Questions & Answers

Opening Announcements and Giving to the Lord

Member and your man here who's a member and you want to read scripture then I commend you to talk to a Bill Falcone. Bill raise your hand would you? And we have the men open on Sunday night and read scripture and it's a kind of a daunting task.

You don't think it's that big a deal you just stand up and read but when you first come up here the knees are knocking. The spit is not there and it is difficult. And there's a side benefit to all that because then the men can pray for me more because they realize how difficult it is to pray when you stand up and just read scripture and then pray if you notice we have something new.

There are three choir mics up there now and so if you can see those they are working they're ready. The bazooka there the the bass bazooka is hanging. I think that's what Charlie calls it. So that's up and that's working as well.

You can't see it very well from the back but you can hear it. It'll need one more coat of paint and so we're just pleased that the Lord has given us those things. And somebody in the church is thinking about buying us a projector.

We'd like to have a projector here. Maybe it goes up automatically so we can see the lyrics better. If you want to get away from a screen like we have to a good one you're going to move with screen and lens and projector.

That's right there about 20 grand and so it's a lot of money and I out of anyone in the church have my neck craned and strained more than you do during the songs on Sunday morning. So we all want that.

But it's a matter of when do you spend the 20 ,000. So it's a lot of money all right. Any other announcements before we get going tonight. By the way if you have a spare 20 ,000 and you'd like to have an envelope it says their budget new constructions our missions.

You have my permission to cross this last one out and write designated for the new screen. You can just do that and lens but no we won't engrave your name on the lens to say it's you I first got to the church.

It's like well if I give X amount of money for the library or something upstairs can can I dedicate that library to my father or grandfather. And it's a sweet thing. But the best thing to do is you give your money under the Lord.

And if it's designated fine. If it's not designated God will reward you in secret. Have you as you have given in secret. Right. So I don't think Paul by the way ever had in mind that somebody would name a city after him.

I don't think he was looking for that in Minnesota st. Paul. I think it was. I'm not sure he would have wanted that all right. Well if you have your Bible so we're going to use those tonight. Let's turn to Joshua chapter 10.

The Long Day of Joshua and the Power of God

I was working on a special message on Bible translations that I did not get done. I also have been working on the the doctrine of assurance. How do you know the difference between assurance eternal security and perseverance of the saints.

And how some people think you can lose that. And how do you gain your assurance back. I had that for tonight as well but I thought you know we'll just do questions and answers. So I pulled up some timely ones that we'll talk about tonight.

We'll start off with it. Can you explain the long days of Joshua and Joshua chapter 10 found in your Old Testament. And this is a very question that comes up all the time. And if you're not careful you may try to answer it with natural means.

And certainly God could use natural means. But God often when it's miraculous by definition does something in a supernatural way. So don't try to figure out rationally how it happened when you have to say God in fact did this and has the power to do it.

Let's read the passage and then we'll get some comments from the congregation. Joshua 10 verse 12. For those of you that don't know the passage then Joshua spoke to the Lord. And when you see capital L O R D in the Old Testament what does that signify.

Yahweh the covenant-keeping loyal loving God of Israel. Different than when you see GOD which would talk about Elohim. Lots of times talking about the Creator God. But both are certainly God just different names and so many wonderful attributes.

He has different names to go with. Many of them spoke to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the sons of Israel. And he said in the sight of Israel O son stand still at Gibeon and O moon in the valley of Ajdalon or however you pronounce it I Jilon.

I think you get the first I hard and the first a is soft silent. So the Sun stood still and the moon stopped until the nation avenged. Interesting purpose. For why the Sun stopped till the nation avenged themselves of their enemies.

Is this not written in the book of Josh. Are a book that we don't know about. And the Sun stopped in the middle of the day and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day. And there was no day like that before it or after it when the Lord listened to the voice of a man in this case Joshua for the Lord fought for Israel.

Now how could we explain that. Give me some explanations. And it's Sunday night. So you can say them out loud if you want to raise your hand find. If you don't want to you don't have to. What would be some.

Give me some some common explanations that might not even be right. Then you don't have to feel bad if you give the wrong one. How do people explain this. Doug. Okay so it's almost like Kreskin kind of thing where it's an optical illusion.

Who's the big magician now. David David Copperfield. Okay that is kind of one of the explanations by the way. Okay that's matter-of-fact. Both of those are explanations that people use. Liberals tend to use it just seemed like a long day.

Okay. Good. Well daylight savings time. In all the animals of my research I have not found that one. And you open up a can of worms when you let the congregation speak on sunny night. Why do you think.

I know I don't do that on sunny morning and everybody obeys me except the sheriff. But anyway that's another sermon. You can tell him. I said that Peter Monahan is the only guy that'll say something. Any other explanations.

The Sun stood still. And now think about context. The middle of the sky did not hasten to go down for about a whole day. So it might not be a whole day. But for about a whole day it's not just a smidgen.

And verse 14 says there's no day like it. There's no other days. This is a unique day. What are some other explanations. Okay the Earth's rotation stopped. Good. I found some other ones. There was an eclipse that hid the Sun keeping its heat from Joshua's worn soldiers and allowing coolness for battle.

They could stay strong to fight. I found that it's a local refraction of the Sun's rays such as the local darkness in Egypt in Exodus 10 where there's local darkness and so this is just locally. That's another one matter of fact.

Ryrie believes that he said there are more daylight hours but not more hours in the day. It's kind of like I guess Alaska or Greenland or something like that. I like Charles Riley Ryrie. Sometimes they think it's just poetic.

Now these are the people that just make the Bible turn into anything they want. It's kind of like just hyperbole. It just seemed like a long day. It's not literal. They just got two days worth of fighting done in one day.

You know kind of like the phrase I could eat a horse. You know you can't really eat a horse. But you're really really hungry. However I don't think any of these deal with God as the Creator in a supernatural way protecting his covenant people.

Why don't you turn to Habakkuk chapter 3 in the minor prophets towards the end of your Old Testament. And I just want you to first realize that God has the power to do this. God can stop the Sun easily and figure out the calendars and everything else later.

He has the power to do it. If we all stand outside we could probably have a pretty interesting service tonight. We all stand outside and yell at the moon. Don't go down stay. And we could we could be like Frank Mesmer and try to mesmerize it.

We could hypnotize it we could shout. We could do anything we wanted. And that is not going to affect anything. You can be a word-faith teacher and say my words have have meaning. And if I say it then it'll happen.

And you can say it all day to the moon. And it's not going to work. One of my favorite passages in the Old Testament is right from Habakkuk. Let's start with verse 5 of Habakkuk chapter 3. And I want to show you that God has the power.

And we don't always have to explain things scientifically. You don't have to watch CBS Bible show ten years ago that explained the the the the Exodus through the Red Sea with wind and sandbars and everything else.

God may have used that but he doesn't have to. God has the power to do anything he wants. Look at these great verses. Before him goes pestilence and plague comes after him. He stood. He's talking about.

God surveyed the earth. He looked and startled the nations. Yes the perpetual mountains were shattered. You the biggest most stable things around the ancient hills collapsed. His ways are everlasting.

I saw the tents of Kishan under distress. The tent curtains of the land of Midian were trembling. Did the Lord rage against the rivers. Or was thine anger against the rivers. Or was thy wrath against the sea.

That thou does ride on thy horses. The on thy chariots of salvation. Thy bow was made bare. The rod of chastisement were sworn. Thou does cleave the earth with rivers. Verse 10. The mountain saw the inquake.

The downpour of water swept by the deep uttered forth its voice. It lifted high its hands. And now verse 11 sun and moon stood in their places. They went away at the light of thine arrows at the radiance of thy gleaming spear.

And with great prophetic language God with all his creation power can make the Sun stand still. And I think that's pretty great. If I had a if I could open my jacket up and I could sell you things or tell you things I could do.

I would say it's making the Sun and moon stand still. Would be right up there in my little bag of tricks. And the greatest thing about this passage. You'll never read it the same way again. Look at verse 4.

And his radiance is like the sunlight. He has rays flashing from his hands. And here is the ultimate demonstration of the power of God. He can stop the Sun. Is that what it says. Here's just the hiding of God's power.

You want to know how powerful God is. This is just open up the veil a little bit and peek in and he can stop the moon and the stars in the Sun. This is just like the fringe of his power. This is just a little I don't think it's right to say smidgen two times in a night.

But I want to. It was already in my mind. This is just a little inkling. This is a smidgen. This is like a little tiny bit. This is like the appetizer. There is a hiding of his power. Job 26 14. Behold these are the fringes of his ways.

Isn't that great. We'd go around trying to figure out. Well you know of all these things happen. Then God could do that. God can just say son exist. Can't he easily say son stop. Of course he can. Isn't that good.

There's the hiding of his power. A pink waxes eloquently on the subject in his book the attributes of God in the power of God. Chapter. I had one book besides the Bible that I would bring on my desert island would be the attributes of God by pink.

Five bucks. Six bucks is about that big. And every time you read it you think forgot to pay my bills. No you think God is awesome. This God is so great. By the way you can use it as an evangelistic tool too.

If you want to give out a book. What's one book you can give out to hope somebody reads it and gets saved. Well number one it's the Bible. I've given out big tracks before and people say what's too big.

You know nobody's ever gonna read that Prince. Too small. Well don't give out the Bible then. And don't somehow think that God of the universe could compel that person to open that book and read it. But this book attributes of God is so chocked full of Scripture that it is almost likely reading Scripture the power of God the attributes of the the unchangeableness of God.

It is a great book. How many people have read it. I want you to read that book. If you can't afford it then we'll get that book for you. The book ministry will Nate's budget will take care of that. But I want to get you that book.

If you can't afford it's like six bucks five bucks something like that. How much is it. We probably need to order some now after that. Yeah it is so good. And you know the nice thing is Proverbs. There's 31 Proverbs and typically 31 days in a month close to it.

And so then every day if today's the 15th 16th 17th you just read that proverb. And so since there's only 17 or 19 chapters in the attributes of God one a day for a month and there's like 11 days of grace.

You skip a few when you can still get through it every month. And for years I read that book just every month. They're just the hiding of his power. Now let's go back to Joshua to see this passage and to take a look at it.

It actually says that in the text the moon and the sun stood still. The Sun stood still. The moon stopped rather be still to be silent to leave off. And in the MacArthur study Bible it says the earth actually stopped revolving are more likely the Sun moved in the same way to keep perfect pace with the battlefield.

I don't know what happened but God did did something so it could finish off the job. Joshua 1014. This has got to be a unique day. It's something supernatural there no day like it. And can you imagine God uses the moon and the Sun objects that the Amorites worshipped he used to help destroy them.

Can you imagine. I love that. Okay you're gonna worship the Sun and the moon. They're going to be the instruments of your doom. I encourage everybody. We did it yesterday. It's Saturday from 10 to noon Worcester Art Museum free.

You can walk in there. And it's like the greatest lesson to teach your kids and my even my daughter little Maddie today four years old. She should mom said come back from the retreat. And Kim said to Maddie well what'd you do.

Well we went to the museum. What'd you see. And little Maddie said we saw the false god Buddha. I just tell the kids see there's Buddha. Just bow down and sing some phrases just real quick. I won't tell anybody else.

And here's all these things false gods everywhere. Shiva and all these different ones Vishnu. And you just go. What is going on. And here God uses these false gods and the moon the Sun aren't gods. But the Amorites think they are like demon impelled worship of these things.

And God uses those to destroy him. This is not that big a deal stopping the Sun for more time. It ran backwards for Hezekiah. Right. Second Kings 28 what will be the sign that the Lord will heal me. And I shall go up to the house of the Lord.

The third day Isaiah said this shall be the sign for you that the Lord that the Lord will do the thing that he has spoken. Shall the shadow go forward ten steps or back ten steps. The issue with these kind of miracles is faith isn't it.

If God says he did it you may try to calculate some of the stuff and answers of Genesis. What happened in Genesis. I'm fine with that. But at the end of the day if it's incalculable you say God I believe it anyway.

And I'll praise you that you had the Sun stop. It's like Billy Graham once said he said I would believe the Bible. Everybody goes to Jonah. How can you believe the book of Jonah's true. Here's this. You know this fish this whale swallowed Jonah.

Blah blah blah. And everybody goes after it. And the way I usually what I usually say is well if Jesus thought it was a fairy tale he could have corrected it when he was on earth. But he affirmed it. He even affirmed it in a prophecy.

But secondly it's like what Billy Graham said I would believe the book of Jonah are the Bible. Even if it says Jonah swallowed the whale. That's a Billy Graham said. And it's true we are underneath this word it is the authoritative Word of God and we are under it.

And when people start saying well that's your own translation and it was written by men and blah blah blah. Slowly after every sentence you can see the Word of God coming down like this. And it's underneath the foot of God.

It's like my friend Todd Swift who has a daughter named Whitney who's older now. But there's the book ultimate questions by John Blanchard out there which is a great book to send to an unbeliever. And it shows a man standing on the Bible.

And what it's showing is man's sin against the Bible and rebellion against God. But she thought as a growing up in a little Christian family she thought that was for the song standing on the promises of Christ.

My she thought I was that just standing on the promises of God. If Joshua was wrong Jesus would have come along. I am sure we'll use the same thing with Jonah. Listen boys he Pharisees and scribes. Joshua was all wrong.

It was figurative language. It just seemed like it. It was an eclipse. It was this. It was that. No you cannot extract the supernatural nature out of the Word of God because you're gonna left with not a very big Bible.

And a man named Thomas and Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson did that very thing. It's called the Jefferson Bible. Take out all the supernatural elements of the New Testament. And you come up with a book about this big.

And the last sentence says. And Jesus was buried and the tombstone rolled across his grave. The end. Thomas Jefferson was a deist. He was cloaked in Bible language but he could not believe in the supernatural nature of God.

And I'm glad they're supernatural things. Why. Because then you're just in awe and you're thinking he's the God of the universe that can do anything as easily as he could do the next. It's not hard for God.

We were singing tonight and I thought yes my life I have trials and their struggles and sicknesses and deaths and all these things. But I said you know if there's no heaven. Well I here's what it is a better way to say it if heaven is not any better than this.

A redeemed Christian life in a sinful world. I still can't wait to get there. How much more. When I realize my sin isn't there. Nobody else's sins there. And Christ is face-to-face. But it's pretty amazing to have the Holy Spirit the Holy One of God living inside of you.

And you just have new affections new thoughts. You think God runs the universe. God's in control. I don't have to worry. And you just say I love life. Now things are hard but I can trust God. Now what about heaven is going to be that much greater because it is true.

All right. Questions about the Sun and the moon. All right. Let's go to question number two. How could Jesus have remained in the tomb three days and three nights if he was crucified on Friday and rose on Sunday.

Three Days and Three Nights in Jewish Idiom

Three days and three nights. Friday Saturday Sunday Sunday night. What do we do. You'll hear this all the time. By the way when an unbeliever is arguing with you or wants to disprove the Bible. Three days three nights.

Blah blah blah. You can answer the question. But then I want you to turn it back around and get back to the cross. That's the issue. Where King get his wife is not the real question. The question is they're standing before God.

Okay. What would we say. Three days and three nights. Okay. Well let's not go to the real answer yet. Let me give some other answers. First of all we have to think like a Jew. We have to think like a Hebrew.

And with their idiom and with their discussions they have any part of a day counts as a day. We are not looking at 72 exact hours. Or I calculated it in minutes for four thousand three hundred twenty minutes.

Three days and three nights. Let's look up a couple passages. Luke chapter 24. And the easiest answer is. And you can study it on your own. Some people force it to Thursday where Jesus was crucified on Thursday.

That messes it up all the more. Just study the language. We study the Bible. You must study the Bible in its natural normal plain sense not literal sense. Now I can see the cards and letters coming. What do I mean by that.

Not wooden literal. You don't read the newspaper or a magazine in a wooden literal sense. You read it in a natural normal plain sense with figures of speech with hyperbole with riddles with metaphors with similes.

You read it normally and plainly. Right. Somebody says why do you read the Bible literally. I know what they mean. And yes I read it literally. But not wouldn't literally. Because how am I going to read an English translation with Jewishness in it.

You'd have to have a Bible about that thick want to know why your Bibles are only this thick. That's one of the reasons Luke 24 44. This one's a little easier. And we'll then we'll get to the hard one.

Luke 40 24 44. Now he said to them these are my words which I spoke to you while I was still with you that all things which were written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms expressed as special but not that Jonah story or the Joshua neither must be fulfilled.

Of course that's not. Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. How great is that. That's a sermon. Right there the illumination of God into your minds. He just makes you understand. You ever wonder why you have friends and unbelievers who will read the Gospel of John.

And just they don't get it. Gospels going out on FM their receivers a .m. and broken. Besides that here he opens their minds to understand the scriptures. And he said to them thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day.

Now that's not that hard. Because if Jesus is crucified on Friday that's part of a day Saturday and then Sunday. That's that's a little bit easier for us to take not thinking in the Hebrew fashion. But what about the three days and three nights.

Let's go there. Matthew chapter 12 verse 39. And I just want you and you study you check to see if what I say is true. You will see that the Hebrew phrase three days and three nights just means emphasis.

Just like when you see in the Bible 40 days and 40 nights you will find good scholars who say that is not exactly 40 days and 40 nights. Calculate 24 times 40. It is a Jewish way of saying a longer time about a month.

I'm not trying to get away from literal things. You know me better than that. That's why you need to get one of those little books called manners and customs. Because we just do things differently. Every house should have one of those manners and customs of the Bible.

And you know the good news is most of you have color picture. Go. Oh that's neat. Matthew chapter 12 verse 38. Some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him saying teacher we want to see a sign from you.

What epistle does that remind you of 1st Corinthians seeking signs somehow into wisdom. Some seek signs. Matthew 1239. And he answered and said to them. And evil and adulterous generation craves a sign.

You want a sign. Of course you want a sign because you're wicked. I don't think he screamed it like that. And yet no sign should be given it. But the sign of Jonah the prophet. You've already got a sign and you just drove by it.

For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea. Monster. Different word than the fish in Hebrew. Obviously no way nowhere do we ever get whale except it's a big fish. By the way on a side note you think God created the fish or do you think he took an existing one.

Could he have done either one. He could have prepared that fish from guppy stage all the way to have nice big fish like qualities that could swallow a man or he could have just made that fish. Just say fish.

There you are gobble up that thing. This is a big thing. That's massive. All right. Although I think I want the fish in my heart I want the fish to already have lived and swam around for a while and had all kinds of gross fish that are already eaten half decomposed.

Okay so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. That was a little harder but still it can be explained easily. Don't go back to Thursday to do the three days three night deal.

You're gonna get into trouble elsewhere theologically. You just say what's the emphatic way. The emphatic Jewish way of saying parts of three days. It doesn't have to be a literal 72 hours. It's a good way to express that.

So you say all right. When did Jesus get on the cross. 9 a .m. Friday 12 o 'clock. That becomes dark and God judges the Sun. From 12 to 3. They take him off the cross. They bury him. That's part of Friday part of Saturday part of Sunday.

And we're fun. Our questions on that all right. For those of you that are movie watchers we will get to the Bible. But the Luther movie. How many people have seen the Luther movie. It's called Luther.

Okay pretty good crowd. I want to say something about fighting fundamentalism and going to the movies. But I won't. It's fine to go see a movie. I always wondered why people who said they don't go to the movies.

We just rent all kinds of VHS things from the library. Like mad. What's the difference. I guess you could fast forward something. I thought it was an excellent movie and had a few things that weren't didn't match up theologically.

But overall it was one of the only movies I've ever been to. And then afterwards you go out with some Christians and have have some ice cream and soda and you talk more about God's Word. And it spurs you on to holy living.

It spurs you on to say I want to stand up. God I'll stand stand up. I'll be like in Ezekiel. I'll stand in the gap. God helped me to be that. Didn't you find that the case. Some backsiders in this congregation have even been to the movie twice.

Haven't they let me just give you a little background of Luther because the main thing that they didn't have in there was his conversion experience. That's the main thing. It was all of a sudden one day he was struggling and the lightning came and then the next day he's saved Luther.

By the way there's a great book and this is from that book by Jim Cromartie. It's called a mighty fortress is our God. He's a great writer. It's by evangelical press and you just read. Wow. By the way you need to read biographies when you're down and out and you don't know what to do.

Read a biography read about Mary Schleser the lady who she's from Scotland and she runs around in the jungle. And when they had twins back in those days this these jungle tribes would think that the twins were demon-possessed so they would leave the twins out to be eaten by the leopards and Black Panthers.

Mary Schleser little Mary Schleser would go running around scoop up those sets of twins. She scooped up 51 sets of twins and would go to the to the big chief in charge and she would just get in their face and just challenge the guy down.

51 sets of twins in the jungle. Or you could read about Betty Stan. And in China and here and they have a little baby. And here comes the persecutors and they take a little five dollar bill or whatever it has.

I have to be careful not to cry when I think about it and they tuck it underneath the diaper lay her in the crib and say God protect her. They're coming to kill us and we entrust you into your hand and trust her into your hands.

They come in they kill Betty Stan and her husband and they never find the baby. And then one of their friends comes in. What I think is I think two things. Number one I'm a dope because look at their faith.

And number two I think you know I'm just a man. They were just men. They were just women. And God if you can use somebody like that can't you use me. Help me. God read biographies. They're wonderful. Well this biography about Luther it's very interesting.

His mom had kind of a mixture of Roman Catholicism and a mixture of kind of witch doctor stuff. They thought that there was a witch had placed a curse on their family and she even thought that sometimes demons would come and steal their eggs and chickens.

Very superstitious. The only thing I could think of that semi equivalent is in Haiti where they've got kind of this this synergistic kind of voodoo Catholicism XY and Z stuff that was going on back in those days.

Luther Easter 1503 was walking along and he had a sword on his belt and it fell out and it slipped one of his arteries in his leg and the blood is gushing out in this arterial flow and he cries out Mary help me.

Somebody comes along. It wasn't Mary but somebody came along bandaged him up in a little bit long a little while longer the the biography says the wound tore open again and he cried out once more for the Virgin Mary for assistance.

And later he said in his life I would have died trusting in the Virgin Mary to die for my sins. He told Duke George of Saxony later I was indeed a pious monk and followed the rules of my order more strictly than I can express.

I love this part. If ever a monk could obtain heaven by his monkish works I should certainly have been entitled to it of this. All the friars who have known me can testify. If I continue much longer I should have been carried my son carried my self-denials even to death.

Then he met this man named stoppets and stoppets. I would talk to him and he would say you don't need to flee to Mary. He was a mentor. He said you need to flee to Christ. He said verbatim. Well actually Luther's description of it we fled from Christ is from the devil and ran to the Virgin Mary and st. Barbara.

For we were taught that everyone must appear before the judgment seat of Christ with his work. In other words Jesus is the judge. He's this evil judge guy. And so you got to get to the softer side of God like the softer side of Sears.

You go from Mary. She's sweet Jesus the judge Mary. She's a lady sometimes I can't believe what I'm doing ever watch yourself. Listen to Luther. Often I was horrified at the name of Jesus and when I thought about him on the cross it was as if I had been struck by lightning.

When I heard his name mentioned. I would rather have heard the name of the devil for I believe that I must buy my good works make Christ my gracious friend and thereby reconcile an angry God and quote any new stop it said to him why do you torture yourself with these things.

Look at the wounds of Christ. Look at the blood of Christ shed for you is there the grace of God. This is where the grace of God will appear to you. Luther said back I cannot and dare not come to God till I'm a better man.

I just need to be better than God will accept me. I have not yet repented sufficiently. Stop it said a better man. Christ came to save not good men but sinners love God and you will have repented. There's no real repentance.

This does not begin in the love of God. Then stop it's gave him a Bible in his own language. And I thought if I ever give a Bible to someone my son or anyone else this is what I'm going to write. He didn't write it in there but he said it let the study of scriptures be your favorite occupation.

That's what stop it said to Luther. Let this Bible be your favorite thing. Study that. So now Luther is on his way to Rome. And the movie does depict that he's on his way to Rome. But on his way to Rome he almost dies.

He got so sick. And when he's laying there going to die only one passage kept coming through his mind. The just shall live by faith over and over the just shall live by faith. He's in a bologna and he's got about ready to die.

He now gets to Rome. And it was said that if you go to the sacred stairs the Scala Sancta these 28 steps at every one of you said a paternoster. You said in our father you you prayed the disciples prayer the Lord's Prayer that you would get people out of purgatory every step that you went up and one special step was where Christ was and you get all kinds of extra blessings there.