Matt Slick Live

A previously recorded Matt Slick show. It's Matt Slick live. Matt is the founder and president of the Christian Apologetics Research Ministry found online at karm.org. When you have questions about Bible doctrines, turn to Matt Slick live.

Francis taking your calls and responding to your questions at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. All right, everyone. Welcome back.

Hey, I'm back. It's Wednesday, October 7th, and I was out two days, Monday and Tuesday. You may notice my voice is a little bit raspy.

That's because I had some congestion and head cold and all that kind of stuff, and it could hardly talk for a couple of days. But I'm managing today, and there you go. So thanks for your prayers. I know people are praying about that, and I do appreciate that.

If you want to give me a call, as usual, all you got to do is dial 877-207-2276. Excuse me. Boy, still getting over the head cold here. But no, it's not COVID and all of that. We didn't have it checked, but whatever.

So there you go. I was feeling fine. Feeling fine. Just had trouble talking, and I was even in a couple of chat rooms, and I'll tell you, it is pretty difficult to be in the chat room when heresy is going, and I can't say anything. It's like, no, not now.

But that's how it was. Okay, we have five wide open lines if you want to give me a call, folks. Easy dial, 877-207-2276. And as I was just letting you guys know, because a lot of people might not know that I'm back on live, because I was sick for a few days, and all you got to do is dial 877-207-2276. Today is October 7th, and I hope that you guys want to give me a call.

Please do, and we can blab. And let's get on the phones. We'll just jump right in. Okay, we'll just jump right in. First one, I don't even know your name.

Let's just get on. What is your name, and what's your question? Are you there? Hello? Hello, you're on the air.

Oh, sorry. Okay, so what do you got? You're on the air. Are you there? Yes. Oh, yes, sir, Matt. Yes. Matt, I was just looking at Psalm 1017.

Okay. And it says, I'm NKJV. Lord, you have heard the desire of the humble. You will prepare their heart. It's amazing, huh?

Because sometimes the Bible tells us to prepare our heart, which I understand, but then it says you will prepare their heart, and you will cause your ear to hear. Yeah. I don't really have a question. I was just taken aback by it, you know.

Well, it's consistent with the rest of scripture, and for example, in Acts 16, 14. Hello, Matt? Yes, can you hear me okay?

Hello? Can you hear me? I can't hear him, or I don't think you can hear me. I could hear him. So, I don't know. I'll just go ahead and respond to that, and I hope everybody can hear me.

I hope there's not a technical problem, but you know, if there is, we'll just tackle it. Yeah, it's consistent with the scripture, where God opens the heart to understand the scriptures, Luke 24, 45. He opens the heart of the mind to believe the things that Paul was saying, Acts 16, 14. In Proverbs 21, 1, God moves the heart of the king where he wishes it to go. He grants that we believe, Luke 1, 29.

So, these things are perfectly consistent. You strengthen up their heart. You will incline their ear towards them, and not a problem.

It's perfectly consistent with the rest of scripture, and praise God for his great sovereignty and work in us. Let's get to Kyle from Richmond, Virginia. Kyle, are you on the air there? Can you hear me? Hello? I hope I don't have a problem here. Okay. Let's check.

We could have a nice little problem. I'm clicking. I'm listening. I don't hear anything. Hello? Hello? I don't hear the caller. So, let's see.

First day back after being sick. We've got an old tech problem already. So, it might be that I have to reboot the ComRex. I'm going to wait until the producer tells me what to do, and maybe he's working on something. So, let me ask. You guys can hear me out there? I sound good. Okay. Well, that's good.

We're having a problem with the connection. So, you hear them? Okay.

I don't hear them. So, let's see. Okay. Do you want me to reboot the ComRex?

Maybe reboot? Okay. I'm going to reboot the ComRex. I'll be back, folks, in about one minute. Okay.

We'll give our guy here a little time to put something, get something ready going, but that's what's going to happen. Be right back. So, apparently, I have an extra large heart because of it. But anyway, hey, if you want to give me a call, all you're going to do is dial 877-207-2276. The last four digits spell CARM on your phone, CARM.

That's short for CARM.org, Christian Apologetics Research Ministry. And hopefully, you'll enjoy stuff. And someone asked me, do I play the piano?

We've got the green screen behind me. No, I don't play the piano. And I have no musical ability whatsoever.

My children, one of my daughters, who's very talented musically, can sing very well, had me sing once. And then she basically said that I cannot sing. And she didn't mean I wasn't capable. She meant it in the sense of we don't want you to.

You cannot. And that gives you an idea of how bad I am. So, there you go. If you want to give me a call, 877-207-2276. Let's get to Juan from Texas. Juan, welcome. You're on the air. All right, folks. Let's see if we can get a try now.

I'm back on. I had to reboot the Comrex. Sometimes that takes care of it. Let's see if we can get to Kyle from Richmond, Virginia. Kyle, can you hear me? We're having a problem. Why are we having a problem? Hey, Kyle. I don't hear anybody.

Man, we are having a great day, aren't we? So, we heard the first caller, and I don't hear him. So, not sure what to do here. We could try access line one. How about that?

Let me try access one. He's going to restart on his end. So, we'll probably just be off the air here a little bit. Sorry, folks. That's what happens. Okay.

So, we'll see. I'm going to keep talking, though. We hear you, but no callers.

Yeah, he's going to reboot. Sold his stall, and this is what we have on live stuff sometimes. Problems. We actually pray. I actually pray with Charlie. Charlie's in the chat room, and each day we get on the air. Before we get on the air. Before I get on the air, actually. But Charlie's in the chat room, and he does a lot of stuff.

Charlie, I've known him for like 40 years or a lot longer, probably. We always pray for the show. We always pray for wisdom. We pray for wisdom for me to give answers, and for him to put the right links in, things like that. We also pray for the issue of technical problems, and hopefully everything we're doing will be technically fine. We've prayed it, and that's what we do.

When technical problems happen, we just trust God, laugh, and move forward. For those of you who might be coming in a little bit late, I'm still getting over a very, very strong head cold where I could hardly talk for about three days, so my voice is a little bit deeper than normal. I'm getting back in. I'm on the air. I may or may not be on the air tomorrow. I've got an appointment. It depends on what's going to happen.

Just one of the schedule complex things, but that's life. I'm waiting for our producer to get back on the air, and hopefully Comrix looks back on Charlie. Okay, he's back in. Let's give it a shot. I'm back. Okay. Hey, Kyle. Whoops.

Now my thing just quit. Wow. Okay. All right. Let's try this. Let's just try and get on the air with whoever this is.

We're winging it as we go. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay. I hear you. All right. Well, we had a little tech problem there. What's your name and what's your question?

My name is Cheryl from North Carolina. My grandson is seven years old, and he asked me a question that caught me off guard. He said, Grandma, who created God? And I kind of paused. He called me on the telephone.

I kind of paused, and I said, um, what did you say? And he said, who created God? I know God created Adam and Eve, but who made God?

Who created him? So I'm going to throw that one at you. As far as I have to explain a seven year old.

Sure. It's an easy answer. And he's seven.

I could get sophisticated answers, but he wouldn't get them. So just say this, that you can go to Psalm 90, verse two. And it says, from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. So God just always was. There was never a time when he did not exist. He always has existed.

And that's all we can say about it. We don't understand how that's possible, but that's what the Bible says. That's what God says about himself.

So that's the answer. Psalm 90, verse two, from everlasting. Yeah, I kind of told him that, and he said, but who made him? And I said, well, some things God will let us know after we get to heaven, or he may let us know his secret later on, but I kind of, he said, oh, okay, but I'm not sure if he really understood that or not. Just say the truth. No one made him. He didn't make himself either.

He just always existed. I told him that too. Okay. Well, that's the good answer.

That's the proper answer. Yeah. Yeah.

But, you know, he's seven and at that age, they are, you know, curious and stuff, but I'm grateful that he is, you know, he, he reads his Bible and he, I'm grateful that he did ask the question and stuff. So from everlasting to everlasting. Yeah.

And from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. That's what the Bible says. We cannot comprehend it. And, uh, we just don't know. Yeah. That's what I, yeah. That's what I told him to God to let us know more things later on. So he, he said, okay, that's good. All right. I appreciate that. All right. Oh, I got one more question.

Sure. Does it really say that when, um, Jesus paid the 5,000, what does it say that the little boy, that it was actually his lunch that, um, was taken to give to the 5,000? I, I'm not sure if I really actually read that it was lunchtime and it was a little boy's lunch.

Is that in the Bible? It's something I'm gonna go to Loaves and do a search. Um, I don't know if that a little boy don't, it doesn't ring any bells.

Okay. But, uh, and, uh, by Fujita said, let's do five loaves and two fish. So, because he used the fish and the bread and, uh, and that's in Matthew 14, what I'm doing to answer your question while I'm talking is searching just to make sure that that doesn't look, it doesn't appear like that in any place.

And I don't know anything about any little kid. I wonder where the ministers get that from. I mean, David Jeremiah, people on this radio station, a lot of ministers say that it was a child's lunch, a little boy's lunch.

And I have never seen that in the scriptures. Well, let me see. Um, let's see. Okay. Um, little boy's lunch, uh, doing a little bit of trying to figure it out.

I have a mark six 30. Let's try that because this is live research. Yeah.

I have good tools so I can do things pretty quickly. And, uh, no, I, I, I don't know about that one. It might be. I just haven't, uh, it just doesn't ring a bell to me. You know, it doesn't mean it's not there.

I've never seen it, but so many preachers say it and they, and they're pranking and peaking and they always say it was a little boy's lunch. We'll get a break. So I'll look during the break.

Maybe someone in the chat room will just know the verse and they can, if it's their name, show it to me and I'll talk about it. Okay. Thank you so much. All right.

Well, God bless. Okay. Hey folks, we'll 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. All right. Hey, got the answer to the issue. It's, uh, John six verse nine and Joshua Sparks in the chat room, uh, found it and thanks, Josh.

Awesome. And it says, um, they, in a context, they were kind of feed all the people. And one of the disciples, Andrew Simon, Peter's brother said to him, there is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people?

And Jesus said, have them sit down and he divided everything up. Now people say, that's his lunch, uh, five barley loaves and two fish for lad. No, that's too much for him to eat. So I wouldn't say it was his lunch.

It might've been maybe his, you know, his sister or brother or something like that, but it's good enough, you know, maybe maybe it's for lunch. So, uh, there you go. And, uh, there you go. All right. For those of you who might be coming back, I was sick for two days and, uh, back on there today.

So today is Wednesday, the 7th of October. So you can know, Hey, it's live and call and let's get on the lines now to Kyle from Richmond, Virginia. Kyle.

Welcome. You're on the air. Hey Matt. Um, yeah, quick question for you.

Got a buddy. He is a preacher, but he is outspokenly against Trump in support of the liberal ideas and BLM. And you know, I don't want to, I don't know how to call him out on his stuff, but I was wondering if I could get your opinion on the conflict between, you know, being a preacher and what you're supposed to be teaching and then still supporting the ideas of the left and even the far left. All right.

Um, I'm going to say something here that's going to maybe make some people mad and that's about BLM and an article title that I think might be worth, uh, you recommending to him. But, uh, as far as Joe Biden goes, I don't understand how anybody believes in the word of God could vote for someone who would be pro-abortion and pro-homosexuality. I do not agree with that. Uh, the Bible says, uh, to not support evil. These things are evil in the sight of God.

And judgment came upon the world, uh, because of people's sins, varying forms, Sodom and Gomorrah as well. And, uh, we cannot, uh, vote for in good conscience support anyone who would be in direct opposition to the things of the word of God. And so if your friend is supporting any candidate, not just Biden, but any candidate, I don't care if it's Trump, I don't care who it is. If it's supporting any candidate that is pro-homosexual, pro-abortion, then I could not, I could never vote for anybody like that. And I would seriously have problems with any Christian who claims to follow Christ, who would then cast their vote in support of someone who would promote such things against the word of God and, and humanity and the very nature of God himself. So that's one thing.

I wholeheartedly agree. Cause I don't think as soon as you say you're a Democrat, you can't claim to be a true Christian anymore in my personal opinion. Well, I'm sure there's a gray area there, but there is, um, there is, and if you can have people of different levels of understanding about what a Democrat is, even what a Republican is. Now I'm not a Republican either. I'm not a Democrat. I'm not a Republican. I'm a constitutionalist. And I believe in the constitution.

I want to vote constitutionally. And so, uh, I'm against the socialistic movement. And I'm going to say something about socialism that people don't understand. This is why socialism is so bad.

I'll try and put it in simpler forms. The more socialism you have, the less freedom you have. It comes down to that in order for people to have an equal distribution of things, you have to confiscate people's money and property, and you have to then put more rules in place to govern what people can and can't do and how they can't have certain properties and certain rights to their own work in their own hands. And so, in so in so doing, you put more restrictions on people. The increase of socialism is a decrease in freedom. This is how it works. This is a fact. And what they need to talk about on the, on TV and in the media is this relationship with the increase of socialism.

You have a reduction of freedom, the more socialism, the less freedom. That's what happens. Now, as far as BLM goes, we all agree with the phrase Black Lives Matter. I agree with the phrase Black Lives Matter, White Lives Matter, Brown Lives Matter.

I agree with the phrase. And I also agree that there have been a lot of false persecutions against the black community. A lot of atrocities have been committed by white people.

And I stand against it. But a lot of people don't realize that the Democratic Party was the party of the KKK. The Democratic Party is what supported segregation. All you got to do is go look up the movie Hillary's America. And you can go check it out. There's a lot of documentation, people in there, and even have a black woman expert talking about this. And she's a professor. And she talks about it, about the KKK and the history of the the history of the Democratic Party. So, folks, I say do your homework.

Now, it's good on the out. The phrase is good. But what's associated with it?

What's attached to this phrase? What's attached to it is Marxism. The founders, at least one of the founders, I think two of the founders of the three in Black Lives Matter, BLM, are avowed Marxists. Marxism is another word for communism. In communism, you have no freedom. You have no property rights.

They take it away. And also, they do not want the nuclear family to be in a strong stead, because it means the state can't control what the children are taught. So, it's one of the reasons BLM is against the nuclear family.

So, we cannot, as Christians in good conscience, support it. What I'd recommend is, people go to americanthinker.com. americanthinker.com and look up the article.

Here it comes. This is what their article says. It's got documentation in it on some interesting stuff. BLM, a righteous cause, or communism in blackface. That's the name of the article.

Hold on. And I read that yesterday, and I was just blown away by some of the information in there. One of the things that's interesting is that the BLM people, some of the founders, are involved in witchcraft, in the sense of trying to contact departed spirits to get the power and direction from them. This is a dangerous thing, and they have the documentation in there. I watched the videos, and they were talking about it in the videos.

So, I could verify everything, but it's in this article. americanthinker.com. Look up BLM, a righteous cause, or communism in blackface. Go check it out.

It's quite a title. So, again, I am for equality of all the people. I don't believe in different races. I only believe in one race.

I also very strongly believe that the blacks were abused and mistreated for decades and decades, and it needs to stop, of course. All lives matter, and all lives should be treated equally. No problem, except when it comes to the babies in the womb now.

Then that's a different story. Then the hypocrisy comes forth. Where are the writers for the lives of the unborn?

Where are the people who want to shake their fist up in the air in unity and march lockstep for the defense of the helpless and the mistreated who are in the wombs of the moms who don't care about the life growing in them? And then they say, it's my body. I get to do what I want with my body. That's not womanhood.

That's selfishness. Yeah. Hey, we'll be right back after these messages. Please hold on, Kyle.

Please stay tuned, folks. We'll be right back. It's Matt Slick live, taking a call at 877-207-2276.

Here's Matt Slick. Welcome back, everybody. Let's get back on the line with Kyle from Richmond, Virginia.

Kyle, are you still there? Yes, sir. All right. So I went off a little bit of a rant there. So hopefully I was able to help you out a little bit and answer the question. Absolutely. Yes, sir.

And what was it? Was it America Think website? American Thinker dot com. American Thinker. Okay. It's a very good article.

Okay. BLM, Righteous Cause or Communism in Blackface. Now, it's a provocative title, but they quote, the Gallup Center on Black Voices, 81% of black Americans either want to retain police presence or want more.

And then it talks about how when the police were defunded in some areas, the crime skyrockets. This is what happens. This is the left. Yes, sir. That's what it is. Well, I've got some ammunition now, sir.

I appreciate your help. Exactly. I was going to say exactly. That's why people are arming themselves because if the police aren't there, it's going to get bad. And this is what I ask. I ask people, who do you want to police your neighborhood? Bubba next door with an AK or the cops who are well-trained?

Who do you want? Because, you know, so that's what I'm saying. I'd rather have the cops in Bubba next door.

I don't care what color he is. He's probably a good old boy though, but yeah. Yeah.

Well, I'll tell you a lot of those good old boys. Let's just say they're a little bit challenged in some areas. You are correct. Yes, sir. Yeah, that's true. You know, I want sensibility and I want all the facts before decisions are made.

That's what I want. So I think the police do a great job. All right. Thank you very much, sir. All right. God bless, buddy.

All right. Let's get on the phones with next longest waiting is Phillip from Orlando. Hey Phillip, welcome.

You're on the air. Hey man, how you doing? Doing all right by God's grace, buddy.

What do you got, man? Hey, uh, quick question. Uh, does God has a favor to them?

No. And that's Romans 2 11 and also James 2, 2 through 4. There's no partiality with God. And the partiality that he talks about that is revealed in scripture is, and in fact, let me just go do this.

I'll go to James 2 and try reading. This is what he condemns. If a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring dressed in fine clothes, and there's also a poor man in dirty clothes, and you pay special attention of the one who's wearing the fine clothes and say, you sit here in a good place. And you say to the poor man, you stand over there.

You sit down by my footstool. Have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil motives? That's what God is condemning.

That you judge a person's worth or lack of worth because of something about them, like their color, their gender, their, uh, their clothing, what kind of jewelry they have, whatever it might be, their looks, you know, that's God doesn't do that. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Like, like, does he show like more favor to them to somebody like, does the Bible says that God hears the righteous prayers? Right.

Right. So what we have here is God chooses out of the kind intention of his will, he chooses people to save and he shows more love and grace to them than others, but it's because of the work that he has chosen that he does. Romans nine, nine through 23 talks about this kind of a thing. So the favoritism that God does, he, uh, denies is, is, is the same favoritism that is actually taught by a lot of churches in that, well, God knows in the future that you're going to be a good person and that he could use you and that in your wisdom you choose him.

So this is why he's working with you. You know, that's a heresy and that's favoritism as a denied in scripture. But a lot of people say that because they don't know the theology, don't know the Bible. A lot of preachers teach that.

So favoritism is looking at somebody, some quality in with, with them or that they don't have or do have, and then judging them based on that. So God doesn't do that. Okay.

But once we're in him and once we're saved, then he treats us differently because of his decision to do so. Okay. All right. All right, man. Thank you. All right, man. God bless. All right. Let's get to Mitchell from Canada.

Mitchell. Welcome. You're on the air. Hi.

Hi, Matt. Yeah. Thank you for having me. So I had a question about, um, repentance. Is it necessary for salvation for eternal life? There's a yes and a no, because it can be understood in different senses. So let me explain.

Um, okay. Repentance is turning from what is wrong to, to doing what is right. So we have to ask a question. Since the Bible says we're not saved by works, is it a good work to stop lying and stop stealing? Is it a conformity with the law? The answer is yes. So then are we saved by our stopping thieving and lying and believing in Christ?

Is that a combination that's necessary? You have to repent of your sins and you have to believe. In other words, you've got to keep the law and believe in order to be saved. That of course would be a heresy. But on the other hand, we can't just go around as Christians and say, Hey, I'm going to go sin and do this and do that sin and just go ahead because I'm saved.

Because that does not because that denies regenerative regeneration. So in the sense of, is it necessary to become a Christian? Not in the sense when it's meant that by compliance with the law, repentance and faith save you. That's not true. But it is necessary in the sense that it's a concomitant necessity with regeneration.

Something that's concomitant means it's simultaneously connected to something. So we repent because God grants us repentance 2 Timothy 2 25. And so it's necessary that we repent of our sins in salvation, but it's not the repentance that saves us. It's faith that saves us. And repentance is associated with that repentance so that when I got saved, I then repented. But I didn't repent in order to become saved.

That makes sense. Yeah, because, like, I'm not too sure where you stand with the free grace teaching on soteriology. But the way Zane Hodges explained it is repentance. The forgiveness of sins is a personal matter. And justification in Pauline thought is a judicial issue.

It is judicial. Absolutely. Yes, we made the distinction between believing to receive eternal life because he argues that, well, in John's gospel, which is the last one written, how many times is repentance mentioned?

Zero. Okay. And if it's an evangelistic book, like it says in John chapter 20 verse, what is it, 31, these things have I written that you may believe in the Son of God, et cetera, and so forth, just paraphrasing what it says. But if it's an evangelistic book and it's the last gospel written, why isn't repentance necessary, right? I mean, mentioned, if it was necessary. And so he says that only believing.

But also, sorry, I don't mean to go too ahead of myself. In the book of Acts, you take the other verses. Their word says, you know, repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. How I heard it explained by Brother Hodges is that that verse means exactly what it means. You know, the Jews at that time had to repent, be baptized in the name of Jesus to receive the forgiveness of sins. But to receive the forgiveness of sins does not necessarily mean the same thing as receiving everlasting life. Would you agree?

No. First of all, if he says it means what it says, there's problems there. Faith is not even mentioned in Acts 2 38, which you quoted. So if this is a formula for salvation, why is faith not mentioned?

Now let's say, well, it's implied. Well, if it's implied, but it's just not a formula because faith is not mentioned, particularly when we know that faith is necessary for salvation, we're justified by faith, Romans 5 1 says. So when it says baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, does he mean in the Trinitarian formula? Of course. Well, I think how Hodges explained is that they were actually, they had to go back to square one because those were the Jews that were alive during the earth ministry of Jesus Christ.

I got you. I'm saying if he's going to say it means exactly what it says, then there's problems because it says in the name of Jesus Christ, but it's not in the name of Jesus Christ. It's in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The phrase in the name of Jesus Christ means in the authority of, and it says you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. What's the gift of the Holy Spirit? Well, when you go to Acts 10 44 through 48, you find out what the gift of the Holy Spirit is. It says they've received the Holy Spirit to get to the Holy Spirit because they were seeing them speaking in tongues and glorifying God. It apparently is the charismatic movement because in Acts 2, they're speaking in tongues. The Holy Spirit came upon them and he says, if you do this, you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Now, what is baptism?

Baptism is really interesting. Let me show you something here. A lot of people do not know this stuff because they don't study very much. All right. They study a little bit and they say, we got it.

Now watch this. Oh, there's a break. We come back for the break. I'm going to show you something in scripture to get you thinking.

And why Acts 2 38, it's a great verse, but it's not as cut and dried as they want to make it seem so quickly. All right. We'll be right back, folks. After these messages, please stay tuned. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276.

Here's Matt Slick. All right, everybody. Welcome back to the show.

Let's get back on the line with Mitchell. Are you still there? Yeah. Yeah. I'm still here.

All right. What I'm going to do is read something to you about the issue of baptism. So what I'm going to do is read Romans 4, 9, 10, and 11, and I'm going to go to Colossians 2. And this is Romans 4, 9, 10, 11. Is this blessing then on the circumcised or the uncircumcised, also?

For we say faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness. Verse 10, how then was it credited? While he was circumcised or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised. Verse 11, for he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of faith, which he had while uncircumcised. So circumcision was a seal, a sign and a seal of the faith. So think of the seal, which in the Greek is sfragas, and it occurs in Revelation 6, the seven seals. And it's also the kind of thing, you know, you have an impression, a wax impression, put a ring, signet ring on it, and it's a seal.

It's an impression. And this is what the word means. So it relates circumcision as a sign and a seal of justification. And what's interesting is circumcision was a covenant sign in which entire households, including infants and all the males, were to participate in.

That's just how it was. Now let's go to Colossians 2, 11 and 12. And in him you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands in the removal of the body of flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead. So what's interesting is that Paul doesn't equate circumcision and baptism, but he certainly relates them together. And if circumcision is a seal of the righteousness, baptism, it would make sense to say, is also a seal of the righteousness, which is already there. It's a covenant sign that correlates to circumcision. So when we go to Acts 2, 38, and people say, well, repent and be baptized.

It's a formula for salvation. They're saying you have to be immersed in water, which it doesn't say you have to be immersed, because that can show you how baptism can mean baptizing the spirit. It can mean sprinkled, because that's what Jesus was sprinkled. He was sprinkled according to his baptism, according to the Old Testament law.

That's how it was. And I could show you various things like this out of the Bible. So when people, they go to Acts 2, 38, what they're often doing is just not doing their full homework.

And they don't understand what's going on. So repent each of you, be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. What he's saying is the baptism here is what I think it means. It's a seal, a sign, a seal of the very forgiveness that you have. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. What is that gift of the Holy Spirit? Well, people will say that means you're saved.

If that's the case, that it means you're saved, then look at this. This is Acts 10, 44. While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to this message. And all the circumcised believers who came with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit, that's the same phrase used in Acts 2, 38. The gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also for they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God.

It's the charismatic gifts. So what a lot of people in Acts 2, 38 want to say, it means you're saved. That's when you get the Holy Spirit and you get the Holy Spirit and you get saved. It doesn't say that. The gifting is the movement of the Holy Spirit in charismatic form. Yeah, Hodges was stressing, you know, a distinction there between the Jews and the Gentiles.

And because Cornelius wasn't a Gentile, it wasn't required of him to be baptized in order to receive, well, to have fellowship with God, because he wasn't part of the crowd that, you know, wanted Christ to be crucified. So I guess what he's saying is that they have to go all the way back to square one. But I heard your interpretation. It does sound pretty consistent. So I thank you for sharing that with me.

It's consistent with Scripture? Yeah, for sure. All right.

Exactly. Okay. Thank you, brother. I really appreciate it. All right. God bless. God bless you. Okay, let's get to, let's see.

Next longest one is Tim from Durham, North Carolina. Tim, welcome. You're on the air. Hey, Matt.

Hey, what do you got, buddy? My question is in Acts chapter 16 in verses 32 and 33 where it says that Paul and Silas were in prison and they were let loose by the angel, but the jailer, that they saved the jailer from killing himself. But my question is talking about two things. In verse 31 it says that they told him that if he believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, him and his household would be saved. But also in 33 where it says he washed their stripes and then they were, and he was baptized.

So it was in the middle of the night when all this happened. So where was he baptized and how did the baptism take place? Now that is a very good question.

Now think about this. Water weighs 8.3 pounds per gallon. How many gallons does it take to baptize someone by immersion? Right, and I am an immersion believer.

Okay, well let's work with this a little bit. I used to have a basically a 30 gallon tank, aquarium tank. I like fish and not anymore.

So one of my fish had ichthyoptheria once, but that's another thing because it got messed with the ballastneria. But at any rate, so here's the thing is that my 30 gallon tank, which would have weighed 240 pounds, was no way was it big enough to baptize by immersion an adult. Not even possible.

Right. It's just way too small. Maybe a small child could weasel in there. And if you're going to baptize a full grown adult, think of a bathtub. Okay, and now let's just knock the height down a foot, maybe a foot and a half from that time back then. So maybe, you know, three quarters the size of a bathtub, which holds what, 100 gallons, you know, 80 gallons.

So we're talking hundreds of pounds, 500 pounds of weight, you know. How are they going to move that kind of water if it's going to be in somebody's home? They can't.

You can't do that. So they're going to have to either go outside to a river or go outside to some body of water and dip themselves in it. Now think about that. They're going to be washing their bodies in a common body of water. If it's a river, that's okay.

Because people bathe in the river and their slime gets carried off by the river. But what if it's a fountain? People go and dip their their water buckets in to drink. And you're going to have people getting baptized in there, which means their filth is going to be pushed out in the water.

There's going to be some problems, okay? It doesn't make sense to say that they got all this water, brought it upstairs or into the house, hundreds of gallons. Let's say, I know a guy's got a 90 gallon tank, and you could just get a person in there. You could just, you know, squeeze them in, all right? So to do it comfortably, you're going to need 200 gallons. And that's, you know, well over a thousand pounds. So where are you going to get all this water? You open the faucet, doesn't work.

They're going to have a, you know, they're going to have something that big in a house. It doesn't, it just doesn't make sense. So believe it or not, when the Holy Spirit, I'm going to show you something, when the Holy Spirit is poured out on people in Acts, in Joel 2, I'll just go to Acts because it quotes Joel. In the book of Acts, it states that what was happening there was a fulfillment in Acts 2. I will pour forth my spirit on all mankind, okay?

That's what it says in Acts 2, 17 and 18. I will pour, on those days, I'll pour forth my spirit, right? They call that the baptism of the spirit, as they call it. The baptism of the spirit is equated with pouring the spirit forth.

That's what it says. So Jesus had to have been sprinkled, according to Levitical law. In Matthew 3, 15, he said to get baptized by John the Baptist because he had to fulfill all righteousness.

Fulfill means Old Testament. The only place I've ever found in the Bible in the Old Testament that describes even in part what Jesus went through is in Leviticus chapter 8, Numbers chapter 4, and Exodus 29, and actually Numbers 8. It talks there about what a man needed to do in order to become a high priest. He had to be anointed with oil, that's the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit came upon Jesus, a verbal blessing given, this is my beloved son whom I'm well pleased, 30 years of age when Jesus was 30, and he had to be sprinkled with water.

That was the Levitical commandment. So if Jesus was baptized, they say he went out into the water, and the Holy Spirit was poured, it makes sense to say that they just took water and poured it over his head, or sprinkled it, and they would have done it this way. They would have done it with a hyssop branch, H-Y-S-S-O-P, which is what they did in the Old Testament when they would sprinkle people. They'd take the hyssop branch, which often grew near the edge of the water there, break everything off, dip it in the water, and sprinkle people, and that was considered a baptism. And so if you go to Hebrews 9-10, it says there's various washings. The word washings in Greek is baptismos. And it's in the context, talking about Old Testament sprinklings. So if you're going to look at this at Acts chapter 16, does it make more sense that they had water poured on them, or that they had to go out someplace and find a big body of water?

Which I'm not saying they couldn't do. Maybe there was something there just not mentioned, and we're going to be on the other side here. I don't know. But it says, he and his whole household were baptized. Now that's interesting. Because it says, wash their wounds, and immediately he was baptized, he and his whole household, and he brought them into his house and set food upon them. Does that mean he was outside the house? Well, were they near water, a running body of water, or in a fountain? In a fountain, you can get in trouble for, you know, washing in a fountain.

People drink out of it. Because in verse 32, it says that they were in his house. That's right. But just to be fair, they were in his house, they took him that hour to be baptized.

So it could mean that they left the house to go out. So if there's a way of immersing them in a body of water outside, that's fine. But I'm just showing you, well, there's some issues we got to look at here. That's all I'm saying. Okay? Right. So when you were talking to Joel about the being baptized with the Holy Spirit, so is that maybe what Peter in Acts 2 38 was referring to? I think so. That's my opinion.

And I'll just say it's my opinion. Because he says, you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And when you go to Acts 10 44 through 48, the gift of the Holy Spirit is equated with speaking in tongues.

Yes. And you would be baptized in Jesus' name. But in Jesus' name means in Acts 4 7, in what name are you doing this?

It means by the authority of. Right. In the name of Jesus. Right. Stop at the name of the law.

Okay. It's by the authority of Jesus that they would baptize the Baptist. But it could be that Jesus, yes, in Jesus' name could be referring to also another, like a person of the Trinity instead of, you know, like.

The proper mode of baptism is in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That's a proper mode. Absolutely. I believe that. So there you go. That's what it is.

You know, I gave you a lot of info there. Yeah. Something to think about. Right. That's what I do. People say they don't like it that I teach them, but they like it that I teach them because it makes them think while they snare at me.

It's like, oh, I don't know about you. Amen. I believe it. Okay, buddy. We got to go. Okay. All right, man.

We're out of time. Thanks, man. Okay. Hey, John from Texas. Sorry about that.

And Chris from Raleigh, North Carolina. I apologize for you waiting so long. May the Lord bless you. And by his grace, folks, we'll be back here tomorrow. We'll talk to you then. We'll see you. God bless. Bye.