Matt Slick Live

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. It's Matt Slick live. Matt is the founder and president of the Christian Apologetics Research Ministry, found online at KARM.org. When you have questions about Bible doctrines, turn to Matt Slick live.

Francis taking your calls and responding to your questions at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. All right, everybody. Welcome to the show. It's me, Matt Slick.

You're listening to Matt Slick live. And if you want to give me a call, as usual, it's easy, 877-207-2276. And if you want, you can send me an email.

That's easy as well. Just direct an email to info at KARM.org, info at KARM.org. And put in the subject line radio comment, radio question, and we can get to it.

And we have nobody waiting right now. I just want to let you know that this is December, our matching funds drive. So if that sounds like a good thing you want to support, please consider that. We don't, you know, we don't, I don't like asking.

I really don't. People on the board and people work with me, you got to ask more. But it's just, I'd rather write, teach, answer questions and things like that. Let the Lord take care of stuff. But we are having a drive for the end of the month, a matching funds drive.

So if you want to support this ministry in a radio show, please, all you have to do is go to KARM.org forward slash donate, and you can check it out. You can do that. It's pretty easy and it's right there. All right. Having said that, we've got nobody waiting.

Why don't you give me a call? Oh, get a yawn. Hold on. Oh, man.

That's a good one. You know, sorry about that. That's a good yawn.

Sometimes yawns are just good. All right. I think what I'm going to do is get you some emails because, well, we've got people emailing. We've got a caller coming in and we can get you some stuff. And I want to, I like doing, I like doing the emails. I like just like answering questions. You know, I've always been something to do that.

I don't know. Ever since I was a young, you know, taught, I guess, I always wanted to help. And when I got into school, I like helping people answering questions. So I always did that. You know, I was a little, just a little more advanced than the average bear in throughout classes. And, you know, I just would study this stuff.

I remember once, I just remember something. I went to a trade school to learn how to be a mechanical draftsman. And they did that for a few years. And we had to go to the school.

And back in the 80s, I think it was, yeah, early 80s. Anyway, so I did that. And in the class, they gave us a math book. And get the math book. And so it had different levels of math.

And it didn't go up to trig. It just went up to some algebra. So they gave us the book. And I don't know, I don't know, it's 50, 70, 100 pages.

I don't remember. And all these stuff you had to do. And the professor said, just turn it in on a weekly basis. And so I went home that, on a Friday, and I went home. And I did all of them in one day. I did everything.

And then I took in a stack of like 50 pages of answers. And I just plopped it down. The next day, they go, here's all done.

It's all done. And you can't do that. I go, yeah, I did. And he said, no. You know, she said, no, there's too much to do.

I said, no, it's not. It's easy. And I did it all. And here it is. And so that was it.

You know, what are we going to do? We just sat in the class and was bored the rest of the time. But I liked math and science. And that was, that was a lot of fun for me.

I always liked that kind of stuff, like that. Okay. Now that we're wasting time, let's see if we can get to Alan from Virginia. Alan, welcome. You're on the air. Hey, man, how you doing? Oh, doing all right. Just hanging in there, reminiscing. So what do you got, man? So what is the exact definition of the gospel?

Because whenever I asked that to someone, they'll be like, it's the good news. It's this verse or that verse. And then I'm just looking at right now, we're from, from Paul. And apparently there's like three different, uh, verses talking about what the gospel exactly is. Can you, can you share some insight into that?

Sure. And first Corinthians 15, it says, uh, brethren, I make known to you the gospel. Now, when they say the good news, that's what the Greek word, good news, good word, uh, is that's kind of like the English, the gospel, the gospel by what you received, uh, what you stand, uh, namely that Christ died for our sins. According to the scriptures, he was buried, he was raised on the third day, according to the scriptures. So that is the primary, um, the primary place where the gospel is, is defined.

And it's used in other places as well. And the fact I'm going to do right now is do this, count how many times the word gospel occurs in the new Testament and it occurs 76 times, 76 times. So Jesus speaks of the gospel in the gospels, Matthew, Mark, uh, it's actually Matthew and Mark, uh, he mentioned the gospel and so what's interesting is before Christ was crucified, the gospel was the good news of the kingdom. And after the crucifixion, it still is, but now we understand it's a death by a resurrection of Christ. So it is the power of God to salvation Romans 1 16, and it is the good news that you don't have to keep the law and do good works in order to be saved. That Christ did it all and put your faith and your trust in him. And then peripherally speaking with that, the issue of justification is crucial and salvation. Salvation is being delivered from the righteous judgment of God. And that is by grace through faith, Ephesians 2 8 and 9, by grace through faith, you have been saved, it's a gift of God, but justification is the legal declaration of righteousness. And that's Romans 4, 1 through 5, and that justification is received by faith alone. So we would say then generically putting all this together, the gospel is the good news that you don't have to keep the law to be saved, but through the death, bail, resurrection of Jesus Christ for our sins, he did everything that was necessary and that you can receive the righteousness of God by faith alone through what he has done alone and without your necessity to do good works in order to earn that favor. And that's basically what the gospel is, okay?

Okay. So it's not necessarily, it's not necessarily all combined in a single verse. Sometimes it has like verses all over, okay. Yep.

In fact, like I said, it occurs 76 times. So, uh, yeah. So he's imprisoned for the gospel and Philip Philemon 13, um, and they don't obey the gospel in a first Peter 4, 17. Now, what does it mean to obey the gospel? Well, Jesus is the founder of that gospel. And he says, come to me, Oliver, heavy laden, and I will give you rest to the trust in Christ Jesus, Matthew 11, 28.

And, uh, uh, he says, don't love one another. Now you do all these things because this is part of what the whole of the gospel is. Narrowly speaking, it's justification by faith alone and what Christ did in the cross alone, broadly speaking, it's the whole area that is provided for us through the work of Christ and, um, I thought, okay. Okay. Sounds good.

I appreciate it, Matt. All right. Good. Okay. Sounds good.

Anything else? Okay. So God bless. Okay. So God bless.

Okay. This reminds me of an incident that happened years and years ago. Um, but before I was married, even I was, uh, going, I think it was before I married. Anyway, I was going out to different places and preach in the gospel and, you know, I do did it with, uh, Charlie and Dave did it for two and a half years at the swap meet ministry in Southern California in the city of orange and did that for years. And then, um, without, I did this too.

We went in front of Mormon churches, Mormon wards that pass out literature to the people who'd go in. I wouldn't block traffic. I wouldn't be mean. I wouldn't yell.

I would just pass out literature, you know, and just trying to witness to them because they have a false gospel. And I remember this, I was standing on the sidewalk and you know, from the sidewalk to the street, you know, that little strip of grass, three, four feet wide. And then there's the curb and then there's a street. And this guy, he pulled up, he rolled down the passenger window and he wasn't threatening me. Like I'll tell you that story too.

Like what happened in twin falls, Idaho. But this guy wasn't threatening me. He was just saying, what are you doing? He goes, I just got out of church, you know, out of the, you know, the word here.

Why are you doing this? And I said, well, because, uh, I'm trying to get you guys to know who the true Jesus is and the true God and the true gospel. And he said, no, we have the true God. We have the true Jesus. We have the true gospel. And it just occurred to me right then.

I still remember this. What's the gospel? I asked him.

It was just out of nowhere. And I said, what is the gospel? He looked at me kind of confused and maybe you're a Mormon listening to this, you know, what, what would you say the gospel is? And he thought about it and he said, well, it's the, you know, it's the laws and the ordinances of the Mormon church. And I said, are you sure that's what the gospel is? And he says, well, yeah, that's what it is.

It's what we have to do is the laws and ordinances of the Mormon church. He said it two or three times. And I said, okay, well, first Corinthians 15 one through five says the gospel is to death burial and resurrection of Jesus for our sins.

It specifically defines it that, and I said, you didn't know that. And I'll explain why you didn't second Corinthians four verses three and four. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing in whose case the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they may not see the light of the gospel, the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. He didn't know what to say.

I still remember this summer, his car, and it was a dark maroonish kind of red color and, um, little faded. And he stared at me. He just stared at me because, you know, I said, you don't have the gospel.

You don't have the true gospel. And he just drove off. It's all he could do. You know, he didn't know what it was. And the reason is because he went to a false church and all cults teach false gospels. And this is what they do. There's two ways to mess up the gospel.

It's really easy. One is simply to, uh, just have a false object of faith. Like Jesus is in Mormonism, the brother of the devil, begotten through sexual relations between God and his goddess wife who came from another world. Well, that's a false Christ. You put faith in a false Christ, you're not going to be saved. Or if you go to the Catholic church, which they teach, they curse the gospel in council of Trent, um, uh, canons on canons on justification, Canon nine and 24, they curse the gospel. They say, then what you believe, you're justified by faith alone and nothing else is needed to the obtaining of the grace of God and let them be accursed. And then the paragraph 2068, they say you obtain salvation or attain salvation through faith, baptism, and the observance of the commandments. So what they're doing is teaching a false gospel. They have the true Christ, but they cheat to a false gospel. So in order to invalidate the saving work of God, all the devil has to do is get you to believe in a false God and so false Christ or add works to the finished work of Christ being a false gospel, simple, false God, false gospel.

And then the way he masks it, the way the devil masks it is, uh, for example, in Mormons, Mormons are a great example of this. They use the Bible and they have the same words, but they have different definitions. So when they say God, uh, they mean a God who's an exalted man is about six feet tall.

It's a body of flesh and bones. But when you say, you believe in the God of the Bible, they'll say, yes, but they're not saying, you know, the same thing you were, or you believe in the Trinity. They say, yeah. And you go, Oh, I thought they didn't believe in the Trinity, but they think that Trinity is three separate gods.

They'd redefined things, you know? So that's one thing. And they think they believe the truth, but they don't. And then there are those who say, well, on the gospel, the Catholics and Eastern Orthodox, well, you've got to do good works because it's part of salvation. I say, yeah, it is part, but it's not what gets you salvation. Our good works are because of God and his work in us. And then they'll say, well, they're done by the grace of God. And so we're saved by grace. You see? So they, the devil's clever when he works through both of these churches and other churches to get a false Christ spoken of and a false gospel to make it sound good, but it really isn't.

And you have to be well trained in theology and in the errors of those two groups in order to know exactly what's going on and what the problem is. If you want to give me a call, it's 877-207-2276. We'll be right back. It's Matt Slick live taking your calls at 877-207-2276.

Here's Matt Slick. Everybody welcome to the show. If you want to give me a call, the number 877-207-2276. I want to hear from you.

Give me a call. We have been working on SEMrush quite a bit, making the site better. You may have noticed it, uh, some areas or you may not have, because a lot of it is behind the scenes, but we are working hard.

A lot of us are working hard at trying to get things going. And, uh, there you go with that. Now I was talking about the issue of the gospel.

I got a question for you. Um, do you believe in the gospel? You know, sometimes the gospel needs to be preached to the believers as well. And even though you may trust in Christ, do you know more about that gospel? I mean, it's a death barrel resurrection, but along with it, the gospel is that God no longer, no longer has a wrathful attitude towards us because we're now covered in the blood of Christ. Our sins have been removed and we are justified.

We are made right before God. And this is important for a lot of people to understand because a lot of times, a lot of times Christians, they get a woe is me mentality and they think that God's out to get them or God's out to hurt them. Now there may be time when God's going to discipline you.

Now that's a different topic. I mean, we deserve to be disciplined and God will, will do that. I mean, I've been disciplined by the Lord myself on several occasions and I'm thankful for that. But in the gospel is that place of where Jesus, God in flesh bore our sins in his body on that cross. First Peter two 24 and he did everything necessary.

We can't. Now this means then that the commitment that God has to you is sealed in the blood of Christ. Now one of the things I love about reform theology is the issue of God's eternal decrees and God's eternal work.

And in Ephesians, someone explain this, why this is important with the gospel and why it's important to you. In Ephesians one four it says, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we would be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us as adoption to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself according the kind intention of his will. Now what I want you to think about is theology.

I love theology. See it says just as he chose us in him, he is the father. He chose, that's important for us to understand, he chose us. Now 2nd Thessalonians 2 13 it says God has chosen us from the beginning for salvation. In Acts 13 48 it says as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. Now there's three things here to look at. The he that's the father chose us, that's the elect.

In him that's Jesus. And this deals with federal headship. Trust me I'm going somewhere with this okay.

I gotta lay this down first. I want you understand something though. In him is federal headship which is a teaching that the male represents the descendants. Jesus represented us. He represented his people.

When was this representation decided before the foundation of the world. He chose us in him or for the foundation of the world. If you're a Christian when did God choose you for salvation before the universe existed. And it was chosen he chose you not because of any good quality in you. Because there's nothing good in you that would merit God's favor towards you.

Otherwise that wouldn't be grace. No he chose you and what's weird he chose you knowing everything about you. Because he knows all things all future events everything.

He knows everything about you. The wickedness of some of your thoughts. The evil intention of some of your motives. The hypocrisy that you struggle with. The sins that you've tried to forsake so many times and still have you. The rebellion the anger all of it along with your humble supplication before God through Christ. You're seeking him and his will.

All of this your failures your mistakes your successes all of it. He's known every bit of it since before the foundation of the world and yet he chose you and he loved you. To me that's incredibly helpful and I heard someone once say I'm glad that God chose me from the foundation of the world because if you look at me now he wouldn't pick me. And what we're saying when we reference that is we know that our hearts are not that good. We know if we make mistakes we know we sin even as Christians. We struggle with our sin just like Paul did in Romans 7 18 through 25 who will deliver me from this body of death. The struggle of sin and yet he chose us in him. That's the gospel. In him is Jesus and the only way we could be chosen as if Christ represented us.

The Father gave us to the Son and the Son became flesh and redeemed us by his blood. Now this means that was planned before the foundation of the world that he chose you. It wasn't based on your wisdom. Oh I'm wise enough I chose Jesus and others didn't. Nope it's not because of your sincerity. I look at the goodness of my heart isn't that what God chose me because of how good I am?

See these things are pride. God doesn't look to us for his goodness. It flows from him and his election his choosing. The fourth foundation of the world is so that we behold him blameless. This means all of what you are and the stuff that you know about yourself that's not good and all of that and yet he's loved you and he died and bore your sin in his body in the cross and all you have to do is just trust him.

Lean on him. Believe in him and you can do this throughout your Christian life. Throughout your Christian life. You don't keep your salvation by being good.

Sorry you're just not gonna be good enough. You don't lose it by being bad because you've made a new creature. 2 Corinthians 5 17. You're born again. John 3 3 through 8.

Jesus lives in you. That's John 14 23. We're different. We have been changed.

Now it doesn't mean we're perfect but we struggle. Oh yeah we struggle and we move forward and all this is the work of God in us and through us but he has loved you eternally. His thoughts for you. His love for you is unfathomable because it is eternal.

It has always existed in the mind of the Trinitarian God and his his decision to save you to grant you repentance 2 Timothy 2 25 to grant you faith Philippians 1 29 to cause you to be born again 1st Peter 1 3 that he is the one who did this and nothing that you do can cause God to leave you. Nothing that you can do can cause him to leave you. In Hebrews he says he will never leave us. He will never forsake us. It's just not possible.

It can't happen that he would he would leave you. You see the Lord God is is faithful to his own word and he has given us to the Son for safekeeping and we will not be lost and you need to know this about yourself. Now we get back to the break.

We'll talk a little bit more about this and why you need to hear this gospel message on a regular basis. We'll be right back after these messages. Please give me a call 877-207-2276. We'll be right back. It's Matt Slick live taking a call at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick.

Everybody welcome back to the show. If you want to give me a call the number is easy 877-207-2276. You can also email me at info at karm.org info at c-a-r-m dot o-r-g and just put in the subject line radio comment radio question we get to it. So I was talking about the gospel and a lot of time when I counsel people I have to tell them the gospel. I have to tell them what Jesus has done and I have to tell them about the theology out of Ephesians 1 for that he chose us in him before the foundation of the world.

I need to tell them that God's love for them is eternal and cannot be quenched it cannot be removed it cannot be canceled. And this is so helpful to so many people when they see themselves struggling against different types of sin and failing as we all do. Not that it's okay to sin not saying that I'm not saying we should not repent I'm not saying we should not strive for sanctification and the goodness that comes through us by the power of the Holy Spirit.

I'm not saying we you know we shouldn't seek for all those good things we should. But I want people to understand that you don't get yourself saved by your obedience and your goodness your sincerity. You don't keep yourself saved by your goodness your obedience and your sincerity. You just don't. People need to hear this and it's so necessary it is so necessary. Let me give you an example of something I don't want to get too specific was that of my own life and there was there was an instance back a long time ago and I was having the worst time letting go of it of my sin. It was something I don't repent it off it was something I'd regretted it was something I was so sorry for and I was just just not doing well you know it was just constantly upon my heart and the Lord arranged it so that someone counseled me and said Matt you're not depending on the cross are you I said of course I am this is she said no you're not she said you're keeping this for yourself this guilt the shame and that you are holding on to it suffering through it I said that's true because I'm so bad and I'm so have such a big regret for this instant what I did this is well Jesus took care of it need to let it go and give it to him and it was so hard to do that it was so hard because I wanted to beat myself up for the guilt that rightly was mine and I wanted to allow myself to suffer for and then maybe God would be pleased with me after I suffered enough and of course that was that's just false teaching God isn't pleased with you if you beat yourself up enough oh now you're worthy to be with Jesus that's a false gospel it's a it's a sinful thing and I had to repent of that as well and it took a while before I was able to give to God my sin and let it go it was hard because I knew how guilty I was I know that there's a lot of people out there who have similar issues that they either don't want to let them go even though they claim to be Christians you know probably are Christians don't want to let them go or have a trouble with letting them go women I think are a little more susceptible to this because they're more emotional but I'm not knocking I just think that that's just my opinion I haven't done any research to verify I just think that's the case because women they feel things deeper and and I think that they are aware more so a lot of times than guys about the condition of their hearts and before the Lord and I also think that women are a little bit better sometimes than men at really resting in Christ so I write that's what I've seen not just my experience it doesn't mean it's universally true it's just my experience but either way you know I've talked to men as well who've had great struggles in their past and I do the same thing I talked to them about what it means to give something up and give it to Christ I know oh I know what it means to let go to let go of your companion sin the thing that you've allowed yourself to suffer over because you realize how dark it is and what you've done and you don't want to let it go because you don't deserve to be free from it you just don't you know it's true you don't but Jesus takes care of it it's hard sometimes to let go and to accept the full forgiveness of Christ in our hearts and our minds to rely on him completely and totally and recognize that the love that God has had for us is eternal it has no cap it has no depth that can be plumbed it has no strength that can be broken it is resting in the nature and the heart and mind of God forever and he chose you he knows everything about you and he loves you and he's not gonna bring up your sins he's not gonna rub them in your face and he's going to love you and embrace you with his great forgiveness that's what Jesus has done on the cross and that's what I hope that people who hear this would let the gospel wash over them yet again if they have believed in Christ to let it wash upon you and if any of you out there are not Christians and you want the guilt of your sins and the past that you have the evil you've committed in your past the things that you've done maybe no one knows about it they just they drag you back they drag you down and you're so ashamed all you have to do is go to the king go to the Lord God Jesus and just in your heart you humble yourself and you just let your let your soul just be broken in his presence and admit that your heart betrays you and that you have nothing to offer him and you just say please forgive me please cleanse me I've got nothing except guilt I just I'm wrong please forgive me trust in Jesus not the Jesus of Mormonism not the Jesus of Jehovah's Witnesses and not the false gospel of the Eastern Orthodox Church or the Roman Catholic Church but you trust in the true Jesus second person of the Trinity God in flesh creator of all things who did everything and all you have to do is receive it by faith not by faith and baptism not by faith and sacraments not by faith and your sincerity and goodness but by faith in him strip away all the stuff that comes from you get rid of it because even the faith that you have in him is from him because it says in Philippians 1 29 to you it has been granted to believe and Jesus says this is the work of God that you believe on him whom he has sent you see this is what the gospel is this is what the truth is and you have to understand something else I thought about going to this verse earlier but I want you to understand in John 6 37 through 40 Jesus says he will he he says all that the Father gives me will come to me and the ones who come to me I certainly will not cast out he will not get rid of you he can't because the Father has given you to the son for safekeeping that's how it works and in John 10 27 my sheep hear my voice and I know them they follow me and I give eternal life to them and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand my father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of my father's hand wow that's who Jesus is to you put your faith your trust in Jesus put your faith and trust in what Christ has done and by faith alone not by faith in your sincerity and your goodness don't put any hope in your ability just in what he has done receive him by faith I'm not gonna warn you though I have to warn you that anybody who does that he will take you as you are but he won't leave you as you are it's it's tough sometimes when he wants you to be honest and to confess and to deal with things you've done because he wants purity from you now those things are tough and whether you do well and or not in them has no bearing on your salvation you trust in Christ alone and you let him work in you it's good and it works it's the work of God in you and he he will bless you and he will take care of you over the rest of your life he'll never leave you he'll never forsake you okay all right well there you go I just had to preach that gospel I don't know why it just kind of came up on me so there you go now if you want to give me a call we had a break coming up here a little bit but if you want to call me the number is eight seven seven two zero seven two zero seven two two seven six and we've got some comments coming in we keep having my about divorce you talk about that okay but the issue of divorce too folks be right back after these messages please stay tuned it's Matt slick live taking your calls at eight seven seven two zero seven two seven six here's Matt slick everybody welcome back to the show just remind you that December's our matching funds drive month so whatever you donate whatever you give to us will be doubled and just want to let you know about that it's easy to support us just go to karm.org forward slash donate carm karm.org forward slash donate and everything you need is right there easy peasy we really appreciate it so this issue of divorce this was raised here a little bit ago for the break about divorce so divorce is not always sinful all right in that it doesn't mean both parties have sinned always at least one party has sinned otherwise the divorce wouldn't occur so the reason I'm saying this is because in Jeremiah 3 8 God says something most interesting he says and I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel I had sent her away and given her a writ of divorce yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear but she went it was a harlot also so God you know he issued a writ of divorce so if it's a sinful thing to do automatically why would God say that he had issued a written a writ of divorce now it was its metaphor okay and he didn't you know take a paper out of heaven and put it down there in a sanctuary and they see that see there it is that's not what's going on but the point here is that that God had has done nothing wrong and yet there was a writ of divorce offered and that the person in this case the guilty party is the one who has caused that divorce to occur and so some people think this because you're divorced it means you automatically are continually and permanently in sin and that's not the case so not always sometimes it could be but let me explain here's the thing if you're an unbeliever and you just divorce good divorce because you don't like each other and then you go marry somebody else you're in a state of rebellion against God an adulterous relationship and it needs to be taken care of now what happens when they become Christians let's say this this couple they become Christians well then what happens is that it is all washed clean and from that point on it went there there's both saved there they just move forward and stay married and just move forward and God is very forgiving and very gracious very kind so he's not legalistic with us in the forgiveness so what do you do if a Christian couple just can't get along you go see counseling you go work on it I've counseled many couples and I teach biblical theology every time so they understand what covenant is what marriage is what responsibilities are and things like that and as far as I am aware none of the couples that I've counseled have gotten divorces but I've lost contact with a lot of them too so I can't say for a fact that they never have I'm just saying that for the time that I knew them and the conditions and things that went on for a few years then they move away we lost contact no divorce had occurred during those times so I can just say that that's what I can say but I think it's important that we understand that God is very forgiving and just like people who've had abortions just like people who've had who divorced people who've stolen people who have done stuff and they can't make it better because the person they've offended is gone lost contact with or passed away or whatever and you got to make it right well sometimes you just can't so what you do is you go to the Lord and you just lay it all out before him and just say I can't do anything because you've actually can't do anything God understands God cleanses God he sanctifies he got to to trust in him we need that gospel and you know even as a Christian apologist as an ordained minister someone's been doing radio for so many years and written thousands of articles counseled people I need the gospel you know I need the gospel you know there's some stuff in my life that is coming up again from past days past years and it's it's troublesome and I'm gonna be very generic on purpose but I I need to just let God take care of it I need to let God work it out and man that could be hard sometimes there are just conditions or just things that are are prevalent there's things that come up there's things that rear their ugly head again that you thought was taken care of it was fine and all you can do sometimes just lay them before God and just back away and say I can't fix it I don't know if it'll ever be fixed but it's yours Lord please make of it what you desire and then that's basically all we can do and don't let the naysayers mock you and condemn you your hope is in Christ and your strength is in him and to it's almost like saying the more that you look to somebody else and are injured by others it's almost like saying that's let that means you're not trusting in Christ enough now I don't want to give some legalistic thing if you let yourself be bothered by somebody else and your feelings get hurt or or you feel guilty all over again from years past up well that means you're not trusting in Jesus enough you need to repent and let no no no no I'm just saying sometimes what God does is he allows things in our lives just to increase our dependence on him and our faithful a trust in him beyond our ability to understand that we're trying to make out of that and I said that and when people come up and and I've had it lots of times all you this you that and years ago that and this true true true but my hope is in Jesus you know I visualize myself hearing them yak and accuse and all I can do is say yeah it's true and then I turn my eyes away from them onto the person of Jesus and he's the one that matters he's the one who forgives he's the one who's there that's hard to do sometimes it's hard to do because well we have a habit of carrying around our chains the chains that flow out from our hearts wrapped around our souls these chains of regret these chains of sorrow the chains of trouble that we have we just they just drag us back and we're not free but we can be free we can be completely free we can be but only in Jesus you've got a trust in him if you haven't trusted in him you gotta trust in him he can cleanse every sin you've ever committed permanently a day of judgment he will embrace you and have and forgive you everything because his blood is that powerful because he's got in flesh and if you are a Christian and you're struggling with this you know just go back to the cross go back to your first love and just trust in him and just say I trust you beyond my ability to understand beyond my ability to feel even the feelings I have is persistent and my guilt or my whatever but I just trust you and lay that before you as well just admit Lord I'm defective see that's the simplicity and the wonder of the gospel but it's only as good as who you put your faith in and in our case for the true Christians now for the fake Christians like Mormons Jehovah's Witnesses Christadelphians Roman Catholics Eastern Orthodox the real Christians we've trusted in the true God the one single God who is the Trinity and the second person of the Trinity became man was made under the law never sinned went to the cross falsely accused and bore our sins in his body as he'd lay dying or as he was hung up in that cross suspended from it dying and that the sacrifice wrought at the hands of evil men is the thing that cleanses us and think about this you weren't up there with him he was there by himself you weren't up there atoning for your own sins and your own guilt you were not up there he was if there was any other way you were to be up there it would happen some way somehow but no you did it by himself and so as a Christian we need to trust in him every day we need to trust in him what he had what he's got for us every single day we're gonna just trust in what what he has it's easy to do and sometimes it's hard to do at the same time but that's just the the the confusion that we sometimes experience in our lives as Christians as we try and and just walk this path with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ being more like him and be more faithful and be more faithful to the forgiveness that he has for us and not holding on to the past and letting it drag us down and letting us guilt with us I know we deserve it but he took it for trust in him that's what I want you to do all right so we only have about three minutes left in the show and I just want to remind you that that this month is the matching funds drive and if you want to support us all you have to do is go to karm.org carm.org forward slash donate and everything you need is right there and if you put in or donate $5 it'll become 10 wherever it is you do and if you do a recurring like $5 a month that'll be $60 total next year and we count to 60 and double that that's how it works so it's really nice you can also email me your questions and your comments at info at karm.org c-a-r-m dot o-r-g put the subject line radio comment radio question and that should be easy also let's see oh I will not be on the air live for the week of of Christmas so 23rd 4th 5th you know all that won't be on so I'll be on for two more days Thursday the 19th be on Friday the 20th and after that I'll be off for a week and a half or so I'll be back on live on December 2nd I mean December 2nd on January 2nd which happens to be the anniversary date of me starting radio 20 years ago on that day 20 years ago five days a week doing radio five days a week so that so that was 20 years ago I've been doing radio man it's a long time all right started back in 2005 on January 2nd yeah and anyway so there you go and what else was something else I want to mention I can't think of it right now it was the oh yeah I'm gonna debate tomorrow night on the intercessory prayer of Mary where it's true whether it's true or not of course I deny that she has any intercessory power in heaven and that she can't hear millions of prayers and stuff like that and that'll be tomorrow night now if you want information on it when I get more information on where it's gonna be so you can watch just go to karm.org forward slash debates karm.org forward slash debates and it'll be there under the upcoming debate I'll put it in as soon as I get the info okay which hopefully might be tonight or tomorrow sometime and I'll put it up and then you can check it out okay it'll be a moderated time that debate should be interesting yeah and Roman Catholicism bad news bad news teaches a false gospel it really does I've talked to so many Catholics over the years and then they've basically turned Mary into a functioning goddess it is so bad it is this is what it is and you know having been to the Vatican recently and to Italy and all of that saw stuff it was interesting and we can comment on that but that's about it so may the Lord bless you the music is gonna start here in a sec and I just hope you have a great evening and if these words have ministered to you then just thank the Lord Jesus Christ for his kindness and his mercy he deserves all the glory God bless everybody we'll talk to you later and be right back back tomorrow God bless another program powered by the truth Network