Matt Slick Live: November 25, 2024

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The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. It's Matt Slick Live.

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Matt is the founder and president of the Christian Apologetics Research Ministry found online at karm .org.

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When you have questions about Bible doctrines, turn to Matt Slick Live. Francis, taking your calls and responding to your questions at 877 -207 -2276.

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Here's Matt Slick. Hey everybody, welcome to the show. I hope you're having a good day. I hope you had a good weekend.

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And let's see. Today's date, oh yeah, today is November 25, 2024.

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For the podcasters, my wife is home. She was in the hospital for a little bit, for those who would ask.

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And we found out what the problem is. And we're looking to a doctor or something, researching it to get it fixed.

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It has to do with a valve and something like that. It's not that serious. It's one of those, it's serious but not serious at the same time, you know, one of those.

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So there you go. And I hope you had a good weekend. Yeah, boy, there's so much to do.

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So much to do. We're working on the website. We are trying to make it more better.

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Trying to get it to be more better, and even more better -er. We are revamping it.

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What we're doing is overhauling it. But you can't tell. It's the stuff behind the scenes on every single article. We're modifying a few things here and there.

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And checking for SEO stuff, links and backlinks, and all kinds of stuff. That's what we're doing.

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And it's taking a while, taking time. And things are improving. So there you go.

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May the Lord bless you. And in the show today, I hope things, you know,

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I hope you learn. We pray, basically, every time we have the show, we pray.

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We pray that the Lord will be glorified, and that we have wisdom to know how to answer, and that people would be willing to hear the truth, that God would speak, not just me, but that whatever truth comes from God, that they would be willing to hear that.

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And that's what we hope for. That's what we look for. And we pray for God's glory. And if you wanna call me, the number is 877 -207 -2276.

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You can also email me. That's easy to do. You just send an email to info at karm .org,

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info at karm .org, and put the subject line, radio comment, radio question, and we get to it.

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That's generally how it works. Let's get to Arius from Salt Lake City. Arius, welcome. You're on the air.

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Hi, Matt, how you doing? Oh, I'm hanging in there, man, hanging in there. What do you got, buddy? Good to hear.

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Good to hear. Well, sir, I just had a question regarding Hebrews, chapter 13, verse 17.

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I was listening to your show last week, and I heard you tell a lady that you didn't believe church membership was biblical.

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And I was just wondering about that particular verse, because to me, it seems to imply some kind of formal commitment to a church.

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There you go. I agree with that. When I say church membership, the document you sign on the line, you go through a class, now you, so to speak, belong to that church, and are to be automatically, now officially subject to that church, and they have the ability to call you, ask questions, to follow up on you, and things like that.

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I don't see that as a biblical mandate. But when it says, you know, obey your leaders and submit to them.

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They keep watch over your souls. Those will give account. Well, that's fine. And it has to do with, you know, just so,

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I'll just leave it there. Obey your leaders and submit to them. When I go to a church, like the church I'm going to now, it's a good reformed church, good worship, good people.

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I want to preach there sometime. I'd love to be able to preach there, but you know, it's probably never going to happen, and that's okay. I love to preach and teach.

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And if they were to say, the only way we could let you preach is if you become a church member, I'd say, okay, I'm not ever going to preach here then.

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You know, because they have these people, or these churches, have rules and requirements. And I don't know what it is about me, but I just don't want to be under that.

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I just feel, I just feel like, like they're going to cross -examine me all the time.

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And you know, like my wife's health, you know, I don't want to go to church every Sunday if I have to be home with her.

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I don't want anybody to call me up and tell me, what are you doing? You know, I just don't need that. That's all, that's just me.

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But some people love that. They like it, that's okay. So it's up to them. Well, thank you, yeah.

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I enjoy your show. I've been a Christian for five years and have been listening to you for five years off and on.

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I appreciate what you do. Well, good. But just know, so you know, I'm not saying it's unbiblical to have a church membership.

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I'm just saying it's not explicitly stated in the scripture. And there are churches that can require that, and that's their business.

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They want to do that, that's what it is. And I don't have a problem with it. It's just not my thing, that's all.

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That's what I'm saying. Okay? Well, thank you. All right, well, you're welcome.

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Well, God bless. Yeah, God bless. Happy Thanksgiving. Oh, you too, man. Thanks a lot, appreciate it.

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All right. Now, that was Arius from Salt Lake City. And what we'll be doing, that's right.

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I'm gonna ask the producer, because Thursday is Thanksgiving. Are we gonna have Thursday, Friday off?

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I didn't even think about that. We usually do something like that. We have Thursday and Friday off. That way, they can just go home and relax with their families.

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So we're having to put up with a guy named Slick on the radio, you know, fix that all up. Let's get to Greg from Florida.

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Hey, Greg, welcome. You're on the air. Hi, good evening. Good evening.

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Hi. First of all, I just want to say I appreciate your ministry that you do for us and help us understand these things.

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Have a quick question for you is something I've been kind of stumbling around is, the question is, who do we pray to?

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And the basis of the study is that in the Old Testament, people prayed to God.

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Then in the New Testament, Jesus prayed to God, his

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Father. He's in Matthew 6, when he taught the model prayer, it's our

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Father who art in heaven. And then after his resurrection, he appeared to the disciples and he said that in Matthew 28, that all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.

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So I guess understanding the Trinity of God, Jesus, and the

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Holy Spirit, who should we direct our prayers to and does it really matter?

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Yes, it does. No, it doesn't. It's just depending on how we want to look at it, okay? So let's step back and I'm gonna lay a doctrine down regarding the

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Trinity and then we'll come back to it a little bit. So the Trinity is one

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God and three distinct simultaneous co -eternal persons. They are one being.

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So God is one being and how he reveals himself to us is with Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

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They each have the same nature. They each have the same attributes. So they're identical, but people say, well, if they have the same nature and same attributes, then they're indistinguishable.

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Then you don't have three persons, you only have one. But the revelation is this, that God reveals himself to us and shows us a relationship inside of himself of the persons as they relate to each other and relate to us.

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Now there's a doctrine called inseparable operations and it's where Jesus, who is, you know, he's

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God in flesh, he has two natures, God and man. So the divine nature is still and always will be part of the

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Trinity. Since the Trinity is one being, but we have this weird kind of a situation where Jesus is made under the law of Galatians 4, for a little while lower than the angels,

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Hebrews 2 .9 and the Carmen Christian, Philippians 2 .5 -8, he emptied himself.

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So he does say in John 5 .19, John 5 .30, he says he can do whatever he sees the

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Father do, nothing of his own initiative. So this is the revelation that he's giving to,

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God's giving to us, that Jesus and the other members, they have this interaction of what one does, the other does, kind of a thing.

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So this is, so when you're addressing God, you're addressing the one being who's God. But you can pray to the

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Father, as Jesus said. Now this is because of the distinction between the persons that's revealed in the inter -Trinitarian communion and that's found in Philippians, excuse me,

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Ephesians 1, 4 and 5 and other places. But also in the distinction between the way they relate to creation.

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So the Father sent the Son, the Son is the one who is sent by the

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Father and the Father and Son send the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit convicts us, they all indwell us.

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Okay, having said a lot of stuff, who do we pray to? Pray to God, Father send

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Holy Spirit. Pray to the Father, as Jesus says. Pray to Jesus, because he says, ask me anything in my name and I will do it.

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You can pray to the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit we're committed to have fellowship with. And that's 2

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Corinthians 13, 14. So you can't have fellowship with someone you're not talking to.

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So this involves a necessity of prayer. Now, why would we pray to individuals in that sense of persons?

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We would pray to the Father in the sense of glory of God and election and salvation, predestination.

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We'd pray to the Son who has all authorities, as you said, in heaven and earth, Matthew 28, 18, and he can forgive sins,

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Luke 5, 27, 48, he can do that. The Holy Spirit convicts of sin. We might ask the Holy Spirit to convict us, ourselves of sin, as well as others of sin.

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And we would ask Jesus who reveals the Father. We ask him in Matthew 11, 27, we could ask him to reveal the

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Father to people. So you see there's certain aspects and it was called the economic trinity and how the different members relate to each other and do different functions.

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So then if we want, we can just say, we could address the function to each one we're revealed about, that's revealed himself to us.

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Or we could just say, God, could you please, and then you say yourself. So it's, you see why it's yes and no, it's one and all and you get, this depends, okay?

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Right, so if you're studying, if you're in a situation and you pray to the

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Holy Spirit to give me wisdom and guidance that's part of the Holy Spirit's role, correct? Yeah, exactly.

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Right, you know, I mean, normally when I pray, I start with Father God.

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And then, okay, and then may go to a different, you know, address,

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I guess, as I'm praying about different things and that's totally fine because it all goes the same.

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I mean, the Holy Spirit can interpret our groanings and those things, so there's not a wrong one to pray to them.

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Right, correct. Is that correct? Okay. That's correct. Yeah, and perfect, that's great.

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Now, we don't want to make the mistake of thinking there's, well, functionally three gods. We don't want to do that.

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We don't want to get into tritheism or a triad. But we have to understand that the being of God is a simple being, divine simplicity.

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He's one thing. The one thing is triune in nature. We perceive that triune being as he relates to us and we see the differences of relationship and that's how we observe their distinction.

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So when I pray, I pray to Jesus all the time. And the reason I do is because false religions don't pray directly to Jesus.

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They just don't. The Bible, they do. I'll show you the verses. So I pray to Jesus because I want to witness to people even while I'm in fellowship with the

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Lord Jesus. And we're commanded to have fellowship with Christ. First Corinthians 1 .9, and you can't have fellowship with somebody you don't talk to.

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And that's prayer. Right. I heard you a few months ago, you were explaining

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Trinity. People talked about, I've heard the egg and the yolk and the shell. But you explained that in a much better way.

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I think it was with, was it with water or? Time. Time, that's right.

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That's time. Past, present, and future are all the one thing called time yet they are distinct in their relationship to each other.

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One is after, one is before, and one is present. And it's just an analogy. But we can understand the singularity of time but we also understand the aspects as they relate to each other simultaneously.

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So time is one thing and three things at the same time. Okay? Okay, perfect.

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Thanks, Matt, have a great evening. God bless. You too, man. Thank you, bye -bye. All right. Hey folks, be right back after these messages.

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We have Glenn from Richmond. Why did God hate Esau? That's a good question.

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Be right back after these messages. We'll try and tackle it. It's Matt Slick Live!

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

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All right, everybody, welcome back to the show. If you wanna give me a call, as always, the number is 877 -207 -2276.

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You can also email me info at carm .org, C -A -R -M dot

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O -R -G. And put the subject line, radio comment, radio question. And we have three open lines.

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So if you wanna give me a call, now's the time. All right, let's get to Glenn from Richmond. Glenn, welcome, you're on the air.

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Yes. Hello? Yes. Yep. So what do you got, buddy?

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What's up? This is Glenn from Rich. I wanted to know why the scripture says that God loved

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Jacob, but Esau, he hated. Well, the Bible tells us why.

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And if you go to Romans 9, and read the context of verse 11, it'll tell us.

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It says, in verse 10, not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father

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Isaac. For though the twins were not yet born, this is Jacob and Esau, right? Had not yet born, and had not done anything good or bad.

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So it wasn't based on what they would do. They hadn't done anything good or bad, or not even born. So what Paul is talking about, it's not an issue of their works, what they would or would not do, okay?

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They're not yet born, and had not done anything good or bad, so that God's purpose, according to his choice, would stand.

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Not because of works, but because of him who calls. It was said, the older will serve the younger,

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Jacob, I love Esau, I hate him. Now some people, what they'll do, is they'll say, well, he loved one as a group.

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So they each became nations, or groups of people. And so he just loved this one group better than another. That's all it is.

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So what they do, is they soften this to make it fit their theology, and their personal comfort zone.

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And that's what they shouldn't do, that. Because the next verse, well, there's no justice with God, is it? May there never be.

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Why would you ask that question, if it's just a bunch of groups, and you've already softened the interpretation to make it fit your feelings?

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So back to the text. So it's for God's purpose, according to his choice, not because of works.

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That's why he picked one over the other. So that God's purpose, according to his choice, would stand not because of works, but because of the one who calls.

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That's why he chose one, not the other. Okay? Okay, okay.

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Now, back to what you said, that she had two nations in her womb.

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Rebecca, right? Yes. And it says, one was red and hairy, right?

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Yes. And they didn't describe the other one. So what two nations did she have in her womb?

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The nations that came out of each person. Okay. The groups of people.

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The nations that came out of. Yeah. What church do you go to? The descendants of. What church do you go to?

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I go to First Baptist Centralia. Okay, yeah, that's okay.

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That's okay. Yeah, and I talk to you a lot. Okay. Maybe about, well,

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I don't wanna say a lot, but this is like my third or fourth time that I've been speaking with you. I've raised questions, you know.

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I talked to you last week, too, also. Okay. I'm getting through, thank God. And I'm getting understanding from you.

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Well. About what you said, but that was Romans 9, verse 10. 9 -11 is the specific verse.

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9 -11. Yeah. Now, here's something to think about. And so, you don't mind,

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I'm gonna teach you something, or try to, okay? A little something. I remember a professor in seminary told me this, and I never forgot it.

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And he said, when you go to Romans 9, do you get upset? Now, these aren't the exact words he said, but this is what he meant.

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Do you get upset when you're reading it? You go, wait a minute. That's not fair, that's not right.

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It doesn't make sense. If you do, and you ask those kinds of questions, then you understand the text.

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And if you don't ask those kind of questions, then you don't understand the text, because Paul himself raises those questions.

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So, you have to read it in such a way that you go, wait a minute, is that right? And that's what a lot of people do about Romans 9.

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And then they reject their understanding, which is clear. So, starting in verse 9 of Romans 9, for this is the word of promise, at this time

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I will come and Sarah shall have a son. And not only this, but there was Rebecca also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father

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Isaac. For though the twins were not yet born, and had not done anything good or bad, so that God's purpose according to his choice would stand, not because of works, but because of him who calls.

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It was said, the older will serve the younger, just as Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. If it's talking about individuals who hadn't done anything good or bad, and God's loving one and hating the other, well, why is he upset with them then, if they do things wrong?

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Because that's what God's choice is. That's the kind of question you'd ask. And then the next sentence is, well, what are we gonna say?

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There's no injustice with God, is there? That means, oh, I am understanding what Paul's teaching, because I'm raising the same objection.

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But let's just say, it's Jacob is one group of people, one of the tribes, and Esau's another group of people.

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And that in those groups of people, you have free will choices, free will, my sovereignty, my sovereignty, free will, free will.

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And God just knows what they're gonna do, and he loves one and hates another. But remember, it says, not because of works, what they would do, okay?

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So what the people will do is they'll say, they have to soften it. Well, you see, no, no, no.

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God loves everybody, which isn't true. He loves everybody, and he wants everybody to be saved.

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And how do I know? Because I've decided that's what the ultimate is, as far as God's will for people.

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He wants everyone to be saved, because he says it's in 1 Timothy 2, 4, 2 Peter 3, 9. He wants all to be saved.

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That's what it means. So this can't mean he loved one and hated another. It has to mean something else. So it has to mean that he saw how bad they would be, and he's frustrated with them, and that's why.

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Well, then, where's the objection, then? Why would you say there's no injustice with God, is there? See, what they're doing is they're recognizing a perceived injustice with God, and then they're changing the text's meaning to make it fit what they want.

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They're violating scripture at this point. And then when they go back to these verses, where God wants all to be saved,

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I say, then why does Jesus speak in parables? In Mark 4, 10 through 12, it's so that people will not be saved.

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And he says it, they'll not be forgiven. That's why he says he speaks in parables. And then in 2

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Thessalonians 2, 11, I think it is, or 13, God sent a deluding influence on people so they'll believe lies.

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Wait a minute. If he wants everyone to be saved, then why does he do that also? And this is where you get into theology.

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Now you have to do some thinking and go to look at the whole of scripture. Most people I've found don't wanna go that far.

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They simply have a view, and they have decided what the truth is. And then when

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I say, well, what about this? Matt, you're stupid, you don't understand the truth. That's what often happens.

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So if we're to continue, it says there's no injustice with God, it is there, may it never be.

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For he says to Moses, I'll have compassion on whom I have compassion. I'll have mercy on whom I have mercy, okay?

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Mercy and then compassion. Well, some people say, well, what that means there is not about salvation. It's just about choosing whom he wants.

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No problem at that point. So he says, it does not depend upon the man who wills or the man who runs, but upon God who has mercy.

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Well, what does it? Well, they're gonna say it has just to do with what purposes he's gonna call them to do. Well, that would include salvation, wouldn't it?

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But nevertheless, the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose I raised you up to demonstrate my power in you, that my name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth so he has mercy on whom he desires and he hardens whom he desires.

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And then you'll say, well, then why does he still find fault? There's another objection. And then the next set of verses are about salvation and God's sovereignty over that.

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So people don't want the sovereignty of God, they want their own. That's what's going on, okay, buddy? Where's the break?

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We gotta go. Yeah. All right? All right. You can hold on, hold on if you want. Hey folks, we'll be right back after these messages.

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

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Here's Matt Slick. Okay, everybody, welcome back to the show at the bottom of the hour. And that guy dropped off, which is fine.

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And now, let's, next longest waiting is Horvosh from Virginia, welcome.

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You're on the air. Hi, Matt, thanks for taking my call. Can you hear me okay? Yes, I can, yes,

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I can. So what do you got? Well, I've spoken to you a couple of times before regarding once was a, this pastor that my sister has.

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She doesn't have a, the pastor doesn't have a church, she's a female, the pastor is. Pastor's a female, that's all

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I'm dealing with. Yes, yes, yes, yeah, I agree. And so my sister's friends with her and I was just talking to my sister last night and she said something which

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I guess kind of like set me, like just, I don't know, it really took me aback because I didn't even know what to say.

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But she said that apparently we can't trust like the book of Timothy because Paul, the pastor said something,

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Pastor Hannah said something about they're learning that Paul didn't actually write the book of Timothy, it was like someone else, and that's why one of the reasons, is it in second

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Timothy or in Timothy where it talks, where Paul talks about like preachers or pastors not being female?

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I can't, I don't know off the top of my head, but she was saying how that is not necessarily a book that like should have been included in the

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Bible because Paul didn't write it. And I just had no, first of all, I'm like that's not true, but I didn't know how to rebuttal, give a rebuttal.

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It's simple. So then the Christian church throughout the 2000 years is wrong, is that what you said?

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Right, right, I mean, I was just like sharing, there's just no way, like you have all these scholars who've like studied this and now this pastor's saying that they're finding out that Paul didn't write this book, like I don't understand, like why would you just believe that's one person?

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So here's the thing, the early church recognized this, and this is where we go to the early, earliest accounts, because the people who were close then knew which books were in and which ones were apostolic.

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And so the early church fathers, the very early on, they included it, the councils early on included it.

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So the evidence that they had and the information they had was there. So what's happening now is nothing more than an attack on God's word, because it says here, women aren't to have that place of authority, which

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I can go to Titus and make the same case. I can do that in Titus and still demonstrate it in other places too.

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But all they're doing is now trying to say that, well, it's not really written, it's not really true. So who's the one who doubts

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God's word? It's the unbeliever. So she needs to understand that she's coming along and her false pastor, whoever said this, is now going against this because she's a woman pastor.

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I would be glad to fly out to where she is and have a debate with it on this topic in front of her and her church.

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I would happily do that and politely and firmly destroy her position.

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And I don't even have to use First Timothy. I can do it from other places. And so that would be easy to do, it would be very easy.

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And she'd be left without any answers. In my opinion, she's just, what she's doing is gathering teachers to herself that tickle her ears.

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Just want that, she wants to be able to have that power and authority. So she now is saying, well, Paul didn't write that.

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That's all. Well, did he write Titus? Yeah, he wrote Titus, didn't he? She'd have to authenticate that.

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Well, then check this out in Titus. This is what he says in Titus. One verse five.

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He says that he left Titus there to appoint elders in every city. In the

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Greek, okay, in the Greek, it's a plural masculine form, elders, in every city.

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If any one and that, the word one is masculine also, but reproach the husband of one wife.

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Now, this is aner mias gunaikos. So this is a husband of one wife. How does a woman do that?

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An elder, by definition, a pastor's an elder. I mean, go to First Timothy five, First Timothy five, 14, oh, that's long.

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So, and then it goes on the overseer, and that's also masculine. Must be above reproaches to women.

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So how is it that a woman can fit this? I don't even need to go to Titus. No, I mean, they, right, but my concern is, too, is just refuting what this pastor is saying to my sister, and that this pastor's telling her that now they're realizing that Paul didn't write

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Timothy, and I'm like, well, I'm a nurse, you know, and I've been walking with the Lord, but I don't have a masculine divinity, so I don't know how to refute that.

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Yeah, but you see, all she's doing is saying, this false pastor is now saying this, and it's tickling her ears, too.

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I would be glad to talk to her on the phone and go through non -Timothy verses to make the same case.

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I say, now what do we do? How does a woman become an elder when it says the husband of one wife?

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How does that happen? And then what it'll probably say is, well, it was just written for that time and that place.

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Oh, so it's not written for us when he says appoint elders this way, so now you're telling us that when it says they have to be husband and one wife, it means they don't have to be husband and one wife.

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And this is what happens with false religious systems. They get the text to say the opposite of what it says.

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It's one of the basics. They just say what it doesn't say, the opposite, when they're done with it.

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Is there a place that I could also go to show my, because I feel like if I just say,

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Shireen, that's not true, then she's not gonna listen to me, because she's like, well, Hannah has a master's in divinity.

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I'm like, there's people that have doctorates in divinity that don't believe what Hannah does. I just, I don't understand. I don't.

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And so I guess if I just go against the pastor,

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I feel like with anything else, but like, well, no, here's the proof that Paul wrote it.

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Like, my sister's not gonna believe me. Here's the thing. The main reason that they're saying this is because of the different style of writing.

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That's what they're saying. Okay. See, it's a different person. All right. Now, there's an error, there's an error called the

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J -E -D -P, the Graf -Wellhausen theory, the, I don't know the word for it, but it doesn't matter, where it says that the first five books of the

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Bible were written by four different authors, J -E -P -D, and we're gonna do all that stuff.

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And the reason they say that is because different styles. Okay? All right.

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So what I did one day, this is true, before church on a Sunday, I had this in my head and I went and I wrote an article explaining what the

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J -E -D -P is. Okay? And I explained the Graf -Wellhausen theory. And I went through and I wrote it.

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Okay. And I was thinking about it in church, wasn't paying too much attention to the sermon that day. It was so far in my mind.

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And so when I got back home, I jumped right in the computer and I wrote the response to it, the refutation of it. And then what

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I did afterwards, I went, wait a minute. Hey, I'm gonna run both of them, both articles.

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This was an afterthought. I'm gonna run both articles through the grammar analyzer, flash concord, stylistic analysis thing.

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And they were different. They were different. The amount of passive versus active voice was different.

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The vocabulary was slightly different. I mean, you can have the and go and not and a lot of words, but there was different focuses.

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Yet I wrote both of them on the same day and the results were dissimilar.

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And so when these guys, it drives me crazy. They get in their armchairs. Well, we're gonna tell you that we are gonna decide 2000 years later, the early church was wrong.

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We can tell you that there are different styles of writing. So it's obviously not

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Timothy. It is one of the most stupid arguments that they have.

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Because people write for different purposes. They have different styles. When I write poetry, it's a different style than when

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I write fiction versus theology versus logical argumentation. And I'm the same author for all these.

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I've written science fiction novel. I've written a book of humor. I write poetry. I do short stories and among other things and theological articles.

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They're different styles from the same person. And then to say, well, they're all the different styles. So therefore different persons is ridiculous.

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It's stupidification, okay? They need more than that. They need to have more than that.

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A lot more than just different style, okay? Okay, okay, no, that's good.

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Okay. All right, okay. All right, all right. Thank you so much. Okay, okay, God bless.

32:55

All right. You too, bye -bye. Okay. Yeah, the Graff -Wilhousen is also called the documentary hypothesis and it's been well refuted.

33:03

Let's see. Let's get to Dylan from North Carolina. Dylan, welcome. You're on the air.

33:10

Hey, what's up, Matt? Can you hear me? Yes, I can, man. Yes, I can. What do you got, buddy? All right. So something that I've been struggling with a lot and I guess it's just a question that I have is how do you know if you've been called or like if you've been called to salvation?

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Well, you know you've been called if God opens your heart and your mind because he wouldn't do that to someone who's not a believer and that are not saved.

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They'll open the heart and the mind as he did with Lydia in Acts 16, 14. He opened the mind for her to believe the truth.

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We've got a break coming up. We'll go through some more stuff like this, okay? And if you, oh, am

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I holding on? All right. Hey, folks, we'll be right back after these messages. Please stay tuned. We'll get back with Dylan.

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And then we've got Jermaine who's gonna ask why did God require prayer when he already knows everything?

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Ooh. We'll be right back after these messages. It's Matt Slick Live!

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

34:18

Oh, Robert, welcome back to the show. Let's see. Oh, yeah, here we go. Back with Dylan.

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All right, Dylan, you still there? Yes. All right. So I'll just jump in in a slightly different direction, but the same topic here.

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In 1 Corinthians 2, 14, a natural man does not accept the things of the

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Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. And he cannot understand them because they're spiritually appraised.

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So the things of God are things like the Trinity, Jesus Christ as God in flesh, the hypostatic union, salvations by grace through faith alone in Christ alone, things like this.

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These are not received and accepted and leaned on by unbelievers. So do you believe those things?

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Arguably. Well, good. And let me ask you, do you make mistakes in your

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Christian walk? Every day. Yeah. And who do you go for, for making things right?

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And taking care of that? I go to God.

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That's right. These are all the things that the Spirit of God works in you for those who've been cleansed by the blood of Christ, who recognize their dependence on him because they have been saved and they don't deserve it.

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And they're being kept and they don't deserve it. And God's love for you is not deserved.

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His mercy upon you is not deserved. And he's chosen you from the foundation of the world, Ephesians 1, 4.

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And this is how you know, because you depend on Christ and not yourself, not your wisdom, nothing else.

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And when you mess up, you go back to the cross. Unbelievers don't do that. Unbelievers don't.

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And false believers don't. False believers in false religions, like Mormonism or Roman Catholicism, it's not the cross and the person of Christ they go to and seek him for forgiveness.

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In Mormonism, it's the father. Or they just call him father because he's literally, literally, no exaggeration, literally, their literal father in the preexistent.

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They don't go to Christ. And then the Catholics, you go to Mary. You can pray to Christ, but you got to go to the priest and pray to Mary.

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There's always something else. True believers, because they're indwelt by God, have fellowship with God, as God calls them to himself, not a system, not a church, not an old saint.

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And, you know, that's why I ask, what do you do when you mess up? Just go back to Christ.

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Go back to the cross every day. Believers do that. Unbelievers don't.

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And that's how you know you've been called by God to believe because he's granted you that faith,

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Philippians 129. He's granted you repentance, 2 Timothy 2 .25. He's caused you to be born again, 1

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Peter 1 .3. You're born again not of your own will, John 1 .13. And the only reason you can come to Christ is because it's been granted to you from the father,

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John 6 .65. All of that means that you're called, if you believe at all, okay?

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All right, thank you. Does that help? Yeah, it does.

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I guess I kind of get in my own way a lot of the time. Oh, welcome to the club.

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Yeah. You know, just because you said that, I want to tell you, you know,

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I'll be 68 next month. So I've been around a while. And it wasn't until,

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I don't know, past 20 years or so that I learned how not to get in the way anymore, that I mean in the self -doubt thing.

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Because I'm always gonna get in the way. I always have to go to the cross.

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And if I'm always doubting myself, you know, am I really saved, am I really this? Then I'm doubting God. Because he saved me and he knew exactly what

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I would be in the wickedness of my heart in so many ways. And he decided to save me.

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So I rest in that, not in my goodness. I'm not saved by my goodness.

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I'm not kept by my goodness or my sincerity, but by his love. And so though I don't give in to sin and say, yeah, it's okay, don't worry about it.

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No, that's not it. It's here we go again, Lord. I have a devotion on calm called to the cross again

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I go. There's no other place I know. And there's a poem at the end, but the idea is we depend on him and we'll always get ourselves in the way.

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But if you take your eyes off of him and put on yourself, you'll have your doubts because you're not good enough.

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You will never be good enough ever. But Jesus is. As long as you're trusting in what he's done and his faithfulness and his grace and his commitment to you and his love for you, then you can scratch your head and wonder, what was he thinking calling someone like you?

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What were you thinking, Lord? Do you know what you were doing calling me? But we know he did because of what's in him, not because of what's in us.

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And so rest in Christ. He says, come to me, all who are heavy laden, I'll give you rest,

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Matthew 11, 28. So you can rest that he loves you, even though he knows everything about you, okay?

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All right, thank you. All right, brother, call back, man, call back. Let's see how you're doing through that because I understand the struggle,

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I understand the issue. All right, man, call back. Let me know how you're doing. It's okay? All right, have a good night.

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You too, God bless. All right, now let's get to Jermaine.

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Hey, Jermaine, welcome. You're on the air. Well, hi, Matt. So yeah,

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I'll be real quick. I have a concerning prayer. I believe very much in prayer. I've seen it work.

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But one question I always get from family, relatives, and people who don't is, if God is foreknowing and has all knowledge, why do you even have to pray?

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So I just wanted to kind of hear you develop that a little bit. Are they trying to get God to do what they want him to do?

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That's why, they already knows, and we can't get them to get what we want. So why pray? Is that their attitude?

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That's what I would ask. But you see, God tells us to pray in Philippians 4, six through seven.

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He tells us to pray. Whatever you do, you don't lift up your supplications to the Lord. He tells us.

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Furthermore, it's fulfillment of the relationship aspect of fellowship with the Son, in 1 Corinthians 1 .9.

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And it keeps our hearts on track. Because we need to participate in prayer in order to humble our hearts and dwell in the presence of God.

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The practice of prayer is a practice of the presence of God. And so it changes us.

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Being in God's presence changes us. His holiness affects us, purifies us, gets our hearts and minds on Him.

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And it also, prayer, demonstrates our dependence on God and that we're not depending on ourselves.

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This is the one I gotta work with. In all seriousness, this is my problem. Because I think

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I know enough where I don't need to depend on God that much. And it's complete foolishness.

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You know, I don't have to pray about this specific thing. Well, it's dumb. I need to pray about everything.

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Because I need to be depending on Him in everything and not my own ability and knowledge or whatever.

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It's just, you know, it's just the issues we have. We fall on our strengths as well as our weaknesses. And in that time of prayer, we're confessing and we're humbling, being humbled and being in His presence.

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And another thing that it accomplishes is we then are better able to move in His will.

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And the illustration I give is there's a river next to a path. And we're walking along that path and that river is the will of God.

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And the river moves left and right as it goes through the landscape.

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And the path is next to it. What do we do? Do we want to run along that will, next to God's will as the path goes and we make our own path through the terrain of life?

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Or do we jump in the river and be carried along? Prayer helps us get wet, helps us get in to the place where God is moving completely so that we're not doing our own will, but we're doing

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His will. So that then, in our prayers, whatever we desire is already what

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God has desired. So when our hearts change because we're in the presence of God, then that's what

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God wants. And that occurs in His presence in prayer. So we want to pray so much that His will and ours become one in the same.

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Ours changes. And prayer's a place where these kinds of things happen. These are more of the reasons why we need to pray, okay?

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All right, thank you very much. That was beautiful, appreciate it. All right, man. Well, God bless, buddy. All right.

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Okay, God bless. All right, so now let's get to Kyle from North Carolina.

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Kyle, welcome, you're on the air. Hey, Matt, it's great to talk to you. I had a question,

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Ephesians 2 .5, it says God made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions.

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And then I was looking at Colossians 2 .13 and 14, and that says when we were dead in our sins, and then skip a little bit,

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God made you alive with Christ, having canceled the written code, nailing it to the cross.

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And I was wondering, because these seem to say to me that we're saved. I mean, they don't mention belief or faith at all, and I was wondering about that.

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Well, I'm not sure what your question is, but we were dead in our transgressions, He made us alive.

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What that's talking about in Ephesians 2 .5 is that we were dead, but He made us alive. Dead to righteousness, dead to God, but He resurrected us spiritually by making us born again.

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Yet we were the ones in sin when He made us alive with Christ. That's what's going on there.

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And in Colossians 2 .13 and 14, I'm very, very familiar with these verses here, very familiar.

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Colossians 2 .14 is one of my favorite verses in the Bible. That is talking about the work of Christ on the cross where He canceled the certificate of debt, the kairagraphon in the

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Greek, the handwritten of legal debt in us, the sin debt. He canceled it at the cross, not when you believe.

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It's already canceled with what Jesus did. That's Colossians 2 .14. So it's the same thing.

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When we were dead, He made us alive. So that's talking about the experience that we have of not being born again to becoming born again.

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But Colossians 2 is about the issue of the atoning sacrifice, the propitiatory sacrifice.

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And in that, that occurred on the cross. That's different. So one's about the cross, what

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Jesus did. The other is what He does in us that we experience, okay? Okay, I understand.

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Thank you. You're welcome. All right, man. God bless. Goodbye. Okay. All right, now let's get to Martin from North Carolina.

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Martin, welcome. You're on the air. We got about, ooh, we got one minute. Go for it. Okay, then

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I'll just say it, then you can answer. I'll be in Bible studies, and the man and woman thing will come up.

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And I'll say, this stuff just come to my mind, so tell me if I'm off. And I'll say, maybe the big struggle between men and women is because of the fall before, because He did say afterwards, so that, you know, that, you know, after your sorrow during childbearing, then

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He said, thy husband and he shall rule over you. The desire will -

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I'll tell you what. For thy husband - I'll tell you what. And he shall rule over you. Amen. We're out of time. So I'll tell you what.

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You call back tomorrow, because we need to talk about this. All right? No, I'm serious. The music is gonna start in a couple seconds here.

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So call back tomorrow. Let's talk about this, and it'll be a good discussion, because I know where we can go with it.

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All right, a lot of stuff. All right, brother? Call you back tomorrow. I'll give him a good talk, okay, and we'll -

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All right, brother. Okay, God bless. All right, take care. Okay. Hey, folks, there you go.

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Nice Monday, the 25th. May the Lord bless you. Have a great evening, and by his grace, back on here tomorrow. Talk to you then.