“Every Knee Will Bow?”

Got a Bible question struggling with a personal issue, wondering about a tricky verse? At BibleQuestions.com you'll get clear, grace-based answers in 10 seconds or less. No fluff, no confusion, just practical, biblical truth. Ask anything, anytime, and experience the power of God's love. Visit BibleQuestions.com. That's BibleQuestions.com. You're go too for biblical clarity. Jesus plus nothing, 100% natural, no additives. Andrew Farley is celebrating your freedom in Christ. Call in and ask your questions at 877-655-6755. That's toll-free at 877-655-6755. By a satellite from Texas, it's The Grace Message with Dr. Andrew Farley. Hello everyone, welcome to The Grace Message. I'm Andrew Farley, so glad you're joining us tonight, that number to call 877-655-6755. We got open-lines room for you right now to get in with your question tonight. Maybe you've got a question about a scripture passage. Perhaps you heard something in church recently, and you're not sure about it. You want to put it to the test. Well, that is exactly why we're here for you tonight. We are live across the United States and Canada on SiriusXM. All kinds of FM and AM stations, and yes, of course, we're live streaming on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, X, our mobile app, and our website. It doesn't matter how you're listening right now or watching, you can simply call in and be a part of tonight's conversation. We'd love to have you again, 877-655-6755. If you're a first-time caller, please know, we love it. And if you're a veteran caller, maybe, has it been a while, it's time to join us once again, whatever's on your heart, whatever's on your mind, we'd love to hear from you tonight. Right now, we're wide open, so you'll be sure to get in if you call right away. Well, speaking of right away, today's the last day of the month, and it is the last

day that we are offering forgiven forever. It's our new resource. We want to put it in your hands, and here's just a bit about it. Are you forgiven of all your sins, or are you being progressively forgiven? You know, like paying off your car, paying off your mortgage? Are you forgiven daily, even hourly, as you ask God? The great news of the gospel is it is way better than that. It's all about the finished work of Jesus. I'm excited about this new resource. It is called "Forgiven Forever," and that's the truth of Hebrews, chapter 10. By one sacrifice, you've been made perfect for all time, so make sure to request your copy of "Forgiven Forever." When you give your gift this month, in the month of August, we're giving it away to each and every donor. It's our way of encouraging you, and the love and grace of God. It's our way of reminding you that you are forgiven forever. Yes, you are forgiven forever. That's because of the finished work of Christ, and you're a totally forgiven person, past, present, and future, and that's what this series is all about. If you're in Christ, you're not being progressively forgiven. All of your sins, taken away, remembered no more. As far as the east is from the west, they've been removed, God keeps no record of your wrongs. That should be normal to hear that from pulpits and from churches and ministries across the planet that we believers are totally forgiven once for all. Hebrews 10, verse 14 declares it, and this brand new series, "Forgiven Forever," exposits it and shows you the power of it and the inspiration of it. When you realize I am clean before God every single day, every hour, I am close to Him. He bought my intimacy with Him forever, and I have something unshakeable. Something unbreakable, so make sure to request your copy of "Forgiven Forever," you can

And thank you so, so much for your support. We can't do it without you. All right, well, we're taking your calls. We do have open lines. If you want to join us right now, we got wide open lines still. So if you've been on the fence thinking about calling in with your question or concern, tonight's a great night to do it. 877-65-56755. All right, we're going to Michigan first. We'll talk with Kevin. Hi, Kevin, what you got for us today? Hi, Dr. Farley, thank you for taking my calls. Yeah. I have a Catholic background upbringing. I'm 66 years old now. And I've been searching, you know, more down the grace path for a number of years now. And I have a better understanding who I believe God is to me and what Jesus Christ did for us. And I've accepted Christ as my savior. But I still struggle with sort of this punitive God where, you know, on one hand, I adopted the God will forgive your sins, you know, and as far as the east is from the west, right? But also, but then I continue to hear that, you know, we will be judged in every knee shall bow, which to me kind of goes back to that punitive God

and, you know, the firing of brimstone and something to be fearful of. So I guess I'm really looking for clarity on, what does that mean actually, that every knee shall bow? Yeah. And we will face judgment. Yeah, all right, well, absolutely. Well, first of all, I don't think you wanna, I don't think you wanna tone down the whole judgment thing because then you're basically saying sin is okay or sin is cool or sin is no big deal. And I know that's not your intention. But I mean, without the judgment being severe, we don't really need grace. If the judgment is nonexistent, we don't need the gospel. If God is just, well, just nice to sin, then we don't need Jesus. And so we know for a fact that God and sin are on opposite teams. I mean, in God, there is no sin. It's not part of his nature. So as far as this every knee will bow, I mean, that doesn't mean everybody's gonna become a Christian. It just means everybody's gonna acknowledge. At some point, their common sense is gonna hit and they're going to acknowledge, you know, when it says in Philippians two, it says for this reason, God highly exalted Jesus bestowed on him

the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. That's not universal salvation. That is simply Paul, first of all, he's showing the humility of Jesus, right? I mean, he's pointing out Jesus' humility in this passage. He talks about how Jesus was not trying to grasp at any sort of status or privilege. And then Jesus humbles himself, Jesus becomes human. And then what is it telling us? Well, eventually everybody's gonna have to humble themselves and recognize who Jesus is, even if they didn't recognize it before. So that acknowledgement of who Jesus is does not equate to being happy about it or being saved by it. So it's those who receive him to them, he gives the right to be called children of God. So we believe upon him, you know, John 3 16, we believe we call upon him Romans 10. We're sealed by his spirit, Ephesians chapter one. We're reconciled and God begs the world, please be reconciled. And then we have a response, a yes or no, an accept or reject and many people reject him. So this isn't, I mean, I get it. You don't want God to be a meanie and I get that.

But you know what? This is just, I mean, basically it's biology. It is spiritual biology. It's not anger, it's spiritual genetics. So if you're perfect and then you fall and you're in Adam and you're spiritually dead, then you have a destination. that destiny is new genetics, new biology. And so that's what being born again is we're taken out of Adam, we're put in Christ as a byproduct of that. We have a new destination, a new destiny. Salvation is not primarily about heaven, it's about being taken out of Adam and put in Christ. And so when that change of genetics happens, that change of biology spiritually, when you get, I'm talking there about a new heart, a new spirit, God's spirit living in you, then naturally your destination changes, your eternal destiny is different. Because your genetic makeup is now different, you're part of a new family, you're part of a new kingdom, you're in a new realm, you're not in the flesh, you're in the spirit, you're not in Adam, you're in Christ. So it's not God being mean, it's just common sense in the spiritual realm that there's two kinds of people, those who are dead and those who are alive, and then there's two kinds of destinies. So when God interrupts that first path and takes you out of Adam and puts you in Christ Jesus, all we can say is, is wow and thank you. And then for us to turn to him and say, but you're being so mean. Do you see now where we've gone with that attitude? We've become God's accuser, we've become his judge and jury. We've decided that the creation knows better than the creator. We've decided that God should force himself. That's what we're really saying. God either you force yourself upon all of humanity right now, or I'm calling you bad. That's basically what we're saying. And we don't realize we're saying that, but what do you do with a world that rejects Christ and hates Christ and and belittles Christ and accuses Christ and wants nothing to do with Jesus? Does God then force himself upon such a person? No, he's told us what he does. He stands at the door and knocks. He won't knock down the door, but he knocks at the door. Big difference. He's a gentleman. The Holy Spirit is a gentleman and he will not force his way into anyone's life. And until we allow him in, then yes, we are victims of our own choosing. We are victims of our own choice in the Garden of Eden. When we went rogue, when we drew a ring around ourselves and said,

Lord, I'm Lord of this ring. I'm calling the shots. I want to know good and evil. I choose morality and ethics. I choose self-improvement. And I want to be more like you, God. I want to be more like you. So I'm going to eat of this so I can improve myself because I don't trust you and I don't believe you and I don't think I'm okay and I need an upgrade and I'm believing Satan instead of you. And because of that, that's the predicament we're in. So for us to say, well, God, that you be in mean, you see, you see how we find ourselves in a place of haughtiness, we find ourselves in a place of entitlement rather than in a place of humility, submitting to our rescuer and saying, thank you that there's any way out. Thank you. So those are my thoughts, Kevin. I know it's not an easy one to wrestle with, but I hope that helps as you think things through further. I'll put you back on and see. Did that make some sense, my friend? Yeah, very much, doctor. Yeah, thank you. I, yeah, I needed to hear that. And you've opened my eyes and I appreciate it. Awesome. Well, listen, Kevin, glad you're connected with us and love hearing from you. I'm sure other questions will come up. So please reach out to us again anytime. Great question. All right, well, let's go now to how about Michigan and we'll talk with Alex. Hey, Alex, what you got for us tonight? Hey, Andrew, thank you for being there. Hey, I was discussing with another family member earlier today about a passage in Revelation where it talks about Satan is going to be released from the pit after the rapture, like he's going to be chained for a thousand years and maybe he's going to be released to test the saints. Could you put what's the what's the point in letting satan out of the pit and allowing us to be tempted when it's like wait a minute uh... christite on the cross where uh... given were saved or in heaven why do when we're when we're a new creation in heaven why do we need to be say you need to be let loose and temp the state yeah okay well you're right you're on to something it makes no sense

and i've tried to say this uh... ten different ways in ten different questions over the last year or year to half but it bears repeating it deserves to be explored more and i'm really glad that you brought this question because you know you pointed out something that makes no sense but it's one of about ten things that make no sense when we hold to that timeline when we hold to that time line and it seems like so many of us christians are just dogmatic about our timeline and so you know then we come upon these passages and i don't know what we do we just want to shove them in our pocket or kind of uh... put them under the rug over there in the corner or just kind of not think about them for a half century in till we die uh... but this is one of those great examples so yes as satan opposes and tests believers but it's happening right now hello when can you think of a time in history where satan is number one defeated but number two allowed to roam and test believers and number three will later be destroyed uh... hint it's uh... right now right now and that's what i'm saying again and again from so many different angles about this book of revelation we keep trying to map things out into a perfect timeline and take everything

literally and say everything's in the future no the temptation is now satan contempt you now satan contest you now uh... it is talking about right now in fact there's no prior rapture in revelation twenty the passage never describes believers being removed before satan's release let me say that again there's no prior rapture in revelation twenty the passage never ever describes believers being removed from satan's release uh... removed before satan's release it it's not there the thousand years is better understood as symbolic it's symbolic of the present age that were in the period in which christ is raining and the gospel is going out to the nations so i would ask you is christ raining now is he not king of kings yes he is is he lord of lords yes he is is he seated at god's right hand right now yes uh... can we say jesus is not raining of course he's raining he's raining right now is the gospel going out right now yes it is is satan testing the saints right now yes he is and so the problem is when we infuse someone else's timeline on a passage and try to make it fit and we realize one day we wake up and say this is lunacy it doesn't even work satan is bound in the sense that is power to deceive the nations and and and prevent the gospel from advancing

is restrained how can i say that because the gospel is advancing and satan can't stop it but he's still active is any he's still active during this age what does he do he opposes he accuses he deceives he pressures believers uh... but he cannot stop the mission of jesus christ that's revelation twelve seventeen right he can't stop believers i mean we experience conflict right now uh... but but this is not god uh... trying to test whether every christian's gonna stay saved or something our our salvation is secure and the spirit you know you know the truth the spirit of the of god the spirit of the living god has uh... sealed us permanently and we're okay so uh... this is not about some long future period after the church has been raptured again what can we say about raining Is it going to get better? Yes, it's going to get way better. Look at us, we got cancer, we got illness, we got physical issues, we got poverty,

we got war, we got violence. Yes, reigning with Christ is going to get better, but we're already seated with Him and we are already overwhelmingly conquer through Him. We are more than conquerors through Him. We're seated with Him, we're a royal priesthood, we're a holy nation, we're already reigning with Him. All right, now what about tribulation? Well, that too, have you noticed? There's already tribulation, the early church, they read the book of Revelation, they realized, whoa, I'm being tortured and killed, my family members are being dragged out of their homes, we're being lit on fire, what could be worse? That's tribulation, but it's going to get worse before Jesus comes back. So I'll say it again, I know it probably takes people a while to understand a new perspective. And that's why I'm so glad you brought this question, Alex, because it again touches on a familiar passage, but what we're saying is take a step back and reigning with Christ is now, but it's going to get better. Tribulation is now, but it's going to get worse. And then Jesus returns, AKA the rapture, the return of Christ, we meet Him in the air and we're with Him forever. So does the timeline go like, well, He rescues us, we meet Him in the air and then we get tested again? No, no, we're being tested now. Tribulation is now, reigning with Christ is now.

The rapture and return of Christ are in the future, but much of revelation has to be read as being helpful, helpful to every generation. It shouldn't be put in a vault for 2000 years as if it's irrelevant. So the testing in Revelation 20 is Satan's final attempt to try to deceive and attack the saints. And it can't cause us to lose our salvation. I mean, the comfort is always this that Satan's rebellion, it ends. The lamb wins. And that's the theme of the book of Revelation, the lamb wins. People 2000 years ago needed to know Jesus wins. And today we need the same. So it's a simple timeline. I mean, we see Christ's victory win. On the cross 2000 years ago, through the resurrection, it's his finished work. It doesn't get better than that. That's his victory. And that's what restrains Satan. And when is Satan restrained? Right now, right now the evil one cannot touch you. Right now he's restrained in this present gospel age. There is opposition, but his power is restrained, limited. And then, you know what? There's a final deception at the end of the age. There's a visible return of Christ with the final defeat of Satan.

And then the new heaven, the new earth, our new resurrection bodies, everything that we read about as part of our rescue. But I hope you at least consider, isn't it interesting that Alex has brought us a passage that doesn't fit with a popular timeline. There's a whole lot of stuff in the Bible bell that's not in the Bible. And the truth sets us free. - For more information on the broadcast ministry of Dr. Andrew Farley, please visit AndrewFarley.org. That's AndrewFarley.org. Join us next time as we invite you to celebrate the grace message with Dr. Andrew Farley. This program is sponsored by your generous financial support. (upbeat music) - Hi, I'm Andrew Farley. I hope you enjoyed today's program. And if you have more questions, whether it's about a Bible verse, a personal struggle or anything on your heart, BibleQuestions.com is here for you. You'll get clear, grace-based answers in 10 seconds or less. No confusion, no judgment, just practical truth that meets you right where you are. Whatever's on your mind, you'll find real answers rooted in God's love. Visit BibleQuestions.com. That's BibleQuestions.com.

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