Matt Slick Bible Study, Phil 2b

What? How you feeling? Wiped.

At least she's here. That's good. All right. So I'm gonna give it just a bit for people to start coming in.

It's 7 .30. We're gonna go through, we're gonna start at Philippians 2, verse 12.

And we're gonna take a bit of a tangent inside of it because there's some peripheral things I want to go over.

So I don't know if we're gonna get through very much of the chapter. And it worked out because my notes aren't that extensive right now.

I have them up through 17. And so we may only get through five verses, but there's a lot to cover.

And so we'll be getting into that because we had an unexpected appointment, let's just say.

And so as life often is with us full of unexpected things. So what we do now is we're gonna pray.

We're gonna jump right into Philippians 2, 12 and see how things go. Lord Jesus, thank you for your grace, your kindness, your mercy.

I ask Lord, I just ask that you would open up the word to us, open up our minds and our hearts to receive the truth of who you are and what you have for us in your scriptures.

Thank you for giving them to us. Thank you for calling the apostles and having them right what you would have them right so that we can benefit from it.

I thank you. And I ask Lord that everyone here will be blessed and that those who hear out there in the net would also be blessed.

And that would only be by your grace. We ask this Jesus in your precious, wonderful and holy name, amen.

All right, all right, here we go. We're just gonna jump right in. So then my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

Now the next verse is worth looking at a little bit because it says, for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

We tackle these verses separately, but they of course go together. And I'm gonna be discussing heresies and stuff like that, as well as Orthodox stuff.

Now, excuse me. As you know, that I started doing apologetics, not without any theological training whatsoever.

I just started studying. I just started reading commentaries, started reading books, going out on the street, talking to people, pierced my ear, went to the beach, talked to the punkers, started a swap meet ministry, went door to door, put an ad in a paper, just to call this number.

Learn the truth about Mormonism, Jehovah's Witness, Christian science and unity, call. And then we had this number, excuse me, and my roommate and I would alternate taking up the phone and we would do this stuff.

So I learned my theology on the streets, so to speak. I learned by doing, I learned by being involved with things.

And then I would read because there were godly teachers, mostly men and a few women that I would read that were just insightful and had great knowledge.

I remember that in one job I had, whereas a mechanical draftsman back in,

I don't know, 83, four, five, six, I can't remember. But I remember having a commentary sitting open, the book was open and it was down here about an arm's length away on my table.

And I'd be drafting and writing, doing plans and doing parts and stuff.

And I would look down and read and then get back to where my job was.

And I would focus on what I was supposed to do, but I was reading. I remember when I started that same job that the engineer,

I still remember his name and what month and day and everything I started on. But he went out to the factory floor in order to fix something.

And I'd only been there an hour or two and he was training me about some stuff. And while he was gone,

I pulled down the dictionary and looked up the word Jesus and God and Trinity and Bible and Scripture and salvation.

It was like, oh yeah. And I couldn't stop, it was just a struggle. And so I learned that way.

And now I went to college, been to seminary, read a lot of stuff and had a lot of opportunities to teach.

So the reason I'm telling you that is because this verse here is used by the

Jehovah's Witnesses. I remember once going to a kingdom hall. A kingdom hall,

I'd go in, I was kicked out of one once. I didn't do anything wrong, but they said, you need to leave because I started asking difficult questions.

And they would ask me questions and I could answer them and then ask them another question in return.

After five minutes of that, time for you to leave. Okay, and I would, you know. Anik has known many instances in our marriage where we've gone someplace that I got to talk to somebody about the

Lord. I got it bad. I remember once we're going to sleep one night, we're talking and I said,

I don't think I'm gonna give up karma. I'm gonna give up this, I'm gonna give up that. And I remember her saying, you know, you've got it bad.

It's never gonna happen. I remember that. I remember thinking, she doesn't know what I'm talking about. I am serious.

And I got upset with her. This is just, no, I know, I know. She's going, you're never gonna give it up.

You're never, I remember that. She's right. And even on the way home from the hospital tonight, for those who were listening, we just, we had to go there, get something checked.

No big deal, everything's fine. On the way back, I'm on the phone on a

StreamYard account, teaching on why women pastors are not biblical, and women elders and stuff.

I love teaching the word of God. And it's an anointing from God. I can't take any pleasure in it.

I mean, pleasure in it, any credit for it.

It's only from God. It's only from God. So this verse in particular, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, was a plaque inside of a kingdom hall, and that's all that was written.

Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Quote, dot, dot, dot, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, look, look, look, look, look, those

Philippians 2, 12. I remember sitting there in their building, looking at it, and knowing what they teach about salvation, we're gonna get into what they teach and some other stuff.

We're gonna get into other things here in a bit. Oh, yeah, we are gonna get into it.

Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Catholics, Islam, they try and work their salvation as if they earn it, as if they get it through their faith and their works.

They think to work out your salvation means you work it to get it, to achieve it, to maintain it or to keep it, and you do not.

To work out your salvation with fear and trembling means to manifest what is already there.

We're saved not because of our goodness, but because of God's goodness. He loves us not because of who we are, but because of who

He is, and He chose us from the foundation of the world, Ephesians 1, 4, knowing everything about us.

Now, I am quite sure that none of us in this room would want every one of our sins suddenly put on a spreadsheet or something that was searchable by topics, or any of us could look, and it's graded from one is not that bad of a sin, 10 is really bad.

And how many of us would want that there? The answer, of course, is no.

And yet, God has chosen us knowing all of that. And it's just, it's an amazing thing to think that He has loved us from the foundation of the world,

Ephesians 1, 4 says, and He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, which means

His choosing is eternal, which means His thoughts for us are infinite, which means the time and the depth of His love for us is also infinite, that His greatness and His love for us is completely because of Him, and not because of us.

When it says, work out your salvation, it means to accomplish further, to work, manifest it, perfect it out, the fact of the regeneration, the declaration of righteousness that you have, that's what

God has already given you, now live it. And that's what He's saying. We don't all do it right,

I mean, amen across the board there. We all fail, some more than others.

We have somebody who likes it when I take a shot at him, he just feels warmed and fuzzy all over because he has mental problems, but we put up with him.

It was strange. It was strange, about him? Around me? It is true about him.

Oh yeah, now somebody else is getting in on it. All right, he's smiling, it's all good. All right, that's how we love each other.

Man, we insult each other. Yeah, you're ugly too, yeah, whatever. So I often reflect on the depravity of my own heart.

There have been issues lately that I'm having to deal with that are a bit of a struggle, and they're sin, and they deal with selfishness, they deal with pride and stubbornness, and they won't go away, they won't go away.

And so I pray and I confess them, Lord, can you get rid of these out of my heart?

And the next day, the next day, the next day, I'm amazed that he loves me.

You know, as I heard one person say, I'm glad that God predestined me from the foundation of the world, because if he'd look at me now, he wouldn't pick me.

You know, that's a true statement. So I want you to understand very clearly that your salvation is not dependent upon your ability, but upon his, not your work, but his, not your goodness, but his.

That is correct. So this is why, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, live it, express it.

You fail in it, that's okay, we're human, not that we want you to sin, but it's okay, you're human, let's pick up the pieces, let's keep going forward.

Jesus loves you, and he still does. We know that the Bible says, I have to teach you this,

I'll make sure you guys know, this is something that has to be preached to the Christians as well. But Romans 3 .28

says, we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. Justification is a legal standing of righteousness before God.

Just as if I'd never sinned, justified. So justification deals with the law.

God spoke, let there be light, he also spoke and said, thou shalt not lie. And both are the reflections of his character, and Jesus says in Matthew 12 .34,

out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. He speaks out of his character, let there be light.

That's interesting, and Jesus is that light, and we're called the light and things like that because we're in Christ.

And we are to emulate this law of love, the law of following Christ, the law of following God, of loving

God, loving your neighbor. But none of that is what justifies us.

Now, we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.

Now, in Deuteronomy 6 .5, it says, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Jesus quotes that in Matthew 22 .37.

In Leviticus 19 .18, love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus quotes that in Matthew 22 .39,

just two verses later. And he says in verse 40 that in these two commandments is the summation of the whole law.

So the summation of the whole law is love God and love your neighbor. That's what the law ultimately is about because Jesus says so.

In this is the whole law, prophets, okay? Now, without the works of the law, we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.

What are the works of the law? Loving God, loving your neighbor. I tell people you're justified without loving

God, without loving your neighbor. You think I'm crazy. No, you have to love God. You have to love your neighbor.

In order to be Christian? Yes. Is this what you do to keep your Christianity? Then they start getting what

I'm saying. Is that how you become a Christian? By loving God, loving your neighbor first? Well, no.

We do those things because we're Christians, right? Yes. But you can't be saved without those in the sense that they're a result of the regenerative work of God in dwelling us.

But we're not saved because of them, because of us doing them. I'm standing against the idea of works of righteousness, which so many people in this have misused this verse.

Philippians 2 .13, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Jesus, the apostle says in Romans 4 .1,

what shall we say then that our father Abraham, according to the flesh, is found? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

For what does the scripture declare? Abraham believes God and was credited in his righteousness.

Now to the one who does, 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.

So Paul is teaching us that justification is a legal standing before God, and that it's by faith, not by anything else we do in combination.

Because Romans 11 .6, if it's by grace, if it's by works, it's no longer by grace. The cults, the false religious people, seek to add works to salvation.

They seek to add their sincerity. So I mentioned this a couple weeks ago, or last week it was,

I described in some detail the crucifixion of Jesus and the blood.

And I used this imagery a few days ago on the internet, and more and more doors are opening up for me to be able to teach, praise

God by his grace. And we got talking in one room about the issue of your works compared to Christ.

And I said to people, I said, what you're doing is you want to add your works to salvation.

They said, no, we don't. These are the works of God, which is what the next verse talks about.

We'll get into all this. I'm gonna explain a lot of stuff here. And I say, so you're telling me that the works that God gives you to do, and your sincerity, and all this stuff, that this combined with the sacrifice of Christ or faith in him, this will save you, right?

And they go, yeah. Because you got to show him what you believe. You got to show the works.

Faith not works is dead. We'll get into that later. I said, okay, so picture this. I said, picture you on your knees and your elbows, your face near the ground and the dirt, and it's wet, it's filthy.

And you're crawling up this low grade hill where the cross is.

And there's a small stream of blood trickling down near where you're heading to.

This is the place of the sacrifice. This is the place where the sacrifice of Jesus is acceptable to God.

And our position is on our knees before him. We don't have anything to bring to that cross.

We can't add our goodness to the cross. We can't add our sincerity or our works and lift them up and put them on the cross with Christ and say, these in combination are what's acceptable to God the

Father. Because what they're doing inadvertently, instead of crawling with their face on the ground, they're standing up, walking up to the cross, and then they're taking their good works and they're nailing it on the cross and they're nailing their goodness and their sincerity on the cross and saying, all of this is what's acceptable to God for my salvation.

And they're saying that the work of Christ himself is not enough. And this is the heresy, the damnable heresy that's alive and well in the

Christian church as well as Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Islam. Well, Islam doesn't believe in the crucifixion, we'll get to that.

But also Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and that they teach your faith plus your faith in Christ.

And so verses like this, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Matt, you gotta understand, you have to have these good works that you show before God or you can't be saved.

And nail those to the cross as well. I use that imagery for the first time like that.

I think it was the first time or second time, I'm not sure. In detail this week, people listened because we remember images.

We remember the filth of the ground and dare we even visualize that blood.

I won't even look up further than that. I'm not worthy. And there's nothing

I'm gonna add to that cross. And he did everything. And he loved me from forever ago, just as he loved all of us from forever ago.

And in so doing, he decided to bear our sin in his body on the cross, 1 Peter 2 .24. And this is who he is, this is what he did.

That's what it says. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. The fear and trembling is not that we are afraid of God because he can smack us down and send us to hell.

That's not possible now that we're in Christ. We go to John 6 .37 -40 and we realize there,

Jesus says, all that the father has given him will come to him and all that have come to him, he will not cast out. For the will of the father, this is the will of the father who sent me that all he's given me

I lose none but raise it up on the last day. So this is what Jesus says and Jesus cannot fail to do the will of the father,

John 8 .29. He always does the will of the father. So we're secure in Christ. We have to be careful that we don't add our sincerity to that work.

We're to be sincere. We have to be careful we don't add our works in any way, shape or form.

In fact, years ago, years ago, here's an example of sheer foolishness and sinfulness.

Years ago, some sins I was struggling with and would occasionally fail.

And what I should do is go to the cross and say, Lord, here I am again. But no,

I didn't. I wasn't worthy to go to that cross so quickly.

So what I did was, I let myself feel guilty for two or three days before I went to the cross because I didn't make myself worthy enough to go to the cross.

I had to suffer. I did this for a year or two. And it was a mess of emotion and confusion until one day when

I was, I can't go right now and talk to him because I'm so guilty. And it was just like this light which just said, are you earning this?

Sin deceives you. And someone who's trained should have known better.

But the fact is, it is a deceptive thing in us. We've gotta be very careful that we are completely relying on the cross of Christ.

And I'll tell you, it wasn't until after I went, I started going straight to the cross that there was victory.

Because you know what? We are arrogant down deep. And we're foolish down deep.

And though I like to joke about people and I can use you as an example, I got plenty of examples.

Oh man, I got plenty. And so I don't need to do much research on examples of failure.

And yet Jesus loves me anyway. This is how good he is. He's incredible.

Titus 3 .5 does this. He saved us not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to his mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the

Holy Spirit. He saved us not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness.

We're gonna come back to that. Okay, Titus 3 .5 is an important verse. Now, doesn't

James 2 tell us that we're to have good works? That it is not true that we're justified by faith alone.

I'm gonna read to you. I'm gonna go through this. This is a side note

Bible study on James 2. I know people are listening. They might have questions about this.

What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith, but he has no work? Can that faith save him?

That's James 2 .14. So he's saying, what Paul is saying, or James is saying, what use is it?

You say you have faith, but he has no works. Can that faith save him?

It's a dead faith. It's what we call ascensia. Ascensia is mental ascent.

And we're gonna see that in James 2 .19. You believe in God, you do well, the devils believe. Demons believe also. What it's saying is they're aware of God's existence.

They believe, but they have that faith, but it's not the faith that we think of as a trusting dependence on God and that work of Christ.

They just are aware of his existence. That's the kind of faith that he's talking about here that is dead.

That's not the Christian faith. Verse 15, for brother or sisters without clothing and in need of daily food.

And one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed and be filled, and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body.

What use is that? Even so, faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. So you see, if you say one thing and you don't live it, you're a hypocrite.

This is why it says in 1 John 2, 4, if you say you know him and do not keep his commandments, the truth is not in you and you're a liar.

If you say you're a Christian, let's see it. Because that's how I will know that you are.

That's how you will know that I am. You can't see into my heart. I can't see into your heart to be able to tell, oh yeah, that person's saved.

In my novel, The Influence, we had angels that would go up to people. It's a fiction novel

I wrote. And in order to find out if they were a true Christian, the angel would put their hand on the chest of the person.

You could tell the indwelling presence of God, saved. Now it's just a fiction exercise.

It was just, you know, license. But I loved that little resemblance there.

You know, they put their chest, it's not there. They could feel the presence of God. That's what true faith generates out of.

It's a presence of God in us and the work of God. He says, someone may, verse 18 is critical, but someone may well say, you have faith and I have works.

Show me your faith without the works. I will show you my faith by my works. This is the horizontal.

It's not the vertical before God. You believe that God is one, you do well. The demons also believe in shudder.

This is the kind of false faith he's talking about. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?

You say it, let's see it. That's what he's saying. Was not

Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac? He's not talking about justification before God, but before people that we can know and others can know he was truly a man of God.

You see that faith was working with his works and as a result of the works, faith was perfected and the scripture was fulfilled, which says,

Abraham believed God and was reckoned in his righteousness. The true belief has true works and it followed and that's why

Abraham did what he did. But God didn't need to see him do that to know that he was already justified or a true believer.

God knows everything. It was done for our benefit, the typological representation of Abraham as the father.

Isaac as the son and the helper, the Holy, I mean, as a Holy Spirit, Eleazar the servant as they went up to the one hill, the same hill where Jesus was crucified on many hundreds of years later.

And so you see the man is justified by works and not by faith alone. So James is saying that, but it's not before God.

This is an important tangent that a lot of people fail to understand and it needs to be focused on.

There are those, however, who seek to be justified by faith and works, by faith and works.

Now, in Matthew 2, 22 and 23,

Matthew 7, 22 and 23, many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, do we not prophesy in your name, in your name perform many miracles, in your name cast out demons?

He says, and I'll say to them, I never knew you, get away from me, you workers of iniquity. Now, 1 John 3, 4 says, sin is breaking the law of God, that's iniquity.

So he says they're evil doers. And what they were doing on that day, the day of judgment, which you can find in 1

Corinthians 5, 5, and 1 Thessalonians 5, 2, you can find varying verses, we'll get into some stuff later, that talk about that day of judgment.

And what are they appealing to? Lord, Lord, faith, faith, did we not do this and this and this in your name?

Faith and works, before him, God says, get away from me. You can also go to Luke 18, nine through 14.

And I don't have it all memorized, but two men went up to the temple to pray, Jesus says, one, a Pharisee that are a tax gatherer.

The Pharisee was thus praying to himself, Lord, I thank you that I'm not like the unjust and the swindlers.

And he says, I pay tithes of everything I get. I fast twice a week.

He says, I thank you for not making me like that tax gatherer over there. The tax gatherer wouldn't even look up to heaven, was beating his own chest saying,

God, be merciful to me, the sinner, not a sinner. He said, the sinner.

There were two classes of sinners in the Jewish thinking back at that time.

Sinners and tax gatherers. Tax gatherers are the

Hebrews who spoke Hebrew and understood the language of Rome and understood the legal system of Rome as well as of their own people.

And then they would extort money out of their own people in order to get money for the

Romans. You owe me a hundred dollars, it says. You owe Rome a hundred dollars. Adjust, you know, work might be, you pay me right for 105,

I keep the five for my troubles. You gotta make a living to understand that. They might say, you owe a hundred to Rome.

Write a check for 300. And if you say no, I'll write down that you didn't get, you didn't pay.

And they would do this kind of a thing and they were hated. Not all of them would do this, but they were hated because they were giving up, so to speak, their citizenship with God to serve the enemy of God.

They were loathsome, hated. The Pharisee, on the other hand, was a godly man who kept the law, who did what was right before God.

And that's the one who was damned. And the one who was justified, Jesus says, and he uses the word justified, is the tax gatherer who knew his guilt was so bad.

He just said, Lord, be merciful to me, the sinner. That's all he had.

Jesus said, I tell you, that one went down justified. False religions always add something to salvation.

James 2 .10 says, whoever keeps the whole law has to get stumbled at one point to become guilty of all.

Yeah, I just do this one thing to be saved, to get baptized. I just do this one thing to get saved. I don't go to see

R -rated movies. I just do this one thing, I don't drink. I do this one thing, I don't smoke or have a cigar.

I just do this one thing, along with my relationship with God, and that's how

I'm saved. They're walking up to the cross and offering their little thing. And it's loathsome, it's vile to even imagine that.

Galatians 3 .10, 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.

You wanna do one thing in the law, you gotta do everything. You wanna be right before God by what you do, then do.

Verse 13, for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

God's at work in you. Well, don't you understand? People tell me this, Matt, you don't understand.

Catholics will tell me this. They'll say, you don't understand what you're talking about. They'll say, look, we're just doing the works that God has given us to do.

We're not doing it of our own, it's God's work in us. And I'll ask them a question, I'll say, so when you give to the poor, they say this is one of the things you gotta do to be saved, works of charity and other things.

Is that you doing it or is that God doing it? No, it's God doing it. I'll say, so you didn't walk up with a check and give it to a person, you know, works for charity, you're supporting charity?

You didn't do that, right? It wasn't you, it was God actually walking up, writing the check. God was the one handing it to him, it wasn't you.

No, Matt, you don't get it, it's so stupid. I get this. It's God working in us.

I'll say, I got that. So was God the one walking up with that check and handing it or was it you? Because if they do, they don't think.

You see, if it's not you doing anything, then you can't have any responsibility, any culpability in the action.

If God's the one doing something, if it's him doing it, then he gets the credit, not you.

Exactly, Matt, you see? Well then why are you saying you have to do good works to be saved? They get tripped up.

Now in the Catechism of the Catholic Church in paragraph 2068, it says that they obtain salvation through faith, baptism, and the observance of the commandments.

It says that. Paragraph 2036, I believe it is, says that an expression of the natural law is keeping the 10 commandments, and yes.

Okay, the authority of the magisterium extends also to the precepts, specific precepts of the natural law, paragraph 2036, because their observance demanded by the creator is necessary for salvation.

Necessary, the precepts of the natural law. And in paragraph 2070, the 10 commandments, the decalogue, the 10 commandments decalogue, contain a privileged expression of the natural law.

So keeping the 10 commandments is necessary for salvation. They're back under the law.

Is it you keeping the commandments? No, it's God in me. And we go back in a circle, because they have a cult mentality, and they don't understand what they're doing, and they can't think very clearly or very deeply.

So, and I'll stick with Catholicism, and I'll go through smaller groups and show you how false religions work.

So how do the Roman Catholics, as an example, get around this problem? Well, they invented something called condign merit and congruent merit, as well as the understanding of what's called strict merit.

Condign merit is the merit that God gives to someone who's in a state of grace, a believer, and it's a reward for good works accomplished with the grace of God.

But the reward is not obligatory in a legal sense. God has simply obligated himself.

If you do this, I'll give this to you. Okay, it's not legally required, but God freely gives it.

So when you do these good things, he rewards you. You do works of charity, he rewards you.

Not because he has to, but because he's obligated himself to do that.

So if you go through the sacraments, the participation of the sacraments by which grace is infused into the soul, okay, paragraph 1999, you do these things, it's

God working in you, not really you doing it, but you receive the grace, you become more grace -ified, and so you become better off before God.

So condign merit is just that, merit, where God obligates himself to do something in response to your goodness.

So that means God is choosing to obligate himself to do something in response to the good works that you've done.

And they say, but it's God working in us. Congruent merit is the merit that God gives to an unbeliever who's seeking him.

And then God gives him a reward, salvation, additional grace, whatever it is.

That's called congruent merit. Strict merit is you work for $10 an hour for 10 hours, that's $100.

It's directly owed. So they will divide things in between condign and congruent merit and say that God is obligating himself in condign to the believer and congruent to the nonbeliever to reward them for bearing things.

But it's actually God doing it, because he chose to do that, we're just participating. See how clever that is?

It's mental gymnastics, philosophical gymnastics, and it's demonic teaching. Because what they're saying is that God will reward me, not that he has to, but he will for the good things that I do.

And now, understand, there's truth to that to one degree. But what they're talking about is salvation.

Certainly, if we as Protestants, as we who believe the real scriptures, what the

Bible really says, if I am honoring and loving my wife like I'm supposed to,

God's gonna bless our marriage more so and vice versa, because God is gracious that way.

But that's not what saves us, and it's certainly not what keeps us saved. If it was, we'd be both in a lot of trouble really fast.

So what they're doing is they're saying that the condign and congruent merit in the context of their merit are salvific, or participatory in the means of salvation.

So they say it's a category of soteriology, the doctrine of salvation. And this is what

Roman Catholicism teaches. As I've told you before, I would love to speak on Roman Catholicism, because I enjoy it so much, because I hate heresy so much.

And the higher the heresy level, the more I tend to enjoy it. But then

I have a struggle with my spiritual Tourette's. That's what I call an obsessor totalist, and things like that.

So I've often asked Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox, who both believe the same thing about salvation and works and faith, and the

Assyrian Church of the East, which I just released an article on. I'll ask them, most people know

I'm setting them up when I say, so what you're telling me is that you do these good things, so you believe you're saved by grace through faith after all you can do, right?

They go, well, I've had many of them say, oh, yeah, yeah. Well, that's good. I just quoted the

Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 25, 23. Wow, you tricked me.

And they go, yeah, I'm slick. No, you tricked me, Matt, you don't understand. Just because they happen to get that right doesn't mean that I believe everything they say.

I go, okay. Well, I guess then, you don't get Mormonism, but from what you're telling me is that you have to conform yourself.

You have to obey God's laws and conform yourself to his laws, right? It's the moral standard, right?

And they go, yeah, of course you do. Oh, that's the Watchtower, February 15th, 1983, page 12.

Sorry, I'm just telling you that's where that's from. You say, why is it you keep agreeing with the cults?

So how about this? Check this out. This is Islam. I don't have this memorized.

This is Surah 23. Surah means chapter, ayat means verse, but they just say Surah 23, one through whatever, like we say

John 3, 16. So 23, 101 to 103. Then when the trumpet is blown, notice the

Christian imagery, because Islam, some people consider Islam to be a Christian heresy, because Muhammad had a lot of influence from Aryans, which are heretic, wackos, in that area, and he got a lot of Christianese, and he worked a lot of it into the

Quran, along with issues from the Jews that were on the area.

Anyway, then when the trumpet is blown, there will be no more relationships between them that day, nor will one ask after another.

Then those whose balance of good deeds is heavy will attain salvation, but those whose balance is light will be those who have lost their souls.

In hell will they abide. So in Islam, you have a lot of good works, you make it.

And if you have a lot of bad works, you don't. But, just a little bit of trivia, there's a phrase in Arabic, inshallah, if Allah wills.

So you could keep 99 .9 % of all of the law of Islam, be the best

Muslim of the past 500 years, and Allah can still send you to hell, if Allah wills.

There's no guarantee of salvation like we have because of what Christ did, where, as we were talking about this,

Bill and I were talking about it earlier, he paid for our sins, our actual sins, and actually paid. Therefore, you can't go to hell.

We have the guarantee of salvation in the work of Christ, not in our works. Whenever our works are contributory to salvation, then you can't know for a fact that you're saved.

So I've been on many chat rooms over the years, and I've said, well, I know I'm going to heaven when I die.

You are so arrogant. Well, it's true, I am arrogant, I admit.

But why are you saying I'm arrogant? I know what they're saying. I know why. I'm just asking, why are you?

I didn't say I don't know, I just, why are you asking? Because you're saying that you know you're going to heaven. Well, yeah, 1

John 5, 13 says these things are written, so you may know you have eternal life. If I know, I do. No, you can't know.

I just quote a scripture, and they say, you can't know, even though it says you can. Well, the reason you can't is because your salvation is dependent upon what you do, in part, with your faith.

You don't know if you're good enough, you've done enough. So you're arrogant because you think you've done enough. And I'll say to them, no, you're the arrogant one, because you think that God might perchance accept your works on an equal level of Jesus to be saved.

You're the arrogant one. And it says, and God withdraws from the arrogant.

As James says, I forgot where. So as you can see, I'll go through the

Book of Mormon. I have a little notes on Mormonism, I might as well read them. So that the false religions always add to the finished work of Christ.

We don't, we keep our hands off of it. That's his business. We're on the ground,

Lord, what do you want? I'm saved by faith, that's all. I can't do anything,

I'm not gonna add anything, I'm not gonna suffer for two days, make myself worthy to go to the cross and ask for forgiveness for some sin

I've done. I'm not gonna do that anymore, right?

I don't know how many of us, or maybe you could think about if you've done that yourself, I don't feel, I feel a little guilty,

I'm not gonna go ask and get easy forgiveness right away. I gotta feel guilty for some time. I get it, it makes sense, but is it wise?

I'd say go, just go get it taken care of. Lord, I feel guilty, but I'm here right now. You can do both at the same time, okay?

You gotta be careful that we don't bring our pride and our arrogance to the cross. We need to hear that gospel message so many times.

We continually need to hear it. Anyway, I don't wanna waste my research and my notes.

This is what Discourses of Brigham Young, the second prophet of the Mormon Church said, page 152.

Every ordinance, every commitment and requirement is necessary for the salvation of the human family.

And also Discourses of Wilford Woodruff, the president, page 23.

If I ever obtain a full salvation, it will be by my keeping the laws of God. Now this is demonic.

So sometimes on the radio, I will say of the Roman Catholic Church, I believe it is the greatest gate of damnation of any planet, of any religion on the planet.

I believe the Roman Catholic Church is the greatest gate of damnation of any religion on the planet.

And I do believe that. And that's only because it has more people in it than Islam does.

Because of what it teaches. As I already read in paragraph 2036, you gotta keep the necessary for salvation is the natural law.

2070, the 10 commandments are an expression of the natural law. And it's necessary for salvation to keep them.

And paragraph 2068, that you obtain salvation through faith, baptism, and the observance of the commandments.

It's teaching a false gospel. And therefore we have to say, it's teaching a false gospel.

People say, Matt, you're often judgmental. Yep, that's right.

My doctrine scalpel is very sharp because it's been fine -tuned, honed, and polished against the rock of truth.

Over and over and over again. Back and forth. The scalpel of truth can now be wielded to separate truth from error.

And that's what we have to understand, that we need to study God's word. That's why

I memorize scripture, memorize addresses. I quote them so much. This is because it's my job.

Okay, it's what God's called me to do. It's just me. I do this a lot. I want people to understand, this is what the word of God says.

Your salvation is dependent upon your goodness. It's dependent upon God. Even though it says work out your salvation with fear and trembling,

Philippians 2 .12. That verse, I could still see it on that brown wooden plaque about this big, about like that, in a kingdom hall.

All the Jehovah's Witnesses are sitting underneath it. And underneath it was their pulpit where they would go up and read the watchtower equally with the

Bible and do stuff by teaching out of the watchtower. And the watchtower would tell them what's it, and would tell you what the

Bible says. And I watched, and I'm sitting there going, man, it's so foolish.

And they can't see it because they don't have the mind to see, don't have the mind of Christ, don't have the eyes to see or the ears to hear.

We can't mock them. We can't judge them. We can say what they believe is wrong, and we should say what they believe is wrong.

We need to do it by being informed. And Christians need to study this stuff. We need to know this stuff. You don't have to know it like I know it, all these verses memorized in the left and the right, in the

Hebrew and the Greek. You need to know the basics. As I was listening to, actually, you're not gonna like this,

Bill, but I'm gonna pay you a compliment, sorry. He prefers the insults. So one compliment like negates like 10 insults,

I think, with him. And what you were doing was recounting some of the conversation you had with someone at work,

I think it was. And you're going through the atonement and universalism. And I'm just sitting here going, perfect.

You're saying it, you're doing it right. Didn't have to have all the verses memorized in their addresses. But you said the scriptures.

Now, this is important because Isaiah 55, 11 says, the word of God will not come back empty without accomplishing what he desires.

The original word of God was not written with scripture references in place. You don't have to know those scripture references, though it helps.

But the word of God needs to be preached, needs to be conveyed, needs to be taught. And even if you don't say it perfectly, praise

God. So if I'm out witnessing with any one of you here, we're out witnessing, and I know when

I go out witnessing with people, they wanna defer to me and have me do all of it. I go, nope. And the problem is, is because I got so much up here, that gets in the way.

I actually like to hear people who don't know so much just speak that gospel.

I love it. Oh, I should have said it that way earlier today. That was simple, it was easy, right to the heart.

And that's what we need. We need that more than this highfalutin stuff. I'll teach you highfalutin stuff, because I like it, it's fun.

It makes me feel better. I get to mock people like Bill. See, I'm back on you, okay? He has to feel better again, because he likes it if I insult him.

And if I don't insult him, he doesn't feel loved and cared for. Right, big fat jerk, right? Isn't that true?

That's right, okay, good. I wasn't saying anything. Well, yeah, that's what he said.

He comes over and he said, all right, now. All right, this is what I'm gonna do. We'll go to the next verse, all right?

A particular verse that I'm not fond of. I like to say that these are verses

I don't like in scripture, and it says something very simple. Do all things without grumbling and disputing.

Now, I don't know about you guys, but whining is something I'm quite good at, and it's biblical.

Take a little whine for your stomach. So, I am good at whining and complaining, and it feels good, because in my whining and complaining,

I get to judge and mock other people. Now, most of the time,

I'm just having fun, but sometime down deep, it's serious. Do all things with grumbling or disputing, without it.

Now, there's one area in my life I've really gotta work on this. One area that really stands out in my mind where I've gotta work on this.

You know what it is, Nick? You're not listening? See, you probably would think of the other five

I had to work on. It's driving. I do not like the way people drive.

They don't drive properly. They don't drive like I think they should. They get in my way.

They get in the fast lane and go slowly, and then they do the Idaho blockade, and I wanna take my bazooka, and I want to blow their axle right out of their car.

All right? It's like, what are you thinking? Okay? It's right.

And then, what I particularly like is when I'm driving down the road and there's nobody in front of me.

This happened. I'm on the freeway. There's nobody a mile in front, and nobody a mile in back, except for one car.

I'm in the right -hand lane doing the speed limit this time, and I'm cruising along, and this car slowly passes me up, gets about three car lengths in front of me, pulls over in front of me, and then slows down.

Scent from God. Thank you. Scent from God. If I'd have had a bazooka,

I would have used it. I'm gonna get my AK and strap it to the hood.

Oh, I feel better. Or four -way stops. Okay? They're IQ tests, you know?

Everybody gets up. No, you go. No, you're on the right. No, you go. Then you stop, and then, okay, I'll go.

And then you go, stop. It happens all the time. Now, they're so polite. And of course, we've all got our little complaints of things like that.

And my favorite, one of my favorite's favorite, I gotta say this one is, I'm going down a single -lane road.

I'm going, there's a car coming up. It's gonna turn right. And I'm going, don't turn right. Don't turn right. Wait till I pass.

Wait till I pass. Wait till I pass. Wait till I... Slow down. And slow down.

And then they do 20 or 15 or 20 miles on the speed limit. Bazooka time.

I need a bazooka. Actually, in that instance, I want a flamethrower. I want a flamethrower.

So, I cannot help it, but that's it. When California, where I learned to drive, if you were doing 80, you might get stepped on.

You have to push it up a little bit. And you have two, three lanes in the, you know, cars at length.

And they were slipping in. We went to California back in the, for Thanksgiving area, I'm driving.

Yes. Oh yeah. Cut in. That's it. There's only two inch clearance.

Fine. Cut in. They know what they're doing. Yeah, get it done. Oh yeah. We're moving. We're going.

In Idaho, you're, you know, there's a roadblock. There's people doing 20 under and...

How about not going when the light changes? Not going when the light changes. That's right. Do I go now?

But here's one thing that I've only noticed in Idaho. And I have, I kept count once.

We'll get back on the texture in a second. I can still remember coming back from teaching a Bible study at another church.

And I was coming home and on Chinden, right? I'm coming down Chinden going west and coming up to Chinden and Eagle.

Okay. Chinden and Eagle, right? And going up. And there are 26 cars.

There's two lanes going that way. 26 cars in the left lane and no cars in the right lane.

That happens all over. It's crazy. It is. It's insane. It's insane. You're next cop.

You just give them tickets. That's right. How about the people here? I've never seen it before right here.

They'll be stopped and there's room to pull in. There's two car lengths between this guy stopped right here for a red light.

And they start doing that back. And that really gums up traffic. Or how about when they're turning left, they go out to the right.

Or how about when you could have room to turn on a right light, they go over to the right to block you so they can go straight.

A full and complete stop and turn right. Or how about they don't come out when they're supposed to and then they take forever and then they make you miss all the lights while they go through it.

Okay. As you can see, I have some areas. And this, I don't like this verse. Do all things without grumbling or disputing.

I gotta tell you, we're here today. Yeah. A good person that comes up now.

But I'm coming here and there's a car coming up behind me awfully quick. Yeah. I kind of moved a little bit.

Yeah. I had to move to the right to go off the shoulder road or they would have hit me. Oh, wow. Oh, wow.

Yeah. I mean, those are wackos. Yeah, that was. I bet you that was a woman going home to make sandwiches for her husband.

I bet you. Because that's worth speeding for. Okay. For those of you who can't see, the ladies here are going.

What the guys are liking it, but. All right. So let's get back on a little serious track here, okay?

All right. Fun. Matt Slick Bible Study. Do all things without grumbling or disputing. Now what the context here is working out your salvation, living as a

Christian among unbelievers. We have to have an attitude that is right as well as by what we do.

That's a problem. Because we all know of situations where we know the right thing to do and we do it, but we're grumbling internally.

We've got a thousand examples. We do that. And that's something I'm aware of. Okay. You know, it's okay.

As I've mentioned to you guys before, I got this prayer called the empty prayer, where I just pray and I don't ask for anything except for one thing.

Lord, do whatever you want. I don't want to ask for anything because I might even ask wrong. You know,

I'll do another prayer. Heal my wife, for example. Okay. But I have this empty prayer.

Lord, I'm afraid to ask anything because if I do, I'm gonna ask something wrong. If you were here and you said, what do you want me to do for you?

I'd say, whatever you want. That's it. Doesn't matter.

You know best. I don't. I don't even trust myself to even know what to ask for.

So having been praying that, now when I go driving and I see someone testing my patience,

I can't help but wonder if that's God arranging that. Dave, that's what

Dave said. So we got a prophet. Yeah. So, because Dave is far more humble than I am.

And it's true. He's a humble guy. And that's right. He's proud of his humility.

He gives a thumbs up. So the attitude that we're to have is one that's supposed to be consistent with the profession of our faith.

And I'm having problems with that in driving in particular. And other things, you know, when things don't go right with, you know, in our marriage, you know, they didn't get our car back in time.

Don't worry about it. Things will work out. You know, we didn't get this. Don't worry about it. It'll work out. It'll work out.

And things usually do even better. But driving, it won't work out. It will not work out.

They're not hurrying. So anyway, we're not to grumble or complain because God has ordained everything that will come to pass.

We gotta trust him. He works all things after the counsel of his will. I understand it. But man, when

I get out there. So that's an area. My wife just said, for those of you who couldn't hear, she heard it was a good measuring stick to see how spiritual you are.

So then I got a long way. My measuring stick is not very good. It's crooked and whacked.

But at least I'm aware of it. But I have said there, hey, I help people merge in. Merge, just merge in.

It's okay. You go at the stoplight. It's all right. Oh, yes, you can turn on a red.

Now. Go ahead. No, there's no car from here to Nevada.

It's okay to turn. Okay, sorry.

Okay, are we done with this? She brought it up. She made it come back up. Well, you did say we would take a tangent tonight.

We're taking tangents, that's right. Traffic tangent. Okay, with Algebra, verse 15.

So that, we'll end with it, because I've been an hour, we'll end with this verse. So that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent to you, children of God, above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world.

That verse is convicting me. Lights in the world. Yeah, it's very bright, son.

That's what I'll do. But I see my laser in here. That's right, I have a real bright laser.

Once I was doing a seminar and I used my laser up on a big screen. I had all my stuff up.

It was, see how great this laser is? It's really bright. You see it in the back? They go, yeah, I can see it in the back. I go, this thing is great. In fact, it is so good, it is great for spotting jets at the airport.

And everybody starts laughing because they thought I was serious just for that moment. Yeah. He's got a smile on him,

Mike. All right. So get this, the phrase children of God occurs 11 times in the

New Testament. John 1, 12 is an example. But as many as received to them, he gave the right to become children of God.

Here's another one. Romans 8, 16. The spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are the children of God.

First John 3, 1. See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us that we would be called the children of God and such we are.

And one more. First John 3, 10. By this, the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious.

Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.

We are to live our faith, to work it out. That's what's going on.

That's what Paul's teaching us. Now also, notice it says at the end, the last few words there, that you appear as lights in the world.

Now, in a room that is absolutely dark, if you took out the smallest little light, suddenly you can see most everything.

It doesn't take much. A little light really can be seen across the room.

And from a distance, a small light can be seen a long distance. It's really interesting. Okay.

And so we're to be lights in the world. Now, God said in Genesis 1, 3, let there be light and there was light.

Now, it says in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, right? The earth was formless and void, the spirit brooded and God said, let there be light and there was light.

That's in the beginning was, you know, the beginning God created. And John 1, 1, in the beginning was the word.

And it goes on in verse four and five, in him, Jesus was the life and the life was the light of men.

The light shines in the darkness and the darkness is not comprehended. So when we have

Jesus in us, we're lights. We are lights. So I was in a chat room and in this chat room, it didn't occur this time, but I've done this many times before.

Usually it's young men are cussing in their discussions. And so I usually wait for them to call me up.

Let's see what Matt Slick has to say, because I'm a public figure, so, you know. And I say, well, and I start talking and I wait for them because I know it's gonna happen.

They're gonna interrupt me and cuss. And then I say to them, look, if you continue to cuss,

I won't stay here. You need to act like mature men and you need to just keep your language.

Yeah, well, F you because of that, I'm gone. And I've done this so many times in so many ways that now over the course of time, they don't cuss.

When I was a computer tech, I had 40 some odd guys in a room, about as big as the footprint of this house in a room inside of Hewlett -Packard that once you put your badge up and you got in secured address,

I mean, secured lock into the secure area, we had all kinds of equipment, then they would cuss. I never cussed.

I never once in the years that I was there ever cussed once. I never said anything to anybody.

I never pushed anybody. I never did anything. I didn't complain to them. When they would use the Lord's name in vain, I would just politely just walk away.

And that was it. Months later, a group of them came up to me and they said, we noticed something about you.

I said, what, that I'm better looking? Because that's obvious. You know, you always got to insult the guy, right?

Said, they said, you don't cuss. I said, that's right.

I said, why don't you? I said, it doesn't honor my Lord. What? They had never heard that.

I don't need to cuss like you guys because your vocabularies are so limited and your cerebral intelligence is just basically way down there.

And so you have to cuss to make yourself feel better and impress your other guys in here. You're the knuckle dragger, slip head guys.

You know, you guys, you know. I could, I was friends with them. I could, you could do that. They got the message and they knew

I was joking about that, but they understood this issue about not cussing. And guess what? They stopped cussing around me.

Now, did I make them do that? No, I just was a light to them. And it happened at other places as well.

Now, I'm not, look at me, it's not great. Look, we have to be an example of where we are.

And you've got to hold that example up. Don't participate in the deeds of darkness because you have the light of Christ in you.

That light of Christ is in you. It should be visible to others. If it's not visible to others, then is that light there?

Or are you working to be more in line with the darkness of the world than the light of Christ? You got to ask yourself, which is coming out?

Is the light coming out or is it you're allowing the darkness to suppress it? There's a certain time where you don't want to say certain things.

I get that. There's wisdom about what you can, cannot say in certain meetings and situations. I understand that. But the thing is that it should be that they can tell there's something different about you.

It may take a few months in a situation, but they need to know that. They need to know that they can trust you.

They need to know that you won't ever lie to them. They need to know that kind of a thing. You set a standard that's different.

They're not used to that. I was in a chat room a few weeks ago and a guy said, blah, blah, blah, we all lie.

Everybody lies, you fuzzy Christians. I said, I don't lie. And he goes, yeah, you're lying right now.

I said, no, I don't. I said, I have before, but I don't. It's just not there.

I can make a mistake. I can kid around, but I don't just purposely say, this is a lie,

I'm gonna deceive you. I don't do that. And he would not believe me. He was an unbeliever. He would not believe me.

And he started calling me names and stuff. And I said to the administrators in the room, I said, gentlemen, can you please deal with him?

I'm telling the truth and he's calling me a liar. Is this allowed in the room? And they said, well, you know, blah, blah, blah.

I said, oh, so it isn't allowed in the room? Okay, well, it was nice talking to you. So there's gotta be some standard.

The standard is Jesus. In fact, I talked about, to my surprise,

I found it. I'd been forgotten about it. I talked in here before about the idea of studying only

Jesus and see how he was as a man to emulate him. And lo and behold, a couple of weeks ago,

I was going through some of my many thousands of files and I opened this file, but what is this?

And I'd already started doing that a few years ago, going through just studying

Jesus. And there was the file as categorizing scriptures by what I found, not what I wanted him to fit.

What was he doing? Well, that's this category, putting them in. And I need to go through and continue that because Jesus needs to be my example.

And how was he a light in the world? He spoke truth. He did not compromise the truth. He led people in truth and the truth of the word of God.

He understood the scriptures to be true. He didn't defend them as being true. He just spoke them as being true.

And that was how it was. And he spoke truth to the unbelievers and it cost him a great deal.

And I got stories I can tell you. And Anik knows well this one, where speaking the truth cost me, us, greatly.

Even when I could have gray -aried it and I chose not to do that, but speak the truth, according to the convictions of my heart before my

Lord. And this is what we had to be as men, to the best of our ability.

And I really believe that men have the responsibility of leading in this area. I really do.

Women are to do that as well. But I just believe the primary is that the male is supposed to do it in the home, in church, and in society.

It was to lead in a godly way. That's not to say women can't be godly and they can't be leaders.

They certainly cannot be pastors and elders. That's another topic. But we have that responsibility as men.

And I just think we're failing. But nevertheless, so that you'll prove yourself to be blameless and innocent.

Children of God who, excuse me, above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, which is exactly how it is now, among whom you appear as lights in the world.

You can ask yourselves, are you lights in the world? Now, you may wanna say, yeah,

I am. And then I could say, really? How good of a light. And we're all gonna fail, okay?

But we know, yeah, we're trying. We're trying to live as Christians. Yes, we're lights in the world because of the light of Christ in us.

Of course, we're not doing it perfectly, not gonna go there, but none of us would be able to handle that.

But we are to emulate Jesus, to speak truth when we can, to be honest when we can, to be forthright when we can, to have a word mean something, to not participate in the filth of the world, and to live for Christ.

And we're called to do that, that's what we should be doing. And that's what it says. So that we can appear to be lights in the world.

On that day, we're gonna be blameless. We're already blameless because we're in Christ. But by his grace, here we are.

And we are saved, redeemed, struggling to live more like Christ on a daily basis.

And hopefully we are inching forward to the bright light out there. And it's reflecting off of us and from within us as the presence of Christ in us grows in that area of sanctification.

We're trying to be like him. So that's what it means here. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, not to earn it, but to manifest what's already in you.

We're not to participate in the deeds of darkness like the cults do in the false religions like Islam and Roman Catholicism and Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses in Eastern Orthodoxy, but the truth of who

Christ is and what he's done. And then we're to take it seriously and we're to live that way. And I would just suggest to the men that when you try and live for Christ and you fail, praise

God, you're trying, you're trying.

No one expects perfection. That's why I love to hear stories of guys' failures. Because I get a kick out of them.

Because I got my stories of failures too. Guys will go, yeah, I caught a fish this big last week.

And some guys go, well, I caught one that was like this. Oh yeah, well, I caught three on one hook once.

It was incredible. And it was all 50 pounds each. It was on three pound test. And then you could also,

I've never said anything like that, but you can also see that, oh, I really screwed up my car last week.

I banged into a rock that was saying the driveway. I should have known better. I put it there. You think that's bad?

Listen to what I did. You think you wrecked that car? I blew my own car up with dynamite.

I didn't even know I had it in my pocket. I went, hey, look. We boast about our failures as well.

And that's the good thing about being a guy is we measure each other by our successes and our failures because it means you're doing.

We do, we're doers. That's a good thing to do. And so when people fail, I love the stories.

My favorite is from Nathan, we'll end with this, who was with his wife in the snow in their truck, their new truck, trying to go up over some hills and through the thicks of the woods and wherever.

And his wife said to him, I don't think the truck's gonna make it over that snow berm. And he says, we can make it.

He goes, I really don't think it's gonna make it. He goes, duly noted. And he actually said, duly noted.

And I am cracking up because I know where the story's going, right? And what he is doing is talking about his own failure and all the guys in the room were enjoying it completely because we've been a guy driving the truck saying the same thing.

It's like, okay, bring it on. And so he goes, and so, and he was just clarifying how stupid he was and how wrong he was while his wife was right up.

We're all loving the story. And he goes, and so I went over it. And well, we got stuck in the snow over the berm which goes, and it also that the tires were kind of not really in the snow anymore.

So it was no traction. So yeah, he goes, and I forgot to bring my chain and my shovel in the snow, which

I know I'm supposed to go. So he's just, he's ragging on himself constantly about how bad it was. And I'm cracking up, you know, that he said some redneck dude, cause he thinks he's a redneck.

The redneck dude come up with a truck and goes, need some help? Yes. And so in front of everybody's friends he got to be pulled out.

And he's telling the story. And I love the way he tells the story because he's admitting his complete total failure being a doofus and he blew it.

And he prides himself as being a kind of guy who can get past that stuff. I love that story because, you know, they're black.

We measure ourselves by that. So it's good then to take risks and to try. And I could talk about the women's role in that, but I won't right now.

But it really is important that we lead. We need to pray for the leadership of our country and leadership of our churches and things like that.

So that we can be lights in the world, et cetera, et cetera. All right.

Bill guy, he goes, I resemble those remarks. So all the guys, we all know, we've got stories.

We have God stories. Oh, I got a story. I'll tell you one. Okay, we're done with the study. Okay. Here's a story.

You know, those fish fillet knives that can cut through air and separate the fourth and fifth dimension.

You just go like that. And you see this, you see this ethereal essence of some eyeballs looking at you to kind of close.

What was that? That's how sharp these things are, right? I'm out on the jetty at the

Long Beach jetty, Seal Beach jetty. Yeah, I have. Oh yeah, they're great. They're super sharp.

And so you just go like that in air and you can see just comes back together. And so I'm out there on the

Seal Beach jetty and my buddy Gary and I, because it takes a half hour to walk out there to go fishing.

We did it for four or five hours going for sea bass and out to the ocean. And so we take all our supplies.

Well, we took everything and we had a big bag of frozen anchovies. Okay. And so sit on the rocks and everything.

And I got to cut my anchovy in half because I want it too big because the bass aren't that big. I got to cut it in half. So I got this over the anchovy on the rock.

It won't cut. It won't cut. I'm sawing on, this is a brand new blade.

Now, very care, I didn't cut myself, but very carefully, you know, you can just take your finger. Well, that is sharp. Go back to the anchovy.

It won't cut. So what do you do when it won't cut? You take the anchovy, you lay it on your finger.

Okay. Lay it across your finger and then see if it'll cut. That's what you do.

That's the instructions. And that's what I did. And so blood was running down my arm, dripping off my elbow.

And I'm a half hour from just the car. And before I even go to the hospital to get stitches, and I'm thinking

I am so mad at myself for being so stupid. So what

I did was I took a piece of fishy rag, cut a strip on it, tied it up real tight, and just kept fishing, you know, just never wouldn't got it taken care of.

And I got a little scar there and stuff like that. Now there's an example of stupidity, but you know what? It's fun telling the story.

Anybody else wanna share a stupid thing? I'm gonna pray, we're close. We're gonna tell stupid stories. Okay. Lord Jesus, thank you for the study.

And the people being here just ask Lord that you would just bless us next week, Lord willing, when we have another study, and that you'd bless the hearers, the listeners to the word.

And we just ask that they would grow in their faith and relationship with you. We ask this Jesus, your precious name.

Amen. All right, who wants to, I'm just curious.

Any guys? You don't have any stories? Why do

I not believe that? Come on,

I don't know if anybody. Therapy is a very effective site. You're the God. Well, apparently you guys don't have the same confidence of exposing your stupidity as someone does.

I've been on my toes all night. Yeah? Okay, stepping on your toes, good.

Yeah, no, it is. Yeah, it is. I can tell you a little story. Okay, good, a story.

I don't know how stupid it was, but I felt stupid. I felt stupid, so I don't know. That's good enough.

I'm in a SUV, police SUV, Ford, right?

Okay. And I see this vehicle down the road, it's on the highway, right?

And I think, well, I gotta stop behind that and check what's going on. And I pull it to the side and go along.

It occurred to me, I might hit this car because, well, everything's covered in snow.

I was up home in Alaska. I mean, you couldn't tell where the road was exactly. And what happened here is like the left side of my left wheels, it both went over the edge of the pavement.

So I didn't know where it was. You know? You'd found out. No, I got a control issue because I can't go right,

I'll lose control. I go straight, I'm gonna hit a car that I was gonna check on because I was going just a bit too fast.

But I thought, well, let's give it a shot. That's so I hit the gas when it left. Then they called a wrecker.

Because I couldn't get out of the driver's door because it was snowing all the way.

I got pictures of it. Yeah. All the way. And then, and everybody's going by laughing.

You know, like a stupid cop. Yeah. He just wanted me to quit my job. And, but it was -

Embarrassing. Yeah. And they called the first wrecker. He said, I can't get that car out of the snow. So then they called a bigger wrecker.

I'm sitting there waiting the whole time. Why these people go by and, you know, do things. And yeah, so it was kind of embarrassing.

But the best part of it, we had another officer come by. He laughed. He didn't laugh.

Rookie. I says, you're going to get in trouble. And then that thing was, and I had to buy pizza for everybody that night.

That gets expensive when you got, you know, 30 guys. Yeah. So anyway, my, my buddy, he's a good guy.

Good Christian man too. But he's laughing. He thinks it's the funniest thing he's ever seen. I mean,

I had to struggle to get over, to get out of that darn thing, you know? Cause I couldn't get out of the driver's side.

So anyway, he's laughing. I told him he shouldn't do that. A week later, farther down, same strip of freeway.

And he's moving around, you know, entrance.

And he steps on it. And he goes from ice, the pavement to ice.

And he lost control of his car. Just that, you know, because all of a sudden he changed the direction of his car when he hit the pavement.

Then he hit ice again. He goes out right, and a guy hits him. And so I went by and took, well,

I was. Were you laughing? I was laughing, I took pictures. I says, you get pizza tonight.

Then the poor guy that hit him, his license was suspended. Oh no. And he didn't do anything wrong.

So I took him to jail. But anyway, I was thinking about that.

I mean, you know, you feel stupid. I don't know how stupid I was, but enough to say, you know,

I can't even get, I'm gonna have to bring the picture around sometime. It was snow, it was in March.

Back that week, it was a couple nights before. I got stuck five times in one night.

Did you forget out? Yeah, I had my shovel. Okay. So I asked other people, like you just got stuck five nights in Alaska and we're in Idaho.

Did you ever get out? And I remember the first time I said to a friend of mine, he goes, what? Like you're an idiot.

And I went, gotcha. He goes, I like doing that to people. Yeah. Lord takes care of me.

I remember as a kid once I had a jar with a metal lid. I was gonna put grasshoppers in it or, you know, bugs.

So you had to make holes in it. What do you use to make holes? Do you remember? Ice pick. That'll do it.

I got a lot of stupid little stories like that, but yeah. Then there's this kind you do when you hurt yourself.

Seriously, it takes a long time to recover from, but you know, anyway, they're fun.

I always thought it'd be a good book to title the book is Stupid Things I've Done to Hurt Myself. And they go from not very much to really bad ones.

You know, I think it'd be good. Guys would like it.

So we could relate. I have a feeling Mike doesn't make any mistakes though. That's the, you do?

Really? How about, do you know any that he's made? We've probably done them together. We'll never tell.

Never tell, huh? I'm especially honest with the web. Don't kick a football when it's bouncing on the ground bare feet.

Don't do that. Don't do that. Yeah. Oh, that'll hurt.

How about opening pistachios with your nails over and over again until one of them cracks way back.

I showed Nick and she's like. I got big, I got big things.

There's more stories though. You guys, let's see the show where you call in. Oh, that's what Charlie's putting stuff in.

Good. Anybody have any questions or comments or anything? Your weekly radio show. You can find on eBay.

I don't want it on eBay. I will check out Cutco. Charlie posted on YouTube.

My complaint comes when I say I will do something. My wife reminds me every six months of what I said I would do.

That sounds humiliating. Yeah. Yeah, I would say that she shouldn't do that. Say it once.

Sorry, I got sidetracked. Bill Cannot, his name is, last name is Cannot. I asked him, you can't do that.

I said, what do you mean you can't do that? You can't say that. Then one last name of a woman is partial.

And I said to her, are you sure you're all here? Because I don't think you're making sense. And it was something like that.

I said, I tried to make it something with names. No sandwich for that one. No sandwich for that one.

No sandwich for you. Good study, Matt. Thanks. Okay, Laura. All right.

Well, there you go. Hope you guys enjoyed it. Nine o 'clock, you guys can hang. We can close this up.

We can talk. I can teach a theology if you want. Or we can just whatever. Or we can do this. Oh, yeah.

Yes. Yes. I didn't say anything.

Well, you're smiling about it. Okay. That's your question.

Soul sleep. Yes, correct. We go to heaven or we go to hell.

That's correct. Yes. We go to a place of Christ's presence.

St. Corinthians 5 .8. I look forward, he says, to depart and be with Christ.

That's what he says there. And in Luke 16, 19 through 31, is the story of Lazarus and the rich man, where they both died.

And one went to a place of comfort. One went to a place of torment. And they were conscious after death.

There is no limbo. There's no purgatory. We go to one or the other. So the bad people go to a bad place.

And the good people go to be with the Lord. Now there's differences of opinion about what the bad place can be.

Is it the final torment of hell? Doesn't seem to be that. But it does seem to be a definite place of torment and agony.

In fact, there are NDEs, near -death experiences of people who have experienced that.

I even incorporated one of them into my novel. Very descriptive one, but I incorporated it in the novel.

But at any rate. My aunt, I was asking about, she's hearing pastor on the radio talk about it, but she never read that book.

Oh, did he say that? That you, like, fall in Christ's arms.

Oh, you're soul asleep. I guess that's what that's called. Yeah, you're unconscious. You exist, but you're unconscious. Yeah, that's a load of crap.

That's 1 Thessalonians 4, 16, 17.

But what that means is the dead in Christ are those who have died in him, they're still conscious, they're still alive.

They're the ones who will be resurrected first before those who are raptured are taken. That's what that means.

Yeah, soul sleep doesn't work. I've written a lot on it, studied a lot. And there's all kinds of problems.

That and annihilationism. And then universalism. And then, you know, yeah. These are topics

I actually have done a lot of research on and kind of debated. Soul sleep.

Well, soul sleep, they take it out of Ecclesiastes, I think it's 12 .7. And the dead know nothing, the spirit goes back to be with the

Lord. And the idea is that when you die, some say you stop existing.

There's two views. You stop existing and soul sleep. So I'll talk about this one first.

The stop existing is problem, I won't get into it too deep, but it's problematic because of the, oh, excuse me, of the issue of what's called continuity.

Because if I were to take a chair, an exact wooden chair right here, and I were to burn it, destroy it, then take wood and build one exactly identical to it.

The question is, is it the same chair? No, it's not. It's a copy of that chair.

The issue is the continuity of the chair today, the chair yesterday are different.

There's no continuity. The same thing is in effect with the idea of a soul ceasing to exist.

And the continuity issue, it's just a simple issue. There's other issues as well, but that's one of the major ones.

So a lot of people, the solution is you're conscious, or excuse me, you still exist, but you're not conscious.

And so it's soul sleep. And I love talking to them. I'll say, can you show me soul sleep in the scriptures?

Yes to dead, no, nothing. And when the woman, the young girl who died, she said, she's just asleep.

And they'll say, it means literally she's asleep. No, she had died. But no, she's asleep.

No, she had died. And then they said, just what's called property dualism, substance dualism, gets some other things.

Anyway, back on track. And so I'll say, okay, so they're unconscious, right? I'll say, okay.

So can angels become unconscious? What the heck

I do with anything? I'm just asking. Their spirit, can they become unconscious? No.

They can't become unconscious. You're ticking. They can't become unconscious, right? As a human spirit, spirit, yes.

Can it become unconscious? Because unconsciousness is a biological function.

And what you're doing is giving a biological function to a non -biological thing, category error. Different categories, doesn't work.

So, no, it's still the case. I'm hearing ticking. That's, what is it?

The what? I have my legs, they're progressing slowly. Okay. And so it's asleep, but still existing.

So the continuity problem is gone. And Alaska. So, I love asking these questions.

Is there any energy expenditure going on of the soul? What kind of question is that?

Is there any energy expenditure? Go with that. And yeah, it's called a psychopanikia.

That's right. Soul sleep. And is there any energy?

Well, no. Well, there's no energy. There's no life. It's dead. But if there is energy, what kind of energy is being expressed, being experienced or expressed by a spirit that's unconscious?

Which unconsciousness is a physical phenomenon. Can you explain that? No. Okay, so you don't know what soul sleep is then, do you?

It's unconsciousness. So they're not aware of themselves? No. They don't have any idea what's going on?

No. Can you show me that in scripture? It's not there. They go to Luke 16, 19 through 31.

After their death, both of them are alive and having a conversation with Abraham. Well, that was just an illustration of why one should have done...

I forgot. I read what it was one excuse for. It was pathetic.

Pathetic. It was so bad. Like, are you... You don't drive with that brain, do you?

You know? Stuff like that. So, yeah.

Soul sleep. It's bad. People don't like the idea of eternal conscious torment either, which is taught in Hebrews, excuse me, in Revelation 14, 11, 20, 10,

Mark 3, 29, Matthew 25, 46. It's taught there, the idea of eternal conscious torment.

People, what they'll do is they'll say, God would never do that. I've had people say, my God would never do that.

And I go, you're right. Your wouldn't. That's right. If you don't serve the God of the Bible, then the smoke of their torment is sensed forever and ever.

And I go in, I've written extensively on that topic. Stuff like that.

So, if there's any people out there who want to debate me on it, let's talk. Okay, let's see.

Switch channels for the radio show. You might make a checkout for the Mass Look Live YouTube page with the

MSL logo to see his daily shows. Tickler fans, Laura says.

Oh, ear tickler fans. Have you ever heard the Reverend E .R. Tickler? Any of you ever heard of him?

Ever heard of Reverend E .R. Tickler? Hello, ladies and gentlemen.

This is Reverend E .R. Tickler coming at you from the Feelings Tabernacle. Today's lesson is from Deuterectomy 13, 13.

Reverend E .R. Tickler. So, I guess, socially problems.

Yep, that's right. Charlie's good. He puts in a lot of links. Like, as far as judgment.

That's right. Because people think hell is the final judgment is cast into outer darkness. That's interesting.

What does that mean? The wicked are thrown into judgment, or have judgment occur.

They're thrown into the lake of fire which is cast into outer darkness. So, every now and then,

I like to spend time on TV watching stuff on Quantum This and Quantum That and The Edge of the

Universe. And it's been interesting, more and more discussions have been coming up in the scientific community that I've been seeing what's beyond the universe.

And is the universe finite or is it infinite? But how do you measure it? So, the universe is 97 billion light years across, but they say the universe is only 14 .6

billion years old. But yet, it's 97 billion light years across.

How can it be further than the age allows? Because of the expansion and some other things they go into.

And there's a certain place, they say, get this, I like this stuff, that the acceleration is increasing.

So that as the universe expands, it's increasing faster and faster.

So, like a balloon that was two inches in diameter and we're in the middle. And it's just expanding, you can barely see it expanding.

You come back a day later and it's like this big and you can now visibly see it. Get back a year later, it's way down, way up by a mountain and it's just boom.

That's what's happening. No, that's a TV show, Quantum Leap.

He fell right into that one. He fell right into that one. He was a favorite among the

Nepalese. And so, here's the thing.

They say, this is just trivia. We'll get to the outer darkness in a sec. They say that the rate of expansion will ultimately lead to the place and the time where no other galaxies will be visible because they will expand to the point where they'll be going so far out that light will never be able to get to us because it's so far away and the universe itself is expanding.

So as the light's going this way and the element that's pushing it is coming out, it's actually moving backwards as it's coming towards us.

We'll never see it, that kind of a thing. Okay, so I like that kind of stuff. Me, that's like, yeah. My wife just, she didn't care.

Where's the show where they talk? And then they cry and then the credits roll.

So, oh, that's right, that's when someone dies. And somebody's,

I was gonna die. And see, her idea of a good movie is a bunch of people dressed funny who talk politely in a room, bunch of girls talking about other people.

Then they go to another room and they talk. They go to a house in another room and they talk. Someone dies. They cry about it.

Then they talk some more and then the credits roll. That's a good movie. Yeah, something like that.

Is that what that is? Yeah. They said nobody dies in Christ. No one dies? No. Okay, I didn't get that.

I just like, no aliens, no explosions. What's the point? So anyway, can you imagine what outer darkness is gonna be if the universe has an actual,

I think about this, if it actually has an edge and it's expanding further out and that's where hell or that's where they are put.

Have you guys ever done any studies? Watch the YouTubes on how distant things are? Man, it's incredible.

Like if our sun was a golf ball here, Alpha Centauri, two and a half light years or four and a half light years is like in New York, that kind of a thing.

It's just insane. And that's the closest star. And then you get a hundred million stars in our galaxy.

And then if the galaxy is this wide, like this, the next galaxy is over here.

And those are the ones in the local cluster. And then they have what's called super clusters. And then they go all over the place and they extend all the way out like that.

And it's just, and it is, you know, it's like, whoa. Dark matter, the reason they invented dark matter,

I'll tell you why. So there's a problem, okay? If everything in the universe began at a single point and expanded out, the theory is that all energy in it and all material that formed would be equally dispersed throughout the universe.

That's the general idea. It's not the case of what they say exactly. Generally like that. So then how does anything coalesce?

To coalesce means to come together to form. So how does anything coalesce? Because if all, hypothetically, if all atoms or all particles were equidistant as they're moving apart from each other, then there's not enough centrality of gravity due to mass concentration by which something can coalesce.

And, but they say mathematically it can happen. But the math that they said in one form, read an article, it would take 147 billion years to get the present status of our galaxies because there's not enough mass to cause enough gravity to cause enough influence on the material to cause it to coalesce and form stars and things like this.

So dark matter was invented and dispersed out there mathematically.

So it's out there in the universe. And that's how we explain, they say, the ability of the galaxies to be able to coalesce.

You need more gravity. And to do that, they had to have more mass called dark matter. No, I haven't.

Does it discuss stuff like that? Not to watch it.

Indescribable? Okay. Okay. Is it about the anthropic principle?

Yeah, I wanna see it. In fact, that reminds me, does it have stuff like in it, like this, like our galaxy is 100 ,000 light years across.

If you took a line between one edge and the other edge and divided the line into increments of one inch, just one inch, for 100 ,000 light years across, the gravitational constant, you put it at one, has one value because it goes weaker to stronger.

It's at one value. If you move it one inch left to right, life can't exist in the universe or in our earth.

Things like that. It's called the anthropic principle. Anthropos man, that is designed.

I wanna actually do more study on it, if that's what that does and things like that. Oh yeah.

And he's bigger than all of it. And he knows all the atoms. Oh, get this.

That reminds me. Last night I was on a chat room, listened to a well -known atheist talk.

He's intelligent, articulate. And I just wasn't jumping in to help the Christian.

Now, the Christian would do a pretty good job. And this guy started talking about areas I hadn't studied.

String theory, quantum fluctuations, things like that. Okay, I gotta study some more.

And he made a statement. He said that, and I have the article. I found it.

I talked to him later. I go, what is this article? What is this? I wanna research this. He knows who I am. And I wasn't arguing with him.

I said, just wonder if you know what it is. And I said, what I'm intrigued about is that, apparently, because he said he verified this, that it's true, that scientists, some of these astrophysicists are saying that some subatomic particles pop into existence for no reason.

And that's okay. And that randomness is a property of the universe, as to what he was saying.

Well, I'm intrigued with the idea of things happening for no reason.

That's irrational. And yet, this is the consensus that they're holding to.

And I just thought, it's just ridiculous. Because think about that. He said, look, all particles do this.

I go, okay. But particles of different kinds, I have to research what they are, can pop in existence.

I assume they can pop out of existence. Well, if that's the case, how do you trust anything being regular?

They could just pop in and out. Why not? I said, if I was sitting here, and I'm gonna do a magic trick, and I go, watch this.

And, you know, a cup of coffee just popped into existence right there, you'd say that's impossible.

But with quantum physics, I guess it is. And that's the thing I have to be studying.

Exactly. It undermines the absolutes. And it weakens the idea of the trustability and the regularity of nature.

One of the principles of the scientific method is called the uniformity of nature.

They assume that when you drop a ball with a certain mass, not volume, but mass, that's different.

With mass at a certain, with certain air in a vacuum, let's do it in a vacuum, there's no air resistance, so it'll reach terminal velocity.

But you have a ball of, say, iron at a certain mass, and you drop it here, it'll accelerate at a certain rate.

And with the exact same conditions any place in the universe, it'll always accelerate at the same rate. Why? Because everything in the universe operates the same way.

If the earth is bigger, the planet's bigger, then it'll drop faster because there's more gravity being exerted.

But it's all predictable with mathematics. Okay. So that's called the uniformity of nature.

Well, they assume the uniformity of nature. It's called the problem of induction. They just assume it's true. Well, then if it's undermining,

I think philosophically, the scientific method itself, if you say, well, if particles can pop into existence for no reason, that fundamentally to me is ludicrous.

And so I got to study it. And he said that there's a small percentage,

I think it was 13%, because 87%, I remember the numbers, said that for no reason, and some of them said it's for a reason we don't know yet, and they were rejected.

And I'm like, they're the ones who make sense. Things don't happen for no reason, unless it's your wife who's mad at you for something.

We're gonna - Get a sandwich pop in and out of existence. That would be good. In the quantum world, a good sandwich, what would be a perfect sandwich?

I make good sandwiches too. There's so many. How about this? You take some good, what your favorite bread is, say a good white, soft, brand new soft bread.

You put it into a, huh? Ciabatta? Whatever is your favorite.

And you butter it, and you put it flat down on your pan, and it's starting to cook up.

And what you do is you take your favorite meat and slices, and your favorite cheese.

Okay, and you put it in, and then Nick has a really good avocado, jalapeno avocado kind of a combo thing, whatever that is.

You put it in there, and you let it get warm, and you just let it all melt together, and you cook it together until it becomes a whole, and then you slice it diagonally.

It'll be diagonal. That is a good sandwich, okay?

That's a good sandwich. And I know a great chicken recipe, too, right,

Nick? Even she admits it's good. Yes, you do. So, at any rate, blabbing and stuff.

So, these are some of the areas I've got to start studying again. So, I said to this guy who studied quantum physics,

I said, you know, sometimes I'll say to somebody, you know, I don't know if you've ever heard of quantum physics, I was gonna see if he got the joke, and he did, but I said, you know, sometimes people will say, you know, he's one can short of a six -pack or whatever, and I'll say, he doesn't have all his paws in a litter box, and I said to him, what

I have to say to people is his quantum tunneling isn't, and he laughed.

He goes, he got it, he goes, it's pretty good. Anyway. Okay, you guys good?

Matt, did you say you were going to explore outer darkness? No, I just was talking about it.

No sandwiches for you, says Laura. And how do you stop your wife from being mad at you?

What do you do to stop your wife? She's mad at you. You're like, well, how do you stop her from being mad? A piece of bread and mayonnaise.

You walk up with some bread and mayo and lunch meat, she'll just start making you a sandwich. Is that true?

Worked every time, I'll say. I make everybody laugh.

You can tell how well this is working for me. All right, we'll see you, God bless.

Let me shut this down too, you guys. God bless everybody online. Hope you had a good time with us, it was a lot of fun. We'll see you next week.