[0:00] day, but she was asking, so we are doing it, and hopefully she's got any questions, she can come to me. Let's open up Word Prayer. Well, we thank you so much, God, just for allowing us to gather together.
[0:12] We thank you for your faithfulness and your goodness towards us. We thank you for the ability that we have to look at the things of the Word, and Lord, just to be encouraged and challenged by it.
[0:25] We pray that you would lead this evening. We pray that you would be glorified and honored in all that is discussed, and Lord, that as we come to, hopefully, a greater understanding of who you are and who we are, Lord, that understanding would be a transfer to application, that we would live it out.
[0:44] As always, for your honor, for your glory, and yours alone, we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay. First thing, I know we've said this before.
[0:55] I don't stand before you as one who thinks he has all the answers. As a matter of fact, I stand before you as one who knows he has more questions than answers, but also understanding that when we come together, there's just something amazing that happens as we work out our salvation with one another, and we look at the things of the Word of God with one another.
[1:18] Hopefully, we can sharpen one another. I love talking Scripture. It's just one of my passions. Okay. So, Ms. Myrtle asked me, she said, you seem very happy tonight.
[1:30] It's because this is my, this is one of my passions. I love to preach, but I love talking about the things of the Bible. Okay. I explained that to a guy not too long ago.
[1:41] He goes, oh, so it's like your shop talk. So, I said, yeah, exactly. You know, he said, I like talking about what I do. This is what you, I said, right. Now, he and I just finished a three and a half hour Q&A time in my office.
[1:53] We'll try not to do that tonight. But, and no, that wasn't you, Travis. That was somebody else. Travis and I have had a couple of those three and a half hour Q&A times too. So, but I just love it.
[2:03] I love talking about the things of the Word because it challenges me. It causes me to grow and causes me to mature. Ms. Myrtle, I'm getting to your question. I'm going to try to do them in order as I receive them.
[2:13] Okay. So, we will get to them. And yours is a very hard one. So, I have to let my mind ruminate on it for just a minute. Okay. A lot of good questions. I'll start out with one of the hardest ones.
[2:25] And I don't know if you want me to tell who asked the question. Ms. PJ sends me questions. She always does. And they're good ones. So, first question I was given is why do some lies and liars in the Bible seem to be condoned?
[2:39] For example, the Hebrew midwives. Remember that? Moses is one. They were lying. They were lying. They said, oh, these Hebrew women, they give birth very rapidly. We can't, you know, we can't do that. And so, they were lying. Rahab, Hushai, Absalom.
[2:53] Jonathan to Saul. You remember the lie of Hushai to Absalom saying, oh, you need to do this. And give him counsel which set him up for failure. Jonathan lying to his dad about David's absence from the table.
[3:03] And even David to the priest at Nob. Remember when we went to the priest at Nob said he was on a special mission from Saul. And they gave him the sword. And he kind of kept the priest out of the loop. And in the end, all the priests at Nob are killed and slaughtered for their involvement with David's plot, so Saul said.
[3:18] So, question is, is why are these lies condoned or even allowed? Are some lies okay in a very limited circumstance if there's a greater good at stake?
[3:30] Good question. I wish, I got all these marks in my Bible. I don't have a mark for that one. Because, as you well know, it's hard to find scriptural references for that. Even though we know, and again, you can give input or take out from this what you want.
[3:50] God hates and abhors lying. He just does. Scripture tells us that. He does not like lying. And we can, we understand it.
[4:01] We're told over and over again that he doesn't. But yet, we have to kind of ask ourselves, at what point does God intervene in human history and human society to stop those things?
[4:12] At what point is the lie so bad? And the answer to that is, I don't know. In his sovereignty and in his, you know, in his omniscience, God permits too often for our understanding.
[4:29] We would say that if I was God, I wouldn't allow those things. He's the sin and the failure of man to work according to his purposes. We see that. I don't understand. I've wrestled, my mind wrestles how the priest at Nob could be so innocent and then suffer so greatly under Doeg, the Edomite who kills every one of them, when in all innocence they trusted that David was on this mission from Saul because David had always been on a mission from Saul.
[4:55] And yet, Jesus even references that later on when he says that David took of the show bread and ate of it. And Jesus references that as a reality that it was okay for a non-priest to eat.
[5:10] But yet, we know that in that circumstance, David was lying. We know he wasn't on a mission from Saul. We know he wasn't. I believe, my heart of hearts believes, that David is trying to spare the priest.
[5:24] But in the end, that sparing caused greater harm to them because they did allow and did permit to do things. I don't think David's intentions were wrong, though it seems as if God permitted and allowed the lie.
[5:40] The Hebrew midwives, for instance, again, they're according to God's purposes. God's calling Moses at that point out of there. We know that God does not want the slaying of innocent children.
[5:53] We know that. He values human lives. And yet, we're forced to choose between the greater of two evils. Which one is worse, right?
[6:04] What we can't do is to use that and say, well, lying is okay at some times. I don't know. The age-old question that we get in this, and we go back to the atrocities of World War II.
[6:18] If you were knowingly harboring Jews in your home and the Nazis knocked on your door, would you lie about it? Most of us would say yes, right?
[6:31] Because we knew the atrocity that would happen. And the wrestling in that is, how can you justify that lie? Is that lie justifiable before a holy God?
[6:43] And the only thing doctrinally and theologically that I've ever studied, and Ms. P.J., I think you're right, is that the lie is justified if the good to be gained by it is greater than the cost that would be paid by not doing it.
[7:00] Now, we have to be careful. Because then we, you're getting into the realm of ethics, okay, and ethics and morality. Then we begin to get into a thing called situational ethics, which if you go into college, universities, and all these, because situational ethics, situational ethics would be, well, you can do this as long as the situation presents itself, and it's the better of two evils.
[7:28] Situational ethics says that there's really no right answer, no wrong answer, and you're just free to choose. And that's absolutely not right. There is a standard. There is a truth.
[7:38] There is one that we hold to, an absolute truth. But yet, we look at the judgment of God in light of, for me to tell the truth is going to cost this person their lives.
[7:52] For me to lie is going to save their life, or at least have the possibility to save their life. And at that point, God sees, this is, again, my understanding of Scripture, and just my thoughts, is that God sees the preservation of that life is greater than the tragedy of having to lie to do it.
[8:12] And God knows what's in our hearts. I mean, he knows why you're telling the lie. You're telling the truth of yourself is a whole different story. Right. I think you're exactly right.
[8:24] At that point, the lie is not for self-benefit. I mean, the Hebrew midwives, for instance, could have died very easily for sparing those children.
[8:35] But yet, the lie they told was preserving the life of those children. And you're exactly right. I don't think that David is trying to manipulate the priest. I believe in his heart, he's trying to spare them the consequences, though it doesn't happen, of what he thought would be the consequences if they knew that he was fleeing from Saul.
[8:57] So that's, I believe, is the heart issue of how that lie originates out of. Anybody have anything else? And thank you so much for sharing that. I think you're exactly right there.
[9:07] And that's how, when you take ethics class, that's how, at least from a Christian point of view, that's how they present it. They always take you back to, like, the Holocaust, the atrocities. The Corrie Ten Boom family, for instance.
[9:19] I mean, the Ten Boom family knowingly lying, but how many lives did they save with that lie? Okay. Next two questions you had were a little bit easier.
[9:34] Why is Moses' father-in-law called Jethro and Ruel both? Exodus 2.8 refers to his father-in-law for the first time, or 2.18. So in Exodus 2.18, you have what will become Moses' father-in-law.
[9:50] He meets what will be his bride at the well. And it says in verse 16, Now the priest of Midian has seven daughters. Now that priest is Ruel or Jethro. We find in Scripture he's named that place.
[10:00] It wasn't uncommon for priests to have two names at that day, a Midianite priest. The greater question that comes to my mind is, well, later on they fight the Midianites, so Moses is fighting his in-laws, right?
[10:12] But it wasn't uncommon at all for a Midianite priest to have two names. What's so amazing here in Exodus 2, when Moses is fleeing and God raised him, God preserved him, raised him up to be something in Egypt.
[10:27] We say the old saying is that Moses spent 40 years in Egypt becoming somebody, and then God took him to the wilderness for 40 years so that he would become a nobody, so that God could use him to do something, right?
[10:38] So he's fleeing from Pharaoh's presence, and the first time he meets his father-in-law, what will be his father-in-law, his name is referred to as Ruel, or Ruel, however you want to say it. That name means friend of God.
[10:49] Ruel means friend of God. So Moses found a friend of God in the wilderness, on the backside of the wilderness, which is where he would stay. And later on, Jethro slash Ruel gives such pertinent advice to Moses and helps carry a lot of the burden.
[11:06] So not uncommon historically for priests to have two names, and much like when we find the names of Scripture, their names had meaning and their names had significance, so depending upon their names, it would stand for something, and Ruel just happens to mean friend of God.
[11:22] And that's depending on how it stands in the passage is how that name is being used, much like the names of God. So we stay consistent, and you go over to Exodus 4, you come to this passage that many of you read in Exodus 4, God's got Moses' attention, this is the second question, and I love this, Exodus 4, 24 and 26, what?
[11:43] What in the world is going on in Exodus 4, 24 and 26? So let me set the stage for you. God has met Moses on the backside of the wilderness, He's met him in the burning bush, the bush that does not burn, right?
[11:54] God has commissioned and called him. Moses is on his way back, a reluctant Moses, is on his way back to Egypt to be used of God to deliver the people.
[12:04] And then it says, And the Lord met Moses and was going to kill him, right? In Exodus 4, verse 24, it says, They were at a lodging place.
[12:16] Now it came about at the lodging place on the way that the Lord met him and sought to put him to death. God met Moses on the way, and it says he sought to put him to death.
[12:27] Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin and threw it at Moses' feet, and she said, You are indeed a bridegroom of blood to me. So he let him alone.
[12:38] And at that time she said, You are a bridegroom of blood because of the circumcision. So what's going on? God called Moses, and now all of a sudden, on the way, as he's going, he's like, Okay, I'm going to obey the Lord.
[12:50] I didn't want to do it, but he's convinced me to do it. And he gets to the lodging place, and it says that God met him and was going to kill him. So the understanding of that passage, or the key to understanding that passage, is the circumcision.
[13:02] Okay? The circumcision was a sign given to Abraham. You know it from where you read the story of Abraham and his sons when his son Ishmael was born.
[13:13] Ishmael was 13 years old, and Abraham was much older than that in his 90s, around 90-something, when they were circumcised on the same day. And when God entered into the Abrahamic covenant with Abraham, the sign of the covenant was circumcision.
[13:29] And that sign was to set them apart among the people of God, and that circumcision was a reality of a relationship that they were into. So circumcision of the skin really meant nothing other than what it was symbolizing, much like baptism does to us today.
[13:43] It was symbolizing being in a covenantal relationship with God. God declared that any that were uncircumcised would be cut off from their people. God had declared that any, that would not, any Jew or resident or slave or anybody in the Jewish home that was uncircumcised would not carry with them the blessings of the covenant relationship and should be cut off from the people.
[14:09] So it was a sign of saying, well, I don't need God. I'm kind of in this independence, and I don't want that. And so evidently what we find, one of two possibilities, we know one of them to be actual because it happens there.
[14:24] The second one is a possibility. We know that Moses' sons were not circumcised. So therefore he had with him children that were to be cut off from his people and to be leading the people of God to a covenant-making God to Mount Sinai and not not be carrying with him the sign of the covenant was offensive.
[14:44] And so we know his sons weren't circumcised. Some Bible scholars believe that Moses himself more than likely wasn't circumcised.
[14:55] And so since Moses wasn't circumcised, the Lord meeting him and intended to kill him more than likely was a sickness and more than likely was, you know, not necessarily just God strangling him, but he just wasn't going to make it.
[15:07] And so what happened is the circumcision, and this is the reason for throwing it at his feet, is his wife circumcises the son, throws it at his feet, literally the wording is it lands on his feet and says, I've circumcised your children in your place.
[15:23] Since at that time, it's substitutionary circumcision, right? It would be like bearing a child on my knees. We see this, right? So that they may give birth on my knees and then that child would be mine.
[15:35] Other things that we see in scripture. And it was like their circumcision is now your circumcision. And that's why it would be the throwing it at his feet. And she says, you are a bridegroom of blood to me.
[15:47] It's almost like now they are standing in the place of Moses to standing in his place and taking the circumcision for him.
[15:58] And therefore, making that symbol because he was not at that time healthy or fit to to be able to do it. But either way, either if all of them worked or if just his sons weren't, Moses, while having a calling of God, was not living in a covenant relationship with God.
[16:16] As a matter of fact, he did not bear the sign of that covenant relationship in their family and therefore was going to be cut off from his people. And God doesn't ever go back on his word.
[16:29] So while Moses had been called, he could not be fully used until the sign of the covenant had been entered into and that's the circumcision. So, would God have killed him?
[16:42] I mean, that's, the would, I don't know. That's a good question. Did God have justifiable grounds for bringing it to that place of desperation?
[16:53] Yes. Because Moses and his household were not bearing the sign of the covenant relationship with a holy God and therefore he had no right. Even though God had called him, he could not move forward in usefulness.
[17:07] God met him on the way and created a problem that had to be dealt with. And we'll see this again in a minute with another question that was asked. And God is so good about that.
[17:18] He calls us to a work that we can't accomplish. And as we're going about accomplishing that purpose, he then meets us and addresses a problem that we would never have addressed prior to the calling.
[17:30] The calling highlights the problem that needs to be addressed in our own personal life. And so while God had called Moses, he also needed to deal with Moses.
[17:40] The one thing that left remained was he and his children, more than likely, we know his children, were uncircumcised and therefore deserved to be cut off from the people of God. And God will only use a fit vessel.
[17:54] You know, he makes the unfit fit. You know, I'm not saying perfect, but God wasn't going to allow an uncircumcised man or a man with his children uncircumcised to go be his mouthpiece before the people of God because God doesn't change.
[18:08] He's the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. So, good enough? You're welcome. You're welcome. Anybody, anything you want to add to that one? All right. Anytime.
[18:19] That one, thankfully, I've had to answer that one several times. And the first time I've had to answer that one was many years ago.
[18:31] I had a guy come up to me. He was actually leading our music for us and he just walked up to me and said, I got a question. I said, okay. He said, why was God going to kill Moses? I was like, ah, okay, I'll get back to you tonight. So, yes, yeah, yeah.
[18:43] And I had read it multiple, multiple times too, but yes, so much in there. Okay. Hey, let's stay in that same line, okay? Uh, God calling you and in God meeting you in the midst of that calling.
[18:55] Um, Tricia asked Genesis 32, 22 through 32, right? Uh, Genesis 32, 22 through 32. Uh, when we open that up, what we find is Jacob is on his way back.
[19:10] He's got all this entourage, his family, right? Jacob's on his way back and he's going back to, with all of his family and all of his kids. You know what amazes me about this? Think about Jacob, okay?
[19:22] This is, this doesn't answer your question. This is just a side note, okay? I thought about that this morning. Jacob's got all these sheep, he's got all these goats, he's got these wives, he's got their maids, and he's got all these kids.
[19:33] And then when he gets back to Bethel, this is not where he's at yet, okay? But when he gets back to Bethel, God meets him and enters the covenant with him, and then God tells him to be fruitful and multiply. I was like, he's already been pretty fruitful and multiplied, right?
[19:48] But God's like, go be fruitful and multiply. I'm like, Jacob might want to slow down just a little bit, you know, but he's, but God has got a covenant relationship. So anyway, just, so prior to that, there's a lot to transpire here.
[20:00] Jacob is supposed to be going back to Bethel. You remember Bethel, right? So cool. When Jacob is fleeing from his brother, what's Jacob's brother's name? Esau, the hairy, the red-headed hairy guy, right?
[20:13] So, the guy who said, I want some of that red stuff there. He sold his birthright for some of that red stuff there. Remember Esau, right? So, Jacob is leaving because he's tricked his dad with his mom's help, and he's not only got the birthright that he bartered for some red stuff, some lentil soup, but now he's also got the blessing, and so he went into the land, he married his wife, or wives, and he's got all this, and he's labored, and he's got his father and his flock.
[20:39] On his way there, he stopped, and he fell asleep, and he laid his head on a rock, and when he laid his head on a rock, he had a dream. It's Jacob's ladder. Remember, right? You saw the angels. Now, how does the scripture say it? Do you remember? Ascending and descending.
[20:51] So, it's pretty cool. I always pay attention to that because he saw the angels of God ascending and descending. That is, they started out here. They didn't start out there. They weren't descending and ascending, so he saw them going from the earth to heaven and back, not from heaven to the earth and back, right?
[21:08] I always pay attention to that because their starting point was here. So, the angels of God were here, and he says, this is the house of God. He names the place Bethel, Bethel, El Bethel, the house of God.
[21:18] And when he's in that land, God calls him to come back to Bethel. And so, he's got all the wives and flocks and children now, and God's told him to come back. He left his father-in-law.
[21:30] You remember that? He's on his way back. The problems with Jacob happen because he doesn't originally go back to Bethel. Things don't get better until he gets to Bethel, which is where he's supposed to.
[21:41] He has problems because he stops along the way, but there's one good place where he stops along the way, and it's when he hears that his brother Esau is coming to meet him with the 400 men, right? And that's in Genesis 32.
[21:52] So, his brother's coming to meet him. Last time he saw his brother, his brother wanted to kill him because he had just taken his brother's birthright and blessing, and now there's a problem, right?
[22:04] Because the big, hairy, red-headed guy wants to kill him, and he's got 400 men. Now, you remember how they were described, right? Esau was a hunter. He was a big, hairy man.
[22:15] He liked to go out. Jacob, it says, was a peaceful man, a tiller of the ground. He liked flowers and herbs and stuff like that, right? Now, he's been a shepherd. We understand that. But his brother, he's a big guy.
[22:27] He's a big, burly guy. Now, he's coming with 400 men probably just like him. So, he has this problem. He divides all his people up. You remember, he puts the gift out. But he is left at a place called Jabbok.
[22:39] And at Jabbok, it tells us that he's there alone. And this is where Jacob wrestles with God. So, the question is, did he really wrestle with God? Why did God wrestle with Jacob? And how was Jacob stronger?
[22:52] Those are the questions. Right? So, we understand this and we know it. The name Jacob means subplanter or heel grabber. Right?
[23:03] One who connives and tricks. He got the name because when Esau came out, Jacob was holding on to his heel. Esau's name means red. So, his hair was red.
[23:15] It's good. Jacob's holding on to his heel and all throughout his life, he's tricking. He's a, he's a, he's a supplanter. Right? He's got this bowl of soup when his brother's hungry and he sells his birthright to him.
[23:29] He gets his birthright because he was a second born, not the first born. He, now we know it was his mom's idea, but he goes along with it. Right? He puts the goat skin on. He gets the blessing from his father.
[23:40] He goes over here and I can't explain to you what the, the rods, with the white stripes and the watering troughs mean the, the sheep and goats are better. Don't be putting white striped rods in your watering trough and your sheep and goats will be better.
[23:55] It'll do that. It doesn't, I tried that. It doesn't work. So anyway, so we, he, he takes from his father-in-law right from in front of him, right? He has all this stuff and he's about to meet his brother for the first time and there's this problem.
[24:08] Again, just like Moses, when God, God called him to go back to Ethel. He said, Lord's telling me to go back to Bethel. And so in the midst of the calling on the way, God meets him and deals with his personal problem.
[24:24] And his problem is one that he always grabs the heel and he always supplants. Now, did he really wrestle with God? I think so. Because the angel says, or the man he's wrestling with said, why do you ask my name for sin today?
[24:37] It's wonderful. He never tells him the name. Why did God wrestle with him? It's because all his life, Jacob was able to connive and to trick and to scheme and to plant and get his way.
[24:53] God finally brought him to a place where he couldn't get his way. Carrie showed me something in her scripture so I can't say it's original with me and her Bible was a commentary on it. It was really good that though Jacob had spent all his life really wrestling with everybody else, really the one he'd been wrestling with his whole life was God.
[25:09] God had a calling on his life, right? And so he needed to deal with the character problem. So in dealing with the character problem he confronted him on the character problem. Was Jacob stronger? No, because he couldn't overcome the angel and so when you read the scripture what it says is that he clung to him and he clung to him.
[25:26] So Jacob gave up and he clung and he begged for a blessing. That's a lot different than just defeating and demanding a blessing. And he said I won't let go of you until you bless me.
[25:38] Now we are called in scripture to cling to the Lord God right? And to pray and to pray and to pray and so he clings to the Lord and he clings to God.
[25:49] He doesn't overpower him and we know that because it says that God touched the socket of his hip and caused him to limp and he had this daily reminder of this problem right?
[26:01] And he was even reminded among the nations. We don't see him conniving and tricking and supplanting after this. Something changes in the character of Jacob and what changes is he finally found one he could not overcome and God was going to when he gets to Bethel and I told all that story at the beginning because when he gets to Bethel it's going to take some time to get there.
[26:22] His between Jabbok and Jabbok as Kerry pointed out to me the name means wrestle. The name of that place literally means wrestle and so he's in a place of wrestling and confrontation and God's got some great plans and purposes for who will become Israel here but he can't do it until he deals with that personal problem and so when he leaves here he stops off at a place he pitches his tent he makes a home somewhere he shouldn't and his sons subplant remember they took their the men of the town took their sister and they convinced them to be circumcised and they went on the third day when they were all sore and they slew all of them right that was his sons that wasn't Jacob and Jacob learned of that they left and when they eventually get back to Bethel that's where God meets him again because he's where he's supposed to be and God enters into this covenantal relationship tells him after he I know I jokingly say he says be fruitful multiply he reminds him that God that God is going to use him to build a great nation and his offspring have a purpose but he couldn't fulfill what God was calling him to do until he could be the person
[27:35] God wanted him to be so God met him and wrestled with him face to face to show him that all of his planning and scheming and conniving the biggest enemy he faced wasn't Esau his brother the biggest problem he had is he had been wrestling against God his whole life and trying to get his own way and it wasn't until he gave up and just clung on that God stop any other on that good anything else on that one again I know they're good questions okay thank you for telling me your name and your email by the way I won't repeat that to anybody good question here okay let's stay with this one so I have a question I've always wondered this is a good question by the way and here in just a minute I'll get to if you have any questions I've got just a few more I got to go through always wonder why Enoch and Elijah never had to go through death that the Lord just took them up what was different about them
[28:37] I mean Abraham did great things and he had to go through death and there are so many others who have done great things for the Lord but they still had to go through death has always made me wonder why so why Enoch and Elijah he walked with the Lord God and was not right God took him up and Elijah went up in the chariots of fire God caught him up in the heavens so the only two men of scripture that we have that did not die deep question good question first we must acknowledge and I'm going to try to give a little bit more practical answer here we must acknowledge the sovereignty of God over the life of every individual that God has a right to dictate when a person goes to death how a person goes to death and even if a person goes to death okay the creator always has rule over creation so the first thing we have to do is to say God is sovereign and we just accept that now that sounds kind of like a cop-out so we want to ask ourselves the rest of it the other part of that is scripture is very clear and says it is appointed unto man once to die that death is an appointment
[29:55] I don't know when my appointment is you don't know when your appointment is but we do know the reality is 100% of the time death is an appointment but yet we find two people in scripture that we know didn't keep that appointment they never had it and it seems to contradict the rest of scripture anybody got a car alarm sounds like that okay anyway so it seems to contradict if that's true if it is appointed unto man once to die why didn't these two men die well we do know that both Enoch and Elijah were righteous in their time God they were walking with the Lord God was using them they were righteous in their time now you're going to stay with me because Jewish history testifies to this at least Jewish rabbinical teaching and if you read a lot of Bible some of this is just going to be possibilities okay when we read scripture there's this contradiction not contradiction this question we ask and I know we're dealing with
[31:12] Enoch and Elijah but in the book of Revelation chapter 11 we are introduced to the two witnesses right the two witnesses who show up and they testify to the Lord there's X amount of days and you have the two witnesses that are there and it says that the two witnesses come from the Lord that the two witnesses were from beside the Lord and these are human witnesses!
[31:35] because they die they are dead and their bodies die they're not angels they're not spirits they kill them after the certain amount of days that they testify to the Lord then the people of the land kill them and they allow their bodies to remain in the streets to decompose for three days in public view everybody sees it and it says the world rejoices because these two witnesses who terrorize them by telling them of the Lord God are both dead and we're glad they're dead in my interpretation of the end times the church has already gone by this time okay so they're there and everybody rejoices but then on the third day the spirit of God comes down and calls them back to himself and the same people that watch them decompose also watch them ascend to heaven and it blows everybody's mind now the question the Bible scholars ask are who are these two witnesses and they want to know who these two witnesses are well the two witnesses do a number of miraculous deeds and those miraculous deeds seem to mimic the deeds of Moses and Elijah so some people say well this is Moses and Elijah
[32:46] I don't believe it's Moses I believe that these two witnesses are more than likely Enoch and Elijah because they've never died and it is appointed unto man once to die and in this way God fulfills his own mandate that every man has a date of death because they very clearly and publicly die and everybody in the world at that time rejoices over their death so why didn't God allow them to walk through death if this is and I say if we can't sit here and say anything scripture tells us emphatically that it is there's a lot that seems to imply that it may be because Elijah is seen as the forerunner of Jesus and some people think that John the Baptist is Elijah and they ask Jesus about it and Elijah did come and the world did not recognize him and they knew that he was speaking of John the Baptist but then he also said but Elijah is coming he referred to another coming of Elijah that he would come before the day of the Lord you say well how does
[33:54] Enoch fall into that he is the only other man in scripture we find that has never died he is a man that is righteous according to his time he's referred to in the book of Jude as well that things that were happening in his days the days of Enoch are the same things that would be happening in the latter days in the book of Revelation so he's walked through that before Enoch was caught into the Lord right before the flood okay so Methuselah who is the grandfather of Moses dies the same year the flood comes and Enoch is called to the Lord who is the father of Methuselah Enoch is called into the presence of the Lord right before the flood and the days of the flood are just like the days before the second coming of the son of God in those days they were eating and drinking and everybody was making merry and they were rejoicing and all of a sudden the heavens opened up right so what seems to happen is that God chose two men throughout history called them to himself said I have another time for you you stay here until that day and if that is the case then these two men in revelations 11 makes it very clear that these men were sent from the presence of God unto the earth to be his two witnesses and they are men they are flesh and blood because they do die you can't kill an angel right you don't kill those are spiritual beings these two men have an appointed day of death that death is just much further down throughout history before their time of life so the only answer that
[35:27] I can find that fulfills all of scripture that is appointed unto man once to die is that these two were called to the presence of God only two in scripture we know about and God said you stay here until the time is right now you go back be my witnesses you have X amount of days to testify after that you will die after you die three days later I will call you back to my presence and they fulfill their appointments at that time too yes ma'am you're right and so in that I would say in Old Testament they weren't ushered into the presence of God they were into the place of the righteous and we've talked about that before and we kind of alluded to it a little bit even though I didn't get into it very much in Ephesians 4 where it says he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men because I think there's a dual application there the first is that we were captive in sin and he led us free and you know we have freedom in Christ and gave us gifts that's the application for their art and time I also believe when you open up the Old Testament sheo is not hell sheo is just a place of the departed right in a place of dead and so
[36:45] I think more than likely Enoch and Elijah went there and in there some of those things that Jesus took with him when he went to the father so therefore Jesus the forerunner and they went by him because I agree with you 100% if they had gone to God the side of the father before Christ then they would have went in what is perceived as their own righteousness and their own works and they would have went without the cross essentially they could have bypassed the cross and I don't think so I think that while it says God caught them up to heaven it's not necessarily heaven as we perceive it it's just a place of I would say and it's where we get okay it makes your brain smoke a little bit but outside of time and space we're in a moment they understand that after Christ's death he led them into the presence of the father yeah good question though great great question I'm not the only one that thinks that that's Enoch and
[37:47] Elijah by the way so that's not you that's not unique to me don't ever think that I'm showing you I can't quote everybody and everything I've ever read because these things are formed in like 18 years of study and kind of coming up and sometimes I forget who I originally read that from okay and most are pretty convinced that Elijah is one of them the question always remains with who is the other and a lot of Bible scholars and even my Bible and the notes of it tell you that it's probably Moses I don't think so because Moses has already died I think the only one that seems to make the most sense is Enoch depending on your understanding of end times prophetic words so good enough right right right right well it wouldn't be something running Enoch
[39:00] How long have you been alive? Well, since before the flood. Oh, okay, I'm sorry. Just waiting on that day. You know, my appointment hasn't come yet. And God said, I'm going to spare you that waiting period, right?
[39:12] I mean, yeah. And I had to go back and look at it because I thought, well, those two witnesses could have arisen from somewhere on earth.
[39:22] But it doesn't say that in Revelation 11. It says these two men come from the presence of God. He sends them to the earth to be his witnesses. So at that point, and you're saying he has to take two men that were with him.
[39:34] And again, the only ones that seem to make sense, according to scripture to me, are Enoch and Elijah. Because, I mean, Lazarus has the unfortunate circumstances of being a man who had to die twice.
[39:48] But I'm sure Moses didn't want to die twice, right? Lazarus came forth after four days in glory, but then he had to die again at some point. And you're like, I wish, you know, he had to do that.
[39:59] But we don't. And the widow's son from Nain, who was raised, he ended up having to die again, too. So there are multiple deaths, but we don't see that.
[40:09] Okay. A couple more questions. Let's get to yours right now, Ms. Myrtle, and then I have one more. Why does God put evil in the hearts of man? It seems to testify throughout scripture that God put evil in the hearts of man.
[40:23] It's a great question. It's a very difficult question. And we find this so much in the book of Exodus when God is dealing with leading his people out of Israel. And we find it even being alluded to in the book of Romans where Paul is dealing with the same individual, that is Pharaoh.
[40:39] And when we read the Exodus event, we see so often it says that God hardened Pharaoh's heart. We also read in there where it says Pharaoh hardened his own heart.
[40:51] And so we have to ask ourselves, does God put evil in the heart of man? The easy answer to that is no. Again, scripture can't contradict scripture.
[41:02] The book of James says, let no man say when he is tempted that he is tempted of the Lord God. Every man is tempted when he's carried away by his own desires and his own lusts. And he gives into that and then he falls into sin. So no temptation comes from God.
[41:15] But what God does do, and I think as we were talking about over here a minute ago, you guys alluded to it, God allows man to have his way, his own way.
[41:28] So when you read the Exodus event, the very first thing we meet is that Pharaoh hardened his heart and said no. The next time it says God hardened Pharaoh's heart and Pharaoh said no.
[41:39] So what we see is that Pharaoh is the initiator there and he hardened his own heart. I know this wasn't the one particular question, but it applies to that. So what God did do is that God, and they call it the passive will of God.
[41:56] You have the active will of God and the passive will of God in the study of theology. The active will of God is what God does do. So the active will of God is when he draws you to salvation, he shows you your need for a savior.
[42:08] We call that the active will of God, that God is actively drawing you, and God is actively calling you, and you respond to what God is doing. The passive will of God is where God doesn't do something.
[42:21] And it still falls within his will, but it is not him doing it. So I know you say, well, are we splitting hairs? Well, a little bit. But their hairs deserve to be split.
[42:33] Because Pharaoh's heart was hardened and God passively allowed it to continue to be hardened. Could God have overruled Pharaoh's heart? Sure, because he's God.
[42:45] But in his sovereignty and in his omniscience, God allowed Pharaoh to have his way. And so therefore, it says that God hardened Pharaoh's heart by passively not doing anything.
[43:01] I don't believe God puts evil in the heart of man. I believe that evil arises out of the heart of man naturally, and God allows us to do that. Where it says that God gave them up to their desires.
[43:15] God gave them up to their own ambitions. God gave them up. That would be where we have the passive will of God, that God is allowing man to have their own way. Which again, just reaffirms for us that when left to ourselves, we don't run to the Savior.
[43:31] Right? When left to ourselves, our hearts are desperately wicked. When left to ourselves, our hearts are set on evil continually. When left to ourselves, we of all men and women are most to be pitied.
[43:42] But when God draws us to himself, and God calls us, this is why salvation is such a glorious testimony of a holy God who loves us enough to pursue us.
[43:52] And to draw us to himself, and to show us his concern for us. Because evil, I mean, we can acknowledge, evil is in every heart. And if it were not for God drawing us to himself, then we would be doing the same things.
[44:12] We would be just as atrocious as anyone else we find in scripture. So I don't think God puts evil in the heart of man. But I do believe there are times where God allows evil to remain in the heart of man.
[44:24] And Paul asks the question in Romans chapter 9. Paul does not make this statement. So we cannot say that Paul makes this statement.
[44:35] But Paul asks the question, what if? What if God raised up Pharaoh in all of his wickedness, in all of his scheming, in all of his planning?
[44:49] What if God raised up Pharaoh to display his glory? Now the what if is important. He doesn't say, we cannot say that Paul declared God made Pharaoh wicked so that God would look good.
[45:04] He doesn't say that. What Paul is saying, what if God allowed Pharaoh's wickedness to highlight the glory and the goodness of God?
[45:16] Which is a big difference. He didn't stop him from being wicked. He didn't stop him from being evil. He didn't stop him from doing all those terrible things. So that the goodness of God may be seen clearer.
[45:31] And the question Paul poses is, what if he did? Is that, I mean, I think I heard Francis Chan once say, could you still love a God like that?
[45:41] And the reason we have to ask ourselves, because it's still the same question, was, why does God allow evil to exist in the world? Why did God allow the Stolins and the Hitlers and all those things?
[45:51] Well, what if in his sovereignty, by not actively intervening in those circumstances, we see a greater display of the goodness and the glory of God?
[46:05] In the grand scheme of things, we see really how good God is. And that's a big question. I mean, it is. And just, I mean, on the honest side, there are a lot of people who say, well, I can't love a God like that.
[46:20] I can't follow a God like that. And I think the problem is not in a God that's that good and that glorious and that amazing.
[46:33] It's the problem is in the lack of understanding, as we saw this morning. It's an ignorance of the truth of not realizing. Again, kind of like we did a lie. God, well, if we want God to actively intervene at every sin, at what level of sin do we say, okay, God, we don't want you to intervene anymore?
[46:56] If we say, God, we want you to stop the mass murderers. Okay, well, what about the single murderers? Okay, God, we want you to stop all murderers. Okay, what about when Jesus said, he who has hatred for his brother in his heart has already committed murder.
[47:09] Okay, God, you can kill those people who hate people, too. What about when Jesus said that if you broke any commandment, then you're guilty of all the commandments? What if you stole a paperclip? You know, when you keep lowering the bar, you keep coming to the place, and you finally get to the place where none of us are alive.
[47:27] That's why God's fixed a day of judgment. He will right all the wrongs. But right now, in his sovereignty, again, I know that's a big word we use, but we have to surrender to that.
[47:38] That God passively allows these things because it is in these darkest moments, and it is in these darkest intentions of the wickedness of man's heart that we really see how good God is.
[47:53] And we really see that's a glorious God. And it also shows us there's got to be something better than this. Right? And is that good enough, Ms. Myrtle?
[48:07] Yeah, it's still a while. I know. I know. And he, well, okay.
[48:19] Well, yeah, and so when we get to the book of, I think it's Habakkuk. No, it's not Habakkuk. Come on, see, I didn't have this question before, so I didn't do all my cross-referencing.
[48:35] No, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, it is Habakkuk. I believe it's Habakkuk where Habakkuk and God are having this conversation back and forth, right? And God declares to Habakkuk, I'm about to call these people, and I'm going to call them to judge my people, and they're going to lead them away like fishhooks, and they're going to, and so he's speaking to the Assyrians there, and even later on of the Babylonians.
[48:57] And then God makes this declaration. Like God says, I'm going to use them to judge the people of Israel. And then when we read, like, the book of Isaiah and the book of Jeremiah, then God turns around and says, now I'm judging you, the Assyrians, for all the atrocities you committed.
[49:14] And so we scratch our heads and say, didn't God say he was going to use them to judge them, and now he's judging them for using them? But what we find is the Assyrians and the Babylonians were already going around killing children and killing women, and they were already doing these things.
[49:29] And so God says, I'm going to use them as a judgment tool, even though they're already doing it, but I will not hold them, I will not leave them unaccountable for the atrocities they've already done.
[49:40] So again, he's using the wickedness that's in the world and the wickedness that's already in the heart to display his goodness, his sovereignty, and his power, and his glory. And so what we see is God being so much greater than that and using it for his good.
[50:01] I know it's a hard question, though. That's a good question. It's a hard question. And I know that's not an easy answer. And the reason I know it's not an easy answer is because that's the answer I've given myself, and that's the answer that too often I sit in the office, I'm like, but still that's not what I want it to feel like.
[50:15] I'd rather it feel this way. But then I'm also reminded, like, what evil, what evil in the heart do I want it to be?
[50:27] Where do I draw that line in evil? Because we don't categorize sins. Unfortunately, we do categorize sins, but God doesn't send the sin.
[50:40] Okay, anything else on that one? We're doing pretty good on time. I got one that sent me by text message from Europe. Hunter sent me this one.
[50:51] And so I don't have it printed out, but I do have it. So, by the way, continue to pray for Hunter, sharing the gospel on the streets there, seeing people come to Christ, having the opportunity to be beside believers and new churches, but also having the opportunity to use.
[51:08] So continue to be in prayer for him. So Hunter asked about fasting. He's been reading and studying about fasting, and he's been practicing fasting, I think, since last year a little bit.
[51:20] And just asking about that, like, what is a biblical fast? Is there any rules for how we should fast? The question, I should have brought my phone up here so I could read it, was, you know, is the Daniel fast the only legitimate fast?
[51:34] Or are there other fasts? What type of fasting should we do and should we fast? And then we follow up with that with, since we see so little fasting in the church today, does that correlate to so little spirituality?
[51:47] Are we weak in the church because we don't fast the way we, you know, should? Or is fasting something that is really, should undergird our faith? And is that a reason why there's such a departure from the gospel, even in Europe?
[52:01] I mean, he's really, the foundations of our faith rest in the shores of where he is romping around at right now, and he sees such a departure from biblical Christianity. And there's, so does a departure from fasting correlate to, you know, a departure of the faith?
[52:17] And is that why we see the churches not doing so well in our own nation? I had a, he was more of a Pentecostal pastor, told me one time, he said, you know, you know, preacher man, he called me preacher man.
[52:29] He said, you know, preacher man, he said, we fast at our church. He said, you Baptists, y'all just fast at the table. That's all he said. Well, you're right. We do a lot of fellowship in our church. And he was kind of asking me, you know, you know, do you guys fast?
[52:42] A lot of questions here. First thing, first, the Daniel fast, it's a good fast, but it is not a prescribed fast.
[52:53] And I'll get you an answer for that one in just a minute, Hunter, because I know Miss Sarah's going to share this with him. And I told him I would answer it tonight. It's not a prescribed fast. It was the right fast for Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego at their time, because it was the fast that God was calling them to because of what they were being offered from the king's table.
[53:13] When the king brought Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into the house and they were seen as kind of promising young scholars and they were going to feed them and they were going to give them all this stuff. If we need to put ourselves in that time, what the king was offering them was the choice of meat, the choice of drink, the choice of all this other stuff.
[53:30] And Daniel in those says, we don't want any of that stuff. Just give us water and vegetables to eat. So it's a very popular thing. First of the year, people do Daniel fast. They lose a lot of weight on it. And I'm not sitting here saying that that's wrong.
[53:41] The reason Daniel and his friends did that is because the meat and the drink that was being offered them had already been offered to an idol. In that culture, in that time, it was sacrificed to a false god.
[53:54] So what they were saying is, we don't want anything to do with that which had been given to a false god. We're going to stay true to that which is god. The one thing that would not have been would have been the vegetables and the water. And they said, we'll just drink that. It was the right fast at that time for them.
[54:07] They did fast. Jesus spoke of fasting. And I know Hunter asked me this. And in Matthew chapter 6, Jesus speaks of when you fast. And don't put on this sad face walking around looking gloomy and letting everybody know you fast.
[54:21] But just go to fast. Go about your day and your normal business. In Matthew chapter 9, Jesus is asked by the disciples of John the Baptist, why don't your disciples fast?
[54:32] And Jesus gives the great answer. He says, well, those who have the bridegroom don't fast. But when the bridegroom leaves, and I love this, he declares in verse 15, but the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast.
[54:48] Right? So he makes this declaration that there will come a time of fasting. The early church fasted twice a week, Wednesdays and Fridays. They fasted twice a week. Some people, and be comforted, Hunter, that still goes on in our nation today.
[55:03] There are still some Christians that still fast twice a week, Wednesdays and Fridays. I have entered into seasons of fast. I don't fast as much as I should. I've entered into seasons of fasting in the past, not to lose weight, because again, I understand it has to be a burden from the Lord.
[55:19] So, the fasting that I think is scripturally given to us is one that is directly received. It's a burden when we receive it from the Lord. It's a burden when we're given.
[55:30] We need to do it. Usually, coming before a grand time of God's usefulness, or even a grand time before church, I think there are seasons, honestly, in which the church ought to be called to fast, so that we could really focus our mind and attention.
[55:46] It is giving up of something near and dear to us, so that we may focus more on the things of the Lord. Anytime we do something, and whatever that something may be, in the season of Lent, which is not a Baptist thing, that fast can be technology, that fast can be TV, it can be screening, those things.
[56:06] I don't think that's necessarily it. I think it is a sacrificial surrender of something. By the way, that's where Fat Tuesday comes from. You know that, right? Right? Fat Tuesday is the Tuesday right before the beginning of Lent that starts on Wednesday, and the reason it's called Fat Tuesday, even though I know that you say, oh, that's what starts Mardi Gras.
[56:22] How did you know that? You shouldn't know that, right? You should not understand that Fat Tuesday starts Mardi Gras. You guys shouldn't know those things. We're good church people. The reason is, is because they threw a big party and they ate everything they could on Tuesday right before they gave it all up on Wednesday.
[56:36] That's why it's called Fat Tuesday. That's not biblical. It's just not, right? It is the coming up of God is leading me. He's putting a burden on me.
[56:47] I'm going to give up something so that I personally can dedicate something to seek the Lord. Now, people do intermittent fasting for health reasons. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about, does fasting correspond to spirituality?
[57:00] Well, if that's the case, then we'll have to really wrestle with Luke 18. You remember Luke 18? Hunter, you can look it up. In Luke 18, where the two men are praying and there's this one man who's over here going, oh God, I thank you that I keep the law and I'm faithful to the law and I fast twice a week.
[57:18] Remember? And all of this righteousness. And then there's this poor public and sinner over there beating his chest saying, woe is me, woe is me, woe is me. And Jesus says the one beating his chest, who evidently never fasted, went away approved while the other went away unapproved.
[57:32] Because he was trusting in his fasting. He was trusting in his legalism to bring about spirituality. Isaiah, which is Old Testament, in which fasting was something that was very, very, very normal among the Jewish people.
[57:49] Isaiah 58 is probably my favorite passage on fasting. I love Isaiah 58 and I'll read it to you because it very clearly, I love it when the word of God asks us, when we ask a question and God answers the question.
[58:03] He says, in Isaiah 58, cry loudly, do not hold back, raise your voice like a trumpet and declare to my people their transgression and to the house of Jacob their sin. They seek me, yet they seek me day by day and delight to know my ways as a nation that has done righteousness and has not forsaken the ordinance of their God.
[58:21] They ask for me for just decisions and they delight in the nearness of God. Sounds great, right? But listen, why have we fasted and you do not see? Why have we humbled ourselves and you do not notice?
[58:33] Behold, on the day of your fast, you find your desire and drive hard all your workers. So here's what God's, the people are saying, we're doing all this legal stuff. Why aren't we seeing blessings?
[58:44] Right? And God answers and says, behold, you fast for contention and strife and to strike with the wicked fist. And you do not fast like you do today to make your voice heard on high.
[58:55] Is it a fast like this, which I choose a day for a man to humble himself? Is it for bowing one's head like a reed and for spreading out sackcloth as ashes as a bed? Will you call this a fast, even an acceptable day to the Lord?
[59:08] Is this not the fast which I choose? I love this. God's going to tell you, I'll show you the fast I choose, right? Is this not the fast which I choose to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke and to let the oppressed go free and to break every yoke?
[59:23] Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry and to bring the homeless poor into the house when you see the naked to cover him and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then your light will break out like the dawn and your recovery will speedily spring forth and your righteousness will go before you and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
[59:43] Then you will call and the Lord will answer. You will cry and he will say, here I am. If you remove the yoke from your midst and the pointing of the finger and the speaking of wickedness. So what's God saying?
[59:54] It's not so much what you do. It's really who you are, right? Even then it was practicing of the faith. He says you're going through other motions and I believe it is absolutely possible.
[60:05] As a matter of fact, I would say that in our own nation, the denominations and the congregations in which you find the most fasting, quote unquote, you will find also the least spirituality and the least application.
[60:20] Now, does that excuse us from fasting? No. There are times I believe and I know them clearly in my own life. I don't declare them to anybody. I don't think we should, but I think as a pastor, I, you know, need to repent of this.
[60:32] And at times, honestly, there have been times where I felt like God was calling me to fast and also calling me to call the church to fast. And I'll just be honest with you out of fear. I haven't always, I said, hey, church, we need to fast.
[60:45] I haven't done that. Because when you tell a bunch of Baptists that, hey, you guys can't eat for a while, it kind of doesn't settle well. All right, right. So, but, you know, honestly, fasting is a personal matter in which we're seeking the Lord and often can become a corporate matter where we say God's calling us to something.
[61:05] We need to fast and pray about that and seek what the Lord is leading. But do I think that that lack of fasting correlates with the lack of spirituality? No, I think it's the lack of relationship that would lead one to fast that correlates with the lack of spirituality.
[61:19] Because the fast in and of itself is just a legalistic right and it's a work of man that God says can very easily, you can go through the motions and it mean nothing. You can stand up and pray and say, I fast twice a week and God says, okay, good deal.
[61:34] But that doesn't mean we shouldn't fast. Right. Better to be the humble public and beating his chest saying, woe is me, I don't deserve to be in the presence of God, than to be the man who says, God, you need me here because I fast twice a week.
[61:48] And better to be the one who's loosened the bonds of the captive and feeding and clothing and helping and being the hands of Christ than to being the one who's hoarded up in a wholesome or fasting in all the righteousness and never really living out their faith.
[62:03] Any other questions as it regards that? Yes, ma'am. I just wanted to say something with this fasting. You know, like Esther, for three days.
[62:15] Right. Well, that really stuck with me. It's always stuck with me. I love that story. And so I love to pray. And this all goes together.
[62:26] And so whenever I feel like, I guess it's kind of what you said, like you can do it, you know, just because it says in the word fast, you know.
[62:39] But if God puts it in your heart, which he put it in my heart before to fast, you know, I've seen prayers answered with that. I mean, prayers that I prayed and prayed and prayed and nothing was happening.
[62:54] And then I fasted and I prayed. And I guess it's that surrender of self. Right. That, you know, it's all God.
[63:05] And, you know, I'm just at this beat. And that's when I've seen, I have seen in my life from many prayers answered that I thought would never be answered.
[63:16] Hmm. Yeah. And you're exactly, I think you're exactly right. It's just that self-surrender and that self-sacrifice of God. That's only when he tells me, like, you know, I don't know how to explain that to you actually, but I know that I think it's what we should call function.
[63:35] Mm-hmm. Where I feel like that's what I need to do and that's when I do it. So I don't just say, oh, this is an urgent prayer. I'm going to stop everything and fast, you know. Right.
[63:46] There's some of you that is in general. There's some of you that is in general. There's some of you that is in general. All right. Like I say, I do know some very good conservative Christian leaders that still fast on Wednesdays and Fridays, and they do that, but they don't just do it to go through the motion.
[64:02] They do it because those are dedicated seasons of prayer that they're praying for church or for the nation or for things of that nature. And sure, they're following the tradition.
[64:14] The early church did fast those two days a week every week, and they were led by that. But that was kind of part of that culture as well, too.
[64:24] So, yeah. Any other really quick questions? Any other questions? I'll give them to you. I'm going to try to be as quick and respectful as I am.
[64:35] Any other questions? Go ahead, Travis. You got one? Okay. I was just kind of curious about that. We read about it a little bit before. I think a while. Did you have anything now?
[64:47] Okay. You talked about the question of evil. Mm-hmm. I kind of go to the question of free will. Right. You're kind of getting there a little bit, and I can't answer that now.
[64:59] Yeah, thank you for not making me answer that now so people don't. No, it is, but it's going to be a long one, too. When you start talking about the free will of man and sovereignty of God and the will of man, and I'm going to give you this one thing right here.
[65:14] I love it. While D.L. Moody wasn't the greatest of theologians, there were some things he had right. D.L. Moody said, the will of man and sovereignty of God are like two wings on a bird. Without one, you fly in a circle, but with both of them, you fly in a straight line.
[65:28] So you have to be really careful. He was that kind of application guy. If you're too strong on one side, you're just circling Scripture. If you're on either side, and there has to be a balance because both of them are taught in Scripture.
[65:41] Both of them are revealed in Scripture. The thing that I think that gets us in more trouble than anything because we like to put labels on it is when we start looking at the sovereignty of God, in particular when it comes to salvation.
[65:53] And one thing that I always ask anybody that ever talks to me about it, and I always ask the church, is please do not label me with the name of an individual throughout history. And if nothing else, just call me a biblicist.
[66:06] So, and some of you know exactly what I'm talking about. I preached a sermon here. I'd only been here a year and a half. And I knew when I preached a sermon, I was preaching through a series, that I was going to get a call.
[66:20] And sure enough, I got a call before I even got into the driveway from a gentleman that wasn't even at the service. I don't think any of you guys, it didn't originate from any of you. The gentleman wasn't even at the service, but he called me.
[66:32] He said, man, I heard you're preaching Calvinism. I said, why are you bringing up John Calvin? He died a long time ago. Right? I said, open up the text.
[66:43] He said, okay. I said, you got your Bible open? I said, yeah. I said, is the word predestination in that text? He goes, yes. I said, okay. That's biblical. End of story.
[66:56] End of question. They're not here anymore. But, I mean, I don't say that to be mean. I don't like being labeled. I'm going to always be biblical.
[67:07] Historically, do I think John Calvin had some things right? Yeah. Some of his theology is good. Do I think he had some things wrong? Yeah. Some of his practices are wrong. He burned his best friend at the stake.
[67:19] That's kind of bad. Right? Why did he do it? Because he was baptized by immersion. So please don't ever label me by name of people.
[67:31] But, yeah. Free will. Sovereignty of God. Deep question. Take us a while to answer that one. We could dedicate a whole Q&A to that one. Yeah.
[67:42] I want us to be biblical. I don't want us to be defined by any Calvinism, Arminianism, any of those. I have one other question. I'm going to answer it really quick, best I can.
[67:53] He's not here. Brother Jamie asked me. Just real curious. Regarding Israel. Did the church replace Israel? It was really the question he asked.
[68:05] And I don't want to answer it too deep because he's not here. Does the church replace the nation of Israel in the promises of God? That's called replacement theology.
[68:15] Replacement theology is that the church has taken the place of Israel and all the promises and covenant of God. And I know Jamie was just asking me for curiosity. I don't ascribe or believe in replacement theology because Paul tells us that the church has been grafted into Israel.
[68:33] You can find a thing called covenant theology. You can find all those other. Essentially what it is, my belief is that the church may be fulfilling the role during present day that God called Israel to that is to be witnesses.
[68:47] But I don't think that God has given up on the nation of Israel. My interpretation of scripture is that that's really what the seven years of judgment defined in the book of Revelation.
[69:01] What all that time is for is to call back the nation of Israel to himself. Because God has a fullness of the number of Gentiles. And then he begins to work on what we call the tribulation period, really dealing with the nation of Israel.
[69:16] Because when you read the book of Revelations, it's almost like the Babylonian captivity. God is dealing with his people. He's dealing with his people. Everything's focused around the nation of Israel. The woman who gave birth to a son and the many waters covered up.
[69:28] He's dealing with the nation of Israel. There are others in the world, but he hasn't given up on it. So I don't think the church has replaced Israel. I think temporarily during this church age, the church is standing in the place of Israel because we have been grafted in.
[69:43] We're the wild olive branch grafted into the olive branch of Israel. So I don't believe in replacement theology. I do believe the church. But since we've been grafted in now, that means that the covenantal promises of God, there are some that pertain legalistically just to the nation of Israel, but the covenantal promises of God have application to us too.
[70:04] That's why we can open up the Old Testament and say, hey, there's application here for us because we've been grafted into it. Okay? That's a really short answer for Jamie, but I'll give it to him maybe in longer form another time.
[70:17] All right. I know we're getting late. Any questions? Just pressing that we have to ask. All right. Let's pray. Then we'll get out here.
[70:27] Lord, thank you so much for this day. Thank you, God, for the word of God. Thank you that we have the opportunity to study it. Lord, I know there's so much more.
[70:39] Lord, that we may leave away, leave here with some more information game, but, Lord, there's so much more. We're yet to dive into the depths of Scripture. And, God, thank you.
[70:50] Thank you for brothers and sisters who, like those Berean believers, want to search the Scriptures daily, and we want to know what the word of God says, and we want to understand it and apply it to our lives.
[71:02] So, Lord, walk with us as we leave here. Be glorified through our actions, and we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you, God, so much for your time. I greatly appreciate it.
[71:32] Thank you. Thank you.
[72:02] Thank you, God, so much for your time.
[72:32] Thank you, God, so much for your time. Thank you.