Questions & Answers

Again, as I said last week, I could ask questions of the congregation, but you're a very literate congregation and you could stump me quite easily.

So I pulled some questions together that I think are good for the church, interesting, and we'll talk about some of these issues together tonight.

So I'll ask a question and then give a biblical answer. The first thing I'd like to go to is 1

Timothy chapter 4, why do we read scripture in public? We're going to do some easy questions tonight, some hard questions.

Why do we read scripture in public? Let's turn to 1 Timothy chapter 4. I have this as a question because I was in many churches this summer and not many of those churches have a public reading of scripture.

There'll be drama in the church. They'll stop the sermon and you'll have a video clip of an

Adam Sandler show to bring a point home. You'll have streamers, girls with streamers running up and down the aisles.

I didn't see that this time in California, but I have seen it at the Anaheim Vineyard before. And so what is our philosophy of what we do in a local church?

Why do we preach? Why do we sing? Why do we pray? Why do we read the scripture? And the loose answer is we try to do what the scriptures tell us to do, no more and no less.

Matter of fact, that's actually why we have the announcements at the very beginning because it's not part of the worship service.

It's just here's some quick announcements and now let's begin. Next is the call to worship. So Paul is writing to Timothy, the pastor, and then therefore all the other pastors that would follow in the long line of men of God.

And he says in 1 Timothy 4 .13, until I come, devote yourself to public reading of scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.

So Paul is telling understudy, Timothy, I want you to read the word.

Of course, preach the word. That's found in 2 Timothy 4, verses 1 and 2. But he says, I want you to read the scripture.

Let me give you a little philosophy on what we do here at the church that might help you understand what's happening. Many churches will read the passage from scripture that is the sermon passage.

So this morning, I did 1 Corinthians 13, 8 through 13, and then the church would say that will be our public reading of scripture.

But I don't really like that for several reasons. By the way, it's okay to do that. It's just reinforcement.

But I like to have something different read because I'm going to end up reading the passage, and I'm going to probably read it over and over and over.

And so I don't want the scripture to be read that I'm reading. A second comment that I have, why is it that liberal churches and Roman Catholic churches read the scriptures more often than a lot of evangelical churches?

That's one thing you'll get if you go into a liberal church or a Catholic church is scripture readings, the gospel, and they'll read from one of the gospels.

Let's say I was preaching through the Gospel of James. I don't know who in their right mind would preach through not the Gospel of James, but the

Epistle of James. But it's got 104 verses, and it's got 52 imperatives. Do this, do this, do this, do this, and no talk of a crucified savior, no talk of the cross,

I should say, to make it more technical. No talk about substitutionary atonement and the resurrected

Christ. And so one of the things I try to do, we're doing something a little bit different now, and I'll talk about that in a second, is if my sermon is really full of exhortation, full of imperatives, full of commands, then the scripture that I want read is the opposite.

It's full of indicatives, statements of Christ's life and death, and the gospel itself.

So then the church is getting both. They're getting statements of fact about the gospel and who

God is, and then they're getting charges to do things in light of that. So they get indicatives from the scripture reading, and they're getting imperatives from the sermon.

So that's one of the philosophies I have. It can be switched around. What if I'm just talking about the glories of the gospel, but I think, you know what?

My sermon doesn't really have you do anything today except just look at who Christ is. Maybe the scripture that I'll read are full of Psalms or Proverbs.

But what we've been doing lately is simply this, I'd like to get the Bible into your mind in any way, shape, or form that I can.

And so we're just going to start picking books of the Bible, and we're in 1 Peter. And today, we read 1 Peter 5.

Last week, it was 1 Peter 4. Next week, it'll be 1 Peter 6, and so on. There's no chapter 6.

I said the second service today that Robert Kennedy assassinated Robert Kennedy. I guess that would be suicide, premeditated, but I didn't mean that.

I meant Sirhan Sirhan assassinated Robert Kennedy. And then

Sirhan Sirhan said, they can gas me, but I'm still famous. So for those of you that were at the second service and not the first, fix that on the tape.

Do you know what I'd love to do? I'd love to have a program back there that we can take the best of the first sermon and the best of the second sermon, and then marry them together, and then the sermon might be all right to put online.

Now, we're trying to teach you as a congregation that you should do at home what we do from the pulpit.

Oh, they read chapter by chapter. Maybe if I'm a dad and I want to teach my kids the

Bible, a good way to do it might be what? Chapter by chapter. Oh, they're trying to dig in and go verse by verse.

Maybe I should try to dig in and go verse by verse. But back to the text here. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture.

We do that on Sunday night. We do that on Sunday morning. And the answer for why we do it is because it's clearly in the

Scripture, and we hold to a loose form of what we call the regulative principle. Scriptures regulate what we do.

It's a Presbyterian idea, although I think it's a good idea. If the Scripture says, sing, we sing.

Lord's Supper, we take it. Baptism, we do it. Preach, we do it. But it doesn't say something about do drama, streaming ministry.

Steve, did you go that day with us down to the Anaheim Vineyard? Thankfully, no. Thankfully, no. Okay, I should have videotaped it because when we sat there to start, and these 17 -year -old girls were running down the aisle with streamers and stuff,

I had no idea what was going on. I thought, what's the spiritual gift that you need for the streamer ministry?

And I couldn't quite figure it out. But what we try to do here is we'll do what the

Scriptures say. The other philosophy is, well, the Scriptures don't say not to, so we can kind of do whatever we'd like.

We're sticking with the first philosophy and having the Scriptures regulate what we do. If you ever go out of town and you'd like to find a church that would be good to go to, a test would be, not the test, but a test would be, is there a public reading of Scripture?

Question number two, I'm going to ask you actually this question. Since the

Gospel of John does not contain the word repentance, should you say repent after you've preached the gospel?

In other words, everything in the Gospel of John, matter of fact, let's turn there, John 20, let's turn to John 20 for a moment.

You can do a concordant search if you'd like. By the way, concordant searching now is so easy with Bible computer programs, it's not even funny.

How many people here use actually a real old concordance with paper? Some do. Okay, good.

And do those same people know who Steve Green is? The word repentance isn't found here and so some will say, and you think

I'm just making this up, but there's a group of people in Texas who say we ought not to tell people to repent and believe in this

God who died for sinners and was raised from the dead. Don't say the word repent. And here's what they'll say.

One of the things they'll say. If you look at John chapter... Lost my glasses.

I know I'm getting older when my glasses are up here. Where are my glasses? You ever do that? Let's look at John 20, verse 30 and 31 and here's how they'll do this.

The purpose of the book found in chapter 20, verse 30, now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book, but these are written so that you may believe.

This is why it's written. So that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, the

Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. So, since this is the gospel that is an evangelistic gospel showing who

Jesus is and it doesn't contain the word repent, you ought not to say the word repent.

Furthermore, they'll say if you tell someone to repent, it's almost like a work. They've got to do something before they're saved and you could get into some lordship issues.

So, what would you say, and you can raise your hand, I'll call on you. Should you use the word repent to tell people the response to the gospel is repent and believe?

Should you say that or should you not? Okay, Bruce, what would you say about that? Okay, Peter preached repentance.

Can you think of anybody else who preached repentance? John the Baptist, good. Barry? Philip. Philip, good.

Paul? Jesus? This is great.

Let's turn to Luke for a moment and find out what Luke says in the Great Commission. I think the true

Great Commission is the Father, Son, and the Spirit deciding to send the Son. That is the

Great Commission. But the Great Commission for us in evangelism, of course, is Matthew 28. But we overlook Luke, and here we have the

Great Commission found in Luke. And let's see what Luke says. One of our problems in evangelicalism is we don't understand what the word believe is.

And so, we've watered down the word believe, but really built into the word believe is repentance in the sense that the positive side is believe, the negative side is repent.

The tails of the coin, if you will, is repentance, to change your mind, and then belief is the heads of the coin.

Take a look at Luke 24, verse 44. Then he said to them, these are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the

Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms, three great categories that would encapsulate all of the

Old Testament, must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the

Scriptures and said to them, thus it is written that the

Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, or all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

So, I'll ask you the question again. You preach the gospel to someone about Christ dying for sins and being raised from the dead, substitutionary atonement, the perfect God -man, virgin -born, this

God who's coming back, Christ Jesus, the only sin -bearer, and the response to this gospel that Jesus died for sinners, should it contain the word repentance?

Can it contain the word repentance? And the answer is yes. And for me, when

I talk about Jesus, I just automatically talk about his death, and then tied to his death, I try to talk about his what?

His resurrection. So, when I'm talking to people and I say, you must believe the gospel of Christ Jesus, I automatically just put it into my repertoire.

Repent and believe. Repent and believe. If you hear me say the word believe, you'll hear me say the word repent.

And it's usually repent and believe. And repentance just means to change your mind. And if you change your mind, everything else will be changed.

You think Jesus was a good teacher, you ought to repent and believe and to change your mind.

Is repentance a command that we give to unbelievers? Certainly. But is it also a gift that God has to grant because left to themselves, they could never repent and believe on their own.

And the answer is yes. Let's look at one more passage, 2 Timothy 2. We are preaching commands, but because of the fall of Adam, they can't do what we command them.

I'm somehow, all day, I've been... This microphone, is it still causing problems? It sounds like I'm underwater or something.

Of course, people can't believe on their own, that's why belief is a gift. People can't repent on their own, that's why repentance is a gift.

People can't get saved on their own, that's why salvation is a gift. And so, I think

I read some of this this morning, 2 Peter 2. Paul is trying to tell Timothy what to do and he says in verse 24, and the

Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness.

God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will.

And so, we believe that command of repentance is also, and if it's ever granted people to repent, it's because it's a gift.

And so, when someone says to you, don't say the word repent to someone, with the gospel, you ought to say, why would you say that and then walk through this?

Tomorrow, I'm meeting with somebody and they're an unbeliever and their life is a complete train wreck.

If you know unbelievers and their life is a train wreck, just multiply it by many.

This is as bad as it gets, I think, humanly speaking. And this person is desperate.

And what I'm going to try to tell this person tomorrow is, when I meet with them, is that you don't have a problem.

Like today, people say, oh, I have an anger problem. People say, well, I have a drinking problem.

People say, well, I have kind of a pride problem. No, I'm going to try to say tomorrow nicely, you might have all those things, but here's why you have all those things.

You are the problem. So, if we fix your anger, we've still got you.

It's kind of like there's 11 holes in your abdomen and you've got only 10 fingers of self -help.

You can't fix them all because by nature, you're a sinner and you are manifesting sin.

Now, sometimes God restrains some of that sin because everybody's not as bad as they could be, right?

There's always tomorrow. But this person needs to understand that they are the problem.

And if they are the problem, you can't go to anger management to fix your anger. You have to say to the

God, I need to be new. I have to be changed. I can't save myself.

I need to be, as Pastor Steve preached from the pulpit two Sundays ago, I need to be born again because I've got a major problem.

And I will tell this person after I remind them what the gospel is. I will say, in light of that, you need to change your mind about who

Jesus is because right now, he's just a little pocket companion for you. And you need to believe on what

God says because this is your only hope. Yes, it will help you practically in your life, but there are bigger issues than having your practical matters cleared up.

And so, will I tell this person tomorrow to repent? I will absolutely tell this person to repent.

Okay, questions about that? All right, number, what number are we on, three? Somebody said yeah?

Okay, isn't it fun to just ask little kids questions? And you can ask a question a certain way with your face and stuff that they'll automatically give you a yes question.

So I try to say things like that and the kids say yes, but I really wanted them to say no. But since my face is like that, they automatically default to yes.

A kid came up to me today, a little tiny, tiny kid, and they started to talk to me, so I got down really low on their level to talk.

And they said, Pastor Mike, there's a bunch of wasps in the back there. There's some wasps back there, they could sting people.

So I thought I would have some fun, sermon was over. And I said, well, thank you for telling me.

Maybe that's where we should send visitors back there who aren't believers and God might use them, the wasps to sting them and they would cry out for repentance.

And she looked at me like, you are the loon. She just ran off to her mom.

No, she just looked at me and I said, I'm just kidding, honey. The next number, does

God save people on their deathbeds? Let's turn to Luke chapter 23 for a moment.

And the more we deal with life and the older we get, the more deathbed experiences we're going to have.

And I want to encourage you since tonight's got kind of an evangelistic theme to it, not intentionally, but I'm glad it does.

If you know someone who is alive, of course, I want you to preach the gospel to them. They're not a

Christian, I want you to evangelize. But if you know someone who's dying, you're the one who knows the truth.

Can't call your friend because you've been entrusted with the gospel and you're the one that has the end.

If you call me, kind of goes back to Tony, right? Where Tony, most of the time, the evangelist,

Tony Meano, if you ask him to go preach the gospel to someone for you, he'll say no. You go preach the gospel to someone.

He didn't say that to Steve because Steve was thousands of miles away and so that was something completely different.

Steve had already preached the gospel to his father. But we are ambassadors and we know faith comes by hearing a message about Christ.

And if someone's on their deathbed, someone's in a coma, I want you to be the one who goes in, knees knocking, shaking, saying to yourself, there's no one else to do it,

I have to do this. I need to preach the gospel to these people. Now, is God sovereign? Yes, but he works through means and you are the means.

Prayer, evangelism, through you. And so, I think we can have hope in the

Bible and the God's word because there are deathbed conversions and you know the one that I'm talking about in Luke chapter 23.

Before I read Luke 23, 39 and following, listen to what Spurgeon said. Deathbed repentances are hard to estimate.

We must leave them with God. But it is a sorrowful fact that those which seem to be deathbed repentances have seldom turned out to be worth anything when the men have recovered.

In fact, Spurgeon said, I do not remember a case in which the person who recovered has been at all what he said he would be when he thought that he was on the borders of the grave.

My own conviction is that deathbed repentances have been very, very, very, very, very few.

We read in scripture of only one who was saved at the last, the dying thief on the cross.

And now he says the line that I want you to remember. And it has well been said that there was one that none might despair, but only one that none might presume.

In other words, we can have hope that people on their deathbeds can be saved, but we ought not to do what we did when we were kids saying,

I'll get right with God later, I'll wait till later. We should be hopeful that God saves people even on their deathbeds.

And one of the criminals who were hanged there was hurling abuse at him saying, Luke 29, 39,

I'm reading NAS. And you aren't, are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us.

But the other answered and rebuking him said, Do you not even fear God since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?

And we indeed justly for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.

And he was saying, Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom. And he said to him, can you imagine up on that cross?

You're most likely naked and beat up. Truly I say to you, today you shall be with me in paradise.

One of the problems that people that aren't believers work through is this. They think salvation is of their own power.

So I'll wait to the very end and then I'll believe. But the problem with that is God calls people to repent today.

Today is the day of salvation. But more than that is they think it's within their own power.

I can do this on my own when I want to. And so my exhortation to you is if you meet someone or you've got a family member who's on their deathbed and you go preach the gospel, you ought to say to yourself,

Lord, I discharge my duty. I preach the gospel. And now, God, would you take that word and plant it deep within them?

They were too sick on morphine to respond. I don't know if they ever will respond until I get to heaven, but Lord, save these people.

I think to myself all the time, my dad died at 55 years old and I don't think he was a Christian, but he asked for my

Lutheran pastor to come to him on his deathbed and he wanted the communion cup and the bread.

Is God able to save people on their deathbed like my dad who could care less about God for his entire life?

Except maybe I need a little bit of, you know, a Protestant view of my last rites.

I remember I was in California just a while ago. Not this summer, but a few summers ago.

And I woke up one morning and I just thought, you know, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Isn't it nice to be here in California, away from New England?

I didn't say that. I was just enjoying being at home. And I just burst out bawling.

I just burst out just crying right there. I was kind of glad nobody was around. And I just started crying.

And I just thought, it's within God's power to save my dad on his deathbed, no matter what my dad has done, because God is a saving

God and I'm entrusting my dad's soul unto God and he'll do whatever's right. And what if I get to heaven and I see my dad in heaven?

I started crying. I thought, you know what? That's just like God to do, is to have my dad in heaven.

Not because my dad was good, not because my dad earned it or anything like that, but that's just what God does. I could ask the question this way, isn't it almost the same thing with you?

What explains you going to heaven? Nothing explains it except the sheer sovereign grace of God.

And so when people say, someone's in a coma, what should I do? They're about ready to die and you go to the hospital, what do you do?

Who's here preached to somebody who's been in a coma before? You know, here's the good news, friends. If they're in a coma already, sometimes they can hear.

And the good news about preaching to people in comas, they can't tell you to stop. I'm going to talk about sin,

I'm going to talk about repentance, I'm going to talk about the gospel, I'm going to talk about the resurrection, I'm going to talk about belief right now, you can believe right now, you must believe right now.

And they listen. Something about it, I told you a while ago that my dad's best friend just died four weeks ago and my brother went and said to him on his deathbed, are you afraid to die?

Yes. And we're the ones who have the answers. And so when you know a friend who's dying or you might be dying, you've got the answers and you go tell them there's forgiveness found in Christ Jesus alone.

Truly, I say to you today, you shall be with me in paradise. All right.

Okay, I think this will be an interesting one. What's wrong with this statement?

If I just had a little more money, all my problems would be solved. I just had a little bit more money.

Who here would like a little bit more money? Everybody that didn't raise their hand, I'm wondering about you.

Let's turn to Ecclesiastes 5. Boy, this is an interesting chapter. Ecclesiastes 5, the preacher is going to tell us something.

All kinds of views on Ecclesiastes. Is it negative? Is it positive? We're just going to kind of parachute right in here just because I want to remind you that we do need, of course, money to live, but we don't want to have money be our master.

You should make decisions about your life, to make money, to live and all that, but it shouldn't be the ultimate.

And so, money is going to not solve all your problems. Actually, here's what Ecclesiastes is going to tell us.

Money causes problems. More money, more problems.

And by the way, I'm not going to ask for an offering after the sermon, but if I was manipulative, I'd preach this on Sunday morning, and then right at, we wouldn't have the giving before the sermon.

We'd have the convicting message like this, and then we would have the giving after. Oh, back to something

I forgot to say early on. Why do we have a time of giving at a New Testament church?

It's because you can look at 1 Corinthians 16 and other passages where they would give. And so, we don't want to say, oh, if you go to the back, you can drop off the money because we don't want to offend an unbeliever if they're here.

Well, actually, you know what? Just between us, if an unbeliever shows up here, I want them to be offended because 1

Corinthians 11 says, if the word of God is preached right, we want them to fall on their face saying, surely

God is in this place. But I want them to be offended by the cross of Christ and preaching about sin and repentance, not because we're acting foolish.

But if they're offended by the plate being passed, they're offended. So, we don't do things based on what unbelievers, based on what they want or how they'll respond.

Okay, Ecclesiastes 5 .10, I think I'm going to do some NAS in this too. Look at how riches can't satisfy you.

Ecclesiastes 5 .10, he who loves money, literally silver, will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance with its income.

This too is fleeting, it's vanity. What does ESV say for vanity there? Verse 10, this is also vanity.

NAS does the same thing. I sure wish more translations would not use vanity and use fleeting, temporal, doesn't last.

You take your bubbles, you ever have bubbles with your kids and you dip in the little bubble stick and then you blow and out comes this big bubble and what happens within three seconds?

Who just made that sound? Wesley? Oh, she did? Oh, yeah.

Now he's lying. Well, the only good news is he's an excellent

Sunday school teacher. Poor congregant, but excellent Sunday school teacher. Can I see your giving statements at the end of this, please?

I'd like to know, see if you tithe off net or gross. Desire for things is running ahead of how much you can grab and all your acquisitions, you can never get enough.

This is for the old timers. I bet you only Steve Cooley remembers this one. Duane Thomas, who played football for the

Cowboys, won a Super Bowl in 1972. Who else remembers Duane Thomas? Okay, some do.

After they won, he was asked by a reporter, how does it feel to win the big one? And Duane Thomas said after he won the

Super Bowl, if it's such a big game, why do they play another one next year? How rich is rich?

The survey is pretty old, but USA Today said, survey of people who ought to know, the answer is one million to five million in assets.

Investor managers of Newberger and Bergman sponsored the survey of people who stand to give or receive inheritances, medium households, assets 500 ,000.

Paradoxically, 55 % of those whose assets range from one million to five million don't consider themselves wealthy.

Are you wealthy at five million? No, not wealthy. And another thing that happens, look at verse 11.

Money requires more money to keep going. When good things increase, those who consume them increase.

So what is the advantage to their owners except to look on? I got more dependents and more lawyers and more accountants, more staff to manage my money, more friends, parasites, more money spent on to maintain my style of living.

Verse 12, money makes you anxious if you're not careful. If money is your slave, it can make you anxious.

Verse 12, the sleep of the working man is pleasant, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich man does not allow him to sleep.

He's got anxiety. It's hard to relax with all that stuff going on.

I never slept so well as when I was a janitor for Grace Community Church. Clock in, clock out, job done, don't have to take anything home with me except the magazines that I stole out of MacArthur's trash bin.

We were always like, I call MacArthur's office tonight. So then we would go and we'd think, does he have anything good in the trash? Oh, he's got quite a few magazines.

They're just fit perfect right in my briefcase. I can't believe I just said that. I have pictures of me sitting in John's desk.

It was at midnight and I'm sitting there and I would hold his Bible or something and I have pictures of him. So I had those up in my office.

And then when MacArthur got here in 99, I had to quick move those because I thought if John walks up and sees these illegal photos,

I am so dust. See, kids know when we ask questions, we say yes.

When we laugh, then we all laugh together. Riches can give you pain, verse 13.

There's a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun. Riches being hoarded by their owner. Listen, to his hurt, personal damage.

Riches are fleeting, verse 14. When those riches were lost through a bad investment, when he had fathered a son, then there was nothing to support him.

It's like Houdini, the disappearing act. Putting all the eggs in one basket and then it's just gone.

Proverbs 23, Solomon says elsewhere, when you set your eyes on it, it is gone. For wealth certainly makes itself what?

Wings. Like an eagle that flies toward the heaven. The story

I like is Albert Lowry. 1980s, he wrote a book, How You Can Become Financially Independent by Investing in Real Estate.

On Magazine, Money Magazine. On the cover, 1981

May. They estimated his net worth was 30 million and called him a real estate wizard.

But something went wrong and in October 85, Success Development Institute, which promoted his theories, collapsed with 2 million in debts.

In June of 1987, it was reported that Lowry's assets were being liquidated in Los Angeles, Chapter 7,

Federal Bankruptcy Code. Hey, you can't keep riches forever. Look at verse 15. And he had come naked from his mother's womb, so he will return as he came.

He will take nothing from the fruit of his labor that he can carry in his hand. And this also is a grievous evil.

Exactly as a man is born, thus he will die. So what is the advantage to him who toils for the wind?

And verse 17, riches can make you miserable too. Throughout his life, he also eats in darkness with great vexation, sickness, and anger.

Grief and anger, frustration that comes with the managing of the money and the risk.

What word didn't you see in these last several verses? In the last eight verses, what word didn't you see?

I didn't see anything of who God is. No mention of God in the last set of verses, verses 10 to 17.

And now we have verse 18. Here's what I have seen to be good and fitting. To eat, to drink, enjoy oneself in all one's labors in which he toils under the sun during the few years of life, of his life which

God has given him. This is his reward. Solomon said, this is something that's good.

It's fitting. It's beautiful. It's handsome. This is a good thing. You say to yourself,

I'm going to have joy in what God has provided me. Riches aren't sinful, but riches cause problems. I don't have riches.

And instead of me desiring riches all the time, wanting more and more and more, do you know what? I'm going to have a good meal, have something to eat.

Just going to enjoy myself saying, you know what? Based on what I deserve and what I get, this is a great life.

God has given me everything I have. You can make it really simple. How many cars do you have?

God has given you those cars. How many pairs of clothes do you have? God has given you those.

How many rooms do you have in your house? And the list goes on. Everything you have in your house. And you say,

Lord, thank you for these things. I'm just going to enjoy them. Verse 19, furthermore, as for every man to whom

God has given riches and wealth, he's also empowered him to eat from them and to receive his reward and rejoice in his labor.

This is the gift of God. This is the gift of God. The key to riches is this.

God gave me these riches. God has given me these riches by his bountiful mercy. He's such a saving

God. He gives riches in Christ Jesus. But he gives other riches, too. If he gives a greater, he gives some of the lesser, too.

Maybe one of my all -time favorite verses these days, because it just shocked me. I haven't read it for so long, Job 22. Then the

Almighty will be your gold and choice silver to you. Then God's going to be gold to you and silver to you.

Then you will delight in the Almighty and lift your face to God. Verse 20, we need to wrap this question up.

It can turn into a sermon itself, for he will not often consider the years of his life, because God keeps him occupied with the gladness of his heart.

To God my exceeding joy, Psalm 43. And when you think like that, then you say, yes,

I have trials and I have issues and there's pain and there's sickness and all those things, but God has kept my heart preoccupied with how good he is.

The fruit of the Spirit is love, peace, and joy. The problem is money doesn't solve anything.

The remedy is see everything in your life as a gift from God. Martin Luther said this, are not those happy people who are satisfied with the present favors of God and comfortable nourishment for the body and who leave it to God to care for their future.

Aren't those the happy people? The happy people are those that say, God, what you gave me at home with my food in the refrigerator and my rooms in my house that I own or that I rent,

God, you gave me all those things. And if you gave me those, you'll take care of my future. My future's in your hand. Those are happy people.

Now let's flip it around. The unhappy people. I've got to work for these things. I've earned these things.

Nobody else has helped me. And I've got to control the future. All right, let's see.

How are we doing for time? You just said one more? Well, then

I'm doing more than one after that. Don't give me that one more. I said, how am I doing for time? I didn't say, how many do I have?

And now he's raising his hand like that. You know, Wesley was the first guy when I got here and I'd say things like, don't put that on the cassette tape, right?

Don't record that. And then two years later, I'd get 180 minute cassette tape handed to me.

And he'd say, every time you said, don't put that on the tape, I obeyed and didn't put it out on the internet or whatever, but I saved it and put it together.

There's a compilation that you have of all your bloopers. Have fun. And they were so bad.

If you talk a lot, there's opportunities to say bad things. These were so bad. He could have had the gift of mercy and just said, you know what?

I'm just gonna, they just go out to space to Mars or someplace. But Wesley, I can't believe it.

He did come up to me also one time and say, he looked kind of mad. The church gave me a raise.

And I think it was like a 5 % raise that time or an 8 % or something like that, negative 12.

I can't remember exactly what it was. I think it was about 8 % raise I got. And then he said, well, I'm expecting something out of you.

Ooh, Wes, WPI grad. Wow, Wes. He said,

I expect that you earn that money and you preach 8 % longer sermons. You got a deal.

Edit that from the tape. Oh, there's so many of these.

What am I gonna do? Okay. Let's talk about God's holiness.

What is the real nature of God's holiness? And I put this question in here because I think we have a lopsided view of God's holiness.

If you take a Frisbee and you flip it upside down and put some wet beach sand on one side of it and pack it down and then throw it to your friend, what does that Frisbee do?

It's got this funny thing and it wobbles like that. And then the neat thing is when your friend catches it, then it sprays him with sand.

But our view of holiness is kind of lopsided and we've only got one side. So what are the two sides of the coin of holiness that you need to know so you don't think about holiness improperly?

What's the one side of the coin? At least give me one. What is God's holiness or what's the nature of God's holiness?

There's the one that we always talk about and then there's the one we forget about. What's the one we always talk about? How would you describe the holiness of God?

If God's holy, what does that mean? What's the worst that can happen? Just give it a shot.

Okay, I like that, wrong, but I like that. That's really good thinking. It's not necessarily even wrong, but we'll talk about that in a second.

Because God is holy and we're to be holy. Would that be communicable or incommunicable? Okay, but I mean,

I'm getting down, Robert, to the nature of it and what is it? Okay, Bruce. Okay, stop there.

That's the one side that we always focus on. The ethical nature or the moral nature of God, that He is holy and sinless and that He is not close to any moral evil or sin.

Habakkuk 1, this is the old NAS, thou art of pure eyes than to behold evil and cannot look on evil.

So God has this moral quality or ethical quality. How many sins did it take for Adam and Eve to be banished from the garden?

One. How many sins had to be committed by Moses to be excluded from the promised land?

Ananias and Sapphira are cut off from the land by how many sins? So God's holy. There's no spot or sin in God.

But what's the other one? That's the one we talked about, God's holy. He's just away from sin and He's allergic to sin.

What's the other side that would make the frisbee fly straighter and truer? Okay, Bruce, go ahead.

Okay, we're so close. If you and Bob would get together, it would be perfect. What's the other aspect of the nature of holiness?

Not just separate from sin. Ferdie. Okay, He's distinct.

He's different. He's not like us. He's transcendent. So those are the two key components.

And I can think of a verse here, 1 Samuel 2, to there is no one holy like the Lord. Indeed, there is no one besides Thee.

See, because He's so different, there's no one like God. Nor is there any rock like our

God. He is a lone God. Exodus 15, who is like Thee, O Lord, among the gods?

Who is like Thee, majestic in holiness, terrible in glorious deeds, doing wonders?

He's different. And so when you think of holiness, you ought to think He's not touched by any sin and He's completely transcendent and He is distinct from His creatures, separate from all other beings.

And since He is holy, He requires the demand of exclusive loyalty, the demand of exclusive loyalty.

And I did some study not too long ago and I found this out. In the

Near East, holiness was more ascribed to people, places, and articles of clothing or pottery, not to gods or goddesses.

So back in the old days, something was holy. If it was just set apart for something like for you, if you're going to have your china for Thanksgiving, you only use it for that special occasion.

But all of a sudden, the New Testament, excuse me, the Old Testament comes along and God is the holy one.

There's not a focus on holy things, primarily unless the holiness that the things have are derived from God.

Okay, I can't do annihilationism. I said I was going to, do you want me to just do it? I said I was going to, who came here just for annihilationism tonight?

I said I was going to do annihilationism. All right, let's just do it. Okay, I'll just go as fast as I can.

I'm only, we're only 43 minutes in, okay? Can do it? All right, if you need to stand up and stretch or something like that, that's fine.

We're going to have the Utica service a little bit later. Okay, hell is so bad, people want to do things so they can live with a hell that's not quite as bad as what the

Bible teaches. So two main things that they try to do. One, they try to teach universalism. Everybody goes to heaven.

When you drive down the street and there's a Unitarian Universalist church, what ought you to say? I say to the kids,

Unitarian means what? Doesn't mean triune, it means Unitarian. They don't believe that Jesus is

God and that everybody goes to heaven, universalism. I don't know why anybody would bother, but they like to get together and talk shop.

That's one option is universalism, that everybody eventually gets to heaven based on the love of God.

God is love, universal fatherhood of God, punishment. If it has to be done, it reforms people.

And the other view is annihilationism. After death, there's not necessarily a second chance, but after death, there's been some punishment, there's been some pain, but then

God ceases, makes you cease. Not God ceases, but God makes you cease.

Pain, but eventually you're extinguished. Listen to what this supposed scholar

Green said. What sort of God would he be who could rejoice eternally in heaven with the saved while downstairs the cries of the lost make agonizing cacophonies?

Such a God is not the person revealed in Scripture as utterly just and utterly loving. If you believe in hell, that's eternal, he said.

That is a doctrine of savagery. Anglican liberal,

John Robinson said, Christ in origins old words remains on the cross so long as one sinner remains in hell.

That is not speculation. It is a statement grounded in the very necessity of God's nature.

In a universe of love, there can be no heaven which tolerates a chamber of horrors, no hell for any which does not at the same time make it hell for God.

Green said, but Scripture does not teach the conscious an ending torment of those who are eternally separated from God.

Now you don't know those names. And you probably don't know Fudge is his last name Fudge.

He also teaches annihilationism, but you probably do know this name. And what name am

I gonna say? John Stott. I also believe that the ultimate annihilation of the wicked should be at least accepted as a legitimate biblically founded alternative to their conscious eternal torment.

Arrington and Terry and Steve probably have a commentary maybe the best commentary written on 2

Corinthians and it was written by who? Not Archon Hughes, but Philip Edmund Hughes.

The conception of the endlessness of the suffering of torment and the endurance of the living death in hell stands in contradiction to the biblical teaching.

It's popular these days. Who's promoting annihilationism now? Well, certainly Clark Pinnock. And here's how they'll say it's true.

One, the word to destroy, Apollami, can mean to just destroy.

We're gonna have to do the shortened version so you didn't just have to email me if you want these notes. A lot of these notes are from a guy named

Pettigrew who was at Master's Seminary. Matthew 2, verse 13,

Herod wanted to destroy Jesus. Would be an end to his life, a ceasing.

John Stott said it would seem strange if people who are said to suffer destruction are in fact not destroyed.

So Jesus was gonna be destroyed. If he was destroyed, his life would cease. So they'll say that's one of the reasons why annihilationism for today.

Secondly, they say eternal and everlasting does not always mean endless, but sometimes means the age to come.

Thirdly, the purpose of fire is not to inflict physical pain, but to destroy.

Put something in fire, it gets destroyed. Fourthly, Revelation 14, 10, refers to the moment of judgment, not everlasting conscious torment.

And fifthly, Revelation 20, refers to the devil and his allies in hell, not humans.

Who else in this general area, not in our church building, but in this general locale believes in annihilationism?

Yes, Barry? Jehovah's Witnesses. Jehovah's Witnesses, okay, good. Who else? Not good that they believe it, but good answer.

Seventh Adventist, believe in annihilation. What if someone said,

I just can't believe a loving God could torture people forever? What would you say?

What's the rebuttal? How do you know that this is true? WVNE on Saturday has

Doug, Pastor Doug Somebody, it's the amazing Bible facts guy. Do you ever listen to WVNE?

3 .30, Monday to Wednesday, I'm just kidding. Saturday, don't listen because the guy's a Seventh Adventist.

And he teaches against annihilation. Type in, is it Doug? Terry, help me. Doug Master? Bachelor, Doug Bachelor.

He teaches annihilation. Type in Doug Bachelor YouTube, and it has got an hour long deal. You need to call

WVNE and say, why would this be on our radio station? So what would the answer be?

We're gonna have to wrap up. How would you try to convince someone who believes in annihilationism that the scriptures teach opposite?

Okay, Robert. Okay, well, it's interesting because if they were destroyed, the smoke would go out.

So if we're gonna try to use the language of scripture that they're trying to use about fire, and is it literal, this or that, if fire continues to go up forever and ever, there has to be something to burn, right?

That's not the best argument, but I like that thinking. What else are we gonna do? Any Bible passages you could think of or?

Matthew 25? All right, Harrington, what were you gonna say? 16, verse 21. Okay, let's go to Matthew chapter 25.

Matthew 25, and this is gonna be probably the easiest passage to go to to help us.

Certainly that the word eternal doesn't always mean everlasting.

It sometimes means the age to come. But when used, A .H. Strong said, when used to describe the future punishment of the wicked, they do not declare the endlessness of that punishment.

There are no words in the Greek language which could express that meaning. In other words, these are the words we have.

Romans 16, 26, eternal God, He lasts forever. Eternal happiness of the saints,

Matthew 19. It lasts forever. And then now in Matthew chapter 25, let's see what verse we'll look at.

Let's look at verse 41 and verse 46. Then He will say also to those on His left, depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.

It's an eternal fire. You say, yeah, but that's just in the age to come, verse 46. And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into what?

Eternal life. So here's a very easy passage to go to and to say, eternal punishment is just as long as eternal life is.

How many people want eternal life in heaven to just be an age and then you cease? If I smiled and looked at the kids, how many want that in heaven?

And they might, but they're smart enough because their parents have taught them. Here's where I think it comes down to.

I think it comes down to, it's hard to get our emotions wrapped around this, because when you realize hell is so bad,

I'll confess right now, the only reason I believe in hell is that because the scripture is clear, not because I like it.

The undying worm, the unquenchable fire. One scholar said, one key difference between Edwards and our contemporary spokesmen who abandoned the historical view of hell is that Edwards was radically committed to deriving his view of God's justice and love from God.

But more and more, it seems contemporary evangelicals are submitting to what makes sense to their own moral sentiments.

This will not strengthen the church or its mission. What is needed is a radical commitment to the supremacy of God in determining what is real and what is not.

Is it bad to underestimate the error of annihilationism? Yes, because I think it lets unrepentant sinners underestimate what's before them.

2 Thessalonians 1 .9, and these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of the

Lord and from the glory of his power. If destruction is you cease, how can there be eternal ceasing?

Jonathan Edwards said, wicked men will hereafter earnestly wish to be turned to nothing and forever cease to be that they might escape the wrath of God.

So I wish it wasn't true, but hell is true. And we honor God by believing what the word says, right?

The most honoring thing you could do is just say, I don't want it to be true. I wish it wasn't true, but God, I will bow to scripture.

And if Jesus talked more about hell, then I'm going to believe what he says. You can go to Mark chapter nine, the fire and unquenchable and all that.