WWUTT 1290 Q&A We're Moving, Soul Mates, New Apostles, Bible Books

Should you refer to your spouse as your soulmate? Are there any more apostles appointed today?

And how many books should your Bible have? The answers to these questions when we Understand the

Text. This is

When we Understand the Text, celebrating five years of podcasting, bringing the Bible to you daily through the reading, teaching and preaching of God's Word.

Tell your friends about our ministry at www .utt .com. Here once again is

Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. And I have to begin this episode with an apology.

Ruh -roh. I'm sorry that I did not get the psalm study, the last psalm study.

I was recording the Bible. You know how it is. Well, I do, yeah.

And it went late into the night until I really had no stamina.

I had no voice left. I was like, you know, I'm done. I'm going to bed. And so, yeah, the psalm study didn't get posted until, well, today, at the same time this episode gets posted.

Well, I hope you are happy listening to an hour and a half. That's right. You get two episodes today.

Woo! Now, Becky, actually, is not going to be on this whole episode.

No. It's really late. It's really late when we started this. My computer decided it wanted to update, and everything was freezing up until I let it do the update.

Yeah. There was no way around it. And then it decided to take forever. Yeah, and then it took forever on the update.

So, Becky is just going to be with us through this opening segment and our first question, which has to do with marriage.

And then I'm going to let her go. She's going to go to bed. I am. And I'll do the second half.

Hopefully, I won't yawn all the way through this. I'm sorry. And I'll do the second half solo. But we needed to update our listeners on an announcement that we had.

We have a special announcement. No, I'm not pregnant. I just hear

Sonia. Oh, yeah, that's right. She would be that way. We have news, everybody.

You're pregnant. No, every time. That is how she would react.

Now, if you listen to the sermon that I did on Sunday, then you already know what this announcement is. And I mentioned it right in the first minute of the devotional on Monday as we were finishing up Romans chapter eight.

I said we were going to talk about it on Friday. So you at least had to be here for the early portion of this episode so we can talk about the news.

We can talk about it. Yes. We're moving. We're moving. We're going to we're going to go from being troublemakers in Kansas to troublemakers in Texas.

What's this? We step. OK, I'm I'm the troublemaker.

I'll own that. I never could earn James White's moniker as the troublemaker in Kansas.

I was I think I'm OK with that. He's quoted me a few times on the podcast. I thought for surely he would eventually start referring to me on the dividing line as the troublemaker in Kansas.

But surely. Yeah. For surely. Is that what I said? Yep. For surely. Yeah. Surely. I don't know.

Surely is. I don't know either. But for her sake, I would be the troublemaker in Kansas. For surely. For surely.

And so I decided I needed to go join the troublemaker in Texas, Dr. Tom Buck, who is pastor of First Baptist Church in Lindale.

And I'm going to join the pastoral staff there. I think my my official title is pastor of discipleship in Lindale, Texas.

I think so. Yeah. And I mean, otherwise, I'm an associate pastor. That's right. Simple enough.

Yeah. It is a it's really a bittersweet thing. It is.

We are so looking forward to getting down to Lindale and starting there at First Baptist Church. But we are so heartbroken to go.

Yeah. To leave our church in Junction City, where I've pastored for the last 10 years. It's the only church that Becky and I have known well together since we've been married.

Yeah. We met in another church. Yeah. And attended that one for two years. Just about. I think so.

Pretty close to that. Yeah. And that's where we met. That's where we got married. We were married in that church.

Well, I met you in another church. Well, yes. That's true. I didn't notice you in that other church, but yeah.

She met me in another church. That's a whole nother story. I met her. I met her in this previous church that we attended together.

And now that it's clear as mud. So yeah, technically. We just love our church. Technically, we have attended three churches together.

Yes. One, I didn't know you. Yes. But this is the only church that we've been a part of since we've been married.

Right. We were married in another church. We did our reception at First Southern Baptist Church of Junction City.

Yes, we did. Where I was also ordained as a pastor two weeks later, two weeks after we were married.

So I've been there for 10 years. It's the only pastor position that I have held.

We had said to our church, we're here for the long haul as long as the Lord would have us here. We've been happy in Junction City.

There's no bitterness in our church. There's no disciplinary issue. It's nothing like that.

Even though I've seen a few rumors going around, why would Gabe just leave? It's mostly critics.

Yeah. I'm sure. There's gotta be something wrong. Right. He wouldn't just leave Junction City and go down to Lindale.

No. Everything's fine. We wouldn't just leave. That's right. Exactly. It'd be because of the

Lord. Yeah. And we feel like that this is the next step that we're supposed to take and have really loved meeting the people at First Baptist Lindale.

There's a lot more people that we need to meet. But our times visiting down there have been wonderful. I've known

Tom for two or three years now. We've been working together through G3. We've been doing the

G3 expository conferences together. We're looking forward to doing those even more. And so it just kind of seemed right for us to have this opportunity to be able to work together and do ministry with one another.

And I am honored that he would invite me to come and be a part of First Baptist Lindale and that the church has been approving of that move as well.

And we invited our church to come with us. We did. Yes. We said, hey, everybody's welcome to go.

I mean, the door is wide open. That's right. Yeah. And listeners, you too are invited to come with us to Lindale.

Now, one of the reasons that we needed to talk about this on the podcast is because the question is already being presented, what's going to happen to when we understand the text?

Right. Nothing. Nope. It's going to be exactly the same. We might take a vacation.

Yeah. Yes. We might be like a week, maybe. A week or two, perhaps, while we move.

Yes. While we don't have the internet connection. Well, I'm going to try to set the studio up in my office at the church.

Oh, that's smart. Yeah. So, I'll be able to do something there. Becky may not be on as regularly. Yeah. That'd be a little difficult.

Yeah. We'll see how we can work that. Yeah. Somebody at the church may just be like, no, get Becky over here.

You guys can have some time in the office. Get this recorded. Yeah. We want to hear you on Friday.

Yeah. Maybe. Yeah. We'll see. There's still going to be the videos. I've had a few offereds. Offers. That didn't come out well.

Offereds? Offereds. I'm tired. But a few offers for help with whatever we need.

So. Okay. Yeah. I have too. I've got a growing list of phone numbers. Yes. Of people saying, hey, we can help you out with this.

Whenever you get down here. That's right. Yeah. And we're going to change phones when we get down there. Oh, yeah.

I forgot about that. We're going to switch to Texas numbers. Yeah. So hopefully all that stuff will transfer over as we're collecting.

We're collecting all these names and everybody's collecting our number, and then we're going to drop it on them later. Hey, we got a different phone number now.

Yep. This is my brain. And I'm holding up my phone. Yep. Becky keeps everything on her phone.

Yeah. So be prepared. There might be some growing pains or moving pains some later on in the fall when we get to that.

And you can just catch up on the ones you missed or the ones you really loved. You can listen to again. That's right. If you've only joined us in the last year or two, well, hey, there's five years of podcasting that you can go back in and catch up on.

I'm going to finish up the Bible recording before we leave. There'll still be some what videos. In fact, after we move the what videos should become more regular again.

Right now, I'm doing one or two a month. It's really not many at all. Well, that's because you're recording a lot. Yeah. It's the

Bible recording that has been. Which is okay. Yes. That is okay. I've been enjoying this.

I've wanted to talk about it, like some of the stuff I've learned even reading the Bible out loud.

Right. And this is, by the way, this is for literal words. So download the literal word Bible app to your phones.

We got to get you on a doing a new liner because the Book of Acts is next. Okay. And I've got to get that on the

Saturday thing. Yeah. That's kind of a side note. Yeah. A side note. A little random. We don't have like a

GoFundMe set up or anything like that for our move. I haven't done anything like that. I don't know if we will.

We have a PayPal Pastor Gabe Hughes at Gmail .com. If you want to help us out with some moving expenses, that would be fine.

I'm sure there's going to be some things in there putting the house up for sale in the next couple of weeks.

Got a bunch of furniture we're going to sell because we're going to try to get down there with as little as possible. You are.

I'm having a hard time with this. Yeah. We're going to downsize, but it means letting go of a few things.

Yeah. It's like a whole section over here. We don't even touch. Mm -hmm. Even in this room. Yeah. I know. And that's fine.

I can get rid of that section. But like, yeah, it's tough. There's some other things I'm already pointing at going, well, that's going to go in Becky's No.

Oh, heartstrings. The floods are right there.

They're about to come out. I'm like, oh, keep it back. It's okay. Yep. Yeah. It's going to be, once we get closer and closer to going, we know the goodbyes are going to be hard.

Oh, it's already. Yeah. It's already. But it's okay. Just be in prayer for us.

We would appreciate the prayers. Thank you so much. And for your support of this ministry. Definitely. Some of you have been with us all five years.

Yeah. You've been with us since the beginning. I promise when we move, I'm not going to change the name of the podcast again.

It'll still be when we understand the text, but we're moving south of the

Mason Dixon line. I've always been a Southern boy at heart anyway. I was born in South Carolina. So his accent might change a little bit.

That's right. I might get some Texan in there starting to drop in on the podcast a little bit.

Then a couple of years from now, you can go back and listen to those first episodes. This was before Gabe became a

Texan. Remember that now and be in prayer for our church as well.

First Southern Baptist Church of Junction City is going to begin the process of looking for a new pastor to fill this pulpit that I've been standing in for the last eight years.

I started as associate pastor and then became the senior pastor in 2012. But anyway, thank you for your support.

Thank you for your prayers. We'll continue to do what we do. The ministry will press on,

Lord willing, and it will be as it has been, faithfully devoted to the word of Christ through the reading, teaching, and preaching, just as Becky opened up the program talking about that.

Yeah. Well, let's get to our marriage question here so I can let Becky go to bed. All right. If you would like to submit a question to the program, our email is whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

This is from Abigail in Wichita. So right here in the great state of Kansas. Awesome.

Dear Pastor Gabe, I was reading this article from The Atlantic entitled, The First Lesson of Marriage 101,

There Are No Soulmates. I went and clicked the link to that article. It was actually written back in 2014.

So it's an older article, not something new from The Atlantic. Well, soulmates is kind of, yeah, about that time period.

Oh, yeah? I haven't heard it a lot lately. Really? Okay. Yeah. Yeah, it could be.

Soulmates was like really big back then. Back then, six years ago? I remember hearing it when I was in high school.

2020 is like 10 years in itself. Okay? Touche. So, Abigail goes on, some interesting points are made from a secular and not a

Christian worldview. For example, quote, research shows that practically every dimension of life happiness is influenced by the quality of one's marriage, while divorce is the second most stressful life event one can ever experience, unquote, after the death of one's spouse.

Abigail says this reinforces something I've heard you say, that divorce is the death of a marriage.

Interesting that the death of a spouse and divorce are rated as the two most stressful life events that one can experience.

Yeah, because divorce is the death of a marriage. And then a marriage comes to an end too, of course, with the death of a spouse.

She goes on, the whole twist on soulmates is fascinating. The article presents that you cannot find the right person, rather you have to be the right person.

Now, we would say, as Christians, we would say that you cannot be the right person.

It is Christ who sanctifies you. You're making a face. What are you thinking of? That just sounds weird. Okay.

Well, that's what the article says. Yeah, yeah. I don't think Abigail is saying that. No, I know. I was trying to understand what they were saying.

Okay. I know Abigail wasn't saying that. You know Abigail? No. Oh, okay. I know she wasn't saying that.

She wasn't saying that. I know she was trying to say what the article was saying. All right. I was following her.

Is everybody confused? No. I know what I'm saying. Yeah.

I don't know what I'm saying. All right. Well, let's continue. So, she says, but this got me thinking.

Given that you and I believe in predestination, do you think there's such a thing as a soulmate or someone that God has predestined us to be with?

Does the Bible have anything to say on the concept of soulmates? Love your podcast.

Abigail. Hmm. What are your thoughts on soulmates? Have you given this much thinking before?

Predestined? Sure. Right. Like the Lord knows who you're going to be with. Yes. And -

It was foreordained that we should be together. Yeah. But let's say you're in a marriage and you're looking at this other person and you go,

I don't think this is the person I was foreordained to be with. That's your sinful self talking?

That's right. That's just - Get over yourself. That's just being a sinful jerk. Yeah. That's terrible. Who are you supposed to be with?

The person that's listed on your marriage certificate. That's who you're supposed to be with. The spouse that God has for you is the spouse that you are with.

That's - Yeah. And when you are getting married, like let's say we're talking to somebody who's not married yet or you are looking to get married, maybe you're dating, maybe you're engaged, you be committed to that marriage even before you get into the marriage, go into it with your eyes wide open and go through your marriage with your eyes half closed.

You understand what I mean? Yeah. So, you look for all the things that you need to know or be aware of about this other person before you get married.

Look for all red flags that you can find. Right. Even orange flags, even yellow flags, all the flags.

All the things that you know that I'm gonna have to adjust to this. I'm gonna have to get used to this. I'm gonna have to be a servant to this.

Now, that does not mean you move in with one another just so you can find them. Right. That means you're just getting to know one another.

Right. Through the aid and assistance of a pastor - Yes. Or some kind of a counselor, preferably a pastor or an elder at your church.

And then when you get to the marriage, you are as gracious as you've ever been with another person in your life.

Hence the reference to going through the marriage with your eyes half closed. Mm -hmm. You're not looking for every little nitpicky thing -

Right. That you're gonna make a big deal out of, but you are exercising grace. Mm -hmm. And like I said, it's gonna be like the most gracious endeavor or the most grace -laden endeavor.

I don't know, however you would say that. How can I serve this - Your greatest endeavor of grace. Yeah. How can

I serve this person the most? That's right. Yeah. You're thinking of it as how do I serve this person, not how does this person make me better?

Mm -hmm. Or how does this person make me happy? Mm -hmm. I think on a daily basis, what can I do to help my wife?

Mm -hmm. How can I make her day lighter? So far when I'm getting up, I see that the kids are unruly.

So, discipline apparently is the first order of the day. Yes. It might be something like that.

Extra hands lately, yes. Yes. Definitely while we're preparing for the move. Mm -hmm.

But there's probably not gonna be a person in your life that will sanctify you more than the person that you are married to.

Mm -hmm. Yeah. And we even understand that according to Ephesians chapter 5. So, think of in verse 22, wives, submit to your own husbands as to the

Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its savior.

Now, as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

So, the church is being sanctified as we submit to Christ. Mm -hmm.

Therefore, there is even a sanctification or a growth in sanctification that is happening in the life of a woman who submits to her husband.

Because she is to be a model of submission that the whole church is supposed to be unto

Christ. Mm -hmm. So, she in that practice of submission learns submission to Christ as well as submission to her own husband.

There is a growth of holiness that's happening there. Mm -hmm. Then you have the instruction to husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

Mm -hmm. Verse 26, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word.

Now, this is talking about Christ with the church, but the husband also does this for his wife.

Right. For the husband is the head of his household and he leads his wife in prayer, in Bible study, in holiness, modeling holiness, growing in holiness, submission to Christ.

Even the husband models this for his wife. Right. Not that the husband submits to the wife. You'll hear egalitarian say that, but that's not what the scripture says.

Submission is to yield to authority. In the household, the husband is the authority. Right.

So, the wife submits to the husband, the husband submits to Christ, and his submission to Christ even becomes a model of submission to his wife.

Mm -hmm. And he has the responsibility of growing his wife in an understanding of the word of God.

This falls on the husband first. Not that the wife cannot teach the husband because my wife does that for me.

She's kind of got a slight grin there as I'm mentioning that. Usually though,

I'll tell you this, it is less to do with something that Becky thinks that she knows that I don't know.

Mm -hmm. You know what I mean by that? Yeah. Well, I do. You know. I know. It's less to do with like, she's like, well,

I've been reading and I think you're wrong. And so, I'm going to tell you this. You know, it's not something like that.

It's rather Becky showing me what I have taught. Mm -hmm.

And making sure that I'm walking according to the very thing that I have said. Right.

And I think we've given examples of this before. Like in a sermon. Mm -hmm. I will say something in a sermon.

That week, I will behave in a way that's contrary to what I said in the sermon. Mm -hmm. And Becky will say, well, you said in your sermon on Sunday this.

I'm just saying. She does it in a very loving way.

It's not at all mocking. Right. It's not trying to make me feel like a hypocrite or anything like that.

She's doing it in a loving way to build up and strengthen her husband. Mm -hmm. But when she says it,

I'll go, no, no, no, no, no. Yeah. This situation. You always try. Yeah. This is not the same thing as what

I said on Sunday. And Becky will just go, OK. Yeah. But then I'm thinking about it five minutes later.

And I'm going, yeah, she's right. I'm not frustrated with her. It's the conviction of the spirit that I'm feeling in my heart.

Yeah. So she knows that. She knows that about me. She can mention that. And she knows it's going to be on my mind.

I'm going to play it through. And I'm going to understand, according to scripture, according to my actions, according to the conviction of the spirit, if there's something that I need to correct or repent of.

Mm -hmm. And in this way, my wife sanctifies me. There is not a person in your life who is going to be more of a friend to you in this walk of sanctification than your spouse will be.

And so I think in this, it's safe to refer to you as my soulmate.

OK. As we understand it as just a figure of speech and a saying. Now, if it goes into the direction of we're going to be soulmates forever for like all eternity, well, no.

Because even Jesus said to the Sadducees, in the kingdom there is not, in heaven there will not be marriage and giving in marriage.

Right. So this is an earthly relationship that we enjoy now as a picture of the way that Christ loves his church.

Mm -hmm. But it is not going to be something that endures even in heaven above. Right. Now, that is a biblical marriage.

OK. Right. So we're talking about a biblical marriage. Right. So what if the spouse is not

Christian? I would say that there's still some sanctification happening there because we're sanctified first and foremost by the word of God.

Jesus praying in John 17, 17, sanctify them in your truth, your word is truth.

But let's say, now that's if one spouse is a believer and one spouse is an unbeliever. But what if neither spouse is a believer?

Mm -hmm. It becomes harmful to the soul when Christ is not the center of the marriage. Mm -hmm.

When Christ is the center of the marriage, then we're building one another up for eternity. Right. That we may be presented before Christ in holiness.

Now, the whole church is supposed to be doing this for each other. All of us within the church, we're helping to sanctify each other, growing in love and holiness and steadfastness and understanding of the word, that we may be knit together in love, as Paul talks about earlier in Ephesians 4, growing into the head who is

Christ. Right. The whole church does this together. You don't sanctify yourself, but it's all according to the word of God, into the spiritual house, unto the

Lord. Mm -hmm. The whole church does this, but then we've also got that marriage component, because there's not going to be anyone in the church that you're closer to than me.

Right. I think that in the Christian marriage, we're certainly building each other up and growing the soul.

Mm -hmm. In an unchristian marriage, yeah, there's something happening there too, but it may not be for the eternal benefit of the soul.

I don't know. I'm sorry. I'm just kind of thinking. That's okay. It's all going a million miles per hour in my head.

I had other questions earlier, whenever you were reading the Bible, about what submission means for the wife, what that would look like.

It's not that she would be stepped on and tossed around and abused by any means.

It just means that we have conversations where we hash out things and discuss things.

When we don't quite agree on it, we come to an understanding. Even if I just don't agree,

I still am like, okay, well, I'm going to trust you on this, because you were thinking at a different level than I am.

Like talking to a realtor when we were having that discussion? Right. There are times when

I'm just like, I've got to just submit to you, because I think I know what's best, but I'm going to trust that your way will be all right.

Right. It might even be better. I don't know. Even if it's not better, then we can try it my way and then see.

Sometimes that's happened. Not often, though. Especially when it comes to decorating or setting up the house.

I don't have any. I'll even think that I do. Like, no, let's not do that. You're so cute when you do that.

I'm like, okay, babe. Just trust me. Yeah, that's right. And then eventually I'll do, we'll have the discussion,

I'll express my disagreement, and then at the end of it, it says, just do what you want. And then Becky will do it, and then it'll be like, oh, yeah, well, that does look way better than what

I thought. Visually, I just don't have that. I can't picture it.

And then she does it, and it looks way better than whatever it was I would have come up with. Yeah.

I mean, we just have our strengths and weaknesses. Yeah, those are kind of minor things.

Those are minor things. But I'm thinking about whenever you're leading the family and stuff, that there's things that we disagree, that I might just,

I'm like, okay, you just take the lead, and I trust you. Well, yeah, even when it came to this move and deciding to take this offer at First Baptist Lyndale, it still mattered to me a great deal what my wife and my children thought of it.

And it's unanimous across the board. There wasn't anybody, even of our four kids, that were saying,

I don't know, I don't really want to do this. It seemed to be exciting on all fronts, seeing this new door that the

Lord was opening for us, that we had this opportunity presented in front of us. So that mattered to me, even though I would still be making the decision, and the rest of the family is expected to go along with it.

But I don't want to bring my family into something they're totally in disagreement with, because they're going to be completely miserable.

Right. While I'm chasing the thing that I think that I'm supposed to do is going to make me happy. You know what I mean? Right. That's one of those things where that just kind of comes with a wisdom of leadership,

I think, rather than, well, I need to trust my wife on this, or even I'm going to go with what my kids think about this.

Right. But you were, because one of the things that you were starting on there while you were talking about submission was, it's not that like a husband lords himself over his wife.

Right. It's not a matter of, I'm the head, so you have to follow me. Right.

There still needs to be a service that happens there. Yeah. Especially following the example of Christ, for Jesus said to his disciples that the son of man came not to be served, but to serve.

Now he came to give his life as a ransom for many, a husband can't do that for his wife.

Right. He can't give his life as a ransom for his wife. She needs to trust Christ for the forgiveness of her sins.

But even here in Ephesians 5, the expectation is still that a husband gives his life for his wife.

As Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of the water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies.

He who loves his wife loves himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.

Therefore, verse 31, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

And I think that's why it's so hard whenever one of the couple doesn't fulfill the biblical role.

Yeah. It's just, it's hurtful. It affects the whole marriage, yeah. It does. And that's why divorce is so hard.

Yeah. If you're going through your marriage, too, with that 50 -50 mindset. Oh, that's awful.

That's also going to destroy your marriage. Don't do that. That's not good advice at all. Where's 50 %?

I mean, like, do you just work half the day? Yeah, right. Exactly. Like, okay, it's noon. I'm done.

Yeah. You know, I mean, like, that's... I've done everything that I'm going to do for you today. Now it's your turn to meet me halfway.

You're going to destroy a marriage that way because it's completely arbitrary. It's subjective. You're never going to be able to draw that line and meet one another in the middle.

You have to give all of yourself. That's really what Ephesians 5 is saying here in the instructions to husbands and wives.

A wife submits to her husband. A husband, in submission to Christ, gives up his life for his family.

For his wife first, loving her. And then the instruction to fathers, as it comes down to Ephesians 6, verse 4, is fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the

Lord. So a husband has a responsibility in submission to Christ to give up himself for his wife.

Yeah. And a father has the responsibility in submission to Christ to bring up his children in the discipline and the instruction of the

Lord. This is the responsibility that falls on the head of the household, which the man is.

And women, you have to give him the opportunity to do that. Yes. To do that. Yes, that's tough because, you know,

I mean, a lot of times that you don't see the man stepping up and doing it.

And you're just like, fine, I'm just going to do it myself because it needs done. And might as well, I'm here.

You know, you see what needs done, you go do it. Yeah. The things that are happening in our culture right now, all of the craziness that you see on the news, no matter what the news story is, it comes from a cowardliness in the home, on the part of a man, cowardliness in the pulpit, on a part of a man.

There are not men who are being strong men of God and standing up with the word of God in the pulpit and in the home.

If that was taking place, our culture and our society would not be in the position that it's in right now.

So step up. Men in submission to Christ, love your wives.

All right. So that's going to bring us to the conclusion of the first half of this program. You made it half an hour, babe.

Yay! I'm going to let her go to bed and then we're going to tackle the next half of these questions here.

And I think as a good lead into this next one, this is in response to the video that I did on what does the

Bible say about the Pope? So I'm going to play this video and then we'll read the question on the other side.

All right. Thank you, babe. You're welcome. Bye, everybody. Pope comes from the

Latin word Papa, also a child's word for father. The title is given to the Bishop of Rome, leader of the

Roman Catholic Church. The office of the Pope is called the Papacy, also known as the Apostolic See, based on the understanding that the

Pope is the successor of the apostle Peter, considered to be the first Pope. Following Peter is this unbroken chain of apostleship as Peter passed his authority on to his successor and on down the line.

According to Roman Catholic doctrine, today's Pope is regarded as perfect and without error. His revelations, judgments, and decrees as authoritative as the

Bible itself. But while Peter was hugely influential in the building of the church and spread of the gospel, he was not given authority that superseded the other apostles.

At one point, he was rebuked by the Apostle Paul, and he called Paul's writings as authoritative as the rest of Scripture.

Peter was also married, which is forbidden for the Pope, and he would not have called himself perfect. The Apostle John wrote that if anyone thinks they have no sin, they are deceived and the truth is not in them.

Now, we are to submit to apostolic teaching even today, but it's the authority of the apostles who wrote the

New Testament, upon whom Christ built His church. Paul stated that he was the last apostle. No others would be appointed after him.

If anyone teaches a doctrine different than what those apostles taught, they are a false teacher. So the

Pope is not the father of the church. The only head of the church is the Lord Christ. Roman Catholicism says that if a person does not receive the authority of the

Pope, they are anathema and cursed to hell. But the Bible says that curse is for anyone who teaches a different gospel when we understand the text.

Now the funny thing about that after playing that video is this question does not have to do with anything regarding Roman Catholicism or the

Pope. It's rather about a single statement that was made in that video where I said

Paul was the last one to be appointed as an apostle. He said that he was the last apostle.

And a fellow by the name of Tim emailed me and he said, I'm sorry, sir, but this verse does not teach that Paul was the last apostle and there would be none after him.

The verse in question is 1 Corinthians 15 8. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

Tim goes on, you're stating that it does, that it means that Paul was the last apostle is an engagement in eisegesis.

Are you aware of how many apostles are named in the scripture? Are you aware of what an apostle is and does?

Are you aware of church history? Early church history after the apostle Paul, we have men being sent to nations as the apostle to that nation.

An apostle is a church planter, a missionary. It is not a title, but a function.

It is a gift given to the church. There are at minimum 23 apostles named in the

New Testament. And here he gives a list of apostles. He says, first, Jesus is an apostle.

Now, the reference that he gives to that is Hebrews 3 1, which says, therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling consider

Jesus the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to him who appointed him just as Moses also was faithful in all

God's house. Now, it's true that Christ is mentioned there as an apostle, but it's not the office of the apostle.

Now, I'm going to make a reference to the office of an apostle coming up here in just a moment.

In the meantime, we'll go through the list of Tim's references to apostles. Simon Peter, no argument there.

Andrew, James, the son of Zebedee, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James, the son of Alphaeus, Thaddeus, or Judas, the son of James, Simon, the zealot,

Judas Iscariot. And then the last one of the 12 is Matthias.

That's Acts 1 26, where Matthias is listed as the apostle who took over for the position that was abandoned by Judas Iscariot when he, of course, betrayed

Christ and then committed suicide. Then you have 12 other apostles listed after the 12. Paul, Barnabas, James, the

Lord's brother, Silas, or Silvanus, Timothy, Epaphroditus, Apollos, and then two unnamed apostles.

The reference given is 2 Corinthians 8 3. Now, when I responded to Tim, I said that 2

Corinthians 8 3 does not have anything to do with apostles. It has to do with the Macedonians who were giving to the benefit of the church out of their poverty.

Tim corrected himself and said that he meant 2 Corinthians 8 23, which says, as for Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker for your benefit.

And as for our brothers, they are messengers of the churches, the glory of Christ. There is nothing there mentioned about them being an apostle, although the

Greek word there for messengers is the same Greek word as apostle. It's just not used in a formal sense.

So most translations are not going to list them as apostles. There's no official title of apostle given to those two unnamed men there in 2

Corinthians 8 3 or 8 23. Sorry, Tim goes on and says the word apostle means a delegate, an ambassador, a messenger, or one sent.

Technically, anyone who is sent to plant a church is called an apostle. Therefore, technically, apostles still exist today.

And I'm not even charismatic, nor do I belong to any type of charismatic church.

What is the context of 1 Corinthians 15 8? Well, let's see. In verses 3 and 4,

Paul gives us the first ever Christian creed. In verses 5 through 7, he lists those to whom the risen

Christ had appeared. So what is Paul saying in verse 8? That he was the last person the risen

Christ appeared to by means of revelation since Jesus had already ascended to heaven.

There's nothing in this passage about being the last apostle when we understand the text.

Haha! Cute little addendum there, Tim. So when I responded to Tim, I said that neither

Timothy, Apollos, nor Epaphroditus are ever referred to as apostles.

Paul very clearly addresses Timothy as a protege. He has never spoken of as a man of equal standing to the authority that had been given to Paul as an apostle.

You can just read 1 and 2 Timothy and you can see. Timothy is he's called a man of God because Paul equates him to the men of God of the

Old Testament who were supposed to be carriers of the word of God who were supposed to be ministers to the people of God speaking the word that had come from the

Lord. But Timothy is not being given any special revelation. He is being he is being given the word as it was given to the apostles.

So Timothy himself is not the apostle. He is a carrier of that apostolic ministry but not of the office of apostle himself.

Now James the half -brother of Jesus and also Barnabas do seem to be mentioned as apostles so I understand that interpretation.

I haven't necessarily discounted it as wrong. Whether they're whether they're named formally as holding the office of apostle is where there is some debate.

Judas was an apostle but his office was vacated. And here's where we come to understand that the position of an apostle is an office.

There is an office that we refer to when we come to apostle. When we talk about an apostle. Not just being one cent but one who actually holds a position that has authoritatively been given by Christ.

In Acts 1 20 it says this is Peter speaking of Judas and how he was a fulfillment of Old Testament scriptures and that someone needed to replace

Judas also as a fulfillment of prophecy. Acts 1 20 for it is written in the book of Psalms may his camp become desolate and let there be no one to dwell in it and let another take his office.

So Peter goes on so one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection and they put forward two there were two men with them who were qualified for this office who had been with Christ from his baptism until his being taken up into heaven and it was

Joseph called Barsabbas who was also called Justice and Matthias and they prayed and said you

Lord know the hearts of all show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which

Judas turned aside to go to his own place once again we have apostleship mentioned there as an authoritative position that has been given by Christ to specific men to be a carrier of the word of Jesus and their ministry was going to be affirmed in the fact that they had witnessed the risen

Christ and had been appointed by Christ himself and affirmed their appointing through signs and wonders and I'll give references to that here in just a moment verse 26 they cast lots for them and the lot fell on Matthias and he was numbered with the 11 apostles when

Paul talks about whom Christ appeared to in the in the statement that he gives in first Corinthians chapter 15 he says that he appeared to the 12 let me read the passage in context 1st

Corinthians 15 3 for I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures that he was buried that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures and that he appeared to Cephas then to the 12 so Paul is giving an order of succession of whom

Christ appeared to after his resurrection verse 6 then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time most of whom are still alive though some have fallen asleep where where Paul mentions

Cephas that's Peter and then to the 12 so all of the 12 together the 12 have a specific designation that even

Paul himself did not have which is why he refers to himself as one untimely born we continue on verse 7 then he appeared to James then to all the apostles so that seems to be a reference to James being an apostle verse 8 last of all as to one untimely born he appeared also to me for I am the least of the apostles unworthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God Paul was not originally one of the 12 he was a persecutor of the church hence why he referred to himself as one untimely born none of the other apostles had ever persecuted the church but Paul did before Christ appeared to him on the road of on the road to Damascus and and then of course you had

Paul's conversion we tend to say it was from Saul to Paul but he was still Saul even after he became

Paul it's just the difference between his Hebrew name and his Greek name is really all that is as he was going to be an apostle to the

Gentiles he would use his Greek name so that the usage of his name would not immediately turn away

Gentiles who knew that this man was a Jew but again verse 8 he says last of all as to one untimely born he appeared also to me this is clearly indicating even though it's not the main point of that Paul is making but it clearly indicates that no other apostles were going to be appointed after him the last person whom the risen

Christ would appear to until he appears to all with his second coming was the apostle

Paul last of all as to one untimely born again that's a list of succession and he gets to himself last so as far as the office of apostle goes there's not going to be another appointed apostle which is why we must be very very careful with the use of that word

I'm not opposed to the way that Tim wants to use that word as one who is sent as one who is a church planter but you can just say that of a person who's a church planter you just use that term this person has come as a missionary they've come to plan a church they've come to share the gospel they've come as an evangelist there's plenty of other terms that qualify that person that makes sense we understand what that means but you use the word apostle and suddenly a person's probably going to expect you to have to qualify that title will prove it to me that you're an apostle equal to somebody like Peter or Paul how do you make the distinguishing or how do you distinguish between a modern apostle and those apostles who were the carriers of the word of Christ who laid the foundation of the church the church built upon a foundation of the apostles with Christ himself as the cornerstone as it says in Ephesians in first Peter chapter 2 the designation of apostle is clearly something that is a an appointment not granted to anyone in the present day

Paul even mocked those who referred to themselves as apostles in his day but who had not been appointed by Christ they were ministers of Satan they were not true apostles but Paul in speaking to the

Corinthians about this said 2nd Corinthians 1212 the signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience with signs and wonders and mighty works so if a person is going to proclaim themselves to be an apostle of that office like Peter and Paul and the rest of them held

John etc then they are going to have to show a sign to prove that they have been given that position by Christ because again an apostle was a carrier of the word of Christ his word was just as authoritative as Christ's word itself

Paul talks about this with the Corinthians you have it in 2nd Thessalonians 314 if anyone will not obey what it is that we say you are not to have anything to do with that person

Peter even equates Paul's word with the Old Testament scriptures which we know was a word that was given from God to his prophets so what

Paul said was even from Christ to the church Peter refers to it as being like the other scriptures and so whenever a person doesn't understand what

Paul says this is 2nd Peter 314 through 16 they are ignorant and unstable twisting the word to their own destruction as they do the other scriptures so this is this is supposed to be our understanding of the word of an apostle it is the word of Christ as given to his apostles and the confirmation that this word was

God's word and not some other man's word is that they were performing miraculous signs that verified this word was from the

Lord so as I concluded my email to Tim I said to him if you or anyone else claim you function as an apostle

I'll believe that person when they function by raising the dead yes there are occasions in the

New Testament where you will see the word apostle being used in an informal sense as one who is sent but we

I believe must understand that word is a possible we must use it in a reverent way as one who has been appointed by Christ for it is the apostles that have given us the

New Testament this is the apostolic ministry and it all was affirmed as being from God through signs and wonders so don't use the term apostle haphazardly

I know that there are occasions in the church in the history of the church where apostle was used in an informal way as one who was sent sure because that's what the word means but we must be very careful in that usage of the word especially in our modern time when you have the charismatic church this this charismatic ism that is blown up since 1900 in the in the 19th century it was the seekers they referred to themselves as seekers but then when you had the charismatic movement that started out right at the turn from the 19th to the 20th century you have that word apostle starting to be designated as a modern apostle someone who is equal in authority and power to the

New Testament apostles in fact even some of our quote unquote modern apostles the super apostles as Paul mockingly referred to them as in second

Corinthians 11 even our current super apostles will say they're superior to the

New Testament apostles Mike Bickel who's the pastor of the International House of Prayer in Kansas City he has said that the

New Testament apostles will be lining up in heaven to shake the hands of today's apostles who will be so much greater than they were and I would say to you that that is heretical because that is a person who is claiming to speak a word from Christ that they have not been given and Jesus warned in Matthew chapter 24 not to listen to anyone who says look here is the

Christ because the next appearance of Christ is going to be as visible as lightning and it will be seen by the whole world when

Christ returns in his second coming let's go to the next question here this comes from Courtney she says hey brother

I hope you and your family are well and I pray that your body will do well in this time

I came across a fellow on Twitter that is a Noah hide which I had never heard of karm has a tiny page on it and it's a

Jewish sect of sorts I've heard some pretty alarming things such as a

Pharisee level of disdain for Jesus to be expected and a lot of weird scripture twisting finally we got to a point where he said to me yes your work here in this life on this earth to write the wrong is how you pay what do you say to that quote how do you share the gospel with a

Jew who disregards Jesus or even any of what I just said they don't even have

Orthodox understandings of the sacrificial system sincerely your brother in Christ Courtney well the good response to that would be to really just share the gospel

I mean understand that Jesus even said to the Jews who would not listen to him that you cannot bear to hear my word because you are of your father the devil and your will is to do your father's desires that's in John chapter eight and there are plenty of Jews today who deny that Jesus is the

Messiah Ben Shapiro is one of the most popular one of the most famous one so he himself would consider himself to be an

Orthodox Jew but he doesn't believe that Jesus is the Christ and you listen to him talk about even the miracles in the

Bible he'll say that you know there's rational explanations for them they're not actually God granted miraculous signs that are being performed which is very sad you pray for such a person you hope that they would be convicted by the

Holy Spirit when the gospel is presented to them and that would be the case with this fellow that you had encountered online

I don't know about Noah Hyde being a sect of Jewish belief

I know that there are Noah Hyde rules or laws that are given in the

Talmud it's like seven Noahic instructions and the

Talmud kind of elaborates on some of the things that were written in the Old Testament but are not explained in detail in the

Old Testament itself for a while the the Jews just continued this teaching through oral tradition and then they were written down beginning at about the second century

AD including these seven instructions that were following the flood that God had given to Noah that mankind was supposed to follow before the giving of the law which of course would later come in Exodus anyway that's kind of where that Noahic thing came from but the statement that he makes your work here in this life on this earth to right the wrong is how you pay

I don't just I really just don't think that even makes any sense we cannot pay for any of the wrongs that we have done it is

Christ who justifies just as we've been reading this week in Romans chapter 8 who is to condemn it is

Christ who justifies and so he is the one who has forgiven us of our sins and by his death on the cross he has paid the penalty for our sins so when somebody makes a statement to you like that you can say to them so how much do you have to pay before you write the wrong that has been done you will continue to pay and never undo any wrong it is only

Christ who is making all things new and renews the person who believes in him raising a dead person to life in Jesus cleansing us of all unrighteousness sanctifying us and growing us in holiness as we continue to live for him day by day

I hope that helps you out Courtney this next question actually has to do with Jewish law as well this is from Josh how many books are in the

Old Testament and New Testament Bibles I think he means the Bible with the Old Testament in the

New Testament when was the book of Sirach introduced well Sirach is part of what we refer to as the

Apocrypha and it may be made up of 12 to 15 books kind of depending the

Orthodox has one list the Coptics have a list the the

Catholics have a certain list of books that fit in their Apocrypha these books were written in the intertestamental period between what we consider to be the

Old Testament and the New Testament is about 400 years in between the completion of the

New Testament and are sorry the completion of the Old Testament and the beginning of the events that start in the book of Matthew and it's in that 400 years that many of these

Apocryphal books or the Deutero canonical books were written Deutero canonical means second listed but they were not divinely authorized books meaning that God did not divinely inspire the writers to write them and when you read them you can tell the difference there's there's certain scholarship that we can go back and forth on but if you read the

New Testament and you read the Apocrypha you're going yeah these they're totally different they sound like they're in a completely different voice than the

Old and New Testament that we have so as for the number of books in the Bible you've got in the

Old Testament 39 and in the New Testament 27 the total is 66 as far as divinely inspired books of the

Bible go that's the limit and we shouldn't add to that number anymore nor should we take away from that number canon is closed it will never be added to as we have in Hebrews 1 1 and 2 long ago at many times and in many ways

God spoke to our fathers by the prophets but in these last days he has spoken to us by his son and the word that Christ gave to the apostles became the

New Testament which was affirmed through signs and wonders they are not being performed anymore again the last apostle appointed was

Paul so we should not expect anybody else to be showing up with a new word that is in addition to or even contradicts what we have in scripture the 66 books that we have in the

Bible is how many books your Bible should have thank you for your questions you can submit further questions to when we understand the text at gmail .com

continue to keep in your prayers those being affected by the fires on the West Coast those who are still cleaning up after the devastating hurricane down around the

Gulf and those who are being affected by these riots as well Lord Jesus come quickly amen.

Sorry are you ready to record are you nice and tired. So Jeremiah here said technically

Tiffany and I just appeared on Fox News with John MacArthur. Really here's the screenshot and there they are right.

I see. They can't see me but I'm waving at them.

I'm trying to see if there's anybody else in there I recognize there's Phil. Oh yeah.

Yeah. Well Philip Webb not. Oh OK. Phil Johnson. Hey there's John MacArthur. Well yeah down here.

He's not in the screenshot. Oh my God. That's great. Welcome to Fox News guys.

I haven't been on Fox News before. You know I've been on CNN before. Oh yeah. You didn't know that maybe they quoted me when the whole four blood moons thing was going on.

Yeah I forgot about that. Yeah. Yeah. It was my. It's been a minute. My response to John Hagee the what video.