you
One three nine one three nine one three nine one three seven
you
It started our first service
you
me
you
It's great to have a party with English this morning
Thank you all God for you good crowd and all sorts of visitors
And I pray Lord that you would bless us as we have our first service and feel better
Sorry with your Holy Spirit. Oh Lord, and I pray Lord that you would
Help us to be attentive with a sermon Lord and tense our heart and our minds Lord to be prepared
For the hearing of the sermon Lord and I pray that you would speak to us and that we would apply our whatever lessons
Lord or doctrines that we will learn in our lives Lord
And I pray Lord that you would also guide us as we go through our
Services today and I pray that you would bless the fellowship and also the soul winning this afternoon all these things we ask in Jesus
All right, good morning everybody welcome to Verity Baptist Church take out your bulletin here today
and
our verse of the week is
Jonah chapter 3 verse 10 the Bible reads and God saw their works that they turned from their evil way and God
Repentant of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them and he did it not and that's a great verse there
We are a family integrated church meeting children and infants are welcome during the services
We do have a mother baby room back there for your convenience as well as the ladies restroom
Men's restroom is up here in front
Remember no eating during the service
Maintain a professional atmosphere and keep the children from running and making noise during the church service
Next page our service times listed first service is at 10 a.m. Then a short break in our 1115 service
The first sermon is going to run long today
So, but we'll get done on a regular time after I'll shorten the second sermon the Wednesday evening Bible study is at 7 p.m
So many times listed 4 p.m. On Wednesdays meeting here at the church building on
Saturdays all day at case on Memorial Circle 10 to 12 and also 2 to 4 after the lunch provided by church
And of course, we do have soul winning this afternoon around 1 45
after our lunch fellowship
Salvations and baptisms are listed there for the year to date as well as the month
I'm gonna quickly give you our totals from last week because we broke all of our records last week as a church. Our attendance was
107 and I was talking to people about this in Pampanga yesterday. We're all there
They're like, how did you fit a hundred and seven people in this church building? It's like wow
We just had to figure it out, right?
507 Salvations and
83 people went soul winning last week. That's that's the number I'm most excited about to be honest
83 people from our church went soul winning. So praise the Lord for that
We are a soul winning church and birthdays and anniversaries are listed there for April and by the way
We are having ice cream to celebrate last week's records
I didn't mention in the group chat because we'd have more people here to eat the ice cream, right?
But that will be arriving around 1230 here today and on the next page our announcements and upcoming events Bible memorization challenge
Option one is to memorize any chapter perfectly last week's option actually was just one chapter
But Jonah chapter 3 today is the last day to quote Jonah 3
Option 2 is 1st John 5 verses 1 through 13
That is going to be starting now up until next Sunday will be the last day to quote and of course ages 8 to 10
And below 8 we still have our normal memorization schedule
Upcoming activities. I did not know that Friday was a holiday until just like 30 minutes ago. So Friday is a holiday
It's Muslims are celebrating the end of Ramadan
I don't know why the country decided to make it a national holiday, but we will have a soul winning marathon
This Friday for anyone able to attend that and so this Friday we'll have a soul winning marathon. I'll mention in the group chat and
Next Sunday is our monthly prayer meeting
Current and upcoming series. We are in the alphabet of Bible doctrines
Information on a group chat then on the back. There's a place for notes for the sermons here today
And so today's sermon for the letter M
Alphabet of Bible doctrines is missions and it's kind of interesting because we had the poll in Pampanga as well
So here like a lot of people pick music
Nobody in Pampanga pick music
The second most popular was missions at both church in Pampanga like a ton of people pick magic here
Nobody picked magic. So I don't know I guess the churches are very different. They're like magic
You're like music and the answer is actually missions, which was the second most popular
But anyways, that'll be it for announcements brother Marlon lead us another song
And then for our next song it's starting our hymn so hymn number 1-3-7
Hymn number 1-3-7
Sing a song in times like this
Hymn number 1-3-7
On the first
In times like this
You'll be the savior
In times like this
You'll be the anchor
Be care be sure
For I'm the rose
And it's a solid rock
This rock is Jesus
Yes he's the one
This rock is Jesus
The only one
Be care be sure
For I'm the rose
And it's a solid rock
In times like this
You'll be the viper
You'll be the rider
Be care be sure
For I'm the rose
And it's a solid rock
This rock is Jesus
Yes he's the one
This rock is Jesus
Yes he's the one
Be care be sure
For I'm the rose
And it's a solid rock
In times like this
You'll be the anchor
I have an anchor
Be care be sure
For I'm the rose
And it's a solid rock
This rock is Jesus
Yes he's the one
This rock is Jesus
The only one
Be care be sure
For I'm the rose
And it's a solid rock
Let us open our Bibles to Jonah chapter 3.
Jonah chapter 3.
We are going to read the chapter Jonah chapter 3.
Please say Amen when you're there.
And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time saying,
Wise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.
So Jonah arose and went unto Nineveh according to the word of the Lord.
Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days journey.
And Jonah began to enter unto the city of days journey and he cried and said,
Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
So the people of Nineveh believed God, and to plant a fast,
and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them even unto the least of them.
For the word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne,
and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth and sand and ashes.
And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh
by the decree of the king and his noble saying,
Let neither man nor beast, hurt nor flock, taste anything.
Let them not feet, not in quarter, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth,
and primitely unto God, Yea, let them turn every one from his evil way,
and from the violence that is in their hands.
Who can tell if God will turn and depend, and turn away from his fierce anger,
that we perish not?
And God saw the works that they turned from the evil way,
and God depended of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them,
and he did it not.
Let us pray.
Thank you, our Father, for your words.
Thank you so much for the Bible.
Please help us to understand your message today.
Please open our hearts and let us be attentive and concentrated.
And also please support the preacher that is preaching today a word.
We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Alright, we're here in Jonah chapter 3,
and the name of the sermon is,
Four Biblical Proofs that Calvinists Are Not Saved.
Four biblical proofs that Calvinists are not saved.
Now, at our church we don't preach on salvation every week,
but from time to time I like to preach a sermon on salvation
to make sure we fully understand what it is,
we have new people coming into our church,
make sure we're grounded on the basics of salvation.
And so before I get into the sermon, let me just define a few things
because some of you might be like,
what are you talking about?
What's a Calvinist, okay?
A Calvinist or Calvinism is named after a guy by the name of John Calvin.
And John Calvin came shortly after Martin Luther,
and he's probably the second most prominent person in the Protestant Reformation.
And the basic idea of Calvinism,
and by the way, there's nothing new under the sun,
so I believe you can go all the way back to the time of Adam and Eve
for the first unbelievers when these false doctrines are going to pop up.
But the basic idea is that man is like a robot and does not have any free will.
Now, there's kind of extremes to this
because some people believe that every single action,
someone like James White, who's a pretty famous Calvinist,
every single action is determined by God.
So when a child gets molested, God wanted it to take place.
When a person gets murdered, God wants it to take place.
And people that don't go to that big of an extreme,
what they will say is, well, we have no free will in terms of salvation.
So when someone dies and goes to hell, God gets glory in that,
which is basically the opposite of where the Bible says,
Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit.
God is glorified when we save people from hell,
not when somebody dies and goes to hell.
But there's kind of a spectrum here because you'll talk to some people,
and generally with Calvinism you think of it as like Tulip,
which is the five main points of Calvinism.
And some people say, Well, I'm a two-point Calvinist,
or I'm a three-point Calvinist.
And what I would say is, Well, they don't understand what Calvinism is then
because it's an all-or-nothing thing.
You either believe it all or you reject it all
because they all go hand in hand together.
And so I do realize there are people that are genuinely confused
and might even say, I believe in this many points of Calvinism,
but they're actually saved but being deceived by false teachers.
I would say that in my early days of being saved,
I probably would have said, Yeah, I believe in one point of Calvinism,
the letter P, because I believe in eternal security,
not understanding that perseverance of the saints
is very different than what we teach and believe.
So I understand there are people that are genuinely confused on this,
but people that fully embrace this doctrine of Calvinism,
the James White and people like that that I'm talking about,
they are not saved.
They're false prophets.
They're actually bad people with a warped mind to come up with something like this.
Point number one, one proof that Calvinists are not saved is lordship salvation.
Lordship salvation.
And what lordship salvation means is that at the moment of conversion,
you yield your entire life, your will, your mind and your heart
over to Jesus Christ as your Lord
and you're willing to obey Him in all areas of life.
Now notice what it says in Jonah chapter 3 verse 9.
Who can tell if God will turn and repent?
Now when it says turn and repent, those are actually synonyms.
So sometimes in the Bible you'll see the word and
and it connects words that are very similar,
like straight and narrow, broad and wide, turn and repent.
These terms are basically synonymous.
It's another way to say the same thing.
And what repenting means is to turn or to change.
It does not necessarily mean to turn from your sins.
It can mean that in the context of something,
but it can also mean to turn from something else.
And here the Bible is saying that God is repenting.
Obviously God is not a sinner, so He's not repenting or turning from any sins.
He is sinless.
Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from His fierce anger
that we perish not?
And see what God said is, none of them will be destroyed in 40 days.
And what made God spare His judgment is that the people made a change.
And then God repented of what He said He would do
because the people actually turned from their sins.
So God turned or repented from what He was going to do.
Verse 10.
And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way,
and God repented of the evil that He had said that He would do unto them,
and He did it not.
The Bible says here the people turned from their evil way.
They turned from their sins.
They repented of their sins.
They got rid of their sinful actions.
For example, if somebody quits drinking, that is repenting of your sins.
You quit smoking. That's repenting of your sins.
That's turning from your evil way.
It's turning from your sins.
And the Bible is saying here, this group of people,
they turned from their sins.
They repented of their sins.
And what the Bible says in verse 10,
and God saw their works.
The Bible is saying to turn from your sins is works.
Doesn't that make sense?
It takes work to quit your sins?
It takes work to quit drinking?
I mean, we go soloing all the time,
and we run into people that have been trying to get rid of their sin for a long time.
They're like, man, I'm trying to quit smoking.
I'm trying to quit drinking.
But I can't. It's hard.
You say, why?
Because it's difficult, and it actually takes work to turn from that.
And see, if a person got saved by repenting of their sins,
by quitting drinking, by quitting smoking,
by quit living with their girlfriend,
that is works salvation,
because the Bible says here they turned from their evil way,
and that is works.
Go to Acts 16.
Acts 16.
You see, when a person gets saved, they don't have to change anything
except what they believe.
A person can stay a drunk until the day they die.
And I promise you, there are people that die as drunks that go to heaven.
You can stay a drug addict until the day you die.
Why? Because salvation is what you believe, not what you do.
Now here's the thing.
We look at this verse, and as a church we take a stance.
Repenting of sins is works salvation. Right?
It's a works salvation.
In fact, when we go soul winning, we're literally teaching people the opposite,
because they already think they have to repent of their sins.
That's what they think gets them saved.
And we're saying, actually, it's the opposite.
You don't have to repent of your sins.
You've got to repent of your unbelief.
Change your mind about what you believe.
We look at this and say, hey, that's a works salvation.
But here's the thing.
Lordship salvation is not identical to repentance of sins for salvation.
People get confused on this.
It's similar, but it's like repentance of sins on steroids.
It's even more extreme.
Because it's not just that you feel bad for drinking,
or you have a general idea that I'm going to quit drinking, quit smoking,
I want to start serving God.
No, you submit over to God 100% as the Lord of your life.
It's similar, but it's actually more extreme.
In fact, here's a quote from a famous preacher named David Cloud.
Now, David Cloud is a heretic preacher.
He teaches you must repent of your sins to be saved.
He's an independent Baptist preacher.
Way of Life Ministries or Way of Life website or whatever is very famous.
And here's what he says about Calvinism.
Keep in mind, this is a person who is unsaved
because he's trusting in his repentance of sins for salvation.
He said,
To require that a sinner make Jesus Christ Lord of every area of his life
is an impossibility
and would be the greatest form of work salvation ever devised.
Here's a guy that says,
Hey, you've got to turn from your sins to be saved.
And he looks at the Calvinist and says,
Wait a minute, you guys are going too far.
I mean, you've got to submit your entire life
and your will and your mind over to him as your Lord to be saved.
He's like, you guys are too extreme.
This is a guy that teaches the work salvation.
And he says, you know what?
The Calvinists take it too far.
The reason why people get confused is Calvinists will claim,
No, no, we don't do anything.
It's God working in us.
It's God that makes the change.
But wait a minute.
When somebody believes in repentance of sins for salvation,
they also believe it's the Holy Spirit that convicts them to make that change.
It's not any different.
The only difference is worship salvation is more extreme.
The second church I went to after I was saved was a Calvinist church.
The pastor was an independent Baptist pastor,
and he believed in full-blown Calvinism.
Now, he was dishonest when we joined the church.
He did not want us to know that.
But we found out later on he's a full-blown Calvinist,
lordship salvation.
And I remember we had been in his church for a year,
and he preached a sermon.
And me and my friends, we would always go out to lunch afterwards,
talk about the preaching and everything.
And we were talking about it.
And I don't remember who brought it up.
Something just wasn't right about that sermon.
He was preaching on Jude 1,
and he was talking about turning the grace of God into lasciviousness.
And I'd only been saved for two years.
I was basically a baby Christian.
But the sermon, something was missing.
Something just didn't make sense.
And it just sounded off.
I know my pastor's saved,
but it kind of sounded like what a repentance of sins preacher,
or a false prophet would say.
And it turned out he believed in lordship salvation.
We ended up leaving the church,
but we went and met with him,
and we were bringing up these various passages and verses
to see what he believed and show what the Bible said.
And in Acts 16, we showed him this in verse 30.
And brought them out and said,
Sirs, what must they do to be saved?
What do we have to do to be saved?
Because there's a lot of things we should do.
We should read the Bible every day.
We should go to church every week.
We should get sins out of our life.
We should pray without ceasing.
We should do all these things.
But it doesn't mean that we have to do all these things to be saved.
Verse 31, and they said,
Believe.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved in thy house.
So what is the one prerequisite to being saved?
Believing.
Believing on the Lord.
Not changing your actions,
not changing your life, but believing.
Guess what this preacher said to us?
He said, you know what?
This verse says,
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
He said, that's lordship salvation.
It's like, what?
I mean, it says belief.
It doesn't say, I mean, here's the thing.
To be saved, you must recognize Jesus is the Lord.
It doesn't mean that you have to submit to everything He says.
Look, I recognize that our president is the president.
That he's the ruler of the country.
That doesn't mean I submit to everything.
Now, of course, I do believe biblically,
we should obey the governing powers,
but what I'm saying is,
every one in this country may recognize,
except a few lenny, you know,
people that have not realized the election was a blowout, right?
It's like, okay, the president is President Marcos.
It doesn't mean, though,
that people are going to submit to everything that he says
just because they admit and realize he is the president.
And see, a person could believe in the Lord.
That doesn't mean they're going to read the Bible every day.
It doesn't mean they're going to go to church every week.
You don't have to submit to Jesus Christ
as the Lord in every area of your life.
You just have to believe He is the Lord.
You have to believe He is the Savior.
But He turns here and He said,
Believe on the Lord, Jesus Christ.
Go to Romans 10.
Romans 10.
Romans chapter 10.
I remember this preacher, an independent Baptist preacher,
and when we talked to him,
I mean, it sounded like we were talking to a Catholic priest.
It sounded like we were talking to just a full-blown,
normal, work-salvation person that admits it.
I mean, it's like you go to James 2.
He'll take us to James 2.
This is what he did.
You don't have to turn there,
but he's like, well, see, faith without works is dead.
You say it's just by believing, but if you don't have works,
it's like, I thought I was talking to a Baptist pastor
that believed in salvation by grace through faith
and eternal security,
and yet it was like talking to an unbeliever
because we actually were talking to an unbeliever.
Romans 10 verse 9.
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.
For with a heart man believeth unto righteousness,
and with a mouth confession is made unto salvation.
For the Scripture saith,
Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek,
for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
And, of course, in these verses, what this pastor said,
and this is what Lordship Salvation people say,
well, see, you've got to confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus.
And then they'll say in verse 12,
for the same Lord over all,
and you must call upon the Lord as your Lord
in all areas of your life to be saved.
What I would say is you're adding to the Word of God.
It's faith alone.
But they'll look at these verses and say,
well, it says the Lord.
It says the Lord.
And it's like you're just showing you believe in a work of salvation.
Saying that you've got to just submit your entire life
and your will and your mind and your heart
and all your actions over to Jesus Christ
at the moment of salvation,
that's absurd because, number one,
you don't even do that after you're saved.
I mean, unless you're living a perfect life,
how are you 100% submitted to Jesus Christ
as the Lord of your life?
It's absurd.
Go to Acts 7.
Acts 7.
And here's what I'm saying.
If you believe repentance of sins is a work of salvation,
you have to believe lordship of salvation is a work of salvation.
Why?
Because it's like repentance of sins,
but it's far more extreme.
It's to a whole other level.
Because the repentance of sins preacher will say,
yeah, I mean, you've got to at least be sorry for drinking
and sorry for smoking.
You have to be willing to change.
But with lordship of salvation,
it's like, no, no, no,
you have to be immediately submitting to God
that you're going to read the Bible every single day.
It's like, look, the average person
isn't even thinking about that
when they're hearing the Gospel.
And you hear these stories from Calvinist churches,
and at this church,
I remember I talked to the pastor
because I had a friend who was a Muslim
named Sultan from Saudi Arabia,
and I had given him the Gospel.
My friend gave him the Gospel,
and I just thought, you know,
my pastor can probably do a better job
preaching the Gospel than me
because I've only been saved a couple years.
And I went to the pastor and I said,
hey, I've got a friend.
You know, he's a Muslim.
I've talked to him about the Gospel,
and I thought maybe you have more experience
talking to Muslims.
You have more experience getting people saved.
And I said, could I bring him to talk to you?
And he said, yes, that's fine,
but here's the thing.
If he comes, he must be willing
to agree to a six-week class about salvation.
He said, when I preach the Gospel,
it's a six-week class.
Six weeks?
I mean, when we just saw Acts 16,
were they in that house for six weeks?
And he said, I have basically one hour per week,
and he said, I really like to give the Holy Spirit
time to really convict their soul.
And I'm like, what?
Because of course I didn't realize
he was a heretic at the time.
I just thought that was bizarre.
I was like, what are you talking about?
And I was not an expert at soul winning
by any means back then,
but I was just thinking, wait a minute.
I mean, six weeks?
And here's the thing.
My friend obviously was not going to spend six weeks
talking to the pastor every single week.
You say, where do you get this sort of thing from?
Well, when you're a heretic preacher,
that's your sort of mindset.
I've heard stories about somebody
coming down to the altar.
He says he wants to get saved,
and the pastor's like,
are you willing to quit living with your girlfriend?
And he's like, man, I'm trying.
He's like, well, you're not ready to be saved then.
You can't just be, well, you know, I'm trying.
You've got to do it.
Until you quit drinking, quit smoking,
and quit living with your girlfriend,
I'm not going to tell you how to get to heaven
because you're not ready,
because you're not submitting to them
as the Lord of your life.
Right?
You say, but Brother Stuckey,
what about people like David
or other people that commit big sins
after they're saved?
You know, David committed adultery and murder.
Well, wait a minute.
Most lordship salvation teachers
will say he wasn't saved when he did that.
That's what Ray Comfort says.
Mr. Way of the Master,
I mean, he says that he wasn't saved
when he committed adultery.
But of course, you'd have to believe
something like that if your teaching
is that when you get saved,
you submit 100% to him as your Lord,
and then you're committing wicked sins.
Well, I mean, you must not be saved.
And that's what Calvinists will say
about people like King David.
Acts 7 verse 51.
One of the points of Calvinism,
the letter I is irresistible grace,
if you're familiar with Tulip.
Meaning you cannot resist the grace of God.
Meaning that when the Holy Ghost
is coming for you,
you're getting saved
whether you like it or not.
Can't do anything about it.
Right?
It's sort of like a magnet
where it's like, no!
No!
Let me go!
But you have to get saved.
And on the contrary,
if you really want to be saved,
but God has not chosen you,
you have no hope.
There's nothing you can do about it.
No hope.
There's nothing you can do.
But the point they say is
irresistible grace,
that you cannot resist the Holy Ghost,
is what they say.
Acts 7 verse 51.
Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised
and hardened ears,
ye do always resist the Holy Ghost,
as your fathers did,
so do ye.
I mean, it's humorous to me.
They name the point
irresistible grace!
And there's literally a verse in the Bible
that says they resisted the Holy Ghost,
which is the exact opposite
of their point I in Tulip.
When we give the Gospel to people,
they can reject it.
They're not forced to get saved.
Look, God is not willing
that any should perish.
The grace of God that bringeth salvation
hath appeared to all men.
But they have free will.
They have a choice.
See, if it was up to God,
and if it was up to us,
everybody would get saved.
We want everybody to believe.
If we could force people to believe,
you know what, we would.
If God could force people to believe,
He would.
But He gives people free will,
and in that free will,
they can accept or reject
the message of salvation.
Turn to Romans 8.
Romans 8.
You always hear the most bizarre stories
of getting saved
from Calvinist pastors.
Right?
I mean, the story of John MacArthur
is probably my favorite.
Yeah, he was a teenager.
He's like 18 years old
or something like that.
He's in a car with some friends.
They're driving 60 miles an hour.
They get into a car crash,
and he goes flying out of the car.
And then he said,
at that moment, I said,
Lord, you saved me from dying
whatever you want from my life.
Is that how you got saved?
Right?
You're in a gypney,
and then you get into a wrecker.
You're in a tricycle,
and just bam, you go flying.
That was my moment of salvation.
It's absurd.
You know how you got saved,
and you know how I got saved?
Somebody gave you the Gospel
either in person
or you listen to a sermon online
of somebody preaching about salvation.
You believe the wrong thing
about salvation,
and then you know what?
You said, you know what?
I'm wrong.
This person's correct.
And then you changed your mind,
and you got saved.
Now, that's not as exciting
as getting thrown from a car
at 60 miles an hour.
I'll admit, my story of salvation
is kind of boring.
Somebody gave me the Gospel.
You know, I thought
my works got me to heaven.
I realized I was wrong.
I changed my mind.
But that's how people get saved.
Number one, Calvinism teaches
Lordship salvation,
that you submit 100%
to Jesus Christ as your Lord
at the moment of salvation.
And if you're not submitted to Him
as your Lord after salvation,
it's because you actually
were never really saved.
Number two, they teach
salvation produces works.
They teach if you're really saved,
there's going to be a change.
Romans 8, verse 22.
For we know that the whole creation
groaneth and travaileth in pain
together until now.
Now, what does that mean
in verse 22?
It means that, you know what,
all of us, we get older,
we end up having health problems
as we age,
where there's things
we can't do anymore.
Right?
You know, me being 38 years old,
you know what, if I stepped
on a soccer field,
I just couldn't do the things
that I used to do
because I'm older.
Your body breaks down.
You end up aging.
And it's not just for people.
It's also for animals.
They age.
They die.
They get diseases.
The whole creation groaneth
and travaileth in pain
together until now.
Even the earth itself
is aging, the Bible says.
Verse 23.
And not only they,
so Paul's being very specific,
not only they,
not just the world,
but ourselves also.
He's saying us that are saved
which have the first fruits
of the Spirit.
Even we ourselves groan
within ourselves
waiting for the adoption
to wit the redemption
of our body.
He's saying we are waiting
for the redemption of our body
because at the moment
of salvation,
you don't physically change.
You are still a sinner
with the same sinful flesh.
You're not just going to,
I mean, you have eternal life
when you get saved,
but not physically, right?
You're going to physically die, right?
And we're waiting for the adoption
to wit the redemption of our body.
For we are saved by hope,
but hope that is seen
is not hope for what a man seeth.
Why doth he yet hope for?
You say,
what is verse 24 talking about?
Well, when it says
we're saved by hope,
here's what you need
to understand to start off.
The word hope in the Bible
doesn't really have
the same meaning
as in our modern day, right?
There's people out there
that would say,
I hope I get rich.
It's not something they expect.
They just are really trying
to wish it into existence.
They hope for this.
They hope for that.
But in the Bible,
when you're seeing hope,
it is a sure thing,
but it is a sure thing
that is not seen
because if it's seen,
it's not hope.
So what hope is,
is something that's certain
without physical evidence.
I know I am saved 100%.
I have no physical proof
of my salvation.
I can't hand you,
here's my ticket to heaven.
I can't do that.
I can't give you
my spiritual birth certificate.
Right?
I mean, I know I got saved.
I know when I got saved,
and I know that
because I believe,
but I don't have physical proof
of that because our salvation
is not based on the physical.
We take it by faith.
We put our faith in Jesus Christ,
and if you're saved,
you know it.
If you're in this room
and you're saved,
you would say,
I'm 100% sure.
Prove it to me.
I believe.
What other proof do you have?
Right?
I mean, I know 100% I'm saved,
but quite honestly,
I don't really know 100%
about anybody else in this room,
but you know yourself
if you're saved,
because man looketh
on the outward appearance,
but the Lord looketh
on the heart,
and you believe in your heart,
and I can't tell
what's on the inside.
Now, if you tell me
you believe,
then I believe you.
I don't think
that you're lying to me.
Okay?
But it is possible
that you don't really believe.
Now, I know individually myself,
and everybody individually
knows about themselves,
but you don't necessarily
know about anybody else.
What the Bible says is,
we are saved by hope.
You believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,
you get saved,
and it's a salvation of hope,
which is something
that is not seen.
Right?
We preach the Gospel to people.
It's not like you see
a dove coming down from heaven.
It's not like you see
a bright light.
It's like, man, they got it.
How do you know?
I saw that dove.
Right?
That is not how salvation works.
It's something, I mean,
it's like what Jesus said
to Nicodemus, you know,
when he's explaining
being born again,
he's like,
the wind blows where it listeth,
and now hears the sound thereof,
but can't not tell
whence it cometh
and whither it goeth,
which is kind of
a confusing verse.
What he's kind of saying is,
when a person gets saved,
it's kind of like,
you know it,
but you can't really prove it.
Right?
And the Bible says here,
we're saved by hope.
It's something that is not seen.
But if we hope for that,
we see not,
then do we with patience
wait for it?
And we patiently wait
for the adoption of the body,
the redemption of the body,
because here's the thing,
as a saved person,
I don't think we ought
to be depressed
about getting older.
It's just part of life.
And you can serve God
as you get older.
But the depressing part
as a saved person
is the fact that you still
have a sinful flesh
that makes mistakes.
And you have that guilt
when you mess up.
And that's something that,
yeah, you know what,
it can be a bit depressing.
I was like, man,
why do I keep making mistakes?
Because you still have
the same sinful flesh
even after salvation.
And we are waiting
for the redemption
of the body.
But here's what I'm saying.
We're saved by hope.
It's not something that's seen.
If works is a proof
of salvation,
that's something that's seen.
And we're saved by hope,
something that is not seen.
Go to 1 Corinthians 3.
1 Corinthians 3.
Now, here's what I'd say.
I do believe there are people
that are genuinely saved
that are confused and think that,
well, if you're really saved,
you're probably going to have
some works.
And here's the truth.
Probably in this room,
there are many people
that after you got saved,
you heard some heretic preacher
saying, if you're really saved,
you're going to read
the Bible every day.
If you're really saved,
you're not going to desire
that worldly music.
And you started to doubt
your own salvation
even though you believe
because you said,
I don't know if I've done
enough good works.
Even though when you got saved,
you knew it was not by works.
But some heretic preacher
deceived you.
You say, why are you preaching
this sermon?
Because I'm trying to un-preach
what heretic preachers
have brainwashed people with.
The majority of Bible Baptist
churches here in the Philippines
have false prophets
running their churches.
And they preach a work salvation.
And they say,
if you're really saved,
you're going to have proof of it.
You say you got somebody
saved out of so many.
They didn't get baptized.
I don't think they got saved.
Or you'll have the altar
call.
If you still have a desire
to listen to rock music,
you might not be saved.
I mean, literally,
people are laughing
because they're like,
yeah, I remember my old preacher
saying that.
Right?
If you're really saved,
then you're going to read
the Bible every day.
If you're not reading
the Bible every day,
you might want to question
your salvation.
I'm not saying you're not saved.
I'm just saying it's like 50-50.
Right?
1 Corinthians 3, verse 1.
And I, brethren,
could not speak unto you
as unto spiritual,
but as unto carnal,
even as unto babes in Christ.
The Bible defines babes in Christ,
a baby Christian,
as being carnal.
Why does it say they're carnal?
I have fed you with milk
and not with meat,
because obviously you feed
a physical baby milk.
For hitherto you are not able
to bear it,
neither yet now are ye able.
For ye are yet carnal.
For whereas there is among you
envying in strife and divisions,
are ye not carnal
and walk as men?
You say, what exactly is he
trying to bring to your mind?
Look, if you have young children,
you know this is true,
they fight over a plastic toy
worth 50 pesos.
And it's just like you give,
I mean, literally,
kids can get the same object.
It's like, but I wanted that one,
not this one.
And it's like that's the way
that babies are.
That's the way young children are.
They just kind of have
silly fights,
and they get, I mean,
my, Zeph and Christabel
are best friends.
You ask them, they'll say,
hey, that's my best friend.
It's like, well,
you could have fooled me every day
as you're fighting
over every small little thing.
Right?
And what the Bible's saying here,
and what Paul's saying is
there's a group of people
that have been saved
for a long time,
but they're acting
like they just got saved.
I mean, here's the thing,
if a child is born
into this world,
and look, I want to be clear
when I say this
because sometimes you preach things
and people can take you
out of context
or get offended or whatever.
I understand there's children
that are born with disabilities
and things like this,
but here's what I'm saying.
If a baby's born into this world
and then when they're 15 years old,
the parents have to feed that child.
The parents have to, you know,
change its diaper and everything
because sometimes this takes place.
If there's like a problem
at birth or whatever,
something went wrong.
Right?
Physically, things just didn't work out.
If you get saved spiritually
and you're 15 years saved
and you've never read
the Bible cover to cover,
something's wrong.
You say,
wait a second, are you saying
they're not saved?
No, no, no, I'm saying
they're a babe in Christ.
I'm saying they've been
saved 15 years,
but they're acting
like a spiritual baby.
I mean, the Bible's not saying
these people aren't saved.
It's saying they're acting
like someone who just got saved,
and they should at the time
he ought to be teachers,
the Bible says.
What you're seeing is
carnal is a baby Christian.
Carnal, you think of the word carne.
Walking in the flesh
because when you get saved,
you're in dwell with the Spirit of God,
but you still have the sinful man,
the flesh.
The Bible says walk in the Spirit,
don't walk in the flesh, carne.
Right?
The Bible's saying a baby Christian
is acting carnal.
So is it possible to be saved
and acting like a baby Christian?
Is it possible to be a carnal Christian
and walk after the flesh?
Yes.
According to 1 Corinthians 3.
What about according to Calvinist preachers?
Paul Washer.
There is no such thing
as a continuously carnal Christian.
There's no such thing
as a continuously carnal Christian,
according to Paul Washer.
Well, that's interesting
because the Church of Corinth
was carnal for quite a long time.
How about John Piper,
another famous Calvinist pastor?
Therefore, the carnal Christian
has decisively turned to Jesus Christ
as the Lord and Savior.
So he's saying,
if you're a carnal Christian,
you get saved,
you turn to Jesus Christ
because if you're a carnal Christian,
well, you're not really a Christian
because you can't be carnal
if you're a Christian,
according to Calvinism.
And he says,
and has penitently renounced
the path of disobedience.
Has penitently renounced
the path of disobedience.
In parentheses,
Romans 10.9, Acts 3.19, and Acts 16.31.
Do you remember the Philippian jailer
penitently renouncing
his disobedient life in Acts 16?
Quite honestly,
we have no idea what happened to him
in his life after that.
Right?
And he says here,
John Piper,
he deeply acknowledges Christ
as Lord of his life
and does not renounce Him in his heart.
He has begun, but only begun
to fight the sins of his life.
So Paul Washer,
John Piper,
if you're carnal,
you're not really saved.
How about R.C. Sproul?
Now,
I don't believe that R.C. Sproul
is as famous,
but I think he has
the most famous Calvinist ministry.
You know, Ligonier Ministries,
probably a lot of you
have heard that before,
Ligonier Ministries is very famous.
And R.C. Sproul was best friends
with John MacArthur.
R.C. Sproul has already passed away.
He was best friends
with John MacArthur.
Now, R.C. Sproul was a Presbyterian.
He was a baby baptizer.
That was one of his big things.
He's like,
infant baptism is biblical.
And John MacArthur
was best friends with that guy.
Can you imagine me being
best friends with someone
who's a baby baptizer?
It's like, what?
You say,
and you know what,
what I like to call R.C. Sproul,
because he would preach
against the Catholic Church a lot,
but he was still Protestant,
I like to call him
Roman Catholic Sproul,
R.C. Sproul.
Because you never really left
the Roman Catholic Church
because you're still baptizing babies.
But here's what R.C. Sproul says,
one of the most ghastly doctrines
that has made its way
through the Evangelical Church today
is this idea of the carnal Christian.
The carnal Christian is described
as a person who is truly redeemed,
but whose life never brings forth fruit.
Even though they're saved,
they are still altogether
and completely carnal.
Don't confuse this with
what the New Testament teaches
about the truly converted Christian,
who has to fight against his flesh
all of his life.
But there's no such thing
as a Christian who is totally carnal.
It's a contradiction in terms.
What about 1 Corinthians 3?
What about the book of Romans
where Paul speaks about being carnal?
John MacArthur.
Here's what he says.
How can I be sure of my salvation?
This is an article.
How can I be sure of my salvation?
There are two important tests in Scripture
for a person to determine
whether or not he or she
is a true believer.
There's first of all an objective test
which asks, do I believe?
Ask yourself if you affirm
the Scripture's record of the person
and work of Jesus Christ.
Do you believe that He is God
manifest in the flesh?
Do you believe that God saves sinners
solely through the merits
of Jesus Christ's obedient life
and substitutionary death on the cross?
That's a good start, right?
Second is the subjective
or experiential test of assurance
in which you ask yourself,
is my faith real?
The Apostle John's purpose
in writing the epistle of 1 John
was to give true believers assurance
of their salvation.
And he quotes 1 John 5.13 in parentheses.
Actually, that's not the purpose of 1 John.
The purpose of 1 John
is that you might have joy
in your Christian life
and it mentions that in the first chapter
of 1 John.
He is referencing a small section
that we're going to look at later
where if you believe the record
then you know you're saved.
That's not the purpose of 1 John.
The purpose of 1 John is
these things write unto you
that your joy may be full.
That's what it says in 1 John.
Not that you can know you're saved.
Now 1 John 5.13 is, yes, you're saved
if you believe what it says
in verses 10-13,
but the purpose of 1 John
is that you might have joy as a Christian
because if you're living in sin
you will not have joy.
Then he says this.
In that small epistle,
John gives several marks
to distinguish a true believer.
Number one, true believers
walk in the light.
The light here means both
intellectual and moral truth.
Ask, do I affirm the truths of Scripture
and desire to obey them?
So if you don't walk in the light,
you're not saved according to John MacArthur.
He says true believers confess their sin.
Confess here doesn't mean
to recite every wrong
that we have ever done.
Rather it means to agree with God
about our sin.
That means that true believers
hate their sin,
they don't love it,
they acknowledge they are sinful
and yet they know they are forgiven.
Number three,
true believers keep His commandments.
I'm not going to go through
the whole article,
but if you want to know you're saved,
number one, do you believe?
Number two, do you walk in the light,
do you confess your sin,
do you keep His commandments?
Imagine we go out soul winning.
Hey, I'm from Verity Baptist Church,
I just wanted to invite you.
Do you know for sure
you're going to heaven?
Yes.
Well, how do you know that?
Because I believe on Jesus Christ.
Well, that's great.
Do you walk in the light?
Do you confess your sin on a daily basis?
Sometimes I forget.
Ooh, red flag.
Do you keep His commandments?
No, I'm a sinner.
You're not saved.
Do you realize how absurd this is?
And how arrogant.
Oh, you keep His commandments,
John MacArthur?
No, what people like John MacArthur do is
they take things and say they're not sinful
to justify their actions.
This is why John MacArthur on YouTube,
you can hear him talk about alcohol,
he's like drinking wine
is not similar to smoking weed at all.
There's no similarity.
He said drinking wine
does not inhibit your judgment one bit.
Are you insane?
Even drunks will say it inhibits their judgment.
Why would he say that?
Because he doesn't smoke weed,
but he drinks wine.
So what is he saying?
Well, he's saying, well,
drinking wine's not wrong.
Why?
Because he's justifying his actions.
Because he doesn't keep God's commandments,
but he wants to justify himself.
Go to 2 Corinthians 5.
2 Corinthians 5.
Now see, there's people that get a bit confused
on this salvation.
If you're really saved,
you're going to have some works,
but when you listen to these Calvinist preachers,
they're not a little bit deceived.
They're like hardcore,
not just you're going to have a general,
no, no, no.
You are going to be like walking in the light,
confessing your sins,
submitting to him as Lord.
You are going to be living the life.
And if you're not,
it's because you're not saved.
It's your faith is fake.
I mean, after all,
faith without works is dead
is what they would say.
Right?
Well, it doesn't say faith without works
sends you to hell, though.
It just says it's dead.
It's useless.
It doesn't produce anything.
2 Corinthians 5 verse 17,
Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature.
Old things are passed away.
Behold, all things are become new.
When a person gets saved,
he gets indwelled with the Spirit of God,
and he's got what's called the new man,
the new creature.
Now here's the thing.
When you get indwelled with the Spirit of God,
your flesh doesn't change.
The old man is still there.
That's why the Bible commands you
walk in the Spirit,
don't walk in the flesh.
Now you say all things are become new.
What's that talking about?
Well, I mean, this is in the context
right afterwards.
It talks about soul winning is an example.
After you get saved, you got a new job.
Get people saved.
Right?
Now that you're indwelled with the new man,
there's things that the new man wants you to do
and God wants you to do.
One of those things is go soul winning.
One of those things is get sin out of your life.
One of those things is read the Bible every day.
Right?
But when you get saved,
you have the new creature,
but here's the thing.
Your flesh doesn't change.
So here's the thing.
At the moment of salvation,
a drunk is still a drunk.
At the moment of salvation,
a drug addict is still a drug addict.
At the moment of salvation,
there is no physical change in that person at all.
I mean, think about when you got saved.
Did you just immediately quit listening
to every bit of bad music?
Quit watching anything bad?
Never laugh at inappropriate jokes?
Start reading the Bible for an hour every day?
Is that what you did when you got saved?
It's certainly not what I did when I got saved.
You know what I did?
As I started to try to serve God
and I had a slow, upward climb
that I'm still on of getting close to God.
But you know what?
Some people get saved,
they never start reading the Bible.
They never start going to church.
Guess what?
There's no change at all in them.
Go in your Bible to 1 John 5.
1 John 5.
This is why Calvinists will say,
well, in the parable of the sower,
only the last is saved
because he's the only one
that had enduring fruit.
It's like, if you're really saved,
you're going to have fruit.
Having fruit is about getting people saved.
It's not about doing good works.
Here's the thing.
Unsaved people do good works.
If you're really saved,
you're going to have fruit.
Unsaved people do good things.
Unsaved people have fruit
if that's how you're defining it as good works.
I mean, unsaved people.
Before I was saved,
it's not like everything I did was just,
man, I'm killing people,
doing drugs and all this stuff.
That's absurd, right?
Unsaved people do good things.
But here's the thing.
Fruit is actually about getting people saved
because the fruit of the righteous
is a tree of life
and he that winneth souls is wise.
Number one, Calvinists are not saved
because they teach lords of salvation
that you must submit at the moment of salvation
to Jesus as the Lord of all areas of your life.
Number two, they say salvation produces works.
Number three, Calvinism teaches
that you cannot know for sure you are saved.
Calvinism teaches that a person
cannot know for sure if they're saved.
Now here's the thing.
The first two points,
no Calvinist is going to disagree.
They would say, yes,
we believe lordship is salvation
and we believe salvation produces works.
Calvinists will either be confused on number three
or they just don't want to admit
what they actually teach.
They do not teach that a person can know for sure
if they're saved.
In fact, they teach you cannot know for sure.
Now I'm going to read you 1 John 5
and then I'm going to explain to you
why they teach this
and what they actually say.
1 John 5 verse 10.
He that believeth in the Son of God
hath a witness in himself.
He that believeth not God hath made him a liar
because he believeth not the record
that God gave of his Son.
If you don't believe the record
or what is written about Jesus Christ,
you're not saved.
And this is the record
that God hath given to us eternal life
and this life is in his Son.
You must believe that God is giving you eternal life,
meaning it's a gift.
You must believe it's eternal,
meaning you cannot lose it.
It lasts forever.
And you must believe it's in his Son.
Every Muslim is unsaved.
Every Hindu is unsaved.
Everybody that believes baptism is required to be saved
is unsaved.
Everyone that thinks that you can lose your salvation
after getting saved is unsaved
because they don't believe the record
that God gave of his Son.
Then it says this in verse 12.
He that hath the Son hath life
and he that hath not the Son of God
hath not life.
These things that are written on you
that believe in the name of the Son of God
that ye may know that ye have eternal life
and that ye may believe
in the name of the Son of God.
Now before you were saved,
if somebody had asked you
what chance do you have of getting to heaven?
What I would have probably answered is 80%.
I would have thought, you know what?
I try to do good.
I haven't committed major sins.
I say I'm sorry when I mess up.
But how could I really say 100%
if I'm basing it on my works
because I just don't know if my works are enough?
And this is the reason why all of us
before we're saved, we doubted.
You're like, I don't know, I hope.
80%, 90%, I'm just not sure if I'm good enough.
That's one reason why you can't know with Calvinism.
But I just talked about that.
Another reason is because the ultimate test
of salvation in Calvinism is determined by what?
If you persevere until your dying day.
They teach perseverance of the saints
and what Calvinism teaches
is there's people that think they're saved
and then somewhere along the way
they're just going to quit with the faith.
They're not going to serve God
and that's proof they were never saved.
And what Calvinist preachers teach
and what Calvinism teaches
is it is possible for someone
to think that they believe
and think they're one of the elect
and find out that actually God
is just blinding my mind and my heart
and He's deceiving me into thinking I'm saved,
but I'm actually not.
Well, here's the thing, Mr. John Piper.
How do you know you're not deceived?
You know what Calvinists will say?
Well, I'm not one of those
because they're arrogant.
That's why.
They're like, yes, God has certain people
where He's blinding their minds and hearts
where they think they're saved.
They think they believe.
They think they're one of the elect.
They believe all the doctrines
and they're having works in their life,
but then God's going to one day
just kind of take away that blinding.
They're going to realize,
actually, I'm not one of the elect.
Actually, I was never saved.
Well, how do you know, Paul Washer,
you're not one of those people?
How do you know, John Calvin,
you know you weren't one of those people?
How do you know, John MacArthur,
you're not one of those people?
You can't know that
because the ultimate test,
according to them,
is if you persevere until your dying day.
So until you die, you don't know.
And here's what I would say.
If someone doesn't know for sure
they're going to heaven,
you know why?
It's because they're not saved.
Because if you believe, you know.
I mean, when I was 18 years old,
I was 80 to 90%.
And when I heard the gospel and got saved,
I went to 100%.
I have no doubts about where I will spend eternity.
You say, why, Brother Stuckey?
Because you go to church?
No, because I believe.
That is the test of salvation.
It's your faith.
It's not your actions.
Go in your Bible to 1 Corinthians 2.
1 Corinthians 2.
And John MacArthur says this about persevering.
He says,
Scripture teaches that genuine believers
may stumble and fall,
but they will persevere in the faith.
By the way, we don't believe
in the perseverance of saints.
We believe in eternal security.
What we believe is
we are preserved in Jesus Christ.
You could say we believe
in the preservation of the saints,
meaning we don't keep ourselves saved,
but God keeps us saved.
We're indwelt with the Holy Ghost forever.
And what he says is this,
Those who later turn completely away from the Lord
show that they were never truly born again.
There's a video we used to have up on our YouTube,
maybe we still do, I'm not sure,
where this woman is at this conference
and John MacArthur's the one
who's kind of conducting it
or answering the question.
And she's like, you know,
how do I know if I'm really saved?
How do I know I'm one of the elect?
And she's kind of trembling and really scared.
And then John MacArthur's answer is,
is like, well, do you love God?
Do you obey His commandments?
Because if you're really saved,
then you're going to love God,
and everybody who's unsaved does not love God.
You know what?
Not only is that false,
but here's why it's stupid.
Every unsaved person would say they love God.
So if she was unsaved,
she would still say she loves God.
Everybody thinks they're keeping the commandments.
Ask people out on the street that are drunk,
it's like, man, I obey the 10 commandments.
That's what they'll tell you.
So it's such a stupid answer that he had,
but his whole assurance was based on
are you living a good life?
And then when she's done,
you can tell she doesn't feel confident at all.
You say, well, how can you
if you're trusting in your works?
I mean, in that video,
I feel bad for the woman.
I was thinking, man, I wish I was there
to try to give her the Gospel afterwards
because here's a woman who's terrified.
And you know what?
I have this story a long time ago
from Soul Winning
where I knocked on a door
and somebody was on the back porch
in West Virginia,
and this woman was reading a book
by Charles Spurgeon,
the Princess of Preachers, right?
The famous Princess of Preachers.
Famous Princess of Baptists.
I mean, even though he wasn't a Baptist,
it's like every Baptist's favorite preacher,
and she was reading a book by Charles Spurgeon.
And I was thinking, well, this is going to be tough.
And I invited her to church.
I asked her if she knew for sure
she was going to heaven,
and she said, I don't know.
She's like, I'm scared to death.
I'm not one of the elect.
That's what she told me.
Now this woman ended up getting saved.
It took like an hour.
It took so long to un-preach
what she was reading by Charles Spurgeon,
you know, who's written books
on a defense of Calvinism,
one of his famous books,
a defense of Calvinism.
He believed in all five points,
and I had to un-preach that
because that's what she was believing in.
And I showed her what the Bible says,
but she's like, how do I know I'm one of the elect?
And actually that's a great question.
How do people that say they're Calvinists
truly know they're one of the elect?
Well, I mean, I go to church.
Well, a lot of people go to church.
I love God.
Everybody says they love God.
They don't know.
And if they say they know 100%,
it's just kind of like running into someone
who says, yeah, I'm 100%.
I know I'm good enough to go to heaven.
Same thing.
They don't know.
Why?
You cannot know in Calvinism
unless you persevere unto the end.
That's why if you read articles from history,
the Puritans were famous for,
they're a group that broke off
from the Church of England,
and they wanted to purify the Church of England,
which is where they get the name Puritans.
What they really were
were these Church of England people
that believed in Calvinism.
They were Calvinist-believing
Church of England or Anglican church people.
And their story is how they go to their deathbed,
and people that are around them
that those people were terrified of dying.
They were scared to death
they were going to spend eternity in hell.
Because once they got to the very end,
they're thinking,
I really hope I'm one of the elects.
But how do I really know
because I'm looking at my actions
and I've done a lot of bad things?
Because you can't know in Calvinism.
Point number one,
Calvinists are not saved
because they believe in lordship salvation.
Point two,
they're not saved because they teach
salvation produces works.
Point three,
they're not saved because they teach
salvation cannot know for sure if you're saved.
Point four,
because they don't understand the Bible.
They do not understand the Bible.
Now here's the thing.
I'm preaching this sermon,
and if a Calvinist listens,
he will say,
I don't understand Calvinism.
It's what they always say.
If you don't agree with them,
it's because you don't understand it.
Because we're smarter than you,
and you don't understand it.
That's why you don't believe it.
I understand what Calvinism teaches.
Look, I've read a lot from John Calvin
and these heretics, you know,
in order to educate myself,
to preach against it.
But here's the thing.
They could criticize and say,
well, you know what?
You're the one who doesn't understand the Bible.
Here's the thing though.
I'm not preaching to Calvinists.
If a Calvinist hears this sermon,
then great.
Hopefully they'll change their mind
about what they believe and get saved.
Here's the thing.
I'm preaching to save people.
I'm letting saved people know
why Calvinists are not saved.
I could care less what they think about me.
And here's the thing.
You that are saved,
if you are saved,
you've got the Holy Spirit of truth inside of you,
you can understand the Bible on your own.
1 Corinthians 2, verse 14,
But the natural man,
the unsaved man,
unregenerated man,
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
for they are foolishness unto him.
Neither can he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned.
This is why the Ethiopian eunuch,
you know, he's asked by Philip,
you know,
understandest thou what thou readest?
How can I accept some man should guide me?
Because as an unsaved person,
you can't understand a spiritual book.
You need the Spirit of God
to understand a spiritual book.
Right?
And so here's the thing.
If somebody's saved,
and you show them Genesis 1-1,
In the beginning,
God created the heaven and the earth.
And you read Genesis 1.
This is why evolution is false.
And they say,
Well, I don't agree.
I don't think Genesis 1
can coincide with evolution.
It's like, what?
Because it's not complicated
what Genesis 1 is saying.
And if they just deny
what the Bible's saying,
which is very clear,
it's kind of like,
are you saved?
Because it seems like
you don't understand the Bible.
Because if they are saved,
they're going to understand.
Right?
You know, I remember the story from college.
There's this guy that was,
I think, from Lebanon.
And, you know,
this guy had, you know,
started going to Baptist church.
And I had been to this Baptist church,
but then I started going
to a different one.
And my friend said,
Hey, this is really cool.
This is a Muslim
in a Muslim country
that got converted.
And I was thinking,
Man, that's exciting.
How did you get saved?
Right?
And he explained,
and the story of salvation
was pretty weird to begin with.
But I just remember
like later on that week,
I remember, you know,
me and my friends
were talking about the Bible,
and this guy's there.
I don't remember the guy's name.
And we were talking about how,
you know, evolution is false.
It's not what the Bible teaches.
He's like,
Oh, wait a minute.
Evolution in the Big Bang's a fact.
It's like, what?
It's like the Bible says
in the beginning.
He's like,
There's multiple Genesis stories.
Right?
Multiple creation stories.
And he said those things
coincide with evolution
in the Big Bang Theory.
Now, of course,
it turns out later on,
this guy doesn't even believe
in eternal security,
it turns out.
At the time,
I just assume if a Muslim
converts in a Muslim country,
they must be saved.
But that is not always true.
I know that from experience.
Why he converted,
I have no idea.
But he still didn't believe
the record that God gave his son.
He didn't believe
in eternal security.
And here's the thing,
he also didn't understand
the Bible.
Because in Genesis 1,
he said,
No, that teaches evolution.
It's like,
What?
In the beginning,
God created the heaven
and the earth.
How does that teach evolution?
The plants are created
before the sun,
so how do they survive
for a long period of time
without the sun?
It doesn't make any sense.
Right?
But here's the thing,
unsaved people,
they don't understand the Bible.
So sometimes you can talk
to someone who's unsaved,
and I'll give you one example.
And I'll give you one example of this.
This first sermon is going to be long.
It just is what it is.
It's about Calvinism.
Go to Matthew 7.
The second sermon we're going to shorten.
Matthew 7.
Calvinism is so warped
and it's so confusing to people
because of all these false things
and almost every Bible Baptist pastor
is a Calvinist
that,
You know what?
I've got to spend a long time
on this sermon.
But I'll give you an example of this.
Matthew 7 verses 21 through 23,
or let's look at verse 21.
Not everyone,
Matthew 7 verse 21,
Sermon on the Mount,
Matthew 7 verse 21,
Not everyone that saith unto me,
Lord, Lord,
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.
But he that doeth the will of my Father
which is in heaven.
You say,
Well, brother Stuckey,
you've got to do the will of God
to be saved.
But the Bible says,
And this is the will of him that sent me,
everyone which seeth the Son
and believeth on him
may have everlasting life.
And yes,
God has a lot of things within,
you know,
of the will of God for you,
but it starts,
number one,
with getting saved.
You get saved
and then you find out
a lot of other things,
you know,
the new creature,
new things God has for you,
but it starts with salvation.
And so here's the thing,
if somebody doesn't believe on him,
as it says in John 6.40
when you cross reference,
then they didn't do the will
and they didn't get saved.
And what he's saying is
there's people that would say,
Lord, Lord,
they would say they're Christians,
but they're not saved.
Why are they not saved?
Well, the Bible tells us
in the next verses,
many will say to me,
Lord, Lord,
have ye not prophesied in thy name?
We've preached in your name
and in thy name
have cast out devils
and in thy name done
many wonderful works.
And then I will profess unto them,
I never knew you.
You were never saved.
Depart from me,
ye that work iniquity.
And these people,
when it turns out they're not saved,
what do they say?
How can we not be saved?
We prophesied in your name.
How can we not be saved?
We've done wonderful works.
How can we not be saved?
We've cast out devils.
Think of this hypothetically,
and this will never happen,
but let's say you ended up in hell.
And obviously as a saved person
this cannot happen.
What would you say to God?
You'd be like,
but I believe.
Right?
Because that's how you're saved.
How can I be in hell?
I believe.
You said,
you said,
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
I believe.
I know I didn't go to church,
but I believe.
Because that's all you have to do.
But this group of people,
wait a minute,
we end up in hell,
but we've done wonderful works.
These people are trusting in their works
to be saved.
That's why they end up in hell.
I remember going soul-ending one time,
and I was an asylum partner.
My soul-ending partner
is preaching the gospel,
and the person at the door said,
you know what, no,
turn to Matthew 7.
And he took him to this passage.
And he said,
see,
these people,
they went to hell
because they believed in the Lord.
They didn't even have enough works
to be saved.
What?
Now, here's the thing.
I had already heard this before,
so it didn't surprise me,
but my soul-ending partner
hadn't heard it.
He's like,
what?
What are you talking about?
They go to hell
because they're trusting in their works.
But unsaved people
don't understand the Bible.
Right?
Go to John 8.
I'll show you a few more verses
that prove unsaved people
do not understand the Bible.
But if you are saved,
you do understand.
Well, here's the thing.
Do Calvinists understand the Bible?
Absolutely not.
How can they look at a verse
where it says he died
not for ours only,
but also for the sins
of the whole world,
and then say,
well, Jesus only died for some people.
He died for the sins of the whole world.
If it's not talking about the whole world,
what else does the apostle John
have to say there?
The whole world.
The grace of God
that bringeth salvation
hath appeared to all men.
He only died for some people.
All men.
The Bible says he's the Savior
of all men,
especially of those that believe.
It's like,
well, the alls,
they're referring to just the elect.
They don't understand the Bible.
They don't.
I mean,
if you hear them talk about passages,
it's like,
what?
Acts 16,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
What?
It says,
believe.
They don't understand the Bible.
That's what's wrong.
That's why they don't get it.
Well,
that's proof they're not saved.
John 8, verse 47.
He that is of God hearth God's words.
Ye therefore hear them not
because ye are not of God.
See, if you're not of God,
you're not going to hear their words.
You're not going to perceive them.
You don't understand them.
I mean,
Jesus spoke to the Pharisees.
It goes over his head,
over their heads.
They just don't get it.
Go to 1 John 4.
1 John 4.
We'll close up here.
1 John 4.
1 John chapter 4, verse 4.
Ye are of God, little children,
and have overcome them,
because greater is he that is in you
than he that is in the world.
They are of the world,
therefore speak they of the world,
and the world heareth them.
We are of God.
He that knoweth God heareth us,
and he that is not of God heareth not us.
Hereby know thee the spirit of truth,
and the spirit of error.
You see,
if you handed somebody a King James Bible,
and they read the entire thing,
and you said,
Understandest thou what thou readest?
And they're like,
I didn't understand any of it.
It's actually a sign they're probably not saved,
because it sounds like they're the natural man.
They can't understand the Bible,
because if you're saved,
you can understand the word of God.
Now, of course,
we have churches and preachers for a reason,
because, you know,
ideally they've read the Bible quite a bit,
and they can teach you things,
and motivate you,
and things like that,
but everything that I'm teaching,
you can read the Bible for yourself,
and learn what's found in God's word.
Why?
Because you have the same teacher that I have,
the Holy Spirit of God.
We're going to close up with a quote from R.C. Sproul,
Mr. Roman Catholic Sproul.
Now, keep in mind when I'm reading this,
this is the man that when he was alive,
he had probably the biggest Calvinist ministry in the world,
Ligonier Ministries, right?
They have the biggest conference
with all these famous Calvinists,
and I'll give you another one.
I've said this before about Calvinism,
like this one pastor,
and he said,
Doug Wilson, I think, was his name.
I'm 90% sure if someone's named Doug Wilson,
and, you know, that's a good guy, I'm sorry,
but I think it's Doug Wilson was his name,
or Doug something,
and he said that every unsafe person
would murder God if they had the chance,
because after all,
at the day of judgment,
it's either him or you.
What?
He said, and then he,
it's not like he just said something stupid,
because I might misspeak and just be like,
man, why did I,
he expounds on it.
He said,
every single unsafe person,
if you could strike a blow to God
that would put him to death as an unsafe person,
you would do it,
because after all,
at the day of judgment,
it's either you or him.
Has that thought ever entered the mind
of anyone in here that you wanted to kill God?
Be honest.
Has anyone ever wanted to kill God?
All right, good.
We don't have to kick anybody out of church here today,
because if that's in your mind,
it's like, get out of here.
I'm afraid of what's in your warped mind.
That's insane.
That's crazy.
I mean, people get bitter and mad at God or whatever,
but wanting to kill God,
that is insane.
That comes from the mind of someone
who's twice dead,
plucked up by the roots,
who's a reprobate,
whose mind is warped.
But here's what R.C. Sproul said.
He said,
keep in mind,
this is the teacher
of the biggest Calvinist ministry in the world,
perhaps.
There are people in this world who are not saved,
but who are convinced that they are.
The presence of such people
causes genuine Christians to doubt their salvation.
After all, we wonder,
suppose I am in that category.
Suppose I am mistaken about my salvation
and am really going to hell.
How can I know that I'm a real Christian?
A while back,
I had one of those moments of acute self-awareness
that we have from time to time,
and suddenly the question hit me.
R.C.,
what if you are not one of the redeemed?
What if your destiny is not heaven after all,
but hell?
Basically, what if I'm not one of the elect?
This is going through his mind.
Let me tell you that I was flooded in my body
with a chill that went from my head
to the bottom of my spine.
I was terrified.
I'm scared.
This is the biggest Calvinist ministry.
This is the person people are running to
for advice from God.
He's like, I was terrified I wasn't one of the elect.
I tried to grab hold of myself.
I thought, well, it's a good sign
that I'm worried about this.
Only true Christians really care about salvation.
What?
Before I was saved,
I was scared I was going to hell
for a couple years.
I mean, every false religion
uses the word salvation.
In Acts 16, before he's saved,
he fell down trembling.
What must I do to be saved?
It sounds like he cares about salvation
as an unsaved person.
Everybody cares about being saved.
What are you talking about?
Only true Christians care about salvation.
But then I began to take stock of my life
and I looked at my performance.
So he's saying, I care about my salvation.
That's a sign that I'm saved.
But then I looked at my life.
My sins came pouring into my mind.
And the more I looked at myself,
the worse I felt.
I thought, maybe it's really true.
Maybe I'm not saved after all.
This is the biggest Calvinist ministry.
R.C. Sproul.
I went to my room and began to read the Bible.
On my knees I said,
Well, here I am.
I can't point to my obedience.
Well, that's a problem
when that's one of your proofs of salvation.
There's nothing I can offer.
I can only rely on your atonement for my sins.
I can only throw myself on your mercy.
Even then I knew that some people
can only flee to the cross to escape hell.
Not out of a real turning to God.
I could not be sure about my own heart and motivation.
Yeah, you know what?
Actually, everyone turns to God to escape hell.
What are you talking about?
Why did I get saved?
Because I was scared of going to hell?
That's how people get saved.
That's why they get saved.
Because they don't want to go to hell.
It's like, man.
Right?
But then he says this.
Then I remembered John 6 verse 68.
Jesus had been giving out hard teaching
and many of his former followers had left him.
When he asked Peter if he was also going to leave,
Peter said, where else can I go?
Only you have the words of eternal life.
In other words, Peter was also uncomfortable,
but he realized that being uncomfortable with Jesus
was better than any other option.
I missed the part of Peter questioning his salvation
from John 6.
Peter didn't question his salvation.
It's like, where am I going to go?
You have the words of eternal life.
He lost the words of eternal life.
Where does he question his salvation?
Where does it say he's uncomfortable?
Like, where is he getting that from?
Oh, I forgot.
Unsaved people don't understand the Bible.
Right?
I mean, that's the passage he goes to.
I mean, can you imagine?
Because this article is written
to help give you assurance of your salvation.
It's like, I also was scared to death
I was going to hell.
And then I thought, you know what?
Peter was uncomfortable.
If it's good enough for Peter,
it's good enough for me.
Yeah, that's actually not what John 6 is about.
What are you talking about?
But he doesn't understand the Bible.
Why?
Because he's not saved.
Why?
Because he's a Calvinist.
Right.
The four reasons I gave you
why Calvinists are not saved.
Number one, they believe in lordship salvation.
They believe that at the moment of salvation,
you turn over your life, your will, your heart,
and everything to Jesus as the Lord of your life.
Number two, they teach salvation produces works.
Number three, they teach that a person
cannot know for sure if they're saved.
And point four, they don't understand the Bible.
They can say that we don't understand the Bible.
Okay, whatever.
I don't care.
Us that believe on Christ,
we have the Holy Spirit of God.
We know what it says.
And when you hear the things coming out of their mouths,
it's clear they got something different inside of them.
It's certainly not the Holy Spirit of truth guiding them
in what the Bible teaches.
Let's close in a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father,
thank you for allowing us to be here today
and getting to see this topic about salvation
and help us to really fully understand
the false teachings that are out there
and help us to convert people that are out there
that are deceived by heretics
such as Paul Washer, John MacArthur,
and people such as this.
God, we pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Amen for our last song.
Let's turn to hymn number 135.
Let's sing the song,
I know I am saved.
Hymn number 135.
Let's sing the song,
I know I am saved.
For the first,
I know I am saved.
For Christ,
let me be.
He runs on my cross
and on the cross of poverty.
And now I can see
where Christ is my King.
I see His face in glory
high and high,
once again,
I'm punished.
I know I am saved.
For Christ,
let me be.
He runs on my cross
and on the cross of poverty.
And now I can see
where Christ is my King.
I see His face in glory
high and high.
Pray in Jesus' name,
I know I am saved.
For Christ,
let me be.
He runs on my cross
and on the cross of poverty.
And now I am saved.
For Christ,
let me be.
I know I am saved.
For Christ,
let me be.
I know I am saved.
For Christ,
let me be.
I know I am saved.
For Christ,
let me be.
For Christ,
let me be.
For Christ,
let me be.
I know I am saved.
For Christ,
let me be.
I know I am saved.
For Christ,
let me be.
I know I am saved.
For Christ,
let me be.
I know I am saved.
For Christ,
let me be.
I know I am saved.
For Christ,
let me be.
I know I am saved.
For Christ,
let me be.
I know I am saved.
For Christ,
let me be.
I know I am saved.
For Christ,
let me be.
I know I am saved.
For Christ,
let me be.