you
Let's take our seats and get our names and turn to you number 230 at upon him book you maroon
Get your maroon him book and let's turn to page or him number
230 let's sing the song Heavenly Sun
walking in sunlight on a bird
walking in sunlight all of my journey
over the mountains of the deep field
Jesus has said I'll never forsake Thee
I'll never get fear of Heavenly Sun
over the mountains of the deep field
Jesus has said I'll never get fear of Heavenly Sun
over the mountains of the deep field
Jesus has said I'll never get fear of Heavenly Sun
over the mountains of the deep field
Jesus has said I'll never get fear of Heavenly Sun
over the mountains of the deep field
Jesus has said I'll never get fear of Heavenly Sun
over the mountains of the deep field
Jesus has said I'll never get fear of Heavenly Sun
over the mountains of the deep field
Jesus has said I'll never get fear of Heavenly Sun
over the mountains of the deep field
Jesus has said I'll never get fear of Heavenly Sun
over the mountains of the deep field
Jesus has said I'll never get fear of Heavenly Sun
over the mountains of the deep field
Jesus has said I'll never get fear of Heavenly Sun
over the mountains of the deep field
Jesus has said I'll never get fear of Heavenly Sun
over the mountains of the deep field
Jesus has said I'll never get fear of Heavenly Sun
over the mountains of the deep field
Jesus has said I'll never get fear of Heavenly Sun
over the mountains of the deep field
Jesus has said I'll never get fear of Heavenly Sun
over the mountains of the deep field
Jesus has said I'll never get fear of Heavenly Sun
over the mountains of the deep field
Jesus has said I'll never get fear of Heavenly Sun
over the mountains of the deep field
Jesus has said I'll never get fear of Heavenly Sun
over the mountains of the deep field
Jesus has said I'll never get fear of Heavenly Sun
Obviously, we provide the food for that event.
This Monday is National Heroes Day.
As a reminder, next week I'll be preaching at Verity Baptist Church Beekle.
I will not be here. We'll have a couple of the men here.
Make sure you're in your place, in God's house, even though I will not be here.
Let's just do our chest draw. It's going to take a little bit of time, so that's why we kind of skip the announcements.
Let's see. First we have the ladies bracket.
We have eight people, so Zeph, pick a name.
What do we have?
Sister Angel.
Group one. Group A, number one.
All right, get another name, Zeph. Good job.
All right, next name.
Group A, number two. I'll mention the people.
I'll send in the group chat so everybody knows. This will determine your pairing.
In the ladies group, eight people, two groups of four. You're going to play everybody twice.
Zeph is white, once is black. Five minute games, blitz style. All right, Zeph, next name.
Sister Marinette.
Group A, number three. All right, good job.
Next one, Zeph.
All right, what do we have?
Sister Shane.
All right, that's group A. So group B.
What do we have, Zeph?
Sister Karina. Group B, number one.
And there will be a winner for group A, winner for group B.
Then there will be a championship match. All right, Zeph.
That's right, the boys group is next.
All right, who do we have? Sister Glassy.
He likes Sister Glassy.
He likes Sister Glassy. They helped watch our kids
when our youngest son was born.
All right.
This one is number three, Sister Daisy. Group B, number three.
And I will send the rules
in the group chat later.
And Sister Zoe. All right, now for the boys group, Zeph.
All right.
This is the one I'm nervous about.
All right, which one's first, Zeph?
Brother or winner? All right, don't draw me next,
Zeph. Okay?
This is the one person I'm worried about.
All right, next.
All right, draw Franklin. Get Franklin.
We have two names. This one's first.
And we have Brother Juno and
Brother JR. All right, get another name, Zeph.
Group A, number two.
Group A, number three.
And Brother Franklin. I did not rig this.
All right. My prayers have been answered.
I'm half kidding.
All right.
All right, who do we have?
All right, get another name, Zeph.
Group B, number one. All right.
Brother Mark.
And with four groups, the winner of group A plays the winner
of group B in the semi-finals. What else do we have?
Zeph, hurry up, hurry up.
Ah, me. All right.
Just one, just one, hurry up.
And
all right. And Angelo.
All right, Zeph, get another name, hurry up.
All right, so group B is Alex, Mark,
myself, and Angelo.
All right, Zeph, who do we have? Zion.
Group C, number one.
Zion. All right, next.
All right.
Who do we have? Brother Kurt.
All right, pick another name, Zeph.
And pick another name. June.
And we have
Caleb. All right, pick another name.
So, Zion,
Kurt, June, and Caleb are group C. Next name.
Brother Ermin.
All right, next up, three more names. We're almost
done.
Brian. All right, one more name.
Yeah, pick Zeph.
And we have
Marlin, which we'll leave Brother Ermin last.
All right, and so all message in the groups, what we have
basically in the men's with sixteen people, four champions, groups of four, and then
a semi-finals, and then a championship match the next week. And last is
Brother Ermin. All right, good job, Zeph. All right.
I'm not that pleased with my group, but it's okay.
Anyways, this time we'll have Brother Marlin lead us in another song.
Amen.
Amen for our third song. Let's turn to
number three hundred five. In number three hundred five, let's sing
the song, Heals Not to Temptation.
Heals not to
Temptation.
Heals not to
Temptation.
Heals not to
Temptation.
Heals not to
Temptation.
Heals not to
Temptation.
Heals not to
Temptation.
Heals not to
Temptation.
I have no idea what you're saying.
But I feel you in my head.
I feel you in my head.
Matthew chapter 3, please say amen if you're there.
Amen.
Matthew chapter 3 verse 1.
In those days came John the Baptist
preaching in the wilderness of Judea
and saying,
And all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan,
and were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees
come to his baptism, he said unto them,
O generation of vipers,
who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come,
bring forth therefore fruits made for repentance,
and think not to say within yourselves,
We have Abraham to our father,
for I say unto you that God is able of these stones
to raise up children unto Abraham,
and also the axes laid upon the root of the trees.
Therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit
is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
I indeed baptize with water unto repentance,
but he that cometh after me is mightier than I,
whose shoes I am not worthy to bear.
He shall baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire,
whose fan is in his hand,
and he will thoroughly purge his floor,
and gather his wheat unto the garner,
but he will burn up the shaft with unquenchable fire.
Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan and to John
to be baptized of him.
And God forbade him, saying,
I have need to be baptized of thee,
and cometh now to me?
And Jesus answering said unto him,
Suffer it to be so now,
for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.
Then he suffered him.
And Jesus, when he was baptized,
went up straightway out of the water,
and lo, the heavens were opened unto him,
and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove,
and lighting upon him,
and lo, a voice from heaven, saying,
This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
Blessed are you of God's word. Let us pray.
Lord God, in heaven, we thank you, Lord, for this day
that you've given to us.
I pray that you would bless, Lord, for this day.
Bless you with good weather, for our soul,
and in our fellowship later on.
I pray also that you would bless the preaching of your word
and the preaching of your word, Lord, this day.
We love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
All right. We're here in Matthew chapter 3.
So let's just start at verse number 1,
and I'll give you the title for the sermon here in a little bit.
Starting at verse number 1 of Matthew chapter 3,
the Bible reads,
In those days came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea,
and saying, Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Now, obviously this word repent is very controversial in today's world.
I believe the primary context here is in regards to somebody changing their belief
and getting saved, because it talks about John baptizing people.
Let me just say this about repentance.
When it comes to repentance, anyone who's a great preacher,
a great man of God who's clear about repentance
is going to preach repentance in basically two ways.
For the unbeliever, they must change their belief and believe on Jesus Christ.
They must repent of their belief.
If they believe something else to get to heaven, they must change that.
And if they change that, regardless of whether or not they're drunk
or they do drugs or whatever, they're saved because the Bible says,
Whosoever believeth.
So the person that changes their mind about what they believe
and lives to the end of their life as a drunk or a drug addict,
they will be in heaven with us because the Bible says, Whosoever believeth.
But when it comes to people that are saved,
we also preach repentance to those that are saved.
Not about staying saved, not about being saved,
but about repenting of your sins and getting your sin out of your life.
That has nothing to do with getting saved,
but it does have to do with being right with God as a saved person.
And so John the Baptist, I believe the primary context
is he's telling people to change their belief and believe on Jesus,
but he also was a man who preached against sin as well.
Verse number three,
For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah,
saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness,
Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his path straight.
And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair
and a leathern girdle about his loins, and his meat was locusts and wild honey.
Then went out to him Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region round about Jordan,
and were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.
Now go to Acts chapter 19 real quickly.
Acts 19.
So we see that people change their belief.
They get baptized.
It says confessing their sins.
I do not believe that is about calling on the name of the Lord.
What I would say it means is this.
When a person gets baptized,
it's basically a very big spiritual event in your life.
Obviously you already have to be saved,
but I remember when I got baptized, I really wanted to get right with God.
And I would say the average person, when they're getting baptized,
is thinking, God, please help me live for you.
Help me make changes.
So that's not about calling on the name of the Lord.
That's them getting baptized after they are already saved
and just wanting to get right with God.
Confess their sins. I want to get baptized and live for God.
And the Bible says here in Acts 19 verse 1,
And it came to pass that while Apollos was at Corinth,
Paul having passed through the upper coast came to Ephesus,
and finding certain disciples, he said unto them,
Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?
And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.
Now Paul makes a statement, Have ye received the Holy Ghost?
And it's just this basic statement to just kind of confirm that they're saved.
When people visit our church and come to our church that are online listeners,
you probably have an idea there's a good chance that they're saved.
That is not a guarantee that they're saved, though,
just because they listen to sermons online.
There's a chance that they've been listening online,
but they don't actually believe. They don't understand the gospel.
They're not saved. I've seen it many times. Someone is an online listener.
They visit church, and you ask them about salvation.
You ask them about eternal security, and they think you can lose your salvation.
They're not actually saved just because they listen online.
That's not a guarantee they're saved.
I remember one time in Sacramento, I brought a visitor to church from soul winning,
and we had a system of basically preaching the gospel to first-time visitors
because there's always a lot of visitors in Sacramento.
The person who would have preached the gospel to them,
they assumed that they were already saved because Brother Stuckey brought them,
but I didn't get them saved on that Saturday.
They didn't get saved, but I said,
Hey, we'd still love to have you come to church tomorrow,
and they just assumed that they were saved because I brought them to church.
Just because somebody brings somebody to church, that doesn't mean that they're saved.
You don't know what they believe just because somebody brought them to church
or just because they're listening to sermons online.
So Paul makes a statement, and he probably thinks that they're saved,
and then they're like, What's the Holy Ghost?
And he's thinking, Are you not saved?
Do you not understand this?
He explains more in detail in verse number 3.
It says, And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized?
And they said unto John's baptism.
So Paul's basically saying, Why were you baptized then?
Because you're supposed to get baptized after you change your mind about what you believe,
and they say, Well, John the Baptist baptized us.
And then Paul explains what John the Baptist actually taught.
It says in verse 4,
Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance,
saying unto the people that they should believe on him which should come after him,
that is, on Christ Jesus.
So when John the Baptist preached the baptism of repentance,
it doesn't say he taught repent of your sins to be saved.
What it says is that ye should believe.
And the basic idea is if somebody believes something false,
and they don't believe on Jesus Christ,
they've got to change what they believe to be saved.
You cannot believe in Islam and keep that belief and believe in Jesus at the same time.
You can't believe in Hinduism and believe in Jesus at the same time.
If you believe a false gospel, you've got to change your mind.
You cannot believe in repentance of sins for salvation
and believe in Jesus at the same time for salvation.
It's one or the other.
And you must change what you believe in order to be saved.
You cannot keep a false belief system.
You must put your full trust on Jesus Christ to be saved.
And so he preached it to them.
And then in verse 5, when they heard this,
they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Now go back to Matthew 3.
Matthew 3.
And look, this is not a criticism on John the Baptist
because he baptized a lot of people.
You don't really have time to double-check everybody
to make sure that they get it.
Now, I've never been at a church that's a mega church,
but I know of Baptist churches with thousands of members,
and they'll have like 25 people baptized every single Sunday.
And it becomes basically very exciting to people
because they usually have a lot of kids on their bus routes and things like that.
And so once one of the kids gets baptized,
all the kids say, well, I want to get baptized too.
And it's just like I was a part of our church, though.
We did a baptism day in West Virginia,
and we're preaching the gospel to these kids
and getting permission from the parents to baptize them.
And basically you had the older brothers, the Cuyas and Ates,
getting saved in a family, but the younger son,
he did not get saved.
And I mean, I gave him the gospel so many times,
but he's like six years old, right?
Obviously at that age, there's no guarantee.
And we're trying to get him saved.
We're trying to get him saved, trying to get him saved.
And he got really mad at me because I told him,
you can't get baptized, right?
Because he really wanted to get baptized,
and he was trying to memorize the right answers
to try to trick me, but I was like,
no, he doesn't believe, right?
And then the day of the event, we do this baptism day,
and then all of a sudden your heads bowed and everything,
you got the altar call, and someone from the church said,
oh, yeah, you want to get baptized?
Come up here with your brothers and sisters and get baptized.
I walked to the front of the church, and I said,
no, he can't get baptized.
I mean, it's very embarrassing,
but it's like the kid did not believe.
And he stayed mad at me for a couple of years
until he actually got saved,
and then he was no longer mad at me.
But the idea I'm saying is,
it's very easy to accidentally baptize somebody
who's not actually saved.
If you have an event, we had like 15 baptisms.
It's hard to double check with everybody, right?
You don't have time to do that.
I mean, if we had 50 people baptized every Sunday,
lunch would start at like 3 p.m., right?
If we're trying to confirm the salvation of everybody,
you're going to obviously have mistakes, right?
And these people, they get caught up in the moment.
They get baptized.
They don't actually believe.
Matthew 3, verse 7.
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees
come to his baptism, he said unto them,
O generation of vipers,
who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
And so John the Baptist is doing baptisms,
and then all of a sudden the Pharisees and Sadducees
just kind of show up.
It's like, what are you doing here?
Because obviously they are religious leaders of the Jews.
They reject Jesus Christ.
They would persecute Jesus Christ.
And John the Baptist knew these people don't believe.
It'd be like, for example,
if a Catholic priest walked in here today.
We'd all be like, what are you doing here?
Right?
I mean, if some Buddhist monk with their orange outfit
just like walks in here, we'd be like, I'm sorry.
I think you got the wrong location.
We're a Baptist church, right?
Or some Hindu walks in with a red dot on their head.
He'd be like, I'm sorry.
We don't have any cows here.
We're not worshiping cows here.
It would be like something strange about this.
We'd be like, yeah, this is not the place.
Now here's the thing.
We're glad to have unsaved people visit our church.
That's not what I'm saying.
You're welcome to bring your unsaved family or friends
or out soul winning.
Sometimes I invite people that do come to church.
They don't get saved, but they come to church.
No problem with that.
But if you're a religious leader of a false religion
and you visit our church, we'd all be like,
what is a Catholic priest doing here?
Right?
And the reality is, and here's the thing.
Maybe we would allow someone to stay for a service like that,
but if they're coming every week, people would say,
Brother Stuckey, you got to do something about this.
It's like, I got young kids.
I don't feel saved with a Catholic priest here with my young kids.
Right?
Or someone of another religion.
Of course, I'm okay with unsaved people coming to our church,
but when they're a religious leader of a false religion,
it's like, what is your purpose for being here?
You have an ulterior motive.
Right?
I mean, the Pharisees and Sadducees didn't come to say,
Hey, you know what?
I've changed what I believe.
I've got the wrong belief system.
I want to get baptized.
I reject, you know, basically my teachings.
That's not what they were doing.
The question is, what were they doing?
And that is a good question.
I mean, they're basically just trying to come and cause problems,
and they're trying to just act like they're on the same side.
It's kind of like, we're going to go through Ezra here in a couple weeks,
and you know what?
Ezra chapter 4, they're like, let us just build with you.
We worship the same God as you.
And they're just lying about it.
And see, he's not naïve.
I mean, John the Baptist is not naïve about this.
He realizes, hey, if a Catholic priest walks in,
there's something wrong about this picture.
I don't believe that they want to be a part of our church.
But imagine if a Catholic priest walked in here,
and they said, you know what?
I do Catholic services on Saturdays.
On Sundays, I want to be a member of Verity Baptist Church.
You'd be like, what?
It's like, I'm sorry, but that's not going to happen.
Right?
Now, I hope you understand the difference,
because I'm okay with unsafe people visiting our church,
but when someone totally does not believe like us
and completely rejects it and hates it
and believes in Catholicism as a religious leader,
it's like, I'm sorry, this is not the place for you.
You're not going to turn this place into a Catholic church.
You're not going to turn this place into like some yoga center
as a Buddhist monk or whatever.
It's like, this is a Baptist church.
Okay?
And so these people show up, and then John the Baptist is like,
what's going on?
Right?
Why are the Pharisees and the Sadducees here?
Now, I want you to realize, you know,
people are very naive to this sort of thing,
because they say, let us build with you.
They just assume, well, of course they want to build with us.
And even, you know, God's people can be guilty of that,
because, you know, Joshua falls into that in the Bible,
where basically they believe the story of someone.
But it's like, you know, at a lot of Baptist churches,
let's say, for example,
there's someone who's like a hardcore homosexual,
and they say, you know what?
I just wanted to turn to the Lord,
and now I want to start coming to church.
Now, here's the thing.
At most Baptist churches, they'd be like, praise the Lord.
I mean, God reaches the most filthy and wicked sinners.
Praise the Lord.
I would be like, stay away from our children.
Leave this place.
I'd be like, you've got ulterior motives for being here.
It's like, we don't have a children's nursery.
It's like, you're not getting any access to our kids.
I'm not going to be naive about this.
I mean, you can't be naive,
because all throughout the Bible,
people will pretend to be something they're not,
because they're lying.
And if they're bad people,
they have no problem with lying to promote their cause
or do what they want.
And the Pharisees and the Sadducees show up,
and John the Baptist is like, hit the road, Jack.
It's like, I don't believe that you believe like us.
I'm not going to baptize you.
I'm not going to fall for that.
And he says in verse number eight,
bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance.
And he said, well, Brother Stuckey,
you know, what does that mean there?
What he's saying is,
you've spent decades converting people to a false religion.
Give me proof that you're actually changed what you believe,
and you're actually converting people to the true religion.
Show me your fruits.
Show me that you actually have changed what you believe
because you've been teaching people the right gospel
and you've gotten people saved.
He's like, I don't believe that.
Right?
Who hath warned you to flee from the wrath that come?
Meaning, who gave you the gospel?
Who gave you the gospel
and got you to change what you believe
and believe on the true gospel?
And he says, I don't believe it.
And they're there for ulterior motives.
He says in verse number nine,
and think not to say within yourselves
you have Abraham to our father,
for I say unto you,
that God is able of these stones
to raise up children unto Abraham.
And now also the ax is laid under the root of the trees,
therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit
is hewn down and cast into the fire.
Now, here's the thing about this.
Everybody would agree with me
that if a Buddhist monk started regularly coming to church,
there's something weird here about this picture.
And probably most people would say,
yeah, I don't think they should be welcome to come
if they completely reject our church
and it's like they believe something completely different.
You would probably agree with me.
I mean, if a Catholic priest
was regularly coming to our church,
you'd be like, I'm sorry,
but I don't think this is the right church for you.
You would want me to get rid of them.
Right?
You wouldn't want someone like that at our church
because you would know,
hey, they're here to cause problems.
But here's the thing,
I'm not really that concerned
about a Buddhist monk coming here
because even if they did,
everybody already knows,
hey, they believe another religion.
You're not going to fall for that.
If some Hindu comes in here,
we already know Hinduism's a wacky, crazy religion.
We're not going to fall for that.
If a Catholic priest comes in here,
it's like, hey, I got saved when I rejected Catholicism.
I'm not going back to the Mother of Harlots.
Right?
But what if somebody came in here
and they said, I'm a Baptist?
Most people would just automatically assume,
well, you know what?
They're just like us.
Amen.
Praise the Lord.
What if they're a Calvinist?
What if they're a Baptist,
but they are a hardcore Calvinist teacher?
It is no different than a Hindu or a Buddhist
or a Catholic priest walking in here.
The difference is it's more subtle and more dangerous.
You say, why?
Because they could say they're a Baptist.
See, a Buddhist is not going to say they're a Baptist.
But a Calvinist will often say, I'm a Baptist.
In fact, at Baptist churches,
half the people are Calvinists.
But a hardcore Calvinist who's a Calvinist teacher
could come in here and say, I'm a Baptist,
and we'd be like, all right.
Praise the Lord.
They're a Baptist.
It's no different.
Go in your Bible to 2 Timothy 3.
2 Timothy 3.
Now, in case you're not aware of what a Calvinist is,
let me just very briefly explain to you.
And by the way, the name of the sermon
is Casting the Calvinist Out of the Church.
Casting the Calvinist Out of the Church.
Now, as far as I know,
nobody at our church is a Calvinist,
neither at our church in Pampanga.
But I told somebody, do not come to our church
that asked to come to our church,
and I said, no.
We don't want you at our church.
It's like, cast them out before they even get to you.
It's like, cast them out before they even get to the church.
Because we don't accept that doctrine.
Calvinism is named after a guy by the name of John Calvin.
But obviously there's nothing new under the sun.
John Calvin came in the 16th century,
but Calvinism has existed since the very beginning.
Okay?
And it's named after John Calvin.
What you will find is a lot of people
don't like being called a Calvinist
because they don't want to be named after a man,
but they believe the same exact things.
They believe in tulip, the deadliest flower in the world,
if you know what I'm talking about.
They believe in sovereign grace.
They believe in limited atonement.
And what they basically believe is that we are robots.
We have no free will.
And everything is just designed by God.
So God says do this, and you do this.
God says you do this, you do this.
Now when it comes to salvation,
we believe whosoever believeth is who gets saved.
It is up to you.
Whosoever will may come.
Right?
The song we're actually singing after the first service
is like an anti-Calvinism song.
We believe it is a free gift
that you've got the choice to accept.
You say, well, what's the problem
of embracing this doctrine, though?
Isn't it just a minor difference?
Well, here's what you actually believe
if you firmly believe in Calvinism.
You believe that God is the author of all sin.
All sin.
Meaning that when somebody gets murdered,
God wanted it to happen, and God made it happen.
When a child gets molested, God wanted it to happen,
and God made it happen.
I'm sorry, that's not the same God that I believe in.
I don't believe that God wants people to be murdered
or little children to be molested.
That is what they believe, though.
They believe that before you're saved,
every single person before salvation is a reprobate.
Every single person before salvation
is a child of the devil with the same desires
that we would say is someone
giving over to a reprobate mind.
Meaning that they would freely admit
if they actually believe in Calvinism
that yes, you know what, I could have murdered someone
or molested a little child, become a serial killer.
It was in my nature.
One of the famous Calvinist preachers,
he made this statement in a sermon
where he said that every unsafe person,
if they had the chance, would murder God.
They said if you had the opportunity to take an object
and kill God, it's like you would do it
because after all, on the day of judgment,
it's either you or God.
So if you had a chance to kill God, you would do it.
I'm sorry, but that thought never crossed my mind
ever in my life of wanting to kill God.
I mean, say people can get mad at God
or get mad at the rules of the Bible,
but I'm sorry, I've never met anyone
besides that preacher who I heard say that,
say that they wanted to murder God.
It's like, what is wrong with you?
And then that's the person who's now a famous preacher.
It's like, wow, you were a reprobate.
Right?
It's just like you've got to be kidding me
like to actually believe something like that.
They do not believe that Jesus died for everybody.
They believe Jesus only died for some people.
I mean, my Bible says the grace of God
that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men.
God is not willing that any should perish.
I mean, all throughout the Bible,
it said He died for the sins of the whole world.
And it even says about the false prophets like this person,
you know what, God bought them.
That's what it says.
He paid for their sins.
And look, Calvinism is a major heresy,
but here's the thing,
it's an accepted doctrine at most churches.
Not at our church.
It's not an accepted doctrine.
People come in here and it's this philosophy
that they subtly spread and it causes major problems.
Now, there's churches that would say they're not Calvinist,
but they have Calvinist types of beliefs.
You say, what do you mean, Brother Stuckey?
Let's say you have an unsaved relative
and you're praying for your unsaved relative to get saved.
And somebody tells you, you know what,
if it's meant to happen, if it's God's will,
they will get saved.
What does that mean?
Because God's will, it says He is not willing
that any should perish.
It is God's will for them to get saved.
But it requires a soul winner and that person
to accept the gospel.
And it's like that sort of statement,
you know what, if they're meant to get saved,
they will get saved.
It's like, no, a soul winner has to preach the gospel
and they have free will to accept that message.
I mean, all throughout the Bible,
God condemns sin and preaches against sin
to suggest that God's the one who's actually doing the sinning
or forcing it to happen.
It makes no sense.
No sense whatsoever.
And someone who fully embraces this belief system,
they have got a perverted, rejected mind.
There is not a single saved person on the planet
that is a hardcore believer in Calvinism or sovereign grace,
not a single person.
There are people that are confused,
which is why we preach against it,
but there's not a single saved person on the planet
that is a hardcore believer in that that is actually saved.
Now, here's the thing.
Some of you might think that's a little bit extreme.
But think about the topic of repentance of sins
as a soul winner.
That's a fighting topic, isn't it?
If somebody believed a hardcore repentance of sins,
and look, I've heard people preach hardcore repentance of sins messages.
I've heard people say that, you know what,
somebody came to the front of the altar to get saved,
and then I ask them, are you willing to quit drinking?
Are you willing to quit living with your girlfriend?
Are you willing to start coming to church every week?
They're like, I'm not sure if I'm ready.
You're not ready to be saved.
That is a hardcore work salvation.
We tell people the opposite about soul winning.
We tell them, you know what,
you can stay a drunk until the day you die and go to heaven if you believe.
That's what we're trying to get you to do is believe on Christ.
A hardcore work salvation.
And look, if there was somebody like that,
you would say, well, wait a minute,
we don't want someone like that at our church
that is a hardcore believer in that,
that's fully persuaded on that.
They want to come out soul winning
and they're preaching a repentance of sins message.
You would say it's not accepted.
But what you need to understand about Calvinism
is their moment of salvation is called lordship salvation.
It is repentance of sins on steroids.
There are repentance of sins teachers
that will say lordship salvation is a work salvation
because it's so extreme.
Because what they believe is basically
you're walking in the flesh, the old man,
all these sinful desires, you get saved
and instantly you're 100% devoted to God.
Because people that believe in repentance of sins,
they'll say, well, yeah, you got to turn from your sins,
but it's sort of like this general turning.
It's not as extreme as lordship salvation.
In lordship salvation, you turn all of your will
and your desires and everything over to God.
But they'll claim, we're not saying there's any works
because God's the one who did it.
It's like you believe in a work salvation.
It's actually far more extreme than just repentance of sins.
We had somebody, and you're in 2 Timothy 3,
we'll look at it here in a second.
2 Timothy 3.
But to give you an idea of how this manifests itself in church,
we had somebody about a year and a half ago
that visited our church.
First time visitor.
He was a guy in probably his 30s,
and he was talking to Brother J. back there.
And I think me and a couple of the men
were sitting here talking,
and this guy was just saying things that were strange.
You felt like he was hiding something.
And we're like, is this guy a Calvinist?
And I walked back there,
and as far as I can remember,
I didn't even say hello or anything
because I was like 99% sure this guy's a Calvinist.
I said, are you a Calvinist?
Doesn't answer the question.
Does this, I don't speak English thing that he's pretending to do.
Calvinist kabbah.
It's just like, I know you understand what I'm saying.
Now here's the thing.
You can freely ask me any question.
I am not ashamed of what I believe.
I'm not ashamed.
And especially in terms of the Bible,
ask me any Bible question.
I will tell you what I believe.
I'm not embarrassed about what I believe,
especially about salvation.
I mean, if you firmly believe this,
then why would you be ashamed of it?
Why would you avoid it?
I mean, I tried to directly ask this guy this question.
He kept avoiding it.
And I said, look, I'm asking you
because if you believe in this, just leave.
We don't want you here.
But he comes here, not just a first-time visitor.
He says he wants to be trained for the ministry.
It's like that's kind of an odd thing
for a first-time visitor to say.
It's I want to become a member of your church
and be trained for the ministry by you.
And I would love to work for the church.
It's like, who are you?
Like, why would you say something like that?
Especially when you don't believe like we do.
So why are you here?
What's your purpose?
Whether you came willingly or God...
I mean, the devil sent you himself, I should say, not God.
Whether you came in your own free will,
whether you believe that or not,
or the devil sent you and basically forced you,
you know what, you're just here to cause problems.
Because we don't believe that.
I mean, it's just like all you have to do
is go to the beginning of this church
and I have like 55 million anti-Calvinism things
on our YouTube.
Right?
I think I made it pretty clear
what I feel about this doctrine
and how it's never going to creep into this church.
So why would someone who does not believe like us
want to come to our church?
Look, I don't want to go to a church
where I don't agree with them.
I don't agree with them about salvation
or this or this,
but I'm just going to go to the church
and just basically spread my belief
to change the culture of the church.
Just go to a church you agree with.
Why would you do that?
I'm not going to visit INC or the Catholic Church
or Aung Da Ting Da An
or a false Baptist church or whatever
because I don't agree with them.
So why would that person want to come here?
Because they want to spread that false philosophy.
Notice what it says in 2 Timothy 3 verse 1.
2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 1.
This know also that in the last days
perilous times shall come,
for men shall be lovers of their own selves,
covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers,
disobedient to parents,
unthankful, unholy,
without natural affection, truce breakers,
false accusers, incontinent,
fierce despisers of those that are good,
traitors, heady, high-minded,
lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God,
having a form of godliness
but denying the power thereof,
from such turn away.
For of this sort are they
which creep into houses
and lead captive silly women laden with sins,
led away with diverse lusts.
The Bible speaks about false prophets
creeping into houses
and basically deceiving people
and causing problems.
And in our modern day,
it's a lot easier because all they have to do
is send out a mass text message.
Send out a mass text message like,
huh, this is an interesting verse
in Jeremiah of, you know,
the potter and the clay.
I mean, how do we answer that?
We're against Calvinism,
but I don't know.
And then they subtly try to confuse you.
They do that all the time.
I've had people that I thought
I got saved that were Calvinists,
and then I realized after a week,
it's like I was trying to get them
to come to church.
It's like they're pretending like,
you know, man, they're trying to answer
their Calvinist friends.
It's like, no, no, actually,
they're subtly trying to convert me.
It's like I realized they were
just lying about it the entire time.
Happens all the time.
They do that all the time.
And it's very easy in our modern day
to creep into houses
because all you have to do
is send a text message, right?
These little EPs that want to come into houses
and preach these false gospels,
it's like we're not going to allow it
in the house of God.
If we can prevent it from coming in,
why not?
Because if a first time visitor comes in
that wants to teach their false doctrine,
you know what, we'll tell them to go.
I've told them to go before,
but isn't it better to deal with it
before they even come in?
Before they try to even cause
any sorts of problems?
It says in verse number seven,
ever learning and never able to come
to the knowledge of the truth,
now as Janus and Jamborees withstood Moses,
so do these also resist the truth.
Men of corrupt minds
reprobate concerning the faith,
but they shall proceed no further,
for their folly shall be manifested
unto all men as theirs also was.
Go to Ephesians 4.
Ephesians 4.
Ephesians chapter 4.
Calvinists believe that God wants people
to burn in hell for His glory.
God wants most people to go to hell.
Basically, God is up in heaven,
and He creates somebody,
and He's like, all right, Ronald,
am I going to choose heaven or hell?
Hell.
He's going to choose most people for hell
because most people brought us away
to lead us to destruction.
Many be there be which go in there at.
So basically, He creates us,
and most of us He says,
you know what, I'd rather see you in hell.
I'd rather see you in hell.
Now, I don't know about you,
but that sounds like a different God
than I believe in.
I mean, if you saw some little kid
that was torturing a dog or a cat,
and they stuffed a dog or a cat
in a bag, in a paper bag,
tied it up, and set it on fire,
you would say,
there's something wrong with that kid.
It's like, man,
there's something majorly wrong
about that kid that would enjoy seeing
a cat or a dog just burn to death.
But that's what Calvinists believe
that God is.
That God loves seeing people burn in hell.
He wants to send them to hell.
Then why did He die for the sins
of the whole world?
It doesn't make any sense.
I mean, He died for the sins
of the whole world.
He wants everybody to hear the gospel,
but He wants them to burn in hell.
It doesn't make any sense.
I'm sorry, that is not the God
that I believe in.
The God I believe in is a God of love,
and He sends people to hell for rejection.
And yet, you know what,
He died for the sins of people
that would go to hell.
You say, why?
Because they chose the rejection of His life.
Now, let me read to you from this person
who attempted to visit our church.
And I've never talked to this person before,
but apparently he found our church online,
he was listening online or whatever,
and this is the first thing that he said.
It was a very long message,
I'll be a part of it.
But he said,
I mean, he doesn't even say,
you know, hello.
I'm looking for a church with no nonsense,
no men-pleasing preachers or pastors
who don't love the praise of men,
but only the praise of God.
For instance, John 12 43,
dot, dot, dot.
Who preach with serious gravity,
not to impress visitors or the congregation
with pulpit theatrics
or PowerPoint presentations flashed on screen,
but preach direct from the Bible
with supporting scripture.
Dot, dot, dot.
The result of the voting hours
carefully burning the midnight candles
to labor brackets,
not from books or commentaries
or online sermon archives
or YouTube sermon videos or web links,
in the word and doctrine,
parentheses, First Timothy 5 17.
By way of rightly dividing
the word of truth,
parentheses, Second Timothy 2 15,
so as to be able to speak the things
which become sound doctrine,
parentheses, Titus 2 1.
I'm just like, okay,
what is wrong with this person?
Because here's the thing.
You know what?
I've visited churches, you know,
before I've had times
where I visited churches
or I was looking for a church.
Anyway, usually I would visit a church
and then just talk privately
to the pastor afterwards
about a couple basic questions.
What do you believe about salvation,
repentance of sins,
soul winning, King James Bible?
A few very basic questions.
Or if I would message
or call them ahead of time,
I would say, hey, you know,
I'm looking for a church,
and you know what?
I have a few things
I was looking for,
and I said, what do you believe
about repentance
in terms of salvation?
What do you believe
about the King James Bible?
And I would ask
a couple questions,
and if they disagreed,
I would say, hey,
I'm not trying to argue.
I'm just looking for a church,
you know, because sometimes
they'll try to debate you
or whatever if they disagree.
And it's just like,
I'm just asking,
and if they don't agree like me,
then whatever.
I've never sent a message
like this, you know,
have you spent hours
burning the midnight candle
to labor?
It's like, I mean, bizarre, right?
But I give people
the benefit of the doubt
even though I thought
that was very strange.
I'm already thinking,
if this person visits church,
I don't know who this is,
but you know,
it'll be interesting.
But then he said,
therefore, in light
of the foregoing,
kindly respond to questions
below as numbered.
And then he asked me
five questions.
And so I respond
to his questions.
And then I went to his Facebook
later on either that day
or the next day,
and I was like,
well, let's see if there's
any other information
about this person
to get an idea
of what does this person believe?
And this is a person
who does not like
to be labeled a Calvinist,
but he says he's a hardcore believer
in sovereign grace,
total depravity,
tulip.
I mean, he believes
limited atonement,
election onto salvation.
He believes in Calvinism
even though he doesn't like
being called a Calvinist.
And I messaged him.
I said, hey,
I saw your Facebook.
I was like,
we're very hardcore,
anti-sovereign grace.
We believe Jesus died
for everybody.
This is not the right church
for you.
Actually, don't come
to our church.
Now you say,
Brother Stuckey,
why would you do that?
Because if we let him
come to the church,
we just remove him anyway.
Because when you go
to his Facebook,
if you go months and months,
he has all of these posts
on Calvinism.
This is not somebody
who is confused
or they don't know
what they believe.
It's somebody who wants
to teach people this.
It's somebody,
if they came to our church,
they would try
to indoctrinate people
into their damnable heresy.
And look,
at other Baptist churches,
I mean,
it's a mixed bag of Calvinists
and anti-Calvinists.
I mean,
the segregation
of the Baptist churches,
I mean,
in the past,
people would be like,
men and women,
one side versus the other.
Now it's like Calvinists
and non-Calvinists.
It's just like,
in one church,
and it's just this mixed bag
where they believe
completely different things.
And what does the Bible
say about this?
Should you just let
every single person
have all these beliefs?
Well, notice what it says
in Ephesians 4, verse 11.
And he gave some apostles
and some prophets
and some evangelists
and some pastors and teachers
for the perfecting of the saints
for the work of the ministry
for the edifying
of the body of Christ.
See, the Bible says,
these people are given
for the edifying
of the body of Christ,
the local church body,
the work of the ministry.
And one of the things they do
is they help bring about unity.
It says in verse 13,
So we all come in the unity
of the faith and of the knowledge
of the Son of God
unto a perfect man,
unto the measure of the stature
of the fullness of Christ.
For a local body to be successful,
it's got to be united together,
the unity of the faith.
You say, but Brother Stuckey,
your sermon sounds pretty divisive.
Well, not to the people
that are at this church.
People agree with this.
This church is united.
Now, it's divisive to people
that are not going to
come to our church.
That's the point.
It's like, yes, you know,
God is a God of division.
Now, the local church body
needs to be united,
but the Bible says that
He didn't come to bring
everybody together
or this world peace.
And look, here's the thing.
If you want to just join
every single person together,
when are you going to
put a stop to that?
Well, if we're all Baptists,
we're all on the same team.
Okay, let's take that philosophy.
Why is it just all Baptists?
Why not all of Christianity?
Why stop there?
Why not the Christians
with the Muslims?
Why do we all unite?
Chrislam, they call it.
Why not?
Bring along the Hindus
and the Buddhists.
Let's just all get along.
Isn't that what the world
is trying to do?
Isn't that exactly
what the Antichrist
is going to do,
bring everybody together?
But people have this idea,
and you know,
there's this idea
in the Philippines,
if you're not Catholic
or one of these extreme cults,
you're on the same team.
So basically,
you know what?
All of these,
whether it's Baptist
or non-denominant,
everybody's on the same team.
Actually, that's not
what the Bible teaches,
because there's still doctrines
that we would divide on,
specifically on salvation,
eternal security,
repentance of sins
and things like that.
But no,
we have set beliefs here,
and we are united
in that faith.
And I realize,
this sort of preaching,
we will never be
the biggest Baptist church
in the Philippines,
or even close to it.
But you look around,
it's not like I'm preaching
to five people.
It's not like I'm preaching
to four people right now,
you know,
Zephaniah,
Christabel,
Ezra and my wife.
Right?
There's people here.
So obviously,
there's people
that agree with this.
Obviously,
there are people that are saying,
hey, you know what?
I like these beliefs.
I want to be part of this church,
and we are united
in what we believe.
We don't just let anything
in here,
because then it would just
cause division
in our church.
Our church needs to be united,
but we don't need to be united
with every single person
in the world,
because we are a local body.
A body needs to be together.
Right?
All of your body parts
or members need
to be united together.
I mean,
if you had an accident,
and you lost one of
your body parts,
it's like, you know,
you have to be united together.
But here's the thing,
my body doesn't need
to be united with everybody
in the world.
That doesn't make any sense.
It's like,
we are a local church body
made up of members or parts,
as the Bible says.
Verse 14.
That we henceforth
be no more children
tossed to and fro,
carried about with
every wind of doctrine
by the sight of men,
and cunning craftiness,
whereby they lie
in wait to deceive.
Verse 14 speaks about people
that are trying to deceive you.
They're trying to lie to you.
See, some of you think
this is too extreme right now.
And what I would say is,
keep reading your Bible
and realize that the devil
is trying to cause problems.
He's trying to get people
to be deceived
and cause problems.
You've got to be aware of that.
Not every single person
with a YouTube channel
that makes Bible videos
is a good person.
We had somebody in Sacramento,
first time visitor at church,
and, you know,
usually when people
are like this,
there's already something
different about them.
He seemed very strange.
And he visited,
and he visited with his kids,
but his wife didn't come,
and he said he was going to
come back the next week.
Well, you know,
first time visitor,
and online listener,
and he came back the next week.
And then he came out
soul winning,
second week there.
And I remember,
I was his soul winning partner.
And this person
asked this question,
he's like,
am I allowed to leave
my kids in the car
as we go soul winning,
or do they have to come?
I was like,
I don't legally know
what the laws are in California,
but I think you should
bring your kids with you,
because actually,
I think you'll go to prison
if you leave your kids
in a hot car
when it's 40 degrees
Celsius outside.
But he wanted to leave
his kids in the car,
and I'm just thinking,
okay, and this guy
just different.
Like, he's just kind of strange.
He stopped to try to preach
the gospel to this person
who only spoke Chinese,
and this guy didn't speak Chinese,
and he's trying to speak Chinese,
and just,
it's really strange.
But we're going out soul winning,
and I'm his soul winning partner,
and this is what he tells me.
He's like, you know what,
a lot of people believe
that the Bible teaches
going soul winning door to door
and house to house.
You know, he's like,
it's a good thing,
and we're doing this exact thing
as he says this.
And he's like,
you know, it's a good thing to do,
but there's actually no verse
in the Bible
that actually tells you that.
It's like,
why is this guy soul winning?
And I said,
you know, actually,
just this morning,
I was reading in the book of Acts,
and it says house to house.
And he's like,
no, no, no,
it's in there,
but it's not.
And I showed him the verse,
and he's like,
huh, I guess I was wrong.
And then he kept,
it's like,
what are you trying to do?
Like, what's your purpose?
Because you seem very convinced
that it doesn't say that in there,
like I wouldn't be able to answer you,
and then all of a sudden
you just change your mind
as I showed you what it says
in the book of Acts.
And it's just like,
huh, I guess I was wrong.
It's like,
okay, and we're already like,
okay, this guy,
we're going to warn Pastor Mendez,
we don't know about this guy.
And so then all of a sudden,
after the evening service,
we get back from soul winning,
and this guy talks to me
and this other person aside,
and he's trying to tell us
the King James Bible's wrong,
that there's errors
in the King James Bible.
Now look,
he was not very subtle at all
because usually you wait
a couple months,
and this is why people think
like my preaching's too strict
because instead they let someone
come to that church
and then months down the road
be like, whoops,
I made a mistake.
Right?
But this person was not
very subtle at all.
He didn't creep in,
he just immediately
was spreading his heresy.
It turns out this guy
had a YouTube channel
with like 20,000 subscribers
and he did not believe in hell.
But he was just listening online,
just decided to visit the church.
It's like, look,
you cannot be naive.
There are bad people out there
trying to cause problems,
especially at a good church.
I mean, in Ezra 4 it's like,
let us build with you.
We worship the same God as you.
Oh wow, great.
Right, all right,
let's just have you in.
Now look, don't misunderstand me
because we love having visitors
at church and of course
we give people the benefit of the doubt.
But when it's obvious
they don't believe like us,
you can't just be foolish.
Right, right.
And it says here in Ephesians 4,
verse 14 talks about people
that would try to deceive.
Verse 15,
But speaking the truth in love
may grow up on them in all things
which is the head, even Christ,
from whom the whole body
fitly joined together
and compacted by that
which every joint supplieth
according to the effectual working
and the measure of every part
maketh increase of the body
unto the edifying of itself in love.
The Bible says a church body
needs to be united together as one.
Imagine that you're going walking
and your left foot decides
it's going this direction
and your right foot decides
it's going this direction.
It's like, you know,
there's this battle going on.
Which direction are you going to go?
You're not going to get anywhere.
And that might seem like a foolish example
but literally the reason why I tore my ACL
is because my left leg did not budge
and the rest of my body went this way.
That's when I tore my ACL
because one part of the body
was going the other direction
as the rest of my body.
And, you know, imagine, you know what,
your feet are going this direction
and you're crossing the street
but your head's like,
I'm going to turn the other direction.
It's like, you're going to get killed.
Right?
It's like you have to have
and you say, well,
these are silly examples.
Well, the Bible gives the example
of a body with parts.
Yeah, it's a silly example
that God's trying to drive home
that your body needs to be going
in the same direction.
And if it's not, you've got problems.
Right?
Our local church body,
we must be united with the same beliefs.
I mean, we're not a church where it's like,
well, you know what, let's devote on,
should we go street preaching this week
or hand out invitations or so on?
No, because we're against street preaching.
We're against just handing out invitations
without preaching the gospel.
We believe in preaching the gospel,
opening our mouth boldly.
And look, we're united in that
because we agree on that.
We're on the same page on that.
We need to be united on that.
But there's a lot of churches
that it's not like that,
specifically Baptist churches
because they want to grow
their congregations,
so they're like, well,
we don't exactly agree like some
of these non-denom churches,
but look at how many people
they're reaching.
Let's just change the music,
shorten the sermons.
Let's just change everything
and then we can just build up our church.
Well, that's not what we're trying to do here.
I hope one day our church
would run hundreds of people.
I don't know whether it ever will or won't,
but we're not going to change
in order to achieve that.
Turn your Bible to Romans 16.
We've got a few more places.
Romans 16, Romans 16.
I mean, why would somebody
come across our church
and listen to the sermons
and then want to visit our church
if they are hardcore Calvinists?
You don't have to do much searching
to find out I'm hardcore anti-Calvinism,
so why would you want to come to our church?
And this guy wanted to drag me
into the debate.
I just ignored him because he's like,
oh, well, I'm glad that you let me know
you're an Arminian
because I'm not going to go
to your church then.
It's like, yeah, you're not a Calvinist.
They say you're an Arminian.
It's like, no, you're both heretics.
They're both wrong.
It's like, no, I grew up,
United Methodists is the Arminian
denomination.
I grew up United Methodists.
I rejected that,
and I also reject Calvinism.
It's like, I believe salvation
is a free gift.
I believe that, yes,
it's eternal life
because we are preserved
in Jesus Christ.
God keeps us saved.
We don't persevere
into the end.
There's a big difference there.
Romans 16, verse 17.
Now beseech you, brethren,
mark them which cause divisions
and offenses contrary to the doctrine
which you have learned
and avoid them.
The Bible says,
mark and avoid.
Well, that's exactly
what we're doing.
I mark someone.
We're avoiding him.
Don't come to our church.
Right?
Marking and avoiding.
That's exactly what we're doing.
I mean, instead of letting someone
like that come to church
and then everybody's got to make
that decision to avoid,
no, no, no.
I'm just going to mark him.
Don't come to our church,
and we get to avoid him.
Right?
Go to 1 Corinthians 1.
1 Corinthians 1.
We'll look at two more places.
1 Corinthians 1.
I mean, I believe right now
in our church,
I believe that we are
a very united church.
We're very united
in what we believe,
what we stand for.
You know, I think right now
our church has a great spirit
about it.
You know, I don't know
whether you like that word,
the spirit of the church,
but the Bible actually does
use that terminology.
But right now we're united.
You know, we have a good attitude.
We're united.
You know, we have a good attitude.
We have the same common goal.
I love the spirit and direction
of our church right now.
And we want to keep it that way.
We don't want to have a situation
of a Korah coming in
and just splitting the church.
And look, it happens at every church,
and you have church problems.
You've got to deal with them
when they happen.
But what if you can avoid
having as many church problems?
It's better that, you know what,
I act a little bit mean
because I don't give the benefit
of the doubt to this guy
and say, just don't even come.
Why?
We avoid having these major problems
down the road.
1 Corinthians 1, verse 10.
Now, I beseech you, brethren,
by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that you all speak the same thing
and that there be no divisions among you,
but that you be perfectly joined together
in the same mind
and in the same judgment.
As a local church,
we should not have divisions.
We should have the same mind
and the same judgment.
We should have the same doctrine,
the same belief system,
the same goals.
And people think this is
very divisive preaching,
but it's not divisive
to our local church, though.
People agree with this.
At our church, people are like,
yeah, you know what, I believe that.
I'm united about that.
We want to stand up for salvation.
We don't want this to turn in
to our old Baptist churches
that are just filled full
with a bunch of heretics
and unsaved people
and different beliefs.
No, we want to make sure
salvation is very clear.
What we believe about these things
are very clear.
1 Corinthians 3.
Go to 1 Corinthians 3.
1 Corinthians 3.
Look, some people think
when it comes to Calvinism,
because this is my biggest pet peeve
if I have one.
If there's one thing I hate,
and I have to avoid preaching
about this every week.
It's been a while, though,
since I've preached on Calvinism.
Right?
It's like, I've got to make sure
I don't over-preach it
because I would love to preach,
you know,
I'd love to preach a Tulip series.
Maybe one day I will, you know.
I hate this doctrine
because I know how dangerous it is
and how it's really subtle
and how it's never going to come
into our church.
But, you know,
at other Baptist churches,
it's just a free-for-all.
And they allow this
into their churches.
And look, I even know of cases
where someone will be running
like a church mission
or leading a church
and they'll send preachers
from time to time
to preach at that church.
And sometimes somebody
will just come up
and preach a hardcore
Calvinism sermon.
And they can't do anything about it.
But at other Baptist churches,
they're just like,
well, this is not an issue
to divide on.
Oh, it is an issue
to divide on, my friend.
It's like we are
an anti-Calvinist Baptist church.
It says in 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.
I have fed you with milk
and not with meat,
for hitherto you are not able
to bear it,
neither yet now are ye able.
For ye are yet carnal,
for whereas it is among you,
envying strife and divisions,
are ye not carnal
and walk as men?
The Bible says that this church
is carnal because there's divisions.
They're not united.
Now, Calvinists are very famous
for saying that there's no such thing
as a carnal Christian.
Paul Washer,
other people like that.
I mean, R.C. Sproul was very famous.
He had the Ligonier Ministries,
which is a big Calvinist ministry.
And they'll say there's no such thing
as a carnal Christian.
Well, 1 Corinthians 3
is about carnal Christians.
What does carnal mean?
It's like in Spanish,
carne means meat.
It means your flesh.
It means you're walking in the flesh.
When you get saved,
you still have your flesh.
And you've got the choice
to walk in the flesh of the Spirit.
Because what I would say
about salvation is this.
If a drunk gets saved right now,
they're still a drunk.
Because their flesh
still desires that alcohol.
Now, I'm not saying they can't
overcome that,
but I'm saying their flesh
did not magically change
when they got saved.
They still desire that.
And it is very possible
for a saved person
to walk in the flesh.
In fact, all of us
do it from time to time.
Every single person,
because we're not perfect.
But Calvinists say,
no, no, no, no.
If you're really saved,
if you're really saved,
I know you say you're saved,
but if you're really saved,
you're going to read
the Bible every day.
If you're really saved,
you're not going to do
these sins anymore.
And if you're not reading
the Bible every day,
I'm not saying you're not saved.
I'm just not sure
if you're saved.
Right?
I mean, if you're still
watching the same things
and listening to the same music,
I'm not saying you're not saved,
but I'm not sure
if you're saved.
Or somebody stops coming
to church, they're like,
well, you know what?
They were never really saved.
It's like, that's ridiculous.
I mean, the spirit is willing,
but the flesh is weak.
And look, saved people
can walk in the flesh
and be carnal,
and that's all that it means
to be carnal,
is walking in the flesh.
But they'll say,
there's no such thing
as a continuously
carnal Christian.
They'll say it's like
the biggest heresy
in Christianity
is the doctrine
of the carnal Christian.
Well, I don't know
what Bible you're reading,
but Paul specifically uses
that word carnal
in 1 Corinthians 3.
Go to 1 Corinthians 11.
We'll close up.
1 Corinthians 11.
We'll close up.
Why is that church carnal?
One reason is divisions.
Now, people would say,
well, you're preaching
the flesh, Brother Stuckey.
You're a very carnal preacher.
Well, I don't see divisions
at our church.
If that's your proof
of me walking in the flesh,
I'm sorry,
but it doesn't hold water
because we don't have
divisions at our church.
Yeah, this is a very divisive
sermon because it avoids people
that want to cause problems,
but we stay united as a church
in what we believe.
Now, you say,
Brother Stuckey,
I think that you're a bit
too extreme on the topic
of Calvinism.
Well, let me just say this.
I have always been this extreme
since the church started.
I have always been this extreme,
and I understand.
I take a more extreme stance
than maybe other people do.
I have always had this stance.
This is not a new thing.
It has always been like this,
and I plan to be like this
until the day I die
because this is the way
I believe about this doctrine
and this philosophy.
It's not creeping
into our church.
And you say,
Brother Stuckey, I don't know.
I wasn't here at the beginning,
but it just seems so extreme.
Well, let me just show you
what it says in 1 Corinthians 11,
and this is the passage
that talks about hair length
and what it says in 1 Corinthians 11,
verse 16.
But if any men seem
to be contentious,
we have no such custom
neither the churches of God.
Now, what does that mean?
He is not saying that if somebody
wants to contend or argue,
just say,
Well, you know,
do whatever you want.
We have no such custom.
No, no, no.
He's saying this.
He's like,
If anybody wants to argue,
Hey, we have no custom
at our church of this.
We don't allow this,
neither any of the churches of God.
Talking about hair length.
Talking about Calvinism,
you say,
I think you're too extreme.
We have never had a custom
of accepting this doctrine.
I have always been like,
Hit the road, Jack,
if they try to come to our church
and they're a firm believer
in Calvinism.
I have not changed on this one bit,
and I never will.
We are not letting this doctrine
creep into our church.
We have no custom at our church,
neither Verity Baptist Pampanga,
neither Verity Baptist Biko.
We have no custom of allowing
this sort of heresy
in someone subtly coming in
and changing the culture
of our church.
Now, it's not merely
with just Calvinism,
but this is the most
dangerous one.
There are other doctrines
that if you come to our church
and you're spreading some doctrine
we don't agree on,
it's like,
Well, I'm going to have to have
a firm talking to you
about policies in church
and how to properly behave
in the house of God
because it's not a free-for-all.
It's not everybody
does their own thing.
No, no, no.
We're united because
I am the one saying what we believe
and if you don't agree
then you can go somewhere else.
That's the way it works.
We have never had a custom
of accepting this.
Let me be very clear.
If somebody in this room
has been a part of our church
for a while
and you are secretly
a hardcore Calvinist,
let me be very clear.
Let me know
and never come back.
We don't want you
at this church.
Now, it's one thing for someone
to be new and confused
and I get that.
People could say
they're Calvinists
and not know what they believe.
If you're a hardcore believer
in Calvinism,
you're not spreading
this heresy here.
Just leave our church.
We don't want you
at this church.
And I literally wouldn't care
if half the church left.
If half the church left
because of this,
I'd be like,
man, I didn't even realize
we had a big problem.
It's a good thing
we dealt with it.
But you know what?
I don't think that's
going to be the case
because we've never had
a custom of accepting this
and everybody knows
how I feel about Calvinism.
It's sort of like,
and look,
it's going to be done on time.
It is 11.15.
But it's the running joke
on Calvinism.
When Brother Stuckey
preaches on Calvinism,
all right, we can just
forget about lunch.
The sermon is going to be
extremely, extremely long
because he's going to go
on all these rabbit trails.
I have always felt this way
about Calvinism.
And you say, why?
Because I grew up Protestant.
Because I know a lot of
Calvinists in my family tree
and just that sort of heresy.
I have always felt this way
about Calvinism.
I know how dangerous it is.
And we're not a free-for-all
Baptist church.
We're a Baptist church
that is hardcore anti-Calvinism.
We don't want people
that are Calvinist to be...
It's saying, would you want
someone who's a hardcore believer
in repentance of sins
at our church?
No.
Now look, if you bring
your unsaved old churchmates
to church, of course.
By all means do that.
We'll preach the gospel to them.
And we'll hope that they get
saved and then they can...
But here's the thing.
Because many people
at your old church
might not have been saved
because they're confused,
but many people already
know what they believe.
They're not going to
change their minds.
Those people we don't want
at our church because they
believe something different.
Same thing with Calvinism.
If somebody's confused,
that's one thing.
But if someone literally
tells me and believes
that God wants children
to be molested
and He wants people
to burn in hell
and they firmly believe
in Calvinism, you know
what my reaction would be?
That person's got
to reprobate minds.
Because that is another God.
I don't know how you could
even believe something
so bizarre to think that God
wants kids to get molested.
You're messed up
in the head, my friend.
And I would presume
you're probably a reprobate
if that's what you believe.
Now, people that are confused,
that's different.
I went soloing one time
in West Virginia,
and I knock on this door,
and this woman was reading
a Charles Spurgeon book
as I walked up,
which Charles Spurgeon,
the princess of preachers,
prince of preachers,
my bad,
prince of preachers,
is like the most famous
Calvinist.
And for whatever reason,
every Baptist loves Charles
Spurgeon, whether they're
Calvinist or not,
even though he wrote a book
of basically limited atonement
and how, I can't remember
the name of the book,
but basically,
what's the name of it?
Something of Calvinism?
Sorry.
No, see, he wrote a book
with the name Calvinism
in the title, right?
I mean, so he's a hardcore
believer in Calvinism,
and yet people claim,
yeah, but he wasn't
really a Calvinist.
He wrote a book about it.
But this person's reading
a Charles Spurgeon book,
and I went up and knocked
and asked if she knew for sure
she's going to heaven.
She's like, I'm not sure.
She's like, I hope
I'm one of the elect.
I don't know
if God has chosen me.
That's literally
what she told me.
Now, she ended up
getting saved,
but it took like an hour
because her mind was so warped
with Calvinism.
And she, I mean,
it took a long time
to unbrainwash her
in all of these things
because, and she was reading
a Charles Spurgeon book
when I walked up,
a hardcore, I mean,
she's being taught Calvinism.
She's being told by our
preachers to read this.
It took an hour to get her
saved because of this
false, damnable heresy.
But the scary thing is
people will be sucked
into this belief,
and they think they're
going to heaven.
They think they're saved,
and they don't actually
understand the gospel,
but they think they're
one of the elects,
so they think they're
good to go, right?
We have no such custom
of accepting this,
and it says in verse 18,
for first of all,
when you come together
in the church,
I hear that there be
divisions among you,
and I partly believe it.
Look, the church cannot
have divisions,
so you need to be united
on what you believe.
Now, here's the thing.
Honestly, I think I was
relatively long suffering
with the guy because
even with his bizarre message,
I was like, yeah,
we'd love to have you
visit church.
And then I was like,
I better check his Facebook
because this guy seems
kind of strange
because he's already thinking,
well, you know,
we'll see what happens, right?
But when I saw his Facebook,
I was like, okay,
he obviously does not
believe like us,
and it's not just that
he's confused on stuff.
He already knows
what he believes,
and it's not what we believe,
so why do you want to
come to our church?
I mean, he's looking
for a church that's
a Calvinist Baptist church.
There's plenty of those.
Why do you want to
come to our church?
Doesn't make any sense,
my friend.
I mean, it's not like
it's hard to tell from
our YouTube and Facebook
what we think of Calvinism.
You would think that
if you were looking
for a church,
you'd research what
the church believes.
We're not hiding it,
so why do you want
to come to our church?
You want to come here
to cause problems.
You want to come here
to basically divide
this church.
That's the reason.
Look, we have no custom
of accepting this
damnable heresy at our church.
Let's close on
the word of prayer.
Your Heavenly Father,
thank you for allowing
us to be here today,
and help us realize
the importance of our
church being united,
and even if people are
not as familiar with
this topic of Calvinism
or they might think
this is extreme,
help us to read the Bible
and just search
what I've said,
search the Scriptures
I gave, and people
will see that this is
in fact what the Bible
does teach, and help us
to stay united as a church
in what we believe
and our goal of
evangelizing the world.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Let's talk for one
again, against Calvinism,
this is a perfect
song for us,
for the last song,
in number 290.
Let's sing the song
let him in.
Let's sing the song
let him in.
On the first, ready, sing.
He's been there long before
Let him in
Let him in, here he is gone
Let him in, the only one
He's the voice of other song
Let him in
One second, all together, one second, sing
Open now, tell me your heart
Let him in
Keep doing, he will be born
Let him in
Let him in, he is your friend
He your soul will surely friend
I will give you to the end
Let him in
Hear you now his loving voice
Let him in
Now, oh now, making your voice
Let him in
He is standing at your door
Joy to you, he will whisper
In his name, you will adore
Let him in, on the last
Now admit the heavenly guest
Let him in
He will be for you all peace
Let him in
He was in your sins for thee
And when current ties form or end
He will take you home to end
Let him in
Amen.
Amen
Amen.