This evening, if you would at this time,
take your hymnals and turn to hymn number 149.
Trusting Jesus, hymn number 149 in your hymnals.
Go ahead and start there right on the first.
♪ Simply trusting ♪
Thank you for this day that we have
and for the weather that we have.
Thank you for this time that we have to sing praises unto you
and the opportunity that we have to gather together.
As a church lord, I pray that you would bless
the remainder of this service at this time
and give us a 10 of years also lord to the message
that you've laid on the pastor's heart as well lord.
In Jesus name I pray, amen.
For our next song, if you would turn in your hymnals
to hymn number 167, all hail the power of Jesus name.
Hymn number 167, hymn 167, we'll go ahead
and start there right on the first.
♪ All hail the power ♪
♪ Jesus name ♪
♪ Most grateful ♪
Raise your hand, front is our Bible memory passage
of the week, Galatians chapter number one, verse 12.
Make sure to keep working on that.
On the inside is our service times listed.
Sunday mornings at 10.30, Sunday evenings at 4.30,
and our Wednesday evening Bible study.
We startin' a new book this Wednesday,
so definitely a great time to be in church.
We start a new book.
Soul wanting times below that are listed,
and please make note we do have an additional
official soul wanting time on Tuesdays at 5.15.
So if you're interested in that,
please get in contact with Brother Eric,
and he could let you know the location details for that.
Nursing home schedule is listed below that,
as well as our year to date statistics for soul winning.
On the right is our upcoming events.
On April 13th, we'll have a men's preaching night
for the PM service.
There is a sign up sheet on the back,
so if you want to preach for that service,
please do sign up and indicate the sermon topic
that you would like to preach about.
For now, based on how many people I anticipate signing up,
the sermons will be 15 minutes.
We get a crazy amount of people that might change,
but just plan for 15.
And then after that, we will have a potluck that evening,
so feel free to bring dishes to share for that.
April 19th, that's Saturday.
We're gonna be meeting at Frederick Douglas Park
for a soul-winning marathon at 9 a.m.,
our Easter soul-winning marathon weekend.
Then the next day is April 20th, that's Easter Sunday.
And so, for our Easter service,
we're gonna have a lunch catered
by a barbecue restaurant here in town.
For lunch on Easter, and then for the evening service,
we're going to have the Lord's Supper at that time.
May 16th through the 18th is the King James Conference,
it's your foundation.
May 31st, Durant, Oklahoma, soul-winning marathon
with Steadfast Baptist Church joining us.
June 28th, Tinker Air Show.
June 29th, Brother Ben Naim preaching
from Steadfast Baptist Church.
Make sure you come and support him on that day.
August 27th through the 31st
is the Fire-Breathing Baptist Fellowship,
and October 6th through the 11th is the Bahamas trip.
Below that, some QR codes there
if you are interested in giving to our church
or filling out an information card for visitors,
or if you've just never filled one out before,
we'd like to have your information.
We do send out emails of the sermons
and events at our church.
On the back, you'll see our prayer list,
and the only new addition for this week
is Brother Sampson down in the Houston area
is asking prayer for some severe back pain
that he's been having.
And man, when your back is out, your whole life is out.
So be praying for him for sure on that.
Also, just congratulations again to the Reed family
on the birth of Theodore Wesley Reed,
born March 20th at 3.35 p.m.
Weighing seven pounds, one ounce,
and measuring 20 inches long.
So congratulations to their family again on that.
Also, if you want to be a blessing to their family,
there is a meal train.
And you can see my wife about that link,
or it was placed in the signal group as well.
And like I mentioned this morning,
even if all the slots fill up,
you can still be a blessing to them.
You can still get them a gift card or meal,
or door dash, or whatever you want to do.
It's still a blessing to them.
So congratulations to their family on that.
And that's gonna be it for announcements this evening.
- Right, for our third song, if you would,
take your hymnals and turn to hymn number 174.
My Jesus, I love thee.
Hymn number 174 in your hymnals.
Hymn 174, nice and loud there, right on the first.
My Jesus, I love thee, I know.
- This evening, action plates are being passed around
to the book chapter.
- Good evening, Jude.
Bible reads, Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ
and brother of James, to them that are sanctified
by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called.
Mercy unto you and peace and love be multiplied.
Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you
of the common salvation, it was needful for me
to write unto you and exhort you
that you should earnestly contend for the faith
which was once delivered unto the saints.
For there are certain men crept in unawares
who were before of old ordained to this condemnation.
Ungodly men, turning the grace of our God
into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God
and our Lord Jesus Christ.
I will therefore put you in remembrance,
though ye once knew this, how that the Lord,
having saved the people out of the land of Egypt,
afterward destroyed them that believed not.
And the angels which kept not their first estate
but left their own habitation,
he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness
unto the judgment of the great day.
Even as Sodom and Gomorrah,
and the cities that bowed them in like manner,
giving themselves over to fornication
and going after strange flesh,
are set forth, for an example,
suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
Likewise also, these filthy dreamers defile the flesh,
despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.
Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil,
he disputed about the body of Moses,
darest not bring against him a railing accusation,
but said, "The Lord rebuketh thee."
But these speak evil of those things which they know not.
But what they know naturally is brute beasts,
and those things they corrupt themselves, woe unto them,
for they have gone in the way of Cain,
and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward,
and perished in the Gangsang of Kor.
These are spots in your feast of charity,
when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear,
clouds they are without water, carried about of winds,
trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead,
plucked up by the roots, raging waves of the sea,
foaming out their own shame, wandering stars,
to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.
And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam,
prophesied of these saying,
behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,
to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all
that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds,
which they have ungodly committed,
and of all their hard speeches,
which ungodly sinners have spoken against them.
These are murmurs, complainers,
walking after their own lusts,
and their mouth speaketh great swelling words,
having men's persons in admiration because of advantage.
But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken
before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ,
how that they told you there should be mockers
in the last time, who should walk
after their own ungodly lusts.
These be they who separate themselves.
Sensual, having not the Spirit, but ye, beloved,
building up yourselves on the most holy faith,
praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves
in the love of God, looking for the mercy
of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
And of some, have compassion making a difference,
and others, save with fear, pulling them out of the fire,
hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.
Now it's to him that is able to keep you from falling,
and to present you faultless before the presence
of his glory with exceeding joy,
to the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty,
demeaning and power both now and ever, amen.
- Fire heads forward to prayer.
Father in heaven, we thank you for this day in our church,
and we ask you to fill our passage to the Holy Spirit,
and help us to pay attention to the sermon,
and to apply to our lives.
We send a prayer, amen.
Amen.
All right, the title of my sermon this evening
is Debunking Reformed Theology.
Debunking Reformed Theology.
The Bible says in Jude, verse number three,
"Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you
"of the common salvation,
"it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you
"that ye should earnestly contend for the faith
"which was once delivered unto the saints."
You know, part of our job as Christians
is to constantly be defending the doctrines of the Bible.
Defending the faith,
defending especially the doctrine of salvation
and what we believe on that.
And this week I was reminded of this thought
because I read a book about the life
of a man named George Whitefield.
Now who has ever heard of George Whitefield?
Okay, he's very popular because people will talk
about the time of the great awakening in the United States.
And he was one of the most famous preachers of that time.
He came over from England
and he just led all these quote revivals
in the United States,
preached before tens of thousands of people
before the time of there being PAs or speakers
or anything like that.
He drew super large crowds
and is one of the most popular preachers in recent history.
And some people would look at him
and call him like the greatest preacher
since the apostle Paul.
Like this guy is super revered in Calvinist circles,
but this guy was a proponent
of what's called Reformed theology,
meaning that he was a Calvinist.
He was a five point Calvinist.
He held to all five points of that Tulip doctrine
that many Calvinists believe.
And just out of curiosity, if you don't mind sharing,
would you raise your hand if you come
from a Calvinistic background?
Okay, only one person, not very many people in here,
but this is something that is popular in our country.
Reformed theology is definitely popular
and we need to make sure we know what they believe
and know what the Bible says about it.
Now, this is from our doctrinal statement
of Anchor Baptist Church.
It says we reject all five points of Calvinism.
We believe God has given every man free will
and desires for all to be saved.
That's what we believe at this church.
We reject Calvinism 100%, all five points.
And what I wanna do this evening
is kind of go through the five major points
that Calvinists teach or people that believe
in this Reformed theology.
I wanna give you some quotes directly from them.
So I'm not preaching a straw man here,
I'm gonna show you what do the Calvinists believe,
and then we'll look at what does the Bible say.
So this is a quote from a man named R.C. Sproul,
who's a very, very famous Calvinist,
and he died recently-ish, but he's no longer alive.
This was his summary of Reformed theology.
He said, "The next point we make by way of negation
"is that Reformed theology is not anthropocentric."
Hmm, this is what Calvinists love to do, by the way.
They love to use these really flowery words
to try to make people think that they're so smart.
This word just means man-centered.
And he's saying, "Our doctrine is not anthropocentric,"
which is saying we're not a man-centered religion.
Now, I beg to differ on that, but that's just what they say.
He says, "That is to say Reformed theology
"is not centered on human beings.
"The central point of Reformed theology is God,
"and it's the doctrine of God
"that permeates the whole substance of Reformed thought.
"Thus, Reformed theology, by way of affirmation,
"can be called theocentric."
This is his explanation.
So he begs to say, "Look, we're not man-centered,
"we're God-centered, that's what us Calvinists believe,
"but I would submit to you that any belief
"that's not taught in the Bible is by nature man-centered."
Any belief, because if it's coming from man's heart,
it's man's ideas, it's not from the Bible.
And so they try to act like they're very God-centered
'cause they'll just say that God chooses who goes to heaven
and who goes to hell based on nothing.
And so they're taking man out of the equation
when it comes to salvation.
But I would still say that their doctrine is man-centered
because that's not what the Bible teaches.
So any false doctrine is man-centered.
The first thing that they teach on that tulip acronym
is total depravity, all right?
So I've got a quote here.
And again, this one is from R.C. Sproul.
This is what he said about total depravity.
He said, "Virtually every church historically has a creed
or a confession that has agreed
that something very serious happened to the human race
as a result of the first sin.
That first sin resulted in original sin,
that is, as a result of the sin of Adam and Eve,
the entire human race fell,
and our nature as human beings since the fall
has been influenced by the power of evil.
As David declared in the Old Testament,
"Behold, I was shapen in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me," Psalm 51.5.
He was not saying that it was sinful
for his mother to have born children.
Neither was he saying that he had done something evil
by being born.
Rather, he was acknowledging the human condition of fallenness,
that condition that was part of the experience
of his parents,
a condition that he himself brought into this world.
Now, notice this.
He says, "Therefore, original sin has to do
with the fallen nature of mankind.
The idea is that we are not sinners because we sin,
but that we sin because we are sinners."
Okay, this is their little way of saying things.
Now, here's the thing.
Like all convincing lies, there are some truths mixed in.
But let's look at what the Bible says.
Go to Romans, chapter number three,
Romans, chapter number three.
And as you're turning there, Jeremiah 17, nine says,
"The heart is deceitful above all things
and desperately wicked who can know it."
Right, so the grain of truth is that human beings by nature,
just our flesh is not bent towards doing good.
It's not bent towards God's ways or understanding the Bible.
Like our flesh naturally is sinful
and our heart naturally is wicked.
Now, when it comes to why are we sinners?
Well, sin is the transgression of the law.
So when you're born, you're not a sinner, folks.
You're not just born and it's like,
oh, this baby is a sinner because it's a human being.
No, that baby is not a sinner
until it's broken God's laws, okay?
And this is where we would differ with Calvinist
when it comes to the T.
And it's a big difference, by the way.
But Romans 3, nine, again,
let's look at kind of just the general nature of mankind.
Verse three, or sorry, verse nine,
what then are we better than they?
No, and no wise, for we have before proved
both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin, right?
So the apostle Paul is trying to get people
to understand here that human nature is the same,
whether you're a Jew or a Gentile.
As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one.
There is none that understandeth.
There is none that seeketh after God.
They are all gone out of the way.
They are together become unprofitable.
There is none that doeth good, no, not one, right?
So where we would agree with the Calvinist is that we would say, hey, man in general
is messed up.
We are sinners.
We are, our flesh is bad.
There's nothing good about us.
It's not like human beings are generally good.
No, no, it's like we're bad.
Okay.
We get that.
But the idea that you're a sinner as soon as you're born, that is a false doctrine.
That is not what we believe.
Why look at Romans chapter five, flip the page to Romans chapter five.
It says in verse 12, wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin,
and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.
Why is it that death passes upon you?
It's because you've sinned, right?
You can't say that death has passed upon you until you have sinned, right?
Look at, let's go to, go to Romans seven.
Let's flip the page there and we'll go there in a little bit.
Because the reason why I bring this up is because it kind of brings you to the logic.
What about babies?
Like, what happens to babies when they die?
Do Calvinists consider babies sinners?
Because that's kind of what it sounds like from Sproul's definition.
Well, there's another famous Calvinist named Jonathan Edwards, and he's a contemporary
of George Whitefield, same timeframe.
But he wrote something called The Damnation of Infants.
That sounds like a fun read, right?
The Damnation of Infants, okay, because some people say like, "Oh, you know, that's a straw
man that you bring up about the Calvinists, they don't really think that babies would
go to hell."
Okay, let's see what he said.
Jonathan Edwards, very famous preacher.
He says, "One of these two things are certainly true, and self-evidently so, either that it
is most just, exceeding just, that God should take the soul of a newborn infant and cast
it into eternal torments, OK, so either God's really just in burning infants in hell, OK,
what's the other one, I really want to know, or else that those infants that are saved
are not saved by the death of Christ."
Now, this is what you would call a false dichotomy, where both sides are wrong, because guess
what?
Babies aren't saved.
You know why?
Because they've never sinned.
They're not condemned in the first place.
They don't need to be saved from their sin yet, because they haven't sinned.
So both sides of this is absolutely insane.
Well, either God burns in hell newborn infants, and that's just, yay, exceeding just, like
He's really getting into it, or it's just, well, they weren't even saved by the blood
of Christ then.
It's like, no, you're just a false prophet.
No, this is why we need to earnestly contend for the faith, because this idea is out there.
He says, "For none are saved by the death."
He says, "For none are saved by the death of Christ from damnation that have not deserved
damnation.
Therefore, if it be very just, it is but a foolish piece of nonsense to cry out of it
as blasphemous to suppose that it ever is just, because they say it is contrary to His
mercy."
So he's saying, "Well, if it's just for God to burn babies in hell, then it's blasphemous
for you guys to say that it's not just."
Then he says, "Now such I ask, whether it is contrary to His mercy to inflict punishment
upon any, according to their deserts, and whether it was contrary to God's mercy to
damn the fallen angels."
So he's saying, "Doesn't God have a right to inflict punishment on anyone who He wants
to according to their deserts?"
And it's like, yeah, but the thing is, there's nothing to render unto a baby because they
have never done anything wrong.
They've never sinned.
They've never transgressed the law.
So this is a stupid statement.
He says, "There was no mercy showed to them at all, and why is it blasphemous to suppose
that God should inflict upon infants so much as they have deserved without mercy as well
upon them?"
What a psychopath.
Like, who thinks of precious little newborn babies and is thinking like, "Yeah, God, give
them what they deserve, these wicked reprimate babies."
It's like, you are insane.
You are a false prophet.
If you say they have not deserved it, that would be me saying that.
Yeah, they don't deserve it.
Babies don't deserve that.
If you say they have not deserved it, so much I answer.
They certainly have deserved what they have deserved.
You can't even make this up, folks.
Yeah, they deserve whatever they deserve, as much as the fallen angels.
So to him, like, demons?
Newborn babies.
What's the difference?
Corporate wants to find the difference between these two pictures.
Jonathan Edward, they're the same pictures.
Are you crazy?
Babies and fallen angels, folks.
This is a wicked interpretation of Christianity.
These are not my brothers.
Because their sin is not accompanied with such aggravating circumstances, so neither
shall their punishment be so aggravated.
Hey, it's okay.
At least babies aren't going to go to the lowest part of hell with Ryan Gallagher, and
they're going to be in the less hot part of hell, because they're just getting what they
deserve.
Like, are you out of your mind?
So that the punishment of every wit is as contrary to God's mercy as that of the other.
Who shall determine just how much sin is sufficient to make damnation agreeable to the divine
perfections?
And how can they determine that infants have not so much sin?
This guy, like, ever had kids or something?
For we know they have enough to make their damnation very just.
He just takes that for granted.
We all know, right?
I mean, we all know that infants are worthy of damnation in hell, right?
No, we don't actually know that, because the Bible doesn't teach that anywhere.
This is like the writings of a completely deranged lunatic.
But yet in school, you learn about the Great Awakening, and Jonathan Edwards was such a
great man of God, and George Whitefield, and these guys were just tearing it up with the
Gospel of Jesus Christ.
This guy is not saved, folks.
This guy is burning in hell.
This is not the mind of God interpreting scripture.
This is demonic.
This is wickedness.
Romans chapter 7, while you're turning there, 1 John 3, 4 says, "Whosoever committeth sin
transgresseth also the law, for sin is transgression of the law."
The Bible defines.
What is sin?
It's transgressing the law.
Babies can't do that, folks.
Babies are not transgressing the law.
Romans 7, 5, Paul said, "For when we were in the flesh," talking about when he was unsaved,
"the motions of sins which were by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit
unto death."
But now we are delivered from the law, so he's no longer under the dominion of the law,
that being dead wherein we were held that we should serve in newness of spirit and not
in the oldness of the letter.
What shall we say then?
Is the law sin?
Because he's saying, like, well, if the law brought dominion over us at one point, is
the law itself bad?
Like, that'd be a question some would ask.
He says, no, God forbid, nay, I had not known sin, but by the law.
How is it that you know what a sin is?
You have to know what the law is.
And if someone is at such a young age where they can't comprehend the law of God, they
do not have sin, folks.
And if they died, they would not go to hell.
And I'll say this, they're not even saved because they had not done anything wrong to
need to be saved.
They're just in a state where they have not yet died.
They're in that state where they have not yet died.
It says, "For I had not known lust except the law had said, 'Thou shalt not covet.'"
Let me explain to you something.
A three-year-old does not know what lust is.
A three-year-old, a two-year-old does not understand what it means to covet.
They do not understand these laws.
And that's why it says in verse number eight, "But sin, taking occasion by the commandment,
wrought in me all manner of concupiscence, for without the law, sin was dead."
See, sin cannot condemn you without the law.
You have to know the law.
You have to be able to understand right and wrong and be of a certain age to do that.
Now, of course, I'm not saying you have to have a deep Bible study of every sin to be
condemned because the Bible teaches that we were created with a conscience.
And our conscience is bearing witness to us what is right and wrong.
You don't have to be taught that murdering someone is wrong.
That's in our conscience.
You don't have to be taught that.
But I will just say this, a one-year-old will not be able to explain to you what murder
is.
A one-year-old could not do that, nor can they possibly comprehend such things.
Stay there in Romans 7, Romans 5.13 says, "For until the law sin was in the world, but
sin is not imputed where there is no law."
So even if you wanted to make a weird argument that says like, oh, this two-year-old sinned
because they took a cookie without their parents' permission or something like that, it says
that it's not imputed when there is no law.
Look at verse 9 of Romans 7, it says, "For I was alive without the law once, but when
the commandment came, sin revived and I died."
See, in order for this statement to be true, this means that there had to have been a time
in the Apostle Paul's life where he was not a sinner because he's like saying, hey, at
one point I was alive, then the commandment came, sin revived and I died.
So this idea that we are born as a sinner is not correct.
Now we are born with a sinful nature, that is correct, but you have not sinned by coming
into this world.
You've not sinned by being six months, years old, a year old, whatever the age is, you
sin when the commandment comes and you transgress that commandment.
That is when sin comes.
This is referred to as like the age of accountability.
I can't tell you what that age exactly is.
I tend to think that it's probably a little bit different for each person.
I mean, what if someone was born with like severe mental retardation or something like
that?
Like they may have never even understood anything about the law.
And I'm not going to say like, well, that person's just hopeless.
He's going to burn in hell for no reason.
You know, that's not going to be my stance.
Go to 2nd Samuel chapter 12, 2nd Samuel chapter 12, I think a good example of this is when
King David's child had died.
Remember, God was angry at King David and part of his punishment was that his child
was going to die.
And that's where we're at in 2nd Samuel chapter 12, verse 22, David said, "While the child
was yet alive, I fasted and wept.
For I said, 'Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me that the child may live?
But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast?
Can I bring him back again?
I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.'"
See, David understood this, that this child that died, this child is in heaven, okay?
This child has never sinned, this child is not condemned, and David is saying, "Hey,
I'm saved and when I die someday, I'm going to go to him, but I can't bring him back
to me.
If I fast now, if I weep now, if I pray now, I'm not going to be able to bring him back,
but I can see him someday."
You know, that is a great comfort to me and many others who maybe your wife had a miscarriage
or something like that, or God forbid, your children passed away even when they were older.
You know, if it's before that age of accountability, you could have the peace of knowing that you
will see them again someday in heaven.
You know, that is a great, beautiful thought, not this sick, twisted view of Calvinism saying
like, "Oh yeah, damn these babies to hell.
They're just and doing that."
It's like, that's a gross religion.
Here's the "you" for Tulip.
Number two, unconditional election.
This is a quote again from Sproul, "The reformed view of election known as unconditional election
means that God does not foresee an action or condition on our part that induces Him
to save us.
Rather, election rests on God's sovereign decision to save whomever He is pleased to
save."
And this is a buzzword for Calvinists.
If you hear someone say the word sovereign, realize that you're probably dealing with
reformed theologists.
You're dealing with Calvinists, and they're saying, "God's not going to look into the
future and see who's going to believe.
He's just going to, through His own sovereign decision, save whoever He pleases.
Just whoever He wants to save, that's who He's going to save."
Unconditional election is another term that I think can be a bit misleading.
So I prefer to use the term sovereign election.
If God chooses sovereignly to bestow His grace on some sinners and withhold His grace from
other sinners, is there any violation of justice in this?
Those who do not receive this gift receive something they do not deserve.
Of course not.
If God allows these sinners to perish, is He treating them unjustly?
Of course not.
One group receives grace, the other receives justice.
No one receives injustice.
So like their view is like God's just like dispensing grace and dispensing mercy upon
people indiscriminately not based on any decision, not based on any response in their heart to
truth given to them.
It's just God's a puppet master, we're His drones, we're His little zombies, and He's
just giving grace to whoever He wants.
Now here's some quotes from George Whitfield about this.
He said, "I believe the doctrine of election.
God hath from the beginning chosen you unto salvation, not because you are more worthy
than others, nor because He foresaw anything good in you, but merely because He would be
merciful."
And again, He's not applying that to all safe people as a whole, He's saying that's being
applied to just the random people that God chose to be elect.
He said this, "We are conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity.
There is no free will in any of you but to sin."
So the Calvinist view is like the only free will you have is to sin.
You don't have the free will to choose to believe in Jesus Christ, you don't have the
free will to accept the gospel, to believe on him, your only choice you make in life
is to sin according to him.
He said some, oh that was from his sermon, "The Seed of the Woman."
So basically, let me just boil it down to you, unconditional election is God picking
and choosing who goes to heaven based on nothing.
That's what this doctrine is.
God choosing who's saved, who's damned, based on nothing whatsoever.
Go to Romans chapter 4, Romans chapter number 4.
Look at verse 17, it says, "As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations
before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead and calleth those things
which be not as though they were."
So look, sometimes God, he is able to speak of things and it sounds like he's speaking
of them in present tense.
He's speaking of things as if it had already happened, even though if it was something
in the future.
Now, what's an example of that?
I'll read for you Revelation 13 8.
It says in all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him whose names are not written in
the book of life of the lamb slain before the foundation of the world.
Two things I want to point out of this.
Jesus is the lamb slain before the foundation of the world.
So before Jesus was physically born of the Virgin Mary, before Jesus physically lived
a perfect life and died on the cross and went to hell and rose again from the dead, from
God's eternal perspective, his sacrifice was as good as done at all times.
And so when someone believes in God and trusts in him for their salvation, that sacrifice
of Jesus Christ was applied to their hearts at any time throughout history.
They're saved by faith at all times throughout history.
And also notice how he's talking about in the end times that all those that dwell upon
the earth shall worship him.
That's talking about the antichrist whose names are not written in the book of life
of the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world.
So another idea of this is that God knows the future and he knows who is going to worship
the antichrist.
That does not mean though that God is choosing people to, what's the word I'm using, worship
the antichrist.
God is not saying like, oh I predestined you, I chose you to worship the antichrist and go
to hell and others I chose and preordained that are going to believe in Jesus and go
to heaven.
Just because God knows the future does not mean that he is forcing us to do things, right?
God knows what we're going to do tomorrow, God knows how many souls we're going to get
saved this year, God knows the future of your children, God knows all of these things but
God is not forcing you to make any decisions.
If you are here tonight at church it's because you out of your own free will came here.
You're not like an RC airplane folks, where God's up in heaven and he's got his remote
control and he's like alright we're going to fly you to church today and then we're
going to fly you to work tomorrow.
No you have free will.
Your heart truly has independent free will and you know we talked about why are people
stupid?
Why do people reject the Bible?
Why do people love stupidity and foolishness?
Because they love that stuff.
Because they chose to be that way.
Why do people get wise and read the Bible and read books and get wisdom and instruction?
Because they chose to love instruction.
Why does someone believe the gospel?
Because they chose to believe it.
It's not unconditional election, no, there is a condition and it's are you going to put
your faith in Jesus Christ?
Go to Ephesians chapter number one.
Ephesians chapter one.
Now of course the condition is not, well are you going to give up your sin?
Are you going to turn from your sins?
Are you going to repent of your sins?
That's not the condition of salvation.
The condition is are you going to choose to accept the free gift?
That is a choice.
Ephesians 1, 3 says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ."
Verse 4, "According, as he hath noticed, chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before him in love."
See, Calvinists will look at this and say, "See, God chose us.
God chose who's going to be saved, except that's not what the verse says.
It says that God chose us to do something.
He chose that we should be holy and without blame before him in love."
And guess what?
When someone believes in Jesus Christ, the righteousness of Christ is imputed in our
hearts and our new man is perfectly holy.
And we can go to God and we can go to heaven because all of our sins have been forgiven.
And guess what?
God chose that those who would believe on him would be holy and blameless.
Verse five, "Having predestinated us."
They'll say, "See, God predestined, who will be saved, who will go to hell?"
Okay, what does it say?
"Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according
to the good pleasure of his will."
He did not predestine who's going to heaven and who's going to hell.
He did predestinate that those who believe on him would be adopted as his sons and daughters.
That's what he chose.
He says, "If someone believes on me, I'm choosing, I'm predestinating that those people
will be adopted as children."
Verse 6, "To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in
the beloved, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according
to the riches of his grace."
And you know, amen.
Of course, salvation is by grace, but Calvinists kind of twist what grace even means.
Like grace is unmerited favor, and you choosing to believe in Jesus Christ is not you doing
a work, folks.
Because some Calvinists would be like, "Well, if you chose to believe, that's work salvation
because you're doing something."
That's anthropocentric religion right there because man is choosing to believe.
Folks, that's not work.
Like are you going to say, like someone calling upon the name of the Lord, like making words
with their mouth, like is that work now?
It's a free gift.
"For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."
That's not teaching works, my friend.
That is ridiculous.
Are Calvinists doing works by like their brain, you know, understanding words of the Bible
that's being given to them?
Like that's not works, but some of them will twist that.
Go to, if you would, verse 8, "Wherein he hath abounded toward us with all wisdom and
peace, having made known unto us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure,
which he hath purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times,
he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which
are in earth, even in him, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated
according to the purpose of him, who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will,
that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
See, God is predestinated that we are going to be to the praise of his glory, who first
trusted in Christ, but he's not predestinating who is going to trust in Christ and who is
not.
That is a false doctrine.
Then we get to verse 13, very famous verse, in whom ye also trusted.
So the author is acknowledging like you trusted, you made this decision, this was your choice
after that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after
that you believed ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.
The salvation is a choice and no, us making the choice to believe in Jesus Christ does
not somehow now become an anthropocentric religion.
No, it's still God centered because Jesus died on the cross, Jesus went to hell for
our sins, Jesus rose again from the dead, Jesus' righteousness is offered to us by our
faith in him.
That's not man centered, that is God centered.
Go to Romans 8, another passage of scripture that Calvinists like to twist to teach this
idea of unconditional election is in Romans chapter number 8.
Romans 8 verse 28 says, "And we know that all things work together for good to them
that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren."
So the Bible talks about God's foreknowledge.
God knows in advance who's going to believe on him and who is not.
And those people that he foreknew, the Bible says, he predestinated, so he made a choice
in advance, what is the choice, that those people would be conformed to the image of
his son, right?
So the fact that someday I'm going to have a glorified body, someday my body after I
die is going to be physically resurrected from the dead, and God is going to give me
a new glorified body.
That choice was already predestined.
God made that choice a long time ago.
God made the choice, he foreknew that who would be saved, and he said of those people
that are saved, I'm making a choice right now, I'm making a decision that those people
would be conformed to the image of the son of God.
So that's not God choosing who's saved and who's going to hell, he's just choosing that
of those who get saved, you're getting a new body.
And so that's part of God's will that we can't resist, right?
Once you're saved, guess what?
You're getting a new body.
It doesn't matter if you want to say like, "I don't want one."
No one would actually say that.
But even if you theoretically did, that's an idea of resisting God's will that's not
possible because that's a predestinated choice of God.
But God's will is that all would be saved.
Can people resist that will of God?
You better believe it.
Why did Stephen say, "Hey, you know, why do you always resist the Holy Ghost?"
Oh, just kidding, it's not even possible.
Stephen's just an idiot.
He doesn't know what he's talking about.
I don't even know why his, you know, words are in the Bible since he was such a dummy.
Or maybe he was right and people can resist the Holy Ghost.
Maybe people have free will.
And then it says in verse 30, "Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called.
And whom he called, them he also justified.
And whom he justified, them he also glorified."
Right?
So he foreknew who would be saved.
He chose that those who would be saved would get a new body.
Of those people he chose, he called those people.
Of the people he called, he justified.
Right?
He made them righteous.
And of those people, he glorifies.
Now, we know that God called everyone in a gospel sense because in John 12, 32 it says,
"And if I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me."
So Jesus, the offer was out there for all people to be saved.
That's why Jesus said, "Go preach the gospel to every creature."
Right?
The offer is on the table for all people.
You know, this idea of unconditional election, it really makes God's command to believe the
gospel completely pointless.
Like why would there be commands and just statements in the Bible about how you need
to believe in Jesus Christ?
Why would those even exist if God's already predetermined who is going to believe on Him
or not?
Like why, why even have a Bible?
Because God already just predetermined that I'm going to heaven, like why do we even need
God's word to tell us or to draw on people's hearts to get them to make a decision if it's
already predetermined.
You know, that's just stupid.
It's a false doctrine.
Go to Titus chapter number 2, Titus chapter number 2 and 2 Timothy chapter 2 right next
to each other.
But you know, this particular doctrine of unconditional election, it's wicked because
it really causes people to not want to go soul winning.
You know, why in the world would I go out there in the ghetto in the cold or in the
heat and with my super white skin get a sunburn, and you know, I know you guys know how it's
like too.
But why would we do all this?
Why would we sacrifice our time, money, effort and energy to go out and talk to people who
oftentimes are rude to us and their houses stink oftentimes and their pit bull is almost
eating our leg and their kids are like punching us while we're preaching the gospel because
they're so misbehaved, right?
Like, why would we do all this stuff if God's already chosen who's going to heaven and who's
going to hell?
I mean, that sounds like an exercise in futility if you actually applied their doctrine.
Now surprisingly, there are some Calvinists that are evangelistic.
They believe in going out and preaching to people.
George Whitefield was one of those people.
But I would just say that George Whitefield is not making a logical conclusion of his
own doctrine because if he actually believed that doctrine of unconditional election, soul
winning would be completely pointless because God's already chosen.
But that's not the truth, of course.
In Timothy chapter 2, it says in verse 3, "For this is good and acceptable in the sight
of God our Savior, who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of
the truth."
You want to talk about the will of God?
The Bible says that He wills that all would be saved.
It's not that God creates people wanting them to go to hell.
Look at Titus 2.11, it says, "For the grace of God," in Titus 2.11, "For the grace of
God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men."
Oh, you know, oh, who cares if God just dispenses His grace to some people and not to other
people?
Justice is still being done.
Okay, except the Bible says that the grace of God has appeared to all men.
Why?
Because the Gospel is available to all.
George Whitefield said, "To help prevent spiritual pride, let us remember that we did
not choose Christ, but were chosen by Him.
The free grace of God has alone made the difference between us and others."
He would say, "No one chose Christ.
We didn't choose to believe in Christ.
That God chose us."
I'm here to tell you that I chose the Lord Jesus Christ, and if you're saved, you chose
to call upon the name of the Lord.
And throughout the Bible, God says, "Choose you this day whom you will serve."
And you know, Josh was like, "Ask for me in my house.
We will serve the Lord."
Well that was a meaningless statement because he was going to do it anyways.
Like the whole Bible becomes a joke when you believe this doctrine.
And I'm so sick of Calvinists acting like they're so intellectual and they're so smart
and they're just so better than all the Baptists.
It's like your system of theology makes Christianity stupid.
It makes the Bible nonsensical.
It's just I'm reading all these verses of God commanding us to do stuff.
Oh, it doesn't matter because God already predetermined who's going to do what.
Oh, God's already choosing and forcing you to do things.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved.
Just kidding.
You can't because either God made you believe or he didn't.
What shall I do to be saved?
Like that's that's Calvinist doctrine is like God's already God's already decided.
So why do I need to tell you?
Whereas I'm saying like, hey, why don't we tell people to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ?
Why don't we convince them?
Why don't we compel them to come in?
Right.
That's actually real Christianity.
This is a joke.
Then they teach for the L on tulip.
Number three, limited atonement from R.C.
Sproul, he said the doctrine of limited atonement, also known as definite atonement or particular
redemption says that the atonement or death of Christ was limited in its scope and aim
to the elect.
Jesus did not atone for the sins of everybody in the world.
The reformed view says that God from all eternity devised a plan that was not provisional.
Under this plan, God decreed that he would save a certain number of people out of fallen
humanity, people whom the Bible calls the elect.
In order for that plan of election to work out in history, he sent his son into the world
with the specific aim and design to accomplish redemption for the elect.
This was accomplished perfectly without a drop of the blood of Christ being wasted.
Everyone whom the father chose for salvation will be saved through the atonement.
George Whitfield said, "Christ did not die for all men indefinitely, but for those whom
the father had given him."
Now what a statement is that, Christ did not die for all men.
He says, "Jesus was the propitiation and atonement only for the elect, whom are identified by
their embracing of faith in Christ."
That was in his sermon, "The Lord our righteousness."
So basically just summing up that point, they just believe that Jesus did not die for everyone.
That's the L, limited atonement, is that Jesus did not die for everyone.
Which is crazy to think about it, like salvation is about believing in the Lord Jesus Christ
and accepting the free gift of salvation.
But in order to believe limited atonement, you have to believe there's all these people
that were born who never even had a chance.
Do you understand what I'm saying?
Like if you say Christ only died for certain people, right?
Let's say Christ died for him and Christ did not die for him.
This guy has no chance.
Even if he wanted to be saved, even if he wanted to believe, oh, it doesn't matter because
he didn't die for him.
Isn't that insane?
Like God's literally creating people that have no hope whatsoever, that have no decision,
have no chance, no one died for them, and they're just predetermined to burn in a devil's
hell for eternity.
That's the God of Calvinism.
Go to 2 Timothy chapter 2, 2 Timothy chapter 2, let's look what the Bible says on this
issue.
Verse 3 of 2 Timothy 2, "For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our Savior,
who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave
himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time."
He gave himself as a ransom for all, not just for the elect.
Who are the elect?
The elect are the saved.
And of course Christ is our Savior.
No doubt about that, but Christ is the Savior of every human being that's ever been born.
From Adam to whoever was born right now, Jesus Christ is the Savior of all of those people.
He died for all of them.
Go to John 3, John chapter number 3.
This is not a hard doctrine folks, we're going to learn it in the most famous chapter in
the Bible, John chapter number 3.
This is not crazy doctrine here, verse 15, "that whosoever believeth in him should not
perish but have eternal life."
Verse 16, have you ever heard this verse before?
For God so loved the who?
World!
That he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have
everlasting life.
For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through
him might be saved, not just the elect, the whole world.
He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already,
because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God.
This is the condemnation, that light is coming to the world, and men love darkness rather
than light, because their deeds were evil.
See, not because they were predestined to be evil, they loved darkness.
They chose that.
For everyone that doeth evil, hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds
should be reproved.
I mean, all over John chapter 3, it's talking about how Jesus is the savior of the world,
that he died for the world, he didn't come to condemn the world, but that the world through
him might be saved.
Jesus Christ died for everyone, flip the page in John chapter 4, John chapter number 4.
It says in verse 42, "and said unto the woman, now we believe, not because of thy saying,
for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the savior
of the world."
Sounds like Jesus was the savior of the world, sounds like Jesus died for everyone.
Okay, let's look at a few more on this, Acts chapter number 17, Acts chapter number 17.
You don't need a Bible college degree to understand these verses, folks.
"He died for the world, he is the savior of all."
Acts 17 verse 30, "And the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all man
everywhere to repent, because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world
in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance
to who?
Unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead."
God is giving assurance to the world that he's gonna judge in righteousness, and what
was that assurance that he gave to all men was the fact that Jesus Christ rose from the
dead.
And all men have to do something with that fact, that Jesus rose again from the dead.
Are you gonna believe it?
Are you gonna place your faith in it?
Well then you'll be saved from hell.
Or are you gonna reject it?
Are you gonna neglect it and not care about it?
Well then you will go to hell, but it's not that Jesus didn't die for you, because him
raising again was a sign to all men, to the whole world.
Look at 2 Corinthians 5, 2 Corinthians chapter number 5.
I mean there's so much Bible on this, I don't understand how people believe this weird doctrine.
Verse 14, 2 Corinthians 5 says, "For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus
judge, that if one died for all, then we're all dead.
And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves,
but unto him which died for them, and rose again."
I mean, it sounds like the Bible is being very repetitive, that when the Bible says
all here, it actually means all.
And you know, don't you love it when people just, just, you know, wave away with a swipe
of a hand, the Bible?
It's like what the Catholics do, you know, it's just like, "Oh, that's your interpretation."
It's like, "Hey, the Bible says he died for all."
"Oh, you don't understand the doctrines of grace."
"Sounds like you need to read John Calvin."
"Sounds like I actually want to read the Bible.
Like, sounds like I actually want to know what the truth is."
"No, you need George Whitefield."
"Oh, you need R.C.
Sproul, oh, you need all these, you need Jeff Durbin, or whatever that Turban, Dirtbin,
whatever that guy's name is.
No, you need Jesus Christ.
You need the Holy Spirit, the author of the Word of God, where it just says, "He died
for all."
Go to 1 Timothy chapter 4, 1 Timothy chapter number 4.
This is not just one verse in the Bible that teaches this, folks.
It's all over the Bible.
1 Timothy 4 verse 10, "For therefore we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust
in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those that believe."
You say, "Oh no, he's just the Savior of the saved."
No, no, no.
He's the Savior of all men, specifically, right, in addition to all men, specifically
those who believe on him, right?
It's kind of like a search and rescue team was going out to the side of a plane crash,
and they were willing to rescue anyone, right?
But they actually have to find the people, and people actually have to want to be saved,
just because they don't find everybody in the expedition does not mean that the savior,
the salvation was not offered to all of them, right?
That's the same thing with salvation.
Yeah, you believe in him.
That's a choice.
But the offer of salvation was there to anybody and everybody.
Here's the next thing they believe in verse four, or number four for them is irresistible
grace, irresistible grace.
R.C.
Sproul says in historic reformation thought, the notion is this regeneration precedes faith.
We also believe that regeneration is monergistic.
Now that's a three dollar word.
It means essentially that the divine operation called rebirth or regeneration is the work
of God alone.
And these people are just annoying.
I'm just annoyed even reading this.
I'm sorry.
Okay.
It means that the work of regeneration in the human heart is something that God does
by His power alone, not 50% His power, 50% man's power, not 99%, 1%, 100% the work of
God.
He and He alone has the power to change the disposition of the soul and the human heart
to bring us to faith.
So again, a lot of these points are pretty dang similar.
It's weird that they've broken them up so much, but just irresistible grace, this idea
that like you don't have a choice to reject Him.
You don't have a choice to accept Him.
It's like, if you're the elect, God's going to just force faith into your heart.
He's just going to force belief into you and there's no choice that you had in the matter.
There's nothing you could do about it.
It's just, you're going to be saved because He's going to make you believe.
In addition, when He exercises this grace in the soul, He brings about the effect that
He intends to bring about.
When God created you, He brought you into existence.
You didn't help Him.
It was His sovereign work that brought you to life biologically.
Likewise, it is His work and His alone that brings you into the state of rebirth and of
renewed creation.
It's insane.
George Whitfield says, "When God calls, man responds, not because he wants to, but because
God makes him willing."
Not because he wants to, but because God makes him want to.
What a silly idea this is.
And like I had talked about, Stephen says, "Hey, you guys have always resisted the Holy
Ghost."
It does not sound like irresistible grace.
Sounds like it's pretty resistible.
And I go soul winning and I see people resisting it all the time.
It's like, "Hey, here's a free gift.
Here's a free gift.
Keep it alone.
You want to believe in it?
You want to receive eternal life?
Door slam.
No, I'm good.
No, I'm a Catholic.
No, my grandma was a pastor.
No, I got a new cat.
No, I'm good."
It's just like, it sounds like people are just constantly rejecting it all the time.
They're constantly resisting the Holy Ghost.
This idea of irresistible grace is insane.
And it comes from people that never do any soul winning.
Because you go soul winning one time and you realize this is pretty resistible.
It's not irresistible.
It's pretty dang resistible.
And in fact, most people like darkness.
Why?
Because their deeds are evil.
Most people aren't going to want to be saved.
Jesus did not teach that most people are going to heaven.
Most people are going to reject the gospel.
Not because God didn't infuse into their heart and force them to believe.
It's because they chose not to believe.
See, this is why hell actually is just.
Is because people had a savior.
People had Jesus die on the cross for everyone.
And his death was there and it was ready to wash away your sins.
It was ready to give you regeneration.
It was ready to help you be born again.
But you, of your own free will, you have a choice to believe in him.
And so God says, "I died for everyone."
Here's the choice.
Do you want to believe in Jesus Christ?
If someone of their own free will says no, then God is just to send them to hell.
But what is not just is to be like, "Oh, you had no savior, and you had no choice, and
I created you for the purpose of destruction, and I just willed before you were even born
that you were going to go to hell."
That is not just, folks.
And that is not who God is.
That is not the God of the Bible.
That is the devil trying to give people Christianity, but in a twisted form and fashion.
Because when people hear this kind of stuff, they're thinking like, "God is a monster."
And here's the thing.
If that's how God was, then he would be.
But that's not how God is.
God actually loved us so much that he gave his only begotten son, not just to us, to
the whole world.
God actually loved people so much that Jesus Christ endured the death and agony and pain
and humiliation and torture on the cross, and went to hell for three days and three
nights for people that hate him, for people that he knew would never believe in him, for
people that would go and protest churches, for people who would make videos against Christianity,
for people who would blaspheme the name of Jesus Christ, and in addition to those people,
also us that would believe in him, he died for everyone. See, that's a loving God,
and it's a just God. It's both. You reject that free gift, it's eternal hell. And I'm not going
to soften that. It's eternal. And people who are in hell, they will be burning there forever
and ever and ever. And there's no rest day or night. They have no hope. But guess what? There
was a hope for them. At one point, Jesus did die for their sins. And even if they were born before
Jesus lived, well, he was the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And his sacrifice was open
to them. Go to John chapter number six, John chapter number six, John chapter number six, verse 32.
Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven,
but my father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh
down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us
this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. See, it is true that salvation is as easy
as eating a piece of bread. It is as easy as drinking a glass of water. But God is not going
to put you down, grab you by the throat, open your mouth, and shove the bread into your face.
That's not what salvation is. It's like, hey, I'm the bread of life. I'm here to sacrifice myself.
It's yours if you want it. If you want it, you'll never hunger again. If you want it, you'll never
thirst again. You'll be eternally secure. You'll have salvation. But it's the whosoever will may
come, not whosoever is going to be forced like a torture chamber to eat the bread. That's not
the God of the Bible. Go to, if you would, John chapter 11. John chapter number
11. Really powerful verses here in John chapter 11 verse 25. Jesus said unto her, that's Martha,
I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.
And whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die, believeth thou this.
If irresistible grace was true, why did Jesus have to ask Martha this question?
He's asking Martha, saying, do you believe that I am the resurrection of life? And isn't that what
we're asking everyone when we go out soul winning? We're saying you're a sinner, you deserve hell,
but Jesus loves you. He died on the cross for your sins. He was buried. He rose again.
All we have to do is put our faith in him. Once we're saved, we're always saved.
"Believest thou this?" Do you want to put your trust in him? Do you want to get saved?
And that's what Jesus is asking her. "Believest thou this?"
If grace was irresistible, this is a stupid question, right? If it was just irresistible,
we wouldn't have to go out and preach the gospel. We wouldn't have to ask people to believe in him,
to call upon the name of the Lord, because it's supposedly irresistible.
Go to, if you would, John chapter number five, John chapter number five.
Here's the last one, is the P of Tulip, and that is perseverance of the saints.
R.C. Sproul said the old axiom in Reformed theology about the perseverance of the saints is this,
if you have it, that is, if you have genuine faith and are in a state of saving grace,
you will never lose it. If you lose it, you never had it. Now, admittedly, this is the one point of
Calvinists where I feel like there's not a consensus among Calvinists of what they really
believe on this, because I've heard some Calvinists teach that perseverance of the saints just means
that once you're saved, you're always saved. And of course, we believe once you're saved,
you're always saved. But I have personally known Calvinists that do not teach that. They teach
basically that perseverance of the saints means that once you're saved, you're going to continue
doing good works until the end. And that is not taught in the Bible. At any time we choose to stop
walking in the spirit, you know what you're going to be doing? You're going to be walking in the
flesh. And if you do that, yeah, you're walking in the flesh, you're still saved. But it's proof of
the fact that you didn't endure until the end in good works, right? Because all of us sin every
single day. So we're not going to continue in perfect good works every single day. Now here's
an example of someone who believes the wrong way on this. And that's Paul Washer. You guys know who
Paul Washer is? This is what he said. He said, "Now men today are trusting in the fact that at
least one time in their life they prayed a prayer." That's me. Amen. I believe that I'm saved because I
in faith called upon the name of the Lord. It's not just mere words. It's not some magic formula
of words that saved me. It's the fact that Jesus died on the cross, the gift of salvations offered
to me. I believe the gospel and I call upon the name of the Lord. I ask him to save me. You better
believe that's why I'm saved. Not gonna sit here and tell you I'm saved because I turned over my
life. I'm saved because my grandmother's aunt was a pastor. I'm saved because, no, no, I'm saved
because Jesus died and I believe that. That's why. That's why I'm saved and if you're saved,
that's why you're saved too. If you have any other answer than that, you're gonna go to hell. You need
to repent of your work salvation and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now men today are trusting in
the fact that at least one time in their life they prayed a prayer and someone told them that
they were saved because they were sincere enough and so in their salvation if you ask them are you
saved they do not say yes I am because I am looking unto Jesus and there is mighty evidence
giving me assurance of being born again. No they say one time in my life I prayed a prayer
and they live like devils. So notice the litmus test of salvation for some Calvinists
like Paul Washer is they would look at someone that says oh salvation is by faith alone. I
called upon the name of the Lord I am trusting in his grace to save me. He actually says well
if you are living like a devil though if you are not having the good works and don't have
mighty evidence of salvation then you are not really saved. Which isn't it funny how Calvinists
are so theocentric right? Oh we are better than everyone else because we are not anthropocentric
or theocentric. God is at the center of everything. Yet your salvation doctrine is that if man doesn't
do good works it's showing that they are not saved. Oh yeah like I said sounds like you actually are
man centric. Sounds like you actually do believe in works salvation and I am not saying 100% of
Calvinists but I will tell you Paul Washer is a false prophet. Paul Washer does believe in
works salvation because he gets pissed when people say they are saved but don't have the works. Where
I am like have you ever heard of Lot? Do you know that Noah drank alcohol and got drunk and did bad
stuff? Have you ever read the Bible? What about when David committed adultery? Did he persevere
until the end of his life without ever doing a wicked sin? No, he sinned greatly and the Bible
is full of saved people doing stupid wicked things and you and I in my life we sin, we have foolish
thoughts, we do bad stuff, that does not make us unsaved, right? The Apostle Paul in Romans 7 he's
like, "Oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" The Apostle Paul
actually had a humble view of himself which is funny because he was probably more righteous than
all of us in this room, yet he looked at himself and said like, "I'm wretched, I'm a bad person."
Oh but Paul Washer though, he's wonderful, he's so godly, he's so righteous as he preaches a false
gospel. Like, I'll take the Apostle Paul, this Paul can go to hell, goodbye. And he's also the one
that got all upset saying, "Oh I hate it when Romans, when people use Romans 7 as a description of the
Christian life, like no Christian should ever live like that." It's like, you realize that you're
sitting here condemning Paul, right? Like you realize you're sitting here saying that you're
better than the Apostle Paul. But again, I'm just saying, these people, they are anthropocentric,
they are a man-centered religion. Go to John chapter 5, if you're already there,
in verse 24, "Jesus said, 'Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth
on him that sent me hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed
from death unto life.'" See, this is the real perseverance of the saints, is that if you believe
in Jesus Christ, you have, present tense, everlasting life. Not only do you have everlasting life,
you'll never come into condemnation. Not only that, you're already passed from death unto life.
Not someday, if I've lived a good enough life, if I've done enough good, hopefully, I'll pass
from death unto life. No, it's the moment you put your trust in Him, you're already saved,
you're sealed, the deal's done, you're going to heaven. Now, the Calvinist Bible of choice is the
ESV, and they mess up some verses. In John 3.36, they say, "Whosoever believes in the Son has
eternal life, whosoever does not obey the Son shall not see life." And so, that's where they'll
kind of get this idea of, well, you have to have mighty works, mighty evidence of salvation,
because those that are saved are going to obey the Son, right? And I understand some people could
interpret that to mean obey the gospel, but that's not how they use it. They use it to teach works
salvation. Go to Galatians chapter number two, Galatians chapter two, and Jude, and we'll finish
up with that. Galatians chapter two, and Jude. Perseverance of the saints. With that in mind,
look at Galatians chapter number two, verse 21. "I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if
righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." They all talk about the grace of God.
They all talk about how salvation is just the work of God. It's not anything of man, but then on the
other hand, they want you to say that you have to be doing righteous works to be saved. But it's like
if you're doing the righteous works to be saved, the Bible's saying then why would Christ have died?
That Christ would be dead in vain. Let's finish in Jude, of course, chapter one and verse three. Jude
verse number three says, "Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation,
it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith
which was once delivered unto the saints." You know, we as independent fundamental Baptists
need to continue to fight against Calvinists because there is a lot of people that take the
name Baptist, but they're super reformed. They're super into the doctrines of grace. They're super
into the tulip doctrine. We need to fight against those people and against those churches and not
sit here and think like, "Oh, you've got the name Baptist. No big deal." No, these are big doctrines
right here. And I'm not going to want to, you know, get together or hang out with someone
that believes like, "Oh, Christ didn't die for everyone." Like, that's wicked. I want nothing to
do with those type of people. I want to make sure that we're preaching against them. And it starts
with stop idolizing people like Jonathan Edwards. Like, can we stop teaching kids in school? Like,
this was the great time of spirituality in America when we had Jonathan Edwards and George
Whitfield and all these people. No, these people are burning in hell. That was not the greatest
hour of America spiritually. Those people were not preaching the right gospel. I'm not going to sit
here and say that every single Calvinist is unsaved. I think that there probably are some
saved Calvinists and I'm not talking about those people. Just for the haters, okay, I'm not talking
about Pastor Anderson's friend that he says is saved. If Pastor Anderson says that he thinks
that guy's saved, I believe him. Because Pastor Anderson's the sole winner, he knows how to check
people's salvation. So don't try to twist my words on that. Obviously Pastor Anderson hates Calvinism
just as much as I do. And this church will never be a Calvinist church. We need to reject the
doctrines of this fake version of Christianity called Calvinism. Let's pray, Lord, we thank you
for this day and we thank you for the word of God. I pray that we would continue to fight for the
truth of the word of God, the truth of salvation by faith through grace, and that we do have a
choice in salvation. I pray that we would care about presenting that choice to other people in
this world so that they can have a better chance of being saved. In Jesus name we pray, amen.
Include the service if you would. Take your hymnals at this time and turn to hymn number 183.
Oh how I love Jesus. Hymn number 183 in your hymnals. Go ahead and start there right on the
first. There is a name I'd love to hear. I'd love to sing. It's what sounds like music in
my ear. The sweetest name on earth.