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Responding to questions from listeners about culturally acceptable behavior that is sinful, are all political discussions sinful, and is music that's not Christian sinful? Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
What's an example of a culturally acceptable behavior that is sin? When do political discussions become off-limits for Christians? And is all music bad if it's not explicitly Christian? The answers to these questions when we Understand the Text.
This is When we Understand the Text, a daily Bible study that the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. Visit our website at www .utt .com.
Here once again is Pastor Gabe.
Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. So on the podcast this week, it would have been the Wednesday episode when we were finishing up the study through Titus. I read an article from Pastor Nate Pickowitz in New Hampshire.
And starting off the broadcast today, I've got something else from Pastor Pickowitz. Pastor Pick. I wonder if people at his church call him Pastor Pick. Hmm. I have no idea.
Anyway. So, you know, the... Everybody's on a first name basis now, anyway. Yeah, yeah.
It seems that way. Except for at our church, everybody, if they're military, they only know one another by their last names. Yes, very much. Because I'll be talking to somebody like, hey, did you talk to Sam the other day?
And they'll be going, Sam. Sam. Who's Sam? Coles. Oh, right, right. Okay, I got it.
I got it. Cole? Cole. Yeah, Cole. See, I even added an S in. Yeah. Because he had two first names. He did. Sam Cole. I called him... There's quite a few that have two first names. It seems that way.
I called him Cole for the longest time, but he said it didn't bother me because everybody at work calls me Cole. Right. Because that's the name that's on his jacket. But anyway, so yeah, Pastor Pick. So you know the...
Pastor Pick, yeah. You know the TULIP acronym in Calvinism, right?
I don't know it by heart, but I know there is one, yes. Okay.
So TULIP, as it pertains to the doctrines of grace, stands for total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and the perseverance of the saints. So Nate came up with the TULIP of parenting.
Oh, ooh. Okay, you want to hear the TULIP doctrines for parenting? I am definitely curious. Okay, here we go. Here we go. T, totally exhausted. Yes, amen.
Becky's already going, preach. Preach it. You nailed it. Just with that. You nailed it with the first acronym, you're golden. You unrelenting noise.
Boy, that was our story today, goodness gracious.
They don't have volume controls.
I think there even was a point where I had gotten on them for like the fourth or fifth time about their noise level, and it was Zeej. That said, we were being quiet.
They do believe they are being quiet.
By comparison, that probably was quieter than they were before. Yes, it was. So, all right. So we've got totally exhausted. We've got unrelenting noise. All right. L, leave your sibling alone.
Yep. Mine's more of include the sibling. Okay. Because tonight Ari and Zeej were running around playing and everything, and Raya tried to join them everywhere, but they closed doors. Oh, okay. Instead of letting her in.
She can't reach doorknobs. Nope. So she's standing there knocking, yelling at them, and they're just giggling fits inside. It's like, oh, guys, not kind.
Totally exhausted, unrelenting noise, leave your sibling alone. Here's I. I said, leave them alone. Always repeating. Yes. Yeah, that's right. And then P, please just let me sleep. Amen. That was me this afternoon.
Yep. Yep. So there you go. There's the tulip of parenting. There we go. From Pastor Pick. So true. I'm going to get everybody in his church to start calling him Pastor Pick now. That's terrible. I don't know.
They probably don't listen to the podcast, but anyway, maybe I'll have started something there. Okay. So if everybody else does it.
Yeah. If everybody else starts calling him Pastor Pick, maybe it'll catch on in his own church.
It's hard enough to say pick a wits, let alone spell it. So Nate Pick, I can understand somebody just deciding to abbreviate that. Okay. So it's Friday. Welcome back. Thank you. And we take questions from listeners on the Friday broadcast, which you can send to us via email when we understand the text at gmail .com.
Now September is a really busy month, at least the first three weeks of September. I think we get kind of a break in the last week of September, but we're going to try.
To record a break, whatever that is, normal, busy.
We're going to, yeah, we're going to go back to normal, busy in the last week of September. We're going to try to record two Friday episodes next week. So if you could just start throwing a bunch of questions to us next week, so that way we can just grab them and get the episodes done.
And that way we've knocked that out already. So the email address, once again, when we understand the text at gmail .com. So last week without you, I had to say that I finally got the link to the website done.
I heard. I was so excited.
I'm surprised you didn't wake up, because I wake up before you and I think I yelled in the kitchen. Because you said, hooray!
Yeah, the kids asked me. They're like, what's going on? I'm like, oh. Your daddy finally got something done. Mark that off the to-do list. So if you go to our website, www .utt .com and click on the give tab, there's instructions on there you just need to follow to donate to the ministry and help us get to G3 in Atlanta in January.
Right. We're going to host a booth that costs a little bit more than the regular admission. We also have to get that turned in by a certain time so that they can, you know, have all their booth arrangements.
They've approved us for the booth, but then we still have to follow up with it. We still have to pay. Okay, now we actually have a booth that we can set up. So if you could help us out with that by giving to the ministry, it goes to our church.
So it's still non-profit, tax deductible, and then the church is covering what needs to be covered to go down to G3. Anything that we have extra is going to go into other conferences in the future. Right, other booths.
Yeah, other booths. So we can bring a booth to the conference and be able to say hey to folks and hand out some materials. I'd like to be able to have some t-shirts done by the time we get down to Atlanta.
That'd be fun. I usually am pretty good about coming up with t-shirt designs. I'm kind of blanking on when we understand the text designs.
Maybe you guys can email those in.
You could do that. Hey, anybody wants to design a shirt, we'll give you credit for it. Anonymou designed a shirt. Did he? Oh yeah, that's right. I forgot about that one. Yeah. I didn't like the font, but it was a great idea though.
Okay. I liked the shirt. But okay, that's an idea. I have to say, I'm kind of jealous of the Bar podcast shirts. I know, right? They were so cool. They're really good looking shirts. So BAR, the Bar podcast, have you seen their shirt?
It's simple. And the hat too. Yeah, they have the hat. Yeah. It's very simple. I mean, everybody knows the logo. They recognize it. Yeah. When we understand the text, it's always just been very complicated.
That's a long name. You know, shorten it to WWTT, saying all those letters out. That takes a long time. What, what? And then the graphic itself is all those paintings. Yeah, I know.
That's the hard part. That's why I did just basic on your map thing. Yeah, just with the, right. Basic block letters.
Appreciate that. So I thought about using like Gustav Dore's engravings because they're all in black and white. So he's got engravings that he's done of various Bible stories. I love the one of David holding up the head of Goliath.
So I thought it to keep the colors down on the shirt, I could do, you know, various little logo or little, you know, icons of various Bible stories taken from Gustav Dore. And yeah, I don't know. Yeah.
I'm open to interpretation, open to ideas when we get something like that done. Anyway, that's what we would have at our booth. So being able to hand out a couple of books, yeah, a couple of books as well, handing out some free stuff and just being able to say hey to folks, getting the word out about when we understand the text, because we'd still encounter so many people at conferences that have never heard of it before, right?
And just to let them know, hey, this is free, use the videos at church, use them at home in Bible study, use them in youth group, use them on the street. I even hear from evangelists sometimes that say, hey, I just carry my big old tablet around and I'll punch up a video and go, here, watch this.
This will explain it to you a little bit better. That's all right. That's awesome. Or on your cell phone or whatever like that. Yep. And we'll have some cards, you know, something like that's tracked like that people can take and hand them out.
Hey, how are you coming on your Spanish? Oh, terrible. Aww. Not making progress on it. As busy as we are right now, I'm not making any progress on that. Sorry, guys. I was hoping to be mildly fluent, very mildly fluent by the time we roll around in January.
And then I could attend the Spanish portion of the G3 conference, at least to work on it. Be surrounded by it. I don't see myself getting that far. But we'll see. We'll see how that goes. I know. I still need to put some what videos in Spanish.
You do? There's folks that have been waiting for that. That was where I was going with that. We still got that part of our future endeavors to go as well. So, again, website is www .utt .com. Click Give.
Follow the instructions. In fact, there will be something in bold right when you click on Give that tells you, hey, help us get to G3. You just click on that and follow all the instructions and you can give online.
Which would be superb. And we thank you very much. Thank you. We thank you for your support. Even if it's just sharing a video on Facebook. Yeah. No joke. That's supporting the ministry. And we thank you for that.
All right. So, the first question that we have here is a very brief question, but it has to do with the latest video that was just posted yesterday. And I have to say that video was really popular right off the bat, thousands of views on YouTube and on Facebook.
But I had to take it down and re-upload it. Why? Because there was a spelling error. Oh. And that drives me crazy. I wouldn't be able to sleep. I would not go to sleep knowing there's a spelling error in one of my videos.
And you wouldn't live it down by me either. Every time I'd see it, I'm like, hey, babe.
Hey, babe, you haven't changed the spelling error in your video yet. When I posted. It's a teacher in me. I posted that video and I had this feeling, it was like a feeling that I had. It's like there's something spelled wrong in this video.
There are two other people in this household that could have run down real fast. But I ran through.
I ran through the whole video. I checked all of the scripture references, everything that was in my, you know, the font that I usually print the verses in. I checked all of that. It was like, I don't see any spelling errors.
I just feel like something's spelled wrong. It was in one of the comic captions was what it was. Oh, got it. So I had to go and fix that and re-upload the video. So please go and watch it again so I can accumulate all those views back.
That would be appreciated. What did the views do? I'm just curious. Oh, nothing. Nothing? Yeah. It's just, hey, look, I've got a thousand views. Oh, okay. So you hit a thousand again. That's all it is.
Right. Just watch it 10 or 20 times and if everybody does that, we'll get up to 10 ,000 in no time. So here is that video. It's on being called a Pharisee. Okay. And then I've got the first question that I'm going to respond to is in relation to something that is said in this video.
All right. Two people are having a spiritual or an ethical discussion. One is a conservative Christian and the other more liberal. The conservative calls a popular teacher false or says a culturally accepted behavior is sin and points to what the Bible says.
The liberal responds by playing the Pharisee card. You're so unloving and legalistic, clinging to your Bible and your doctrines. You're a Pharisee. Bam. The conservative is instantly discredited and their arguments are invalid, but more than likely it's the other way around.
During the time of Jesus, Jewish communities were governed by the Sanhedrin made up of two factions known as the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The Sadducees took a very literal interpretation of scripture to the extent that they denied the resurrection of the dead because they didn't believe it was in the scriptures.
The Pharisees were more liberal with the scriptures and they gave oral tradition, equal authority to the written word of God. So you could say the Pharisees added to God's word while the Sadducees subtracted from it.
Both were self-righteous and believed their works made them good. If someone calls you a Pharisee for being faithful to scripture, they do so in ignorance, for the Pharisees weren't faithful to scripture.
Jesus said of them, they honor God with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. Jesus didn't call people who were faithful to his word Pharisees.
He called them disciples. In John 8 31, Jesus said, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free when we understand the text. So there you go.
If somebody pulls a Pharisee card on you, just send them that video. That's right. So the question that I've got related to that video really wasn't based on the whole subject of the video, but just a small part of something that I said.
Okay. So this is from Jerry in Michigan and he said, what does it mean that a culturally accepted behavior is sin? So toward the beginning of the video, I said that the conservative Christian would point to a certain teacher and say, well, this guy's a false teacher.
Or he would point to a certain sin that is culturally acceptable. Like this is a behavior that the culture says, Hey, a okay. Right. And, and that's, that's good for people to do that. And yet you would point to that behavior and say, um, no, the Bible says that sin, right?
For example, abortion, uh, gay marriage, right? Our culture has accepted that these things, abortion is not murder, uh, gay marriage is actually marriage and you're unloving if you're trying to prevent two men who love each other from getting married to one another.
But the reality is they don't love one another. They are encouraging each other in sin that God has promised he would judge. Right. And furthermore, you're just as guilty if you're telling me that I'm wrong and you're trying to encourage these men.
No, no. You do what feels right to you. You do what makes you happy while you are encouraging them to bow at an altar to a false God. Yeah. And God has said in first Corinthians chapter six verses nine and 10 that even those who practice homosexuality will not inherit the kingdom of God.
So, so that's an occasion in which a Christian would take a stand on God's word and say, no, that teacher's a liar. This is actually sin. And then someone who's more liberal in their theology would fire back and say, ah, we'll see.
Now you're being, now you're being a Pharisee because that was what the Pharisees did. Wasn't it? Jesus that said in John five 39 you search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life.
So he was rebuking the Pharisees for searching the scriptures. Uh, no, Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for mishandling the scriptures or for searching the scriptures.
Wrongly for that whole passage, for their salvation in the scriptures rather than through him.
Yeah, exactly. Justifying themselves by their own works. Right, right. That's what I meant. Yeah. John five 39 you search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life and it is they that bear witness about me.
So they're searching the scriptures trying to find the thing that justifies me. Well, ah, there it is right there. And so now I know that I'm saved because I do that in the mosaic law it says this and I do that.
So therefore I'm justified before God, I'm justified. And Jesus is saying, no, all of that, the law and the prophets were pointing to me. And here I am to fulfill the law and the prophets and to give his life as a ransom for many.
And so Jesus, by his death on the cross and his resurrection from the grave, it is by the grace of God through this offering of Jesus Christ and our faith in the person and work of Christ that we are saved by grace.
You are saved. Amen. It is by grace we are justified. It is not by our works. So the Pharisees and the Sadducees believe that they were justified by their works, but we're not justified by works. We are justified by the grace of God.
So a person who is not following God's word and his commandments, and they think that they can do whatever they want, as long as they do what feels right, as long as they do what they don't think is sin, then I'm justified.
But you're trying to justify yourself based on your own merit rather than according to what the Bible says. And so a person who is trying to do their own righteousness with their own life and their own way, they're closer to being the Pharisee than the person who is relying upon the word of God and is seeking forgiveness from sins and knows that it's only by faith in Christ that we have it.
So in 1 John 1, we read in verse 5, this is the message that we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. And Jesus said in the book of Luke that if you are ashamed of me and my words, I will be ashamed of you on the day of judgment when I return with the glory of my father and his angels in holy fire.
And so Jesus is talking about judgment there and how are we saved from judgment by knowing Christ and abiding in his word. We abide in his word and he abides in us. If we say we have not sinned, we make God a liar and his word is not in us.
So a lot of people will use the grace of God as an excuse to sin.
Well, God, he's just going to forgive me for this to do that thinking that I was a Christian. Oh, so did I. Yeah.
Same thing. Same story for me too. But when we read in first John one nine, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's not just about forgiveness.
It's also about that we've been given a new heart that desires to do what God has called us to do rather than doing the thing that we want to do in our flesh, chasing after our own passions and things of that nature.
So cleansing us from all unrighteousness means that we don't live in that sinful way anymore. Now people, anytime we talk about this, there's always someone who's willing to fire back with, well, yeah, but we don't have to be perfect.
I mean, we can, we can still, I might sin this way, but, uh, you know, that's why verses like first John one nine were given to us. So then I can ask forgiveness and God will forgive me. Why do you even feel like you need to add a caveat to that?
Right. Be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. Matthew five. And does that mean you will walk in perfection? No. Paul was clear about that in Philippians. Not that I have, uh, not that I've already perfect, but I seek to make it my own because Christ has made me his own.
Right. So, so don't try to excuse it. Well, it's okay if I do this sin here and no, don't hate it. Hate the sin. Repent.
Repent. Don't do it anymore. Feel guilty about it and say sorry.
There are, there are certain things that are just so extremely basic that you should not be doing. If you're still going out to bars and getting drunk, I'm going to question whether or not you actually have Christ.
Uh, if you're still looking at porn, if you're still giving into sexual immorality and it is like every time you have the craving or the feeling, you just have to give into it. Right. I, are, are you sure that you've been given a new heart?
Because these are easy sins to avoid. It's not that you've got the mastery over your thoughts down. It's not that you've got that down yet, but you can control going in that chair and sitting down and pulling the computer up and looking at things that you shouldn't be looking at or flirting with the girls that you shouldn't be flirting with, you know, things like that.
You have control over that, right? And if God has given you a new heart, then you won't be going after those things. They repulse you. You hate them. Right. Don't find excuses for, well, it's okay that I did that.
No, it wasn't okay that you did that. Right. Just don't even start. Yeah. Be grieved over your sin and ask God for forgiveness.
And don't be so proud that you can say, oh, I can stop at any time. Just don't. Just don't do it.
Yeah. If you're still doing it, well, clearly you're wrong. Clearly you haven't been able to stop it at any time. Right. But it is only by the power of the Holy Spirit that we are given that we have a mastery over our sins in that way.
So when Paul tells the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 10, take every thought captive. Right. And make it obedient to Christ. The person who's able to do that is the person who has the spirit of God. Amen.
So they hear that instruction. Yeah. Because I wasn't ever able to stop my sins, even though I knew what I was doing was wrong and I excused it because I'm like, oh, well, I can ask for forgiveness. And I never really was sorry for it.
Right. And it was just the kind of thing that I couldn't. I couldn't control myself that way. Yeah. And then after becoming Christian and everything and realizing that it's not me, I mean, obviously it's not me because I failed big time and then I'm only passing now because of the grace of God.
Amen. I'm only getting closer and closer. Absolutely. I mean, this is still an extremely. And I'm still so far away.
Oh, yeah. Still so far away. Yeah. But I'm getting closer. I like that. I like that. That GIF that I see every once in a while on Twitter, where it's the guy that's trying to go up the escalator. Oh, yes.
And he falls. And he rolls over backwards and then he's rolling back. And rolls and rolls. Often. Yeah. Yes. Oftentimes I'll see that GIF posted and it will be, hey, here's sanctification in a GIF. Yes.
Because he winds up going up anyway, but he's upside down with all of his bags in his head.
Yeah. Yeah. There's sanctification for you in a GIF. Yes. I was going to say in a nutshell. But no, it's in a GIF. It's in a GIF. Yep. Or a GIF. Oh, no. It's a GIF. That's where I stand on that debate.
It's GIF. I know. Me, too. My name is Gabriel. If you cut that down to three letters, G-A-B, it would be gab, not jab. So it's GIF, OK? It's short for graphics anyway. Why in the world would somebody try to say GIF?
The long form of that isn't even pronounced. The long form of that isn't even pronounced like giraffe.
I don't know. Maybe because it defies the English language. Everything defies the English language. There's so many exceptions. I know. The English language defies the English language. I'm trying to teach the English language.
I'm like, I can't tell you why. Just keep learning this.
So as we were finishing up Titus 3 this past week, it was in Titus 3, verse 4 that we read. But when the goodness and lovingkindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, being justified by His grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
So we have this washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit that gives us a new heart and a mind with which we can do the things that are pleasing to God, where previously we did not have control over our faculties, and the thoughts that we thought were in rebellion against God.
No matter how good we were of a person. Yep.
It was still disgusting before the Lord.
I was a great person, and then I'm looking back and I'm like, no. I was terrible.
Oh, sure. Everybody thought I was just this good little Christian kid, but deep inside I'm harboring all kinds of sin and pride, doing things in private that nobody knew about, and yeah, it took really getting messed up and having my eyes opened by the Holy Spirit of God and realizing how wretched a person I was that I come before God and seek His forgiveness and given a new heart, and now look at those sins as repulsive, and I don't want to have anything to do with those things.
Doesn't mean the thoughts don't pop in my head, but I'm more disciplined now to take control of them. And I mean, this could be anything. We're talking about kind of the big things now, but it could be laziness, it could be some sort of substance addiction, it could be an addiction to technology.
Binge-watching a Netflix show is probably not a good idea. Yeah. It's probably taking you away of the things that you should be doing. I had something about entertainment today, as a matter of fact, one of the questions that we have today, and I've got to make sure that I'm going to leave myself enough time to get to it.
But anyway, so we're still on the culturally accepted behavior as sin question. It was the short question, but we didn't give a short answer to that. Nope, sorry. But thank you, Jerry, appreciate you asking that question.
This next one's from Diane in Maryland, and this was regarding the teaching that I did this past week in Titus 3, 9 through 11. So let me read that first. I'll come to Diane's question. But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.
As for a person who stirs up division after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful, he is self-condemned. And along with that, I also read from Proverbs chapter six, where it says, six things the Lord hates, seven are an abomination to him.
And that seventh thing that is an abomination is one who sows discord among brothers. So I included that in with our teaching on Titus 3, 9 through 11. So Diane, after that episode, she messaged and said, this is convicting, and I am trying to sort out if I am stirring up division because I know the gospel itself can also divide.
Over the last couple of years, I have engaged in numerous political discussions, and I have seen political discussions become more ugly than any other topic I've seen among professing Christians. When engaging in these conversations, I try to talk about how, as Christians, we should care about holiness and not make excuses for sin.
That sounds familiar. I think we've been talking about that today. I try to talk about the temporal versus eternal and our American citizenship versus our heavenly one. I try to talk about fearing man versus fearing God, because my fear often reveals my idols, what I worship.
Do you have any thoughts on when these discussions are profitable, even if divisive, and when they are foolish? Thank you. Well, I don't think that political discussions are always foolish.
No, you need to know who you're voting for.
Yeah, right. All of those things are good topics of discussion, especially when moral and ethical issues will also become political issues. And talking specifically about abortion and the LGBTQ issues and things like that, that end up becoming prescribed as law.
So those become ethical and moral issues that are politicized. And so even though they become political matters and they might show up on a voting ballot or something like that, or like this past week, the Judge Kavanaugh hearings to appoint him to the Supreme Court and everybody who's on the liberal side fearing that he's going to be, he's going to create this conservative supermajority and they're going to undo Roe v. Wade, praise God if they do.
Oh yes, most definitely. I really don't see it going that way, but that would be amazing if that were to happen. So you have these moral and ethical issues like this that will become political. So sometimes you have to have those kinds of discussions.
You can't avoid them. So political discussions aren't in and of themselves so divisive that we can't ever have them. Now there are certain, there are probably some political matters maybe you shouldn't delve into.
I don't, there's nothing really popping into my mind, but there are times I'll hear two people talk about something political and I can hear where they're going with it and I'm going, okay, not really an issue that I want to invest myself in emotionally.
I don't want to add to whatever drama they're already contributing to in the discussion that they're having. So just at your discretion, you know, not to kind of add yourself to a conversation like that.
Take it upon yourself to just be sure your cooler head prevails in such a discussion. If you feel it getting heated, be the person who is sensible and self-controlled enough to be able to go, you know, look, I can tell that you're really passionate about this.
I didn't mean to rile you up like this. So let's just, we'll just take a step back, take a breather, pick another topic or, you know, we can talk about this again later, you know, something like that.
So these kinds of discussions, there are all kinds of discussions that can become divisive, not just political issues, but even theological discussions.
Well, we've had lost friends over political discussions too. I have, yes.
I've lost friends over political discussions. There was an example that just popped to mind, but I won't rabbit trail down that way.
So anyway. It happens, is what I was saying.
Any kind of conversation we have, we just need to be gracious with one another. Paul said in Colossians chapter four, let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt so that you always know how to answer each person.
And the way that I've always taught that when, whenever I'm teaching from Colossians four is seasoned with salt means that it's edifying, it is pleasing, and it is tasteful to somebody else that you are talking with.
And so they can walk away from the discussion, go, you know what, I feel like I got something out of that. If anything, it was just pleasant to talk to Becky, you know, something like that. In Ephesians 4 29, Paul said not to tear one another down with our words, but build each other up with grace as fits the occasion.
So how can you in the discussion that you're having actually build up the person that you're having a discussion with? Are you trying to get your point across? Here's the argument that I'm going to use, and I'm going to win this whole thing, you know, something like that.
Well, it sounds like she's trying to keep him heavenly minded rather than earthly minded. Oh, absolutely.
Yeah. So you think of it in terms of the eternal rather than the temporal. Where is the eternal value in the discussion that we're having? On what side are we falling in terms of eternal value?
Is that what we're looking at? But you also have to keep in mind that we do live here, and so the things on this world are important as well, but it's not the end of the world. So there's kind of a balance there as far as, yes, these are important too, but don't forget that, you know, God is in control kind of comments are helpful.
If they're being passionate about it, they're not wanting to look up at the moment. Right, right.
Yeah. If they're clinging to a worldly worldview and not heavenly minded, then they're not considering how this is supposed to glorify God in the eternal scheme of things. But be careful how you break that down because, you know, like what you were talking about, we can talk about even simple issues here, not big things, but you can look at the trash and go, well, I don't have to take the trash out because it doesn't have any eternal significance.
So there we go. I'm out of having to do my chores now. Yeah. Speaking of trash. It's trash night. Yeah. It's trash night. The trash comes in the morning. We're picking up the trash. But those things we need to do as well to the glory of God.
Right. So any discussion can become divisive. We just need to think about how we can consider the other person ahead of ourselves. So even, you know, we're following the instruction in Philippians chapter two, each one of you should consider not only your own needs, but also the needs of others and consider their needs ahead of your own.
That's not just in terms of how we can love or provide for somebody else. It also has to do with how we talk to one another. There may be certain things that, you know, trigger this other person. Why would you do that?
Why would you deliberately touch on something that you know is going to rile that person up? Right. That would be foolish. Yeah. And potentially cause them to sin. There was a discussion that I had just recently with somebody who claimed to be a Christian, but they clearly were not.
And I won't say why, but it was, they said that they love Jesus and I did not because this was a Pharisee card situation again. So certain issues that she was talking about, I could tell if I said this a certain way, she's going to go crazy.
This is just going to open a can of worms. So I deliberately avoided that. Now the bad Gabe side of me thought that would be pretty fun. You know, I'm going to go ahead and touch on this issue and I'm going to word it even just like this.
So she is going to lose her mind. But that would have been, that would have been sinful. I would have been causing her to sin if I knew that that was going to trigger that kind of reaction.
Because with it being so public, other people would have jumped in.
That's right. Yeah. Yeah. If they saw us having that conversation and they, you know, were they, anyway, yeah. It would have heated quite a few people. Right, right. So considering others' needs ahead of our own, even means in the discussions and the conversations that we have, the words that we choose.
Yes, there are some people that are pretty sensitive and they're, in some cases, we're just not going to be able to avoid that. So you know, I'm going to share Christ with you and you're not going to like it.
Right. But that's not for you to make the decision now, well, I'm just not going to share Christ with anybody because nobody seems to like it. That's the work that the Holy Spirit does. That's not up to you.
So your responsibility is to share the gospel. And Jesus himself said, I came not to bring peace, but a sword. And so if we're preaching Christ and his gospel, it is going to divide people. But that's not a license for you to be a jerk in the way that you do it.
Right. And Peter, I think, really touches on the behavior issue a lot more in 1 Peter, chapters two and chapter four, where you don't have permission to act like a jerk and get somebody riled up. And you still have to have a mind, well, this is 1 Peter 3 .15, that in your heart, you set apart Christ as holy, always ready to give an answer for the hope that lies within you.
Right. But do this with gentleness and respect. Exactly. And 2 Timothy 2 .25, Paul says that the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, correcting opponents with gentleness. Right.
So there are times when the words that we say, yeah, it's going to rile somebody up. We shouldn't deliberately be trying to do that. Right. And then there are, of course, those discussions that for the sake of everybody, even your own peace of mind, just don't go there.
Yeah. Just bow out. All right. Last question. And this one's a little bit longer. I don't know how much time we're going to spend on talking about this, but this is from Chris in Alberta, Canada. He says, Dear Pastor Gabe and Becky, I posed a question to you back in December about Jim Staley and Santa Claus, which you responded on your broadcast.
You remember that? Not a whole lot. Okay. It's been a long time. So it was the whole thing of like Santa Claus and Krampus and Santa was derived from Odin. Right, right, right. And we played the guy. Kooky.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So this was Chris is the one who submitted that question. Oh, hello again. Yes. First of all, thank you for your ministry and especially for exposing the Hebrew Roots movement once again in your recent series of videos.
Along the same general topic of liberty and conscience, I have two questions regarding not food, but music, because a lot of the Hebrew Roots videos, we dealt with food. Right. So related to liberty and conscience, here's some questions about music, and I'm going to divide this up into two parts.
So we'll answer the first one first, and then we'll go to the second part of the question. Second. Yes. Yeah. Second. First part first. First part first. Second part second. How's that? Just checking.
Just today. I listened to the Q &A podcast regarding Jesus Christ Superstar, accompanying the video which was released in April. When you said you thought Phantom of the Opera was a fantastic musical, frankly, I was astonished.
Sure, it's very well structured and has stunning music and compelling characters, but does it actually deserve our praise? It is demonic to its core, involving witchcraft, seduction, murder, and doubts about God.
The music, though grand, is emotionally manipulative, and above all, where Christ and his gospel can be proclaimed to a wide audience, they are ostensibly absent for the sake of entertainment. Yet, it seemed, at the end of the episode, following your discussion of musical theater while you were praying, you referenced 1 Timothy 4, 4 -5, that every creature of God is good if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and with prayer.
How can I be thankful for a piece of art that is worldly to its core? I would actually count Phantom of the Opera as being equally blasphemous to Jesus Christ Superstar, although much, much more subtle.
That is my first question, so let's respond to that first, then before we go on to the next part. So, I'm going to keep this brief. I won't go really in-depth with this, but this is one of the reasons why I really just don't talk about music and movies.
Your likes and dislikes. Right, exactly. There are shows that I like. There are movies that I like and music that I like. I'll tell you, though, I really don't listen to anything secular. If there's anything secular that I'm listening to, it's instrumental music, and it's just because it doesn't inherently have anything that's verbally praising God.
But I can still appreciate the genius and the creativity behind that music, and that God has given such gifts to men, that they have created such brilliant and genius pieces of work. Now, I wish that the composer was somebody who was a Christian, and I can't pray for their soul.
They're already dead and gone, because more than likely, the music that I'm listening to is classical. It's centuries old. So I can mourn over the fact that this person had wasted their life, or I just don't know.
I can't know anything about that person as to whether or not they really were a Christian. But I can appreciate this piece of music that God has given this gift to men. It's just sad and disappointing to know that it breaks my heart to know that many men have taken these gifts that God has given them, and they use it to exalt themselves rather than exalting God.
But we all do that. All of us do that. That's the heart of Titus 2 -3, or I'm sorry, Titus 3 -3, that we were reading a couple of weeks ago. We ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.
And the way that it's put in Ephesians chapter 2, we took the very breath that God gave us and the mind that God had blessed us with, and we used it to blaspheme God and glorify ourselves instead. So God has given this ability for men to create this incredible work of art.
And it is not wrong for us to look at those things which are brilliantly put together and say, that's magnificent. What an incredible gift God has given to this person. That person is clearly talented with a gift from God.
I hope that they realize it. I hope that they repent of their sin, that they don't use this gift to exalt themselves, but they instead use it to give praise and honor to God. That would be my desire. Even in the book of Revelation, what is it that the people mourn over when Babylon is destroyed?
They say, fallen, fallen is Babylon the great. They even call Babylon great. And it was great. It was full of idols. It was full of paganism and rebellion against God. But nonetheless, it was an incredible city and achievement of man.
We can look at the fact that man has made it to the moon. And we can go, wow, what genius has been given to man that he can create a machine as complex as the Saturn V rocket, probably the most complex device ever created by man that would blast men up into space and get them all the way to the moon.
Actually created, not just on TV created. Right, yeah, it wasn't special effects.
It was actually done. We created these machines that produced and harnessed these massive explosions that would catapult us up into space. The achievements of man really are incredible. It's just sad that it's in these achievements that glory is not being given to God.
We can also look at these achievements and we can realize that God's achievements are way, way, way bigger. So as amazing as it is for man to have done such incredible things, what God has done just, all the stuff that we do just pales in comparison.
And that's putting it really, really mildly. But when it comes to works of art, this is really at your discretion. It is in the eye of a beholder. If you feel like you're wasting your life and doing something sinful by listening to or watching Phantom of the Opera, then don't watch it.
And I was just really in the context of what we were talking about related to Jesus Christ Superstar, I was just trying to show I don't hate all works of art. And I actually recognize that Andrew Lloyd Webber is a musical genius.
But I would say Jesus Christ Superstar is terrible. It's not just blasphemous. It's just not good. The music isn't catchy. I can't even hum you a single tune here. And I'm a very musically minded person.
You are. You sing me a song, it's stuck in my head the rest of the day. Yes. And there's just nothing memorable about Jesus Christ Superstar. It's not a well-written musical. And the reason why it was so incredibly popular and still popular today, still performed all over the place today, all over the world.
And the reason why is because it blasphemes Christ. That's the reason why. It's really not because it's a brilliant musical or rock opera, as you would categorize it. It's just because it's so blasphemous.
And Tim Rice, as quoted in the video, in the what video that we did for that particular musical, Tim Rice said, no, we weren't trying to tell a story about Jesus here. We see him as being a completely normal man.
He is not God. And so they were absolutely imposing their own blasphemous views of God on that particular musical. They even outright admitted it. It was supposed to be short. It was supposed to be short, right.
Like I said, I don't really talk about those things that I like a lot because I don't want to cause anybody to stumble. The things that I watch, I know when I'm watching something that's gone too far and I turn it off.
And for the most part, I even try to check the stuff that I watch before I watch it. Right. And it's just the internet age. We can do that. Right. You go on imdb .com. You can click on the parental guide.
You can see what kinds of stuff is in the movie and I can realize, okay, I don't want to see that. Right. Even when something is rated PG though, before I let my kids watch it, I watch it. So that I know even the PG content can not be okay.
Right. So, yeah. And they're slipping in swear words and PG films. Cartoons too. Cartoons. Stuff like that. Yep. There's just so much subjectivity in joint art.
It's kind of like with our kids. Some people think that a movie is great and fine and they let their kids watch it and it's totally acceptable and they're like, oh yeah, and they recommend it to us. And so we watch it, but we know that it won't work for our kids because they're super sensitive whenever it comes to calling people names or being mean to one another.
Yeah, violence. Or having an attitude towards one another or disrespecting parents. And so it might not bother them in their family, but for our kids, it really affects them. And then they start displaying that.
So we have to monitor. It's the same thing with yourself. You know what makes you super sensitive and what you react more to than what somebody else does. And so it just, you have to alter it for yourself.
And that's why we keep a lot of our likes and things like that to ourselves. Because we know that it's not for everybody. Right.
There are close friends that I have that know me well and I know them. I don't even really talk about movies and TV shows I watch with them. Because in my position as a pastor, I just don't want to cause somebody to stumble.
I don't know where you're sensitive. And so I'd rather not give a recommendation for a show or a movie or something like that and then cause somebody to have a conflict of conscience because what it was that they saw.
Right. It's like, wow, Pastor Gabe thinks that's okay. Right. Well, it must be okay. Then you have those kinds of discussions as well. So going on into the second part of this question now. My second question is this.
What qualifies as worldly music? After listening to a couple of resources, namely Wretched Radio, where Todd Freel frequently talks about the purpose of music in worship and an Ask Pastor John podcast on the subject of worldly music.
And after some reflection, I'm convinced that any piece of music that is not suited both stylistically and lyrically is worldly and incapable of glorifying Christ. I believe this because A, the only affirmative presentation of music in the scriptures is in the context of exaltation.
And given the regulative principle, we should heed only what is presented to us. And the regulative principle, by the way, is that the corporate worship of God is to be founded upon specifically directions that have been given to us in scripture as to how we're supposed to worship God.
So that's what he means there by the regulative principle. So that's A, the only affirmative presentation of music is in the context of exaltation. And B, as both Freel and Dr. John MacArthur have expressed, poetry is fashion for us to direct our thoughts and worship to a specific person or item.
But poetry set to music elevates our worship by lifting our emotions toward that person. Is it true that every song in existence which does not explicitly worship Jesus Christ is worldly and causes us to commit idolatry?
Not just songs by popular artists such as Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley, but even more innocent songs like Happy Birthday, ABCs, and whatever we sing at sports event. Very bluntly, I'll just answer, no, it's not.
It's not sinful to sing the ABCs or Happy Birthday. Like we shouldn't take the ABCs and sing it as a praise song unto God in corporate worship. What would be the benefit of that? But if you're saying that all music that does not glorify or explicitly honor Christ is therefore worldly and sinful if we participate in it, you're taking music to a degree that we could take anything to.
Like I shouldn't be sitting in this chair. It's sinful for me to sit in this chair because it doesn't have Jesus on it. That's kind of the direction. Like you're thinking of music only in terms of it can only be worshipful and any other kind of music has to be bad.
No, it can be. That's not saying that no music is worshipful towards a person because you can totally be, but I don't know how to explain it.
Well, like you mentioned Elvis Presley, Elvis Presley had an album full of hymns, at least one. He probably had more than one. So if a person listens to Elvis Presley's hymns album, which gives glory to God, not knowing anything about Elvis's heart and his lifestyle, are they therefore sinning because they're singing Elvis Presley blaspheming God as he's singing these hymns?
So see that would be the principle that you would apply there would be like the one that Paul gave with the Corinthians. If somebody says food in front of you and you don't know whether it's been sacrificed to an idol or not, just don't ask.
Eat doesn't matter. We know that an idol is nothing but an empty thing. So the idol in and of itself doesn't have any power. It's not like you're touching an idol and now I'm instantly unclean. If nobody has presented anything to you that would cause a conflict of conscience, just don't ask.
Just eat the food that is presented in front of you. But if somebody gives you food and they say, oh, hey, by the way, this came from the meat market in the temple and it was sacrificed to a false God.
Don't eat it now for the sake of conscience. Even if your conscience wouldn't be violated by eating the meat because you know an idol is just an empty thing. Don't eat it risking that you would cause somebody else to sin.
Who is watching. Right. They're watching you. Oh, well, it's okay. It's okay for us to worship idols now. Right. And that's the way they connect those dots. So with music, it's the same thing. You can listen to music and you can enjoy it if there's nothing about that music that is outright blatantly sinful or blasphemous against God.
There are certainly some kinds of music you absolutely should not listen to. Oh, yes. But some things are perfectly fine and they're innocuous. And if but let me say this to you, Chris, if you think it's sinful, then don't do it.
Right. If you think watching sports is just an absolute waste of your time and I'm not giving proper glory to God or using my time well, then don't watch sports. Right. But that's between you and God.
Don't pass judgment on somebody else who does watch sports. And doesn't have that conviction. Yeah. And does not have that same sort of conflict in their conscience about watching sports. Right. There are certain things that are going to be between you and the Lord.
We had an issue that happened in our church about three years ago where we had several young men who had a conflict of conscience on multiple different matters. And because they were struggling with those things as to whether or not I should be engaged.
Everybody else had to be too. Yes. Exactly.
Everybody. And if they weren't, they should be. And they were going to talk to them until they were struggling with it. Yeah. And so.
It was very uncomfortable. It wasn't. At first, it was just conversation. Right. But then it turned into, no, you need to feel. Pushy. Right. You need to feel about this the way that I feel about it. And then it became divisive.
Right. Very divisive. So this is Paul at the beginning of Romans 14 saying, don't quarrel over opinions. And these kinds of things related to music and the like, that would just be quarreling over opinions.
So be careful about how you engage those things. If you think it's wrong to sing happy birthday, then don't sing happy birthday. I mean, I know Christians who don't celebrate birthdays because they think birthdays are pagan.
Right. You know, then we can go into the whole license of liberty thing about celebrating Christmas. It could be Easter. Yeah. Right. There's all kinds of things. A lot of things. This is just another one of those things.
So anyway, I appreciate your questions and I hope that that was helpful. Finishing the letter, Chris says, feel free to address these questions on the Q &A broadcast if you see fit. That was why I did.
In closing, I praise God for how you two continue to grow in holiness, even as you devote your time to the online ministry, that you wrestle with the issues presented in a spirit of gentleness and submission is encouraging.
And I want to proceed in that same spirit as well. To the glory of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Chris. Amen. Alberta, Canada. Well, thank you so much, Chris. I appreciate that. I think we've kind of run through the gamut of everything in this episode now.
And we come back to, because we're just now coming back to the pursuit of holiness, devoting our time to online ministry as well. No, there's one more pressing email. Okay, one more pressing email. You need to check your email.
I do? Yeah. I need to check. Okay, here we go. Yep, check the email. I don't think I've done this live while we're recording. Fall church security breakfast. No. Greetings, we finalized our next church security breakfast.
Are you on the what one? No. What?
A pressing question. Yes. Oh, I'm not reading that. Yes, read it. No. Read it. No. Read it. It says, oh, do I get to read my first email? Here it is. There you go. Are you ready? Okay, go for it. Who's B day?
I'm sorry. Oh, yes. There wasn't an intro. I wanted to make sure I was reading the entire email. Okay, check. Okay. So, who's B day is on Saturday? And then it has a winky face. Jonathan Taylor Thomas.
His birthday is on Saturday. Okay. And? It's Gabe's. Gabe's birthday is on Saturday. It's my birthday on Saturday. You better not erase this either because it's my first email I got to read. Becky read her first email.
That's right. Okay, let's pray. Amen. God, we thank you for your word and I pray that we would rejoice to read it and follow it. For we know that it not only, it's not only through the word that we come to a knowledge of you, your son and what your son has done for us, that we are justified by grace through faith, but it is also through knowledge of your word that we are grown in sanctification as well.
We're growing in holiness. We're being shaped more like Christ. We learn how to be patient with one another. We learn how to be gracious in our speech. We know how to encourage and admonish one another with hearts that are filled with the word of Christ, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making music in our hearts to God and doing all things with thanksgiving to our Lord who blesses us with so much.
And so I pray that we would continue to be a blessing to one another. Help us to control our speech. Help us to take our words and that our words that we speak today would even be honoring to you, whether it's to other people or even when we're by ourselves.
Help us to submit all of our bodies unto Christ as our spiritual act of worship. And we pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. And we pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.
Amen. To go along with your prayer. There was a post by one of my friends who said, don't or live like you should live like the family parrot. Like you can sell the family parrot to the town gossip.
Live like you can sell the family parrot to the town gossip. Mm hmm.
So like you're okay with selling the family parrot. Oh, I got it. I got it.
Okay. To the town gossip. Well, I was thinking of that as like, oh, poor parrot. Now he's going to go be filled up with gossip and that's all that's going to come out of his mouth now. No, the other way.
That the stuff that you've said. Yes. Is going to go to the town gossip and we don't, we're not worried about what they're going to end up saying. Right. Okay.
Got it. Yeah. I thought that was, anyway, whatever. I thought that was a good connection. It's fine. Well, thank you, love. I appreciate that. Very much. You're welcome. It's late.