Automatic Transcript Generated:
Speaker 1
So our friend Stone, the first part.
Speaker 2
Is, what does the Bible say about faith and free will in that?
Speaker 1
So as far as faith and free will, I’m sorry, we have the second.
Speaker 2
Part of the question here. Judas fault, he betrayed Judith, very important to the plan.
Speaker 1
And I totally hear what you’re saying, and it’s something that I’ve definitely thought about before. It’s like, well, did God create Judas for the purpose of betraying his son? And if so, then why is Judith lost if that’s what he was made for? It seems kind of unfair, but when you look at the Bible as a whole, I want you to think of everything in the Bible. So I want to walk you through a few verses really quick just to kind of give you an idea of what God’s plan is for everybody. So if you look at second Peter, chapter three, and it basically says in verse nine, it talks about God’s second coming, and it says, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but his longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. So basically, we’re all sinners, all have sinned, all have fallen short of the glory of God. We know that. We’ve read that in the book of Romans. But God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Now, was Judith chosen for this work?
Speaker 1
Well, I don’t think that God chosen, but I think God knew there was going to be someone that would fit the bill to betray the Son of God in his time. So going back then to predestination, if you look at, like the book of Ephesians, chapter one, this is God’s will for everybody. It says in Ephesians chapter one. Starting in verse three. It says. Blessed to be our God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places in Christ. Verse four. According to. He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world. That we should be holy and without blame. And before Him in love. In verse five. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ himself according to the good pleasure of his will. So as you read in two, Peter, chapter three, that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. God has predestinated all of us to be saved. There’s nobody on this planet that God was like, no, I’m planning for you to be lost. That’s not God’s plan for anybody.
Speaker 1
God is always wanting us to repent, and that’s the whole purpose of the gospel, is to call us to repentance. We’ve all sinned. Whether it’s a big sin or a little sin, we’ve all sinned. And the wages of sin, as we saw in Romans, chapter three, is death. And so it’s only by God’s gift of eternal life that we can have through his Son Jesus Christ. Through Christ’s merits not any of our own. And so it is God’s will that all of us should live. Now when it comes to Judas, was Judas predestinated to be lost? No, but God did foresee that it would happen. And if you look in the book of Acts chapter one, the apostle Peter is actually preaching and he talks about this being prophesied in the book of Psalms. So in Acts chapter one, peter is getting up to preach and share what happened to Jesus. And in verse 16 it says men and brother and the scripture must needs have been fulfilled which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David stake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus. So basically God did know that Judas was going to do what he was going to do because God is God, he knows the end from the beginning.
Speaker 1
And so if you keep going down into verse, let’s see 18. Now this man purchased the field with the reward of iniquity and falling headlong. He burst the center in the midst and all his bowels gushed out. That’s what happened. So he bought a field and then he committed suicide. So it wasn’t that Judith skirt was lost because of the sin alone, but because he didn’t repent. There was always room for repentance and he chose not to repent. And so again, that’s why he was lost. Not because God wanted him to be lost, because that was his choice. But it’s interesting that it does say in Acts chapter one, verse 20, it says for it is written in the book of Psalms, let his habitation be desolate, and no man dwell there in and his bishopric let another take, which is what happened. They cast lots and a man named Matthews was decided to take the place of Judas as part of the Twelve Apostles. Now, if you look at what prophecy is Peter talking about? This is in the book of Psalms, chapter 69, and it’s very interesting. This is definitely a prophetic Psalm about Jesus.
Speaker 1
And if you look at like verse 20, it starts out saying reproach has broken my heart, this is Jesus, this is about Jesus and I am full of heaviness. And I looked for some to take pity, but there was none for comforters, but I found none. This is exactly what happened to Jesus. He was betrayed and he was praying. Guys, stay praying with me. I don’t want you to be lost or I don’t want the devil to tempt you and you to fall. But we know that all his friends forsook him. Again. Psalm 69. Keep going. In verse 21 for they gave me also gall for my meat and my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink. That’s exactly what happened to Jesus on the cross. He wanted water, he was thirsty and they gave him vinegar. And he wouldn’t drink it. It says, Let their table be a snare before them and they should have been for their welfare. Let it become a trap. And so basically, this is a prophecy about Judas. It doesn’t name him by name, but it’s basically saying, the one who would betray Jesus, this is what’s going to happen to this person.
Speaker 1
And in verse 24, it says, pour out your indignation upon them and let your wrath full anger take hold of them. Verse 25, let their habitation be desolate and let none dwell in their tents. And basically that’s what happened to Judas, as you see back in the Book of Acts, chapter one, that it’s talking about that field that he purchased. You see this in verse 19. And it was written that the dwellers of Jerusalem in so much of the field is called in the proper tongue, al akldama, that is to say, the field of blood, and nobody ever dwelt there again. And so that’s kind of the story of Judas in that, yes, God knew what was going to happen, but was it his will that Judas would be lost? No, but it is interesting that like we said, that God is predestined all of us to be saved. That is God’s perfect will for everybody. And God is trying that everybody is saved. The problem is that we’re stubborn and we don’t always choose that, but God gives us free choice. There’s really only one person in the Bible that is named by name, and God knew who he was going to be and God had a purpose for his life.
Speaker 1
And that was Cyrus. Back in the Old Testament, like you read in Isaiah, chapter 45, god calls this man by name that he would conquer Babylon. And you see that throughout the book of Isaiah 45, chapter 45, verses one through three, you kind of see what happened to this man Cyrus as far as him basically being called for a special purpose. But again, does God know what’s going to happen? Yes. So God knows the future, but does God make us choose the things that we choose to do now? So it’s just a matter of us being willing to go along with God’s plan because his plan is for us to all be saved. But sadly, we live in a world of sin and God knows that not everybody will choose Him. And that’s really sad to think about, but it is definitely a reality that we have to come to grips with as far as free will versus destiny or fate versus predetermination that are we responsible for our decisions and the consequences of those things? Yes, absolutely. Yes. And Jesus kind of mentions this also in Luke chapter 17 in verse three. I’ll just close with this where Jesus says, take heed to yourselves.
Speaker 1
Excuse me, sorry. I should start with verse one. Luke, chapter 17, verse one. And said he unto the disciples so jesus is speaking to the disciples. He says it is impossible, but the offenses will come, but woe unto him through whom they come. So basically Jesus saying, look, offenses, bad things are going to happen in this world. You’re going to suffer persecution, but woe to them through whom they come. So Jesus isn’t calling some people to be predestined to be bad people and be lost? No, that’s not God’s full at all. Like we saw, God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But those that decide to continue and sin, whoa to them, basically there’s going to be consequences, bad consequences. And in verse three it’s basically Jesus gives us this warning take heed to yourselves. If your brother trespassed against you, rebuke him. And if he repent, forgive him. And so basically Jesus wouldn’t tell us to do something that he himself wouldn’t do, which is that if somebody repents, he will forgive them. He will take them back into his fold. First John one Nine says, if we confess our sins, he’s faithful just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Speaker 1
But it is our choice. We do have free will and it is up to us to decide what future we want to have. Do we want to repent and turn our lives to God? Or do we want to stay down the wrong path just like Judas did, and not choose repentance and choose to be lost, to choose the judgment of domination. And again, that’s for us to choose and us to decide, because God is God of love and love is freedom. What are your thoughts on that one?
Speaker 3
So Darius has a follow up question, which is in the Gospels of John, doesn’t Jesus tell Judas he knows what’s going on so he should just get it over with? So does Jesus foreknowledge prevent Judas from actually making a decision?
Speaker 1
And that’s interesting. Well, the thing was, Judith had already made up his mind that this is what he was going to do. And Jesus says what you should do quickly. So I hear what you’re saying, it’s like, well, didn’t Jesus basically say, go do something bad? Did Jesus want this? No, but it was just a matter of time before it was going to happen. He was like, look, honestly, in that moment, I think Jesus wanted him so desperately to be part of, to repent of this and not go forward with it. But Judas had already made this decision. Jesus had already betrayed him and made the pact with the priests in order to betray him.
Speaker 2
But I see that I’m completely in agreement with him. I see that kind of statement as Jesus making it publicly known to him that he knows Judas’heart. He knows what Judas is going to do and he knows Judas isn’t going to change. And he also knows that what’s going to happen and how whether Judas did this or not? Not. Jesus’time on the cross was going to happen. That was independent. Really. It looks like you just set him up for it and betrayed him. But Jesus was going to be on the cross either way. That was already planned. So this is kind of Jesus’s way of just making it known to Judas very clearly. Like, I know what’s in your heart, I know what you’re going to do, and that’s on you.
Speaker 1
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 3
Sandon has an interesting take on that. I just really wonder who Jesus was talking to though. Was it Jesus talking to Satan or to Judas? Just thought probably both.
Speaker 1
Yeah, Satan was definitely in possession of Judas at that time. Sorry.
Speaker 3
No, go ahead.
Speaker 1
So basically, and I see Darius has another comment. So Jesus had no free will in this. Jesus already decided that he was going to die for the sins of the world. That was prophesied about in the Old Testament. Like we saw in the book of Psalms. There’s so many Psalms that are prophecies of Jesus and what he would experience. You look at Psalms 22 where Laurie says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? That’s what Jesus said on the cross.
Speaker 3
But even more powerfully though, isn’t that the whole point of Gethsemane? When Jesus is in on the Mount Olives, he’s praying, Lord, not that my will be done, but Yours, please take this cup from me. So Jesus is showing like in that moment he has choice, but the choice he’s making is to do His Father’s will.
Speaker 1
Yeah, exactly. And the thing is, you have to understand that Jesus wasn’t like he wasn’t coming into existence when he was born as a human, when Mary had him. He is God. Jesus is God. He is our Creator. You see that in the book of John, chapter one. Jesus has existed from everlasting. And Jesus made the decision to save us well before, thousands of years before he came as our Messiah. And so Jesus was simply fulfilling the decision he had already made once administrat in the Garden of Eden, because God had prepared for this terrible emergency.
Speaker 3
This is why the Bible caused them the Lamb slain since the foundation of the world. Jesus made the decision even back then to be the sacrifice.
Speaker 1
Yeah, exactly. So Jesus as well, he has choice. And the thing is, Jesus could have failed. That’s what’s so amazing about the story of redemption. Jesus could have said no. Jesus could have given into sin. He could have there was a risk, there was a huge risk involved in Jesus coming as the Messiah.
Speaker 3
But God was nation really have tried tempting him if there was no way jesus Christ.
Speaker 1
Exactly. And like it says in the book of Hebrews, he took on our flesh. He took on the flesh of Abraham sinful flesh. So he was tempted. And when he was hungry, when he was thirsty, when he was tired and fed up. He was literally tempted to give in to these negative feelings and possibly sin, but he was tempted on all points, yet without sin. And that’s what makes Jesus the perfect savior and a demonstration of the God of love that we want to serve. And that again, goes back to the free will that even God has choice. He gives us all choice. Because only in choice is there real love. If he just made robots that couldn’t choose, then that’s not really love. It’s like God just programmed them to obey and love. Say I love you. That’s not real love. There’s nothing real about that. And so I really believe that God does give us free will and choice. But I do think that God understands that many people will not choose Him, and I think that breaks his heart. But for those who want him, god is always willing to extend himself, to reach out to them and love and to call them to repentance.
Speaker 1
And I do see some more comments. I see Landon has a comment here. He says, Amen. All of heaven could have been lost Jesus had Jesus chosen his own will over the plan. Yes, he could have failed. Amen. Thank you for that. And Darius says, what about Noah? That’s not really a choice. It was a choice. He did not have to build that boat. Yeah, he did not have to build.
Speaker 3
That’S a very important story because the whole world was given a choice. The whole world was given the opportunity to get in that boat. It was big enough that many more people could have, but they chose not to. Noah chose to be faithful.
Speaker 1
Exactly. And the people also saw the miracle of the animals lining up. That should have been a sign, like, hey, there’s something supernatural about this. I need to get with the program and get on board, literally, because this is my salvation, is getting inside this boat. By Facebook, and we talked about it.
Speaker 3
No one doesn’t build the boat overnight, too. It was being built for a long time. So the whole time he’s doing it, telling people it’s going to rain, and it’s never rained before, they thinking he’s crazy. He’s a crazy man. But for 100 years, he testified before he and his family got on. And if you look at it, I wrote a paper one time on just war theory, and it’s this thing that comes out of the Bible. And if you look at it, god never really goes and destroys anybody without giving a warning first. Why does God give a warning if he doesn’t about destruction, if it’s not to give people a chance to repent, to turn around? And we see all the time god gives a warning to Ahab, and then Ahab repents, puts on sackcloth and ashes. And then God says, okay, because you did that, I’m not going to punish you as badly or you have the situation with Ezekiah where he’s told he’s going to die and then he starts to cry and then isiah comes back and said, okay, God heard you prayer, take this bolt as a figs and you’ll live.
Speaker 3
So God is reacting to people’s will, letting people act a bit. So we have another comment from Darius. Oh, I thought that he was told to build a boat, him and his.
Speaker 2
Own were going to die.
Speaker 3
Yeah, but there’s still a choice there. In a sense, the story of Noah is kind of a foreshadowing of the greater destruction that waits all the wicked. And so right now we’re kind of in that time when Noah’s building the ark and we’re supposed to be as Christians, warning the world that, hey, destruction is coming wicked, you’re going to be destroyed. God’s going to start over like he started over with after the flood. Now, the fact that the wicked are going to be destroyed if they don’t repent doesn’t mean they don’t have a choice. The whole point is God doesn’t want anybody to be destroyed. Let’s look at Peter. 39. It says, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some men counts lackedness, but his long suffering toward us not willing. So it’s God’s will. God not willing that any should perish. God doesn’t want anybody to die. That is God’s will. Nobody perish and he wants everybody to come to repentance. If it was God’s will and he imposed it on everybody, nobody will perish. Everybody will come to repentance. But God is not going to force his will on people. He’s giving people a choice to reject them, choice to turn around.
Speaker 3
But if they don’t like God’s saying there has to be a time when God is going to put an end to sin, he has to. If you give sin an inch, it will take a mile and it will end up killing the innocent as was proven with price. And the whole point of 144,000 also is the world is going to try to kill them for being nothing more than perfect in the image of God. It’s not a punishment. The destruction is wicked. Isn’t that it’s? Just like God has to do it just like maybe you have to lock down people, maybe you have to quarantine in a pandemic, maybe you have to do some of these things. Right now we’re under quarantine because of sin, and ultimately God is going to say, I’m going to put a total into it. Do you want to be destroyed when I destroy sin? Or do you want to be like gold refining the fire and spend eternity with me?
Speaker 2
I think it’s really good. As an example, people say God hardened Pharaoh’s heart and God redesigned Pharaoh to harden it. But in First Annual 66, it shows that Pharaoh, not God, hardens his own heart.
Speaker 3
Oh, Derris, that’s a great question. And Derek, I love your questions, by the way, brother. He says, what happens if aliens turn up? Do you ever think about that? Because I do.
Speaker 1
I actually do, Darius, from a geological point of view.
Speaker 3
So I’m pretty sure aliens are going to turn up. I would not be shocked at all if we have in the near future, some, like, saucer publicly come and land on the planet and then a beam walks out and says, oh, I am like the second coming of Jesus. I am the 12th Imam, I’m the resurrected Buddha. I’m fulfilling all these religions. And now listen to me, I’m coming to save your planet. I know you guys are laughing. That’s crazy, right?
Speaker 1
No, it’s not crazy, because the thing is, we’re in a great controversy and there is a devil and he has lots of angels. And the Bible says that he can come as an angel of light, he can transform himself into whatever to try to trick people, which is when it.
Speaker 3
Doesn’T be the most shocking deception that can happen. And he could even say, Look, I’m coming from the cloud, just like the Bible said, and try to even twist Bible verse and make it look like he’s fulfilling that. Don’t be fooled if that happens, right? The Bible says Jesus his people never touch the ground. The first time they come in and gathers his people, it’s going to come in the clouds and then we’ll be caught up with them into the clouds and then we’ll be taken to heaven. So this is why scripture is so important and we talk about all the time. Matthew 24 disciples said, what are the end times going to be like? Jesus first words out of his mouth is, don’t be deceived.
Speaker 1
Definitely. I see one more comment. I think we’ll just do this and then we’re a little over time, so we got to get going. But Darius did ask, because if we were made in the image of God, what if they look like us or if they doesn’t? I think what you’re saying is, does God look like.
Speaker 2
If we’re going to make images of God, what if the aliens look like us?
Speaker 3
Or if they don’t, I’m pretty sure they’ll look very humanoid and look just like us, but even more impressive, right?
Speaker 1
Yeah, they’re going to come in a way. The deceptions of the enemy can be all sorts of things, but again, it just goes back to, do you know God? Do you know his word and his truth? Because here’s the thing, we all need God to be saved. It says in John, chapter 17, verse three, that this is life eternal, that we may know God, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. So the purpose of us getting to know God is to have eternal life. And there’s truth in his word. And Jesus mourns that there’s going to be many deceptions. If you look at the book of Matthew 24, just like you’re saying, Jay? There’s going to be many deceptions that come before the second coming of Christ. There’s going to be all sorts of crazy things going on, but we need to focus on what’s important, which is our relationship with God and making sure our hearts are right with Him. And so all these other things, like what if this happens? What if this crazy war happens? What if another COBIT happens? What if aliens happen? There’s all these things that could happen.
Speaker 1
Maybe, but that’s not what’s important. We need to focus on what’s true. And what’s true is God odd in his word. And so I just want to encourage you with that. Our friend Darius says, thank you very much. It’s bedtime. But I enjoyed your answer. So thank you all.
Speaker 3
You’re very.
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In His Service
BibleAsk Team
