Matt Slick Live

It's Matt Slick Live. Matt is the founder and president of the Christian Apologetics Research Ministry, found online at carm. dot org. When you have questions about Bible doctrines, turn to Matt Slick Live. Francis taking your calls and responding to your questions at eight seven seven two zero seven two two seven six.

Here's Matt Slick. All right, everyone, welcome to the show. It's me, Matt Slick, and you're listening to Matt Slick Live. Hope you're all having a good time, a good day. I mean, the Lord blessed you in it.

I had the privilege today of going out and doing some yard work. I have a friend who was doing another yard down the street, helping somebody.

So I said, "I'll help you, help him." And so anyway, one of those kind of things, and got out there and did some stuff.

Now I want to talk to you about someone else I know also, but before I do that, I just want to let you know you give me a call at eight seven seven, two zero seven two two seven six. I want to hear from you. Give me a call. You can also, if you're so inclined, you can send me an email to info at carm dot org. Info at c a r m dot o r g.

Put in the subject line radio comment, radio question, and we appreciate that. All right, so let's see. All right, so I got a friend named Tracy, and went over and visited her husband today. And turns out she's got breast cancer, and so I'm just giving a shout out that if you guys could lift up Tracy, she's going through chemo and stuff like that, and the doctors are hopeful. And she also has a swelling in the neck from some other thing.

God knows what that is. Just pray for Tracy. That she'd be helped, and that Lord would provide, and everything would work out.

So, just lifting her up in prayer. All right. Having said that, let's see.

So, on let's see, on the Karm calendar, I don't know if it's in there yet. No, it's not in there yet. On Saturday, I'll be I'll be a debate slash discussion on is unconditional election biblical. And be debating a guy who's a Church of Christ person, and Church of Christ is a cult, and they add a have a false gospel, and they add baptism to salvation, and they deny original sin, and this most of them do, and they they are basically semi-Pelagian, and so. What they hold to is that human free will, in and of itself, is sufficient to be able to choose God.

God just gives you the information, may work on you a little bit, but it's up to you. And shall be debating him and the false doctrine that that is. Yeah, it's a false doctrine, folks. People don't know that. A lot of Christian churches preach it too, but it's false.

Doesn't mean they're not saved. It just means it's false, because. Let me just since I got myself into this, let me just kind of explain why it's a false doctrine to say that it's simply up to you in your choice to to believe and trust in God. I know that's what a lot of churches teach, but it's not, and the reason it's not is because the scriptures contradict that.

So. In Acts thirteen forty eight, it says, "As many as had been appointed to eternal life believed." They believe because they're appointed to eternal life. God grants that we have faith. One twenty nine, and Jesus said, "The work of God is that you believe." John six twenty nine. Jesus says in John six fifty six sixty five.

Excuse me. He says that no one can come to him unless it has been granted to him from the Father.

Now, when I I quote these verses to people who believe in what's called libertarian free will, they're they're they're really confused because their theology that they've been taught is humanistic philosophy, it's man centered philosophy, and so what? What man centered philosophy is, biblically speaking, in Christian circles, is that God is hoping that a bunch of people, everybody, will believe in Him, and that it's. Up to the individual to simply choose. They just provide the information, and that's it. Everybody's basically neutral in their hearts, and they can choose God or not choose God.

It's up to them. And this is a false doctrine.

Sorry, that's just not it. That's not to say we don't choose God because we do.

Now that may sound confusing, but we choose God because God enables us to choose Him.

Now they may say, "Well, what's wrong with that?" And I say, "Well, that's what they teach. No, it's not. What they teach, what the other side teaches, is generally called prevenient grace—that God grants a measure of grace to an individual that then enables the individual to be in a neutral kind of state, by which they then can choose, according to their own free will, to be saved. That's not biblical. There's no such thing as prevenient grace—the grace that comes before and helps you out and makes you more neutral—and there's nothing like that.

The Bible speaks." Contrary to that, Romans five nineteen, through the transgression of the one, the many were made sinners.

So we were made sinners by Adam's, by Adam's transgression, and. In Adam, all die. First Corinthians fifteen twenty two.

So what I'm talking about here is called federal headship, and it's related to original sin.

So the issue of original sin is that it has caused us to not be able to, of our own free will, sinfully enslave free will. We're not able to simply believe in God, and that's what that's that's the biblical position. And a lot of people will say, No, it's not. I said, Look, then let's debate it. You know, call me up, or let's do a debate.

But that is the biblical position, and the biblical position is that Jesus says, for example, John six sixty five You cannot come to me. You can't. You cannot. Not happening. No way.

You cannot unless it has been granted to you from the Father. I I quote this to people, and they thought, "Wow, it doesn't mean that." Well, what does it mean? What does it mean?

Well, I don't like that.

Well, if you like it or don't like it, is irrelevant to whether it's true or not.

So, I say if it's up to your free will, just up to your free will, just up to your standard free will. Remember, God makes you neutral, and then He just grants gives you the information. It's up to you. And I say if that's the case, then why does God say or Jesus say you can't come to Me unless it has been granted to you from the Father? And what they'll say is, "Will he grant you the opportunity?" And I say, "Oh, that version of that verse isn't found in the Book of First Hysterectomy." Because it is certainly not there, and not in God's word, but it is in the theological circles of man-made theology and humanistic philosophy, man-centeredness that gets into and creeps into the Christian church, and sounds good so people they clap and they say yes we like that because it makes me feel good.

Can I have some more ear tickling, please? And this is a problem. Because the Bible talks about in the last days, people will gather to themselves those who tickle their ears on on doctrines and stuff. It's not good.

So many will fall away from the faith. As First Timothy four, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctors of demons.

Now there's there's you know there's a lot of stuff we could talk about in that. But we have to understand that the Bible tells us things that we don't like, and I think a lot of the reason people don't understand that God is the sovereign King is because they don't understand that God is the sovereign King. There is a God; you are not Him. He is the sovereign; you are not. He's the one in control; you are not.

Even your free will choices are under the sovereignty of God. He's not surprised by anything you're going to do, any choice you're going to make. He doesn't look into the future to see who's going to pick him. He doesn't choose you because he saw you could be used. He didn't choose you because he saw that under the right conditions you would be saved, or you'd freely choose.

That's called Molinism. No, it's it's all man-centeredness. It's all man-centered. I'm going to ask you a question here. I want you to think: Which theology glorifies God?

Which theology glorifies man? Simple.

So man's theology is God will not ask you to do anything you can't do. God wants every individual to be saved, and therefore it's up to your free will because that's what God wants. And so that's why it's up to me and my wisdom, and my neighbor's wisdom and ability to believe and trust in Christ. That's one view. That's dominant in a lot of churches today.

Or the other view: God is sovereign King. He elected you for salvation. Second Thessalonians two thirteen. He chose us from the beginning for salvation. He chose us in Christ.

Ephesians one four and five. He grants that we have faith. Romans one twenty nine. As many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. Acts thirteen forty eight.

Which one of those sets glorifies God the most?

Now here's the thing. If you want to understand a theological perspective, there's lots of ways to do that. But one of the things that's necessary is that you ask a question: Is what I'm learning and what I'm being taught does it ultimately glorify God, or does it glorify something other than God? That's a question. It's a very simple question, and it should be something that every Christian who's listening to a sermon, reading a book, etc.

Should listen or a guy in the radio named Slick? You should ask: Is it glorifying God or is it glorifying man? Is it glorifying God or glorifying angels? Glorifying God or glorifying a church?

Now it's not to say you can't elevate certain things and praise certain things that are not God. For example, you have a church that's doing a lot of good work, or you have people who are doing great things for the Lord. That's fine. But the question here is about that. It's about what.

To rephrase my initial statement: What's the ultimate?

Okay, what is the ultimate goal here? Is it to glorify God, or does the teaching, does the position, does it ultimately, does what it do, does it bring you a glory, or? Does it bring you an elevation? I was the one who was wise enough to believe in Jesus Christ. I'm the one, in my own free will, I did that.

Well, this is doctrine by experience because when we go forward to receive Christ, or we raise our hand in a church service to receive Christ, or our friend leads us to the Lord in prayer, we understand and rightfully so that we are making a choice, and it's true we are. We're making a choice, and we are doing what we normally would do, and we choose to believe, and it's true that we do. But you have to understand something: it is God who has granted us that. The born again experience. First Peter one three.

He granted, he caused us to be born again, and he's the one that will enable us to to believe. I'm going to read some verses here. This is John one twelve and thirteen. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name, who were born not of the will, not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. When it says you're born, it's talking about being born again, because it's talking about receiving Christ.

Okay, as many as received Him, this is the born again experience. To them, He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of the blood, nor the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. When I read this to people, I just shocks them. I say you need to get away from the humanist philosophy. And this humanist philosophy is rampant in Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, rampant.

Rampant man-centered, man's ability. We keep our salvation by being good. We keep our salvation by being a membership member of the true church. We're the ones who keep ourselves right by our continued effort of believing. We don't do the bad things.

We do the good things, and over a long period of time, that's how we keep ourselves right with God. Boy, I am so proud of myself. Look what I do. That's what they teach. They don't realize they're teaching it.

But what I teach is something contrary. No, God appoints you to salvation; He appoints it to you. Act 13:48. He grants you this salvation. Second Thessalonians 2:13.

He grants you come to Christ. John 6:65. He grants that you have faith. Ephesians 1:29. Our believing is the work of God.

John 6:29. You're born again not of your own will. John 1:13. Who gets the glory? God.

Our job as Christians is to pray that God would save more. We preach the gospel; it's the power of God to salvation for anyone who would believe. Romans one sixteen. Our job is to preach that gospel. We don't know how it works.

I don't know how it works from all eternity. And when I I pray and I ask people to save people, I say I ask I ask God to save people. Excuse me. I'll say, Lord, if they're not elect from eternity, please elect them from eternity. I don't know how it all works.

But I lift people up in prayer and ask God in His sovereignty to save them now, before the break comes. And ask you a question: Do you pray and ask God to change people's hearts and minds for salvation? Do you pray like that? Are you praying in the sovereignty category? God, you change their heart, you open their minds.

If you're doing that, welcome to biblical theology, where you ask God to be merciful. And God to draw John six forty four, so that people will glorify Christ, come to Him. He grants them that regenerative work of being born again, and then they believe because God granted it to them. Boy, He gets all the glory. Amen, amen.

We'll be right back after these messages. Please give me a call eight seven seven two zero seven two two seven six. Be right back. It's Matt Slick live taking your calls at eight seven seven two zero seven two two seven six. Here's Matt Slick.

Oh, Robin, welcome back to the show. I hope you enjoyed that. For those of you who might be new listeners, what I do is I preach and teach biblical theology, and I always like it when people challenge me and when people say, "Well, is that correct?" And this is why I give references. Because, you know, my last name really is Slick, and I I just ask that you don't trust a guy in the radio named Slick, but that you trust God's word. And this is why I try and quote the references as much as I can.

I've got a lot memorized, but I have a lot more to memorize. And I never want you to just believe me what I say. Don't believe anybody in the radio just because they're on the radio. You believe because they are agreeing with the Word of God. The Word of God is the standard of truth.

Not what your pastor says, not what your friends say, not what your spouse or your your your friends or anything commentaries. No, it's the Word of God. That's the final authority, and your job is to to check everything with the Word of God. It says the Bereans did in Acts seventeen eleven, when Paul said they were more noble minded because they checked even what he said against the Word of God. And way to go.

So this issue here that I was talking about before the break, we got no callers, so I'll just keep blabbing. But the issue here is. What what is the ultimate doctrinal thing that is glorifying God or glorifying something other than God? It needs to be that what you teach, what you learn, what you're taught, ultimately glorifies God. That's not to say we can't say there's a good preacher, good teacher, a good book, but is that in the service of the kingdom of God?

And that's what we have to ask.

Now, having said that, I want to get into a little bit of something about what the gospel is and how we receive and how it's obtained, and get into the basics of of biblical theology on what salvation is because it needs to be heard. It needs to be taught periodically.

So I know that we we talk about preaching the gospel to the unbelievers, but the Christians need to have the gospel preached to them as well because they need to understand what the truth is.

So let me just get into this a little bit, and I'm going to make some statements here after I read some scriptures.

Now, the gospel is First Corinthians fifteen one to four. Actually, I think what we do before we get to we'll get to the caller, and that'll give me a good break. Then after that, to get in and do a better five or ten minute teaching on this, and this this be interesting. Call too, Regina from Greensboro. Welcome, you're on the air.

Are you there? Hello. Are you there? Yes. Can you hear me?

Now I hear you. I'm here.

Okay.

So, what do you got? I wanted to know if you commit suicide or not. You literally, but if a person commits suicide, do you go to hell?

Well, if they're believers, they're Christians. They do that; they go to heaven. If they're unbelievers, they do that; they go to hell. The issue is not suicide that makes you or breaks you. It's whether or not you trust in Christ.

Generally, people who commit suicide are not in the right mental state, or some other issues related to that. In fact, this Saturday I'll be doing a, I'll be officiating at a funeral of a Christian woman who committed suicide, and. I'll be talking to the family tomorrow night and getting through a few things. But no, if they're truly saved, then they're going to go to heaven.

Now there may be a loss of reward, but they're going to go to heaven.

Okay.

Okay.

So I was brought up in a church that doctrine that you go to hell if you commit suicide, and then my mom and my sister said, "No, you don't go to hell." So I just wanted to know what your take was.

Well, think about this, okay. If they go to hell because they they committed suicide, then what they're saying is that what you do bad gets you to hell, which means by not committing suicide, that it's good gets you to heaven.

So it leans towards works righteousness in this position.

Okay.

Squeaking. All right. Okay.

Well, thank you so much, and I appreciate your teaching. All right. Well, God bless.

Okay.

Now, that's not to say that suicide's okay, but there are biblical accounts of suicide. People fall on their own sword, and it doesn't mean that they're not true believers. It doesn't mean they're not following God sufficiently. Suicide is a is a is a difficult thing, and. It it makes a mess of life of other people's lives as well, but I don't believe that those who commit suicide who are true Christians I don't believe that they go to hell for that.

Some people say you have to repent of your sins in order to be saved, and if you commit suicide you can't repent of that, therefore you go to hell.

Well, then what they're saying is repentance is what gets you to heaven, not faith in Christ, and that's a problem. All right, I'm not advocating suicide. I'm just saying that I don't believe biblically that those who commit it, if they're true Christians, automatically would hell. I don't believe that at all. All right.

Having said that, let me get into a little bit here on what the gospel is. I think people need to know this. This is out of First Corinthians 15, one through four, and I'll just go through the basics. It says, "Brother, I make known to you the gospel.

Now, the gospel in the word in the Greek is oingilia." And the good news, and it is that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that He was buried and was raised on the third day according to the scriptures.

Now that's the gospel defined by Paul, and it's in First Corinthians fifteen.

Now the gospel is the good news that Jesus bore our sins in His body on the cross. That's First Peter two twenty four, and. We have to understand that in Second Corinthians five twenty one, God made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. This is the good news, the evangelia, the gospel. The good news is that we don't have to, we don't have to keep the law to be saved.

Now, I'm not saying it's okay to sin. I'm not saying we don't have to keep any laws to be good Christians. I'm saying we don't keep the law to be saved. That's what the false religions do. They teach that you can lose your salvation, so you've got a list of things you've got to do or not do to keep yourself right with the infinitely holy God.

Now, I'm not advocating going out and sinning. It's okay. I'm not saying that. We fall into our sins. We have our problems.

We got to repent. We got to struggle. But it's not our repentance that brings us salvation. It is the gospel. It's the faith that we have in what Jesus did on the cross, where He became sin.

Second Corinthians five twenty one bore our sin in His body in the cross. First Peter two twenty four, and so it is by Him dying those sins that He might bring us to God. That's First Peter three eighteen, and you can go to Isaiah fifty three, which talks about the substitutionary atonement. He Died. Excuse me.

He was pierced through for our transgressions, and the Lord Yahweh caused the iniquity of us all to fall upon Him.

So, this is the gospel message.

Now, we're going to talk a little bit about how to obtain it, how is it applied to you, what this means, and get in a little bit more theology, maybe than some might want at that point. But let me just say this: Galatians one eight and nine. Says anyone who preaches another gospel is to be accursed. That's what Paul says. Repeats it.

If we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel contrary to what we preached, you let him be accursed. And he repeats it. He says the same thing again. Two verses.

So, the question here is, what's the gospel? And how is that gospel obtained, applied to us? What's the means? What's the instrumental means? If we are aware that Christ died on the cross and bore our sin in His body in the cross, we are aware of it.

We know it. We can have an intellectual awareness. We can have this ability to understand it. We could even have an atheist. We could have an atheist get up and do a report and rightly present the gospel biblically.

That would be assentia, mental assent, mental acknowledgment of something. It's not fidusia, heartfelt trust.

Now, after the break, we'll get into this issue of receiving the gospel, receiving Christ, and what it means not to do in order to have the gospel applied to you. We'll be right back after these messages. Please stay tuned. It's Matt Slick live taking a call at eight seven seven two zero seven two two seven six. Here's Matt Slick.

All right, and welcome back to the show. If you want to give me a call, all you got to do is dial eight seven seven two zero seven two two seven six.

Now let me continue on the issue of the gospel. The gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. He bore our sin, in his body in the cross. One Peter two twenty four. He became sin.

Second Corinthians five twenty one.

Now, how do we receive this? How is this applied? Let me let me teach you some a little bit of theology, because this is important. When Jesus was on the cross, he removed the sin debt. That's Colossians two fourteen.

Now, let me back up a little bit more. Explain something.

So. Sin is breaking the law of God. First John three four. Sin is lawlessness. All right.

Jesus in the prayer, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. In Matthew six twelve, he says, "Forgive us our debts." In the parallel of Luke eleven four, he says, "Forgive us our sins." Now the word debt in Matthew. Six twelve, the word debt is the Greek "ophilema." It means a legal debt, and "harmatio" is the word for sin. Harmatio, and that's he says, "Forgive us our debts, forgive us our sins." Sin is breaking the law of God, so sin is a legal debt. And think about this: John six, not John six, but Roman six twenty three.

The wages of sin is death. The debt, the legal, it's the law. The wages, it's a debt.

Okay, so when we break the law of God, we have incurred a debt.

Now remember, Jesus says, "Forgive us our debts," and He says, "Forgive us our sins." So this is what Jesus says: John, Matthew six twelve, and with a parallel, Luke eleven four.

Now Jesus on the cross said something very interesting in John nineteen thirty. He says it is finished, and that is the Greek word "tetelestai." It is finished. This word "tetelestai" has been found handwritten, of course, in a different handwriting style on some ancient tax receipts. Like I don't know how old eighteen hundred, two thousand, two thousand years, whatever. They found it, and it means a legal debt paid in full.

All right. Now, I'm going to show you this.

Okay, this is this is Bible.

Okay, check this out. This Colossians two thirteen, when you were dead in your transgressions, transgressions is to break the law, to transgress the law. When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our transgressions. Verse fourteen, having cancelled out the certificate of debt, okay, consisting of decrees against us, which was also to us, he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

Now, folks, I want you to pay attention to this. I'm going to give you some theology here. You're not going to hear this hardly ever. This is is good stuff. I'm giving you scripture.

I've gone through this with people hundreds of times. He says, in verse thirteen, having forgiven us all our transgressions—that's our sins. Verse fourteen, having cancelled out the certificate of debt. What is that certificate of debt? The Greek word is keryggraphon.

It only appears right here in the entire Bible, right there in that one one place. It comes from a cognate, a combination of two two forms, two words, keryggraphon—ker hand, grafe writing. A handwriting.

So some translations will say the handwriting of ordinances, and that's fine. And what it means is a handwritten IOU of legal indebtedness. He's taken this certificate of debt.

Now, what's it? What is it? It's consisting of decrees against us. These. This is the Old Testament law.

We've broken the law. The transgressions. He's taken out of the way the debt, the certificate of debt.

So. When we break the law, we're indebted to God. The wages of sin, breaking the law, is death. Romans six twenty three. And when did He take it out of the way?

When did He cancel it? At the cross.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, listen to this. Here's a question: Did He cancel it when you believe, or did He cancel it at the cross?

Now, that's a serious question. And your answer will determine how much theology you know and what direction you're going to go after this.

So, here's the question again. I'm going to read the verse: Certificate of Debt, the sin debt.

Okay.

Now, when is the sin debt actually canceled? Is it canceled when you believe, or is it canceled when Jesus died on the cross? Colossians two fourteen: Having canceled out the certificate of debt. Consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us, and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

So, what was taken away? The certificate of debt.

Now, when was it taken away? At the cross.

It's not taken away when you believe. Oh man, I show this to people, and they're like, Oh man, what? You mean I'm born saved? No, it doesn't say that. The sin debt is taken away.

Now, some just just to tell you, just to be fair, some will say the certificate of debt is the law. The law was taken away.

Some will say that, and if that's the case, you have a problem because if it's the law that's canceled, the Old Testament law, you have a problem because Paul says Romans five thirteen, sin is not imputed or reckoned to your account. Sin is not imputed when there is no law. If the Old Testament law is is done away with, then nobody can have sin, because it's not imputed when there is no law. Romans five thirteen. I can go into more about this, but get back on track.

So, what Jesus does on the cross is he removes sin. That's what he does. He removes it. But justification is clothing you, is putting something upon you. At the cross, he took it away.

Now I'm of the belief that Jesus only did this for the elect, that he only canceled the sin debt for the ones given to him by the Father. Jesus says, "All that the Father gives me will come to me." That's John six thirty-seven. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and all who come to me certainly will not cast out. For I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. This is the will of him who sent me that all he's given me I lose none, but raise it up on the last day.

God has given people, the Father has given people to the Son to redeem. He says in John, Jesus says in John 10:11. I lay my life down for the sheep. John ten, John ten fifteen. I lay my life down for the sheep.

In John ten twenty six, he says to the Pharisees, "You're not my sheep." You see, he canceled the certificate of debt. He canceled the sin debt. Who he canceled it for? If a debt is canceled, does it exist anymore? Answer is no.

If I have a bill at a store, and a friend of mine goes in and pays that bill, the debt's canceled. Even if I'm not even aware of it, because the sufficiency of the cancelling of the debt depends on God's faithfulness, not yours. When the high priest on Yom Kippur would go in to the holy of holies and sprinkle blood on the mercy seat, the nation of Israel was propitiated. Propitiation is the sacrifice that removes wrath. It doesn't make it possible; dependent on some other action.

It removes the wrath. By the sprinkling of the blood, on the mercy seat in the holy of holies in the old testament economy, the high priest did this. The nation of Israel was therefore propitiated. Propitiation is the sacrifice that removes wrath. It's not the sacrifice that makes the removal of wrath possible.

If you do something, no, it's done. Just like Jesus, he's done. He canceled the certificate of debt. He canceled that sin debt. That's why First John two two he's a propitiation for the whole world, not just the Jews.

If he propitiated the sin that is cancelled, dude, who did he cancelled for? Everybody who ever lived doesn't make sense. If God calls people and elects them, and gives them to Christ, who's he going to come for? The ones the sovereign King knows are His. That he's chosen and given, that's why I say Second Thessalonians two thirteen, to you has been or he has chosen you from the beginning for salvation.

In Ephesians one four, he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we behold him blameless. Oh, I can go on and on. You see, now what we're going to do? I'm going to get to the issue of justification here. We're going to have a break, and I'll get to justification.

But up to that break, that a minute or so, I want you to understand something: the effectiveness of the cross of Christ is not dependent on your goodness or your wisdom or your faith. Get that into your head. The effectiveness of the cross is not dependent upon your faithfulness, your goodness, your wisdom. Or your your anything, its effectiveness is based on what Jesus did, what God in flesh did on the cross. It does not depend on your faithfulness.

He canceled the sin debt at the cross. It's not canceled when you believe, because if it were canceled when you believe, then it would not have been canceled at the cross. And it says, Colossians two fourteen, having canceled out the certificate of debt that sin debt. Consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us, he's taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. He nailed it to the cross.

That is when it's cancelled. Two thousand years ago. Two thousand years ago. It's not dependent on your wisdom, your ability, or your faith for its effectiveness. But what is dependent on your faith?

What we'll talk about after the break.

So please stay tuned. Theology lesson today on Wednesday, nine thirty, twenty twenty six. We'll be right back. Please stay tuned. It's Matt Slick live taking your calls at eight seven seven two zero seven two two seven six.

Here's Matt Slick. All right, buddy, welcome back to the show. Let me continue on this theological journey, trying to lay out for you. This is important stuff.

So, we've gone into what the gospel is and what Jesus did in the cross; how He canceled the sin debt.

Now, how is it that this is applied to you?

So, I want you to think of things this way: on the cross, for His people, Jesus stripped them clean, removed their sin, canceled their sin debt. But that would mean, in this illustration, it would mean that such a person was naked. Spiritually, we don't want that. What we want is to be clothed in righteousness.

Now, this is important because clothing is a symbol in the Bible and Revelation. You're clothed in white robes, and it talks about that. It's symbolic of being righteous. And what I'm going to do is I want to go through, and I want to go through some verses about being justified by faith.

Now, whether define what justification is, but before we do that, I wanted to read verses like, for example, John f:ive twenty four, He who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. In John s:ix forty seven, He who believes has eternal life. In Acts sixteen thirty one, believe the Lord Jesus, and you'll be saved. Romans ten nine through ten. If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised from the dead, you'll be saved.

So, what we're seeing here, along with other things like repentance, it says Mark one fifteen, repent, believe the gospel. Acts twenty twenty one, repentance toward God in faith in our Lord Jesus Christ is preached. Anyway. The thing is, what Christ did on the cross is He removed our guilt. He removed our sin.

He did it two thousand years ago. I love that. I love that. I'm so thankful. Boy, am I thankful.

So how do we apply the righteousness that is of God? Let me introduce a couple theological terms: passive obedience and active obedience. The passive obedience of Christ is that he let himself; he just didn't do anything. He was led to the cross. They are the ones who nailed him to the cross.

He's he let them do this, and so he's passive in it. He just okay, not not doing anything.

So his passive obedience removes our sin. His active obedience is what clothes us in righteousness. His act of obedience is him fulfilling the law, Matthew five seventeen fourteen through seventeen, and never sinning, First Peter two twenty two. He lived perfectly. He lived just without sin at all.

So he has, because he's God in flesh, he has this righteousness about him because he was made under the law, Galatians four four, for a little while lower than the angels, Hebrews two nine. And in that place, under the law, he lived perfectly and didn't sin once his whole life. I cannot comprehend that. I mean, the only way he could not sin for five seconds, maybe, is I'm put in a coma, and even then, I'm not so sure. But Jesus, boy, he never sinned.

He's perfect, and his sacrifice on the cross is perfect. Oh, it's wonderful!

So on the cross, he canceled the certificate of debt, our sin debt. Colossians two fourteen.

Now, what I want to read to you is something interesting. This is Philippians three nine. That we may be found in Him in Jesus, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith. We have the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith. Faith is that instrument.

By which the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us. To impute means to reckon to another's account. It's imputed, reckoned to our account. Philippians three nine. Let me read.

Let's see. Galatians two sixteen. Nevertheless, knowing that a man is not justified, we'll get to justification here a little bit. Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law. But through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law.

Since by the works of the law, no flesh shall be justified.

Now people say, "Well, what's the works of the law? What is this?" Let's go to Romans three twenty. Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. For through the law comes the knowledge of sin. Through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

This is the moral law: don't lie, don't commit adultery, etc. Don't steal. You know, on your mom and dad, the law reveals sin to us because the law is a reflection of the character of God.

Now, Jesus says, "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks." Matthew twelve thirty four.

So, when God spoke, "Let there be light," He's speaking out of what's in Him, and when He gives the law, "Don't lie, don't steal, don't this," on your mom and dad, He's speaking out of the abundance of His heart.

So, the law is a reflection of the character of God. The law is a reflection of the character of God, and only God can keep that law. We can't.

So the law is interesting; it brings about the opposite of what it requires. It says, "Be holy," and shows you when you are not holy because you break it. It says, "You keep the law, you'll get life," but it condemns you if you break the law. And so that's what we do. We we condemn ourselves by breaking the law.

James two ten, for whoever keeps the whole law yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. And Galatians three ten, for as many as are the works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law to perform them." Oh man, but you know what's really interesting? Galatians three eleven.

Now that no one is justified by the law before God is evident, for the righteous man shall live by faith. You got to live by faith. Habakkuk two four says, "The just shall live by faith." The just, justification. What is this? What is this justification that is being spoken of here?

I'm going to show you exactly in Scripture where it's said to be what it is. It tells us what it is. I'm showing exactly. Go to Romans four, starting at verse one, and we're going to go through. At the very least, we'll go through verse five.

Maybe verse six. We'll do that. One through six of Romans four. Check this out. What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh, has found?

For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. He believed, and it was credited him as righteousness.

Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but what is due. Verse five, Romans four five, but to the one who does not work but believes, that's faith alone. But to the one who does not work but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, His faith is credited as righteousness.

So, what is justification? The crediting of righteousness by faith. Verse six, just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works. When you believe, the righteousness of God is credited to you. Philippians three nine, we have a righteousness that's not our own, a righteousness not derived from the law, but by faith.

Now remember earlier in the show I said God grants we have faith. Philippians one twenty nine. Jesus says this is the work of God that you believe on Him whom He has sent. John six twenty nine.

So even the faith we have is a gift from God that then justifies us by the grace of God from the work of God on the cross in the person of Christ. Isn't this beautiful? And God grants it to whom He desires.

Now we can get into all kinds of issues, all kinds of things, but just we don't have a bunch of time. I'm going to go to James, James two fourteen, and read a little bit because people always bring up James. They try and set James against Paul or Jesus, but I can show you that the words of Jesus says the same thing as Paul because Paul teaching from what Christ said. But look, look, this what it says here. He says in James two fourteen.

What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him? What faith? The faith that doesn't produce anything. It's dead.

It's nothing. Is that the kind of faith that saves anybody? Of course not, because that's not the faith granted by God. He grants it. Philippians one twenty nine.

If God grants you faith, it's real. Come from him. What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? It's a dead faith.

What kind of faith is it? I'll show you. He says, if a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and be filled," and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so, faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.

Well, of course, if we're believers, we're to act out our belief. We are to work it out, as Philippians two thirteen, two twelve and thirteen says. It says, "My beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in the present in my presence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." To work it out doesn't mean to obtain it. It means it's in there. You have it.

Work. Get it out! Get it out of you! Let's go! Let's see it.

This is what James is talking about. If you have true faith, a faith that comes from God, let's see it. It's it's going to manifest, right? That's why he says, "Well, faith that has no works is dead. It's nothing." But verse 18 of James 2.

But someone may well say, "You have faith, and I have works. Show me your faith without the works. I will show you my faith by my works." Now, this is what we call the horizontal. Between people, you show me your faith by your works. Lack of works, I'll show you what I have by my works.

Notice what he says. He says, "You have show me your faith without works. That that faith is not real faith that comes from God. Not been granted to him by God. That's the key." He goes on to verse nineteen.

You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe and shudder. In other words, that's the kind of faith. It's a demonic faith.

It's nothing more than mental acknowledgment. That's not the faith granted from God. It's not real. But how do I know you have that real faith, or how do you know I have that real faith? It's simple, by what we do, what we say, how we live.

That's not to say we're perfect, but we profess Christ. We live Christ. That's what true faith is. Verse twenty. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?

That's right, absolutely right. Was not Abraham our father justified by works? What was not he justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? Let me ask you. That's what I ask the cults and the false religions when they bring this up.

Was he justified before God or before man? Because note what he says. If a brother or sister is in need, verse fifteen. That's on the horizontal. You show me your faith, I'll show you mine.

That's on the horizontal. Who's he talking about? Justifications before people, not before God, because God already knows. Since He's the one who grants that you have faith. Romans one twenty nine.

Our believing is the work of God. John six twenty nine.

He doesn't need proof if He grants it to us. What James is talking about is on the human level. He says, "Without Abraham, our father, justified by what he did when he offered Isaac his son." Yeah, that's how we know his faith was real. You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, his faith was perfected. Faith was perfected, and the scripture was fulfilled, which says, "And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness." What was reckoned to him as righteousness?

His faith, his righteousness before God. Because in Genesis fifteen six, Abraham believed God was reckoned as righteousness. That's the context. When you believe God, you're declared righteous. But James is saying in the other verses, he's saying before people.

That's the issue. There you go, folks. We're justified by faith alone in Christ alone. He did everything on the cross, and we're saved by what He did. He gets all the glory.

Praise God for what He has done. There's the music. I'm out of here. May the Lord bless you by His grace. Be back on here tomorrow.

And if you got questions about all this, call me tomorrow. We'll talk. Lord willing. God bless everybody. God bless.