Bible Questions and Answers, Part 68

welcome to all of you who are here tonight for our question and answer time we're gonna have a time for you to ask whatever questions on your mind we have some we have some agents who are going down to the microphones they're gonna help you process yourself a little bit tonight so we get to the questions if you have a question all you do is find your way to a microphone this is an opportunity for me to find out what's on your heart and to perhaps be of help to you and answering your question all right we'll start in the middle the one requirement is give me your name so I knew who I'm talking to well good morning and good evening John it's Anna Sanders I am on behalf of women young women young married women with children and it's about your series that you have been doing about the rapture so some of the ladies in my every woman's grace group and Seminary wives have approached me and I think I know the answer might be in your little book that I love safe in the arms of God but I'm not sure so here's the question and they would appreciate your answer to this question with some verses to support it if you have them and if anybody would have them you would so the question is where there is a dilemma faced by mother of young children when they pray for the return of Christ which were excited to do but they're they're conflicted so they want to know will their young children be raptured with her she's they're born again but their little two-year-old three-year-old and four year old are still they don't understand repentance yet do you know what I mean yeah that's a very good question and it's a question that comes up has come up frequently through the years yes and the simple answer is the Bible doesn't talk about it it doesn't say anything about it we could assume that since those little ones belong to the Lord that they go to heaven but we cannot narrow that down to just the children of Christian moms or just the children of Christian families because scripture doesn't say anything about that so we're sort of left to I guess maybe extend the whole idea that the little ones belong to the Lord yeah and you know I would I would lean toward the idea that the Lord would gather the little ones to himself in that hour rather than leave them to the day of the Lord but that would be based only upon the general reference to the fact that our Lord said in mark chapter 10 permit the little ones to come unto me for of such is the kingdom of heaven so if in fact before they reach an age of accountability where they can either accept or reject the Lord they are a part of his kingdom then it it might be reasonable conjecture to assume that the Lord is not going to take the Saints out and leave the world full of little children who are orphaned but but even beyond the little children of the saints if all little children belong to him before they reach the age of accountability one could assume that maybe he's going to gather them all up to himself rather than leave them for the judgments of the day of the Lord but that's that's that's only a reasonable conjecture we don't have a specific testimony of Scripture however at what you said about the book safe in the arms of God yes all of those statements of truth in the Bible that says the Lord takes care of the little ones could be applied to that that judgment event excellent thank you you're welcome thank you to my left Merry Christmas I know if a pastor what's your name Christian Christian I got it I know the pastor who you know like a friend to me for years have reached you know a believer could lose their salvation I'm having a very hard time hearing you so you need to speak really clearly to me all right it's from sure it's my fault so help me know I'm a little bit nervous this way to be clear so a pastor whom I know for many years ago loves the Lord but the only thing is he preaches that you know believer could lose their salvation and for years to this day actually preaches that so is it even possible that he is a believer yeah now I understand the question this is a pastor who loves the Lord serve the Lord for years preaches that believer can lose salvation can that pastor be a true believer the answer is of course of course he can be a true believer there are a lot of true believers with bad theology as long as their theology is right about their sin and right about the gospel and right about salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone they can have other errors in their theology and I'll give you a classic illustration of your over there with Mark zakovitch and he can tell you from his own experience having come from the former Soviet Union that historically the idea that you can lose your salvation was was the foundational understanding of the whole Russian evangelical church they all believed you could lose your salvation I I have spent many many times when I went there I spent hours and hours and hours with leaders I remember being in Belarus being in a former communist military camp at a pastors conference and we were there for three or four days in the barracks and and I was teaching a lot of things from the Word of God but they kept coming back to the fact that they wanted me to know that I was wrong to think you couldn't lose your salvation that you can lose your salvation and so one evening I gave a long lesson on how you cannot lose your salvation in the first place that's eternal life and Romans 8 nothing shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus nothing at all Paul says so they the leaders of that group after I finished that spent all night they didn't go to sleep I went to sleep I slept like a baby I had my theology right then they stayed up all night and they were by morning they had a whole list of questions and Bible passages that I needed to answer now these are precious pastors these are these are men who were persecuted for the faith some of them imprisoned in Siberia for the faith these are people who love the Lord who stood firmly against the Communist powers and communist government for Christ so yes there are many Christians who who don't have a full understanding of sound doctrine but they they are true believers again that this all starts because you have a faulty idea of salvation and that is that it's something that you have to hang on to rather than it's something from God that he hangs on to you your security never in Scripture is your security tied to your ability to hang on it's always tied to the promise and power of God but sometimes when that's a very traditional doctrine that's been around a long time people give it up unless easily and I think in the case of the people in in Russia what they saw when the Communist revolution came and what they saw when persecution came against believers was that many people who profess to be believers walked away and so one explanation is that they were never saved and they they demonstrated they were never saved like first John 2 they went out from us because they were not of us but their interpretation of that was they walked away from salvation they walked away from eternal life but they were true believers so I I think true believers can believe you can lose your salvation even though they can't okay so they have a better theology than they actually know they are secure even if they don't think so and that's the goodness of God good question okay hi John hi my name is Richard razor yes hi Richard thank you for your faithfulness to God to His Word and for your expository care to us these many many years I've heard expressions and churches things like God put on my heart to get you a little gift and God led me to pray for you today don't these comments trace expressions sound genuine and innocent enough but this same pattern can continue and progress on two expressions like God put on my heart to buy a new car or things like that question if the latter is clearly bogus wouldn't the former be equally presumptuous thank you yeah I think it's a slippery slope Richard I really do if you start saying things like the Lord put it on my heart to do this and do that how do you know that how do you know that how do you know that was the Lord that that's a dangerous category to operate in maybe the Lord does want you to have a new car maybe he wants you to have an old car maybe he wants you to walk maybe he wants to make Luber successful but whatever it is you're not gonna know that you don't have access to that you don't have access to his will I I think it's better to say having considered all the options I think I need a car or because I care about you I want to buy you a gift I I think we do play very fast and loose with attributing things to God and it might be harmless at some point to say well the Lord put you on my heart and so I prayed for you that's possible that is possible that the Lord brought someone to mind that you needed to pray for but again how do you know that that was actually the Lord you don't have a red light on your head that goes on when it's the Lord and stays off when it's just you you don't have any mechanism to know that and so I I think you have to be careful with that kind of language particularly in the the evangelical and evangelicalism of our time when so many charismatic people have pushed that to an absolutely extreme point where they they try to defend everything they do is if God has led them to do this when in fact they don't know that we don't we don't have direct revelation from God the the Spirit of God leads us I believe the Spirit of God prompts our heart but I only know that in retrospect I only know that looking back and saying wow look what happened when I went there look what happened when I did this I I never know that on the front end of anything I mean just that interview that I did on Wednesday with Ben Shapiro if you were to say to me are you gonna do that I wouldn't say well the Lord put it on my heart to do that I don't know that I said I think it's a good opportunity I'd like to meet him I'd like to have a conversation I think I want to do that in retrospect I look back and say what a great opportunity for me to present the gospel I didn't know what the conversation was going to be like so I I think it's better to wait until you see the unfolding Providence of God in anything in your life and look back and give God the glory for what came out of that and that's how his Providence works we don't know that going in on the front end thanks Richard thanks for your faithfulness to my friend right in the middle hi John my name is peace see I do by understanding and agreeing that social justice your first name peace peace you're one of our new members welcome I've been working all afternoon trying to pronounce your name [Music] thank you but in understanding and agreeing that social justice isn't the gospel from your series earlier this year my question is how should a person of color like myself or anyone else in the church actively respond and react to different issues of justice in a democratic society in regards to police brutality cases proven to be true affecting me and communities around me while still staying true and prioritizing the saving gospel yeah really good question piece and what a wonderful name you have to stay out of trouble just because of your name your mother and father were very wise look what we don't want to do is over categorize groups of people we don't want to we don't want to over generalize whether we're talking about people of color or we're talking about white people whether we're talking about Latin people or whether we're talking about police or whether we're talking about governmental authorities or whatever we're talking about I think as Christians we we desire to uphold justice you know what when you when you look at second Samuel you look at the book of Exodus when particularly the book of Exodus when Moses was gonna select leaders they had to be just and righteous and not take a bribe and in 2nd Samuel if you're gonna be a ruler you had to fear God you had to the fear of God as well as be just and righteous I think we have a right to expect that in society from from our leaders government exists to party to Romans 13 to punish evildoers and protect those who do good I'm talking about temporal good well behaved citizens we don't live in a perfect society far from it this is not a theocracy this is not a kingdom with God ruling this is a broken fallen world under the power of Satan but I think the danger in all of these things is that we tend to label groups of people and generalize them and I think that sunfare there are there are there are people who have a heart of compassion for those who suffer there there are some people who are indifferent to suffering but they're not identified by their color or by their by their race or by their economic status I think we have to be very careful about that there are there are troublemakers of every stripe and of every kind there are leaders in our government who are corrupt and there are leaders in our government who do the best they can to be honest there are police and I think for the majority of them they do the best they can to serve us in the way that they're expected to serve us and there are there are renegades at that level as well so I think as a believer I I want to I don't want to be in a position where I am blanketly condemning any group of people or any any class of people or any profession or I I want to to give honor to righteousness where it exists and I want to confront evil where it exists but it has to be personal and identifiable and I think the reason we have conflict in our country is we have one group of people of shouting at another group of people in huge generalities that create guilt beyond where guilt should be legitimately identified so I just think to be peacemakers and we're to live quiet peaceable lives that's what scripture says submit ourselves to the authorities we'd understand there's injustice that we get that Christians are persecuted around the world that's that's really injustice that you see what's happening in Africa and Christians are being killed and slaughtered over there churches are being attacked and assaulted but but we don't we don't retaliate as Christians we don't start revolutions we don't do protests we don't try to tear down the government we submit commit ourselves like Jesus did to a faithful creator and live out righteous lives in the in our society I think for a Christian the personally you have to confront injustice and and where there's a lack of mercy and a lack of compassion a lack of understanding or where there's racism or anything else as Christians those are all sins they need to be dealt with in our hearts and they need to be confronted but but you don't want to jump on the the sort of identity bandwagons that tear the fabric of culture apart and certainly you don't want that in the church okay does that help yeah thank you you're welcome peace thank you welcome to Grace Church where are we yes sir hi Pastor John my name is Brandon and I'm a student at UCLA good my question is could you clarify the roles of the persons of the Trinity and prayer and is there a biblical basis to pray to the Holy Spirit or Jesus yeah the question is clarify the role of the Trinity that's a little beyond my paygrade the Trinity is an impossible divine incomprehensible reality it's it's beyond my ability to grasp fully but I can explain the answer to your question with regard to prayer how are we to think about the Trinity I think scripture gives us every right to pray to every member of the Trinity I I don't think that there are any limitations in fact you can find illustrations in the Bible of praying to the Father there are clear words pray to the Father in my name from the Sun and that's in in John's gospel in the Upper Room and then you have a statement made by the Apostle Paul in Romans 8 about how the that we wear to the Holy Spirit is making groanings which are unutterable before the father on behalf of his will for and we are told to pray in the spirit capital s so I don't think you I don't think there's any limitations we can worship the holy spirit and must we worship the Sun and must we worship the Father and we must do that we worship the triune God we honor the the triune God we we have a right to speak to every member of the Trinity - to give worship to every member of the Trinity and even to cry out - to each member of the Trinity I don't think there are any limitations at all in Scripture that would cause us to have some kind of necessary pecking order or hierarchy that we have to work through I think we we worship and we fellowship with and we pray to each member of the Trinity without limit okay good question hi hi my name is Joey hi Joey considering a world full of pain and suffering and the very real possibility of eternal hell for many why should a believer bring a child into this world why should a believer bring a child into this world because of the ultimate existential possibility that that child could end up in hell right I mean that's the essence of that question that is a question that has been pondered by Christians through the ages the answer to the question is simply that the Lord says be fruitful and what multiply and fill the earth for his glory for his glory now that that poses a very very interesting issue you have no guarantee that the child you bring into the world is going to become a believer but I do believe that any child that comes into the world in the end one way or another will bring glory to God it may be the glory of God fulfilled in the manifestation of even his math it may be the glory of God fulfilled in the manifestation of his grace but we do have this promise in Scripture that if you bring up a child in the way he should go when he's old he will not depart from it and the whole idea of having children for believers is to pass righteousness from one generation to the next you don't want to become too fatalistically existential about children you want to as a believing couple you want to say we are called by God to pass righteousness to the next generation we do that by having children and raising them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and praying for their salvation and working the gospel into their lives for the sake of their salvation we put our trust in God that his purpose will be accomplished I think you can't control destiny anyway you are not in charge of ultimate ends of any creatures any humans so you're not going to alter the ultimate plan of God the ultimate purpose of God but in his plan particularly believers are to raise godly children it says Paul writes to Timothy and says look women are saved through childbearing save from the stigma of having led the human race into the curse in the garden they're saved from that stigma through childbearing if they bring them up in holiness and godliness so what you need to think about when you're going to have a child is that having the child is just the beginning of a lifelong commitment to bring that child to the knowledge of Christ in a very real sense you are creating your most intimate mission field you're having children not so that you can show off your babies in their latest fashion you're having children so that you can pass righteousness to the next generation so that you can be a part of another voice being added to the Hallelujah Chorus in glory and the scripture is full of promises from God to faithful parents God's blessing will fall on those faithful parents so this is God's plan and God's purpose but God always accomplishes his purpose through faithful people so you don't want to think about it as some kind of fatalist and say I'm I'm gonna have a baby because I want a baby and whatever God wants to do with that kid he can do you rather want to say we're going to have a child and we're gonna pour our lives into that child for the glory and honor of God and God will honor that commitment hi Pastor John hi my name is arnaud ba Virginia I are know from crossroads so my question is this according to your interview do you think benjamin aaron shapiro will be ready to receive Jesus Christ as his messiah you know he has a he has a youtube video that I watched a couple of weeks ago why I don't believe Jesus is the Messiah and I understand that I obviously do believe Jesus is the Messiah and the Savior what was wonderful about the interview with him was he made it clear to me that he doesn't believe that he's the Jew he's Orthodox I have much respect for him and I even told him I I see the image of God in you in the clarity of your thinking and the compassion of your heart in the sense of morality in your commitment to the family and to children and to what is right I see the image of God in you so he he said to me at the end of the discussion he said so what's the difference between you and me I said well the difference isn't moral because the same God who laid down his law in the Old Testament it's the same God who wrote the New Testament didn't change his mind so morality and ethics don't change it's the same God well we have the same standards but the difference between you and me is Jesus Christ Jesus Christ and I just kept talking about Jesus Christ and I talked about the fact that the Old Testament had a sacrificial system and it all came to an end at the crucifixion of Christ when the temple veil was rent from the top to the bottom and God ripped the temple and through the holy place and the Holy of Holies opened because there was no more priesthood and the reason there's no more sacrificial system today was that Jesus was the final sacrifice God's chosen lamb for the sins of his people and that's the difference it's it's Jesus Christ that's that's that's all I can do is say that and I'm more than content to pray that in the kindness and grace of the Lord he might open his heart to that there are people who are not sure what they believe he's not one of them he's very sure what he believes and I have great respect he's very gracious guy very very kind to but that's the Lord's business so I did get an opportunity to talk about Isaiah 53 in detail and then that that was all fulfilled in Jesus and that if he really were to understand Isaiah 53 he he would see that it was Jesus and he said the rabbi's have another we talked afterwards he said the rabbi's have another view of that I said sure I know that but I happened to write a book on the right view and I gave it to him the Gospel according to God so we'll see a very very fine young man and very gracious to me he didn't have to be as gracious to me as he was and he could have been adversarial but it was very thoughtful and I I i trust that he'll get an opportunity maybe to read that and you know what you what you want to do when you when you give the gospel to someone who's pretty well bolted down you just want to loosen the bolts it's not that you're going to have some kind of revolutionary responds instantaneously with someone but but you need to create maybe the reality that this could be true and then there's a little bit of a door so we'll see what the Lord would do and I would be more than happy to follow that conversation with him at any time yes hello pastor and it's a privilege to be asking you this question of course but I'm not asking for myself am asking on behalf of a friend okay and the question is unforgiveness and as an ultimate virtue and the possible conditions on forgiveness so in one of your sermons you say that we should forgive as God forgives unconditionally and that he requires repentance and restitution but when I read first John 1:9 which says if we confess with our sins he is faithful and just to forgive as as our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness it seems that he only forgives if we ask for forgiveness and Luke 17 3 says that if someone asks us then we forgive how do i reconcile these passages with forgiving unconditionally so let me ask you this have you have you confessed to God every sin you've ever committed no okay no you haven't no because you don't even know you don't even know a lot of them right so are those that you didn't confess not forgiven no of course not they're all forgive me okay so what you have in first John is simply a pattern of life if literally in the in the originals if we are confessing our sins he is forgiving our sins this simply talks about the relationship that a believer has with the Lord which is a relationship of open confession and full forgiveness it's not down to every single solitary sin transactionally has to be brought up before God or doesn't get forgiven that that that just would put us all in dire jeopardy so taking that and moving back to your question I I still believe that the Lord whether we confess our sins in specifics all of them or leave some out forgives them all so it's safe to say the Lord forgives sins we never confess right okay so when you're talking about relationships do you have the right to withhold love and kindness and mercy and grace and forgiveness from someone who has not asked you to forgive them some sin that they committed against you know the the magnanimous thing is to simply say as a general heart attitude I forgive I forgive it doesn't have to be transactional now having said that the relationship is not likely to be fully restored on till the person you've already forgiven comes back and wants to make it right now that's not always the case because look there are people who sin against us I mean people sin against me or against Patricia we don't say okay that's the end of those people until they show up you know on their knees and plead forgiveness they're not going to be a part of our life you don't do that you you you just overlook a transgression because the love covers a multitude of sins you just overlook those things and you fully embrace those people and you treat them with love and kindness and forgiveness otherwise you're just accumulating bitterness forgiveness is unconditional in that sense that it's freely given and it does the most good to the person who forgives otherwise you're going to go through life just holding grudges in every direction and that makes no sense I've lived long enough life to have accumulated a lot of I suppose you could say unfair or unkind assaults and attacks they're pretty common I don't hold grudges on those if I have an opportunity to do good to those persons who have acted toward me in that way I would choose to do that every single time my heart is full of forgiveness because I don't want to live with bitterness and I'm not waiting for everybody to show up and explain to me why they did this to me that that's that'll put you in and that will put you in a loony bin I mean you'll you'll be impossible to live with you lysyl ate yourself from every human relationship if everybody who crosses you has to go through some transactional event to get you to forgive them so I think that's how the Lord forgives us even for things we don't even know we've done against him and that's just a general expression of his love and it has to be the same with us okay thank you good question hello Pastor John my name is Andrew and my question on the first seven days of creation in Genesis on what the first seven days of creation innocent six days sure seventh day God rested so Genesis 1:14 through nineteen describes how God made the Sun Moon and stars on day four of creation and then he put them in the sky for signs seasons days and years a day scientifically is defined as the rotation of the earth around its axis one time so before day four there was no Sun so you won't have you wouldn't have what we think of today as a day so can you shine some light on what this means what this means from like other passages in scripture on what a day is well the day is one cycle that you just described of the earth rotation right that's a day morning and evening your question of course is that you don't have the creation of the Sun at the very beginning so you have to have a day without a Sun right correct that's that is the question and my answer is okay you have a day without a Sun I I don't I don't see that as a problem you don't have until verse 14 the actual lights the Sun and the moon and yet you have three days of creation leading up to that so you you have light then the existence of light without a Sun and without a moon that simply means that light existed it lists that it existed in some form that was consistent with a single rotation of the earth in the beginning of Genesis let there be light there was light now light is not the body the body from which it is reflected the light is not the Sun and light is not the moon light is light light was created and darkness was created also on the first day so there was light and darkness without the the celestial bodies there was still light there was still darkness and light there was still morning there was still evening that's as far as I can take it but again I think it's so explicit that God is intending to communicate to us this actual one rotation of the earth kind of cycle that we know as morning and evening the phenomenon itself doesn't have to be explained scientifically for what reason because creation cannot be explained scientifically as to help you with that when scientists try to explain creation they are trying to do the impossible because there is no scientific explanation for creation let me tell you why once there was only God and there was nothing and then instantaneously there was light and then there was water then there was heaven then there was dry land then there were plants then there were celestial bodies then they were living creatures and then there were humans and that all happened in six days there is no scientific explanation for that anybody who thinks you could explain that scientifically is out of their mind nothing existed and then the entire universe came into existence in six days that is a divine miracle there is no scientific explanation for the resurrection of Lazarus there's no scientific explanation for the resurrection of anybody including our Lord there's no scientific explanation for Jesus creating food to feed probably 20,000 people there's no scientific explanation for that science is out of the discussion when you have a miracle and the most massive miracle was the creation of the entire universe in six days that has no scientific explanation so to pose a question into the first chapter of Genesis about the science of it is alien to the entire event itself you start with nothing nothing an ex nihilo out of nothing comes everything by the massive power of God that's all we need to know and if God says there was evening and morning it was equal to the rotation of that one cycle that's so familiar to us if it was equal to that then even before those bodies existed then that's exactly what God intended us to understand okay good question good evening mr. MacArthur my name is Esteban my question is regarding the nature of Christ incarnate nature given that in Philippians chapter 2 verse 8 Paul writes Christ Jesus who he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men I asked us because I find it rather difficult engaging what he emptied himself of in Luke 251 and said that Christ is learning yet in mark to wait when Christ he was the paralytic he was able to immediately perceive the doubts of the scribes surrounding him so our Christ powers self productive or they given to him from God the Father and have I overlooked anything in the meaning of emptied himself really good question Esteban thank you Christ did empty himself but because that's what it says that's the canosa's the doctrine of the self-emptying he could not have emptied himself of his deity because he would have gone out of existence right that's who he is he is still God in human flesh he says you've seen me you've seen the father he says no one needs to tell me what's in the heart of man I know what's in the heart of man in the Gospel of John he recognizes Nathanael whom he's never met because he's omniscient he creates life he heals diseases he gives people back limbs that function so never does it intend to mean that he set aside his deity and became something less than God so in what sense does he empty himself I think it's simple to understand in in in one way he emptied himself of the personal prerogative to use all of his attributes he limited himself we were talking this morning about the fact that he says not even the son of man knows the day of his return only the father knows that is one of the limitations he put on himself so in emptying himself he put a limitation on his nisshin's he put a limit on what he knew he put a limit on what he knew and that's why he grew in wisdom and knowledge in stature favor with God and man he put a lemon limit on himself physically clearly he was an it was an infant in a womb he was a baby in a manger he was a child in a home still God truly God and all God and fully God truly God but imposing upon himself limitations that is the way to understand the canosa's and he limited one other thing and that is he limited the expression of his own will and he said I only do what the father tells me to do I only do what the father does I only do what the father shows me to do I only do what the father wants me to do so he has limited his omniscience what he knows he has limited his omnipotence only to that which the father wills for him to do he also limits his own volition and he limits himself to what the Holy Spirit wants to do that's why when they said he was empowered by Satan Jesus said that is an unpardonable sin because you have attributed the work of the Holy Spirit to Satan to accuse me of operating under the power of Satan is blaspheming the Holy Spirit because I've been operating under the power of the Holy Spirit so he limited himself in his knowledge he limited himself in his power he limited himself in the expression of his volition to only what the Holy Spirit wanted to do and so to basically accuse Jesus of being satanic was blaspheming the Holy Spirit who was at work in him you see something of this self-emptying in particular in the guard when he is sweating as it were great drops of blood and he says father if it's your will let this cup pass from me nevertheless not my will but yours be done so he had limited his own volition his own will so that's how to understand the self emptying of Christ and it's it's a mysterious understanding at best because he still knew things that only God could know like knowing Nathanael before he ever met him like knowing what was in the heart of man John - like knowing the future like predicting future events like predicting that the temple would be destroyed not one stone upon another and that happened 30 years later predicting the future the day of the Lord they the promise of a second coming you see is omniscience you see his omnipotence glimpses of it in creating food walking on water overpowering demons and you even see an expression of his own will in this sense he said no man takes my life from me I lay it down of myself so he did exercise his own omniscience he did exercise his own omnipotence he did exercise his own volition in his own will but in limited ways and that is that is the way to understand the self emptying it wasn't his nature that he divested himself of it was that he limited the full expression of who he was that helped yeah good question I passed the MacArthur my name is Dylan hi Dylan just want to say thank you for your faithfulness to God's Word and your steadfastness in contending for the truth I was saved by the Lord under your preaching so thank you thank you doing a question goes along the lines of what ben shapiro mentions but he doesn't let us watch at the end of the interview because you have to be a member or a subscriber to show it'll cost you 10 bucks to get that answer yeah okay it was just along the lines of your thoughts on the universal Church as well as the local church and in America what you kind of foresee if you will sure a sense of persecution and you know a bill that they just tried to pass a benign or maybe 29:43 and and then with an I it's kind of twofold but how much time should we spend looking into the things that are going on around the world in regards to Israel and Jerusalem and India and China especially for like a newer believer well you've asked a lot all right all right yeah I thought it was really interesting that he he asked the question what do you think the state of Christianity is what's the state of the church how do you feel about the evangelical church and I can't remember everything I said and I don't really I don't know that I want to watch it again because I second-guess myself and say why didn't I say that and why did I say that and why don't I could have done better than that so it's a little painful so I don't remember I don't remember everything I said but I did say this that the Lord will build his true church and then the gates of Hades will not prevail against it the true church is going to be the true church but Christianity as such is in dire trouble and the even true believers have in many ways seriously compromised the testimony of Christianity you know we were all I think sort of happy when scandals in the Catholic Church broke out 15 years ago or 10 years ago and now we've got as many scandals in the quote/unquote evangelical churches as there are in the Catholic Church maybe it's not the degree of pedophilia centuries of it but there are some issues and my answer to him was look the the church is always in trouble when it chases the culture chases the culture and it leaves its message behind that is of concern to me I'm not worried about the persecuted church that's that will purify the church I don't think we need to give help to those that are being persecuted I think they're gonna be fine because persecution drives out hypocrites nobody's gonna die for something you don't really believe right you're not gonna go get burned at the stake for something you don't believe you're gonna say okay I don't believe okay I don't want to die I'm a fake so persecution purifies the church and I think the more persecution that was would come on the church in America the more the church would be purified I think the harder it is to be a legitimate Christian the the more likely we are to know who is a Christian and when Ben asked me about the Reformation and how the in Reformation descended into the Enlightenment I said it basically when they decided to do what the Roman Catholic Church did and baptize all the babies and make everybody a Christian by baptism when the Reformers did the same thing and brought infant baptism and baptized everybody in the country so that everybody would be a Christian then we didn't know who was a Christian and that basically weakened the church disastrously and led to an abandonment of that formalized religion in the Enlightenment which was basically an escape from religion into the worship of human reason Thomas Paine the age of reason so forth so I don't I don't think persecution harms the church I think persecution purifies the church I'm not I'm not advocating it I'm not asking for it but but I think it's a purifying reality I think as long as Christianity has a kind of cultural poppy Ardi it compromises people in fact one of the one of the questions that then asked me was aren't you afraid that you're going to alienate the Democrats because the things you say you're you know you said the Democratic Party is the anti god aunt I'm morality party don't you think he'll alienate Democrats and I said look my job is to alienate everyone everyone everyone has to know that they are all alienated from God and they need to know the reality of their sin and they need to face the evidence that this has eternal consequences so I think one of the problems when Christianity is comfortable is it's not honest about its message because it wants to be comfortable so I think as times are more difficult for the Christian Church there's a purifying of the church again I don't think the government can save us I wrote a book by that title I think didn't I I mean why government can't save you the government can't save the church the government can't save Christianity the government can only tamper with it so I don't really worry about what's going on in the world the true church will be the true church but I am concerned that the true church even though they are redeemed people are disobeying the Lord and losing the impact of their testimony I just wrote a book on this called Christ's call to reform the church I think it's in the bookstore now is it does anybody know I can tell it's really hit with a bang never even heard Michael you haven't even heard of it oh it's there okay have you read it okay I think we mean we do that here right we call the church to be holy and godly and we would do that so I wrote this book to try to call the Evangel church to wake up and quit chasing the world pretty pretty direct and it comes out of Revelation two and three one two and three Lords letters to the churches so I am I am the ultimate optimist because I read the end of the story in Christ wins it's already determined all that the father gives to me will come to me and I'll lose none of them right John six but raise them at the last day all the elect will be brought in the Lord will build his church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against that I am the ultimate optimist but at the same time I am also a adamant critic of an unfaithful Church and I think that reflects the Lord's attitude toward an unfaithful Church as indicated in the letters he wrote to the churches in Asia Minor in the book of Revelation so while on the one hand we know Christ triumphs on the other hand it's not right for the church to dishonor the Lord by not being everything a church should be so I'm more concerned about the church I can't fix China I can't fix India I can't fix America nobody's asking me to nobody expects me to I think the first question been asked me was about how much I should be engaged in politics and I said look politics is all about rearranging the temporal temporal order my message is about eternal things you know moving around the deck chairs on the Titanic it doesn't really help it's going down so I'm not interested in just rearranging the deckchairs on a ship that's gonna sink on the day of the Lord III want to see a difference made for eternity so that's the focus and that's where I think as believers we need to keep our focus not get caught up in the politics of all these things so that we begin to be really kind of moved around emotionally by political things rather than spiritual things okay thank you hi pastor macarthur this is brian two former department of defense contractor with ITT industries pushing about Revelation chapter 13 verse 15 where the image of the Beast speaks to the people mm-hmm if which we know in the department of defense now that they're they've moved away from artificial intelligence and are using artificial life remote neural networks with a will intellect and emotion of their own we know that the Iraqi army in the first Gulf War surrendered to the Americans with their weapons dismantled because they believed that their God Allah had told them to this weapon dismantle their weapons that's what a reporter found out could this be the mark of the beast the weaponization of neuroscience we we know the answer but we I'm asking you from a theological perspective could this be the mark of the beast the mainly the weaponization of neuroscience and these new highly advanced conscious supercomputers called exascale systems yeah I think it all fits in I mean it God has to God has to know this that it's coming he's always known that artificial intelligence for most people unless you're there looking at whatever this machine is is indistinguishable from a real person right well it's not it's a it's a virtual interface they're using yeah but I'm just saying you you don't know whether a virtual reality is talking to you or whether a person is talking to you so it's called synthetic telepathy cynic gherkin forms of telepathy and we've come so far in terms of brain people and and with you know we all understand now right that's somewhere somebody knows everything about us everything about us by the purchase of purchases we make by the entertainment we look at I mean all of that is tracked so yeah I think when when the Antichrist takes control of all these things and gets control of everyone and it talks about you know there'll be a mark in the hand and a mark on the forehead and you won't be able to interact in the culture you know maybe that's an implanted disc instead of a credit card you might lose but maybe it's another form of control and neurological control it's not beyond possibility in the world in which we live and I think all of that very likely will fit into the toolkit that the Antichrist will use to manipulate the world can I also ask you one more question sure being former Department of Defense we know that there are many thousands of underground bases around the world including here in the u.s. some of them quite massive in size could this be what revelation is speaking about when it says and the kings of the earth the princess the rich man cried out to the mountains fall down upon us and shield us from the lamb yeah and I don't know the answer to that because I don't want to do newspaper exegesis so when you go back and you try to you deal with the Bible always and what's called authorial intent what did John see in the vision what did John understand obviously wouldn't understand all these things so I I can't speculate about what that would be I mean you have an army of 200 million coming from the east I don't know what that is but that's what it says so I can't speculate as to the technological realities of these things but somehow all of that may well fit into the the final cataclysms that come it's it's a little bit it's a little bit frightening on the one hand if you're just an average guy and you're hearing all of this stuff you know this used to be simple like big brother is watching now not only as big brother watching but he's controlling how people function and even how they think and those are frightening reality this is a time for us to think Klee and be in the Word of God think the thoughts of God what's going to unfold in the end I don't know but I do believe this we're gonna go in the rapture before it starts and I'm for that okay yes ma'am hi Pastor John my name is Clare hi Clare how do you battle unbelief and the fear of unbelief when you know that the Word of God is true but and you want to believe it but sometimes you're just unable to well there's an illustration of that in our Lord's life where a man came to him and said lord I believe help my unbelief and I think that becomes a prayer you need to ask the Lord to strengthen your faith to increase your faith you need to call on the Lord to do that but I will also tell you this the more you understand the Word of God the stronger your faith becomes I think one of the real tragedies in talking about the church today is they have so many people who are evangelical Christians who go to church and are abysmally ignorant of the Bible they hear these ridiculous kind of messages I don't even know you know I call it Little Bo Peep preaching it's it's they take something from the Bible and use it as a pretext to preach and it's like using Little Bo Peep Little Bo Peep she was little she was insignificant she was nobody even her name was insignificant Bo Peep and she lost her sheep everywhere people are lost this is the inane pretextual preaching that I hear all over the place ah but they'll come home haven't figured out wagging their tails behind them so the way that faith grows is by a greater apprehension of the truth of the word of God as the word saturates your mind and heart and takes over your thinking faith is stronger and stronger and stronger and stronger I tell you that because that's the testimony of Scripture and that's a personal testimony from somebody who has been in the Word of God for a long long time and I can just tell you that doubt died for me a long time ago and I'm not talking about doubt about me I always come short but doubt about god and his word and his truth and his purpose and his plan died a long time ago under the sheer power of understanding the Word of God so I think faith grows as we apprehend the truth of Scripture that is why expository preaching is so important I was reading a book today a book on reformed preaching by Joel Becky and he was talking about John Calvin and John Calvin said we must do expositions of the scripture this is what launched the Reformation and looking back at the history of that era churches during the Reformation had an exposition of Scripture every day of the week every day of the week at the church the scripture was being exposed it and on Sunday there was a 6 a.m. service and there was a 9:00 a.m. service and there was a 12 sir of us and there was a three o'clock service and sometimes a five o'clock service for the exposition of Scripture we said about Ulrich Zwingli who was the Swiss reformer that he preached at least seven sermons a week and the exposition of Scripture just think about the big evangelical world out there that claims to be Christian has no idea what the Bible says no real grasp of the depth and truth of Scripture this is what stunts faith so and then if you go to the Christian bookstore and you get a bunch of silly things like Jesus calls or whatever else that doesn't help so I think we our faith grows as we know more about God and know more about his plan and that comes from the scripture okay well I don't know if we have time for everybody so who's next we'll try to go if you have a short question real quick my name is Ron I run and first of all my wife and I'd like to thank you for your teaching in Thessalonians it's answered a lot of questions good which brings us to another question and it always does that in a worldly ungodly way I became the elect to ask the question from our family sure we have a question with regard to Old Testament prophets and when they're speaking under the power of the Holy Spirit and they made promises to the people they were speaking to if those promises having been adopted into this family are applicable to us an example in in Jeremiah for I know the plans that I have for you declares the Lord for your welfare and not for calamity give you a future and I hope you know that so is that for us today can we look at those promises and there are many examples in the Old Testament right blame those as New Testament Christians yeah a very good question there are some promises made specifically to the nation Israel there are some promises made specifically to a group of people historically but a promise like that where God says I know the plans that I have for you because you are my people I think that's a universal promise you know we don't have the promise for example of the Land of Israel that was given to the Jewish people so there are promises that the context will tell you but then there are those promises that simply reflect the Lord's pledge to provide all that he possesses to his own people and that would be a part of that there are promises that God made specifically to Israel for example you hear people quote this all the time if my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek God then will I I don't know the exact words come from heaven and heal their land that's a promise to the nation Israel with regard to their land that's not a promise to the church and that if we pray that America is going to be healed so there are promises that the context will tell you that but there are there are those general promises like that one that certainly stretched to all believers in Jeremiah 31 the promise of a new heart a new spirit the New Covenant promise while directly given to Israel extends to anyone who believes because the the New Covenant truth the New Covenant promises of God are given to all of those who come to God through the work of Christ so the context will dictate that to you but I think you need to embrace those general promises good ok quickly good evening dr. John my name is Noah a bustier dress formerly come from the Pentecostal charismatic movement the 4-square church and I was being kind of like I understand now from from your series from the from the charismatic the charismatic airs and the strange fire conference I cannot listen to him like five times see so I can understand Mike my question was always is just speaking in tongues deal in the charismatic movement since they always been are seeking and looking for more will be considered as as as works a titular salvation kind of I don't know if it's a question yeah I think it's really question by the way Foursquare Church has produced some really wonderful things I married a Foursquare girl I fell in love with a charismatic Patricia her family was saved in a Foursquare Church so we're grateful for that no I don't want to get into a big discussion about tongues they don't even know what it is it's so obviously not what it was in the scripture what it was in the scripture was known languages known languages that could be translated miraculously that they would speak a language they didn't know and then somebody would give a translation of that language they didn't know that was clearly what was going on the book of Acts and that's what subsequently follows up so the burden of proof is not on us to try to figure out what this is they don't even know what it is they can turn it on and turn it off they can learn the words that they say it's a kind of it's a kind of it's a kind of gibberish that has developed its own lingo so yeah it's so obviously not the biblical gift and because it's supernatural gift in the Bible I go back to the same question if God was going to give that supernatural gift to anyone he wouldn't give it to people with bad theology because he'd be validating their bad theology okay hello Pastor John hi my name is Thomas hi Thomas so I believe that God is sovereign over everything and everything that happens is by as well good I also understand that God allows sin to be in this world and that he does not cause us to sin with those things in mind does God actively plan for us to sin God is too pure to do that he doesn't do evil can't do evil it's impossible for him to do evil does he recognize that evil exists yes does he allow for evil to exist yes for the purpose of putting on his attributes that would otherwise not be known right if there's no sin there's no forgiveness there's no mercy there's no grace there's no compassion those are attributes of God that need to be displayed and so God while having responsibility for evil laying that responsibility at the feet of a rebellious group of angels and human beings as nonetheless allowed for evil in his plan in order that he might manifest his attributes so that he can put his full range of attributes on display when that's as far as we can go with that issue okay it is obvious that God is sovereign it is obvious that God planned for Christ to die on the cross therefore it is obvious that God knew there had to be a savior to pay the penalty for sin therefore it's obvious that God knew sin would come he allowed sin for the very purpose of redemption so that he could display the glory of his nature on the redemptive side in the face of sin and do that forever in heaven before saints and angels okay really fast well I think we can only take two more I'm sorry yes ma'am hi my name is Magdalene how would you recommend someone go about starting to study the Bible on their own beyond divos or quiet times for the purpose of explaining it to themselves or someone else okay this may sound a little self-serving get a MacArthur Study Bible start start at the beginning and read the notes just start reading the Bible and read the notes go whatever pace you want to go and those are that's a really good place to start and I'm not trying to sell Bibles come see my wife she'll give you one okay hiya Pastor John my name is Roley hi Roley a question on regards to the new heaven and new earth in Revelation 21 when it says I heard a loud voice from the throne saying behold the tabernacle of God is among men and he will dwell among them and then further he says he will wipe away every tear from their eyes and there will no longer be any test no mourning crying or pain the first thing that pass away but in revelation 22 it says in the middle of the street and I decided the river was the Tree of Life hearing bearing fruit twelve kinds of fruit yielding its fruit every month and the leaves of the tree were for healing yeah it's not healing for the health nobody's gonna be sick nobody's gonna need to be healed but there are going to be delicacies in heaven that are going to contribute to the fullness of our glory there okay that's how that should have been translated for the fullness or the wholeness of all that are there okay do we have I think that's all we can do we got one young lady just desperate thank you what thank you so much my name is talita I just have a quick question about matthew 24:9 well it says then they will deliver you to tribulation and it will kill you and you'll be hated by all nations because of my name so if I was just confused because we talked about that we will be raptured sure sure who you refers to the people in the tribulation the church has taken out that all that's left are non-believers but the gospel begins to be preached revelation says by angels by 144,000 Jews that are converted people are going to be saved and they're going to be persecuted and they're going to be martyred you even have martyrs under the altar crying how long O Lord so after the church is taken out there will be salvation in the world Israel will be saved at that time 144,000 Jews will evangelize the world and there will be a great global revival from that evangelism okay

Channel: Grace to You

Views: 339,928

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Keywords: John MacArthur, Bible, Preaching, Christianity, Expository, Exposition, Sermon, Jesus, Christ, grace to you, questions and answers

Id: V0TNBAAuJ8I

Length: 75min 12sec (4512 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 11 2018