Alright, we're going to John chapter 5. We're going to cover the whole chapter tonight, but I think we're going to preach on something in John 4 before we get started.
So go back to John 4 for a minute, and we're going to look at verse 39.
Now I think that every single one of us in this room would say that Sunday was a big success, wasn't it?
I mean, we found a great place to go soloing. We had tons of people here. Lots of first-time visitors. I was surprised how many first-time visitors we had.
I don't necessarily think that we're going to have 62 next Sunday. I honestly don't think we'll have that many. I think a lot of people are curious. They checked it out.
Obviously, we hope for that. But even though it was great, there's one thing that was actually worse this Sunday than most Sundays.
Did you realize every single week of our church we've had far more than 50% of our church going out soloing?
This past Sunday, it was less than 50%. Why? Well, we had a lot of first-time visitors. That's understandable.
But our goal is obviously, when we talk about growing a church, is the number of soul winners increases.
Because the number one judge in a church is not really how many people are in their church, but how many soul winners do they have. Isn't that a much better judge?
So obviously, we have about 25, 30 people that regularly go soloing at a church. But we don't want to be a church of 250 people and have 25 soul winners.
That doesn't make our church any better than it is now. I'd rather just have a smaller church.
And so that's great that we have new people coming, but our goal is to get them to become soul winners.
That is our end goal. Now in John 4, we see this woman in verse 39, and she becomes a soul winner immediately.
This is quite an exception to the normal person, because most people don't go soloing immediately.
It says in John 4, verse 39,
And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified,
He told me all that ever I did.
And so what I want to do before you even get into John 5 is kind of preach a mini sermon here about the idea of how do we get people to become soul winners.
Because as our church grows, we don't want to just have our smaller group of people that go soloing and never have anybody else.
We want new people to come soloing. We must find a way to get them to come soloing.
There's going to be many aspects to how we're going to do this. This is a team effort.
Now I'm going to preach on soloing all the time, but most people are not just going to start coming soloing because I'm preaching on it.
So let me just share with you a few things here real quickly.
One thing that's great about Sunday, I think we had about 30-35% of our church that was here on Sunday.
Maybe even 40% that know nothing about what the new IFB is.
Now that's exciting to me, because one of the first things I said, one of our goals was that we'd have half of our church that knew nothing about an online ministry.
Because our goal is to reach our local area. So that's great, but we must get them to become soul winners.
And so this is going to be a team effort. Now one thing that we need to do if we want them to become soul winners is we need to invite them to come soloing.
We say, but Brother Stuckey, you preach on it all the time. Most people aren't going to come soloing unless they actually get invited.
That is what I've seen through the years. That when somebody actually invites them, then a lot of times they end up coming.
We've got a great way to invite people coming up here in April, don't we? The mega marathon.
We are going to make a strong push to try to get everybody in our church to go soloing during that time.
We come to one of our locations. We've already got three locations we're hosting. We'll add another if we have enough people in a certain area.
We want to get everybody to go up. A lot of people might start coming soloing for the first time here in April.
But honestly, we need to make an effort to invite people to come soloing.
Now I'll do my part to try to invite people personally. At the same time, all of you need to as well. Why?
Because of the fact with 62 people, I can't invite every single person. We all need to be trying to invite someone.
And even though I'm going to be doing the pairing now for soloing, if you invite someone to come soloing, you can tell them,
hey, you know what? Why don't you come soloing? I'll be the speaker. You can just be a silent partner. I'll help you learn how to go soloing.
And you'll go with them then. If you want to go with that person, you invite them, absolutely I'll pair you with that person.
That is a great way to get people to come soloing. We want to invite people to come soloing.
And I'm going to preach on it. I'm going to talk about it all the time. But one thing I've noticed through the years is that sometimes you invite somebody to come soloing.
And their response is, man, I've been wanting to come soloing for months. You know, but I was afraid. I didn't know if I'd show up at the right place at the right time.
It's kind of like with church. There's a lot of people that want to come to church, honestly, but they're kind of afraid.
They're like, this is a new place. I don't want to sit in somebody's seat. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I don't know what I'm supposed to wear.
And it's the same with soloing. There will be people at our church that want to go soloing, but they're not going to go soloing because they're just a little bit shy.
They're just afraid, you know, about, oh, I don't know what I'm supposed to do. You know, it's my first time.
And so one thing we should do is try to give them confidence. Just invite them to come soloing. And we can invite them to be our side of the park.
And then they can learn how to go soloing. One thing we need to do is we need to invite them.
The other thing we need to do is not force them to do the speaking if they don't want to.
Now, when people first start, they're going to want to be a silent partner.
That's just the way it is. Ninety-nine percent of the time, most people don't want to start speaking from day one.
When I first started going soloing, what did I do? I was a silent partner who learned because I just didn't know what I was doing.
You know, I was afraid. I was nervous. I didn't have much confidence. Most people are exceptions to this woman at the well.
Most people don't want to go soloing from day one. And so if we invite someone to be our silent partner, here's what we don't do.
We don't just say, well, you know, brother so-and-so, you know, he's going to tell you how to get to heaven and just step back.
We don't do that. Because if we're inviting them to be our silent partner, if there's someone who doesn't want to speak, we need to let them be a silent partner.
We don't want to push them and scare them, and then they're going to be mad and not want to come back. Okay?
We give them time to grow and learn. One thing that's great about our church is the vast majority of people in our church that go soloing are speakers.
So it's okay if we have some silent partners because of the fact they can go with someone who can do the speaking.
So if somebody wants to be a silent partner, we let them be a silent partner.
Now, another thing we need to keep in mind is this, that if we want to get more people that are soloers,
like the Bible talks about how we pray that there will be more laborers, we want those silent partners to become speakers as soon as possible.
You say, why? Because if God sees a church that has a lot of speakers, he can look down and say, you know what, I can send them some silent partners and they can train.
And they can learn how to be speakers. So our goal is to get people to be speakers as soon as possible.
Now, most people are exceptions to this woman at the well. Most people don't go speaking from day one.
But you know, she does prove to us something. She proves you can get people saved right off the bat. Notice verse 39 again.
And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman who testified, he told me all that ever I did.
And so they plainly say, we believe because of what she said. Okay, so that is proof that you can get people saved from day one.
Now, it makes sense that you can get people saved from day one because what we're explaining is not complicated.
We're explaining that it's a gift. We're explaining, you know, being born again.
When I first started going so many, you know, I've told this story before, but I did not know what I was doing.
All I did was preach the truth. And I found out years later that some people I talked to had gotten saved based on what I said.
And I'd only been saved for a few months and I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't have great explanations.
I was all over the place. But, you know, the great thing about the word God is that it's powerful and you can get people saved from day one.
So there's two aspects of this. We don't push people to be speakers, you know, if they're not ready. But at the same time, if people want to be speakers, we let them be speakers immediately.
They want to. You say, why? Because of the fact it is hard to have confidence. And if somebody has the zeal to do it, we let them do it.
Now you say, but wait a minute, when they first start, they're not going to be that good at it. Of course they're not when they start.
When you begin anything, you're not that good. We let them learn and kind of screw up along the way and then they become good.
When I started, I was not good at preaching the gospel. But, you know, because I had trial and error, I became decent. Right?
That's the way it works. All of us when we start, we're just not that good. What we need to do is let people just go for it.
And if they screw up, you know what? They're going to get better at it.
Now think about this. Let's say, for example, we had a basketball game. Because we want to play basketball games. I love basketball. We're going to do it.
You know, it's going to be awesome. I can't wait for it. But let's say, for example, you know, somebody came out to play basketball and, you know, they wanted to play.
But we said, you know what? You're going to watch because you're not that good. Now wouldn't that be ridiculous?
Now think about this. Let's say, for example, you were part of a basketball team and for months you're showing up and you're just there on the sidelines.
What would you end up doing after like a month? You quit the team. Right? Nobody wants to just sit there on the sidelines and do nothing.
It's the same thing with soul. If people want to be speakers, we let them be speakers from day one, even if they're not that good.
Because it's hard to take that step of zeal, and if we don't let them do it, we're going to kill their zeal.
And you know what? They're going to end up not coming soul with you. And, you know, it's tough for people to take that first step.
But if they decide they want to go for it, hey, we let them go for it. And here's what we do.
If they end up kind of messing up, 95% of the time this is what they're going to do.
They're going to be kind of embarrassed. They're going to be like, oh man, I should have done this.
And you can give them just kind of one quick tip and say, you know, you might have been able to explain it like this.
And slowly that's how they learn. How do people learn? People learn through trial and error.
That's just the way we learn. You don't learn stuff just by seeing it. You have to actually do it.
So if people want to become soul owners at our church, we let them go soul winning immediately, even if they're going to screw up.
When they start out, they're not going to be great. But what you're going to notice is after a couple months, they're actually going to get pretty good at it.
And so if people first start and they're not that good, hey, that's okay. We let them speak. We let them try.
And look, they're going to get better. Now, if there's an issue with somebody preaching a false gospel, that is a different thing.
You talk to me about, we had that issue at our church of someone we thought, okay, we're pretty sure this guy's a false prophet.
And then he's going around preaching gospel, but we got a problem here because he just spent two minutes and prayed for someone.
It's like, we got a real problem here. Okay. Now, if there's someone who's just doing like a really terrible job in your mind, I don't want you to...
Now, if they're preaching heresy, let me know from day one. You know, if they're preaching a false gospel, we need to get them out of here as soon as possible.
We'll give them one quick chance if they don't correct that, they're out of here. Because, you know, we'll have false people coming in here preaching a false gospel.
You know, if somebody just does a really bad job, the best thing to do is probably just tell me about it.
And, you know, if it's a woman, my wife will go soloing with them and, you know, we'll see. We'll try to help them out.
And if it's a guy, then, you know, I'll go soloing with them and try to help them out. You know, try to give them tips and everything.
Now, if they refuse to take those tips and they're just really prideful, there's going to be a bit of a problem here.
Because most people, when you're going soloing, you've got to be humble to learn.
Because with anything we learn and we need to grow and we need to learn from people that know what they're doing.
But, you know, here's the thing about it. We want them to become soloers as soon as possible.
So, if they're like this woman at the well, hey, let her speak.
You know, this woman at the well, I'm sure her gospel presentation was not that good.
Why? Because she's new at it. But did she get people saved? Absolutely.
Did Jesus let her speak from the beginning? Yes, he did. Why? Because Jesus knows there's power in the Word of God.
And she does get saved. And so, here's what we want to do if we want people to become soloers.
We invite them soloing. Because there's going to be people nervous and shy who, they want to come soloing.
They just, you know, don't know how to do it. They're afraid they're going to dress wrong or something like that.
So, we want to try to invite. We have 62 people at church.
You know, some of those people have been coming to our church for a little while and haven't gone soloing.
We want to get them in at the mega marathon. We want that to be the first step into the water.
That's a great time to invite them. Obviously, if they come before that, that's great.
But I'm going to talk about it every week from the pulpit here coming up soon.
And just talk about how, man, this is an awesome event. This is a worldwide event.
You don't want to miss this. Even if you never come soloing, come this one time.
You hear Pastor Menes say that all the time. He's like, even if you don't normally go soloing, this is a special event.
Why? You're trying to compel them. You're kind of trying to trick them into going soloing for the first time.
Because everybody, when they go soloing, they realize that it wasn't that intimidating.
It wasn't that bad. So, we want to try to convince them.
Now, we want them to become speakers as soon as possible.
If they're not ready, though, we let them be silent partners.
But if they are ready, we let them go for it.
And if they screw up, hey, they're going to get better. It's not the end of the world.
Now, let's go on to John, Chapter 5. John 5.
And we're just going to go verse by verse through John 5.
I have three points, but it's really kind of just going verse by verse.
Nothing really specific.
But in verse 1 it says,
After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Now, there is a Jerusalem by the sheep market, a pool, which is called the Hebrew tongue of Bethesda, having five porches.
And these lay a great multitude of potent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water.
For an angel went down in certain seas and entered the pool, and troubled the water.
Whosoever then first, after the troubling of the water, stepped in, was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.
Now, look at verse number 4, and I want to quickly read it to you from the NIV.
Are you ready?
I'm done.
I just read it.
Because the NIV takes verse 4 out of the Bible.
Let me read it to you from the ESV.
Are you ready?
I'm done.
That was it.
They take it out.
They're not the only versions either.
There's a lot of versions that just take verse 4 out.
And then a lot of them that don't take it out have that footnote that says,
Well, we don't really think that should be in the Bible, but we just put it in there for kicks and giggles or whatever.
So they take verse 4 out of the Bible.
Now, I don't believe that when these modern versions take out specific verses, I don't think it's an accident why they take certain verses out.
Now, the reason why they don't take out John 3.16 is because that would be so over the top that people would have a real problem with that.
So they don't take out a verse like John 3.16 because if they took that verse out and said it wasn't supposed to be in the Bible,
every Christian would be ticked off.
Even the cults would be ticked off because that's like the most famous verse.
But they do take out a lot of key verses.
Now you say, why would they take out verse number 4?
Well, notice what verse number 4 is talking about.
It talks about a man going into the pool, a man who is sick, he has a disease, and it talks about them being healed.
So verse 4 is basically showing a miracle.
Now, there's no water on earth that you can just step into and magically get healed.
This is a miracle, okay?
That when people had a disease, they went into that water, they were healed.
So what is the NIV trying to do with these other versions?
They're trying to discredit the miracles of the Bible, okay?
Now, you can see these things when they have YouTube videos and everything, all these Bible shows about how they try to discredit the miracles of the Bible,
how they say it wasn't really the Red Sea, it was the Reed Sea, and they make all these changes.
They say, well, it really wasn't that deep.
You know, it looked like Jesus was walking on the water, but he was really just a great magician.
You know, that's basically what they're saying.
And so they try to discredit all the miracles of the Bible.
So what do they do here with verse number 4?
This is undeniably a miracle that's being talked about.
What do they do?
They just remove it.
Look, that's not an accident when they remove verses from the Bible.
I mean, it's ridiculous.
This verse has been in here for hundreds of years.
Nobody questioned it.
Then all of a sudden they just come along with these modern versions.
They just take out verses from the Bible.
It says in verse number 5,
He's basically saying, do you really want to be made whole?
He's like, will thou be made whole?
You know, sometimes God wants to really put in an effort to accomplish certain things.
You know, we kind of talked about that on Sunday.
That sometimes when we accomplish things, it's when you put in a big effort.
It says in verse 7,
There's a couple things we can learn from these verses.
One thing we can learn from verse number 8 is that Pentecostal preachers are complete phonies.
You say, why?
Because if they had the power to heal people, don't they do?
They'd go to Resolve Park and heal a thousand people in an hour.
Because there's tons of people there.
I mean, if they could really heal these people that easily, what would they do?
They'd go to places where there's a ton of people.
There'd be a lot of Pentecostal missionaries in the Philippines.
Why?
Because they're pretty proud of them in the Philippines.
Yeah, man, I can heal a lot of people in this place, right?
But they're complete phonies.
They don't heal anybody.
They're complete charlatans.
They act like they do all these healings.
They have these big events.
In reality, they're not healing anybody.
Because when Jesus walked around, guess what?
He healed a lot of people, didn't he?
If they could really heal everybody, they would go around to public places and heal people.
But they don't do that.
Why?
Because they're phonies.
They're not real.
But I want you to understand that this is also a picture of salvation.
Because when it comes to us being saved, we need somebody to lift us into the water.
Nobody gets saved on their own.
Not a single person reads the Bible on their own and gets saved.
We preach things like that.
A lot of people get mad at us.
They say, well, you know what?
I know somebody who they were reading their NIV at night one day and they read and they ended up getting saved.
No, they didn't.
For one, they didn't get saved from an NIV.
They didn't get saved reading it on their own either.
Nobody gets saved by reading the Bible on their own.
Now, the truth is, a lot of people have heard bits and parts of the Gospel a lot.
It is possible someone's heard the Gospel and they kind of read it for themselves and then it kind of clicks.
But they're not going to get saved without hearing the Gospel from someone else.
They have to have actually heard the Gospel.
We need the Word of God for somebody to get saved, but we also need somebody who preaches the Word of God for somebody to get saved.
So this is a picture of salvation.
But, you know, it's also a picture of how we have problems in life that are only going to be fixed when we get close to God.
This man has had a disease for a very long time and he cannot fix it on his own.
It's impossible.
And, you know, it's kind of like, you know, a lot of people, they have problems in life and they don't go to the Bible.
They don't go to the Word of God.
They don't go to what God says and they try to kind of fix it on their own.
They're never going to fix those problems on their own.
You actually need to get close to God if you can get those problems fixed.
Look at our church.
We're going to have people that come to this church.
They get saved and they want to change their life, but they still have a lot of problems in their life.
And, you know, those problems are not going to get fixed unless they start coming to this church.
They hear the preaching of the Word of God.
They start reading the Bible and then they can start fixing a lot of problems in their life.
Now, notice what it says in verse 9.
Now, remember what it said in verse 8.
Jesus told him to rise and take up his bed, didn't he?
He told him, take up your bed.
Take up your bed.
In verse 9 it says, and immediately the man was made whole and took up his bed and walked.
So he's obeying what Jesus says.
He takes up his bed and he walks.
And on the same day was the Sabbath.
The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, it is the Sabbath day.
It is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed.
Now, most people, if they saw somebody get healed, they'd be happy.
Wouldn't you be happy, like, if somebody you knew had, you know, they were missing a leg
and then all of a sudden you just kind of, there it was.
I mean, you'd be thrilled. You'd be excited they were healed.
They're not happy this guy gets healed.
Immediately they try to discredit what Jesus did.
Now, did Jesus tell them to take up his bed and walk?
Yes, he did.
They say, well, you're breaking the Sabbath day.
Show me in the Bible where it says you're not allowed to pick up your bed on the Sabbath day.
Where does it say that?
I mean, they're saying Jesus committed sin basically because Jesus tells them to take up his bed and walk.
And the guy does it and they say you're breaking the Sabbath day.
So who are we going to believe?
Are we going to believe these Jews that say he's breaking the Sabbath day?
Are we going to believe that Jesus, are we going to believe that Jesus told them to commit a sin?
No, obviously he didn't tell them to commit a sin.
It is the Sabbath day.
But guess what?
There's no commandment that says don't take up your bed on the Sabbath day.
That's ridiculous.
Like, where are you getting that from?
I mean, obviously this guy just got healed.
Obviously he's going to take up his bed and go home.
Right? He's not just going to be in the middle there.
Just stay there all day and I'll just wait 24 hours and then I get to go home.
That's ridiculous.
You know, turn to Mark 2.
Obviously they don't really understand what the Sabbath is about.
I guess that makes sense because, you know, they are Jews and they're not saved.
So it makes sense that they don't understand the Sabbath day.
But they're saying that he broke the Sabbath.
Well, they need to understand what it says here in Mark 2 verse 27 where the Bible reads.
And he said unto them, the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.
Therefore the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath.
See, the Bible says the Sabbath was made for man.
The Sabbath was not to put us into bondage.
Okay?
The Sabbath was made for man.
That's what the Bible says.
Obviously it's okay to heal somebody on the Sabbath day.
Obviously if you're starving to death and you have no food, you know what?
It's okay to pick some corn.
And eat it.
Okay?
Those are some of the other things they criticized.
They weren't intentionally working to store up food.
Obviously if you need food, if you need water, it's okay to get that.
And not just say, I hope I don't die in the next 16 hours.
That's a complete misunderstanding of the Sabbath day.
In the Old Testament when people broke the Sabbath and they were put to death for it,
they were just choosing to work and blatantly disobeying what God said.
Okay?
But there's not a commandment that says, don't take up your bed on the Sabbath day.
It never says that.
Turn back to John chapter 5.
And so Jesus did command him to take up his bed and walk.
And he just obeyed what Jesus said.
Verse 11, he answered them, he that made me whole, the same said unto me, take up thy bed and walk.
He's not lying about that.
Jesus told him to do that.
That's what it says.
Then asked to him, what man is that which said unto thee, take up thy bed and walk?
See, they're angry.
They want to destroy the person who told him to take up his bed and walk.
Instead of being happy he was healed, they want to kill this guy, which is obviously Jesus.
Now look at what it says in verse 13.
And he that was healed was not who it was, for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in that place.
Afterward, Jesus findeth him in the temple and said unto him, behold, thou art made whole.
Send no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.
Now, it's interesting how he says in the last half of this verse, behold, thou art made whole.
But then he says, send no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.
The implication that he's making is that because of your sin, that is why you have the disease.
Okay?
That's why he makes it a point to say, send no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.
Why?
Because he had sinned previously and that's why he was in the situation he was in.
That's the implication he's making.
You committed a certain sin that caused you to have a disease.
So there's two possibilities here.
One is that he got a curse from God because of a sin he committed.
Obviously in the Bible, if somebody chooses to commit adultery, the Bible has the death penalty on them.
And if somebody were to do that now, they don't get put to death by the government.
But couldn't God allow them to die in a jimmy accident or in a motorcycle accident or whatever as a result of their sin?
But at the same time, sin has built in consequences.
Now turn to Galatians 6, Galatians 6.
So Jesus told him, send no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.
And the implication he's making is because of the sin you committed, because of your actions, that is why you had the disease.
That's why you were in the situation you were in.
The Bible doesn't tell us what it was.
But from what Jesus said, it implies that because of your sin, that's the reason why you were in that situation.
Now notice what it says in Galatians 6, verse 7.
Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap.
This is a verse that obviously we've heard a million times, but we need to remember this verse.
Because we don't get away with our sin.
And look, we can commit certain sins and think that God's not judging us.
But you know, eventually like I talked about on Sunday, he could lay down the hammer and you know what?
You could have a disease for decades that you can't get rid of.
You could have an ailment for decades that you can't get rid of.
He said, go and sin no more. Why?
Because he committed some sort of sin and the cost would be in the position that he's in.
Now, here's the thing about sin. Sin has built in consequences though.
If people live their lives as a drunk, they're probably going to die at a young age.
They're probably going to have very bad health.
They're probably going to go to the hospital all the time. Why?
Because God doesn't even have to judge them for their sin.
Sin does that on its own.
Because of sin, you will be in worse health physically. Sin has built in consequences.
You choose to smoke all the time. There's building consequences to that.
You choose to go fornicate and commit adultery.
Look, there's building consequences where it's just not healthy on your body.
Sin has building consequences.
So we don't know whether or not this man in John 5, you can turn back there to John 5.
We don't know whether or not he specifically was judged by God and that caused him to be in the position he was.
That's kind of what I assume.
That he committed some sin and God chose to judge him.
But it might have just been sin that he chose to commit and there was built in consequences to those actions.
Even if it's something small, we don't think it's a big deal.
Look, you can be judged for that and it's not going to be good on your body.
It's just not healthy. Sin is always destructive to your body.
Notice what it says in verse 15.
The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus which had made him whole.
And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus and sought to slay him because he had done these things on the Sabbath day.
As we live our lives here at Verity Baptist Church Manila, even if we try to avoid getting in conflict with these false religions.
We're not going to intentionally try to get in fights with these false religions.
But you know what? They're still going to come after us.
You say, why is that? Because we healed 63 people on Sunday. 63 people got saved.
You know what? They're not happy about that.
It's amazing how you can have somebody out there who's a drunker and you get them saved and they clean up their life.
They come to a church like this and then they're mad about it.
They're not happy about it. Does that make any sense?
They're upset when they're a drunk and then they're more upset when they're a fundamental Baptist or a fundamental Christian.
They're not going to be happy with us. They're going to come after us.
Now I hope that they don't try to kill us, but you never know.
If we do great works here in Manila, we get churches started.
There's churches that might not be too happy with what we're doing.
We start stealing their members because we know that they're listening to our sermons anyway.
We know there's a certain Baptist denomination here in the Philippines that listens to all of our sermons.
And if the pastors don't have time to listen to it because they're golfing, then they send one of their members to listen to the sermons.
Is that not right?
I mean, we know that's the case.
There are so many people here in Metro Manila that are listening to our sermons.
That's the truth.
The reason why I know that is because I see when someone likes Very Baptist Church Manila on Facebook,
and then I go to their Facebook and I can see, oh wow.
And it's like five months ago, they posted the Bible that they have about pastor amendments.
They're still at those Bible Baptist churches, but it's like secretly they're listening to our sermons.
And they don't agree with that garbage doctrine.
And that's one reason why on the prayer list we're praying for those people to leave those churches,
because that's what they need to do.
They need to just take the step to leave.
There's people in this room that you made a great sacrifice to leave your church before.
And it caused friends to no longer want to talk to you.
It caused family to not want to talk to you.
But you had the guts to do it.
Why don't they have the guts to do it?
And look, I'm glad they listened to the sermons.
I'm glad they're saved.
I'm glad that they like our movement.
But why don't you just come to our church?
Because I'm happy that they're at that step, but it also kind of ticks me off to a degree.
Because I'll tell you the truth, that when I was at a false church, I left that church once I realized it was false.
That's what I did about 13 years ago.
I was at a church and I found out that they were repentance of sins and Calvinists,
and I realized how bad repentance of sins was.
You know what I did?
I left the church.
Why would you go to a church where you don't even know if your pastor is saved?
Does that make any sense to you?
You say, well, all my friends are here.
That's a really stupid reason.
You go to a church with a false prophet.
You say, but wait a minute, I work for the church.
Look, they get everybody to work for their church.
They trick people into working for their church.
That way they're in bondage and will never leave.
That's the truth.
And you know, when people have the guts to leave, God is going to bless them for that.
I promise you that.
There's people in this room that chose to leave.
You were in that system and you left.
I believe God's going to bless you for that decision.
Because you had the courage.
God's not going to let you step out of the water and drown.
He didn't let Peter step out of the water and drown.
You know what?
People that are there.
If you're staying there because of money.
And look, I know some are going to listen to this sermon.
If you stay there because of money, you know what?
That is a really wicked and stupid reason to stay in the church.
Because you're getting paid by them.
So you're going to work for the devil.
You say, but oh, you know, they're not that.
Look, if they're pretending to be like us and they're preaching a repensive sense false gospel,
they're working for the devil.
You're better off working for the Catholic church.
Because at least they openly admit that they're different than us.
But if there's a church that pretends to be like us and they're not like us, you know what?
That is the worst place for you to be.
Those are our biggest enemies.
Who has been our biggest enemy since we started this church?
The Bible Baptists?
Is there any question about that?
They're the biggest enemy we've had.
There's no question about that.
They're the ones that ate our guts.
They're the ones who sent somebody to be a part of our church for a little while to pretend to be like us and go so many.
When in reality they never left that church.
They're the ones we've had problems with.
They're the ones in the April marathon, I presume, the Baptists that said, oh, you know, we're just like you.
We want to go so many with you.
Back a year ago, they were just pretending to be like us.
They're the denomination that's doing that.
So why are these people that are listening to our sermons and believe salvation by grace through faith and repensive sense as heresy,
why are they still going to those churches?
I mean, seriously, what is wrong with them?
Why would you go to that church if you don't believe like that?
If you listen to all the sermons by Pastor Anderson and Pastor Jimenez and by me and yet you still go to those churches, what's wrong with you?
Why don't you listen to the sermons about not being afraid by Pastor Anderson and Pastor Jimenez?
Why don't you listen to the sermon that Pastor Anderson preached at Mary Baptist Church a couple of years ago?
Don't be afraid.
Why don't you get some guts and leave those places?
You know, we have a room full of people that actually had guts and left those churches to serve God.
Why don't you do that, people that are listening to our sermons online?
Because, hey, we're glad you're saved, but it's about time that you line up with God's people.
Why are you fighting with the enemy against us?
That's ridiculous.
Leave those churches.
Turn to Philippians 2.
You know, honestly, our church would double in size if everybody, probably more than double in size, if everybody that was listening to the sermons actually came to this church within an area that they can come.
I understand for some people it's a really long drive.
I'm not saying, obviously on a Wednesday night, that's a really tough trip for people to make.
You know, it could be a three-hour trip.
I understand why they're not here tonight.
They want to spend three hours one way, three hours the other way.
Anyway, obviously, I just encourage our members to try to listen to the live stream if they're not able to be here.
I believe being here is the best thing, obviously, but if they're not able to be here, you know, listen to the live stream.
But you know what?
There's people, though, that are listening to these sermons, and I know that because I see their posts, and I see certain things they say, and they obviously don't believe like the Bible Baptist, but they choose to stay at those churches.
Our church would more than double in size.
It's ridiculous to me how many people there are that are listening to the sermons.
They want to be a part of this church.
Well, then be a part of this church.
Just join.
It says in Philippians 2, verse 5 and 6,
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery, be equal with God.
Notice how it says to be equal with God.
You go back to John 5.
I should have had you look at this earlier.
We know Philippians chapter 2 is the famous passage that shows us that Jesus Christ was God in flesh, and shows how everybody's going to bow down before him one day.
And I want you to notice what it says in verse 17 of John 5.
But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.
Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he had not only broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.
See, and remember in Philippians 2 what it said, being in the form of God.
What the Bible is showing us is very clearly Jesus Christ is God in flesh.
He made himself equal with God.
You'll notice in the Bible, oftentimes they want to kill Jesus because of the fact he was proclaiming that he got him.
He was proclaiming to be a deity.
You know, the Muslims will say that Jesus never proclaimed to be God.
Well, why did he have people bow down before him and worship him, and not rebuke them?
Because Peter was willing to rebuke people that worshiped him, so why wouldn't Jesus have done that?
The reason why he didn't do that is because he was God, and because it's okay to worship God.
And so the first point that we saw, which I'm not even sure if I mentioned, but the first point was, we talked about the Sabbath day.
The second thing I want you to see is the link between believing in the Father and believing in the Son.
The Bible says here in verse 19,
Now, I don't know about you, but when I read verse 19, I see a son and I see a father.
It doesn't really seem that complicated to me that there is a son and there's also a father.
And so it says in verse 20,
Wait, did it say the father loved himself, or did it say he loved the son? It says he loved the son, right?
We're seeing very clearly there's both a father and a son.
We also see a distinction of wills here. The Bible talks about the will of the father.
And obviously what the Bible teaches is that the son was subject unto the father.
That is what you see in the Bible. The son was subject unto the father, and then the Holy Spirit would be below them.
Now that doesn't mean that the father is better than the son, but it does mean that he's subject unto the son.
Verse 23,
That all men should honor the son even as they honor the father.
He that honoreth not the son, honoreth not the father which hath sent him.
And so once again it says that there's a son and there's a father.
But notice how it says he that honoreth not the son, honoreth not the father which hath sent him.
So if you don't honor the son, you're not honoring the father.
Now, if someone was like a one-nissed Pentecostal or a one-nissed Baptist, they would say,
Well, the reason why if you're not honoring the son, you're not honoring the father is because you're the same person.
That's obviously not what the Bible teaches, but let me just give you an example of this.
Let's say for example I had Brother Dustin come up here and preach a sermon one time.
And let's say for example people thought that Dustin did a bad job, but they didn't think he should get to preach.
And then they criticized that Dustin got to preach again.
Now one thing they're doing is criticizing him, but who else are they criticizing?
They're criticizing me. Why?
Because I'm the one who decided he could get up here and preach.
So that's an insult to me if you're insulting him.
So you say, Why is it that if you don't honor the son, you're not honoring the father?
Because the father sent the son.
And so the father sent the son, and you disrespect the son, you're disrespecting God the father as well.
Why? Because he sent the son.
It's really not that complicated.
Verse 24,
Now verse 24 is a very, very interesting verse.
Notice how it says,
So who is it saying to believe on there in verse 24?
It's saying on the father.
Not believe on him who was sent, but believe on him that sent me.
See, when it comes to the father and the son, you cannot believe on the son unless you also believe on the father.
You can't believe on the father without believing on the son.
Why? Because the Bible is very clear that the father sent the son.
And so we say, Well, I don't believe, you know, there's a son, I just believe on the father.
Look, you're not believing on either end.
It's an all or nothing thing.
You either believe the Bible, or you don't believe the Bible.
And see, the Bible says you have to believe on him that sent me.
Why? Because God the father is God.
And if you say, Well, I don't believe that Jesus Christ was sent, I don't believe there's a son,
you're rejecting the father as well.
But if you believe on the father, you're going to accept the son as well.
Why? You can't just pick parts of the Bible that you believe.
Say, Well, I believe this part, the Old Testament, but I don't believe the New Testament.
Well, you don't believe the Old Testament either.
That's what the Bible teaches.
So if you believe on him that sent me, guess what?
You're going to believe on the son.
You say, What about the people in the Old Testament?
The people that believed in God, but Jesus Christ had not died on the cross yet.
You know what they would do when Jesus came?
They would believe on Jesus.
Why? Because if you believe on him that sent me, if you believe in the true God, if you believe in the living God,
you're going to believe on Jesus when he did come.
It's an all or nothing thing.
They get so mixed up on this, but this is something you either believe all or you reject all.
It's like when we explain the gift analogy.
Look, the gift is eternal life.
A hundred percent a free gift.
You can't believe that Jesus died for like 95% of your sins.
But if you commit suicide, you'll lose your salvation.
Well, you're just rejecting all of it.
Because what's being offered is eternal life.
What's being offered is complete forgiveness.
You can't say, Well, I'll take 95% forgiveness from Jesus and just make sure I don't commit suicide and go to heaven.
No, you're rejecting all of it then.
Because it's either a gift or it's not a gift.
And so when it comes to salvation, you can't just pick and choose these things.
You either believe what the Bible says or you don't believe what the Bible says.
Now I believe verse 24 in the Bible is the number one best verse on eternal security.
The reason why I believe this is three times in this verse it makes it clear you cannot lose your salvation.
Notice how it says half everlasting life.
Half is present tense, which means you have it right now.
It's everlasting.
Case closed.
It lasts forever.
If you can lose it for any reason, it's not everlasting.
But then it says shall not come into condemnation.
Basically what that's saying is that if you're declared innocent, you can't be condemned in the future.
If you've already believed on Jesus Christ, God has declared you innocent.
You're not guilty forever.
He can't change his mind and declare you guilty one day.
It'd be like, for example, if you're in a courtroom and you get declared innocent in a case,
they can't just say 10 years later, Well, we changed our mind.
Now you're guilty.
No, you're already declared innocent.
It's a done deal.
At least in America that's how it works.
I don't know how it works in the Philippines.
Maybe they can't just retry and say, We're just going to throw that out.
But if you're declared innocent, they can't declare you guilty one day and say, Well, you're condemned now.
It's like, No, you already said I was innocent.
It's already been determined.
Then it says, but is passed from death unto life.
Is is present tense.
Is passed.
Not you will one day pass from death unto life.
Just say, Am I going to enter into life one day?
Look, if you've already passed from death unto life, it's a done deal.
Say, Well, do you know for sure you're going to heaven?
Yes, I do.
Because when I was 18 years old, I passed from death unto life.
It already happened.
I went from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.
So three times in this verse, doesn't it make it clear you can't lose your salvation?
I like the post that Brother Dustin had up today where he's like, How can you read the book of John and then walk away and think you can lose your salvation?
That's a good question because I'm being very repetitive in this John series, but I don't really know how to preach it because over and over again, it just shows that you can't lose your salvation.
Now, intentionally, we went with the book of John because I want to set a really strong foundation on salvation in case any heretics or weirdos come into this place.
I want to get them out from day one.
If they're not like us, their phonies just preach them out the door.
Preach salvation over and over again until they get ticked off from what we're saying.
That's the strategy.
Just preach the truth.
And if there's phonies in here, hopefully that will just get rid of them.
So they don't just pretend to be like this, right?
This book, though, is very repetitive. Why?
It's the book to tell us how to get to get to heaven and to be safe.
And yes, it is very repetitive.
Believe, believe, believe, believe, believe.
That's what salvation is.
And once you're safe, you're always it.
Verse 25.
Verily, verily, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live.
For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son that will have life in himself, and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of men.
And so the Father has no beginning.
He has no end.
Obviously, we know God was here in the beginning.
Jesus was here in the beginning.
In the beginning was the Word.
And the Bible teaches that the Father is life in himself.
And the Bible teaches that Jesus Christ is eternal.
That's what the Bible teaches.
And then let's look at verse, notice what it says though in verse 27.
And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of men.
And so the Father gives the Son his authority.
One great example of understanding how the Son is subject to none of the Father is understanding a husband and a wife.
Obviously, what the Bible teaches is the husband is the head of the home.
That's how it works.
He has the authority over the wife to make decisions.
Now, here's the thing about this though.
That doesn't mean that the husband is better than the wife though.
The analogy I've heard given, which I think is a great analogy, is you look at a washer and a dryer.
Look, is a washer better than a dryer?
Is a dryer better than a washer?
They have different functions.
It's a foolish thing to compare them.
Is a microwave better than a fridge?
Is a fridge better than a microwave?
They're different things.
Why would you compare them?
Look, when it comes to a husband and a wife, they have different roles.
But the husband makes the final decisions.
Now, obviously, there's reasons for that.
And honestly, I'm going to actually talk about the family this Sunday so I won't really go into this too much.
When it comes to the father having authority over the son, that doesn't make the son a second-class citizen.
That doesn't make the father better than the son.
But it does make him have the final judgment.
Look, when you have anything run with order and structure, you need somebody to make the final decision.
That's just the way it works.
You know, at this church, outside of obviously pastor and manager would make big decisions.
When it comes to just the normal, everyday stuff here, I make the final decision.
And it doesn't mean that I always have the right decision.
Quite honestly, I'm going to have the wrong decision a lot of times.
So what I do sometimes when it comes to certain situations, I don't really know what the right thing is to do sometimes.
I'll listen to various people's opinions, but then eventually I have to make the decision.
I can't just because if I just let other people make those decisions, that makes me weak and people over respected.
I have to eventually make the final decisions on certain things.
What it means is this, I'm going to make wrong decisions sometimes.
So look, you know, you obviously give me grace if I make wrong decisions because I'm admitting I'm going to make some wrong decisions.
But just if you're going to have something that has structure and order, somebody has to make the decision.
That's the way it's going to work.
When it comes to how we run things here, obviously I'm going to make the final decision outside of what pastor meant as a viewpoint.
That doesn't make me better than anyone here because honestly, some people in here might get more or worse in heaven.
It doesn't make me better. Just means that I make the final decision.
Just like when it comes to the father or the father and the son, the father has the authority over the son.
That's what the Bible teaches.
Now, look at what it says in verse number 28.
Marvel not at this for the hour is coming in which all that are in the grave shall hear his voice and shall come forth.
They that have done good under the resurrection of life and they that have done evil under the resurrection of damnation.
So what it says is all that are in the grave shall hear his voice.
Did that say some or did that say all?
It said all, whether they're believers or unbelievers.
Now turn to 1 Thessalonians 4.
So all that are going to hear his voice and some to the resurrection of life and some to the resurrection of damnation.
Now what the Bible teaches is that there are multiple resurrections, okay?
The Bible talks about the first resurrection.
But if you talk about the first resurrection, what are you implying?
You're implying there's another one.
You wouldn't say, hey, this is the first resurrection if there's not a second one.
That would be kind of a foolish way to speak, right?
You're going to have more than one if you say that there's a first resurrection.
That is the implication that's being made.
But remember in John 5 what it talked about was those going to the resurrection of life and those going to the resurrection of damnation.
Now 1 Thessalonians 4, notice what it says in verse 13.
Now this is the passage that talks about the rapture.
Whether you're pre-trip or mid-trip or post-trip or whatever trip, you're going to agree this is talking about the rapture in 1 Thessalonians 4.
Now when you talk to pre-trip people, one thing you're going to notice is that if you talk to like 5 or 10 different ones, they have all kinds of different opinions.
They don't even know what they believe.
It's so confusing.
You say, what does a pre-trip person believe?
The only thing I know for sure is that they believe the rapture is before the tribulation.
After that, they can have a million different opinions.
Some can believe in like 20 resurrections.
Some believe in only one resurrection.
And it's like, you know, they're all over the place, okay?
Now the Bible does speak about multiple resurrections, but it doesn't speak about 20 different resurrections.
You know, like the dispensationalists have, I think they say four resurrections or whatever.
Maybe it's eight.
I mean, they probably have different opinions depending on who you talk to.
But they're like all over the place.
It doesn't make any sense.
Now in 1 Thessalonians 4, though, we would all agree this is talking about the rapture here.
Now notice what it says in verse 13.
But I would not have you to be ignorant, okay?
God doesn't want you to be ignorant about this.
What does that mean?
He wants to reveal it to you, the book of revelation, revelation, okay?
He's revealing it, okay?
Don't a lot of people say that, well, you know, when it comes to the book of revelation, no one can understand this.
It's so confusing, it's impossible to know.
No, he said he doesn't want you to be ignorant about it.
He wants you to be aware of it, okay?
Look, if somebody says, I don't understand the book of revelation at all, they probably don't understand the rapture.
Because honestly, the book of revelation is not that confusing.
It's really not.
It's pre-structured, it's organized, it makes sense.
He says he doesn't want you to be ignorant.
We're not supposed to be ignorant when it comes to the rapture.
I've heard people say, they say this is a joke, but they say, you know, well, you know what, I'm pantry.
And then you're supposed to say, well, what does that mean?
Well, you know, I don't know if it's pretreated or mid-traded or post-traded, but it's all going to pan out in the end.
Glory to God, amen.
It's like, what a stupid statement.
You know, I've heard people tell me, you know, Baptist pastors say, well, you know what, if you listen to a pre-trip person, you'd be pre-traded.
If you listen to a mid-trip, you'd be mid-traded.
You'd change your mind every time.
No, I wouldn't, because it's not that confusing.
I know what the word after means.
When it says after the tribulation, it's not that confusing.
He doesn't want you to be ignorant.
And he says concerning them which are asleep.
So he doesn't want you to be ignorant about this thing, about them that are asleep.
What does it mean by asleep?
Well, that means that they're dead.
They're passed away.
They've passed on.
Okay, that's a term in the Bible that can mean sleeping, but it can also mean that they are gone.
They're no longer with us.
Jesus uses that term, and sometimes people are confused, because he says he's not dead when he's sleeping, and sometimes they don't really understand what he's saying.
But he uses that terminology of needing to sleep.
So this is talking about people that are believers that have already died.
Obviously, most of human history was in the past.
You know, I don't think this world's going to live another 6,000 years.
I think most of human history is in the past.
And look, those people, they're asleep.
Their bodies are asleep.
They're in heaven, but their bodies are asleep.
They're gone.
They're not with us.
It says that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
He says, I don't want you to have sorrow as others which have no hope.
You say, why does it say he doesn't want us to sorrow?
What he's going to tell us and explain this passage is that these people are going to go with this one.
They will be resurrected.
They will be in heaven.
Yes, they passed on.
Yes, we don't see them anymore.
Look, most of us in this room probably have lost loved ones, whether it's family or friends, that are no longer with us.
But look, the reason why we don't have to sorrow is that if they are believers, we're going to see them again one day.
I have a great friend of mine who died when I was in college.
I'm going to see them again one day.
I don't have to sorrow as those which have no hope.
See, the unbelieving world, they have no hope.
They're not going to see their loved ones again.
But us as believers, look, we are going to see our loved ones again.
As long as they were saved.
And as long as we're saved, those are the two key things.
They need to be saved. We need to be saved.
You know, if you're not saved, then well, you know, you ought to sorrow for them.
But it says in verse 14,
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
So he says, you know, Jesus who rose again, he resurrected.
When he comes, he's going to bring them with him.
And it says in verse 15,
For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord,
That we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
Now the context of alive and remain is talking about if you have, it's talking about your flesh.
You're alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord.
So what the Bible says is this, that you know what, if we're alive when Jesus comes back,
he's going to bring us along with those that sleep.
Okay, now I'm not going to get into it for the sake of time. This isn't really a sermon on the rapture.
I'm just kind of touching on this, but I want you to understand this, that when it comes to,
the Bible speaks about people that will endure on the end, the same shall be saved.
Matthew 24 is not talking about spiritual salvation.
It's talking about if you endure through the tribulation, you will be saved.
He will take you with him just as he takes those that have slept, those that have passed on.
It says in verse 16,
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God,
and the dead in Christ shall rise first.
So those that are saved that have already died, they're going to rise first.
Now notice how he says dead in Christ.
Now it's kind of funny because people say that in the Old Testament that they weren't saved by Jesus Christ.
Some people say that. What says here the dead in Christ?
So those that have died in the Old Testament, unless you want to add an extra resurrection like the dispensationists like to do,
it says the dead in Christ.
So those that were believers that have already passed on, they're the dead in Christ.
See, but they came before Jesus Christ. They're the dead in Christ.
Because they believed on the coming of Messiah.
And if you believe on the true God in the Old Testament, you're going to believe on Jesus when he came.
That's the way it works.
It says the dead in Christ shall rise first.
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air,
and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
So the Bible speaks about us being raptured.
And notice what it says in verse 18.
Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
So in the whole context here, 1 Thessalonians 4, what is the comfort?
Is the comfort that we're not going to go through any tribulation?
Is that what it said in verse 13 through 17?
That's not the comfort.
The comfort is you're not going to sorrow as others that have no hope.
The comfort is you're going to see your lost loved ones again.
You talk about comforting someone.
That's in the context when they're going through some sort of grieving.
And look, you know, if we would never see our lost loved ones again,
that would be pretty sorrowful.
It would be pretty sorrowful if they died.
Now obviously when you have someone you love that dies and passes on, even if they're a believer,
the natural thing to do is have a grieving process.
For some people that period could be very small.
For some people it could be very long.
You know, one of my good friends who was also good friends with my friend that passed on,
when my friend died, my friend, you know, the way he dealt with it is, you know, he told a lot of jokes.
You know, he was trying to stay in a good mood.
Now that's not how I dealt with it.
It wasn't that he didn't care about him. That's just how he grieved.
People grieve differently. They grieve for different periods of time.
Obviously there's going to be a natural grieving period.
But look, what if my friend was not a believer?
Boy, that would have been really, really bad.
I know plenty of people that, and look, I know people that have died and went to hell,
people that were family, people that didn't believe like I do.
You know what, it's pretty sad because there is no hope for them.
I will never see that person again.
We will all run into people, we will probably all have family members that are going to die and go to hell.
And that's sorry. I mean, you're going to be pretty sorry for that.
There's no way it's going to ever change.
But see, the Bible talks in verse 18 about the comfort of these words.
This is very comfortable, this is very comforting what he says in verses 13 through 18
because what he's telling us is that your loved one who went to sleep,
who passed away, you will see them again as long as they're bleeding.
That's a very comforting message. Think about a mom who's lost a child.
This is a very comforting message. They're going to see their lost loved one again.
There's nothing in this passage about being comforted that you're not going to go through tribulation.
That's ridiculous. We could go on in 1 Thessalonians 5 because the context is not broken.
This is not really the end of the thought as you go on to 1 Thessalonians 5.
There's nothing in this passage, though, that talks about being comforted and you're not going through tribulation.
Where in the Bible do you see people, God's people, not having to go through tribulation?
I mean, that's not in Genesis, it's not in Exodus, it's not in Leviticus.
God's people always go through tribulation. That's the way it works.
But we have a comfort that, you know what, our loved ones that have passed away,
we'll see the one today again if we're believers and if they're believers.
But I want you to notice here in 1 Thessalonians 4, the reason why we turned here is
we talk about the resurrection of those that are dead in Christ.
It didn't say that all are going to be resurrected, 1 Thessalonians 4.
Now John 5 talks about those that are dead being resurrected, both some to life and some to damnation.
In 1 Thessalonians 4, it's just those being resurrected to life.
Now we're not going to go into it for the sake of time.
If you go to Revelation 20, it talks about the resurrection.
Now turn to Daniel 12, verse 2.
And so there are multiple resurrections in 1 Thessalonians 4.
The Bible speaks about the resurrection, but this is just those being resurrected onto life,
people that are dead in Christ.
Notice what it says in Daniel 12, verse 2.
And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall wake, some to everlasting life,
and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
But once again in 1 Thessalonians 4, it just talked about people rising,
the dead in Christ along with us that were made.
Let's say the tribulation starts tomorrow.
And let's say for example that a couple of us last through or we aren't killed.
Now it's very possible if it were to happen in this room full of people,
some of us would be killed and some wouldn't.
Hopefully some of us wouldn't be killed.
But you know, I'm sure some of us would be killed, right?
But what it's saying is whether you're killed or whether you're not, you're going to rise again.
Those that are dead in Christ, those that have died over the last 6,000 years
along with those that are alive remain onto the rapture.
Then he raptures us the pre-wrath rapture before his wrath is poured out.
But it's after the tribulation, okay?
So turn to back to John 5.
Turn back to John 5.
In honesty, I haven't preached on the rapture really at all since we started the church.
So I guess I was like, well, let's just hit a rapture, okay?
But you know, some of these pre-trib people, some of them believe there's only one resurrection.
And some of them believe in lots of resurrections.
They're all over the place with the doctrine.
They have no clue what they believe.
And you know, the Bible said you're not supposed to be ignorant.
Us as believers, it's not supposed to be confusing.
And you know, when you go to these churches that are pre-trib,
and look, probably everybody in this room at one time was pre-trib.
I presume, or at least most of us were pre-trib at one time.
And if you went to these Baptist churches and they talked to you about it,
you were probably pretty confused yourself.
And you're like, man, I don't understand the book of Revelation at all.
And then once you heard it explained, hey, after means after.
And just very simple, hey, it's after the tribulation, before his wrath.
You see in Revelation 6, 7, and 8, 2 Thessalonians 2, Matthew 24,
you're like, wow, that is the clearest thing I've ever seen.
Now you know that's the truth. Why?
The Bible's meant to be simple.
Amen.
Now I know the dispensationalists say it's meant to be confusing,
but as we saw just a few weeks ago, the Bible's meant to be simple,
so we can understand it.
And once you hear it explained, you're like, wow, that makes sense.
Now there are some things that are confusing in the end times.
There are things that are confusing in the book of Revelation.
You know, one thing that's not confusing is the timing of the rapture.
It's actually pretty simple.
And that's what it says in John 5, verse 30.
And I can have mine own self do nothing, as I hear I judge, and my judgment is just.
Because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.
And so it speaks about the Father and the Son having different wills.
If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.
There is another that beareth witness to me,
and I know that the witness which he witnesses of me is true.
So he speaks about if I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.
So obviously Jesus is saying that, you know what, there's multiple witnesses,
which means it's not just one.
There's one God who became God the Father, became God the Son,
became then, became that, like a lot of cults believe.
That's not what the Bible teaches.
And I'm not going to go into the oneness doctrine too much for a second time,
because we've talked about it, and it's not really an issue here in this country.
But obviously, you know, you've probably heard a preach there in verse 31 and verse 32.
It's like, I don't know how to get around this.
There's multiple witnesses. That's what the Bible says.
Verse 33.
He sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth.
But I receive not testimony for man that these things I say that he might be saved.
He was a burning and a shining light, and ye are willing for a season to rejoice in his light.
But I have greater witness than that of John, for the works which the Father hath given me to finish,
the same works that I do, bear witness of me, but the Father hath sent me.
And the Father himself which hath sent me hath borne witness of me.
He hath neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.
Now, one thing I want you to notice in verse 35, which is an interesting verse,
is where it says he was a burning and a shining light.
That's an interesting illustration that God's giving him.
So there's kind of two aspects being a burning light and a shining light.
Kind of the aspect, what God's trying to basically say is this,
that if you just kind of burn out in terms of just going all out for God,
just having lots of zeal, you're going to be a shining light in this world.
Okay?
So basically what it's saying is basically just going all in for God.
Be a burning light.
Basically just devote your whole life just reading the Bible, memorizing the Bible, going so in.
And you know what? If you're a burning light, you're going to be a shining light as well.
Because the Bible says let your works be seen, that you may shine before the world.
I'm not quoting that right in Matthew 5, verse 16.
But you know, if you're a burning light, you're also going to be a shining light
to this dark and wicked world that we live in.
That's the truth.
Now let's look at the third point.
And we kind of talked about this in the second point because we kind of merged together.
But basically if you believe in the Old Testament, then you're going to believe in the New Testament and vice versa.
And so in verse 38,
And he have not his word abiding in you, for whom he hath sent, and he believe not.
You remember earlier in the chapter it said that if you believe on, you know, him that sent me.
It talks about the Father.
Then it says, you know, believing on whom he hath sent.
Why? Because you cannot believe in the Father and not believe the Son and vice versa.
Same thing with the Old Testament and New Testament.
The Jews would say they believe in the Old Testament, but they don't believe in the Old Testament.
I mean, you can listen to them talk about how the earth is millions and millions of years old.
They obviously don't believe the Old Testament.
You can listen to them talk about how there is no Trinity.
They obviously don't believe it.
They don't believe the things of the Bible.
They completely reject it.
They don't even have sacrifices.
They don't really believe anything today.
It's just kind of a completely different religion.
But it says in verse 39,
Search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and there they which testify of me.
So what scriptures is Jesus referring to?
He's referring to the Old Testament.
He's referring to Genesis.
He's referring to Exodus.
He's referring to Leviticus and Numbers.
Now, recently, you know, Pastor Anderson started a series where I don't know if he's going through every book of the Old Testament,
but he's like, Jesus in the book of Genesis, Jesus in the book of Exodus, Jesus in the book of Leviticus.
The truth is, Jesus is in everyone.
All those books are pointing towards Jesus Christ.
Now, there's some great examples we know about, like Abraham sacrificing his son, Isaac,
and it said God will provide himself a land for an offering.
Obviously, that shows clear as day, Jesus Christ.
We also know in the book of Exodus where, you know, I think it's the book of Exodus,
but where Moses had to raise the serpent that they looked upon.
That obviously points towards Jesus Christ.
There's plenty of things that are very obvious, but honestly, every book in the Old Testament points towards Jesus Christ.
And there's a lot of great symbolism that sometimes we miss, but it doesn't really matter what the book is.
You're going to find great symbolism there if you pay attention.
That's why the Bible's never going to get old to us,
because as you keep reading, you're going to keep seeing Jesus all the time.
There's a lot of types of Jesus Christ.
You can think of, you know, Abraham. We talk about Moses.
You know, Joseph was a type of Jesus Christ. Jacob was a type of Jesus Christ.
David, Samson, they had a lot of, you know, things in their life that you would point to and look at and say,
that's the same thing Jesus Christ did.
A lot of things that were obviously pointing towards Jesus Christ.
And when you're saved, you can see these things.
Now notice what it says in verse 40.
And ye will not come to me that ye might have life.
And so Jesus puts the blame on them.
He says, ye will not come to me.
Okay, now if the Calvinists are right, the Bible's pretty weird, okay?
Because God is really mad that these people aren't coming to him, and yet he won't let them come.
I mean, does that make any sense?
You know, I guess I should ask Dr. James White about that since, you know, he talked about me in his video today.
It's just like, explain that one to me, Mr. Calvinist.
You know, how God is always mad at them for not coming, and yet he won't let them come.
Right.
I mean, does it make any sense to anybody in here?
How stupid is that?
If you want them to come, why do you not let them come?
It doesn't make any sense.
But he puts the blame on them.
He will not come to me that ye might have life.
And so he told them, hey, look in the Old Testament, because it points towards me.
Then he blames them for not coming.
Now turn to Matthew 11.
So it is our job to come to Jesus Christ.
Now, obviously the Bible says that we cannot come unless he draws us.
But the Bible also says that he draws everybody.
Okay?
Now they get mad because you explain that, and they say, well, that's not proper ex to Jesus.
But you know what?
We believe the Bible says comparing spiritual to spiritual.
Yeah.
That's what it says in 1 Corinthians 2.
Amen.
It says comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
That's how you know the things of the Bible.
You see a word in the Bible, and you look it up.
Obviously you look at the context of that verse, but you also look up that verse.
You look up that word.
You look up similar things to see what the Bible says about them.
And so when you see that statement, you can't come to Jesus unless you're drawn.
But then you see a very clear verse that says if he's lifted up from the earth,
and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men on to me, what does that show you?
It shows that everybody's drawn.
You say, but not everybody goes to heaven.
Yeah, because of the fact he died for everyone, and we have a free will choice.
You say, well, why does it say in John 6 then that you can't come unless you're drawn?
Because of the fact there's certain people that are walking dead men in this world.
Yeah?
There are certain people that are children of the devil.
Now, the Calvinists would say everybody's a child of the devil before they're forced to get saved.
That's not what the Bible teaches.
The Bible does teach that certain people make a choice to reject God over and over again,
become wicked, and they end up hating God, and they end up becoming a walking dead man,
which means no matter what they do the rest of their life, if there's one thing for certain,
they're going to go to hell.
Just like as we pass from death from the life, people can pass from the opportunity of life to death.
In this life, they can do that.
They can end up being rejected by God, and they are walking dead men.
It doesn't matter what they do the rest of their life.
They will go to hell. Why?
Because God is no longer drawn from that. That's what the Bible teaches.
But he told them in John 5, verse 40 to come on to them.
Now, in Matthew 11, this is what it says in verse 28, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
Come on to me. Okay?
Because he told them to come to me, and he says you will not come, that you might have life.
He said if you did come to me, you would have life.
So in Matthew 11, verse 28, come on to me, this is referring to salvation.
It says come on to me, all you that labor and are heavy laden in I will give you rest.
See, this is the way it is with salvation.
Because we will try to labor and work our way to heaven, and you never have rest with that.
But see, the Bible says if you come on to me, you will have rest.
Because you've entered into that rest.
Now, obviously God wants us to work until the day we die, but in terms of our salvation, it's a done deal.
We've entered into that rest.
That's why when you look at the Sabbath day, we do not follow the Sabbath day in today's world.
The Sabbath day is done away. Why?
Because the Sabbath day symbolized Jesus Christ.
That rest that we've entered into when we get saved.
Verse 29, take my yoke upon you and learn of me.
For I am naked, lowly in heart, and you shall find rest on your souls.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Now, understand this, that living the Christian life is not easy.
Would anybody say the Christian life is easy?
Is it easy to pray all the time and to read the Bible all the time and go to church all the time?
It goes so many all the time. Is that easy?
Is it easy to take 22 Tiffany rides to come here to church on a Wednesday night?
That's not easy, is it?
It's not easy to live the Christian life.
It's not easy to be a good person.
It's not easy to follow all of these rules.
If it was easy, this place would be packed.
People would be going so many all the time.
That is not easy.
But you know, there is something that is easy.
Salvation is very easy.
It's very easy.
It's drinking a glass of water.
He says, come on to me.
He says, you will not come to me.
Now, it wasn't difficult them coming to him.
All you got to do is believe on Jesus Christ.
But they chose to reject Jesus Christ.
And so they will never enter into that rest.
The Bible says when you go to hell, there is no rest day nor night.
You're in hell forever.
There is no rest day.
Now, thinking about rest, because going to hell obviously is terrible.
The worst thing about hell is that you're there forever.
The fact that you're on fire, these are terrible things.
But you know, not having any rest, that's not a good thing either.
But people are miserable when they're really tired.
Is that not true?
Think about times in your life when you're extremely exhausted.
It's not fun.
You feel terrible.
You just want to sleep.
I mean, think about Brother Jay here this past Sunday.
He had worked for I don't know how many straight hours.
He went right back to work afterwards.
He sent me a message.
Didn't he, Brother Tim?
He sent that one message.
I said, Brother Jay, just go to sleep.
I was like, don't worry about it.
We can text the guy in the morning.
Just get some sleep.
Why?
Because it's miserable when you haven't had any sleep.
Isn't it?
I've had a time before where I fell asleep driving.
Now, I don't know in this room how many people drive.
Because obviously in America, pretty much everybody drives.
It's not the same thing in the Philippines.
I will never drive here, I don't think.
It's pretty crazy in Metro Manila.
But at least not in Metro Manila, I don't think I'm planning to drive.
But when you fall asleep when you're driving, when you're that tired,
your natural thought would be, I can blast the radio really loud and it will keep me up.
It does not keep you up.
And look, it's not just me.
Tons of people have said the same thing.
Because this was a long time ago, my first reaction.
I was like 20, 21 years old.
I hadn't gone to sleep for a long time.
I just thought, you know, I'll just blast the music really loud.
Of course that's going to keep me up.
That doesn't keep you up.
You fall asleep like that.
When you're that tired, you will fall asleep immediately.
Just imagine, though, not being able to ever rest.
That's miserable.
There's a lot of things about hell that are miserable.
But that's pretty miserable getting to never sleep.
That's terrible.
That's even a form of torture that they use in some places.
Where they basically just, you know, you get tired and fall asleep and they immediately wake you up.
That's a form of torture.
Now turn back to John 5.
And so we have to make the choice to come on to Jesus Christ.
We have to make the choice to believe on Him.
Let's just finish up this chapter here.
John 5, verse 41.
I receive not honor for men, but I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you.
I am coming to my Father's name, and ye receive me not.
If another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.
Now, I want you to understand something.
It's not saying that he has the exact same name as the Father.
As some people would say.
I mean, this whole chapter, you can clearly see that there's a Father and a Son.
But he's saying, I'm coming in my Father's name.
Basically, you're coming with the authority.
It would be like, for example, you know, there's certain things that if I said, you know,
hey, this is how I want to run something at church.
You say, by what name do you do that?
By what authority do you do that?
It's like, by the name of Pastor Minnis.
By the authority of Pastor Minnis, who makes the final decisions.
Right?
I'd be doing it in his name.
I came here to start this church under the name, under the authority of Barry Baptist Church, Pastor Minnis.
It doesn't mean that I have the same name.
It just means I'm doing it under his name.
It's his authority.
That's all that it's saying.
It's by his authority.
That's what it's saying in John chapter 5.
Now, verse 44, how can ye believe?
Which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only.
Do not think that I will accuse you of the Father.
There is one that accuses you, even Moses, in whom ye trust.
So, he's saying, you know what?
You trust in Moses, and Moses condemns you.
And isn't that true that people trust or believe in the law to give it to heaven?
Yeah.
Now, sort of Romans 3.
This was not in my notes, but I want to quickly show you this verse here in Romans 3.
Romans 3 is obviously a very famous passage, but I want to show you another verse here in Romans 3 that maybe I haven't focused on too much.
And in Romans 3, verse 19, it says,
Now we know that one thing soever the law sayeth, it saith them who are under the law,
that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
So, the Bible shows us that the law condemns us all. We're all guilty before God.
It says every mouth may be stopped.
Basically, think about, for example, you know, you have a child, and your child is clearly caught doing something wrong.
There's no, because the natural reaction for a kid when they get into trouble is to lie about it.
That's what a kid does.
Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child.
Kids will lie about stuff.
They'll just lie about and say, you'll ask them,
I mean, obviously, my son's really young, but, you know, if you ask them, hey, did you steal that?
They're going to deny it.
I remember when I was a kid, I got caught stealing something from one of my parents.
You know, I remember wanting candy at the store, and I had stolen, like, a Kit Kat or Reese's or something like that,
and I tried to hide it, and somehow they found the wrapper.
And, man, I got in big trouble.
I never stole a thing again after that.
It's like, you get spanked hard enough, it gets spanked out of you.
But, you know, I remember just trying to lie about it.
And it's like, no, I didn't.
And it's like, well, the wrapper's there, and it's like your mouth ends up being stopped because you can't defend yourself.
Right?
I mean, when it comes to the world, how are you going to defend yourself when he says,
all liars shall have their part in the language of the fire of brimstone?
Your mouth is stopped.
Why?
Because you're guilty before God, and it's obvious you're guilty.
When God shows you, hey, one lie is enough to get an enemy to hell, it's like, oh, wow.
I've done a lot worse than tell one lie.
I've lied a lot of times, and I've done a lot of worse things.
You can't defend yourself at all.
Now, people try, but there's no way they can defend themselves.
Now, let's go back to John 5 and finish this up.
So, verse 46, for had he believed Moses, he would have believed me, for he wrote of me.
So, if I was very clear, if you believe the Old Testament, you're going to believe the New Testament.
You're going to believe Jesus Christ, because Moses did write of Jesus Christ.
Right.
I mean, you look throughout his life, and there's so many things that point towards Jesus Christ very clearly.
And even in the law itself, the Sabbath day, which we no longer follow, it shows Jesus Christ, which they don't get.
They talked about the Sabbath day earlier. They don't understand that.
It all points towards Jesus Christ, and they don't get it.
Verse 47, but if he believed not his writings, how shall he believe my works?
Now, let me just say this in closing, that when it comes to the Old Testament and the New Testament,
because he talked about he wrote of me, I believe it's more important to read the New Testament than the Old Testament.
But it's still very important to read the Old Testament.
Now, I mean, people have different Bible reading plans, and some people read the Old Testament as much as they read the New Testament.
But, you know, honestly, the New Testament reveals a lot from the Old Testament.
So, obviously, we're going to preach through both.
But, you know, it is a little bit more important to read the New Testament than the Old Testament.
There's a reason why we started in the book of John, and not the book of Leviticus, or, you know, one of the minor prophets, or one of the major prophets like Isaiah.
Why? Because John's a more important book than the Old Testament.
You know, I've said this, and I believe this. I believe John's the most important book in the Bible.
If I were to get somebody saved, and they ask me, you know, where should I start reading the Bible?
I always tell them to start with the book of John, because it is the best book.
And, honestly, this 21 chapters we're going through in the book of John, a lot of it's very repetitive.
I mean, hasn't a lot of it been the exact same thing over and over again?
But it's not that I'm choosing to be repetitive. That's just what I'm saying in every single chapter.
Every chapter is believed. There's verses in John chapter 6 that are talking about believing on Jesus Christ.
That's what you see over and over and over again.
You know, it's important for us to set a strong foundation.
So when some heretic comes in here, we're ready to smash them on whatever false doctrine they're bringing.
Now, let's close the door of prayer.
You have the Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today.