All right, we're in John chapter 15 this evening, and I was having trouble figuring out what
I wanted to preach on. I had a couple sermon ideas that didn't quite click. And I've noticed
something, though, about John 15, because this topic came up recently with someone,
you know, at church was talking about it. And over the last couple of years, quite honestly,
I think more people have asked me about John 15 and been confused when this topic of once
saved, always saved. Because it talks in verse 6 about branches being thrown in the fire.
And I've had a lot of soul owners actually ask me about this, and they're a little bit
confused. So I wanted to explain just the first eight verses here tonight. We're going
to have five points of John chapter 15. Now, the first thing we need to understand here
is this. First, we're dealing with a parable. When you're dealing with parables in the Bible,
you need to be very, very careful that you're not forming your beliefs off parables. Because
parables are not 2 plus 2 equals 4. They can be a little bit complicated. There's a lot
of symbolism, and sometimes people will form their doctrines based on parables, and that's
a big mistake. All of the five points that we're looking at tonight are things that you
could preach without this parable completely. Because they're things that we know are true.
This just re-emphasizes what the Bible talks about in those five points. So we need to
be very careful not to use parables to form our doctrine. We also have to be careful not
to take parables too far. Because like I said, we're dealing with symbolism. We're dealing
with a parable in John chapter 15. And I'll be honest with you, I actually don't think
this is one of the most complicated parables in the Bible. And the reason why is if you
look down at verse 8, it really kind of spells it out what we're talking about. It says,
Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit. So we're talking about getting
people saved. That's the point of this parable. This parable is not about salvation. This
parable is about winning souls to the Lord. We're going to look at that more in detail
because that's going to be one of the points that we cover. But we need to understand that
that is what the point of this parable is. God spells it out. He says this is about winning
souls to the Lord. So if you have somebody come to you and say, Well, look at John 15
6, you can lose your salvation. That's not the point of the parable. He's not talking
about salvation. He's talking about winning souls to the Lord. We need to remember that.
Now keep your place in John 15, but turn to John chapter 3. And in John chapter 3, I want
you to look at verse number nine. This is obviously a very famous section of Scripture
where Jesus has just explained to Nicodemus about being born again. And Nicodemus is confused.
He doesn't understand the concept of spiritually being born. And it says in verse nine, Nicodemus
answered and said unto him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto him,
Art thou a master of Israel? And knowest not these things? See what Jesus is telling him
is, Now wait a minute, if you're a teacher, you ought to know the concept of being born
again. Because salvation has been from Genesis to Revelation. It's not just that salvation
appeared when Jesus came on the scene. No salvation has always existed. And this concept
he should have gotten. People were saved in the Old Testament, not by their works. They
were saved by grace through faith like we're saved today. It says in verse 11, Verily,
verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know and testify that we have seen, and
ye receive not our witness. Now notice verse 12, If I have told you earthly things, and
ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things? You see, Jesus
has given Nicodemus the example of the physical birth. He says, That which is born of the
flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. He's using an earthly
example to help explain the heavenly. And he's telling him that if you don't get the
earthly example, you're not going to get the heavenly example. You know, we go soul winning,
we use a lot of earthly examples. We explain that salvation is a gift, because the Bible
uses that example. We explain that being born again, you're physically born into a
family one time. And once you're part of that family, whether you like it or not, they're
your parents forever. You know, salvation cannot be lost. The Bible is very clear on
that. The examples that God gives shows us that salvation cannot be lost. And so what
we have to understand in John 15, we are using an earthly example to help us understand the
concept of winning souls to the Lord. This is not about salvation. It's an earthly example
that he's using. So when it's talking about branches being thrown in the fire, it doesn't
say save people are thrown into the fire. It says branches, because he's using an example.
Now go back to John chapter 15. And in John chapter 15, in verse number one, it says,
I am the true vine and my father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit
he taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it that it may bring forth
more fruit. So we're talking about two types of branches, those that bear fruit and those
that don't. These are both save people. Save people that bear fruit, that get people saved,
and then save people that don't. The vast majority of branches do not bear fruit. Most
people that are saved do not win anybody to the Lord in their lifetime. Soul winning is
not a part of their life. They're either too busy, or they just don't care enough.
Soul winning is just not a priority to most people. Now soul winning will always be a
priority at this church. This is a big deal. And quite honestly, tonight, I'm not preaching
any new cool concepts. I'm preaching the basics. But we need to hammer home the basics. That
is what we live and die on. Soul winning, we're talking about eternal security tonight.
These are the foundational things that we believe. These are the really important things
that we need to know very well. If you're interested in a topic like studying who the
two witnesses are during the end times, hey, praise the Lord, study that out, but make
sure first you know the basics. That you can explain eternal security. That you can get
somebody saved. Make sure you hammer home the basics before you start studying all these
other topics in the Bible. And so the first thing we see is this. We see our purpose.
In John 15, verses 1 and 2, it shows us that God wants us to bear fruit. He wants us to
get people saved. Now, turn to Proverbs chapter 11. We're going to be looking at a lot of
verses we know very well tonight, but I want to hammer home what the Bible's talking about,
about winning souls to the Lord. Proverbs chapter 11, verse 30. It says in Proverbs
chapter 11, verse 30, the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he that winneth souls
is wise. You see how our fruit is likened to winning souls. That's what the Bible teaches.
You know, there's a lot of false heretics and unbelievers out there that think your
fruit is talking about your works. The Bible does not teach that. It says the fruit of
the righteous is a tree of life, and he that winneth souls is wise. We as Christians, our
fruit is producing other Christians. That's what the Bible teaches. The fruit of the righteous
is a tree of life, and he that winneth souls is wise. Turn to Psalms 92. And quite honestly,
if you look online and you type in what is your fruit, you know, Bible, what is your
fruit on Google, pretty much every website's going to say, well, it's your good works.
It's the things you do. It's doing good deeds. And it makes sense why they'd say that, because
the vast majority of people are unsaved. So most of the people writing that are unsaved.
And the other thing is most people that are saved don't go soul winning. So they're not
going to tell you that your fruit is actually going out there and getting people saved,
because they don't want to admit that they're a failure in life, that they're not doing
anything. But see, the Bible says that your fruit is to get people saved. And that is
how our Father is glorified when we bear much fruit. It says in Psalms 92, look at verse
number 12, the righteous shall flourish like the palm tree. He shall grow like a cedar
in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts
of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age. They shall be fat and flourishing.
So what the Bible teaches is that if you're planted in the house of God, you stay connected
to church, you stay a part of the things of God, you will bring forth fruit in old age.
Which means you'll be a soul winner until the day you die. You'll still be getting people
saved. That's what the Bible teaches. But let's say, for example, our fruit isn't talking
about winning souls of the Lord. What if that is talking about our works? Well, think about
what that would be saying then in verse 14. That if you become an old person, you'll still
do good things. I mean, that doesn't make a lot of sense, does it? If it's talking about
your works, then that's what it would be saying here that, well, you know, once you become
old, you'll still do good things. You know, unsaved people do good things all the time.
Before I was saved, I never drank one time before I was saved. I mean, I suppose that
was my fruit that proved that I was saved. That doesn't make any sense whatsoever. Not
drinking is not fruit. That's not proof of your salvation at all. That has nothing to
do with salvation. You know, your fruit is talking about actually winning souls to the
Lord. Turn to Galatians chapter 5. Because when you tell someone that your fruit is talking
about winning souls of the Lord, oftentimes they're going to take you to Galatians chapter
5. And they say, well, right here in Galatians chapter 5, it says, But the fruit of the Spirit
is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against
such there is no law. They're going to take you here and say, well, see, your fruit is,
you know, having joy, having peace, having love. Now, this doesn't have anything to do
with my sermon, but someone told me this this morning, and I think this is hilarious, that
they know someone who goes to a Pentecostal church, and the pastor got behind the pulpit
and went to Galatians 5, and he said, well, there's not nine fruits of the Spirit, there's
ten. He's like, tithing is a fruit of the Spirit. That's what somebody told me this
morning after the service, that someone they know goes to a Pentecostal church, and they
said tithing is one of the fruits of the Spirit. It's like, you can't even make this up. I
mean, what in the world? It says, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith, meekness, temperance. But notice what it said in Galatians 5, 22. Did it say the
fruit of the Christian is love, joy, peace? Is that what it said? Or did it say the fruit
of the Spirit? It said the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace. And see, when we exhibit
these attributes, it shows that we're allowing the Holy Spirit to manifest itself through
us, that we're walking in the new man and not the old man. But that does not change
the fact that the fruit of the Christian is to win people to the Lord. It is not love.
It is not joy. Yes, we should have love. Yes, we should have joy. But that is not what the
fruit of a Christian is in the Bible. The fruit of the Christian is to win souls to
the Lord. Turn to 2 Corinthians 5. So what we're seeing right now, our first point is
this, our purpose. We're going to see this in 2 Corinthians 5. See, God gave us the job
of getting people saved. You know, some people talk as if it's a burden. It's like, oh, it's
so hot outside. You know, I've got to go soul winning. Can't God send somebody else?
It's not a burden. It's a privilege that God left that responsibility with us. We should
be happy that we get to do the most exciting thing that there is. I mean, it would be pretty
sad if all the excitement was left to just, I don't know, angels or something like that.
It's exciting that God left that to us. We should be happy about that. We shouldn't consider
it a burden. We should be excited that God left the responsibility of getting people
saved, of reconciling sinners to the Savior to us. That's great. That is awesome, because
I want to do something fun in life. I want to do something exciting. I don't want to
just work a job, make money, and then one day I'll die. I mean, that would be a pretty
pointless life. You know, we'd be of all men most miserable if we had no purpose to our
lives. But God gave us a purpose, and it's to win souls to the Lord. Look at 2 Corinthians
5, look at verse 17. It says, Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.
Old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God,
who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry
of reconciliation, to wit that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself,
not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
Now that we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we pray
you in Christ's stead, be you reconciled to God. Now notice that word that it says.
In verse 20 it says, Now then we are ambassadors for Christ. That's a pretty strong word that
the Bible is using. If you think of an ambassador for a country, I mean, that's a pretty big
responsibility. Now the ambassadors that come out of the United States are pretty miserable
people, but it's meant to be something where you're a representative of that country. And
you see, when we go soul winning, the way we live our lives, we are representatives
of Jesus Christ. We're representatives of God. That's a big responsibility, that we
are ambassadors for Christ. When we go soul winning, we need to take it seriously. I mean,
this is the difference between somebody going to hell forever, and someone going to heaven.
That is a big responsibility. That's exciting. You know, just today, me and Brother Terry
were going soul winning, and we knocked the door of somebody, a kid who was, his name
was Leo. He's 16 years old. Not saved. Didn't know for sure if he was going to heaven. So
we started to give the Gospel to him, and his friends started to kind of mock him in
the background. I think probably his girlfriend came from behind him, and they were trying
to get him to end the conversation. It was pretty obvious. But I was very thankful because
he still kept listening to us. He listened to the Gospel. And quite honestly, there's
a lot of stuff that he didn't know about. Sometimes we take for granted that everybody
understands the simple concepts that we preach and teach. You know, I was talking to him
about the resurrection, and he did not know that Jesus rose again. Did not know at all
that Jesus rose again. And I asked him, you know, what he thought we celebrated on Easter,
and he said, you know, the birth of Jesus Christ. And I was like, no. And so I talked
to him, and I showed him a couple places in the Bible about the resurrection of Jesus.
I showed him that hell was a real place. And he was just a young man who was willing to
believe the Bible when he saw it. It's not that, I mean, in today's world, it's not that
people are stupid. They just don't know anything about the Bible. We live in a day where people
know nothing about the Bible. And some of the basics, you have to show them, because
a lot of times it goes straight over their head. Sometimes we take for granted that people
know these things, but not everybody does. And even though he had his friends mocking
him, even though they were making fun in the background, he listened to the entire thing,
and he ended up getting saved. Now that is exciting. You know, that person ended up getting
saved, because I didn't think he was going to get saved. I thought his friends were going
to persuade him to end the conversation. Because you know how it is when you're given the Gospel
and you've got like four or five friends mocking you in the background? You expect
that they're going to end the conversation. I expected it to come at any time. And he
still, you could tell he was thinking about it, but he decided to listen, and he ended
up getting saved. Now that is exciting, because it was this close that that person could still
be unsaved and likely end up in hell one day, but he ended up getting saved. Now that's
exciting. And let me tell you something, I am glad that God left us the responsibility.
Welcome to John chapter 15. I'll be honest with you, when I got saved when I was eighteen
years old, before I got saved I was kind of floating through life. I was a freshman in
college and I really didn't know what I was doing in life. I didn't know what my purpose
was. Like well, I guess I'm getting my degree, you know, I guess I'm going to be an engineer
one day, I don't know. And it's like once I got saved, and the person who got me saved
really kind of drove home the importance of preaching the Gospel to people, I realized
man, I do have a purpose. I mean that's exciting because most people out there, they have no
purpose. Most people are just floating through life, they're just getting trashed on the
weekends, they have no purpose to their life, and they're going to die one day and wonder
what was the whole purpose. Well you know what, this is the big purpose that we have
in our lives, to reconcile people to the Savior, to get people saved. Now in John chapter 15,
look at verse number 2, it says, every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away,
and every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. The
first thing we saw was a purpose, but the next thing we see is a purge. You see, here's
the bottom line, that when you start going soul winning, God wants to make changes in
your life so you can become a better soul winner. God is going to make changes so you
do more things for God. And see, often times, people try to start living for God, and once
the changes take place, they end up shying away, because all of a sudden they're old
friends that want to watch the movies, that's a different lifestyle. And sadly, most people
go back to that old man. Doesn't mean they're not saved, I mean, they're still saved, they
just choose to walk in the old man instead of the new man. See, when you get saved, you
have a new creature, but it doesn't mean the old creature's gone. You've got the old creature
and you've got the new creature, and you've got to make that choice every day, am I going
to walk in the old man or am I going to walk in the new man? And most people, they start
coming to church, and once they start making some changes, they end up quitting church
after a couple weeks. We have lots of visitors here, and if every visitor that came to Verity
Baptist Church stuck around, this church would be packed. We need a much bigger building
than this. But sadly, most people, once there's changes in their life, they resist that. They
don't want the changes, they don't want the purge, they don't want to be changed. But
we've got to be willing to accept any change that God throws our way, because God's purpose
is so you can get more people saved. Turn to Ephesians chapter 4, and I'll tell you,
we've all been at those moments in our lives where God's trying to make a change, and we're
fighting against it. We don't want to do it. You know, I remember when I got rid of, you
know, my music, I was like fighting against it. You know, I was listening to some sermons
at home, and the pastor's just, you know, rippin' about getting rid of your music, and
I was thinking, oh man, I was like, I spent so much money on this. I spent hundreds and
hundreds of dollars, I don't want to get rid of all this stuff. And, you know, I was fighting
against it, and I remember I just got, you know, I just got kicked around too much, and
I just immediately just got every CD out, just threw them in the trash, bundled them
up, and got rid of it, because I thought, you know what, I am thinking very clearly
right now. But, you know, tomorrow morning, I'm going to end up not being thinking clearly.
And here's the bottom line, when God shows you something you need to get out of your
life, you need to do it now. Because if you wait till the next day and say, well, one
more day with the frogs, it's going to be more than one more day. It's going to be weeks,
it's going to be months, it's going to be years, and a lot of people, they fight against
it. Even people that come to a church like this, they hear the preaching over and over
again, and they're like, yeah, that's right, I need to start reading the Bible every day.
And then six months from now, when the sermon's about Bible reading, guess what they're going
to say? Man, I need to start reading the Bible every day. And another six months, man, I
need to start reading the Bible every day. No, you need to make the change now. You need
to decide right now, whatever it is that God's showing you, you've got to make it, do it
now. Don't wait, get rid of it now. And I'm not, honestly, I'm not that naive. I guarantee
you that in this church, there are people that used to watch the same old movies, the
same music, and you don't tell people at church because you don't want them to know, but you
need to get rid of that now. When God shows you it's wrong, you need to change it now.
Do not wait. In Ephesians chapter four, look at verse number 22. I made reference to this,
but this is what it says in verse 22, that ye put off concerning the former conversation
the old man, which is corrupt according to deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit
of your mind, and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness
and true holiness. So what you have is you have the old man, and you have the new man.
You see, the old man likes everything that he used to like, the same movies, the same
music. You see, when you pop in your Led Zeppelin or whatever you listen to today, you know,
that's not the new man. The new man does not like, you know, Stairway to Heaven. I know
it has the word heaven in there. I don't think the new man likes that song. You know, there's
a lot of songs with the word heaven in there. It does not mean that it's a song that's of
God. And this also has nothing to do with the sermon, but it's kind of funny, so I'm
going to mention it, that the first year I got saved, I was going to a lot of Bible study
groups at college, and I remember I went to one, and the first song they played was
Knockin' on Heaven's Door. And there's two versions of that song. They sung it the Guns
and Roses style, and the actual meaning of that song is someone that's doing so many
drugs that they're this close to dying. That's the point of the song. It's like, yeah, that's
real spiritual that you're singing, because it has the word heaven in it, that's such
a great song. I mean, that's garbage. And here's the thing, the old man, though, likes
that music. To the old man it sounds great, but you have verse 22 that talks about the
old man, and verse 24 that talks about the new man. And there's a very important verse
in the middle where it says, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. See, renewal is
a daily process. Every single day you need to read the Bible. Every single day you need
to pray. Every single day when you go to your job at work, you're hearing ungodly things.
People are not coming up to you and asking you your view of Babylon during the end times.
That never happened to me at my job. Nobody ever came up to me and said, what do you think
about this verse in Jeremiah? Never happened. And I seriously doubt it's happened to anybody
here at your secular work job. That never happens. They come to you to talk to you about
sports and movies and music, and you want to get out of that lifestyle, but you keep
hearing it, so it keeps sucking you back in over and over again. And you go to Walmart
and they're playing music, and it sucks you back in. And you see TV screens everywhere
it sucks you back in. And see, the world is continually trying to suck you back in, and
that means every single day you need to spend a lot of time in this. You need to read the
Bible every single day, pray every day. You need to be memorizing the Bible, going to
church as often as you can, going soul winning, because we need to be renewed. Because if
we're not renewed in the spirit of our mind, we're going to be walking in the old man.
When you look at people out there, and their philosophies on life are crazy. What they
say, what they believe, it doesn't make any sense whatsoever. And smart people, too. I
have family members that are extremely smart. I have some liberal family members, some cousins
and relatives that are very smart people, but they're very liberal. And it's like, what
they believe just doesn't make any sense. But here's the thing. I mean, for one, they're
not saved, but they're not renewed. And you know, as believers, if we don't renew ourselves
every day, we're going to think the same foolish thoughts the world thinks. Turn to Psalms
chapter 40, verse 3. And in Psalms chapter 40, as you're turning there, I'll read it.
It says, And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God, many shall
see it in fear, and shall trust in the Lord. The Bible says he's put a new song in our
mouth. See, the music we sing at church, it ought to be different than the music that
we listened to before we were saved. Before I was saved, I listened to hard rock music.
I'm glad at church that we don't have hard rock music playing. Now, before the services,
if you go down there to use the restroom, you'll hear those walls bouncing from that,
you know, I don't know, Pentecostal, Hispanic church next door. That doesn't sound like
new music to me. That sounds like, it doesn't really sound like rock either. It sounds like
punk music, which I thought was gone like 30 years ago. But it's really strange music.
But here's the thing about this. That's not the new music that the Bible's talking about.
The new music the Bible's talking about are the songs we sung, Heaven Came Down and Glory
Filled My Soul, a new song, a song that before you're saved, you wouldn't get the point.
You wouldn't get the purpose. You wouldn't care about the lyrics. You wouldn't understand
the song. But as a saved person, there's different songs God wants you to sing. And it's not
just different songs, though. Everything you do in life, God wants to be different. The
things you see, the things you read, everything, God wants it to be new, not the old man, not
what the old man liked, what the new man likes. We need to make changes. And here's the thing.
If you're gonna be a soul winner that's effective, God's gonna have to make some changes. And
I remember what really changed me was actually going out soul winning. Because I tried to
play the part of the person that showed up for soul winning all the time, showed up for
church, and went home and listened to Aerosmith. I did that for a while. But you start realizing
when you go door to door, man, I'm a really bad soul winner. Probably because I was just
listening to rock music like an hour ago on the drive over here. And so you gotta make
that choice. And here's the thing. Once you go soul winning, you start realizing, man,
those souls are in the balance here. And is that rock song really that important that
you're gonna allow somebody to go to hell? Because honestly, if you listen to that worldly
music and you live a worldly lifestyle, you will not be an effective soul winner. The
Bible says that he wants to put a new song in your mouth. He wants to make changes in
your life. You must walk in the new man if you're an effective soul winner. Everybody
that's a good soul winner is someone who is reading the Bible and who's walking in the
new man. You cannot be that effective as a soul winner if you're living a very worldly
and sinful lifestyle. God can use you to a certain degree, but it's gonna stop at a certain
point. It's not like you're gonna end up being, you know, a really bold pastor that's standing
up for the Word of God. It's not gonna happen if you're listening to rock music. For one,
you can't really get up here and preach against rock music if you're listening to it all the
time. You know, when you have a pastor that doesn't preach on certain topics, he usually
doesn't preach on those because he's usually guilty on that. That's probably why he's not
preaching on the topic. And so when you have all these pastors out here that never preach
against anything, honestly, they're probably guilty of a lot of those things that they're
not preaching against. Turn back to John 15. So the first thing we saw this evening was
this. We saw our purpose. We also saw our purge. But I want you to notice in verse number
three what the Bible says. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto
you. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. The next thing we
see is power and preservation. Because this verse is a reference to God's Word. You know,
the Bible says ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. You see, we
get saved in the English language. We have a perfect Bible. The King James Bible. And
we get saved through this Bible. We don't get saved through the NIV. We don't get saved
through the New King James. We don't get saved through just explaining the Gospel without
any verses. No, we're cleansed through the word. That is what the Bible teaches. Earlier
I read the verse where it says the word of reconciliation. See, it is the Word of God
is how people get regenerated. God's Word has power. God has preserved to us a perfect
book. Now, I don't know if there's people anywhere who haven't watched our documentary.
We have a whole documentary we took part in called New World Order Bible Versions. If
you have not seen that, you should probably talk to, you know, you talk to me or one of
the ushers or pastor after the service. We could probably give you a copy or at least
give you a link where you can look at, watch it online. But here's the thing. The King
James Bible is a live or die issue. It is a big issue. And if you don't know a lot about
this topic, you need to learn a lot. Because, you know, like I said, we're hitting the basics
tonight. But instead of spending all your time studying these obscure topics, you need
to make sure you know the basics really, really well. You need to make sure you know this
King James topic well. Because this right here is the topic that determines pretty much
whether you're an independent fundamental Baptist or not. See, I got saved and then
eternal security was the big issue to me. Because I understood you needed to believe
in eternal security to be saved. And then not too long later I realized, wait a minute,
I understood the King James topic. Because when I got saved, I had a new Revised Standard
Version. Because my Methodist Church gave it to me growing up. And I didn't realize
when I got saved, wow, all these other churches are preaching work of salvation. I didn't
understand that at the time. You know, I was a baby Christian. I knew nothing. And then
my friend who got me saved, you know, gave me some sermons to listen to on the King James
topic. And I remember, because I was going to a Baptist church, and I remember just listening
to one right after another, and I just realized, man, I'm an independent fundamental Baptist.
I was like, what am I doing in the church I'm in? I was like, I'm with the wrong group
of people. Because I would hear the pastor get up here and say, man, I love the way the
NLT puts it. And he'd quote from like ten different versions out there. And it's like,
I realized, man, I am an independent fundamental Baptist. I need to find a different church.
Because I realized, this is a big issue. This is not a minor issue. This is a major issue.
And the King James Bible will always be under attack. Because throughout the Bible, God's
word is under attack. You can see that throughout the Bible, the devil wants to make changes,
change God's word, and in verse 3 that we saw, it says, ye are clean through the word
which I have spoken unto you. See, to me, it's a big deal that you believe that we're
saved through the King James Bible. We're saved through the word of God. It's going
to affect your beliefs on other things. And here's the thing, you know, we go soul winning
with a lot of different people. Nobody has the exact same views on everything. But you
can still be a united church and have unity if you agree on the core issues. This is a
core issue. This is not a side issue. This is a core issue. Now, turn to John chapter
13. And in John chapter 13, let me show you in verse number 10 and 11, because it said
in verse 3 of John 15, it says, ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto
you. Well, Jesus kind of gives this example to help us understand this, and he uses that
word clean. It says in verse 10, Jesus saith to him, he that is washed needeth not save
to wash his feet, but is clean every whit. And ye are clean, but not all, for he knew
who should betray him, therefore said, ye are not all clean. So what he's saying is,
you're all clean except for Judas. What he's saying is, you're all saved except for Judas.
That's just two chapters earlier. When it's saying clean, it's talking about being saved.
Turn to John 17. And, you know, one thing that's great that we're saved through the
word of God is that, you know, when I first started going soul winning, I was not very
good at explaining stuff at all, you know. But here's the thing, I still use the King
James Bible. And so by using the King James Bible, I would love to have a video of how
I used to give the gospel. It was probably pretty bad. But people still got saved, because
God's word has power. And honestly, new soul winners can get people saved because the gospel
presentation is not that complicated. We're explaining a gift. We're explaining being
born again. We're explaining it's not of works lest any man should boast. I mean, the verses
spell it out themselves. You just have to show them what they mean. And even if it's
not a great gospel presentation, as long as you're thorough, people can still get saved,
because God's word has power. And that's great, because honestly, when I first started giving
the gospel, I'm sure it was very bad techniques. But God's word has power, and people still
got saved. It says in John 17, verse 17, sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth.
Now turn to James 1. I wanted you to see that in John 17, because it's going to be important
there, where it says thy word is truth. Because once you're going to see people attack the
King James Bible, they're going to tell you, well, you don't need the word of God. You
just need the truth. You don't really need the word of God. It just means the truth.
Yes, you can use the word of God, but it's not essential. The Bible makes it very clear
it's essential. We're going to see a few more verses on this. We've already seen a few in
John 15, 3. We saw the word of reconciliation in 2 Corinthians 5. Look at James 1. Look
at verse 18. It says, of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should
be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. Now there it says the word of truth. Thy word
is truth. It's God's word that they're getting saved. We are begotten through the word of
truth, but keep reading in verse 19. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift
to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness
of God. Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive
with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls. See, the Bible says
it is the word of God. And quite honestly, like I said, this is a big topic. If you do
not know where these verses are, even if you never take notes in church, you should stop
right now and pick up a pen and write these verses down. You need to know this topic.
This is a live or die topic, and if you don't know where these verses are, you need to write
them down. This is a big topic to understand that it's the word of God that is how people
get saved. We need to know where this is in the Bible. We need to be able to prove it.
I was not expecting today to have to prove that Jesus was resurrected from the dead.
Usually you assume people know that, but if I didn't know those verses, then that guy
wouldn't have gotten saved, because he did not understand the resurrection which is essential
to salvation. He did not know. And we need to make sure we know where things are in the
Bible. Turn to 1 Peter chapter 1. You see, there's plenty of topics I'm willing to agree
to disagree on, and we can still have fellowship, but this ain't one of them. You know, the
King James Bible, it is a big issue. And let me just say this, though, that I understand
that not everyone necessarily has really studied this topic out, and that's why I said, if
you haven't seen the documentary on New World Order Bible versions, it will shock you when
you see those things if you've never seen it. If you've never studied this topic out,
it's going to surprise you, and you're going to realize why this is such a big issue, and
why I'm talking about it, because this is a life or death issue. It's a big, big thing.
And you have to understand that if you look out throughout history, you have people like
William Tyndale died to bring us a Bible in the English language. I mean, we're not just
talking about, oh yeah, people have Bibles in their rooms, and they never read them.
And then the pastor stops by, and it's all dusty and everything like that, and they try
to hide the evidence. I mean, we need to take our Bible reading very seriously, and
people died to give us a Bible. Not only that, if you look at the history of King James,
they tried to kill him once he was putting a Bible into the English language. They made
that movie, V for Vendetta, and they made Guy Fawkes out to be a hero, and it's made
to be some sort of anarchist or atheistic libertarian hero movie, which is a filthy
movie. It promotes sodomy. But not only that, Guy Fawkes was a pretty evil guy. The Catholics
were trying to kill King James because they did not want the Word of God into the English
language. It's such a wicked movie, V for Vendetta. I saw that in college. And, you
know, this issue is a big, big issue. 1 Peter 1.23, if you're going to write down one verse,
this is the best one. This is the most clear verse on this topic, in my opinion. But it
says in 1 Peter 1.23, it says, Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible
by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. You see, if you have a corrupted
seed, it's not going to get the job done. It's got to be a pure seed. It's got to be
a perfect seed. Now, I remember after I became King James only in college, the same preacher
that I had heard sermons from on audio, it was probably about 12 years ago, and I listened
to other sermons of his, and he made the statement in the sermon, he said, You cannot get saved
through the NIV. And I was like, Whoa! I was like, We're going way too extreme now. I was
like, Come on, I get it. The King James is perfect, but it sounds like the preacher's
a little bit overboard on this. But he preached the same thing I'm preaching to you now. I
looked at the verses. I thought about it. I looked at the other side, and I was like,
That's what the Bible says. Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible
by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. That's what the Bible teaches, that
we're saved through the Word of God. And if you might be in this room, and you might think,
Oh, man, the person who pastorally let someone go overboard tonight, I encourage you to check
it out for yourself. Look at these verses that I told you to write down. 1 Peter 1 23,
James 1. Come to your own conclusions about what the Bible says. But I know this, that
oftentimes things seem right to us, but when we look at the Bible, the Bible actually teaches
something different than what we think. The Bible says, There is a way which seemeth right
unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. You see, we're so much into the
old man, and what the world's philosophies have taught us, that it's very easy to get
led astray and think the wrong thing on a lot of these topics. Turn back to John chapter
15. And so the first thing we saw was, we have a purpose. We saw the purge, we saw the
power and preservation. But I want you to notice the promise that we see here in John
chapter 15. Look at verse 4. Abide in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself excepted abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me. I am the
vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth
much fruit, for without me he can do nothing. And also in verse 8 it says, Herein is my
Father glorified that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be my disciples. But in verse
5 he gives a promise. He says that if you abide in me, you're going to bring forth much
fruit. Now, what is the promise God's giving? The promise God's giving is not that you're
going to bear fruit. Read it closely in verse 5. The promise is not that you're going to
bear fruit, the promise is you're going to bear much fruit. There's a big difference
with that word there. There's a big difference between you'll bear fruit and you'll bear
much fruit. You see, if you get one person saving your life, you bore fruit. That's not
much fruit, though. If you get two people saving your life, you bore fruit. That's not
much fruit. God's promise is that if you abide, you will bear much fruit. He doesn't say,
Well, you'll bear much fruit as long as we're in this certain situation. No, He promises.
His promise is not that you're going to bear fruit. His promise is that you're going to
bear much fruit. Turn to the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi. Quite honestly,
this is a pretty exciting promise. Because if God's promise was that you're going to
bear fruit, what about if you knock that door, you get somebody saved, it's like, Man, I
don't know if I'll ever get anybody saved the rest of my life. That'd be kind of depressing.
Wouldn't it? If you might knock 20 more years, you never know if you're going to get somebody
saved. But God promises you're going to bear much fruit. Now you say, What is much? I don't
know the exact amount, but it's more than one, two, three, four, five. When it's saying
much, it's a lot. You think of a fruitful tree. If it had five apples on that tree,
is that a lot of fruit? That's not much, is it? We're talking about a tree that has tons
of apples that is filled. Where you look there, you see basically as much red as you do green.
You see lots of apples on that tree. That's much fruit. Look at Malachi chapter two, verse
six. Malachi chapter two, verse six. And it says, The law of truth was in his mouth, and
iniquity was not found in his lips. He walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn
many away from iniquity. Not just some, many were turned away from iniquity. Turn to Psalms
chapter one in the middle of your Bible, Psalms one. Some of you might be thinking, Man, why
do we always talk about soul winning around here? Now here's the thing. If you go soul
winning a lot, you're probably not thinking that, because we love sermons on soul winning.
If you don't go soul winning much, you might be thinking that, but here's the thing. It's
not that we try to talk about soul winning a lot. It's just in the Bible a lot. I mean,
the book of Acts, it's a book about soul winning. I mean, you know, sometimes there should be
sermons about the book of Acts. Throughout the Gospels, guess what Jesus is doing? He's
preaching the gospel to people. People are getting saved. The Bible talks about it a
lot. And quite honestly, I love it because it's exciting. I want to hear sermons on soul
winning, because I need a good kick in the pants every once in a while to go out there
and knock the doors. Because here's the thing. Our natural tendency as humans is to quit
soul winning. Our flesh does not want to go soul winning. And we have to be reminded
of this. There is a natural tendency for people to quit soul winning, to turn it back a little
bit, to calm it down, because it takes effort. It's not easy. If it was easy, everybody would
be doing it. But it's very hard. And that is why, you know, we need to hear about it
a lot, because it motivates us to go out there and preach the gospel. That's why the Bible
talks about it a lot. But look at Psalms chapter 1, verse 1. It says, Blessed is the man that
walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth
in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law
doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water,
that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever
he doeth shall prosper. We see a couple things here, and we saw this in Malachi 2 as well.
Whenever you're seeing somebody whose verses that talk about getting lots of people saved,
you also see somebody who's living a holy life, because they go hand in hand. If you're
going to get a lot of people saved, you've got to, you know, walk not with the counsel
of the ungodly. You've got to be meditating on God's word. Those things go hand in hand.
You won't be a great soul winner if you're not really living for the Lord, if you're
living a worldly life and not reading the Bible. If you want to be a great soul winner,
you have to make some changes in your life. And God wants those changes. You've got to
be willing to accept those changes. But notice what it said in verse 3, where it says that
bringeth forth his fruit in his season. Now, you remember the other parable where Jesus
talks about bearing thirtyfold, sixtyfold, a hundred? I think some people don't fully
get the full meaning of what God's saying, because here's the thing. You know, fruit,
when it says bear fruit in your season, it's saying every year you're getting people saved.
Every year, thirty saved, sixty saved. It's not saying thirty saved in your lifetime.
It's saying, you know, every season you're getting thirty saved. Every season you're
getting sixty saved. Every season you're getting a hundred saved. Every year God wants to go
out there and preach the gospel. Fruit in your season. Every single year we should be
bearing fruit. Because if an apple tree died after one year, then you'd be kind of disappointed
if it was really fruitful and it just stopped. And that's how most Christians are. You know,
they'll go soul winning, they'll get excited about God, but they don't make the necessary
changes to stay in the fight, and it loses excitement, so they end up quitting. Because
they're going soul winning because it's exciting or it's fun or their friends do it, but they
haven't just decided, I'm going to do it no matter what. And they're not making the necessary
changes to stick in it. But what it's saying, thirty, sixty, a hundred, every single year
thirty, sixty, a hundred. Now I understand this, that depending on where you live, it's
going to drastically affect the numbers. You know, if we send a missionary out to Guyana
or the Philippines and they're getting, you know, fifty people saved a year, that's not
that good. Because it's very receptive in those countries. But I do want to say this,
and I'll admit on this, what I'm saying now, I'm very guilty of this. I've said this a lot
of times, but I really thought about this when I was preaching this sermon. I'll be honest with
you, California is actually much more receptive than most parts of the world. It's not even close.
Most parts of the world are far less receptive than California. Now I moved from West Virginia,
which I would say in most areas was a little more receptive, but think about the areas in the world.
There are seven and a half billion people on this planet. There are over one billion people in
China, around 1.3 to 1.4 billion. Would you rather go soul winning in California or China?
Where do you think you'd win more souls? Let's be honest. California, right?
It's not even close. You're not going to be that effective in China compared to California.
What about going soul winning in India where there's 1.3 billion people? Do you really think
you're going to have more success getting all of those Hindus saved than you would here in
California? You're not. What about if you went over to Europe? I mean, you got countries like
Spain, Germany, Italy that are 90% pro-sodomite. You got Sweden where like 40 or 50% of people
claim atheism. Do you really think over in Europe it's going to be more .75 billion people in Europe?
Do you really think you're going to have more success in Europe than here? You're not going
to have more success there. What about if you went to a Muslim country where there's countries
that's probably over a billion people as well. There's 1.6 billion Muslims in the world. Do you
really think you're going to have more success in Iraq preaching the gospel than here or Afghanistan
preaching the gospel? You're not going to have more success. Do you really think that you'd have
more success in a Buddhist country? Do you realize how hard it is to get somebody saved who's a
Buddhist? I don't even care if it's a poor Buddhist country. It is going to be hard to get them saved
because that religion is so crazy. I mean, it's like it basically promotes atheism and it's just
really strange. People that are sucked into that, it's going to be very hard to get them saved. Do
you really think that you'd have more success in North Korea or Australia or New Zealand? You're
not going to have more success. And the countries I just named, if you compile those together, that's
like 70% of the world right there. Those are big populations that I mentioned. California is
actually a great place to go soul winning. You might say, well, it's more receptive where I move from.
It's still more receptive than most parts of the world though. And quite honestly, it doesn't
even matter if it's an unreceptive area. God's promise was that you are going to bear much fruit.
Did he ever say you're going to bear much fruit as long as you're in a receptive area?
I don't remember a verse that said that. I think God's promise was that you're going to bear a lot
of fruit. And so in California, if you're living for God, you will bear a lot of fruit. That's a
guarantee. That's the promise God has given that you will bear a lot of fruit. And I believe that
if you lived in North Korea or China or India, I believe you get a lot of people saved there as
well, because God's promises you're going to bear much fruit. Now, human reasoning, you say that
doesn't make sense. How could you get a lot of people saved in that country? It doesn't matter
if it doesn't make sense. The Bible says it. The Bible says you will bear much fruit. That's a
promise of God. And I'll be honest with you. Here's something that doesn't make sense. It doesn't
make sense to me that a man would be in prison and still be able to turn the world upside down.
But you remember how Paul said that he said, I beseech thee for my son, Onesimus, who I've
begotten in my bonds. When Paul was in prison, God gave him people to preach the gospel to.
Paul gave the gospel to King Agrippa when he was imprisoned. And see, if you're living for God,
God can give you those opportunities if you're willing to do the work. And so honestly, I don't
even care if you lived in China or North Korea or wherever. You could bear a lot of fruit in
those areas. Now, here's the thing. As a church, we do mission trips in Guyana, in the Philippines,
and areas like that. Why? Because they are more receptive. Obviously, we're not going to do a
mission trip to North Korea next year. You know, the Philippines sounds like a good area.
North Korea, probably not in our top five of list of areas to go. But I do believe that if
you're someone who's saved in North Korea, and I guarantee you there's saved people there,
they could win a lot of people to the Lord. God could open up a door of utterance. God
could give them opportunities to preach the gospel and get a lot of people saved. Now,
logically, that doesn't really make sense to me how that would work in Muslim countries.
But I believe that's what the Bible says. I don't believe that's what the Bible says. I know that's
what the Bible says. God's promise is that you will bear much fruit. Go back to John chapter 15.
And so, quite honestly, it's exciting to be in an area where you can preach the gospel
freely and you can get a lot of people saved. But even in those areas, you could get people
saved as well. God can open up those doors. Obviously, the Spirit would direct people in
the Bible to go to certain areas that are more receptive. But, you know, I don't care where it
is in the world, you could win people to the Lord there. You're from that area. God has people
for you to give the gospel to. Because God's given everybody someone that's going to give
you the gospel. And so in those areas as well, God has somebody planned to preach the gospel
to those people. Now, let's look at John chapter 15, verse 6. And the last point we have is this.
We see a plucking up and a pulling down. Look at verse 6. It says,
If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered. And men gather them
and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. So this is the big verse that I said at the
beginning. This is the verse people use to say, well, see, you can end up losing your salvation.
Now, think about what I've preached for the last 48 minutes, okay? I've been preaching on soul
winning and God making changes in your life. This has nothing to do with salvation, what I'm talking
about. It has to do with us getting other people saved, but it says this has nothing to do with
salvation. I want you to notice in verse number 6 what it says. He says he is cast forth as a branch.
So basically that means in a similar manner to a branch, in like manner. Like I said at the
beginning, we're using an earthly example. I want you to also notice what it says there,
and men gather them, okay? Let's say, for example, I were to drop dead. Let's say I was unsaved and
I were to drop dead. Are men going to gather me and throw me into the fire? No. I mean, men are
gathering these branches and throwing them into the fire. So if you're going to try to use this
parable to say, well, this is, you know, salvation, you can lose your salvation, I'm pretty sure men
aren't going to be casting people into hell. But the other thing I want you to see, I actually need
a couple volunteers. Brother Oliver said he'd be a volunteer. Brother Mauricio, I picked you. Do you
want to be a volunteer? I want to show you one other thing from this passage. I think it will
make a lot more sense if we actually see this. If you want to come up here.
I want you to notice also this, that look what it says. Men gather them and cast them into the fire
and they are burned, okay? Let's say all three of us were unsafe people. And let's say, for example,
I were to die at six in the morning tomorrow, and Oliver were to die at seven in the morning,
and Mauricio were to die at eight in the morning. Now, when I died at six in the morning as an
unsafe person, would I immediately go to hell or would God wait a couple hours until Mauricio
and Oliver were both dead? I'd immediately go to hell, right? If Oliver died at seven in the
morning, would he immediately go to hell or would God wait and say, whoa, we need to gather more
unsafe people to throw them into hell? He would immediately go to hell, right? See, and that's
the point of what he's saying. He says men gather them. You guys can sit down. This is a real quick
example. But what I'm saying is this, that if this was saying you could lose your salvation,
it doesn't make any sense whatsoever, because when you die unsaved, you immediately go to hell.
It's not that God waits. I've showed many people in Luke 16 where the Bible says, where it says,
the rich man also died and was buried, and in hell he lift up his eyes being in torments.
Obviously saying when you die, your body, the next step is to be buried, and your soul immediately
goes to hell. I've never had one person stop and say, wait a minute, I think once your body's
buried, then your soul goes to hell. It's just very clear what the Bible is saying, that your
soul immediately goes to hell. That is what the Bible teaches. But in this parable, what he says
is this, men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. And you say, well,
what's the point of this? Well, the reason why this parable has never been complicated to me is
because growing up I used to do something like this. You know, my granddad lived a couple hours
away, and we would visit, you know, a couple times a year, and he had a field with lots and lots of
trees. And here's the thing, when you have lots of trees, there's a lot of branches, they get old,
they fall down, you got a lot of leaves, you got a huge mess. And what you do is you get a
giant wheelbarrow, and you gather all the sticks together into the wheelbarrow, and you put into
a giant burn pile, and you burn it at the same time. It wouldn't make sense for me to pick up a
branch and burn it, and then pick up another branch and burn it. That wouldn't make sense
when there's like thousands of branches, would it? You gather them together, and then they're
burned. In this story, they gather them, and they're cast into the fire. What we did is we
had a giant burn pile of branches. We'd have giant wheelbarrows, put it all in one spot,
and then we set it ablaze. And, you know, after a hard day's work, it's kind of fun just watching
those branches just burning, you know, to smithereens. But that is the example he's giving.
So why does he use this example? God is trying to drive home the point how important soul winning is.
What he's saying is that if you're a branch that in no way helps the Great Commission,
you in no way help get people saved, you're useless to God. You're doing nothing. I mean,
that's the truth, and that might be harsh words, but that's what the Bible teaches.
Now, let me say this, though. I've said, you know, when I was preaching on church growth,
how I understand there's certain people in situations, you know, people that are older,
their health's, you know, worse. Obviously, being 32 years old, it's easier for me to go out in 110
degree weather than other people that are a little bit older. We need to understand that. We need to
be long-suffering about that. But you know what? If you're someone who doesn't help in any way,
I mean, think about this in your own minds. If you're not helping the Great Commission,
if you're not helping get people saved, in this example of John 15, you can read John 15,
one through eight, basically, you're useless. You're not doing anything. We need to get involved
in this. And I'm not trying to put anyone down. What I'm trying to do is encourage us to realize
we can bear much fruit. If we decide to do something big for God, it's going to happen.
See, in our lives, there's certain things that we might have had a desire to do.
Growing up, I had a desire to be a professional soccer player. And here's the thing, though,
I just don't have the ability to be as good as Pele or Lionel Messi or the greatest players.
I just wasn't given that ability. But with God, it's not about natural ability. It's just a matter
of how bad you want it. And if you want it bad enough, you can do something big for God. But
you've got to make that choice if you're going to abide in the Bible. You've got to make that choice
every day. Hey, I'm going to reject the old man and read the Bible. I'm going to reject the old
man and pray. No, I don't feel like going soul-winning, but I'm going to do it anyway,
because I want to do something big for God. See, that is our choice. It says in John 15
verse 8, John 15 verse 8, Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit. So shall ye
be my disciples. That's what the Bible says. If we want God to be really happy with us,
we're going to do everything we can to get people saved. Now, I do want to mention one thing before
we close tonight, because I'm talking about soul-winning, we're talking about eternal security,
and we also have the Red Hot Preaching Conference come up. And I mention this because last year,
you know, when we went soul-winning, we got paired with a few different people, and my wife and I got
paired with the Gallagher family, and they did a really good job preaching the Gospel.
But I want us to understand as we're talking about soul-winning, that some of you,
I believe the people at this church do a good job preaching the Gospel. I believe this church,
we do a pretty thorough job preaching the Gospel. I mean, we're not perfect, but I believe most
people at this church do a pretty good job being thorough with the Gospel. Quite honestly, some of
you are going to be paired with people at the Red Hot Preaching Conference that are not going to do
a thorough job. And they're not going to do a good job because they're more concerned about getting
a number than really taking it seriously. I don't think that's the majority of the people,
but there are some people that are just not going to take it that seriously. Some people kind of
look at it and say, well, it's kind of a vacation, so let's forget about talking about eternal
security before we pray and see how many people that we can get saved. Last year, at the preaching
conference, you know, there's like 40 cards around that number that people had filled out
and said, hey, this is a good convert for church. I followed up on every single one of those,
and I wish I hadn't, because some of the people were not saved. And I understand everybody gets
false converts, but it's very obvious that some people, there's one person that I talked to,
and they said, I'll tell you the same thing I told to that other church member of yours a week ago.
I believe what I do about eternal security, I disagree with you. That's what they told me.
That's not somebody who prayed. I don't know how that was counted as a salvation or good contact
for church, but it shows that somebody just did not take it that seriously. And honestly,
it kind of ticked me off, because I was wasting my time. I wish I just had like 10 really good
contacts, you know, rather than just, hey, here's a good contact, and they're not even saved. I mean,
that doesn't make any sense. You know, we got maps back, some of them from like north Natomas,
like 80 homes. It's like 12 saved. That's what it was written on there. And it's like 12 saved,
and I mean, I would question if it was 12 in Del Paso Heights, but it's like north Natomas.
And I do believe you can get a lot of people saved, but that just shows that a lot of people
were not taking it that seriously. So here's the thing. I do believe we do a good job as a church,
and we have our soul-winning seminar. We should be an example at this preaching conference of
how to preach the gospel. Don't get sucked into this game, well, they prayed with someone,
so I'm going to try to pray with someone. And I'll be honest, I've done soul-winning with a
lot of bad soul winners over the years, and your natural tendency is almost, you want to fight
back, and it's like, man, they prayed with someone. I'm going to do what I can to get that prayer as
well. That's not soul-winning. That's a joke. If they want to go come back and say, hey, I got
four saved, and you didn't get anybody saved because you're actually doing the actual work,
that's fine, but don't come back and give phony numbers. Don't change your soul-winning approach.
Don't get lazy talking about eternal security. Yeah, we could all pray with people if we left
out that Jesus, you know, is the only way to heaven, and it's a free gift, and that, you know,
salvation is forever. You know, if I left those things out, you know, I could probably get five
people saved every time I go soul-winning. But, you know, they didn't actually get saved if you
didn't actually explain the point. So let's make sure when we have this preaching conference,
because herein is my Father glorified that you bear much fruit. This is a simple sermon, and this
is the same stuff we hear all the time, but this is an important sermon, because soul-winning,
eternal security, the King James Bible, these are big topics. We need to be an example at the
preaching conference. Let's close in a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for
allowing us to be here today, and just this message from John chapter 15, and I ask everyone,
including myself, to help apply this to our lives. Help us to be very fruit-bearing trees, God. Help
us to do the work, and to get people saved, and really take it seriously, God. I ask you to
continue to bless our church, and help us as we're coming up to this Red Hot Preaching Conference.
Help us all to do a very thorough job preaching the gospel. Help us to be an example, because
maybe we can rub off on other people that maybe haven't trained as much, and they can become very
zealous and effective soul-winners as well, God. I ask you to help us remember all these things.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.