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 CARM.org. When you have questions about Bible doctrines, turn to Matt Slick live for answers. Taking your calls and responding to your questions at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. Welcome to the show, Matt Slick live. I'm your host Matt Slick. If you want to give me a call, all you have to do is dial 877-207-2276.
We have five open lines, so why don't you give me a call. I'm a little out of breath because I've been running around. I work a lot. I'm doing so many different things. Oh yeah, I've got two minutes.
Let me get a cup of coffee. That kind of stuff. So anyway, hey look, we had a Bible study last night and I don't know how many of you participated or watched. Hopefully it was interesting for you.
Hopefully you enjoyed it. I taught on baptism for two hours and one of my goals was to inform people and to shake them up a little bit about what they think baptism is because everyone, most everyone says baptism automatically means that you have to be immersed. And I showed them, last night I did this, I showed them repeatedly where baptism cannot mean that and they went, yeah you're right, that's what it says.
And then there's places where it can mean that. But I went through and showed that. I showed it as a covenant sign and a seal and went through various verses on baptism. I went through Acts chapter 2 and we spent some time there and some other stuff. So I enjoyed it. I thought it was fun. I love teaching. I love teaching. I love being able to just give reasons for the faith and I had the pleasure last night of being able to teach that.
If you saw or you were in it, call up, give some comments on it. We're going to be working on the lighting because I was looking at the video today and the lighting is pretty bad. But it's really tough to get the lighting right. So we have to do something weird but just to get lighting better. But we're going to work on it. But the sound is really good and that's what's really more important.
Let's see, man I saw it earlier but was so brain fogged and fatigued. Okay, good stuff he says if you want to give me a call. Now baptism is a very important topic and there are issues that a lot of people don't realize when it comes to the issue of baptism. So if you're curious about some aspects, call me up and we can talk about it. Or if you want to talk about other stuff, all you have to do is give me a call at 877-207-2276. So each week I let the group decide what they want to be taught the following week.
And so they decided election and predestination. And so there are people with questions with some issues so I'll be teaching on that next week. But I'll be teaching a half hour late because I have to host ABN satellite TV stuff on Islam next week, two nights. So I'll be doing that.
Okay, now I'm just getting all this stuff out of the way. Let's see, let's see. I do plan, it looks like we're getting a plan to go down to, for me and maybe a buddy of mine, to go down to Salt Lake City area on Saturday the 5th.
That's what we're looking at. Go down on Saturday, maybe speak at a church on Sunday or preach. I don't know, we'll see how that goes. It's been a couple of days there. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, drag down to Laughlin for the UFO convention. And then probably come back on Thursday night. So that's what we're talking about doing. So down there on the weekend of the 5th and the 6th of June. So if there's people down there in the Salt Lake City area and you want to meet, you know, you email me at info at karm.org and say, yeah, you know, or you have a Bible study or have something you want me to come in and really irritate people, you know, basic stuff I'm good at.
That's fine. We might just have a meeting at a restaurant. Who knows?
Because people like to do that every now and then. You know, have meetings and stuff. So let's see. Let's see. Let's see.
Oh, yeah. Prayer ministry. Just if you're interested in being prayed for or maybe join the prayer ministry, just email us at prayer at karm.org.
Prayer at karm.org. We stay on the air by your donations. Please consider donating. We don't ask for much. Five, ten, fifteen dollars a month.
And that's the karm forward slash donate. We are working also on the schools. We have three schools and they are in an old format. And what we're going to be doing pretty soon is starting to convert them over to a modern formatting system. And it's going to take a while to do it because we have ninety, nine hundred and eighty, probably about two hundred and thirty to two hundred and fifty pages we have to add in and do all the, you know, all the whiz bang stuff to make it work. And so that's in the works as well.
The web guy who's developing that is almost done and will say, OK, now you guys can fill it in, you know, go ahead and populate it. So we're working a lot of stuff. We have a lot of stuff going on. And I'm about ready to start doing videos, regular videos. And I'm thinking about doing something called the one minute seminary and just have a one minute video, one to two minutes, maybe call it a two minute seminary, you know, and that way people can come in and I'll just give straight to the point teaching with scriptures on various things.
And I'll just do, you know, a hundred of them like that and do some other videos on other topics and then put everything into a navigation system categorized with video stuff. So we're working, we're working it, we're working it. OK, four open lines. If you want to give me a call, all you have to do is dial 8772072276. Let's get to Ed from North Carolina.
Ed, welcome. You're on the air. Hi, Matt. How are you doing today? Hey, how are you doing?
Good. Hey, I got two questions. The first question, I want to preface it a little bit. I get that the spirit, God can turn a king's heart, the spirit can sweep through and clarify things for anybody and choose anybody and save anybody. My question is basically what I'm trying to understand is that predestination and election, I mean, I am being, I am saved and I was saved before the foundation of the earth. Technically not correct. And I'm trying to understand how, what that, I'm sorry.
No, you were not saved in the sense that it occurred to you, it didn't occur to you until you were justified, until you believed. You're elected and predestined before the foundation of the world. Okay.
Just a little technical stuff. I'm sort of a little gray there. Okay. Isn't everybody? Isn't everybody what?
Isn't everybody? Chosen before the foundation of the earth. Chosen for what? Justification, sanctification, salvation.
No, no, no, no. Not everyone is chosen to be saved and to be justified. Not everyone is elected by God for that purpose.
Okay. That's kind of tough to understand. I mean, you know, in other words, my brother, no matter how hard I try, might never be saved. I don't know. You don't know. See, what we don't know is how God works his election.
And we just don't know that. So, as it says, he chose us in him before the foundation of the world. That's Ephesians 1.4, and I'm just reading it. And people will complain, and they'll say, well, that's Reformed theology.
We don't like that. Well, then take that verse out of your Bible. You know, take Romans 9 out of your Bible. Because that's what it says. You know, I get so tired of Christians disagreeing with God because they understand how God's really going to be. God would never do that.
You know, they just need to shut up and sit down. Because they need to submit to the word of God, not the word of God to themselves. And this is what it says. You know, it says, he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we would be holy and blameless before him. The only way we could be holy is if we're in Christ and justified and his righteousness is ours and things like that. Then it says, in love, he predestined us to adoption as sons of Jesus Christ to himself. So, he did not choose everyone for salvation.
That's just what it says. Well, let me ask you, can I interject something right there? Sure, sure.
Alright, my question at that point is that, you know, we do not have the capability of choosing him at all without his grace. Correct. So, how does that work?
That's correct. So, how does it work? Yeah, how does that work with, in other words, does he say, I know you don't know, you're not God. I'm just saying, does he say, okay, Ed, I'm giving you grace, and Joe, Schmuck, you're going to get great.
I mean, how does that work? Well, we don't know. What it appears to be is that all people are fallen in Adam. That's why it says in Romans 5, 18, through one transgression there resulted in condemnation to all men. And 1 Corinthians 15, 22, in Adam all die, as when Adam died, we died in him. We inherited a sinful nature, which is why Ephesians 2, 3 says we are by nature children of wrath. Now, of the 100% of the people that have fallen into that, except for Jesus, of course, because he's born of a virgin, a different issue.
Right. 100% of the people, they go to hell, they belong in hell, they should go to hell because they are by nature children of wrath, and they sin. So what God has done from before the foundation of the world, this is Ephesians 1, 4. He, that's the Father, chose us, that's the elect.
That's what it means to choose. And in him, that's in Jesus, so the Father chose us in him, in Christ, before the foundation of the world. And what it means is there is no election to salvation outside of Christ. He chose us in him before the foundation of the world. Without Christ and his incarnation, it's not possible for anyone to be elected for salvation.
They work together, because the only way anybody can be saved is by the work of Christ. That's what it says here in Ephesians 1, 4. Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, and then he predestined us.
So choosing is what God does before the foundation of the world, and then predestining us is what he works out during our existence in this world. And he brings us to faith. A lot of people don't like this. A lot of people reject it. A lot of people call it a false teaching, but it's right there in Ephesians 1, 4, and 5. Well, that's because we're not predisposed to God's mind.
That's right. What the people are going to do in the future. Because people are predisposed to be arrogantly prideful and stubborn, and say that they in their wisdom are the ones who decide what God would have done with them. And they don't realize that's foolishness, and it needs to be called out for that as foolishness. And people need to submit to the word of God, and more and more people are not doing that. In fact, at the Bible study last night, two guys, we stayed afterwards, were talking, and they were telling me different stories, or multiple stories, where it came down basically to this. It wasn't the exact words, but this is what they were saying. They were meeting people, and discussing theology with them, and showing them the scriptures. And people were saying, people who were supposed to be Christians, saying, Well, we don't agree with that. And it's right there in the word. Reading the verse, and having a pastor say, That's your interpretation.
And the guy goes, I just read it. And so the pastor's even rejecting what the word says. Or one guy said, a secretary says, You take the word of God too seriously. And other people, you take the word of God too seriously. And this is one of the problems that's alive in the Christian church. And I can prove it by just asking questions to people, just driving along. What do you think about this?
What do you think about that? Then I read the scripture to show that what they believe, mostly, isn't biblical. And this is, unfortunately, something that's happening a lot in the churches. Where they just, whatever the doctrinal wind is, whatever they feel is true, whatever the denomination says is what they do, instead of working and choosing the word of God and going with that. But at any rate, so this is what the Bible says, okay?
He chose us, and he gave grace, the saving grace and saving faith, to the elect at that right time, so that we justified. Hold on, we've got to break, okay, Ed? We're talking more. All right. All right.
Hey, folks, whether you like or don't like what I'm saying, is that what the word of God says? That's the question. Give me a call if you want, 877-207-2276.
You have four open lines. Give me a call. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick.
All right. And we're going to welcome back to the show. Let's get to Ed from North Carolina. Ed, welcome. You're on the air.
Hi, Matt. I really appreciate you going through the election and predisposition of grace. I've got one more question.
It's sort of a personal question, but it's a question. What is the biggest, all the time that you've been doing this, just curious, what is the biggest paradigm shift in your thinking that's ever occurred when it comes to the Bible and doctrine? Reformed theology.
Flat out. You see, I denied predestination, God's predestination. And the reason I did was because the churches I went to taught humanistic philosophy. The elders taught Christ, and people could get saved no problem, but they had this man-centeredness that they weren't aware of that wasn't biblical. When I first started encountering the idea of election and predestination, I remember the first time I just talked about it last night, as a matter of fact.
I was at Christ College Irvine, which is now Concordia University in Southern California in Irvine, and that's where I got my bachelor's degree. And Rod Rosenblatt, Dr. Rod Rosenblatt, a great teacher in the Lutheran Missouri Synod denomination, he was teaching on this issue of predestination in class. I challenged him. I said, no, that's not what the Bible teaches.
It wouldn't teach that God would do something like that because he wouldn't do something like that. And I remember he was very, very gracious, and he said, well, here are the verses, and he showed me, and I'm like frowning. And he very graciously said, well, just go check it out for yourself.
Just go study it. And I said, okay. So two weeks later in the same class, I raised my hand, and he let me talk, and I said, look, two weeks ago, I challenged you on the issue of predestination, and you were very polite about it. And you said, go study it, and I did, and you were right.
I was wrong. That's what it teaches, and that's what I believe now. He just smiled and continued teaching on the topic we were at. So that was my first encounter with it, and I resisted all the way in all kinds of things until I realized God's sovereign, not me. I'm not good enough to even believe in him without his work on me, and that I'm saved only by his grace, and I'm kept by his grace, and that he has loved me even though he knows everything about me, and he's loved me from eternity past and decided to save me from eternity past and how blessed and how fortunate I am.
That's the paradigm shift that occurred, and it's the biggest one I've had in my biblical theology and understanding, and it's been great. Okay. Thank you for sharing that. One more question. I'll leave you alone.
I'll do what the devil wants. What is the best commentary for study reference? What I recommend is you just read the Bible.
What I recommend is you get an outline and look up the word Trinity or write down the word Trinity. See if you can find out how it's done. Go to CARM.
Look some stuff up if you want. Do concordance research and things like that. I prefer Reformed commentaries, and the reason I do is Krista Marker is good, and I would recommend Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology. That's very good. But I recommend that people get Reformed commentaries and study guides because it will cause you to skip ahead 10 or 20 years of learning because a lot of people, they get anchored in man-centered theology, and they never grow out of it, and then they learn to hate the great grace and sovereignty of God in his election and predestination, and so they actually war against God, and they don't realize it.
It doesn't mean they're not saved because it can be saved in different levels of ignorance, but this is pretty typical, and so Reformed theology, you skip that hurdle right away. Okay? Okay. Thanks, Matt. God bless you. You too. May your show escalate into people's minds and hearts that God would give them the grace to understand, and be saved. Amen.
We all need to know that. Amen. All right, brother.
Let's see. Let's get to Matt from North Carolina. Hey, Matt.
Welcome. You are on the air. Hey, Matt. How you doing?
Oh, I'm hanging in there, buddy. What do you got, big man? My dad, years ago, he got dabbling in, like, trying to find the truth, you know?
He went from a dispensationalist view to a, like, seeing the juicer problem, saying black people are bad, Mexicans are bad, Hispanics are bad, my bad. But, you know, how can I reach him? Is he Christian? I don't know, because I don't know how.
I'll try my best, and I'll just pray. Is he a Christian? He professes to be. He professes to be. Does he go to church? He goes to his own church. He watches it on his phone now. He watches it, what, on TV? I didn't quite get that last word. On his phone. On his smartphone. Okay.
All right. In Numbers 12, 6 through 8. Numbers 12.
Just start reading in Numbers 12. Moses married a Cushite woman, and that's Ethiopian. So he married a black woman.
And God didn't have any problem with it. Why does he? You can ask him that. Okay, and it's Numbers 12.
Okay, that's Cushite, which is from Ethiopia. And that's one issue. And you can ask him, Dad, do you think you're better because of your skin color? Just ask him. And if he says yes, you know, you can do it at this point, because he'll recognize its stupidity to believe that. Even if he says yes, then you can just let it kind of go because you don't want to argue where he becomes defensive and defends that. You want the truth of the idiocy to sink into his mind and his heart. Okay, Dad, that's what you think.
You know, it's not what God wants, but that's what you think. Then you leave it. Okay. And you can find out what the reasons are. You know, my grandmother was like that. And, you know, I tried to work with her, but some people are just so ingrained in stuff that way that what are you going to do? You know, you pray for them, and you try not to follow in those sinful footsteps.
And you pray for your father and stuff like that. Okay. What you got to do? Thanks, Matt. Okay, buddy. All right, man. God bless. All right.
Okay. All right, let's get to Steve from North Carolina. Steve, welcome. You are on the air. Hey, Matt, how are you? I'm doing okay, hanging in there, man.
What do you got? Just one of the two things. One, I just wanted to...
I'm ex-COC. Okay. And I've been kind of trying to deprogram myself for, I don't know, 20 years now. But I want to thank you for appointing me to Romans 5-1 and Romans 4-5. Because that just helped me. That has helped me, like, greatly. Good.
But I just had a different question now. I'm pretty much over that whole baptism thing. I'm going to go and listen to your study last night.
I didn't get a chance to do that. I'm too old to stay up that late in the East Coast. But what is your stance on listening to rock and roll music?
When I was in the COC and I was, like, 24 years old, it was like, no, you can't do that. But the truth is, for me now... Let's get to it after the break. Let's get to it after the break. Okay, cool.
Okay, because that's a good topic, right? Okay. Hey, folks, we'll be right back after these messages. I want you to stay tuned. All right, we'll be right back. 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 to Steve. Steve, are you still there?
Yep, here. Okay. So, okay, you were going to ask? So I guess my question is not, it's not, I saw that get posted, but it's not about the church service in the COC. I know a lot of COCs do not even allow any instrumental music at all.
It's all acapella. But I'm not talking about that. I'm saying when I was in the COC, they told me if I was home, I shouldn't be listening to, like, my favorite band, Led Zeppelin.
Can't listen to it. That's a sin. It's a sin to listen to them. Why?
Is that valid? Well, I would say that they have to show you in Scripture why that's sinful. Now, this is where we get into a gray area, because we want to be holy and sanctified before the Lord. You know, I love Zeppelin, and I love Sabbath and ACDC back in the day. You know, I dig Korn and Rammstein. But I really love to hear praise music, you know, and I listen to that more than anything else. And reggae is good. Right. So, you know, I don't like country western. I can see that being sinful.
But at any rate. I mean, I'm not a big country western either myself. I'm just, you know, I just like, to me, listening to Led Zeppelin is relaxing. To me, it relaxes me.
It reminds me of my youth. Maybe that's a bad thing. I don't know. Well, I don't see anything sinful about it. I think it's an issue between you and God.
Because in 1 Corinthians 10, there's an issue of eating meat sacrificed to idols. Are we allowed to do that? And the answer is yes, because it's not going to harm you. If you are not injured by it, then okay. And if you are, then you shouldn't. If it's going to have a deleterious effect on you, then you should stay away from it. This is something that is important, you know.
It's like, you know, Paul studied philosophy and he studied the pagan philosophers. Well, you shouldn't do that, even at home. Why not? Because it can negatively influence you. Well, yes, if you're not grounded in the word, but then he used it to witness, you know. So it's a gray area.
It's a difficult one. And there's some stuff you shouldn't listen to. I mean, there's just some stuff you shouldn't. I mean, I know that there's some Led Zeppelin songs that are, like, sexually bad. But there's also Led Zeppelin songs that actually praise Jesus. I mean, so. I wouldn't say so.
I wouldn't do that. Because I've listened to Zeppelin over the years. You know, I had all their albums and the whole bit. And I never heard anything that's praising Jesus in there. So.
I don't know. There's one song on physical CD that is, but. Really? I could see that one.
Because I had that album, but I was back before I was walking with the Lord. So, you know. Right. I mean, to me, I would think that it's, like, if you're making. And maybe I'm wrong here, but. If you're making the music like you're God, and it's an idol. To you versus Jesus. Versus just, like, casually listening to the music. Right. But, when I was in the CSC, it was like, no.
Yeah, they're legalistic. You can't do it because you'll lose your salvation. Well, there's nothing in the Bible that says that. I think the thing, when it comes to things like this. And this is the same category as in, what movies do we watch? What kind of clothes do we wear?
What music do we listen to? It's an issue of sanctification before the Lord. You want to do things in such a way that ultimately are edifying.
That's the goal. But sometimes it's just cool to. In fact, my wife videotaped, recorded something on TV. It was back in the 60s. And had Janis Joplin when she was very young. And she was singing this song. And it's captivating how good she was.
And I watched it, like, 10, 15 times. And I just say, she was fantastic. She was such an incredible singer, the way she got into stuff. Was that sinful?
No. I mean, she was kind of pagan. She was.
She died of a drug OD. Right, right. You know, it's like, okay, what do you do?
So, it's a tough one. But I find myself, this is just me. The older I get, the less I'm liking that other stuff. The more I'm wanting good praise music.
Then the problem becomes, I don't want to listen to that idiocy called, stuff from Bethel, you know? And Hillsong, okay? But one of my favorite physical graffiti songs.
I mean, yeah, on physical graffiti was Cashmere. I love that song. Right, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, my son is a, just graduated, and he's like a band teacher. But he's actually going for his MDiv right now, which I think is funny. Okay, good, good for him. So, we listen to music, and he listens to my music.
And he listens to his own music, which is, he likes classical music, which is like my dad's music, because my dad was a World War II guy. But, I don't know. When I was in the CRC, they just told me so many different things that I kind of believed. Find your scripture. What they said. Find your scripture.
And it's just hard to, I'm still kind of, literally, it's 25 years later, and I'm still trying to wind myself out, you know? Yeah, cults do that to people. They mess you up. We have freedom in Christ, so you can listen to it, but don't use it to become sinful. Don't let it overtake you.
And if you start humming bad stuff, then you know it's affecting you bad, and move away, all right? Right. Okay. Thank you. All right. Appreciate it. I really appreciate you, man. I mean, you've helped me so much to get to, after 20 years, that Romans thing just really helps me a lot.
And I know AK probably hates this, but that's the way it is, man. Well, you know, it's the power of the word of God, and justification by faith alone in Christ alone, not faith in Christ in ceremony. Right, you can't get around? Yeah.
Yeah, we don't have any ceremonies. You can't get around that. That's what it says. That's right.
You can't get around that whole thing in Romans. Yeah. All right, big man. God bless, man. Thank you. All right, God bless.
Okay, let's get on the phones with Fall, I guess, Fall or Fail, from Greensboro, North Carolina. Welcome. You are here. Yeah, I'm not.
No, it is Fail, F-K-I-L, like the Lord will never fail you. Okay. Yes. Okay. First of all, let me just comment. I truly agree with your explanation about predestination and being chosen to elect. That's what it says. Totally agree with you.
It's just that most of my friends don't agree with me either, but it's okay. I stick to what the word says, and I don't take things out of context. You tell them. I read it in context. I'm telling you what the word says. That's right.
What does the word say? Yes. That's right. Right. Show them the word. That's my question.
And I might get thrown out of school, but here it is. I'm taking this course on discipleship training. Okay. And we've discussed last Monday, this past Tuesday, the qualifications of a disciple. So one of the qualifications is that a disciple must be born again. So my question in class, were the disciples born again before the resurrection of Jesus Christ? And then my thing is, first, if I went to Luke 18 verses 31 through 34, when Jesus predicts his death and resurrection, the word says, and I'm going to read it. It says in verse 34, but they understood none of these things. They're saying what's hidden from them.
And they did not know the things which were spoken. Right. Then, however, on John 20, 22, after Jesus was resurrected, he came back across the trail where had it because of from the Pharisees.
Yep. He said to them, peace, peace to you. And after he made that statement to the 12 disciples, he breathed on them and he said, receive the Holy Spirit. Now for me, that's when they became born again. It's the same thing he told Nicodemus. You must be born again.
Okay, so what's your question? And we know, okay, so my question is, were the disciples born again before the resurrection of Jesus Christ? The Bible doesn't say and I tend to agree with you that they weren't, that they were knowledgeable and such. Now could they have been justified? Now that's another issue because Abraham was justified by his faith.
Yes. And so in a sense, they would have to be born again in that sense. So it gets a little bit tough because they undoubtedly had faith in Christ, but we don't know what they really were believing or understanding yet.
So we can't answer the question. Sometimes they believe, but no, Matt, sometimes they believe in Jesus Christ and then sometimes they didn't believe. Even Jesus had to say, you are little faith. And then you go back to Scripture. Yeah, I'm with you.
I'm just saying we can't say for sure. Oh, no, no, no, don't leave me. We've got a break. Hold on, okay? We'll be right back. Hey, folks, please stay tuned. We'll be right back after these messages. All right, everyone, welcome back to the show.
Let's get to fail. Are you still there? Yes, I am.
You know I would not leave. Okay, so we can't say they were or were not, and I just don't go that far and say that they were or weren't or when they were or weren't. Probably after the resurrection, for sure, they were born again.
I would say that, but I don't know to what condition they were beforehand. It's because the Bible doesn't say. I'm like, what about this then? In 2 Corinthians, it says that those things that are hidden are hidden from the lost, and so here in Luke 18, 34, it says it was hidden from them. Well, you see, you can't take one context and say it's hidden from them. That means they're just lost, and then port it over to another context and say that's what it means to them over there.
You can't do that. You have to look at both contexts individually and then see how they can relate, and so I can't do that right now in the air. Okay, I agree with that. What about this, Matt? What about when Jesus died on the cross, and he went down to paradise to set the captives free, and those were all the old saints like Abraham and Moses. He set them free, but they saw. They realized then that he had died and resurrected, so they are now born again because they believe that they saw him, but Jesus couldn't say to them, I will God bless you.
Okay, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. So you're doing a lot of teaching here to answer the questions, and yeah, it's okay to some extent, but I don't know where you're going with all of this, and I've already told you that regarding the disciples, we don't know, and when you say born again, the term has to be defined scripturally very precisely before we can start answering the question, and so there's some tough stuff there, so for now I would just say don't have a good answer. I don't have a good answer for you, but obviously at the very least they were born again after the resurrection of Christ when they truly fully believed, and to what extent might they have been beforehand? I don't know because it falls in the same category of being justified by faith as was Abraham. Would you say he was born again? Well, in a sense, yes, but in another sense, no.
It depends on how we define it, and we don't have time to go through all that. I would say Abraham was a believer. I would say Abraham was a believer. Yes, and he went to heaven, and Jesus says you can't go to heaven unless you're born again, so you see, well, then was he born again? But it says you ought to be born of the water and the Spirit, so then what you're saying, because it literally is not born again, it's born from above. That's what the Greek says.
It doesn't say born again. So it's far more complicated than we can solve right here, okay? Thank you so much, and God bless you. God bless you too. All right, we'll talk to you later. Okay. Okay, bye-bye. Bye. All right, let's get to Jim from Kernersville, North Carolina.
Welcome. You're on the air. Hi, Matt. How are you doing? I'm doing all right. Hang it in there, man.
What do you got, buddy? Well, I'm just kind of trying to wrestle, I guess, with the predestination, what you were talking about. I mean, I understand all that. I do believe God's sovereign in all that.
I was wondering, well, kind of a twofold question. One is, you know, how, and you kind of just answered a little bit, but how that relates with the Old Testament thing. And then, you know, where does acceptance of the gift of salvation, how does that fit in? So the Old Testament saints were obviously elected too, because, you know, we're elected from the foundation of the world, Ephesians 1, 4. Thessalonians 2, 11, or 2, 13 says, But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith and truth. So we know that God has chosen people for salvation.
That's, I mean, I'm just reading the text. I know that a lot of people don't like this. In fact, just so you know, every now and then I've had, over the years I've had people say don't mention Reformed theology on radio or TV or in different areas because it upsets people. And I always thought that was interesting, you know, because it's like, I mean, don't point out the scriptures that support it, that teach it, because people get offended by the word of God, and that's a travesty that they would be offended by God's word and then claim to be Christians.
I just don't get that. You believe what the word of God says. All right, so the Old Testament saints would have to have been chosen in order to be believers. That's it.
Now, what was your second question? So how does, I guess where my question is, along with the acceptance of the gifts of salvation, and I don't believe that fairly, you know, I don't believe we have a part in salvation. Christ did everything. But at the same time, I mean, do we not have to accept that gift?
Yes. To receive it? I mean, Jesus said I'll knock at the door and come in, but he doesn't say I won't lock the door down. We have to open the door to him. Well, the Bible says as many as received him, to them he gave the right to be called the children of God, Ephesians, I mean, John 1-12. We do receive him. We do believe and we do trust. God grants that we believe, Philippians 1-29. He grants that we come to Christ, John 6-44 and John 6-65. So God grants it, and yet we also do the believing. And that's just what the Scripture says.
So they're both true. And that's what I've been getting from it, too. I mean, I came out of Catholicism and, you know, I went into Baptist church because it aligned with as close as what I was understanding as a young Christian.
So, you know, as I've grown over the years, I'm kind of, you know, it's changing. And that's good. Wrestle and go through Romans 9, starting at verse 9, and start reading and wrestle with that. Okay?
And then call me next week. All right. Appreciate it. All right.
Romans 9-9-23. Wrestle with it. Read the context.
See what it does to you. Okay? All right. All right. Appreciate it, man. All right, man. God bless.
Okay. Let's get to Kevin from Knoxville, Tennessee. Kevin, welcome. You're on the air.
Hey, Matt. I got a question. What do you recommend, like, for, like, a digital Bible or paper Bible? I use it, like, with deep study on my own, but I'm talking about, like, when you go to church or you're, like, in a group Bible city, do you recommend using a paper Bible in that situation or a digital Bible? Well, me, I always use, now I just use a digital.
Because I like to do searches, and I like to look at Greek, and I like to look at other things. And so I have my phone, I have Logos on my phone, and I can do that kind of stuff. But when I preach, I use a physical Bible. I want that Bible in my hand. And when I teach Bible studies, usually I use my phone because of those same tools, but there's usually a hard Bible copy right next to me someplace so I can turn to it. But I have a lot of stuff memorized, so I just say, here, go turn this, and then people who have their Bibles next to me, they will turn, because I already know what the verse says, and then, so I mainly now go to just digital.
This is me. Okay. And then what do you, say like you're sitting down in a church service, do you recommend digital as well or paper? Depends on what you like. Just, you know, whatever works for you. I like the digital one because I like to look at Greek commentaries.
I like to look at the Greek, the Hebrew sometimes, related verses, and I'll do studies, and then sometimes if I learn something, I'll literally take a note on my phone. I'll take, oh, I can remember that, you know, and make a note. So, you know, me, that's me. That's not everybody. My wife, she doesn't, she actually has a, she does her phone too. She has a digital phone, a digital copy. That's what she uses when we go to church.
And at home, she reads the Bible in her hand, you know, the hardcover, hard copy. Okay? So it just depends. Okay. Thank you so much.
You're welcome so much. All right. Let's get to Philip from Orlando.
Philip, are you there? Yeah. How you doing, Matt? Doing all right.
Hanging in there. Okay. That's good. I was, you know, I know you believe that you can't lose your salvation, right? Correct. I know you believe that because I heard you say that before. Yes.
Yeah. So, like, what verses, like, in the Bible where you can't lose your salvation? Where do you see that in the Bible? You can go to John 6, 37.
I'm going to share the screen here. Let's see. There we go. And this is what Jesus says in John 6, 37 through 40. All that the Father gives me will come to me.
And the one who comes to me I certainly will not cast out. For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. This is the will of him who sent me. That of all that he's given me I lose nothing but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, and the one who beholds the Son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I myself will raise him up on the last day.
So the will of God the Father is that Jesus lose none. Would you agree? Right. Right. But you notice it says...
Sorry, sorry. Can Jesus lose any? If we choose to. Okay, so then Jesus can lose them. The will of the Father is that Jesus lose none. So you're saying that Jesus fails to do the will of the Father. Well, it says if you hold on to the faith. Okay, hold on a second. So it's your choice.
Okay, I'm trying to help you out here. You're arguing with the word of God. The will of the Father is that Jesus lose none. Can Jesus lose any? Can Jesus fail to do the will of the Father?
I mean, if it's your choice. Can Jesus fail to do the will of the Father? Can Jesus fail to do the will of the Father?
That's the question. Can Jesus fail to do the will of the Father? No, I mean, he always keeps promises.
Okay. But it's your choice if you want the promise of none. Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. Can Jesus fail to do the will of the Father?
You need to answer that question. No, Jesus, he's perfect. He never fails. So let me ask you.
I need a specific answer. Can Jesus fail to do the will of the Father? What's the answer? Yes or no? Can he fail to do the will of the Father? No, I just told you, he can't do it. The answer is no. Good. So then, if Jesus cannot fail to do the will of the Father, then Jesus can't lose any, can he?
No. Then you can't lose your salvation, can you? Then you can't lose your salvation.
There is no condition in here. Unless you just choose not to believe, it doesn't say that. Notice what verse 39 and 40 says.
You need to learn this. Because it's what it says. We've only got a minute left. The will of him who sent me is that all he's given me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. Verse 40. This is the will of my Father that everyone who beholds the Son and believes.
Everyone who becomes a believer. He says we'll have eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day. That means everybody who's a believer will be raised on the last day because that's the will of the Father. But that wouldn't be true if they could lose their salvation. You are inadvertently accusing Jesus of failing to do the will of the Father.
Right. I believe we are chosen, but we can lose it too. Oh, so then, let me ask you, we're almost out of time. Are you good enough to keep your salvation before God? How are you doing?
Is that working for you? Are you good enough? I mean, no one is good enough.
Well, wait a minute. That's why we need Jesus Christ. So this is no, you're good enough to keep your own salvation by whatever it is you've got to do. Because if you can lose it based on what you do, you keep it based on what you do. But we've still got to hold on to the faith, though.
Then you are taking credit for all of it. Call back Monday. I'd love to debate you on this because what you're teaching is false doctrine. Call back Monday. We'll talk, okay? We're out of time, buddy. Sorry, God bless.
May the Lord bless him because he needs it. And all of you who believe you can lose your salvation. Hey, folks, by his grace, we're back on the air on Monday. We'll talk to you then. Have a great weekend. Bye. Another program powered by the Truth Network.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-11-14 13:50:53 / 2023-11-14 14:10:57 / 20