You can’t have your spiritual cake and eat it too.

Steve Brown:
You can’t have your spiritual cake and eat it too. Let’s talk on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
If you’re sick of guilt and manipulation. And if you’re looking for an honest and thoughtful presentation of Biblical truth, you’ve come to the right place. This is Key Life with the founder of Key Life Network, Steve Brown. Keep listening for teaching that will make you free.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. We’re looking at the first 12 verses of Galatians 5. We’re talking about false teaching and we’ve seen that false teaching has a source and it’s the dark side and it’s very dangerous. And then Paul, and that’s the main thrust of these verses in Galatians five. And then Paul says that there’s some substance to false teaching and you ought to watch for it. And he does it in three areas. Yesterday, we saw that false teaching taught that you could add something to the revelation, the salvation offered as a free gift in Christ. That’s Galatians 5:2. And you can’t do that, itt’s by faith alone, by grace alone, by Christ alone. And that’s it. And if you’re trying to put something, and Paul uses the example of circumcision, but when he uses that word, he’s talking about all of the law, you can’t add to what Jesus has already done. Now there’s another, as I said, there are three areas of substance. The second one is this, by deductive reasoning, one can see that these false teachers, taught that you could have your spiritual cake and you could eat it too. And Paul said, Oh no you can’t. Look at Galatians 5:3.

I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is now bound to keep the whole law.

And then in, in the ninth verse, Paul says this.

A little leaven leavens the whole loaf.

The Galatians evidently had said to Paul, look, what’s a little bit a law here and there. I mean, of course it won’t save us, but, but it’s kind of nice to have it and to obey the rules, it makes us better people. Yeah, this grace thing, but don’t go overboard on it. Don’t, don’t make it into more than it is, it’s nice, and it’s good, and it’s right. But there’s some things that Christians ought to do. And Paul said, and he said it stronger than I would say it. Paul said you can’t do that. If you, you got to choose. If you’re going to go with the law, go with it and keep it. If you’re going to go with Jesus, follow him and accept the freedom he gives, but you cannot have it both ways. I get those comments all the time from people, that grace is dangerous, that you’re encouraging sin, that I’m antinomian. And I suppose some of that may be true, but I don’t dare because of Galatians 5:1-12, try to mix it up. In fact, I’m very careful about not mixing it up. In the book of Hebrews 12, the writer of Hebrews talks about the discipline that God gives. And says and says that he’s a father, and people are always saying to me, what about discipline that God gives? And I say, yeah, that’s true, but you, but you gotta be careful here, because if you give people who are already toxic with their faith, an inch, they’ll take a mile. They’ll take what is a wonderful teaching that God’s our father and he wants to protect us by his discipline, that that discipline is short-lived and you always know, that’s what a father does. And you’ll always know what it’s about. They’ll take that, flip it and make it say, that if you get out of line, God will give you cancer, what’s with that? If you get out of line, God will break your legs. And so, I sometimes mention discipline in my teaching. I mean, it’s clear in Scripture, but I don’t do it unless people get grace and deeply and profoundly first. In fact, you shouldn’t dwell in Hebrews 12, too much, unless you get grace. Paul has said, either he’s going to do it all or you’re going to do it all. And you can’t have it both ways. Did you hear about the preacher. I can’t believe I’m going to tell you this. And maybe have, who went out to play golf and he hit the ball and duffed it, and it went from about five feet in front of him. And a bird came down, an eagle, as a matter of fact, picked up the ball and flew it down and dropped it near the green. And then a squirrel came out and with his nose, he pushed the ball up on the green and then another squirrel came along and kicked it into the hole. And the preacher looked up to heaven and said, please, father, I’ll do it myself. That’s what we say, Lord, I know you love me. And that I’m unlovable. I know that grace is really important, but I got to do something. I got to add something to it. I got to do it myself. Somebody said that to Martin Luther one time, you mean that we don’t do anything? Nothing? Luther said, Oh, I didn’t mean to say that. I didn’t mean to say that we don’t bring anything to our salvation. Of course we bring something to our salvation. We bring our sins to our salvation. Oh yes. He’s right, and he’s making the same point that Paul was making here. Paul is simply saying you can’t have it both ways, either you’re saved by grace or you’re not. And if you’re going to try to do it yourself, God will let you. And when you fail, you were the one who chose. You think about that. Amen. Well, it’s Wednesday. And sometimes when I have a little bit of extra time, I take the time to answer a question or two. As you know, Pete will be in on Friday and we’ll spend the whole broadcast answering questions that you guys send. And we love your questions. And we take you and your question seriously, all of them. I have often said the only dumb question is the one you don’t ask. And we try to be honest in our answers and Biblical and balanced. So, ask. You, can ask a question by calling 1-800-KEY-LIFE and that’s open 24 seven. And you can record your question and sometimes we put your voice on the air. So you can do that whenever you want to. Or you can send your question to

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Or you can email your question to [email protected]. And, by the way, those are places where you can make a contribution to Key Life. You knew, I was going to say that. If you can help us financially, please do. And I promise we’ll be faithful with your gift. And if you can’t, we understand. By the way, you can give on your phone, you can text key life at two eight, nine 50. And just follow the instructions. And if you do that, I’ll rise up and call you blessed. And if you don’t, I’ll love you anyway. Okay. Enough said. Let’s turn to one or two of these questions. This is an email question. Can a person be non-elect and know it? I don’t think so. Let me say a word about election. The Bible teaches election. Before God hung the stars and hollowed out the valleys and created the mountains. He knew your name and called you to himself. On the other side, you’re free and you’re responsible and it’s real freedom and it’s real responsibility. And you say, you can’t have both of those, one is true and the other is not true. Well, we’re talking about God here. And if you’ve never stood before God and been confused, you’re probably worshiping an idol. But I had, and the Bible teaches election. The Bible teaches freedom and responsibility. And I don’t know how those things go together, but they do. But this question is about election. And that is a wonderful family secret that God knew your name before you were born, called you to himself and will never let you go. And so ordain things that you would come to him, now the question is, can a person be non-reelect and know it? I think there are people who say they are non elect and they know it, but in fact, they don’t even believe in an election. They don’t believe that God does elect and they believe that it’s all nonsense. I got a letter from a very close friend of mine, and he said that his wife is doubting her election and I need some help. What am I going to say to her? And I said, let me give you a quote from Charles Spurgeon. Charles Spurgeon said this.

If you’re worried about being elect, you are. Quit worrying about it. If you are not of the elect, you won’t even think about it. It won’t be a part of who you are.

So, I would say, but provisionally, that a person can’t be non-elect and know it. And I just thought of one person where that might be true. It was a guy who gave a lot of money to a lecture series, a Christian, used in Christian universities everywhere. And the man who solicited that gift, who was a friend of mine, this man, the other man that gave the money, put his arm around my friend and said, I’m going to go to hell, but when I’m there, I’m going to look up and see a lot of people who are in heaven, because of me. Maybe he knew he wasn’t of the elect, but if I had been there, I would say, sir, you don’t know it, but as a matter of fact, you’re saved, or you wouldn’t have given the money. By the way, Key Life is a listener supported production Key Life Network.