Galations #15

[0:00] Well, it is our intention to continue on with this theme of questions and answers, Q&A, and we intend to conclude this by the end of June, which will mean, if we're able to do that, that next Thursday will be the last one for Q&A, and then the first Thursday in July we'll return to our exposition of Galatians, which we temporarily interrupted for these Q&As.

[0:28] And part of the problem is, I think I've been taking too long to answer a question and be giving too much detail, so I'll try to shorten that up. This question, when Satan took Jesus on a mountain and offered him all the kingdoms of this world, did it mean even up to today's nations?

[0:50] This was one of the three areas in which our Lord was tempted. It is found in Matthew, Mark, Luke, not found in John.

[1:01] But in order for Christ to authenticate his claims to the Messiahship of Israel and to being the Son of God, he had to be morally qualified, and that moral qualification was established in the temptation, when the adversary literally threw everything at him that he had, and did not cause Christ to submit.

[1:31] And the question about the kingdoms of this world, did it mean even up to today's nations? Well, the text doesn't give any indication of that, but my impression would be that, first of all, it was a legitimate offer.

[1:51] All these things, all these kingdoms will I give unto you if you will fall down and worship me. And Satan had the right to make that offer because he had come to be in charge of these kingdoms of the world, and they were under his jurisdiction.

[2:14] They still are. This is the meaning of that classic verse in 2 Corinthians 4, when the Apostle Paul says, If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, whose minds the God of this age, the God of this world.

[2:37] That is not our Lord Jesus Christ. The God of this world has blinded the minds of those who believe not, so that, or lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, which is the image of God, should shine unto them.

[2:52] So, when Adam surrendered his dominion of the planet, dominion that God had given them, the authority to name all of the animals, and the authority to take charge over the earth, and all of the animal kingdom was subject to the authority of Adam.

[3:16] And when he compromised himself by disobeying God, he forfeited that authority. To whom did he forfeit it? He forfeited it to Satan.

[3:29] And Satan is today running this world. Now, I recognize, and I'm sure you do too, there is a sense in which God remains sovereign, but when Adam relinquished dominion over this world to Satan, God didn't step in and say, no, no, you can't do that.

[3:52] He took it. And he has it. And he is operating today in incommunicado. Paul, or Peter rather, tells us, I think it's 1 Peter 5, 8, that be sober, be vigilant, for your adversary, the devil, walks to and fro upon the earth, seeking whom he may devour.

[4:23] That's what he's up to. That's what he's doing. He is the master deceiver. And perhaps Satan's greatest deception of all is to cause people to just make a joke about him.

[4:37] That he isn't actually real. That he doesn't even exist. That Satan is just a human imagination personification of evil, but he has no reality.

[4:49] He does have reality. And when Jesus Christ confronted Satan in the temptation, he wasn't talking to some kind of a mirage. He was talking to an actual person.

[5:02] And Adam and Eve were talking to an actual person. So he has reality. His principle methodology is deception. Deception means you cause people to think that things are other than they are.

[5:20] That's deception. And the world is rampant with it. And Satan is the master of it. He is the master deceiver. So when he made that offer to Christ, these kingdoms were his.

[5:34] And they still are his. And when Christ comes back, he is going to retrieve those. He's going to take them from Satan and establish his kingdom upon earth.

[5:47] So I think that it meant, even today's nations, I think it meant the whole concept of the nations and all that they entail in their wealth and their power and everything.

[6:00] So it was a legitimate offer. And what Christ said was, of course, that thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only will you serve. And the time is coming when he will take those kingdoms back from Satan.

[6:15] And this is one of the major themes of the Revelation because I don't know if you are aware of it or not, but Satan surfaces in the book of the Revelation and he and his activities are found in Revelation more than they are in all of the rest of the Bible combined.

[6:38] And that's because that will be the time of the great wrap-up. And he will release his fury upon the earth because the text tells us in Revelation because Satan knows that he has but a short time.

[6:56] And he is going to do his utmost during that time. So it is going to be the wrath of the adversary in a way the world has never experienced it poured out upon the earth.

[7:07] Tribulation period is going to encompass three basic elements. The first is it will be brought about. tribulation will be brought about by the wrath of man.

[7:20] This is man in his evil behavior toward his fellow man. I don't know if that's going to incorporate nuclear activity and everything like that but it could well do that.

[7:31] It will be war among men and it will be incredibly devastating. That will be the first phase. The second phase is going to be the wrath of Satan that will be unleashed during that same period of time.

[7:43] And the third phase is going to be the worst of all because it will be the emptying of the bowls of the wrath of God on this earth.

[8:00] So tribulation is going to be intensified. It will start by man doing his worst and then it will move to Satan doing his worst and then it will move to the worst of all.

[8:16] That is the justice of the almighty and it is going to be poured out upon this unbelieving world. And the end result is and yet for all of this man repented not and he'll shake his fist at the God of heaven.

[8:34] So good question. At what point should a Christian exercise civil disobedience regarding the current political scenario in the United States?

[8:45] Specifically what if a Christian refuses to engage in a business transaction with a gay couple then demonize for doing so? It appears our government and media are chastising Christians never before seen in the history of our country.

[9:00] Well yes indeed your assessment is correct expect it to intensify it's going to get a lot worse. We know that the screws are being tightened week by week on Christians and everything having to do with Christians and the political correctness has got the nation in a stranglehold and is squeezing the very life and liberty out of us but this too is somewhat to be expected.

[9:28] Remember this world is not our home our citizenship is in heaven and we need to keep a perspective regarding this this is predicted that this is the way it's going to be.

[9:40] I think where so much of this started and this is strictly a Wiseman opinion but it started back in the 1960s I believe just down the road a few miles in Yellow Springs Ohio with Lou Gegner.

[9:55] Louis Gegner was a local barber in Yellow Springs and some blacks came in and asked for a haircut and he refused to cut their hair because he said and I don't know whether he was lying or whether it was truthful but he said he'd never cut a black person's hair before and that the texture and everything about the hair was different and he didn't want at this point in his life to start learning how to cut black hair so he refused him and that case ended up going all the way to the Supreme Court over whether he had the right to refuse to cut a person's hair in public like that and I remember at the time I was aghast at the decisions the Supreme Court made and this is one of few areas where my wife Barbara and I disagreed but she thought that the Supreme Court came down with a right and a just ruling and I was convinced that it was wrong I still think it was wrong and what I'm basing it on is this when someone opens a private business

[11:00] I mean private but open to the public they are investing and risking their own capital personally and their own time and it should be their right to refuse service to anyone for any reason if someone were to come into a place of business and the guy says I'm not going to sell you this because I just don't like your looks you ought to have the right to do that to me that's what private enterprise is all about now it might be foolish and might be stupid for him to do that and the person who has refused business could go out and walk up and down the street and say this man is unfair he won't sell his goods to me and he's got a right to do that too but that to me that's what private enterprise was all about and of course it was ruled and you know so far as public rights and everything has been downhill all the way ever since so anyway that's a controversial issue and

[12:00] I think you can expect more of this to be coming because we're going to see it intensify as time goes on and political correctness and everything it's kind of crazy the supreme court found in favor of the person who was denied the service and they ruled against the barber Luke Egnor and that was a landmark ruling and it's the same ruling upon which the cake baking and the wedding and all of that but in my estimation like I said when the individual privately puts up his own capital risks his own investment he ought to be able to extend the service that he is providing to anyone of his choice or deny it and it seems to me to be hypocritical to put up a sign that says no shoes no shirt no service and then be able to but their loophole there is well then it becomes a health issue and that's the way they skirt around that but frankly it's just hypocrisy you walk into a place of private business the owner of the business should be able to say

[13:23] I don't like the color of your hair I'm not going to serve you and that should be his prerogative but like I said if you don't have the risk and you don't have the investment now if this is a government thing if it is an organization or some department that is run and funded by taxpayer money that's entirely different then you don't have the right to refuse service to anyone who comes in because you are being supported and underwritten by taxpayer money and that should require you to offer service to anybody but private business is entirely different and that's the stuff upon which this country was originally founded Dan I think one of the most ironic situations I had learned might be able to identify with me I was an insurance agent for 20 years and some people would have three or four accidents and then they would tell me it's my right that I ought to have insurance I mean you know that's the mentality that's going on with this whole thing and of course it's crazy it's bizarre it's back to the old entitlement thing

[14:33] Marv we know the Lord is coming soon what is your feeling and knowledge concerning the time the Lord will be coming back for the rapture I think it's going to be really soon I really do but every preacher before me has said the same thing and I'm not interested in setting any dates or making any predictions I think that's really foolish but the only standard answer I can give is that we are closer than anybody has ever been and each day brings us a little bit closer and it does seem to me that it's going to be very very soon but I know preachers have been saying that for a couple hundred years at least I've been troubled about this subject for some time now gay marriage I've changed my mind about what I about about I've changed my mind somewhat and I'd like your view on it of course it's disgusting to me what goes on between two men especially my issue has to do with civil ceremonies why should we as

[15:39] Christians be concerned about our government endorsing a gay marriage especially when we are sure it's something that God will condemn the downside is its effect on society with respect to the breakdown of the traditional family unit it is a sin like all other sins not sure I made my point well I think you made your point sufficiently it's just another one of those areas where things in our culture and society have just become really radically skewed I can well remember even saying to this group here that when gay marriage two homosexuals marrying or two lesbians marrying when that became in vogue and then they were talking about same sexes of the general population marrying I thought that's something that will never happen we don't have to worry about that but not only is it in the gay community and I can't imagine anybody wanting to marry someone of the same sex who isn't gay or who isn't lesbian but it's just absolutely crazy you know it keeps coming back to this and

[16:56] I don't want to sound like a broken record but this is really crucial and at the base of so much of it in my opinion the greatest single lie that has ever been sold to humanity is of course salvation by works rather than by grace that is a lie that is fostered all around the world that people come into a right relationship with God and will be accepted by God on the basis of their being a good person as opposed to being a bad person that's probably lie number one around the world lie number two that has incredible implications is that we are the result of a biological accident we are here by the laws of evolution and not by the hands of a creator who made us and fashioned us in his own image and if you buy into the position and it's fascinating to me to see the distinction between this if you buy into the idea of evolution why not same sex marriage why not if there is no

[18:17] God if there is no intention behind creation if there is no purpose and there is no destiny and we are nothing but a biological fluke an accident that just happened to evolve to the state that we human beings are in and we call this the top of the evolutionary ladder so far if that's all we are you're really hard pressed to oppose same sex marriage you're hard pressed to oppose multiple marriages for men or for women and you're really even hard pressed to oppose sex with animals why not why not if there is no creator no intelligence no overarching authority upon humanity then the individual becomes his own authority and whatever he wants to be or do he should be able to be or do that's where evolution will ultimately lead you but people don't often make that connection so anyway and as I've often said homosexuals lesbians people who engage in same sex marriage of course it's sin it's sin just like adultery is sin just like fornication is sin and homosexuality and lesbianism is classified right in there it is sin too and the truth of the matter is homosexuality lesbianism same sex marriage and all the rest of it that is the least of their problems their greater problem is they are isolated from the salvation that God has come to provide through Jesus

[20:08] Christ that's their biggest problem and if that problem were corrected then that would go a long way toward correcting the other problems but we all know where the world stands with that why did God inspire Solomon to write the song of Solomon as a love story Abraham and Sarah Isaac and Rebecca or even Jacob and Rachel would seem a more logical choice Solomon had more wives than any man needed yet he wrote about the Shulamite woman yeah well that's that's a very insightful question and I've given a little bit of thought to it over over the years and Solomon is an enigma and Saul first king of Israel in many regards he's an enigma too but I think the reason that God used Solomon as an example is that on the one hand he is regarded in scripture as the wisest man who ever lived and yet he took unto himself strange wives and what that phrase means strange wives it means wives who were not connected with and did not worship the true

[21:25] God of Israel that's strange wives these are women who come from a background of idolatry how in the world could Solomon who is labeled the wisest man who ever lived subject himself to that kind of activity where was his wisdom and on the one hand we see what we think is a real contradiction in God setting up Solomon in light of his behavior but at the same time I think what the story is telling us is that even the wisest of wise men is messed up is inconsistent is subject to fall and failure even the wisest among us is capable of real stupidity think of that

[22:28] Paul addresses the subject of the wisdom of God versus the wisdom of man when he writes to the Corinthians in the first letter and it's interesting that he addresses this to the Corinthians who of course were Greeks and didn't live too far from Athens and they know all about philosophy and wisdom human wisdom etc and Paul says the foolishness of God and he's using this as a literary tool there's nothing about God that's foolish but he is suggesting that if there were such a thing as God being foolish you know what even the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of man that's the analogy that he's using there and in utilizing Solomon as an example I think it is God's way of saying that this this Solomonic example this is the best that man can produce and it was an abject failure and frankly we're all somewhere there around Solomon even lower because we still don't have the wisdom that he had in some areas as his saying goes you know there's no fool like an old fool and Solomon had his foibles and he obviously was enticed by strange flesh he obviously you know had a thing for the ladies and of course it was his downfall

[23:53] Solomon loved many strange women you know I don't understand this this is something I've never been able to put a handle on but the Bible does not condemn in the Old Testament under the dispensation of Israel the Bible does not condemn multiple wives we know that Jacob had multiple wives Rachel and Leah and they were both bona fide wives but when you come into the New Testament there is and I would say that it is very very important that you understand that this multiple wife things as well as the subject of slavery but slavery in the Hebrew sense not slavery in the 19th century sense that we look upon it here in the United States both of these things are not condemned in the Bible and there were some really godly men who had multiple wives but you've got to understand that was under the dispensation of

[24:56] Israel for covenant people in the land at a particular time and that ended with the passing of the old covenant the Mosaic covenant and Christ instituted the new covenant when he died on that cross church and in the new testament we find Paul writing to Timothy saying that if a man is going to be in a leadership position in the church he needs to be the husband of one wife some interpret that to mean he must not have been divorced but I don't think the text will bear that out what the text is saying is if he's going to be in a leadership position in the church he must be a one woman man his loyalty and fidelity pledged to one woman not multiple women so there is a definite change that takes place there yes in the old testament and I don't know if I'm right or wrong here but it seems to me that it says if you do have multiple wives you've got the responsibility of taking care of all those women whether you got one or a thousand you've got that responsibility

[26:07] I have a hard enough time taking care of one let alone do a second one yeah absolutely you know fellas if you care for your wife as you should you will not have time energy or interest in a second wife if you love your wife as Christ loved the church and you love her sacrificially she is to be your all in all and she is never to have to fear that she has a competitor for your love attention or affection there is no justification for a man who professes faith in Christ to be anything but a one woman man that's I think very very critical well it makes it quite clear that when a man takes a wife he becomes responsible for her care and for her maintenance and

[27:15] Paul emphasizes that when he writes again to Timothy and he says if a man does not care or provide for his own he is worse than an infidel and has denied the faith so charity begins at home and we are to provide loving care and provision for our wife and our children it's the Christian thing to do wow I can't do this will you explain in depth what is going to happen when Jesus comes back to earth well let me put this off until next week I still can't explain it in depth in a half an hour but next week we'll get a better crack at it than what we would now Jesus said destroy this temple and I'll rebuild it in three days if Jesus was to spend three days and rise on that third day how if you were crucified on

[28:19] Friday and rose on Sunday does this amount to three days either he was a liar which I believe he wasn't or the church is teaching false doctrine your information please I'll put that off until next week too but Ron Benson has put together an article that correlates to something that I taught years ago and I do think that the traditional thing is wrong I wouldn't have a problem with the answer that is usually given about that which in the Hebrew economy any portion of a day is referred to as a day and if he is crucified on Friday then Friday the time that he spent in the tomb when he was buried would constitute the first day Saturday would constitute the second day and the morning of Sunday would constitute the third day and that's the way it is usually explained but

[29:25] I think that is really not satisfying because Jesus made specific reference to as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights so must the son of man be in the heart of the earth so I don't think you can limit that to the day being a part of a day because he so specifically said three days if he just said three days it would be okay but he said three days and three nights so how do you get a Friday crucifixion a Sunday morning resurrection and call that three days and three nights you can't and that's where I think tradition is wrong maybe we can reserve that for next week too I'll bring the paper that has been written on that and it opts for a Wednesday crucifixion and it really comports with the timetable and it is let me a gratuitous assumption that

[30:35] Christ was raised on Sunday morning but I don't think that's right the scriptures say that Christ was raised from the dead on the first day of the week the first day of the week begins sundown Saturday that's when the Jewish first day of the week begins sundown the evening and the morning were the first day so it began sundown and a text doesn't say when the women came to the tomb early on Sunday morning that Jesus had risen right before they got there it just says that when they came to the grave early in the morning he was already gone doesn't say exactly when so and then he confronted them but we'll talk about that too Jesus said if you forgive anyone their sins they are forgiven if you do not forgive them they are not forgiven so did the people confess their sins to the disciples because the disciples at church are given authority to forgive sins is this where some churches have confessionals such as the Catholics yes I'm sure that that's what they base it on it's in John chapter 20 and what what I think is the only logical explanation to that is that

[31:55] Jesus did give to not the apostles not the disciples but the apostles and there is a distinction all apostles were disciples the word disciple simply means a learner or a follower but the word apostle means one who is sent with the authority of the sending one so while it is true that all apostles were also disciples yet not all disciples were apostles Christ only chose twelve apostles and we are told in Matthew 10 and other texts that he gave them authority Jesus gave the twelve authority that they otherwise would not have and he gave them authority to do the things that he had been doing he imparted this authority to them and it included the power of healing manifestation of miracles it included supernatural signs like he himself was performing and it included the ability to forgive sins remember when the man was let down through the hole in the roof and Jesus said to him son thy sins be forgiven thee and the Pharisees standing by there looked at each other and said did you hear what he said who can forgive sins but God only this man blasphemed he said that this man's sins were forgiven well they were and the woman who was taken in adultery he forgave her too because the son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins and he delegated that power to the apostles the same way that he delegated to them the power to heal the power to cast out demons he also gave them power to forgive sin and they exercised it obviously but with the passing of the apostles off the scene that along with the other signed miracles ceased to exist because now a whole new age is introduced and it is not the age of Israel or the dispensation of Israel any longer now it's the church age and the church age the basis for the church age was the death burial and resurrection of Christ so all of those miraculous manifestations in the Old Testament and in the Gospels and in the earlier portion of the book of Acts have ceased and it is for the most part only those well maybe not only those but mainly those who identify with the events on the day of Pentecost who have since come to form a very very large international denomination called the Pentecostal denomination they take their name from Acts chapter 2 and they believe that what happened on the day of Pentecost was established by God as the norm for the way churches are supposed to function and operate so we should be speaking in languages we have not learned and we should be demonstrating healing miracles and other manifestations of the miraculous because that's what they were doing back in Acts chapter 2 and the only reason that we as Christians are not doing that today is because we don't have enough faith so this is where they get the rationale for that and I'm sure they do it very sincerely and very honestly

[35:55] and out of a sincere motivation to serve God but the question is this is what happened in Acts 2 intended to be the pattern for the New Testament church and my conviction is that it is not what is to be the pattern for the New Testament church it consists of those things that the Apostle Paul wrote to churches if you want to know what a church is supposed to be and how a church is supposed to function don't go to the book of Esther don't go to Leviticus don't go to Isaiah go to what was written to churches that's to be our pattern is the information that was communicated to churches because we are a church we are an assembly we are called out ones and that's to be our pattern of operation so it's entirely different from what was provided for Israel in Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost which was a totally

[37:02] Jewish thing and you've got to remember that Acts 2 so commonly referred to as the beginning of the church I don't see it that way at all I see it as the beginning of the fulfillment of a promise and Peter said this is that which was spoken of by the prophet Joel so it was God making good on what he had promised through Joel earlier and well we got through more questions than we usually do so anyway thank you for the questions oh by the way I've got a sheet to send around if anybody has a question I won't promise you a very very detailed answer well what did I do with him well guys I'm sorry I didn't bring any blank sheets with me I thought I did but anyway I won't have time for any more anyway if we're going to return to Galatians 1st of July so maybe it's just as well that I forgot them okay okay