WWUTT 990 Q&A False Conversion, Jehovah's Witnesses, Was King Saul Saved?

How can you know if you have experienced a false conversion? Is Way of the

Master a good formula for evangelism? Was King Saul saved? The answers to these questions and others when we

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When we Understand the Text, a daily study in the Word of Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky, who is not in studio with me today.

I'm sorry. I know every time we get to a Friday episode and she's not able to be on with me,

I can hear the gasps from our listening audience. They're coming right through my headphones.

She is not even in the state right now, though, so nothing I can do about it. Her and her friend

Sonia decided to take a road trip. They're in St. Louis right now. This has been a crazy busy week.

I tried to get the podcast recorded Monday or Tuesday so she and I could do it together and it just never worked out.

So I am flying solo, not just on the podcast, but I'm even doing the dad thing by myself.

Hey, don't forget that we are doing our Christmas in July giveaway every

Friday in the month of July. We're giving away the book 25 Christmas myths and what the

Bible says is the book I came out with just this past December, a flash drive with 250 what videos on it.

And then we're also throwing in an extra book on top of that. This week, the giveaway is

Kosti Hinn's book, God, Greed and the Prosperity Gospel. He just came out with it this past Tuesday.

And so that's the book that I've added into the Christmas book and the flash drive.

So yeah, if you want to enter the contest, all you have to do is send us an email.

You can either share a story about what well, what has meant to you, or you can ask a question that will be asked on the

Friday edition of the broadcast. Send your email to when we understand the text at gmail .com.

Be sure to include your name and address. I'm not going to hunt anybody down. So your name and address has to be on there if you want to be in for the giveaway.

Our 1000th episode is coming up in two weeks, July the 26th.

And on that day, it'll be an even bigger prize package that we will give away for the

Christmas in July giveaway. Thank you so much for your support of when we understand the text.

This is just something that we're doing to say thank you to our listeners giving away free stuff in the month of July.

All right, let's get to the questions here. And again, submit those questions to when we understand the text, all one word at gmail .com.

This is from Dwayne. Dear Pastor Gabe and Becky, and all these emails that I get here that are also co -addressed to Becky, she'll read them too.

She even reads some of the emails that don't make it on the air. Dwayne says, first, let me thank you for your ministry, unashamedly teaching

Bible truth, confronting false teaching, addressing things that we thought were in the Bible but aren't, and throwing in some humor along the way.

It has been a treasure of great value to me. Thank you so much, Dwayne. I grew up in church,

Arminian as I look back, made my confession of faith and was baptized around age eight.

But I walked away in high school due to some emotionally painful incidents by church leaders and a very nasty church civil war slash split.

Dwayne, I went through one of those things, too, when I was in high school. I unfortunately had to see my church split over eschatology, of all things, a disagreement on end times theology.

Dwayne goes on, recently I discovered the beautiful truth of reformed theology. However, this has made me question the faith in which

I was raised. I always believed that Jesus was the son of God who came to earth and died on the cross for the atonement of my sins.

And so I could receive salvation and the gift of eternal life by faith in Christ.

Amen. But things stopped after confession of faith and baptism. There was never any instruction on what to do next.

And ongoing sanctification was not mentioned and consequently only became aware to me recently after discovering reformed theology.

So here is my question. Am I truly saved, but my sanctification is severely lacking, or was it a false conversion and I have belief rather than faith?

Sorry for the length of this, but thank you for making your teaching so clear and easy to understand.

P .S. Becky is the best part of the Friday Q &A episodes. Just saying.

Dwayne, I'm not going to argue with you there. I absolutely agree. Becky is the best part of the

Q &A, so we're missing our best part of the broadcast today. Now, whether or not you experienced a false conversion,

I would not be able to tell just based on what it is that you've shared with me. In fact, Dwayne, if I was your pastor and we were sitting down in my office and you shared with me, even in greater detail, your story, your past, your testimony,

I still wouldn't be able to tell you for sure whether or not you experienced a false conversion.

That's only something that you can know. Only you can know that. When you go through 1

John and the apostle says, like in chapter five, I have written these things to you that you may know that you have eternal life over and over.

John says that you may know that's why he is writing this letter, so that you may be reminded and you may know of the salvation that you have in Christ Jesus.

Only you can know that that is between you and the Lord. Only a person who has a profession of faith knows for certain whether or not that profession is real and is genuine.

Now, I think that most of us get saved in an Arminian kind of fashion, the whole thing of it's up to you.

You need to make this decision. You need to say the prayer or walk the aisle, jump in the baptismal, you know, whatever it is, and then write the date down that you did all of these things in your

Bible so that you will always be reminded on this date. You made this profession of faith and you can never lose it.

And and yeah, so it's like the prayer was the thing that had the power and no matter what happened to you, as long as you can look at that date, then you know that you are saved.

But that's not the power of God for salvation to all who believe our ceiling is the Holy Spirit of God that has guaranteed us for that day of redemption.

And as Paul says in Philippians one, six, I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it at the day of Christ.

Now, I had a pretty substantial period in my life where I was pretty stagnant in my sanctification.

If anything, I was probably moving backwards. And in that time in my life, if somebody had said to me, if you don't repent right now, you're going to hell, they probably would have been right.

I was a Christian in name only. I was I was I was still a rather upstanding young man, but I had put confidence in my works, rather confidence in Christ.

But I do not doubt when I had made a confession of faith to Christ and when

I was baptized, all of those things that had taken place before my stagnation in sanctification.

I just had a moment of backsliding and thank God he grabbed a hold of me, convicted me of my sin, turned me back around.

And I had a real come to Jesus moment full of tears and falling down on the floor in my apartment that I was living in at that particular time.

So I came to an awareness of my sin and need for my savior, which

I had never forgotten. As David had said in Psalm 119, though I take my life in my hand continually,

I will not forget your law. And the Lord God had written those things on my heart, even though in my mind

I was probably going after my flesh more than I was going after the spirit. Certainly in the things of the flesh are contrary to the spirit.

So I know I couldn't be doing one and the other. It was either one or the other. But but nevertheless, the things that my parents had instilled in me, those things that I had clung to when

I was young had never fully left me. And they protected me, though I was in a state of going after my own flesh.

I could have fallen into way worse sin than I actually did. So it was kind of like my prodigal child moment.

And I came back to the Lord. And it was then that I also came into some more reformed doctrines.

Now, I always had quite a view of of the sovereignty of God. I wouldn't have called it reformed theology, but it was certainly much more than Arminianism.

I started learning from from preachers who were definitely of the more reformed side of things and didn't even realize that what they all had in common was they were all

Calvinists, but they all preached the gospel. And I recognize that that's what I needed in my life.

I didn't want the three point sermon to a better marriage or better finances or a happier life.

How to enjoy your job. I'd heard those things growing up. I could preach those sermons better than the guys who were preaching them.

I needed the gospel. I needed to know that I was a sinner and I needed

Christ. So those were the sermons that I went for. I wanted the the

Bible based sermons preaching from the scriptures, elevating Christ, preaching the gospel, making me feel miserable, realizing the sin that I was guilty of in the presence of a holy

God. I knew it was not going to be easy to listen to a lot of the things that I needed to listen to, but I knew that's what

I needed. So the guys that I found who were preaching the gospel just happened to all be

Calvinists. I wasn't looking for Calvinism or reformed theology, but those were the guys who were doing the expository preaching, who were talking about sin and the need for the gospel and and just elevating

Christ above everything. They all happen to be Calvinists. That's where you find that most glorified teaching,

I truly believe. So I came into some richer doctrines at that point. And I will I'll be able to say with you,

Duane, it felt like getting saved all over again. That's the way it felt. But you may have seen this quote from Charles Spurgeon, who said that like when you when you come to learn the doctrines of grace, it's like getting saved all over again.

It's it's like the doors have opened up for you into the courtroom of grace like you have never known before.

And all of us, as we grow in maturity, there are probably going to be various stages in which we will feel like, you know, we've we've leapt over something or we've we've conquered another mountain as we continue this progression of growing in sanctification.

You should be able to look back on your life and see a much more mature believer now than you were back then, especially when it comes to when you were baptized, like looking back at who you were when you got baptized.

This is not uncommon for me as a pastor to field questions from people who say, you know,

I look back to who I was when I got baptized. I don't even recognize that person.

I don't even think that person was saved. Do I need to get baptized again? That's going to be a common examination, because that person who got baptized was a babe in the faith.

They were an infant. And you've grown so much in maturity since then that you're looking back on a person that that is so immature that they almost look like an unbeliever by comparison.

I want to be very careful when I say that, because I don't think you should be comparing other people's maturity level with yours and then saying, well, they're not actually saved based on the standard of yourself.

We can measure a person according to what scripture says and the the fruit that they are showing.

I hope I'm not going too much off on a rabbit trail here. But anyway, yeah, when you look back at yourself, you're going to see a babe in the faith, practically an unbeliever, because that person just got saved.

And then suddenly they're getting baptized. But you only need that baptism once, as Peter says in First Peter, it is an appeal to God for a clear conscience.

You are showing through your baptism that you have been buried with Christ in your sins and you've been raised again with Christ to new life.

So you're walking in new life. You've got a brand new life that has been given you in Christ.

That guy's come right out of his tomb and he's starting to walk with new legs on a pathway of righteousness, looking to Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith.

So the way you are now in that journey is much different than who you were when you first started, most certainly.

But whether or not you were actually saved in that moment, again, that's not anything that I would be able to tell you.

But I would just say I don't see a reason for that kind of examination and then have to do a real baptism like like I didn't didn't do the baptism right the first time.

So maybe I need to do it now. I've not yet heard a compelling story that would lead me to believe that a person needs to get rebaptized.

The only time that I have done what would be considered to be a rebaptism, quote unquote, is when a person was baptized in just outright heresy.

Like, for example, they were baptized a Mormon. And I've done that before. I've baptized a man who was previously

Mormon. He was baptized in a Mormon church. That wasn't even a real baptism. They didn't even know

Christ. So it was not a baptism into Christ's death and resurrection because the

Mormon church doesn't even teach the right. Jesus is just a made up God that they have whose name is

Jesus. So therefore, he got baptized for real the first time. But I've not I don't think

I've ever baptized anybody who was actually baptized in a Protestant church and had a right understanding of baptism when they were baptized.

But then feels like their baptism wasn't legitimate. So now they need to do it again. I've never done that before.

I've had those conversations a few times with a person who thinks that they need to get baptized again, but it's never actually resulted in another baptism.

So again, Dwayne, that's something for you to examine. But on the surface, I would say I can't tell you whether you were actually saved or not in that moment that you're examining.

But I would still say I don't see a reason why you would have to get rebaptized. All right, next question.

This one comes from John. How's it going, Pastor Gabe and Miss Becky? Greetings from Birmingham, Alabama. I first encountered your what videos from wretched when

Todd Freel used it. And I've been hooked ever since. Fantastic. I love Todd. Have you noticed that Todd's growing a beard right now?

I just saw that yesterday. I just maybe I've missed several wretched videos of him in the studio, you know, kind of those radio segments that he'll do, and they'll video those segments, and then they'll be on the wretched channel.

Anyway, I guess I've missed a few because I didn't know he was growing a beard. It looks good. He's starting to look like a reformed

Baptist. Anyway, John goes on. And my question is, what is the biblical way to refuse non biblical

Christians like Jehovah's Witnesses? I try to be polite, but they won't stop showing up at my house, stopping me at the store or asking to jog with me when

I'm at the park. Wow, you've got some aggressive Jehovah's Witnesses in your community.

They pretty much avoid me around here. We just had some come to our door a couple of weeks ago, and I was on.

I think I was at the church. Can't remember what I was doing, but Becky tried to get ahold of me. Oh, I was in the shower.

That's what it was. I was upstairs in the shower, and Becky got cornered by the Jehovah's Witnesses who came by our house, and she was like, where were you?

I needed you down here. Anyway, I thought we were blacklisted. I didn't think they were coming by our house anymore at all because I'll stand outside and talk with them.

I got my Bible right there, and I'll tell them where they're wrong, but in a polite manner.

So, John, your question is, how do I respond to them in a biblical way? Well, you need to do so with politeness.

You need to respond to them as you would any unbeliever, because they are unbelievers.

They have a very corrupt translation of the Bible. It's not even the real

Bible. It is what Charles Taze Russell decided he wanted to rewrite the Bible to be.

Anyway, so as you're witnessing to a Jehovah's Witness, you're witnessing to a lost person, and you need to do that politely with Scripture holding forth the word of God.

It is the gospel that is going to transform even a Jehovah's Witness. Now, I think that we do need to be shrewd, shrewd as serpents, gentle as doves.

Just as Jesus said to his disciples to be, I send you out as sheep amidst the wolves.

And so in that shrewdness, we need to know that there's going to be a certain way we respond to a Jehovah's Witness that we're not necessarily going to respond to like your average

American Christian, quote unquote, who has that, you know, cultural, a culturalized version of Christianity, but they really hardly ever attend church or even crack their

Bible open. You're going to respond to that person one way and a Jehovah's Witness another way.

There are some good videos out there on YouTube. I know that James White has talked about this quite a bit in his witnessing and debates with Jehovah's Witnesses.

There's some good videos with Jeff Durbin as well, Apologia, encountering

Jehovah's Witnesses on the sidewalk and and the way that they engage with the Jehovah's Witness.

Check those things out because they, you know, again, have their own version of the

Bible, but they're going to understand the passages of scripture a certain way because Charles Taze Russell said that's actually the way that you need to read it.

So I think it's wise to know what those passages say and how you can respond whenever a

Jehovah's Witness says, well, see, you read a corrupt version of the Bible and what ours says is this.

There's a right way to go about it and just be polite. Don't get frustrated, even though they want to come and jog with you or whatever.

Just strike up a conversation, be polite with them. And generally what's going to happen, at least this is the case with most

Jehovah's Witnesses. If you are able to soundly defend your faith according to the word of God and show them that what they believe is a false

Christ, Jesus was not the archangel Michael. OK, he is not a created being.

He is the creator. He is eternally existent with God, the father and the

Holy Spirit. I mean, Jehovah's Witnesses don't even believe in a Holy Spirit. But anyway, when you are able to soundly defend your faith with Jehovah's Witness that way.

Hopefully what's going to result is they're going to repent and follow Christ. I mean, that's ultimately what you want, that they come to believe the true gospel and be saved.

But more often than not, they are going to get fed up with you and you'll get blacklisted or they'll try to avoid you and not come visit with you at all.

Sounds to me like you have a little bit more aggressive Jehovah's Witnesses in your community than I have in mine.

I wish that I could engage with our local Jehovah's Witnesses. One thing I've noticed, though, is that all of them who go around doing door to door stuff and that I encounter at the grocery store and they'll stand out there with their stands and the

Jehovah's Witness literature and that kind of stuff. They're all women. I don't think I've seen a single

Jehovah's Witness guy in my community. I know a couple of them who claim to be, but I've never seen them out there proselytizing.

So it's interesting that the proselytes, the evangelists of the Jehovah's Witnesses in my own town are all women.

And they also carry tablets like iPads. And whenever I ask them a question, they've got this stuff set up.

They've heard all of this. Whatever question I can ask, they've heard it and they've got it set up on their tablet.

So I'll ask a question and they just go boop, boop, you know, and their script comes up or the answers that they're supposed to respond with and the passages of the scripture that they're supposed to give.

There is one conversation that I had where one of the gals said, well, look up this verse in John. And I can't remember which verse it is now.

And when I looked it up, I saw that the verse that she told me to read actually started in the middle of a sentence.

One of those verses that wasn't a whole sentence in one verse, but it was like in the middle of a sentence. So what

I did when she told me to read that verse, I started in the verse before I read the verse she told me to read and I read the verse after.

And when I did that, I looked at them and they were I could tell in their faces they were perplexed.

And in the moment of silence that we shared, I broke it by saying, do you gals see that what you were going to tell me to read out of this passage is not what it actually means?

When I read the verse before and read the verse after, it means something different than you were going to tell me it means. And they didn't they didn't affirm yes or no.

They just went, well, let's look at another passage and then went to another one. OK, so you need to have a familiarity with scripture.

You need to know the typical kinds of Jehovah's Witness arguments that you're going to hear and how to respond to them.

So I would recommend those apology videos in particular, Jeff Durbin, the way that he interacts with Jehovah's Witness, some of the questions they ask him, some of the ways that he responds and the manner in which he responds as well.

Always very polite, very civil, civil treats anyone that he engages with with dignity.

So I hope that'll be helpful for you, John. And and I'll be praying for you as well, that the

Lord would be able to use you to be a good witness to the Jehovah's Witnesses in your community, a good witness to the witnesses.

Jackson sends the next email here. He says, hello, Becky. Hey, thank you for your work in the

Lord. I learned a lot from your ministry. May God continue to use you to further his glory. Thank you so much,

Jackson. I'd like to ask you what you think of the way of the master, an evangelism method in reaching out to the lost, using the

Ten Commandments to show the wretchedness of man before telling them the gospel. I heard in your previous podcast that you have an evangelism class in church and the method that you are using is likened to this model.

Please pray for us as we do evangelism in a local park in a local park on Saturday, July 13th.

Your brother in Christ certainly will pray for you, Jackson. Yes, I think that the way of the master is a fantastic way to share the gospel.

You understand why they call this method the way of the master, right? It's because it's exactly the way that Jesus shared the gospel by referring to the

Ten Commandments. I think the prime example of that is in Mark chapter 10, when Jesus visited with the rich young ruler.

Mark 10, I'll start in verse 17. As Jesus was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, good teacher, what must

I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, why do you call me good?

No one is good except God alone. Now, there are skeptics who have taken that particular passage to say that Jesus did not ever claim to be the

Messiah or claim to be God. But all Jesus is doing here is challenging the heart of this young man.

He does it right from the very get go, and he does it routinely throughout their interaction.

If this young man is going to call him good, then he must believe that he is God, for only

God is good. But you can tell by the way that the young man engages Christ, he doesn't have that understanding from his very greeting.

Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? He just thinks of Jesus as some kind of philosopher who's hopefully going to tell him that the way that he lives his life is good enough and he's guaranteed to have eternal life.

So Jesus says, why do you call me good? Do you know that I am God or do you just think that I'm a teacher that's going to tell you what it is that you want to hear?

No one is good except God alone. Jesus says, you know, the commandments do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and your mother.

Jesus is using that way of the master method because he is the master. That's why that method gets called that is because it's the way that Jesus would engage with the gospel, convicting a person in their heart of sin, using the law.

And then the young man said to him, teacher, all of these I have kept from my youth and Jesus looking at him, loved him.

And in Mark's gospel in particular, this is the place where it says that Jesus loved him.

There the story of the rich young ruler is elsewhere in the gospels, but it's only in Mark's account where it says that Jesus loved the young man.

And so therefore said to him, out of love, you lack one thing. Go sell all that you have, give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me.

Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had many great possessions. So you notice that Jesus went through a list of the

Ten Commandments and it was all like the horizontal commandments, not love the Lord, your God, keep the

Sabbath. You know, it wasn't any of those commandments. He said, do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and your mother, which is the one that he left off of the list.

He left off, do not covet the one of the Ten Commandments that really deals with the heart, not something that's done externally, but something that's going on internally within the person.

And this is a young man who had many great possessions and he coveted. He believed that he was good enough on his own merit, that he had kept all of the law and that he was blessed because of all the stuff that he had.

And we understand that even from the disciples reaction as you go on in that story, it was understood by Jews, by Hebrews at that particular time, that if a person had a lot of stuff, that they were blessed by God.

So this young man thought that he was saved because of his good works and his good stuff.

Yet he did not recognize the only one who is good, and that is God alone, Jesus Christ, who challenged him from the get go.

You must know that I am good and that is the way that you have eternal life.

You're a sinner. God is good. You are convicted of your sin.

And this young man, he actually was convicted when Jesus said, you lack one thing.

Go sell all that you have to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me. Disheartened by the saying, why was he disheartened?

Because he was grieved over it. He was convicted that he was not good enough, according to this teacher that he had called good.

So there was a conviction in his heart, but it was not a conviction leading to repentance, as the apostle

Paul says in Second Corinthians, there is a grief that is a worldly grief that leads to death.

And there's a grief that is a godly grief that leads to repentance. And what this young man experienced was grief leading to death because it was not a grief that led to repentance.

It wasn't a godly grief. So it's using the law that convicts a person of sin that makes a person aware of the fact that they have committed lawlessness, which, according to John and First John, that is what sin is.

Sin is lawlessness. It is breaking the law of God. So a person realizes that all have sinned and therefore themselves as well.

No one will be able to boast in their own righteousness when they hear the law.

For, as it says in Romans 320, it is by the hearing of the law that every mouth is stopped.

No one is able to proclaim their own righteousness because they hear in the law that they have broken it and therefore fallen short of the glory of God.

And as it says in Proverbs, every man thinks he is right in his own eyes. So you go up to a person and say, do you think you're a good person?

Ninety nine times out of 100, they're going to say, yeah, I'm a good person because everybody thinks that he's right in his own eyes until you give them the law.

And then they become aware of their sin and their need for a savior. This is the purpose of the law.

This is what we use the law for, to show a person their sin and need for a savior.

And then you resolve the grief that they may feel over their sin with the gospel of Christ.

God didn't leave us dead in our sins to expire, to perish, to be judged because we had rebelled against God.

But he sent his son Jesus to die on the cross in our place so that all who believe in him will not perish, but will have everlasting life.

Our sins will be forgiven. We will be justified before God and we will have eternal life with him in heaven, in glory because of faith in Christ and what he did on the cross for us, for our sins.

Rising again from the grave to conquer death so that all who are in Christ would not experience the sting of death, the permanence of death.

Certainly we would live forever with God in his eternal kingdom.

So there you go, Jackson. Yes, the way of the master method certainly has the blessing in our church.

Young man in our church named Raymond. He's currently a deacon trainee in our church, but he put together our evangelism class and used that way of the master method.

So the first sermon that he did in that series, he talked about our own sin, the need for everybody in that class to recognize their own sin and need for a savior.

And then where he went to next in the next lesson was talking about the law, that we would become very familiar with the law because this is the first step we're going to use in evangelism is bringing everyone to an understanding of their sin according to what the law says.

And then resolving that with the gospel, which of course would have been the next method. Now, in the class, we also did some exercises like one of the things that Raymond did is he went through various faith beliefs, different things that different people believe.

He talked about how to respond to an atheist, an agnostic, how to respond to a Mormon, a

Jehovah's Witness, somebody who was passive, somebody who was hostile, you know, different personality types that you might encounter.

So you can do a little role play and an evangelism class as well, which would require you to also have to know your opponent's position.

That's something that R .C. Sproul was very big on. He said that if you're going to argue anything, it is necessary for you to know your opponent's position.

You must be able to argue your opponent's position as well as they do, if not better than they do, if you're going to win the argument.

And that way you can know how to answer each person. Peter said in 1

Peter 3, 15, in your heart, set apart Christ as holy, always being ready to give an answer for the hope that lies within you.

But do this with gentleness and respect. And Paul said in Colossians chapter four, let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt so that you may know how to answer each person accordingly.

Hope that's helpful for you, Jackson. Next question comes from Stephen in Texas. Dear Pastor Gabe and Becky, Becky, first and foremost,

I want to say thank you. Thank you for your faithfulness to teach God's word, even though all the responsibilities that you have.

I appreciate that, Stephen, because I've really been feeling the pressure of of a long list of responsibilities lately.

So I appreciate your gratitude. Thank you for all the work that you and your wife do to bring the videos and podcast into the lives of all who watch and listen.

I was first introduced to your podcast by my pastor a year or two after I was saved.

How that came to be was because of my parents. You see, my parents are Mormons, and I knew that something was wonky about that religion to begin with.

I just wasn't sure what it was. That was when my pastor showed me the what video are

Mormons saved? Needless to say, that opened my eyes to that religion much more.

And I started to do a little bit more research into Mormonism. I confronted my parents about their beliefs, but it ended badly.

I sent you an email telling you about them and how they were, for the lack of a better word, suckered into it, suckered into Mormonism.

Podcast episodes 240 and 245. Wow, that was a long time ago. I've even purchased your book on 40

Mormon beliefs and what the Bible says. Great read and very helpful. I wish that I could tell you that a happy ending has occurred.

But unfortunately, my parents tell me that I should be tolerant and for me to let them believe what they believe.

So frustrating at times. That is how I came to know your videos in your podcast. Now I listen to you and wretched because you've mentioned him as well every day.

All I can say is thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your hard work and dedication.

Thanks again to the both of you. Well, thank you so much, Stephen. Guess what, Stephen? You're going to be the winner today of our

Christmas in July giveaway. You've got the 40 Mormon beliefs and what the

Bible says book. I'm going to add your to your Gabriel Hughes collection. You're also going to get 25

Christmas myths and what the Bible says. You'll get the what flash drive with all of the what videos on it.

And you're also getting Kosti Hinn's book, God, Greed and the Prosperity Gospel.

I hope it is a blessing to you. And once again, for anybody who wants to enter the Christmas in July giveaway, just be sure that you send your an email.

Whether you're sharing a story like Stephen did or you're asking a question for the Friday Q &A, send that email to when we understand the text at gmail .com.

And be sure to include all of your contact info where to mail the prize to when

I'm ready to award it whenever we draw who our winner is going to be so that I've got your information right there.

Thank you once again, Stephen. And congratulations to you. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas in July. Now, I'm feeling particularly generous today, so fret not, that's not the only giveaway

I'm doing in this particular episode. There's another one coming up. Won't be the Kosti Hinn book, but I got another one and a winner already picked.

You'll just have to find out who that's going to be in just a moment. Next question comes from Rob in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Greetings, Pastor Gabe and Becky. I would like to thank you for your ministry, your faithfulness to the truth and the exercise of your gifts in teaching the body of believers.

I pray that your ministry continues to flourish and through the seeds that you've planted, may many come to saving faith in Christ.

I hope for that as well, Rob. And I thank you for that prayer on your part.

I have a few questions for you from First Samuel 28. A brother and I were discussing this.

I know there is a lot of controversy on this chapter, especially with the ghost of Samuel.

So so now Rob asks a series of questions. He says, do you think that King Saul is in hell?

Was there a form of deathbed repentance on his part since he became an enemy of the

Lord and the spirit left him when Samuel said you and your sons will be with me?

Did he mean paradise or Sheol or just death? Could the fattened calf and unleavened bread be a sacrifice given in the story for his forgiveness?

This discussion was started as a debate on God forgiving all of our sins no matter what.

But I was worried that he was using it as a form of antinomianism, especially seeing the heinous acts that Saul did in his life.

Thank you again for all that you do. OK, let me go through these questions that you asked here in order. First of all, do you think that King Saul is in hell?

I do not think that he went the other way. I don't believe he went north.

I believe he went south. If you catch my drift now, we don't know for sure, but that's what the text would lead us to believe.

We don't have any reason to think that he was truly repentant of of what he had done in rebellion against the

Lord. Next question, was there a form of deathbed repentance on his part? See, we don't see that anywhere.

There's nothing that seems to indicate that Saul had a genuine remorse over his sin to the point that it led to repentance.

It's clear that he's pretty depressed when he hears from Samuel that he's about to die and go and join him.

But we don't see that that depression translated into some sort of godly repentance in any way.

And in fact, the way that he dies is very it's a very shameful death. He's being overtaken by the

Philistines. He doesn't want to die by their hand. So he asks his armor bearer to run him through.

And he's asking his armor bearer that so he doesn't fall to the hands of the Philistines, nor does he have to kill himself because he knows how shameful it is even before the

Lord to kill himself, even in the heat of battle like this. And the armor bearer won't kill him.

And so Saul then resolves killing himself would be better than falling into the hands of the Philistines.

So he does that. But but it's like the most shameful way possible that he could have died. And this seems to be the indication for us that that Saul had no favor with God at all, all the way to the point of his death.

That's what the text seems to be communicating to us. Next question, since Saul became an enemy of the

Lord and the spirit left him when Samuel said, you and your sons will be with me, did he mean paradise or Sheol or just death?

First of all, let me highlight there that you mentioned that the spirit of God left him. Remember that the same thing happened to Samson.

The spirit of God had left Samson and he did not know when the Philistines came upon him.

Samson did not know that the spirit of God was no longer with him. And so when he tried to fight the

Philistines this time, he wasn't able to do it. And they overpowered him. They gouged out his eyes.

They made him grind at the mill, shaved his head. Of course, his head was shaved by a

Philistine barber while he was asleep in the lap of Delilah. But anyway, and then as his hair started to grow, he gained strength back.

Samson asked the Lord that he would give him one more bit of strength so that he could overtake his enemies and kill them.

And we see in Samson's life there toward the end that he was repentant over the foolish things that he had done.

He did horrible sin. Samson was guilty of of terrible things. And yet he was repentant before God.

God granted his request and he was able to have a vengeance over his enemies.

He got revenge against the Philistines. Nothing like that happened for Saul. So the spirit left

Saul. There never seems to be any kind of indication that the favor of the Lord ever came back to him again.

So I just wanted to make that point since you mentioned here the spirit of God leaving him. And we saw that same thing happen for Samson.

But Samson repented when Samuel said, you and your sons will be with me.

Did he mean paradise or Sheol or just death? It's simply a reference to death.

I don't think that we get from that that Samuel is saying you're going to come to me with come come with me to paradise or you're going to be sent down to Sheol or Hades.

It's just that you're going to die. You and your sons are going to die. You're going to be with me in the grave tomorrow.

That's basically what Samuel was saying there. And then the next question, could the fattened calf and unleavened bread be a sacrifice given in the story for his forgiveness?

No. As a matter of fact, that whole thing with the fattened calf and unleavened bread demonstrate for us the depression that Saul had, knowing that there wasn't any point in eating anymore since he knew now his death date, he knew exactly when he was going to die.

So what's the point of eating? Let me read to you that particular section. So after Samuel said, tomorrow, you and your sons will be with me.

The Lord will give the army of Israel also into the hand of the Philistines. Verse 20, first Samuel 28, 20 says, then

Saul fell at once full length on the ground, filled with fear because of the words of Samuel.

And there was no strength in him, for he had eaten nothing all day and all night.

And the woman came to Saul. And when she saw that he was terrified, she said to him, behold, your servant has obeyed you.

I have taken my life in my hand and have listened to what you have said to me. Now, therefore, you also obey your servant.

Let me set a morsel of bread before you and eat that you may have strength when you go on your way.

And he refused and said, I will not eat. But his servants, together with the woman, urged him and he listened to their words.

So he arose from the earth and sat on the bed. Now, the woman had a fattened calf in the house and she quickly killed it and she took flour and needed it and baked unleavened bread of it.

And she put it before Saul and his servants and they ate and they rose and went away that night.

Everybody here in this story is is doing what they are doing out of their own self -interest.

The woman is really not looking after Saul. That's not why she killed the fattened calf.

And by the way, the fattened calf was a calf that was specifically was a stall calf for eating.

So so it wasn't a sacrificial calf. That's the point that I'm trying to make. You asked, could the fattened calf and unleavened bread be a sacrifice given in the story for his forgiveness?

No, the fattened calf was a stall animal. It was not a pasture animal. So it was not for sacrifice.

It was being raised specifically for the purpose of eating. So this was not an animal being sacrificed for the forgiveness of sins.

Remember that animals that were offered for sacrifices had to meet certain conditions.

And we don't get that impression with this animal. It was specifically an animal that was for consumption.

And she killed the fattened calf and made bread for him. Why? Because she didn't want

Saul to die in her house. If that were to happen, she could die because she was a necromancer and people could find that Saul's body was there or near to her.

And and therefore she could have gotten in trouble for that. She could have been put to death because Saul died there. And somebody might even blame her for the fact that he died.

The servants wanted Saul to get up and go with them because the servants did not want the

Philistines to overtake them. They thought without Saul, the Philistines are definitely going to kill us.

We need Saul. So they were trying to get him up and get him out so that he could lead the army, potentially lead them to safety or lead them to victory.

They're not believing the words of Samuel here either. They're just looking out for their own lives.

And Saul has no reason to eat at all because he knows he's going to die. There's no reason for him to do anything anymore.

So he just lays there on the ground and is ready to waste away and die there in that very spot.

But he manages to his servants managed to convince him to eat. The woman gives him some food.

So everybody is acting here out of their own self -interest. Saul, the servants and the woman. That's why this story is being told the way that it is.

But Saul knows that he's going to his death and he may have gone out to lead his army out of some sense of nobility because, hey,

I'm a king, I'm not going to abandon my troops to let them die alone. I'm going to go die with them.

But it was it certainly wasn't a godly mobility because there's no sense that he repented.

He experienced grief, but he did not repent as a result of that grief. Meanwhile, you compare or contrast him with somebody like Hezekiah in Second Kings, Chapter 20.

Hezekiah contracts this illness. The prophet Isaiah comes to him and says, set your house in order for you shall die.

You shall not recover. Thus sayeth the Lord. Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall.

He prayed to the Lord, saying, now, oh, Lord, please remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart.

And I have done what is good in your sight. And Hezekiah wept bitterly over his sin.

He was grieved because he had been told by a prophet of God, according to the Lord, that he was going to die.

And then in verse four, Second Kings 20, verse four, before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the

Lord came to him. Turn back and say to Hezekiah, the leader of my people. Thus says the Lord, the

God of David, your father. I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears.

Behold, I will heal you on the third day. You shall go up to the house of the

Lord and I will add 15 years to your life. I will deliver you and the city out of the hand of the king of Assyria.

Who knows? But if Saul had responded that same way, if God would not have turned his hand back from striking him down and destroying him and handing him over to the hands of his enemies.

But Saul did not do that. He had no remorse over his sin. He was just grieved over the fact that he was about to die.

And that was it. So, again, we see no repentant heart in the life of Saul. And very likely when he died, like I said, he went south instead of the other way.

Good questions, though, Rob. And I hope that that helps you with your discussion with your friend. Turn in in all circumstances to the scriptures and know what it is that God's word says.

The only forgiveness that we have of sins is in Jesus Christ, our

Lord, who cleanses us from all unrighteousness and makes us right before our father, who is in heaven, believe in the

Lord Jesus Christ and live. Last question here, this comes from Jacob. As a matter of fact, this is a follow up email to last week because we read an email from Jacob last week.

He said he was an Amaralden or Amaraldian, a four point Calvinist. And I mentioned that one of the problems with Amaraldism is that it denies penal substitutionary atonement.

Amaraldism proposes that God had indeed given his son

Christ as an atoning sacrifice for all of mankind. So it was a universal atonement.

But then seeing that mankind and his wickedness would not choose to follow Christ, it was then at that point that he decreed whom he would save.

So the decree came after the sacrifice essentially is the way that works in Amaraldism.

But the problem with that is it denies the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement, that Christ died as a substitute to satisfy the wrath of God.

And so in Amaraldism, you would not have substitutionary atonement.

And that was the problem that B .B. Warfield had with Amaraldism as well. So Jacob writes back this week and says,

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Hughes, thank you so much for clearing up my quandaries. I suppose I'll just keep to what

I've been doing in the writing sphere. And that had to do with the question I answered last week. As for Amaraldism, I am horrified that it denies a vital doctrine of the

Christian faith. On YouTube, the late Robert Sproul Sr. tackled the matter.

Me being a self -described Calvinist, I will now accept limited atonement without question.

God bless you, both your children and thine congregation. Yours sincerely, Jacob. Well, I appreciate that,

Jacob. And because you are newly minted into the doctrine of limited atonement, you are going to be my second winner here today.

I'm going to be sending you the book, 25 Christmas Myths and What the Bible Says, a flash drive with 250 videos on it.

And you're also going to get John Piper's book, Living in the Light, Money, Sex and Power, making the most of three dangerous opportunities.

And I'm adding a bonus book to this five points where he goes through the five doctrines of grace, the five points of Calvinism, Tulip and expounds upon those.

I found it to be the most helpful for me in understanding those doctrines respectively.

And I hope that it will be an aid to you as well. Congratulations, Jacob, and Merry Christmas in July.

Thank you also for the P .S. that you tacked on at the end of that email. That was some great information.

Well, God bless you guys. That's the program for this week. I hope that you enjoyed it, even though you had to put up with me for an hour and I didn't have

Becky, but God willing, she'll be back on the program with me next week. Pray for her safe travel home with Miss Sonia as they journey back from St.

Louis to the great state of Kansas, which is where we're located, broadcasting from my basement office.

Be looking for a new video that'll be coming out on Friday responding to the Bible project.

I still get questions from folks asking what the issues are with the Bible project.

And I'm going to put it in a video. It's not a not a 90 second video. It's going to be longer than that. But hopefully will be a useful tool for you to know the problems with the

Bible project videos, which we've addressed before here on the podcast. And you'll be able to share that resource with someone else as well.

That's going to be posted on the extra. Well, what channel? So it's W .W .U .T .T.

E .X .T. Look that one up on YouTube and subscribe. God bless you guys.

I'll be back to our study of the Gospel of John in Chapter 18 on Monday.

The grace of God be with you all. This is when we understand the text with Pastor Gabe Hughes.

There are lots of great Bible teaching programs on the Web, and we thank you for selecting ours. But this is no replacement for regular fellowship with the church family.

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