WWUTT 295 Q&A Good News and Bad News?

The Gospel is the good news that God is reconciling all things to Himself whether on earth or in heaven through the person and work of Jesus Christ.

But in order to understand the good news, we have to know the bad news first, when we understand the text.

Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is an online ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty.

Visit our website at www .utt .com. Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Thank you, Becky. And greetings, everybody. It is Friday and we reach into the eBag taking questions from the listeners and responding to them on the

Friday edition of the broadcast. If you'd like to submit a question, the email address is whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

We've been doing some renovations on the church this week. A church from Michigan has partnered with us and is helping to do some of the improvements on our building that we've needed to do for a long time.

It's been a great week of work, but it's also set me behind because we started like seven in the morning.

I don't start that early, but there are some that have been starting that early and going until about eight or nine o 'clock in the evening.

So it's been a long week. I've still had the chance to respond to some emails though, and I've pulled out just one that I'm going to feature today.

Also, two topical issues that were not presented to me as questions. I just figured, hey, the

Friday edition of the broadcast was the best place to bring them up. But all of these things are centered around the presentation of the gospel.

I'm going to begin with an answer that I heard on the Bible Answer Man broadcast a week ago.

The Bible Answer Man, in case you're not familiar with him, is Hank Hanegraaff. It is a radio program that is featured by the

Christian Research Institute. I had to think about that because there's also the Institute for Creation Research.

So it's either ICR or CRI. But anyway, equip .org is the website where you find the journal for the

Christian Research Institute, CRI, and I got that one right, equip .org, and also where they feature the

Bible Answer Man broadcast. So I don't get the chance to listen to Hanegraaff all the time. I catch it about once or twice a month, maybe.

And even though I'm going to be a little critical of an answer that Hanegraaff gave here, it's still a program that I would recommend.

I think that Hanegraaff's stuff is usually pretty solid. He's not very reformed in his doctrine, but what he offers to the listeners with the questions they call in with is very biblically based, very solid.

I've used his material in the past, and I think that there are some valuable things to glean from the

Bible Answer Man program. However, there was a phone call that he featured on his program a week ago from an atheist, and I do not think that Hanegraaff's answer to that atheist was very solid.

I'll tell you why after you hear the phone call, the question, and Hanegraaff's response.

Here it is. Back to the phone lines. We'll talk to Michael of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Hi, Michael. Hi, Hank.

Am I audible? I can hear you. Okay. I have a question about where I go.

I'm not, per se, a believer. I would consider myself an atheist. So I was just curious.

I do good things in the world. I volunteer at a youth clinic. I build ramps for handicapped people.

I do quite a bit of good things. I tend to not try to hurt anybody. If I do, I try to make it up to them.

In your belief, do you think I am going to suffer for an eternity when I die? Well, Michael, first of all, good for you.

I think what you're doing is absolutely wonderful. What an example for all of us, everybody listening in.

I think these are wonderful things. So when we can reach out to the poor, the downtrodden, those who need our help,

I mean, this is really what made Western civilization great to begin with.

I mean, you think about the hospitals and the relief organizations and the like. But here's the deal. I mean, you're going to go to hell or you're going to go to heaven based on your own choice.

If you want to be a participant in the kingdom and follow Jesus Christ, you're going to spend not only this life, but the life to come with Jesus Christ.

On the other hand, if you don't want that, trust me, Jesus Christ is not going to force himself on you.

So hell is God simply giving you precisely what you want. He is ratifying your free will.

If you do not want to live a life in concert with his goodness, glory, and his grace for all eternity, then he will allow you exactly what you want, which is to deny his reality.

So we have lots of evidence that there is a God. Obviously, you look at the heavens and a rational thinking person like yourself recognizes that that's not an accident.

The heavens don't just happen. When you see a complexity, you realize there's got to be a cause that is even more complex.

Every effect has to have a cause equal to or greater than itself, and that's just common sense. So when you look at the universe, you know there's a universe maker, an uncaused first cause.

You also know there's God because it's written on the canvas of your consciousness. It's just part of our DNA. And if you respond to that light, you can have more light.

If you want to be a participant in the kingdom, God will never turn you away. But if you don't, he's not going to impose himself on you either.

So your free choices are very important in Christianity. Now the atheistic worldview, which you mentioned, does not allow for freedom.

Because once you embark in a purely materialistic worldview, when you're embarked on that materialistic worldview, here's what happens.

You have no freedom. I often say if Madonna is merely a material girl living in a material world, her choices are not free.

They're fatalistically determined. So in the Christian worldview, you have freedom to choose. In the atheistic worldview, you do not.

We're limited by the physical world, that's kind of what I believe, is there's no supernatural.

So I can't choose what I believe. My brain decides for me. You didn't choose to believe

Christianity. You just believed it because it was brought to you, and you believed it. Oh, no, no. I was much in the same condition as you,

Michael, where I rejected the Christian worldview, and I believed in a materialistic worldview.

I didn't realize that there was mind, and that mind explains morals.

I thought that all you had was magic. Everything comes from nothing, and that from that, you end up having morals.

I mean, this didn't make any sense. I got to leave it at that. I'm at a station break. Now what was missing in Hanegraaff's answer to that atheist?

The gospel. It wasn't even there, and quite frankly, Hanegraaff didn't even actually answer his question.

Now I've heard Hanegraaff give the gospel before and present great answers on the

Bible Answer Man broadcast, but in that particular response to that atheist, he was being philosophical, not biblical, and the way that he began that answer by telling the atheist,

Oh, hey, good for you. I think it's great that you do good works. That was the wrong way to begin that answer because that was exactly what the atheist wanted to hear.

He wanted to hear that he was a good man, that he was a good person by the good works that he did. This is the very same approach that the rich young ruler had with Jesus.

When he asked Jesus in Mark 10, good teacher, what must

I do to inherit eternal life? And right away, Jesus was challenging his heart and saying to him, why do you call me good?

No one is good except God alone. In other words, Jesus was saying to this young man, why do you call me good when you're not ready to call me

God? And Hanegraaff could have responded to that atheist by saying, why do you call yourself a good person when nobody is good but God?

And Romans 3 says that there is no one good, no one is righteous. Jesus went on to say to the rich young ruler, you know the commandments, do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and your mother.

So while this atheist was ready to praise himself for all these good things that he was doing,

Hanegraaff could have responded the way that Jesus responded so that, according to Romans 3, every mouth would be silenced and that atheist would become aware of his sin, knowing that he had broken those commandments of God.

But the rich young ruler responded to Jesus, teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.

And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, loved him enough to show him where he was wrong and said to him, you lack one thing.

Go sell all that you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me.

Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful for he had many great possessions. That was not the way that Hanegraaff responded to that atheist.

He said that God will give you exactly what it is that you want. Well, here's the problem with that answer.

No one wants hell. Nobody wants that. Everybody wants to go to heaven.

They just don't want God to be there when they get there. Unless we have a heart that has been transformed by Christ and we worship

Christ as holy. And then our desire is to get to the place where God is.

And we can only get there through Jesus Christ. But for those who do not know Christ, they still want to get to heaven.

They just don't want God to be there. Nobody actually wants to go to hell. So that's the problem with Hanegraaff's answer of God's going to give you exactly what you want.

No, nobody wants that. Nobody wants to go burn for all eternity. Overall, it was just a very poor response.

Now, if I had been in Hanegraaff's chair, I think the man really has a wider range of biblical knowledge than I have.

I'll say that. But if I was in his chair and somebody had called me and asked me that question, how would

I respond? Well, my response would have sounded something like this what video. Can a person be good without God?

Well, the Bible says no one is righteous and no one does good, not even one person. Whoa, hold on.

People who aren't Christians do good things all the time. A person doesn't need God to love, be selfless or considerate of others.

Okay. Can a godless person do nice things? Sure. Anyone is capable of upstanding moral character, displaying kindness and charity toward others, expecting nothing in return.

But apart from God, their motivations, no matter how genuine, are wicked and self -serving. When a person thinks they can be good without God, they're claiming they're better than God.

I don't need you or your word. I can be righteous by myself. That's called self -righteousness.

Do you really think God would let anyone into heaven proclaiming their own glory? The Bible says that whatever is not done in faith is sin, and even our best deeds are as filthy rags before a holy

God. No one goes to heaven by being a good person because no one can do anything good. If that's the case, then what hope do we have?

The answer is Jesus. Romans 3 goes on to say that the righteousness of God has been given through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

Believers in Christ wear His righteousness. And now when God looks at us, He sees not our filthy rags, but the perfection of His Son.

Belief in Jesus is not because we need a moral code. It's because we need salvation from death.

God so loved us that He sent His only Son, and whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.

Through Jesus, God equips us with everything good, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight when we understand the text.

So coming back to the original question, I'm basically a good person, but I don't believe in God. Would God still send me to hell for all eternity?

And the answer is, unless you worship Christ the Lord as holy, yes, because no one is good but God alone.

The word gospel means good news, and in order for that news to be good, we have to know the bad news first.

The bad news is that we have sinned. We have all committed treason against the

High King of Heaven, and for that we deserve what? What's the penalty for treason? The penalty is death.

Romans 6 .23, For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our

Lord. Though we have rebelled against God, Christ took the penalty upon Himself.

The wrath of God that He absorbed by His death on the cross, so that all who believe in Him will be saved by His life.

Resurrected from the grave, we inherit His eternal life. What we deserve is death, what we get is life.

That's good news for all those who know their sin and know Christ the Lord as Savior.

And so let that be the gospel that we share. On that note, having that understanding of our sins so that we know

Christ as righteous and holy and merciful and loving. In order to know God as loving, we have to know that we have sinned.

Because God demonstrated His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5 .8. So on that note, I want to get to this next topic to talk about here, and that is related to a website called livingout .org.

On this website, there are testimonials from people who had lived in a homosexual lifestyle, and they have since come out of that lifestyle.

But although it's really great, and I really appreciate what the website is doing, there are some things that are lacking in the testimonials that I have watched.

Here's an example of one of those testimonial videos. My experience of same -sex attraction really started very early on in my life.

I didn't really have a word for it at the time. I didn't really understand what I was feeling. But, you know,

I remember being in the school playing ground, and, you know, when all the kids would be playing kiss chase,

I, for some reason, wanted to chase the boys. Those feelings stayed with me. I never understood them.

And then as I started to go through puberty, suddenly I became aware of this word for what

I thought I was feeling. And when I was about 14, I had my first sexual experience with a friend.

That led on then to actually that I fully immersed myself and started attending gay pubs, gay clubs at the age of 14.

And I lived within the gay community for over 20 years, fully identifying myself as a gay individual.

Within that time, I've experienced a whole range of kind of experiences from the gay community.

I attended gay pride marches. I was political in being vocal on my right to be who

I thought I was. And I was in a relationship for over 12 years. Can God be good and deny me sex?

Firstly, I don't think that sex is a right. You know, it's not a necessity to us living.

It's not like breathing. It's not like eating. And I think that God firstly designed sexual intercourse for reproduction.

And God is good in that he actually made sex enjoyable.

God could have designed us in a different way to reproduce that isn't enjoyable. But he didn't.

He created us in a way that sex is enjoyable. And I personally believe that when you come together in a sexual union, you're not just coming together as two bodies.

That there's a spiritual connection that takes place. And I believe that God has designed that for the confines of marriage.

And for anybody that isn't married, that, you know, you can find satisfaction in other ways.

As a society, we put so much emphasis on sexual gratification.

And sex is not the be all and end all. You know, you can find deep satisfaction in friendships.

You can find deep satisfaction in other ways. Sex is not the only way that you can fulfill those desires.

The good things about being a Christian? I think one of the biggest things is just knowing God. Suddenly, those lost feelings that I felt throughout my life, those feelings that there was something else to life, have all been answered.

I'm not saying that I have all the answers. But I'm saying that there's a fulfillment in knowing

God. That, as a person, I can see that I'm becoming a better person.

I'm transforming. And that isn't just sexuality. You know, God is helping me change things in other ways.

I've become much more self -confident. My self -worth has got a lot better. The way

I interact with people is a lot better than what it was. And I've just seen that, you know, my life in general,

I'm much happier. I've got personal joy in my life. Although I thought I was happy in the gay community,

I can look back now and see that, actually, I was very unhappy. And I was searching for things that, you know, same -sex attraction couldn't offer me.

And a lot of the testimonials sound just like that. I really appreciate what it is that they're doing, presenting that, in Christ, a person can be transformed from homosexuality into not having those same -sex desires anymore.

I get that, and I appreciate that. But what's not being said, this person is not talking about an understanding of their sin and being under the wrath of God because they lived a lifestyle that was contrary to God's law and His design, and what they deserved was death.

But rather, it was Christ that saved me from that. Whereas I was previously under the wrath of God, in Christ I have been saved.

Not only that, but I've also been transformed by His life into something else.

And the desires that I had before, I don't have anymore. I'm no longer chasing after the things of the flesh, but I'm desiring the righteousness of Christ.

1 Corinthians 6, 9 -11 says, Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

And such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the

Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. So you have talked about in that section, in those three verses, an understanding of sin and an understanding of the gospel of Christ that has changed us and transformed us, even cleansed us from a life of sin into pursuing the righteousness of God.

So while I appreciate what livingout .org is doing, what I hope to see more from that organization in the future is a willingness to want to talk about homosexuality being sin and featuring testimonials from those who understand that.

I once was this, but in Christ I am now this.

The closest that I have heard in the testimonials that I've watched on that website, the closest that I've heard come to the gospel is this one right here.

This isn't the whole testimonial, it's just about 60 seconds of what this guy has to share. Of course

I miss romantic relationships and on some level I miss sex, yes.

But in another sense, not at all. Because actually the search deep down behind sex in our society is a search for intimacy.

And when I was having those sexual relationships, I was not finding very profound forms of intimacy.

In fact, often that would separate me or distance me from people. So I think I found the intimacy

I was looking for in Christ and in the church. What I love about being a

Christian is that I get to share the most incredible news with people that they don't have to live up to a moral standard, that they don't have to climb this ladder.

And I think a lot of people feel condemned, and actually I get to share the news with them that they're not condemned.

When they receive Jesus and they turn away from sin or their old life, they're completely accepted, completely loved, completely brought into God's family and that there's no condemnation anymore.

I love that. See, he had it there, he said it.

He said, a lot of people feel like they're condemned, but I get to tell them that they're not condemned if they receive

Jesus and turn away from their sin. Because as Jesus said in John 3 .18,

whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he is not believed in the name of the only

Son of God. So there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. But when we're not in Christ, before we come to Christ, we are living under condemnation.

We have condemned ourselves because of our sinfulness against God. John 3 .36 says, he who has the

Son has life. He who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

So what I hope happens with livingout .org is they have a desire to want to share the gospel, an understanding of sin and repentance.

I once was this, but in Christ I am now this. I was once under the wrath of God, but now

I am living in his righteousness. A lot of those testimonials on there, at least the ones that I've watched, kind of come across as I once felt this way, but now

I feel this way. And although we do feel something deeply passionate about God when we've been transformed in Christ, how we feel does not dictate who we are.

It is God who dictates who we are. Finally, we get to the question that I have to respond to today in today's broadcast.

And this comes from Cicero. He says, my church recently got bought out by a larger church named

Cornerstone. My old church was small in numbers, yes, but those there truly loved and worshipped the

Lord Jesus Christ. I was baptized and saved through my old church, so it has a sentimental value to me.

Today I went in to see the new church that took over. It started with regular worship music that was repetitive, but had

Jesus's crucifixion tied into it, so it wasn't so bad. The sermon was what got me. It was about 1

Samuel and how David and Saul were trying to get at each other, and the part where he cuts off the robe and makes many bathroom jokes, and then goes on to talk about character.

The two words that got me were how it's our own life, and we need to show good character, even though Paul talks about how it is in our life, and the

Holy Spirit works in us the fruits we are to bear. He ended it with how our words can be used to power everything we do.

It was the first sermon I've heard that didn't talk about Jesus at all, even though he could have referenced how

Jesus is the greater David, such as all scripture pointing to Christ. Should I love this church or leave this church?

I did respond to Cicero by email, and I told him, run. Run away.

If you hear one sermon in a church that does not reference Christ, do not remain there.

Charles Spurgeon once said, know Christ in your sermon, sir, then go home and never preach again.

And Cicero, I will tell you, and I do believe that I said this to him in the email, that you did not pledge yourself to the elders of this new church.

When you became a member of your church, it was under the eldership and the leadership and the body of Christ of that church that you belonged to, that you committed yourself to, growing with in family.

You cannot grow in a church that is not presenting the gospel. And it's very possible that they are not your family.

They may not even be brothers and sisters in Christ. If the gospel is not being presented there, and those people are not growing in the knowledge of God, that's one of the signs of genuine belief, is that we will grow in the knowledge of God, as Paul said to the

Colossians. And so I have given Cicero permission to leave that church. Now, if there are still people there that he was growing with in his former church,

I don't know all the ins and outs of the transformation of this church, how one church got sold out to another church, but if there are still people there that you had been growing with, be vocal with them.

Treat them as your brothers and sisters. Express to them the problem that you have with this new church.

Pray together. Pray about it. Have some good conversations. Receive some good advice. And I do think that you should,

I mean, if the old pastor is still around, talk to him and get his advice. But as far as this new church is concerned, have nothing to do with this body if the gospel is not there.

Leave it and go find a church where the gospel is preached. As Spurgeon has also said, don't go where it is all fine music and grand talk and beautiful architecture.

Go where the gospel is preached and go often. You never graduate from the gospel.

Even as Christians, we need to constantly be reminded of this grace of God that has been given to us, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self -controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great

God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

I was just quoting to you Titus 2, 11 through 14, by the way. I was once a sinful wretch as well, chasing the passions of the flesh and the desires of my body and mind, not submitting these things to the

Lord as a living sacrifice, but desiring what pleased me. It is Christ who saved me from my sin and transferred me to his eternal kingdom by his death and his life.

And I am still a sinful wretch. It is by the life of Christ that I am continually being transformed into the holiness of God, which

I pursue with my whole being. And though I make mistakes and I still sin, I understand the truth of 1

John 1, 9, that if we are faithful to ask forgiveness for our sins, God is faithful and just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Amen. God bless you. Have a good weekend. Find a good gospel teaching church to be a part of this

Sunday. Happy birthday to my youngest daughter, Aria, who turned two years old today.

We will continue and in fact conclude our study of the book of James next week. So come back and please let somebody else know about this program.

God bless. This is a protection of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas. Find us on the web at www .utt