Questions and Answers, Part 14
Selected Scriptures
Tonight we are going to have just a little fellowship time here with some question and answers. We've been doing this now for all the time that I've been at Grace Church. In fact, we used to do it on Sunday nights and we just had a great time. And then we got so many people, we couldn't cover everybody so we do it on Wednesdays from time to time. And it's an especially great time for those of you who have some questions to fire away. I'll do the best I can in answering them. The idea is not Stump the Pastor; the idea is (laughter)...that's easy to do...but to just ask whatever question you might have and we'll give it a shot and do the best we can on maybe a Bible question, a question related to the church or the ministry or something practical that's just been bugging you. And whatever it is, we'll fire away.
Now, we put some mikes in the aisles, but if you feel somewhat intimidated about getting out into the aisle and asking your question, just have somebody on the end reach and pass the mike down to you and that'll work just as well. But if you can, step out into the aisle and speak into the microphone and we'll just start whenever you're ready. That's your cue, so if you want to go directly to a microphone, do that.
Yeah?
QUESTIONER: Can you explain Matthew 18:32-35, please?
JOHN: Okay. Basically, this is a very, very important passage and it talks about forgiveness. I'll just give you a real quick look at it. You have to back all the way to verse 23: "Therefore is the kingdom of Heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants. And when he had to begun to reckon, one was brought unto him who owed him ten thousand talents. But forasmuch as he had nothing with which to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children that he had in payment to made."
All right. Here's the servant. He owes a debt. He owes a debt of an absolutely astronomical amount, but that man has absolutely no capacity to repay. Right? In his lifetime, he would never be able to pay back ten thousand talents. It is beyond his ability to pay back. So the lord says to him, the master says to him, all right, you're gonna have to be sold and your wife and your children and the whole thing and we're gonna take all we can get out of you. We're gonna liquidate you and your family.
"The servant, therefore, fell down and worshipped him, saying, 'Lord, have patience with me and I will pay thee all.'" Now that's the stupidity of the whole thing, is the guy said "I'll pay thee all," when that was an absolute impossibility. All right? In other words, the Lord is showing us a man who is in a desperate situation who was so far down that he had no possibility to redeem himself, and yet he was holding onto the fact that he could redeem himself. This is the picture of the person who thinks he can save himself by his own works, when the fact of the matter is, he is utterly hopeless. Okay? So that's part of the perspective here.
"Then the lord," of course, "was moved to compassion and loosed him and forgave him the debt." Umm. "But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellow servants, who owed him a hundred denarii," which is minimal. A denarii'd be a day's work and so in a 100 days, three or four months, you could pay that back. Here's a guy who owes him just a pittance. "He laid hands on him and took him by the throat and said, "You better pay me what you owe me.' His fellow servant fell down at his feet and besought him saying, 'Have patience with me and I will pay thee all.'" Now, he could pay! "And he wouldn't but went and cast him into prison till he should pay the debt." Well, I mean, he wasn't giving what he got, was he? "So, when his fellow servants saw what was done, they were very sorry, came and told their lord all that was done." The lord called him in and said, "you wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you besought me. Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee? And his lord was angry...delivered him to the inquisitors till he should pay all that was due unto him. So, likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if you from your hearts forgive not every one his brother his trespass."
Now, what you have here, basically, is this: God forgives you your sin on the basis that you forgive others. All right? Now, that is a very important concept. The basic bottom line is this, that if you aren't willing to forgive someone else, you reveal an impenitent heart. And an impenitent heart cannot truly experience the forgiving grace of God. In other words, your heart has to be right to receive salvation. Right? And if you manifest an unforgiving spirit, how can you possibly go to God and beg God to forgive you of a debt that you could never possibly repay? And then you turn around and won't forgive a man of some pittance. In other words, you reveal that your heart is not really true toward God. You haven't come, truly, in confession. And if you back up to Matthew 5, you find the same thing. You come to the Lord and you bring a gift and you try to worship Him and you've got something against your brother, leave your gift at the altar, get out of there, get that thing right with your brother and then come back and God will give you what you seek.
So, the basic point is that if you don't have a forgiving heart, if you don't understand the forgiveness of sin, then you do not have the right spirit to seek forgiveness from God. That's really what He's saying. Okay?
Yes, there's one way in the back, too. Oh, there's one. Okay.
Unidentified Speaker: Right here, John.
JOHN: Yeah.
QUESTIONER: Yes, sir. I was wondering if you have heard of John Todd...
JOHN: Oh, yeah.
QUESTIONER: ...and if you would comment on his credibility. Second, a question from the Scripture in Revelation 20, verses 4-5. Some I've run into indicate that this indicates that we will be going through the Tribulation. I was wondering if you would comment on those verses and the fact that this is the first resurrection.
JOHN: Okay. Revelation 20:4&5 I'll comment on in a moment. As far as Johnny Todd is concerned, Johnny Todd is, came through this area some years ago supposedly being someone saved out of a witchcraft background, being designated as a witch and a medium and contacting all these demons and so forth, supposedly was saved out of this and was going around giving his testimony. Those people who were sponsoring him at the time...he was involving himself in claims that the demon hosts were after him and he was going into churches and getting them to get guns together and arm themselves to shoot those who came against them and so forth and it was pretty bizarre. And people wanted us to have him here but I...it just never was right, never rang true to me. And then later on we found out that some investigation was done. And they found out that the same time that he was going around giving his testimony, going around telling about all this conversion, he was having other meetings in the other side of the camp with the occultists telling them what they wanted to hear and selling all of these products that he was engaged in in witchcraft and everything else. So he was living a completely double life. The Spiritual Counterfeits project in Berkeley did a resume on him and it showed up in Christianity Today, which showed him to be a complete fraud from top to bottom. He had bilked people out of all kinds of things. And at this point he has just disappeared from the Christian scene, and well he should because he has no credibility at all.
As far as your question relative to Revelation 20:4-5 saying this proves we should go, we'll go through the Tribulation. There's no passage in the Bible, in my mind, one passage that proves we will or we won't. You have to cover the whole body of truth. You know, when I did a series on will the church go through the Tribulation, I think I preached six hours on that because there is so much Scripture to deal with. Now, I believe that if you go into Revelation 20, what you have here is the statement about the fact that you do have some people...he's saying here that those who go into the kingdom and reign with Christ will be those who have not worshipped the Beast or his image or received the mark on their foreheads or in their hands. There is no question in my mind that the saints of the Tribulation are in view here because that's the context of what's happening. You see, in chapter 19 you have Armageddon. You have this great holocaust of Armageddon. You're in the Tribulation here and so you're dealing with those people. Now, there are only two groups of people in the Tribulation. The first group would be those who are sinful, those who took the mark of the Beast. They are described in the last part of chapter 19 as those who are slaughtered and those who are massacred and those who are cast in the Lake of Fire, right, and all of that. The other side are those who are the redeemed. And so in order to sum up the whole of human history to that point, he simply discusses where those who were the redeemed out of the Tribulation are going to fit into the picture. He's not discussing the church saints at this point. In fact, they don't really get into the picture until chapter 21 when the Bride comes down from Heaven. And then the church enters into the scene. The very fact that they come down to earth from Heaven is indicative of the fact that they'd been up there. So I think you just have to take the whole context and see it in that perspective. And as I say, if you have further questions, we have a whole series of tapes on will the church go through the Tribulation. To me the key thing in not believing we go through the Tribulation is that I believe the Bible gives us a blessed hope, not a miserable one. I'm not looking for the Tribulation, I'm looking for the Lord. And so I think that's the key thing. Okay?
QUESTIONER: John, I'd like to know what constitutes the church in view of Revelation?
JOHN: What constitutes the church? The church is distinguished in the book of Acts from Israel and the Gentiles. Israel, unique; the church, unique; the Gentiles, unique. Now, the church is a unique organism called the body of Christ, which by the way is a metaphor used for the church, never used for Israel, although many other metaphors are used of both. The church is born at Pentecost. It came into existence at Pentecost. It didn't exist before that. That's why Paul calls it a "mystery." It was something that was hidden and finally revealed. From Pentecost to the Rapture constitutes the church. All believing people who put their faith in Christ from the day of Pentecost to the Rapture constitute the church. Now, when the church is raptured out of the world at the Rapture, the calling away, the catching away, in I Thessalonians 4, you know, where we meet the Lord in the air "and so shall we ever be with the Lord," that is the fullness of the Gentiles. It's called "the fullness of the church." It's completed, then it goes. Then immediately begins on earth a seven-year period called the Tribulation. Okay? That is a time specifically dealing with what nation?...Israel. And that's why it's the 70th week of Daniel. You see, you have 69 weeks of Daniel's prophecy. Daniel predicts 69 years...69 blocks of seven - 483 years. And this period of 483 years goes from the decree of Artaxerxes to rebuild the city to the coming of Messiah. Now, if you chart the course, accurately mathematically, from the time of Artaxerxes' decree to rebuild the temple when Isaiah said the period begins, to the coming of the Prince, you will find to the very day, that that 483 years will land on the very day that Jesus entered into the city of Jerusalem that we know as Palm Sunday. He came as the Prince. He came as the King. All right? But at that time, He came and what happened? They rejected Him that very same week. Right? And that was the end of the 69th week. But there's one other week of history still for Israel, one other period when they're gonna be redeemed. But it had to be postponed because they rejected the Messiah. And into the slot in that postponement the Lord dropped the Church Age, the mystery, the fresh channel. Israel was not available to God as His channel to reach the world anymore because they rejected Messiah. So the Lord, remember, turned to the Gentiles, carved out a church. When the church is complete and the church is taken out of the world, then you go right back to the 70th week of Daniel and that's a seven-year period we know as the Tribulation. God goes right back to dealing with Israel. Israel becomes the focal point of the world. There's where you have Armageddon and all the things going on that take place in Israel. And then after that, Israel is redeemed, they become evangelists and a multitude of people from all over the world are won to Christ, Revelation 7 says. And then comes the 1000-year millennial reign. And in the 1000-year millennial reign, there will be Israel and there will be redeemed Old Testament saints and there will be redeemed Tribulation saints and there will be the church all together.
But, basically, the church is that unique mystery period between the 69th and 70th week of Daniel. Old Testament people were not part of the church. The church never begins until the Day of Pentecost when the Spirit comes and indwells and makes the Body. That's the church. And anybody who's a believer, who's redeemed, is a member of the church. People say to me, "Well, what are your requirements for membership in your church?" And I always say, "Well, if you're a Christian, you can be in our church because we can't set a standard higher than God set." People say, "Oh, don't they have to do certain things and believe certain things?" No, we figure we'll take them like they are and try to make them into what we think they ought to be. Well, if we're looking for perfect people for the church, the church would be rather limited in its scope. I wouldn't be here, that's for sure. Okay?
Somebody else have a ..
Unidentified Speaker: Here's one _______.
JOHN: Okay.
QUESTIONER: I've been considered a newborn Christian for a very short time.
JOHN: How long?
QUESTIONER: Say about six months, seven months. And I have a lot of knowledge to learn, I guess, like everybody else.
JOHN: Sure.
QUESTIONER: But the biggest question that I have a hard time answering _______ a friend of mine who's doing things now that I'm away from, and his question...I tell him how all the _____ that God gives you and how He gives you all the chance and He's forgiving and loving and all of this for anybody. And he doesn't feel he'll ever deserve the right, but when it comes to the part when I just say he deserves the right to be a Christian to go to Heaven or anything and have eternal life, he goes, "Well, if He's that just and so that liberal, what if Satan wanted the same thing? Would He give it to him?"
JOHN: Yeah. Well, of course, the key thing...I would just say this. If somebody says that they're not worthy, seize on that because they've just made the greatest recognition possible. Well, when somebody says "I'm not worthy," you grab that and say, "You're right. You are right. That's the whole point." And then when they say, "Well, but how can God do that and be just? If He's so just, how can He forgive me?" Right? That's what he's saying? If He's so righteous and so just and all, the answer to that is, because He was so just He had to take all your sin and pay for it Himself in order to free Himself from the binding of His own justice to forgive you. In other words, there had to be a penalty paid. People say, "Well, if God's so just, how can He forgive?" That's not the issue. If God is...God is so just that in order to forgive, He had to pay the penalty Himself. And that's the key thing. And if a person cannot understand the graciousness and the love of a God who not only wants to redeem an unworthy soul, but wants so much to redeem that unworthy soul that He Himself takes on the penalty, if you can't understand that kind of love, then his eyes are still blinded and you need to pray for the Spirit of God to give him understanding.
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JOHN: Good.
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JOHN: But the answer, you know, he's saying, "Well, will he accept the Devil in the end?" That isn't the point; the point is him. You know, don't let him get you off on something. People, whenever they talk about salvation or anything, they want to get philosophical about it when they're really not ready to deal with it. So, he's not ready yet. You just be there and hang in there and when God's timing is right, boy, it'll click. It'll click. When the Lord opens a heart, that's the way it is. You know, I was thinking about Acts 16 where you see Lydia and I love it. Paul arrives and the Bible says, "And the Lord opened her heart," just like a flower to the gospel. And all she had to do was hear the message and she just took it in.
So, we do the best we can in presenting Christ. We don't let people get off on philosophical arguments. Just keep driving the point right back to the person. What about you? Lucifer isn't the issue with you; you're the issue with you. What about you? You're not gonna have to answer for the Devil, but you are gonna have to answer for you.
And by the way, the Bible says He didn't die for the Devil anyway. He died for the sins of men, not angels.
Yes?
QUESTIONER: John, I'd like to know the meaning of Matthew 24:32-36 parable.
JOHN: Matthew 24, I didn't get the rest, 30...
QUESTIONER: 32 through 36.
JOHN: You people are gonna steal all my thunder in Matthew (laughter). "Learn a parable of the fig tree. When its branch is yet tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer's near." Now, I want you to know folks, I don't know beans about a fig tree from personal experience. But I do know enough to know about winter and summer, that leaves lose their leaves in the winter. Right? And when leaves start coming back you that...what? Summer's near, summer's near. That's the whole point of verse 32. When the branch is tender, puts forth leaves, summer is near.