WWUTT 1195 Q&A Open Grave Throats, Meaning of Apostle, Christians Attending Mass?

When the Lord says, don't take matters into your own hands, in what ways does this apply?

What's the significance of being called an apostle? And could a Christian attend Mass? The answers to these questions and others when we

Understand the Text. This is

When we Understand the Text, a daily Bible study in the word of Christ, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and purify a people for His own possession.

Visit our website at www .utt .com. Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you,

Becky. You're welcome. Beautiful introduction there. Thanks. So, of the questions that I have today,

I know that I've read a few of them for you this week. Yeah. As I would get them, we'd just be on the couch and I'd pull it up on my phone and like, hey, listen to this.

Right. Normally, I'm surprised by them, you know, when we're recording. Yeah, right.

But, well, that was what I was going to say. Oh. I don't remember if I've even selected any of the questions that I read to you this week.

Well, then it'll be like normal. You will still be totally surprised.

Yes. It is Friday and we take questions from the listeners and you can submit those questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

This first one comes from Paul in Madison, Alabama. I saw they had a tornado yesterday.

Oh, that's not good. I don't think it was Madison, but I saw there were several in Alabama. Yeah.

I just wanted to say - I've been having a lot lately, too. Yeah. All across the Southeast. It's kind of like we'll get the storm system and it's not that bad.

Right. And then that system will - It just picks up speed. Yeah, something. It ends up in Mississippi or Alabama really, really bad.

So anyway, Paul's question. I just wanted to say thank you so much for your episode on Romans chapter three, their throat is an open grave.

It was very convicting for me and a conviction that I desperately needed. I've been seeing a lot of things on social media that have frustrated me.

Becky and I were just talking about that a moment ago. To the point where I've responded sinfully.

Your clear, simple and thorough exposition of the text was used by the

Lord to remind me not to descend into sinful responses when I see sinful statements online or in person.

Thank you for your faithful handling of God's word. God bless your ministry. So yeah, that was

I think Monday's lesson where we read in Romans three, verse 13, their throat is an open grave.

They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.

And contrasting that with how we are supposed to be. So this is who we were before we came to Christ.

We were just like this kind of person. And the wickedness of our hearts demonstrated in the wickedness of our words.

Thinking that we're good people. Yeah, right. I'm just fine. And you know, certain words offend certain people, but big deal, you know, it's their problem if they're offended.

And yet we are supposed to commit our whole selves unto Christ. Even our tongues need to be unto the

Lord. And we talked about that in our own Bible study on Thursday evening as well.

Talked about speaking language that would be honoring to the Lord and even giving grace to those who hear.

That's the instruction we have in Ephesians 4, 29. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

And when we also read in Romans 12, where the Lord says, vengeance is mine, saith the

Lord. So not taking matters into your own hands. We tend to read that as, if somebody punches you, don't punch them back, or don't defend yourself.

Right. Something like that. Yeah. Or, you know, if it ends up in some extreme situation where somebody kills a loved one, you don't go kill them back, you know, take the matter into your own hand, you turn it over to the law.

That's kind of the way that we tend to think of or interpret in our minds that passage.

Okay. Like the extreme manner. Okay. Or some sort of violent retaliation. Right. But that needs to be in our words as well.

Yeah. Fine tune it. Like, even down to the nitty gritty of in your thoughts. Yeah. Right.

Exactly. Yeah. That's a really good point. We can certainly be grieved and angry over that. As long as we understand that as the instruction that Paul gave also in Ephesians 4, to not let the sun go down on your anger and give the devil a foothold.

It's right to have righteous anger, but you don't take retaliation out on the other person.

Right. Or anybody else, because they're safe people. Safe people.

What do you mean? Like, okay, so I might be upset with somebody else and then you're close to me and I know you won't get upset with me for too long.

So I'll just like, unintentionally. It's not like I'm like, oh, I can't take it out on this person.

So I'm going to take it on you. But just it's a natural response. I know I can't take it out on that person.

So I'm just going to be grumpy. And to everybody. Everybody else suffers. Who's near me.

That's right. Because you guys are safe. Yeah. So, right. That's a good illustration on why it's important even to control your thoughts, govern your thoughts in those things.

And don't just vent and fume over something that somebody said or did to you.

But even in our thoughts, we have to commit those ways unto the Lord. Definitely. Yeah.

Yep. So don't even be vengeful in your words, but let your speech be seasoned with salt.

The way that Paul put it in Colossians chapter four. And if you struggle with it, pray, give it to the

Lord. Submit your thoughts unto the Lord. Thank you for that, Paul. I'm glad that that was encouraging to you,

Paul. Right. And I get that. You did. Yes. Okay. This next one's from Scott. He says, I listened to the, well, what podcast for today?

And it was so biblically sound. Thank you. I didn't write the date down on this one. I don't remember which one that was.

At the end, you asked your wife to go upstairs to get your Bible. Oh, this was the, the outtake from last week.

I think it was. Okay. Oh, pastor. You said that you have lots of Bibles. Yes, he does.

Keep going. Look at that right there on the shelf next to me. Tons of them. Right down here. You always have one downstairs, one upstairs and one in your car or be like all the prosperity preachers

I've seen that have 10 to 20 Bibles in their bookcases. What is that right there? Is that about? Pretty close to that.

It's getting close. Not quite 20, but that's more than 10. There's some small ones in there.

Oh yeah. That's right. The tiny ones. I'm just looking at that shelf. Yeah, you are. Then there's one above it.

You're not counting the other shelf or the other one that has Bible commentary or the other.

We can keep going. Or the one located on his computer right in front of him.

Yeah. But do, I digress. Continue. Or there's one on my smartphone right here as well.

Yes, there is. Anyway, I kind of cut Scott's comment off because he was saying, being like the prosperity teachers that have 10 to 20

Bibles in their bookcases, but don't read them. See, that was the add in. That's the difference.

That's important there. He says, no, I'm not saying you're a prosperity teacher. You know what?

Just forget it. LOL. Scott. It was a good laugh.

You're typing as you think. I like that. So here's the thing is that he has favorites and they're favorites for certain things.

And this one is very particular because it's just the right size to fit in front of his computer in between him and his computer and it lays flat.

It lays flat. The text is also up here because the notes are at the bottom.

Right. So that puts it closer to the screen. Right. So he doesn't have to search looking further down.

Right. And speaking away from the mic. Yep. Narrower amount of text. Uh -huh. She knows.

She knows exactly why I want this Bible. But I only know because we have had this conversation.

Why can't you just use one of those? Oh my goodness. Have we done that before? Yes. Yes. It's been a while.

Okay. But we did. I remember. Because I learned it. Yeah. Sure. So now you know.

Sure. Hey, as long as you're good with my particulars, I'm good with your particulars.

That's right. So we're good. And I need the extra steps.

I'm trying to count those steps. Yes. Because I think I said that even. I said, hey, you need to get your steps in anyway. Yep. I do.

So I'm just looking out for you. Yes. But to be clear on that, I have asked him to.

So not that anybody is trying to say that Pastor Gabe is so mean to his wife or anything.

I have actually asked him multiple, multiple times to help me out in this.

I'm like, I'm a lazy person. So you need to just push. Just tell me to go do something and give me the reason why.

And that'll be good. You're talking about, you're talking about working out, though. Like doing some exercise.

Something of that sort. So I told him, you have to push me. And don't let me be like, oh, because I'll talk my way out of it.

I will sweet talk my way out of it. I talk myself out of it. Like, that's how good

I am. I thought when you started that,

I thought you were saying, hey, I asked him to go upstairs for stuff, too. I thought that's where you're going when you, there's that, too.

And just about every night once the kids are in bed, I'm getting her something to drink or something, a snack out of the fridge.

And I'm just, I'm sitting there because after a long day of mental exhaustion of teaching the children,

I'm done. Like, it is physically exhausting for me to be mentally exhausted. Anyway, so I'll ask him to like, make me food.

And I'm just sitting on the couch doing nothing. Like, I just need to sit here. Making food is a, that's an easy way for me to serve anyway.

And I don't mind. Because the last thing I want to do is go think about what

I'm going to eat next. And now you wonder why. I would rather not. And now you know why

Gabe has to push her to go exercise. Because I keep feeding her. And so. That is true.

I could have gotten myself into big trouble with that one, too. You could have. You could have. All right.

Next one comes from Avery in Wisconsin. Totally random question.

Every once in a while, I'll hear you stop and take a drink of something while Becky is talking. This person must really have like some good earphones or earbuds in.

Yeah. I hear it, too. Do you? Yeah. While I'm talking, I'm trying not to be distracted by it.

We were just talking. We were just talking with Sonya a couple of days ago about count how often

Becky yawns. Yes. On the Friday episode. She said, I've caught one or two of them.

You barely make them out, but you can hear Becky yawn in the in the background. And now that you're talking about it,

I'm trying to fight the urge to yawn again. Well, it's because yawning is so contagious. So hang on.

Hang on, babe. Yeah. Oh, that didn't work.

No, it was totally fake. All right, moving on.

Where were we? What were we talking about? About you taking a drink. Okay. Me taking a drink. Yes.

Totally random question. I hear you take a drink of something while Becky is talking. I was just curious. What are you drinking?

Rob Stiles already knows. Yeah. Apparently he does. No, I'm drinking Arnold Palmer.

And almost every episode that we do, I've been drinking Arnold Palmer. I can't think of one where I wasn't.

Unless maybe I had a Dr. Pepper down here. No, usually you don't. Yeah, I don't want to do that because it makes me burp.

Yeah, and that's really gross. Or I'm trying to like, even if I don't, I'm fighting it. Keep this down.

But, you know, it's Arnold Palmer. It's a lemonade and sweet tea mix. And I probably drink more of that than anything else.

Yes. That is his water. Yep. It's good. There you go, Avery. Sometimes I have it.

Yes, I make it with Simply Lemonade. And I have tried other lemonades.

I like to play smash. Yes, right. But I mean, it's really the only lemonade that works for me. I've tried it with other lemonades.

I've tried to go cheaper. I can't get any of them to work. I mean, I've done the Chick -fil -A lemonade, but that's more.

That costs way more. Yeah. That's like 10 bucks a gallon, I think. Something ridiculous.

Yeah. That's already more. So I mix the Chick -fil -A lemonade.

And even the Simply Lemonade is better than the Chick -fil -A lemonade. So I make and brew my own tea.

And then I get Simply Lemonade. Sometimes I brew your tea. Yeah, sometimes you do.

But you know how I make it. And so, yeah, she just follows my recipe. I do. I don't ever get the half and half stuff like they'll have pre -made at the store.

Yeah. I mean, it's okay if you're in a pinch. Yeah. It's not terrible, but I'd probably go with a

Dr. Pepper. By the way, if you follow me on Twitter, you probably saw me post excitement over the fact that Dr.

Pepper had made a Dr. Pepper cream soda combo. It's not great.

Might as well. I don't think I ever actually put a review out for my soft drink excitement there.

But it's not a good mix. Now, if Dr. Pepper had teamed up with A &W Cream Soda, it probably would have been pretty good.

Yeah. But this is definitely like your generic off -brand cream soda that they mixed in with Dr.

Pepper. It ruins the Dr. Pepper. Regular Dr. Pepper, much, much better than that Dr.

Pepper cream soda. So I don't expect that to stick around very long. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure my last trip to the store,

I didn't see it there again. Well, I mean, that could be COVID. That could be anything.

COVID killed it. All the Dr. Pepper cream soda was infected.

I'm just saying they need more workers. Probably that. I haven't seen a shortage of sodas. And when

I go to the store and I see people that are just like storming their shopping carts full of supplies and stuff, it's half soda.

There's tons of soft drinks and chips in there. That is like the last thing you want whenever you're cooped up in a house.

I'm looking at that going, boy, you are going to be as big as your house when this thing is over.

That's a lot of sugar. That's the food you're loading up on. Well, right at the very beginning when they were talking about the lockdowns,

I was telling you, hey, I'm going to go ahead and start getting stuff that we can put in our freezer. And I never had any trouble finding anything.

The fridges at the stores were still stocked. And so I bought the meats and stuff we needed within a couple of days.

I had our freezer stocked and it was about a week or two later that you couldn't find those items anymore.

Not two weeks, but about a week later. But at the time when I was buying those meats up, I saw people in the stores filling up their shopping carts.

Yeah, they had that and toilet paper. But all of the food was junk food. It's like people, what are you doing?

You're not used to buying real food when you aren't at home. I don't know. I don't understand the mentality there,

I guess. I'm just throwing them a bone. I mean, you saw all the memes of people saying like, you know, day three of quarantine,

I'm out of snacks. Yes. That is totally me. Already ate all of my.

I walk by our snack. Well, I call it our snack. Pantry. But it's our pantry. Yeah.

And I walk by it 50 times and try to resist the urge to grab anything out of there.

There's not anything in there that great. I know there's not. I think we just buy stuff to placate the kids.

Here, have a graham cracker. Yep. And that works. So years later, our kids are going to listen back to this episode and go, oh, that's why we had graham crackers all the time.

I missed out on the good stuff. We buy the good stuff for ourselves. Yeah. Then we hide it up higher.

Or our friends from Australia send us goodies. Oh, yeah. There's that too. Yeah. Thanks for that question,

Avery. Didn't know you were going to get a 10 minute answer on that. And Minnesota. Minnesota. Did we get some stuff from Minnesota?

No, no, no. Like they went ahead and. Wasn't it Minnesota? We had our friend. Somewhere up north. We had a friend from Canada send us some stuff.

Right. But the box got wet. No, no, no, no. This was at G3 this year. G3. We had somebody from Minnesota bring us some treats.

I think it was Minnesota. I can't remember. I get all of the. I'm sorry, guys. I am geographically challenged.

Oh, that group that comes down from Wisconsin. Wisconsin. Yeah. Is it

Wisconsin? Yeah. And this is Avery from Wisconsin. I don't remember Wisconsin. I'm pretty sure that's where they're from. Right. I don't know.

I don't know. I don't remember. OK. Anyway, you know who you are and you're amazing. Yes. Thank you.

Thanks. Apparently with Wisconsians, with with cannabians.

I don't have any idea. I was gonna say really love their food.

Just because Avery asked this question. I don't know where that was going. We're kind of losing it here.

Let's let's see what quarantine is doing to us. This next question. I don't have a name on.

I didn't put a name on this one. It was probably in the subject. heading and then I just didn't, oh, here it is.

No, that's where they're from. It says I'm from Wooster, Wisconsin. I didn't put the name on it though. Sorry, Wooster, Ohio.

I was gonna say Wisconsin again. Boy, yeah, my brain is flying all over the place here.

All right, let's reel you back in, babe. Dear Pastor Gabe, I cannot express how much I have been blessed by what?

Your ability to break down biblical concepts into clear and concise segments is nothing short of God's mercy and provision to his children working through you.

Well, that's quite a compliment. But I mean, really, it comes from my parents.

So the Lord laying it on my dad's heart to raise his son in an understanding of God's word,

I am grateful for that. I am so thankful to the Lord that this was all his doing.

And then growing up in the environment that I did working in Christian radio and got to listen, I go to work and listen to preachers every day.

Yeah. And then when I had fallen off the path of righteousness and was going my own way in my 20s, and then the

Lord put men around me to kind of throttle me and say, what's the matter with you? Smack in the back of the head, get back into shape.

All of that stuff has really been the working of God. So what I'm extending to you is really what people have given to me over the years.

The working of God. That's right. And this is the Lord's work, not mine. And I am certainly blessed to be called to doing it.

Next part of the email here. I pray that you, your wife and your children are staying safe and healthy during this pandemic.

I recently lost my job. I think it's the second or third week in a row we've read a question or an email from somebody who lost their job.

But it is making me exercise my faith in God, listen to some amazing sermons and podcasts and spend some much needed time with my family.

Here is my question. Why do so many preachers refer to Paul as the

Apostle Paul? I don't hear references to other apostles as the Apostle Matthew, Apostle James, et cetera.

What is the issue here? Thanks for any information you can provide. P .S. I wrote this while listening to the

April 3rd podcast. I live in Worcester, Ohio. That's where I got that. And I also cannot find yeast in my local stores.

They sold out of an eight week supply in two days. Whoa. All right.

Goodness. That's a lot. Well, we've since acquired yeast. I don't know if you remember us talking, you know, two or three weeks ago.

Yeah. Yeah. About not being able to find rapid rising yeast anywhere. Yep. I do remember that.

Sorry, I made her jump when I said that. I didn't mean for that to be so. Ah, people are going, what is in that Arnold Palmer?

What in the world is the matter with you people? Anyway, so we got some though.

Wasn't it through Amazon we ordered it? No, my mom. Ah, that's right. Your mom sent it to us.

Yep. She found it up in Concordia. I think so. Isn't that where she got it? Okay. Yeah, I think so. But she had mailed it, mailed two of them to me actually.

And I feel kind of guilty because I haven't made any bread yet. She mailed us some fast rising yeast.

And when she sent it to us, it was in a shoe box. When we got it, it was like a great big giant mattress box.

It wasn't that big. Oh, I get it. You're joking. I'm sorry.

Yes, I'm joking. It went clear over my head. I'm feeling terrible on these jokes now.

I feel totally defeated. I defeated my own joke an email ago.

And then you just burst my bubble there. Well, you know, that's what happens. When you take the bread out of the oven.

Oh yeah, that's right. That's what happened. Yeah. I can't think of the technical term.

That's my bread sinking sound effect. Should we just scrap this and start over again?

No. No, we have to stay here? Okay. Definitely keep going. Wait, wait, wait. Go back. Answer his question. Oh yes, I have to answer the question.

Here's my question. Why do so many preachers refer to Paul as the Apostle Paul? Well, I really do hear

Apostle Peter and Apostle James pretty equally. I say it a lot because, and you probably hear it the most often because he wrote the bulk of the

New Testament. Right, that is true. Most of the New Testament was written by Paul more than any other author.

And so you're gonna hear his name more often than you're gonna hear the rest. But I will equally say

Apostle Peter about as often as I will say the Apostle Paul. It's just that there's not as much there from Peter.

Even when we were going through Acts, I mentioned that the two most central characters in Acts are

Peter and Paul. We start with Peter and then the action shifts to Paul, but you have much more of the narrative focused on Paul than you do

Peter. So these two men, even though there's 12, well, 13 apostles, including

Paul, even though there's 13 of them, you are really only referring to Peter and Paul most of the time.

All of the action is kind of focused on them. Apostle Matthew, I have said Apostle Matthew. I say it when sometimes in the introduction to the sermons that I've been doing on Sunday because we're going through Matthew right now.

So I might say, open up your Bible to the book of Matthew. Today we're in section da, da, da, da, da.

This is the Apostle Matthew writing the words of our Lord Christ. I might say something like that.

But Matthew is really a silent figure in the New Testament. He wrote the first book of the

New Testament, but you never see him speak in the New Testament. There's never a quote that's attributed to Matthew, except for what he wrote in the book of Matthew.

You know what I mean? So like in the narrative or the dialogue, you never have a depiction of Matthew speaking up.

And yet the Lord would use him to pen the opening book of the

New Testament. Even though he's, you know, Levi is mentioned, Jesus coming to the tax collector's table and telling him to follow

Jesus. That's Matthew that we're talking about, but you never see Matthew speak. He's never the one that speaks up.

So I think it's just a matter of how often that person's name comes up, since we tend to read the words of Paul more than anyone else's words in the

New Testament. I do hear Apostle John fairly equally. And I think that that one's almost necessary to distinguish him from John the

Baptist. So you're gonna say John the Baptist and the Apostle John, who wrote the

Gospel of John, first, second and third John and Revelation. That was all the Apostle John.

Not John the Baptist. Not John the Baptist. Yes. Who didn't write any of the New Testament. And it's

John's stuff that is the second most, you know, he wrote the second most stuff in the

New Testament after Paul. Okay. So his name, you'll hear fairly often as well.

And he was with Peter when they ran to the tomb. Anyway, that's all of that is just to say that you're hearing the

Apostle Paul the most because his writings are used the most. And then you have Apostle Peter and Apostle John.

You just don't hear Apostle Matthew that much because you're reading Matthew's Gospel. And so when you say

Matthew, you're referring to the book. You're not really referring to the writer. Right. Okay. Luke was not an

Apostle. Mark was a disciple of Peter's. So we don't refer to him as an

Apostle. Then of course the Apostle John. James, it depends on which Apostle you're talking about.

If you're talking about James, the brother of John, he was an Apostle. But if you're talking about James, the writer of the book of James, he was the half brother of Jesus and traditionally not considered an

Apostle. Unless you're gonna take a reading of 1 Corinthians 15 where Paul talks about making an appearance to James and referring to him in a context almost as if he would be an

Apostle. Okay. There is that. And so some will take that reference in 1 Corinthians 15 and include

James, the half brother of Jesus among the Apostles, maybe even also Jude. But you're still just talking about 15 or 16 guys that might be considered

Apostles. I prefer the conservative estimate of 13. Yeah. Okay.

It tends to be where I fall. But again, it's just a matter of how often you see these guys writings come up.

That's why you're gonna hear Apostle Paul more often. From a creative aspect,

I think it rolls off your tongue easier. Yeah, it does. Paul, I mean, cause just Paul is

Paul, Paul. Apostle Paul. Apostle Paul. And you are. It almost becomes an alliteration.

Yeah. So Apostle Paul prayed. It's like saying Jesus Christ. Christ is not his last name.

Right. It's his title. He's the Messiah. Christ means Messiah. So you're talking about Jesus the

Messiah. Christ began being associated with that name because Jesus was such a common name.

You've probably heard this said before, but it is Yeshua, which is Joshua.

And that's a very common name in Israel at that time. And so to distinguish specifically, the

Joshua who is the Christ, he gets called Jesus Christ. We use that name as a title for Jesus, Jesus the

Messiah. So when we say the Apostle Paul or Apostle Peter, we're really attributing an authority to them that has been granted by Christ.

And as Paul talked about when we started in our study of the book of Romans, in Romans chapter one, he mentioned that he received the grace of apostleship.

So Romans 1 .5, through whom, through Christ, we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations.

So when you refer to Peter as the Apostle, Paul as the Apostle, you're giving a credit to Christ as having called them and designated them as carriers of his word for what they had to say was the word of Jesus.

This is not Paul sharing his opinions and thoughts. He's being carried along by the

Holy Spirit to speak what Christ has told him to speak as a messenger of the

King. An apostle was somebody who carried the message of the emperor.

And generally that message that an apostle carried was news of victory, of militaristic conquest or accomplishment.

And what was that called? That was called the gospel. That's what it was called in the

Roman Empire because it was the good news, we won the battle. And so when

Jesus uses these titles and these words with his own apostles, it is a carrier of the message of the kingdom of God.

You're going out with the good news of the victory that is won in Christ Jesus. And so to attribute the name apostle to those carriers of that message is to say that this message has come directly from the

King. It's all pointing back to Christ as the voice in these words, not the messenger himself.

Right. All righty. I think that sums it up. That's a pretty thorough answer. This next one comes from David.

Hello, Pastor Gabe and Becky. This name I actually put on this email. Hey, look at that. Count my family and among those that are truly grateful for your ministry.

I have found out recently that my niece who was not raised Catholic will be getting married in a

Catholic church along with a mass. Over the past couple of years, I have been very interested in learning exactly what the

Catholic church teaches regarding the mass plus everything else so I can be better equipped to evangelize them when the opportunity arises.

So during that time, I have learned how blasphemous the doctrine of the mass truly is.

I have told my sister's family that my conscience would not allow me nor my family to be present for something that is so dishonoring to God and the once for all sacrifice of Christ.

Needless to say, that didn't go over very well. My question is, am I doing the right thing?

I want to honor God above all else and would count it as a blessing to take a stand for him.

But I'm a little nervous that potentially this is not an issue worth burning family bridges for.

Thank you, your brother in Christ, David. David, first of all, I would encourage you to talk to a pastor about this.

Of course, yes. If you are a regular attender at a church and you have a membership at that church,

I would ask that you talk to your pastor about it because there is gonna be some personalness to this exchange that is gonna help guide you a little bit better than what

I'm gonna do on this podcast. Because we only have your one paragraph. That's right. And I'm gonna give you some responses regarding what the mass is.

Whether or not you want to go and attend a service where the mass is being performed is really gonna depend on you and your conscience.

And I am, I mean, certainly don't partake in the mass. Right. Don't partake in the communion that they're handing out.

Of course, the Catholic rule in that is you have to be Catholic anyway. Right. In order to partake in it. But whether or not you would be present in the room.

I can tell you that I have been. I've attended funeral and I have attended a wedding where a mass was conducted.

I didn't partake in it, but I was there. And it was years ago.

I haven't been to one since. I don't even know what I would really think of it if someone were to invite me now.

But at the time I didn't like it. And I, yeah. I mean, the whole time it's going on,

I'm going, this is blasphemous. Yeah. But I was still there. Knowing that that was even gonna happen,

I was still present for the whole thing. So it's just gonna depend on your conscience. Becky and I went to a wedding a few years ago that was at a

Catholic church and we had our daughter with us. Did we only have two kids at that time?

I don't think we had. I know we didn't have four. Definitely not four. I don't remember. Maybe three. Maybe, maybe.

But I know Annie was old enough to know what was going on. And there was a lot of things that were happening in that service that she's just looking around going, wow, that's weird.

You know? Yeah. And we would talk about it afterward and she knew it was wrong. She knew it was biblically wrong.

Some of the things that she was observing that was going on during the wedding. They would walk over here and pray to the statue of Mary during a portion of the wedding.

And Annie's even sitting there going, why are they doing that? Yeah. That's not right. So we were able to use that and talk about what the problems were with that service.

I, at the time though, I didn't really feel a guilty conscience of being in the wedding.

I guess it depends on what kind of role I'm playing. True. Very true. There was another wedding we went to.

No. We were just attendees. Yeah, we were just attending there. There was another wedding we went to a couple of years ago and it was the couple that was getting married was

Catholic but the wedding wasn't Catholic, which was kind of funny. The preacher that was leading it,

I'm not gonna tell you which one it was. Yeah, it's fine. Anyway. I'll figure it out. The preacher that was leading it was somebody we know.

And love, which was part of the reason why we were there. But the wedding itself was not

Catholic even though the people that were getting married were Catholic. It was interesting that they decided not to have a

Catholic wedding. Right. But I guess that would be nominal Catholicism. I guess, yeah. They're just Catholic in name but not really totally devoted to being

Catholic. Anyway, so according to the catechism of the Catholic church, paragraph 366, the

Eucharist or the mass is a sacrifice because it represents or it makes present the sacrifice of the cross because it is its memorial and because it applies its fruit.

Catechism continues in the next paragraph, 1367. The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the

Holy Eucharist are one single sacrifice. The victim is one and the same.

The same now offers through the ministry of priests who then offered himself on the cross.

Only the manner of offering is different. And since in this divine sacrifice which is celebrated in the mass, the same

Christ who offered himself once in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross is contained and is offered in an unbloody manner.

This sacrifice is truly propitiatory. What does that mean? Everything that I just read for you there, what is that saying?

It's saying that if you take of the mass, it is forgiveness for your sins.

Your sins are being forgiven because you're taking of the mass, propitiatory.

The mass is used as the service. Right, the Eucharist, the cup. The whole service.

Well, the whole service, certainly. So you were talking not the service, you're talking the communion.

Yeah, the actual Eucharist. The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Holy Eucharist are one single sacrifice.

So this is the, it is the re -crucification of Christ.

Not in the literal sense, but it is the offering again of his body. And that is what paragraph 1366 says in the

Catechism. The Eucharist is thus a sacrifice because it represents or makes present the sacrifice of the cross.

It is a re -sacrifice. What is it that Hebrews 7 .27 says? Unlike the other high priests,

Jesus does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people.

He sacrificed for the sins once for all, and then he offered himself. We also have in 1

Peter 3 .18, for Christ died for sins once for all and the righteous for the unrighteous to bring you to God.

I have said this before with a Catholic, I've said to them, the Eucharist is the re -sacrifice of Christ and they will adamantly refuse that.

No, it's not. The Bible says that he can't offer himself again. I'm like, right. The Bible does say that, but the

Catechism of the Catholic Church explicitly states that the mass is the re -presentation of Christ.

It is him offering himself again. It is thus a sacrifice because it re -presents the sacrifice of the cross.

That's according to the Catholic Church's own doctrine. In 1551, the

Council of Trent officially stated, by the consecration of the bread and the wine, there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ.

So if it's literally the body of Christ and you're re -presenting it or re -sacrificing it, it is

Christ re -sacrifice for sins. And also you have the sense in which it is said that it is truly propitiatory.

So you receive forgiveness of sins by partaking in the Eucharist. Is that what we say about communion?

Are you forgiven your sins because you participated in communion in church on a Sunday morning?

Absolutely not. This is forgiveness by, it's justification by works. And Ephesians 2, eight and nine says that it is by grace you are saved through faith.

And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast.

It is not by anything that we do. It is by the work that God has done. And furthermore, the priest is the one who consecrates the mass.

So when he holds up the Eucharist, prays for it and for the cup, that's when it transforms into the literal body and blood of Jesus.

So the priest is commanding Christ to be in the

Eucharist and in the cup. Is God going to bow to the will of some priest?

Absolutely not. In any and every way that you look at the Catholic mass, it is blasphemous.

It is a, it's a heresy according to Martin Luther. He considered just a downright heresy in the way that mass is talked about and the way that it is conducted, what is believed to have been accomplished through it.

So in the, and when I've had conversations with Catholics about this, they almost always come to John six.

In fact, we even had in our church, a man who was a deacon. And after he left our church, moved away because the military moved them in the town they moved to, he became a

Catholic. I'm not sure what happened in there that made him make his shift from Baptist over to Catholicism.

But then he felt like he needed to prove his ground. So he contacted me as if to say, hey, now

I'm Catholic. And so we had a conversation about this decision that he had made. And when talking about the mass,

I think that was even one of the first topics that we discussed. Yeah. I said, so you think that in the mass, the wafer and the cup literally translate into the actual flesh of Jesus and the actual blood of Jesus.

That's what you. Yeah, transform the transubstantiation. You think that's what's happening. And he took me to John six.

And he said in John six, Jesus says, unless you eat of my flesh and drink of my blood, then you cannot enter the kingdom of God.

And he said, there's nothing in there that indicates he's speaking metaphor. He doesn't say my flesh is like bread.

My blood is like wine or something like that. He's saying there's no metaphor indicated there.

And I said, okay, when you go to Revelation chapter one, and you read that Jesus has a sword coming out of his mouth, do you think he literally has a sword coming out of his mouth?

Well, no. Okay, because there's nothing in the text there that says that it's metaphor. There's no indication of that being metaphor, but we know that it is.

We know that the reference that's being made there is the word that comes from his mouth is like a double -edged sword.

So why don't you apply that same understanding to John six? And you're taking that just straight literal, that we have to be cannibals in order to enter the kingdom of God.

You've got to eat Jesus' flesh and drink of his blood in order to enter the kingdom. But in fact,

Jesus said in John six, 63 and 64, it is the spirit who gives life.

The flesh is of no avail. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.

So he's indicating there, no, I'm not telling you to literally eat my flesh and literally drink my blood.

If the flesh is of no avail, why would we have to eat Jesus' flesh in order to have eternal life?

Right, because he's God. Yeah, because, yeah, right. His flesh is more supernatural than our flesh.

We've talked about that before too. Yes, we have. There really wasn't anything supernatural about Jesus' flesh and Jesus' blood.

He was very man, very man and very God. When we talk about there's power in the blood, you know, when we sing about that, we're talking about what was accomplished through that.

We're not saying that there's some sort of mystical property about his blood. In the Old Testament, it clarifies that in the blood is life.

So the shedding of blood was Jesus giving his life for us. When an animal was sacrificed, they're not measuring how much blood is coming out of the animal.

And so once we get to a certain point, oh, okay. Oh, that's enough. That's it, wait. Enough blood has been given for your sins.

It's literally the - Are we carrying over for next week now? Yeah, that's right. Hey, I got some accredited blood there to my account.

It is the giving of the life of the animal for the sins that were committed, for the wages of sin is death.

So an animal is being sacrificed as a propitiation. The mass is conducted as a propitiation that it somehow through this mass, your sins are being forgiven by this work.

But the mass does not forgive your sins. Jesus forgives your sins. Amen. It is through his sacrifice on the cross once for all that your sins have been atoned for.

And you receive this gift of grace by faith in Jesus Christ. Now, that needs to be our understanding of the mass, of the

Eucharist, of that act of communion, the way that it is handled and taken in the Catholic Church. Would you attend a service in which that's being done?

Again, that's gonna have to be - Yeah. Regarding your own conscience. It's more than just church, but at the same time, some people choose to do the entire service, this entire mass with their wedding.

So they do become lengthy in that, but they can choose just to take like communion and they can opt out of some of the other stuff.

But for the most part, you're pretty much guaranteed that they are going to take communion and read from the

Bible. Yeah, because you have - At the very least. In the mass, you have the liturgy of the word and the liturgy of the

Eucharist. And so sometimes in a wedding, they're just gonna request the liturgy of the Eucharist.

Right. So that they're only taking the communion part of it and not the, of course, we know it's not communion.

I mean, this is a, it's a cultic ritual is what's going on there. And again, and don't hear me saying, hey, it depends on your conscience as to whether or not you're gonna go.

I'm not telling you to go to mass on the weekend. Right. Don't hear me saying that at all.

I'm just saying like, if it's a family member who's getting married or something like that, whether or not you're gonna be there for that, that has to be between you and the

Lord. There are things that I have walked into knowing what I'm walking into, but I have a completely different reason for going there.

Right. I've talked about this very briefly before, but I still wanna go to a

Mormon service. I've never been to one. I kind of missed my chance when I was in college. Every Sunday now,

I go to preach. Yeah. So why would I stop doing that just so I can go to a

Mormon service? I've wanted to go just to see what they're doing, but that's not something I encourage everybody to go do.

And Becky and I have talked about it. If I ever did have the chance to go do it, I would not take my wife and kids with me. I'd probably just be going by myself, but I'd just like to go.

I'd like to see what they're doing in this place. I've heard some funny stories from people that have gone to these services.

And I think he's nuts. Yeah. So see, I have a completely different reason for wanting to go into something like that.

You do it more for research though. For research, right. I wrote a - Just so you could say, this is what they do.

Yeah. And you've witnessed it, not just from the books that they push out, but also from actual attendance.

Yes. So yeah, when I wrote 40 Mormon beliefs and what the Bible says, I'm taking that strictly from Mormon writings.

So here's what their writings say, here's what their teachers have said, here's what the Bible has said. But in my own personal experience,

I've never actually been to a Mormon service. So yeah, going to things like that for, whatever your reasoning might happen to be, if you think that you're even communicating something to family, like you condone this, or you approve of it, if you think that that's what your family would perceive by your attendance, you have to take that in mind as well.

Oh, definitely. As to whether or not you're gonna attend. Which is why it's important to talk to someone like your pastor in these sort of circumstances.

Yes. So that way you can hash that out. Right. I think there's a little more conversation that he can help you through.

I've just provided some information about the mass there. Right. Yeah. In no way should you hear me saying, eh, you can go to mass, it's okay.

Don't, that's not what I'm saying at all. I'm just saying when it comes to attending a family member's wedding, and that's probably gonna be going on at the wedding.

But you never know, the Lord may keep COVID around. Yeah, that you wouldn't be able to attend that anyway.

Right, because of the pandemic. This next one, this next email, this came from Ryan, and he didn't actually include much.

He just said, what is going on with Zondervan? And then he gave me a link to an article on Discern, which is

Adam Ford's news website. He's -

DISRN. Yeah, DISRN. He's the guy that founded Babylon Bee. Right. And then sold

Babylon Bee, and he started Discern. This is really his passion, what he wanted to do. So this is the headline to the article.

Zondervan publishes the Quran with commentary to help Christians interact more fruitfully with Muslims.

Christian publishing company Zondervan is releasing a full translation of the Muslim Quran, which features commentary throughout in order to equip

Christians to interact more fruitfully with Muslim believers. Zondervan says the work is factual, respectful of Muslims, and insightful on issues about which

Muslims and Christians disagree. The Quran with Christian commentary, a guide to understanding the scripture of Islam is written by Gordon D.

Nickel and releases on April the 28th. This book's description reads, the Quran with Christian commentary offers a unique introduction to the primary religious text of Islam, alongside a precise modern

English translation of the Quran. Author Gordon D. Nickel provides in -text notes to explain the meaning of various surahs or chapters and ayat or verses, their interpretive history and significance in Muslim thought and similarities and differences when compared to biblical passages.

Factual, respectful of Muslims, and insightful on issues about which Muslims and Christians disagree, the

Quran and Christian commentary equips Christians to interact more fruitfully with Muslim believers.

Professors and students in courses on Islam and the Quran will find this to be an invaluable resource, as will pastors and missionaries who minister along, or I'm sorry, among Muslims.

Written at a readable level, any Christian who wants to learn more about Islam and the Quran will find it to be a rich and informative introduction.

Skipping the rest of the article, I don't agree with this simply because Zondervan is literally publishing the

Quran. I would have preferred - Like a study. Right, I would have preferred if this was gonna be done that it would be

Gordon Nickel covering those things in the Quran that need to be covered and then providing those notes that he wants to write in response to what he wants to say regarding those things that are in the

Quran. But in doing it this way, I understand the meaning and the purpose behind it.

I get what they're trying to do, and they're probably even wanting this to be a textbook. But you're encouraging them to read the

Quran. Sure, right. You're literally publishing the Quran. And it doesn't matter that there's commentary notes that might be expressing disagreement with what is written in the

Quran, you're publishing the Quran. Right. That's, it's a Bible publisher,

Zondervan, publishing the Quran. Right. That's the big problem that I have with this. And the Quran is not the

Bible. Yeah. Now, when Ryan sent that, he said, what is going on with Zondervan?

Well, they're kind of a kooky publisher anyway. I mean, they're the publisher of The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren, The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd -Jones.

Now, a lot of people really love that Bible. The what? The Jesus Storybook Bible. Oh, okay, yeah. I don't think we even have it.

I think so. But she is, she's pro -LGBTQ. Oh. Who has written

The Jesus Storybook Bible. There's The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson.

So does that usually affect their writing? I'm just asking. Well, there's a book that's coming out by Nate Collins.

And he's a professing gay Christian. Like he says that he's gay. Okay. And Zondervan is publishing a book by him.

Okay. So that, I don't think that matters to them. No, I mean like, she's pro -LGBTQ and would that affect the?

Oh, certainly. Okay. Yeah, it's gonna affect the things that she writes in The Jesus. That's what I'm trying to get out of you. Right, right, right.

It's certainly gonna affect it. I haven't read The Jesus Storybook Bible. I haven't either. Our kids aren't using it.

I just know we have it somewhere. I don't know how I acquired it, but I've got a copy of it somewhere.

They also published The Color of Compromise by Jamar Tisby. That is an anti -gospel book that is promoting wokeism, critical race theory, intersectionality.

So Zondervan is into publishing some kooky things anyway. This totally, I mean, this really doesn't surprise me.

If there was any publishing company. It's disappointing. Sure. If you were gonna ask me, there's a

Christian publishing company that's coming out with a Quran commentary for Christians to help them understand what's in the

Quran, and you were to ask me, which publishing company do you think is doing that? I would have said Zondervan. Mm. I just, it just doesn't surprise me.

It doesn't seem as, I guess, heady as, well,

I'm sorry. It does seem headier than the stuff that you typically would see coming out of Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson's stuff is a little more kitschy than the stuff that usually comes out of Zondervan.

So that's why I would have thought of Zondervan first. Let's see. Do I have enough time for one more question?

I think so. Let's try. Okay. This is from, oh. Read it fast. I was gonna, now I'm adding time here.

I was gonna mention, instead of buying that book, the Quran with commentary, because you would be purchasing a

Quran, which is not terrible to have, I guess if you have it for research purposes, but anyway, here,

I'm on this again. Gabe is encouraging us to go to Mass and buy Qurans. I would tell you to read the book,

What Every Christian Needs to Know About the Quran, written by James White. There you go. Check that one out.

He's even holding it up for you all to see. That's right. I'm holding it in my hand right now. I pulled this out and set it next to me, knowing that we were gonna talk about this, because I thought maybe

I'd open it up and read a section. No, keep moving. Okay, so this last question is from Steve in Iowa.

Pastor Gabe and Becky, I am blessed with your ministry. I thought asking questions on my birthday would be a lot of fun.

That was April 17. Aw, happy belated birthday. That's right. We had already posted the podcast by the time

I got this email, because that was one week ago. Okay. So anyway, here's where Steve is going. As I'm looking at this,

I'm realizing we're not gonna have time to answer this. But he is talking about Hillsong Bethel Church and Elevation Music.

Okay. Worship songs that come out of those churches, and that somebody said to him, well, we shouldn't disregard those things as not being

Christ's work, because of the story that we read about in Mark 9, 38 through 50, where the disciples said, hey, we saw these people doing things in your name, and we told them to stop.

And Jesus rebuked them for doing that. Right. So this is what a pastor had shared with him, because he said

Hillsong Bethel Church and Elevation Church are not Christian churches. I mean, they're teaching heresy in those churches.

And basically, an elder responded with this passage in Mark 9, 38 through 50. I'd really like to go through this, but we don't have time.

Okay. So we're gonna come back to this question next week. Oh, you get two weeks. That's right. But I still wanted to mention it, because Steve, hey, your birthday was a week ago.

That's right. So we're gonna tell you happy birthday. We don't wanna be a month late. We don't wanna be too late. Well, I'll try to remember this question.

We're gonna start with this question next week on the podcast. Awesome. Let's conclude with prayer.

All right, let's. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your goodness and your grace that you show us daily, and that it is by grace that we are saved through faith, not of our works, but because you are good and you are merciful.

If it was by our works, then it wouldn't be grace. If it was by our works, we would never even accomplish it.

For what can we do that would be a holy enough offering to give unto the

Lord? We have a righteousness that has been given to us in Christ Jesus, who offered himself once for sins.

He will never have to lay his life down again for our justification. But the next appearing of Christ is gonna be the judgment that is upon the world.

And so I pray that you keep us steadfast in this faith that we have been given, and that we would also share the good news, the gospel of the kingdom of God with others so that they would turn from their sin and live, and live with Christ forever in his kingdom in glory.

I pray that the good news of this message would rest on the hearts of your people. And as we are going through these difficult days and tough trials, we are reminded of your goodness and the deliverance that we have in Christ.

And we long all the more for that great day in the Lord, not laying any hope in this world, which is wasting away, but putting all our hope in Christ and the coming of his kingdom.

We ask for your comfort in our hearts from the God of mercies and of all comforts, our

Father in heaven above. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Hello.

I had a problem earlier today where I was attempting to... You don't have to yell at me.

Am I talking real loud? You're talking loud. Oh, sorry. Well, I was just adjusting the volume on this and I couldn't hear real well.

So that had to do with what I was saying. So I had a problem earlier today where I could hear nothing out of my headphones.

I'm like, why is this volume so quiet? I just figured it out. I had it turn all the way down on my board.

So everything on the computer was up, but I didn't have it up on the board. And because it was real quiet, apparently

I was yelling at you when you came in the room. Ew. Yes, you were. Should I have taken one of the girls potty?

Do you think they might come bother us in the next hour? Let's give it a shot.