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.

Yeah. All right, everyone, welcome to the show. It's me, Matt Slick, and you're listening to Matt Slick Live. If you want to give me a call, that's easy. All you got to do is dial 877-207-2276.

I want to hear from you. Give me a call, and we can talk. You can also send me an email to info at carm.org. Info at C-A-R-M.org. And we can get to you then.

All right, now let's see here. Um Getting things set up because we all do a lot of stuff in order to get ready for this show. At least I do. I have to set up the video, I have to set up the feed to different outlets, I have to record this, record that.

So it takes me a little bit of time to do all that. And sometimes I can't finish it until after the show's on because of certain feeds that don't show up until after the show's live. And we're working on that. Anyway, like I said, we have nobody waiting, and I want to hear from you. Give me a call, 877-20-72276.

All right, now I'm going to ask for a prayer request for a friend of mine. And um Uh I'll just call him Nate and um He and his wife. Long story short, I've known these guys for years. About four years ago, there was a suicide. And in the family, extended family.

And then after that, there was another. Mm-hmm. Death. And then at a church, there was a guy who. uh was working with them at at the church and He committed suicide.

Then there was the death of my wife a few months ago. And then we just found out. that someone else uh in his excited family uh Committed suicide. And so This is very difficult. He's a strong guy, and the Lord, he and his wife both are, very committed Christians.

But it's really just thrown him for a loop, and he needs the comfort in the presence of God through all of this. It's just a lot. because he's had to pick up the pieces in different areas and do things, and it's just a a lot. And so anyway, if you were to lift him up in prayer and his wife, that would be great, just letting you know about that.

Alright, um so I've been writing articles, released another one today, but I've been writing articles uh dealing with uh arguments against varying religious systems. One of them is Mormonism, dealing with the intelligences problem, that Mormonism has an eternal set of intelligences and there's logical problems with that. I got an email from a guy. And he was very respectful, and I assume he was LDS, but I don't know. And he uh gave me a he attached a PDF.

and it was five or six pages. of material. of uh logic structures, paradigms, uh Tables, all of these things for page and page and page and page. And he said, so there you go, there's the answer. Come on.

And I wrote back And I said, dude, he said, you got to break it down, man. I said, I couldn't even guarantee that I understand what you're saying, particularly when you have five or six pages of material or trying to make a logical point. Usually, when something like that happens, it gets very, very difficult to thread through and walk through all the machinations and subdivisions of this and that in order to know if the thought is being. Consistent. It just, you know, it would take me.

probably an hour or two. And I just wrote up back. I said, look, dude, I'm not going to. I'm not going to sit there and read through all this, five pages of stuff, just break it down into polysyllogism. A polysyllogism is just a statement and then another statement, another statement, conclusion, statement, conclusion.

Where poly means many, and it's just a logical statement you go through and have premises and conclusions. And it's a valid form of logical inference. I was talking to somebody last night who said that chapter 8 of Proverbs was talking about the Holy Spirit. And I said, well, you know, it's very polite. I said, no, it doesn't make sense to say that.

Proverbs 8 personifies wisdom because that's what it says in verse 1. Let wisdom talk about wisdom. And uh You know, so in a polysyllogism, it would be Proverbs 8, for example, speaks of. Wisdom in a personal sense. It personifies it.

It's a literary figure. And then premise two, a personification in Hebrew. Wisdom literature is a rhetorical device. It's something that they use illustrations in all the time. The New Testament authoritatively identifies the wisdom as a.

It's either like statement one, statement two, statement three, and then you draw conclusions.

So this is the kind of thing that I like to do. And I use it a lot when I'm debating and teaching. Asking people to make sense of things. And it's not like throwing down the gauntlet where some people say, Well, why that? Why that?

Show me that, prove that. It's like, no, no, just give me the basics of where you're going with this so we can kind of work through it. And that's what I try and do. Because some people, what they want to do is just go so irritatingly. just drill down.

In fact, I was walking on the block today And listened into a room, a chat room, and this guy. Was in there, and he was dialoguing with someone about who Jesus was. And this guy was Jewish, he rejected the New Testament. And so a Christian was answering his question. And this guy kept saying, Well, how do you know your interpretation is correct?

Well, because of linguistics, because of this, well, how do you know that's true? And it was just doing this, you know, at this point, when someone just asks over and over, how you know that, verify that, verify that. I call him a troll at this point, but they're not really dialoguing. They're just doing the five-year-old guy, you know, why, why, why? And it becomes problematic.

So I said in the room, and this was interesting too, I said in the room, well, why don't you just ask this guy? Who you know was Jewish, to ask him to interpret, say, Isaiah fifty-three. About the suffering servant. Let's just see what he says because he's not going to believe what we say.

So let's see what he says. And a Christian got on me and rebuked me for asking that question and say, you're not being nice. I go, what? What? I'm not being not being nice.

I said, the guy's a troll. He's trolling. Just ask him if. Just ask him if he can interpret something and then we'll examine it. We'll see what if he says.

Well, you gotta be nice. What are you talking about? I said, look, Jesus said, call people whitewashed sepulchres. I said, I don't have to be nice at every turn. And exactly how am I supposed to word this in a nice way?

It was really just an interesting experience today. And. And you know, it's this so many things happen to me when I'm online talking. In fact, one time I was online talking and I got swatted.

Well I was online and uh police come over to the house, you know. All kinds of people, like I don't know, 10 vehicles or something like that, all weapons drawn.

So I was swatted.

So things happen when you are online. Wow. Anyway, let's get to Jermaine from California. Jermaine, welcome, brother. You're on the air.

And yeah, um I had to bring up another topic, which I know you just brought something to mind, but I can't believe someone swatted you. Oh, yeah. Anyhow. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I wanted to ask you about um The description of New Jerusalem.

And the size of uh the I guess the uh the city in in the heavens mentioned in Revelation. I don't hear a lot of people touch upon that, but looking back over the measurements, It sounds like it's almost like a new universe. Would I be right in saying that? Because I was looking at the descriptions of the. I forget what they call stadias or whatever I guess the word.

stadium where you go thousands of miles and it it seems like a city you couldn't even get to the end of you know, as we know it, would that mean that whatever God is creating would be something that's much bigger than we can comprehend. Right. I remember reading a commentary where they they went in and found the an average something of a defining what a stadia was and then applied it to what the The measurement length was, and applied it to the new city of Jerusalem. It was like a cube 1600 miles on each side. And, you know, which was just not going to happen.

So, actually, I was discussing this recently, as a matter of fact, with somebody. But at any rate, so the thing is, it's just a figurative meaning of something, and I don't know exactly what it is, but it's figurative. And that's, you know, that's fair. I know one could really. kind of fathom that.

But whatever it is, it sounds like it's It's really, really large. Yeah. Yes, it is. And so as a lot of people Uh You know, I've got to be careful when I say this. I don't want to tell people don't believe what the New Testament, I mean, what the book of Revelation says, but there's a lot of symbolism in there.

And so A lot of people will just take a certain verse and say it's literal and say, well, maybe it is, maybe it's not. Let's look at the context, let's look at the stuff and see. And uh it's difficult sometimes, you know. And that's what we have to do here. I tell people, if you really want to understand what Revelation says, you have to do your homework.

You've got to read the Old New Testament because it's like an index to the rest of the scriptures. And when you look at this, and I haven't done it with this particular issue of how big the city is, the new city of Jerusalem. I don't know, not having done a deep study on it, enough to have an opinion what it really is. And so I think the numbers are symbolic, just like the number 1,000. is symbolic in that.

That just raised m an issue. Huh. What numbers? are mentioned in the book of Revelation. Because there's 144,000.

and there is uh one thousand years, you know. It's in 12 tribes, so 12, 1,000. Anyway, I like things. And then look at this. Yeah, that's right, one hundred and forty four.

So I like finding patterns like this that God does, where if we learn about numbers in a certain pattern, does the book of Revelation use numbers in a certain pattern so that we can see something that's going on with them? And that'd be a good question.

So there's one lamb, two witnesses, three woes. Three and a half years, four living creatures, five months, six seals, seven churches. ten days, twelve tribes, twenty four elders. The wall of New Jerusalem is a hundred and forty-four cubits. Uh And then a number of 666 thousand years.

Look at this. There's a lot of numbers in there. I didn't know that. There's a lot. Oh, interesting.

Okay.

Now now I'm just rambling.

Well, no, no, you know it um I I think that's what the numbers kind of can do to you is that there's so many of them, but For me, I see great multitude and you know, uh lengths and miles and widths, I couldn't even imagine that. I just assume it's really, really big. And that's good enough for me.

So whatever it is. Yeah, it's big and it's symbolic of something. And there's I've heard I like different theories about stuff. That are just interesting.

Some have said that the dimensions of heaven is an actual physical location for us, and that its size is big enough to, I don't know, I forgot the number was, give like 10 square miles for every person who's saved, or something like this. I've heard people say. Just offered theories, they're not saying it's true, that maybe hell is in the center of the earth. I've had that theory. And well, okay, I'm not rejecting it, but I'm just saying, you know, what is it?

And and apparently there's enough space there that everybody could be there like a hundred square miles or a hundred miles in each dire whatever it is.

So I don't know. But people come up with some interesting ideas and stuff and and I I enjoy them. Myself, I do.

So, anyway, there you go, you know, and uh Okay, and I'll bring up a part two another time. I like to think dimensionally, but we'll pick that up on another shelf.

Okay, sounds good, brother. All right, man. All right. Bye-bye.

Okay, God bless. There you go.

So we have nobody waiting right now. If you want to call me, the number is 877-2072276. Yeah, it was interesting. You know, you can just do some research. Twelve tribes of Israel, 24 elders.

is spoken of a hundred forty four thousand And interesting, the wall of neutrals from 144 cubics. I'm going to check it out. Hey, there's the music. We got a break coming up. If you want to give me a call, it's easy.

877-2072276. We'll be right back. It's Matt Slick Live, taking your call at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. All right, everyone, welcome back to the show.

If you want to call me, the number is 877-20722. 7-6, and let's get to Oscar from New York. Oscar, welcome. You're on the air. Yes, uh I have two questions I'm telling positive times.

Number one, what is repentance? And number two, do we have to repent in order to be saved?

Okay, so repentance comes from the Greek metanoio, and it means to change your mind, to have a mind, an attitude, and a change. And with that is a change in behavior.

So, repentance is an intellectual, spiritual recognition of something that you're doing that's wrong, and you need to stop doing it. That's what repentance is: you turn from it. Yeah. Now, do you need to repent to be saved? There's a yes and a no, depending on how you look at it.

So We should be repentant, and salvation requires. repentance within it, not to obtain it.

So we would say, no, repentance is not necessary for salvation. If you mean then that by repentance, You get salvation. Because we don't want to say that stopping what is bad in order to do what is good gets us salvation, that is salvation by works. What we want to say is repentance is something that God granted to us. 2 Timothy 2, 24 and 25.

He grants that we have that repentance. And repentance is necessary in salvation, not to get salvation.

So repentance is necessary within the scope of someone who claims to be a Christian. They need to stop their sin. And if they don't stop their sin, it's an evidence that they're not saved.

So repentance is necessary as a manifestation. Of it, so you need to stop your sin. But it's not the stopping of sin that gets you saved. Or keeps you saved. That's done by the work of God.

But the repentance is the manifestation of God's work in us in salvation. And so repentance is something we ought to do because we're saved. Right. Oh, that makes sense. Yeah.

Okay, thank you.

So the repentance is is inaugurated is the evidence. That's where Well found anyway. It's more like an evidence. But we have to stop. But we can't say we can't say, Hey, I can go out and sin all I want.

I'm a Christian. I can go sin, you know, and I just do all bad things. No. Because repentance, you gotta repent, you gotta stop and stop doing that. You know, that's how it is.

But the stopping is not what gets you saved. That's what I keep telling people. Yeah, that's what I say. Because false religions will teach that it is compliance with the law, because repentance is in a form. A compliance with the law.

The law says don't lie.

Well, if you're lying and you repent of lying, you're obeying the command not to lie. You're obeying the commandments, and are you obeying commandments to be saved?

So, this is why it's a tricky thing to answer because I don't want people to take me out of context. We should repent. I'm not saying don't repent. I am saying that repentance is the fruit of God's work in us. The manifestation of it is what we do, and so we should repent.

But it's not what gains us salvation or maintains our salvation. Oh, yeah, yeah, I just said, yeah, it makes sense. Yeah, okay, okay, thank you. Go by it. Sure, no problem.

Alright, so a lot of churches and a lot of people will tell me, they have told me this before. that you have to maintain your salvation by your stopping of doing bad things and continuing to do good things. And so that you know stop lying and cheating. as an example. And by doing that, you can You are in Christ, you're saved, and therefore, this is how you keep yourself in that position.

And I say, Well, then you're keeping yourself saved. by how good you are. And this is a false gospel. We're not saved from our sin. By our continued repentance, False churches, false religions teach this.

We are saved. by the grace of God, who then indwells us, John fourteen twenty three, makes us new creatures, Second Corinthians five seventeen and because of that we repent. we are not able to turn from sin without the power of the Holy Spirit in us. Because someone who doesn't have the Holy Spirit in them is not a true Christian. And therefore any stopping of sin is is not For the glory of God and is not under the blood of Christ.

We could have an atheist, for example, who. Let's say he's been lying for years and years, and he grows into manhood and he realizes that he needs to stop lying. And so he stops lying. He's always truthful. as an atheist.

Well, it doesn't get him salvation. It doesn't maintain salvation, it doesn't do anything. He's not repenting for the right reason, which is for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, because we've been bought with a price with the blood of God, Acts 20, 28.

So, what we want to say is that repentance is a good thing and necessary for the Christian, but it's not the thing that saves us or keeps us saved. This is important stuff. This is important stuff. And I find that a lot of Christians just don't know theology very well. And that's okay.

I mean, you know, they they don't get the privilege of studying and go to seminary and and and things like that. And so that's why there are teachers in the body of Christ to teach these things and to draw out particulars. And which reminds me, last night I was on the Oculus on the metaverse, you know, in the virtual world. And most people will get uh virtual glasses. in order to play games.

I go in to find people to talk to about the Lord. That's me.

So The only game, however, I will play is a phishing game, and then only for a few minutes because I get bored. But it's a phishing game in the VR. I'll do that sometimes. But other than that, that's it. I I'm going to witness.

And I was in a room last night. And I was listening to people talk, and I mean this in a good way, in a kind way. In that, there's a lot of several Christians who didn't really understand some of the nuances of. of spiritual truths related to Christianity. And so I very politely offered, well, can I add to that and steer you here this way?

And was very careful because I don't want to come off like Mr. Know-It-All or they don't know anything. No, the idea was to help. And so I did that for like 20 minutes. And it was a real privilege to be able to do that in the basics of the Christian faith.

Good stuff. All right, let's get to John from Utah. John, welcome. You are on the air, brother. Yeah.

Hey, Matt. I want to ask you about repentance.

Okay.

Um. I've heard another take on it. All right. Repentance is It's not turning away from your sin, rather, it's Turning f From Recognizing that you are a sinner and turning to God or turning to Jesus. Have you heard that before?

Yeah, there's just different ways of saying it. But repentance is turning from sin, because if you turn from sin, you're turning toward Jesus.

So it's just a very good thing. To to me, it's impossible to turn from To truly repent, if it's if it's to turn away from sin as a human on earth. I I mean, I sin every single day, probably every single minute. It's impossible. Yeah, I know that one.

You know what I mean? Oh, yeah, yeah, I'm very familiar with that, yes. But repentance is an attitude also. It's something that we have, and you and I can relate. We have things we struggle with.

And we have things we've repented of a lot of times. Yeah. And so we're seeking holiness before God, but because we're sinful, we fail. And we move forward, we repent, we go on and on.

Some people say repentance can only occur once, and then you can never commit it again, like Mormonism teaches in Doctrine of Covenants 82.7, I believe, it is. Hey, we got a break, so hold on, brother. We'll be right back after these messages. If you want to call me, you got 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. Everybody, welcome back to the show. If you want to get in the call at the bottom of the hour here, it's 877-207-2276. John, are you still there?

Yes, I am.

So did you say that Mormons teach you can only repent once? Here, I'll go to it and I'll read what they say. This is D and C. D and C Uh 82.7, I believe it is.

Okay, get to it. I hope it's 82.7, might be 83.7. Uh Yeah, 82.7. And now verily I say unto you, I, the LORD, will not lay any sin to your charge. Go your ways and sin no more.

But unto the soul that sinneth shall the former sins return, saith the Lord your God.

So in Mormonism, you know, you you gotta Yeah, repent. But if you continue in your sin, all your s former sins come back. That seems like a bad definition of repentance. I don't know. In apologetics, we call it the this Mormon thing, the impossible gospel.

It's impossible. You can't do it. Mormonism says you're saved by grace through faith after all you can do. 2 Nephi 25:23. And.

And you know, you cannot be saved in your sin. I forgot the verse for the home, I think. Anyway, and then you have to repent, and then here, if you continue to sin, all your former sins come back. It's hopelessness. Yeah.

Yeah. So Your your take with the other caller where um repentance is metanoia. What did you say that meant turning away? Yeah, metta means change, and naas means mind. Melanoia.

So it's a change. Attitude adult challenge.

So change your mind from sin. The the take I mentioned earlier, where it's not necessarily turning from sin, rather it's turning to God. Are those conflicting definitions? No, they're they they involve uh Okay. Your definition works, it's turning to God, but in order to do that, you have to turn away from sin.

Because you you can't have both.

Well, I turn to God and I turn towards my sin. It doesn't work that way.

So you're turning away from sin, you're repenting, you're leaving it. And uh that's Right, that's that's a problem. This is a problem, all right. But um, yes, we do. Paul even talked about it in Romans 7:18 through 25, when he talks about who will, you know, the things I want to do, I don't do.

Things I don't want to do, I do.

So he mentioned it too, but we are in a state of salvation and a Uh oh, there's a lot of noise back there. And the state of salvation, and we are in a state of repentance in that we recognize our sin and are seeking to turn from it, but we also recognize that we're not perfect at it. And so this is why we struggle every day. But the struggle is a sign of life, not of death. It's a sign of life.

But the false religions teach that repentance is something you have to do in order to be saved and stay saved.

So they put salvation back upon yourself, which is what the devil wants. It's from Satan to say salvation is not dependent on God's work and his goodness, it's dependent on yours. That's what the devil does. That actually makes me think we repent once too then. As soon as we turn to God, that's it.

Yeah, well, yes, it is different senses of repentance. We have turned away from that old way of life, that old everything, the sinfulness in us. We've turned from that towards Christ. We've recognized our problem, and then on a daily basis, we struggle with what we still are. And so there's the different senses of repentance.

It's a generic one. And then there's the details that we have to work out.

Sometimes the false religions will confuse them. If you have any detail, then it means you have one of true repentance. And so, therefore, you're not saved. And then there are people who, in their stupid arrogance, man, they just say, Well, I don't sin anymore, I've repented, I don't sin anymore. And I say to them, Give me five minutes with you.

I'll fix that, you know. Because But my wife would, the fortress best way, she'd say, Yeah, 30 seconds, maybe five, she'd say. But. That's the whole idea. That's the whole idea, okay?

Okay.

Right. I'll let you give to your your other callers. It just seems like a hopeless concept if it's repenting from individual sins every day. It seems like to me it's that one-time acknowledgement. Oh my gosh, I'm a sinner.

No, w we repent all the time. And but we don't have to worry about it in that. Our salvation doesn't depend on how good we repent of every detail. Every detail. And then there's repentance.

There's things you don't even know you're doing wrong. And then later, years later, God goes, Hey, by the way, I'm going to show you a new something about you. And you say, Oh, man. Then you got something new to turn from. The overall aspect of repentance is what God grants to us, we recognize our sin.

Which is a spiritual recognition and truth, and we turn away from that into towards God. That's repentance. But then we had to work out the large thing in particular issues in our lives. And I'm just grateful that I don't have to be perfect in order to be saved. Jesus was.

And so I practice my repentance on a regular basis, And work towards glorifying him in that, okay? All right. Well, thank you, Matt. I appreciate it. All right, brother.

God bless.

Okay.

We have nobody waiting right now. I'm going to say hi to Terry, who's probably in the kitchen. Hey Terry, saying hi, and she knows. She's fucking smiling right now. And uh she's right waving back too.

So uh This issue of repentance reminded me of something. And I've mentioned this before, I want to mention it again because I think there's a concept. That is very, very important for people to understand. And once you understand it, I think it can be really helpful. in underst in Figuring out what's true and false in a religion.

Are you in a false religion? or any true religion. a false religion, I'm going to make a a proposition here. A false religion combines God's work with your work in order to be saved. Combines it.

Now, what I'm going to do is go through an article that I wrote. few weeks ago. where I I went through the Bible and I Hmm. Paid attention and looked at the things that are God's work internal and what we would do externally. And I wanted to see if there was a difference.

And lo and behold, There is.

Now before the break This is the work of God. These are things God does in us. And I got all these scriptures referencing them. You know, belief in God is God's work, Philippians 1:29. And being born again is God's work.

And born of the Spirit is God's work. And circumcision of the heart. and him drawing us, and us hearing his voice. and Him being the light in our hearts. and that He lives in us.

That He gives us a new heart. That He opens the heart and mind, and And He is one who renews us in our spirit, man. Yeah. By the Holy Spirit. and he grants us repentance.

These are things, this is the word of God that happens inside of us.

Now, check this out. This is what's external. alms giving. Baptism. Circumcision Building tombs.

This is in Matthew 23. Corbyn, giving everything to God so you don't have to help people out. a dietary laws. Passover, law-keeping, washings. These are the things that are external works of man, even some of them that are commanded of God.

He is the one who says to be baptized, to give alms, to be circumcised. He says obey laws, keep the Passover. and and ver and be washed and things like this.

So there's various things. Yeah. But what God commands us to do Is not the same thing as what God does. to us. This is important.

What God commands us to do is not the same as what He does.

So We see that God's work in the true Christian His belief, being born again, born of the Spirit, circumcised of the heart. Hearing His voice, He's a light in us. We have a new heart. etcetera. These are internal things.

The externals are baptism, commandments, almsgiving, giving tithes. And some people, what they'll do is they'll say, those are the things. That gets you saved. But they fail to understand that the work of God is in man, and it's the work of God that saves us. and it's the work of man that does not save us.

The work of God saves us, the work of man does not. God's work is internal, our work is external. And cults of false religions combine the external work of man with the internal work and say, you have to be baptized to be saved. Yet repent a hundred times to be saved You have to always be honest to be saved. And so they will uh erringly.

Combine the work of God with the work of man, In order to be saved, these are false religions, Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses. Christian science, Islam, um Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, etcetera. And they're they're bad. That reminds me, we've got a break coming up here, and we'll get to Joe from Michigan after the break. But I was in a chat room today, walking around a block, and I went into a room run by an Eastern Orthodox guy.

And I said, Well, Eastern Orthodox is not Christian. And he would not let me speak anymore. He signalists me so I can't talk. That was sure telling. I said, well, let's talk.

But no, can't have that. Anyway. That's the work of man to silence the truth. Hey, we'll be right back after these messages. We have three open lines.

8772-0722-76. We'll be right back. Yeah. It's Matt Slick Live, taking a call at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick.

All right, and welcome back to the show. Last segment of The Hour. Let's get on with Joe from Michigan. Joe, welcome. You're on the air.

Hi, how are you doing? Oh, I'm doing fine by God's grace.

So, what do you got, brother? Um I got a card to go to a Bible study. And the Bible studies held in uh like a a hotel room that they rent. And this guy, I looked a little bit up about him and I talked to him. And he's what you would call Pentecostal oneness.

They believe that you can't be saved without speaking in tongues. Right. It's a culture. They don't believe in the Trinity. It's a culture.

in that room and he's trying to teach you these doctrines. Would you be bold to speak up and say, well, this is what what scripture actually says.

Okay.

Well, I have been known to uh ruffled some feathers o o occasionally.

So depending on the situation uh I wouldn't have any problem raising my hand and asking challenging questions. Because a lot of times if you go directly against them, they'll kick you out right away. They don't want opposition.

So what you have to do is ask questions. And then once they figure out that you know what you're talking about, you don't you don't agree with them, then they kick you out. Then on the way out, you know, I would say, look, this is he's just teaching a cult, he's a cultist, it's a cult. One is Pentecostal is a non-Christian cult. Just go to the web, folks, look it up.

You know, one is Pentecostal is a cult, and you'll find all kinds of stuff. That's what I say on the way out. inoculate the people. And um so But yeah, he denies the Trinity, adds baptism to salvation, says you have to be baptized in the name of Jesus. Speaking in tongues is a manifestation of salvation, you have to speak in tongues.

Um And things like that. It's just a it's a it's a cult, okay? Yeah. Well, I wouldn't do it if it was in a church setting and he's the pastor of a church. But I just feel that Because he told me, he said, look, I want to set you aside and tell you what what my belief is.

You know, one of the things you can do. You can grab a bunch of literature. If he's got it. And then send it to me because I love that stuff. I got issues.

But uh I'd like to see if anything new is coming down the road, down the thing. But um You know, I would do an online debate with them. You know, tell them, hey, he wants to do all this stuff. Yeah, I would debate them on the Trinity, on what baptism is, what's necessary for salvation, works. They teach you can lose your salvation, you have to speak in tongues.

with the power of the Holy Ghost, you know. And uh all this stuff. Yeah. Bad news. It's a cult.

Well Well, I know where I'm going to go from here, then. I want to thank you very much, Matt. All right, well, God bless, brother.

Okay, mine.

Okay.

All right, now let's get to Steve from Utah. Steve, welcome. You're on the air. Steve? Steve not here.

Oh, we lost Steve. Oh, we just lost him. And hey, look, if you want to give me a call, you can.

Now, one is Pentecostal.

Okay, I say it's a cult. Maybe some of you don't know what that is. Maybe some of you are saying, you know, you're just too judgmental. And you're condemning me for being judgmental, at which means you're judgmental. But maybe you're just saying, hey, Matt, come on.

You can't condemn everybody.

Well, I don't. I'm not condemning anybody, I'm just telling you it's a non-Christian cult. That's all. Because it denies the Trinity, it denies the actually denies the true Christ, I can get into that, and it denies the true gospel. Because the Trinity is the true God.

And then one of the problems they have is they say that because God is only one person, it takes different forms or manifestations at different times. Leave that loosely stated like that. Then, when they talk about the incarnation of Jesus, it has to be the Father who became flesh. But then you ask him in Luke 22:42, when Jesus was praying to the Father, who was he praying to? Oh, he's praying to himself.

But he says our Father who art in heaven Right, Matthew 6:12, Matthew 6.

So, is he praying to himself who's in heaven? Yes, but I thought he's on earth incarnated, yes.

Well wait a minute. And then you ask a question.

Well, it was his human nature praying to his divine nature. And then you have It is theology. I can get into it. But it gets bad. Let's get back to Steve.

Hey, Steve, let's. Got you there. Yeah, sorry about that. It's all right. It's all right, no problem.

Things happen.

So it sounds like the topic of the day is repentance. I had a. I had a question or a statement, I guess, too. Um For instance, I I consider myself a born-again Christian. And um And I have I have repented, I believe.

And I one thousand percent believe in Christ, and the Christ stories are. Very true.

Okay.

How however This Spinning every day thing. Yes. Um Life. I'll tell you why I struggle with it. Um I look at a beautiful woman.

I can't just think she's beautiful. Let's be careful. There might be children listening. Yeah. Okay.

I'm just saying it goes into other areas.

Okay.

So Um I'm sure you know what I mean. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Right. I I struggle with that. It's hard it's hard for me that to leave me.

Okay.

Thank you.

So With my belief and Christ complete. And repentance of those kind of things. Uh I I would have to recant every Trying to sell one.

Well, then the thing is um That there are struggles that we all have. And what I want to do is go to. Romans seven. I'm going to read what Paul says, okay? He says, I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh, for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.

For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I'm doing the thing I don't want to do, I'm no longer doing it with the sin that dwells me. He goes, there's a lot of background noise. I don't know what happened there, but all of a sudden, noise there. And he says he finds that the members of his body is waging war against the law in his mind.

He's admitting there's a struggle going on. And then he asked for deliverance.

Okay.

So he is a Christian, and whatever, he doesn't tell us what it is, but we. I'm glad he wrote that because, well, he was a sinner and he was struggling because he's not perfect. We exist in the umbr under the umbrella of God's covering in the blood of Christ. there is what we call the now and the not yet. We are already justified and glorified, and according to Romans seven uh Romans uh eight, twenty nine and thirty.

but were not yet in that present actuality, So, God will consider us to be justified and saved and perfect. Uh through Christ. But on the other hand, he knows we still struggle. It's Jesus who bore all of our sin, even the sins you're talking about. From forever ago, well, 2,000 years ago.

He did that. And so you're justified before him.

So now what happens is you are to struggle against this all the time. each and every time, because it's a sign of regeneration and salvation. Yeah. And if God grants you victory, in that, then you praise him for it. If he doesn't grant you that victory, then you praise him for the ability to go back to the cross repeatedly in that you have the knowledge of sin and that you want to stop it, but you don't have the strength yet, and you ask him to strengthen you.

And this glorifies him too.

So the way to look at it is, yes, it's sin, and you ask Jesus to to cleanse you, work in you, and to strengthen you, and when you fail, you go back to the cross again, and you do this all the time. This is the reality of our Christian life.

Okay.

Are you there? Maybe he's not there. Maybe he's trying to unmute the phone or something and he dropped it. I got you.

Okay.

All right. So yeah, I That helps. It does help.

So I just need to continue to keep bringing that back to the cross. Uh Yeah.

Okay.

Either hope or know he's going to grant me the strength. to get out of that. Eventually.

Okay.

Okay.

So that's what you're doing. You have to do that. All right, Matt.

Well, hey, I appreciate your time. Thank you.

All right. Well, God bless. God bless you. Bye.

So years ago, I wrote a devotional. I have a devotional section on the Karm site, believe it or not. And uh it starts off start off with a little bit of a po a poem. And this is relevant to what we're talking about here. It says To the cross again I go, There is nothing else I know Its strength is all I need, Where Jesus for me bleed.

To cleanse me of my sins, to give me strength within Jesus alone I know to the cross again I go. And the devotion goes on and says, you know, I'm a sinner. I don't want to be a sinner, but I am. Sins that I still get the best of me, and it goes on. And when we talk about this, when I talk to people about this who have sins, and I have mine.

and we struggle with them, that struggle is a sign of life. in us. and we should not beat ourselves up. Too bad.

Now I say that with hesitation because In one sense, don't worry about it. You've got these issues. Christ has got you. You walk with Him. On the other hand, there are some things, yeah, you should worry about it.

We should be always concerned with our sin, even the little ones. I'm not saying don't care about sin. I'm trying to get people to get in that trusting attitude that their life is in Christ and that their sins have all been taken care of.

So don't worry about that that way. But you should be concerned about your relationship with Christ and your sanctification before him. You should be concerned that you are ready and willing to turn from sin each and every time. because this is what we're supposed to do as Christians. It doesn't mean that we're going to be successful every time.

We all know that. What it does mean is that when we fail yet again, We turn to the Lord Jesus Christ yet again. We ask Jesus to cleanse us yet again. We can't be perfect this side of heaven. We walk around in this carcass of decay.

The sinfulness that encloses us, entraps us, and enslaves us. But yet at the same time Jesus has reached in to eternity, and found each one of us who've trusted in him. and he has cleansed us. And we need to rest in that and in that context, not worry about your salvation related to your sin. Don't worry about that.

On the other hand, Because we're redeemed and because we're bought. with the blood of God. Acts 20, 28. We are to be concerned with our sin as it relates to our sanctification and our ability to leave the evil behind and bring glory to the Lord Jesus and become more like Him. In that sense, we should be very concerned and always be concerned.

So I try and tell people: be concerned, always be ready to turn. But don't worry in that your lack of perfection does not mean you're not saved. It doesn't mean you lose your salvation. It doesn't mean that as you succeed in your sanctification, it doesn't mean that you keep your salvation by your works. Keep your eyes on Christ.

and occasionally when you sin, Turn straight back to Christ and ask Him to cleanse you yet again and continue to trust in what He's done on the cross, not what you do in this world. All right? All right, hey, there's the music, and I'm out of here. May the Lord bless you, and as always, by His grace, we'll back on tomorrow, and we'll talk to you then. God bless.

Have a good evening. Another program powered by the Truth Network.