WWUTT Q&A Purgatory, Unbelieving Spouse, Could Jesus Have Sinned?

WWUTT Podcast

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:01

What is purgatory? What if you want to give to the church, but your spouse doesn't want you to?

00:07

And we're going to come back to the question on whether or not Jesus could have sinned. The answers, when we understand the text.

00:24

This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible teaching podcast that the word of Christ may dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

00:36

Visit our website at www .utt .com. Here once again is

00:41

Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. The book, 25 Christmas Myths and What the Bible Says, available now at amazon .com.

00:50

And if you've read it, paperback or Kindle, both formats are available, then

00:56

I'd appreciate it if you leave a review. That would be awesome. We would sure appreciate that.

01:01

The new or the old version? There's only one version. You can't get the old one anymore.

01:08

Anymore, but they might have already had it. There's really not any difference between the new and the old one. There's a few wording things that have changed.

01:15

All the content is the same, but it's just that the footnotes have now been added and there's a scripture glossary at the end.

01:23

Plus there are, at the end of each chapter, is questions for reflection and a

01:29

Christmas carol that you can sing together. So you could do this every day for the Advent season, start on December 1st, read it through to December 25th, doing a different myth every day with the kids, singing a

01:40

Christmas song together. Or your cats. You know, whatever you have. What? He doesn't like cats.

01:46

I think they're fun. Singing a Christmas song with your cats? Doesn't matter whether you like cats or not.

01:52

Singing a Christmas song with your cats. You said reading to your kids, right? Yes, right.

01:57

Right. You can read to your cats. Read to your cats? If you don't have kids? Cats cannot be saved nor sanctified.

02:05

Well, no, but maybe you just want somebody to, I don't know. I think it's pretty evident that cats are not holy.

02:13

Oh, stop. Hey, when you pet them and their bum goes way up in the air like that, that is not a

02:20

Christian thing. Cats are not Christians. Okay. Next.

02:28

What was I talking about? 25 Christmas myths, which you can do with your family, not with your cats.

02:35

It is a myth that you can do it with your cats. I'm not saying you would share the gospel with your cats.

02:40

I'm saying... Well, if you're reading it out loud, that's what you're doing because the gospel is in every chapter.

02:46

Oh my goodness. And cats are already condemned. They are self -condemned.

02:53

Stop. There is no plan of redemption for cats. It is only for we who are made in the image of God and dogs, but not for cats.

03:03

There is no plan of redemption. God made all animals and said, they are good.

03:12

Until they went really bad. When mankind sinned and God subjected all things to futility, as it says in Romans 8.

03:20

Where does it mention cats? Cats are part of that. Every time dogs are mentioned in the

03:26

Bible. It's awful. It's always bad. Yeah. It's always... Yeah. But not cats. Reference to something bad. I know, but that's why...

03:33

See, the Bible mentions that dogs are bad because God has a plan of redemption for dogs.

03:38

He has no plan of redemption for cats. Yeah. Of course, you know I'm joking.

03:46

I'm not really a house pet guy one way or the other. No, you are not. I'm not. I'm not. Not that pet kind of a person.

03:53

But we do have a dog. I just don't like cats. What was I going to do here? Okay, yeah. So we're talking about the book, 25

03:59

Christmas Myths. Pick that up. If you go to Amazon .com and you just type in the number 25 Christmas Myths, it'll come up.

04:05

If you've read it, please leave a wonderful review. Let's get rid of that one star guy that was on there.

04:11

Yeah. We know exactly who that was and what his issue was that led him to write the review that he wrote.

04:20

But anyway, great reviews would be appreciated so more people find the book and hear the gospel through what is written in that particular book.

04:28

Now on that subject, this coming Sunday, I'm preaching on parents and children.

04:35

Children obey your parents in the Lord. This is right. Right. It's the section in Ephesians chapter 6 verses 1 through 4.

04:41

So we just talked about husbands and wives this past Sunday. I could sit on that and do that for the rest of the month or the rest of the year if I wanted to.

04:49

Right. But we're moving on. We are. So we're getting to parents and children, Ephesians 6, 1 through 4.

04:56

And I am going to be utilizing something that I wrote a long time ago. I think this was around 2013, 2014 that I wrote this.

05:06

It was a series of 40 verses, 40 passages for parents. Okay. So some of the passages are like three or four verses long, which is why

05:15

I can't say 40 verses because it's really more than that. Right. But 40 passages from the Bible for parents from Genesis all the way to Revelation.

05:24

And I did this when we were in Colossians. It was the section in Colossians that talked about fathers train up your children and do not be harsh with them.

05:35

When we did that in Colossians, I did this 40 Bible passages section and a lot of folks had said, hey,

05:41

I loved it. Can I get that list of Bible verses? So what I started doing then was writing a book that was 40

05:48

Bible verses for parents. It was going to be a follow up to 40 of the most popular

05:54

Bible verses and what they really mean. So my next book after that was going to be 40 verses for parents.

06:01

Right. But you might remember this in 2015, we had a certain issue in a debacle that started up in my church.

06:08

Some young upstarts had decided that I didn't know anything about parenting and I didn't know what

06:15

I was talking about. And they really caused quite a stir in our church and tried to divide people were very judgmental.

06:22

This wasn't popular, what they were trying to do, because they were basically pointing fingers at everybody going, you're a bad parent, you're a bad parent.

06:29

It was like they tried to bring in this or usher in this revival of parenting. But all it was is just a bunch of judgey

06:36

McJudgerson. There was there was nothing holy or gracious about it at all. But that was so discouraging for me.

06:44

That whole chapter was so discouraging that I really came to believe that I didn't know what

06:50

I was doing and I was no kind of a person to be writing a book called 40 Bible passages for parents.

06:56

That's why it took so long for me to write another book, because of that, that episode, that issue that happened in 2015.

07:05

And I thought, I just don't know what I'm doing and nobody's going to want to listen to what I have to say. So who cares?

07:10

So I didn't write it took me so long to write another book. So I'm going back. And that manuscript that I was working on was like 90 percent done.

07:18

I got through like chapter 20 or chapter 36 for a long. Yeah, I did. I was almost finished with it. But just that thing happened and I stopped working on it.

07:26

So nobody's going to want to read what I have to say about parenting. And and so I'm coming back to that manuscript.

07:32

I'm wanting to finish it up again, but using that same list of 40 verses. And that's what

07:37

I'm going to be sharing in church on Sunday, going through Ephesians six, one through four.

07:43

Awesome. And so look for that when the sermon hits online or probably sometime later

07:49

Sunday afternoon. That's the section we're on. That's what the sermon is primarily going to deal with.

07:55

And then sometime later in the future, maybe early part of next year, I'll have 40 passages for parents done and you'll have another book that you can pick up.

08:04

In the meantime, 25 Christmas myths and what the Bible says. That's the one that you can get. This next question or this first question that we have here actually has to do with a sermon that I preached a couple of weeks ago.

08:16

And this is from Sherry in Omaha. She said, I listened to your sermon on Sunday, November 10th.

08:23

I was wondering if your 40 day Bible reading plan is available for download to what listeners?

08:32

Yes, it is. You can actually, I just put it on the blog. Was it this week or last?

08:37

I think it was last week. I think so. That I put it on the blog. So if you go to pastorgabe .com, it's going to be the second article on there because I've since written another one on five myths about marriage, which was a follow up to the sermon that I preached this past Sunday.

08:52

So you can find the 40 day Bible reading plan and that 40 day plan, it covers the highlights of scripture.

09:03

So it starts with the first two chapters of the Bible, Genesis 1 and 2. It ends with the last two chapters of the

09:09

Bible, Revelation 21 and 22 on day 40. And in between catching like the high points so that you get an idea of the story of the

09:19

Bible. As a whole. Yeah. As a whole. Right. Like, okay, the Bible is 750 ,000 words.

09:26

What do I need to read that gives me kind of the gist of it? And then I can go back through and read it word for word.

09:31

Yeah. Kind of like what you would read on the back of the cover. For a book that's 750 ,000 words, this is like the blurb of the

09:39

Bible. And you know, of course,

09:44

I'm going to tell you, you should read the entire Bible. You should start in Genesis 1 and go all the way to Revelation 22.

09:49

But sometimes when you're covering that much material, you might get kind of lost or you'll forget certain things that you covered.

09:57

It takes a few reads. I forget what I've already read and like, oh, I don't remember that.

10:02

Oh, I did read that. Okay. Never mind. You know? It's like 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2

10:08

Chronicles might start to look a little familiar to you. You know, something like that. They kind of blur together.

10:15

Yeah. So this gives you like in 40 days, you'd be reading somewhere between two and three chapters a day to get kind of the gist of the message of the

10:23

Bible from day one to day 40. And then make it a point after that to read through the entire

10:30

Bible also. But you can find that 40 day plan at PastorGabe .com. Now in the women's study that you're a part of, did you guys utilize this?

10:39

Have you? We are utilizing the part on the bottom. And what was the part on the bottom? The, what was that?

10:46

The gospel. I forgot what it's highlighted as. Chapters of the Bible for Christian living. Yes. Christian living.

10:53

And so we're doing John 15 this month. At the bottom of the 40 day plan,

10:58

I had put eight chapters of the Bible that give you instructions for Christian life.

11:04

Right. And that's not on the 40 day plan. The reason why I didn't include it on the blog is because I figured

11:10

I could do another blog later and talk about those eight chapters. So that sheet that we handed out to members of the congregation, our women's group, had a little bit more to it than what you got on the blog.

11:23

So yeah, you'll have another Bible reading plan that'll come up on the blog a little bit later on.

11:29

But anyway, so that's where you can find it, Sherry. I appreciate you listening to the sermon. I did kind of cover very quickly that 40 day plan at the end of the sermon, but you can find it in print there.

11:41

Go to PastorGabe .com. This next question comes from another Sherry, but she spells her name different.

11:48

Sherry from Omaha was C -H -E -R -I. And this Sherry is S -H -E -R -R -Y.

11:55

She says, hello, I recently came across your YouTube channel and I love it. Most people's attention span is so limited today and these short videos are gold.

12:05

I work with many Catholics and I was searching on your channel for a video on purgatory and I did not find one.

12:12

That false teaching by the Catholic Church leads people to believe that they die with sin that was not covered by Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection.

12:22

That is total heresy. Yes, you're right, Sherry, it absolutely is. Thank you and sincerely,

12:28

Sherry. That would be a good video to do. Yes. I haven't done that one yet. So, yeah, purgatory, according to the

12:34

Catholic encyclopedia, is a place or condition of temporal punishment for those who, departing this life in God's grace, are not entirely free from venial faults or have not fully paid the satisfaction due to their transgressions.

12:56

See that right there, just that much of the definition of purgatory is already saying you have to do something to merit your salvation.

13:04

This is why Catholicism is heresy. It is a message of works salvation.

13:12

You have to do certain works in order to be saved and this is one of those works. You have to go to a place of like the soul goes into this place where it's being purified by fire.

13:25

I mean, it's hell. Yeah. It's going to hell. But they don't describe it as hell.

13:32

They say that hell's a different place. Right, of course. But yeah, that your soul burns off until you're purified and then you go to heaven.

13:42

And then you can go to heaven. Now, of course. But sometimes that takes longer than your lifetime. It takes thousands of years.

13:48

Yeah, is what they were, because I grew up Catholic and so that's what people at the church told me.

13:55

So during the Protestant Reformation, one of the things that had really bugged

14:01

Martin Luther was the selling of indulgences and indulgences are supposed to knock thousands of years off of your purgatory sentence.

14:10

So if you give this much money, you can take off years off your purgatory or you pay this much money for a dead relative and we'll take so many years off of their purgatory sentence.

14:22

And this wasn't a thing of the past, by the way, 500 years ago during the Protestant Reformation. They're still doing it now.

14:28

Yeah, they are. They are. Yep. Absolute heresy. So that would be a good video.

14:34

I haven't written up something on that. The next what video is actually on hedge of protection. Oh, that should be interesting.

14:41

Ever been a part of a prayer group and somebody prays for a hedge of protection? You're just asking for it.

14:48

You're not going to make too many people happy. I actually don't say it's bad. I explain where it comes from.

14:55

Like where does this idea where does this terminology come from? Hedge of protection. Do you know?

15:00

Isn't it in the Bible? Yeah, it is. Yeah. I was thinking so. It's in Job chapter one. It's in the conversation between God and Satan.

15:08

Oh, yeah. When God says, look at my servant Job. There's no one like him. And look how upright he is.

15:15

A God fearing man who does what is righteous. And Satan says, of course he does, because you've put a hedge of protection around him.

15:23

He doesn't use that term exactly, but he says you put a hedge around him, right around all that he has.

15:29

So of course, he thinks you're great because everything you've given to him is great. But if you if you turn around and strike him, he will curse you to your face.

15:40

And the Lord allows Satan to put Job to the test. And ultimately, we know that Job did not curse

15:46

God. He whined and complained a lot. Oh, yeah. And justified himself. Rightfully so, in my opinion.

15:53

Well, yeah, some of his some of his complaining was really uncomfortable. When you go through what

15:59

Job went through, yes, his sadness was totally justified. But then he justified himself.

16:04

Right. And he did sin. In his arrogance, then that became sinful. But he did not curse

16:11

God. He did not sin by cursing God. I can't say I would do any better in his position. That's right.

16:17

That is the truth. This being the Friday edition of the broadcast, I didn't ever say this, actually, but you can send emails.

16:25

Yes. To when we understand the text at gmail .com. We take questions from the listeners and address them on Friday.

16:32

Thank you to the Sherry's for their first two questions for us today. Yes. Oh, and by the way, going back to Sherry from Omaha.

16:40

So she mentioned the 40 day Bible reading plan. I said that that was on the blog. When I do the 40

16:47

Bible passages this coming Sunday, that will also be on the blog. OK.

16:53

I'll do that a little bit later on. But you also have to get the book, too. If I put it on the blog, you have to promise to get the book.

17:01

OK. When the book comes out, 40 passages for parents. Because you're going to explain those passages a little bit.

17:08

Right. OK. There's going to be the verse and then the explanation of the verse and then what kind of advice, how that would live out practically for parents, how this applies to parenting your children.

17:20

Yes. Yeah. Now you have a few more years under your belt. You can add a little bit here and there. Yeah. A few more years.

17:26

And how many kids have we added since then? Two. Yeah. Since that whole episode happened in our church, we've had two kids.

17:32

Yep. Ta -da. Ta -da. Yeah. It just happened that easily, too.

17:37

Well, no. We had just had Aria because she was born at the end of 2014. And then we added

17:44

Mariah a few years after that. All right. Going on. Yes. This one comes from Kevin in Manitoba, Canada.

17:52

You remember a couple of weeks ago, we were talking about Cadbury eggs. Oh, yeah. They're so good.

17:58

So he says, this is for Becky or Becky or Beaky. He spelled your name three different ways.

18:05

Trying to spell it. Yep. Aw. Important candy information. Ooh. Exclamation point times three.

18:11

Not sure if the mini eggs were your favorite or the full eggs, but they have Cadbury minis for Christmas.

18:19

Have a great weekend and God bless you guys. So how about it? The Cadbury minis. They're not my favorite, but I will still make do with them.

18:32

They have more chocolate and the ratio between chocolate and cream just isn't quite the same.

18:41

Is there any cream in it? The Cadbury minis? Yeah. I thought so. Okay. Some of them. I don't know.

18:47

I don't remember ever eating a mini. The only mini eggs I remember, those like bird eggs you get at Easter, you know what

18:54

I'm talking about? Yeah. Those aren't the same. They're almost like Whoppers, I think. There are some that are Whoppers.

18:59

Yes. There are others that are just plain chocolate and don't get me started on confusing the two.

19:05

Becky does not like Whoppers. Oh, they're so gross. It's her least favorite candy.

19:10

I think all your favorite candies somewhere fall in the Cadbury category because like Caramello.

19:17

Yeah. That's a Cadbury candy. And there was at one point, a couple of years ago, you had me buying these certain chocolate bars.

19:23

They were all Cadbury. So Becky's favorite candies are Cadburys. Yeah. Yeah, they're good.

19:29

We have the Russell Stover factory just 20 minutes from us. Yeah. It's in Abilene, Kansas.

19:35

But Russell Stover's not your favorite. No. As plentiful as that is in our area, that's not her favorite candy.

19:42

No. I mean, it'll do. It's okay. But no, not my favorite. And then we have the

19:48

Sweet Granada down in Emporia. Yes. That is by far my favorite.

19:54

I haven't done that for you in a long time. I keep thinking about it. And then I never follow through.

20:00

But this was how I was wooing my wife when we were dating and then engaged.

20:05

I was getting her Sweet Granada baskets delivered from Emporia. So good. And then when we got married,

20:12

I did that a couple of times too. But yeah, I've thought about it and I just never do it. It's okay.

20:18

I still love you. But there's also kind of those modes where it's like, she probably doesn't want candy right now.

20:25

You know what I mean? I always want candy. All right. Noted. Yes. I'll write that down over here.

20:34

Sometimes it's not the best for me, but yes, I always want candy. You want it.

20:39

It's just probably not what you should be eating right now. Right. This next question has been submitted to us anonymously, so we've been asked to keep this anonymous.

20:49

Hi, Gabe and Becky. My husband is not a believer, but thankfully he still allows my daughter and me to attend church and other church related activities.

20:59

I have felt a conviction to start tithing. However, my husband won't allow me to because he is the only one working at the moment and doesn't want, quote, his money being given away, especially to something that he doesn't agree with.

21:14

I want to honor him in this, but how do I continue to honor him and honor God at the same time?

21:21

Thank you so much for your time. Now I'm going to kind of ignore the label of tithing because our

21:30

New Testament system of giving is not the tithe. I have a video on this. The Old Testament system of giving was not the tithe either.

21:41

Tithes were taxes and they were required. You had to pay the tithe. But the

21:46

Lord also called for freewill giving and that's whatever you wanted to give on top of those taxes that Israel was required to pay.

21:54

So what you give to the church is not a tithe. There is not a requirement to give 10 % of your income to the church.

22:03

You don't find that command anywhere in Scripture. What we do have is this. It's in 2

22:08

Corinthians 9, starting in verse 6. The point is this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

22:21

Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

22:31

So we give what we can give and do so cheerfully. If you can give 10%, then give 10%.

22:37

Like we've had new members that come to our church and they say, what is your views on tithing?

22:43

I'll quote them this from 2 Corinthians 9 and I will say, we as a church are never going to hunt you down if you're not giving 10%.

22:50

We're not even watching to see if your giving is consistent from one month to the next.

22:56

I remember Mark Dever being asked one time, it was a Q &A panel. It was him and D .A.

23:02

Carson who were going back and forth answering questions that had been submitted by the congregation. And this question fell to Mark Dever and said, what do you do for a member of your congregation that isn't tithing anymore or isn't giving to the church anymore?

23:16

And he sits there and he goes, pray for them? Everybody kind of laughs and he says,

23:22

I mean, you're asking that question as though, should we discipline them somehow? And the answer is no, we shouldn't.

23:28

But if that person is not giving to the church, then there's probably going to be some kind of disconnect between them and the

23:36

Lord. And so we should pray that they would desire to give and give to God with a cheerful heart.

23:43

And whatever they give, they're doing so in the service to the Lord. This is an act of worship.

23:49

A few years back, I wanted to take offering plates out of the service because I had listened to a pastor who was talking about how he took offering plates out of his service and they just put a box in the back.

24:01

They said, we've never struggled, never suffered in giving. And it doesn't obligate people to have to give.

24:08

They give cheerfully out of their own heart. And so I thought, that sounds like a great idea.

24:14

So I proposed it to our deacons. I don't think we had elders yet at the time. We were still in that through that process of studying about eldership before we appointed our first elders.

24:25

So I put it before the deacons and I said, what's your ideas? What are your thoughts on we don't even have the offering plate in the service anymore?

24:32

And one of the guys who eventually became an elder at our church, Dave, he spoke up and said, no,

24:38

I think you keep the offering plates in the service because this is worship. So we're worshiping together

24:43

Sunday morning, 1030 to noon or 1220 when Gabe goes over. And part of our worship service is giving to the

24:53

Lord. So we still have the collection with the passing of offering plates. So they were giving people an opportunity to serve and worship

25:00

God with their giving. And I was like, I can't argue with that. That's about the best answer

25:07

I think that someone could give in opposition to removing offering plates from the church. So there is not a mandated 10%.

25:14

And again, when we have new members that ask about this, we'll tell them, if you can give 10%,

25:20

I think that's a good mark to set. It's a good discipline. We're going to give 10 % of our monthly income to the

25:27

Lord. But we leave it up to the family to decide because if the 10 % makes them not cheerful anymore because their bills are too tight after, then that's not what we wanted.

25:44

Right. I mean, you're still going to have to give to your mortgage lender or your mortgage holder.

25:52

Still got to make the payment on the car, still got to pay your bills. You got to do all of those things. Keep your kids clothed.

25:59

Yes. All the things that are needed to be done. But I also don't think that you make all of those payments that you need to make on a monthly basis and then look at what you have left.

26:10

Exactly. And then go, oh, well, we got this much left. Well, how about we give this much to the church? Right.

26:15

This is why budgeting is important. Exactly. Because then coming into the month, you can budget everything out and you see exactly what you've got and what you can give.

26:25

So you're setting that mark and saying, we're going to give this much so that it's still a first fruits.

26:34

It's still a desire and an intention before you even get that paycheck. We're going to give this much to the church.

26:40

We're giving this much to missions. We're giving this much to parachurch organizations. We're giving this much to God.

26:47

But you're doing it responsibly. Yeah. As good stewards. Right. Exactly. With what the

26:52

Lord has given to you. I was thinking shrewd, but I couldn't get past that. That it's not really shrewd.

26:59

Another S word. Yeah. Yeah. Good stewards. Stewards. Yeah. There's some shrewdness to it,

27:05

I guess. Yeah. You're being a good steward with that which the Lord has given to you. Because it ultimately all belongs to God anyway.

27:12

And that's why I think this anonymous gal put his money in quotation marks referring to her husband's money.

27:20

He is an unbeliever, has not yet come to the understanding that it's not his money. It belongs to God.

27:27

So we pray for his soul, most certainly. But we as Christians understand that everything that we have been given is ultimately

27:34

God's anyway. So when we give to the church, we're giving to him, to the service of his kingdom, that which already belongs to the

27:42

Lord. He's blessed us with something that we might bless others with it. And whenever you don't have something to give, then you can give of something that you do have.

27:52

Like time. Or if you're good at cooking, you can cook a meal. Or you can be a good host.

28:02

Empty the trash cans at the church. Vacuum the floors. Fold the bulletins. There's plenty of stuff that you can just jump right in.

28:11

I mean, they're tedious, but they all need doing. And really, it frees up the hands that are able to do something else.

28:20

And then everybody can shift in a place that everybody is able to bless the church.

28:28

Right. So it's not just about tithing money. I mean, you can devote some time.

28:35

There's that, oh, what do you call it? It's got the same alliteration.

28:42

There's that alliteration thing that people use where they say time, talent, and treasure. Yes. So it's like the three

28:47

Ts. You're giving your time. You're giving your talent, an ability that you have, a gifting that you've been given to the service of the church.

28:56

We've all been called to that as well. And then of your treasure, the money that God has given to you, you're giving to the church.

29:02

So that's just kind of, as we're going into answering this question, that's just kind of a primer to start things out.

29:09

You can also do prayer. Sorry, I just thought of that. You can pray. That's not a T. It's not a T, babe.

29:15

But that falls under time. See, that's stuff that we should be doing anyway, praying for our church.

29:21

Well, yes. But I mean not just in a rushed, please,

29:27

Lord, bless our church. Actually pray for specifics and reading through the

29:35

Bible and using that as your prayer. Asking somebody in your church,

29:41

I mean, do we have a prayer list that's set up? Is there something that I can do to help put that kind of thing together?

29:46

Right. So, yeah, that all goes in with time and talent. Right. And I can also throw in there the whole card writing that we've been promoting lately.

29:58

Yeah, right. You can write cards to people in your church. Be encouraging. Yeah. There are plenty of things that you can do.

30:05

But that's not to offset a call that we have to give.

30:11

True. For we are commanded to give, but just that we give with a cheerful heart, not under compulsion or out of reluctance, but doing so because we want to.

30:23

And the Apostle Paul, in his instruction to the Corinthians in the previous letter, in 1 Corinthians chapter 16, he even says, set aside some money at the start of the week and be doing this on a regular basis so that when

30:34

I come to you, it's not, oh, hey, we're supposed to be taking up an offering. Let's do it right now and get it all gathered up.

30:39

But regularly as the church is gathered, that offering has been collected so that it might go help those

30:45

Christians that are in need, which Paul was going to deliver it to. But I'm looking at the fact that her husband doesn't want her to.

30:52

Okay, we're getting there. Okay. So we're starting with kind of a basic primer on that word tithing.

30:57

Yeah, I'm jumping right in. Yes. It's just that word tithing means a tenth.

31:03

So we'll feel obligated by that word to give a tenth. So I like the word offering better.

31:11

And so sometimes we'll lump that in together and we'll say tithes and offerings because people are so used to that word tithe.

31:18

Right. But it's not a tithe that we've been called to give. We've been called to give of what the

31:25

Lord has given to us, absolutely, but not obligated to give a set amount and it always be that much.

31:31

Right. I just start out with that so that you would be free from the burden of thinking about a tithe.

31:37

Ah, check. And more that you are giving what you can give with a cheerful heart.

31:43

So that's the overview of tithing. Now let's get to the specifics of the question. So starting out, my husband is not a believer, but thankfully he still allows my daughter and me to attend church and other church -related activities.

31:57

So here's the first piece of advice that I'm going to give you, is that you talk with your pastor about this and exactly this.

32:04

You could even take this question exactly the way you've given it to me and give it to your pastor and say, can you help me with this?

32:13

Because the pastor of your church, it's good that he knows this, that your husband is not saved and maybe you've already told him this.

32:20

I'm not telling you anything that you've not already talked about with your pastor, but I'm still saying that he is your shepherd.

32:28

And so it would be better to follow his guidance on this than mine.

32:35

I'm willing to offer whatever help that I can through this program, but I think that your pastor, it is right for him to know this, especially when he's got such close proximity to you and to your husband, that he might be able to reach out to your husband and share the gospel with him.

32:51

And maybe your pastor can influence your husband to become a believer. And people in your church know to pray for you over this.

33:01

This is not uncommon for us in our church, that we have a woman that will come whose husband is not saved.

33:07

Yeah. It's quite often. Yeah. We've dealt with exactly this issue before as well.

33:15

I'll tell you off mic who I'm thinking of, or you may already know who I'm talking about.

33:20

But she started attending our church. Her husband wasn't a Christian. Every time she came to us and talked about it, she was always in tears over it.

33:27

But she wanted to start giving to our church, and she said the same thing to us. My husband is the breadwinner.

33:34

He doesn't want the money that we make to be given to the church because he doesn't believe in it. He thinks it would be a waste of money.

33:40

What can I do about that? And so we sat down and talked with her. Over time, her husband's heart was softened to it, and he even started attending church with her later.

33:50

Unfortunately, the military moved them on. I never got the privilege of baptizing the man, but I hope that he's saved.

33:57

We've kind of lost contact with one another over the last couple of years. But I remember this issue coming up. We want to give, but my husband's not going to let me give.

34:06

After they left, even when they moved to the place the military moved them to next, she had left behind 12 checks, and each check had $100 and a date of the first of the month.

34:19

And so she was continuing to give to our church for a year, even after she was gone.

34:26

Because the next month would roll around, and we would deposit that check. So that was the giving that she continued to give even after they left our church.

34:34

But anyway, talk with your pastor about that, because he does want that opportunity to be able to share the gospel with your husband.

34:41

And hopefully, you'll be able to see him come to Christ. That is ultimately what I know you want.

34:47

So how do you deal, then, with the conviction to want to give, but your husband won't allow you to?

34:55

Here would be my advice regarding your husband. I would say, go to him and say, is there an allowance that you can give me per month?

35:05

Since you're the one that makes the money, and you're concerned about what I spend it on, can you give me an allowance and say, here's how much money

35:15

I'm going to give you every month. You can do with this what you like. And explain to your husband, don't do this dishonestly, but explain to him, part of what

35:25

I plan on doing with the money that you give to me is give to the church that I attend. And tell him it means a lot to me.

35:32

I believe Jesus Christ is Lord, that he has died on the cross for my sins, that he has risen again from the grave, that he has called me to be a part of his church, his body, the body of Christ.

35:46

And in order for a church to do the ministry that it does, sharing the gospel with others, it needs money to be able to do that.

35:53

And so I'm asking you if it would be okay if I would give to this cause that I believe in by having an allowance that you have given to me, and then

36:03

I'm going to give a portion of that allowance out of my own heart to the church that I attend.

36:08

Would that be okay with you? So that'd be a good conversation to have with your husband. Talk with your pastor about it, get some advice from him.

36:15

Your pastor wants to be in on this so he knows how to pray for you and maybe even witness to your husband. And then be open and honest with your husband about what you plan on doing with money that he gives to you.

36:28

You say that I want to honor him in this, but how do I continue to honor him and honor

36:34

God at the same time? I would tell you to do with your money what your husband tells you to do with the money.

36:42

Right. I think that that would be the best course of action. And I don't think that you are being disobedient to the

36:48

Lord because you would submit to what your husband requires of you with the money that he gives to you.

36:56

Right. 1 Peter 3, verse 1 says, Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives when they see your respectful and pure conduct.

37:16

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.

37:32

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

37:41

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

37:49

So be in submission to your husband. If he doesn't want you to give money to the church, then don't.

37:55

But again, be open and honest with him about it and express to him your desire that I want to give some money to the church.

38:02

Will you give me an allowance and allow me, since it's called allowance, to give a portion of that to the church because that's what

38:11

I want to do? Now, we know some people that move around to places that don't have quality churches or like sometimes on post they don't have, like it's not the same chaplain.

38:30

Yeah. So what do you recommend for anybody who would be maybe in that situation?

38:36

Like they're going to a chapel? Yeah. With a chaplain? Yeah. All of that's funded by the military anyway.

38:43

Yeah. I mean, they don't have the same chaplain every week kind of thing. Right. So what would you recommend to someone who's...

38:50

I recommend that you don't go to the chapel on post. But if there's not another option.

38:56

I know, if there's not another option, especially... Because you said you would send her to her pastor.

39:03

Right. And I'm just saying... What if she's attending a chapel where there's a chaplain?

39:08

Right. I would still say find a chaplain that you can trust. Okay. Because even though most military chaplains are going to be kind of wonky.

39:16

And you've even got Wiccan chaplains. Yeah, that's weird. In the military. You would probably have a chaplain speaking at chapel this

39:24

Sunday who's Mormon. Probably not Jehovah's Witness because they shun the military.

39:31

Oh, yeah. That would be awkward. Yeah. They're pacifists. So I don't think you have a Jehovah's Witness chaplain. But anyway, you might have somebody that believes that way, believes something heretical.

39:41

They're heterodox. And they're standing in front of the chapel and doing their strange sermon, whatever it is they're going to be teaching on.

39:50

Don't go to one of those kinds of chaplains. But you can surely find somebody... Okay. That is sound in their faith and in their teaching that you can trust and you can share this with.

40:01

And they've had some pastoral training and can probably give you some good advice on that. I know that at our church, we have some cards that are right by the door that are actually put out by,

40:13

I think, the North American Missions Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. And each one of those cards has a different chaplain listed on it that has been endorsed by the

40:23

SBC. By our own Southern Baptist Convention. Cool. So anyway, there are ways that you can go about finding chaplains that might be affiliated or associated with a particular ministry.

40:35

If you come from a certain denomination, call your denomination and ask them, do you have certain chaplains that you recommend?

40:43

I live in this area. So is there a chaplain that you would recommend that I could speak to? That's a good idea.

40:49

Now, of course, when folks go from our church and they move to another place, we tell them, don't automatically go to the

40:55

Southern Baptist Church in the town that you're moving to, because we're so autonomous that we're almost as completely different as every other

41:03

Baptist church in our community. Yeah, sometimes it's night and day. Yeah. Like, for example, Stephen Furtick is a

41:09

Southern Baptist. Is he really? Oh, yeah. I thought that was not. Elevation Church is

41:14

Southern Baptist. Maybe it's somebody else that I was thinking. Beth Moore is Southern Baptist. I wouldn't send you to either one of their churches.

41:20

Yeah. So don't just automatically assume that they're all gonna be the same. But anyway, all that just to say, if you've got a denomination, call them, ask if there's a chaplain in your area, look up that chaplain and talk to them.

41:32

Okay. Or if you're part of like PWOC, the Protestant Women's Group, that would be on post, talk to some of them and see, hey, is there a good sound chaplain that I can go to and talk to?

41:44

Somebody that you say that I can trust. Okay. So you get kind of that pastoral counseling a little bit.

41:50

Cause I just know that there's a lot of, most of the women that come into our church with this issue are military.

41:57

And so. Right. But that just, I mean, that's just area thing. So I'm sure that happens everywhere.

42:03

For our own locale. Right. But for our location, yeah. That seems to be pretty, pretty prevalent.

42:12

Yeah. Yeah. It's really sad. But at the same time, we've seen a lot of husbands come to the

42:19

Lord too. We have. And it's amazing. Yep. I've had the chance to baptize some of them. It's been a beautiful thing.

42:25

The Lord has been working through this ministry in a military town. We'll get a family for a couple of years and then they're with us.

42:32

They get sound doctrine. They get expository teaching, you know, and then we move them on to another place and they're equipped with.

42:39

We don't move them. Military moves them. Yeah, the military moves them. Did I say we do? Yep. You said we do. Well, we do.

42:44

We send them off. We send them, yeah. Okay. We bless them. Laying hands on them, praying for them, that the

42:50

Lord would bless them as they go to their next change of station. We ask for a blessing. I'm messing up all my words.

42:56

Don't mind me. So we've got, let's see. Did I cover everything on that question?

43:02

I think that was everything. All right. And we'll be praying for you. When we get done with the program, we want to lift you up in prayer as well.

43:09

Yes. The anonymous gal. It's so anonymous that I don't know her name. So we're all good there.

43:15

No risk of me slipping up. Completely anonymous. This next question comes from Grant.

43:20

He says, Pastor Gabe, you read my son Zachariah's email asking about Jesus and sin in the

43:28

Q &A a few weeks ago. Do you remember this? Yeah. So Zachariah asked the question, was it possible for Jesus to sin or not?

43:36

And my answer to that was yes and no. Of course, he was without sin. That goes without saying.

43:42

Jesus never sinned. But could he have sinned? And I said yes and no. So Grant goes on.

43:48

Why does the humanity of Christ mean that Christ must possess the capability to sin?

43:54

Since Christ was a perfect man, couldn't he also not possess the capability to sin?

44:01

I don't know. I think my answer to that question would just rehash what it was that I said a few weeks ago, where the divine side of Christ's incarnation would not have sinned, but the human side could have sinned.

44:18

And if Jesus couldn't have sinned, then Satan's temptation of Christ would have been a complete exercise in futility.

44:27

Right. And it even says in Matthew chapter 3, going into the start of chapter 4, that the

44:34

Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted. That was the reason why he went into the desert was to be tempted.

44:42

So we have in Hebrews chapter 2, it being said in verse 17, therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

44:59

For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

45:07

Next verse we have in Hebrews chapter 4, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin.

45:23

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

45:31

And going along with this last week, I mentioned looking up the article from R .C. Sproul, the question that was posed at Ligonier .com

45:40

or Ligonier .org, whichever, I can't remember the website name, but anyway. I don't know. The name of the article was,

45:46

Could Jesus Have Sinned? After that, a day later, Grant sent another email.

45:53

Oh. And he said, not sure if you follow TGC, the Gospel Coalition, but occasionally something worth reading comes through.

46:00

This is by Kevin DeYoung. Yes, I do still follow the Gospel Coalition every once in a while. I'm very disappointed that they've gone in the direction of social justice the way that they have.

46:09

Yeah. And a whole plethora of other things I won't get into. I basically wrote off TGC after MLK 50.

46:17

As far as an organization goes that I can recommend,

46:23

I can't recommend them anymore. That conference was an absolute disaster and everything that has come from MLK 50 since then,

46:32

I cannot recommend TGC. And there are men like Kevin DeYoung who are on the panel at the

46:39

Gospel Coalition. I wish would stand up and say something about it. The panel? Yeah, he's on the board.

46:45

Like if you go to TGC and you look at who their members are. Got it.

46:51

Like their names and faces. There are guys on that group that I'm like, why don't they say something about this?

46:56

Albert Moeller being one of them. Okay. Alistair Begg, Kevin DeYoung. I don't really think that any one of those guys went along with what they did at MLK 50.

47:06

But have some courage and take a stand on that. Kevin DeYoung was so willing to confront the stuff that Tulian Chevijian was putting out when he was part of TGC.

47:17

And yet he won't say anything about the stuff that Thabiti Anwabuile is writing.

47:22

Especially articles like your parents and your grandparents were complicit in the murder of Martin Luther King Jr.

47:29

Right. And the article that he wrote telling Christians like your Christian duty is to vote for Hillary Clinton.

47:35

It's like, why isn't. That's terrible. Why aren't any of these guys calling this out?

47:40

Yeah. I wouldn't be able to sit on that and continue. That's my own conviction. That's. I'm speaking on my own behalf there, but I.

47:48

Yeah, you're a little bit ranting. Yeah, I am. I wouldn't be able to continue to sit on that panel with all that stuff going on and it not being called out.

47:55

Yeah. That's just me. That's neither here nor there. I'm not trying to pass judgment on anyone for that.

48:01

Yeah. So this is the this is the section of that article that Kevin DeYoung wrote.

48:07

First, Christ impeccability can be deduced from Scripture. If Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.

48:13

Hebrews 13, 8. He must be unchanging in his holiness. A mutable holiness would be inconsistent with omnipotence of Christ and irreconcilable with the fact that Christ is the author and the finisher of our faith.

48:27

Hebrews 12, 2. Christ is unlike the first Adam and that he is the fountain of all holiness and from him can proceed nothing but life and light.

48:37

If Christ were able to sin, his holiness would by definition be open to change.

48:44

His obedience open to failure, even if Christ proved in the end to be faithful.

48:50

A peccable Christ is a Savior who can be trusted only by hindsight.

48:56

At the start of the article, well, that was the section that Grant highlighted for me. At the start of the article, DeYoung says, the doctrine of impeccability states that Christ was not only sinless, he was unable to sin.

49:07

Non passa peccari would be the Latin for it. As the incarnate Son of God, Christ faced real temptations, but these temptations did not arise in Christ due to sinful desires.

49:20

Christ was not only able to overcome temptation, he was unable to be overcome by it.

49:27

Christ's impeccability has been widely affirmed through the history of the church and defended by most of the leading reformed systematicians.

49:35

In the last 150 years, however, many theologians have rejected the idea that Christ was unable to sin, arguing instead that peccability is necessary for Christ's temptations to be genuine and for Christ to sympathize with his people.

49:49

I disagree with DeYoung on that and I don't think that his history is accurate. It's not just in the last 150 years that theologians have come out and have questioned whether or not

50:00

Jesus was able to sin. This goes all the way back to Augustine. That statement that DeYoung made there, non passa peccari, that comes from Augustine.

50:11

Augustine called the passa peccari and the passa non peccari. That is the ability to sin and the ability not to sin.

50:18

Adam sinned, Jesus did not. Satan did everything in his power to corrupt

50:25

Jesus and tempt him to sin. And that would have been an exercise in futility. I'm quoting from Sproul here.

50:31

That would have been an exercise in futility had he been trying to tempt a divine person to sin. Satan was not trying to get

50:38

God to sin. He was trying to get the human nature of Christ to sin so that he would not be qualified to be the

50:45

Savior. Now you might say, well, that almost sounds heretical that you're dividing Christ's divine side and his human side.

50:52

Well, you're right, because it was Satan that was trying to do that. Exactly. So of course that's heretical.

50:57

But like I said a few weeks ago when I talked about this, there are things about Christ's incarnation that are just going to be mysterious to us.

51:06

This thing that we call the hypostatic union. Jesus was very

51:11

God and he was very man. How is that possible? We don't know.

51:16

We don't know that. We accept it as truth, but we cannot put into scientific or layman's terms what that could possibly mean in the fullest extent at which it could be described.

51:30

What is very God and what is very man? Jesus was tempted. And one thing

51:36

I do agree with DeYoung on, he was not tempted the same way that we're tempted. Right. There is a temptation that was in Christ, but it was not a temptation like we face temptation.

51:48

When we face temptation, we have a desire in our heart for something sinful. Christ was tempted, but he did not have a desire in his heart for something sinful.

51:56

So I agree with DeYoung on that, but I also think that he's whittling down the definitions of impeccability and peccability to fit his explanation of this.

52:09

Okay. Not what I would define as impeccability and peccability. So I still believe that Jesus was impeccable.

52:15

DeYoung would disagree with that. He would say, no, you believe that Jesus was peccable. Nope. When it comes down to it,

52:21

I think that this is kind of a futile conversation. It does start sounding that way.

52:28

Because it's like, when it comes down to it, Jesus didn't sin. So we agree that he was sinless.

52:34

Right. And I think that we can venture into speculative territory when we start arguing whether he could or could not have sinned.

52:42

I'm not going to fall on my sword over this. So if you say, Gabe, you're wrong.

52:48

Jesus had no ability to sin. I'm going to say, okay. I'm not going to argue with that.

52:54

All right. But just in my explanation, as the question was presented to me, I think that he could have possibly sinned, but that doesn't in any way infringe upon his impeccability or his perfection at all.

53:10

Because he didn't. Because he didn't sin. And he was conceived of the

53:17

Holy Spirit. He was born without sin. He did not even have the desire for sin.

53:23

I'm totally with you on all of that. Whereas when we're tempted, we have that desire. We're like fighting the desire to do this sinful thing.

53:30

Yes. Whereas that wasn't the case with Christ. So anyway, we can go back and forth on that. If, Grant, you're reading some things that lead you to believe, no,

53:39

I don't agree with you, Pastor Gabe. Honestly, brother, great. And I'm glad that you've done study on that and can defend that from scripture and can hold that viewpoint.

53:48

And ultimately, Grant, when it comes to leading your son, that's on you before it's on me.

53:53

So if you want to sit down with Zechariah and say to him,

53:59

I disagree with Brother Gabe on this, and here's the reason why, that's fantastic, man.

54:05

And as his father, that is a wonderful way to lead your son in an understanding of scripture. I tell members of my congregation, you're free to disagree with me, but you better bring the

54:16

Bible when you do it. Right. Yes. And I tell them to read other pastors and other theologians on this stuff.

54:23

So I have no... To do their own studies and... Yeah, no insecurity on what it is that I believe to be challenged on those things, at least when you're challenging me with the

54:34

Bible, most definitely. All right, that's going to bring us to the conclusion of our program today. Thank you so much for listening.

54:40

Don't forget that you can send your emails to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com. And if you have read 25

54:47

Christmas Myths and What the Bible Says, leave us a review on Amazon. Don't forget that's where you can pick up the book, in paperback or for your

54:55

Kindle. Let's pray. Yes, let's. Heavenly Father, we thank you for our time together on this program and opening up your word and seeing the answers that you have given to us according to your apostles and prophets.

55:11

And I pray that we are given the Spirit of God to make sense of what we read and apply it to questions asked, apply it to practical things that we must do in the way that we live out our

55:23

Christian walk. We look to a Savior who is indeed impeccable and without sin, who fulfilled all the law and the prophets and gave himself up as an atoning sacrifice for our sins, so that all who have faith and believe in him will not perish, but have everlasting life.

55:41

And it is the message of this gospel that we take forth and with courage and boldness, sharing the gospel with those who need to hear it and so believe it and then live.

55:52

We wanna pray for our anonymous contributor and in the situation that she's in at home, we pray for her husband, that his heart would be softened to the gospel, that he would hear it and be convicted over his sin and would turn to Christ and be saved.

56:08

We pray for the church that this woman and her daughter attend, that there are people, some good

56:14

Christians around her who can encourage her and build her up and be praying for her as she is in this tough situation, but especially with a broken heart, wanting to see her husband come to faith so that he will not be under the judgment of God, but receive his grace and eternal life through Jesus Christ, our

56:33

Lord. We pray for Grant as he's leading his son, so great to hear that he's got sons that are listening to this program.

56:40

And I pray that you would give this man wisdom as he leads his sons in the truth and his entire family.

56:46

And I pray that we would continue to walk in light of this truth. As we are told in Titus 2, verses 11 and 12, the grace of God has appeared, teaching us to renounce ungodliness and to walk upright and godly lives in the present age.

57:04

Lead us in your truth, in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. All right, that's going to bring us to the conclusion of our program today.

58:15

Thank you so much for listening. Becky is now at the point where she's picking stuff off her blanket. What's this pile you're making on my desk here?

58:22

It's not soft. I was going to throw it away.

58:30

I just didn't figure you wanted me to get up that much. So did you hear the sound?

58:39

Like the Velcro sound as she's pulling stuff off the blanket. Set it down there. Stop, that is totally you.

58:46

Stop. Was my answer that boring? No. That you're messing with stuff on the blanket?

58:55

Would you stop it? I had nothing to add to that conversation.

59:02

So there was not for me to pipe up yet. I still love you.

59:11

Well, that's good. Even though you make fun of me when I'm tired. I'm glad we cleared the air there.