Q&A Genesis 50

Hey everyone, thanks again for listening to a Q&A with a pastor. I'm sitting down with Keith after we heard a sermon on Genesis 50, his last sermon actually in the book of Genesis. So we're going to sit down and ask him a couple of questions both about his sermon, how he's kind of reflecting on Genesis past, and then where he's taking us with next week's sermon. Keith, first question, you started out in your intro with talking about counseling yourself with the gospel. And even though we've talked about that a lot, what does it mean effectively to counsel yourself with the gospel? Well, it's going to be very much what we think about in Psalm 1 still. It's delighting in God's word. So you're always thinking about what God has said, what he's promised, the hope he has given us, the great declaration of forgiveness on the cross. This particular week we looked at how one counsels themselves with the gospel whenever our temporal circumstances seem to be difficult. And so we looked at the evil done to, how Joseph must have considered the evil done to him in light of what God was doing in the bigger plan of salvation. And the application there is that in every one of our temporal circumstances, we may not get to see the same kind of clarity that Joseph has, but we can always see that God is, God has promised that all things work out for our good. So, if he loves us, we love him. Whatever's going on in our lives, we should be able to comfort ourselves that God's love is good and that his intentions or purposes are good. So, I know within this sermon, as well as some others, you spoke a lot about guilt and freedom. You said that sometimes past sins creep in, creating guilt within our own hearts and within our lives. How can you counsel yourself with the gospel in light of sin causing you to feel guilty? Yeah, this gets into more of a spiritual battle that can also be going on. There's two things that are trying to attack you. There's your own sinful nature and your own depravity of our heart and there's also Satan and his lies of wanting to make us feel condemned even though Christ has declared us free. And so, there are the feelings of guilt, and one of the worst things a Christian can do is carry that feeling around, because what you're feeling is contrary to what God has declared. And so, we all feel guilt at times. There's a good sense in which shame is created by the Spirit when we are living in sin to take us to the cross. What I'm talking about that isn't helpful is whenever we feel condemned and guilty for something we've already confessed. So that would be Satan trying to throw those arrows at us of guilt, incapacitating us, keeping us from actually being an effective, fruitful Christian. Because if you feel guilty, you're not going to be a robust, bold proclaimer of the gospel either to yourself, to your neighbor, to your brothers, sisters of the church. And so whenever you are attacked by accusations, you challenge those accusations with the gospel. And you have to do a mental spiritual wrestling with the accusations versus the gospel. Because if the accusations are true, you should repent and trust the gospel. So what specifically would you remind yourself of, of the gospel? What would you tell yourself? I mean, how would you talk about Christ to yourself? And can you go into specifically how I would remind myself. I mean, let's just, a straw man, let's say I told a huge lie and it got me in trouble with my wife, and that was 10 years ago, and I still feel guilty of that. How would you remind yourself of the gospel there? Yeah, well, one, I mean, there may still be some ongoing consequences of that sin where you need to build up the relationship and the trust with your wife, depending on how big this lie was, or if it were a pattern of lying. But the key there is I remind myself of the power of the gospel. That Jesus Christ, His power is able to forgive even my greatest sin. There is no sin that I could commit that's more powerful or more able to remove me from God than Christ's love is able to draw me to God. And so that great word of declaration, I am forgiven, I try to let that ring true. That's why we sing songs. I love to pick songs such as How Deep the Father's Love for Us or In Christ Alone because those actually are applying the gospel truth to my guilt, my fear, my feelings of inadequacy. And so whenever I continue to feel guilt over something particular, I pray, God, is there something I still haven't done? But usually the guilt just leads me to realize that I'm carrying around something that Christ has declared forgiven, and I just remind myself of the actual words, you are forgiven. I remind myself that Jesus Christ stands right hand of the Father, where he has absolute authority. So that authority of word and declaration are what I remind myself of. Just kind of going into more specifics, when you remind yourself of the truth of Christ, you mentioned you pray, you sing. Are there other things that you can, through like spiritual disciplines, use to remind yourself? How would you use scripture to remind yourself of the gospel? Are there key verses to go to, or is it just Yeah, well, you know, for that particular one we looked at, last night we prayed from Colossians where, you know, Christ has nailed sin to the cross. And what a great, powerful declaration that passage is to show there is no condemnation. Romans 8, where we read in the service, nothing can separate us from Christ, not even our own sin. That's the most hopeful way, praying through those scriptures. letting the truth penetrate. Because what you've got are testimonies going on. You've got the testimony of Christ. You've got the testimony of Satan. Satan is trying to testify against your sin. Christ is trying to testify against your sin in another way. Satan is trying to testify against you. And Christ is testifying on your behalf. And you have to let your mind be renewed by the testimony of Christ. Because the natural testimony we're going to hear is that of the lie. I guess one other way is just through using other people, which actually leads me into the next question. You gave us a charge to have real conversations about the gospel with other people. What were you thinking in terms of what that looks like? What are other ways that we can use real conversations? And I would assume the biggest fear is just having an awkward conversation with someone. I mean, we all think of, like, standing at the water cooler, them talking about football, and be like, well, at church yesterday. So how do you have real conversations? And if they're authentic, but gospel-driven. Yeah, you want to choose who you confess your own sin to very wisely. I don't think that's a water cooler at work conversation. I mean, I would hope that most people are choosing those those companions of Christian counseling within the body, or a Christian member of another church wisely. So choosing the partner, the companion wisely is really the key step. The other main part of this is what you want to do is start those conversations by building one another up, pointing out evidences of grace so that every conversation isn't trying to point out someone else's sin or pointing out your own sin. We were just at a pastor's forum, you and I, a month or two ago, and one of the brothers really opened up and confessed. It wasn't anything engrossing, but it was truly a heartfelt opening up, and it led to others opening up. That's the key is that one person taking initiative to having the courage in the gospel, and the courage to trust other people with their life. That's the way you build it up. You also have to make sure that it's a trustworthy group or companion there. You know, you're not just talking about sin all the time. You're also commenting on how you can see evidences of grace and fruit of faith and encouraging and building up. It's not just sin sniffing. All right. Well, I know that you've given a lot of a lot of emphasis within teaching through Genesis with the use of narrative teaching and also with the narrative passages. This week was a little bit different in that it was very heavy theologically. It was a doctrinally driven sermon. Can you take us through when you were examining this passage of scripture and Setting up your sermon what you were thinking about when you're making it a doctrinally driven sermon I remember just the day before you were you were excited because this was a heavy doctrine of God Message that you were looking forward to doing Yeah, that is true that it was more of a doctrinal sermon versus a narrative sermon. Every sermon that I preach, I hope it begins and ends with God. We are always taking something away from God. Every sermon has to be about God or else we're talking about something that isn't a sermon. I'm doing something that's not a sermon. But here, it was more doctrinal in the sense that I wasn't trying to capture the relationship tensions. We did that a little bit, but I really wanted to really double-click and focus in on one of the most amazing confessions of God. He uses evil for good. That just says so much about God and who He is for us and how we should view this life that I was really just focusing on that particular confession of God in light of the narrative context. It is important to see what's happening there. Yeah, it was really just double-clicking on that particular phrase, that particular confession, rather than the typical tensions that I try to build and see who's modeling Christ and see who's sin we should be identifying with. That was just done to a lesser extent. Alright, well just going with that area of evil and sin and Satan, I've got two questions that I'm just going to package as one, so you can ignore one. just do the other if you want. How can God not be the author of evil or create evil, but be sovereign over it? And then can you explain more of your statement when you said, if God is not sovereign over evil, then he is submissive to our evil wills and desires? Yeah, this is whenever God created the first question. How can God not be the author of evil but sovereign over it? My study of doctrine, I've come up with a system where one of the helpful things to say is what can we say about God and what can we not say about God? We have to say whatever God creates is good. Whenever he created the original creation, he said it was good, it was good, it was good, it was good. It wasn't until we sinned that it wasn't good anymore. That it's fallen, we should say. God is a giver of every good and perfect. The Father above is a giver of every good and perfect gift. We only see him doing good things. And so, he cannot be the author of evil. That's kind of a grammar. You cannot say he's the author of evil because he is good and the only thing we ever see him doing is good. Now, the trick there is how is he sovereign over evil? Well, theologians, and I think this is actually proper, get into the primary and secondary causes. So, the primary cause of something is that which creates it. It comes out of. But God is sour enough to take what comes out of our hearts and direct it and use it. You know, people have used different phrases, you know, God is orchestrating all things. I prefer to go very strong in the language in that God intentionally directs our sin. But he's never the creator. He didn't create a sinful heart. And whatever sinful things that take place, they come from our intention of hurting and harming and being selfish. God is simply able to control it. Now, that question you had, the second one, if God is not sovereign over evil, then he is submissive to it. Now, the issue there is who is sovereign? You know, if God isn't able to intuitively direct our evil, then he has to always be playing catch-up, or he always has to have a counter-plan, or he's always responding. God isn't always just waiting to see what we're going to do and figure out how to respond properly. You know, as if he has an endgame and he's constantly playing a game of chess with us to stay a couple steps ahead. You know, God is directing and moving. If God is not able to intentionally direct our wills, that bubble-forth sin, then he is submissive to that. He has to always respond rather than directing. That's really the big question, the issue there. Is he responding or directing? And I see the scriptures teaching a God who directs. How would you talk to someone who doesn't think anyone is in charge of evil or good? They wouldn't say that God is submissive to evil, but they would say there's nothing sovereign over that. I mean, we're thinking about an agnostic or an atheist. Yeah, no. I mean, when you look at the world without scripture, it looks like no one is sovereign over it. I mean, you look at the psalmists, they're always crying out, how are the wicked always prospering? How are the wicked always gaining? How are the wicked always more? That's the psalmist's observation. And then he always counsels himself with the Word of God and says, No, God, you are in control. You are true. You are good. But the basic observation, without having the view of Scripture and the Gospel that God is conquering and overcoming evil, Surely. I mean, in our own experience, is that, yeah, I would look around the world and see nothing but evil, especially during certain times of war or famine. You know, today's age of guilt and greed, or greed especially. Greed and selfishness, you know, you certainly see it. So, I would sympathize with that person. I would say, yes, that's why we always say that total depravity is the only universally believed doctrine that Scripture teaches. Everyone knows there's sin. Everyone knows there's evil. It's just a matter of if you have a problem of evil or a solution for evil. And scripture gives a solution. I would assume all this fits into how you talked about God's goodness and God's power, because all these things hinge on one another. Are those two attributes of God, his goodness and power, parallel? Does one rely on the other? Does his goodness rely on his power? And how should we think about that? Or do we not think about it enough, or do we overthink it? Well, here's where this talking about God, you know, we have to realize it's anthropomorphic. I believe God is simple, and so he doesn't have different compartments. He doesn't have different parts. When I say God is good and God is power, I'm not thinking of two different parts of God. I'm thinking of the one essence, and I'm just describing it equally accurate by saying it's perfectly good and it's perfectly powerful. So yes, those two go hand in hand. And the beauty of it is what God wants is good, and what God wants to do is good. And so those two together really give you a God, should remind us that God is trustworthy. And that's why that particular confession in the midst of trials and suffering is so powerful. Is this why you started to use the emphasis of Immanuel Kant? Go into a little bit of one, who is he? And then two, why was he brought up during the sermon about God? Well, because Kant postulated God. Kant comes up with a whole philosophy and he wants a morality and he realizes that there's no reason to have morality. There's no way you can base morality unless you're basing it in God. And so he brings in God for the purpose of having morality. I mentioned that mainly because we're in an area that's very academic. We have a lot of academics. And so I brought that up just to show that God is the one that defines what goodness is, rather than us trying to figure out what goodness is and then making God fit that image. Kant had an idea of morality that he borrowed from the Judeo-Christian ethic. and brought in a very generic kind of Judeo-Christian God to support it. Whereas I think what the proper, obviously God reveals himself and he reveals himself as good. The only way we know what is good is because God has told us. So it's really more of the what comes first. Ethics or God. And ethics come out of a doctrine of God rather than a God coming from your ethics. Do you think that's natural for us to do is try to create an ethic and then try to match God to it to justify our ethic? Yeah, that's the harder thing is always making sure that our standards and ideas and our ideals are actually corresponding with what God has said rather than trying to make sure God fits within what our standards are. We are always making God in our image somehow. We are idol factories. We have to be careful of not thrusting our ideals on the Godhead. That's a real danger that we constantly, every Christian, every non-Christian wrestles with. Otherwise I would assume it would be hard to remind yourself of the gospel if you were kind of making your own gospel. You would just be holding up a mirror. You're not being renewed in your mind, you're training your mind to be either self-righteous or evil. Well, just lastly, this is this was your final sermon on Genesis, at least as a series. As you look back, are you happy about it? Would you change anything? What do you think through as you look back on so many messages about the book of Genesis? Yeah, I mean, I'm just, if I could come up, you know, a few words, you know, God is faithful. I mean, that is just amazing because you just see despicable sinners, despicable sinners, and God continues to keep his promise and he keeps adding to his promise. It's just, it's amazing how sinful all these heroes of the faith are. You know, we think of them from Hebrews 11. as in the hall of faith. But if you look at what they did and how they thought and how they got there, now thankfully we see Abraham as a victorious Christian in his later years and Jacob finally believing in God. Joseph is one of the few that really had a long history of faithfulness. It's amazing that God is so faithful to us as sinners. It's very encouraging to remember. Like I said a couple of sermons ago, election is a key theme. God choosing his people and choosing how he's going to bring about salvation for his chosen ones. He's a God who elects. We have Jacob, Esau, Cain, Abel. There's constant election going on. And then redemption. I think that's really what stood out the most in the last few chapters is how Moses is already writing the end of Genesis to get us ready for deliverance. He already has so many hints and allusions to the deliverance. It's been amazing to see how intentional that has been placed into the story already to give the people of Israel hope. Well, what would you do again if you were to preach it through? I guess based upon this one based upon the feedback, I guess I would go slower You know, I started splitting up what we're going to be You know a three chapter sermon into three sermons on one chapter and the latter half the first half I was taking bigger chunks and after the feedback and in the seeing how much is there to how many rocks are to turn over and get the good powerful promises of God in those underneath those rocks. Yeah, I probably go slower. uh... you know one of the things that people really were uh... commenting on a lot more than i did the entire flood narrative at one time i'm not sure i would do that differently i may do two sermons i wouldn't break it up you know one i was made fun of for not being the only person to ever preach the uh... the flood without mentioning the water or the animals well that was very intentional you broke somebody's heart well it's not a cute story It shouldn't be a child's favorite story. It should be a story that brings fear. Because it's God's judgment against our sin. It's not a zoology story. It's not a cute story about rain and animals. It's hellfire and brimstone. It should be next to... And water. Okay. In the form of water. It's amazing. It's amazing the judgment there. I was trying to do doctrinal, point out what God is doing there. I would go slower, mainly because it is such a rich, hearty text, and I'm very much looking forward to us building on that Genesis foundation and moving ahead to Psalms, Psalm 1 especially. Psalm 1 and 2, I think, direct and guide us. They prepare us for the entire Psalter. And so, they're already going to be framing the future psalms, sermons that I do. Psalm 1 especially is framing it, you know, separating the righteous and the wicked and describing each one because the entire Psalter is then trying to figure out how are the righteous and the wicked to live together and how is God working in each one. Now, if I could get you to think about Genesis as a whole and if you were going to write a book about Genesis and the title was Genesis is about what? Using one word. God. You only gave me one word. Genesis teaches What? The Creator is good and faithful to sinners. It's quite a hyphenated word, but I'll take it. It wasn't fair. If I knew my German a little better, I could make it one German word, maybe. But that's the best summary. I mean, God the Creator. It's very important with Genesis, obviously. God the Creator is faithful in his promises. Because there's a book about promises. It's a book about sinners who only have God's faithfulness. Well, Keith, thanks so much for this time, answering some questions. We look forward to Psalm 1. We're thankful for all of Genesis, and we're looking forward to the Christmas season. Thanks again.