Alright, we're here in Deuteronomy chapter 6, and the name of the sermon is Our Righteousness.
Deuteronomy chapter 6, the name of the sermon is Our Righteousness.
And the Bible says here in verse number 24,
And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God for our
good always, that He might preserve us alive as it is at this day.
And it shall be our righteousness if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord
our God as He hath commanded us.
Now in this chapter, He gives a lot of rules and instructions, and He tries to motivate
them saying, Hey, I want you to follow everything I've said, I want you to keep all these commandments
and do everything that I said.
Now what the Bible says here in verse 25 is that when we do that, it is our righteousness.
This is not God's righteousness, it's our righteousness.
When we read the Bible, that is what we do.
When we go to church, that's what we do.
When we avoid committing certain sins, that is our righteousness.
And the Bible is saying, Hey, I want you to do this, but when we do that, it's not the
righteousness of God, it's our righteousness.
It's us that is choosing to do this.
The Bible says, And it shall be our righteousness if we observe to do all these commandments
before the Lord our God as He hath commanded us.
Now go to Isaiah 64.
Isaiah 64.
Now when you look at the word righteousness, righteousness is about doing right.
That's why you have R-I-G-H-T in the word righteous.
We know the word right.
You know, maybe righteous is a bit of an older word in today's lingo, but righteous means
you're doing right.
And does anybody always do right?
No, it's that simple.
So when the Bible says there's none righteous, right, there's none righteous, nobody always
does right.
That's simple.
Nobody always does right.
And the Bible is saying that we should do all these commandments and it's our righteousness
when we do these things, but does anybody always do those things?
No, we're not even close to doing everything that we're supposed to do.
There are a lot of things that we should do that we don't do, right?
Read the Bible every day, pray and do all these things.
Then there's a lot of things that we should not do that we do do.
The Bible is saying when we observe to do, it's our righteousness that we're doing.
Here's what the Bible says about our righteousness in Isaiah 64 verse six, but we are all as
an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags and we all do fade as a
leaf and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away.
You see our righteousnesses, they're not impressive to God and kind of the analogy that he's giving
with a filthy rag.
Imagine you're trying to clean your counter that's dirty and then you take something that's
already dirty to clean it.
Well, I mean, you might clean it to some degree, but you didn't completely clean it because
you're using something tainted to clean something dirty.
The Bible is showing you just that all righteousnesses, they're not impressive.
It's not like we're going to die and God's going to be like, you know what?
You were awesome.
You're perfect.
You never did anything wrong.
No, I mean, we all sin, we all do wrong and our iniquities like the wind have taken us
away.
All of us have sinned many times.
Go to Romans three, Romans three, Romans chapter three, and I know these are pretty famous
verses we're looking at, but this is something we need to be reminded about and this is all
introductory here, but it says in Romans three, 10 as it is written, there is none righteous.
No, not one.
Is there anybody that always does right?
Not a single person.
I mean, even the Bible says, let God be true, but every man a liar and when I was saying
every man, it's mankind that also includes women.
Okay.
Honestly, kids do that at a very young age.
You've seen them live.
You raise kids.
They lie at a very young age, right?
The Bible says there's none righteous.
No, not one.
So when the Bible says that Jesus Christ was righteous and he was perfect, you know what
that shows you?
He's not just a man.
He actually is God.
I was says in verse 11, there is none that understand it.
There is none that seek after God.
They are all gone out of the way.
They're together become unprofitable.
There is none that do it good.
No, not one.
Nobody always does good.
Nobody always does right.
Obviously, we're sinners, right?
Go to Romans 3 verse 19.
Verse 19.
Romans 3 verse 19.
Now we know that what things so ever the law sayeth, it sayeth to them who are under the
law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God.
This is the way we are before God.
We're guilty and our mouth is stopped.
We cannot justify ourselves.
I mean, look, if you've ever stolen a piece of candy from somewhere, you can't make
an excuse that's reasonable.
If you told a lie, there's no reasonable explanation for why you lied.
If you did something wrong, there's no reasonable explanation.
If you don't read your Bible, there's no reasonable explanation.
Now we can make excuses, but they're not going to be good excuses.
And they're going to be very obvious that they hold no water.
They're not credible.
It says here, therefore by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in
his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
Because of the fact that all of us are guilty and our mouths are stopped by the deeds of
the law, by keeping the commandments, by our righteousness, there's not a single person
that's going to be justified.
Now when you look at this word, justified, it's a bit of an old-fashioned word and the
best way to remember this, justified, is basically saying, just as if I never sinned.
So justified, just as if I never sinned, right?
Well, there's nobody that can sit here and say, you know what, I'm pretty much perfect.
Right?
Now I've done soul winning every once in a while and run into people that will claim
how great they are and you want to laugh at them when they say that.
Right?
I remember when we were talking to the Bajau community before and then it's like, have
you ever sinned before?
And they're like, you know, no.
I mean, I was, because it's like, not because I like kind of about tea and they're like,
no.
I was like, I mean, I'm pronouncing that correctly, aren't I?
I mean, it's like, do they not understand Tagalog?
I mean, I remember I was with brother Raji, I just kind of looked over at Raji and I'm
just like, I don't know.
I mean, I don't know how else to explain this in Tagalog.
What else do I say?
Right?
And then of course they've never sinned before.
I mean, they've never lied before.
It's just like, well, how are you going to go forward with someone when they do it?
I remember in the United States, I knocked on the door of somebody and you know, he was
a member of a church that I had gone to like over a decade before.
And I left that church because I found out they were, you know, complete Calvinists and
heretics and everything.
That person at the door told me he had not sinned one time since he got saved.
He said, I got saved 17 years ago or 14 years ago or whatever.
He said, I have not sinned since then.
He said, a Baptist church.
I said, you haven't told a lie in 17 years.
No.
It's like, whatever.
Right?
You haven't sinned.
You never had a bad thought.
I mean, the thought of foolishness is sin.
I mean, you have a thought, man, I wish I was rich.
Okay.
Your confidence.
You sinned.
I mean, to say that you had never had a bad thought, never told a lie, you're just always
reading the Bible.
It's like, you're a liar and you're probably a big sinner if you're going to sit here with
that sort of pride right before just lie right in front of my face.
Right?
The Bible says by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in sight.
Why?
Because we're sinners.
But now the righteousness of God without the laws manifest and being witnessed by the law
and the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto
all and upon all them that believe, but there's no difference for all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God.
Go to Romans four, Romans four, Romans four verse 22.
So here's the thing.
We deserve to go to hell because we're sinners.
We deserve to go to hell, but Jesus died for all people.
Our righteousness, our good works are not going to earn us a spot into heaven.
We're not going to be innocent.
If somebody's guilty, good things don't outweigh the bad.
If you've robbed a bank, it doesn't matter how long, how many times you volunteered at
a homeless shelter.
Right?
I mean, the good doesn't outweigh the bad.
So what exactly takes place for us to go to heaven?
Well, here's what it says in verse 22 of Romans four, and therefore it was imputed to him
for righteousness.
Now, it's not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also to
whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him the race of Jesus our Lord from the dead,
who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification.
When a person gets saved, what takes place is they are imputed with the righteousness
of Jesus Christ upon them.
That doesn't mean that we're going to be perfect, but what it means is when we die, it's as
if we're perfect because we have the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Basically, God does not look down at what we've done, he looks at Jesus Christ.
This is why it's foolish to say you can lose your salvation, because if I sin tomorrow,
which I'm sure I will because I'm not perfect, that doesn't change the fact that Jesus is
still perfect.
I'm saved because I'm imputed with the righteousness of Christ, and if I sin in, you know, five
hours or whatever, it doesn't change the fact that I'm still imputed with the righteousness
of Jesus Christ.
It's not like I'm being declared innocent or saved because of my righteousness.
No, I'm declared saved because I believed on Christ and was imputed with his righteousness.
Right now, of course, when you die, you immediately go to heaven or hell.
I was very clear on that.
And so the analogy that I'm giving here, because I've seen this video before, and it's kind
of a cool video to kind of think about things, but it's not really accurate.
You'll see somebody who dies and they're in line, they'll step on a scale and it's like
the scale will tell them innocent or guilty, and it's either 100% innocent or 100% guilty.
That's legitimately what it is in terms of you're either 100% innocent or you're very
guilty because you're paying for every single sin that you've ever done, right?
When we die, the reason why we go to heaven is we're imputed with the righteousness of
Christ.
Now, go in your Bible, go in your Bible to 2 Peter chapter 1, 2 Peter 1, and it's your
turn to 2 Peter 1, let me just give you three different ways that people trust in their
own righteousness to get to heaven.
They trust in their own righteousness, because remember, if we trust in our righteousness,
we will not make it to heaven.
Let me give you three different ways people trust in their own righteousness to get to
heaven.
And the first way is just flat out saying that you have to do good to go to heaven.
You have to do good works, you have to follow the commandments, you have to do good to go
to heaven.
And in fact, that is the most common belief in the Philippines.
Most people you talk to are going to tell you, you must be a good person to go to heaven.
Here's what it says from the Catholic website.
What the Catholic website has here is a theoretical conversation between a Catholic and a non-Catholic
about the idea of your good works.
So here's the Catholic statement.
We don't disagree about the primary role that faith plays, because of course we say salvation
is by faith alone, right?
We don't disagree about the primary role that faith plays, following Paul the Catholic Church
teaches that justification comes by faith, only it says that it doesn't come through
faith alone.
If you look carefully at Paul's writings, you'll notice that he never says that our
righteousness comes from faith alone, only that it comes from faith apart from works.
It's like, saved by grace through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of
God not of works, and what they're doing is referencing that verse saying, well I mean
it says they're not of works, but it doesn't say faith's alone.
Well if it's not of works, doesn't that just leave faith as the common denominator in that
verse?
What are you talking about?
They say, well it never says faith alone, it just says faith apart from works.
Here's what the objector says to that, well, he says, he says, you know, that's almost
a direct quote from Romans 3.28, which says we're justified by faith apart from the works
of the law.
That phrase, by apart, faith apart from works of the law, sounds to me like Paul saying
that justification comes through faith alone.
Here's the Catholic response.
Romans 3.28 is a key verse in the differences between traditional Protestants and Catholics.
People notice that Paul says a man is justified by faith, parenthesis, pisteia in Greek.
Why are you bringing up Greek?
Like, nobody speaks Greek in this conversation, neither do you.
Pisteia, p-i-s-t-e-i, in Greek.
When Martin Luther translated the letter to the Romans into German in the 16th century,
he added the word alone.
So now we're going into the German language.
So the Greek language wasn't enough, let's talk about the German Bible.
It's like, why don't you just talk about the English King James Bible, where, because
this article's in English, why are you bringing up the German Bible?
And he says, alone was added in the German Bible, and of course, I don't speak German,
so I have no idea what it says in the German Bible, and it says, but alone is not the original
Greek text.
The phrase faith alone does occur in the New Testament one time in James 2.24, there the
inspired apostle denies that justification is from faith alone, let me quote it, you
see that a man is justified by faith, justified by works, and not by faith alone.
Now, there's a lot of opinions of James 2, and I don't want to get into this in the sermon
specifically, what I believe James 2 is saying is that in the sight of God we're justified
by faith and works.
We're justified in terms of heaven and hell by faith, in this life we're justified by
our works or actions.
So God will either bless you or curse you, depending on what you do.
But what James 2.24 does not say is we're justified by going to heaven or hell based
on faith and works.
So that's obviously being added by them, and of course there's a lot of opinions of James
2 and everyone wants to turn to that place alone, but you know, the Bible says very clearly
many times, salvation is by faith alone, we're going to look at them, we looked at some already,
we're going to look at them here in a second.
And here's what the Catholic also says in this article, Paul categorically excludes
works from our salvation.
They say we agree, works have nothing to do with our salvation.
But what kind of works is Paul talking about?
If we believe the entire Bible, we need to see how Paul's words fit together with James'
words, because James clearly says that a man is justified by works.
If Paul and James mean the same thing by works, then they contradict one another, since you
and I both believe that the Bible cannot contradict itself, we must agree that Paul and James
mean two different things by the word works.
So according to this website, the Catholic Church agrees that works have nothing to do
with salvation, but what kind of works?
It doesn't include the seven sacraments, it doesn't include baptism, what kind of works
are you referring to?
It's ridiculous, right?
Because they know there's a lot of verses that say salvation has nothing to do with
our works, and they're trying to explain it away.
It's not just the Catholic Church though, I mean, here's a post from Ellie Soriano on
September 7th, 2018, from Agatim to Honor, MCGI, does faith alone say no?
Faith is the start of the process of salvation, according to Ellie Soriano.
I mean, I thought the Bible said, whosoever believeth in him, in the most famous verse
in the Bible.
John 3 16 is not some random verse, the most famous verse says whosoever believeth never
mentions works at all.
Here's what it says in the verses that Ellie Soriano is referencing, 2 Peter 1 verse 5,
And beside this, giving all diligence, add your faith virtue into virtue knowledge, and
in knowledge temperance, into temperance patience, into patience godliness, into godliness brotherly
kindness, into brotherly kindness charity.
For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren
nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This is not referring to being saved, it's referring to bearing fruit and being successful.
And here's the thing about this, when a person gets saved, they get saved by believing on
the Lord Jesus Christ.
But after you get saved, God has a lot of things you want to add, he wants you to add
to that.
How about adding your Bible reading, and when you read the Bible, let's develop patience,
let's develop being humble, let's develop character, let's develop hard work, I mean
there's a multitude of things we need to add.
And I'm still working on those things, because I'm a sinner.
It's not saying, well wait a minute, you've got to have virtue and knowledge and temperance
and patience and godliness and brotherly kindness and charity and all these things
you've got to have.
It's like, well good luck just being perfect at all those things the Bible's mentioned.
You know, the Bible's trying to motivate us to add on to our salvation, start doing more
and more things for God.
But it has nothing to do with being saved.
Go to Acts 16, Acts 16, Acts chapter 16.
Now, another religion that just flat out says you have to do works to go to heaven,
INC, a Galatian e Christo.
There's videos, it's hard to get like a written statement from INC, but I've watched videos
where they talk about this before, and they'll say, is faith alone enough for salvation?
And these videos by INC, and they have like these two people where they have one guy who's
sort of doing the interview, but he's INC, and there's the other person that's speaking,
and I don't know if this is common or he's, it's not Edwardo Manolo, it's somebody else
who maybe that's their job or function or whatever.
They have a lot of videos and lots of topics, and they bring up Acts 16.
They bring up this passage, which clearly shows salvation by faith alone.
Acts 16 verse 30, 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.
It'll stop there and say, yeah, the Bible says faith, believe, you're saved, but the
Bible doesn't stop there.
It's like, well, no, because they end up getting baptized, and then they keep reading verse
32, and they spake on the word of the Lord, and all that were in his house, and he took
them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes and was baptized, he and all
his straight way.
Yeah, these people got baptized, but what does it specifically say is what saved them?
Believing.
There's nothing about the baptism, yeah, they got baptized.
Guess what?
I also got baptized.
Most of you got baptized, but you didn't get saved by getting baptized.
That's a choice you made after you got saved.
And so their argument is just like, well, I mean, throughout the Bible, you see people
that believe, I mean, the Ethiopian Europe, but then he got baptized.
Yeah, they did more than just believe, they also started to live for God, but that's not
what saved them.
Acts 16 is very clear that what saved them was believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Go to Ephesians 1, Ephesians 1.
Now I bring up those religions, and by the way, you know, Islam, another religion here
in the Philippines, you have to keep the five pillars of Islam to be saved.
They flat out will say you have to live a good life to go to heaven.
There's no doubt that the Catholic Church undocking to on, INC, Islam, and you could
add ugly pion, the branch off, you know, the Catholic priest to get married, the branch
off.
All of them will flat out say you must do good works to go to heaven.
They won't deny that.
Well, if you look at percentages here in the Philippines, Catholic represents 78.8% of
people, about four out of five.
Islam represents 6.4%, this is why I don't live in Mindanao, okay.
INC, according to this statistic, represents 4.2%.
Now I've never heard of them being above 4%, although I think here in Luzon, they probably
are, to be honest, because you run into a lot of INC, but 4.2%, according to this, ugly
pion represents 1.4%.
When you add up those percentages together, you've got 90.8% of people, plus you have
undocking to on that also will flat out say you must do good works to go to heaven.
Well, that represents like 11 out of 12 people, 12 out of 13 here in this country.
The vast majority of people here will flat out say you must be a good person to go to
heaven.
They don't pretend that it's by faith alone, they will say you must do good to go to heaven.
What does the Bible very clearly say in Deuteronomy 6?
It says it's our righteousness if we observe to do.
And so the Bible's very clear with all of these groups, whether it be Catholic, INC,
undocking to on, Islam, they are trusting in their own works and their own righteousness.
They're not trusting in the righteousness, because it's your righteousness that you're
trusting in by observing to do these things.
All of them will flat out say, you have to be good to go to heaven.
See, one way people trust in their own righteousness to go to heaven, which could never save them,
is they flat out will just say, I'm trusting in my works, you must be good.
You must keep the sacraments.
You must get baptized, you must go to last rites and confession.
You must do all of these things to go to heaven, they will just flat out say you must be good.
Don't most people here in the Philippines just flat out say you must be good to go to heaven?
Most people will flat out say they do not know for sure they're going to heaven because
they do good and they do bad and you must be good.
Now this is a little bit different than the United States, because in the United States
you will have a lot of people that will tell you, yes, I know I'm going to heaven.
Because they represent the evangelicals.
Now here in the Philippines, the evangelicals would be like born again, you know, man, my
mind's kind of blank, the Jesus is Lord Church, the evangelicals, Victory Church, what's the
common one?
My mind is CCF, right?
CCF, I mean, these are the common ones.
And here's the thing about this, many of them, if you run into them, they will say it's by
faith alone.
They won't claim it's by works oftentimes, okay?
So that gets us to point number two, because another way people trust in their own righteousness
to go to heaven is not just flat out saying you must be good, but by believing a person
can lose their salvation.
Because all of the groups I named, you might run into someone that follows Eddie Villanueva
or CCF and these religions, and they'll say, yeah, you know, we're saved by grace through
faith, Ephesians 2 89, but if you don't live righteously, you're going to lose that salvation.
Many people, because sometimes you're talking to someone and they give you a solid answer
and you're hopeful, and then they say, but you can lose your salvation if you do that,
right?
Well, here's what the Bible says in Ephesians 1 verse 13, in whom he also trusted, after
that he heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that
he believed you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.
So the Bible mentions whom he trusted, it mentions whom he believed, and so, you know,
Maniwala and Matuwala are used interchangeably in the Bible to believe or to trust, right?
So the Bible says you trusted in Jesus Christ, you believed on Jesus Christ, and as a result
you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.
So imagine having, you know, a container or a jar that you sealed tight and it will preserve
it, it will last, just like we're preserved in Jesus Christ.
And it says we're sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.
The Holy Spirit of promise is also called the Holy Spirit of truth.
And of course the Bible says that he's promised us the gift of eternal life, in hope of eternal
life, which God that cannot lie promised before the world began.
So the Holy Spirit is part of that promise that we're on our way to heaven, you're indwelled
with the Holy Spirit of God.
This is why the Bible says, grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, because when we sin it
grieves the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit stuck with it, whether it likes it
or not.
When you do wrong, the Holy Spirit is kind of along for the ride and it grieves the Holy
Spirit, and it's not going to depart because you have been sealed with that Holy Spirit
of promise.
You have eternal life, you have everlasting life.
And it says in verse 14, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of
the purchased possession under the praise of his glory.
The purchased possession is referring to our bodies, we will get the glorified body.
And it says the Holy Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance, our inheritance of getting
that glorified body that we're going to get up in heaven.
It says it's the earnest.
Now the word earnest is a bit of an older word, you know, you might be like, what does
that word mean?
You know, in the United States, because we bought a house in the US and we bought a house
here and it worked a little bit differently.
But in the United States, there's something that's very common called earnest money.
And what earnest money basically is, is let's say you're visiting houses and you find a
house that you want, and it's like priced at $150,000 and you say, I want that house.
And basically, you're so sure that you want that house.
But here's the thing, you still have to go to the bank to get a loan.
Most people don't have that money in cash.
And so basically, you talk to the seller of it and you ask them, hey, would you be willing
to take this house off the market for a week?
I will give you $5,000 for you to take the house off the market.
And what takes place is you're basically promising, I will come back after a week in this time
frame and I will officially sign everything to buy the house.
And what takes place is if you don't come back a week later, you lose the $5,000.
And it's fair because you ask them to take the house off the market.
Because of course, when you're selling a house, I know this from experience, people come by
like, man, this is a great house, I'm going to buy it, but they don't actually give you
any earnest money.
And you know what usually takes place?
They don't buy the house.
They're really excited, but they decide not to get it.
So we did this when we bought our house.
We put down I think $5,000 or whatever, we said, we're going to buy this house, we got
to go to the bank and we were positive we're going to get approved for the loans, but we
cannot buy it immediately.
Because of course, when you buy a house or you're looking, you don't know how much you
need a loan for.
So you got to buy the house first.
And so basically, we're going to figure out what you're going to buy and what the price
is going to be.
And so basically, when it comes to our salvation, the Holy Spirit is like the earnest money.
It's the promise of God, you know what, you're going to get the purchase possession, you're
going to get the glorified body.
Because we don't have a glorified body now, do we?
We have a corruptible body.
You say, well, how do I know I can trust in God?
Because of the fact the Holy Spirit was given essentially as a down payment.
So basically, if we don't get the glorified body at the rapture like the Bible promises,
God loses the Holy Spirit.
Of course, God's not going to lose the Holy Spirit.
We're preserved in Jesus Christ.
So here's the thing, our salvation is secure.
We have the Holy Spirit of promise, we have eternal life, we have everlasting life, and
the Holy Spirit is actually given as a promise that He will give us the glorified body one
day.
Now, I want you to remember some of the words that I mentioned.
The Bible mentions in, you know, it talks about believing, it talks about trusting,
the Holy Spirit of promise.
It talks about being sealed.
Remember that being sealed in Ephesians one, I want you to go to John three, John three,
John chapter three.
Now I know that we all believe in eternal security in this room, you understand I've
given them eternal life and they shall never perish.
But what I want to do is go really deep about this, okay?
And we're going to look because John three is obviously the most famous chapter in the
Bible.
But we're going to look at verses that are kind of often overlooked in John three that
are really teaching something very profound when we pay attention.
So I remember when I first noticed this because I was memorizing through the book of John
and I saw it and I was like, this is amazing.
It's great what this is teaching.
It doesn't teach anything new, but it kind of gives you more ammunition on what we believe
about eternal security.
It says here in John three verse 31, he that cometh from above is above all.
He that is of the earth is earthly, and speaking of the earth, he that cometh from heaven is
above all.
And what he hath seen and heard, that he testifyeth, and no man receiveth his testimony.
Referring to receiving the testimony of Jesus Christ, because in general people reject the
salvation of Jesus Christ.
Most people do not get saved, right?
Now maybe you've been at churches where they have testimony time.
It's like, why don't you come up brother and tell us how you got saved?
And you'll hear somebody talk for like 10 minutes about how, you know what, I grew up
in church, and then I went to college, I started to backslide, I started to drink,
I started to party, and then last year I came back to God.
And I remember, you know, because when I first got saved, we were in these college groups
where they would have these people come up and give their testimony, and people would
come up for 10 minutes and talk about how they lived in sin, they got out of sin, and
me and my friends are like, where did they mention getting saved?
I missed that part.
And everybody's clapping and it's like, did I miss it again?
Because you would never hear people talk about getting saved.
Because I just thought to myself, my testimony's pretty boring.
I was a freshman in college, somebody explained to me how to go to heaven, I believed it,
I called upon the Lord and I'm saved.
And I would get no claps for that.
That's how I got saved.
And by the way, that's how all of you got saved also.
Somebody explained the gospel to you.
Right?
Because here's the thing, it's not my testimony that saves.
It's the testimony of Jesus Christ.
What is the gospel?
The death, burial, and resurrection of Matthew Stuckey?
No, it's the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And you either believe that testimony or you receive that testimony or you reject it.
My testimony doesn't save.
So my testimony, I've never smoked a cigarette.
Well what does that have to do with my salvation?
That's my righteousness though.
And this is the things that people will say.
It's like, but your testimony doesn't save, it doesn't matter about your life, it matters
about the life of Jesus Christ.
That is what salvation is.
We receive the testimony of Jesus and that's what you do when you believe on Christ, you
receive that testimony.
And here's what it says, he that hath received his testimony, notice this, hath, present
tense, said to his seal that God is true.
It's interesting because the Bible also said, seal with the Holy Spirit of promise.
What is another term for the Holy Spirit of God in the Bible?
The Holy Spirit of truth.
You'll see that throughout the Bible, the Spirit of truth.
And the Bible says that when you get saved, you've said to your seal that God is true.
So if you've said to your seal eternally that God is true, you know what that means?
It means you're never going to call God a liar because you've said to his seal that
God is true.
Right?
And the Bible says, as many as received him to them, give you power to become the sons
of God, even in them that believe in his name.
So we receive his testimony by believing on his name.
Go to first John five, first John five.
See when a person believes on Christ, they have said to their seal that God is true.
They have the Holy Spirit of truth inside of them.
They are eternally saved forever and they will always believe that God is true.
Now that statement seems very generic.
It's like, well, doesn't everybody say they believe that God is true?
What exactly does the Bible mean by that though?
Well, notice what it says here in first John five verse ten.
He that believeth on the son of God hath the witness in himself.
What is the witness?
The Holy Spirit of God.
Right?
So the person who believes on Christ has the Holy Spirit of God inside of them.
He that believeth not God hath made him a liar because he believeth not the record that
God gave him the son.
Now a liar would be the opposite of the truth.
A lie is the opposite of the truth.
Right?
Remember the Bible said, you've said to your seal that God is true.
Your seal with the Holy Spirit of truth, meaning you're not going to call God a liar because
if you've determined eternally that God is true, that means you're not going to say that
God is a liar.
Well, what the Bible says to you about this in first John five verse ten, if you do not
believe the record that God gave him the son, that means you're calling God a liar.
The record is what is written.
So basically this is what is written about Jesus Christ.
If you do not believe that you're calling God a liar, I believe Jesus rose from the
dead.
Well, here's the thing.
If I didn't believe that I'd be calling God a liar, I'd be saying that what God said was
not true.
It's like, well, I believe in some things of the Bible, but I don't believe the miracles.
I don't believe in the virgin birth.
You're calling God a liar by saying that you either believe this is true or you think
it's false.
And once you believe and you receive that testimony, you're sealed with the Holy Spirit
of truth, the Holy Spirit of God, you're never going to call God a liar.
So the question is, what is the record that we must believe?
Because once you believe this record, you're saved and you're never going to unbelieve
these things because you've determined that God is true.
You're never going to unbelieve this record.
I was very specific here in verse number 11.
And this is the record that God has given to us eternal life in this life is in his
son.
There are three things mentioned here in this verse that are key.
The last one is life is in his son.
Every saved person believes that Jesus is the only way to have every safe person.
If you say, you know, pastor, I do believe on Jesus, but I also think you get to heaven
by Mohammed.
You're not saved.
I would say that every safe person believes that Jesus is the way to heaven.
You say, why? Because Jesus is the only one that was perfect.
He's the only one that died for our sins.
Our salvation comes by believing on the son of God, believing on Christ.
That is the only salvation.
So one thing you must believe is Jesus is the only way to heaven.
Another thing it says is that God has given to us kind of like the gift of God,
salvation, eternal life is something that is given to us.
Remember what we just saw in point number one?
A lot of religions think you got to work for your salvation.
If you don't believe salvation is a free gift, you're not saved.
You must believe salvation is a free gift.
So you must believe it's only in Jesus.
You must believe it's a free gift.
You know what? You also must believe that that gift is eternal life,
not conditional life, not temporary life, not life until you commit your next sin.
Well, when we believe on Christ and receive the gift of eternal life,
we have to understand and know what that gift is.
It's not like, well, I'm getting something from God.
I thought it was conditional. It's eternal. Praise God.
I don't know. You have to understand it's eternal.
That salvation is forever.
And what the Bible says is when you believe on Christ,
you know these things, you believe these things,
and you're never going to unbelieve these three things.
You're going to believe salvation is only in Jesus forever.
And it's a gift. That's what the Bible says.
So you say, what are you saying, pastor?
Well, here's what I'm saying.
If somebody tells you that they think someone can lose their salvation,
they don't believe the record.
They're calling God a liar.
And the Bible says, He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
If someone thinks they can lose their salvation, they're not saved.
That's what the Bible teaches.
You say, well, why would they not be saved?
Because no good works are required to get saved.
No good works or lifestyle are required to keep your salvation.
There are no works on either side of salvation.
And you know what? Praise God for that.
Because if there were works required to keep our salvation,
I would not make it.
There are days when I'm really excited to read the Bible
and memorize the Bible.
I have a good attitude and everything.
And then there are other days where it's like the opposite.
And if we had to make sure we were right with God to keep our salvation,
we would not keep it.
And here's the thing about this.
Most people out there will say they don't know for sure if they're going to heaven.
Why?
Because they're trusting in their own righteousness to some level of degree.
And if they're trusting in their own righteousness,
they don't know if they've been good enough.
They don't know if God will forgive them.
And they don't know what they're going to do in the future.
But here's what the Bible says in verse 13,
These things have I written on you that believe in the name of the Son of God,
that ye may know that ye have eternal life,
and that ye may believe in the name of the Son of God.
Look, if you believe these things, you know for sure you're going to heaven.
I can say that I am 100% that when I die, I will go straight to heaven.
So how can you say that?
Because you don't know what you're going to do in the future
because of the fact that it's eternal and not conditional that He gave.
See, if you're not trusting in your righteousness,
then you don't have to worry about your salvation
if you're not living a righteous life.
Right?
It's funny because you'll run into some people
that will seem like they're really godly people,
they're dressed right, they talk right, they act right,
but they completely believe in a work of salvation.
Totally not saved.
And you'll run into other people that are not living a good life at all
and they believe on Christ, they're saved.
I remember I got this person saved in college
and he's a cousin of one of my close friends.
And I remember I did this, it was my birthday
and some of my friends were there in college
and we're just like having a small little get together
and they brought like their relative.
And of course, sometimes it's easier for someone else
to talk to your relative.
And I had never met this guy before,
but he's there at the birthday party
and I said, you know,
hey, can I talk to you about something in the room?
And of course he's like, what do you want to talk about?
But then he came in the room and I brought up the gospel
and like 20 minutes later we came out,
believe in Christ, that's it.
Well, this person I remember just, you know,
didn't really live that godly of a life though.
He really drank a lot in college and everything.
He said, well, did you ever question his salvation
because he was living life like a drunkard?
No, because you know what was amazing about this?
Like I wasn't around this guy that much,
but my friends that were cousins with him were.
And they said, you know what?
No matter at what time when they talked about the Bible,
he was dogmatic, I'm going to heaven.
It's like, I know I'm not doing right,
but I'm on my way to heaven.
I'm saved because I believe on Christ.
Now here's the thing about this.
There are a lot of other religious people that would say,
well, how could you say you're saved?
They're not living a godly life
because salvation is not our righteousness.
Salvation is the righteousness of Christ.
Look, I wish and I hope now,
I haven't talked to him in a super long time.
I hope he's serving God.
Now I hope he's cleaned up his life,
but I don't question his salvation
because he's living an ungodly life.
You say why?
Because salvation is not based on what we do.
Salvation is based on what we believe.
And here's the thing,
if you were to question the salvation of someone
because they drink alcohol,
then I'm worried about your salvation.
Because what do you believe salvation is?
Look, mark my words,
there are drunkards and drug addicts
that we will see in heaven.
And every once in a while,
you'll run into someone that's living that life,
they'll be very clear on salvation.
I remember when I was in West Virginia,
I was like maybe 20 years old,
I was giving the gospel to someone
at the mountain layer there.
And a guy was, you know,
cause I don't really believe in trying to talk to people
when they're drunk,
they really just don't understand.
But you don't necessarily know always.
And I walked up to this guy
and it was clear he was drunk.
And I remember him saying,
he's like, hey, I know you're not gonna believe it.
But he's like, I'm saved,
I'm on my way to heaven.
And then he quoted Romans 10
and I was like, I do believe this.
Say why?
Because he was clear,
salvation is by faith alone, you can't lose.
He's like, what I'm doing is wrong.
I know I'm drunk right now,
but he's like, I'm saved.
I was like, no, I don't question your salvation
because I believe salvation is by faith alone.
Now, of course I'm not condoning someone getting drunk
or doing drugs or any of those things,
but salvation is not based on what we do.
And look, I hope I served God my whole life,
but if we've read the Bible enough times,
we see a lot of people that some point in their life,
they just go off the rails.
And I hope that never happens to me,
but all of us should take heed lest we fall
and realize it's possible to happen to any one of us.
Turn your Bible to Jonah three, Jonah three.
See one way people trust in their own righteousness
to go to heaven is they just flat out say
you have to live a good life to go to heaven.
Another way that's a bit more subtle
is by saying you can lose your salvation.
If you think someone can lose their salvation,
you are trusting in your own righteousness to keep you safe.
And that is a work salvation.
And we're not saved by works,
for by grace are you saved through faith,
and that not of yourselves,
it is a gift of God, not of works.
And look, most of the time that we run into people
that are part of like non-denominational churches,
most of the time they think you can lose your salvation,
almost every time, right?
Now often they will not say they know they're going
to heaven, but even if they do,
most of the time they still think
they can lose their salvation.
You say, what is that?
It's called trusting in your own righteousness.
Number one is by saying you got to live a good life
to go to heaven, or whatever form of that.
You got to be baptized, you got to go to confession,
all these works you got to do.
Number two is by saying you can lose your salvation.
Lastly, by saying you have to repent of your sins
to receive salvation.
One of the common things you're going to hear,
and this is where it hits Baptist churches,
because here's the thing about this,
over 90% of people based on these statistics
flat out say in this country that you must be good
to go to heaven.
That means they're not saved.
Of that other, let's say 10%, let's be generous
and say there's 10% that will say faith alone.
It's not 10%.
From going soloing, most people will not say that.
But let's say 10% of the remaining will say
it's by faith alone.
Most of them, almost all of them will say
you can lose your salvation.
So that leaves us with the small percent,
and this is where you get left with people
that would be Baptist in general,
and they're just kind of a few people here and there
or whatever.
But mainly it's Baptist that will say salvation
is by faith alone and you cannot lose your salvation.
And most Baptists are going to say that,
but they don't necessarily believe that.
Because now that these same Baptists,
they will often say, but if you're really saved,
you're never going to do that, right?
If you're really saved, you won't do that.
And the reason why they say that
is because those same Baptists will say
that to get saved, you've got to turn from your sins.
So the proof of if you're really saved
is if you've turned from your sins.
Most Baptists here in the Philippines
will say you have to repent of your sins to be saved.
I mean, look, I'm not asking this,
but if I were to ask for a raise of hands,
all of you that went to Baptist churches before
would probably raise your hands and say,
yep, that sounds like my old pastor.
Right, I mean, it's frustrating when you're not sure
if your pastor's saved.
And unfortunately, a lot of people are in that situation
in Baptist churches here in the Philippines.
They're like, I hope he's saved.
He might be saved.
Notice what the Bible says, though, about repents of sins,
because a lot of people say you got to repent to be saved.
Well, what does the Bible say in Jonah 3, verse nine?
Who can tell if God will turn and repent
and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not?
Now, the Bible mentions God repenting.
A lot of people tell you that every time
you see the word repent in the Bible,
it means to turn from your sins.
You say, what's the problem with that?
Well, the problem is that God repents throughout the Bible.
Is God turning from his sins?
Does God have sins?
Did God ever do anything wrong?
So obviously, repenting does not mean to turn from your sins
because that would mean God is a sinner.
But the first time you see repent show up in the Bible,
it's in Genesis 6, and guess who's repenting?
God.
What repent means is to turn.
Does not mean to turn from your sins.
It can mean to turn from a variety of different things.
I mean, this is not really the way we talk,
but this is legitimately what you can say.
I could be going this direction, and then I repented.
Now I'm going this direction.
Means to turn or to change.
Now, yes, sometimes in the Bible,
when you see the word repentance,
it's in the context of turning specifically from sins,
but you will never see that in terms of getting saved.
Repenting means to change or to turn.
So God repents in verse nine,
but then notice what it says here in verse 10.
And God saw their works, the works of the Ninevites,
that they turn from their evil way.
Because people say repentance is to turn from your sins.
Well, isn't turning from your sins pretty similar
to turn from your evil way?
And here's the thing.
What did God define that as in Jonah 3.10?
And God saw their faith?
God saw their belief?
God saw their works.
You know what that means?
If somebody is trusting in themselves,
turning from their wicked way, or turning from their sins,
or turning from their evil way,
they are trusting in their own righteousness.
And God saw their works that they turned from their evil way
and God repented the evil that he'd said
that he would do unto them, and he did it not.
So God changed his course of action
because they did turn from their sins.
This is not about them individually getting saved.
I mean, the nation is a whole term from their sins.
Now, I believe many people did end up believing on Christ
or believing on the Lord, but the Bible says
God saw their works that they turned from their evil way.
But doesn't this just make sense?
Because if you have to quit drinking alcohol to be saved,
doesn't that take work to someone that drinks alcohol?
If you have to start reading the Bible one hour every day
to be saved, doesn't that take work to start doing that?
If you have to quit being angry,
doesn't that take work to do that?
So doesn't it make sense that if a person
has to turn from their sins,
that they are working for or earning their own salvation?
And then that is no different than someone
just flat out saying that you have to live a good life
to go to heaven.
In fact, here's what I'm gonna say.
I think it's better when people flat out say
you have to live a good life to go to heaven, you say why?
Because both of these groups of people are unsaved,
but one is very obvious and one is a lot more subtle.
And you know what?
From our experience, soul winning, from your experience,
it's pretty easy to get Catholics saved
that realize that they're not good enough to go to heaven.
You know what's not so easy sometimes?
Getting very religious people saved that are convinced
they already believe the right thing.
It's often very hard.
Because they're convinced that you know what?
I am saved, I'm a Baptist.
It's like, well how do you know for sure you're going to heaven?
Well, I'm a Baptist.
It's like, being a Baptist gets you to heaven?
It's like, do you have a better answer?
Right?
Go on your Bible to Acts 19.
Acts 19.
I remember this one time,
this is like the funniest conversation I had.
And I really wasn't trying to be rude to this person.
But I just, if someone is not gonna listen,
I just try to move on very quickly.
And it was in the US.
So in the US, apartment complexes are a little bit different
than what I see around here.
So I have giant apartment,
like here you might have big subdivisions
with a lot of houses.
In the US you have these giant apartment complexes
with thousands of apartments.
And they're gonna be very close to one another.
And so sometimes what you do is you'll go to sections.
They'll be in like groups of four, groups of four.
So I have like two doors that are facing one another.
A first floor and a second floor.
So I remember, you know, I knocked this door.
And you know, Talapo, except I didn't say Talapo
because it's America.
It was like, you know, it's like,
all right, you know, my name's Beth from a Baptist church.
Usually you just kind of knock
and you wait and see if they come out.
This guy comes out and I just said,
hey, you know, from Verity Baptist Church,
just wanted to invite you to church.
Do you go to church anywhere?
And he gets this smile upon his face.
He's like, yeah.
He's like, I'm a pastor.
So I, and you know, whenever someone says they're pastor,
it's like, oh no, this is probably not gonna be good.
It's the reason why Jesus preached
against religious people the lowest.
And then I said, well, let me ask you more importantly,
than being a pastor, do you know for sure
if you're going to heaven?
He was so mad at me for saying that.
He said, I told you I'm a pastor.
And I was just like, you know, okay,
well, we're just out talking to people.
And it's like, you ever want to come to church,
you're welcome.
And I just, you know, I'm moving on because like, okay,
he doesn't want to listen.
And so, you know, I turn around
because the doors are pretty close to one another.
There's only like this big of a gap.
And then you've got that house there,
or a carpenter, that one there.
And so I knock on this door.
And you know, and I try to talk to this person.
It's like a couple of minutes later,
I get done, this guy's still outside.
He's like, got his mouth like wide open.
Like, did you really ask me that?
It's like, he's still stunned.
It's like, how's it an offensive question to ask,
you know, for sure you're going to heaven.
You think as a pastor, and be like, yeah, you know,
I am for sure, let me explain to you how,
in case you don't know.
But he just kind of thought, well, I'm a pastor.
So of course I'm saved.
And you know, this is what we find with religious people,
that they are often the hardest to end up getting saved.
Acts chapter 19, Acts 19, verse one.
And it came to pass that while Apollos was at court,
Paul having passed to the upper coast,
came to Ephesus and finding certain disciples.
He said to them, have ye received the Holy Ghost
as he believed?
And they said unto him, we have not so much as heard
whether there be any Holy Ghost.
And so Paul is just kind of confirming whether they're saved
and they kind of give an odd answer,
like, what's the Holy Ghost?
It's kind of like, well, maybe they don't know much
about the Bible, or maybe they're confused about this.
And it says in verse three, and he said unto them,
unto what then were ye baptized?
Like, why did you get baptized?
You don't seem to understand this.
And they said unto John's baptism.
Then said Paul, John barely baptized
with the baptism of repentance.
And people might quote this and say, well, see,
the baptism of repentance, see, you got to be repent.
Hold on a second.
Saying unto the people that they should believe on him
which should come after him that is on Christ Jesus.
So what's the Bible saying when John the Baptist preacher
pens, he's telling the people that they should believe?
You say, well, why is this?
Because of the fact that before you're saved,
you believe something else.
You believe the wrong thing.
So to be saved, what do you have to do?
You have to change your belief.
And what's the word the Bible uses to describe that?
Repent.
So you've got to repent of your belief in this
and believe on Christ.
So you're saying it doesn't matter who you are,
whether you grow up Catholic or Muslim or Hindu,
or, you know, I grew up Protestant.
It's like, if you believe the wrong thing,
you've got to change your mind about what you believe
and believe on Christ.
Now, the only exception I could really think of this
is like a young child that doesn't necessarily
have any sort of belief what it takes to get to heaven.
They're just trying to understand these things.
But for me, I got saved as an adult, 18 years old.
And I would still say you could probably use the word repent
because they do have to put their full faith
and change their belief,
but they don't necessarily have a form belief.
But when the Bible's saying repent me
and believe the gospel,
it's not saying repent of your sins.
It's saying change what you believe
and believe the gospel.
Quit trusting in this to get to heaven
and trust on Christ to save you.
Go to John 20, we'll close up.
John 20.
See, one way people are trusting in their own righteousness
to get to heaven is they flat out say,
you got to live a good life to go to heaven.
That is most people here in the Philippines.
Number two, people say, well, you can lose your salvation.
But the most subtle way people add works to salvation
is when they say you've got to turn from your sins
to be saved.
By the way, that is the vast majority of Baptists
in the Philippines from my experience.
And that's true whether it be from the pastor
or the church members.
Most of them think that you have to repent of your sins
to be saved.
Because most Baptists I run into are not very clear.
Now a lot of Baptists have run into say
they don't know they're going to heaven.
But the ones that do say they're going to heaven,
most of the time they still think that,
well, if you're really saved,
you're never gonna commit these sins
and you got to turn from your sins.
So trusting in turning from sins to be saved.
Well, that's no longer about what Jesus did.
That's about what you do.
That's your salvation.
And here's what's foolish about this.
If you have to turn from your sins to be saved,
explain to me what sins a five-year-old
has to turn from to be saved.
Explain to me, because my son got saved
when he was five years old.
Explain to me what sins my sons have turned from
when he got saved.
Did he quit drinking alcohol?
Well, he's never drank alcohol.
Did he quit smoking?
He's never smoked a cigarettes.
Did he quit watching something dirty?
He doesn't watch things that are dirty.
He's five years old.
What sins did he turn from?
Because the only really sins that are evident
is sometimes losing his temper.
And guess what?
All of us struggle with that
whether before or after salvation.
Telling lies from time to time,
all of us do that from time to time.
So my son's death has literally turned from no sin
because he wasn't living a sinful life as a five-year-old.
But you know what you find?
You'll find pastors,
and what they'll talk about is their testimony.
And they'll glorify these things.
It's amazing to me because they'll stand in the pulpit
and say, you know what?
Before I was saved, I was the worst of sinners.
And I gotta deal with the Southern country accent, okay?
Forgive me.
You know, before I was saved, I was the worst of sinners.
I used to drink and smoke, and I was committing adultery.
It's like, why are you saying that
when your wife's in the room, you know?
It's like, I would drink, I would smoke,
I would chew my tobacco, I was cheating on my wife,
and then I repented of all my sins and believed on Christ.
Bless God.
I mean, amen!
And it's like, so you're just talking about
how bad of a person you were.
Because here's the thing,
I mean, I didn't do any of those things.
I guess my testimony isn't as cool.
But before I was saved, I didn't smoke.
Before I was saved, I watched some movies
that weren't appropriate.
And then I got saved, and I still watched some bad movies
even after I was saved, because I'm still a sinner!
But what they say is they were the worst person in the world
and they just flipped the switch,
and then right at that moment,
they never had a desire to do anything bad ever again.
It's like, you are a lying fraud.
Because getting saved does not mean
that you automatically just do everything perfect.
And it's like, why are you glorying in sin?
Why are you proud of that?
And look, I didn't live that sort of life
before I was saved, but here's the thing.
If I did live a really sinful life before I was saved,
I would not be bringing it up and bragging in the pulpit.
I would be embarrassed and ashamed of my old life.
I wouldn't be bragging about it.
And then you'll have pastors that will get up
and brag about the fact that they were horrible people.
It's like, why would you talk about that?
And what it is is their testimony.
What it is is their repentance of sins.
You know, in America, they will have recovery programs
for drug addicts and drunks,
and there'll be government-sponsored programs
where they get free housing and everything like that.
And the requirement is they're usually operated
by a big church.
They must be part of the church
and they must abide by certain rules,
and then they get free housing or something like that.
But we've not areas where these people live
that are all part of this big mega church.
And these are the success stories,
the ones that are still living in the house.
The other ones are back in jail and everything like that.
But these are the people that actually quit drinking
and quit doing drugs, at least as far as they know.
And when you try to talk to these people,
they are the most proud and arrogant people ever.
Because when you try to explain to them
that you don't have to turn,
because what they're thinking is I was a horrible person
and I turned for my sins, and now I'm safe.
And when you try to tell them, well, that means nothing.
You gotta quit trusting in your righteousness
and believe in Christ.
They get so angry.
They get so mad.
It's just like, how dare you say
that me quitting drinking doesn't get me to heaven.
Do you know how hard I work for it?
It's like, you're proving our point.
You worked for it.
It's like, you try to talk to them about it.
It's like, you worked for this.
Because these are people that will say
that they believe salvation is by grace through faith.
They're usually part of a Pentecostal
or a big non-denominational church who say,
you worked for it, so that's works.
And then you don't want to argue too much
because these are people that are about to punch you
in the face or pull out a knife or whatever.
These are people that were criminals.
Not just, usually the drugs went to other extremes also.
It's like, all right, have a nice day, right?
And it's like, I remember we were knocking there one time
and the head of that person that overlooks all of them,
that's part of the church, he's like,
don't come around here and tell our people
that they don't have to repent of their sins.
Like, you get out of here.
We're like, all right, have a nice day.
Because nobody was receptive there at all
because they're trusting in their righteousness.
So here's the thing, when someone is trusting
in their righteousness and their repents of sins
to get saved, it will be so much harder
to actually get them saved.
Let me give you one other story because we have time.
We'll go to John 20 in a second.
I remember I was going so many of the mountain layers,
me and my friend, brother Richard Saenz,
and we're both going so many,
but we're talking to different groups of people.
And he was talking to a group of people
and these people were so happy that he came.
He's like, oh, we're also Baptist.
We're fundamental Baptist.
And he's like, oh, that's great.
He's like, do you know for sure you're going to heaven?
They're like, oh yeah, we know for sure we're going to heaven.
Do you think you can lose your salvation?
They're like, no, no, you can't lose your salvation.
Now I often, I'll be honest,
I don't ask the question specifically
about repentance of sins afterwards,
maybe because I'm just trying to avoid the confrontation,
but Richie's like a bulldog.
He's like, I want to make sure, you know?
And so Richie asked them, he's like, well, let me ask you,
do you have to repent of your sins to be saved?
He's like, well, of course.
And he's like, well, he's like, well, no, actually,
the Bible doesn't say that.
And then all of a sudden you see them going from so happy,
they were so mad.
I've never, and what's funny about this is they were so
happy, so they had to pretend to keep the facade
of acting happy and being in a good mood,
where it's like, I can see on the inside of their heart
that they want to kill him right now.
I didn't talk to them for a couple of minutes,
I'm just saying, Richie, Richie, just get out of there.
They were so angry with him.
It's like, how dare you say that Jesus died for our sins
so that we can just believe and go out
and do whatever we want.
It's like, of course you got to quit your sins
since he died for you.
And it's like, no, that's exactly why you don't
have to quit your sins.
People are unsaved, they just don't get it.
I wish I could show you the video of this.
It was very funny.
I was just sitting back and watching,
and the only reason why I knew what was going on
is because I didn't really see the first part
of the conversation, he just kind of told me.
I just heard voices being raised by them
and I look around like, whoa, they are really angry.
It's like, what did you do to them?
It's like, well, you know, they're really bad
about repainting some sins.
Anyways, I don't know if he remembers that story,
maybe I'll ask him this week or something.
But anyways, we're in John 20,
and let me just close up here.
John 20, verse 30.
And many other signs truly did Jesus
in the presence of his disciples,
which are not written in this book.
But these are written that he might believe
that Jesus Christ, Jesus is the Christ,
the son of God, and that believing,
that believing he might have life through his name.
Did you know that John is the only book
out of 66 in the Bible whose specific purpose
is for people to believe on Christ and get saved?
That's what it says.
Now, books have different purposes.
You read the Song of Solomon,
it's teaching you about how to have a good marriage.
You read Proverbs, it's giving you wisdom,
just general wisdom in life, right?
Read Psalms, it's a song book.
You read Genesis, it tells us about the creation,
the flood, and all these things.
Books have different purposes, right?
And for some of the books, they have very specific purposes.
You know, some, it's kind of not so much,
but some very specific purpose.
Well, the book of John,
its specific purpose according to John is what?
That you might believe, that you might get saved,
that you might have eternal life through his name.
Here's what's funny about this.
The book of John is the book written
so that you might get saved,
and guess what word never appears
in the book of John one time?
Repent, repented, repents, repenting, repented.
Any form of that word never appears.
I mean, if repentance of sins is required for salvation,
it is oh so important for a person getting saved.
Wouldn't you think the book that was written
so people might be saved would mention it
at least one time?
And yet the book of John never mentions the word repent
or any form of it.
And look, test me out.
I encourage you, read the book of John.
Look for it.
You're not gonna find it in any of the 21 chapters,
and yet it's the book that teaches us how to be saved.
How could that be?
Because salvation is believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's not about turning from your sins,
not about repenting of your sins.
What the Bible told us in Jonah is that it works
to trust in your own repentance of sins.
We saw three things.
Number one, just flat out saying work salvation.
Number two, saying you can lose your salvation.
Number three, trusting in repentance of sins.
And to be honest, when people make statements like,
well, if you're really saved,
you're gonna live a good life,
and they blur the lines,
I just assume, well, they probably believe
you gotta repent of your sins.
Usually that's an indication they're not saved themselves.
And if they are, it's like,
well, you need to get this straightened out
because that's very confusing what you're saying here.
Now, here's the thing.
What's the purpose of preaching this sermon?
Because honestly, the main reason is for the church
in Laguna, because it's gonna be the first time
I've preached there,
and I was trying to figure out what to preach,
and I was just thinking about,
well, why doesn't the church service once a month
even exist in Laguna?
Because it's a long way from Metromanella.
And we had people coming from our church.
We have people that come from Laguna
that come to our church.
And the thing is, it's like,
well, they come from so far away.
And here's the thing.
If I knew of a church that was very clear on salvation,
I would just tell them, go to that church.
Probably better for you than traveling a couple hours.
Problem is, and Laguna has a lot of Baptist churches.
You know what the problem is?
There's not a single church that we know of
that's clear on salvation anywhere near them at all.
Not a single church.
I mean, just think about,
for those of you that were here from day one of the church,
which is about half of you in the room,
or at least half the adults in this room,
I remember when we first started this church,
because the Bauaticos were coming up to Manila
as much as they could,
but obviously this is a long ways from Metromanella.
And I was in my mind before I had really mentioned it.
I can't remember if we did the Solenny Marathon or not.
I think we had.
I was hoping we'd have a church here in Pampanga,
but it wasn't a sure thing.
Sometimes some of the people would message me,
and it's like, I can't really say anything
because I'm not for sure what's going to take place
or whatever.
And I remember just thinking,
well, maybe I should just recommend them
to go to a certain church before we're here,
because at least it's better you're meeting somewhere
or whatever.
You say, what's the problem?
The problem is where do you recommend it?
Right?
I mean, the problem is where do you recommend?
And I remember one church I recommended,
which I'm sure you'll know which one I'm talking about.
I'm not going to say by name.
I'm just thinking,
I'm not sure.
Some of the people I think are saved.
It's kind of like this in-between thing.
The salvation is not really far off.
You know, it's kind of like
they think we're saved in this dispensation.
I mean, maybe, you know, maybe.
It's like, that's why you need a church like this
everywhere.
And I'm not saying it has to be exactly like our church,
because here's the thing.
If there was a church that was very, very clear on salvation,
I'd be able to recommend that church.
And you know, I know a few churches here in the Philippines
in various parts that are very clear on salvation
that wouldn't say they're like-minded to us.
And I would recommend their church.
It's like, well, they're clear in the gospel.
They do soul-winning.
Why would I not recommend them?
We don't have a church in that area.
Of course, I'm going to recommend that church.
You can go to that church, it's a good church.
You know, you can grow at that church and everything.
But you know, the problem is
there are a lot of Baptist churches in Pampanga
and a lot of Baptist church in the Philippines,
but you know what there are not a lot of?
There are not a lot of churches
that are clear on salvation.
Or I should say this, there's not a lot of churches
that are clear on salvation in the right way.
There's a lot that are very clear on salvation
in the wrong way, they flat out are clearly unsaved.
But unfortunately, even ones where it's like,
maybe the pastor's saved, it's like a big question mark.
It's like, you don't know.
And here's the thing, if you're trusting
in any of those ways to get to heaven,
it is your righteousness.
You say, what's the problem?
There's none righteous, no, not one.
It doesn't matter how good you are,
you're not good enough to earn your way to heaven.
You must just trust in what Jesus Christ did for you.
Let's close the Word prayer.
Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today
and just thank you for the wisdom we find
in the Word of God.
And I ask you to help us to be able
to just make this clear to people,
help us go out and preach the gospel,
get people saved, God, and help us convince people
to change their mind about what they believe
and believe on Christ for salvation, God.
We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.