What Do Most Christians Misunderstand About Their Faith? Celebrating 4 years of Core Christianity

What do most Christians misunderstand about their faith? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Well, hi, I'm Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adrian Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. You can also post your question on one of our social media sites. And of course, you can always email us your question at questions at core Christianity dot com.

We want to wish you a very happy Labor Day. And believe it or not, today is also the four year anniversary of CORE Christianity. There's our studio audience, Bill.

Yeah, all six of them. Now, four years ago, that was 2018, so you were a young pastor starting this radio show. I'm curious, what was that like for you? It was awesome. I mean, it was exciting. When I first got the opportunity to do this, it just felt like, I mean, still, it just feels like such a great privilege to get to talk about the Bible, to get to talk about Jesus, to a broader audience, and hopefully encourage you all in your faith and in your walk with the Lord. And so back in 2008, when we were first starting, I think there was maybe a little bit of fear and trepidation as well, you know, wondering, okay, what is this going to look like?

And what if I get a crazy question on the air? Those kinds of things. But man, it's been just a lot of fun and so grateful to the Lord for this privilege and opportunity. What has changed in your life since you started the show four years ago? I know you've had a new baby.

What else has changed? Yeah, I'm balding, actually, on the sort of, what do you call it? And I don't know if that's just the stress of the questions that come in. I think it's mostly pastoral ministry, to be honest, to be fair. But yeah, a couple kids as well. Boy, I got five now, so I don't know.

In that time, I think we had three in that time, or two. And so that changed. And then just plugging away at the church, you know, praising God for his faithfulness there and slow and steady growth. And so, yeah, just counting our blessings and saying thank you to the Lord. And Bill, man, such a joy to get to do this with you too. You've just been wonderful.

It's great to work with you. We also want to express our thanks to Dr. Michael Horton, who really is the one who founded this whole idea four years ago and has the wonderful book, Core Christianity, which we offer to our listeners. And we just appreciate him so much, don't we?

We do, yeah. Mike is a guy that I've always looked at. I mean, I had him as a professor in seminary. And just from that time, I've looked up to him, and he's been a huge encouragement in my life. So I'm curious, after four years of being on the air, it seems that the question we receive most often in some way, shape, or form has to do with the assurance of salvation. In other words, how can I know that I'm really saved? And so what does that question tell you as a pastor about the church today and what people are struggling with?

Yeah, you're right about that. I mean, when people ask me, you know, what question do you get more than anything else? It's typically some variation of that, you know, struggling with assurance, wondering about passages that seem to suggest you could lose your salvation, or have I committed the unpardonable sin, the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit?

So we get that question quite a bit. And I think, at least the way you worded it, Bill, with what does that tell us about the church, I think a lot of people are looking for assurance in the wrong places. I think instead of going to the gospel, the objective grace of God exhibited to us at the cross for the forgiveness of our sins and sinking our teeth into that, we do a lot of navel gazing. We're looking inside, you know, how righteous am I, how sanctified am I, am I having good thoughts or bad thoughts? And that's just sort of a rollercoaster ride of spirituality because, you know, when we're doing well, we feel like we're saved. And then when we go through a season of difficulty or not really feeling the presence of the Lord, we question whether or not we're saved. Whereas we need to sink our teeth into the promises of God and, most of all, the promise that He's given to us in His Son, Jesus Christ, to forgive all of our sins through faith in His name.

And so we go back to that gospel, as you know, Bill, over and over and over again because we want to fix your eyes on Jesus. You know, that illustration of a rollercoaster ride of faith is so true. I was thinking back to, you know, my experiences at Magic Mountain riding the Viper or Colossus. And there were many times where I wondered, am I going to survive this?

And I sure hope I'm going to be in heaven if I don't. Well, I just was at Belmont Park in San Diego, and there is a rollercoaster there. I forget what it's called, but it's a wooden rollercoaster, so I was really excited.

Oh, the mouse, the little mouse, yes. I was very excited to ride that with my kids. And I had a headache afterwards. My neck, I was like, it was cranking me all over the place. And so that rollercoaster ride of the Christian life is not always a good or exciting thing.

You know, it's a major headache like riding that rollercoaster at Belmont Park was for me. So no, we need the stability of the gospel. Amen.

Amen. This is CORE Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Here's our phone number. You can leave us a voicemail 24 hours a day by calling us at 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. You can also send us an email at questionsatcorechristianity.com. Let's go to Steve, who is calling in from Nashville, Tennessee. Steve, what's your question for Adriel? Yeah.

Hey, Adriel, this is Steve here in Nashville. I had a question regarding the humanity of Christ. And if Christ was fully God and fully human while he was here on earth and seemingly through the upper room after the resurrection, he will be fully God and fully human in eternity future. Was Jesus Christ fully God and fully human in eternity past? And I'm wondering this because in eternity there is no time. So what would be your take on this?

Yeah. Steve, I love talking about the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. I think it's one of the great mysteries of the faith, but we oftentimes minimize it when we talk about salvation. We focus on the cross, and I think rightly so, but the incarnation is a part of our redemption.

God the Son, the eternal Son of God, assuming humanity for us and for our salvation from the womb of the Virgin Mary. And that happened at a particular point in time. And so while the answer is God the Son has united to himself humanity for all time now, prior to the incarnation, God the Son had not assumed humanity.

So the answer to your question simply would just be no. In eternity past, he didn't have human nature. That happened at the incarnation. The way in which the church fathers sometimes talk about this, the earliest theologians as they were debating and discussing the incarnation of Christ, the doctrine of Christology, they'll say things like God became what he was not without ever ceasing to be what he always was. In other words, this change, there was this assumption of humanity, but he never ceased to be God or less than, always the divine person, the second person of the Holy Trinity. And you get this at various places in the New Testament.

The one text I just want to read, Steve, is Philippians chapter 2, this beautiful, some people think it's a poem or hymn, a song. Paul, I'll start in verse 4, Paul says, Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. There we see again just this beautiful picture of the incarnation, the humiliation of our Lord for us, for our redemption.

And the example, the model that was set there for us as well, for us not to look out for our own interests only, but for the interests of others too. Amen. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. We have calls coming in and we'd love to hear from you. 833-843-2673, that's 833 The Core.

You can also post your question on one of our social media sites, and of course you can watch Adriel live in the studio on YouTube every day at 1130 a.m. Pacific time and send us a message that way. This call came in from Kansas City, Missouri, and one of our listeners says, Can you explain the real meaning of God's sovereignty? Boy, the real meaning, huh? Well, I think a lot of times when people have discussions about God's sovereignty, they focus on God's sovereignty in salvation. Doctrines like the doctrine of predestination or divine election, God choosing people for salvation. So I don't know if that's what you're getting at specifically or just more broadly thinking about the sovereignty of God. But when we think about God's sovereignty more broadly, we're talking about the fact that God is the great king who rules over all. That all things happen according to the counsel of his will, as Paul says in Ephesians chapter 1. I'm right now working through Psalm 115, and there is at the very beginning of the psalm this statement. Why should the nations say, Where is their God?

Verse 3, Our God is in the heavens. He does all that he pleases. In other words, God is sovereign.

His hands are not tied. He rules the entire world. And so that's what it means when we say that God is sovereign, that he is the great king of all, but there are so many, I think, just practical pastoral benefits to understanding this, because when we look at the world around us, I think it's easy to feel like, Okay, things are going really off the rails right now. Is God still in control? And so being reminded of the fact that God sits on his throne and he rules all things. I'm also preaching through the book of Revelation right now, and this is one of the things that John, throughout the book of Revelation, the visions that he gets, that he continues to reiterate. For the church suffering throughout Asia Minor there in the first century, persecution and famine and loss of income at times, they were really struggling.

Intense suffering and persecution for some of those churches there in Asia Minor. And the visions, the heavenly visions that John gets, reminds them over and over again that God is actually the one who's still driving the bus. He's leading all things, directing the course of history.

Why? Because he's sovereign. It's who he is. He's on the throne, and that should give us comfort and peace, even when things are difficult, when it feels like there's chaos all around us, knowing, Lord, you have not lost control. You are not surprised by the things that surprise us. Whether that's stuff that happens outside in the world, in society, in culture, or it's the difficulties and trials that we face, the cancer diagnosis, the loss of a loved one, whatever it is, brothers and sisters, God knows. He knows our pain. He sees us in our brokenness, but he is not overwhelmed by our suffering.

He's still in control, and that's something that should comfort us as we go to him and as we pray to him and receive the peace that he gives us as the great king of heaven and earth. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. On this Labor Day, we have a very special resource we want to offer you, and it's actually one of my favorite authors, Dr. Tim Keller.

What a great resource to be offering on Labor Day. It's a book called Every Good Endeavor. As Bill said, it's written by Tim Keller, pastor for many years in New York. A book that I've read, I've just been blessed by it, encouraged by it. I think it's something that as we think of a theology of work and what it means to offer ourselves to the Lord in all that we do, you're just going to be really encouraged by this resource. So head over to corechristianity.com and get ahold of Every Good Endeavor for a donation of any amount. Love to have you get that, especially on this Labor Day if you've been thinking about work, or even if you're, let's say, not in the workforce right now, or maybe you're retired. This is just such an excellent book that really explains God's view of work and vocation, and you can find that by going to corechristianity.com forward slash offers. Again, corechristianity.com forward slash offers. Look for Every Good Endeavor connecting your work to God's work. Well, let's go to a voicemail that came in from one of our listeners. This was from David. My question is, what does a man do if he's come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, but he's married and his wife does not leave, or he just tries to go along and face you, please, but doesn't really act that way?

How do you try to navigate that? Thank you very much. God bless you and God bless you.

Hey David, thank you for that question. I mean, if you're talking about yourself, I don't know. But, I mean, praise God for the individual who has come to a saving knowledge of Christ. Any time a sinner repents, there is celebration in heaven. And so if you're talking about yourself, then I just want to say welcome, brother, to the family of God. And the apostle Paul, he gives instruction related to this very thing in 1 Corinthians chapter 7. In verse 10 he wrote, To the married I give this charge, not I, but the Lord. The wife should not separate from her husband, but if she does, she should remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband, and the husband should not divorce his wife. To the rest I say, I, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. But, verse 15, if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so.

In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace, for how do you know wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know husband, whether you will save your wife? And so if you're a believer, you've come to faith in Jesus Christ, but your spouse is not there yet. Maybe, like you said, they say that they believe, or they're willing to go to church here and there, but they don't really understand the gospel yet, but they want to be married to you.

They love you. Paul says, wonderful, you shouldn't leave or separate or divorce. How do you know, right, husband, whether you will save your wife? Of course, what he means by that is, how do you know whether or not you won't be the influence, the one who shares the gospel, whose example God uses in her life to draw her to Jesus? And so I would just encourage you, man, to seek the Lord, to pray for your spouse, to model as best you can, even as sinful individuals, model as best you can the grace of the Lord Jesus, and a life that's been shaped by the gospel, by the forgiveness of sins, so that you can talk about those things with your spouse.

You can talk about the work that the Lord has done, about the great grace that you have received, and invite her to experience that and receive that as well. And so let's take a moment just to pray for this brother, for this situation, and for all those relationships where you have a couple where the husband or the wife is a believer, but their spouse isn't, just praying that the Lord would do a work in those marriages. Father, Lord, we pray for those marriages where they're mixed, Lord, they're not on the same page with regard to Jesus, your son. Father, I pray that you would give strength, grace, perseverance to the Christian spouses in those marriages, that, Lord, you would help them, Lord, to be examples of godly conduct, of exhibiting the fruit of your Holy Spirit, that that would be attractive and would draw their spouse closer to you as they see the love, the joy, the peace, the patience, the goodness, the gentleness, the faithfulness, the self-control that's brought about by the work of your spirit in the life of your people. And for, Lord, those spouses that are not believers, would you do the work that only you can do by the grace of your Holy Spirit?

Using your gospel, your word, to open the heart and to encourage and to draw them into your kingdom to receive your grace by faith. So be with this brother specifically, Lord, bless him, bless his marriage, and be with all those marriages, Lord, at work in all those marriages that need your mercy in this situation, drawing people to yourself. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Thanks for that, Adriel.

You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. We've mentioned before that we have several social media sites, including our Instagram page, and we have this question that came in from one of our listeners. They say, happy anniversary. This is referring to our fourth anniversary of this program. And they say, Pastor Adriel, over the past four years, what is one question that has really stuck out to you? Boy, man, that's such a hard one to answer, Bill.

I don't know if you have one. For me, it says we answer so many questions every single day. Sometimes people will ask me, you know, hey, do you remember when you answered this question about, you know, such and such? And I'll just have to say, I sort of do, but I couldn't tell you what month that was. I couldn't tell you because there's so many questions that we answer. But I'll tell you what does. Maybe it's not a specific question, but it's a kind of question that always stands out to me, Bill.

And I'll be curious to hear your thoughts as well here. Those questions where we can tell on the broadcast, an individual is calling in, and they're desperate for help, and they just need some pastoral care and biblical insight and wisdom. And those questions always stick with me because I'm struck by the fact that, you know, for some people, they just don't know where to turn, where to go. And so they call in, and you can hear oftentimes in their voices just the desperation.

And so we take that very seriously. We pray for them. We ask God every day before we record for wisdom, for grace, for the filling of His Holy Spirit as we answer these questions.

And then we try to encourage those individuals to get plugged into solid churches where they're going to have community, where they're going to be able to go to their own pastor and elders and get the encouragement that they need. And so, Bill, those are the questions that really stick with me, that make me in some ways excited that we get to do this and hopefully encourage people who need encouragement. But what about you?

Is there a question for you that really sticks out or a type of question? Who are the Nephilim? Yeah. Bill, you're a Nephilim, I think. I don't know. Oh, gosh. That's come up several different times.

I mean, for people that aren't familiar with the Old Testament, they are kind of a confusing race or character. We don't really know who they are, huh? No, we do, Bill. You just got to listen to those times where people call in and ask.

And so, Bill, have you not been paying attention? We get that question pretty often, man. Well, you usually give, you say it could be one of three things. So there you go. There you go. Yeah, you're right. That is typically how I answer it. One of three things.

Here's kind of where I lean. Yeah, so that's pretty funny. Well, OK, that's your go-to, huh? Who are the Nephilim? If you're not familiar with the Nephilim, Google it and you'll find out what we're talking about. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

It is the fourth anniversary of our program on this Labor Day, and we're excited about that. We do receive voicemails here at the Core, and here's one that came in from one of our listeners named Steve. Hi, Pastor Adriel. You took a call from Patty asking about picking the Lord's name in vain, and I would like a little bit more clarification.

In the way that we speak now, we'll say, oh my God, as a way to express surprise, people texted with OMG. Is that considered taking the Lord's name in vain? Just curious. I just wondered if we could follow up on that. Thank you. Yeah. Well, yes, I would say it's treating God's name in a way that it shouldn't be treated lightly. We want to reverence the holy name of God with how we speak and also with how we live. So there's your short answer. Steve, God bless you. God bless you.