WWUTT 1545 Q&A The Two Witnesses, All Have Sinned, A New Segregation

Who are the two witnesses in Revelation 11? Who is the all in Romans 3 .23?

And what do we do if our church tells us we can't attend because we didn't get a COVID shot? The answers to these questions when we

Understand the Text. This is

When we Understand the Text, a daily Bible study that the word of Christ may dwell in us richly, as we teach and admonish one another in all wisdom.

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

Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. Hey, do you mind just kind of talking and keeping everyone entertained for a little while?

Okay. Because I forgot to refill my tea. I wondered about that. I said

I was going to do that before we started recording, and then I forgot to refill. And here you are, recording. I'm recording and did not refill my tea.

This is the Friday edition of When we Understand the Text. We take questions from the listeners, which you can submit to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

Hey, if you're on Gab, Gab .com, isn't that what it is, Gab .com?

I think so. I'm pretty sure. Yeah. We're on there, too. So you can have your own profile, just like you would have on Twitter or Facebook, and then add us,

WWUTT. It's another social media opportunity.

Yes. And especially since it won't be long until I'm just going to get booted from Twitter entirely.

Because of the things I say. What? I constantly am getting locked out.

It's like once a month now, at least. Oh, goodness. Or banned, or something like that. Yeah.

The most recent one is because I said Rachel Levin is a man, and I got kicked off of Twitter for that.

Well, there you go. Just for telling the truth. So we got this DM via Gab.

A DM is a direct message. Direct message. Yeah. So it's a private message via Gab. Hey, Gabe and Beck, I was wondering if Beck has her own account on Gab.

I don't remember. I don't think so. No, I don't think you started one. It would be nice to touch base with her again.

I've missed being a part of the encouragement group on Twitter. Hope the green possum gloves and hat came in handy during the cold snap last winter slash spring.

Yes, they were actually packed at that point, but the winter before, they definitely came in handy.

Right. They're so warm and soft. Your Aussie sister in Christ, Rebecca. I miss her so much.

I do. Did we see them at Truth Matters? No. No, that was okay. No. You miss her online.

Yeah, I miss her online. Yeah, not in person, but online. Got it. Yeah, we got to exchange quite a few times, and then

I think we even exchanged a few emails and private messages and stuff like that.

But she's not on Twitter anymore. No, she was there for, she popped up for a little bit and then got busy,

I guess, again. But if she's on Gab, I actually might go over to Gab. Maybe so.

That'd be, I don't know. Now, what I want to start doing on Gab is adding what videos, because they have a video channel like YouTube on Gab.

So hopefully, I'll be able to start doing that soon. It would also give me the chance to remaster some of those older videos, maybe using the newer logo or some more updated images, things like that.

You never know what new things I can do on a new platform. Oh, dear. But hey,

I mean, some of them might be dated at this point, because we started, how long ago? I don't know.

There are a few that, it's so long ago now, well, 2014 was the first 90 second videos.

The podcast didn't start until 2015. But it's been long enough now that when I'm making videos, a few scripts

I've written, I've gone back and found out, oh, I already did a video on this. So I've now forgotten what

I've done. Yeah, well, there was quite a few, handful or so, that you've done.

We got a donation from Brittany. She sent us a donation via PayPal. Yes. With this little note,

I love the podcast, keep it up. Thank you. Thank you so much, Brittany, for your donation. Appreciate that.

Yes. I'm looking at doing a project at home. You've been hearing us talk about this ever since we moved into our house back in March.

But I'm looking at doing a project at home and having a studio at home. I just keep changing my mind as to where I'm going to put it.

So the shed out back is not going to work. We have a few options, but none of them are like, oh yeah, this is perfect.

We won't feel that way until it's done. True. And then it'll be, ah, see, this was it. This is what we should have done.

So we've nixed the shed idea. I'm not going to build a studio in the garage. We've nixed that idea too.

Another one you've heard - There was just too much humidity in the garage. Yeah, there's no way to cool it. But it's also,

I mean, it would be such an undertaking that I may as well just add on to the house. True.

And that way we can even increase the value of the home if we ever end up selling it again. And not take up garage space.

Not take up garage space. Still be able to use the garage to park a car in it. You know, important stuff. Or have the kids' riding toys in there.

But that seems to be the thing around here is that a lot of people have - Around here. Yeah. Nobody uses their garage to park their car in there anymore.

They don't. Not in Texas. They've all closed it up and made it a fourth bedroom. Well, in Texas, you don't need to park your car in a garage to protect it from ice.

True. Which, that was what we used the garage for when we were in Kansas. I made sure it was cleared out in the wintertime so at least we could get the van in there.

Yep. So I could open up the doors. That's right. Without prying them. Not have to - Chiseling them out. Yep. Scrape ice off the windshield or whatever else.

But anyway, so then you've probably heard us talk about a trailer too. I've thought about getting a trailer and we could just record in the trailer.

That's what James White's doing. Yeah. I don't like his audio quality in the trailer though. Now where we're sitting is doing something outside where we're kind of screening in a porch and through that concept, being able to have a more enclosed area, it would be pretty small, like an eight foot by ten, but that would be big enough for the two of us to be in there.

Yep. Yes. And record something at home. And then I could still have this equipment even here in the office.

So I've got two places to record. I can either do it at the church or I can do it at home. But being at home would free up a ton of time.

Yeah. It would be so great to be able to go back to recording after my wife and kids go to bed again, which

I can't do anymore since I would have to get in the car and drive all the way down to the church and do that.

The downside about where we pick to live. Yeah. That's all right though. But we didn't have many options.

No, we didn't. This place is so booming right now and anything that goes on the market is snatched up within a few days.

Yeah. So we were very blessed to get the place that we got. Definitely. Yeah. It all goes pretty fast.

Hopefully, we can find the right person that can give us an affordable estimate on this particular project and it would be the best way to put a studio at the house and I could record at home, freeing up a ton of time and you would be more guaranteed to be on every

Friday Q &A. Just about. Yeah. I would say so. So Brittany, your donation will help us out with that.

Definitely. And anybody else who wants to give. So if you go to www .utt .com and click on the give tab, it'll give you information there.

Now you can't give to the church anymore. You could do that when we were back in Kansas. Right. We had it connected.

Right. We had a line item at the church where donations could be sent there and then you know it's nonprofit and somebody else was handling it that wasn't us.

Right. So you know it's being held in responsible hands. Well, if you donate to us here living in Texas, it just comes straight to us.

Yep. So you're just, it's on an honor system. You just know that whatever you're going to give is going to go towards something we're working on to benefit the ministry.

Right. To be able to do videos or recording, podcasts, whatever it would happen to be.

Oh, and this project of being able to put a studio at home would give me the chance to do more videos.

Oh yeah. Because right now I'm only doing something like one or two a month. This is an extremely low turnout for me since I started doing this.

It used to be I was doing one or two a week. And your list of videos to do are getting longer.

It's getting longer. Tom just gave me one today. Oh did he? Yeah, he did. Pastor Tom? Yes.

It was because of, or here, let me see if I can bring this up. So Ed Litton, the president of the

Southern Baptist Convention, just made this tweet the other day and he misused a passage from Jeremiah.

Hang on, I'm trying to bring it up. So Tom said, you need to do a what video on that verse in Jeremiah and put it in the proper context.

Litton said, wow, he's tweeted quite a bit in the last few days. I'm sure he's ripping off somebody else.

Anyway, so he said, there is a time to acknowledge our part in sins that we did not directly commit.

Jeremiah 1420, we acknowledge our wickedness, Lord, and the guilt of our ancestors.

We have indeed sinned against you. So Ed is asking for forgiveness because of the guilt of our ancestors.

What he doesn't realize there is that the people of Israel were doing what their ancestors did.

So they're repeating the sins of their fathers. Right. Not, hey, we're asking forgiveness because our relatives did something really, really bad, but we're all sitting down here innocent.

However, we've received the guilt of our ancestors, so we're just asking for forgiveness for that.

Isn't that like a movement right now that's going on? Yeah, right. Sounds familiar.

That's exactly the way that he's applying it. According to the wokeness theology, that's the way he's applying this particular verse.

That's not what Jeremiah 1420 means. You also have the hypocrisy on top of that, of Ed not acknowledging his own sins that he directly committed.

Let's point at everybody else first. Exactly. You know, when you point at somebody, there's always three fingers pointing back at you.

Yes. So anyway, the plagiarist, President Ed Litton, there's the theology he's espousing online.

So that's the verse that Tom said I needed to do a what video on. I've got other videos I'm working on. I've had one in the queue for like the last six weeks.

That's a long time. I've even read it to you. It was the one on how long should a sermon be? How long should a what video take?

How long should a what video take? Yes, definitely. I mean, this one's not terribly serious.

It's not a real serious video. Right. But it's still taking me so long. It's so hilarious. Anyway. Oh, the irony.

And the other serious topics I haven't gotten to. Well, let's get to some more of these emails here.

Yes. So this next one is from Kerry. He says, hello, Pastor. I listened to your sermon on Amil, on your podcast on what?

Yeah, that was a little more than a week ago. So I preached a sermon on Amillennialism here at First Baptist Church.

We just finished up a series, a seven week series going through the different views of eschatology. We have six elders.

All four views of eschatology are held among our six elders. So there's somebody that believes in premillennial, dispensational,

I'm sorry, I said that backwards, dispensational premillennialism, classical premillennialism,

Amillennialism and postmillennialism. So I did the sermon on Amillennialism, which I posted to the blog, and then you would have heard it on the

Saturday special of the podcast as well. That was last week. This week on the blog, I responded to questions following that sermon.

And so you can find that at PastorGabe .com, but it's also going to be the next Saturday special. So tomorrow there's another

Q &A. Awesome. And it's responding to questions on Amillennialism. So Carrie said, during the sermon, you mentioned a handout that you handed out.

Is it possible to get a copy of it? I love your ministry and podcast. Blessings to you and your family and congratulations on baby

Zeke. Aw, thanks. Who thankfully is still asleep over there. So far.

We're hoping that he, yeah, this time we're not holding him. Yeah. He still might be loud enough to be caught up on the mic though.

I think if he wakes up, we're going to know. Yes. I think that's going to get picked up in the microphone.

So I did send Carrie that handout, but there really isn't anything that special about the handout. It just has my outline on it and then all of my cross references, because I figured as many verses as I had to go through and as quickly as I had to do that, we weren't going to have time to now turn here, now turn here.

So I put all the cross references in the handout. When you're in person, that makes it very helpful.

But when you're online, you can pause and rewind and all that stuff. Slow, put the speed slower.

That's right. Yeah. So when I - There's all sorts of adjustments. Yeah. When I did the sermon, we only turned to two places.

It was first Thessalonians where you had chapters four and five, and then we jumped to second

Thessalonians chapter one. So that was all just, you know, turn the page. And then we looked at Revelation as well.

All the other cross -referencing was on the handout, but you can find all of that. The full transcript of the sermon is at pastorgabe .com.

There you go. Next question. This one comes from Jason. He says, hi, Pastor Gabe. I listened to your recent sermon on amillennialism and was wondering if you had any links or resources to an amillennialist view of Revelation 11 and the two witnesses.

Well, I respond to that question in part because that was one of the questions that I received following the amillennial sermon.

Someone had asked about what do we do with the two witnesses in Revelation 11. On the Q &A part? Yeah, on the

Q &A part. So there's going to be more of that tomorrow. Awesome. If you haven't - Stay tuned.

Yes. If you haven't heard the audio for the blog yet, then listen tomorrow when I do the

Q &A for amillennialism, and you'll hear a little more on Revelation there. Let's look at it.

All right. Let's look at Revelation 11. Let me turn there here in my Bible. Becky's going to pull it up on her phone.

I am. The Bible's just got too heavy and too many things to, what do you call that, balance?

Yeah, right. Especially when you're holding a baby at the same time. It's easier to turn pages with my thumb on my phone.

With one hand. Now, if you listen to the Just Thinking podcast with Daryl and Virgil, they say, we turn pages, bro.

Yes. And I love that. Yes. I would love to do that again. That's right. When he's older. Well, here on When We Understand the

Text, we turn pages and scroll with our thumbs. We do both. I didn't think

I'd tickle myself, but I did. All right. Revelation 11, beginning in verse 1.

I'm going to read this whole section, in fact. Let's look at verses 1 through 13. We'll go straight through it here. Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there.

But do not measure the court outside the temple. Leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for 42 months.

And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1 ,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.

These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes.

If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. They have the power to shut the sky that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying.

And they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire.

And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them.

And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called

Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days, some of the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb.

And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth.

But after the three and a half days, a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them.

Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, Come up here. And they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them.

And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell, seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the

God of heaven. There's the prophecy of the two witnesses in Revelation chapter 11.

What are we reading about there? Any insight, babe? Nope. I haven't studied

Revelation as often or as much as the others. Well Becky was with me when

I actually covered Revelation in a whirlwind. This was the last

Bible study that I led in Kansas before we fled to the south. And I don't have my

Bible with my notes in it. Neither do I. I left it in Atlanta. Aww. Yeah.

Did we ever follow up on that? I don't think so. I was hoping to be able to find it, and we went back to Atlanta to see my mom and dad.

That was our trip last week. We even had people in Atlanta looking forward to. Looking for us. Yeah. Yeah. Well, not looking for us.

They looked for the Bible for us. For us. Yes. Yeah. I went back to the Omni Hotel. I went to the

Georgia World Congress Center. Yeah. I checked their loss and found it was not turned in. So I've probably lost that Bible.

So if anybody listening to the podcast has come across it and just happened to keep it for somebody to pipe up about it.

I'd like it back. It's ours. I would appreciate it. I'll give you a reward of some kind. And great is your reward in heaven.

I can't grant you that, but Christ can. It's a brown leather Bible, real leather.

And it has my name in the front with a nice little note from my wife as well, who gifted me that Bible.

So I'm hoping to see it again. If not, I have plenty of other

Bibles and I can always comfort myself by purchasing a new one.

Okay. Becky's going, hang on a second. You have 30.

Why are you going to spend money on another Bible? I mean, it was a good Bible. That one has so much sentimental value.

I might have to purchase 10 to try to compensate for the heartbreak of losing that Bible.

Anyway, so leading a Revelation Bible study in Kansas, and that was a very quick study because we only had a few weeks left.

So I took everybody through it real quick. We went through the whole book of Revelation. Becky may not remember some of the notes, some of the things we talked about going through that.

So who are we talking about in Revelation 11 regarding the two witnesses? Now my literalist friends out there are not going to like this, but this is about the church.

This is not about two people who are going to pop up in a future seven year period of tribulation and become prophets or will witness and prophesy during that time between the rapture and then

Christ's second coming. Which as you'll see in my Q &A, that I don't even believe there is a seven year period of tribulation.

Why for those of you who have grown up hearing that your entire life? How can you say there's no seven year period of tribulation?

Well, listen to the Q &A. Yes. Anyway, the two witnesses here are the church.

How can I read this symbolically? Because that's the way the book of Revelation is read. From the very beginning, we are presented with signs and symbols and typology.

That is the way that John wrote. That is the way his audience received this.

So I'm not interpreting this in any kind of manner that would be unlike what

John saw and what his hearers would have understood. The person who reads

Revelation and sees Russia and China and the United States and Apache helicopters.

And when you read in Revelation 11 about how the whole world sees the two witnesses, oh, so they must be on TV.

Because that's the only way that the whole world can see the two witnesses. You're reading this in a way that neither

John saw, nor would his hearers have understood that. That's called an anachronism, where you're taking our present context and imposing that on the text and going, see, that's what

John saw. That's what he was given in his vision. No.

The reason why the entire world sees the two witnesses is because the church is in the entire world.

Finally. It's in every nation. That's why we're called to spread the gospel. That's right.

We are the witnesses. The church is symbolized here. You see all kinds of themes of two that come up.

So there's two lampstands. There's two olive trees. Well, the lampstands have represented the church all the way through Revelation.

That's going back to the first three chapters of Revelation. The olive tree, Paul depicts the church as a cultivated olive tree in Romans chapter 11.

And you have two of them. That goes with two witnesses. Why two witnesses? Because every...

Two or more are gathered. Exactly. Every testimony is established by the evidence of two or three witnesses,

Old Testament and New. And so as we testify to the world about their sin and their need for a savior, we stand as two witnesses, two lampstands, two olive trees.

And the theme of two goes in multiple ways. Like verse five, if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth.

If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. That's mentioned twice. And the power that the two witnesses has is also mentioned twice.

The two cities that the bodies of the two witnesses are put in, there's two cities that are mentioned.

Sodom and Egypt. Egypt, which is not a city, incidentally. But it says there in verse eight that this is symbolically.

And the great city is the way it's called. The great city throughout the book of Revelation is Babylon, which is symbolic of all unbelievers.

So where it says in verse eight, their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called

Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. Well, Christ was not crucified in Sodom or Egypt or in Babylon.

So what does that mean? Well, he was crucified by unbelievers. Oh, okay. I get it. Hence why

Sodom, Egypt, Babylon represents unbelievers. Now I'm not going to exegete this whole section.

I'm kind of giving you something to start with and then go to the text and try to understand some of the symbols that are used there to show us the church and who we are to be in this age.

At the very beginning, verse one, that I was given a measuring rod like a staff and I was told rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there.

So we're not just talking about measuring a physical place because you're also measuring the people who are there.

This measuring that happens is the same as the sealing of the people of God that we read about in chapter seven.

So you mean like we need to pack our churches with more people and the more people you have, the better it is, right?

I'm kidding. No. For the listeners, I'm just joking. Yeah, this is not a numbers game.

Don't play the Baptist game here. So verse two, but do not measure the court outside the temple.

Leave that out for it is given over to the nations and they will trample the holy city for 42 months.

So John is only measuring the temple, the altar and those who worship there. So the inner court of the temple.

Do not measure the court outside the temple. Leave that out for it is given over to the nations to trample the holy city for 42 months.

What's being talked about here? Well, we as the church are preserved from being destroyed by any kind of outside force by the world, right?

So the world cannot destroy the temple, the temple, the church. It's symbolized by the temple here.

By the way, the temple throughout the book of Revelation is always the heavenly temple. It is never an earthly physical place.

We're always talking about a spiritual temple in the book of Revelation. Jesus said in Matthew 16, 18,

I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. So the church will thrive.

The world will not be able to prevent. Satan will not prevent the advancement of the church in this world.

So that's symbolized by God preserving the church. There's the altar, those who worship there, the temple of God.

So we're talking about like the inner court portion of the temple, but do not measure the court outside the temple.

So there is a people of God in this world who are being persecuted by this world.

So we see that happening physically. We go through that on a daily basis in other nations, especially, maybe not so much in the

United States, but in other parts of the world, the church is heavily persecuted. People being put to death because of the gospel that they proclaim and the

Christ whom they serve. So the persecution that you see is the nations, the pagans trampling on the outer court, but they can't destroy those who are in Christ.

Hence, you have the inner court that the nations cannot touch. So though they may kill the body, those

Christians go to be with the Lord. Because they can't kill the soul. Right. And the nations have actually done, the pagans have done nothing to destroy those who are truly in Christ.

That's what's being symbolized there. And then you go on to, I grant authority to my two witnesses.

We have authority in the world to proclaim what is sin, what is good, according to what

God has proclaimed is good. And this is all according to the word of God. So it is the word of God that has been given to us that we may call out sin.

We proclaim that the judgment of God is coming. And that the only way to be saved from the judgment is to believe in the

Lord Jesus Christ, the one who will judge, but we put our faith and trust in him and we will not perish under the judgment of God, but we become fellow heirs of the kingdom that is being talked about throughout the book of Revelation.

So then you have that theme of twos that comes up repeatedly. These are the two olive trees, the two lampstands that stand before the

Lord of the earth. If anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth. So if you're going to be that literal, then you have to say these prophets that are going to show up during that seven year period of tribulation literally breathe fire.

That's right. They have the power to shut the sky that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying.

And what prophet was it that did that? That was Elijah. That's what I was going to say. Yeah. And they have power over the waters to turn them into blood.

Which prophet did that? Moses. That was Moses. So the church is being compared to the prophets

Elijah and Moses. And sure enough, the apostle Paul called

Timothy man of God. That was a title that was only said of prophets in the old

Testament. Only prophets were called man of God. But Paul calls Timothy man of God because he equates the work that Timothy is supposed to be doing in this world with the work that God had appointed prophets to do when he gave his word to them and proclaim this word to my people and not just to my people, but even prophets like Isaiah and Ezekiel proclaimed to pagan kings as well.

So we warn the world of the judgment that is to come, that they would turn from their sin and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ.

So I give you a little bit there in Revelation 11 and you can start to read

Revelation with an understanding of the symbols that are set forth from the beginning of the letter.

We are still subject to the same grammatical historical hermeneutic that we should apply to the rest of the

Bible because this is the hermeneutical tool that gives us the true meaning of the text.

But sometimes applying that hermeneutic makes us realize we're using symbolism and typology here.

John is using symbolism. His hearers would have heard that symbolism and the multiple references to the

Old Testament that you have in Revelation. So a better grasp that you have of the whole Bible, the easier it is to understand what

John is saying throughout the book of Revelation. Is that why Revelation's at the end? That's why it is at the end.

Yes. Becomes a summation of redemptive history and gives us the finality of everything that is to come as well.

So perfect ending. That's right. I talked about this in the sermon and then you'll hear some of it in the

Q &A as well tomorrow. Thank you for your question, Jason. That was

Jason who asked that question. Okay. We go to another one here. This one is from, my goodness, I had a bunch of questions.

I didn't realize I had so many questions in here. Let me finish with this one. Okay. And then the rest I'm going to have to save for another time.

Sorry, folks. I'll have to get to your questions later. We're doing so well with the baby sleeping all the way through this.

Yes. I think that he actually sleeps better when we're talking. It's possible. I mean, if we are talking, whenever he falls asleep, then we keep talking, then he'll stay asleep.

Yes. If we get quiet, though. And then he'll wake up. That's right. Because it's almost like cognitively he's going, something's changed.

Where did everybody go? Yes. I'm going to wake up and find out. And I think it helped with us starting low, like quieter, and then slowly working up to louder.

Are you saying that I get worked up when I'm talking about the Bible? No, never. This is exciting.

It is. We're reading about the coming of Christ. I'm just trying to keep the mute button there. Who will rescue his church, and we will forever be with the

Lord. We've been talking about this a lot at our church, in fact, because even in our Sunday school classes, we're in 1

Thessalonians chapter 4, verses 13 to 18, this coming Sunday. By the way,

I'm sorry that my Sunday school lesson did not get posted this past week. It didn't record. Yeah.

That's a bummer. I didn't forget to put it on there. It just didn't record. So that was 1 Corinthians ...

Sorry, am I saying ... Have I been saying Corinthians this whole time? Okay. This is the first time. Okay, good. 1 Thessalonians, because I'm also doing

Corinthians on the podcast, I can keep all of my lessons straight here. 1

Thessalonians chapter 4, verses 1 through 8, that's what should have been on the podcast this past Sunday, wasn't there.

I'll get some of it in this coming lesson for this week. This week, I take it back, this coming

Sunday is actually going to be 9 to 12. Okay.

So the brotherly love section there in 1 Thessalonians 4. And then the week after that, then that's going to be ...

I've already talked about this with the teachers. We've gone through this together, which is why it's fresh on my mind. But then that's going to be the return of Christ.

We don't lose hope. We don't grieve as those who have no hope, but we will forever be ... We will together be with the

Lord. Amen. Even those brothers and sisters in the Lord who have died before us will be with Christ on that day when he returns.

So exciting. So that section, that'll then be the next week. You'll just have to be patient for that.

This is what we've been going through as a church these last few months. Talking about eschatology, talking about end times things.

It's been wonderful. And I hope you're edified by some of the fruit that comes from it as well as it's making its way onto the podcast.

This next question, this comes from Chris. And he says, good morning, Pastor Gabe and Becky.

Good morning. It's not so morning for us, at least when we're recording this. Good day. Good day.

There we go. Good day. That was a terrible Australian accent, and it was even two syllables.

I have been living in the letter to the Romans for several months, reading, listening, and journaling my way through it.

So far, I'm in chapter three with journaling, although I've read and listened through the whole letter. As I go,

I believe I'm picking up on the finer details of Paul's writing. It's such a wonderful way to study the scriptures, by the way.

But if I come to a novel idea, usually an interpretation in my own head, I test it. Here's one of those.

In Romans chapter three, verses 21 to 25. Okay, let's stop there. So before continuing what he's going to mention here about that section, let's read it.

So Becky's going to scroll with her thumb. I'm going to turn my pages, bro. And we're going to Romans.

Oh, that's Acts. I went too far. Too far to the left. Romans, what? So when you're in Revelation, everywhere you turn is to the left.

So Romans chapter three, beginning in verse 21. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

For there is no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom

God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show

God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins.

Actually have that memorized. I could have just done that from memory. But I'm also reading this section on Sunday morning because this coming

Sunday, October 31st, is the 504th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.

Yeah, that's right. And I'm going to read this as a devotional thought during church. It's not the sermon, but I'll read it as a devotional, you know, just kind of calling our attention to the the

Reformation that had taken place or had begun a little over 500 years ago. Now, there were plenty of things that happened before Martin Luther nailed his 95 thesis to the door of All Saints Church in Wittenberg, Germany.

But that's kind of the day that we we put a pin on it. This is where the Protestant Reformation began.

So I'm reading this section on Sunday, too. Anyway, the kids learned about this recently in Adventure Club. Oh, did they really?

It's one of their memory verses. Great. Yep. So all the parents will have it fresh on their minds also.

Yes. Chris goes on. So Romans three verses 21 to 25, Paul pivots from proving the utter depravity of man and the futility of trying to keep the law for salvation.

Because of the law, we are all condemned. Now we are shown the righteousness of God in salvation apart from but in fulfillment of the law through Jesus Christ.

Paul refers specifically about those for whom the righteousness of God is applied.

Those who believe. Then he goes back in verse 23 to reassert the failure of man to attain to the glory of God.

As I read the text, I see Paul's flow of thought. Those who believe have fallen short of God's glory but are justified by grace through faith in Christ.

Thus, verse 23, which is often used as a proof text for the depravity of man, actually specifically refers to justified believers in this context.

Paul is making the case clear. We are not saved by works but by grace.

So while all people do fall short of God's glory, this text in particular seems to be talking about believers only.

In fact, I'll go further to say that outside of Christ, no one actually aims for the target.

As the first half of chapter three indicates, man left to himself shoots the opposite direction even if they think they're being sincere, to borrow from Paul's archery metaphor, since sin means to miss the mark.

I'm curious your thoughts, Chris says. I would say that you are correct, Chris. So what we're reading here in Romans 3 .23,

again, you mentioned that this is often used as a proof text to talk about the depravity of all man.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Who is justified by his grace? Those that are saved. All. It's the all in verse 23.

Ah, you're asking which word in the sentence. Yes, right, right. What's the focus of the sentence?

I was just answering. Yeah, you're all right. I mean, you're correct. Yes. But yeah, as it pertains to this sentence, who is the all?

All have sinned and fall short of God's glory and are justified by his grace. It doesn't mean all mankind.

It doesn't mean every single person in the world. So the context of this specifically is talking about believers,

Jew or Gentile, all Jew or Gentile have sinned and fall short of God's glory.

Exactly right, Chris. You got that right. Yep. And are justified by his grace through a gift. All who believe in Christ, Jew or Gentile, are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom

God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.

So it is by faith that we are justified. All who believe by faith have fallen short of God's glory but are justified by his grace.

So that is the context. You're correct in that. I don't think, though, that it's wrong to say that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

As long as we're explaining what that means. Because this is indeed coming on the heels of Paul having explained that all of mankind is fallen.

And it doesn't matter whether you are Gentile or Jew, everyone, everybody has sinned and fallen short of God's glory.

Even though the Jews were given the oracles of God, even though they had the law, they still didn't keep the law.

So they still failed at the law. Of course, the Gentiles who didn't have the law sinned and transgressed and they're going to be worthy of the judgment of God that comes upon them if they do not repent and believe in Christ.

But as Paul has brought all men into condemnation from chapter 1, verse 18 through chapter 3, verse 23, then in that sense, you can still use that text to understand.

But I do think if you're going to use that as like an evangelism tool, if you're going to use it like a

Romans Road kind of a way in which you're sharing the gospel with somebody else, then you're going to have to explain what is meant by all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory.

Now Pastor Tom and I, Tom Buck, just yesterday we were talking in my office about Jonah, because that's the sermon series we're going through in church right now.

So if you listen to our Sunday morning series, Tom has been taking us through the book of Jonah, and we're getting to the section where Jonah is now, he's been vomited out by the fish onto dry land, and he's going to go to Nineveh and he's going to tell the city to repent.

Well, he doesn't preach the gospel to Nineveh, he tells them that destruction is coming upon them, that because of their wickedness, because of the evil that they have done, the judgment of God is going to come down upon this wicked, depraved city.

And because Jonah said that, then all the city is moved and they desire to repent.

We don't just see Jonah preach a message that way. And again, Jonah's not preaching the gospel there, there's no crucified

Christ risen again and ascended into glory in the message that Jonah shares,

Christ is not yet come. It hasn't happened yet. Exactly. So there's no gospel there, but Jonah's not the only one who preaches this way.

Paul does the same at the Areopagus. So his sermon at Mars Hill does not contain,

Jesus died on the cross for your sins and rose again from the grave. What it does contain is, the times of ignorance

God has overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because the day of judgment is coming, that God is appointed, and he's even shown who your judge is going to be by raising him from the dead.

And that's at the point where the Greeks go, oh, come on, resurrection of the dead, you got to be kidding me. And they dismiss everything that he says, except for a few who go, we want to listen to more of this.

We want to hear more about what you have to say about this. So Paul preaches a message of judgment, that if you don't repent, judgment is coming upon you.

And doesn't even resolve that message by preaching the gospel in any way at the conclusion of that.

And yet it's through Jonah's proclamation of judgment, and Paul's proclamation of judgment, that there are people who come to faith and believe.

It's beautiful. And we don't talk about judgment anymore. We don't. You just rarely.

Don't judge me. Yeah, exactly. That's instead the mantra of the culture, even among evangelicalism, don't judge me.

Matthew 7, 1, judge not lest you be judged. Right. But we need to hear about the message of judgment.

Otherwise, Christ is not a savior. What has he saved you from, if not from the judgment of God that is coming against all the wickedness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth?

They talk about judgment like it's a really bad thing to judge anybody.

And as a parent, I judge all day. I'm like, no, you're doing wrong.

Yes, that's right. Come over here and get your wrath. So, I mean, and I saw it whenever I was going to college.

They were saying, you know, don't tell the children no anymore, redirect. Yeah, because you majored in children's education.

Yeah, I did. And so it was like, just redirect them to something they can do. And I'm like, well, when a child is on the top of a loft throwing books down at the other children, how am

I supposed to get up there and redirect him before he hits one of the other kids in the face with a book?

And so you say no. You do have to say no sometimes. And you say, you're doing wrong.

And there has to be consequences. Otherwise, he's going to do it again. And so it's just one of those things where it's – now, that wasn't our children.

That was an example of a daycare that I worked at. But anyway. But it was still one of those things that it's – we need that.

It is a good thing that we are judged, that we are scared to be judged, that we should correct ourselves, that God gives us opportunities to correct ourselves, like, all the time.

Yeah, you woke up today as another opportunity. Yeah. And, I mean, just through the book of Jonah, like, how many opportunities was he given to repent?

Exactly. You know, Pastor Thomas pointed that out multiple times of how many opportunities was he given to repent and what did it take for him to finally repent and go do the work that God told him to do.

Three days in the belly of a stinky fish. There you go. That's what it took. That's right. So don't be that guy.

Praise God you have not had to spend three days in the belly of a fish. But anyway, so judgment is a good thing.

It is scary and nobody likes it. It's very uncomfortable, but it's for our good and for his glory.

Yeah. Some of what you're talking about here, though, is conviction. Yes, that too. So that we don't have to face judgment.

Right. Right. But we are – you're talking about judgment in the sense of – well, like admonishment.

Not the end judgment, like where we go to heaven or hell judgment. But, like, you know what I mean? Yeah. Admonishing.

Admonishing. The word you used at the beginning. Okay. Sure. Yeah. So correcting and admonishing one another with all wisdom.

So according to the word of God, we correct one another, bring each other to right behavior. Right. To the world that does not know

Christ and therefore is not following his word. Thinks you're judging them. Yeah, right. We tell them of the judgment that is to come.

So that they would turn from their sin, which is rebelling against God. It is breaking his law.

That they would turn from that to Christ who fulfilled the law. They would be forgiven their sins and by faith in Christ, their sins are atoned for.

Propitiation. He is the propitiation for our sins. And now in Christ Jesus, we have not only forgiveness, but we have fellowship with God and we are fellow heirs with Christ of the eternal kingdom that is promised to us.

Now, I don't know how much you've done or how many times you've watched a Ray Comfort video on YouTube where he's done evangelism or maybe a

Jeff Durbin video. But there are occasions in which they will speak to some of the sinners, people living in outright rebellion, even while they're standing there talking to Ray.

They're sinning right there in front of the camera. Right. There are times when he's pointing out to them their wickedness and never gives them the gospel.

And you'll see in the comments down there, people going, why didn't you preach the gospel to them? Well, because Ray and his discernment knows if I'm going to preach the name of Christ to this person, they're just going to blaspheme his name.

Their heart has not been conditioned to recognize their sin and wickedness and to therefore resolve it with the gospel.

That they realize, yeah, I have done wrong. I need to be forgiven for my sins. Then you give them the gospel.

Right. So there are times when it is acceptable. Don't cast your pearls before swine. Exactly that.

Yeah. That's Matthew 7 .6. So Jesus said not to give what is sacred to dogs.

Right. So if you have people out there, they're just outright going to blaspheme the name of Christ and trample upon it, then don't give them the gospel.

Plant the seeds is what they used to say. Yeah. I don't know if they still say that now, but where you plant a seed and then you water it and water it and water it and then it grows.

Right. So don't give them what they're not going to accept at that point.

Give them what they will accept at that point. But it is, yeah, it is right for us to be warning the world about the judgment that is to come.

That's step one. And then we're doing as the two witnesses in Revelation 11, or we're doing as Jonah or we're doing as Christ or we're doing as Paul.

Where we're spewing out fire. That's right. Hey, that's the word of God right there. Yeah. Warning about the fire, the judgment that is to come.

That is true. And then as Paul said in Romans 12, that's even heaping hot coals.

Yes. On the heads of our enemies. Yeah, that's right. So this is speaking in a loving way that we would warn people of the judgment that is to come so that they would turn from it and turn to Christ and be saved.

Right. That is our desire in this ministry and I hope it would be for you and your church as well.

Now, there is one email that I did not get to here and I've already closed my window. We'll get to one or two of these emails next week,

God willing. Yes. We are still receiving emails at when we understand the text from people who are in lockdown.

Oh, yeah. Or their churches are starting to accept some of the mandates that are being imposed upon them by their local governments.

And they're segregating the body of Christ. And there are people that either. Like you can't come to church unless you have a shot.

I'm getting emails about that. Oh, man. Of people saying, what do I do? I can't go to any church around where I live unless I get the shot.

Or I go to church and they're going to make me sit in a room and watch it on a monitor. Or I can't come in unless I wear a mask and I physically can't wear a mask.

I get emails from people saying I physically can't take the shot. Yeah. Because they have a heart condition or something like that.

It would actually be dangerous for them. Right. To take the COVID shot. So we're getting emails like this and they break my heart.

It breaks my heart to see this going on. Not just that churches are doing this to each other, which if you're doing that, repent.

Really? Lest the Lord would remove your lampstand from you.

Don't segregate the body of Christ in this way. Don't turn people away. No, you can't come in here.

Right. To hear the life -saving message of the gospel or fellowship with the body of Christ because you have not taken an experimental man -made pharmaceutical shot.

Your church will crumble. And God will judge you. I'm deeply concerned about that.

But my heart breaks for those Christians that really want to go to church. And they can't be fed.

And they can't. They can't get there. Because somebody has decided that they're not fit to be part of the body of Christ for some earthly reason.

Is it the new Gentile and Jews? I mean, wouldn't call it that. But it's a segregation of some kind.

It's prejudice. And yet we are told in James 2 .1, show no partiality as you hold to the gospel of our

Lord Jesus Christ. So my heart breaks for you. I want to be more diligent about responding to those emails in particular.

I don't always get to respond to every email that I get. Because sometimes I can get a dozen in a single day. But I do want to be more diligent about responding to those emails that I'm getting from people who are saying, we can't go to church anywhere.

If anything, so that I can be an encouragement to you and to let you know that we are praying for you.

So I'm going to collect some of those emails together. And we will, you know, do something to respond to some of those things.

What are some solutions? What can we do? Continue to hold fast to Christ. Talk to those pastors and those elders.

Go to them and say exactly what you said to me. I can't take the shot. I can't wear a mask. We want to come and we want a fellowship.

Make sure you have the right attitude and the right heart. Yes. Don't, I mean, it's frustrating. Don't get me wrong.

But don't take that out on them. Yeah. They need to hear truthfully and calmly so that way they can accept what you're saying rather than hear your tone or your attitude or, you know, those kind of things that tend to be heard first, even though it's not what you're saying.

So be sure that you've prayed before you go and you are calm and collected and, you know, remember the fruit of the spirit.

Yeah. Absolutely. And take one or two others along. Yes. That every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

Yes, definitely. Take 20 people along. Yes. I mean, if you've got that many people from your congregation that are heartbroken over this and your elders need to be confronted over it, then do that.

Gather those people together and say, look, this is a problem. And what you're doing is unbiblical.

You are dividing the body of Christ over something that worldly rulers are telling us that we have to do, which now they're governing over the church when they have no claim over the church.

The church belongs to God. It does not belong to this world. Right. So you must understand, with the apostles in Acts 5, we must serve

God rather than men. I think that's the most frustrating part is because we've just kind of given it.

The fear of man. Yeah, we've given it over to them. But, I mean, I don't know.

As a whole, the church has not been grounded like it has, you know, throughout history.

Worldwide. I mean, this is a global problem. Yeah, I know. Of what's going on. And I'm getting emails from different countries.

Yeah. So, again, my heart breaks for you guys. We'll continue to pray.

We are blessed here in Texas that we can gather in church every Sunday. Amen. And, you know, as I talk about these things,

I recognize COVID is a real disease. And it really kills people.

Yes. And I've witnessed that. But it is not what people have been saying it is.

Nor is this shot what people are saying that it is. You can go back a few months ago to videos from the

CDC, from Joe Biden, and from others who are saying if you take the COVID shot, you will not get

COVID. We know now that was not true. You can get the shot and still catch

COVID. The narrative is constantly changing. Yes. Stop doing what these worldly con artists are telling you to do.

Take safety precautions. Absolutely. Because it's a real disease and it really does kill people. Yes.

I'm not saying don't be reckless, but don't listen to everything that the world is telling you in this particular narrative.

We must obey God rather than men. Yeah. You're not saying to be reckless. Sorry. What did

I say? Don't be reckless. Not saying don't be reckless. I'm not saying. Don't be reckless. I'm not saying be reckless.

Yes. Right. Yes. Just to clarify. That word is confusing anyway. Reckless driving means that I'm bashing into stuff.

Yes. That doesn't make any sense. I know. Reckless. Reckless. Yeah. Okay. One of those

English words. On that note, went from real serious to really kidding there.

Sorry. Yeah. Well, let's pray. We'll pray for those who are. Back to serious. Yes. Who have been struggling through this pandemic, especially as it pertains to going to church.

And once again, if you have any other questions or comments, email them to us when we understand the text at gmail .com.

Let's pray. Yes, let's. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what you have blessed us with daily.

The message of the gospel that we wake up rejoicing in every day. I pray that would be our attitude.

That we know that your mercies are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.

Thank you for leading us to Christ, for giving us your Holy Spirit. And may we continue in the wisdom of God in this world until the day of Christ.

We know that you are building your church. That the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

So may we continue to be active in the mission of the church that we have been called to do.

Not shrinking back, not afraid of this world, of cancel culture, of mankind, of pandemics or disease or anything else.

But we trust in the name of the Lord our God. There are people who trust in horses and chariots.

We trust in God. God is sovereign. We put our faith and trust in you.

I pray for my brothers and sisters in the Lord who are not able to attend church this weekend because somebody who claims to be a brother or sister in Christ has told them they can't come because they don't meet certain qualifications.

May those hearts be convicted. May they stop segregating churches in this way. But that you also give wisdom to those who really want to go to church.

What they need to do to talk to these church leaders. That they may recognize the wisdom that they are operating with is not of God but of the world.

And that we would be guided according to your word and not man's word. I pray that you would continue to stir in our hearts a desire to want to be with one another in the body of Christ.

That we not be comfortable with being separated. But we want to be with the people of God. This is heaven practice.

What we see in the book of Revelation with the people of God around the throne singing your praises forever. We get to do that every

Sunday that we gather on the Lord's Day. It's a wonderful thing to do. So let's not get comfortable with staying at home or watching on the internet.

We long to be with the people of God as we long to be with God in heaven in glory.

Stir our hearts to you. May we desire holiness in these days. Walking in upright and godly lives in the present age.

Holding out the message of the gospel to a crooked and dying generation. So that we may shine as lights in the world.

It is in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. Amen. Study in the word of Christ.

No. A daily Bible study. You should have put a comma there, but yeah.

Yeah. It's all right. I should be fine. We'll see. This is when we understand the text.

Text. Text. My voice got out. This is when we understand the text.

Stop. I can't. I can't stop. Okay. Baby.