Matt Slick Live

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. I hope you have a good weekend. We talked about me doing a Q&A on Saturday, but I don't know if it's a good idea or not if everybody shows up. We haven't got any feedback that people want to do something like that, so probably won't do it.

Other than that, I think that's about it. If you want to give me a call, we have five open lines, 877-207-2276. I was thinking about something here. I think I'm going to talk about this a little bit. This is 1 Timothy 4. I'm going to read this.

This is what the Bible says will happen in the end times. Over the weekend, I can never really sit there and do nothing. I have to be involved.

If I'm vegging, I'm really vegging, but watch TV or some stupid sci-fi thing. I always want to witness, and I always want to share the faith. It's just something that's in me. I remember once my wife and I were in bed talking.

We've got to go to work the next day, that kind of thing. We're just talking. I was telling her how frustrating it was to work in ministry. I said, you know, I've been thinking about this for a while. I think I'm going to just quit, just focus on the secular field. She's looking at me.

I said, I'm going to focus on the secular issues and just make it in a corporation so I can provide, because right now it's too difficult, the ministry, the lack of funds, these difficulties. I said, I'm just going to do that. She looked at me. She goes, uh-huh. I said, no, no, I'm serious.

I'm serious. I gave her another two-minute reason. She looks at me. She says, uh-huh, yeah, uh-huh. I said, no, you don't believe me, do you? She goes, nope.

Look, I've been going through this for years and really struggling, and it's time to move a different direction. She says to me, you've got it bad. She says, you'll never be able to stop witnessing or serve God.

You will never be able to. It's part of you. I wanted to respond and say, no, no, no, but it was yes, yes, yes.

She was right. Wherever I go, I want to witness. Even today, I went out and I had to mail a package, and I'm in line, and I finally get up there. I use my last name as a means of witnessing. My last name is Slick, which is an unusual name. I say, I'm a reverend too, Reverend Slick. It's just not someone you can trust. I try and use it as an open door to give people a smile or whatever. Today I talked and said that, and this lady said, oh, I work at a Nazarene church. We could talk a little bit, but I just don't see how people can't witness.

I got it bad. That's just me. It's all subjective. I know people are intimidated. They don't have the confidence, and they either lack the confidence or they lack something else that I definitely have. That's being obnoxious and obstreperous. Combine that with a little bit of autism, and I'll get out there and say stuff, kind of like Kramer in Seinfeld.

Just say it and get out there. This weekend, I was in three or four different venues. I was on a Facebook venue live chat. I was on Oculus in the Metaverse.

I was on, let's see, Discord, and I was on Clubhouse. I'm well known, but I'm known well enough, I should say, getting these different venues and all your meds live from Carmen, blah, blah, blah. There are a variety of people that I encounter, some people who just think I'm great, and then there are some who think I am evil. I mean, they hate me.

This weekend was no exception, so I met some people, and they had the lowest opinion of me as possible. They were atheists, of course. They're not all atheists to think that.

Some atheists are great folks on a human level, but there are some, and they hide behind nicknames, and they'll say the most vile things, and I'm encountering this more and more as I think about stuff. This reminds me, in 1 Timothy 4, 1, but the spirit explicitly says that in later times, some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctors of demons by means of the hypocrisy of liars. Now, I've been saying hypocrisy is a form of lying, and notice what it says here. In 1 Timothy 4, 2, by means of hypocrisy of liars, seared in their own conscience, as with the branding art. And I'm telling you, I meet these people, and they are seared.

They're conscious. They have no qualms about promoting ungodliness and unholiness. And one of the things I've started to do lately is just simply say, you are ungodly. You're unholy, and it looks like God's given you over to the depravity of your hearts and your minds. And I'll say this, and man, it's like going up with a baseball bat and hit a hornet's nest.

They come unglued, and then it becomes a dog pile of attack. And I just wait and say what I'm going to say, and say it again. And so it goes on, men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from food to which God is created to be grateful. And so there's a lot of verses like this and different areas of the Scriptures that talk about things like this. But I'll tell you, it's becoming more and more prevalent. And one of the things I've noticed is an increase of using the Lord's name in vain. People are doing that more and more. And as I watch videos on YouTube, varying things, people are just, for no reason, they'll use the Lord's name in vain.

And in chat rooms, they will do the same thing. So, you know, it's interesting. And we're encountering it more and more, and I think it'll continue. So we need to be praying for people. And one of the things that is difficult is to actually pray for those who persecute. It is difficult. I don't want to do that.

But I'm going to have to learn how to do that anyway. 2 Timothy 3.1, for men will be...let me go to verse 1. But realize this, that in the last days, difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power of void such men as these. Wow. Anyway, so where I tramp into the darkness and into the sewage of human hatred and sin, that go into varying discussion forums and tramp around in their vileness, trying to spread a little bit of light and truth in that darkness, let me tell you, I've met so much opposition and it's increasing.

It is increasing. Anyway, something to pray about, something to think about. Hey, 3 Open Lines, you want to give me a call? 877-207-2276, Glenn from Utah, welcome.

You're on the air. Hey, man, I was calling, I was reading in Acts chapter 1. I was trying to catch the one verse and then some of the girls commanded them that they should depart from Jerusalem to wait for the promise of the Father, which says He has heard of me, but John told bad times of the waters. He used to be a bad time for the Holy Ghost and then they sent.

I'm trying to understand how come a lot of people believe Peter was baptized in the waters. Wait, wait, wait, wait. I can't understand you. You spoke fast and then I have a hearing loss that I couldn't understand a few words and then that means I can't follow you. So go ahead, say that again.

You want to know what? Being right there, it's in red too, my key game, about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, not with water. How come so many believe that Peter was the bad guy that went with the water? The only first time I see water baptism mentioned is with the eunuch.

I think it was still, I was trying to find it and I'm a little bothered. Okay, let me jump in. The Lord's caught him away.

Let me jump in. That's Acts chapter 8. In Acts 1, 5, for John baptized with water, that's what Jesus said. So there's a first mention of water baptism in Acts, it's right there. Okay, so I'm not sure what you're asking though.

Go ahead. Well, I mean, Peter, did he not baptize with the Holy Spirit, not with water? That's what I'm asking. In Acts 10, 44-48, wait, hold on, let me answer.

In Acts 10, 44-48, Peter said bring water for them to be baptized. Okay. Are you there? Okay.

Yeah, I'm here. Is that the centurion? No, it's the Gentiles. The Gentiles in Acts chapter 10, here, let me go to it. Acts 10, 44, and while Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon those who were listening to the message. All the circumcised believers that came with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also, they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God.

Then Peter answered, Surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized to ever see the Holy Spirit just as we did, Caddy. Okay. Okay, are you there? Yeah.

Yeah, I'm here. When I read that, I was wondering what he's referencing when he says the water there is not what Jesus told that woman at the well. When he's talking about water, he's talking about the word.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You can't take the word water in another context and then transfer it over to another place. Everything means what it means in context. Okay? So you can't do that because if you do that, you will end up in error, a great deal of error. Okay? Always read in context what the words mean in context.

Otherwise, you'll get into all kinds of problems. Okay? Now, are you saying water baptism is not for today?

Yeah, that's what I was trying to, yeah, I don't, yeah, I don't think it's for today, no. Well, Peter in Acts 10 commanded that they be baptized with water. So if it's not for today, why would Peter command it be done with water? Okay? Well, what does Paul command that of? Okay, well, hold on.

That didn't answer the question. Why would Peter command it? This is after the resurrection and ascension of Christ. So now the church is in place and it's moving along.

And Peter says water to be baptized. Okay? Yeah.

So that's what he said. Okay? Are you there? All right? Yeah, I'm here, I'm here, I'm here.

Yeah, I'm with you, I'm here. Okay. But what about Paul and what he taught? That's what I was trying to say. What about what, what do you mean? What about Paul and what he taught?

I don't understand the question. Well, I'm trying to understand one baptism. Ephesians 4-5. The Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost is not water. That's what I was trying to, I mean, that's what I was trying to understand.

Water and the Holy Ghost are two different, that's two different baptisms. Right. Well, hold on. We've got a break and we'll talk about it some more after the break.

Okay? Hold on. We'll get to it. Hey, folks, if you want to give me a call, 877-207-2276. We'll be right back after these messages. Welcome back to the show. All right, if you want to give me a call, three open lines, 877-207-2276. Let's get back on here with Glenn from Utah.

All right, Glenn. So, go ahead. You wanted to ask something about Paul and baptism.

Go ahead. Yeah, well, I mean, the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit and water is two different baptisms. That's what I was trying to understand. There is a baptism of the Holy Spirit, which seems to be the manifestation of speaking in tongues and various things like that out of Acts 2 and Acts 10. Water baptism is a covenant sign, probably replacing circumcision as a sign of the seal of the faith that's already had and possessed. Probably out of Romans 4-11, it continues out of the Abrahamic covenant representation. And there's a relationship between baptism and circumcision in Colossians 2, 11 and 12. So, baptism is practiced today. It should be practiced today in water. Okay?

Are you there? Yeah, but the water being baptized in water is not what saves us. It's like a procession of our faith. Water does not, getting dunked in water is not what makes us saved.

Okay? We're justified by faith in Christ. Baptism is an identification with Christ, which is, Paul teaches this idea in 1 Corinthians 10, 1-4, when people were baptized into Moses when they passed through the Red Sea. And so, Paul uses the phrase, the word baptism, as a form of identification with the work and the ministry of Moses.

So, when we're baptized into Christ, it means we're identifying ourselves with the ministry and work of Christ. Okay? Yeah. All right, thank you. Have a good evening. Okay, you too, Glenn.

Okay, God bless. All right, hey folks, if you want to give me a call, four open lines, 877-207-2276. Let's get on the phone with Matt from North Carolina. Welcome. You're on the air. Hey, Matt. I had a quick question for you.

Sure. I was wondering, where did the wife for Seth come from? Oh, that's easy. If you go to Genesis 5, and you read verse 3, when Adam had lived 130 years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness. According to his image, he named him Seth. Then the days of Adam, after he became the father of Seth, were 800 years, and he had other sons and daughters.

So, Cain and Abel just married one of their sisters. Got it. Okay. All right. I wasn't quite picking up on that.

One of my friends asked me that question, so I wanted to find out. Thank you. There's a little bit of an addition to this, because a lot of people say, well, wait a minute. The Bible says, don't marry your sisters. That does not come into place until much later. As Adam and Eve were created by God, their genetics, let's just say, were perfect, were pure.

So, interbreeding was okay for a few centuries until God said, okay, enough of that, and that was it. Okay. Okay.

That makes it. Thanks, Matt. I appreciate it. All right, man. God bless. All right. Okay. Hey. Do you want to give me a call?

Four open lines. 8772072276. So, I'll be down and preaching in Provo, Utah, for those who are down there, if you want to go. You know, whatever. We're going to probably hang around after the church, maybe do something to eat.

We'll just see. Could like to stay down there and won't get back up in the sandy area until the evening, if then. Probably be later. But, at any rate, I'll be down there in Provo probably most of the day if you want to go to the church. Hey, say hi. It'd be nice to meet you. You know, I like to meet the listeners, so if you want to do that.

City on a Hill Church, Provo, Utah, 10 a.m. so you can go there and check it out. All right. All right. All right.

Let's get to, let's see, Jamar from Raleigh, North Carolina. Welcome. Thank you.

Thank you so much for answering my call, my long-time listener, third time calling in. I have a question in regards to God's love. Is God's love unconditional?

What kind of love? I would say, is God's agape love unconditional? It's really guaranteed, I mean, not guaranteed, but it's really focused on one particular group of people, and I would say those who, I would say, are currently in hell. If God's love is unconditional in every meaning of the word, does God still have love for those souls that are condemned to hell? Well, that's a good question, and I can't give you a definitive answer, okay?

Just can't do it, because there's a lot involved with this topic. So in Psalm 5-5, I'm going to read you that, okay, we'll just lay some stuff down, we'll talk. It says, the boastful shall not stand before your eyes. You hate all who do iniquity. So the Psalm, it's a sin that God hates all who do iniquity. In Psalm 11-5, the Lord tests the righteous and the wicked and the one who loves violence, his soul hates. Like wait a minute, I thought God loved everybody. Well, and then you go to Romans chapter 9, starting around verse 9, for this is the word of promise, at this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son. And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, her father Isaac. For though the twins were not yet born, and had not done anything good or bad, so that God's purpose according to his choice would stand, not because of works, but because of him who calls, it was said to her, the older will serve the younger, just as it is written, Jacob I loved, and he saw I hated. So does God hate people?

Yes he does. Right there in scripture. Now people are surprised by that. Then they get to the idea of agape love. Well, agabao, to love, the verb form, is found in many places in the Bible, including Luke 11.43, woe to you Pharisees for you agape, you love the chief seats in the synagogues and respectful greetings in the marketplaces. So agape does not always mean divine love. But nevertheless, when God is loving, that's what we're focusing on, okay. So when God is loving, does he love everyone?

There is a sense in which the answer is yes, and that's Matthew 5 starting at verse 43. You have heard that it was said that you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven, for he causes his Son to rise on the evil and the good, sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?

Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?

Therefore, you're to be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. So in that section of scripture, that pericope, it says to love your enemies, because it says love your neighbor and hate your enemy. I say love your enemies, because God sends the rain. So if you love them, what do you have?

You don't even do that. So it looks like God is loving them in what's called providential grace, in that he is showing a kind of love and grace to them of providing sunshine, rain, air, family, food, etc. In that sense, he's loving everybody. But in another sense, he does not, because he hates all who do iniquity.

And so we need to be changed from the place of outside of God's will and outside of God's love to inside, and that can only be done through Christ. So you see how the question is not an easy one to answer, and there's a break. So if you could hold on, we'll talk a little bit more about it after the break, okay, buddy? All right. Yeah, that's a good question.

It's a very good question, and it's not just an easy one. Now, we go to John 3.16, God's Love the World, and we'll talk about that and what that means, all right? Hey, folks, we'll be right back. Three open lines, 8772072276. We'll be right back. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 8772072276.

Here's Matt Slick. All right. Welcome back, everybody. It's the bottom of the hour. If you want to give me a call, three open lines, 8772072276. All right, let's get back on the air here with Jamar. You welcome? Are you still there?

I'm still here. So the basis of my question really was because I had just looked at a video, not too long ago of R.C. Sproul, answering this same question, Is God's Love Unconditional, and he said no. And that was really based off the analogy that if someone who doesn't know God, let's say you're in a situation where someone doesn't know God, don't know anything about him, and then they hear a preacher say God's love is unconditional, then they would say in their head, oh, well, that means there's no conditions, you know what I mean, to God's love. That means I can live how I want to live, do what I want to do, because at the end of the day, God's love is still, you know what I mean, not going to change for me. So it's almost like a license to just sin or to live however you want to do, because at the end of the day, God loves me. And R.C.

Sproul is correct. That's why I was talking about the kinds of love, we have to discuss that first. And there is this sense when God does not love everybody, and it's not unconditional, because in the sense of salvific love and salvation, it's conditioned on the work of Christ. He'll love you if you're in Christ in a saving way. He can love you in a generic way, common grace, common love, by letting the rain fall on you in the sun and things like that. That's why, when we're talking about the nature of God's love, we've got to be more specific in what aspect of it.

That's why. Understand. And that was the conclusion I came up with, too, was that there were two types, not two types of love, but there were two facets in which God does love. And the first, which you alluded to, I think I call common grace, as far as writing on the just and the unjust, in a sense.

And then that salvific love for those who do come to him, definitely find that love, that eternal love. But to the second question, do you, well, matter of fact, you actually answered it. Never mind. All right. Thank you so much for answering my call, Doc.

Amen. No problem, buddy. Thank you so much. And I appreciate it, man. Thank you so much. You too. God bless.

All right. You know, some people like to talk about the issue of John 3.16. And John 3.16 is an interesting verse because of, whoops, let me get this going here with this. What it says, John 3.16 says, so God so loved the world, and that means every individual, right?

No. The word world means what it means in context, because Jesus was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, Matthew 15.24. And Jesus says, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Jesus was not sent to the whole world, but only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

A lot of people are surprised by this. So I can tell you confidently and biblically, Jesus was not sent to the whole world. He was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. This means that he was covenantally sent only to them. The house of Israel is the term in reference to national Israel.

That's what's going on there. It's a reference to national Israel, the nation. So he wasn't sent to the world, to all the nation groups, but only to the house of Israel. So when it says God loved the world, he's saying it's not just the nation of Israel, but all the people groups, all the nations. So it's the whole world.

You can't say it's every individual. That's what I'm saying right there about that particular verse. Three open lines. If you want to give me a call, 877-207-2276. Nancy from Virginia. Welcome. You're on the air.

Hi. Thank you for taking my call. What could I say instead of taking the Lord's name in vain? What do you say instead of it?

I'm not sure I understand the question. You want to say something besides using the Lord's name in vain? As an exclamation? Yeah. As an expletive, what would be clean, or oh my goodness, or oh my goodness, or yeah.

I'll do that. I'll say, oh man, or oh my goodness, or crud, or things like that. Those are my exclamations. When I'm talking to a computer, because believe it or not, I talk to my computers.

I used to be a computer tech for five years at Hewlett Packard, and I learned to talk to my computers, and I'll say, you just, you stinking piece of crud, and I'll talk to them. They've never answered back, so I'll continue to do that until... But that's as far as I'll go. That's it, and we should not take the Lord's name in vain.

You can say, oh darn, or heck, things like that. Okay. Okay. Clean things. Clean.

That's what I'm looking for. All right. Or if you can, just don't say anything.

You can just say, oh, this is where I should say this, but that's not bad, but I don't have time, and I don't know what to say. You can say the whole sentence like that, but it wouldn't work. Yeah. Okay. All right. Thank you so much. You're welcome. God bless. You too. God bless. Bye-bye. Bye. Four open lines, 8772072276.

Joe from Richmond, Virginia, welcome. You're on the air. All right. I got a common sense approach to baptism, and so what I want to ask you is, now Jesus was baptized into Jordan, and then one of the apostles was frightened with this guy in a chariot, and he said, there's a stream, so he baptized the guy in the stream. So if immersion wasn't the way to do it, and let's say that I was the person doing the baptizing, then I would walk the candidate down to the edge of the stream, reach down, cup my hands, and pour water over his head out of my hands. I wouldn't want to walk out into a muddy stream bottom.

I wouldn't want the time I closed all up so it wouldn't get wet, so to me it's common sense that it is immersion, because if it wasn't, why would you walk out into a stream? Okay. What you've offered is your personal preference of what you would or would not do, as though that's the standard, and now we have to judge scripture by it. That's a mistake. Okay. Well, no, no, no.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on.

Hold on. You said, I wouldn't this, I wouldn't that. Common sense.

It's all subjective. You're saying common sense according to what I understand and how I would do it. I wouldn't do this. So why would they do that? That's your logic, and it's not good logic. Okay. Well, okay, so maybe I wasn't clear. I believe in immersion. I'm saying that's the way I believe it should be done. What I'm saying is if immersion wasn't the way to do it, then why would they walk out into a stream and get wet and muddy?

I agree with immersion. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. It's not an issue getting wet and muddy.

You can't do that. You can't say, why would they go get wet and muddy, as if that means they shouldn't get immersed or sprinkled or poured. It's not logically consistent. The argument to insert that as a criteria that would invalidate baptism as a different form. Okay?

But look at the text, all right? And he ordered the chariot to stop. They both went down into the water. Now if it's immersion, they both went into the water, were they both immersed?

Were they? No, just the candidate. Okay.

So you say that the candidate. Does it say that they were immersed or one was immersed? It doesn't.

No. It says they're baptized. Baptism has different meanings in different contexts. I have no problem with immersion, okay?

I don't have a problem with it. I prefer to immerse people. I'm just saying, don't assume the word baptized automatically means immersed, because Jesus, when he was baptized, he was baptized to fulfill the Old Testament law.

And the only place I can find where he was fulfilling anything is in Leviticus 8, Numbers 4 and Exodus 29, when he was fulfilling the requirements of entering into the priesthood, and he had to be sprinkled with water, sprinkled according to the law, to enter into the priesthoods. So it makes sense to say Jesus was sprinkled at his baptism. It just makes sense.

Okay? I didn't know that. I learned something.

Yeah. And I know people who, they don't agree with me, and I say, well, okay, find, you know, I just say, you know, not like a challenge, but it is, but it's not, it's a friendly one. Find any place in the Old Testament where anyone entering into the priesthood, because Jesus is a high priest after the order of Melchizedek, and look and see where they were immersed in water, and you don't find it.

So Jesus, as far as I'm concerned, he was sprinkled according to the law, and that's number 87. So okay, you know, I don't have a problem with that. But there's logistical problems with immersion, too. If you want me to talk, if you want to hold, I'll tell you why there's some serious logistical problems. Okay. Hold on. Hey, folks, we'll be right back after these messages.

If you want, give me a call, 877-207-2276. 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 last segment of the show. Let's get back on with Joe from Richmond.

Are you still there? Yes, sir. All right. Yeah, I was saying there are logistical problems with the idea of immersion in certain contexts.

That's all. I'm not saying immersion is not a valid form of baptism. But in the upper room, 3,000 were baptized in one night.

I did the math. If the 12 disciples, it doesn't say how many were baptizing, so let's just say 12 disciples, and that just gives us a look at numbers and things like that. If 12 disciples were baptizing 3,000 people, they would have to do it, and they did it for eight hours straight without a break.

Then they would have to each, would have to baptize a person in every two minutes and roughly 20 seconds. Hold on. I'm on radio. Okay.

My daughter just came over. And so every two minutes and 20 seconds, plus there's the logistical problem of you dump someone in water. Let me put it this way. In the Jordan River, the Jordan River, I've been there, is definitely on the cold side. You don't want to stay in there for hours and hours to get hypothermia. So that would mean maybe someone's up to their hips in water. And how long could you last in there?

You know, a few hours. But then that would mean that people would come out there, be baptized by immersion. You have to drop them in the water and lift them up. Now, that's not that hard to do, but try and do it every two minutes and 20 seconds for eight hours. After a while, it's going to become very, very difficult because when you drop someone in the water, they come up wet.

They weigh more than what they did going down. And so this, you know, it's logistically difficult to justify how 12 disciples could be baptizing for eight hours at the Jordan. They certainly weren't going to do it in the upper room, and they certainly weren't going to do it in a local fountain, because that would dirty the water, and people drank out of it. They had to go to the Jordan.

And so there's just problems there. And it makes sense to say that they were either poured on or sprinkled on, because that was how things were done in the Old Testament. Things that were anointed for holy use were sprinkled with oil and or water.

It was a designation of an anointing. And people just don't study this stuff. I do. And I've got a whole file on baptism, just on baptism, and it's 36 pages. And so I have things like baptized with water, and to wash them with water in Exodus 29.4 or Exodus 30.20, it says, meaning they shall wash with water, Mark 1.8, I baptize with water.

Okay? Well, wait a minute. If the way that the phrase with water is used means to apply water to a person instead of being dumped in it, like Exodus 29.4, Exodus 30.20, well, then Mark says, Mark 1.8, I baptize with water. Is it the same thing? Does it mean applying the water to them? Because look, he says, I will baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. You're not immersed in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is always poured.

That's how the Holy Spirit is looked at and received in the Old Testament. That is a fact. A lot of people don't know that. It's poured out on. That's right.

Okay. He's poured out. So if, for example, Acts 2.17, you know, he's quoting under Joel, he says, it shall be the last days. God says, I'll pour forth my spirit. And verse 18, I'll pour forth my spirit.

That's a quote from Joel 2.28, 29. So the Holy Spirit's poured. So in Acts 1.5, John baptized with water, but you'll be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Well, that baptism with the Holy Spirit must mean pouring, because the Holy Spirit's poured on you.

That's just what it means. That's how the Holy Spirit is received, by the pouring on. In fact, in Acts 10.44-48, it talks about the same thing. I believe it does. I can get to the verse.

Let me look really fast and I'll read it. Yeah, that's right. Let me say that, because it says, while Peter will still speak in these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon those who were listening to the message. All the circumcised believers who came with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles. So the way the Holy Spirit is received is by pouring. That's just how it's spoken of. Well, now when we see that it says John baptized with water, you'll be baptized with the Holy Spirit, if baptism means immersion, then in John immersed with water, you'll be immersed with the Holy Spirit.

It does not work. If it means pouring, you know, John immersed you with water, you'll be poured with the Holy Spirit. Well, that makes sense historically, biblically. But there's another logistical problem, because if John was baptizing, he did it for two or three years, and I did some research on the population of Israel at that time, and Samaria in the areas, it was like half a million, like 500,000 people is one of the estimates, an average, and I've read it with like two million people. Well, at any rate, if it says all of Jerusalem and Samaria were going out to be baptized by John, now all, does it mean every single individual?

Obviously not. But it's saying a great many people. Well, you think about it. If he's immersing, what, 200,000 people, because it says all that are going out, a great majority of them are going out to him. Well, we don't know what the exact numbers are. But you start, you see, you go, wait a minute, he couldn't do that.

It wouldn't work. So you start putting flesh and blood on this, you go, okay, all right, maybe Matt Slick's got something here, I don't know, but, you know, maybe not. So I better get that verse from Leviticus you were talking about, sprinkling.

Numbers 8, 9, or 9, 8, I think it is, let me get to it. If you go to my website and you look up why was Jesus baptized, it'll give you the references because he said to fulfill all righteousness. And I used this a lot when I'm talking to people who teach what's called baptismal regeneration.

You must be baptized in order to be saved because that's not true. And I'll say, well, Jesus was sprinkled. And they, oh, no, he wasn't, he was immersed, and then I show them scripture.

And they're blown away because no one hears about this, which is, I don't know, why don't they? But that's my position. I believe he was sprinkled. Now, someone may disagree, and that's fine, but that's my position because of what the scriptures teach in the Old Testament. So if immersion is the proper way, well, not only there, I can go into another verse. It says, if you were to read Hebrews 9, 10, all right, Hebrews 9, one verse later, 10, Hebrews 9, 10, chapter 9, verse 10. It says, since they relate only to food, drink, and various washings, the word washings in Greek is baptismos, baptism baptismos. And if you read the context, it talks about sprinkling, right there, three verses later.

Yeah. All right, then we'll read that. Yeah, there's a lot. Oh, I could talk about baptism for a long time.

I could go to Acts 22, 16, 238, Acts 10, 44 through 48, 1 Peter 3, 21, Galatians 3, 27, Acts 1, 5, you know, I love talking about it. And I have some questions I still don't have answered yet as I've studied, but I'm learning, you know, I keep studying. And I'm learning also. Good. Thank you, man. You're welcome. God bless. All right, that was Joe from Richmond, Virginia, and the next longest waiting person is Janet or Janet from Raleigh, North Carolina. Welcome, you're on the air.

Thank you, it's Janet. I have a unusual question, but it's kind of on my mind. Lately, I have been using essential oils, and I've found out that they have a lot of health benefits, and that they've been around for a long time. But I know that the wise men brought Jesus, Frankenson, and myrrh, and I was just wondering, what would they possibly be doing that for? What would it be used for, for him? They represented, I used to know this one, they represented certain elements. They were offered to royalty, Frankincense, myrrh, and they were valued, very, very valuable. And so they were offered as sacrifices and gifts to the kings.

So that's what would happen. And essential oils, my wife will use those too, because she has a lot of health issues, and they're helpful. Okay. Yeah.

Yeah, I saw that Frankenson and myrrh are still sold to them, you can purchase that and use it. So I didn't know what they used it for his day, did they use the oil, or did they just give it as a gift? As a gift. You know?

Well, they would use them, I think, for medicinal reasons, and for cleansing, and for making things smell better. And so, you know, it's okay. Gold Frankincense and myrrh. Yeah. Okay. Oh, okay. Great.

Well, thank you, I just wanted to know that. Okay. All right.

Well, God bless. Have a good evening. Yes. Okay. Bye bye. Okay. Bye.

All right. Let's get to Randy from North, let's not get to Randy. Let's get to Diane from Virginia. Hey, Diane, welcome. You're on the air. Hi. Thank you for taking my call. Sure.

What do you got? I need to make a decision. I'm glad. I need to move.

And I live in a rural area. It's a beautiful area. It's very nice, the area that I feel called to take care of my sister and my mother, because they need my help. Okay. I'm good at taking care of elderly people. Okay.

So, I'm at a self-phrase, because I'm trying to decide what God's will is. Because that's what I'm supposed to do. Okay. If I say where I am, it's better for my health, but to me, to them, to help them, which I want to do, but it's worse for my health. So, I'm... What do you do?

I don't need to. Yeah, these are tough things. How much worse would it be for your health over there? It could be very bad. Could be very bad? Yeah, it could be. Yeah, it could be. Then... Yeah. Then move them to where you are.

It's just all possible. Okay. My mom's in a retirement home, and that's where she has to stay. Oh. Well, she's well taken care of there, but she's getting to the point where she needs additional assistance, and I can provide that.

I can be the guest in this situation, and I want to be, because it's my mother. All right. It's so... Are you able to go there for short periods of time and help out, and come back and get respites in a different area?

Because I don't know what the conditions are that you have, or why a different environment would be so harmful. Well, ultimately, my question is, I ask God to help me make this decision, and I need to... I want to do God's will, and I need help understanding, knowing what God's will is. Right. And I know it takes patience, but I don't have a lot of time.

Right. You know, sometimes the will of God is not knowing the will of God. Sometimes that's what God wants, so that you are free to make a choice. And sometimes he shows up in the most difficult times in those choices, when you're not sure which direction to look, or which direction to go. Because on one hand, you want to do what's right, and help your mom and dad, but on the other hand, if you do, it'll injure yourself.

And depending on how bad it would be, you know, I can only tell you what I would probably do, and I would probably go help, and see if I could survive, and do conditions, and do things to make myself healthier while I do that. But we're out of time. We should be talking more about it. But maybe come back tomorrow and talk about it. Okay? Sorry, Diane.

We're out of time. I'm sorry about that. Okay. Okay. Boy. I wish we could talk more about that. May the Lord bless her, and by his grace, back on there tomorrow. Talk to you then. Bye.