Live Q&A with Pastor Mike | May 14, 2020 | Compass Bible Church

all right everybody welcome back every Thursday we're answering your questions right here at we need a name for this thing don't we yeah we call it we're calling it nothing yet Pastor Mike live okay that's better that's less egomaniacal isn't it yes I was gonna call her Mike Fabares the microbio show like everybody else does hey guys listen one of the things that whether we do this is we want you to be students of the word and one of the best ways to strengthen your knowledge of God's word that it might be useful knowledge training and preparation to pass it on because God never wants us to be a as I like to say a cold a sack of God's information he wants us to be a thoroughfare to put that into other people's lives a conduit go and sign up for our summer New Testament study class CBI summer registration is now opens officially open New Testament survey what an important class that is to get the lay of the land in the New Testament dr. Goodrich and Pastor Mark Kelly soon-to-be dr. Kelly are going to be teaching that class and we want you to sign up and you need to go to Compass Bible Institute org and you need to sign up seriously even if you've never thought of it you know a guy he's talking to someone else right now maybe I'm not maybe I'm talking to you because you need to go and sign up for our class New Testament survey seriously I mean I can't think of any more foundation where the Old Testament survey would be another foundational class but this one is being taught it's being offered and dr. Goodrich is has taught New Testament at Moody and speaking of moody by the way I can tell you officially as of today at about 9 o'clock this morning our credits are now officially transferable to Rudy Wow a bunch of them a ton of them actually and so Biola's in process boys college sudden seminary has already signed off Southern California seminaries already signed off via official what we call articulation agreements with these schools and that's a great great thing because for what you get charged at the compass to get these transferable credits is so much lower and you know you're never going to Talbot right how expensive that was just so expensive and you could actually take our New Testament survey class and have that transfer soon to Biola and certainly that movie right now and several other schools that we are the Midwestern seminary is one of them that's official too and what's their undergrad collar Spurgeon college and it's called yeah yeah they undergrad also so anyway if you're looking for a bachelor's degree that's always a helpful thing and not always but sometimes you can take our classes at CBI alright we want you to do in this hour is ask questions that's what this is all about so you just type in your question none of this is planted none of it is prepped or planned I mean I try to be prepped just in general but trying to be ready to preach the word in season or out of season and hopefully today's an in-season day and you're receptive and we're ready to answer your Bible questions so type them in maybe a tough question but I think that this will be great to hear your response on it from Jeanine and she asks as we see different churches advertising their Drive and services would you please give us your take on this for our church our take well yeah churches are making decisions which as far as I understand they're free and legal to do with a driving service now breaking any rules to have those our pastors as I've said every time I should host this a meeting regularly we had a meeting today and we are always talking about our plans our reassembling matter of fact in one hour our county health officials are getting together to give us some specific guidelines we've talked to two council members this week we have talked to the city manager we're very careful to look at all of what is allowed as we work toward reassembling in person in our auditorium and on our campus that's what we're shooting for and we are working in terms of the plans and the man-hours to get ready for that and we know it can be a bit of a stopgap at least in your heart to say well can't we just come and park in the parking lot and we've looked at that logistically we've looked at it in terms of how large our church is and what the response would be and what the technology and everything that we need to do this and we just think that we're we're busy putting together plans to reassemble on campus our effort our time our policy making is going into that and so we're we're looking forward to that in the meantime we've got several things that are available to our people and you know that involves work almost a 300 videos that we've produced from the time that we started this and only three or four of them that I can think of our absolute folly and ridiculousness like pancake making and making tacos but most of them actually will feed your soul I hope so we've got a lot available for you and we would as pastors here we would encourage you and direct you to to consume that and to pray for our reassembling and we know it's gonna come in stages and phases that's what we've already seen our officials took their hand and that's what we're looking at in terms of what they're planning and so we're gonna be right on the cusp of that soon as they give us that green light we're going to take it and instead of working for several man-hours to put together a driving service which would take us finding a different parking lot and having the agreements made and the writers are insurance and just so many things that would go into that instead we're working on revamping our classrooms for our kids and putting together all of the issues of Health and sanitizers all those things where that's what we're working hard on right now so yeah and I guess the secondary question that maybe you didn't ask but people what about if I go over to those services and I guess my response to that would be there's nothing wrong with that obviously but you know this is your church and we are Church family be like you saying you know my parents you know don't want to have Grandma and Grandpa over for a backyard barbecue but the neighbors are doing it well I like that I'm gonna go over to my neighbor's house and do that I guess you can do that and I'm not gonna say as a leader in the church you can't do that but I would say hey you know I don't know and your church family right I mean I I would nothing wrong with the guise of your no no no John Randle and others and I've talked to some other pastors in the area and I know they're they're planning some things like that but yeah I would hope that our church would be unified around the things that we're doing and would participate with us in our plan so that's my think that's a great response I love the fact that we're a church family and that we can rally around one another and unify as a family and get underneath your leadership and the leadership of the pastors and I know that you guys want to assemble as soon as we can so come on yeah yes and we have plenty of things like you said videos to watch we have ways to meet together in zoom groups so it's not like we have no connection to teaching and to fellowship during this time someone was saying to me just today you know it should be good to see you you know behind a pulpit you know preaching on the platform and one pastor spoke up because Pastor Mark said you know we have thousands of hours of that available and I'll bet there's a few sermons that they haven't heard yes if you watch me on a platform behind the podium there's plenty of that yes you could spend the next year probably watching me if that's really what you're craving right now and if it's not live not live when you watch it on the weekend it's a couple days old or a day old at least so anyway whatever yeah and again I'm not gonna say as the pastor and our pastoral team is not going to say hey you shouldn't be gone right to another church but you know if we do something here for our church and then every other person from every other church comes and consumes that and you know takes up a parking space or whatever if we were doing I don't know it's just like that's ending I'm sure John down and Sam on it his deal probably didn't care anyway I've danced around that enough have a night I think yeah Thank You Janine for asking that question we appreciate it great we've got a different type of question from brandy and she said actually her son is wondering how did water dinosaurs die water dinosaurs yes yeah whatever has become extinct clearly the environment did not allow right for the sustenance of those creatures and my understanding of Scripture and my theory and kind of filling in the blanks and some of what we see in Scripture and I talked about this on our Q&A I think the world was so catastrophic Lee changed the world was so much more amenable to life much the environment was much more conducive to life in all forms prior to the flood that something so changed in Genesis six through nine that a lot of more and I say that because you've got dinosaurs as we understand them certainly need a whole lot more than this present world can can supply for them unless you're in some you know into some forest rainforest they call it now a jungle in a place that can possibly sustain them and then whatever is going on at least in the sea you know couldn't sustain those those forms of life and there have been other things clearly they become extinct even in our lifetime that as environments change and as situations like the industrialization of the world is taking place we have lost certain species and creatures and and so you know I can't answer that specifically other than to say I can assure you that the ocean as we know it now was probably not the ocean they were swimming in in Genesis five so something very different was there and that certainly in the delicate balance of the biological marine life that we have probably wasn't able able to sustain sustain the kinds of creatures that are now extinct whether land or sea yeah great responsibility pastor Mike yes we have a question from Mike and Mike would like to know he said that he's been going back and forth online with some conditional lists that believe in annihilationism he said the argument seemed to hold weight on the surface but they seem to be redefining words to fit their beliefs and then he asked what are the most convincing arguments from Scripture that you found that would refute their annihilationism also any good resources for further study he says he's been rereading parts of clot floaters both which he's found to be helpful yeah on the eternality of Hell conscious hell is what we're talking about here yes absolutely yes how does he refute those some good passages refute annihilationism and some book recommend it let me just say the thing that gets us to annihilation his euphemisms in Scripture words like sleep right I just say that because a euphemism about death is sleep and clearly run timeout sleep we're talking about someone who's died and their body in repose in death looks like they're sleeping so it becomes a nice way of saying they died and just like when you talk to someone has a loved one died you probably don't you say so Frank died you know you say Frank passed away you soften that with words well there's a lot of euphemisms regarding what happens to people when they die and suffer the consequences of their sin now some passages are just forthright and they just have it there for us right the great white throne judgment revelation 20 there it is tortured day and night forever and ever and those phrases couldn't be more clear but a lot of other passages even like the second death right the judgment and and retribution of God on people is called the second death even that is euphemism within a euphemism and all I'm saying is that in a any kind of a short-handed way to talk about eternal punishment leads people to talk and think about annihilationism the other thing I would say is progressive revelation leads people to believe in dilation is when I shouldn't only give you arguments in a minute in the pro but I'm trying to explain why people come to this wrongheaded conclusion the progressive revelation God did not hand Adam and Eve a you know leather-covered Bible with all 66 books in it right I mean the the total revelation of God about life about death about the afterlife about eternality about eternity was not revealed all at once and so we have a lot of things in the Old Testament when we don't have a lot of revelation regarding the afterlife I mean it really takes until the the fifth century BC before we have super clear undeniable statements about for instance the resurrection of the body in Daniel chapter 12 so you have progressive revelation doesn't mean anything prior to it contradicts it it just means that the way that God had laid information on people continued to be increasingly exposed right so that's the way we worry about things like well how can they had multiple wives for instance things like that well Jesus makes the point for instance hey you should have known because there was Adam and Eve you know wasn't Adam and Eve and Linda and the rest it was you know they should have known one man one woman but you know God didn't make this crystal clear in terms of his prohibitions until the New Testament same goes for issues that relate to so many things in Scripture the the progressive revelation regarding what happens after someone dies there's an increasing understanding as God reveals more and more through the prophets so you need to understand why we get there because people that are going to support and I've talked to them I've debated them I've talked to missionaries or Annihilation as' and and they often will quote Old Testament texts that are limited in the revelatory light on the topic and you know they'll quote a lot of things from Ecclesiastes which by the way has to be understood in light of the point of Ecclesiastes but so I'd be careful about remembering these two things euphemistic language number one and number two the the the progressive revelation I mean the most revelation we have is when we get to the sixty-six book of the Bible and I would say the book of Revelation probably most clear books about the afterlife but if you want to talk about Jesus being a good teacher I would go to Luke chapter 16 when Jesus tells the story of Lazarus and the rich man and if there is no conscious sentient understanding or existence of your life after you die then Jesus is a really bad teacher he is really miss directing us in Luke 16 which of course they don't believe so he passes it like Mark chapter 10 that talked about the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched you know and I know they tell but I mean assuming fire again if you use those phrases and what could fire consume minutes gone well then even us as the writer of Hebrews talks about us you know dealing with God who is a consuming fire a we would be consumed even the angels are called the burning ones the Seraphim were burning was it I mean they would be burned up then right well that's not the point the point is these are analogies that are used and employed in Scripture to talk about that the pain the discomfort and when you see passages like mark 10 verse 48 about the one not dying then you have clear examples of this so on a very simple level I would direct you to and if you can't afford it I will send you mine or I can give you the chapters themselves but I wrote three chapters on this and one chapter in particular about annihilationism in my last book on 10 mistakes people make about heaven held me after life and that would be an easy kind of popular level read and if you want a good book hold on a second that goes a little bit more in depth and anthology it's a great book let me find it real quick hold on and a lot of different authors great scholars writing about the dismissal of Hell in modern Christian scholarship this is the book to read I have a few of them my friend up there at whiteboards not opening there goes as you might do you think sometimes you might want to believe in annihilation and of course don't you like skunks wanting to not be thought of this stinky site yes of course I would like to think that a perfect God would think we're all okay right but we're not okay a couple of books here the one I have a couple in mine but the one I was thinking as I talked about my friend Chris Morgan up at CBU in front of our church he's been down here before what a book and you wrote several books on this but this book I often recommend called hell under fire modern scholarship reinvents eternal punishment by Zondervan inches or Christopher Morgan that's a great book and it's funny I was talking to him about this book and he's written others about it he says I hate being asked to be a guest speaker because they always want me to preach on hell yes and so I thought that you know that one must be a bummer for you right yeah so anyway another one and one of his buddies and co-authors was some of his name Robert Peterson wrote a book called hell on trial the case for eternal punishment and again none of these are helpful you know or cheery topics is I wrote in my book on this at a popular level you know there's a great grief and thinking through the reality of hell but anyway another one it's a simpler book Larry Dixon it's called the other side of the good news confronting the challenges to Jesus's teaching on how which by the way there's the most clear besides the book of Revelation that has statements that are undeniable but Jesus put so much emphasis on Hell in the reality of hell you know that you know it's just some theologians put it the greatest backing for the doctrine that's very unpleasant the doctrine of hell that we don't like is the teachings of Christ himself so Dixon deals with that in his book there's several more Ajith Fernando crucial questions about how Jonathan Edwards there's a name that you think yank about Hell right sinners in the hands of an angry god of course the book you're quoting is cloth filters books and in that sinners in the hands of a good God but that's not specifically about eternal punishment it's about the problem I mean he deals with that but it's about the problem of you know God's sovereign choice and salvation but those other books would be good and I've been wondering if the one maybe you can remember this Stephanie the book on I know dr. Mohler contributed to the book just working at that Morgan's book hold on I won't check is that the anthology that I was thinking of maybe is hell for real I think it's Christopher Morgan Spock that was written by a number of authors under fire and I think dr. Molly wrote the first chapter in that and is so so helpful and unpleasant yeah my book very simple book but 10 mistakes people make about heaven Helen after all if I had to write three chapters on the topic of how and I deal with the issue of soul sleep and annihilationism but I don't I don't even use those terms I don't think perhaps I do but all right that's a long answer sorry great question now something that we all got to keep in mind and it's funny because in a way the next question relates to that and Julie says that her daughter would like to know when hell was created yeah well hell is a concept I mean let me give you this passage here a couple of passages sorry dead air but there's nothing it's not real radio right yeah I'm talking about how as I do so often when I talk about this there's a passive aspect and an active aspect to it and in a passive way I know this is hard and it has to be an intentional thing on God's part but when he talks about being away from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his might this is second Thessalonians 1 verse 9 and talking about suffering the punishment of that that destruction that eternal destruction lasts forever and what is the destructive part of that it's the fact that you're not annihilated it's that you are away right this is a you know continued of reality away from the presence of the Lord in the glory of his might so God all he has to do is remove his his life-giving presence and he doesn't give take away life as we know it because it will be sentient conscience conscious life it's just that he takes away the glory the greatness the dokes are the goodness of his power and all of that power that might that provides everything good is taken away so that's the passive part of that and yeah that that I think is that doesn't need to be created it's just the absent right that's present in the sense that's what I'm trying to say yeah it's a removal of God's goodness and yet there's the passage of probably thinking of and that's Matthew 26 verse 41 he will say to those on his left your time other goats depart from you you accursed ones into the eternal fire and here's the word that you're thinking of prepared right so there is a sense in which there was some creation of it of this reality prepared for the devil and his angels and you know just looking at my Greek New Testament here I mean it's the word to make ready to provide you some 40 times in the New Testament in the Greek New Testament yeah I mean the preparing of it matter if I can we look at some usages of that New Testament Greek word real quick yeah well clearly it was a long time ago yeah long w-well certainly was in place by the time Jesus in Matthew 25 yeah talks about it preparations yeah I'm just looking at all the usages of this Greek word and new Testament something to make prepared when Jesus said in Luke 17 go prepare supper my illustration about preparing supper for a servant does for the master and and and you know kept getting a meal ready so yeah this place was made ready and it was made ready I'm just trying to say by a passivity of God is there an activity in judgment of course there is and that's based on your deeds but the context itself is simply God removing his goodness and I think so often that's what we we fail to see even when we encoded crisis you know people are we got to do this in this sense I was praying with our pastors today earlier about he was thanking God for His goodness that we take for granted and everyone just a little that goodness is retracted now this is like we came in Nate and you know this is so bad and okay well it's not as though God has to do anything he just has to step back right he if he doesn't actively do these good things for us right every good and perfect gift comes from God so yeah can't imagine what that would be like to for some to be in a place where God's presence and His goodness is removed wholly and that's why I always talk about when people say I'm and I got a hell party with my friends and that atheist poster that says you know if there is a hell you'll be in good company and I think we'll give the word good and company therefore those words are contingent on God's grace and that you would ever have anything good come from any interaction with anybody and having company would be a good gift of God because people and friends and community and family are gifts of God so God removes all of those right it's outer darkness it's loneliness it's it's it's God taking his good gifts away so it's just an absurd poster with all these pictures of these really cool intellectuals and philosophers and movie stars you don't believe in God and said it's okay we're gonna be together like you know enjoying each other we don't get to any of God's good gifts you know yeah everything you predicate your happiness on it comes from him you know I think Timothy McVeigh who bombed the Federal Building in Oklahoma City you know he was on death row and they were going to execute him he said interview asking you believe in hell and he says if there is a hell you know I'll improvise and I'll overcome and I think okay there's the kind of arrogance of people trying to whistle in the graveyard as they say hoping that hey you know if it's there I guess I'll do okay you know I'll take on and you know Satan in their mind that's how they view and you know Satan kind of rule in this place Satan doesn't rule hell it's a prepared place for his punishment and so anyway yeah when was it prepared great question and I can't answer it all I can say is by the time Jesus was on the scene 2,000 years ago it was past tense here it was prepared perfect passive participle it was already done and I think in a sense you did answer that by letting us know to the other passive dimension of that Michele asks can you share your understanding of the verse one is taken and the other left in Matthew 24 40 and 41 she goes on to ask who are those taken and who are those left she's heard three different tape views on these verses raised recently and she hadn't realized that there were so many interpretations yeah yeah and I just think contextually here in Matthew 24 and the Olivet discourse is Jesus is teaching here I think contextually we would define what's going on by the previous verse when it talks about being taken away and that is well I'll go up to verse 38 and it talks about you know as it was in the days of Noah right and the flood they were eating and marrying and giving in marriage until the day when noah entered the ark and then verse 39 they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away that's not the rapture that's not to happiness that's not to safety alright so we'll be in the coming of the Son of Man two men will be in the field one will be taken away and when we left two women grinding at the mill when we take in and I think the taken here that's described in this passage is the taken that is defined contextually in verse 38 by taken in judgment right long bono to be taken and I don't think that's taken in so it doesn't change our theology and I think that's the thing people always call and ask about this question to me I'm not minimizing the questions a great question because we wonder what the passage means but when you say well is this the rapture what doesn't mean there's not a rapture if you're reading this verse and thinking well taken out of the way I picture the rapture and people being taken off the earth like a lie Rigel was and Enoch was and Jesus was and now we're going to be are we gonna be taking off yes of course we're going to be hot pods or taken off of the earth so my theology of the rapture does not can you not depend on this verse right or to be taken away in judgment if that's what it means which I'm arguing in the context that's what it means okay that I believe that too because the rest of the Bible teaches that God is coming in judgment clearly verse 38 and 39 teach that that as it was in the days of Noah and they took them away in a flood and by that that was a bad thing so it will be in the coming the Son of Man God's going to judge the world so I think the judgments that are looked forward to in the Olivet discourse primarily we're shifting the focus to the tribulation because we're talking about the temple we're talking about ultimate reality regarding Israel and so I think what's going on in Matthew 24 it is probably you can put your Israel hat on the seventh week of Daniel the time of Jacob's trouble and you can look at that passage and you can see that we're probably dealing with God's judgment on earth during the Tribulation Period and being taking taken away is the massive death that's going to take place during that time when God visits the world with his judgment Wow well great question Michelle if you have any more you'd like to ask about that just make sure and put it in the comments again we have a really good question from Danielle she asks if you could explain what true repentance is yeah well repentance means well let me say but it doesn't mean to start with and now it's probably an open-ended question but I'm always thinking about the critic who says repentance just means to think differently about Christ therefore it see an equivalent parallel and send them to the word faith and I'm just going to argue that it is not meta Noah the Greek word is compound word meta preposition after Noah from use our new AO to think and people say well means to think after to change your mind I understand the compound of that word certainly you can come to that conclusion but just like there were off fold does it mean full of all right or a hamlet where people live doesn't mean you know a hand gets let to do something right that's just bad you know linguistics you have to look at the usage of the word Metanoia and usage of the word Metanoia is a turning around a changing of not just our mind it does start in the mind and I'll give you that but it's a changing of your behavior I think of Acts chapter 26 hold on let me need to the right verse here this is where you fill in okay yeah but just give me a second here yeah acts twenty six twenty twenty there it was let me give you this or you can even just read look for and thing look forward and John the Baptist teaches about repentance and he talks about the fact you know they're like what do we do what do we do well here's what you do if you have you know if you're if you're a soldier you don't extort money at anybody but you know it's a change in your behavior but changing in my behavior does not save me that repentance right is that first word of the gospel you respond in the Pens he came preaching mark 1:16 the gospel and he said repent in the king of heavens at hand we were supposed to Luke 24 go and preach repentance to all nations for the forgiveness of sins so acts 26 22 word Epis truffaut which is the word to turn and it says that Paul was preaching write these things in Damascus in Jerusalem and all throughout Judea and in to the Gentiles that they should repent and turn to God now here's the next phrase performing deeds in keeping with their repentance so the idea of here's the parallel were Depa stressful and Metanoia these two words repentance and turning these are parallel concept that build on each other that give us a sense of a different set of deeds that come afterwards so if I said I've repented of smoking cigarettes right if I said that which I'm never gonna give up on this kid I smoked cigarettes but if I did it's a like I'm gonna give up my I'm gonna no not give up I'm gonna repent of smoking cigarettes you would expect that what's gonna happen is I'm gonna stop smoking cigarettes if I repent if I said I repent if here's let me just here's a really silly illustration but as long as everyone's got their thinking caps on already if repenting of smoking cigarettes is the call to be saved okay if I said and I said right now you know what I gotta get to go to heaven I'm gonna repent okay I repent and I said it to you right now I repent of smoking cigarettes and then I died right I'd had no time to prove my repentance right would I have repented of smoking cigarettes well yeah I would have it would have been proven had I lived another hour for another day for another week so the thief on the cross repents yeah he has no chance to prove his repentance by saying I'm gonna go get baptized I'm gonna do a cry said I'm gonna leave behind this life of crime we don't have any time for that but real repentance took place right so and we even see a little peek into that open door by how he responds to the other crook on the cross but all I'm saying is repentance is proved by the deeds that follow it and that set of deeds that is a change as I like to say in the trajectory of your life here's the proof that something happened there does it involve your mind no way oh is it there's something to do with your mind of course right if I say I'm gonna stop smoking sir I repent of smoking cigarettes well that's a mental thing that I've just done but it proves itself to be real repentance by the fact that my relationship with cigarettes changes so my relationship with sin needs to change now first John 1 says if you say you have no sin you're lying because all of us sin or as James says you know chapter 3 verse 1 we all stumble in many ways right we can't even fully tame our tongue you talked about but you ought to work at it and God by His grace will give you some progress in that so we're all going to sin we're all going to stumble we're all going to fall but here's the thing my relationship with sin has changed and I am sure doing that a lot less and that's the picture and as I like to say jokingly and not jokingly but you know cleverly I'll if I don't know if it's clever but it's memorable I may not be sinless right as a Christian but I'm sure going to sin less and that's the point now on purpose the sin last sign to purpose to be perfect as that I have my father's perfect which simply means that in every situation I want to do that telling us thing the right thing and so I'm looking to see a change in repent so how do I know if someone's repented the relationship with sin changes the book of 1st John is a great book to read because it will just give you that picture and it talks about things about you know in the world it talks about hating your brother talks about all kinds of things that are gonna change in your life if you've repented so repentance it means that you are doing as Alexander the Great's army used to hear when they wanted to turn the troops around they would yell out metanoia and they would do an about-face and that is what the word means so it is always it's - it's the other side of the coin there's one response to the gospel it's one coin on one side we can study the concept of faith on the other side we study the concept of repentance that's why repentance and faith go together as acts 20 says right it came to repent of your sins and put your faith in Jesus Christ those two things go together - one response I like to say it's a penitent faith or a penitent trust in Christ and so that's biblical repentance if you want more on that because you know a lot of people like to say is less and less thankfully that it's just another way to say faith which means believing something in your mind I would even recommend my little book which will send you if you want to write us getting it right I have a whole chapter on repentance and making sure we understand the biblical nature of what repentance is and we can even send you a digital copy of that book and hopefully that'll that's another long-winded answer that story that's in a super important concept yeah we all have to you know understand what that means and what that looks like there's a lot out there who will agree to facts and feel that because they agree to facts then you know they must be in a right relationship with God so thanks for taking the time to explain that I hope that answers your question Danielle Patrick about numerology he says numerology plays a huge role in the Bible can you suggest some where Jake if you want to go in the comments and tell us where I guess what I'm saying anything that you say because I'm saying no it doesn't okay I mean there numbers that recur I'll give you that okay there's a lot of numbers that recur that must be what Patrick's right okay but that's an observation okay humor ology right is a philosophical approach to hermeneutics and it's another word it's a it's a meant it's a it's a predisposition to trying to find meanings behind numbers and all I'm telling you is the bible does not provide that so the bible is not full of numerology because numerology is a philosophy of interpreting the bible and giving meaning to those numbers right that's numerology yes so I will not teach that right does the Bible have recurring numbers yes of course it does 40 40 days right seven seven years seven sets of weeks right Twelve Apostles twelve tribes of Israel yeah I can see a three right the Trinity seven spirits of God book of Revelation I can give you a lot of numbers that recur right but it's not viable not numerology yeah but again even that yeah there are numbers in the Bible okay are there are numbers that recur more often than other numbers where's the number eight what's in the Bible that is not as often as the number seven where is the number five right it's in the Bible it's not as often as three right so you know I've read the books not all of them but I've read my handful of books on numerology I'm just completely unsold on the fact that that's supposed to be a pre disposed I'm supposed to be predisposed to finding those meanings right I give in my life to studying and preaching the Bible I mean I really only your old men most of the most to be pitied at the top of that list but here's my problem right I cannot find and maybe you're smarter than I am but I cannot find any interpretive key in these numbers and if you want to go back to the craze and remember back in the 80s when I was preaching in the 80s and people were all about this Bible code right yes there are all these them all with her did the Bible code book yeah right well then I started applying the same principles and other people helped me with this of course as I found all kinds of books that were written about it that you can do this to anybody I can read Shakespeare and Hamlet and I can create all kinds of messages about my life by applying the same principles of the kinds of counting of numbers right of letters and creating messages in the Bible I don't buy it you just don't buy it and I guess I could show you my old research because I studied this hard back in the 80s I just don't buy it so I would contend with just at least the phrase of the question I don't mean to be nitpicky and I know you know I can respond no it's a great I'm just saying there is no numerology in the Bible yes well that's good to know great question of repeated numbers and you're gonna say well here's what they mean right I can show you 25 books on my shelf Pig and say no here's what it means and then that guy's gonna say no here's what it means nice right why is 7 an important number right why did God choose for there to be a seven-day week I will have to ask him one day cuz he didn't tell us Yeah right well 7 spirits of God seven days in the week right ok yes well that's cool right I don't know what it means my maybe I'm not smart enough to figure that out but I hang out with a lot of smart people and a lot of smart people's books yes you can't figure that out yeah but a guy on YouTube figured in the time right I mean they're saying I'm just like okay I don't want to be snarky but as others as Mark Twain once said he's no theologian it's not the things in the Bible I don't understand that bother me it's a things in the Bible that I do understand that bother me there's a lot of what we call the purpose qeh T of Scripture the doctrine the purpose cooter there's enough purpose security about screen clarity about the scripture as I said about Luke 16 the God is a good teacher there's enough in the scripture that it's clearly taught that should occupy our minds for the rest of our lives my desire and CBI's desire to teach and study theology there's plenty to keep us occupied till the Lord returns yeah I don't have to start counting Hebrew characters right to try and say well there's a secret man I just found Nero and in the in Genesis and I found Hitler right I can find Hitler in the Wall Street Journal if I start counting letter and I don't mean to be snarky and I'm sorry yeah no I don't think so and I don't think Patrick would feel that way either and he's a great question great question that we have coming in so appreciate these thoughtful questions and I appreciate your responses to Pastor Mike here's a really good question from Katherine she wants to know what your thoughts are on Catholics praying the rosary praying the rosary I've seen people pray the rosary I've read the prayer I know that it is used by Catholic theologians it is embedded in the Catholic catechism of the Catholic Church as a means of penance which is one of the seven sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church and if you're using that theology which again that's what the Roman Catholic Church teaches look it up in the Catechism the other church it's on the internet it's on you can get it read it for free you can buy on it you know at Barnes & Noble when it opens again the means of praying the rosary to do penance for your sin right is blasphemy mmm and I completely utterly reject it okay and you want to look at the words of the Rosary and say well those are some pretty good words well some of them are not good words and I would say this because of the means by which it is taught within the Roman Catholic Church to tap into the merits and treasury of the grace of Christ that is entrusted to the gatekeepers of the the Church of Rome I would say you should avoid it like the plague not to mention that when the rosary is prayed so often and you may say that's not the way around mother prays it but it is it is wrote usually words that are uttered it's a vain repetition to use a biblical phrase that we're supposed to avoid Matthew 6 I would just say that there's there's no redeeming you in it you want to you could look at a lot of things that are done in liturgical churches and say if I slowed down to take the common book of Prayer for instance it's over five or four hundred years old I mean there's a lot of good there for sure and and if you're going to read it and understand it that's one thing with the rosary and the liturgy and the assignments of the priesthood which again in penance always it's supposed to be brokered through a priest in confessional for you to get back into the grace of God the grace that is lost through sin after baptism because in Baptism according Roman Catholic theology your sin has wiped away you become a child of God you're endowed with the spirit but your sin messes that up so you got to get that right and penance will help you do that and part of penance is praying the rosary those are the kinds of things that are just an assault on the grace of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ so would you say to someone who is maybe listening and maybe they do pray the rosary and they feel like they don't know how to pray to God I talked to someone this morning who told me that she just has no words to pray she doesn't know how to pray you know if you're listening and they're used to praying the rosary what should they do instead well tell Marys and our fathers and you know you know that the responses of people in uttering words of the rosary probably couldn't be further from what the God of the Bible calls you to do in prayer which is always to engage your and your mind should be engaged with good topics that I think Matthew chapter six would be a good place to start and praying through the lists in what's titled in our Bibles the Lord's Prayer but is really the disciples prayer and I would say take those topics which in Protestant churches have often become vain repetition because people just recited our fathers in heaven hallowed be thy name your kingdom come well those things can be recited at not recited but at utilized this topics in your prayers put it again I don't expect everyone remember all that I have taught since this Cove in nineteen thing but I quoted with some emphasis Psalm 62 verse eight which i think is a great great text than he was last week I said this where it talks about the people of God right trusting them at all times o people pour out your hearts to him for God is a refuge for us so if he's a refuge if we're going to him in time of trouble if we're seeking His grace and His mercy in the midst of our troubles it mean it's just a great phrase right pour out your hearts to him right what is on your mind remember you're talking to God so be respectful but pour out your hearts to God I mean so many sermons I preached in looking at biblical prayers in the Bible and just following those examples of what's in there and in Colossians in Hebrews chapter three and there's so many prayers that are recorded in Scripture and I'm you saying take those use those as outlines and pray them or sit down and not just or and sit down and pour your heart out to God read the Psalms I mean how often we see the psalmist just pouring out his heart now we should always be respectful because we're talking to God but there's no set outline and I think there are things you need to say to your Creator that you know if you consult your heart and say what's on my heart today then you pour your heart out I mean so much of my praying probably my best praying is when I'm tying my shoes or you know I'm just like I'm talking to God the stuff that's just on my heart right and and he's not as good probably as me on my knees before God going for my prayer list right because I make a prayer list and I put it on my phone you know I try to pray for my prayer list and it's best when I close my eyes and kneel down in front of my chair and you know I had the posture that I think keeps me focused and all of that is good but playing my heart is often just me going getting ready morning shaving the one who's talking to God about here's the junk in my heart or my life or the day that I'm facing or my frustrations and remember I'm talking to me I don't know how many times I've poured out my heart and said oh I don't I don't want to say that you know I don't mean matter right I mean I take that back you know so we have to be careful but I think you pour out your heart to God and I make a pearl list I mean think about how many times I said would you pray for this at people today would you pray for this I got surgery my mom is sick my mom is in the hospital great there's some things to pray for yeah ask God did you do good things in those situations ask God for for you know his intervention ask for the evangelism of the Lost anyway yeah that's great it's amazing to consider that we can talk to God in prayer Scott has a great question he asks what are your thoughts on the possibility of intelligent life-forms on other planets and UFOs yeah I know there's been some talk lately about UFOs I've watched in the videos that the Defense Department put out I guess we classified or we're before number one I don't think there's some huge conspiracy covering this up that's the kind of secret that's gonna get out right so area 51 and yes all of that you know and I say this is a kid that grew up with a fascination with UFOs I mean I read the books I mean I didn't read many books when I was growing up but I read those books books on slot car racing and and you know Evel Knievel and UFOs the junk food in the library that was me sat down and I mean I was a nerd but not for that reason so whatever yeah I'm a I always had an interest in a fascination and you know what people are seeing and of course a lot of it is just mr. X and hoaxes and all the rest but the theological question had been asked now as an adult you know I'm going to say this all I know is that what God has created in this universe was created for this earth and these people and again the Atheist can mock all they want about you know this can't be right by mere chance you know as we have all been chance oh I don't buy the premise that we evolved by chance I believed or the the result of a of an of a designer and it was purposeful and it was intelligent and it was done because God wanted it done and he put us in the middle of this Milky Way galaxy in the Middle East vast universe so that we could see his glory in the vastness of it all so I believe what Psalm 19 says regarding the universe being here for those of us on earth I believe Psalm 8 that all of this was something that should make us say what is man that you would even take thought of us all of the smallness we get from the vastness of space is supposed to remind us how special we are to God as his creation is messed up and sinful as we are so that to me reminds me that what I can see and I would say even with a microscope and even where the telescope is all here for this reality which is mankind on earth and so I don't have a lot of hope in thinking yeah you know we're gonna have someone from alpha Centauri's to show up and you know whatever I just you know I I don't I don't expect it I believe this universe was created for people because that seems to be the logical conclusion of this book that were reading that God revealed himself in that has proved itself to be God's Word by predictive prophecy so you know again if the premise is okay no I believe that God is a personal God who created us on purpose here on this planet but he didn't say it and create someone over here 100 light-years away okay you're right that's an argument from silence which is never very persuasive and yet you're right could there be another universe God is dealing with over here I guess so I can't rule that out right are they gonna get here and hang out with us in Nevada I don't think so right right but you know it's it's irrelevant to the theology that we do know you know as Mark Twain says in quoting Mark Twain a terrible anti-christian person in many ways great writer I get that but it's not the things I don't understand in the Bible which would be in this case could there be maybe that's the things in the Bible I did you understand that should bother us and that is we know we had a problem Christ is solved it live for him the battles on waging war my flesh it's a problem in my life I'm looking forward to his coming Redemption it's the Blessed Oaks I got plenty to concern myself with and I'm not really interested even in my tax dollars not that I can control this going into telescopes listening out there waiting to hear some intelligent signals from space which by the way is always ironic to me if you heard them then you'd think what their actual intelligent creatures out there although everything in this earth was not created by an intelligent creature I'm getting signals all day long from my proteins and from the amino acids and my body and my fingernails but all of that wasn't the signs of intelligent educated but beeps from the sky if they came in Morse code that would be intelligent communication right but my DNA is not intelligent communication so that's absurd yeah people if they can invest Watson of time and money to prove that maybe there is no God it's worth it for them but if we found intelligent life if they showed up right at the Honda Center I still think yes what would that prove right wouldn't prove anything right it would prove that there's something else going on in another part of the universe but nothing gets here from nothing so God created other people yeah but I again I just I just I don't think so totally and if they are you know light-years away it can take them a long time to get here and so I don't I mean it's a provocative point yes and I can't rule anything out but I'm no longer reading a UFO books yeah and a lot of books I did me as an adult the stuff that was taking this seriously and I mean what Dana seriously with the books I read is a fifth grader but I am saying usually it's something you know it's pushing some kind of philosophy that ends up being anti God so I don't find usually anything pushing this that meshes well with the biblical worldview and the biblical worldview is this world and this universe was created for human beings hopefully for God's glory I get that but then an immediate step was he created this world for us and he created the universe for us and it was all to speak to us about who we are yeah interesting question yeah great question yes well Melissa asks about Hebrews 9:27 she asked does this mean we have an appointment like Tuesday at 4:30 or is the word appointment meant in a more general sense and you're really coming close to the end of our time so maybe this one and one more or just this one camera is 9:27 okay yes let me get there yes so is that a definite appointment like a marked Tuesday at 4:30 or is it just a more general like an appointment I think it is an appointment but I don't think I'm getting that from that text okay matter of fact let me take you to Psalm 139 and tell you verse 16 would be the would be the passage one of the passage I would go to to say here's why I believe there is an appointment for me Mike fubar is at you know 327 and 14 seconds on October the 10th watch me die at that time and date let's just say if that happened it's not gonna happen anything you know I do believe there's an exact time when micro boat is designed by God to die but I don't get it from that text although it's not incompatible with that text the text I'm gonna go to is Psalm 139 verse 16 your eyes saw my unformed substance in your book were written every one of them the days that were formed for me when yet there was not when the when yet this is a really awkward translation when as yet there was none of them I bet every time I read that version the platform I think those ESP translated I just want to find the guy who did that coat and say come on man the whole new set of translators that work on just smoothing the English text out and I just they whatever right then it's probably some guy there's a friend of a friend so I should be careful but just that's a really rough English sentence your eyes saw my unformed substance some aquiline in your book were written comma every one of them comma the days that were formed from a comma when as yet there was none of them well you can translate that in English it is that yes every day of my life which I think we can then extrapolate of a hour of my life as Jesus said you can't even out an hour your life by worrying about your life and you did say our there right then yes there was an appointment for me to die there's a primer for you to die but that passage in in Hebrews chapter 9 looked that Greek word up here yeah I mean whatever I guess the point of the text is death is certain and judgment is certain to follow so yeah in it speaking in general there right that's why I know we're not I'm not looking at verse nor you know there's a certain hour for Michael bars to die just as is appointed for men to die once and after that comes its appointed for everyone in the human race to die and then after the human race dies every human beings have to face their judgment so that's not the passage to answer your question that passage to answer your question is some 130 number 16 yes that makes great sense yes and I don't think it says our it says days you can't add yes you got it right oops 1225 right okay yeah can that's why I'm saying it which of you by being anxious can add a single hour yeah yeah that's yep variation is span of life so I know this very mark down to the hour I think we extrapolate to the nest that's the passage oh yeah super-good yes well here at 2:58 you wanna try to do a quick okay well if we go in order being posted as we have here that would leave us at Jim's question and Jim asked from Adam and Eve Cain Cain and Abel that there doesn't seem to be any other details on where the people that were not permitted to kill Cain in Genesis 4:15 originated how do we understand where those people after Cain and Abel including Cain's wife came from Genesis 4:1 350 right right and and I think just remember that the point of this passage is the conflict between Cain Mabel we have to fill in which is not at all unusual is the fact that you have these people that of course remember are the first generation of God's creation Avenue having children that are one copy away from the first creation of Adam mean in a perfect almost perfect environment it's been cursed in Genesis 3 reproducing as some might say like Jackrabbits you know in the early you know season of life when they were told to be fruitful and multiply have a lot of babies right we are having a lot of children and they're gonna live to be 9 years old I'm just telling you to think about 900 years old let's think about 300 years you know right how many children could have children could have children could have children could have children in 400 years right and you're still in the prime of having your children if you're then so I'm just saying yeah we're creating cities we're creating villages you know yes people are having other children I'm sorry marriages from your siblings I get that which wasn't even prohibited until the coming of the law of Moses and I think because of natural reasons you have enough copies of copies you've got weaknesses in the genetic code you've got genes now that are going to be a problem if you if you intermarry too close and so God separates who you can have a marital relationship with but yeah so we can assume obviously we have to assume that Adam and Eve are having other kids and their kids are having kids and we could even have you know two generations removed from Adam and Eve having a marriage with three generate three generations or thirteen generations away from now you've got a whole different world with an extended protracted life span and you're filling up villages quickly it doesn't take long figure out how old our country is 200 about 30 years old think about that yeah how many people have been born last 200 years a lot so a lot so yeah I don't think we need to think so tight in terms of well Cain and Abel they were 16 and 17 years old and they didn't probably only had a three-year-old brother at that point he had plenty of other children as the Bible says if you start in chapter 5 verse 4 the days of Adam fathered Seth were eight hundred years and so he's havin kids at eight hundred and he had other sons and daughters right so we know that and I mean almost goes without saying and yet it's gonna be said they're so sequentially I know sometimes we struggle in the first few chapters of Genesis but the world was filled with children and they were told to have a lot of children and they were being obedient for us God built in some reasons to make that a good thing there's a lot of natural motivation to do it and so a lot of kids were being born and we're after yes wish we could go further now yeah and we have a lot of great questions that would left underneath other people can come back next week X right you're willing o'clock 2 o'clock Thursdays we'll keep going if you keep showing up we'll keep doing it yeah I do we have some really good questions that are hanging there so I look forward to hearing those next week next week yes ok guys thanks for listening

Channel: Compass Bible Church

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Keywords: iMovie, compass bible church, compass church, compass aliso viejo, aliso viejo church, compass bible church aliso, expository preaching, expository preaching church, biblical christianity, evangelical christianity, compass church hill country, compass church Tustin, compass church Huntington Beach, compass church treasure valley, Mike Fabarez, Mike Fabarez sermon, Pastor Mike Fabarez

Id: V5uRZDlohHQ

Length: 61min 59sec (3719 seconds)

Published: Thu May 14 2020