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 calm. dot org. When you have questions about Bible doctrines, turn to Matt Slick Live.

Parentheses taking your calls and responding to your questions at eight seven seven two zero seven two two seven six. Here's Matt Slick. Everybody, welcome to the show. Hey, I'm just thinking like five things at once already. Today's date is October second, twenty twenty-six, and just 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, and.

Think about a bunch of stuff here. There's a bunch of stuff.

So, Mr. Matt, look live. You want to give me a call? You can also send an email to info at caram. dot org.

Info at c a r m. dot org. All right.

Now, just going to let you guys know that I will not be live on the air for probably three weeks. I'm going to Europe, and I won't be on the air Monday. And going on a Reformation tour, a Reformation tour. It's to follow how the Reformation worked out of Germany, went to England.

So I went to Germany and England, and we're going to have someone house sitting in the meantime, and stuff like that.

So I will be out of commission for a while. I've done this before. I've had two trips to Turkey to. Two trips to Israel, been to Greece, been to Italy, on very Bible tours, and now we're doing a Reformation tour, so.

So there you go.

So for next, basically three weeks, it'll be two and a half ish, give or take. It all depends on how I feel when I get back, you know, because of jet lag and stuff like that.

So just kind of leave that up in the air a little bit. But two and a half weeks.

So if you have questions or you have comments, now is the time to give me a call. It is easy eight seven seven two zero seven two two seven six. All right, nice stuff.

Okay, nobody waiting right now.

So what I do is tell you, I took a walk around the block, and so I did about two and a half miles, maybe I don't know. And so when I do this, sometimes I get into chat rooms, and this was no different. And something interesting happened. This guy. He gets on.

He's trying to promote the false churches. He was either Eastern Orthodox or Roman Catholic, and he asked me this question, and it was like, "Are you serious?" And he's trying to be articulate and intelligent and competent, and he says. Ephemeral grace, which is something he says you hold to, man. I read your website, and but anyway, it's temporary, non-saving, gracious insight that God gives to people. You can see things.

It's more of a sense job, and it doesn't mean that they're saved. And so, in that sense, yeah, no problem. And he said, "How do you tell that kind of grace from true saving grace?" He says, "But without knowing any works, without seeing any works." Let me get this straight.

So, the means that God tells us to tell the difference, you negate and say, "How do I work by negating areas of Scripture?" Which is James t:wo, fourteen through twenty six, which says that you know someone's faith by what they do. It's this that simple. I said that's how you know is through their works, what they do. That's how you know, and you are saying now decide without that. But I said, but that's the means that God decided, and you know, and they think they've got me.

Like, are you serious? And then they they want to say things like these. These poor people, they want to say, well, you see, works are necessary. I said, necessary for what? Necessary for man to see, but not God, because God grants us faith.

Romans one twenty nine. God doesn't have to know if we have faith; He grants it to us. The idea of having worked with faith is a demonstration before people, not before God. You know, I even said at one point, "It was," and that was one of these conversations I had. I said, "What's this amateur night tonight?

What is this?" And oh man, I'm telling you, it's just it was bad. It was bad, and this is what happens with a cult mind. And when the cult mind gets going, they can't see the truth. They don't want the truth. Why?

I'll tell you why. Because their church is true. And one guy he quoted, he references, isn't the church the the foundation, the pillar of the truth? And I said, yeah, you know, I told him he's referencing First Peter. I'm sorry, First Timothy three fifteen.

I said, "Yeah, it's the pillar of the truth. It isn't the truth." And I says, "You, in your church, Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholics, your church is the truth. No, the church is the pillar of the truth." The truth is Jesus. He's the way, the truth, and the life. I kept pointing this out to them, but they always want to point to their church.

It's our church. Let me tell you guys something. Let me just give you some. This is wisdom. This is scripture.

This is just just check us out. If you go to a church, a group, whatever it is, and they say they're from God, well, you're going to check their doctrines. Make sure they believe in the Trinity. Jesus is God in flesh, died on the cross, rose from the dead.

Okay. Let's just say that.

Okay, that's it. What are they glorifying? They glorifying their church, or they glorifying God. It comes down to that simple question: They glorifying their church, their prophet, their church organization, or they're bringing glory ultimately to the Lord God Himself. What is it now?

What they'll do is when you say, "You're like, hey, you're superior to your church," because God gave us the church, and they always want to use God as the excuse to elevate their church. And that's how you can tell. It's one of the ways you can tell if someone's true, because the Holy Spirit bears witness of Jesus. The Holy Spirit bears witness of Christ. He's God in flesh.

And so, more specifically, a church that bears witness of who Jesus is, what He has done.

Now we're on the right track. But if someone says our church is the true church, our church has true apostolic authority, our church has the true tradition, our church, our church, our church, they're not of God. That simple. The Holy Spirit bears witness of Christ. You go to John fourteen twenty six, John fifteen twenty six.

The Scriptures bear witness of Christ. The Father, Jesus, everybody bears witness of Christ. But no, what they're going to do is bear witness of their church because church membership. And there's another thing. I was talking to one guy, right, in my discussion.

I was walking around the block, and. He asked me a question about the church. You know, he says, "You know, the does the Book of Matthew bear witness of the church?" And I and I, I said, "Well, it's not a well formed question." I said, "What do you mean by church?" Because there's different ways you can understand the word church. And he said, "Don't obfuscate, try and confuse things." I said, "It's not, it's not confusing things by asking what you specifically mean. It's a request for precision." And he accused me of trying to avoid the question.

I said, "What do you mean by church? You mean the invisible church? You mean ecclesiastical structured church? What do you think it means? What is it?" He goes, "Whatever you think it means." I'm like, "You asked the question.

It's just pathetically bad sometimes." This is what happens when you get people who are loyal to a church. Over the Lord Jesus Christ, a church and their tradition, a church and their way of doing things, shameful, shameful, shameful. And anyway, so it was bad. I had a lot of discussions. Oh, oh, and here is this one thing was interesting.

I said, I said to one guy, I said, look, I said. He was a Catholic, I think. He was a Catholic guy. I said, "Look, you're walking on the block. Because I was walking on the block at the time.

You're walking on the block, right? And you come across a car accident, and there's this guy laying on the pavement, and and he's you can tell he's bleeding out. And he asks you, 'What do I do? What do I? How do I get saved and go to heaven?'" I said, "What do you tell him?

He's got just minutes." And what he actually said. Get this," he actually says. "You have to believe in Jesus, trust in Jesus. He's God. He died on the cross, right?

And you have to want to get baptized, and et cetera, et cetera." I said, "Well, that's Protestant teaching." No lie, he said, "No, it's not." I'm like, that is Protestant teaching, and he actually says that no, it's not. He goes, yes, it is. I have a master's degree from a Protestant seminary. We've studied. I've studied this for 46 years.

That's what it is, and it was just ridiculous. And I said, welcome to Protestantism. That I quoted. Then, in fact, I was a Catholic, and I quoted paragraph twenty sixty-eight. You attain salvation through faith, baptism, and the observance of the commandments.

So he was even citing what his church was saying is necessary, and all this stuff, because paragraph twenty thirty-six and twenty seventy, keeping the laws necessary for salvation. You know, he just. I even said at one point, walking around, I said, "You know, I'm feeling guilty, like I'm arguing with a kid because he just don't know how to defend your faith. You don't even know what's going on." And oh man! And then I kept saying to them, "Titus one thirteen, look up Titus one thirteen." And no one did.

I don't know if they did or not, but I said it enough times. And this is what it says: "For this reason, reprove them severely, so that they may be sound in the faith." So I reproved them. I said, "You guys are preaching the false gospel." You're not a true church. Anyway, that's what I did in the past hour. Hope you guys had a good time.

Let's see, Matt from Texas. Matt, welcome. You're on the air. What's up, Matt? I just had a quick question.

Get your view. Get your take on it. I was reading John Gill's Systematic Theology, okay, and he was talking about in the section there. He's talking about the Trinity. And he he kind of you know he explains that of course one God three persons, Father begets the Son and the Spirit proceeds from them both.

But then I hear like Orthodox, like the Eastern Orthodox, they'll say like the Father, the Son, and the Spirit proceeds from the Father. And I didn't know like I don't know I know this kind of goes back to the Great Schism, but I don't have like a lot of information on it. I was just wondering what your take was, or if there's another view. Yes.

Okay. So, eternal—it's called eternal generation, eternal procession. It deals with mainly with with the person of Christ, but there's this thing where the Bible says. Here, let me go to the scriptures.

Okay, I'm going to the scriptures here. It's called the filioque. That's what they're talking about, filioque, and if you go to, I think it's in John fourteen twenty six. No, that's not it. Fifteen twenty-six.

It's fourteen seventeen. Trying to remember these verses in my head.

Okay, I'll just look at this way. Yeah, it's fifteen twenty-six. When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the Father. He will testify testify about me.

So, Philip Koi deals with proceeding from the Father and the Son. And this says John fourteen, or excuse me, John fifteen twenty six. It says only the Father. And so the question is a debate: Does the Spirit proceed from the Father alone, or from the Father and the Son? And this was a great schism of ten fifty four.

Now the E O will say from the Father only, and generally speaking, Protestants will say from the Father and the Son. And the Catholics hold to the procession of the Father and the Son.

Now I could make an argument from both sides, and I've told people this because the EO want to, they want to lambast me for this kind of a thing, and. I'll say no, no, no, no. I, I don't make a decision on it. I do it on purpose so that they won't have some, some handle to try and nail at me because I can, I can make it like I said, a case for both. Because you have the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and then you have necessary attributes to each person, but you also have necessary attributes in the nature of the, the Trinitarian being, where the West looks as the three persons as the thing you start with, the start.

Starting point of analysis, the East Eo looks at the Father as the starting place. And so you get these differences of roads that are parallel, but they're separate, and they kind of deviate a little bit down the road as you make these doctrines. And so the issue here of the Father beginning, the Son begotten, and the Spirit proceeds is is deals with beginning, generation, and spiration.

So, anyway, giving you a bit of a history.

Okay, so. I wouldn't worry about it. I would say, at the very least, believe that the Spirit proceeds from the Father because it's exactly what it says from John fourteen twenty six. Good theologians have argued on both sides. It's not absolutely settled, so you can believe either one from the Father alone or from the Father and the Son, and you're within orthodoxy.

Okay. All right, I hear you, man. Yeah, thanks for the answer. Because I don't know, I just didn't find any other, you know, good information on it. But right, because I, you know, I want to be, I don't want to be incorrect.

You know what I mean? The way I hold on, hold on, we got a break.

So hold on, let's get back to this, okay? After the break, sorry, everybody, we got to go. Hold on. Hey folks, be right back after this message. We'll talk to Matt again about the Filliock Way.

We're 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. 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. We have three open lines. Let's get back on with Matt from Texas.

Okay, Matt.

Sorry about that. The break kind of interrupted us.

So, where were you? Yeah, no worries, man. I appreciate the good information on the Philly Oakway. I just didn't want to be wrong. Kind of tighten up my group, you know, because I explain it.

You know the Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Does the Spirit generates from them both? You know, but yeah, proceeds, yeah.

So here's the thing. What I would do if I were you is just study the issue. I think I've got an article on karma. I believe I do, but maybe I don't.

Sometimes I think I have an article when I don't. I've written so much.

So Galatians four six says, because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into the hearts.

So the Holy Spirit has sent the Spirit of the Son. And in John sixteen fifteen, it's interesting. Jesus says, all things that the Father has are mine. Therefore, he says, he takes of mine and discloses it to you. All that the Father has, all things he has, I have.

So, if the Spirit proceeds from the Father, then we could make the inference that the Spirit proceeds from the Son, out of John sixteen fifteen. All things that the Father has are mine.

Now, does it exactly mean that?

Well, that's a discussion we could have. We have Romans eight nine.

However, you are not of the flesh, but in the Spirit. If the Spirit of God dwells in you, if you have the Spirit of Christ, with the Spirit of God, as the Holy Spirit is indwelling.

Well, does he he indwells us by the by his well? You know that.

So the question is: Is he completely and only sent by the Father?

Now, let me hold on. If we were to look at the Eastern view of the Trinity, which is that the Father is the ultimate source of everything, without a temporal beginning, but an ontological reality. In that, the same way when electricity is in a light bulb, light is present. They're simultaneous, but one brings the other about. Where electricity brings light into existence.

Now that I don't want to use the word existence, but the Father is the one who's the source of the Son in this view. But it does not mean that the Son had a beginning, but that is eternal in in a logical sense. This is very interesting stuff to talk about, and I understand it, and I can see why they would say that. On the other hand, since the the being of God is one one being, Jesus says all that the Father does, the Son does likewise. In John fifteen nineteen, John fifteen or John five nineteen, John five thirty.

Excuse me.

Well, if the Father sends the Spirit, then the Son sends the Spirit. If the Spirit proceeds from the Father, then it would make sense that the Son, the Spirit proceeds from the from the Son as well.

So there are arguments on both. Sides that can be that can make to support both sides, and it's let's just say it's been a it's been a battle since ten fifty four, and the filioque and filioque means from the son and from the son.

So the Western says and from the son, where the EO says only from the the father.

Okay, lot lot there.

Okay, cool man. Thanks for the information and safe travels, Matt. Hey, buddy! Thanks a lot, man. Appreciate it.

All right.

Well, there you go. It's a it's an interesting discussion, and I like discussing things like that. And I can't, in my my opinion, I cannot myself decide which is the correct view. If I were to have to land on one or the other, and. I just say there's good arguments on both sides, so that's where I'm at right now.

Okay, let's get to Scott from Washington. Scott, welcome you on the air. Hey there, Matt. I just had a question about Paul.

So, sort of a two part question. The first one is, you know, maybe I'm confusing Pharisees with priests, but you know, the priests were Levites. Were Pharisees Levites also? By by, you know, have to be Levites. I don't believe so.

No, Levites class was priests.

Okay. Okay. Yeah, because I thought about it last night. I'm like, well, Paul was a Pharisee, but he was a Benjaminite, so it just confused me. But okay.

And then my other question is. If Paul was a Pharisee, you know, it said that he was a tent maker by trade. I assume that probably was after he was a Christian, right? Because I don't see Pharisees having like a side job. But yeah, well, they would have other jobs, from what I understood.

But it could be. Which I've never studied. Were the Pharisees supported by a tithe offering from Israel? And that's a good question. I just never studied that.

If they were, and then he left the Pharisee, then he'd have to the Pharisaical order. Then he'd have to have a job making tents, and that's what he did.

So that's a good question, though.

Okay, I don't know.

Okay, yeah, it's just something I thought about. Just well, did you got time for one more? Sure, no problem.

Okay, so I finished First Samuel this morning, and so in First Samuel twenty-eight, verse six, which of which of Endor? My question is, what is a Urim? Urim. What's a Urim? There's a There is the urim and thummim, and it's a communication device that the high priest used.

So, it so the urim and thummim on the priest had twelve stones, and we don't know exactly what it is.

So, it might have been something that lit up when God's presence was there. What's really interesting is that I'm trying to remember this. The stones that are mentioned in Revelation, there's a certain characteristic to each one of them that does not exist in other stones. It's a light refraction, something that only occurs with those listed. And I forget what that was, but any rate, so we don't know what the eremithumum was exactly.

But it was comprised of stones. Joseph Smith said he had one of the Urim and Thummim, one of the stones that he translated the Book of Abraham and the Book of Mormon by. He just said that because you know he didn't know what he was doing. He didn't understand.

So that's that's what we don't know what it is exactly.

Okay. So is is that synonymous with an Ephod, or are they different? Oh, yeah. An ephod is different. I'm trying to think.

I think an an ephod is a measurement of some sort. An ephod, and but it's not. I was wrong. I'm just looking it up. It's a priestly garment.

Ephod's a priestly, a sleeveless vest. That's what it is.

Okay. Is it in First Samuel? Go ahead. It it specifies at one part about an ephod, and I'm pretty sure I've just read it. It said it literally said not an ephod of clothing, but a different ephod.

Oh, really? What they would use? Yeah. I wish I wrote the verse down specifically, but it's probably in 28 or 27. Let me go over there and see.

First Samuel 28 ephod. Please bring me the ephod.

So brought the ephod to David, and if I look it up, it's six forty six. Go to the lexicon. Priestly garment, shoulder cape or mantle, outer garment worn by the ordinary. Oh, I just hit the wrong thing. Six forty six.

Let's see, worn by the high priest, more costly, woven of gold, etc. Um.

So it's definitely an object, and let's see if it occurs another place. And another one, he brought the ephod to David, and then in Second Samuel six, it talks about it wearing a linen ephod. That's the same word.

So it's a it's a garment of some sort. I'm not sure exactly which reference you have there, but that's what it says so far. All right, buddy. There's a break, man. You know, maybe I'm confusing that with the notes in the Bible.

Well, hold on. We got a break. We got a break. Oh, we got a break. Hold on.

Sure. Hey folks, we'll be right back after these messages. But we have three open lines. Why don't you 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. All right, buddy.

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. Let's get back on with Dwayne. All right, I mean with Dwayne, not with Dwayne, with Scott. Excuse me.

Okay, Scott. I did a little bit of research during the break, so I found out a little bit more information. But go ahead.

Okay. I basically was just saying I might have gotten confused with my notes rather than the actual scripture. Can't really remember right now, but I just have literally one last quick question. I think, and that's in the same chapter, First Samuel, but verse nineteen. And so this is when Paul is talking to the witch of Endor.

He's talking to Samuel. And my question is: Samuel says literally when he's talking to Saul that you know tomorrow you and your sons will be here with me, and based on where Samuel was, as he was a believer and used by God, would that? Basically, mean that Saul and his sons were for sure going to heaven. Could you infer that? Not, not heaven there at that time as one view would hold.

They went to Abraham's bosom, or a holding place. Right, but that they would be redeemed. Yeah, and that's the general view. Yeah, you're going to be with me where I am. You know, and he's not in hell, but in the most people say paradise or the or the holding place, Abraham's bosom.

Yeah. Yeah, because I I thought that too, but you know I figured that you know the waiting place for those destined to heaven would be Abraham's bosom, and the waiting place for those not would be somewhere painful. Right, right.

So I just sort of inferred that they're probably going to heaven, right? Or I mean, would you think that? Yeah, because he says with me, right. That's the inference, right? Yeah.

Okay. Okay. All right.

Well, yeah, that's all I had. Just those four. Which really interesting. You know, I just thought of something. You and your sons, because this is really interesting.

This is off topic, but it's it's help me figure something out. I'm doing a funeral tomorrow for a woman who committed suicide. She was a Christian, and Saul committed.

So I mean Samuel. Yeah, Saul.

Okay, so I'm looking here.

So Saul committed suicide. But notice what it says in First Samuel twenty eight nineteen. Moreover, the Lord give Israel along with you into the hand of the Philistines. Therefore, tomorrow, you and your sons will be with me. That means it's a prophecy that comes from God.

Which means that even in his suicide, he went to heaven. This is at First Samuel twenty nineteen.

So, this is one of those things I learned. I just figured this out. I go, oh, so this is a verse used to show that those who commit suicide that doesn't automatically mean you're going to hell, because a lot of people say it means that, but it doesn't. And this is a good supporting verse. Exactly.

So anyway, see, I'm always picking things. Cool. All right, man. All right.

Sounds good. All right.

Well, talk to you soon. All right.

Yeah, tomorrow night, in fact. Yeah, that's right. All right, buddy. God bless. All right.

Hey, now let's get to Dwayne from North Carolina. Dwayne, welcome. You're on the air. Yeah. Hello.

Good to talk to you, Matt. Thank you. Nice talking to you too. I I'm I'm 82, and the only commentary I have is a one volume commentary from my NIV Bible. And I was thinking about ordering some individual commentaries, and I was wondering if you have a series or something that would be good to order from.

And then maybe if you were ordering your first three individual commentaries, what you would pick.

Well, that's a good question because you see, I prefer reformed commentaries. But the let's see, I'm going to go into my Bible program. I have lots of commentaries, and so let's see my library, and I'm going to do commentary because some of the names I don't have them all memorized. Commentary, um. I'm going to look through because I have I have so many commentaries from so many people.

So, man, I'm just scrolling through. There's thirty, forty, fifty.

So, Weersby is supposed to be pretty good. Walverd is good. The Bible Knowledge Commentary. That's that's what I was looking for.

So the Bible Knowledge Commentary is a single volume commentary. I recommend you get a single volume commentary. Also, the Bible Knowledge Commentary, the Bible Knowledge Commentary, that's it—a single volume.

Now, the reason I recommend you get a single volume one is you can go to a verse and you can look up what it is, and it'll give you a very generic, very quick. Bird's eye view of something, and that's good. Then what you can do also, if you really want in depth stuff, is you go get a commentary on a particular book, where it's a particular book commentary is as big as the whole Bible commentary.

Some of them are like that; they really go in depth.

So in that place. There's so many. I just I have not gone through them. I cannot say which are really good and which are really bad.

So what I do is I tend to go to reformed theologians from the reformed faith, Calvinism. The reason I do is not that the non-reformed aren't good. It's just that the non-reformed have a wider range of interpretations and varying things that there's more of a chance of getting into something not so good. Where reformed theologians, they are going to be very precise and very biblical. And then, if you don't agree with reformed perspective in a few areas, you can just kind of gloss over those if you don't think they're correct in a couple things.

Where let's just say hypothetically. You might have one out of a five hundred things you might not agree with in a reform commentary, but you might have twenty things that might be problematic in a non-reform commentary because they're not that any particular one's bad, but because the non-reformed ones have a broader range of writers, and so you it's hard to nail down which one's better. Does that make sense? Yes.

Yeah. Sure. So you know, get get single Bible commentary or a reformed series in, or yeah, yes, I do have. Remember some of the names? I'll get them here in a sec.

Let's see. And I'm looking up. There's a couple names. I've got a couple commentaries. Oh man, they were good.

And I'm trying. I can see the book in my head, but I don't remember the name. But as soon as I see the name, I go, "That's it." And so I'm looking up Reformed commentary authors.

Well, John Calvin, Bullinger's Bullinger's actually pretty interesting. He's good. Let's see, Matthew Henry's not too bad. He's good. And let's see.

Let's see. Now that's that's reformed commentaries, reformation era Puritans. Hendrickson—that's the—that's what I was looking for. William Hendrickson, that was good. And also Ritterbass, last name Ritterbass.

He did Galatians and John. And then Martin Lloyd Jones did Romans and Ephesians.

So, you see.

Okay. Yeah, I see what you're saying. Yeah. There. And then there's the Geneva series of commentaries, which I think automatically would be good.

And then there's the Reformed Expository Commentary. But you know, even though I'm very reformed, I want to just urge you to just do nothing but reformed. But that's not what I'm going to say. I would say get a non-reformed commentary too. You go through, and you decide by your examination, in learning from both sides, and go into the word and learn.

And you'll find things you'll agree with and don't agree with, as long as you're not, you know, as long as you're staying inside of orthodoxy and stuff like that. And you'll just you'll benefit all the way around. And the other one you mentioned was Weirsby, I believe. Yes, Weirsby. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. All right.

And if you were going to. Pick three books. If you were starting out, what three books would you consider?

Well, depends what your goal is. What would you? What are you most interested in learning?

Okay, you want theology? You want relation? I don't. I don't have an answer for that.

Okay, let me try this then. I recommend. This is my personal opinion.

So, if you dismiss it, that's fine. It's my opinion. I believe that for understanding the Bible, the understanding being mind, where heartfelt stuff is more devotional. But since we're talking about commentaries and we're looking at learning truths and relationships of truths with Scripture and things like this, then if you're to do that, I believe that theology is super important. I'd get a commentary in the Book of John.

And a commentary in the book of Romans and a commentary in the book of Galatians. John, Romans, Galatians, because John is more about the person of Christ, relationship. But there's theology in there. Romans is theological, and Galatians is theological. I would go through Galatians first because it's a it's like being a shorter version of Romans.

And you could also go to go to Ephesians.

So Ephesians is also a really good book with some stuff that's just really good. And I've written commentaries, so to speak, Bible commentaries on Carm, my my Bible study. Commentaries. If you hold on, I'll tell you where to find them on Karm because we got a break.

Okay, hold on, brother.

Okay. Hey folks, we're right back after these messages. Please, please stay tuned. 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. All right, buddy, welcome back to the show. Let's get back on with Dwayne from North Carolina. Dwayne, are you still there? Ah, yes, sir.

All right, man. Okay, so I, if if you were to go to Karm, for example, and I looked, there's not as many as as I'd hoped I'd have put up, but you could go there and just look up Bible hyphen studies, Karm.org forward slash Bible studies, Bible hyphen studies in it in the URL. And you'll see the the commentaries that I've I've developed for teaching Bible studies. And there's one complete one in the Book of Romans, and so you could go through and there's there's a video links. I don't know if I have the video links in there or not, but you can see the documents that I've written in in Word, Microsoft Word.

You can just click it and download it. And you can just read through them, and so these are—I would call these a lower level Bible study—that you could, you know, oh, I get it. That's a general. Oh, I get it generally. Then you can read more commentaries and more stuff and learn even more.

All right, and it's there. Right.

Okay. So okay.

Well, I I appreciate that you gave me a a very detailed. Explanation and some some good suggestions.

So thank you very much.

Well, good. I'm glad it was helpful. And and here's another recommendation I have for you while you're doing this, all of this stuff. What I'd recommend is that you keep a notebook of studying what you learn. And I like the idea of doing a.

An outline assist. I do everything by outline because it just helps organize information.

So let's say you're going through a commentary, and you're just reading something. You're going through the scriptures. You don't understand something. You want a note about something, and then you go into Microsoft Word or Google Docs, whatever it is, and you. You want to make sure it's saved, not just on a hard drive, because you know you want to save it online.

But anyway, just learn what you learn. Like if you learn about the Trinity, you write the word Trinity is, and then you make an outline thing, alphabetical. You type the Trinity is this, and here are these verses. Or in this particular verse, I learned this or that. It just start learning and writing down the things that you you learn, and the reason is because when you see something, learn something, and you.

Write it down. It's more apt for you to remember it. Plus, if you come back to it a month or two months a year later and you read what you wrote, oh, I forgot. I remembered that.

Now I remember that. And it's just a nice way of of learning.

Okay, it's helpful.

Okay, thank you.

Well, I'm I'm still seeking. You would say, even at at my age, so I certainly appreciate it. You are a Christian, right? No surprise. No, yeah.

Well, we have nobody waiting. Why don't we just stay on here and talk then about this?

Okay. Well, that would that would be fine with me. I'm 82, and I've been very interested since high school and and been close and all that. I changed churches. My church.

Essentially stopped, and I changed church to a very large church, a Baptist church, and and for about about a year ago, and it's been very good. But I still I watch a lot of I listen to more Christian radio than I watch Christian TV. But yeah, I I I know enough to know I'm I'm not saved.

Well, then let's we need to talk about that, okay? Because what salvation is is being saved from God's righteous judgment upon a sinner, and so that's what it means to be saved.

So, if you have sinned, and I have too, if you have sinned, then if you've not trusted in Christ, but if you've sinned, then the judgment of God is waiting for you. And when you die, you'll go to hell. Is that simple? And since our sins are against God, you know, He says don't lie, so we lie. We've offended Him.

It's against His character, and we cannot undo that. We can't make it better. We're just not good enough.

So God did this. And as who Jesus is, as God in flesh, and He lived a perfect life, and He went to the cross, and on that cross, God the Father put our sins upon Him. He put them on Him. He lived perfectly, never did anything wrong, and then sin is breaking the law of God, First John three four.

So it's a debt, a legal thing, and a legal thing is a is a concept. It's it's not something you put in a bag, and so the reality of the offense against God is what was put upon Christ, and so he died with them. And that means those sins are then removed and paid for. And what you're supposed to do is trust and you believe what he did in the cross, Jesus. You believe that he died and rose from the dead, and you trust in what he did.

You receive his sacrifice on that cross for the forgiveness of your sins. This is what you're supposed to do. Does that make sense? Yes, yes, yes, it does. Yeah.

Yeah. Do you believe Jesus? Yeah, I understand. Yeah, I've. Yeah, he.

Yeah, he died for our sins, and. Do you believe? Do you believe he rose from the dead after three days? Do you believe that? Yes, I.

Yeah, okay.

Well, the resurrection of Christ is the proof that what He said and did was true, and so He says, "He alone is the way, the truth, and the life, and nobody comes to the Father but by Him." John fo:urteen six.

So, you trust in Him. And he, Bible says in John one twelve, as many as received him, you receive by faith. You trust in what he did to cleanse you of your sin. That's what you do. You you can ask Jesus to forgive you.

You can ask him just to cleanse you of all of your sins. Turn to Christ. That's what you're supposed to do. That makes sense. Yes, it does.

I've been I've been very close quite a few times, and I I just haven't taken the step. And I write notes to myself. You were talking about writing notes about you know the Bible or commentary, and I do write quite a few notes. A lot of times, based on the sermon or or whatever, and what I really need to do is is be all in. I'm I'm convinced that what you believe you the reason you're here for is is the most important thing in your life.

But I let other things distract me and. And and and just sort of go on, and I'm tired. I'm you know going on is is it's not working out. Getting by is not working out.

Well, have you ever? You can pray to Jesus. The Bible says Jesus says in John fourteen fourteen, ask me anything in my name, and I will do it. And he has all authority in heaven and earth. Matthew twenty eight eighteen.

Have you ever prayed to the person of Christ and asked him to forgive you of all of your sins? And have you ever done that? No, no, I haven't.

Well, you can do that. You know, you can do that any time. You can do it now. You could do it later. Doesn't matter.

You know, now is better than later. I mean, you don't want to, you know, get hit by a comet, and and die, and and miss the opportunity. But the issue is that you can ask Christ any time to forgive you of all of your sins, and you, your best of your ability, you can just trust in what He's done. That's what you do. Okay.

Are you there? Yes.

Oh, yes. Yes, I'm here. See. Yeah i I would. I think it's.

I think it's past time. Yeah, I would like to. Do you like to want you want to receive Christ right now? Not forcing you. I am just asking.

Yes, yes. I'll tell you what. We only have a few minutes left.

Okay. Now, what I'll do is I can pray with you. All right.

You got to understand, it's not reciting a prayer that saves you. It's your trust in Christ. But prayer is just one of the ways we do that. All right.

So, how about if I? Just kind of lead you a little, and then you can acknowledge and and do the same thing.

Okay, all right.

Okay. Okay. Lord Jesus, I just want to come before you and ask that you be with Dwayne here, and that you would open his heart and mind to you, and that you would save him, Lord.

So, Dwayne, do you confess that Jesus Christ is God in flesh? Do you? Yes.

Do you believe he died on the cross and rose from the dead? Yes.

Do you believe that he paid for our sins on that cross? Yes.

Okay. Then, do you receive what he did? Do you trust in what he did on the cross for the forgiveness of your sins? Is that what you put your faith and trust in? Yes.

Okay. Then tell you what. Why don't you right now just pray to Christ publicly here and ask him to forgive you, ask him to be your your savior. It's doesn't have to be long. Just talk to him.

Okay. We only have a minute and a half.

Sorry to pressure you, but. Because it'll end here. Oh no!

Okay, just go ahead and talk to Jesus. Pray to go ahead.

Okay. All right, Jesus, I would pray that you forgive my many sins and procrastination and and thinking of different ways to. To put things off, and understand that that you are have saved me and and everyone else that is is is going is a going to be a believer, and I want to thank you and and make you. My my top priority, very top priority, and and worship you and God and glorify you, Amen, brother. In Jesus' name.

Now look, unfortunately, we got like twenty seconds, thirty seconds left before the hard break. I can't help it. And I just praise God.

Okay, you've trusted in Christ. Would if you would, would you please contact us at info at karm dot org? Just info at karm dot, and we will kind of keep contact with you, okay, and help you and stuff like that.

Okay, info at karm dot org. All right, okay, brother. All right, I got I got the pen and paper here. Thank you very much. All right, God bless, Wayne.

God bless. All right, folks. What a great way to end the week. May the Lord bless you. And like I said, I'll be gone for about three weeks while I go to Europe on a Bible Reformation tour.

And by God's grace, we'll be back on the air maybe the 23rd or something like that. We'll see you. God bless and pray for Dwayne. God bless. Bye.

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