 Welcome to Hard Questions. This is where we gather pastors together to take on your tough questions and answer them right from the Bible. I'm Tom Hollis, the moderator, and today our panelists include Dr. William R. Glaze, Bethany Baptist Church in Pittsburgh. Ray Hypole, Providence Presbyterian Church in Robinson Township. Pete Giacalone, Lead Pastor, South Hills Assembly of God Church, Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. Janneth and Gilbert pastor of another level in the North Hills area. Pastors, thank you for being with us today. Today on Hard Questions, we're talking sex. Did you really say that? Being saved and spirits, all questions from the hotline. I love when we get questions from the hotline. So let's go to the first one. I would appreciate it if you could tell me what scriptures give a clear direction who's in a relationship. She and her boyfriend are very close. They don't live together and she's hoping that they will marry. At this time, intimate relationship. Good question, good question for where our society's at, Pastor Glaze. Well, yeah, and that was a great leading because that's what I was going to say, that as a pastor, it seems like most of the people that come these days to get married are already either living together or they're involved in an intimate relationship. And so even though our culture is changing, the Word of God has not changed. And she was asking for a specific scripture and I go back to 1 Thessalonians chapter four in verse three, where it says, for this is the will of God. This is not the hope of God. This is not the wish of God. This is the will of God, even your sanctification that you abstain from fornication. And fornication simply is sex outside of marriage. So you know, if you're involved in an intimate sexual relationship outside of marriage, then you're not in the will of God because it says right here, this is God's will that you be sanctified, that you grow, that you be, you know, set apart. And so fornication is something that the scripture absolutely prohibits for an individual or individuals that are not married. If I can just piggyback off what Doc said, you know, how many times have we told the flee? But in 1 Corinthians 6 18 says flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality actually sins against his own body. So, and again, we need this preaching back. And this is, when we go back a couple of shows ago, this is where people say, you're being judgmental. No, we're not being judgmental. We're trying to warn you that there's consequences to your choices. So it's not that we're judging you. And then, you know, we're told that the marriage or marriage is honorable among all and the bed undefiled. But fornicators and adulterers, God will judge. And there's other scriptures and I'm sure maybe you guys have them. Well, I think that as we delve into this subject a little bit more, you know, it's interesting in our society to see people engaged for like eight years, engaged for 10 years. It's like, wait a minute, why get married? I mean, the only reason you're gonna be engaged that long is because you're having sex or you're living together or something, you know? But, I agree. And you see in the Old Testament over and over again, the concept of keeping the young woman virgin until she's married. And that gets to the fact that marriage is an image of Christ and his bride, Christ in the church and the purity of that. And, you know, I do a lot of premarital counseling and I always say to couples, like, I'm not a priest. You don't need to confess this to me. But if you're sexually active with each other right now you need to repent of that to God and you do need to commit to me. And I won't marry anybody until they take a commitment that we will remain, it's our intention to remain, sexually pure from one another or anyone else until the wedding day. And I always tell them, because I want God to bless your marriage and he can't bless your marriage if you're leading each other into sin. You know, if you're corrupting one another, I mean, you should be trying to honor one another and keeping those vessels pure until the commitment is made. And once the commitment is made, it's for life and now you have access to one another. Now, you can be naked before each other because you've committed your lives together. So, the marriage ceremony has to happen first. Yeah. So, real quickly, I think one of the things, I'm gonna go on a different avenue with this, is that people always wonder, why should you abstain? One of the things, the moment you give a man sex, he stops his pursuit. And so, the Bible says, who can find a virtuous woman? And then it goes on and says, he that findeth a wife finds a good thing. So, the whole purpose of a woman being hidden and being covered up is to prove the man's pursuit. And a man will only pursue a woman to that degree without sex until God has put something in him for you. And when you give him sex, you can no longer distinguish whether or not that pursuit is for the sex or is it a pursuit because God placed that in you. So, it's important to allow that man to chase you and not get anything back in return because he must be an initiator without expectation of return. That's a really good point, Jay. Thank you. And there's a lot more we can talk about. We're gonna go on to the next question. So, let's go to our next audio question. Ask the question. First of all, I would like to say I enjoyed the program. And the question that I'm asking is in regard to your spirit and your soul. I know if our spirits refer to part of man that connects with and communicates with God and our soul is our character, thoughts and feelings, which makes the soul self-centered, my question is, does this mean our spirits desire to connect with and communicate with God, but people who are in sin allow their soul nature to control their lives? Thank you. Wow, that's right. I wanna answer this question not so much on the terms of does the soul do this, does the spirit do that? I think that's a little deeper and there's gonna be more disagreement and you're not going to find a list of in the Bible what the spirit says and what the soul says. And I personally believe there are one thing anyway that we are only physical, non-physical. We are only body, soul, flesh, spirit, whatever you wanna call it. But I think the question behind this is a little bit more important. And that is that we do have sinful desires and we do have godly desires. And the Bible talks about the sinful nature, which it just calls sarks, the flesh. But the flesh not as this, not as the body, but as your sinful, your old nature that wants sinful pleasure, that wants to sin against God, that wants to be your own God. And I just want to say to you that if you're born again Christian, you have a new nature. And that nature wants to serve God. And that's the spiritual battle that we're all in as Christians. We are to put off that old nature. The Bible uses the word flesh for that. And we are to put on the new nature, which is usually termed the spirit. And that is something that we work at with the means of grace, the word of God, prayer, sanctification process and that Christian service. And a couple of scriptures I would give you, Romans eight, five, those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. It's not whether or not it's your soul or spirit. Are you living for God or are you living for sin? Then you set your minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit, capital S, set their minds on the things of the spirit to be carnally minded as death, to be spiritually minded is peace, life and peace. So we are to buy the spirit, put to death the deeds of the body. That's the life of the Christian. And that's the way I would exhort this caller to get into your heart, the mind of the spirit by getting into the word, going to church, getting good Christian fellowship and putting off the sin nature that continues to affect us until we die. Right, just a really good take on that, Rand. Just a couple of minutes before we go to the next segment. Pastor Glaze, could you give us some thoughts on this? Yeah, well, you know, to me, I think the spirit and the soul are neutral. You know, they're not, you know, my spirit is a spirit of sin or my soul is a spirit. You know, they're neutral. So the issue goes back to what Ray said. You know, the issue is between that sin nature, right? And Paul talked about that in Galatians. He said for the flesh, the lust of against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. So it's not the soul and spirit that's struggling with sin, but it's the flesh that's struggling with sin. So I think that maybe the question is couched in a wrong way because I, you know, again, I think the spirit and the soul are neutral. You know, everybody has a spirit in the soul, but then it's affected by your sin nature, by the flesh. Right, put down the flesh and go after the things of the spirit. Paul says, I die daily. I crucify my, that's one thing he declared. He says, I crucify my flesh every day. And I think that if we can bring that back into our disciple training that, you know, because again, it seems like the church has embraced, it's okay. It's not okay. We need to die to the fleshly desires. Yeah, put the death of these of the flesh. Well, we're going to take a quick break and when we come back, we're going to have another audio question. It's when we get to heaven, when we see Jesus' scars on his hands and feet, we'll be right back. Welcome back to Hard Questions. Before we get to our next audio question, Pastor Jay, you had some thoughts of what we were talking, just talking about before the break. Yeah, real quickly, you know, and I'm sure we may be saying the same things, but I believe that the soul is the control center of the man, it's the mind, the will and the emotions and they are impacted by either the flesh or the spirit. That thing that you mentioned in Galatians, that scripture there in chapter five, he's talking about, if you sow to the flesh, you know, you're going to reap corruption. Why? Because it's going to influence the soul. And so as a result of that, you're going to make decisions according to that fleshliness you mentioned in Romans chapter eight. He said, if you're currently minded, you're going to be driven by the flesh. If you're spiritually minded, you're going to be driven by the spirit. Well, what's driving it? It's driving the soulless part, the mind, the will and the emotions. So it's a matter of which one, that's why whatever one we feed is usually the one we crave, either the spirit or the flesh. So I believe that people that are in the flesh are like she had mentioned the question in there about, does God allow, people that are in sin allow their soul nature to control the flesh? No, I believe they're carnal nature. Not their soul, their carnal nature is driving them. It's really a question of sin more than dividing the soul and spirit. Well, good point. Now I'm going to come right back to you with our next audio question. Let's hear this. When we get to heaven, will we see Jesus' nose scarred in His hand and His feet? Well, we see the scars on Jesus' body on His hands and feet. Well, the Bible talks about how in John chapter 20 that Thomas, after this is Jesus' resurrected body, told him to put his hands in his side and in his hands to feel, because he said, I'm not going to believe unless I see that. The unique thing about Jesus' resurrection, that'd be a great study, pastors. I mean, I'm thinking about it. Just all the different forms he took. I mean, they didn't recognize him. So, I mean, it wasn't like his face was covered up. They talked to the man for what was it? 11 miles? Was it that they walked with him? They were the man, I mean, and they said, finally said, oh, wait a minute. I mean, the man was disappearing and he was eating fish one minute. Don't touch me, go into the father, the next. I mean, it was all these things that were just happening. So, you know, could it be that there's multiple forms? You know, a matter of fact, I always believe the book of Revelation is part of that. It's called the Revelation of Jesus Christ is because we have such a mentality of Jesus and Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. We think that's who's coming back. It isn't. Who's coming back is Revelation chapter one, the one that John said, I felt that his feet is a dead man. His hair was like wool, his feet were like bronze, his eyes were like fire. Whole different guy, you know? I mean, in essence, it was him, but he came in a different form. And so I wonder if we're gonna see different parts of him. Could it be there? The Bible explicitly does not say we will or will not, but the Bible talked about Revelation 4, how there'll be a lamb that will open up the scroll. Could we see different forms of him in regards to eternity? I saw a lamb as if slain, right? As if slain, exactly. Suffering servant to conquering king. He encompasses it all. He encompasses it all. I like that. Well, and that was my point. You brought it out that when he appeared in Revelation, he was a lamb slain. You know, so what's the indication of crucifixion? Nails in the hands, in the feet. And then let me just give you four, and again, I'm just gonna give you the point. Four reasons why I believe that we will see it. It'll be an eternal witness to his incarnation. It'll be a reminder of his great sacrifice. It will be a reminder of God's love, and it will also be a reminder that he defeated death. So I believe that we will see him and that they will serve as reminders of those things. That's good, that's good, right? I think so too. I think we will, and for a lot of the same reasons, I think when we think of scars, that's something that is a blemish, something that happened, and we know when we get new bodies, the bodies are gonna be perfect. They're not gonna get sick, they're not gonna grow old, they're not going to die. I mean, there will be a resurrection of the body. We wanna make sure we affirm that. That when we die, I think we go to be with the Lord, our souls, but there will come a day when everyone will hear the voice of Christ and the righteous and the unrighteous will come back to life and be judged in those bodies. The sinners, those who've never believed in Christ will be cast into hell, body and soul, and the believers will live in the new heavens and the new earth, body and soul. But I think it will, it will testify. Those wounds on Christ's hands and feet, I mean, that's his glory. That's him defeating death and Satan and sin and the curse. I mean, those are trophies. And I think that we will always see them and it will be a great joy to see his glory, his crown that he did this for us. You know, I think there's a couple of interesting things we're talking about when we're talking about this. We will have bodies in heaven, right? I mean, they're giving robes to put on, right? You don't put a robe on a spirit, you know, you put a robe on a body. But Jay, you brought up something I think is really key. So John, this is the revelation of St. John, they call it. You know, the revelation that was given to John. He was the beloved disciple, right? He's the one who knew God, knew Jesus better than any other. And when he sees him, he falls over dead, you know, in heaven because of the majesty, the incredible. So it's not the hand in hand of the man who's still the water so much. It's this majestic God, the God of power. I don't know, any other thoughts about that? Well, matter of fact, I think it's outstanding because when you read Revelation chapter one, I mean, you look at the outline of this man. I mean, like, you know, and I think, I went and went through 2020, I did a study on that. And I was looking at who he was in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We saw pieces of it. That's why when he went, when they said, are you the Messiah? Are you the Christ? And he said, I am. And they all fell back. And then at one moment he kinda, when he was on the Mount Transfiguration, it showed up there. But he kept all that under reign, but he's gonna let it all loose in Revelation, which is a powerful passage of the scripture to read. Does it say that the sun and stars fled away like from his face? I mean, incredible things. So really good. We're gonna take our break here. We'll be right back with another viewer question who asked, am I saved if I'm depressed? Wow, we'll be right back. Welcome back to Hard Questions. Let's listen to our final hotline question of the week. I know a sin is a sin without a doubt. If a person is a born-again Christian and they have struggled with tremendous depression and problems in their life, I was just wondering, can they still go to heaven because they're born-again? I mean, thank you so much, sister, for that question. Pete, let's talk about that. Well, this is dear to my heart because this past summer I went through depression like I've never gone through in my life. Never, never. And Psalms 42, five through six, the psalmist says, why are you cast down on my soul? Why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him. And then he ends it again, towards the end he says, why are you cast down on my soul? Why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him the help of my countenance and my God. My sister, I'm so sorry that you're going through what you're going through. I have a greater appreciation after, and I don't know how this happened. I don't know, it just happened. But it doesn't mean you're not saved just because you're battling discouragement and depression, and it doesn't mean God has left you. He hasn't left you. He'll never leave you. So forgive the emotion, but I feel for you. I can truthfully say I know what you're going through. We look at the great prophet Elijah. And if we study his life, the miracles that he did, and if we truly study what he went through, and I'll give you descriptions to look at, First Kings 19, verses four through five, and then verses nine through 10. This man suffered depression, but God did not disown him. And in the same way he did not disown him, he's not disowning you. Absolutely. Thank you, Pete, thank you for sharing that. Dr. Glaze. Well, and Pete nipped on it a little bit, Moses, Elijah, Job, you know, these are great people of God, and they all suffered from depression, some shape or form. Jeremiah, the prophet, he suffered from depression, and God still loved them. He didn't cast them away. So that lets you know that if these great people of God suffered it and God embraced them, that he's reaching out, opening his arms to embrace you. And I think of what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 11, verse 28, come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly and hard, and you shall find, and we just got finished talking about the soul, right? The suke, you will find rest for your soul, you know, for whatever's troubling you, whatever's eating away at you, that as you come to Christ, that he's able to ease that burden of the soul. So, man, you know, again, Pete, man, God is using you, you know, to minister to that person, because you went through it and you know that God, you know, still loved you, that you never doubted the love of God. But some people may struggle with that, right? And so you just want to give the reassurance that, man, you know, God still loves you. He does. Amen, that's good, that's good, Ray. Paul mentioned something in 2 Corinthians chapter one where he says, verse eight, for we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren of our trouble, which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that, here's the phrase, so that we despaired, even of life. I mean, here's the apostle of the Gentiles, you know? But he gives a reason for it. Yes, we had this sentence of death in ourselves, so that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death. He did deliver them. And I think that's what I want to say to this caller, that if you're truly born again, God will deliver you from this despair, from this tragedy, from this depression. He will deliver you if you're a believer, if you're a child. And even in the midst of this, you have to hold on to the fact that this is ultimately something that God is going to use for my good, that, you know, just like Dr. Glaze, you said of Pete that you were able to administer now to someone in a new way because you went through something. You wouldn't have chosen to go through it. But, you know, all those hardships that we go through, God uses that. You know, we fill up the sufferings of Christ. It's our great privilege to suffer too as He suffered. And when we suffer, then we're able to minister to others. And that might be the case with this woman. Maybe you're going through that because God's going to use you in some mighty way. I don't know, but what I do know is that suffering will ultimately be for your good and God will not let you be taken away in depression and in despair. So good for us to know that our salvation isn't dependent on how we feel at the moment. Pastor Jay, what's your thoughts on this? Yeah, well first, thanks, Pete, for sharing your transparency and being open in the courage to open up that. And because a lot of times people look at us and think we got it all together. And when they see we have a battle and you're still here, means there's fact of matter that they can get through what they're going through. And I think also, you know, you have to understand depression is something that hits so many people. One of the things that if you're watching and you're bound with depression, if you have not gone to a doctor, go to a doctor as well. If you're dealing with a chemical imbalance, it may not be spiritual. Some things are spiritual, some things are chemical. Your body is made of chemicals. And if you don't have the right things in order, you can be balanced up that a medication get rid of and it doesn't make you less spiritual. No different than somebody that takes insulin or someone else that takes high blood pressure medicine or whatever it is that it might be. The second thing also to realize is that I was thinking about Paul, you mentioned that I went to second Corinthians chapter 12 where he talks about how he had sought the Lord three times that this would depart from him. And just because it didn't depart doesn't mean God's not with you. Matter of fact, God may have chosen you because he trusted you to walk through this like Pastor Pete trusted you to walk through it. And what did he say? I love this here. He said to me, my grace is sufficient for my strength is made perfect in your weakness. Therefore, most gladly, I would rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, where approaches in needs and persecution distresses for Christ's sake for when I am weak, then I am strong. So I just wanna encourage you and let you know that even though you may be feeling weak right now, the power of Christ is rest upon you. This is someone that had sought God three times. God said, no, my grace will be more than enough for you. Boy, that's so good. I appreciate that, Pastor Jay. And sister, we love you. We're glad that you shared and we're bold enough to share. And for anyone else out there, that you're struggling, that you're struggling with that issue, trust in the Lord. Your salvation is secure. It's not a salvation issue. That's right. Your salvation is secure. Don't go there, but trust and believe that God is going to bring you out and through and out to the other side. We just wanna go to the scripture. It talks a little bit about sorrow, a different kind of sorrow. Listen to this, yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended. And so we're not harmed in any way by us. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret. That's second Corinthians seven versus nine and 10. Pastor Glaze, can you give me some thoughts on that about Godly sorrow? Yeah, well, you know, I think if that's the reference in first Corinthians, the guy was living with his stepmother and they told him to put him out of the church. And evidently they put him out, but then they didn't wanna let him back in. The guy had repented and the guy had true sorrow and they didn't want, and Paul said, man, don't let Satan get an advantage. Let this brother come back in because he has expressed Godly sorrow. And so when we think about the things that we do, the sins that we do, that it should hurt our heart. It should be a breaking of our heart that Godly sorrow. Man, God, I'm sorry that this sin offended you. God, I'm sorry that I've done this and sinned against you. Absolutely, yeah, you know, that's the key is that there's hope in Christ at all times. We hope you enjoyed today's program. And we wanna hear your emails and your questions at hardquestionsatctvn.org or you can call into our hotline, 412-349-4326. God loves you today. He loves you with an everlasting love.