Matt Slick Live

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If you'd like to learn more about Truth Network Live Live, or if you'd like to learn more about Truth Network Live, or if you'd like to learn more about Truth Network Live, please visit our website at www.truthnetworklive.com to learn more about Truth Network Live. Well, just on the topic of spiritual attacks, I know that, you know, some of us have been through them, but I don't know if it's clearly elaborated enough in Scripture. So I was kind of wondering if you could break down, how does one know when they're truly under a spiritual attack versus just having a bad day or a bad week or something? Well, a spiritual attack usually is spiritual instead of physical. That doesn't really answer much, but a physical attack can be a spiritual.

So you're right, it's very difficult to know. So generally speaking, if I think I'm under a spiritual attack, I don't conclude that right away. I conclude it after a while. I go, wait a minute, you know, several things have been happening here lately, and what preceded it was an increase in prayer or an increase in witnessing. And now I've noticed that things are just getting a little more difficult, you know, in this area of my life or that area of my life. Then I start wondering, is it a spiritual attack? And then what I do is I start praying and asking God for more wisdom and saying, please, you know, guide me, teach me. Tell me if that is the case, if it is a spiritual attack or not, and I start praying about it. Now, sometimes you just know it's a spiritual attack. Sometimes you feel dread for no reason. Sometimes you feel apprehension and these weird negative feelings just for no reason. But then again, it could be because you didn't get enough sleep or medication change or, you know, just mood, things like that happen.

So you have to be really careful. So what I do is I look for the longevity of an attack, of a situation that's usually preceded by a spiritual improvement or spiritual change. Prayer, evangelism, going into a new place to do apologetics, and then often something happens.

Now, that's not always the case because sometimes it's reversed. Sometimes you can be under an attack and not know it, but it's because God's going to do something with you. The demonic realm knows it and they start attacking you.

Other times, God allows it to happen to prep you for something else because he wants you to grow in a certain area. So it's a really tough thing. So unless someone has a word of knowledge or spiritual discernment, it's just difficult. So what I tell people to do is if you think it's a spiritual attack, then examine yourself to see if there's any false way in you. As David says, you know, examine me to see if there's any hurtful way and lead me to an everlasting way. And so you want to look internally for any particular issues and areas that you might need to repent of.

If you can't find any of those, then you want to ask God, is he prepping you for something? And then you pray through that. Or is there a new person in your life who may be injecting into your life some demonic influence? Like maybe you have a Mormon coworker or a Roman Catholic coworker who says, now I'm going to start praying for you. And you know that that could probably bring spiritual oppression because of those false religions and the contact that they have with those false deities and stuff.

So it's not an easy thing to really decide and discern easily. Make sense? Yeah, it makes perfect sense. I had an experience on an airplane once that many years ago where I felt an overwhelming sense of dread. And I almost wanted to get off before they closed the doors.

It made no sense because I've flown many times. And I went to the bathroom during the ascent and I started calling on the Lord. And within 10 seconds, whatever was going on, cleared up. And I was saying, thank you, Jesus, before I could finish my sentence.

I knew something that was like that was an ordinary. I've never experienced that before. Hold on a sec. Coughing. Sorry about that.

Got a cough button and I'm coughing. You know, there's no problem. Yeah, that's that's one of the things you pray through it. And sometimes there's a quick deliverance and sometimes it takes a little bit more.

So this is it's something that's difficult to discern. And but the more experienced you get through it, the more you're able to say, oh, I think this is a spiritual attack. In fact, sometimes my wife and I will have a blessing come, you know, whatever it might be.

It could be financial or it could be, you know, friends visiting a good spiritual uplift. And then we'll sometimes say, OK, something's coming. You know, we're getting blessed.

But here it's coming. And so and sure enough, you know, we'll we'll be attacked spiritually in these weird ways. So you get experience and you start wondering about them. So, yeah, you know, it's a tough one, though. Yeah, it's a tough one to discern. OK, my final thought would would the reason for a spiritual attack because maybe you're doing something right as well.

I mean, not always as long. Maybe there's you're perceived as some kind of threat. Yes, absolutely. I've noticed, for example, here's an example where I believe was a spiritual attack.

Can't prove it, but I just believe it was I was going to do on Karm. I was going to research Wicca, which is witchcraft light. And so I got a bunch of books. I ordered them this before I did everything on Kindle, got a bunch of books and on witchcraft and, you know, things related to to Wicca, different forms, different this different that I got.

I don't know, you know, eight, 10 books. And so when I got this box, I immediately prayed over the entire box of books, laid hands on it, just pray. Right. So that night at night, I had one of the most horrific nightmares that I'd had in a long, long time. And I woke up, you know, one of those kind of takes a full minute to whoo. Oh, it's OK.

It's just a dream. Took about a minute. And I looked over those boxes were near my my bed and I looked over at him and I said, that's why. And I, I prayed again, you know, just prayed.

Two days later, I'm on the freeway and my right rear tire explodes and just boom, you know, and the car swerving and bought it to a stop, et cetera, change of tire and went on. Two days after that, I was on the Boise River and I'm a I'm a natural swimmer. I've been swimming since I was, I mean, so little. And so I love water. I'm just a fish in water. So the Boise River for me is nothing. You could just, you know, it's only three, four feet deep and I can float along and have all this fun. And so no problem. And all of a sudden I get ejected out of the raft, Boise River raft onto some rocks.

And the rocks are the only place in the river where they just happen to be right there just under the surface of the water. Cracked some ribs, almost broke my left wrist, was limping for a while. So anyway, it took about a month and a half to recover from that. And I noticed that all of it happened within a few days of getting those books.

Now, I would say that's a definite spiritual attack. So I think it's a good bet. You know, so there you go.

So, yeah, it makes perfect sense to me. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. All right, man, you are awesome. Ava, get one of those plane flights out of here to Boise.

You got a place to stay, buddy. I will take you up on that, more willing, one day. OK. Sounds good, man. Sounds good. All right. God bless.

All right. Let's get to Jan for North Carolina. Jan, welcome.

You are on the air. Are you there, Jan? Jan, hello. Hello.

Are you there, Jan? I hit the right button. Hit everything right. And we'll give it a shot. OK.

I don't see anything. So we'll put her on hold. Maybe the producer could text me if she's on her back or not or what.

We'll just put her on hold for now. All right. OK. So, ladies and gentlemen, now, one of the things I do is research, right? I'll take a topic and I'll research it. And I did that and released an article on Saturday. What I did was I'm going to share this because I think it's kind of interesting.

I went on the Bible, of course, Bible program, and I went through John 6. And the reason I did, I was looking for the issue of Jesus being the bread is because the Catholics and Orthodox say that Jesus' body is bread and that the bread in the Eucharist is literally his body. It's actually his body, which is dumb.

It's really dumb for several reasons. But, you know, it doesn't matter to the people who just believe it. They just drink the Kool-Aid and drink the Catholic Kool-Aid or the E.O.

Kool-Aid and that's it. And they just believe whatever they're told. And they were saying that Jesus says, you know, he's the bread out of heaven, so his body is really bread. And I go, that makes sense. So what I did was I went into John 6 because in John 6, he says, truly, truly, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves.

And so they'll routinely quote this and say, see, that's the proof of the Eucharistic Supper and you need to take it and if you don't do it, you're not saved. See, this is the proof. So what I did was I went and looked.

And I've done this before, but this time I really analyzed it, okay? And we get back to the break. We've got a person waiting and we'll get to this too. So anyway, if you want to give me a call, the number is 877-207-2276. We'll be right back. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276.

Here's Matt Slick. Welcome back to the show. If you want to give me a call, it is easy, 877-207-2276. I want to hear from you. Give me a call. Let's get to, let's try it again. Jan from North Carolina.

Jan, welcome. You're on the air. Hey, how are you today? Doing all right. Hanging in there. So what do you got? Good. I've spoken to you many times.

I always have unusual questions. The question I have today is, in 2 Kings and 2nd chapter and verse 23, 25, the story that she bears with Elijah and Elijah, is that a literal story? Yes.

Is that a, you know, I take it as a literal story. Now, I've had apologetics come and refer to these 42 children were adults, potentially adult male children of prophets or whatever, but the Bible clearly says they were young ones. So could you give me your take on that?

Sure. So first of all, they should have been at home. They should be with their parents on the farm or in the house.

They should not be 42 in a group, which is a mob, which is like a gang. They said to him, go up, old bald head, go up like Elijah went, like Elijah went up, so that's wishes. Exactly. So that, let me, okay, so, sorry, each time you comment, I'm autistic, and it throws me off, so hold on, okay? I understand. Yes, sir. Okay.

So go up, old bald head, is an insult about his hair, and go up like Elijah wanted him dead. And so they were threatening him, and that's when they got, you know, mauled by the two bears, or the bears that came out. Yeah.

Okay. It seems like, but you're saying basically it was their own fault. I mean, they were in the wrong place. They were doing bad things. So it's not something that God would punish children per se. Oh, no. No, no, no. They were threatening the prophet of God.

The prophet of God they were threatening. This is true. Yeah.

This is true. Okay. Okay. Yeah, okay. I just, because I've had different takes on that, and people don't want to take it as it clearly is written, and I kind of feel like it's pretty clear. Yeah. Yeah, that's true, because a lot of people think that, you know, Jesus is a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian surfer dude, dressed in a woman's night gown, and he's standing at the door of your heart, and he's asking permission. Peace and love, right.

Yeah, and so the Old Testament, God's like that too, and he wouldn't do that to people. Come on. So then they just deny. Yeah, yeah. But no, it's real.

They really got mauled, because they were threatening the prophet of God. Yep. Okay. You know, God was important to make points, and to teach lessons at that point, so yes, I can understand that.

That's right. The other question is, you don't have someone waiting, and you have another moment. Go ahead.

What have you got? Is that we are the free will baptism, so we kind of believe that you're foreknown to God, and that your salvation is foreknown, and to me, that's kind of a conflict with free will. Do they have a conflict between free will and being foreknown?

No. No, that's called libertarian. In libertarian free will, the idea is that you can't have free will and God know what's going to happen. That's a general rule that they go with, which is it's not logically true. And then what's called compatibilist free will is that free will is compatible with God's sovereignty and his predestination.

Right. So what I do is I go quickly to Jesus, and I say Jesus was God in flesh. Did he have free will? Well, yes, but Jesus said in John 5, 19, John 5, 30, he could do nothing in his own initiative, only what the Father gave him to do. So that means his free will was in harmony with the predestining work of God and the ordaining work of God for Christ himself.

So it just proves that he's free. So if you are pre-known and predestined, are you able to damn yourself once you're foreknown? Are you able to lose your salvation? No, you can't lose your salvation.

You can't. Okay. Jesus says in John 6, 37 through 40 is where I go for that. Jesus says all that the Father gives me will come to me. Let me back up. The foreknown that people think means is that he knows your future choices and he foreknows them and he chooses you in relationship to what he knows.

Now, there's some serious problems with this. Let me explain. So God has a quality called aseity. God is ase because he has aseity.

It's the same word, aseity, just different forms. What that means is that God is non-contingent. He does not depend on anything else for his existence. His knowledge is part of his nature. He knows all things because that's the nature of God's essence.

He just knows all things. So his knowledge cannot be that he looks into the future and he knows what other events will be of free will creatures and then his knowledge is based on that. That would violate the aseity of God in that sense.

And it would mean that God's knowledge is contingent on other things in the future and that violates the nature of God. So that's one thing. Okay. I see. Yeah. That's clarifying. I like that.

Okay. And the other thing is that in Romans 8, 29, for example, it says, those whom he foreknew he also predestined. What a lot of people interpret that to mean is that of the ones he looked into the future to see what they're going to do, then he predestined some of them.

But that's not what the text says. It says this, those whom he foreknew he also predestined. The foreknown ones are also the predestined ones.

So also is a key word here. That's exactly correct. So the ones who are foreknown are the predestined ones. Let's go to Ephesians 1, 4, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him in love, he predestined us. So he predestined us, the ones that were chosen. Now, notice in Romans 8, 29, those who before knew he also predestined and here the chosen ones are the predestined ones.

So the foreknown ones are also the chosen ones. Oh, I see. I see. Our pet preacher is 29 years old. He's a good guy, but he's 29 years old.

And we're having a history lesson every Wednesday about the history of the free will. And he's not an experienced. It's a little bit hard for him to get the details. He gave me enough details, though, to ask you some questions. Okay.

Well, what I would do is go to Carm and look up free will and look up are we free in law with God's predestination. And I should have an article there. I believe it does. Okay, now I go there all the time.

You always refer me and I've gone, but I have not looked for that particular article. But I shall, yes. I know you have a lot of them, so yes.

Yes, I do. So Charlie just put in a link in there. You can look up do we choose God or does God choose us.

Another one, if God knows our free will choices, do we still have free will? That's the point. Okay. But your explanation was very informative. I like that, but I was definitely going to look it up on your website so I can read it and absorb it a little better, yeah.

Well, you know, I know he's 29, and that doesn't mean he's not capable. But if he wants to have a discussion with me, because I've had thousands of discussions like this with people over the years, I'd be glad to just talk to him and say, well, look at this view, and do stuff like that. But I've never had any question. Well, I've brought points that you've made to me. I have taken points to church and give them back to him, things that you've told me. And he's never said that was wrong. He's always kind of looked at me like, well, that was a good question, or that was a good information. So he's never disagreed with anything that I've said that you've told me. And I do tell him where I get my information. What, from a guy named Slick on the radio?

Wow. Yeah, I did. I said, do you know Matt Slick? And he looked at me really funny, like I was kidding.

I said, no, he's an apologetic. He's very smart. And he said, and his name was Matt Slick. I'm like, yes, his name is Matt Slick. We have to get over that part first. That's right. That's right.

Can't trust a guy named Slick. Look, there's the music. We've got to go because there's a break, okay? Okay, thank you so much again. I appreciate your time, and I hope to speak to you again soon. Thank you, sir. All right, Jan. God bless.

Have a good day. Folks, we'll be right back after these messages. Please stay tuned.

We'll be right back. So, I can't remember the Bible verse exactly, but the Bible verse says, Don't you know that we will judge angels? And what I was thinking, it dawned on me that when we do this judging, we will have already converted, I guess, gotten into our new clean, spinless bodies, will we be, is there anything that alludes to elsewhere in the Bible where, you know, we will basically be perfect in judging, or will we still have some of the same attributes that we had, you know, prior to Okay, you asked several different questions. So, the Bible doesn't say we're going to be perfect. It says, Be perfect, your Father in Heaven is perfect, in Matthew 5-48, but that's in the context of loving everybody equally as God does.

So, that's what it says. Now, the word in Greek, from teleo, you know, to end, to have perfection, to complete, and it can be different ways it's used, but our characteristics, okay. So, you asked another question, there's another concept here. When we get to Heaven, are we still going to be ourselves? That's kind of what you're getting at, the way you were asking. Yeah, yeah, that's what, yeah, because I feel like the Lord is preparing me for, to be able to judge, you know, my trials and things that he's putting me through in this life, and as I try to please him more and more and more and worship him only more and more, it feels like I'm getting ready to judge, but to even think that we judge the angels just kind of blows my mind a little bit. Yes, so what's your question then?

Now, I'm a little confused which specific question you got, so let's get to that. Will we be converted to have a different mindset, basically, and basically a perfect mindset where we would be able to judge, but we just could not judge wrong. We could not judge wrong.

Are we going to have a perfect mindset? The Bible doesn't say so, and it doesn't really tell us what it means. It's 1 Corinthians 6, 3, Do you not know we will judge angels?

How much more matters of this life? So I don't know what it means, how we're going to judge angels, because we're not worthy to judge angels because we're sinners. We're passed out of judgment, but something's going to happen in heaven, and there's debates of what it means. There are angels who are kept in certain conditions for future judgment. Does it mean that the Christians are going to participate in the judgment that Christ is giving? Does it mean that the Christians in the redemptive bodies in heaven are going to actually be judges? I don't really quite see that. Some think that it might do with ranking of our position and that in Christ we can pronounce condemnation on certain angelic realms and issues, but it just doesn't say.

Right, right, right. I've been trying to use the look of Greek and the New Testament in Hebrew and do translations, and I guess my other question is I have lots of friends, and I'm getting up in age, and I've been more serious. Basically every waking moment I'm praising the Lord or studying my Bible, but that also leads to helping people and helping the needy, helping poor, orphans and widows, and I have some friends that are out of Africa and other countries too, but in Africa almost every pastor in Africa calls themselves an apostle.

Hold on, hold on, I've got to jump in. The reason they do this, they call themselves an apostle, is because they have an insufficient understanding of God's word and they're elevating themselves in a way that does not need to occur. The movement of the positive confession, idiocracy, the stupidity of it, has swept through Africa largely. Positive confession says that you're supposed to be healthy and wealthy, and then in the light of this they have apostles that come out and then pronounce judgments and things like this, they elevate themselves. So just to let you know, that's part of the context of how bad it is over in Africa.

Right. One time I heard a sermon by Derek Prince, and he said that when somebody comes to you on a frequent basis trying to get you to send them money or help them or whatever, that any spirit that is not of the Holy Spirit is witchcraft. So in other words, I know in their culture witchcraft is a big thing. I haven't met anybody that doesn't say in their younger years or whatever that they had experienced some form of witchcraft that did in most cases work.

I mean, it healed them, it gave them what they wanted, but at the same time, I'm trying to... So watch out for Derek Prince. Be very cautious of him.

Right. I wouldn't trust him personally. So with positive confession stuff, prosperity gospel, and that skews a person's ability to rightly divide the Word of God. So I'm just telling you on that. Yeah, I'm cautious of everybody. I trust no man, basically, God only. But I try to use my spiritual discernment.

Good. I guess the Holy Spirit teaches me... I can almost smell demons or witchcraft when it's being used. I'm just stating basically that is one thing that I do happen to agree with Derek Prince on, that any spirit that is not of the Holy Spirit is witchcraft. When someone is trying to manipulate you or get something from you that they want from you.

I don't know if I'd go that far and say it is witchcraft. Yeah, that's a... You know, I have to know what he means and see the context of something like that. Right. Yeah, I just don't recommend people to follow guys in that camp. Because they might get a lot of things right and then slip right in with the things that are right, things that are bad, and you won't be able to tell. Right, yeah, it's all about the spiritual discernment. I'm just trying to keep praying for discernment and knowledge and wisdom.

But at the end of the day, praising God Almighty and wanting to be with Him, I look forward to someday being with Him and Jesus, the Son on the right hand and the throne. I appreciate, love your show and learn something every time. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Well, God bless. Alright, James. God bless you.

Alright, thanks. Alright, if you want to give me a call, the number is 877-207-2276. Let's get to Richard from North Carolina.

Richard, you're on the air. Hey, Matt. How are you doing? Doing alright.

Getting over a chest cold. A difficult one. But other than that... Oh. Okay. Well, we'll be praying for you then. Good. Praying for your wife too.

She needs it more. Go ahead. What do you got, man?

I've called in a couple times. Okay. My question tonight is, in the sower that sowed the seeds, where does the prodigal son come in on those sowers?

I'm not sure I understand the question. Talk about Luke 15. Okay. The lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son is what Luke is doing.

He's putting these together. Okay. So what was your question again? Well, the sower that sowed the seeds, some fell on good ground and some fell on thorns where the thorns grew and choked the word out of the man with the lust of the world. Uh-huh. Now, where does the prodigal son come in on those seeds? I'm not sure I understand.

Do you mean where is it in the Bible physically? Well, what I'm wanting to know is the prodigal son, he repented, but he went out and splurged his inheritance. Yes, he did. Yep. Okay.

Now, is he one of the ones where the weeds grew and choked it out? Oh, no, no. Okay.

The prodigal son is an illustration by Jesus dealing with the Jews and the Gentiles. So hold on after the break and I'll explain what's going on so that you understand the prodigal son better. Okay?

All right. Hey, folks, hold on and we'll be right back after these messages if you want to give me a call. The number is 877-207-2276. We'll be right back. It's Matt Slick live taking your calls at 877-207-2276.

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

You have three open lines. Give me a call. Are you still there? Yes. All right.

So let's talk about what the prodigal son is about, okay? Maybe that will help. Does that sound okay? Okay. All right. Now, I want to introduce to you as a concept. I'm going to spend some time on this, okay? You're going to get more than you asked for in a good way, I hope. Okay. All right. There's something in the Bible called chiasm, c-h-i-a-s-m.

There are different kinds of chiastic structures. For example, in Matthew 7, Jesus says, ask, seek, knock, a-s-k, ask, seek, knock, for he who asks, for he who seeks, for he who knocks. So a-s-k just happens to be that, and a-s-k again.

It's a way of speaking in that culture. There's different kinds. Now, if you were on a piece of paper, if you were to, for example, draw a triangle, where on the left-hand side is the vertical part, and then you draw two equal angles, you know, two legs to the point in the middle of the page, then you'd have a triangle. Now, ignore the left vertical thing. You just have those two angled lines. At the top of the line, the first angled line, a sun is lost, and at the bottom of it is a sun is found. Now, what I'm trying to do is introduce this by description.

It's easier when you can see it. So the beginning and the end of the prodigal sun are the same. A sun is lost, a sun is found. And now you move down that triangle to the right. You go down it a little bit, and underneath that you'd say goods are wasted. But towards the end, goods are used in joyful celebration. Everything's lost, everything is gained.

Great sin, great repentance, total rejection, total acceptance, change of mind, and initial repentance. Now, I have an article on this, and I illustrate this on the KARM website, and I don't believe that you're really getting this because it's hard to describe what this is. But once you see it, you go, oh, I see, it's no big deal. What it really means is in this kind of chiastic structure, the first part of the story matches the last part. The second part of the story is parallel to the second to the last part. The third part of the opening matches the third to the last part of the closing. And it's called chiasm, and there's different kinds. And in this kind of a structure, the emphasis is found in the central aspect of what the parable's about. Here, it's about repentance. Now, this is just an analysis.

Aside from that, there's some things that are worth knowing. When the son says to the father, I want my inheritance now, he's saying, I don't care if you're alive or dead, because the son would only get an inheritance after his father died. Father, I want it now, which is an insult to the father. It's an insult to the community and to the family. So the son should be rebuked by the father, and the older son should rebuke him as well.

But it's not recorded as being rebuked. But the father, you know, take a whip or a stick and beat him, just about, for such an insult. What does he do? He divides it up, gives it to him. And then this ungodly young man, the younger, you know, man, he goes out, and he goes out and wastes everything. He goes to a distant country, and he's squandered everything he had with loose living, paganism. So he loses everything. And he went and he attached himself to somebody in the area he was to feed swine, which is an unclean animal. He's feeding them. That's how bad off he is.

He's got nothing. And he was longing to fill his stomach with just what the swine were eating. So this is an example of how horrible things went for this guy. And it's a lesson about serving your flesh and what it leads to and how bad it is. Okay, so, but he says in verse 17, he came to his senses. He said, how many of my father's hired men have more than enough bread, but I'm dying here with hunger. He said, I'll get up and go to my father's house, and I'll say to him, Father, I've sinned against heaven and in your sight.

And he says, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired men. Now, is he really repentant? Well, that's debatable, but here's the thing, is that he's saying, he's saying, I'm no longer worthy.

Make me as one of your hired men. So he wants to work in order to be right. That's not real true repentance, but it's a sub-theological point I want to get into right now. So he got up and he went to his father. And while he was away off, his father felt compassion and ran for it to him.

Men in that culture of that stature did not run. So now the father who's already allowed himself to be insulted by the son, the younger son, allows the son to come back. And then what he does is he runs to his son. And this is all just, oh my goodness, you shouldn't run to him. You should beat him up, if anything, because he's so evil, this young son. The cultural norms that Jesus is telling that are being broken here all over the place are just humongous.

So anyway, I'm going through this quicker, trying to make it quick. So the son said to him, Father, I've sinned against heaven and in your sight. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. At this point, he doesn't say make me as a hired servant. He just confesses he's not worthy. That's different than make me as a hired person. Now he's not offering anything.

No bargaining is offered. He just admits his guilt. There's no mention of servanthood or anything.

It's just there. This is a gospel message hidden away. But at any rate, the father said to his slaves, quickly bring out the best robe, put it on him, put his hand in sandals and his feet, bring the fatted calf. Now, a robe was a sign of dignity, a ring was a sign of authority, and the shoes meant he was not a servant because servants didn't wear shoes. So he's reestablishing and putting him back into the household just as he was before. This is incredible grace.

Not only that, kill the fatted calf, let's eat and have a good time. Because the son was dead, he's come to life again. He was lost as he found and let them begin to make merry. The older son was in the field.

He's working, he's being good. He already should have rebuked the son and he should maybe have been there with the house, but out in the field working, maybe didn't see the younger son come in. And he heard music and dancing and he summoned the servants and said, what's going on? He said, your brother's come back and the father has killed the fatted calf because he received it back safe and sound. And he became angry.

He wasn't willing to go home and hang with them. But the father came out and talked to him. Now the older son is self-righteous. The older son, think of the Jews, the older son is self-righteous, has done everything properly. He said to his father, look, for many years I've been serving you.

I've never neglected a command of yours. This is the Jews. And yet you've never given me a kid that I might make merry with my friends. But when this son of yours, who devoured the wealth with harlots, killed the fatted calf, these are the unbelievers, how wicked they are. You said, my child, you bless him. This is the gospel message that's supposed to be for the Jews, but the Gentiles are going to be included because they're coming back to the faith. And verse 31, he said, my child, you've always been with me and all that is mine is yours. But we had to be merry. His brother of yours was dead and now he's alive. Now, he says, my child is teknon in the Greek, which is a word of endearment and care. He says, look, you've always had everything I've given you.

The Jews have always had everything. Now what's going to happen is others are going to come in and you're going to be angry over that because you have tried to do so much. But you have to understand that what Jesus is doing is a time bomb of the message.

These Gentiles who have lived in an ungodly way, not according to the law and the truth, they're going to be welcomed in and the Jews are going to be upset about it. And so this is the light, quick version of it. There's more to it. But that's what's going on in the parable. Does that make sense? Yeah, I understand the parable of the prodigal son. I'm just wondering, could you put that prodigal son anywhere in this sowing of the seeds? No, the sowing of the seeds is another parable. It's another illustration. The sowing of the seeds are different kinds of seeds that fall on different kinds of land and they grow at different rates.

Only one in four produces anything of any value. But this is a parable about something else, about repentance and the inclusion of those who are not of that original legal heritage, the Jews. Well, I thought maybe because of the one that was thrown by the weeds and the weeds grew and choked it out and the lust of the world had taken that seed out. And I thought maybe that was related to the parable about the prodigal son. Nope. This parable is meant to be by itself as a main, single, usually, teaching object on one thing.

Now, what Luke does in Luke 15 is he puts several things in place that are then meant to understand in a broader context because in Luke 15 we have the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost son, the prodigal son. Okay? Right. Right. Okay. Thank you. All right. You're welcome. God bless you. All right.

All right. Now let's get to Elijah from Pennsylvania. Elijah, welcome. You're on the air, buddy.

What do you got? Hey, Matt. I have a question. I want to know how to respond to atheists like R.N. Law or Matt Delahunty when they say like God is a moral monster and I saw on a video once R.N.

Law said that going to heaven would also be hell because he said that going to heaven would be hell because... Let me respond because we've got one minute in the show. Okay? Okay. Tell me how to respond to them. Okay?

Because I know I've talked to Aaron Raw and Matt Delahunty both and they couldn't argue, in this regard, they couldn't argue their way out of a wet paper bag if it was on a NASA centrifuge and open it out. Now look, when they say God's a moral monster then you say to them what universal standard of morality are you appealing to by which you then judge God? What is it? What's your moral standard that you have that applies not only to yourself but God and therefore everybody else that they're obligated to follow? Tell me what that is so that you can then say what is a moral monster or not. Don't just assume it. Don't just say it is. Back it up with something other than your opinion.

If it's just your opinion you're talking about you have that right for an opinion but it has no merit to apply to anybody else so give me something solid. At this point they won't be able to. That's how you respond to them, okay? Yeah, okay. And then on individual issues you can go in and look but that's why I hammer them. I hammer them on this point.

They don't have a right to make a judgment because they don't have a universal standard. And then you can go to individual issues and say here's the context. But that's what we've got to go. We ran out of time. Okay, buddy? Got to go, man. All right. All right, God bless. All right, folks, hope you enjoyed the show. May the Lord bless you and by His grace and back on your tomorrow. And hopefully my voice will be a little bit better. And we'll talk to you then. Have a great evening. God bless you. Another program powered by the Truth Network.