Matt Slick Live

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. Today is November 9th, 2022 for the podcasters.

And guess what? We've had this debate set. It's going to happen tonight. It was set for last night and then it got moved because the opponent had voiced problems.

And so far what I understand it's going to be tonight. Unless there's another difficulty, which happens. I had to postpone it because of conflicts, schedule conflicting and things like that.

And just wife issues, you know, because she has health issues and we have to take care of stuff. And it wiped out a few days of my prep time. We moved that back and then moved it back one more day. So tonight is there and I thought I did put it on the CARM calendar, which I will do probably during a break.

And you can go to the carm.org forward slash calendar and it'll be there a little bit for the link, which will happen in two hours. The debate's in two hours. So we'll see how that goes.

I'm arguing against a Muslim. And the topic is, is the Trinity necessary for reality? It should be interesting.

And I like talking stuff like that about the doctrine of the Trinity and how true God is and things. And we'll see how it goes. All right. If you want to give me a call, it's easy.

All you have to do is dial 877-207-2276. And we can talk. We can talk about all kinds of stuff. Anything you are interested in. If you want to get into... Oh, there's that thing right there.

If you want to get into Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian Science, Unity, Baha'i, Islam, whatever it is, we can talk about it. And that reminds me, I went to vote last night and... Let's see. Edit the event. There we go. I went to vote last night and got in line. And my wife had to stay in the car for a while because she had trouble standing and stuff like that. And so I'm fixing the debate stuff. And so I talked to a Mormon woman for a while in line.

And she had talked about how her husband had just recently passed away and we talked. And you know me, I want to witness as much as I can without being rude. We're in a line.

We're kind of stuck together in line to vote. And I shared the edition of the Gospel, but I did share how Joseph Smith... It is very carefully, but it worked. I shared how Joseph Smith boasted he did more than even Jesus to keep a church together and things like that. And how our forgiveness of sins is already accomplished. I gave her, let's see, second Nephi 25, 23, which says you're saved by grace through faith after all you can do. And then, let's see, Moroni 10, 32, which says that if you deny yourself of all ungodliness, then is God's grace sufficient for you. And then I think I went to Deuteronomy... No, not Deuteronomy.

D&C 82-7, I believe it is. Hope I got that right. Where it says if you commit the former sins, all of your former sins come back upon you. And so, you know, I was talking about that. I'm trying to get the idea out that there's no hope of forgiveness of sins. But she did say, well, you can always just repent again.

And I said, yeah, that means you're in and out of salvation, in and out of forgiveness constantly. And I said, that's a problem. And then we got talking. But it was very polite. It was very polite. And I didn't want to make it bad or anything.

But that's how I am. I need to debate. Not debate.

I need to teach and talk about Jesus. I was just reading. I just updated the calendar.

Calm.org forward slash calendar. The training necessary to explain reality. Or not to explain, I think it is for reality. But that's okay. There you go. The link is there. The information is there. And hopefully it'll all work.

Quick and slick. All right. How about this? Let's get to Gabriel from Maryland. Gabriel, welcome. You are on the air.

Air. There you go. You're on the air, buddy. Hi, Matt. Thanks for taking my call.

Sure. So my question is about the cyclic model of universe creation. And how a lot of atheists are trying to use that to argue for an eternal universe.

Yeah, that's right. Eternal existence of the universe. And I was wondering if the Bible, if there are any verses that specifically indicate that that is not a possible universe model. There's nothing in the Bible that says that the cyclic model is not true. But it does state in Genesis 1 that God created the heavens and the earth in the beginning. The implication is that the beginning is the beginning of all things. So we could say that in the beginning negates the idea of a cyclic view. All right.

That's one point. All right. Right. However, a lot of Christians use the big vein to argue that it correlates with the way that the Bible describes the initial creation.

Could it also be that in the cyclic model that what we perceive to be the big vein is actually just another cycle? And that God chose to start the story at a particular point in the cycle? Okay. Now there's a problem here. Let's work with logic. Okay. When atheists bring this idea up to me and I'll say, are you affirming that the age of the universe is cyclic and it goes on forever in the past?

And they'll say, well, yeah. Okay. Then you're a Christian.

You make what? So, yeah, you're a Christian. Because, you see, that means then that if there's an infinite number of cycles in the past, then that means a Christian God exists in one of those cycles.

Because that's an infinite number of possibilities. And if that's the case, then it means that the infinite possibilities necessitate a Christian God who, by definition, is before all things. So now you've got an issue because you have a lot of contradiction. Or we have to assume that the Christian God became an actuality who then relates to time differently and became the beginner before any cyclic thing.

Furthermore, it would mean that in an infinite number of cycles in one of the universes, you're a Christian denouncing your atheistic self. So which is true? You see the problem? Okay. No, write it by me one more time. Okay.

Just go one at a time. So I've had, for example, an atheist have said, well, the universe is infinitely old. Let's say it's infinitely old. If it's infinitely old, then that means an infinite number of occurrences have happened in the past, correct?

And you'll say yes. Well, then that means then that in one of those infinite possibilities, you are a Christian. And so in that view, if you are a Christian, in that view, you clearly were denouncing any idea of you being an atheist as being true.

So which one is true now according to your worldview? Now we have a contradiction, and that's an impossibility to have truth. So it means then that the idea of the universe being infinitely old doesn't work, just off that issue. There's other issues too, entropy and things like that. Other atheists have said, well, there's...

Okay, go ahead. Just to make sure you understand what you're saying, infinite time plus infinite possibility creates infinite occurrences. Right. And then if you have any infinite occurrences, any contradiction, it means that they basically, that it can't work, because then you have a contradiction. It means that in the infinite possibilities, one of them means that he was actually a Christian earlier.

Right. But then which is true? You're a Christian, because as a Christian, you would clearly denounce your atheism as a possibility.

So which is true now? This is a problem within their worldview. Another view that is often given is multiverses, and it's the same kind of a thing. There's an infinite number of multiverses. Then the same problem arises. Oh, then another universe, you're a Christian denouncing yourself here.

So which is true? And if there's multiverses or infinite number of possibilities, then the Christian God necessarily has to exist, because that's one of the infinite possibilities, right? If you want to say it's not logically possible for the Christian God to exist, well, then we'll get into metaphysics and various things like that, transcendentals and stuff like that.

Okay, which I can talk about, and the average Joe can't. And so if they want to say the universe is cyclic, that it goes back infinitely in cyclic stuff, it's the same problem. That means there's an infinite number of possibilities. Well, if that's the case, then that means the Christian God necessarily has to exist in one of those universes. One of those cycles, right?

Yes, and the Christian God there exists, so then that means that the Christian God does exist, so therefore your idea of atheism is falsified. Right. Would it be fair to say that even if the universe is cyclic, that doesn't necessarily mean that it's eternal? Then we deal with what's called necessary and sufficient conditions that cause an event. If the universe is infinitely old, there's logical problems.

They haven't got into other problems. But there's what's called an actual infinite, a potential infinite. Actual infinity is the idea that in the universe, cyclics go back infinitely. There's no beginning.

It just always was. That's a problem, because it means an infinite amount of time has been traversed to get to now. But you can't traverse an infinite amount of time, so it doesn't work. There's other views called the potential infinite.

Potential infinitude, for example, you and I fit in that category. We will continue to exist eternally, but we had a beginning. So an actual infinite is infinite in both directions, past and future. Potential infinite has a beginning and has its potential infinity in a future context. So any time you stop and measure how many seconds or days that you and I have been alive, it's a finite number, because we had a beginning. But you can't apply the same principle to what's called an actual infinite.

You're making noise in the background there. Here's another example of the problem of an actual infinite. Let's say you have a line in front of you in space between your fingertips. How many points are on that line? See, a point is one dimension. It has zero dimensions, actually. It has no dimensionality.

It just has location. Then you can have an infinite number of points on a line. If you take half of that line, it also has an infinite number of points. Well, how can half of the infinite be equal to the whole of the infinite? There are just paradoxes like this with the idea of an actual infinite. And then they might say, well, then that means your god can't exist. I say, no, the nature of our god is that he has always existed, and he's the beginner of the universe, because whatever caused the universe to come into existence has to have the necessary and sufficient conditions. He has to have the ability and cognition and other things that get into it, and that's a whole other argument.

It was called the Kalam Cosmological, as I use. This is stuff that I talk about with just a few people when they understand these kinds of conversations. And I could teach on it in a seminar, but I would have to do it with PowerPoint slides and just point by point go through it. People get it when I do it slowly with slides and stuff like that. Not a big deal. So I have another somewhat related question, which is that I'm not totally convinced that the eternity that we understand as eternity after life, after death, is eternal as an infinite. It is. I kind of suspect that there might be an end to it. Nope. Just because of the term allam.

So if you look at the Hebrew scriptures, am I using the right word allam to the vanishing point? Is that the word that they use? I'm not familiar. I thought you were talking to a day, but go ahead. Okay.

So there's a word. I wish I had looked this up before. What verse it is?

I think it might be in Genesis 13, 15. Let me take a look. We've got a break, so let me take a look. And we'll come back after the break and talk about it, okay? All right, man. Okay. Hey, folks, hold on.

We have three open lines. If you want to, give me a call. All you've got to do is dial 8772072276. We'll be right back. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 8772072276. Here's Matt Slick. Okay, everybody, welcome back to the show.

Let's get on the air here with Gabriel. Are you still there? Yes, I'm still here. All right. So I found the verse that you're talking about, and so Genesis 13, 15, for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever. And so that's the word olam, okay? And so what you're saying here is, well, the word forever there doesn't mean forever, right? Yes. That's the idea.

Some translations have it as a vanishing point. Okay. And when I looked up the concept of infinity, it wasn't really discussed or mathematically discussed until like 300 B.C., and I think that Genesis was written before that. Okay.

So I'm not entirely certain if the concept of eternity as we understand it existed during that time when that text was written. Does that make sense? Yes, but you can't say that it is the case.

You can just say it's a possibility. Okay. Okay. And so for example here, we have in, okay, let me give you a principle.

All right. Words mean what they mean in context. The word olam occurs 438 times in the Old Testament, and it's rendered in many different ways. Forever, never, everlasting, old.

Let's see, I'm scanning through. Forever and ever. Let's see, ancient, everlasting, it goes on.

And so the point, some of these we'll talk about here, and I'll show you something. Hebrew, a one word can mean lots of different things in Hebrew. Just like the word green in English can mean envy, money, sick, naive, new, color.

It just depends. And so I'm not saying that all of it is like that, but the word is used of God, for example in Psalm 90 verse two, from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. So in the context of God, the olam means without end.

You go to Genesis 21, 33, for example, and Abraham planted a tamarisk tree at Beersheba, and they're recalled on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God. So the word means what it means in context. So if we see, for example, for your descendants forever, it's just another use of the word.

You know, my wife and I might be arguing, and I might say, you never admit blah, blah, blah. Well, technically, it's not true. But we often use exaggeration to convey a point.

And so that's what's going on here for your land forever and ever. So you've got to be careful then when you take the concept and say, well, now that means then that people don't live forever. Because you have to find a way that you can demonstrate that that is the case. And there are problems with that, okay? So look at this. And this is Revelation 20, 10. And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire. Now, that's the devil's an angel, not a person, not a human being, I mean. Fire and brimstone were the beast, and the false prophet are also.

The false prophet is an individual, a human being. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. And that's, it's aionis ton aionion in Greek, or aionas ton aionon. And it means into the age of the ages. So what some people will do, they'll say, well, the phrase, aionios ton aionion, is the age of the ages. And an age is limited.

So therefore, it's a limited time. And what they're doing is committing an exegetical fallacy. They're saying, well, the phrase is comprised of parts.

I'm going to look at the part and represent the part to the whole. That's called a fallacy of composition in logic and exegesis. So the engine is blue, therefore the entire car is blue.

Well, that's not true. That's called a fallacy of composition. So here what we're saying is that the age of the age, age means a temporary thing, so age of ages means it's not forever.

Now that's called a fallacy of composition. The phrase ever and ever is used of God. And there again we see it means without end. So I'm just showing you different things.

So here it talks about at least one human individual in Revelation 20, 10 who will exist eternally forever and ever in torment. Okay? Yeah.

All right. Well, isn't that, since it's doubling up on it in both Hebrew and Greek, when they want to emphasize something saying that it's more so, like it's not just a long period of time, it's such a long period of time that it is eternal, then you would double up on the word, alam, alam. Well, it's idiomatic. It's idiomatic. Cultures have different idioms. An idiom is just an expression.

I beat them until he's black and blue. Other cultures don't use that expression. And so what is the expression meant in the culture?

Okay? Forever and ever you are the Lord. Truly, truly, truly, I say to you. We don't say that. We don't talk like that. I don't say to you, truly, truly, truly, I'm telling you this. But they did that in a Jewish context. So this is what's going on.

All right? And so, for example, because you went straight to the idea of humans not being living forever. So the phrase, you know, eunis tolaeonion, forever and ever, I did a huge study on it. And I have, if you were to go there, a word study on forever and ever as it occurs in the New Testament.

I did it in 2018. And I've written over 180 articles dealing with annihilationism, which talks about the people not being eternal. But I show how the phrase forever and ever means that, well, in the context of God, for example, Revelation 15, 7, they will receive the wrath of God who lives forever and ever. And Christ will reign forever and ever, Revelation 11, 15. And then you've got to be careful of this.

It's called illegitimate totality transfer. Well, the word, for example, forever and ever means without end. So therefore, it means that everywhere I look. Just like the word olam, olam means in one place, it means, you know, for a limited time. But then we can transfer the meaning to Psalm 90, verse 2, from everlasting and everlasting, you are God. From a limited time to a limited time, you are God.

Well, that doesn't work. And vice versa. We can't say from Psalm 90, verse 2 that it means, because God's forever, that the word forever means without end when we apply it to, we said, Genesis 13, 15. It's limited, obviously, to that place and that time. So we've got to be careful. That's called illegitimate totality transfer, because a word has a scope of meaning in different contexts.

And it's called a semantic domain, a range of meanings in a different context. And so you've got to be careful not to transfer the meaning of a word or phrase in one context to another. You just have to be careful. That's all. Okay? Got it. Thank you very much.

Okay. And look at this. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, Revelation 14, 11. They have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast. Those are people.

Okay? Whoever receives his mark. The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. Now, some people say, well, the smoke is what goes up. They're not in torment forever and ever.

It's like, aye, aye, aye, you know? So the smoke of their torment ascends forever, but they're not being tormented in fire. So how does that happen? People get into all kind of ridiculous things. But there's another example. Okay? All right, man? Okay, got it. Okay, buddy. God bless.

All right. Hey, there's a break. If you want to give me a call, four open lines, 877-207-2276. We'll be right back. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. Hey, welcome back, everybody.

Let's see. Four open lines, 877-207-2276. Let's get to Monique from Greensboro. Welcome. You're on the air. Thank you. I called with you a couple days ago about, excuse me, 1 Peter 3, room 6. And my question was about, yeah, what does it mean, your daughters, as long as you're afraid without, or not afraid that you've made it.

And so two things. You were talking about a son-in-law that you'd done, but I didn't quite get the summary of what you were thinking. But I wanted to add this part to it, because that's kind of where it went.

I never got to ask. In 1 Kings, I think it's 1 Kings, first chapter, I think 17, when it talks about Queen Vashti. This is what came up in my thoughts. Queen Vashti, when the king wanted her to, you know, parade herself in front of the men, they were having the feast, and she refused to do it. And then I think in 17 it talks about, if the women hear about this, then the men, the husbands will become despised in their sight. So I bring that out because, again, I was wanting to know what your thoughts were.

The only thing that I ever thought it might mean, just based on what I have heard the scripture is, but you know, you start to, the woman might worry that, I don't know, for lack of a better term, she's solidifying her position as not as good, or unimportant, or not valuable. And so, go ahead. Let's take a look at that, because it's not in Kings, it's in Esther. Okay, Queen Vashti was... I mean, I asked her a king. Yeah, I don't know what the king is. That's all right. No big deal.

And so here's the context, though. It's the king, not just a hubby. The king. The king was different. The king had rights. The king had power. In the culture of the time of that king, he was summoned.

It happened. And because he was the seat of authority and power. And so there would be a court around him, enforcers of the law around him, guards around him. So it's a different setting than a woman sitting with her husband at a dinner table. And so when she disobeyed him, it was a direct insult to him and his position as king in that nation. And that's why she got in trouble. And according to VeggieTales, I learned this from VeggieTales, that she wouldn't make him a sandwich. And so she got kicked out.

I love that. Anyway, I lost you. I lost you. I'm not hearing you. Okay.

117. You're still hard. Wait, wait, wait. I can't understand you. I can't understand you. Something happened and I can't understand anything you're saying now. Okay.

Okay. I'm reading. I'm reading first Esther chapter one, verse 17.

And this is what I was just referring to. He says, for this need of the queen shall come abroad unto all women so that they shall despise their husbands in their eyes when it shall be reported. So my point to that is the whole, what does it mean with any amazement? When I called before, we went through some different translations.

I always read out of King James. And my, my question, you were talking, start talking to something else, but my question was, did, did that again mean a freight within the amazement that, that you would lose position even more position, I guess, considering the culture in that time or more you would be even less regarded or more lowly regarded as far as I'm not sure. I don't know what you're asking. I'm not sure.

Cause you were in, what would you just say? Did you see the Lord's name in vain? Not in vain.

I'm asking really for help. No, no, no, no, no, no. Hold on a sec. I always call Christians on. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on.

Okay. I'm going to put you on mute. I always call Christians out on the carpet on this. If you say, Oh my, just like the unbelievers do. And you use his name as not in a reverential form that has taken the name of the Lord, your God in vain. And I always stop Christians and say, you can't do that. Don't do that.

I don't want that promulgated over my show, over the airwaves where the secularist idea of using God's name in vain is just propagated even by a Christian. So I stopped that quickly. So Monique, um, that's important to me. Okay. I'm just telling you. Okay. Okay. So hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Okay.

I'm going to look, I got to get control of this. It's important to me. Don't just dismiss it and keep going.

I don't want anybody to misuse the Lord's name in vain on my show. Okay. And you need to repent of that, but that's another topic.

You can deal with that with the Lord later. Now about Esther 1 17. Okay. This is there about the context.

How are you tying it in with first Peter three, six. Okay. No. Oops. Oh, I didn't put her on air again. My bad. I'm sorry about that. Okay.

How does it relate to, uh, how does Esther 1 17 relate to first Peter three, six. Go ahead. First off, I am asking for help. Good. Because I don't know what I'm saying. That is not clear. The first time we spoke, you emphasized the word allow. When I said allow, as though I was talking about giving permission. That which confused me because my position was your position.

So it was very strange. No way. Let me stop you there. This is what you did.

This is what happens now, which is why I'm asking for help. I don't understand why this is happening, but you allow like he's going to get permission. My, what I was saying is allow.

And I use the example as though you're standing in the ring. You're allowing it to rain on your head. Obviously. Oh, you meant, I didn't, we were referring to, you meant, you know, when a woman says when you were saying, or somebody says, you allow your husband to lead. You mean that context of allow. Okay.

Yeah. That's something to be careful about. And you stopped and started talking about permission. And the thing that threw me is because I was, I was not of an approval position.

And so it got confused. So you asked me now, let me answer what I'm saying, what you're asking. You're asking me the context about Vashti and this first Peter three, six, my, my question and thought, because the whole conversation just went into a seminar. I've never got your answer as far as what you thought it meant actually. Um, was, is it, you know, could it be, I guess if you're not sure, you're not sure, but could it be that the woman not afraid with any amazement would mean you're kind of, uh, even though the culture back then, like you said, it wasn't, the women weren't valued, but it was different.

Would that refer to the woman if they were afraid they'd get an even lower regard for lack of a better term or even, uh, or even that they were agreeing themselves with that they shouldn't be valued or something like that. I've just never understood exactly what it meant to say as long as you are not afraid with any amazement. It doesn't tell us.

That's all. It doesn't tell us what that means. So what you can do is offer possibilities without being afraid. Afraid of what? Of their husbands? Of the culture? Of new rights? Of becoming fearful because they have new responsibilities? Uh, because is it in reference to, uh, recognizing the Lordship over them in their husband and they're afraid of that? I don't know. So we can just talk possibilities.

Right. And with all due respect and I'll leave it at this because it's very important to me because I saw what God was on my heart. That wasn't like a, ugh. You can hear the point where I said, God help me, help me, help me because this response sucks me because I don't understand. I'm agreeing with you and I don't know if you're just so used to people having women particularly having an angry position about it or an offended position about it. But it was very odd to me because not one thing was in disagreement and then you jumped on the allow and then you started, ugh, I get Christians when they use a no sir. I have to say no sir. I did not use the Lord's name in vain and I did not just then.

Again, it's for whatever reason. No, I'm telling you, you didn't hear me say help. I said, God, God help me. I admit that. You said, oh my. And then you said, oh my. Oh my gosh. Help me. I'm not lying on the air.

Oh my God. Help me. This is very important because if you added, if you add, hold on. If you added those last two words, I didn't hear it in my apologies. Okay.

You didn't. That's my point. That's all right. Okay. That's fair enough.

That's wrong. Okay, good. Good for you. No, it doesn't say.

Yes, it is very good for me. Thank you very much. I learned a lot tonight. Well, good. Now, I want you to keep calling because you say stuff and you're in it and you study and I like that.

So anyway, I hope she does continue to call because it's good. I don't know. Maybe people in the chat, you can tell. Did you hear her say that? Because I just got in there.

So maybe I did it too fast and that's certainly a possibility. Hey, folks, look, if you want to give me a call, 877-207-2276. We'll be right back after these messages and there you go, a break.

All right, everybody, welcome back to the show. I just want to remind you that we stay on the air by your support if you would be so kind as to consider supporting us. All you have to do is go to karm.org, C-A-R-M dot O-R-G, forward slash donate. We ask for $5 a month, that's what we ask for, if you could be considered that and pray and just see. $5 a month is not very much and it's very helpful and I would just greatly appreciate it. We're trying to get 1,000 people to do that. That would cover our bills. We've lost supporters because of the economy and that's normal, but we're just letting people know. If you want to keep me on the air and other stuff, all you got to do is help us out.

$5 a month, not too much, C-A-R-M dot O-R-G, forward slash donate and you can do that. Let's get on the air with somebody anonymous from somewhere. You're on the air. Okay. Good evening.

I'm not trying to give it away all the time because it's obvious she's not having a good night, but I definitely heard what you heard and it was like, oh, it hit me the same way. I'm like, yeah, that's all I'd like you to know and thank you for your show and we enjoy listening to you every single night. Who's the we? All the best. I appreciate that.

Who's the we? Your family? Because if your family's listening, I like to say hi to their name, give their names or first names. Hey, I'm waving to you and stuff like that.

It's a lot of fun. Well, it's anonymous, instead of John boy, it's anonymous boy and anonymous girl and like the Walton. Okay, that's fine. That's good. Never mind. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Come on.

But she was, she's having a tough time anyway and you know, so nothing, nothing bad towards her. Just like it, just like, ooh, I do not like his name taken like that. No, I don't. I, I, you know, I stand against that a lot, but I do enjoy, you know, I enjoyed, I actually liked that she called and I liked that she had an opinion and she was going for it. I like that because it's just good and I enjoy that kind of thing. I learn out of it as well.

Usually. Okay. So all the best to you. God bless you much. And thank you. You too. God bless.

Thanks. Good night. All right. Good night.

I just wanted to let you know. Um, let's see. I'll be on a debate in an hour, hour and 10 minutes. And if you want to watch it tonight, uh, you can go to karm.org forward slash calendar and it'll be the Trinity debate is the Trinity necessary for realities. What the title is.

It says to explain realities and that's, that's the incorrect, I'll correct that. And so you can watch that tonight. It should be, I think it'll be interesting.

I'm hoping. And let's see what else I was going to say. So, Oh yeah.

Wait, no, that wasn't it. Um, we do stay on the air by your support. Please consider supporting us. That's a standard cause I need to start saying that more often and that's karm.org forward slash donate. But this thing about the Lord's name in vain, a lot of people do it. And I remember when I worked at a large corporation and as a tech as tech support, worked at Hewlett Packard and uh, we would have, we had a room where only the text could go into 40, 50 of us and it was thousands of people who were supporting, you know, on their computers.

And once in that room, cause it was secured, locked, we had a passkey to get in. Once we got in there, the, the guys I worked with would constantly costs and use the Lord's name in vain. And so they're unbelievers. And so what I did was I didn't say anything and I didn't participate in their bad jokes and I wouldn't cuss. I didn't, I didn't, uh, preach at them. I just wanted to be an example and just, you know, when they do a bad joke, I would just politely leave.

When they would say things that were just ungodly, I would just politely leave in their groups. And after a while they started noticing and they said, what's up with you? And I started telling them, I said, look, I'm a Christian and been a pastor and uh, I don't affirm, uh, you know, certain things and stuff like that. And that opened the door for conversations. Over the next few months, they would say, they like, well, you know, they do something to say something that, well, excuse me, man, you know, you're here. So, and they, they understood my politeness to them without imposing anything on them. And yet they started changing their behavior, which is good. And I told him at one point, I said, the only thing that really bothers me is when you guys use the Lord's name in vain, it says, and I explained who he was.

He's a Trinitarian God who is the necessary condition for all of existence, who died on the cross for our sins, et cetera. And then you use his name like it's a swear word. I said, and that's offensive to me, but you, I say, you guys have never heard me get on you about it, but I'm just telling you that that's what happens in my own heart. And they appreciated that.

And they actually started changing their conversation around me. Now that's in the secular realm. I used to do, um, a pulpit supply in Southern California. Pulpit supply means that I'm a guest preacher and Southern California is 22 million people at the time and freeway situation.

So I could, you know, be traveling one hour, one direction, another hour in another direction. And what happened was people started asking me to come preach and fill in different places, different churches, like one day, one Sunday, I preached in three different churches. And so, you know, that that'll happen, uh, with like at all the time, but I was, I'd go to these churches and I'd come back once a month, once every, uh, every six months, just depends on what their needs were at the time. You know, the pastor is out, the pastor is sick, they're in between pastors and I'd come in. Word got around. And so I was pretty busy. I often didn't even show up at my own church for, uh, for weeks at a time because I enjoyed preaching.

Okay. Well, anyway, this one church I went to, I started noticing in casual conversations before and after church, this one church, that they were, many people were using the Lord's name in vain. And I started noticing that and what that, this is in a church context. And so that is adopting sin and it's adopting the ways of the world. So I decided that, uh, they'd asked me to preach again. I decided to speak on that topic on using the Lord's name in vain.

And we went to Exodus 20, 10 commandments, you know, you should not take the Lord, the name of your Lord, God in vain. And I still remember this. So the singing would occurred and they were, it was great. The music's great. The people were great. Uh, they loved me.

You know, I love them. Uh, you know, I've been preaching there for a couple of years off and on, you know, maybe preaching, I don't know, 10 times total in two years. And so the worship was over and it was my turn to my time to get up and do a sermon. And so, you know, they would usually stand for the, for the, uh, worship and then they would sit, there'd be an announcement and then say, okay, I'd go up. And so I went up and I said, okay, uh, if you would, please open your Bibles to Exodus 20. And they just said, okay, you all got it. Okay, good. And I said, um, I'm going to pray and I pray.

I always pray before a sermon. I always do when I get up there. And then I said, now, what I'd like you all to do is stand up with all of you to stand up. And they all did. And I said, now what I want you to do is look around at the exits and says, look where the exits are.

And they did. So she got, you got them mapped out. I mean, you're here and you've been here so many times, you automatically know where they are, but I want you to notice them because the reason I'm saying this is because I knew you can, you can sit down now. Thank you.

And you would sit down. I said, the reason I'm saying this is because during the sermon, feel free to leave. If you don't like what I'm saying, I won't be offended. And I said, I need to address you about sin and how you, some of you, I'm not going to name names, have used the Lord's name in vain regularly.

And it's not just one or two. I've noticed it here and I need to address this. I'll look at this verse, you know, thou shall not take the name of the Lord, your God in vain. I said, what does it mean? And I explained who God was first in his majesty, in his purity, in the Trinitarian concept and the necessity of his existence for anything else to exist in the person of Christ who became one of us and died for our sins. And I talked about his holiness.

I talked about his greatness, his omniscience, his omnipresence, his great sacrifice and how his name represents him. He says, when Moses said to God in the burning bush of Exodus three, he says, well, what's your name? He says, I am that I am. He says, thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, I am has sent me to you. And I said, this is his name, the I am, the being one, he is the being one.

So this is what Yahweh means. And so to say his name means the titles of God, Lord, Yahweh, King, even if you're using in reference to God, must always be in all terms, must be used in a reverential, respectful manner. Because if you don't do that, then you are insulting the character of God by adopting the ways of the unbelievers who don't respect or fear God. They don't love him.

They don't know him and are not known by him. And they take his name, the word God is included in the concept of his name, and they will say, Oh my, and they will say this, or they'll use Jesus as a swear word. And I say, this is the way of evil. This is the way of disrespect of God.

And it's the way that the devil has worked in our society to get more and more people disrespect and dishonored God. And I said, and you have no business participating in the deeds of evil. I said, let's look at this verse again, and let's look at this verse over here and this verse over there, you know, in 1st Peter 1 16, you know, be holy for I'm holding.

And Psalm 90 verse two, from everlasting to everlasting is God talking about his majesty went through. I said, we need to revisit this and you need to stop. You need to repent of these things. He says, you know who you are who do this. I said, but you got to understand, it doesn't mean I'm judging you. It doesn't mean I don't love you.

Does it mean I don't care for you? It does mean though that some have slipped and have participated in the secular way of disrespect and dishonor to God that has no place in the Christian heart. And so you must, and you ought to go to God and repent and to say, Lord, thank you for exposing my sin. And I confess it, and I will seek to use your name and respect and honor before unbelievers and in my own heart and the context of my fellow believers. And I said, and you can do this because of what Jesus did the cross, because he died for our sins. And he has bought you the price X 20, 28 with his own blood and it says, and you can then go to him, the one who was merciful, the one who was kind and receive that forgiveness. And of course you'll be forgiven and you are forgiven.

So trust in him. And this is how I preached to them. And afterwards, many of them came up to me and said, thank you very much for that sermon. No one left during that sermon, but I wanted to emphasize the severity and necessity of using God's name properly. And if this speaks to you as a Christian, well, I hope it does then praise God. And just commit to using the name of God, Lord, God, Jesus, everything, always in a reverential way, never an exclamation.

If you have been just confess it before God has sinned and just ask God to strengthen your heart, to speak of him in reverential manners, and then commit to move forward that way. And that's all you got to do. See?

Simple. And that needs to be something that we all focus on sometime, and I just want to say that. Hey, there you go.

We're about out of time. May the Lord bless you. And by his grace, look back on the air tomorrow. And don't forget, better to make tonight. If you're interested in watching it, you can go to karm.org forward slash calendar.

And the information to watch it will be there if you want. Hey, may the Lord bless you. Oh, we'll do an after show tonight too as well for anybody who wants to come in after. May the Lord bless you. By his grace, we're back on there tomorrow, and we'll talk to you then. See you. God bless. Another program powered by the Truth Network.