Question and Answer Program No. 78

Let's teach the younger generation those old classics. Let's not segregate the old people to 830 on Sunday morning. And let's be kind along the way and allow God to bring us along as a congregation. And every church is going to be a little different. Those pastors, elders, and deacons need to make these decisions because, again, this is a moving target. But remember, if we're following Christ, it's going to unite us, not divide us.

And that means I've got to be kind to those who are a little younger than me along the way. Welcome to Wisdom for the Heart, the Bible teaching ministry of Stephen Davey. We're interrupting our current series so that Stephen can spend today answering some questions that have come in from listeners. It's been two or three years now that we set up a Bible question line, and it's really become one of our more popular shows that we air.

We do this on the first and third Friday of every month. If you ever have a question that you want Stephen to answer on the air, you can call our Bible question line at 910-808-9384. And we have some good questions for you today. Let's get started. Hi, I'm Adam. I'm seven years old.

I live around Charleston, South Carolina, and I have a question. Why did God create Satan if he knew that Satan would turn bad? Thank you. Bye. Adam, thank you so much for calling in. It was great to hear from you. And Stephen, I think that might be the first time we've heard from a child.

I think it is, and it's a great start to something new. So Adam, thank you for calling in. And in fact, I want you to know that you're asking a very profound question.

This isn't the question that just a seven-year-old might ask, but I've heard it from 37, 57-year-olds and up. This is a very, very good question. Why did God create Satan if he knew that Satan would turn bad? Well, let me give you a couple of things to think about, Adam and all the listening family, whom I'm sure want an answer as well.

Well, the simple answer is this. God created Satan, even though he knew he'd turn bad, for the same reason he created you and me. And he knew we would turn bad as well. In fact, he knew Adam and Eve would sin. This didn't surprise him, but he created him anyway. In fact, I'm glad he did, aren't you? Because if he only created people that he knew wouldn't turn bad, well, guess what?

I wouldn't have been created either, nor would you. God made Satan and mankind, even though he knew it would bring sadness, it would cost the life of his son to redeem us, but he also knew it would reveal his grace and his goodness and his mercy and his power. In fact, the Apostle Paul, I think a great text to look at, Adam is Ephesians, chapter 3, verses 8 and 9, where Paul gives a little bit of his personal testimony and he also answers this question.

Here's what it says. To me, Paul writes, the very least of all saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ and to bring delight. What is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things, here it is, so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in heavenly places. This was all in accordance with the eternal purpose which he carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord. That's a great text to consider. God is telling us this was part of his plan from eternity past. Now we also know, by the way, that Jesus, when he died on the cross, part of his reason for dying was to make a public display of his victory over Satan, Colossians chapter 2 and verse 15. So to sort of summarize this, God created Satan, although he knew he would turn bad, as you said, Adam, and God created human beings, starting with Adam and Eve and you and me, even though he knew we would turn bad so he could show who he is to those who love him and to the glory of all his creation. Adam, thanks again for calling. It was really great to hear from you today and we're so thankful to know that you, as a seven-year-old, are listening to Wisdom for the Heart and that you're a faithful student of God's Word at a young age. I also want to mention that if this is a topic you'd like to go a little bit deeper into, Stephen has a great resource that might help you.

He's written a book entitled Angels, Demons, and Other Flying Creatures, where he explores the angelic world, including Satan, all of the angelic world, angels, demons, all of it. And it's a wonderful resource and we have it available in our resource library. So Adam, go ahead and grab your mom and dad's credit card. Maybe not, Scott.

Maybe not. Talk to your mom and dad, but head over to wisdomonline.org. That's wisdomonline.org. And when you go to our online store, you'll find angels, demons, and other flying creatures in the section with all of Stephen's other books. What a great start to our broadcast so far today. Stephen, here's your next question. My name is Kathy.

My question is, if my husband has divorced me and now wants to get back together, is it scriptural to do that, to remarry, if neither one of us has married? Thank you. Kathy, thank you so much for calling in with your question. Stephen, what do you think? Well, I think the short answer, Kathy, is yes. In fact, please do.

Now, understand I don't have any background. I don't know why the divorce occurred in the first place. If there was adultery or immorality in any way, I would want to make sure that that has been repented of clearly, responsibility taken. Whatever dissolved that, you know, fellowship, shall we say? And I say fellowship and not marriage because in the eyes of God you're still married anyway, and that's his ideal for you. But you've broken that covenant. I don't know why that took place, but I'd want to make sure that before you go to the justice of the peace, restate your vows, or whatever you're gonna do to make this marriage again take place, that you have counseling, you meet with your pastor or a counseling pastor, make sure you both have learned from the past and you've biblically dealt with whatever caused you to separate in the first place, because I don't know what the background was, but I do know that that kind of separation is sinful. And so there was probably some kind of sinful attitudes, behaviors, patterns, maybe immorality, I don't know.

Make sure you deal with that first. And then I would highly encourage anyone to pursue the ideal. We only have one chance to meet God's ideal, and the ideal is one man and one woman, right? In fact, for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. They are no longer two but one. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate. Matthew 19 verses 4 to 6.

That's the ideal. Yes, sin gets involved, and God makes allowances for sin. Maybe we can talk about that at some point. And given the fact that I don't know the conditions that led to the dissolution of your fellowship, make sure you've dealt with it. Don't sweep it under the rug. Just because this fellow comes back to you, Kathy, and says, hey, I want to get married again. Take this as slowly as you should have taken it before you got married in the first place. Steven, I find it really encouraging that when her former husband approached her, her reaction is, I want to know what God's Word says.

Yeah, I like that. Now Steven, staying on this theme of divorce, here's another question for today. My name is Mark.

I'm from Charlotte, North Carolina. I was saved when I was 19 years old. They called me to preach, and obviously I went through a divorce.

I just want to see what the Bible says about double married preachers obviously being married again. My understanding is, disqualified people or a person from pastor to church was your take on Steven. Thank you. Have a great day. Hi Mark, thank you so much for calling. Steven, I think we have dealt with this topic or something similar in the past, but it's been a while. So what advice and help can we offer to Mark today?

Well thanks for calling in, Mark. And you correctly identified Titus as a key passage. You can add to that 1 Timothy chapter 3, and there in these two texts we find the qualifications for the elder, and of course that would represent the pastorate or the vocational elder as well.

And if I could break this down, we really have two or three issues. One is the issue of qualifications, that is, what is the literal meaning of these phrases? Above reproach.

An elder must be above reproach. Well if that means perfection, none of us should qualify. So it can't mean sinlessness or perfection. I like to think of it as relating to the direction the man is facing. These are his goals. This is the direction in which his toes are pointing. This is his attempt through life. The Greek phrase, without reproach, literally means no handle. In other words, there isn't a way that someone could grab this man because of his failure that's so consistent that it's a handle on his life.

It doesn't mean that he can't fail, but it means that there's not the repetitive pattern of failures relates to, for instance, dissipation or inhospitality or being self-willed, stubborn, or being pugnacious. So you have these qualifications. Now the question you've got as it relates to your own qualification to the pastorate is that of marriage and divorce. So let's go to the phrase where it says, must be the husband of one wife. I don't think that means an elder has to be married, but as it relates to being married, if he is, same thing, by the way, with children. I don't think it means an elder has to have children, but if he does, in this manner, he ought to be leading them. So as it relates to being married, he must be the husband of one wife in that, if he is married, he's committed to her.

This literally translated means a one-woman man. He is identified as being clearly committed faithfully to this one woman, and I think then he's not necessarily talking about divorce. I don't think he's talking about the fact that a man can't have been married more than once. It's just clear that whoever it is to whom he's married, he is committed to her. So you say, Steve, well this sounds like you're saying that he could be married to one woman at a time. Well, I suppose it could be, but he wouldn't be above approach because in his multiple divorces, he would be clearly uncommitted to his wife. It would be shallow, it would be trivial, and I don't think Paul has that in mind. So now what does it mean as it relates to divorce, Mark?

And I think that's where we have to become practical, and you might not like the word pragmatic, but I've heard all the opinions and I know all the different viewpoints, and a lot of it comes down to practical wisdom. If a man is pastoring and his wife leaves him, she becomes unfaithful to him, he is what we would call the innocent party. I believe he's biblically remarriagable. I think that Paul makes that clear in 1 Corinthians 7, that if a spouse leaves in abandonment or adding adultery in with the words of Christ, that a marriage could take place following the divorce of this unfaithful spouse. But practically it might be wiser if he leaves that church, takes some time, and then promotes a faithful reputation with his new wife.

That's just a very practical point of advice that I would recommend. Keep in mind as a pastor you're shepherding people, your example, your integrity is paramount, and I think that's why we have the qualifications. In our own church where I pastor, we don't have divorced elders or deacons.

We might one day, we don't now, and it has to do with this practical element of example before the body. A divorce is tangled as it relates to a wife, a husband, and children. So I would recommend it be a different ministry, a different church, and plenty of time to prove that this man is indeed a one-woman man, highly committed, faithfully bonded to the wife that he has. Thank you, Stephen, and thank you, Mark, for calling in. The Epistle of Titus is the Apostle Paul giving pastoral wisdom to a young pastor named Titus, helping him understand not just this but all of the qualifications of being a pastor and an elder. Stephen's written a book entitled Titus. It's a beautifully bound, hardback book.

If you're a pastor, someone who's thinking about the pastorate, or you just want to know more about what it means to be a godly shepherd in today's culture, you'll want to have a copy of Titus on your shelf. You'll find that book in our online store at wisdomonline.org. Stephen, here's your next question.

This is Marty in Holliday, Florida. I was at a Bible study a couple of weeks ago, and someone mentioned Ebenezer stones. I'd never heard of it before, and they couldn't elaborate, and I wondered if you could comment on this. Thanks. Bye. Thank you so much, Marty, for calling in with that question. Stephen, I don't know about you, but did your mind go to a hymn when you heard that question, Come Thou Fount? Yeah, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Here I raise mine Ebenezer, and what does that mean?

Yeah, people for years have been singing that song and probably have no idea what they're singing many, many times. Well, here we're gonna clear up the mystery, friends. You heard it right here on Wisdom for the Heart. This is taken from 1 Samuel 7, by the way. Samuel has led the nation of Israel in a revival.

They have removed all the idols of the land. Samuel is calling an assembly. The people offer sacrifices to God, and the Philistines, who've been defeating them at every turn, they gather, they're gonna come and attack them during this time. So the Israelites cry out to God and they ask Samuel to keep interceding. Samuel does that, the Philistines drop for battle, and the Lord miraculously routes the Philistines and defeats them.

It's a wonderful victory. And then Samuel, here's what it says, took a stone and set it up and named it Ebenezer, saying, Thus far the Lord has helped us. Now that Hebrew word translated, Ebenezer, means a stone of remembrance. So what an Ebenezer is is simply a stone, a memorial stone, to help the people of Israel remember their victory has come from God. Having a stone of remembrance in our calendars to celebrate significant events in our tradition related to the birth of Christ, the death, resurrection of Christ, and even as a church, we might have an anniversary celebration.

As a country, we might have a Memorial Day recognizing those in our armed forces who've served for the sake of our freedom. So I think these are wonderful things to have, frankly, and historically they would track back to the original stone of remembrance, which would be the Ebenezer that stone raised to signify the Lord's victory. Thanks, Steven. And Marty, I hope that helped you today. We're so thankful that you called in with your question. The Bible question line is 910-808-9384. Steven, here's your next question. Hello, Dr. Davey. My name is Roberta, and I listen to you from North Carolina. And I really appreciate your faithfulness in teaching the truth.

I just wanted to share a concern and get your thoughts. I'm concerned about the movement of having all contemporary music worship services to attract the lost to our churches, with the worship services being more like concerts than worship. Those that are going this route seem to justify the music by going to Colossians 3.16, which contains the wording spiritual songs. In much of the praise music that I hear, there is incorrect teaching or inadequate teaching about Christ. I can't recall in any that I've heard that there is any admonishing or words that teach us about our accountability to Christ. I've seen this movement have devastating consequences in churches, especially what it does to the senior members of the churches when they resist this movement and are pushed aside and labeled as those yielding to the flesh and only wanting their own way. Can you help me with my concern?

Thank you for any help in this area. Thanks for calling, Roberta. And Steven, she has maybe opened up a can of worms for you today. Well, she's definitely read a long question for us to consider, and it has a lot of layers, doesn't it?

Yeah. And it is a very, very difficult issue, and it's difficult for a number of reasons. But let me just stop here and identify some things that are embedded in her question. She's mentioned what I call the Attractional Church philosophy. That is, we're going to design a service to make the unbeliever comfortable or to attract the unbeliever, the seeker. Let me just tell you, there's only one seeker, and that's God.

I would never want to create a service designed to make the unbeliever comfortable. I mean, what kind of church service is that? That isn't even the reason we meet. We can't invite unbelievers to worship God, and that's the reason we meet. We're to encourage one another as we see the day approaching. The writer of Hebrews says that's why we meet. We're to edify the saint. That's why we meet. In fact, I could argue that the church isn't even intended to meet for the purpose of evangelism.

It is to meet for the purpose of edification. We exist in the world for the purpose of evangelism. We're witnesses in the world, but when we gather, we're believers gathering around a body of truth to grow up in Christ and honor the Lord. In fact, our audience, when we gather, is God.

It isn't even us. When we leave the church, we say, hey, did you like that church service? We're asking the wrong question. It wasn't whether or not we liked it. It was whether or not God liked it. So I don't like this concept of attractional churches. She also mentioned weak theology. Yeah, we ought to discern the lyrics of whatever we sing.

Are they true biblically? She mentions the idea of age disparity. And I do have a problem with that. Music was never intended to divide the congregation, but to unite the congregation. And so I'm troubled by churches that, you know, advertise a traditional service and a contemporary service. What does that mean?

I know what that means. That means all the old people go to one service and all the young people go to the other service. We need to be teaching music to older people that have been written in the last 5, 10, 15, 20 years. And we need to be teaching music to a younger generation that was written 300 years ago. So I kind of like to think of the fact that, you know, a good music program in a church, you know, leaves everybody slightly irritated.

The older people because he had to learn something newer and the younger people because he had to learn something older. But let's do it all really well. Now, she also mentions this idea of modern music. And I got a little problem with that phraseology because music is always changing.

Now, somebody that says, well, hey, wait a second. Well, think about it. If you go back in history musically and as a pianist trained classically, I have studied music history. There was a time a few hundred years ago when that dotted quarter note created the bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, bump.

Boy, that was a scandal. Well, we sing it today all the time and don't even think about it. Go back even earlier to Isaac Watts in the 1600s. Isaac Watts grew up in a generation that sang out of the psaltery, that is the Psalms. No one was writing lyrics. The idea that somebody would write lyrics and you'd sing it as a church that wasn't inspired Scripture? Well, that was a scandal. Well, Isaac Watts kept complaining to his dad, who was a pastor, and his dad finally said, look, if you think you can do better, write a hymn or write a text. And he did. They taught it to the church the following Sunday. The church loved it so much that he ended up writing 600 more. And you would sing a hymn by Isaac Watts and never think of it as modern, but it sure was back then.

The difficulty with this issue is simply because the target is always moving, isn't it? Instruments. Well, we could argue about instruments.

That's always been an issue of debate and division. Spurgeon allowed no instruments in his church. He was committed against them.

All the singing was acapella. In fact, he had a friend named Joseph Parker who pastored in London, and Joseph Parker invited him to preach for him on one occasion and after the service because a brand new organ had been installed in that church. He asked Spurgeon, well, what did you think of the organ? And Spurgeon, you know, rather slyly responded, well, I think it brought glory to its maker. In other words, he slammed it. Well, I don't have a problem with an organ.

Well, he would have. We also have, you know, our upbringing. Frankly, I was raised in more of a traditional classical church and I was trained classically as a pianist. I love Bach.

I love Beethoven. I love the doxes of that music section in the hymnal. You know, joyful, joyful, we adore thee.

I just love it. And, you know, I'm tempted to say, oh, wow, that was great. I really enjoyed the worship today because we sang that one. Well, really, that's just a heart song.

That takes me back to my childhood and my upbringing. And I have to be careful that I don't equate true worship with joyful, joyful, we adore thee. So let's be careful. Hey, look, let me tell you this. Let's be humble.

Let's be gracious. Let's teach the younger generation those old classics. Let's not segregate the old people to 830 on Sunday morning.

And let's teach the older people some newer music. And let's be kind along the way and allow God to bring us along as a congregation. And every church is going to be a little different. Those pastors, elders, and deacons need to make these decisions because, again, this is a moving target.

But remember, if we're following Christ, it's going to unite us, not divide us. And that means I've got to be kind to those who are a little younger than me along the way. Yeah, thank you so much, Stephen. And thank you, Roberta, for calling in with that question.

I know it's on the mind of many of our listeners. So thanks for calling. Hope that was helpful. The number that Roberta and all of our callers use today is 910-808-9384. I hope that you'll use that number anytime that you have a question so that we can play your question on a future broadcast.

And Stephen can provide an answer from God's Word. If we can help you today, our number here at the Wisdom Office is 866-48-BIBLE. I've mentioned many resources throughout this broadcast. All of those resources are available in our online store. Or you can call us and our staff and team of volunteers can help you right over the phone.

That number once again is 866-48-BIBLE. We're always encouraged when we receive a card or letter from our listeners. We'd love to hear from you and learn how God's using the teaching that you hear to bless and encourage you. Drop us a note today and address it to Wisdom for the Heart, PO Box 37297, Raleigh, North Carolina, 27627. We are just about to put our next issue of Heart to Heart magazine in the mail, the July issue. If that's not a resource that you receive, we'd love to send you the next three months of this brand new resource that features articles to encourage you in your walk with Christ and a daily devotional guide to keep you grounded in God's Word. Call about that as well. Thanks so much for listening. Join us next time for more Wisdom for the Heart.