Q & A

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Well, tonight, as I said, a special opportunity for us to do a Q&A. And I always enjoy this.

And so, let me - first of all, let me just lay out a few little ground rules here for how this works. You can see there’s a mic here in the aisle and a mic over here. And so, what I want you to do is, if you have a question, you’re going to get up and go to that mic and... By the way, don’t be, you know, like… I just got back from California, okay? There’s a big difference between how Californians wait in line and how north Texans wait in line. Okay. North Texans, it’s like, “If one person’s up there, well, I don’t want to get up there because I might crowd them.” And Californians, it’s like one after the other, and you just keep pushing until you’re first in line. Be a little bit more like that tonight because if there’s only one person standing at the mic, then I’m going to assume there are no other questions and I’m just going to keep answering that question, until somebody else gets up. Alright? That’s how it works. So, that’s the first rule is don’t wait until I’m done. If you’re not up here and I know there are more questions, then I’m going to just keep talking. So, you got to do that.

Second rule is this: it’s only for questions, not for statements. If you want to make a statement, make it to your friend after the service. But if you want to ask a question, then I’d love for you to do that. And so, it’s for any question that is a legitimate question that you have on your heart. There are no bad questions, okay? There are no dumb questions. There are only good questions. If it’s your question, then there are other people who have it as well.

Another rule is that you need, when you get up, to give us your name so we know who you are, so I know. I, in many cases, know who you are but others don’t. So, when you first get up, just introduce yourself and then launch into your question.

And one final little rule here is this is not “stump the Pastor night”. Okay? So, if you find you’ve been looking on the Internet all day for “What’s the hardest theological question out there?”, this is not the occasion for that. Yeah, you can talk to me afterwards and stump me all you want, but not here. Alright? So, with that said, go ahead. If you have questions, go ahead and you can start getting in line, and we’ll get underway here.

Yes!

Renee Bourgeois: I’m a Californian, so I’m getting first in line. I am Renee Bourgeois. Thankful that I am a Texan now. But my question is regarding prayer protocol, and I’m not sure if that’s the proper term for it, but is there a formula or an etiquette for approaching the Godhead? Is it, for instance, is it appropriate to pray to the Holy Spirit, or do we have to ask the Father in the name of Jesus Christ to do something with the Holy Spirit. What is - is there a right and wrong with that?

Pastor Tom: Yeah. No, it’s a great question, Renee, and it’s one that a lot of Christians have. And even - you may have heard me earlier in the service. I prayed to Christ, and I prayed to the Father. Why is that?

Well, let me back up, first of all, and let’s look at the larger picture. When you look at the big picture in Scripture, there is no question that we are taught by our Lord - remember in the Lord’s Prayer, better called the Disciples’ Prayer. The Lord’s Prayer is really John 17, the high priestly prayer of Christ to the Father. But the Disciples’ Prayer, the one He taught us to pray in Matthew 6 as well as in Luke, tells us to pray to the Father - “Our Father who is in heaven”. And we come to the Father in and through the Son. Doesn’t mean you have to always say, “In Jesus’ name”, although we typically do; I typically do. The point isn’t that you say a formula at the end of your prayer. It’s that prayer typically, as our Lord taught us, comes to the Father in and under the authority and through the mediation of the Son. You know, we think about the work of Jesus Christ, and we typically think, “Okay, His work is done. You know, He came to earth. He lived a perfect life. He died as a substitute. He offered Himself to God. He ascended to heaven, and He sat down with the right hand of God. Work’s over till He comes back.” And, of course, His redemptive work in the sense of the purchasing of our redemption is complete. “It is finished”, He said. But that doesn’t mean His work is done. He is a mediator. We saw in Romans 8, right, that He is constantly interceding for us. And so, we come to the Father through the Son, through the mediation of the Son. When I pray and you pray to God, our prayers are completely unworthy of God. So, how did they become worthy? Not because of us, but because the Son, our great High Priest, intercedes on our behalf and takes our - and the Holy Spirit does as well as we saw in Romans 8 - and makes our weak prayers acceptable to God. And He receives them in and through the mediation of His Son and through the work of the Spirit. So, we come to the Father, normally, through the Son, and offer our prayers.

But that raises the question you just raised, and that is, is it ever appropriate to approach the other members of the Godhead in prayer? And the answer to that is, yes. The one is obvious. Christ is obvious, right? Because again and again, even on earth, you see people approaching Him and asking Him for things that only God can do. And so, therefore, it is acceptable for us to address our prayers to the Son, just as requests were made of Him here. He never said to anyone, “No, no, don’t ask Me for that. You’re asking something only God can do. You need to direct that to the Father.” And so, it’s appropriate for us, then, to express our desires and our requests to the Son.

And you can even see, from time to time, examples of that, not in a full-fledged prayer, but in terms of how things are expressed in the New Testament. The hardest one is the Holy Spirit and I wish I had a better memory because I did search this out at one point, and I found two references that - two biblical references to where there was an implied prayer to the Holy Spirit. I don’t remember them right now. I will try to dig them out again if you want to contact me this week.

But here’s a book I would recommend to you that sort of deals with this in a larger sense. It’s a little bit of heavy sledding. I’m just going to prepare you for that because it’s the Puritan, John Owen, and so... But it’s worth the effort. It’s a book called “Communion with God” where he deals with this very reality, that it is acceptable for us, when we talk about our God and communing with our God, we are not only communing with the Father, but we’re communing with the Son and with the Holy Spirit. And so, he talks about that reality.

And so, I think it is legitimate to say that the major focus of our prayers is to the Father, through the Son, in the work of the Holy Spirit. But I think it’s legitimate for us to express and address our praise as well as our requests to the other members of the Trinity.

I’ll give you an example. For me, every Sunday morning, as I am praying in preparation for coming and opening God’s Word to you, I’m reminded of the individual work. I mean, they’re... You know, God is one. So, there’s one mind in God, but there are three persons in the Godhead, and they each have specific roles that they are biblically said to assume. And so, I’m aware of that as I’m praying. I’m reminding myself that it is the Spirit who distributes gifts to individual believers, right? And so, I’m praying and saying, “Spirit, you determined that I would have the gift that I have, the gift of teaching, and You determined that for the good of Your people, for the good of those whom Christ purchased. So, use that gift through me today.” I speak to Christ, and I say, “Lord, You are the One, according to 1 Corinthians 12:4-7, You’re the One who has determined where I will serve, the context in which I will serve.” Of course, the same picture in Revelation 1, right, with the Lord walking among the lampstands which represent the churches with the messengers, or the pastors of the churches, in His hands. He sovereignly determines where I serve. I am in Countryside because Jesus Christ put me here. And so, when I’m praying on Sunday morning, I’m praying to that end. “Lord, this is the context You have established me. Make me faithful here. Make me a blessing to these people.” And at the same time - 1 Corinthians 12, it’s one of my favorite passages when I’m preparing to preach, is it says that the results of the gifts I have, in the context Christ has placed me, are produced by the Father. It is God the Father who works all things and all people. And so, I’m saying, “Father, nothing is going to happen of any eternal value unless You make it happen, unless You produce results through my ministry this morning.” And so, that’s how it works for me. It’s - most of my prayers are to the Father, but they’re always mingled together because I am also communing with, as Owen put it so beautifully, with the other members of the Godhead as well.

And so, hopefully that book will be a resource. Again, for those of you who haven’t read the Puritans, that’s one of the hardest Puritan writers to read. So, I just need to warn you of that. That’s because he wrote intentionally in a Latin, a Latinized version of English. And that was... He was, you know, in upper academic circles, and he wrote in that style but, unfortunately, that gets in the way for some of us lower browed people. We have to adjust. But it’s still worth the effort.

Does that answer your question? Okay.

Yes, Sir.

Jesse Davis: Thanks, Pastor Tom, for being here tonight, answering questions. I was going to ask this question last year, but then I chickened out.

Pastor Tom: Oh, wait a minute. You got to start with introducing yourself.

Jesse Davis: My name is Jesse Davis. Thank you. So, I was going to ask last year - I totally chickened out - but it’s on the topic of social justice and I’ve talked to you about this a time or two over the last year. So, it seems everywhere we look, from politics to universities to seminaries and even in churches and denominations, we’re talking about economic justice and environmental justice, racial justice. And I heard presidential candidates talking about transgender rights, of reproductive rights as well, recently so. My question is, for the church, is this dangerous that talking about this topic? But also, how should we respond if it is dangerous? There are sin issues here, it seems. So, how do we proverbially, you know, not respond by throwing the baby out with the bathwater? So, what’s the proper biblical response to these issues?

Pastor Tom: Yeah, no that’ a great question, Jesse. And it’s not an easy question. In fact, I’ve considered, I’ll just say, and you guys can be praying with me. I’m going to be talking with the elders about possibly taking this subject in a little more depth because it is one that’s growing - maybe this summer as part of a summer message or part of a larger summer series. I don’t know. So, this is going to be a thumbnail overview of something, maybe, that will eventually become more. But let me just give you sort of a sketch.

First of all, let’s take the word justice. You know, God is a God of justice. He cares about justice and fairness. He is impartial. He doesn’t look at any of the external factors. He is impartial in His nature. In fact, I love the Psalmist who says that justice is the foundation of God’s throne. In other words, that is a foundational virtue in His rule. And so, nothing can ever question the justice of God. So, we’re all for God’s justice. We’re all for justice in the world, for God to bring about justice.

But that is not what we’re talking about with the social justice movement. So, let me step back and make several connections. First of all, let’s talk about where this is coming from. How did this movement that’s kind of reaching a groundswell - you alluded to Resolution Nine last year at the SBC Convention and it’s going to be a big topic and this year’s SBC Convention - where did all of that come from? What was its foundation and basis? Well, Resolution Nine, last year in the SBC Convention, talked about the value as an analytical tool of something that maybe some of you have never heard about. It’s called Critical Race theory and intersectionality. Those are a couple of ideas that may be foreign to you, so let me just briefly explain them to you.

Critical Race Theory actually began not as Race Theory, but as Critical Theory. It came out of Frankfurt, in Frankfurt, Germany and essentially, it’s a Marxist philosophy that says that the problems in the world are caused by a wrong distribution of power and there are those who are oppressors, and there are those who are the oppressed. Eventually, that theory was embraced and into it was brought the issue of race, that now the injustices are not economic, let’s say, but they are deeper than that; they are racial. So, the critical race theory would say that there are in the world, there are two kinds of people. There are those who are the oppressed and those who are the oppressors. And, typically, that’s defined as the oppressors are those in power. If you have exercised power over culture, then you are the oppressor. So, you’ve heard terms - because of that, you’ve heard terms like white privilege and other things. And that implies, because in our culture, in Western culture, there have been in authority for much of that period of time, white, heterosexual males - that means that we are the oppressors and that those who are not that, to some extent or other, have been the oppressed. And so, the way to solve this, in this critical race theory, is to realign the power. For those who’ve been in power to acknowledge that they are guilty just by virtue of their ethnicity of sinning, they are part of a system that supports this oppression, and they need to repent of that and there needs to be a redistribution of power. That’s basically Critical Race Theory.

Intersectionality just adds another component. It says the more potentially oppressed groups you belong to, they intersect, and you’re more greatly oppressed. So, for example, in that way of thinking, a woman is more oppressed than a man. A black woman is more oppressed than a white woman, and a black lesbian woman is more oppressed than a black heterosexual woman. So, you see how that’s intersectionality. It says there is a sort of growing pattern.

That’s where this came from, okay? That is what really has now come into and become a factor in evangelicalism. It began as a Marxist philosophy in Frankfurt, Germany, and it is now expanded into the church and is influencing the church at various levels.

Now, let me back up. Now, that I’ve given you sort of an overview of that. That’s probably more than you wanted. You can read about it online. There’s plenty of stuff out there where this is sort of explained, but that’s a thumbnail sketch. Let’s talk about this biblically.

Let’s start, first of all, with the most basic thing, and that is, James 2 says that if I am either partial or prejudiced against another human being based on external factors, any kind of external factors... In that story, the story James tells, you remember it is the poor man and the wealthy man who come into a synagogue, into an early gathering of Christians. And the poor man is mistreated. And the wealthy man is said, “Hey, you sit here and we’re happy to have you.” And the other guy says, “You sit over there, you know, by the footstool.” And James identifies that as sin. So, let me be as clear as I can. And this is so important in the context of the church. Any sort of partiality, that is, showing favor to someone based on external factors like the color of their skin, their ethnicity, their economic condition, on and on it goes, I mean, whatever you want to put in there, any external factors, showing favoritism to them or, on the other hand, being prejudiced against them because of those external factors, that is unequivocally sin before God. God is completely impartial when it comes to those things. In fact, it’s interesting. In James 2, it’s in that context, the context of prejudice and partiality, that that famous verse occurs that says the one who sins in one point is guilty of all.

Now, think about that for a moment. What James is saying is that if you demonstrate in your heart or in your actions, a partiality or a prejudice against another person made in the image of God because of any external factors, including race, then you have shattered the entire law of God. So, racism is completely unacceptable in the heart of a Christian. So, let’s start there. That’s crucial for us to understand.

Now, let’s take the next step in this sort of evaluating critical race theory and all of this. The next step is this. And sorry, you guys standing in line. Continue to be there. This one’s going to take a little longer than some of the others, but I will get to you, alright? I promise. So, the next step would be to say this: okay, if racism, any sort of prejudice or partiality, whether it’s economic or based on ethnicities or whatever it might be, is sinful before God, then we need to understand that, in the context of the church, that is unacceptable. It is unacceptable individually. It is unacceptable as a church. We as a church ought to be completely embracing of people, regardless of those external factors. And I love that, in my lifetime, I have seen that begin. It’s not where it needs to be by any means, but I’ve seen it begin, where we can in the church, here on this planet, worship God the way we will someday worship around the throne of God, when people of every tribe and people and tongue and nation, Romans 5 [he meant Revelation 5] says, will gather around the throne of God. That’s how the church - our church ought to, and I praise God that I’ve seen this happen, our church ought to reflect our community. It ought to reflect our area in all of the people that God has brought here. And we ought to be accepting and receiving, again, regardless of those external factors.

Now, let’s talk then about where a lot of this goes back to is American slavery. Let’s talk about that for a moment. Is there any element of American slavery that is acceptable or was that sinful? The answer is it was absolutely sinful. In both the Old Testament and the New Testament, you have a condemnation of kidnapping. In fact, it was a capital offense. Why did people kidnap in the Old Testament and why is it mentioned again in the New Testament? To what end? It was to enslave them. And so, under the Old Testament law, and Paul reiterates it in 1 Timothy 1, that to do so is a breach of the law of God. So, the entire system of American slavery was in fact worthy of the death penalty, because it was a breach of the law of God at that level. And so, we need to understand that. There’s no way for me to justify what Americans did to other human beings. It was a breach of the law of God. It was sin.

So, now the question is, so what do I do about that? And this is where now we get to another aspect. And this is where I think we need to understand some of the theological issues involved. One of the points that this whole social justice issue makes is that I am personally responsible for two things. I am personally responsible, even though I have not been engaged in that, I am responsible, first of all, for what my forebearers did, for the slavery that they involved themselves in. And secondly, I am responsible because I am part of a system that perpetuates some level of oppression. Is that biblical? My answer to that is, absolutely not. That is not biblical. I am responsible for my sin, and I have plenty of it to account for, including in, you know... Before I came to Christ and began to understand the truth of who we are in Christ, having prejudiced and partial thoughts on numerous factors and I think all of us understand that. So, I am personally responsible for my own sin.

But I am not responsible for the sin of those who’ve gone before me in this way, in the terms of moral guilt before God. And the reason I say that is Ezekiel 18. In fact, turn to Ezekiel 18. Let me just punctuate this, because it’s so important to understand that this is a basic principle of God’s justice. Ezekiel 18:1: “Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘What do you mean by using this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, ‘The fathers eat the sour grapes, But the children’s teeth are set on edge’?’“ In other words, God is judging other people for the sins. The children get judged for the sins of the fathers. “‘As I live,’ declares the Lord God, ‘you are surely not going to use this proverb in Israel anymore. Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine. [And here it is. This is a basic principle of God’s justice.] The soul who sins will die.’“ And it goes on in this chapter to describe a number of different scenarios where there is a righteous father and a wicked son, where there is a wicked father with a righteous son, and so forth. And in each case, God reiterates I’m going to hold every individual responsible for their sins. This is a principle of God’s justice, and I think to put on us sins that God has not put on us is wrong. I think it’s a breach of the law. I get the guilt of Adam’s sin. Why? Because God appointed him as my official representative. But I don’t get the guilt of everybody else’s sin. I get the guilt of my sin. And that’s what I’m responsible for before God. And so, I think it’s important to understand that.

But I think it helps to understand the foundation where this came from in terms of, you know, out of a really a Marxist philosophy that, instead of the redistribution of wealth, is now arguing for the redistribution of power. Again, please don’t misunderstand me. There is plenty of guilt for oppression. There is plenty of guilt for prejudice. There’s plenty of guilt of impartiality to go around. But the question is, how do we deal with that? And the answer by the Critical Race Theory and those who are proponents of it, is that we need to redistribute the wealth. We need to redistribute the power. We need to redistribute these things. And the biblical answer is the gospel. And that, I think, is what concerns me most of all.

Now, I’m not saying that everybody who’s flirting with these ideas has given up on the gospel. That is not fair. But if you run this out far enough into the future, and maybe not that far into the future, you’re going to see, even with those who are trying out of the best of intentions to marry this with the New Testament gospel, you’re going to see that they’re going to end up capitulating on the gospel. I believe that with all my heart. I think, in the end, you’re going to end up with a new liberalism because it loses sight of the gospel of Jesus Christ. My identity is either in Adam or it’s in Christ. And once I’m in Christ, the rest of those things that are identity markers for me, they don’t matter. That’s why Paul says, “It doesn’t matter whether you’re male or female or you’re Greek or not. I mean, none of those things in Christ matter. They’re gone. They go away.” And I love Ephesians 2 where he talks about how God has now made one new man. He’s brought us together. He’s reconciled us not only to God, but to each other. Folks, this is what it ought to be in the church and anything that breaks that unity, that divides that unity, is not of God. It’s contrary to the truth of God’s Word. Okay?

Sorry, longer answer, but not long enough. I hope at least gives you a little exposure to that.

Yes, Sir.

Tom Cordino: Hi Pastor Tom! Thanks for the Q&A. My name is Tom Cordino. Kind of a two-part question. It’s on the...

Pastor Tom: Okay, you got to ask one at a time because I don’t have, I can’t hold it all.

Tom Cordino: I will, I will. So, the first one is regarding the source of evil.

Pastor Tom: I’m sorry?

Tom Cordino: The source of evil.

Pastor Tom: Okay

Tom Cordino: So, we know God’s not, He’s not the author of evil. So, what does the Bible say about the origin of evil? Maybe that’s my first one. If you could touch on that one.

Pastor Tom: Give me your second and I’ll tell you...

Tom Cordino: So, the second one. So, God is omnipotent. He’s sovereign. Omnipresent. Omniscient. So, why not restrain evil in the beginning, you know, Genesis 3? Why not restrain evil?

Pastor Tom: Okay, so hang there. Stay there because you may have to remind me of your second question.

Tom Cordino: Yeah, sure.

Pastor Tom: Let’s take the first part. Where does evil come from? First of all, it’s important to realize that evil is not a thing. You know, a lot of people think like evil is something. No, evil is the absence of something. Evil is the absence of all that is God, all that is good in God. And so, it’s not that somebody created evil, okay? It is instead the rejection of good and of God. And so, where did it come from? The answer is spontaneous combustion in the heart of heaven’s greatest creation.

Look at Ezekiel 28. Ezekiel 28. There are two passages that are sometimes used to talk about Satan in heaven. One of them is Isaiah 14. The other is here. I’m not convinced that the Isaiah passage in fact talks about anybody other than the King of Babylon. But here, there’s a reason to believe we’re talking initially about the King of Babylon, and then all of a - or the king of Tyre, rather, and all of a sudden, we begin talking about someone else. Let me just show you this, Ezekiel 28, and you have here... It starts out, verse 1: “The word of the Lord came again to me, saying, ‘Son of man, say to the leader of Tyre...” And it goes on... Tyre, of course, was a city on the Mediterranean, up in Phoenicia, modern day Lebanon, where there was this king and now Ezekiel is said to prophecy against him. And he begins to do so. This is a real king, of a real city in the Middle East. But notice what happens, verse 12: “Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, ‘You had the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God...” Uh-oh, we’re now talking about somebody else. Now, we’re not talking about the current king of Tyre. We’re talking about the one who energized and motivated the king of Tyre, and it’s Satan himself because that becomes clearer as you go down through here. Verse 13, or verse 12: “You had the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering...” And he goes on to lay those out. Verse 14: “You were the anointed cherub who covers [I mean, clearly, we’re not talking now about the king of Tyre] And I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked in the midst of the stones of fire. You were blameless in your ways From the day you were created Until unrighteousness was found in you [there it is].” You were blameless until unrighteousness was found in you. How did it happen? He says, ”By the abundance of your trade You were internally filled with violence, And you sinned; Therefore I have cast you as profane From the mountain of God. And I have destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the stones of fire.” Here’s the reason, verse 17. Here’s the origin of evil in the universe: “Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor. I cast you to the ground...”

In the end, evil was in fact, you laughed at my comment, but it’s exactly right. It was the result of a spontaneous combustion in the heart of the covering cherub, in the heart of - we could call him the Prime Minister of Heaven. Second to God, Lucifer was the greatest being in the universe, the greatest being God ever created and he fell into sin because his heart was lifted up with pride. That’s the origin of evil, and it is... Again, evil is not something. It’s the absence of something. It’s the absence of the proper humility and worship of God. It’s the absence of all that God is and is owed. And so, it began there.

Tom Cordino: Thank you. Thank you.

Pastor Tom: You’re welcome.

Tom Cordino: So, the second...

Pastor Tom: Oh, yeah, sorry

Tom Cordino: The second. It’s okay, so...

Pastor Tom: I told you I would forget and that’s why you have to stay there.

Tom Cordino: So, God’s omniscient.

Pastor Tom: Yeah. So why didn’t He keep that from happening?

Tom Cordino: Right. Thank you.

Pastor Tom: And the answer is in Romans 9 that we saw. You know, we walked through Romans 9 (if you weren’t here, you can go back and listen), where basically Paul says - in fact, look at Romans 9. Here’s as far as I can get, okay? Verse 22, or let’s start at verse 21, Romans 9: “Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? [Now watch verse 22] What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also called...” This is talking about human beings. But the same thing is true with angels. Remember, there are angels who are called the elect angels, and then there are those who sinned. Why did God allow that? And this is the answer. Go back and listen to the messages on this passage, but in the end the answer is this: because God wanted to put the glory of His grace on display. That’s as far as we can get.

And here’s the rest of it. Deuteronomy 29:29 says, ”The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever...” We can only go so far. We can only go with what’s revealed.

And the answer to your question is because God decided it was the best thing for Him to do, and that was to display His glory. And there were aspects of the glory of God that would never have been seen if He hadn’t acted the way He did. Again, I go into a lot more detail in teaching that passage, so go back and you can listen online. But that’s the short answer, okay?

Molly: Good evening. Hi, Pastor Tom. Thank you so much for holding the Q&A. My question is...

Pastor Tom: Oop! First of all –

Molly: My name is Molly.

Pastor Tom: Thank you, Molly. I knew that but I wanted everybody else to know that.

Molly: Is cremation biblical?

Pastor Tom: Yeah, that’s a great question. It’s one Christian families struggle with. I mean, most of you know, this is going to sound pretty morbid, but I... When I was in seminary, I lived in a funeral home. It was a cheap place to live. They paid me to live there. It was quiet. I could study. I mean, I had a maid who washed my towels and, you know, clean... What could be better than that for a seminary student, right? But what I discovered in that process is, and now of course know it in fuller ways, it is very expensive for there to be a burial in our culture. You’re talking 10 to $15,000 for a body to be buried. There’re Christian families who are looking at that, they don’t have insurance, life insurance, so they don’t have the money necessary to come up with that. And so, they’re looking at what are my alternatives. Cremation is a lot less expensive and so a lot of Christian families opt for that.

Let me start with the big picture. The big picture is, when you have a moral decision to make, and I always do this, forgive me, but I think it’s so important because you got to think biblically. You have a moral decision to make. Every one of those moral decisions falls into three categories. Either it’s, “Thus sayeth the Lord, ‘Thou shalt [chapter and verse]’“, or secondly, it’s, “Thus sayeth the Lord, ‘Thou shalt not [chapter and verse]’“, or if it’s not one of those, then it falls into a third category dealt with in Romans 14 and 15 (we’re getting there) and 1 Corinthians 8 to 10, which is called issues of conscience. So, chapter and verse thou shalt, chapter and verse thou shalt not, or it’s an issue of conscience. And an issue of conscience doesn’t mean you just get to do whatever you want. Paul lays down, in those chapters, guidelines for making a decision about issues of conscience. And so, if you’re dealing with one of those, you don’t just go, “Well, this is my liberty. I’m going to do whatever I want.” No! Paul says, “Here’s how you decide whether to do or not to do that thing.”

And so, this would... Let’s look at this issue of cremation. Is there a chapter and verse in Scripture that says, “Thou shalt bury or thou shalt cremate, or thou shalt not bury or thou shalt not cremate?” The answer is, of course, not. There’s no clear command one way or the other. And so, this falls into the category of an issue of conscience, where each individual person before the Lord has to make that decision.

Now, I will... Let me back up and say this, having said that, and that is when you look at the biblical pattern, when you look at what happens in Scripture, you see that there is a specific tendency on the part of those who are believers to honor the body. Why is that? It’s because of the hope of the resurrection. You remember, Joseph, at the end of his life in Egypt, he instructed that his bones, his remains, be taken to the land of Israel, the Promised Land. Why? Because of the hope he had, because he understood that this was a promise that God had given, and he wanted to connect that with that promise. So, you see this again throughout the Scripture. The only cremation that you see in the Scripture is either a willful effort to dishonor the body, in some cases, in other words, they want to humiliate someone, so they don’t want them to be buried with their - the rest of their family, or, in some cases, paganism. That doesn’t mean cremation is inherently paganism. I’ve read that some Christians take that position. I don’t believe that. I think it’s an issue of conscience. You have to decide. I’m just trying to give you the full biblical data here. When you look at the scriptural data, there is that pattern of honoring the remains of those who have died believing in the Lord. And so, that’s the best I can do in terms of an answer. There is no clear cut “Thou shalt”. It’s going to be an issue of conscience. Follow the principles in Romans 14 and 15, 1 Corinthians 8-10, and you make the decision before the Lord, and you don’t judge those who make a different decision. You allow them to make that decision before the Lord. But it’s one that’s individual and unique.

From a purely monetary standpoint, I’ll just speak personally. And, again, this is an issue of conscience, so don’t do it because it’s something I said. But from a purely personal standpoint, I would, from a financial standpoint, I’d prefer to be cremated. I’d hate for my family to have to spend kind of money on my remains. On the sort of biblical pattern front, I personally would prefer for my body to be buried and in the hope of the resurrection. So, that’s just on a personal note.

Okay? Hopefully that answers your question.

Yes Sir.

Cesar Contreras: Hi Pastor Tom. I’m Cesar Contreras.

Pastor Tom: I’m sorry.

Cesar Contreras: My name is Cesar Contreras.

Pastor Tom: Cesar. Yes.

Cesar Contreras: My question derives from Ephesian 6 on “Children, obey your parents in the Lord...” and this will prolong your life - along those lines. Should this be interpreted literally? Like, we’re using our parents’ wisdom to not do decisions that will shorten our lifetime, or would it be God supernaturally prolonging your life?

Pastor Tom: Well, that’s a great question, Cesar, and I think you have to step back and first of all realize that this does not mean that there is an ironclad guarantee that every child who is in a pattern of honoring and obeying his parents is going to live a long life, because there are exceptions. God makes individual choices, so we can’t say it’s going to absolutely be that way. There is, however, a pattern and I think it’s both of the things you mentioned, okay? I think, first of all, and you see this, right, in the law where it talks about honoring parents and some of the dangers that come when you dishonor your authorities, because you certainly are making foolish decisions. You see this in Proverbs, Proverbs 1 to 10 as, you know, Solomon talks to his sons and he says, “Listen, listen, listen, listen because it’s going to be help to you.” And he talks about how, if you don’t, some of those things that can come... When my girls were teenagers, I walked through Proverbs 1 to 10 with them in our family Bible time and showed them how, in those chapters, there are decisions you can make, at that stage of life, which of course God in His grace can overcome. God’s grace is always capable of overcoming those things. But they’re decisions you can make in that stage of life that are terribly destructive. And they are things like choosing the wrong friends - chapter 1, right? You get in with the wrong crowd, they’re going to lead you to do things that you would never do individually. And you know your parents are warning you of those things and Solomon is warning his children of those things. And so, if we listen to that council, if we honor them and listen to that, then, of course, that’s going to very practically lengthen our lives because we’re not going to get in with a group, a gang let’s say, and end up, you know, in some sort of a situation where either through drugs or some violent act, our lives are taken. So, there’s that side of it. There’s just the practical advice of a parent preserves and protects us from some of the foolish decisions we can make.

But there’s also the fact that God Himself says that He will honor those who honor their parents. God is... You know, the Fifth Commandment, where that’s coming from of course, is a placeholder. It’s just to remind us that God is a God of order and He’s established authority. And so, we’re to respect those authorities. And one of the chief authorities that He’s placed over us is our parents. And so, He uses that example but it’s really a placeholder to remind us that we’re responsible to do this with all authority. Government, elders in the church, parents, wives with their husbands, and so forth, even us, you know, as He gets into in Ephesians-Colossians with our employers. And so, there is just a principle. That’s not a social construct, that’s not something man has created. God has created the principle of submission and authority. And so, He says, “You honor that and I’m going to honor that”, and often He does so with long life. And so, I think it’s both-and not either-or. It’s both that practical wisdom protects you from foolish decisions that could end your life prematurely, and I think that He often, as a reward to those who have the right disposition toward authority, in His own providence weaves together where more often than not, they’re going to live longer than those who don’t.

Okay? Again, it’s not an ironclad promise. Again, if you’re interested in getting in more detail, when I was teaching through Ephesians, I filled that out a little more so you can go back and listen to that passage. Okay?

Cesar Contreras: Thank you.

Pastor Tom: Yup.

Lauren Dunphy: Hi, I’m Lauren Dunphy.

Pastor Tom: Hi Lauren.

Lauren Dunphy: Hi, Pastor Tom. So, I’m enjoying a book on raising sons by Mike Fabares. He writes about the need to communicate God’s command to exercise dominion over creation. As I read Genesis 1:26-28, it seems to me that God directs men and women to subdue the earth and have dominion. So, I have two questions. What are ways that I, as a woman, can exercise dominion? And what are practical ways to teach a daughter to carry out this command?

Pastor Tom: Yeah, I think, you know, I appreciate what Mike is saying there and it’s kind of a call to say we need to raise men and not boys. You know, they need to exercise the responsibility that God has given to them as men, and I applaud that. I would say this. I think the, you know, to the dominion question in Genesis 1. In fact, let’s look at it. Genesis 1:26: “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them [notice now, we’re male and female and this is where I think you’re point is absolutely valid]; and God said to them [now, male and female], ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’ Then God said, ‘Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food’; and it was so.”

So, here is that principle of dominion. And I think it’s as simple as this. I think all God is really saying is that He created the world for us. This runs so contrary to modern evolutionary theory. You know, some of you who are younger, you are bombarded constantly with the idea that we are just merely on the same level playing field with all the other animals. Listen, you are not an animal. You were made in the image of God. No other animals... There’re animals that we’re supposed to, you know, Proverbs says, the righteous man treats his animals well. So, we’re supposed to be good stewards. We’re supposed to respect the creation that God has made. But we’re not animals. We’re made in God’s image, and He’s placed us as mankind, male and female, over the creation. He’s given it to us. He made it for us so that it would provide for all of our needs. And so, we need to be good stewards. We don’t need to trash the planet. We don’t need to, you know, throw trash everywhere, individually and personally, or do things that mess up the world for other generations. That’s all true.

But don’t go too far with that. This world exists for the good of mankind. God gave it to us as a blessing to us to use, to rule, subdue, for the benefit of man. That’s why, for example, you know, the idea of not only the green plant here, but after the flood in Genesis 9, He says, “Just as I gave you the green plant, I’m now giving you all the animals for food as well.” And, of course, the Mosaic law said some foods were - or some animals were unclean and shouldn’t be eaten. But in Mark’s gospel, as well as in the book of Acts, Acts 10, that comes off the table. Pardon the pun! And God says, “No! Now, you can eat - nothing is unclean if it’s received (1 Timothy 4) with thanksgiving, with prayer, then everything’s good.” Enjoy! Go have a steak. Go have some BBQ. This is God’s purpose. He gave us the animals for our good.

Don’t get me started, for example, on cows. You ever thought about just cows? God made cows for - every single part of a cow is useful to mankind. And God intended it to be that way. We are not abusing the creation by using them for milk and food and clothing. God Himself, in fact, the second person of the Trinity was the first to kill an animal and use its skin to clothe human beings.

So, be very careful that you don’t buy into, unintentionally, evolutionary theory and suddenly begin to think of us as just another animal and we need to respect all the other animals. No, we need to be wise stewards. We need to be, you know, kind to our animals. But that doesn’t mean that we are not given those to rule over, to have dominion over. So, back to a very practical point, in terms of so how do you teach a daughter to do that? How do you do that and how do you teach a daughter to do that? The answer is, you use the resources God has given you, everything from whether it’s food, to clothing, to getting in your car and driving somewhere. Those are resources that God has given us. And personally, I refuse to be shamed into walking instead of riding a car or taking a wagon train instead of a plane. You know, so it’s these resources. The earth is here for the good of mankind, to harness its resources, and to use them. And let me just to say this. We ultimately are not going to be the ones who destroy this planet. It’s going to be God. Okay? He said all things will endure (go back and read it) after the flood. He said they’re going to be seed time. There’s going to be harvest. There’s going to be all the different aspects of life on this planet. Jesus said they’ll continue in marriage until I come. All those things are going to continue. We’re not going to destroy them. And so, we need to be individually wise, and even as a society, we need to be careful. We need to be stewards. But don’t buy into the evolutionary theory that, you know, we need to worship Mother Earth. It’s an expendable planet, a disposable planet, and we need to use the resources God has placed here but do so responsibly. Okay? And so, as you do that, you are exercising dominion in all those ways.

Lauren Dunphy: Thank you.

Brad: Hey, Pastor Tom. My name is Brad. Thank you for being here. My question is about the law. How do we view the Mosaic law? In a lot of confessional circles like Westminster and London Baptist will divide it into three parts and say we’re under the moral law but not the ceremonial/civil. But they also say that the Ten Commandments are binding on the Christian, including the Sabbath. And other circles say that we are not under any of the Mosaic laws (it’s one unit) and that we’re under the law of Christ. What would you say?

Pastor Tom: Yeah, well I’m obviously familiar with all of those views. I would say this. We’re going to get to this in Romans, particularly in chapter 13 where he talks about love being the fulfillment of the law. And I’m going to bring that out. But I also have dealt with it already in Romans, might be, Brad, before you came, but you can go back and catch up with some of that. But I would say this, big picture, I would agree with both the Westminster Divines and the Baptist Confession, that there are three aspects of the law. Why would I say that?

Let me back up. For those of you may not be familiar with it, when you look at the Mosaic law, clearly there are some commands there that are no longer binding on us. What were - why is that? And are there any that are still binding on us?

If you look at the Mosaic law, there are clearly three aspects of that law. There is, first of all, what’s called the civil law, that is, there were civil penalties for breaking certain things. For example, if you kidnapped, as I talked about that earlier, you’re going to be put to death. So, is the church to be putting people to death today? No, that was a civil law. That was a law for the nation of Israel, for the functioning of the nation. What happened to all those civil laws and civil penalties? It’s not the church’s job now to flesh those out, but they haven’t gone away. God still has laid that out as a framework for humanity. By the way, it’s interesting if you look at the civil laws in the Old Testament law, there weren’t prisons. There was death and there was restitution. And that’s how the penalties were laid out in the Old Testament law. But those civil laws now have become the responsibility of government. They were responsibility of the government of the nation of Israel. And now, Romans 13, we’re going to get there very shortly. Romans 13 - you know, the government bears the sword. Government doesn’t bear a sword to rap people’s knuckles but to execute. And so, God has given government the responsibility now to carry out those civil penalties that were part of the Mosaic Law.

A second part of the Mosaic Law was the ceremonial, you know, the feasts and the sacrificial system, and all of that. Well, the book of Hebrews, along with Colossians 2, has put that to bed. It said that was fulfilled in Christ. In fact, turn to Colossians 2. And I better hurry here. Just you guys stay, okay, because I don’t think I’m going to get time to get anybody else. Colossians 2. Look at this really quickly. Verse 16: “Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink [there are the dietary laws. In other words, don’t let anybody tell you, you shouldn’t eat certain kinds of meat. You know, that’s no longer valid, he says] or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day...” And I’m going to come back to that. Obviously, the reference appears to be off the cuff - the annual feasts of Israel, the monthly new moon celebrations, and then the weekly Sabbaths. And he says, “Don’t let anybody judge you whether you keep any of those”, because he says in verse 17, “[These are] things which are a mere shadow of what is to come...” I love the word play here. He says, “Those things were like shadows, but...” Our translation said “...the substance belongs to Christ.” I don’t really like that translation. If you look at the footnote in the margin, if you have NAS, you can see that literally the Greek word is “body”. I love the word play. He says, “All of those things were like the shadow Christ casts. But now His body is here. He’s here. You don’t need the shadow anymore. Those things are gone.”

And so, you know, obviously I know, and I’ll go ahead and mention this, those who believe in a Sabbath say, “Well, no, this isn’t talking about the weekly Sabbath. This is talking about the special Sabbaths that happened in conjunction with the feast.” There’s one huge... I used to struggle with this because - I’m going to get to the moral law in just a second. And I used to struggle with, well, how is it there’s one of the Ten Commandments that we don’t keep anymore. What’s that? Well, here Paul tells us that we’re not supposed to keep it anymore. Don’t let anyone judge you in respect to the weekly Sabbaths. And here’s why I say that. If you take those three words “festivals” (or feasts), “new moons”, and “Sabbaths”, and you trace those three words when they’re together through the Old Testament, you will discover that, without exception (and this is what convinced me) - without exception, those three words refer to the annual feasts, the monthly new moon festivals, and the weekly Sabbath (the regular Sabbath). And Paul here says, under the inspiration of the Spirit, don’t let anyone judge you in respect to that. The Sabbath is gone.

Besides that, I would say this, Brad, every Christian who doesn’t meet for worship on Saturday believes that that commandment changed, right? Because the Sabbath is Saturday. So, if we meet on Sunday, then we believe it changed. The question is to what extent did it change? And here Paul says, “No, it’s - you’re not to celebrate the Sabbath in the way the Jewish people did. Now, we celebrate the Lord’s Day, the day that Christ was raised from the dead.” Okay?

So, then, we’ve got the third aspect of the law. You’ve got civil - now, government is responsible to do that. You’ve got the ceremonial, which Hebrews and Colossians 2 says that’s been fulfilled in Christ. It’s just gone away. Christ is the body, that was just the shadow. And then the final aspect of the law is you have the moral law. It’s encapsulated in the Ten Commandments and then Jesus summarized that, even as we saw this morning in Matthew 22 with love God (there’s the first four of the Ten Commandments) and love your neighbor as yourself (there’s the last of the Ten Commandments). And so, are those things still binding on us? Absolutely! Which one of those are we not supposed to keep? The answer is the only one the New Testament set aside, which is the weekly Sabbath. And, by the way, it’s the only one of the Ten Commandments that isn’t reiterated in the New Testament. Okay?

Brad: Thank you.

Pastor Tom: Yeah, you’re welcome.

Yes, Sir.

Judah Clary: Hello, my name is Judah Clary, and my question goes to in the book of John, where we have instances of Jesus referring to, “He is doing the will of His Father” and the indication seems to be that He’s operating - essentially, He’s being instructed by the Father. So, how do we, for lack of a better term, reconcile that with Him being co-equal when He’s also doing what His Father’s directing?

Pastor Tom: Yeah, no, that’s a good question, Judah. It has to do with the two natures in Christ. I mean, you understand, that when we talk about Christ, we’re talking about a unique person, a person who is fully and completely God and fully and completely human. And those, as the creeds say, are without mingling, without division. I mean, there are these two natures eternally now in Christ.

And so, when you think about those two natures, understand that He never ceased being God in His divine nature. So, when He was in Bethlehem, in a manger in Bethlehem, and confined there, what was that? That was His human nature just like your human nature is confined to right there in the aisle. It’s not everywhere. But in the manger in Bethlehem was Jesus’ human nature, but His divine nature continued to fill all of the universe and beyond because He, as God, is omnipresent. And so, when we start thinking about Him, that’s how we have to remember the reality. So, often you see Jesus responding. Remember, He didn’t cheat. When He came to live here among us, He didn’t cheat and become, you know, like a Superman. He didn’t sort of go into the neighborhood phone booth and come out, and now He’s going to be God. He did live as a full and complete human, and He only exercised His divine attributes under the direction of the Spirit. Okay? And that’s why the Spirit comes like a dove and lights on Him, and He is led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted. The Spirit now leads Him through His ministry to do what He does. And so, sometimes Jesus exercises His divine attributes. That’s under the direction of Spirit, but not constantly in every way. He really lived as a man.

So, when you read those passages that He does the will of the Father, first of all, on a divine sense, God has a single will. Okay? It’s not like He willed something different than the Father. So, He could say that even on the divine side, but I think that is far more an expression of His human nature. He’s saying, as the God-man, as the One who is here on this planet walking among us, the Word made flesh, He is doing the will of the Father. So, it’s in His humanity that He’s expressing that, that I am here to do the will of the Father as I have been sent here on this mission. Okay?

Thank you, Judah.

Yes, Sir. One last question.

Bob Segovia: Great. I’m Bob Segovia and it’s humbling standing here waiting to ask a question. So, this is a follow up to the first question on prayer. My family’s fairly new to Countryside. We’re going at, coming up on a year or so, and one thing we’ve noticed that during or after prayers, that the congregation doesn’t openly respond with “Amen”. And coming from other churches and what not and growing up, that’s kind of always been a practice, and I was just wondering why that is?

Pastor Tom: You know, I think it’s just tradition. There’s nothing... It’s not commanded one way or the other in Scripture. There are patterns, obviously, where I think sometimes, it seems to be that didn’t happen. There are other times when it did. There’s nothing wrong with it at all. I would be more than happy for you to say, “Amen” when I say, “Amen”.

Bob Segovia: We still do but we just don’t...

Pastor Tom: I’d be happy for all of you to say it, okay? So, when I pray in just a minute and conclude this service, let’s all say, “Amen” together. There’s... Seriously, I mean that! I really do mean that. It’s not a... It’s just kind of how it happens. But I’m happy for you to affirm it. All “Amen” means... You know that word is a Greek word, but it goes back to a Hebrew word. And, ultimately, it means “so be it”, “may it be so”. So, when I say it, that’s what I’m saying. When you say it, you’re saying the same thing. So, nothing wrong with that at all. Let’s do it together. Let me pray. And I think... Guys, sorry to do this to you guys who prepared the closing song, but I wasn’t paying attention to the clock. I went too long. And so, we’re going to pray and let that be the close of our service tonight. So, you join me in prayer and then we’ll all join together with “Amen”, alright?

Lord, thank You for your amazing truth, how it speaks so clearly to the issues of our hearts as well as the issues of our times. Lord, help us to think biblically. Protect us and preserve us from all of the thinking that ultimately traces back to Satan himself, the great liar who would love to take us away from You and away from Your truth. Lord, give us a commitment, even as we were reminded this morning, to Your Word, above all things, because in Your Word we have the mind of Christ. Make us students to that end. Use our time together tonight for our good. And, Lord, may you get the glory because You are the all-wise One who has provided us all that we need in Christ. We pray in Jesus’ name. And all God’s people said, “Amen”!

Thank you. You are dismissed.