Matt Slick Live: November 6, 2024

Election Results, Prayer, and the Spiritual Battle

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!

For answers, take in your calls and respond to your questions at 877 -207 -2276. Here's Matt Slick.

Hey everybody, welcome to the show. It's me, Matt Slick. You're listening to Matt Slick Live! And if you want, you can give me a call, as always, the number is 877 -207 -2276. And if you're new to the show, I'll just give a little brief rundown of what it is.

Matt Slick Live! My real name is Matt Slick, S-L-I-C-K, Reverend, so Reverend Slick, it doesn't sound good, but that's what it is. And this is a Christian Apologetics, kind of a Bible Answer Man kind of thing.

We just answer questions, and if I don't have an answer, I go, oh, good question, I'll look.

It up.

But I've been doing it for 21 years, and hopefully, I'll be able to do it some more. And I've got a bad cough. Getting over a very persistent head cold, and it's been going around, I hear, and I've had it now for about nine days, eight or nine days, and doing a little bit better, but that's just how it is right now.

So please bear with me on that. We have three open lines, 877 -207 -2276, and also, in email, you can contact us that way. Just send an email to infoatcarm .org, infoatcarm .org, and in the subject line, put in a radio comment or radio question, and then we get to them, usually on Fridays, and today is, what, today's Wednesday, I think it is Wednesday, yeah, it is.

Oh, oh, what a relief. Oh, the electoral college came through, and, whew, stocks are going up, prices are doing great, the Dow is up, even my own crypto, it went up, yeah, you know what would have happened if the Dems had gotten in there and gotten in control.

Oh, man, things would have plummeted because of socialist wackos. Anyway, so there you go. I know I offend people on the show, but you know what, I don't care, I really don't care. So if you don't like it, that's okay.

All right, let's get to Alan from Virginia. Alan, welcome, you're on the air.

Hey, Matt, how you doing?

Well, aside from a cough, doing okay, hanging in there, man, hanging in there. So what do you got?

Sounds good. It's a pretty long run-on sentence, I apologize, but this is more of a question directed to a friend than myself, but can you explain all of the biblical, explicit, and implicit roles of the husband, wife, and children in the household, and likewise with men, women, and children in the church?

The Trinity as the Pattern for Marriage and Family Roles

Well, that's a seminar. So what I do when I teach this kind of stuff, I start with the doctrine of the Trinity. And people a lot of times say that's a waste of time, but it is not. Let me explain why.

In the Trinity is one God who exists simultaneously as three distinct persons, co-eternal persons. And one is not greater than the other, but there are differences in position. We understand the differentiation between the members of the Godhead in their relationship to each other.

And God himself is the holy being who works as a, I'm going to say, a unity perfectly. And this is what our marriage is supposed to emulate. Now, the father elected certain people for salvation. Now, I know a lot of people don't like election.

If you don't, just go to Ephesians 1, verse 4, and cross it out of your Bible. But Ephesians 1, 4 says, he chose us in him before the foundation of the world. Now, Jesus says in John 6, 37, all that the father gives me will come to me.

So Jesus came to lay his land down for the sheep, John 10. So Jesus came to do the will of the father who sent him. And he said the father was greater than he. But it doesn't mean that he was better because the father was greater in position because Jesus was made for a little while lower than the angels, Hebrews 2, 9.

So the idea of submission and service inside of that relationship is biblical. So the husband, it takes that role, so to speak, of the leader. And the wife takes the role of the helper. And the helper is there to administer, to do what helps for the work of ministry that God the father's called the husband to do.

So now, generally speaking, in the context of marriage, marriage is a covenant. Now, to go back to the Trinity, in the covenant of the Trinity, the eternal covenant, Hebrews 13, 20, there's a lot of discussions about what it is.

And sorry, I'm just battling a cough here. A covenant is a pact or an agreement between two or more parties. And covenants have signs. So God made a covenant with Adam and the trees. And then when he broke the covenant, then he made a new covenant.

And the covenant sign was the animal skins. Noah's rainbow is a covenant sign. The bread and the wine and the communion supper are covenant signs. And my marriage to my wife is a covenant with a covenant sign.

The covenant sign is the ring, the wedding ring that we wear each. Now, a covenant in a marriage is there are restrictions and responsibilities. So when when I do marriages, I tell people we I counsel them.

I think this these right here in the marriage ceremony, this this set of words are what make you married. And what they are, are the commitment that a person will make, the man to the woman, the woman to the man, where they say to you only, I will keep myself and provide, protect and serve and love.

And there's sexual relations that are privileged within that bond. The idea of having children, et cetera, till death do us part. That means that the covenant is temporal. So the covenant is based upon the word of the man and the word of the woman that binds themselves to each other.

The covenant is a three way pact. It's vertical in that the man, the woman covenant before God. It's horizontal, the man and the woman covenant before people. Because in the church, you see the people there and they're witnessing the marriage.

And, you know, as I say, well, the ceremony, do you promise to keep to yourself? No one else, you know, relations yourself? Yes, yes, yes. This is an exclusion of others in this relationship. And then the covenant is also internal in that the husband and the wife, the man, the woman are covenanting with each other.

So it's a three way covenant, kind of reminiscent of the trinitarian nature. So the reason this is important is because it's a binding of the word where God binds himself by what he says. We bind ourselves to our spouses by what we say in a covenant relationship.

So in this covenant bound and the covenant sign of the marriage wedding ring that we possess, we have a unity of a family that is created at the. Yes, I do pronounce you better wife. You are now a family, even without children, because a family is a unit of two or more individuals, male and female, not male and male and not female and female, but male and female.

And so out of that covenant relationship, children are born. And then the children have certain relationships that they're supposed to have in relation to the father and the and the wife. Now, I've gone on quite a bit here.

I'm just laying foundational stuff kind of quickly. So you want to chime in a little bit and ask anything more specific?

Um, let's see. Kind of see if there's anything specific that would really even improve it. I feel like, well, I'll tell you the situation. And that kind of made me think about it is that this man's daughter sometimes goes to the church with him, and it's a Reformed Baptist church.

And but his wife doesn't go to the same church. And that got me questioning why not if she also goes on Sunday?

Right. What's the reason?

So the reason I'm guessing so. The wife goes to a church where there is a female pastor.

And she's wrong.

Yeah, yeah.

I'm worried.

Yeah.

Absolutely unbiblical.

Go ahead.

And so I'm thinking that she's going there because, I don't know, maybe the pastor speaks in a way that's easier for her to understand or Doesn't doesn't really matter. But it kind of brought this up where I was talking to him a little bit about how he's supposed to be the spiritual head and supposed to direct the family on how to go with serving.

God.

Yes, now we have an issue because if she's going to a church with a woman pastor, then she is being unbiblical, as is the woman pastor, because that is forbidden in Scripture. And so that that she's in rebellion right now.

Now, what do you do about that? Well, what the husband needs to do is enlist the prayers of the people around him, her and ask God to open her heart and her mind to the truth of God's word that she would not submit God's word to her feelings or her preferences.

Now, it might be she's not born again, and I'm not judging her. I'm just saying these are some of the possibilities, because generally it's a very general statement. When someone goes to a pastor's to a church, particularly a woman pastor church, and they don't want to hear what the Scripture has to say, it's a sign that they may not be regenerate.

It could also just be a sign that they're just in rebellion and fully saved. I'm not saying, you know, either one to say this is something we've got to be careful.

Of.

And does she know what the gospel is? And these are just issues, you know, in a general sense. So he needs to elicit the prayers of people around him, and he needs to then study the issue and be prepared when the Lord opens a door to be able to teach and correct and admonish politely.

He can't force her. That's not how it's done, because Jesus willingly submitted to the father because of his love to the father. She obviously is not submitting to the will of the husband if he knows that women pastors are unbiblical.

And so she's in rebellion. Well, what do you do about rebellion? Let God deal with her for now, because if a husband were to say, you can't go to that church and put my foot down, that's it. She's going to become very rebellious, and that's just not a wise thing to do.

So there's wisdom in how to work this prayer, confession, and preparation, asking people to pray for her. It might take a year, might take two years. And he needs to exemplify a biblical, patient love with her so that he can minister to her as is needed in a way of service, not of demand.

Now, if she was going to a Catholic church, he's obligated at that point to say, look, that's not even a Christian church, because it's not. So then he needs to tell her and say, you shouldn't be going there.

She still wants to go there. Then we get into some other issues, and what he needs to do is talk to the elders of his.

Church.

And since a woman pastor is unbiblical, he needs to tell her that that's unbiblical, but he has to know the reasons why. And of course, he can go to the Quorum website, read up the articles, and read all this stuff, and I can coach him on how to respond to answers, what the issues are, so that he can be able to answer her properly and lovingly and patiently steer her towards biblical truth.

Which is what she needs to submit to.

OK.

What if she continues to act in rebellion towards his role as the spiritual lead for, say, 10 years?

Then for 10 years, he is obligated to continue to pray for her, be patient for her, with her, and to pray for her and to continue to have others pray for her as well and to ask God to deal with her and to work with her.

That's his obligation. You can't force somebody. I mean, that's not how to do it. So, you know, my relationship with my wife and I, you know, I would prefer a different kind of church than my wife does a lot of times.

I mean, within the same area, you know, the same realm. But she's very good, and I'm very good about it, because we'll just kind of go half and.

Half.

We work it out as long as it's biblical, and that's what I care about. Hey, hold on. We got a break. OK, hold on, buddy. Folks, we'll be right back after these messages. If you want to call me, 877 -207 -2276.

We'll be right back.

Women Pastors, Submission, and the Household Codes

It's Matt Slick Live! Taking your calls at 877 -207 -2276. Here's Matt Slick.

All right, welcome back to the show. Let's get back on here with Alan. Alan, are you still there?

Yep. OK.

Wait, the break, I took the air out of that one a little bit. So where were we? Rolled the husband in that situation. Yeah, OK. So I gave some advice and stuff.

OK.

Can you give some scripture to support some of the things you're saying?

About women pastors?

The household and the church. Well, we haven't really gone to the church too much yet, but.

Well, in Ephesians 5, starting about verse 20, just start reading from there, Ephesians 5, 20, and on. Also, there's a verse that most people, most women don't like, and it's out of 1 Peter 3. And I have used this so many times when talking to women, Christian women.

And I'll take a little bit of time with it because it's an important verse. And I feel like women need to hear this anyway. It says, in the same way, you wives be submissive to your own husbands so that if even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be one without a word by the behavior of their wives.

Now, wait a minute. So they're unbelievers, not doing right, but we submissive. What does that mean? No, we're taught not to be submissive. Women are taught now to be dominant, to be, well, we're just equals.

Well, is Jesus equal to the Father in one sense? Yes, by nature, but not in position. So the women are actually, Christian women are actually working against the humility and love of Christ who exemplified what submission is.

Their inner arrogance, they're doing that. A lot of women are. It says, as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior. For men, respect is incredibly important. Okay, women don't know how to respect men.

And that's a whole nother issue. They think they do, but they respect men the way they think women respect men. But that's not how it works. Anyway, your adornment must not be merely external, braiding your hair, wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses.

But let it be the hidden person of the heart. That's critical. The hidden person of the heart. You see, that hidden person of the heart is what lives in you. It's who you are as a woman. That comes out in your actions, your attitudes, your tones, your side eye looks, your breathing through the nostrils, disapproval, all this kind of stuff.

And part of the desire for women to control their husbands, which is part of the curse. If people don't like that, then go to Genesis 3 and you'll see it. But with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, that's what God is calling women to be.

Gentle and quiet spirit. Doesn't mean they don't have a will. Doesn't mean they can't voice their opinion. Doesn't mean they can't disagree. But in this issue of trying to convert, then gentleness and quietness, with a quality that's perfect and beautiful.

It's not the outward appearance, but the inward that really matters. And he says, this is precious in the sight of God. For in this way, in former times, the holy women also, who hoped in God, used to adorn themselves, not with gold, but with the jewels of quietness, of patience, of love, of nurturing.

These beautiful qualities that women can do. And says, being submissive to their own husbands. Just as, now check this out. Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord. And what I do is I read this to the ladies and I say, hey, would you call your husband Lord?

And they say, of course not. I say, well, why not? Because he's not worthy of being your Lord, of being the Lord. Well, then why did Sarah call Abraham Lord? And Peter put this in here as inspired word.

Are you saying, are you rebelling against the word of God? Now, I make them squirm a little bit. Women aren't used to getting that attention. They're used to the husbands getting beat up all the time.

And I say, well, are you doing this? Is he your Lord in your life? And it's confusing them. And I do it on purpose. Well, he's not the Lord as Jesus is Lord. But what does it mean to be the Lord in the house?

Well, it's the one who's the head. And that's what he's saying. So I say, so if you wouldn't call him Lord, then are you in rebellion? That's not an issue. You have to use the phraseology. But are you respecting him as the man he is in that house?

For his calling spiritually, that's what the issue really is. And most women aren't doing that. They're not doing that. And I tell women a secret. I say, if a man does something, say he builds something in the backyard, it's not that good.

His wife comes out and looks at it and mocks him, complains about it. Think he's going to do anything again?

Nope.

Think he's going to try again?

Nope.

And he's going to his wife and showing him what he can do. She should be positive as much as possible. That's good. And he will see what needs to be done better next time. And if she is supporting him that way, that encourages him to do more.

But if she's browbeating him or with a sigh or with a look, he's not going to want to do more. You see, they don't understand. Women often don't understand what it means to be married to a man and know how to be in that submission state with him to encourage him.

Because if you do this with a man, he will do more and more and more. And I give examples. I usually I'm teaching on this. I get in more details. And it says she's a dude that women don't want to do that.

Now, this means that they are have to have the attitude of submission to God, because that's what it means to be a submission to the husband in the house. Because the Bible says in Ephesians 5 that the husband is the head of the wife.

Women don't want that today. They want to contradict the word of God. They want to do what they want to do and do it right in their own eyes. And go to churches with women, pastors and elders or go to a church that makes them feel good.

And then we get into particulars about differences of opinion on things and issues.

And how to work.

And then we get into counseling on these things. But those are the basics. OK, so first Peter three is really important.

It really is.

All right.

Can you go a little bit into detail?

I'm sorry.

No, go ahead.

Could you go into a little bit? So we talked about the household. Could you go into some detail about the church, about men, about, I guess, more. And with the church, basically, it would go to eldership, which does it also include deacons or elders only referring to pastors?

A pastor is, by definition, an elder. You go to First Timothy 517. So it says that First Timothy 517, the elder who rules well, the elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching.

So now we know that a preacher, pastor is an elder. Now, when we go to Titus one, actually, we're still in Timothy. I'll go to Timothy three. It says an overseer. That's the Greek word episkopos. So just remember that later.

An episkopos, an overseer, must be above or approach the husband of one wife. Husband of one wife. Androm yasgunikas in the Greek. They're not addicted to wine. He could manage his own household well, et cetera, et cetera.

Not a new convert. And it says deacons also must be men of dignity, not double minded, not addicted to wine, beholding to the faith. These men must also first be tested. Then it says women must be likewise be dignified, not malicious gossips.

So deacons biblically are only supposed to be men. Now we go over to Titus one. For this reason, verse five, this reason. I left you in Crete. We'll get back to the break. I'll go to Titus one and try and put some stuff together.

OK, hold on, buddy. We're going. Hey, folks, 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.

Elder Qualifications, Deacons, and Church Authority

All right.

And welcome back to the show. Let's get back on with Alan a little bit. You still there, buddy?

Yep.

All right.

Let me continue.

Go ahead.

But go ahead. Got a question.

Go ahead.

So first Timothy three, four or says this is a NASB ninety five. He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him. And he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect. So who is to be the judge of how he manages his family and that his children obey?

The elders, the elders of the church and the community, the believers who take the word of God and apply it to that particular person situation.

OK, so the elders of the church, the husband is going to is supposed to be the judge of this.

They're the ones who are supposed to be able to teach sound doctrine and refute error, as Titus one, five through nine talks about. OK, there's and do that.

And say, for example, if the children disobeyed him once. I don't know. Yeah, they they they they went to McDonald's and he gave him Burger King and they were rebellious to him. Is something as simple as that?

No, no, no, no. Rebellious as a way of life. They are constantly in rebellion. Kids do what they do. They need to be disciplined. OK, no one's perfect. And so that's all that's going on there. If there are a constant rebellion and unmanageable, that's what it's talking about.

Not they didn't clean a room up once when he said to do that kind of thing. All right.

OK, that's that's what I figured. But but these two can disqualify someone from being a pastor, right?

Well, it depends because, you know, let's say some elders are visiting another elder, a candidate for a pastor, let's say. And that particular day, a child comes out and is rebellious against the father.

Does that mean he's disqualified?

No.

The father that needs to deal with that and say, well, look, you know, to the son or daughter. Oh, that's not how we work. And we need to, you know, do things properly, et cetera, et cetera. You know, and that's OK.

And if it's a habitual rebellion, the person is doing drugs and, you know, is living under the house of that father at that time, then he's disqualified.

OK.

OK.

You know, we want to be gracious. You know, we want to be gracious as much as possible.

Yeah.

More more so graceful than legalistic. Right.

That's exactly right. Error on the side of grace, not legalism. That's what I say.

OK, well, I think you had something you're wanting to say to you before I interrupted.

Oh, no, it's OK. It's just that the idea of of the elders in the Book of Titus. It says, if a man is above reproach, the husband of one wife, having children who believe, not accused of dissipation or rebellion for the overseer must be above reproach.

Now, here, the elder and overseer used interchangeably Episcopal and presbyter us interchangeably. And it says in verse nine that he will be able to both exult, exhort and sound doctrine, refute those who contradict most pastors.

Most elders I know can't do that.

By the way.

So anyway, in all of these instances, the male is the one who's an elder. And in Greek nouns can have gender, masculine, feminine or neuter. And here you're masculine. And it's just understood that way.

And one more quick thing for those who don't know about this. First Timothy two twelve, Paul says, I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but remain quiet. For it was Adam who was first created, not Eve.

So this is not a cultural thing. It's a created order thing in the house of God. And in the next chapter, in verse 15, he says he's teaching on how people are to behave in the household of God. This is serious stuff.

I would love to be able to do a seminar on this, on eldership requirements, teaching requirements, and that our seminar on marriage, not to say I got everything down perfectly, but theologically, I understand what's supposed to be done.

Okay.

And then the quiet, the quiet, if I recall, is not absolute silence. It's just like a keep it down.

Right.

Kind of thing.

Right. Yeah.

It's has to be there in first Timothy two twelve, which means it could be even more quiet.

Wait a minute.

If you're quiet, how can you be more quiet? So you can be more quiet. So it just means you're not talking a lot. You're keeping it down. And then the word is the Greek word for absolute silence is not used there.

All right, buddy.

Thank you so much, Matt.

All right, Alan.

Okay.

You too. God bless. All right. Let's see.

Let's get to Eric from Utah. Eric, welcome. You're on there.

Hey.

Okay. We got you, buddy. So what do you got, man?

What's up?

Hey, yeah, I just had a quick question for you. First of all, I love your show. I try to catch it every day on my way home. I absolutely love it. Good word. I was actually just going through the stations one day and stumbled across it.

And I've just tried to tune in every day ever since.

Well, good.

That just means you're really smart. That's good. Good for you.

Oh, hey, thank you.

Wow. Cool.

I actually just had a quick question for you about. I've actually had some friends over the years kind of take their own lives and things like that. I know that's one of the ultimate sins. I was just kind of wondering if you could give me a little insight on your belief of kind of what happens with them.

Suicide, Salvation, and Repentance

Well, I'm very much a staunch believer in the teaching that Christians do not lose their salvation. And I got good, strong biblical reasons to say that. Now, what we do is with if a Christian commits suicide automatically, it doesn't mean that they're not saved because we have different situations we talk about.

And one of them could be, for example, let's say a man is in war and he's captured and he knows that he will give up the people, you know, all the information he's not supposed to under torture. So what he does is he kills himself.

Well, is he wrong for that? I wouldn't say so.

No.

Well, what about. But what about. Hold on, clear my throat.

Yeah, there we go.

What about someone who is a Christian and kills himself because he's depressed? Well, is he automatically going to hell? Well, of course not. If he's a true Christian, he won't. He may suffer loss of reward and the like, but he's not just condemned to hell.

We are not condemned to hell because of our works or a failure to do what is right. We're condemned to hell. People are condemned to hell if they have not trusted in Christ. Now, only God knows who's really trusted in Christ.

So if we have a real true believer who's trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ really is regenerate. Well, what happens if he has a brain injury or a sickness or a series of events occur that causes incredible depression and he becomes suicidal and he can't get out of it?

It's a spiral thing. And sometimes people in that situation doesn't take much more to push them over the edge. Let's say it's just a bunch of stuff happening. And then all of a sudden, you know, he loses his job.

And then his wife just finds out his wife committed adultery. And it's just too much. And what if he accidentally kills himself, takes too many sleeping pills? What if he knowingly takes too many sleeping pills?

Well, God is going to be the one who's going to decide. And he will decide if that person has all was all ultimately safe. Sorry about that. If he was really saved, he's going to heaven. Probably was suffering a loss of reward.

But I'm not saying, oh, it's OK, go ahead and kill yourself.

It's all right. You'll go to heaven.

I'm not saying that. But it's just that people generally who are in such dire straits, and they do this kind of a thing, they're going to be judged by God. And he's the one who is the compassionate judge.

And he will judge them accordingly. He knows what they what we don't know. And so I'd say those people who committed suicide. Well, you know, let God decide if they're really believers to begin with. They're with the Lord.

And they made a huge mistake. Probably, you know, being tortured by the enemy combatant kind of thing. But excluding extremes like that, they've made a grave error. They should not have done that. But we all do that anyway.

And we're still saved. So we're not we don't retain our salvation by our repentance, because some people say, well, Matt, you have to repent of your sins or to be saved. No, you don't. What I'm saying there is you should repent of your sins.

But repentance isn't what saves you. It's faith in Christ that saves you. If someone says you have to repent, that means if you're lying and then you stop lying, you're complying with the law that says you shall not lie.

So if you're complying with the law, is that what saves you? Of course not. So people say, well, you have to repent of your sin in order to be saved. They're saying you've got to comply with the law in order to be saved.

And that's not true. Repentance is granted by God. Second Timothy 2, 25, as is faith. Philippians 1, 29. But the true Christian is made a new creature. Second Corinthians 5, 17, and dwelt by God. John 14, 23.

So therefore, he's going to be warring against these bad things. He may fall here and there, but he's warring against them. So repentance isn't what saves. Repentance is a fruit of regeneration. And we're called to do that as Christians.

We've got a break.

Hold on, buddy. We'll be right back after these messages.

A lot of stuff going on.

Be right back.