Bible Questions and Answers, Part 71

good evening Pastor John my name is Joshua the question is just being here at Grace Community Church grateful to be here and what a wonderful church and thank you well what are some weaknesses of grace command how can we guard our strengthen ourselves against those weaknesses well all the weaknesses of Grace Church are the cumulative weaknesses of all the believers and leaders in the church as Paul said not as though I have attained right but I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus none of us has arrived not me not the elders of the church not the pastor's of the church and not the people of the church so we we bring together our collective strengths and we bring together our collective weaknesses we are constantly as we were been saying in Sunday morning the last couple of weeks we are constantly aware that there's a spiritual war in every life and each of us are struggling with that our our sins not only affect us but they affect all the people in our lives so that what is good about us and what is not so good about us affects other people and that spreads and that is one of the reasons why the Lord ordained discipline in his church if we know there are sin in the church it leavens the whole lump as the scripture says it influences the church so it needs to be dealt with when sin exists and is not repented of and turned from so we're only as as strong as we are faithful and obedient and we're we're only as strong as we overcome the weaknesses that all of us possess and so the the goal and I just saw a new book that I wrote and it's just out called sanctification and it basically deals with Galatians 4:19 where Paul says I'm in birth pains until Christ is fully formed in you so any pastor knows that the goal of the church is sanctification and if the goal of the church is not sanctification the church is going to be forever wrapped up in sin and then it will never be what the Lord wants it to be we we do understand that there are vessels unto honor and vessels to dishonor their vessels fit for the Masters use and their vessels not fit for the Masters use so to have a church of people who are fit for the Masters used to have a church of people who are useful in the lives of each other to have a church where people's spiritual gifts given them by the Holy Spirit actually functioned with with power and edify the body of Christ we need to be walking in the spirit right walk in the spirit not in the flesh we we know that in the flesh all bad things happen in the spirit love joy peace gentleness goodness faith meekness self-control our evidence so every church is just the combination of all its people and therein lies its strengths because it's faithfulness becomes its strengths its obedience that sanctification becomes its strength but our failures are always the lingering and real weakness so organizationally I don't even look at the church that way I wouldn't say there's some ministry that we don't do or there's some weakness in structure or organization I don't even look at the church like that I look at the church as the functioning body of Christ and it is only as strong as it is christ-like and it comes down to every one of us right because a little leaven leavens the whole lump so the question is for each of us individually what contribution to this church does my life make if I'm walking in the spirit then I am making a positive contribution to what this church is if I am using the spiritual gifts the Lord has given me if I'm confronting sin in my life and endeavoring to honor the Lord and obey Him if I'm coming with a pure heart to worship Him I am making the maximum contribution to the church I think in a cultural sense if we talk about what we could do a lot better just about everything we could do better right we could we could worship with more pure hearts we could be more aggressive in evangelism more bold in proclaiming the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ we could love each other more our love could abound even more and or so all the spiritual virtues could be more than they are and we need to be pursuing those things okay thank you good question yes good evening Pastor John my question is about transducin ISM since the Lord created everything in six days and everything was very good when did he create human souls or our souls created during the process of conception and how our souls sinless well huh okay let's just be real simple here souls are not perpetually born out of one soul every soul is an individual creation of God every soul and the question she's asking is how then does sin pass on from soul to soul is God creating sinners that that is a that is a mystery we are we are not just the process of birth we are not just born we are created by God we know that God forms us in the womb so every soul is created by God but that creation necessarily because it is human bares the effects of the sin of all of its progeny so it is true that we inherit us in nature even though God creates a living soul we are not souls by birth we are human beings by birth but God creates souls and when God creates a soul that soul is affected by the reality of sin I think that that's a safe way to understand that but obviously there's mystery there because we don't want to make God responsible for creating sinners so we literally are souls created by God and we would say with the regard to children innocent right as children but it doesn't take long before that soul is affected by the humanity and the fallenness of that humanity in which it exists that is a simple way to understand does that help yes thank you thank you so much hi Pastor John hi my name is Emmy I am II um thank you for your many years of faithful service as we heard this morning okay so my question is for a family member who couldn't be here they're having trouble reconciling the difficult parts and the beautiful parts of the Bible simultaneously so there are many faiths and religions that claim to know the true God in this world so how can we be sure the Bible is the correct source of information there are parts of it that are certainly very hard to accept well that's that's a pretty typical contemporary approach and so your friend or your family members is facing that and it comes down to people saying if God is loving then why doesn't he do something about all that's wrong in the world how can God be loving and all-powerful Larry King used to ask me this how can God be loving and all-powerful if he's loving and all-powerful he'd fix what's wrong because his love and power would would fix things so God is either not loving or not powerful in other words he may be loving but he can't do anything about it or he may be powerful but he doesn't love enough to change what exists but we know according to scripture that God is both loving all loving God is love his very essence is love and God is as we sung sovereign and all-powerful the reason we ask those questions is because we think God ought to view the world the way we do what we think is fair disease illness death disaster trouble all those things what we think is unfair all of those kinds of things is the reality of what is really fair but because all of those things are the fruit of sin and sometimes people will look at the Old Testament and they'll say what kind of God kills people what kind of a God opens the ground and swallows people up what kind of a God drowns the whole world in the flood how can you say God is loving if he does that that that is not the question the question is why did he let people live until their sin was so monumental he had to eliminate it and start again the question is not why does trouble come the question is why does God overrule trouble and actually bless people why does the Sun Shine on the just and the unjust why why do people who don't know God who reject God who are under condemnation enjoy life fall in love have children see the beauty of the world the issue is simply this we don't understand the sinfulness of sin humanity doesn't recognize the sinfulness of sin so what they think is unfair is really justice acting justice operating the the real question is not why why is it so much trouble in the world the answer to that is sin clearly the real question is how does God so graciously overlook all of that and redeem those who come to him so the problem with the unbelievers worldview is that he thinks the trouble is unfair but it isn't it's it's the just working of sin whatever a person so is they what they reap so there there is in the very fabric of human life the principle of evil that produces evil results on a personal level and on a on a national level a global level so unless you understand sin and the sinfulness of sin and the fallenness of humanity and the fallenness of the world the whole universe is fallen the entire human race has fallen always has been we'll be until the Lord renews everything so we're simply living in the midst of all of the consequences of the dominant power of sin that operates in every human being as well as in the cosmos itself so the court the question is not why is there all this trouble the question is how loving is God to offer us and escape from all of it so when you look at the world you don't say why does God do all of that judgment you say why does God let any unbeliever even live the wages of sin is death of every sinner is a blasphemer condemned disobedient to God hating God why does God graciously patiently let that unbeliever live and survive and enjoy many of the blessings we call common grace and patiently wait for them to come to him to know him so you have to turn that argument on its head and go back to the reality of sin does that help yes thank you good hey Pastor John how are you my name is Steven hi Steve ha my question is how do we biblically witness to professing Christians how do we biblically witness to professing Christian you're assuming that this is somebody who says he's a Christian but likely is not yes that is correct I have a very specific answer to this I wrote a book a long time ago called the Gospel according to Jesus and in that book in that book I went back to the real gospel the introduction to the book dealt with the fact that there are many people who don't understand the real message the real gospel the the real gospel that our Lord proclaimed is very very hard it's a hard message even the disciples said to Jesus will anybody be saved will anybody be saved I mean look Jesus came to the Land of Israel preached the message of salvation the message of the gospel and after three years of him preaching by far the greatest preacher who ever lived without any argument the whole nation rejected him the message was very hard he was saying to them you need to recognize you are a sinner you need to recognize even though you're religious you're under divine judgment divine condemnation as we said this morning you need to you need to mourn over your sin you need to realize your spiritual bankruptcy that you are void of any spiritual life and have no think good thing in yourself to alter that in other words he devastated even the Jewish nation by condemning them in their goodness condemning them in their religion and he said unless you literally are willing to die if any man will come after me let him take up his white cross and follow me let him deny himself take up his cross it may cost you your life unless you become a slave to Christ confess him as Lord you're not a Christian so the the issue with people who are professing Christians is usually that they have some level of attachment to a church maybe a Catholic Church or even a Protestant church and and they don't have any hostility that they can think of in their hearts toward Christ or God but that's not the question the question is have they repented have they bowed the knee have they confessed Jesus as Lord have they willingly become his slave are they willing to turn from their sin deny themselves Jesus even said if you don't hate your father and mother you can't be my disciple are they willing to count the cost and follow him at any cost and that's what I was trying to communicate in that book and I was writing the book basically to the evangelical leaders in this country who had led the church astray with a kind of a shallow cheap gospel well all that to say this for years I have wanted to get that message out again in a different format but without all of the polemical discussions that I was having in the book with theologians and other writers just to get the core of the message of Jesus and what he said without the argument without the debate on a theological level and that has finally arrived and its title is only Jesus I don't know if we have them yet do we Michel next week they'll be available this is the Gospel according to Jesus with all of the dialogue and footnotes and polemics out and just the pure message of what it means to be saved so I think this is this is very likely the best tool we have ever had to give to a professing Christian and if you have any questions about their salvation just say read this it's it's not long it's I think if I remember about a hundred and 60 or 70 pages but it is unmistakably powerful because it is the words of Jesus telling the reader what it really means to be saved there's not a shortcut to that I think you have to give a full understanding of the gospel to a professing Christian if you're going to unmask the shallowness of that profession okay its title is only Jesus and I'm glad we're going to have them by next week good thank you mm-hmm sir my name is Kevin and my question is with the third commandment that I take the Lord's name in vain and I my question is are we desensitize the name to by using the words ohmygosh or oh my god or a holy cow yeah I think we ought to avoid using the name God I don't know about cows but I think we ought not yeah you thought those those are sort of substitute phrases for something that you you shouldn't say like gosh is sort of a derivative you don't want to say God but it's it's sort of an alternate option I I would avoid using the name of God in any way as a throwaway word ever under any condition or the Lord Jesus that is not the only way you take his name in vain but it is it is taking is reducing him to nothing right the emptying god of his glory to just say oh my god that it that is that is emptying the very term god of any significance that is taking his name in vain because you have emptied that name of all its honor all its glory all its majesty and I would be careful to not to use substitute words you'd be better off to to clean your vocabulary up and get rid of those kind of verbal expressions you could do a lot better with a little more mastery of the English language to come up with something better than that to express yourself so don't sink to that I mean it's it's not that you're sinning intentionally in your heart when you use kind of what they used to call a minced oath or something like that but avoid at all all costs using the name of the Lord in any way that empties that name of its glory okay thank you mm-hmm good evening Pastor John hi my name is Edie I been at grace church my entire life no you haven't no you haven't not yet I do hope the Lord returns tonight since I have benefited along with many people here from the decades of having the Masters seminary on this campus along with obviously the Masters University how should we how best should we the flock of grace community church serve them protect each other learn to obey and follow young leadership and how best do you think that we can trust them and serve them while they're here in seminary as you guys teach them clearly yeah you know it's really good thank you for asking that question many many years ago when it was in my heart to have a seminary here the question came up with the leaders of the church well if we get a lot of young gifted preachers in here for training they're gonna replace all the laypeople and what's gonna happen is they're gonna become all the Sunday school teachers and all the preachers and teachers and we're not going to produce any any lay preachers and teachers and I said that's not going to happen what what it's going to happen is it's going to be multiplication because some of the lay people in our church are more mature than these young guys they may not have a seminary education they may not know all of the fine points of doctrine and theology but their maturity makes them priceless to the congregation as they open the Word of God and teach it as well so what's going to happen is there's going to be there's going to be rich and is poured into the congregation from these highly trained and skilled young people and it's going to be matched by the maturity of those older folks and that is exactly how this church has functioned for decades and decades we if you walk into an elders meeting you look around the table at the elders there are a few of the young men who have come through the seminary and are on the church ministry staff but most all of our elders are laypeople and all of them can handle the Word of God can argue for the truth of the gospel can give a reason for the hope that is within them with meekness and fear so that there is a maturity that mentors the young men as well and we see that because you'll see around the elders table all these mature elders sitting and there's a gallery on the backside both sides in the meeting of what fifty people in each of those galleries a hundred people and there there's many of them are students and they're seminary students come to see how these mature elders function so it is really a perfect union we have the opportunity to pour into their lives the maturity that has come from the leadership of this church and they have the opportunity to turn right around and stand up in front of us and teach and preach as they even do Sunday nights and Sunday mornings and enrich the whole congregation and just one other thing to say I am convinced that seminary education should be in a church I I think you would find it very difficult if you were running a medical school if it weren't attached to a hospital because what you would wind up doing would be teaching theory so you you you wouldn't want a doctor who only knew theory and had never had a place to practice so you don't want a pastor who is only sat in an ivory tower and accumulated data you want somebody who has lived out the education in the context of a vibrant dynamic church this is how seminary education should be done and even educators recognize that I remember the first year we started the master seminary we started it really without getting accreditation from the accreditation Association we didn't know what they would think since it was just one year old but they came back and gave us full accreditation and commended us saying this is how seminary education should happen even educators non-christian educators understand the critical need for application and lab kind of context to develop the ministry of these men that are being trained so I we we have we have been blessed mutually all of us the seminary students are blessed by the love of this congregation and I hear stories all the time about how you show them how you you support them you send the money you give them your old furniture you give them cars there's no end to the stories that we hear about how this congregation loves these young men there's so much a part of our church that you don't even see them as some alien group they they they just belong here and that says it should be does that help yes sir okay thank you in my name is Gilbert Velazquez hi Gilbert congratulation for your service thank you thank you I got a question for you from me Genesis 22 mm-hmm Abraham says to his son Isaac the Lord will provide a lamb for the offering and verse 8 but in verse 13 says the Abraham saw a ram so how you can reconcile these two animals one of them are humble and the other one is aggressive with horns yeah but every RAM was once a lamb so yeah but a ram is just a grown up lamb I mean it the Lord will provide a lamb abraham believed God would provide a sacrifice an animal it it is pretty consistent to say God will provide a ram I mean a lamb and a ram shows up that's the same animal basically if God if he said God will provide a lamb and a giraffe showed up that might be a bit of a a bit of a problem Abraham didn't know just exactly what the lamb would be in what form it would take but God did provide in the way that Abraham knew he would so it's the same animal but just older than Abraham couldn't have known exactly what form that sacrificial animal would come in okay I'd be reading numbers chapter of 5 or 6 mm-hmm the lamb is a burnt offering he the run is a guilt offering something like this so there is true significance offering and number six does it makes any difference no III don't think so I think Abraham is just saying I know God will provide the sacrifice the sacrificial lamb this is just a general confidence that God is going to provide a lamb and God does provide Abraham couldn't have known exactly what form or what age that animal would be but he knew God would provide okay thank you Thank You Gilbert thank you Pastor John my name is Derrick I have a question and in Lois birkhoff's book and systematic theology he mentions that all the attributes of God are equally important no one attribute is greater than another including love do you agree with that statement if not do you which one attribute of God do you think would be more preeminent than another no I do agree with that statement I agree that God is indivisible that God is who he is collectively he is who he is no no attribute of God is more glorious or less glorious than any other they are all glorious they are all equal in glory because God is all glorious to say that one attribute was less than another would be to diminish some element in God's nature Birkhoff is right all the attributes of God are as fully glorious as God is glorious but when we talk about attributes that relate to us we start with God's love God so loved the world that He gave it doesn't mean that his other attributes or anything less but love is what compels redemption and I was talking about this a few weeks ago that God loves because God is a Trinity if God were a single God he couldn't have an attribute of love because eternally there would have been no way to express that it couldn't existed you know what I'm saying so this is Allah or any other single God if if there's only one god who is only one person then he does not love and we see that played out in false religions where the God is a single God there's no love but God eternally a trinity has as his nature love because he loves the persons of the Trinity it is that love that God satisfies and displays in Redemption so while all the attributes of God are equally glorious and all of them are all that they could possibly be in the full glory of God and none is diminished as less than any other it is his love that sets in motion all the other attributes to accomplish his redemptive purpose okay thank you you're welcome hello pastor MacArthur my name is Daniel hi Daniel I would first like to thank you for your discipline and transparent teaching thank you word my question is as a young Christian I now struggle with entrusting my doctor and his methods believing that Christ is all we need yet seeing mental illness tear apart lives and Families how can we have peace and discern modern medicine and therapy yeah that's a really good question get a second opinion you know just a matter of wisdom don't assume the sovereignty of any medical doctor I want to give honor to whom honor is due but my brother-in-law John DeAngelis very close to me for all all the years of my life since he entered my life married my sister would be the first to tell you that you can't trust all doctors you you can't you can't trust all people in any profession because there there are errors and there is human misjudgment and all of that you can't put yourself out on a limb with something that aid doctor tells you that doesn't have any support in other words he may have degrees he may have authority but he's offering you some insight into mental illness or some solution to that which has not been tested that is one of the reasons we have drugs basically approved by the federal government because they have to go through rigorous tests so when a doctor prescribes you something that has a record of being useful and effective and helpful then the doctor is functioning within a category that you can basically validate right you can you can find out what the science is on that for the for the most part and I think in my case I'm just a trusting person I trust the doctors I go to but I go to the doctors that I've been told I can trust right so I I think you have to put yourself in someone's hands but you have to know that that's someone you can trust I remember when I was going in to have surgery on my back I was having surgery from a doctor I didn't know but a doctor I know very well recommended him and he said to him to his friend who was going to operate on my back just know this you don't want to be the guy that killed John MacArthur which was probably good advice and he didn't he did a great job I just think you need to get referrals and references and due diligence and there's plenty of that available to you now with all the access to information okay thank you sir you're welcome pastor my name is Adam and I just had a question Adam so you brought on all this [Music] yeah I said I should see that one coming I had a question on Matthew 11 verse 14 talking about and says and if you are willing to accept it John himself is Elijah who was to come what is that title mean for John the Baptist and just trying to understand that passage yeah Matthew 1114 if you're willing to accept it John himself is the Elijah who is to come the Old Testament closes with the promise of the allot of Elijah coming okay the promise of Elijah coming before the great and terrible day of the Lord right in Malachi yeah Malachi that's how the Old Testament ends that the Messiah is going to come in a great time of judgment but prior to him 1 Elijah is going to come when the angel talks to Zacharias the father of John the Baptist he says to him he will come in the spirit and power of Elijah right if Israel had responded to the offer of the kingdom John would have been that Elijah in other words if they had acknowledged their Messiah the first I mean this is just this is hypothetical but if they had acknowledged Christ when he came and offered them the kingdom if they had followed through for example on the triumphal entry when they hailed him as the son of David and the Messiah if they had followed through on that and embraced him as Lord and Messiah theoretically the kingdom would have come therefore would have been that Elijah and with the coming of the kingdom the judgment would have come then but we know that they rejected the king they therefore rejected the kingdom the kingdom was postponed to his second coming and again I think that's the essence of you can read the the notes in the commentary I wrote on Matthew and give you a little more information on that but our Lord is simply saying if you had believed he would have been that elijah it wasn't that necessarily elijah himself was coming but john was declared to be in the spirit and power of elijah a prophet prior to the arrival of messiah to set up his kingdom okay okay thank you hi Pastor John MacArthur my name is crystal and my question is what is the relationship between prayer and God's sovereignty specifically what are a prayer changes God's will or make something more likely to happen like for example if you're praying to heal the sick or for a person salvation and if God is already elected or predestined who to be saved and then why do we pray or does our prayers matter yeah it's really a very very good question crystal and we've no doubt about the fact that God is sovereign right over everything the way to understand that question is this you have illustrations in scripture of somebody praying and God withholding judgment you have illustrations of people praying and God bringing rain in answer to their prayers from our viewpoint the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man produces much James 5 right the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous person has a powerful impact God here's an answers prayer in fact we are told to pray without ceasing we heard that we know that God hears our prayers and prayer is in some sense them the power that moves the muscles of omnipotence the way to understand it is this God is sovereign but he works through means God saves sovereignly but not apart from faith okay God sanctifies sovereignty but not apart from obedience God acts sovereignly but not apart from prayer so God has ordained means by which his sovereignty operates if you don't believe you will not be saved if you don't obey you will not be sanctified if you don't pray you won't see the hand of God God ties his sovereign operation to the means and prayer is the means he has chosen you say well if I don't pray God may do the same thing this is true if you don't pray he may do the same thing but you won't receive the benefit of it because you haven't been involved if the Lord has determined to save someone name written in the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world he will save that person if you pray you become the means by which God saves that person if you don't the prayers of someone else become the means that he uses and you then are outside of that look at it this way if you pray and pray and pray for the salvation of someone and they are saved you you receive the blessing right yours is the joy beyond beyond someone who wasn't involved if someone is converted to Christ and you haven't prayed for them you're thankful but not at the level you would be if you had been constantly interceding for that person now keep in mind that our Lord said that when we pray according to his will he hears us and he acts so it's always according to his will it's always within the framework of his sovereign will so we are always saying Lord do your will and allow me in my prayers to be a part of what you use to bring about that will so that you may be blessed so praying is really taking seriously the privilege of being a means by which God does the sovereign work the idea then in prayer is to line up with the purposes of God and pray according to his perfect will when our Lord gave that promise I'll read a verse when the Lord gave that promise he said that if you ask anything in my name the father will do it that he may be glorified what does it mean in my name this is John 14:13 if you ask me anything in my name I will do it what does it mean in my name consistent with his will so we acknowledge God's sovereignty we also rejoice with the privilege of being engaged in the means and by the way the benefit of the application of that means is the sheer joy and privilege of communion with God okay good question hi Pastor John my name is Briana hi Brianna my question is there seems to be a sequence of events happening in heaven in Revelation it states that the scrolls were open in a specific order is there time in heaven and if there is does it work the same way it does here no there's no time in heaven it is timelessness this is the space-time creation outside of space-time creation there is no time god is eternal and heaven is the dwelling place of God in fact I think it probably helps you to think of when you think about going to heaven forever and you say are we going to be looking like saying wow I've been here 480 years and I'm not going anywhere heaven is there's not going to be time because if there was time in heaven that you would have to deal with the the fact that you were looking at something that was endless and even at its best this could be a little daunting so the way to understand heaven is timelessness what it means is heaven is one moment that never stops one moment that never stops there's no sense of passing time at all so there is no time in heaven when you read the book of Revelation starting in chapter 6 the the chapter 5 the Lord Jesus comes forward and he takes the the scroll out of the hand of the Father and the scroll represents like in ancient times a will and testament what they would do is somebody would write a will and they would seal it and they would roll it and seal it and then roll it again and seal it and in that the case of this scroll it had seals and when the Lord Jesus took the scroll from the throne and began to unroll the seals he was unrolling the will of God which was the title deed to the universe being handed to him he was the one you remember it says who was worthy who was worthy to unroll the scroll and no one appeared in John was sad and then the lamb that had been slain came out took the scroll and began to unroll it and this is simply a symbolic way of showing that as the Lord in the time coming known as the Great Tribulation takes back to the universe there's a serie of events that take place the six events are listed as the the six actions that come out of the the rolling opening of the scroll and then out of the final scroll the seventh one comes seven trumpets and each one of them is the next in succession so the seventh seal is is encompasses the the trumpets and the seventh trumpet then encompasses the seven bowls which are seven more judgments and that is all the sequential judgment that flows through the time of the Great Tribulation from the sixth chapter on through the 18th chapter and then you have Christ returning in chapter 19 but that is really not in heaven that is simply a way to roll out the history of events as the Lord Himself during the time of tribulation brings judgment on the world and takes back the creation and at the end establishes his kingdom okay good hello dr. John Beck sorry I couldn't resist no that's that's familiar to me well all the all the kids at the Masters university call me Johnny Mack my name is Anthony buyer and I've been here for a month and it's just been a great blessing welcome Anthony we're so glad to have you thank you so I have a question about sanctification actually could you tell me the name of your new book please sanctification alright it's a small book but it's called sanctification Christ's passion for his church cool so one of the most profound things I've learned from you has been your teaching from Ephesians 5:18 and Colossians 3:16 through 17 the spirit-filled walk of the Christian I've even just recently put your Bible study method into practice for the last year or so throughout your years have you continued to read the New Testament repetitiously and if so how has it had an impact on your sanctification throughout the years well I I would say is that my sanctification is directly correspondent to the work of the word in my heart what he's talking about is that when I first began to read the Bible I would read a book 30 times in a row I started with first John I read it 30 times because I I wanted to be familiar with it the Bible is its own best interpreter right so I read I'm ever started I read first John thirty times and I thought wow this is so rich I read it 90 times then I went to the Gospel of John I took the first seven chapters the second seven and the third and I reached it read each of those thirty times so in three months in first John and three more months in the Gospel of John I connected all the dots and I understood what John was saying and how his epistle was so much like the gospel and I became familiar with those books to the point where I could tell you where on the page a certain verse was in fact just flipping to the 14th chapter of John just a moment ago my eyes immediately went directly to verse 13 because I see visually my Bible because I spend so much time in it I basically went through the whole New Testament reading everything 30 times look like Matthew 28 chapters break it down to 7 7 7 and 7 and that's how you absorb the scripture I know there are approaches to reading through the Bible and those are fine but reading repetitiously the same thing over and over and over and over and over it gives you a familiarity that the passing it by and one one reading won't do so I did that for a number of years took me two and a half years to do the whole New Testament I never did the Old Testament that way I just kind of read it along I don't do that anymore I haven't done that for years but because at this point I'm sort of all over the Bible with the books and the preparation that I'm doing but there's not a day of my life that I am not reading the Word of God not only reading the Word of God but reading about the Word of God and reading about the word in the books that I read is those books are full of the Word of God so it's the exposure to the Word of God that is what transforms us sanctify them by thy truth thy Word is truth right John 17:17 so I really do believe that your sanctification is in direct proportion to the exposure you have to the Word of God it is powerful it is a force it is not just data it is a force it is alive and powerful sharper than any two-edged sword it cuts deep it wounds and it heals the the word does its work in your heart you need to be continually in the Word of God it is the word the Spirit uses to sanctify you okay thank you so much you're welcome hi my name is Clayton hi Clayton how old is the UH how old is the earth not millions of years we we would go back to the genealogies of Matthew and we would say the earth maybe ten thousand years old some number like that there's no reason to believe it's millions and millions and millions and millions of years old if you follow the creation account in six days God created everything and then you have if you have genealogy starting with Adam and you can go through those genealogies you can count the years there's been lots of really good work indicating that the young earth is the only possible way to interpret the Word of God let me give you the primary reason apart from what you have laid out in the scripture itself it is this you don't have death until the third chapter of Genesis right so that precludes any kind of evolution because nothing died there was no death in the universe until the third chap of Genesis if there was no death there couldn't be any mutation nothing because nothing died and nothing replaced it so when God created he created with perfection and there was no death he created the entire universe mature all the creatures mature man mature woman mature all of that in six days and there couldn't be any process of evolution because there was no death that creation continued until death came in the third chapter and with it the curse so if you believe in an old old earth then you have to believe that they affirmed that or they declare that so that they have the process of evolution taking place all the time but how can you have the process of evolution taking place if nothing ever dies so to stuff evolutions anywhere into Genesis 1 & 2 is to deny the fact that death didn't happen till chapter 3 so I think that's important can you understand that Clayton good Thank You bud thank you so much that was a really good question so when anybody asks you you just say the earth is a little older than me okay okay thank you you're welcome Platon thank you hello my name is Darius and my question is should we listen to songs to have like good Christian lyrics but are written by false Christians maybe such as Hillsong or Bethel or those kind of stuff I mean it the bottom line would be that if something is true then it's true you can appreciate the truth of the song if it's true there are a lot of songs written by real Christians that are bad theology really bad theology there are some songs written by nine persons that are good theology but but I do think it's important not to get sucked in to those movements Hillsong is an aberrant movement with really aberrant theology Bethel is the same or worse but it doesn't mean that there isn't now and then something they produce that is true and you can sing it as true so just be discerning but they are they are powerful movements both of them Bethel because of the Jesus Culture Music Group Hillsong because of Hillsong music I don't they didn't have that music they wouldn't have a movement either of them probably but the theology of both particularly Bethel is is taking the Holy Spirit's name in vain constantly constantly so you don't want to you don't want to be a part of that movement but again the clock that doesn't run is Right twice a day so every once in a while people will come across the truth okay thank you hello my name is Emma hi Emma and my question is as Christian how would you personally represent Christ well when so many people who claim to be Christians give a bad representation of Christ and the world sees the bad representation like for example the protesters outside yeah really good question mi we we not only have to overcome the enemies of Jesus we have to sometimes overcome the Friends of Jesus don't we who misrepresented all you can do is what you can do you preach the truth you speak the truth you live the truth you're marked by love I said that this morning when I commented about them the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart I think that is it is the words of Jesus back in John 13 by this shall all men know that you're my disciples that you have love for one another when there is a blatant hostility and you're propagating hate this this isn't going to attract anyone this is this is not legitimate the message that we preach is of course we're sinners we need salvation but the good news is what we preach right the gospel gospel of forgiveness and grace I I will just tell you you know my whole life I have not only tried to overcome the enemies of the cross but struggle to overcome the friends who misrepresent the Bible misrepresented the Lord misrepresent his word like Hillsong and Bethel and ad nauseam there's so many of them but that's the devil strategy right because he disguises himself as an angel of light and his ministers or Angels of Light they appear to represent the Lord and they misrepresent him and therein lies the confusion if you put yourself in the position of a non-believer trying to sort out what is just by say watching television or going to a church or watching the life of someone who says that person is a Christian it would be chaotic but but the lord knows where the light is and the lord will bring the light to those that he is drawing and you just want to make sure your life is that shining light in the darkness and sometimes the darkness is darkest among those who are pretenders to christianity because that's the devil strategy not just to attack the gospel but to try to mirror the gospel in a deceptive way so we just live our life preach the truth and let the Lord take it from there okay okay thank you good hello Pastor John my name is Cameron hi Cameron I was just wondering it wasn't a big thing for me when I was Christian maybe about a year to ago however considering the the effects of the Nicaea cancel and the the fallout that happened and I mean Priene I see accounts of a Nicene council of course but considering the the fallout where the entire east eventually it subsequently became Arian and the West couldn't have been bothered and there was according to scholars and historians lots of politics and violence going on between both sides how do we view that time and period when we I I used to say that you know hey we have Church church bishops and everything you know they quelled the area of Arian heresy right at Nicaea but then it was brought to my attention that there was a lot of political stuff going on there wasn't too many of the opposing side at that council because of some political stuff going on and eventually the entire East became Arian in that of course was contributed to the rulership of Rome and everything like that so considering the history of how nice you went down and how the East became Aryan and then it eventually became unerring because of the West's insistence upon the the west authority on the east how should we view that period of time what Pollock politics violence bloodshed and just nasty stuff well she's talking him back in 325 there was a council trying to sort out the truth because between the time of the Apostles and a couple of centuries later there are all kinds of errors of course we can go back to the church early church fathers and we can read about all of these kinds of things so the Council of Nicaea was trying to come to conclusions about truth just to make the story short the real question is there there was corruption it didn't take long even after that council and there were other councils around that before that and after that it was true that even after those councils fought to define the truth there was a lot of defection there was a lot of politicking and that led to from about 500 500 AD all the way to the Reformation a period of Darkness the the Roman Catholic system that's back in the in the 300s when Constantine decides to make everybody automatically a Christian by baptism baptized all the babies and everybody's a Christian and Christianity was basically stripped of its reality and turned into a ceremony and then eventually the east and the West split you have the Greek Orthodox in the East you have the Roman Catholic in the West but the bottom-line question that I think Cameron is asking is is a good question where was the truth through all those centuries where was the truth through all those years historically there are answers to that the truth can be found in the early church fathers and I'll tell you there's a new book that Nathan just wrote do you remember the name of it Mike do you remember Nathan's book long before Luthor yeah great title and what Nathan shows in that book is long before the Reformation the gospel was still being believed and the true church was still alive long before Luther because that is the question with all the politicking with the Roman Catholic Church in the Eastern Orthodox Church and the politicking was horrendous and that's where you have the development of the Saints and in the the non marriage law for the clergy and all those things and we all know the the outcoming of Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism is an apostate form of Christianity but long before Luther the true gospel was there and you can trace it through all those years the Lord has always had his faithful people so get that book long before Luther thank you so much thank you that's that's it there's no one left well we covered a lot of things I hope some of it was helpful and encouraging for you I I feel like this is one way that we can have a personal conversation and we always want it to be edifying and helpful and instructive and and trust that it is and I think another element of this that I've always felt strongly about is that there are answers right there are answers and there are the answers are in the Word of God and you can you can trust those answers from God's Word we do have reason to believe what we believe because the Word of God has given us revelation that covers all these important questions so by the way thank you just a word about those people out there this is a small Church in Topeka Kansas called Westboro Baptist that have decided some years ago that the message that they have to preach is hate that God hates everybody and they have managed to propagate that far and wide to the tragic results first of all the people in that movement and of others who are confused by it and if anybody is looking for a reason to criticise Christianity that would be an excuse for them to use right we know that that is not the message yes the Bible says that sinners are condemned yes the Bible says that God hates sin and sinners and they will be judged and homosexuality is a sin and so is every other sin a sin one is not worse than the other but the message that we have is that in the face of the reality of sin and the judgment of God which we proclaim the message of the church is a message of forgiveness and grace right that God loves and we love because he loved us first father thank you for giving us a wonderful evening together to talk about things that are on our hearts thank you that your word gives us light and life Lord use us by making us knowledgeable in your word to give answers to people who ask questions help us when we face questions and maybe we don't know the answer to to go back to the Word of God back to the resources that are on the pages of Holy Scripture and and find the truth make us people of the book in every sense so that we can give a reason for the hope that is within us with meekness and fear so that we can show that the reasonableness of our faith that it is based on divine revelation that the Bible stands every test it is validated again and again throughout all its history as the living and abiding Word of God it is its own defense it is powerful it is true it carries the same glory that you possess and it will speak - any soul that is open to its truth in such a way as to validate that it is the word the Living Word of the Living God we pray Lord that we might grow in our knowledge of your word that we might be able to lead people through the maze of their confusion to the glorious truth of the gospel we know that the church is to be the pillar and ground of the truth and we have endeavoured to see that our church is that that here the truth will always be taught everywhere at all times so that we can be people of the truth to proclaim that truth use this precious congregation even this week to proclaim your truth your word to someone who needs to hear well thank you for that privilege in the name of Christ amen

Channel: Grace to You

Views: 145,927

Rating: 4.8501019 out of 5

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

Id: kR44gx8Criw

Length: 65min 30sec (3930 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 25 2020