WWUTT 840 Q&A Submissive Wives, Christmas Myths, Wearing Pants, MacArthur's Session?

How does a wife submit to a husband who just won't lead? Can a Christian woman wear pants instead of a long skirt?

And what was with that thing John MacArthur said to that guy? The answers to these questions when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text, a daily Bible commentary that we may encourage your time in the word to become strong men and women of God in the midst of a depraved generation.

For all our resources, visit our website at www .utt .com.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. And speaking of resources, I actually just added something new to the website this week.

Right at the top of the links page. So if you go to www .utt .com and you click on links, the very first thing on that list is now a church search.

Oh, wonderful. Helpful. There's at least three sites on there right now, and I can add more later if there are others that know, hey, this is a good church website to do a search for sound doctrinal expository churches.

That is awesome. So that resource is now on our website. And the first place that I would tell you to go, by the way, first ministry that I would encourage you to utilize to find a good doctrinally sound church is

Founders Ministries website. And I think it's founders .org. I think it's the website. So they've got a church search on there.

And those churches that subscribe to that directory, they have to fill out a form and you have to ascribe to one of the statements of faith that is a historical

Baptist statement of faith. Oh, that's nice. So now, of course, yeah, that resource is going to be

Baptist, but that's still the first place that I would send you to. Of course, because I'm Baptist. We've got quite a few messages to get to today.

We should just jump right into it here and forego our usual seven or eight minute banter at the very beginning.

Oh, they're going to miss out. Everybody's missing out. So this is a handwritten letter.

And we did not get this person's name. I do have a location on the envelope as to where it came from.

But this person apparently wants anonymity, anonymity. So out of respect to this individual,

I won't mention the name or where it came from, even the initial that she puts in here.

But this is neat, a rare thing for us to get a handwritten letter like this. Oh, yeah. Pastor Gabe, the

Bible makes clear we aren't meant to walk this life alone. Yet daily, year after year,

I beg God for a friend and continue to walk alone. My husband professes but wants nothing to do with serving or Bible studies or prayer or anything else.

We go to church on Sunday and he races for the door and is angered if I take too long talking.

I'm only allowed five minutes. I am to bow to my husband's authority, which means my life is consumed by work and loneliness.

Prior to marrying, my evenings were spent reading or streaming sermons, and now they are consumed by DVDs of Hallmark sap or old

TV series. Empty blah to fill my head instead of God's word. My husband is not the man

I dated. He was a lie. He never really existed. My church has no midweek service and is very rule, so when there is something at night,

I can rarely go because it is so dark here and my eyes can't handle it. Your podcasts are enjoyed while I work, especially the

Q &A episodes. I've never learned how to interact with people, and I listen to how you and Becky talk to each other, and I try to learn.

My childhood was lonely. My first marriage abusive. Then I was saved and married a supposed believer, but I have real doubt.

How do I honor my husband's authority and survive this? I have been told that I can't discuss problems at church or he will quit going.

I believe some see some of the odd things, but nobody really reaches out. Depression seems to be taking over lately, and it is not right.

How do I have joy? Please, how does one honor God when her husband doesn't permit it?

Please give me some understanding of how to walk that line. I will be listening and hoping for any input.

Wow. So is there any input that you can offer? Well, I'd say keep praying for a friend, a godly friend, of course.

We are supposed to be specific in our prayers. So think about what you would really need to glorify

God even more and pray for that. Try to be a little bit extra friendly at church, because in a rural community, it's tougher because you don't get together during the week.

You don't have that neighborly, hey, come on over. You're just a hop, skip, and a jump away, and we can bake cookies or whatever during our

Hallmark movie or anything like that. Just go ahead and extend an invitation.

It doesn't hurt to extend an invitation for the friends at church. One of her struggles, she says, is difficulty in talking with people.

She does have the five minutes, so use that time very wisely. Maybe plot how you're going to use that five minutes.

Right. Think about who you're going to ask, and then go up to that person and say, if they're chatting, just say, excuse me,

I just have a quick second to ask you something, and then invite them over or get their number and talk with them later.

There's nothing against calling somebody up or texting. Depends on what you prefer.

Mine it's easier to text me than it is to call, just because of all the interruptions.

Yeah, sure. Let's see. Giving glory to God, just in the fact that you can be at church and he's not hindering you from that, that is wonderful that you get to have that time with the body of Christ and singing up praises.

So finding those small moments. Yeah, just the small moments that make you happy, and cling to those.

Yes. Cling to those moments. So related to that, James 1 says, James 1 .2,

count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and let steadfast have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Now, this was a passage, we had Bible study in our home on Thursday evening, and we've been going through Job.

We go through the same book that we do on Thursday on the podcast. And when we finished up our reading of Job, one of the things that I mentioned was this past week,

James 1, verses two through four came back to mind for me. And when we read, count it all joy, when you meet trials of various kinds, this does not mean grin and bear it.

Right. But that we need to have joy in our hearts, knowing that God is going to deliver us out of this, and that He is working this ultimately for our good and His glory.

That doesn't mean, hey, just buck up, it's gonna get better, God's doing something good with this.

That's not the way that we should respond to that situation, because I mean, life is hard.

It's very hard. Trials are tough. And that's what James says, count it all joy, when you meet trials of various kinds.

If it isn't hard, it isn't a trial. Yeah. And he didn't say it's gonna knee, he said trials.

You know what I mean? Tough stuff. I love that he adds various kinds though, because it's kind of like the junk drawer of trials.

Whatever you can think of, whether it's major or a little minor thing, whatever it is, count it all joy when you face trials like this, because you know that this is growing you in your faith.

And so if you know, and you can be assured in your heart, according to the promises of God, that He is sovereign, and He is working this out ultimately for His glory, then you can rejoice, even not knowing what that glory is gonna be.

Right. How that's gonna work out. Right. For your sanctification, for somebody else's salvation, whatever it might happen to be, yet you continue to put your trust and your faith in God.

Philippians 129, for it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe in Him, but also suffer for His sake.

Being a Christian is going to be hard. And I know that this doesn't, this probably is not the best news for you, the person who wrote this letter to us, but it's just an encouragement to you that you would continue to rejoice in God, even in the midst of tough circumstances.

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

Do not let your adorning be external, the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry or the clothing you wear, but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious.

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

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

Now that may frustrate you to hear that advice, to hear that you must submit to your husband who expects you to do that anyway, and yet he does not present himself as a man who is worthy of submitting to.

But nonetheless, couple this with what is said in James 1, that you rejoice in God and that you submit to him first and foremost, you submit unto the

Lord. Paul had said like in Colossians and Ephesians, in First Timothy and other places, that slaves are to submit to their earthly masters.

Now considering the stigma that slavery has in our culture, those are passages, you know, pastors in America don't like preaching through those passages.

No they don't. I approach those passages with no hesitancy, but nonetheless, it still pops in my mind, wow,

I'm about to talk about slavery here, slaves submitting to earthly masters and what kind of explanation for the slavery, right, you know, how many people are gonna go, well, this is a different kind of slavery, right?

Not like Civil War era slavery, so on and so forth. But the point in Colossians 3 in particular is that we work first for God before we work for anyone else.

So the work that you do, you do heartily as unto the Lord and not to men.

Which means you're not grumbling or complaining, which is very tough to do whenever you're becoming depressed.

And also in that passage about the wives, don't look at that as,

I don't need to take care of myself, because that's not what it's saying, it's just saying, don't take your pride in how you look.

Yes, right, right, right. It's good to look good. I love it when Becky does herself up for me, honestly,

I think it's fantastic. So that may be a treat to your husband to do something like that.

But the point being that your beauty is not something that's seen on the outside by the makeup and jewelry and clothing and things like that, but rather that your purity comes from your heart, the way you love

God and you obey his commandments. And let that be the purity that is displayed in the actions that you do.

And in so doing, you are daughters of Sarah. And I love how Peter puts that, because we've got places like in Galatians 3, where when we are followers of Jesus Christ, we're children of Abraham.

But Peter specifically talking to wives who are trying to win over unbelieving husbands, he says, you're daughters of Sarah, if you do these things as she did for Abraham.

So it's such a touching thing from the apostle to personalize it in that way. So in your free evenings, what

Bible book do you suggest her to go through? What should -

For encouragement or focus? Philippians. There you go. And the reason why

I pick Philippians is because, remember this, Paul's in jail, he's in prison.

And it is the book that is the most filled with rejoice, praise

God, give joy, be at peace, be filled with thankfulness. These are the instructions that permeate

Philippians, all four chapters. So he's in prison and he's been in prison for preaching the gospel.

And yet the Philippians have sent to him an offering that they've collected to try to encourage him in his ministry.

So he's under house arrest, people can still come to him, but he can't go anywhere. And the gospel is being proclaimed and even the palace guard has heard about it and people are coming to Christ.

So Paul is writing to the Philippians to encourage them to say, hey, it's not what you think it is.

It's not like I'm languishing and I'm dying here because God has actually used this trial that I'm going through to have the gospel proclaimed to others, even people in the palace guard.

So he is, even in the midst of this circumstance of being under house arrest for preaching the gospel, is still able to praise

God and rejoice even through that trial. So if Paul can do that there, then how much more encouraged would you feel in reading through that letter and knowing

I likewise must rejoice in the midst of my circumstance, knowing that God is creating in me a steadfastness, regardless of whether or not

I see what on the other side of this that it's going to be. So also out of Philippians chapter two, verse 14, well, let me start in verse 12.

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now not only in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is

God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Do all things without grumbling or disputing that you may be blameless and innocent children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of Christ so that in the day of Christ, I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.

So in the midst of these circumstances, doing all things without grumbling or disputing so that you may be blameless and innocent, shining as lights in the world in the midst of a twisted and crooked depraved generation.

Right. But that also means not to become prideful in, well,

I'm doing all of this good stuff, you know, like it's not, we are all sinners. So don't just think that you are all holy and he is not acting like how he should.

And so you're all focused on him. If you're that focused on him, start praying for him. Pray for him to grow closer to the

Lord, for the Lord to save his soul, for all of that is weighing on you of where he should be on your mind.

Start praying for that genuinely. And then it will open your eyes to see where you can ask for forgiveness too.

Yeah. You likewise asking for forgiveness so that you may be grown in sanctification. Right. Because whenever somebody does you wrong and is living with you,

I mean, that's tough because you see that every day, every day. And so that's when it becomes more important to focus on how -

Be conformed to the mind of Christ. Yes. Thank you. Yeah. Exactly. So checking her own heart and making sure her motives are right, that she's thinking of her husband the right way.

Now I'm going to give you another piece of advice here, and this one I'm going to be a little bit more careful with than everything else that I've said so far, which even in the handling of the word,

I want to be very careful, but here I want to be careful in the way that I give this advice too. This you're going to have to use a little discernment.

Maybe you'll see it as good advice and maybe it's not the advice that you should follow, but I'll leave that up to you after wisdom and prayer deciding what you should do.

Because we don't have all of your circumstances. Yeah, right. We don't know all the facts, all the situation. Here is the advice

I want to give, weigh this, pray about it, decide how you think you should follow it.

Okay. Go to church without your husband. Because if you are not convinced that he himself is actually a believer and he is hindering you from growing in what is being preached, taught, being able to develop personal relationships so that you have a friend that you can rely upon.

You can't be there for very long. He wants you to be rushed out the door so you don't have time to develop those relationships and talk with people.

If he's preventing you from developing friendships with those that you know are your brothers and sisters in the

Lord and your husband is not, then you need to consider going to church without him. If he's that disconnected from submitting to the teaching authority that is coming from the pulpit or showing love and brotherhood with those who are supposed to be his fellow saints, then he's in his mind and in his heart disconnected himself from the body and you thinking that church is good for him continues to drag him along and you're suffering as a result.

If he's not really a believer, don't obligate yourself to have to be in the position of getting him to church.

Maybe he does need to stay home until he can realize that he's not truly a

Christian and he's outside the fellowship of God so that it will cause him to repent of his sinfulness and maybe he is a believer, but he's just so infantile in his faith that you just don't see any evidence of it yet.

And perhaps it's one of those kinds of situations where the evil person must be purged in order for him to realize, now

I'm disconnected from the body of Christ and I know I am outside of the grace of God for his people.

Maybe that's the next course of action that you're going to need to take so that you may be able to grow in the way that you're supposed to grow and your husband will feel the remorse that he needs to feel so that he's not under this impression that, well,

I'm saved. I'm saved because at least I go to church, at least I'm there. And so he's actually made up in his mind an excuse for why he doesn't need to repent of sin or read his

Bible or grow in Christ or lead his wife because he goes to church and that's enough.

And so you may need to just let him not come, not feel like you have to walk on eggshells just to make sure your husband comes to church, but you may actually just need to let him not go.

That way you can grow those relationships and you can make a better assessment between the faith that you need to test in your own heart and also whether or not your husband is producing fruit and showing evidence of being a follower and a believer in Christ.

How do you feel about that advice? I feel like it's good advice. I also feel like down the road, there might become a wedge between them, but time will tell.

Right. That's good to see the positives and the negatives of that. Right. It could.

I mean, he could repent and come to Christ and that would be wonderful. And that's what our ultimate hope is, is just that everybody comes to Christ.

And we want to pray for him for that. We want to pray for her and for him. And I even will want to take a moment to do that before we continue on to the program instead of waiting until the end.

I want to make sure to say thank you to the writer for reaching out to somebody because in difficult situations, it's really tough to know where to turn, who to talk to, how to say just enough without not saying everything.

Because when I was going through a really, really rough time,

I learned very quickly that I don't give more information than what people ask because they,

I mean, I don't know if they just don't care or they just don't want to know, or it's scary. It's scary when you cross that barrier.

Are you saying you shouldn't give more than people ask for, or you're saying I was guarded and I wasn't giving more than people ask for?

I think the people who cared the most are the ones who asked more questions. And those were the ones that I could trust.

That's what I'm saying. Because otherwise it becomes so much information. It wasn't like a platitude, how are you doing sort of a thing.

Somebody really was like pushing you, like Becky, come on.

Open up. Tell me. Tell me more. Okay. Tell me more. And then try to work it out with me. Yeah.

And then we would pray about it. And that was so wonderful. So whenever you're at church and you have that five minutes, go ahead and see who reaches out with the softness of the heart and look for that person who would be open to listening to you and invite that person over.

That's the person I would start with since you're not very, you know. Not personable. Personable.

Yes. More introverted, not an extrovert. Right. Right. I have my tendencies both ways. Yeah. Same with me.

I know. I can be an introvert today or I'm ready to jump on top of rooftops and shout at everybody.

Yes. Thank you so much for your letter. And I hope that advice was helpful. We want to take a moment to pray for you right here and also for your husband before we move on to some other emails here.

Yes, please. Our Lord God, we thank you for the continued grace that you show to us every single day with the gift of your son,

Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins and rose again from the grave. This is not just a gift that was granted 2 ,000 years ago, but it is a reminder of your grace that comes to us every single day that while we were yet sinners,

Christ died for us. And I pray that we would not get too haughty or too proud, even to the point that we're withholding our anxieties or thinking that we can deal with them on our own.

But we understand the words of Peter in 1 Peter 5, casting our anxieties upon you because you care for us.

There is an individual that wrote to us and you know who she is and you know her by name and you know the struggle that is going on in her heart to find a good friend, to be able to grow with her church, to love her husband in the right way.

And I ask that you continue to give her guidance in her heart, according to your word, that she would know the joy of the

Lord, even in the midst of sadness, still being able to rejoice in the promises that she knows have been granted to her by faith in Jesus Christ.

And that you would also work on her husband's heart to turn him from the frozen place that he's in and that he would be thawed out.

He would realize his sin, he would see that he's not loving his wife, laying his life down for her the way that he should, that he would become that leader in his home he's supposed to be.

He would feed her the word of God, they would pray together, he would apologize to her, he would be that encouragement and that up building in her life that he is supposed to be.

So that these two people would become more than just a husband and a wife going through the motions day to day, but that they are also brother and sister in the

Lord. And I pray that her church would recognize some of the things that are going on with her and it's not just a surface thing or people see that there's something but they don't want to get involved.

Somebody in her church will really reach out, step out to her in love and will show a compassion, a heartfelt compassion toward her with a friend that she's not yet had in the midst of this trial.

Teach us all to continue to rejoice in the midst of all circumstances knowing that you are growing us in steadfastness in Christ Jesus who is our hope for our future and our glory.

And we pray and ask these things in Jesus name, amen. Amen. And, yes, okay, one other thing.

P .S. P .S.? If you're not sure what to invite them over for, coffee is a great start.

Even if you don't drink it, get out tea. I don't drink coffee, babe. Cocoa today is, or yesterday, yesterday was

National Cocoa Day, you know, whatever. Just invite them over for a drink of some sort and I don't know.

Go from there. Yeah. How do you know that yesterday was National Cocoa Day? Twitter. Oh, okay. It's a day for everything.

Yeah, you know. I used to work with somebody who actually had a calendar in their office. Oh, I would love one of those.

And it was like, but it was just loaded with stuff. Oh, I know. Like every day had seven or eight things that it was supposed to be.

I know, except for my birthday. Then it's like two awkward things. Yeah, right.

I know. Yeah, the day that I was born on. Something ridiculous I can't even do, like drink coffee. So Joanne, next email, hi

Pastor Gabe, I always enjoy your podcasts and videos, all very helpful to me. Right now I am especially interested in the 25

Christmas myths, but I cannot find them. I want them all right now.

Oh, I see a mention of a book that you wrote by the same title, but I can't locate it. Please let me know how to obtain the book.

Merry Christmas to you and to your family. I was supposed to be done with this before Thanksgiving, and I'm still not done with it yet.

No, I don't know why. I don't know why I'm not done with this yet, but I'm just not.

I'm hoping that it will be this weekend and I can finally be done with it. You're pretty busy jam packed this weekend.

I know. Nope. I know I've got a lot going on, nobody's more aware of that than I am.

I'm pretty tired. It'll be soon.

Yeah, it will be. Because, I mean, it's like the finalizing kind of. Right. So it's close.

You won't get the print version before Christmas. You will get the ebook version before Christmas.

Before next Christmas. Yes. There you go. You'll have it before Christmas 2019.

I will have copies of it at G3, but unfortunately I'm not going to be able to get the print done before Christmas.

You'll still be able to order it before then, but you're just not going to receive it until after Christmas is over. That's okay.

I mean, I'm the kind of person that likes this kind of stuff regardless of what season it is. So I hope you'll still enjoy it anyway.

Every lesson that's in there, 25 Christmas Myths, every lesson has the gospel in it.

So you're going to have a gospel filled book of how the Christmas story points to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Because of course it does. Of course. But that's just to say. Right. That's just to say you'll still be fed by it anyway.

Especially, especially if you're the kind of person that thinks that Christians should not be celebrating Christmas anyway.

Well, then you have no excuse not to read it in January because you're not celebrating Christmas. That's right.

And you could buy it for your friends that celebrate Epiphany. Yes. You could.

Because you'll have it by then, you just won't have it by December 25th. See, if I was writing for Epiphany, which isn't that, that's

January 9th, is that the date? Yeah. Somewhere around there. Yeah. Hang on. I'm going to type this in.

When is Epiphany? It's not in the Bible. So I don't have to understand the text on this date.

January 6th, Sunday, January 6th. Okay. That's when Epiphany is. That is actually the date

I was going to say. So all right. All right. There you go. If I was going by Epiphany, I would only have six

Christmas myths I would have to write on instead of 25. Nah. Well, because I went by Christmas Day, December 25th,

I loaded myself up with 25 Christmas myths. Which is why it's not done yet. Right.

Right. But thank you for your interest, Joanne. Yes. And your excitedness.

Yes. I've enjoyed writing it. Excitement. Even though, I mean, it's kind of in like the grueling work sort of phase.

But I've nonetheless enjoyed writing it. And you can hear two more Christmas myths on the podcast this

Saturday. Tomorrow. That's right. Tomorrow. What am I up to now? I've done three and four.

So five and six. Christmas myths five and six. This coming Saturday. All right. Where did my emails go?

I minimized my screen here. Here we go. Okay. This is Tommy. Hey, here's another one for you.

All right. Hey, so I just found out about your YouTube channel and I just want to say thank you for what you are doing and helping people understand the text.

So my question is, is it wrong for women to wear pants? It comes from the passage where it says that women should not wear men's clothing.

Which is funny because in those days, pants weren't even invented. Thank you for what you do and God bless.

Okay. I want to let you think about your answer to that question. I'm going to share a story first before I come to you and find out what your response to this is going to be.

All right. Unless you're ready to go. Are you biting your tongue right now?

I am. It's fine. I can wait. So here's a story to share first. We had a woman that came to our church one time and after I had finished preaching and I go to the back and I'm shaking hands with people as they're coming out.

She comes up to me, shakes my hand and she says to me, do you let your women in church wear pants?

And immediately, I didn't quite understand what she was asking. So my immediate answer was, we prefer it.

And then she kind of looked embarrassed by that and then I was like, oh, oh, oh, okay. Wait, wait, wait. I get what you're saying.

So you came from a church where women were required to wear long skirts. And she said, right.

I said, okay. So you're asking if we let women here wear pants. She said, right.

That was my question. And she was even an introvert. So I know that she was thoroughly embarrassed by my answer.

But anyway, so that was my experience with somebody having come from one of those independent fundamentalist churches and concerned that she was going to be judged if she wore pants to church on a particular

Sunday. So what is your response to this email from Tommy?

So my response is that there is still a women's section and there is still a men's section.

And the women's section, yes, has pants. But the men usually don't wear that.

Well, I don't know. Anymore. They're selling skinny jeans in the men's section too. Yeah. And you see that on Babylon Bee all the time.

Yes. Jaws of life needed to help get worship leader out of his skinny jeans. That's so funny.

Sad because sometimes that's true. But anyway, so I, okay, in Kansas, you just, it's not practical to wear a skirt.

It's really not. The wind is just crazy. So no. Pants are preferred. Yeah. And it's not.

It's a little bit warmer. Especially, especially the wind in Kansas. The name

Kansas literally means people of the South wind. So it gets, it gets rather windy here.

Yes. And some days, yeah, the pants are better than, better than the dress. Probably a better idea.

Right. Than to, than to do the dress. I have seen some faux pas happen in Kansas because somebody wore a dress on that day and probably should not have.

Yeah. So pretty common here. And it's like the hair pulled back, everything. It's, it's just, it's too windy, but anyway, that's beside the point.

In the Bible, it says. That women should dress modestly. Likewise, women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel with modesty and self -control.

We also read this a little bit from first Peter chapter three, a moment ago. She should not dress with braided hair or gold or jewels or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness with good works.

So dress modestly, not to call attention to yourself. Now, even though you're dressing, you're, you're shopping in the men's section and you're shopping in the women's section.

There's still some things there in the women's section. That's not appropriate. You probably shouldn't be wearing. Right. Yeah. Avoid. Yes.

Mark and avoid. Now, now it always comes about every time. Mark and avoid. I couldn't help it.

Don't mark to get yourself in trouble. It's just a mental mark. You're not coming in there like PETA throwing paint on the first, you know, stuff like that.

Terrible. So now I don't remember what I was going to say. I'm so sorry. Let's see.

Talking about immodest wear. Oh, okay. So every time we talk about this subject, somebody always who, who really just wants to become a burr in somebody's backside.

They want to argue about, well, you know, some cultures think that this is modest.

And here in our culture, we would think that it's immodest, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. I think, I really think it's common sense.

You know what modesty is and you know what modesty is not. And you know, when the

V line on your dress is hanging too low or you know, when the skirt line is riding too high, you know that.

So dress yourself according to a way that you know that you are presenting yourself that is pleasing unto the

Lord, not to call attention to yourself, which is really the principle that Paul is laying out and Peter is laying out when they say don't dress with golden pearls and costly attire.

Right. But he's referring to the, he, right? Yeah. Tommy. Right. He is referring to the part where it says don't dress like a man.

Yes. So that's not really modesty. That's trying to, okay, so you're taking this, you're taking this a different way.

Well, okay. He, he says, is it wrong for women to wear pants? And it comes from the passage where it says that women should not wear men's clothing.

So he's approaching this from that independent fundamentalist church mentality. Oh, okay.

I took it as, this is not trans, there's not a trans thing he's talking about.

Okay. That's at least my take from this. Yeah, I guess I wasn't really looking at it trans either, but how

I was looking at it was more of like women trying to take on a man's role by dressing like a man.

Right. Is, okay. That's in first Corinthians 11. I guess that is kind of trans, isn't it, definition, by definition.

So in first Corinthians 11, the instruction is that women should not make themselves to look like men to have the roles that men have.

Right. But women need to dress as women are supposed to dress and men dress as men are supposed to dress.

So taking, taking this into context, it, it's talking about that, right?

I suppose. That passage. Well, no, that's first Corinthians 11. I was reading from first Timothy two.

Yeah, I know you're reading something different. And earlier we read from first Peter three about not having the beauty be on the outside, but that you're showing a purity of heart.

Right. Right. Okay. The question is really, can women wear pants? That's really. Well, if that's the question, isn't pants just supposed to be a men's thing and, and not really a women's thing.

Just as, I mean, you can dress with pants and be immodest about it. Right. And you can dress with pants and be very modest about it.

Yeah. Right. I mean, it's just, it's a piece of clothing. That was kind of like with the, with the yoga article that I did on my blog,

I mentioned, don't wear yoga pants out in public, especially not those exercise pants, really tight fitting exercise pants.

Yeah. It looks like you just came from ballet class. Don't wear those out in public. Please don't.

That's too form fitting. It's difficult to explain to my children. Just please.

You know, you came from the gym. You can put some warmup pants on, buy a track suit, you know, something.

Like I said, I think we really know when it comes down to dressing modestly or dressing immodestly.

Now, if you as a woman believe, and not you, Tommy, but anyway, if you as a woman believe that I shouldn't wear pants in public because they are a little bit more form fitting, they do show a little bit more of a woman's figure than if I was wearing a skirt or a dress or something like that.

And if you, in your heart, you believe that's wrong for you to wear pants, then don't violate your conscience.

Yeah. If you're convicted, don't do it. Yeah. But, you know, just consider what the instructions are that we have in scripture, that what we are professing of ourselves is marked by our works that point to Christ, not our wear and our attire that's trying to draw attention to us.

Right. The point is to point to Christ, not us, is what you're saying.

Right. Bottom line. Yes. We have been instructed to honor God with our bodies. That's 1 Corinthians 620.

Right. Romans 12 1. And that includes what is appropriate wear and what's not.

This is also an area where you can rely on friends and brothers and sisters in the Lord to tell you that looks good, that maybe so much doesn't.

Like I said, I think it's common sense that we know what's appropriate wear and what's not. But just in case your conscience might be darkened as to what you think is good or bad, it is good to rely on your brothers and sisters in the

Lord to help give you instructions in those areas. Yeah. I have asked you many times if something is appropriate, and there have been a few that you have said no.

Probably not. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Not that it was inappropriate, like to the extent of it couldn't be worn on somebody with a different body type.

But for me in particular, it was like the shorts. Right. They were mid -length.

But I have anyway. Right. Right. Yeah. So anyway. Anyway. I hope that's helpful. It's awkward to talk about whenever you can't see my examples.

Yeah, right. She's gesturing. I am gesturing. And then I gave up because you can't see my gestures, so never mind.

All right. Next question comes from... Hang on. How much time have we been talking here? Oh, we're at 45 minutes. We're doing okay. Good. Next question comes from John.

And I'm going to do this one real quickly. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this because I spent more time on the Facebook page. So we talked about this a couple of weeks ago.

I'm doing some short video responses that are being posted to the Facebook page. And they're usually in response to comments that come to the

Facebook page. So if you want to see my latest video regarding...

Well, responding to questions or comments that came in for the video, Has the Church Replaced Israel? That one is on Facebook now.

I just uploaded it yesterday. All right. So you can check that out. This is still kind of related to the same subject, but this comment came by email rather than a comment on Facebook.

John says, Hey, brother, I'm sure you have seen the interview already, but I thought it was interesting that this interview posted right around the time that you put out your what video on Israel and the church.

MacArthur talks about supersessionism, which makes sense since he is a dispensationalist.

It bugged me that in the interview, MacArthur stated that it's anti -Semitic to believe that the church replaces ethnic

Israel. I have been wrestling with eschatology recently and was wondering if you could clarify your understanding of ethnic

Israel as ethnic... Ethnic Israel's specific role at the

Perusia. I just love that word. Perusia. Perusia. It means second coming. Second coming of Christ.

Fun. He says, Personally, I lean in the Amillennial direction and Sam Storms has been a great help for me.

But I'm learning to bend my knee and to say with Paul in Romans 11, 33,

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways.

And I think that's a great approach to eschatology or studying end times. I know that you've had some blog resources, but it's difficult to filter through Podbean to find them.

Bless you, brother, John. So I'm going to play real quickly the comment that John MacArthur made.

This was the one that kind of got people talking about it. He made this quick comment about supersessionism. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this because, like I said,

I did the what video and I responded to other comments on the Facebook page, so you can go there. But at least so you can hear the comment as MacArthur made it, and then

I'll give kind of some light commentary here at the end. There is a Christian kind of popular doctrine that I reject with all my heart, and that is that the church has replaced

Israel and the promises of God. It's called supersessionism. I don't believe in that. But I think that, honestly,

I hate to say this, but I honestly think it is a latent form of anti -Semitism to say that.

You can't tell me that God made promises in the Old Testament to his people Israel concerning his future kingdom and salvation, and that he would give them a heart, a new heart and a new spirit, and he would write his laws in their heart, and they would be saved, and he would be their king, and they would be his people, and all those kingdom prophecies.

You can't possibly tell me that God didn't mean what he said. Okay, so the statement that he makes there at the very end is kind of loaded, because he's basically saying that anybody who sees the promises of God in the

Old Testament as pertaining to anything other than ethnic Israel is otherwise saying

God did not mean what he said. I understand that the Apologia Radio guys have responded to this, and they went through some of the comments that MacArthur made to Ben Shapiro in this particular interview, but I haven't listened to that yet.

Nevertheless, MacArthur preached the gospel to Shapiro, and I hope that Ben Shapiro was paying attention to that, and that he actually understands

Jesus Christ is the Messiah. The Jews are not waiting for another Messiah coming in the future.

He's already been. Right. He is Christ Jesus the Lord, and it is only by faith in Christ that we are forgiven our sins and we have eternal life.

I'm so glad he did that. That Jesus did that? No. Well, yes. But that Mr.

MacArthur did. Yeah, right. That was awesome. Shared the gospel. I thought it was fantastic when I heard that MacArthur was going to be on with Shapiro, and it was a great interview.

I listened to it twice, but that comment that he makes there about supersessionism, now there were some,

I'll let you hear it so you can hear exactly what it is that he said. There were some Reformed Baptists and Presbyterians that were upset with the comment because they said, is that what he actually thinks

Covenantalists believe? Is that the church has replaced Israel? And to his credit, he did not actually say that it was

Covenantalists who believe this, because I would hope that in his friendship with R .C.

Sproul, he actually got some clarity on what a Covenantalist believes, because it's not supersessionism.

However, there is a doctrine called supersessionism, and usually the people that believe it are those who are, they will call themselves

Reformed, but they don't actually follow one of the historic creeds or confessions. So therefore, they're not disciplined in a lot of the doctrines and theology that they have.

It's not rooted in historical biblical orthodoxy, but rather it's just, it's kind of a free for all.

It's like, oh, I like this. I like this. It's kind of picking and choosing. Right. And there's also -

And thus you are Reformed. And then there's also a belief called

New Covenantalism, and that's not the same as Covenantalism, because the New Covenant, somebody who is

New Covenant theology believes that all of the Old Testament commandments are done.

They're gone. They are not in effect anymore, period. That's what a New Covenantalist believes.

So that sounds a lot like Andy Stanley and his whole unhitching from the Old Testament. And so New Covenantalists kind of have a little bit of a

Reformed doctrine, but then they hold to things like this. I've heard Votie Bauckham really go off on New Covenantal theology.

He does not like it at all, but they believe things like supersessionism, like Israel has been replaced.

And there are certain statements that Jesus makes that I understand leads a person to believe that.

Like you have the story of the centurion in Matthew chapter eight, who came to Jesus and asked that he would heal his servant.

And Jesus said, sure, I'm going to come to your house and heal your servant. The centurion goes, no, no, no, no, I'm not worthy to have you come in my home.

But I just know that if you say the word, my servant will be healed. For I am a man under authority with soldiers under me.

And I say to one soldier, go, and he goes. And I say to another soldier, come, and he comes.

And I say to my servant, do this, and he does it. So I know that if you just say he will be healed, then he's going to be healed.

And Jesus said, truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have

I found such faith. Many will come from the east and the west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness.

In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And then we also have this statement in Matthew 21, 43, with Jesus saying, therefore,

I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.

And then in the video, I also made a reference to the cultivated olive tree that we have in Romans chapter 11, where Paul says that branches have been cut off.

And then some of the Jews have been grafted back in because they've come to faith.

Gentiles have been grafted in and all are grafted into Christ Jesus. So it's because of statements like that, just a few examples, that would lead a person to think of replacement theology.

Israel's been replaced, they've been cut off, and the Gentiles have been put in.

But these are simple statements that Jesus makes to say that you think that you were going to be inheritors of the kingdom of God, but you don't know me.

So therefore, the kingdom is being given to the Gentiles. Anyone who has faith in Christ is of faithful Israel.

They are the true people of God. And there's only one people of God. There's not two.

There's not the Jews and the church. There is only the church. There are only those who believe in the

Lord. You only have one bride. That's right. There's only one bride. One husband, one bride.

And we have it. And that instruction is given in the Bible. Christ only has one bride.

That's right. And we have in Ephesians chapter 4 that we are one body and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call.

One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all, who is over all and through all and in all.

We all have the same Savior. And Paul makes it clear in Romans 3 .22, there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus to be received by faith.

No one receives salvation or the promises of God any other way, but through faith in Jesus Christ.

And again, I'm not saying that to slam on MacArthur. He's got a different hermeneutic by which that he understands the scriptures.

And he, in that statement that he made about supersessionism did not clarify whether or not he thought

Covenantalists actually believe that. He didn't specify. Right.

I don't think that Reformed Baptists and Reformed Presbyterians have any reason to get angry at that statement. No. At best, you should be saying, could you qualify that a little bit more?

Who do you think it is that believes that? Because he didn't really say who it was that believes that. Do that with gentleness.

This man has given his entire life to the faithful exposition of the word of God. Oh, yeah.

And he has been criticized way more than you have. No joke.

Everyone wants to throw a person off its throne. That does certainly seem to be the case.

Not that he's on a throne, but just saying he's earned his way to have a respect.

Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Right. Treat him with respect. Exactly. Be subject to your elders.

Yeah. And you might go, well, he's not my elder. Come on. Yeah. Come on, son.

Be kind and respectful to those who have most certainly earned our respect.

And I believe that John MacArthur has. Most definitely. So I lean in the all male position, while John MacArthur is a dispensationalist.

But nonetheless, this man has taught me much. And I think that his ministry has been absolutely wonderful.

And I would be privileged to have even a hundredth of the kind of ministry that he has had over the course of the 50 plus years, 50 years now at Grace Community Church.

That's what they're going to be celebrating this next year. I know. That is amazing. So you can disagree with guys.

You go by what the word of God says. It doesn't mean that we should not disagree with somebody like MacArthur.

Just be respectful in that disagreement. Yeah. Don't blow your top. Yeah. That's not worth it.

Yeah. Accuse him of things that he didn't ever actually say. Yeah. Why do you take offense at that?

It's not all about you in this world.

Speaking of which, that was one of the questions that I wanted to respond to today because somebody had a question of me about something

Matt Chandler recently said related to the sermon in which he said, the Bible's not about you.

Oh, dear. That God is for God sermon that he did seven years ago, I think.

We're going to have to wait until next week, though. All right. So we'll get to that question next week. In the meantime, you can submit your questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

God bless, and we will talk to you again, well, I was going to say next week. But you know what?

We still got a Christmas myth on Saturday. You'll hear a sermon on Sunday. That's right. I'm back to John on Monday.

Busy man. All right. Oh, the weather outside is frightful.

Today it was. Just windy cold. I know. I hate the windy cold.

I'm so happy for the 54 degrees coming up. When is that? This week.

Twice. This coming week. Saturday, tomorrow. Okay. And Tuesday next week.

I am excited. Saturday, tomorrow, and Tuesday next week. All right.