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

Omnipresence, Sin, and the Holiness of God

If God is omnipresent, then what do we mean when we say that He cannot dwell with sin? Is Jesus omnipresent, or did He give that up in His incarnation? And was Jesus truly crucified on Friday? The answer is when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary in the Word of Christ, that we may grow in our confidence in the Lord, and be much more bold to speak the Word without.

Fear.

Find all our videos online at www .utt .com. Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky.

You're welcome.

All right, so let's begin here. I feel like I'm farther away than you.

You are farther, farther, farther, farther away.

I am father.

You're father away.

I'm father of five. So there is that. 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.

Okay.

So here we go. Psalm 16. Keep me, O God, for I take refuge in you. O my soul, you have said to Yahweh, You are my Lord. I have no good without you. As for the saints who are in the earth, they are the majestic ones in whom is all my delight.

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

You support my lot. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. Indeed, my inheritance is beautiful to me. I will bless Yahweh who has counseled me. Indeed, my mind instructs me in the night. I have set Yahweh continually before me because he is at my right hand.

I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices. My flesh also will dwell securely for you will not forsake my soul to Sheol. You will not give your Holy One over to see corruption.

You will make known to me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy. In your right hand, there are pleasures forevermore. And I remember a few years ago, you were really devoted to that phrase, Yahweh is my portion and my inheritance and my cup.

You support my lot. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. Indeed, my inheritance is beautiful to me. So what was it like as you were spending time in that psalm and reading that? 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. Yeah, it was just to have confidence in the fact that no matter what is going on, the 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.

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.

Well, that's verse 11. You will make known to me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy. In your right hand, there are pleasures forever. And there's an already and a not yet to that. So right now we experience the pleasure of God.

And yet there's also a great many more abundance of pleasures. Did I say that right?

Yeah, I think so. To come.

Yeah, to come.

Right.

There's much more than this.

Yes.

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

Yes.

Definitely.

Definitely.

And just to read that part again.

Which part?

Verse 11.

You make known to me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy. In your right hand, there are pleasures forevermore.

Yeah.

And just to remember that, to find joy in every day and all things throughout the day.

My sins are forgiven today.

Yeah.

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

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

Is the most.

Right.

Yeah. Yeah.

I have fellowship with God.

But really, I mean, our woes are in front of us. Whereas the sins, you know, most people don't dwell on their sins all day.

Yeah.

They think about what's not going right. And you know, how am I feeling today? Am I achy? Is this not going well for me? You know, those type of things. So I get what you're saying. 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.

Right.

We really should.

Concentrate on seeking forgiveness for our sins.

Yes.

Is what you mean.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, like knowing how we're sinning and trying to correct it and seeking forgiveness. It's all surrounding our sin.

Oh, yeah.

Putting to death the desires of the flesh.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

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.

It sounds weird.

Yes.

It seems funny to say at the very least when it's.

When it's so great.

It's so great.

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.

Right.

Our sins are forgiven and we have fellowship with God. Through Jesus Christ.

So, yeah.

So, even through your sufferings, even if it's, you know, you're in the middle of war, war zone. You know what I mean?

Yeah.

Like literal war zone.

Right.

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

That God upholds us in his righteous right hand.

And he keeps his promises.

Indeed.

Yes.

See, that's why I knew we had to come back to that Psalm.

Yeah.

This week.

Because you were going to have some good insight there.

I learned a lot from that Psalm.

That's for sure.

Last week, I spent most of the time in verses five and six talking about it. Just kind of explaining. Because, you know, I've got the more technical mind between the two of us. 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. But all of that meant to point us toward an even greater inheritance that we have received in Christ.

Yeah.

So, knowing those future things, the promises that God has given to us, that it has bestowed upon us in Christ Jesus, we can hold on with hope that even in these moments, he is producing for us an everlasting weight of glory, the way that Paul puts it to us.

And so, this coming Sunday, as we continue in our series in 2 Timothy, I'm going to be talking about that. Because Paul says to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1, I'm reminded of your sincere faith. And so, therefore, I want to stir up by way of reminder for you to continue in the faith.

And so, we're going to talk about remembering. We're going to consider what it is that we need to remember. What we need to be reminded of. Now, for those who listen to this podcast, you won't hear that sermon until next week.

Yes.

This coming Sunday, you get the introduction to 2 Timothy.

That's right.

So, as we've just started a brand new series. By the way, if you want more information about our church, as I'm a pastor now in Casa Grande, Arizona, every week 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.

Yeah.

So, if you want to find out information about our church, it's ProvidenceCasaGrande .com. 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.

Yeah.

That was pretty cool.

Babe, this is our second total eclipse.

Yeah.

How did you feel about it?

I mean, company was great.

Just the company was great?

Well, I mean, you know.

Are you referring to the friends who were with us or family?

Both.

Gotcha.

Both.

Yeah.

But the eclipse, 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.

But I mean, I could have, I don't know if I would have like missed it, you know, like I would have been disappointed that I missed it if I hadn't seen it.

So anything that's going on in the sky, I seem to be way more amazed by it than you.

Are.

You're definitely one to look up. I'm looking down.

Yeah, right.

Like don't trip, don't fall.

Watch out for that spider.

Yes, the spiders.

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. I'm like, where?

Can you step on that?

I don't even, I don't even see what you're talking about.

I'm like, it's right.

Nevermind.

Yeah.

You made the comment.

I think you said then too, like, I don't know how you don't see that. Zej 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. It was so small. I couldn't tell.

I saw it moving.

Oh my goodness. So yeah. What a, what a great thing. And, and we.

Back to the eclipse.

Right.

Yeah.

We probably won't see another one again. The next one in America doesn't happen for another 20 years.

You never know where we'll be. It'll be fine.

Yeah.

Unless, unless there's.

We might be visiting other places.

Well there's one in like Spain and Portugal. 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.

I love traveling.

Yeah.

She wants to see the world and I'm, I'm a homebody. So that's how that goes.

I enjoy being home, but I also enjoy traveling.

So exploring.

Now we've had these, we, these two eclipses that have crossed the United States in a span of seven years. There was the one that we saw in Kansas in 2017 and then, and then came back to East Texas to see this one in 2024.

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

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

I mean, for the fact that, that God is, is so ordered, it's, he's, he's put everything in its order that that's why we can predict these.

Yeah. Right.

Because it runs exactly the way that God designed, designed it to run.

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.

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

Yes.

We had said a few weeks ago that we finally got a buyer and the house was under contract. And if all of that went the way that it was supposed to go, then we would have closed on the house April the 29th.

You can tell as I'm speaking past tense here that we lost the buyer.

Yeah, they didn't qualify.

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

And whoever this buyer was did not pass. And our community, the HOA, said, you can't live in this neighborhood. So he wasn't permitted to live there, nor did he qualify for a loan. So must have been a not so great person.

And we would not have wanted that for our neighbors anyway. So by the grace of God, he's out. We are unfortunately back to square one, still looking for a buyer. So we appreciate your prayers. But yeah, we're still paying rent and a mortgage.

I had not paid April's mortgage because I really was hoping that this was going to go.

Through.

So now I've got to pay April and May. But anyway, yeah, we would appreciate your prayers. And if you still feel so inclined to support us, the email address is when we understand the text at gmail .com.

That connects to Gmail, or sorry, not Gmail, PayPal. So if you're sending us PayPal, that email address works. And then we had Venmo or something. What was the Venmo?

Yes, Venmo is

Gobecki?

Gobecki Hughes.

Gobecki Hughes, G-A-B-E-K-I. Because both our names fit right there in the

Gabe and Becky, mushed together.

That's like our benefer.

Benefer.

Yeah, remember when it was Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lowe? That's all you heard about?

Yeah.

And then it was benefer. So we're Gobecki.

Gobecki.

Gobecki Hughes.

Gabe and babe and Gobecki. So Gobecki Hughes is our Venmo, if you want to give something that way. 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?

The

Patreon.

Patreon. Patreon.

No, not GoFundMe, but a Patreon.

Patreon.

Says maybe we could have like regular support or something like that. 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.

I won't

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

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.

Amen.

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

Pastor Gabe.

I always appreciate frank discussions about false teachers and false teaching in the church. This was Justin and I warning about Driscoll being up to his old tricks and really doing some things to try to, I mean, put his name out there.

Yeah, right. Just more of his gimmicky stuff. 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.

We lived in Tucson from 1984 to 2000. I love the desert Southwest. I know someone in Casa Grande and we'll be sure to tell him about your church.

Yay.

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

Very true.

And it's looking like there are fewer and fewer. In fact. Blessings, Dwayne from Edmond, Oklahoma. Dwayne, I like the area where you live.

Yeah.

I think I have family there.

Yeah.

You have family everywhere.

I do have family everywhere.

So do 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.

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.

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, Dwayne. Thanks for listening and for your encouragement. I appreciate it much. This was from Connon. Greetings, Gabe, praying your family is doing well in Arizona and that the Lord is blessing the church.

Indeed. He is.

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

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

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

Aw, yeah, us too.

We've run into Connon at a couple of conferences.

Yeah.

I believe.

Yeah.

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

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

Yeah.

Something just kind of blips on the screen and then it ends up there.

It blups or it blips?

Yeah.

It does something.

Right.

I don't know the technical term.

But thank you for the heads up on that. I appreciate when people catch those kinds of things to let me know.

Yeah.

I'll make a correction on that. But yeah, don't forget about the other podcast, Hear the Word of the Lord. It's just Bible teaching.

Mm-hmm.

Sorry, not teaching. Just Bible reading.

Yeah.

No teaching or commentary. It's just straight reading through the scriptures. So doing the Legacy Standard Bible in 24, and then I'll probably do another translation of the Bible next year. Right now we're in Numbers.

Man, Numbers 7.

Yeah.

There's chapters of the Bible that are difficult to read anyway, but to do it out loud.

Yeah.

My goodness. Numbers 7 was quite a challenge.

You gotta iron out your tongue afterwards.

Well, this one was extremely repetitive because it goes through all 12 tribes and the sacrifice and the offering that they brought in the consecration of the altar. And so it's exactly the same for every tribe.

The only thing that's different from one pericope to the next.

Is the tribe?

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

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.

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.

You literally have.

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

Yeah.

And I even feel like I have to do something slightly different the next time I read it.

Maybe enunciate a little different. Put your emphasis on the different syllables.

There you go. That'll make it seem not quite as repetitive, as redundant. This next one comes from Jen and John. So let's see here. 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. Thank you so much for what you do for the kingdom. On to my question. As a believer, I have heard said many times and in many different settings that God cannot be in the presence of sin.

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.

For example, Job 1 .6. Satan comes into the presence of God to talk to him about Job. 1 Samuel 5. The Philistines steal the Ark of the Covenant and put it next to their god Dagon. It is implied that God knocks Dagon on the ground and breaks the idol.

Genesis 4. God confronts Cain about his sacrifice and also about the murder of Abel. Genesis 3 .6 -13. Adam and Eve sin and God walks in the garden and seeks them out. He confronts them about their sin.

Jeremiah 23 .23 -24. God is omnipresent. This is just a small sample of the many places in Scripture where we see God in the presence of sin, not to mention the fact that the Holy Spirit dwells in us, which is a very good point.

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

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

That's true.

That's great. I had a friend in high school who, one of my classmates was Jennifer Smith and her brother was John Smith. I mean, I was like, your parents really went for like the most common possible name for the last name Smith.

That would make it a little difficult when they're going to sign their name for things.

Checking accounts.

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.

At least it wasn't John Hancock.

Or John Doe.

John Doe.

You sign that. Or somebody's name, John Public. You've heard that one. It's kind of like the John Doe name too.

Yes.

You write it John Public. No, I don't think that's your name.

My brother's name is John.

And it's spelled the same way too.

J-O-N.

Yeah.

Anyway, yeah, we're not answering this question at all.

No, sorry.

Okay, so what is meant when we say that God cannot dwell in the presence of sin? You consider the words of Habakkuk in Habakkuk 113. So let's tie this to something in scripture rather than just, you know, a general statement.

Yeah, 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. So this is the passage. Let me start in verse 12. Are you not from everlasting? Oh, Yahweh, my God, my holy one. We shall not die.