WWUTT 2140 Q&A Can God Be Where Sin Is, Was Jesus Crucified on Friday, Is Jesus Omnipresent

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If God is omnipresent, then what do we mean when we say that He cannot dwell with sin?

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Is Jesus omnipresent or did He give that up in His incarnation? And was Jesus truly crucified on Friday?

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The answers when we understand the text. This is

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When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary in the Word of Christ. That we may grow in our confidence in the

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Lord and be much more bold to speak the Word without fear. Find all our videos online at www .utt

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.com. Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. All right. So let's begin here.

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I feel like I'm like farther away than you. You are farther. Farther. Father. Farther away.

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I am father. You're father away. I'm father of five. So there is that.

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Let me come back to a psalm that I read last week, but it's one of your favorite psalms. And so I feel like I have to read this with Becky.

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Okay. So here we go. Psalm 16. Keep me, O God, for I take refuge in you.

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O my soul, you have said to Yahweh, you are my Lord. I have no good without you.

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As for the saints who are in the earth, they are the majestic ones in whom is all my delight.

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The pains of those who have battered for another God will be multiplied. I shall not pour out their drink offerings of blood, nor will

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I take their names upon my lips. Yahweh is the portion of my inheritance and my cup.

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You support my lot. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places.

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Indeed my inheritance is beautiful to me. I will bless Yahweh who has counseled me.

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Indeed my mind instructs me in the night. I have set Yahweh continually before me because he is at my right hand.

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I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices.

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My flesh also will dwell securely for you will not forsake my soul to Sheol.

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You will not give your Holy One over to see corruption. You will make known to me the path of life.

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In your presence is fullness of joy. In your right hand, there are pleasures forevermore.

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And I remember a few years ago, you were really devoted to that phrase, Yahweh is my portion and my inheritance and my cup.

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You support my lot. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. Indeed my inheritance is beautiful to me.

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So what was it like as you were spending time in that psalm and reading that?

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What was the Lord communicating to you in that season? Just to trust that His plan is the utmost best for me and for His glory above all things.

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Yeah, it was just to have confidence in the fact that no matter what is going on, the

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Lord knows and He makes life happen in the way that it should. And if I try to take over that, that's usually when things go very, very bad.

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Yeah, try to make life happen my way. Yeah, try to rush things or I'm unhappy with something that I had no control over, but I'm still unhappy about it.

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Well, that's verse 11. You will make known to me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy.

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In your right hand, there are pleasures forever. And there's an already and a not yet to that.

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So right now we experience the pleasure of God. And yet there's also a great many more abundance of pleasures.

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Did I say that right? Yeah, I think so. To come. Yeah, to come, right. There's much more than this.

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As there was a Christian song back in the 90s that said, not the half has been told. A small part, not the whole.

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Yes, definitely. And just to read that part again.

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Which part? Verse 11. You make known to me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy.

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In your right hand, there are pleasures forevermore. Yeah, and just to remember that to find joy in every day.

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Yeah. And all things throughout the day. My sins are forgiven today.

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Yeah, I mean, at the very least, that is worth all the joy.

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It kind of feels funny to call that the very least. Because that really is the most.

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Yeah, right. Yeah, yeah. I have fellowship with God. But really, I mean, our woes are in front of us.

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Whereas the sins, you know, most people don't dwell on their sins all day.

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Yeah. They think about what's not going right. And, you know, how am I feeling today?

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Am I achy? Is this not going well for me? You know, those type of things. So I get what you're saying.

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But it's not in front of us all the time. Sure. You know what I mean? You're not concentrating on your sin, which we should.

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Right. We really should. Concentrate on seeking forgiveness for our sins.

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Yes. Is what you mean. Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, like knowing how we're sinning and trying to correct it and seeking forgiveness.

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It's all surrounding our sin. Oh, yeah. Putting to death the desires of the flesh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

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And so anyway, so that's why I said at the very least. Well, I know what you meant by it. It just kind of seems...

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It sounds weird. Right. It seems funny to say at the very least when it's... When it's so great. It's so great.

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Yeah. Yes, it is. You're talking like... Grand scheme. Oh, man. At the bare minimum, if we're looking for a reason to be joyful today, that's where to start.

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Our sins are forgiven and we have fellowship with God through Jesus Christ. So, yeah. So even through your sufferings, even if it's...

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You're in the middle of war, war zone. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like literal war zone.

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Right. Where everything is crumbling around you, then we can still have joy that we're forgiven.

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That God upholds us in his righteous right hand. And he keeps his promises. Indeed. Yes. See, that's why

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I knew we had to come back to that psalm. Yeah. This week, because you were gonna have some good insight there. I learned a lot from that psalm.

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That's for sure. Last week, I spent most of the time in verses five and six talking about it.

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Just kind of explaining, because I've got the more technical mind between the two of us.

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Explaining what it means that the lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. But this was the allotment of land that each tribe in Israel had received.

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But all of that meant to point us toward an even greater inheritance. Yeah. That we have received in Christ.

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So knowing those future things, the promises that God has given to us, that it has bestowed upon us in Christ Jesus.

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We can hold on with hope that even in these moments, he is producing for us an everlasting weight of glory.

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The way that Paul puts it to us. And so this coming Sunday, as we continue in our series in 2

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Timothy, I'm gonna be talking about that. Because Paul says to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1,

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I'm reminded of your sincere faith. And so therefore, I wanna stir up by way of reminder for you to continue in the faith.

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And so we're gonna talk about remembering. We're gonna consider what it is that we need to remember. What we need to be reminded of.

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Now, for those who listen to this podcast, you won't hear that sermon until next week. Yes. This coming

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Sunday, you get the introduction to 2 Timothy. That's right. As we've just started a brand new series.

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By the way, if you want more information about our church, as I'm a pastor now in Casa Grande, Arizona, every week

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I still get a text from somebody going, I had no idea you moved. Yeah. I know, I got a few of those too on Facebook.

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Yeah. So if you wanna find out information about our church, it's providencecasagrande .com.

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We just got back from Texas a little more than a week ago. Yeah. We were there in East Texas visiting our friends at our former church and also to see the total solar eclipse.

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Yeah, that was pretty cool. Babe, this is our second total eclipse. Yeah. How did you feel about it? I mean, company was great.

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Just the company was great? Well, I mean, you know.

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Are you referring to the friends who were with us or family? Okay, gotcha. Both, yeah. But the eclipse,

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I mean, it was nice. Man, I think it's spectacular. I think it's great. I'm way more awed by it than you are.

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But I mean, I could have, I don't know if I would have like missed it.

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You know, like been disappointed that I missed it if I hadn't seen it. So. Anything that's going on in the sky,

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I seem to be way more amazed by it than you are. You're definitely one to look up. I'm looking down.

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Yeah, right. Don't trip, don't fall. Watch out for that spider. Yes, the spiders.

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I don't understand how you see so many spiders. I don't see how you don't. There was the one the other day when we were walking in and you were like, watch out for that spider.

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I'm like, where? Can you step on that? I don't even see what you're talking about. I'm like, it's right.

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Nevermind. Yeah, you made the comment. I think you said then too, like, I don't know how you don't see that.

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Zeej had to find it for me. I wouldn't have even, I wouldn't have even known that was a spider if you hadn't seen it.

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It was so small, I couldn't tell. I saw it moving. Oh my goodness.

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So yeah, what a great thing. And we. Back to the eclipse. Right. We probably won't see another one again.

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The next one in America doesn't happen for another 20 years. You never know where we'll be. It'll be fine.

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Yeah, unless there's. We might be visiting other places. Well, there's one in like Spain and Portugal.

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It's either next year or the year after. Oh, that'd be fun. Yeah, and this is what Becky's going to use to try to get me to go to Spain.

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I love traveling. Yeah, she wants to see the world and I'm a homebody.

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So that's how that goes. I enjoy being home, but I also enjoy traveling.

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So exploring. Now we've had these two eclipses that have crossed the

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United States in a span of seven years. There was the one that we saw in Kansas in 2017.

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And then came back to East Texas to see this one in 2024.

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There's not going to be another eclipse that crosses the United States like that for over 120 years.

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Yeah, we won't make that one. Yeah, we're going to miss out on that one. Now, unless there actually is a solar eclipse that happens that NASA hasn't predicted, in which case that would be the judgment of God.

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If something like that were to happen. You have all these false prophets out there that are trying to say these eclipses were a sign of judgment.

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They're not a sign of anything except that God has made the sky to declare the glory of his handiwork, as Psalm 19 says.

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I mean, for the fact that God is so ordered, he's put everything in its order.

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That's why we can predict these. Yeah, right. Because it runs exactly the way that God designed it to run.

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Yeah. That's how we know that. Exactly. So if another one happens outside of those two timeframes, 20 years from now, 120 years from now.

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It'll be God just saying, see, I know better. That's right. I'm still Lord of all. If an unscheduled eclipse happens, then yes, you can safely say that's probably a sign of judgment right there.

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Let's see what else we have to talk about. Well, this being the Friday edition of our broadcast, we take questions from the listeners.

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And you can send those questions to when we understand the text at gmail .com. I want to mention to you before we continue on to some of these questions, though, because some of you've been praying for us and you've supported us in this season in which we're paying for rent while we live in Casa Grande and still having to pay the mortgage on our house back in Texas.

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Yes. We had said a few weeks ago that we finally got a buyer and the house was under contract.

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And if all of that went the way that it was supposed to go, then we would have closed on the house

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April the 29th. Yes. But you can tell as I'm speaking past tense here. Right. That we lost the buyer.

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Yeah, they didn't qualify. They didn't qualify for a loan. And even the neighborhood in which we live, you had to you have to apply in order to live in that neighborhood.

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So if you have a record and it must be a pretty bad record because our realtor said that he's never heard of anybody not being accepted into that neighborhood.

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And whoever this buyer was did not pass. And our community, the

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HOA, said you can't live in this neighborhood. Yeah. So he wasn't permitted to live there, nor did he qualify for a loan.

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So must have been a not so great person. And we would not have wanted that for our neighbors.

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Exactly. So by the grace of God, he's out. We are unfortunately back to square one, still looking for a buyer.

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Yeah. So we appreciate your prayers. But yeah, we're still paying rent and mortgage. I had not paid

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April's mortgage because I really was hoping that this was going to go through. So now

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I've got to pay April and May. But anyway, yeah, we would appreciate your prayers.

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And if you still feel so inclined to support us, the email address is when we understand the text at gmail .com.

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That connects to Gmail or sorry, not Gmail, PayPal. So if you're sending us

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PayPal, that email address works. And then we had Venmo or something.

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What was the Venmo? Venmo is. Gebeke. Gebeke Hughes. Gebeke Hughes, G -A -B -E -K -E.

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Because both our names fit right there in the. Gabe and Becky, mushed together.

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That's like our Bennifer. Bennifer. Yeah. Remember when it was Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lowe?

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That's all you heard about? Yeah. And then it was Bennifer. So we are, we're Gebeke. Gebeke.

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Gebeke Hughes. Gabe and Babe and Gebeke. So Gebeke Hughes is our Venmo, if you want to give something that way.

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And incidentally, so this was two or three weeks ago. It was when you were not on the program. I talked about the possibility of setting up a, what do you call it?

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The GoFundMe? No, not GoFundMe, but a Patreon. Patreon. Says maybe we could have like regular support or something like that.

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Some of you emailed me and said, don't do it. And I've listened to your counsel. And yeah, so I'm with you.

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I remember us talking about that. Yeah. Right. There was a reason like two or three years ago, we had looked into it and said, nah,

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I don't want to do that. I don't remember why. But anyway, y 'all have spoken and we have heard. So we're not going to do that.

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It's still just kind of free will whenever, if somebody wants to give something great, we sure appreciate you for that.

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And we thank you for listening. The best support that you give to the program is really that you listen and that you pass it on to somebody else.

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Amen. So we're thankful. I want to mention a Bible conference that's coming to our area in just a little bit.

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This was sent to me by a listener. I'm going to save that to the very end. Okay. In the meantime, let's get to a comment here from Dwayne.

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We're going to start with this comment. Okay. He says, I just viewed a video with Justin Peters talking about Mark Driscoll with you,

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Pastor Gabe. I always appreciate frank discussions about false teachers and false teaching in the church.

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This was Justin and I warning about Driscoll being up to his old tricks and really doing some things to try to,

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I mean, put his name out there again. Yeah, right. Just more of his gimmicky stuff.

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He knows how to scratch itching ears and get his name out there. And so that's what he's doing. So Dwayne goes on to say, so many are unaware of even guys like Driscoll.

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We lived in Tucson from 1984 to 2000. I love the desert

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Southwest. I know someone in Casa Grande and we'll be sure to tell him about your church. Yay.

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There are so few oasis in the spiritual desert these days. I agree with you,

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Dwayne. Very true. And it's looking like there are fewer and fewer. In fact, blessings

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Dwayne from Edmond, Oklahoma. Dwayne, I like the area where you live. Yeah, I think

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I have family there. Yeah, you have family everywhere. I do have family everywhere. So do

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I really, but I think your family. It's like second cousins. Yeah. Like my mom's cousins. Your family is like a straight line across the middle of the country.

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Yeah. And mine's like a diagonal line from one corner to the other. Well, now we've made a, we're kind of out of both of those lines.

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Yeah, now we're like way South. So in the Southwest, we don't cross either one of those lines. Yeah. But anyway, thank you,

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Dwayne. Thanks for listening and for your encouragement. I appreciate it much. This was from Conan. Greetings, Gabe.

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Praying your family is doing well in Arizona and that the Lord is blessing the church. Indeed, he is.

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Amen. I just wanted to thank you for the Hear the Word of the Lord podcast. I've been using it as I have started another read through the

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Bible using the Legacy Standard Bible. I concentrate better if I hear it as I read it.

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Today, I was on Exodus 8 through 10. And I wanted to make you aware of a mistake in the file.

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It starts with chapter 10, and then it goes to 8 through 9. I don't know if you're aware of this already, but I wanted to let you know just in case.

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Thanks again for all you and Becky do. You guys are a blessing. And I look forward to seeing you guys again soon.

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Aw, yeah, us too. We've run into Conan at a couple of conferences. Yeah. I believe.

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Yeah, so I can tell you why that mistake happened. When I recorded Exodus, I changed this in later recordings.

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But when I recorded Exodus, I did it a chapter at a time. And so I was saving the files a chapter at a time.

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So then when I put the files together, when I was copying and pasting them, apparently I did 8 and 9.

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And then when I pasted 10, I stuck it at the beginning instead of the end. Yeah, I've done that before where it just automatically puts it there.

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Like something just kind of blips on the screen, and then it ends up there. It blups or it blips?

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Yeah. It does something.

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Right. I don't know the technical term. But thank you for the heads up on that.

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I appreciate when people catch those kinds of things to let me know. I'll make a correction on that. But yeah, don't forget about the other podcast.

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Hear the Word of the Lord. It's just Bible teaching. Sorry, not teaching. Just Bible reading.

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Yeah, no teaching or commentary. It's just straight reading through the scriptures. So doing the Legacy Standard Bible in 24.

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And then I'll probably do another translation of the Bible next year. Right now we're in Numbers.

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Man, Numbers 7. Yeah. Like there's chapters of the Bible that are difficult to read anyway, but to do it out loud.

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Yeah. My goodness. Numbers 7 was quite a challenge. You gotta iron out your tongue afterwards.

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Well, this one was extremely repetitive because it goes through all 12 tribes and the sacrifice and the offering that they brought.

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Oh, okay. In the consecration of the altar. Yeah. And so it's exactly the same for every tribe.

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The only thing that's different from one pericope to the next. Is the tribe. Is the tribe, right.

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The tribe name. That's the only thing that's different. But everything else they bring is the same that the previous tribe brought.

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Well, that way you don't forget. It's easy to remember. It's like an extremely exaggerated version of the 12 days of Christmas.

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That's awesome. Once you get to the last one, you're going, man, I feel like I've read this a dozen times. Yeah, you have.

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You literally have. You read that a dozen times. And reading it silently is one thing, but saying it out loud.

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Yeah. You know, and I even feel like I have to do something slightly different the next time

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I read it. So that it. Maybe enunciate a little different. Put your emphasis on the different syllables.

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There you go. That'll make it seem not quite as repetitive, as redundant.

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This next one comes from Jen and John. So let's see here.

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Greetings, Pastor Gabe and Becky. I'm from Greenwood, Indiana. Oh, fun. My husband and I have been faithful listeners for some time now and have been so blessed by your ministry.

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Thank you so much for what you do for the kingdom. On to my question. As a believer,

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I have heard said many times and in many different settings that God cannot be in the presence of sin.

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I have heard this from pastors as well as fellow believers, typically as a declarative statement. A discussion came up recently during our discipleship group where we pondered this question and collectively, we were able to name many places in Scripture where that does not seem to be true.

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For example, Job 1 .6, Satan comes into the presence of God to talk to him about Job.

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1 Samuel 5, the Philistines steal the Ark of the Covenant and put it next to their god

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Dagon. It is implied that God knocks Dagon on the ground and breaks the idol.

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Genesis 4, God confronts Cain about his sacrifice and also about the murder of Abel. Genesis 3, 6 -13,

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Adam and Eve sin and God walks in the garden and seeks them out. He confronts them about their sin.

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Jeremiah 23, 23 -24, God is omnipresent. This is just a small sample of the many places in Scripture where we see

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God in the presence of sin, not to mention the fact that the Holy Spirit dwells in us, which is a very good point.

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That being said, can you explain what it is that is meant by the statement, God can't be in the presence of sin?

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Why is this so often said if it isn't true? And if it is true, can you make it make sense for this group of brothers and sisters in Christ out here in Greenwood, Indiana?

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Blessings, John and Jen. As common as those names are, you don't find many

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John and Jen couples. That's true. But that's great. I had a friend in high school who one of my classmates was

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Jennifer Smith and her brother was John Smith. I mean, I was like, I was like, your parents really went for like the most common possible name for the last name

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Smith. That would make it a little difficult when they're going to sign their name for things. Yeah, right. Checking accounts.

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I just kind of wonder if somebody signs that, if somebody's going, yeah, I don't believe you, John Smith, I don't think that's your name.

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At least it wasn't John Hancock. Yeah, right. Or John Doe. John Doe. Yeah. You sign that.

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Or somebody's name, John Public, because you've heard that one is kind of like the John Doe name too.

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Yes, yes. You write it John Public. No, I don't think that's your name. My brother's name is John.

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Yeah. And it's spelled the same way too. J -O -N. Yeah. Anyway, yeah, we're not answering this question.

24:06

Nope. Sorry. Okay. What is meant when we say that God cannot dwell in the presence of sin?

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You consider the words of Habakkuk in Habakkuk 113. So let's tie this to something in scripture rather than just a general statement.

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Something that Christians say. So is this really in the Bible? Habakkuk 113 is where it is said that God is so holy that he cannot even look at sin.

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So this is the passage. Let me start in verse 12. Are you not from everlasting? O Yahweh, my

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God, my holy one, we shall not die. O Lord, you have ordained them as a judgment and you,

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O rock, have established them for reproof. And this is talking about the judgment of God that is coming upon those who do wickedness.

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Verse 13. You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong.

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Why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?

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So Habakkuk is making an appeal for Israel who has indeed done wickedly.

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They've worshiped false gods instead of the true God. And so because of their idol worship, because of their idolatry,

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God has turned them over to the hands of their enemies, the Babylonians, to be sent into exile.

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Habakkuk's appeal here is that, look, the Babylonians are way worse. Yeah. Yeah, what we did was bad, but Babylon is worse than us and you're going to let them get away with that?

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And of course, God's response to Habakkuk is, look and see, I'm about to do something in your days you would not know even if I told you what it was going to be.

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Right. So here Habakkuk is continuing to make that appeal. You are of purer eyes than to see evil.

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And so it is from that passage that we'll often say that God is so holy, he can't even look upon sin.

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Now, that's a statement in reference to the character of God, in reference to his holiness.

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He is so holy that he can't look at sin. And it's not that he doesn't look at sin because he indeed sees the evil of man and then brings judgment against man because of his evil.

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So remember in Genesis where the evil of man had spread on the earth so much that it became a stench in the nostrils of God and he regretted that he had made man on the earth and had resolved that he was going to destroy man on the earth and saved only eight people,

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Noah and his sons and their wives aboard the ark. But God, seeing the wickedness of man, had brought judgment upon mankind to purge the world of sinful man.

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So God indeed saw, right? Even though it is said that he is of such pure eyes that he cannot look upon evil, he nonetheless saw our evil and brought judgment upon mankind.

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So when we say that he is of pure eyes that he cannot look upon evil, we're speaking in such a way as to say that God is so holy that he has no fellowship with evil.

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So kind of like in that one passage that it's a little different context, but maybe it's the same thought where it says you have to hate your family.

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Yeah, like so where Jesus is talking about hating mother and father in Luke 14, 26.

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If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple, right?

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That one. Now, what is it similar to that in the concept of like God sees evil, but he's so holy that, you know, well, here in that context, what

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Jesus is saying is that you have to have such a love for Christ that your relationship with any other person would look like hatred by comparison, right?

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That's that's more what he's saying there. So it's not it's not necessarily a call to holiness, although I'm sure you can you could bind up a call to holiness in that.

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But it's not so much to say that, you know, you're looking at your family and man, they're all sinners. So I hate them and I love

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God. That's not really what Jesus' appeal is there. I wasn't really thinking of a call to holiness. I was just thinking of like God is so holy that he can't look upon sin.

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But like this is, you know, you love God so much that you hate your it looks like you hate your family.

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So no. Yeah, I still think it's like an extreme, right? Yeah. Okay. Okay. I see what you're saying.

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So you're talking about the extremes of it. Yes. Yeah. Sorry. Trying to get my words out. It's in concepts, right?

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So we say that we say that God cannot look upon sin just as is stated there in Habakkuk 113, because it is a statement about his holiness.

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But like Jen had pointed out, the Holy Spirit dwells within us. Right. But consider what

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Paul says about that in 1 Corinthians 6, where he talks about that we are a temple of the

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Holy Spirit. So he says, therefore, do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her?

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For as it is written, the two will become one flesh, but he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.

29:42

Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.

29:51

Or do you not know that the body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God?

29:58

You are not your own for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. So the point that Paul is making there is that, yes, the

30:05

Holy Spirit dwells within us and the Holy Spirit is essentially dwelling inside a sinner.

30:11

Now, we have been forgiven our sins and clothed with the righteousness of Christ, but wrong is still done by us while we are in these bodies as we are being sanctified.

30:21

And it's the spirit that dwells within us who is sanctifying us as we live obediently to the word.

30:27

As we worship the Lord, we are being sanctified by his spirit. If we are going to take the temple of the

30:34

Holy Spirit and we're going to unite it with sin, then would we dare bring the spirit of God, the

30:41

Holy Spirit of God with us into that sin? Why would why would we dare do something like that?

30:47

So that's the appeal that Paul is making there. If you are a temple of the Holy Spirit, then be holy.

30:53

Don't be uniting yourself with sin and therefore bring the Holy Spirit of God. Do you revere

30:59

God? Then why would you bring God into that witness wickedness that you're becoming a partner of?

31:05

So when we when we talk about God's holiness and we say that he is separate from sin, we are saying that he has no fellowship with those things.

31:16

It is it's a figure of speech, in other words. So it's not that it's not that indeed literally

31:23

God's eyes are so holy because God is spirit. As Jesus says in John 4, he doesn't even literally have eyes.

31:30

Right. True. So he's not literally looking with his eyes at sin or diverting his eyes from sin, as the case may be.

31:39

So we're making a statement in reference to God's holiness and God will not dwell with sin, which is why we need to be clothed in the righteousness of Christ and sanctified by his spirit before we can dwell in the presence of God.

31:54

Amen. In our sinful state, we can't stand in his presence. We would be vaporized by his holiness.

32:00

Right. You know, you consider that Isaiah in Isaiah six, when he sees the vision of God dwelling in his temple, he says,

32:08

I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips dwelling among a people of unclean lips. Yeah.

32:13

He knows because of who he is and who he dwells with that he can't be there in the presence of God.

32:20

So because he sees God and his holiness, that he's going to be wiped out. And who was it that had to hide in the rocks?

32:28

That was Moses. Moses and saw just his back. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because no one can see my face and live.

32:35

Yeah. So we're speaking as a matter of, you know, like figures of speech to talk about the holiness of God.

32:42

Indeed, literally, God will not dwell with sin. He won't dwell with wickedness, which is why the kingdom of heaven, as we read about it in Revelation, is described in such pure ways.

32:54

Those who are evil are outside the city. They are cast into the fire that was prepared for the devil and his angels.

33:00

But those who have been closed in the righteousness of Christ will dwell with him forever in glory.

33:05

Because because of Christ, we are considered holy. Yes. In the sight of God. Right. Yeah, we're made righteous and we won't ever be more righteous.

33:15

The righteousness of Christ that we have is his righteousness. So there's not more righteous than you can get than Christ's righteousness.

33:24

Right. But the holiness that we need, that's something we grow in. That's what we progress in. Becoming more holy, putting to death the works of the flesh or the desires of the flesh and desiring instead those things that are pleasing unto the

33:37

Lord. And only because Christ has saved us, excuse me, only because Christ has saved us, are we able to turn away from sin?

33:47

Because otherwise we're not capable of that. Yeah, to be convicted of our sin, to desire to stop sinning and desire righteousness instead.

33:57

And then to be able to. Yeah. And even be able to. Right. Exactly. As Romans 8, those who are not in Christ cannot please

34:07

God. Those who do not have the spirit of Christ do not belong to him. So it is only if we have the spirit of God, can we do righteousness in such a way that is even pleasing to the

34:17

Lord. Absolutely. So we know that God hates sin. May it be within us as well to hate sin.

34:25

Amen. Like David says in the Psalms, I hate those who hate you. And so we despise the sin that is even within us, that we would turn away from it and desire

34:33

Christ and continue to grow in the holiness that we are given by his spirit. So good question,

34:39

Jen. And I hope that in that answer that I've given to you, that's making sense. I think so.

34:46

I think it was covered. Good. All right. This next one comes from Ann. Dear, when we understand the text, thank you for your ministry.

34:53

I watched a video that you made on Jesus not being crucified on Good Friday and you did a phenomenal job of breaking down the text and Jewish tradition slash holidays.

35:03

I am searching for it on YouTube and cannot find it. I'm sorry if it's simple, but Easter, Good Friday, and a selection of keywords are not yielding a fruitful search.

35:13

Could you kindly tell me how to find this video? Ann, I hate to break it to you, but you did not see that video from me.

35:23

I bet you were watching some what videos, and then you saw another video that came up probably at the same time that you were watching one of mine and thought that it was mine, but it's not.

35:33

I've never done a video. That's happened before. Yes. Yeah. I've never done a video that says that Jesus was crucified on any other day but Friday.

35:41

That's consistently where I've been. Now, I will say this. After reading through Leviticus again and doing this out loud on the

35:50

Hear the Word of the Lord podcast, there were some things in there that got me curious about the dating of Passover and the

35:58

Feast of Unleavened Bread. And when I was reading those things, I was like, do we have that right with regard to what day

36:05

Jesus was crucified and what day he rose again? Oh, really? Are we sure that we have that right?

36:12

I mean, it was enough there as I was reading the way that God was instructing Israel to keep his feast days and his festivals.

36:19

There was something about the way that the dating was laid out with regard to when you sacrifice the

36:24

Passover lamb and when you celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread that made me go, do we have all of the details correct in the way that we talk about what was happening in those days in which

36:37

Jesus was eating the last supper with his disciples and then was arrested in the garden and was crucified, which we largely say happened on Friday and he rose from the dead on Sunday.

36:49

Now, I'm messing up the timeline. There was somebody recently, it was a friend of mine, it was somebody who was

36:55

Reformed Baptist, I'm almost certain, who said that they had someone in their church recently who gave an argument for why he doesn't think

37:05

Jesus was crucified on Friday, but was, in fact, crucified on Thursday and rose again on Sunday.

37:11

And I saw it on social media and it kind of passed by my eyes and it made me go, well, okay,

37:17

I would be interested in listening to that. And then I totally forgot who it was and where I saw that, so I've missed it.

37:25

But let me just say this, I'm open to hearing some other theories on this. I've given this very little thought in the past and most of the time

37:33

I've been refuting the Hebrew roots guys because some of those Hebrew roots guys will claim that Jesus was crucified as far back as Wednesday.

37:42

And I'm just going, no way, it could not have been that. And the way that they come up, the way that they reason that is very scripture twisting.

37:51

So if there is someone that has provided a reasonable argument, somebody who's not a

37:57

Hebrew roots person, I won't even consider their arguments, they're false teachers anyway. But if there's somebody who has, maybe from a more

38:04

Reformed background or whatever, has biblically given an argument for why

38:10

Jesus could potentially have been crucified on Thursday instead of Friday, I would like to hear what they say.

38:16

I'd be curious to hear that. Because again, like I said, after reading through Leviticus again, got me to thinking about how

38:23

God had appointed those days in which those things were to be celebrated and was that still being kept at the time of Christ?

38:31

So are we sure that we've got the day right concerning his crucifixion?

38:37

I mean, there's a lot of things that we have traditionally thrown out there that we just kind of accept is true.

38:43

But have we really challenged the tradition on that? Have we been good Bereans? Yeah, exactly.

38:49

That's a good way to put it. Yeah. So and that wasn't me. If it was a sound teacher that had done that video.

38:56

And you find it. And you find it. I'd be curious to see it myself. And if there's anybody listening out there, maybe you've seen something or you could pass on a reasonable argument to me.

39:06

I would be interested in listening to it. See if you can change my mind on that. Because I still hold that Christ was crucified on Friday and rose again on Sunday.

39:14

But if there's a reason for us to consider that that might not have been the day, he was definitely risen on Sunday.

39:20

There's no question about that. True. Because it says right at the start of Matthew 28 on the first day of the week. So we know it was that day that Jesus rose from the dead.

39:28

But was he crucified on Thursday or Friday? That would be the question. And therefore was the last supper on Wednesday night instead of Thursday night.

39:38

So. Curious minds want to know. Exactly. And I'm always willing to go back to the scriptures and understand what is clearly being spoken to us there.

39:49

This next one comes from John. We've had John on the program before. A question from John. Hi, John. North Carolina.

39:55

Yeah. Greetings, Pastor Gabe and Becky. I don't know if you've ever been asked this question before, and I don't recall you ever answering it.

40:02

So would it be accurate to say that since his resurrection, would Jesus no longer be omnipresent?

40:08

I know from reading the attributes of God by A .W. Pink and listening to Dr. Steve Lawson teach on the subject that the

40:15

Father and the Spirit are invisible. John 4 .24 says that God is spirit. We just made reference to that.

40:21

Colossians 1 .15 says the sun is the image of the invisible God. Philippians 3 .21

40:27

says that Jesus will transform our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body. And in Luke 24 .39,

40:33

Jesus tells his disciples to touch him and see that he is not a spirit, but has flesh and bone.

40:39

So if Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father after having been resurrected with incorruptible flesh, could

40:46

I conclude that, and I really hate saying it this way, he is no longer omnipresent? I pray that God continues to bless you and your family and your new church and your ongoing ministries.

40:56

To God be the glory. Sincerely, John. John, Jesus is not omnipresent bodily, but he is still omnipresent.

41:08

Does that make sense? Becky's really puzzled here. Well, I'm also reading the official definition of omnipresent.

41:18

Okay, ever present. He's everywhere, all time, every time, right? Yeah, it says widely or constantly encountered or common or widespread.

41:29

And then it says of God present everywhere at the same time. Yes. So yes, I wanted to clarify because there are different omni, you know, things that are, that mean different things.

41:42

So just to clarify what omnipresent means. Okay, now, not bodily.

41:49

Sure. Yes. Because Jesus came and he was man and he was just. Right. But spiritually, yeah.

41:56

In spirit, he's everywhere. Yeah. But in body, he's not. And this is one of the reasons why Jesus says to his disciples, it's better that I go away because then

42:05

I will send the Holy Spirit to you. Right. So if Jesus had remained on earth, then he could only be in one place, wherever his body was, that's where he was.

42:14

He has ascended into heaven. He is seated at the right hand of God. And remember, before he left his disciples, very last verse at the end of Matthew, lo,

42:23

I am with you always to the very end of the age. And only someone omnipresent can make that promise.

42:32

How else could Jesus be with his disciples always everywhere if he wasn't omnipresent?

42:38

So true. So indeed, there are limitations to the body, certainly.

42:43

And I've heard this argument made before. This is John Gerstner, who was R .C.

42:48

Sproul's mentor. Gerstner has argued against the concept of transubstantiation and even consubstantiation.

42:56

So the idea that Christ's body either enters the Eucharist or the

43:01

Eucharist transforms into his body. Oh, okay. So he has argued against that by saying, you are taking the bodily aspects of Christ and making them omnipresent, which can't be.

43:15

It would be to deny the humanity of Christ. He's still very God and very man.

43:21

And you're taking the man aspects and the limitations of body and making them omnipresent, which you can't do.

43:28

That's a very profound argument. I had never considered that before. But that's Gerstner. Yeah. So yeah, in his body, we have to understand that there are limitations to that.

43:39

And it's because he is very man and very God that he's bridged the gap between God and man.

43:45

And we have access to God. And even we ourselves will receive bodies like his, glorified bodies like his, as talked about in Philippians 3 and 1

43:54

Corinthians 15 and other places. So as Jesus was raised from the dead, as he had a physical body, but was also spiritual.

44:04

And, you know, that's a paradox that we'll come to understand later. But just as Jesus was raised with such a body, so will we.

44:11

But it's only he is divine. So he remains omnipresent. When we will be resurrected in the end, we won't be.

44:21

Right. We're not going to have omnipresence. We will have a glorified body like his. Because we won't be God. Exactly.

44:26

Yeah. And this is another reason why, you know, the Catholics and the

44:32

Orthodox will say that you can pray to the dead. Well, no, you can't because you're ascribing a

44:38

God -like quality to people, to people, to human beings and saying that they are omnipresent and can therefore hear our prayers no matter where we are.

44:49

But that is a quality that is unique to God. When we enter into glory, we don't become omnipresent.

44:56

And so you can't pray to Mary. You literally would not be able to pray to Mary, even if it was said that she could hear our prayers, which she can't.

45:05

That's all heretical anyway. Yeah. But there's no one who has died and therefore gone to be with God who is listening to prayers or can answer prayers.

45:14

As 1 Timothy 2 says, there is one mediator between God and man, and that is the man,

45:19

Christ Jesus. Right. And only he can mediate between us and God because he is both man and God, very man and very

45:28

God. Right. That's a simple concept and also extremely complicated. Yes, definitely.

45:34

But nonetheless, we understand. Because we can't be. And because we can't be

45:39

God and man. Right. Then we have no concept of. I don't even know what to use as a definition.

45:46

Well, it's like I've talked about with regard to the Trinity. Why is the Trinity such a complicated concept for us?

45:51

Yeah, that's true. Because we're not God. We can't understand the concept of three persons in one

45:56

God and still he's just one God. Right. That's true. Because that's not us. We're individual beings.

46:02

We cannot wrap our minds around that concept. And again, it's a simple concept to grasp.

46:07

It should not be that complicated to understand three persons, one God. Or as James White has said, it is one what and three who's.

46:19

Yeah, that's true. God, the Father, God, the Son, God, the Holy Spirit are still

46:24

God. Yes. That should be an easy concept. But at the same time, it's extremely complicated.

46:30

How do I wrap my mind around that? Yeah. Well, we only see the Father because the Son has revealed him, as said in Matthew chapter 11.

46:38

We only come to the Son because the Father drew us, as said in John 6, 44. Yeah.

46:43

So we understand these things because of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us. At the same time, they remain extremely complicated because we're finite human beings.

46:51

But yeah, all to say that Jesus is still omnipresent. And at the same time, not.

46:59

And that was the same even in his earthly ministry. When Jesus was present on earth, it's not like he ceased to be omnipresent.

47:07

The Son of God could still be omnipresent, even though in the person of Jesus Christ, he was limited to his location.

47:16

That's true, yeah. And we've talked about that before with regard to his incarnation.

47:22

So when Jesus was a baby, he was both being cared for by Mary and upholding her at the same time.

47:30

And again, yeah, paradoxical things to think about that we just won't fully understand.

47:35

Keep your mind wandering. Until we get there. That's right. But always great to study these things. Thank you for your question, John. This from Wayne, sir.

47:43

Okay, so here I mentioned at the very end, I was going to talk about a conference we've got coming up to the area. So I wanted to mention this one is

47:50

Wayne had sent me this email. Sir, I have been a constant fan of your podcast for a few years now, and I am truly blessed by your teaching as well as by the

47:58

Gabe and Babe show. Aww. The wife and I have been working on planning to come up and visit on a

48:06

Sunday to hear you and meet you and Becky in Casa Grande soon. Oh, that'd be awesome.

48:11

You will be welcome anytime. However, I wanted to make you aware of a conference that our church is putting on near you and your congregation.

48:19

Andrew Rappaport, who I podcast with through the Christian podcast community, volunteered to do this conference for us.

48:24

I understand that you and your church have much work to do for the kingdom in your community, but we would love to see you folks down here for the conference.

48:33

And I told Wayne, thank you for letting me know about it. And I would give it a plug on my program as well as let my church know about it.

48:40

So this is a conference entitled Christian Responsibility in an Un -Christian World.

48:46

It's going to be August 8th through the 10th at Vail Valley Baptist Church, which is right around the

48:52

Tucson area, Vail, Arizona. The speakers include Andrew Rappaport, as Wayne had mentioned.

48:58

Kevin Hay, who is one of the pastors up at Redeemer Bible Church in Gilbert. John Sampson, who has done some things with Alpha and Omega Ministries.

49:08

I don't know if he's part of that ministry, but I know he's substituted for James White on the dividing line before.

49:15

And that's where I know John Sampson from, is watching him on the dividing line. So he's going to be one of the speakers there.

49:22

Dominic Grimaldi, who is a pastor friend of ours. In fact, when we do our baptism services, we don't have a baptismal of our own.

49:30

So we go over to his church and use his baptismal. And I'm thankful to Dominic for that.

49:36

He's going to be one of the speakers there. And Jay Miller, who is the pastor of Vail Valley Baptist Church, going to be one of the speakers there as well.

49:43

Now, I don't have a website, but I was able to find it just doing a Google search for it.

49:48

So if you Google Christian responsibility in an un -Christian world, it'll bring you to the conference webpage.

49:56

And it wasn't a conference webpage, it was somebody else's site. But it gives you the details on there and a

50:02

QR code that you can scan with your phone, and that'll give you the registration information and all of that, if you're interested in that.

50:08

So again, August 8th through 10th, Vail Valley Baptist Church. And thankful to you,

50:14

Wayne, for letting us know about it. There's another conference coming up at Grace Covenant Church in Gilbert, which is one of our sister churches.

50:23

And I didn't... Up north, yeah. So that's north. Yeah, Vail was south. Vail is south. Gilbert's north.

50:28

Yes. There we go. So anyway, I didn't get the details for that one. I know that one's coming up in June, and I'll probably plug that one in a future episode.

50:36

But a conference is going to be there at Grace Covenant Church in Gilbert also. I'm going to try to be at both of them.

50:43

So I'll be at the one in June at Grace Covenant, and then at the one in Vail in August.

50:51

And I'm just attending. I'm not speaking or anything like that, and we won't have a booth. I'll just be there.

50:58

But yeah, to encourage you to attend either one of these conferences, if you can make it, if you're nearby. And we thank you for these faithful reformed churches for putting these things on and helping to educate

51:09

Christians how to navigate the things that are going on in this culture. Because gracious things are crazy, and I can barely keep up with it anymore.

51:16

It's like, I've got enough to do just encouraging my own flock and holiness. Right. And train my own kids in the scripture, and I have to keep up with all y 'all's madness and figure out what in the world is going on in the world.

51:29

Yeah, it's craziness. Lord Jesus, come quickly. Amen. Now, one last thing as we finish this up.

51:37

So this past Monday was 10 years since we did the very first 90 second what video?

51:47

And the very first video was refuting the myth, God helps those who help themselves. That was our very first 90 second video.

51:56

And really that started out as just something we were doing for our church. I was getting 60, 70 views a video or something, maybe.

52:03

Yeah. And we only had about 100, 150 people in our church. I remember you were excited about the 60.

52:09

You're like, it's more than 30. Yeah, that's right. Exactly. First couple of videos, we get a few dozen views.

52:15

There's just people in our church. We're the only ones watching them. So. And that's who it was for, really. Right. Right.

52:20

That's who we were doing it for. And then it was in May. And it was the video. Surprising. It was the video that I did on,

52:27

I can remember which one this was. Where those false teachers will crop the verse that says, without vision, people perish.

52:37

Oh, yeah. The rest of the psalm is, but he that keepeth the law, happy is he. So that's about obeying the word.

52:44

It's not about having a vision. Right. And then God will make your vision flourish, which is the way many false teachers will twist that to me.

52:51

So I did a video on that. And I knew that Chris Roseboro had been talking about it recently on his podcast on Pirate Christian Radio.

52:58

So I tagged him in it and he shared it. And we were in the mall in Topeka, Kansas.

53:05

I remember. Yeah. And I thought I would. At the food court. I thought, yeah, right. Yes. You remember. I do.

53:11

And I thought I would check on the video and I pulled it up and I still remember the number exactly. It had 137 views.

53:18

Yep. And I was like, 137 views? Yeah. And you yelled. I did like in the middle of the food court. I was super excited about 137 views.

53:27

It was awesome. Now I have videos with over 100 ,000 views. And so, yeah,

53:34

I was super ecstatic about it. Wasn't long after that, we were at praise band practice.

53:41

Yep. In the middle of the week, too. I can't remember what day of the week it was. But in the middle of praise band practice, our friend

53:48

Corey interrupted everything. And he comes running in going, Gabe's on wretched, Gabe's on wretched.

53:53

And everybody's looking at him going, what are you talking about? Why are you calling Gabe wretched? And Todd Friel was playing my videos.

54:02

And that's really where it kind of started up just 10 years ago. Picked up the pace quite a bit.

54:09

And yeah, then they started getting thousands of views after that. And then it was just a year later, 2015, that we started this podcast.

54:17

And so, we've been doing that ever since. Even though Becky didn't start joining me on the Q &A until we were like at episode 500 or something like that.

54:24

We were several hundred episodes in before you started in with me. We were. But nonetheless, her voice has been on every single episode.

54:32

It's true. Yeah. Even though you have not personally accompanied me for that long. Your voice has been on it from the very beginning.

54:41

So, this is something we've done together. It has been a joy 10 years. 10. 10 years ago.

54:47

10. 10. I did not imagine I was going to be doing this 10 years.

54:52

And I've made jokes. It's pretty awesome. I made jokes before, too. If I knew this was going to go on this long, I would have picked a better name.

54:59

I don't know. It's kind of catchy. It works. It does. But I don't know. But you're definitely the what guy. Yeah, exactly.

55:05

The what guy? What guy? Yeah. The what guy. Yeah. That's me. I'm stuck with it now.

55:12

But it's a blessing. And people continue to watch. You've heard some of the emails that we've read here.

55:17

And the Lord has been so gracious. Amen to that. Yes. So, thank you, Lord, for this opportunity to be able to do this.

55:23

And the people that we have reached. And the lives that have been changed. Just a desire to be faithful to the word is all that we've been out to do.

55:30

Yes. And we're, God willing, looking forward to more years of being able to do this.

55:36

And we thank you for listening. Yes. Sorry that we were late this week. We had some allergies.

55:42

Yeah. Gotta love them. And that put me behind a day the rest of the week. Yeah. Because I had that -

55:48

And your back. My face exploded. Last night, it was my back. Yeah. Couldn't even - Which is old.

55:53

Couldn't even sit up in the chair. We're 10 years older. Not as young as we were when we first started this.

56:02

My teeth are falling out now. Stop. I mean, literally. I'm not even joking. I had that tooth filled.

56:09

Oh, yeah. That's right. Two teeth. Two teeth were filled. Yeah. Just in the last month. All that good fun.

56:15

Even though we've had our financial stuff, I still have to take care of my teeth. Or I can't even talk.

56:21

I let that go as long as I could let it go. You did. You did indeed. And even then,

56:26

I got scolded by my dentist for that. You should not have let this go this long. I know. Yes. I shouldn't have. And you were scolded from your wife for all that time.

56:36

Anyway, yeah. We won't keep on about that. Because it's all negative on me. So we're going to stop there.

56:42

Yeah. No, it's good. It's good. We're good. Well, let's finish here with prayer.

56:49

And yeah, next week, God willing. Same time, same channel. Yeah. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for what you have done for us.

56:59

The ways that you have blessed us in this ministry. And I pray that you continue to bless it as long as we are faithful to the word.

57:06

As we read in Isaiah 55, God will not send out his word void, but it will accomplish the thing that he means for it to accomplish.

57:14

So I pray that we would be faithful to these things, that it continues to bless people, convicting hearts, leading them to the

57:21

Lord, understanding the forgiveness of sins that we have in Jesus Christ, and also the direction that we're given in scripture to live lives of holiness.

57:30

As we continue in these bodies awaiting that day that we will receive a glorious body in Christ Jesus.

57:37

So thank you for your blessings. And I pray that your Holy Spirit continues to guide us according to your word.

57:44

It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. One last thing. Yeah. Something else I was going to mention right along with all the what video stuff.

57:52

But we're going to have an episode coming up. Let's do it next week if we can manage to do it. Okay. Where you and I are going to go through our 10 favorite what videos.

58:01

Oh, yeah. Okay. I didn't want to do the top 10 most popular because that list always changes anyway.

58:08

That's true. Like one video could end up surpassing another one and all that kind of thing. So, but let's do our 10 favorite what videos from 10 years of what videos.

58:17

All right. Let's do it. All right. What was it like as you were spending time in that Psalm and reading that?

58:35

What was the Lord communicating to you in that season? Just to trust that his plan is the utmost best for me.

58:45

Right. And for his glory above all things. And...

58:52

Dog, be quiet. What is he doing? I don't know. He's standing on stuff.

59:00

All right. Anyway. Can you make it make sense for this group of brothers and sisters in Christ out here in Greenwood, Indiana?

59:08

Blessings, Jen and John. Excuse me. You all right there? Yeah. Got a frog in my throat.

59:17

All right. Hang on. So we go over to his church and use his baptismal. Yeah. And I'm thankful to Dominic for that.