Bible Questions and Answers, Part 67

well we are happy to have you all here tonight tonight it's your time to ask questions there are three mics one in the each of the main aisles and let's begin by having you come up to the mic and just get in line behind these guys if you have a question one basic truth I want to communicate this is not stump the pasture that's pretty easy to do this is uh this is to have you ask a question that we can help you with now all I want to know is your name so I can have a conversation with you and then you can ask your question so Tom will have begin over on your side to my right hi Pastor John my name is Aldo and I just have a quick question this is um is one of the arguments used by post-tribulation ax stand my question is in regards to revelation twenty five chapter twenty verse five it speaks of the first resurrection and it places it after the tribulation and before the Millennium so the question is is this the same resurrection from first Thessalonians 4:16 the first resurrection let me just answer in general the first resurrection has three parts the first resurrection has an inauguration apart which is the resurrection of Jesus Christ he's the firstfruits of those who have come from the dead because the first resurrection is resurrection unto life and resurrection unto righteousness resurrection unto glory so the first resurrection includes Christ it includes the the second aspect of that is the rapture of the church according to 1st Thessalonians 4 that is where the dead in Christ rise first somebody said because they have 6 feet further to go but they rise first and then they are collected together with the Saints who are alive when Christ takes his church to heaven that is the second part of the first resurrection the third part of in a sense the first resurrection is the resurrection of the Saints in the time at the end of the age the end of the world age when God raises all from all the graves and gathers them into glory this is the resurrection promise for example in Daniel chapter 12 so the first resurrection as I understand it is the resurrection of the righteous there will be a second resurrection and that is the resurrection of the unrighteous to the great white throne they will be given resurrection bodies suited for hell and they will literally go into a final form of Hell they are now spirits without bodies they are spirits separated from God when people die they go out of the presence of God but they're not in their final form until that that second resurrection which is the second death also that is described in Revelation chapter 20 and that's when they are given a body suited for hell okay good question thank you alright we'll go to the middle my name is Ronald hi Ronald how're you doing tonight good the question is if is it ever okay for a Christian to stop talking to or shun apparent due to an argument dispute or incident is it ever okay to stop talking in the sense that you're shunning a parent right I have some family that they've stopped talking to their mother or father oh I just want to see get your input yeah there might be a point I mean that's kind of a judgment call there might be a point at which you decide that you have said everything you need to say you have exhausted your options you have done everything you could to reconcile everything could to communicate the gospel if they if they're offended by that and they're relentlessly offended by that and they turn against you you know I would maybe borrow the words of Jesus when he said don't cast your pearls before swine there comes a point where there's just no interest the hard heart has has become indifferent to what you have to say now having said that on a gospel level communicating the Word of God the truth of the gospel I still think that if it's a parent or a family member for that matter any any friend that has been a part of your life you got to keep the lines open and maybe maybe you don't have a long conversation maybe you don't engage them again because they know the truth and all it does is create some kind of argument and volatility and just makes things go you know to a worse level but but I think it's good to keep some door of communication open I know that is a problem that that is a problem virtually in almost every family there there's somebody at some point in almost everyone's family who is in a some kind of form of alienation and and you wonder where do I go next do I keep pursuing do I keep talking do I keep addressing them I think that there's no real rule for that but I I think all you can do is tell them the truth express love to them make a periodic connection with them leave the door open let them you want to let them know that that you're not the barrier and when they're ready to come back and have the kind of relationship that you would like them to have you're open to that okay thank you good evening Pastor John my name is dawn hi dawn hi I was raised in a legalistic background basically faith and works combined equal salvation since then I've come to Christ through faith alone but Satan still whispers in my ear saying well the fruits of the spirit if man is festive properly in the life of a Christian could equate to works and also we have James 2:14 which says faith by itself if it does not have works is dead can you please explain that a little bit yeah the way to understand that done is simply this works are not the means of your salvation they are the result of it I've I've said this recently in some other settings and I think I said it here when we're going through Galatians a few weeks ago we are saved by faith and grace alone but we will be judged by works it's it's it's very clear we will be judged by works in Romans chapter two we we hear from the Apostle Paul clearly that God will judge us according to our so works are the manifestation of the transformation they're not the reason for it they're not the means of it Jesus - I think feedings - 8 to 10 is probably the best portion to make that clear for by grace are you saved through faith that not of yourselves it is a gift of God you're saved by faith that not of yourselves it is a gift of God not of works lest any man should boast but we are saved unto good works which God has before ordained that we should walk in them another way to look at it is God has saved a people who are zealous for good works God has saved a people who are transformed born again and they're marked by good works they're marked by both attitudinal fruit love joy peace gentleness goodness faith meekness self-control and behavioral fruit the fruit of their lips is praise the fruit of their life is service they use their spiritual gifts gifted by the Holy Spirit they're engaged in the one anothers there they seek to do ministry they seek to proclaim the gospel so the difference is you can't count on any of that to save you but you can be certain that if you have been saved those works are going to follow and that's what James is saying faith without works is dead because a true saving faith brings about new birth transformation regeneration new life and you heard twice tonight the quoting of 2nd Corinthians 5:17 If any persons in Christ he's a new creation old things are gone and new things come so it's it's a question of where you put the works they're not the reason you're saved but they are the manifestation of that transformation as long as you understand that difference you'll understand where works belong and again I remind all of you what you heard again tonight and we hear it so often in Baptism I thought I was a Christian I thought I was a Christian but my life didn't show it right we several times tonight and that's pretty typical of almost every baptismal service even people being baptized going to church but what they love and what they desire and what they think and what they feel and what they say or what they do are not consistent with that as we heard again tonight and the difference is that you heard those people say now my life has changed I desire the Word of God I desire Christian Fellowship I love the Lord I want to do what honors him that that's the evidence of that salvation by grace alone through faith alone okay hi my question is on what's your name sorry will hi will hi my question is on social justice in love typically relevant verse is in mark 8:36 of what will profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul mm-hmm Aradia Christians use this in their as a central aspect of their understanding of love a particularly relevant one today seems to be generally hurt by consider the Christians upper molar stated he did not sign the statement on social the social adjustment statement in part G to Southern Bath asked Baptist position that Christians also make the world a better place a Christian leader who signed the social trust mean social adjustment statements responded by denying making the world a better place as a biblical mandate under the reasoning of what good is due to the war for it to be a better place more separated from God I had a personal reaction with a Bible study leader here that made a similar argument a variety and Christians disagree this sort of depiction of love study Matthew 5:45 what I said the Father causes the Sun to rise on evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous as a testament to his universal love okay they kinda a cluster of questions I think yeah kind of Tom you be screening those people so what is the question what is your understanding of Matthew 16:26 what good doesn't man that obtains love look let me let me answer the big the bigger question is not Matthew and it's it's not the other scriptures the bigger question comes back to what I've just been saying first of all let me just say this justice is not a word that needs an adjective and if somebody puts an adjective on justice then they have something else in mind justice is justice justice is what is right now when we talk about social justice I try to make this clear in the series we did on Ezekiel but let me let me answer this I understand that no temporal political social enterprise is a component of the saving gospel okay that's what I'm saying certainly we believe in justice for all we are to live justly we are to do justice it says in Scripture we are to give justice to every man beyond justice we're to be marked by love we are to be marked by sacrificial compassion we're to be marked by kindness mercy tenderness loving kindness just as God is never are you more like God than when you love and never more like that than when you love your enemies we are to be marked by love and kindness and mercy and compassion we're to care for widows we're to care for orphans we're to care for the oppressed we are to deliver people from from trials and difficulties burdens that are too hard to bear we are to visit those who are in prison we are to care for the sick we are to be in the hospitals with those who are hurting we already do everything we can as Christians in the world to relieve the difficulties of those our around us to show the love of God and the model for that is Jesus himself because when Jesus came into the world in order to declare his deity he could have done a lot of things he could have done many things that would have demonstrated his deity he could have done some astonishing things he he did occasionally create but what he did most of all to demonstrate his deity was heal heal sick people feed hungry people raise dead people so that he was not only demonstrating the power of God but he was demonstrating the compassion of God the tender loving mercy of God toward those who suffer so no one no one who is a Christian would ever deny anyone who suffers or anyone who has difficulty love and care that is not the question the question is is somehow that part of the saving gospel and the answer is what I just said to dawn no but that behavior is the evidence of a transformed heart it's not the it's not part of it it's the evidence of it you can go to the New Testament you will never find you will never find anything other than believing in the Lord Jesus Christ confessing him as Lord believing his death and resurrection believe in the true God the true Christ his life death substitutionary atonement resurrection exaltation lordship believing that infesting your sin repenting that's the gospel nothing can be added to that gospel but gospel transformed people of course are called to be Christ in the world the church is the body of Christ in the world we are Christ in the world and the world needs to see our redemption in our love and kindness yes God has demonstrated his kindness to the whole world the rain does fall on the just and the unjust there what theologians called common grace common grace is sunshine and rain and a good meal and love and marriage and children and and every beautiful thing in life that's common grace that's that's God loving all men in in in some way and we are - we are to literally fill the world with that common grace and if you go back in history you will find that Christianity has done that the Christians are basically the ones who have changed the world wherever you have had Christianity for centuries you have the most advanced societies providing the most care for people it was Christians who developed nursing hospitals and all of that basically had its roots in the transformation the gospel made in people's lives that caused them to reach out to care for people if you go back in history to primitive cultures they were happy to behead each other and kill each other Christians changed the character of the world wherever they have gone and that's the way it absolutely should be but that is not social justice that is not what people are talking about when they talk about social justice that's a that's a Marxist kind of phrase that is really used to deconstruct society to to shatter the structure of society to overturn the powers that be it really has no solution it's just iconoclastic it just wants to break up and destroy it has been tried many times nothing new and it is destructive it always has been destructive Christian's don't do that we don't destroy the culture we don't try to overturn we don't do revolution we are known as those who honor the king right and all those in authority over us because they're ministers of God we are those who pray for the salvation of our leaders and our rulers we are those who live quiet and peaceable lives in the world we aren't revolutionaries we aren't wreck at reactionaries we aren't activists we don't start riots we don't storm the streets we don't smash the doors of the Supreme Court we don't do any of those things we love people we care for people we minister to people's needs we accept the authority that is in power we know that it's ordained by God and if you start tearing into that Authority and you weaken that authority you will have increasing anarchy and you will go back to a primitive kind of society where we can barely survive God has ordained a human conscience to restrict people's sin he has ordained the family and the rod to restrict people sin and where you have the conscience breaking down because there's no moral law being taught to people so their conscience doesn't know what to react to and where you have the complete collapse of the family you have no rod to bring inflicted training on children you have a population of potential criminals and where you weaken the power of the police and you weaken the power of Authority you're gonna get an R key and all hell breaks loose and you see glimpses of all hell breaking loose whenever you see it the kind of a riot that police can't control that's the human heart without the controls that God has placed that's why the Bible says those in authority don't bear the sword in vain there are ministers of God Romans 13 so we don't tear up culture we don't try to overturn leadership we don't attack we don't have riots and revolutions we quietly graciously lovingly mercifully kindly care for people and we love them and we show them the very love that God has shown us even in the common grace in his creation social justice is a fancy name for disrupting society for breaking down its institutions you see it and being activated in universities where students want to take over the school and overturn the of the teachers you see it in in governments where rioting people want to overpower the police and you saw it recently even in the steps of the Supreme Court that is not how Christians behave our God is sovereign our God rules in the world and our God has called on us to be known by our what our love our love that love has to be shown to those that are hurting and depressed and mistreated in our society no matter who they are but social justice is a formula for complete social disruption and that's what's going on in our culture I don't know that we can survive it to be honest because ultimately if it keeps going the way it's going to go we're gonna end up in a police state because it can't get out of control and and reliable to have an army just to control the citizens of this country rather than to try to prevent another country from attacking us as Christians we live peaceable God exalting Christ honoring lives and we do everything we can to meet the need of every person and in Christ there's neither Jew nor Greek male and a female bond or free we're all one in him right and we show that love okay hi Pastor John my name is Jason hi Jason I want to say thank you for your faithfulness to preaching God's Word and my question is regarding revelation 8:7 it says since revelation is in chronological order why does chapter 8 verse 7 describe all the grass being burned up and then chapter 9 verse 4 says the fifth angel blew his trumpet and said do not harm the grass of the earth does it grow back by then or am i misunderstanding it will ya I'd have to go a little deeper into looking into that but yes Revelation is chronological and when you come to this part of it you've come to the Seventh Seal and out of the Seventh Seal come the seven trumpets this is at the very end or near the very end of the period of the time of tribulation I haven't looked at it in detail enough to be able to make a comparison between grass being burned up here and grass appearing somewhere else where else did you say the grass appeared okay let me look at that for a second yeah that's that you're exactly right it's a good point I don't know I'll have to take a look at that in more detail there's grass in eight seven I mean there's no grass in eight seven at least ostensibly a third of the earth was burned up a third of the trees and all the green grass was burned up we could assume that apparently makes a comeback if it appears if it appears in chapter nine verse four I've known grass to do that so this seems to be something that wasn't final innate wasn't final because the the demons that come out of the pit in Chapter nine are told not to harm that so and I said I think it's important to remember that these are a flurry of devastating judgments that don't destroy everything but part of it part of it until finally our Lord comes and redoes the earth for his own Kingdom okay I'll look a little more into that just kind of kind of a curious question hi John my name is Andrew and thanks for being our pastor first of all I got your booklet here is it real 11 biblical tests of genuine salvation and one of the things you say is have you experienced communing with God in Christ have you sensed their presence and you said fairly recently in a sermon you were talking about basically the more mystical movements and you we're seeing how you've never felt God's presence you've never basically sensed his you never felt the presence of God and I just want you to clarify that and then as a follow up when you do pray you're praying for direction or an answer to something a yes or no should I go this way that way how do you how do you generally get the answer because I know you know we don't hear voices so how do you use right the answer good question Andrew when I say as a believer one of the evidences that you are a believer is when you've maybe sense wouldn't be the best word but I had a choice between sense God or experience God and either one of them is a little bit difficult to explain what I mean by that is is your life evidently filled with Providence's that could only be orchestrated by heaven I that is to me one of the great evidences that I belong to God is nothing seems to happen in my life randomly nothing it's every day of my life is another day of divine intersections where God has orchestrated something to happen that is so evidently heavenly because of its outcome I don't know that coming I don't even know it at the moment but in retrospect how did that ever happen how did that conversation ever come up how did I ever meet that person how did those circumstances ever become aligned to accomplish such a wonderful divine end I say that all the time about the people God brings into my life there are there's a range of ministry in my life that is pretty hard to understand pretty hard to imagine when you have a university a seminary they have a church you have grace to you you have TM AI you have you know all of these ministries and a Providence of God that is just just miraculous in the providential sense that I am never unaware of I am aware of it all the time is how God has brought into my life and to our lives the right person for every single responsibility and it's a it's a movement of God that never could have been orchestrated it never could have been done so that's what I meant by that that when you are a believer your life all of a sudden becomes a chronology of heavenly events you can't explain your life any other way okay good question hey Pastor John just want to thank you so much for the opportunity to come up here and ask a question thank this church so much for all of its faithful leadership the elders here and those leading the Bible studies which I'm just sorry your name Joseph hi Joseph I had a particular question just a general one about prayer let's say you a lot about 30 minutes in the morning to pray and you're you're faithful to the prior time and you enjoy it and you enjoy Communion and worship to the Lord and asking for a request for particular people and you're on a consistent basis of doing so but there are times where you you know you wake in the morning and you just don't want to pray even though you know it's a commandment and that we should and it's so helpful for people do we force ourselves to pray when we don't want to or we do we just refrain well yeah yeah look Paul says in Romans I I don't do what I want to do and I do what I don't want to do so he had metz the admits that his want is involved you're never going to be the kind of Christian who just flows into spiritual disciplines as a as the sort of default position holiness is not a default position you're always going to you're always going to have to have a conscious will to obey a conscious sense of responsibility that doesn't lessen the purity of that spiritual experience in any way at all the fact that it's a discipline fact that you you have to you have to do it even when you don't want to do it the fact that you don't want to do it and don't do it is a lot worse than you don't want to do it but you do it so that's just part of Christian life and discipline it's always going to be an uphill struggle particularly in prayer because prayer is such an such an intimate reality and of course you can pray anytime and all the time as I know Christians do but yes that that is a discipline that requires you to commit to doing it to give you a parallel in all honesty I don't want to come here every Sunday and preach do you find that hard to believe but I mean there are times when I say I think I'd rather stay in bed I am tired and this morning was one of them fact that that's not unusual in in the driving activities of life that you would have those kinds of rough times but that doesn't lessen the value or the blessing of that spiritual discipline when you do okay where are we over here my Pastor John fine my name is Latricia question is on the fall in Romans 5 and 12 it says sin came into the world through one man and it seems to be that the focus is on the man but in Genesis 3:7 it says then the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked but before he didn't seem to like know that she was naked or maybe she just didn't react at first like how would I better understand that if it if it just had been Eve that bit the Apple nutrition you ought to be glad that the man got the blame [Music] that's that's headship that's God's design we can assume that there was some measure of responsibility which Adam should have taken on behalf of Eve to give her some protection and some covering from the serpent because the Apostle Paul says Adam was not deceived she was deceived so but but God has ordained that there's a sense in which Adam was designed by God as the head he acted for the race just as Christ acted for the redeemed race that's just by God's design that's the headship of the man the submission of the women it doesn't mean that they're unequal spiritually or unequal in any other way it's just that somebody has to have the responsibility of leadership and protection and care and be the deliverer the rescuer the Savior in that relationship so God identified Adam as as the head the representative of humanity and the representative of Eve and so it was sin of Adam that marks the fall as it is the righteousness of Christ that marks the rescue and that's purely by God's design God is the head of Christ Christ is the head of the man the man is the head of the woman as Paul says in first Corinthians okay okay thank you my name is Kristen Christian yeah good name so a friend of mine once told me with regards to you foreknowledge of God that there was not a time or a point in eternity that God never knew us so I've always known us and that time I dismissed it you know because of I had a different view so but then I heard it from you from all of Jeff's family and I cannot dismiss what I heard hence the question if that is so then is creation you know imperative that God had to create us because of what he knew in eternity and if that's the truth do we worship up in a free God or an eternal database where who doesn't have any choice but to do what is you know no I understand you I understand what you're saying is it all predetermined by God look there's never been time with God so there's never been a time when God didn't know something because there's never been time and since God is omniscient God has always known where he's always known and never not known what he's always known which means he's always known everything and he created with perfect knowledge with perfect knowledge and he created for his own redemptive purpose he created so that he could bring a redeemed people to heaven as a bride for his son and so that he would have redeemed humanity in heaven to show the Angels attributes that the Angels would never have seen because salvation was never extended to angels so they would never have seen his mercy grace his forgiveness his salvation so God created the universe he knew there's nothing he didn't know about about anything so he created it to fulfill his will however it no point in Scripture does God say that mankind is not responsible for his behavior in fact God holds sinners responsible it's not fatalistic determinism and I can't fully explain that but that's exactly what scripture says look I'm content not to be able to explain God that that means God is far greater than I am I don't need to have him fit between my ears but I do know this God is holy and God does not create people for hell he sends them there when they reject him so there is human responsibility and human volition in the middle of this does God know of course he knows but that doesn't necessarily remove the responsibility you might know somebody's going to do something you might know exactly what they're going to do you're you're not responsible for the doing of it but you know it's coming because you have some signals that it's coming in a microcosm that's how it is with God there's nothing he doesn't know from the beginning to the end there's nothing outside his knowledge there's nothing outside his presence his presence is as infinite as his knowledge and trying to fit into that human behavior human volition human will is is a very difficult thing philosophically or intellectually or rationally but not scripturally because the scripture says you will die in your sins jesus said John because you believe not on me and where I go you can't come so the man within the framework of God's will still bears culpability for his sin and unbelief but does that mean that God is free that he freely created or he didn't have any choice no God God is completely free completely independent God always does exactly what he wants to do nobody tells God what to do nobody has told him what to do nobody gave him advice nobody no one gives him counsel that's part of the benediction at the end of Romans 11 nobody says anything to God nobody gives him any information nobody prompts him nobody motivates him he does exactly what he chooses to do as the infinite sovereign okay all right good thanks are we over here yeah hey Pastor John how are ya good good so just in a conversation with friends and I I guess coworkers I had a question about your social justice serious sure is there any difference between social justice and the social gospel and if so what are they I'm afraid there's a pretty clear connection and I'll just I'll run it by very quickly whenever whenever the commitment to the to the Word of God begins to weaken in in the church's history whenever and wherever the commitment to the Word of God begins to weaken the church kind of sinks into social efforts independent of the gospel not the kind of social efforts that are done by born-again regenerated believers but the church begins to become a society of social change because when it begins to weaken its grip on Scripture and its sense of the authority of Scripture and the purity of Scripture and the purity of the gospel and that happens in the church because Satan shows false teachers and tares in the church so there's always a false church and the false church has a weak view of Scripture therefore it has a weak view of the gospel it wants to have some reason to exist that it wants to make a difference in the world so it turns to social issues now this is exactly what we see in our own country go back to a couple hundred years ago in fact back to the beginning of the 20th century and you can see it and even before that at the end of the century liberalism began to flourish you came from Europe and it began to flourish in the United States and it basically destroyed all the convictions of all the seminaries and the seminaries begin to produce men who didn't believe the Word of God didn't believe the gospel wanted the beef believe the best about humanity and in wanting to believe the best about mankind that mankind was basically good and wanting to win the favor of the world they began to turn toward what we call the social gospel and so they began to do philanthropic work they began to care for people it didn't take long before once the gospel had vacated the pulpit and the Bible was gone these social efforts were all that was left and as a result of that the mainline denominations in America that had such historic beginnings around creeds and doctrinal statements began to die out this Keable Church Methodist Church Presbyterian Church American Baptist denomination those were all denominations that basically followed the pathway and it's it's a series of steps you weaken the view of Scripture you begin to deny the inerrancy of scripture and when you deny the inerrancy of Scripture then you're free to interpret scripture any way you want and then you take the offense out and then you try to help people in their physical needs or whatever new that's kind of what was called the social gospel and it was the replacement for the saving gospel the true gospel it killed the denominations in this country they're they're dead their churches are big rock piles with nobody in them and they're losing more people all the time if they're any any people left at all their seminaries are they're in the hands of Satan for certain so that was the path of the social gospel we're seeing it recycling again and I want to I want to just make a couple comments on this as the church now and and I pointed this out in the series event Jellicle photo quote decided a few years ago that they wanted to win the world and the the the youth culture of the world was pulling apart from the the adult culture so it was very highly defined and if they were gonna reach this young generation they were going to have to make some adjustments so the evangelicals started changing their style the style of how they did church and how they dressed and how they talked and all of that they thought we're going to win the world we haven't changed the message we just changed the style and now the world is never going to be content with just the style change they want the message to change because it offends them they've got a message and their message is social justice not not just for racial groups but social justice for women social justice for LGBTQ social justice for any disaffected kind of minority group they see is on the bottom rung of society so evangelicalism has had to chase once they started chasing the world and said we're going to become like the world so we can win them and we'll just we'll just change the style but we'll keep the message pretty soon the world demanded a different message and so for a while it was well we're gonna we're gonna give them we're gonna accommodate their message we're gonna we're gonna go down the path that they're down we're gonna go down the path of maybe feminism and all this other stuff in social justice but we're gonna hang on to the gospel we're gonna hang on to the gospel that didn't last very long in fact I might recommend to you that you check out a website that Ligonier ministries put together our Sea Scrolls ministry called the state of theology com the state of theology com you will be shocked to see 78% of Christian evangelicals in America believe Jesus was created by God 78% of evangelicals believe Jesus was created by God that is an Arian heresy that is to say if you're a Christian you likely believe a heresy about Christ and you're not saved they don't believe in biblical authority they don't believe that the Bible is absolute truth they want to make a place for homosexuality sex before marriage it's this shocking thing to see but this is what happens when you begin to chase the world and you give the world the message the world wants to hear you start omitting doctrine because that's where the offense lies and then you have quote-unquote some kind of evangelicalism that is in itself a heresy it doesn't take long just decide that you're going to let the world dictate what you say you say okay we'll just do the style that's not enough then they want you to get into their world and their message and pretty soon they want you to put your gospel aside because that's what so offends them we're there that particular survey will be shocking to many people I've seen it coming for a long long time but the heading of it which I thought was interesting was if you're an evangelical you probably believe heresy that's frightening but that's what happens when the church leaves the Word of God and leaves the purity of the gospel and adds anything onto it to accommodate the culture in all honesty not only are individuals doing this but individual pastors doing this but whole denominations are doing this when somebody stands up as a denominational president and says our main goal is social justice our main goal is to is to develop reparations for women who've been offended our main goal is to welcome those who self identify as LGBTQ the Bible has been set aside so again I go back to what I said at the beginning we believe that we are to live in this world in such a way that we make a difference in society but that's the fruit of the gospel if you put that alongside or in front of the gospel you destroy the gospel the church loses its mission what kind of church is it that believes Jesus is a created being that's that's not a church and those aren't believers very serious okay hi I'm Hayden I wanted to ask if God is a loving God and there are people in the world who don't have access to the gospel and never will why would God continue to allow these people to be created sure for his glory the question comes up a lot if God is the God of love and mercy and compassion and he knows people are going to go to hell why does he continue to create them right that is what's called the basically that's the ultimate problem that's the ultimate agnostic atheist problem we say God is all-powerful and all-loving if he's all-powerful why doesn't he save everybody and if he's all loving why would he send anyone to hell the answer to that is simply this God is who he is and you can't invent him and you can't change him and you can't all for him you can either believe in him or not believe in him you can't accommodate him to your own thinking and that means if you don't understand his perfect righteousness and perfect holiness the problems with you and not him I don't expect to fully understand God because I have a jaded viewpoint because of my own fallenness and my own sinfulness I don't expect to have a full comprehension of an absolutely holy being God doesn't ask me to be able to reason everything about him in my my pygmy mind but God does ask me to believe in him and when he says he is holy and when he says he has no pleasure in the death of the wicked that that is a true expression of God I don't know how that works together with his sovereign purpose and his sovereign ends that's that is the ultimate question but as I always say when we have a QA in every major doctrine that comes from God and touches us there's going to be an apparent paradox for example if I say who wrote Romans you're gonna say Paul wrote Romans or somebody might say well actually was the Holy Spirit was it all Paul yes was that all the Holy Spirit yes was it a hundred percent Paul yes was a 100 percent the Holy Spirit yes that's impossible it can't be two hundred percent of something if I ask you who lives your Christian life if you say I do you're taking too much credit if you say God does you're not taking enough responsibility I wouldn't blame it on God and I wouldn't take credit for it you have the same dilemma in everything if you asked is Jesus God or is He Man the answer is yes fully God fully man or truly God truly man you have that apparent paradox because you have the infinite God and His infinite perfections coming down to such a small small mind putting the eternal one in a tiny little package God finds no pleasure in the death of the wicked God weeps through the eyes of Jeremiah over the death of the wicked God's heart is broken Jesus stood over the city of Jerusalem and wept the prophets say why will you die why will you die Jesus says the same thing why will you not believe in me why do you reject me so you don't want to turn God into some imaginary fatalistic being you want to take the full revelation of his nature from the Word of God he is the god revealed in Scripture okay good afternoon Pastor John thank you for taking the time to answer a question sure I've had the opportunity to Oh my name is Jorge Jorge Vasquez I've had the opportunity to minister to people who have been raped and then I get the opportunity to preach in jail and men who have raped people but if you had both of them in the room a person who has been raped and the person who did the rape how would you minister to both well there's really little hope of human reconciliation at the point of such a her incredible horrendous crime but but I I would say the remedy is always going to be the same in Christ they become brother and sister how bizarre is that the rapist and the victim in Christ become brother and sister we are called to forgiveness are we not to forgive seventy times seven as I was saying this morning God forgave God forgave Adam and Eve for taking down his entire universe and that's the beauty if it ever is going to happen you know Paul says in first Corinthians such were some of you he goes through immoral homosexuals effeminate all this murderers but you are washed you're cleansed the only way ever to really reconcile people is in Christ because it's it's it's the default position of the human heart to hate it's just we hate by nature we hate God we hate his truth we love ourselves so we hate anybody that intrudes on us that stands in our way that harms us and certainly this culture has set that loose so I think to be able to say to people in that kind of a setting that in Christ with your sins forgiven and you become a new creation you could become brother and sister that's the power of the gospel thank you mm-hmm my name is Kyle well in light of a lot of the missed reference misrepresentation of the Holy Spirit especially in the church the charismatic church and a lot of the music today should we worship the Holy Spirit the same way we do the father and the son in our church services and if so how should we be doing that yeah the answer is of course you worship Father Son and Holy Spirit you worship them equally has the three members of the Trinity the issue is not we don't want we don't want to let the charismatic turn us against the Holy Spirit and that's why we had a strange fire conference a few years ago and I gave an opening message in fact I did I think I I did in like a 10 part series on the Holy Spirit sort of trying to get the Holy Spirit back in biblical focus you might want to listen to some of those may not all of them but some of them know we worship the father we worship the Sun we worship the Holy Spirit in spirit and in truth we we praise them we praise the father for designing the plan we praised the son for providing the sacrifice that made the plan possible and we praise the Holy Spirit for regenerating us so that we could embrace the plan of salvation that the father had designed in the son had ratified so we worship a triune God and again that that comes back to that bizarre quote that I gave you that 78% of Christians think Jesus was the most important being God created that is just such a blatant heresy that he is a created being that's Mormonism that's cultism so yes we need to worship the Father Son and the Holy Spirit and we try to be very conscious of that I love what one theologian said and he said we need to hold them in our affections evenly we need to hold them in our affections evenly okay good question to go over to the left hi my name is Ethan hi Ethan and I have heard someone 1990 through 11 and I want to follow that but it to do that how much time would you recommend spending in God's Word daily well Ethan how much time in God's Word daily what he's saying is how can a young man keep his way pure by keeping it according to your word right so you know to keep your way pure you have to be in the word I think as much as possible but but I would I would encourage you maybe as a young guy start with 15 or 20 minutes every day and I think what will happen to you is what happened to me when I was very young and started reading the Bible it's so fascinating me that I couldn't put it down and I found myself reading it a lot more so I I'm happy if you have a MacArthur Study Bible but it would be really good if you got a small one you could stick in your pocket and take it with you and when you get a little time here and there just be reading it because it will control your thoughts and that's how you keep your way pure I have found for me that reading through books is the best way and and I would start in the New Testament and take some short books and everyday just read that book and read the same book 30 days like Philippians 30 days it'd take you 15 or 20 minutes maybe or so to read Philippians come back the next day do that for 30 days you'll know if Philippians you'll know what's in it you'll know where chapter 2 is on the page you'll visualize it go to another book when you come to a big book like John read 5 chapters every day for a month and eventually as the months go by you will have embraced that whole book it's much better to read books than to just kind of read spotty and randomly around because when God gave us his word he gave us books 66 books and in particular the New Testament books so I've encouraged you to do and if you set not so much a clock target but a book target okay I'm gonna read the first five chapters of John everyday for 30 days I know when I first did that I started with first John and I read it for 30 days than I thought I want to do that again so I read it for 90 days and and I had first John in my mind and once it was mine I didn't need to have my Bible because I could see it with my mind's eye so I think the best way is not the time but pick an amount that you can read every day and just keep reading it over and over and over that make sense yeah thank you you're welcome good evening thank you for being here my name's Steven my Steven it seems to be a divisive conversation but do you think Christians should celebrate Halloween do I know [Music] no it's just ridiculous right it isn't about just a bunch of feels more demonic every every year and and and you know they start pumping out all these books and all these movies and all these television programs that are just some satanic fantasies of horror just awful no just avoid it thank you have a Fall Festival we got time for a couple more I think we probably ought to do this again so okay hi Pat McGrath it um my name is true I drill high I was hesitant to ask this question because the topic has come up a couple of times already but my question is are Christian activists for sex trafficking what some will call quote-unquote social justice warriors or are there efforts fruit of the gospel that they to say they believe no no I think sex trafficking is a horrendous crime devastating I think it's wonderful when Christian people want to do something do anything to stop that I think as a general rule as believers in any time we can ever stop crime we can ever stop the destruction of of any group of people and the Lord gives us the opportunity to step into that and do something about it that that's a noble and that's a righteous thing to do God hates that God hates the defacing of his image even in young even in unregenerate people mean that we're creating the image of God that is a horrific defacing of people destructive and I think those who who engage in that are doing a wonderful service however a lot of people get involved in that who don't have any gospel knowledge to offer which is the only real solution so that's important okay I'm gonna two more sorry you're the non-elect for tonight passage on my name is George hi George I want to take us back many moons ago I was one of the first students from dr. Jay Burnham McGee that started a barber class in South Central LA mm-hmm and you came down and preached for us a number of times and you gave us a little red photon right here don't leadership it's a little rare book and I'm in Jordan how long ago was that George uh 1962 [Music] you were much younger back in those days are you mark my question is is that I've written I can't believe you got that thing in your hand number time but I was wondering if you had today little more information on the role of the woman in the church because I'm having to deal with some of that the role like elders and women pastors I'm having to deal with that do you have something you have in prayer of whatever or Georgia but I got more stuff than you can carry out avoid yes Karl's gonna make sure you get all of it you can take he's gonna take you to the book store and he's gonna get you everything you know okay thank you George okay hi Pastor John I'm Jayden I've heard that the best way to kill sin is by having a greater affection for God I was wondering how do you reverse the affection for sin toward a greater affection for Christ in order to kill that sin Jaden that's such a wonderful question [Music] God is so magnificent and particularly as he has revealed himself in Christ God spoke hebrews 1 says in time pass in many ways to the father's but in these last days he's spoken unto us in his son who is the image of the invisible god so for me it's the beauty of christ that overpowers the attraction of sin 2nd corinthians 3:18 as you gaze at his glory you're changed into his image from one level of glory to the next by the Holy Spirit the Christian life is not about hoping for some event to bump you up some emotional feeling some experience it's about seeing the beauty the glory the Wonder the magnificence the incomparable majesty of Jesus Christ he is so glorious so wonderful so far beyond anyone that everything pales compared to him you have to replace the affection for sin with a greater affection and that is that that is the sum of all commandments the summation of all Commandments the first and greatest commandment love the Lord your God with all what your heart soul mine it's about love it's about love how do you grow to love him by knowing him how do you know him he's here through my life but eight nine years in Matthew 910 years in Luke few years in mark twice in John the last time several years I added all that up and just in the Gospels here at Grace Church I've probably preached nearly 25 years in the Gospels which meant that I was looking at Christ every week for all those 25 years and then he's revealed in Romans and then he's revealed in Colossians and then he's revealed in the book of Revelation and as you read the Word of God it's it's Christ that you see and then I remember when we when we finished going through the Gospel of John here at Grace Church some people asked me if we could now go back to the Old Testament in a whole series on finding Christ in the Old Testament we saw his beauty there and we started from Luke 24 where Jesus said to the disciples on the road to Emmaus that they didn't know what they should have known so he went into the Old Testament the law of the prophets and holy writings to speak of the things concerning himself and he revealed himself to them from the Old Testament and it says in Luke 24 they said to one another did not our hearts burn within us that's the Fellowship of the burning heart that when you see the wonder of Christ on top of that to go back and write commentaries for volumes on Matthew four volumes on Luke two volumes on John two volume on Mark so many years of my life have been completely engulfed in studying Christ then the book of Hebrews presents Christ and the other books in the New Testament I I don't think there's there's any experience that you could have there's any moment in life that can take you to a place where you have literally put Christ in the priority role in your heart nothing is going to take you there except getting to know him and that is going to drive you to Scripture the more you know him the more you love him the more you love him the more you love God and the more you long to love him more and this should characterize the church shouldn't it this love and it does characterize our church and it's it's why we love each other too isn't it because we love him so make Christ the object of your love get to know him as he's revealed here okay that was a great question thank you for wrapping things up at the highest point

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Keywords: John MacArthur, Bible, Preaching, Christianity, Expository, Exposition, Sermon, Jesus, Christ

Id: P5OLYOT5qUw

Length: 66min 52sec (4012 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 01 2018