The title of my sermon today is simply,
Once Saved, Always Saved.
Now, usually when you hear that term,
usually it's people mocking us.
Oh, you're one of these once saved, always saved.
You bet I am.
I'm once saved, always saved.
Easy believe-ism.
It's easy to be saved.
You believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the Bible says, thou shalt be saved.
The Bible says, for by grace are you saved.
And it's the gift of God.
Look, if I had to work for a gift,
Matt, what have I said?
Matt, I'm gonna give you my iPhone, okay?
As a free gift,
but I need you to go install
the washing machine in my apartment.
Is that a free gift?
No, right, cause you worked for it, okay?
So in order to be saved,
you have to receive salvation as a free gift.
The Bible says, to an inheritance incorruptible
and undefiled that fadeth not away.
So there's a corrupt,
there is a inheritance that is incorruptible.
It fades not away.
And the Bible says that we are kept by the power of God.
Now, this is my family,
my wife and son and our daughter, Sapphire,
son, Pison, my wife, Frances.
We're from Durand, Michigan.
We are actually from Grand Rapids.
I grew up in Durand.
And you know, about 90% of Christianity today
would completely dismiss
what I'm gonna say tonight as heresy.
They'll say that what I'm saying is not of God,
that it's not biblical,
that I'm giving people a license
to get away with all this sin.
But that is not true.
And Jesus said that broad is the way
which leadeth the destruction.
So the Bible says clearly,
and this is from the Old Testament,
that if his children forsake my law,
can you guys see that all right on the screen?
Good.
It says if his children forsake my law
and walk not in my judgments.
So this is pretty bad, right?
You're a child of God, if you've trusted in Christ,
what's gonna happen if you forsake God's law
and walk not in his judgments?
Well, let's see.
It says if they break my statutes
and keep not my commandments,
then will I visit their transgression with the what?
The rod.
Okay, so I don't preach that you can just get away
with all this sin.
No, God will punish you with the rod.
And their iniquity with stripes.
Nevertheless, my loving kindness will I not take from him
nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.
My covenant will I not break,
nor alter the thing that has gone out of my lips.
So if you could lose your salvation,
if you could walk away and no longer be a son of God,
that wouldn't make any sense
because God says my covenant will I not break,
nor alter the thing that has gone out of my lips.
You can't lose your salvation.
Jesus said,
verily, verily I say unto you,
he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me
hath everlasting life.
Present tense.
That means you have it right now.
Now, what does everlasting mean?
Forever.
Goes forever.
Now, Chris, what if I said,
Chris, you have eternal life right now.
That's life that never ends,
but tomorrow you lost it.
Was that ever eternal?
No, because it ended.
Okay, so when people say,
oh, if you don't live the life,
if you don't walk the walk and talk the talk,
you're gonna lose that gift of eternal life.
Eternal life by default goes forever by definition.
It comes from the root word terminates
and it has an E at the beginning,
which is a negating prefix.
So when Jesus went around saying,
you have eternal life,
the moment you believe on me,
that life lasts forever.
You cannot lose that gift.
Notice what Jesus says,
and shall not come into condemnation.
So Jesus prophesied that when you're saved,
you shall not be condemned,
but is passed from death unto life.
Those are some pretty powerful words that tell us
that once we trust Christ,
he prophesied you shall not be condemned,
you're passed from death unto life.
What kind of life?
Eternal life.
Now, this is a passage that people take me to,
to say, see, you can lose your salvation.
But look at this,
it says, many will say unto me in that day,
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name,
and in thy name have cast out devils,
and in thy name done many wonderful,
what's that last word there?
Works.
So what are these people trusting in to get them to heaven?
Works.
Lord, we've prophesied in your name,
we've done preaching.
We've cast out devils in your name.
Hey, are these people claiming the name of Jesus?
Are they calling Jesus Lord?
Absolutely.
So why did they not get in?
Because anybody that's trusting their works
is not gonna be saved.
Bible says without faith, it is impossible to please him.
And notice what Jesus says, he says,
then I will profess unto them, I never knew you.
Not I used to know you, because you can't lose it.
What if I said, Rocky, I never knew you.
I'd be lying, because I know who you are.
You're my friend.
What if Jesus, what if you got to heaven and Jesus said,
well, I used to know you, but you lost your salvation.
That wouldn't make any sense.
If you go to hell, Jesus says, I never knew you.
Not I used to know you, because you can't lose it.
Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life.
He that cometh to me shall never hunger.
Look, if you're unsaved, if you're not sure
that you're going to heaven when you die,
you come to Jesus Christ and he says,
once you've partaken of the bread that I give you,
says, you'll never hunger.
And he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
You see how salvation is a one-time thing.
You come to Jesus Christ,
you eat of the bread of life, which he gives you.
And he says, you shall never hunger again.
That's pretty powerful.
That's the security we have in Christ.
He says, all that the father giveth to me shall come to me.
And him that cometh to me,
I'll cast out if he commits enough sin.
Is that what this says?
I'll cast him out if he turns his back.
No, it says, he that cometh to me,
I will in no wise cast out.
Powerful, powerful words from God,
from Jesus who is God that we cannot lose our salvation.
And this is the father's will which has sent me
that all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing,
but should raise it up again at the last day,
talking about us.
And this is the will of him that sent me,
this is Jesus speaking,
that everyone would see if the son and believeth on him
may have everlasting life,
and I will raise him up at the last day.
That is an assuring message,
to know that my salvation is not dependent on how good I am.
Look, if my salvation was dependent upon me and what I do,
then it's not dependent upon what Christ did.
In order to be saved, you have to put all of your trust
and all of your faith in what Jesus did
to get you to heaven.
Anything other than that is false.
It's not gonna get you to heaven.
Notice what Jesus says here as well.
I give unto them eternal life.
Remember, eternal lasts forever,
and they shall never perish.
So let me ask you this, if you perished,
if you went to hell, died the second death,
after believing in Jesus Christ,
did he really give you eternal life?
No.
Now again, the reason I'm covering this
is because most people don't believe this.
We had people stopping here a few weeks ago.
I sat down with this guy in the cafeteria,
real nice guy in his family.
He goes, brother Powell, I believe what you're doing
is awesome, but you're not preaching the full gospel.
I said, a full gospel, what's that?
He said, well, he says, I believe that in order to be saved,
you have to be baptized, you have to turn from all your sins
you have to ask Jesus to be your savior
after you clean up your life.
Folks, do we change to come to Jesus?
Or do we go to Jesus to be changed?
Think about that.
He says, I gotta be baptized,
it's the full gospel of Christ.
Paul said, I came not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel, yes.
The thief on the cross.
Who can think of some other examples in here tonight?
We got the thief on the cross,
just lot vexed his righteous soul with the sins of Sodom.
Look, again, I'm not saying that we should live in sin.
Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
God forbid, the two strongest words in the Bible.
But what I am saying is that my father,
which gave them me is greater than all,
and no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hand.
So when you're saved, you're in Jesus Christ's hand,
he's in the father's hand,
and no man shall be able to pluck you out of his hand.
The guy says, well, what if I jump out?
No man, no man shall be able to pluck you from his hand.
That includes you, are you a man?
Or a woman or a human?
I love this, Jesus said unto her,
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.
Notice how Jesus ends this.
He says, believeth thou this?
Jesus asks the woman at the well,
do you believe what I'm saying?
Do you believe that this gift really is eternal
and that you'll never die?
A lot of people say, well, Matt,
you know, you're preaching all this easy believers
and cheap grace and stuff.
You're giving people a license to get away with sin.
No, false.
The Bible says, for whom the Lord loveth,
he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
That means that if you are a child of God
and you commit sin, you are gonna get a heavenly spanking.
You are gonna get a spiritual whipping.
It is a straw man argument to say,
oh, if you preach eternal life and that it's a gift
and it's all by faith in Jesus,
you're giving people a way to get away with all this sin.
False.
The Lord scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
If his children forsake my law
and walk not of my judgments,
if they break my statutes and keep not my commandments,
then will I visit their transgression with the rod.
I wanted to make this crystal clear here tonight
because there's so much confusion on salvation.
You talk to people, you knock their door and you ask them,
what's gonna get you to heaven when you die?
And almost every time I hear people say,
oh, it's by living a good life, praying every day.
I love my mother-in-law, but you know what?
She's not saved.
She believes she has to pray every single day to stay saved.
Every single day.
When Jesus died, what he said was, it is finished.
What that means is that all sin was paid for past,
present and future.
He died not for our sins only,
but for the sins of the whole world.
The Bible says, and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God,
whereby ye are sealed until the day that you mess up.
Is that what this says?
The Bible says you're sealed until the day of redemption.
You're sealed by the Spirit of God.
Bible says being born again,
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible.
Again, I could go on and on and on with scriptures
that prove that you cannot lose your salvation.
But most people, like I said, they don't believe this,
and I'm gonna prove that to you right now.
So I actually took and interviewed pretty much
every other main false religion that's out there.
And I asked them, hey, what's gonna get you to heaven?
And I decided to actually go first,
we'll show what's on their websites.
And then we'll show the interviews.
This is from the Catholic Church,
the website of the Roman Catholic Church.
It says, while salvation is a gift, it requires our effort.
Okay, is it a gift, if it requires your effort?
A gift by definition is free.
While salvation is a gift, it requires our effort.
When we willingly break the bond of charity with Christ,
we lose our salvation.
That's from the Roman Catholic Church.
People say, oh, it's so terrible
what the Roman Catholic Church did.
Yeah, if you believe you can lose your salvation,
you are literally joining hands with the Roman Catholics.
This is exactly what they believe.
Man can at any time after the new birth experience,
turn away from God and die in a state of sin
with the consequences of hell to look forward to.
This is from the Pentecostal Church.
I'm gonna go through every single denomination
and show you that they all are preaching the same thing.
They're all preaching, but if you don't endure to the end,
you're not gonna be saved.
Notice how it says, if you die in a state of sin,
you're gonna die in a state of sin.
Notice how it says, if you die in a state of sin,
you're gonna go to hell.
Satan would do anything that he could
to get you to doubt your salvation.
I'm gonna debunk that real quick.
Remember when Saul and the children of Israel
were at war with the Philistines
and Saul turned his back on God
and the Lord departed from King Saul?
Most of these cults will tell you,
King Saul is roasting in hell today.
He did not get saved.
He got saved, but he lost his salvation.
Well, Saul went to the witch of Endor,
if you read the Bible,
and he brought up Samuel from the dead.
And here's what the Bible says.
It says, and Samuel said to Saul,
why has thou disquieted me to bring me up?
And Saul answered, I am sort of stressed
for the Philistines make war against me
and God is departed from me.
So is it true as a Christian, God could depart from you?
Absolutely.
And answer with me no more,
neither by prophets nor by dreams.
Therefore, have I called into thee, Samuel,
that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do.
Then said Samuel, wherefore then dost thou ask of me,
seeing the Lord is departed from thee
and has become thine enemy?
You better be careful not to become an enemy of God, folks.
It can happen.
It can happen to a believer.
Now here's one of the most powerful scriptures in the Bible
that prove eternal salvation.
Saul was saved.
Bible says, moreover,
the Lord will also deliver Israel with thee
into the hand of the Philistines.
And tomorrow shall thou and thy sons beware.
With me.
Samuel said, Saul, you messed up.
You did some wrong things.
The kingdom was delivered to David.
God has departed from you.
He's become your enemy.
But tomorrow, you're gonna be with me.
Let me ask you, where was Samuel?
Bible says to be absent from the body
is to be present with who?
The Lord.
Samuel was with the Lord.
So Samuel said, Saul, you messed up.
You made some mistakes.
And because of that, you're gonna die.
Even though I know I'm going to heaven, I don't wanna die.
Does anybody want to die in here
just to experience eternal life now?
I wanna live, it's my best life now.
Okay, I enjoy living now.
I don't want to die.
I enjoy being on this earth,
even though I know I have eternal life.
And I know that I would go immediately
to be with my Savior, if I did.
I'll go.
Right, good times.
Notice this from Jehovah's Witness.
It says a person who has been saved from sin,
but fails to keep exercising faith
could lose out on salvation.
People say, well, I'm not a Jehovah's Witness.
You might as well be one.
If you think you can lose your salvation,
you are preaching the same gospel
that the Jehovah's Witness preached.
There's only two gospels.
There's only two religions.
All these atheists say,
there's all these different religions.
How do I know which one's true?
I'll simplify it for you.
There's people who trust their works.
And there are people who believe in eternal salvation,
once saved, always saved, bride of Christ.
He says, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.
In the Old Testament,
it says it is he that goeth with thee,
he will not forsake thee.
Oh, I'm so afraid.
I've got to keep my salvation.
He keeps it for you.
Hello, we are kept by the power of God
unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Here they say a person who fails to exercise faith
could lose out on salvation.
Are these people trusting Christ?
Are they saved?
Yeah.
So using the thought of the fact that we're saved,
we're part of the bride of Christ.
If we could keep losing our salvation,
we'd get divorced and remarried, divorced and remarried.
That's such a great point.
Yeah, for anybody that didn't hear that online,
Brother Chris pointed out here and very appropriately so,
if we are the bride of Christ, the Lord hates divorce.
He hateth the pudding away.
How many times are we going to get remarried
as the bride of Christ?
It wouldn't make any sense.
That would make God not perfect.
Once you're a child of God,
Jesus said, you must be born again.
If you're born into your dad's family,
how long are you his son for?
Forever.
They say, well, what if I stopped believing
that God is my father?
What if you stopped believing
that your earthly dad was your dad?
Would it make him not your father anymore?
No, and the Bible says, if we believe not,
yet he abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself.
Our church teaches, this is from the United Methodists,
that we can end up losing the salvation
that God has begun in us.
And the consequence of this in the age to come
is our eternal destruction in hell.
If you have any Methodist friends, show them this sermon.
Show them sermons like this
because they need to get out of there.
That's a cult.
Any group of people that believes that is a cult.
And I have viewers that believe this.
And I have donors that believe this.
And they're going to get heavily offended.
But here's the thing, I would rather offend you
with the truth than comfort you with a lie.
I would rather you go to hell,
having the chance to hear the gospel
instead of me just buttering things over
and letting you just, oh, have a great day
as you're going off the cliff into the lake of fire.
It's a big deal.
The Bible says that this is a huge deal.
This is not something that I play around with.
And these are not just my notes.
This is what the Bible says.
I didn't even write notes for this.
These are just scriptures
and just making the way plain here.
Once saved, always saved is not biblical.
Because people always say,
Matt, you're preaching what's popular.
You're preaching mainstream Christian.
This is not popular, folks.
Look at all these cults.
We're going to just keep going through.
Once saved, always saved is not biblical
from the Amish religion.
If we fall short, we seek grace and repent quickly
and in faith confess our sins
and continue on in our journey.
Oh, but our faith is in Jesus.
No, it's not.
If your faith was in Christ,
he said you should come to me as a little child.
A child doesn't necessarily
have all the knowledge in the world.
And if you believe you can lose your salvation,
it is really logically not possible for you to love God.
Know why?
Because they say, I have to love God, even my mother-in-law.
I have to love God or I'm going to go to hell.
No, you need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And let me say this.
What if I just obeyed my dad just not to get spanked?
Is that love?
Am I loving my dad?
No, loving my father would be if I'm truly his son
and I'll always be his son.
And out of the free will of my heart,
I choose to follow him.
That's what true love is.
If you think you can lose your salvation,
oh, I love God while you're trying to escape hell.
Really?
That's not loving God.
That is not a love.
Here's from the Mormons.
They put, we have been quote, saved, but with conditions.
They make fun of the word saved
by putting in quotes on their website.
We believe that through the atonement of Christ,
all mankind may be saved by obedience to the laws
and ordinances of the gospel.
I interviewed this Mormon who was associated
with that teaching.
I said, hey, what do you think happened to Judas?
Judas is a perfect example,
Matt, of someone who lost his salvation.
Oh, really?
Jesus said at the beginning of the ministry
with the 12 apostles that have not I chosen you 12
and one of you is a what?
A devil.
So Judas lost his salvation, they say.
False.
Judas was a devil from the beginning.
This is John 6.
This is the beginning of Christ's ministry.
Oh, he fell away, he lost his salvation.
He was a devil from the beginning.
Jesus said, have not I chosen you 12
and one of you is a devil.
But if you talk to, if we were, you know,
and brother Chris, I think at some point,
we should go knock these doors here in Repton
and share the gospel with people,
or at least offer, say, hey,
are you sure you're going to heaven?
And I guarantee you, most of these people will say,
oh yeah, Judas lost his salvation.
He didn't endure, he didn't have the works.
He lost it.
I guarantee it, let's say that.
Salvation can be lost.
Once saved, always saved is a teaching
that is contrary to our beliefs.
That's from the Lutheran church.
My dad grew up in a Lutheran church
and he got saved out of that, amen.
Salvation is a process.
And until you hear the words,
well done, now good and trustworthy servant,
you're not saved.
That's from Messianic Judaism.
Now I know not all of them believe that,
but I'm just saying their denomination,
that's mainstream what they're saying.
Even though you may have accepted Christ fully
and with all your heart, you can lose your salvation.
That's from the Nazarene church.
Again, I'm not preaching what's popular.
If I wanted to preach what was popular,
I would say, yeah, give your money to the church.
And you know what?
I think God just might let you in.
The love of money is the root of all evil.
And you know what?
I could make a lot of money preaching lies.
But you know what?
I'm supposed to preach the truth.
Salvation can be lost.
To remain saved,
a person must continually choose to stay close to God.
Let me ask you a question.
Was David close to God continually
when he murdered somebody
and when he slept with that person's wife?
Again, I'm not justifying that.
That was awful.
Absolutely reprehensible what David did.
And to be honest,
I truly believe that is what cost him his life.
I really do believe that.
But they say, well, David lost his salvation.
No, David said, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.
If you're a Christian and you're living in sin,
you're not gonna have the joy of the Lord
and you're gonna feel empty inside.
And if anybody in this camp is,
if I find out they're living in habitual sin,
I am not gonna be their friend, period.
Until they repent.
Once they repent, I can be their friend again.
Great, all right, here we go.
Let's continue, let's continue.
Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.
Well, was David bad enough?
He murdered somebody.
He ended up sleeping with that person's wife.
I mean, those are pretty bad things.
Just a lot, vexed his righteous soul with the sins of Sodom.
Those are some of the worst sins in the Bible.
And don't come at me with all sin is equal.
No, false.
Jesus said in the Pontius Pilate,
he that delivered the unto me hath the greater sin.
So if all sin's equal,
how could he have the greater sin, right?
Check this out.
It says, we do not believe
in the internal security of the believer.
No one can have assurance of salvation.
So notice this.
We don't believe in eternal security.
No one can have assurance of salvation.
Do you see how they're admitting
that eternal security and assurance of salvation
are linked?
No one can be assured of heaven.
We don't believe in eternal security.
That's from the Episcopal Church.
You know, at last I checked,
the Bible says that being confident of this very thing,
that he which hath begun a good work in you,
will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ.
Not that he might,
not that he might put half in and half out,
not that he's going to take his promise back.
He says, he that hath begun a good work in you,
will perform it.
I'm glad that my salvation's not dependent upon me,
that it's dependent upon the blood of the lamb.
Those who rely on faith in Christ
risk the loss of eternal salvation.
Boy, it's risky.
Do we serve a God of risk?
No, we serve a God of absolutes.
When Jesus saved me from my sin,
he didn't go, oh, it's a risk moving forward, Matt.
Look at how weak this is.
This is from the Orthodox Anglican Church.
Those who rely on faith in Christ
risk the loss of eternal salvation.
Look, people, now this is where, you know,
even more division will come in,
because people will say,
don't you have to repent of your sins, Matt?
Aren't you saying,
you're saying you don't have to repent to be saved.
No, God repented more in the Bible than man.
Did you know that?
Did you know that God repented more than man?
So is repentance turning from sin?
No.
The Bible says it's not of works lest any man should boast.
And God saw their works.
What are the next few words?
That they turned from their evil way.
So if you're turning from your evil way to be saved,
you are working your way to heaven to be saved.
You're literally doing works to be saved.
God saw their works that they turn from their evil way.
So if you say you got to turn over a new leaf to be saved,
you're telling people to work their way to heaven.
And God repented of the evil.
Notice the wording here.
God repented of the evil
that he had said he would do unto them and he did it not.
Repentance is not a turning from sin.
It's simply a change of mind.
And folks, do I believe we should repent of our sins?
Yes.
But the phrase repent of your sins
is not in the Bible one time.
Yet that's the phrase, that's the thing.
Everybody says, oh, you got to repent of your sins.
You know what?
It's not in the Bible one time, but you know what?
I will show you where the phrase repent of your sins is at.
It's in the Book of Mormon.
Check this out.
Jacob chapter three, this is not the Bible.
Oh my brethren, I fear that unless ye shall repent
of your sins, that their skins shall be whiter than yours.
So not only is the Book of Mormon promoting racism,
by saying, oh, unless you repent of your sins,
their skin is going to be whiter than yours.
That's racism.
But the Book of Mormon is telling you that to be saved,
you have to repent of your sins.
Like I said, the phrase repent of your sins
does not exist in the Bible one time.
Sorry to confuse you with the facts.
Let's move on.
And look, I don't say that to be arrogant
or sound like a jerk or something.
I just want people to know what the truth is.
I want, you know, on the way here,
we drove six hours to get here today.
On my way here, I saw three accidents
and one dead man on the road,
a black gentleman that had died.
He had been hit by a semi-truck.
You could hardly tell that he was even a human.
It was extremely sad and it just happened.
And the cops had just gotten there.
And I thought to myself, you know, what are we doing?
We've got to preach the gospel.
We got to make it clear.
You know, I'd give anything to be able
to give that man the gospel just a few moments
before he would have passed away.
Folks, people die.
And when people die, have you ever noticed at funerals,
people always say, even if it was a horrible person,
oh, they're a good person.
I think they're going to go to heaven.
Look, it's not about what a man does that saves him.
It's about who a man has.
If you have Christ, I don't care how wicked you are.
And if you are wicked and you have Christ, shame on you.
Shame on you.
But I don't care how wicked you are.
If you have the blood of the lamb applied,
the blood of Christ is more powerful than sin.
And where sin doth abound, grace doth much more abound.
Nothing is more powerful than the grace of God,
of almighty God.
And I'm not going to call Jesus a liar and say,
well, it's not eternal.
It's not eternal life.
I'm not going to join hands
with all these false denominations
and preach lies for money.
We're going to tell people the truth about salvation.
You know what?
This is really simple.
The Bible says, for the wages of sin is death.
We have all sinned.
The Bible says, for all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God.
But the gift of God is death.
But the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
That's the gift.
People say, well, I got the gift of God,
but it wasn't eternal life.
Then you didn't get the gift of God.
The gift of God is eternal life.
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus,
and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead,
thou shalt be saved.
Not thou might be saved.
Not thou could be saved if you continue in the faith.
Thou shalt be saved.
That is a promise.
This is the promise that God had promised us
even eternal life.
Titus 1, 2 says, in hope of eternal life,
which God that cannot lie promised
before the world even began.
For I am persuaded that neither death nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,
nor things present, nor things to come,
that's the present and the future, by the way,
nor height, nor death, nor any other creature
shall be able to separate us from the love of God,
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Let me ask you a question.
Is it loving to send someone to hell?
No, that's not loving.
If I loved you,
I'm not gonna send you to the lake of fire.
If God loves us, and I don't have that power,
but I'm just saying, God,
if you go to hell, that's the wrath of God.
That's not the love of God.
Nothing shall separate us who have been saved
from the love of God.
That tells me that once I'm saved, I'm always saved.
You've been born again, right?
How can you be unborn once you've been born?
How can you undo what the cross has already accomplished?
How could you lose by bad works,
what you could never gain by good works?
I was talking to brother Chris Baker
before we started this stream.
And he said, you know what, brother Powell,
I take comfort knowing that Jesus died,
I'm paraphrasing, for my sins past, present and future.
He died for my sins 2000 years ago.
He died for the sins that I was gonna commit
before I even committed them.
Think about that.
He served a logical God.
For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth
and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
Look, if you do continue in sin
after receiving the gift of salvation,
you better believe you're in for a spiritual spanking,
a righteous whipping from God.
There is no doubt about that.
But what I'm saying is that
we need to put our faith in Jesus.
God allowed his son to be butchered upon a cross.
The Bible says that when they were whipping Christ,
he was whipped so hard that you couldn't even tell
that he was a man.
His visage was so marred.
You couldn't even tell he was human.
That's how much he loved you.
That he would be whipped to a point
where you couldn't even tell he was human.
He died not for friends, but for an enemy.
The people that spit on him, the people that whipped him,
people that drove the nails in his hands.
The Bible says that Christ died for them.
The Bible says, for God commendeth his love toward us
in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
That is the power of the cross.
For the preaching of the cross is to them
that perish foolishness.
But unto us which are saved, it is the power of God.
It's the power of God.
Nevertheless, my loving kindness
will I not utterly take from him
nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.
My covenant will I not break,
nor alter the thing that has gone out of my lips.
Do me a favor folks, don't call God a liar.
Don't say, oh, he'll break the covenant with me
if I turn my back on him.
I'm thankful I serve a savior and I have a father
that will not cease from being my dad
every time I mess up.
And if a certain sin could cause you to lose your salvation,
then any sin could cause you to lose your salvation.
People, we had a guy come here a few days ago.
You mean to tell me, he says, that if I smoke
and that if I drink, that I'm still gonna go to heaven?
I said, look, man, you're putting your trust
in what you don't do to be saved.
You're putting your trust instead of in Christ,
you're putting it in, oh, well, I don't smoke.
I'm putting my trust in, I don't drink.
The Bible says the thought of foolishness is sin.
Who has ever had a foolish thought in their life?
There is not a just man upon the earth
that doeth good and sinneth not.
That's what the Bible says.
Again, this is unpopular.
People get offended by this.
They say, Matt, you offend me
because of what you're preaching.
You offend me because of your interpretation of the Bible.
It's not my interpretation of the Bible.
This is simply what Jesus said.
It offends me because I wanna feel
like I have something to contribute.
He already contributed it all.
He already gave it all.
Endured the cross, despising the shame.
It sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
He already paid it all.
Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe.
Sin had left a crimson stain, right?
But I washed it white as snow, right?
No, he washed it white as snow.
When we get to heaven, we will not cry out.
We are worthy.
We will cry out, Lord, thou art worthy.
Thou hast redeemed us.
Out of every nation, out of every kindred,
out of every tongue, not we are worthy.
It's one of the most difficult things sometimes
to get a man to trust Christ as his savior.
It really is.
One of the hardest things I've ever had to do,
Brother Rocky, is trying to get people to trust Christ.
It's hard for some people.
It's hard to bite their pride.
We're not co-saviors with God, with Christ.
All the glory goes to Christ.
If it was half my works and half the works
that Christ did when he was paying for my sins,
then he wouldn't truly be the savior.
I would be a co-savior.
Think of the thief on the cross.
Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.
He didn't have any works.
Paul said, I am the chief of sinners.
Look, do you think you're better than the apostle Paul,
Paul Washer, when you're going around and saying that,
oh, if you're a real Christian,
there's no such thing as a carnal Christian.
Paul said, I am carnal, present tense,
but God is spiritual.
God's law is holy.
He that thinketh, he standeth,
let him take heed lest he fall.
There are people that think,
I'm really taking a stand for Christ.
I'm really keeping my salvation.
No, it's dependent upon him.
I want people to experience the joy of salvation.
Now we're at the end here.
And this is kind of the verse that really nails things home.
It says, he that believeth on the son of God
hath the witness in himself, the witnesses the Holy Spirit.
So if you believe on Jesus Christ,
you have the witness of God.
It says, he that believeth not God hath made him a liar.
You're calling God a liar because he believeth not
the record that God gave of his son.
So there's a record that God gave
that makes it real easy
that you have to believe to be saved.
And he tells us what the record is
that you have to believe to go to heaven.
And this is the record that God hath given to us.
It's a free gift.
What?
Eternal life.
And this life is in his son.
That's what you have to believe to be saved.
That's why people that don't believe,
want saved, always saved, they're not saved.
I tell them that.
I'm sure there are probably some that are saved
that just got confused, of course.
Except really anybody that trusts Christ
is their savior is gonna go to heaven.
They may not understand the Bible very well.
But in general, I usually say that people that don't believe
and want saved, always saved are not saved.
They are not believing in the gift of eternal life.
So you have to believe that it's eternal,
that it's a gift and that it's through Christ.
Those are the things that you have to believe.
And that's the simplicity of salvation.
So I took and I actually interviewed people
from these different religions.
Cause people say the websites aren't enough.
Well, this is from their own mouths.
This is just a couple minute clip from their own mouths.
They are immersed into that baptismal pool.
And then as they come out of the pool,
they're anointed with oil.
So that's kind of like that moment where they get saved,
you might say.
Well, it's like the moment that brings it to completion.
Ultimately, we don't know who is going to be in heaven
and who is not going to be heaven.
What we can do and what we're told as Muslims
is to be good and do good.
What is a Mormon perspective of salvation?
What is that step that somebody needs to take
to kind of enter into God's presence
from a Solific standpoint?
Baptizing them.
And we're commanded to be baptized.
Baptism is a sacrament that allows us to enter His faith.
And then there comes the gift of the Holy Ghost
by the laying on of hands.
Through these rituals of initiation,
water baptism, anointing, being sealed with the Spirit.
So to kind of gain at a spot in the world to come,
you need to live a good life,
kind of be an overall good person
in the sense of keeping the commandments of God
and following Him.
It goes according to our actions.
So if a person wants to sort of get paid,
he has to do the work.
Not to curse your Creator.
Not to murder.
Not to steal.
Not to eat any limb or part of a limb
that came off an animal while it was still alive.
So baptism is kind of that moment
where salvation comes to like a completion, I take it.
It's the entry, it's the way you enter in.
And then we have to keep going on.
What are some of the determining factors
when somebody stands before God?
What are some of the determining factors
that God would look at to let them in?
Sure, well I mentioned one of them there.
Did we feed the hungry?
Did we clothe the naked?
Did we welcome the stranger?
Did we visit the one in prison?
Throughout, Scripture talks about our deeds.
Our deeds matter.
In Islam, we have some principles for a person
worthy of entering into paradise.
Every good deed has a weight, has a reward,
and we believe in that.
We actually believe there are scales.
We don't know the description of the scales.
We see scales in this world, but what?
Scales can be even electronically in a scale.
Technology, so how would you scale the actions
of a believer, men and women?
So every good deed has a weight.
So by keeping those laws as a Gentile,
that kind of guarantees their spot in the world to come?
Correct.
Once you've entered in by baptism, is it done?
No, it's not done.
You have to press forward and endure to the end.
That's one way, but it's not the only way.
The other step is anointing, and it's
like an immersion into the mystery of the Spirit.
Keep on the path.
Keep going.
Did they feed the hungry?
Did they clothe the naked?
Did they drink to the thirsty?
Did they visit the sick?
A Jew that's not Jewish only has to follow the seven Noahide
laws.
And then we have to keep going on.
Through these rituals of initiation.
Every good deed has a weight.
Water baptism, anointing.
If a person wants to get paid, he has to do the work.
So I think really what it comes down to,
and we're going to close here.
I think what it comes down to is you have all these people
saying it's by works.
It's by works.
It's by works that we're saved.
It's by turning over a new leaf.
It's your reformation.
We had a guy stop in here, and I know I keep mentioning this,
but we keep having these people stop in.
What's your testimony, brother?
Well, I cleaned up my life when I met Christ.
That's wonderful.
I think that's great.
But it's not part of salvation.
I asked him, if you wouldn't have cleaned up your life
before coming to Christ, would you be saved?
Well, no, I had to clean up my life.
I had to clean up my act.
So who gets the glory?
Him or the cross?
Well, the Bible says, no flesh,
your glory, and his presence.
I'm going to end with this verse.
Many will say unto me in that day,
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied thy name?
Sounds just like the guys we just heard, right?
And in thy name have cast out devils.
And in thy name done many wonderful works.
Lord, we endured to the end.
We kept all your commandments.
We obeyed the ordinances.
We did all these things.
Why aren't you letting us into heaven, Lord?
And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you.
Depart from me that work iniquity.
I never knew you.
So if you die right now and you were to go to hell,
it's only because Jesus never knew you.
If I walked up to the president of the United States
and I said, hey, how you doing, Mr. Biden?
He's not going to know me.
It wouldn't mean anything if I know who he is, right?
Everybody knows who he is.
But if Joe Biden knew who I was,
that would mean something in America.
Well, the same thing with God.
That may not be the greatest analogy,
but you know, you may know of Christ,
but does Christ know you?
Have you invited him into your life?
Have you asked him for the free gift of salvation?
They say, how simple is it to be saved then, Matt?
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth
the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead,
thou shalt be saved.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.
I'm going to end with these verses.
That as Moses, this is what Jesus said.
As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
even so must the son of man be lifted up.
They would simply look to the serpent.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have eternal life.
For God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life.
For God sent his son into the world not to condemn the world
but that the world through him might be saved.
He that believeth on him is not condemned.
If you believe on Christ, you're not condemned.
You are saved.
But he that believeth not is condemned already
because he hath not believed
in the name of the begotten son of God.
And this is the condemnation
that light has come into the world
and men love darkness rather than light
because their deeds were evil.
For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light
neither cometh to the light
lest their deeds should be reproved.
Is there a crowd out there that says,
I don't want to come to Christ because I love my sin?
Absolutely.
And if those people want to go to hell, whatever,
they wouldn't come to the light because their deeds were evil.
They didn't want to be chastened by God.
They didn't want to have to deal
with the heavenly father chastening them.
But like I said, we've been passed from death in a life
the moment we believe.
And the Bible says that simply
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
I find it highly amazing all these churches of Christ
and they're all of course.
You know, I told my wife on the way over here
because I was on these websites looking at all this.
I said, it's amazing how the church of God,
it's not of God.
This church of God,
this denomination I'm looking at their website right now,
they're not of God.
Very sad.
You believe good works is fruit of salvation.
That's a good question.
I would say that if you're truly saved,
you're going to be punished by God.
And as a result,
you'll probably end up either dying from the punishment
if you continue to stiffen your neck,
because he that stiffens his neck
shall be destroyed in that without remedy.
But if you're truly saved,
I think God would punish you to a point of
you either repent of your sins at that point,
or he would take you home.
Just like he did with several prophets, took them home.
He physically killed them.
Romans 6 23 is a great way to learn how to escape hell.
But Proverbs 6 23 is a great way to escape hell on earth.
The Bible says,
for the commandment is a lamp and the law is light
and proofs of instruction are the way of life.
That's how to keep yourself out of a hell on earth.
You could experience that.
So, you know, people say our works,
evidence that you've truly been saved.
I would say that the evidence that you've been saved
is if I was to open up a King James Bible and ask you,
do you believe that Jesus Christ is the savior,
that he paid for your sins past, present and future?
Or do you believe that there's some other way?
If they do not agree with what the Bible says,
that I'm concluding they're not saved,
because a natural man receiveth not the things
of the spirit of God.
I don't judge people's salvation based on how they live,
because look at David.
I would have concluded,
probably most people would say David was unsaved
when he committed adultery.
You know, and if we found out somebody
was committing adultery here at Dinosaur Adventure Land,
we would throw them right out of here.
We have zero tolerance for adultery.
It's wicked, but I don't say that they're not saved.
It's not what the Bible teaches.
There are people, the Bible says,
but to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness.
Yeah.
What is faith without works is dead?
Yeah, that's a great question.
So faith without works is dead.
That means faith without works exists.
What if I said SpongeBob is dead?
Doesn't it mean there's a SpongeBob
for me to be talking about for it to be dead?
What if I said the dog is dead?
That means there's a dog there.
So when it says faith without works is dead,
they say faith without works doesn't exist.
That means that faith, it's non-existent, false.
Your faith is dead.
The Bible says in James 2 where that comes from,
that if you see your brother have a need
and you reject that need,
if you say, well, get warm by the fire,
but you give him not those things
which are needful for the body,
even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead being alone.
So if Chris was suffering financially
and I had millions of dollars, you know,
and I said, well, Chris, you know, be warm by the fire.
And I did not give him those things
which were needful for the body.
My faith is dead to him.
The Bible says for Abraham,
our father was justified by works, but not before God.
So you could be justified by works in the sight of man,
but not before God.
If Abraham, our father was justified by works,
he hath where of the glory, but not before God.
So faith without works exists,
but your faith could be dead to other people
if you don't exercise that faith.
Would you debate somebody on this topic?
I've already debated people on this topic.
Watch it, Matt Powell versus Smokey Saint.
Watch Matt Powell versus RCA Apologist,
Lordship Salvation Debate, Lose Your Salvation Debate.
I've got them linked in all the descriptions
of my videos because people that believe this,
their position's absolutely indefensible
on absolutely every level.
It is amazing what unbelievers will believe
to remain unbelievers in Christ.
If they want to schedule a debate with you,
what's the process for that?
Just send me an email.
Send me an email, let's go on standing for truth
if somebody really wants to debate it.
Now, look, I don't enjoy doing debates.
I don't think debates are that useful,
but I do believe that there is a time and a place for them.
But yeah, I've already done that debate,
so I don't think I would do that again.
All right, all set, let's pray.
["The First Noel"]
They did not understand why He wouldn't come
as they made their way toward the other side.
As they left the shore, they faced the storm,
and suddenly they feared for their lives.
But upon the sea there someone walked on the water
as they listened for His cry.
That's when they heard Him call out their names,
and tenderly He said in His eye.
He's the eye of the storm, the center of my calm,
the place where I find shelter,
the place where I find warmth, the center of my ways,
the keeper of my days.
When I can feel the sunshine, and my ship is tossed and torn,
He's the eye of the storm.
They did not understand how the Prince of Peace
could find them in the middle of their sea.
But with little faith and God's good grace,
joy would overcome their disbelief.
Now there are times in life when I face the storm,
and I wonder if I ever will survive.
That's when I hear Him call out my name,
and tenderly He says in His eye.
He's the eye of the storm, the center of my calm,
the place where I find shelter,
the place where I find warmth, the center of my ways,
the keeper of my days.
When I can feel the sunshine, and my ship is tossed and torn,
He's the eye of the storm.
Do not fear when He is near, take hold of His strong hand,
listen closely to His words, He's the great I AM.
The great I AM still is,
the heavens and the earth are His,
He's the merciful almighty, forever holy,
in everything we must remember this.
The great I AM still is,
the eye of the storm, the center of my calm,
the place where I find shelter,
the place where I find warmth,
the center of my ways, the keeper of my days.
When I can feel the sunshine, and my ship is tossed and torn,
He's the eye of the storm.