Best Way To Practice The Sabbath? Greater Punishment In Hell? Pastor Mark Answers Your Top Questions

本站收录: 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]All right, theological nerd question.

[00:00:02]I'll be your your nerd friend today.

[00:00:04]What is the difference between justification and sanctification?

[00:00:08]Actually, um And this is a great question and not to be critical, but you missed um regeneration. So, justification this is the language of the Bible. Uh the heart of the Protestant Reformation was justification by faith alone through grace alone and Christ alone. Uh Martin Luther, the great Protestant reformer, said this is the issue on which the church rises or falls. So, justification. And justification is a is more of a judicial legal concept that God is holy and a judge and we are sinners and guilty.

[00:00:42]>> [snorts] >> Well, how can we be justified or declared righteous in the sight of God if we are guilty?

[00:00:49]Well, then what we're going to need is imputed righteousness. We have no righteousness of our own. The Bible says that our righteousness is like filthy menstrual rags. So, not good. And so, if we don't have inherent righteousness, we need imputed righteousness.

[00:01:06]Therefore, Jesus comes. He lives without sin, the life we have not lived.

[00:01:10]He dies the death we should die, the death for sin. He rises to conquer um the enemies that we could not conquer and that is Satan, sin, death, hell, and the wrath of God.

[00:01:21]And then Jesus on the cross took our place and put us in his place. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says God made him who knew no sin to become sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. So, Martin Luther, the Protestant reformer, called this the great exchange. Jesus took my place, put me in his place. What that means is he takes condemnation, I get salvation.

[00:01:43]He endures the wrath of God. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He gives me the grace of God.

[00:01:49]And what that means now is that my righteousness is Jesus Christ. Okay?

[00:01:55]Um God made him who knew no sin to become sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. So, my righteousness is not it is not in me, it is in Christ and then it is imputed or reckoned or granted to me.

[00:02:11]Meaning, when I stand before God and he's like, "Why should I let you into my heaven?" I'd say, "Cuz I'm here with Jesus Christ."

[00:02:17]Jesus is my God, Jesus is my savior, and Jesus is my righteousness.

[00:02:23]I come before God not with my performance, but his performance, and I come in Christ positionally, inheriting the righteousness that he has given to me as a gift of grace. That's justification.

[00:02:39]Regeneration is now um So, justification is God's work for you.

[00:02:47]Um, regeneration is God's work in you.

[00:02:50]This is where Jesus says to Nicodemus, "You must be born again."

[00:02:55]The Bible calls this the new birth.

[00:02:57]Um, the Bible calls this the new heart.

[00:03:00]The Bible calls this the new covenant.

[00:03:03]Uh, Paul says, you know, old things are passing away and all things have been made new. This is regeneration. It's the new birth, being born again, born of the spirit.

[00:03:13]And regeneration is where God's work for you then begins to work in you.

[00:03:20]This means you get a new mind. You're no longer conformed to the pattern of this world, but you're transformed by the renewing of your mind. You get a new heart.

[00:03:29]You get new emotional life. You get new desires. The Apostle Paul says in Galatians, he says that the spirit is against the flesh and the flesh is against the spirit to keep you from doing, and this is this brilliant line, what you want to do.

[00:03:44]So, if you are regenerated, born again, you've got new desires. You're like, "I want to know Jesus. I want to learn the Bible.

[00:03:52]I want to become more like Christ. I want to find a church. I want to get to know other Christians. I I love them like brothers and sisters and family.

[00:04:01]So, you know that you have been justified when your regeneration kicks in and you're like, "Man, I'm thinking different. I'm acting different." Like, I was talking to somebody recently and they're like, "Pastor Mark, I I I don't know what's going on." I'm like, "Okay, what's going on?" They're like, "I don't know. I'm thinking about Jesus all the time. I'm feeling really bad about some things in my life that need to change. And I've started reading the Bible and I really have this desire to learn the Bible. And in worship, I'm crying." And I'm like, "That sounds to me like you got born again." Like, I So, that's God's work in you. There's change, not perfection, but progress.

[00:04:37]So, there's justification, God's work for you through the death, burial, resurrection of Jesus. There is uh regeneration, God's work in you through the person, the presence, the power of the Holy Spirit. And then sanctification, which is God's work through you.

[00:04:51]Now, your life starts to change. Why?

[00:04:54]Cuz you've been changed by God.

[00:04:57]And so now, your behavior starts to change. You You live a life of repentance. Like, "Oh, I'm not going to say that. Not going to do that. Not so that God will love me, but because he does and I love him."

[00:05:10]And that's who I used to be, but that's not who I am now.

[00:05:13]And that's not who I'm going to be when my God is done with me.

[00:05:18]And so, justification is God's work for you.

[00:05:22]Regeneration is God's work in you.

[00:05:24]Sanctification is God's work through you. The Bible calls that spiritual fruit.

[00:05:31]All right? The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. Jesus says, "A good tree bears good fruit."

[00:05:40]Um and so, what it is is it's God's work through you.

[00:05:44]And so, these are the three elements and aspects of the Christian life. We are saved by the work of Jesus, justified.

[00:05:52]God's work for us begins a brand new birth in us, regeneration, and then our life begins to change as our life is saturated with the power and presence of God, and that is sanctification, which is growing and maturing and learning and repenting, and it is in the process of getting to the point where perfection is the inevitable goal when we are risen from the dead and God's salvation work is completed and ultimately we are fully redeemed and healed and restored in right relationship with God. So, I hope that encourages you and for those of you who are wondering like, am I really a Christian? The question is, what has God changed in you and what is God changing in you in so far as desires and beliefs and behaviors? That is an indication that you were born again and now you're in the change process because you've trusted in the finished work of Christ for you.

[00:06:51]Um, all right, next question, you ready?

[00:06:53]What is the best way to practice Sabbath? I want to grow closer to Christ, but I don't know what to do.

[00:06:58]So, the whole concept of Sabbath, it begins with God. So, in the opening chapters of Genesis, it says six days God created, he worked, and on the seventh day God rested.

[00:07:10]In the original Hebrew, it literally says for six days God breathed out and on the seventh day God breathed in. And so, the Sabbath is the day where you catch your breath.

[00:07:23]It's literally what it means. When somebody says, man, I am exhausted, I need to get a day off and catch my breath, they're literally using the biblical language for Sabbath.

[00:07:33]So, the Bible then establishes a seven-day week.

[00:07:39]And atheistic communist nations, including the Russians and the French, at various points have tried to do something different and it never works.

[00:07:47]We're made by God for 7 days.

[00:07:50]And then it is codified in the 10 Commandments.

[00:07:54]Exodus chapter 20, it says because God worked for 6 days and rested on the 7th day, you should work for 6 days and rest on the 7th day.

[00:08:03]And the Sabbath day is holy unto the Lord. That's what the Bible says.

[00:08:09]What day should the Sabbath be?

[00:08:11]Well, you go to the New Testament. Paul says somebody picks this day, somebody picks that day. Doesn't really matter.

[00:08:18]Just pick a day.

[00:08:19]Um So it's a 7-day week. Now, the Jews, they they they they practiced the Sabbath, honored the Sabbath on Saturday, but then for the Christians, that day shifted because Jesus rose on a Sunday.

[00:08:34]It's called the Lord's Day. And so Christians stopped meeting on Saturday.

[00:08:40]And they started meeting on Sunday because with the resurrection of Jesus, all things were made new.

[00:08:46]Should it be Saturday? Should it be Sunday? Maybe you got to work on the weekend, so you take Wednesday. Paul says just pick a day.

[00:08:53]And and honor the Lord one day a week.

[00:08:56]What do you do on the Sabbath? Well, what Jesus says is don't do what the religious people do.

[00:09:02]And they turn a grace into a law.

[00:09:05]They turn a gift into a burden. And all of a sudden the Sabbath becomes a day that you do a lot of religious works.

[00:09:12]You don't do your secular work, you do your religious work. And so Jesus says man was not made for the Sabbath, but Sabbath was made for the man. And so what that means is that the Sabbath isn't over us like a domineering boss. The Sabbath is under us to serve us and to help us.

[00:09:31]And so what do you do on the Sabbath?

[00:09:33]Well, first of all, it's a day for you to rest, so don't work and don't be uh pouring yourself out, but instead allow God to pour into you.

[00:09:44]In addition, uh what are the things that help you to get closer to the Lord?

[00:09:49]Those are good things to do on the Sabbath. Go to church.

[00:09:53]You should do that and be with God's people and don't run in and run out and check your phone. Like, turn your phone off, turn your soul on, show up early, serve, meet God's people, sing, pray, take the sacraments, which are means of grace, partake in communion, listen to the word of God, sit under the preaching of God's word. All of that is good for your soul.

[00:10:13]Um and then get some time with God's people. If you got family, friends, make memories, right? Practice for heaven.

[00:10:21]One of the one of the concepts of heaven in the Bible is an eternal rest or Sabbath. So, what do you do on the Sabbath? Well, you hang out with the people you're going to hang out with in heaven.

[00:10:30]And you enjoy them. Like, if you got a wife, kids, husband, grandkids, hang out with them, make memories.

[00:10:38]Um have fun. Have a meal together.

[00:10:41]Uh go for a walk, take a nap, enjoy God's creation. Uh read your Bible, not cuz you have to, but because you get to.

[00:10:49]Um maybe uh turn off the technology for the day and and cause it to be a day of of doing things differently. And the concept in the Bible of holiness is something is distinct, it is unique. The concept of profane is, you know, this is what everybody does. Holy is, this is this is for the Lord.

[00:11:08]And so, like for me, uh some of the things personally I like to do, um I like to go for hikes.

[00:11:15]I just do.

[00:11:16]I like to go outside and I like to go for long prayer hikes, and I just talk to the Lord.

[00:11:22]On the way in, I tell him everybody and everything I'm thankful for. On the way out, I'm praying for people and things.

[00:11:28]And that's usually a couple hours just me and the Lord, and I find if I get that time, that is really good for my soul.

[00:11:36]Uh sometimes on the Sabbath I'll go for those hikes and I'll go with my wife and we're visiting and praying and talking and just hanging out together and I'm enjoying God and my wife.

[00:11:45]Um what I like to do on the Sabbath, I'll be honest with you, I like to take a nap.

[00:11:51]Um once you become a certain age, God gives you this superpower where you can take a nap and it's fantastic. So I like to take a nap. What I like to do on my as well I like to sleep in and not set my alarm and so I wake up by the crack of lunch or whenever I happen to get up.

[00:12:07]I do read my Bible and pray and study. I find on the Sabbath sometimes I really like to get on my knees and humble myself and just spend some time before God repenting. Um I really like hanging out with my grandkids. It's like next level joy bonds.

[00:12:23]And um and so get extended time to just play with them and enjoy them and set up activities for them and water slides for them and bouncy houses for them and and it's just a time to enjoy the people that God has given me.

[00:12:37]And so yeah, for you um a Sabbath is whatever causes you to get a break before you break and to enjoy God's people and God's presence and for that day to be different than every other day. Don't let religious people give you a lot of rules. Instead, just ask the Lord, hey, you know, what would you like me to do on this day? And if your heart is pure, then you will get to do the things that you want to do. I'll close with this.

[00:13:07]The Holy Spirit brings a scripture to mind from Psalms.

[00:13:11]It says, "Delight yourself in the Lord and he'll give you the desires of your heart."

[00:13:16]What that means is repent, worship, pray, surrender, submit to God, enjoy Jesus Christ. And then what happens is he will put desires on your heart. He will give you the desires of your heart. You're like, "You know what?

[00:13:31]I want to go for a hike. I want to take a nap. I want to have everybody over and have a big meal together. I want to go see my friends. I want to go hang out with my grandkids.

[00:13:41]I want to read the Bible. I want to study the Bible. I want to serve at church. I want to um spend some time literally with worship music on praying to God.

[00:13:53]If you delight yourself in the Lord, he'll give you the desires of your heart. And then on your Sabbath day, you do those things that he has put on your heart as you were delighting in him. And then that'll be a day that is glorifying to God and a day that's really good for you.

[00:14:09]All right. Um question time.

[00:14:12]Uh will some people receive greater rewards in heaven than others?

[00:14:17]And will some people have greater punishment in hell or is it the same for everyone? Great question. Yes. This is the doctrine of eternal rewards.

[00:14:28]And the Bible says uh that everyone will be judged according to their deeds.

[00:14:34]So, there will be greater degrees of reward in heaven and greater degrees of punishment in hell.

[00:14:43]Um but let me just say this.

[00:14:45]A bad day in heaven is still a good day.

[00:14:47]And a good day in hell is still a bad day. But God is just and the Bible it uses this language that God is a judge.

[00:14:59]And that he knows every thought of our mind. He knows every word. He knows every deed. He knows every motive.

[00:15:08]That he sees and knows all.

[00:15:10]And that there will be two judgments.

[00:15:12]Paul to the Corinthians talks about the judgment of the believer.

[00:15:16]And um and it is not the judgment of heaven or hell.

[00:15:21]It is the judgment of eternal rewards.

[00:15:24]Uh some will refer to this as the the Bema seat or the judgment seat of Christ. So, the the judgment of the believer is you live your life and then you stand before God and you are given a sort of a an eternal rewards. The Bible uses uh the the language of like servants that are given talents and then how they invested those talents or spent their life is then a return on investment in eternal reward.

[00:15:55]Meaning, for those who in this life um they suffer for Christ, there's going to be eternal rewards, right? Well done, good and faithful servant, um there will be eternal rewards.

[00:16:08]Jesus says, "Do not store up your treasure on earth where moth and rust destroy. Store up your treasure in heaven." That's the doctrine of eternal rewards.

[00:16:18]And so, if you are someone who grew up in a Christian home and you met Jesus at a young age and you got to go to a Christian school and you know, everybody's been for you and you have just sort of squandered your life.

[00:16:31]You know the Lord, but you don't you don't give, you don't serve, you don't evangelize, you don't sacrifice.

[00:16:38]You're on the team, but you're lucky to get a participation trophy because you're up in the stands and you're not down on the field.

[00:16:46]You may still go to heaven, uh but you're not going to get a big reward.

[00:16:50]The Bible says some will be rulers of cities and some rulers of tens of cities. And so, the story of the Bible is that when God created everyone and everything, it was good and very good. And God's original divine design was be fruitful, multiply, increase the number, fill the earth, subdue it, exercise dominion.

[00:17:08]We sin against God.

[00:17:10]Jesus comes, lives, dies, rises. He's coming again to lift the curse and to raise the dead. But God's plan is to go back to Genesis 1 and 2.

[00:17:19]God's plan was perfect. Now, we weren't, but God doesn't need to deviate from his perfect plan just because of imperfect people. So, what will heaven be like?

[00:17:28]It'll be a lot like Genesis 1 and 2.

[00:17:31]People in their physical body, ruling and reigning with dominion, creating culture, and um creating cities, and creating artwork, and enjoying food, and all of the things that you and I probably aspire to. The doctrine of eternal rewards is for those who have served well in this life, they're going to get more leadership opportunity in the life to come.

[00:17:51]Then there is the white throne judgment.

[00:17:54]This is in Revelation chapter 20. This is the judgment of the unbeliever. And there will be varying degrees of punishment in hell according to their {quote} {unquote} deeds. That's what the Bible says. So, let's say you're just a nice, happy pagan who rejects Jesus, but you're decent to your neighbor and pay your taxes, you get a certain judgment and a certain sentence.

[00:18:18]If you're a person who is a cult leader, if you are a a Christian leader who is abusing women and children sexually, and you're a predator, um well, there's going to be a a whole 'nother level of divine judgment and punishment for you.

[00:18:35]Um that that the punishment will fit the crime. And this is where God is altogether just.

[00:18:41]And and the sentence, it fits the crime.

[00:18:45]And the Bible says uh that that hell was created for the devil and his angels, and that if we are unrepentant, we join them there.

[00:18:54]Well, Satan and demons are going to get a certain level of punishment. Those who are most satanic and demonic will get a higher degree of punishment. And so, think of it this way, no one is getting away with anything.

[00:19:08]It says in Romans that we're storing up wrath for the day of wrath. Okay? What that means is that that unrepentant habitual sinners aren't getting away with anything, they're storing up everything.

[00:19:20]Meaning all of their iniquity is going into a case file that'll be opened at the white throne judgment, and then their sentence in hell will be commensurate and consistent with their life of transgression and iniquity. And so, for those of you who are serving Christ and suffering for Christ, know this. You're making an eternal investment, and there will be eternal rewards. For those of you who are denying Christ, and you are antichrist, there will be uh conscious eternal torments of hell that await you, and the punishment will fit the crime. Lastly, some ask, "Well, what are these rewards?"

[00:19:58]You know what? We'll see when we get there.

[00:20:00]I believe that they are internal, this sense of meaning, value, and purpose.

[00:20:07]I believe they could be external. It could be leadership position in the kingdom of God, and they are eternal.

[00:20:14]And so, I believe these rewards are internal, external, and eternal.

[00:20:18]Um and we'll know when we stand before the Lord Jesus. Uh but at the end of the day, know this.

[00:20:23]Um if you're suffering for Christ, if you're serving Christ, it's not in vain.

[00:20:29]You're just preparing yourself for the day when you stand before Jesus, and he rewards you eternally for faithfulness in this life. Similarly, if you are denying Christ, the more opportunity you are given, and the more resistance that you respond with, the greater the punishment you will be experiencing in conscious eternal torment forever. And so, everything in this life matters, and it matters forever.

[00:20:59]All right, one one question here. What are the close-handed issues that Christians should be able to explain, and what resources would help me study them.

[00:21:09]I'm going to ask them to just post the doctrine book. It has the 12 big doctrines from beginning to end of the Bible, and it's deep and it's thick and uh it can help you.

[00:21:21]Uh my friend Charlie Kirk recommended it as a book he was enjoying just before he died.

[00:21:26]Um and so I use the language of closed and open-handed issues.

[00:21:31]So uh closed-handed issues are issues that you have to agree to to be a Christian.

[00:21:39]Um so think of it like the United States of America, we have states and there are state borders. Well, those are like denominational borders, right?

[00:21:49]Lutherans, Presbyterians, Baptists, Assemblies of God, Pentecostals, Bible church people, different states, but still the same nation. We're all Christians.

[00:21:59]Then there are national borders. Well, now if you crossed over this, you're into Canada or you're into Mexico.

[00:22:06]So, to be part of the Church of Jesus Christ is to know the difference between open-handed issues, state borders, closed-handed issues, national borders.

[00:22:20]And so open-handed issues are those things that Bible-believing, Jesus-loving Christians could disagree on agreeably.

[00:22:29]It doesn't mean that they're unimportant, but to quote the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, he says, "What I received I passed on to you as of first importance."

[00:22:39]First importance would be the closed-handed issues.

[00:22:43]Secondary importance are not unimportant, but they're they're not first importance. Those would be the open-handed issues. So, in the closed hand, uh this is where a lot of the church creeds really were about these issues.

[00:22:56]This would be the Bible, 66 books, is the perfect, inerrant, flawless, divinely inspired from the Holy Spirit through human authors word of God.

[00:23:08]There is one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the doctrine of the Trinity.

[00:23:13]Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant believers all agree on that.

[00:23:17]That human beings are sinners by nature and choice.

[00:23:21]That Jesus Christ is fully God, fully man, born of Mary, lived without sin, died on the cross in our place for our sins as our savior and substitute, physically, bodily rose from the dead, um ascended into heaven, is alive today ruling and reigning as king of kings and lord of lords, and is coming again to judge the living and the dead, and there will be a resurrection, and some will go to eternal death and some to eternal life, and all will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Closed-handed issues. Most of them regarding who is God, how does God speak and reveal, and how does God save us, forgive us, invite us into relationship with him.

[00:24:06]Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by him.

[00:24:11]Closed-handed. Open-handed.

[00:24:14]Bible translation. Bibles in the closed-hand, Bible translation in the open-hand. Um open-hand would be the The Bible says in the closed-hand to worship God. Open-hand, how you worship God. Do you use instruments? Do you sing the Psalms? Do you sing the hymns? And And so, there's a difference between principle and method. Usually principle's in the closed-hand, method is in the open-hand.

[00:24:37]So, the Bible says as well to gather together with God's people for church.

[00:24:42]Okay, well, what should the service order be? And what day should we meet?

[00:24:47]And well, that can be in the open-hand.

[00:24:49]Secondary issues as well, like the Bible says to train your children, right? To educate your children. Open-hand, will they home school them? Do you send them to Christian school or do you send them to private school? Well, principle method, closed hand is principle, open hand is method. Um open-handed issues as well, like speaking in tongues or the second coming of Jesus. In the closed hand, there are some issues like Jesus is returning, the dead will rise, and people are going to heaven and hell. Closed hand. Open hand, will there be a rapture? Is the thousand-year millennial reign mentioned six times in Revelation 20? Is that Is that a literal thousand years or is that a metaphorical figure of speech? Open hand.

[00:25:32]Um you know, how old God created the heavens and the earth? Closed hand.

[00:25:36]How long ago? Was it 6,000 years ago?

[00:25:38]Was it millions of years ago? Open hand.

[00:25:41]You see how this works? And so, if you want to know what the closed-handed issues are, these are the issues that reveal who our God is, how he speaks, who we are, and how Jesus is the savior.

[00:25:56]Most of the closed-handed issues are going to be around those closed-handed issues.

[00:26:03]The open-handed issues we can disagree about, uh but we don't need to divide over. And so, um these would be things like Calvinism versus Arminianism. So, God saves us, closed handed.

[00:26:16]Well, do we choose God or does God choose us? If you think we choose God, you're an Arminian.

[00:26:21]If you think that God chooses us, you're more of a Calvinist. Well, that's an open-handed issue.

[00:26:25]Um and so, these are the the various ways that that we need to be careful because what heretics and apostates do, they take things that should be in the closed hand and they move them to the open hand.

[00:26:40]Well, maybe there's not just two genders or maybe homosexuality in the Bible God means something else or or maybe there's other saviors. So, they take So, what what liberal apostate progressives do, they take things that should be in the closed hand and they put them in the open hand.

[00:26:56]What legalistic, religious people do?

[00:26:59]They take things that should be in the open hand and they move them to the closed hand.

[00:27:02]You have to use the King James Bible.

[00:27:04]It's the only right translation. No, that's not true. The earth is 6,000 years old, otherwise you don't believe the Bible and you're a heretic and an apostate. No, that's not true. Um speaking in tongues is evidence of demonic possession because there was an ancient religious group called the Cybeleans and the Allustinians and they had prophetic prayer languages. They were unknown in human Okay. Now, what you're doing, you're taking an open-handed issue and you're putting it in the closed hand. So, th- this is really the art of Christian maturity and theology.

[00:27:32]What goes in the closed hand? What goes in the open hand? Uh don't put everything in the closed hand, you'll be a legalist. Don't put everything in the open hand, you'll be an apostate. And this is where wisdom and study and time are necessary uh to get these issues sorted out. And so, I don't know if they want to, but I'll just tell them to we'll post the doctrine book and hopefully it'll be of service to you.

[00:27:57]Thanks for the great question.

[00:27:59]Thank you very much for watching and if you do me a solid, go ahead and subscribe and we'll get you lots more Bible teaching content.