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 carm.org. When you have questions about Bible doctrines, turn to Matt Slick Live for answers, taking your calls and responding to your questions at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick.

Hey, everybody, welcome to the show. It's me, Matt Slick, and you're listening to Matt Slick Live. Today's date. is March 19th, 2026. And you can give me a call.

I've got things in my mind already. You can give me a call. The number is 8772072276. And also, you can email me at info at carm.org. Info at C-A-R-M dot O-R-G.

It is easy to do. You can do that really fast, really quick. And uh and we can we can talk to you. We've got questions that have come in a lot. I didn't do a lot of moving around and stuff.

And uh if any of you are expert yeah just thought of this expert Outlook adding in Other accounts. I've done this. I've done it many, many times, and I can't get it to work anymore. Anyway, so uh just working on stuff, doing stuff and um Trying to uh Just get as many things as I can go can going.

Okay. All right, now.

So today I spent some time on the Carm site. Polishing, perfecting. the login stuff for the donors. for those who order stuff.

So when you go to Carm, And you uh You go to the home page, you'll see the word donate or store about there. And you can click on either one of those and there'll be a little login. person icon at the upper right, you log in. And everything that we added some features And so you'll have the ability to do all kinds of stuff in there. in your subscriptions and things like that.

Just let you know.

Okay. We just added that today. And might as well talk about this. And we stay on the air by your support. If you like what you hear, please consider supporting us.

You can just go to that website, carm.org, and you can donate. We ask $5, $10, $15 a month, that kind of thing.

Now, for some of you, you may not know what this show is about. For the newbies, I'm a Christian apologist, which means I defend the Christian faith. And uh Been doing it for for wow, forty six years. Lord dwelling it'd be nice when I do it for 50, you know I haven't known it for 50 years. I'd be going to be able to say that.

I'm getting old, getting up there, not quite seventy, but I'm up there. And uh mentally, I think I'm about twenty three, twenty four. Yeah, my late wife would say emotionally 1718. But hey, you know you got to work with what you got. And so that's what I do.

If you want to give me a call, it is easy 8772072276.

So We've had some interesting calls from the Black Hebrew Israelites, a couple of them. That's been interesting. And we've had um Varying calls on varying topics. I did a discussion last night. I was on uh a virtual world.

It's really interesting that there was this guy who I went into his room in a virtual room called In Big Screen. I have an oculus and I go in there. And We were talking, and as soon as I said to him, No. Baptism is not necessary for salvation, but you should get baptized. 'Cause then you deny justification by faith, boom, he kicked me out.

Okay. I was in another room where a guy is denying the Trinity. And That's good. And it was very apparent that as I was defending the doctrine, he would constantly interrupt, constantly try and take control of the situation.

Now, this isn't a big deal. I've experienced this countless times. But I just think it's interesting when people are so insecure about their doctrines and understanding of of Scripture that they're not willing to dialogue about it. Apparently don't like it when someone like myself, who knows how to quote the Scriptures and knows where these things are, can say, well, no, then you have this and you have that. And You'd think that someone who was interested in the truth Wouldn't mind discussing the truth.

Now, if someone came into a room that I was hosting, for example, and said the Trinity was not true, I'd say, okay, why do you say that? Let's talk about it. If they said baptism is necessary, well, I disagree with you, but let's go through it. And One of the things I've discovered is that there are people who Don't care. what you think and what your opinion is.

They're right. It's all it is. They are right. And because they are right, you can't correct them. You can't do that.

And that's really unfortunate. But I've encountered that a great great deal. And uh We do have calls coming in, so that's good. And we can talk about that stuff too. But hey, I just thought of something too.

I want to give a shout out to Christy from Indiana. For your continued support on the Carm ministry. Really thank you for that. And that reminds me, Dave, Dave Kimball. Hey, poor guy.

Uh he's gonna be contacting people apparently. What we're doing is, we're moving away from an old system called InfusionSoft. And we're moving to the new one in the Shopify, which is integrated with Authorize.net. It's it's just tech stuff. And So, if you get a you may get a call from Dave sometime in the next week or two or five or eight or twelve, I don't know.

There's a lot to do where he says, Hey, if you want to move over to this new system, and that's what we're going to be doing.

So he'll be doing that.

So I'm just saying that if Dave Kimball calls up, it's legit.

Okay? And if you're not sure about stuff, You can call me up or email or something like that at infocarm.org. Yeah. All right, so I think that's it. And like I said, you can email me also at info at carm.org.

and put the subject line radio comment radio question. And we can get to them if you want. All right.

So let's get on the air with James from South Carolina. James, welcome. You're on the air.

Well, good afternoon, Matt. Good to talk to you. Hi. Yeah, good. First time?

I only heard your ministry back in December on the radio, and then of course the radio transmission goes down during the fall, I guess, and I wasn't able to pick it up and then I found you online the other day. And I heard you discussing baptism with some fellow yesterday, which was really amazing. I sat there and goes, Really? Really, you believe that, sir? I says, What about that thief on the cross?

Okay, never mind. Um that's right. But my question concerns this, you know, coming up the uh The resurrection of Christ. And um He served weak. And I used to fall into the Friday, Sunday thing.

But then uh I got to listening to a fellow on uh television, uh uh uh Robert Vandenmarten. And he was describing how It couldn't have worked out that way. And the thing that bothers me about it is that it's continually taught in church And that they make these things up of well, it doesn't have to be 24 hours. And I understand all that, but he did say, like. shown in the belly of the whey three days and three nights.

Nonetheless, Come on. it looks to me like, I mean, we're supposed to preach truth And I don't see any here, so it's like Like some of the other things that I've been taught in my life, I'm about a year older than you, man. And. I was taught all along Jesus loves the little children all colors in the world, you know, red, yellow, black, and white. They're precious in his sight.

Then I got older and I was like, wait a minute. I've never seen any red people or people look like a banana.

Okay. And then I went into biology and found out we're all the same color, just different shades.

So I have these Truths that are facts But yet people who Our believers Claim them not to be so. And so it just really messed with me, and now I'm on this thing about uh Learning that there was two Sabbaths during that week of Passover. That's correct. And I kind of would like to get your opinion or your information on it. Maybe you can straighten me out a little bit here and help me.

So, what's your question then? When was he crucified, I guess? What day of the week?

Well, I suppose. I mean, it doesn't have anything to do with my salvation in that respect, but kind of like wanting to be a Berean.

Okay. Want to really know.

Well, there's different arguments we can't know for exact sure.

Some say Wednesday, some say Thursday, some say Friday. and there's weaknesses as well as strength for both of those. I lean towards Thursday myself. Lean towards doesn't mean I would die in that hill. If someone came along and had a better argument, I go, that's a better argument.

I'll go that way. Because it's just not that mandatory. The early church fathers, however, most of them did affirm Friday. I don't know why. But it maybe that's just why we get it.

So If it was Friday, uh Then We have the days and nights and partiality. You can have one part of a day being considered as the day. And that works. And I'm looking for the article on my website about this because I know I've written something on this, and we moved. How long was she just dead in the c that's what it is?

How long? Let's see. And the reason why I ask, Matt, is because. Mary came to the tomb while it was still dark, and the stone was rolled away.

Now, if the Jews perceive days beginning at dawn. Then Sunday didn't begin. until after she had already gone to the tomb. And of course then there's no Sunday night whatsoever. That was my Am I understanding that correctly?

I know I've read that correctly, so it's gotta be what it's saying. Yes. Uh well I I there is an article and it I don't it's uh on Carn. Are you familiar with my with my website involved? You have one on your website?

I'll go there and find it. But it's not under the title I thought it would be, though. The title. is how long was Jesus dead in the tomb? And that's interesting.

So I get into the issue of the crucifixion there. I wrote this back in quite a while ago on Wynn.

So uh let's see. I wrote it back in 2008. Wow So, um, three days and three nights. I was still living in Minnesota.

So it says in Matthew 12:40, Jesus Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly.

So will the son of man be. three days and three nights.

So we have to have that someplace somewhere. And I've got a little table. It's been a long time I reviewed it. But I just went through it and did it.

So, what I would do is go there and look. I have several possibilities written there. Yeah, day one, two, do the three. Passive bird, get a lot of noise back there. And by dark up here, let's hold on.

Okay, yeah, we're gonna. I'm gonna muted you because of the background noise. Um And so Three days and three nights, less than three days and three nights. You go through there and you can check it out because it does mention the idea of plural Sabbaths and stuff like that. And it's been a long time since I reviewed that, but I would just go through and check that out.

Okay, let's see. Get back, get your back.

Okay. Okay. I need your help.

So you get a lot of background noise there. Yes, my family just came home, and we have dogs that need to go out that don't like each other, so that's what happened.

So, okay.

Well, I hope that helps.

So, you can go there and say, look up there. It'll help me. Go ahead. How long was Jesus dead in the tomb?

Okay. I'm sorry. I will call back next time when I have less noise.

Okay. All right.

Thanks a lot. Appreciate it. All right.

Well, that's uh That's interesting. Yeah, so I had the article there and uh So how long was he in the grave? When what day was he crucified on? Which might be another let's see what J. Was he crucified?

I'm going to put that in there, the title. On what day was he crucified? That way. It could be found a little bit more easily. All right, there we go.

So. Easy stuff, easy stuff. Hey, look, if you want to give me a call, folks, all you got to do is dial 8772-07-2276. We'll be right back. It's Matt Slick Live, taking a call at 877-207-2276.

Here's Matt Slick. Hello right everyone and welcome back to the show. If you are interested, you can give me a call 877-207-2276. I want to hear from you, give me a Call and you can also send an email to info. Uh Sorry.

Info at carm.org and put in the subject line: radio comment or radio question, and we can get to it. We got a caller coming in, and we got three open lines. If you want to. Zip me a line and an email. We had some problems with our email, and I revamped everything yesterday on it.

So that's it. I do a lot of tech work, believe it or not. And I could teach a lot of stuff on tech as well as theology. It's just something I've been having to do for years and years and years. I can teach advanced Excel too.

Oh man, I love Excel. It's a great program. It is such a great program. I used to teach advanced Excel in some classes and stuff. And Showed some people some stuff, it's a lot of fun.

Anyway, I'm just reminiscing the good old days.

Okay, now, like I said, if you want to give me a call, the number is 877-207-2276. And you can email me. That's easy. Info at carm.org. Info at C-A-R-M.org.

Put in subject line, radio comment, or radio question. And let's get to Brian from North Carolina. Brian, welcome. You're on the air.

Hey Matt, how you doing? Doing all right. Hanging in there, buddy. What do you got, man?

So I'll keep I'll make it as quick as I can. Our pastor told us that One of his professors said that If you argue that women cannot be pastors, which I agree with, they can't. Then that means you also that's he called it a one-way ticket. You have to also say that women can't adorn their hair, wear makeup. In other words, the professor was saying it's a one-way ticket.

You have to accept all these restrictions. You can't just pick and choose. How would you argue? Against that. He's not logical and he's not he he's not thi clearly thinking.

Okay, the Bible clearly tells us that women are not to be in those authority positions because Paul equates it with the issue of the created order of Adam. He talks about it in the created order.

So this is not something that's cultural. We do find in 1 Timothy 2:9, it says, Women are to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair, gold pearls, or costly garments. It's a cultural context. Because they were the ones who were in that culture, they were the ones who were. flaunting various things, sexuality, Um wealth and things like this.

And so, what he's doing is he's contrasting the issue of proper adornment. We don't dress like the world in a seductive way. Women aren't supposed to do that. And it says this is how they're to adorn themselves. They are to adorn themselves with proper clothing.

What's proper clothing?

Well, does that mean that they can't have their hair long or they can't have it short? Or does it mean they can't wear pants or they have to wear dresses? Or w well what? And how would this pastor answ answer that question at this point? And it would not be difficult to Put them in a corner and say, Sorry, what you've done is mixed categories.

That which is required of God through the Apostle Paul, created related to the created order, versus certain ideas about how we're to appear before Christians and non-believers. that that's different.

Okay. Okay, so the professor was making a category error, essentially. Yeah, it's a logic error and an exegetical error. You know, if I was in class and raised my hand, I've done this before when I was in college and secular classes, and I would raise my hand, the teachers would say, Oh boy, here he goes again. I got stories because, you know, I'd go, What about this?

What about that? And they didn't like that. They didn't mind, but some of them really got upset. I got some interesting stories. But, you know, it's the same thing with.

Pastors and professors. Like, well, wait a minute, how do you know that? Why is why is this uh cultural? And what and what is the logical necessity to say you've got to take all of it, not just uh part of it? And what's the dividing part, dividing criteria you have between the issues and the categories of what a woman is to dress like versus Paul does not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority in the church where Adam was first created.

So that's a created order mandate by the work of God.

So, what do you say about the makeup? What if we'd say they can't have makeup? or they can't do this or that, that we can't be faster. Where's the connection between that? There's no connection.

For him to make the statement, you have to take all of it. Why is that statement true? what justifies a statement of being right. People make mistakes when they when they They don't know logic very well sometimes.

Okay, gotcha.

Okay, good.

Alright.

So yeah, he he blew it down.

Okay, so basically just kind of use questions. As a tactical method to kind of follow up where he's coming with that line of reasoning. Exactly. Exactly. And then undermine that as he advances where he's coming from.

You got it down.

Well said.

Okay. Go ahead. Yeah, I I've been studying Gregory Kochl's tactics a lot recently.

So do you know who that is? Oh, yeah, I've talked to Greg before.

So, yes. Great.

Okay. I'm actually teaching a class Okay. You're also going to teach a class on logic.

Okay, well I think we get a little a little time delay here, but go ahead. Yeah, I'm so sorry, Matt. Yeah, I'm actually teaching a class on apologetics using Cokel's method at this time.

So it's very useful.

Well, good. Here's something I would suggest also: is that you study presuppositional apologetics. Have you done that at all?

Okay. Have you? I may have. I have read a lot, I mean a lot, on apologetics, so much so that I don't know if I've nailed down that specifically. Are there any specifics?

specific book titles that you would recommend. Um Yes and no. Try this. Go to carm.org. and just look up presuppositional apologetics.

And you can find a simple article, you can make it in four minutes, okay? And It's not exhaustive, but it'll introduce you to what this is. And what you were doing is a presuppositional apologetics, what you were describing. What's the presupposition that someone has? that lead them to the statements or conclusions that they have.

then you find out if the presuppositions are valid. And then you attack it with the scripture and/or logic.

So, presuppositionalism on a broad scale is to presuppose the truth of the Christian Trinity. When you presuppose it, everything makes sense. We can account for universals, particulars, transcendentals, categories, information. We can account for the issue of the one in the many, all kinds of advanced stuff, okay? We can then make sense of the fingerprints of God in creation, and the and it makes sense.

When you adopt, for example, atheism, then you have inherent problems with it.

So, presuppositionalism is a presupposition. You assume a certain thing. Like, well, that's just begging the question, you're assuming it. You say, Yeah, everybody assumes something to be true. It's does the worldview account for the presuppositions?

Because everybody presupposes the validity of the laws of logic. But you don't use logic to prove them, you presuppose their validity. No problem. Which world you can account for those laws of logic? If you want to hold on after the break, I'll tell you more.

It's up to you. What do you want to do? You want to take apart.

Okay. Oh, no. I think you I think you got my I think you're taking care of me.

Okay, good.

Sounds good, buddy. All right, well God bless then. Hey folks, sorry about that. We'll be right back after these messages. Talk to Drew.

You have three open lines: 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, hey, it's the bottom of the hour.

If you want to give me a call, you can. 8772-07-2276. Let's get on the phone with Drew from Kentucky. Drew, welcome you're on the air. Hey Matt, how are you doing, brother?

Oh, melancholy with a little bit of obstreperousness kind of mixed in with fatigue and excitement. That's how I'm doing.

Well, sprinkle a little of cinnamon on it, and you'll be all right. Hey, that works. Don't try that.

Okay. Yeah. There you go. There you go. Yeah.

So I got a question for you. In my sermon that I preached this past Sunday, it was about pride and religious pride. And I noticed something. It was mainly coming out of the Account of Luke chapter eighteen. Um With the Pharisee and the tax collector, yeah, I know it will.

And um. Yeah, but there were five times the tax collector, or not the tax collector, but the Pharisee said. Said I, I, I, I, I, I, five times. And it reminded me of Isaiah chapter 14, I believe it was. I have it right in my notes.

Uh what is noticed uh or what's presumed to be um Satan, um with his pride and everything rising up. And five times and that account was the was the word I. Yep. I don't know if you've ever noticed that connection, or if it means anything, or if the Lord was trying to. you know kind of emphasize to us you know, where pride came from.

Um that connection with it, with us relying on ourselves and Our self-righteousness, which I know we can do that at times, but I just. What are your thoughts on that? If you had any thoughts on that, or if you'd ever noticed that before, no, I hadn't. I'm really intrigued that you brought that up. I'm an account.

I'm very familiar with Isaiah 14, 12 through 14, the five I wills of Satan. I didn't know until you just now said it. I'm going to check right now. I thank God I'm not like I fast, I pay all that I get. You're right.

The five I will. The five. I wonder if that was intentional. I don't know. But man, that's a really good insight on your part.

Seriously, that's really good.

Well yeah, it just it just hit me like Yeah, I just like I say, w I was preparing for my sermon Sunday, it just kind of hit me of I've heard this before as far as the eyes. And, like, let's go to Isaiah chapter 14. Oh, there's five eyes there also. That's fine. Interesting.

Very interesting. Very interesting. Yeah. Yeah. That's right.

So, like I said, I didn't know if the Lord's trying to convey something to us in that aspect of, you know, the how. you know, pride and everything else. How we need to obviously knock it out of our lives. Oh, no. I wonder what dad's going to be like.

You know, I tell the story that years ag ago I was home alone. My wife and the kids were gone and doing something, and I was home praying. I mean, I was praying, I was scraping the bottom of the barrel for 20 minutes. I was confessing every sin of mine that I could think of. I couldn't even think of any more.

I mean, it was just twenty minutes, just And then I actually said in the prayer. In my humility, I said, Lord, thank you. for not making me like the Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I kept going.

Wait a minute. This sounds familiar. It's like, oh, weird. Oh, you know.

Well, yeah, because even in the sermon, you know, what Jesus said, part of my sermon was, you know, he who calls himself first will be called last, and he who is last will be called first. And I even said, you know, I don't want to be called first. I want to be last so I can be first. I'm like, oh, there's pride. There's pride.

There's pride right there. Right.

So, how about I mean, how about praying so that you can get what you want from God, but you don't want to want what you get because you want God to give you what you want, because you don't, uh-huh, you know, yeah, yeah, oh, yeah, oh, yeah, been down that road. Yeah, I have a saying: I say, my heart betrays me. I just can't get past my own sinfulness. And this another thing is you see, this is a big topic. Is another thing I just told someone recently, you know, about going to heaven.

I'm going to go to heaven, I'm there. My reward in heaven, I don't see any. Because I've never done anything out of a pure motive, not that I'm aware of. It's all either pride or selfishness or greed or envy or whatever it is. It's all mixed in.

Yeah. Yes, it is. It is. Yeah, it's a hard thing. But no, brother, I just wanted to ask that question, see what your thoughts were on it, if you had any insight to any connection.

I don't know. Write an article. Not that you have anything else going on, but no, just say, you know. But we've been praying for you, Matt. Been praying for you and supporting the ministry.

I listen to the podcast mainly. Don't get to call in. just every once in a while, very you know, infrequently, but um You've been a blessing to me for the past couple of decades with everything. And just, brother, just Just keep doing what you're doing. People experience.

That's it, by God's grace. That's right.

All I can say is if he's got to use someone like me, it's bad down here. It's bad.

Well, yeah, very bad. But, you know, you it may be very bad for you, but it's close to very bad for me.

So so, yeah, um I get it. But uh yeah, but no. Appreciate you, brother. All right, man. Kay, I appreciate that.

God bless. All right, God bless.

Okay. Bye. But Well, that was nice. I get that. And that's a really good insight.

The five. eyes of uh The five boasts, actually, the five boasts of the Pharisee, the five boasts of Satan. Very interesting. That's a good insight. I'm glad you brought that up.

And that reminds me of another one. that uh i i found uh uh years ago uh months ago I guess you could say. If you go to Genesis chapter 3 on the third day, It says uh let the waters uh well let the earth Springs uh I sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed. And when you go to the miracle of Cana, the first. Miracle of Jesus.

on John chapter 2 on the third day. The third day.

So, the third day occurs in Genesis on the third day of creation when the plants are made. Third day, there was a wedding in Cana, and the mother of Jesus was there, and when the wine came out. He made the wine. Wine? is from the plants.

The grapes, on a third day, I just think there's a nice little parallel there. Not a big deal, it's not super deep. But it's like, oh, wow, that's good on the third day. And the six purification pots and things like that, and 30 gallons, but I just like that. I love stuff like that.

I'd like to see how God weaves together these subtleties that are in Scripture. And what he brought up just now about that with the Pharisee and the five boasts. and the five boasts of of Satan. Both mention themselves. five times with a Present active or the first person singular.

I. Interesting, great insight. I'm glad he shared that with me. I'll tuck that one away and use it when I can. Yeah.

All right, all right, all right. If you want to give me a call, the number is 8772-07-2276. You can also email me at info at carm.org, carm.org and put the subject line radio. comment or radio question. All right.

Let's get to Oscar. From New York. Oscar, welcome. You're on the air.

I'm just thinking of something. The rewards we get in this life is salvation, right? Not necessarily. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Salvation is not a reward.

A reward is something you get for something you've done. We don't get salvation by things we do. We get salvation by faith alone in Christ alone, and God grants us that faith, Philippians 1:29, and that faith is in Jesus, John 6:29. And so he grants that we have that faith. We actually have that faith.

We do the believing, but it's not a reward for anything we've done. Oh okay, okay. Because I'm I'm I talked to somebody who goes to a Pentecostal church. But I don't agree with the Penequals to some of their doctrines. You see, I like Ibaptus.

Okay. I find the Pentecostals emotional that They talk a lot about doing this and doing that to be safe. Yeah. Well, if it might be united if it's is it united Pentecostal? is asking.

I am not sure about the She calls herself better close to Well, I go to a Baptist Church. I'm basically a Baptist. Because there could be a church. Yeah. Yeah, it's okay.

It depends. Most Baptist churches are good. But the Pentecostals, if it's United Pentecostal that you were going to there, it's a cult. But any group that teaches you have to be doing good and stuff to get saved, to stay saved, and things like that. is uh not a true Christian group.

Okay. Oh, okay, okay.

Okay, thank you, thank you. You're welcome. Anything else? Thank you, everyone. No, that's good.

Okay, bye-bye.

Okay. See you bye.

Okay. Alright, so. Uh he brought up um I brought up make it to here.

Something that made me think of something else. Rewards in heaven. Rewards.

Okay. Salvation is not a reward for what we've done. But the levels of heaven were rewarded for what we have done.

So we're guaranteed heaven by what Jesus did and our faith in Christ. What? What we do here can affect us and our reward. Excuse me, a reward in heaven. When we get back to the break, I'll go over some of the verses on that.

Be right back after these messages. Give me a call, 877-207-2276. I'll be right back. It's Matt Slick Live, taking a call at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick.

Oh, there we go. All right, everyone. Welcome back to the show. We have nobody waiting. If you want to give me a call, it is easy, 877-8777.

Two zero seven two two seven six Now, um So So, so, so. I'm talking about the issue of rewards in heaven. This is a little confusing for a lot of people. We talked about it earlier this week. And I think when I get into it again, I want to teach you the difference between justification and sanctification.

Now this is very critical. This is the difference between salvation and damnation. You've got to know the difference between justification and sanctification. False religions blur the distinction. Justification and sanctification are interrelated.

In one sense, but not in another.

So, we're going to get into this. Justification Is being declared legally righteous before God. Romans 4:5 says, To the one who does not work, but believes, Notice what it says, not work but believes.

Okay, no works, just belief. The winner does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, His faith is credited as righteousness.

Okay. So His faith is created as righteousness. And this justification is by faith alone in Christ alone, because it's by faith without the works of the law, Romans 3.28, without any doing good works, Romans 4.5.

Okay. This is clear. That's what justification is. Sanctification. is the process God brings you through.

to make you more like Christ. Justification is forensic, it's legal, it's a righteousness that we have that's not our own, Philippians 3:9. which is received by faith, Romans 5.1.

So Okay. Justification is the legal act of God where He counts to your account. He grants to your account the righteousness that belongs to God in the person and work of Christ on the cross. You receive it by faith, your sins are forgiven, you are now justified before God, you are now declared legally righteous. That's it.

You're done. You're saved. You're going to heaven. Period. Then the hard part comes.

where you had the bad habits before.

Now God works on you to Fix them. And sometimes it takes your whole life.

Sometimes it go quickly. Sanctification is being made more like Jesus in attitude, in humility, in love, in practice, etc. Sanctification is the result of God's work in us.

Now salvation accompanies justification. Justification is the legal declaration of righteousness. Salvation is being saved from the righteous judgment of God. They go together. When you're saved, you're also justified.

When you're justified, you're also saved. They're not identical, but they are they occur at the same time. When you are saved from God's wrath, it's because you've been justified. You've trusted in Christ. And you've received the Lord Jesus.

And that's Philippians, excuse me, John 1:12. Yeah. Now This is a forensic, legal, instantaneous, one-time occurrence. Bang, you are in. The difficult part is just sanctification, where you have to.

Become a better person. Oh man. And that's not always easy. Whether you do well or not in sanctification does not affect your justification. You're justified, you're in heaven.

Sanctification deals with the rewards and loss of rewards. That's what I want to get to. 1 Corinthians 15, excuse me, 1 Corinthians 3. 13 through 15. Each man's work will become evident, for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work.

If any man's work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he shall suffer loss, but he himself will be saved. yet so through fire.

So what I was teaching you is right there. That's where it comes from.

So As a Christian, you are justified before God if you trusted in Him. You're in, you're going to heaven, it's done. It doesn't mean, though, you have an excuse now to go sin. That's that's forbidden. You can't do that.

You can't use the go the grace of God to go sin. That's Romans 6:1 through 3. You can't do that. You can't do that at all. And if you do, God will discipline you.

And boy, I'll tell you. It's not pleasant. We get lazy, we get We get a little bit um We get lazy sometimes and we we settle into sinful habits and uh God will deal with us. But so that's a difference, okay?

So we do have rewards in heaven. And what are you doing as a Christian for the Lord Jesus? Not to get yourself saved, you don't. You're already saved. What are you doing with what God has called you to do?

Being a housewife? Or a CEO, a doctor, a mechanic, a waiter, waitress, electrician, whatever. Whatever it might be. What are you doing in your work? And in your life and your families to bring glory to God for the glory of God.

You don't have to be on radio and get rewards. You can be a good father, a good husband, and get rewards. In heaven, we don't do these things for the reward. We do them because we love God, and He rewards us accordingly.

So that's what I wanted to get clear on. And hopefully that makes sense. Yeah. So there's a question from YouTube. Because someone's considering joining the Orthodox Church.

He has some friends telling him that this is not the way. Can he simply explain why Orthodoxy is not the way? Yes. Very simply, very succinctly. Orthodox theology denies the true gospel, it preaches a false gospel.

It adds works to salvation. Period. That's one. Number two. It has a false priesthood.

You go into an EO church and you see a man up in the front in special garments who offers the Eucharistic sacrifice back at the cro uh at the altar. In front of the church. There is no altar in the New Testament. After the death of Christ, His resurrection, and in the Church, there's no altar. It's not there in the Bible.

It's not talked about in the churches. It does not occur in the churches. It's not there, and the reason is because. Jesus is our priest. We don't need a human priest anymore.

That's Leviticus.

So what the EO is doing. is now Reviving the Levitical priesthood, moving it into the New Testament covenant, and then saying you have to have a priest that now forgives sins, that offers or represents the sacrifice of Christ, so that you can then trust and hopefully, through theosis, become more like Jesus, eventually get saved. It's heresy. It's damnable heresy. It's a false priesthood.

So the Eastern Orthodox Church has a false gospel. Has a false priesthood, a priesthood that is not found in the New Testament covenant. It is not there, it's not there. And yet they put it in there. Why?

Because they're still under the law, because they still have a worked righteousness system of salvation, which is verified by the stuff where they, you know, Dosithius Decree 13. And three and thirteen, Dosithius uh from the sixteen seventy two uh decrees. And and Mogilla also. Uh they have I forgot which question what one I forgot what question what is that they uh it answers and it says the same thing. I've got lots of quotes where they add a false they add works to to uh salvation.

So therefore it's a false church. and to false priesthood the two. Also, they promote idolatry.

Now they'll say, no, we don't promote adults. Oh, yes, they do. Think about this. They teach that you can pray to Mary.

Now think about this. I'll say okay to the EO and the RC. Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox, I'll say.

So, can Mary hear millions of prayers simultaneously spoken and thought different languages all over the world and answer them? And they say yes? Wow. I say, okay, so let's do this. Let's focus on just the thoughts.

that someone has unspoken Can Mary hear those? If they say yes, oh, I got him. Because think about this. If they say yes, she can hear their prayers that you're just thinking, not expressed, that means she has to be present, cognitively present, in millions of minds simultaneously. all over the world.

Millions of minds.

Now, I'm going to tell you something. Omnipresence is a category of God's ability. He's everywhere all the time. multi-presence. Is a presence, is a subcategory of omnipresence, multipresence, in that God is indwelling all the minds.

of all people on the earth. If there's eight billion people, then he's indwelling eight billion minds. in that sense Now Mary, then, is supposedly Being able to hear millions and millions of prayers. all at the same time that are spoken and thought.

So I say this to people, and they say, yes. Say, let's focus on the thinking one. That means that she can hear, which means she has to be there in their minds, which now means Mary's. in multiple places in her existence.

Now we have a problem. Is that actually Mary? Let me g tell you something. There's something called continuity. A person is what he or she is by the nature of the characteristics of that individual.

So me, for example, I'm a a sixty-nine-year-old man. I'm sitting in a chair in my office, I'm in one place at a time. Why? Because that's human nature. That's human nature.

to be in one place at a time, Now If Mary is in multiple places, Is that the same human nature? Because if it's not, she's no longer married. It's something else, then it becomes a complete flat idolatry. If they're saying it is Mary. And Mary's been altered.

All things are possible with God. He writes those verses out of context, it's dealing with salvation and stuff like that. And if all things are possible with God, he can make Mary then hear millions of prayers instead of just a thought.

Well, then we can do what's called in logic argumentum ad absurdum. And I've done this with East Orthodox before. I've said, okay, so God can now make Mary. Um Hear millions of prayers, right, that are just thought. I mean, she has to be in her mind, right?

And you go, yes. I go, how is that indistinguishable from a goddess? For one thing, is one question. But the other thing is then, well then can he also make her big enough to eat Jupiter? I actually asked that very question.

of an Eastern Orthodox guy. He said yes.

So Mary could make it that, I mean, God could make it so Mary could now eat Jupiter. This is called argumentum at absurdum. You take their premise and you work with it to the ridiculous. He said, so God could if God wants to, because he can make her hear millions of prayers, he can also make her eat the planet Jupiter. And I say, Well, would she have to be bigger than the planet Jupiter?

To do that?

Well you can make her bigger than the planet Jupiter in order to eat.

Well, then, can he make her bigger than the universe? And the and the answer would be yes. If God wants to. And so The absurdity of these kinds of things goes on, and those who are brainwashed, who have a cult mind, who can't think of why this is just dumb. Um They continue to believe these things.

And I said to this guy, I said, look, if she could be bigger than the universe, that's a contradiction. Because by definition, a creature is inside the universe. And all that exists, in materiality and energy, and dimensions, and all of that, that are integrated into what our universe is. There's multiple dimensions within it. And so now you're saying she's bigger than that, which virtually means she has to be outside of it.

And that's non-coherent, it's a contradiction.

So how do you justify that?

Well, it's a mystery with God. He can do it.

So, this is what happens when you have. The cult mind, it doesn't matter about facts and logic anymore. It just matters what they believe, what they think. They stop thinking. It's kind of like becoming a Democrat, you know?

a Democrat because the Democrats What do they do? support homosexuality, the rights of illegals over the rights of the people here. They want to confiscate our guns. They want socialism and they believe in destroying the life in the womb. And what's the rationale for it?

There isn't any. they claim to have a universal moral standard that they can't justify. Because it's absurd to believe what they do without justification. The same kind of idiocy that is promoted in the argument about. And absurdum.

We're out of time. May the Lord bless you by His grace. We'll be back on you tomorrow. And. We'll talk to you then.

God bless, Michael. Another program powered by the Truth Network.