 Welcome to Hard Questions 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 W. Gleis, Bethany Baptist Church in Pittsburgh, Pastor Mark Motor, Berean Church in the South Hills of Pittsburgh, Pete Giacalone, Lead Pastor, South Hills Assembly Guy Church, Bethel Park, PA, and Anthony Gilbert pastor of another level in the North Hills area. Well thank you pastors for being here. I'm always glad you say Bethel Park, PA just so we know it's not Wyoming or some other place. No, that's good though. I'm so glad to be together with the pastors because we love hard questions and today on Hard Questions we're talking about heart and hearts, sacrifices, and God's mercy. So important questions, let's go to the first one. I actually have two questions. My first one is, from what I understand from the Bible, we will give an account of our lives when we leave this earth. My question is, how do you not fret or not feel sad about the rewards that are going to be lost, I guess, forever when you find out, geez, I could have those rewards and now they're gone. How do you, how will we get past that? And the other question I have is, scripture from the Bible, it says, if today you hear his voice, harden not your heart. Well, what does that mean? What does that refer to? Thank you. Okay, sneak him two questions in for the price of one. That's okay. Let's go to Pastor Jay. I'm going to try and encapsulate them both together. You know, they're talking about how today if you hear my voice, don't harden your heart because today is the day of salvation and your ability, the instruction you follow determines the grace that follows. So if you, there's an instruction we say don't harden your heart because salvation is today. When God begins to speak to you, when God begins to instruct you to do certain things and it goes on and talks about how they didn't mix what they heard with faith, but they allowed unbelief to come in. So as a result, that grace is no longer an operation. So she's asking the question about what are we going to do about those blessings we left out on or those opportunities or whatever. Well, the good thing about it, when we stand before God, he's going to judge us according to how well we stewarded our grace. No, we can't go back, but I do believe God allows us to somewhat redeem the time. So I don't believe it's kind of like, well, you missed that one. You're out forever. When you get to heaven, God's going to remia because you didn't follow that thing. I think it's learning how to steward. Many times when we miss certain instructions is because there's a level that God's trying to bring us to. And I believe God is a God. He said, when the thief is found, he'll have to restore. So when we, when we, for example, maybe we're being disobedient for some reason, we correct that action. I believe not only does he bring us into blessing, but he gives us back even what we lost because he's always redemptive. So we shouldn't be looking back with like, oh, I dropped the ball. I can't believe I missed it. What do you need to learn? Because once you make the adjustment and you make the changes you need to make, I believe not only will God begin to bless you now, he'll allow you to get everything even that you lost in those times as well. It's good. Very good. We need to hear the voice and obey. Pastor Mark. I think we all have some regrets about things we should have done or could have done. But I think of the scriptures in Isaiah that talk about the former things shall not be remembered nor come to mind, revelation. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. I don't believe that all of our memories are gone. I believe that the good memories, the memories of family and being with the Lord on the earth. Those are there but the past troubles I believe are removed. So we can sit in regret or we can rise up and say from this day forward, I'm going to be busy about my father's business. We can look back or we can look ahead. We choose to look ahead. And I agree with Mark. There'll be no regrets in heaven. I don't care what anybody says because the Bible says in the presence of the Lord is fullness of joy at his right hand are pleasures forevermore. So there may be some works that may be in my life that may be burned up. But you know what? I'm going to be in the presence of my father. I'm going to be in the presence of my Lord and my Savior and it's gone. It's gone. And anyone who teaches that there's going to be regrets or condemnation, you got the wrong heaven as far as I'm concerned and as far as what the Bible teaches. That's right. Absolutely. So what about that second part where it says today if you hear my voice, harden your heart. Well, how's that applied to us today? That's the place. Well, you know, you know, the writer of Hebrews is what one place it was found in. I think it's found in the Psalms also. Yes. Yeah. And so, you know, what they were talking about for Israel that when they had the opportunity to go into the promised land because of unbelief, they harden their heart and they didn't go in that that they missed the blessings of God because of the hardness of their heart. Well, you know, the book of Hebrews once again, I believe that was written primarily to Hebrew people and throughout it all, you know, it was talking about salvation and it was talking about the Tabernacle. It was talking about the law of Moses. It was talking about the festivals and the feasts and and it said that Christ is the fulfillment of all those things and that if people wanted to continue to celebrate those things as far as their salvation is concerned, that meant that they were hearting their heart and they were missing out on what God had had for them like they did. I think the scripture says in the day of provocation, you know, when they had unbelief. So, you know, I believe that whenever we do things that are not in line with God's plan, we miss out on his blessings that we miss the partner hearts. That's good. And the warning there is beware, brethren, least there be in any of you. So let's learn from the children of Israel and not make the exact same mistake of having the evil heart of unbelief. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord, right? So wherever you are in heaven, whether you're right up next to this road or watching the door, you're going to be happy and you're going to be at peace. So don't, don't worry. Let's follow definitely what the Lord gives us opportunity to do today and not regret the past. Good question though. So let's go to the next one. My question today, panel, back first passage, 1 Samuel 15, verse 22 says, to obey is better than sacrifice. Can you kindly please tell me what the scripture means to obey is better than sacrifice? Thank you. Jesus loves you. All right. Well, Jesus loves you too. Amen. Thank you, John. So, Pastor Pete. Okay. So, it's 15, 20, and we got to take a look at 23 with it. It says, so, so Samuel said, and Samuel's rebuking Saul here. Has the Lord great delight in burn offering to sacrifice? As an obeying the voice of the Lord, that's a question. Behold to obey is better than sacrifice. What took place here? Saul was given a direct command through the prophet, Samuel, from God. You are to destroy everything. Nothing is to be left. What would happen was, they kept the very best. And so, Saul, in this case, was, was justifying himself. Remember the Bible says, from your words you shall be justified, for in the very words that you are justified, you're going to condemn yourself. Saul was condemning himself because he thought, and then he goes on, if you read the rest of the chapter, he goes on and says, I feared the people. So he's more concerned about popular opinion of the people than he was of the word of the Lord. So Samuel comes back and tells him, Saul, look, to obey, to obey God's word is far better than thinking that we can disobey God's word and then redeem ourselves by doing sacrifice. That's exactly what it was. Yeah, that's a really good point. Let's go over here, Mark. I love a quote one minister gave, rebellion is the universal problem of the human race. And whether you are saved or unsaved, our flesh wants to do its own thing. Isaiah said, all we like sheep have gone astray. And so I think it's really important for each of us to say, Lord, I want to submit fully to your will. A lot of people in a bargain, I'm going to do it, but I'm going to do it my way. And so there's something about fully surrendering to say your will is best. If we're willing and obedient, the Bible says we'll eat the best from the land. Yeah. Yeah, Jay. And to obey is better than sacrifice. Don't do it your way and say, well, I'll go ahead and work out this thing. God, I know you're asking for this, but understand I'll give you all of this, but I'm going to keep the little piece over here. God's not cool with that. It's not going to work. How does it apply for us today? We're not going to have sacrifices, Pastor Glaze, like Saul wanted to do in the Old Testament. How can we make sure we're not doing this today? Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, we might say, well, I tied, you know, or I give and so I can kind of do whatever I want to do. But you know, the key is, is obedience that, you know, whatever God, it's almost like what Mary told, what Jesus said, what Mary said about the wedding and the pots and stuff like that. And she said, whatever he says, do it. And to me, I think whatever God's word says, you know, we need to do it and not try to go cut our arm off or not crawl on glass up a high mountain, you know, those type of sacrifices, just do what he says, man. Just do what he says. Leave it up to God. It is a grace filled life. Yes, there are hard times. There are difficulties that we'll go through, but trust in the Lord and all that and obey his voice. We'll come back in just 60 seconds when we ask, where does it say in scripture that we are to bind the devil? Welcome back to the show. We're taking your calls from the hard question hotline. And if you would like to leave us your question, we encourage you to call 412-349-4326. We'd love to hear your question. We'll get it on a future episode hopefully. So let's go to the next audio question. My question is, does the scripture in Matthew 18 and 18, and it's also in Matthew 16 and 19, have anything to do with binding and losing the devil? Thank you. All right. I'm going to throw it over to you, Pastor Mark. Maybe you could read the verses for us too. Sure. In Matthew 16 and 19, Jesus speaking to Peter, and I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. The word you there is in the singular, so some people say, well, that just pertains to Peter. But in Matthew 18 and 18, speaking about the church, the scripture says, whatever you plural bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Now in context, it's actually talking about church discipline with a brother who's airing, but then it says this, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, whatever you loose will be loosed in heaven. So I do believe that even though it doesn't specifically talk about the devil, that there are some principles there that we can apply, and there is a binding and losing. I think of Jesus in Luke 13, there was a woman with a spirit of infirmity. He said, woman, you are loosed from your infirmity. She was bound, Jesus loosed her. So I believe there are some principles there that we can use for binding and for losing. Maybe some of the other guys will get into what the Greek says, because it shows us that we're not telling God what to do, we're enforcing what He has commanded us. I also think too, in order to understand this passage of scripture, where you get the authority of the binding and losing, it has to deal with verse 16, which is the revelation. So your revelation ultimately gives you the keys that you have access to. So it's not like you can take 18, a separate from 16. It's what He heard from heaven already. He said, who do you say that I am, the author Christ, so now here are the keys. What you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. What you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven in accordance with the revelation you've already received. So you can't step outside of the revelation and bind anything you want. The purpose is He gave you a revelation in order to dispossess the kingdom of darkness. That's why I said the gates of hell unlocked because the revelation won't prevail against it. So I think one of the things that that has to deal with is you can't step outside of the revelation. Then also with Matthew 18, 18, I believe that's important as well because that'll block your blessing. So if you're walking in unforgiveness, if you're walking in sin, the revelation you've already previously possessed can be blocked and the devil can say, no, you don't have a right in here because of what you haven't operated in accordance with Matthew chapter 18. So I don't know. You went and passed those keys right over to Pete. You went right past. Well, you know, he got me fired up because again, it was on the declaration that Jesus is the Messiah because many people believe that upon this, I will build my church and the gates of hell. I read into it that Peter upon you being Peter is not the rock. Peter's Cephas. He's a small little stone, but upon the rock that Jesus is Lord, that Jesus is the Messiah, he will build his church. Then the gates of hell will not prevail against there. So hallelujah. So what about this binding of Lucent? So you guys might not want me to speak, right? I was trying to be quiet, right? So on a scale of dealing with the devil, binding and loosening, it would be down on the bottom rung. You know, the Bible tells us, I mean, to me, these passages are not clear. I mean, you know, we can infer a lot of things from them, but they're not clear. The Bible is definitely clear when it says resist the devil, right? The Bible is clear when it says put on the whole armor of God. So I think that there are things that we are commanded to do before we even get the binding and loosening. So, you know, and then even in Jude, it said, Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, dare not bring a railing accusation, but said the Lord rebuked you. So even in this passage, you know, it was like, let God deal with you. So again, you know, I'm not saying that we shouldn't bind and loose the devil. I'm just saying in my theology, it would kind of come down, you know, to a lower rung. I would do other things with the devil before I start binding and loose. Let me circle back on that then, because I think I see where he's at. And that's where I want to make sure I'm clear, too. Like, I don't think we are supposed to go around just binding up devils. I don't think you have that type of thought. Like what I mean by that, not that we don't have authority over devils. Someone has a demonic foe or something like that or whatever. And you want to cast out a devil out of something. I'm not talking about that. But I mean, sometimes you can't take authority greater than what you've been commissioned to do. And that's why the Bible says isn't it amazing right after Peter caught that revelation Satan wanted to have him. He was the only disciple that the devil wanted because that lets me know Jesus gave him authority at that point. And that's why the devil, even though he tried to sift him, he never failed. Because that revelation kept him up. It kept him going, even when all hell came against him. The devil could not shake him because of the revelation. That's what gives you the authority to bind the enemy. He's already bound. He's already bound in heaven. So the reality is you're just coming now and enforcing in the earth what heaven has already commissioned you to do. You're declaring what God has decreed. Keys are pretty important. Okay. It seems to me that in everything that we have access to in the natural, we have a key for anything that's valuable. So this seems like the key. When he's talking about keys, he's talking about something that's pretty important here. Mark any other comments on this? Yeah. It's the keys plural of the kingdom. And to what you were talking about, I think it's important to know which key you need because you can try to bind, but the key you might need is submitting first. The key you might need is dealing with some things first. So people get a revelation of one or two things and say, this is going to work all the time. And it just doesn't do that. And if I can just say one thing, the Greek actually puts it this way, whatever you forbid on earth will have already been forbidden in heaven. So it's not like we're telling God what to do. He has declared and we are exercising what he's told us to do. In my research, this red commentary where it talked about, that's what we're doing. We're declaring things that are already done, you know, already done. So really good discussion. Let's go right to the next question. Yes. My question is, when we die, do we automatically go to heaven? When it's so, at the end of time, why would the people become an up, out of the graves when Jesus comes back? That is my question. Thank you so much for the question. This is a great question. Pastor Glaze. Well, based on 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verses 13 through 18, that whenever a person dies, their soul, this is a New Testament, their soul goes to be with the Lord. So any of our loved ones that have died right now, they are with the Lord, right? Now their body is in the ground. So you know, whether it's in the grave, cremated, whatever the case might be, their body is in the ground. So when the rapture takes place, and again, I'll say this, I know not everybody believes in the rapture, but you know, that's my theology again. So, whenever the Lord comes back, that those souls of those who have died will come back with him, and their bodies will be resurrected out of the ground and reunited with the soul. Now according to 1 Corinthians 15, that those bodies will be immortal and incorruptible. So it's not going to be the same old body that we have now. So when the person talks about the dead rising, it's talking about the bodies of those who have died because their souls are already in heaven. And then after that, you know, Paul says, we who are alive and remain, you know. So if we're still alive when the Lord comes, you know, we'll be caught up body, soul, spirit, whether you're dichotomous, trichotomous, whatever the case might be, you know, we'll be caught up with him. But when he talks about the dead rising, he's talking about the bodies of those who have died, you know, because their souls are already in heaven. That's really, I mean, it's interesting because I think a lot of times we get hung up on timing issues of when certain things are going to happen, but that's a good explanation of that. Pete, we just have about a minute here. Okay. Again, I just want to reiterate. Paul says to be, the moment we die, to be absent from the bodies, to be present with the Lord. I mean, she's got confused with what takes place at death and what takes place at the resurrection. So there are two different accounts. At death, we're present. At the resurrection, we come back together. Simple as that. Sounds good to me. I'm ready for either one of those things. Well, I'm not ready for the dead thing to happen yet, but I'm ready to be with the Lord at any time. Thank you for the question. Well, coming up in 60 seconds, we ask, where in the Bible does it say that man is ignorant and in need of God's mercy? It's too bad you can't hear what we talk about it or in a commercial break because there's some good stuff that goes on here, but we're going to share some of it with you right now. So we like to end the show on a scripture, and we're going to do that in just a minute. But first, let's go to the next audio question. My question is, where does it say in the Bible that man is intrinsically ignorant and that is why we need God's mercy? Thank you. All right. Pastor Jay. I don't know if that question is exactly worded like that, but as I did my research, I was looking in 1 Timothy 1, I'm going to look verses 12 and 13, and maybe this is where she was coming from. And I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has enabled me, and this is Paul writing to Timothy, because he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry. So that's important to note that. He's saying I'm now anointed and called to be in ministry, although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, an insolent man, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly and unbelief. That word ignorant can have a lot of different connotations. It can be like, you know, if somebody's ignorant, like, yo, man, you're ignorant. You know what I mean? It's kind of like, you know, you're a fool. You're an idiot. You know, yeah, or whatever it might be. But this here he's talking about how I did not blatantly disobey God, because I knew what was right and I just didn't do it. There were things I were doing because I was ignorant, unlearned, untaught. And so I believe a lot of times that's why we really do. That's when we really get the mercy of God, is because there are many times in lives we really just don't know. We are making mistakes. We're led astray, but we really don't have the revelation. We don't really see. We really don't know. It doesn't mean God excuses it. It's still sin. It's still wrong. Paul was still a murderer. He owns all of that. But he obtained the mercy of God and God still called him into the ministry and graced his life because of ignorance and unbelief. And I heard someone say something recently that was really good. They said, there's a difference between deception and delusion. When somebody is deceived, it's because they don't know. They don't have all the information. And so they're being led by a lie that they don't know. Delusion is when you have seen the truth. You know the truth. You've chose to walk away. And now you're forced to believe the lie and you will follow it as your truth because you've rejected the knowledge of the truth. It's interesting where he says that about, I was ignorant. Well, I'll just let the pastor answer because sometimes, I mean, we all need mercy, whether we acted in ignorance or not, or whether we're deluded or deceived. We need that mercy. Well, I think of one verse in Hosea 4-6 talking about ignorance. There's really two kinds of ignorance. The scripture says, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, but then later on it says, because you have rejected knowledge, I will reject you. So there is a lack of knowledge. I just don't know. Then there's rejected knowledge. Like you said, I do know, but I'm choosing to do the other. And that's what's dangerous. Yeah, very much so. There's no other sacrifice for sins. Pastor Glaze. Yeah, I'm learning because, no, I'm serious because I really didn't have any idea where this question was going. So I appreciate the insight. I appreciate Brother Jay bringing up that scripture because I think that that fits right in with the question that's being asked. Well, let me ask you, is there about this thing of a willful, committing sin when you know like it's not ignorant? I mean, I've done sin, I think we probably all done sin, but we knew exactly what we were doing. It wasn't ignorance at all, but yet we still receive forgiveness. Right. Yeah. And thank God, you know, for his mercy, because without that, you know, we would be in trouble. So, you know, and I think that's where Paul was when he was writing in Timothy, you know, that, you know, thank God for his mercy, because he overlooked my ignorance. I don't mean to say you all sin. I know you've never sinned ever for anybody. But I'm glad, Pete. No, you didn't go here. Again, looking at the Apostle Paul's life, that's the reason why he said that he believed that he was the least of all the apostles because he did persecute the church. And remember, Paul did it under justification. He was a Pharisee of Pharisees. So, Paul, everything he did, he really did under the law of the phariseutical rulings, but yet he did it ignorantly, if that makes sense. That's interesting. He was one of the most learned, right, is doing it ignorantly. I think it goes back to that point of, you know, where people don't know. Sometimes there are things in our lives that we really don't grasp and we don't think we make mistakes we sin. That's not believing the lie. It's one thing for, like I said, you to just make an error. It's a nothing work. That truth is right there in front of you. And you say, I refuse to believe it. Reject it and go do it anyways. You're setting yourself up for a world of hurt. That's what Mark was talking about. That's a very dangerous place to be. You do not want to be in that place. And I hope that you accepted the truth of God. Well, we like to end the program with a scripture. And today we go to Psalms where it says this, Good and upright is the Lord. Therefore, he teaches sinners in the way. The humble he guides injustice and the humble he teaches his way. All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth. That is Psalm 25, 8 to 10. And I just want to say, you know, God's desiring to show mercy. He loves to pour grace upon you and upon your loved ones. All we need to do is seek him, turn to him. That's what his desire is. So don't, if he's calling to you today, don't harden your heart, but reach out to him. Well, we hope you enjoyed today's program. We want to hear from you. Email us your questions at hardquestionsctvn.org or call our hotline at 412-349-4326.