Matt Slick Live

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network Podcast. This weekend on Saturday I had a debate with an Eastern Orthodox guy, he's a pretty smart guy and really polite. We had a good debate I thought. If any of you watched it, I'd like to hear some feedback on what you thought. It doesn't matter who it is, just give me a call and we can talk. I thought it went really well and the debate was on, we justified through faith by the imputed righteousness of Christ.

To impute means to reckon to another's account. I have been studying Eastern Orthodox stuff for a little bit, but now I'm going to dive into it. I've got a debate in two days on the Trinity, then I get an interview next week after that, then I get another debate on the Trinity after that. In the meantime I'm going to be focusing here and there on some Eastern Orthodox stuff because there are 300 million people lost in the Eastern Orthodox religion and their gospel is strange. Now I understand what Catholicism teaches and it's really difficult to nail Eastern Orthodox. What I'm going to do is tell you what they teach.

It's an interesting thing. With them Adam sinned and lost that glory relationship with God. But the sin of Adam is not imputed to us, which it is, but they say it's not. And that when you're born, you're born with a sinless nature. And then you fall by sinning. And in order to be saved, you have to join with Christ in the energies of God, which means basically the communicable attributes of God that are granted to us, given through us through the sacraments and through the participation of the energies of God, you keep yourself in that relationship with him so that you can be justified on the final day. They would say that Jesus did not literally bear our sin in his body on the cross, as 1 Peter 2.24 says, but that he bore the penalty and that he was undoing the rupture of the fellowship broken by Adam. And so it's just a fancy way of saying works righteousness, that you're saved by grace through faith and with works. If you don't have those works, you can't be saved.

You've got to keep yourself right with God. That's what I've been getting out of Eastern Orthodoxy, talking to people who know it really well, and they're confirming the same thing. Anyway, if you heard that debate and you want to comment, please give me a call. If you want to watch it, you can.

All you've got to do is go to karm.org, the homepage, and I put an article up today with links to it, along with my opening statement and other stuff you can watch it. So if you're interested, that's what you've got to do. All right.

Not a big deal. And let's see, three open lines, 877-207-2276. So why don't we get on the phones here with, let's see, Steve from North Carolina. Steve, welcome.

You're on the air. Hey, Matt. How are you?

I'm doing all right, man. Got a yawn creeping around here, but it'll come out in a bit. Wow. I watched most of that debate. I didn't get to the end of it yet.

I didn't watch it live. But one thing that bothers me and I've been struggling with, and I'm hoping that, I'm sure you have an answer, but the difference, the seemingly contradiction between James 2, 23 through 24 and Romans 4, 3 through 5. That it really bothers me? Because it seems like they're both, like both Paul and James are referencing the same spot of the Old Testament. And then James comes out and says, look, you see, you need to have work to be saved. And Paul says the opposite.

Yeah, no problem. I've actually written an article on this. We're saved by Faith, Romans or Works, Faith and Works, James. So let me, what I'm going to do is just go to the text and actually what I'm going to do here is change that format so I can share the screen for the viewers. And we'll go through this. And what I want to do is show you what the context of James is talking about.

And it's not that, not that difficult, not a big deal. And here we go. So I'm going to go to James 2, when starting verse 14, I'm going to ask you questions as we go. Now, verse 14, it says, What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith, but he has no works, can that faith save him? If a brother or sisters without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed and be filled. And yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body.

What is, what use is that? Even so, faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. So he's talking about a faith that is dead, a faith that isn't real. It's just, it's like a mental assent. Yeah, God's real. And then you let people starve and you, you don't live what you profess. That's what he's talking about here.

Would you agree so far? Yeah, yep, I go with that. And then verse 18, But someone may well say, You have faith, and I have works. Show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

So would you say this is justification before God or before people? I'll read the verse again. But someone may well say, You have faith, and I have works.

Show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works. Right, it's a person that is so right. So I've heard you say this before.

This is the horizontal, not the vertical. That's exactly correct. In verse 19 it says, You believe that God is one, you will do, you do well. The demons also believe and shudder. So what he's saying is, you believe, even as the demons do. There's a real faith and a false faith.

There's intellectual assent, and there's heartfelt trust and belief. And so this is what he's talking about. He says, But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless? And he says, Would not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? Well, yeah, but not before God, because that's what Romans is saying. What then shall we say that Abraham our forefather according to the flesh is found? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. That's what he says, not before God. This, in James, is talking about justification before people. That's why it says, Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected. Now that's an interesting statement, and a lot of people think that it means that your faith is made real by your works.

That's not the case. But your faith is certainly increased by the works, because when you step out in faith, and you are doing things for the Lord, your faith is increased because of the things that happen. And I can tell you instances where by just trusting God and doing, and I'll get a quick one. My old roommate and I, Dave, and we used to do a swap meet ministry back in the 80s. And Chuck did it, and I, for the first part, and then Dave did it, and I did it the last part. And we were roommates, and we were thinking about quitting the swap meet ministry, because we had a five day a week job, each of us.

And we'd get up on O dark 30, and load up his truck, and we'd go out to the swap meet on Saturday, and be out there all day, and then come home, and be exhausted, and then go to church on Sunday, back to work on Monday. We did this for a long time, and we're getting tired. And we had a box on the tables that we're giving out free literature, free Christian literature, and answering questions. We had this little box for donations.

And in like two years, we had like less than three dollars in change in there. You know, that's not what we were there for. But someone wanted us to put that out, so we did. But Dave and I prayed whether or not we should continue or not. And we said, Lord, if you want us to continue, you have to provide the money for the swap meet cost, which is like 43 dollars a month, and we would split it. And so we go out that next day, and all of a sudden, people are starting to put money in. And we didn't ask.

And it happened all day. We finally get done with the day, we go back home, we take the money, and it just popped out of this little box. We couldn't believe it. And we divided it up, he added up some, I added up some, because there was all kinds of change in bills. And I'm going to tell you this, this is the truth. It was exactly to the penny of what we needed.

Not a penny over, not a penny under. It was exactly. And I still remember looking at Dave, I still remember this, and looking at him, and he's looking at me, and I added up the numbers, and I looked at him, he said, what? And he said, the same exact, I said, exactly. And I could see his eyes well up with tears, and he turned away, because we're men.

And we had to recover, had to recover for a little bit, right? But you see, that really increased my faith. My faith was perfected by doing. It's not that I'm justified by those works, going out there to swap meat.

That's what's going on. That's why the Bible says here in verse 23, Scripture was fulfilled, which says, Abraham believed God, it was reckoned in his righteousness, and he was called a friend of God. Because he's living out the faith, and we have to live out that faith. And we're doing works, because that's what true faith does. But it's not the works that save us, because Romans 4.

What then? Shall we say that Abraham was fulfilled? What just bugs me is in verse 24. Today I've been going back and forth, I'm like, read verse 24. You see, the man is justified by work, but not by faith alone. And I go back to Romans.

Yeah, but what does it say? In the context of James 2.24. Who's the justification before? Before God or before people?

You show me your works. What bothers me is that when they both go referencing the same spot in the Old Testament, it seems like they're escaping the context there. No. They're going to and referencing the same exact Scripture in the Old Testament. For different reasons.

Right. Because they're doing the different reasons. This is why it's important to understand that the New Testament interprets the old. It's not the old that interprets the new.

We don't disregard the new, I mean the Old Testament. But in the context what James is saying is justification before people. Abraham believed God was reckoned to him as righteousness. But he's saying that it's the belief that was reckoned as righteousness. Even in James 2.23. He's not saying it was his faith and his works. He's still quoting the issue of righteousness. But then James goes on and says, see a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.

He's saying, look, you can't understand. You've got to do. And this is what we teach. You have to do stuff that proves and manifests your faith. But it's justification before people because verse 18 says you show me your faith without the works. I will show you my faith by my works.

So Abraham was showing his faith by his works. That's what's going on. Gotcha. Okay. I'll have to read that article.

Yes you will. And Romans 4 is talking about justification before God. See, Romans 4.2, justification before God. James 2.18, justification before people.

Vertical and horizontal. That's the context, okay? What is that? Did Charlie put the link up?

I believe so. But you can just go to CARM. Just type in CARM, Romans, James, justified by faith. You'll find the article. Okay? Okay, buddy. Cool. Appreciate it.

God bless. Hey folks, we'll be right back after these messages. We'll open line 8772072276. We'll be right back. It's Matt Slick live.

Taking your calls at 8772072276. Here's Matt Slick. All right, buddy. Welcome back to the show. Let's get to Justin from Kentucky.

Justin, welcome. You're on the air. Hi. Thanks for taking my call, Slick. How are you? I'm okay, ma'am. Thanks for calling.

What do you got? Well, I had an interesting question. I had a discussion with a person of the charismatic New Age movement. Okay. And it fell under 2 Timothy chapter 3 where it talks about the end of times and men will become lovers of self.

Yes. And it goes into detail of what lovers of self entails. And that person reiterated that the second commandment actually encourages us to love ourselves at the same time we love our neighbor. And I was just kind of wanting to pick your brain on that second commandment that Jesus proclaims to us and what that really means. Well, it's a quote out of Leviticus 19.18, love your neighbor as yourself. And what it means is that you consider yourself of very great importance.

You'll take care of yourself. It's like that. And so your neighbor is to have that same kind of care from you. You treat them honestly with integrity, respect, the best interest, things like that, best interest at heart, you know. And so that's what he's talking about. But there's also another factor about what love really is. The Bible, or Jesus says, God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son. So he loved that he gave. And Jesus says in John 15, 13, greater love has no man than this, but he lay his life down for his friend. So the biblical kind of love that is the truest kind of love is sacrificial.

It's other centered. And so when someone says you've got to love yourself first, what do they mean by that? Do they mean, you know, you kiss your arm, look at me, I love me, you know, or does it mean that you take care of yourself?

Well, surely you have to take care of yourself. But what is really meant by that issue of love yourself first before you can love others? Does it mean value yourself and values? It becomes self-centered and narcissistic.

And instead of putting others first, you put yourself first. And so there's a paradox kind of a contradiction problem that exists because of it. When they talk like that, you have to ask them the definitions. Does that make sense so far? No, yeah, absolutely. Okay.

Yeah. We deal with the culture today of people wanting, like you said, wanting to love self. I want to take care of myself before I take care of you.

But it's contradicting, like you said. I mean, I won't go out and drink poison, and I wouldn't feed my neighbor poison. I mean, I take care of myself to take care of my neighbor. Well, love is difficult. You know, my wife and I are married, and she has some medical issues.

And as she gets older, they get worse. And I find myself sometimes being a little bit inconvenienced by some of that. And I think, Lord, I have an opportunity here to learn even more what love really is by sacrificing and giving. And, you know, it's a teaching time. And so, you know, the trueness of love here in this situation I'm trying to manifest by being other-centered. And, granted, I don't do it perfectly, that's for sure.

But this is the idea. And what we do, a lot of people in life, what they'll do is they'll say, well, look, I have to take care of myself first before I can take care of you. Well, to some degree, there's truth in that. You know, if you've got two broken legs, you can't go out and help your neighbor mow the lawn.

You've got to take care of yourself first. I get that. But to what level, and where's that dividing line that we're talking about in that respect?

And that becomes a little bit more difficult to discern more accurately. Okay? Absolutely. All right. That help? That's great, yeah.

Absolutely. Thank you. You're welcome, ma'am. God bless, buddy. All right. Hey, God bless. You have a great day. You too.

All right. Let's get on the line with Tyler from Long Island, New York. Tyler, welcome. You're on the air. Hey, brother. How are you? How's everything? Doing okay. Hanging in there.

So what do you got? I just have a quick question regarding this whole idea of Christian Reconstructionism and Dominion theology and post-Millennialism. I see it a lot, especially out here where I live, where I've done some research. I think you have articles on it, and also Wikipedia actually has, surprisingly, some pretty good stuff talking about how it's in the New Apostolic Reformation. And you find different variations of it, like the covenanters. But from what I can see, what bothers me, what troubles me the most about it and my disagreements with it, because I have godly brothers who embrace this thinking, is the obsession of the Mosaic civil law and reinstituting it in a pagan country, which is every country besides the heavenly kingdom, which Christ is building. I just see a very big tendency to make the same mistakes the Pharisees did, which is to use man's tradition over God's word. I mean, I could be wrong. I don't want to strawman anyone, so maybe I'm sure you could represent it more fairly than I do.

Well, if you've read the article on Carm that I wrote about this, and you're right, there are variations. There are degrees to which people will hold it. Personally, I like the idea of certain aspects of Christian reconstruction in society, and it's also with theonomy. But there's other areas which I'm really worried about, because it wants to advocate the death penalty for people who've had abortion and idolaters, homosexuals. To what extent should those things be implemented? Do we go around killing people like that?

I just have a problem. If we're going to kill idolaters, then that means the Roman Catholics have to die, because they're idolaters. So, how far do we take this?

Instead of saying there's a gray area, it seemed like a gray broadband in a lot of areas when we apply this. Though, like I said, I do think the idea of getting some biblical laws on the books. Abortion should be illegal, and homosexuality should be illegal, not promoted. But it doesn't mean we go around killing people for it. I don't believe that's the right position, biblically, New Testament-wise. So, where do you draw the line?

That's a tough one. That's a good point, though. I look at all the countries in Europe where the state church forced its religion on the populace, and now three-quarters of all these countries like Sweden and England, all these Eastern and Northern European countries, three-quarters of their population are now atheists and agnostic. It's understandable. Well, yeah, and one of the reasons, I believe, is because the church has largely lost its salt. The reason that's the case is because they're not sticking to the word of God, that they are going with tradition, feelings, sentimentality, and not sticking to that word.

It's difficult, and I know. I happen to love studying God's word, so I'm very blessed that way, and stuff. But most people don't have that privilege or that adoration of his word in life.

I'm not knocking anybody. We all call different tasks. But I've seen more and more in churches, they're not teaching the lordship of Jesus in all areas. That includes politics. It includes social agendas. It includes how you drive.

It includes your work. And so, for the Christian, this should be permeating society in every area that the Christians are, but it's not being taught. In my opinion, my opinion, churches are teaching babysitting theology. Make them feel comfortable on Sunday, you know? You know, change their diapers.

That's what I have a problem with. Okay, buddy, God bless. Hey, folks, we'll be right back after these messages. We'll open line 877-207-2276.

Be right back. 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 get to, I guess, Jesus from Connecticut. Welcome, you're on the air. Thank you. Good evening. May the peace of the Lord be with you, my brother. Sure. So what have you got?

Are you there? Oh, yeah. I wanted to know the name of the Father, the name of the Son, and the name of the Holy Spirit. The Bible tells us only two names. The name of God is Yahweh.

The name of the Son is Jesus. That's it. Okay. Are you there? Trinity.

I'm sorry? Is there a name for the Holy Spirit? I mean, you claim that God is three persons, no?

I'll be debating it on Wednesday night, as a matter of fact. But you have to understand what the Bible says. The name of God is Yahweh. Yahweh, right?

That's what God says. When Moses... Right, yeah, God Yahweh. That's one of the many names.

Well, no, hold on. In Exodus 3, Moses says to God, what is your name? And God answers him and says, my name is Yahweh.

Okay? So that's his name, right? So would you agree that the name of God is Yahweh?

No, because, you know, in the Bible, in the book of Isaiah... Why would you not... Are you calling God a liar? No, I'm calling you a traitor. No, wait a minute, wait a minute. What I did was I gave you a reference. You ignored it. You didn't look at it.

You didn't see... No, no, I believed that. Espere momento por favor. Espere momento. Sí. Espere.

Espere te. Look, I gave you a verse, and you need to go look at what it says, okay? Instead of just ignoring it and going someplace else, I know what Isaiah 9-6 says.

I know what it says. But I gave you something that God himself says, so you have to deal with what God says. Yeah, but that is in prophecy. That's between the book of Genesis and Malachi. No, it's not in the book of Genesis. Look, here we go.

I'm sharing it on the screen, okay? Now, verse 13 of Exodus 3. And Moses said to God, Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you. Now they may say to me, What is his name?

What shall I say to them? God said to Moses, I am who I am. That's where we get Yahweh. And he said, Thus he shall say to the sons of Israel, I am has sent me to you. That's what Yahweh means.

It means I am, okay? So, what does God say his name is? God says his name is Jesus. Okay, I just asked you what God himself says when Moses asked him, and they're going to say... Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh. So his name is Yahweh. Can I ask you a question in reference to that?

Sure. Okay, a biblical question. In the book of Isaiah chapter 52 verse 6, is it prophecy written?

Do you see that in Isaiah? Therefore my people shall know my name, therefore in that day I am the one who is speaking. Right, so is that name the name of Jesus, the one that was speaking? Is that prophecy... Well, it says right in the beginning of that chapter, for thus says Yahweh in verse 3.

You were sold for nothing, etc., for thus says the Lord God, and he goes on. He said, now therefore, what do I have? Declares Yahweh, saying that my people blah, blah, blah. Again, Yahweh declares. And then he goes on, therefore my people shall know my name. So what name is he talking about in the context? Oh, yeah, he's talking about the name of Jesus then.

Experimente por favor, necesita leerlo. What does it say? Okay, what does it say? It says... For this reason, on that day, my people shall know my name. And what is his name? What does God say his name is? The name is a prophecy, right?

No, wait, wait, wait. It's a prophecy, yeah, but it's speaking about the very name that he reveals himself to be called, Yahweh. Okay, so this is not the prophecy of the name of Jesus? No, you have been told it's a prophecy about the name of Jesus. You can't get that out of the scriptures there. You've been told this by a false religion.

You've been told this, yes. So who is this prophecy in reference to? It's a reference to himself.

God says he'll make his name known. Right. Okay, can I ask you one more reference, please?

Sure. In the same book of Isaiah. Isaiah? In the same book of Isaiah, in chapter 9. Thank you for your time and your patience.

Sure, no problem. In chapter 9, verse 6. And I also thought that this was, this meant, this prophecy was speaking of our Lord Jesus. Jesus, absolutely, yes. And it says, and it says, and the child is born, and that is speaking of the child in the book of Isaiah 7, 14.

Right? Yes. I said, you know, Emmanuel. So, and the child is born, and the son is given, right, of the father?

Is given. Is it called his name? And all, yes, and all the government shall be upon his shoulders. What is, you brought up Isaiah 7, 14, what is the name of the Messiah according to the text? Oh, it's Jesus, right?

No. It's Emmanuel. No, it's Emmanuel.

Right. It's Emmanuel. Yeah, Emmanuel, yeah, yeah. In translation, if you see in the bottom of your Bible, it says, in translation, Emmanuel is God with us. Okay, what it means is God with us. Right, so his name is God with us.

So, so pay attention. Does the word name mean like Mateo or Petros? Does it mean something like that?

Or does it mean something else? In where? In which chapter?

9? Oh, I understand. Okay, his name will be, he'll call his name Emmanuel. Did they ever call him Emmanuel? No, they never called him Emmanuel, they called him Jesus, right?

That's right. How does the text prophesy and say Emmanuel? Because it's about his presence. The name reflects. Because the name was not supposed to be revealed. The prophecy wasn't fulfilled yet. He wasn't born yet.

No. The name in Hebrew culture signifies a characteristic about somebody. Like Methuselah means when he dies, it will come. And when he died, the flood came. And so, for example, if you go to Genesis 5, there's a genealogy between Adam and Noah.

You take the names and you put them in English and you get a sentence. It's appointed, the mortal man's sorrow. The blessed God will come down.

When he dies, it will come, bringing to the despairing hope. See, you guys make a mistake because you don't have that truth, you're in a false group. But you told me that, you said to me that that is Jesus. That Emmanuel, they never called him.

Emmanuel, they called him Jesus. Yeah. So, can we go back to 9-6? Sure. He says all the authority will be upon his shoulders. His name will be called. And his name shall be called, and there's these five titles. Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. Okay. So, his name, is he called any of those things in the New Testament? In the New Testament? Yeah.

Yeah. Where's he called Wonderful Counselor? Well, he's the counselor. Where's he called the Wonderful Counselor? So, what you're doing here is you're saying over here, his name here, one place means like... So, he was not a Wonderful Counselor?

No, you don't understand. You're not being consistent. In one place, you'll say his name is like Jesus. But here, when it says his name would be Wonderful Counselor, then you shift. You don't say it's an actual pronunciation of his name. No, no, that's the title. Español momento, por favor.

Español momento. Okay. And so, you're inconsistent. You say his name is Wonderful Counselor, but he's not called Wonderful Counselor. And yet, in other places, you'll say his name is Jesus, and that's his proper name.

You've got to say Jesus. You're inconsistent. What you do is you interpret the Scriptures as it suits you. Okay. How is that? I'm reading the Scriptures the way it is.

He says his name shall be called and these different titles. Do you don't believe that? Do you believe that? Do you believe that? Do you believe that? Do you believe that? Do you believe that? Do you believe that? Do you believe that? Do you believe that? Do you believe that? Do you believe that? Do you believe that? Do you really believe that? Do you believe that? Do you believe that? Do you believe that? Do you believe that?

Oh, I believe that. Okay, that's it. All right.

Let's get coffee. taking a call at 877-207-2276, here's Matt Slick. All right, welcome back to the show. Let's see, let's get to Jeff from Maryland.

Jeff, welcome, you're on the air. Hey, how you doing, Matt? Doing all right. Hanging in there, buddy. What do you got, man? Good, please, praise the Lord.

Do you have any questions of this? In the beginning of Mark, Jesus said, Repent and believe in the Gospel. The Apostle Paul also said in 2 Corinthians that there's a repentance leading to salvation. My question is, what kind of repentance are they talking about? The kind of repentance that God grants, which is a turn. The Greek word for repent is metanoeo, and it has to do with the change of mind from the Greek naos, mind, metanoeo. And so what we do is we have an attitudinal change towards sin. We don't want it anymore. We're turning from it.

And that's what it means. So what is that repentance? Well, it's an attitudinal change, but we've got to be careful, because we don't want to say that repentance saves us, because repentance is following the law. So if a person is lying, and he learns that lying is a sin, because Exodus 20, 10 commandment says so, and then he stops lying by following the commandment, is he saved because he's following that commandment?

The answer is no. We would say that he's justified by faith, but along with faith is regeneration. And with regeneration comes the ability to repent. So that's why God grants us repentance, 2 Timothy 2, 25, and he grants us, we believe, Philippians 1, 29. But yet, at the same time, our repentance is really our own, because we really do change.

Because he's changed us, we're a new creature, 2 Corinthians 5, 17. And because of it, we're then enabled to truly repent, and we do. Okay, so if we're out evangelizing, is it wrong to say repent of your sins and believe in Christ?

Is that wrong terminology? No, I would say that. I'd say to people, you need to repent of your sins, because it's what's right. They should turn from their sin. You tell them the truth. Repent of their sin means that the law is judging them. They need to turn. We don't know how God works his salvation in people and his granting and belief and all of that.

Because, you know, Jesus says in John 6, 65, he says, You cannot come to me unless the Father grants it to you. Okay, well, you know, there's some stuff. I believe in election and predestination, because of what the Bible teaches. That's what it says. And what I also believe is the more we preach, apparently, the more people have been elected and predestined. So how does that work? I don't know.

It's above my pay scale. I just know God does it, but he seems to use us nonetheless. And so we're just free to go out and preach and teach and trust God. Okay, so the reason why I ask that question real quick, because I know you've got to go. It's because there's a big controversy between whether you can tell somebody, repent of your sins when you're evangelizing, because people will say, well, that's kind of a work salvation.

No, they don't get it. Here, look, go to Acts 17, 30. Okay. Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent. So you can quote that. You could say God is declaring to all men everywhere that they should repent. You can just quote Acts 17, 30.

Just quote it. And you know what I teach, okay? If I were out there preaching and teaching on the sidewalk, which I have done, I'll say you need to repent of your sins. You need to turn from your sins. Is it true?

Yes. I'm not saying your repentance gets you saved. I'm saying this is what you've got to do, because God's commanding it. And you've got to believe and trust in Christ, which is what they have to do. And you've got to confess to the Lord, which is what they have to do. They've got to believe in Jesus, which is what they have to do.

I don't know how it all works. I'm just saying that this is what God does. And so I preach the truth. That's it.

You can say it. Remember, Acts 17, 30. Okay?

Okay. And like I said, the reason why I asked this was because I was having a conversation with someone, and they said it's wrong to say repenting of your sins gets you saved, which is true in a sin. That's correct.

Like you said. But they said when the Bible talks about repentance at salvation, it's not talking about repenting of all your sins. It's talking about repenting of unbelief.

No. No, it's not repenting of unbelief. That's included.

Okay? That's included in there. Because we're obligated to believe in the true and living God, that's what the Bible tells us. But out of Acts, it's 20 and John 14, 14. But here's the thing. When people start saying things like that, ask them to give you a scripture reference. And don't do it and say, you know, show me, stupid. No, we're not talking like that.

Okay? Because maybe they have a point. And say, could you show me that in scripture? And let's look at the context and see if they say, well, it's there, but I don't know where it is. We'll say, here's my phone number or my email address.

Give me the reference when you find it. Because that's what I do with people. And maybe they have a point. And so I'm open to that. But we have to understand that God grants people repentance, 2 Timothy 2.25. And yet, in Acts 17.30, God commands everyone to repent. So you can do the same thing.

Hey, you're supposed to repent, but it's not repentance that saves you. Okay. Okay. Oh, that's good answers, man.

Good answers. I appreciate it. Well, I'm glad. All right, buddy. All right. Hey, thank you for all you do, man. I appreciate it. God bless, man. Hey, God bless. All right.

All right. Let's get to, let's see, Gary from North Carolina. See if you're still there. Gary, welcome. You're on the air. Thank you, Matt.

It's Gary from Salisbury. And I appreciate your ministry and your work and your study. I wanted to reference the earlier caller I heard who was questioning, asking the question that troubled me for so long about faith in works between Romans 4 and James 2. And a pastor friend of mine years ago pointed to me that the actual phrase in James 2 is pointing to an entirely different time. It says, Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar? And to what you had, the point that you had made, that's what showed his faith. And really, when you go back, Romans 4 is quoting Genesis 15, 6.

James later quotes Genesis 15, 6, and says that that act where he was justified by works before men to show his faith, completed or was the fulfillment of his justification by grace through faith that Romans 4 talks about. If you look at the timeline, it was Abraham was 86 when Ishmael was born. The promise was made somewhere between the 10 years that Abraham had lived in Canaan until Ishmael was born when he was 86. And then, so 14 years later, Ishmael is finally, Isaac is born.

When Isaac carries his own wood up to the mountain, he had to be at least a teenager. So we're talking about 25 to 30 years later. I believe it was probably 30 because the typological relationship is so precise with us.

Sure, sure. But at least, so the time frame was at least 25 to 30 years, if not much more. Between the two events, Romans 4, 5 goes on to say that, therefore, to him who does not work but believes. It's not that you don't have to have work with your faith to be saved. It's that, as Romans 11, 5 says, that if it's by works, then it is no more of grace, otherwise grace is no longer grace.

Right. And so that really cleared it up for me, the evidence of faith or the outworking of that faith. The other thing is, Romans 4, or the book of Romans is kind of like to document and explain the entire... Let me ask you something here. Do you have a question? Do you have a question?

Because, you know, I'm letting you go because, yeah, you're right, but I'm curious. That was something that was so helpful to me to note that time distinction right there, was that he's talking about two entirely different events. Yes, he was. And so that cleared up that question for me. And James is talking about justification before people, not before God.

It's a different topic. Right, and written to believers on how to live out their faith in the midst of persecution. They were believers, and that's clear all the way through. He keeps addressing them as my brothers, my brothers.

The other thing that comes into play... Do you have a question? Well, I just had another comment. You had a question about, ask somebody to show you where the Bible does not command us in order for salvation to repent of all of our sins? Actually, in John 16, 8 and 9 is where Jesus is giving the promise of the Holy Spirit to the disciples after the upper room discourse. And he says that when the Holy Spirit has come, he will convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment, of sin because they believe not in me. And the Greek for sin in both verses 8 and 9 is singular.

That is the one sin that the Holy Spirit convinces the world of. Well, you've got to be careful. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, wait, hold on, hold on.

So, you know, normally what we do on the show is you ask a question and we go through that. What you're trying to do here is just teach a lot. And it's okay, but... Hold on, I'm simply answering that question.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, hold on, hold on. And so when you get to this issue concerning sin in the singular, you've got to understand the construct. Because sin is in the singular, not that it's in only sin, but sin is simply mentioned in the singular as a generic quantity, a generic thing. Sin. That's all it is. So now... Well, my thinking was that... Hold on, hold on, okay. So do you have a question, though? Do you have a... Gary? Gary, I just didn't know if you had a question.

The question would be, doesn't that or doesn't Jesus clarify the singular sin that one turns from or repents of, changes his mind about, is unbelief in order to be saved? Because here's what... Wait, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Gary.

Gary. Sure. So you ask it, then you go on, okay? You don't ask a question, you really let me answer it. I'll give it some context. Sure. Yeah, I hear what you're saying, but look, so you'd have to show from the context and the bridge that that's what it's talking about. But I think you made a mistake on saying this sin, one sin is one particular thing, unbelief.

Understand, God grants that they have belief, Philippians 1.29, something you might want to check out. But we're almost out of time and I want to get to the last caller, okay? Because they've been waiting for a bet, so we're going to move along. Sure. Hey, call back next week or tomorrow, okay? Thank you.

All right. Let's get to, really fast, Koby from North Carolina. Koby, welcome. You're on the air. Koby, are you there? Maybe I caught him off guard.

He's like running to the phone. I don't know. The question has to do with God allows homosexual relationships without sex. And that's a complicated issue because you can have tendencies that a homosexual person who's attracted can recognize that it's sinful and yet not carry out in it and is warring against that sin. That's acceptable to God in that sense, that he will accept a person because he knows it's a sin and he's repenting of it. He's turning from it. He's judging it. There's more to this. I'm not saying it's okay to be a homosexual. I'm not saying that it's sinful. But nevertheless, hey folks, we're out of time.

Can't complete the whole thought on that. But hey, by God's grace, back on there tomorrow, we will talk to you then. All right? God bless everybody. See you. Bye.