Pints With Aquinas - Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled | Bible Study W/ Aquinas

Episode Date: July 23, 2020

Today we talk to our Lord's words, "let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid." And we see what Thomas Aquinas has to say on the matter. Also, here's the prayer I wanted to share with you. Father, I give you thanks, for you have qualified me to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. You have delivered me from the dominion of darkness and transferred me to the kingdom of your beloved Son in whom I have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. You are the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. By you all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through you and for you. And you are before all things, and in you all things hold together. You are the head of the body, the church. You are the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything you might be preeminent. For in you all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through you all things have been reconciled, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of your cross. And though I was once alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, you have now reconciled in your body of flesh by your death, in order to present me holy and blameless and above reproach before you. Col 1: 12-22 GIVING Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mattfradd This show (and all the plans we have in store) wouldn't be possible without you. I can't thank those of you who support me enough. Seriously! Thanks for essentially being a co-producer coproducer of the show.  LINKS  Website: https://pintswithaquinas.com/ Merch: teespring.com/stores/matt-fradd FREE 21 Day Detox From Porn Course: https://www.strive21.com/  SOCIAL  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mattfradd Twitter: https://twitter.com/mattfradd Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattfradd/  MY BOOKS  Does God Exist: https://www.amazon.com/Does-God-Exist... Marian Consecration With Aquinas: https://www.amazon.com/Marian-Consecr... The Porn Myth: https://www.ignatius.com/The-Porn-Myt...

G'day and welcome to another Bible study with Thomas Aquinas. Today I want to look at this very, very comforting line from John's Gospel, chapter 14, where our Lord says to the disciples, Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid. And it's that final sentence, let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid, that I want to focus on particular in this Bible study with Aquinas. Before we get started, though, if you haven't yet subscribed to the channel, that would really help us out. Click subscribe, click that bell button. That way Google will be forced to let you know whenever we put out another one of these Bible studies. So it's really great to have you with us. Why don't we begin with the sign of the cross. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. I mentioned in a previous post something that the church has

always understood what the Bible teaches explicitly and that is that we are in a world at war. And though you may not be able to, though you may not be cognizant of the spiritual warfare that is that we are in a world at war. And though you may not be able to, though you may not be cognizant of the spiritual warfare that is raging within and around you, it is there. And there is a battle for our hearts. The wellspring of life is what Proverbs refers to our heart as, you know. And we need to guard it, protect it from the assaults of the evil one. 1 Peter 5.8, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.

And so this line in particular really struck me with that in mind. Don't, you know, let your hearts not be troubled. And this is something that Christ said to the apostles and that he would say to us and does say to us today. Let not your heart be troubled. Do not be afraid. And I think one of the things that causes fear within us is the attacks of the enemy who condemns us. I've pointed this out before as well. In Revelation chapter 12, I forget where, maybe verse 10, Satan is called the accuser of our brethren.

The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, is called what? The paraclete, which is a word meaning defense attorney. When we are in Christ, who can be against us? So that's what I want to speak about today. And I've got something a little different for you, a little special for you, which I think you're going to really like. So, but I'll save that for a moment here. you, which I think you're going to really like. But I'll save that for a moment here. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. Here, now we have, this is Thomas Aquinas speaking. Trouble means sadness and being afraid refers to fear. All right, so we have sadness and fear. What do they mean and how are they distinct?

Sadness and fear are similar in that both are concerned with an evil. Yet they are different because sadness is over an evil which is present, while fear is over an evil which is to come. So if you say, I'm sad about something that's about to happen, you're really saying, I'm afraid of something that's about to happen, right? Some future event. If you say, I'm feeling great fear because of what I'm experiencing now, you're really talking about sadness because you're not talking, unless you mean something bad is happening now and will be happening in the future, sadness is referring to a present evil, fear is referring to a future evil. And by evil,

we just mean something, the way, what do we mean by evil? Well, when Aquinas talks about evil, he's talking about deprivation. So there's physical evil, like a bird not being able to fly would be a physical evil. You and me not being able to fly is not a physical evil, like a bird not being able to fly would be a physical evil. You and me not being able to fly is not a physical evil because we aren't the sorts of creatures that fly by nature. So that's a physical evil, a lack of a good that ought to be there. If you lack sight, that's an evil. If a stone lacks sight, that's not an evil because a stone doesn't have sight by nature. There's also moral evils, right? When we talk about moral evils, again, we're talking about a lack of a good that ought to be there.

If you think of any evil action, any evil action, what you'll find out is that, or what you'll discover is, when you're talking about it being an evil, you're talking about a lack of a good that ought to be there. If someone's abusive or hurtful or spiteful or speaks badly of other people, there is a lack of a good that ought to be there. And so when we are sad over an evil taking place, we're sad over something that's either a physical evil, even though it might be the will of God, like we might start to go blind like I am, right?

We're sad at an evil. That is an evil. Even though God permits it, it's an evil. But we might be sad over something that just shouldn't be that way. You know, you hear when people say, it just shouldn't have happened. It shouldn't be like this. We're referring to evil. It shouldn't be that way.

There is a lack of a good that ought to be there. All right. it shouldn't be that way. There is a lack of a good that ought to be there. All right. So again, this distinction here between sadness and fear, sadness over a present evil, fear over a future evil. Our Lord said, let not your hearts be troubled about evil, which is present for the righteous will never be moved. Psalm 112, 6, neither let them be afraid of what is future. Who are you that you are afraid of man who dies? Isaiah 51.12, which refers to human fear, for he does not reject divine fear. Right. So when we talk about fear of God versus fear of people, there's a very big distinction here. When we talk about having a fear of other people,

Scripture says that we shouldn't be afraid of other people. When Scripture talks about a fear of God, it's talking about a holy reverential fear, not the fear of a slave master, but the fear of the all-holy God who is terrible to behold in that He is infinitely above us, infinite in power, and so on. And so just, I mean, that's a simple way of putting it. But for those who've been wondering, why do we talk about fearing God if he's not a slave master? Why do we fear him? Well, we fear things that are wonderful, even in the natural realm. If you encounter a gigantic waterfall, there is a sense of awe and sort of reverential fear, you know, don't get too close to that thing, it might sweep you away, or it might crush you, you know, or, you know, you could think of a gigantic mountain, and there's a sense of fear that comes upon you, you know. So when we talk about fear of God, we're talking about a sort of

reverential fear. Aquinas addresses this elsewhere, and I've actually addressed it on my podcast, Pints with Aquinas. If you're interested, go to pintswithaquinas.com, type in fear of God or fear of the Lord in the search bar, and you can listen to that whole episode there, and you'll see what Aquinas has to say. All right. But I just want to pause here for a moment. All right. There is so much that takes place in our hearts and so much of, I think, the spiritual attack that goes on within us where we're not really aware of. Or if we are aware of it, we don't really chalk it up to the evil one. And it's not always the evil one, but sometimes it feels as if Satan throws gasoline on our natural fears, you know, natural sadnesses.

Natural sadness. I'm not sure if sadnesses is proper. This has been happening to me over the last few days. I've just been feeling this just sort of like chaos within me, right? And just thinking of other people, and I think, I don't know if they go through this. I don't know if other people go through this, and I wonder why I'm different, you know? Now, I don't think that's probably true. I think a lot of people go through internal chaos and turmoil, but I just, sometimes this lie comes to me that there's something fundamentally wrong with me, and that's the reason I'm feeling these things, right? This is a lie against my heart, you know, that there's something particularly

awful about me. And I don't know if you can relate to that, if you can relate to the spirit of self-hatred or the spirit of condemnation, but one of the things I do, and by God's grace continue to do, is to renounce these spirits in the name of Jesus Christ. These spirits that come in and bring about fear. So just last night and even this morning driving to work saying, In the name of Jesus Christ, I renounce the lie that there is something fundamentally wrong with me and that I'm unlovable. You can think of whatever it is, those lies that you might be believing. In the name of Jesus Christ, I renounce the lie that if people really knew me, they'd leave me. You know, something like that. Renouncing these. And here I want to give a shout out to our

more charismatic brothers and sisters. One of the things I love to do when I pray is to offer praise to God. I tell Him who He is, and I tell Him who I am in His eyes, you know. I tell Him what He has said about me to remind me who I am. I think this is so crucial, you know, that, and again, this is just a suggestion that before you go to pray, just spend some time praising Him. In your own words him who he is and tell him or tell you who he has said you are you know remind yourself that he is the father i am his good son right i am the beloved he loves me he died for me right this is this is really helpful i think to get that relationship straight and it might sort of put a spotlight on some lies we've been believing about who we are, who God is, who we are before Him.

So what I've done for you, and I'm really excited about this, I've been thinking about doing this for a while, but this is sort of the first time I've thrown it together. Let me just pull this up on the screen here. So what I've done here, one of my favorite verses in all of Scripture is Colossians 1, verses 12 through 22. So basically, I cut and paste that into a document, and I've made it a prayer coming from the first-person perspective. So it usually says that the Father has qualified us, you know, to share in His inheritance. But what I've done is I've basically just taken this and I've made it into a prayer. So we are praying the words of Scripture here, but we're praying it from a first-person perspective. So I'll put this in the show notes, and this might be just something that if you're not familiar,

if you're not comfortable with praying in that sort of way, that this could be something that you could read. So I thought maybe as we wrap up today, we could do this together. Now, again, the reason this applies to what Scripture says about not being troubled, not allowing us to be troubled in heart, is because if we know who he is and we know who we are before him, we'll see that there's actually never a compelling reason to lose our peace and to be afraid. Like there's actually all the reasons that we give for being afraid when we know who he is and we know who we are before him

are in a certain sense bad reasons. Now we're going to have natural fear and we can't escape having natural reactions. You know, like you're walking down the street and the dog busts out of the gate and it's barking and it's running after you. If you're not afraid of that, there's something wrong with you. So obviously we have natural fear, but what I'm talking about, I, in particular, is just this fear of the future, fear that God is holding out on us, fear that there is something terribly the matter with us individually, and if people knew us, they would leave us, that God might love us in an obligatory sense, but doesn't like us, okay? So, you know, you could pray this with me. Why don't we just do it?

And again, let me offer another shout out to my more charismatic brothers and sisters, be you Protestant or Catholic, whoever you are watching this. I like to open up my arms like this and just sort of have a sort of, this is a very much a vulnerable position. If you talk to somebody and they get defensive, what do they do? They cross their arms. All right. Opening oneself all right opening oneself like this is a sign of sort of internal vulnerability and openness okay and how we use our body does influence our mind and our heart it really really does i mean this is why if you're a even if you're a protestant friend watching you know when you pray you probably if you think about it you do change your posture somewhat. You might bow your head, you might close your eyes. What we do with our body does affect us internally. And so I would pray this in this sort of position myself, just sort of opening up my arms, opening up my body,

and just say, Father, I give you thanks for you have qualified me to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. You have delivered me from the dominion of darkness and transferred me to the kingdom of your beloved son in whom I have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. You are the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. By you all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through you and for you. And you are before all things, and in you all things hold together. You are the head of the body, the church. You are the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything you might be

preeminent. For in you the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through you all things have been reconciled, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of your cross. And though I was once alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, you have now reconciled in your body of flesh by your death in order to present me holy and blameless and above reproach before you. And then what I would just invite you to do is just to spend some time using your own words to praise God. And to not worry how eloquent you are. You know, you might say something like, God, I praise your name. You are all powerful. You are my righteousness. You have saved me from sin and death. You have pursued me by your death and resurrection. I am redeemed. You have saved me from sin and death. You have pursued me by your death and

resurrection. I am redeemed. You love me, Father. You're with me. You see me. You have not taken your eyes off of me since the moment of my conception. There is nothing to be afraid of. There is no reason for my heart to turn within me to be afraid because you're my loving Father and you're with me. You've told me that you'll be with me to the end of the world. You've not forgotten about me. You love me. You have redeemed me.

You have sanctified me. You've given me your Holy Spirit. Who can be against me? And in the name of Jesus, I repel the accusations being made against me today by the enemy and by evil spirits and by others who are sort of being influenced by Satan as they speak against me. In the name of Jesus Christ, I renounce all that, and I announce in the name of Jesus

that I am a beloved son or daughter of God, and I'm wanted and loved. And I thank you, Father, that you are who you are. I thank you that you've told me who I am. Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Amen. Just praise him like that.

Just spend some time. Praise him, praise him. But anyway, as I say, if you were to compare this here to 1 Corinthians 12, 22, 1, 12 through 22, you'd see it's almost identical. I've just made it so that you can pray it personally. So I'll throw that up in the description. And if you're not comfortable with sort of that sort of spontaneous prayer, you can use that. God bless you. Thanks for being here.