Questions and Answers, Part 8
Selected Scriptures
For tonight, we're gonna answer some Bible questions that were left from the...the last couple of times. We tried to cover all of the questions, but were unable to do it; and tonight we'll cover a few more of them.
Paul reasoned with them out of the Scripture. He dialogued. He answered their questions. Jesus spent a tremendous amount of time answering questions. Reading in the Gospels, you find that day after day after day, the disciples asked Jesus questions, and He gave them answers to the questions; and so I feel it's very important to do this; and we always have a great time doing it. Now, the questions may or may not be related; and I really don't know what's gonna happen when I get up here; so it's a grab bag for me. I sort things out in my mind as we go; and so I'm not always sure how it'll end up; but we trust the Holy Spirit to tie it all together.
The first question that comes is what does the Bible say about divining rods? Now, I don't know if you know what a divining rod is; but it's a stick that has been used in past history to find water. This is a very ancient custom; and just a couple of weeks ago, somebody asked me if I thought it was all right, because this person's father or uncle had hired somebody with a divining rod. You hold two ends of it. It's like a... it's a wishbone. You hold two ends of it, and the pointed end will take you to water, supposedly.
What does the Bible say about divining rods, or, as it's called in its scientific term, radiasthesis? Well, it does say something, believe it or not. Deuteronomy chapter 18. Deuteronomy chapter 18 verse 10...And, of course, the Lord is talking to the children of Israel, warning them that way...when they enter the land of Israel, they're gonna run into all kinds of strange religious customs; and He tells them that these things are an abomination, and they are not to be involved with 'em at all. And in verse 10, He says, "There shall not be found among you, that is, when you enter the land, of course, and you mingle with the people, the potential is there, but the abominations of the nations you're to avoid. Not be found among you any one who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire." And that was a custom of those who worshipped the God Moloch, to pass their children through the fire. "Or who useth divination, or an observer of times...that would be an astrologer, incidentally. Astrological charts are forbidden Scripture...or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter of mediums, or a wizard, or a necromancer."
Now, you have various terms. We're not gonna take the time to point out, but the word divination in verse 10 has to do with this idea of divining. That is trying to...to find something through a divine contact; and that is forbidden. In Hosea chapter 4 and verse 12, we read this. "My people ask counsel of their idols...now listen...and their staff declareth unto them." Now, staff there does not mean like the staff of the church. It means a divining rod. They literally consult a divining rod...and here He is speaking about their idolatry; and, of course, it's a forbidden thing to consult a divining rod. Now the reason is simple. Because you are entering the world of mediums and demons. Demons get their wishes and their will through all of the various methods mentioned in Deuteronomy 18; and divining rods is simply a way that you release your mind to an outside power, much like a Ouija board, and demonic control can be the result; and so it's a forbidden thing; and it has been ever since the time of Israel.
All right, a second question. My brother-in-law attends a church where a woman is the minister. Is this right? Well, the answer is no, it's not right; and I was interested, weren't you, last week to see where the Episcopal Church ordained a woman priest, not only a woman but a stated lesbian woman priest; and now the Episcopal Church has moved into that category. It's startling to realize how far afield the church has come from the Bible. I was talking to this fellow from Dallas Seminary yesterday, and he had just left the conference that was held up in the Berkeley area, around Stanford somewhere. No, it wasn't Berkeley, across the Bay. But there was a conference there of all seminary people involved in administration in seminaries; and he said what was so interesting about it was that they did not have prayer, lest they would offend someone. These are all seminary men; and the only song that they could agree on to sing was You Are My Sunshine, so they sang that before each session... Well, you know, when you see the Episcopal Church come to the place where they will ordain a woman and ordain a lesbian woman, you know that they have opted out for the floating ethics of a society that has no authority. They have abandoned the Scripture, because the Bible is very clear about whether a woman could pastor; and I'll show you a couple of incidents. In 1 Timothy, is a good place to begin; and we'll just do this briefly, because we've covered it before, but I...I wanna clear up your mind if you're the one who asked the question, or you still have this question.
First Timothy chapter 3 and verse...2. Now, the word bishop here is the same as pastor or elder, minister of a church is what it means. "A bishop must be blameless, the husband of one wife," a one-woman man is literally the Greek, a one-woman man. Now, it's very hard for a woman to be a one-woman man. Very difficult...Like the lesbian, she could be a one-woman woman, but not a one-woman man. So here you have the husband of one wife, indicating that an elder would be one who was a man totally devoted to his wife. Now, backing up to verse 11 of 1 Timothy 2, it says, "Let the women learn in silence with all subjection. I permit not a woman to teach, nor to take authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived; but the woman." In other words, because Adam was made first and because the woman was the first to sin, confirming the priority of man in terms of leadership. God says, "This is an age-old principle that the man is in authority, and the woman takes the place of submission.
In 2 Timothy, I think it most interesting that 2 Timothy 2:2 gives us a pattern for leadership in the church. "And the things that thou hast heard from me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also." The teachers within the church are to be men who have the responsibility to teach others also. Titus 1:6, again, "The husband of one wife," or a one-woman man...again implying that women are not in a position of being ministers. No, I believe that, in the church, men are to minister. Now, that is not...that is not a chauvinistic statement. That is a Biblical statement; and I'm not here to advocate a chauvinistic viewpoint or anti-woman or any of that. I'm just echoing what the Spirit of God has said in the Scripture, and so it is not right for a woman to be in the role of a pastor.
Now, there are some people who say, "Well, that was just cultural." No, it wasn't just cultural; and that's why Paul pointed back to Adam and Eve. It was...it was from the beginning that way. It was not just a Corinthian culture or a culture around the time of the Apostle Paul. So I think it's wrong; and, of course, if it's wrong, then I don't think that we oughta associate with such a church, because I think that is in very obvious defiance of the Word of God.
Okay, a third question, and this will take a little more time to answer, but I think it's a really interesting question. If there is no more condemnation to those in Christ, does God still punish believers? That's a good question. If there's no more condemnation to those in Christ, does God still punish believers? Let's look at Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12, and let's see what the Bible has to say...Because here you have a great statement relative to chastening. Now, notice in verse 5, he says, "Have you forgotten the exhortation which speaks unto you as unto sons: 'My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you're rebuked of Him.'" Now, you see the word chastening. The word chastening is an interesting word. In the Bible you have some words associated with punishment and some words associated with training. This word is associated with training. It is piedaya, and piedaya is a word very similar to piedeya, and piedeya means child; and piedaya has to do with the training of a child. So the term here is not krino. Krino is a term of judgment. It is not kotakrino, which is the term for damnation; but it is the term for training. There will be in the life of a believer a certain amount of chastening or a certain amount of difficulty brought on for the purpose of training him to spiritual maturity.
In 1 Corinthians 11:29, it even uses the word krino, and krino means punishment, but not kotakrino, which is the very forceful kind of condemnation and damnation that Paul speaks of in Romans 8 when he says, "There's therefore now no kotakrino. No condemnation." There will never be kotakrino or damnation to the believer, because Christ has already borne that; but there will be krino, which is a lesser kind of punishment, and there will be piedaya, which is a training process, or a chastening with a view to changing behavior.
Now, I believe there are three reasons for which God responds in chastening. No. 1 is retribution. I do believe that in the life of a believer, when he sins, God will respond with some chastening. People wanna say today, "Well, we're under grace, and God never chastens us. God never, for our sin, it's all covered." I don't believe that. I believe though the sin is forgiven and set aside, God still chastens the believer so that he will remember not to do that again. As in...as in David's case, God forgave David, and then God made him pay a terrible penalty, so he wouldn't think about doing it again. Your children are the same way. You spank your child and forgive your child at the same time. Forgiving him because you're gracious and loving and spanking him so he doesn't do it again, so he learns that there are consequences to that kind of behavior. And David, in Bathsheba's case, it's pointed up. It also is pointed up in 1 Corinthians 11, where it says, "Because of the sin of the Corinthians, many of them are weak and sickly, and some of them were actually dead." So the Lord might even take your life, ultimately, as an act of retribution against your sin; and when that happens, you say, "Well, that's for sure you'd never do it again if He just took your life." Well, there is a second purpose in that, and that is so that you won't do it again and foul up the fellowship. He'll remove you.
The second reason that God chastens is not only retribution, consequence of sin, but it is prevention. There are some things that come into your life by way of trials and troubles that are not a result of sin, but are to prevent you from sinning. I can think of one good illustration, and that would be 2 Corinthians 12, you don't need to look at it, where Paul says, "That because of the abundance of revelations given unto me, the Lord gave me a thorn in the flesh lest I should become overly proud." In other words, Paul's thorn in the flesh, which apparently was some kind of eye disease, which was a very ugly disease, and a very painful one, and...and one that he never was relieved from, was given to him by God as a preventative from Paul ever getting to the place where he became very boastful and proud. The Lord just sort of kept him in a position of humility and dependence so that pride would not overrule his submission to the Lord. So read 2 Corinthians 12 and hear Paul say that, "The Lord gave me that thorn in the flesh to prevent me from being proud about my many revelations and many visions."
And there is a third reason that God brings chastening along, and that is not only retribution and prevention, but education. To teach us. And you say, "Well, I...what do we learn?" Well, what do you learn when you go through trouble? I think the first thing you learn is you learn a lot more about God. Don't you? Look at Job chapter 42. Job had some trouble...He had a lotta trouble. He had physical disease, and he lost his whole family to death. He lost his fortune. He lost his land. He lost his crops. He lost everything in the world that he owned, and his response was most wonderful, frankly. After all of that was said and done, in chapter 42 verse 1, "Job answered the Lord and said...Job 42:2...'I know Thou canst do everything, that no thought can be withheld from Thee. Who is he who hideth counsel without knowledge? Therefore, have I uttered that which I understood not, things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.'" He says, "God, through this whole thing, I have learned things and said things that I never knew before.' 'Here, I beseech thee, and I will speak; I will demand of thee, and declare Thou unto Me.' 'I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees Thee.'"
You see? He says, "I have heard about how You work. I've heard about the fact that You're a God of all comfort. I have heard about the fact that You're a God who sustains in trouble; but now I have seen it." And that's the best lesson there is, right? He doesn't just hear it anymore. He knows it, and he says, "Wherefore I abhor myself. I repent in dust and ashes." He also says, "Having gotten to know You, I know myself better, and the only place for me is in dust and ashes." You see, it was a learning thing for him. Incidentally, the second thing he learned is not only a lot about God, but it's a lot about how to help other folks going through the same thing. "And the Lord...verse 10 of 42, I love this...turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends." You see, Job began to care for those who were his friends in need, as well. So the Lord has a plan in discipline. His plan is both...both retributive, preventative, and educational; and for all of those reasons, there will be trouble in the life of a believer; because that's how you learn about Him. That's how you prevent yourself from getting into areas which you will be overly tempted; and that's how the Lord makes sure you know the consequence of sin and forces you back into the path of righteousness.
Now, in verse 5, he says there are two perils in discipline, two things you have to watch out for. Look at verse 5. "My son, despise not." The first thing that can happen if you don't take God's chastening right, is that you can despise. That simply means you treat it lightly. You just pass it off. You look with disdain upon it. "Ah, it's insignificant." You just...you don't think about what's going on. That's foolish. The second thing at the end of verse 5, 'Nor faint." Now there are two perils in discipline. The first one is that you treat it lightly. The second one is you collapse under it. "Oh, despair," and you faint. Now, neither one of those is necessary. When you treat discipline lightly, you fail to learn the lesson. When you crack up under it, you fail to see the purpose, which isn't to make you crack up, but to make you shape up. There's a big difference; and it's all because of His love, verse 6 says, "For whom the Lord loves He...what?...chastens," and the purpose of it all is clear down in verse 10 and 11, "For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but He, for our profit, that we might be partakers of His...what?...holiness. No chastening for the present seems joyous, but grievous nevertheless. Afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them who are exorcised by it." So the Lord wants to make us holy. He wants to make us righteous, and chastening is part of that.
All right, another question, and this one comes up a lot; and it's good, because it shows you're studying. In what way can we harmonize John the Baptist's claim that he was not Elijah with our statement...with the statement of the Lord that he was? Now, lemme give you a little background. John the Baptist was a forerunner to Jesus Christ. He was a proclaimer of the coming Messiah. The Lord said, "This is that Elijah that would come." In other words, the prophecy said that, "In the last days a...one like unto Elijah, in the spirit and power of Elijah would come." John the Baptist supposedly was that Elijah. The Lord seems to indicate that, and yet John denies it.
Well, let's go back and find this...the solution to this by, first of all, the last book in the Old Testament, Malachi chapter 4. Malachi chapter 4 verse 5, and we'll hurry, 'cause I wanna get to some other things. The...the Old Testament ends with a statement about the forerunner of Christ. "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."
Now, "Before the great and terrible day of the Lord, Elijah will come." Now, let's look at Luke 1:17. Luke 1:17, this is very interesting; and here is the account of the birth of John the Baptist. The angel comes to Zacharias and tells him he's gonna have a son; and he's very, very happy about that after he finally believes the Lord. He didn't believe at first; and it says in 17, "He shall go before Him...this is his son now...in the spirit and power of Elijah." All right, now this prophecy of Malachi, "One will come, an Elijah." That doesn't mean a literal Elijah anymore than the fact that Christ would come as David. He is...He is one in the line of David; and so this one coming would be like Elijah; and here it says of John, "He shall go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah."
Now, let's look at Matthew chapter 17 and see what Jesus said. It looks like John the Baptist is gonna be this fulfillment of one like Elijah who comes before the great and terrible day of the Lord...In Matthew 17:10, the disciples and Christ in conversation, "And His disciples asked Him, saying, 'Why then say the scribes that Elijah must first come?' And Jesus answered and said unto them, 'Elijah truly shall first come and restore all things...get everything ready...But I say unto you that Elijah is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they desired. Likewise also the Son of Man." And, of course, what did they do to John the Baptist? They cut off his head...and Jesus is saying, "Well, the one to fulfill that prophecy has already come...but they killed him, just as they did the Son of Man."
Now, I wanna add something that's very important. If, and I'll show you in a minute from Matthew, if they had accepted John the Baptist, if they had accepted Christ, John the Baptist would have been the fulfillment of that prophecy. Look at Matthew 11:11. Matthew 11:11, very important text. "Verily I say unto you, among them that are born of women, there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist...greatest man that ever lived...notwithstanding, he that is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he." He was the greatest one of the Old Testament, but those in the New are greater. "And from the days of John the Baptist until now, the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John." Now, listen, here comes the verse we wanna note. "And if you will receive...and you can imply him there rather than it...if you will receive him, this is Elijah, who was to come." Or you can read it this way, "If you will receive it...that is the Kingdom...then this is the Elijah who was to come." In other words, the prophet said, "There will be a forerunner who comes announcing the Kingdom." Jesus says, "If you will receive the Kingdom now, John the Baptist will have been that Elijah," but the implication is if you reject the Messiah and the Kingdom, then he is not going to fulfill that prophecy. There will yet have to be another. And so did they receive the Kingdom? No. Did they receive the King? No. Did they receive John the Baptist? No. So there is yet future the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord didn't come, did it? It didn't come then, because they rejected the King; and so God postponed it; and before the day of the Lord comes again in the future, another will come in the spirit and power of Elijah and fulfill that prophesy. So John could have been that one, but John was not.
Now, there are many who believe that Revelation chapter 11 describes the future one or ones, because here you have two witnesses who come. I've always thought this was one of the most fascinating accounts in the Bible. You who were with us when we studied Revelation will remember just how fascinating it is; but many people believed that one of these two will be Elijah. Now, I don't know if that's true or not, but it might be. Very, very difficult to know. In fact, it's impossible. But during the time of the Tribulation, "There will come two witnesses who prophesy...Revelation 11:3...They will prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days," and that's exactly half of seven years, twelve hundred and sixty days, three-and-a-half years, three-and-a-half years of the Tribulation, half of the Tribulation, these two men will prophesy; and many believe that these will be...one of these will be the fulfillment of that Elijah. Who the other is, some say it's Moses; and we don't really know. One representing the law, Moses; one representing the prophets, Elijah is often suggested.
I'm not sure, but I'm just gonna give it to you, because many do say that. I...I...I kinda feel that we don't know who they are, and I've told the Lord time and time again that I certainly will volunteer for this job if He's looking for someone; because they're very interesting. It says, "If any man hurts them, fire proceeds out of their mouth and devours their enemies...isn't that interesting?...And if any man will hurt them, in this manner he will be killed." So they will go around preaching during the Tribulation. The world will try to kill them; but, instead of the world being able to kill them, the world will find that there will be fire coming out of their mouth consuming the one who tries to do that. "They have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy." They can go into a town and simply say, "It will no longer rain until we're finished," and they stop the rain. "They have power over the water to turn it to blood, and smite the earth with all the plagues, as often as they will."
Now, this is gonna be headline stuff in the Tribulation, folks, believe you me. You start reading in the Tribulation about the fact that it hasn't rained in a certain city the whole time they were there, and all the time they in Chicago, the water was turned to blood; and then they went over to Kansas City and all the plagues, frogs jumping all over Kansas City, or whatever. This is gonna be very real, incurring Tribulation. "And when they have finished their testimonies, the beast that ascends out of the pit, or the antichrist, makes war and kills them, and the world lets their body lie in the street for three-and-a-half days." They're so glad they're dead. In our modern society, that's incredible, but it happens in Jerusalem. They're killed in Jerusalem. It says at the end of 8, "The city where our Lord was crucified." They call it Sodom and Egypt, because they associate it with paganism, because Jerusalem is so far from what it used to be.
So they die there, and they're left there three-and-a-half days; and, according to verse 9, the whole world will watch 'em on television. "They of the peoples and kindreds, and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and a half." Now, how in the world could everybody in the world see those people in Jerusalem unless there was some medium to transmit that? Television. The whole world will watch, and "They'll rejoice...and this is crazy...they'll make merry and send presents." Happy Dead Witnesses Day, and send a gift.
And, of course, verse 11, "After three days and a half, the Spirit of life from God enters them, and they stood on their feet." Oh, man, how would you like an instant replay on that? They stand up after three-and-a-half days of being dead in the street, they stand up and everybody panics, great fear. "A voice from Heaven, 'Come up here.' And they ascend into Heaven, and a great earthquake comes, and a tenth part of the city falls." And...and it says, "There were slain of men," and in the Greek here, they were men of renown, seven thousand of the famous men of the world die. Well, you can see that there's coming some prophet. Now, some say this might be Elijah. We don't know, but it is clear from our Lord's Word in Matthew 11 that John was not able to fulfill that Messiah, that prophecy because the people rejected the Messiah.
&
Unleashing God's Truth One Verse at a Time