WWUTT 985 Q&A Christmas in July, Gates of Hell, Six Point Calvinism, and Sinless Christians?

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When Jesus refers to the gates of hell, are they offensive or defensive?

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Is eternity with God a timeless existence? What is six -point Calvinism and are Christians to be sinless?

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The answers to these questions when we understand the text. This is

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When We Understand The Text, a daily study in the word of Christ, that we may be complete men and women of God, equipped for every good work.

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Find more good works on our website, www .utt .com. Here once again is

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Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. Don't forget that we're doing our Christmas in July giveaway.

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And this is the first. We need some like jingle bells. The first Friday for that. Oh, you know what? I should. I should.

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I should get some jingle bells. I don't have anything in here for that. Pretty much everything that was a musical instrument of mine,

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I think, went over to the church. Or the kids took it. Or the kids ran off with it. One of those two things.

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I had a bell recently. A bell, but not jingle bells. We haven't had jingle bells.

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Yeah, it's a jingle bell. Oh, you're talking like one of the single little bells.

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Yeah. I'm thinking jingle bells as being like the whole cluster of bells. Yeah, I know. I wish.

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But no. I'm settling for like at least one. You know? One little dinky bell. Well, we had them.

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Surely you could have a sound clip and put that in there. Well, yeah. I've got them in the... Whenever we do the

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Christmas -themed what videos, the what theme at the start of the video has jingle bells added to it.

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Well, there you go. You never noticed that? It's been a while. Okay, here we go. So, since we're talking about Christmas in July, here is the

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Christmas -themed what intro. All right. Are you ready?

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Yes. All right.

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That was it. I love it. It's great. This is a standard video intro with jingle bells added to it.

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That's all it is. Yeah. It's at the start of every one of the Christmas -themed videos.

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Yeah. Most of those 90 -second videos get interrupted at least five times, so...

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You must have children. I must. How about that? Can't even watch a 90 -second video.

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No. Okay, so to go with our Christmas in July giveaway, any question that you send to us or if you have some story to share about what has meant to you, any email you send to us or just to say, hey,

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I'm entering the contest. You can't do that. You can't just say, hey, I'm entering the contest and throw in your name at us.

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You got to put some effort into it. Just a little bit. You got to think of a question or you got to share a story or something like that.

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Send that information to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com and of the questions that we read that week, we will draw a winner each week to receive the book, 25

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Christmas Myths and What the Bible Says, a flash drive that contains 250 what videos, and then there will be something else that will be added into it as well, whether it will be like a

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JC Ryle book, a video with Sinclair Ferguson, which

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I think is the DVD that I'm giving away today. So you get the Sinclair Ferguson DVD along with the 25

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Christmas Myths book and the flash drive with 250 what videos on it.

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So you've just given away what their Christmas present is, Christmas in July present.

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Well, yeah. I'm going to tell you what it is. It's kind of sad. We are gifting to you.

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We are giving gifts. It'll still be a wonderful surprise in the mail. Yeah, always.

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And you unwrap it. You know what you got from Amazon. You ordered it, but you still love to unwrap it.

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Somebody else had said that Amazon, ordering from Amazon is now like Christmas every time because you forgot what you ordered three days ago.

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That's me. That's right. Life has happened since you clicked that purchase button. I have slept since then.

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Precisely. So when it gets to you, you can just pretend you're surprised. You can be excited. Or if you're winning it for somebody else, then there you go.

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It just automatically becomes a gift for someone. And it's Christmas all over again. The gift that keeps on giving.

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That's right. Christmas in July. So every Friday, we're giving away something during the Q &A. The last

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Friday of the month, which will be on the 28th. That's our 1000th episode.

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Wow. And everybody who has entered into the contest, even if they entered

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Friday, even if they won on one of the previous Fridays. You mean the 26th.

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Oh, that's right. I've got my June calendar up still. Yes. July the 26th will be the 1000th episode.

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So I had to think about that. Anyway. Well, I know what I'm preaching on July 28th, which would be a

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Sunday. Okay. Yes. Anyway. Yes. July 26th is our 1000th episode.

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Even if you've won something any of the other Fridays in July, you'll still be entered for that final bundle that we'll give away on the 28th.

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But you got to send us your name and address and ask a question or share a story about when we understand the text.

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That's right. If we read, you can say in your email that you don't want it read on the air.

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That's very true. That's fine. I will accept that. And we can still draw and announce that we have a winner and we just won't say who it is.

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Yeah. Or maybe we can announce the name and state like we normally do, but they don't have to know the context of their email.

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Yes. And like I said last week, if you come from a small town, I won't mention your town.

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Oh, yeah. It's a little difficult to stay anonymous when you live in a small place, especially if you have a unique name.

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Yeah. Everybody knows exactly who that was that emailed into the podcast. If you live in a small town, though, you're probably the only what what listener in your town.

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Good. You never know. They might have friends that they bring over. Could be. There's a new one.

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A new video. They talk about it at church. Yeah. All right. Here we go with the questions today.

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Now, all these folks have entered into the contest as well, and we will announce our winner at the end.

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You know, there was a favor that I was going to ask. Oh, I remember what it is now. OK. I mean,

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I'm going to wait to the end of the broadcast to ask this question or to ask this favor.

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OK. But I meant to do this last week and I forgot. So make sure, make sure that, you know, signal me, wave your hand, something.

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Well, I mean, it took me almost five minutes to remember that June 28th is not a Friday. So I'm not guaranteeing anything.

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July 28th is not a Friday. Did I say June? You said June. Oh. Because my June calendar is still up. OK. So it would have taken me five more minutes just to get that straight.

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Anyway, I will do my best. If we get to the end and I haven't yet asked my favor.

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Yes. Then, and there's a reason why I'm waiting to the end of the broadcast to ask this favor.

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OK. So we'll announce the winner and I'll ask my favor when we get to the end of the program. OK. How about this? You hand me that piece of paper.

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Here's a piece of paper. And a pen. I don't have a pen. I got a screwdriver right here. You want a screwdriver? You've got like a permanent marker in here.

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Oh, hey, look at that. And a pen. Usually the kids run off with all my pens. Look at that. Yeah. I've tried.

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I've tried to keep them from doing that. OK. So favor. Favor. Favor.

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All right. First question comes from Caleb in Alabama. Hey, Pastor Gabe and Miss Becky. Hello. I have a couple of questions.

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This first one came to mind as I was typing, Pastor Gabe and Miss Becky, what are your thoughts about a pastor's wife being referred to as first lady?

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As in the first lady. I believe I only hear this done in charismatic churches, but maybe it's more common than I thought.

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Becky is not the first lady of our church. And you're right. It does come from primarily charismatic churches,

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Pentecostal churches, prosperity churches. That's where I hear it. It's a larger church, a much, much larger denomination.

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And the wife is commonly called the first lady. There was a fellow that came to our church one time, and I won't say what kind of church background he had, but he was referring to Becky the same way.

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Yeah. And he was very particular. Yes. A different type of gentleman. He almost seemed to be afraid of you, too.

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He was. After he learned who I was, I guess, his whole demeanor changed.

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Yes. It was odd. It was peculiar. It was rather strange. That's what

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I was thinking. That's the word. But, yeah, this comes from the way that a particular head of state would be referred to as a governor, a president, or something like that, and then his wife is commonly called the first lady.

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Right. Okay. And that's where it comes from. That is the origin of it. Now, some have tried to attach a biblical explanation to this, and typically, they will draw from 2

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John 1, the elder to the elect lady and her children, whom

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I love in truth, and not only I, but also all who know the truth, because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever.

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So the argument will be presented that the elect lady must have been a particular woman, and therefore would be like the first lady of the church.

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So some have tried to offer a biblical defense of that title from the first verse of 2

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John. But the elect lady here is the church, and the children are the respective members of that church.

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That's simply what's being laid out there in 2 John. Not every expositor agrees with my definition of that.

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I've heard very faithful men of the word say that John is specifically writing to a specific lady.

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But whether or not that's the case, I don't think that you can draw from this verse a rationale to refer to the pastor's wife as the first lady.

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That traditionally does come from a head of state title. It makes me very uncomfortable, but just because of the way that that specific man.

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That guy we were talking about earlier. Yeah. That presented himself and then acted as if I was some sort of person.

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Dignitary. Yeah. Like not a normal person, and I don't like being treated different.

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I mean, okay, so authority -wise, yes, I get that. Being a pastor's wife does come with a lot of responsibility, and I take that very seriously.

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Others see you as having an authority, not that you have taken. Right. A role of authority.

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I don't. Because you don't. I don't. But I don't like being treated like I'm up on a pedestal, like I don't belong there.

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No, take me down before, yeah, that goes crumbling. So it just doesn't make me very comfortable being referred to as the first lady.

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It does seem to come with a higher expectation upon you. It does. Right. Yeah. And I'm just normal, like I fail just like everybody else.

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Well, there's no biblical qualifications for a pastor's wife. True. You must meet the qualifications that any wife must meet in loving her husband, being submissive to a husband, and even the elder or the pastors of a church have to lay down their lives for their wife.

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That's a responsibility for anyone, regardless of whether you are a pastor or a pastor's wife.

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You still have to abide by those instructions as given in Ephesians chapter five. That's right. Wives submitting to their husbands, husbands lay down your life for your wife as Christ has done for the church.

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Okay. So anyway, that was Caleb's first question. Here's the real reason I wrote to you, he says, regarding your latest video, the gates of hell shall not prevail.

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You say that the gates are used for defense and not for offense. What about this article from Kevin DeYoung from Ligonier?

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He seems to be saying the opposite as your video, that Satan is coming against the church and we're supposed to hold fast and resist, not be on the offensive.

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Curious to know your thoughts. I love your videos. All right, before getting to this article from Kevin DeYoung, let's go ahead and play that latest

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What What video. All right. In Matthew 16, 18,

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Jesus said, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. This reference to gates of hell is often taken to mean that any attempt of Satan to mount an attack against the church will not succeed.

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Now that's certainly true in history testifies 2000 years since the first Christians were baptized at Pentecost.

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The church is still growing. Saints are added daily through the preaching of the gospel all over the world in the face of opposition.

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Every effort to stop the mission has failed. Not lies, evil insults, hardships or persecutions.

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The devil has not prevailed. But that's not the same thing as saying the gates of hell will not prevail. Gates are not offensive weapons.

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They're used for defense. So in this particular instance, Jesus was not referring to hell mounting an attack against the church.

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He was saying the church will be attacking hell. First Peter 1 13 says to prepare your minds for action.

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Ephesians 6 11 says put on the full armor of God. First Timothy 1 18 says to wage the good warfare and in second

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Timothy 2 3 as good soldiers of Christ. In second Corinthians 10 4 the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds like the gates of hell.

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Jesus Christ conquered death for us by dying for our sins and rising again bodily from the dead.

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Whoever believes that God raised him from the dead will be saved from death also. That's the gospel truth and nothing, not even hell can defend against it when we understand the text.

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All right. So now having played the video, we come to the article written by Kevin DeYoung entitled the gates of hell and appeared in table talk magazine,

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November the 1st of 2011. The young begins. I hope I don't ruin one of your favorite verses.

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Okay. I kind of hope I do, but only so it can be one of your favorite verses in a better way.

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In Matthew 16, Jesus takes his disciples to the district of Caesarea Philippi and asked them the question, who do people say that the son of man is?

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They stumble around a bit giving the latest updates from the crowd. Then Cephas pipes up. You are the

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Christ, the son of the living God. Jesus commends his outspoken disciple.

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You are Peter and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

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Since the reformation, there has been a lot of discussion about this rock and what it means for the authority of the

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Pope. Not much. It turns out there has been little controversy, however, about the phrase, the gates of hell.

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I've heard several sermons on the gates of hell and have seen the phrase referenced in Christian books countless times.

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The second half of Matthew 16, 18 has to be one of the top 10 favorite Bible promises.

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I can hear the voices right now. Think about the picture here. Jesus says the gates of hell will not prevail against the church.

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Now tell me, how do gates prevail? When have you ever seen gates on the march?

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They do not attack. They fortify. They are there to hold their ground. That's all.

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Hell is not on the offensive, brothers and sisters. The church is on the offensive. The church is marching into all the hells in this world, ready to reclaim every square inch for Christ.

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And when we storm the gates of hell, Christ promises that we cannot fail. We will prevail.

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It's time to put the devil on the run. It's time to save souls and destroy strongholds. It's time to reclaim the word for Christ.

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Listen up, church. The gates of hell shall not prevail against us or something like that. So that was that was

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Kevin Young's mock sermon on the gates of hell. He goes on, of course, who can fault the zeal to save souls, make a difference in the world or fight the good fight?

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The only problem is that the whole thing is built on faulty exegesis. One of the cardinal rules of biblical interpretation is to let the

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Bible interpret the Bible. So when we come to a phrase like the gates of hell, we need to stop ourselves from imagining what we think this means and do the hard work of finding out what it actually does mean.

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The phrase gates of hell is a Jewish expression, meaning realm of the dead.

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The same two words appear in the Septuagint version of Job 38, 17.

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Have the gates of death been revealed to you or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?

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They appear again in Isaiah 38, 10. I said in the middle of my days, I must depart.

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I am consigned to the gates of Sheol for the rest of my years. In both passages, this is a euphemism for death.

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Notice the parallelism in both passages. The first half of each verse clarifies that the second half of the verse is not about hell, but about death.

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The gates of hell represent the passageway from this life to the grave.

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Now, before continuing on with DeYoung's article, I will say that I thought I was conveying that in my video, but I've noticed that the comments that I've been getting since posting it have been people saying, well, the gates of hell represent death.

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Okay. So it's not as clear as you thought it was. Right. Exactly. I do that a lot.

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I thought I made the link, but obviously not. So the point that I made at the end of the video was our preaching of the gospel saves souls from death.

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And the church is the one that has the role to preach the gospel. So therefore, by preaching the gospel, which is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes

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Romans 1 16, this is the church storming the gates of hell. It is rescuing people from the jaws of death, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

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The gospel has the power to rescue a person from the state of death that they are in and transfer them into the kingdom of life in Christ Jesus.

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Right. And it's because Christ really ripped the gates of hell off their hinges with his death on the cross.

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So we go out with the message of that gospel of what he accomplished, and it's the church.

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God uses the church as his vessel to carry forth the message of the gospel to the ends of the earth.

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Right. Now, that's what I meant to convey in the video. But it takes a little bit longer than 90 seconds, it sounds like.

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Yeah. Right. So I decided to following the explanation or the reading of Matthew 16 18 and then saying that it's not the same as Satan trying to prevail against the church to say the gates of hell, the gates of hell will not prevail against the church instead of right after saying that decided to explain how the church is on the offensive, how we've been called to be good soldiers, how we've been called to put on the armor of God.

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Right. And that may not have been where I should have gone in the video originally. I should have stuck with explaining that gates of hell are not offensive weapons, that the gates of hell represent death because I waited to the end of the video to make a connection to death.

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Apparently it was lost. Yep. And so now I know. In 90 seconds, you can lose something.

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Right. In 90 seconds, you can still lose a point. It is possible. So I have recrafted the video now to be more descriptive.

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The first half of the video is still exactly the same. But then after saying that the gates of hell are not on the offensive, but the church is detailing that the church is going out with the gospel to rescue people from death.

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And that is the marching orders that God has given to the church. So here's where Kevin DeYoung goes after that, the gates of hell represent the passageway from this life to the grave.

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Consequently, Jesus promised to Peter is not about storming Satan's lair and conquering demonic powers.

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I agree with that in the sense of like a a casting out demons sort of a sense.

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So you're not reading right now. Right now. Yeah, I did the first part of the first part. I was right. Okay. I wasn't watching.

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So I didn't see where you stopped reading. Anyway. I'm sorry. Becky had to turn away and yawn. I did.

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I'm sorry guys. I'm trying. She finds this terribly fascinating. Stop.

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No, truthfully, we do this late at night. Anytime we record, it's night. Becky's in bed by this time.

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I usually am. She sacrifices to do the podcast. So anyway, so Kevin DeYoung goes on to say, in fact, the repeated injunction in Ephesians six is to stand and I made a reference to Ephesians six to put on the full armor of God so that you may stand.

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Oh, right. Yeah. That was in the video as well. Christ defeated the devil. John 1611.

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Our responsibility is simply to hold fast and resist. There's a there's a certain degree that I agree with that and a certain degree that I don't.

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I understand what he is saying to hold fast and resist. But frankly, when it comes to understanding the gates of hell and that we have been given marching orders.

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Right. Matthew 28, 19 and 20 go right. Preach the gospel to all nations, baptizing in the name of the

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Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit will preach the gospel, make disciples. But that's how we do that. Preaching the gospel.

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Right. And we're also considered soldiers. Right. Yeah. Yeah. The metaphor that's given that I made mention of in the video as well.

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But apparently in detailing the fact that the church is on the offensive, I lost right explaining that the gates of hell represent death.

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Right. So I've gone back to reword that. But I don't fully agree with DeYoung saying that we're only supposed to stand firm.

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OK. Well, no, we have been told to go out preaching the gospel. And especially since he makes the reference to Ephesians six, the gospel is the sword of the spirit, the word of God.

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So the weapon that we use is preaching the word, which is described in Hebrews as piercing is a double edged sword that pierces to the very soul of a person.

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That is the weapon that we've been given. It's not even a weapon that is ours. It's the Holy Spirit himself, the

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Holy Spirit that convicts the heart through the preaching of the gospel. Right. So there is an offensive that we are on in a very spiritual sense.

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We are going out storming the gates of hell, rescuing people from death by preaching the gospel.

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It's the gospel that saves. It's the gospel that delivers a person from death and gives life.

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So I don't agree with, you know, DeYoung saying, well, we're just supposed to hold fast.

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And I don't think he would say it that way either, just for whatever reason in his article he comes back to. No, we're just supposed to hold fast and resist.

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We go out preaching the gospel. Well, I mean, maybe in the case of, you know, you stand firm and on your faith, you know, they're right there.

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There are definitely descriptors there like that. Right. But when it comes to the commission that we've been given by Christ.

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It is to go. And how that relates to the church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

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You can't make the connection, well, we're just supposed to stand and hold fast. Right. Of course, Christ defeated death.

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I don't deny that at all. Right. But we are the ones that have been enlisted to go out with the gospel to rescue souls from death.

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Christ defeated death. Absolutely. But we have been included in that plan to bring about the salvation of his elect by marching with the gospel and preaching that to those whom we would encounter.

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So our responsibility is not simply hold fast and resist. We are supposed to hold fast.

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We are supposed to resist. But it's not merely that. In that that's the way he puts it.

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Our responsibility is simply to hold fast and resist. Carmen's fantastic music videos aside, we are not demon slayers.

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The promise in Matthew 16 is not about venturing out on some Dungeons and Dragons spiritual crusade, but about Christ's guarantee that the church will not be vanquished by death.

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If you think about it, this makes much more sense of the imagery. Defensive gates can be used in an offensive way because Jesus is simply talking about death.

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Death stalks each one of us. But those who confess Jesus as the Christ know that death is not the end.

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We have the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus isn't asking us to conquer anything except perhaps our fear of the grave.

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And again, I disagree. Because Paul, in fact, says in Romans 8, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

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And Jesus says to the churches in Revelation, to him who conquers, I will give to you to sit with me on my throne.

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And I loved Young. I love Kevin Young. But I just think that in his defense of the statement, the gates of hell,

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I think he just went a bit too far in trying to go against what the common charismatics would probably say.

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Hey, you're supposed to be going out and slaying demons. You might think of the charismatics as saying that.

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We're casting out demons. That's what the church is supposed to be doing. And in so rebutting against that particular description of the church against the gates of hell,

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I just think he went too far in the other direction by saying that we're simply supposed to hold fast and resist and that we're not supposed to conquer anything.

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Well, no, the Bible says we're more than conquerors. It's explicit in saying that. But we do this with the gospel, and it's the gospel that saves souls from death.

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And we've been told that we're supposed to go out preaching the gospel, and whoever believes will not perish, but will have everlasting life.

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Amen. Closing paragraph. So I go ahead and finish the whole article. So preach and believe

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Matthew 16, 18 with all your might. But don't misunderstand the promise. Jesus assures us of something better than world transformation.

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He promises eternal life. Truly with intense opposition and persecution, the early church was under attack from the gates of hell.

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See, I think that he's gone too far with the metaphor, saying the gates of hell have become offensive weapons.

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You can make that case with other passages of the Bible. You don't have to do that with Matthew 16, 18.

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So the irony is in that saying that people have misused Matthew 16, 18, I think de

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Young ended up doing the same thing. But not to take anything away from Kevin de Young. He's still a much more learned preacher than I am,

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I would think. But just as Jesus conquered the grave, he says, so the gates of hell, death itself, will not prevail against those who belong to Christ.

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As Jesus himself put it, whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,

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John 11, 25. So Caleb, I thank you for your question. I hope that that clarified where I was coming from with the video and the script has since been changed.

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First half of the video remains the same. Second half is now different. Now hang in there for the whole 90 seconds.

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That's right. All right. Next question comes up here. This is from Jacob in Cleveland.

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Dear Reverend and Mrs. Hughes. Hello. See, that's a different way to put it. Yeah. I don't know that I'm totally married to the term reverend, but.

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Well, you're married to me. Well, yes, I'm not married to the term reverend.

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I have some more questions for you both, so I hope it's okay. We've heard from Jacob before. First, are you going to comment on the nonsense filtering into our denomination, the

28:56

Southern Baptist Convention? I've been upset about definitely statements made by the SBC leader. Well, I have made some statements via a particular what video, and it was regarding what

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J .D. Greer said about sexual immorality. Right. That the Bible whispers about sexual sins, which is not true.

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Not at all. It's so ridiculously absurd, especially considering that he was preaching from Romans chapter one.

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Yeah. The second half of Romans one. When he made that particular statement, it's absurd. So you can find the what video about that.

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A few Sundays ago, I did a sermon coming up on the close of the study of Galatians, and it was in that sermon that I mentioned some of the things going on in the

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SBC. So I don't want to take a lot of time to do that here, but you can go and find that sermon. Hang on. Let me see if I can bring it up.

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I can tell you exactly what the title was. It's entitled Large Letters. It was preached on June 16th out of Galatians 6, 11 through 18.

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And some of the things that I talk about in summing up the study of Galatians had just happened in the

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SBC. Like in particular, I mentioned how easy it is for us to lose an orthodox understanding of the gospel.

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And Paul presents it in Galatians as being justified by faith alone.

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We're saved by faith alone and no other way. We are not justified by works. And yet the definition of the gospel that J .D.

30:30

Greer gave at the Southern Baptist Convention was a gospel of works. It was definitely a gospel of works.

30:37

And not justification by faith. So the point being, not that I think that J .D.

30:42

Greer is a heretic, but I just think that we've got careless. And we got careless because a lot of the world is getting in to the

30:51

Southern Baptist Convention. And so we're starting to lose even basic orthodox definitions.

30:56

Now J .D. Greer may not be a heretic, but words have consequences. And this will lead to heresy later on.

31:03

If we don't seize it by the throat now and return back to orthodox definitions and responsibilities concerning the preaching of the gospel.

31:14

Polity in our churches, things like this. I think we're focusing too much on problems and focusing on those problems instead of getting to the root of the problem.

31:23

Right. Which is the heart. Right. And when you focus on sin and you're just looking at sin and you don't have a clear orthodox definition of the gospel, then you actually end up awakening the sin.

31:36

And that's the argument that Paul makes in Romans chapter 7. So if we're focusing on sin and going, well, this sin's a problem, so how do we deal with that?

31:43

Well, you got to go back to the gospel. Definitely. And then you have to train your men and women how to live according to the gospel.

31:51

When you're just focusing on the sin and trying to tackle the sin problem and you start bringing in worldly solutions to those problems on top of that, you're losing the gospel and you're introducing the world into our denomination in particular, which is what's happening in the

32:06

SBC. Anyway, go back to that sermon and listen to that for more of the specifics and the particulars that I give there, even regarding Resolution 9, which was passed at the

32:17

Southern Baptist Convention. Again, the sermon is entitled Large Letters out of Galatians 6, 11 through 18.

32:22

It was preached on June 16th. You can still find that in the archives of the

32:29

When We Understand the Text podcast. All right. Second question he has, any tips on avoiding adult content on sites, specifically sites that involve storytelling role -playing?

32:42

Now I know something about storytelling role -playing. It was actually my introduction into the Internet. It's what made the

32:48

Internet fascinating to me when I was 17. I discovered that there were websites that you could go to and role -play.

32:55

And role -play in such a way that you're like writing, it's almost like you're writing a fiction novel with other people in that chat room or something like that.

33:05

I did this all the way up through college. And I will say that those sites tended to be fairly adult in content, where it really was quite adult.

33:14

I didn't necessarily go into that realm, but there were a lot of patrons,

33:20

I guess would be the word, to those particular chat rooms that would do that. As for how you can avoid the adult content on such sites,

33:28

I wouldn't know what to tell you. It ended up, for me, it ended up coming down to getting out of them entirely.

33:34

I wondered about that. And that may be the case for you. I don't know if there are any such sites around where they don't allow adult content in those sites.

33:42

Not an expert in that area. You might have to ask somebody who knows a little bit more about it than I do.

33:48

I don't know. And, well, generally, if they're not adult content, then they're for young 'uns.

33:55

And if they're for young 'uns, I mean, it's kind of weird for adults to be going in and hanging out with young 'uns.

34:02

Does that make sense? Yeah. I don't know the ages. I don't know. Yeah. I don't know the ages of people that I was with in those rooms, but in those chat rooms.

34:11

Well, they could have told you anything. Yeah, right. That's right. It's really the case. They could have told you anything. You know, a 50 -year -old man would portray himself as a 24 -year -old woman.

34:20

Yeah. And now they don't even hide that. They just try to say that they are anyway. Yeah. Yeah. So, Jacob, yeah, you may just have to get out of that entirely.

34:30

Now, the first roleplay chat room that I ever found when I first was introduced to this was Christian.

34:36

It was on a Christian site. But it got shut down. And just because whoever it was that was hosting it,

34:42

I guess, just couldn't afford to do it anymore. Oh, okay. So, they ended the site. And so, I ended up venturing out to find other sites.

34:48

And then that's when I found those sites that really were quite inappropriate. Of course, they were. I don't know if there are any more of those

34:53

Christian roleplaying sites up anymore or not. I'm sure there are somewhere. It seems like the Internet has... Everything.

34:59

Yeah. Just about any niche that you would be interested in. But otherwise, if you can't, my recommendation,

35:05

Jacob, would probably be you just can't do that anymore. Third and last question he has, do you know what six -point

35:11

Calvinism is? My immigrant ancestors helped found the First Baptist Church in Rhode Island.

35:18

And then the First Baptist Church split. I asked Ligonier Ministries on Twitter if they could tell me what six -point

35:25

Calvinism is, but they couldn't quite define my inquiry. Emeraldism is where I stand.

35:31

Very much appreciated, Jacob in Cleveland. Well, Jacob, my first ancestor to the United States, John Green, helped start

35:38

First Baptist Church of Rhode Island along with Roger Williams. That was the

35:44

First Baptist Church of the U .S. Interesting. Wasn't just the First Baptist Church of Providence, Rhode Island, it was the first First Baptist Church anywhere.

35:53

The first. Yeah. It earned its title. Well, in the U .S. anyway.

35:58

Yeah, yeah. Put it that way. Yeah. Six -point Calvinism, I have not heard any other teacher refer to six - or seven -point

36:06

Calvinism except John Piper. Okay. He's the only one I've heard call it that because he defines himself as a seven -point

36:13

Calvinist. The sixth point of six -point Calvinism would be what's called double predestination.

36:19

So just as unconditional election means that God has elected from before the foundation of the world whom he's going to save, the flip side of that is he's also chosen who's going to perish.

36:36

Right. If they're not elected to be saved, therefore they are, for lack of a better term, elected to be destroyed.

36:43

And so that's the sixth point. It's called double predestination. That would be the sixth point of six -point

36:48

Calvinism. The seventh point is it's complicated to define, but basically

36:54

Piper believes that the eternity that we're going to enter into is the best of all possible eternities.

37:01

So coupled with the life that we live is the best possible life that God could have given us this side of heaven, so the eternity that we're going to enter into once we see everything from beginning to end is going to be clear to us that it's the best of all possible eternities.

37:19

Does that make sense? Like I said, it's difficult to define. Yeah. But it has...

37:25

I mean, I'm not completely lost, but at the same time I've got more questions. Yeah.

37:32

Well, Jacob defines himself as Amaraldism, and Amaraldism is basically four -point

37:37

Calvinism. And Moses Amarath, who came up with it, believed that Jesus died for everyone everywhere.

37:47

So originally his death on the cross was a universal atonement. Okay. But when

37:54

God saw that no one would believe on their own, then he elected those whom he would bring to faith.

38:01

So it's like at first the crucifixion saved everybody, but God, you know, it's almost like it puts election on a timeline.

38:09

Then God is looking and saying, well, nobody's going to come to faith because everybody's a fallen sinner, so I'm going to elect from sinful man whom it is that I'm going to save.

38:19

I find that faulty for a number of reasons. First of all, completely unnecessary to have to define election that way.

38:29

The second problem that I have with it is the same problem that B .B. Warfield had with it, in that it takes away substitutionary atonement.

38:36

So penal substitutionary atonement does not have any place in that definition of God's election, because penal substitutionary atonement is not universal atonement.

38:49

It is not Christ dying for the sins of every single person. It is

38:55

Christ being a substitute for his elect, that he died for those whom he meant to save.

39:02

His blood covers exactly those people, and he became sin who knew no sin so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

39:11

2 Corinthians 5, 21, so that his righteousness is imputed to us, and our sins have been imputed to him, that penal substitutionary atonement.

39:21

All right, next question comes from Henry in Canada. He says, hi Gabe and Becky.

39:27

Hello. I have a question about something you said on Monday's episode. Do you believe that we will be outside of time when we are in heaven?

39:36

I'm not sure if you said that you believe this or not. So I'm just asking for clarification.

39:43

Interesting question. Trying to remember what I said on Monday. I did, okay,

39:49

I remember. I was talking about how when we die and we go to be with the Lord on the other side of death, it's a different kind of existence.

39:57

Right. So as Paul explains it in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, what is sown is perishable, and what is raised is imperishable.

40:07

In fact, he even called the Corinthians foolish for thinking about the other side of our existence in the same way as we think about it here.

40:17

So it's like here we have these physical bodies, but we're finite.

40:23

We have a definite starting point and a definite ending point when we die. But on the other side in heaven, it's the same as here.

40:30

We just live forever. And Paul rebuked him for that. He even said, you foolish person. And use general revelation.

40:37

A seed, when it falls into the ground, dies first, and then it becomes something completely different.

40:42

So the same thing is going to be with us. The body dies, but it is raised imperishable. And he talks about a different glory for the sun and a different glory for the moon and a different glory for the stars.

40:54

So there's a different glory for us when we live in heaven as well. Interesting. Henry's question is, will we be outside of time when we are in heaven?

41:03

The answer is yes, but not to the extent that it's like we've forgotten what time is or somehow our existence in our physical bodies has been replaced by something that now we just forget what it meant to live in time.

41:21

I don't think that's going to be the case because we're celebrating and glorifying God for what it was he did for us when we were alive.

41:30

Right. So we're not going to forget that. Right. But there is a sense. And when we enter into our eternal existence, it's not like we didn't have a beginning of that eternal existence.

41:40

There was obviously a starting point when we entered into eternity. But we cannot think of eternity as a line with no beginning and no end.

41:50

Eternity is a circle. Okay. It's not a line where you can't see the beginning of it and you can't see the end of it.

41:58

It's a line with no beginning and no end. And again, I enter into that part of going well, but we do have a definite beginning, but no definite anyway.

42:08

Yeah. Like it's confusing. It's very, very confusing to try to understand how we are going to live in an existence that we can't possibly fathom right now in the finite bodies in which we exist.

42:21

And you hate to be a foolish person. I hate to be a foolish person and try to describe it in some foolish ways.

42:29

Now, for God, this is definitely different because. Oh, yeah. He's always been.

42:35

He has no beginning and no end. Right. Whereas we do have a beginning, but the soul will not have an end, regardless of whether we are living in heaven forever with God or the soul is perishing in hell, the soul has no end.

42:48

Best way I can probably describe it to you is kind of like this. What we read about in the book of Revelation and somebody who's a dispensationalist is not going to agree with my explanation of Revelation in this way.

43:01

But nevertheless, when we read in the book of Revelation, what we see is recapitulation, meaning that we are not looking at events from Revelation four through chapter 22.

43:11

We are not looking at events happening in succession. What we are seeing is John looking at things from a certain vantage point and then his vantage point changes.

43:21

And he describes the same events again from a different vantage point. And this happens about three times over the course of the book of Revelation.

43:30

So what John is essentially seeing is what is going on in heaven now.

43:36

Now, there are certainly things that are going to be fulfilled, prophecies that are given in Revelation that have not yet come to fulfillment.

43:44

So I'm not saying that all of those prophecies have already come to be. But what John is being given the privilege to see is what's happening now from a heavenly perspective.

43:57

And the day will come in which Christ will return. And essentially what's going to happen at that point is the veil that separates earth from heaven will be lifted.

44:07

So it's not like he traveled across the universe. Jesus traveled across the universe and came back to earth.

44:13

God is with us now. Right. But the spiritual realm is separated from us.

44:20

So we can't see into the spiritual realm, but he can certainly see us from where he is. Right. So the veil will be lifted and it will be an appearance of Christ's return.

44:29

It's kind of like that veil took him back in when he ascended into heaven. So he ascended into like a cloud and he disappeared.

44:38

And so it was like he entered once again behind the veil into that existence in heaven.

44:45

And the day is coming when that veil is going to be lifted. What separates the spiritual from the physical will be removed and Christ will be returning with all the armies of heaven.

44:57

The dead in Christ will rise first. You know, then you have all that description of things like that. Like in 1

45:02

Thessalonians 4 and 5 and 2 Thessalonians 1 and 2. Once we enter into that, we're going to see exactly what

45:11

John saw. We will see with our own eyes, with a new existence that we have, a new and glorified body.

45:19

We will see exactly what he saw and it will make more sense to us then than it makes to us now.

45:25

Oh, I hope so. Because John has to take what he was being shown in eternity and then give it to us in words that we can understand.

45:34

And the words that he gave it to us in was really, it was the word of God as had already been given in the word of God.

45:42

There are 404 verses in Revelation. Okay. There are over 500 references to the

45:50

Old Testament. Wow. So there are more references to the Old Testament than there are verses in the book of Revelation.

45:56

Wow. It's almost as if you could consider the book of Revelation a summary of the 65 books that came before it.

46:04

Wow. And Paul, or sorry, Paul, John showing how all of these things are fulfilled in the end, how

46:12

Christ is going to bring this to its ultimate fulfillment and with the consummation of the church with Christ in glory forever.

46:22

The new heavens and the new earth, the new Jerusalem coming down as like a bride to be joined with the bride groom.

46:28

We will live forever with God. There will not need to be any reason for any light because he is the light that lights the city.

46:38

There's no more death, no more dying, no more pain. The former things have passed away. God's place will be with man and we will dwell with him forever.

46:46

You know, all of these things that John says, wrapping up the book of Revelation, it's like wraps up the whole story that has been told to us for 750 ,000 words up to that point.

46:59

Yeah. And then we have that final summation of all things with the revelation that was given to Christ.

47:05

It's actually a revelation that was given to Christ from the father to the son. Okay. And then Jesus showing it to John to write down.

47:12

Okay. Anyway, that's really neat. So to summarize the answer to your question again,

47:19

Henry, is that we just, we just don't know. We don't know what that existence is going to be like a big run around.

47:26

Yeah, I'm not sure. I think that what John is showing us in the book of Revelation is exactly what's going on in heaven now.

47:36

And then some, you know, it really, it's, it's everything from a heavenly perspective because like you look at Revelation 12 and it's even looking back at the past.

47:44

So it's in view from the perspective of heaven, seeing past, present, and future.

47:49

And then when Christ returns, that becomes our reality. And then we will see it completely and we'll understand it from beginning to end.

47:57

Yes, I do think that when we get to heaven, we'll get to see creation. We'll get to see what it was like when

48:02

God said, let there be light. And there was light. And we'll also see the very end. We will see the end from the beginning.

48:09

We will get to see the whole picture exactly as God sees it. First John three, two, we will see him as he is because we will be made to be like him.

48:18

Yeah. All right. Final question here. This comes from Melanie in Michigan and Melanie is our winner today.

48:25

Oh. So congratulations, Melanie. Yay. You have won the book, the flash drive and the

48:33

DVD from Sinclair Ferguson. All right. Hello, Pastor Gabe and Becky. Thank you so very much for your ministry.

48:39

I somehow discovered your videos a while back. What a great resource for ourselves and to easily share with others.

48:46

And then I think it was just last year when I learned about your podcast. I was quickly hooked. Becky, I can relate to your hesitation about joining the

48:54

Q &A podcast. Yeah, that took a while. But I am so glad that you did.

49:00

It really is a blessing and a joy hearing the two of you interacting and being real as you share

49:06

God's truth together with all of us. We are so real that Becky's even yawned all the way through this episode.

49:15

And I didn't even cut that out. My question is concerning 1

49:23

John 2, 1 and 2, since I just mentioned 1 John. Does this teach us that the goal for Christians regarding sin is to not sin at all?

49:31

If I understand correctly, as followers of Christ, we are new creations. We are no longer enslaved to sin.

49:36

We have the power of the Holy Spirit that enables us to walk in victory over temptation slash sin.

49:43

We sin less and less as God grows us in holiness and sanctification. However, we still battle our flesh and sinful nature and will not experience sinlessness until we are glorified when the

49:56

Lord calls us home. Appreciate you taking the time to answer my question. Thank you again for your faithfulness in God's word and encouraging us to be like the

50:06

Bereans. So let's go to 1 John 2, 1 and 2, and I'll read this for you here. My little children,

50:12

I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the

50:21

Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

50:31

So Melanie's question is, is our goal to live in sinlessness?

50:38

And my answer to that question is, yes, it is. Our desire should be to live in sinlessness.

50:46

Sinlessness, does that mean that we will?

50:52

No, but that's not an excuse for you to not be pursuing perfection.

50:58

Matthew 5, Jesus said, be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.

51:04

In 1 Peter, Peter repeats the words that Christ said to his nation Israel, when he says, be holy as I am holy.

51:12

And Paul says in Philippians chapter 3, starting in verse 12, not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect.

51:20

And that this is the resurrection from the dead. I haven't already obtained the resurrection from the dead.

51:26

And I'm not already perfect. And this is the apostle Paul talking here. But he says, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

51:37

Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.

51:46

I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

51:52

Now, this is the apostle Paul who had achieved some pretty incredible, amazing things up to that point. But he's not resting on those amazing accomplishments.

52:00

He's still alive. So there's more to do. And this is for his sanctification that he's growing in holiness and in righteousness.

52:08

Even the apostle Paul. Didn't he say that he was the biggest sinner? He was the chief of sinners.

52:13

Chief of sinners. That's 1 Timothy 1, 15. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom

52:24

I am the foremost. Yeah. Or in some translations of whom I am the chiefest.

52:30

So yeah, it is not that we will attain perfection, which is a doctrine called entire sanctification.

52:37

Right. And it is a false doctrine. Simply because as Paul puts it in Philippians 1, 6,

52:43

I am confident of this very thing. That he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it at the day of Christ.

52:53

Not when you get 40. Right now. Yeah. Once you hit 40 years of sanctification, you're perfectly sanctified.

53:00

Oh, I'm almost there now. Yeah. The Bible doesn't paint any kind of picture like that whatsoever.

53:05

And there's no one in the Bible that proclaims themselves as sinless. Right. We are, when we come to Christ, when we come to faith in Christ, we're completely justified, but we've not yet been fully sanctified.

53:18

So right now you are declared innocent before God and he's not holding his faults against you.

53:24

Praise the Lord. But you're still growing in holiness. And in that process, while you live in a corruptible body, you are gonna be stumbling in temptation and resisting it and failing at it, but then learning from it and seeking the forgiveness of God and resisting it again and growing in that process until you die or Christ comes back, whichever comes first.

53:48

Right. Anyway, so that's the goal of the Christian. The goal is to desire perfection, knowing we're not gonna attain it as long as we are alive in these bodies, but because Christ has made us his own, then we should desire the perfection of Christ as our own.

54:09

Right. All right, that's the end of the program today. And congratulations to you,

54:15

Melanie, for being our winner. Remember, if you would like to enter our

54:20

Christmas in July giveaway, send your emails to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

54:25

Ask a question, share a story, just be sure to include your name and your mailing address.

54:31

That's right. All right. Now, Becky just pointed to the note that she wrote at the start of the program. I did.

54:37

I used it. Okay. I remembered. So I've got a favor to ask of you.

54:43

If you... Who's you? The listeners. Okay, check. I have a favor to ask of the listeners. Okay.

54:48

If you have listened, especially if you've listened to the sermons that get posted on Sunday, and I'm a couple behind, but if you've listened to the sermons, would you go to our church's website?

54:58

Well, not church's website. You're going to have to look for the church through Google. So type in First Southern Baptist Church of Junction City, Kansas, and go make a review and leave a review of our church, preferably a five -star review.

55:12

Yeah. But make it an honest review. And only do so if you've listened to the sermons on Sunday. I don't want you to write something dishonest.

55:18

Right. But that you love the sermons and so leave a positive review. That actually helps us as a church when new members come into our community or new...

55:28

New people. New people come into our community and they're looking for a church. The more reviews we have, the greater the possibility that we're going to pop up to the top of the list whenever somebody does a church search.

55:39

Church search. Church search. A church search. I can't say it. And everybody...

55:44

When anybody does a search for a church on Google, it's likely that our church will make it to the top of that list, the more positive reviews that we have.

55:53

I wanted to put this at the end of the program because our critics are not going to listen to this program to the very end. Right.

55:59

And hear, uh -oh, Gabe's asking for reviews. So I'm going to go leave one -star reviews. Right. By the way, all of our one -star reviews are from people that don't even live in Junction City.

56:08

Right. It's people that heard me say something or post something on the internet and they got mad at me and went and left a negative review of our church.

56:16

It happens. That's all of the one -star reviews. Anyway, so if you could leave a good review for us, that would greatly help us out.

56:23

And thank you so much for listening to the program today. Yes, thank you. Quick prayer as we've run out of time.

56:29

All right. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time together. And I pray for those who have asked questions and others who are listening that we would be seeking the word of God daily to grow in truth and in sanctification.

56:45

As Jesus prayed for us in John 17, sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth.

56:53

So we bind ourselves to the word of God. May it be written upon our hearts and guide our steps as we go today.

57:00

In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. The phrase gates of hell is a

58:09

Jewish expression, meaning realm of the dead. The same two words appear in the

58:15

Septuagint version of Job 38 17. Have the gates of death been revealed to you or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?

58:24

They appear again in Isaiah 38 10. I said in the middle of my days, I must depart. I am consigned.

58:33

Oh, firecrackers. Somebody was knocking. Of course.

58:40

You sure you're going to be able to do this? That's how this recording is going to go. Firecrackers popping in the background.

58:49

All right. Where did I stop? They appear again. Now it's a.

58:55

What was that? Was that the train? Does it sound like we live in the big city or something like that?

59:03

I am consigned to the gates of Sheol here around there. In the middle of my days,

59:09

I must depart. You've already read that part. I'm going to start with they appear again in Isaiah 38 10. Okay.

59:15

All right. They appear again in Isaiah 38 10. I said in the middle of my days,

59:22

I must depart. I am consigned to the gates of Sheol. For the rest of my years.

59:28

See, now I'm goofing. I'm goofing. Goofing. Ruined my flow, man.

59:34

Yeah. I was wondering why you stopped. I thought actually thought it was a child knocking on the door.

59:43

You know, they don't knock. That's true. What was I thinking? What were you thinking? What in the world?