WWUTT 2420 Q&A Mustard Seeds and Leaven, Pastor Sabbaticals, Brandon Lake's Lyrics, Bryce Crawford's Evangelism

Proverbs 10 and the Speech of the Righteous

When Jesus gave the parables of the mustard seed and the leaven, does that have something to do with the end of the world? Should we be singing Brandon Lake songs in church? And does the Bible say anything about sabbaticals?

The answers when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word, brought to you by Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Casa Grande, Arizona. For more information about our ministry, visit our website at www .pastorgabe .com.

Once again, it's Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky.

You're welcome.

Let's start with a scripture here from Proverbs 10, finishing up the chapter with verses 31 and 32.

Awesome.

The mouth of the righteous bears wisdom, but the tongue of perversions will be cut out. The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, but the mouth of the wicked what is perverse. So there's two Proverbs there, both having to do with the mouth.

Mouth of the righteous bears wisdom. The tongue of perversions will be cut out. In Revelation 21, it says the liars and those who speak falsely will not inherit the kingdom of God. So those who speak words in such a way that would tear others down instead of exalt Christ and speak truth ultimately will be cut out, thrown into the outer darkness.

I think of the illustration Jesus gives in Matthew 24. They will be cut into pieces and thrown out with the hypocrites.

Yeah, that's true.

So the tongue, one of those pieces, that'll get cut out. Then the lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, but the mouth of the wicked what is perverse. So you have that word perverse that appears there again for both.

The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable. We speak things that are pleasing to God. Remember the warning that Jesus gives in Matthew 12. Every person's going to have to give an account for every idle word they speak.

The mouth of the wicked speaks those things that are perverse. So also what Jesus says about out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. So what is coming out of a person's mouth, the righteous know what to say that is acceptable and pleasing before God.

The mouth of the wicked, what is perverse. If I can impress upon you any kind of exhortation, Christian, stop swearing.

Yeah.

Come on.

And be kinder in your car.

Be kinder.

And in front of your laptops.

Yeah.

Or on the phone.

Even the stuff you type or swipe is registered in the heavenly registry as well.

Yeah.

So yeah.

Let's be careful with what it is that we say. With David say, God set a guard over the door of my lips. So what we say will be pleasing unto the Lord.

Oh, amen.

Babe, how are you enjoying your summer so far?

Good.

School's over.

Yes.

We're into the summertime.

Yes.

I'm just about done with getting everything turned over. So just a little bit more for the next teacher.

Oh, yeah. I gotcha.

Getting my stuff to the next teacher. And yeah, but so many things checked off my to-do list.

Awesome.

So I am so grateful.

Great.

It has been very productive this week. Thank you for making the sacrifice to you for allowing me to do that.

I get to go back to work at the church again.

Yes.

Instead of from home.

Yes.

As soon as you're back at home. What was I going to mention? Oh, the podcast.

Yes.

The delays that we've had. So for those of you who listen Monday through Friday, you'll notice I skipped a bunch in.

There.

I just got so behind I couldn't get caught up. So I went ahead and took a week back and now I'm a day ahead again. So instead of you getting the podcast uploaded like the night of the day that it's supposed to post.

Yes.

Right.

Instead of the night before.

Depending upon your hour.

Exactly.

Right.

I'm back on time with everything again. And the Hear the Word of the Lord podcast is still going on. It's still been kicking along even though I haven't gotten these episodes up in time. So if you want to catch just straight Bible reading, there's no commentary, no music or anything else, then look for Hear the Word of the Lord, that podcast and whatever podcast app that you like to use.

Daily Bible readings, about three or four chapters a day.

Yeah.

And we'll get you through the whole Bible in a year. So this is the end of the week broadcast when we take questions from the listeners and you can send those questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

First question that we have here is from our friend Tyler.

Oh, awesome.

Tyler and Mackenzie, I married back in December.

Yeah.

That wedding was in December, wasn't it?

Yeah.

Something like, man, that was, that seems like it wasn't that far ago, but it was.

About half a year ago now, yeah.

That's crazy.

Aw.

So this has to do with one of the teachings that I did out of Luke 13. And Tyler says, hi, Pastor Gabe, I hope you and your family are doing well. Part of the family's right here.

Yes.

Yeah, there we go.

We pray for you all as well as Providence Reformed Baptist Church. If you all have any specific prayer requests, we'd love to pray for you about those as well. Got a specific request, babe?

Just for the church building.

Yeah.

So things to go smoothly and...

We're still crammed into a tight space.

Yeah.

And our immediate need is to find a larger space to be able to meet.

Yeah.

So be praying for that. Tyler knew that when he was here.

Yep.

So that...

Still fighting that battle.

That need hasn't changed, yeah. I was listening to your Luke 13, 18 to 30 podcast episode, and you talked about the parable of the mustard seed and the leaven hidden in flour. I'm part of a men's Bible study, and the idea that some believe those parables have an eschatological meaning did come up.

They're premillennial, and part of what one of the men said about it was that symbols in the Bible mean the same thing wherever they're used. So birds of the air refer to Satan or evil or bad things in leaven, like when Jesus warns against the leaven of the Pharisees is also a bad thing.

And so those parables are actually about the church becoming corrupted, in a sense, opposed to the post-meal interpretation of those verses. I was wondering if you had ever heard this before, and if you had any thoughts, or if you'd consider answering it on one of your Saturday episodes, if you don't have time to respond directly to me.

Anyways, I hope all is well. Mackenzie is 22 weeks pregnant with a girl.

Oh, yay!

Wonderful!

Congratulations, guys.

Yeah!

They got pregnant really fast, then, so got married and...

Aw, what a blessing.

There's no good way to follow up that or continue that sentence with what I was going to say,.

So...

Back up.

Why are you looking at me like that? All right, so back to this question again. Let me come back and read again those two parables in Luke 13. This is verses 18 to 21, okay? So I'll read the parables again, we'll get the recap, and then understand what's being said here.

So, Jesus said, what is the kingdom of God like, and to what shall I compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.

And again he said, to what shall I compare the kingdom of God? It is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour until it was all.

Leavened.

So one of the things that I mentioned teaching on this passage is that the post-millennials love this verse, because they think that the leaven, as mentioned in verses 20 and 21, is about how the kingdom of God is going to spread over the entire earth.

Okay.

Everybody's going to be a believer, or at least the gospel will have gone out to absolutely everybody, and the majority of the world will be Christian by the time that Jesus returns. And they think this parable points to that, because verse 21 says, the kingdom of God is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour until it was all leavened.

So that's the whole world. The kingdom of God is going to be over the entire earth.

Okay.

Okay.

I agree with that interpretation in a sense, because when we enter into the eternal kingdom, yeah, it's going to be everything and everywhere.

Yes.

So sure, if you want to take that interpretation, it's just not going to be that the majority of the world is going to be Christianized. That's not the way to interpret that.

Right.

So how do we see these two things? And the interpretation that I gave when I was teaching in this passage is that the grain of mustard seed is a reference to the kingdom of God external, and the leaven hidden in flour is a reference to the kingdom of God internal.

So with regard to the mustard seed, a man took and sowed in his garden, it grew and became a tree and the birds of the air made nests in his branches. Now, one of the arguments that Tyler brought up is that somebody in his group had said, whenever symbols appear in the Bible, they always mean the same thing all the time.

I disagree with that. So he mentioned that the birds of the air refer to Satan or evil or bad things. But that's not true. Because there are other places in the Bible where birds are referenced. The birds nesting in branches is a reference to a good thing.

Right.

You know, when Jesus talked about in the Sermon on the Mount, for example, Matthew chapter six, look at the birds. They neither store in barns, yet your heavenly father cares for them and feeds them.

Yeah.

How much more valuable are you than the birds?

And there wasn't wasn't there something about birds bringing the food as they're wandering or something like that?

The birds bringing the food as they're watering?

No.

As the people are wandering.

Oh, wandering.

Then didn't the birds bring them food or something?

Well, there was the quail in the wilderness.

Yeah.

The quail were the food.

Yeah.

But wasn't there something?

Well, then there were the birds that brought Elijah food when he was.

Okay.

Is that what you were thinking of?

Yes.

That's the one I was thinking.

Gotcha.

But I knew about the quail being the food.

Yeah.

But I was like, no, that's not it. But then, yeah, it was Elijah.

Well, then there's also this one in Psalm 84. How lovely are your dwelling places, O Yahweh of hosts. My soul has longed and even fainted for the courts of Yahweh. My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.

Here's verse three. Even the bird has found a home and the swallow a nest for herself where she sets her young. At your altars, O Yahweh of hosts, my king and my God. So this is a song from the Sons of Korah.

And the Sons of Korah cared for the temple. They would open the gates for when people came in to worship. As I've heard it described of the Sons of Korah, they would clean the doormats.

Yes.

So they were like the janitors of the temple. So they're in the temple serving all the time. And they see how on the top of the temple, birds would come and make nests. And so how lovely is this place where God meets with us that even the birds up there find a home.

So they're taking a real natural observation and applying it to the goodness and care of God for his people and his creatures. Even the bird has found a home and the swallow a nest for herself where she sets her young.

At your altars, O Yahweh of hosts. The very altar where birds would be sacrificed.

Right, exactly.

And yet God allows these birds to be there on top of his dwelling place and find residence. So how much more does God care for us?

Right.

It's a good reference in that way. So yeah, birds.

It cares for the sparrows.

Yes, right.

And then there's also like something about being eagle's wings, like under his wing.

He will bear you up on eagle's wings.

Yes.

Yes.

And something about being comforted by wings and stuff like that. It's all over.

Right.

It's all over being a very positive thing.

There are various references. So you understand it according to the context.

Right.

And therefore the leaven, even though leaven is almost every time leaven comes up, it's almost always a reference to a bad thing.

Right.

So true.

But this is not the case here. Even in the previous chapter, in chapter 12, Jesus said, beware the leaven of the Pharisees. He had warned the disciples about that.

Right.

So here you have a reference to leaven again. Is that something that's supposed to be bad? Well, again, the context is what determines the usage, especially when it comes to a parable. So it's not how this symbol has been used elsewhere in the Bible.

That's still helpful. You're talking about a biblical context in that sense.

Right.

But your immediate context is still what you most want to be focused on. You have to be careful about not letting a previous biblical context coming into what it is that you're reading and letting that be the deciding factor of how you interpret that particular passage.

Right.

It's still the context in which it's given. What else is going on around that verse? Before you start looking, you start doing your cross-referencing and finding where else this is appearing in the Bible.

Right.

The immediate reference is still primary.

The passage.

Exactly.

Right.

Yeah.

It's just basic reading comprehension when it comes down to it. So I read mostly classical commentaries. And the only commentary that I could find that came up with an interpretation of the leaven being a bad thing in this parable was John Gill's.

And yet Gill only presented it as a possible interpretation. He wasn't saying that this is the meaning of the leaven. It could be positive or it could be negative. That's the way that Gill was presenting it.

Okay.

So he said that the woman taking the leaven represents Christ and his ministers, wisdom and her maidens, understanding it of the gospel. So you take the leaven and you put it in the flour and the whole thing becomes leaven.

Just like how the message of the gospel gets into us and the whole of us becomes leavened. In that sense, we are now fit for the kingdom.

Right.

We're being sanctified.

We are justified and being sanctified. Exactly right. But then Gill goes on to say, but if the leaven of error is intended, that woman Jezebel is meant who calls herself a prophetess and teaches and seduces the servants of God.

So, as I said before, and Gill kind of goes along with what I said with regards to the parable of the leaven is a reference to something internal, the parable of the mustard seed external.

Right.

So it starts small. You starting with the 12 disciples that Jesus sent out into Pentecost and those apostles preached the gospel for the first time in Acts 2. It started that small and yet that seed grew into a great tree.

Even in the book of Acts, you see the gospel going out to all the reaches of the Roman empire and birds come and nest in the branches. A reference to people from all over the world that come to hear the gospel and come into the kingdom of God because that's what's in view in this parable.

Yeah.

And then the internal, of course, again, being the gospel gets in and all of us becomes transformed by that power of the gospel. So there you go. Great question, Tyler. I appreciate that. But no, I disagree on the eschatological significance, whether somebody is trying to pull that into the post-meal camp or into the pre-meal camp.

Yeah.

I don't think that's supposed to be the understanding there.

But congratulations and we miss you guys.

Yeah, we miss you guys.

Absolutely.

Still talk about you a lot and all good things.

Of course.

This next question comes from, hang on, let me skip down to Jody's question. Hi, Pastor Gabe. Thank you for your online ministry. I really appreciate the exposition of scripture and your videos on YouTube are spot on.

Aw, that's kind.

I spent many years of my Christian life in mainstream evangelical churches. And about five years ago, I woke up to many dysfunctional beliefs and overall apathy in what I was being taught. And now I am at a wonderful reformed church.

And I'm also so blessed to be surrounded by people who truly love the Lord and his word. It's wonderful to hear.

Amen.

My church is an elder led congregation, which I know is biblical. But this is very new to me and I have nothing to compare it with. My church is unaffiliated. So non-denominational seems that way. And has, or at least you would say it's completely autonomous.

Doesn't answer to any denominational head, but you're unaffiliated. So has had the same lead pastor for 19 years. Recently, the elders decided to give our pastor a sabbatical and told us this two weeks before it would start.

And it's for six months.

Oh, wow.

Can you please give me some insight on how elder led churches are to function? And what do you understand about sabbaticals? The gospel partners slash members have no input into what happens at my church and feel like this and other concerns slash questions are not overly welcome.

I tried to talk about this with a friend at church who has been there longer than I, and it didn't go well. Thank you. And I appreciate your question, Jody. So we are, we're an elder led congregation.

We refer to it as elder led congregationalism. So there are some decisions that the congregation does have a responsibility to make.

Right.

For example, when it came to my being hired as an elder, the congregation did have input in that. And if it ever comes down to somebody being disciplined and would have to be removed from the church, the congregation is going to have a say in that.

That goes into the church discipline steps that are given in Matthew 18 verses 15 to 17. So the congregation has to say. At the same time, there are certain things that frankly, I don't think that the congregation needs to be in on.

And we talked about this before, not that long ago, a few weeks back with regard to disciplining a certain member in our church. And there were things that were personal and private that we just could not make public.

Right.

Because it would give credibility or it would give that not credibility. It would give air. It would give air to statements that were slanderous.

Right.

We knew what those false witness statements were, but we were not going to tell it to the congregation. And now the congregations wonder, well, was that true or what? Now it's nobody's business because this person is being disciplined for slander.

We're not going to let the slander continue to go out. So that was an occasion in which the elders knew what needed to be done. And the congregation just had to trust that we were doing the right thing.

And therefore, the discipline still being handled as a church, but done in such a way that we were protecting innocent parties.

Right.

So that's an example of how the elder-led aspect of it won't always mean that everything that happens is going to be therefore known by the congregation.

Right.

But when it comes to money and budget and stuff like that, we're very transparent with all of that. So the congregation knows all of how that's being handled. We'll have budget meetings once a year. The entire congregation is present for that budget meeting.

Ultimately, the decision rests with the elders, but we're still going to get input from the congregation and let them know how their money is being used and what needs are in the church and things of that nature.

And bring up any concerns.

Exactly.

Or anything missed.

Yes.

Things like that.

That's still all a matter of transparency. Now, I will say that I hold the view that I don't think the congregation should actually be the ones hiring elders. Or pastors, for that matter. And it's because in Titus chapter one, Paul is sending Titus to the island of Crete and saying, appoint elders in those churches.

True.

So it's not. Go into those churches and survey the congregations and find out which ones are qualified and who the congregation's going to vote for to be the pastor of the church.

Right.

We don't see that kind of pattern. And when Timothy is sent to Ephesus, he's being told not to let anyone teach any different doctrine.

Right.

It's not given to the church.

Right.

The congregation to silence or fire elders or anything like that. Timothy is going to have that authority.

Right.

To be able to retain people or let them go. So I don't think that it's necessarily left up. And that's not to say that it's wrong, therefore, for a congregation to decide who they want their pastor or their elder to be.

You got to start somewhere. But hopefully you've got some other trained ministers that are involved in that process. So it's not just left up to the congregation to hire somebody that they, you know, the lay people see fit, find somebody who is mature to be able to test and examine whether that person is qualified for that position.

Right.

Some some other elders who can test elders.

Right.

Because that I mean, like coming from what you would think that a good boss would be versus another boss knows what a boss is.

Yeah.

You know, what qualifications they need to have or be prepared for. And so it's like the approach of it is different.

Right. So it's kind of a crude example, but it's not. It's good. It's kind of, you know, the employees don't hire their boss.

Right.

It's a loose example.

Loose example. But yeah, it makes sense. Kind of a more like general revelation sort of an example.

Yeah.

So with regard to sabbaticals, I'm very indifferent to sabbaticals. I can't foresee a scenario or a situation which I would want to take one. Six months is not unusual. I've heard of that before.

Oh yeah, that's pretty common.

Yeah.

I've heard of sabbaticals lasting a year.

Yeah.

So it could be that the pastor wants to take that time to write. Maybe he's working on a book. Maybe he's going to do some missionary work. So he's going to travel, go back to school, finish some classes.

Could be some things like that.

So it's not like taking care of parents.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's a good one. We've heard that before, too. So it's not like the sabbatical becomes a lazy time.

Right.

It's not like vacation.

Right.

The pastor is generally going to fill that up with something. A friend of mine took a six week sabbatical one time. And the way that the, I can't remember what you would call it. It's not their statement of faith.

It's kind of their bylaws. But like the hiring manual or whatever it would be for the pastors of the church. There was something that was written in there with regards to the pastor being able to take a sabbatical every so many number of years.

So I think he had to be there a certain number of years first. Then he could take a six week sabbatical. So the sabbatical is typically paid. He's still getting full time wages during that period of time.

But he's using that time for something other than specific ministry in the church or even preaching. Again, he might be traveling. It's not just vacation.

Right.

He's using that time for something else. Now, it could be a vacation. Again, it just kind of depends on how your church has set that up. What's been the arrangements or the agreements? Maybe he just needs to take the time off.

Yeah.

I'm not sure.

And even a vacation is like re-centering.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Refreshing.

Right. Right.

Just making sure the relationships in your household are strong still. Just reconnecting type of thing. I mean, you get into a busy season and you're go, go, go, go, go, go, go. And it's like, okay, now what?

Like, so then everything at home is kind of disarray. And how do you get that under control while you're still go, go, go, go, going? And so sometimes it's good to take a step back and just re-center, basically.

Refocus.

Yeah.

And even that's sanctifying.

Amen.

So taking some time to refresh.

And knowing that you need that is also huge. Yeah.

Being willing to take that time apart, set it with the Lord. Maybe he's going to go on some sort of prayer sabbatical.

Oh, yeah, for sure.

Where he could spend some time away from civilization, away from technology and smartphones.

What?

I'm starting to talk myself into this now, I think.

Anyway.

Yeah.

So again, that's not to say that I can be somewhat critical of them, but at the same time, I can see their value. Yeah, exactly. If a friend of mine says, hey, I'm going to be taking a sabbatical for six months, I'm not going to be going, why?

Why would you?

But what concerns me is that it's a two-week notice.

Yeah, that does seem a little out of the blue.

Is that just the congregation had the two-week notice, or everybody had the two-week notice?

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

Typically for a sabbatical, there's a lot more planning to it.