KHCB’s Q & A – 10-26-2023

Announcer: [00:00:10] Good evening. We welcome you to our weekly Question and Answers program. A program where you can call us with your questions about the Bible, a Scripture, or the Christian way of life. And our guests will answer that question for you. Live on the air. Tonight’s guest is Dr. Andy Woods, Senior Pastor at Sugar Land Bible Church. The church website is SLBC.org. Dr. Woods is also president of the Chafer Theological Seminary and has authored and contributed to many Christian books and theological journals. He speaks on a variety of topics at Christian conferences and churches. He’s also joined by Dr. Jim McGowan, Associate Pastor at Sugar Land Bible Church. The church is located at 401 Matlage Way – that’s in Sugar Land, Texas. You can find them online at Pastors Point of View on YouTube and Rumble and also Andy Woods ministries.org. We’d like to announce the 2024 Prophecy Conference at The Sugar Land Bible Church. That’s February 23rd and 24th in 2024. The conference is entitled “Flood to Final Days”. It will be featuring speakers Olivia Melnick from Chosen People Ministries, Russ Miller, Christ Prophecy with the Lion Lamb and Lion Ministries, and Dr. David Reagan, also with the Lamb and Lion Ministries. And of course, Dr. Andy Woods will be speaking. There’ll be a full day of teaching by the featured speakers with a question and answers to close out the conference. On the Question and Answers program, if you’re calling from inside the Houston listening area, you can dial 832-922-4444. That’s 832-922-4444.  If you’re calling from around the KHCB network outside of the Houston area, you can dial 877-999-5422. That’s 877-999-5422. Or if you’d rather email your question to us, you can send that to questions that’s plural – questions with an S at Questions@KHCB.org. And it will appear on our computer screen here in the studio. And we’ll forward it to our guests. We also ask that you not mention any denominations or personal names, because our aim tonight is to answer questions relating to the Bible. And now here are our guests.

Pastor Jim: [00:03:21] Well, welcome. Welcome, friends, to this evening’s brief edition of the Question and Answer program. We’re only going to be here for the next 30 minutes or so, so we’re encouraging you to be sure and call in if you’d like to get on the air. And we want to remind you that we do have three on air guidelines. The first is to be sure to turn the volume down while you’re on hold and waiting to be brought on the air. Number two, please be sure to remember to keep it to one question, especially this evening. And finally, please remember that once you share your question, we need you to go ahead and hang up and listen for the answer. So if you’d like to call, be sure and call the numbers that we’re given. The local number is 832-922- 4444. And the toll free number, if you’re outside the area is 877-999-5422. And again you can email it us at questions with an S at Questions@KHCB.org. So while we’re waiting for the phones to light up, we do have a number of email questions that we’d like to address. So let’s go to that right now. This individual writes and says, “Pastor, could you please explain John 3:8.  All right John chapter 3 verse 8.

Pastor Andy: [00:04:38] All right. Well, John 3, of course, is the great Nick at Night discourse, as I like to call it. I like Jesus conversation with Nicodemus where he’s speaking to Nicodemus about the new birth, how you have to be born to enter the kingdom, not just physically, but of the spirit. And in the process of describing the spirit, he gives this descriptor in verse 8, Jesus does “the wind blows where it wishes. You hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going”.  So everyone who is born of the spirit, so you know the wind, you can’t see the wind, it’s invisible, but you can sure see its effects. You know, you can see trees, you know, bending in the wind and so forth. So that’s by way of analogy, what the Spirit is like. You can’t see the Spirit, but you can sure see his effects. That’s true truth. When he comes into a person and a person starts to walk by the power of the spirit, they demonstrate, you know, as Galatians 5:22 and 23 says, the fruit of the spirit love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, self control, etcetera. And so I think that’s the point of Christ’s analogy. You can’t, like the wind, you can’t see the spirit, but you can certainly see its impact.

Pastor Jim: [00:06:04] Amen. Amen. All right. Thank you so much for the email and that great question. And we have someone waiting on the phone. So let’s go to the phones right now. Thank you for waiting. What’s your Bible question for Dr. Woods this evening?

Caller: [00:06:16] My two, my two best guys, Dr. Woods, Dr. McGowan. Um, let’s see, I don’t know, I just had, like, a question. Okay, so, like, I’ve kind of wasted, like, most of my 60 years on this planet, um, you know, not behaving properly. And, you know, I know Dr. Woods talks about rewards, and I have so much anxiety about not being able to lay a crown at Christ’s feet. And. Well, I’m trying. I’m trying to like, you know, catch up. But I guess my question is, well, and I know, like, you know, there would be positions of authority in the Millennial Kingdom. And will there be any room for like, advancement? I don’t know, or is it just going to be static? What you did on this earth for Christ is your position in the Millennial Kingdom. That’s my question. And I’ll hang up and thank you so much. You guys are just terrific.

Pastor Jim: [00:07:21] Appreciate that brother. Well, that’s a great question to kick off the program with the issue of rewards. And, Pastor, this issue of advancement in the Millennial Kingdom, do we have anything in Scripture that specifically addresses that?

Pastor Andy: [00:07:33] I don’t see anything specifically in Scripture that addresses it, but I would just encourage the caller, you know, to not, you know, it’s kind of interesting that when you drive, your rear view mirror is somewhat small in comparison to your front windshield. Good point. And I think we’re because when you drive a car, you’re supposed to spend most of your time looking forward rather than backward. You know, rather than regretting the past. I would just focus on the years that you have left. That’s the only thing you have any real control over changing. Can’t control the past. And you know, Paul and Philippians 3 says, forgetting those things which lie behind, you know, he does press on to the prize of the upward calling in Christ Jesus. We all have regrets. I wouldn’t let yourself be made a prisoner of those and just say, well, Lord, you know, I’m 60 years old, but you know, I could live another 40 years conceivably or more. Just help me to invest what I have in front of me, rather than worrying about something I can’t control behind me.

Pastor Jim: [00:08:37] Amen, Amen. Thank you so much for that question. We appreciate that. Let’s go back to our email. Another individual writes and says the Lord’s Prayer uses plural pronouns and not singular pronouns. Why is that example Our Father give us this day, etcetera. So, Pastor, they’re asking about this issue of pronouns.

Pastor Andy: [00:09:00] Well, I mean, you know, with most things in the Bible, you can answer questions like that by figuring out who he’s talking to. And he’s talking to a great throng, you know, of people there on the Sermon on the Mount. It says in chapter 5, verse 1, when he saw the multitudes, he went up to the mountain. And after he sat down, his disciples, plural, came to him. And by the time you get to the end of the Sermon on the Mount, it says Matthew 7:28. The result was that when Jesus had finished these words, the multitude. So now we’ve gone from disciples to multitudes, were amazed at his teaching. So, I mean the plurality of the pronouns in the so-called Lord’s Prayer. Really, the disciple’s prayer relates to the fact that he’s addressing all of us, addressing a big group of people there in terms of how to have a right relationship with God.

Pastor Jim: [00:10:03] So when we encounter singular and plural pronouns, it’s important to try to find the individuals that that’s referring to.

Pastor Andy: [00:10:09] Yeah, and try to figure out who the audience is. And that will help you with questions like that.

Pastor Jim: [00:10:15] All right. I see that we have another caller waiting. So let’s go back to the phones. Thank you for calling this evening. What is your Bible question for Doctor Woods?

Caller: [00:10:23] Hi.  Good evening. I meant to ask this question yesterday after the Bible study in person at your church, but I forgot to. And it’s a, it’s a follow up based on Ephesians 2:20. You had mentioned that scripture which states that, you know, we’re building on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. And you mentioned that to say that you don’t believe that there is an apostle, that there are apostles. I don’t know if you mean that you don’t believe that there’s an apostolic anointing at all working today, or that you just don’t believe that they’re apostles. But I also wanted to ask if, by extension, do you also not believe that there are prophets as well or prophetic office since those two were mentioned in that verse?

Pastor Andy: [00:11:16] Yeah. Very good.

Pastor Jim: [00:11:17] Well, all right, thank you for calling the program. And Pastor, how would we answer that question?

Pastor Andy: [00:11:21] Thanks for attending the Bible study also. But Ephesians 2:20, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, so, you know, a foundation. You lay only one time. And when the disciples were placing Matthias, making the decision to replace Matthias with Judas, who had committed. suicide. So they had a vacancy. I’m sorry. I had it backwards. Replacing Judas had committed suicide, and they were replacing his vacancy with Matthias. There we go. They lay down there in Acts 1, around verses 21 through 25. A specific set of criteria for being an apostle. And they the criteria is you had to be with us from the beginning. You had to be, you know, an eyewitness to the earthly ministry of Jesus. And you had to have seen his, the resurrected Christ. So if that’s the standard and that’s the foundation, and the foundation is laid only once, then by that standard, there can’t be apostles the way the Bible defines it today. So the second part of the question is, well, what about prophets? It mentions prophets. And if we define a prophet as someone who is sort of a direct conduit from God, as were the apostles, you know, in other words, they were used by God to write Scripture. Such people don’t exist today either, because the canon of Scripture is shut. You know, if you want to argue that there are prophets today, perhaps the gift of prophecy, as my Professor Dwight Pentecost put it, when I was studying at Dallas Seminary, you know, the gift of prophecy, receiving direct revelation from God to write Scripture may have given way to a gift of preaching or proclamation, but that would be a different ministry entirely, because there you’re proclaiming what Scripture already says rather than receiving, you know, Scripture being writing scripture, you know, coming directly from God. So, I would the way, the way the New Testament defines these things, I would say based on what we’ve said, there are no apostles or prophets today.

Pastor Jim: [00:13:52] Amen. Thank you so much for calling. And again, thanks for attending the Bible study, too. Back to the phones we go. Thank you for waiting and calling in this evening. What’s your Bible question for Dr. Woods?

Caller: [00:14:05] How are you doing?

Pastor Jim: [00:14:05] We’re wonderful. How are you?

Caller: [00:14:08] All right. I got a couple questions.

Pastor Jim: [00:14:11] Well, just give us one. We’re real short on time tonight, so give us one good question.

Caller: [00:14:16] Well, you know, when God cursed the devil when he was, when he was a snake. And he cursed Judas when Judas was filled with the devil. You know, I mean he destroyed Judas and he destroyed the snake, you understand. But Satan is still alive. Everything Satan used, he’d destroy, you know.

Pastor Jim: [00:14:49] Okay. Is there a question there?

Caller: [00:14:52] I asked if God destroyed everything. Did God destroy everything that Satan used?

Pastor Jim: [00:14:58] All right. Did God destroy everything that Satan used, Pastor?

Pastor Andy: [00:15:02] Well, there. You know, these rebukes seem to be pretty serious. I mean, the serpent’s body was changed where he was, you know, to crawl on his belly. And then, of course, Judas went out and hung himself. And so there seems to be a pretty high price that either the animal kingdom or human beings pay, you know, when they allow Satan to operate within them. So I would say what this teaches is that God holds Satan responsible for his crimes. We know that he is going to be eventually cast into the Lake of Fire. Revelation 20 verse 10. And those who avail themselves to Satan through their own volition have a consequence to pay as well, right?

Pastor Jim: [00:15:50] So it may not be an immediate destruction, but certainly an ultimate destruction. All right. Thank you. That was a great question. We appreciate you calling the program back to the phones. Thank you so very much for waiting. What is your Bible question for Dr. Woods this evening? Okay, I guess that individual dropped off the line. So let’s fill the time with another email question. This individual writes “the Bible, talks about the four living creatures having wheels and wings in Ezekiel 1:5 through 28. Can you explain what is the meaning of it”? All right. That’s a good question.

Pastor Andy: [00:16:25]  All right, well, you’ve got four living creatures described different places in the scripture. They seem to be kind of a special category of the Angelic realm. I’m thinking of Revelation 4:6 through 8. You see the same kind of thing. “And before the throne there was, as it were, the sea of glass like crystal. And in the center and around the throne four living creatures full of eyes, front and back. The first creature was like a lion. The second creature was like a calf. The third creature had the face like that of a man. The fourth was that of a flying eagle. And the four living creatures, each of them having six wings, are full of eyes all around. And day and night they do not cease to say, ‘Holy, holy, holy’ is the Lord God Almighty, who was and who is, and who is to come”. So these seem to be very similar to the creatures that we read about in the Book of Ezekiel. It’s just in the book of Ezekiel, there’s a little detail added. And it has to do with these, not just wings, but wheels, and it’s the wheels the way they’re kind of described. They seem to be like two overlapping wheels, kind of perpendicular, going in opposite direction, meaning that these Angelic beings can move anywhere. They can move any direction. And I think that’s significant to Ezekiel’s audience, because Ezekiel wrote that during the Babylonian captivity. And it’s basically showing that God’s Angelic protection follows God’s people wherever they go. So that that may be why there’s an emphasis on the wheels there in the book of Ezekiel.

Pastor Jim: [00:18:13] All right. Thank you so much. Okay. And I noticed all of a sudden the lines are filling up. So let’s go back to the phones. Thank you for waiting. What is your Bible question for Dr. Woods this evening? Hello? Hey, go for it.

Caller: [00:18:27] Oh, yeah. Hi. Okay. So. All right, so the Israel, the Jewish people, and in Christ day, you know, they were. I don’t know what they were looking for, but they were looking for maybe like a conqueror type Messiah type thing. I guess is part of what they were looking for. And I guess my question is, what have they been waiting for, for the past 2000 years? Are they are they still looking for a deliverer kind of Messiah? Is that what they’re waiting for? So that’s kind of what I’m. That’s just my question.

Pastor Jim: [00:18:59] All right. Another good one.  Pastor?

Pastor Andy: [00:19:01] Yeah. When you go into John 6, verse 15 and verse 26, you know, after Jesus performed the miracle feeding the masses, I mean, they were going to come and take him by force and make him king. And, you know, when Jesus got finished with the Sermon on the Mount, which taught the moral principles of the kingdom, it seemed like there was a lot less of an interest because that led to his rejection by the nation. So I would have to say that the nation was really looking for someone to deliver them from Roman oppression. And as long as Jesus was doing miracles and, you know, today we’d call it preaching politics, everybody was interested. But when he talked about the real need of a person, which is to be made right with God because we all violate his law, so we need his transferred righteousness. Suddenly their interest, you know, kind of waned. And I think that’s very sadly the same with the nation of Israel today. I mean, really what they’re looking for is someone to, you know, politically deliver them from being bullied by the different nations of the earth. And, you know, I’ve talked to many Jewish people and I asked, well, why aren’t you saved as a Christian? Isaiah 53 in your own scripture points to Jesus. And they would say, well, there’s no Shalom, right? And when they use the word Shalom peace, they use it very differently than we as evangelical Christians use it. When we’re talking about Shalom, we’re talking about peace in the heart, peace with God. When they use the word, they’re talking about politics. And so they can’t see Jesus as a Messiah because he didn’t fix the political situation in the first century or today. So they don’t understand that God has to deal with the problem with man’s heart before the external political situation can be dealt with. So I think that’s one of the main reasons that the nation of Israel is largely, even today, a Christ rejecting nation.

Pastor Jim: [00:21:08] All right. Thank you. Another great question. And I see we have someone else waiting. So let’s go back to the phones. Thank you for calling this evening. What is your Bible question for Doctor Woods?

Caller: [00:21:17] Am I on the line?

Pastor Jim: [00:21:18] You’re on.

Caller: [00:21:20] Okay. All righty. Well, I have a question about actually it involves two different incidents of something the same, something similar starting in Exodus 12:23 “For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians. And when he sees the blood upon the lintel and the two side posts, the Lord will pass over, and will not suffer the destroyer to come”, or whatever version is, “will not suffer the destroyer to come unto your house to smite you”. And I think that was a reference to everyone in the house. But then, I don’t know, you can clear that up. But then the next sort of place that is similar to that is in Exodus 2. I’m sorry, Joshua 2 Rahab. Let me get that first. I’m sorry. Okay. Exodus, Joshua 2 verses – starting in verses 12. “Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that you will show kindness to my family, because I’ve shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, and brothers and sisters and all who belong to them, and that you will save us from death”. And so then they got in the house, and, you know, the spies said, if they’re outside, you know, their blood is on their head, but if they’re inside with this scarlet cord, then they will be saved. They will be spared from death. So my question is, with the blood of Christ over the house, does that save the household members? I mean, is there any way that happens without a volitional decision by the individual? And I’ll hang up and listen to you.

 

Pastor Jim: [00:23:25] All right. Thank you so much for calling the program. Pastor?

Pastor Andy: [00:23:29] Well, you know, those are two interesting things where God did have mercy on a household. I mean Exodus 12 at Passover. You know God said, when I see the blood of the Passover lamb on the doorpost, then I’ll pass over and not kill the firstborn in that household. And then a different situation, in this case, the nation of Israel coming into Canaan to eradicate the Canaanites. You know, because Rahab was cooperative and put this cord out, her household was saved. But I wouldn’t take that to mean that, okay, I’m a Christian, so therefore everybody in my house is saved. I mean, salvation, as far as I understand it with Jesus seems to be done on an individual basis. I mean, God doesn’t have any grandchildren as the saying goes, he only has children. And each individual, you know, has to make their own decision whether they’re going to trust in the Messiah or not. I mean, it’s as simple as John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever” not, whatever household head, but “whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life”. So I wouldn’t extrapolate, you know, the situation in Exodus 12 and Joshua to, you know, to individual salvation. I would go to John’s Gospel to learn about the concept of individual salvation.

Pastor Jim: [00:25:05] Amen. All right. Thank you so much for that question. And back to the phones. And thank you so much for calling the program. What is your Bible question for Dr. Woods this evening?

Caller: [00:25:16] Hello.

Pastor Jim: [00:25:17] Hi, I think I hear you.

Caller: [00:25:19] Okay, I have a question in Ezekiel 20. Chapter 20. It’s chapter 20 and 29.

Pastor Jim: [00:25:35] Ezekiel chapter 20, verse 29.

Speaker8: [00:25:38] Yes. The word, the the word. I didn’t understand what they means. It’s b-a- m-i.

Pastor Jim: [00:25:55] So let’s see if we can give you an answer to that question.

Pastor Andy: [00:26:00] Um, sort of backing up to verse 28, it says “When I brought them into the land which I swore to give to them, they saw every high hill and every leafy tree, and they offered their sacrifices and they presented the provocations of their offerings. They also made their smoothing aroma and they poured out their libations. And I said to them, it is the high place to which you go. So its name is Bama to this day”. Verse 30. “Therefore say to the house of Israel, says the Lord God, will you defile yourself after the manner of your fathers, and play the harlot after detestable things”? So I’d have to look that up in Hebrew. But it’s you know, usually I think Jim may have an answer to that.

Pastor Jim: [00:26:50] I actually have a note here. Excuse me. In my Bible it says that that word actually means “high place”. So a high place in the Old Testament typically was a place where they sacrificed to idols.

Pastor Andy: [00:27:01] Yeah. So that would fit God’s condemnation of idolatry in this chapter.

Pastor Jim: [00:27:06] All right. I hope that was helpful to you. Thank you for calling the program. And let’s go back to our email. I have one here said, “did the Apostle Peter teach? If you stay a backslider, you will become lost”? Interesting.

Pastor Andy: [00:27:21] Yeah, well they’re getting that from 2nd Peter chapter 2. I believe it is verses 20 and 21. It says there. “For if, after they escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them, and they are overcome. The last state has become worse than the first for them than the first”. And then it says, “for be better for them. For if they had not known the way of righteousness, than having known turn from the Holy command delivered to them”. Verse 22, it has happened to them according to the true proverb, a dog returns to its vomit.  So, I guess, is how you pronounce that after washing returns to wallowing in the mire. So, there’s really two audiences in 2nd Peter.

First is his immediate audience that he’s writing to, which consists of believers. But at the same time, you’ve got these false teachers that have come in and are, you know, that’s who Peter is critiquing these false teachers. That’s group number two. I’m of the persuasion that these false teachers are unsaved. And I think that largely because of verse 21, it would better would be better for them had they not known the way of righteousness. I can’t see that ever being saved said of a saved person. So it’s like they knew the truth and they rejected the truth, but to whom much is given, much is required. And so their knowledge of the truth is only increasing their level of judgment that they’ll endure in the final judgment. So since that’s their unbelieving state, it’d be better for them if they had never been exposed to the truth at all. So I think it’s not talking about a loss of salvation.  I think it’s talking about unsaved people having an exposure to the truth, but never trusted in the truth.

Pastor Jim: [00:29:26] All right. Great answer, great question. And folks, we’re so very sorry, but we’re going to have to bring this program to an end. We realize it was a short program this evening and we apologize for that. We had some trouble getting to the station. So pray for us next time that we’ll be able to get down here and we’ll have a full hour of Question and Answers. Thank you so much for calling in. Thank you for your participation. God bless you. Pray for us. We’re praying for you and we’ll see you next time on KHCB’s Question and Answer program.  Good night.