We're here in John chapter 12 and the name of this sermon is reprobates in action reprobates in action
We're gonna go verse by verse and cover a lot of different points
But one thing we're going to talk about a lot here is reprobates. Is that something that we see in this chapter?
Let me just read you several verses before we start starting in verse number one
The Bible reads then Jesus six days before the Passover came to Bethany where Lazarus was which had been dead and we raised for the
Dead there. They made him a supper and Martha served the Lazarus one of them that sat at the table with him
then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard very costly and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair and
The house was filled with the odor of the ointment now verse number three
It says the ointment that she used of spikenard was very costly
Okay, now we don't know the exact price of this but it was more than 50 pesos. Okay, it was a good amount of money
She's spending a lot of money to anoint to Jesus here with his ointment of spikenard
Now it says in verse number four then said one of his disciples Judas Iscariot Simon's son which should betray him
Why was not this way man sold for 300 pence and given to the poor?
This he said not that he cared for the poor but because he was a thief and had the bag and bear what was put
There in now one thing we see here with Judas is this that Judas was put in charge of the money
Okay. Now look obviously Jesus was not an idiot
You know what the Bible is trying to show you that money is not the most important thing
All right, see God can provide the money for a church. Look we don't have to have this big first fruits conference
Yeah
And just have a bunch of people preaching about tithing every sermon and say why because God can provide the money
Jesus put the thief in charge of the money because he's trying to show you it's not the most important thing
Now obviously if a church is going to be successful, you know
If the Bible teaches tithing we'll talk about that sometime and the people should tie then
Obviously the more money that comes in we can use it to do so winning events like in to beat day the church can pay
For everything and that's great. But look we can operate as a church and God can provide the money
We don't have to always preach about money
And I I don't think I've preached a single sermon really even talking about money other than the fact that it's not that big of a deal
Yeah, eventually I'll preach it out of obligation
But it's like the last thing I want to preach because for one our church is very generous people do tie
People do love the word here and to you know
There's just other things that are a lot more exciting Jesus puts a thief in charge of the money verse number seven
Then said Jesus let her alone against the day my bearing hat she kept us for the poor always he have with you
But me have not always now
This is a very famous story where Judas has shown to be a thief
But this is not the only gospel that mentions this story now turn to Mark chapter 14 Mark 14
Now what she don't understand what's happening this woman is choosing to use her own money
To do something. Okay. Now look it's her money
She's allowed to do with it what she wants
It's ridiculous to say she should have used this money to give to the poor
Okay
Now look there's often times in this life and in this world where there'll be these these
Outreaches to just give the money to the poor
Help cure AIDS in Africa and all this stuff and they claim they really care about these poor people
They claim they really love them
But they really don't it's under this guise of this ministry or these various different things in reality
They don't care about the poor you say well
How do you know that because here in John chapter 12 we see an example of a man who acts like he cares about the poor
But he really doesn't
Okay, there are a lot of people to do the same thing in today's world
They they act like they care about poor people
They'll find a homeless person on the street, you know and clothe them take him out and give him food and everything
That guy really care about the poor
He cares about getting his name in the paper. It's like, okay. I mean you were rejected by the Bible Baptist
You're kind of the outcast on Bible Baptist. At least you got your name in the paper
Pretty much everybody doesn't think very highly of you. He doesn't care about the poor
Yeah, and there's a lot of people that don't care about the poor at all
But they'll pretend to care about the poor. Now what we have to understand is this woman can use this money to do what she wants
There are people at our church that do pretty well financially. If they choose to buy whatever
That's their money. Yeah, they can do what they want
We can't tell somebody else how to spend their money
If they want to spend their money on on some sort of clothing or whatever they can do what they want
It's fine. If they want to spend it on a fancy vacation, they're welcome to do that. Why?
It's their money. Yeah, okay. We can't tell other people how to spend their money
We need to worry about the money that we have inside how to spend it
And look if you have money you can go on a fancy trip. You're welcome to. It's your money
I'm not going to tell you what to do. You can do what you want. Obviously, you know
I give advice from the pulpit, but I don't think it's wrong to go on vacation or anything like that
But in your free time you can do what you want. Okay? This woman she can do what she wants with the money
But look she's doing a good work
It's not that she's doing a bad thing either it's not that she's spinning on lottery tickets, okay
It's not that she's doing something stupid
She's doing something good and Judas has the goal to criticize how she's spending her money
Okay. Now first off if that's his opinion, you can keep it silent
He doesn't have to let everybody know that he's upset how she spent
She has the right to do what she wants. It's her money
We don't want to turn into have this communist philosophy that someone gets to decide how other people do spend their money and do what they want
And we're not gonna have our government just say hey, let's just take everybody's money money. We decide how you spend
No, the individual gets to decide what they want to do
now
It's interesting that Judas does this so notice what it says in Mark 14
We're going to learn a little bit more as we cross-reference to these stories
Mark 14 verse 3 and being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper as he sat at me
There came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment a spike turn
Very precious and she break the box and poured it on his head and there were some that had
Indignation within themselves and said why was this waste of the ointment me?
And so there's people that had indignation within themselves. They're upset about this now
John chapter 12 highlights Judas being the one who says this
It could be that the other people only said it within themselves or it could be they mentioned it
But maybe not as vocally as Judas did okay, but this tells us a lot of information
Yeah, I would say they probably just said it within themselves
And maybe they talked about it with one another and then Judas kind of voice this
But notice what it says in verse number five
For might have been sold for more than 300 pence and have been given to the poor and they murmured against her
verse 8
Notice what it says she have done what she could she has come beforehand to anoint my body to the burying
Okay. Now this is really the event that leads to Judas betraying Jesus Christ
Okay, and I think the reason why is because he gets embarrassed in front of everything
He's basically gonna get rebuked by Jesus in front of everybody and he gets angry about it and he decides
Hey, that's the last straw. I'm going to betray Jesus
Now you have to understand that what we're seeing here with John 12 and Mark 14
A lot of people said it within themselves, but Judas was the one that really was upset about it. Now turn to Jude 1
Here's what you have to understand about Judas Iscariot the reprobate
Judas Iscariot
Like a smart reprobate is going to be they're very good. They're experts at
Discovering what bother people they're experts at discovering if somebody has a complaint or has something
They're upset about okay. See I don't care who it is. The truth is that if you go to this church
I'm sure there's gonna be certain things that you don't like and inside of yourself
You say I wish we did like this or you have a little bit of a complaint
Okay. Now here's the thing about this though, you know as a godly person who loves the Lord
You're not really gonna make that public. You know, it's just something you're like, I wish we did it like this
Let me give you a foolish example
Let's say I decided that we're gonna have church services on Wednesday evening at midnight
Okay. Now obviously we're not going to do that. So I'm using a ridiculously foolish example to make a point
Okay, but if I decided that you know, you might have this attitude inside yourself. Well, I don't really think that's a good time
I don't think that's smart, but you know, you love the Lord. You still come to church anyway
Now here's the thing about this though as a godly person what you're gonna do is just not really telling you
You have a different opinion about it and that's fine because we're gonna have opinions. I
Mean it's inevitable. We have opinions. We're not going to agree with how somebody always does
Right, we're gonna have differences opinions. We think it should be this way
We should do this person thinks it should be another way
but see Judas the recurve is an expert at finding out people's secret thoughts and helping just
Make them more upset about okay, Jude 1 notice what it says in verse 16 now
He doesn't very subtly like the devil does okay, but this is what the Bible talks about in Jude 1 verse 16
These are murmurs
Complainers walking after their own lusts and their mouths speak at great swelling words
Having men's persons and admiration because of advantage what the Bible says here in June 1 16 about reprobates
It says they speak great swelling words. You say what does that mean?
It means basically they speak good words to make you feel good. They're basically
Flattering they basically swell you up full of pride give you a big head. Okay, they speak great flattering words
Why?
Because of advantage they want to earn your trust. They want you to like them. Okay, they're acting like they actually care about you
They say oh, you know, you're the greatest, you know, piano player of all time
They say something to make you feel really good. Why because of advantage. It's not sincere. It's fake
It's phony and these same people they're murmurs and they're complainers according to Jude 1 verse 16 walking after their own lusts
Here's what I want you to understand. Be careful about the person who always is complaining about something
Okay, see the Bible says about reprobates their murmurs. They're complainers
This is not just something we see in the New Testament in the book of Jude
This is something you see all the way back in the days of Moses, right?
Look, it's inevitable people are gonna have kind of complaints inside of them
But what a reprobate does is they convince you, you know to talk to them about it and you get kind of upset about it
And what happens is it caused you to be more upset
Let me give you an example. Let's say I was upset about something. Let's say something really bugged me
I was really bitter about something and you know, somebody wanted to talk to me about it and everything and they said yeah
You know, you have a right to be bitter about this. You have a right to be upset about this. Okay, it's gonna keep me upset for a while
See I can get rid of my anger if I just stop thinking about it
If you constantly think about something that bugs you you're always gonna be bugged by it
Say what's the best thing if something bugs you?
That's the best thing and see if somebody always wants to complain and say oh man, yeah
I'm so upset about this and they get you to complain. They're gonna cause you to always be depressed
Okay, and look this could be people that are reprobates
People that always complain and always are upset about something it's gonna cause you to be depressed
That's the truth. Those are not the people you want to hang around
They're always complaining what it's gonna cause you to do is that complaint that you have inside of you
It's gonna come out now and you're just gonna go back and forth. You're always gonna be upset. That's the way it works
Judas Iscariot, he's a reprimand
He doesn't care about anyone except himself
And so what does he do?
Well, he realizes that other people might have the same complaints and he was an expert at getting other people to kind of complain
And always be upset as well
It's highlighted in this story because this is kind of the last straw before he betrays Jesus Christ
But I'm sure just as the devil is subtle and Judas was subtle that he did this sort of thing all the time
And he caused people to be bothered and he caused people to be filled up full of pride
Look be careful about those people
We will have people that will join our church that are gonna be bad people that are just pretending to be like this
It's just inevitable. It's just the way it is
And you know what? We've had people but you know, honestly most people have come to be pretty obvious about bad people
It's not like it's kind of like a vague area. It's like okay, that's just too obvious
It's one of those things, you know
You have a math problem on a test and it seems so so easy that you're like, I wonder if I'm missing something
Is it really just
That's kind of how it's been with these people it's like these look so obvious it's like that
That's kind of what you're thinking but what you have to understand about Judas Iscariot is he was an expert
Complaining and mumbling as well
Because he's one of the most successful reprobates of all time
Okay, he was there for three years and nobody thought he was a bad guy. They were shocked. Okay
Look, he was an expert at getting them to do that
That's what we see in John 12 and Mark 14 and other people said this within themselves and as a clever devil
He was very good at understanding that he kind of brought that to the forefront to make other people upset as well
Be careful about the person who always wants to complain
Okay, it doesn't necessarily mean they're reprobate it might be though
They always have a complaint and even if they're not they're not going to make you feel very good
If there's something that bugs you the best thing is to just get about it
And if you're constantly talking about it and complaining to people about it, you're never gonna get about it
twice it's very dangerous to be someone who's gossiping all the time and stuff because you're always gonna be upset about stuff and have
And here's what happens you feel good for a couple minutes, but it's gonna make you miserable
Somebody wants to complain to you it makes you feel good to get the complaint off of your chest
It only helps you for like a really short time. And guess what the next day you're still mad about it
You felt good for a couple seconds, but you're still upset about it
Okay
And you will notice this in churches that reprobates will do this sort of thing where they're kind of like the absent
Well, basically they hear your cause and say you have a good point there. You have a reason to be upset
I understand why that bugs you, you know, and and it causes you to be more upset
They make you feel good. They flatter you but in reality, they're a devil. Okay Judas was a devil
And he was an expert at getting other people upset as well. Now turn to Mark 14 go back to Mark 14
And
And it's just something that you notice it needs to be preached on from time to time
So we have to understand these reprobates will be among us and you want to be very very careful about you know
Someone who just always wants to get your inside information and complain to you and murmur to you. Okay, it's a dangerous thing
You notice what it says in Mark 14 verses 9 and 10
Verily I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world
this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her. And Judas Iscari one of the twelve went on to the
chief priests to betray him on to them. This is the event that leads Judas to betray Jesus Christ
Okay
He gets upset because he gets embarrassed because Jesus basically rebukes him and it's it's visible to everybody and he's upset about that
But I'm sure this is not the first time he's done this survey
Okay, I'm sure there was other times where he talked to the other disciples and he was probably the most well-liked disciple
Everyone was shocked that he was a bad guy. I'm sure he was a dedicated soul winner. I'm sure he had a great presentation
I'm sure he sounded really bold preaching, but he also just kind of secretly talked to you and gets you to complain and got you upset
Okay, that's what we see with Judas Iscari. Now turn to John 12
And look, you know, I've seen this at other churches before, you know, churches I've been a member of. I saw it at Verity Baptist as well
where you see, you know, people that are reprobates that pretend to be like you and in reality they're bad people
And they just, you know, always cause you to be miserable and you to be upset. That was the modus operandi for Judas
That's what he was doing here in John chapter 12, but in this instance, he just gets rebuked and he's made to look like a fool
Now I want you to see the second point here tonight is that our association with Jesus can cause people to persecute
John 12 verse 9
Much people of the Jews therefore knew that he was there and they came not for Jesus' sake only
But that they might see Lazarus also who he had raised from the dead
And so Lazarus is a bit of a celebrity. People want to see him. He got resurrected from the dead and they're like, man
I want to see Lazarus as well. Notice what it says in verse 10
But the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death
Now, what did Lazarus do?
Lazarus died. He was brought back from the dead and these people want to kill him. He's done nothing
He's literally doing nothing and yet they want to kill Lazarus
Okay, why? Well, not just Jews who are scared in this chapter are reprobates
I mean these people are reprobates and evil people as well and they want to kill Lazarus even though he's done
Nothing. He's done absolutely nothing and look you have to realize that when we follow the Lord Jesus Christ
People are gonna hate us. That's the reality. They're not just gonna hate me either. They're gonna hate you just because you go to this church
Yeah, they're gonna hate you just because you listen to Pastor Anderson or Pastor Mendez. They're gonna hate you just for being a member here
It's like how dare you be a member at that church. It's like, man, I haven't even done anything
It's like I just woke up, I was praying, reading my Bible, I went to church and now you're getting mocked for being at this church
That's the truth. That's what happens. And look, it's not this just a story here in the Philippines
This happens every country, every place, all the time. When somebody gets on fire for God
The devil's gonna send a hundred darts to try to destroy them. And the truth is I've seen plenty of people
Some people have already back to church. They started coming to our church, man, they love the preaching
You know, they love the Word of God. They're coming so many, they're excited. They're like, man, I'm so excited to be here
They're there for a couple months
Now whenever somebody leaves like that, we're never going to tell you why they left
The only thing we can know for sure is that the Bible kind of gives us insight
in Luke 8 when it talks about people with the parable of the sower just kind of fading out
And it's like, you know, either the cares and riches and pleasures of this world or maybe the persecution
And you know, I saw oftentimes that due to persecution, which is highlighted in Luke 8, some people will be
Why? Because their friends disown them, their family disown them. They want nothing to do with them. And it's tough
It's really tough. And see, you might say, well that happened to me several years ago
Well, remember, always remember how that felt. Now that happened to me a long time
But I still remember how that felt. And it's like, man, I'm just trying to serve God. What have I even done?
It's like I quit listening to rock music and people are mad at me. It's like, what have I done?
Right? That's the situation that happens. And Lazarus here, they want to put him to death. He's literally done nothing
He hasn't even made a post on Facebook. They still want to put him to death.
It's like all he did was get resurrected from the dead and you know, they're mad at Jesus
How dare you resurrect this guy from the dead? We're going to put him to death?
It's like, I wonder who's the godly person in this situation?
Jesus brings someone back from the dead and they say we want to kill that person. It's like, he did nothing. He literally did nothing
Why would someone do that? Because they hate the Lord their wisdom.
Verse 11, because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away and believed on Jesus. So why do they want to kill Lazarus?
Because a lot of people are believing on Jesus because of Lazarus.
Now if you're a soul winner in this room, which is every single person in this room, look, a lot of people believe on Jesus
because of you. You get people saved.
The people that are reprobates out there are enemies that are preaching false gospels and repentance of sins. They hate your guts.
Okay, you say, well, I don't know brother Stuckey. They never consulted to put me to death.
They never did that because they would get arrested in this country.
If they could get away with it, it would be a different story.
They hate what we believe. Look, these people, look, if someone's a reprobate, they have no conscience.
No conscience. The only thing that's stopping them is the law. If they had the power, they would do whatever they wanted.
Okay, and look, these people that have been repentance of sins, heretic preachers for 30 years, they have no conscience.
Yeah, they're not saved. They hate our guts and if they
ran the country and could make whatever laws they wanted, guess what? They do kind of what Haman did.
They said, let's just put all the Jews to death.
Let's put all the soul winners to death. Now, they wouldn't say let's put all the soul winners to death because they have
Baptists by their name as a pastor, right? But they would just say, wow, these people are, they're hate speech.
They should be put to death. Now, yes, I think homosexuality is a sin, but you know, how dare they serve to death.
They would say whatever, but they would want to put us to death and they would if they could.
Yeah, that's what I think people do not often realize when we talk about reprobates and people that have no conscience.
Why is it in verse number 11
that they want to kill them? According to verse 11, because people are believing on Jesus because of them. As soul winners, look,
every time we go through the book of Psalms, isn't it true that there's tons of people that want to stare at us?
If they could make the laws, they would, they would pause.
People that are reprobates. Now, not all reprobates really care about religion, so to speak, but the religious reprobates is who I'm talking about.
They're the worst of the worst people.
John MacArthur's of the world, they're the worst of the worst people.
They seem pretty close to us. They're not as bad as some people. No, they're the worst of the worst people.
Because they hate
the God that we believe in because the salvation we believe in is different than what they believe in.
Yeah. People like John MacArthur, they're the scum of the earth. They're the worst people. They're our biggest enemies.
And look, those people, it doesn't matter what they say, they're just like these two priests.
They would want to put the followers of Jesus, which would lead people like us, to death. That's the reality.
Verse number 12.
On the next day, much people that would come to the feast when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem took branches of palm trees
and went forth to meet him and cried,
Hosanna, blessed is the king of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord. And Jesus, when he had found a young ass, sat there on it
as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Zion.
Behold, thy king cometh, sitting on an ass's pole. These things understood not as disciples at the first, but when Jesus was glorified,
then remembered they that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things unto him.
The people therefore that was with him, when he called Lazarus out of his grave and raised him from the dead, bear record.
For this cause the people also met him, for that they heard that he had done this miracle. The Pharisees therefore said among themselves,
Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing? Behold, the world is gone after thee.
And there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast. The same came therefore to Philip,
which was up at the state of Galilee, and desired of him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus.
Philip cometh and telleth Andrew, and again, Andrew and Philip tell Jesus. And Jesus answered them, saying, The hours come that the Son of Man should be glorified.
And so the time is coming here where Jesus is going to be put to death. Now, we're only in John chapter 12.
The book of John specifically gives us a lot of information that happens in the very end time.
This is right at the end. He's going to be put to death.
It's going to be a very short time, and yet we still have a lot of chapters to go through.
So the book of John's going to give us kind of extra details on the end of his life, but chose to focus on it.
Now, the third thing I want to look at today is this, that if we want to accomplish great things and be great soldiers,
we must die to self. Notice what it says in verse 24.
Verily, verily, I say unto you,
except a corner weak fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone.
But if it died, it bringeth forth much fruit. Say, what exactly is that talking about? Well, it's basically just kind of using an example.
Take, for example, an apple fruit.
Okay?
You know, if you're taking an apple tree, you're taking an apple off that apple tree, and if you eat that apple,
it's not going to produce a tree.
The only way it's going to produce that tree is if the seed's going to the ground, if it dies into the ground,
and it has the potential to produce a tree.
If you just eat the apple, it's not going to produce a tree.
And so the example he's giving is this, that us as Christians, we also need to die to self if we're going to bear fruit.
Okay, so what does that mean? It basically means that
when it comes to things in your life that are wrong, that you choose to do, you must choose to kill those things off.
You must let them die if you're going to be successful. You say, well, Brother Stuckey,
you know, I really like listening to that rock music. Look, if you want to win a lot of souls in the Lord,
you need to die to self.
Basically, kill off the old man and just walk in the new man. If you choose to go both ways,
you're not going to be that successful. See, the more you kill off the old man, the more you can do it.
That's the reality. And so when it comes to things in our life that are wrong, look,
we need to allow the Lord to purge these things out of our lives.
And see, the more we die to self, the more fruit we're going to bear. Now,
it's a great promise here in verse number 24 that he says, bring forth much fruit.
Okay? Every word of God is important. It doesn't say bring forth fruits. It says bring forth much fruit.
Okay? Now, look, I've heard of stories of people that are not really
confrontational soul winners, and they just kind of wait for the right opportunities.
And I remember talking to someone one time, and they told me, well, you know, so-and-so,
you know, they preach the gospel, they get people saved and everything. And, you know,
it turned out this person who had been saved for like 40 or 50 years,
his method of just waiting for someone to kind of ask him eight times
in 40 years. Eight times he had that opportunity. He said, wow, that's great. Eight times in 40 years. That's really impressive.
That's not much fruit.
God's promises you will bear
much fruit. And you say, well, Brother Stuckey, I'm a dedicated soul winner. I just choose a little worldly life. It doesn't work that way.
You're only going to be dedicated for so long. If you walk in the new man and the old man, the old man will know that part.
Yeah, that's true.
You say, why would the old man win the battle? Because of the fact you're here for preaching only like three hours a week.
You get a soul win only only a certain amount of time. Look, when you hop in that chimney, that worldly music's playing.
Right. You can't avoid it. See, the world is teaching you more than I'm teaching you. The world's teaching you more than the Bible's teaching you.
That's why you got it the best you can just kill off that old man, because you get bombarded by the world all the time,
whether you want it or not.
But if you in your free time choose to still kind of live a worldly life,
and you're really not spending much time in the Word of God, you literally need to spend your whole time
dedicated to God to fight against the world teaching you all day.
Okay? Now look, I'm fortunate enough to have a job where I don't have people, you know, an office where people are coming up to
me and talking to me about sports and all this stuff. But, you know, before I moved to Sacramento,
I worked a secular job like anybody else.
And I'd have people come up to me all the time that want to talk to me like, hey, did you watch that new Avengers movie?
It's like, no.
It's like, why didn't you watch it? Are you gonna watch it this weekend?
And it's like, they just want to talk, and they're not even really bad people.
Right? The person that my old office had talked to me the most was this really, you know, religious,
Pentecostal guy. Okay? But he still wanted to talk to me about movies, sports, and all that stuff.
And, you know, it's not like he was a bad guy or anything, but it's just like, I don't want to talk about it.
I want to just kill off the old man. I don't even want to think about that stuff.
And look, you know, we must, to the best of our abilities, just kill off the old man.
Must do that. And the more we do it, the more successful we're going to be.
Now, you have to ask yourself, what do you want to accomplish in this life?
Do you want to bring forth much fruit?
The more you kill off the old man, the more you're going to bring forth.
Now, what's interesting as well is it says bring forth much fruit.
I don't remember in this verse or any place in the Bible where he says, you'll bring forth much fruit if you live in a receptive country like the Philippines.
It doesn't say that. It says you'll bring forth much fruit.
It doesn't matter where you live, you can bring forth much fruit.
Now, it's true that we live in a receptive country.
We can get a lot of people saved.
But, you know, you can get people saved in any country.
You say, how do you know that?
Because the Bible says that you'll bring forth much fruit if you die yourself.
So if somebody dies itself that lives in China, they'll bring forth much fruit.
You say, but they'll get killed.
I believe God's going to keep them alive.
So you're probably about the only soul winner in China.
That's what I believe.
I don't believe God's going to keep them alive.
You say, what about in, you know, Iraq and these Muslim countries, they'll put your, you know, they'll kill you.
You know, I think that's going to be the one person that's fair.
That's going to be the Christian that's fair.
The Christian that's going to die is the lazy Baptist pastor who's just, you know, being paid full time to be a missionary and is doing no real work.
And he's just kind of waiting for the right opportunity because he could be put to death.
And yet then you got someone who's dedicated that dies himself that unfortunately has to live in a wicked country.
That hates God and they can't move.
They can't do anything about it.
They just choose to die to self and get people saved every single day of their lives.
They just go out, go soul winning.
They have boldness and yet God's fair.
You say, do you believe that?
I do believe that.
I believe that you can go soul winning in a country like that and bring forth much fruit.
In fact, the Bible promises to bring forth much fruit if he died himself, not if you live in a certain place.
Okay.
And look, so many needs to be done in every country around the world.
And look, if there's somebody, and I'm sure there are people in Muslim countries that are kind of doing it, you know, undercover.
Now, I'm not saying you just walk up to like, you know, a policeman that's a Muslim, you know, in a country where we put to death and start giving him the gospel.
Obviously, you know, use some wisdom about that.
But I do believe that God can open up opportunities when he leads things back.
That's what I believe.
Okay.
And look, I'm sure there's people that are living there right now.
And some of those people are probably more dedicated than us.
They probably go soul winning all the time.
And even if they don't get as many people saved because Muslims are harder to get saved, you know what?
But we reward for the work they do.
It doesn't really matter where you live.
Wherever you live, you just go all out and live for God.
Promises you'll bring forth much fruit if you died yourself, if you're like that corner peak.
But you say, well, brother, you know, I just kind of come to church sometimes.
You know, I listen to some sermons sometimes, but I also just choose to waste my time, you know, listening to music, you know, watching movies, playing video games.
Doing this stuff that really doesn't matter.
Yeah, you know what?
You won't bring forth much fruit.
Yeah, you can do that if you want.
It's up to you.
You'll get no rewards in heaven.
But if you choose to die yourself and kill off the old man, you say, well, brother, I just have trouble killing off the old man.
Look, every single person in this room, every single Christian in the world had certain things that their flesh enjoys.
Okay, it might not be the same thing for you.
It might not be music.
Maybe it's something else for you.
It might be video games for you.
It might be, you know, just for me, probably the thing for me was just watching sports all the time and even playing sports like too much.
That was something that got in the way of being able to work out.
Nothing wrong with playing sports.
You know, we had an activity at our church where we played sports.
But there is something wrong if you're spending a lot of time doing it and you're cutting out your robbery and you're not doing so many much things like that.
Whatever it is, you just have to kill that off.
It's not easy for anybody.
Of course, it's not easy to kill off the old man.
That's why the Bible has to talk about it all the time.
That's why I'm preaching on it, because it's difficult for me to do it.
Verse 25, he that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that hated his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.
And so if you choose to hate your life, basically put aside all your personal desires and live for God.
You know what?
You'll get a lot of rewards.
That's what this passage is telling you.
Verse number 26, if any man serve me, let him follow me.
And where I am, there shall also my servant be.
If any man serve me, him will my father honor.
Our whole lives are about just serving God.
That's our purpose.
That's why we're here.
Verse 27, now is my soul troubled and what shall I say?
Father, save me from this hour, but for this cause came I unto this hour.
Father, glorify thy name.
Then came their voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.
Now, I don't really know what a oneness Pentecostal believes about these verses.
I guess he thinks Jesus is talking himself there, but I'm not really sure.
I don't know.
I guess I'll have to find that I should have looked for that ahead of time.
But anyways, verse 29, the people, therefore, that stood by and heard it said that a hundred others said an angel spake to him.
Jesus answered and said, this voice came not because of me, but for your sakes.
Now is the judgment of this world.
Now shall the prince of this world be cast out.
So this is the big event.
We're basically Jesus is going to be put to death, and it looks like the greatest victory that ever happened against us and what we believe in, okay?
And the greatest victory, the greatest defeat was turned into the greatest victory.
Their big victory was turned into a massive defeat because by crucifying the Lord Jesus Christ, that is our salvation.
Yeah, he shed his blood for us.
He had to die in his specific blood.
He couldn't have just jumped off a cliff.
You know, he had to shed his blood for us.
He died of blood shedding death, died on the cross, and it looks like the bad side is getting victory.
In reality, this is a great victory for us.
Now it took three days for people to realize that, but that's the truth.
And I want you to notice verse number 32 and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men on to me.
This is signifying what, signifying what death you should die.
Now turn to Genesis three, Genesis three.
Let me turn there myself as well.
And I want you to kind of notice a verse, and these are my thoughts on that.
I've never really heard somebody preach on it to give their thoughts, but I'll tell you what I think this verse is saying.
And if you have a different opinion, that's fine because we can have different opinions on things.
But I want you to notice Genesis three, and this is the same chapter where they eat the forbidden fruit and, you know, the serpent beguiles Eve,
Eve eats the fruit, gives her a husband and everything.
There's a curse upon the woman, the man, and the serpent, you know, the devil.
Notice what it says in Genesis three, verse 15.
And I will put enmity between being the woman, okay, and between thy seed and her seed.
And it's talking about, you know, the devil.
The devil does have a seed, okay.
Now it's not a literal, like he made with a woman seed, like I've heard some dispensationalist say.
That's, that's called you're watching too many movies.
When it's talking about her seed, it's not saying literally he made it with someone.
That's kind of like the Mormon, because the Mormons believe that God literally made, okay, produced Jesus Christ.
And then they probably believe the same with the devil.
That's probably what they would say here.
It says it shall bruise thy head and now shall bruise his heel.
So what God says is the seed of a woman is going to bruise your head.
You're going to bruise his heel, okay.
Why does it say his heel?
The heel is considered one of the, like if somebody gets injured playing sports, if you get an injury on your heel where you have to have surgery,
it's considered basically the worst injury to have, because it takes a really long time to recover, okay.
When it looks like, when you have pro athletes that have had an injury and they had to have surgery on their heels, they'd be out for like a year and a half.
They'd be out for a long time.
They'd say they were never the same anymore.
Now I know the heel doesn't really seem very important.
It's kind of an ugly body part.
It's kind of small.
But you know, actually if your heel is messed up, it causes you great problems in the mind form.
And so what I think the Bible is saying is, you know, yes, devil, you're going to cause a very painful injury, so to speak, to Jesus.
Here's the thing about the heel though.
You know, yes, it's very painful.
Yes, it takes a long time to recover, but eventually you can start walking again.
Eventually you can start living a normal life.
But let's say you get a really good bruise on your head.
You could die from that.
See, what I think the Bible is saying in Genesis 3.15 is, yeah, you know, you're going to cause a big injury to Jesus one day.
You're going to bruise his heel.
That's really painful.
You get a heel injury, you could be out for a really long time, but you know what?
He's going to bruise your head.
And you get a good bruise on the head, you could be dead.
And that's what happened.
Satan's destroyed.
He will be destroyed.
He will be in hell forever.
And, you know, as a result of Satan bruised his heel, guess what?
Jesus rose again, and Satan's going to be destroyed.
I think that's what it's saying in Genesis 3.15.
If you have a different opinion, that's fine.
Let's go back to John chapter 12.
John 12.
Let's notice this verse in verse 32 where it says,
And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men onto me.
Now, a couple of things to say about this.
One, this destroys Calvinism.
Yeah, very clearly.
It says, we'll draw all men on.
All means all.
It's that simple.
Now you say, what do Calvinists say to a verse like this?
Well, let's go back to Genesis 6.
Genesis 6.
And the Bible's saying that if Jesus is lifted up from the earth, he will draw all men onto him.
Now, what is Jesus talking about?
This, he said, signifying what death he should die.
So let me ask, was Jesus lifted up from the earth?
Yeah, yes, he was.
He already died.
So guess how many people are drawn onto him?
Everybody.
All men.
It's that simple.
Now, as a safe person, we obviously understand this.
But let me just explain to you what Calvinists say.
John 6, verse 44.
No man can come to me except the father which hath sent me drawn him, and I will raise him up at the last day.
And so what Jesus says here is that you cannot come to the father unless you're drawn.
OK, and they say, well, see, in verse 44, it says not everybody's going to be drawn.
OK, now I agree with them that verse 44, the implication is that, you know what, not everybody's going to be drawn.
But in John 12, it said everybody will be drawn.
OK, so what is the reconciliation here?
Well, it makes sense when you understand the reprobate doctrine, which John talks about a lot,
because he will draw all men onto him.
He will give every...
The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men.
He'll draw everybody onto him.
But, you know, people can be drawn and drawn and drawn and reject, reject, reject.
And it's like, too late.
You can't come anymore.
You're no longer being drawn.
So, yes, everybody's going to be drawn.
But it doesn't mean that you have your entire life to be drawn.
You can reach a point where, look, Christ's going to heaven.
Yeah.
It's too late for him.
He's not being drawn.
Say what?
Well, how do you know?
Look at him.
He ain't changing.
He's always going to be like that.
He's only going to get more disgusting with time.
That's the reality.
Yeah.
OK, he's not being drawn.
And there are people out here.
Look, the false creatures that are out there, you know, the John MacArthur, the Vinny Hens,
these famous Pentecostal preachers, these famous Repentive Sense heretics or whatever.
They're not famous.
They've been preached for 20 years.
Look, they're not being drawn anymore.
They will never change what they believe in.
Say, well, I'm just going to go to a church where my pastor's wrong on the gospel and I'm
just going to, you know, try to help change him over time.
He's not going to change.
Yeah.
He already decided what he believed.
He set in stone about that.
And it seems ridiculous.
But there are people that go to churches with unsaved pastors here in the Philippines.
It's like, don't listen to my sermons.
Why are you listening to my sermons?
I mean, if you're not going to come to church, your pastor's not even saved.
Why do you go to that church?
It's ridiculous.
You say, well, you know, I hope my pastor's just going to say just confused.
Look, if your pastor's confused on the gospel, what are you going to learn from him?
Let's say he is just confused.
Let's say, for example, he's saved and he's just kind of like, well, you know, confused
about it.
Why would you go to the church, though?
I mean, obviously, he's not going to be able to teach you anything.
He doesn't have the gospel down.
This is not the meat of the word, this Repentive Sense topic.
This is the milk.
It's the basics.
This is salvation.
This is the most basic it gets.
You say, but people have different opinions.
Yeah, because some are saved and some aren't.
Yeah, that's why people have different opinions, not because it's some deep
doctrine, eternal security, baptism after you're saved, not for salvation, by
immersion.
Those are simple things.
If people are debating about those topics, it's like, you know what?
They are either very baby Christian.
They're not saved.
Yeah, 99% of the time it's because they're not saved.
OK, that's that's the truth.
OK, and so why would you even go to that church?
And so for the Calvinist to look here and say, well, you know, it says you can
only come unless you're drawn.
The Bible says we compare spiritual things with spiritual.
Yeah, and they say, well, John six comes before John twelve.
So they say, case closed, it's John six comes first.
That means it doesn't even matter what John says.
Basically, that's stupid.
Yeah, the Bible says compare spiritual things with spiritual.
And when you listen to these Calvinists, that's the thing they hate.
They hate it when you compare spiritual with spiritual.
What they like is exegesis.
That's what they like.
Yeah.
Show me exegesis in the Bible.
Show me where I need to go back to the Greek and the Hebrew to understand what all
eat.
Sorry, but you know what?
I learned that word when I was like four years old.
Can I can I have a cookie?
Can I have all the cookies, mom?
I learned that word when I was like four years old.
You know, maybe you need to go back to grammar school if you don't understand that.
All men means all men turn back to John twelve.
Let me show you something else.
All kinds of heresy comes here from verse thirty two.
Let me give you another example.
Let me ask you this question, because it is very clear in verse thirty two and verse thirty three.
This is referring to the death of Jesus Christ, right?
There's no debate because in verse thirty three, it tells you this, he said, signifying what death he should die.
Now, who here knows who Jack Scott is?
Jack Scott,
Dustin knows the heritage.
Jack Scott was the person who followed Jack.
He is, you know, he was the most famous IFB in the world.
If you go back in America, for sure.
But in the world, I would say he had a big pastors conference, which is stuff that Jack House had.
And he kind of took over.
He's the son in law of Jack.
So he married one of Jack House's daughters and he took over for for Jack House.
And he ran the First Baptist Church at Hammond, Indiana.
And he ran House Anderson College, a pretty big name, a big guy.
He had the big pastors conference.
So I had pastors, churches that I went to that went to his pastors conference.
And he would basically teach and train how you should run your ministries and stuff.
Well, Jack Scott ended up being a devil, which people should have known a long time ago for various different reasons, which, you know, he's kind of a forgotten man.
You know, he's in jail for, you know, sleeping with a girl one third of his age.
This woman, he was counseling.
Let me just say this has nothing to do with the sermon.
I would never provide counseling with a woman without my wife there, without other people there.
And I don't understand these IFB pastors that do this stuff.
Almost all of them do that.
They'll give counseling sessions to anyone and some random woman they're not married to when the door is shut, don't counsel.
It's like that's that's a quick step to committing adultery one day.
What are you doing?
I mean, how stupid are you?
I mean, if you're married, you shouldn't want to be with someone of the opposite gender that you're not married to.
You're putting yourself for one, you can be accused like Joseph was in the Bible.
And for two, our flesh is weak.
You can act foolish or do something stupid.
You say, well, if you're really tough and spiritual, you would never commit that sin.
No, if you're tough and spiritual, you won't put yourself in that position.
Yeah, you can act tough and be Bobo.
Go for that.
Or you can just be smart and do what the Bible says and not put yourself in a compromising position.
And so, you know, he counseled this woman and, you know, he just kind of fell into adultery with a girl that was 16 or 17 years old.
And so Jack Scott ended up being a heretic.
And he also changed the word of God on the King James issue.
You can watch YouTube videos where he said, well, we never really got the King James Bible completely here.
You know, there's still kind of some mistranslations, but he acted like he was King James.
That's what caused some of the IFPs to separate from him before he ended up sleeping with a girl one third of his age because of the fact they found out he was going back on the King James Bible, who wasn't King James only, even though he was pretending to be.
Well, and his pastors conference like 10, 15 years ago, they had this conference every year and their theme verse was John 12, verse 32.
And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men onto me.
You say, what was the point of the conference?
Well, the point of the conference was to lift up Jesus Christ.
And if we lift him up by praising him and lift him up in our hearts, he's going to draw us on to him.
Is that what this verse is talking about?
And look, he's not an idiot.
He's actually a super smart person.
You know, he was very successful.
Look, he obviously knew this was not what it was about.
And I'm sure most of the people there knew that.
Why in the world would you allow that to be your theme verse and completely rip it out of context?
This is not even close to being what it's talking about.
It's talking about the death of Jesus Christ.
And then you say, hey, if you lift up Jesus Christ, he'll draw us on you.
That is blasphemy to take the word of God and to teach something the Bible doesn't teach at all in this verse.
That is not what it's talking about.
You can't just rip verses out of context to fit what you want.
Yeah.
OK, if you're going to use a verse, you better make sure that it's talking about what you say it's talking about.
Now, turn to Second Thessalonians two.
Let me give you an example of this.
And anybody who would just callous, I mean, not even care, just take the word of God out of context like that.
You shouldn't be surprised he ended up being a rep.
Yeah, OK, because I would feel guilty about doing that.
But when we preach sermons, we do need to be very, very careful that we're using verses that are actually saying what we're saying.
OK, I preached a sermon about a month ago and there was a verse I was going to use.
This was for the sermon because I had heard it preached before by pastors and the thought that they were saying was right in the verse.
But but the verse was not actually saying what they were saying.
OK, so basically they were preaching a sermon and they use this verse to support their argument.
You know, a lot of pastors use this verse.
I'm not talking about ones in our movement.
I'm just talking about generically someone from our movement that ended up being here to use this verse.
And I remember thinking about that and I was looking at the verses of doing my Bible reading.
And I was like, I agree with what was preached, but I don't think that's what this verse is saying.
And so I looked it over and I said, you know, I got to take this out of my notes because it sounds like a powerful verse if I just kind of take it out of context.
But that's not what it's teaching.
You cannot use verses where we lose all credibility if we take stuff out of context and teach things that the Bible is not teaching in that verse.
Let me give you an example in 2 Thessalonians 2.
Now, 2 Thessalonians 2, probably more than any place in the Bible or as much as any place, destroys the preacher of rapture.
It clearly teaches the poster of rapture.
There's no question about that.
OK, but let me go past the point where it clearly destroys the preacher of rapture.
And let me read you a few verses.
Verse 7, for the mystery of iniquity doth already work.
Only he who now let it will let until he be taken out of the way.
And then shall that wicked be revealed from the Lord shall consume the spirit of his mouth and show the story of the brightness of his coming.
And so what you see here is that the Lord is coming after the Antichrist.
That's what the Bible teaches.
So obviously, we don't believe in a preacher of rapture.
But I want you to notice verse nine.
Even him who's coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs in mind.
OK, and so I want you to notice here in verse number nine where it says, who's coming is after the working of Satan.
I remember when I was, you know, I was already post-trib.
I was a soul winner and everything.
And I was trying to zealously defend the poster of rapture.
And I remember talking about verse nine and what I said, not in the sermon, but just when I talk to people, whatever I was like on some online debate, which, you know, is a
waste of time. But yes, I used to waste time as well.
I still do sometimes.
But then I said, you know what?
Here in verse nine, it's after the working of Satan.
The problem is that's not what that verse is saying.
Yes, we believe after the tribulation.
But verse nine is saying that the Antichrist is doing things in the same manner as Satan.
OK, it's not saying the Lord is coming back after the working of Satan.
It's not what that verse is saying.
OK, now we believe that.
Of course, we believe that.
But we shouldn't use verses that are not teaching that, even if it sounds like that, because I could I could quote that verse to people and people would be like, wow, you got a good point.
But I'm ripping it out of context.
We should not use verses that are not actually teaching what we're talking about.
We must make sure that they actually fit.
Verse number nine, it's not saying that the Lord is coming back after the working of Satan.
OK, what it's saying is the coming, referring to the Antichrist, is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders.
So when he comes, he's going to have power and signs and lying wonders.
After is in the same manner.
That's what it's referring to there in verse number nine.
And so these are just that's just an example where I want to show you that there are a lot of verses in the Bible that we could use to support things that we believe.
We have to make sure they're actually accurate.
It doesn't matter what topic I could get up here and preach a sermon on reincarnation, I could find verses from the Book of Ecclesiastes that would seem to prove my point.
That's not what those verses are saying.
See, we could find verses on any topic to try to prove our point.
We must make sure that what the Bible actually says.
And so I remember I was kind of, you know, really, really zealous about it, probably like 20, 22, 23 years old, and I was kind of overly zealous.
But that's not what that's saying.
And when we preach sermons or we teach things, we make sure that the verses we're using actually fit what we're talking about.
Now, turn back to John 12.
Say, why is that important?
Because independent fundamental Baptists are very famous for using verses that don't apply to what they're talking about.
They just preach on one sermon, they don't talk about the context, and it has nothing to do with their sermon whatsoever.
And it's like, what in the world are you using that verse for?
It doesn't even fit what you're talking about.
Why?
Because, well, they become expert storytellers that don't spend any time reading the Bible or writing sermons.
I wonder why, because it takes time to write a sermon, but they're expert storytellers.
They just kind of randomly pull, it's like, can they go to Esau or what verse can I find tonight?
Oh, that's the one verse I'm going to preach from.
I'm not sure about what the second half of that verse means.
I'm only going to quote half of it in a full sermon.
That's what I think pastors do a lot of times.
Yeah, that's what Baptist pastors do.
And it's like, you know what?
They take stuff out of context all the time.
We don't want to be guilty of the same things that they do.
John 12, verse 34.
The people answered him.
We have heard out the law that Christ abided forever.
And how sayest thou, the Son of Man must be lifted up?
Who is the Son of Man?
Then Jesus said to them, Yet a little while is the light with you.
Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you.
For he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.
While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light.
These things thank Jesus and departed and did hide himself from them.
But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him.
That the saying of Isaiah, the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, saying,
which he spake, Lord, who hath believed are important,
that whom hath the ark of the Lord been revealed?
Therefore, they could not believe because that Isaiah said again,
He hath blinded their eyes and hardened their heart,
that they should not see with their eyes or understand with their heart,
be converted, and I should heal them.
These things said Isaiah when he saw his glory and spake of them.
And so the Bible talks about how people could not believe.
You say, what does that mean?
It means they could not believe.
They no longer were being drawn.
They had no chance to believe.
They had no chance to get saved.
It's not really that surprising that that's in the same context,
not too long after, it says, and if I believe it up to the earth will draw all men on to me.
Because there's the thing we know, and that's called reprobate doctrine or whatever you want to call it,
that yeah, there are people that are children of the devil, and they could not believe.
And look, there's only really two ways to explain this.
Either one, you believe that there are people that are past the point of salvation,
which the Bible clearly teaches, or you become a Calvinist.
Because if there's people that cannot believe,
either God's predestinating them to hell or they've rejected God and they have no hope of salvation.
And so when Baptists want to reject the reprobate doctrine,
this is new doctrine, then you have to be a Calvinist.
There's no way that you can interpret.
That's not the only verse in John.
There's a lot of verses in John that say this.
It's very clear in the Gospel of John.
And so you must believe there are people that are past the point of salvation.
It's not many people, but it is some people.
Verse 42, let's look at the last one we have is this,
the fear of the saved, the fear of the saved.
Verse 42, nevertheless, among the chief rulers also, many believed on it.
But because of the Pharisees, they did not confess unless they should be put out of the synagogue,
for they love the praise of men more than the praise of God.
Now, let me ask you a question.
Are these people saved?
Well, in verse number 42, what does it say?
Many believed on it.
Yes, they are. They believe on Jesus Christ.
Salvation is that simple.
Whosoever believeth, which means every single person that believes will go to heaven.
I'm not saying everyone who believes Jesus existed.
We all know Jesus existed.
I'm not saying, you know, everyone who believes Jesus is God, because lots of people believe.
But if someone truly believes, then they will go to heaven.
These people believed on it.
There's no question that they're saved.
Well, what I've heard people say is they turn to these verses and say, well, see, there's believing, and yet they didn't confess.
So they didn't call on the name of the Lord, OK?
Now, first off, this argument doesn't make sense.
I'll give you a few reasons why.
One, these people, they did not confess unless they should be put out of the synagogue.
Look, when we get people saved, this woman that got saved two hours ago that I preached the gospel to,
she might not confess to her family and friends that she's changed her beliefs about salvation.
OK, she called on the name of the Lord a couple of hours ago.
And so, yeah, you know, they got saved.
And, you know, they you know, I don't know in the story whether they just heard the gospel and they understood and they prayed silently or whether or not Jesus led them in prayer or whatever.
But look, it doesn't mean that they didn't pray and call on the name of the Lord.
What I'm saying is they just didn't go around to everybody and confess that they believe Jesus Christ was the Savior.
Why? Well, they love the praise of men more than the praise of God.
But it's not saying, well, they believed on Jesus Christ, but then they refused to call.
You're adding to the scripture when you say that.
They believed on Jesus Christ, which and throughout the Bible, the term you're seeing about salvation is believe, believe, believe, believe, believe.
It doesn't negate the fact that when we get done with the conversations, we close it up by having them call on the name of the Lord.
OK, but this doesn't say that they didn't call on the name of the Lord.
They just didn't go around and confess to everyone, hey, I also believe Jesus Christ is the Savior.
Hey, why? Well, because of the fact that we're afraid you're seeing the fear of the saved.
OK, this is not uncommon today.
Many people that newly get saved are afraid to admit it publicly.
When we get Catholics say, guess what?
A lot of them don't confess to their their their parents.
Oh, I don't believe in Mary anymore.
Why? Because they love the praise of men more than the praise of God.
We get people saved all the time that don't want to confess.
But there's people in these Baptist churches that listen to the sermons.
They love Pastor Mendez. They love Pastor Andrew.
They don't want to confess and why they don't want to get kicked out of the church.
That's the truth. Yeah.
And so this passage, you know, for people to try to take this passage and say, well, see, you don't have to call on the name of the Lord.
You're really changing what this passage is saying, because these people believe, which that is salvation.
They believe on Jesus Christ, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now shall be saved. But they just didn't go around telling everybody.
OK, so they're just not basically open with what their belief is.
Well, let's say, for example, we get a 12 year old Muslim kid saved.
Do you think that Muslim kid is going to just immediately tell his parents, hey, you know what?
I don't believe in Muhammad.
There's a very good chance they won't tell anybody.
Now, they're in a tough situation.
Obviously, I understand that.
But the reality is they're loving the praise of men more than the praise of God.
Now, for a baby Christian, that's that's very tough.
It's not surprising to us that people get saved and they're not willing to leave the Catholic Church or they just start skipping Catholic Church all the time and they don't come here.
Why? Because, you know, Catholics would rather that you just don't go to church at all and get drunk all the time than that you go to a different church.
That's the truth. They would rather that you just, you know, didn't go to church at all.
OK, so a lot of people probably just stop going to church all together and they get saved, but they don't want to just openly confess it.
Now, I was going to have to turn to John 4, but let's just close up for a second because the Bible says, I'll just quote it to you in John 4 for a second.
Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith to thee, give me the drink, thou wouldest have asked of him and he would have given thee the water.
So if you knew the gift of God and who the one is that's giving it to you.
So basically, you understand this eternal life and you understand who Jesus is.
You will ask it and he'll give it to you.
It just logically makes sense.
If I'm drowning in water, I know I'm going to die.
I know Brother Erwin can save me.
He's beside the water.
I know I have no hope to save myself.
What am I going to do?
Help, too long, Sockololo, something, right?
I'm going to ask for help.
OK, it makes sense if you understand you're on your way to hell, but you believe Jesus died for you and paid for your sins.
Well, I've just refused to call.
That's ridiculous.
Yeah, I mean, you're just naturally going to do it.
Right.
And that's just the way it works now.
John 12, verse 44.
Let's just wrap this up.
Jesus cried, said he that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me.
Now, this is like a lot of the chapters in John where it's impossible to believe on Jesus Christ, but reject who God the Father is.
OK, if you understand who the true God is, then you're going to, you know, believe on Jesus.
You're going to believe on the Father.
That's just what you see.
It's like, for example, Jews that say, well, you know, we don't believe in Jesus, but we believe in God the Father.
We don't.
We don't believe in God the Father.
And it's evident because of the fact that they don't sacrifice animals.
Why in the world would you stop sacrificing animals if you don't believe Jesus is the way?
Oh, it just takes effort.
It costs money.
And it's just all they care about is money.
That's probably why.
But obviously they don't believe in the Old Testament.
So if somebody says, well, I believe in the Old Testament, you're not a Muslim, I believe in the Old Testament.
So I believe in the Old Testament.
I just don't believe the part about Jesus.
No, you don't.
It's an all or nothing thing.
You either believe he's the real deal or you reject.
It's the way it works.
Verse 45, and he that and he that seeth me, seeth him that sent me.
Verse 46, I am come a light into the world that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.
I'll just mention verse 45 really quickly, you know, it's talked about the Father in plenty of verses.
So you can't just go against every verse and just try to use verse 45 and say, well, if you see me, you know, then he that seeth me, he seeth him that sent me.
That I literally am the Father because he's talking to the Father earlier in this chapter.
OK, so you can't say that there's not both of them because there's clearly both of them.
That doesn't change the fact that there's one God, but it does teach that in the Trinity that we obviously believe.
Verse 46, I am come a light into the world that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.
And if any man hear my words and believe not, I judge him not, for I am come not to judge the world, but to save the world.
He that rejecteth me and receiveth not my words hath one that judgeth him.
The word that I have spoken the same shall judge him in the last day.
So in verse 48, we see that, you know, salvation is receiving the words of God.
You know, as many as received him, and we receive Jesus by receiving the word of God.
You know, you must have the word of God to get saved.
And the Bible says the word is going to judge us. You say, why?
Because this word tells us what the commandments are.
He makes it very clear what the commandments are.
When he says, fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
If he didn't tell you what those commandments were, then that would be kind of hard to do.
But he tells us what these commandments are.
And so people that are unsaved people, they're going to be judged by each and every sin they commit.
And it's like they're without excuse. The Bible tells you what's right and what's wrong.
And if you choose to sin anyway, you're going to be judged for that.
Verse 49, for I have not spoken of myself, but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment of what I should say and what I should speak.
And I know that his commandment is life everlasting.
Whatsoever I speak, therefore, even as the Father said of me, so I speak.
And this is a great chapter. We're just past the halfway point.
But the thing I want to highlight is just the part towards the beginning about the reprobates.
And these people will be among us.
And the Bible gives us a couple examples because it talks about Judas Iscariot and the chief priests.
Those people will be among us.
Let's close with a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here in your houses.
It has been to help us to apply this sermon to your lives, help us to continue to learn the Bible, learn new truths from the God, teach us your word.
Help us to apply these things to our lives, God.
Help us to have a great prayer time here in a little bit, but also help us to have a safe trip home, God, with the weather.
And just pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.