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 carn.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.

All right, everyone, welcome to the show. It's me, Matt Slick. You know, this is the Matt Slick Live. Today's date is, let's see, September 21st, 2026. Hope you're all having a good time.

Hope you had a good weekend. And if you want, as usual. To give me a call, all you gotta do is dial 877. 2072276. You can also send me an email to info at CARM.org, info at carm.org.

And just want to say, give me a call. We have nobody waiting right now.

So it's up to you if you want. You can blab. But if you're new to this show, What we do here, or what I do, is I deal with apologetics, the defense of the Christian faith, and I defend the Christian faith. And in fact, I'm prepping. Started a little bit of prep today for a debate I'll be in on Thursday.

Thursday evening, debating on the Trinity. Should the Protestants affirm the Trinity? And getting a little bit of that research ready. I've debated the Trinity so many times, and it's really interesting to me how many times people use different arguments to thwart the Trinity that really don't have any bearing on the Trinity. It's one of the things that I'm seeing as I study the guy that I'm supposed to be debating.

A lot of arguments, and but I'm like, yeah, so that has nothing to do with whether the Trinity is true or not. Stuff like that. And so, what I'll do is, you know, I'll continue to prep, and hopefully, it'll go well.

So, you know, we get there, and I'll put it on the calendar today or tomorrow. You can watch it if you want. There you go, there you go. We got nobody waiting.

So let's see. What are we going to talk about? I didn't work on any articles today. I haven't worked on anything. I haven't really, for the past few days, I've not really tackled a lot of heretics on.

online and of course there are plenty But I will say this. That um I will say this, I'm ignorant of something here. This is uh Titus 1.13. And uh I want to read a little context because it's interesting. To me, a concept that I've not focused on between or before.

I read this last week. I'm going to do it again. This is starting at Titus 1, verse 10. For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers, and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision.

Now, what I'm heading towards here is the issue of what the gospel is and the churches that claim to be Christian that are teaching a false gospel. And what should we do when they teach a false gospel?

Well, we have to know what the gospel is. Maybe I'll go through that a little bit. But it says for there are many rebellious men. They're rebelling against the truth of God's word. They're empty talkers and deceivers.

Now uh You know, when Paul talks like this, I think it may be very well be the case that these people who are deceivers are not intentionally trying to deceive. They believe what they're doing is true, and so they're deceivers in that sense. And what he says is, especially those of the circumcision. The circumcision was a group of Jews. Who?

It said that you needed to do this one little thing in order to be saved, and that one little thing was to get circumcised. And some aspect of the Judaizers, you know, keeping varying laws, varying requirements in order to be saved, and things like that. And so Paul is very clearly condemning that. He really does.

Now, the reason I'm bringing this up is because Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Mormons. Christian science, Christadelphians, there's all kinds of false religions. And uh They all add a little bit of that circumcision.

Now, when I say circumcision, I don't mean literally. They go back to the law to some degree and say that you have to do good works in order to be saved. And Did they fail to understand biblical theology that justification is by faith alone? And the faith that God grants to us, Philippians 1:29, and then as a result of it, we do good works. But anyway, he says in verse 11, that is 1, these people, they must be silenced.

Because they're upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach.

Now, here it says, for the sake of sordid gain.

Now, I don't believe the Mormons or the Jehovah's Witnesses or the Catholics or the Eastern Orthodox are doing it for sordid gain, personal gain. I don't think that's the case. But the principle here still applies in that they are rebellious to the Word of God, empty talkers, because they're not focused on the Word of God. And uh It says, one of them, he goes on, he throws in something. One of them, themselves, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.

And that's true, he says. And so anyway, n not a big deal, but um That's a quote from Eritus. He was a a Greek philosopher. But uh What's interesting is, he goes, this testimony is true, and this is verse 13: for this reason, reprove them severely.

so that they may be sound in the faith. That's what has caused me to Stop. and think. You know, it says for this reason, reprove them severely. That they may be sound in the faith.

That is in the scriptures. Titus 1.13. And uh And it goes on, and it says It says re For this reason, reprove them severely, so that they may be sound in the faith. Not paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn away from the truth.

So Jewish myths and commandments of men.

Now Paul's writing very generically, and as I look at this kind of stuff, I think about things. And um To what extent do we severely rebuke The Mormons, the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Roman Catholics, these Orthodox, for their false gospels.

So they don't believe they have a false gospel. I don't believe they have false gods. They don't believe they commit idolatry. I didn't believe it. But they are.

And To what degree, this is what I'm thinking about, to what degree do we severely rebuked them. Reprove to rebuke. And that's something I've been thinking about. That's something I've been I've been uh Been thinking about it. The Greek word is alenke.

And to shame, to disgrace someone, to convict, to reprove one in the wrong, and thus to shame him. This is the admonition of Scripture. And wow.

Well, I wrote an article and I went through other scriptures that talked about this kind of a thing, not just as one little area, but whether a proof is visible and is is there. And so it's been something I've been thinking about for a while to what degree. I don't want to use this as an excuse to be mean, because the Bible says, you know, be gentle also. But the context of being gentle is to those who are seeking and have questions and have issues. But the ones who are putting roadblocks into the way of the gospel need to be rebuked.

And so What I started doing about a week and a half ago online with some of these guys is severely rebuking them. I did. I just, you know, I said, you guys are preaching a false gospel. You guys are damning people. You guys are.

You know, not service of the Lord. You are adding work to salvation. You're outside the camp of Christ. You need to be reproved and you need to not teach your heresies. And call them heresies and say that you're teaching paganism, false doctrine, you're not of God.

And boy, I'll tell you, when I talk like that to them. The reactions I get. They call me demonic, that I don't know what the gospel is, and then I'll respond and I'll say, Show me the gospel from scripture. One of the things I've done that really shuts them up, and it's not the purpose of shutting them up, it's just for the purpose of trying to get them to see they don't even have the gospel. And it happens to shut them up at the same time, which isn't the goal, it's to get them to answer and respond.

But I'll say, let's say you come across a guy in the road and he's got three minutes to live. You know, there's been a car accident and he looks at you. You're just you, just him, no one else is around. He says, What do I do to be saved? I said, what do you tell him that will then get him if he believes and it's honest and true?

He'll be forgiven of his sins. And They can't answer. And the reason is because, generally speaking, what they say is salvation is found through a process of going through rituals and regulations and commandments found in a church.

So, the idea of teaching someone that they can be saved by simply receiving Christ and trusting in Christ, they can't do. And this has stopped them, and to my utter surprise, really stumped them. And at this point, I would say: see, you can't even give the gospel that would save someone who's minutes away from death because you. Believe in a church salvation, salvation by church membership, church association, and the commandments keeping. You gotta do this.

And it's shameful for them. And anyway, this is in light of that alone, the issue of the gospel, that they are denying the true gospel, they need to be rebuked. And what I've told people, you know, after saying, look, you don't even know what the gospel is, I said, you, you are not of God. You are not of God. You are in a false church.

and needed to repent you'd come to Christ and trust in the Gospel of Jesus. And I I tell them, flat out. And let's just say, generally speaking, it doesn't go very well after that. They, for some reason, don't like that.

Now, I don't know why, I'm just telling the truth. Hey, let's get to Jermaine from California. Jermaine, welcome, brother. You're on the air. Hey Matt, you forgot the People's Republic.

The People's Republic of California, that's right. That is right.

Now, working on doing exit tax now for you guys. A buddy of mine who's from California is here in the house now for a couple of weeks. He's staying for a while. Just old friends. He's from Cali.

Oh, he's telling me some of the stuff. Oh, man, it's bad. Yeah.

Well, yeah, I want to answer your question from today tomorrow. And just get to my original topic.

So I see a lot of believers that I know who will not engage in debate. And I've seen these encounters with Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons and and other beliefs in to me, I I understand if you don't feel called to do that and and I I think you should prepare yourself, but it I've seen people try to use Titus three nine about debating genealogies and And other scripture, I think in Timothy, who talks about being quarrelsome, They use that as a proof text for reasons they don't debate. But the problem with that is, When I see people do that, it's typically because they get embarrassed by cults. They may not know. enough doctrine to defend what they believe in.

Or they just don't want to get into it. But I kind of see it as a cop-out sometimes for some people. Right. you know, if that's too judgmental, I don't mean to sound that way, but I just don't see a scripture where I can't debate because I've learned so much from debates. In my walk, some were yours before I even talked with you on the phone from years ago.

Just watching debates over the years really spoke to me, just watching apologetics in action. Is there really A concrete scripture says don't debate anybody. No. No, it says avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and strife and disputes about the law.

So, those who are inside, they believe in these various things inside, supposedly inside of the faith, but it says foolish controversies, genealogies, you know, and then reject them after a while. I've recommended that different groups reject individuals. Who comes in, like the East Orthodox and the Roman Catholics, they constantly are preaching the false gospel and promoting idolatry. And I say to you, others reject them. They are unrepentant, so get rid of them.

And we can have uplifting conversations because we give them answers. But 1 Peter 3:15 says, Give an answer to everyone who would ask you. And so we're called to give answers. But those who don't want to debate, that's fine. They don't have to.

Not everybody's gifted in that area or called to do that. But it is biblical to do. If you go to Acts 17:17, it says Paul was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews.

Now, the word reasoning there is diogemai. And it means to speak back and forth. You go back and forth with someone over an issue.

So it's certainly biblical to do, but you're not obligated to do it, but you should not say you shouldn't do it. That's what I would say. Hold on, brother, we've got a break. Hey, folks, be right back after these messages. Please stay tuned.

It's Matt Slick Live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. Hello, Rodman. Welcome back to the show. If you want to give me a call, we have two open lines: 8772-07-2276.

Jermaine, are you still there? Oh yes I am.

Alright.

So, what do you got? Anything else or that cover it? Kind of got things great going in there. Just, yeah, I think you covered it, but I. I just kind of see some of it as a little bit of a cop out.

And I'm talking about people I know and I know Just to be fair, I used to be one of them. where cultists would come knocking or you know, you're you're in school and it just exposed me for lack of study on my part. And after I did start studying in taking things seriously. I started noticing that I see why some of these cults make progress because A lot of people say they're believers, and and I'm sure some of them are, but they There seems to be a laziness about Wanting to read the word and pray and study and and you just get caught off guard and you have no answer. Yeah.

Family who might have different views on scripture, like I have dispensationalist folks who I love very dearly and they're good people, but One person will says they just don't debate because They know when you know, kind of like hinting that they know the rapture is when they say it is and Last days doctrine, etc., etc. But So well, everybody holds to those positions if if nobody debated, there would be no progress. Yeah.

Multi-beding is biblical. Jesus did it. Paul did it? And we're told to give an answer to everyone.

So it's not, there's no carte blanche that says don't. But a lot of people are not called in to be formal debaters like myself and others. But still, they need to give an answer because the Bible tells them to. And if they want to use an excuse of Scripture to not do what they're responsible to do, that's between them and God, and God will rebuke them for it. They need to give an answer.

It doesn't mean you have to have a degree, it doesn't mean you got to study 8,000 things. But if you talk to somebody, have something you know that you can give.

Okay.

Okay, yeah, it's good sounds good to me.

Alright, big man. All right, sounds good, buddy. I appreciate it.

Okay, God bless.

Okay.

Tabosh.

Alright.

Hey folks, if you want to give me a call, we have three open lines: 87720-72276. Let's get to John from Colorado. John, welcome. You're on the air. Hi, um When I read the Bible, okay.

I'm looking for a practical application. to my life. And so It's just bothering me lately. Uh Parable the unjust steward. Yeah.

Do you have a question about it? You know what and you talked about it. Yeah, I'm quite familiar with I don't understand that.

Okay, want me to explain it to you? All right, so this is Luke 16, starting at verse 1. It was a rich man who had a manager. and this manager was reported to him as squandering his possessions possessions. The rich man was a landowner.

The manager or the steward was someone who would represent the landowner to the people who worked the land. That was the cultural context. Because you can see that later on the parable.

So, the landowner is a man of reputation, of power, of influence. He is wealthy enough to be able to hire someone. To manage the people who lived on the land and would work the land. And they would give like 80% of what they would make on the land. to the l to the um Landowner, and they would keep whatever the percentage was in order to feed their families and have a little bit of spending money and things like that.

It was a common arrangement.

So the land owner was represented by the manager or the steward. And he heard that this guy This dude was doing bad. There was something wrong. Instead of just firing him, He asked. What's this I hear?

Give an account of your management. He wants the books. He wants the records. He says,'Cause you can no longer manage her.

Okay.

Want to see the proof. The manager said to himself, What shall I do, since my master has taken the management away from me? 'Cause he's guilty. All right. I'm not strong enough to dig, I'm ashamed to beg.

I know what I'll do.

so that when I'm removed from the management people will become will welcome me into their homes.

Now I'll explain why that in a sec. He summoned each one of his master's debtors and began saying to the first, How much do you owe my master? He said, A hundred measures of oil. Said to him, Take your bill. Sit down quickly.

and write fifty. He said to the other, And how much do you owe? He said, 100 measures of wheat. And he said, Take your bill and write 80.

So the and we'll get to the next part here, but what's happening is the the the landowner Is represented by the manager. The manager now goes and says, How much do you owe? And he's giving a reduction of the bills to the people. Less dishonest. If the landowner finds out, and he does.

And he praises him for it. Why? I'll get into it in a sec.

So, I'll explain in a minute. The context here is that the people who work the land are thinking that the land. owner has told the manager to reduce the bills. Because he's the representative of the landowner. They don't know he's dishonest.

I'm sorry, repeat that last part. They don't know that the land, the manager is dishonest. They think the manager is telling them to do what the landowner told them to do. He represents a landowner.

So they think this is the natural way of that or thinking. They would think that It came from the landowner, who's a great guy now.

So they write their bills. I mean, measures of oil, it was a lot of work to get this. It took months of work. And suddenly. You know, a third of what you owe the land manager or the landowner is now just wiped away.

Oh, that's time to rejoice.

So they would rejoice, undoubtedly. and they would praise the landowner, not knowing the manager was was being dishonest. Mm-hmm. The landowner now stuck. Because if he now says In that culture.

No, he lied. Then his reputation is stained because he didn't have a competent land manager.

So his reputation is going to be affected. Plus the people who made who had parties and paid other bills because their they had extra money because they had to you know, their bills were reduced to the landowner would then take care of other things, and now all of a sudden they're going to be in trouble. If the landowner said, No, give me all the money.

So they're going to be angry now at the landowner for the bad management. And what's happening to them, and his reputation is going to be tarnished even all the worse. and the landowner knows this. As does the The uh land manager. He knows this.

And verse 8: The master praised the unrighteous steward because he acted shrewdly. In other words, what he's saying here He took care of himself. even though it was deceptive, but what's he counting on? Counting on the goodness of the landowner. his reputation, his honour.

He's betting on that. that he'll be safe, That people will welcome into the home because a part also a little something extra: the manager would often go to the landowner representing the people who lived on the land and say, Why don't you reduce this? Why don't you do that? It'll help them out.

So there was a negotiation.

So the manager actually worked both ways, representing the owners as well as the land, the people on the land working the land.

So I forgot to mention that, but that's part of it.

So they will think then that he worked a deal and/or the land manager, you know, he worked it out. At any rate, so they're going to praise him. But what Jesus says is, he's praised, and he says, for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind and the sons of light.

Now, okay, we got a break. I'll go through this last two verses and explain why Jesus is praising him and for what reason.

Okay, we'll get right back after these messages. Folks, please stay tuned. If you have a question, just call in 877-2-0727. 2276, 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. Let's get back on here with John. Are you still there, brother? There are five.

Okay, you're still there, okay.

So let me go over this, just these last two verses that give the reason that Jesus is praising him and what the context is really about. He says, And his master praised the unrighteous manager because he acted shrewdly. the acting of a shrewd movement for what reason. He says, Jesus says, For the sons of this age. are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the Sons of Light.

There's two ages in the Bible, this age and the age to come, and the age to come is eternal life. New heavens, new earth, etcetera. This he says the sons of this age. In this age, there's problems, there's marriages, there's death, there's breaking of the law, there's sinners, all kinds of stuff. The sons of this age the unbelievers, are more shrewd in relation to their own kind in the Sons of Life, the Jews.

They're smarter than you Jews are being, what Jesus is saying. He's insulting the Jews. Uh because they don't see What needs to be seen in relation to salvation? Because Jesus says in verse 9, And I say to you, make friends for right yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings. That's the key.

the eternal dwellings. What he is saying is as the unrighteous steward. was smart enough to realize the future consequences of his situation. That he did what was necessary now. to make sure he was okay later.

That's the shrewdness. That's why Jesus says make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness.

so that when it fails, they will receive you into eternal dwellings. What he's really saying is Eternity is a long time to be wrong. You better do whatever you can now to make sure you're in. In heaven. Because it's just when you're done You die here.

That's it. Be shrewd. You better take it seriously. You better realize how important this is. Even as the unrighteous steward did what he did to take care of himself, he's smarter than you Jews are.

You're not even taking care of yourselves. You need to understand what's going on. And it's about righteousness, it's about salvation, and that's what this is about.

Okay.

Are you there? Hello? I'm here.

So what is the practical application for people like me now?

Well, if you're a Christian, you don't have to worry about it. His point here is he's addressing the Jews because the Jews were the ones who were self-righteous, doing works of law and various things to try and make themselves get into heaven, but they can't. And it's just not going to be any use. But he's showing here, parables are meant to show basically one point. He's trying to illustrate how severely necessary it is to make sure you enter into eternal dwellings.

And that even this unbeliever is good. And he did what was necessary. Even though his motives weren't pure. He was dishonest, at least he took care of himself and Jesus praised.

So even if you go to heaven, you say, I'm going to go to heaven because. I don't want to go to hell. That's a good enough reason. That's good enough. You're supposed to go to heaven because you love Jesus.

Well, if you don't want to go to hell, that's a good reason, too. to to go to heaven, to trust in Christ. Perfectly legitimate.

So, the practicality here is it's not for the believer, it's for the unbeliever and those who need to understand the Jews in particular in their self-righteousness. But for a true believer, you have to worry about it. You're already in if you trusted in Christ, okay?

Okay.

Okay.

I'll ask more after show, if that's okay.

Okay, sounds good. All right, Biller. Talk to you later. All right, now let's get to next longest waiting is Bert from Idaho. Hey, Bert, Idaho, man, where do you live in Idaho?

How's it going, Matt? Yeah, me too. I go to Kindred Bible Church. Oh. Yeah.

Yeah, Randy Reams is my pastor. Yeah, Randy used to fill in for me here on the radio every now and then. He and I did a lot of stuff together. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Anyway, I think did we meet last time? I was meeting. I met you. Yeah, I was yeah, I met you. I shook your hand.

Okay.

All right. Well, come on, come on.

So, what do you got, buddy? Uh so I'm I'm curious, is the systematic theology book by Louis Berkhoff, is that a good book to start out with when when you get into deep theology? Yes. Berkhoff is good. I'd also recommend Grudem's Systematic Theology.

It's a little more up to date on some more current events. Um And I know Randy and we've done a lot of things together. I've preached at the church there many times and he would agree with the stuff at Out of Grudem's systematic theology.

So yeah, i but Berkhoff is good. Um And Grootam is good.

So those are, yeah, you'd be fine. Get both of them. Get either one. They're reformed. They're reformed in perspective.

Yes, I'm reading the I'm I finished the foreword for the systematic theology. That's what I'm reading now.

So I'm going to get deeper into it. I'm also reading the R C Sprawl commentaries too that Legonier put together from the scramble of his notes and whatnot.

So So, okay, well, let me ask you: what's your goal? What do you want to learn? What do you want to do? Um, I just I just want to, you know, learn more uh doctrine'cause right now right now I'm reading through the Bible front to back. I've finished the four gospels and all that, which is really interesting, but But I'm really...

Have you been to my website? To carm? Uh I I actually have, but um I don't know How good it is. Um free. Look.

Um So you can ask Randy. You know, he'll give me high praise, no problem. But So, like Randy and I did, and Mike, the elder, we went to the Philippines together many years ago.

So, you know, and I had Randy fill in for me on the air when I was having the show here and in the BC area. And I've, like I said, I've preached in his church many times and taught in his church many times.

So he'll recommend me. But the reason I'm saying is if you go to Carm, you can look up the Christian Doctrine section. And I write. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So it it is a good website. It's free too and all that. And then I think you have classes that you can also pay for as well. Right. Right.

And I tell people that can't afford to. Yeah, and I tell people if you can't afford the the schools, uh just let us know, and we give them to you for free. But if you go there and you were to you, we have I've written over five thousand articles, okay? The site next month will be 31 years old.

So you can go there and look up. stuff yeah and uh you go to the menu and you can you will see there's a lot of stuff A lot. Yeah, that's awesome. That website's been up since the 90s. That's cool.

Okay.

Okay.

That's cool.

Well, thank you for answering my question, and I'll definitely check out your site and hope to see you soon. Yeah, I mean, every time I stop back in the church, I was there last month, but uh, yeah, we go. All right, brother. Have a good one, sir. Right guys, God bless.

Okay.

That's cool.

Nice local guy. All right, now let's get to Bo from Pennsylvania. Bo, welcome. You're on the air. I'm a Hi.

How you doing? I'm good. How are you? Hanging in there. Hanging in there, doing the radio.

What do you got, buddy? I had a question about whether you could be friends with unbelievers. I know you put up an article, but I was wondering if you could explain Second Corinthians uh chapter six, verse fourteen through eighteen to me. Second Corinthians six 14 through 18. Is that right?

You're not being bound together with unbelievers. That bound is like uh a a business contract and/or marriage, things like that. You can have friends who are unbelievers. And so it's not not bad to have unbelievers friends. I mean, you've got to w you know, have friends so you can witness to them.

When I would work I used to work at Hewlett Packard and had friends who were unbelievers. And You know, they knew I was a Christian and had been a pastor and things like that. You know, I just was witnessed to them occasionally. you know, when it came up.

Okay.

So don't be bound with unbelievers. What partnership is righteousness and lawlessness? What fellowship is light with darkness?

So you can have friends who are unbelievers, just be careful. Don't let them drag you down. But your main goal should be to witness to them as an example of Christ. That's what you should do.

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay, no problem. All right. God bless.

Well, we got a break coming up here in about 30 seconds or so. I'm just going to let you know that we stay on the air by your support. If. You'd be so. As to consider supporting us, we would really appreciate that.

All you have to do is go to carm.org forward slash donate, or just go to the site carm.org and um Then you can just go to the top of the page, you'll see the word donate there, and you can help out. We ask $10 a month. That's what we ask. $10 a month is really helpful. And if you do that, Yeah.

It helps us keep the lights on and pay the missionaries and things like that.

Okay, there's the music. We'll be right back after. These messages, please stay tuned. It's Matt Slick Live, taking a call at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick.

All right, everyone, welcome back to the show. We have nobody waiting right now.

If you want to give me a call, all you got to do is dial 8-772-0722. You can also, if you're interested, you can send me an email to info at carm.org, info at carm dot org, put a subject line, radio comment or radio question. I'm going to get some of those right now. It says, Thank you for reading and answering my question regarding female angels. They would say it was excited to hear his question read.

Um Or her question, right?

So, rereading Zechariah 5: is it a prophecy? Or did God open his eyes to the spiritual realm? Both? is both a prophecy and an opening of the spiritual world. If the latter maybe they were fallen angels, probably not, since they were carrying the eifa the women's wickedness.

I think what it really was is just a really strong illustration. But uh, you know, just a thought. It says, uh, there you go.

So, good stuff. I like. doing that.

Okay.

Now, let's try this one. Hello there, I just want to ask: how important is the order and decency in the church? How important is it? Very. Because Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 14, he tells us to be ordered in the church.

We do things orderly, not out of out of uh order.

Now, what does that order mean? There's no specific order given. It just means be orderly, not whacked, not running up and down, screaming and jumping. That's not orderly. And the warning is that when unbelievers come in, they're going to think you're crazy.

So, The issue here is contextually, culturally, contextually, the order must be such that the unbelievers don't have grounds to ridicule because of your behavior. I'm reminded of my late wife. She did a mission in Togo, and the way she described it, and I've mentioned this over the radio several times over the years, the order of worship that they had. People would walk to church on a Sunday carrying chickens or fruit or whatever it would be that they had as tithes, and they would do worship for an hour. Maybe even longer.

And there was a They had a center area. People would gather into the center and they would walk up with their tithes and offerings. They would and she said the way they did it, they rocked back and forth to the music, real subtle, as everybody sang. And she said it was just. Beautiful.

She said it was just wonderful. She just loved it. And she said, it's hard to describe how beautiful the sound was, the worship was, and how they so just moved and just moved forward. It was in order. You know, I've been to churches where the order is stand up.

You sing a hymn stand to one and three, then you sit down. That's order.

Some order is people in the back will raise their hands to the glory of God. They're not raising to be called upon, but they just raise their hand and worship. That's orderly. There's different ways we can have an orderly service. It's just not to be to the point where you give an excuse of the unbelievers to.

to look negatively upon the people of God.

Okay? All right, now let's get to uh Let's get to Steve from North Carolina. Steve, welcome. You're on the air. How are you doing?

Doing all right, man. Hanging in there, buddy. What do you got, man? What's up? I'm always questioning whether I am doing the right thing, like in accordance with God.

I'm trying to align myself more with God and Jesus and his Questioning whether I'm doing the right things, whether I'm on the right path. Oh yeah. How do I toast?

Well, that's a tough one. How do you know? Because the word know can mean different things. How do you know for sure? How do you know?

Generically, for example, if you are wondering whether or not you should go into the bank and rob them. It's pretty easy to understand. You know that's wrong because the scriptures say so.

So the first. Thing is, does it match your behavior, your line of work, your direction you want to go? Is there anything in scripture that would prevent it?

So you can't do this, you can't do that.

So scripture, uh, this match scripture. Once you've done that, once you say, okay, nothing in scripture, it forbids this. That I'm doing, or whatever it is. Say you're praying about something, and the Bible doesn't really talk about it. You're just praying about it, make a decision.

Well, then, once you have already made the idea known, according to your own heart and mind, as a scripture that is permitted by scripture or not forbidden by scripture. Then you want to ask: what are the ramifications? What are the pluses and minuses? Is it wise to do this? And then get godly counsel.

Talk to people. If you're married, talk to your wife. If you've got friends, ask questions. And then ask this question: what's going to be the fruit of what's going on? The fruit of.

the endeavor, decision, etcetera. And sometimes you won't know the fruit. But you can hope that you're doing the right thing. This is what you need to be doing as you're praying through all of this to be in the will of God. And sometimes being in the will of God means you don't know the will of God.

It is sometimes his will because we walk by sight, not by faith, we walk by faith, not by sight. Habakkuk 2:4 says.

So if that helps, does it? Yeah, yeah. It's just for me. I'm just really hoping I'm doing the right thing that he wants me to do down in the place where he wants me to be. And I'm trying to do something in the Lord's name today.

So That's just always For the days. Yeah, you know, the same thing you're saying is is stuff I go through regularly. And God doesn't just come down with a voice and say, yes, no, go here, go there, do that, don't do that.

Sometimes we just got to walk by faith as we try And if we discover that we weren't doing what was God's will, then we're learning through that, and that's okay. God's gracious, and one of the things I love about the Lord is He's not surprised by our failures or our successes, and He works them both. For His glory. And as long as you're seeking His will and moving forward to accomplish that, when you do things that aren't exactly right, as you find out later, you know, it's okay. He's not going to condemn you, mock you, judge you for it.

you know, it'll work with you.

Okay.

Okay.

All right, well, I appreciate your time today. Thank you.

Sure, hope that helps. Hope that helps, brother. All right. All right. Oh, yeah, yeah, it helps.

Okay, well, good. Because I've got the same issues. The same issues. The very same ones. All right, brother.

Now let's get to Dave from North Carolina. Dave, welcome. You're on the air. Hello. Yes, how you doing today?

Doing all right by God's grace. Doing all right. What do you got, man? Alright.

Okay.

My question 2 Peter 3, verse 9. I'm driving, so. Um go try to quote the what they said to King James The Lord is not slack concerning his promises.

Some men count slightness. But is long suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish. Does uh do you see that verse When he says not willing that any should perish. Is he talking about Is she? Or is he talking about the whole every man's ever lived?

Now That is the right question. That is a beautiful question. Is he talking about his sheep or is he talking about everybody? That's the right question. I am so pleased you said that.

Yeah.

Um, and that's no, I'm serious, absolutely. When people bring that up, that's what I ask them: is it every individual who ever lived, or is it just the sheep? Who's the all? And I show people things about the word all that are used in different contexts, and it shakes them up. But um And so there's a lot of discussion that could be had about this verse.

I'm not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance. And I ask people questions. I say, does it mean God wants every individual to be saved? And generally they'll say, well, of course it does. And I say, then why does Jesus speak in parables?

Mark 4, 10 through 12. And the reason he speaks in parables is so they'll not be forgiven. And I say, I'm not setting scripture against scripture. I'm asking you, how do you harmonize this? What does he mean when he says, not wishing for any to perish, but for all?

To come to repentance. And it's a legitimate question: who's the all? And Jesus says in John 6:37, he says, All that the Father gives me will come to me. Who's is that is that the all he's talking about? All that the Father gives me will come to me.

So then we could say he wants all to come to repentance. Or we could say he wants everybody to come, and that's legitimate because he commands everyone everywhere to repent, Acts 17:30.

So there's a sense in which God wants everyone everywhere to repent, and yet there's another sense in which He only grants it to the ones He chooses for salvation. 2 Thessalonians 2.13, He chose us from the beginning for salvation. And He grants repentance, 2 Timothy 2, 24 to 25.

So, or 26.

So, you see, this is not an easy one just to get through and say, oh, here's the right answer. What I normally do is give them two or three different ways of interpreting it and saying, This is not just an easy thing. There's a lot to this. And that's and I show it to him. I say, What do you think?

And then we have discussions about it. It's one of those verses that requires that. Trust me, I could I could go into it for quite a while, I could. Are you there? Yes, yes, I'm taking it all in.

Uh-huh.

So check this out. I love the answer. But here, let me springboard off of that. I'm going to go to Romans 5:18. I'll show you something in Romans 5:18.

This is what it says, and this is the NASB which is the most accurate translation. The Greek is difficult to translate because it doesn't have a verb in it. And so, what is it said? The King James gets Romans 5:18 very wrong. It just does, okay?

Another discussion. But Romans 5:18 literally says, as through one transgression, condemnation to all men, so also through one act of righteousness, justification of life to all men. That's the Greek.

Well, it says justification of life to all men. Justification means you're saved. Justification of life to all men. Who's that all? It can't be everybody.

You see? Right. Yeah, it sounds. Yeah, there's so much uh diversity on that that I've heard from people. And I came to the knowledge of what you're saying years ago.

I just wanted to hear you. how you interpret it in your words. Uh and Could do a lot better job than I could if I tried to explain it to him different than what somebody believes. I just say, I don't know exactly what it means. I know here's the ranges of the things that it can mean, and all these fit different ways.

and it's just a good verse to teach. That's what I do with it. I'm very familiar with it. Cross-reference it with 1 Timothy 2:5, 2 Corinthians 5:14. I got a whole thing I teach where that's one of the verses I go to.

Absolutely. Been teaching it for a long time. Yeah, that was. That word all really Trips. things off a little bit because The scripture says all have sinned and come short.

Well, that's everybody. That is all. But then other places, that all don't mean all. That's right. Yeah, ex Jesus is excluded from that all.

And if you go to my website and you go to the tables section, you'll see I did an an examination of the word all and there's at least five different meanings. That's it yep. at least five different usages of the word all in the Bible. In the New Testament. Do you explain what all five of them are?

Oh, yeah, yeah. Uh-huh.

Yep. You can just go there and check it out. Yeah.

Okay.

Thank you, thank you. All right, brother. God bless.

Okay.

God bless you. Bye-bye.

Alright.

Now, we got like 40 seconds left for Elijah from Pennsylvania. You're back on, brother, or you're on? Yep, I'm going to say this real quick before the show ends. I watched your discussion with Sean Griffin last Friday and Uh he he lied about First Corinthians, uh, I think it's 1548. Uh, when it says uh earth earthly man, it's not re wasn't referring to Jesus, it was referring to Adams.

Yeah.

Yeah, that was a yeah, he was a He was slippery. Yeah, he was yeah. That was the after-show and stuff like that.

Okay, we gotta go, brother. Call back there tomorrow. We can talk more about it, okay? Appreciate it. Hey, folks, we're out of time.

May the Lord bless you by His grace. We'll be back on there tomorrow. We'll talk to you then. Have a great one, everyone. God bless.

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