If everyone could turn to Mark 8, the Gospel of Mark, in chapter 8, I am going to begin reading in verse 34, through the end of the chapter, to verse 38. Mark 8:34-38:
And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.
And I will stop reading there.
As you might know, we have been learning more about God’s judgment process. Over the last several months, we have been learning more information from the Bible regarding the true nature of God’s judgment.
We are finding that there is an element in God’s judgment that we really did not focus on much previously nor think about much, and that is shame—shame—that there is a shame associated with the judgment of God upon sinners for their sin.
We have been hearing a lot about that, so today I would like for us to think a little bit more, especially about Mark 8:38, where Jesus says, and wherever we read, actually, in the Bible, “Jesus says”; but here:
Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words…
So He says that whoever is “ashamed of Me and My Words”:
…of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh…
So there is a relationship here between those who would be ashamed of Christ and His Words, and Him, God, being ashamed of those individuals who are embarrassed by the Word of God.
They blush. They are uncomfortable. They hear the Gospel. They know the Gospel. But when around people, they are uneasy, uncomfortable. Maybe not all people, maybe certain people they can give the Gospel to.
Like, for instance, it is wonderful when we go into all the world with the Gospel. And I would never say anything against that, but it is far easier to go to India with tracts and stand on a street corner in India and give tons of people the Gospel, and the reason is because they are not like us. They are not like us. I do not pick up on their mannerisms as quickly as I do in my own country or in my own city.
I remember in India, they have a certain neck movement that means “yes” or “no.” And they could have been, in their expressions, expressing the same disdain for the Gospel as people here in America, and I just did not know it. So I was carefree. “Oh, yes; this is a joy! This is a joy!”
But when you are standing on a corner in downtown Philadelphia or in Upper Darby, 69th Street, or in West Philadelphia at an L stop, or wherever you are, and you know the people and you know the look, the smirk, the smirk, “Yeah, right,” the look that you can get, it says a lot. It really says a lot. And the closer you are to that type of person, the more it can actually impact you to where you can even be very uncomfortable.
Here comes somebody walking down the street. I really do not want to give this person a tract. Here comes somebody completely unlike me, no problem, no problem. And that has something to do with what Jesus said, “A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house,” because there is more shame. There is more shame, and yet Christ is telling us something critically important:
Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words…of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed…
And that is really saying quite a lot.
Let us turn to Romans 1. In Romans 1:15-16, it says:
So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ…
The Apostle Paul says, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel.” And what is the Gospel? The Gospel is the Bible. It is the whole Bible. It is from Geneses through Revelation. Whatever the Bible says, that is the Gospel, that is the Word of God.
To show that, look at Ephesians 1:13. There, it says:
In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation…
The “Word of Truth, the Gospel”; it is the Scripture.
Or also, look at 1 Peter 1:25. It says:
But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
It is one and the same. God’s Word, the Bible, is the Gospel.
Last week, one of the kids had a softball game. I was really busy, so I carried my Bible to the field, sat on the bench, opened it up, and I was working. I was studying and doing certain things. You know what? Everybody knew I was there. I mean, previously—I am kind of a quiet guy—and I could go and sit on the bench and sit down and watch the game and you would not know that I was there. You really would not. But everybody on that side of the field and from the other dugout knew that I was there!
This is because there is such a presence—and not about me—I know that for a fact—but about this Book, about the Bible. You could carry anything in the world and everything is game, everything is acceptable—whatever you want under the sun. Well, maybe you cannot carry an axe or something. But you could carry whatever you wanted, and it would be accepted. And yet, there is a difference with the Bible. Everybody knows, deep down, what this is. People know what this is, and they react to the Word of God.
Well, the Gospel is whatever God declares. We do not determine what the Gospel is. God determines what the Gospel is. He is the One who states it. He is the One who determines its boundaries. He is the One who has given us the Word and we just carry it. That is all we do. We carry the message of the Gospel.
You know, if you ever hand out tracts, try going to South Street in Philadelphia, try going there and just stand there for a minute, keep the tract like behind you, and you will fit in fine: people with purple hair, green hair, orange hair, Mohawks, Afros a foot high, shaved heads, people with piercings on every body part imaginable, clothing that is of the world in skimpiness, or whatever. You can see whatever craziness is out there in the world, and it is all okay. It is all okay! Then pull out the tract, and stand on the corner—and there is a difference.
You can hand out any other kind of literature, but there is a difference with the literature that says something about the Bible: “Does God Love You?”, “Did God Die for You?”. Whatever it says about the Bible, you know that, all of a sudden, there is a change in atmosphere. There is a change, and you had better be ready at that point to suffer shame, to suffer shame, because you became the lowest person on South Street. You became the lower of the low, due to the Gospel.
And yet the Apostle Paul was familiar with this in his own day, because nothing has really changed in the heart of man, as he says in Romans 1:16:
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ…
God tells us in Mark 16:15-16:
And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.
So it is not an option. It is not something where a Christian can say, “Well, I will carry the Gospel to certain people and to certain areas, but some I do not feel good about so I am not going to go there.”
It is not an option. Go into “all the world” and “preach the Gospel” to everybody, everybody. No matter what color, no matter what standing—rich or poor—no matter what age—young or old or teenagers—preach the Gospel to everybody.
I have a question for me and everyone else. Is this cool when you bring it to people who are teens or who are in their twenties? Is this cool? And by cool, you know, we used to say “cool” when I was growing up. That expression has been around awhile; it is not new. Is it cool? “Cool” means that it is acceptable, it fits in, it is something praiseworthy or noteworthy; it is a good thing. Is it cool to have the Bible, to preach the Bible, to have a tract?
If it is not cool, what does that tell you about cool? What does that say about being cool, if it is not cool? Because this is the “power of God unto salvation.” This is the only way that anybody is ever going to become saved, through the hearing of the Bible. And yet if someone is handing out tracts at a school, a high school, and some of the kids are offended or they do not like it, and they are really saying, “It is not cool, and it is not something that we would want you to do here,” then that tells you that cool has no real concern for people. There is no love in “cool.” There is no genuine goodness in the word “cool.”
As a matter of fact, if the Bible is not cool, then “cool” is not cool. If the Bible is not something that you would want your best friend to read because they can become saved and live forever in Heaven and they will not be eternally destroyed on that day, what is cool? It certainly is not the attitude and the mindset of your friends. That is very un-cool. It is very un-cool to wish that on your worst enemy, let alone your friends. You do not want your friends to hear the Gospel? You do not want your friends to be saved and spared? That is terrible. That is terrible!
We know what is really going on. What is really happening is that there is an undercurrent under the world because there is a kingdom of darkness and there is a ruler of that kingdom, who is Satan, and he does not want the Gospel to go into the world, as God commands His people to send it, because, well, it saves people and they are translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of God’s Dear Son. And he will stir up trouble in any way possible to try to keep those prisoners captive, as much as he can, so that they do not experience the salvation of God.
Let us go over to Hebrews 12, and I am going to read the first few verses. Hebrews 12:1-2:
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
So Jesus endured the Cross but despised the shame, and that is what we are learning. We are learning that there is a lot of shame involved in the judgment of God as part of the penalty for sin, and Jesus was made a spectacle, a shameful spectacle, as He had these whippings and scourgings and wore a crown of thorns and was paraded through the streets as another was carrying His Cross on the way to Calvary. In all of it, He was made to be ashamed, ashamed for the sins of man.
So, here, God is connecting the Cross of Christ to shame. It was a shameful thing to be executed, and it still is today. It is a shameful thing to be executed and to be made a public spectacle as a criminal, even though He was not a criminal. There was no sin found in Him at all, and yet it was very shameful.
Well, let us go to Luke. Let us turn back to Luke 9:23-26. It says:
And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away? For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father’s, and of the holy angels.
This is a parallel passage to what we read earlier. But notice that in both contexts, God speaks about taking of the Cross for believers, daily. In both contexts, we then read about Christ saying, “Whoever is ashamed of Me and My Words, I will be ashamed.” And we see in Hebrews 12 that there is a lot of shame involved with the Cross. But Jesus tells all who would follow Him, “Take up your cross.” Take it up. Take it up.
I am not ashamed. The world wants to point the finger. They want me to be ashamed. Satan wants me to be ashamed of the Gospel. He wants me to run away. He wants me not to face individuals. But God is saying, “Take up your cross”; that is, “Experience shame for My Name.”
As the world is looking at you in a despiteful way, as they are looking at you as someone who is breaking the trust of man—that is, the unsaved people of the world—because you are like a traitor to them, because you are coming with the Gospel of Light and this is a world of darkness, “Please do not shine that Light in here because I do not like what I see. I see my sins, and there is guilt for sin,” the world is trying to make the person who brings the Gospel to go away, when you get right down to it, to just go away. And Christ is saying to not be ashamed of Him and His Words. Because if you are, He will be ashamed of you.
Let us also go to another verse. In Psalm 25, in the first couple of verses in Psalm 25, the first three verses. Psalm 25:1-3 says:
Unto thee, O JEHOVAH, do I lift up my soul. O my God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me. Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed: let them be ashamed which transgress without cause.
If our sins are forgiven, and that was our shame, we are washed, we are made clean. God has taken them upon Himself in the Person of Christ. Jesus was as the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,” paying for those sins. They are all gone. They are all gone, and we are desiring to do God’s will.
We want to keep His commandments, and one of His commandments is to go into the world, this world, in your neighborhood, downtown, in your city. Go with the Gospel and do not be ashamed. As the Apostle Paul said, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel.”
Do not you be ashamed when it is Sunday and you are going to the stadium and people are filing out of the stadium, the football game or baseball game, or whatever game, and they are coming down the ramp and they are giving you that look like, “You are spoiling my fun! What are you doing here? It is my day for rest. It is my day to play.” Do not be ashamed. Let them be ashamed, because they are transgressing “without cause.” They are transgressing God’s commandments.
We are not doing the wrong thing. We are doing the right thing, whether it be at the stadium or it be on South Street where everybody is shopping and going about their business and they just want to have a cool, old time. Do not be ashamed.
Do not be angry. Love them. Be kind to them. Pray for them. Do not think that you are any better than they. You are just a sinner whom God has saved and who has now given you a commission, and part of that commission is to bring the Gospel to people who do not want it.
They “oppose themselves.” They are against it. They are their own worst enemy, and so they try to make you stop. Do not! Do not, because God is certainly greater and more powerful, “Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.”
We have the strength of God to continue, and He will move in us “both to will and to do of His good pleasure,” and we know that God’s people will bring the Gospel. They will continue to do that. They will continue, and this is a wonderful verse that we can keep in mind, as we do so.
Let us also turn to 2 Timothy 1. You know, I can say these things because I have experienced it. I have experienced the hesitation, even not giving someone a tract. I have experienced those things. I know the feeling, and so God is talking to me, as well as to everybody. I am sure that many of God’s people have experienced similar things, and it is really because we are maybe not brought to the point of a proper understanding of what is happening, what is going on in the world right now, and the undercurrent of all things. Well, in 2 Timothy 1:7-8, it says:
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear…
You really need that Spirit of God. We all need that Spirit of God, because there is an intimidation level. If I can intimidate you with something, maybe it is not how I look, but maybe if I come up and take that tract and rip it up right in your face, is that going to make you afraid? Maybe if I say something outlandish to you while you are standing there?
You see, I am using the example of handing out tracts because most of us are familiar with that, but it could be, of course, in our home where we bring the Gospel or in our neighborhood where we try to bring the Gospel. In whatever way we are bringing the Gospel, these things will be happening.
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord…
It is the testimony of Christ, the Word of God, the Scriptures, and He is our Saviour. He is the One who paid the penalty for us and experienced shame for us. And now, He gives us His Word and He says, “Go,” so that we can be partakers in His affliction. To a tiny degree, to the tiniest degree, we can suffer shame on His behalf.
And so, again, the Apostle Paul, writing under the inspiration of God, says in 2 Timothy 1:8:
Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony (the Bible) of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner…
God’s people will learn not to be ashamed. But, you know, God saves an individual and there is a family that the person belongs to. There is a family, if God saves a husband or God saves a wife, and it could be that in that family there are people who are not saved.
So the Apostle Paul is saying, “Do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner,” because God, the Lord Jesus, has come to take “captivity captive” and we do not want any other option. We are going to go with the Gospel, because we desire to serve God and to obey His Word. So do not be ashamed of the Bible, nor of those who bring the Bible.
I could feel, and I think that I felt too much, for children. I felt too much, I think. That is, maybe I had pity on them where they do not deserve pity. At least they do not deserve my feeling sorry for them because they are in a Christian home, because the Gospel is in their house and they are different than the other kids. They are different from the other people in the neighborhood and they cannot behave like they do, or misbehave.
So we have to realize that we could be carrying the Gospel, and yet others—our relatives, our friends whom we love—are ashamed of us. They are ashamed of us, but we really cannot do anything about that. We can pray for them, and yet they are embarrassed. They do not like this handing out tracts. They do not like, perhaps, where we go to hand out tracts. It could be that their friends are nearby, and, oh, they would die if one of their friends came around the corner.
You see, we are living at a time, and it never should have been considered, but we are living at a time when we need to obey God and bring the Gospel without shame to those around us. And we can only pray for anyone in our family that they, too, might learn not to be ashamed of the Gospel. And the only way that they can learn this is if God saves them, if God has mercy on them, if God gives them a new heart and a new Spirit.
In 2 Timothy 1:8-12, it says:
Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God; Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel: whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.
This is what the Bible declares. And the Apostle Paul is “a figure.” He is a type and “a pattern to them which should hereafter believe,” as we read also in 1Timothy that God uses him as such. So as he says, “I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed,” he is speaking for every child of God, every true believer, “I am not ashamed.”
Sadly, we know that coming soon is a day of judgment and a day of great shame. It is a day of being “greatly ashamed.” And Jesus said, “Whosoever”—it is me; it is you. It is “Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of Me and of My Words.” And all of the doctrines that God is opening up, all of these teachings, “Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of…My Words…shall the Son of Man be ashamed,” on that day, that awful day.
Let us stop here and have a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, we do thank You for boldness when we are weak. We are fearful, by nature. We have no strength in ourselves. And yet, you take the weak and the beggarly and the despised of the world, and through Your people, You do send forth the Gospel into all the world. Oh, Father, help us to be as the apostles who when they were commanded not to preach nor to teach in Your Name, they continued obeying, obeying You rather than man, even though they suffered for this. And yet, we read that they rejoiced and counted it a blessing to suffer shame for Your sake. And Father we pray that You would bless Your Word, the Bible, to our hearts and help us to hide Your Word in our hearts so that we might not sin against You. And please, help us, help us in our families. Help us to bring the Gospel to our children, and may You have mercy. And we know that You will have mercy upon those whom You will have mercy upon. Father, we ask for Your blessing for the rest of this day and for everything that we do. We pray this in Christ’s Name. Amen.
If anybody has anything that you would like to talk about, you are welcome. You can raise your hand. We have a microphone up here, up at the front, so that the people on Paltalk can hear your question or your comment. And also on Paltalk, if anybody would like to make a statement, please post your question.
1st Question: I have a question about God knowing the heart. We cannot hide from God. He sees us naked before Him. I want to know that if you are not happy—and God sees that, of course—is that still a sin?
Chris: That depends on what our definition of “happy” is. If happy is that we are laughing all of the time, that is actually not the Bible’s definition of happiness. It is not to be cracking jokes or to be jesting.
To be happy is a Greek word that is also translated as “to be blessed.” To be blessed is real happiness. And the only way that you can be blessed is if God saves you, as it says in the Beatitudes, “Blessed are they that mourn,” and so forth, as Christ lists many things as He is talking about believers.
John mentioned Psalm 32 earlier. I was thinking of another Psalm, but it says it there, too. Psalm 32:1:
Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
And in the later Psalms, God says that He “commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.” And that is the blessing. That is happiness.
If we do not have that, maybe we have a lot of fun, we think. But even the Bible says, “the end of that mirth is heaviness.” Maybe we are trying to enjoy ourselves, but it is not true happiness at all.
2nd Question: Can you please give a detailed explanation of how the serious student of the Bible carries out, or to put it another way, obeys the Biblical mandate found in 1 Corinthians 2:13, “comparing spiritual things with spiritual”?
Chris: Let us take a look at 1 Corinthians 2:13. It says.
Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
What is a spiritual thing? A spiritual thing is the Law. It says in Romans that “the Law is spiritual.”
The Law is the whole Book, the Bible, and so we compare one part of the Law with another part, or Scripture with Scripture, as we often say, and that is a synonym of spiritual with spiritual.
So we have to look at other places where God is using a word in a verse, and we try to check out all of the words to see how they are used elsewhere in the Bible. And we make sure that as we are learning about a word, and this is normally what happens, you find a word and then you search out that word and then you begin to learn about that Word. It is God’s definition. He is defining His own terms. And then as a result, we come to doctrine.
If we go over to Isaiah 28:9-10, it says:
Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:
And this goes completely contrary to many theologian’s teachings and church’s teachings, that you have to stay within a context.
If you have ever tried talking to someone and tried explaining a verse, and then you say, “Well, you see, that word is used over here,” and they try to stop you, “No, no, no! Stay here in this context.” Well, they are violating this principle of “precept upon precept…here a little, there a little”—Romans with 1 Corinthians with everything else that relates and “line upon line.”
As a result, that is how God teaches doctrine. This is why we understand many truths of the Bible, because that is God’s methodology. It is how He has designed His Word to be understood. You have to study and you have to search it out in order to see if it is so.
3rd Question: For a follow-up statement on happiness, please read Job 5:17.
Chris: Job 5:17 says:
Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty:
God “scourgeth every son whom He receiveth,” the child of God. And yet, you are happy.
Now that is a good verse, because it proves that happiness is not feeling good. It is not pleasurable to be spanked. It does not feel good. You are not laughing when Dad is spanking you with a belt because you did something wrong. But, nonetheless, you are blessed if God is actually correcting you as a child. However, some people do not want to receive correction.
If we go to Job, also…I always have trouble finding this verse…I hope that I find it this time. In Job 36, does anybody know what verse? Does anybody know what I am thinking here? If you know what I am thinking, please help me! In Job 36:21, we have this verse:
Take heed, regard not iniquity: for this hast thou chosen rather than affliction.
Because when we are doing it God’s way, we are going to experience affliction. And so, what is the way out of that? Well, go fall into your same old sin. Then the chastening seems to settle down and stop, because we failed the test.
So that is one, but this is not the verse I was looking for, which says something about receiving correction. I am still waiting for somebody to help me out, but I do not think that it is going to happen!
Okay; I am sorry. A little earlier in Job 36, it says, speaking of the wicked, in Job 36:9-10:
Then he showeth them their work, and their transgressions that they have exceeded. He openeth also their ear to discipline, and commandeth that they return from iniquity.
You see, God opens up the ear to discipline when we are receiving correction and commands us to repent, to “return from iniquity.” Then it says in Job 36:11-12:
If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures. But if they obey not, they shall perish by the sword, and they shall die without knowledge.
So that is the verse that I was looking for.
4th Question: I have a question about the year 2011. I am not sure about 2011. I see the verse that people are talking about, but I have not done all of the research. At the rate I am going, I will not be finished within three years. I am talking about going back to Adam When? and going back through all of the numbers themselves, and that is a lot of work. So my question concerns whether we are supposed to say, “2011, thus saith the Lord”? That is kind of one of my concerns. But the other concern is to get to 2011, you have to, at some point, go outside the Bible, I think. I am just wondering that if that is true, is there a problem with that?
Chris: As far as 2011 and you not being sure, you have to realize that at this point God is confirming His Word. I saw the timeline from the flood, 4990 B.C., 7,000 years going to 2011, and I thought that it was very strong and that it was very likely.
But then, recently, we began to learn about the five months, that five-month period, and that the Great Tribulation is 23 years—from May 21st, 1988, to May 21st, 2011—and that it is a full 8400 days. Yet we knew that the Feast of Tabernacles had everything to do with the end of the world and that it was five months away. Then when we learned that Genesis 7 speaks of a five-month period where the waters are covering the earth, and also that when God shut the door, it was the 17th day of 2nd month of Noah’s calendar.
When I heard this, and I am sure that people told me this before (I remember people coming up with timelines and these kinds of things and they said it to me), but it did not click. It did not connect until I listened and I heard that May 21st is the 17th day of the 2nd month of the Hebrew calendar and that it was the day that God shut the door! That was amazing! It was amazing! I thought, “That is not a coincidence. That is confirmation.”
So that is confirmation that God is going to shut the door and Christ is the Door. He is the portal that leads into Heaven. There is no other way. There is no other possibility. That Door is shut on May 21 st 2011, absolutely! And then there is the five months of hell on earth. That is how God has laid it out. I believe that He has confirmed His Word, and I would tell people that this is what is going to happen.
Actually, I was telling my mother and my brother yesterday that this is what is going to happen. And I do not think that we put a question mark on it. I think that Mr. Camping is correct, that we share these things and we do not do it hesitantly and we do not give an “uncertain sound” with “the trumpet.” We give a certain sound. We say that this is what the Bible is teaching. And I think that this is what is necessary for us.
5th Question: The question is on James 5:16:
Chris: James 5:16 says:
Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
We know that to be healed—and this is in the context of sickness—it is talking about sin sickness. So that is really what God is dealing with here.
But it has been awhile since I have looked at this. I know that in Galatians 6, it gets into that language of confessing to one another, and Mr. Camping has done a study on this that I have not read for awhile.
We do know that it does not mean that every sin I do, I have to tell everybody or that I have to say everything that I have done wrong. It does not mean that. I cannot remember at this point exactly how that works out, but it definitely does not mean that.
6th Question: The question is concerning handing out tracts. (Question was inaudible.)
Chris: No not really, not if you are not feeling that way. You are just looking, I think, to get out the most tracts and you know a good spot.
So there is nothing wrong with that. There is nothing wrong with that at all, really. God just wants us to share the Gospel and to do it in a way where we are not feeling like we are doing something wrong.
It is about the best thing we could ever do. It is the best thing we can do. It is the best thing we could ever say. The best thing we could ever share is a portion of the Word of God, the Bible, on a tract.
So that is not being ashamed of the Gospel. That is just going to a location where you want to reach the most people.
7th Question: You touched on a verse that has been a source of conflict for me. That verse is in 2 Timothy 1:7. The conflict is simply this. I have found many verses in the Bible that point to fear as being the place where we live when we have a respect for God and knowledge of God. But my wife has constantly pointed out to me that fear is not the place to be, and she uses this verse as a basis for that. I am just wondering if maybe you can help clarify this verse. Maybe the context has been taken out of place. I do not know.
Chris: Okay. Let us read this again. In 2 Timothy 1:7: [Note: the speaker inadvertently said “1 Timothy” here when he intended to say “2 Timothy”.]
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
In this context, since 2 Timothy 1:8 goes on to say:
Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord…
This is referring to the intimidation that we can experience. Let me give a couple other verses, because I always find that the Bible says it a lot better than I could. In Philippians, and I think it is chapter one, at the very end, or near the end. Philippians 1:28:
And in nothing terrified by your adversaries…
And 1 Corinthians 16:9:
For a great door and effectual is opened unto me…
But:
…there are many adversaries.
There is the “great multitude” that is going to be saved, and it is not going to be a piece of cake. It is going to be through struggle and through affliction. “We must through much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God.”
So here in Philippians 1:28:
And in nothing terrified by your adversaries: which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God.
When somebody can walk down the street while you are standing on the corner and they can scare you, they just go “Humph!” and keep walking.
I remember when I was in India on a Family Radio tract trip. I was standing on their street, and you have cows and all kinds of things passing by. This one man came walking up to me with a huge snake wrapped around his shoulders, just a huge snake. And he walked up to me and I kind of backed up. Then he smiled and walked away. He smiled and walked away because I was afraid.
I learned by that, you have to pray before. You have to pray. If you are going to go out into the world with the Gospel, you really have to pray before you do. And then you can pray, “Oh, Lord. Give me wisdom in sudden and in unexpected things! Give me wisdom towards every soul and in every situation, because I do not have it.”
And so, this is Satan’s tactic. It is very basic, very simple. He has employed it through the centuries, and it has worked. It has worked. Make them afraid. Make them afraid! Make them feel ashamed.
And guess what? If that is a tough corner, maybe a lot of people are taking the tract, but if it is a tough corner, maybe you really feel tired and exhausted at the end of handing those tracts out, so “Let us find another spot! Let us find another easier spot!” Well, that is how Satan works, and that is how it has been throughout history.
If we go to Isaiah, well, there are a lot of verses, but I will just read this. The last verse of Isaiah 2, Isaiah 2:22:
Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?
Do not fear him. Fear God who “is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”
8th Question: I am been struggling with this quite a bit lately and it made me examine myself, because it says, “I believed, and therefore have I spoken.” And, you know, if we really are trusting the Lord, we can overcome. So yesterday, I was thinking of the verse, “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness.” I went through the Bible and looked through all of the “Fear not: for I am with thee” verses. There are quite a few there to look at, so this might be an encouragement to anybody else.
Chris: Okay. Thank you, Sally. Well, I think people are hungry, so we are going to stop here.