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. Hey everybody, welcome to the show. It's me, Matt Slick.

And you're listening to Matt Slick live. Hey, if you want to give me a call, as usual, the number is 877-207-2276. Today's date for the podcasters is the last day of March, March 31st, 2025, and there you go. All right, we've got a call coming in. We have three open lines. If you want to call me, 877-207-2276.

You can also email me, info at KARM, C-A-R-M dot O-R-G. And just put the subject line, radio comment, or radio question, and we get to them. There you go. See, pretty easy. Why don't we just jump on the line here and get to Gino from South Carolina. Gino, welcome. You're on the air. Thank you, Matt.

It's really a thrill to be speaking with you today. And Matt, I have three challenges, I guess, for you. And I don't care which one we get to first, and we may not, I guess we may not, probably won't get to all of them, especially because one of them is free will. But I want to say this to you, Matt, that the thing that I say to Christians that get me in the most trouble is this, which is, I believe that the sins of a regenerated Christian do not matter. There is no consequence. There's no consequence of the sins of someone who's saved?

Mm-hmm. Well, that's not biblical. There are consequences. Because if someone is saved and they sin, God will discipline them. And you can go to 1 Corinthians chapter 5, but apparently there was a sinner, a Christian man, apparently, having relations with his father's wife, and Paul says deliver him over to the destruction of his flesh so his soul be saved. So, yeah, sin does matter. God doesn't want us to sin.

In Romans chapter 6, he says, how should we have died to sin still living it? May never be. So, yeah, it absolutely does matter. Okay. Well, so if you don't mind me telling you where you're wrong, Matt, I hope you find that funny. Okay, sure, tell me where I'm wrong. Go ahead.

Sure, sure. So, first of all, we're Calvinists. I believe we're both Calvinists. I'm a very strong Calvinist.

And I love the first chapter of Ephesians. And I believe that I already stand holy and sinless in the sight of God already. And this was predestined before I was in my mother's womb, before the creation of the earth. I was predestined and chosen to be in the kingdom of heaven. And with that said, I can then say to you, well, if that's true, God certainly knew of my sins before I was regenerated. He knows of my sins today. Now I am regenerated.

So let's talk currently today. I've sinned today. And I know I'm going to sin tomorrow. There's just no way I can live a sinless life. So I am going to sin, God's well aware of those sins, my complete and full, full strong faith in Jesus Christ that all those sins are forgiven. Now, with all this said, I am in no way antinomian, in no way. And I can get to that when you ask me about it. But because of that, because of my faith in Jesus Christ and knowing that the blood, the sacrifice, the blood and, of course, the rising from the grave is all these are all the reasons why I am completely and fully forgiven, sir. Yes, but you're still not answering the issue.

Yeah, so I could yell. So then you also said, OK, how about discipline? And so with discipline, the problem that I have with discipline is that discipline can only mean and can only be effective after we die from this planet, from this earth. Because if God, just like a father, if a father is not telling you what he's disciplining you for, and God would have to speak to me audibly for me to know that. There's no there's no way for us to know that I'm what I'm being disciplined for. So I might then five times this week, maybe 10 times this week, I might get disciplined at the end of the week. How do I know which sins are all sins? And how do I even know that I'm being disciplined if God's not speaking because we all suffer maladies all through life? We all of us, I have wonderful friends and they're suffering from this, that the other thing and bad things happened to them, car accidents and everything. And so we can't we can't start suggesting to ourselves that, OK, my power died today and God had my power died today because I had the sin of pride last Wednesday.

So we don't know if you're here. Yeah, you're saying a lot of things, but they're logically not related coherently. OK, you're drawing conclusions correctly. OK, so here, for example, to say that our present sin today or tomorrow doesn't matter to God negates the cross because all of your sins today and tomorrow were imputed to Christ back then. So they don't matter to God. Why would he impute them to Christ 2000 years ago? Well, I I think that you're leaving out the part that I'm I'm we are predestined and if we are predestined and God knows everything, he is clearly forgiven us of those sins.

And of course, he forgave us a sin because he knew that he was going to regenerate. No, you're not listening. Yeah.

OK, it's very specific. The sins of the Christians don't matter to God. That's it. Don't matter.

They're not important to God. That's your that's your premise. I think I love that word. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. That's what you said. I wrote it down. Yes. OK. Take a note.

A lot of notes, actually. And so logically, well, if that's the case, then why did Christ go to the cross? If your sins don't matter, those sins you do today and tomorrow, why would it doesn't make any sense for you to say that? Oh, OK. So what I should have said, and I and I usually finish this, they don't matter to salvation. So they are different. Yes, sir.

Yes. And you still have a problem because, yes, they do matter regarding salvation, because in order to be saved, your sins have to be atoned for. OK, so they matter. Well, you're going to have to give me the more of a full story on that, because if we're predestined and you've heard my my spiel. So we're we're and I'm because I'm regenerated.

God knew I was going to regenerate. Yeah. Predestination is different than atonement. There are different issues. OK, see what you're failing to do. And I don't mean this to be mean or anything, but you're not focusing on the definitions of what each means.

You're just kind of skirting over them and then throwing them in the same pile. And if you do that, you'll end up in error. So sin is breaking the law of God. Does sin matter to God?

Of course it does. That's why he had to become one of us under the law of Galatians four, four and bear our sins in his body. First Peter two twenty four predestination is something that God does.

According to Ephesians one, four and five and Romans eight twenty nine thirty is something he does. But that's a different thing than the atonement. So our sin matters to God. But predestination is something that God does in relationship to the elect.

And then the elect are the ones who Christ canceled the sin debt for Colossians two fourteen, having canceled the certificate of debt, nailing it to the cross. So you can't say sin doesn't matter to God. Of course it does. Now, does it matter to our salvation?

Well, yes, it does, because our sins have to be atoned for in order to have salvation. Mm hmm. OK. Right. Yeah. Hey, yeah, except that I think that you're not looking at the full picture, OK? Yeah. Yeah.

I do. I have to say that I think that if you if you break it down in that way, it can sort of make sense. But here's here's the thing I read that I read the Bible and I understand that the entire Bible points to Jesus Christ. I know that in the book, when I read the entire Bible, I know that in the book of Revelation, God already knew that Jesus was going to atone for our sins. He already knew before the foundation of time. Yes, because it would be because he chose it would be a reality that he ordained it would happen.

That's how come he knows, because he's going to work it after his desire. That's why it's going to happen, because he desired it to happen. Are you saying he didn't know? Are you saying are you saying that he didn't know it before before he even created Lucifer? Are you saying God didn't know that he was going to forgive me for my sins?

No, no, no, no, no. That's not what I'm saying at all. I'm saying that the reason God knows in advance what's going to happen isn't because he's a good guesser. It's not because he looks into the future as if time in the future is a separate kind of a thing that he has to explore to see what we're going to do.

Those would both be false teachings. Instead, the only way anything can occur is if God has worked it according to his will. Ephesians 1-11, he works all things after the counsel of his will. Well, don't use the word work, use the word predestined it, because work means he could be working it at this time.

And if that's what you mean, then I'm going to just agree with that. But it says in Ephesians 1-11, Also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to its purpose, who works all things after the counsel of his will. I was just quoting you scripture, and I'm going to get on you a little bit here, you said don't use the word work. But you know we can't rest on one scripture.

Well, dude, you just said, I'm trying to show you. It's not just one scripture, God predestines. I can go to Acts 4-27-28 and cross reference it with Acts 2-23. I can go to Ephesians 1-4-5 also, and also relate it to Romans 8-29-30. I can also go to Acts 13-48 and relate that to 2 Thessalonians 2-13. So there's lots of verses that are in my head that are related and interrelated to things.

I just picked one verse of many. So I'm just saying that God works all things after the counsel of his will. That's how come he foreknows something.

It's not because he's a good guesser, he extrapolates, that's not it. It's not because time has a quality of independence from God of which God explores. That would be a heresy, it's not true.

I don't think you're saying that, I'm just running options by. The only way anything can occur is within the will of God. Now there's what's called the prescriptive will, you shall not lie. There's a permissive will, he allows you to lie. So all of those are within his will, to allow them, because he knows. And so this gets into more complicated stuff with logic and stuff like that, but there you go.

Yes sir, yep. All right. So just to get, I don't know why we're a little bit, well we're not on the same page. If God knew before the foundation of time, well first let me say, with that, you've heard him say that, but I want to get back to that in a second. What I want to say to you, we know that Paul tells us that sin qualifies or quantifies the law, and that's the purpose of sin really. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, sin qualifies or quantifies the law? I know of no scripture that says that. Oh sure, it's in Romans. I'm sorry I don't have it in front of me, and I'm not as skilled as you are in Romans. Sure, and Paul says that if not for sin, I would not know the transgressions of the law.

Well no, if it wasn't for the law, I wouldn't know about sin. Right, yeah, you've got to reverse, and yeah, uh-huh. We've got to break, hold on buddy, we've got to break, hold on. Hey folks, we'll be right back after these messages. Hope you're enjoying this conversation. It's a good theological one, and if you're listening, you pay attention, you can learn some stuff through it.

That's how it always works for me too. May the Lord bless you. Be right back after these messages. Please be tuned. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276.

Here's Matt Slick. All right, well welcome back to the show. Let's get back on with Gino really fast.

Hey Gino, you're still there? Okay, it was Romans 7-7, Romans 7-7 is what you're talking about. I would not have come to know sin except through the law.

Okay, go ahead. All right, so the law in and of itself is not sinful. Right. Okay, so I kind of forget where we were on that, Matt, I was reading during the break. That's right.

But let's see, sure. So the law itself is not sinful, and so what we have is what is the culpability for sin if we are already predestined? Okay, predestination. There is no consequence. There can be no consequence.

Yes, there is. The consequence is a death of Christ. The consequence is our separation from God. The consequence is a hardening of our heart. The consequence is our rebellion against God. The heart is still deceitful.

The heart is still wicked. Just because we're sin doesn't mean that we're perfect and pure. We still struggle with our sin, and this is the issue of sanctification that we're supposed to go through.

It's incredibly important, okay? Well, Matt, if we're running out of time, I'm really in full disagreement with you, because then we have to get into I'm a new man, and I am sanctified, or we are sanctified. We're not holy yet, but we're in the process of becoming more holy, and there'll be ups and downs and all that, and I get all that. But if you are regenerated, you have faith, you are in Christ.

Christ is in you. You are saved. So if I sin tomorrow, there is no consequence for those sins of tomorrow.

Number one, I'm a new man. What is the consequence, Matt? Okay, there's no consequence as in the one sense of you're still saved. But in the other sense, your fellowship with Christ is affected.

You don't want that. It still hardens your heart. But wouldn't God have already known that? Of course. By the way, I'm sort of a determinist, by the way.

So I believe that this is all... Oh, well, then everything you're saying makes no sense if you're a determinist. I'll tell you why. Why?

Why? Because if you're a determinist and you don't have free will, and if you don't have free will, everything you're saying is determined, it's meaningless. It's not an act of your own volition. It's just sentences you're saying. So it's meaningless.

Sure. So I've said this to you before. I haven't fully hung my hat on being a determinist, but I sure am very close to that. And I want to talk to you about free will. And the last time we spoke, we were getting into free will. And I believe that I can beat you up pretty good on free will.

You can try. Certainly open to that. You can call back if you want and get in line, and we can go through this about what free will is and see if you can beat me up on it.

But if you're going to hold to determinism, you're going to have to deal with the issue what's called property dualism, substance dualism, the nature of free will, and stuff like that. A lot of people have discussed this with me over the years. I've had hundreds of discussions with it. Matt, I've never heard those terms that you just said. I wonder if before we get off the line, if you're I think your screener already has my phone number.

I wonder if he could text me just those terms that you just said. I've never heard them. But I find it.

It's well, it's easy. It's property dualism, property dualism, substance dualism, property dualism, substance dualism. Those are part of the related issues. I'll tell you what they mean. The property dualism says that the physical brain operates under the laws of physics chemistry and that the mind is a property of the physical brain. Substance dualism says that the soul, the mind, is a separate substance, a separate thing from the physical brain. Property dualism says that when the physical brain ceases, the mind ceases. Christians are not property dualists, but property dualism necessarily leads to determinism with the loss of free will, and people who say we don't have any free will as Christians are inadvertently adopting the philosophy of what's called property dualism. Furthermore, if you don't have freedom of will, then you can't be held culpable for anything you've done. Furthermore, it says we do the receiving of Christ, John 1-12. And if we're determined and we don't have any will in that issue, then everything we do and say is meaningless.

It means that if we don't have any free will and we're determined, then it means external causes bring us necessarily to say certain things, which you have to define then what is the external cause by which you can then justify any statement you make. And then, trust me, I've been through this a thousand times, so, you know, if I were you, I would take this segment of the show and review it. I think that's a great idea, besides, I want to say this before we go, though, that that was the third thing I wanted to chat with you about was the, I believe there's no need to, for you to mentally accept Jesus Christ, but we'll get into that another time. But then you contradicted scripture, Izzman has received him to then he gave the right to be called the children of God of John 1-12. We have to confess him as well. I mean, that's Romans 10, 9, and 10. We have to be justified by faith, Romans 5-1. You will be made to confess. You will be made to accept him.

You don't accept him by faith. Now you need to study logical priority versus temporal priority in relationship to causation. And then you also need to study efficient cause and proximate cause.

So efficient causation, proximate causation, along with ultimate causation. But you should go review the show at this point in time and get the terms and learn them because I've had this discussion thousands of times and you'll need to know these terms in order to adequately discuss the matter. Okay.

I like the way you think and I agree with that statement. It showed us, I think somewhere on when we can communicate that way. Matt, thank you very, very, very much. Okay. All right. We'll talk to you later. Okay. Okay, bye. All right.

I enjoy those kinds of conversations I do, but I don't want to kill you guys with them for too long. Let's get to Alex from Florida. Hey, Alex, how you doing, buddy?

I don't know. I must have my hat on backwards because I'm calling into the show. Well, you do have a lot of issues, I know. That's quite obvious, but I always help you try and make you a better person all around, you know, to help you out. Well, let's not tell the whole public my, my issues. Let's just keep that between us.

How did they just spill over into reality? It's just obvious. So I mean, come on. Oh man, I was just on a Twitter space where the free gracers were going against the anti-Calvin. Free gracers. So I gotta talk to those guys.

Gonna just, just, just spank them, you know, they're just like, you know what the guy said? He said, if I go into another religion, I've already accepted Jesus. So I'm going to heaven.

1 John 2 19. They, they went out from us, but they, uh, they left. If they had been of us, they would have remained. And that's so, you know, you have free gracers.

They don't have all their paws in the litter box. Hey, there's a break. Hold on.

I got a question. So I'll wait. I'll wait. Yeah. All right. Hold on, buddy.

Okay. Hey, folks, 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, buddy, welcome back to the show. Hope you're going to continue to listen. Even though Alex is on the air right now, we'll see what happens. Say you're back on.

That's nice. You're really, really, uh, going with my credibility there. You really, uh, give me a lot of credibility. I'm only trying to help you, you know, because, you know, I guess right from the bottom.

So what do you got, man? You know, I can, I can say things about you. Oh, yeah, you certainly could.

They'd be true too. That is right. That is for sure. Yeah. So, all right.

What do you got? Well, one really, yeah, one really quick. I just want to mention this and then I want you to talk about the Eastern Orthodox stuff, the seven back ecumenical council, but I was having a conversation last night with some brothers in Christ and it was interesting because they were seeing some of this. I don't know if you've heard about this hyper confessionalism, classical theism debate that's going on, you know, with the impassibility and trying to define, um, the immutability. Have you heard about some of that?

No, I need to know what's going on. Yeah. So it's kind of more in the reformed Baptist world. So, um, but some of these guys that broke off and basically got more and more confessional and more and more smaller, it's a minority group, but the guys I was talking to, they were like, the concern is when you take this stuff too far and you start describing too many things, um, to God and, and what, what God really means. And you take away the, you know, Deuteronomy 29, 29 secret things in the Lord. So when you take that away and start trying to dive deep, the concern was that eventually that you'll start to deny the penal substitutionary atonement of Christ.

And that's exactly what you found out in your research to Eastern Orthodoxy. And I brought that up, I mean, it's wild, two different, totally different things going on, but both people are coming to the, you're both are coming to the same conclusion. Yeah. You know, you should call me later and we can find out where that is.

Yeah, yeah. Well, I'll tell you, yeah, I'll tell you more about it, but, but I want you to, I want you to talk a little bit about, you know, we had been doing evangelism on campus and there's some Eastern Orthodoxy people there and we were talking and, uh, we were getting into the Seventh Ecumenical Council and the icons and what, what's more of the research you found regarding that? I think it's important for the listeners to know, you know, what, what's really going on these days. Well, I just released an article a few days ago or two days ago, something like that, um, quotes from the Seventh Ecumenical Council and I'll just read you what I found and it's, it's on the article, the link and stuff like that. This is, uh, this was in 787, excuse me, clearing my throat here, the, I have the source URL there and the quotes extracted and it's also set so that you can copy the quote and put it in there and I, the original quote, the URL is like a hundred letters, so I did a tiny URL thing so that you can quote it, you know, into working, give it to people and they can check it and they can go look.

Okay. Anyway, so this is what the Seventh Ecumenical Council said and for those who don't know what the Ecumenical Council is, it is councils gathered by bishops and there are seven of them that are supposed to be authoritative and inerrant that are held by the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox Churches. So, uh, that's what they say. We can get into all this stuff, whether they are ecumenical or not, just saying they are doesn't mean it, but nevertheless, it says this in the Seventh Ecumenical Council, which I, this is a brag, that very council was in Nicaea, the first council, uh, the ruins are actually in the water about a thousand feet away or so. And we went to, last time I was in Turkey, we went to the building where this council met, the Seventh Ecumenical Council. So we were actually in that building.

Yeah. So I have pictures of me sitting there in front of, next to the, uh, you've probably seen the pictures, depictions of, um, a semicircle of steps, but that's where you sit at the front of the church. And this is where they, the bishops gathered right there, that physical location. And I was right there.

And so I took a picture of me in front of it and all that, not a big deal, but one of the nice things about going on these trips. Okay. Now this is what the Seventh Ecumenical Council said, uh, anathema and, uh, the, what the anathema means separation from God. It means damnation.

That's from the same council. It defines it as you're outside the church, you're outside salvation, you're lost. Okay.

Anathema to the Christianity slanderers, that is to the iconoclasts, anathema to those who apply passages of scripture written against idols to holy and venerable images, anathema to those who do not salute holy and venerable images, anathema to those who affirm that Christians pay regard to images as to gods, anathema to those who call holy and venerable images idols, anathema to those who teach not diligently all Christian people to worship and salute the holy, precious and venerable images of all saints who from the beginning of the world have pleased God, anathema to those who hesitate and do not from the heart confess that we ought to worship holy images. Okay. It's troubling. That's concerning.

Yep. Yep, so in light of this, I've been reading a book, and I want to get some credit to where it's due by Schuping, and he's the guy who first, I was reading a book called Disillusioned, and he's an ex-Eastern Orthodox priest, and he wrote this book. I forgot how I found it, and I'm going through it. The guy is incredible, and he's the one who said the Seventh Ecumenical Council, blah, blah, blah, this, and I went, what? And I went and researched it and found it.

I go, you've got to be kidding me, and that's how I found these quotes. I wrote an article about it. Now, he has said some other things, and what I've done is collected some of the ideas that he said, and I put them into my own words, added this, took this out, that kind of a thing.

So I want to make sure that that's part of it. I'm going to write an article about this. Bowing before statues, and this is what I've written. Bowing before statues and icons means bowing before what has been made by our hands in our image, because think about it.

These icons and images they bow before are of people. It's a form of self-deification by raising images and people to be adored. Such participants become enslaved to the images of man or creation that are found in their rituals. If such a person trusts in the mediation of the saints, he becomes enslaved to that mediation instead of going straight to Christ. It becomes an impersonal mediation because it is not directly related to Christ. His worship, the person who does all this, bowing before statues and images and icons, becomes the ritual mediated through the ceremonies of the church. The Eucharist is such a ceremony, not a personal relationship with Christ. It confuses the gospel by offering mediators and rituals for salvation instead of faith. It enslaves men to the images of men over which he's supposed to have dominion. And then Isaiah 44, 10. Wait, I was going to, yeah, how is that any different than what the Egyptians, the Romans, and the Greeks did with making the pharaohs and, you know, making the statues of the pharaohs and bowing down to them, making the statues of the gods in the images.

Some were demi-gods, too, demi-gods. I mean, how is that any different? It's, well, they're going to say it's different.

I'm going to say it's not. They're going to say that their intention is not the same because they're the false gods. And what they're going to also do is, and I'm going to write an article about this, they'll also say, well, God told the Jews to make images. He told them, make images in the temple. Yeah.

The response is very clear. I'm going to go to Exodus 20, verse 4. It says, God says, you shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. There's a difference between God telling you, make these things, put them into the temple to represent the glories of God, versus making for yourself idols of people, icons of people before which you bow down.

They're completely different. So the idolatry of the Eastern Orthodoxy of the Roman Catholic Church is bad. So the EO and the RC promote a false gospel, a false priesthood, a false Mary, and they promote idolatry. They are false churches.

False churches. So anyway, go ahead. Yeah, no. And you know, it's interesting that there's a second commandment violation, clearly. And what's interesting is commentator. Yeah, I did research on this.

Commentators are actually mixed. Some say that it was just to the animals, the creatures that the pagans were worshiping, angelical beings, God, Jesus, things in the spiritual planes. But then others say, well, no, that can be man, that can be human images of people.

So they're actually kind of split from my own research, but I would agree with you. And John Frame also is in his Christian ethics book. I would lean more towards him saying that it could be any image that you make and you worship to and you bow down to, you know, because there's no power in that image. That's exactly right.

Cause Exodus 20 verse four was in heaven above on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. Nothing to be done like that. Okay, hold on. We got a break. Okay, hold on. Hey folks, we'll be right back after these messages.

This is a critically important topic and we need to get through it. Anyway, be right back. All right. I want to welcome back to the show. Let's get back on with Alex. Hey, Alex. Okay, you're back on buddy. Yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm here. Hey, I got to go.

My wife's on the other line, but I got to go. But yeah, continue with the Eastern Orthodox stuff. You mean talking about her generically as a life pursuit? I'll get him out of warning others. Oh, warning others. Yeah.

He owes bad. Stay away. There you go.

Um, no, it's good. Yeah. Yeah. I gotta, I gotta go though. Okay.

Tell her he said hi. All right. We'll talk to you later.

I will, I will brother. I'll see you. Bye. Yeah. Bye.

All right. It was fun conversation. Let's get to Dave from California. Dave, welcome. You're on the air. Hey, Matt. You had suggested I call in from the chat to discuss the, um, yeah, this is just something that I've wrestled with in the past about the idea that the retrobait go to hell because of a lack of faith or rejecting of God.

However, given their sin nature and unregenerate nature, accepting God as something outside of their ability to do so outside of God regenerating somebody. Yeah. Anyway, that was basically the objection I had, or the thing I had struggled with, but eventually there's some smacking sound or some weird sounds coming in with that. Sorry.

I was moving a cable on my desk. Sorry about that. All right.

And I just got a call in, so I have to go. Okay. So when people say that I, you know, one of the questions I'll do is I'll say, is it right or wrong for the guy? So the idea of reprobation and people can't do things, uh, against their own nature and that they're judged going to hell because of the things that they can do.

That's a difference. You see, uh, the idea here when people raise this as an objection, one of the things I'll do is I'll say, well, is it right or is it wrong? And how, what's your standard? It's a serious question because we assume certain values of morality and we frame a question around morality that we believe is correct, a moral system that we understand ourselves. We say, this is how it should be, or that's not right for God to do that. But one of the questions I always ask is, okay, I see your objection, but why is the objection valid?

Why is that objection valid? Why is it that you're saying that this ought or ought not to be done? Now that it's not, you know, trying to trap them or, uh, not answer a question or address the issue because that's just the first thing I'll often do and say, well, what about that? I mean, is, is what you're asking actually, uh, grounded in something that's valid? And that's not a very satisfying approach for a lot of people. They want to get into the issue of why, because they have an intuitive sense of things.

And so that's like, then I go to the next level and I say, okay, let's talk about this intuitive idea that this is something that may or may not be. So I try and teach them a concept that people are obligated to do what's right, whether or not they can do it or not. God says in 1 Peter 1 16, be holy for I am holy and we can't be holy. Holiness is a quality that belongs to God. It's a standard of perfection, but God says, be holy because I'm holy.

So does God command us to do things we can't do? Of course he does. Of course he does a lot of times people say, well, that's not fair. What standard have you got by what you say that is or is not true?

It's not fair. You can say it, but doesn't mean anything. People will often raise objections, but they don't have any basis to validate the moral objection. They just assume their objection is valid. And I say, no, no, no, no. If you're going to raise such an objection, can you therefore show me why that objection has valid or worthy merit to it? I always go back to this.

I do it frequently when I'm talking to people. I want them to understand that God is the one revealing what is moral. They have to be careful not to assume an intuitive morality that comes from themselves, which is then subjective that they then impose upon God. Now on the other hand, well, people want to know things and that's valid. Say, okay, I just want to know why. I don't get this. This doesn't make sense.

That's fine. And then we address it. And I teach them this principle that God is the standard of holiness, not us. What we often want to do is bring God down to the level of ourselves so that we can then say, now I understand how God's supposed to be because I decide what's moral.

And so we'll say, well, once I figure it out, then I know that God will or will not do something based on what I understand. This is our nature, is to bring God down to a level that we can understand, that we can then submit him to our intuition, our subjective morality and preferences. This is our habit.

I do it. Others do it. It's our habit because we use ourselves as a standard of righteousness. But the standard of righteousness is God, not ourselves. And so therefore all people are obligated to do what is right. Well, wait a minute, Matt. It's not fair if they're obligated to do what's right.

And they can't do it, then how can they be held responsible? Well, who cares? I say, is it this a standard that you're saying is right or wrong? God says, be holy for I'm holy. He's the standard, not us. You need to abandon the idea that he can't do something or shouldn't do something or ought not tell us to do something we can't do.

Where do you get that? Because in 1 Peter 1 16, be holy for I'm holy. God is using himself as the standard of righteousness. And therefore we ought to use him as a standard of righteousness. So Paul, the apostle in Acts 17 30 says, he says, uh, God commands everyone everywhere to repent because you ought to repent.

It's a command that ought to be done. Matthew 5 48. Be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect. Well, can we be perfect as God, the father is perfect?

Of course not. The standard here is not us to standard as God. Whenever we say, well, God ought not to, or he can't because he was not the father of because he won't allow this or, uh, because we can't, uh, you can't, he should not say that we can, what we can or cannot do is, I mean, we're, we're, we were this. God should not require us to do something we cannot do. This is humanistic philosophy. Humanism is using ourselves as a standard of righteousness and Christians do it all the time. God will never tempt you beyond what you are allowed to understand and know and do. And they do this humanistic philosophy thing. They impose it into the text. It's one of the reasons they don't like reformed theology because reformed theology sets up God as the standard of righteousness and you're obligated to follow it. And no one can.

Why? Because they're fallen. They were made sinners by the work of Adam. Romans 5 19. Many were made sinners.

That's what it says. They were made sinners by what, what, what Adam did. Cause he was our federal head.

He was our representative. And so, because they fell, we all fell in Adam. We now are incapacitated. We cannot do that, which is holy and good. Well, doesn't mean we're now excused for doing what is holy and good because we're fallen. Where's, where's there a celestial, whatever it is that says, well, once you're fallen, you're not obligated to be holy anymore. You're not obligated to follow God as a universal standard. Now you just got to, you know, be holy as much as you can and, and be good as much as you can, as much as you think, because it's up to you and your ability and your sense. And this is just humanist philosophy.

That's all it is. And so the standard of righteousness is God, not ourselves. And we're all obligated to do what we're supposed to be doing, whether we can or cannot. And so God then reaches into the realm of the lost from eternity ago, and he chooses us in Christ. Ephesians 1, 4 says so. Second Thessalonians 2, 13 says he chose us from the beginning for salvation. Acts 13, 48 says, for as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. The fact is that we all deserve damnation because it's our nature. We are by nature children of wrath. Ephesians 2, 3.

That's the case. But God in his great mercy redeemed people, elected people for salvation. Ephesians 1, 4 chose us. Second Thessalonians 2, 13.

People said, well, that's not fair. You can bring it up to God. And when you do bring it up to God, you need to provide a universal moral standard that you can justify is universal that you can then bring against charge against God. Because this is something we need to repent of as Christians. Even as the redeemed, we need to repent of the foolishness, foolishness, that God won't require us to do anything that we can't do. Or that it's not fair that we had to become sinners because of Adam's sin.

Not fair. Wine, wine, complain, complain, raise a charge against God. Instead, what you should be doing is simply saying, this is what the word of God says. I need to change my understanding of my heart to conform to what God has stated. Not what I desire, not what my subjective intuition says is right. Because to do that is pride.

You're prideful when you say, I feel what is right and wrong. This is why I can't receive Christ. This is why I won't trust what God says. I will never be a Calvinist because I don't believe God would ever, ever, ever, ever, ever make vessels for destruction.

He won't do that. Romans 9, 22 and 23, what if God, although willing to demonstrate his wrath and to make his power known and do it with much patience, vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. And he did so to make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory.

I have a challenge for people. When you read God's word, you go into the difficult areas of scripture like Romans 9, Ephesians 1, Colossians 3, I would say before you do that, that you get on your knees and then you bow your heart before God and you get to the place in your heart where you are willing to accept what God's word says and submit your heart and your understanding and your preferences and your theological expectations to what the word of God says. Getting in that place of submission and humility on your knees before God is not easy. You can't just do it by a quick prayer, but it must be fought over, wrestled with to get your heart to be ready to receive the word of God.

So there's no inclination of selfishness in you. There's no inclination of I will submit the word of God to my heart. It must be that your heart must die and that your sin must be killed. It must be sacrificed. It must be trodden down with your feet as you expose yourself before God and say not my will but your will be done.

Luke 22 42 just says Jesus said that to the Father. And then when your heart is prepared and when your heart is humble and when your heart is ready, this doesn't take a minute, it takes time. Then open God's word, Romans 9, Ephesians 1, Colossians 3, and start reading so that your pliable heart now can be shaped by the truth of God's word instead of shaping God's word to the hardness of your own heart. And if you think you have no hardness in your heart, that you already are humble, think again because it's just not the case. It's hard to get ourselves prepared in heart and mind to receive the word of truth.

But I would suggest that you do that. That something I do or try to do is something that we all need to do. Be humble before God's word and say, Lord, just change me. That the revelation of your truth given through the prophets and the apostles, which is your word and your truth, would change me.

That I would submit to your truth and then not become a Christian humanist who then says his own intuition and his own truth is a standard of righteousness. That needs to be crucified. Needs to be killed. It needs to be abandoned by all of us Christians. All of us, me included. Amen, amen. All right. Hey, there you go, folks.

I am out of here. May the Lord bless you. And I just want to let you know that pray for this ministry. We certainly need it. Pray for the radio stations. Pray for everything about it. And by his grace, by his great grace, back on here tomorrow, and we'll talk to you then. God bless everyone.