receive, Paul said and if you,
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  Speaker 2: received it why do you boast as though it were not?
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  Speaker 2: A Gift verse corinthians. Four seven so Listen. TO paul
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  Speaker 2: i Planted a. Paulish watered god gave. The growth so
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  Speaker 2: neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything
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  Speaker 2: But only god who gives. The growth That's first, corinthians
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  Speaker 2: three six. And seven by, the way just six, verses
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  Speaker 2: later he's talking, About rewards so this is a context.
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  Speaker 2: Of rewards he hasn't forgotten what he's. Talking about that
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  Speaker 2: Planting that, paul did that Watering that, paula's did those
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  Speaker 2: neighbors are going to be. Rewarded freely even though he said,
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  Speaker 2: We're nothing god. Is everything god rewards his own gifts.
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  Speaker 2: In us or here's what he says In one cristin's.
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  Speaker 2: Fifteen ten by the Grace, OF god i AM what,
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  Speaker 2: i am and his grace towards me was not. In
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  Speaker 2: vain on, THE contrary i worked harder than any, of
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  Speaker 2: them though it WAS not i but the Grace of
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  Speaker 2: god that was. With Me so. Paul worked he worked works.
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  Speaker 2: Of faith he Was trusting god's working in him, good
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  Speaker 2: works and he will be rewarded for that. Hard work
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  Speaker 2: but it will be as graciously given as was. His
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  Speaker 2: conversion all the good Deeds that god approves and rewards
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  Speaker 2: are works of faith and the fruit of. The spirit
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  Speaker 2: so let's get the idea of merit for these good
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  Speaker 2: deeds totally out of. Our minds if, we do then
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  Speaker 2: we will be able to see more easily that the
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  Speaker 2: weaknesses of our present life do Not diminish god's gracious
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  Speaker 2: promise not to forget the good of the first. Sixty years.
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  Speaker 1: No sin that you commit today if you are A,
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  Speaker 1: true Christian changes god's assessment of what he regarded as
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  Speaker 1: a good deed to be rewarded fifty. Years ago that
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  Speaker 1: is profoundly hope giving The pastor john for showing Us
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  Speaker 1: that god is just rewarding his own gifts in us
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  Speaker 1: greatly encouraging answer, Wonderful, Question carolyn and if you have
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  Speaker 1: a great question To Ask pastor john of, your own
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  Speaker 1: find a link to email us and find our complete
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  Speaker 1: episode archive as well at the same Place Ask. Pastor
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  Speaker 1: john every episode with audio and full transcripts available, for
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  Speaker 1: you and all made possible because of the generous prayers
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  Speaker 1: and financial donations of our. Ministry partners we just recently
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: looked at the Idea that god withholds no good thing from.
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  Speaker 1: His children that's a promise According to psalm eighty four.
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  Speaker 1: To eleven god withholds no good thing from, his children
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  Speaker 1: and yet there are all sorts of good things that we.
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  Speaker 1: Don't have right in that same vein, next time we're
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  Speaker 1: going to look at a wonderful promise In the Psalms
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  Speaker 1: that god will heal all of. Our, Diseases obviously christians
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: struggle with disease every single day around. The world Looking
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: at god's timing and what to expect from the blanket
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: promises we find in scripture always a, great theme and
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: we're back to it. Next Time I'm. Tony rank see You.
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  Speaker 1: On thursday