Thank you.
Oh, yes, I'm the slave of the battle, for my battle team holds the fight, for I am dwelling into the matter.
Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
I'd rather have Jesus dead, silver or gold, I'd rather be His after riches untold,
I'd rather have Jesus dead, houses or lands, I'd rather be dead, my slippers net,
And to be the king of the past, obey, Or be held in secret swing,
I'd rather have Jesus than anything, This world abhors today,
I'd rather have Jesus than men so close, I'd rather be faithful to His clear cause,
I'd rather have Jesus than pearl, I'd rather be true to His holy name,
And to be the king of the past, obey, Or be held in secret swing,
I'd rather have Jesus than anything, This world abhors today,
I'd rather have Jesus than men so close, I'd rather be faithful to His clear cause,
I'd rather have Jesus than everything, And to be the king of the past, obey,
Or be held in secret swing, I'd rather have Jesus than anything,
This world abhors today.
And there's also people that were not in the picture.
So it was obviously a big day yesterday. Thank you for coming.
And I know that obviously people are tired from yesterday,
which is why we're trying to shorten things just a little bit.
The second service we're planning to start at 11.15 instead of 11.30.
Try to get it done a little bit earlier.
And soul winning times are listed there.
Soul winning on Sunday is usually 2.15.
We're going to try to do it at 1.45 today, so 15 minutes earlier for each sermon.
So 1.45 for the soul winning today.
We have our salvations and baptisms listed there for all of our churches,
and Bible study fellowships, as well as birthdays and anniversaries.
Next page, our Bible memorization challenge.
Upcoming activities.
So we're going to actually cancel choir practice here today.
I think everyone's ready to kind of get home a little bit early.
So basically after soul winning, you can stick around to fellowship if you want,
but otherwise you can head out.
We're not going to have choir practice here today.
Next week, though, we do have our last choir practice,
as well as prayer meeting before the Manila anniversary in two weeks.
And so that's coming up really quickly.
Upcoming activities.
Our missions trip planned for Baguio in March.
I will give you a finalized date here soon,
because I understand people have to call off for work ahead of time,
depending on your job, to be able to partake in that.
I know there's a lot of people interested, though,
so we might have more people there than we had yesterday.
I'm not sure.
So we'll figure it out, but it's going to be an exciting event.
Also in Bekal, our two-year anniversary will be in August.
We'll give more details as we get further on during the year.
Current and upcoming series, we are in the Book of Ezra.
Information on our group chat.
Then on the back, there's a place for notes for both of the sermons here today.
So I believe that's it for announcements.
We'll have Brother Marlon lead us in another song.
Amen for that song.
Let's start taking number 46.
As lightly as the first song, let's try to speak this song lightly as well.
Game number 456.
Let's sing a song.
All your anxiety.
Is there a heart or bound by sorrow?
Game number 456.
456.
All your anxiety.
On the first many, sing.
Is there a heart or bound by sorrow?
Is there a life laid down by fear?
Come to the cross, each word in bearing.
All your anxiety, leave it there.
All your anxiety, all your fear.
Come to the cross, each word in bearing.
Never a burden he cannot bear.
Never a friend like Jesus.
No other friend so keen to help you.
No other friend so keen to hear.
No other place to leave your burden.
No other one to hear your fear.
All your anxiety, all your fear.
Come to the cross, each word in bearing.
Never a burden he cannot bear.
Never a friend like Jesus.
Come to the cross, each word in bearing.
No other friend so keen to help you.
All your anxiety, all your fear.
Bring to the cross, each word in bearing.
Never a burden he cannot bear.
Never a friend like Jesus.
I'll be talking. We have our offerings, please.
Let us open our Bibles to Genesis chapter 3.
Please say amen when you are there.
Now the serpent was more subtile than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.
And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden.
God of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden.
God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die.
For God doth know that in the day ye eat that of, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise,
she took of the fruit that of, and did it eat, and gave also entrustment with her, and he did eat.
And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked,
and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day,
and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, Where thou?
And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked and I hid myself.
And he said, Who told thee that thou was naked?
And he said, Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
And the Lord said unto the woman, What is it that thou hast done?
And the woman said, The serpenty guide me, and I did eat.
And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou are cursed above all cattle,
and above every beast of the field, upon thy belly shall thou go, and thus shall thou eat, all the days of thy life.
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed.
It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorter and thy conception.
And sorter, thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife,
and hast eaten of the tree, of which I command thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it.
Cursed is the ground for thy sake, and sorter shall thou eat of it all the days of thy life.
Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field.
And the sweat of thy face shall thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground, for out of it was thou taken.
For dust thou art, and unto dust shall thou return.
And Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.
Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make pores of skin, and clothe them.
And the Lord God said, Behold, the man's become is one of us, to know good and evil.
And now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat and live forever,
therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
So he drove out the man, and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden,
shadow beams, and a flaming sword, which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life.
Let us pray. Thank you, Father, for your Word.
Thank you for your love, and that you have saved us, and also for teaching us your Word and the Bible.
And we pray that you give us understanding today, and we also pray for the creature that you give in boldness.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
Alright, we are here in Genesis chapter 3, and obviously a lot of people at our church were at the anniversary yesterday,
so I'm preaching different sermons here today.
And what I traditionally try to do is that basically the day after the anniversary in Pampanga, I preach against false religions.
And same thing in Manila, the anniversary, a lot of people from Pampanga will be there in a couple weeks,
so I'll preach against false religions the day before.
So one of the churches is going to be Jehovah's Witnesses.
One Mormons, and so I chose Mormons for this church, okay?
So I'm going to be preaching against the Mormons in both sermons,
and the name of the sermon is Major Heresies from the Mormon Church.
Major Heresies from the Mormon Church.
And honestly, when it comes to heresies with the Mormon Church, you've got to just kind of pick which ones you want to do,
because major heresies could be like a 10-part sermon series.
I mean, they're wrong on a lot of things, right?
And so let me just give you a quick background on Mormonism here in general.
And a lot of people aren't aware of this, but there is a difference between Mormon and Latter-day Saints.
And I think a lot of people think that they are synonymous,
but actually Mormonism is this broad denomination, and there's various different denominations within Mormonism.
So Latter-day Saints are one denomination of Mormons, which is why when you run into the traditional Mormon,
they will say, we're from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, because they want to make a distinction.
Just as we would make a distinction from other Baptists and say we're independent fundamental or new independent fundamental Baptist or whatever,
they're actually a denomination of Mormonism.
Now, 90% of Mormons are Latter-day Saints,
but the reason why they have different churches that spring up is because they have a system of various prophets.
So when one prophet dies, a few people say, well, I'm the next prophet.
And then some people will follow that prophet, some will follow that.
The main line goes from Joseph Smith to Brigham Young, but actually the lineage of Joseph Smith's family goes a different route.
The FLDS, which would be the fundamental Latter-day Saints, which still practice polygamy today.
So there's various denominations of Mormonism.
The biggest is Latter-day Saints, but I'm just preaching generically.
Maybe if we lived in Utah, I would preach against each one, but we're just going to preach generically against Mormonism.
One major heresy from the Mormon church or from the Mormons is their idea of the nature of God.
And there's a lot of heresies within this.
But one thing they teach is that we can become God.
This is a major teaching in Mormonism.
In fact, there's a famous quote where it says,
As man is, God once was.
As God is, man may become.
It's a very famous quote from one of their famous people, Mormonism.
Bruce McConkie, I think, is the one that really kind of coined that phrase.
But it's a teaching in their religion that as God is, or as man is, I should say,
God once was, and then as God is, man may become.
So they teach that we can become God.
You say, well, where do they get that from?
Well, they actually go to Genesis 3 and say, well, see, the Bible says right here you can become God.
The Bible says here in verse 1,
Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.
And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden,
but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden,
God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, and neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die.
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened,
and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
And I've heard Mormons go to Genesis 3 and say that this was a good thing that took place.
It is good that they ate of the fruit because that opened up the opportunity to become God,
and the devil was telling the truth is what they teach.
And it's just like, well, how do you even talk to someone who's going to say something like that?
But that's ridiculous to say that we can become God.
And obviously there's only one God, but that's not what they teach.
They teach that we can actually become God, and they'll teach, well, you know what?
The gods that exist today on various planets, they were once men that were sinners,
and then they attained that level of godhood.
And the first major prophets of the Mormons, Joseph Smith and Brigham Young,
they taught the doctrine that Adam was God.
And they get it from this idea, well, here's the thing, he's the first one who ate of the fruit,
and then that opened up the door where he could actually become God.
And it's like just bizarre teaching from the Mormons.
Go to Isaiah 43.
Isaiah 43.
Isaiah chapter 43.
And when you're teaching things like that we can become God, it's like you're way outside the realm of Christianity.
It's not even close to what the Bible says.
Because in Eastern philosophies, they will teach that you can become God.
In Hinduism, they say that when you worship the idol, the true worshiper realizes when they're worshipping it that they are God.
And Buddhism teaches that you can become Buddha.
So these Eastern philosophies teach these things that you can become God.
But when people are trying to attach that to Christianity, I mean, it's so far removed from what the Bible says.
But that is what Mormonism teaches.
Now, when the Mormon Church started, they really didn't link themselves up with Christianity.
They basically said that they're different, they're separate.
But nowadays they will claim to be Christian.
And they're kind of going under that guise of Christianity when they are nothing of the sort.
Another thing they teach is this while that God was once a man.
Notice what it says in Isaiah 43 verse 10.
Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen, that ye may know and believe me and understand that I am he.
Before me there was no God formed.
Right? I mean, that's just clear as day.
Before me there was no God formed.
Neither shall there be after me.
And what a Mormon would say is, well, yeah, on this planet there was no God formed.
And on this planet there's not going to be a God created afterwards.
I mean, it's just clear as day if you just take the Bible for what it says.
Before me there was no God formed.
Neither shall there be after me.
I even I am the Lord.
And beside me there is no Savior.
And by the way, this also shows you that Jesus Christ is God because there's obviously one Savior, one Lord.
And of course Jesus Christ is our Savior.
And so this actually shows you that Jesus Christ is God because there's only one God.
There's no God formed before.
There's going to be no God afterwards.
It's just clear as day.
And look, there are a lot of verses, especially in Isaiah, that show that there is only one God and that there's no God before or after.
Go to Revelation chapter 1.
There's even a verse in the Bible where God gives us hypothetical words like He's being asked this question,
Is there a God beside me?
And He says, Yea, which means indeed.
It does not mean yes.
Okay?
He's like, Yea, there is no God.
I know not any.
So God's asked the question, Is there a God beside me?
There is no God.
I know not any.
Right?
I mean, it's like, I don't know how else you can interpret these verses.
The Bible's very clear that, you know what?
God was not once a man as they teach.
There's only one God.
And you know what?
He's always been God.
There is no God formed before or after.
Revelation chapter 1, verse 8.
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is and which was and which is to come the Almighty.
So He says He's the beginning and the ending.
So to say that He was once a man, well, that's not what the Bible says because He's the beginning.
He wasn't created by this original God and then all of a sudden He was a man and He attained that level of Godhood as they say in Mormonism.
I mean, He was in the beginning.
Right?
The Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending is what the Bible says.
Now go to Matthew chapter 1.
Matthew 1.
Matthew chapter 1.
Another heresy kind of related to this idea of the nature of God is that Mormons do not believe in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ.
And the virgin birth of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus are kind of the foundational teachings.
The two big holidays, Christmas and Easter, they're based on this idea that we believe in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ and we believe in the resurrection of our Savior.
And yet the Jehovah's Witnesses deny the resurrection and Mormons deny the virgin birth.
Yet both sides kind of pretend that they don't when they do.
Right?
Jehovah's Witnesses do not believe that the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ occurred.
They just believe a spiritual resurrection.
Right?
Mormons will also claim they believe in the virgin birth but they do not believe in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ.
Matthew chapter 1 verse 23.
Let me turn there myself.
Matthew 1 verse 23.
And it says in Matthew 1 verse 23,
Behold, a virgin shall be with child, obviously referring to the virgin Mary,
and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which being interpreted is God with us.
I mean, just plain as day, if you read the Bible and take it word for word what it says, the Bible teaches the virgin birth of Jesus Christ.
And this was something that was prophesied in the book of Isaiah.
I mean, people were aware that there would be a virgin that would bring forth a child and his name being interpreted is God with us.
Go to Luke chapter 1.
Luke 1.
You say, Brother Stuckey, well, if they don't believe in the virgin birth, where do they believe Jesus came from?
Well, they'll claim they believe in the virgin birth and what they mean by that is, well, Mary was a virgin because she had never slept with any mortal man before.
But what the Mormons teach is that Mary slept with God and that is where Jesus Christ came from.
And look, I encourage you to, because honestly, you hear a lot of things about cults and I don't say things without verifying things, you can check that out.
That is what they teach. They do not believe in the virgin birth of Mary.
Now, here's what you're going to find.
When it comes to a religion like Mormonism, they don't exactly tell you everything they believe when you first visit the church.
So you could run into a Mormon and they could say, that's not true.
We do believe in the virgin birth of Mary, but they have no idea that they actually don't.
Because as you get deeper into the religion, they're going to teach you more and more and more.
An experience I had in Utah a long time ago, I was out going for a jog with one of my friends.
We were staying at a Baptist church and helping out the church.
And we stopped and there was these three teen girls that were selling lemonade.
And this is right by Salt Lake City. They were all Mormons.
And we were telling them about the false things they believed in their religion, which I'm not suggesting you do this.
Because at the time, I thought to get cult saved, you have to disprove all their false and weird teachings.
Reality, you just give the gospel.
But I didn't really realize that at the time.
And so we're explaining, it's like, you believe this and you believe this.
And I remember the one girl who, I can't remember if she was 12 or 13, she's like, no, we do not believe that.
I don't know who told you that. People lie about us.
And then her friend that's a couple years older, she's like, no, actually, we do believe that.
They'll teach you that when you're 13 or in grade 7 or whatever.
And it's like she was not aware of one of the things that they taught because they don't teach everything from day one.
So there could be people that say they're Mormon and they would be shocked that they don't believe in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ.
But they do not.
And what they believe is that God slept with Mary and that is just perverted.
For someone even to come up with that, it's like that's the mind of a reprobate to come up with something like that.
Luke 1, verse 34,
Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?
And we're cross-referencing here. It's giving us more information on Luke 1.
How am I going to have a child when I'm a virgin is what she's saying.
And the Bible says in verse 35,
The angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee.
Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
And what they teach from verse 35 is you will sleep with God.
And that gives two scenarios.
Either it's being forced upon her, which would mean that God was a rapist, which is perverted and sick.
Or she's just willingly committing adultery.
And there's no good answer to that.
It's like the Holy Ghost is going to come upon you.
It's like, that is bizarre.
It's probably the most perverted doctrine, in my opinion, that the Mormons teach to come up with something so crazy.
Turn your Bible to Matthew 25.
Matthew chapter 25.
So one major heresy is their idea on the nature of God, and there's a lot of heresies within that major heresy.
Another heresy they have is their teaching on hell and the fact that they really don't believe in hell.
And here's what it says from the Mormon website.
Latter-day revelation speaks of hell in at least two senses.
First, it is the temporary abode in the spirit world for those who are disobedient in mortality.
In this sense, hell has an end.
The spirits there will be taught the gospel, and sometime following their repentance, they will be resurrected to a degree of glory of which they are worthy.
Those who will not repent, but are nevertheless not sons of perdition, will remain in hell throughout the millennium.
After these thousand years of torment, they will be resurrected to a telestial glory.
What they teach is that if people die unsaved, they will hear the gospel after they die unsaved.
They're going to be in outer darkness, which is, they basically do not believe in a burning, literal hell, but they believe it's just a really dark place.
Outer darkness, and most would teach that it's just symbolic of the fact you're in darkness away from Christ.
And basically, in outer darkness, you get taught the gospel.
And you have the choice after that point whether or not you're going to repent of your sins, right?
Or whether or not you're going to choose not to repent of sins, right?
This is what they teach, which is why, and this didn't even make it on my list of heresies, the Mormon Church does baptisms for the dead.
You say, what's a baptism for the dead?
It would mean that, let's say you have a brother that dies, they would have you get baptized in his name.
And basically, you're getting baptized to help wash away some of the sins while they're already dead.
I mean, this is just bizarre, right?
It's like, how in the world, I mean, for those that have seen that Mormon cartoon, I mean, this is how crazy the religion is.
It's nowhere near Christianity to get baptized, you know, for dead people.
I mean, I guess you could walk up and say, hey, Brother Stuckey, I had a granddad who died and he wasn't a Mormon.
Can you baptize me in his name today?
I mean, what kind of a bizarre teaching is that?
But that's what they do in the Mormon Church because they believe these spirits can die unsaved, but they still have an opportunity.
The Bible says when you die unsaved, the wrath of God abides on you forever.
There is no second chance, right?
They also say, second, it is the permanent location of those who were not redeemed by the atonement of Jesus Christ.
In this sense, hell is permanent.
It is for those who are found filthy still.
This is a place where Satan, his angels, and the sons of perdition, those who have denied the Son after the Father has revealed them, will dwell eternally.
Now, Matthew 25, verse 30, it says,
And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness.
There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
You know, I do believe in a literal darkness that the Bible speaks about,
but that's not the only aspect of hell.
The aspect, the first thing you think of is Lake of Fire,
Lawanang Apoi, right?
It's a burning place.
It's not just dark, right?
It's like, that's their idea of torment.
It's just really dark.
It's like, how terrible to dwell in darkness away from Christ.
No, no, it's terrible because it's burning, and you're burning in the presence of the Lamb, the Bible says,
not in darkness away from the presence of God.
Go to Luke 16, Luke 16, Luke chapter 16.
I mean, if you preach the Gospel to Mormons, you run into a lot of doctrines that you have to bring up.
You have to talk about the nature of God.
You have to talk about the idea of hell.
It's very difficult.
From my perspective, the hardest denomination of Christianity to get saved is Mormons, by far.
From my experience, having spent a couple summers out in Utah,
and the only Mormons I got saved were people that already had rejected the religion.
They just didn't know what the truth was.
Not people that were actual members of the Mormon Church.
I find them to be so much harder than, and pretty much everybody I know would agree with that.
It's really weird when you talk to Mormons, and I've preached the Gospel to a lot of Mormons
because I was in Utah for a few summers, and there's a lot in the U.S.,
and when you talk to them, it's like they're a robot.
It's like they've got a programmed answer, and it's like you want to press this button on the back of them,
like, where's the button for your robot switch, or whatever, because it's like they're not a real person.
And literally, you can try to show them what the Bible says, and I'm telling you, I don't know about here,
but they are trained not to look at the Bible, because you put it right in front of their face,
and then they refuse to look at what the Bible says.
You're like, right here it says this, they will not look at what the Bible says.
That is not just with one person or two, that's what I found with every Mormon I talked to.
They just will not look at the book they claim to believe in.
They say they're King James only, so far as it's translated correctly,
but they will not look at what the Bible says.
And so, Luke 16, I mean, at least Jehovah's Witnesses look at the Bible.
That makes them a little bit easier to get saved.
At least they're willing to look at what the Bible says, even if they disagree.
But Luke 16, notice what it says in verse 22.
And it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom.
The rich man also died and was buried, and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torment,
and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus,
that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame.
I mean, if you just believe the Bible, and take it literally, there's no way you can look at Luke 16
and say that hell is not a burning place. It's clear as day.
Now, they'll say, well, you know, but here's the thing, it's a parable.
It's a parable. It's just a story Jesus is telling.
Well, here's why we know it's not a parable, because it uses real names.
In parables, a certain rich man, a certain householder.
Here, it says Lazarus. It says Abraham. It's clearly not a parable.
But here's the thing. Let's say it was a parable, which it's not.
What difference does it make? What's it symbolizing? What's it talking about?
I mean, if you're going to say this is a parable, that doesn't change the fact it's a burning place.
Even if it was just a story, and not literal, what does that change?
It doesn't change the fact that hell is still a burning place.
I mean, that doesn't get you out of the problem. Well, it's just a parable.
A parable of what? I mean, what is this a parable of?
I mean, a burning place, can I have water for my tongue because I'm tormented in this flame?
What is that symbolic of?
If that's a parable, what is it trying to teach?
It sounds like it's trying to teach that hell is a burning place, right?
But we know it's not a parable because it uses real names, but it doesn't even matter if it was.
It wouldn't change anything, right?
Verse 25.
But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receiveth thy good things,
and likewise Lazarus evil things, but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.
And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed.
Notice this.
So that they which would pass from hence to you cannot.
And what Abraham's saying is, there are people that would pass over to hell, but they can't.
Now, why would someone in heaven want to go to hell, right?
Well, because they have unsaved loved ones that are in hell, right?
I mean, obviously, if you've had family members that died unsaved, there's that, you know,
I mean, you would do anything you could to just give them one more chance, right?
But you can't.
And Abraham's saying, you know, I mean, here's the thing.
There's nobody that could pass from heaven to hell that can't do it,
even though probably just about every saved person in history, they had unsaved loved ones that died and went to hell.
And for us as soul winners, you know what the motivation is?
Well, when you're in heaven one day, you're going to wish you could pass to hell to try to give them the gospel,
but it's too late.
Take the opportunity now.
And I think all of us, you know what, if we really sat down,
we have a list of people that we could preach the gospel to,
whether it be family members, neighbors, friends, or coworkers,
people that you know God wants you to talk to.
And you know what, and even if you've talked to them once or twice, they're still unsaved,
so you still have that burden to try to get them saved,
because you cannot pass to them once you go to heaven, it's too late.
But it also says this,
neither can they pass to us that would come from thence.
And Abraham says, you know what, you can't pass to us once you go to hell.
Obviously, everybody in hell would like to pass on to heaven and get out of that burning place of torment,
but they can't.
You know what that tells me?
It tells me that you can't baptize for the dead.
It tells me that your relatives are not in purgatory.
They're in hell forever.
There's no chance, there's no second chance where they're going to hear the gospel,
or have an opportunity to quit drinking in hell or whatever, pin other sins, whatever.
It's like, no, no, no.
When someone dies unsaved, they are in hell forever.
There's no way they can pass on to heaven.
That's what the Bible teaches.
So hell is an eternal place of torment.
It says torment day and night forever and ever.
There is no ending to that.
There is no second chance.
Now, of course, this is a popular doctrine of people,
because everybody wants to think that their relatives get another chance.
I've been talking to some people recently, we talked about with soul winning,
one thing that's hard is that when you talk to people that are older,
and you're preaching the gospel, when you're young,
you might not have loved ones that died with a different religion,
like really close to you.
Maybe grandparents, but not like your father or your mother or your brother necessarily.
I mean, sometimes, but oftentimes, no.
But when you get older, you know a lot of people that died with that Catholic religion,
so when someone comes and says,
hey, if you believe in this, you're going to go to hell,
in their mind, they're probably thinking, well, that means my father is in hell.
That means my cousins are in hell.
That means my aunt and my uncle are in hell.
And a lot of people just refuse to think about it,
because they don't want to think about the idea that their relatives died and went to hell.
That is one reason why I think it's a lot harder with people that are older,
because if they believe what you're saying, well, that means that, you know what,
they have loved ones that are in hell forever.
And of course, that's a painful thought.
I mean, all of us have loved ones.
I know people, my first year within getting saved,
I had two grandparents die.
One was an atheist, and one was a Church of Nazarene rejecting,
one saved, always saved.
And of course, I wish there'd be a second chance.
Can't you see how a religion teaching that, people are like, well, that's great.
You're saying there's a second chance for my dad that wasn't a Mormon.
You can see why it's a popular teaching, right?
You can see why this is the version of a Chimaaz, right,
if you were there yesterday, why it's popular and everybody loves it,
but it's not reality.
The Bible says it is forever.
Turn in your Bible to Ephesians 2, Ephesians 2.
I looked at the top of this page, and my first reference,
I usually put it in a different color if I quote from something else,
is 2 Nephi.
I almost said turn to 2 Nephi 25,
but I'm assuming you don't have a Book of Mormon on you,
but I am going to read from the Book of Mormon here in a second.
So one idea of the heresy of the Mormons
is their idea of the nature of God,
and there's a lot of heresies within that.
Their idea of hell is bizarre.
Obviously, salvation is wrong, and that's what I'm going to quickly cover.
I'm not going to spend as much time on salvation
because obviously if they're a false religion, they're wrong on salvation.
But the Bible says in Ephesians 2, 8, and 9,
For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves.
It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
And the Bible says about salvation,
It is by grace through faith, it is a gift, it is not of works, lest any man should boast.
And obviously we believe this.
Now, what you find is a lot of religions will say that,
you know what, we believe salvation is by grace through faith.
And they will quote Ephesians 2, 8, and 9.
And they'll often say that it's not of works as well.
They'll say, yeah, we don't believe in a work of salvation,
but if you really repent of your sins, you're going to do the work.
Or faith is always accompanied by works.
Any manner of adding works in there somewhere.
But the Mormons are very famous for saying that we know it is by grace that we are saved.
I mean, Mormons will always say that.
If you say, how are you saved?
We know it is by grace that we are saved.
They always say we're saved by grace.
And they'll often say we're saved by grace through faith.
They have the memorized answer, right?
So if you run into a Mormon, they're going to say something that sounds good.
Well, I mean, it sounds like we believe the same thing.
I believe it's grace through faith.
You believe it's grace through faith.
Hey, we can disagree on other doctrines, but it sounds like you're saved.
Right?
Sometimes you've got to dig a little bit deeper with religions,
because they might have a good answer, but it doesn't mean that they're actually saved.
Now, where they get this idea that we're saved by grace
is from 2 Nephi 25, which is a book in the Book of Mormon.
And here's what it says in the Book of Mormon.
For we labor diligently to write to persuade our children and also our brethren
to believe in Christ and to be reconciled to God.
For we know it is that by grace that we are saved.
Well, that sounds good so far.
It sounds great if the verse ended there.
Okay?
We know that it is by grace that we are saved after all we can do.
Do you understand what they're teaching?
They're teaching you do as many works as possible,
and of course you're going to fall short,
but God's grace is going to cover you because you put in your best effort.
That's what they're basically teaching.
So we know it is by grace that we are saved.
Hey, how about you finish 2 Nephi 25, 23?
How about we compare it to Ephesians 2 89?
Because in the Bible, not of works.
In the Book of Mormon, after all that we can do.
Wow, it sounds like those are the opposite.
So they take a verse in the Bible,
and it's actually very clever what the Book of Mormon does
because they actually have a lot of half quotes from the Bible,
and so somebody would show them.
This is one reason why it's so hard to get them saved.
You show them Ephesians 2 89.
Yeah, it says the same thing in the Book of Mormon.
Saved by grace.
And then they'll say,
but they're taught the Book of Mormon has preeminence.
And so they'll try to turn to you in the Book of Mormon saying,
yeah, our book also teaches that.
We're saved by grace.
But of course they change it.
They morph it.
There are verses in the Book of Mormon
that seem to imply there's only one God
because they take a reference from the Bible,
but then they'll twist things and turn it and confuse things.
Go to Acts 16.
And here's a quote from the Mormon website.
To be saved from both physical and spiritual death.
And it says all people will be saved from physical death by the grace of God
through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Each individual can also be saved from spiritual death
by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
Sounds good.
I'll just end the sermon.
I mean, I think they believe the same thing as us, right?
But wait a minute.
What's it say next?
This faith is manifested in a life of obedience to the laws
and ordinances of the gospel in service to Christ.
Well, I mean, it actually sounds a lot like a lot of Baptist churches.
It doesn't actually sound that much different.
It's like, you know, and really what is the difference between all these religions?
I mean, Baptists will say Catholics are a false religion
and these, you know, cults are false religions.
Well, it doesn't really sound like you're that much different on salvation.
You're still mixing in works one way or the other.
And here's what it says in Acts 16.
I understand it's a famous passage, but let's just read this.
Acts 16, verse 28.
But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm, for we are all here.
Then he called for a light and sprang in and came trembling,
and fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out and said,
Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
And they said, Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved in thy house.
The only thing it says you must do to be saved is believe.
If there's something else we had to do to be saved,
it would say believe and get baptized.
Believe and live a life of obedience, but it does not say that.
All it says is to believe.
Go to Amos chapter 3 in your Minor Prophets.
Amos 3.
One thing that amazes me is that in Mormonism,
you know, here in the Philippines, it's like you'll see Mormons that are Filipinos.
And it's like, why would anybody be a Mormon if they weren't American?
I mean, it's an American, pro-America, pro-racist message.
Like, why would you be a Mormon?
It'd be like, you know, white people becoming INC.
It's like, you know, like, what are you doing?
It doesn't make any sense, right?
And it bewilders me.
And I once asked, in case I'm on Memorial Circle,
there's a group of like 25 Mormons, and I started talking to the younger ones.
Then they're like, leaders came over, whatever.
And it was just going over their head.
They weren't listening, and I was just like,
I mean, you're a Filipino.
Why are you a Mormon?
Right? It's like, I should be Mormon, not you.
Right? And what's funny is, because I look Mormon.
Right? It is what it is.
I always got this in the U.S.
Especially when I was younger, I'd go out soul-winning.
It's like, you know, white complexion, blue eyes.
My hair is relatively lightish.
It's like, I very much look like a Mormon.
So, you know, sometimes in this group of people, in case I'm on Memorial Circle,
I started talking to them, and they're like, are you a Mormon?
I was like, no.
I'm not a Mormon.
Right? And I get that a lot.
Right? I always got that. It's like, are you a Mormon?
It's like, that's about the biggest insult you can give me.
It's like, no, I am not a Mormon.
Right? Especially when I was in Utah.
Right? And people just assumed, it's like, oh, wow, you know,
why did the Mormon come by himself?
It's like, why doesn't he have his white shirt on?
Right? It's just like, and honestly, you know what?
This is just on a side point, but this is really why I stopped wearing white shirts out soul-winning,
because I did not want to be looked at as a Mormon.
I used to wear the white dress shirt soul-winning.
I specifically do not do it, because I very much look like the typical Mormon that you would expect.
But anyways, let's get back to the sermon.
Another one of their heresies is their idea of modern-day prophets.
And in Amos 3, verse 7, this is a verse that they're going to quote.
This is the main one they reference.
It says, Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.
Now, that verse in and of itself seems to imply what they're saying, that we need modern-day prophets.
But go in your New Testament to Hebrews 1.
And from the website on Mormons, this is what it says.
You're going to Hebrews 1.
A person who has been called by and speaks for God, a prophet,
as a messenger of God, a prophet receives commandments, prophecies, and revelations from God.
His responsibility is to make known God's will and true character to mankind,
and to show the meaning of his dealings with them.
A prophet denounces sin and foretells its consequences.
He is a preacher of righteousness.
On occasion, prophets may be inspired to foretell the future for the benefit of mankind.
His primary responsibility, however, is to bear witness of Christ.
The president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is God's prophet on earth today.
Members of the First Presidency and the Twelve Apostles are sustained as prophets, seers, and revelators.
And so they're saying, well, we need modern-day prophets,
and you cannot fully read the Bible on your own without prophets telling you modern-day revelation that God is giving.
But the Bible says here in Hebrews 1, verse 1,
God, who had sundry times and in diverse manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets.
You see, we don't disagree that he spake by the prophets.
I mean, throughout the Old Testament, God spake in various different ways.
The question is, what about today, though?
And in verse 2,
Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things,
by whom also he made the worlds?
And what the Bible teaches is that after Jesus Christ came,
the Bible's finished shortly after that, we have the finished work of God here today.
There's nothing being added into it today.
And see, the thing is, the Bible is timeless.
So if you're trying to look at situations today, you can look somewhere in the Bible,
and it's going to give you the answers on the things happening today.
We don't need modern-day prophets.
Now, of course, we do have people that preach the Word of God and prophesy,
but they don't foretell events by some crystal ball or just some prediction.
No, no, no. They're prophesying of things that are already written.
Right now, I am prophesying the Word of God.
There's nothing wrong with the term prophets,
but I'm not saying, well, you know what?
In 2025 at 1037 a.m. on November 15th, there is going to be the return of Jesus Christ.
Right? That is not going on in 2022.
Anybody who's a preacher is just preaching things that have already taken place in what the Bible says.
Go in your Bible to Ephesians 4.
Ephesians 4.
And you know what you see with the Mormon church and religions such as this
is their prophets will contradict things in the past that other prophets said,
and they'll just say, well, God is the new revelation.
Right? This doesn't even, you know, I don't think it, actually it is on my list for the next sermon,
but you know, polygamy is a big thing with the Mormons that is known,
and when the polygamy came out, they said it was an everlasting covenant,
everlasting, meaning it can't be changed.
It lasts forever.
But when it became illegal in the United States, we have a revelation.
God said no longer should we marry, you know, multiple people.
This is why you have the fundamental Latter-day Saints and say, no, wait a minute, it was an everlasting covenant.
That's why you still have various denominations of Mormons that still practice polygamy
because it was an everlasting covenant.
But the Latter-day Saints, they got rid of it because there was a new revelation from God
that after the country made it illegal, it's like, well, God said let's just, you know, do what the country says.
And all of a sudden it became illegal as well.
What they'll do is they'll contradict things in the past and they say, well, you know, that's how it was before,
but now it's actually different.
You know, there's a new revelation. Right?
The Bible says in Ephesians 4 verses 11 and 12,
And he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers
for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ.
Obviously we do believe that, you know what, there's men of God that lead churches and run churches
and preach the Word of God.
But look, I cannot foretell the future like some sort of psychic. Right?
I mean, obviously as I look at the way the world is, I can see the world's getting worse
and you can see the beginning signs of the end times coming,
but I can't say, well, this is the date, or say, well, you know, there's a new revelation from God.
No, everything's already been revealed.
In time past, he spake by the prophets, it's already been revealed to us. Right?
Turn your Bible to Proverbs 30.
Proverbs 30. And I've got to hurry so we can get started at 11.15 for the next service.
And another one of the heresies of the Mormons is their idea on spiritual books outside of the Bible.
And here's from a quote from the website.
It is an abridgment by an ancient prophet named Mormon of the records of ancient inhabitants of the Americas.
It was written to testify that Jesus is the Christ concerning this record, the Prophet Joseph Smith,
who translated it by the gift and power of God said,
I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth
and the keystone of our religion and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts than by any other book.
And so he says the Book of Mormon is the most correct, it is the best book, even above the King James Bible.
And to them, the Book of Mormon trumps the King James Bible.
Quote from Joseph Smith, we believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly.
So you show them, well, this is what the Bible says, I don't know if it's translated correctly.
Because this is what the Book of Mormon says.
And the Book of Mormon trumps, so they can get out of anything.
But when you show them that they're wrong, it's like, well, you know what, maybe it's not translated correctly.
Right? So they'll say the King James is the word of God so far as it's translated correctly.
Well, the Bible says in Proverbs 30 verse 5,
Every word of God is pure. He is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.
Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee.
And thou be found a liar.
They're not just adding words, they're adding a whole new book.
They've got the Book of Mormon, the Pearl of Great Price, and the Doctrine and Covenants.
Right? And you know what, some of those books are a lot bigger.
I think it's the Doctrine and Covenants is huge.
Right? I mean, it's so much bigger than the Bible.
It's like they've got four books, and the King James Bible is kind of like, you know, secondary to the other three books.
They don't just add words, they add whole new books to their religion.
Go to your Bible to Matthew 16.
Matthew 16.
We'll close up here. Matthew 16.
And, you know, a lot of people don't realize this because the Mormon Church doesn't recognize this,
but Joseph Smith actually made a King James commentary Bible,
and it wasn't just commentary because he changed stuff.
And so Joseph Smith had his own King James Bible that he changed,
but it's not used by the Mormons because they disagree with a lot of what it says.
It's like, well, you've got a problem when the prophet of God on earth, speaking on behalf of God,
says this is actually what it's supposed to say, and then the church doesn't use it
because there's just so many heresies and bizarre things that he's taken out and changed.
And I'm not saying, like, King James, NIV, they make some changes.
No, no, no. It would be like a game.
Read a verse in his version of the Bible.
Guess what verse that actually is?
John 3.16?
So are you kidding me? Because like three times as long they change the words.
I mean, he just completely changes it.
But it's not recognized by the Mormon Church because they know it's heresy.
It's like, well, that was your prophet of God on earth.
So how could you reject his version of the Bible that he made?
But they do reject it. It never caught on.
Number one, we saw the nature of God.
Number two, we saw hell.
Number three, salvation.
Number four, their idea of modern-day prophets.
Number five, their spiritual books outside the Bible.
Lastly, their idea of the Restoration Movement.
What the Mormon Church teaches is that all churches of the world were corrupt,
and there was no true church on the planet.
It's been more than 1,000 years until Joseph Smith restored those churches.
This is the same idea that INC would teach, or Jehovah's Witnesses, or Seventh-day Adventists.
It's known as the Restoration Movement, where every church had become corrupt,
and there was no church preaching the truth.
Now, the question I always wonder is, what if somebody died during that time period?
They all went to hell?
You're saying every single person on earth went to hell?
Well, no, no, because you can baptize for the dead.
So your great-great-great-great-grandfather, when every church was bad,
he can just be baptized on his behalf.
Oh, okay, that's great.
This is ridiculous, but this is what the Bible says of Matthew 16, verse 16.
And Simon Peter answered and said,
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
And Jesus answered and said unto him,
Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee,
but my Father which is in heaven.
And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church,
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
I mean, Christ is going to build his church, and various local churches that have come,
and you know what, the gates of hell are not going to stand against it,
yet for more than a thousand years there was not a single church that was even right on salvation?
Look, I understand most churches in this world are corrupt,
but I promise you there have always been good churches in this world.
Going back to the time of Christ, there have been good churches these last 2,000 years, no question about it.
But this Restoration Movement says every church was corrupt, everyone had a false gospel.
That's not what the Bible teaches.
The Bible says that he'll establish his church, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
And here's the thing, if every church was false and nobody was saved, nobody could get saved.
Because it passes from faith to faith.
There have always been saved people, there have always been good churches as well.
I'm going to end this sermon with a quote from Joseph Smith, kind of attached to this idea of the Restoration Movement.
And look, I quickly went through this sermon.
There's so many heresies that you could mention with the Mormons that I didn't even cover.
They're so far removed from Christianity.
Here's a quote from Joseph Smith, though.
God is in this still small voice.
In all these affidavits, indictments, it is all of the devil, all corruption.
Come on, ye prosecutors, ye false swearers, all hell boil over.
Ye burning mountains, roll down your lava, for I will come out on the top at last.
He's referring to himself coming out on the top at last, like his people that are criticizing him.
I have more to boast of than ever any man had.
It's Joseph Smith.
I have more to boast about than anyone's ever been able to have.
And then he starts comparing himself to various prophets in the Bible from the past.
He says, I am the only man that has ever been able to keep a whole church together since the days of Adam.
A large majority of the whole have stood by me.
Neither Paul, John, Peter, nor Jesus ever did it.
I boast that no man ever did such a work as I.
This is a direct quote in the History of the Church Volume 6, pages 408 and 409.
The followers of Jesus ran away from him, but the Latter-day Saints never ran away from me yet.
It's like, you could not come up with a more arrogant statement if you tried.
It's like, you've got to be kidding me.
I remember the first time I saw that quote years ago, and I was like, what in the world?
But out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh so lifted up full of pride.
I mean, the followers of Jesus ran away from him, but the Latter-day Saints never ran away from me yet.
And it's kind of funny because, actually, of the early founders, they all ran away from Joseph Smith.
Even those that were related to him, which isn't even in my sermons because there's just so much to cover.
But actually, the people that said we saw the direct revelation said afterwards, actually, no, it wasn't even true.
So what he's saying isn't even true, but to actually make that comparison,
can you imagine a pastor gets up and says, you know what?
I've got more to boast about than anyone ever had, right?
More than John the Baptist, more than Paul, more than Peter.
And then you mention Jesus Christ.
I mean, it's bad enough.
And then you invoke the name of Jesus twice.
The followers of Jesus ran away from him, but the followers never ran away from me yet.
Anyways, let's close in with a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today
and getting to see various verses and chapters in the Bible about this.
And obviously, we know this is a false religion.
But I ask you to give us an opportunity to preach the gospel to this religion
and show them the true salvation by grace through faith and not the made-up version that they believe in God.
We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Son, let's get this hymn.
And let's turn to hymn number seven.
Hymn number seven, let's sing a song, How Great Thou Art.
Hymn number seven, How Great Thou Art.
Oh Lord my God, when I am awesome wonder on first.
Oh Lord my God, when I am awesome wonder,
who will see the wrong?
Not cause I hope to see.
I see the stars.
I hear a rolling thunder.
I'm not who I am.
The universe displayed.
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee.
How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee.
How great Thou art.
Then do the wood, the forest which I've wandered.
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees.
And I look down from off the mountain grandeur.
And bear the fruit and feel the gentle breeze.
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee.
How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee.
How great Thou art.
And when I think that my Son has made it through time,
my scars can take me in.
That on the cross I've heard and gladly made.
He didn't die to take away my sin.
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee.
How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee.
How great Thou art.
Last verse.
We're going to sing the verses with the instrument but in the chorus.
We're going to sing in the cappella.
Ready?
When Christ shall come, we shall of activation.
Ready?
On the last.
Everybody sing.
When Christ shall come, we shall of activation.
Then take me home, what joy shall fill my heart.
And I shall bow in humble admiration.
And there proclaim, my God, how great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee.
How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee.
How great Thou art.
Amen.