Welcome to the For the Gospel podcast where we're all about sound doctrine for everyday people. My name is Kosti Hinn and I am your host. And on today's episode, I want to take a chunk out of the plethora of questions you've been sending in. As promised, I will keep doing these episodes so you can get biblical answers and keep asking questions, knowing we're going to cover it either in a QA episode like this or in an entire teaching episode like we have been doing. Let's jump right in. First question that someone sent in. In reference to Luke 1.15, was John the Baptist saved before birth? The passage refers to John the Baptist leaping in the womb of Elizabeth, his mother, and the child being filled with the Spirit, and there's these references that appear to look not normal in that John is already in the womb, experiencing some sort of filling or understanding of what is coming for his life. Well, based on what Scripture teaches, I believe that this passage, Luke 115, does give evidence that John the Baptist was called, saved, predestined, if you will, in the womb, because he was a prophetic voice. Like Jeremiah in Jeremiah 1, 4 through 5. The Bible says the same thing about Jeremiah. John the Baptist was set apart even from the time that he was in the womb, and that's really the phrase, set apart in the womb. This highlights God's sovereign choice over the lives of his prophets and his people. It most certainly gives evidence to how special John the Baptist was in the sovereign plan of God to prepare the way for his son Jesus to come. Think about this for a moment. God's sovereign plan is that his son would come like a lamb who would give his life to take away the sins of his people. We're all saved because of Christ, and the forerunner declaring, repent. Repent is John the Baptist. Do you think God is messing around with his birth, with his calling, and with the sovereign providence upon his life? No way. John the Baptist is part of God's eternal plan and purposes in Christ. And so we could see a clear reference to John the Baptist being set apart in the womb like all prophets were. Number two, should guilt and shame play a role in repentance? Yes, but how long should it remain over your head is the bigger question. So I want you to think about the words and your questi your questions for a moment. Should guilt and shame play a role in repentance? Well, guilt is a good thing, briefly, right? Because you feel guilty, which just means that you feel responsible and accountable for your sin. It's like being in a courtroom and you've done something wrong, and the judge says, you are guilty. No one says, Oh, don't guilt me and shame me, judge. No, you would acknowledge I am guilty. I did that thing, therefore I am guilty. Well, we are all guilty of rebellion against God in sin. So does guilt and shame play a role in repentance? Well, of course, because it precedes repentance. We feel guilt. Now, should you feel shame? I'm gonna say it again. Yes, why? Well, I'm ashamed that I have sinned against a holy God. Think about Adam and Eve for a moment. They covered their nakedness and they hid in shame. What preceded God's grace upon their life and not killing them, what precedes many of us experiencing the grace of God is this moment of shame. We're well aware. Wow, I've sinned against God. Oh, I see my sin for what it is. I'm so ashamed, I'm so embarrassed. God, thank you for being merciful. I see the mirror. My life is in it. Oh I I did that That's a good thing. There's a pastor though who once said to me, Let guilt do its thing and then go away. So let me give you a second portion to your question. It's not healthy if you don't feel guilt and if you don't think sin is shameful. It's also not healthy if you will wallow in guilt and shame for a long time. It's also not healthy if people heap loads of guilt and shame on you after you've genuinely repented and you're bearing fruit in keeping with repentance, and they still want to go back on your past. So you read 2 Corinthians chapter 7, you see the response of believers in Corinth to being confronted with sin. They were broken, then they walked in repentance, true and genuine repentance, and we see that God's grace is greater than their greatest sin and ours, and then we walk in joy and freedom as believers like they did. If somebody kept trying to go back to the past, now we're in the sinful use of guilt and shame. Last element of this, as a pastor, my job is to put the good news in front of people of the gospel. Well, it's not really good news unless you first know the bad news. So part of my job and your job as believers, and certainly pastors when they preach the gospel, is to put the bad news in front of people. People are supposed to feel a sense of responsibility for their sin. Guilt over the fact that they've rebelled against God, shame because they are aware of their offense against a holy God, and then we immediately move to the good news and grace pours out upon them. It's an entirely American and human psychological and might I add, just mushy idea to say, well, we don't want to heap guilt and shame. You know, no guilt and shame on you. No, guilt and shame on all of us initially that we have sinned against a holy God. And then grace and mercy and love poured out because we are saved by grace through faith. Number three, how do you respond when an atheist tells you, okay, prove to me that there is a God? Quick answer here. I would read the book by Ray Comfort titled Faith is for Weak People Responding to the Top Twenty Objections to the Gospel. I appreciate Ray Comfort's work when it comes to evangelism and the gospel. And if you can absorb material like that particular book, Faith is for weak people, responding to the top twenty objections to the gospel, then you're going to be able to stand on your own two feet and not merely argue with people, but you're going to be able to genuinely engage them with truth and logic and then pray the Spirit open their eyes through your faithful conversations. Number four, why do you believe the canon is closed? This question essentially is asking why do I believe the Bible is the 66 books that were given in Scripture and that it's ended or it's closed with those books? God is not writing any more scripture through people. People aren't getting any more direct revelation from God. Like, man, you better get your pen ready. He's talking to you, and now you're going to write it all down for people and publish a book, and it's like scripture. Well, we just did a full episode with Dr. Mike Riccardi on this. And so if you miss that, finish this one, and then as time allows, go back an episode or two and find the episode titled Why is the Bible Closed? Number five, how do you explain to someone that speaking in tongues is not speaking in gibberish and that the sign of you receiving the Holy Spirit is not by the gift of speaking in tongues? Well, I'll say this real easy first. The gift of speaking in tongues is a gift. Let's say that biblically first. First Corinthians six nineteen. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Paul says in first Corinthians twelve thirty that not all are gonna have gifts of healing and are gonna speak in tongues. Well, first Corinthians six nineteen says we are all the temple of the Holy Spirit. So I've got the Holy Spirit whether I speak in tongues or not. You've got the Holy Spirit in you if you're a true believer, you're the temple of the Holy Spirit, whether you speak in tongues or not. So the sign of receiving the Holy Spirit cannot be that you have the gift of speaking in tongues, because there's nowhere in Scripture that says that's the evidence. Now, if you're talking about Pentecost, certainly in a very unique moment, the birth of the church, the explosion of the power of the Spirit through the church, those tongues of fire were resting on their heads. If you go ahead and read Acts 2, that's a unique moment. When's the last time at your church you saw literal tongues of fire resting on people's heads and everyone was speaking in languages? You don't. So there's a uniqueness to what happened at Pentecost. Couple more options for you as well. First, go back and listen to the episode I did with Justin Peters on tongues. It was one of our most listened to episodes. Second, do a word study on glossa or the Greek word glossalia, and see how it's used in the New Testament. And here's the answer that you need to understand or you need to find. Is that word referring to gibberish and ecstatic utterance or known languages and dialects? List out the specific dialects or the people groups whose language is referred to in Acts chapter two. Do that and look. Is it, you know, the kind of joke about tongues, the shouldabada Honda Bada Bada Kia, you know, stuff about all that, or you know, the other kind of ways that people, uh, maybe in good humor, poke fun at how people just make up tongues? Or are they known languages in Scripture? Was Paul going around just sort of babbling in random languages, or when he says to the church at Corinth again, if you read 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and then verse 13 about love and then verse 14 about order in the church when it comes to tongues and prophecy, when he says, I thank God I speak in tongues more than all of you, was he saying, I'm I thank God I babble more than all of you? Well, that's no, because that we could just babble more than Paul, and then we speak in more tongues than Paul. There's a logic here, a biblical logic. I would also recommend you read a book by Tom Shriner titled Spiritual Gifts, one of the best books I've ever read on this issue and more when it comes to the question of, well, does anyone have the gift of healing anymore? Does anyone have the actual gift of prophecy? It's a short, easy read. Tom Shriner, Spiritual Gifts, get that book. And after that, I would say this if you don't have a reasonable biblical and clear position or discussion to have with someone who believes in the babbling version of tongues, I would say perhaps you didn't read the book, you didn't study, and you didn't listen to what I just told you. It is really low-hanging fruit. Go and do the study on those resources. Your conversations will be blessed. Another question. I recently recovered from COVID-19. I was hospitalized, was in the intensive care ward, and I'm grateful to God that I healed up and was able to return to my family. My question is, during that time, even though I know my place is set in heaven as a believer, I was very scared of dying. Is that a normal feeling to have as a Christian? That's a great question. Let me give you two answers a pastoral answer and then an exegetical answer, which would mean more derived directly from the scripture. Maybe some gentle pastoral encouragement first, and then some hard truth from scripture second that'll encourage you still. Look, everyone experiences emotions like anxiety and fear in their life. Even Christians may have a moment where they feel alone, and perhaps they're fearful of lying all alone on a deathbed. Let's go further. In the last season, COVID ripped families apart, and the protocols kept even just one wife or husband from holding the hand of their dying loved one. You saw homes crushed by this. People had to die alone. Even a believer in that position may experience a moment or more of anxiety and fear. More so because they're lonely. They miss their family. They want to have hymns sung and their children around them while they go into glory. You know, even if you wore a hazmat suit, they weren't letting you in in most cases, if not all cases. That's terrible and that's terrifying. Many of us would feel very similar feelings that people felt in those moments, I'm sure. And at the same time, by the time that our loved ones came to terms with what was happening, glory was taking shape around them as their spirit was ushered into the presence of God. And so we probably feel more fear, more anxiety, and a more sense of loneliness than they did because it wasn't long before they were in the presence of the Almighty. But still, there's a reality. And so pastorally, I would say, yeah, you're gonna feel moments of that. But the battle doesn't end there. How do you get through emotional battles with your feelings? How do you get through bouts with anxiety or concerns about death? Well, let me press in a little bit on your heart, my heart, and every listener's heart here. Think of the song. No guilt in life, no fear in death. This is the power of Christ in me. From life's first cry to final death for final breath. Jesus commands my destiny. No power of hell, no scheme of man can ever pluck me from his hand. Till he returns or calls me home, here in the power of Christ I stand. Okay, where is that all from? Well, that's from Scripture. Think of Philippians 1 21. Paul says to live is Christ, to die is gain. He's explaining what true life is. I live for Christ now on earth, and I die and go be with him in glory. Christ is my living and he is with me in my dying. If you want to glorify Jesus Christ, listen to this John Piper quote. If you want to glorify Christ in your dying, you must experience death as gain, which means Christ must be your prize, your treasure, your joy. He must be a satisfaction so deep that when death rakes away everything you love, but gives you more of Christ, you count it gain. When you are satisfied with Christ in dying, he is glorified in your dying. So Christian, Philippians 1 21 calls you to glory in the fact that to live is Christ, to die is gain. Another aspect of this, first Thessalonians 4.13, Paul says, But we don't want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who are asleep, he's referring to death, so that you won't grieve as the rest of mankind does who have no hope. There is a scriptural answer here. It is that we are not to grieve as the world does. We have hope. But if you're uninformed, you're not going to have that hope. And so I would encourage you to go to the scriptures, read through the New Testament, look at the way the church is called to live, be informed. The issue for the Thessalonians was confusion over the resurrection, and what about death and shocker? In other letters there was heresy about the resurrection as well that was disturbing the church. That's why 1 Corinthians 15 is in the Bible, where Paul sets the record straight on the resurrection, because what is one of the key doctrines that Satan attacks to steal our assurance or our joy or our peace? The resurrection. Because if you have no resurrection, you've got no hope. If Jesus did not rise from the grave and have power over sin and death in victory in life after the cross, how in the world are you ever going to raise from the grave? How in the world are you ever going to ascend into heaven? How are you going to be glorified like Christ? Well, you're not. And so the doctrine of glorification, the idea that the believer is one day going to be in glory, in a glorified state, that's what glorified or glorification means for us, is only a reality because Jesus first conquered the grave. So you need to be informed of this. And one of the best ways to find peace in the midst of an anxiety filled world is to read Revelation chapter twenty one. Listen to what John says as I read this. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride, adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and he shall dwell among them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be among them, and he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there shall no longer be any death, and no longer any mourning or crying or pain. The first things have passed away, and he who sits on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new. And he said, Write, for these words are faithful and true, and he said to me, It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. He who overcomes shall inherit these things, and I will be his God, and he will be my son. But for the cowardly and the unbelieving, the abominable, the murderers, the immoral persons, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their part will be in the lake of fire that burns, and brimstone, which is the second, death, and one of the seven angels, who had the seven bulls, full of the seven plagues, came and spoke with me, saying, Come here and I show you the bride, the wife of the lamb. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem coming down out of heaven. Having the glory of God, her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal clear jasper. It had a great and high wall with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and the names were written on them, which are those of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel. There were three gates on the east, and three gates on the north, and three gates on the south, and three gates on the west. And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the lamb. And the one who spoke with me had a gold measuring rod to measure the city and its gates and its wall. And the city is laid out as a square, and its length is as great as the width, and he measured the city with the rod fifteen hundred miles, its length and width and height are equal, and he measured its wall seventy two yards according to the human measurements, which are also angelic measurements, and the material of the wall was Jasper, and the city was pure gold, like clear glass. The foundation stones of the city wall were adorned with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation stone was Jasper, the second sapphire, the third Chalcedoni, the fourth emerald, the fifth, Sardonics, the sixth, Sardius, the seventh, Chrysalite, the eighth, Beryl, the ninth, Topaz, and the tenth Chrysopris, the eleventh Jacinth, and the twelfth Amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each one of the gates was a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold like transparent glass. And I saw no temple, for the Lord God, the almighty and the Lamb are its temple. And the city has no need of the sun or the moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the lamb, and the nations shall walk by its light, and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory into it, and in the daytime, for there shall be no night there, its gate shall never be closed, and they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it, and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Brothers and sisters, when you read chapters like Revelation twenty-one and you go on into Revelation chapter twenty-two, you will find the glory of heaven staring you back in the face. William Gernal said this, and we'll close the episode with this. Let your hope of heaven master your fear of death. Go to the scriptures, find the hope of heaven, and you will watch your fear of death flee. My prayers this episode has helped you get answers to questions that you have, or even think about answers to questions that you never asked. Thank you for being with me today on the for the gospel podcast. Don't forget the best way to get our content directly to your devices is to subscribe to the podcast, subscribe to our YouTube channel, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter to support what we're doing or learn more about our ministry team, or just to read articles and check out more resources, go to for thegospel.org. I'll be back next Monday with another episode. Keep on living for the gospel.