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. Hey, everybody. Welcome. It's Matt Slick. Listen, Matt Slick live. Hope you're all going to have a good day listening.

This is the first show of the year 2021. May the Lord bless you. And I just hope that this is going to be a great time.

We have five open lines. If you want to give me a call, 877-207-2276, just like before. So I hope you all had a great, well, great holidays. Hope your Christmas was good. I hope your New Year's was good and all of that. Mine was, well, interesting, you know, just interesting. I've been doing a lot of debating, a lot of teaching, and I'll tell you some interesting stuff that's going on.

Nevertheless, if you are a newbie and not sure what the show is on, I'm a Christian apologist, which means I defend the Christian faith. And I've been doing that for, I get to say it now, 41 years. On January 1st is when I switch. And I'm not sure if I started in 79 or 1980, but nevertheless, I've been doing this for 41 years now. And on January 2nd, January 2nd, it was the anniversary of me doing radio for 16 years, five days a week. I love radio.

A lot of fun and I really enjoy it. Now, if you want to watch the show, all you have to do is go to the karm.org website. And for those of you who may have already found out, we released a new version of the site.

Yes, it is slow. Yes, there's still some bugs, but what we have is a pop-up that comes up and says, hey, it's beta form. And if you've got any problems, just go down there. And when you go to the site, there's a little pop-up and there's a link. You can submit, hey, this link doesn't work.

Or you can submit, oh, the word's misspelled or whatever it might be. So it took a lot of work. It took six months to get the site ready. And so we hope by the end of this week, we'll have most of the bugs fixed. And then by the next week, just basically all of it done.

That's what happens when we release a new site. We have four open lines. If you want to give me a call, 877-207-2276. And I want to thank all of you for supporting us in the end of the year matching funds drive. That was very helpful. We were able to raise a good amount of money. We had a matching funds drive.

So when someone would donate $10, someone else would match it with another 10. And it's really going to help us. Thank you very much for all of you who did that. We really appreciate it. It was a success.

All right. Now, another thing that's kind of interesting that has happened is on any given day of the week, what I'll do is I'll go into a chat area called Discord. Now, what Discord is is a communication system, a chatting system. And there's a lot of unbelievers there, lots. Well, long story short, they ask me to go in various rooms and just sit there and answer questions. And so the unbelievers will come in. Some people are very, very philosophically astute and they will ask philosophically based questions. And I have to a lot of times say, well, what does that phrase mean?

And they'll teach me or I'll do a little bit of research on it. I'll say, oh, okay, I understand what it is. Well, this is why we see a problem with it, et cetera. And we're doing this a lot, but given the gospel out, 50, 60 people will be in a room at a time just asking questions. And in one place, we have a guy who actually moderates and he requires them to ask him the question.

And he asks me the question one at a time. Isn't that awesome? So I'm doing that. And also I'll be debating the issue of Romans 9 tomorrow night.

That will be the 5th of January. And so I'll be defending the position that God is sovereign through it. Romans 9 is speaking of individuals, not groups of people and stuff like that. If you want to watch the show, you can join about 40 or so other people who are doing that on Facebook and or YouTube. And you can type in your comments and I get to see them here in our stream yard feed and so make it in a row. And interact, that is. And so hi, everyone. I'm just saying hi to everyone right there. There you go.

All right. We have four open lines. Why don't you give me a call? 877-207-2276. Let's get to Tom from Raleigh, North Carolina. Tom, welcome. You are the first caller of the year. Welcome. You're on the air. Hi, Matt. It's an honor.

Glad to be the first caller of the year. Listen, I was watching a speech, a sermon by a Seventh-day Adventist and he kept getting hotter and hotter and more fanatical about Saturday being the Sabbath and to the point of believing that Antichrist was going to try to force them to worship on Sunday. And I guess it just got so heated and fanatical about the way he was preaching made me think, well, what is the right day for Christians to worship? Does it matter if it's Saturday? Does it matter if it's Sunday for a Christian if we do it in good conscience and keep the day in worship and rest?

Let's say that you and I are on a plane and heading to some place across the ocean and our plane goes down and you and I are the only ones surviving in our raft and we're out there for a couple, three weeks and we wash up on a deserted island. What day is it? Well, I don't know what day it is.

That's right. We don't know. We have an estimate and we come up with different ideas and okay, now we've got to worship on Saturday.

Oops. We have one in seven chance of getting it right. So if we just try, are we okay? If we just say, well, today is Friday, maybe it was really a Tuesday and then we worship on the next day Saturday, but it's really a Wednesday. Are we in sin? People who hold to the idea of legalistic requirements for worshiping on Saturday do so at their own demise. And the reason is because anyone who requires for salvation or righteousness before God, keeping of any part of the law is then guilty of being required to keep all of it. Galatians 3 10 says, for as many as are the works of the law are under a curse for it is written curses. Everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law to perform them. So if he's going to say, Hey, you got to keep the Saturday Sabbath, that's out of Exodus 20 and Exodus 20 says, remember the Sabbath to keep it Holy.

Right? So that means that this person now is requiring keeping at least some part of the law in order to be right. Well, that would mean he's under a curse. Furthermore, in James 2 10 for whoever keeps the whole law yet stumbles in one point has become guilty of all. So if he stumbles in one area of the law, then he's guilty of all of it. So if he says you've got to keep Sabbath in order to be a true Christian, and yet he lusts after a woman, well, then he's, he's failed and he's now obligated to keep the whole law and he can't.

And so therefore he's guilty of all because he's seeking to be justified by the law. Furthermore, it says this in Romans 14, I'll accept the one who's weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions. One person has faith that he may eat all things, but he is weak, eats vegetables only. The one who eats is not to regard with contempt. The one who does not eat and the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge the servant of another to his own master? He stands or falls and he will stand for the Lord is able to make him stand. Verse five of chapter 14. One person regards one day above another.

Another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes a day observes it for the Lord and he who eats does so for the Lord. Now, if we're required to keep the Sabbath on Saturday, why would Paul the apostle say in Romans 14 five, one person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike.

Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. So this refutes this idea of the Sabbath of being a requirement for the proper day of worship. If we were to be on that Island and we couldn't decide what day, you and I could have a little disagreement. How about in two days? You go, okay, let's do it.

Start in two days. We'll just call that the Sabbath. And we do. We're fine. And what if we get rescued and we find out we were three days off and we want to worship on a continue on that day, say it was a Wednesday that we thought we were doing it right on, but it turned out to be wrong.

And so just as a ceremony, you and I keep it on Wednesday for a while to remember what we went through. Are we into sin? Of course not. Because the Bible says, let each man be fully convinced in his own mind. And it says one man regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Well, logically the Sabbath is part of every day. So therefore we're free to worship on any day. We're not required to worship on a Saturday. Okay. And one more thing, only nine and 10 commandments are reiterated in the new Testament. Only nine are restated as being the case, as still being valid. And all of them except the Sabbath are reiterated.

Okay. So I guess a follow up to that is in the new Testament, it does mention the Lord's day. And were early Christians keeping the Lord's day on the first day of the week? Yes.

Yep. The Lord's day was Sunday because Jesus was raised on the Lord's day, which they call it that. And in Revelation and in other places in the new Testament, it talks about things happening on the Lord's day. And so we are free to worship on any day and you got it right. Okay.

All right. Well, that was a very thorough, I guess, and I guess for a final statement, it seems kind of dangerous when some of these organizations are leaning on extra biblical prophecies because this pastor in the SBA, the seventh day of Venice, continued to go back to this, I believe it was a lady who had made some prophecies about the future. And it seemed to be an extra biblical source that they were deriving some of these, can I use the word paranoia? And that seems to me a little dangerous. I personally think we should just stick to the Bible for our determination. And you are correct.

That's what we should be doing. And, um, her name was Ellen G. White. Okay.

Yeah. And, uh, yeah, she's the one who was considered the prophetess for, uh, the seventh day Adventist group. And let's just say she did teach some pretty bad stuff.

And one of the things that she taught, yeah, there's an investigative judgment issue and it's been hard to nail down exactly what the issue is there. But, uh, uh, the investigative judgment is the day of judgment when you will be examined based on your works of belief for salvation and reward. And that's of course very, very bad. And, um, so that and the other issue is, um, that Satan will be the one who will bear our sins. So he will be the sin bearer at the end.

And, uh, the sins of the bad of people they put on Satan, he'll be cast out in outer judgment. Well, they do affirm the doctrine of the Trinity and Jesus is God in flesh, et cetera. They affirm that Jesus' sacrifice was vicarious and salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone. But when they are, if any particular subdivision within seventh day Adventists always, I mean, also includes the idea of the necessity of worship on a Saturday, then, uh, and it's a cult because we can't have any works.

Okay. So they also deny predestination, which is foolish because the Bible teaches it. They deny infant baptism.

That's not a big deal. Baptism by sprinkling, not a big deal. They deny the immortality of the soul so that when a person dies, they either go into soul sleep or stop existing and stuff like that. So, uh, they say, Jesus is Michael the Archangel, but they don't say that, uh, he was an angel in the sense of a created thing, but they say that Michael, the Archangel was the pre-incarnate Christ.

And they also say, not October 22nd, 1844, Jesus entered the second and last phase of his atoning work. Okay. Well, that wraps up my questions, Matt. Thank you very much. All right, buddy.

God bless, man. All right. Hey folks, we have three open lines. If you want to give me a call 877-207-2276, we'll be right back after these messages. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276.

Here's Matt Slick. All right, everybody. Welcome back to the show. If you want to give me a call, all you have to do is dial 877-207-2276 for the podcasters.

This is, uh, January 4th, 2021. All right. Let's go on the phone with Sheila or Sheila. Yeah.

From North Carolina. Welcome. Hello.

Hey, thank you. Um, I have a question and I'll just ask the question and then let you answer it. Okay. All right.

All right. In the garden of Eden, is there anywhere that says what language that they spoke? No, but a lot of the Jews, ancient Jews, uh, thought that it was just, uh, Hebrew. So it might've been, I don't know for sure. I'm not aware of any proof from the scriptures about that, but, um, uh, this recently came up and there's something to do with, uh, how it is spoken in the Hebrew.

When God's speaking, it seems to imply the, the original language was Hebrew, but I'm not really convinced by that because the writer, um, Moses would write in Hebrew and put it the way he understood. And, um, so I don't see it as a necessity, but no, we don't know for sure. Okay. All right. Thank you. You're welcome. All right. Well, God bless. Bye. Bye.

All right. We have four open lines folks. If you want to give me a call 877-207-2276.

Four open lines. Give me a call. DJ from Massachusetts.

DJ welcome. You're on the air. Hey man. So I'm going to kind of like rapid fire these cause I know that, um, you know, the answers, I'm pretty sure, you know, the answers and I know that they're going to be very simple. So I have a couple, um, and I'm just going to rapid fire them, just answer them as quickly as you can, just so I can know the answers to them. Okay. Okay. Um, all right.

So my first is who was the earliest church father to quote 1st John 5-7? I don't know. There's the answer to that one. I think Cyprian. You don't know the answer to that one?

But, uh, Cyprian did, I believe, um, around 200, 250 BC. You think like that? I mean, AD. Yeah.

So AD. Yeah. Right.

Okay. And what manuscript or the earliest contains it? What man, what manuscript is the earliest contained?

How many contain them or how many manuscripts contain? I don't know. I don't know that either. I don't study, it's called historicity as a topic that you're talking about the biblical manuscript structures, uh, the trees. Uh, yeah, I don't study that partly at all. Okay.

Okay. Now, concerning John 1-18, um, when the earliest church fathers quoted John 1-18, what reading did they read? Did it read son or God? That's a good question. And, uh, it seems that the earlier manuscripts there talk about, uh, only begotten God, but that's what I understand.

You know, is it the case now for those who don't know what we're talking about? It says no one has seen God at any time to only begotten God in the blood of the father. He has explained to him. Some manuscripts say only begotten son. And the general principle is that, uh, the more difficult reading is the, the better reading, the more difficult reading would be the only begotten God. And, uh, then son, but it doesn't necessitate that that's the correct answer, but the NASB will use that verse, uh, and say God and the NASB. And if I look at other versions like John 1-18 here, um, it's also in the ESV and, uh, the KJV says the son. So the King James was used, uh, it was translated originally with fifth or sixth century documents.

We've got documents since then that are much earlier. And this is why the newer translations go with the word God, because it seems to be from the earlier manuscripts, but I couldn't tell you which, which family or which particular manuscripts. Okay.

One last one. How many manuscripts use son for John 1-18? That I don't know either. Uh, that's a topic you'd have to find somebody who studies this, uh, the issue of historicity, because how many manuscripts, because that's a difficult question because you see, you could have two manuscripts, trees, A and B of the Gospel of John verse 18, 1-18, and you could have one that says God when it says son. Well, uh, that would be one manuscript tree, one manuscript manifestation for each one. But if, if each one is taken and copied 10 times, then, uh, in different directions, you know, like one to the East, one to the West, then that would be 11, the original plus the other 10. So how many manuscripts? That would be 11, but it's really a copy of just one. So you see, it's, it's a difficult question to answer because you'd have to say, is there a single original one?

What's the oldest manuscript that does that? And does it lead to another, uh, tree, a descendancy of copies that come out of that? And then there's the issue of why would it be God, which is the word, um, theos versus huias, which is the word son. And so that's quite a difference. So generally what happens when we have a, uh, a discrepancy like this is that, uh, there's a marginal reading. So someone might have, when they're making a copy, might have left out what's called a rough breathing mark, which is the H sound, or they might've left out a word, which might be the word the, a ha, which is a single O, the letter O with a comma over it.

And it's a rough breathing mark. And so it's just a single letter. We could, you could, uh, they got tired. Sometimes they would, they would just skip it. Or sometimes it would literally flake off because the manuscripts got old.

So then what do you do? I'll use this as an example where a single letter gets flaked off because manuscripts are two, 300, 400 years old. And yet, uh, another manuscript, it didn't flake off. Well then someone might copy the one that had the flake that removed and they'll copy it with that, that so to speak missing, uh, definite article, the word the, and they'll copy it that way. Well, is it an error? Well, it's not an error.

They copied it accurately, but it flaked off. So there's doing what they saw. So it's, this gets complicated. Then they go into the manuscript trees and, uh, this is why you need to talk to an expert on this.

Um, because there are a lot of variables. I was thinking about, yeah, I was thinking about calling it to James White on this. I think he might build answer because he's done a lot more study, uh, on that in particular, uh, on historicity issues and manuscript trees.

I've not done that. So I study things more than he does. And he studies things more than I do. And so, uh, you know, that's okay.

No, no one apologist has all the answers. That's for sure. Um, but, uh, there you go. Okay. You're asking some good stuff and I'm curious.

I had to note it down to remember that. Yeah. What's the reason? I'm curious. It's a kind of esoteric question. So just curious set of questions you're asking me. Yeah. Yeah.

Um, I don't know. I mean, I think a lot of us, you know, we kind of want to know what, um, what it says, you know, just like anybody else, you know, just want to know what it says, what it originally said. So, yeah. And in some areas, a single word can make a difference. Like John 1 18, the only begotten God with only begotten son, the cults are often, are always going to go with the manuscript tree of only begotten son. They're going to change things and they will do that. You know, the Jehovah's witnesses will do it, for example. And, uh, there's other things that the, for example, the J dubs will do that they, where they purposely altered the text.

But, um, generally the older is more important and significant than the earlier. And what you thought about in first John five seven, the comma Jehanium that, uh, at first I said, no, it's not original, but the other scenes becoming of some older manuscript evidence suggesting it was original. So is it, or isn't it? I don't know. Yeah.

It's, Hey, you know, things, this is what history is and these documents, but they're 99.8% textual identical. We've got to go buddy. They're break. Okay. I agree with that. All right, man. Thank you, man. Hey folks, four open lines, eight seven seven two zero seven two two seven six. Give me a call.

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. Hey everybody. Welcome back to the show.

It's the bottom of the hour. If you want to give me a call, we have four open lines, eight seven seven two zero seven two two seven six. Let's get to Victoria from New York.

Victoria. Welcome. You're on the air. Hi. Cheers.

Thank you. I had a quick question. So I have heard from a Bible study the other night that there's an ancient document dated, I think the second century, I think it was 125. Anyways, suggesting that Joseph had children prior to Mary.

I had never heard that before. What are your thoughts on that, please? Yeah, I've heard that, that he had uh, children prior. One of the reasons inside the scriptures that they hold to that is that Joseph doesn't seem, isn't mentioned later on. So when Jesus was 12, uh, he was around, but after that, there's no mention of him.

So some think as was often the custom out there that an older man would marry a younger woman and then he would die off and, and, uh, sometimes it would remarry or be taken care of by the family and things like that. So that's just cultural support of evidence or that, but we don't know if that was the case. Uh, the Roman Catholic church of course will teach that Mary remained a Virgin.

I deny that. Uh, I believe she had other children with Joseph, that she obeyed the command of scripture to multiply and fill the earth. There's nothing sinful about a man and a woman, a husband and wife having, uh, relations, uh, in, in marriage to produce children. So, um, uh, yeah, I don't hold to their position, but, uh, I hope to, uh, the position that she had children, but, uh, some say that it was, uh, stepchildren that was disadopted.

So that's what the Catholic church will have to say along with the Eastern Oakland docs and some other groups. Okay. Right. Okay. That makes sense because there was only one document and you would think that there'd have to be multiple lines of transmission in order for us to support that. Yeah. Generally the better attestation is multiple, but if you find a single attestation of something, it adds credibility to that.

Okay. So the question then is, um, if we found a document that was very old from 125 and it said that Joseph had other children, it does not mean that they did not have children. It just means that he had other children and became part of the family.

No big deal, but it has no bearing on whether or not he and Mary had relations because it says in Matthew 125 that Joseph kept her a Virgin until Jesus was born. That's what it says. And what do you think that means?

So it means exactly what it implies. So that's it. Okay. Right. Okay.

Makes sense. Thank you very much. Have a good evening. You too.

God bless. All right. Okay.

All right. Uh, let's see if you want to give me a call. Folks.

We have four open lines, eight seven seven two zero seven two two seven six. Let's get on the phone with David from North Carolina. David, welcome. You're on the air. Hey Matt, thank you for taking my call.

Sure. Uh, I've been doing, we're doing a Bible study on Hebrews. Well, on the word of hope, but Hebrews six came up in verses four through six.

As I was reading the context of the chapter, brought back new questions that I've had. And the reason I'm asking these questions is years ago, back in 72, I came to Christ. I walked with the Lord for about seven years. And for different reasons, I made up my mind that I had missed out on something in life and I took a left turn. I would got involved with the biker lifestyle, drugs, alcohol, chasing women. And I did this for a couple, two or three decades.

Okay. Well, the, the, the verses that I had memorized in my earlier years never left me, no matter what my state of mind was. God convicted me all the time. And as I read this, I think a lot of us that have fallen, I don't know if we've fallen away, but those of us that fall and read this and wonder, can we come back to Christ?

Can we renew or rekindle our relationship with him? And is that talk about somebody that has just fallen or backslidden, or is this talking about somebody that completely turns their back on Christ and cannot be? Well, let's talk about, let's talk about this because, um, uh, I can relate to what you're saying. I was saved very, very, very dramatically. And it was about a two year stretch, uh, after about three or four years, a two year stretch where I wasn't walking, let's just say, as I should have, but when you said that conviction and the scriptures were there, I remember that. And I also remember talking to a guy who knew me during that period of time. And I told him I was in seminary at the point at the time. He goes, yeah, that makes sense.

I said, what do you mean? And he said, well, because I could see it in you. I could see that in you still, even then.

And, uh, you know, there were certain things. So I believe I was saved. I also believe that God allowed me, I can't talk about you in this. I don't know what his situation was with you, but I believe he allowed me to, to, uh, stray a little bit before yanking me back and saying, see, now I have so many regrets and I'm grateful for his grace, but it, so I can relate to that. I know, I know what you're saying here, but for decades, that's a, that's a long time.

Well, what's the right amount of time, two years, 20 years, you can't say, is it possible that God can let people stray and they'll still be saved? Yes. Uh, to what degree? That's another issue. And this becomes very, very difficult.

So there's possibilities here. And one was one is that you're, you're never saved to begin with. Another one was that God was extremely merciful to you, allowed you to go through stuff. And, uh, now here you are, and you have nothing but the grace of God to thank. And, you know, forever, you'll be praising his name. Now, there are going to be those who are listening to me saying, well, Matt, are you saying then it's okay to, to, uh, backslide for 20 years and, and, uh, do all kinds of stuff and still be a Christian?

And if you know, it's not okay. And we can get into particulars about that, but, uh, God has a way of allowing us to slide every day because everybody, everybody does to how far he will let us before he kills us or, uh, takes us home or convicts us to the point of repentance. It's just, it's too complicated to really go into as far as Hebrews six, four through six goes, I don't believe it's talking to the Christian. I believe it's speaking to the Hebrews. The Hebrews, uh, covenantally were the ones who the Messiah was sent to. Jesus said he was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, Matthew 15, 24.

He wasn't sent to the whole world. He was sent only to the nation of Israel. Now the nation of Israel as a whole rejected the Messiah. And so when they did, they broke the covenant and we, the Gentiles were grafted in. So the book of Hebrews, if you go through it, here, just scan through it as fast as you could, and you can see as fast as you could, and you read about temples and blood sacrifices and animals and goats and keeping the law and various things and Melchizedek priesthood. All of this is very heavily Old Testament. So obviously the writer of Hebrews, I believe it was Paul, was writing to the Hebrew people about this. Now there were some Hebrews who had become Christians for real. There were some Hebrews who were flirting with Christianity, attending maybe Christian meetings, still had one foot in the Old Testament economy.

They're trying to do those things which would please both. And there were some who I'm sure weren't sure what was going on and were going back into the Judaistic principles. In light of that latter statement, for in the case of those who've once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have made part, been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, this would apply to those Jews who saw what Jesus did, who understood that the miracles, worked through Paul the Apostle and Peter, who were Jews. They partook of these things, seen these things, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away. It's impossible to renew them again to repentance since they again crucified themselves the Son of God and put them to open shame. It seems to me that what's going on here is that the writer is saying that those Jews who had come into that knowledge of who Christ was and rejected it, they tasted so many good things and seen so much.

Then they went back into the law. These are the ones who cannot be renewed to repentance because they are leaving the only sacrifice that is there. This is reflected in the idea of Hebrews 10 26. If we go on sinning willfully after seeing the knowledge of the truth, they're no longer made to sacrifice for sins.

It's the same thing that he's talking about there. So the verse is not talking about in Hebrews 6 4 through 6 about those who are Christians and were truly born again and then they lost their salvation. For one thing that contradicts what Jesus said in John 6 37 through 40 where he says that all that the Father gives him will come to him and all that come to him he will not cast out for this is the will of my Father who sent me that of everyone he has given me that I lose none. So he's saying he can't lose any and you can't lose your salvation and I can get into that and expound on that. But also inside of Hebrews 6 it says that if they've fallen away it's impossible to renew them again to repentance.

Well if it's really a Christian and then they fell away they could never have become a Christian again. Right? That's what the text will be saying but it's not saying that. If you're misunderstanding we've got a break. Hold on okay buddy and we'll get back to you. Hey folks we have four open lines. Watch and give me a call 877-207-2276. We'll be right back after these messages. It's Matt Slick live taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick.

All right everyone welcome back to the show. Let's oh I would remind you that we have a prayer ministry going on. If you have needs of prayer and you want us to pray for you all you got to do is email us at prayer at karm.org. Prayer at karm.org. We have people who have volunteered and designated themselves to be prayer warriors and they go through that and they pray. So just email us.

May the Lord bless you with that. All right let's get back on the phone with David from North Carolina. Dave you still there? Yes I'm still here. All right so I gave you a lot of info. I would like that.

Go ahead. Yeah uh Matt uh over the years I was ashamed of my actions and I quit going to church because I knew that I was disobeying God and for some reason I knew that he was going to get me back into his fold and I I was afflicted with several physical problems. Shoulder issues, knee issues, until finally I just felt like God just thumped me to the point that I had to wake up and come back to him. It was a shame that it had to be that way. It doesn't have to be that way to people but I have been ashamed of my actions.

It has ruined the testimony that I used to have and I do not condone that behavior whatsoever because it causes the fear, problems with your testimony and you're sending people to hell by living that way. But he he had mercy on me and didn't kill me which he had every right to. So he afflicted me to the point that I'm back with him and I'm hungry for his word again. And I think what you were talking about the these people that Hebrews 6 4 through 6 was talking about were not truly saved. That's uh you know I truly believe that once you are his you're his forever.

That's right. And uh I do appreciate you expounding on that because I think not only for my sake but for other people's sake also we need to hear that. We need to understand his scripture.

So if you got anything else you want to say I'm all ears. Well I'm glad to hear that you're ashamed of those years. I'm gonna quote you a verse. It's one of my favorite verses in the bible and I haven't quoted this in a long time but it is one of my favorites.

I love it you'll see why. Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed for the outcome of those things his death? Romans 6 21. What benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed for the outcome of those things his death? Because of what I do for a living and sometimes I reflect back on years of foolishness. There's so much to be ashamed of in my Christian walk. And I was deriving no benefit from them and yet God was merciful deriving foolishness and yet God was merciful. And so now the result and I'm sure it is with you as well the result is that he deserves all the glory.

Why didn't he take you out? Don't know except that he was merciful and merciful and now what you require of you now what he requires of you is to speak the truth that you were lost and you were found and he like the prodigal son went into darkness and then came back and the the fatted calf was killed the fatted calf and the signet ring was was given and the robe was put upon him in celebration of his repentance and the father said you've always been my son. And so we need to rest in the incredible grace of God. Why would he be so merciful to you in particular and all that sin and rebellion? I have no idea except to say it's because of his grace not because of anything in you and you are obligated to shout so to speak from the rooftops the glory of the Lord and speak to others about his great mercy so that they too can come to a saving relationship with Jesus.

That's what has to happen you've got to live for him you got to live for him. You're right you're right I am obligated I am obligated to him because of his grace. That's right we love because he first loves us.

Thank you for taking time. You're welcome yeah and I just have this feeling that uh when you fully laid all of this at the cross which I don't know if you have or haven't because you're remorseful which is good but you got to realize how valuable and infinitely powerful that blood of Christ is to remove all of your sin and that the love of God is so incredible that he loves you anyway and he's loved you from eternity past and his thoughts for you have been infinite in number and now that you are free now he's just raise your hands to him while you're on your knees saying do with me as you desire send me where you want me to go put words into my mouth to bring glory to your name. I don't care what the cost is for Jesus all right. Yes sir I agree and I'm gonna give him everything I got. All in and it'll get a little bit rough because that's what it means to be like that because God will use you but he's going to shape you in the process and you'll be humble before him forever because you realize how great his grace was to you and it'll just keep you humble for the things that he's going to want you to do okay.

Yeah I do understand that if we are have everything smooth in our daily life there's something amiss if we got the bumps in the road that's when we grow. That's right there's like that's right if everything's perfectly smooth then the devil's happy with you so yeah that's right that's right thank you Matt. All right brother well God bless give glory to our Lord the Savior Jesus Christ for his great mercy. Okay absolutely praise his name absolutely praise his name always all right man God bless buddy. All right keep up the good work Matt and thank you. Okay by God's grace remember that verse Romans 6 21 okay I've got it pulled up right now. All right sounds good buddy all right well God bless. All right thanks okay God bless you too. God bless all right we have five open lines going to give me a call 877-207-2276. People in the chat room want me to talk about something so I'm going to. Republican Cleaver ends opening prayer for the new congress by saying amen and a woman. So uh when I read that uh I thought what a piece of crud uh I thought it was a little more pejorative term but if you get my drift and um this just shows you the liberal wacko leftist uh idiocy that uh that goes on as our country continues to slide downhill into Gehenna the fiery pit outside the city of Jerusalem that was the place of burning refuse all kinds of refuse we saw fall into that that pit that's what's happening in our country but there are those of us who do not bend the knee to secularism to paganism and to the cancel culture of the aberrant social justice movements and the leftist um aristocracy and oligarchy who are trying to control us so the uh this the guy cleaver uh is an ordained um united methodist pastor now that explains a lot uh because united methodists the united methodist church is uh bad it is so bad that it's not a christian church it uh is in bed fornicating with secular morality it is actually committing adultery in the spiritual sense going after false gods going after false idols going after false teachings it um ordains women which is bad it supports homosexuality which is is bad the united methodist church as a personal example uh here in the Boise Idaho area a few years ago when i found out about it uh the woman pastor who i asked to be on my radio show here at the time she refused uh the woman pastor had a muslim imam come in and give the message from the pulpit on sunday which is blasphemy because islam denies the trinity denies the deity of christ denies the crucifixion denies the resurrection denies salvation by grace alone through faith alone in christ alone it's an anti-christ false religion and Muhammad's a false prophet and this uh so called united methodist pastor woman allowed a pagan uh unbeliever who's in league with the enemy of the gospel to come in and give a message to the to the congregation this is the leftist wacko ideology of the united methodist church being um exemplified so what did newt gingrich say about this uh he says perfect house democrat prayer ending as house dems focus on gender security by abolishing virtually every normal gender term like father mother the radical madness has begun and so uh yeah i agree so guess what the term amen literally in the greek is a main uh main that's pronounced in greek not a big deal and the word occurs uh 129 times in the new testament and it is translated generally into the english as truly like truly truly so for example jesus says truly i say to you which is amen lego human which is truly i say to you and so the word amen amen and that's how that's how it's pronounced ah main in the greek don't worry about it amen is fine in english uh it just occurs and it is what's called an indeclinable uh word it's a foreign word used in the hebrew that was transliterated and brought into the greek and so there it is right there okay and uh it's used so we can say amen it it does not have any gender to the form of the word it's neither male nor female it's neuter now i do get tired of these leftist wackos who don't really have much frontal lobe activity going on i've discovered uh recently that zombies and far leftists are very similar because neither one have frontal lobe uh functioning going you know and if you i believe that if you were to watch uh a far leftist it could be anybody's a far leftist just watch their eyelids are half masked and their eyes and then they walk going like that because in their frontal lobes is working so this is what i see and and the thing is they get elected they get elected to uh to office so basically we're getting what we deserve in this country the morons the wackos the leftist radicals who promote socialism and communism are alive and well in our country what do we do christians start praying pray for the repentance of our country and the movement of the holy spirit across our nation christians start praying and don't just pray you vote you call you petition you do what you got to do stand up for righteousness the lord bless you by his grace we're back on there tomorrow and we'll talk to you then god bless everybody