 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 Marglaise, Bethany Baptist Church in Pittsburgh, Pastor Joel Guinean, middle school pastor at Cornerstone Ministries, Murraysville, Pete Giacalone, Lead Pastor, South Hills Assembly Guide Church, Bethel Park, PA, Anthony Gilbert, pastor of another level ministries in the North Hills area. Thank you for being with us today on Hard Questions. We're going to talk about wars, stones, and condemnation. Sounds painful, but let's go to the first question here. It's a hotline question. The Bible says by your words, you'll be justified, and by your words, you'll be condemned. But also in another place in the Bible, it says there is no condemnation in them who are in crimes. I remember reading somewhere else in the word that when you eat, you eat in faith. And anything you don't eat in faith, you're condemned. You're bringing condemnation on yourself, you're condemned. I wanted you to be able to distinguish the difference between these. Now we know when you're not saved, condemnation is applied to the person who's not saved. But when you are saved, the Bible says there is no condemnation to them who are in crimes. So that word condemnation, is it the same word used when it says by your words, you're justified, and by your words, you're condemned? And if you're condemning yourself by not speaking in faith, whatever, the Bible says wherever, it's not a faith to sin. If you're not speaking in faith for things you say, does that mean you're under condemnation? And because of that, you won't get into the kingdom. I'll listen to your answer on the TV. Thank you. Well, the show's over. Thank you for joining us. That's a long, long question and a lot going on there. Let's start with Pastor Jay. I've got to get ready for this one here. Give myself into fight mode here. You know, I think the justice of the question is really where is the Bible meaning by it says that a lot of different places where you're condemned. I think the one that he's mentioned in Romans eight is different from the other ones. He's dealing with the whole thing about eating in faith and all of that. He's not speaking of condemnation spiritually. He's talking about a mental, your own personal guilt. You're not talking about yourself. Patient. Exactly. Not at all. Not at all. It's like if you're doing something and you feel guilty about it, you bring condemnation on yourself. You're bringing it on yourself, not that you're even in it. And so we have to allow our conscience also to be our lead in our guide in certain areas as well. When we're talking about dealing with how we speak, Jesus was talking about it during that time with the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. And so he was talking about how with your words, you're going to be justified. With your words, you're going to be condemned. And he's talking about from basically what's within the heart, that word there, your words being justified and condemned is either an evil rama or a spiritual rama. So he's talking about how it comes from the spirit of the man or the woman. So basically it's not just every single word you speak. Well, you know, it's just, you know, your words justified, your words are condemned. It's talking about where it's coming from, from the heart. And then you look at Romans eight, Romans eight, I think people miss is that there's no condemnation, but they don't read the rest of the scripture for those that walk according to the spirit and not the flesh. So that lets me know I can be a believer. And if I'm walking in the flesh, condemnation is going to be going to hit my life. Not because of any other, but you're walking in the flesh. You have, you don't have the victory in the arena of the flesh. So to sum everything up that I'm saying here, he's talking about basically the difference of condemnation comes on you or doesn't come on you based upon the spirit you're walking in, whether in the flesh or the spirit. You're defining this word condemnation not as a salvation issue. It's an issue of what's coming upon you as how you, how your mind is before God. When it comes to the speaking, Jesus was speaking about whether you're in the faith or not. Romans eight is different and then also eating is different. So there's three different things that all deal with what you're walking in accordingly. So there's a lot to unpack there. Well, I think, you know, really, first off, for those who are struggling with their salvation, those who are wondering, am I saved or not? I know early in my walk with Christ, I battled with that for probably about a year and a half. You know, constantly wonder, you know, going up to the altar every single week, like, am I saved? Am I saved? You know, and somebody had to tell me like, you have given your life to Christ, you are saved, but now you need to align your actions, you know, with Christ, with walking in Christ. We see in Revelation that there's two judgments, right? There's the great white throne of judgment, and that's those, you know, that Jesus knows. And those who he says, depart from me, I never knew you. Those who are cast into the lake of fire. Then there's a second judgment, that's the Bema seat. I mean, this is a great illustration for this, is this was like the platform that you had to put Olympians on when they won their medals. This is where you would give them the rewards for how they had performed. And so there's that second judgment. And so I think remember that there's two different judgments, a second one for the believers, where you receive your inheritance. All right, Pastor Pete. Well, again, I think, like Jay said, if I just want to touch one part of that, as far as by your words you shall be justified by your word, shall be condemned. That means that when I take my words and I use my words so that I become self-righteous, then those very words that I use to make me self-righteous are going to be the very words that will be used against me to condemn me. You see what I'm trying to say? So that means when I come to justify myself in my own self-righteousness, it's not going to stand. And then like she was talking about foods offered to idols. There's just so many different things and you can't interrelate them. Each one of them has to be taken separately. When he says, and I'll ask you this, Pete, he says, if you are not speaking in faith with what you say, does that mean you're under condemnation and you won't get into the kingdom? Again, this is not a salvation issue here. No, it's not. Definitely not. Right, right. Pastor Glaze. Well, yeah, and I think that deals with stewardship. That I have to be a good steward over my tongue. And I have to realize that even though the blood of Christ cleanses me from all unrighteousness and there's no condemnation from that perspective, that I still am accountable for my words and that I can bring condemnation. As Jay said, I can bring condemnation on myself, the guilt. So I might be a Christian, but if I'm not exercising good stewardship over my tongue, then I'm gonna have to deal with that. Let me ask you about the issue with condemnation because there's some Christians that really struggle with condemnation. Yes. And Joel, you even mentioned what's conviction? Conviction's the right thing. Condemnation's something we don't wanna embrace. What do we do with those two things? That's great. The way I think of conviction is, I have a bunch of little kids. So we play bumper bowling. When we go bowling now, there are things, we gotta put the bumpers up. Conviction is God knocking you back into the lane. It's knocking you back down so that, to keep you on target. Condemnation is not even showing up at the bowling alley. You're not even in the league, so. Oh, that's a good point. So let me ask you about that, Jay. What do you see as a con, like a condemning thing in a Christian's life? How can they sort out? What's condemnation? What's conviction for them? What is really from God? And what is the devil just trying to beat them up? I gotta give the Holy Spirit some props right now because this is something that he just dropped in me. And I'm thinking about, when you mentioned what you were sharing, I think about when you go to a house and you see them, when it's condemned, what does it mean? You can't live it anymore. It needs to be destroyed. That's condemnation. But if you are evicted, it means the house is good, but there's something wrong in the house. So basically, when you're looking at condemnation versus conviction, conviction is, all right, the house is still good, but there's something going on in the house that needs to be changed. But condemnation means everything in the house is gonna be destroyed. God doesn't condemn us unless we're in sin. Then obviously conviction is meant to repair the home, but conviction is where God says, hey, there's something going on in the house. We need to get this right so then the house can be preserved. That's pretty good stuff, Jay. I don't take notes. I don't take notes. I don't take notes right there with that right now. It just came to me. I'm gonna preach on that sometime. Anything else, Pete? Condemnation, there's no let up. Conviction, there's a wooing. There's a bringing to correction. Redemptive. Redemptive, right. Everything in conviction is redemptive, but everything with condemnation, no chance. Complete condemning. That's nice. Well, and I think it's been pointed out that, condemnation is from Satan, and conviction is from the Holy Spirit. And the outcomes are completely different. And condemnation is to destroy you. And conviction is to build you up. You know what? I think condemnation sounds like you are a terrible person. You can never, you're never gonna amount to anything. And conviction says, you've done something wrong. Repent and receive forgiveness and continue to walk. That it's hopefulness in it. Well, great discussion. Well, we're coming back in just 60 seconds. And when we ask, where do you go when you immediately die? We'll be right back. Well, welcome back to Hard Questions. We've got a couple of questions in this segment. Let's go to the next one. Yes, the question I have in 2 Corinthians 10, chapter 10 and verse three. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. What is it saying? All right, good question. Really good one, Pastor Pete. Well, then again, if we finish the verse, it says, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. So I'm not fighting Dr. Glaze. I'm not fighting another human being, but I'm fighting powers and principalities of powers. Our warfare are not carnal, but mighty of God of pulling down the strongholds. So we wrestle against strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. And they were told to bring every thought and the captivity to the obedience of Christ. We can run with this also, the armor of God. So if, because sometimes believers get so caught up in wrestling in the flesh, that they really lose sight of who is my true enemy. My true enemy is not another human being. My true enemy is the enemy of my soul and I'm fighting powers and principalities of powers. That's the reason why we're told to put on the full armor of God, the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, loin's good or with truth, feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, shield of faith that would stand every failure to dart at the enemy and the sword of the spirit. So again, but as long as we're caught up in flesh and blood, we're never gonna get to the root. We gotta get to the root. And the root is this is a spiritual problem and not a flat. We do wrestle in the flesh. There's things that Paul says, I crucify the flesh daily. So there's come time, I got a- We're wrestling with our own flesh. With our own flesh. But I'm not wrestling with your flesh, right? Pastor Glaze. Yeah, well, when you look at the weapons of our warfare, they are not fleshly. And he goes on to talk about that. Pete just quoted it, that if I want to logically argue somebody out of a position, that's fleshly. I'm trying to use the logic of the flesh. And that's, I mean, I might win that particular argument, but I'm trying to, I'm not winning the war. I'm not winning the battle. The battle comes with the weapons of our warfare, prayer, fasting, reading the word of God, using the name and authority of Christ. So those are the weapons that we use to fight this spiritual battle. If I'm just using flesh on flesh, then that's a losing battle right there, as far as my spiritual life is concerned. Even if you win the battle, you lose the war in that one. But it says we're destroying speculations or I think there's other words, arguments, tearing down arguments. Isn't that interesting? A lot of times think it's just tearing down some sort of spirit, but it's a speculation that we're fighting. Well, as a matter of fact, Paul goes on. A lot of people don't really take this thing exegetically the way they should. And we just take just versus three through five and we preach that. Paul's actually given a response because he was writing letters to them to bring correction. And so the people were saying, man, his bodily presence is weak. Look at a little Paul and he's like, listen. He's like, I can ground you from a pay phone. He's like, I don't even have to be in your presence. He goes, even though we walk into flesh and you're looking at my outward stuff, we don't war according to that. So he was going at it from that standpoint as well, dealing like, don't look at the outward things and thinking that's the battle. My spirit man is where my power comes from. And so that's where you get the speculations, the mindsets, all the same. It's not thinking according to the natural. And it's talking about the realm. And most people, what they do, they are living in a fleshly realm and using fleshly weapons, not understanding a lot of the stuff that's being impacted by the fleshly realm is spiritual. And so I always say it like this. It's kind of like having a, what do they call them where they have like a puppet master? Where they have those. And so if you don't, you can kill the puppet all day long, but as long as the master is still moving, that puppet's going to continue to live. So you can be fighting the wrong, how would you say in the wrong realm, but with the right weapons. So if you're not in the right weapons and the right realm, you're not going to have the victory in your life the way that you should. I just got this feeling about Paul going through a pay phone somewhere and like calling him up. It's like, take him down. Take him down. What's the pay phone again? Yeah, right. Well, see they didn't have cell phones and ancient Jerusalem, they had pay phones. That's what a shackle in there. And I think it's remembering who our enemy really is. You know, Paul's reminding us that our enemy is beyond what's immediately right in front of your face. So even when I'm talking to somebody who firmly stands in opposition against Christ, they are still not my enemy. You know, a pastor I know used to always say that that person's not my enemy. They are a prisoner in the enemy's camp. And when you take that mindset of, of this isn't somebody to be defeated. This is somebody to be won and sought after and rescued. Your approach changes, your position changes and your, the amount of love that you display even when in disagreement changes because we changed our spiritual weapons of warfare for a spiritual battle. That's good. That's really good. Good stuff, good stuff. And no, they didn't have pay phones in ancient Jerusalem. So. And or, or shackles for them. All right. Let's go on to the next hotline question. I have two questions for the pastors. One is after death, do we go straight to be with the Lord? Absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Then there's another scripture that says the dead know nothing. And this is kind of confusing to me. Thank you and bless you pastors and CTV family. Oh, this is a really good question. I'm going to start us off with Pastor Glace. Well, you know, there's a lot of theology today, you know, from different religions that say when you die, that you go to a holding place. You know, some religions say that you go to sleep and you don't wake up until, you know, the last day. You know, so, I mean, there's just a lot of confusing theology out there. But, you know, we need to take our answers right from the Bible. And the apostle Paul is very clear. He says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. So when you close your eyes in death, you know, I like what the Greek says. It says, prostan feton. And what that means is you wake up face to face with God, you know? And what a powerful thought that, you know, when I close my eyes in death, that the next face I see is going to be God, you know? And so that's, you know, from that perspective. And then, you know, the verse that she's talking about in Ecclesiastes where it says that the dead know nothing. Solomon is talking about that while you're here on this earth, you can still experience the things of this earth. You can grow in your knowledge of the things on this earth. But when you die, he says that the dead know nothing. He was speaking in reference to this life in this earth that you can't come back and, you know, know anything because you're dead. You know, you have left this life. So when he says that the dead know nothing, he's not saying that they're in eternity and they don't know anything. He's saying in relationship to this earth, they can't know anything else once you die. Good point, good point, Pastor Pete. Well, again, going back to what Dr. Glaze just said, I think if we can just get that in all of our spirits that without a doubt to know, as Paul said, to know, to be absent from this body. Again, the very moment we take that very last breath, we are in the presence of Almighty God. To reign with Him throughout all of eternity. Well, there are scriptures that seem to say, like, well, the dead in Christ shall rise first and things like that where it seems like, it seems like, you know, what are they doing while they're waiting, Joel. Well, and that kind of lends into where I stand, where you look at Jesus and the thief on the cross. He says today you'll be with me in paradise. You know, the belief that being what the Jews knew as the bosom of Abraham. And so, which was, you know, a paradisical place, but not the final heaven that we'll see, which I believe is the restoration back to original creation. So, you see that, you see a little bit of difference in the display of where the Bible talks about Hades and then hell, the final judgment, the final lake of fire that all of those who oppose God will be thrown into. So, I see those as two different levels of. Things that are happening. Yeah, I see paradise and Hades as a sub-level to the real heaven and hell that will come after the final resurrection. Okay. All right, we have about a minute left. Take it away. I think it's like Forrest Gump said. That's all I got to say about that. I think these guys handled it all well. I think that's all that needs to be said. I think they answered it all. It's a key thing I always think about. Times of no consequence to God, right? So, it doesn't matter if you say, well, what happens here and what happens here. There is no here and there to God. It's all together, you know? It's all happening at one time. Tommy, if I can just address what you said just a moment ago about the resurrection. That's the resurrection of the body. But what happens to our spirit? The moment we die, the body, you know, it decays. But our spirit is in the presence of Almighty God. Amen. That is a great thought. To be absent from the body and to be present with God. I like that. Waking up to the God's face. I like the tombstone that was in England. Beneath these clouds and beneath these trees lies the body of Solomon, peas. This is not peas. It's only as part. Jesus has been shelled out and gone home to God. Oh, my God. I love that. That's good. I'm glad we held on for that. Well, coming up in 60 seconds, we ask, why did the angel have to move the stone? We'll be right back. We're gonna have a great scripture in just a little bit. But let's right now go to our next audio question. Yes, my name's Tom. I got a question about when Jesus was in the tomb, why did the angel move the rock? Because if he was being resurrected from the tomb, he could have walked right out himself. So why was the rock even touched? Could you answer that question? Thank you. All right. Pastor Glaze. Oh, I had that one. Yeah, you did. Oh, okay. All right. Well, praise the Lord. I've always taught that the stone was not rolled away to let Jesus out. It was to let the other people in and let them see what was happening. You know, Jesus, when you looked at, he walked through walls, man. You know, I mean, he just kind of appeared in rooms. He walked through walls. And so, yeah, he didn't need the stone rolled away. So the reason that it was rolled away was to give proof that he did rise from the dead and to let the people on the outside know that he rose from the dead. What a great sight that must have been. Yeah, so good. Well, I think also when Jesus was walking around in his earthly ministry, he was deferring some of his, you know, Godship. You know, he was still 100% God, 100% man, but he wasn't allowing himself to be as fully ministered to by the angels as he did when he was on his throne. And so now that the work is finished, he goes back to fully embracing that. Hebrew says that though he was God, he didn't consider God, equality with God, something to be grasped or obtained or used for his benefit, but now he's allowed to be ministered to again at that full level. And so I think the reason why is to also show he has that command of the angelic army and he's back on his seat and on his throne. Well, I think that's an interesting point. And I want to kind of expand this just a little bit for you guys, is why does God use angels at all? I mean, he doesn't have to. I mean, snap his fingers, the rock would fly out of the way, you know? I mean, why does God use angels at all? Well, you know, there's a practical side to it that there are messengers and they minister to us and all those types of things. And you're right, God could just snap his finger, do what he needs to do. You know, there's some things that I feel like sometimes he's just God. You know, there's some stuff he said, this is what I like, you know? It's like, why did he create dinosaurs? Why did he create a dog? He's like, I liked it, you know? So he's something about the angels that he just liked and said, I'm going to use this as my creation in order to do that. So they're a realm of creation that God chose to use to be of benefit to man. Even before man was there, for whatever reason, they were there to serve him. Lucifer was the worshiping angel, part of that hierarchy with him, Michael and Gabriel, you know? So that was just what God chose to do and how he chose to use it and we get to be the benefactors of it. We do. Going back to the rock again situation, it says there in Matthew 28, now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other came to see the tomb. So that rock was rolled away, again, not to let Jesus out, but that was rolled away so that, so that scripture would be fulfilled. The women came, and I think they actually were coming to anoint the body once again. And then they asked the question, who's going to move the stone? They were asked, but they kept walking in faith. There's a sermon. That's right, they kept walking, it's like, yeah. You know, that's interesting. I have preached that. That's interesting right there. Who's going to roll away the stone? And they didn't turn back, go get some guys. No, they kept out walking. Yeah. And I also think too, Jesus, they rolled away the stone because to your point, he was stepping back into his majesty. You know, he don't need to roll his own stone no more. It's finished. And now the work has been done, you know? So he walked out, you know, of that thing. Now he was reestablishing that dominion, as you mentioned, he's reestablishing that hierarchy of himself now being the king. He's no longer the suffering lamb, he's now the king, which I love the book of Revelation because that shows who he really is in chapter one. And I think that was the beginning stages of him coming into that. High and lifted up on a throne, you know what I mean? But you know, I think about this. I think about those angels that came down and rolled the stone away. Jesus hadn't seen him for like 33 years, you know? He's like, hey guys, good to see you again, you know? Man, you know, it's been a long time. I'm glad you moved that big heavy thing out of the way for me. Well, we like to end the program with a scripture. And we're gonna read this scripture in joy. I'd like you to give us a little bit on it. It says, do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary. And his understanding, no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Isaiah 40, 28 and 29. Absolutely. Well, what I want people to hear right now is if you're feeling weak, if you're feeling exhausted and burdened, God's here to give you rest. He's here to increase your strength for whatever it is that you're facing. So if you're facing those battles, know that God's there to strengthen you and to walk through whatever you're facing with you. So you're not walking alone. That Paul himself even boasted in his weakness, knowing that Christ was magnified when he strengthened us in the midst of our trials. That's fantastic. I mean, it's a great, that old him, I'm talking to him side over here. He walks with me and he talks with me, right? And he tells me that I am his own. That's right. I mean, he never leaves us or forsakes us. He gives us the strength that we need. Well, we hope you enjoyed today's program. And we want to hear from you. We'd love to hear from you. Email us your questions at hardquestionsatctvn.org or call into our hotline at 412-349-4333. Thank you for joining us for hard questions. Have a great day.