Episode 37

Pastor Paul LeBoutillier Pastor Paul: We have some more of your Bible questions. You've been sending them in. We're going to do our best to answer them. Let's see what we've got for this episode.

Alright. Our first question is from Tracy. She says,

Wow. This is hard. First of all, Tracy, I'm sorry for what your mom said and I'm sorry that you've gone through the kind of hurt that has driven you to harm yourself. First of all, the statement that was said to you that God is deeply angry and that you'll be sent to hell is not true. That's the first thing that I want to say. That is just simply not true. God loves you. It says here that you have repented. That means you've turned away from it and you're not doing it anymore and I am very, very glad to hear that. But obviously there were reasons for it and you need to bring those to the Lord. Tracy, if you haven't yet come to Jesus and just received him as your Savior, that's the first step. Coming to him and saying, I'm a sinner. I need you. I love you, and I need you to heal my heart. We all are recovering in some way, shape, or form. We're all recovering sinners. All of us and none of us have arrived and she asks here, am I oppressed by demons? First of all, oppression simply means to kind of be harassed and demonic spirits can do that. Can they even cause somebody to harm themselves? Yeah, sure. Have I been oppressed by demonic spirits? Yes, I have. That doesn't mean that someone is possessed. We need to really differentiate between oppressed and possessed. It doesn't mean that you are invested with a demonic spirit. It just means the demons have been after you and very possibly that could be part of what's going on here. But I don't think that we should focus on what demons are doing. We should focus on what God wants to do in our lives. So, we come to the Lord and we say, Lord, I need you. I am so messed up. My heart has been so hurt by circumstances and life in this broken world. I come to you. I confess my need of you. I ask you to fill me with your Holy Spirit. Fill me with life and show me how you want my life to be and let that be the course of our future. So that's what I would say to Tracy. Be careful about listening to people who are just saying things that they don't know if it's true or not. What we know for sure is that when we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1st John 1:9, that's a promise from God's Word and that's a promise for Tracy or anyone else who has ever self-harmed and there is life and freedom from those things in Jesus.

And then I would also really like to add to not allow this to drive a difficult wedge between her and her mother. Look, I'm a mom. We can tend to overreact. We can tend to say things, our kids are in their 20s, 30s and 40s now and we can laugh now about things that we maybe said when we overreacted, and I think it's always wise to just hold that as an option. That parents can sometimes say things that were cruel, they didn't mean, so just be really careful about that part of it, too.

It's very possible that Tracy's mom was just scared. Just scared by what her daughter was doing and her own fear for the future just drove her to say things.

But I'm glad she reached out and wrote a letter and asked.

Me too, me too. So, Tracy, God loves you. Hang in there.

Randy says,

Well, using that scripture, first of all, the church doesn't appear in the Old Testament. So when Jeremiah 31:31 and following makes reference to the new covenant that God is going to be making with them, he's not going to speak about Gentiles. He's not going to speak naturally in that passage about bringing that gospel to the church. You have to use the whole counsel of God's Word and we do. So what we do when you're talking to people and they're asking, it says in Jeremiah that this new covenant is for the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Well, it's not for us. Then we go to the Great Commission in Matthew 28. And then we get to Romans chapter 11 and the Apostle Paul who, by the way, is the Apostle to the Gentiles, which he wasn't even all that crazy about. He really had a heart for his own people, the Jews.

He did.

But God sent him to the Gentiles. But in Romans chapter 11, Paul explains how Gentiles have been grafted in contrary to nature and into the vine, which is Christ. And whereas Israel was one of the natural branches, the Gentiles have been grafted into the vine as well. So, we take a whole counsel approach to understanding that the new covenant that was spoken of so beautifully in Jeremiah 31 is for all people.

Jacob says,

First of all, if God speaks on the issue of foreigners, he speaks on the issue essentially to Israel and to what was going on with them. And they were to treat foreigners in a kind and godly way. God wanted them to treat them honestly and fairly. And I think that is enough of the heart of the Lord for us as it relates to foreigners that it would be good for all nations to apply that simple idea that foreigners should be treated honorably.

With dignity.

Here's the real question. What happens when foreigners choose not to be honorable, as they come into another country? The fact of the matter is each nation is responsible before God to make fair laws, and the people of those nations are responsible to the government to obey those laws. The United States of America has very specific laws as it relates to foreigners. The United States of America is not against people coming into this land from foreign countries. I'm very glad because my own forefathers came to this country from outside a few generations ago. What the United States has laws about are people coming into this country illegally. So, the real question here is should those foreigners be required to obey the law of the land? Yes, of course, they should. Whatever country, doesn't matter whether they're coming to the United States or Germany or France, or the UK, they should know the laws of the land before they immigrate and they should make a determination to obey those laws. So once foreigners come into the land and if they're here legally and so forth, we should treat them with the same dignity and grace and compassion that we would treat anyone with. In fact, we should treat them that way even if they're not here legally. They may have to stand for what they've done wrong, but we still treat them with compassion. But compassion does not circumvent the law. That's the important thing that I think Americans need to understand.

One thing I'm thinking about here with this question is the great exodus, when God brought the people out of Egypt, there was a mixed multitude among them.

Yes, there was.

There were Hebrews.

They were not all Jews.

No, they were not, and God gave Moses laws for that mixed multitude, for the foreigners, what that was required of them to basically graft themselves, to integrate themselves, with the Hebrew people and quite a bit was required. In other words, they needed to become like them to integrate. I think that's one biblical example that we have of how God—this question was, what do we see in the Bible - that's how God dealt with it in the beginning.

Right.

Next question. It's, oh boy.

Another tough name?

Yeah, another tough name. But someone said,

So, the question here is, can a Christian remarry after a divorce for unbiblical reasons? And I'm assuming they're kind of asking the question, they perhaps had an unbiblical divorce, or the person they want to marry perhaps had an unbiblical divorce. It really doesn't matter.

Sure.

In those situations, if the divorce was for what we call unbiblical grounds. In other words, it didn't involve sexual immorality or unfaithfulness. It was for other reasons. The Bible is very clear on that. Paul says in 1 Corinthians that those people should just remain unmarried. If there was a separation and a divorce for unbiblical grounds, then they should just remain unmarried. So, the answer is no. Here's the interesting question I get usually as a follow-up. Well, doesn't God want me to be happy? And that's used as kind of a manipulative question to kind of throw God under the bus, as it were, and to say, don't you think His rules and laws are meant for our happiness? No, actually they're meant for our holiness. Yes, God wants you to be happy, but not at the expense of morality and what is right and what is true. And the Bible lays down some very specific guidelines for what is right and good and true. And it says that if someone divorces their spouse for grounds other than what is given in the Word of God, in Matthew chapter 5, then that person should remain unmarried.

I think another follow-up question would naturally be, what about the victim of an unwanted unbiblical divorce? Whether it is the husband or the wife. They didn't initiate this. They didn't want this, but the relationship was cut off. They were divorced. Now, the question is, are they allowed to remarry?

I'm not positive that I can cover all of the details and implications of this question, because when people write to me with questions of this sort, I typically have to write them back and ask a lot of questions.

Well, people write thick books about this, what the Bible says about these matters.

About these matters because it is complex.

It is very complex.

And this person is asking the question, can a Christian remarry after a divorce for unbiblical reasons? I would have to write and ask all kinds of questions. Did you initiate the divorce? Were you a believer when you initiated the divorce? Were you the victim of a divorce? In other words, you wanted the marriage to work, but your spouse just said, I'm done. I'm gone. Was there infidelity by the spouse that initiated the divorce? Was it simply a divorce where they just fell out of love and didn't want to be with you anymore? There are so many implications here. I don't know that I can answer all of these issues. It's extremely difficult, and I think that I would be doing a disservice, frankly, to the people who are listening to this question and my answer by giving a simple answer, because there are no simple answers to the matter of divorce and remarriage. And if you're in a situation and you have questions as to whether or not you are eligible to remarry, or the person you want to marry is eligible to remarry, I would encourage those people to write in and get a personal response after we've had some discussion.

Alright. Kathy says,

I think dry is a very subjective term. What one person considers to be dry and dusty, another person thinks is fantastic. So, I would recommend David Guzik's Enduring Word Commentary. You can get it online. Just Google “enduring word David Guzik.” I'll put a link (link provided here: EnduringWord.com) in the info section and on the screen. That's my recommendation. It's free. And David Guzik is my brother in the Lord. I know him, and he's a very reputable and very faithful man of the Word.

Alright. Our next question is from Sue, and she's in Zimbabwe. “Thank you Pastor Paul and Sue for your ministry, my sister and I use your material and teachings for our studies and we have been truly blessed. My question is, what authority does a Christian actually have in Christ? When and how do we exercise that authority? Thank you for taking time to answer these questions.”

Good question. And I think that there's definitely some confusion about this because you've got preachers who are constantly talking about the anointing and the authority that is ours in Jesus, and it becomes kind of almost an indiscriminate sort of a thing where you just go around and exercise that authority. What authority do we have? We have all authority, but when and how do we exercise it? We exercise it when and how the Lord directs through His Holy Spirit and according to the direction and anointing of His Holy Spirit. I don't believe that Christians walk around with this inherent authority to speak and to do things apart from the will of God. The Bible even says, who can speak and have it happened if the Lord has not decreed it. We believe that it is through the leading of the Holy Spirit. We see this in the book of Acts. Paul is preaching and suddenly the Holy Spirit falls on him to heal someone of blindness or raise someone from the dead or whatever. Did Paul walk around with this just inherent ability to touch anyone he wanted? No! It always happens according to the leading and guiding of the Holy Spirit. So, we are at His disposal. And we do things according to His will, His timing, His direction, His prompting.

Sure. Nothing is impossible with the Lord.

Amen!

Ikern says,

This is a tender question, isn't it? But I wouldn't treat a Muslim probably who wanted to come to Christ any different than I would perhaps a woman who's married to an unbelieving husband who becomes angry at the thought of his wife becoming a Christian. I mean, both are in tender circumstances. And the fact of the matter is, following Jesus has never been safe ever. Jesus went out of His way to tell us that following Him was going to be dangerous that if they persecuted Him, just imagine what they'll do to us. So I would make sure that that person knew and understood that there's a cost to coming to Christ. And it is a dangerous proposition and they need to count the cost.

I think we should always be very cautious about telling someone else what we think they should be doing in terms of their spiritual life. We should be doing a lot more listening. What is the Lord showing you and affirming how God is guiding them rather than imposing our own ideas or our own thoughts? Obviously, there's biblical understanding that we can rest on, but I think sometimes we step a little bit beyond that.

Oh, absolutely. The last part of this question was, is it right to tell them that they can put their faith in Jesus without necessarily coming forward and letting their family know? I don't think that's a question we should even answer. That's something if they asked me about that, I would say, you pray about that.

That's what I say. We would say, what is the Lord showing you?

That's right. You pray about that. You do what the Lord tells you to do.

I pray for you.

You do what the Lord tells you to do, and he'll give you the strength to do whatever he wants you to do. We like to say where God guides, God provides. And if he's guiding them to come forward and be public in their confession, He will give them the strength to do that.

Very good. Well, that's it. That was our last question.

That's this episode. So, we'll have more of your Bible questions next time we get together. We hope you'll be with us. Until then, God bless.