4 of 4 John MacArthur Question and Answer Session

I would pull it Jeff all right is the first take up your cross and follow me salvation or Christian living salvation okay maybe we will care B questions we'll be burning through the questions enough time here did you let's go get some more hmm what is know that I need to just say a little more about this just testing you guys see how you can add live that and how did we do we fail yeah I mean there really are no there are no calls to sort of higher levels of Christian living in the public evangelistic ministry of Jesus you don't have a church you have unconverted Jews everywhere and these are all calls to saving faith and the essence of true repentance right good one what is biblical tithing biblical tithing that's that is a very good question and I will give you as concise and answer as I can in the Old Testament I there's a tenth just a it's an old word that means one tenth in the Old Testament you had a theocracy not a democracy but a theocracy that is to say had the nation of Israel ruled by God who mediated his rule through the priesthood 24 courses of priests they were basically the officers of theocracy they mediated the rule of God through the revealed law of Moses to the people mmm and the people needed to supply funding for those officers the namely the priests and the Levites who served along with them so there was a tithe tax that was essentially the basic tax to fund the national government it was one tenth of whatever it is that you earned could be commodities and not particularly money grain oil fruit whatever then you had a second tithe every year which was designed to fund the national celebrations the feasts the festivals to provide all of that that the nation Israel engaged in and there were a whole series of feasts as you know and funding temple events when the whole of the people came together like the Passover and all those things then you had a third tenth every third year which was the poorer tax that was distributed to the people who were poorer so if you split that into every year it's about three and a third percent every year so essentially every Jew paid twenty three and a third percent with the addition of a fixed amount of temple tax with the addition of they couldn't harvest the corners of their fields that had to be left for profit-sharing to let the poor take that if you dropped a bale off your wagon when you were harvesting you couldn't pick it up that again would supply for needy people who would hang around the fields to pick up and glean whatever they could get so you might say that it could be somewhere between twenty four twenty five percent of an ink of the income of an Israelite living in the kingdom that was funding the national government that really was taxation that never was freewill giving that never was what we would call freewill in Malachi 3 when God says why will you rob me of tithes that's what he's talking about that's what he's talking about freewill giving in the Old Testament was whatever you wanted to give whatever you wanted to give you have illustrations of people giving all different kinds of amounts a tenth of a tenth was given in in the in the Pentateuch when they built that the temple you remember people were told to bring whatever they wanted to bring and they brought gold and they brought jewels then they brought everything and finally they brought so much that they had to say stop bringing we have to it's an overload in the book of Proverbs it simply says give the firstfruits doesn't say an amount be generous etc so you had taxation which was fixed and you had free will giving which was flexible based on the heart of the giver the same thing is in the New Testament even though Israel ceased to be a theocracy because they're occupied by the Romans Jesus says render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's pay your taxes Apostle Paul says pay your taxes Romans 13 and Jesus said give whatever you want to give but here's the principle Luke 6:38 give and it shall be given unto you press down shaken together and running over the simple principle is that whatever you give you invest with God and he gives you a return or the language of Matthew 6 where he says lay up treasure in heaven or in Luke 16 use your money to purchase friends for eternity that is use your money for gospel enterprises because then people will be converted by your giving and they'll be there to welcome you when you enter into heaven be faithful over little and Lord will give you much don't serve God and money all those are general principles so the simple thing is this tide was never in the Old Testament a means of free will giving to the Lord it was the way the theocracy was funded if you study the story of Joseph you'll also find out that it was 20% that Joseph determined should be the tax in Egypt and that that really is the historic base for the American taxation system which not too many years ago was was basically about a 20% tax and is still for perhaps some majority of the population so pay your taxes and fund the government the Jews in the time of the room and and give to the Lord what you want the Jews in the time of Jesus had a real difficulty with the tax part because their their tax money was going into the hands of Rome and the tax collectors were the were the scum because they were Jews who bought tax franchises from room and then prostituted them into a way to get rich like Zacchaeus and Matthew they extorted money so tax collectors were Jews who'd betrayed their heritage who were collecting taxes for the pagan idolatrous occupying Romans who were extorting more money than they should the Romans set a fee for a tax franchise we need this amount each year from the zone that you operate in whatever else you can get you can keep so tax collectors were surrounded by them by a mafia thugs and strongarm people who would extort the money out of the people they became very very rich and that's why they are always categorized with sinners with the scum and the riffraff of society they couldn't attend a synagogue they were basically despised in the culture so the Jews were reluctant then to pay their taxes because they knew that it was going to the occupying and adult idolatrous and Romans and so when Jesus said render to Caesar what is Caesar's this was a shattering realization Jesus also you remember paid his temple tax he had a rather convenient way to do that you know catch a fish and take it out of the mouths of the fish but you know this was part of what he he wanted to teach us to do so the bottom line is always been the same throughout all redemptive history pay your taxes support the government be a good citizen Paul makes that clear Romans 13 elsewhere and give God whatever you want to give and the principle for giving is 2nd Corinthians 8 sow sparingly reap sparingly so bountifully reap bountifully whatever you give to God is what you get a return on if you want a small return you give a small amount if you want a big return you give a big amount God keeps very careful records not only will you enjoy his blessing here but you will enjoy his blessing eternally in the reward that awaits the one who is the bountiful giver that's the principle I assume you're not promoting a prosperity gospel in Metis planation are you no no all I'm saying is the Lord has promised to bless the faithful Giver and I think one of the reasons the Lord blesses the faithful Giver is because a faithful Giver being blessed is able to give more it's not an indulgent kind of thing there are no guarantees however that you're going to be rich at all the prosperity gospel is is a deception it's a it's a it's a pyramid you know it's a scheme it's a con job that makes the people at the top very very rich well that answer if they're good at it then a one-word answer okay here's a question our rock concerts at church a good idea to try to reach kids for Christ I don't think you reach kids for Christ with music I think you reach kids just like you reach everybody else I I think I'm among friends here this is good I think you reach everybody by the gospel I can understand using some means to draw a collection of people together but I get a little nervous I mean I don't want to make a blanket statement here but I think you have to be very careful what means you use if you use a vehicle that's associated with sex and drugs this is a leap this is a leap you know what the big trend in high schools now is poker parties and you can you know what's going to be the next trend evangelistic poker parties you think that's not true it's already beginning to happen I mean if there's no restraint on anything I think you have to be very very very careful because if you try to if you use some of these cultural things that are associated with all that is evil you are in a sense giving tacit approval to that thing itself and I've found through the years that you if you put good and profound words down they rarely ever end up comfortably in cheesy music profundity you know and and a driving heavy metal beat don't connect a transcendence doesn't connect with that either I think that stuff can be so physical that it it does a very opposite of what you think it does so I think you have to be very very careful as I said I mean that's a hard question because you know at what point you draw the line I think you just have to understand that if you take what is what is recognized as base in the culture and try to sanctify it the gospel doesn't prosper in that marriage so you have to be very careful about that very good I next question my brother was recently abducted and killed in Iraq the movie the end of the spear was also just released forgiveness has gone a long way with this tribe what do you suggest when dealing with fundamentalist Islamic whose minds and hearts are closed unlike the tribal people yeah I don't think for for you to forgive them for killing your brother has anything to do with them I don't think the forgiveness of my heart is conditioned on the action of the person who has wronged me I know there's a lot written on this and I wrote a book on call the freedom and power of forgiveness and whoever asked that question you can get that book through the bookstore freedom and power forgiveness forgiveness is a freeing liberating righteous thing to do regardless of what those other people that offended you did otherwise you live your whole life in bitterness otherwise you just continually inflict pain on yourself it is critical that you understand that in the sovereign purposes of God life is fraught with trouble you no man is born into trouble as a sparks fly upward in this world you'll have tribulation be of good cheer I've overcome the world this is temporal this is temporary this is how it is in this life don't expect to get over your problems if you get over the ones you've got now you'll just get different ones in the future this is how it is in life get used to it and I think if you go through life harboring bitterness for everybody that offends you even in the severe since all you do is inflict incessant pain on yourself my my wife's sister and her husband who are very close to us had a son a college student son who was working in a market near our church a number of years ago and a some kind of a drug addict came in and and tried to rob one of the checkout stands and he stepped in to try to defend this lady from this robbery they got took out a gun and killed him right on the spot my nephew Tim and so obviously the shock and the trauma is a devastating kind of thing it was only a few weeks after that if they caught him right away only a few weeks after that that his dad went to the jail to tell this guy that he wanted him to know that because of the grace of Jesus Christ he forgave him for what he did to Tim and Tim was in heaven and he wanted to give him the gospel in hope that he would embrace Christ that's the mature Christian response he never reacted to the gospel at all he was not interested in the gospel but my brother-in-law's heart was moved from any kind of vengeance to compassion and to a desire to pray for the salvation of this guy I mean we have to have a godly worldview in these things and it's all under the sovereignty of God and the salvation of the people who do that harm I mean it's hey isn't that what Jesus says Father forgive them they know not what they do they weren't asking for that Stephen being stoned lay not this sin to their charge so I think that forgiveness is the most godlike thing a Christian can do never are you more like God than when you forgive okay good what early church fathers and their writings would you recommend reading well that's a mixed bag but you know I think Irenaeus is good Polycarp it's been a long time since I read that ante-nicene fathers and I don't currently in have it for a few years milled around among the fathers to be honest with you it's it when I say it's mixed there there there's sort of good bad and indifferent in that but at least those two come to mind as reaching back in my memory having been helpful to me if you're talking about that that group of fathers a little bit beyond that a little a in that you read Agustin who's not usually classed with them but some wonderfully profound things John Chrysostom another name that had an effect on me particularly as a preacher dr. MacArthur does scripture allow for women eldership this seems to be the direction of some churches today absolutely and unequivocally not I mean like this how can a woman be an elder when an elder has to be a one-woman man what is that this would make any sense how can a woman be an elder when it says in 1st Timothy 2 that I permit not a woman to teach or to take authority over men there is no way what you have to do is reject the scripture convolute the scripture reinvent the scripture twist the scripture look at first Timothy - it might be worth just a glance at that because it's kind of the key text and but this the thing that concerns me and the reason I'm real strong in that it because it's an attack on scripture you want to know something quite interesting that 20th century is the first century when the traditional conviction of the church on this issue has been overturned in fact 1960 was the first time that this began to be attacked that's a pretty good legacy of consistent interpretation of a very clear text let a woman verse 11 receive instruction with entire submissiveness and by the way this is about the church chapter 3 verse 15 how to conduct yourself in the household of God which is the Church of the Living God so this is about life in the church 1 a letter woman receive instruction with entire submission I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man but to remain quiet this is not cultural this is creation it was Adam first created then Eve it was not Adam deceived the woman being to see if L into transgression it was the divine creative order and the demonstration of the fact that when the woman got out from under the authority of the man and acted independently she was deceived that is the the affirmed biblical pattern and just to support that there's no woman in the Old Testament at an ongoing prophetic ministry there are a couple of occasions where God used a woman to speak but there is no woman in the Old Testament with an ongoing prophetic ministry none there is no woman who wrote a book of the Bible either the Old Testament or the New Testament there is no woman among the Apostles there is no New Testament woman with a prophetic ministry though before daughters of Philip did speak there there is no basis for thinking anything other than that God has upheld this in his design all the way through it is not to say that women are inferior they are not they are equal in Christ they are equal spiritually they are equal in value equal before God it is just a matter of the roles that God has designed for them to play but verse 15 is the balancing element verse 15 says women are preserved or saved from what from some stigmas second class consideration through the bearing of children if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint look men have leadership in the church you say well how isn't there a significant role for women sure it's it's the balance of women bearing children you know we know this in the family I mean I'm the head of the house and you know I have ultimate responsibility although I want to submit to my my wife as she submits to me I want to meet her needs but at the end of the day I've given the headship of the family and the responsibility as first Corinthians says God is the head of Christ Christ is the head of the man the man is the head of the woman but women are protected from some second-class consideration through the bearing of children you know I'm the I'm the head of the house and I say what ought to be done but Patricia is the one who has all the influence and even my two sons who are men if they if they want to unburden their heart always go to their mother there's a level of influence that is really profound in the intimacy of rearing children provided the women continue in faith and love and virtue and self-restraint a godly woman as a keeper at home a lover of her husband lover of her children Paul says he's going to have the greatest impact not if she comes to lead the church but if she uses her influence a funny story about that I was in Romania one time and this question was asked we had about a thousand pastors and their wives church was packed and somebody asked the question what does verse 15 mean women are saved through childbearing and I said well one thing we know it doesn't mean is that you're saved in terms of your eternal salvation by having babies I mean we're saved by grace through faith not by having babies and I said it like that and it was translated real quick and then it just got deathly silent I mean really silent and I thought this is weird and I went on for about 10 or 15 minutes to kind of explain the textin and the moderator who was a Romanian pastor in Bucharest said I think we'll take a break I need to tell you something I said okay he said the reason they're reacting this way is he said you know they haven't really been taught that well and not having had Bibles and things like this is right after their freedom they have always believed that you're not saved by having babies but if you do anything to prevent a pregnancy you lose your salvation that's how they interpreted that that you're going to lose your salvation if you do anything to prevent a baby and he said these are all pastors and they all have anywhere from 9 to 15 kids and he said these women are now looking at their husbands and they're saying something like this so you had to be wrong about that verse he's poor bent beleaguered women with 15 kids it was an amazing moment I'll tell you that anyway so I think the biblical pattern is very clear this is a huge issue by the way and egalitarianism as opposed to complementarianism if you want some great information on this it's the counsel on Biblical manhood and womanhood and these people have produced prolific stuff Wayne Grudem has a new book on this subject by Multnomah Press that is the final word he has 118 of the feminist viewpoints answered in detail it's an 800 page book but it's really compelling reading and he goes to the Word of God and answers that question okay I actually kind of have a little follow-up to that then as well it says since in the Bible it says a woman should go to her husband for spiritual questions do you think Bible studies are wise for women in church yeah I think women I think a great host the Bible says are women that publish the good news I think women should come together to to pray I think there are informal settings where women can pray where they can be engaged in Bible studies I don't have a problem with women having Bible studies how could I there are women who are gifted teachers there are women who know the truth and there's nothing in the Bible that says a woman doesn't can't teach that she can teach other women's you can teach children you remember Aquila and Priscilla both of them instructed Apollo's more perfectly in a way in a private home setting so this is not to say anything about giftedness I think women can express leadership they can engage in Bible study they can teach women and teach children but what they cannot do is take the pastoral place or the role of the teacher and the preacher in the church as duly assembled okay okay there's I wrote a book on this why haven't you wrote written a book on iver do many books too many I'm trying to think of the name of it he's writing more than I'll ever know yeah he writes more books and I don't know what it's called it's called different by design different by design you can find that book and deal with that okay there are two items here that you asked you to comment on some say the concept of the rapture is an invention of a man named John Darby also when the Bible says we are not destined for wrath does it mean the wrath of the tribulation or of Hell yeah you're asking two questions the second question is talking about first Thessalonians not destined to wrath I think that's eternal wrath I don't think that's the tribulation if it's very clear in the context of that you're destined for for eternal you're not destined for eternal wrath I don't think you can put the tribulation in in that text first Thessalonians 1:9 saved from wrath and and later in the fifth chapter with regard to the rapture I don't think the rapture is a concoction of Darby I think it got a little confounded by Darby but I don't think it's a concoction of Darby in fact rather it's crystal clear that it's taught in the Bible in John chapter 14 the Lord is going to come and take us where he is he's preparing a place for it's going to come and take us where he is it's further defined in first Corinthians 15 in a moment in a twinkling of an eye we're going to be changed we're going to leave this where we're going to go into glory 1st Thessalonians 4 very clearly it talks about the people that sleep they're going to be raised first and we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air that's a rapture that's a catching away now the reason that there is a viewpoint that says there's a pre-tribulation rapture is because the language in John 14 and the language in 1st Corinthians 15 and the language in 1st Thessalonians 4 says nothing about judgment nothing and so it seems that it's describing a completely different event every other description of the coming of the Lord that says the Lord is coming shows him coming in in a kind of a day of the Lord way coming in judgment coming in wrath coming to destroy sinners coming to judge the earth coming with deadly force coming to end the human rebellion and so the language in day of the Lord passages 1st Thessalonians 5 many Old Testament passages Matthew 24 and some others in the New Testament even including those things in the book of Revelation the end of second Peter 3 there seems to be a distinct difference between this catching away all these passages that talk about what Paul tells Titus is our Blessed hope our Blessed hope the glorious appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ there seems to be a distinction in those two therefore they can't be the same event let's basically just forget Darby forget systems they'd just appear to be completely different events and so that is why in looking at those events and seeing them as different it's very difficult to imagine them happening at the same time and if you follow the chronology of the book of Revelation and compare it with the Book of Daniel it makes a lot of sense to see this first event the caching the way of the church then being followed by this this judgement that comes on the earth which is described as a seven-year period in half of its 42 months 1230 days and so forth very explicit language after which there is this massive total judgment if you have all of those events happening at the same time you have some very difficult problems to resolve very difficult because when the Lord comes in final judgment he comes with his Saints so you've got you've got an event in which we go out and then an event in which we come down if it's the same event and it's very confusing so separating those two events is a reasonable approach to the texts involved I have a book called the second coming just came out in a new edition which goes through this in detail very readable it's not like 800 pages like 200 you can kind of think your way through these events but it isn't that you're trying to by a system you're trying to explain the character to events that appear to be two very different events and they can't happen at the same time because they are so distinct one is a gathering up of the redeemed the other is a coming with the redeemed to judge and establish the kingdom separating them seems reasonable and then when you realize that the book of Revelation has the church in heaven in chapter 5 and the tribulation on earth in chapter 6 it makes sense to see that the Tribulation Period then could be the period between those two events all right next question in light of Romans 1 do you believe a Christian can be a practicing homosexual or vice versa I think it's possible for a Christian to commit any sin except the sin of unbelief but I do not believe that a Christian regenerate true Christian can live in an unbroken pattern of sin otherwise first John doesn't mean anything he is born of God does not continue in sin and John 1st John gives all those tests right do you walk as Christ walked do you love your brother do you walk in obedience do you not love the world if you love the world the love of the father's not in you he is born of God manifests the life of God if you can't be regenerate and not be transformed okay this takes me back to the Gospel according to Jesus you know the book I wrote there was such a big controversy if I have a new life I'm going to manifest the character of that new life Christian could stumble a Christian could fall particularly you know when you realize that temptation gets sin gets recycled talked about this in the Old Testament that you sin in your life and you are involved in say let's say homosexuality or adultery or fornication it's it's an amazing thing how that can get recycled years later and become a temptation just by the recycling process so people who come out of those kinds of lifestyles will struggle in and can sin but there will be a brokenness there will be a Romans 7 attitude a wretched man that I am deliver me from this there there won't be a happy-go-lucky sustaining of that kind of relationship there won't be a defense of that sin at all there will be a heart-wrenching desire to be delivered from that it will be seen for what it is a terrifying breach of one's new life see I believe that the purest and truest expression of a believer is holiness I think if you're a new creation and you're a new in Christ and you've been born again and the life of God is now in you that's the purest and truest you just so happens that this pure righteous new you is incarcerated in unredeemed flesh but now for the first time instead of righteousness being alien to you sin is alien to who you really are and you see it as an unwelcome intruder as an invader and there's a wretchedness involved in that and I tell young people you know they want to ask will I ever get over temptation you know I get these strong desires as I grow in the world will I ever get over this and the answer is yet sanctification will be the decreasing frequency of sin that's the good news the bad news is you'll sin less and feel worse because as you grow you have a heightened sense of holiness and an increased hatred of sin and you will have a more severe hatred toward a sin that remains in you so a believer can commit the sin but not live in a constant state of sin and defend that sin or in any sense justify that sin very good dr. MacArthur how can a wife encourage her husband to lead in family devotions do I pull back and wait for him to take over the lead or if he does if he does or if he desired do I take over I have the desire to come alongside of him I don't want to take this his place in leading our family yeah and my answer to that would be pray that he'll come along encourage him to come along you know I don't think the fact that your husband is the head of the family and you want to be submissive and follow means you can't tell the guy what he needs to know come on step up buddy do what you're supposed to do here I think you know you you have that responsibility you know I mean I there's a mutual spiritual responsibility of stimulating one another to love and good works and I think you should do that in a gracious way I think any sin that you know about in the life of a fellow believer at any level including your marriage is a sin that needs to be confronted in love and grace and so that's something hey you know you need to step up in this this is important to me into our family into the Lord in the event that he never does that then I don't think that leading your family devotions is a breach of your role I think you can do that I mean it's not the church it's not that you're a preacher don't lose that altogether in the life of your children because your husband is not willing to do it make every effort to see that happen in a gracious way that don't yeah I don't think it's good to punish him for his failures but I think it's important to remind him and be prayerful about that and tell him how much that would mean to you and if he's not willing to do that you can really set a good example by doing it faithfully which may spur him on a little bit very good this question is what is the most amazing thing you've seen God do I will tell you this and this may be one way to understand this the most amazing thing that I've seen God do is the thing that I see him do most and that is work through me when I get to heaven on people have said you know when you get to heaven are you going to be surprised who's there I was asked that question are you going to be surprised to who's there and other people have said are you going to be surprised who's not there I have heard preachers say when we get to heaven we're going to be surprised who's not there and who's there you want to know something when I get to heaven I'm going to be shocked that I'm there that is going to be the ultimate shock what am I doing here and how did I get there because I know myself and I'm like Paul huh look I'm the chief of sinners Paul said what am i doing and he's put me in the ministry and look how he's blessed me and yeah I mean the most remarkable thing is that God can use a privy pot you know a clay pot I mean it is it's amazing this is amazing to me I mean this is amazing it really is and you know when I go home I'm nothing special you got to know that you know my son Mark said to me one day how come when you preach you're so special in the rest of the time you're just not very special at all I said I really don't know mark I'm sorry I'm boring you to death so if you want the best of me just keep showing up at the sermon and you'll be okay and I guess that's the biggest thing that's the most amazing thing is that it's just it's a continual surprise to me can you explain Calvinism versus arminianism well I already did that this morning in one sense I just opened the Bible and that's what is there okay let me let me do it this way okay I'm gonna I'm gonna give you a little test okay do you believe that God is sovereign and salvation of course we went through that today do you believe God chooses who will be saved course do you believe the father draws yes do you believe that the Sun keeps yes do you believe the Sun raise yeah it's all sovereign it's all predestined it's all established absolutely right this is what the Bible says do you believe that whosoever will may come yes that's what the Bible says do you believe that God finds no pleasure in the death and judgment of the wicked yes do you believe that Jesus wept because sinners wouldn't repent of course are you willing to call all sinners to repent and do you believe they're responsible if they don't come yes well how do you harmonize that I don't know I don't know how to harmonize that well your expect you're asking too much of me I'm not God you want my little peanut P Q syllabus brain to grasp that give me a break it's not my problem but the one thing I can't do is deny what scripture says this will comfort you who wrote Romans this is basic Christianity 101 here who wrote Romans can't answer the question can you why all of Paul all his vocabulary all his heart all his thoughts all his words all of God and yet not mechanical said she did so well in that question I'll ask you another one who lives your Christian life God so you want to hold him responsible for the condition of your Christian life who lives your Christian life this is pretty pretty basic right you're doing it right now everyday who's living your Christian life you say I am really say God is I don't know whether you could convince everybody who knows you you can't even answer that question listen to what Paul said I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not i he didn't know either is it this is the divine mystery and it's all of me and all of him and what's wrong is me and what's right is him in every major doctrine of the Bible in every major doctrine you have an apparent paradox that you cannot resolve I know that I'm kept eternally secured by God but I also know I'm commanded to persevere in faith two sides of the same thing I know I can't be saved unless I'm chosen and called and I know I can't be saved unless I'm willing to repent and believe I don't have to harmonize it but nor can I deny those things in the end mark it folks in the end God will get all the glory for every righteous thing that is done because it is all his work so rather than answering the question by removing your confusion I just spread your confusion over a wider area and you rest in the fact that you don't need to grasp the mysteries that are clear in the mind of eternal God very helpful very good more yes you've got a couple a couple more left hi money here okay how do you respond to the question that a lot of Christians get I think is what they mean here you're too judgmental you mean like me personally I think they mean Christians in general the week we bit we can be judgmental you can answer it for you if you like yeah you have to draw a line you know Jesus said judge not lest you be judged what he meant by that is you're not the judge you God didn't appoint you the judge you can't be the judge but at the same time in the same text of Matthew 7 he said by their fruits you shall what you shall know them he said we have to discern but we aren't the judge when you say somebody's judgmental you're saying what the Pharisees were doing they were literally rendering a final verdict on people's souls by their own self designed criteria but what I must do is be discerning in 1st Thessalonians 5 the Apostle Paul says don't despise preaching prophesy don't despise preaching but examine everything carefully hold fast to what is good shun what is not you have to you have to make decisions you have to be discerning and the criteria is the Word of God and you measure everything by the Word of God but in the end you can't be the final judge you can you can measure everything by the word and you can essentially say that based upon what that person believes and what that person does measured against the word that's wrong and that's essentially the keys when when Peter was given the keys and the Apostles were also given them we have them as well to basically unlock the kingdom whatever you bind on earth shall be bound whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed they were simply saying this you have the authority to tell people they're loosed from their sins or they're free or they're bound in sin you have that authority I have that authority why on the basis of what they do with the gospel I can say to a person you're bound in your sins because you won't believe I can say to a person you're loosed from your sins because you will believe so we're always rendering those judgments we're always discerning based upon the Word of God we have no right based upon some personal criteria like the Pharisees to establish ourselves as the final judge all judgment is committed to Christ and he judges by his by his word all right gonna take a drink of your cold beverage here no that's okay all right okay here's a question from a police officer I think this complied in other situations as well as part of his job he sometimes has to lie to a suspect to gain a confession which is allowable by the Supreme Court but more importantly he's asking does the Bible or God's Word allow this well the Bible says God hates the lie any lie for me I my own the way I'm wired in terms of Scripture I don't think I could do that I understand the ethical dilemma of the greater good I do think I can withhold truth I think I don't have to think I have to say everything I think there may be a way to to to not say everything or to craft what you say so that it's not an outright lie I don't think we are commanded to disclose everything to everyone and people always bring up the issue of Rahab what would have happened to the spies if Rahab hadn't told a lie and after all God honor Rahab and put her you know she's in the kingdom of God put her in the Messianic line and makes her a hero in the New Testament what about that well God did not honor Rahab for her lie honored Rahab for her faith and what would have been a wonderful thing to see is if she had told the truth what kind of miracle would have happened to protect the spies you can't underestimate the power of God he doesn't need people's lies to achieve his purposes that's counterproductive so you have to ask the question what if I told the truth in this given scenario what might God do here on the other hand if you're very judicious in that kind of law-enforcement situation and even in just some normal things I mean even even in interpersonal relationships I don't feel compelled to say everything that could be said full disclosure isn't demanded of me and sometimes you withhold things that that you you withhold for a greater good for for a benefit so I think it's it's a fine line I I would have a difficult time just blatantly lying because I've been so wired to be faithful to the truth that I might have a tough time getting over that hill and my tongue might dry up my face get red and I'd blow my cover you know all right next question in your Hebrew commentary you state that we are redeemed quote not by his bleeding but by his dying do you still stand by that and why yeah I wouldn't we were not saved by his bleeding because I wouldn't have done any good if he just bled this was a big controversy years ago and people some people who were enemies of me decided to fabricate all kinds of strange things and we got kicked off fifty-five radio stations and all because they said I denied the blood of Christ well look if Jesus had just bled nobody would be saved the wages of sin is not bleeding the wages of sin is death and people must understand that it's not the bleeding of Jesus and it's not the blood of Jesus to speak of the blood of the cross the blood of the cross is to simply speak of the efficacious substitutionary sacrificial death of Christ do I think he had to - to actually die actually bleed no not to save us but to fulfill the Old Testament picture somebody suggested that I might have thought he could be bludgeoned to death well I suppose if God had decided that's the way he would die it would be fine but the pattern and the picture of the shedding of blood was in the whole Old Testament sacrificial system and as the fulfillment of the final Lamb he fit that model and that pattern but we are not saved by his blood there's a there's a weird theology that floats around that people have the turn the blood into a fetish and they actually believe that and then I've dealt try to deal with this there was some people who accuse me of denying the blood that somehow God collected all the actual blood of Jesus collected it all around the foot of the cross put it in a bowl and took it to heaven and it's up in heaven sitting on a mercy seat and every time somebody saved it's dumped out and recollected and then dumped out again and recollected of course this is wacky kind of theology there's nothing magic in Jesus blood I mean just I mean trying to think that through right there's nothing magic in his blood or his saliva or any other part of the fluids of the human body I don't need to get too graphic here I mean what we're talking about is his death and blood is a euphemistic way to refer to his death particularly when you realize the the bloodshed that occurred there so I'm not saying anything different than Orthodox Christianity has said for its entire history we are not saved by his bleeding or by his blood as a fluid but by his death okay this has to do with a Dave hunt it says do you agree or not with his view of the doctrine of selection no Dave Hunt has written a book which is a all-out attack on the doctrine of sovereign salvation and election and predestination and I have met with him personally because I regard him as a friend and I tried to address those things and talk those things through and even tried to provide some biblical responses to the approach that he's taking but he he sees the doctrine of sovereign election as a terrible thing I see it as the only hope of the sinner who has no capability to save himself I know we're getting close here to winding down I've got one final question for you it says are you going to wait another 10 years to come back to the Midwest it's not even cold no this is great weather I thank you for arranging that for me but but I I'm prepared for any kind of weather I was last last year at this time I was in Moscow and it was I don't know 30 40 below and so that doesn't really bother me I'm just very glad to be here I I responded to Italy by saying well I don't usually show up unless I've been invited well about you right anybody up for that but I'm glad to be here and I thank you very much thank you thank you again dr. John McArthur magnate back in character thanks Jeff thank you so much you

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Length: 51min 53sec (3113 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 03 2016