Alright, we're here in Joshua Chapter 9, and so we're going to go through this story
and then we're going to make some applications here, but let's look at verse number 3 to
start off where the Bible reads, Joshua Chapter 9 verse 3, Joshua Chapter 9 verse
3.
And when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done unto Jericho and to
Ai, they did work wily and went and made as if they had been ambassadors and
took old sacks upon their asses and wine bottles, old in rent and bound up, and
old shoes and clouded upon their feet and old garments upon them, and all the bread
of their provision was dry and moldy.
And they went to Joshua unto the camp at Gilgal and said unto him, and to the men
of Israel, We become from a far country, now therefore make ye a league with us.
And so what's taking place is these men of Gibeon, the Gibeonites as they're called.
These people are afraid.
They're afraid they're going to be destroyed.
They're going to be afraid they're going to be killed.
And so they pretend to be just like Joshua and the Israelites.
They pretend to be the same.
In reality, they're phonies.
They're lying.
They're trying to protect their lives.
They're afraid.
They don't believe in the same God, but they're pretending to believe in the same
God.
And they go through the motions, and they pretend they have old shoes.
They intentionally make it look like their shoes are really old and everything.
We've traveled for thousands of miles to worship God, and they're lying.
They're not being honest.
Notice verse seven, and the men of Israel said unto the Hivites, Peradventure ye dwell
among us, and how shall we make a league with you?
And peradventure basically means perhaps.
So the first reaction is, wait a minute, you might dwell among us.
You might be lying to us.
How do we know that you really come from a far country?
You know, you have old shoes.
Maybe you're just faking it.
Maybe you're lying about it.
See at first, they're very wise.
They're very smart.
The Bible says, the simple believeth every word.
Just because somebody tells you something that does not mean it's true.
Look, everybody lies.
Let God be true, but every man a liar.
And these people are being deceptive.
They're lying.
And the first reaction from the Israelites is, wait a minute, you might dwell among
us.
Maybe you're just lying to us.
Verse number eight, and they said unto Joshua, We are thy servants.
And Joshua said unto them, Who are ye?
And from whence come ye?
He's basically saying, where did you come from?
Who are you?
And where did you come from?
Verse nine, and they said unto them, From a very far country, thy servants are come
because of the name of the Lord thy God, for we have heard the fame of him and
all that he did in Egypt, and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites
that were beyond Jordan, to Sihon, king of Heshbon, and to Og, king of Bashan,
which was at Asheroth.
So they are claiming, we came from a really far country.
We came all the way from the United States of America, because we believe in the same
God.
We've come from a really long ways away, you know, like a 20 hour plane flight and
everything.
They're pretending, they're lying.
They're saying we came from a very long distance because we heard of the name of
God.
Now, let me say this.
I have no doubt that the name of the true God was in all the world.
You will always see this throughout the Bible, that God's name and His message gets
throughout the entire world, okay?
When Jesus was alive, His name was spread throughout the entire world without Facebook,
without YouTube.
And it's always been like that because God put people of His, Jeremiah, Daniel,
in positions where they're preaching to the big kingdoms of the world.
Jonah was preaching to the most powerful empire in the world.
And the message, God has a way to get it out through the entire world.
So these people have heard of the message.
But it doesn't mean they believe in the same God.
They have heard of it.
So part of what they're saying, sure, we've heard of the God, but they don't actually
believe it themselves.
They're faking that.
They're lying.
And they're not from a far country.
Verse 11, wherefore our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spake to us
saying, take victuals with you for the journey, and go to meet them, and say
unto them, we are your servants, therefore now make ye a league with us.
This our bread we took off for our provision out of our houses on the day we came forth
to go unto you, but now behold it is dry and it is moldy.
And these bottles of wine which we filled were new, and behold they be rent.
And these are garments, our shoes, our shoes are become old by reason of the very long
journey.
Basically what they're saying is, we've come from so far away we're at the point of
death.
Our food's destroyed, our drink's destroyed, our clothes are destroyed, but it's all because
we love God so much.
And we've risked our lives to serve God.
That's what they're basically saying.
They're out of food, they're out of everything.
And then verse 14, and the men took of their victuals and asked not counsel at the mouth
of the Lord.
These men, the Gibeonites, have a very compelling story.
I mean, they're not Bobo, okay?
They make it look very good.
I mean, they were smart enough to make their clothes old and look very old to pretend
they had come from a long distance.
They didn't just come up in a nice suit or a dress shirt or anything.
They came with old looking clothes and they went through all the motions to make it look
that they had actually come from a far country.
It's very convincing, it's very compelling, but it's all a lie.
They're lying because they want to spare their lives.
And the people, the Israelites, they did not ask counsel at the mouth of the Lord.
Basically, they did not pray to God for guidance and wisdom, okay?
Now look, if the Israelites did this back then, and this is Joshua, Joshua's one
of the best characters in the Bible.
He is one of the absolute best characters.
He's someone who doesn't always get mentioned, but if you're talking about the top 10 characters
in the Old Testament, Joshua's got to be in consideration, and yet he doesn't ask
counsel from God.
And so if Joshua would make this kind of mistake, we could do the same thing today.
And the Israelites, at first they're smart to it, but then they just don't use their
better judgment.
They're not patient enough to make the right choice.
Verse 15, and Joshua made peace with them and made a league with them to let them live.
And the princes of the congregation swear on to them.
And it came to pass at the end of three days after they had made a league with them,
that they heard that they were their neighbors and that they dwelt among them.
So what they said in verse seven turned out to be true.
It turns out, your neighbors, you do dwell among us.
And they were just going through the motions of pretending to be just like them to spare
their lives.
The name of the sermon is What I Mean by Like-Minded.
What I Mean by Like-Minded.
This is a term you're going to hear often in our church or other like-minded churches,
where they'll talk about like-minded churches.
And what they mean is, it's a church that might not be 100% the same, but they're
very similar.
They're very close.
Basically, we put our stamp of approval on that church.
If you live in this area, hey, go to that church.
We recommend it.
We recommend the pastor.
We recommend that church.
They're doing the work.
They believe basically the same types of things we do.
That's what you're saying when you say a church is like-minded.
Now why am I talking about this story?
Quite honestly, this is something I've kind of thought about recently, because what you're
seeing in this story is people are coming to Joshua and the Israelites because they
have ulterior motives.
We are not a huge church.
We have a decent number of people here on a Sunday.
Even though we're not a huge church, we do have a bit of an influence as a church.
When it comes to the things we believe, there are going to be people out there in
other churches that would want to pretend to be like us.
You say, why?
Because if a church that's just like Verity Baptist Church Manila starts in such and
such area, there will be 20 people at that church from day one.
Is that not true?
A church like ours, why?
Because of the fact we have a unique type of preaching and people are honestly willing
to come from a long distance.
In this story, I could see real people that actually wanted to serve God that are
willing to come from a long distance.
It frequently happens.
People visit from a long ways away because they've heard the message of this church.
But what we have to understand is that doesn't necessarily mean they're going to be like-minded.
We have a lot of visitors here today from far areas.
I'm not saying you're not like-minded.
I'm giving an example about how there are going to be churches that rise up that are
going to pretend to be like-minded.
Now this is what I've thought for a long time.
Years ago I thought about this when basically Verity Baptist Church and other like-minded
churches were coming more on the horizon.
Lots of people listening to internet preaching.
The logical thing to me is this, hey, there is going to be some covetous person who basically
is going to pretend to be like our churches and they will rise up.
Why?
Because they could have 40 members in the U.S. from day one.
Look, if a church that was like-minded were to rise up and start in such and such
city in the U.S., there's 40 members from day one.
Look, that's a great blessing for a church to have 40 members from day one.
Say why?
It's hard to build a church.
And you say, Brother Stuckey, would there be people that are bad people that are willing
to pretend to be like-minded for the sake of having members?
Absolutely.
That's what you're seeing in Joshua 9, they're willing to lie.
Absolutely, that will take place.
And so in the sermon when I say what I mean by like-minded, I really had to stop and
think about what sorts of beliefs does a church have to have for me to say, hey,
I recommend that church.
And so I want you to understand that a lot of people would say, as long as you're not
a Catholic, you're like-minded.
Isn't that true in the Philippines?
It's like you talk to someone from CCF or Victory, it's like, hey, you're not Catholic,
we be brethren, we're the same, we're best friends.
And it's like, well, no, actually, there's a lot of differences.
Or someone would say, hey, we're also Baptist, we be brethren.
It's like, no, I doubt it, I hope, but I doubt it.
Just because they say they're Baptist doesn't mean that they're the same.
Now I want you to understand that when you look at Joshua and the Israelites, their
natural tendency is to want to give people the benefit of the doubt.
You say, Brother Stuckey, what is your tendency?
My tendency is to want to give people the benefit of the doubt.
I want there to be a lot of great churches like this in the Philippines.
Look, I'm not trying to build the biggest church, I'm not in competition versus anyone,
but what I would love to see is a lot of great churches rise up.
I'm not trying to compete with anyone, and I want to give people the benefit of the doubt,
and I hope great churches rise up, that we hear about new churches.
But even in our short time as a church, there have been people that have been supposedly
like-minded that turned out not to be like-minded.
We did a soul winning marathon down in Cavite, and there's some pastor that's supposed
to be like-minded, didn't show up for it, and I heard he's preaching against members
of our church.
It's like so much for being like-minded.
So people will pretend to be like-minded, it doesn't necessarily mean they are.
The reason why they would pretend to be like-minded is because there is a benefit to being
like us, to having our kinds of beliefs.
You could have members from day one.
Look, if all of us lived in some other place, let's say for example we all lived in Beekle,
and some church rose up and said, hey, you know what, we follow Pastor Anderson, we
believe the same things, we follow Pastor Jimenez, look, the reality is most people
would say, hey, I'm going to give that church a chance.
And you want to assume it's true because you want a good church, but what we need
to realize is churches are going to rise up and they will pretend to be like us.
So basically what we have, and what I've really decided kind of recently, and I'll be quite
honest with you, this is not really something I thought about when this church started.
Because I want there to be new churches, I want to get people the benefit of the doubt,
I really had to stop and come up with a standard of this is who I would put my stamp
of approval on, this is who I wouldn't.
So this is kind of new.
And so obviously you're learning as you're preaching, you're growing, and so I want you to give
what our standard is as a church of who we would consider like-minded, who we would fellowship
with, and let me be honest, that our stance is not going to be the exact same stance
as other churches.
Different pastors can have different stances of who they will and they won't fellowship
with.
I'm just giving you the stance at Verity Baptist Manila of what I want for our church
going forward, of what churches we would fellowship with and what we won't fellowship
with.
What beliefs do they need to have?
What type of church do they need to be?
Well, turn to Acts 16 to start, Acts 16.
Obviously it starts with salvation.
They must have the same message of salvation as us 100%, okay?
And so when it comes to being like-minded, that starts with salvation, okay?
I remember a long time ago, I met a Seventh-day Adventist out soul-winning and I was talking
to this guy for a while and it kind of surprised me that he had so many things in
common with my beliefs.
But at the end of the day, his message of salvation is not the same though.
It's like, man, you might have a lot of similar things, but it starts with salvation.
It doesn't matter if you're right about this and this and this and this and this.
It starts with salvation, okay?
In Acts 16, verses 30 and 31, and brought them out and said,
What must I do to be saved?
Now what he says is, what must I do?
So this is what we need to do to be saved, spiritually saved from hell.
And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved in thy house.
Now when it says in thy house, what he's saying is everybody in your house has the
same requirement.
They must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Look, if a husband gets saved, his wife doesn't automatically get saved.
If a husband gets saved, the daughter doesn't automatically get saved.
Everyone in your house must do the same thing because salvation is an individual thing
of whosoever will, okay?
It's an individual thing.
But it says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
It does not mention repentance of sins.
It does not mention go to church.
It doesn't mention getting baptized or changing your lifestyle.
You can name so many things, you know?
All it says is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
So when you put your full trust into what Jesus Christ did for you, that is when you're
saved and it is forever, okay?
Now turn to John 1, John 1.
Now I know a lot of these things we're going to look at are pretty common verses for
most of us, you know, that goes so any, but we need to be reminded of these things,
especially as we're talking about who we will and won't fellowship with.
We need to find out back what's the first basis of how we determine that.
It starts with salvation, 100%.
If a church is going to be like-minded and we say we recommend this church, they must
be right on salvation, okay?
John 1, verses 12 and 13, John 1, verse 12, but as many as received him, to them
gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.
In verse 12, it talks about becoming a son of God.
That means you're not automatically a child of God when you're born.
We're not all God's children.
Now we're all God's creation, but we are not all God's children.
You must be born again.
You must become a child of God.
Look, everybody has one physical birth, but to go to heaven, you need a spiritual
birth into God's family, okay?
And so it says this comes by believing on his name, verse number 12, even to them that
believe on his name.
But verse 13 makes it super clear.
It says, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will
of man, but of God.
You say, what does that mean?
When it says not of blood, it means it doesn't matter what your mom and dad believe.
Look, I've gone soul winning, and I've asked people, you know, if they knew for
sure they're going to heaven, oh yeah, how do you know?
My dad's a pastor.
My mom's a pastor.
You know, my parents, you know, they're saved, they raised us in church.
It's like, that's great if your parents are saved.
Praise the Lord for that, but just because your mom's saved doesn't mean you're saved.
Just because your dad's saved doesn't mean you're saved.
Just because your brother or sister or whomever is saved, that doesn't mean you are automatically
saved.
In my house, you in that house individually must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so it's not a blood.
Look, my son, when he grows up and he's old enough to understand, he does not automatically
get saved just because his parents are saved.
He must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's an individual thing.
Then it says, nor of the will of the flesh, okay?
This would be basically our flesh and our good works.
It's not us repenting of our sins.
It's not us doing good works.
It's not us changing our lifestyle or reading the Bible or praying.
No, it's not the will of the flesh.
It's believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And it's also not the will of man.
It says, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Basically if man were to make some sort of rule that's not in the Bible, like you
must get baptized in our waters or you must be inside of our church literally on the
day Jesus returns, then you won't be saved.
Look, they're making man-made rules.
That's not what the Bible teaches.
It's not the will of man.
And so if the government made some new law that you must do this in order to go to
heaven like the Catholic church did throughout the ages, and they'd say you must abide
by these rules, look, salvation is not the will of man.
salvation's already been determined.
It's by believing on Jesus Christ, and you've got that individual choice.
Turn to John 3.
John 3.
John chapter 3.
John chapter 3, verse number 16.
John 3, verse 16, the Bible reads, for God so loved the world that He gave His
only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but of everlasting
life.
So what I want to highlight in John 3.16, let me ask you, do we give our life to God
to be saved, or did He give His life for us to be saved?
God gave His only begotten Son.
See, some people will tell you, I know I'm saved because when I was 20 years old,
I gave my life to God.
Well, the problem is that's not salvation.
Giving your life to God is not salvation, and it's also not true because nobody has
given their entire life to God.
Who can honestly say, every morning, I spend one hour in prayer, one hour in Bible reading,
one hour in Bible memorization, I go to work, during my lunch break, I just walk
out and spend an hour soul winning, come back in, right after work, I read the Bible
for an hour, I'm memorizing for an hour, got to get more soul winning in.
I know it's 9 o'clock at night and it's dark, but I'm back out there.
Look, the reality is nobody can honestly say they've given their entire life to God.
That's ridiculous.
And so when people say that they've given their life to God, it's another way to
say that they've repented of their sins.
Now I will say this, that you will run into people from time to time that are saved that
have the wrong terminology.
They might say something like, I gave my life to God, and when you ask them further
questions they can clarify, but here's what you have to understand.
What we're basically talking about is a church we'd be willing to fellowship with.
And the pastor has to be 100% correct.
He can't be using wrong terminology.
It's one thing for somebody to be saved in church and they don't know everything,
but when the pastor or the leader of that church is like wishy-washy, it's like, that's not acceptable.
You're the one leading the church and if you're not clear on your own salvation,
how are you going to really accurately tell other people about it?
Turn to Jonah chapter 3, Jonah 3.
See, what I like to do here at Verity Baptist Church Manila is when I preach a nice sermon,
I mix it in like kind of a mean sermon with it.
Yeah, this morning's sermon was a little bit too nice, a little bit too fluffy,
a little bit too soft.
It's like, well, this sermon's not going to be, okay?
Jonah chapter 3, Jonah chapter 3.
Notice what it says in verse 9.
Jonah chapter 3, verse 9, the Old Testament, the Minor Prophets.
Jonah.
Jonah chapter 3, verse 9.
Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that
we perish not?
Now what it says here in verse number 9 is that God could possibly turn and repent.
Now, is God a sinner?
No.
So does this mean God might turn from his sins?
God might quit drinking.
God might, that's ridiculous.
See, people say repentance means to turn from your sins.
Well, last I checked, God is not a sinner.
And even though the Bible talks about God repenting a lot, that shows you that
repenting does not mean to turn from your sins.
What repenting means is to just basically change or to turn.
It could be from anything.
Now, it could refer to your sins, but it's not in this verse.
It could refer to what you believe.
It could refer to a number of things.
And so what people do is they'll see the word repent and they always add in
repent of your sins.
That's not what it says.
Who can tell if God will turn and repent?
Notice what it says in verse 10.
And God saw their works that they turned from their evil way,
and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them,
and he did it not.
Notice, God saw their works.
What were their works that they turned from their evil way?
What is the Bible telling you?
Turning from your evil way, turning from your sins is works.
It's clear in Jonah 3.10 that is works.
And what's also clear in Jonah 3.10 is God repents of the evil.
Look, God is not a sinner, but what God decided not to do was
he decided not to destroy Nineveh because the people decided to turn back to God.
People turned from their sins, and God said,
I've changed my mind now. I won't destroy Nineveh.
God repents, and these people, they're turning from their sins,
and the Bible labels that as works.
Look, if we tell people they must turn from their sins to be saved,
that's a work salvation.
And when we're talking about churches we will not fellowship with,
here's the thing that will separate us from 90% of Baptist churches.
Look, I'd love to have churches to get along with.
My natural tendency is to want to give people the benefit of the doubt,
but if they're teaching repentance of sins,
I'm sorry. That's not the same thing I'm teaching.
That's a work salvation.
And that's what it says here in Jonah 3.
Now turn to 1 Kings 18.
1 Kings 18.
You say, Brother Stuckey, are you saying that somebody
could never be saved and mixed up on this?
No, that's not what I'm saying.
I believe somebody could get saved and could get mixed up
due to false preachers and things such as that,
but here's what I am saying,
if the pastor is mixed up on it,
we're not fellowshiping with that church.
If members are a little bit mixed up,
this kind of preaching helps clarify it so they get it.
New people, they're going to learn new things.
We understand that.
But look, if the pastor is teaching the wrong message on salvation,
we can't fellowship with them.
It doesn't matter if they believe everything else the same,
but they're wrong on salvation,
they're wrong on repentance of sins,
well, they're just wrong.
They're not on our side, they're a different church.
1 Kings 18 verses 20 and 21.
And so Elijah says, just make up your mind,
which side are you on?
And that's the question I want to ask a lot of Baptist pastors
here in the Philippines.
What side of this topic are you on?
You say, well, I think we all just agree
that we're on the same side.
We're on the same side.
I think we all just agree
it's just a matter of semantics.
It's okay if you think you have to quit drinking to be saved.
It's okay if you think it's faith alone.
Why? Because we're all Baptists.
No.
That's work salvation to say you have to quit drinking.
You say, Brother Stuckey, have you heard this in church?
Yes, I have. I've heard pastors
preach a work salvation in church before.
I went to a church for almost a year
14 years ago when I was probably 20 years old,
and it was a Calvinist church
teaching work salvation,
and quite honestly, I was newer on the repentance topic,
so I was fooled by it.
But look, as you grow and mature in the Lord,
you shouldn't be fooled on that anymore.
And look, you know, the truth is
if a church is teaching repentance of sins,
they believe different things.
And look, a church,
if they're going to be like-minded to us,
they need to figure out what they believe in this topic.
You say, well, what if, Brother Stuckey, there's a church that
they say they agree with you,
but they also hang out with
people teaching repentance of sins.
I'm sorry, but that's gray area to me.
They must be solid
on this topic.
It must be very clear, and if they're not
clear, we can't say
that they're like-minded.
Now, they might have some things that are similar,
but look, there's just some things
that you cannot just agree to disagree on.
Look, if you have a different opinion on me
and the two people that are here for the end times,
I believe it's Elijah and Moses,
and if some other church says it's Elijah and Enoch,
look, that's not something to
disfellowship over.
That's not a big topic. It doesn't matter.
But this is a big topic.
There are certain things that are too important
to say, well, I'll agree to disagree.
Certain things
you must make a decision.
You say, well, what does this mean, Brother Stuckey?
Well, this means that we're not going to fellowship
with any Catholic churches.
We're not going to fellowship with any Protestant churches.
We're not going to fellowship
with any Baptist churches teaching repentance of sins.
We're not going to fellowship with any Calvinists
or Arminians
or anybody in this gray area.
If they think you've got to get baptized
or anything where they're not clear on it,
look, we will have no fellowship with them as a church.
You say, why? Because I have
to assume that if they're teaching that, that they're not
saved. And if there's some pastor
out there that's wishy-washy but is saved, it's like,
well, you've got to get right on this topic.
You've got to be clear on this topic if you're not clear.
Now, look, we have plenty
of people at this church. We're not a huge church.
We have plenty of people to fellowship with.
Right here. We have plenty
of people right here that fellowship for lunch
and for soul winning. And look, you know, I believe
our church is going to grow. We've seen growth
as we've started. But even if our church
never gets above like 50 people,
but we're going soul winning and winning
5,000 to the Lord in a year,
it's like, that's a success.
It's like, we don't need to link up with a heathen
to try to get more people saved. It's like, we're
fine with fellowshiping with who we have
here. And look, I do believe we're going to grow, especially
because we put in lots of effort for soul winning.
Lots of hours went into all the souls that got
saved this week. But, you know,
if our church never becomes big,
we're not going to change our standard on this.
I don't want to ever change my
standard on this because Joshua 9,
reading that, it's just kind of like, man,
that's the big light going off saying, okay,
you can apply this to this topic.
Now, turn in your Bible
to Psalms 12. Psalms 12.
Psalms 12.
Let me just sum up this entire sermon
just in a minute.
And then, I'll be preaching for another hour,
but let me
just quickly sum up the whole point of this
sermon. This is what I believe.
When it comes to things that are
really important, other
churches must be 100%
right on that.
When it comes to things that are
not as important, I don't care what they believe.
On important things,
you say, what if they're 99%
right on important things, and then they
have everything else? That's not the same.
I've heard it said
before, a pastor I had in West Virginia, he says,
you major on the majors, and you minor on the minors.
And I believe that. Basically what he's saying is,
the things that are major are really important.
That is what really counts.
That's what you really preach on. That's what you really
hold to. The major things, they must
be 100% right on.
You say, but what if they're post-trib? I don't care.
Big deal, they're
post-trib if they're wishy-washy on salvation.
We need to get back
to the main thing about what does it mean
to be like-minded? And when I first got
saved, what is the first thing I thought about?
Do they believe the same thing on salvation?
The first church I was looking for
after I got saved was a Baptist
church because I knew they taught eternal security.
Once saved, always saved. I was looking for
a church that was the same on salvation.
Now, I didn't know about all these other topics.
I didn't know about the King James Bible.
I just wanted a church that's right on salvation.
Let's go back to the first thing that mattered to us.
When you first get saved,
the only thing you care about
is are other people right on salvation?
Look, you don't care whether your mom
or dad has the same view of vaccinations as you do.
What you care about is
does she have the same belief of salvation
as I do?
And look, we can never forsake the most important
thing. Let's go back to the fact the most
important thing is salvation, and so
they must be 100%
right. They cannot be
wishy-washy, and if there's any
gray area, it's like, I'm not saying you're not
saved, but I'm saying you're
not like-minded right now.
That's what my belief is. That's what my standard is.
Number two, let's talk about the
King James Bible. So the number one thing is
they must be 100%
the exact same on salvation,
but they also
must be the same on being
King James only.
Okay? Psalms 12 verses 6
and 7. Psalms 12 verses 6 and 7.
The Bible reads in verse 6,
the words of the Lord are pure words,
as silver tried in the furnace of earth,
purified seven times.
Now, this verse really kind of
hints at the King James
Bible in the English language, because
when you look at the history of it, it went through
a purifying process where the Bibles before
the King James were good,
they were 90-something
percent correct. Most verses were
fine, but some weren't.
And it was getting closer and closer, and then
we have the perfection of the King James Bible.
Now, I don't personally believe verse 6
only applies to the King James Bible.
I'm sure it's applied to other translations, but look,
I don't speak 50 languages, so
I can't give you an in-depth discussion
on the Hungarian language here today, whether or not they have a perfect
Bible. They might.
I have no idea. What I do know is
we have a perfect King James
Bible. Okay?
And so this goes to the purification of the
King James Bible. Verse 7, thou shalt keep
them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them
from this generation forever.
God promises His words will be
preserved. See, the Bible mentions the
Word of God being like a sword.
A sword never
really goes bad. You just have to sharpen it
from time to time.
See, God's Word never goes bad.
Okay? There's a reason why He calls
it a sword. And His
words are preserved. Now, it's not just the English
language, though. Don't misunderstand me.
Look, the Bible was written in Hebrew, and I believe
that's preserved.
The New Testament was written in Greek.
I believe that's preserved. Okay?
I believe the King James Bible was a perfect
translation, and I believe
it's preserved forever. Okay?
Now, turn to Psalms 119.
Psalms 119.
Now, let me ask you a question. What language does
God speak? Could you accurately
say, well, God only speaks English?
No, you couldn't. God
only speaks, you know, the
old-fashioned Filipino. No, you
couldn't say that. God
is outside of languages. Psalms 119.
It's right in the middle of your Bible, the Book of Psalms.
Psalms 119.
Psalms 119, verse 89.
Forever, O Lord, Thy word is settled
in heaven.
Psalms 119, verse 89.
Forever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven.
Now, realize that this was written
before the Old Testament was completed,
before the New Testament had been
started, and yet God's Word was settled.
Why? Because before a single word
had been pinned down, God's Word was already settled.
It was already done. You say,
what language was it settled in?
Every language. Why? God's Word
can be translated into any language. We've been
going through the Book of Esther on Wednesdays,
and what you see King Ahasuerus doing
is saying we're going to put this into every
province in their language.
So whether it's Kapampangan, Tagalog,
Visayan, look, every language is what that's saying.
And God's Word, I
think it would be an awesome project to get God's Word out
into every language.
And His Word is settled in heaven. Now turn to the New Testament,
Matthew 4.
Matthew chapter 4.
But what you have to realize is that when you say
you're King James only, that can mean a lot
of different things to a lot of different people.
People have different opinions. Some people
when they say King James only, what they mean is
in services we use the
King James Bible. That's not what
I mean by King James only.
And so just because someone says they're King James
only, it's like well what exactly do you mean by that?
Now the Peter Ruckman crowd,
they believe that the English is better than the Hebrew
and Greek. And there's hidden meaning in the
English language that is somehow a magical language.
It's like, you know,
I don't know, I grew up speaking English as my first language.
I never noticed anything magical about it.
Look, it's no different than any other
language. There's nothing magical about it.
He believes that the King James is better than
the originals. Now I don't believe that because I believe
the originals were preserved. That's what the Bible
teaches. And so the perfection
is preserved, okay?
Matthew 4, verse 4,
But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall
not live by bread alone, but by every
word that proceedeth out of the
mouth of God. Every
word. You say, Brother Stuckey, why is this such a
big deal? Because God says every
word. Look, you don't
understand how easy it is to change
the meaning of stuff. In the New World
translation, the Bible, the Jehovah's
Witnesses, they take John 1 where it says,
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. And they
add just one letter.
And what they do is they change
it to, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was a God.
That changed the entire meaning due to one
letter. You say, Brother Stuckey, a few changes
here and there, they don't make any difference. Yeah, they do.
That's one letter,
and all of a sudden you made Jesus a
God, you know, not the
God. Well, that just changed the
entire meaning. And what you have to understand
is that if we lose some of these words,
we're losing the meaning.
Look at these modern versions. They take out
the last 12 verses of
the Book of Mark. They say they're not inspired.
Now, does anybody know how many verses there are
in the Book of Mark?
In the King James Bible?
678. What if you take out
12 verses? How many do you have?
660. What a coincidence.
What a shock that you
take out 12 verses and you got the number of the piece,
and what a shock that you take out a great
passage on soul winning.
Yeah, just taking out 12 verses changed the entire
meaning of the Book of Mark, because every
single Gospel, the end of Matthew, God says
soul winning.
The beginning of Acts, He says soul winning.
He always is doing that, and the highlight at the
end of the Book of Mark is, hey, my last words
basically go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel
to every creature. Why? That's what He's trying to
emphasize. And you take out 12 verses, you're destroying
that. Every word matters. Turn to Matthew 24.
Matthew 24.
Thank you, God.
Matthew chapter 24, verse
35. The Bible Office reads,
Heaven and earth
Shall pass away
But my words
Shall not pass away
Notice how it's plural words
Which means every single
word You say, brother second what if only
single word, plural, every single word, none of it's gonna pass away. Heaven and earth shall pass away.
God's words will not pass away. That's what the Bible teaches. Now turn to 1st Peter 1, 1st Peter 1.
As you're turning to 1st Peter 1, let me just read you that the Bible says,
God is not the author of confusion, but of peace as in all churches of the saints.
God's not the author of confusion. Now, let me ask you a question. The first church I went to was
Baptist by name, but they were very different than what we are today.
And they had a projector up here.
They sung like kind of Christian rock music, and the pastor would use a lot of Bible versions.
And he would always say when he talked about the New Living Translation,
I love the way the NLT puts it. I remember that phrase like stuck in my head. He's like, I love the way.
I mean, he liked how the New King James put it. He liked how the King James,
but I love how the NLT puts it. And there would be like seven different versions that you would see up here in a
projector during the service. Tons of versions. And I remember when we first started going to that church,
they were doing a Bible study through Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life. And in that book,
there's like 40 versions, literally, that he uses. Like Rick Warren basically says, you know,
what verse do I like, do I want to put this in? He just looks through all these different versions.
But that's confusing.
Because you're asking, well, what's the Bible of this church?
Well, it's like, you know, we just kind of pick between like 50 and pick the one that we like.
You know, sometimes we'll go to the Dewey Rhymes, go back to the Catholics, and say, hey,
we can get something from the Catholics. But here we're going to go to the Pentecostals. Here
we're going to go to Jehovah's Witnesses.
Look, that's ridiculous. That's confusing. You think God's the author of that? Absolutely not.
Look, if you type up every word I say in this sermon, like you transcribe this sermon,
look, I said specific words.
You can't change any of them if you want to accurately say exactly what I said. If you change some of the words
and it's 95% the same, it's not the exact sermon I preached. It must be word-for-word.
Otherwise, it's not an accurate transcription. Look, if these words are being changed just a little bit,
it's not accurate to what God says, and it's a lot more dangerous than people realize. But
when you say you're King James only,
that means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Obviously, you know that we believe only the King James
will be used in church, and we believe it's perfect. It's preserved. Now, let me say this, because some people get confused.
I do believe that before the King James Bible came out, people could get saved from those versions. You say, why?
Because the verses were the same,
except in a few spots. The verses were the same, but I want you to notice 1 Peter 1 verse 23.
1 Peter 1 verse 23.
Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God which liveth and abideth forever.
The Bible says we are born again or saved. We receive
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God.
So how do we get saved through the Word of God?
What does that mean? It means that when we preach the gospel, we must use the Word of God.
If you don't use any Bible verses, nobody will get saved. You say, why? The power is not in my words.
The power is not in your words. The power is in God's words.
We must use the Word of God. The more verses you use, the better.
Now it's possible that someone could get saved on one verse or two verses, but look, it's very unlikely.
I mean, you ought to use a lot of verses out there. Now, you ought to explain all the verses, too,
because the natural man doesn't understand these things,
but you need a lot of Bible verses because people get saved through the Word of God.
You say, what are you saying, Brother Stuckey? What I'm saying is you can't get saved through NIV.
You can't get saved through the New King James. Unless there's some verses
I don't know about that are the same. As far as I know, there aren't.
Look, John 3.16 is not the same, but look, if a verse like John 3.16 was the same,
I guess you could get saved from that if it's saying the exact same thing.
But as far as I know, none of those versions are saying the same thing.
The NIV, the New King James, the NLT, the Good News, whatever Bible version there is now, the New American Standard,
they're saying different things. Now, the versions before the King James, before 1611, in most verses
they were saying the same thing.
The ones today, they're not saying the same thing in any verses.
I mean, other than, you know, I mean, I think even Jesus wept. It's like Jesus cried in the
versions. They can't even keep that the same. There's literally, I remember in like the NIV,
I think I came across, I was looking, there's like three verses that are the same.
Like, I think Genesis 1.3 is the same in the NIV. I'm not sure the other ones offhand.
I could be wrong. It's been a while since I looked at that. Well, here's what I'm saying.
The salvation verses aren't the same. What do you think is going to be the first verse that
the devil corrupts? John 3.16. You say, what's different? God gave his one and only son.
Look, if God gave his one and only son, I guess I can't become a son of God. Maybe the ladies
can still get saved. You can become a daughter of God, but us men, I guess we have no hope of
going to heaven. Look, they're saying different things. And so what are you saying, Brother Stuckey?
I'm saying this, that if a church teaches you can get saved from modern versions, they're not
King James only. I've always had that stance. Now, let me give you a background on how I became
King James only. I remember my friend who led me to the Lord gave me some sermons by a preacher
and he talked about the King James Bible. And at first, you know, he proved everything.
I agreed with it. I said, that makes sense. Man, I'm using the King James Bible. It didn't
mean I was King James only yet. You say, why? Because I heard him say in a sermon,
he used this verse and said, you cannot get saved through the NIV. I was like, whoa,
what are you talking about? That's pretty harsh. But you know what I did is I kept that saying in
my heart as the Bible says, and I just could not argue against 1 Peter 1 verse 23.
If you think you can get saved through an NIV, explain 1 Peter 1 23 to me. You say, but that
doesn't make sense to me. It doesn't matter if it doesn't make sense to you. What does the
Bible say? And that is what it says. You cannot be born again through a corruptible seed. Is the
NIV corruptible? Absolutely. Is the new King James corruptible? Absolutely. Those other versions,
they are corruptible. So no, you can't get saved through them. Isn't it amazing that all
the bona fide soul winners use the King James Bible? That's what you see. Look, when it comes
to the Filipino language or Tagalog, the sad reality is I don't know of a perfect Bible
in the language here. Honestly, that's a big problem because there's a lot of mistakes.
I mean, they make some very obvious mistakes. Like when it says Abraham's bosom in Luke 16,
apparently someone who's fluent in the language, which I'm not, thinks paraíso. Paraíso is bosom?
It's just like, I remember looking at my wife and not really knowing the language,
but I was like, shouldn't it say like deep deep or something? I mean, wouldn't that be
closer than paraíso? Look, they're not faithfully translating it. Now, I wish that weren't
true. I wish I could put in your hands a perfect Bible in Tagalog or Visite or any language.
Now look, maybe there is one out there that's just not widely publicized. I don't know.
But the reality is even the ones translated from the King James, there's mistakes in it.
That's a big problem. And you say, can you get saved? Well, they can get saved through
the verses that aren't corrupted. But like even the Bibles we hand out for soul winning,
like I don't even quote all the verses there because some of them aren't very good. So it's
like I'll show them some verses and other ones I'll just kind of show the English and cover up
the other side of Tagalog and just quote that to them. And look, it's sad, but you know what?
That is the reality. And look, you know, when it comes to a church being like-minded,
they must be a hundred percent like-minded on this King James only topic. They must
understand that you can only get saved from a King James Bible. Now, can someone get saved
through a Geneva or the Matthew Bible? I'm sure they could. But those are the versions from
like the 1500s and those are long done away. And it's really the King James. It's Elijah
versus 850 false prophets. That's the way it is today. And so when a church is King James
only, they must be a hundred percent King James only. And if they're not a hundred percent
King James only, I couldn't honestly say that church is like-minded. Now turn to Matthew 9.
Matthew 9. You say, brother Stuckey, that's a really strict stand. I don't really think
it is a strict stand. Because the King James topic is what makes you an independent fundamental
Baptist. I remember the first church I went to that had a projector on stage. It was a Baptist
church. And not anymore. They took Baptist off the name, you know, go figure. Which I'm glad
they did. It wasn't really a Baptist church. But I remember we were looking for a King James
church because why we left the church is because me and my friends, we became King James only
while at that church. Myself, Pastor Jason Robinson, you know, some of you might know him,
some other people. We became King James only and so eventually we left the church.
Okay. So we were looking for a church that was King James only. But I remember when I heard
the sermons on the King James Bible my friend gave me, I came to this realization,
man, I'm an independent fundamental Baptist. And quite honestly, I was excited because it made
me realize, because I was at a Baptist church, but I didn't feel like I was the same as the
people at the church. There's just so many differences and that really helped it click,
hey, there is a difference between you and them. And I realized the people that I am like
are independent fundamental Baptists. He said, Brother Stuckey, what churches are you willing
to fellowship with? Independent fundamental Baptist churches. King James only and right on
salvation. Because that's what we believe. Notice what it says in Matthew 9. And the
last point we have is this is on evangelism. Okay. Now I'm using the word evangelism
intentionally. The reason why is because evangelism means basically anything you do out there trying
to reach people for the Lord. Now what we believe in is soul winning, which is a method
of evangelism, I guess. But evangelism would be like street preaching, handing out invitations,
and all these other words, and holding up big signs, saying repent, and all this other stuff.
Okay. Look, their method of evangelism, it must be the same as ours. Okay. It must be
soul winning. Notice what it says in Matthew 9, verses 35, starting verse 35. And Jesus went
about all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues and preaching the Gospel
of the kingdom and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when
he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them because they fainted
and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. There's this multitude of people,
and it's just too many people for Jesus to deal with. They basically need
a lot of soul winners. Look, our church, you know, we have 30 soul winners on a Sunday
that go out. That wouldn't be enough to reach this amount of people. You needed a great
multitude. And when it comes to reaching this many people, that's why you need new churches
started because one group's not going to be enough. Now, look, I mean, honestly, when you
look at our missions trips we've had in Resolve Park, for you that have been there,
look, even though we had like 80 soul winners in Resolve Park, it was just enough.
It was barely enough to reach everybody because there's just so many people in the park.
When you think of how many people this would need to be, it would need to be a lot
of people. Verse 37, then saith he unto his disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous,
but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he will send
more street creatures into his harvest. Is that what it says? No. It talks about laborers.
You say, but brother Stuckey, how do you know that's one-on-one soul winning?
Well, because of the fact Matthew 9 leads into Matthew 10. And Matthew 10 is the soul
winning chapter in the book of Matthew. Turn to Matthew 10. Look at Matthew 10.
So he's saying more laborers. You say, why does he use the word labor? Because soul winning
is really hard work. It's really exhausting. It makes you very tired if you're actually doing
it the right way. Notice what it says in Matthew 10 verse 1, and when he had called
unto him his 12 disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits to cast them out and
to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. And so he's going to be sending
his disciples out. They're going to be preaching the gospel. Verse 5, these 12 Jesus sent forth
and commanded them saying, go not into the way of the Gentiles and into any city of the
Samaritans, enter ye not, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
So they're going to lost or unsaved people that they're going to try to get saved.
Okay, notice what it says in verse 11. Verse 11, and into whatsoever city or town he shall
enter, inquire who in it is worthy and there abide till ye go thence. Now when it's saying
who is worthy, we're going to see in this passage that means somebody who's willing to
receive the words of the Lord. And so as I mentioned in the first sermon, if somebody
basically is rejecting what you say as you're preaching the gospel, they say, I don't believe
that. According to the Bible, they are not worthy. You say, Brother Stuckey, that sounds offensive.
Well, in another place, it says they have deemed themselves unworthy. Look, if they're
rejecting the word of God and you get saved from the word of God, how are they going to get
saved? They're making their own choice. Okay, we have free will to decide to believe on
Jesus. Verse 12, and when ye come into an house, salute it, and if the house be worthy, let
your peace come upon it. When it says let your peace, it's referring to the gospel of peace.
It's not like the Catholics, peace be with you. That's not what it's saying. It's saying if the
house is willing to listen, you preach the gospel to them. Now if they're not willing to
listen, you don't just put your foot in the door and like slam it open and force it down
their throats. No, you just move on to the next door. You say, why? Those people are never
going to get saved anyway. That's what you see when you have experience. And it says,
let your peace come upon it, but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you.
So basically what do you do? You just go on to the next door. This is referring to soul winning,
basically one on one or one on two, one on small groups. It's not street preaching.
It's just talking to people. Now in the Philippines, we are blessed to have many
opportunities other areas don't. For example, we went to Quezon Memorial Circle yesterday,
and we got 49 people saved. Look, if you went to a park in America all day to try to get
people saved, you'd get a few people saved, you wouldn't get 49. There's a lot of
opportunities where people are kind of sitting around looking for someone to talk to, and you
can get a lot of people saved. You have opportunities here to preach at schools,
and you're preaching an adequate message of the gospel. That's great, but what you're not doing
is screaming at people that don't want to hear you on the street. Now look, if I stood outside
after the service and screamed at people, yeah, people would look at me. Like if they see
something strange, they'll look. They see this big sign saying, you know, whatever. Yeah,
they'll look at it out of curiosity. They're not going to get saved though. And so look, we're not
seeing street preaching here in Matthew chapter 10. What we're actually seeing is soul winning.
Why? Because if you're screaming at a bunch of people, they don't even want to hear you anyway.
And the gospel is meant to just be something you talk in a conversation. You ask them
questions, and you help them out where they're struggling. Now turn into Romans 10.
Romans 10.
So Brother Stuckey, what if a church's method of evangelism, they're right on salvation,
they're right in the King James Bible, their method of evangelism is street preaching.
They are not like-minded. That's what I'm saying. They're not like-minded. I wouldn't
recommend their church. You say, why? Because they're not getting anybody saved.
That's why. Notice what it says in Romans 10 verse 8.
And so the word of faith is the fact that it's in your mouth and it's in your heart.
So what we're seeing is calling in the name of the Lord is not a work. You see that in verse 8?
This is the word of faith. What they actually told people was you believe and then you call.
It's in your mouth and in your heart that is linked with the word of faith.
Verse 9, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus,
and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead,
thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness,
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
And so when people believe this in their heart and they call on the Lord, they're saved.
You say, Brother Stuckey, what do you focus more on when you're preaching the
gospel to someone? Believing on Jesus Christ. You say, why? Because that's what it
says a thousand times in the Bible. You say, when do you talk about calling on the name
of the Lord? Like 10 seconds right at the end? I show him Romans 10, 13, and it's like,
do you really believe this? You say, what is calling on the name of the Lord?
It's basically a confirmation to us soul owners that they got it.
And so if they're refusing to call, you know what that tells you? They probably didn't believe.
That's what you always see when they say, well, you know, I'm not sure about it.
You know, they're like, I'll just pray some other time. They don't believe yet.
Why? Because everybody who believes will call. That's what it says in John 4, okay?
And so if they believe they're going to call, but when we're preaching the gospel,
we don't do one, two, three, repeat after me. We do one minute, two minutes, three minutes,
four minutes, five minutes, six minutes, go on till they believe. And then at the end,
you just show them Romans chapter 10, and it's just a confirmation for you that they got it.
Okay, now I believe it's the best way to go soul winning, because that's what you see
in Romans chapter 10 verse 8. But the key is that they're believing on Jesus Christ, okay?
And so we're seeing that the method of preaching the gospel is to basically talk to people
one-on-one. Now if other opportunities present themselves, praise the Lord for that opportunity.
But here's the thing, I have a standing offer from the born-again church that I met in case I
went to a memorial circle to go street preaching with them anytime. Here's the problem,
I don't believe in street preaching, and they're not like-minded. It's like, oh, you know,
thanks, you know, maybe we'll see one day. Look, just because you get offers doesn't mean
you're going to take all of them, though. And so they must be like-minded. Now I want you
to notice verse 14. I want you to notice one other thing that we see here about soul winning.
Verse 14, how then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how so they
believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how so they hear without a preacher?
What the Bible says is that people are not going to be able to believe unless they hear
first. They cannot get saved on their own. They cannot get saved through the King James Bible
by itself. Now you cannot get saved without the King James Bible, but you cannot get saved
with only the King James Bible. You need a soul winner to preach that message.
And so what it says is, how shall they hear without a preacher? And so the Bible teaches
you must have a soul winner to preach the Gospel. Say, Brother Stuckey, what if a church
doesn't believe that? They're not like-minded. Because what I'm telling you is they must be
a hundred percent the same on these core issues. They must be a hundred percent the same on
salvation, not wishy-washy on repentance. A hundred percent the same on King James only,
meaning you must get saved through a King James Bible in the English language.
Obviously other languages you can preach the Gospel, but in English it's through the King
James Bible. When it comes to soul winning, they must have the same method, okay? They
must understand that, yeah, you know what, you need a soul winner to get somebody saved.
Now turn to 1 John 5. 1 John 5.
And so with soul winning, they must have the same method. They must believe a soul winner is
necessary, but they also must have a very similar Gospel presentation to what we do around here.
Notice what it says in 1 John 5 verse 13. These things, 1 John 5, 1 John chapter 5 verse
13, these things have I written on you that believe in the name of the Son of God,
that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may believe in the name of the
Son of God. The Bible says here you can know you have eternal life, and the key is that
you're believing on the Son of God. That's what you see twice in this verse.
But what I want you to understand is the verses before that are going to clarify this.
Go back to verse 10. Verse 10. What exactly do you have to believe?
He that believeth on the Son of God hath a witness in himself. Now the witness is
referring to the Holy Ghost. He that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because he
believeth not the record that God gave the Son. The Bible says if we don't believe the
record, we're making God a liar. We either believe or we don't believe.
Verse 11 tells us what that record is, and this is the record that God hath given to us
eternal life, and this life is in his Son. We see three things mentioned in this verse.
One is that life is in his Son. Look, when you preach the Gospel, you must make it clear
salvation is only in Jesus Christ. They must realize, well, it's not just salvation is by
Jesus for the Filipinos, but in Muslim countries it's by Muhammad. No, they must realize it's
only in Jesus Christ. You must make it clear life is only in his Son. In fact, all the
salvation verses highlight that. That is obviously a big thing, okay? Now in the Philippines,
it's not as big as other countries, because most people are Christian to some degree.
But they must understand, and you should emphasize when it says, what must I do to be saved?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Not just believe there's a God, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. And anyone who's gone soul with me before has heard me say that believing in one
God will not get you to heaven. I always say that. You say, why? Because they must believe
life is in his Son. So you have to emphasize it. But it also says God hath given to us eternal
life. Now realize that this verse is parallel with the second half of Romans 6 23.
The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And so when it says God
hath given to us eternal life, that is parallel with the gift of God is eternal life. A gift is
something that's given, okay? So they must understand it's a gift. Now we use the gift
example when we go out soul winning. But the significance of a gift is,
right? No payments required. You say, Brother Stuckey, you bought me a brand new car,
you're only charging me one peso. It's not a gift. Why? It still costs something.
Look, if we have to make any changes or do any amount of work, that's not a gift. And so if God
is offering us a gift, but you still need to be a good person, that's not a gift.
Or you still need to repent of your sins, not a gift. A gift is 100% free, and not only that,
there's no exchange with a gift. So if I give this to Brother Ehrman and get mad at him tomorrow,
I can't take that back if it was really a gift. That's what the Bible teaches,
that it's something that's given. And so people must understand there's no works involved
whatsoever. And so when we preach the Gospel, we must make it clear to them it's mani wala
long. Mani wala or magti wala long, cahisa Christo. But notice also it says, God hath
given to us eternal life. Does that say conditional life in your Bible? I hope it
doesn't, and if it does, we'll give you a Bible after the service. That says eternal life.
Eternal. Everlasting. It lasts forever. It never ends. That is what the Bible says.
It's eternal life. It never ends. And so when we preach the Gospel, we must emphasize
that this salvation is a one-time thing that lasts forever. You say, Brother Stuckey, what
if you don't emphasize that? Then you're going to pray a prayer with someone who probably didn't
get saved. Why? They must understand it's only in Jesus. They must understand it's a gift.
They must understand it's eternal, and we must emphasize these things. So what if there is
another church that basically doesn't do that? Well, they're not like-minded. They have to
have good soul winning. Now look, I'm not saying you have to use the exact same verses as me.
People use different verses. I don't use Romans 5-8 in my Gospel presentation, and most people
I know do, and that's fine. There's nothing wrong. It's a great verse. I always use John
336, and most people probably don't use John 336. It doesn't matter the exact verses. It matters
the exact message, and the message better be it's only in Jesus, it's a gift, and it lasts
forever. And if you do not mention those things, unfortunately, I can't say somebody's
like-minded when we're looking at a church. Now realize I'm focusing on a church here.
Individuals are at church. They're learning things, but I'm saying if we're going to put
our stamp of approval on a church and line up with them, they have to be right on these
core issues. They have to be a hundred percent right. You say, why? Turn to Matthew 12, Matthew 12.
And so when it comes to putting a stamp of approval on a church, because here's the thing,
I can hear what somebody believes about salvation to get their idea on that. I could
ask them questions about the King James Bible, but honestly the only way I can really tell
if somebody's got adequate soul winning is if I actually hear them give the Gospel.
The only other way is if I have multiple people that I trust that give me a good report
about someone. But we must realize, look it's pretty significant if you're putting a stamp
of approval on another church. So when there's a new church or someone who's like-minded or
say they're like-minded, it doesn't mean I'm saying they're not. I'm just saying we've got
to wait it out and make sure they're the same. We can't rush into that. We're not saying
that they're lying. We're not saying they're faking. We hope they're not.
But you need to give it some time. Look, when I talked about marriage last week,
didn't I mention that if some new girl comes to church, make sure she lasts
for a couple months at least. Don't just like after one week, she came soul winning,
I'm proposing. Make sure she actually loves the Lord. Give it a little bit of time,
okay, because people come in church and they go. That's the reality. You want to make
sure that they're actually in it for the long haul. Look, when it comes to someone who
says they're like-minded, it is possible they're like the Gibeonites.
Now look, that might sound mean, but there's a chapter that really focuses on that,
that really highlights this exact sort of situation. We need to make sure they're
like-minded. And look, if they're not like-minded, then maybe one day they will
be like-minded when they learn more things, okay. But notice what it says in Matthew 12
verse 30. He that is not with me is against me, and he that gathereth not with me
scattereth abroad. You say, Brother Stuckey, if they're doing the same work,
why would you say they're not like-minded? Because they're not gathering, they're scattering.
If they don't have good gospel presentations, they're not getting people saved.
Now look, that's a harsh reality, but it is reality. And look, there's a certain amount
of time you must spend to get somebody saved. Now I'm not saying you spend 40 minutes.
In fact, I said the opposite earlier, but I'm also saying that it takes more than five minutes.
Right. And there's only so many people you can get saved in a certain amount of time. You say,
Brother Stuckey, 49 sounds like a lot of people saved. Yeah, but we had, you know,
if you include my son, nine soul winners yesterday who spent four hours preaching the
gospel. And so quite honestly, counted as eight soul winners, that's 32 hours of soul winning.
That's actually a lot of work. So yeah, guess what? You know, a lot of people got saved
because a lot of work was done. Look, there's only so many people you can get saved. And if
we came back and we're getting like 200 from our Case on Memorial Circle, there's something
wrong there. Somebody's not doing something right. There's only so many people you can get saved.
It's only so many in a certain amount of time. And look, the reality is when it comes
to churches that, you know, because there's a lot of people that are sort of like-minded
that I've never really met in the Philippines. Some of them have kind of video game numbers
that are just a little bit too unbelievable. And that might sound harsh, but I'm just
being honest because this ties into the sermon. Now look, that doesn't necessarily mean that
everyone in the church isn't being thorough, but it certainly means some people aren't. Now let
me say this because I don't want you to misunderstand what I'm saying. There are churches
that count results differently than us. That's not what I'm talking about. We count very strict
results. When I preach to large groups, you know, in Case on Memorial Circle, I don't believe
you should count like 10 people. Okay. There are some people that do though, but that doesn't mean
that their gospel presentation wasn't thorough. You understand what I'm saying? I'm not saying
they're scattering. I'm just saying I don't think they're gathering as much as they're
counting, and I think they should be more cautious. I think we're pretty cautious with
our numbers, and Pastor Mendez is very cautious, and I believe in being cautious.
I'm okay if other churches are counting their numbers differently, like they're being more lenient
than us because they're still gathering, but what I'm not okay with is if they're basically
spending like half the amount of time and counting three times the amount of salvation.
You say why? Because divide that salvation number by 50. That's the reality. Look, I've been
soul winning for 14 or 15 years, and we kind of assume that if somebody is, you know, in
this movement that they're good at soul winning, but you know what? I've always seen that when
people first start listening to the sermons online, their soul winning is not good. That's the reality.
Look, when you change your mind about the rapture and Zionism and everything else in the Bible,
doesn't it make sense that you would probably need to change your soul winning a little bit?
And the reality is some people are coming along and saying, well, we believe this and this,
but their soul winning isn't changing at all, and I can tell that based on numbers. You know,
at least to my best guess, it just doesn't make sense to me, okay? Look, the Philippines is
very receptive, but it's only so receptive. You can only get so many people saved, okay?
And so when it comes to like-minded churches, the only way I can really tell
if like a church is like-minded or the pastor is if their gospel presentation is thorough. And
quite honestly, I'm only going to be able to tell that if I go soul with them or if I have
good reports from people that I trust that have heard them give the gospel. That doesn't mean
that they're not like-minded. I'm just saying I'm not sure if they're like-minded. Now,
are there churches that I know are like-minded in the Philippines? Yes, there are some.
But I don't know about all of them because I haven't heard them all give the gospel.
It doesn't mean that I'm denying it. I'm just saying I'm not sure. During the missions trip,
I went soloing with Pastor Robertson. I heard him give the gospel, and you know,
his gospel is thorough. I can say that. I heard him give the gospel. I can't say I've heard
everybody give the gospel. And so it's not that I'm denying it. I'm just saying I'm not
really sure. And the reason why I'm saying that is, look, I've gone soloing with a lot of
people at red-hot preaching conferences. I've visited churches,
and sometimes as I'm the silent partner, I'm just like, oh no.
It's the reality. Now, people are learning and growing, and I understand that. I'm just saying,
you know, if people don't explain eternal security or they don't explain it's by Jesus alone,
look, that church is not really like-minded, okay? We need to be very careful with who
we're counting, okay? And so I do believe that when you preach the gospel,
it should be more than five minutes, okay? And one thing I've really liked about this church
is that, quite honestly, I've gone soloing with most of the men at this church,
and most people have thorough gospel presentations, from what I've heard.
I've heard basically everyone going into depth on eternal security. It doesn't mean they explain
it the exact same way, and that's fine, but it is thorough. I've been very impressed
that our soloing is very thorough. Now, you say, Brother Stuckey, in this sermon,
you didn't mention anything about the posterior rapture or the reprobate doctrine or Zionism or
all these other things. Yeah, because those are very much secondary when it comes to being
like-minded. Here's what I'm saying. If my old pastor from West Virginia was visiting the
Philippines, even though he's pre-trib, I would ask Pastor Jimenez if he could preach for us.
You say, why? Because he fits these categories. Because I've gone soloing with him,
and his gospel presentation is great. I'm sorry, I have more in common with someone
with a good gospel presentation than someone who doesn't have a good gospel presentation,
regardless of what they're saying. You say, why? We've got to go back to what are
the core issues. Aren't these the three core issues? When you're looking for a church,
they're right on salvation. They're King James only, and they have good soul winning.
Those are the main issues. Obviously, all these other topics are important.
I'm just saying that when it comes to the most important things of being like-minded,
these are the most important things. Now look, it would be a little bit different if I was going
to ordain someone as a pastor, an evangelist. You know what? I might require them being
stricter than what I said in this sermon. But in terms of my old pastor who has a very
good gospel presentation, who had a five-week series when I was there about how repentance
of sins was work salvation. He followed it up with a five-week series about how you must
believe in eternal security to be saved. It's like, I don't agree with him on everything,
but it's like, hey, I was able to have fellowship with him because when he told me,
hey, I got two people saved soul winning this week. You know what I knew? He got two people
saved soul winning because he was very thorough with his gospel, and he was very strong on the
core issues. And I think sometimes what we're doing is we're getting excited about new people
that are going to come along and believe these things, but they must be right in these
core issues. And if they're kind of wishy-washy on them, I'm not saying they're bad people.
I'm not saying they're saved. I'm not saying they won't one day be like-minded.
I'm just saying right now they're not like-minded. That's what I mean by like-minded.
And look, when you go back to Joshua 9, I encourage you to read Joshua 9 in your free time.
The natural reaction of the Israelites is to be skeptical. I would say everybody in this room,
that would be our natural reaction. But then they basically kind of give in,
and that's going to be the natural reaction all of us would have as well. Here's what I'm
saying. We probably need to be a little bit more careful and make sure when we put the stamp
of approval on someone that we're confident, hey, that person is just like us. It's a great
church. Go to that church. They're like-minded. Let's close in word of prayer. Dear Heavenly
Father, thank you for allowing us to be in your house today and just getting to
read your word and seeing Joshua 9 in all the other places and just focusing on what it
means to have people that are like-minded as us, God. We definitely want to fellowship
with other churches. We want to have great work started here in the Philippines,
but we also want to be very careful. And Joshua 9 really highlights that, God,
to make sure people are like-minded. And people that are new, they might be learning
and growing, and they might become fully like-minded, but before that we're willing
to put our stamp of approval, we need to be careful about this. We pray this thing in Jesus' name. Amen.