WWUTT 1725 Q&A Earthly Blessing, the 12th Apostle, Christians Making Laws

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible study in the Word of Christ. For he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Tell your friends about our ministry at www .wutt .com. Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky, who is not on with me this week. As many of you probably know, when we do the

Friday Q &A, we record that on Thursday. On Thursday morning, in the wee early hours, the baby woke up about 3 .30

or something like that. Becky got the baby, started getting him back to sleep, and she heard some noise downstairs.

She goes downstairs, and she finds two of our other children are awake, and they're watching television at like 4 in the morning.

She says to them, what are y 'all doing up, and why are you watching TV? They got their chores done.

At some point in the night, they woke up, two of our kids woke up, got their chores done.

It's hard to get mad at them for that. You wake up in the middle of the night and want to do chores. They got their chores done so they could watch

TV. Becky told them to go back to bed, but that just made it all the more difficult for her to get back to sleep.

She is exhausted. When it comes to Thursday evening and it's time for us to get together and go record the podcast, she just did not have any energy anymore.

Usually it has something to do with her being sick or some sort of parenting thing whenever she can't be on the program with me.

She sends her best, and God willing, she'll be back on with me again next week. This is the

Friday edition of when we understand the text, when we take questions from the listeners. You can send those questions to when we understand the text at gmail .com.

I've got a correction I want to make here in a moment, some thanks that I want to give, and then we will get to our questions.

Let me begin with a passage of scripture. I'm going to be preaching on Psalm 51 this coming

Sunday, so I've been in Psalm 51 all week long. Let me read to you here from verses 9 through 14.

These are verses that will probably be familiar to you, but always good for the soul to hear them again, right?

Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain me with a willing spirit.

Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will be converted to you.

Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation. Then my tongue will joyfully sing of your righteousness.

How important it is for us to be reminded to be humble before God, to confess our sins, and ask him to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, so that my desire is for your righteousness, that I would walk in the ways of Christ.

We live in a world right now where the prevailing worldview wants to tell you that you're not really guilty for your sins.

It's not your fault. It's the system, or it's the skin color you were born with, or it is power dynamics.

All these things that mean you're not at fault. It's somebody else. Someone owes you.

You're the oppressed, and we need to tear down the privileged. But all of us have sinned before God.

All of us have things we need to confess before God today. So let us have humble hearts before the

Lord. You are guilty of your sins. Only you've committed your sins. No one else has made you commit those sins.

As we have read going through 1 and 2 Corinthians, God will always give you a way of escape.

There is no temptation that has overcome you to the degree that you are not able to resist that temptation, the scripture tells us.

So when you have given in to sin, that's your fault. It's nobody else's fault. We must turn from sin.

We must turn from the philosophies of the world, not being conformed to the world any longer, but being conformed to Christ, asking that he would give us a new heart, a new mind that would desire the

Lord, not the things of this world, but the things that are of God. As Jesus said in Matthew 6,

I quoted on the program yesterday, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you as well.

A correction I wanted to make from something I said last week, Becky and I were celebrating the

Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade. As of last week, it was two weeks. It had been two weeks without Roe.

Now it's been three weeks without Roe. But I made the comment that it's also been two weeks since Russell Moore has said anything.

He has not made a peep on social media or through Christianity Today for whom he works about the biggest

Supreme Court decision in the last 50 years since Roe v. Wade. And Russell Moore hasn't said a word.

Well, in the midst of that criticism, I said that he was the director of public policy at Christianity Today.

Well, I should have known that was a silly thing to say, because Christianity Today is a news site, a magazine, a news website, whichever way you want to consider them.

They don't make public policy. So he can't be the director of public policy.

He's the chair of public theology. That is his official position there at Christianity Today.

But that's all the worse. That Moore has not said anything. It is his job to talk about things like this that are going on in the world, and he hasn't said a word.

You know where Russell Moore is right now? He is in a monastery. He's on like a book retreat or something.

I guess he's writing a book. But in a monastery. What is he doing in a monastery?

It's so sad how far this guy has fallen. You know, I really used to admire Russ Moore. I've met him a couple of times.

We've had some great conversations, and you can surely find some old what programs where I'm either quoting

Russ Moore or I'm defending him. There were problems with him back then, too.

I just wasn't able to see it. Speaking of false teachers, this is news that you may not have heard.

But Benny Johnson, who is the wife of Bill Johnson. Bill is one of the founding pastors, the senior pastor of Bethel Church in Redding, California.

Bethel music is where songs have come from, like Reckless Love. And this is

Amazing Grace. This is how I fight my battles. Okay, those are some of the Bethel Church songs.

Benny, Bill's wife, died of cancer yesterday at the age of 67.

Now, this is a church that I've warned about many times in the past. I've had several videos warning about the false doctrine of Bethel Church.

It was only two and a half years ago, at the end of 2019, that Bethel was having dead raising ceremonies where they were trying to raise to life a little girl named

Olive, who died very suddenly. I highly doubt Bethel is trying to raise

Benny from the dead right now. I don't think they're trying to raise her to life. They have known she has had cancer for a long time.

They have prayed for her healing. It has not come, and she has died. We need to pray for Bethel that this would be an eye -opening moment for them.

They do not have the power to heal the sick. They do not have the power to raise the dead.

Now, the pastor's wife has died. May the Holy Spirit convict their hearts that they recognize their doctrine is false, and they have been perpetuating lies for years.

It's not just with regards to healing and raising the dead. It's also with regards to the false things that they teach about Jesus Christ, about the

Holy Spirit, about the Father. They're wrong on all kinds of doctrines, and they have led all kinds of people into damnable heresy.

Even Benny Johnson believed it, and Bill Johnson has perpetuated it. I pray this man's heart breaks, and he repents.

And the people who have been influenced by Bethel will also see what's gone on there and notice.

Just by common sense, they will see the doctrine's false. It doesn't work.

Todd White, who is so closely connected to Bethel Church, he has done these same things, claimed to have been able to raise the dead, restore limbs, raise people up from their illness, debilitating illnesses and things like that.

He's never healed anybody of anything. But he also would see somebody that he knew personally,

Benny Hinn, who has died of cancer, and he would recognize that he doesn't have the power to heal anybody.

He's never healed anyone. And he also would repent of his sin and come to Christ.

Bethel Church rakes in a lot of money. It is a big, big business. So he would really take a move of God in that church to turn them from the love of money that they have, the love of false doctrine and Satan's lies, and turn to the truth of Christ in the

Bible. Let's take a moment right now to pray for them, and then we'll get to our questions here. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the truth that has been proclaimed to us.

Somebody came to us with the gospel. We were convicted of our sin. We have turned from sin, desiring that clean heart that we might walk in your righteousness, because Jesus died for our sins, rose again from the dead, and now we have the hope also of life everlasting through faith in him.

I ask that you would convict the hearts of the leadership of Bethel Church and the people that have been a part of that congregation.

They're not even really a true church. It's a false church, for they have not taught the

Christ of the Bible, but their own Christ, their own Holy Spirit, looking for their own miracles and not the true work of God that we have given to us in the

Scripture. May they be convicted of their sin, and they repent of their false doctrine, this deadly, damnable doctrine that they have been teaching, not only within the church, but plenty of people outside as well.

And they would turn to Christ. May their hearts be turned from their sin to the

Lord Jesus Christ. And they cry out with David in Psalm 51 9, Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.

Create a clean heart and renew a steadfast spirit, that they not be cast from your presence, but come into everlasting life.

It is in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. All right, I want to start by reading some comments here from people who have sent gifts to us.

Sometimes at the end of a devotional lesson, there will be a little tag at the end where Becky will say something about giving a gift to When We Understand the

Text. You can go to our website, www .utt .com, click on the

Give tab, and then follow the instructions there. One of the links is a way to give us a donation through PayPal.

Now, we're not a nonprofit organization. It's not a 501c3, so it's not tax deductible.

And there's not checks and balances, so you're just kind of trusting us that we're going to use the money in a responsible way.

But if you feel so inclined to give us a gift and encourage us in some way like that, then that's how you can do it.

Now, people who have sent us gifts, sometimes they attach a little note to it. And so I wanted to read those notes and thank those individuals who have given us gifts.

I don't do this very often, but I wanted to be able to do that here at the start of this program.

These are people within the last three months that have given a gift to When We Understand the

Text. First, from Colton, he says, Thanks for encouraging my time in the Word.

Your podcast has helped me grow tremendously. Keep up the good work. I'm so touched by that,

Colton. Thank you for your gift. And I'm glad that this podcast has been such an encouragement to you.

Next one is from Grant, and I have another correction here that I need to make due to Grant's note.

So he sent me a gift and said, Thanks for the enlightening podcast. By the way, you misused the word syllogism in episode 1711.

A syllogism is a logical argument form. All men are mortal. Socrates was a man.

And therefore, Socrates was mortal. Yeah, that would be a true syllogism. I was using that word to say that when you take two words and put them together to form a new word, like hard drive or software or something like that, then you've done a syllogism, which was not the word that I wanted.

Grant goes on to say, Combining narcissism with eisegesis to make narsegesis.

That's called portmanteau. Yeah, I know. I should know that. But the word

I was really looking for was neologism. That was the word that I wanted. Not syllogism, neologism, which is the taking of two words and forming one new word.

That was what I wanted. But portmanteau works, too. This next note, this is from Andy and Rachel.

They say, Hi, Pastor Gabe. We emailed you a thank you note regarding this gift. Keep pressing on for Christ, Brother Andy and Rachel.

Yeah, they did send me an email. I can't remember where I put that email, but I have emailed them back and thanked them for their gift.

A Knight, the letter A, K -N -I -G -H -T. I'm guessing that's not your real name.

You are a Knight who has given us such a great and generous gift. Knight says,

For pizza or anything else you need, LOL, our family has been blessed by your ministry. Thank you.

Well, I appreciate it, Knight, and we will use that money on pizza. Ezekiel sent a gift and said,

Thanks for the good doctrine. I appreciate that, Ezekiel. And every once in a while, this has been going on for some time, and I've just never thanked this person until now.

Someone whose name is Alberta, I'll just leave it at Alberta, has been sending a gift.

I think this is once a month, at least, if not a little more often than that. And the gift that Alberta will send, the amount will be a

Bible reference, and then the note attached will be the Bible verse. So, like, for example,

Alberta will send $6 .44, and that will be John 6, 44. No one can come to me unless the

Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. Alberta, I don't know how long you've been doing this, but it makes me smile every time, and I appreciate so much your gifts and the

Bibles that you attach to them. Thank you. Now, I don't need the gifts.

Our church takes good care of us, but we do appreciate it, and it will be applied to ministry.

And so if you, once again, want to gift us just to say a little thank you or whatever, then you can find the information there on the website.

You don't have to send a gift, though, just to say hi. We would love to hear from you. Once again, the email address is whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

Oh, one last note here before I go on to the questions. John from Alabama, that's not very – that doesn't narrow it down a lot, but John knows who he is.

I got your gift in the mail. I'm going to call you. You didn't include your number in the letter that you sent, but I still have your email where you and I had conversed last year.

So I'm going to give you a call because I want to talk to you about your gift before I cash the generous check that you gave, okay?

Be listening or looking for your phone, whatever, right? Whatever phone number it is that I have, I'm going to give you a call next week and hope to be able to talk to you soon.

Thank you so much, brother. All right, let's get to the questions here. This first one is from Mike. And, in fact, before I get to Mike's question, it has to do with the most recent what video that I did on The Prayer of Jabez.

So let me play that video, and then we'll get to Mike's question. The Prayer of Jabez is a best -selling book based on a very short story in 1

Chronicles 4, 9 -10. There we read of a man named Jabez who cried out to the

God of Israel saying, O that you would bless me and enlarge my territory. Let your hand be with me and keep me from the evil one.

And God granted his request. Bruce Wilkinson said to pray this prayer every day.

I challenge you to make the Jabez prayer for blessing part of the daily fabric of your life.

You'll notice significant changes, and this prayer will be on its way to becoming a treasured lifelong habit.

There's nothing wrong with asking God for blessing, but fans of this book acted like Wilkinson deciphered some long -lost spell that we can use to charm

God into giving us what we want. Wilkinson said God always answers this prayer.

This is prosperity theology nonsense. There is no gospel in this book. We enter into God's presence only by the atoning blood of Christ who intercedes for us before the

Father. God never promises us earthly blessing. The apostle Paul was tormented by a messenger of Satan, and he prayed three times that it would leave him.

But Jesus said, My grace is sufficient for you. Oh, if only Paul had known the prayer of Jabez.

While we are not promised earthly blessing, in Christ we are given every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places when we understand the text.

I've had some interesting responses to that video. One person said to me, I wish you had spent more time on the actual prayer of Jabez.

Not just telling us that Wilkinson's book was false, but what is there about the prayer of Jabez?

Was it just a prayer for Jabez, or can we use it too? Maybe I'll do a touch -up on that video a little later on.

I'll explain that here in just a moment. Let me get to Mike's question, though. Mike says, Dear What, in your latest video, you said that God does not promise us earthly blessing, but he has given us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

That's Ephesians 1 .3. As you've been going through 2 Corinthians 11 and 12, you recently said that we are blessed when we are persecuted.

Is that not earthly blessing? Or is that only spiritual blessing? Just looking for some clarification there.

Well, we are blessed in this life when we are persecuted for righteousness sake.

Jesus said, Blessed are you? So, yes, we are blessed. What I meant by blessing in the video is that God does not promise us earthly prosperity.

Now, that's the context of the way that I use the word. It would have been more clarifying.

I acknowledge would have been more clarifying for me to have just said prosperity instead of blessing.

But given that the way Jabez prayed, Lord, bless me and expand my territory.

I was hoping that it would just be understood that the way Bruce Wilkinson is twisting that is to apply it into prosperity theology.

So the word blessing there would be synonymous with prosperity, not the same kind of blessing like Jesus says in the

Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are you in Matthew chapter 5. And yeah, as I quoted when we were going through 2

Corinthians 11 and 12, 10 and 11. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

That's Matthew 5, 11. Jesus says, rejoice and be glad for your reward in heaven is great.

For in the same way, they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Now, that's not earthly blessing in the in the sense.

That I well, in the way that I meant earthly blessing in the video, because, again, there

I was talking about prosperity. It is blessing that we experience. Even now, you and I are blessed when others persecute us.

We are blessed to suffer for the name of Christ. The the disciples, the apostles, they rejoiced in Christ that they were counted worthy to suffer for the name.

And as I also quoted from First Peter, chapter four, when we were talking about these things in 2 Corinthians, First Peter 4, 12, beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial that comes upon you for testing as though some strange thing were happening to you.

But to the degree that you are sharing the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing so that at the revelation of his glory, you may rejoice with exaltation.

If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, not just that you will be blessed.

You are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. You are blessed right now that you are a follower of Jesus Christ.

That is by the blessing of God. So, yes, God does bless us. We receive blessing right now.

You are enjoying the blessings of his grace, even as you sit listening to this program.

What I was referring to there in the video was with regards to financial or earthly or material prosperity.

So the word blessing there is synonymous in that way, because that's the way that Wilkinson was using it.

So that was the way I was applying it in the video as well. But I appreciate that, Mike. I may not take the video down and change it.

I may just leave it as it is. But here's where I'm going with this. So I've been doing several videos on books that I'm warning you about.

Beware this book. It's one of the bestselling Christian books, but it's full of all kinds of dangerous doctrine.

And then when I get done with ten of those, I think I have six or seven right now. But when I get done with ten of those videos, they're all going to be compiled into one video.

So here's ten bestselling Christian books that you need to watch out for. And it just so happens that most of the bestselling

Christian books of all time are terrible. They're mostly heretical for good reason.

Right. Why would all the ten bestselling Christian books turn out to be heretical? Well, because they appeal to the world.

So, of course, those are going to be the biggest sellers. People are looking for worldly things.

These books give them worldly things. And so that's why they make so much money.

Anyway, when I finish that video, when I get done with ten of those videos and I throw in the

Prayer of Jabez into the long video, then I'll make a correction there. I'll make it a little more clarifying.

But in the meantime, I'm going to leave the video where it's at until it drives me crazy. And I know I just have to change it.

Here's what I'll do. So I'll wait until I do the long form video and make the corrections to the

Prayer of Jabez section. That'll be in that video. And then I'll upload. I'll reupload the corrected

Prayer of Jabez and replace the other one. How's that? Let's do it that way. OK, next question.

This comes from. Stephen, Stephen in Tennessee. Hey, Pastor Gabe and Miss Becky, Miss Becky.

She's married. It's OK. You can call her Mrs. Becky, Mrs. Hughes. I'll pass on to her that you said hello.

Anyway, Stephen says, I hope you folks are well. I had a question about the definition of apostle.

My wife came across a meme of Justin Peters. Essentially, it said there are no more apostles.

There were 12 slots open and they were filled, meaning the 12 disciples, excluding Judas, of course.

However, this challenges how both my wife and I have been taught. We grew up thinking an apostle was those who saw

Christ in his resurrected body. This making not only the disciples apostles, but also the 500 that Christ appeared to before his ascent into heaven.

And then also Paul. Paul talks about that in First Corinthians 15, one through eight.

So Stephen goes on or he finishes up here. Could you please describe the biblical definition of who and what makes an apostle?

So I talked about this earlier in the week when we were in Second Corinthians 12, 12, because it's there that Paul said to the

Corinthians, the signs of a true apostle were worked out among you with all perseverance by signs and wonders and miracles.

So one of the indications that a person was an apostle is that they were going to do miraculous signs.

Now, not all of the 500 brothers who saw Christ alive after his resurrection, they were not all apostles.

And Paul doesn't mean there to call them all apostles. An apostle is somebody who is sent.

So that word apostle means sent one. Jesus personally appoints an apostle and sends him out to preach the gospel.

And the word of an apostle was the word of Christ himself. Like Paul saying at the end of Second Thessalonians, if there's anyone who does not listen to what we say in this letter, take note of that person and have nothing to do with him because he has rejected the word of Christ.

Whatever an apostle preaches is going to be the word of Christ through that apostle.

He was sent by Christ. An emperor had apostles. You know, this wasn't a new word that Jesus made up.

It was a word that was being used by the emperor when he would send somebody out with the emperor's message.

Whatever that apostle said was the word of the emperor.

And if you were to disregard that word of the apostle, it would be the same as if you were to have rejected the emperor himself.

That was a very serious offense. So Jesus sent out his apostles.

They carried the word of Christ. And so whatever an apostle said, what they preached came from the

Lord. And the fact that they were sent by Christ was authenticated by the miracles that they perform.

We don't have that said of the other 500 brothers. They were eyewitnesses to the Lord's resurrection.

But that does not mean that they were apostles. Now, you could make the argument that James, because the way that James is mentioned there in 1

Corinthians 15, it kind of sounds like Paul is talking about him as an apostle. So let me read here in 1

Corinthians 15, 3. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried and he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve, and after that he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep.

After that he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared to me also.

For I am the least of the apostles and not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

So the way that Paul talks about them there, it does sound like that he's talking about more than just twelve apostles.

You could include Barnabas in that, James, and then Paul, so that would mean, with Matthias added, plus three, that's fifteen apostles.

I would argue against the 500 witnesses being apostles though, because there doesn't appear to be anything there about them being sent out the same way that he sent out the twelve, plus Paul, and maybe plus James, the half -brother of Jesus.

Their apostleship was authenticated by the miraculous signs that they did. So the qualifications for an apostle, first of all, they had to be a man.

There were no women apostles, so you had to be a man to be sent out by Christ. They had to have seen the risen

Lord, that's number two. They had to be personally appointed as an apostle by Christ, that's number three.

And then their apostleship was authenticated by the miraculous signs and wonders they did.

So if anybody comes to you claiming to be an apostle, you can respond to them, raise the dead and prove it.

Because if someone has truly been sent by Christ, then they're going to be able to show the miracles of Christ that authenticates they've really seen the risen

Lord and have been sent by him. Now we know there will be no more apostles. I totally agree with Justin, the office is closed.

The spots were filled. They are not taking applications anymore. There will no longer be any more apostles.

So you can know certainly that anybody who says today they are an apostle of Jesus Christ, they're lying to you.

How do we know that? Because Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15, 8, Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared to me also.

Paul was the last one to see the risen Lord. No one else will see him again until he returns in glory until the return of Christ.

So anybody today who claims to be an apostle is lying. There's the qualifications for an apostle.

Now, I don't hold the same view that Justin does. And I texted him to be sure that I got his view.

Correct. Here's what I said. Okay. I texted Justin. I said, do you take the view that Paul is the twelfth apostle and that there were only twelve apostles, not twelve plus Paul, in other words.

And Justin responded to me. I do. I think Paul was Judas's replacement. I know it's a bit of a minority view, but that is where I've landed.

I was surprised a few months ago to hear that MacArthur says he thinks Paul's name will be one of the twelve stones beyond one of the twelve stones to talk about in the book of Revelation rather than Matthias.

So I guess I must not be too heretical. And I responded to him again, and I said,

I get questions about it occasionally, and I didn't want to misrepresent you. I hold the twelve plus Paul view just because Paul references the twelve and doesn't count himself among them.

As we just read in First Corinthians 15. I'm certain MacArthur was there at one point, but I guess that's changed.

And Justin said, yes, he was. I was really surprised to hear him apparently change his position.

So there you go. Now you have the official word to that John MacArthur may have changed his position on this as well.

So he used to teach, and I know I've heard him teach that there were twelve apostles plus Paul.

But now apparently he thinks there were only twelve that Matthias wasn't really the twelfth apostle.

That was something the apostles tried to do on their own, but it was always Christ's intention that Paul would be the twelfth apostle.

Now I've done a video on this. Let me go ahead and play the video to kind of summarize the argument, and then I'll go to my last question here in Acts chapter one after Jesus had ascended into heaven.

But before the giving of the Holy Spirit, a hundred and twenty people gathered in the upper room to pray. The eleven apostles decided to replace

Judas who betrayed Christ and hung himself. This twelfth apostle had to have witnessed Jesus earthly ministry beginning with the baptism of John until the day that he was taken up from us.

There were two men present who qualified, Justus and Matthias. The apostles prayed that God would show which one of these two he had chosen.

They cast lots, basically they flipped a coin, and the lot fell on Matthias who became the twelfth apostle.

Now some have argued that Matthias' apostleship was illegitimate, and it was actually Paul who was to be the twelfth apostle, since Christ appeared to him on the road to Damascus and appointed him an apostle in Acts 9.

But even Paul did not number himself among the twelve. In 1 Corinthians 15,

Paul wrote about the witnesses to Christ's bodily resurrection. He said Jesus appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve, which would have included

Matthias, though he had not yet been named among the twelve. Then Jesus appeared to more than five hundred brothers.

After that he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. And last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared to me also, for I am the least of the apostles and not worthy to be called an apostle.

Paul was indeed an apostle sent out to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ our

Lord. But Paul was a later apostle, more rightly considered the thirteenth apostle, not numbered among the twelve, when we understand the text.

Now this is a super minor point, right? When Justin said I'm not too heretical in my view, he was totally kidding.

This is not even like a tertiary issue. This is more like fourth or fifth level doctrines.

It's like arguing about who the author of Hebrews is. But anyway, there's the take that I did on the video that I made.

And I hope that's clarified some things for you, Stephen, especially understanding how we know the qualifications for an apostle.

One last question here. This is from Courtney, and Courtney is sure to clarify that he's male.

He says, I had to get that in there. My name makes people think that I'm a woman when they don't know me on the

Internet. Hey, I have a friend who's a guy whose name is Courtney. So I appreciate the clarification, but I would not have automatically assumed you were a gal.

Anyway, Courtney says, Dear Pastor Gabe, with all that's going on in the country, I have lots of nonbelieving friends suddenly pulling out their

Bibles to try to find ways to keep Christians and biblical moral law out of politics.

I know there's a wide range of belief and how much we as believers should involve ourselves.

Like I see from Apologia Studios, who does so much good work in proclaiming the gospel and with a heavy emphasis on instituting just laws in our country.

What I would like to know is, are there any scriptures that call us as Christians to push for justice and fight against laws that promote sin within our own country?

Sincerely in Christ. Thank you so much for your question, Courtney. And this deserves a much broader answer than I'm going to give it.

We're kind of at the end of our time here. So I wasn't going to spend a whole lot of time on this. But let me just present it to you this way.

So your question is basically this. Is there somewhere in the Bible that tells us to pass godly laws and fight against ungodly laws?

No, you're not going to find a verse in the Bible that says explicitly to do that. And the reason why is because most people in the world do not live in governments where they can enact that kind of a change.

So here in the United States of America, we live in a constitutional republic. It is a government by the people and for the people.

So we as Christians can change the law. Therefore, why shouldn't we?

So when we see something that is going on like the slaughtering of thousands of babies every day through the practice of abortion, why would we as Christians not stand against that and call it unjust and do something to try to change the laws in our country that would protect the most vulnerable among us as a matter of loving our neighbor?

That is a good and righteous thing that we can do. And our government is set up in the United States to be able to do something like that.

Now, in Rome, Paul could not have done that. He used the rights that he had as a

Roman citizen to share the gospel, which that was what he was supposed to do as an apostle.

It was not to be sent by Christ to transform governments. It was to go out by Christ to speak of the ultimate government, which is the kingdom of God, Jesus Christ sitting on his throne.

He is going to return to judge the living and the dead. Whoever does not repent and turn to Christ will perish on that day of judgment.

That was the message that Paul went out proclaiming. And you know who God has appointed to judge the nations because he has raised him from the dead.

That was exactly what Paul said at the Areopagus in Acts chapter 17. So bringing all nations in submission to Christ by going out and proclaiming the gospel.

Now, as the gospel spreads, the world will change and there will be more and more people that are in submission to Christ, even people who work in positions of government, even the highest leaders in the land.

So the gospel is going to transform hearts. And as the hearts of people are transformed, it's going to transform governments.

That's something we're going to see happen. Our main mission is to go out with the gospel of Christ. But as we have opportunity, as it says in Galatians chapter six, as we have opportunity, let us show charity to all, especially to the household of God.

So our first obligation is to care for one another, brothers and sisters in the

Lord, in the church. And then as we have other opportunity to show charity to others, we should do that and use that as an opportunity to share the gospel.

The gospel should always be going with us into those places, especially legally that we go into to fight for those who are being oppressed.

Proverbs 31 verses eight and nine say, open your mouth for the mute, for the justice of all those who are passing away.

Open your mouth, judge righteously and render justice to the afflicted and the needy.

If we as Christians have the opportunity to change the laws in our land, to be in submission to God's law, why would we not do that?

Do we not believe that God's law is the best for all people, right? It's not just that it is the supreme law.

But if we live by this law, it is the best law for everyone, bringing justice to those who are afflicted and and also to those who do the afflicting.

The oppressor is also brought to justice by the law of God. If we follow any other law, it is not just, is it?

Do we not want the laws in our land to be reflective of the greatest law given by the king of kings?

Then I say that as we have an opportunity as Christians to bring those laws into submission to God's law, we should indeed do that.

But still remembering it is not the law that changes hearts. Paul said in the book of Romans that the law was powerless to save.

It is only the gospel of Jesus Christ that saves. The law can be a tutor, as Paul says in Galatians, it's a teacher.

So it tells us what is right and what is wrong. And as said in Romans chapter three, it is by the law that every mouth is stopped.

No one can proclaim their own righteousness when they recognize that they have broken the law.

So the law exposes our hearts, convicts hearts, that we recognize our sin and our need for a savior.

And then it's the message of the gospel that brings salvation. So the law doesn't change people.

It doesn't change hearts. God changes hearts through the gospel. But the law being brought into submission under God's law or being brought into alignment with God's law, that was certainly reflecting of loving our neighbor.

Is it not? Because that's God's law. The law to love the Lord your God and to love your neighbor as yourself.

Those are laws and it's the summation of all the law and the prophet. So we change laws to be reflecting of that loving our neighbor, bringing justice to those who are afflicted and punishment to those who have behaved unjustly.

I hope that answer is sufficient for you for the time being. And maybe I can expound on that at a later time.

If you have any other questions you'd like to submit to the program, send them to when we understand the text at gmail .com.

God bless. Next week I'm going to be back on, God willing, with the study in 2

Corinthians. Maybe we'll finish 2 Corinthians next week, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Then we continue our

Ecclesiastes study on Thursday and then another Q &A on Friday. This is

When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. There are lots of great Bible teaching programs on the web, and we thank you for selecting ours.

But this is no replacement for regular fellowship with a church family. Find a good, gospel -teaching,

Christ -centered church to worship with this weekend, and join us again Monday for more Bible study, When We Understand the