Is God Safe?

Sovereign Grace Family Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:01

Welcome to Conversations with a Calvinist.

00:04

This podcast is dedicated to helping believers better understand scripture, defend truth and engage culture.

00:11

Get your Bible ready and prepare to engage today's topic.

00:16

Here's your host, Pastor Keith Foskey.

00:19

Welcome back to Conversations with a Calvinist.

00:21

My name is Keith Foskey and I am a Calvinist.

00:25

Today is a different day.

00:27

Today I'm trying to do the program live here on Facebook to try to get some interactions from you.

00:33

So if you're watching today and you feel like the program is a little different than usual, it is.

00:39

I've been doing podcasts now for over a year.

00:42

I have several podcasts on our channel.

00:46

And back when I was doing Coffee with a Calvinist, I did one every day for over a year.

00:51

And we have a lot of podcasts done, but I've never done one quite like this.

00:55

So if I stumble a little bit today, I would ask for you to be patient with me, give me a little bit of grace as I'm doing this a little differently than I have before.

01:04

And as I'm looking out, it's interesting because I've never been able to watch how many viewers I have immediately.

01:11

And as of right now, I don't see, I don't think there's anybody watching.

01:15

So as you begin to tune into today's podcast, I want to ask you to do me a favor.

01:21

Hit the like button so that I know that you're there.

01:24

And if you have a question or a comment about what I'm saying, please take an opportunity to leave it.

01:29

I'll be able to see the comments as they come up and I'm going to be watching them on the screen.

01:36

And so please do that.

01:38

And today, the title of today's podcast is, Is God Safe? Is God Safe? And there's a reason for that question.

01:47

There's a reason why I'm bringing that particular question up today.

01:51

And I want to give you a little bit of a background as to why I'm asking the question, Is God Safe? And really, this all came about as a result of me watching another podcast, or rather listening to another podcast.

02:09

I have been listening to a podcast put out by Christianity Today, and the podcast is entitled The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill.

02:19

So, if you have not ever heard of The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill, it is a podcast that was published by Christianity Today, talking about specifically the rise and fall of Mars Hill Church, which was in Seattle and was pastored by Mark Driscoll.

02:36

Mark Driscoll was the pastor of the church there at Mars Hill.

02:41

And the rise of that church and the fall of that church is an epic story.

02:46

And the person who has put together the podcast has done what seems to be a very good job of journalism, having gotten a lot of sources, a lot of information, put together a narrative and a timeline.

03:00

And that podcast is very interesting.

03:02

So if you are interested in the history of that church and the things that happened at Mars Hill and the rise and fall of that church and their pastor, Mark Driscoll, then I would encourage you to look up that podcast.

03:16

And I want to thank Brother Dan Kaysen, who is a member of Sovereign Grace Church, our church.

03:22

And Brother Dan was the one who told me about it.

03:27

I had heard about it from some other friends, but I hadn't heard much about it.

03:32

I'd seen a few people post about it online.

03:34

But when Brother Dan came to me, he said, Pastor Keith, you have to listen to this podcast.

03:38

And so I have.

03:39

And I've listened to almost every episode now.

03:41

There's several episodes.

03:41

And I've listened to a lot of them.

03:45

And I haven't or I'm looking forward to the rest because, like I said, I haven't listened to all because there's there's there's a few more I haven't listened to and a few that are still coming out.

03:55

But it was in listening to that podcast that the question of today's conversation with the Calvinist rose.

04:05

The question for today's podcast rose out of listening to the rise and fall of Marsh Hill.

04:12

And really, it was just one sentence.

04:15

And I hesitated even to bring in the rise and fall of Marsh Hill today, because as I was thinking about it, it's not really the focus of what we're going to talk about.

04:25

But I did want to give some context as to why I would ask such a question.

04:28

Why would I ask the question, is God safe? That just seems like a rather odd question.

04:36

But the reason why is because in the midst of one of the podcasts, I don't remember what episode it was.

04:41

I listen to it when I'm driving.

04:43

So sometimes I'm not it just goes from one episode to the next.

04:47

But I was listening to a lady on the podcast talk, and she was talking about the subject of people who had left the church and were hurting.

05:00

And how she had sought to minister to these people, and that a lot of them felt like they had a wrong view of God because of their experience at Mars Hill.

05:13

And that may be very true.

05:15

I am not calling into question her diagnosis or her integrity in any way.

05:20

I don't know this lady, and I don't know enough about her to have any questions about what she's saying.

05:25

Certainly, there were people who went to Mars Hill, who left Mars Hill, who probably did have a very misguided view of God.

05:34

But one of the things that she said that just caught my attention, and it was the thing I wanted to have the conversation about today.

05:39

And again, conversation, I want to have a conversation.

05:42

If you are listening, please feel free, leave a comment, leave a question.

05:46

As we begin to dig into this, if I say something that you want me to elaborate on, please let me know.

05:52

I can see the comment box.

05:54

At least I hope it's working.

05:54

I think everything's working.

05:56

So let me begin by addressing what she was saying.

06:00

She said that people who came had a wrong view of God, and they didn't have a God who was holy.

06:06

They didn't have a God who was gracious or merciful.

06:11

I forget.

06:11

I think I have it.

06:12

Let me pull it up here.

06:13

I have exactly what she said, because I did take the time to go back and actually type out her words.

06:19

Not a righteous God, not a really holy God, not a loving or trustworthy, or a safe God.

06:25

And that was the moment that, again, got my attention.

06:30

She said, not a safe God.

06:32

And I got to thinking, yes, we should be promoting the holiness of God.

06:38

If there's anything that I have tried to focus on in my ministry, it is the holiness of God.

06:44

And I don't hold that as being something unique to me.

06:49

Obviously, I was very much influenced by the late Dr.

06:52

R.C.

06:52

Sproul, his book, The Holiness of God.

06:54

I bought the case of them.

06:56

I give them out to my friends.

06:59

I give them out to new church members.

07:00

The holiness of God is obviously something that I believe in and something that should be focused on, something that should be taught, something that should be promoted.

07:08

So the holiness of God, absolutely.

07:10

But also, she said, not only the holiness of God, but also the love of God and the trustworthiness of God.

07:18

Both of those things are true.

07:20

God is loving, and God is ultimately trustworthy.

07:24

I talked about this in my sermon last week, that there's nothing too hard for God.

07:28

What God promises, He will do, and we need to be confident in the promises of God.

07:35

That is absolutely certain.

07:37

But then she said, she threw out a word that I think has a lot of cultural and modern baggage.

07:46

And this was really the thing that got my attention, and I said, you know what? This is what I'm going to key in on today.

07:53

I'm going to key in on this word.

07:55

Because she said, they didn't have a righteous God, they didn't have a holy God, they didn't have a loving God.

08:00

All those things are important.

08:01

God is righteous.

08:02

God is holy.

08:02

God is loving.

08:03

That is true.

08:04

And then she said, and they didn't have a safe God.

08:06

And I said, whoa, whoa, whoa, okay.

08:08

Again, I get where she's coming from, and I'm really not arguing with her, because in the context that she's talking about, I get it, I understand the use of the term.

08:19

But here's where I feel like something needs to be brought out, because there is certainly a mountain of evidence that the things that happened at Mars Hill were bad.

08:31

But not everything they ever said was wrong, and not everything they ever taught was wrong.

08:36

And the idea of God as safe is something that strikes me as very odd, and something that this is why I wanted to open the comments today.

08:48

I wanted to see if maybe I'm coming at this from a different viewpoint.

08:53

Maybe you have a viewpoint you'd like to share in the comments, and I would encourage you to.

08:57

But this is where I really was taking an issue here.

09:03

When she says people need to have a safe God, I said, no, wait a minute.

09:08

What do we mean by that? Because we have created a culture, especially in higher education and in the academies and universities, we've created a culture centered around this idea of safe, the idea of being safe and having safe spaces where if something is said on campus that's offensive, they'll create spaces where people can go and feel safe where those types of words, those types of offensive language will not be used.

09:43

And I've heard many people, they'll say, come to our meetings.

09:47

This is a safe atmosphere.

09:48

We're not going to use any controversial language.

09:52

There's not going to be any political language.

09:54

There's not going to be any hurtful language.

09:56

Everything is going to be safe.

09:58

And this idea of safe, safe, safe, safe, safe.

10:01

And and so when I hear somebody say that God is safe, I begin to, in my mind, sort of go back and say, I don't think that that's the right adjective to use.

10:18

And again, if you want to challenge me on this, I'm more than willing to be challenged.

10:22

But here's here's the here's the issue here.

10:25

Here's my my real thought on this.

10:30

When we look at the Bible and we go through the Bible and we see instances where people were in the presence of God, the presence of God was by all accounts, almost every place in the Bible we find God's manifest presence.

10:55

We find a holy dread that falls upon the people who are in the presence of God.

11:06

You know, there are a few times where it's it's almost to the point where you can almost feel in the in the writing itself, the absolute intimidation of being in the presence of God.

11:23

And of course, many of you probably knew I was going to go here because I mentioned the holiness of God earlier.

11:28

But one of the passages that I can't overlook is Isaiah six.

11:33

One of my favorite passages, again, of course, being influenced by Dr.

11:36

Sproul.

11:36

This is one of his great sermons, and he preaches sermons this he preached on Isaiah six many times throughout his life.

11:42

But just remember what Isaiah six tells us.

11:45

It says, In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple.

11:54

Above him stood the seraphim.

11:56

Each had six wings, with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.

12:01

That's an important truth.

12:02

It talks about these creatures that were created to be in the presence of God, and they cover their face in the presence of God.

12:09

They cover their feet in the presence of God because the presence of God is a holy presence.

12:17

And so they don't look upon his face.

12:20

They cover their face.

12:21

They don't stand with bare feet in his presence.

12:24

They cover their feet because this area is holy ground.

12:30

You'll remember when Moses was before the burning bush, what did the angel of the Lord say? Take your shoes off your feet for the ground upon which you stand.

12:43

This ground right here, where God is, the presence of God is holy.

12:47

The presence of God is holy space.

12:51

And so we see Isaiah.

12:52

This is a holy space.

12:55

He is in.

12:55

He is in the presence of God.

12:57

And this is what it says in verse four, Isaiah six four, it says, And the foundations of And I said, woe is me, for I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.

13:14

For my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts.

13:20

That's that's the words of Isaiah.

13:23

By all accounts, most likely the most righteous man in Israel.

13:27

And yet when he's in the presence of God, when he sees God.

13:32

It high and lifted up.

13:33

And I believe it's Lord Jesus Christ he's seeing because that's the manifest presence of God.

13:36

No one has seen God.

13:37

The only begotten son.

13:38

He's the one who shows him to us.

13:42

John tells us this in John's gospel.

13:44

So he's seeing the manifest deified or deity of Christ on display.

13:51

Not deified, but the deity that he's seeing the second person, the Trinity on display with a with a robe that fills the train, fills the temple.

14:01

And he doesn't feel comfortable.

14:03

He doesn't feel safe.

14:08

At least not from this account.

14:10

In fact, the very first thing he does is he proclaims judgment upon himself.

14:14

He says, woe is me.

14:17

For I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean.

14:23

He pronounces judgment upon himself.

14:25

Woe is me.

14:26

He pronounces judgment on his mouth.

14:29

He says, I'm unclean of mouth and and I live among a people who are unclean of mouth.

14:36

And now my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts.

14:41

And this just reminds us that the presence of God is not always a comfort.

14:51

Sometimes the presence of God is a fearful presence.

14:55

And the idea that God is safe, I think we are mixing categories and we're mixing ideas.

15:02

And especially with the modern concept of safe spaces where there is no opportunity for intimidation, no opportunity for discomfort.

15:12

That's not the presence of God.

15:16

In fact, I want to bring you now to a New Testament example.

15:18

This is one of my favorite stories in the life of Jesus.

15:22

I love the Gospel of Luke.

15:23

I've told the story before.

15:24

The Gospel of Luke, I've spent so much time teaching.

15:27

It was the first book I ever did a verse by verse exposition of.

15:30

It was the book I wrote my doctorate on.

15:32

And I love Luke and I love his writing.

15:35

And there's so many stories and events that happen in Luke that we don't find in the other Gospels.

15:42

And this particular story is interesting because this is where we see Jesus and Peter on a boat.

15:50

And well, I'll read it.

15:53

You'll remember.

15:54

It says, on one occasion, this is Luke chapter five, verse one.

15:57

On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret.

16:04

And he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets.

16:09

Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land and he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

16:19

And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.

16:27

And Simon answered, Master, we toiled all night and took nothing.

16:31

But at your word, I will let down the nets.

16:33

I've always thought there's probably some reluctance there, but at your word, I'll do what you say.

16:38

But you know, I'm the professional fisherman here.

16:40

I know, you know, I know what's going to happen, but OK, I'll do what you say.

16:45

You are the, you know, you're the master and I'll listen to you.

16:50

Verse six, and when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish and their nets were breaking.

16:58

They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them.

17:02

And they came and filled both the boats so that they began to sink.

17:08

And so Peter, now the consummate fisherman, the professional fisherman, is probably surprised as to what just happened, but amazed at the same time.

17:18

And you would think that the next words out of his mouth would be, Lord, forever fill my nets.

17:25

Lord, stay with me.

17:26

Let's start a fishing charter.

17:27

Let's start a business.

17:29

Let's go into the fishing business together.

17:32

No one can fish like you, O Lord.

17:34

Let's start a business.

17:36

Or Lord, stay with me every day so that I may feed my friends and family and the poor.

17:44

Let's do this fishing thing that that seemingly only you can do.

17:50

But that's not what Peter says.

17:53

In fact, what Peter says is and is almost surprising because it sort of comes out of nowhere here.

18:01

He's he's listened to Jesus.

18:03

They've they've he's let Jesus use his boat essentially as a pulpit.

18:07

And now they've gone out into the deep water.

18:09

He's let the nets down.

18:11

He's brought up a mess of fish that, you know, almost sank the boat.

18:19

And verse eight says, But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus knees saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.

18:36

Why would why would Peter ask Jesus to leave? Why would Peter say, Depart from me, I'm a sinful man.

18:54

That that's a question that we have to wrestle with, especially with the concept of the presence of God always being safe.

19:03

And in my estimation, the idea of safe is comforting and consoling.

19:09

Peter didn't feel comfortable.

19:12

Peter felt as uncomfortable as anyone has ever felt.

19:16

He felt like he wanted to get out of his own skin because he was face to face with the Lord of glory.

19:23

He was face to face with the son of God.

19:27

He was.

19:29

He was scared to death because he knew himself.

19:36

And like Isaiah and Isaiah six, when he saw the glory of God on display in the person of Jesus Christ.

19:46

He said, I am a sinful man, Isaiah said, I am undone, I'm a man of unclean lips, Peter says basically the same thing, and he says, he says, Depart from me, Lord, depart from me.

20:03

What an amazing thing you just met the Lord of glory and your desire is, leave me alone because I don't feel safe, because I don't feel comforted.

20:22

I feel afraid because I know my sinful heart and there's reason, biblically speaking, there is reason to be intimidated by the presence of God.

20:41

I'll take you back to a couple of passages in the Old Testament again.

20:45

One passage I point out to people all the time is Leviticus chapter 10.

20:52

Leviticus chapter 10, you have two priests, the sons of Aaron named Nadab and Abihu.

20:58

And Nadab and Abihu offered up fire before the Lord that the Lord had not commanded.

21:05

And many of you are familiar with the term, the King James uses the term strange fire.

21:11

But listen to what it says in Leviticus 10, it says, Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered, the ESV says, unauthorized fire before the Lord.

21:28

Again, that's the word strange, could be translated strange fire, offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded.

21:36

And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them and they died before the Lord.

21:44

Now, this story bothers a lot of people and I get it.

21:48

I get you got two guys here and we don't know how old they were.

21:52

We know they're men.

21:53

They're not children, but we and we know that they are priests, so they should have known better.

21:59

But at the same time, there's still this level of discomfort where we say, wow, what in the world just happened? They they they offer a strange fire before the Lord, which seems to be just simply something God had not told them to do.

22:14

God had not commanded them to do this.

22:17

And so they do it.

22:18

And immediately their life is snuffed out right in front of their father, by the way, because verse three says, Then Moses said to Aaron, who apparently was looking on, this is what the Lord has said among those who are near me, I will be.

22:32

The ESV says sanctified, but really says I will be seen as holy and before all the people, I will be glorified.

22:40

And it says and Aaron held his peace.

22:42

This is this is such an important truth.

22:46

The presence of God is not something to be fooled with.

22:51

It's not something to be mocked.

22:54

It's not something to be treated as common.

22:57

And that's what we see with Nadab and Abihu, they felt safe to offer strange fire in the presence of God, and it wasn't safe.

23:11

It wasn't safe to count as common.

23:15

The presence of God, which is holy.

23:19

I can't help but think about how many times people today will say something like this, they'll say, well, I worship God on my terms.

23:29

They'll say, I worship God the way I want to.

23:32

I worship God my way.

23:35

And.

23:36

The danger in that is.

23:40

Is that we've we've we've gotten the idea that God's presence is so safe.

23:46

That we can do anything we want.

23:48

That we can enter into his presence by our standards rather than by his.

23:56

That we can we can do it on our terms rather than his terms.

24:02

And that is a safety that I think is.

24:07

Is dangerous to believe in that God's presence is is is in no way holy, it's in no way.

24:18

A presence that should be respected.

24:21

And even looked at with a holy and reverential fear.

24:28

Another passage that I was just talking about yesterday with the brother in Christ.

24:34

From the Old Testament.

24:37

Is from Second Samuel, chapter six, when the ark was being carried back to Jerusalem, it says in Second Samuel, chapter six.

24:52

And when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it for the oxen stumbled.

25:05

And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah and God struck him down there.

25:13

Because of his error and he died there beside the ark of God.

25:23

I want to before I go any further, thank you, Daisy, for leaving a comment.

25:29

I appreciate you tuning into the program today.

25:31

I thank you for being a listener and for being a good friend.

25:34

I love you.

25:35

And I like what you said.

25:37

You said reverend is a better word.

25:39

Safe, not so much.

25:40

I agree.

25:40

And that's the point.

25:41

That's really the point of the podcast.

25:42

I'm glad you picked up on that because that's what I'm trying to say.

25:45

If we say God is safe.

25:49

I think we're missing part of who he is.

25:52

God is not safe, especially to sinners in the sense that someone would say that we should just we should just come willy nilly into the presence of God.

26:05

No, we can't.

26:07

We can't consider that.

26:08

But getting back to getting back to the second Samuel passage here.

26:13

This passage, again, bothers a lot of people.

26:15

In fact, it bothered David.

26:16

If you read on in verse eight, it says, and David was angry because the Lord had spoken or had broken out against Uzzah.

26:24

David was angry.

26:26

OK, I'm angry with who? Well, it says he was angry because the Lord had broken out against Uzzah.

26:33

It doesn't say he was angry at the Lord, but we can sort of can consider that that may be the case.

26:38

Maybe he was angry at Uzzah for being presumptuous and grabbing the ark.

26:41

But it doesn't seem to be that because he names the place Perez, Uzzah, which is sort of honoring Uzzah and his death in that place.

26:49

So here's the point.

26:52

Uzzah touched the ark.

26:54

He wasn't supposed to.

26:55

He knew he wasn't supposed to.

26:57

Nobody was supposed to touch the ark.

26:59

And yet, as the ark was falling, he did what most of us probably would have instinctively thought to do.

27:06

And that is steady it.

27:07

If it's falling, you don't want it to fall.

27:09

So you reach out and you grab it.

27:12

But when he reached out to grab it, he was doing what was not to be done.

27:19

In fact, again, R.C.

27:22

Sproul.

27:22

And if you've ever heard R.C.

27:24

teach on this, you know, a lot of what I'm saying today, I've been so influenced by him.

27:28

And a lot of these things are just, you know, it's been so many years since I've heard him teach this.

27:33

But these things have stayed in my mind and my heart for so long.

27:35

But this is what he says.

27:37

He says the thing about Uzzah, the problem with Uzzah is he thought the ground was dirtier than his hands.

27:44

He thought the ground, it was worse for the ark to touch the ground than it was for the ark to touch his unclean and sinful hands.

27:51

And that was the problem.

27:54

So, again, Uzzah was right there in the presence of the ark.

27:59

And the ark, of course, represented and was the presence of the spirit among the people of God.

28:04

And Uzzah was presumptuous in touching the ark and in touching the ark, he forfeited his life.

28:12

So getting back to the question, is God safe? Well, for Nadab and Abihu, they thought God's presence was so safe that they could do whatever they wanted.

28:25

And that wasn't true.

28:30

Uzzah thought himself, again, cleaner than the dirt and thought it was OK that he touched the ark, even though he knew he wasn't supposed to.

28:40

And so now I want to sort of begin to draw to a close by sort of taking a different direction, because I want to say something that's going to sound like I'm contradicting myself.

28:50

And I promise I'm not.

28:52

At least I don't want to.

28:54

Because I've said so far that I don't think safe or comfortable is how I would describe the presence of God, that God is safe.

29:03

I don't think so.

29:05

I think that there's too much cultural, modern cultural baggage around the word safe and safe spaces and safe words and all this.

29:13

I think that's the wrong way for us to look at God.

29:16

But but when it comes to when it comes to.

29:29

Where do we go? To find safety.

29:36

And again, I know it's going to sound like I'm contradicting myself, I promise I'm not.

29:40

When we are trying to find safety, we don't run from the presence of God.

29:49

But we do run to the presence of God.

29:53

You say, wait a minute, you just spent all this time saying the presence of God is fearful and presence of God is I mean, you talk about guys getting killed, being in the presence of God and all these things.

30:03

Yes.

30:05

But I want to I want to go to one story in the New Testament that I find.

30:13

Again, just so encouraging.

30:20

And this is this is, again, from the life of Christ.

30:24

If you have your Bibles turned to Luke chapter seven.

30:29

Because in Luke seven thirty six, one of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat in his house and while Jesus is eating in his house, a moment happens where this woman comes in, this the sinful woman and she begins to wipe Jesus's feet.

30:49

And how this narrative unfolds is important because it does remind us something.

30:57

About where we should go when we're when we are broken.

31:02

And again, this is where I think that this lady was talking about when she said God is safe.

31:06

I think this is really what she was trying to get around to.

31:09

I just think the word safe is too simple.

31:13

Because and I'll give you a quick quote before we read the scripture verses I did pull up.

31:17

This is a great quote from Michael Horton.

31:21

He said this.

31:22

Nobody today seems to think that God is dangerous and that is itself a dangerous oversight.

31:28

That's the key, right? Is I'm not saying that we don't go to God for comfort.

31:34

What I am saying is that we have to understand who God is.

31:39

God is a consuming fire.

31:42

God will have relentless.

31:45

He will give a relentless judgment upon his enemies.

31:50

So so how do we find comfort in the presence of God? How do we find God to be comforting? We come to him in in repentant faith.

32:06

In fact, we come to him broken.

32:07

And and the Bible tells us he will not break us, he will not the bent read, he will not break, he he will love us, he will comfort us if we come to him with a heart that is broken rather than a heart that is prideful, like Nadab and I can do whatever I want in the presence of God, what's God going to do? Well, God showed what he's going to do, right? We're not going to be presumptuous.

32:38

We're going to be broken before the Lord, like Peter, who said, Depart from me, Lord.

32:47

Depart from me.

32:48

I'm a sinful man.

32:50

Jesus said, Follow me.

32:51

I'll make you fishers of men.

32:54

Let's just read Luke chapter seven.

32:58

One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisees house and reclined at table.

33:03

Verse thirty seven.

33:04

And behold, a woman of the city who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisees house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wipe them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with ointment.

33:23

Now, when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, if this man were a prophet, he would have known what who and what sort of woman this is, who is touching him, for she is a sinner.

33:35

And Jesus answered him and said, Simon, I have something to say to you.

33:39

And he said, Say it, teacher.

33:41

A certain money lender had two debtors, one owed five hundred denarii and the other fifty.

33:45

When they could not pay, he canceled the debt of both.

33:49

Now, which of them will love him more? Simon answered the one, I suppose, for whom he canceled the larger debt.

33:55

And he said, you've judged rightly then turning to the woman.

33:58

He said, do you see this woman? I entered your house.

34:02

You gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.

34:08

You gave me no kiss.

34:09

But from the time I came in, she has not ceased to kiss my feet.

34:13

You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.

34:16

Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven for she loved much.

34:21

But he who was forgiven little loves little.

34:25

And he said to her, your sins are forgiven.

34:29

What a beautiful story.

34:30

What a beautiful moment in the life of that woman.

34:33

What a beautiful moment in the life of of Christ that we get to read about.

34:40

And it does tell us something about the presence of God.

34:44

There's a place for broken people in the presence of God.

34:48

And again, that's why I think I understand what this lady was saying.

34:54

But I must say, if you refuse to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the presence of God is not safe.

35:06

If you if you continue to deny the Lord Jesus Christ.

35:14

Then.

35:16

There is no safe place.

35:20

The Bible says, I ascend into heaven, you are there, I descend into Sheol, you are there, the Bible says, you go before me and you fall behind, you are everywhere, there is no place that is safe outside of the Lord Jesus Christ.

35:35

And one day, one day, the Lord is going to return and he is going to judge this world in righteousness.

35:44

And in that time, at that moment, the only safe place there will be will to be it be at his right hand, to be numbered among his sheep.

35:54

The Bible tells us he will separate the sheep from the goats.

35:57

The sheep will go into eternal life and the goats will go forever into eternal punishment where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth forever.

36:09

So in a sense, the only safe place to be is to be among God's sheep, to be one of Christ's sheep, and yet he said to the Pharisees, you don't believe because you're not my sheep, are you one of Christ's sheep today? If so, then the presence of God can be a comfort to you.

36:31

But we still don't treat the presence of God as if it is a common thing.

36:36

It's not.

36:37

God is holy and righteous and just.

36:39

And for his people, he is merciful and gracious and loving.

36:44

But if you're not in Christ, my call to you, my encouragement to you today, my urging for you is to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, that you, too, can be saved.

36:58

Well, this brings us to the end of the program.

37:00

I thank you for listening today.

37:02

I went a little longer.

37:03

I wanted to do 30 minutes.

37:04

I think I did about 40 minutes.

37:05

So I thank you for listening to the program.

37:08

Thank you for Daisy, for writing in.

37:10

And hopefully in the future, if I do this again, we'll have some folks who want to leave some comments as well.

37:15

Be looking forward to live programs more in the weeks to come.

37:19

Thank you for listening to Conversations with a Calvinist.

37:21

My name is Keith Foskey and I have been your Calvinist.

37:25

May God bless you.

37:28

Thank you for listening to Conversations with a Calvinist.

37:31

If you enjoyed the program, please take a moment to subscribe.

37:35

And if you have a question you would like us to discuss on a future program, please email us at Calvinistpodcast at gmail.com.

37:44

As you go about your day, remember this.

37:47

Jesus Christ came to save sinners.

37:49

All who come to him in repentance and faith will find him to be a perfect savior.

37:55

He is the way, the truth and the life.

37:58

And no one comes to the Father except through him.

38:01

May God be with you.