Matt Slick Live

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network Podcast. Do the show and you can watch some of the stuff that gets put on the screen, and if you are interested also in participating in the chat in one of the rooms, you can just go to rumble.com forward slash Matt Slick Live.

All one word, Matt Slick Live. And everything should work out fine. Okay, there we go. I always miss one thing, don't I? I always miss one thing. One little swag.

I got so many switches I got to press and flip and all that kind of stuff before the show. So hopefully it's good now in Clubhouse. All right, there we go. Audios canny? Uncanny?

Or candy or what? I don't know. So give us some feedback there in the private and we'll work on it. All right, Buskman from Dayton, Ohio. Welcome. You're on the air. Always a pleasure to speak with you, Matt. With everything that's happening with Pastor Tony Evans and Robert Morris, Matt. What's happening?

You have it seen, sir. Well, Pastor Tony Evans is stepping down. Are you being funny in that place? You know, I don't know. I'm serious. I don't know.

No, but you're breaking up. Every other syllable is kind of cracking, so it's hard to follow what you're saying. Stand by. Stand by. All right. There we go.

How about that? I don't know. Keep talking. Let's see. I don't know. Keep talking.

No, you still break it up. Why don't you call right back? Just call right back, okay?

Get a better connection. All right, man. Sounds good. All right.

Well, that's Buskman. He'll call back in a little bit. And if you want, you can give me a call. 877-207-2276.

And I want to hear from him to give me a call so we can talk. All right. I'm looking at making sure all the settings are right.

And I'm doing that right now. Yeah, everything's right. Everything's right. Yeah, I don't know what's going on.

So it's worse. We've had some problems with our sound stuff lately, so hopefully that's better right there. Let me know. And if not, I'll learn a break.

I'll try a Mickey Mouse thing. And we have three open lines. If you want to give me a call, 877-207-2276. And you can also email me, info at karm.org, info at karm.org, and put in the subject line, radio comment, radio question, something like that.

And then we can get to them when we do that. And by the way, I will not be on the air Friday live, so tomorrow I'll be on. Because Friday I'm driving down to Salt Lake City. I'm going to be in a debate, and I'm going to be debating Andrew Rapaport on the charismatic gifts for today.

If you want information on that, utahchristianresearchcenter.com, utahchristianresearchcenter.com. And we're going to be debating on Saturday night at 6 p.m. Still going to be down there Friday and hang out and do stuff and talk to people and all that kind of stuff. And then Saturday we'll be doing a debate, so I hope you want to check it out. All right, as soon as we get back to the buskman, the call's kind of on but not, so we'll get to that in a little bit. And please give me some feedback. Oh, it's better in the sound. No, we lost him. I think he's having a sound problem, so he's probably calling back yet again. All right, so what I do at night during the summer and stuff in the spring, I walk around the block, and there's a set of blocks that I walk around, and it's one mile exactly. So each time I walk around, the circuit takes about 20 minutes, then it's one mile, and yesterday I did four miles.

And what I do is I carry my phone and I have my headset on, and I go into chat rooms and I talk while I'm walking and trying to remember stuff. And man, it was a great discussion yesterday on Roman Catholicism and works righteousness, and I am particularly enjoying the conversation for an odd reason. Now, I know Roman Catholicism is bankrupt and is apostate, and by the way, they keep saying, you're going to become a Catholic.

I say it's never going to happen. I'm not going to become an idolater. So I'm listening to these guys' arguments, and they are arguments in order to justify works. By saying their works without their saying their works. And the minutia, the games they play, the logic they use, it's really amazing.

They recognize that the Bible says, and yet they want to be saved by your faith and your works, but it's not. It gets really convoluted. And so I've been having a really great discussion. And so last night I also got in a discussion with a Mormon guy, and he's supposed to know Greek.

I'm starting to think less and less that he knows Greek. But we went to 1 Peter 3.21 for quite a while. It was really an interesting discussion.

It really was. So what I did last night for about an hour, I read commentaries, looked at Greek analysis of 1 Peter 3.21, which said baptism now saves you, not removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for clean conscience, according to the resurrection. And then I woke up real early this morning, like seven, and I couldn't go back to sleep. So for another hour and a half, I just went and studied this topic. And I developed a list of 11 commentary quotes that go in and examine it. And it's really interesting what I found. I'm going to summarize it and put it into all of my notes, but that's what I'll be doing.

So me, I enjoy that kind of stuff. I'm also doing a study where I'm trying to go through, if I get time, go through every instance of the word pray and praying prayed or called upon, whatever it is, in the entire Bible, which is a big undertaking. And I'm doing it for a reason, because the Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox, they pray to Mary, they pray to the saints, which is idolatry. And so what I'm doing is I'm going through the Bible to see what the Bible says about prayer.

That's it. Just to learn as I go to see what it says. And it's a good thing I know how to do Excel really well. And I know how to do HTML and search and replace functions and exports and do all kinds of stuff so that I can do all kinds of work. And that's really weird. I really like doing that.

I do. I mean, just leave me alone. Just shut the door.

I'll be in here for two, three, four hours doing this research. And I go out to my wife and say, how are you doing? She goes, what are you working on?

Well, I'm doing a word study in depth on the genitive, when it's used. And she goes, OK, that's nice. Thank you. And so I said, but it was interesting. Let me tell you what I found. And she gives me this this half-mast eyelid stare like she's really trying to pay attention.

But she doesn't care. And so I've learned to break it down to something really interesting. This is I say this is really interesting. And I'll say what I've learned is interesting. But usually I find one interesting point per hour. So, you know, for me, it's a lot of fun. I enjoy it. All right.

Waiting for Baskerman to come back in and not seeing him come back in there. But the number for anybody and everybody wants to call is 877-207-2276. You can give me a call if you want. I want to hear from you. And I think you want to talk about church discipline. So we'll talk about that.

Maybe we'll see what's going to happen. And I probably will be on Discord again tonight, if anybody's interested. You can. What you can do on Discord is just follow my name, Matt Slick.

That's the name I use. And just follow me when I go in the rooms. You can you can find me. And usually what happens, I go to a room, usually is they just line up to start asking questions. And a lot of people want a piece of me.

They want to destroy me. And so I get into these nice discussions. They're pretty entertaining. And I learn through them. I actually learn through them. I do. So I enjoy that. I really do. All right.

All right. We got a call coming in. Don't know if we're having problems with the calls or what. He's breaking up really badly.

Still was. OK. Maybe he can. Maybe he can. Let's see.

Maybe he can email us the question or something like that and get to it that way. Sometimes it happens. You get a bad connection or a bad series of connections. And I think we get another call coming in. Not sure.

I don't know if we have any problems on the lines. I don't know. So anyway. What I was doing with the. Let me do this. I'm going to get to it. Here we go. What I was doing with the Catholics last night was talking about something. I'm going to read some stuff for you guys. This is important.

All people don't think it's important, but it is. Because I want you to know the Roman Catholic Church is not Christian. OK.

It is not Christian. Check this out. This is what paragraph twenty thirty six says. I read two of them.

This is interesting stuff. The authority of the Magisterium. That means the Magisterium is that set of bishops and authority teachers within the Roman Catholic Church that are very, very, very higher up. The authority of the Magisterium extends also to the specific precepts of the natural law, because their observance demanded by the creator is necessary for salvation. So it's necessary for salvation.

That's what they say. So now when you go to paragraph twenty seventy, the Ten Commandments belong to God's revelation. At the same time, they teach us the true humanity of man.

They bring to light the essential duties and therefore indirectly the fundamental rights inherent in the nature of the human person. The Decalogue contains a privileged expression of the natural law. Decalogue is a Ten Commandments. So the Ten Commandments contain a privileged expression of the natural law. And following the precepts of the natural law, their observance is necessary for salvation. Now, in logic, we have a rule called the law of proper inference. So if A equals B and B equals C, then A equals C. Again, if A equals B and B equals C, then A equals C. So it's called the law of proper inference. Now, if A is necessary to observe the precepts of the natural law and B, the natural law, is exemplified in Ten Commandments, then C, keeping the Ten Commandments, is necessary for salvation. So this is simple.

It's just simple logic. So that's what they teach. Now I'm going to go to Romans chapter three and I'm going to start reading Romans three.

So we've got nobody waiting. I'm going to do a little Bible study and teach. I've got a break coming up, but what I'm going to do after the break is come in to Romans three and start reading around verse 19. I'll read to it slowly. You've got to hear what it says. Romans chapter three and four.

Do a little bit of a study here on salvation, justification, something like that. We'll be right back after these messages. Please stay tuned. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276.

Here's Matt Slick. All right. I'm going to welcome back to the show. We had a caller and we lost her.

Let's see. The chat here says, the producer, I don't think the issue is with the callers. It's either on our end or my end. Another caller called in and his phone was breaking up like busk.

I just called in and my phone was breaking up too. So then it will be on their team, on our system. OK, well, thanks for letting me know.

They'll work on that. All right. Now, what I'm going to do is I'm going to go through my little Bible study.

All right. I'm going to go through Romans chapter three. A lot of people don't know about salvation and what it is. And so here's the thing.

Are we saved by what we do in combination with faith or what? That's the question we have to ask. And well, there's a lot to study on that, but nevertheless. So in Romans chapter three, what Paul is talking about is all the world is guilty. And then the Gentiles and everybody.

And then he says something interesting. He says in verse nine, are we better than they? He says, no, both Jews and Greeks are all under sin.

And he talks about that. So everybody's equally guilty. Now, starting at verse 19. Now, we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God. Now, what they'll do, I notice that the Catholics in these Orthodox, is they'll say the law here is in reference to the ceremonial aspect, not the moral law.

They'll just say it. Now, there's nothing here that says that. But if that's the case, then how is it that, notice this. Now, we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be closed. If it's only the ceremonial law, that was only for Israel. Then it wouldn't make sense to say that's just the ceremonial law.

So here we go. But to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God. Verse 20. Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. No flesh will be justified in his sight.

Okay, that's what it says. For through the law comes a knowledge of sin. Now, we're going to get to justification here a little bit later. But justification, I'll tell you now in advance, it's the legal aspect of the declaration of righteousness that's granted to us, and it's by faith. That's Romans 4, 1 through 5.

We'll get to that. But right now, we're in Romans 3, 20. But it says, by the works of the law, no flesh shall be justified. Now, the law in the Old Testament has different aspects. It's not differentiated here, but the law can't save you. Even the ceremonial law and the moral law, it can't save you. Now, in Romans 2, 13, it says, not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law are justified. So, some say, well, you can do the law and be justified.

Well, I say, yeah, you can. Yeah, do the law. Keep the law.

But you have to understand something. The standard of the law is perfection. Because Deuteronomy 27, 26 says that you are to abide by all things written in the book of the law to perform them.

All. And in that law, it says, love God with all your heart, your soul, and mind, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself. So, is anybody doing that? If they say yes, I'm going to ask them, are you keeping it on the level of Jesus?

Because he's the standard keeper. And they can't say yes, because if they do, they're arrogant and prideful. And if they say no, then they're not keeping the law. So, you can't be justified by the law.

You can't. Because no one can keep it. That's why it says, by the works of the law, no flesh shall be justified in this sight. So, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

How is that? The law is a tutor that leads us to Christ. And that's Galatians 3, 24.

That's what that says. Galatians 3, 24, going over there. The law has become a tutor to lead us to Christ so that we might be justified by faith. The law shows us we can't keep the law.

That's what's going on. Now, go to verse 21. Now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. So, apart from the law, the righteousness of God is manifested. What law? The codification of the law, you know, don't do this and do do that.

And so, you know, that's what it is. And when it says, witnessed by the law and the prophets, that's the division of the Old Testament. So, what we say here is, but now apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested. That death occurs and the truth of sin occurs even without people who don't, you know, people who don't have that form of understanding of the law according to the Jews.

All right, so verse 22. Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe, for there is no distinction. Righteousness of God for those who believe. And what the RC and the EO, Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox will do is they'll say, yes, you're justified by faith, but you have to do stuff alongside of it. But you're justified by faith, but the faith is not dead, the faith is alive. And this was a discussion I had last night when I said to the guy, this Catholic guy, I said, look, God grants we have faith, Philippians 1 29 and John 6 29. Jesus says, this is the work of God, that you believe on him whom he has sent. So I said, is the faith that God grants that's in Christ Jesus, is it sufficient to justify us in and of itself?

And he didn't want to answer the question he started going on to. Well, it's just mental assent. No, no, no, it's a faith God grants, it's in Christ, come on.

And they really have a lot of problems with this when I start pinning them and holding their feet to the fire. But verse 23 says, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. Our justification is a gift. If it's by what you do, it's not a gift. That's Romans 4 4. If you have to earn anything, it's not a gift, it's what's due. So it's a gift. Justification is a gift.

All right. Verse 25, whom, as you know, the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith. This was to demonstrate his righteousness because in the forbearance of God, he passed over the sins previously committed. What that means is God was very patient with the people who didn't have the full knowledge of God and Christ and the law and stuff like this, and he was very patient with a lot of people passing over stuff. He didn't ignore their sin, but he let things go on for a while. All right. And verse 26, for the demonstration, I say, of his righteousness at the present time so that he would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Christ.

Now, notice what's going on so far. Apart from the law, the righteousness of God is manifested. Being justified, righteousness is through the righteousness of God through faith. That's verse 22. Verse 24, being justified as a gift by his grace. Verse 26, the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Verse 27 says, Where then is boasting?

Is it excluded by what kind of law of works? No, but by a law of faith. So Paul is juxtaposing law and faith, works and faith, because he says law and works. In verse 28, we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.

And this is what the Bible is clearly teaching. And we've got a break coming up, so we can continue with this. I'm going to keep going through this because this is necessary. I hope you guys are listening and I hope it's interesting. And I'd like some feedback, too, if you like what I'm doing here because I would like to get a feedback we can get going. Hey, we'll be right back after these messages.

Please stay tuned. In verse 28, for we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. Now, what I'll tell people is in Matthew 22, 37 through 40, Jesus says that loving God and loving your neighbor are the two greatest commandments and that they are the summary of the law. Now, that's the Old Testament quote, respectively, from Deuteronomy 6-5 and Leviticus 19-18, Love God, love your neighbor. So we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.

So this is a very, very direct statement. And what happens, you've got to understand this, the Catholics and the East Orthodox, they're convoluted. They'll say that they're not justified by faith and works because it's by faith only, but you have to have a faith that has works, so your works are necessary to demonstrate the faith.

But you're not saved by the works. Okay, so then I say, well then, the Bible says, we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. And they say, that's a ceremonial law.

Well, wait a minute. If it's the ceremonial law, why are you complaining? You're saying the other aspects of the law are necessary?

But you just told me that they're not necessary. So which is it? And that's why we're having, you know, they can't see it. It's like the atheists I talk to. The same kind of a thing happens.

It happened yesterday. I was talking to a guy online. And a very polite conversation, but like so many atheists I talk to about one particular topic, they just, they can't see. It's like this. They say that the brain, the human brain, is limited to the neurochemical reactions. That's all it is. There's no, for the atheists who say that, there's no soul, there's no spirit separate from the body, from the brain. When the brain dies, the mind ceases. And I say, well, then that's called property dualism. That's just to inform you. That's what it's called.

Now, here's the thing. If that's the case, that means the chemical reactions in your brain are just operating under the laws of chemistry, physics, chemistry. Then how does it produce truth?

How does it produce logic? It's just chemical reactions. And they say, because blah, blah, blah. And they give you all this big explanation, but they don't get it. But that's just your brain chemicals saying something. It has no bearing on truth.

And they can't get it. Because how does one chemical state that leaves another chemical state by chemical necessity? Just chemical reactions. If you have a bunch of tubes of chemicals, you put them together and they react, is that logic?

It's just chemicals reacting. How does the brain produce logic when it's a bunch of chemicals reacting from their perspective? They can't, and they still can't see it.

It's just amazing to me. And the same kind of a thing happens with the ego and the RC because they have been indoctrinated. And they can't think straight because they can't think according to scripture. They can't. So when we get to this verse, Romans 3.28, we maintain that a man is justified by faith. Apart from the works of the law, they have to say that the law here references only the ceremonial law, even though nothing in it says so.

Nothing. And so this is what they do. It's amazing to me. And I point out and I say, it doesn't say that. Yes, it does. It's what it means. Well, how do you know it's what it means? And then so you're saying then that the ceremonial law is all that it is and that the law of the Ten Commandments, for example, that we have to do those to be saved? And they'll say yes.

Well, then that's salvation by your grace, by faith and works. And they'll say, no, it's not. It's like, do you drive a car at night because I don't want to be on the road with you. This is how you think. It's like this all the time.

It really is interesting to me. So then Paul goes on. He says in verse 29, he says, Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not the God of the Gentiles also?

Yes. Of Gentiles also. Verse 30, since God, excuse me, since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one. Now, Paul keeps saying the same thing, justified by faith, not by works, not by the law, but by faith. What do they want to do?

Well, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 2068, it says that you attain salvation through faith, baptism, and the observance of the commandments. This is saying the opposite. They teach a false gospel. When I bring this up, I am fascinated by the mental gymnastics that they go through to make things fit. There are some smart people who've come up with some ways of making it sound like it's okay, but at the heart it's so bad.

I know how to get through it, and I can do that. So anyway, that's what it is. The Eastern Orthodox say the same thing. Here's one of the things.

I'd like to get this. So I ask them questions. Is justification by faith? I'll show them where the Bible says so, and I force them to admit that it is. I say, good, so you have to be baptized to be saved? Yes. They say, okay, all right. Normally speaking, they'll say, okay, all right. Then are we justified by faith when we have faith?

Well, yeah. Well, then why do we need to get baptized? For salvation. If we're already justified by faith, why are you saying that baptism then saves you from your sins if we're justified, which means your sins are already forgiven? How does that work?

This is where the wheels come off the cart, and then they do their sophisticated ramblation, along with blurification as they're trying to make things make sense. So back to 30. It says God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one. Verse 31. Do we then nullify the law through faith? It may never be. On the contrary, we establish the law. Okay?

That's interesting. Do we nullify the law by faith? No, the law is still valid. The law is true, and the law is good, but the law can't save us because of us, not because of it.

The law is good, but we can't keep it. But the one who does keep it, he'll be okay. Are you keeping it?

No. The Eastern Orthodox and the RC Roman Catholics, they say, yeah, we keep it. I've talked to people, Protestants even, and I say, do you sin anymore? Some will tell me they don't sin anymore, and I'll say, you don't sin anymore? No, I don't sin anymore. How long has it been since you've sinned?

I'm thinking about 10 years. Really? That's amazing. So you have loved God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and your neighbors yourself completely and totally just as Jesus taught on the same level as him, right?

Yep, that's right. I've had people actually say it, and I say, man, you can't see your own pride, your own arrogance. When we have ourselves as a standard, ooh, then things are easy. God as a standard, that changes things. All right, so now let's get to chapter 4.

Now check this out. What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh, has found? For for Abraham was justified by works.

Whoa, works? He's talking about the law back there, mentioned works in verse 27, and now he's saying justified by works. This is before the law was given by what Abraham did, anything he did, not just a ceremonial law because it was before that ceremonial law. You see?

Uh-oh, the RC and the EO are in trouble now. For for Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. This is what's called the vertical, justification before God, okay? For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited in his righteousness. So what was credited as righteousness? Belief.

That's what it says. In verse 4, to the one who does not to the one who works, his wage is not credited as the favor, but what is due? Verse 5, but to the one who does not work but believes. Now notice there's two things, works and belief. Does not work but believes, that's faith alone. You have two things in a bag, an apple and an orange.

You take the apple out, the orange is by itself, the orange is alone. Simple, easy, you have two things, work and faith. Works are removed, faith alone. So, Romans 4-5, but to the one who does not work but believes, in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness. Oh, that's what justification is, the crediting of righteousness, by faith. That's why, because the law can't save us, you see? By the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. That's what the Bible says. So, apart from the law, we are justified. That's by faith, because we can't keep the law.

That's what's going on. Now, that was verse 5 I went through, now look at this, verse 6. Just as David also speaks of the man to whom God credits righteousness, apart from works, apart from works. So, apart from the law, and now apart from works.

They want to say, these are, I get different answers, I get different responses. Works of charity, works of ceremonial works, that's what it is. They have to make it sound, they have to get rid of one aspect of the law, restrict it to that aspect of the law, so they can continue to earn their own salvation through their works. That's what they're trying to do.

It just proves how bad off they are. Blessed is the one whose lawless deeds have been forgiven and whose deeds have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account. Now, when we get back from this break, I'm going to jump over to Galatians chapter 3 and continue with this study.

Actually, Galatians 2 and then go to Galatians 3 and I'll show you some more stuff. We'll be right back after these messages. Please stay tuned. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276.

Here's Matt Slick. All right, everybody, welcome back to the show. I hope you're listening and enjoying it. In fact, if you are and you like what I'm doing teaching this, please just give me an email, info at karm.org, and just say, hey, love the teaching or hated the teaching, whatever it is, on Romans 3 and 4. That'll be good, Romans 3 and 4, teaching on justification.

I'd like to hear what you think. All right, so now what I'm going to do is I've got a couple things. This is always stuff I go to when I'm talking about this stuff. I have a lot of it memorized.

I know where to go and appeal and stuff like that. This is what Titus 3.5 says. I'm going to get to Galatians here in a little bit. Titus 3.5 says this, he saved us not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness. Now, the reason that's important is because the RC and EO both say that it's not the works themselves that save you, but God gives them works to do, and those works are by his grace, and those works are necessary for salvation. So you have to do them, but they're not the things that save you.

You've got to do them. They're God's works. So it's clever.

See how it's clever how they say that? But this is what the Bible says. He does not say this on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness. So I say to them, look, what Titus 3.5 is saying is that the deeds that you do in your faith, in your supposed righteousness, that you say are necessary to demonstrate true faith, which isn't necessary to God because God grants that you have faith if it's true, so he doesn't need your works.

He doesn't need that to prove anything. So why is it you have to do works? Because your churches teach that you have to do good works to be saved, and then you say, see that you're saying that your works save you.

They say no. They say the faith that we have that we do works because God's granted them to us is not the work, but the works that we do in faith that shows that we are saved and to be saved because you've got to do them. If you don't, you can't be saved. So they play this game, and I go here and I say, but he's saying that it's not in the basis of deeds which we've done in righteousness, but according to his mercy. So how is it then, if it's by his mercy, then how is it your works have to get in there to help? You see, it's a bad thing that they do.

It's a bad, bad, bad thing they do. All right, now look. So what I'm going to do is go to Galatians 2, 15, and start reading.

We are Jews by nature, not sinners from among the Gentiles, verse 16, nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by works of the law, but through faith. Notice what Paul's doing. He juxtaposes it. He says, not this, but that.

It's like saying not red, but green, not left, but right. They're excluded. Not by works of the law.

Done. Can't be by that, even the ones done in righteousness, Titus 3.5. He says we're not justified by works of the law. That includes loving God and loving your neighbor, the summation of the law. A man is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Christ Jesus. Even we have believed in Christ Jesus so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, since by the works of the law no flesh will be justified.

And he goes on. He says, but if we, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners as Christ, then a minister of sin may never be. For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law, I died to the law so that I might live to God. That's an interesting statement. I love that statement. To the law, I died to the law.

I won't get into that right now, but it's an interesting statement. I've been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me in the life which I now live in the flesh. I live by the faith of the Son of God.

All right. Verse 21. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died needlessly. What they want to say then is that the law is the ceremonial law, but that's not what's going on.

It's not it. So he said, I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law. So what the RCEO will do is redefine the term to make it fit their theology. Oh, heresy begets heresy.

Now, this is interesting. Check this out in Galatians chapter 3 verse 1. You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you before whose eyes Jesus Christ was public and portrayed as crucified?

This is the only thing I want to find out from you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by hearing with faith? Notice the juxtaposition again.

It's this or that, not both. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected in the flesh? That's the Roman Catholics and these Orthodox. Because they're being perfected in the flesh.

How so? Well, as paragraph 2068 in the Catechism says of the Catholic Church, it says, you attain salvation through faith, baptism, and the observers of the commandments. And then when you sin, you have to go back to the Church, which has the sacramental authority to divvy to you the grace that's reinfused into your soul when you lose some because you sinned, so that the Church is now in charge of your salvation.

It's in charge. And the East Orthodox say baptism is where you're initially justified and it's the beginning of the process and justification is a lifelong process. You've got to go through with the energies of God, the graces of God that work through you to make him more like Jesus so that you can eventually get saved.

So it's all by works. So he says, are you so foolish having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh, the sacramental system, by what you do in your flesh, by what you do in the law? Now, really what he's getting into here is circumcision. We're going to get to that, but I'm expanding this a little bit to show because circumcision in Galatians 5, we'll talk about that.

I'll go there in a sec. This is the issue of the Judaizers who were saying you had to be circumcised to be saved. They had to do one thing to be saved. Okay, are you so foolish having begun by the Spirit, now being perfected by the flesh?

You see what he's saying here. The flesh, circumcision, and he calls them fools for this. Now, what he's doing is juxtaposing faith and works, and the works here are symbolized by circumcision because he says works of the law, plural, and circumcision is one of the works of the law.

So circumcision here is representative of anything in that law. That's the issue. That's the point. So he goes on, and he says in verse 6, So Abraham believed God, and was credited him as righteousness. Right there.

That's so interesting. And therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. The Scripture foreseen that God would justify the Gentiles by faith preached the Gospel beforehand to Abraham saying, In you all the nations shall be blessed. Alright, now, I'm going to jump over to Galatians chapter 5.

This is really good stuff. I love Galatians 5. I think you should study Galatians 3-4-5 and Romans 3-4-5.

Easier to remember. Now, check this out. This is what Galatians 5-1 says. It was for freedom that Christ set us free. Therefore, keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.

That means those who are under the law are under a yoke of slavery. Jesus says, he says, I'm going to show you this. This is Matthew 11-29. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, my burden is light. So, what he's saying here in Galatians 5-1, It was for freedom that Christ set us free. Therefore, keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. To the law.

That's what's going on. Verse 2, Behold, I Paul, say that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you. Now, circumcision is interesting.

We all know what it is. And here it is used as representative of the law. Because earlier he said works of the law and then he's dealing with the issue of the Judaizers, works, and they say circumcision, which is one thing of the law, but he's complaining, Paul's getting into about the issue of everything under the law, the works, plural, not just the one thing.

So, this is representative of even one thing they want to do under the law. He says in verse 3, And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he's under obligation to keep the whole law. If you want to keep one aspect of the law, you're under obligation to keep the whole thing. That's what the Bible says. Let me go back to Galatians 3, 10, which says this. He says, For as many as are the works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, Curse is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law to perform them. So, if they were to say, well, the ceremonial law is what he was talking about. It's not that law. Well, it says, By all things written in the book of the law, they keep one thing in the book of the law, they're under a curse, they've got to keep it all.

Man, it's so bad for them. So, let's get back to Galatians 5, verse 4, For you have been severed from Christ. Notice the pun, circumcision, severed from Christ. You who are seeking to be justified by law, you've fallen from grace. Now, I'm not going to get into the issue of falling from grace, losing salvation.

It has to do with not salvation here, it's something else. But look, you've been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law. Notice what Paul says. The one thing you do makes you want to be justified by law. That's how Paul sees it.

So, they may have been doing all kinds of other things, works of charity, whatever, but just this one thing, now you're under the law, you're seeking to be justified by the law. That's how Paul interprets it. Verse 5, For we through the Spirit by faith are waiting for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ, Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything but faith working through love. Oh, they'll quote me that sometimes, too. Faith has to be in love, it has to have love.

Yeah, we know that, that's great. Whatever they can, they try any set of words they can to get their works to be part of their salvation. He says in verse 7, You were running well, who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion did not come from him who calls you.

A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough. I have confidence in you, in the Lord, that you will adopt no other view, but the one who is disturbing you will bear his judgment, whoever he is. But I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted?

And the stumbling block of the cross has been abolished. I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves. That's Romans, excuse me, Galatians 5, 12. That they would mutilate themselves. He's talking about circumcision.

That's what he's talking about, that they would mutilate themselves. So you can see the very strong language that Paul the Apostle is using. People say, No, you can't talk like that. You've got to be super nice because Jesus is the blond haired, blue-eyed Caucasian surfer dude. And you've got to be really nicey-weisey. And Paul says, regarding circumcision, I wish those who are persecuting you, or confusing you about this, would mutilate themselves.

Whoa, well that's not very nice. You can see how important this is, and Paul the Apostle says what he says. Now, ladies and gentlemen, what I've tried to do is go through Romans 3 and 4.

You know, quickly. I didn't get Romans 5. There's some good stuff in there too. And then went over to Galatians 2, and Galatians 3, and Galatians 5.

And also I touched on Titus 3-5. What I'm trying to convey is that the Word of God clearly teaches that justification, the declaration of righteousness, is by faith, not by faith in anything you do. You can't add to the finished work of Christ.

You can't. Salvation is by grace through faith, not by works. That's what Ephesians 2, 8, and 9 says.

There is nothing we can do and we can add. But the false religious system of Roman Catholicism says you attain salvation through faith. Baptism and the observance of the commandments and the false religion of Eastern Orthodoxy teaches that the energies of God work through you after your baptism, and by keeping the sacramental system, you gradually become more justified, and you get your salvation at the end of your life by hopefully maintaining everything you're supposed to be doing according to their system of thought and their system of deeds. Both of them preach a false gospel. Both of them are false churches. And Romans 3, 4, 5, Galatians 3, 4, 5.

Check them out and you'll be all the more convinced of the truth of God's word and not their lies from the devil. Hey, folks, there you go. I'm out. May the Lord bless you. I hope you had a good time listening. Let me know if you liked today's teaching.

Just email me at info at karm.org. I'd love to hear. And, yeah, we'll see you later. God bless everybody. Bye. Another program powered by the Truth Network.