The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network.
If you want to give me a call, all you have to do is dial 877-207-2276 and the last four digits spell CARM.ORG, so that's CARM.ORG. If you haven't been to the site, I strongly suggest you check it out. Let me just tell you, I am very, very, very particular about doctrine and always have been and believe that doctrine is like a fence by which you can judge truth as God has revealed in his word. So in light of that, the articles I've written and supervised, having been written on the site, are going to be theologically precise biblically sound. And if you are interested in some good theology, then all you got to do is check that out.
You can go to CARM.ORG. You've got over 5,000 articles there written on Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Islam Baha'i, Roman Catholicism. We've written so many things and so many different topics and all kinds of stuff. You can check it out. There's a huge section on Christian theology.
We have three schools as well. You can check those out. Schools.CARM.ORG.
Schools.CARM.ORG. You can check it out there. For those of you who are watching, you may notice I have a certain t-shirt on and the t-shirt says, Truth, The New Hate Speech.
I went to the gym today and I wear stuff like that. I always look for opportunities to witness and to share and sometimes people respond to them and they don't. Truth, The New Hate Speech. I want to talk about truth a little bit.
I'm going to go to scripture on this. I want to relate a couple of things. Before we do that, we'll give the number out because we have five open lines. I want you to give me a call.
8772072276. Truth. What is truth?
There's a lot of discussions about what that is. Truth is that which corresponds to reality, the call to correspondence theory. I used a hold of that, but I kind of abandoned that because truth is that which corresponds to the mind of God. Since God knows all things, then whatever he says is automatically true. Since God cannot lie and since he knows all things, logically, whatever he speaks will always be the truth. Likewise, Jesus, who is God in flesh, whenever he speaks, it will always be the truth.
This is important because truth is something we need to focus on. Now, in the Garden of Adam and Eve, God says in Genesis 2 16, the Lord God commanded the man saying from any tree of the garden you may eat freely, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it, you shall surely die. Now, I could get into some theological discussions about that, but let me just say that notice what he's saying here. From the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat. Now, God had said don't eat from it, and of course they did, but I want to go to Genesis chapter 3.
This is what it said. Now, the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made, and he said to the woman, indeed as God said, you shall not eat from any tree of the garden. Now, remember, because God is all-knowing, 1 John 3 20, and because he cannot lie, Titus 1 2, because it's against his holiness, it's against his nature, then again, to repeat, whatever he says is true.
The only way we can know something is absolutely true is if the infinitely knowledgeable God who knows all things reveals it to us. So what does Satan say? Indeed, has God said you shall not eat from any tree of the garden? And so what he does is he casts doubt on the word of God.
Now, I've talked about this before, but I want to continue with this a little bit because of what's happening in our culture today. Has God said you shall not eat from any tree of the garden? The woman said to the servant, from the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat, but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said you shall not eat from it or touch it or you will die.
Now, you understand something here. The first thing that the evil one does is doubt the word of God. And then Eve modified the word of God because God said don't eat from the tree.
He said don't eat or touch it. Didn't say or touch it, so she modified the word of God a little bit, and then the serpent contradicts the word of God, you surely shall not die. Now, what we have in our culture today is a desert experience in the nature of truth. We have problems with truth being spoken.
Truth is really uncomfortable sometimes, and the reason is because truth doesn't care about your feelings. Truth is something that rests ultimately in the heart and mind of God. But when unbelievers become powerful, whether in the media, in politics, then truth, remember, unbelievers, truth is not something that rests in the heart and mind of God.
It will rest someplace else. Now, you've got to think about what truth is. Truth is a measuring stick. If God has said, for example, in John 14, 6, Jesus says I'm the way, the truth, and the life, and nobody comes to the Father but by me. If Jesus is saying this because he's God in flesh, then it's automatically true. And because it's true, we know that we can trust what it says, but also it's a measuring stick. So let me go to John 14, 6.
I want to teach you something here. So I am the way. Now, this is what Jesus is stating. He cannot lie, and he knows all things. He says I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. This is an absolute truth.
There is no variation in it, period. It is absolutely true because the infinite God in the person of Christ has revealed it. Now, what does the world do? The world, for example, would say Jesus is not the way, the truth, and the life. They would deny that you can only go to God through him.
They would deny that. When unbelievers do this, what they're essentially doing in this example, for example, they're saying that Jesus is a liar. They're saying, no, Jesus, you're not the way, the truth, and life, and people can come to God through others and other means and other ways. So you have to understand that someone who just doesn't believe something is also ultimately denying the truth of the statement that God makes in the person of Christ. So it's interesting that Jesus says I'm the way, the truth, and the life, and those are Trinitarian things, way, truth, life. Nevertheless, what the unbeliever does is follow lies because they're not following the truth.
Unbelievers, when they get in power, they don't have the truth, so they follow something else other than the truth. If someone were to come to you and say that Jesus is not the way, he's not the truth, he's not the life, and that there are other ways to go to the Father besides Jesus, that would be a lie. Now, you've got to understand there's a difference between what is false and what is a lie because someone could say something and they're not lying because they believe it's true, but it may not be accurate. It may not be true, but they're not being deceitful, not intentionally. They're not lying because lying is something you do with knowledge, something you do on purpose.
You lie. You know that the truth is one way and you say something in the contradiction. That's different but then you believe something to be true, like Mormonism, for example.
Mormons believe that God came from another planet and became a god, exalted man. They believe it's true, but it's not true, therefore it is a lie, but they don't believe it's a lie. They're not lying, but they are not being truthful.
We have to understand the distinguishing here. Unbelievers can hold to the position of what they believe to be true, but it's based ultimately on something that's not true. It's ultimately a lie because it's not based on the heart and mind of God. When you base something that is on something that is not true, you're ultimately basing your reasons for believing, behaving on something that's false, but because people have ways of cognitive dissonance, that means they have ways of believing lies and retaining lies in spite of the facts.
The reason people do this, one of the main reasons is because it's comforting, it's comfortable. They identify with a theorem, with an idea, with an ideology, and that comfort and dedication to a theory like Mormonism, that God came from another planet, Joseph Smith restored the true gospel, all this stuff that's not true. Or in Jehovah's Witnesses, Charles Taze Russell restored the true church and Jesus is just Michael the archangel.
Or Roman Catholicism, which says that you obtain salvation through faith, baptism, and the observance of the commandments. People believe things that are not true. When people believe something that's not true, then what happens is they will adopt other things that are not true in light of their mistake.
How do you get out of this? Well, you read the word and you believe what the word says, the word of God. Notice what Satan did. Satan was the first one to say, well, did God really say? In the case of Mormonism, I'll continue with them, in the eighth article it says that the Bible is correct in so far as it's correctly translated.
In other words, did it really say that? Just like what the devil does. What does Catholicism do? Well, you see our sacred tradition and what we believe the church father says takes precedence over the actual teaching of the word of God. That's what they do.
They won't say that, but that is what happens. It turns out that what we want to do is put the truth of God's word under our feet according to our discernment. And then we want to be the ones who judge truth because that is the way of fallen man. What fallen people do is judge truth based on their experience, their feelings, their, I bear witness of this truth.
They're not basing it on the revelation of God, but on the revelation of what they think is God. Or in the case of unbelievers, what they think some ethereal presence of greater truth is and others ought to adhere to it. But in both cases, whether it's religious deception or secular deception, what's happening is people are believing lies and acting according to those lies. You then find out that as one lie must be bolstered, it has to be bolstered with more error. It then becomes more difficult to hold to such systems consistently, and then irrationality takes over. In the case of religious fervor, irrationality is adopted and sacrificed at the altar of God told me I feel this.
I don't care what you say, don't care what the truth is. But this is similar to what happens to the secularists when truth and facts come out, but they don't care. In both religious brainwashing and secular brainwashing, control markers are instituted in the population in order to see and guarantee that the group or the people are following certain patterns and certain rules. This happens in Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian Society, Unity by Islam, in secular things, humanistic philosophies and things like that. Having said all this, we're getting up to the break, is that control markers are used by people in control to make sure that the people that they are influencing are following what needs to be done. And you can see control markers in various forms of society.
One of them, I believe now, has become wearing masks. And there's more information. But hey, look, we got a break. Give me a call. We have open lines. I want you to give me a call. 877-207-2276. 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. Welcome back to the show. Why don't you give me a call?
877-207-2276. Let's get to Chris from California. Chris, welcome.
You're on the air. Hey, Matt. How's it going? It's going, man. What do you got, buddy?
Yeah. I had a question. In Luke 2.41, when Jesus was 12, what questions do you think he was asking them at the temple? Well, who knows? It doesn't tell us. But you can rest assured that it was powerful. Luke 2.41.
Yeah. And he was asking, increasing wisdom and knowledge. And who knows? I don't think there's nothing in the text that says what he was saying. Sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions, verse 46. And all who were heard and were amazed at his understanding of his answers.
He had such a naturally deep understanding of the scriptures, since he's the author of the scriptures, that he could ask things that they couldn't answer. So, I mean, that's what it doesn't say. It doesn't say. Got it. Thank you.
That's it? Thank you for your insight. Yeah.
For lack of insight. All right, man. Yeah.
No, it's good. Thank you. All right. All right. Bye. Folks, five open lines. 8772072276.
Give me a call. Now, I was talking before the break about this issue of the nature of truth and what the world is doing, the secular world, is stomping on the truth. You understand something about everything that's going on, folks, that pay attention on TV, pay attention in the media, pay attention.
What are they saying? What is truth? What is truth? You have to understand that if you don't know the truth, you can be led and misled by lies. The media is no longer interested in the truth.
Most of the leftist media, ABC, CNN, MSNBC, I don't trust them. I've heard reports. I've studied some things they've said.
I've compared with stuff I've found out and know about. No. This is one of the things that is important because the Bible says the apostasy will come and then the antichrist will be here. The apostasy means to fall away from the truth.
This is what's happening. So you have to study the truth, which is the word of God. You must study the truth.
Read it for yourselves and believe what is in the word of God. There's lots of things you can say about this nature of deception and other things, but we're going to get to the calls. 877-207-2276. Let's get to Spencer from Charlotte, North Carolina. Spencer, welcome. You're on the air, buddy.
Hi, Matt. I just had a question. I'm a believer. I take the Bible, all 66 books to be the word of God, and nothing else outside of the Bible would be that. But I have some friends that are Christians, and they believe other books, like the Apocrypha, to be almost equal. Basically, the question is, how do we get our criteria for why we accept all 66 books to be the word of God?
And that alone, I guess, is the question. The criteria was that God ordained that it would be 66 books, not 67 and not 65. And so those who would hold to other books, they're the ones who have to demonstrate that the Christian church as a whole got it wrong.
This is the important thing. The reason I know about this is because the Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, will say, no, there's extra books. Mormons will say there's extra books. And Christian Science says there's extra books. Whenever you have extra books, you have a deviation from the ordained will and word of God, and then errors can creep in. And so the issue of the books, for example, Jesus says from the Law of the Prophets, he said, Luke 24, 45, let me see if that's the right verse. He opened your mind to understand scripture. Verse 44, he said, these are my words which I spoke to you while I was still with you.
Let all things which are written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled. And what he was doing was using the three categories the Jews used to describe the Old Testament books, the Law of the Prophets, and the Psalms. And the Psalms were the wisdom, literature, and things like that.
The Apocrypha was not considered part of this threefold division. The Apocryphal books were known by Jesus at this time, you know, Tobit, Judith, Maccabees, et cetera. And they were not considered in there because Jesus says all that's written about me in the Law of the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.
So that's what's going on. And also, Jesus said in, let's see, I think it's Luke 11, 43, let me see, is it 11, 43? No, it's different, 51, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the house of God. And he's talking about the first and last book of the Old Testament canon at the time, blood of Abel, the blood of Zechariah. And it's a reference to the Old Testament canon and the Apocryphal books were not included in that arrangement. The Apocryphal books were known by Christ and the apostles and are not references being inscripturated.
The Jews didn't consider them that way either. So when we look at how we have the 66 books that we do, the Jews are the ones who decided what the Old Testament books were. They excluded the Apocrypha. They excluded the Apocrypha because the Apocrypha was part of the Old Testament dispensation. We use that word very loosely, that period of time, and yet they rejected it as scripture. And then when the New Testament came along, the apostles did not consider it scripture either.
It's only later on when churches, this is what happens. Churches want to vary from the actual word of God and they add stuff in, and that's what happened. I'll give you more on the Apocrypha.
So the criteria of this word was different. I need to finish an article on this whole issue, on the nature and essence of the canon. You with me so far?
Yeah, yeah, I'm kind of at my, I guess where I'm at, I'm losing a little bit of signal, I heard the good majority of it too. You said you also had an article of this as well? Well what I've been doing off and on, I have 15 or 20 outlines on things and topics that I go through as I read different books.
I will transfer information into an outline form. And so I have something on the nature and extent of the canon. And how do we determine the canon? And the canon does not become canon by the church declaring it to be. The church does not declare the writings to be inspired. The church recognizes that the word of God is what it is.
It recognizes the inspired word. And so the early church, because it has the Spirit of God in it, recognized what those books were. Now the Roman Catholic Church, for example, which is apostate, in 1546, added the apocryphal books to scripture.
Because they don't listen to the word of God, they listen to their traditions, they don't hear the one voice, they don't follow the one voice of God, and they added those books. Now they're going to say we took them out, but that's not the case. Yeah, cool. So like, if you were talking to an unbeliever, somebody that's not even in any kind of, like, religion or anything, and they said, well, how do you know the Bible is the one? Hold on, okay? Because that's a good question. We'll get back, I want you to ask that question. Folks, we'll be right back. After these messages, we have three open lines. 877-207-2276. Please stay tuned. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick.
Welcome back to the show. We have three open lines. Give me a call. 877-207-2276.
Spencer from Charlotte. You still there? Yes, sir, yeah. All right. You were saying something. Sorry about the break there. It happened, but what do you got?
No, no, you're good. Yeah, I guess the rest of the question is, so if you were talking to an unbeliever that just says, you know, how do you know the Bible is the only word, is the word of God and nothing outside the Bible is, I mean, I guess it's kind of like the question you said before, but the answer that you said before in some ways, but yeah, that's pretty much it. The verse, what I do is draw an analogy to an unbeliever.
I'll say, well, you're an unbeliever, so there's, no, I say, there's no offense meant, but you lack a certain spiritual quality that we as Christians possess. And I say, you know, have you got a boyfriend or girlfriend or whatever it is, you know, married or whatever, how do you know the voice of your friends, you know, your loved ones by spending time with them, by hearing them and you just know, and you know, a false voice. If a friend of yours name that you've known for 20 years, you know, Frank, uh, and someone imitates him, you'll know because you know the sound of your voice. Jesus says, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. It's John 10, 27 and I'd say to people, the Christians know the voice of their Lord, just as you know, the voice of your friends and we know the voice.
We recognize that in the scriptures and that's how we know. Okay. Well, yeah.
Thank you so much. Yeah. That's what I tell them. Okay. And then I tell them, and you need to hear that same voice.
You need to recognize that same Lordship of Christ because if you don't, the day judgment comes, you'll be facing the infinitely holy God without Christ as your advocate and that'll be a bad day for you. Okay. Yeah.
Yeah. Thanks a lot, Matt. All right, man. God bless buddy.
All right. That was Spencer from Charlotte, North Carolina. If you want to give him a call, all you gotta do is dial eight seven seven two zero seven two two seven six four open lines.
I want to hear him to give me a call. Don't make me come out there. Let's get to Paula from North Carolina. Paula. Hello. Hello. Yeah. Yeah. Can you hear me? Yeah. Are you falling down the stairs or something? No, I had to get off the road.
It's a, it's a horrible thunderstorm and lightning. So I'm just sitting on the side of the road. Cool. I like that. Okay. I know it is kind of interesting, but I hope you can hear me.
Yes, I can. Okay. Here, here. Okay. Here's my question. Uh, there's a debate going on with some other friends, Christian friends.
Okay. So in the Bible, I did find that where it says that Lucifer or Satan can only come to the throne of God upon invitation. Like only when God invites him, even though he has pretty much free reign around the world and the interstellar heavens. And then there's the second part where inference, I took from inference that when it says that Satan can and is always accusing while Jesus is interceding for us, it sounds like that Satan has free will to be doing that with Jesus, but not at the throne of God. So it's almost like, does he have free will to be with Jesus doing that, but not free will and only invitation from God come to the throne.
Boy, it must be really noisy there. Um, so when you say free will, uh, that's a kind of a different topic as you're mixing in there. So in other words, can, that's okay. But can Satan, uh, present himself before the Lord?
Does he have that, that ability? Well, we know from the book of Job that, uh, it says in verse six, there's a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan also came among them. It doesn't say that they were summoned, but as they presented themselves before the Lord, and it gets really interesting verse, but nevertheless, it looks like there's some sort of access from Satan, uh, in the heaven and the heavenlies.
But there's also a verse where Jesus says, I saw Satan cast down. And so some people wonder if he has access to heaven anymore in that sense, in the third heaven, which is where the dwelling place of God is. And there's debate about it.
And all I can tell you is there's debate about it. Is he restricted to this lower, so to speak, lower realm? And it doesn't seem to be the case because it seems as though there's an angelic realm up there in the heavens, but is it the dwelling place of God? Probably not. Where is this spiritual realm?
It just gets more difficult. And there is no correct answer that I'm aware of, at least in this, except for what God has said, that he knows. Thank you. That's what I came up with. And then the part though, where it says that he's the accuser when Jesus is interceding for us. I mean, that's not spelled out like is that every person all the time and, and he doesn't have to wait for an invitation from Jesus to do this. I mean, is he, you know, like that's another debatable.
I don't know how that really looks. Well, here's the thing I say to people, if you're in discussions with this, I say, please show me the scriptures you're using to support your view. And then read the context of those verses and see if the verses necessitate, and I say the word necessitate a certain position. If they don't necessitate it, then say it's a debatable issue.
And then you can say, some people hold to this position, some people hold to that position. It's a debatable issue. Don't we, you know, we should not divide over it.
And if anybody wants to divide over it and raise it to an issue where they get angry and upset about it, then they're the ones who are in sin by violating the scriptures in that area. Make sense? Okay.
It does. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Total step. Okay. Well, you're welcome. God bless. All right. Thank you. God bless you. Bye bye. Okay.
God bless. Hey, folks, if you want to give me a call, five open lines, 877-207-2276. This is really unusual. Usually we have a whole bunch of calls waiting by now. Maybe it's on the East Coast.
People are hiding. I don't know. There's a storm or something.
Who knows? Last night I made a mistake. I said that I was going to be teaching on eternal security last night, but no, it's tonight. And I'll be teaching at 9 o'clock Eastern time. That's when it officially starts, but people come in.
I teach it at my house. And people come in a little bit late, so we usually start by 730. So between 7 and 730 is when we start, depending on how fast people get there. And it'll be on the CARM Facebook page and the CARM YouTube account. And you can go to the CARM homepage and you can see it there as well. Well, actually not on the homepage.
You click on the Match Look Live, actually it's the same link because it's just the same set up and you can check it out. Not a big deal. And people will watch.
We go from one to two hours. I'm going to be talking about one topic on eternal security. Are we secure in Christ? Now I'm in a Facebook group on Oneness Pentecostals, which Oneness is a heresy. It's a false teaching. And one person just hates the idea of being secure in Christ, calls it a damnable heresy, that if you teach that you can be eternally secure in Christ, then you're going to hell for that.
It was really ridiculous. But I'm going to be going over some stuff. And I'll be discussing the issue of election and predestination because these are all part and parcel to the nature of the eternal covenant and what happens in the eternal covenant in the intertrinitarian communion. I'll then be talking about, and we'll also be talking about the nature and extent of the atoning work and what it means for Jesus to pay our sin debt.
And does he pay all of it or part of it? And what are the ramifications of each? Furthermore, there are people who say that if you can not lose your salvation, then it's a license to sin. And that is a demonstration of ignorance on their part. And I'm going to be going over this, that people who say that are ignorant and the implication is that they keep their salvation by their goodness because they have the implication that, hey, then you can sin and still be okay.
They forget the issue of regeneration. It's always the case, almost always. So anyway, I'll be discussing that. And if you want to check it out, you can.
And then afterwards we take questions from the viewers and people in the room as well. So just letting you know about that. So four open lines, 8772072276. Let's get to Micah from Denver. Micah, welcome. You're on the air. Hi, Matt. How you doing? Doing all right.
Hanging in there, buddy. What do you got, man? Hey, question. I've been dealing with a JWA.
I called earlier. One of the questions I had, do you have any stuff in your, um, where you've done actually debates, uh, with, with JWs? I'd like to kind of hear all the, all the things back and forth. I know I did hear one, uh, that you did talk about the Trinity Trinity with a, with a Mormon. Um, I'm just curious. I don't have too many debates with Jehovah's Witnesses because the Jehovah's Witnesses are highly brainwashed and they are told for the most part, not to intermingle and debate the issues with people who might know something.
And it's a form of mind control. So it's not very frequent that I'll talk to Jehovah's Witnesses. I have over the years, but I've not recorded the ones that I remember. Uh, you know, there might be some impromptu discussions I've had, uh, with some Jehovah's Witnesses, which has happened.
I mean, impromptu discussions that might be recorded someplace when I didn't record them. Somebody else did. Hey, we've got a break. Hold on. Okay.
Cause I want to get back. And if you've got questions about some specific, let me know what you got to say. Hey folks, 4 open lines. Give me a call 877-207-2276. We'll be right back. It's Matt Slick live, taking a call at 877-207-2276.
This is Matt Slick. Okay. We lost the guy on the Jehovah's Witnesses. I wanted to ask more questions or have him talk about that more. That's okay.
It happens. Maybe we'll call back. 4 open lines. Give me a call. 877-207-2276. Let's get to Kevin from Charlotte, North Carolina. Kevin.
Welcome. You're on the air. Kevin. I hit the button.
Kevin. Yeah. Okay.
There you go, buddy. What do you got, man? What's up?
Are you there? Yup. Yup. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm wondering, uh, you're talking about security and salvation. Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, guarantee or security.
Wait, you're breaking up. That's what the problem is we're having. Can you, uh, can you repeat that eternal salvation?
What do you want to, what was it? Yeah. I'm just, I'm wondering how you reckon security of patient with a verse like Hebrews 26.
Oh, that's easy. Um, Hebrews 10 26. If you go on sending willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth are no longer made a sacrifice for sin. Let me ask you, have you ever sinned willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth?
I have. And I'm assuming that I'm not going to have a sacrifice that's going to cover that. That's right. Then it means you can't be saved, right?
Right. Is that what it, is that what his teaching doesn't mean I can't be saved. It means for every sin I commit, I'm going to need to know. Excuse me. Hold on one sec, Kevin.
Hold on one sec. It says there no longer remains a sacrifice for sin, right? If you take it literally, then there's no longer a sacrifice. It means you're going to hell for sure. Cause you sent willingly, right?
Uh, no, that's not right. That means every sin we commit needs to be paid for in some way or another. You're either going to make an animal sacrifice and you're going to pay for it that way, or you're going to use Jesus as a sacrifice. Kevin, Kevin, Kevin.
So let me ask you, do you believe that you can lose your salvation? Just curious. Absolutely.
If I go out and murder a guy or something, Kevin, Kevin, Kevin, Kevin, Kevin, Kevin, Kevin, Kevin. Yeah. I ask, I ask simple questions.
I just need simple answers. The answer is yes or no. Right. Okay.
Don't need an exposition. Kevin, hold on. So Kevin, what do you have to do? Just curious, Kevin, what do you have to do to keep yourself saved? I would just quote any of the, uh, Jesus himself and, uh, if you want to be saved, then, uh, keep a commandment.
That's a good starting point. I'd also quote Jesus. Wait a second. Wait a second. Wait, wait, wait. It's Matthew 5 48.
Don't rip it out of context. So what commandments do you have to keep in order to keep yourself saved before God? Just curious. There's 11 commandments. There's one through 10 and there's Jesus' additional commandment, which is love your neighbor as yourself. That's a total of 11.
Okay. So you have to keep 11 commandments in order to be saved. Um, to, to remain saved, not to be saved. I haven't kept those commandments up until now. So wait a minute.
Kevin, Kevin. So, so you keep, you're saying you keep yourself right with the infinitely holy God by your works. Boy, it's not work. I'm not working. Wait a minute. Kevin, Kevin, we're not talking about work. We're doing good work.
That's giving people money and I'm not talking about work. I'm talking about God's holy rule. Kevin. Yes.
Kevin. All right. So, um, loving God, loving your neighbor, 10 commandments, not committing adultery, not lying, no, um, uh, you know, no coveting. So you're keeping all of these sufficiently to keep yourself right with God. Is that correct?
I mean, if I can't even manage to not murder somebody or not commit adultery, then I'm not much of a Christian. Kevin, Kevin. I asked you a question. I said, are you keeping these laws? Are you keeping them sufficiently to keep yourself saved, to keep yourself right with God?
The 11th. Are you doing the, are you doing them to keep yourself saved? Wow.
No, I'm still doing it. I'm doing them to remain saved. Exactly.
Okay. So yeah, you are doing that. You're keeping the commandments in order to keep yourself right with the infinitely holy God. So are you keeping them on the same level as Jesus kept them? I'm assuming that I don't, I don't think Jesus really had too much problem. I asked you a question. I asked you a question. Are you keeping them on the same level that Jesus kept them?
I mean, Jesus isn't here for me to talk to him about. I would assume, I would assume so. Oh wow. Okay. Okay.
So you assume that you are keeping the commandments the same as Jesus did in order to keep yourself right with God. That is just incredible. Kevin, you are one of the most arrogant people I've ever encountered. Kevin, you're one of the most arrogant people I've ever encountered in my life. You're so full of pride. You are so arrogant and prideful.
Oh yeah. What a great sin you are committing. Hey Kevin, Kevin, Kevin, Kevin, Kevin, Kevin, Kevin, Kevin, can you do me a favor? Just keep quiet for a little bit.
Okay. Kevin, you're the one saying that you're able to keep the commandments of the same level as Jesus. You're keeping your commandments in order to be saved. So what you're saying is that you are the one keeping yourself right by how good you are.
That arrogance is just incredible. You think you're that good, Kevin. Do you even know what the gospel is? Do you know what the gospel is, Kevin?
I would flip that around and say it's wild. You're not even saved. I wouldn't say you're saved, Kevin, because you have a false gospel. What do you do with what the Bible says, that we maintain a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law? Because the Old Testament laws or Ten Commandments were justified before God without the works of the law. Romans 3 28. What do you say about that?
Say that one more time. Romans 3 28. We maintain that a man is justified before God without the works of the law. Justified by faith apart from the works of the law.
But you have to keep the law. Paul teaches the contrary. How about faith without works is dead. Yeah, that's faith without works is dead, and that's in the context, Kevin, of James chapter 2, and it's talking about true faith versus false faith, and it's on the horizontal, not justification before God, but justification before people. Your ignorance about the word of God is leading to your damnation because you have a false gospel. Now, this is what Paul the apostle says, but to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly. His faith is credited as righteousness. Does not work but believes. Right, that was kind of the Abrahamic deal before the commandments and all that were given you.
So, he says, to the one who does not work. Kevin, I'm telling you, you are so incredibly ignorant of God's word, such a degree, that when you are believing, Kevin, Kevin, Kevin, Kevin, Kevin, Kevin, you're believing a false gospel. You have not trusted in Christ. You're trusting in your own works to be saved. I think if I get to heaven and I manage to have kept all the commandments and I was going above and beyond the requirements, I'm going to get a well done, you did a little more than you were supposed to. Now, what kind of a reward are you going to get if you're breaking the basics in commandments? You're murdering, you're committing adultery, you're lying.
Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me. If you say you know him and don't keep his commandments, the truth is not in you and you're a liar, 1 John 2, 4. But this is what the Bible says in Galatians 3, 1-3. You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.
This is the only thing I want to find out from you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by hearing with faith, are you so foolish, having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? In other words, look what you're doing.
Right, you're, yeah. You're a fool. We can, we can, you're a fool for quite a while, but basically, basically you're either under, you're either under the law of the Holy Spirit, which is written on your heart, or you're under the written law. So you've got to do between the Holy Spirit, which is written on your heart, or written law. Either way, you're under one law or the other. Kevin, you're the one who said you've got to keep the Ten Commandments to be saved.
And so you're the one who's still under that. The Ten Commandments are a starting point. They're not an ending point. They're like Christianity 101. If you can't manage to not murder or commit adultery, you've got some real issues here.
Okay. For as many as are the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law to perform them.
So you are seeking to be justified by the law. The Bible says you're cursed. You're cursed. You're telling me I'm cursed for obeying God? You're cursed because, Kevin, Kevin, Kevin, you're cursed because you're not trusting in Christ alone. You're cursed because you trust in your works and Christ.
And this is why. So on the day of judgment, many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, do we not prophesy in your name? In your name cast out demons, your name before many miracles.
And I'll say to them, get away from me, I never knew you, you workers of evil. The people on the day of judgment fear Christ. How do you work, how do you work, how do you work evil by doing God's work, by following God's law? That's what Matthew 7, Matthew 7, Matthew 7, 22 and 23 says so. And Matthew 7, 22, 23, a day of judgment. They appeal to their faith and their good works, nor to be saved. Their faith and their works to be saved. Jesus condemns them, calls them workers of evil.
You either trust in Christ alone or you don't trust in Christ alone. Let's get to Jason from Virginia. Jason, welcome you on the air. Hey, man, how's it going? It's going, man. It's going, buddy. Just talking to a computer.
What do you got, buddy? I really appreciate what you've been doing. And, Mike, I had a question on eternal security as well, but mine is more the idea of expanding on the idea between, you know, that today we see a lot of easy believism in a lot of churches. So how do you deal with, differentiate and deal with the idea that you've got like a lot of people who come in, have an emotional experience in a church service, and they pray a prayer, but they've not walked out with faith, but they'll tell you in a heartbeat if you're trying to witness to them about what's going on, or just having conversations about faith-based things in general, and you start to realize you're on two different wavelengths, they're like, well, I know I'm saved, but then they're still continuing to live any way they want to. So the people who are using it, who seem to be clearly false converts because they're using their salvation as a justification or their perception of salvation as a justification for sin.
All right, we're almost out of time so let me run through this quickly. We're not saved by saying a prayer. We're saved by faith and trust in what Christ has done on the cross, though a sinner's prayer can certainly lead to someone being saved in that situation because God can certainly use it. However, the issue here is that I always tell people they need to count the cost, Luke 14, 28. Just coming up forward doesn't mean you're a Christian, but I warn people, if you want to become a Christian, you better understand the consequences of what it means to trust in Christ and to live for him instead of yourself and your friends and your family. You live for Jesus first, and if you're not willing to do that, don't receive Christ, don't trust in Christ because Jesus says, count the cost. In Luke 14, 28 and 9, 23 of Luke, he says, you pick up your cross daily and you follow after him. This is the stuff that's not taught in a lot of gospel and presentation messages.
Just come forward to receive Christ and you're saved. Absolutely. And this is a problem, and we're out of time. And Jason, I want you to call back tomorrow and we can talk about this. I'll try.
No, don't try. Call back. All right, buddy. I will. I'll try.
I'll see what I can do. All right, man. God bless.
All right, that was Jason. That's a good topic, an important topic. May the Lord bless you in the hearing of his word when it is preached. Pray for that guy who's a false convert, believes in faith and works. By God's grace, back on here tomorrow. We'll talk to you then, folks. God bless you.
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