Matt Slick Live

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. It's Matt Slick live. Matt is the founder and president of the Christian Apologetics Research Ministry, found online at KARM.org. When you have questions about Bible doctrines, turn to Matt Slick live. Francis taking your calls and responding to your questions at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick.

Everybody, welcome to the show. It's me, Matt Slick, and listen to Matt Slick live. If you want, you give me a call.

The number is easy. 877-207-2276. I want to hear from you. Give me a call. And let's see, there's nothing really going on. We don't have don't have anybody right now calling in.

But you can if you want. You can email me at info at KARM.org. info at C-A-R-M dot O-R-G. And just would appreciate if you would put in the subject line radio comment or radio question and we can get to your stuff. We will do that today because sometimes it calls or there's a lot. And sometimes there's many.

It just kind of happens that way. And also, if you're interested in participating in the chat, we have a nice text chat that people join. And that said, rumble dot com forward slash Matt Slick live. So that's all you got to do.

Come rumble dot com forward slash Matt Slick live. And what you need is right in there and get this right in. There we go. All right.

Mm hmm. Well, a lot of good stuff. So it's something interesting occurred last night. I've been doing, you know, as I do, I go into chat rooms and I polish my theology, polish my apologetics.

And so I did that last night. And I went into a room. And of course, there were there were Catholics and Eastern Orthodox. And I was reading some Eastern Orthodox official documentation.

And oh, my goodness. Oh, man, they just they went quiet because I read the actual stuff all of a sudden, all of a sudden they didn't have anything to say. It was really interesting.

And we noticed it because I was reading some of their official stuff and man, oh, man, it was embarrassing for them. That's what research does. You know, it gives you a leg up on stuff. All right. All right. There you go. So, hey, look, if you want to give me a call, 877-207-2276. Let's get to Jermaine from California.

Jermaine, welcome in. You're on the air on the air. Hey, Matt. How's it going today? Oh, it's going man. It's going. Just doing the radio as usual. So what's up, buddy?

What do you got? Well, you know, I wanted to ask you about the I don't know if you remember this group called the Westboro Baptist Church. They were they were they were really controversial. They haven't been around lately, but I know they would protest funerals and kind of sing songs that were were not Christian at all. They saw themselves as following scripture. But when I started to take a real hard look at what they were doing, I just didn't see scripture behind it, like teaching kids to kind of taunt people at funerals and saying some really heinous stuff. And it seemed like some people want to follow Christ. But it also seemed a little more cultic than anything else. I just want to know if you knew of them or had any thoughts, because, you know, years ago, when I would examine some of their material, it was just it came up as very anti-Christian in some respects.

Yeah, yeah, they're they have been classified basically as a hate group, even by a lot of Christians. They don't seem to follow the biblical mandates of of how to conduct yourself. So, for example, in Colossians four, five and six, conduct yourself with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt so that you may know or you will know how you should respond to each person. And second, Timothy 225 and 24 and 25. The Lord's bond servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all able to teach patient when wrong with gentleness, correcting those for an opposition.

If perchance, God may grant repentance. Now, that one is something I've been struggling with. And it's tough, you know, I was going to tell you. But you're supposed to present yourself politely as much as you can.

Sometimes it's not easy, but that's what it's supposed to do. The Westboro Baptist did anything but that. They were condemning, mocking, insulting, almost even rejoicing in people's suffering. And so, yeah, they they're bad.

And I tell people to stay away from them. But I haven't heard of them from them lately. Who knows? Maybe I don't know what happened, but yeah, that group.

I know the man who used to be in charge had just passed away and then, you know, kind of descended through some disorganization after that. But I think you do. You kind of answered the second part of what I was going to ask. It just seems like a lot of folks were doing more harm than good, because I didn't see anywhere scripture where it was OK to almost take gleefully, you know, gleeful joy of people on their way to hell and then talk to him.

I didn't find that. And, you know, I had to work on myself as well because I grew up in an environment where I saw a lot of just disgusting things and behaviors. But I wouldn't out and out try and get somebody away from Christ by making fun of them and insulting them and just, you know, showing up at the funeral of their loved ones and even soldiers. And I just really thought that was just really crazy. But as I get more mature and learn more about the faith, I say this wasn't Christ like at all.

So no, no, it's not to go to a funeral of someone who's died and then mock them. You know, I have three daughters and they're in varying degrees of spiritual awareness. One of them is now stated she's an atheist. And she, let's just say earned a lot of money in immorality.

I'll be very generic. And her other daughter, the youngest daughter, you know, she's just cool. And so she's a Christian.

OK. So the reason I bring this up is sometimes the unbelievers will use family members against Christians. And they do that with me, with my eldest daughter.

They'll do that. And it's the same kind of of heinous, horrible actions that atheists do. Eastern Orthodox have done it to me. And then you have Westboro Baptists who do that kind of stuff, too, or have done it. We can imagine going to a funeral where people's hearts are broken and then mocking.

It's not how you win friends and influence people. It's how you cause hatred for the name of Christ. So the Westboro people, in my opinion, are going to be judged severely by the Lord for this. Yeah.

Bad stuff. Well, again, I guess the scripture that we're finding is taking no pleasure in those who are perishing versus what they were doing. And, you know, teaching at the time, they were teaching little kids to sing nursery rhymes that they made up about people roasting in hell as just terrible. But, you know, they've been exposed and obviously they aren't around anymore. But there are people like that who I've noticed still try to preach in that same fashion, almost trying to, you know, scare people out of hell versus educate them and give them the gospel. So, yeah, I really know there there is a scriptural warrant for warning people, and I'm able to go through the parable about that where Jesus talked about it. Make friends by way of unrighteousness. I think I'll do that after we hang up. So, you know, you should tell them there's a consequence. There's a consequence. But you do it lovingly.

You do it informatively, not in a mocking, condemning sense. Yeah. OK. Yep. Right. All right.

All right. Well, thanks a lot, Matt. Always a pleasure. Appreciate you.

Hey, appreciate you, too, man. God bless, buddy. God bless. All right. God bless you.

All right. I think what I'm going to do is go to Luke 16 and talk about this because I brought it up. And there's a parable dealing with the unrighteous steward. A lot of people misunderstand it, and I want to explain go through the parable and explain it so that people can understand what's going on. It's about the the the guy who was being unrighteous with his with his master's money and connived so that he'd be OK. And he's praised by Jesus.

That's what it is. So I'm going to go through that. I'm going to start that now because we've got nobody waiting. You know what I'll do instead of reading the whole thing. I'm going to just read verse by verse and then we'll get through the whole thing. So this is Luke 16 starting at verse one. It says he was saying to his disciples, there was a rich man who had a manager, and this manager was reported to him as squandering his possessions.

And he called him and said to him, What is this I hear about you? Given accounting of your management for you could no longer be manager. So we have what we basically have landowner. The context here, a landowner and there's a manager.

His job is to manage what's going on with the people who would reside on the land and work the land. And a lot of times in that culture, someone might own 50 acres or something, 100 acres, I don't know. And they would have different families live on the land. They would work that land and it would produce crops of varying sorts. And then they would give as as part of the payment of living on the land, they would give maybe half or however it might be to the landowner. And they got to keep the rest and they could sell it and make a living. And they had a place to work and stuff like this. And the landowner would profit as well. So that was the kind of thing and generally there was a land manager, a steward who would go, let's just say in 100 acres of land. Let's just say there's this area and let's say there's there's five families living on this 100 acres.

Just make it up because the parable doesn't tell us. But we'll just say there's five families. So then it would take a lot of paperwork, communications. There's no phone and email.

You've got to write out to where they are. You've got to see what's going on. You can make assessments, keep records and you report to the landowner. And that was the manager's position to do that. All right, now that's the setting. All right. So he's been reported as being dishonest, not reporting everything. And so the landowner says, OK, give an accounting.

OK, because we're going to check this out. You can't be manager, you know, if things are bad. OK, so the manager said to himself, what shall I do? Since my master is taking the management away from me, I am not strong enough to dig.

I'm ashamed to beg. I know what I'll do so that when I'm removed from the management, people will people will welcome me into their homes. So this guy knows he's got a problem. He's going to be exposed because apparently he really was bad. He really was doing some underhanded things. Now, I got to understand something. When the manager would go to the land occupants and say whatever it is, they assumed that he was representing the will and the wishes of the landowner. This is a critical part of the story. So these hypothetical five families on this acreage owned by the landowner, the manager would go to each one of them and say, you know, this is what the landowner wants from you. And this is so what he was representative of the landowner. So he summoned each one is verse five of Luke 16. He summoned each one of his own of his master's debtors. And he began saying to the first, how much do you owe my master? Now, you should know that.

But anyway, it's just part of the conversation. He said 100 measures of oil. And he said to him, take your bill and sit down quickly and write 50. Now, what's going to be assumed by the guy who owns 100 measures of oil? He's going to assume that the landowner is one who cut the deal and not the dishonest manager or the steward.

So the occupant of the land is thinking, man, the landowner's a great guy. OK, now let's leave it right there. And we'll come back after the break and we'll go through this some more. Please stay tuned. Be right back. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276.

Here's Matt Slick. All right, everybody, welcome back to the show. If you want to give me a call, the number's 877-207-2276.

All right, let me get back to the parable of Luke 16, the unrighteous steward. So before the break, I read the text where it says, how much do you owe? It says 100 measures of oil.

Take your bill and write 50. Now remember, as I said, this is very important. This is part of the understanding of the parable, and it'll make sense at the end. So the steward represents the landowner.

And so the people who work the land are thinking that the landowner is totally awesome because, hey, why else would he say, write the bill and cut it in half. And verse seven, then he said to another, how much do you owe? And he said, a hundred measures of wheat. And he said, take your bill and write 80.

And check this out. The master praised the unrighteous manager because he'd acted trudely. Now I'm going to continue here, but I'm going to, why would he praise him? Why would he praise him well, because he acted shrewdly. So there's a little bit of something that people aren't aware of in that culture.

In that culture, a man's reputation was very, very important. And so if there is a, there are a bunch of people, there's a bunch of people on the land and the, they get word that their bills have been drastically reduced. What are they going to do? They're going to celebrate. They're going to rejoice. They're going to praise the landowner.

They're going to commit a little bit of extra money and time and celebration. This guy's great. The word's going to spread. Okay.

Look how wonderful he is. Now, what if the landowner says, no, I'm sorry. The steward lied.

Give me everything you owe. Then it would have been quite a bit, um, harder for the people to adjust to that kind of, of issue. Furthermore, it would have, it would, uh, put a bad light on the landowner because now the landowner has a bad steward and the landowner wasn't smart enough to figure it out.

And so the landowner is kind of stuck. So what he does is he says, he's shrewd. So that he praised him because he was smart.

Now, now listen to this. What's this parable about? And his master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light. And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness so that when it fails, they will receive you into eternal dwellings, whoa, wait, wait, wait, wait. What do you mean receive you into eternal dwellings? This is eschatological. It's soteriological.

Okay. Eschatology is dealing with the end times. Soteriology deals with doctrines and teachings and study of salvation. This is end times and salvation so that you'll be received into eternal dwellings. So what he's saying is basically this, that you better make sure that you get into heaven, you better be shrewd about it. Sometimes people will say, well, the right reason to go to heaven is because you love Jesus, not because you're afraid to go to hell. Well, this is the parable that Jesus spoke of in Luke 16, one through nine. And in this parable of the unrighteous steward, he praises the unrighteous steward that Jesus made this parable up and he's gave it to them. He says, so they can be received into eternal dwellings. The, the unrighteous steward was shrewd, didn't want to suffer. So he did what was necessary to take care of himself.

Likewise, so should you. If your motivation is to escape hell, well, good. Because it's, it's bad, it's eternal and the idea, well, it should only be that you just love Jesus and you're repenting. Well, maybe you might want to say it should only be, but the reality here is that in Luke 16, one through nine, that Jesus actually gave this parable and that he praised in the parable, the shrewdness, so that this guy could be taken into an eternal place. The shrewdness so that this guy could be taken into, and as he advances the, the thought into eternal dwellings, that's not saying you enter heaven by deception and conniving, that's not what's going on, but it's the issue here. He says, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness. He says, you've got what you have make friends with yourself so that when this fails, all your conniving, you'll enter into heaven. It's a very difficult passage to understand if you don't know the context of the parable and the historical context, the cultural context, that the landowner was represented by the steward who then told people to write the bills less so that he'd be welcomed into their homes because a lot of times, I forgot to add, a lot of times in that culture, the, the, um, the, the steward would recommend certain things because he would be the one who'd be in touch with the people of the land. And he would say, well, look, they're having problems over here.

Can you work this out for them? And the landlord would say, yes. So part of this understanding in the culture is that the landowner, excuse me, the steward is the one who they would assume work on their behalf.

No one knows the wiser except the landowner and the steward, and the landlord is not going to say anything less his own reputation, uh, be tarnished. And so, uh, Jesus in this parable praises the unrighteous steward and he relates it to eternal dwellings. So the lesson of the parable is you don't want to go to hell. You want to go to heaven and you better make sure, even if it's not the best motive, even if it's not the best motive, that's okay. You don't want to go to hell. This is the idea that is there in that parable.

All right. I hope that was interesting. I could do a lot of parables.

I like to, uh, to teach on parables every now and then. They're there for me. They're, they're fascinating. I think they're enjoyable. Um, and when you understand the culture, they come alive.

They really do. So if you want to give me a call, the number is 877-207-2276. I want to hear from you. I want to hear from you, give me a call and, um, let's see, we'll just do that. All right.

There we go. Uh, and you know what, I'm kind of in the mood to do, uh, the parables a little bit. Maybe I will do another one. Maybe I will. So let's see. What would be another one to go to?

Um, you know, how about, let's see. A lot of times, uh, the, uh, the, the parable of the, the, uh, prodigal son. That's one that a lot of people don't quite get. And then there's the, uh, the good Samaritan. So let me do the good Samaritan first.

We only have a few minutes before the break. Let me do the good Samaritan and kind of get to it. This is out of, out of Luke 10, uh, verses 25 through 37. So let me just kind of go through a little bit and explain some stuff. Okay. So it says, uh, a lawyer stood up and, uh, was testing Jesus.

What should we do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus gives this, this thing, what's written in the law, you know, he says, we'll do these things, you know, I love God and your neighbor. He says, well, I did this correctly and wishing to justify himself.

He said, well, who's my neighbor. All right. Now we get into, in verse 30, we get into the issue of the parable and he says a good, the good Samaritan, Jesus replied. A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among the robbers. Okay.

There's a break, so it's a good break stopping point. We'll start again at verse 30 out of Luke 10 after the break, we'll go through and explain what's happening and why this parable is really an interesting parable a lot deeper than a lot of people realize we write back after these messages, please stay tuned, it's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. All right. Welcome back to the show. Why don't we get back on with the parables?

I enjoy doing this every now and then. All right, here we go. So, in verse 30 of Luke 10, a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and he fell among robbers and they stripped him and beat him and they went away leaving him half dead. Let me get to my notes here. There's a lot here.

Okay. So, when he was going from Jerusalem to Jericho, it's about a 17 mile journey and the elevation drops about 3,000 feet, so it's going down and it's long been known, that particular area has been known to be hazardous because bad guys would lie in wait to rob and injure. All right, so it says, and by chance, a priest was going down on that road and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Now, remember, the reason Jesus has given this parable is because in Luke 10, 25, the lawyer stood up and put him to the test saying, teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said, well, what's written in the law?

How does it read to you? He says, love God, love your neighbor. He says, that's correct.

Do this and you will live. Now, people will sometimes say to me, well, that means you can keep the law to be saved like Jesus is the standard of the law. And then he sows him, wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, and who is my neighbor? Now, Jesus is going to show him that he's not able to keep that law that he boasts about.

It's one thing for people to boast that they can keep the law, it's another to actually do it because the law is not just for the hand, it's also for the heart. But nevertheless, so by chance, a priest was going down. Now, the priest was most probably writing because they were in the upper class.

The poor would walk, but the rich would have animals and they would ride, donkeys, horses. Now, since he moved to the other side, he probably did not see what had happened because he doesn't know if this guy's dead or not. If a person's lying there is a non-Jew, the priest could risk ceremonial defilement by getting too close to him and by touching him. To see if he was dead or alive, and by doing so, then he'd have to go back to Jerusalem and go through a temple ritual of cleansing, which would have been very embarrassing for him because he was probably doing the temple work in Jerusalem and coming back down the road, encountered somebody that was dead, and then he'd be defiled and have to go back to Jerusalem and go through the stuff.

It'd be embarrassing, it'd be bad. So they're supposed to be ritually clean and exemplars of keeping the law so that he would have to stand at the Eastern gate along with the rest of the unclean and stay there and do what's required for ritual cleansing, finding, buying, and reducing a red heifer to ashes, and it would take a full week. So the priest is in a predicament. He cannot approach closer than four cubits to a dead man.

Now a cubit is about 18 inches, give or take, without being defiled, and he will have to overstep that boundary just to determine if the man is alive or not. So he passes by the other side. In verse 32, likewise, a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him passed by on the other side. Now Levites were descendants of Levi, but not of Aaron, and they assisted the priests.

Now remember, this road is a long one and it doesn't exactly say which area of the road it was, but it's winding in some areas and straighter in others. So it may be the case that he saw the priest ahead of him and thought to himself, well, if the priest had passed, then so could I. Or maybe he has the same concerns about getting too close, and he doesn't want to do that because he assisted in temple worship. So he's got the same basic problem that the priest would have.

All right. And then it says in verse 33, but a Samaritan who was on a journey came upon him. Now you've got to understand about Samaritans, they were mixed race between the Jews of captivity from hundreds of years earlier and the Samaritan people of the land that they were in captivity with, and they interbred with them.

They're called Samaritans. They are considered a kind of half-breed, at least they were back then, and they were reviled. According to the Mishnah, it's a Jewish teaching document of that time, it says, he that eats the bread of the Samaritans is like to one that eats the flesh of swine. That's Mishnah, Shebihith, number 810.

So it's the oral traditions that are developed about the law and containing interpretations and applications of specific questions. Now the Samaritan is not a Gentile, so he's under obligation to keep the law, the same law as the Jews do. But they were hated by the Jews. I mean, hated by the Jews.

All right. So, for example, John 4, 9, the Samaritan woman said to Jesus, how is it that you being a Jew asked me for a drink since I'm a woman, a Samaritan woman? And also John 8, 48, 49, Jesus answered and said to them, do we not say rightly that you are a Samaritan and have a demon? And Jesus answered, do not have a demon, but I honor my father and you dishonor me. Notice how the criticism was a Samaritan was associated with having demons. So you got to understand how bad the Samaritans were viewed in this culture, in that context at that time, really badly. In verse 34, the Samaritan came to him. So he went into the four cubit range, which he's obligated to follow the law, and bandaged up this man's wounds, pouring oil and wine on him. And he put him on his own beast and brought him to an inn and took care of him.

So the Samaritan is the one who risks defilement. He approaches an unidentifiable man. Now, how is he unidentifiable? Because remember, at the beginning of the parable, he was stripped naked and he was beaten so badly that he probably was unconscious.

And the way you would tell where someone was from was by their clothing and their accent or their language. You can't tell who he is. So he could be anybody. And this is why Jesus speaks it this way. And the Samaritan who is just, he's hated, is the one who broaches the issue of defilement to take care of someone.

All right. So there's a little something I got to introduce here. It's called blood revenge. And I'm going to talk about what's called the Apoditic law. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

That is called the Apoditic law. And it was not a judgment to see, this is what you get. It wasn't that. It was to stop something called blood revenge. Mosaic legislation established cities of refuge for people under the threat of death from blood vengeance, retaliation. Now, let me explain what it is. So you have a, let's say some families that are near each other on the land separated by half a mile, who knows?

It doesn't matter. And one of the family members of either side goes to the other families, community family, cause you know, the extended family and is injured by someone there. Well, then the injured party's family will want to take revenge on the, uh, the offending party. So let's just say the first guy got a black eye. Well, then they go in and they, they break the guys, uh, break someone's arm as a, as a retaliation. Well, then the ones whose family has an arm broken.

Okay. They go out and break, uh, two arms of the other guys and it escalates because they want to be self justified in their anger and their unrighteousness. And Jesus, and the law was an eye for an eye, tooth for tooth.

Let it be at that, stop there. And it was, uh, a law put in place to deal with the hatred that people had that would cause violence and an increase of violence. So the legislation was there to stop it, not to give a, a judgment of what punishment was supposed to be, but it was intended to stop. Do you understand a rational minds, uh, often take retaliation to the next level instead of being loving and kind. Now, why am I bringing this up? Because a Samaritan is hated and when he goes, he bandages him up, pours wine on him, put him on his beast and took him to an inn and took care of him. This means that he would be identifiable by his clothing and his accent at the end. Now, why is that important?

Because the injured man's family is going to miss him and start looking for him. But, you know, they know where they, they, they know where they're going. Not to Jerusalem or coming down from Jerusalem to Jericho, whatever it is.

I've been to both Jericho and Jerusalem, but by the way, and so, uh, so he would, they would go looking, well, what if they came to this, this inn and the innkeeper says, yeah, Samaritan brought him in. Okay. Right away, there's going to be anger, hatred, prejudice already. That's there against the Samaritans.

It will automatically be increased. Now we've got a break coming up, so hold on and get back. We'll talk a little bit more about the wonderfulness of this parable. Be right back.

Please stay tuned It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276 here's Matt Slick. All right. I want to welcome back to the show. Hope you're enjoying these, uh, you know, the parables.

It's going a little bit, um, you know, I hope you're enjoying it. All right. So let me get back on here and, uh, continue where you were. And so the, uh, uh, verse 35 and the next day he took out, oh, excuse me, verse 34.

Let me start about that. He put him on his own beast and brought him back to the inn and took care of him. In verse 35 on the next day, he took out to De Nerei and gave him to the inn caper and said, uh, take care of him. And whatever more you spend, I will return.

I will repay you now. And then Jesus says, which one of these do you think proved to be his neighbor? Well, here's the thing about this to return means that he's risking his life. He's risking his life to take care of this.

This guy who doesn't know who he is, doesn't know if he's Jew Samaritan or anybody doesn't know, but stripped naked, unconscious, wounded. This is the idea of the parable. Because remember, people are going to be looking for the relative who's missing. And if they were to go down the trail, well, the, the inn isn't going to be eight miles off a trail.

They want, the inns are to be near where the commerce is, where the road is so that people can have a place to stay. So the people looking for the, uh, the relative, whoever it is, would very likely come upon this inn and start asking questions. And says, and the guy, the innkeeper said, yeah, Samaritan brought him in. Well, then might they then lay in wait, we'll wait for him, see what happens. And so their anger would be there. Did it, was it the Samaritan who beat him up? Was it the Samaritan who robbed him and hurt him?

Maybe, maybe not. They might want to ask questions, but you know how it might be when a group of people with incredible prejudice and hatred, so many of them are going to go down the trail. And hatred starts marching, starts moving, crowd mentality takes over and things get bad. And so, which is interesting is that, uh, uh, the, uh, the, the true nature of what it means to love your neighbor. Isn't just when it's convenient, but it also deals with the issue of risking your own self to help somebody.

And this is an example that is given. And so when the self-righteous, the self-righteous lawyer, uh, says, um, you know, what do I do to inherit internal life? And notice what's going on. He says, what do I do? What do I do? The lawyer is asking a question and Jesus answers him according to his question. People often in their self-righteousness, this is self-righteous, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

What do I do? Well, what's written in your law? Well, you love God and love your neighbor.

He says, uh, you've ended correctly. Wishing to justify himself. He said, and who's my neighbor? The lawyer's testing Jesus to see what the, what Jesus knows and Jesus gives him an answer by giving him a parable to show that the lawyer is not the one obeying God or his neighbor. Because if you're gonna love your neighbor, it means you have to love God. If you're gonna love your Lord, you have to love your neighbor. And this is the meaning of the law.

It's not simply something that governs the hands. I think it says it's in a second Timothy two. Let's see if I got it right now. One nine five.

Remember this? Uh, no, it's not it. Um, there's, it says the law is written for the ungodly. I forgot what verse it is.

And so that's what it says. Well, what we're talking about here is in regeneration. We don't have to love God and love our neighbor as a means of being right before God. Because that's what the false religions teach.

Like Mormonism, Jehovah's witnesses, uh, uh, uh, Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and things like this. What Jesus is doing is raising to the level of, of truth, what it really means to take care of your neighbor as an issue. Anyway, it was good. And, uh, that reminds me, and, uh, let's go to second Kings. Let's see if I can find this right.

Cause I can Kings two 23. Um, and, uh, here we go. So, so, um, Elijah is going up, uh, this is, uh, he's going to Bethel. And so this is second Kings two 23 through 25. And the reason I'm jumping clear over to there is because of the issue of the mob.

Because remember mob mentality. So let's check this out. It's reminded me of this.

I'll go to it for the last of the show. Uh, then he went there up there, uh, to Bethel. And as he was going up the way, young lads came out from the city and mocked him and said to him, go up, you bald head, go up, you bald head. When he looked behind him and saw them, he cursed them in the name of the Lord.

Then two female bears come out of the woods and tore up 42 lads of their number. He went from there to Mount Carmel and from there, he returned to Samaria. A lot of people think, well, this is not how the prophet of God should act.

Well, first of all, I say, what universal standard of morality do you have by which you then judge how prophet of God should or should not be. You don't have an answer for that because it will just common sense and it's nothing, but what's going on. Why am I bringing this up?

Because the lads came out from the city and were mocking him lads. The young men's basically is what it means. They're, they're mature enough to be away from the house and they'll take care of themselves, but they're supposed to be under the guard ship of their families. So what the heck are they doing away from the city roaming around in a large group?

That's a challenge right there. They're supposed to be under the, like I said, the guardianship of their parents. So now they've left their parents, a whole group of them and are out carousing. This is, you know, dangerous.

Okay. Gang, think of a gang and then Elijah comes up and this, they said, uh, go up, you bald head, go up, you bald head in that culture. You showed respect to your elders and here they're doing the opposite. Now we have a group of people. Let's think of it as a mob and they are now in unison, mocking him, go up, you bald head, go up, you bald head. Now to us, that may not quite carry the weight of the severity of the situation.

We're just reading it. But in that culture, first of all, as I said, they're away from the guardianship of their parents. They're out carousing in a group and they are mocking him. They're out carousing in a group and they are mockingly and attacking verbally, uh, one of, you know, an adult who happens to be a prophet of God. This is a setting of danger. They are threatening him or threatening his safety by this kind of mockery. So when he looked behind, so that means he was leaving.

He's getting away from there because he's, he's in danger. He cursed them in the name of the Lord. And two bears came up and cleaned their clocks. People say, well, that's wrong.

Well, maybe show me the universal standard, but this is what's going on. This is why the 42 are wiped out by these two bears, two female bears, because they were behaving as a mob. So back to the issue of the good Samaritan in Luke 10, the idea of a family member or members coming back and finding the inn and the wounded relative at the inn. And then a Samaritan is there. You could very quickly have a situation arise where the good Samaritan is in danger. And so he was risking his life for someone he did not know.

And he was even at his own expense. If you say you're a Christian, then show it. Don't step aside on the other side of the road because it's inconvenient for you to help somebody or take somebody. Don't, don't use an excuse. Someone else didn't do it. Someone else passed up, someone else, so therefore it's okay for me. Oftentimes what God does is he puts you in a situation specifically to take care of something or someone. Now I know that there are times when you can't do things. I get it.

Okay. But there are times when you know the Lord's spoken to you. How many of you have ever had the experience where when you didn't do what you thought you could have done and you left, you felt bad. I've had that happen.

And I should have this, I should have that. And it just sticks with you. In my opinion, I, at least in my case, I think it's from the Lord. Don't know about you. Maybe it is from the Lord. Maybe not.

Maybe it's something just conditioned in you through being braised a certain way. I don't know. But the thing is that we feel this kind of stuff and I believe that God is the one who arranges these kinds of things. And if we say, we're a Christian, let's see it because the Bible says a first John two for, if you say, you know him and do not keep his commandments. The truth is not in you.

And you're a liar. Are you doing the things you're supposed to be doing as a Christian? That's the thing. If you say it, live it. And if you aren't living it, then don't say you're a Christian.

You know? So if you're living with someone outside of wedlock and you claim to be a Christian, you're going to church, repent, don't call yourself a Christian. God's judgment will be upon you. Don't do that. Don't do those things that serve your flesh.

Serve God, love God and love your neighbor and do it properly. Now, these things don't save you. They don't get you more saved and they don't keep you saved because we don't believe in salvation by your goodness combined with God's work and God's faith, you know, is what he did the cross. We don't teach that. Only false religions teach that.

All right. So anyway, there's some interesting stuff about that. And I love teaching in the parables. Now, my favorite of all parables, we don't have time to get into it. But if someone were to call up tomorrow and say, yeah, do the parable about the woman who let her hair down. Oh, my goodness. The woman who let her hair down and kiss Jesus feet. That, in my opinion, is the greatest parable of them all.

And there's a little parable in there, but that action of her. Wow. Every time I think about it, I smile. Every time I think about it, I'm humbled. And maybe tomorrow, if the callers don't come in, maybe I'll jump on that and go through and explain it bit by bit because it is powerful. Oh, I love it.

I really do. You see how the parables are? The parables are like little time bombs that you read, you hear, you study, and then you wonder, what's he saying?

What's he saying? Because they become, they become alive later on. And the parables are given for different reasons.

But I'll leave you with this because I've only got about a minute left in the show. This is Mark 4, 10 through 12. As soon as he was alone, his followers, along with the 12, began asking him about the parables. And he was saying to them, To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything in parables, so that while seeing, they may see and not perceive, and while hearing, they may hear and not understand. Otherwise, they might return and be forgiven. What?

So he says, he speaks in parables, so people will not be forgiven. It's not the only reason. But another reason is that they are time bombs. That's why I heard a preacher once say that. They're like time bombs.

You start thinking about them and you go, Hey, wait a minute. I get what he's saying. He, he was insulting us. And that's the parable of the prodigal son is actually speaking against some of the stuff of the Jews.

And it speaks about the Gentiles too, who are represented by the two sons. So maybe we'll do that tomorrow. If you guys call me up and say, do the parables, do the parables.

But who knows? All right. We are out of time.

There's the music and be starting any second. May the Lord bless you. And just want to let you know that we stay on the air by your support. Please consider supporting us because we do stay on the air by that support. And you can go to CARM.org, C-A-R-M dot O-R-G forward slash donate.

It's really easy. We ask $5 or $10 a month. That helps us make budgets and keep us on the air among other things. May the Lord bless you. Have a great evening everyone and by his grace, we'll be back on there tomorrow. We'll talk to you then. God bless you. Bye.