Question and Answer Program No. 77

As many as received him, John writes in John chapter 1, to them he gave the right to become children of God.

And by the way, that's a wonderful analogy that's even a little stronger. Why? There isn't anything your child can do where they will no longer be your child.

I've got four of them. They can hurt their fellowship with me, but they can't change their status as sons and daughters. So there isn't anything you can do that would ever remove you from the family of God, because you've been born into it by faith. Hello, and welcome to Wisdom for the Hearts.

We're so glad to have you with us today. Stephen has set aside his current teaching series in order to answer some questions that have come in from listeners. If you ever have a question related to the Bible or the Christian faith, we would love to have you call our Bible Question line. You can call that number, leave your question on the recording, and we can play it on a future broadcast for Stephen to answer.

I'm going to come back in a few moments, and I'll give you that number. But for now, here's our first question of the day. We were glad to hear from you, so thank you for taking the time to call in.

Stephen, what help can we offer? Well, first of all, I think our listener is combining two different issues. One is the definition of the gospel, and the other is whether or not we celebrate those special gospel events.

So let's make sure we draw a dividing line here. You're not diluting the definition of the gospel because you celebrate it. Whether or not we know the correct date of Christ's birth or his crucifixion or his resurrection, that's really not essential. What matters is that we showcase our belief in Christ, and these special times allow us, culturally, to showcase our joy and our delight in Christ's birth and his crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection. So let's make sure we agree with you that you can be saved and not celebrate anything. And make sure we understand the gospel is defined not by any observance of festival or season or anything like that. But I'm hearing you saying you're not going to celebrate anything.

You're not celebrating birthdays either or anniversaries. You need to celebrate and smile and enjoy what you have in in Christ. Listen, God gave the Jewish people holidays to remember. They remember their exodus from Egypt. We call that the Passover. They celebrated the Feast of Booths.

That was the wheat harvest and the expectation of the coming kingdom. They were given a special celebration of their forgiveness of sins. That's the Day of Atonement. They were given other celebrations like Purim. These remembered God's provision. These feasts are observed by Jews. And by the way, even the Lord remembered these special celebrations. What about today? The church is not Israel.

But guess what? Did you ever think about the fact that we are worshiping on Sunday because that day was chosen by the early church by Acts 20 as a day to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus? And I remind my congregation that every Sunday is Easter Sunday. We're celebrating 52 times a year.

Every time, by the way, you take communion. That's a special event to celebrate his death. So let's make sure we divide between the definition of salvation, which doesn't require any festival or special ceremony, and let's separate that from the fact that we do want to celebrate these special events. We ought to be joyful. Our world ought to see joy on our faces, and these are great opportunities.

But I hope you celebrate these special events for family members that God has given you. The number that you can use if you have a question for Steven is 910-808-9384. Now, I do want to make sure that you're aware that that's not a number that we answer. If you need to speak with us in the office, you need to call our office number. Steven, this listener requested to remain anonymous, so we've redacted her name.

Well, thank you so much for taking the time to call in, Steven. I can tell you over my several decades of ministry, I have yet to have a woman come to me and say, you know, what really bothers me, what really hurts me, is that my husband wants to be a spiritual leader. I'm just so troubled with the fact that he just dotes on me, and he gives me loving attention, and he leads our family spiritually. Haven't had that happen one time, but I know that there are many women who wish their husbands would become genuinely interested in the spiritual lives of their wives, talk to them about the Lord, share together about the Word, and so I know that's your heart's desire. Now, what you're talking about in your question, though, is a man that's convinced he's walking with Christ and has a vibrant relationship with Christ, while at the same time demeaning you and not loving you. So my short answer is, he's a hypocrite. My short answer is, he's not tuned into reality, because you can't have a close relationship with Christ and at the same time have an abusive, unkind, uncouth relationship with your wife.

In fact, the Bible is very clear that a man is to love his wife as Christ loves the Church. The wonderful thing about the Lord is he certainly challenges me and convicts me, but he never puts me down. He never crushes me under his heel. He's always gracious, and by the way, I'm not either. I'm not presenting myself in this answer as a man who has it right.

This is our goal. I want my toes pointed in this direction, and any man who loves Christ is going to have this goal to love his wife as he ought. Yeah, and Steven, you know, at the end there, she asked this question, where do I stand, and how would you reply to that? Well, that would draw her attention to 1 Peter chapter 3, where it specifically relates to how a wife is supposed to live with a man who is an unbeliever. And I would add to that and broaden that, how do you live with a husband who acts like an unbeliever?

Because I think that's really, you know, the bigger and broader context. And Peter writes, let me just read this in chapter 3 and verse 1, in the same way you wives be submissive to your own husbands, that is, be respectful to your own husbands, so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior. Let not your adornment be merely external, braiding the hair, wearing gold jewelry, putting on dresses.

Peter, by the way, is describing women who are dressing in a way that's marked by a flamboyant, materialistic manner. He says in verse 4, but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God. So, my dear friend, you may not be precious in the sight of your husband, but here's how you can be precious in the sight of God. Let your testimony, your spirit, as much as possible, be respectful and kind in return. And I would consider your husband as a potential unbeliever.

And that kind of changes the game. Pray for him to genuinely come to faith in Christ. Pray that he will come to know Christ in a real way. And so, as you understand and view him as an unbeliever, then perhaps that frustration can turn to pity and genuine concern for his eternal soul. You will never stand before God, by the way, one day, and give an answer about your husband. You'll never be responsible for your husband. He's going to stand accountable for himself, and he's going to stand accountable as what kind of spiritual head he was in his responsibility in the home. So, I fear for him. And I want you to know, here's how to be precious in God's sight. You respond to him as you ought, depending on the Holy Spirit. It's not an easy task. I'm not giving you something that's, okay, that's easy. No, this is impossible.

It will be impossible for you, apart from the Holy Spirit and his power. Thank you so much for calling in, because we know that your question gave voice to what many women are experiencing. If that's you, I want to draw your attention to page 8 of the this month's Heart to Heart magazine. This month in Heart to Heart, Steven has an article entitled, Hope for a Spiritually Single Mom.

Steven has six practical reminders in this article that will be of great help to you. Now, if you don't have this month's copy of Heart to Heart magazine, that's because you're not on our mailing list, and we would love to add you. In fact, we'd be happy to send you the next three issues just for taking the time to call in and ask us. If you call our office number, that's 866-48-BIBLE, 866-482-4253. We'll send you the next three issues as our gift to you. I know it'll be an encouragement to you. You can also go to our website, wisdomonline.org, and there's a signup form where you can just take care of this all electronically.

Make sure that you get Heart to Heart magazine into your home, and especially this month's issue. Before we give Steven the next question, let me give you our Bible question line one more time. That number is 910-808-9384, and that's the number that this listener dialed. I'm Dave in Jacksonville, Florida. Dr. Davey, in Hebrews chapter 2, what does it mean that Jesus tasted death? Thank you. Well, Dave, thanks for calling in with that question, and thank you for listening to Wisdom for the Heart there in Jacksonville, Florida. Steven? Yeah, Dave, thanks. You know, the idea of tasting death, you know, what does that mean?

I think part of the problem in understanding some of these idioms is our own thought process when we hear an English word. You know, while we've been sort of quarantined away from everybody, somebody dropped off a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts at my side porch, a member of the church, who is now going to be a member for life, as far as I'm concerned. So I looked at the dozen, and I thought, oh man, what am I going to do? Well, I thought, well, I'll just taste one. So what that meant was I took a bite of one. Well, maybe two. But I didn't eat the whole dozen. I just tasted a little bit. So I didn't really experience fully that gift.

And I think that's the problem. So in Hebrews 2, 9, which is the verse you mentioned, let me just read it. But we do see him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely Jesus, because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone. That's Hebrews 2 and verse 9. You need to understand that this is simply a figure of speech, which means that Jesus experienced death through the crucifixion and, of course, his burial. By the way, a cross-reference which will be really helpful for you, if you want to write this down, is John 8, verses 51 and 52. Jesus said, Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death. The Jews said to him, Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, and the prophets also. And yet you say, If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.

Same expression used in that culture, and in that idiom, it would mean certainly experiencing everything related to death. I hope that helps, Dave. Thanks for calling in. Thank you so much, Dave. Here's our next question. This is Taylor in Murphy, North Carolina, and it's kind of a hairy question, but I was wondering, I recently had a friend commit suicide, and it's been very bothersome to me, and I thought he was, I saw him as a Christian, and I've always been told, if you are Christian and you commit suicide, regardless, you're going to go to hell. And I've just been troubling to think that this friend of mine would be in hell, but I was just wondering, is there any scripture that would more so point to, as the destination of a soul, should they take their own lives, seeing as how it's always been, God gives life and God takes life away.

I'd just like more clarification on that, if I possibly could. Thank you so much. Taylor, thank you so much for calling in, and we're very sorry for the loss of your friend's life. Stephen, this is a question that has a lot of layers to it.

It does, and I'm glad that Taylor called in. Short answer as it relates to suicide being an unforgivable sin, there's no scripture to back up that belief. It's possible for a believer to take their life in suicide. Is it a sin? Yes, it is. Is it unforgivable?

Well, that raises what Scott kind of mentioned here, another layer or two. And people typically go to Matthew chapter 12 with this idea of an unpardonable sin, and I can understand why. There in Matthew chapter 12, the Jewish leaders are equating the power of Christ to be eligible to a false God. They're essentially saying that Jesus is empowered by demons, so they're rejecting his claim as the Son of God and Messiah. That text says, therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, even in this age or in the age to come. Now again, in the context there, he's dealing with the nation Israel and the Pharisees who are attributing his power to the devil. Now think about it.

What are they doing? They're rejecting Jesus Christ. Is it an unpardonable sin to reject Jesus Christ? Well, of course it is. You can't go to heaven if you're rejecting Jesus Christ, because to reject him is to reject the gospel.

So let's keep that in mind. I like to put it this way. Here's the unpardonable sin. Recognizing the truth of who Jesus Christ is and refusing the person of Jesus Christ.

So it isn't really one act. It isn't really one sin. It's a life of refusing to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior.

I like the way one man wrote it. He said the unpardonable sin is really the sin you won't confess. It's in a sense refusing to repent of sin and coming to Christ and asking him for forgiveness.

Now let me pull another layer back here. If you've come to Jesus and you've asked him to forgive your sin, this is what we call confessing your sin at salvation. That dealt with your status. And you went from being unredeemed to redeemed. Your status went from being an unforgiven sinner to a forgiven sinner. Confessing your sins at salvation deals with your status.

Now as a believer, confessing your sins after your salvation, that deals with your experience. And you can sin. And by the way, we sin every day. That's why I love 1 John 1 7 that tells us that the blood of Christ cleanses us from every sin. He's writing that to Christians by the way. And the tense of the verb means the blood of Jesus Christ is continually, continuously cleansing us. I love the old hymn, don't you? There's a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stain. Listen my friend, if you've come to Jesus Christ and you've received him as your Savior, that fountain is never turned off.

It takes care of your daily experience. And what if you've not asked Jesus to forgive one specific sin? Well, do you think you could ever remember all of them? To mention all of them that you will commit today?

Hey Steven, I want to jump in just for the sake of clarity. When you were talking earlier about a change in status, you're referring to something that happens once. That's right. Yeah, you're saved one time and at that point you are declared righteous, right with God. We call that justification. Your record of sin is exchanged with Christ's record of perfection. He writes his name on top of your list of every sin you've ever committed and he takes responsibility for it. But here's the glorious thing, he puts your name over on his record of righteousness. So the apostles would say we're clothed with the righteousness of Christ, just as if we'd never sin. That's how God looks at us now, through the blood of Christ's forgiving sacrifice. And Steven, of course, in the case of Taylor's friend, she does believe that he is a Christian, so he has that status, but the last act that he ever committed on this earth was a sin. And Steven, I know that there are belief systems out there, some that even consider themselves to be Christian, who would say that that last act of committing suicide then nullifies his salvation. That's right, and that's because they don't have a biblical understanding of justification. Justification isn't dependent on what I do. All I'm going to continue to consistently do, by the way, is sin. For instance, you mentioned belief systems.

Well, of course, one of the more popular ones is Roman Catholicism. That's why they'll have a priest come in near the end of a person's life and do a last rite, and hopefully they die fairly soon after because anything they do afterward that's sinful, what are they going to pay for it? No, there is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus' Paul writes in Romans 8.1. It's a great text, by the way, and it gave me great assurance of salvation when I recognized that my sin and every believer's sin is forgiven as it relates to your status, past, present, and future. So as it relates to sonship, I like to think of it this way. As it relates to sonship, I'm a child of God. God looks at me now through the sacrifice of his son, and that bloodshed has covered and dealt with and removed every sin I have confessed, I have committed, I will commit today, and I will yet commit tomorrow. That isn't going to kick me out of the family.

Think of it this way. Your status relates to sonship. That's when you came to Christ at salvation.

Confessing your sins daily deals with fellowship, and you want to do that as sins are committed and they come to mind because you want to maintain fellowship with the Lord as a way to please him and to experience joy in him. But think about it in terms of marriage. I've been married now for 38 years, and guess what? I know this is going to really require a lot of your imagination out there, but I'm not a perfect husband. There are times when I hurt my wife's feelings. There are times when I don't do something I said I'd do.

So I'm going to need to apologize. I'm going to need to confess my sin against her and ask for her forgiveness. I don't need to get married again. She doesn't say, well, we got to go down to the justice of the peace and redo the whole thing.

No. My status remains as a married man. My experience changes. See, my sonship doesn't change as a believer when I sin, but my fellowship changes. With my wife, my status doesn't change, but my experience does.

And so those two things can become confused, and there are beliefs out there that confuse them. Sonship is, well, that's an iffy thing. You better keep it up. You better keep meriting it or deserving it. Oh, no.

As many as received him, John writes in John chapter 1, to them he gave the right to become children of God. And by the way, that's a wonderful analogy that's even a little stronger. Why? Because I could experience divorce. I could sin against my wife and divorce her. So marriage can be broken, but not sonship in the sense of being a child of God. There isn't anything your child can do where they will no longer be your child.

I've got four of them. They can hurt their fellowship with me, but they can't change their status as sons and daughters of mine. So there isn't anything you can do that would ever remove you from the family of God, family of God, because you've been born into it by faith. But you can certainly affect the fellowship you have with your Father when you sin against him. So as a believer, is it possible to sin? Absolutely yes. And the blood of Jesus Christ is going to continually cleanse us.

Is it possible to end my life through suicide? Would that be sinful? Yes. But that sin was dealt with when I came to faith in Christ. My status became redeemed.

That will never change. Did that brother, friend of yours lose fellowship? Certainly. It could have been the result of depression. It could have been the result of some traumatic experience. I don't know what it was that led him to take his life, and I'm so sorry he did. That was sinful. It was selfish, and it hurt a lot of people. But as a believer, that sin, like every sin, was taken care of by the cross of Christ.

Steven, we have time for one more today. My name is Cedric and I'm from Birmingham, Alabama, and I would like to get your personal thoughts. There is a lot of evil going on in the world currently, and I would like to know, do you think that during your lifetime Jesus will be coming back? And if so, are there any Bible verses to justify your reasoning?

Thank you, and we appreciate what you do. Well, Cedric, thanks for asking the question. The New Testament authors continually point to the coming of Christ. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians that the rapture was just around the corner. In fact, he thought he'd be alive, then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with him in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. To meet the Lord in the air. Hebrews chapter 10, don't forsake the assembling, encourage one another as you see the day drawing near. Titus chapter 2 verse 13, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of our great God and Savior. Yeah, the Bible says look for the coming of Christ.

There isn't anything that needs to be happening right now. There isn't anything that needed to be happening during the days of the apostles for Christ not to come back. He could come back then in the first century.

He could certainly come back now. And by the way, the Bible ends in Revelation chapter 22 with John saying, yeah, come quickly. Come quickly. Let's get on with it, and let's be with our Lord. And that's what we look forward to, and he could come today.

That's how we all should live. Thank you, Cedric, and thank you to everyone who called in today. We were so glad to hear from you. I want to give you that Bible question line one more time in case you missed it earlier. It's 910-808-9384. Thanks so much for joining us today. Stephen will return to his series, The Banquet Table of Consequences on Monday's broadcast. So join us for that here on Wisdom for the Heart.