and we refuted every single one of them.
We didn't skip any of the big arguments.
We're gonna do the same thing with repentance here today.
We've got 18 arguments that they have.
Every single one of their big arguments,
which are very weak,
we're gonna go through every single one of them, okay?
Now let me also say this though.
People can believe the same doctrine
and they can have different opinions
on an interpretation of a verse, right?
If you're in this room here today
and you agree with me on repentance,
that repentance of sins for salvation is a work salvation,
you know, it's okay if we have a different opinion
on a verse as long as we have the same doctrine.
I mean, if two people believe both in eternal security
but they have a different interpretation of Hebrew six,
it's not the end of the world, right?
Because they believe the same doctrine.
There are verses people are gonna interpret differently.
What I'm doing is giving you my interpretation
of the 18 most common arguments.
And I know with a few of these
that I have a different opinion
than some people I've heard, and that's fine
as long as they believe the same doctrine, okay?
We're not gonna avoid any of the big arguments
here they have today.
Now let me also say this to start off.
When it comes to repentance, what does that even mean, okay?
If you think in the Spanish language,
you have the word pensar, okay, which is P-E-N-S-A-R.
And you think of the word repent, R-E-P-E-N,
the same root.
Now pensar means to think.
So R-E-P-E-N-S-A-R basically means to rethink.
And so what repent means is to change
or to turn or to rethink, okay?
It means to change.
Now it could mean to change from a lot of different things.
It can mean to change from your sins
and to turn from your sins.
It can mean you change what you believe.
It depends on the context.
What we believe and say is this.
When it comes to receiving salvation,
receiving eternal life, okay,
it's never repent of your sins to receive eternal life.
If you see the word repent
in reference to receiving salvation,
what the Bible's saying is this.
Hey, I was trusting in my idols to get me to heaven.
I was praying to Shiva every morning.
I was praying to Vishnu every morning.
I was praying to the Mary statue every morning
and I thought I had some magical power to forgive my sins.
And then I heard the gospel and I repented of that belief.
I changed my mind about believing that
and I believed on Jesus Christ.
That's what salvation is.
You believe something different
and you repent or change your mind about that belief
and believe on Jesus Christ.
So when we're talking about repenting of your sins,
what are we talking about?
We're talking about somebody who's already saved
and I preach a sermon, quit listening to your rock music.
And if you repent of that sin,
it means you were listening to rock music
and you stopped listening to rock music.
But does the Bible say you have to stop listening
to rock music to be saved?
No, it doesn't.
So look, repenting of sins is a biblical thing,
but not in order to receive salvation.
We should have a daily walk with God
where we're returning from our sins
and repenting of our sins
and asking for forgiveness for our sins.
But in reference to salvation,
it's only changing what you believe
to believe on Jesus Christ.
What's stopping you from putting your full trust in Jesus
is you have some of your trust in something else.
So you gotta change your mind about what you're trusting.
Change what you believe.
You don't have to change your actions.
Look, let me be very clear
like a lot of Baptist churches are not.
There are people that are drunks, drug dealers
and prostitutes that we're gonna see in heaven.
You say, why?
Because you can get saved while living a sinful life
and you don't have to change anything to be saved.
Now I'm not condoning those sins.
We preach against those sins,
but you don't have to turn
from any of those sins to be saved.
We need to form a hard line on what we believe.
But what we're gonna do is look at their big arguments.
This first sermon is biblical reasons
for repentance of sins refuted.
The second sermon is logical reasons
for repentance of sins refuted.
12 arguments in the first sermon,
six in the second sermon,
and at the end of the second sermon,
I'm just gonna go on a rabbit trail about salvation,
to make sure we all know exactly what we believe.
One of their big arguments, and in my opinion,
their best argument is Luke 13.
Luke chapter 13, Luke 13.
Let's read this and see what's going on here in Luke 13.
And I'm gonna say this,
that oftentimes the answer to their argument
is the exact same answer.
They'll show a verse that says,
hey, repent, and we'll say,
it didn't say repent of your sins.
It's like the same answer.
You're gonna say, this sermon's so repetitive,
Brother Stuckey, they use the same argument.
Hey, here's the word repent.
We understand that the word repents in the Bible, right?
We know the word repents in the Bible.
What we're saying is,
it never says repent of your sins to be saved though.
That's the difference, okay?
Luke 13, verse one.
Argument number one they have.
Verse one, there were present at that season
some that told him of the Galileans
whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
So saying in verse one that people come to Jesus Christ
and they explain that Pilate has mingled the blood
with their sacrifices, right?
We presume these are people
that are following the Jewish religion,
and there are people that were killed by Pontius Pilate.
Now, if you think about this,
this would have been a very big historical event
at that time.
I mean, people are coming to Jesus and saying,
hey, did you hear about the people
whose blood was mingled, right?
If this was in the modern day,
you'd see it on your cell phone 30 minutes later
or an hour later.
This was a big event during that time period,
so people are coming to Jesus and saying,
hey, did you hear what happened?
I mean, Pilate just killed a bunch of people.
Now, does Jesus Christ really care
about the things going on politically in this world
or the big events in this world?
No, he doesn't.
What he always does is turns it around to the spiritual.
He takes the physical and says, you know what?
I'm gonna turn it around to the spiritual
so you can understand, okay?
Verse two, and Jesus answering said onto them,
suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners
above all the Galileans because they suffered such things?
And in verse two, what Jesus Christ says is,
these people that were killed by Pontius Pilate,
do you think that they were worse than anybody else?
Were they really worse than anybody else?
Is that why they were killed, right?
This is similar to how when we go soul winning,
we tell people, hey, I'm no better than you.
I'm a sinner that needs a savior too.
We're all guilty.
We've all committed sins.
Hey, I'm on that list of Revelation 21 eight.
When it says all liars, it could put my name, right?
I'm no better than you.
I need a savior.
We're not telling people, hey, we're better than you, right?
We're saying we're the same as you.
And so Jesus takes a physical example
and he turns around right to the spiritual, okay?
Verse three, I tell you nay, but except ye repent,
ye shall all likewise perish.
Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
Now, I know a lot of people that believe that in verse three,
Jesus is referencing physical death with perishing.
I actually don't believe that.
I believe he's referencing hell, okay?
Because I believe it would just be kind of random verses
thrown into Luke chapter 13
that really don't have any real meaning
like why Jesus would be saying them.
I don't really see why Jesus would say,
hey, if you don't change your actions,
you're also gonna physically die.
To me, that just doesn't really fit.
What I think he's doing is taking a physical example
and saying likewise or in a similar way,
you will also perish, but not physically, but spiritually.
Likewise does not necessarily mean the exact same thing.
Oftentimes it means something very similar.
So I think he's taking the physical
and saying in a spiritual way, it's the same way.
You're going to perish unless you repent.
Now notice, it doesn't say repent of your sins.
I don't have a problem with this verse.
It says except ye repent.
What's he saying?
He's saying you're trusting this, and guess what?
You're a sinner just like everybody else.
You've gotta repent of that belief
and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And if you do not repent, you're gonna perish,
but not physically, spiritually.
That's what I believe he's saying.
Verse four, were those 18 upon whom the tower
and Siloam fell and slew them,
thinking that they were sinners above all men
that dwelled in Jerusalem?
And now in verse four, this is another big event
during that time period.
18 people were killed because the tower of Siloam
fell on them.
It seems like kind of a random event.
This is the thing where you wake up in the morning
and in the news, tragedy happens.
18 people die, right?
They physically die, okay?
And Jesus is saying, do you think that they were worse
than everybody else?
Is that why that tragedy happened to them?
And he says, you know what?
In a similar way, except ye repent,
ye shall all likewise perish.
He's saying you're no better than them, okay?
You are also gonna perish.
I don't think he's saying you're also gonna have
the tower of Siloam fall on you.
So obviously likewise is not the exact same thing, right?
It's saying similar, but I think he's switching
to the spiritual, okay?
Because that was what it was important to Jesus Christ.
Sometimes we see verses here and you need to realize
Jesus is teaching the Bible and he's preaching sermons
and you can look at just a few verses from a sermon
and realize there's a lot more that he was saying.
People are coming to him about this story.
I believe he's already teaching the word of God.
He's preaching about salvation.
He's going soul winning, getting people saved
and people come up to him and say, hey,
did you hear about this tragedy?
And he said, do you think that they were worse than you?
Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
He uses a physical example to explain the spiritual.
But here's the thing, it doesn't say repent of your sins.
Now I have no problem if you think this is referring
to physical death in verses three and five.
I personally think he brings it to the spiritual,
but it doesn't say repent of your sins.
They don't have an argument, right?
And he even says in the context, hey, you know what?
They're not worse than anybody else.
Just like we say out soul winning,
or you should say out soul winning.
Because when you preach salvation is by faith alone,
what we try to explain to people is this,
hey, you know what?
I'm a sinner just like you.
Isn't that what we say?
I need a savior just like you.
All of us have to change our mind about what we believe.
We have to repent of our belief.
Otherwise we're gonna perish and go to hell.
That's what I believe that he's saying in Luke 13.
Here's what I know he's not saying.
He's not saying repent of your sins
because I don't see of your sins in those verses.
All it says is repent, okay?
Go to Acts two, Acts two, Acts two, Acts chapter two.
Acts two.
So I'll be honest,
I think that's the best argument actually.
I don't think it's a very good argument,
but I think that's the best one they have.
And I'll be honest with you,
when I was preparing the sermon,
I kind of realized something.
You know, sometimes we talk about the preacher rapture
and we kind of laugh about
that they don't really have a lot of great arguments.
They don't really know why they believe it.
They just kind of heard it and they believe it.
I think they've got better arguments
in the repentance of sins crowd.
Here's the difference.
If you talk to someone who's a Baptist
who believes right on salvation about the preacher rapture
and maybe they have the wrong belief, here's the thing.
They've got the Holy Spirit inside of them to guide them.
And so, you know, honestly,
it's usually not that hard to get them to switch over
because if they're already saved
and then they're willing to see what the Bible says,
they're gonna change, right?
Here's the difference with repent of your sins.
When it comes to their arguments,
they're so bad because they're not saved.
They don't understand the Bible.
Their arguments are very weak.
But see, the difference is they're not saved
and that's why they're so weak.
They don't even realize they're weak.
It's like, here's your big argument.
It doesn't even say of your sins.
So why are you telling us
you gotta repent of your sins to be saved?
You show us a verse where it has the word repent.
And, you know, people will show you verses,
well, see, repent.
Yeah, we know that word's in the Bible.
We've read the Bible.
We understand that's a word in the Bible.
What we're saying is it's not turning
from your sins to be saved, okay?
Acts 2, verse 38.
Actually, look at verse 36, Acts 2, verse 36.
Argument number two is Acts 2, 38.
Starting at verse 36, Acts 2, verse 36.
Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly
that God hath made the same Jesus
whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
Now, Jesus Christ is saying to the Jews
that they crucified, not Jesus,
Peter is saying to the Jews that you crucified Jesus, okay?
You say, I thought the Romans crucified Jesus.
Well, I mean, the Jews are given responsibility
and they wanted responsibility.
Let his blood be upon us and upon our children.
Brother Stuckey, you went soft on the Jews last week.
Well, there you go.
They're responsible for the blood of Jesus Christ
and they pretty much cursed the next several generations.
Hey, let his blood be on us and on our children, right?
And so in verse 36, he says, you know what?
You killed the Lord Jesus Christ.
Verse 37.
Now, when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart
and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles,
men and brethren, what shall we do?
That's pretty similar to what must I do to be saved?
Because here's the thing.
If you're talking to unsaved people,
what is the only thing you should really talk to them about?
Salvation.
And this is the day of Pentecost.
Lots of people are getting saved
and then Peter's preaching a sermon to a lot of Jews.
Realize at this time, Jesus has risen again from the dead
and look, this was like the front page news for years, right?
Everybody's gonna be talking about this event.
I mean, this was a huge event
and a lot of people are changing their mind
about what they believe and there's a lot of Jews
and they're kind of confused because they weren't,
because if they were already saved,
they would have just believed on Jesus as the Bible says.
But there were many that were not saved
and then they hear about this man rising from the dead
and they're confused.
And Peter's explaining it to them, right?
And they're saying, what shall we do, right?
We're guilty of killing the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then Peter said unto them,
repent and be baptized every one of you
in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins
and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, okay?
Now, if you were to take verse 38 by itself,
it would be a bit confusing, okay?
I want you to realize Peter's preaching a sermon
and I'm sure he has already explained salvation in depth
and they're like, what should we do, right?
And Peter says, repent and be baptized
in the name of every one of you
in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins
and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, okay?
Now, if I gave you a sentence like this,
Matthew Stuckey, comma, who is a preacher,
comma, lives in the Philippines, okay?
It's a coherent sentence, right?
Let's say I took out the part in between the commas.
Matthew Stuckey lives in the Philippines.
Is that a sentence?
Yeah, you can take out the part in the commas and remove it
and it will still form a coherent sentence.
The part in the commas is giving more information, okay?
So what you're seeing in this verse is repent
and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, okay?
Repenting is what gives you the gift of the Holy Ghost.
What's the gift of the Holy Ghost?
The gift of eternal life.
I do believe this is saying,
this is how you receive eternal life, spiritual life
and he's saying repent, but did you notice
how he didn't say repent of your sins once again?
He's saying, hey, repent and ye shall receive
the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Change your mind, realize Judaism is wrong
and you know what, believe on Jesus
and you receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, okay?
Now this is a sermon about repentance.
It's not really about baptism,
but this is such an often misunderstood verse
and a lot of heretics love this verse,
so I'm gonna take time to explain the baptism part as well.
I was going soul winning one time in West Virginia
and Acts 2 38, it's like the John 3 16
of a lot of Pentecostals and in the U.S.
we have a religion called the Church of Christ,
which is different than the Church of Christ here, right?
Every country's got a Church of Christ.
I don't know if you realize that.
We've got a Church of Christ that is also considered a cult
just like Jehovah's Witness and Mormons.
You say, Brother Sukkie, why haven't we heard of it?
They're just not as popular as the Mormons
and Seventh-day Adventists and Jehovah's Witnesses, right?
But I remember I knocked on the door of this one guy
who was a Church of Christ and this guy was in a wheelchair.
You cannot make up these stories, right?
And I told him, you know, we're from,
I think I was going to Trinity Baptist Church at the time
and I said we wanted to invite you to church
and this guy's like wheeling his way closer, right?
Because the door, he had like a helper at his house
and so the helper opened the door
and this guy in the wheelchair who owns the house,
he's like wheeling his way closer.
And then I asked him, you know, when we're talking,
I was like, what do you think it takes to get to heaven?
And he's getting close and his eyes get big, Acts 2 38.
It's like, all right, have a nice day, right?
Kind of creepy, okay?
And this is a big verse for people that believe
that you have to repent of your sins
and be baptized in order to get saved.
This is the verse they go to, right?
Well, I want you to notice that the first thing being said
is repent and you're going to receive the Holy Ghost.
Repenting gets you saved.
Changing your mind about what you believe
and believing on Jesus, that gets you saved.
What is the first step of obedience for a Christian
after they are saved?
To get baptized.
And what baptism does is you're showing the world,
I believe Jesus was buried and he rose again, right?
And on the day of Pentecost, it makes sense
as he's talking to the Jews about,
hey, why don't you show the world that you know what?
You believe Jesus was the Christ.
That you don't believe in Judaism anymore.
So he's saying, you know what?
Repent and you get saved, right?
Put your faith on Jesus.
But you know what?
Now you should show the world that you're saved.
Because the question was not just
what must I do to be saved?
It said, what shall I do?
Well, first step is get saved, right?
Receive the Holy Ghost.
What should you do after that?
Hey, get baptized.
Because there's a lot of people getting baptized today.
Get baptized and show the world you believe this, right?
But here's the thing.
It says be baptized, every one of you
in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins.
And people read this and they say,
it sounds like you got to get baptized
in order to get the remission or forgiveness of sins.
Here's the thing.
The word for is not always meaning in order to receive.
Sometimes it means because you've already received.
Right.
It's saying because you've already received
the remission of sins, get baptized.
And I'll prove this to you.
I always use people that write at the front for examples.
Sorry, Brother JR.
Let's say we said Brother JR,
let's say he committed a murder.
And we said Brother JR is wanted by the police for murder.
Does that mean he's wanted by the police
in order to get murder
or because he already committed a murder?
Because he already committed a murder, right?
You know, if I said, hey, take paracetamol for a headache,
you're taking paracetamol because you have a headache.
Not to get a headache.
Who wants to get a headache?
It's like, you want to get a headache,
take some paracetamol, right?
No, you're taking paracetamol because you have a headache.
And when the Bible's saying be baptized,
every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ
for the remission of sins,
it's not saying in order to get the remission of sins.
It's saying because you have the remission of sins.
So you change your mind about what you believe.
That gets you the Holy Ghost.
That gets you eternal life.
That gets you forgiveness.
And what's the next step?
Be baptized.
Not to receive the forgiveness of sins,
but because you got the remission of sins
when you got the gift of the Holy Ghost, right?
Now this verse by itself is a bit confusing.
No doubt about that.
But I want you to realize something.
Peter's preaching a whole sermon
to people of another religion,
and he's telling them, hey, you know what, repent.
Change your mind is what he's saying.
You believe this and you're very religious.
You know what you need to do?
Change your mind about what you believe.
That's what he's saying there, okay?
Turn to Acts chapter three, Acts three, Acts three.
But in terms of our sermon not talking about baptism,
once again, it didn't say repent of your sins.
So yeah, the word repents there.
It doesn't say repent of your sins though.
We're pretty much just looking up all the times
the word repents in the New Testament
because that's all their arguments.
They just say another time the word repent is there, right?
Acts three verse 19.
Repent ye therefore and be converted
that your sins may be blotted out
when the times are refreshing shall come
from the presence of the Lord.
So they say, hey, repent and be converted
and that's gonna get your sins blotted out or forgiven.
And since he talks about sins,
it must be that you're repenting of your sins.
Well, no, because throughout the Bible
we see that changing your mind about what you believe
is what gets you forgiveness.
What converts you?
Repenting of what you believe.
Change your mind about what you believe,
believe on Jesus, that's conversion, right?
And when the conversion happens, your sins are forgiven.
Your sins are blotted out.
Once again, it does not say repent of your sins.
Go to Acts 11, Acts 11.
Argument number four, Acts 11.
I mean, aren't these arguments pretty weak?
I mean, the first three ones is like,
it doesn't say repent of your sins.
All right, next verse.
Doesn't say repent of your sins.
Next verse.
Doesn't say repent of your sins, right?
They don't really have any good arguments.
We already looked at what I believe are the best ones,
Luke 13, right?
I mean, maybe we'll look at 2 Corinthians 7 later.
That's one of their best arguments,
but that's very easily disproven.
They don't have good arguments,
but they don't really understand this
because if they're preaching a hardcore,
pensive salvation and they're not just confused,
they're not saved.
See, people that are confused on this
because they got some devil behind the pulpit
preaching a false gospel,
but if they're already saved and have the Holy Spirit
and you explain this to them,
it's gonna make sense immediately.
Right, you show them John 3.16.
Hey, whosoever believeth in him.
So if you don't repent of your sins,
but you believe according to the Bible,
you get everlasting life.
Oh, that makes sense.
I mean, whosoever believe.
Yeah, it makes sense.
It's that simple.
Acts 11, verse 17.
Now, if you remember in Acts 11,
this is Peter retelling the story
of the conversion of Cornelius from Acts 10.
And there's actually, go to Acts 10.
Let me just turn there myself, make sure I'm quoting right.
Acts 10, verse 43.
Acts 10, verse 43,
because he's just retelling this story, right?
And if you read Acts 10,
what does it say in verse 43?
Acts 10, verse 43.
To him give all the prophets witness
that through his name whosoever believeth in him
shall receive remission of sins.
While Peter yet spake these words,
the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.
So how'd they get the gift of the Holy Ghost?
By believing.
He preaches the gospel, they believe,
they get remission of sins, they get the Holy Ghost.
And guess what?
This is what all of the prophets taught.
From Genesis to Revelation.
It's always been believed.
That's what it says in Acts 10, verse 43.
So in Acts 11, go back to Acts 11,
Peter is just retelling the story
of the conversion of Cornelius.
And realize Cornelius was an unsaved person
who was not of Jewish descent, who feared God.
And you know what?
The Jews of that day, even those that believed,
they had this idea that unless you were of Jewish descent
or of ethnicity, you couldn't even be saved.
They had this false idea and they're just like, you know.
And then Peter has this vision where he eats meat,
he rises, he kills, and he eats meat
and everything like that.
And Peter's a bit confused.
He preaches the gospel, clicks with Peter
about the Old Testament laws,
that we're not under those things,
that we're just pictures of Jesus Christ.
And in Acts 11, he's retelling the story.
And in verse 17,
for as much then as God gave them the light gift
as he did unto us, what is the light gift?
Eternal life, right?
The gift of the Holy Ghost, eternal life,
salvation, being born again.
How'd they get it?
Who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.
What was I that I could withstand God, right?
This is one of their best arguments.
I mean, it just said they got the gift
of the Holy Ghost by believing.
This is one of their best arguments
because they go to the next verse.
But I mean, did it not just tell you
that believing is what got them the gift of the Holy Ghost?
Right, that's what it says in verse 17.
Verse 18, when they heard these things,
they held their peace,
meaning they kept their mouth shut
and glorified God saying,
you know, they're no longer arguing with Peter,
then have God also to the Gentiles
granted repentance onto life.
And what they're saying is,
I guess Gentiles can get saved too.
It's like, duh.
It's like Jesus died for the sins
of the whole world, the Bible says, right?
And it says, you say, but it says repentance onto life.
Yeah, but you know, the verse before
just defined what that was.
Changing your mind about what you believe.
I don't really see how this is an argument for you
because in Acts 10, it says,
believe gets you forgiveness of sins.
In the verse before, Acts 11, verse 17,
they got the like gift by believing.
Then in the next verse, hey, repentance onto life.
What's that showing you?
Hey, what was that repentance?
Oh, they changed what they believe
and that's how they got the gift.
I mean, it's very clear here.
And once again, it does not say,
then have God also to the Gentiles
granted repentance of sins onto life.
It doesn't say that.
It says repentance onto life, right?
Go to Acts 17, Acts 17.
Acts 17.
Acts chapter 17.
Acts 17.
And you see a lot of these stories in the book of Acts
because of the fact this is where a lot of the soul
when he's taking place.
But realize after the first few chapters,
remember, I mean, at the beginning of Acts one,
God told them to go to the ends of the world
to preach the gospel.
Get churches started everywhere, right?
Start here, you know, your Jerusalem
and then just spread out, right?
That's a pattern for any church.
And here's the thing, they didn't really listen at first.
Now they're going to nations all over the place
who are believing in other gods
and false things and everything.
And so it makes sense the word repent is there
because you're telling them,
hey, change your mind about what your trust is,
your false religion and believe on Jesus Christ.
That's all that's saying, okay?
I mean, it's really that simple.
And let me say this, in your gospel presentation,
it's up to you whether you wanna use this word or not,
as long as you define it correctly.
Now, I don't personally use the word repent
except when I'm explaining, you know,
why you don't have to repent of your sins.
I don't take the time to explain repentance
because of the fact, you know what,
people are very confused about the word.
So I'll show them that in Acts 16,
it does not say repent of your sins.
John 3 16 does not say repent of your sins.
I don't take five minutes to explain repentance
because this is a word in our modern day
where people are confused.
They do not understand what the word means, okay?
And so I wouldn't necessarily suggest
to explain repentance in detail
what the word means during a conversation
unless they bring it up and it's a real issue.
But if you do bring it up, make sure you define it correctly
because if you just throw the word repent out there,
you give the gospel and at the end,
now you gotta repent and believe on Jesus Christ,
you know what, they're gonna be very confused
because they think repent means quit drinking.
They think repent means quit smoking.
They think repent means, you know,
quit living a sinful life.
So you better make sure if you throw out that word
in terms of salvation, that you explain what it means
and what it doesn't mean
because they will get very confused, okay?
Acts 17 verse 29.
For as much then as we are the offspring of God,
we ought not to think that the Godhead
is like unto gold or silver or stone,
graven by art and man's device.
And so here you have them talking to spiritual people
that are, you know, worshiping idols, practicing idolatry
and they're confused and they think that an idol
that we make, it's like, oh man,
God is in my hand right now, right?
They're confused about that.
And around the world, it's still very common.
People make something, it's like, oh man,
here's my God that I worship, right?
And it's like, this is what people do, right?
Verse 30.
And the times of this ignorance God winked at,
but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.
Now, why does he say at times of this ignorance
God winked at?
Now, he says ignorance,
which means they don't have knowledge, right?
Means they don't have knowledge.
They're worshiping idols because they do not have knowledge.
They're ignorant about what the truth is.
That's what it's saying there, right?
And it says he winked at it and what that means is this,
you know, when the word of God was not being poured out
in a certain area, God was more long suffering.
But once the word of God is poured out to an area
and people hear the gospel,
it's like you're held accountable for that.
Now, make no mistake about it,
if somebody never believes on Jesus, they go to hell.
But if somebody's heard the gospel more often,
it's like God's gonna be less,
you know, he's not gonna be as long suffering or patient
if they've heard the gospel over and over, right?
So they're ignorant, which means not that they're sinful,
but they lack knowledge.
But now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.
Repent of what?
The lack of knowledge.
They're worshiping idols.
They got the wrong belief.
I don't see anything about drinking alcohol
in these verses.
Right.
So what's their argument?
Right, I mean, they're ignorant
and they're worshiping idols
and that's the proof they have the wrong belief.
And he's saying God commands you to repent,
meaning change your mind about what you believe
and believe on Jesus Christ.
I mean, honestly, these are good verses for our side.
Right.
They're pretty in depth.
So I prefer Acts 16 to Acts 17.
But if you really look at the context here,
it's like, oh man, he's saying a lack of knowledge,
ignorance, you got to repent of that.
Meaning you got to believe on Jesus
and quit worshiping your idols.
Because here's the thing,
if you give the gospel to a Hindu,
you better make sure they change their mind
about what they believe.
I mean, if you just explain the gospel,
just your normal conversation,
and they're like, sure, I believe Jesus is God.
Well, what do they mean by that?
Because what we mean by Jesus is God is he's the only God.
There's one God, right?
He's eternally the son of God.
We believe in the Trinity,
but that's not what Hindus believe.
And if you gave them a gospel
and didn't really explain that,
they got to change their mind about what they believe.
They might just say, hey, I got 300 million gods.
I'll take 300 million and one.
I mean, literally.
They have to repent of their belief.
They got to change their mind about what they believe.
And if they don't, they can't be saved.
You cannot put 100% of your trust in Jesus
if you've got 1% over here.
You got to take that 1% and put it over here, okay?
100% must go to Jesus Christ.
So if somebody believes something false,
they've got to repent of that belief.
You cannot put all of your trust in Jesus
if some of your trust is over here, right?
Go to Acts 20, Acts 20, Acts 20.
Acts 20.
I mean, even in the context of these verses,
it makes sense why the Bible actually uses the word repent
because it's driving home the point,
hey, you've got a different religion.
Change your mind about what you believe.
I mean, sometimes we talk to people
and they don't really believe so much of stuff.
They're just kind of not sure about stuff.
But if somebody really believes something,
it's like, well, you got to change your mind about that.
Some people, they just don't know.
It's like, oh, I've never really thought about it before.
And we're just kind of showing them what salvation is.
Some people, on the other hand,
they really are trusting in idols.
They really are trusting in Muhammad.
They really are trusting in Buddha or whatever.
And they've got to repent of that, right?
They've got to change their mind about what they believe
in order to believe on Jesus.
Acts 20, verse 20.
And how I kept back nothing that was profitable onto you
but have showed you and have taught you publicly
and from house to house.
And it says, I've taught you publicly,
basically meaning that Paul the Apostle,
he took the opportunities to preach
when he got opportunities, right?
He preached the gospel to large crowds
or if he got to preach sermons or whatever,
he took those opportunities.
He preached publicly and also house to house, right?
And house to house, what is that?
Door to door, right?
Door to door soul winning.
Now, I want you to realize in many parts of the world,
you don't really have the opportunity
to preach publicly anywhere.
It's pretty much all door to door soul winning.
I mean, if you went to parks,
there'd be very few opportunities to get somebody safe.
We live the life of luxury as soul winners
here in the Philippines.
Because I'll tell you what, almost all of your soul winning
is just door to door in the US.
And what you have to do as a soul winner
is you're driving sometimes and you might be really busy,
but then you see an opportunity of like four teens
that are like skateboarding at a skateboard rink,
and you just stop and just go over
and try to give them the gospel.
Because those opportunities aren't that often.
Here though, it's like we're gonna send soul winners
out to, I'm not gonna name it in case somebody finds it
and tries to get us kicked out of there.
We're gonna send them out to a public place, to a park,
lots of people.
I mean, praise the Lord,
we're gonna probably get a lot of people saved.
I mean, yesterday we had 16 salvations in Pampanga
and kind of the secret from previous weeks
is we didn't go door to door.
Because door to door is just not as effective.
Now we do both because the Bible has both mentioned.
And in reality, as great as the soul winning is in parks,
there are far more visitors
that come from door to door soul winning.
It's not even close.
Like all of the visitors we've had from our church
have been from door to door soul winning, I think.
I don't think we've had a single visitor
from soul winning in parks.
I mean, maybe I'm wrong about that,
but at least the very vast majority are from door to door.
It's just the way it works.
So we've got to strike that proper balance
of parks and door to door, right?
But that's what you see here in verse 20.
Verse 21, testifying both to the Jews
and also to the Greeks, right?
So the Jews and the Greeks, these are two different groups.
The Jews, they didn't believe Jesus was the Messiah.
The Greeks had these philosophical ideas, right?
I mean, they were kind of the evolutionists
and the atheists of their day.
And then they had all these gods they were worshiping,
really strange stuff, right?
The wisest people, and they got all these gods
they're worshiping and everything like that.
But it's talking to two groups.
And so it mentions two groups and then it says,
repentance toward God
and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, once again, it does not say repent of your sins.
It doesn't say repent of your sins,
just says repentance toward God.
And it makes sense why he says repentance toward God,
because he's talking about two groups of people
and saying, hey, both to the Jews and the Greeks,
change your mind about who God is
and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, right?
You cannot put your faith in Jesus
if you're trusting something else.
So once again, change your mind about what you believe
and believe on Jesus Christ.
Go to Acts 26, Acts 26, Acts 26.
Say, Brother Stuckey, this is repetitive.
They're using the same argument over and over again.
We're just going through their arguments.
Doesn't say repent of your sins, next verse.
I mean, they're pretty weak arguments.
That's all they got is the word repents in the Bible.
Well, good job, right?
The word repent is in the Bible, right?
You taught me something new.
I didn't know that, right?
It's like, yeah, the word repents in the Bible.
Repent of your sins, though, for salvation.
That's not in the Bible.
Acts 26, verse 20.
But showed first onto them of Damascus and at Jerusalem
and throughout all the coasts of Judea
and then to the Gentiles that they should repent
and turn to God and do works meet for repentance.
Once again, it has the word repent
and it really just defines what he's saying
because it says turn to God.
And it's saying basically change your mind
about what you believe and turn to God.
Turn to the true God.
Now, here's the thing.
It said they show them at Damascus and Jerusalem
and throughout all the coasts of Judea and the Gentiles,
they should repent and turn to God.
That's your salvation.
Now, after we get somebody saved, what do we tell them?
Hey, you should come to church.
You should read the Bible.
You should be baptized.
You should do works meet for repentance, right?
You should, now that you've actually changed your mind
about what you believe, hey, as a saved person,
God expects you to follow this book.
It doesn't mean that they're going to follow it,
but basically after they got people saved,
they tried to motivate him to come to church.
We do the same thing.
That's what that phrase do works meet for repentance.
That's what he's saying.
You get somebody saved and say, hey, you know what?
Now you should start coming to church.
Now you should start reading the Bible.
You're telling them do works meet for repentance.
You've changed your mind about what you believe.
Why don't you show the world you've changed your mind?
Why don't you get baptized?
Why don't you go to a church that's preaching this, right?
That's all he's saying, but once again,
doesn't say repent of your sins, right?
All it says is repent and turn to God and here's the thing,
after you are saved, you should do good works.
That's what it's saying.
Turn to 2 Corinthians 7, 2 Corinthians 7.
2 Corinthians 7.
All right, we're through the book of Acts, okay?
The ones in Acts are very repetitive, right?
We got through seven of the first 12 arguments
for this first sermon.
This next argument has a whole page to itself, okay?
So now the fun begins, right?
You say, man, this is repetitive.
Okay, well, this will be a little bit different, right?
2 Corinthians 7, okay?
2 Corinthians 7, we're gonna explain verses 8 through 11.
And I'll be honest, you know,
this is one of their most common arguments
and it's probably their weakest argument, okay?
It's a very common argument that they use.
We've all heard this before.
It's a very bad argument though, okay?
2 Corinthians 7, verse 8.
For though I made you sorry with a letter.
Now, what is Paul saying?
I made you sorry with a letter.
What letter?
The letter, the book of 1 Corinthians.
The book we call 1 Corinthians, he wrote a letter
and he made the church sorry.
Why did he make them sorry?
Because he ripped their heads off.
Because they had a million problems.
I mean, everything they were doing wrong.
It wasn't just the fornication of the church.
I mean, if you read that book,
everything's wrong about the Church of Corinth.
He never questions their salvation though.
That's what's awesome about that book.
They are wrong, they got all kinds of sin,
but he's not questioning their salvation
like the Church of Galatia.
Why?
Because they're not wrong on salvation,
they're just allowing sin in the church.
And he made them sorry with a letter.
You say, why are they sorry?
It's the same reason when I preach against your sin
and I step on your toes and you're like,
ah, I can't believe brother Stuckey said that, right?
You're upset about it, right?
He said, I made you sorry with a letter.
Okay, that's past tense.
I made you sorry with a letter.
The letter of 1 Corinthians.
He says, for though I made you sorry with a letter,
I do not repent, though I did repent.
So what is that saying?
He's saying this, I do not, which is present tense,
I do not repent.
So present tense he's saying,
as I'm writing 2 Corinthians right now,
I don't repent of writing 1 Corinthians,
though I did repent.
What he's saying is when I wrote 1 Corinthians originally,
I kind of regretted it.
I kind of wondered if I wish I hadn't written it.
Instead of writing it, I kind of wish I hadn't written it.
He says, I did repent.
Basically, I didn't know if I made the right choice.
And they say, why is it that Paul wondered
whether he made the right choice?
Well, let's look at the context, okay?
He says, I do not repent, though I did repent.
For I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry,
though it were but for a season.
He's saying, I wrote 1 Corinthians and you were sorry,
but it was only for a season.
Okay, you're only upset at me for a little while, okay?
Then he says this, now I rejoice,
not that you were made sorry,
but that you sorrowed to repentance.
And what Paul is saying is this, I am happy now.
I don't repent of writing 1 Corinthians now,
not because you were sorry,
but you know what, you sorrowed to repentance.
You know what you're seeing here?
You're seeing the heart of a preacher that was a nice guy.
You know what Paul the Apostle is saying?
You know what, I didn't like to preach hard
against people's sin.
I didn't really wanna do that, right?
Because Paul would rather preach things that are edifying.
He doesn't wanna rip people's heads off.
And let me say this, right?
I mean, if you get chances to preach here
and every time you get to preach,
you're just, the first time you get to preach,
it's like why the Mormons are straight out of hell.
Second time you preach,
why the Jehovah's Witnesses are straight out of hell.
Now look, I agree with everything
you're gonna say in that sermon,
but there's a problem if that's your character
where you just wanna rip somebody's head off
every time you say something.
There's a problem with you.
You say, what sort of sermons should you preach?
You should preach sermons about why
we should read the Bible, right?
You should preach sermons about the power of God
on the soul winner's life, right?
You should preach sermons on character building sermons,
not, man, what religion do I get to tear apart now?
Because that's not what Paul the Apostle was like.
Because you would say he was a hardcore, intense preacher
and he says, you know what, I rejoice,
but not because you were sorry.
Not because I preached against your sin,
but you made a change, you sorrowed to repentance.
And I rejoice because there was a change that took place.
Now, I'll be honest with you.
The sermons I preach where I have to preach
against somebody's sin, and I preach about something
where I know people are guilty
or maybe people are gonna be mad,
those are sermons I don't enjoy preaching.
I don't wanna preach sermons like that.
I would rather just preach about, you know,
steps to become a better Bible reader, right?
I would rather preach things that are kind, nice things,
but you know what, your job as a preacher
is sometimes to preach hard.
But here's what you need to understand.
We're not talking about avoiding those topics.
What we're saying is this, though.
If inside of your heart you wanna rip someone's head off,
it's like, man, I wanna see somebody cry today.
It's like, how many people can I make cry
behind the pulpit today?
There is something wrong with you.
And you have no business preaching
if that's what's inside your heart.
Because the only reason you should be happy
if someone's sorry is if it results in a change, right?
I mean, the only reason you should be happy
is if, hey, you know what, they heard our tough truth,
but you know what, there's a change that took place.
And look, I've seen that at this church.
I've preached some hard things
and people I knew weren't real happy,
but then a change took place and I rejoice in that.
I don't rejoice in the fact
that they were mad about it, though.
I mean, if I'm just making somebody mad
and there's no change, then there's really no purpose
of saying it, it doesn't do any good.
The goal of a preacher is to change people's lives.
And you do that by actually caring
about the people you're preaching to, not being a jerk.
And that's what Paul said.
I rejoice not that you're made sorry,
but that you sorrow to repentance.
The church of Corinth, they were sorry
and then they changed, they repented, right?
For you're made sorry after a godly manner,
that you might receive damage by us in nothing, okay?
Now he says he might receive damage by us in nothing.
What's he saying?
Here's what he's saying.
Let's say you're guilty of a sin, okay?
And I preach against that sin
and you see what the Bible says
and you believe what the Bible says and you do not change.
You're gonna receive damage by my words
because the Bible is good if you take heed to what it says.
But if you know what the truth is and you don't do it,
well, you're gonna get damaged,
meaning you're gonna be held accountable
because you heard the truth and you didn't apply it.
And he's saying, you know what?
If you hadn't applied it, you would receive damage.
But since you changed,
you're not gonna receive damage by us
because God saw that you changed
and you did the right thing, okay?
What he's gonna talk about are two types of sorrow,
godly sorrow and worldly sorrow.
Now one thing we need to understand is number one,
this is a church, the church of Corinth.
And guess what?
It's not him writing to the Mormons.
It's not him writing to the Jehovah's Witnesses.
Do you think Paul the Apostle took time
to write a letter to all of these false churches?
No, no, no.
He's writing to people that would be like-minded like us.
He's writing to people that if they lived today
and lived around here, they would come to our church.
So he's writing to people that are similar to us.
He's not writing to unbelievers.
Because good night, if you're gonna try to do anything
with those false religions, give them the gospel.
So he's not writing a letter against the sin
to some false church.
No, it's a good church that he's responsible
for bringing a lot of the people to that church, right?
And so these are people that are already saved.
We haven't even gotten to their argument,
their argument's done.
The people are already saved.
They're trying to say, hey, repent of your sins
to get salvation.
They're already saved.
And it's a church.
What's your argument?
They're already saved, it's a church.
He's gonna talk about godly sorrow and worldly sorrow.
What's the difference?
Godly sorrow is defined as when a change takes place.
A great example of that is King David.
King David committed terrible sins, Nathan rebuked him,
and guess what?
He changed.
He had sorrow and it was godly sorrow.
And the proof of that was that there was a change.
What is worldly sorrow?
Because here's the thing, it's one or the other.
People are always sorry if they get caught.
Every murderer feels sorry when he gets caught.
Here's the question.
If he had the opportunity to do it again
and not get caught, would he do it?
Do you understand what I'm saying?
I mean, David had a true sorrow.
You know what, if he could go back and change things,
he wouldn't have done it.
It wasn't just I got caught, hey, I'm sorry, forgive me,
give me another chance.
No, he actually had real sorrow.
He had a real change.
What's the example of worldly sorrow?
King Saul.
King Saul felt bad.
I'm so sorry for trying to kill you, David.
Next chapter.
I'm so sorry for trying to kill you, David.
Next chapter.
I'm so sorry for trying to kill you, David.
There's no change.
What is that?
It's worldly sorrow.
And look, I want you to realize,
especially as a church leader,
you need to understand the difference here, right?
Because when this first happens,
Samuel rebukes Saul and his reaction
is to try to defend himself.
Blame other people, defend himself.
You already know he's not truly sorry.
Let me tell you something.
If someone gets rebuked for something
and an apology is demanded because they did something wrong
and their first thing is to justify themselves,
they're not truly sorry.
They have worldly sorrow, and that's it.
And look, as a church leader,
you need to know this when you deal with tough situations.
You cannot just, you cannot be Bobo.
There's no other way to say it.
You can't just, I mean, everybody is always sorry.
Well, I mean, the serial killer said he's sorry.
We should give him another chance.
It's just like, of course they're sorry when they get caught.
Of course they're sorry when they get the death penalty.
And then you got Jeffrey Dahmer.
It's like, wow, you know what?
It's because I was taught evolution.
That's the reason why I murdered
like 20 different people, right?
It's like I was just taught evolution.
I can't believe it.
I'm so sorry for it.
It's like, and this is a rabbit trail, but you know how,
because Jeffrey Dahmer is the most famous serial killer
in American history, right?
If you saw Psychopath Reprobates,
he's one of the main characters, right?
The guy was a homo, known as a homo.
He was murdering homos.
Like he would lure them to his house
and kill them and everything like that.
And he was sorry when he got caught.
You know how he died?
He got brutally beat to death by an inmate, another prisoner
because he was bragging with another guy
about raping little kids.
And you know what, somebody was so angry about it.
These two guys were bragging.
Jeffrey Dahmer and this other guy were bragging
about the fact that they had molested kids and harmed people
and another inmate came with like a steel bar
or something like that and just bashed their heads in.
It's like, yeah, you know what?
The government should have just given them
death penalty immediately and gotten it over with, right?
I was like, oh, there's a real change there.
Well, I'm so sorry I did this.
I was taught evolution.
That's why I murdered 20 people, right?
And then all of a sudden, you know how he was killed?
Well, he's still bragging about it.
He wasn't sorry.
He had worldly sorrow.
He's sorry he got caught,
but he wasn't really actually sorry about it, right?
There's godly sorrow and there's worldly sorrow.
What is worldly sorrow?
It's the altar call.
That's what worldly sorrow is.
The altar call is worldly sorrow.
Say, what's the proof of that?
It's the same people this week as next week,
as next week, as next week, right?
They're not really sorry.
They get emotional, they feel bad,
and then they come back down to the altar.
I'm so sad.
I'm so sorry I didn't read the Bible this week.
The next week, I'm so sorry
I didn't read the Bible this week.
And we're like, we read the New Testament in January.
It's like, I don't need to come down to the altar, right?
Godly sorrow versus worldly sorrow.
That is what's being described here.
And these are people in the context
that are already saved, the church, okay?
People that are in the church that are already saved, okay?
And he's saying, you know what?
You had sorrow after a godly manner
that you might receive damage by us and nothing
because there was a change.
For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation
not to be repented of.
But the sorrow of the world worketh death, okay?
Now, once again, the people are already saved.
And it's a church.
So this phrase, if you just take it by itself,
yeah, it's confusing.
But in the context, these people are already saved.
Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation
not to be repented of.
What does that mean?
Notice not to be repented of, not to be changed.
Because godly sorrow results in a change
and you don't change your mind five minutes later.
It's not repented of because there's an actual change
that takes place.
Godly sorrow worketh repentance,
true change to salvation not to be repented of.
You say, what's that talking about?
It's not talking about spiritual salvation
of going to heaven.
That's not the context.
These people are already saved, okay?
It has nothing to do with receiving spiritual salvation.
You say, what is it talking about?
Here's what it's talking about.
If I preach a sermon against drinking alcohol
and someone's a drunk and you know what,
they listen to what I preach and they make a change,
it's gonna save them from liver disease,
from a kidney disorder.
It's gonna save them from dying 20 years earlier.
It's gonna save them from God's judgment in this life.
It's gonna save them from a lot of stuff.
If I preach a sermon against smoking cigarettes
and you quit smoking cigarettes,
you know what, it's gonna save you from lung cancer.
God's word will save you,
not always just referring to heaven and hell,
but look, whenever the word of God is preached,
it's gonna save your marriage,
it's gonna save you raising your children,
it's gonna save you from all the problems in your life.
God's word will make a difference in your life.
It will save you from problems if you hear it
and you make the change when necessary.
It's godly sorrow, right?
Worketh repentance, a change to salvation.
If you make the changes, it saves you,
not to be repented of.
But the sorrow of the world worketh death.
What's that mean?
It means that if you're in a church
and you hear the word of God preached
and you never make the changes,
hey, the worldly sorrow that you have,
it's gonna work death in your life.
And that could literally mean dying 20 years earlier.
If you've got some major sin you're involved in,
it could mean you could literally die 20 years earlier.
But it's gonna save you from destruction
and destroying your life.
Look, the preaching of God's word is vital for your life.
This book and the word of God being preached,
it's gonna save you from destroying your life.
It's gonna save you from problems and heartaches
and all the problems that the world suffers
because they don't take heed to God's word.
Godly sorrow, a real change,
that will save you from problems in your life.
This has nothing to do with spiritual salvation.
They're already saved and it's a church, okay?
Then it says this in verse 11,
for behold this selfsame thing
that ye sorrowed after a godly sort,
what carefulness it wrought in you, right?
You heard this preaching,
you're very careful about your actions.
Yea what clearing of yourselves,
yea what indignation, anger for what's wrong, right?
Yea what fear, a fear of God
or the fear of judgment in your life.
Yea what vehement desire, having a desire to serve God.
Yea what zeal, you're excited to serve God,
you're zealous, yea what revenge.
In all things you have approved yourselves
to be clear in this matter.
What's Paul saying?
He's saying we're talking about godly sorrow
and worldly sorrow and the only real proof
of if someone has actual godly sorrow
is if a time period goes by and a change did take place.
Because everybody's gonna say I'm sorry
but you can't really tell from their words
whether they mean it.
What's the proof of whether or not there's a change
if time goes by and a change took place?
I mean, because they might say I'm sorry
and then the next week they did the same thing.
It's like well they weren't really sorry,
they didn't have godly sorrow.
So Paul's saying you have proved yourselves
to be clear in this matter saying time has gone by
and you've proved you had real sorrow.
You had godly sorrow, there was a real change
and when you're reading 2 Corinthians, you can tell it.
1 Corinthians, he lays down the hammer.
2 Corinthians, he tries to build them up
because they already made the change, right?
It's nothing to do with receiving spiritual salvation though.
Go to 2 Timothy 2, 2 Timothy 2, 2 Timothy chapter 2.
Four more arguments for the first sermon,
they will be quick, okay?
Four more arguments, we'll quickly go through them.
Look, if somebody tries to give you a verse
that you don't understand,
now I'm not one for debating the Bible.
If someone tries to just debate with me
or argue with me out soul winning,
I just move on right to the next door.
There's nothing that angers a false prophet
more than when you just move on.
They'll start yelling at you, they're so angry
and it's just like, but I'm not gonna waste my time.
Like I try to be nice and try to be kind
but when you say all right, well just agree to disagree.
They're so mad when you agree to disagree.
It's like you came to my door
and you know what I've said before is hey,
you know when you come to my door, then we'll talk about it.
That really makes them mad.
But here's what I'm saying though,
if somebody gives you a verse and you don't understand it,
you know what you should do?
You should go home, look at the context of the chapter
to understand stuff because people can take verses
out of context that sound like something.
Because look that verse we just looked at,
if you took that one verse, that's confusing.
Godly sorrow works with repentance to salvation.
But in the context, is it confusing?
No.
So look, when somebody gives you a verse
you don't understand, don't be like oh man,
maybe John 3.16 is wrong.
Oh man, maybe John 3.36 is wrong.
Man, maybe the whole book of John
and the whole book of Romans,
maybe those were false books in the Bible, right?
No, it's just like there's just a verse
you're confused about.
Do you know that there are verses
that I am confused about in the Bible?
As we're preaching through Hosea on Wednesdays,
there are verses that I'm not quite sure
what God's trying to say.
You say what do you do with that?
Well what I do is I spend a lot of time
in the verses I do understand
and I quickly read over those
and people don't even notice, right?
It's like yeah, there's verses in a minor prophet,
of course I don't understand everything, right?
And you know what I found?
I listen to preachers that I love on chapters
where maybe I'm confused about something
and usually they don't understand it either.
Or they don't really preach on it.
You know why?
Because there are things that are deep things in the Bible.
And it's okay if there's a verse
you don't fully understand.
Somebody might give you a verse
and they'll say it's a Bible contradiction.
Maybe you don't know the answer to it.
But you might find the answer two months later, right?
Don't worry about that.
Just keep reading the Bible.
It's okay if there's something.
Go home and study and figure it out.
But look, obviously there's gonna be
some confusing verses in the Bible, okay?
2 Timothy 2 verse 23.
But foolish and unlearned questions avoid
knowing that they do gender strifes.
And the servant of the Lord must not strive,
meaning you must not fight,
but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient.
See, Brother Stuckey, that's not very hardcore.
Paul's telling Timothy to be gentle and patient.
Yeah, that's what he's telling him, right?
Apt to teach, having the ability to teach.
And that's in between being gentle and patient.
Part of being able to teach is to teach tough, hard things,
but in a way where you're not a jerk.
And look, that takes practice.
It's not an easy thing to do,
but that's what Paul's telling Timothy.
Then he says in verse 25,
in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves.
Now, I don't have time to look at it,
but when it's talking about opposing yourself,
there's one other time it has this exact wording
of oppose themselves.
What it's basically saying is somebody
who's arguing with you about something,
and they're just being hard-headed, right?
You disprove them very clearly, and they know that,
but they still argue with you.
I mean, haven't we all been like that before?
We have an argument, and somebody disproves us,
but we don't like losing debates, do we?
We don't like losing arguments, so we're hard-headed,
and then all of a sudden, sometimes the next day,
you know what, you were right about that.
I had a friend of mine in college.
He would always do this.
We'd talk about Bible topics.
He'd argue and argue and argue,
and then oftentimes the next day,
hey, you know what, you guys were right about that.
It's like you spent an hour arguing with us.
He's like, I was wrong.
You were right about it, right?
It's like this is the way we are.
Sometimes we're hard-headed, but see, the Bible says
when you're talking to someone who's being hard-headed,
you need to be meek,
which is basically humbleness in action,
and this is very, very true
when it comes to your personal family.
Basically, don't be a jerk when you're preaching the truth.
You say, why?
Because that person that's being hard-headed,
maybe six months down the road,
they'll be open to the gospel,
but if you are a jerk, you're gonna close off
that door of opportunity, right,
and you'll never get that opportunity,
and look, when we preach the gospel,
you know, we oughta try to be kind to people,
and we're teaching tough things,
but you know, we don't wanna be jerks out so many, right?
If somebody doesn't get saved, we just start mocking them,
right, it's like, no, that's not the attitude we should have.
The context says gentle, patient, and meekness.
I mean, even with people that are opposing themselves,
they're arguing and they disagree,
it doesn't necessarily mean they're reprobates.
It doesn't necessarily mean that they're a child
of the devil.
They might just be being stubborn.
They might be arguing with you,
but maybe they'll think about what you said,
and a seed was planted, and you know what,
maybe they'll meditate upon that,
and then maybe later on down the road,
they're actually willing to listen,
and this is very, very important
when it comes to your family,
because of the fact you will have opportunities
in your life to preach the gospel to your family,
but if you have the wrong attitude,
you can close off that door of opportunity permanently.
We need to be very careful.
It says in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves,
if God, peradventure, will give them repentance
to the acknowledging of the truth.
Now once again, it does not say repentance of sins,
but in the context, repenting to the acknowledging
of the truth, meaning you believe something false,
you repent of that belief, and then you believe the truth,
and the Bible's saying this,
if you run into people like that, you know what,
they peradventure could still get saved.
Don't think they're necessarily totally done.
They'll never get saved.
My mom's never gonna get saved.
My dad's never gonna get saved.
You know what, they might get saved,
but the Bible's giving us some wisdom.
Be meek when coming in contact with people like this.
We teach hard truths,
and I'm not telling you to be watered down.
What I'm telling you is don't be a jerk.
There's a balance here,
but the Bible's saying don't be a jerk, okay?
But once again, it doesn't say repentance of sins,
and it's clear repenting to the acknowledging of the truth,
so once again, that's on our side.
Go to 2 Peter 3, verse nine.
2 Peter 3, verse nine.
And we'll be real quick with these last couple of verses.
2 Peter 3, verse nine.
And it says in 2 Peter 3, verse nine,
the Lord is not slack concerning his promise
as some men count slackness,
but is long suffering to us-ward,
not willing that any should perish,
meaning it is not God's will,
it is not God's desire that anybody perish and go to hell.
What's that saying?
It's saying John Calvin's an idiot, right?
That's what it's saying.
It's saying, you know what, what a shock.
God wants people to go to heaven.
God does not want people to burn in hell.
Is that a shock?
I mean, of course, because it's a loving God.
God wants us to go to heaven.
He died for everybody's sins.
He's not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance.
Does not say repent of your sins.
So same thing as the other verses.
God wants everybody to change their mind
about what they believe and believe on Jesus Christ.
It's that simple, okay?
Go to Revelation 2.
We're gonna close up here.
Revelation 2, Revelation 2.
Revelation 2.
Revelation chapter 2.
Revelation 2, and this is a chapter on churches.
So once again, I don't really see where your argument is
because we've got churches here, okay?
But we're gonna look at the arguments that they have.
Revelation 2, verse 4.
He's talking about a church.
Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, verse 4,
because thou hast left thy first love.
What is the first love referring to?
Well, it's the context of the first works
as mentioned in the next verse.
I believe this is in reference to soul winning.
I believe it's in reference to preaching the gospel, right?
He says, you've left your first love,
meaning, you know what?
Instead of focusing on your first love
and the most important thing,
you're moving on to other things that are not as important.
And this is something that a church needs to be careful of
because as we grow as a church and we have more activities,
sometimes you can put in so much effort and energy
into activities that you kind of forget the first works.
This is something that churches have a tendency to do.
Good church is good people,
but you're so busy and tired that sometimes,
and it's a balance here because we need activities,
but we always need the first works.
We always need soul winning, right?
And it says, you've left your first love, verse 5.
Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen
and repent and do the first works,
or else I will come unto thee quickly
and remove thy candlestick out of his place,
except thou repent.
So he says here in verse 5,
if this church doesn't change their actions
and start doing the first works,
I'm gonna remove their candlestick.
God's blessing's not on a church
that's not doing the first works.
He's saying, yeah, turn from your lack of works,
turn your actions back to soul winning.
This is not an individual, it's a church.
Because notice it doesn't say,
it says remove thy candlestick.
He doesn't say, I'm gonna go inside that church
and take the Holy Spirit out of every person
because they're not going soul winning.
No, he's saying, I'm gonna remove the candlestick.
I'm gonna remove the church
because they're not doing anything good.
And here's the truth.
If there are churches out there that are not soul winning
and they believe the same thing as us,
quite honestly it would be better off
if they just kind of shut down their doors
and people went to a church that was soul winning.
That's reality.
Because if they're not actually doing the work,
what good does it do?
You're gathering together a bunch of people
that love God and are trying to serve God
and you're not motivating them to actually go soul winning.
It's like you're doing harm to them,
you're not doing good to them.
And God's saying, you know what,
I don't like churches like that.
You know what, I like churches
that are doing the first works.
My blessing is on churches that are going soul winning.
Verse 21.
So there's their argument, repent, it's a church.
Okay, yes, it's changing your actions, but it's a church.
Okay, Revelation 2, verse 21.
And I gave her space to repent of her fornication
and she repented not.
And so this is an example of a woman
who's a Jezebel, as the Bible says here.
And she's inside of a church
and she's committing major sins.
She's committing fornication
and she's seducing others to commit fornication as well.
These are pretty major sins, okay.
But you know, the Bible says in verse 21,
I gave her space, meaning a time period
to repent of those actions.
What's it saying?
It's saying when someone has a major sin,
you actually give them warnings
and give them a chance to get it right, okay.
But eventually, you know what,
too much time has gone by and that space is gone, right.
It's like you got two months, you got whatever,
it's like, but then the space runs out.
And she did not repent, it says in verse 21.
This is talking about church discipline.
That's what it's referring to.
Behold, I will cast her into a bed
and them that commit adultery with her
under great tribulation except they repent of their deeds.
And I don't have time to go into it,
but what the Bible teaches is when somebody's at a church,
God has given the church the authority
to do the proper judgment through the leader of the church.
Here's the thing, if you determine
we're casting someone out of the church,
they're in God's hands, right.
They're in God's hands at that point.
And the Bible's saying, hey, this woman was cast out
and guess what, she's under great tribulation.
She is under God's wrath in this life.
Now it doesn't say much about this woman,
doesn't tell us if she was saved or not.
I mean, these are pretty bad sins,
but you know, salvation is not by works.
You know, it doesn't really say a whole lot.
It doesn't tell us about the other people
that are doing these sins as well.
It doesn't matter though.
You commit major sins like that, you're cast out of church
and then you're in God's hands.
That's what the Bible teaches, okay.
But this is a church.
It's nothing about an individual repenting of their sins
and getting saved.
I mean, so look, the first sermon
was on the biblical reasons.
Those are their verses.
The second sermon, we're gonna have some top points
that could be under both sermons, right.
But it's the logical reasons.
But look, the Bible just doesn't support them.
There's no verses that say you gotta repent of your sins
to be saved, but you know, there's hundreds and hundreds
and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of verses.
The whole book of John, the whole book of Romans.
I mean, we got a whole book, the book of John.
We got a whole testament, the New Testament
that's on our side here about this topic of salvation.
There's nothing that says you have to repent of your sins
to be saved.
And as we're gonna see in the second sermon,
this is not just a false doctrine.
It's not something where we can agree to disagree.
This is a heaven or hell issue.
That's 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 just getting to see your word
on this topic of repentance and help all of us
to understand exactly what we believe
and help us to realize why this is a fight
and why it's such an important topic, God,
and why people are wrong.
Help us to understand what we believe, why we believe it,
and how to defend what we believe.
We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.