I want to cover one more thing.
Here's an article and you say, why do you preach on this?
Why are you teaching this?
Why do you go through it line upon line?
Because it's a major false doctrine that's out there even amongst independent Baptists.
Now even in our own area.
Now I'm not going after anybody in our area this morning.
I have other times, but this is an article that I found online and this article just
blew my mind.
The blindness of anyone who wrote this article or thinks that this article is the truth.
The blindness, it just blew my mind.
And let me show this to you.
This is written by a guy, I've never even heard of this guy, but it's written by a pastor
called Matt McPhillips and he's a pastor from Port Huron, Michigan.
I don't even know who this guy is.
But this was on the website of a church called Old Paths Baptist Church, pastor by a guy
named Jason Cooley.
And not only that, but at the end of it there's this paragraph added by a traveling circus
evangelist known as brother Ted Alexander and he basically says I'm evangelist Ted Alexander
and I approve this message. So three heretics and and false teachers are promoting this article.
In fact when you go to that Baptist church where I found it under Bible doctrine they have one
article one tab repentance and this is the article. Just listen you've seen what the Bible said,
you've seen what John said, you've seen what Acts said. Yeah we didn't go through the other 64 books
today but we saw a lot. I'm going to attempt to write about the doctrine of repentance.
Okay that's not how you start an article that's just something you think in your mind.
You think to yourself I'm going to attempt to write an article then you start writing the article.
I mean this is like when people write you a letter they're like hi how are you I'm fine.
You can go ahead and leave that out you know what I mean. So I'm going to attempt to write
about the doctrine of repentance. About two years ago I became so troubled about my lack of study
about the gospel and my acceptance of four points in a prayer that I dove into studying it head first.
Now when you hear that don't you expect he's going to get out the bible he's going to I want to see
what Luke says I want to see what John says I want to see what Act says see what Roman says right.
He says I dove into studying it head first not knowing completely what my conclusion would be.
I saturated myself with scripture the bible the word no no I saturated myself with books
articles and sermons by men that's literally I'm reading a verbatim.
I saturated myself with books articles and you're saturated with something else buddy but anyway
saturated myself with books articles and sermons by men of the 1900s 1800s 1700s and 1600s.
You need to find an amazing thing the issue of what is repentance and reference salvation is a
modern issue. What's he saying? This is only controversial in modern times. I mean when
you look at the 1900s the 1800s the 1700s the 1600s you know everybody's saying the same thing
about repentance. This is modern. Listen to what he says. I looked at the numerous confessions of
faith only to realize that they all defined it as sorrow for and turning and turning from sin.
This would include the London Confession 1644, the Armenian Confession of 1834,
the Philadelphia Association of 1734, the French Confession of 1879, the Swiss Confession of 1848,
the New Hampshire Confession. Yeah, because when everybody in a country all gets to get, all the
Baptists in the country all get together and agree on what they believe, that's being an independent
Baptist, right? When the whole country of France gets together and writes a confession, the whole
country of Switzerland, all the Baptists get together. But, and many others, as much as it
pained me, I even began to look at non-Baptist confessions, only to find the same. Even unsafe
people are agreeing with my definition of repentance. So maybe it was that I would find men from the past
that would define it as a change of mind, from unbelief to belief, or from one dependence, you
know, like depending on something else to save you, to, you know, depending on Christ. I was amazed at
what I found. Notice that all of these men agreed as the true nature of repentance, and he gives a
bunch of quotes from famous preachers of the past, most of which were not Baptist. So he's like, oh,
it's really painful for me to look at non-Baptist. Well, it must not have been that painful since
more than half of who you quoted was not a Baptist. Otherwise, you were in a lot of pain when you wrote
this article. So then after he quotes all these men, which mean nothing to me, then at the end,
he has these questions. He's like, I'm going to leave you with these questions. He confronts us,
the reader, with these questions. He gets five questions. Question number three is this. Can you
find our modern day definition of repentance more than a hundred years ago? So what's he saying? Hey,
I looked at all this stuff. Everybody agrees. There was no dispute. There was, this is a modern,
this controversy is a modern day issue. Everything, everybody defined it the same way. Okay. And he
says, I defy you to show me anyone that was more than a hundred years ago saying, you know, that
it's changing your mind and, you know, turning from unbelief to belief at, you know, or, or just
trusting in one thing to another. But you want to know what's funny? He gives the answer in the
article because one of the people that he quoted was Charles Spurgeon. Listen to this from 1872.
Now somebody help me out. Is 1872 more than a hundred years ago? This is in his article.
I didn't even have to go do reading. Oh, I'm going to find people. I'm going to go find people that
define it. No, no, no. It's right here in this article. Listen to the quote that he gives from
Charles Spurgeon. "Just now," meaning in what year? This is the first words out of Charles Spurgeon.
This is one of the first quotes he gives. "Just now, some professively Christian teachers are
misleading many by saying that repentance is only a change of mind." What in the world? So he just
spent two paragraphs like, "I check. Nobody believed in this. Nobody's ever heard of this modern thing
of change in your mind being repentance. You can't find it anywhere. I defy you to find it more than
a hundred years ago. Let me just show you." Here's a quote from Charles Spurgeon in 1872. And Charles
Spurgeon says, "Just now, some professively Christian teachers are misleading many." He's like,
"There's multiple preachers and they're misleading many people, teaching them that
repentance is only a change of mind." Here's what he says next, "It is true that the original word
does convey the idea of a change of mind." I'm not leaving anything. I'm reading this verbatim. This
is like a parody. I mean, you can't even make this stuff up. Well, it is true that, you know,
the original word does convey the idea of a change of mind, but the whole teaching of scripture
concerning repentance, you know, is more radical than that. Okay, well, here's what's funny. He
doesn't quote a single scripture in this quote. In fact, there is virtually no scripture quoted
almost in this entire article. Four pages, no verses backing up their position.
Okay, one of the quotes, a guy references Isaiah in one quote. The rest of it is just void of
scripture. So what's funny is that he's, you're like, okay, Charles Virgin, give us script. Well,
okay, yeah, that is what repent means to change your mind. But, okay, well, Spurgeon, give us a
scripture to tell us that it means something different. Well, it's just the whole scripture.
I mean, don't you love it when you tell people like, hey, can you show me, you know,
the pre-trib rapture and scripture? And it's just like, well, just the whole Bible.
Well, where's the Bible teach that you have to repent of your sins? We say whole Bible. Well,
can you point me to a specific verse, the whole thing? Just now some professedly Christian
teachers are misleading many by saying, man, praise God for all that soul winning that was
going on in 1872. Sounds like to me that there were a bunch of faithful word Baptist churches
over there in England that were doing the real soul winning while that phony Charles
Spurgeon is just all famous and everybody loves him and he's all interdenominational
and he's all big and popular. Look, are all the popular preachers today phony? Name a big popular
name preacher on tv that's not a phony. Name one. Oh, he's not a phony? You mean he is a phony?
All right, good. You need to pay a little more attention. Yeah, Joel Osteen, Rick Warren, Bill
Hybels, Kenneth Copeland. What's the Hakala gondola? Benny Hinn, Benny Hinn, TD Jakes. So look,
Billy Graham, Billy Balaam. So when we name the big name preachers of our day, if we look at the
biggest churches in Phoenix, Phoenix First Assembly, Cornerstone down in Chandler. These are churches
that are so apostate. Where do we begin? Okay. And yet we have this weird idea. Oh, the popular
preachers of the past, they all preach the truth. No, it's all even in Jesus' day. He said, "Woe unto
you when all men speak well of you." So they know the false prophet. Why is everybody loves Spurgeon?
Because he's a phony. Why is he so popular amongst a whole bunch of denominations? Because he was
phony. Because every popular preacher has always been a phony. And you know what's funny? We don't
even know the names of all these Christian teachers who are misleading so many people by telling them
it's by faith alone. And their repentance is just changing your mind and believing on Christ. You
know, we don't know who they are, but you know what? They're the ones with all the crowns in heaven.
We don't even know who they are. But they were doing some major soul winning to the point where
Charles Spurgeon is like, "Man, I need to deal with this. This is spreading. This doctrine of faith
alone salvation. I need to get up and teach all my Calvinistic garbage. I need to ramp up my
teaching of Calvinism and repent of your sins salvation." But this is what it is, folks. Oh,
I delved in and figured out my doctrine by reading a bunch of men. But not only that,
you're reading the phonies. You know why? Well, everybody I read was a phony. Yeah,
because you know what? The real preachers, they didn't get published by all of Satan's media
institutions. They couldn't get a book published. They couldn't get on TV. They couldn't get on
the radio. Why? Because they're telling the truth. And that's what, look, think about it. What if all
of a sudden, what if our country somehow, let's say our country was just nuked and everything
crumbled and collapsed and everything's dead. And then like hundreds of years later, somebody comes
and excavates it as an archeologist. And they want to talk about what Christians believed in America
in the the 21st century. What are the chances that they're going to find an After the Tribulation DVD
versus finding a Joel Osteen DVD? What do you think there's more of in circulation? Yeah,
they're going to be brushing off this artifact from 2015 is of a Joyce Meyer book. You know,
that's what they're gonna find. What? Look, go walk into Walmart and it's not like, hey, you get a deal
when you buy after the tribulation and new alert Bible versions, you get a discount. No, it's going
to be in Walmart. It's all going to be who left behind Rick Warren, Joel Osteen, right? Rabbi
Jonathan Kahn, the harbinger. It's everything that's false. Don't even get me started on that.
I don't have the throat for that, but let me tell you something. Whoever wrote this article was
blindfolded while they wrote it because how can you sit there and defy us? Show me one. Show me one
person a hundred years ago and then they provide it. Here's the noose to hang me with. Here's a gun.
Shoot me with it. You know it's like it's like here let me dig my own grave real quick. People
are nuts. Look this is why we go to the Bible. Well but what's the historical position? Not
important to me. I don't care. What does the Bible say?