Can Non-believers Bear Fruit?

Can non-believers bear the fruit of the Spirit? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Hi, this is Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. Our phone lines are open right now. We'd love to take your question at 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. You can always post your question on one of our social media sites, and you can watch Pastor Adriel right now live in the studio on YouTube and message us that way. And of course, you can always submit an email question.

Here's the email address. It's questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, let's go to Joseph, who's calling in from Northern California. Joseph, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Yes, I just had a question on the timing of the rapture. I've always been taught that it would be a, you know, pre-tribulation rapture, but the more I seem to study it, the more it seems to—I come to the conclusion it's going to be more of a mid-tribulation, pre-wrath time of rapture versus this pre-trib, but I'm still not very clear on, you know, which one is really the best or the most scriptural.

Hey, Joseph, thanks for that question. You know, we actually got a couple of voicemails this week about the rapture, and people wondering about the rapture. We answered some of those yesterday, and so we're keeping with this theme of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, which I love. And one of the things I said yesterday on the broadcast was, you know, there are a number of differences of opinion with regard to this idea of the rapture and actually the idea that there are two separate comings of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is one that we might refer to as the rapture where he comes to deliver the saints, to rescue them, if you will, and then a later second coming. That's a newer view in the history of the church. Historically, I think the majority of Christians understood there to be one coming, the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, after a period of great trial and after a period of great difficulty, and that happens to be my view as well.

And I think that you see this in places like 1 and 2 Thessalonians. Of course, that's really where you want to focus when you're thinking about the coming of the Lord. And Paul in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 says, concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you, for you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

So the day of the Lord, the second coming, the final judgment, the resurrection of the dead, the life of the world to come, all of those things, I believe, are contemporaneous events, meaning they happen at the same time. And the coming of the Lord is going to be a great deliverance for the church after a period of persecution. I think you see this also in 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 where it talks about the judgment that is coming when Christ returns. 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 5, this is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which you also are suffering. Since indeed, God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels. That is at his coming.

And so that's my view. That's how I understand that the church is going to experience a period of great trial, of great tribulation. And actually, she's been experiencing that trial, that tribulation for a long period of time now. The church has been persecuted. And if you want more information, Joseph, on this, I'd recommend our 10-week study through the book of Revelation. That might help illuminate this a little bit more for you.

But that's my view, and I appreciate your question, brother. God bless. Joseph, you can find that Revelation Bible study by going to our website, corechristianity.com forward slash revelation, a great study that will help clear up some of the questions about that somewhat mysterious book of the Bible. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. If you have a question for us about the Bible or the Christian life, here is the phone number to call. It's 833-THE-CORE. Our phone lines will be open for the next 15 minutes or so, so call us right now if you have a question.

Again, 833-THE-CORE. Here's a voicemail that came in earlier this week. Pastor Adriel, first of all, I don't judge any divorced couple, but there's something that confuses me a little bit. In the New Testament, Jesus said that divorce and remarriage is adultery, which, of course, is sexual sin. Yet within Bible-based Christian church communities, remarried people are embraced as a part of the Christian community without judging or reproach, which I don't have a problem with.

That's from Luke 16, 18, and 1 Corinthians 7, 10-11. So my question is, why are divorced couples accepted in this way while homosexual couples are not, though both are sexual sin, according to the Bible? So I just wanted to understand that, and particularly, you know, is there a place for people who are gay within church community? Because one of my best friends is gay, and I'm a believer, but I'm not certain that he would ever be welcomed into a Christian community, truly welcomed. So thank you for answering my question.

Wow, Lisa, a lot there. And first, let me just commend you on the fact that you're friendships. One of your best friends is someone who is not in the church, is not a... wouldn't maybe identify as a believer.

And I think that's so important. I think the church can learn from this, because you look at Jesus in the Gospels, and who is he spending time with? You know, the religious people were often accusing him of, you know, being a drunkard, a wine bibber, eating with tax collectors and sinners, and, you know, they separated themselves from the world. But the New Testament church really never did that. They were always called to live on mission, if you will, extending the love of Christ to the people around us. And so I think it's wonderful that you have this friendship, and I want to encourage you in that. And to the latter part of your question, I think it is important that our churches are places where sinners of all stripes have a sense of, we're welcomed here in that, you know, we're not looked at funny. We can come and we can hear about the grace of Jesus, the grace of this God who loves us and has made a way for us to experience his love and grace.

And so I think that that's really important. Now, with regard to this question on divorce and remarriage, and is there this double standard here? Well, the first thing I'd want to say is, you know, you look at Matthew 19, and not all divorce and remarriage is sin. It's clear that there are some legitimate reasons for divorce given according to Jesus. You think of the case of adultery. You also think of abandonment, which is what the Apostle Paul, I think, highlights in a place like 1 Corinthians chapter 7. And so in those situations, you know, remarriage would not be sin if you were the offended party there. But then there are other instances where people just get out of a marriage for not good reasons or for any reason they think is okay, and that's really what Jesus is getting at in Matthew 19, is he's questioned by the Pharisees, and then they go off into another relationship, and there is sin involved there. And then you think of, you know, the many people where that's happened. They go into the church, and they're welcomed by the church.

I can see why you have this question, and it really is a good question. The first thing I'd say is while there may very well have been sin there, there can still be repentance. And if this couple, this married couple, man and woman, have repented and are now in the church, I don't think that the right answer for them is to, you know, break off the marriage. That would be, I think, again, a minimizing of the marriage covenant. And that's what we don't want to do. And so I think that that's really important. You know, marriage is this gift that God has given to us, and sadly, in the church, it's often minimized.

It's not treated for what it is. And, you know, we oftentimes, I think in evangelical circles, talk about, you know, the redefinition of marriage and gay marriage and so on and so forth. But there are things that were happening even in the 1970s. You think of the rise of no-fault divorce. Well, that would be a redefinition of marriage as well, this minimizing of the marriage covenant. And so I think the church has a lot to sort of reflect on as we think about marriage and divorce and the sin there that needs to be repented of. But then with regard to maybe, as you said, a homosexual couple, well, one of the differences there, I would say, is if a person is continuing to live in this kind of relationship, well, I would say that's indicative of the fact that there isn't genuine repentance. And if there isn't genuine repentance, a person can't be welcomed into the church in the sense of being made a communing member of the church, received by the church into what we might refer to as the sacramental life of the church. No, we're called to repentance and faith, to turn from our sins and to lay hold of the grace that is for us. Think of what the apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 6, he's writing to the Corinthians, and he says, some of you were in these homosexual relationships, were gay and lesbian, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus. And so there's grace, there's mercy, there's the gospel for sinners. And in so far as that's the case, our churches should be places where people, all different kinds of people are coming and hearing about that grace because it's for them. But that doesn't mean just embracing the sinful behavior and condoning it. And sadly, I think, sister, a lot of churches have gone that route and that's unhelpful because it doesn't call anyone to genuine faith or a genuine relationship with Jesus in so far as it keeps them in their sin.

And so, yeah, a very complex question, but that's how I differentiate between those two things. Of course, not to try to have a double standard there, not to minimize how serious it is, how serious the sin of divorce can be at times, but we're just realizing that there's repentance, there can be repentance there. And so a heterosexual couple can continue in the life of the church and I don't think that they should not be married anymore, they should dissolve the marriage. And there's a difference there, a fundamental difference with the homosexual with the homosexual couple coming into the church. Thank you for your question. Complicated as you said, but a great explanation. Yeah, a lot of questions in that one question, but I'm glad she reached out.

For sure. You're listening to Core Christianity. What can we learn from the life of Jonah in the Old Testament? Well, Adriel has written an excellent new Bible study on the book of Jonah, and we'd love to offer that to you today. Yeah, we are excited to offer this study on the book of Jonah. Many people know the story of Jonah and the big fish.

I don't know if you remember, Bill, a couple of months ago, I think there was a guy who was actually swallowed by a whale and came out, that was all over the news. And I was so bummed that didn't happen when I was preaching through Jonah because that would have just been the greatest illustration. But nevertheless, we have this 10-week study on the book of Jonah.

It's yours for a donation of $20 or more. Really a wonderful book of the Bible for us to dig into and study, especially as we think about God's grace and his mercy towards even his followers who are knuckleheads. That's the technical term, but that's really what you had with Jonah. And yet the Lord is so merciful to him in using him still.

And so I think there's a lot we can learn from this book. To find that, just go to corechristianity.org and look for our new Bible study on the book of Jonah. Or you can call us for that offer or any one of our offers. Here's the phone number. It's 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673. By the way, if you ever call and get our voicemail, feel free to leave your message right there, leave your question.

We try to go to our look at our voicemails and review them once per day and get to your question. Here's a question that came in earlier this week. Justin Corona, my question is, Galatians 5, 22 to 23 speaks about fruits of the Spirit. But of course, as we live life, we see that there are even unbelievers, people who even hate God, they display these kinds of fruit in some way. So my question is, what separates the fruit of the Spirit to what may seem like fruits that even unbelievers demonstrate in the world?

Yeah, great question, Justin. Well, the first thing I would say is, in the book of Galatians, when you're thinking about the fruit of the Spirit, this is the fruit that's wrought by the Holy Spirit in an individual's life. You think back to Galatians chapter 3 where Paul, he's rebuking the Galatians, he says, foolish Galatians who is bewitched you, it was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this, did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish, having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

In other words, by faith, these Galatians had received the gift of the Holy Spirit. And it's as they walk in the Spirit, as they're led by the Spirit, that this fruit of the Spirit is produced. The fruit that the apostle Paul is going to talk about in Galatians chapter 5 verse 22, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Against such things there is no law and those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. And then he adds this in verse 25, if we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. And so one of the big differences here is, yes, by virtue of God's common grace, his goodness, there are people in the world, many people in the world who do good things, I think noble things, who exemplify love and peace and joy, those kinds of things. But the fruit of the Spirit is the fruit that is wrought specifically by the Spirit at work in an individual's life and the Spirit lives in us by faith in Jesus. So someone who is not a Christian and is not filled with the Holy Spirit is not bearing the fruit of the Holy Spirit while they might also, just like I said, by virtue of God's common grace, the fact that we're all made in the image of God, have some of these things like gentleness, like self-control. Ultimately all good works, they come from the Lord himself and there's no such thing as a good work apart from faith, a truly good work before the Lord. And so in that sense there is this big difference, this distinction between the fruit of the Spirit, the good things wrought by the Spirit in a Christian's life, and the other good things that we see in the world but aren't necessarily the fruit of the Spirit. And so I appreciate your question, brother, great question, and thanks for giving us a call. Glad you explained common grace, God's common grace, it rains on the just and the unjust, right? And the sun shines on both, so it's something we have to remember when we don't want to be judging unbelievers for their behavior. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, let's go to Stan in Lawrence, Kansas.

Stan, what's your question? Good afternoon, Pastors, thank you for keeping our Lord's words alive at all times. And so my question is, I had a pastor that prayed over me and I have heard of speaking in tongues and praying in tongues, and so we have an event coming up this latter part of September in Tennessee, Kansas. And so the pastor is going to be there and there's going to be obviously some good prayers and good messages and a gathering of 17 states and maybe more of this revival. And so anyhow, I don't want to be critical or judgmental, because we're all going to stand in front of the Lord at one time, and He's the one to be judged. So I don't want to be judging anybody of speaking in tongues, because anytime somebody prays over me or this great nation of ours or this universe of the Lord, of our Father, and so I just need some... I'm asking for a little bit of guidance there, so hopefully you can filter that through for maybe several people out there, so thank you.

Stan, thank you for your question. Grateful to hear that you're pursuing the Lord and that you're wanting to gather with other believers to pursue the Lord and to pray. Now, of course, like you said, we don't want to be overly critical, overly judgmental, but of course as believers we are called to make judgments in particular for those within the body of Christ. Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians. A lot of times people will quote Jesus's words in the Sermon on the Mount not to judge, and they'll take those out of context.

Jesus is really there rebuking the religious leaders, the Pharisees, and the scribes, and he's talking about hypocritical judgment, but we ought to make judgments as Christians on the basis of God's holy word, because there's a lot of strange things that happen in the church, frankly a lot of things that don't lead to the edification of the body of Christ, and I think it's important for Christians to appeal to the scriptures, to point to the scriptures, and to be guided by the scriptures for everything that we do, whether that's in a small gathering of believers, a local church gathering on a Sunday morning, or some Christian event or conference, and it sounds like that's what you're talking about. Now, with regard to the speaking in tongues, really when you look at the New Testament, the gift of tongues was used in a number of ways. One, it was a sign on the day of Pentecost that the Spirit of God was now filling the church. In other words, the Spirit of God who dwelt in the temple in Jerusalem in the tabernacle under the old covenant has now changed residences, if you will. The Spirit has moved from the temple there, the Holy of Holies, and now the people of God, the new covenant people, the church is the temple of God, and that's one of the reasons why you had these tongues of fire. It was this sign that the Spirit of God had taken up this new residence in the church, and of course, the gift of tongues there opened the door for Peter to preach the gospel on the day of Pentecost, and thousands of people were saved.

Tongues in the New Testament were actual languages, real languages, that were interpreted for the edification of the body. Now, there's a broader question of, are those gifts, those sign gifts in particular, oftentimes associated with the apostles in the New Testament still around today? I think when you look at the scriptures, ordinarily it seems to me like the focus is not on these miraculous signs continuing throughout the life of the church, but really focusing on what we sometimes refer to as the ordinary means of grace, the faithful preaching of the Word of God, worship as Jesus has commanded it, real discipline, real church fellowship, and that's really what we need to focus on. If we want to have revival, quote unquote, one, it's not something that you can schedule because the Holy Spirit is not under our control. God himself brings revival, the Spirit himself brings revival through the faithful preaching of the Word of God, and so I would say that has to be the focus. Preaching the gospel, it's not so much about signs and manifestations of the Holy Spirit. When you look at the New Testament, those signs, those manifestations were always pointing to the greater miracle of the salvation of sinners, the forgiveness of sinners, and so we have to keep the main thing the main thing. That needs to be the focus, the gospel, the message of the forgiveness of sins being built up in that reality, and I think it's fair to judge, quote unquote, when you see other ministries that are focusing on something other than the gospel, even if they're focusing on the miraculous signs and wonders, I would say, look, if that becomes an end in and of itself, we've missed it. We've missed the teaching of the New Testament, and we need to go back to the gospel. So I pray, Stan, for this event, that it's going to be focused on the gospel, focused on the forgiveness of sins, and that people are going to be built up in that. God bless.

You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Just a programming note for you, we're planning to record a second program after today's live show, so if you have a question, you still have time to call in and ask your question. Here is the phone number to call. It's 833-THE-CORE. You can call us for the next 30 minutes or so, 833-THE-CORE.

We'd love to hear from you. Here's a question from Sandy, who's one of our YouTube listeners, or viewers, I should say. She says, What does Jesus mean in John 6 when He says that we have to eat His body and drink His blood? A lot of people got upset when Jesus said that, right? This whole scene comes on the heels of Jesus had just fed a great multitude of people, 5,000 people, and now the crowds are following Him again because they're looking for more bread. They want Jesus to do another miracle.

This sort of fits with the question I just answered. They're focused on the miraculous. Do another sign, Jesus.

Do another trick. Multiply more bread for us. Jesus is trying to point them to the greater reality, what that miracle pointed to, and it was the fact that He Himself is the bread of life. What we need is Jesus. He is our spiritual sustenance, our nourishment. Apart from Him, we're spiritually dead.

We have no spiritual food. He is the manna from heaven, if you will, and that's one of the things He appeals to there. In John 6, He says in verse 54, Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. Now, there could be an allusion here to the meal that Jesus is going to institute, the Last Supper, where He says this cup is the new covenant in my blood.

This bread is my body. It's this language of these signs, these symbols, that really point us to a greater reality, Christ Himself in His sacrificial death for us. How do we receive that? We receive it by faith.

In fact, there in John 6, just a few verses prior to what I read in verse 54, in verse 47, Jesus said, Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. And so how do you receive the body and the blood, the bread of life, if you will, Jesus Himself, for yourself?

Here's how. By believing and embracing the gospel, and every time we take the Lord's Supper, I hope you're in a good church where you take communion frequently. Every time you take the Lord's Supper and you have these signs, these signs that God Himself gave to His people, bread and wine, and you eat by faith, you know what you receive by faith and by the power of the Holy Spirit, the body and blood of Jesus, His grace, His gift, His goodness for you. Friends, Jesus is our spiritual nourishment.

We need Him every day, just like we need bread every day. God bless. Thanks for listening to CORE Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at corechristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833, the CORE. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.