WWUTT 1900 Q&A Nashville Shooting, Legacy Bible, Pastoral Theology

WWUTT Podcast

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

How do you minister to someone who identifies as trans? Where's a good place to purchase

00:05

Bibles, and what's a good Bible app? And how is someone qualified to be a pastor? The answers to these questions and others, when we

00:14

Understand the Text. This is

00:25

When we Understand the Text, a daily Bible study in the Word of Christ, that we may press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God.

00:36

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

00:41

Thank you, Becky. She's going to come back and join me here in a few minutes. This is the Friday edition of our broadcast in which we respond to questions from the listeners, and we've got your questions to get to here in just a moment.

00:55

I want to start off here by reading from Psalm 7. This is out of the Legacy Standard Bible.

01:00

Hear the word of the Lord. O Yahweh my God, in you I have taken refuge.

01:07

Save me from all those who pursue me and deliver me, lest he tear my soul like a lion, rending me in pieces while there is none to deliver.

01:18

O Yahweh my God, if I have done this, if there is injustice in my hands, if I have rewarded evil to him who is at peace with me, or have plundered my adversary without cause, let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it, and let him trample my life down to the ground, and cause my glory to dwell in the dust.

01:45

Selah. Arise, O Yahweh, in your anger. Lift up yourself against the fury of my adversaries, and arouse yourself for me.

01:56

You have appointed judgment. Let the congregation of the peoples encompass you, and over them return on high.

02:05

Yahweh judges the peoples. Give justice to me, O Yahweh, according to my righteousness and my integrity that is in me.

02:15

O let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous, for the righteous

02:22

God tests the hearts and minds. My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart.

02:30

God is a righteous judge, and a God who has indignation every day.

02:37

If a man does not repent, he will sharpen his sword. He has bent his bow and prepared it.

02:44

He has also prepared for himself deadly weapons. He makes his arrows fiery shafts.

02:51

Behold, he travails with wickedness, and he conceives mischief and gives birth to falsehood.

02:57

He has dug a pit and hollowed it out, and has fallen into the hole which he made.

03:03

His mischief will return upon his own head, and his violence will descend upon his own skull.

03:11

I will give thanks to Yahweh according to his righteousness, and will sing praise to the name of Yahweh Most High.

03:22

Again, that was Psalm 7, all 17 verses. Surely you are aware of the shooting that took place at Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee on Monday.

03:33

Audrey Hale, who identified as trans, entered the school and killed six, including three children all age nine and three adults.

03:42

Audrey was put down by police, and the body cam footage of her justified execution was shared with the public.

03:50

It is said that Audrey used to be a student at that school. Because of something she said to a friend on Instagram, it is believed that she intended not only to kill, but also to die.

04:02

This was a murder -suicide that had taken place. Senior Pastor of the

04:07

Covenant Presbyterian Church in Nashville, that is the host church of that school, confirmed that his daughter,

04:15

Hallie, was one of the children who was murdered. And mourning her loss, he said,

04:21

Through tears we trust that she is in the arms of Jesus, who will raise her to life once again.

04:30

Other victims included Evelyn Dickhouse and William Kinney, both age nine, and adults

04:36

Cynthia Peek, 61, Katherine Kuntz, 60, and Mike Hill, 61.

04:41

Heavenly Father, we lift up these families to you, and I pray that you would give them comfort and peace in their time of need.

04:51

As others are examining this horrible massacre and trying to make sense of it, may the gospel be brought to their ears.

05:00

May they hear of Christ who died on the cross, who rose again from the dead, who is ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of God, is coming back to judge the living and the dead.

05:11

He is enthroned on high, he reigns, and nothing is happening outside of his control.

05:17

But while we grapple with the evil that happens in the world around us, teach us how to number our own days and trust in the

05:25

Lord in the midst of these things, so that we would rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead.

05:32

May the good word of your gospel comfort hurting souls today. It's in Jesus' name that we pray, amen.

05:40

This attack that happened on this school, specifically Christians were targeted. This woman who was a professing trans or claimed to have a transsexual identity, she was trying to attack and kill

05:56

Christian children. President Joe Biden was asked about this by a reporter, and this video was captured by the

06:04

New York Post. I'm going to play this video here, and you may not be able to understand what's being said with the engine in the background, but I'll translate it for you here in just a moment.

06:13

The Nashville school shooting, do you believe that Christians were targeted? Josh Hawley believes they were.

06:22

What do you say to that? Well, I probably don't know that. Probably don't know that. Good. Well, I have no idea.

06:28

Yeah, so in case you weren't able to understand that, the reporter asked Joe Biden, the

06:33

Nashville school shooting, do you think that Christians were targeted? Biden said, I have no idea.

06:40

The reporter said, Josh Hawley, who is a senator in Arkansas, believes that they were

06:47

Josh Hawley believes that Christians were targeted. What do you say to that? And Biden replied, well, then

06:52

I probably doubt that. And then he laughs. And then he says, no, I'm joking.

06:58

I have no idea. This is the attitude of our president of the

07:03

United States laughing. When Christians are being targeted and murdered,

07:11

John Calvin once said that when God wants to judge a nation, he gives them wicked rulers.

07:16

My friends, we've got wicked, wicked rulers. And this nation is under judgment.

07:25

You know, today happens to be the trans day of visibility. I was not even aware of that, except that I'm so I'm on social media.

07:33

And so I see things like this. And of course, Joe Biden has released a statement expressing solidarity with the trans community on this trans day of visibility, though it was a professing trans person that targeted

07:48

Christians and murdered them earlier this week. Have we seen such a statement from the White House mourning with Christians over an attack that was specifically on Christians?

07:59

But instead, there's an expression of solidarity with those who identify as trans.

08:05

Now, I don't know what to make of this, but tomorrow happens to be a trans day of vengeance.

08:13

That's a hashtag that's been floating around on social media. It was going on before this shooting that had taken place in Nashville.

08:22

And it's likely that this woman, Audrey, was motivated by some of that language that's been that has been spreading around regarding the trans day of vengeance.

08:32

She was motivated by that language to do what she did. There is a 40 percent suicide rate among persons who identify as trans.

08:42

So if they don't value their own lives, if they hate and even want to mutilate their own bodies, then how highly can they regard someone else's life or someone else's body?

08:54

So I don't know what's going to happen with this trans day of vengeance. But since Monday, the

08:59

Biden administration has made it seem like people who identify as trans are the real victims here.

09:06

The mainstream media has followed suit with articles and headlines that have said because Audrey Hale's lifestyle was rejected by her parents, by her school, by Christians, she was driven to murder.

09:20

Others have made it appear as if all trans people are under attack. White House press secretary

09:26

Karine Jean -Pierre had this to say. And one of the things that we saw during the midterm elections is that people don't want their freedoms to be taken.

09:34

They want us to fight for their freedoms. And so it is shameful. It is disturbing. And our hearts go out to the trans community as they are under attack right now.

09:46

But you know, part of the thing with this worldview is that you have to believe that there's such thing as a trans person to begin with.

09:53

And then there being a trans community. Now my just saying that my just asking that question.

10:00

There are a person that would say that I'm instigating something violent or I'm even doing violence by not acknowledging that a person can be trans and by trans.

10:12

If you just don't know what this means, they use this word to say that you might be a woman trapped in a man's body or a female trapped in a male's body.

10:21

And so if you want to transition from male from being biologically male to attempt to make yourself a biological female or instead you're going to dress like a female, act like a female, though you were born male.

10:34

That makes you trans. You were transitioning. It's kind of a an evolution of the term transvestite, which used to be the term that was used in the 80s, 90s.

10:45

But since about the 2000s, it's transgender has been the term that has become popular.

10:52

It's as though a person is born this way, as though a person could actually be born a man trapped in a woman's body.

10:59

You are born male or female. That is how God made us. Genesis 1, 27,

11:05

God made man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him male and female.

11:12

He created them. God had determined your sex before you were born.

11:18

He determined what sex you were going to be male or female before you were conceived.

11:23

Before even the foundation of the world, God had determined this for you and it's immutable.

11:29

You cannot change it. You are born with that specific DNA and it is the it's the culture that gets into your mind to make you think that maybe you are something different.

11:42

Maybe God made a mistake and you're actually intended to be female if you're male or male if you're female.

11:50

This is the culture that's getting into especially young people's heads. If you can get them young, if you can get them early, then you can mess with their sexuality like mad scientists.

12:01

And so it's the culture that is infecting in a spiritual and moral sense, the minds of people, the devil that is at work in the world, getting them to believe such absurd things that like a man can become a woman.

12:18

You know that a man cannot be made a female. You know that.

12:23

We inherently know that by our own biology. You can't change it.

12:30

And yet there are all of these different scientific, psychological, biological organizations out there that are signing off on this idea that a man can indeed become a woman.

12:40

I just had someone the other day tell me I said something to the effect of there's no such thing as a trans person.

12:46

I said this to somebody on social media and they responded to me with a list of these organizations.

12:51

It just is a long list saying all of these scientific organizations disagree with you.

12:58

They are all driven by the same spirit of the age. The prince of the power of the air that is at work in the sons of disobedience is described in Ephesians chapter two.

13:10

It is Satan infecting the minds of the people of this worldly culture who are going after the passions of their flesh and they will be given over to their destruction.

13:21

The very judgment of God, if they do not repent, God's judgment is on this nation.

13:26

Now we see that by the wicked rulers that we have by the fact that this is so widespread and infecting here in the

13:34

United States of America. We know that this culture is under judgment, but that ultimate wrath of God, that being cast into hell forever, the only way to be saved from that is to turn from your sin to the

13:47

Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. Turn from this madness, this insanity, so much of the culture that has been turned over to a depraved mind to do what ought not to be done is described in Romans one.

14:03

But even so, the only way to be brought out of that to rescue and cleanse the mind from this propaganda that is in our public school system, that is going out through social media and television programming and so many other different ways.

14:18

The only way to be saved from that, to not be given over to that, but to have a renewed mind and a transformed way of thinking is to have a mind renewed in Christ Jesus.

14:31

Philippians 2 .5, let this mind be in you, which is in Christ Jesus. Romans 12 .2,

14:38

do not be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, and then you will see

14:46

God's will for you, his good, pleasing and perfect will. But my friends beware, there are many out there who are professing to be

14:54

Christians that are pushing exactly this wicked propaganda.

15:01

On Wednesday evening, Joy Reid, one of the most vile liberals on television, had on her

15:06

MSNBC show Charlotte Clymer, who used to be known as Charles Clymer, but claims he's a woman now, and also

15:13

Jim Wallace, the founder of Sojourners magazine. I'm going to play clips from both of these individuals, but listen first to what

15:21

Clymer had to say. I would challenge anyone just to get to know trans people. We are a vibrant, diverse community, as diverse as anyone else.

15:28

I'm from the great state of Texas. I served in the military. I go to church every Sunday. My faith is very important to me. But God made me in her image.

15:36

God made me transgender. And to see these people so cynically weaponize this and exploit these children's debts and their teachers' debts, it breaks my heart.

15:45

I wonder what those families are thinking right now. What do you feel when you have somebody like Michael Knowles at CPAC, we need to eradicate transgenderism, and when somebody like Tucker Carlson says that transgender people are at war with Christians?

15:56

I can't see Christ in their words. That's for sure. I can't see where the biblical principles of loving your neighbor and walking the walk with Christ that they can see.

16:05

I can't see what they're seeing right now, because that's not of Christ. It's not. Yeah. Now, notice the manipulative language that's been used there.

16:13

He uses very Christianese terms. I'm a person of faith. I go to church. I have been made in the image of God.

16:21

But notice that he referred to God there as a her. I've been made in her image.

16:27

It's funny that among these people, you have to respect their preferred pronouns, but they don't have to respect

16:34

God's. The God that Clymer is talking about is a

16:39

God of Clymer's own making. He's made a God in his own image. He does not actually celebrate that he's been made in God's own image.

16:49

We all have been made in the image of God, just as I quoted a moment ago from Genesis 127. But the thing is, according to Romans three, we've all taken that image and desecrated it.

17:01

We have made it worthless, and that's not my language. That's what the Bible says.

17:06

This is from Romans chapter three and quoting from the Psalms. Paul says, as it is written, there is none righteous, not even one.

17:17

There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks for God. All have turned aside together.

17:25

They have become worthless. There is none who does good.

17:31

There is not even one. That's verses 10 through 12. So we have become worthless.

17:37

We were made in the image of God. We were placed in charge of all of creation.

17:45

God gave us dominion over all things. You see that dominion mandate given right there in Genesis one, right along with male and female.

17:53

He created them. He gave us dominion over everything. But yet we took that image that we were made in and we desecrated it with our sin.

18:03

Whenever you sin, you are blaspheming God because you sin in the image of God.

18:10

And so it is to take that which is made in God's image and to do what is wicked and unrighteous is to attribute

18:20

God with being wicked and unrighteous. I know that's a complicated concept, but do you understand how sin is such an egregious offense against God because he's made you in his image and then you represent

18:37

God by doing what is wicked instead of what is holy. And so just by one sin, therefore, just by that one sin that Adam and Eve committed, they separated themselves from God and became worthy of God's judgment and destruction.

18:57

And all of us are there. We are all worthy to be destroyed by God because of our sin, because of the cosmic treason that we've committed against the almighty.

19:06

It is when we hear the gospel of Jesus Christ and we turn from our sin to faith in Jesus that he makes us a new creation.

19:18

The old is passed away, the new has come. Galatians 2 .20, for I have been crucified with Christ.

19:25

It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives within me. And the life that I now live in the body,

19:30

I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So it's no longer

19:36

I who live, but Christ who lives in me. Christ makes us a new creation. 2 Corinthians 5 .17,

19:43

if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things passed away.

19:48

Behold, new things have come and he is making us new and we are being conformed to the image of Christ, as said in Romans 8 .29.

19:59

We also understand from scripture that Christ has cleansed us and made us new.

20:05

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

20:15

And also in 2 Corinthians 5 .21, it says that he, Jesus, became sin. For our sake, he became sin who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

20:27

So it's in Christ that we are being remade into the image of Christ.

20:34

We were all made in the image of God. We all desecrated that image with our sin. We're all worthy of the judgment of God.

20:40

But when we come to faith in Jesus Christ, we are a new creation conformed to him according to his word, which is the

20:48

Bible. Clymer has no knowledge of the Bible. So the things that he says, some of the manipulative terms he uses,

20:54

I'm made in the image of He is taking some terms from scripture and he's made his own

20:59

God, but he does not actually know the God of the Bible, nor is he being conformed to him. He is still in his sin and still under judgment if he does not repent.

21:08

And that's the case for all of us. But when you repent and come to Christ, you're made into a new creation.

21:14

And then you're being conformed into the image of the son. Instead of the image of sinful, wretched man.

21:23

So beware these people who are taking this language and manipulating it and twisting it to make it sound like this trans movement is something

21:31

Christian. It is not. It is of the devil. It is Satan's work in the heart of sinful man.

21:39

It is not of God, but not to be outdone. Joy Reid also had a

21:44

Christian professional quote unquote on her show. So not just Clymer, who identified as trans.

21:51

She had Jim Wallace. Jim Wallace is the founder of Sojourners Magazine, used to be a prominent

21:58

Christian magazine like Christianity Today. But Wallace has gone way off to the left.

22:03

And here is what Wallace had to share with Joy Reid. LGBTQ are initials that all stand for somebody who is beloved of God, made in the image of God.

22:14

Let's be clear about that. This is all a distraction from hate. That's what we're using this for.

22:21

Distraction. Here's a moral fact. The leading cause of death now for our children and teenagers are guns.

22:31

Leading cause. And here's a moral conclusion from that moral fact. We're not protecting our children.

22:37

If it were websites or poison food or some website, we would take care of it.

22:45

But a Republican says it's nothing we can do. This is needed for our freedom.

22:51

So what he's saying there is we will sacrifice our children for the sake of what he calls freedom.

22:59

So let's ask what kind of freedom is this? For whom? From whom? This is a question he has to ask.

23:07

You said worship in your opening segment there. There was an ancient God called Moloch.

23:12

Leviticus talks about Moloch, who is a God that children were sacrificed to in flames.

23:20

And the Bible is very tough on Moloch. Guns are our new Moloch. Guns are the

23:27

Moloch. We're sacrificing our children to Moloch when we could do easy, common sense things.

23:33

Now, the ironic thing there is that we've been using that Moloch illustration for a long time with regards to abortion.

23:42

That is the sacrifice of children to a false God that has that has continued since the pagans were sacrificing their children to Moloch.

23:52

Abortion is that it's not guns, guns, a gun actually saved people's lives on Monday.

24:01

Guns took the lives of children, indeed, because it was put in the hands of somebody who was evil.

24:07

But the guns in the hands of those who were upholding the law put Audrey down and stopped her from killing more people.

24:15

Guns saved lives. Wow. How about that? But Moloch. Moloch was the

24:22

God of shameful sacrifice is what that name means. And and incidentally, I've done a video on this talking about abortion in the

24:29

Bible and the sacrifice of children to Moloch is what abortion is today.

24:35

And there was Jim Wallace twisting that to say guns are actually are

24:40

Moloch. And he said guns kill more children than anything else. A leading cause of death in children in America today.

24:46

That's wrong. Abortion is still the leading cause of death, though. The the

24:51

Roe v. Wade has been overturned. Hundreds, if not thousands of children will die today by abortion.

24:57

It's still an accepted medical practice in our nation. The death of unborn children for the sake of sexual pleasure.

25:06

That's what they're dying for. Children being sacrificed so men and women can have their sexual kicks.

25:12

And that's what this trans movement is as well. It is. It's a sexual fetish. It's evil.

25:17

It's wicked. And I agree with Jim and with climber that indeed, a trans person, someone who identifies as trans is made in the image of God.

25:27

But they've desecrated that image with their sin. And the way you love a person who calls themselves trans is you don't identify them with the sex that they want to be.

25:39

I'm a male and I want to be female. OK, well, I'll call you a woman that is not loving that person that is entertaining their lie.

25:46

And you are actually encouraging them to death. That is that is worse than the death of the body.

25:51

We're talking about the judgment of God. That will pour out on a person forever.

25:57

Colossians 3, 6 against such things. The wrath of God is coming.

26:04

The way you love a person who identifies as homosexual or trans or whatever else is to share with them the gospel.

26:13

To show them their sin, according to what the Bible says, so that they will see it. They will recognize God calls this evil so that they will repent of it.

26:22

They will turn from their wicked ways to Jesus Christ, who will cleanse them of all unrighteousness, who will give them a new heart and a new mind that desires

26:32

God and even will praise God with their bodies the way that God has created their body to be.

26:39

Romans 12, 1 in view of God's mercies, present your bodies as a living sacrifice unto the

26:47

Lord, holy and acceptable to him. This is your spiritual act of worship.

26:53

And then the next part is that verse I quoted earlier. Do not be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world, but be renewed by the transforming of your mind or the other way around.

27:05

Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. That's the true transformation that needs to happen in a person.

27:11

The transformation that happens by the power of Christ. And we help bring a person to that when we share with them the gospel of Christ and they come to faith and believe

27:23

R .C. Sproul once said, we are not responsible for the results of the word.

27:29

We are simply responsible for the way that we handle the word. So we need to go out with the word of Christ, showing people their sin and sharing with them the gospel so that they would repent of their sin and turn to Christ and live.

27:41

And that's how you love a person who calls themselves trans. Not by entertaining this awful ideology that is infecting the hearts and the minds of the people of this age.

27:55

But like I said, there are still many Christians out there that are going to that are adopting this propaganda and they're putting it in their own preaching, even in a red state such as Texas.

28:06

We see this as a huge problem. Dr. Field Harrison is the founder of Amen Church in Dallas.

28:14

Now, his doctorate is not in theology. His doctorate is in dentistry. And as a dentist, he came up with this idea that he wanted to start this church.

28:25

And it happened one day after he experienced a severe ringing in his ears resulting from tinnitus.

28:32

And Harrison believes this was a sign from God saying, my ears started ringing out of nowhere. I really had felt called to start a church.

28:41

And when his ears started ringing, he knew that this was the time. OK, I've had ringing in my ears before, too, but it never resulted in starting a church.

28:53

But with this Amen Church in Dallas, they have these Amen Nights, I think is what they call them.

28:58

They're these outdoor gatherings where they invite people to come and praise God and enjoy a church service.

29:04

Well, in one of these recent Amen Nights, Harrison preached to an outdoor crowd that breaking up a homosexual couple is the sin that Jesus said would never be forgiven.

29:19

Which is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. I'm not kidding. Dr. Field Harrison said that breaking up a homosexual couple is blasphemy of the

29:28

Holy Spirit. Listen to the clip that I'm going to play here. And there's some there's some weird audio interference in this clip.

29:37

I don't know why this was something that I grabbed off of social media. So I don't know if this if there was some strange audio embedded with the video or because this was an outdoor event, there was like other audio things that were going on in the background, if that's maybe what this is.

29:51

So I'm just warning you, there's kind of like some overlaid audio. But I think that you can still catch the gist of the words that are being shared here.

29:59

This is Field Harrison of Amen Church in Dallas. They say you can't drink.

30:07

He says I'm going to make wine at this party when we run out. They say

30:13

I'm going to be judgmental. I'm supposed to be judgmental. Jesus says you should not be judgmental.

30:23

Otherwise, you will be judged. They say that nobody of the same sex should ever get married.

30:35

Jesus goes mute on this issue. Jesus says love is sacred.

30:42

There's only one unforgivable sin. The sin against the Holy Spirit, blasphemy against the

30:48

Holy Spirit. And if you think preaching against love isn't blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, then

30:55

I don't know what is. When people love each other to break that up, that is blasphemy against the

31:02

Holy Spirit. And it's time for someone in church to speak up that what we are preaching is ridiculous.

31:09

And we have to follow Jesus on another level. His words deserve to be the highest.

31:15

So anyway, that goes on. But you get the gist of that. Jesus was absolutely not mute on this issue, like Harrison tried to say.

31:24

Matthew 19, beginning in verse 4, He answered and said, Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female?

31:36

And said, For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

31:44

So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.

31:52

Or if I might translate that for you a certain way, let man not redefine. God made us male and female.

32:01

He defines marriage because He created marriage. Jesus affirmed that definition when

32:07

He said, Male and female, the two shall be joined together and they shall become one flesh.

32:13

There's your definition of marriage. So when a man and a man get together, or a woman and a woman and claim to be married, they're lying.

32:20

That's not a marriage. And no culture in the history of the world recognized that as marriage.

32:30

Until about the year 2000. It's only been in the last two decades or so. I think the

32:35

Netherlands were the first to do it. And then since then, however many dozens of countries have followed suit legalizing same sex marriage.

32:42

But only in the last couple of decades has same sex marriage been recognized as a thing.

32:48

This is a new phenomenon. Even naturally, biologically, even other sexually depraved cultures did not see a man and a man able to marry.

32:58

That is a union that is only between a man and a woman. God created it and He defines it.

33:05

And if you entertain a person who wants to say, Hey, I'm a man. I'm in love with another man and we're getting married and you want to tell them that's okay.

33:12

And you encourage that relationship. Then you are encouraging them in sin that God will judge that will lead to their eternal destruction.

33:21

Who do you think you are? Romans 1 32 says, although they know

33:27

God's righteous decrees that those who do such things deserve to die.

33:32

They not only do them, but they give hearty approval to those who practice them. My friends, when you encourage people in this sin, that's going to lead to hell, that's heresy.

33:45

And you will come into judgment for that as well. Turn from the wickedness of these things to Christ, know his word, the

33:55

Bible and follow this. And if you love others, you will tell them turn from your sin to Jesus Christ and live.

34:03

That is the most loving thing that you can do for another person is share the gospel with them so that they might have eternal life.

34:13

They will not come into judgment under the wrath of God, but they will live forever with God in glory.

34:20

How do we change the hearts and minds of this culture in the in the wicked sexual depravity that they've fallen into?

34:26

We've got to be out there preaching the gospel. But all of this happens in God's good timing.

34:32

Friends, they're going to hate us for preaching the gospel. First Peter four says they'll hate us just because we won't join them in the same flood of debauchery that they are in.

34:41

Paul told Timothy, those who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

34:47

They'll hate us for it. They'll probably even put us to death. We saw it happen in Nashville. We're going to see it happen again.

34:53

But Jesus said, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

35:01

Tell the lost that they have sinned, that Jesus died on the cross as an atoning sacrifice for sins, that he rose again from the dead, that he is ascended into heaven, that he is reigning on high, that he is coming back again to judge the living and the dead.

35:14

And only those who believe in him will be forgiven their sins and have eternal life.

35:20

Show them their sins according to what the scripture says. Show them the gospel according to what the scripture says.

35:27

As 2 Timothy 2 .25 says, this is Paul instructing Timothy. He says that the

35:33

Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness.

35:44

God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will.

35:57

Friends, pray for the lost, share the gospel, entrust them to God and entrust yourselves to him as well.

36:06

Well, Becky's ready to come in here, and so I'm going to make way for her, give her a cup of coffee, let me play a video, this is the what video that I did on what it means to be made in the image of God, and then we'll respond to some of your emails.

36:25

In Genesis 1 .26 -27 God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over all the earth.

36:34

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.

36:41

What does it mean to be made in the image and likeness of God? Often this is interpreted to mean that we look like God.

36:47

Surely you've seen paintings of God as an old man, even wearing clothes. But Numbers 23 .19 says

36:53

God is not man, and Jesus said in John 4 .24 God is spirit. So God has no human or even physical form, rather to be made in the likeness of God means that we are like God, in the sense that we are interpersonal beings as God is.

37:07

We've also been given dominion as God has dominion to fill the earth and subdue it. Most of all, being made in the image of God means that we are to reflect his holy and righteous character.

37:19

Animals cannot make moral decisions. It is for men and women to glorify God in righteousness.

37:25

Every person's life is sacred because we are all fellow image bearers of the one who made us.

37:30

When we sin doing what is contrary to God's righteousness, we desecrate God's image. Romans 3 .12

37:36

says together we have become worthless before God, good to be cast into the flames. But Jesus cleanses us from all unrighteousness, and by faith in him, we are being remade into the image of the

37:48

Son, to reflect the holy and righteous character of Christ when we understand the text.

37:54

Well, hey, babe. Hello. I noticed you had the dryer going there, which we stopped.

38:01

Yes. So where my studio is located, where we built this is right next to the laundry room.

38:08

And it has a door to the laundry room. Yeah, a door to the laundry room, yeah. So it makes it a little noticeable,

38:16

I guess. And hot. It's not the

38:21

Texas heat that heats it up in here. It's housewife chores. That's what heats this room.

38:27

I gotta get it done. Well, wonderful to have you in here.

38:33

Thank you. We have, let's see, what do we got email -wise? So once again, being the

38:39

Friday edition of the broadcast, we take questions from the listeners. Right. And you can send those questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

38:47

This is from Vicki. We have several Vickis that email us. Yeah, I love it.

38:52

So in case you hear a Vicki every week, it's not always the same Vicki. Sometimes they're spelled different. That's right.

38:58

Or sometimes it's short for a longer name. I am so grateful for your podcast and your faithfulness to the

39:04

Word of God. Thank you for all your hard work and clarity when exposing or when expositing

39:09

God's Word. Exposing, expositing, it's actually the same word. Yeah, it's pretty close, yeah. You want a good definition of expository preaching, it's exposing the

39:18

Word of God. Vicki says, I listen mostly while in the car, driving to and from work and to do my errands.

39:27

I remember an episode earlier this year where you mentioned a website that has several options for the

39:33

Legacy Standard Bible. Can you please tell me the name of that website and also the Bible app that you mentioned?

39:40

Well, I believe the website that I would have mentioned was 316 Publishing. So that's 316publishing .com,

39:48

I believe is the website. Now, they handle the publishing for the

39:54

Legacy Standard Bible. So does Steadfast Bibles. Oh, yeah. So I think you can go to steadfastbibles .com.

40:02

It might take you to the same place. I think all of the Legacy Bibles I've ordered though have been through 316

40:09

Publishing. Yeah. Like I got yours through there. I got the kids from there. I'm not sure where mine came from.

40:16

My little New Testament, I know I got that at ShepCon. Right. But yeah, the other

40:21

Bibles I've gotten from other places. But anyway, that's where you get a good Legacy Bible.

40:27

The app, I'm pretty sure the app that I mentioned would have been Literal Word. Oh, yes, probably.

40:33

I don't recommend the Legacy Standard Bible app. Okay. At least on iPhone, it's really not very good.

40:41

Okay. Not as friendly as the Word. I mean, really, Literal Word has the best

40:48

Bible app I've ever seen or used. That's cool. It's terrific. It's great for research. It's good for cross -referencing.

40:54

You can even highlight stuff and save your highlights. Oh, wow. That's nice. Yeah, it's such a good app.

41:00

And the guys that put it together, they had a passion for preserving the

41:06

NASB -95. So that's the translation, which is really close to the Legacy Standard.

41:13

Okay. The Legacy is basically the updated translation of the New American Standard 1995.

41:20

Okay. So the New American Standard, the NASB, came out with their new translation in 2020.

41:26

Yeah, I remember that. Yeah, and it was a problem. You were pretty upset. A lot of people were, especially the number of people that just loved the

41:34

NASB -95. We're very disappointed with some of the changes. Anyway, we've talked about that elsewhere.

41:40

I don't have any of those notes in front of me now. Right. But the Legacy, so Masters University and Grace Community Church, Grace2U, they all kind of reached out to the

41:50

Lachman Foundation, who owns the rights to the Legacy, and said, would you mind if we took a crack at coming up with an updated translation?

41:58

We want to do our own translation. They own the Legacy? Yeah, the

42:04

Lachman Foundation also owns the Legacy, yeah. Oh, okay. So same organization that has the rights to the

42:09

NASB. Oh, okay. I think you meant to say NASB, but you said

42:15

Legacy. No, yeah, Legacy. Okay. They own the Legacy, too. The Lachman Foundation owns the

42:20

Legacy and the NASB. So then they took a crack at it? Yeah. So the translation is done, basically, the manuscripts and the translation work that was done by the

42:31

Lachman Foundation. So they possess all of that. Oh, okay, okay.

42:37

It was Grace Community Church's elders, you know, Masters University's professors, so on and so forth, that kind of created the translation team that then did the update of the

42:47

NASB from the 1995 to what is now the Legacy Standard Bible. So that really comes out of John MacArthur's ministry.

42:56

And he was not the translator, but he was involved in that team, you know. I know people like to call it the

43:01

John MacArthur translation. I was skeptical of it in the beginning for that same reason. Oh, really?

43:07

I'll be honest, yes. I mean, I love John MacArthur, but it was still just kind of like, really, we need a John MacArthur translation of the

43:13

Bible? But once I started reading it and making the comparisons, I mean, it was a no -brainer.

43:20

It was, I think it was because of MacArthur's name attached to it that I was even a little hesitant in the very beginning to go, this is a really good translation.

43:30

It really is superior, and I highly recommend it. I have two that I go to, and it's

43:37

Legacy or ESV. Yeah. Because they're the easiest to understand. Yeah, so I was an

43:43

ESV preacher for most of the time that I was a pastor. I started out preaching from the NIV.

43:49

Oh, right. I forgot about that. But that was trying to think of what year translation.

43:55

They went all the way up to like 2010, I think, and they cut it off. I can't remember when the last translation of the

44:01

NIV was done. 2010 may have been the new one, and so they wanted everybody to use the 2010 translation, but I didn't like it.

44:10

And I noticed that when I would go to my Bible search apps and I would be searching for those keywords that I knew in the

44:18

NIV, I couldn't find them. And I'm like, what, you guys changed this so much that the keywords that I'm used to and all the verses that I've memorized and passages that are familiar to me that I may not have memorized,

44:30

I can't find any of those words. You've changed the word so much. So it was in 2011, 2012, somewhere around in there.

44:38

Yeah, 2012 would have been right, that I decided if the NIV is gonna change that much, I'm gonna change translations.

44:45

I'm not gonna do another NIV. So I had set out in front of me, and you might remember this.

44:51

I do. Yeah, you could walk into my office, I had like five Bibles. At least, yeah. All open.

44:57

They were all open to the same passages because I'm just making a comparison. And I did that work for,

45:03

I mean, probably six to nine months or something like that. And reading through all those Bibles and getting used to all those translations.

45:09

And I had five or six that I was going through at the beginning, and I narrowed it down to three.

45:17

So it was going to be the English Standard Version, the New American Standard, which at the time was 95, or the

45:23

New King James. One of those three was gonna be the translation I was gonna commit myself to and preach from that.

45:29

Right, and we would purchase all those Bibles for the church. Right, yeah. That was a bit of an investment. Exactly.

45:35

The church would invest in those Bibles. That's what we'd be buying for our kids, you know. At the time, we only had two.

45:42

And we were doing Awana at the time, too. So that would have changed that as well. Yeah, we're thinking about curriculum for the kids at the church.

45:50

So what kind of translation is that curriculum using? Right. Or if the curriculum has options for which translation to choose from, what are we gonna pick?

46:00

I remember ruling out the Holman Christian Standard pretty early. Oh, really? And I don't remember why.

46:06

I can't remember what it was about the Holman Christian Standard. It was just like, yeah, not this translation. It wasn't anything that was like, oh, that's terrible.

46:13

There was just something about it just didn't flow. So I dumped the

46:19

HCSB, which is now the CSB. So they've even updated their translation. Oh, okay. It wasn't ringing a bell, that translation.

46:27

And so I was like, hmm, okay. But then when you say CSB, I was like, oh, okay. Yeah. That triggered.

46:33

Now, I like it. Yeah, triggered. I know, triggered is a different meaning now than it used to.

46:39

It's so old school. Yeah. I used to know it in the positive sense. Oh, that triggered that memory. You know, not, it triggered that memory!

46:48

I thought I'd clarify for our listeners out there. No, I still have a tendency to use it like you just did.

46:55

Yeah. So I know, I kind of hate the way that got. Triggered. You're right. You're triggered about triggered.

47:02

Triggered! I'm sorry. This is how we get off topic on this program. This is how we rabbit trail, just like this.

47:10

Because some thought or idea triggers another. And yeah, then we just, we go down that rabbit trail.

47:15

Shooting rabbits as we go, triggering. I don't know if we shoot at one of them, but. We don't hit anything.

47:23

We just keep going. That's it. What was I talking about? The CSB.

47:29

Oh yeah, the CSB. So I love having study Bibles. I mean, they're really easy commentaries to go to.

47:38

So I do have a CSB study Bible. Yeah. Christian Standard, that company, which

47:44

I guess is Lifeway, came out with a Charles Spurgeon edition of the

47:49

CSB. I didn't really want a Charles Spurgeon edition of the CSB, but I've since read, they've come out with a

47:55

King James Charles Spurgeon Bible. Oh, interesting. And I would like that one because.

48:01

That sounds more like his language. Yeah, that's what he preached from, was the King James Bible. So I'd like to have that. I've not tried to find one of those yet, but that would be a good

48:09

Bible to have. Anyway, so I narrowed it down to the ESV, the NASB, and the

48:16

New King James. And part of me even regrets that I didn't pick the New King James.

48:21

I still think about that every once in a while. Oh, really? Here's the reason why. Because I settled on the

48:27

ESV. A lot of the teachers that I was learning from at the time were preaching from the ESV. And it is a very easy translation, just like you said.

48:36

Yeah, definitely. It was easy to memorize. It had a good flow. It was good to read. Like I would even read passages out loud to see how they sounded.

48:44

That was how practiced I was in all of that. And the ESV just flowed really well. So I settled on that one.

48:51

But years later, when I saw that, Crossway kept changing the ESV. It got frustrating because this was the same reason

48:59

I dumped the NIV. Is that why when somebody's reading from their ESV, it's different in my

49:05

Bible than it is in what they're reading? Yeah, you and I had different ESV translations that would say different things.

49:13

Like you're - That was really annoying. It was. Because I'm like, is he reading that wrong? Is he in a different verse? Oh, no, it's the same, okay.

49:20

Right. Now, there was a time, I want to say this was about 2015. It might've been that year when

49:26

Crossway came out and said they were done making edits. So this was the final edition of the

49:33

English Standard. And this was the one they were putting out. And they were going to say, we want there to be like an enduring legacy.

49:42

Hold on to that word because that comes back. We want this to be an enduring legacy for like future generations.

49:48

Your grandchildren will be reading from the exact same translation that you were reading from. All right. And I don't know if there was uproar.

49:55

I didn't really follow it. Like, was there pushback or protest against that or something?

50:01

Because almost as quickly as Crossway said it, they turned right around and said, no, we've changed our minds. We're making another edit.

50:07

Yeah, we'll make, we understand that the English language changes and we're called the English Standard version.

50:13

So we're going to make - We're going to make changes as the English language changes. And so, yeah, like I said, that was frustrating for me because I don't want to have a translation that's constantly changing.

50:26

Right. I actually want to settle on a translation that's going to be the same. Yeah. Translation that I'm preaching from 20 years from now as I was when

50:34

I started preaching from it. Well, apparently they still need to get one of the, when you take one language and you turn it into English, you are -

50:43

Translating. Translating. Okay. I had the right word then. It just didn't sound right in my head.

50:49

So anyway, okay, so, because it's translation. Yeah. Translating. Well, we call it a translation of the

50:54

Bible because we're translating from Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek into English. It was just circling.

51:00

Okay. It's got to land sometime. Anyway, okay, so whenever that Bible verse says about the guy marrying virgins,

51:13

I think, in the English standard, but in the legacy, it says marrying daughters.

51:20

Oh, yeah, you're right. You're talking about the instructions that Paul gives regarding marriage in 1

51:25

Corinthians 7. Yes. So, yeah, there's several different ways that you can come about the end of that particular passage.

51:32

Is it talking about a man who is engaged to a woman, or is it talking about a father giving his daughter in marriage?

51:39

So, yeah. Oh, that's what it is. Yeah, that's what it is. Oh, okay. No, yeah, it's - I remembered it wrong.

51:44

You're either reading it as betrothed, which is the way the English standard version translates it, or if you're reading it from the

51:53

Nazby or the legacy, it's a father giving his daughter in marriage. Yes. So, yeah, there's clearly a translation problem there.

52:01

Yes. Somebody's wrong. Yes. So, anyway, that was one edit they need to still maybe make before they call it a day.

52:12

Talking to my fellow elders at the church who are proficient in Greek, it's the legacy and the

52:17

Nazby that are correct on that particular passage. But, yeah. Anyway, so all that to say, the legacy has chosen that name because they've established a translation that's going to be consistent.

52:29

So, what you're reading now from the legacy standard Bible is what you're going to be reading 50 years from now from future translations or future editions of the legacy that are going to be released.

52:41

Lord willing. Yeah. It'll still be the same. Just like the King James Bible, we're still reading the same

52:48

King James that we've been reading for 300 years. Right. And by the way, not the 1611.

52:54

None of your King James Bibles are the 1611 King James. It's not going back to the original.

53:02

There have been edits and changes that have been made to that even. So, anyway, that's why we've settled on the legacy.

53:08

And my kids now have legacy Bibles. By the way, 316 Publishing puts out a great kids legacy standard

53:16

Bible. Yeah, they love it. They love that Bible. Now, I will warn you, for those of you who have a problem with like second commandment violations, you don't want any images or pictures of Jesus.

53:28

This Bible does have that in there. Yes. Maybe they'll change that. The children's. Yeah, the children's edition, not the adult.

53:35

Not any of the other editions, but just the kids edition of the Bible. Right. So there are paintings in there or illustrations of Jesus.

53:43

Frankly, I don't find that to be a problem. I've done videos on that before. You can look that up. So for my family and I, that is not a conscience issue.

53:52

But if it is a conscience issue for you, I just want you to be aware that that's there. But otherwise, you've got a great variety of good

54:00

Bibles that you can publish from 316 Publishing. You can get paperback editions.

54:06

You can get like a Pew hardbound edition that's just like 30 bucks. You can get faux leather editions that are pretty cheap.

54:14

They're smaller, handy size. Double column even makes it a little bit smaller. Single column will make it a bigger

54:19

Bible. The reference Bible is still quite large. The legacy guys haven't gotten as good as Crossway was about putting out a handy sized cross reference

54:33

Bible. Yeah. They had the best size cross reference Bible. Who did? Crossway did.

54:39

Oh, yeah. Yeah. That was a fantastic. I mean, perfectly fit in my hand. Now, the print. Oh, that one.

54:44

The print's small. Yeah. You have to adjust for that. But yeah, I think legacy tries to kind of large and large in the print.

54:52

Large and enlarge. Enlarge. Yeah, that might be enlarging the print a little bit.

54:58

But that's where you go for a good Bible. And again, the best Bible app I would recommend is the literal word

55:06

Bible app. So thank you for your question, Vicki. Yeah. Did I cover all of that? It was probably way more than you needed to know.

55:12

It was extra. Yeah. Next question comes from Ronald. He says, I would ask, does the pastor have a lesson series on the book of James or a verse by verse teaching on the book of James?

55:24

Thanks for your ministry. So yeah, all you got to do is type in WWUTT and James.

55:31

Yeah. And it should come up. Even in a Google search, that should come up. And then if you go to Podbean, which is where all of the podcast episodes, that's like the home base for all of the podcast episodes.

55:45

Yeah. Just whatever number it is that, in fact, I'll do it right here. Here, I'll go ahead and do the work for you.

55:51

So let me type in WWUTT. We'll do James and about number 256.

56:00

In fact, exactly that episode. What number 256 is the introduction to the book of James?

56:07

There you go. That was a long time ago. Yes, it was. You know, we're on episode 1900 today.

56:13

Really? This is 1900. I did not know that. Episode 256 was

56:19

Monday, September 5th, 2016. We'll have to calculate as to when we'll hit the 2000 and do something.

56:28

We'll have to prepare ahead of time rather than after the fact. 100 episodes from now. Yeah, whenever that's gonna be.

56:33

It'll be later this year, probably the summer, I would imagine. So yeah, this summer, look for episode 2000 when we understand the text.

56:42

But Ronald, you're looking for episode 256. That's the start of the series in the book of James.

56:49

Unfortunately, Podbean changed the way that you tag all of the podcasts. So I can't give it an individual

56:55

James tag. Yeah. But you should be able to just, again, like I said, search the number of the podcast and be able to find it that way.

57:02

But yeah, that's a verse -by -verse exposition of James all the way through all five chapters.

57:08

And then if you have the app, if you're doing it from your phone and you have the app, if you do the Google search and then you click on it, sometimes it pulls up in your app anyway.

57:17

So you have that option. Oh, good. Great. This next email is from Tim. He says, hi,

57:23

Pastor Gabe and Becky. Hello. I'm a newish listener and Twitter follower. And first off,

57:28

I wanted to express gratitude for your time in ministry. It's a blessing to have a solid in -depth program to listen to with my seventh grade daughter on the way to and from school.

57:38

Oh, cool. That's awesome. I don't subject my kids to have to do that because they listen to me enough.

57:47

So whenever I'm driving them to and from places, they have to listen to the news. Either that or like Todd Friel, Wretched, I'm listening to that or R .C.

57:57

Sproul. Or I just turn on my RefNet app and hit play. That's what the kids have to listen to.

58:03

Tim goes on, your voice gives me a bit of nostalgia as well. Harkening all the way back to the

58:08

Saturday morning Focus on the Family content my family listened to. Oh, cool.

58:15

Now, wait a second. So is Tim... Did you used to listen to me back then? That'd be pretty neat.

58:23

I didn't think of that when I first read this email, but now it's triggering with me. Did he used to listen to when

58:31

I used to host like Focus on the Family and Adventures in Odyssey on Saturday morning when I was a kid? Maybe. I don't know.

58:37

You'll have to inquire. I gotta find out, Tim. Did you used to listen to me back then? Or does my voice just kind of have that Focus on the

58:45

Family feel? I mean, you did, you know, listen to them a lot. I did, right. I grew up on Focus on the

58:51

Family. Yeah. So Tim goes on, I just finished the Q &A episode for March 24th and I empathize with your sound treatment problems in your new recording space.

59:02

You know, it's getting better as I fill this room up with stuff. The kids and I have been trying to help you with that.

59:07

Yeah, they're like, well, yeah, Becky's going to turn it into a storage closet and that's going to change everything.

59:13

Then it won't echo at all. Not at all. So he says, a long time sound guy myself, acoustic treatment is the trickiest part of getting good sound quality.

59:24

As rough as you think it might sound at the moment, Friday's episode sounded just fine in my ears, some in the car, some through headphones.

59:32

That's great to hear. Good to know. On that note, I have a small stash of acoustic foam blocks put back for when the kids get older.

59:41

Ha ha. There's two, two foot by one foot by one foot bass traps.

59:47

That would be really good because I haven't done much with catching the low end in here. Most of this is stopping high end.

59:54

And then he has 14 one by one by one tiles that if you could use them,

59:59

I'd love to donate to you. We live in Arlington, but somewhat frequently drive by Lindale on the way to visit family in the

01:00:07

Longview Marshall area. My work schedule can be flexible as well. So I could drive out your way almost any time.

01:00:13

Again, thank you for the sacrifice and dedication and using your gifts to teach and uplift those of us in your audience.

01:00:18

We'll keep you and your family in our prayers in Christ, Tim. Oh, that's so cool.

01:00:24

Thank you, Tim. I am taking you up on that. Thank you. I did not get the chance to respond to this email earlier in the week.

01:00:31

I was sick on Tuesday and Wednesday. So sick. So that's put me back on getting some other things done.

01:00:38

I've had to play catch up. But Tim, here's my response. Yes, I'll take you up on those sound tiles.

01:00:44

I've been looking. I used to have some foam tiles that I used in the office that I had at the church that I pastored in Kansas.

01:00:53

I remember those. I didn't record there very often. So we just kind of left them. Then when we left, people were like, why are these foam blocks?

01:01:00

And then they just throw them away. Why did Gabe hang foam on the walls in here? They found another use for that room.

01:01:07

So I don't have any. And I would appreciate that, Tim. Thank you so much for thinking of us. This next question comes from Alice.

01:01:13

This was actually something that was submitted to my blog. So she says, Pastor Gabriel Hughes, please consider this.

01:01:20

Or no, I'm sorry. She doesn't say Pastor Gabriel Hughes because that's the gist of this whole email. Oh, OK. She says,

01:01:25

Mr. Gabriel Hughes, please consider this. This is actually not directly related to The Chosen because it was a blog

01:01:32

I did on The Chosen that she was responding to. OK. It is about you being called Pastor. Just a little bit about me so that you know

01:01:39

I am not a recently reborn Christian. Anything that is of Christ in me is exactly that.

01:01:45

It's him. I'm 71. So I got saved at eight at a Bible club. But my parents, mom mostly, was furious and refused to let me return because I came home weeping and crying because I did not want to go to hell.

01:01:56

Anyway, at 18, my mom decided I could decide for myself what I wanted to believe. So I kept seeking the

01:02:02

Lord and went to church and later mission work, studying the word a lot. And I read a lot of the

01:02:08

Founding Fathers literature, staying away from false doctrine teachers. I would imagine she means the church fathers, not necessarily the

01:02:15

Founding Fathers. But going on, I just wanted to say to you to please consider a few things.

01:02:20

No longer let people call you by the title Pastor Gabriel Hughes. Why? If we have been crucified with Christ, we no longer live.

01:02:30

It is Christ in us. So therefore, it is he that is the pastor, teacher, evangelist, et cetera, through you.

01:02:38

Correct? And ask God to help you get out of the man -planned, man -organized traditional church.

01:02:45

And she puts in parentheses, churchianity. We must be led by the head of the church, who is

01:02:51

Christ. In him, Alice. Gracious, babe, your washing machine just kicked into overdrive in there.

01:02:58

What is going on? It's probably spinning. Okay. It's at the very end.

01:03:04

It was kind of nice and quiet, and then all of a sudden I heard a machine behind me. The rocket went off.

01:03:11

So anyway, this is going to sound a little bit self -serving, but a pastor is a blessing.

01:03:17

You are blessed to have a pastor in your church. And where do I get that from? I get that from the Bible. Ephesians 4, 11.

01:03:25

And he himself, referring to God, God gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of service to building up the body of Christ.

01:03:43

God gave you your pastor. That's right. And the title pastor comes from scripture.

01:03:49

Now, I'm reading from the legacy standard, which uses the word pastor. Most of the translations that you're going to read from in Ephesians 4, 11, it's going to say shepherds, but that's what pastor means.

01:04:00

Right. A pastor is a shepherd. When you read in 1 Peter 5, Peter has instructions for the elders, and the elders are the same as the pastors.

01:04:12

And Peter says, I'm a fellow elder. It's the same as saying, I'm a fellow pastor.

01:04:17

So here's what he says in 1 Peter 5, beginning in verse 1. Therefore, I exhort the elders among you as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed.

01:04:34

Shepherd the flock of God among you. Another way of saying that, pastor the flock of God among you.

01:04:40

Yes. Overseeing not under compulsion, but willingly according to God and not for dishonest gain, but with eagerness, nor yet as lording it over those allotted to you, but being examples to the flock.

01:04:55

And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.

01:05:01

You younger men likewise be subject to your elders and all of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another.

01:05:08

For God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. So that title of pastor, that's not a,

01:05:16

I'm not priding myself in that position. It's what I do. Right.

01:05:21

It's not my title. I am a man who is an overseer of the church.

01:05:27

And it's a blessing of God that you have received a pastor to oversee your spiritual care, to give you the word of God and teach you these things as said in Hebrews chapter 13, remember those who taught you the scriptures and imitate their faith.

01:05:44

Yes. And so a pastor is supposed to be that for you. Again, the responsibility of a pastor is said in Ephesians 4 .12

01:05:51

is to equip the saints for the work of ministry. So you guys will be held to a higher standard.

01:05:58

Yeah, right. And not everybody who calls them a pastor is qualified to be a pastor.

01:06:04

Correct. So, I mean, pray for their souls. Yeah. Pray for those.

01:06:11

But I mean, addressing you as pastors, I don't find that offensive.

01:06:17

I don't require anybody to address me as pastor. No, you don't. I don't.

01:06:23

Hey, call me pastor. Now, I like it, though, when parents require their children to do that.

01:06:30

You call him Pastor Gabe or Pastor Hughes or something like that. That's teaching your children respect.

01:06:35

Right. And I think it's good to address people by their title. I still call Pastor Tom, Pastor Tom, and I work with him.

01:06:44

So it's a title of what we do. It's not who we are necessarily.

01:06:51

But yet we understand all of the responsibilities that are attached to that.

01:06:57

And when I get called pastor, it's actually a humbling thing, because it reminds me of the responsibility

01:07:03

I have to this person who is viewing me in that way. I'm coming to you for spiritual counsel, for advice, for biblical guidance, whatever it might happen to be.

01:07:13

And so I am one who has to handle the word of God well. And as a carer and overseer of your soul,

01:07:20

I want to be able to guide you in what the word of God says so that I can present you before Christ in glory.

01:07:27

And I'm not saying something that you don't find in scripture. Paul talks about this. Paul saying to those that he writes to,

01:07:34

I want to be able to present you before Christ. I took care of those whom you entrusted to me. And I want to be able to say the same of those who are under my care.

01:07:42

So yeah, like you said, from James 3 .1, it says, not many of you should aspire to become teachers because you know that teachers will be judged with greater strictness.

01:07:52

It's a fearful thing. It's a trembling thing. I don't call myself pastor because I'm puffing my chest up and thinking that you need to regard me as someone higher than you.

01:08:02

It's a humbling reminder for me of the responsibilities that I have. What I've been called to is a minister of God's word.

01:08:10

And I can't just be a teacher of these things. I have to do what they say. The qualifications that are given for a pastor in places like 1

01:08:18

Timothy 3 and Titus 1, there are some specifics there that are unique to a pastor.

01:08:26

Like, for example, he must be able to teach. But all of the other qualities that he has are aspirations that any

01:08:34

Christian should want to have. What you're reading about, basically, is the qualities of a mature

01:08:40

Christian. 1 Timothy 3, verse 2, an overseer must be above reproach.

01:08:47

He must be above blame. You can't accuse him of any wrongdoing. He lives an upstanding life.

01:08:52

He doesn't do things secretly in the dark or in strange corners of town. You know who this man is.

01:08:59

You know who his family is. And no wrong charge could ever be brought against him that would stick.

01:09:06

He's a man above reproach. He is the husband of one wife. He's temperate.

01:09:11

He's sensible, respectable, hospitable, able to teach. There's the one skill that's given there.

01:09:18

Not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but he's considerate, peaceful, free from the love of money.

01:09:26

Because as Paul will later say in 1 Timothy 6, the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.

01:09:32

And the context in which that's given is, the love of money is the root of all kinds of false teaching. If you love money, you will be willing to twist the teaching to appease the most number of people so that you make money off of it.

01:09:45

And he must also lead his own household well, having his children in submission with all dignity.

01:09:52

But if a man does not know how to lead his own household, how will he care of the church of God? And he must not be a new convert so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation of the devil.

01:10:04

And he must have a good reputation with those who are outside the church so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

01:10:13

Now, those are things that any good Christian should want to aspire to. Right. Not everybody's going to have the ability to teach, but everyone should want to aspire to those mature qualities of good

01:10:27

Christian, well, maturity. I'm being redundant, but yeah, you hear what I'm saying? Yeah.

01:10:32

So what you observe there in a man who is an elder, or even later with the qualifications of a deacon, you're observing a man who is a mature

01:10:40

Christian and setting a good example for the rest of the body on what a mature Christian should look like.

01:10:46

And being called pastor just lets everybody know that they should be watching you. Right, exactly.

01:10:52

Yeah. And like you said, it's humbling because they're watching you. Yes. But it gives them somewhere to look of, okay, this person has made it to pastor, and so we need to be watching and mimicking.

01:11:06

Yes. Now, there is an authority, a certain authority that a pastor has, not because that man is inherently authoritative, but because God's word designates that he is the overseer of the church.

01:11:19

Right. And because, as Peter said in 1 Peter 5 .5, you're to be subject to the elders. And that's also said in Hebrews 13 .7

01:11:27

and 17. So there is a submission to that position of eldership. But again, that's not because the elder is supposed to lord himself over everybody else and make everyone be subject to him.

01:11:38

He's not a king or a lord in some way. It's because he handles the word of God, and it's a position that's to be treated with respect.

01:11:47

Likewise, the elder needs to handle that position in a respectable manner.

01:11:52

Right. And there are things that are given in Scripture with regards to that man and what you are supposed to do with him if he is teaching falsely or conducting himself in such a way that is unchristian, that is godless.

01:12:08

There are ways that elders are even supposed to be disciplined. Paul will go on in 1 Timothy to say that no charge should be brought against an elder except a charge that's made on the evidence of two or three witnesses.

01:12:18

But those who persist in sin, he says, should be presented before all so that everybody may tremble with fear.

01:12:28

He should be rebuked before everybody. So if I were to be caught in a particular sin,

01:12:34

I need to expect that that's gonna be made public. Right. And it's probably going to be more public than you who's not an elder if you were to sin.

01:12:45

Right. Your sins are not going to be as public as mine are. Mine are going to be presented publicly because it's going to be, here's why this man is no longer qualified to be elder, or why he has to be removed for a time or permanently, if God forbid,

01:12:58

I would do something that would permanently disqualify me. Right. From the pastorate. But again, that's teachers will be judged with greater strictness.

01:13:06

And so let us who have these particular positions tremble with fear before God. For we know, as Peter will go on to say in 1

01:13:14

Peter 5, we are subject to the chief shepherd. And when he appears, we receive from him the unfading crown of glory for those who did well and handled their position in a way that was honoring of God and of his word.

01:13:28

Now, go ahead. Go ahead, baby. You want to say something there? I was just going to say that whenever I'm gleaning information online, if you will, as one example, if somebody is giving me information, but they don't have the word pastor in their name,

01:13:44

I am actually less likely to take that as, oh, okay, you know, like I need to learn from this.

01:13:50

Right. Then I am from someone who does have pastor in their name. I don't know.

01:13:55

It's not that they don't know. Right. But you know that a pastor has been tested and approved.

01:14:01

Right. Because that's part of the qualifications. First, he must desire to be an overseer. 1

01:14:07

Timothy 3, 1, it is a trustworthy saying, if any man aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a good work.

01:14:13

And then those qualifications are given so that he may be tested according to those things. Does he meet these qualifications?

01:14:19

Right. Now, I may not agree with all of the pastors out there. Sure. But at the same time, it gives them just a little bit more,

01:14:26

I think in the title pastor, it gives them more of a thought provoking for me, even if they're not my pastor.

01:14:36

Right. Does that make sense? Yeah. Because you're talking about a man who has committed himself, at least he's supposed to.

01:14:41

It's their job to know the Bible. Exactly. He's committed himself to the preaching and teaching of the word.

01:14:47

Right. And Paul refers to them as men who should be worthy of double honor. Yes. So again, a person who's not a pastor, it's not that they don't know.

01:14:57

A person could be very learned. I know men that are not pastors that know more than I do. Okay. I was going to say before you were a pastor, you knew a lot.

01:15:06

Oh, yeah. So. Yeah. And that was just from my upbringing. And I read your blog all the time. Yeah.

01:15:13

And among the pastors that I was a part of in a particular ministerial alliance, I won't say which one this was, but I was the only pastor that did not have a theology degree from a seminary.

01:15:25

And I would never have let any one of those pastors into my pulpit.

01:15:30

They were supremely ignorant. There was one public event where none of the pastors wanted to pray the, what was it?

01:15:40

The Lord's Prayer? They didn't want to pray the Lord's Prayer. Because they didn't know it really well.

01:15:45

I'm pretty sure I've told this story before. But yeah, we had a public gathering in which all of the pastors from this particular alliance were going to be leading public prayer.

01:15:56

And we had not yet decided. Everybody's assignments were kind of given when I wasn't there anyway.

01:16:01

I was told, hey, when you get up to pray, you're going to be praying about this. But no one had decided who was going to close the whole thing.

01:16:08

And they had decided, well, we should close it with the Lord's Prayer. So somebody's going to lead the Lord's Prayer and everybody pray along together.

01:16:16

Now, I would have gone ahead and done it, but they were trying to pick a pastor that did not yet have an assignment in the public prayer gathering.

01:16:24

So as different men were coming up, as we were kind of gathering together as pastors to pray before this public prayer event, as different pastors were coming up, they were talking to the first guy and going, hey, we don't have somebody to pray the

01:16:38

Lord's Prayer. So you're going to do it. And he's like, nope, sorry, don't have it memorized. And it was like perfectly openly free and happy with admitting that.

01:16:46

And every guy that came up with that would continually say that and they'd laugh about it.

01:16:52

And I'm just sitting there going, guys, are you serious? Yeah. And honestly, that was the last time

01:16:57

I ever participated with them in a public prayer event. So listeners, here's your homework. Do you know the

01:17:04

Lord's Prayer by heart? Yeah, right. And if you don't, try. Anyway, that was just I know that it's like you shouldn't hold a pastor to that standard, whether or not he has the

01:17:15

Lord's Prayer memorized. The point is, no one had it memorized. None of the pastors had it memorized.

01:17:21

How in the world were there so many pastors that were just that ignorant on what Scripture says? And that's just one example.

01:17:28

Like I said, I was part of that alliance. And there were other things that came up that were just like, oh, my goodness. And our church eventually just left that alliance.

01:17:35

We were part of several alliances, though. So I think I can say that pretty freely and not incriminate which one it was.

01:17:42

I think so. In case that particular alliance has improved since then. Lord willing.

01:17:48

I don't know. Let's hope and pray. But yeah, all that to say, a pastor, that is a biblically given title.

01:17:56

So it is perfectly fine for somebody to be called that. Now, Alice, you did mention something else there at the end of your email.

01:18:06

You said, ask God to help you get out of the man -planned, man -organized traditional church, churchianity.

01:18:14

I have no idea what you mean by that. But our church is structured by what the Bible says.

01:18:19

And I'm hoping that statement does not mean that you're not attending a church at all.

01:18:24

I really hope so. Because if you're not attending a church, then you're in sin. And Alice, I would encourage you to repent of that.

01:18:33

Repent of whatever somebody's told you about man -planned, man -organized traditional church.

01:18:38

And you need to go to a church. You can test that church. That is upon you to do that. Test the church according to what the scripture says.

01:18:45

Are they following what the Bible says? Because that's the way that a church should be gathering. But a church should be gathering.

01:18:53

And be there to learn. Be open to learn things, not just bring what you know to the table.

01:19:00

You can bring what you know, but be there to learn, too. Yeah, yeah, that's right. Because that's the point of a church. So Hebrews 10, verse 23 says,

01:19:08

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

01:19:14

And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

01:19:28

Amen. Friends, we thank you so much for listening to the program. If you would like to submit a question, send that to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

01:19:36

We're trying to kind of stir up the emails again because we had a drop after I had that unexpected time off there in the middle of March.

01:19:47

Which by the way, I didn't mention this last week, even though I was not posting new episodes, we were still trending in Nepal and in Singapore.

01:19:58

Yes. So we were still breaking like their top 200 podcasts. So cool. In the nations of Nepal and Singapore, though I wasn't publishing new episodes.

01:20:09

So I don't know who it is that's listening to us out there in Nepal. Or Singapore. There's only, well,

01:20:15

I single out Nepal because there's only one country in the world where our podcast was the number one trending podcast in that country.

01:20:28

And that's Nepal. Really? Yes. It was one day. It was only one day.

01:20:34

But when we understand the text was the number one podcast in Nepal, and that's never happened in any other country in the world.

01:20:41

I don't know why, but I have the screenshot of it somewhere. I'll pull up the date sometime.

01:20:47

But anyway, I don't know who's listening to us in Nepal. But God bless you. Send me an email.

01:20:52

Thank you. Because I can't remember ever receiving an email from Nepal, but would love to hear from you. Yeah. So cool.

01:21:00

But thank you for that. Hi from overseas. Yes, right. So glad to hear that the word of God is getting to so many places in the world through this little podcast.

01:21:10

Just something that we were trying to do to minister to our church. And yet it's been a blessing to hear how many people it's ministered to.

01:21:17

Yeah, I love it. All right, let's finish with prayer. Yes, let's. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this opportunity to be able to open your word and read it and minister according to the word.

01:21:27

And I pray that you would continue to bless people with the things that we've just read here today.

01:21:33

We pray once again for those families in Nashville that are mourning the loss of their loved ones.

01:21:40

We pray that evil would be brought to an end here on earth. But we hold fast to the promise that is in your word that you are working all things together for good for those who love

01:21:49

God and are called according to your purpose. Sometimes those things that we go through are going to be immensely painful.

01:21:56

They are going to hurt with the deepest, most stressful pains we've ever gone through in our entire lives.

01:22:02

But yet, as Paul said in 2 Corinthians 1 .9, these things are to teach us to rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead.

01:22:10

Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Deliver us into your presence. May your gospel go forth so that others may hear the good news of Christ who died, who rose again, who ascended on high, who is coming back again to judge the living and the dead.

01:22:23

And by putting faith and trust in him, they will be forgiven their sins and have eternal life. It's in Jesus' name that we pray.