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Responding to questions from listeners about missing Bible verses, grace in discerning between true and false teachers, what it means to work out our salvation, and properly applying Jeremiah 29:11. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
Why is there a verse missing from John 5? What does it mean to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling? And how does a verse like Jeremiah 29 .11 apply to us today? The answer is when we understand the text.
This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible teaching podcast to help encourage your time in the Word. Tell all your friends about our videos and podcast by going to www .utt .com and sharing it.
Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. How goes it? Better than I deserve. That's right.
Amen to that. So get this. Uh-huh. In Denmark. Okay. We are the sixth most popular podcast among all Christian podcasts. Wow. In the nation of Denmark. That's awesome. I don't know who. Hi, Denmark. I don't know who out there in Denmark is listening to us.
Apparently, it's quite a few of you.
And I'm waving like you can see me. Never mind. But thank you. Thank you for listening.
That's awesome. That was a couple of weeks ago. I can't remember. I think I sent you the numbers on that when it came out. We hit number six in Denmark. Yeah. It was a text message. And we were charting, although I don't remember the numbers now, but we were also charting in Canada, Singapore.
Wow. And I can't remember the other one. There was one other one that was... Charting means we're ranked in the top 200 somewhere. These were pretty... These were a lot closer than that. It was like Singapore was 36 or something like that.
Oh, cool. Canada was... We don't always pop up in Canada. Every once in a while, the UK and Canada, we'll start charting there. Yeah. In the United States, though... Hi, neighbors. Hi, guys. In the United States, though, we rarely chart.
I think I've noticed that we've charted twice. Oh, really? And it's never been way up there. It's not like we've broken the top 20 or something like that. It's always like 171 or somewhere in there. But yeah, we've charted in the US a couple of times.
Usually whenever those charts come out, it's overseas somewhere. Yeah. It's exciting. Yeah. I appreciate it, guys. Thank you so much for listening and telling folks about us. Now, I want to mention here at the very start, and we're going to come back and say something about this at the end, we're going to take the month of July off.
Yes. So even though, hey, listen to the numbers, bye, guys, we're going to take a little bit of a break. So I'll tell you about that a little more at the end of the broadcast. Being Friday, we take questions from the listeners, and you can submit those questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.
We've got a question today from John 5. Okay. A question about a missing verse there in John 5. Oh, I gotcha. Yep. Another question about discernment among pastors. Like if a pastor is quoting Andy Stanley, how do you deal with that?
If your pastor quotes from a false teacher, how would you approach a situation like that? Got another question about the meaning of Philippians 2 .12 and the right usage of Jeremiah 29 .11. Ooh. It's been a long time since we've had a Jeremiah 29 .11 question.
Yeah, it has. Well, we're going to tackle those today. Sweet. If you would like to submit a question to the broadcast, you can send it to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com. Did I already say that?
I'm not sure. Am I being redundant here? I have no idea. Just go with it. I don't know either. All right. It used to be in radio land back when we were broadcasting on the radio, and you would only hear it once, and you were never going to hear me say this again.
Never. We had to repeat things like 20 times so the listeners could hear it, or we're giving them enough time to run and grab a pen and write something down, whatever. We were always trained to be repetitive, to say those things multiple times.
But now you're listening on a podcast. Yeah, and you can rewind it. Yeah, you just hit that little 30-second button right there to go backward.
I like the 10-second button better, but you know, you've got to work with what you have. What was that again? Boop.
Okay, got it. Whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com. That's right. There you go. All right. Even though, and also coming back to saying that we're going to take the month of July off, even though we're going to be off for July, you can still send us questions anyway.
That's what I was going to say, and you were really good about answering them. Well, I don't know about that. You respond to them, and you send them an email back. Oh my goodness, I can't even get this out.
Sometimes. I'll say maybe three out of five emails. There's something I'll miss. It's not half of them, but yeah. So some of you have sent questions you never hear from me directly, but I'll still try to respond to them if you get them to us.
All right, this one comes from Michael. He says, Dear Pastor Gabe, for the last few years, my wife and I have been using exclusively the ESV, the English Standard Version, and have joked about being ESV-onlyists.
However, when her father and I were discussing translations, he pointed out that there were verses omitted from the ESV. For example, in John 5, 1 through 5, the ESV omits verse 4, looking at the LSB and the NASB.
So the Legacy Standard Bible, which is the translation I've been teaching from on this podcast for almost two years now. It's been pretty close to that, I think. And then the New American Standard Bible, they chose, those translations chose not to take out those verses.
What is the reason for taking verses out, and do you find this to be a problem? Should this cause us to think about making a switch to a different translation? Well, let me come to John 5, 1 through 5.
I'm going to read it from the LSB. And then I'll tell you what verse gets omitted from the ESV. So here is John 5, beginning in verse 1. After these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porticos. In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, waiting for the moving of the waters.
For an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water. Whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in, was made well from whatever sickness with which he was afflicted.
And a man was there who had been sick for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been sick a long time, he said to him, Do you wish to get well? The sick man answered him, Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me.
Jesus said to him, Get up, pick up your mat, and walk. And immediately the man became well and picked up his mat and began to walk. Now it was the Sabbath on that day. So I read through verse nine there.
But that's the story in John 5 of Jesus making the lame man well at the pool of Bethesda. What out of that story is missing from the English Standard Version? Verse four is taken out, and you'll notice that in the LSB, it's in brackets.
And it starts in verse three at the point where it says, Waiting for the moving of the waters, for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water. So that verse is not in the ESV.
You do find it in the LSB in brackets and in the NASB in the same fashion. Why is it in brackets? Because this verse was not in the earliest manuscripts of the Gospel of John. That means it's a late edition.
John didn't write it. So the ESV translators are trying to be faithful to the earliest manuscripts. The earliest manuscripts are going to tell us what the most original manuscript had said. We don't have the original manuscript or what we call the original autographs.
Sometimes you might hear that term used. Your Bible is still totally accurate. The Bible that you have is what was originally written. But we still, going off of those early manuscripts, know that this verse, verse four, was a late edition.
Somebody added that in at another time. Now it could have been that a Byzantine monk somewhere in the third, fourth, fifth century wrote a commentary note on the side of this manuscript. When he was copying John 5, the chapters didn't exist at that time, but he was copying what would be eventually labeled as the fifth chapter of John.
So as he's writing that out, he puts a commentary note in the margins. And maybe from his research, maybe from Jewish writings or something like that, he comes to find that there was this belief that an angel of the Lord stirred up the pool and the lame thought that when they stepped into the pool, they would be healed.
So the monk writes that in the margin. Another monk comes along and he's copying the manuscript. And he sees that note in the margin, and he just happens to carry it over into the text. You know, this is a good explanation.
It fits with the story, so I'm going to put it there. And we'll sometimes refer to these guys as overzealous scribes. Like, he means well, but he's changing the text. It's no longer exactly what John wrote.
You're now making up something else. And it could be a true commentary note. Yeah. But John still wasn't the one that wrote it. Right. So, and Becky and I have talked about this before, the fact that we know this actually speaks to the reliability of the scriptures.
Right. To know that what you have is what John originally wrote. It's amazing. Because we can go back to the manuscript evidence and we can chart and figure out where the change happened and know that John didn't originally write that passage.
Yeah. So, again, in the ESV, they're taking that out because it's not in the earliest manuscripts. And there's something like, I can't remember how many verses it is now. I did a talk on this on Sunday night at our church.
Something like 12 to 16 verses out of the New Testament that aren't included in the ESV. And if you're reading a translation like the LSB, like you mentioned, Michael, then it's going to have the brackets on it showing that that particular verse was not in the earliest manuscripts or that section of the verse or whatever it might happen to be.
Right. Now, even the ESV will still include what's called the Pericope Adultery, which is the beginning of John 8, the woman that's caught in adultery, that story. John did not originally write that story.
In fact, at one point, that story was in copies of Luke. So, we're seeing like a traditional story that's kind of floating around looking for a home, and it just kind of happened to settle in John 8. We know John didn't write that story.
He's not the original writer of that story. And so, the ESV will include that, probably because the manuscript tradition is just it's already too deep to take out that whole section out of the ESV. But you'll have a note there in your English Standard Bible that will say, the earliest manuscripts do not contain this section of verses.
So, they still include the Pericope Adultery from John 8, and they include the Mark and Appendix, the longer ending of Mark, but with commentary notes making sure you know that John was not the author of that story.
Mark was not the author of the longer ending of Mark. Right. They just add some notes in there about that.
And on my app, I have the ESV app, and it has where you can like click on the extra thing, and it says, some manuscripts insert, holy, or impart. And then Okay, right. It's basically the same wording that you just said.
Sure, right. So, yeah. It's in there. Yeah. I mean, included. But why would the LSB keep it
Well, it puts it in brackets.
So, you know So, you don't get confused on why there's a missing verse, or why?
Well, no. You're just you're given the note, and it says like in the editor's notes in the very beginning. If something's in brackets, then it didn't appear in the earliest manuscripts. And that's just being faithful to that's just being faithful to an accurate translation of the text.
Because there's so many Bibles over so many hundreds of years, well over a thousand years, that still include that verse, we're going to put it there, because otherwise, it looks funny. Yeah. It looks like you're cutting verses out.
And that's what the King James folks will say about passages, like, see, look, they're cutting verses out. Yeah. Or they're putting brackets around something. But this was not originally written by John.
Right. And this is just one example. Because, like I said, there's many other verses we can go through, and we've had another episode Yeah. Where we covered many of them. Yeah. We went through all of them.
Yeah. We split it between two episodes. So, Michael, I'll try to find those pair of episodes, and I'll link them for you when I respond to your email. Yeah. That'd be awesome. This will be one I have to remember to respond to.
Right. Now, I sympathize with you being an ESV only, as we really thought, as a family, we were going to be. Mm-hmm. I didn't know that I'd ever pick another translation. I really liked the ESV. But once the LSB came out, I read it, I continued to study from it.
I've come to just really, really love this translation. Yeah. So, I ended up changing all the Bibles my kids have. Yep. Even my own. We've gone to the LSB. It's not like I'm married to it, but it's a great translation.
Yeah. And so, if you want to switch, you can go ahead and switch, but the English Standard Version is still a good translation. Mm-hmm. Now, you have some explanation that you can give to your father-in-law, impress him with your Byzantine monk knowledge.
There you go. This next question comes from hang on, I've got to scroll down here Chris from Iowa. Hey, Gabe and Babe, our senior lead pastor is a very kind man who loves the sheep God has given him.
He preaches the gospel and exposits the word faithfully and serves with a passionate heart. I just struggle with one thing, his discernment on teachers he endorses from the pulpit. He used to use materials from James MacDonald, Ravi Zacharias, and Andy Stanley, but has now stopped since seeing the fire their ministries produced, but he fails to see the smoke before the fire comes.
Should he publicly recant or apologize to the congregation for endorsing their ministries? He's since been using materials from Tony Evans and Matt Chandler. Those men may not be raging heretics or have major character flaws, but there are certainly better teachers to use.
Am I overreacting? What should I say to my pastor? Thanks in advance for your answer. Well, first of all, I'd really just go and have a conversation with him about it. Sure. Express to him exactly what you just said to me.
You know, maybe have this written down in notes in your phone so you can remember what to say or how you're going to bring it up, but you do need to have a conversation with him about it. Definitely. Now, some of the teachers that have been mentioned here, just so we can kind of, you know, understand what's dangerous about them in case not everybody knows.
But you have James McDonald, Ravi Zacharias, Andy Stanley. James McDonald was outed from his church, Harvest Bible, I think. I don't know. I can't remember. It was basically a James McDonald denomination.
Okay. But he was outed from that church because of being an abuser. He's also a compulsive gambler. And there was something that came up a couple of years ago, it was a little bit more than that. But he was looking for a hitman to murder somebody for him.
And whether or not he said it jokingly or he was seriously looking for somebody still is... That's no. Yeah. Character beyond what a man should exhibit qualified for pastor. So James McDonald is disqualified for a number of different reasons.
Ravi Zacharias, in case you didn't know, after he died, it was discovered that he's had multiple women in several different countries. And affairs at that. Like he was married. Right. Andy Stanley is the guy that is the unhitched from the Old Testament guy.
I mean, the teaching from Andy Stanley gets progressively worse from year to year. He... Amazingly enough. He doesn't believe in the inerrancy of scripture, even though he says that he does. He will claim that he does.
But the way that he puts that into practice doesn't demonstrate the fruit of believing that scripture is without error.
Well, obviously, because he doesn't think that the Old Testament has any weight whatsoever. Yeah.
It's not relevant to us. Yeah. Like you don't have to believe that Jonah was swallowed by a big fish, that there was a flood that covered the world, that in the six day creation, he says all those things are too difficult for people to understand.
Right. So you just need to give them the New Testament. Oh my goodness. Whereas what Jesus said in Luke 16 was, if they don't believe Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe if someone should rise from the dead.
Exactly. If they're not believing what's in the Old Testament, they won't even believe in Jesus. He's quite sketchy. Yeah. That's the problem with Andy Stanley. Now, then the other couple of teachers you mentioned, Tony Evans and Matt Chandler.
Tony Evans was a guy I listened to for a long time. Actually, Matt Chandler, same thing. I used to listen almost every Sunday to his podcast, catch the sermon that he preached that day. I listened to Chandler a lot.
But both of these guys now, Evans and Chandler, have been influenced by the wokeness, the critical race theory stuff. So they're not heretics, but you have to be really, really careful with using their material.
And so, yeah, obviously that's Chris's concern as well. So when it comes to these guys, how do you handle this kind of a thing? Again, Chris, I think the best approach is just really to go to your pastor and talk about it.
Yeah. And try to understand his perspective, too. Maybe he doesn't know.
Right. Because, I mean, if you're not on social media actively, then you kind of miss a lot. You just catch things in the...
Yeah, that's very true. A lot of us are on the internet more than others. And so we catch these things that float around on social media that show the videos of Andy Stanley teaching falsely. Right. And there were people that knew Ravi was a big problem even before all of this stuff came out.
Right. And it's actually through those kinds of investigative processes that James McDonald was exposed for all the stuff that was going on in his ministry as well. So anyway, yeah, some of us are online and we kind of pick these things up better than others.
Furthermore, there are people that are gifted. They actually have a certain spiritual gift for this, of being able to recognize when something is not quite right. Yeah. Like, it sounds true, but what is off about this?
Right. And that's a gift of the spirit that Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 12 as being an ability to distinguish between the spirits, is the way that he puts it there. So where you have the listing of the varieties of gifts, this is 1 Corinthians 12, beginning in verse 8, to one is given the word of wisdom through the spirit, and to another, the word of knowledge according to the same spirit.
To someone else, faith by the same spirit, and to another, gifts of healing by the one spirit. And to another, the workings of miracles. To another, prophecy. And to another, the distinguishing of spirits.
To someone else, various kinds of tongues, and to another, the translation of tongues. So that statement about the distinguishing of spirits is what we will sometimes have translated as discernment. Right.
And so some people just have a gift for that. Right.
And it's not necessarily that they can explain it. They just know. I mean, it comes in varying degrees, if you will.
Yeah. You could have a gift of discernment, and it's through training that you also develop the ability to be able to communicate. Right. Not just say that something's off about this.
Something's off, but I can't quite put my finger on it. You know how many times I've said that?
Yeah. And as you grow, and as you mature in the word, and knowing the difference between true and false teaching, you get that ability to be able to now say to somebody, this is wrong, and here's why.
Okay? Right. Now, I would hope then that your pastor relies on people like that. He's willing to rely on those who have that ability, a spiritual ability to be able to discern between true teaching and false teaching.
Now, to a certain degree, we all have. We're all required to do this. First John 4 .1 says, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
Yeah. Everybody has a responsibility to do that. The Bereans, right? Are they another? Right. Exactly. Yes. Right. In Acts 17, you have the Bereans. When Paul came and was preaching the gospel there in Berea, they went to the scriptures to test to see what he was saying really lined up with the word of God.
Right. That is good discernment. Right. And that's not even necessarily having a gift of discernment. That's just being a good, responsible Christian of weighing those things against what God said according to his word.
And so, yeah, again.
But not everybody has that gift. And so, some people are really lacking in how to develop that or how to learn how to do it. Yeah. You know, because if you don't have the gift, you still need to learn it.
You still need to develop it too.
And it's through growing in wisdom and knowledge. And you can even go to somebody who has wisdom. Right. You, as a discerning person, feel like this is off a little bit, go to somebody who's wise and see if they can't pick up the same thing you do and then help you in understanding why is this true, why is this false, why are you making a big deal out of this than you really are.
Or than it really is, is what I mean to say. But, you know, even a person who has discernment, that doesn't mean that they're just automatically right. Whenever they discern that something is false, they need the wisdom of many counselors just like anybody does.
Of course. So, again, Chris, you know, hopefully that's going to be helpful in the way that you approach your pastor with this. Nothing that you said to me in a short email has indicated to me that there's something false about your pastor or something that, you know, people need to go, hey, stay away from that guy.
Right. He's aligning himself with too many false teachers or something to that effect. I think it would be a good idea, maybe you can try to express to him in some way, that he at least consider saying to the congregation, hey, I used to endorse James McDonald, Ravi Zacharias, and Andy Stanley.
I just want to tell you guys now. Don't do it. Don't be seeking their teaching. There are better teachers that you can go after. Yeah. You don't have to make a big deal out of it. Yeah. You can just say there's better teachers that we can be learning from.
Don't go after these men anymore. Be a good idea for your pastor to say that.
And then whenever you do talk to your pastor, have a list of a few names, at least, that you can give to him of people to look up that are solid. Yeah, sure. Right. And that maybe he would be willing to start quoting them or listening to them instead.
So, you know, it helps all the way around. Good suggestions.
Yeah. And then maybe you start hearing some of those names you recommended to your pastor. Start popping up in sermons.
Not to puff yourself up, but just to help your pastor. Exactly. Right. Yeah.
And be a benefit to the whole church. Right. Because this gifting of being able to distinguish between spirits is to benefit the church. Right. It's not just so you can be a know-it-all. Right. Exactly.
And say, I know better than you.
Yeah. Because that's easy to do. It is. I mean, kind of like, hey, I did that, you know, like, I dropped that name and that sort.
Of thing. And those quote-unquote discernment ministries online can tend to be that way.
And it's so easy to fall into that, you know. Well, we're weak in the flesh. We are. It's how that goes. Very. Just ask for forgiveness and try better next time. Yeah. Grow. Learn from this.
Continue to grow and mature. But again, yeah, the spiritual gifts that we read about in 1 Corinthians 12 and 14, it especially comes up a lot more in Chapter 14. This is for the edification of the church.
It's for building one another up in love. Right. If you can identify those things, let that gift be a benefit to the rest of your congregation as well. Amen. Approach this matter kindly. Yeah. And I, you know, I believe your pastor will be receptive to it.
May even be thankful. Yeah. That'd be awesome. That you came to him with that. This next question comes from Chad in North Dakota. Dear Gabe and babe, quick question. Philippians 2 .12 says, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
What does it mean to work out your salvation? I know this can't mean salvation by works since Paul said in Ephesians 2 .8 and 9 that we're saved by grace through faith and not of works. Thank you for your show.
Okay. Let's go to Philippians Chapter 2 and we'll look at this in context here. So this is right after what we call the Carmen Christi, which is the hymn of Christ. You have in verse 10, at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the father.
Verse 12. So then my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence. So we get something kind of autobiographical there. Paul is saying, I am absent from you, but I'm encouraging you to do this.
Last part of verse 12, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. So let me read that whole thing again. So then my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence.
Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. So we have this instruction to work out your salvation. And then the statement in verse 13, that it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
This is a good pair of verses side by side that show us here our responsibility to respond to the word of God, but it is ultimately God who is working in us to bring about those things that he has promised to bring about in Christ.
At the very beginning of this letter in Philippians 1 .6, I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ. Right. So there is a work that we're doing, but it's God that's doing that work through us.
So if somebody ever asks you, which is it? Do we have a responsibility to respond to the instruction of God or does he do that? Yes. As it says in Ezekiel 36, I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
Right. So yeah, you have the responsibility to respond to God. As it says in Romans 14, everybody is going to have to give an account of himself before God. I think that's verse 12, Romans 14 .12. So you have it said like right back to back here in Philippians 2, you have a responsibility to hear this word and do it.
Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. It is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Now this statement that's said here in Philippians 2 comes up again later on in the letter.
Kind of see this thematically because it was Philippians 1 .6, you have it said here in Philippians 2 .12, it's going to come up in chapter 3 and in chapter 4 as well. Okay. So let's look at the two parts of this because you have work out your salvation, that's part one.
With fear and trembling, that is part two. So what do we mean by this? What does it mean to work out your salvation? Well, the two words that we have in English, work out, it's just one word in Greek.
And it means to achieve by labor. So there's something that is, the word for salvation here, you got to look at the context because sometimes salvation can mean sanctification. The context of salvation could be towards sanctification.
Sometimes the context of salvation could be talking about our glorification. So our salvation out of this world and the judgment of God that is coming against this world into glory with Christ forever.
You're saved the moment you believe. But there's other ways that word salvation gets used in the text. In this particular case, we're talking about sanctification. So this is not your justification, you're justified by faith.
This is talking about our sanctification. And even that is a work of God in our lives, but nonetheless, you have to respond.
You're hearing the instruction. You can't follow God without the Holy Spirit. Exactly. Right. I mean, there's just no way.
As it said in Romans 8, he who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him. So yes, you have to have the spirit in you even to obey God. Right.
And then I'm also thinking of someone who's not saved can read the Bible, but not understand any of it. And then someone who's saved can read the Bible and it means something totally different. And it means salvation.
Yes. Yeah, exactly. And so it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. So he wills you to work for him.
Yeah. Yeah. Careful with that language. Okay. Okay. And this is where I've had to be careful with that language too, because it's not God willing for us. No. You know what I mean? Yeah. No. I wasn't. God doesn't believe for you.
I know. That's why I'm saying you just have to be careful with that language.
Oh, I see. Because other people use it in a different way. Yeah.
Right. You still believe. Right. You still respond in faith. Right. But it's the spirit that is at work in your heart. Right.
Because otherwise you don't learn anything more without the spirit.
Yeah. The spirit is the one that is bringing us to perfection. Right. That is growing us in all this. Right. Yeah. Right. But he's not willing us. That's why I said... Oh, I see what you mean. Right. That's why I said be careful with that, because otherwise it can make it sound like God is believing for us.
You know what I mean? No. Yeah. That's not what I meant. That's not where we're going with that. Yeah. So we have... I have a hard time using my words. And I caution you on that because somebody did that for me years ago when I was kind of trying to...
Yeah. But don't make that sound like God is believing for you. Yeah. So you have to be careful with that. Yeah. So anyway, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Working out means to achieve by labor.
There is something that we are doing. It is still God who is at work in you, but you still have to respond. You still have to obey. In faith and obedience. Right. Exactly. Now, I said that this comes up again, right?
Right. So it comes up in Chapter 3 and in Chapter 4. It's in Chapter 3. Hang on. Let me turn over there. Chapter 3, verse 13. Brothers, I do not consider myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
So that's Paul working out his salvation with fear and trembling, right? He's continuing to press on toward the goal. Yeah. All right. Now you have the second part of Philippians 2 .12. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
So what does that mean, with fear and trembling? In Isaiah, the Lord says, this is the one to whom I will look. I believe this is Isaiah 66 .2, the one who is humble and contrite in spirit and who trembles at my word.
This is the one to whom God looks, that we have that healthy, reverent fear of God. Yes, he is our Father in heaven who loves us, but we still recognize he is judge. As Jesus said to the churches in Revelation, I am he who searches mind and heart and I will give to each one according to their works.
And as I said before from Romans 14, everyone's going to have to give an account of himself before God. Right. So we have this reverent fear before the Lord as we work out our salvation with fear and trembling.
And like I said, Paul coming back to this again later in chapter four, we have this verse Philippians 4 .13. You can probably quote it without me having to tell it to you.
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Through Christ who what?
Strengthens me. Strengthens me. The strength that we have to work out our salvation comes from Christ. Wait, that's not about racing? Yeah, no, sorry. That's not talking about winning a race. Oh, okay.
Unless you're talking about the spiritual race that we're all running. Fair enough. Nice play on words. Hebrews 12, let us put off sin and every weight that entangles and run with endurance the race that is set before us looking to Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith.
Amen. Yeah, there you go. So I hope that helped you, Chad, with the context of understanding what it means to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. It's not talking about salvation like justification, being justified.
Because again, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, it is by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no man may boast. It's nothing you do to bring it about.
It is God who has made this happen. Nonetheless, there is still a responsibility to respond when you hear the gospel, when you hear the instruction, but our ability to do that and do it in a way that is reverent and worshipful unto the Lord can only be accomplished through his spirit that is within us.
And that's sanctification. There you go. All right, let's go to this next question from Rachel in Sacramento. I said we've got a Jeremiah 2911 question again. So, dear Pastor Gabe, this past Sunday, my pastor told us not to be afraid of the liberalism that is sweeping our nation.
And the verse that he used to tell us not to be afraid was Jeremiah 2911, for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, a plan to prosper and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope.
I think that's the NIV. The New International Version translation of that verse. So Rachel goes on, on the one hand, I know this verse gets hugely overused. People use it to say God will give us earthly riches.
But on the other hand, I couldn't exactly disagree with the way that he used it. Even though my city can look like Sodom and Gomorrah, I do have a future hope in Christ. Just curious, did my pastor use this verse in the right way?
Rachel from Sacramento, yeah, I can't imagine what things are like out there for you in Sacramento. It probably is kind of like Sodom and Gomorrah. But admittedly, there are cities even here in Texas that can look that way.
Austin, for example, I have a friend of mine who works in Austin and he makes the joke, you know, sometimes I have to go work in Austin, sometimes I come back home to Texas. Yep. It has its own world.
That's right. So anyway, Jeremiah 29, 11. Let me read it to you from the LSB, the Legacy Bible. Sounds a little bit different. For I know the plans that I have for you, declares Yahweh, plans for peace and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope.
What is the context of this particular verse? Well, I'd love to give you like a whole exposition of Jeremiah here, but we don't have that much time. Right. Becky eventually falls asleep. I do. Not because I'm boring to listen to, although that's what it sounded like I just said.
No, definitely not. I just fall asleep. We just record these late at night and she can only hold on for so long. Yes. So let me go back to chapter 28, where we have a prophecy from a false teacher named Hananiah.
Okay. So I'm going to start reading in chapter 28, verse one. Now, it happened in the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah, in the fourth year, in the fifth month, that Hananiah, the son of Azar, the prophet who was from Gibeon, spoke to me in the house of Yahweh in the sight of the priests and all of the people saying, okay, before getting to Hananiah, kind of backing up a little bit, what's happened here at this point, this is about 597 BC.
Okay. And Judah has been invaded by the Babylonians. Okay. Jerusalem has not yet been sacked. The temple hasn't been torn down. But Judah is under the control of Nebuchadnezzar, who is king of Babylon.
Okay. All right. That's what's happening here. So Hananiah is giving a prophecy to the people in light of their current circumstance. God has turned Judah over to their enemies because they worship false gods instead of the Lord, and so they are being exiled as a result of their sin against God.
Some of them here have been exiled. And so this is the word that Hananiah brings, verse two. Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. Within two years, I am going to return to this place all the vessels of the house of Yahweh, which Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, took away from this place and carried to Babylon.
I am also going to return to this place Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and all the exiles of Judah who went to Babylon, declares Yahweh. For I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.
Okay? So you get the prophecy that Hananiah is making here. Yeah. Within two years, God is going to break the yoke of the king of Babylon, and so the power that Nebuchadnezzar has over all the nations, he's going to lose.
God's going to take it away from him. Mm-hmm. And even the holy vessels that had been in the temple that the Babylonians carried away, they're going to come back, and they're going to be in the temple once again.
Mm-hmm. Verse five. Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke to the prophet Hananiah in the sight of the priests and in the sight of all the people who were standing in the house of Yahweh. And the prophet Jeremiah said, Amen.
May Yahweh do so. May Yahweh establish your words which you have prophesied to return the vessels of the house of Yahweh and all the exiles from Babylon to this place. Yet hear now this word which I am about to speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people.
The prophets who were before me and before you from ancient times prophesied against many lands and against great kingdoms of war and of calamity and of pestilence. The prophet who prophesies of peace, when the word of the prophet comes to pass, then that prophet will be known as one whom Yahweh has truly sent.
Verse 10. So that was all Jeremiah there that was saying that. He was affirming this word that came from Hananiah. This is a good word. Right. And if peace comes, that will affirm that what Hananiah has just said truly came from God.
Right. And so in verse 10, then Hananiah the prophet took the bar of the yoke from the neck of Jeremiah the prophet and broke it. Okay. Jeremiah was wearing this yoke because it was symbolizing the slavery that they were now under because of Nebuchadnezzar coming in and taking Judah.
Oh, okay. Hananiah is trying to show God's going to break that yoke. So he takes it from Jeremiah. Okay. And has now just broken it in the presence of the people. Okay. So in verse 11, Hananiah spoke in the sight of all the people saying, thus says Yahweh, even as I have just done here, will I break within two full years the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all the nations?
Then the prophet Jeremiah went his way. Verse 12. Then the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah after Hananiah the prophet had broken the bar of the yoke from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah saying, here's the voice of God, go and speak to Hananiah saying, thus says Yahweh.
You have broken the bars of a yoke made of wood, but you have made in their place the bars of a yoke made of iron. Ouch. For thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, I have put a yoke of iron on the neck of all these nations that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and they will serve him.
And I have even given him the beasts of the field. Unquote. Verse 15. Then Jeremiah the prophet said to Hananiah the prophet, listen now, Hananiah, Yahweh has not sent you and you have made this people trust in a lie.
Therefore, thus says Yahweh, behold, I am about to remove you from the face of the earth. This year you are going to die because you have spoken rebellion against Yahweh. So Hananiah the prophet died in the same year in the seventh month.
Wow. Now, if you go back to verse one, it says that Hananiah spoke in the fourth year in the fifth month. So this was just two months later. Two months. After he made this prophecy, God struck him dead.
Huh. And that's in fulfillment of the law that was given in Deuteronomy. If a prophet speaks to you in the word of the Lord and that prophecy doesn't come to pass, he did not come from God and you're to put him to death.
But the Lord did that in Hananiah's case. Yeah. Went ahead and struck him dead. So because of this, because this false prophecy and a false hope has been given to the people through the mouth of this false prophet Hananiah.
So God responds in chapter 29. And Jeremiah writes a letter that has been given to him from the Lord, the voice of God to Jeremiah. He wrote it down. He delivered it to the people. Verse 11 is part of that letter.
Oh, okay. So when we understand this verse, you know, this happy verse that we have, this encouraging verse, Jeremiah 29, 11. Right. Understand the circumstance that was going on in which this was delivered.
Not so great.
Yeah. I mean, learning that you're going to be really like there's no relief. You know, you just heard there's relief and then there's not. Not in the immediate future.
Certainly not. So you're going to be pretty serious. You're going to be under captivity. You're going to be enslaved to this nation. And in fact, if you read the verse right before it, Jeremiah 29, 11, look at verse 10.
It says you're going to be there for 70 years. Yeah. Jeremiah 29, 10, for thus says Yahweh, when 70 years have been fulfilled for Babylon, I will visit you and establish my good word to you to return you to this place.
Now, after 70 years, that's just going to be the start of the return. Right. That's not going to be the full return. Exactly. So the fulfillment of all of this won't even come about for another 140 years or something like that.
Wow. So let me go to the start of the chapter. This is Jeremiah 29, beginning in verse 1. Now, these are the words of the letter which Jeremiah, the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the rest of the elders of the exile, the priests, the prophets, and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken away into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.
In parentheses, this was after King Jeconiah and the queen mother, the court officials, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen and the Smiths had gone out from Jerusalem. The letter was sent by the hand of Elassah, the son of Shefan, and Gemariah, the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah, king of Judah, sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, saying...
Now, here's the letter, beginning in verse 4. Okay. Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, build houses and live in them and plant gardens and eat their fruit.
Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands that they may bear sons and daughters and multiply there and do not decrease. Seek the peace of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to Yahweh on its behalf for in its peace you will have peace.
Now, there are some translations there that will say pray for the prosperity or pray for the welfare of the city that you were in, because when that city prospers, then you will prosper. Right. So, it's kind of like living here in the United States of America.
This is not a godly nation, but it is a prosperous nation. Yes. And so, as the nation has prospered, so we have also prospered. Right. So, we are able to live in some pretty good comfort. Yes. Compared to most of the world.
Right. We as Christians who live in the United States, and it's because this has indeed been a profitable nation. The Apostle Paul actually instructs something similar in 1 Timothy 2, where he talks about how you pray for the king.
Oh, yeah. Right? Uh-huh. You do that out of the same instruction that Jeremiah 29 is giving here. Yeah. Because when things go well in the land in which we are sojourners, then it goes well for us. Right.
That we may live peaceful and quiet lives, the way Paul puts it in 1 Timothy 2. So, anyway, going on here. Verse 8, for thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, do not let your prophets who are in your midst and your diviners deceive you, and do not listen to your dreams which you dream, for they prophesy a lie to you in my name.
I have not sent them, declares Yahweh. Verse 10, for thus says Yahweh, when 70 years have been fulfilled for Babylon, I will visit you and establish my good word to you to return you to this place. For I know the plans that I have for you, declares Yahweh, plans for peace and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope.
Well, that really changes the feel of the verse when you understand the context and the story that's going on around it as well. Mm-hmm. This is a people who is being punished because they rebelled against God.
Right. What they deserve is to be annihilated by Babylon. Mm-hmm. That's what they deserve. Yeah. And that's what even the Jews witness happening to some of these other nations that have been conquered by the Babylonians.
Mm-hmm. Not nearly as merciful to them. Right. Yet, some of the Jews have been exiled. They've gone into Babylonian captivity, and yet there are others that remain. And so, what's going to become of us?
Is God deciding that we're going to be destroyed at the hands of the Babylonians? Mm-hmm. God is saying no.
Right. He's saying keep multiplying. Yeah, right. Live in this situation.
It's not the holy land. Right. You're being removed from that land. Right. And all the blessing that they were getting from that land. They're not getting it right now because they're being punished by God.
Right.
So Right. But this is going to be your home for a while. Right. So, where you are Mm-hmm.
Be prosperous. Right. Pray for the prosperity of the kingdom where you are. Mm-hmm. Continue to be fruitful and multiply. Right. Take wives, give sons to daughters, so on and so forth. And God is saying I'm not going to destroy you.
There's still a plan for you. Mm-hmm. I know the plans that I have for you, and I'm not going back on my word. Right. Anything that I've said through Moses or any other prophet, I know the plans that I have for you.
Plans for peace and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Mm-hmm. Now, again, this promise that God is giving that I'm going to bring you back to this land when the 70 years are up, that's certainly going to come to fulfillment.
Mm-hmm. But the full fulfillment of that it's kind of redundant, full fulfillment. Anyway, yeah. Entire fulfillment? It's not going to be seen by the generation that is hearing this letter. Mm-hmm.
It's going to be their children's children's children. Right. About 140 years later, when they come back into Jerusalem, the temple is rebuilt, and under Nehemiah, the walls are rebuilt. Mm-hmm. Then they'll finally know, they'll finally see, I remember that promise that God gave through Jeremiah, and here we're standing in the midst of it.
Yeah. We've come back. It's been fulfilled. Right. Now, the ultimate promise here is that Christ has been promised through Judah. So, God is not going to allow Judah to be annihilated. He's going to bring them back to that land so that the Messiah can be born.
Right. And then that becomes the prosperity for all of us. That's the promise for all of us. Praise the Lord. Prosperity, I mean, in the very heavenly sense, of course. Right. And we know that Christ, the Savior, is born.
Mm-hmm. And through Jesus Christ, by his death on the cross, by his resurrection from the dead, all who believe in him, our sins are forgiven, we are made fellow heirs of the kingdom of God, and we have everlasting life with him.
Mm-hmm. And that's not just Jews, but even Gentiles. Right. All who believe in Jesus will be saved. Mm-hmm. And we have become a kingdom of priests unto his name, as said in Revelation 1, I think it's verse 5.
So, he has forgiven us by his blood and has made us a kingdom of priests. Mm-hmm. And this fulfillment, this promise, therefore, comes to us as well with that understanding. So, back to your question, Rachel, did your pastor use it in the right way?
I don't see why not. I was thinking it was. Yeah. I mean, as long as he's got that, you know, some people will go a little overboard with Jeremiah 29, 11. They'll say, no, this only applied to Israel.
It only applied to Judah. Mm-hmm. I think that's too limited in scope. It does have application for us. Mm-hmm. But you have to know the context in order to apply it the right way. Yeah. So that you don't spin this verse into something like God is promising earthly prosperity for you.
Right. Like you're going to have riches and wealth and all your hopes and dreams are going to come true. When somebody's using the verse that way. Then it's wrong. Then it's twisted. Yeah. Yeah. They're just as bad as the false prophets that were being condemned here.
This one sounds more like a father disciplining a son saying, you know, I'm disappointed in you. Here's your natural consequences, but your discipline as well. Yeah.
And learn from this. To understand that word, a plan to prosper you, peace is really the better word here. Yeah. Plans for peace and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Because especially considering the context that they're in.
They've just been conquered by one of the most ruthless armies on earth. Yeah. But you're not going to be destroyed. Yeah. The plan that I have for you is one of peace. And I'm even going to bring you peacefully back to this land.
Mm-hmm. And indeed the people not only came back to the land, but they came back with blessing. Yeah. You know, the Persians who took over the Babylonians. That's true. Yeah. Sent them on their way with everything that they needed.
Mm-hmm. And provided workers and all other kinds of things. So the Lord's promise here does come to fulfillment. And the ultimate fulfillment for us, as I said earlier, Rachel, is in knowing that through Judah Christ would come.
Yes. And so when you know that in Jesus Christ your sins are forgiven, then you can truly know what is meant by, here's the plan I have for you. Plans for peace and not for calamity. For as it said in 1 Thessalonians, we're not destined for wrath.
Right. But for salvation in Jesus Christ. And to give you a future and a hope to know that we're going to be with the Lord forever in glory is the greatest hope that we can be given. Mm-hmm. So understand this passage from Hebrews chapter 11 beginning in verse 13.
When talking about the Old Testament faithful in Hebrews 11, right? You have the hall of faith in Hebrews 11. Mm-hmm. These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar.
And having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had the opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country.
That is a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God for he has prepared for them a city. So even the Old Testament faithful understood that God's ultimate promise for them is not a land on earth.
Mm-hmm. It's a heavenly city. The new Jerusalem. Right. And that is a place where we will all dwell forever with God in glory. Amen. That's the promise, the hope in the future for us all. Yeah. Amen.
So yeah, even though we're seeing our nation go deeper and deeper into liberalism. Mm-hmm. And God's judgment will come upon America or whatever nation you live in because of its wickedness, because of its rebellion against God.
Yeah. The judgment of God is coming. Even though that's the case, you see people getting more and more evil. Paul said the same thing to Timothy. Yes. Yet, the plan that God has for us is for peace and not for calamity to give us a future and a hope.
Amen. And that hope is in Christ alone. That's awesome. Thank you, Rachel, for your question. Definitely. It was good to go through that text. I haven't done that in a little while. It has been a minute.
Yes. All right, as we wrap up here, as Becky and I said at the very beginning, we are going to put the podcast on hold for July. Short notice kind of a thing, but you probably noticed that I've been late getting some of these podcasts uploaded.
Mm-hmm. Just this past week, I didn't even sit down and do the devotional lesson. I was replaying sermons. Yes. Old sermons that I have done to kind of cover those lessons. It's been busy. It's a really busy season right now.
Mm-hmm. So we think it would be a good idea to take July off. Mm-hmm. So that's what we're going to do. And God willing, we'll come back in in August. Yes. It's disappointing. Yes. Because we're not going to be able to do our 2000th episode on the eight-year anniversary of the podcast.
Yes. Which if we push through July, that's where we would end up. And I love doing this with you. I do. I love doing it with you. And we know that you love us because you tell us in your emails. Yeah.
And so we thank you for that very much. Maybe this will be a, it makes the heart grow fonder sort of a thing. Yeah. We'll be gone for a little while. If the Lord blesses us to be able to come back on, you'll love it all the more, right?
Because you were missing it for however long. So the aim is, the plan is to come back in in August. Mm-hmm. Then hopefully we'll hit the 2000th episode by G3 in September. Yeah. Maybe it'll work out that way.
Won't quite hit the anniversary, but it'll still happen.
And we just pray for your walk in Christ Jesus. And we pray for your relationship with Christ. Yeah. And that you store up your treasures in heaven and just stay in the word.
Where your treasure is there, your heart will be also. Yeah. That was on the podcast this week. So, yeah. You know, Becky and I have done this before in the past. Mm-hmm. Some of you have received personal responses, personal vocal responses from us.
Mm-hmm. We've had some questions that have come to this podcast that are very personal in nature. Yes. Something that we don't want to air. Mm-hmm. So it doesn't make it on the Friday edition of the broadcast.
And sometimes you ask us that. Right. Like a question will come in and say, please don't air this question. Right. But we'd just like some counsel regarding this situation. Right. But then there are other times when we'll get a question I just don't think it would be wise to air it.
Based on the sensitive nature of the question that's being asked. Very true. So Becky and I will sit down and we'll record a personal audio message. Usually about the same time that we're recording this broadcast.
Yeah. So some of you have received that from us as well. Mm-hmm. We've recorded private personal audio messages and sent that back to you. And it's just because we love you. Yeah. We love being able to do this.
We love that God has given us the opportunity to do this. And that you would want to listen to us. Yeah. And ask us questions and share your heart with us. It means a lot to us. It does. So I say that also to add that Becky and I, when she says that we pray for you, she's being serious.
Mm-hmm. We've sat here and prayed for requests that have come in that nobody else hears. Right. And we are just privileged to be able to do this. It's the background in radio that I have that kind of created...
Everybody's doing a podcast these days. But it was because of the years that I spent in radio that gave me the knowledge and even the desire, the professionalism to be able to do this and do it well. Mm-hmm.
And then, of course, my love for the word and my experience as a pastor combining all those things together. Yes. To be able to do this broadcast. This is kind of a message that I think I would be sharing in the 2000th episode.
But yeah. Here we are since we're not going to get to that in August. But taking a little time off and just saying to you once again, we thank you for your prayers and your support. And we're not asking for any support any more than just sharing this with somebody else.
Yes. Telling somebody else about the broadcast, that's how we've been able to grow the audience that we've got. Because somebody talked about this with somebody else. Yeah. Definitely. And that's how we've gained this listenership, by the blessing of God.
Mm-hmm. So we thank you so much again, once again, for listening. Still subscribe to the podcast. Set your alerts on or whatever. When we get back on and that first episode drops, you'll get an alert for it.
And we'll all celebrate. Woo-hoo! Yeah. There'll still be the Sunday school lessons and stuff. Those we'll still post. But anyway, we'll see you on the flippity-flip. The flip side. And if anything else, we'll all be together in glory with Christ.
Oh, amen. And be able to rejoice together at the throne around Him who loves us, who shed His blood for us, who has redeemed us and made us sons and daughters of God. Amen. Let's pray. Yes, let's. Heavenly Father, as we wrap this up today, I pray for those persons who have sent questions today, as we've given counsel and advice on being good communicators, talking with one another, encouraging one another in the Word.
I pray that you would give wisdom to these persons and even help them to know what to say to the persons that they have to talk to. Earlier, Chris talking about his pastor. Help him to know exactly what to say to his pastor.
Or with Michael and talking with his father-in-law. What word can you give to Michael that is also a blessing to his father-in-law, that they may encourage one another in Christ? With regards to Rachel and the word that she heard from her pastor, the way that he preached Jeremiah 2911, that Rachel would even go to her pastor and ask him, what did you mean by that?
And can you expound on that a little bit more for me and teach me more about what you were talking about? May we always be willing to submit to the Word, being guided by your Word and listening to one another, being built up by one another in love.
Until we all reach maturity in Christ, hold fast to the head who is Christ, as talked about in Ephesians 4, looking toward that day that we will be with Christ forever in glory. I thank you that you have given this opportunity to Becky and me and may we continue to do this for your glory.
It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. Amen.