Q & A

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Well, before we begin our Q & A tonight, let me just say again, thank you for your prayers on behalf of all of us who went from Countryside out to the Shepherds Conference. It was really a wonderfully rich time of fellowship, getting to see guys that we haven’t seen in some cases for a year, few cases even a couple of years, and just to catch up. And, of course, wonderful messages and just sitting under the Word of God and being enriched by that.

Somebody asked me... In fact, the elders this morning asked me what were my favorites. And, you know, it’s hard to say that because I really - most of them, all of them, I enjoyed to some level, but some of them I really enjoyed. So, saying one is hard, but I would say that two for me that really stood out would be John MacArthur’s first message from 1 Corinthians 4. That’s such a rich text and just reminding us that, ultimately, our Lord is the One who evaluates our lives and our ministries and nobody else’s opinion, including my own, matters. And then, I really enjoyed Sinclair Ferguson’s message on holiness as well. If you didn’t hear that, it’s definitely worth going and listening to. I just appreciate his ministry so much. I’m rereading, right now, a book of his that came out recently. I read it through, and I wanted to go back through it called The Whole Christ. It’ll sweat your brain a little bit, but it’s worth it. It’s a wonderful, wonderful book. And I just appreciate him and his ministry.

So, anyway, it was a rich time. Thank you for your prayers on our behalf, for your prayers for me as I preached. The Lord was pleased to give me a real freedom in preaching and, based on the feedback as best we can tell humanly, the Lord used it. In fact, kind of funny, a couple of humorous incidents. One person told me that (I didn’t get to see this) as all the guys were leaving the auditorium, they were on their phones, presumably with their wives. You know, forgotten to check in with them and now convicted and needed to do that. The other one that was really funny is afterwards, there were a group of guys waiting to see me and I had a chance to visit with them and one of them said, “You know”, he said, “while you were preaching or just as you started preaching”, he said, “I texted my wife and I said, ‘Tom Pennington’s preaching on loving your wives’. And she texted back immediately, ’I know. I’m streaming the service. Turn off your phone and listen!’” But thank you for your prayers. It was a great time.

Alright, tonight we have the opportunity to have a question-and-answer time. This is always a joy for me, and I think it can be a favorite for our church. If you have a question, a lot of folks may have that question or it may be unique to you, but I’ll try to expand it in a way that it’s helpful for all of us and so just a great time for us together.

Couple of foundational rules, alright? Rule number one, I mentioned this morning, this is not an effort to stump the pastor. This is about like real questions that you have on your mind and heart. Secondly, it’s for questions, not statements. Alright? This is not an opportunity to say what you think. You can do that to your heart’s content in the lobby afterwards, but this is for real questions. And then, thirdly, you can help me by not being, you know, Texas polite. Texas polite says, “Uh oh, there’s somebody at one of the mics. I’m going to sit down until they’re done.” Well, here’s how my brain works. I see one person at the mic and nobody else. I’ll just keep answering that question. And I can just keep on answering that question as long as I need to. So, it helps me to know that there are other people with other questions. So, it helps me to see kind of what I’m looking at in terms of the number of folks that have questions, and I can gauge my responses based on that. So, if you have a question, just go ahead and sort of line up. Get several in line behind each mic, if you want, and that way I know what I’m looking at and I can make sure that we do our best to get through them. Okay? The last rule is when you ask your question, give us your name and speak up where everybody can hear and stay there because I might have a follow up question for your clarification. Okay? Alright.

So, with that, let’s begin. Yes, Sir.

Joey Jessup: Hey, Tom. Joey Jessup.

Pastor Tom: Hey Joey!

Joey Jessup: Thank you for listening to us tonight. So, my question is, in Romans 13, we’re instructed to be in subjection to government. Exceptions are only when it violates God’s law. Couple of examples are Daniel praying after he’s told not to and then Peter and John refusing to stop evangelizing.

Pastor Tom: Right.

Joey Jessup: So, this came up. I have a couple of friends that have done short term missions to a country that’s hostile towards Christianity. So, in order to get gospels into the country, they smuggle them in and a couple of times they’ve been asked specifically if they have Bibles, and they say no. And so, I was just wondering if this would fall under disobeying government in order to obey God or would this be a lack of faith in God’s sovereignty.

Pastor Tom: No, that’s a good question and a hard one. I mean, let’s just be honest. That’s a hard question. But I will say this. There is latitude in certain part of your question for Christian liberty. Okay? Let me... As I said, I’ll always step back and try to give you a larger perspective. When it comes to issues like this, when it comes to moral decisions of any kind, and this is certainly one of those, there are only three categories. There’s “Thus sayeth the Lord thou shalt (chapter and verse)”, there’s “Thus sayeth the Lord, thou shalt not (chapter and verse)”, and then everything else, every other moral decision falls into the third category, which is issues of conscience. So, there is some latitude here for what degree you will go to in order to do what God has commanded, and that is expand the gospel.

Now, having said that, back to my three categories, there’s nowhere that it’s commanded to smuggle Bibles. There’s nowhere that’s it commanded to lie in order to smuggle Bibles into the country. We are commanded to spread the gospel and even, as you mentioned the two examples in Daniel and in Acts, against the wishes of government. So, putting all that together, I personally am uncomfortable with that final line.

You know, I think when you look at God Himself, God is willing to deceive in order to accomplish His plan, that is, to do something that is - looks like it’s one thing, but it’s in fact another. For example, you have Him ordering His people to do that with some of the battles in the Old Testament. You remember? He tells them, you know, look like you’re putting your whole force here, but in fact have an ambush around here, and then you’re going to be able to attack them strategically. So, God is willing, in certain contexts, to allow for deception. And wartime, obviously, would be one of those.

And many would argue that, you know, for example, hiding the Jewish people during the Second World War, and how you answered that question would be wartime and it would be acceptable to deceive. I personally am fine with that. I think to come up with a way, not to contradict the truth, but to accomplish the purpose of God in a way where you’re speaking the truth but it’s misleading. It’s potentially deceptive. I think you have to be careful with that because you can do that for all the wrong reasons, for you know all the wrong motives. But I personally struggle and, obviously, we’re not - thankfully, we’re not there. We’re not in war time. I’m not in a situation where I’m hiding people that are being attacked in my house somewhere and they’re not knocking on the door saying what do you do? You know, I think God will give me grace in that moment. But my heart would be, my purpose and desire would be, not to do what God wouldn’t do.

What God is comfortable doing, and we see it in a number of places, is allowing people to believe something that is deceptive. He doesn’t misrepresent the truth, He doesn’t lie to them, but He allows them to believe something that is deceptive. What God doesn’t do, and we never see this, is God never directly contradicts the truth. In fact, we’re told that He cannot lie. He cannot contradict the truth. And so, I think… You know, of course, the example of the midwives in Egypt is used from the early chapters of Acts... of Exodus. And, you know, all those arguments are used. And I get all of that. I just think, when you look at the big picture, it’s contrary to the character of God to absolutely contradict the truth. You never see God doing that.

And so, I’m not a Bible smuggler. I’ve never been faced with that. I have been in a situation where I’m taking things into a particular country that I’ve traveled to and been asked by the state police at the time, you know, what’s going on. And I have done my best to answer it truthfully, but as benignly and as in a way that wouldn’t arouse suspicion and concerns. I think that’s legitimate.

But, you know, the Lord will hold each of us accountable for how we make that decision and what we do. I appreciate their efforts. I admire their courage. And, you know, we all stand before the Lord and answer for what we do. I just can’t... I know we’re commanded not to lie. I know there’s no example of God ever lying, ever contradicting the truth. And so, I have a hard time saying that’s right. You know, if I’m in a situation where there are, you know, armed bandits at my door saying, you know, “Is your wife at home”, you know, the Lord will give me grace in that moment, and I want to do what would most honor Him and protect my wife. So, working that out in the moment is a hard thing and I want to give some latitude to our brothers here. But I’m just answering you from just a purely, biblical overview of who God is and what He encourages in His people. I just don’t see that.

Tony Plec: Tom, thank you for your message this morning. It is maybe the clearest message I’ve ever heard on somebody discerning where they are. And so, thank you so much for doing that. Thank you for stepping out of Romans and taking the two weeks to do that. I think it’s been... It was incredibly helpful. And...

Pastor Tom: Wait a minute. First you got to introduce yourself.

Tony Plec: Oh, sorry. Tony Plec.

Pastor Tom: Thank you. Everybody knows you, but just in case.

Tony Plec: And so, as I think about that, I have often... Those set of verses I’ve often thought about and sometimes I feel like I am a Christian, and then sometimes I feel like I’m in the tares, and sometimes you know... I know, especially as I read the Word more and I learn more about Christ and I realize how much my heart is not where His heart is, and how holy He is. And so, you know, then the thing you struggle with is, “Okay, where am I?” And I know that I’m supposed to have assurance of salvation as well. And there was an article I remember reading. I won’t read. It’s from R.C. Sproul. He talks about that assurance of salvation is one of the most important things that we, as believers, should have. And I grew up Catholic and I recognize in Catholicism there is never assurance of salvation...

Pastor Tom: Right, right!

Tony Plec: ...and that our assurance of salvation is in Jesus. And, as a Protestant, I realized and, in fact, made that profession of faith and moved away from Catholicism because I realized that assurance is in Jesus Christ and His work alone. And so, when you wrestle with this idea that the Word should be a mirror to you and, yet, you should have an assurance of salvation and yet knowing, as you grow more in the faith, how, you know, wicked your heart truly is before the Lord, and you realize that it’s only by His grace that you’re saved, how do you...

Pastor Tom: How do you balance those two?

Tony Plec: How do you balance those two things together? How do you work those things?

Pastor Tom: Yeah, no Tony, that’s a great question! And, you know, the Puritans used to say, “For [in terms of this very issue, for] every look at yourself take ten looks at Christ.” I think that’s the balance. It is right to do self-examination. It is right, even this morning, you know, as I was thinking about it this week, looking at the Word as a mirror to our souls. But none of us are perfectly obedient. We all struggle with sin. We’re all locked in a battle, lifelong with sin. And this question came up. One of the men in our church asked me this morning, after this service, a question very similar to this. “You know”, he says, “I can see temptations in several of those directions in my life, in terms of looking at those soils. What do you do? How do you have confidence that you’re going to make it?” In the end, it comes back to the promises of the gospel and to who Christ is. You know, I love that song that we sing, He Will Hold Me Fast. That is the ultimate answer.

But let me give you and for all of us, let me just stop there and explain what I think is important to do in this regard. Take the Bible, as we did this morning. Let it be a mirror. Seriously, genuinely look at your own life, your own soul. See where you are in those soils, not imperfection, but in direction. Is your life a consistent pattern of growth and holiness and of a growth in the character of Jesus Christ? Not, do you still struggle with sin? Every believer does and will to the day of death. But is there an increase in that pattern of righteousness? That increase may look pretty jagged, you know, that line. But if you look over the time since you have come to Christ, can you see, and the people around you see, that you have a greater love for the Lord, a greater love for His Word, a greater reflection of His character in your life? So, take that look. That’s perfectly right. Paul says, in 2 Corinthians 13:5, “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves!” And so, it’s right to do that. But don’t spend all of your time there. If that’s all you do, you will become discouraged and almost hopeless because none of us measures up to the degree that we should. Look at the big picture of your life. Not, you know, the moment-by-moment struggles, but the big picture. As you look at your life, are you a new creation in Jesus Christ? Can you see the reflection of His character in you - things that were not natural to you, now reflected - a love for Him, a love for His people?

You know, the Puritans also said, you know, there’s humility. The evidences of a genuine faith, you remember, they used to struggle with this, the almost Christian discovered, and those sorts of things where they’re trying to discern what’s the difference between a false Christian and a true Christian. And, you know, often they would say there are three basic discerning elements: love, humility, and holiness. Love, humility, and holiness because those cannot be...for a long...faked. Let me put it that way. Those cannot be permanently faked. Those are expressions of genuine change. But... So, you look at yourself. You examine yourself. That is right and biblical. 1 John calls us to do the same thing with a series of tests of eternal life, there in his epistle. However, for every look at self, take ten looks at Christ.

So, go to the Scripture. And here’s what I would urge you to do with the Scripture. In fact, look at it for a moment. Turn to Ephesians 6, Ephesians 6. Paul here urges us in our battle against Satan. And the battle between God and Satan happens in our minds. And in that battle, he says, “[You need to] Put on the full armor of God [verse 11 of Ephesians 6].” And he goes on to lay out that armor. I just want to call your attention and remind you of the last piece in verse 17. He says, “[I want you to take up] the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Now, I preached an entire message on that. If you want, you can go listen to it. But the big picture is this. He’s not talking about the Word of God as a whole. He’s not saying fight Satan with this entire book. You can’t do that. He’s saying... The Greek word that he uses for “sword” is the little, short dagger sword that the Roman soldier carried, not the big two-handed sword that he swung. And the idea is, find those short phrases, statements, verses, paragraphs of Scripture. Find the ones that help you in the battle, arm yourself with them, and when you’re in the midst of that battle, fight back. Fight back at Satan and his attempts to discourage you, to derail you, to frustrate you, to all those things with that short sword of the Spirit - those little phrases of Scripture, statements of Scripture.

So, let me arm you with a couple of those that have been a great encouragement to me through the years as these things. And we all face that, right? I mean, there is no such thing as a Christian who doesn’t, at times, face doubt in his heart. Am I real? How could a real Christian do that? Okay? That is perfectly normal even in the genuine believer. So, how do you respond? Well, you take expressions in Scripture that are promises to us from God and, as Lloyd Jones says, “Stop listening to yourself and start talking to yourself!” So, tell yourself to shut up. And then say, “Here’s the truth, here’s what God says”, and you preach to yourself. I can’t tell you how often I have to preach to myself and tell myself to shut up. “That’s not true. That’s a lie. God isn’t like that. Here’s how God is. Here’s what He says.” And you pull out the short sword of the Spirit and you drive it back at Satan. You say, “No, that’s wrong! That’s not what God is or what He does!”

Here are some examples on this issue. I’ll just show you a few. Psalm 9, Psalm 9:10. When I was in seminary, I heard a message on this verse, and it has stuck with me ever since. And I love this. Verse 10 says, “And those who know Your name [that is, those who understand what’s true about You, God, those who have this confidence in You and who You are] will put their trust in You...” You can’t help but put your trust in God when you know what He’s like, when you know who He is. “And those who know Your name will put their trust in You [and then here’s the promise part] For You, O Lord [You, O Yahweh. You got to love this.], have not forsaken those who seek You.”

And yet, when is the time that we most often feel forsaken? At the very time we’re seeking God. So, what do you do? You pull out the sword of the Spirit and you say, ”No, that’s not true. God has promised. He has never abandoned a single person who seeks Him. That’s not His nature. That’s not His character.” Okay? So, there’s one.

I’ll take you to a couple of others. I’m just giving you some examples here of ones that have been very meaningful to me. I love John. Let’s go to John. There’s several, but I’m just trying to edit here. I’m not going to give you all of. Go to John 10, John 10:27: “My sheep hear My voice [He’s not talking about Jesus Calling or something. He’s talking about the Scripture. My sheep hear My voice in the Scripture], and I know them, and they follow Me...” They listen to My voice and they seek to obey Me. And if that’s true, then listen to this: “and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one [that includes me, by the way] will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” There, again, you take the sword of the Spirit, and you respond to that accusation - “How could you be a Christian? Look, I mean, you should be so much farther along by now (not talking to you personally. I’m talking to myself). You know, this is where you should be.” And what do you do? You say, “Listen, you know, I do know Christ. I am listening to His voice. I love His Word. I want to obey it. That’s my heart and, by His grace, I am obeying, not perfectly, but that’s my direction of life. Therefore, He has given eternal life to me, and nothing and no one can change that reality.”

Just a couple more. I love Philippians 1. This verse got me in trouble when I first came to this church, shouldn’t have, but it did with a few people. Philippians 1:6: “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you...” Who’s that? It’s the Father. The Father began the work. He’s the one who called you. He’s the one who gave you regeneration through His Spirit. He’s the one who gave you justification and eternal life and adopted you. He began the work! ”...He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” Fortunately, I am not on my own in this endeavor. Instead, God is the one who began the work. He’s the one doing the work. We go to chapter 2, right? where, in fact, just flip over there. Look at chapter 2:12: “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling...” Here’s why you’re to pursue obedience. That’s what working out means. You see, right before that, he says, “as you have always obeyed”. He’s talking about obedience. You work out your salvation by obeying. So, do that. Why? Verse 13: “for [because, here’s why you pursue obedience because] it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” And so, back to verse 6 of chapter 1, God began the work. He’s doing the work right now. He’s giving you new desires. He is the one working when you obey. He’s the one accomplishing it. He will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ. God has never failed to finish anything He started. Not one time. And you and I won’t be the first.

And so, you see what I’m doing? You find those texts that are especially helpful, especially encouraging to you, in your situation. Some of the ones in Romans 8, frankly, I love: “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” And you go down to verse 4 and he says, “so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” So, when I sin, and I am beneath the load of that sin, I remind myself that that very sin God condemned in Jesus’ flesh, and therefore there is now no condemnation for me.

1 Peter 2:24: “and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross [tree]...” So, again and again, you look for those texts.

I’ll give you one last one. Jude - I love this one - our Lord’s half-brother, who didn’t believe; one of those guys who showed up thinking Jesus was nuts during His earthly ministry; after the resurrection came to genuine faith. And I love his little letter because it just - I mean, look how it begins in verse 1: “Jude, a bond-servant [slave, a doulos] of Jesus Christ [the Messiah]...” That’s such a powerful testimony. But look how he ends. Verse 24: “Now to Him [that is, God] who is able [who has the capacity, the ability. There’s the understatement of the year] to keep you from stumbling...” You know, this little letter is about false teachers and, you know, you wonder, “Well, am I going to get trapped or tripped up by false teaching or whatever in some permanent way?” Jude says, “Not going to happen!” He is able to keep the true believer from stumbling. He doesn’t mean from occasionally getting into something that’s error or some false teaching. He’s talking about permanently stumbling in a way that’s destructive of your Christian life and experience. It’s not going to happen. He is able “to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.”

So, I would say, Tony, that the best thing you can do is arm yourself with whatever passages provide the greatest response to the struggles that you have in your own soul. And when those come, yes, of course, like we did this morning, examine yourself. But for every one time you examine yourself, remind yourself ten times of who Christ is and what He’s done. Come back to these promises. Memorize them, And in those moments, break out the short sword of the Spirit and fight back. Say, “No! That’s a lie! That’s not true! That’s not who Christ is! That’s not who God is! He’s doing this!” And preach to yourself.

Tony Plec: Would you say the danger is when you stop fighting and you just say, “I’m going to, in fact, I want this and I’m going to accept it?”

Pastor Tom: Oh, absolutely. I think that’s when we have to worry about our true spiritual study is when we stop fighting, when it doesn’t matter anymore, and we give in and give over...

Tony Plec: Yeah

Pastor Tom: ...because the true Christian always battles. Go back and, you know, listen to those – the messages in Romans 6 and 7 and 8. Boy, the battle is real!

Tony Plec: Paul, in chapter 7, is...

Pastor Tom: Yeah!

Tony Plec: ...I mean it’s frustrating and securing you at the same time...

Pastor Tom: Exactly...

Tony Plec: ...that he even struggled with it.

Pastor Tom: ...because it reminds us that it is a battle and it’s going to be a battle. I wish I could tell myself. I wish I could tell you that there’s going to come a point in your Christian life when you’re not going to have to battle. But that would be a lie. Now, the good news is the battle - you can become victorious more often. You can beat your sin more often and you can make progress in holiness. That’s the good news but you’re never going to stop battling in this life. So, you just keep fighting. That’s the issue. Okay?

Tony Plec: Thank you.

Pastor Tom: Let’s see who’s next. Yes, Sir.

Michael Ryan: Michael Ryan

Pastor Tom: Hey, Michael.

Michael Ryan: Mine has to do with the issue of fasting. I’ve noticed, well, not noticed. I just find it odd that we don’t see it as an essential, which I’m fine with. But, I guess, my question would be why is that? In the brief research that I did, and when I say brief...

Pastor Tom: Yeah, I mean...

Michael Ryan: ...I mean 10 minutes in the gospels...

Pastor Tom: Yeah

Michael Ryan: ...it says, when it comes up, it’s, “Hey, why don’t Your disciples fast?” And then, in Acts, it’s with Paul and the first leaders saying they prayed and fasted. So, first question is why is it not an essential? And then the other side would be, okay, if a genuine believer comes and says, “I fast”, what’s the biblical response to that?

Pastor Tom: Okay. Yeah, I would say, first of all, that certainly biblical fasting is a reality and ought to be a part of our lives from time to time. That’s not the question in my mind. I mean, clearly, you look in the Old Testament, you look in the New Testament and you find that reality. You know, in Matthew 6, Jesus says, “...when you fast...” So, there’s an understanding of that. The bigger question is when and why.

Now, when you look at the Pharisees, you find that they required, as a measure of your spirituality, fasting twice a week. Remember? In Luke 18, Jesus tells the story of the tax collector and the Pharisee at the temple. They’re praying and the Pharisee says, ”I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get”, and so forth and he sort of laundry lists what he does as his way of being righteous before God.

I think that underscores two things that we have to avoid in fasting. One is that it is a regimented routine. You will not find that in the Scripture. The only regimented fast in the Old Testament was on the Day of Atonement. And so, apart from that, it was not a regimented routine sort of reality. You don’t find that among believers in the New Testament either. So, that’s the first thing you have to avoid.

The second thing you have to avoid with fasting is thinking that it somehow earns favor with God. And that’s how the Pharisees thought about it. It’s like, “You know, I fast. You see, I’m serious. You do something for me.” You know, it’s kind of like I’m earning brownie points with God by fasting. And that is a real danger.

I remember the first time I was in college, and I was reading and studying this and, you know, gripped by the fact that fasting needed to be part of my life. And so, I went back to the text, I looked at it and I thought, “Okay, I’m going to fast tomorrow.” Well, it just happened to be that tomorrow was a Saturday, and it was a day that I was scheduled to work all day in a very strenuous job and, you know, outdoors in South Carolina. And it about killed me. And I was nonfunctional by the end of the day. But I was doing it for this reason. I wasn’t doing it with any intent and purpose except to say, “Well, the Bible says to fast. I need to fast!” And it’s like that’s going somehow tit-for-tat, earn me something with God. So, those are the two things to avoid.

Now, what is fasting for? When you look at its context in Scripture... First of all, the fasts that are described, there are a couple of very long fasts, okay, that are described in Scripture. Obviously, Jesus is one of those. But for the most part, almost all the fasts in Scripture are less than a day and they are connected to prayer. As I look at fasting and... What I would encourage you to do, because this is a short answer to a big question, but when I taught through Matthew 6 and we looked at those verses on fasting, I dealt with this in greater detail. So, you can go back and listen there and kind of get a nutshell view of where I would say fasting should be. I don’t think it ought to be a regimented part of the Christian life, personally. I don’t see a pattern of that in Scripture. I think it is... Fasting is a response. It’s a response to circumstances where either A) you are so heartbroken over what’s happening in your situation, or so distressed by the decision you need to make or something else, that you intentionally forego food, not to earn brownie points with God, but rather to have time in order to pray and to pour out your heart before God. You look through the Scripture and I think you will consistently find that that is what fasting routinely is.

And so, I think, putting all that together, the answer to your question is, yes, I think it is appropriate for us to fast. I just don’t think it ought to be regimented, like it was with the Pharisees. The only Old Testament example is the Day of atonement. And I think it ought to be... We need to make sure it’s not to sort of earn something with God. It is the natural expression of an anguished heart that says... And we’ve been there, right? I mean, we’ve all been in that situation where we just don’t want to eat. We’re so weighed down with the heaviness of what we’re experiencing. And what’s connected to that? Almost always, for the believer, prayer. And so, you’ll find those together.

So, anyway, you can go back and listen to those messages and, you know, I think there are different views of that. I will acknowledge to you that there are different views among our brothers. In fact, in... You’ll find some of that laid out in Don Whitney’s book called Spiritual Disciplines of the Christian Life. He takes a little bit different view of it. I acknowledge that. And, you know, I think we each have to sort of sort that through for ourselves. But that would be my own perspective as I’ve studied the issue on fasting. Okay?

Yes, Sir.

Judah Clary: My name is Judah Clary. So, my question has to do with the canon of the Bible.

Pastor Tom: Okay.

Judah Clary: So, we know there is a process, you know, of how the books were chosen, which one goes in, and which one goes out. But, as far as we know, we don’t have a list from God saying these books go in, these books go out. So, it was all done by men and, of course, God was directing that. But how can we be sure that all the books are in there, are supposed to be in there, and all the books that were left out are supposed to be left out?

Pastor Tom: Judah, that’s a great question, and it’s one every Christian ought to wrestle with because we shouldn’t be just saying, “Well, somebody somewhere, you know, a group of guys got together and voted and said these are in and the others are out. So, I just accept it.” That is not why we accept the books of the Bible. Now, again, this is a... I’m going to give you a very short version of a very big issue. But if you want to listen, if you want to study it in more detail, I did a series back a number of years ago called the Canon of Scripture. I think it was six sermons, kind of detailing what I’m about to tell you in a nutshell now. So, you can go back and listen.

But here’s the big version. What you said is partially right and partially not right, and that is, God didn’t give us a list of books. However, He gave us a list of men. And that’s just as helpful. Because when you go back… When you go back... Let’s go back to Exodus 19. Here is God’s first written revelation to man. It comes through Moses.

So, how does God make sure that we know that what Moses wrote in the first five books of the Bible is, in fact, the Word of God? How do we know that? Well, it’s pretty clear. Notice chapter 19: “In the third month after the sons of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that very day they came into the wilderness of Sinai.” And God calls them to Mount Sinai. And there they make this covenant together. But go to verse 10: “The Lord also said to Moses, ‘Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments; and let them be ready for the third day, for on the third day [listen to this] the Lord [Yahweh] will come down on Mount Sinai [and here’s the key] in the sight of all the people.” Do the math. Close to two million Jewish people at the foot of Mount Sinai and God says, “Get them ready. I’m going to come down on Mount Sinai.” And then He says, “You shall set bounds for the people all around [and so forth, verse 12]”. “You can’t touch the mountain!”. Etcetera. And verse 13: “When the ram’s horn sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain [but not onto the mountain]. So, Moses did what he was told. Get ready for the third day, etcetera. Verse 16: “So it came about on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thunder and lightning flashes and a thick cloud upon the mountain and a very loud trumpet sound...” This isn’t human generated; this is God generated. “...a very loud trumpet sound, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke because the LORD descended upon it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently.”

You getting the picture? I mean, there’s a storm on top of the mountain. There’s a trumpet sound that just keeps getting louder and louder. There are earthquakes. Verse 19: “When the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him with thunder. The LORD came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain; and the LORD called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.” And God, again, sends him down, says, “Warn them! Don’t touch! Don’t touch! Set boundaries!” So, that’s what happened. And then, this trumpet sound stops. All of this is still going on. And then, notice what happens in chapter 20:1: “Then God spoke all these words, saying, ‘I am the Lord your God...”

You see what’s happening here? There are two million people gathered around the foot of the mountain. God says, “Tell them I’m going to come speak to them.” Moses assembles them. You’ve got all the signs of God’s presence - a storm and earthquakes, and there’s this trumpet sound that can’t be duplicated. It gets louder and louder and louder. And, suddenly, it stops. And out of that, they heard the very voice of God reciting the Ten Commandments, the Ten Words as we call it.

So, let me ask you a question. Do you think anybody at the foot of Mount Sinai doubted that God was speaking? No. Do you think then, when God said, “Okay, Moses, everybody else stays. You come up and I’m going to give you My law.” Do you think when Moses came back down with the law, anybody doubted that he was God’s spokesman? No. Okay? So, now we have got a bona fide spokesman for God.

So, how do we know then, moving forward? Because God’s not going to do that every time. Well, Moses, this bona fide spokesman for God, sets standards in place. And I’m not going to take the time - we got other questions - to take you to the passages, but you can look at, I think it’s Exodus 13, Exodus 18. There are these different standards that are laid down for prophets who will come. How do you know if he’s a real prophet? Well, in some cases he’ll be able to perform miracles to affirm that it’s the Word of God. But here’s the real big one: what he says will be in keeping with previous revelation. Moses even says, “Look, if he can perform a miracle, but it disagrees with previous revelation, he’s not a true prophet” because God doesn’t contradict Himself. And so, he lays down these standards for true prophets.

And what you have, moving forward in the rest of the Old Testament, is prophets were measured against those standards. So, even when they hated the prophet, like Jeremiah, they still acknowledged him as God’s prophet, even those who hated him most. Why? Because he met the standard. He met the divine standard laid down by Moses as to who a true prophet was.

And so, what you have is Moses writes what God told him in the scroll. The next true prophet comes along, he writes, he adds to that scroll. The next true prophet comes along, he adds to that scroll, all meeting the standard that God had laid down for who a true prophet would be. So, Moses started it. The rest of the Old Testament you laid out true prophets.

Then Christ comes. And what does Christ do in Matthew 5? He affirms the entire Old Testament. He uses an expression that encompasses every single book in our Old Testament and He says not one small stroke of a letter, not one letter, will pass away till all is fulfilled. And He kept calling it the Word of God, the Word of God, the Word of God. Jesus, our Lord, affirmed what we call the Old Testament as the very Word of God. So, I know that my Old Testament is God’s very words because Jesus our Lord, said it’s God’s Word. The very content that’s in our Bibles.

By the way, He never quoted from the Apocrypha, which was in the Septuagint. And so, that’s a glaring omission. He affirmed the inspired books of our Old Testament.

So, then what did Jesus do? In Matthew, excuse me, in John 14 and John 16, He told the disciples the Spirit’s going to come and He’s going to bring to your remembrance everything that I taught you, and He’s going to share more of what I have to teach you, with you. That wasn’t a promise that when you take a test in school, you know, you’re going to remember what you didn’t study. That is, instead, a promise to the apostles that they would be able to recall what Christ had taught them.

And Christ handpicked... So, let me put it this way. We have confidence this is the canon, primarily because of Jesus Christ. He authenticated the Old Testament again and again and again. I have a chapter actually I just finished. I wrote for a book that’s coming out on John’s 5th, John MacArthur’s 50th anniversary. It’ll be available in the fall and it’s Jesus’ view of Scripture from Matthew 5. So, when that comes out, you can get it and it’ll walk through that. But Jesus authenticated our Old Testament. No question! Hands down! So, I can be confident in our Old Testament.

But then, He handpicked the men who would write our New Testament. You look at the books of the New Testament and they were written by either an apostle or under the auspices of an apostle. The only books that were ever questioned, they were questioned for that reason - was it connected to an apostle? But, clearly, in the end, we know that most of the New Testament was written by apostles. Then you have books like Mark that was written under the auspices of Peter. That is the testimony of church history and of the early church. Then you have Luke, who was traveling companion of the apostle Paul, and his book, both Luke and Acts - his books were received because of his connection with the apostle Paul. And then, of course, you have the question of Hebrews. You know, nobody knows for sure who wrote that, but... So, it’s kind of a guess but it was connected to the apostles. So, my point is, we know the canon for that reason, and it was accepted very early in church history.

So, what you can do is listen to the series I did on the canon of Scripture. And then if you want to read some about how it was accepted, there’s a great book by Michael Kruger, called the Canon of Scripture, that deals with the acceptance of the canon in the early church, long before the church councils met. That is a… If that’s why you believe the Bible, that is a bad reason to believe the Bible because “human councils have erred”, as Luther said. We don’t believe the Bible for that reason. We believe the Bible because of what the Bible itself says of itself and our Lord authenticating the Old and pre-authenticating the New by choosing the men who would write it, or under whose auspices it would be written.

Okay? Check it out. Yes, Sir.

Gene Challgren: My name is Gene Challgren. And in Leviticus, there are many stories about people who are unclean; they’ve become unclean for one reason or another. But in the evening, they’re clean. Now, what makes them clean just because it’s evening?

Pastor Tom: Well, first of all, you got to step back and look at the book of Leviticus. You know, you have... Most people, that’s where they stop their Bible reading for the year.

By the way, Gene, I don’t covet many things, but you have such a great voice. I just want you to know that. I bet you sing bass in the choir, don’t you? Just guessing, not a tenor voice.

But when you look at the book of Leviticus, you have, how can holy... How can sinful man approach Holy God? And the first 16 chapters are about the sacrifice. Sinful man can only approach Holy God, first and foremost, through sacrifice. And so, there had to have been the offering for sin. The rest of the book of Leviticus details, then, what we could call, instead of sacrifice, sanctification. Not only does there have to be sacrifice, but the one who would walk with God has to be holy.

The book of Leviticus, the second-half of it, is really about being pure and holy. Now, some of the things that are detailed in the second-half of Leviticus are about true, biblical holiness and they never change. For example, you have a chapter that details sexual sin. Those sins are reiterated in the New Testament as sins against God. So, there are parts of that book, the second-half of it on sanctification, on holiness, the walk of holiness, that deal with permanent sins.

There are other parts of it, however, that are there as a picture. They’re there to help the people picture the fact that they must, in every part of their lives, be separate from sin. It’s not that the thing itself is inherently evil in some way. You know, there are obviously discussions about a woman’s cycle and all those things. It is simply to build into their daily lives and the rhythms of life a reminder that, as the people of God, they must be holy.

Now, as far as to your specific question as to why they were unclean until evening, again, it was a reminder of the reality of their need to approach God in holiness and that certain things made them ceremonially unclean, unable to approach God. But there was mercy built into that system. I mean, if God said, “I’m only going to let you approach Me when you’re everything you ought to be”, we would never approach Him, right? So, there was mercy and grace built into that system.

I think, and I can’t prove this to you, but I think it was also tied to the daily sacrifices. You know, there was the morning and evening sacrifice. And I think there was a picture in that that sins were washed. I mean, Jesus does this, right? Jesus teaches us to pray on a regular basis that, “Lord, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” That’s to be a regular part of our life. He illustrates that in John 13 with the washing of their feet. And that wasn’t just about His serving them, although it was that, but it was more than that. He said, “You have already had a bath. Your soul’s been bathed. You’ve been justified. But as you walk through this world, you collect the dust of the world on your feet”, meaning sin. We sin against Him, and we need to daily have our feet washed.

So, I think it’s really representing that reality. Okay? I don’t think we can say more than that, is what I’m saying to you.

Dustin Draime: Hey Pastor Tom! Thanks for holding a Q&A for us.

Pastor Tom: And remind us who you are.

Dustin Draime: My name is Dustin Draime. Thank you. Thanks for clearing up that question. I always took a bath at the end of the day. I thought that was what got me clean. I assume they did the same thing, but...

Pastor Tom: Just within the last couple of weeks I reread a statement that made me laugh, that one of the things Luther said Katie was a great influence on him with (his wife, Katie), when they got married, was that she insisted that he not follow the medieval pattern and bathe once a year. It had to be more often. All of our wives are grateful for that. Anyway, go ahead.

Dustin Draime: Amen! Alright, debating on which question to go with, but I’ll go with this one. I’m looking at Matthew 27:52. It speaks about the tombs being opened when Christ died and bunch of spirits running around, appearing to people. And there’s a lot of ink spilled over that. I won’t get into all that, but I was reading some commentary on John MacArthur, and he said that, most likely, those spirits were given glorified bodies and were taken into glory. Then I flipped down to Revelation 20. It talks about Christ’s millennial reign, when he bound Satan, and when He kind of raises the martyrs and other spirits at that time to reign with Him. Does He give them glorified bodies to reign with Him during that thousand years? And then it talks about, towards the end of the thousand years when Satan is unleashed, and He comes back, and He gets a remnant of those people to battle against. So, are like these redeemed people in their glorified bodies still marrying and like carrying on having kids that are non-believers? Kind of, expand upon what’s going on during that time.

Pastor Tom: Sure. Well, first of all, I think in Matthew 27, passage you started with, I think what he’s saying is you have to have a certain order here. Jesus is the first fruits, right? That’s clear from a number of passages. So, Jesus has to be raised first. So, I think what Matthew is saying here is that when the earthquake occurred at Jesus’ death, the graves were opened. But then, after His resurrection, some of these folks were raised from the dead as well. He, being the first fruits, then they were raised. Now, the question of whether or not they received glorified bodies, we can’t be absolutely definitive on that issue. But I would agree with John on that. I think it’s very likely that they received glorified bodies. Otherwise, they’re not able to really do what they’re supposed to do, which is to be a testimony to the resurrection of Christ. You know, obviously we’re assuming that. There’s no clear, definitive passage to that end, but that would be my thought. And then, that they’re taken to heaven. So, you have Christ, the first fruits. He’s the One. And then, you have these, whose tombs were opened at His death, but then they’re raised after His resurrection. They present themselves as testimony to His resurrection. And then, they ascended to heaven.

In terms of fast forwarding to the end... Am I understanding, your question is about, are those with glorified bodies, during the millennium, involved in marriage and all those things? Is that... did I get your question right?

Dustin Draime: I’ve kind of got a layer of questions ‘cause, one’s like there’s a holy resurrection and then there’s another resurrection...

Pastor Tom: Right

Dustin Draime: ...at the judgment seat to come, I think, in verse 7. So, I guess with the first, is it all believers that are resurrected with Him...

Pastor Tom: Yeah

Dustin Draime: ...at that time? Just the martyrs? How many resurrections are there?

Pastor Tom: Yeah. And that is, I mean, part of its easy and part of its difficult. Let me give you the easy part. Easy part is for us, as New Testament believers, clearly, we are not... When we die, we do not receive glorified bodies. At the moment of death, we pass immediately from life here... Our body stopped functioning. The moment your body stops functioning, Paul says, “...to be absent from the body and to be at home [present] with the Lord.” So, the moment that your body stops, you are in God’s presence. But what’s in God’s presence? It’s your spirit, your glorified spirit. How do we know that? Because the writer of Hebrews says God is surrounded by the spirits of just men, made perfect. And so, at this point, all of those who die in Christ are - they’re perfected spirits. They’re... Who they are, their real self, is there in God’s presence. They are able to communicate. They’re able to do everything that we can do. They just don’t have bodies. Their body is buried somewhere on this earth. When Christ returns, 1 Thessalonians 4, 1 Corinthians 15, when He returns for believers in the rapture, He brings those glorified saints, that is, glorified spirits back with Him. And then in that moment, Paul says...

In fact, just look at that passage because I think it’s important - 1 Thessalonians 4. He says, verse 13, “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.”

By the way, don’t be confused by “fallen asleep”. Doesn’t mean like they’re unconscious or not aware, not alert. He’s talking about from our perspective. You know, we look at their bodies after death and it looks like they fell asleep. Doesn’t mean they’re not alert and aware. Everything in the Scripture argues against that. It’s just a way to soften the blow of death. For that person you love who died, it’s just like they’ve fallen asleep from our perspective. They’re going to wake up again with a glorified body, someday, but they are already awake. At the moment of death, they’re perfectly awake and alert in the Lord’s presence.

But then he says they come and then, what you have here, is we’re all changed. We see in verse 15, “...we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven...the trumpet of God [end of verse 16], and the dead in Christ will rise first.” Now he’s talking about their glorified souls who’ve come back from heaven are at this moment reunited with glorified bodies, perfect bodies like our Lord’s body. Still your body. Just like the seed goes in the ground, what comes out is related to the seed. Same thing, but new and different. And so, the same thing happens with those who are alive. Verse 17: “Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds...” We’re going to be changed too. And Paul says that in 1 Corinthians 15.

So, at the rapture, all believers get glorified bodies. And then, we go back to heaven. Okay? And then, there’s the seven-year Tribulation. All of that unfolds here. There are others who were killed and then Christ returns - others who’ve trusted in Christ are killed during the Tribulation and then Christ returns, at the end of the Tribulation, with His Second Coming. And at that point, there does not appear to be – those who survive the Tribulation, those who’ve trusted in Christ but lived through the Tribulation, are alive at the Second Coming. They do not appear at that point to receive glorified bodies. And so, they’re the ones who go into the Millennium marrying and giving in marriage and that’s where this host of people come from that appeared during the Millennium and the perfect conditions that will reign over the earth at that time.

So, now, going to Revelation 20. In fact, let’s look at it. Revelation 20: you have, verse 5: “The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years.” So, you have all of those believers who died before the Tribulation are given glorified bodies when Christ returns with the rapture. They return to heaven, they wait in heaven, and then they return with Christ. At that time, very likely, the Old Testament saints are raised. And the reason I say that - and there is some uncertainty. There’s disagreement here among believers. But when you look at Daniel 12, and you see where Daniel talks about the resurrection in terms of Old Testament Jewish believers, it seems to imply that it happens after the Tribulation. Can’t be absolutely certain, but it seems to imply that, and many scholars have concluded that. So, there’s another resurrection. Okay

So, to me, that’s the big question, is what about Old Testament saints? Are they raised at the rapture or are they raised, as it appears to imply in Daniel 12, after the Tribulation, at the Second Coming, when Christ returns to the earth? I lean in that direction, believe that’s what is true. I just don’t think I would be dogmatic with that because there are a lot of - a lack of clarity around it.

But there are a number of resurrections. Again, I dealt with that in a series of sermons on end times. So, I dealt with the resurrection, dealt with the rapture, and then dealt with the Second Coming. And so, it might be helpful to go back and listen to that. I also have a couple of messages on the Millennium. Some of those questions will be answered in more detail.

Dustin Draime: Thank you.

Deborah Berger: Hi, my name is Deborah Berger. I’m visiting from out of town. I come from a Messianic Jewish background, but I’ve been struggling with my faith for many, many years. Up until about two days ago, I hadn’t picked up the Bible in maybe almost ten years. So, I want to understand God and Jesus again. But it’s hard because I have a lot of questions. One of the questions I wanted to ask today is... In the Old Testament, when God decided He was going to flood the world and, you know, start everything over, and He let Noah and his family take all the animals onto the ark before flooding the world and starting over, he did that. He was being very merciful. And in Sodom and Gomorrah, He, you know, set aflame the whole town and He let Lot and his family go even though Lot’s wife looked back and turned into salt. How did God go from such extreme responses like purging, purging like everyone and getting rid of whole towns, to being more gentle and sacrificing His only begotten Son to save us all? I don’t know if that made sense.

Pastor Tom: Yeah, no it does, Deborah. Thank you. Thanks for sharing that. I would say that what you have to understand is God is the same. God doesn’t change. And so, what you read about God in the Old Testament is equally true of God in the New Testament. And there are these attributes of God that are realities.

One of them is that God is holy and righteous and just. And that’s just part of His nature. So, when people sin, when they rebel against Him, His justice, like any just judge, calls for that sin to be punished. So, it’s not unjust of God. In fact, for example, what would you think of a human judge who decided, “You know, I’m going to let this rapist walk” or “I’m going to let this murderer walk”? You would say, “No, that’s not just!” Well, God is the ultimate standard of justice, and so, sin must be punished.

So, the ultimate question isn’t why does God judge all those people? The bigger question is why does God let anyone live? Because we all deserve that, right? Because we’re all sinners. We’ve all rebelled against God, and we deserve, as Jesus said, we deserve eternal judgment in hell forever. And so, God is not being unjust when He decides to demonstrate that quality and characteristic that is pure, holy, righteous justice. He never gives anyone something that is unearned when it comes to justice. Everyone gets exactly what they’ve earned. So, it’s never unfair of God to do that.

Now, at the same time in the Old Testament and in the New that same God, who is just and righteous, is also loving and gracious. And He defines His character, doesn’t He, in Exodus 34 where He stands before Moses, or has Moses stands before Him and He declares who He is. And He says, “I am the Lord. I’m Yahweh. I’m the true and living God.” And then He says this, “I am gracious.” In other words, “I delight to do good to those who, if they got justice, would get exactly the opposite.” Then He says, “I am compassionate.” And He says, “I am slow to anger.” God doesn’t quickly get angry and deal with people like we deserve. He’s very patient, very slow, very gracious. And then He says, “I’m abounding in steadfast love.” And then He adds this, and I love this, “forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin.” He says, “That’s who I am. That’s My character.” So, the same God who is just... In fact, the very next line in that chapter says, “I will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.” There’s justice. And yet He says, “I’m forgiving.”

How can that be? How can God... Some scholars have called this the Great Enigma of the Old Testament. How can God allow no sin to go unpunished and yet forgive sin at the same time? And the answer comes in Christ. The only way a holy, righteous judge can forgive my sin and yours, is because He sent His own Son to die in our place, to take the suffering we deserve, to, as we sang tonight, “The Lamb of God in my place. He died my death...” And that’s the only way that God, who is righteous and holy, can also be forgiving.

And so, what men get in those stories you mentioned is what we all deserve. If God gave us pure justice, we wouldn’t have lived a moment longer than our first sin. Boom! That’s what we deserve because it’s rebellion against God. But God isn’t like that because He’s also kind and gracious, compassionate, slow to anger. And He made a way, in His grace, to forgive our sin through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

If we will repent of that sin - you say you want to come back to God. Here’s how you do it. You repent of that sin in your life - those things you know that dishonor God. And you put your faith in what Jesus did and what He did alone, as your only hope of being right with God. And God says, “Then I can be forgiving.” Okay?

I’d love to talk with you more about that. I’m sure there are others who would as well, but thanks so much for your question. Okay.

Deborah Berger: Thank you.

Pastor Tom: Okay, I think we’re supposed to be done. But real quick, I’ll take one more and then you can see me afterwards. Okay? Who was first here? Well... Good for you. Alright, go ahead. So, come up afterwards. I’ll be happy to answer your question.

Lauren Dunfee: Hi Pastor Tom!

Pastor Tom: How are you? Wait...

Lauren Dunfee: Lauren Dunfee

Pastor Tom: There you go. Thank you.

Lauren Dunfee: There you go. I’ve been intimidated by the topic of eschatology and studying that. So, real simply, why is that important? Why should I pursue that in my Bible study? Where should I start in the Bible? And do you have any other recommended resources?

Pastor Tom: Yeah, no, you know, there are a lot of people who are. And, by the way, eschatology is just a fancy word that means ology, the study of, and eschatos is a Greek word that means last things. So, eschatology is just the study of last things. That’s all it is. It’s a study of how the story ends. And I would say that’s why it’s important because how the story ends, matters. You know, what God is going to do matters and I would say it this way: it’s important for us to know everything God thought it was important to tell us. So, if He told us a lot of details of how it’s going to end, it’s important for us to really dig in and try to understand that as best we can. And so, as far as resources, I would start... I think you need an overview first. I would start with... I did a message here, again, a number of years ago called The Ordo Eschatos. Don’t be scared of that. It’s Latin. Ordo meaning order, eschatos meaning of last things. That’d be a great place to start because it’ll give you an overview that you can then begin to fill out from there. And you can go through those messages. I can recommend some other resources to you as well. But I think that’s - that would be where I would start. You got to get that sort of overarching grid, so then you can come back and see how to fill in the pieces. Okay?

Lauren Dunfee: Thank you.

Pastor Tom: Good question though. Thank you. Alright, well, I think I’ve taken too long. The good news is my watch still says 630. I forgot to change it. So, regardless, I’ve gone too long either way. So, let me close in prayer. I’m sorry, Seth, I really would love to sing that new song we’re learning, but I think I’ve taken it too long.

So, let’s pray together and we’ll be dismissed.

Father, thank You so much for Your amazing grace toward us. Lord, even as it was my joy to share Your character with Deborah, Lord, thank You that that’s who You are, that You are at the same time perfectly holy and righteous and just and You will by no means acquit the guilty. And yet, Father, at the same time, in Your amazing wisdom, in Your in your sovereign grace, You found a way to forgive us as sinners. And it was through sending Your own Son into the world, that He would live the life we should have lived and that He would die the death that we were owed and due. Lord, thank You that He was Your Lamb who died in our place, that You raised Him from the dead, and even now, He is at Your right hand. Lord, that is our hope. That is our joy. That is our future. Help us to remember, Oh God, as we walk through this life, that this life is just the front porch to eternity. And help us to live in light of that. We pray in Jesus’ name, Amen!