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Responding to questions from the congregation at the conclusion of a sermon series through 2 Corinthians, this is part 1 of 3 of this Q&A. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
When Paul says he was caught up to the third heaven, where did he go? How do we respond to somebody who says that they don't believe because God never answered their prayers? The answers to these questions and others when we understand the text.
Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is committed to teaching sound doctrine and rebuking those who contradict it. Visit our website at www .utt .com.
Here once again is Pastor Gabe.
Thank you, Becky. So we finished up our study in 2 Corinthians, and I'm going to do something a little different as we head into a study of Galatians. There are some things that I need to catch up on.
One of those things is finishing the Bible reading of the New American Standard Bible for the literal word Bible app. I know that's been like a couple of years. People have been waiting on me to finish that.
When I moved to Texas, I lost my studio, and it's become a lot more difficult for me to get projects like that completed. I'm not even doing as many What videos as I was doing before. So what I'm going to do for the Galatians and Ephesians study, I'm going to go back to the sermons that I did, and I'm going to break those up, and they're going to be the New Testament study that you will hear Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.
I'm going to start the Galatians study next week, and it will be the introduction to the book of Galatians. For this week, we're still finishing up 2 Corinthians. When I was senior pastor at First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas, whenever I would finish up a sermon series or finish a series in a book, I would take questions from the congregation.
For a couple of weeks leading up to the conclusion of that series, there would be note cards available to everybody, and they could write down whatever questions they wanted. Now the questions that had to do with the series we just finished, those questions would get priority, so they would be the questions that I would answer first.
But it would still be an opportunity for anyone to answer any theology question they wanted. They always wanted to ask this question, never had the opportunity until now, and that was always a great time.
We enjoyed doing those special sermons to wrap up a series and respond to questions from the congregation. So that's what you're going to hear for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I've broken up this Q &A and responding to the 2 Corinthians questions first, and then there's going to be some questions about Genesis that will follow.
That'll come up tomorrow, and then general theology questions to wrap things up. So this is at the close of my sermon series through 2 Corinthians, which I would have done in 2018. This Q &A would have been in January of 2019, as we finished up that study and were about to head into Galatians and Ephesians.
So here I am responding to questions from the congregation on 2 Corinthians, and I'm going to start by reading a passage from 2 Corinthians 1. I want to remember, once again, this theme that Paul had placed in front of the Corinthians as we come into responding to some of the questions that have come our way.
And then I'll kind of give you the breakdown of what we're going to do here in just a moment. But let's read together 2 Corinthians 1, verses 1 through, I'm sorry, 3 through 7, and in honor of the word of the King, would you please stand?
2 Corinthians 1, verses 3 through 7. The Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. And if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer.
Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. Let's pray once again. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this comfort, Father of mercies, God of all comfort that you have given to us in Christ, knowing that in Jesus our sins are forgiven and we can call upon you as God.
And you not only hear us, but you receive us and love us. And I pray that we are continually reminded of this as we come to your word, that we experience that peace that surpasses all understanding, guarding our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus, as Paul talked about in Philippians 4.
Lead us in your truth this morning, in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you. You may be seated. So, I received 15 questions today, maybe a little bit more than that. I kind of lumped a few questions together, so you might see your question paired with another question.
I had taken all the questions off of the card and just written them down and then kind of took them from there and put them together in the categories that I arranged. And so, I may have taken questions from different people and put them together, but hopefully the question that you asked will end up in here somewhere.
We happen to have quite a few questions related to Genesis. And so, if you look in your bulletin, I've got kind of the layout, the basic gist of the questions that I'm responding to today. The first five questions are going to be related to the material that we've covered in 2 Corinthians.
The next five questions will be the Genesis questions, those that have come related to the stories that we read in the first book of the Bible. And then finally, that last category of five will just be miscellaneous questions that have been asked.
But since we just finished up 2 Corinthians, and that's kind of what this Q &A is closing out, I'd like to start there with these things that are the most fresh in our minds. So this first question goes like this.
In 2 Corinthians 12 .2, Paul said, I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up in the third heaven, whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know. God knows. What is the third heaven that Paul references?
Well, this isn't terribly complicated, although we like to complicate it. Paul was simply referring to the heaven where God dwells. And this was the Jewish or Hebrew way of referring to the heavens. The first heaven is the place where there are birds and clouds.
That's what we would refer to as the first heaven. The second heaven is where, way far out in the distance, the sun, moon, and stars occupy space. And the more we've come to know about outer space and the universe, the further and further we realize those stars are.
The more vast that we realize it is. But then God dwells in a heaven that is even more vast than what we're looking into in the night sky. And that's what Paul refers to as the third heaven. Now often when we talk about heaven, we think of it in terms of layers.
So that first layer where the clouds are, the second layer where the sun, moon, and stars are, and then the third layer. So like out there beyond the edge of space, that's where heaven is, right? No. That's what we refer to as being as heaven, as being above the sun, moon, and stars.
But understand that that locale, when we say that God is above the sun, moon, and stars, what we're saying is that he sits enthroned above all creation. But that doesn't mean that heaven is way out there beyond the sun, moon, and stars.
When it comes down to it, heaven is a spiritual existence and it's really not that far from where we are now. But there is a veil that separates the physical world in which we live from the spiritual world in which God and the angels live.
Whenever we read about an angel coming and visiting somebody in the Old or New Testament, it's not like they flew across space to earth and then had that encounter. But rather the veil that separates the heavenly from the physical was lifted for a moment.
And an angel from the heavenlies stepped into our realm. When Jesus Christ put on flesh and dwelt among us, God enthroned in heaven stepped down off of that throne and became a baby born in Bethlehem.
But this is not like a distance, like heaven is a particular location. Rather it is a spiritual realm that we cannot reach until we die. On the day that Christ returns, essentially what happens is this.
That veil is lifted. It's not that Jesus travels across space to earth and we see him coming in the eastern sky, although that's the way that it's characterized in scripture or personified in that particular way.
But rather the veil that separates the physical world from the heavenly will be lifted and Christ will be seen by all. Praise God, as Paul illustrates in 1 Thessalonians 4, all of us are participants in that day, whether we've died and gone to be with God before the day of Christ, or we're among those who are still on earth on the day that Christ returns.
Everybody, living or dead, will be participants in that day of the Lord. So something to look forward to. But anyway, that's simply what Paul is in reference to whenever he says third heaven there in 2 Corinthians 12.
Question number two, how do you answer someone who rejects God for allowing bad things to happen to them? For example, I prayed to God to make this stop and he didn't, so he doesn't exist. I believe that the answer that is given to us also comes from 2 Corinthians 12, where Paul was struggling with a thorn that was in his flesh.
And he says, so not to become conceited, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.
But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.
For when I am weak, then I am strong. The person who prays to God and asks for God to take something away from them, but God doesn't take it away from them, as he didn't take it away from Paul, and they abandon the faith as a result of what they did not get.
This was a test of God upon them that they failed. In Deuteronomy chapter 13, Moses says to the people of Israel, if anyone comes to you with divine signs, like they come performing miraculous signs and wonders, but then they say to you, let's go after other gods, do not follow them.
For the Lord your God is testing you. Understand that God uses even false teachers to test the genuineness of those who say that they believe in God. And if a person were to abandon God and go after a false teacher, then they fail that test of the Lord upon their faith.
In this instance, here in 2 Corinthians 12, we see that Paul did pass that test. For the Lord was allowing this to be on his flesh that he might cry out to God for deliverance. And the Lord indeed delivered him ultimately from that.
But for the time being, that Paul was praying to God for that to be taken from him, Jesus said to him, and we know it's the voice of Jesus that was speaking to Paul. If you have a red letter Bible, in fact, it'll be marked in red.
Jesus responding to him, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. If the Lord God would not even take this from the apostle Paul, then we know that he has a reason and a purpose for why he doesn't take the things away from you that you might ask God to deliver you from.
It's not that God doesn't love you. In fact, in Hebrews 12, we read that God is disciplining us. And what father doesn't discipline his sons whom he loves? If God did not discipline us, then we would be illegitimate sons and daughters and would not be the sons and daughters of God.
The Lord tested Jesus in the wilderness. We just read about that this morning in our study of Mark. And yet the Holy Spirit was with him. And if Jesus is going to be delivered from the temptations of Satan, my friends, you have the power of the Holy Spirit within you, you who are followers of Christ, who you've been given the power to resist those temptations when they come.
Whenever we encounter somebody who has prayed for God to take away something, and yet he does not take it away and they abandon their faith as a result, pray for them. Do not give up hope on that person.
Maybe their unbelief is a season. May we pray that it's not a permanent fixture of their heart before God, lest they die and then stand before God in judgment. In James chapter 4, James says that you ask and you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives.
Jesus has said to us, and this is actually a passage that's going to come up in our Q &A this morning as well. Jesus has said, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock on the door, we'll be opened unto you for our God loves us and he gives us good things.
But may we pray for his will to be done, not ours to be done, and may our delight be the will of God and not our own. Amen. Hold fast to Christ. He is good and his promises will be done. Question number three.
Can you explain the difference between rebuke, reproof, admonish, refute, exhort, and encourage? In fact, some of those words do actually appear in the same Greek word in the New Testament. It just kind of depends on how that word is used, the way that it gets translated into another word in English.
But as we went through 2 Corinthians, we talked about the Apostle Paul admonishing the Corinthians. That was the word that I used most frequently, even though that word itself doesn't appear in 2 Corinthians.
Paul admonished them. What does that word admonish mean? I think one of the most prominent places it's used is in Colossians 3 .16, where we are told to teach and admonish one another in the faith. To admonish means to correct with goodwill.
So you're not just telling a person that they're wrong, and you're not just talking them down so they feel bad, but your intention is specifically that they might know the truth. That they might be taught in a good and a right way.
That they would, again, as we prayed this morning, know the paths of righteousness that have been set before us in God. You are walking on a path of unrighteousness. I'm admonishing you to make a correction and walk in the path of righteousness.
In 2 Timothy 4 .2, we see several of these words used together in the same passage. Paul says to Timothy, Preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching.
There we have reprove, rebuke, and exhort. So what do these words mean, and why are they used so interchangeably throughout the New Testament, but even in the same context as we see here in this particular passage?
Reprove, to reprove means to scold with the intent to convict or expose as guilty. Whenever we evangelize, whenever we share the gospel with those who do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, it is necessary for us to reprove.
And that means that someone who does not know Jesus needs to understand that before God, they are guilty. My friends, if you don't know that you're guilty before God, what is it exactly that Jesus is saving you from?
We have such a resistance to talk about sin or guilt or any of these things because we don't want to make people feel bad. We just want them to love Jesus. Well, if they don't know Jesus as Savior, then they don't know Jesus at all.
And if you call Christ Savior, what does that mean? What has he saved you from exactly? Well, he saved you from your sin? Absolutely. He saved you from death, the wages of sin? Yes. Jesus has saved you from the wrath of God, which is burning against all unrighteousness of men, as Paul talks about in Romans chapter 2.
And as Peter says in 2 Peter 3, a day is coming on which God's wrath is going to be poured out upon the earth. Those who are in Christ Jesus will be saved from the day of wrath, but those who do not know Christ will perish in the day of wrath.
So it is necessary in order to know you need a Savior, a person first has to know that they're guilty and that there's nothing that they can do to relieve themselves or forgive themselves of their sins, make themselves right before God.
This is a work that only Christ can do. So in this way, we reprove, we expose as guilty. We show a person their guilt. And how do we do that? We do that with the law. When a person sees it, this is what I went through with the high school kids this past Wednesday night as we're going through Romans right now.
In Romans 7, Paul says, I didn't know what it was like to covet until I read in the law, thou shalt not covet. And then I realized I'm a covetor. And no matter how much I concentrate on not coveting, when I focus on that sin, it just makes me covet all the more.
The thing that I want to do, which is righteousness before God, I cannot do, but it's the thing I don't want to do that I keep on doing. That's what Paul says as he goes on there in Romans 7. Kind of shows the absurdity of sin.
As much as we want to follow in righteousness, yet we do the absurd thing. And that is blaspheming the very creator of the entire universe as though we would say to Him that our ways are better than His ways.
And it's for this reason that we deserve death, that we have rebelled against God and His holiness and His perfection. It's not about how good you are compared to other people. It's about how good you are compared to God.
And compared to God, we have no goodness. Yet we are blessed to read as we studied in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21, For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
This is the doctrine that we refer to as double imputation. When Jesus died on the cross for our sins, our sins were imputed to Him and His righteousness was imputed to us. So now clothed in the righteousness of Christ, we stand before God justified, all those who have faith in Jesus.
But to know that you need that righteousness, it's necessary for you to know your guilt before a holy God. That's what it means to reprove, to show a person their guilt before God.
Thank you for listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. If you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website www .wutt .com and click on the Give tab in the top right corner of the page.
Join us again tomorrow as we continue our Bible study when we understand the text.