Matt Slick Bible Study, Gal 3

So, okay, now, let's see how many people are in here.

Okay, we got to go on, it's working, let me do this. And so I can see the text,

I see people who go in. It's gonna look good. All right.

Okay, 7 .30 straight up, 27 o 'clock. It devolved to 7 .30,

that's how it's going. So 9 .30 on the East Coast. And tonight we're gonna be studying the issue of Galatians chapter three.

There's a lot of good stuff in here. I got a bit of a confession, I did not finish my preparation for the study because what

I do is I work on different projects and for the study tonight, or today and yesterday, and between other things.

And so after the show, I'm gonna finish up on about five, six, seven, eight verses or so.

And I got stuck having a discussion with a Seventh -day Adventist, which we're gonna get into a little bit.

So it was an hour and a half discussion. It was really worth it. And it was great, in fact, it's online.

And he was nice enough, double audio. Okay, and there we go.

Okay, thanks, Glenn. Okay, and so it was a really good conversation and I'm gonna share some of that and what happened tonight.

And I had to go, I wouldn't get to talk. He was pretty articulate and knew his theology, knew scriptures, but couldn't argue his way out of a white paper heresy bag that was ripped and torn with oil.

Gravel going down, pulleys with a compass going down and neon lights in his way, just to let you know.

But what we're gonna do now is we're gonna go to Galatians chapter three and I'm starting at verse one.

And we're gonna pray first and hopefully everything will work fine.

Okay, I gotta get in there. And to make sure I can see the texts that are coming in.

I think that what I gotta do is make sure, I think what I have to do for this, make sure

I got everything looking right. And I don't know, let me ask you guys, does it have a double view or a single view?

You see two things, I can't remember the slash through it. Is that what you're seeing also? So you don't see any sound.

Mic, it should be one mic. I can't tell if people are still echoing.

You can't echo. Shouldn't be echoing. You know, every time I do this, something changes.

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Does it echo now? It shouldn't. Yes, you and icon with a slash through it.

Okay, now I gotta figure out why that's there. So hold on, let's see.

Why is that doing that? Okay, folks, let me just, bear with me just a minute. Sorry about this. You know, I had it down last time and that's it.

Okay, let's go. All right. And that should be it.

All right. Just trying different things, different ways. Okay.

Now I guess everything's working right, right? Good. And sorry about that, a little tech problem.

And I'm a tech guy and I'm having problems because we have two computers here. And that's why

I have double audio, try to get one in, one out and things like that. My head's cut off?

Yeah, I'm slumping a little bit in my chair. All right, so here we go. All right, let's pray.

Lord Jesus, thank you for today. And just ask Lord that you'd bless the study. And I hope Lord that by your grace, people would be blessed in it and come to a better understanding of the truth of salvation in you, that they would look to you and not their works and not faith and works, but to you alone.

I ask mercy. I ask Lord that you would be merciful to us and the hearers and those of us here, and especially to me as I speak.

We ask this Jesus, in your precious name, amen. All right, so as we get to Galatians, I'm gonna just do verse by verse instead of reading the whole thing first.

You foolish Galatians who has bewitched you before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.

Now, right away, he uses the word foolish. It's a very serious statement to make in a theological context.

Jesus had said in Matthew 5 .22, call man, no man fool. And yet he does this here.

Now, the context there was just arbitrary judgment, but Paul's not doing an arbitrary judgment here in Galatians three.

And what he's doing is condemning solidly the Galatians, the

Judaizers, who were seeking to add works in to the issue of salvation. Now, this is a doctrine that we're gonna hammer on,

I'm gonna hammer on it, that we are justified by faith alone in Christ alone apart from our works.

Good works are the result of regeneration, but our good works have no basis for obtaining salvation or maintaining salvation.

Anybody who would teach to the contrary is wrong and believes in a false gospel. Now, he says, you foolish

Galatians. You know how he says here, who has bewitched you? Witchcraft was a great sin, especially to the

Jews. And for him to say, who has bewitched you? Before whose eyes

Jesus Christ, the public portrayed as crucified. By the way, the word for sorcery in the

Bible, in original language is pharmakia. And drugs, the use of drugs, altered states of consciousness in sorcery.

This was a serious evil. And so he says, you foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you.

The severity of this comment is hard for us to kind of gather. He says, before whose eyes

Jesus Christ is publicly portrayed as crucified. So he's saying, look, he was crucified and you are foolish.

And the reason they're foolish is they're not obeying the true gospel. They're not understanding and holding to the true gospel.

Verse two, this is the only thing I wanna find out from you. Did you receive the spirit by the works of the law or by hearing with faith?

Now, imagine Paul speaking this. Now he's writing this and we read it.

You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you before whose eyes. Okay, this is the one thing I wanna know for you. We read it like that.

But what if he were standing there and the congregation was there, he'd say, you foolish Galatians.

I could see him raising his voice, pointing his finger. Who's bewitched you? I mean, he's upset.

Before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. This is the only thing

I wanna find out from you. I don't wanna hear anything else. You tell me this, he's PO'd.

Did you receive the spirit by the works of the law or by hearing with faith? Now that's quite a salvo to toss into the crowd, right?

It's like a spiritual grenade, kaboom. The people in there who have been saying, no, you gotta be circumcised.

No, you gotta keep this little aspect of the law. And he said, you fools, you're bewitched. Did you receive the spirit of God by anything you did or is it by faith?

This is the thing he's just jumping right in. And I like that. I call it quick and slick.

There, I say that. Now, in John 20, 22, and when Jesus had said this, he breathed on them and he said to them, receive the

Holy Spirit. In Acts 2, 33, therefore, having been exalted to the right hand of God and having received the father, the promise of the

Holy Spirit, he has poured forth this which you both see in here. In Acts 2, or you've got that one.

Acts 10, 47, surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized to have received the

Holy Spirit just as we did, can he? In that last context there, he's talking about the Gentiles who are speaking in tongues and glorifying

God. They'd received the spirit. When the spirit comes upon you, there's manifestation in the context of Acts 2 of the charismatic gift, speaking in tongues.

And this is this presence of the spirit, which is the promise of God that he had given by the prophet

Joel in Joel 2, 28, 29. Which Peter quotes in Acts 2, 17 and 18.

And he says, this is what was promised. And it's the pouring forth. Now this is something we don't actually get into here too much at all.

But the pouring forth, the spirit is poured. That's how the spirit comes. Pouring, and this is important because there's a concept, a theological concept.

The thing that is anointed is the element is applied to the object or the person.

That's how it works. That's just a thought for later. Now, notice the juxtaposition of works and faith.

Now this is something I've been noticing more and more as I study. Faith or works, faith and works, faith and works.

And Romans 3, 26, for the demonstration I say of his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be the just and justifier of the one who has faith in Christ.

So what he's saying here is that faith in Christ is the issue. That's what justifies, and he's a justifier.

He goes on two verses later in Romans 3, 28. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.

By faith apart from the law. Now what'll happen here is when I talk to people like the

SDA guy that I did, Eastern Orthodox people, Roman Catholics, it's the ceremonial law.

And I'll say, where does it say ceremonial law? They have to differentiate inside the idea of the law because there's three main categories of law mainly.

There's a priestly law, the ceremonial where the priest had to do various things. There's the moral law, don't lie, don't steal.

And there's the judicial law, move the line over here and execute that person, this, that.

And so when they say the ceremonial law, it's ridiculous because it only applies to the priesthood.

And the Bible doesn't differentiate these this way here. And so it says we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.

Apart from the works of the law, that's what it says. In 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.

Now notice this in Romans 3, 28, by faith apart from the works of the law.

Romans 4, 5, the one who believes but does not work. The works and faith are there.

Now people say, well, you're not justified by faith alone. And the only place faith alone is mentioned is in James chapter two. And it says a man is justified not by faith alone.

And what they do is they fail to look at the context to see that it's justification before people, not before God.

Because Romans 4 says justification before God is the vertical. And so they want to say in their foolishness that we are gonna be justified before God based on what we do as well as what we believe.

But then they'll say, no, the works that we do are the works that God has given us to do. And I was talking to this

SDA guy tonight. I said, so keeping the Sabbath is necessary for salvation? And he wouldn't answer the question.

I said, is it necessary over and over and over? Finally, he'd say, yes, it is. I said, well, that's something you're doing according to the law.

And he goes, no, that's what God does through me. And I said, do you get in the car and drive to your church on Saturday?

Is that you driving or is it God driving? And he says, well, God's working through me. And I'm like, you know, it's just...

They don't want to recognize that their own efforts which are stained by their sin are the things by which they're proving themselves right before God and keeping themselves right before God.

And when you call them on it, they say, well, it's not me, it's God doing it. But then there's a logic problem. Because I'll use this analogy of driving to the church.

Who's doing the driving? Well, you know, I'm behind the wheel and my baby's in the back seat in a seat.

And I'm saying, she's doing the driving. And anybody would look and go, well, we have a film of you with your hands on the wheel and you would brake.

And we could see you using the blinker and we could see you looking left and right. You were doing the driving, right?

Okay, I was doing the driving. So did you drive yourself on Saturday?

That's God's work in me. And you can see that they see the problem. Yes, they are doing this.

And then they say, but it's not really a work. Why? Because it's God working in us. Oh, so it is a work that you're doing.

No, it's God working in us. Well, then if it's not you doing it, then how can it be said to be your work? Is God doing it in you?

So is it your work or not? Well, if it's not your work, then you're not doing any works, are you? And then what you do is if you,

I have certain filters on my cameras and stuff like that. And one of them looks into the brain and you can see at this point, there's no.

And you can see gray matter kind of disintegrating and this kind of dribbling down to the back of the cerebellum. And then for some reason, they start talking.

And they don't make much sense after that. That's what happens. I've seen it several times. You did that almost once, once, but that's.

All right, so. I keep going. Can you keep coming? You're getting it. The closer you sit, the more it's gonna happen.

But notice I don't get the ladies though. What'd that make you think of? Oh, cool. That's pretty cool.

I like that. It's a bullet. Bullet pen. That's right. Is that a 223?

No, it looks more like, nevermind. It's just a pen. It's a pen. Looks like it's closer to a 762.

But anyway, okay. A point. Oh, a pinpoint. So look at Galatians 2, 16.

Nevertheless, knowing that a man is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we who have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law.

Just by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified. There isn't anything in here that says, well, you see, the works that God does through you are really his works that you actually are the one doing, but it's his works, so that's how you're saved.

That's in the book of 2nd Moronicals. It's just fast work, fast and footloose work, trying to have their works be involved in their own salvation.

And then he goes on in verse three. Are you so foolish, having begun by the spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

Oh, that's an important verse. Now, so for the

Catholics, for the Eastern Orthodox, for the Seventh -day Adventists, for the Mormons, the Jehovah's Witnesses, or anybody else,

I got a question for you. Are you so foolish, having begun by the spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

And what they're gonna say is, Matt, you don't understand. We're not being perfected by the flesh, we're perfected by the spirit, because that's what it says, right?

Having begun by the spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? The spirit's working in us, and therefore, that's how we're perfected.

It's not by the flesh. And I'm just gonna ask them, are you doing the works in your own flesh?

I don't mean the fleshly spirit, but your body, with your hands, with your voice, what you're doing.

Don't you go to the church and get the sacraments? Don't you do the good things? Don't you help the lady across the street?

Don't you return that wallet? These are the good works that you do, that without them, you can't really demonstrate that your faith is real, and therefore, you can't be saved, is that right?

So there's a lot of doublespeak that goes on with the false religious systems. This is why it's so necessary, when you're at the level of discussion that I have to frequent,

I don't wanna sound braggy, but you have to know specifics. You gotta know your doctrine, and words, and meanings, and things like this, so you can see through their crap, because that's what it is.

It's theological crap. It's, oh, what's the

Greek word? Scoobalon, Scoobalon, it means defecation.

All right, that's what it means, Scoobalon. That's a good punk band name, too, the

Scoobalons. Yeah, we're brown.

All right, did you suffer so many things in vain, if indeed it was in vain? Now, suffering here could be from the persecution of the

Jews and their fellow countrymen. You gotta understand something. In the culture, you gotta put yourself in the culture here.

Without Christianity, what was there before Christianity? The Jews were basically sequestered, basically, in Israel, but they would go out to different areas, and there'd be different Jews in different cities, but their homeland was

Israel, and they would do commerce, they'd do business, and things like that, but the

Jews were pretty good at not causing any problems. They're smart. Also, in varying cultures, there's varying forms of paganism, ancestor worship,

Caesaro -Papism, which is the Roman emperor worship, Caesaro -Papism, and a host of other false gods and false theologies that might permeate the varying areas that the

Christians would then go into, and let's just say in one geographical area, there's 10 ,000 pagans, unbelievers, you know, and then you get 20, 30, 40, 50

Christians, let's just say in this one area. How are you gonna act? What are you gonna do?

Are you gonna lay low? Well, yes, to a point. You're gonna speak the gospel? Yes, to a point you are.

What are you gonna do? Are you gonna cause problems when the Roman empire comes in and does some major butox kicking or the pagans might rise up?

We know, even if you pay any attention now, Christians in India are being persecuted by the

Indians, and now the Taliban is killing, I understood that today they're supposed to execute 229

Christians. I don't know if that's true, but this is what I'd heard, thanks to Joe Biden and the terribly ungodly and evil government in the hierarchical level that we have right now.

Ungodly and evil, ungodly and evil. Yes, I said it. And because they promote homosexuality, they promote abortion, they have lied to people outside the countries.

People are being tortured and executed. Women are being raped because of the actions of the government. They have opened up our borders.

They have allowed illegals to come in against the law. They're not upholding the law. They've sworn under oath to keep.

Therefore, they are evil and not to be trusted. So they are turning on us, the population, and they're gonna turn even further against the

Christians as time goes on, because once they get a vaccination passport requirement, then buying and selling will be a requirement via their control as they move towards totalitarianism.

And yes, I could talk about that some more, but I'm not going to. So in this, the Christians are moving forward in the speaking.

Now, this is risky to them, and they've suffered for the sake of Christ. Now, in Philippians 1 .29, it says, to you it has been granted not only to believe, but also to suffer for his sake.

And that means that God has granted it for the Christians to suffer. Now, here in America, because Jesus is the blonde -haired, blue -eyed

Caucasian surfer dude dressed in a woman's nightgown, and because of pre -tribulation rapture theology, we're gonna get out because everything's good.

Well, we have an anemic, weak church that doesn't know what it means to risk and to take chances, and to preach and promote that gospel to keep society preserved with the salt and the light of the truth of God's word.

They're not doing it. And so this is one of the reasons I believe our country's failing, because the Christians have failed to do their job.

And inside of that group, I say it's because the men have failed to do their job. Men are the responsible parties, more so than the women, and the men are the ones supposed to stand up and do what's necessary.

That's what I've said, and what I'll continue to say nevertheless. So persecution comes in different forms.

Verse five, so then does he who provides you with the spirit and works miracles among you do it by the works of the law or by hearing with faith?

Here he goes again. Contrasting faith and works of the law. The law was summarized in the 613, and with that summary of the 613, but that's how many there were, but Jesus summarized the law in Matthew 22, 37 through 40, when he said, love

God, love your neighbor, and these are the requirements of the law. And so the law is summarized in loving

God and loving your neighbor. But if you love God, it includes a ceremonial law, and judicial law is in loving your neighbor as well as loving

God and righteousness. But he, like I said, he again contrasts faith and works.

Now, the law. The law is a list of the do's and don'ts of moral behavior.

It consists of the 10 commandments, that's in Exodus 21 through 17, rules for social life,

Exodus 21 through 23, and rules of worship, Exodus 25 through 31.

So there's more stuff in other places, but these are the main areas. Now, the law is interesting.

The law brings about the opposite of what it requires. Now, I've said that before, and it's worth noting.

It brings about the opposite of what it requires. It requires perfection, reveals our imperfection, requires holiness, reveals our unholiness.

It says, do this and you will live, but if you don't, it'll kill you. The law is good because it comes from God, but the law is dangerous because we can't keep it.

And since it comes from God and God is righteous, then the judgment of God will necessarily and properly fall upon the law breaker.

Now, since sin is breaking the law of God, 1 John 3, 20, and debts, which is in, it's a legal debt.

Jesus says, forgive us our sins, forgive us our debts, Matthew 6, 12, Luke 11, four. He equates sin with legal debt.

Legal debts can be transferred. Jesus bore our sin in his body on the cross, 1 Peter 2, 24, that's what it means to bear our sin, and he canceled the sin that at the cross,

Colossians 2, 14. Now, the law then is met in Christ who never sinned, 1

Peter 2, 22. So he became one of us, made for a little while lower than the angels,

Hebrews 2, 9, made under the law of Galatians 4 and 4 because he's God in flesh. John 1, 1 in verse 14,

Colossians 2, 9. So he was able to do for us what we could not do.

He was able to keep the law perfectly, we could not. And because we're in him, when he was keeping that law, in a sense, we're keeping that law.

When he died, we died. When he was resurrected, we were resurrected, and this best works with election, predestination, federal headship.

I've gone over this before, and I'll continue to go over it periodically because these are the basics and the fundamentals of the basics of the imputation justification issue that we have to relate to and understand.

And I will say that the people who understand this and can articulate it and understand it well will be able to refute basically any doctrine that goes against it, particularly if you know where the scriptures are.

Now, I don't expect you guys to know all that, that's my job, I know this stuff. But when you understand these things, this is what will guard you and guard others as you're able to speak.

Like this SDA guy I talked to last, tonight after the show. I literally said to him after a while,

I said, so do you believe then that you're saved by grace through faith after all you can do?

And he said, well, you say by grace, I said, but after all we can do? And he goes, well, kind of, you know,

I said, do you agree that we're saved by grace after all we can do? He goes, well, yeah. I said, good, I just quoted the Book of Mormon, 2

Nephi 25, 23. And he said, well, the Book of Mormon has some truths in it.

That was his defense. Yeah. And so a few minutes later,

I said, well, is baptism necessary for salvation? And he goes in a different direction.

Let me ask you a different question. Is baptism necessary for salvation? You're like, let me ask you another question.

Is baptism necessary for salvation? He goes, well, yeah. Yes, you have to be baptized. And you gotta keep the commandments to be saved?

He says, yes. And you gotta believe, right? And he says, yeah. Well, actually, paragraph 2068 in the Catechism of the

Catholic Church says that you obtain salvation through faith, baptism, and the observance of the commandments.

And I said, you're a Roman Catholic, except for the issue of the Sabbath, you're a Roman Catholic. But the reason

I said that to him is because they routinely attack the Roman Catholic Church as the great whore of Babylon and stuff like that.

And I said, you're just like a Roman Catholic. You believe the same gospel, works righteousness.

I said, if you were to die tonight, I said, may not happen, you'll go to hell. You are a false convert.

And I said it to him, you're a false convert. And he is, he's a false convert.

Because he was saying that you have to do good works in order to be saved.

You gotta do good works. You have to do good works. That's how you prove your faith.

Well, that's not justification before God. That's before people, before God. He knows your heart. You don't need that.

Besides, it then becomes justification by works. And I went to Luke 18, nine through 14.

After he quoted Mark, Matthew 7, 22 and 23, or referenced it, and I quoted it to him.

Mark 7, 22 and 23, he said, "'Many will say to me in that day, "'Lord, Lord, do we not prophesy in your name, "'perform miracles, cast out demons?'

And Jesus says, I'll get away from you, I never knew you. "'You who work lawlessness.' And I said, why were they condemned?

Because they were working lawlessness. So they're believing in God, believing in Christ, and they were prophesying and doing good works.

And he calls them lawless sinners. And he paused for a minute, and he tried to correct that, but he didn't make any sense, which is why

I can't remember it. And I said, what is that day? He goes, it's a day of judgment.

I go, exactly correct. So on that day, many will say, we believe in you and look what we did.

They're appealing to salvation before Christ on their faith and their works. He goes, no, they're ceremonial law.

Would you stop adding to the word of God? And then I went to, and I get to tell about Romans nine, what happened there, oh, that was good.

But I went to Luke 18, nine through 14, okay?

This is one of the few places where Jesus actually uses the word justified, dikiazo, where the tax gatherer and the

Pharisee would enter the temple. And the Pharisee says, look at the things I do. Here's the things I don't do.

And the tax gatherer says, Lord, be merciful to me, the sinner, not a sinner, the sinner.

And Jesus says, and this man went down to his house, justified, and I said, notice, no works there.

This is what Jesus taught. And this guy started going, over here says this, over here says that.

I go, wait a minute, why don't you focus on what it actually says here? Why jump all over? Well, you're not looking at the verses I show, show me.

Bang, bang, bang, I put them in context, let's go back. And I showed him, okay? And then we got to this discussion.

And he said, well, God would not do that. God is not the kind of God who would just create people because they're gonna go to hell and stuff like that.

Because I asked him this question, he brought about free will. And I said, well, Bob and Frank, identical twins.

And at the age of 30, Bob believes and Frank does not. And he says, he said, well, that's because they're free will.

I said, well, why is Bob's free will different than Frank's free will? Well, because he just chose. Well, why did he choose, the other one did not?

Because of his free will. And I said, let me give you an answer. Philippians 129, to you has been granted to believe.

So now God grants that he believes. That's why Bob believed, because God granted. He goes, no, it's his free will.

So no, you read the text, God granted that he believed. You see that? I said, in this case, in this scenario, did

God grant that he believed? And he had to say, yes. I said, good, so God grants that you believe, right?

So why do you say it's up to your person's free will? What are you gonna say? Well, God, I said, did he grant it to, grant belief to Frank in this situation?

He said, well, you see, it's up to his free will. I said, did he grant it to Bob? Yes, did he choose to grant it to Frank?

He said, no. I said, good. He goes, you're teaching Calvinism. And I said, so the stuff

I've been teaching you is Calvinistic? You know, Calvinism? I said, is that what it is? And I said, you know,

I'm just, you know, referencing the analogy here. And he said, well, you know,

God wouldn't do that. And I go, yes, he would. He goes, where does it say that? Let's go to Romans nine. And I went through Romans nine, and I started reading through Romans nine, and no lie.

I read from verses, I think it was 19 to 23. I just read them.

I read it. And literally afterwards, he said, that's your interpretation. He literally said, well, that's your interpretation.

And everybody in the room, what? I go, dude, I just read it. You understood it, and you denounced the word of God.

And then I set him up. Then I set him up, and I said, I even believe that God would make the wicked, even for the day of evil.

He goes, he would not do that. And I went to Proverbs 16, four, and I quoted it. So I said,

I had a screen show. I said, there it is. I quote you references, read the stuff to you, and you deny the word of God.

You deny it. You're a false convert. Now, why? Because in the

SDA theology that this guy's teaching, faith and works are both necessary in order to be saved.

And when you have faith and works that are necessary in order to be saved, you have a false gospel. We are justified by faith.

Romans 5, one, having therefore been justified by faith. And I ask people, does the

Bible say, having therefore been justified by faith? I read it to them, and then

I ask, is this what the Bible is saying? And then they have to say, yes. Do you agree with what it says?

And half the time they'll say, well, you have to understand there's context. I said, wait a minute. Do you understand what it says right here?

We go back over this, because they want to have their works. And they said, well, what kind of faith is it?

I go Philippians 1, 29, the faith that God grants. So God grants his faith.

We're justified by that faith. Is that good enough to be justified? Now they're stuck, because then they say no, they go against scripture.

They add works, they go against scripture. So what do they do? Well, over here, it says in James 2, once you look here, read what it says.

And this is what I was battling tonight for about an hour, this kind of thing, and people got to see it. And it's recorded, it's still online.

The after show for today's show. So this is the error of this kind of stuff.

And I think he kept quoting stuff. And I said, dude, I've been doing this longer than you've been alive. I said,

I've been doing this 41 years. How old are you? And he goes, I'm not telling you. And so it doesn't make me right, but I'm gonna tell you,

I've talked to thousands and thousands of people who say the same thing as you do. Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Muslims, Eastern Orthodox, New Age, Roman Catholics, I mean, whatever, didn't say all those groups, but I said,

I've talked to so many people, they say the same thing. It's your faith and your works. I said, oh, and he said, what was the word he used?

Maybe someone who heard that tonight, if you're in there, he didn't allow

God, it was something about, he allows God to work in him.

It wasn't the word allow, but that was what he was saying. He was saying, I said, dude, you need to turn around and I showed him how to do it.

Go like this and just go like this, pat yourself on the back. That you, it wasn't give permission, it wasn't allowed, it was something else, grant that God does something.

And I said, you are arrogant, that God has to submit to your will.

You grant him, you give him this ability to come into your permission or whatever it was, the word he used.

It was a heresy fest. And my wife kept going, come on down to clean up for the

Bible study. I couldn't, I'm not, not that, there's a, she made me a really good taco too.

Wasn't a sandwich. I think she's getting sandwiches now, but it was a, I guess it was a taco sandwich kind of thing.

That's right. If you see an object coming from this direction, it's from my wife, she's right over there.

So, you know, are you making room for the, for the flight path of the instrument of vindication?

Move a little bit. Is that a shuriken? What is that?

It's a shoe. It's a shoe, okay. It'll work. So, all right.

I've had this kind of a conversation with so many people and it has to do with faith and works. We're gonna get into a little bit more here on faith and works a little bit.

I'm gonna get the congruent merit, condign merit. I'm gonna talk about this. We need to keep moving along here.

All right. Verse six, even so Abraham believed

God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Now, here's a question. This is a tough question. I want you to pay attention to the question.

What was reckoned to Abraham as a righteousness? Faith, good.

There's a toughie. He believed God was reckoned him as righteousness. Now, just so you know, in Greek, pistis is the word faith.

It's also translated as the word believe. They don't, we have different words. Same word in Greek. Pistis is the noun.

Pistou is the verb, but it's just the same word. All right. So, Abraham believed

God was reckoned him as righteousness. That's from Genesis 15, six. Then he believed in the

Lord and he reckoned it to him as righteousness. Abraham was before the law, before the law.

The law was given by God to Moses as codified the 10 commandments and other stuff.

And Abraham was justified by his belief and trust in God. Romans 4, three, for what does the scripture say?

Abraham believed God, it was credited him as righteousness. Romans 4, nine, is this blessing then on the circumcised or the uncircumcised?

We say faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness. Romans 4, 22. Therefore it was also credited to him as righteousness.

James 2, 23. And Abraham believed God was reckoned him as righteousness. So that verse from Genesis 15, six is used a lot in the

New Testament and it's before the law. Now, let's see if I can quote it.

Romans 4, one through five. What then shall we say that Abraham or our forefather according to the flesh has found?

For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

That's the vertical. For what does the scripture say? And Abraham believed God, it was credited him as righteousness.

Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but what is due.

But to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.

Now this is very clear. Abraham was justified by faith, not by his works in God.

And when James talks about this, James just, when he says Abraham was justified, not by faith alone, it's on the horizontal before people.

Because James 2, 18, you show me your faith by your works, I'll show you my faith by my works. It's the horizontal.

And so that's what that is context about. And so the same verse is used to demonstrate that faith does have works, absolutely.

True faith manifests, we're not denying that. But it's not faith and works.

But people say it's the faith that works. I have no problem with that. It's the faith that works that saves.

Yeah, because it's the faith that comes from God. And that faith alone justifies you because that's the faith that has works.

But as I asked this guy on, and I've done this before with many people, I said, let's say there's a guy on his deathbed.

He's got tubes everywhere. And I've seen people like this. I used to work at a hospital.

I've seen people like that. You should transport people like that. I've been to rooms where I've seen it.

And the chaplain of the hospital, Palomar Hospital in Escondido, California, the chaplain used to go to our church, the same church.

So I would ask him, have you had any deathbed conversions? He says, oh yes, without a hesitation, he goes, yes.

I said, let me ask you about it. I said, for example, they got minutes to live, maybe hours to live, a few days to live.

He goes, all those, yep. He says, you give them the gospel and they receive the gospel. You can't reach into their heart and know, but for the intent and purposes, they believe the gospel.

I says, and then they die shortly afterwards. He says, it happens. Absolutely, yes, it does.

He's been at the deathbed many times. So I'll relate this to people and I'll say, there are cases where people have got tubes up their nose, tubes in their throats, in their urethras.

They have IVs. They cannot leave the bed. They can't be baptized by immersion.

It's not gonna happen. It'd kill them. And they receive

Christ. Maybe some people can, all they can do is nod and the pastor, the chaplain gives a good gospel.

Do you accept? Yeah, he does this so they can nod. This kind of situation. And then the man dies minutes later.

Does he go to heaven or hell? If they say he goes to heaven, then your works and baptism are not necessary.

If he says he goes to hell, then faith in Christ doesn't save you. So either way, their false doctrines don't work.

And this is one of the ways to show, well, that's unusual. I can't know their heart. And this guy tonight, he goes, well,

I don't know the guy's heart. I go, I'm telling you that in this situation, the guy truly believes. Because I'm telling you this scenario.

I'm sure this has really happened. Because if they believe, it's because God grants that they believe, Leviticus 129, right?

He goes, yeah. Says, okay then. If they truly believe, then are they justified by faith?

Well, you have to get baptized. You have to, it's a faith that would have worked. If he'd have lived, he'd have done works. Did not, no, he died.

This is my scenario. He died. Did he go to heaven or hell? And I've had them say, oh, he goes to hell. Because he didn't do anything good.

That is salvation by works. And when I ask people this kind of a questioning, and I pressure them on it, they will try and squirm out of this.

And this is a regular thing I encounter online. Now, you guys don't live in these circles, but I do.

That's okay. But I will go to chat rooms. I'll go to forums. I'll go to places and have discussions like this.

Sometimes in writing and sometimes verbally. And this is a very frequent conversation.

That's why I'm so practiced at it, because it's what I do. And it happens. And it's a reality.

It's one of the ways of demonstrating that these people are believing in a false gospel. Abraham believed

God, and it was reckoned him as righteousness. Verse seven, therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham.

The true sons of Abraham are believers, those who are of faith, just like Abraham was.

That's what Paul is saying in the last three verses of Romans two talks about that as well. The true circumcised are those circumcised of the heart, not just of the flesh.

Because the flesh doesn't save you. Now, this is Romans two, 26 to 29.

So if the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?

And he who is physically uncircumcised, if he keeps the law, will he not judge you, who, through having the letter of the law and circumcision or a transgressor of the law?

For he is a Jew, for he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh.

But he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that which is of the heart by the spirit, not by the letter, and his praise is not from men, but from God.

So the issue of the law, he's saying, you don't even keep the law, you're a transgressor of the law, and those who have that law are gonna be your judge.

Doesn't mean that those who have that law are gonna be saved by that law. But the standard of the law that you have is what's gonna judge you, and others are gonna judge you.

You're saying this. So when the unbeliever says to the Christian, aren't you supposed to be honest? He's got a point, and he's right.

That's right, that's right, you're supposed to be honest. Well, then why did you lie to that person? You're supposed to be a

Christian, right? Even the unbelievers will know, which is interesting, how come they do? And so I'll bring that up, you know, and stuff.

I've even had unbelievers, you know, I've said that they go, when you lie, man, I go, I don't lie. Oh, yes, you do.

I go, no, I don't. You're lying right now. I said, look, I'm not lying, I don't lie. I may misrepresent the truth without a purpose, but I don't lie.

I don't. Because if I do, I have to go take care of it. And it offends my

Lord, and I'm not gonna lie, because I have to deal with it. The conviction,

I don't lie. Unbelievers don't know how to handle that. Everybody lies.

No, not everybody lies. You don't lie. No, I don't lie. So, verse eight.

The scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, all the nations will be blessed in you.

And notice that verse. Foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith.

Now, what the false converts will say is, faith that works. Faith that has works.

In one sense, they're right, because we don't want false faith.

But it's not the faith with the works that saves, it's the faith that saves.

True faith has works. But actually, it's regeneration in us, wrought by God's presence, where he makes us born again, that enables us to do good works, because no one does any good.

Romans. One, three, 10, 11, 10 through 12. I was right, Romans three, 10 through 12, good.

So, we have, here's a stunning grasshopper, you can take him. You like that one?

You're getting there. Okay. For those of you who don't know, that's from an old series in the 70s called

Tung Fu. All right. You like that one, that was good, that was good, all right.

So, in you, all the nations shall be blessed.

Now, let's talk about this for a little bit. He's quoting Genesis 12, three. Now, the covenant that God made with Israel, was that the

Messiah would come through Israel, and that God would come for the nation of Israel.

The nation of Israel blew it, and did not recognize the true

Messiah. Now, God, of course, knew this, was it was all within his sovereign plan.

And in Genesis 12, three, he said, all the nations in you will be blessed.

What he's talking about there is through Jesus, because as Abraham was called out of the earth, the

Chaldees, and God called him, changed his name from Abram to Abraham, and then gave him a land and descendants.

It was from those people that the Messiah would come, through whom the world would be blessed.

But the Messiah was only sent to Israel. Well, we know this because Jesus says in Matthew 15, 24,

I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. In fact, I think it's Matthew 10, six.

I think that's where it is, where he says to the disciples, he says, when he sends them out, go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, do not go by way of the

Gentiles or the Samaritans. He specifically restricts them, don't go to the

Gentiles and don't go to the Samaritans, stick to that lost sheep of the house of Israel.

So this is because of the covenant requirements. Israel broke their covenant requirements where the

Gentiles are grafted in. And this was talked about in Romans, talked about in John. We'll get to that sometime, do another study on it.

So this means then that the ordination of the gospel to the Gentiles was before the law was given and before the covenant of God was established permanently in more of its details, because God had ordained that we, the

Gentiles, would be saved. Now, notice that what

Paul says that he would justify the Gentiles by faith and all the nations will be blessed in you, not by faith and works.

Now, when we go to Genesis three, Adam and Eve were in the garden and they sinned, they hid themselves and they covered themselves with fig leaves.

Incidentally, what group uses fig leaves in their sacred temple ceremonies?

Fig leaf aprons, the Mormons. Yeah, the Mormons, yeah. So they covered themselves with fig leaves and the pre -incarnate

Christ in the garden covered them with animal skins. And the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.

Who did the work? God. Now, skin, most probably, is that of an animal, not of a fruit like a peach, it's not gonna last very long.

You make one movement, ripped. It's gonna be an animal skin. So most probably, even though it doesn't say,

I believe, my opinion is that an animal was killed, was sacrificed. Leviticus 17, 11, without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.

I see this in Genesis 3, 21, 3, 21, 3, 2, 1, that God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and he clothed them.

And we're clothed in the righteousness of God in Revelation, I forgot where, but we have a righteousness that's not our own,

Philippians 3, 9. This is the work of God from the very beginning, the Proto -Evangelia, the covering that we have from God, notice that Adam and Eve, they didn't do anything.

They were the ones hiding, they were the ones running, and they were the ones covered by God's work, not ours.

And it wasn't, they had to put the skins on them. And notice, this is interesting,

I just now thought of this. The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.

He did the clothing, He did the clothing of them. That's what it says, interesting.

Like what they did was. Did their own works. Did they believe in God?

Absolutely. Did they do a little bit of works? Sure. The foolishness of the gospel of man and humanistic philosophy.

So I asked this guy on the after show today, I said, so do you keep yourself right with the infinitely holy

God by your goodness? And he said, it's not by my goodness. And I said, well, he says, it's the works of God in me.

And I said, so you keep your salvation with the infinitely holy

God by faith and the works that God does through you? He goes, yes. Now logically, you're either doing the works or it's not the case that you're doing the works.

Now this is the kind of logic people can't handle. If you're not doing the works, you're not responsible.

So if you're saying, but you gotta do works, but if you're not doing them, then it's not you. It can't be credited to you by your works.

But if you say it is your works, then let's hear you say it. But see, I've noticed with a lot of people in cults and brainwash stuff, they cannot understand logic.

And I told this guy tonight, I said, you have cognitive dissonance. You cannot see the truth and the illogic of your position.

A lot of times I have to teach people logic. It's either the case that God, the Christian God created the universe, or it's not the case that the

Christian God created the universe. People will say, well, there's a third option. Let's go over this again.

It's either the case A or it's not the case A. Well, there's a third option. Well, what is it? C. And I have to work with them because they don't know how to think.

I gotta teach them how to think. I have to teach Christians how to think. And say, look, this is repeat after me, okay?

Matt is great. And they go, what? And you know, but they kind of catch on, but you gotta try.

But they don't know how to think. And they don't know what logic is.

And they submit the scriptures to their own understanding all the time.

It happens in churches a lot. I would love to be able to go up in front of a church and go have a bunch of people in there.

And I'm invited for the purpose of messing them up. I get to mess you up.

I'm gonna ask questions, find out the majority of the hand raises, and I'm gonna tackle something. I'm gonna mess you up.

You ready? I've done it with a couple of groups like that. You ready to get messed up? Oh yeah, mess us up. And then after 20 minutes, are you messed up?

We're messed up. You know, they admit it. And I'll say, this is because you've not been taught these things.

I'd be careful with how I say it. You've not been taught these things this way, have you? No, no, okay. And I mess them up.

And I say, you like being messed up? Most people go, yeah. All right, now.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The gospel is so simple.

Jesus did it all. Trust in what he did, not what you can do with him. That's it.

Just trust in what he did alone. It's all I got is my faith. I tell the people, a day of judgment, you know, a sea of people.

I'm gonna fight my way through the crowd. I'm gonna get behind Jesus. And I'm gonna bow down on my knees behind his robe.

And I'm gonna take that robe and troll it around me. And that's it. When God points at me, why should

I let you into heaven? Because of him. Just because of him.

That's all I got. I got nothing. Just what he did.

And even the faith I have in him is from you. That's it. But others, well, didn't we, you know, do this to Eucharist?

Didn't we do these good works? Didn't we keep the Sabbath? Wasn't I baptized? I thought

I was special. What's that? I thought I was special. Yeah, you can be special on the way there.

Yeah. All right, now. Verse nine.

So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer. Simple. But just like Abraham was blessed by faith, we're blessed by faith.

Verse 10 is interesting, though. For as many as are the works of the law are under a curse.

For it is written, cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law to perform them.

What does it mean to be as are the works of the law? Remember, he said faith or works, faith or works, faith or works, not faith and.

It's either or. Therefore, you do works, you're under a curse. Deuteronomy 27, 26, curse is he who does not conform to the words of the law by doing them.

I've actually quoted this to people, referenced it to people and said, in Galatians 3, 28, we maintain that man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.

Jesus, in Matthew 22, 37 through 40, says the summation of the law is love God, love your neighbor.

So we're saved but justified by faith without keeping the law, without loving God, without loving our neighbor.

We don't get saved because we love God and because we love our neighbor, that's works. We're saved in spite of that and then we love

God and love our neighbor because of regeneration. I've had people tell me, well, no, no, you gotta love

God to be a Christian. I said, well, the way you say that isn't clear.

Yeah, if you're a Christian, you're loving God because they go together, but to become a

Christian from non -Christian to Christian, from non -saved to saved, from non -justified to justified, you have to love

God and your neighbor. Yes, that's salvation by works, isn't it? And I've said this to people, they go, no, it's

God's work in me. And I said, well, let me ask you, are you doing the loving?

Yeah, okay. Are you loving God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind? Well, I try.

But you're not doing it. No, I try. Yeah, that's why

I just said, you're not doing it. Yeah, but I try. Okay, let's go over this again. You're not doing it.

This is the mind of the fallen man. Well, I'm trying and that's good enough, that's saying it, but you're not doing it.

But I'm trying. They don't realize that they cannot see the truth because they believe a false gospel.

Cognitive dissonance, spiritual dissonance. They don't get it, they can't see it. So I have to go over it again.

I said, I've had people actually say to me, oh yeah, I love God with all my heart, soul, strength, and mind.

You do? Really? Well, that's pretty good. I'm tempted to see if we can take you outside and find a puddle, see if you can walk on it.

Oh, I wanna find out, but I say, so would you agree with me that Jesus is a standard of perfection?

Would you say that Jesus loved God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength? Oh yeah.

So you say you do that, right? So you do it on the same level as Jesus? Well, I try.

So you don't. You're lost because you're boasting that you are able to keep the law in your own heart, in your own pride.

And you've heard me say this before. One day I was up in my room praying, and I mean, I don't think

Nick was here. I was praying and praying and praying for 20 minutes. I couldn't even think of anything else to pray, anything else to confess.

I remember it very well. I couldn't even think of anything else. I mean, I could list a million particulars, but I mean, all the things

I've done, all the things, the generalities and particulars I could remember that were important, they all are, but you know,

I couldn't think of anything else. And then after I was done praying, I said, Lord, thank you for not making me like the

Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses, which is what the Pharisees said. Lord, thank you for not making me like the tax gatherer.

And what it taught me was, after the shock of my pride was made manifest to me, what it taught me was that even in the depth of my goodness, sin was lurking behind the shadows.

And the shadows exist when the light of God isn't really fully there. And when the light of God is upon you and within you, you see yourself, and you don't really like what you see.

I know, because that's what happened when I was 17 and the presence of God was so strong that I could see myself for what

I was, completely sinful, without a single good thing in me.

There was nothing. Every part of me was shined on and made aware to me of what

I was, and there was only one realization. I am a sinner, completely and totally.

That's all. That was the truth I knew. That was it. That was the truth.

And we have the arrogant foolishness of the false gospel that is ultimately demonic. Paragraph 26 to eight in the

Catechism of the Catholic Church. You obtain salvation through faith, baptism, and the observance of the commandments.

2036 and 2070 of the Catechism. 2036 says, keeping the natural law is necessary for salvation, and 2070 says that the 10 commandments are an express representation of the natural law.

So you gotta keep the 10 commandments to be saved, says Catholicism. And this

SDA guy was saying the same thing. You gotta keep the law to be saved.

It's foolishness. I mean, how's it working for you? Are you keeping it the way Jesus did? If you say yes, you're an arrogant fool.

And if you say no, you're condemned. Either way, you lose. It's either you put your faith in Christ completely, or you don't.

That's it. They don't. Now, so curse is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, but I try.

Now I'm gonna introduce you to some concepts. In Catholicism, in particular, and I've heard it referenced in Eastern Orthodoxy as well, they have what's called condine merit, congruent merit, and strict merit.

Now let's go over these slowly. It'll be interesting, at least for me. Strict merit is a reward due to an agreement or necessary and exact recompense due to work.

So if I say I'm gonna hire somebody at $10 an hour to do 10 hours of work, when that work's completed,

I legally, morally owe that person $100, right? Right. It's strict.

It's one for one. It's what is owed. Romans 4 .3, or Romans 4 .4.

To the one who works, his wage is not credit as a favor, but what is due.

That's strict merit. Condine merit, this is for, well, reward for an action because of God's promise to reward good works, performed by a person who is in God's grace and who is also accomplishing

God's will. So he's in God's grace. God is being favorable to him, in the case of the

Catholic Church, because he's a member of the Catholic Church, has been catechized, he's been baptized, taken the sacraments, and he's going through various things, gonna penance and done all the good works.

He's in a state of grace. What bondage.

So here's an example of this. Honoring your parents so you have a reward, a blessing from God, since God said, you'd be blessed for honoring your parents.

So God must give you a reward because he's committed himself to doing that. If you honor your parents,

Exodus 21 through 17, you'll live long, things are good. That's the idea. God obligates himself, but that's to those who are believers in God's grace, who are then working, and so it's called condine merit.

It's a merit that comes to you that God does not owe you, but he's obligated.

It's not owed you because of your work, but because of his commitment to you. So it's not strictly earned as strict merit is, but it's owed because God commits himself to owing it in that sense.

So in strict merit, if I don't give the money to that person, that's wrong.

It's not just, and if God does not reward someone who's in grace following him and is obeying what

God wants, then if God doesn't reward them accordingly, then he's wrong because he's bound himself to do that.

Congruent merit, the reward for an action based on the kindness and desire of the one giving the merit.

It is a reward that is not owed. It is based on the kindness of the one who gives reward.

An example of that is you clean your parents' house, though it is not required, and they reward you with an ice cream.

If they didn't give you an ice cream, it's not wrong. They're just out of the kindness of their heart for giving it to you.

So congruent merit is the kindness of the heart given to someone who does something right. Condign merit is

God committing himself to doing what, to reward you for actions that are commensurate with what he's already stated.

So these are the three kinds of merit that the Roman Catholic Church has defined and the

Eastern Orthodox is also using. Now, let's relate to the salvation. Having therefore been justified by faith,

Romans 5 .1, when he does not work but believes, his faith is credited as righteousness. This strict definition of justification is without any works, period.

When he does not work but believes, his faith is credited as righteousness. Well, they might say, well, that's condign merit because he's believing and therefore

God is saving him. But God grants that he believes, Philippians 1 .29. Then they might say, well, at this point, this is what

God grants. Then I'd say, oh, that's by faith, isn't it? Well, no, he could do works too. But the works, you're gonna say, are condign.

If you do good works, you do the Eucharist, help your mom and dad, don't lie, return that wallet that fell out of the guy's pants.

That's condign merit. And God has said that in certain conditions, certain kinds of things, you do this, he's gonna reward you.

And God's promised to do that. So it's not your merit, but God's promise based upon what you do.

That's still merit because it's based upon what you do. But yet God's committed himself to it. Well, that's what he's committed himself to do and your merit, your effort.

So if you do it, then that's obligated because God's obligated on the condition of your performance, right?

Right. That's a form of merit. Now, in congruent merit,

God simply will just give to you something that's nice based upon what you've done. If God doesn't owe you salvation, but if you are really faithful and nice, he'll give it to you.

But then it's based upon your really faithful life. That still is works. That's right.

And what they're trying to do, what these antichrists are trying to do is justify their works as part of the cross.

And I say to people, can you mix your works with the blood of Jesus? I phrase it that way.

Do you mingle your works, your sincerity and your effort with the shed blood of Christ by which you then achieve that salvation?

That's a powerful statement. My answer, when they say,

I've had people say, well, what about you? I don't. You don't do any good works to be saved? None. I have no good works.

Even the works God gives you to do, even the works God gives me to do, I mess up.

I mean, what's the most obvious example of that I think is marriage. I mean, seriously.

God's given me a wife and I can't even get that right. Do I mess up in my marriage,

Neek? He plays the fifth. But it's a good example of, well, am

I good enough? Well, no, I'm not good enough. Is my merit, my thing that I do, there's still that what

I do with God obligates himself in condign merit or doesn't obligate himself in congruent merit.

Either one are based upon what I've done and God's kindness or obligation, self obligation is based upon what

I've done. Still, people look, they try so hard.

And I tell people this, you're trying so hard to damn yourself. You are working so hard to bring yourself to damnation because you wanna find some way to sneak your filthy rags, use menstrual cloths into the whole order of salvation.

Isaiah 64, six, your righteous deeds are filthy rags. Use menstrual cloth in the Hebrew. You are trying to sneak this in because you wanna say ultimately, faith alone in Christ alone is not enough.

Now they're gonna come back and say, but you're talking about just mental ascent, the devil believes. That's not what we're talking about is essential.

We're talking about fiducia, the faith that God gives, Philippians 1, 29. Therefore we're justified.

It's God's work, not yours. People work so hard to damn themselves.

This is why it's important for us to preach and teach that gospel and to know what that gospel is.

But I think I should break here and continue next week because we're already over an hour.

But people work so hard to manifest their arrogance as well as their foolishness.

Because the fact is we've got nothing. We've got nothing we can offer God. Even the faith that we have is from him.

As an illustration I've given before is, I see this,

I have this vision, not a vision, but I imagine a dirty kind of a sloping hill with the cross.

And I don't look up on that cross very high. And it's dirty and it's a little muddy and it's got various things of filth around it.

And what I can see on that cross, the only thing I'll let myself see are the nailed feet of my

Lord. And the blood's dripping down off his toes, down the wood, mingling in the mud and the dirt.

And I'm approaching that cross. And the way I'm approaching it is on my knees with my face to the ground.

And in front of me I'm pushing a bag of my works. And it's, they all stink and they're all full of stench.

And they're touched by my own heart, my wicked heart. And I'm pushing it forward towards that cross.

And I allow myself to see just the direction towards him, get it close enough where that blood can touch that bag.

And I crawl backwards, face to the ground. This is my

Lord, this is what I've got to offer. I have a bag of filthy rags that I need cleansed by the blood of Christ.

And they don't save me. And their cleansing doesn't save me. I want him removing this.

But it's only what he has done. That's how I see myself before my

Lord in salvation. I have a different thing I think about when it comes to fellowship and intimacy.

But when it comes to this issue of the sacrifice of cross and my relationship with him, that's what

I think in my head. And I've thought about it. I've been there so many times. I remember once a guy and I were talking and he was telling me, he was a

Christian. He says, I don't know. I don't know if I'm really believing. I'm trying and I think things

I shouldn't think. And I do things I shouldn't do. And I'm smiling internally because I'm like, yeah,

I know that one. And how can I be saved if, and he lists these things out. And I just listened to him talk.

And he was straining because of his sin. And I said, dead people don't struggle against the weight of sin upon them.

And then I gave him this image of the cross and the feet, the dirt and the muck and pushing this bag of his sin forward.

And I said, do you, could you see that? You're pushing this bag forward. He goes, yes, I see it.

Is that you? And he says, yes. I said, now look to your side in your mind.

He goes, yeah. And he says, there, I'm with you right there. You see me doing the exact same thing.

And it really ministered to him because I said, look, I said, this is where we all are.

And the fact that you are so concerned about it is a sign of your great life of Christ in you.

That you recognize what you are before him. And we're all the same. We're all the same.

Before that cross, we need that shed blood of Christ. And the best we have is our filth.

And that's why we're justified by faith alone in Christ, alone the faith that he grants us. I said, and that's enough.

We gotta trust in that. Don't trust in our faith. Trust in Christ. Because sometimes people put their trust in their faith.

They think they gotta have the faith. I gotta have my faith in my faith. I gotta have the faith in, no, him. And that way, faith is only as good as who you put it in.

If your faith is that big or that big, it's still good faith because of who it's in. This is the imagery

I sometimes think of and will use in my conversations at night with talking to people online and things like that.

So, those are visuals that people can remember. And they're good. So we're gonna stop here and we'll continue next week in verse 11.

And we'll go through the rest of the chapter, probably. And more about the law and stuff like that.

Okay? Okay, anybody got any questions or comments? Well, your last vision ain't gonna get out of my head.

You saw that, huh? Yeah. For instance,

I talk about why in the Lord you're in, I'm gonna be up there cheering on him, be jumping down, and I'm thinking,

I think I'm gonna be on the ground feasting out. It's just - Yeah.

Yeah. I'm gonna be shocked that I'm there. Well, there is that.

We're shocked too. No, I - You'd be shocked that I'm there too. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm gonna be shocked.

That I'm there. Let me see if I can get into the stream. You know,

I can see people. I'm pretty much sure that if you were to start typing right now,

I could see this in my laptop and then we're gonna ask questions. And okay, it's still going, but that says ended.

So I don't know what happened. That one's working. I think I'm in the wrong something.

Anyway, if you guys have questions or comments you want to ask, go ahead. While you're doing that, if you do, what would you say to someone who argues because there are differences between a circumcision party and Rome, you cannot make that application?

I don't know what application it was. I'm not sure. Definitely am not ended. It's not ended.

Yeah, it's still going. But I'm gonna see if I can get my laptop to go into the thing so I can see because the text is better on this.

If anybody has any questions. So I'll just go back to this.

And match that Bible study, enter studio. Should be able to get right in. Hopefully I'll be able to see if anybody wants to.

Let's see. Come on, let's go. Okay, there we go.

Now I can see people. Okay, so now I can see everything says, can you guys hear me still? Okay, everything's good. All right.

So I'm reading the new covenant unveiled by Wilkerson. After reading this topic, we think God ought to be pleased with our striving and self efforts, but he is not because he bypassed a high priest.

That's a very good point, Joe. That's a very good point.

Because any of our works that we do would bypass the miniature ship of Christ. But of course, they're gonna say, no, it all goes through him anyway.

But that's a good point we're focusing on. It is. Good, good, good, good comment.

Galatians, let's see. Night and God bless, Judy says. You have no questions? Okay, great study,

Ernie says. Thanks for sharing. Have you looked at theosis? Yes, I've looked at theosis.

Thoughts, I reject it, the way they say it, which is not in the context of legal imputation, but in justification through transformation.

And that's the problem I have with it. Sorry for interfering in your conversation with SDA guy earlier. I didn't mean to be rude,

I apologize. That's okay, Andrew. No sweat, you have a good heart, Andrew. Matt, I just received your book from Amazon, Atheistica.

Good, read it. Let me know what you think. I gotta get some, we gotta order some more books. How many, you guys, you've read this.

You, have you read this? I've got it, but I haven't read it yet. You haven't read it yet? I haven't read it, we haven't read it. Heretic, we haven't read it,

Heretic. What book am I talking about? This is a science fiction novel.

So, anyway, Atheistica. That was a fun one to write, actually. I'm thinking about doing volume two, and I gotta finish up the other one with the, did you ever get the, no, okay.

You read it, Ernie Ray read what? Which one did you read, Ernie? I've written a few books. What do you do with an argument we are being made into image of God that they understand this to be an ontological change?

Well, that's problematic, because you have to understand what ontos is. So, for example, this has an ontological essence of being a book.

This has an ontological essence of being a cup, all right? So, an ontos, the ontos, like this is a battery, right?

Has an ontological essence of being a battery. So, when it's a battery, it is what it is, and it's not what it is not.

The battery is not this. These things are different because they have a different ontology, a different essence, a different nature.

So, if we're human, then here's our nature. Our nature is a human nature.

It can't change to be something else, otherwise we're no longer human. So, if they're saying there's an ontological change in us, they're saying there's a change in our nature.

There's a change in our nature, we're no longer human. This is why definitions of what it means to be human are so important.

There cannot be an ontological change. People who would say that there would be an ontological change, a change in our nature, have a problem.

They would have to then demonstrate that what they're saying is that if there's a change, it's not a change to our nature, but an addition to, but even that is problematic, you see?

My logical argument is if we are being made into an image of God, we're no longer us, but God in a sense.

Very good, Rob. We already have the image of God, called the imago dei. We already have the image of God, but it's been affected by our sin.

So, what the Eastern Orthodox say is that Adam lost the relationship with God and the imago dei was affected.

And therefore, you can't have that relationship back until Christ died on the cross, who reestablished the ability for relationship and in that relationship, through the energies of God.

The energies of God are basically as communicable attributes. He can love, we can love. He can hate, we can hate.

He can show mercy, we can show mercy. So the more we participate in these energies, the more we become like him and we are deified.

It's called theosis, becoming more like him in that sense. It doesn't mean an ontological change.

It just means that we're being deified, we become more like Christ. And the more we are like Christ, the more justified we are. Hence, we earn our own salvation.

Okay. Theosis is referring to Eastern Orthodox. The Mormons don't have a doctrine of theosis.

They have a doctrine called exaltation. Exaltation means in the three levels of Mormon heaven, we have terrestrial, excuse me, we have telestial, terrestrial, celestial.

In the celestial kingdom are three and the highest is called the Church of the Firstborn. Those who keep celestial law, make it to the

Church of the Firstborn, are exalted and they become gods, which means their nature has changed to become something they were not.

They no longer are what they were and that's a logical problem. Okay. Matt, a lot of pastors that come to barbershop, they teach works, it's so sad, they are spreading that poison.

But I believe Christianity is different on the East Coast. It's weird, but wrong. Get me out there on the

East Coast. I'll go to barbershops and start telling them. I wanna get out there on the

East Coast and do some speaking in some of the churches that, you know, of course they would probably tar and feather me.

Do they still do that in the Carolinas? I would get tarred and feathered.

Normally when I'm at a church and I'm talking, like say I'm at a Baptist church and I talk about,

I'll do an intro and I might get to a place where I'll say, you know, I've been persecuted, I've been swatted,

I've had people threaten me with death, threatened to kill my family, lawsuits, all of it.

And that's just the Baptists. And they love that. Whatever church

I'm in, I'll say, and that's just the, and then what I just say, that group. For some reason, everybody loves that line.

I've used it a hundred times. What's that line I used a whole bunch last week? You said

I've used it so many times. I still get mileage out. Oh, I know what it was. She has a pacemaker.

And we were at the doctor's office and they're talking about the pacemaker and, you know, getting her heart rate up and stuff like that.

You know, call me and go, I didn't get it to go up. And they chuckle, you know, and she goes, you've used that so many times and it works every time.

And then I said, you know, when she was gonna get her pacemaker and I was talking to the doctor, I said, do you have any with remote controls?

And he goes, he's like, because he knows what's coming. I'm not the only guy apparently who said, we need different levels. You know, we need house cleaning, sandwich making, and love making.

I want the big one, the big dial, that, you know, the extra battery. And he's going, no, we don't have that yet. And so they get a hole.

They get a hole again. Hey, she's smiling. But then.

But what? But later I'm in trouble. So anyway, and then sometimes we'll be in the,

I'll do the same thing. It'll be her blood pressure's already really low. It just is. And they'll say your blood pressure is low.

I'll go, I can get it going really high. They laugh or be in the office and they'll ask her, how's your pain?

I go, I'm right here. I can hear you talking. Yeah. So I do all these, you know, or they'll come in and they'll go, how are you feeling?

You're talking, cause she's the patient. Like, how are you feeling? Well, I'm pretty good. I don't know. Thanks for asking. And they look, who is this guy?

So anyway, well, yeah. Someone will say, I'll do something.

They go, no, you're fine. I go, well, that's what my wife says. Thank you. All these stupid lines or you want your

Coke in a bag? No, it'll leak. Yeah.

Okay. Anyway, I'm bad. Bad stuff. What's that?

It is what it is. Don't take notes.

Take notes. Read my book. Read my book, how to woo and win women by being an obnoxious jerk.

Oh, it's good. It is good. It's not an actual book though. It is. It's on Amazon.

You go to, it's just, how to be an obnoxious jerk by Matt Slick. It's there. Oh, it's good.

It's on Kindle. You can order it. Yeah, you can order it.

And my favorite line was when a guy literally told me about four years ago, he literally, he's a friend of mine in Houston, Texas.

And he goes, man, I gotta call you. And he texts, you know, he calls me. Guess what? I said, what?

And he said, I had this girl I was dating and like a second date or something. We're talking over the phone.

And I read a paragraph out of your book, how to woo and win women. And I'm laughing because I know it's going to go bad.

And he said, he goes, I'm reading girls about girl logic.

He's reading the girl logic section. And I'm going, oh, I'm cracking up. And you see, he said, he pauses.

I go, I could tell that she's going to say something negative about, and I go, go ahead, go ahead.

And he goes, well, what she said was, now I repeat that guy's an idiot. I couldn't stop laughing for like two minutes.

I go, she understood it. It's perfect. And he said, he literally goes, she won't date me now.

I go, for real? He goes, yeah, she won't date me. Yeah, I killed it.

And he ended up marrying another girl later, but I've got a huge kick out of it.

Oh, he actually wrote her a review. He goes, thanks, man. I don't have a date Friday night because of this book.

Anyway, okay, so let's get back into this. Okay, here we go. Okay, so the difference between the two is that Eastern Orthodox is similar to sanctification.

I'm asking for clarification. I recall a Mormon talking about this in his debate with James White. I don't know what that is.

Do you have a section on karma and orthodoxy? Yes, and I'm expanding it. Whoops, why did that do that?

Okay, a Mormon tried to say that Athanasius was referring to Mormon exaltation when he talked about divinization.

See, that's the problem of using words like that. You can't do that because they'll use that. There's some

Mormons near my house. I've been wanting to witness to them, hence why I'm trying to examine what they believe.

Well, Dylan, go to my website, look up the stuff on Mormonism. You can also go to the cut and paste section.

You can go to karm .org forward slash cut. I believe we got a broken link there. We'll also go to just the, it'll give you a list of Mormonism.

You can type in cut Mormonism in the search engine and you'll, you get the short version of everything. Oh, crucify with Christ.

He's also tried to tell me that it's okay that Joseph Smith is a false prophet since Jonah is also a false prophet.

Let me show you something about that. I think it's Jeremiah 18, eight.

Yeah, Jeremiah 18, eight. You keep this in mind with the issue of Jonah. God says, if that nation against which

I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the calamity I plan to bring on it.

That's the answer to the alleged false prophet Jonah. He said this many days and the judgment's coming.

And so what happened was God said that if they relent then he won't do the judgment on them.

That's Jeremiah 18, eight, okay? And Joanne says,

I'm in the front of the line to tar and feather you Matt. That's good, thank you. I think the girls like my humor.

I think they enjoy it. I think there's something about it because girls have what's called the bewilder filter.

The bewilder filter, you say, are you gonna wear that? And what they hear is I'm fat and ugly, bewilder filter.

And if you can activate the mothering instinct gene and the way to do that is you take clothes, red and white and blue, and you walk towards the washer.

All at the same time, they jump up, rescue the clothes that activates the mothering instinct gene. If you're just obnoxious, then a little bit obnoxious, then the bewilder filter kicks in.

They start thinking about you because they're emotional. They start thinking that they think about you because they like you.

About that time is when you need to look at a dejected expression on their face. That means they realize they really do like you.

And it's kind of hopeless for them because they're slaves to their own emotions. It's all in my book. I wonder if the guy loves his girlfriend.

Oh, all right. Anybody have any more questions?

People say they don't enjoy it, but they enjoy it. They say they don't enjoy my stupidity, but they do.

That's why my wife married me because I used the bewilder filter and the

Ongawa drive. That's a whole nother topic. That's what it means. I'm fat. Do you want a divorce? That's right.

See, what did I say? Yeah, I have it all written in there. But, but,

I didn't, I didn't, I didn't. Dating tip by Matt Slick, says Bill. All right, so how many of you were in the, if you guys want,

I can come up here, but you can talk about it. What do you think of the SDA talk? Bill, you were in there, weren't you?

Gotta go, guys. My wife just hollered something at me. The study was great. God bless you and your wife and family.

God willing, see you tomorrow. God bless. See you, Erasmus. That's regular, that's the other one.

I need my interpreter. Is she there? Oh. Yeah, Bill was there.

Oh, so you guys were there. Yeah, you can type comments in. If you want to come in, let me know. I'll put the link in here.

We'll see if we can get that to work. Let's see. And then we can call it.

That's the stream. What? Do you have some kind of scoring system for merits? How does that work?

Actually, believe it or not, I have a book. I think I still have it. The Baltimore Catechism, which has the neolobestate and the imprimatur, which means it's official, nothing,

Conradic scripture or the Catholic teaching, and they can disseminate it to all their Catholics. And it says if you do a certain kind of prayer and stuff like that, it's how many days it'll reduce in purgatory.

I have it on the garage. I think I could find it. Believe it.

Believe it in purgatory. So, okay, here comes

Andrew. He's from Wales. Let's see if we can get him to say anything.

Let's see. I don't know if it's going to work in here. Let's give it a shot. Go ahead and say, try it. Can you say something?

Say something, say something, say something, say something. Say something, say something, say something, say something. He likes it.

It's like science fiction. That's what I was going to say. It's like sci -fi. He likes it. Okay, let's do this.

Well, come on. Now you are mute.

You are mute, Matt. Go ahead and talk.

You just muted yourself. Yes, I know.

You got to go ahead and talk. Wait, what?

Hello? I can't hear a word you're saying, Matt. See, his wife's prayed that he'd be muted.

It came true. What happened? I got to figure this out.

Can you hear me? Yeah, I can hear you now. Okay, if I have you and this on, it feeds back.

So I mute myself so you can talk and we can hear you. Oh, I understand. No problem.

What? What'd you say? Nice try. Okay, Matt, what

I was going to get at today was the things that guy was saying was not only arrogant and boastful and prideful, but his attitude and saying,

God, I give God my permission. Well, how arrogant is that?

The all -powerful, almighty God does not need our permission.

And I know I shouldn't have interrupted today,

Matt, but I was tempted to say a few things, but I held my peace, so out of respect for you, because I didn't want to be rude and interrupt you.

Yeah, but he did not talk a lot of trash. And his argument was just illogical.

I mean, I'm sure he was taking it from the second book of hereticals or something.

Gordon Bennett, Mamma Mia. Okay, that's all. That's it.

All right. Hey, Bill, do you want to say anything before we go? You guys are sitting here.

I'll show you, look. See, there's my wife over there. Can you see that?

Wait. No, we just see you. Hold on, it's not working. I'll do it this way.

You broke the camera, Matt. There we go. There. Hey, how's it going, family in Christ?

Let's see, there's my wife. Wait, wait, there she is back there. There you go. God bless you. That's right. And this, oh, that's our cat.

And there's Dave and Mike. Hey, how's it going, fellas? All right, you guys.

Got any questions before we close it up? Any last bit? Yeah, like something, and then this guy came in during the

Bible study. You want to say she doesn't understand people with accents? Okay. I'm fine,

Dylan. All right, everybody, let's just shut it down. I hope you guys enjoyed the study. It was fun.

You were great, Matt. I thought it was interesting. You were very patient. And we'll just see what happens by God's grace next week, okay, everybody?

Yeah, you were very patient. You were brilliant today, Matt. Who wants to say something?

Andrew. What I said was you were very patient today.

You did very, very well. You're far more patient than I am, Matt.

Far more patient. But at my stage,

I need to learn how to study my Bible. And that's what

I'm going to be doing. And once I've learnt the basics of studying my

Bible, I am going to task myself with studying the doctrine of the

Trinity. And I'm going to read my Bible, looking for verses and passages in context which speaks very strongly about the

Trinity. Because this is something that is... Could you move yourself, please,

Joanne? It's kind of playing back, and it's kind of distracting me. Hey, Joanne, you want to say anything?

My Wi -Fi's gone all crummy.

All right. All right, everybody. We're going to shut it down.

God bless. We'll see you guys next week, same time.

Joanne, unmute yourself so that y 'all can hear you. Oh, Joanne. Nick says hi.

y 'all there? Bye. Okay, bye. All right. See you guys. God bless. Oh.