WWUTT Q&A Church and Israel, Power of Words, and Long Haired Men?

What is the distinction between the church and Israel, and what is the future of Israel? What kind of power do our words really have?

And can men have long hair? The answers to these questions, when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand The Text, a daily study in the word of Christ, through whom we have received grace and sound teaching.

To bring about the obedience of faith, for the sake of his name among all the nations, visit our website at www .utt

.com. Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. So this is the now third weekend of the film,

Unplanned, and still making headlines. Is it now? Now it's actually been in the

New York Times. Wow. No longer can they avoid talking about the movie. Yeah, that's wonderful.

Yeah, because it has made so much headway in the public. Now, again, my appreciation in this is that the subject is being talked about, the subject of abortion, but the film itself,

I'm not convinced, is actually going to change the cultural climate, even though the filmmakers have said that's what they want to have happen with the movie.

Right. Dr. Albert Moeller even talked about that on the briefing and quoted one of the filmmakers as saying, we hope that this changes the culture's attitude about abortion, which

I don't really think that's going to happen. One of the things I said in my response video was that the majority of people who are going to see this film are people who already think that abortion is bad.

Right. So it's really preaching to the choir. Yeah. Now, I've written a blog about this. See? Do you see this?

This is what I'm talking about. Yeah, right. And nobody else sees it. That's right. So I've written a blog,

I have done a response video, and then we talked about it on the podcast last week.

Yes. And I need to address two more points, because in my three occasions, in my three occasions of talking about this film, there are still two important things

I've not addressed. At all? At all. Well, sort of. In the blog, I kind of addressed it.

Okay. And I've always thought about addressing it, but it's like every time I've talked about it, I've always forgotten to mention these things.

Okay. So here's two more points about the film Unplanned. What are they? Number one, it's associated with the

New Apostolic Reformation. Okay. Chris Vallotton, who is one of the principal teachers at Bethel Church, is in the movie.

He is the pastor of the church that Abby and her husband are attending in the film.

Okay. And so they show him giving some sort of a sermon, and it's as dry and pointless as stuff that usually comes out of Bethel.

Okay. General spiritual fluff. Nothing that he's saying is heretical. It's just nonsense

Christianese. Okay. It doesn't really go anywhere. But in that scene in the film, it's actually demonstrating that Abby and her husband were both church -going

Christians the entire time she was working at Planned Parenthood. So it gives this depiction of her being a

Christian, even though she was running a death clinic. Oh, wow. And there never really is a conversion.

There's never a conversion to believing and understanding the gospel. Even her character in the movie is raised a

Christian. She says she is a Christian before she ever even starts running the Planned Parenthood clinic.

Okay. And so we're led to believe that she's been a Christian the entire time. Her conversion is from pro -abortion to pro -life.

Right. That's really the only conversion that happens in the film. But there's not really a remorse over sin, hearing the gospel, believing the gospel, being forgiven for her sins.

None of that is in the film. So when we're talking about a movie that is just raising the topic for discussion in the culture, that's really all it can do, because there's no presentation of the gospel and there's really nothing about the film that talks about alternatives even that women can do instead of having an abortion.

Which by the way, I would encourage you to go to preborn .org, which is an organization that is funded by, well, funded by,

Wretched donates to it. Okay. And it's a good portion of the money that comes to Wretched ends up going to preborn .org.

Oh, that's wonderful. So they're really committed to that particular ministry. But if you want to find out other things that can be done, things that you can do to help save the lives of children, that would be the website to check out.

So anyway, this film being associated with the new apostolic reformation, one of the things that NAR proponents, whether it's at Bethel Church, the

International House of Prayer, Mike Bickle out there at IHOP has preached the same thing. Anybody that's associated with this new apostolic reformation style of teaching and theology, they believe what is called the seven mountains mandate.

And that means the way that Mike Bickle has articulated it is that there are seven spheres of influence in our culture.

Okay. And if we can infiltrate those seven spheres, take them over. And this is also, let's see, another name for this theology is, it's not reconstructionist theology.

That's post -millennial. Okay. Dominionism. Okay. Because it's taking dominion.

All right, yeah. It's retaking dominion over these areas. Right. One of those spheres of influence is movies, films and entertainment.

Okay. And so by making this movie within their own eschatology, they actually believe that they're taking over a sphere of influence in our culture that is ultimately going to lead to bringing

Christ back. Okay. So Mike Bickle has said - Bringing Christ back? Bringing him back.

Yes. Not just in the sense of we're doing something to a degree that then when we reach this point,

Jesus returns, they actually believe they are going to bring Christ back.

Oh. Mike Bickle has explained this, that through prayer, we actually usher in the word of Christ.

Or I'm sorry, we usher in the return of Christ. To a certain degree, they believe they're ushering in the word of Christ as well because they have new revelation and all this other kind of thing.

All that's associated with new apostolic. That's the apostolic part of the new apostolic reformation.

They believe that they're receiving new visions and revelations that are equal to the authority and revelations that the apostles were given by Christ.

Oh man. So even a film like this, even a film like Unplanned, for those who were behind the film, funding it, creating it, they believe that this is another step toward bringing

Christ back to earth. That's even in the eschatology of the creators of this particular film.

Wow. Just informing you of that, letting you know. That's something about this movie that I haven't been able to mention.

It just escapes me whenever I've been responding. It never came up. Right. There's other issues I had been pointing at regarding the film.

That was not one of them. A second thing, the second comment that I wanted to make related to the film Unplanned.

It actually demonstrates a very skewed demographic in the women who are portrayed in this film as getting abortions.

The majority of women who get abortions, or the highest percentage in ratio of population, the highest percentage is black women.

In fact, even the Guttmacher Institute, which is a pro -abortion institution, they were started by Planned Parenthood to release all these statistic numbers and stuff like this.

Even the Guttmacher Institute has said that black women are more than five times as likely as white women to have an abortion.

And in the movie, the majority of women that you see that get an abortion are actually white. So this film very much skews in the direction of white women getting abortion instead of showing that Planned Parenthood, which was started by Margaret Sanger, was a eugenicist.

And she wanted to exterminate the black race, wanted through abortion and through the things that she implemented through this organization that would become

Planned Parenthood. She wanted to focus on minorities, and Planned Parenthood has succeeded in doing that in some places.

Legally too. Yeah, no joke. Oh man. In New York City, more black babies are aborted than born.

And so Planned Parenthood has succeeded in Margaret Sanger's endeavor, at least in some of these metropolitan areas like New York City, for example.

But in the film, that's not demonstrated. Even in what you observe happening, you don't see an overabundance of black women going in and getting an abortion.

You see mostly white women. So it's kind of like they almost represented the demographics as we would have the demographics in the population.

Yeah. So only about 12 % of people in America are black, the majority are white. And then there's other races and ethnicities that are represented in the film as well.

But it's all kind of like within the scope of what we would expect in the population. But it doesn't show it in terms of the majority of who gets an abortion and who does not.

Based on those demographics, that's not displayed in the film. Interesting. So anyway, that's one of the other things that I wanted to mention.

Most of the women that come walking into this clinic are white, even though Planned Parenthood is usually placed in a neighborhood where they're going to be able to appeal to the minority women that are there.

They're usually in those minority, low -income neighborhoods because those are the women they're trying to get come into their clinic and kill their babies.

That's not portrayed in the film. But those were the last two comments that I wanted to make about that.

So sad. Yeah, it is. It's depressing. It's very sad. Heartbreaking. We still need to be praying for these women.

We do need to be loving, but loving enough to tell them that what they're doing is wrong.

It is murder. It will bring about the judgment of God on their lives if they do not repent and follow

Jesus Christ. The gospel is the thing that needs to be front and center whenever we are reaching out to these women, whether we're outside an abortion clinic or it's somebody we personally know.

The gospel needs to be there because it's the gospel that saves. There was a good conversation between Matt Walsh and the

CrossPolitik guys earlier this week. They had Matt Walsh on their program. I don't know if you remember, but last week we were talking about how

Matt Walsh had made comments about how you shouldn't use the Bible when you're arguing with somebody on a moral issue.

Right. Crazy talk. Yeah. He was a special guest on CrossPolitik, and they talked about those things there.

One of the things that Matt Walsh said was, once you leave the argument regarding abortion and you start talking about the gospel, then you've lost the argument on abortion.

And Chocolate Knox spoke up and said, no, no, no, that's exactly where the conversation needs to go.

So we've used the conversation of abortion as a catalyst to get to what's really the important issue, and that's the fact that your heart is rebellious against God and you need

Jesus Christ. Once a person comes to Christ and understands through a

Christian worldview the value of life as it has been created in the image of God, then everything else is going to fall in line.

Right. That's so true. So it's not about winning an argument. It's not about winning my abortion arguments are better than your abortion arguments.

It's not about that. Ultimately, it has to be about saving the soul. Otherwise, it's about us. That's right.

It's all about us. My right opinion versus your wrong opinion. Which means what? Nothing.

In the grand scheme of things. What does that mean? Nothing. Yeah. You could win an argument on abortion and that person's soul is still headed to hell.

So you've got to have the gospel there, which is why, you know, saying what

I've said about unplanned is so important. There are people saying, no, you missed the point of the movie. Well, the point of the movie, according to the filmmakers themselves, is that they wanted to present the gospel and they think that they did.

Right. But it's not there and it's our responsibility to share the gospel. That message is more important than saving a child's life in the womb.

Nothing is more important than the gospel. That has to be primary. First and foremost. First and foremost for the

Christian. Absolutely. Yeah. That we are preaching the gospel. All right. Being Friday. We're answering questions from listeners.

Yes. When we understand the text at gmail .com. The first couple of questions I have here goes back to something that we said last week.

Hi, Gabe and Becky. Hi. This is Dan in Glendale, Arizona. Okay. On your most recent

Q &A episode, you brought up the term crikey in a lighthearted way.

Becky even said, I think we need to bring this back. Yeah. I wanted to use it a little. That's right. We need to Americanize it and make it more fun.

Yeah. He said, I just recently discovered, I believe it was Todd Freel that mentioned it on Wretched that the word crikey is a euphemism of Christ.

Oh. Just wanted to give you a heads up that it might be best to avoid the term. That's fun to say though.

It's an alternative blasphemous term for taking the name of Christ in vain. I can see that now that I'm putting that together.

Yeah. Man, that's disappointing. So he says, thankful for your ministry and praying for you often. Well, thank you very much for bringing that to our attention.

And I definitely won't be saying it anymore. We received actually a few messages about that since last week.

Oh, bummer. This one's from Neil and he has another - It's just fun to say. I know. It's especially in an

Australian accent. Yeah. But I mean, I totally get it though. Yeah. Now that that's mentioned, it's just kind of like, oh, well, yeah.

Yeah. Just like - Interesting. You know, in the more American vernacular, we might say something like, gosh.

Yeah. Oh, gosh is everywhere. Right. Or OMG. OMG. Yeah.

I said that one's fine. You're not actually saying it. Yeah. We know what it means. Yeah. We know what it stands for.

OMG, gosh, I've also seen. Yep. Believe it or not. So just to make sure that you know

I'm not blaspheming, no, that's kind of still what that means. I've seen that one too. Yep. But those are blatantly obvious to me.

But that other one. We were just trying to be fun with Crikey. We weren't trying to say, hey, if you got to swear, say this word instead.

Yeah, no. That wasn't our approach either. No. But yeah, I agree with Dan. Probably best to avoid that one.

Well, I need to find another fun word that's fun to say. Lighten up my day a little bit.

Yeah. There have been. We've had this conversation before. Yeah. This is a long time ago. Like, what are some funny alternative things that would actually make a person laugh if you ended up saying it instead of,

I think that person's swearing. I don't know. It would probably lighten yourself up using that word too.

So yeah, you wouldn't be tempted to say something that you shouldn't be saying. Right. Neil had the same comment, but he also had another comment in here.

Hi Pastor Gabe and Becky. First I wanted to say thank you for the answer that you gave me regarding spiritual gifts.

A few years back when I was a new believer, I was actually anointed by a friend of mine. He is a pastor that is heavily involved with the charismatic movement.

During my anointment, which he puts in quotation marks, my friend told me just to say whatever words that comes out in my mind and those words will be my praying in tongues.

I went ahead and pretended to mutter words because I just felt awkward. Yep. It's kind of like putting you on the spot.

Everybody's watching you. Yeah. So you got to do something. Yeah. I couldn't even do that.

Which is just nonsense. But now I am more rooted in God's word, amen, and more mature.

I realized what I did was wrong. I have asked God for forgiveness and repented. That's awesome

Neil. So anyway, but anyways, back to the title, because the subject of the email had to do with crikey.

Okay. Last week in your Q &A podcast, you said the word crikey. I believe the word is rooted from Christ.

It might not be smart to say that word. I heard Todd Freel talk about that.

Yep. Obviously, I don't listen enough to Todd. Yeah, I'm only catching

Wretched occasionally now. I don't listen as much as I used to, but I missed that episode now.

I will say that I'm very committed to catching the two Wretched for Radio segments where it's

Todd Freel and Phil Johnson talking. I try to catch every single one of those. So even if I miss something else,

I'm still catching my two Wretched for Radio. That's awesome. But right now, I'm still committed to catching the briefing as often as I can,

James White, The Dividing Line. I try to listen to that. And then the rest of the time, I'm usually just pulling up the

RefNet app on my phone and I'll just hit that and whatever's on, that's what I'm listening to.

Or when I'm doing a particular sermon study, I'll go to monergism .com and be looking up sermons on that particular passage that I'm gonna be preaching on, whether it's this weekend or several weekends in the future.

So that's a great resource too. And you can find links to all these things, by the way, at our website. Go to www .utt

.com and click on links and you find a whole list of recommended resources.

One of the things that monergism did fairly recently, they did a list of awesome sermons or like most influential sermons or something like that.

It was a list of about 100 of them. And I wanted to rip off their list, like go through and go, yeah,

I'm copying that one and put it in ours because I have a list of recommended sermons as well.

It's just could be longer. So grabbing some of those for monergism,

I'll try to do that. I'll try to get the website updated on that. But check out the links page. I hope that's a good resource for you.

Next question comes from Kyle. I don't often mention the name of the town unless it's a big place, but I have to mention the name of his town.

Okay. It's Savage, Minnesota. Savage. Are you sure they don't pronounce it differently?

Savage? Yeah, it could be. Savage? Savage. You never know.

You never know. It could be. When I was doing. Kentucky is kind of that way. Oh, is it? Yeah. Louisville.

Louisville. Well, that's that's the. That's the accent. Right. That's the native way to refer to it.

That's true. But then we have some here in Kansas. Quite a few of them are kind of kooky. I'm sure

Michelle Leslie would tell us that New Orleans is. Oh, Nolens. Yeah. Yeah.

I bet. Yeah. Related to Kansas. Like you mentioned, when I was in radio and I would do severe weather. Oh, my goodness.

It seems like I would always be pronouncing a town. Hey, there's a tornado headed for this town. Yes. Take cover now.

Yes. Somebody from that town would call me up. Call you up and say it's not pronounced that way. That's not how it's pronounced.

I bet. I could see us doing that. And I'm going, get in your basement.

Us Kansans. And you can hear the wind in the background. Yes. As they're standing outside watching the tornado. They're probably holding on to a pole dangling in the wind going, you mispronounce my town.

Yep. Yep. That was the way. But at least they knew it was their town. I had a woman call me up one time and the warning that I had received, it was actually

Garden City and the town next to Garden City was Holcomb. Right.

And the warning actually said, this only concerns the township of Garden City and does not affect

Holcomb. That's what it said in the warning. So that's the way I read it. Okay. And a woman called me up from Holcomb and said, the tornado sirens are going off here and you just said in the warning that this doesn't concern the town of Holcomb.

Now, after I got that call, I would never do that again. Whenever a warning would say, this doesn't affect this town,

I just would leave that part off. Yeah. I would just mention what's there in the warning. But she's upset at me and really giving me a what for because I said, this doesn't affect the town of Holcomb and I had to cut her off and I said, ma 'am, if your sirens are going off, get to your basement.

No joke. It doesn't matter what I said, go downstairs. So anyway, but yeah, that was the that was the nature of radio back then.

If I wasn't getting a criticism someday, I was I was doing something wrong. Yeah. I'd get

I'd get a correction simply because I said it was ninety three degrees and the bank thermometer said it was ninety four.

Well, you know, they're more accurate because they pay to make sure that I'm getting that extra degree in there.

Anyway, I haven't read Kyle from Savage, Michigan's or Minnesota. I haven't read his email yet.

OK, sorry. So Kyle is actually asking a question based on the what video that I did on.

Well, the question that was being responded to in the video was, does the church replace Israel?

OK, so I'm going to play that video first and then we'll get to Kyle's question. OK. Before Jesus ascended into heaven, his disciples asked,

Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? He said, it's not for you to know times or seasons that the father has fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power when the

Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the

Earth. The disciples believed, as most Jews did, that the Messiah was going to make Israel great again, as it was in the beginning.

It was under Kings David and Solomon. But Jesus said that with the Holy Spirit, you will go into the world preaching the gospel.

And this will be done for as long as the father has determined. In other words, Jesus was saying that the preaching of the gospel will be the revival of Israel.

Whoever believes the gospel of Jesus Christ is true Israel. Now, some will decry this as supersessionism.

The church has not replaced Israel, they will say. Of course it hasn't. The church is the expansion of Israel.

Paul referred to true believers as the Israel of God. Romans 2, 28 through 29 says,

No one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, but a Jew is one inwardly and circumcision a matter of the heart.

Romans 9, 6 says, For not all who are descended from Israel, meaning ethnic Israel, belong to Israel, meaning spiritual

Israel. In Romans 11, we're given the picture of a cultivated olive tree. Branches have been cut off and Jews and Gentiles grafted into Christ together.

Then verse 26 says, In this way, all Israel will be saved, meaning true Israel. All who serve

Christ as king when we understand the text. So Kyle from Savage, Minnesota, has said,

I watched this video back when you originally posted it. I was wondering if you would be willing to recommend a book or some written resource that more completely develops this type of view on the church slash

Israel and the future of Israel. I'm also looking more generally at Romans 9 through 11 and a resource in parentheses book or book chapter or commentary that would present a view similar to yours on this.

I'm asking because I tend to agree with this and I want to get a better foundation for this aspect of theology. I regularly get the other views from the elders at our church.

So Kyle, the first book that I would recommend to you is a book called Dispensationalism, Rightly Dividing the

People of God? Question mark. It's by Keith A. Matheson. It was recommended to me by R .C.

Sproul. And it really is the best book that I've written on the subject. It's short.

That you've written? Did I say I've written? Yep, you said I've written. Woo, my pride got the better of me in there.

I did not write this book. Keith Matheson wrote it. It's the best book I've read on the subject.

It's short, it's concise, it's easy to follow, full of all kinds of resources and citations.

So I would highly recommend it. Let me just read a couple of parts for you here. First of all, in understanding what dispensationalism is, oftentimes when we hear the word dispensationalism, we think of a system of hermeneutics that divides everything up into periods of time.

God working in increments of certain time periods through the Old Testament and now in the New Testament. And we're in a certain dispensation of time.

Usually that comes with understanding that there's seven dispensations and we're like in the fifth.

Okay. I can't remember exactly fifth or sixth. I can't remember exactly where we are in that. But anyway, here is what

Matheson says regarding dispensationalism. The distinction between Israel and the church.

The only one of Ryrie's three distinctives of dispensationalism that has always been acknowledged as true is the distinction between Israel and the church.

So it's not about dividing everything up into dispensations since even covenant theology believes in dispensations.

If you believe in the Old Testament and the New Testament, you believe in dispensations. So the mark of dispensationalism is not that God has divided up his plan into various dispensations.

The mark is the distinction between Israel and the church. That's really the doctrine that defines dispensationalism.

So Matheson goes on, the particular dispensationalist understanding of this distinction is the heart of that system of theology.

Dispensationalism may, therefore, be defined as that system of theology which sees a fundamental distinction between Israel and the church.

This distinction is the cornerstone of dispensational theology. Other doctrines, which are often considered to be distinctively dispensational, rest upon this doctrine of the church.

With this definition clearly in mind, much of the confusion that often surrounds this topic may be avoided.

Now, that's the end of chapter one. Jump into chapter two here and read a couple of more quotes for you.

Dispensationalism is a fairly new development in theology. But how important is the relative newness of this doctrine?

After all, we know that the Bible alone is our authority in judging truth from error. Does it matter that dispensationalism is a recent doctrinal development?

Among dispensationalists, we find conflicting answers to that question. Sometimes conflicting opinions appear in the writings of a single author.

In his book, The Basis of the Premillennial Faith, Charles Ryrie says that the historical argument is of the utmost importance.

However, in dispensationalism today, he vehemently criticizes those who use the historical argument as if it were partly valid.

Which is it? Is the historical argument of the utmost importance or is it not even partly valid?

It certainly cannot be both. So there's just kind of an example of the criticisms that he makes of dispensationalism going on and talking about the history of dispensationalism.

Matheson says the early church fathers are almost unanimous in their identification of the church and Israel.

Justin Martyr, 110 to 165 AD, is often quoted by dispensationalists attempting to prove the early history of premillennialism.

He was a premillennialist, but he was certainly not a dispensationalist. In chapter 135 of his dialogue with Trifo, Justin writes, as therefore

Christ is the Israel and the Jacob, even so we who have been quarried out from the bowels of Christ are the true

Israelitic race. Here is Justin, a Gentile church leader, speaking to Trifo, a

Jew, and claiming that the church is true Israel.

And in fact, I have read an article from a very prominent dispensationalist, and he said in his article that he agrees none of the early church fathers make a distinction between Israel and the church.

But he writes that article to say that they were in error about that. That's a pretty hard pill to swallow.

All of the early church fathers were in error regarding who is the church and who is

Israel. Anyway, so one of Kyle's questions, another part of Kyle's questions, not just a book, but that's the book that I would recommend, that one from Keith Matheson, but he said, do you also know of a commentary on Romans nine through 11, whether a book, a book chapter, or a commentary?

I don't know of a book that was specifically addressing the matter that Paul was unfolding in Romans nine, 10, and 11.

I don't know of a book that centers on those three chapters. At least I haven't read one. But as far as commentaries go,

I would recommend that you read John Calvin's commentary on Romans nine, 10, and 11, and also read

Matthew Henry's commentary on Romans nine, 10, and 11. Matthew Henry in particular, he uses the word church and Israel interchangeably all the way through his commentary.

Whether he's doing old Testament commentary or new Testament commentary. And most of his new, new

Testament commentary was written by his students after Matthew Henry died. And that, that had to be completed by people who would listen to him preach.

I was going to say from his notes or something, okay. Sermons and notes, what he had taught his own students and things like that.

That was how they were able to complete his new Testament commentary. But even in the old Testament, he'll refer to true

Israel as the church of God. There's no, there's no distinction. I mean, Romans 3, 23 tells us that Romans 3, 22 into 23, for there is no distinction.

And that's right after Paul has said, whether you are Jew or Gentile, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, Romans 1, 16,

I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to all who believe to the

Jew first and also to the Greek. Jew or Gentile. We've all sinned and fallen short of God's glory.

None of us have favoritism before God because we are Jew or Greek. And likewise, everybody is saved exactly the same way by faith in Jesus Christ.

That is our salvation. So thank you for that question, Kyle. And I hope that those resources help you out.

Next question concerns another what video? All right. And this was the video that featured John Gray talking about the power of our words.

Okay. So I'm going to play that video first. Words do three things.

I want you to write these down. Words create, they create your reality. Speak that which is not as though it is.

Words convene. When you speak what's on God's mind, everything connected to that has to show up, words, create words, convene.

Finally, words conquer. It was the sound of a shout that made those walls fall at Jericho.

Okay. So first he said that words create reality and then butchered Romans 417, which says God gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

God does that. Nowhere in the Bible does it say we declare reality. Second, he says words convene.

And when you speak what's on God's mind, everything connected to that has to show up. Where's he getting that? The Bible says nothing of the sort.

Third, he says words conquer like a shout brought down Jericho by the miraculous power of God, not the powerless noise of Israel.

Do you know what kind of power the Bible does say our words have? It says the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness.

It stains the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life set on fire by hell. Every beast has been tamed by man, but not the tongue.

It is a restless evil full of deadly poison. With it, we bless God and then curse those made in the image of God.

On the day of judgment, we'll give an account for every careless word we speak. By our words, we will be justified and by them will be condemned.

Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. So let us surrender to God as David did set a guard, oh,

Lord, over my mouth. Keep watch over the door of my lips. Do not let my heart incline to any evil when we understand the text.

So following that video, Michael from London, UK, London, hello, hello.

Over the over the sea. My name is Michael. I'm a huge fan of your content and commitment to the text.

I've been under intense warfare off of this particular doctrine of speaking things into existence with its understanding being drawn from verses such as Proverbs 18, 21.

Our words have power in Genesis 1, 26 through 28. Our authority stems from being made in God's image and God's likeness.

So as God has the power to speak things into existence, we also, right. I watched both of your videos about our words and the power in our words, but it did not address that proverb in particular.

So I was hoping that you could thank you very much. So Proverbs 18, 21 very specifically says death and life are in the power of the tongue and those who love it will eat its fruits.

I think the best way to understand this is, well, there was the passage in James that was featured in that video where it says that the tongue is a fire lit on fire by hell and we speak curses with it or we speak blessing with it.

So as God had set before Israel in the book of Deuteronomy, I lay before you blessings and curses, life and death.

Now choose life so that you and your children may live. Yeah. So we need to choose to speak that which gives grace to the hearer, as Paul says in Ephesians 4, 29, that we would build one another up with our words rather than tear each other down.

So you think about speaking those things which are pleasing to God, which announced the truth of God, which speaks the gospel of God.

All of that is good. Power of life is in that. Right. For what do we read in Romans 10, 17?

But faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ, hearing through the word of Christ.

So that's what we should speak, the truth of God's word. And then we give life and grace to those who hear it.

Death would therefore be speaking curses, speaking negatively about people, gossip, slander, pride.

Yeah. Yeah. Inflating yourself and making yourself sound better and more important than everybody else.

Yeah. Yeah. All of that would be example of death. Of course, speaking behind somebody's back or insulting them to their face.

Yeah. And speaking lies rather than loving the truth. But speaking lies, all of these things would be an example of death.

And perhaps maybe to come up with like a right interpretation of that, Proverbs 18, 21, because Proverbs, you can more easily take a proverb out of context,

I think, than another passage. There is a context still in Proverbs. Yeah. But oftentimes we think of each individual verse in Proverbs of having a standalone comment.

Well, isn't that how it's read, just verse one at a time? Right. Just whatever happy verse

I need today to get me through my day. So a better way to understand this would be to read what else

Proverbs says about our words. So the the name it and claim it person would probably love

Proverbs 18, 21, that life and death are in the power of the tongue, the power of the tongue.

We have the power of these things, but they're not as big on a verse like Proverbs 13, three, whoever guards his mouth preserves his life and who opens wide his lips comes to ruin.

How about this one, Proverbs 21, 33, whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble.

Yep. You keep your mouth shut. Yeah. Generally, maybe.

Yeah. Generally, other times you probably need to speak up to speak truth into a situation that's otherwise infiltrated with lies.

Well, I was just thinking you're then meditating on what you're not saying. So what do you mean, meditating on what you're not saying?

Like if you're keeping your mouth shut and not saying the negative things that you want to say, you're meditating on the negative things that you want to say.

So it's still just as bad. That's right, because as Jesus said, it's out of the heart these things flow.

Oh, yeah. Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. Right. So it's the attitude in our heart before it comes out of our mouth.

But but nevertheless, I pray with David that that God, may you keep a guard over my lips, the door of my lips.

That's true. So even though my heart might think it, it's not flying out of my mouth. I at least have enough self -control to examine that before I'm saying something stupid.

Proverbs 10, 19. And by the way, that's a Proverbs word. Proverbs 12, one, he who hates reproof is stupid.

I know. I think the kids have caught on by now. OK, because you just kind of blatted out a laugh when

I said stupid. It's like, oh, well, there goes Gabe again. Yeah. Saying his stupid word.

Stop it. The kids don't like it when he says that word. There was one time

I said it in a sermon. And was it Zeeb? Yeah. Daddy, that's a bad word.

Yeah. Right in the middle of church. Yeah. Yeah. The parents loved it because they've all told their kids the same way. Proverbs 10, 19.

When words are many, transgression is not lacking. But whoever restrains his lips is prudent.

Proverbs 11, 12. Whoever belittles his neighbor lacks sense. But a man of understanding remains silent.

Good. Good luck keeping those word of faith preachers quiet, by the way. Yeah. You're more apt to open a can of worms with some of these.

Anyway, there's a word of faith heretics, though. I mean, they're just constantly talking. Yeah. If they're not talking, they're not breathing.

Right. Well, I mean, that's how God comes to be. Right. While how he brings things to be.

Yeah. Yeah. Speaking it into existence. No, no. Them, the the. Oh, because they believe they're little gods.

Yeah. Is that what you're talking about? Yeah. Yeah. Right. Because whatever they say is is comes to fruition.

Right. So they have to keep talking. Yeah. Because we've been made in God's image. Earth. I don't know what would happen if they stopped talking.

The earth would fall apart if they stopped. Is that kind of what you're getting at? Yeah, maybe. Yeah. I don't know. I'm kind of curious now.

I might have to go ask a question or two. Proverbs 18, 13. If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame.

That's a good good verse about listening before before you speak. Listen to the whole thing. Knocking my microphone here now.

Yes, you were. Proverbs 29, 20. Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him.

Ouch. Proverbs 15 to the tongue of the wise commends knowledge. But the mouths of fools pour out folly.

Proverbs 27 to let another praise you and not your own mouth.

A stranger and not your own lips. I remember watching a

Q &A with John MacArthur and in this Q &A, John MacArthur said, beware of preachers who are the heroes of all their own stories.

Yeah. And there was there was kind of like this from the audience. Like that was that was profound. They're kind of taking that in.

So there's kind of like this quiet after he said it. And then he just kind of looks at the crowd and goes, Joyce Meyer is notorious for this, by the way.

Everybody just erupted laughing. They attached a name to this problem. Somebody who just loves to tell stories about themselves in which they're the heroes of all of them.

Very common, not just for Joyce Meyer, but all these name it and claim it folks. They love to tell stories about themselves and how great they are and what they did.

Greater the riches on the earth. And then that's all that they're going to get. That's right. If all they're looking for is a claim from people, according to what

Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, they've already received their reward. So I hope that that helps you a little bit,

Michael. Coming to an understanding of what Proverbs in general says about our words and the power of our tongue.

Because, yeah, that that proverb might stand alone. But there is a context in Proverbs to understand, particularly when it comes to the way that Proverbs speaks about the real power that is in our tongue.

Right. And that is the power to tear people down because the words that we say are coming from a wicked heart.

And to keep your mouth shut is very wise. That's right. Always, always a good move. Always a good decision.

All right. Last question here comes from Ian. And this is one that I missed last week. So I wanted to be sure to bring this one up.

Hello, Mr. Pastor Gabe and Mrs. Becky. My name is

Ian, and I wanted to ask a question about how specific gender roles should be for us.

Like, can men really have long hair? Can women have short hair? Could men wear dresses or skirts as long as they as they still present themselves as a man?

Can men be feminine? Can girls be masculine? It would be great to hear from you.

And I thank you so much for the work that you and your ministry does. So Deuteronomy 22, five says a woman shall not wear a man's garment, nor shall a man put on a woman's cloak.

For whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord, your God. Now, in short, what this basically means is that men should not dress to look like women and women should not dress to look like men.

And I believe that this is confronting the heart of a matter more than it's being specific about exactly what your outerwear should look like.

Right. You shouldn't be dressing for someone to be looking at you.

You're you're dressing to give glory to God, because in all things we should be giving glory to God.

And if it's not honoring and we're we're getting that attention for ourselves, that attention that we're seeking for by how we're dressing or how we're having our hair or whatever, you're you're going about it all wrong.

The motives are wrong. Yeah. And you shouldn't be doing that because your heart is not in the right place. So you should reconsider what you're doing, even what you're wearing.

Right. Right. Reconsider how how does this glorify God? Yes. In what it is that I'm wearing.

I mean, yeah, when it comes to even what we wear, we need to be considerate of those kinds of things.

Right. Now, Becky, right now is wearing a baggy sweatshirt and jeans. And there was a time not too long in American history, not too long ago, in which even wearing pants like this would have been considered masculine.

Oh, yes. Now, right now in our culture, it's fine. Right. There's nothing about this that would be considered masculine.

Women can wear jeans and a sweatshirt as well. So, like I said, the hair up and the hair up.

Yeah. You got it pulled back. The nice little bun going on. I mean, some sometimes that isn't in.

It wasn't an in thing to wear your hair up. Yeah. Down. That's true. Yeah. Wasn't there kind of a thing of it?

There was a certain message that was being conveyed if the hair was up versus down. I don't remember. I don't remember exactly.

But I knew there was something about that. Right. Something about a ponytail. I don't know. But but dressing such a rebel.

Yeah. Just kidding. I'm really not. And, you know, the apostle Peter talks about this in first Peter three, starting in verse three, do not let your adorning be external.

The braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry or the clothing you wear. But let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious.

For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves by submitting to their own husbands as Sarah obeyed

Abraham, calling him Lord. And you are her children. If you do good and do not fear anything, that is frightening.

You have this instruction also in first Timothy chapter two. And this is really in the context of worship. But it's not limited to the way that women should present themselves in church.

Paul says, likewise, also right after he gives instructions to men to lift hands and pray without anger or quarreling, he says, likewise, also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel with modesty and self -control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness with good works.

And so, again, same way as what Peter said in first Peter three, that the goodness that we display, that we show to people is not in what it is that we wear, but it's in the works that we do that are a reflection of a heart that has been changed by Christ.

Right. And a body that is indwelt with the Holy Spirit of God. Paul talks with the

Corinthians about how there are unpresentable parts of the body that need greater modesty.

And so we cover those things and we treat them with greater modesty. And so you need to take those things into consideration.

I didn't really want to give this answer in the realm of you should always wear this, you should never wear this.

Right. But rather creating a a good systematic theology of the matter of the heart in the way that you approach these things.

Right. I think the Bible is absolutely clear that in our hearts, men should not desire to look like women and women should not desire to look like men.

You have the the prohibition on women doing this in Roman or sorry, First Corinthians chapter 11, where it would be shameful for a man to have long hair.

And that's probably the basis of Ian's question here, saying, can men have long hair? OK, because it's there in First Corinthians 11 that it says it's a shame for a man to have long hair.

Right. Well, specifically, the context is that it's a shame for a man to try to make himself look like a woman because Samson had long hair.

Samson had long hair. Right. And that wasn't shameful. And we we are led to believe that the apostle

Paul did at one point as well, because it's possible that he was under a Nazarite vow, just like Samson was was following that Nazarite vow.

OK, because it says in the book of Acts that he cut his hair at Sinclair because of a vow. Oh, OK. And so some theologians would speculate that it was the

Nazarite vow. This is what Paul had applied himself to. Maybe we don't know that for sure.

But if that's the case, then he also would have had long hair. But the context specifically in First Corinthians 11 is that men should not be making themselves look like women.

And he's using the example. It would be a shame for a man to do this. Right. And even the Corinthians in a secular culture like that agreed it's a shame for a man to look like a woman.

And so he's saying, therefore, a woman should not try to make herself look like a man so that she can have the responsibilities that are given to men in the church, and in which case she would be wearing shorter hair or uncovering her head.

And that was the situation that was going on in in the church in Corinth in that context. So anyway, we're looking at this as more of a matter of the heart.

Yes, definitely. You actually absolutely must wear this and you shouldn't wear this because there are going to be differences in garb related to culture.

At the same time, we should not let the culture dictate for us what's acceptable and what's not. Very true.

Because we must come to an understanding of modesty and showing what parts of the body is

OK and what parts are not. And let me tell you, there are seasons when that is very difficult to find appropriate where that's happening right now is we're getting into warmer weather, especially.

But consider this related to manhood in particular, since we have been referencing First Corinthians.

First Corinthians 16, 13 says, Be watchful. Stand firm in the faith. Act like men.

Be strong. So there is definitely a distinction between men and women throughout the scriptures that men are supposed to act a certain way and women are supposed to act a certain way.

Paul even has specific instructions for the men of the church in Titus two and for the women of the church.

Women should be this way. Men should be this way. So there are clear distinctions between the two. But ultimately, as we read in Galatians chapter three, there is no distinction between men and women when it comes to the treasure of heaven that we will all receive.

That's right. If we believe in Jesus Christ, the gospel saves a man just like the gospel saves a woman.

Praise the Lord and cleanses us from all unrighteousness and gives us the eternal inheritance of God's kingdom as a reward.

Amen. Glory. Amen. All right. Let's pray. Yes, let's. Our wonderful God, we thank you for this time together and this medium that we have to be able to talk about these things that that are that come out of your word as we read your word and we desire to know you more.

We can ask questions and we can receive answers. And I thank you for the resources that are available for us to be able to do this.

It's more readily available to find answers to the scriptures now than probably any other time in history.

And what a time to be able to live that we can study the word of God and get to know it rightly, that we may praise you and honor you in a way that is worthy of you, who is holy and great and above us all.

Thank you for the righteousness that you have given to us in Christ Jesus. And may we continue in faith and holiness, not living as as those who live in licentiousness and debauchery in this present age.

But we are set apart as holy in Christ Jesus, committing our lives fully unto you, as we're told in Romans 12, one to present our bodies as a living sacrifice unto the

Lord. And this is our spiritual act of worship. May we be committed to that in all that entails and all that we must do, laying our lives down for Christ, who gave his life for us.

And we pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Hey, my storage is full.

You're going to have to take off my pictures before we go. No, you're getting we're switching to that other phone, which has a massive amount of space.

True, but if I don't get it off before we leave and before I switch my phone, then

I won't ever take it off of my phone. And we'll forget all 16 pictures. 16?

Yeah, something like that. With like, I think we're on an old. Oh, what would it be?

500 and something megabytes. I can't remember what the old before we even got to gig memory cards.

What was it? 516? I don't know. 500. You're asking somebody who is technology.

Who didn't care. Yeah. What's that? I can't think of it a word.

I'm too tired. Not tech savvy. Yeah, there we go. Not tech savvy.

Sure, that works. It's not what I was thinking, but I was. It's. Yeah. Your brother had all the technology.

Yeah. Well, he stole it all. He did. He had the computer in his room and he got the computer time and I didn't because he was such a good kid.

And I was naughty. So that's why he got the computer and you didn't.

Yep. Even though he dyed his hair and painted his fingernails. Yep. He didn't dye his hair. Oh, I thought he did.

Or something he did. I know he had long hair. He had long hair. Yeah. I braided it once. Yeah, that went that far, too.

I was jealous I had the short hair, he had the long hair. I don't think I've seen those pictures with your hair shorter than his.

Oh, really? Yeah. I don't think I've seen one on mom and dad's or it was on the mantle. The TV stand.

Oh, OK. Now I haven't seen that one. I've seen some pretty cute pictures of you, but. That one's just adorable.