WWUTT 995 Q&A By What Standard, Limited Atonement, End Times in the OT, Amazon, Hills to Die On?

WWUTT Podcast

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

Are there any prophecies in the Old Testament that pertain to the end times? How can we be perfect as our

00:07

Heavenly Father is perfect? And how can we avoid the cage stage? The answers to these questions and others when we understand the text.

00:25

This is when we understand the text, a daily Bible study to help encourage your time in the word that we may be presented mature men and women in Christ Jesus.

00:34

Tell your friends to visit our website www .tt .com. Here once again is

00:40

Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. Remember, it is Christmas in July.

00:45

It is. Oh, I forgot the jingle bells again. Oh, you were going to bring bells. You didn't have them last week either.

00:50

I listened. Was I supposed to? Yes. Even though I was doing it solo, you expected me to remember.

00:57

I have high expectations. Becky and Sonia on their way back from St.

01:02

Louis listening to me and all your compliments about missing Becky. Oh, my goodness. I was blushing.

01:08

I'm glad we were the only two in the car. She was driving so she couldn't see. I was so red.

01:16

Oh, that was very, very kind. Very kind. And we are just one week out from our 1000th episode.

01:25

Yay. It's exciting. I'm trying to figure out what would be a grand prize that I would throw in in the 1000th episode.

01:31

So we'll have a couple of other gifts, things that we've given away, plus a

01:37

Reformation Study Bible. So that's the extra grand prize in our 1000th episode giveaway coming up next week.

01:46

Everybody who has already entered the contest thus far is eligible to win on that Friday.

01:52

You don't have to submit again. All the emails we've gotten in the month of July are gonna go into that final drawing. Now, every -

01:59

I think I'm gonna throw in something. Okay, what are you gonna throw in? I'm gonna throw in a little one -of -a -kind painting by Becky Hughes.

02:10

Oh, Becky's paintings are awesome. But do you really have time for this? I'll make time.

02:16

It'll be fun. It'll be great. I think it would be fantastic. I gotta get paintings done anyway.

02:22

I owe Christine from like way back when, and Lauren too.

02:28

I do owe her from way back when. Yep, so I gotta get painting anyway. So you got some paintings to do.

02:35

I'll do a smaller one. Do a smaller one that'll go into the giveaway. You'll get an authentic Becky Hughes painting.

02:43

I love my wife's paintings. I think they're fantastic. And every time she does one, I'll say, well, make me one.

02:49

He's like, can we keep that one? I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. We have kept a couple just because you were painting.

02:56

Just because I liked it. Nope, that one's too good. You can't give that one away. Yeah, there have been a couple. Now, I've been picking, weekly

03:03

I've been picking the winners before we do the Friday broadcast. But next week we'll take them all, we'll put them in a hat, and we'll draw them out in the show.

03:13

So you'll get to hear in real time. Oh, I get to pick two? Who's gonna be that grand prize winner.

03:18

Yeah, you're gonna be the drawer. Since you're the painter, you get to be the drawer. Nice. We've been doing puns all evening.

03:29

It's been great. So if you haven't entered the contest yet, you gotta be sure. Send us either a story, a short story about what has meant to you.

03:39

We share those with our church. So they get to hear about how this ministry has kind of impacted people around the world.

03:46

Or ask a question, of course, since this goes on the Friday edition of the broadcast. Submit that info, including your name and address, mailing address where the prize would go to.

03:57

We won't share that mailing info with anybody else, because I lose emails anyway.

04:02

Yeah. I wouldn't even remember to send it to some sort of spam agency. Send all of that via email to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

04:14

We will, it doesn't matter whether we've read your question or whatnot on the air, everybody that submits something will have their name in the hat.

04:23

That's right. And then we'll draw from those entries next week. Yeah. Which I better start. I'm looking forward to it.

04:28

I better start compiling those addresses now, so I'm not like throwing together a hundred addresses on Thursday.

04:34

Yeah, that might be better. I'm gonna print it all off and cut it all out and throw it in the hat. Well, cutting it's not so bad, because we have that little paper cutter thing.

04:43

Not shredder. Well, that would be the good way to do it. I'll just make it thin enough to be on a single piece on like the paper shredder and then drop it in the paper shredder.

04:52

Sure, sure. That'll work. Just hopefully you're not off a little. Yeah. All right, so let's start out with this.

05:00

Before we get to the questions, Founders Ministry has a documentary coming out.

05:05

Yes, they do. It is called, by what standard, God's World, God's Rules. The trailer itself to the documentary does not debut until I believe

05:15

Tuesday of next week. Becky and I have had the opportunity of being able to view the trailer before everybody else gets to see it.

05:25

What was your impressions of this documentary? Wow. That was it?

05:30

I mean, that pretty much sums up everything. Okay. Just, I am blown away. I am so excited.

05:37

It covers so much of what has been discussed on a serious issue.

05:44

They're doing what they need to do of confronting it right straight up front and saying, bringing it back to the

05:51

Bible. Now, what is the issue that we're talking about in this particular documentary? Social justice.

05:58

Well, using - But for those of you who don't know that term, it would be like...

06:03

Well, let me break it down this way. Yeah, go ahead. Because one of the things that's mentioned in the documentary is that social justice is a doorway that's being used to usher in all these other worldly philosophies into the church.

06:17

Right, because, I mean, that's why I couldn't do more than sum it up with wow. Yeah, right. There's just, there's a lot to it.

06:25

And even breaking down the subject matter is complicated because social justice is discussed as well as like a critical race theory, egalitarianism.

06:35

There's gonna be numerous different topics that are addressed here. The main thing that's basically being focused on is how worldly ideas are being brought into the church, like thinking, well, we're not capable of addressing this stuff.

06:51

We can't do this with just the Bible. So we need to go out into the world, not to share the gospel, but find worldly experts in these ideologies that can help educate us on these issues so that we can then bring those things into the church.

07:06

It's almost like - Yeah, people are saying this from their pulpits. Yeah. I mean, not just out and about, but from the pulpit, they're saying this kind of stuff.

07:14

And the majority of stuff that is showed on the trailer were things that were actually being said at the

07:20

SBC. So the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention that was just held last month.

07:25

And you've got some great names and voices that are gonna be sharing in this documentary from Tom Askell, of course, who's the president of Founders.

07:35

Albert Moeller was in the trailer, Owen Stran, our friend, Dr. Tom Buck. James White's gonna be in there,

07:41

Vodie Bauckham, Josh Bice. Names upon names, people much smarter than I.

07:48

The documentary looks fantastic and looks like it's gonna be raising an awareness issue, putting those things or compiling it all into one place.

07:57

Because when it comes down, like I said, it's difficult to try to pinpoint it to one issue.

08:03

It is. And that's why the Twitterverse is so - Inundated.

08:08

Well, it gets irritating and distracting because it's not just one issue. And everybody tries to say, well, that's, if it's not this issue, it's another issue.

08:18

Everybody's complaining, yada, yada. And they're all connected. So this is great to just grab it all and -

08:27

In one place. In one place, yes. Now, Becky has been saying Twitter, but we live in the

08:33

Midwest, Kansas. This stuff does not affect us as heavily out here in the

08:38

Midwest. Not really, no. Especially in - I mean, some of it. Yes, definitely some of it.

08:43

I mean, we have run into people, right. Some of that is going on within our community, but we are in a very rural area.

08:50

And so we don't encounter these things as much. So it's kind of like our awareness of this stuff going on in the world is mostly because we see it coming about on Facebook and Twitter.

09:01

So for our church, how we would take this stuff and teach our church about it is we would warn them about, this is what's going on in the world.

09:10

And it will eventually get here. We don't see it here now, but it equips us to be ready for, here's the kind of arguments that are being used.

09:18

Here's the kind of ideology that is trying to weasel its way into the church. It's already happened in our own convention.

09:25

And I've addressed my congregation with this before, because this stuff is happening on the national level with the annual meeting of the

09:33

Southern Baptist Convention. But that stuff, it barely is showing up even in our own state convention.

09:40

It kind of comes from the national convention down to the state convention.

09:46

Like folks from our own state will go out to the annual meeting and then they'll - Get enlightened. Right, yeah, exactly, right.

09:53

And then they bring it back to their churches and like, guys, apparently all this stuff's going on in the world and we need to start doing this here.

09:59

And we had no idea. We didn't know about it. We're doing this all wrong. Until I went to the annual meeting. So that's kind of some of the things that are gonna be addressed in this particular, what's called a synodoc.

10:10

So it's kind of a movie, kind of a documentary. It's raising awareness about things, but there's also gonna be some exhortation.

10:17

What do we need to know? What do we need to be doing in our churches? Ultimately, this comes down to returning to the gospel and the teaching of sound doctrine.

10:24

I am so grateful. And if you were to just go to - I'm so excited. Like I can't handle it.

10:30

If you were to just go to 1 Timothy. I've got goosebumps. Just 1 Timothy, just that book.

10:37

Yeah, really? You would find all of the refutation that you need against all of these things that are going on, the worldliness that is starting to creep its way into a single denomination.

10:47

Yeah. It's been happening to, for the most part, every denomination, even those that we thought were protected from this kind of strategy have started to become infected with it.

10:57

But you can tell from the documentary, the Southern Baptist Convention in particular is going to be the denomination focused upon.

11:04

Yeah, most of those people are Southern Baptist, I think, if not all.

11:11

It is the largest denomination in the U .S. That is true, yeah. Anyway, thank you so much to Founders Ministry for contacting me with that and letting me know about that synodoc that's coming out.

11:24

Yeah, shout out to Hannah. The trailer, yeah, Hannah, Hannah Askell. The trailer itself will debut at 12 .01

11:32

a .m. Eastern time on Tuesday. Ooh, get ready. If you're up late enough on a

11:38

Monday night, it'll drop, well, here in the central time zone, it would be 11 .01

11:43

for us. Yes, it would. But anyway, if you're up late enough on Monday night, you can catch that trailer once it passes midnight.

11:52

And it's about four minutes, a little over four minutes long. So you already get some good information there in just the four minutes that you get to watch.

12:00

Oh, yeah, it's really exciting. I can't, I can't sit in my seat. She's dancing with excitement.

12:07

I don't know if dancing's allowed. No, we're Southern Baptist, can't do that. There was the

12:12

Babylon Bee article that just came out. It was like, Trump loses the Southern Baptist vote when video surfaces of him dancing.

12:22

Oh, dear. He's done far more than that. We'll move on from there.

12:28

Yes. First question comes from Denison, Missouri. He says, Pastor Gabe, a pastor brags that he can refute

12:34

Calvinism in two minutes. He says, Calvinists promote a false gospel.

12:40

And he uses Psalm 7841, that they limited the Holy One, and Acts 751, always resisting the

12:48

Holy Spirit, to prove that grace is not irresistible. How would you answer him?

12:53

Well, I'm guessing he's using Psalm 7841 to say that God is not limited, as though to refer to limited atonement.

13:03

So he thinks that's the refutation of the doctrine of limited atonement. But as John Piper has explained in his book,

13:09

Five Points, and I think that John Piper's right on with this, the ones who limit the atonement are actually not the

13:16

Calvinists, and it's not a rightly named doctrine. It kind of sounds like the critic named limited atonement, rather than the

13:24

Calvinist came up with that name. Isn't that usually how things are named? That's usually how that goes, right. It's rather those who refuse what's really being taught there in the doctrine of limited atonement, who actually limit the atonement, in the sense that they limit the atonement to a mere possibility.

13:42

That maybe this person will accept Jesus and be saved, instead of understanding biblically that when

13:48

Christ died, he effectively purchased the salvation of his elect.

13:54

Not the possibility of their salvation, but he actually accomplished something. And this is why

13:59

R .C. Sproul referred to this doctrine as particular atonement. More often than not, when a person wants to argue against the doctrine, this isn't the case every time, but most of the time, they don't really understand the doctrine and what they're arguing about is the name.

14:14

And I'm thinking that that's what's going on here. So Psalm 78, 41 is not a refutation of limited atonement.

14:23

That's what I'm guessing the pastor is - Yeah, maybe. Using that for since the word limited appears in it.

14:29

And then Acts 7, 51 is the speech of Stephen before he's to be stoned.

14:34

Okay. And he says, you stiff -necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the

14:41

Holy Spirit as your fathers did, so do you. Yeah, absolutely. No Calvinist is gonna object to that.

14:46

No Calvinist will object to either passage, Psalm 78, 41 or Acts 7, 51. This is what's called a proof text where somebody is taking a text out of context to try to prove their particular position.

15:00

Yeah. And whenever somebody does that, unless it's obviously taken out of context,

15:06

I won't really address their proof texting. Rather, I will take them to other passages of scripture to show what you are saying is not limited to that passage that you're taking out of context.

15:19

You have to look at it in light of other things that the scriptures say. So here's one way that you can do it.

15:25

I'm not saying, Dennis, this would be the best way to go about it. Maybe you can come up with another way. But here's how

15:30

I might do it. If a pastor is coming up to me and going, well, Calvinism is wrong. Psalm 78, 41,

15:36

Acts 7, 51. He throws those two verses out. I might avoid those proof texts.

15:42

And I might instead ask this question. Do you believe that nothing happens good or bad unless the

15:49

Lord has decreed it? Nothing has happened good or bad unless God has decreed it.

15:55

And I'll ask him that question because more than likely he's gonna say, no, that's terrible. God doesn't decree bad.

16:00

He doesn't decree evil things. That might be the way that he's gonna respond to that. And if that's the way he replies,

16:06

I'm gonna say, then you disagree with the Bible. Because Lamentations 3, 37 through 38 says, who has spoken and it came to pass unless the

16:15

Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?

16:24

See, I'm not really interested in defending Calvinism or making an argument for John Calvin, but I will argue or make an apologetic case for God's sovereignty.

16:36

Because that may be really the issue with this person who's arguing against this. They just don't have a robust understanding of the sovereignty of God.

16:44

So right there in that passage, it says, God is the one who has decreed good and bad.

16:51

Now, if you subscribe to Table Talk, and that's how we do our family devotionals around the table.

16:56

We go through Table Talk magazine. And not exclusively, but that's one thing we do. So this past week, if you were doing the devotionals, there was one in Table Talk.

17:07

I can't remember which day this was, Tuesday or Wednesday, somewhere in there. But it contrasted 1 Chronicles 21 .1

17:12

with 2 Samuel 24 .1. And this is where David was going to number all of the men in Israel.

17:21

How many men did he have to fight in his army? And in 1 Chronicles 21 .1,

17:27

it says, then Satan stood against Israel and incited David to number Israel.

17:32

Same story in 2 Samuel 24 .1, it says, again, the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he incited

17:40

David against them, saying, go number Israel and Judah. So note that. In 1 Chronicles 21 .1,

17:46

it says, Satan stood against Israel and incited David to number Israel. And in 2 Samuel 24 .1, it says, the anger of the

17:52

Lord was kindled against Israel and he incited David to number Israel.

17:58

So which one is it? Yes. How we understand that in the light of scripture is that God has decreed all things that are going to happen, whether good or bad.

18:08

God himself is not the agent that causes evil, but rather he uses secondary means to bring about those things that he is ultimately gonna work out for a good and great purpose to the praise of his glorious grace.

18:23

So while he himself does not incite a person to do evil, he will use a secondary cause to do that, which in the case, in light of 1

18:35

Chronicles 21 .1, was Satan. Satan was an agent of the Lord to tempt

18:41

David to do something that was going to kindle the Lord to anger. And what was the thing that would eventually lead to the ultimate good that was accomplished?

18:50

Well, ultimate good, I'll just say the immediate good that was accomplished as a result of David's sin of going through with this census that actually resulted in the deaths of thousands of people.

19:00

What was the good that came about as a result of it? David purchasing the threshing floor that would become the ground for the temple where the temple would be built.

19:10

Ah, yes. And of course the temple is a type or a shadow itself for the temple who would come who is

19:17

Christ, and he is our access to God. He is our great high priest.

19:24

He is the one who said, you tear down this temple and I will rebuild it again in three days. So he becomes our access to God.

19:31

Anyway, so there's kind of the immediate fulfillment of that and then the ultimate fulfillment of that, that all of these things are going to give glory to God through Jesus Christ.

19:44

But that again indicates that the Lord has ultimately decreed these things that are going to happen but uses secondary means to bring them about.

19:53

And anyway, I would just have a discussion in that direction, Dennis, if that helps.

19:59

Yeah. Don't get pigeonholed into having to respond to these things, these proof texts that this

20:08

Calvinist hater is taking out of context anyway. And the Calvinist doesn't, you know, he hasn't cut

20:15

Psalm 78, 41 and Acts 7, 51 out of his Bible. He's not going, whoa, boy, these are problem texts.

20:21

If I want to hold on to Calvinism, I'm going to need to cut these out. The Calvinist doesn't have any problem with that. The Calvinist should be the one that's reading scripture from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, the person who loves the doctrines of grace.

20:34

And keep that in mind too. So if you're a person who loves the doctrines of grace, which is another code for Calvinism, then we need to be gracious.

20:46

We need to be gracious with those who want to refute us. Though they might have that angry prejudice look in their face and point fingers at us and go, well, you are believing or promoting a false gospel.

20:58

We still need to respond patiently and try to direct the conversation in a way that things are going to be discussed in a civil matter, in a civil manner and not in a heated, disparaging way.

21:11

Right, look at it like if you have to raise your voice, you've already lost. Yeah, right.

21:18

Well, the conversation's been lost. What's being accomplished? Yeah, exactly.

21:23

You're not convincing him, he's not convincing you. So at some point there may need to be a, well, let's just step back.

21:29

Try to be the person that helps cooler heads prevail. That would be yours and his.

21:35

Right. This next question comes from Mary in Alabama.

21:40

She says, hello, Pastor Gabe and Becky. Hello. It is always a joy to listen to your podcast because I learn so much.

21:48

This ministry was instrumental in teaching me how to study the Bible correctly. I came out of a prosperity doctrine and I thank

21:56

God that he led you both to do this ministry. You may not see or hear the impact of God's work, but it is there.

22:03

Like many, the Friday Q &A is my favorite because I enjoy listening to you both interact and discuss the questions.

22:11

It is very encouraging. I always miss Becky when she is not on. Aw, that's so sweet.

22:18

Me too. I also miss Becky when she's not on. You know, by the way, quickest way to my heart is to compliment my wife.

22:27

And the fastest way to establish that we're not going to be friends is to insult my wife.

22:36

That's, anyway, just throwing that out there. Todd Friel was just talking on Wretched this week.

22:43

I was helping to, well, helping. I was trying to finish building a shelf for my wife.

22:49

Right. So I was listening to Wretched while I was doing that. And he went through the analogy or the exercise of like, hey,

22:57

I'd like to get together and do something this weekend. Are you free? Let's go hang out. Let's go do something fun. But don't bring your wife with you.

23:03

I can't stand your wife. Yeah. And that's a picture of the way that we behave sometimes when we don't want to go to church.

23:10

We don't like the church. I don't like people at church. Well, it's like you're saying you don't like the bride of Christ. Right.

23:16

I want to hang out with Jesus, but I don't like his bride. Right. And that's not the way we are to be. We need to love the bride of Christ.

23:23

That's very true. We're part of that bride. We need to love that bride. Anyway, so I'm distracting from the question here.

23:28

Yes, you are. Back to the question. Mary says, my question.

23:34

I am currently studying in the book of Jeremiah. I have found this a very weighty book. It is a heavy book.

23:40

As he warns Judah of judgment. My question is in chapter 25, where it's written that God has decreed he is giving all to Nebuchadnezzar, but even he too would drink the cup of wrath.

23:52

The question is in verse 33. Jeremiah 25, 33 says this, those slain by the

23:58

Lord on that day will be from one end of the earth to the other. They will not be lamented, gathered or buried.

24:05

They will be like dung on the face of the ground. The Lord is also using quote unquote on that day, which

24:12

I've been led to believe is a reference to the final judgment of God on the world. Or is it just referring to the current situation they are facing?

24:20

It is my perception that Jeremiah is not only a book warning Judah, but it has a deeper meaning to the world even now.

24:28

Also in Jeremiah 27, verse 22, he wrote, they will be carried to Babylon and they will be there until the day

24:34

I visit them, declares the Lord. Then I will bring them back and restore them to this place.

24:40

Now, is he referring to the time after 70 years when God would permit them to return or also referencing a time when all

24:47

Israel would be gathered from the four corners as found in Isaiah? And here's Isaiah 11, verses 11 through 12.

24:53

Then it will happen on that day that the Lord will again recover the second time with his hand, the remnant of his people who will remain from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath and from the islands of the sea.

25:09

And he will lift up a standard for the nations and assemble the banished ones of Israel and will gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

25:19

Could you clarify that for me and make sure that I'm going in the right direction? I don't wanna misread or take something out of context.

25:26

Thank you. And I pray God strengthens you both, your church and family for the work that you do, your sister in Christ.

25:33

Thank you for those prayers. Well, Mary, I'm hoping here that I'm gonna be able to answer this in a short way, be able to provide a short answer for you.

25:43

So going back to Jeremiah 25, 33, those slain by the Lord on that day will be from one end of the earth to the other.

25:48

They will not be lamented, gathered or buried. They will be like dung on the face of the ground. Yes, this does have to do with the judgment that is coming upon Israel as talked about in Jeremiah 25.

25:59

And it also can be a picture of the judgment that is gonna come upon the world ultimately when

26:05

Christ returns. So this is the way that I teach this with my congregation. Whenever we go through these

26:11

Old Testament prophecies that also look like they could be end times prophecies. We use scripture to interpret scripture, but I share with my congregation that there's sometimes a micro fulfillment and there is a macro fulfillment.

26:26

So the micro fulfillment is gonna be the immediate fulfillment that this pertains to and only those people that are being addressed.

26:34

But then the macro fulfillment would be a broader context and maybe include a broader group of people even outside the people that are being addressed.

26:44

So an example of this would be Matthew 24 where the disciples are specifically asking

26:50

Jesus what will be the signs of all of this? And this pertains to the statement that Jesus just made about the stones of the temple in Jerusalem.

27:01

When they're looking around at all the buildings and everything, how beautiful it is there in Jerusalem and Jesus says, you see all these buildings,

27:09

I tell you not one stone will remain on top of these. And so then the disciples come to him on the

27:14

Mount of Olives and say, what will be the signs of the end? So what Jesus is answering for them there in Matthew 24 is directly related to their question.

27:23

He is talking about the destruction of the temple in 70 AD. That is what Matthew 24 is about.

27:29

But it's not exclusively what it is about for it's also a picture of the ultimate end when

27:37

Christ returns because he talks about that as well. And we know that hasn't come to fulfillment yet.

27:43

So there is a micro -fulfillment in what Jesus said in Matthew 24 related to the destruction of the temple which would happen in 70

27:50

AD. But then there's also a macro -fulfillment related to those things that he talked about which in that prophecy that he mentioned that pertained to the destruction of the temple obviously hasn't happened yet.

28:01

Because the angels haven't come and gathered the elect. The nations have not been gathered at the great white throne of judgment as described in Matthew 25.

28:10

And seriously we would know. Right, we would know all of that, right.

28:16

So there is a micro -fulfillment and a macro -fulfillment. And some of those judgments that we have talked about in Jeremiah and in the book of Isaiah would go the same way.

28:25

Now in Jeremiah 27, 22 this is a little bit different. Little bit different than 25, 33. So in 27, 22 it says, they will be carried to Babylon and they will be there until the day

28:36

I visit them and declares the Lord. Then I will bring them back and restore them to this place. That's actually not talking about people.

28:43

That's talking about the vessels in the temple. Okay. So the Babylonians are gonna come back in and they're gonna take the sacred vessels from the temple back to Babylon.

28:54

But then they're gonna be restored. And that happened. So that prophecy in Jeremiah 27, 22 has already happened and been fulfilled.

29:02

They came back, they took the sacred vessels out of the temple. And then when the people came back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple, they brought those things back with them.

29:11

So that prophecy in particular has already happened and been fulfilled.

29:16

So yeah, again, looking at context and seeing how those things pertain to the people that are being spoken to, whether those things have come to pass, et cetera.

29:28

So then the next reference in Isaiah 11, 11 through 12, this is definitely talking about the church.

29:35

Those who would be saved in Christ and would be gathered from the four corners of the earth.

29:42

And you see that language Jesus uses even in Matthew 24, talking about the angels gathering up the elect.

29:48

And we know that's what Isaiah is talking about there in Isaiah 11, because he's referring to the shoot that comes from the stump of Jesse.

29:55

Well, who is that? Jesus. That's Jesus, right. So for Jesus to be gathering his dispersed from the world, then it will happen on that day that the

30:07

Lord, we're talking about the day of the Lord, there we're talking about something that for the

30:13

Israelites when they were reading that, they would have come to believe that it meant that they would be gathered back to their place.

30:19

But in the macro, we know that this is related to the church and how all will be gathered from wherever they are dispersed on the earth into one kingdom with Christ forever in glory.

30:31

That's awesome. All right. I love it. Thank you for your question, Mary. Yes, thanks. Next one from Thomas in Virginia.

30:38

Hi, Gabecki. We love you both. And here's an easy question. I don't know about that.

30:45

Matthew 5, 48, you therefore must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. Last verse at the end of Matthew chapter five.

30:52

Jesus should have known better than anyone. No one will be able to do this. Why did he have to say this?

30:58

Why is there no response recorded, especially to this last verse? Last verse in chapter five anyway.

31:05

Either most people said nothing because they did not think being perfect was gonna be hard at all, or there was stunned silence and maybe everybody fainted.

31:15

I like the way your mind works there, Thomas. So Jesus says, you therefore must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.

31:21

And everybody went, passed out. Are you serious? We have to be perfect to enter into the kingdom of God?

31:29

Well, of course this passage, Matthew 5, 48, is smack dab in the middle of the

31:35

Sermon on the Mount, which started at the beginning of Matthew chapter five, goes Matthew 5, 6, and 7, right?

31:43

Earlier in Matthew 5, in verse 20, Jesus said, for I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the

31:52

Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. How much does it have to exceed the scribes and the

31:57

Pharisees? Well, you have to be perfect. You have to be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. And then you get to Matthew chapter seven, where Jesus says, enter through the narrow gate.

32:08

For broad is the way that leads to destruction and many are gonna find that because that's the easy way.

32:15

But narrow is the gate and long and hard is the way that leads to life and few will find that.

32:22

That's the difficult path. What is the narrow gate? Well, it's being perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.

32:29

And how do we be perfect as the heavenly father is perfect? Well, we know there is no way for us to do that.

32:36

And that perfection is only found in Christ. He is the one who is perfect as the heavenly father is perfect.

32:44

And so how do we receive the righteousness of Christ? By faith, yes.

32:50

By faith in Christ, he clothes us in his righteousness and we are presented justified, innocent.

32:58

And perfect. Before the father. Now, that doesn't mean that we are perfect in like the sanctification sense.

33:07

So we're justified, we're declared innocent. We are cleansed of all unrighteousness. Right. But there is going to be a pursuit of perfection that will then happen after that.

33:17

So our love for the father has come to our hearts where previously we were angry at God and we hated

33:25

God. Right. Now with the Holy Spirit in our hearts, we're not after the things of the world, we're after the things of God.

33:31

So we're pursuing perfection. And the way the apostle Paul put it with the Philippians, he says, not that I've already obtained this or I'm already perfect, but I seek to make it my own because Christ has made me his own.

33:46

Right. So because Christ, the perfect one, has made us his own, therefore we must desire the perfection of Christ.

33:54

And that's what we're in pursuit of. We know that we won't attain it as long as we're in these bodies. Right. But we're after it because Christ is perfect and we wanna be like our savior.

34:07

So we have the Holy Spirit in us to be able to make that progress. Yes. In sanctification. Right, we would not be able to hate the things of this world and love the things of God.

34:17

Right. If it wasn't for the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Who helps us to pursue this perfection and do so in the grace of God.

34:27

Meaning that when you stumble and fall along the way, we have God's grace who is gonna forgive us of our sins even when we have sinned.

34:36

First John 1 .9, if we're faithful to ask forgiveness for our sins, he is faithful and just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

34:44

So what it comes down to Thomas is that Jesus was really pointing people to himself.

34:50

You have to have a righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees. You must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.

34:56

You must enter through the narrow gate and all of that is pointing to Christ. And there's only one way.

35:03

There's only one way and that is Christ. Now those who did not have ears to hear, you notice that Jesus will say many things and then say, let those who have ears to hear understand what is being said.

35:14

So those who were his disciples, who desired to learn from him would have come to understand what it was that he was talking about when he said, be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.

35:26

But those who did not have the spirit of God to understand what was being said would not have come to the understanding that Jesus was referring to himself.

35:35

So there you go. Which would explain why nobody answered. Yeah, well, nobody answered because it's the sermon.

35:43

It's a sermon on the mount. Very true. Everybody's gathered there to listen to him teach. But yeah, you would wonder why weren't people just going like, what?

35:54

When he said that. Of course, the scribes and the Pharisees thought they could be perfect. And yet Jesus was saying, your righteousness must exceed.

36:05

He was probably more articulate than I am. The fart, Pharisees. The fart?

36:11

No, that's the Pharisees. Oh dear.

36:16

I think we need to get off this question. So next. All right, next question comes from Ethan in St.

36:23

Louis. He says, hey there, Pastor Gabe and Miss Becky. Hello. Thank you so much for your ministry.

36:29

It has helped me a lot, especially the video on God hates the sin, but loves the sinner.

36:34

Thank you for your ministry. My question is about Amazon. I've never been to the

36:40

Amazon. I don't think he meant the rainforest. Oh, okay. The Amazon that everybody uses just about every day.

36:50

Amazon gives a little bit of their money to donate to a pro -abortion charity, which donates to Planned Parenthood.

36:57

My question is this. If we are supporting Amazon, does that mean we are inadvertently supporting abortion? Should I drop my

37:03

Prime membership? Should I buy on eBay instead? Would this affect me?

37:08

This would affect me in a large way. What is the biblical thing to do? Thank you. Well, I will say this.

37:14

If you feel convicted not to buy from a particular company because you know where their money is going and you don't wanna feel like your money is contributing to that cause, then don't buy from that company.

37:24

If you feel convicted over it, you think it would be sinning to do business with that company, then don't do business with that company.

37:30

Right. However, I will say, once you start getting into that mentality. Oh, it's everywhere.

37:37

You're gonna find it really difficult to do business with anybody. What company can

37:43

I buy from that is not somehow donating to some major liberal sinful cause?

37:49

Especially today. Yeah. Oh, man. I mean, it's everywhere. I hate to burst your bubble,

37:55

Ethan, but the founder of eBay is a liberal and a major donor to the Democratic Party, who is pro -LGBTQ, pro -abortion to the max.

38:06

So, yeah, even buying from eBay, you're gonna be contributing to that guy somehow. Wow. So, there's really nowhere you can go without running into this kind of stuff.

38:15

I really think that the Apostle Paul kind of addressed this in 1

38:20

Corinthians, when he was talking with the Corinthians about buying meat in the market. Yes. We know that the meat that we're buying, there's nothing inherently idolatrous about it.

38:32

Right. It's just meat. Right. Goes into your stomach, your body expels it. Oh, stop. That's what, even

38:39

Jesus said that. I know, I know. You guys. That's in Mark 7. Come on now.

38:49

So, it's nothing. It just passes through the body. It's not a, you know, doesn't defile the body.

38:56

It still gets the nutrients from it. Right. Just like any other piece of meat. And Paul even goes on to say, an idol's even an empty thing.

39:03

There's nothing, there's no false god even in an idol because it's just stone or wood or metal or whatever it's been crafted from.

39:11

Right. But we must be careful about appearances. We must be careful about causing someone else to stumble.

39:18

So, what Becky and I do is that we try to be real careful with some of those secondary or tertiary things that we talk about.

39:27

I think I've mentioned on the program before, I don't wear brand names. I mean, I wear brand shirts.

39:33

It was made by somebody. Right. We don't make our own clothing. No. And even if we did. I'm not that good at the seamstress.

39:39

Not that fast. No, definitely not. Especially with four kids wearing out clothes like that. Oh, the day of.

39:48

And so anyway, I mean, even if we were buying fabric and making our own clothes, whoever we're buying the fabric from is probably a huge liberal and donating money to weird causes and whatnot.

40:00

So, I don't wear brand names so not to cause anybody to stumble. But if someone wants to wear a shirt with a comic book character on it or promoting some movie or some soda or something like that,

40:12

I'm not looking at that person as being some great sinner that's contributing to some pagan cause. Right.

40:17

They probably don't even know what it is that that company misrepresents. What that company represents.

40:24

And ignorance is bliss, quite frankly. Yeah. You don't need to be looking into every company to see where their money is going.

40:32

It's a sad thing if you do. Yeah. I remember we did it one year and that was like, where do we turn?

40:39

I mean, it's very depressing. Your best thing is whenever you hear of a solid company, use them.

40:48

Yeah, a Christian owned company. We tried to do that. Yeah, we definitely make that more of an effort than to go with the mainstream.

40:56

But I mean, really, it's number one, what you can afford. Yeah. And number two, what your, well, no, number one would be your conviction.

41:06

Right. I would go with that first. And then number two is what you can afford. Yes. So. Now the money that you spend, you're spending that money on Amazon Prime or free shipping, whatever you can buy off of Amazon.

41:23

You're spending that money on that product. What Amazon does, so what you're doing is you're giving that money to Amazon for the exchange of goods and they're sending you a good.

41:33

Right. That's what you spent the money on. You've now given your money to Amazon. What Amazon does with that money, that's between them and God.

41:40

So it's not on you as to whether or not you have just contributed to some sort of liberal cause.

41:47

Right. Even though they've done so in the past, you can't even be absolutely certain that they're gonna do so in the future.

41:52

Right. I think it's a good idea to write a letter or something like that, send it to the company and say, hey, I do have a problem with you donating the money that I'm spending with you to this particular cause.

42:01

I think that would be a good idea. So they've heard from their customers, this bothers our customers, and they don't wanna do anything to lose your business.

42:10

So maybe it would, at the very least, hopefully prevent them from being as vocal about giving to those kinds of causes.

42:18

Though they may do it, they won't say it. And that's an accomplishment, because just talking about it becomes a promotion of that.

42:26

You know what I mean? Yeah. So if they're talking about giving to Planned Parenthood, they're promoting Planned Parenthood. They are. But if you tell them,

42:32

I don't like that you give to Planned Parenthood, maybe they still give to PP, but they don't talk about it anymore.

42:38

So at least they're not openly promoting it. Right. So something was accomplished there. Yeah. Right.

42:44

So at least tell them about it. And communication today is just, it's dwindling. So the more communication that we do with these sort of things,

42:53

I mean, you don't have to call and wait on the phone for hours, but write a letter, it doesn't take very long.

43:00

That's a dead art, but you can write a letter. You can. Lick a stamp, put it on an envelope. And they will get it.

43:06

It still works, believe it or not. The post office system does work. And that's what Amazon's using, because they've got quite a deal with the post office.

43:12

Yes, they do. Next question coming up here from Ted. This will be our last question, in fact.

43:18

All right. First, I wanna say thank you for your videos. To be 100 % clear, this is not a critical email, but a genuine question for someone new to Calvinism slash reform theology.

43:29

I'm about a year into my transformation from Pentecostalism slash Charismaticism into reform theology.

43:36

I follow lots of reform folks and I'm devouring as much content as I can from what, wretched,

43:42

Ligonier, et cetera, all the while trying to avoid slash tame my cage stage.

43:49

Oh, that's hard. So for those who don't know, a cage stage is, you come into, generally cage stage is a reference to Calvinism or young Calvinists.

44:00

Right. When you come into an understanding of Calvinists, you have this idea of like, why isn't everybody else a Calvinist? Right.

44:06

And suddenly Calvinism. Why don't people know this stuff? Right. Suddenly Calvinism becomes essential doctrines.

44:12

Right. And you start like ripping on people because they don't believe what it is that you believe now.

44:19

And you get so passionate that you're angry. It's a passion. Yeah, it's a heavy passion that it comes across as just pure anger.

44:27

Yeah. And so that's why it's called cage stage. You need to be locked in a cage. You need to be locked up until you calm down.

44:34

That's right. And once you can calm down, you can come out and talk. But until then. That's why it gets called that.

44:40

Yeah. Now this can happen with a lot of things. And I especially see it among single issue ministries.

44:48

So ministries that focus on a particular issue. Okay. They're like, why didn't everybody else see this issue?

44:54

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. The way that we do. I got you. There's the organization Abolish Human Abortion. And they're like this.

44:59

So it's kind of like for them, abortion is the single minded issue. And they'll even protest churches that aren't being vocally outspoken or not joining their cause.

45:10

We can put it that way. Because there are some outspoken churches against abortion. They'll still go in and protest.

45:17

Oh, really? Yeah. Anyway, so that would be an example of that. This can happen among single issue folks as well.

45:23

But it's generally the whole cage stage idea is generally tied to new Calvinists. So Ted goes on, my wife is on the journey with me, but she brought up a question that I didn't have a clear answer for her.

45:35

And I also had this question after your most recent video about the Bible project.

45:41

Which doctrines do we make our hills to die on? And which ones can we agree to disagree?

45:48

I completely understand defending the truth, but I don't wanna feel that I am always in a fight or worse, nitpicking other believers.

45:57

That's tough. Thanks in advance for any advice that you can give your brother in Christ, Ted. Well, Ted, there's an old maxim from German Lutheran theologian,

46:05

Rupertus Maldinius, that goes like this. In essentials, unity. In non -essentials, liberty.

46:13

And in all things, charity. So we as Christians are going to disagree on various things, non -essentials, the things that we'll call the non -essentials.

46:25

But the things that make us Christians are those essential doctrines. Right. In those things, we're gonna be unified.

46:32

And you see this demonstrated in just about every conference that is generally reformed in nature.

46:41

The G3 Conference. Yeah. ShepCon. Right. To some degree, TGC, but they're starting to get into some wonky non -essentials.

46:50

But nevertheless, you see essentials that are being shared there. And the people who are talking on stage come from various denominations.

46:59

Yeah. Specifically, Baptist and Presbyterian. So how is it that John MacArthur, who believes that baptism must be by confession and that we're not supposed to be baptizing our babies, can have

47:11

Ligon Duncan at his church preaching from the pulpit? Well, it's because we have - Hang on, Ligon Duncan believes the other.

47:18

Right, Ligon Duncan is Presbyterian. So he believes that you can baptize babies and -

47:24

That you should. You should, yes. You should baptize your babies. That's right. That's what Ligon Duncan believes. Yeah. Wasn't there another difference or was that it?

47:31

Well, there's a difference in covenant. Okay. But I wasn't gonna go in. I was just basically using the - Okay, basics, okay, yeah, yeah, sorry. Using the baptism analogy.

47:39

Right. So how is it that there's Ligon Duncan who would never even be a pastor at Grace Community Church because of his views of baptism.

47:48

How can he then be at a conference and be preaching from the pulpit? Well, it's because in essentials, there's unity.

47:55

Right. And Ligon Duncan is a man who loves the gospel, preaches the gospel, preaches the gospel of God with a reverence of his sovereignty.

48:06

And these doctrines align together between John and Ligon. And so he's gonna have

48:13

Ligon Duncan there at his church to preach and preach the gospel in such a way that is gonna be totally in alignment with everything that Grace Community Church stands for.

48:22

Now, when it comes to administering communion or administering baptism, they don't do that at Shepcon.

48:29

So Ligon Duncan's not gonna be invited to be a pastor there to administer the sacraments in that way, but he is gonna come to share the gospel.

48:38

And so we have unity in those things. So there's my example on unity.

48:44

But then in non -essentials, liberty. So the non -essential doctrine would be the administration of baptism, how that's administered.

48:53

We're going to have liberty on whether or not a person should be dunked or sprinkled. That doesn't mean that we're divided from the body of Christ because one person's gonna sprinkle and another person's gonna dunk.

49:06

So there's liberty in those things. That's agree to disagree. And then in all things charity, we have love for one another no matter what.

49:16

And that would even include unbelievers. We even show charity toward unbelievers.

49:21

As the apostle Paul said in Galatians chapter six, let us do good, show charity to everyone, but especially to the household of faith.

49:32

So there's kind of the breakdown of that particular maxim. Now, what do we call essentials?

49:38

What are the essential doctrines? And I've basically boiled it down this way and I've limited it to these eight.

49:46

Okay. So knowing the Bible is God's word, that's number one. We've got to know that the

49:52

Bible is the word of God because every other doctrine that we're going to get is gonna be from that, it's from that source.

49:58

Knowing that the Bible is God's word. Second Timothy 3 .16, all scripture is God breathed.

50:03

Number two, all have sinned and need a savior. You have to know that. Because otherwise, if you don't know that all have sinned, there's no need to share the gospel.

50:12

If you don't know that you've sinned, then you don't know you need a savior. So Romans 3 .23, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

50:21

Next, number three, you need to know that Jesus is that savior. And it's in Luke 2 .11

50:27

where the angels proclaimed him the savior who is Christ the Lord.

50:32

Number four, Jesus is God incarnate. He is God in human flesh.

50:39

You have it stated in 1 John and also in 2 John that those who do not confess that Christ has come in the flesh are of the

50:46

Antichrist. So that is an essential doctrine. To know that Jesus Christ is

50:52

God incarnate. Number four, God is one God in three persons, father, son, and Holy Spirit.

50:59

That is an essential doctrine. Because Jesus has said that he reveals the father and the father reveals the son.

51:06

Matthew 11, no one knows the son except the father and no one knows the father except the son and anyone to whom the son chooses to reveal him.

51:15

In 1 John 2 .22, whoever denies the father and the son is an

51:21

Antichrist. And we read in 1 John 5 .6 that the Holy Spirit is the one who testifies to the father and the son.

51:29

So therefore, if you don't have, if you don't know the father and the son, you don't have the Holy Spirit either. Right. Number six, salvation is by grace through faith in Christ alone.

51:39

And no other way, Ephesians 2 .8 and 9, it is by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God.

51:46

Now that doctrine in particular is what's gonna separate us from Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.

51:53

Yeah. Because they deny the doctrine of justification by faith. The free gift of God, isn't it? I think some versions say the gift of God.

52:02

What did I say? You said the gift of God. Is it free gift of God, right? Yeah, but the free part.

52:08

You're thinking of Romans 6 .23. Yeah, that's it. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God.

52:14

Yes. Is eternal life in Jesus Christ, our Lord. Okay, where did I stop there? Bring back up my list.

52:22

Salvation is by grace through faith in Christ alone. Number seven, the saved will worship God in newness of life.

52:29

So in Romans 6 .4, that we walk in newness of life with Christ. And then number eight, until the day that Christ returns to judge the living and the dead.

52:39

That is an essential doctrine to know that Christ will return. So there's our essential doctrines. Kind of laying them out in those eight summarized doctrines there.

52:47

What would the non -essentials be? Like how do we qualify those non -essentials? They're non -essential, but they're secondary doctrines.

52:54

They're the administration of the Lord's Supper, administration of baptism. Kind of talked about that. Almost went into my

53:00

Southern accent there for a moment. Baptism. Administration of baptism. I love it. Church polity, you know, the governance of the church.

53:08

Okay, yeah. Church eldership, qualifications for membership, and all of those things, by the way, those secondary issues, those are the things that separate denominations.

53:17

Right. So the denominations are alike on the mains, for the most part, depending on the denomination, of course, but the thing that would separate out like a

53:27

Baptist from a Presbyterian or whatever is generally gonna be those secondary issues of ecclesiology.

53:34

Then you've got tertiary issues, third tier, even less essential, and these are gonna be the differences that are shared even within members of the same congregation.

53:43

Oh, yeah. So there'll be differences of opinion on various tertiary issues, like which translation of the

53:48

Bible we can use. You can even, you know, getting into some doctrinal things like whether angels sing in heaven.

53:55

Right. Or whether Jesus is literally coming back on a white horse, or whether Revelation 19 is metaphorical in a certain sense.

54:04

As we differ on some of the opinions regarding those kinds of things, those are gonna be more tertiary matters.

54:11

Now, one of the things that Ted brought up was falling on your sword. I'm a pastor, and there are certain things

54:18

I'm gonna fall on my sword over. Right. That if I was a member of a congregation, I probably wouldn't.

54:24

Okay. So for example, and I don't know, maybe there would be, maybe even a congregant would fall on their sword over these kinds of issues, meaning that I would even break fellowship with this church and go to another church if they don't agree with me on these particular doctrines.

54:40

One of them might be election. If the church that I was pastor of told me that you can't teach

54:48

God's sovereign election, you have to teach election according to the Arminian view, I would leave.

54:54

Yeah. I would say, sorry, I can't do that. In my conviction as a pastor, I can't be the one to teach that.

55:00

So if that's the kind of minister you're looking for, then you have to call that kind of minister, it's not gonna be me.

55:06

Or the doctrines of grace, sorry, can't preach the doctrines of grace, can't love the doctrines of grace, we need a pastor that doesn't believe those things, then

55:15

I would have to step down. Yeah. Because I'm not gonna say, well, all right, fine. If you really want me to teach what you -

55:23

You have to throw some works in there. Yeah. If you want me to teach what you want me to teach, then sure,

55:30

I'll change my doctrine. See, I'm not gonna do that. So there are gonna be some things I'm gonna fall on my sword over. Whether or not a woman can be a pastor.

55:37

And I'll even straight up tell you, if you're at a church where a woman is a pastor, leave. You need to find a different church.

55:44

They are in disobedience, blatant disobedience against the word of God. And so yeah, there are gonna be some things that though they may not be essentials in terms of salvific doctrines, they are nevertheless fall on your sword doctrines in the sense that I can't participate in a church that does these kinds of things.

56:04

Right. Not saying you're not saved. I'm not saying you're not going. I'm not saying you are going to hell, but I just can't be a part of a church that does that.

56:12

Yeah. Do you think there's a way that you can stick it out and help them, like lead them to understanding?

56:19

I would say that if you can affect change or repentance, that certain revival would break out in that church over a soundness of doctrine, then

56:29

I would say do that as long as you see that kind of progression or that change going on. But if there is just a hard line resistance to it, to the point that it's gonna be affecting your sanctification and the sanctification of your family, then you can't stay there.

56:42

You've got to leave and find a church where the gospel is being preached, the doctrine is loved and is being taught soundly.

56:50

Because I mean, there's always that hope that somebody can come in and preach the gospel, the true, the essential doctrines and stuff to them.

57:00

And well, not essential. I guess they would already know the essential, but like, but anyway, I'm kind of flubbing here.

57:09

But you know what I mean? Like there's always that hope that you can go in there and help change their, enlighten them with the

57:17

Bible, you know, bringing them back to the Bible and everything. Yeah, we already agree on the essentials.

57:22

Yeah. Right, you're talking essentials are all where they need to be. Right, and I said essentials, but I meant the secondary.

57:29

The non -essentials. The non -essentials. Or tertiary, which is third tier. Third tier, as tertiary means three.

57:36

Sure. So it's the third tier issues. So anyway. Yeah, you want to see change happen.

57:44

Yeah. And if you can affect that kind of a change, and it kind of depends even on what kind of a patient person you are.

57:50

That's true. That is very true. Because sometimes in order to affect change in a group of people, it takes a while.

57:56

It takes a long while sometimes. And if the church, if you are of the more reformed leaning side of things, but the church itself, the leadership is not, maybe you're a monergist, they're synergist.

58:06

They believe that salvation is the work of God and man working together to bring about salvation.

58:12

But they are allowing you as a monergist to teach a class. And they're even open to you doing that and sharing what you believe about the doctrines of grace and stuff like that.

58:21

I would say take that opportunity if you've got it. Definitely. And over time, you'll see some hearts and minds being changed as a result of that.

58:30

But if the church is just downright resistant to it, and they're going to shut down every attempt to try to bring about an understanding of the doctrines of grace.

58:39

Then it's obvious that you should move on. Right, probably move on. And as Charles Spurgeon said, the doctrines of grace, just another code for the gospel.

58:48

So it's understanding all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And it is only by the grace of God that anybody comes to salvation.

58:56

Oh, amen. It is through and through the work of God from beginning to end, from before the foundation of the world to the end of time.

59:03

God is the one who has worked out salvation for his elect. That's right. Thank you so much for attending to the program today.

59:10

Attending to the program, listening. Well, I suppose. Thank you all for gathering around your listening device.

59:16

Yes, from the four corners of the earth. Mary from Alabama, you are our winner today.

59:23

Woo -hoo. So congratulations. You are picking up the book, 25 Christmas Myths and What the

59:29

Bible Says. You're getting a flash drive that has all of the what videos on it.

59:36

And then you're also going to receive. Up to date anyway. Up to date. I can't remember what the other book was.

59:44

I probably should have had that figured out before I. Anyway. And one more surprise book. One more surprise.

59:50

Yeah, as Becky said two weeks ago, it needed to be a surprise anyway. Yeah, it does. Because it's Christmas.

59:55

It is. So you're going to be surprised by whatever that other prize is going to be in there.

01:00:01

So don't forget next week is the grand prize because it's our 1000th episode and it will include a

01:00:09

Reformation study Bible in addition to the Christmas Myths book, the flash drive, and there'll be some other things in there as well, including a wonderful painting from my bride.

01:00:20

I'm so excited. Well, I am too. She just threw that on me. Yeah. Just right here.

01:00:26

She got moved by the spirit. That's right. Amen. All right, let's close in prayer.

01:00:33

Yes, let's. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time and we thank you that we have the medium to be able to do this and share the gospel in this way and respond to questions pertaining to your scriptures so that we may celebrate you and glory in our

01:00:48

Savior who has considered our need, our sinfulness, and died on the cross in our place so that all who believe in him receive his righteousness, we receive a resurrection from the dead, that we may walk in newness of life and look forward to the day that we will be united with our

01:01:05

God forever in glory. I thank you for all of our listeners and wherever they are in whatever parts of the world that this program is an encouragement to them that they are being rejuvenated in heart and in spirit to know the gospel of Christ and rejoice in the salvation that was once for all delivered to the saints.

01:01:24

We pray for boldness in our witness that we would love the gospel and know how we may communicate it with one another.

01:01:34

Let our speech always be gracious so that we may answer one another in wisdom and right words according to the spirit of God.

01:01:42

And we pray this in Jesus' name, amen. All right, you ready?

01:02:51

Sure. Let me see that. This is when we understand the text. Really?