Brother Lowell maybe if you want to give that first question again for the recording there. Why is God waiting thousands of years to come back? Okay, and so what I indicated before we realized we didn't have the recording going is that there are some things about this that are mysterious to us. We don't understand God's timeline fully, but I think that 2 Peter 3 offers us a little bit of insight into why there is this delay. And something I did want to mention is that we should know that the disciples apparently had some expectation that Jesus could have returned within their lifetime. It's notable that when you come to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 and you find Paul's description of the rapture, that he says, we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds. And so there was this expectation on the part of the Apostle Paul that he could have been part of that generation that would see the Lord return. Of course, we know that that was not to be. But I think that 2 Peter chapter 3 offers us a little bit of insight as to why that is the case. So you have in 2 Peter 3, notice verse 9. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come as a repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation of godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat." So what is suggested here is ultimately that things work out in God's timeline, particularly in regard to the timing of Christ's return, the rapture, the tribulation and of course ultimately his return to earth. Ultimately I think we have to say that that delay is due to the fact that there are still souls that God is drawing to himself that will come to repentance in this church age. And what we have to conclude is that God is not yet finished building this body of Christ that ultimately will constitute the bride of Christ that Of course, you will have the marriage supper of the lamb taking place, but God's program for the church is not yet complete. God is still adding people to the body of Christ, and we will not see the rapture of the church until God is complete with building up that body with all the members that he has ordained would be part of that body. What is particularly striking in 2 Peter 3, and this is remarkable language that's given in verse 12, Peter urges his audience, he says, he urges them to be this manner of persons that they're pursuing this holy lifestyle, they're pursuing godliness, and he says in verse 12, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God. And as mysterious as this is to us, there seems to be an indication here that Christians can actually speed up the time of the Lord's return through their behavior in this life. Now, how all of that works in the plan and promises of God, I have to admit, that's well above my pay grade. But I'm just taking the scripture as it stands here in this passage. So that is an excellent question. I think at the end of the day, we have to say we don't know for sure, other than we know that God has a plan for the church, and he still has members that he wants to bring into the church before Christ comes in the rapture. Okay, two questions together. Do animals have souls? Do they go to heaven? And that requires your expertise, but I gotta tell you, it's a real stretch for me to think that cats are going to heaven. But go ahead, Pastor. Yeah, and I guess that depends on whether you're a cat person or a dog person. I will tell you that this is not, when we think about animals and, you know, eternity and so forth. This is something that I don't know that the biblical data is as clear as we might like it to be. I will give you a very simple answer and you may find this answer to be surprising. My answer is I think yes, I think we will see our pets again in heaven and that is a conclusion that I come to based off of my understanding of the character of God. I believe that God is a merciful and gracious God and I just that that's just the way that I envision God being now admittedly. I am reasoning Admittedly on a human level. I I'm not giving you a specific chapter in verse I to support that conclusion. The question about whether animals have souls, I guess that gets into maybe trickier territory as to how do you define a soul precisely. There are some who have suggested that the soul is part of the image of God in man and that that's what distinguishes man from animals. there is really not any firm chapter and verse that would lead us to that conclusion. I would simply say that the image of God is any way in which man resembles God. And what you see there in the book of Genesis, when God explains how he made man in his image, he said, let us make man in our image. What's the next phrase? After our likeness. And I take it that the word likeness is intended to explain the word image. So the image of God is any way in which man is like God. So I don't think that we have a very clear indicator that the soul is exactly what distinguishes man from animals. We do know that man is unique. We do know that human life is uniquely sacred. We alone are made in the image of God. And we know, of course, that we are given the freedom to consume meat after the flood, after Noah leaves the ark. That permission is explicitly given in the text of Genesis chapter 9. But I am inclined to believe that in maybe a way that is beyond what we might be able to comprehend, I do think and I do expect that we will see our pets again. So for you pet lovers, maybe that's an encouragement to you. Okay, how did people go to heaven before Jesus died? Yeah, the simple explanation is that people in the Old Testament were saved on credit, okay? That is an explanation that has traditionally been given by theologians. So we recognize that the payment on the Calvary had not yet been provided. But we do recognize that you had people in the Old Testament that had faith in the coming Messiah. They had faith that God would bring the Messiah. He would bring his plans to pass. And so through their faith in the coming promise of God, they were saved. And yeah, I mean, admittedly, we're kind of using human terminology there to say that they were saved on credit, but I think that's the best way to explain it. We do have explicit instances of even Elijah and Enoch, for example, who went directly into the presence of God even without having to die. And so evidently that is possible even prior to Calvary. So that would be my explanation is they had faith and the payment for sin would be provided and so they were essentially saved on credit in the Old Testament. Expound some on being in the world but not of the world. Is there a compromise in the church and among God's people today? Now that's a good question. Yeah, and you do find that language used in scripture. That, for example, in fact, I think that exact phrase is what appears in John chapter 17. that Jesus in his high priestly prayer he prays not that God would take his people out of the world but that he would preserve them from the wicked one. And so there's this indication that we are in the world but we are not of the world. So it's a fine line to walk and that really entails a lot of issues that even good godly people might have disagreements over. And You probably, many of you, you've been in churches where the real sticking point is not with the theory, right? We know, okay, we're supposed to be in the world but not of the world. But what does that really practically look like? And there are issues where Christians are going to come to different viewpoints in terms of application. For example, with particular forms of entertainment or styles of dress. The question becomes, to what extent are we simply reflecting non-sinful elements in the culture, and then to what extent are we really becoming like the world? And I don't know that those questions are always easy to answer. I might direct your attention back to the conference that we had last year with Dr. Leedy. Dr. Leedy gave a lot of very good biblical data because I think what all too often tends to happen with these kinds of discussions is that, especially in kind of our fundamental circles, there's a lot of heat and not a lot of light, right? You get some preacher that really gets going behind the pulpit and, you know, slamming against the pulpit and screaming about various things, but not really giving a lot of biblical rationale behind the position. And I think what Dr. Leedy helped us to see is that there are some biblical principles that we can use to evaluate these types of issues. So I think we have to be careful and recognize that we're not all going to have the exact same convictions about every single issue that might come down the pike, but there will be a recognition that there are some standards that we need to set up. probably the most important issue we need to recognize is not the particular standards that we erect in our own individual Christian lives, but simply the fact that there should be standards, there should be boundaries that keep us from going off into the world. So I think that those issues are going to be probably more pressing as our culture is becoming more and more loosed from its Christian roots. It is becoming more challenging. When you think about the offerings of Hollywood, for example, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find, quote, family-friendly entertainment. Even some of the more mundane types of programs that Hollywood is putting out, they're tolerating more and more, they're opening the door more and more to these really anti-biblical ideologies. So we really have to be very much on our guard when it comes to these things. But there is also a very real responsibility. I mean, God has not called us to be monks, right? We are to be in the world, and so we have to be very careful about this mentality that, well, we're just gonna kind of shield ourselves from any kind of worldly influence. We're gonna talk to as few non-Christians as possible. That obviously is going to be very deleterious to our witness in this world. So I think we need to pray for a lot of wisdom, and I would just encourage you again to listen to those messages by Dr. Leedy, because I think that he lays out the biblical rationale in probably a far better way than what I'm gonna be able to do in this short Q&A session. Okay, reading, just started a booklet on faith. It's a simple teaching of faith. And the author, two things, they would like to speak to bring them together. He talked about, people talk about, come as to the Lord as like a child or childlike faith, but he then stresses, but not childish. And then also he talked about faith is based on knowledge versus a blank faith. So if you can thread those together. Yeah, so I think that those are actually helpful clarifiers, because I do think that when some people think of childlike faith, that is what they think of. They think of childish faith. I remember a few years ago, the church I was in, there was a lady that was, she had visited for several Sundays, she was visiting from another town, and I was having a conversation with somebody in the church, somebody apparently, I can't remember what the topic of conversation was. It was obviously somebody who knew that I was getting training in Bible and theology and was wanting to discuss a fairly meaty topic. And that lady just simply responded by saying, well, I don't worry about those things. I just believe whatever my pastor tells me. That's not a good mentality. I would not encourage you to do that even with me. In fact, maybe especially with me, okay? That is really not healthy. And that really is a type of childish approach that says that we don't want to get too deep into the word of God. We just want somebody to kind of spoon feed us. That is not healthy for our Christian growth. So when you have Jesus explaining that unless you become like a little child, you humble yourself, you won't enter the kingdom of heaven. The idea there really is more on the humility, the recognition of personal weakness and dependence. We acknowledge that we're nothing, we're weak, we're little in the eyes of the world even. And so we desperately need the grace of God. That is what Jesus is indicating with the need for childlike faith. That doesn't mean that we maintain kind of this childish understanding of the scripture and we don't want to go any further. Because we are told repeatedly in the New Testament to press on toward maturity. Hebrews and First Corinthians, both using that illustration of the milk versus the meat of the word. And there is a need not just to be content with John 3.16 for our whole Christian lives, but to be willing to go deeper into the word of God so that we can grow, so that we can learn, and ultimately so that we can be more conformed to the image of Christ. So yes, I think all of those clarifiers are very helpful, and I would echo, I don't know what booklet it is that all of that came from, but I think those are helpful reminders. Are the elect considered in higher esteem than the angels in heaven? Ooh, that is a good question. Yeah, part of the difficulty might come with the understanding of that word esteem. You do have in Psalm 8, for example, where it is said that man was made lower than the angels. So there is some sense in which angels have more power, more capabilities than we have. So we recognize that. I think there's a sense in which I could say, though, that that's true, because we do recognize that mankind is central to God's plan, that out of everything that God made, man is uniquely made in the image of God. And everything that we read about in biblical history, it all centers on mankind. And yes, the angels have an important role to play in all of that, but I think that really when you look in Ephesians chapter one, for example, you recognize God doing all of this for the praise of the glory of his grace. And so that ultimately brings us to his purpose for the church, the elect, if you want to consider that more broadly, all of those that he has chosen in Christ. That, yeah, I guess I could say that that's true, that we are, in a sense, that we are held in higher esteem than the angels because of our preeminent place in the plan and promises of God. And it's notable, by the way, that when Jesus came to Earth, he didn't come as an angel. He came as the God-man, right? And it is as the God-man that he is seated at the right hand of God even now. So, yeah, I think that would lend even greater support to that idea. that mankind, and specifically the people that God has chosen to come to faith in Him, that those would even be in higher esteem than the angels. Good question. Okay, this is a simple question, and I don't know if it's just for church or for individuals or both, but suggestions on outreach. Suggestions on outreach, okay. Yeah, and I don't know that I have the final answer when it comes to this. It is, I think, probably the most effective things that I've seen through the years. And again, I'm not speaking as any type of expert. I'm just speaking, trying to reflect the Bible, of course, and just kind of reflecting human experiences I've encountered in churches. I know I've repeated this before, but it has been cited by Church Growth experts that most people that come into the doors of a church come because they were invited by somebody else in that church. And I have found that to be true since coming here. And yeah, we've occasionally, we've come across people that have seen us online or, you know, maybe they listened to sermon audio or something like that. But most people that visit this church come because they were invited by one of you. Usually not me, by the way. Usually it's one of you that has taken the initiative because you all have connections that I don't have. You know people, you have neighbors, you have friends, you have circles of influence that are well beyond my circle of influence that I have. So I think that a lot of the outreach that takes place in churches is really more of a grassroots type of thing. And I don't diminish these more aggressive methods of evangelism. I mean, yes, there are people that are reached by, you know, handing them a gospel tract, even by knocking on doors, which I'm, you know, I'm not as excited about knocking on doors per se, but there have been people that have been reached by that. Praise the Lord. But I think that you would find that most people that are reached in churches are reached more on a grassroots type of level because there's somebody in that church that they've made a connection with, they've come somehow into a church through a special meeting or even just a typical Lord's Day service through the influence of someone else. So that would be, I would say suggestions for outreach. I think the best thing that if you're looking for for practical advice on this front, I think the best thing you can do is to maximize those relationships that you have. Whether it's people in your neighborhood, whether it's friendships, people that you've encountered, coworkers perhaps, as the Lord opens up doors. And you have to be very careful, I mean, because obviously you may be in a situation, I mentioned coworkers, you may be in a situation where you're not on the clock going to be able to give a 45-minute gospel presentation, obviously. But you seize those little moments, right, where the Lord, you know, might open a door. I would suggest pray to the Lord that the Lord would open doors. Because sometimes when we try to force doors open, that doesn't go as well, right? Pray for the Lord to open those doors. Pray for the Lord to give you boldness. And take advantage of those opportunities that you have with you know, people that you know. And again, I wouldn't diminish the more aggressive types of things with, you know, passing out tracts and so forth. There can be value to that. And, you know, we will do things like that from time to time at events where we'll hand out literature. But I think the most effective things tend to happen with you and your spheres of influence. And that's what we've been hitting at in 1 Peter, is it not? That godly conversation, as we find in the King James. that lifestyle that attracts the attention of unbelievers, and it is that that really opens up those doors for people to ask a reason for the hope that is in us. So I would say that would be the strongest counsel that I might give. You know, even simple things that you could do. You know, you invite somebody over for a meal. Maybe you could start an informal Bible study with someone, you know, that has questions that would be willing to look into those things. But even, you know, I know that it's sometimes diminished by preachers, even inviting someone to church. You know, you may not have all the answers, but you can say, hey, you know, you come Sunday morning, you know, we have a pastor that preaches the Bible, you'll hear a lot more about this. So I think all of those things are things that I might suggest to you in terms of your personal outreach. Okay, kind of a long question here. Through the years I have known of many Christians who at some point in their lives have come to a time of doubting their salvation. Some were told by preachers or others that they needed to repeat the steps they initially took when they were saved, but this time they need to make sure that they really mean it. And the types of things I believe they're talking about are Romans 10, 9, 10, confessing with the mouth, believing with the heart, or 1 John 1, 9, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So here are the questions. What would you tell them to do? And how would you counsel them to know if they are saved or not? And in answering that, what are the evidences of truly being saved? And what are the evidences of not being saved? Oh, that's a heavy question. Kind of meaty. And it's, of course, more than one question, I guess. Yeah, well, how would you counsel? OK, so I think there's. First of all, I think what we need to recognize is that there are a lot of different reasons that someone might doubt his or her salvation. So sometimes I think that preachers can take a very reductionistic type of approach to this and assume that every single person is in exactly the same type of situation. I think that part of wisdom is recognizing that people come from different backgrounds, they have different experiences. And when it comes to something like assurance of salvation, there are a number of different contributing factors. And depending on the particular situation, I might approach the individuals differently. So I know we have made reference before to 2 Peter chapter 1. In fact, you could look there now since we're in 2 Peter. But you have in verses 5 through 8, you have all these descriptions of these things that we are to add to our faith. And it is said in verse 8, if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be unbarren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Notice verse 9. But he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. There's an indicator that a person might lack assurance because of problems with spiritual growth. So there are areas where they should be progressing in their Christian life. They are not progressing. They are deteriorating in certain areas of their life. And so because of that, they lack assurance. So that is one factor. One very common factor is a lot of people tend to look to their emotions for assurance. And you've heard these testimonies where people say, well, I came to Christ and all of a sudden the grass was greener and the sky was bluer, and yeah, okay, fine. But, To expect that that's necessarily going to be the normative experience of everyone, I think, is far-fetched, because scripture does not associate assurance of salvation simply with our emotions or our feelings. There is a joy that comes from serving the Lord, but we don't put our stock first and foremost in something that we feel. Ultimately, our assurance has to be based on what Christ has done, not on what we feel. there's a certain way I might approach an individual like that, really ultimately directing them toward the promises of God rather than kind of their shifting emotions which are prone to change over time, right? Even if someone at one time might feel like the grass is greener, the sky is bluer and so forth, they might reach a really depressed point of life where they feel the total opposite of that, right? So that's another type of scenario. I think that a lot of Christians have just been confused about the role of experience in general. And typically, in our circles, the way that assurance has been approached has been this idea that, okay, you need to concentrate and you need to think in your mind's eye back to that time when you professed faith in Christ. And you think, okay, I remember when I was eight years old, Mrs. So-and-so in her Sunday school class, she knelt beside me, and well, at that time, I have to think, did I really mean that when I prayed that prayer? I don't know that that is a very helpful way to approach assurance of salvation. And really what I would argue is that when you look in the New Testament, assurance of salvation is dependent more on one's present walk with the Lord than with looking back on a past experience. So for example, if you go over to Hebrews chapter three, Hebrews chapter three, Hebrews 3 and verse 14, you notice what the author says here. He says, for we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end. The emphasis is not simply on trying to remember, okay, what did I do when I was eight years old? Or, you know, whatever the age might have been. The emphasis is on the fact that if there was a time when you genuinely trusted in Christ, that your confidence will hold on steadfast to the end. Now, yes, there's gonna be wavering, right? You know, you're gonna have ebbs and flows in your Christian life, but as a pattern of life, your confidence in Christ will continue, it will persevere if it is indeed genuine. So what I would urge someone to do is not to try to strain and think, you know, what did I do in the past, but to simply ask, are you trusting in Christ right now, right? And really, a book that is designed to help us with that is the book of 1 John. Because 1 John really lays out several practical evidences in a person's life that that person is genuinely trusting in Christ. So you go through 1 John, you know, you find things like love of the brethren, for example. You find you know, our posture toward the world, for example. And as you go through 1 John, you find that there are certain evidences that will hold true in a life in a person who is genuinely trusting in Christ. Again, those evidences, you're going to have ebbs and flows with those things, right? But there is going to be a consistent pattern of God working those things in us. if we genuinely belong to the Lord. So, yeah, I think that, again, we just wanna be very careful when we're counseling someone like this that we don't try to make this into a cookie-cutter type response. Because the cookie-cutter responses are always the easy responses, right? The idea is that you can simply memorize, and this is, unfortunately, boy, I can get myself in trouble here, but this is my complaint with a lot of what passes for, quote, biblical counseling. And we need biblical counseling, but I'm afraid that so many that have approached the discipline of counseling have seen this in sort of a formulaic type of approach. And the emphasis is more on memorizing kind of a certain approach that you're going to take rather than listening to the other person and trying to glean how you might be of best help to that person from the scriptures. So that's what I would do with anyone is try to listen to where that person is at, where they might be struggling so that I could provide the best biblical counsel for that person's situation. I do think that it is dangerous to try to just simply, if you have somebody that comes to you and they're struggling with doubts about salvation, to just simply say, okay, well, okay, well, repeat this prayer after me. you probably are going to create even more confusion if you do that. Because what is likely to happen is that now, instead of that person struggling with one prayer that they prayed in the past, now they're going to think, OK, well, I had this one back here, and I had this one back here. Did I mean any of them? All you're going to do is just put fuel on the fire of that person's confusion. So it is very rare that I would ever do something like that. Maybe if I had very, very clear indicators that this person was obviously not born again, but it would be very rare because most of the people that I would deal with on a pastoral level are people that otherwise give evidence that they belong to the Lord. And they might be struggling simply because of emotions or because of their memory of an experience, and I wanna try to give them biblical help to navigate those types of things. So I hope that answers all of those questions that I assume you probably came up with since I see the little pad of paper you've got there. I just found that blown out in the parking lot. All right, all right, very good. Okay, here you go. Is baptism only for clergy to perform, if not, as the Great Commission says, to go and baptize, Should women baptize men? Hmm. We certainly don't have, we do have examples in scripture of non-clergy members performing baptism. You would find, for example, Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts chapter eight. Philip is called an evangelist, but he is never described as a, well, I take that back. He is a church officer. He would have been a deacon if we take Acts chapter six as a reference to the first deacon. So he would have been a church officer, but not a clergy member. So we certainly do have evidence of non-clergy performing baptisms. As far as a woman baptizing a man, hmm. That is something we don't have any precedent for in scripture. We don't have anything in scripture that necessarily forbids directly a woman from baptizing. I guess I would just personally say I'd be leery of it. For one, I think that the consistent modeling we find in the New Testament is that leading God's people in worship is a function that is primarily given to men. And I think that the more of that that you farm out to women, the more you're going to have women violating the instructions in 1 Timothy 2, not to teach, not to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. So when you have a woman performing a baptism, to me, that suggests a posture of leadership. That's something that I would be leery of again. I don't know. I certainly can't point to a chapter and verse that explicitly says that it's sinful but I think that we would have good biblical principles that would suggest that there's a boundary there. Maybe you could make a case if there is some extreme situation. Maybe a woman is serving as a single missionary in some isolated tribe in Papua New Guinea, and there's just not access to male church leaders. Maybe a case could be made in that circumstance that a woman performs the baptism because it would be better to have the baptism than not to have one, right? even if it's not performed under the circumstances that we would deem most ideal. But yeah, I think as a normative pattern, it would be best for that function to be reserved for men. But that is a good question. That is something, I admit, I have never thought of before. So kudos to whoever came up with that question. Simple question, actually a good question. Why does God not kill Satan? It was interesting, Lewis Ferry Schaefer, who taught at Dallas Seminary for many years, he was asked by a student once, you know, why did God let Satan out of the bottomless pit in the book of Revelation? And basically, Schaefer's answer was, well, if you can tell me why God allowed Satan to roam freely to begin with, I'll give you the answer. I think we basically have to say we don't know. We do know that ultimately Satan's days are numbered. We know that he is wreaking havoc in this world, but obviously it is only going to be a matter of time before Satan is cast into the bottomless pit. He'll be released temporarily at the end of the millennium to deceive the nations, at which time eventually God will cast him into the lake of fire permanently. So we know that that is his ultimate end. As to why God allowed Satan to do everything that he did, and of course taking a third of the forces of heaven with him while doing so, I don't know that we'll ever have a definitive answer to that question. We're probably dealing with things that are beyond our pay grade to understand as human beings. All we can simply say is that for whatever reason, God has decided that this, even allowing Satan in this world to do the work that he does, somehow brings him glory. Apparently greater glory than would be gotten if God hadn't decreed that Satan do everything that he do. Again, I think this is one of the things that comes back to that expression in Ephesians chapter 1, to the praise of the glory of his grace. And ultimately, when you have Satan in the world, when you have the forces of evil in this world, that makes God's grace shine all the brighter. So I think that's probably the best answer I can give. Other than that, I don't know that we could be dogmatic on why God doesn't just, you know, cast him into the lake of fire now. Very good question. I just would interject, and I think I've shared this with you, but Erwin Lutzer, former pastor of Moody Church, has written a book on Satan. It's an excellent book. And he makes the point, and he raises the question, Satan's powerful. And he said, how powerful is Satan? He said, he's every bit as powerful as God allows him to be, and not one whit more. God's in control. And he's an instrument. Maybe as a follow-up to that, I know I pointed this out before, but one of the really insightful books in understanding the work of Satan in our Bibles is the book of Job. What is very interesting is that Job, throughout the entire book, doesn't understand. He doesn't know these conversations that are taking place in heaven between God and the sons of God and, of course, Satan among them. Job is oblivious to all of that. And, of course, we know, reading it in our Bibles, we understand that Satan goes to God and he says, You let me do all this to Job. You know, let me take his family. Let me take his wealth and all that. You know, he's going to curse you to his face. Job is unaware of that. But what's interesting is that when Job loses everything, what is it that he says? The Lord gave and Satan took away. No, the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Certainly Job didn't understand all the inner workings, things that were going on with Satan, but he did know that ultimately all of this, whatever we have, whatever we don't have, it's from God. And I think that's the most important thing. The way I've heard it put is that the devil is God's devil. So we should never forget that, that anything that Satan does in this world, he only does it by God's You know permission even we want to use the word decree which sometimes we maybe shy away from that word but I think there is you know an element here where God is in control and God is using Satan for purposes that that we probably don't fully understand or appreciate and may never Okay, why did Daniel go to the lion's den? Okay, well, Daniel went to the lion's den because he disobeyed the king's decree. And you remember that there were those in the kingdom that were jealous of Daniel and the favor that was being shown to him under Darius. And so they conspired and they convinced the king to sign this decree that if anyone prayed to any other god besides the king, they would be thrown into a den of lions. And obviously Daniel could not obey that decree. And so he continued praying to the God of heaven. He would not pray to Darius, obviously. And Darius, all indications of Daniel 6 were that Darius was very regretful of signing the decree. And I think he started to pick up very quickly on the fact that this was a trap. To get Daniel. And so you find really, you know, Darius, he does this reluctantly, but you remember that the law of the Medes and Persians was considered unalterable, right? It doesn't change. And so the king had no choice but to follow through. But of course we know the Lord preserved Daniel's life. He sent his angel to stop the lion's mouths and ultimately Darius brought Daniel out of the lion's den and threw those men that had conspired against Daniel into the lion's den instead. So simply we could say that Daniel ended up in the lion's den because he decided he was going to obey God rather than men in the words of Acts chapter five. Okay, we're down to the last question, so before I read that one, are there any more questions? Did somebody think of something, get it on a card? She has a question? Go ahead, Hannah. From the mouths of babes, right? Okay, is this almost done? I don't know if Pastor has an answer to that. because this last question might take an hour. I saw Carlos, did you have a? Yeah. Okay, go ahead. I don't really have a question because I think this is an unfair question, but I would like to get your thoughts on whether or not interdex is any kind of coverage. It's a good question. My inclination is to say probably not. Now, you know, the biblical data is not quite as firm as we might like it to be. It's not as clear as we might like it to be. But it does seem that the author of Hebrews when describing Melchizedek, it describes him as like the Son of God. So it seems that there is some differentiation made between Melchizedek and Christ. But I think that the similarities that the author of Hebrews is pointing to is the fact that with Melchizedek you don't have any recorded descent, genealogical table. And so you see this commonality with the Son of God, who is obviously eternal without Father, well, of course, God, the Father being His Father, but you don't have the same kind of descent pattern. So I think that that is the point that the author of Hebrews is bringing to our attention. So I think more precisely, we would say that Melchizedek is a type of Christ, rather than saying that he is a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. There probably are some compelling evidences on the other side. Is that a belief that I'd die at the stake for? Probably not, but that's at least my inclination is to say he's probably a type of Christ, probably not a pre-incarnate appearance. All right, well good. Carlos said it, so it must be true. OK, and actually. Another late question just came in that was forgotten to be written down, but here's here's one question. Speaking about relating to individuals when we have no evidence that an unsaved person has been seeking the Lord. Should we ask them if they want to be saved? I am not finding illustrations in the scriptures where unseeking sinners were asked that question. Yeah, I think that's something we need to be extremely careful about. And on the one hand, you know, I know that people that, you know, are very aggressive about getting people to pray the sinner's prayer, many times they're very, very well-meaning, right? So I don't want to diminish the zeal. And the last thing I'd want to do is to just pour cold water on somebody who has the zeal to do that. I think we do need some sensitivity to the Spirit's work in that person's life. You do find, interestingly enough, think about the rich young ruler, okay? The rich young ruler comes to Christ. He kneels before Christ, okay? He comes seemingly with the right attitude. He says, good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life? He's asking the right question, right? I mean, how would most fundamental Baptist preachers respond to the rich young ruler? Oh, repeat this prayer after me. Well, you know, the text even tells us in Mark chapter 10 that Jesus, beholding that young man, loved him. So, you know, there's something in Christ's heart that goes out to that man. But yet, he didn't just get him to repeat a prayer. In fact, he ultimately turned him away. He said, you wanna come after me, you gotta sell everything you have, give it to the poor, and then take up your cross and follow me. Now, that's poor evangelistic strategy from the vantage point of the typical person in our circles, right? But Jesus understood his heart, right? And you realize that the rich young ruler came with much greater earnestness than what most personal workers encounter in churches like ours, right? So, you know, how much less would we want to give assurance of salvation to someone, you know, who's just kind of nodding his head and, oh, yeah, you want to go to heaven? Oh, sure, sure. Well, that doesn't necessarily mean that the Holy Spirit is working on that person's heart. So, yes, I think we should be extremely cautious about that, even the practice of the sinner's prayer. I don't think there's necessarily anything wrong with leading someone in a sinner's prayer. I mean, you notice in my sermons, we have sort of a sinner's prayer that I mentioned, you know, praying in your seat, but. It is not my goal to try to twist anyone's arm. Ultimately, I leave the results with the Lord. You know, what did Paul say in verse Corinthians? You know, I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So we we want to entrust that to the Lord, that the Lord would be the one that that adds to our numbers, the one the Lord would draw people to himself. And I understand, you know, we can get frustrated and we can think, boy, you know, we just want to see people get saved. We want to see people come to Christ. And I do, too. But we don't want to usurp the role of the Holy Spirit in doing that. We want to make sure that these are the Lord's converts and not ones that we are twisting arms and we're doing kind of manipulative games in order to get people to make professions of faith. We want to trust that the Holy Spirit will use his word in the hearts of sinners. And yes, we should be earnest with sinners. We should warn them. But I think we need to be very careful about trying to, you know, say, hey, you know, we'll just repeat this prayer. And, you know, boom, you've got it. We need to really wait on the Lord, I think, and see evidence that the person is really seeking Christ before we want to make any step like that. And a simple follow up to that rich man. Is it fair to say that Jesus really wasn't rejecting him? He wasn't declaring him lost. But he then mentioned it's hard for a rich man to go, easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man. And the disciples said, well then, who can be saved? And then he said, with God, all things are possible. And it seems to me he's saying, that man can still be saved, but he's not ready yet. I mean, ultimately, some of the misconceptions I think we have when we read through that passage is that when Jesus makes that declaration You know, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. I think in our minds, what we think of, we think of the rich man as kind of that sinister, evil type of man, right? That, you know, that Ebenezer Scrooge type figure. That's, when we think of rich man, that's what comes to our mind. We have to realize, in the Jewish culture, that is not the type of image that would have come to a person's mind. the Jewish culture would have understood someone wealthy, they would have understood that person's wealth to be a sign of blessing from God. And so actually, Jesus' statement is that it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Really, that would have been completely shocking. It would have turned everything on its head for the Jewish culture. Because what Jesus is asserting is the opposite of what people would have thought. They would have thought that this was an indicator of God's blessing. And actually, Jesus is saying, no, really, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. And really, what he is pointing out there is not just the futility of riches and being able to get to heaven, but the futility of anything, any human resource to get to heaven. And that's why he says, with men, this is what? Impossible. And ultimately, what is being pointed out there is the fact that salvation is of the Lord. It has to be a work of God, because in our human resources, we'll never get there. It must be a work of grace. Very good question. So here's the new last question. Any others. Yeah. Feel free. Don't be shy if you've got one. Referring to your message this morning Israel Iran U.S. and you made a statement I won't be able to quote correctly but you felt that you talked about that the Lord shows favor towards those that show favor towards Israel. And you made a statement something along the lines you felt that God would bless President Trump and his administration. or being supportive of Israel. What do you think, give some ideas or descriptions of what you think that might look like when we say that God will bless a country or administration in this situation? What might we say? Yeah, that's something where I would find it hard to be dogmatic because we understand that life is complex, right? I mean, we understand President Trump is up in years, He could always have some kind of unexpected health incident that we didn't see coming. So I wanna be very careful not to give some kind of dogmatic pronouncement that, well, God is gonna richly bless President Trump and he's gonna live so many more years. I don't know that we could, that would be far, more pressing than what the biblical data would allow us to say, I think. But I do think that what you see there in the Abrahamic Covenant, there is a promise there. That's why I kind of tried to hedge my wording a bit to indicate that if it's not President Trump personally, it might be his family, it might be just his his administration more broadly. And in terms of precisely what that looks like, I just have to, I don't know precisely. All I can do is simply look at the biblical data. And by the way, something I might mention in this regard is that what we have seen in the Christian church over the last maybe couple decades or so, you've seen this resurgence of replacement theology. this idea that the church replaces Israel, and that has gone in tandem with the resurgence of covenant theology more broadly. And so there is, I've noticed a lot of the talking heads online, I guess there was an interview that Ted Cruz had with Tucker Carlson, and Ted Cruz made the point that really these are God's covenant people, and that Israel is on the side of God essentially, and so we are obligated to support God's people, You've had a lot of the talking heads online saying that that is not sound reasoning, that Israel really is those who trust in Christ. Those are the real Israel, and so this idea that we should support the modern state of Israel is misguided. And I would very, very strongly disagree with that reasoning. Now yes, I understand the fact that Israel is in the land in unbelief right now. I understand that. They are not embracing their Messiah. In fact, there are massive numbers of people, I've heard statistics, and I don't know that I can quote the statistics, but I've heard statistics of large numbers of people in modern state of Israel that are atheists. They are ethnically Jewish, but they don't even believe in the existence of God. So we understand that Israel is in the land, they are in unbelief, but We also, I think, have to understand that God's promises are irrevocable. They are without repentance. God has bound himself in a covenant relationship with his people. And so, yes, I do think that the promises of the Abrahamic covenant are still in force. And I just, I have to imagine, you know, you look at that language in Matthew chapter 25 with the sheep and goats judgment that Christ pronounces blessing, he says, you know, when I was hungry, you fed me, and so forth, and you know, some people have used that as kind of the rationale, that's why we should help the poor. Well, okay, there might be a secondary application there, but really, the primary application is with nations and how they treat Israel during the tribulation period. And there is promised blessing for those that are favorable toward the nation of Israel during that time. So I do have to believe that those promises are still in force from the Abrahamic Covenant, that there is blessing that God will bring to this nation. And he has blessed this nation, by the way. Because historically, the United States, for all of our flaws, for all of our very serious problems, we have continued to support the state of Israel. And what we have seen, I don't think it's any understatement to say that out of any president in American history, the best friend that Israel has ever had has been Donald Trump. And, you know, for all the flaws that Donald Trump has, right? We know, there are many. Okay, I don't diminish that, but what am I more concerned with? Am I more concerned with the fact that Donald Trump uses some inflammatory rhetoric on social media, or am I more concerned with God's program for his covenant people in the nation of Israel and the fact that Donald Trump has chosen to be a friend to the nation of Israel? Well, I have to say, in the plan and promises of God, the second is far more significant. That doesn't diminish any of his flaws, any of his character issues. But I do think that that should mean something to us as Christian people. It's a tremendous source of frustration to me that you've got these supposed Christian talking heads who somehow would have imagined that Kamala Harris was a godlier choice than Donald Trump. It baffles the mind, to be quite frank. I just, when you consider the broader worldview issues at play here, I just don't understand how you could make a compelling argument that that is the case. So yeah, it would be hard to quantify exactly how that's going to play out. I do think that the Lord, in some way, shape, or form, is going to bless Trump for his support of the nation of Israel, maybe in ways that even he wouldn't expect, I don't know. And I would encourage all of us to continue to pray that the Lord would give our president a clear head on these issues. But with all the problems we have as a nation, that is one thing that I find tremendously encouraging. So yeah, I probably could wax more eloquent about that, but from where I stand, that's probably maybe about all I need to say at this point. That's it, Pastor. All right. Well, thank you. Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Brother Lowell, and thank you, congregation, for your good questions. We had some very good questions this go-around. And we'll continue to do these periodically. We don't do them every week or anything like that, but if you didn't get a question in this time, I'm sure there'll be another opportunity at some point in the future. And of course, you're always welcome to ask questions more informally as well. Amen. All right, well at this time we'll invite Brother Carlos to come with our closing hymn. Just a comment that I would make. I appreciate the pastor being willing to do these question and answer sessions. If you think about