WWUTT 2555 Q&A As In the Days of Noah, Christians in Bad Marriages, The Hellgate Debate

Days of Noah, Judgment, and the Call to Righteousness

Noah was called a herald of righteousness. What does that mean? Does God call people to bad marriages as a way to sanctify them? And what about this hell debate, annihilationism or eternal conscious torment when we understand the text?

This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary in the word of God that we may be conformed to the image of Christ. Tell your friends about our ministry at www .wutt .com. Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky.

You're welcome.

Psalm 40 verses four and five. How blessed is the man who has made Yahweh his trust and has not turned to the proud nor to those who stray into falsehood. Many, oh Yahweh my God, are the wondrous deeds you have done and your thoughts toward us.

There is none to compare with you. I would declare and speak of them, but they are too numerous to recount. How good our God is toward us.

Amen.

And may we commit ourselves all of our ways to the Lord. In fact, the way that this Psalm begins, I skipped the first three verses, but verse three, he put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.

So may our lips not be inclined to speaking evil things or wicked things, especially against our brothers and sisters in Christ. But we would have mouths that are encouraging of one another because we use our mouths to praise and glorify the God who has done so much for us in Christ Jesus.

Amen.

Folks, this is Gabe and Becky.

Hello.

We love being with you on the Friday edition of the broadcast because we take questions from the listeners. And you can send those questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com or send us a voicemail going to wwutt .com and click on that voicemail tab.

We hope that everybody survived the weather.

Yes, and safely.

Yep. We didn't have any problem with it here in Arizona. It's been 72 and sunny this entire winter weather week. 200 plus million Americans affected by this winter weather.

Yeah.

It even got down below freezing.

Yeah.

It even got down below freezing in Northern Florida.

Wow.

Did they have the dropping lizards again?

Didn't they fall out of trees or something?

Yeah, they would. I don't know.

I'm not sure.

They get so cold and kind of, you know how like, cause they're reptiles, so they would.

They are?

But because they're affected by the heat and cold so much that they just can't move anymore. Yeah, they're cold-blooded. Yes, cold-blooded, they can't move anymore. And so they just drop.

So I saw a map of Louisiana and in New Orleans, it was like, sorry, Nolans.

Nolans.

Yes.

It was over 70, I think. And in Baton Rouge, it was like 24.

Whoa.

So the different, that's how that cold front, that's how that cold front moved through the country. It was like, if you're on this side of it, nice and balmy.

Oh my goodness.

If you're on that side of it, you're miserable. Cold, ice, snow.

Yes.

Just swept the country. Some people probably even without power, as I'm talking here.

Probably, yeah.

Even in the Nashville area, I understand like a bunch of Nashville was knocked out. So praying for everybody. Hope you're surviving the cold. You can always come and join us out here in AZ.

Definitely.

Our church is kind of tight, but we'll find a spot for you.

Definitely.

Be praying for us that we're able to find a good place, a bigger location than what we have now because we're maxed out on space.

Yes, including the parking lot.

We hit records for January, longest or most numbers we've ever had in one month.

Praise the Lord.

In the month of January. We praise God for it, but we are gonna need a bigger space. So your prayers would be appreciated in that regard. It's a project I've been working on for almost two years.

But it's all in the Lord's timing.

Yes, absolutely. It's just, we're gonna rejoice all the more when we get there.

Oh, amen.

Just like heaven. We're gonna rejoice all the more when we get there.

Yes.

It's like playing the opposite of, if you build it, they will come.

Yeah, right. We're not building and they're still coming.

Yes.

But it's wonderful.

It is.

Let's get to a voicemail here. This is from our friend Scotty on the Pacific Northwest. Now he, this has some information in it that was meant to be personal. So I'm clipping that part out. But then some other parts are, I think relevant to all the listeners because of something I missed this week.

Oh no.

So here we go.

Hello there, Pastor Gabe. Hello, Becky. This is your brother in Christ, Scott from the great Northwest where it's 34 degrees and it's raining outside. We got some snow up in the mountains right now. And anyway, also thank you, Pastor Gabe.

Jeremiah, Jeremy, the book of Jeremiah. Well, last week you didn't put it in. Hopefully you'll get it in this week. You guys all have be blessed and encouraged and let's all go serve our King. And also remember our brother Ben Price in Melbourne, Australia.

It was 104 degrees yesterday.

Bye bye.

Ooh, 104 in Australia. Well, you know, it's summertime there.

It is.

So Southern Hemisphere, they got the summer going on. Thank you for that, brother Scott. Yes, I did miss Jeremiah last week. That was not intentional. I actually thought I had uploaded it. So I missed that.

The episode was done, just didn't have it put in there. So, or put in right? I could have uploaded the media, the data. Got the wrong date on it. No, because it'll tell me that. It'll still show up in my upload log.

Right.

But I just have the

So maybe something happened and it just didn't go.

Maybe I didn't hit save after I uploaded it or something. I don't know. Anyway, I'll get that in there. It was just an oversight.

Thank you for the heads up.

Thanks for the heads up. I got behind this week because there's just too much going on. I record hear the word of the Lord from home and I record the podcast from the office and I had so much going on this week.

I didn't even get anything done at the office. So had a test I had to give to my students.

Yep.

And I subbed twice.

Yep, you were substitute teaching. So I had to watch Bubba during that period of time. So yeah, it's just been busy.

Yep.

Wasn't able to keep on top of it.

Yeah, very busy.

But we'll get it all caught up. It'll be in there for you.

Yes.

The Days of Noah in Matthew 24 and Luke 17

This next question, this comes via email. This is from Peter. In the face of all the claims about what Jesus said, referring to the days of Noah, please clarify. The world was evil and the people rejected Noah preaching.

Was that the meaning or just that as the following passages say people were just getting on with life oblivious of the judgment to come. The final part is that our present state worldwide is as bad as the time of Noah, where only a single family and all that lived was God fearing and faithful.

Thank you so much, Peter. And then he gives the two references, Matthew 24, 37 to 39, and then Luke 17, 26 to 27. I talked about these a little bit when I was there. It's been a while now. Matthew was three years ago.

Yeah.

Well, Matthew 24 wasn't that long ago, but then Luke 17 was last year that I covered that one. So I've talked about these passages. Matthew 24, of course, is in the context of the Olivet discourse. Luke 17 is in a different context.

It isn't in the same context in Mark and in Luke as it is necessarily in Matthew. So in Matthew 24, you have concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven nor the son, but the father only.

For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the son of man. For as in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day when Noah entered the ark.

And when they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so it will be with the coming of the son of man. Now, again, that's in the context of the Olivet discourse and that's Jesus talking about the judgment that is going to come upon Jerusalem itself.

That's the immediate fulfillment of what Jesus is prophesying there. And then he kind of talks about that a little bit in Luke 17, although what we consider to be the Olivet discourse in Luke is not until chapter 21.

In Luke 17, he says, the days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the son of man, and you will not see it. And they will say to you, look there or look here, do not go out or follow them.

These are similar words to what Jesus says in Matthew 24, but a different context. For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the son of man be in his day. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation, just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the son of man.

They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage until the day when Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot, they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building.

But on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all. So will it be on the day when the son of man is revealed. Now this one in Luke 17 appears to be more applicable to whatever day it is that Christ returns.

Whereas Matthew 24 is clearly in the context of the prophecy that he's given the disciples concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, which would happen in the year 70.

Yeah.

So the destruction of Jerusalem and destruction of the temple. Going on here in Luke 17, on that day, let the one who is on the housetop with his goods in the house not come down to take them away. And likewise, let the one who was in the field not turn back.

Remember Lot's wife, whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it. And as I've made the argument before, even regarding the Olivet Discourse, it's important for us to recognize that what Jesus is talking about there on the Mount of Olives in Matthew 24, he is talking about the destruction of Jerusalem in the temple.

That is the question that the disciples ask him. But I've always taught this as this, this is the immediate fulfillment, but you can still see this as a picture of what is going to happen later.

Right.

So this incredible event, and this was a remarkable prophecy and a remarkable event that happens in AD 70, the destruction of the temple. No Jew thought that the temple would ever be destroyed.

Right.

Herod's temple was a massive structure. It was massive. And the Romans came in, destroyed it, and threw all of the blocks down. Every stone that stood there at the temple mount was thrown down. Just as Jesus prophesied it would happen.

And I remember when in college, when I was kind of doing a little bit of apologetics work, I was really challenging myself on, okay, how much of the Bible do I really believe is inerrant? Like I'd already settled in my mind, God is real, Christ is my savior.

Took care of those questions when I was a teenager.

Yeah.

Asking myself, do I believe what I believe because it's true, or do I believe it because my parents believe it?

Right.

And so really That's fair. Really did that exploration and came to find, no, I believe Jesus Christ is real, that he died and rose again. But then challenging myself on other doctrines. How about the doctrine of inerrancy?

My dad had always raised me on inerrancy. This word's true, you do whatever it says.

Yep.

And whatever anybody else says, it's always gonna be subject to this word. I was raised to believe that. But I'm still asking myself, is that really true?

Yeah.

How much of this word do I believe is true? And I remember it being in the Olivet Discourse that I was studying. And I was reading from other scholars who were dating the book of Matthew and giving their interpretations of what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 24 and 25.

And something that I noticed, even among liberal scholars, that the vast consensus was that the book of Matthew was written before AD 70. It was written before 70. So even the most liberal people who wanna say that, oh, it wasn't written in the lifetime of Jesus, it was decades later.

Even if they're putting it decades after Jesus, they were still putting it before 70. And so even among liberals who did not believe that the word of God is inerrant, you're dating this book before what Jesus is clearly prophesying here happens.

So it doesn't matter whether Jesus actually said it or Matthew was writing it. This is still an incredible prophecy that actually happened exactly the way that it's described here. I remember that being mind-blowing to me.

And I was reading that going, okay, this is true. Like, this is all true. You know, that was, and it happened at the Olivet.

Like that was the pinnacle moment.

Yeah, it was, right. And it was the Olivet Discourse. I know part of that study was eschatology wise, because like all my friends were dispensational and they all referenced Matthew 24. And I was going, I just don't think that that's what this is about.

And so, you know, all of that study was kind of coming at the same time.

Okay.

But anyway, yeah, with regarding this prophecy, there's just incredible statement that Jesus makes. Luke 17 obviously uses the same language and the same examples even, because you have, as it was in the days of Noah, you also have that wonderful statement that's hugely important.

And I've talked about this before in Luke 17, 32, remember Lot's wife, she looked back at Sodom. She longed for Sodom as destruction was coming upon it. Now, if this pertains to Jerusalem, there were gonna be a lot of Jews fleeing Jerusalem, looking back at it, longing for that.

But the old covenant was over.

Yeah.

The new covenant had come, as said in the book of Hebrews, that this stuff was passing away. Now we have this new covenant in Christ. Don't long for the old anymore.

Yeah.

So even if it came to like looking back at Jerusalem, don't long for what was, we have something better now in Christ. But as it pertains to any other kind of judgment, even if you're talking about the final judgment, don't be as Lot's wife, don't look back at the world.

Yeah.

Don't long for the world that's coming to destruction.

Well, I mean, like everybody makes fun of the Israelites that were escaping from, oh goodness, during Moses' time, they were escaping.

Egypt.

Yeah, Egypt.

Thank you.

It's just not coming to me. It's one of those days. Anyway.

We've talked about before your difficulty with names.

Oh my goodness.

So even, yeah.

That was like a huge struggle too. So anyway, I was doing good with Moses, okay? And so with them, I wanna go back to Egypt.

Right.

At least we were cared for. And everybody who reads that story is like, really?

Yeah, right. We're all acting like, yeah.

And we're looking at them like they're just, like who would do that?

You so quickly forgot your taskmasters and the oppression that you were under and calling out to God, and now you wanna go back there.

Right, right. So suddenly. And so it's kind of the same thing of, don't long for that, don't be like them.

Yeah.

I mean, you make fun of them, so don't be like them.

I know, right, yeah.

Don't put yourself in the same position.

Don't be like the Israelites longing for Egypt.

Yes.

I love that song from Keith Green. So you wanna go back to Egypt. That was a great song.

Yes.

So regarding these days, let me come back to Peter's question again. So was the meaning here that Noah was preaching and the world was evil and they just did not listen to him preaching? So in 2 Peter 2, and it's only there in 2 Peter 2, and here you go, Peter.

So Peter, 2 Peter 2. That's the only place where it mentions where Noah was a herald of righteousness. And that phrase is debated, herald of righteousness. So what does that mean? Does that mean he was a gospel preacher?

You know, does that mean he was preaching, destruction was coming, and so repent because God is gonna destroy the world in however many days. They're mocking him as he's building this ark and his family and everything.

And yet he's testifying to the destruction that's coming because of mankind's wickedness. So is that what that means? Or does it just mean that because he was a righteous man and the rest of the world was wicked that Noah was therefore proclaiming righteousness just in his actions or by his deeds?

I think either one can apply. Like there's no explicit mention of Noah preaching to his generation and telling them to repent.

Right, that's what I was thinking. I was trying to think back to the story.

But to herald is to proclaim.

Right.

That is to be a proclamation. So you could take that phrase to mean that. Like he is telling his generation to repent. It is an in Genesis. It doesn't say that Noah's out there all the time. He's trying to build this ark, everybody's harassing him and he's saying, no, you need to repent.

It doesn't say that in Genesis.

I didn't think so.

Yeah, so was that the way that it was? I think either way, it doesn't matter. He's still a testimony to righteousness that the people ignored. No matter how you understand that, that's the truth about Noah.

He was a righteous man. God showed his favor and his mercy upon Noah. He was gonna be the deliverance of mankind through Noah and his wife and his sons and their wives. Mankind would be preserved.

Yes.

But the rest were going to be wiped out in the flood, which of course happened. And then after the flood, Noah though being a righteous man and having these three sons yet sin was still there.

Oh yeah, came with him.

Because it comes from within the heart of man, all who are descended from Adam. It's not something outside that infects us, but it comes from within. So again, back to the question, or is it just about getting on with life oblivious to the judgment to come?

It could be either one. So people ignoring preaching or ignoring the obvious message of righteousness that they refuse to listen to, they refuse to repent, they continue in their wickedness so that God brings judgment upon them.

And they also act just oblivious to the judgment that is to come.

Yeah.

You look around the world and that's exactly what you see.

It's not happening to me right now.

Right.

So I can ignore it.

And Peter, as you go on in Peter, so that's second Peter two, where you have the example of Noah. You even have the example of Lot also in second Peter. You get to chapter three, where Peter says scoffers are gonna come in the last days and they're gonna scoff and say, where is the sign of his coming?

Cause everything's just been continuing on as it always has. There's no sign of his coming. And Peter says, yeah, the heavens are being stored up with fire. God is gonna pour out his wrath and judgment on the world.

So the warning is given there, there will come scoffers just as it was in Noah's day. And Peter even makes that comparison to it being Noah's day. The world that previously existed was deluged with water and perished, but now the heavens are being stored up with fire.

So previously God's judgment upon the world was through the flood. And this next judgment, which was pictured at Sodom and Gomorrah, but will come upon the whole world, just like the judgment that comes upon Jerusalem that Jesus is prophesying about is a picture of a bigger judgment that's coming later.

So Sodom and Gomorrah was the same way. Peter references that, Jude references that. So God's judgment will be poured out upon all of mankind, all of the wicked, and only those who are in Christ Jesus will be saved.

So we would be like Noah in these days, proclaiming the gospel. There's many that are not going to listen to it, but there's many who will.

Yes.

And that's the reason why we have to be proclaiming the gospel.

Definitely.

So yeah, we know that the Lord has said, you're gonna be hated. They hated me, they're gonna hate you. They're not gonna listen to the word. As said in 2 Thessalonians 2, God sends them a strong delusion so that they may believe what is false and devote themselves to wickedness, storing up judgment for themselves.

Yeah.

So that's going to happen with the wicked. We should not be surprised at that, but it doesn't mean the word of God has failed and we continue to preach the gospel, knowing that God in his timing and in his work will turn people from their sin to himself.

Amen.

And we just need to be faithful to continue to proclaim it. So I hope that was helpful for you, Peter, and don't miss 2 Peter chapters two and three, your namesake, read those too. This next one was not sent to me anonymously, but because this question's kind of sensitive, I'm gonna keep it anonymous just in case.

Bad Marriages, Sanctification, and Marriage as a Picture of Christ and the Church

So do you believe that God calls people to bad marriages as a way to mature believers, even if they are Christian? I remember hearing a biblical counselor talk about this idea, and it kind of stuck with me.

Thoughts?

So let me answer this way, first of all, I don't think God is encouraging anybody to get into a bad marriage.

Fair.

So your marriage is supposed to be a picture of the way that Christ loves his church. A husband loves his wife, a wife submits to her husband. So your ideal marriage should look like that.

Yes.

A husband loving his wife as Christ loves the church, a wife submitting to her husband the way that the church submits to Christ is a picture of the way the church submits to Christ. So even though you have unmarrieds in your congregation, they're still supposed to look at the marrieds as a picture of, I need to be in submission to Christ.

So the wife is the example of being in submission to Christ, the husband is the example of Christ loving his church. And that's marriage, that's why God gave us marriage. Because ultimately the big fulfillment of this is the church as the bride of Christ being united with him forever for all eternity.

Right.

And this is the reason why Jesus says to the Sadducees that in heaven there will not be marriage or being given in marriage, because the marriage in heaven is the church with the groom.

Right.

With Christ.

So marriage is supposed to be a picture of that. I don't think God is really calling anybody into miserable marriages.

No.

Will you enter into a miserable marriage? Possibly. Maybe. That may be because of your own foolishness. It could also be, God forbid, but it could be your spouse fooled you.

Yeah.

Maybe deceived you. It could be because over the course of your marriage, something happens that just changes the landscape, changes the route that you were on, the direction you were going in. You can get to a point in your marriage where you might feel like, I don't know who this person is that I married.

Sometimes marriage can be a surprise in that way.

Yeah.

This is not autobiographical, by the way, for me. Like I'm not speaking from my own experience in this. You and I have been blessed with a wonderful marriage.

Definitely.

And the Lord is maturing and growing us, sanctifying us. It hasn't always been easy. We've had difficulties. I mean, there's been personal difficulties that I've been through where Becky was a rock. I don't know if I've extended that same thing to you.

Yes.

I'm sure there has been, but nothing coming to mind immediately. So there are still difficult things that we go through and there's difficult things that we've had to work out with each other, but it's always been godly, founded upon Christ.

Neither one of us have ever taken our eyes off Christ.

Right.

We've always been built on that foundation and this has been a remarkable blessing because I was in bad relationships before this.

Me too.

And it's not like it was all her fault. I was bad too. I'm not blaming the girlfriends or anything like that. I was also not a good person. And so when Becky and I got together, there were things we talked about.

We don't want to repeat this.

Right.

So what do we have to do to prevent it? Got lots of good premarital counseling.

Oh yes.

But of course it was the grace of God, most of all, that brought us into this precious marriage that we have. But in the journey of this, we've had the opportunity to counsel many, many couples. So we've seen lots of difficulties in lots of marriages along the way.

And again, things can happen. An illness can come into the marriage that just totally changes the dynamic.

Definitely.

And now the two of you have to work through that and that can create tension and drama and difficulty and other things. I don't think God calls you to a bad marriage necessarily. He could call you to a difficult marriage because that's going to be the majority of marriages.

Yes, it's true.

And in a way to mature believers, absolutely. Every marriage is sanctifying.

Amen.

Every one. Every marriage for every Christian is sanctifying.

Yes.

My wife helps to sanctify me. My kids help to sanctify me. There are things that I learn about myself through my family that I never noticed when I was by myself. Yeah, fair.

So.

That's so true.

Marriage is sanctifying in that way. And again, being a picture of the way that Christ loves his church, we have that same fellowship within the church. So even somebody who is not married in the church has this relationship, this fellowship with other believers and their fellow Christians are helping to sanctify them as well.

Helping us in recognizing our weak areas, our sins, what we need to repent of, what we need to be conformed to Christ in, things like this.

Yes.

As Tim Challies has said, and I've quoted this many times, but sanctification is a community project.

Yes.

You have to have each other in working through this sanctifying process. The point that I've drawn out many times regarding the fruit of the spirit, what do you have to have in order to achieve the fruit of the spirit as it's listed, those nine fruits, or that's all part of one fruit that's mentioned in Galatians 5.

What do you need to do the fruit of the spirit?

The Holy Spirit.

You need the Holy Spirit, first of all.

Yes.

Because it's the fruit of the spirit.

Right.

You can't do it without the spirit. Right. But you also need

That's an essential point.

That's essential. But you also need, what else? You need the Holy Spirit, but you need

Christ.

Others.

There you go.

That's it.

You have others. You need other people. Because if the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, how do you love without other people?

Yeah.

How do you have patience and kindness?

You just need to love yourself.