everyone welcome to steadfast baptist church if you can please find your seats
and grab your hymnals we're gonna start this morning in song 147 leaning on the
everlasting on the everlasting on 147 leaning on the everlasting or thank you
for this morning thank you for this great weather and for every person here
pray that you bless this time of worship to you Lord love you Jesus I pray for our
second song I go ahead and go to song 105 my soul 105 is my soul on 105 is my
soul - 105 on the second here morning thanks for coming to steadfast Baptist
church if you did not get up since we're working so the week receive a special
midweek service on the inside we have our service times or soul winning times
and our church stats we also have on the right our list of expecting ladies
several to be listed there and being prayed for also I forgot to add it in
there but if you add Kate Holt there for this actually this month and they're
down there in Austin but they've been visiting our church and want to be
members of our church and so just add her to your prayer list so that way
you're praying for them as well also continue to pray for the rest of our
prayer list also I guess I got a couple like hairline fractures in my ankle bones
and so I'm just trying to stay off of it for maybe like six to eight weeks or
something like that but if you just kind of pray for me that things would go
right and I had to have wisdom to know what to do with that so also in the back
upcoming events conference is about to kick off Wednesday night we'll be
handing out all of our conference t-shirts and everything like that and
they look really really good also we have activities starting that Thursday
morning and we should have itineraries we passed out in the past but if you
need another one you can see Brother Oz and we'll probably get you in an
itinerary for all the events also or we could just email it to you also we have
our Texas chili cook-off at the end of the month and we have our Abilene Texas
so winning marathon November 4th and then we have the best announcement
congratulations to the Wood family on the birth of Hannah Beth Wood she was
born on the 5th at 12 16 a.m. weighing 8 pounds one ounce was 19 inches long
congratulations to them super exciting also just as a couple reminders again
since we are expected to have a lot of guests and a lot of a lot more people
the normal and the upcoming services Wednesday Thursday Friday and Saturday
and Sunday please please just help us with that and please help guide people
into the property obviously you know we may not always try to take the best
parking spots and you can help us with that we can park across the street if
you need to and also we have a cleaning sign-up sheet that should be in the near
the cabinet or over here on our kind of table and if you'd like to help just you
know maybe reorganize the chairs just pick up some trash and some people help
you know just after every service that way we can be ready to go for the next
day that would be a huge blessing also again if you are here
fellowshipping and they start cleaning up you know don't don't get in their way
or anything like that okay just try to help them out with that so but I'm
really looking forward to this make sure to make new friends and to greet all of
our guests make sure to thank all the pastors that come in to the conference
that are preaching for us and we really love for you to be here for all the
services if you can Friday night please if you can reminder just to bring a
dessert to share and I think that's pretty much it the only other thing
that's kind of just as a schedule that the preaching is gonna start on 7 on
Thursday 6 on Friday so it's a little bit more elevated but Friday we are
gonna feed you in between the services and then Sunday it's the regular 1030
but instead of having a 530 service next Sunday we're gonna have a 430 so
we're just gonna basically replace the Spanish service with the with the
English service that way we can get out of here a little bit sooner that evening
and people can have the voice of one crying in the wilderness prepare ye the
way of the Lord make his path straight and the same John had his raiment of
camel's hair and a leather and girdle about his loins and his meat was locusts
and wild honey then went out to him Jerusalem and all Judea and all the
region round about Jordan and were baptized of him in Jordan confessing
their sins but when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his
baptism he said unto them oh generation of vipers who hath warned you to flee
from the wrath to come bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance and
think not to say within yourselves we have Abraham to our father for I say
unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham
and now also the axis laid under the root of the trees therefore every tree
which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire I indeed
baptize you with water under repentance but he that cometh after me is mightier
than I whose shoes I am not worthy to bear he shall baptize you with the Holy
Ghost and with fire whose fan is in his hand and he will thoroughly purge his
floor and gather his wheat into the garner but he will burn up the chaff
with unquenchable fire then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be
baptized of him but John forbade him saying I have need to be baptized of thee
and cometh thou to me and Jesus answering sent unto him suffer it to be
so now for thus that become at thus to fulfill all righteousness then he
suffered him and Jesus when he was baptized went up straight way out of the
water and lo the heavens were opened unto him and he saw the Spirit of God
descending like a dove and lighting upon him and lo a voice from heaven saying
this is my beloved son and whom I am well please let's bow our heads for a
word of prayer father in heaven I pray Lord that you fill pastor Shelley with
your spirit and give him clarity of mind as he preaches the message to us and
also I pray Lord that you would bless our soul winning time to come and help
us to continue to reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ we love you and
in Jesus name I pray amen amen so I kind of want to start here at the very
beginning of this chapter the Bible says in those days came John the Baptist
preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying repent ye for the kingdom of
heaven is at hand and what I want to preach on is kind of a little bit
different style sermon but I've always heard this idea that in the synoptic
Gospels you can't really find salvation by faith or I've heard people say that
faith alone is not taught in the synoptic Gospels. Now, synoptic Gospels is
simply a reference to Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Those are considered the synoptic
Gospels because they're kind of like all the same. They have that kind of the
same structure, same style. They're telling a lot of parallel passages and
John's just a little bit different style of a gospel so I guess it's not
included in the synoptic Gospels. It's just a kind of a fancy term that you'll
find in the seminary or cemetery, one of those. But at the end of the day you
know even if that were true that you couldn't really find the teaching on
salvation in Matthew, Mark, and Luke that wouldn't discount the fact that it's
really clear in John and Romans. And there's obviously a reason why when
people are translating the Bible into a foreign language they often translate
John and Romans as one of the first two books because the gospel is so clear in
those particular chapters or I'm sorry specific books of the Bible. But I also
believe you can find salvation by faith in the Synoptic Gospels and this morning
I'm not even going to do all three I'm just going to focus on Matthew. So the
title of my sermon this morning is this salvation by faith in Matthew. Salvation
by faith in Matthew. Now I am going to go to other books just so we still
compare things with one another but I want to show that Matthew is still
teaching the exact same salvation plan and in fact you can find many verses in
the Gospel of Matthew that make it clear salvation is also by faith and give a
lot of allusion to how salvation is by faith in this particular book of the
Bible as well. Now a lot of people say oh John the Baptist came and preached
repentance. It's like yes he did but that doesn't tell you what he was
preaching. It just tells you is preaching change. If you realize what repent means
it means to turn or change. That doesn't tell you what you're turning or changing
from or to. It just says change right. If John the Baptist, let's just take the
Bible here and of course I love the word repent. There's nothing wrong with it but
what if John the Baptist was just preaching change. Does that prove what
he's preaching or is he just saying something needs to change? Turn. You like
what would be the most logical question? Turn to what or from what or what do you
what are you saying right? Because repent by itself doesn't really have
enough context to tell you what we're really talking about okay and
additionally we see in the Bible God repents a lot so if God's repenting a
lot we have to create a definition for the word repent that wouldn't go
against the character of God. Now if I look up in a dictionary today what the
word repent means many times it'll say to be sorry for your sin or remorse over
your sin or to give up sin or to stop sinning but here's the question is God
needing to be sorry for sin or give up sin or turn from sin never that's not
ever of course that's the violation of God's character I don't think any
serious Christian believes that whatsoever so then that makes it to
where we have to understand that repentance is always defined by its
context now he's saying that the kingdom of heaven is at hand
ok now as you keep reading this chapter it doesn't really in this context give
you an idea of what the repentance is but let's keep our finger here and let's
go to Acts chapter number 19 for a moment go to Acts chapter number 19 and
let's get a commentary on what John the Baptist actually preached to see what he
was preaching here when he said repent
Acts chapter number 19 we're coming back to Matthew but look at verse number
three says and he said unto them unto what then were you baptized and they
said unto John's baptism the Apostle Paul runs into a couple guys ask him if
they've received the Holy Ghost they say we haven't even heard so much there be
a Holy Ghost and he's kind of he's kind of puzzled thinking like well then what
were you baptized unto and why that makes a lot of sense is because you know
anybody that gets baptized at our church we baptize in the name of the Father the
Son and the Holy Ghost so wouldn't it be awkward if you've been baptized in the
name of the Father Son Holy Ghost and you say I've never even heard of the
Holy Ghost in my entire life like that seems like a pretty obvious
contradiction right and so then that's why you asked the obvious question so
then what about your baptism and they said well we had John's baptism there's
a thing John came before Jesus Christ and he came before Matthew 28 when Jesus
gave the instruction to baptize in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost so
John was very likely not using that formula verbally that was not what he
was saying necessarily whenever he was baptizing people but he's thinking well
wait a minute though even if you got baptized by John there's still a problem
here why well he says in verse 4 then said Paul John verily baptized with the
baptism of repentance saying unto the people that they should believe on him
which should come after him that is on Christ Jesus so John the Baptist was
preaching for people to repent what does that mean what does it mean what was it
that John meant whenever he was saying repent he was saying that you needed to
believe on him and who's the him that would come after him that's clearly
Jesus Christ okay so obviously when John the Baptist is going out and preaching
repentance he's telling people to what change and believe in Jesus Christ turn
from trusting in the works of the law and believe in Jesus Christ now who's
the main competitor to Jesus Christ at the time of John the Baptist the
Pharisees and Sadducees what are they teaching for salvation the law following
the commandments doing works you know what that's not getting anyone saved and
so what John the Baptist is trying to say is hey you need to repent from dead
works and put your faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ the one that's gonna
come towards the Messiah towards the Christ that's coming and John the
Baptist was to prepare a way for the Lord Jesus Christ to already get people
saved before Jesus Christ shows up on the on the on the picture to get a lot
of people's hearts and minds and gears working towards that Messiah that's
coming and be ready to accept Jesus when he comes or or just identify him you
know John the Baptist when he sees Jesus Christ he says behold the Lamb of God
right he was already saved it's not like John the Baptist needed to get saved at
some point he was already saved but what he's doing is he's recognizing that the
person he had already trusted in was now standing before them and really it's no
different than for us because if you think you've seen Jesus there's another
church down the street you can go to all right but for all of us that are saved
and normal we've never seen Jesus you know what I believe in my heart as soon
as I see him I'm gonna recognize him right and my recognition of who he is
and believing that's the Messiah that I believed in doesn't change the fact that
I'm all I'm still saved right now and the same would be applied in the Old
Testament that many people were saved before they'd even encountered Jesus
Christ at this time but when they they see Jesus and they believe that he's the
Messiah that wasn't necessarily the moment of salvation for every single
person for some it was absolutely right but for some it was just connecting the
dots of this is the guy that I've already trusted in this is the Messiah
this is the Christ that I had already put my faith in now I'm recognizing
that it's actually this person that's walking around which is a pretty big like
moment to recognize a person in flesh as God in flesh as the Son of God as the
Savior I mean that's a big deal to recognize that you can see at the
beginning of his birth you know even prophets like Simeon wanting to hold
the baby Lord Jesus Christ and look at salvation in the flesh that wasn't the
moment he got saved okay that was the moment of him connecting the dots of who
his Savior was so when the John the Baptist is preaching he's preaching and
getting people saved before Christ has even shown up in the picture and you say
what was the message that John the Baptist was preaching believe in Jesus
Christ so right here in Matthew if we go back to Matthew chapter 3 we're just
barely on the surface of the book of Matthew and it's already teaching
salvation by faith this isn't teaching some new message it didn't say repent of
your sins give up your sins stop sinning don't do any more sin anymore
it just says repent but when we let Paul be our commentator on this particular
passage which I think he's a little closer you know people always want to
say let's let's go back to antiquity and see what the church fathers believe
how about the church father of the Apostle Paul is that a good enough
church father for you is that old enough for you and the Apostle Paul I mean you
really think the Apostle Paul is gonna be off on the commentary of the New
Testament itself and frankly speaking he's not even necessarily commentating on
the book of Matthew he's commentating on what really happened he's just
commentating on the experiences that were actually had and he knows what John
the Baptist was saying and it helps us to interpret the Bible correctly and
realize that Matthew is teaching salvation by faith right here though
right at the beginning go to chapter number five and go to verse number 19
that's a big point that we already have salvation by faith established John the
Baptist is preaching this getting people saved baptizing them and again it was
the baptism of repentance think about it what is baptism represent you know and a
lot of our children have been getting baptized and stuff and I always try to
explain this to them it's that you're trusting that in Christ's gospel right
that he died was buried and rose again and it's really if you think about it
the Sadducees could never get baptized because they don't even believe in the
resurrection so the whole symbol in and of itself is a rebuke to that Sadducee
false doctrine teaching that there is no resurrection the the resurrection is
inherent to that additionally because you're doing it it's showing your
desire to walk in newness of life to now say I want to follow Christ and I want
to be obedient to him and I want to follow his commandments and so there's a
lot of elements to baptism but those are probably the two most important is
recognizing that it pictures you trusted in him not yourself and that you do want
to walk in newness of life okay. So when it's the baptism or repentance what he's
trying to do is he's trying to get people to trust in Christ and then they
what they get baptized and of course they should walk in newness of life
that's that's the whole goal Jesus Christ wants us to do that of course but
but think about it you know the way for people to actually have true reform in
their life is not to quote repent of their sins it's to get saved because
what's the difference just think with me logically for a moment what's the
difference between the person that doesn't get saved and tries to clean up
their life and the person that saved and tries to clean up their life one saved
right there's a pretty obvious difference and when you're saved you
have what like you said the Holy Spirit inside of you that can help you guide
you comforter you lead you you now actually have the scales removed from
your eyes so you're gonna understand the Bible whereas you couldn't understand
it the same way before so why would I ever think that I have to start
cleaning up my life before I'm gonna actually get saved you know how can a
blind person actually take anything out of their eye or or fix themselves you
know how can you know what's wrong with your face when you don't have a mirror
to look into right when you don't even have eyes to look and the same goes with
salvation in the sense that God wants you to be cleaned up no one's disagreeing
with that but you trying to clean yourself up will never work that's why
you have to first cleanse that which is inside the platter you have to cleanse
what's inside the heart get saved and then the outward parts of the platter
will start to end up getting more clean as time goes on being saved isn't gonna
stop you from repenting from your sins more than those Catholics out there that
are trying to get for salvation it's not like because I'm saved I have less
motivation to clean up my life than the Catholics that are trying to earn their
way to heaven and if it was true then we would notice that all these other
churches and nominations are living much cleaner lives than saved fundamental
Baptist but you know what it never seems like that's the case is it of course
there could be exceptions but generally speaking those are actually leaving the
most cleaned up lives and actually care the most about getting sent out of their
life always seem to people that believe it was a free gift and then the people
that think that it's hardcore works usually are living the most worldly type
lives because again it sounds counterintuitive that you don't need to do
anything to clean yourself up but that's really the answer is you have to let
Jesus Christ clean you up and so of course you're gonna still see John the
Baptist and Jesus and other prophets and other Apostles mentioning the
importance of cleaning up your life and getting sent out of your life and doing
right but you know what the key to that was getting saved the key to that was
being born again and getting the Holy Spirit that's what was gonna help you
clean up your life look at Matthew chapter 5 and look at verse 19
whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall
teach men so he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven but
whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called great in the
kingdom of heaven you know what I noticed about these two people they're
contrasted by one thing one keeps commandments better than the other one
but notice that they're both in heaven you know that tells me their salvation
was not based on their works was it so if your salvation is not based on your
works what's the other option based on your faith so here's another clear verse
teaching and insinuating that salvation is actually by faith because if it were
by works this one guy wouldn't even be in the kingdom of heaven at all because
he's breaking the commandments he's not just breaking the commandments he's
teaching people to break the commandments wouldn't that be a false
teacher like if someone's teaching you to break God's commandments wouldn't you
say like you're a false teacher and again I think that saved people can be a
false teacher to some degree now that doesn't I don't I usually try to reserve
the idea of a false prophet to those who are just not even saved whatsoever but I
do believe that there's many people who are saved the day teaching lies and you
know what it really matches the Bible have you not seen there's there's times
where the old the old prophet will come to the young prophet and say hey come to
my house no God told me it's okay and then later the young prophet leaves and
a lion comes and kills him what and it says really clearly the old prophet lied
unto him so you know what it's not that good men or saved men can't lie they of
course can it doesn't mean that say people can't get hooked into some
heresy some false doctrines some problems of course we're all carnal we
all have the flesh and of course we can but praise God that me going to heaven
has nothing to do with what I've taught or me keeping the commandments it was
just salvation by faith which again this is referencing it doesn't determine
where you're gonna go it determines how great you're gonna be your works don't
determine where you're gonna go your works determine how great you're gonna
be okay and so there's very clear instruction here that the greatest in
the kingdom of heaven didn't just get saved he also had the works the least in
heaven did nothing for God actually he kind of did worse than nothing he was
going against God think about this you know you could be lazy and that's one
thing but you could actually just be teaching people to break commandments
too that's even worse and he's saying that person's the actual least one in
heaven it wasn't that he had no works he had bad works ok he was lying about the
Bible which is a pretty bad thing to do go to Matthew chapter 7 go to Matthew
chapter 7 so you know and again I don't think that I think that the vast
majority of people that teach doctrines like Calvinism or dispensationalism a
lot of these things are probably not even saved but even if they are they're
probably gonna be the least in the kingdom of heaven just for all the lies
that they were teaching about the Bible so why would I want to have anything to
do with them? Matthew chapter 7 look at verse 21 not everyone that saith unto me
Lord Lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven but he that doeth the will of my
father which is in heaven many will say to me in that day Lord Lord have we not
prophesied in thy name and in thy name have cast out devils and in thy name
have done many wonderful works and then will I profess unto them I never knew
you depart from me ye that work iniquity now it's so funny is a lot of unsaved
people if not most every single one will interpret this as saying see they
didn't have enough works or they were too sinful that's why God is taking them
out of heaven now it is true that they're too sinful ok but the problem is
is it's not that these people were much more simple than everybody else is the
fact they had any sin at all because anyone who hasn't been cleansed by the
righteous blood of Jesus Christ is too simple to get into heaven ok and they
thought by their works they had cleaned themselves up notice that's what they
keep mentioning they they mentioned their works and then Jesus like sorry
you you're not clean enough you're actually full of iniquity and that's the
reality anybody that would want to brag to God about how cleaned up they are he
would look at them and say hey you're full of iniquity that's the type of
person and of course many times those are the self-righteous people are some
of the worst two they're the ones that are working some of the worst iniquity
but they would have to be deceived when you are wouldn't you agree with me this
person sounds deceived like it sounds like they genuinely thought that what
they were doing was right and they were confused or deceived and doesn't it
sound like this is someone that was teaching the commandments so if we
actually compare this with Matthew chapter number five we actually have a
story of a guy breaking and teaching to break the commandments in heaven and
then we have here a group of somebody who's teaching the commandments wrong
and not going to heaven
ok so then what's the difference between these two because they sound like
they're the same on the surface right both teaching falsely about the Bible
ok well what does it say in verse 21 "But he that doeth the will of my Father was in
heaven" so that's the key is figuring out what the will of the Father really is
now wouldn't you think in one context the will of the Father is to like keep the
commandments
sure but they both failed that ok so so that must not be what's in reference or
in view here
now I want you to go to another place go to Matthew chapter 12 for a moment and
look at verse number 50 so it's like one of the last verses here
Matthew chapter 12 and look at verse number 50
the Bible mentions the will of the Father in a couple places in the Bible
so let's just look up all the places that we have a clear
answer to what the will of the Father even is last verse Matthew chapter 12
for whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven
the same as my brother and sister and mother now think about what Jesus
actually says here
he's saying that he is related to every single person
that does the will of his father there is relative in some sense
right now what if this was saying keep the commandments
what if the will of the Father was keep the commandments does that mean that every single person
that's ever kept a single commandment of God is now Jesus' brother and mother
that would be everybody everybody's kept at least one commandment
right and yet no one's kept them perfectly
so if the will of the Father here was just to keep the commandments
then you know that seems meaningless at that point right
what if the will of the Father though means to believe in Jesus and get saved
well wouldn't it be true that every single person that got saved is now related to Jesus
is now their brother and his sister and his mother in a spiritual context
and it's not even it doesn't say like some of them it's like any of them
whoever did the will of the Father is now related to Jesus Christ
just like that well that makes perfect sense with it being by faith right
go to John chapter 6 now go to John chapter number 6 and we'll keep comparing this
will of the Father here
for a moment John chapter number 6 and look at verse 39
so when we have the will of the Father mentioned in chapter 21
of Matthew 7 it doesn't really give us an idea of what that means kind of vague
but then when we look at it in chapter 12 it gives us a little bit of indication
everybody that does whatever this is ends up being Jesus Christ
brother or sister or mother in a spiritual context
look at what it says in John chapter number 6 verse 39
and this is the Father's will which hath sent me
that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up
again at the last day and verse 40
and this is the will of him that sent me that everyone
which seeth the Son and believeth on him
may have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day
so again here in the Bible it's telling us the will of father is to believe on Jesus Christ
so that you can be risen again from the dead and notice it said in verse 30
that he wouldn't lose any of them meaning that every single one
is gonna be related to Jesus not be lost
and be saved so why is it that two guys breaking the commandments and teaching
people to break the commandments
one goes to heaven and one doesn't because one believed in Jesus
obviously the other one didn't and when you didn't you know what you're too sinful
so again Matthew chapter 7 is teaching salvation by faith
alone again very clearly. Go over to Matthew chapter 9, go to Matthew chapter 9
look at verse number 2, the Bible says and behold they brought him a man sick of the
palsy
lying on a bed and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy
son
be of good cheer thy sins be forgiven thee
so in Matthew chapter number 9 verse 2 this is where we start getting a lot of
miracles of Jesus Christ a lot of healings
what was it that motivated Jesus Christ to forgive this person's
sins what is the text actually say does it say
and they saw somebody repenting of their sin and he saw people
giving up their sin he saw people throwing their cigarettes in the trash
he saw people you know getting right with God and getting out
they're sober finally what does it say in verse number 2 it says in Jesus
seeing their faith so what was it that gave this person forgiveness of sin
faith now what could be a clearer picture of the forgiveness of sins by
faith alone when Jesus is saying the reason why I forgave this guy's sins was
because of faith and then be like oh show me faith alone in the book of
Matthew what what else did it say it didn't say in Jesus seeing their faith
and other things and their works and their repenting of their sin and doing
all this no no seeing their faith he decided hey I'm just gonna forgive this
guy sins just like us all we did was put our faith in Jesus and Jesus seeing our
faith forgave us of our sins in that moment because salvation is a one-time
seeing of our faith that has nothing to do with repenting we don't even know
what any of these people sins were or that they cared they weren't even
mentioning their sin they're just going to find a Savior they're just like hey
this guy's sick and needs help we usually save him will you heal him
seeing their faith bam now go to chapter I'm sorry go to verse 22 we're in the
same chapter here look at 22 but Jesus turned him about and when he saw her he
said daughter you have good comfort thy repenting of thy sin hath made thee
whole wait no that's not what it says that's that's like the message or
something thy faith hath made thee whole and the woman was made whole from
that hour just immediate notice also some other good doctrine here that
salvation is an immediate one-time process isn't it as soon as you add the
faith just bam look at verse 27 and when Jesus departed thence two blind men
followed him crying and saying thou son of David have mercy on us and when he
was coming to the house the blind man came to him and Jesus saith unto them
can you repent of your sins no no what is it believe ye that I am able to do
this they said on him yea Lord then touched to you their eyes saying
according to your faith be it unto you and their eyes are open and Jesus
straightly charged them saying see that no man know it
to notice again why did these two guys get saved faith why do you think it is
that in this book and consistently in the Bible
it's like this person's healed faith this person's healed because their faith
this person's healed by their faith but salvation is my works
no that doesn't even make any sense also notice that he said believe you that I'm
able to do this and they said yea Lord
and then he then he touched their eyes he didn't say according to your prayer
it's going to save you according to you saying these words is going to save you
it was according to their faith right so them calling on the Lord or acknowledging the
Lord or asking for salvation
didn't negate that they were saved by faith did it
just like the Bible clearly teaches for whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved
we don't have a physical Jesus to go into and say son of David have mercy on me
but you know what I could do that in my prayer closet being an unsaved person
and I would be saved if I had the right faith in my heart
because if I have the faith in my heart, now there's probably plenty of people
that have prayed this prayer and they're not saved
why because they never had the faith so it's not a special wording it's not like
if you say all the right words Jesus is going to save you
it's him seeing your faith that's going to save you but notice everybody that
gets saved in the Bible
they're always asking for it aren't they son of David have mercy on me
you know that then then he's like hey do you believe
do you believe this and they're like yay yes
of course I believe this but what is it
are you guys gonna start living a better life now are you guys willing to commit
are you guys willing to surrender are you guys gonna lay down your life
are you guys gonna sell all that you have and give to the poor
are you guys willing to forgive your brother as I've forgiven you
but you go to churches today and that's the message isn't it
come down the aisle if you're ready to commit to Jesus if you're willing to surrender your
life to Jesus
if you're willing to give it your all but what is Jesus saying are you
do you believe that I can do it do you actually trust me
who are you trusting in to save you and if you're trusting in Christ then you're saved
and you know I think that what God wants us to understand
is that what he's looking for is someone who's broken
believing he will save them he's finding people that are
broken so that he can save them
and in this chapter in verse thirteen it says
and as Jesus passed forth from thence he saw a man, I'm sorry
I'm looking at the wrong verse here, what am I trying to...
He came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance, I don't know, I read that down wrong
but he didn't come to heal people that are already healed
he came to heal people that are broken and of course most of the time we see
physical ailments being
delivered in the New Testament but at the end of the day
that's to represent or illustrate the spiritual condition
of people that are sinners. We as sinners are broken
and he didn't come to force us to clean our lives up
he came to heal us of that brokenness
to save us from that brokenness because if I repent
of my sin and clean myself up that doesn't give the glory to Jesus Christ
that's me fixing myself. I saw
there's some pretty famous sculpture and I saw someone like commenting about it
but it was talking about strong men and it was
it was like strong men have to realize that they're both
the sculpture and the sculptor and you know there's these famous
I don't know if you've seen these statues but it's like this guy and he's got like a
hammer and he's got the chisel and he's chiseling
but only like the upper portion of his body is visible
and the rest is like this block still and it's kind of
represent the guys like chiseling out himself from this big block
and it's kind of representing like building yourself up
making yourself better turning yourself into a man and look
there's an application of that that I agree with we should work on ourselves
and try to build ourselves up
you know in the context of salvation that guy's going to hell
because you can't chisel yourself into enough perfection
no no you have to let Jesus Christ chisel you out
you have to let Jesus Christ be the one that gives you
that renewed spirit makes you new
is the one that is the potter and you're the clay you can't be both the
potter and the clay
okay and so it's important to understand that these spirit these
these physical pictures of salvation are to illustrate the spiritual picture of
salvation
that we as being broken need a savior this is why people who don't believe
they deserve hell
can't get saved when you run into people they don't believe in hell they don't believe in the bible they don't believe in God like
how you gonna get them convinced to then believe in a savior they don't think they need a savior
you have to first help people understand that they need a savior to want a savior
and of course when you hear about hell and that's where you're going period
then you start thinking like I'm the savior okay but then still many people are still trusting in themselves to be that savior out of hell
and you know what these are Catholics and they're not saved
look at chapter 11 Matthew chapter 11 look at verse 5 and you know it's funny I saw a debate
between two unsaved people and it was a Calvinist and a Catholic
and something with the C's you know as the bees that were the best right
Baptist okay and the Catholic
at every you know he's basically teaching you can lose salvation
you know like every single passage he used to prove his point was
always a parable and I'm just thinking like man why would you
you know it's just so funny how the Pharisees are so blinded and people are
so blinded in the Bible days and they're just
they're all obsessed with the parables and it's like it's no different today
that the Catholic ignores all the clear verses in the Bible and just points to
all the parables
and you know Matthew, Mark, and Luke are filled with a lot more parables than John
because this is kind of to illustrate how Jesus was preaching to certain
crowds, right?
Matthew's kind of geared towards the Jews and the people, the religious leaders of
that day
and so a lot of the stories in there are parables to illustrate how they're going to
be replaced
how God's done with them, how they're not saved
and a lot of times they're perceiving it's about them but they don't understand why
it's like when someone makes a joke about you and everybody laughs and you
kinda laugh but you're thinking like that was about me wasn't I don't know what
they said
but you know or or you know ladies when you go to the nail salon and all the
Asian ladies are like
she says she's so pretty
you know it's like she didn't say that okay you know she said something else
alright and it's like you perceive it's about you
but you don't really know what was said necessarily and if I said something in
Chinese it was on accident right
but I'm sure I didn't. Matthew chapter 11 look at verse number five
the Bible says the blind receive their sight
and the lame walk the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear
the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them
that's kind of an interesting list because
you know a lot of people when they try to teach on the word gospel
they start including things like what was mentioned previously in this list
the blind receiving their sight or lame walking or like
all these different miracles, healings and they say that's the gospel
in fact you'll drive by churches not that far from here that'll say
full gospel right and so sometimes they're including all kinds of other
things including
acts 238 they're including miracles and signs and wonders
a lot of these churches are Pentecostal, Charismatic and they think that they
have to have all these other things as part of the gospel
but notice it's kinda making a delineation between all the healings
and then the gospel's being preached okay now you say well what
what was the gospel that was being preached? Was Jesus going around saying
let's feed the poor, let's feed the hungry,
let's heal people, let's do miracles was that what he was preaching when he was
preaching the gospel
and you know some of us might take it for granted that that's not what we
believe but let's just prove it from the Bible
because I guarantee there's a lot of people when they hear the word gospel
they're thinking giving money to the poor
they're thinking feeding the poor they think that their outreach ministry is
the gospel
they think that going to Africa and building a hut
is the gospel they think they'll say all kinds of stuff
they'll just say like hey I gave some clothes to Goodwill so I'm living the
gospel
and I'm like when did Jesus give his garments to Goodwill
he had basically none anyways right he kinda just gave
like the Romans got it was that his charity at the end of his life when they
parted his vesture
that was his Goodwill charity giving or something he write that off on his taxes
no no no that that's not what the Bible's talking about when it's talking
about the gospel and I wanna prove this
so let's go to a couple other places I wanna go first
to John chapter number three okay to John chapter number three
now in Matthew chapter 11 we have an actual idea of when we're talking about
because he said it was when it was John the Baptist sending disciples to Jesus
Christ asking him if he's the one that was supposed to come
that's when we get that answer of this question of the gospel being preached on them
and it's saying that he'd already done this so before John the Baptist ever went
to prison
Jesus was preaching the gospel okay
now we know from certain passages of scripture things that happened before
John went to prison because the Bible just tells us
kind of in that timeline of events John chapter number three
look at verse 24 for a moment for John was not yet cast into prison
so what we're reading about in John chapter number three
happened before John the Baptist was in prison
before Jesus made this statement of the gospels being preached
so if we're trying to figure out what Jesus was preaching before he made that
statement
let's find some passages that are before that right well John chapter three is
before that
let's see what Jesus was preaching to people look at verse 14
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but everlasting life.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish but everlasting life."
Sounds like that's the gospel that we preach, isn't it?
Sounds like what Jesus was preaching was this.
Now let's prove this even more because some people, I've even heard this weird idea that
John 3 is not Jesus speaking, it's the narrator.
Go to Mark chapter number 8.
That person doesn't have the Holy Spirit because he doesn't hear the voice of the shepherd.
That's a weird interpretation.
But even for that gainsayer, we have more verses to look to.
Now I want to look at Mark chapter 8 verse 31.
Now I do want to make something clear.
In the gospel of Mark, in chapter 6, this is when John the Baptist was put in prison.
So Mark chapter 8 is technically a little bit in front of that, a little more in the
future.
But let's just get a clear definition of the gospel here.
Verse 31, "And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and
be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after
three days rise again."
That was pretty clear on what the gospel was, isn't it?
I mean, sometimes you forget how plain Jesus was saying.
Like hey, all the chief priests and all the Pharisees, they're going to reject me, they're
not going to believe that I'm the Son of God like I'm saying, then they're going to kill
me and then I'm going to rise again in three days.
And they're sitting here thinking like, what does that mean, like it literally means that.
But look at verse 35, "And whosoever will save his life shall lose it, but whosoever
shall lose his life for my sake and the gospels, the same shall save it."
So in the same breath when he says, hey, the gospel, what did he mean by that?
That he was going to be rejected, killed, and rise again.
Isn't that the same gospel that we preach?
So in Mark, when it actually preaches what the gospel is, or what Jesus calls the gospel,
when did Jesus say in this passage, the son of man is going to give some food to some
poor people, and give some coats to goodwill, and he's going to go build some huts in Africa,
and no, no, no, no, what did he say he was going to do?
He was going to be rejected, crucified, and rise again from the dead.
And then he said this is the gospel.
Now why that's important is we've got a definition of gospel in the same gospel of Mark, look
at chapter one now.
This is obviously before John the Baptist went to prison.
What was Jesus preaching?
Mark chapter number one, look at verse one.
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God, okay, look at verse 14.
Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of
the kingdom of God and saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent ye and believe the gospel.
So what is he wanting people to believe?
That he's going to go and the chief priests and Pharisees are going to reject him, kill
him, crucify him through the hands of the Romans and that he's going to rise again
the third day.
How do you know he's going to be crucified?
Well didn't he already say as the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness?
What is that a reference to?
That's a clear reference to the cross because that's a method of death.
That could not represent being stoned to death.
So he had already known how he was even going to die before it even happened.
He knew that he was going to die on the cross, and the cross was always in view.
Everything was already known to Jesus Christ.
Now, of course, it says that he was in prison, but this is pretty clearly before the timeline
of when John the Baptist asked that question.
So when Jesus was preaching the gospel of the poor, what was he preaching?
That he was going to die and then rise again.
That he was going to be rejected, killed, and crucified, and rise again.
And so there was a huge contention between him and the Pharisees since he already called
them out to everyone and said, "Look, these people are going to reject me."
And then what do they do?
They reject him.
It's kind of like the devil.
You know, you just tell them what he's going to do and then he does it anyways.
Go back to Matthew chapter number 13.
But again, another clear reference to the fact that Jesus Christ, when he was preaching
the gospel, was not trying to convince people to give up sin, to give money to the poor,
to do good deeds, to do alms.
He was trying to convince them to do what?
Believe that is death, burial, and resurrection.
That's what he was preaching.
That's what he wanted the poor to do.
That's what he wanted everybody to do, was to believe the gospel of Jesus Christ.
That's the whole point.
That's what the, I mean it's so funny.
What is, what do you think the book of Matthew is about folks?
The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
It's not a big dissertation on like all the good alms deeds that he was doing and all,
I mean it doesn't even mention that.
What is Jesus giving money to the poor?
In fact he gets rebuked by Judas for having a poor person give him an alabaster jar, right?
And it wasn't because Judas actually cared for the poor, but because he was a thief and
bare was put in the bag.
So it's like why are people so concerned with giving money to charities from their
church rather than preaching the gospel?
It's not because they care for the poor folks.
It's because they're a thief and they bare what was put in the bag.
All these charities, you know they love to funnel millions and millions of dollars through
those charities.
Why?
Because they're skimming 10-20% off the top.
Maybe even more.
So they're thinking like give even more.
And you know what?
That's not the tide.
Because they got maxed out on the tide and they're like we've got to have a new gimmick.
This charity and missions and this other thing and you know all these other different programs
that they can just kind of skim from every single different financial program of the
church.
There's nothing wrong with raising money but I'm just telling you that many times the heart
of these people is not for the actual poor, they care, they're just simply taking what
was put in the back.
But Matthew is very clearly about the gospel of Jesus Christ, the death, burn, resurrection.
It's clearly about faith alone and it just keeps illustrating this point consistently
through the text.
Look at chapter 13 and look at verse 58.
Chapter 13 and look at verse 58, it's towards the end and he did not many mighty works there
because of their unbelief.
Why is it that he does lots of great works?
Well, what did we read previously?
Seeing their faith, be it according to your faith, do you believe that I'm able to do
this?
And they said what?
"Yea Lord."
What if Jesus had said to those sons of God, "Son of David, have mercy on me."
Do you believe that I'm able to do this?
No.
What do you think he would have done?
He would have done his many mighty works there because of their what?
Unbelief.
So why is it that he's doing great works?
Faith.
Why is he not doing great works?
A lack of faith.
Is it mentioning?
Well, the people here were just really sinful.
The people here just wanted to keep sinning.
The people here just had so many problems with drinking alcohol or fornication or whatever.
That's why he couldn't do many mighty works there.
What was the reason why he couldn't do mighty works for these people?
It's because of their unbelief.
Because it's related to belief.
It's related to faith.
Look at chapter 15 verse 28, chapter 15 verse 28, "Then Jesus answered and said unto her,
O woman, great is thy faith, be it unto thee even as thou wilt."
And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.
We have Gentiles coming and seeking Jesus Christ.
And it's a foreshadowing of what's to come with the gospel of how many Gentiles are going
to seek after Jesus.
And if there's anybody, if there's anyone in the Bible who needs to repent of their
sins, it's this person, okay?
This is easily one of the most sinful people on the planet at this time.
I mean, she's a Syrophoenician.
And these people are in a very wicked area.
I mean, think about it.
Her daughter was vexed with the devil.
Do you think she was living a pretty holy and righteous life and then devils are entering
into her daughter?
She was probably in a false religion, worshipping idols, worshipping the devil through idolatry,
and through that pagan religion, devils are entering into her family causing them all kinds
of problems, but then she hears about a savior and what is it that causes Jesus to end up
giving her salvation?
Not a repenting of sins, but rather her faith, her faith that Jesus could save her.
And you know there's people in false religion doing a lot of bad things and if they would
just simply believe in Christ, he would save them.
He doesn't require them to clean themselves up and start coming to church first, he requires
them to have faith first.
But you know they may never even come to church.
Did this lady ever go to church?
I mean do you think that she went to church or did she just go back home?
She probably went home because first of all she wanted to check on her daughter, she's
not even in the children of Israel, they wouldn't have accepted her in the temple ever.
She would have never been allowed to ever go to the temple, ever.
But maybe you know after the churches started getting planted in the New Testament, maybe
she was able to go to one of those, I don't know.
But let me tell you something, she wasn't necessarily going to church but she was saved.
And you know there's going to be a lot of people that we've gotten saved and soul winning
that are never going to go to church, but you know it, we'll still see them in heaven.
And you say, how do you know that?
They didn't change their life because they had faith!
Because it was under their faith that saved them.
It wasn't their works.
They may even preach bad doctrine and they're still going to be in heaven.
Those have been called the least.
Go over to chapter 16 and look at verse 21.
"From that time forth began Jesus to show unto disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem
and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be
raised again the third day."
I mean isn't that clear?
This is another time.
I mean how many times did Jesus have to tell?
Think about how crazy it is, how many times He told them this and they were still kind
of confused about it.
You know what it also tells me is that there's plenty of times where you're going to read
things in the Bible and you won't get it the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, even
tenth time.
This is the benefit of reading the Bible over and over, is that you're actually going to
learn things well into the future of having read it.
And there's going to be times, at least for me, where I've read something and then it
clicked and then I'm kind of like, "Why did I never see this before?"
It was just so obvious, it's kind of frustrating, you just feel kind of dumb, at least I did.
So let's lay off them a little bit, because I'm sure there's plenty of times where we
have those dumb moments or we kind of were thinking like, "How in the world did I not
see that?" and it's like, "How in the world did they not see it?"
But we obviously have hindsight, we have the Bible, it's a lot easier for us to see some
of these things, not all of them.
Now look at chapter 17 and look at verse 22, chapter 17 verse 22, "And while they abode
in Gali, Jesus said unto them, 'The son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men,
and they shall kill him; and the third day he shall be raised again, and they are exceeding
sorry.'"
I'm noticing a theme here, it seems like Jesus keeps preaching the gospel, and what
is it that he keeps preaching?
Give money to the poor, give alms.
Now look, does he say that in Matthew chapter number 6?
Yes he does.
But are we seeing a theme in the Bible of give alms, give alms, give alms, give alms,
give alms?
Or are we seeing a theme?
Gospel, gospel, gospel, gospel, faith, faith, faith, faith, faith.
Yeah, is there admonitions to do right in the book of Matthew?
Absolutely.
Is there admonitions to give alms to the poor?
Sure.
But you know what?
They're supposed to be done in secret.
And it's mentioned like once.
This is mentioned a lot so far.
Let's keep going.
Okay.
Look at chapter 20 and look at verse number 18.
Chapter 20 verse number 18.
"Behold, we go up to Jerusalem and the Son of Man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests
and unto the scribes and they shall condemn him to death and shall deliver him to the
Gentiles to mock and discourage and to crucify him and the third day he shall rise again."
You know if they didn't figure out that whole like serpent in the wilderness thing, he literally
says they're going to crucify him.
I mean how could you like be shocked that this is going to happen and think about this.
I can see now and you know like we're not going there but at the end of Luke when you
have these two guys on the walk to Emmaus, Jesus rips on them.
He's like oh you fools and slow of heart to believe and I'm thinking you know you kind
of think like and he says like all the scriptures or whatever and I'm thinking like well maybe
they just weren't studying very well or whatever but I'm like think about how many times he
just plainly told them like wouldn't it be kind of frustrating if you're just like hey
bring a chocolate dessert on Friday bring a chocolate dessert on Friday bring a chocolate
dessert on Friday and then you show up with some vegan gluten free chocolate free dessert
and I'm like oh you fools and slow of heart to believe what's wrong with you okay you
know you'd be kind of like I told you like 20 times and you know you just kind of get
a little frustrated by it right you parents you mothers how many times do you tell your
children the same thing over and over and over eventually get pretty frustrated with
them about and think about how many times the Bible is telling us Jesus preaches let
alone how many times he actually did we don't even know how many times he really told them
this and how long those conversations were and just how in-depth it was I mean because
he's teaching them for years over and over saying messages and most of the things they're
doing is soul-winning think about how many times you've heard the gospel from your soul-winning
partner right and then to sit here and be like I wonder what's going to happen after
he was you know rejected of the chief priests and Pharisees they scourged him they delivered
him to Pilate they delivered him to the Romans they mocked him they crucified him I wonder
what's going to happen three days later how about everything else he said I mean think
about the the exactness of his prophecy here of what's going to happen in just a few days
and then I mean literally they're going to have the Lord's Supper and he's going to literally
be like hey this is my blood this is the New Testament in my blood you know this is my
body which is broken for you and then he's like telling them when they're in the garden
like hey pray with me and like just like everything is just right there and yet they just still
have problems you know digesting that spiritual truth or understanding that spiritual nugget
you know and it should give us a little bit of a break for people that are unsaved not
getting saved right away you know i mean like if saved disciples are having a problem figuring
these things out the first time like how much more an unsaved person needs lots of layers
needs lots of opportunities needs lots of that seed being sown lots of it watered before
it finally sprouts before it finally has that that birth okay as it were and same as with
seeds you know when you get a seed and you plant it in the ground it doesn't just sprout
takes days takes weeks you gotta water it you gotta just wait and then eventually it'll
just sprout you know at the right timing and I think that's you know what we have to do
is we have to be patient going out there preaching the gospel sometimes we just sow sometimes
we water sometimes we reap right and we can't always expect reaping because we live in such
a receptive area it's sometimes it's almost like anticipated that you're gonna have multiple
salvations every time you go out but you know that might not always be the case and that's
okay we're still working for the master and we're still doing his work and you know some
people are gonna break up fallow ground some are gonna be planting seeds some are gonna
be watering some are gonna be reaping but we're all working together and you know he's
gonna reward us for our works it's not our fault if the door we got was unreceptive right
it's not our fault if we were at what person we were in that process because they're all
important okay look at chapter 21 and look at verse 31 chapter 21 look at verse 31 "whether
them twain did the will of his father they say in him the first Jesus say then them verily
I say unto you that the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before
you for John came unto you in the way of righteousness and ye believed him not but
the publicans and the harlots believed him and ye when ye had seen it repented not afterward
that ye might believe him now if you didn't believe me about what the word repent meant
from the book of acts let's look at this passage and notice what he's saying the most sinful
people in our society the absolute worst people in society didn't say well when John came
they repented of their sins they decided to not sin anymore they gave up everything
they surrendered their life they gave up their life no what does it say that the publicans
and the harlots did they believed him they believed but what did the Pharisees and the
Sadducees and the chief priests what did they do they did not believe but he's saying even
after they saw other people believing and getting saved and arguably many of these publicans
and harlots did clean up their lives so they like got saved which is by believing it was
nothing about that but then they did stop being a prostitute then Mary Magdalene stopped
having seven devils inside of her and started ministering unto Jesus then Matthew the guy
sitting at the receipt of custom did give that up and start following Jesus and ministering
the gospel so not only did the Pharisees witness people believe in Christ they saw them make
radical transformations and think about it if you were a sincere Pharisee what have you
been wanting the publicans and the harlots to do stop charging taxes and stop being a
whore okay and then this Jesus guy comes around and he gets those people to stop doing that
he literally gets tax collectors to quit he literally gets whores to quit he literally
gets people that are deemed possessed to be completely restored and so it's like everything
that they're preaching and teaching is happening but just not by their message by his message
and he's like why is it that they didn't want to believe because they're envious because
if that guy is doing it and we're not then he gets all the credit and the glory and we
get none and we're wrong. And we're a master of Israel and we don't know these things,
meaning that harlot that's been saved for 10 days is further along in the faith than
I am. And that's way too offensive for them to think like, "I'm a Pharisee. Of course
I know the Bible better than you." And it's like the harlot is actually more spiritually
mature than the Pharisee. And you know what? They don't want to start over. They don't
want to humble themselves. They don't want Jesus to get all the honor and the glory.
They don't want to be put out of the synagogue because they're going to lose their status
in life. And it's funny, the whore, she's willing for people to realize that she needs
to get out of that life and her life was bad. But you know what? The Pharisee is not willing
to let people know that his life was wrong. But there was one, Paul, and he counted it
but dung. He said, "You know what? I'm going to count my life dung." Because at the end
of the day, that's what it was. Being a Pharisee is dung. It's really not all it's cracked
up to be. Of course, you get a lot of praise of men being a Pharisee. That's what people
like. They look at that and they love the Pope. The Pope gets celebrated and worshiped
and kisses all the babies and whatever. He lives in a palace and they have unlimited money
and then they do circus acts in front of him. I don't even get it. It's like a literal
circus. But at the end of the day, no matter what life we have to leave behind, we have
to make that choice of just accepting Christ. That's why the rich young man, the young rich
ruler didn't get saved, is because in his mind he had to lose his lifestyle and he wasn't
willing to do that, illustrating, hey, he's never going to be giving up enough sin. But
at the end of the day, the Bible says he was willing to trust himself. He was trusting
in his riches. He was trusting in his money. And a lot of rich people, they want to earn
their way to heaven. They want to be different than the publicans and the harlots. Whereas
the rich man would have to say, "You know what? I got saved by grace just like this
whore did. And I know better than them. I know different than them. And by believing
this gospel, it's going to put my riches at risk. It's going to put my life in a position
where I don't want to be in. I can't brag about anything in my life." And so many people
that are rich are too prideful to get saved. Look, there's nothing wrong with being rich.
The problem is that riches just steal the person's heart many times and cause them
to care more about their money than doing what's right, and of course getting saved
by faith because it proves that you didn't do anything. And rich people often are rich
because they work very hard. I mean, some people just get it by inheritance, but they
usually squander it very quickly. Most of the people that have riches for a long period
of time, it's because they worked really hard, they're really diligent, they're really
smart, they're putting a lot of effort, they're putting a lot of energy, and they take pride
in that. I mean, rich people are proud. I don't know if you know this, but they're
really proud of their, look at how many Bugattis I've got, you know. It's like, you brokeies,
you don't even have a Bugatti. You know, it's like, I don't care. He's not going around
saying like, look at my Honda Civic. Have you seen how I got one car garage? Have McDonald's.
Okay. Like, he's not going around saying those things. They say these things because they're
bragging about themselves. And rich people love, it's like, look at this fancy coat I
have, and look at this fancy car, and look at this fancy dog that's in my purse. You
know, it's like, and look at all these things, look at my 18 car garage with my 18 cars.
And it's like, when do you drive all of those? You know, like, I have three and I can only
drive two. You know, it's like, and one's broken, that's part of the reason. But you
know, it's just like, how are you going to drive 18 cars? You know, it just becomes an
insurance waste. You're just giving more money to the insurance company. You know, it doesn't
make any sense, but you know, that's what prideful people do, is they just, they're
all about themselves. This is what the Pharisees and the Sadducees were, is they were prideful
people. They were prideful people that thought by their keeping the law, they were saved
and go to heaven. Now it's so funny because I get accused of being a Pharisee all the
time, and I'm thinking like, well first of all, the Pharisees didn't actually believe
the law. I believe the law. The Pharisees thought they were going to heaven because
they kept the law. When they didn't, I try to keep the law, and I know it has nothing
to do with me getting to heaven. It's like, there's nothing in the Bible that teaches
them a Pharisee or that you're a Pharisee. You know who the real Pharisees are today?
Jews. I don't know if that's a shock or anything, but it's like they think they're better than
other people. They're the richest of society. And guess what? If someone in Israel today
decides, you know what, I actually believe in Jesus Christ, they'll be mocked and spit
and kicked out of the synagogue and rejected of their brethren, pushed out of society.
But today, who is just automatically respected in society? A Jew with a little tiny hat on.
I mean, he's got the little tiny hat on and everybody just is all fawning over them and
they're so wonderful and they're so great. But what if he said, you know what, I'm going
to take the stupid little funny hat off and you know what, I just go to a fundamental
Baptist church. They'd be like, we don't want to hear from you again. We don't want nothing
to do with you. But you know, you got the little tassels, you got your little Talmud,
you know, you got your bank and everybody loves you now. And the same is, it's not like
a completely radical different society back then. It's like, hey, who's in control of
the money? The Pharisees and the Sadducees. I mean, where do they go to even make currency
exchange? The temple. And who was ripping them off with unjust scales and unjust weights?
Oh yeah, the Pharisees and the Jews and the temple. And Jesus was getting really mad about
that. You know, that's no different today. It's called the Federal Reserve, it's inflation,
it's all these different things. And of course, these religious Jews are the Pharisees today.
And really, if you want to understand society, you basically have the religious Jews or the
Pharisees and then the non-religious Jews today are the Sadducees. Now the Sadducees,
they don't believe any of the Bible. The Pharisees kind of in lip service believe the Bible and
then don't really. The Sadducees just really don't. And they hate everyone and they're
the most wicked people. And you look at the non-religious Jews of our society, they're
the elites and the worst people of society. These are your George Soros, these are the
ones that are the presidential cabinet for Biden, these are the people that are influencing
all the banks in Hollywood and all these different businesses, the non-religious Jews. And you
know what, they hate Jews too. They'll sell their out there brother, they'll go arm Palestinians
to go blow up Israel just so they can get an extra few bucks. Because again, they'll
just siphon more money. They'll give money to them and take a little bit off the top
and then they'll give money to Israel and take some money off the top. And you know
what? They want there to be conflict in Israel. You know why? Because then the government
will give financial aid. And you know get that financial aid? The non-religious Jews.
The religious Jews are there going to the temples with their little tassels and doing
all kinds of weird stuff. And you know, many of them are probably not even reprobate, especially
their children and stuff like that. They're not necessarily reprobate, they're just in
a bad false religion. They're just growing up being learning an anti-Christ false religion.
The worst of the people that were grown up to believe that, and then they even rejected
that and became like these atheist reprobates that are just pure satanic evil. And they
say they're Jews, they're not even a Jew religiously. They're just like, they're not
Jews at all, they're just literally the synagogue of Satan. They just literally worship the
devil and practice all kinds of super satanic practices behind scenes. Sometimes they just
even admit it out loud. But it's the same people, and you know, it's the same as when
Ezekiel had to be picked up by the hare and taken to the temple and was like, hey, look
at these guys worshiping Satan. That's what's happening behind closed doors. And it's like,
you know what's happening behind closed doors in America? People are worshiping the devil.
They might not even know that it's the devil that they're worshiping, because back then
they were worshiping the sun, which is the devil. And today they just, they like worship
the devil thinking it's not real, not realizing they're still literally worshiping the devil.
You know, it's like, it's weird, but that's just kind of how society is. But the religious
Jews, these are the Pharisees of today. You go to the Orthodox church down here, you find
some rabbi, these are your Pharisees today, and these people would lose their life if
they believed in Christ. That's why they don't want to do it. They're too prideful, they're
too arrogant, and they get really mad that we can go into a ghetto and find some thug
and preach him the gospel today and get him saved by faith, and they'll be like, "Well,
but is he following the 613 commandments?" You don't either. You have long hair. It's
like, "What are you doing, buddy? You don't even believe the Bible." It's so funny how
the Pharisees want to tell us how much better people they are, and it's like they're usually
the worst. That's why in Matthew 23 he just starts ripping on them really hard.
Look at chapter 22, verse 10 for a moment. Look at chapter 22, verse 10, and we're almost
finished. I really at first thought about doing Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and I was like,
"Well, this is way too much." I mean, so far have we really been seeing works in Matthew
or are we seeing a lot of faith? Now, I like this, and this is again, this is kind of a
parable, but I just like this verse because it's talking about the wedding that Jesus
is inviting us all to. Look at verse 10. "So those servants went out into the highways
and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good." You know I was
going to heaven, good and bad people. But you know why they're going to heaven? Not
because some were good and some were bad, or going to hell. No, it's because they believed.
Good and bad, whether they believe, they're saved. And you know what? We can go out these
walls and find good and bad, and if they believe, they're going to heaven. And those who don't
believe, those good and bad, they're going to hell. And of course in the context of God,
everyone's bad. So we're all the same in that context. Look at chapter 26, verse 2.
The disciple says, "Ye know that after two days is the feast of the Passover, and the
Son of Man is betrayed to be crucified." There's your gospel again. Look at chapter 27, verse
63. "Saying, 'Sirs, we remember that this deceiver said, while he was yet alive, after
three days I will rise again. Command therefore that the sepulcher be made sure until the
third day, lest his disciples come by night and steal him away, and say unto the people,
he has risen from the dead, so the last error shall be worse than the first. This is just
funny to me that literally the unsaved people are more anticipating the resurrection than
his own disciples were. Isn't that crazy? They're like, hey, we better make sure to
seal up this tomb because he said he was going to rise from the dead. And then the
disciples are just waiting around mourning like he's not going to be risen from the
dead. Isn't that funny? But I think it's just to help illustrate that like the disciples
had nothing to do with his resurrection. Because again isn't that the kind of the
implication that they're going to pretend and act like he's Biden walking
around or something, you know, that he's still alive. But at the end of the day you
know it just to really confirm that the way that Jesus Christ rose again from the
dead could not have been explained by human means. It was a sealed tomb.
None of his disciples were going there for that reason. None of them even tried.
None of them, they were basically, they didn't care because they're just kind of like
distraught and distressed and sorry and upset. I mean, Thomas didn't even believe it
after all the other disciples told him. Jesus told him. The Romans believed it.
All the disciples have now heard it and are saying it. And Thomas is still doubting.
That's an incredible amount of doubt. That's pretty stubborn how Thomas was being there.
Okay, look at chapter 28 and look at verse number 5.
"And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not, fear not ye,
for I know that ye seek Jesus whom was crucified. He is not here, for he is risen.
As he said, Come, see the place where the Lord lay."
Now I love this phrase, "As he said." Notice that it's like, "Hey, he is risen."
As he said. You know who said that Jesus would rise from the dead?
Jesus said that he would rise from the dead, okay?
I want to show you one more point and we'll finish. Go to Matthew 23, go backwards.
I have no problem with the book of Matthew.
You know, it's like, "Oh man, you know, if you believe salvation is by faith alone,
what do you do with Matthew?"
Believe it? Like, what passage do you want me to flip to?
I mean, man, yeah, is there other great teaching in the book of Matthew?
Yes, there is. Replacement theology is all over it. Do you want me to show you that?
There's some moral teaching you can find in Matthew. There's some genealogies.
Matthew 23 is, like, one of my favorite chapters in the Bible.
I just love him ripping on the Pharisees and the Sadducees. I mean, this is great.
But, you know, there's an interesting point in kind of thinking about
this topic in this passage. Look at Matthew 23, verse 13.
"But woe on you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men,
for you neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in."
This is what I find a little bit fascinating when you compare with another place.
Go back to Matthew 5 as well. He said that the Pharisees and the scribes are not going to go to heaven.
That was really clear. He's making it clear. You guys are not entering in.
You're not going in.
Well, if we compare this with what he said previously, it's going to make something click.
Look at Matthew 5, verse 20.
"For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees,
ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven."
Now, this is what's interesting about this.
Is the Pharisees and the Sadducees are, proverbially speaking, the most righteous of society.
And in some cases they were giant hypocrites, but think about the Apostle Paul himself.
The Apostle Paul, when he described himself a Pharisee, he said as touching the law, blameless.
Meaning that he had been keeping the law as perfectly as one could.
That doesn't mean that he was sinless.
What that means is like when he did sin, he would go and offer the appropriate sacrifice
every single time.
So like, if you were to try and examine Paul's life, there wasn't really anything out of
place in a human righteousness perspective.
The apostle Paul was arguably one of the most righteous men to live, humanly speaking, apart
from salvation.
Meaning, if we were going to find who was the most cleaned up, the most repented of
their sins, the most just trying to keep the law to the best of their ability, who
was doing the absolute best of the best, it was Paul.
And then Christ said, "Hey, accept your righteousness, exceed their righteousness.
You can't get in."
So you know what that means?
No one can get in by their righteousness.
No one can get in by repenting of their sins.
No one is possibly, because the Pharisees were the most righteous and they're not getting
in.
And even the most righteous person to ever walk this planet will not enter in the kingdom
of heaven on his righteousness.
It's by Christ's imputed righteousness that gets us into heaven and that alone.
That's what Romans chapter 3 is all about.
It's about him that justifies it.
It's about his righteousness and him being the justifier of him that has faith in his
righteousness.
And so we get saved by Christ, not our works, not what we do.
And people who think that Matthew teaches a different gospel are not saved.
People who think that it's by works or that you can't even lose your salvation, they're
just not saved because they're just not trusting in Jesus.
And we shouldn't be afraid of that.
There are passages in Matthew that are parables that are difficult to understand and I get
it.
We shouldn't focus on those today, but I want to show you, isn't it really clear that salvation
by faith is still taught in Matthew and that the Gospel is emphasized in Matthew.
And you know, God willing, maybe we'll look at Mark and Luke in a little bit more detail
too because you know, I think it's important to remind ourselves how clear the Gospel really
is when you try to teach that on purpose.
All right.
Let's go over in prayer.
Thank you Heavenly Father so much for giving us such a clear Gospel in the book of Matthew
and I thank you so much for what your Son did for us that we're broken and diseased
and lame and blind and unable to save ourselves spiritually and that you gave us your Son
Jesus Christ so that we could be healed by our faith, the free gift of salvation.
I pray that we would continue to champion that truth of salvation by faith in every
book of the Bible and that as we go out and reach a lost and dying world that we would
give them many chances realizing that many people don't get things the first time.
That sometimes we can be a little dense, sometimes we're dense ourselves.
And I pray that we would just continue to study the Bible, continue to try and reach
the lost and those hard cases out there we wouldn't give up on them but rather we'd
keep preaching, keep loving them, keep praying for them and that we could see many of the
hard cases get saved as well and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
We're going to close this morning by singing 310 footprints of Jesus, 310 footprints of
Jesus, song 310 footprints of Jesus, singing thank you all for coming this morning, God
bless, you are dismissed.