Man, the title of my sermon this morning is the Native American Church Exposed, the Native
American Church Exposed. The Native American Church is also known as peyote religion or
peyoteism. And this religion is considered to be the traditional religion by a lot of
Navajos and by a lot of other Indian tribes throughout Arizona. And if you ask people
on the reservation if they're a Christian, and we do this all the time, we go soul winning,
door knocking on the reservation, and we ask them, are you a Christian? And they'll often
say, no, I'm a traditionalist or a traditional religion or I'm a Navajo, I'm not a Christian.
But what they're often practicing is this religion that involves the drug peyote. And
what most of them don't know is that this religion is not some ancient traditional religion.
This is not the old ways of their people. In fact, this religion is only a little over
100 years old. They think that they're practicing their ancient traditional religion, when in
reality, it was invented in the 1880s. That's when this religion started, and it was formally
organized into a religion in 1918. So, so much for your ancient Indian religion, okay?
This religion's a fraud. In fact, peyote doesn't even grow in Arizona. It's not, the plant
isn't even found here, okay? It was brought here from Mexico. First it went from Mexico
and it was brought up into Oklahoma in the 1880s, and that's when the Native American
church started or when the peyote religion started in Oklahoma amongst the Kiowa tribe,
and then it just spread like wildfire throughout the 1880s and 1890s, all over America and
into Canada, being accepted by all these different Indian tribes immediately. It became
very popular. Now, there were several prophets of peyote around that time, and one of the
main founders of the religion was a guy named John Wilson. Sounds like a really authentic
Indian guy. He's part white and part Indian. John Wilson, he's known as the revealer of
peyote, create the peyote religion, which is a mixture of Christianity, native pagan
religions, and drug use. Now, just so, in case you don't know what peyote is, peyote
is a cactus, and when you eat it or boil it in water and make tea out of it, it's a hallucinogenic
drug similar to LSD or ecstasy, and this drug peyote that's a hallucinogenic mind-altering
drug, it's illegal in the United States because LSD is illegal and other things like that
are illegal, but it's allowed only for religious purposes amongst the Native Americans. So
they are allowed to do it, but it's a hallucinogenic drug. But the thing that I want to emphasize
this morning, and if you would, stay there in Galatians chapter one, that's where we're
going to start biblically, but the thing I want to emphasize this morning is that this
peyote religion, it's not a traditional religion, it's a brand new religion from about a hundred
years ago, and that it is a mixture of, and don't miss this point, it's a mixture of Christianity
and paganism with some drugs thrown into the bargain. Now look at Galatians chapter one
verse six. The Bible reads, I marvel that you're so soon removed from him that called
you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is not another, but there be
some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. Now when you first read
these verses, it almost seems like a contradiction because in verse six he says it's another
gospel, and then in verse seven he says it's not another. So which one is it? But what
he's saying here is it's another gospel, but it's not another in the sense that when the
devil creates his gospel, he doesn't go back to the drawing board and just create a totally
other gospel. What he does is he takes the true gospel and he perverts it or twists it
or changes it. So the Bible says, hey, you've been seduced by another gospel, but it's not
really another gospel. What it is is somebody has taken the true gospel of Christ and twisted
it. Now the reason why is that the word of God has power. The gospel has power. There's
an inherent truth in the gospel. And so what the devil wants to do to create his lie is
always to take something that's true and use it in order to get people to believe the lie.
So he'll mix some truth in with the lie to make the lie more believable, and this is
a perfect example of that. So the Native American church is a perversion of the gospel of Christ.
It doesn't predate Christianity. It came about 1,800 years after Christianity and perverts
the gospel of Christ. Let me give you some examples of this. Number one, even the name
church shows the Christian influence. Notice how it's called Native American church. That
should be a big sign right there that it's influenced by Christianity. Number two, they
believe in one God, monotheism from Christianity. Their ancient pagan religion didn't teach
that there's only one God. Number three, peyote is called their sacrament. Hmm, I wonder where
they got that term. They take peyote at night and in the morning they have a communion breakfast.
And then as they take the peyote, they ask the great spirit to come into their heart.
Does that sound familiar? Like Christ comes into our heart, they invite the great spirit
or who they call grandfather or great grandfather to come into their heart. So we as Christians
talk about God the father, so then they have a spinoff of that where they call him grandfather
or great grandfather. So they're kind of mixing the concept of a single God the father with
their ancestral worship by calling him grandfather or great grandfather. And then after they
take the peyote, another part of the ceremony involves going to the sweat lodge. Some of
you might have heard of this. It's basically like a sauna. They get really hot and sweat
in there and obviously that's going to clean out your pores. But for them it's a spiritual
ritual in the sweat lodge. But after the sweat lodge, then they go down to the river for
some water rituals and here's what they say. Well, the water represents the blood and they're
being washed in the blood. And then they'll say, oh, it's a rebirth. We're being reborn.
Sort of like the Bible talks about being what? Born again, washed in the blood. So all of
this stuff is just concepts from Christianity that are being twisted and paganized and turning
it into something ungodly. Not only that, but they say, well, we teach Christian morality.
Well here's my question. If your native traditions are so great, then why are you using our morality?
Why use the Christian morality? But that's what they use as far as concepts of right
and wrong, concepts of marriage and stealing and adultery. All the morality from the Bible
against drunkenness, it's all adopted by them. Now if you would go to Revelation chapter
number 12 because the Bible teaches that the devil is a great deceiver and that the devil
deceives the entire world. And he uses different deceptions to deceive different people in
different parts of the world. But the goal is the same. It's just anything to get people
not to accept the truth, not to accept Jesus Christ as their savior, not to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. See, the devil doesn't care what your religion is. He doesn't care
what you believe in just so long as you don't put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ.
He doesn't care what you do. And so he's got all kinds of deceptions going on. The Bible
says that whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh
the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world but he that believeth
that Jesus is the Son of God? And so overcoming the world is equivalent to believing on the
Lord Jesus Christ as your savior. Why? Because the world is there to stop you from believing
in Jesus as your savior. You have to overcome that. The Bible says in Revelation chapter
12 verse 9, and the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil and
Satan which deceiveth the whole world. He was cast out into the earth and his angels
were cast out with him. Go to Joshua, the book of Joshua chapter 24. You see, Native
Americans all over this country, not just the Navajo reservation, although the tribe
that has the most practitioners of peyote religion is the Navajo tribe, but all over
America, all over the East Coast and into Canada, the devil has deceived people into
rejecting Christianity and calling Christianity the white man's religion and getting them
to believe in this perverted doctrine of the Native American church, which is also the
white man's religion. It's a perversion of the white man's religion. It's not their
native tradition but that's what they think. They think, oh, this is our traditional practice
even though it involves a plant that they'd never seen until 100 years ago. But even if
it were, and by the way, let me just stop and say this, they don't even know what their
traditional religion is. You know why? Because they did not have any reading or writing until
the 1930s. Now, if you have no written language, then you don't know what your ancestors believed
200 years ago, 300 years ago, 400 years ago. You can try to piece it together, okay, but
you don't really know what they believed at that point. And you know who gave the Navajos
their written language in the 1930s? Christian missionaries. That's why their writing uses
English letters because it was invented and taught to them by Christian missionaries that
even gave them a written language. Before that, who knows what they believed in practice.
You say, well, no, because they passed it down orally. They preserved it orally. Well,
let me ask you this. If they're so good at preserving their religion orally, then how
come when this goofball peyote religion came out in the 1880s, they all just immediately
jumped on it and immediately changed all their beliefs to embrace it? Because as you read
up on this stuff, you'll find that the Navajos and other tribes have been slow to convert
to Christianity over the years. It's a slow process of reaching people and converting
them to Christianity, but that when this Native American church came along, when this peyote
religion came along, it was just like, they just switched over to it. Tribes all over
America are switching to it. So apparently, they're willing to switch just not to Jesus
Christ of the Bible necessarily. So the point is, nothing's been preserved. They've been
tossed to and fro with various winds of traditional Native doctrines. And so nobody really knows
what they believed since they didn't have a written language until the 1930s that was
given to them by Christian missionaries. But let's say it was their traditional religion.
Let's say this really were, which it's not. It's a fraud. But even if it were, the devil
uses traditional religions all over the world in order to send people to hell. People are
told, hey, we're Catholic. Our family's Catholic, and we've got to stick with that tradition.
It's going to take you to hell. Or whether it's Islam or Buddhism or Hinduism or, hey,
this is our tradition. This is what we're raised with. But the bottom line is that the
devil uses that concept of tradition in order to blind people from accepting the truth of
the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible said, you're in Joshua 24, but in Colossians 2, verse 8,
it says, beware, lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition
of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. Don't let people corrupt
you with the traditions of men. Follow Christ. 1 Peter 1.18, for as much as you know that
you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold, from your vain conversation
received by tradition from your fathers. So Peter is telling these believers, you received
some vain traditions from your fathers, and Christianity is to pull you out of that. And
it says, you've been redeemed with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish
and without spot. Look at Joshua 24, verse 2. And Joshua said unto all the people, dost
say it the Lord God of Israel, your fathers dwelled on the other side of the flood in
old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nacor, watch this, and they
served other gods. So he's saying to the Israelites, the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
your fathers, when they lived on the other side of the Euphrates River, they worshipped
other gods. You know, Abraham grew up worshipping other gods. Terah was worshipping other gods.
But jump down, if you would, to verse 14. He says, now therefore fear the Lord and serve
him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the
other side of the flood and in Egypt, and serve ye the Lord. And if it seem evil unto
you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which
your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites
in whose land ye dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. He's saying,
sometimes you have to choose between the traditions of your fathers and the God of the Bible.
But you can't have both. And what this peyote religion seeks to do, and what this so-called
Native American church seeks to do, is to have both by mixing the two. Now go, if you
would, to 1 Corinthians chapter 10. 1 Corinthians chapter number 10. You can't have both. Choose,
he said. Choose this day whom you'll serve. Are you going to serve the false gods of your
fathers, or are you going to serve the Lord? You can't have both. You can't mix the pagan
devil worship of the Indians, or of the Greeks, or of the Hindus, or of the Buddhists, or
of anybody. It doesn't matter the nationality. You can't mix that with Christianity. You
got to believe on Jesus Christ with all your heart and worship Him alone. And the devil,
he wants people to think that they're special. You're special. You've got your special religion
that's just for your nationality. Yeah, except if we went to Asia, you'll find people taking
drugs and going into the spirit world and doing the exact same thing. You'll find it
all over the world. You'll find people in Africa doing the same stuff, Asia, Europe.
I mean, all these gods and goddesses, all the paganism, all the worshiping the sky,
and all these offerings and things. It's all over the world. There's nothing new under
the sun. And yeah, peyote's new to the natives in Arizona since the late 1800s, but they
were doing it down in Mexico a long time ago. They've been doing it in Asia. They're doing
it in Cambodia and Laos and Vietnam where they have these so-called holy men, and they'll
kill a pig in Cambodia and spill a bunch of blood everywhere. And then I watched a video
of this guy. I remember I watched this in cultural anthropology when I was being educated
in college. And in this cultural anthropology class, it showed this holy man. I forget if
it was Cambodia or Laos or Vietnam, but it was somewhere in Southeast Asia. He's riding
a wooden horse, like a rocking horse, taking drugs, blindfolding himself, and riding a
rocking horse. And then he goes into the spirit world, has all these visions, and then he
comes back and tells him, okay, here's what I learned from the spirit world. So this kind
of stuff goes on all over the world. You know, the devil has got his minions all over the
world deceiving people into taking drugs and into worshiping idols and into believing
in false gods and into taking pride in their nationality when in reality there's only one
thing we're supposed to take pride in, Christ. Him that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord,
the Bible says. Shouldn't glory in being white or Indian or Asian or black? No, him that
glorieth, let him glory. Hey, God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 10 verse 16, the cup of blessing which we
bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it
not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread and one body,
for we're all partakers of that one bread. Behold Israel after the flesh, are not they
which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar? What say I then, that the idol
is anything or that which is offered in sacrifice idols is anything? But I say that the things
which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils and not to God. And I would not
that you should have fellowship with devils. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the
cup of devils. You cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and of the table of devils.
You can't mix the devil's religion and God's religion. They can't be mixed. You can't
do both. The Bible is pretty clear on that. You say, well, how do you know that this peyote
religion is demonic? How do you know that Native American church is demonic? Well, go
back to Deuteronomy chapter 18. Deuteronomy chapter number 18. First of all, any religion
that does not confess Jesus Christ as the only way to heaven is of the devil, right?
Because the devil is behind all other false gods and all other false gospels and so forth.
But there are even aspects to this religion that are demonic. Now, like I said, it was
started by several different people. It's hard to point to one founder because there
were several different prophets of peyote at that time. But John Wilson was one of the
main ones. And he was part of this other movement that took place right at the same time that
went hand in hand with the founding of peyoteism or Native American church. And that's this
thing called the ghost dance. Who's ever heard of this before, the ghost dance? Maybe
a couple people? This was a big movement back in like 1890, around that time, where they
were trying to communicate with the spirits of their dead chiefs. And they were trying
to bring back these great chiefs from the past that were going to come and save them.
And they were going to come and free them from oppression and so forth. And so they
would do this dance where they would try to communicate with their dead ancestors and
try to bring them back from the dead. They were trying to bring people back from the
dead. It was called the ghost dance. And this was the same exact people that were involved
in founding this peyote religion. They're involved in this ghost dance. Now, what the
Bible calls this communicating with and dealing with the dead is known as necromancy. Now,
look what the Bible says in Deuteronomy 18, verse 9. When thou art come into the land
which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of
those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone that maketh his son or his daughter
to pass through the fire, or that use of divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or
a witch, or a charmer, or a consultor with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
See that word necromancer? For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord.
And because of these abominations, the Lord thy God did drive them out from before thee.
So we see that necromancy or communicating with the dead is right there in the same category
with what? Sorcery, being a witch, being an enchanter, being a wizard, or human sacrifice,
all these horrible things are right there with necromancy. Why? Because this is a list
of things that are demonic. And so the guys who founded this fake religion that seeks
to mix Christianity and paganism that has been deceived into, people have been deceived
into believing is their traditional religion, was started by literal, literal sorcerers
that started this religion, that were into this ghost dance and dancing around the campfire
in order to bring up spirits of the dead and communicating with the spirit world. And this
whole thing of taking peyote and going into this, that's not a spirit world, that's a
hallucinogenic drug. And you know what? These people, when they take peyote, they're no
more entering the spirit world than some 60s hippie who's taken LSD. It's a chemical called
mescaline that's inside the cactus that's making you hallucinate, that's making you
see things that aren't there. So what this is is that it's a cheap substitute for real
spirituality. It's not a real spiritual experience of praying and seeking after the true God.
It's not the power of the Holy Spirit or the power of the Great Spirit. No, it's a drug
that you are frying your brain with. And that's why you're seeing all those visions, because
you're taking drugs. But that being said, even though it's just a drug that's just making
you hallucinate. Look, folks, what about when you have dreams at night when you're asleep?
Don't you see all kinds of crazy things that aren't really there? I mean, who has really
weird dreams all the time? You know, just bizarre dreams, right? Why? Because there's
all kinds, your mind is capable of coming up with all kinds of crazy things. You wake
up in the morning and you're just like, whoa, what was that dream about? Why was I dreaming
that crazy thing? Well, here's the thing. If you're taking drugs, you're just tapping
into all that same imagination, except you're just seeing it while you're awake and just
having all these, it's not real, it's fake. But that being said, I do think that it's
possible for some of these people to actually have real spiritual experiences with demons.
Why? Because when you're sitting there saying, okay, come into me now, great grandfather,
as you're taking peyote, great grandfather might just take you up on it. And great grandfather
is not the Holy Spirit. It's some other demon, some other devil that will come into you and
possess you. And who knows what is going to be the result. So it's demonic. Now, if you
would turn to Acts chapter 17, while you're turning to Acts chapter 17, let me read for
you a little more about this religion. It's just amazing how the devil has gone through
and got so many people fooled into thinking this is our native religion, this is our tradition,
this is our heritage. When in reality, it's 100 years old. I mean, come on. The Navajos
have only been here and the Apaches as well have only been in Arizona for about 400 years.
Yet their native religion teaches that they've always been here. Even though it's a fact
that they migrated here from Canada 400 years ago. And there's still a bunch of them up
in Canada that speak the same language and have a lot of the same culture and so forth.
But they've just been lied to and deceived and we need to shine the light of the glorious
gospel and bring these people to Christ. Just like every African, just like every Asian,
just like every European needs to come to Christ. He's the God of the whole earth. He's
the savior of the world. But listen to some more information about this religion. Ceremonies
are generally held in a teepee and require a priest, pastor, or elder. Do those terms
sound familiar? I'm sure that's part of their tradition too, right? And I'm sure riding
on horses is part of their tradition too, right? Even though there were no horses here
until the Spaniards brought them over. But they've got the priest, the pastor, or elder
to conduct the service. The conductor is referred to as the roadman. The roadman is assisted
by a fireman whose task is to care for the holy fireplace, being sure that it burns consistently
all night. The roadman may use a prayer staff, a beaded and feathered gourd, a small drum,
cedar, and his eagle feather as a means for conducting services. The roadman's wife or
other female relative prepares seven sacramental foods. Hmm, seven sacraments? That reminds
me of the Roman Catholic Church. See what I'm saying? This is not the native religion,
folks. The seven sacramental foods that are part of the church services. Her part takes
place very early, between 4.30 and 5 in the morning. The seven sacramental foods are water,
shredded beef, corn mush, rice, strawberries, cookies, and soft individually wrapped candies.
Now I don't know, you know, I'm not an expert anthropologist, but I don't think that the
Navajos 300 years ago were eating small individually wrapped candies. I don't think that the Navajos
300, you know what I mean? I don't think that they were passing around salt water taffy
like the bank used to give you, you know, wrapped in a little package. But listen, it
says, to counterbalance the bitterness of the peyote consumed during the services, the
sweet foods were added later. So what it's saying is that the candies, surprise, are
a new addition. The strawberries, the candies, and the, what was the other one that was this,
the cookies, you know, these were added later because the modern sensibilities of the Indians
is they don't want to eat a bunch of bitter peyote. Give me a strawberry to wash that
thing down. You know, give me a cookie. Anybody got a soft individually wrapped candy I can
buy? So real traditional, huh? See, these traditions are constantly changing. They change,
okay? Why do they change? Because times change. People change. Cultures change. This is all
new. All of it. But you know what doesn't change is this book, the Bible, that's been
the same for almost 2,000 years when it was written. The New Testament hasn't changed.
The Old Testament that goes back even thousands of years before that, it hasn't changed. It's
the same. And it predates any of this so-called ancient religion by a long shot. So they've
got the seven sacramental foods, water, shredded beef, corn mush, rice, and then for your modern,
you know, 2017 Native Americans, strawberries, cookies, and candy, amen, to counterbalance
the bitterness of the peyote. Then they have a second breakfast. So basically what they
do is they eat the peyote at night or they drink it as a tea. It's not smoked, contrary
to popular belief. The piece pipe is tobacco. But they take the peyote and it's a stimulant
so it keeps them up all night. So they stay awake all night. And then around 4.30 or 5,
they have the sacramental foods. Then they have the second breakfast, which is basically
just a typical breakfast. And it includes boiled eggs, toast, hash browns, coffee, and
juice. I mean, just like the Navo's were eating 400 years ago when they got here from Canada,
right? You know, just like that ancient Apache breakfast of hash browns, orange juice, eggs,
bacon, coffee, toast, you know, just the traditional Native American foods. This meal
is served well after sunrise and just prior to the closing of the church services. So
it's more like a brunch. The second breakfast is like around brunch. Church services are
not regular Sunday occurrences but are held in accordance with special requests by a family
for celebrating a birthday. So it doesn't happen every Sunday. It happens from time
to time for certain special events. It could be the request of a family member. It could
be celebrating a birthday or for a memorial or funeral service. Services begin at sundown
on either Friday or Saturday evening and end at sunrise. Thus, a participant sits up all
night giving up a full night's rest as part of a small sacrifice to the great and holy
spirit and his son. Do you hear that? This is their sacrifice to the great spirit and
his son? Hmm, wonder where they got that idea, the son of God? Yeah, because it's a mixing
of what? Christianity. It's a perversion of the gospel of Christ. The church services
culminated a feast for the whole community the following day. Because peyote is a stimulant,
all of the participating members are wide awake so they too attend the feast. The need
for sleep is generally felt in the late afternoon, particularly after the feast. Gifts are given
to the road man and his helpers by the sponsoring family at the feast to show deep appreciation
for all his hard work. Common reasons for holding a service include the desire to cure
illness, birthday celebrations, Christian holidays, school graduations, and other significant
life events. You know, just the traditional events in a typical, you know, Native American
life. You know, school, Christian holidays, birthdays, you know, stuff that they've been
doing for hundreds of years, right? One of the founders of the religion, Quanah Parker,
one of his most famous teachings regarding the spirituality of the Native American church,
this is his famous quote, the white man goes into his church house and talks about Jesus,
but the Indian goes into his teepee and talks to Jesus. Well, we talk to Jesus too, buddy.
Haven't you heard the southern gospel song, have a little talk with Jesus? Sweet hour
of prayer? You know, so the point is that this religion tries to tease, oh, well, that's
the white man's religion, you know. The white man, he goes into his church house, you know,
we got our better religion. But you know what? Let me just drop a bomb on you. The
Navajo reservation and the Apache reservation and all these other reservations are filled
with white people because they're all mixed with white people, all of them. I mean, if
you look at the picture of John Wilson, he looks like a white guy. You look at, look,
when you go on the Navajo reservation or Apache reservation or any of the rest of them, you'll
see people that are really dark and you see people that are totally light and they look
almost like a white person because they're like one-eighth Native American or something
or one-fourth. And I don't care how pure they think they are, I guarantee you that all of
them are mixed. Four hundred years later, they've been mixing for the last four hundred
years, just like every single one of us has a little bit of their blood in us. We went
and got our DNA tested and we had Native American blood in us, Paul Wittenberger and myself
and a few of our friends. And you know, who here has been told your whole life, oh, you're
part Cherokee, put up your hand. Look around. Who said you're part some other Indian? Put
up your hand. Part Indian, all right? And don't raise your hand if you're an Indian.
But you Indians are part white. I know that's not what you want to hear, but it's true.
The whole thing is a fraud and what you have to understand is that the devil has an agenda
and his agenda is to stop people from getting saved. That's his agenda. That's what you
have to understand. His ministry is to deceive the whole world and he has his ministers that
are transformed as the ministers of light, but they are the ministers of darkness to
try to keep people in darkness, to try to keep people unsaved, to keep them worshipping
false gods and he'll try to trick them into, oh, this is supposed to be your religion.
If you have any pride as a Navajo, this will be your religion. Or if you're a real Cherokee,
this is your religion. He doesn't care how he gets people to reject Christianity, but
he'll get them to reject it. That's his goal. That's his job. And he deceives the whole
world and he uses different kinds of deceptions in all different places, but the answer is
the same for everybody, that we need to go in and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and
get people saved. And listen, when we preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, we have to tell
people that their religion is false and we have to tell people that there's only one
way to heaven and it's Jesus Christ and you can't just add Jesus to your old religion.
You can't do it. In order for a Roman Catholic to be saved, they're going to have to stop
being a Catholic. They can't say, well, I'm Roman Catholic and I'm going to receive Christ
as Savior on top of that. Well, no, because being a Roman Catholic involves you trusting
works to save you. You can't trust your works and just add Jesus on top. You can't say,
well, I'm a Muslim, but I'm also going to receive Christ as Savior. That's not how it
works. You have to believe on Christ with all your heart. He is the way, the truth,
and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by him. And Jesus said, if you do not
believe that I am he, you will die in your sins. What did he mean by that when he said,
if you don't believe that I'm he? We say, if you don't believe that I'm it. Basically
that he's the only Savior. Because if you go back and look up that quote, I am he, you'll
see in Isaiah, he says, I am he and there's none else. And beside me, there's no Savior.
He said, you got to believe that I'm he or you'll die in your sins. You have to put all
your faith and trust in Jesus Christ to be saved today. And there are too many churches
and too many pastors who are tiptoeing through the tulips with someone and they say, well,
we got to respect all religions. You know, we don't want to offend the religion. But
here's the thing, in order to get people saved, you have to tell them that that religion is
false because otherwise they think they're just adding it on. Because they're already
thinking, yeah, you know, the son of God, great grandfather, Jesus washed in the blood,
take some peyote, seven sacraments, you know, they're mixing it all. They need to be told,
look, this is the word of God. This is salvation. This is the only way to have. Now, obviously
it should be done tactfully. Obviously you can speak the truth in love. And I find that
it's much more effective when you're out soul winning to first present the entire gospel
before you criticize their religion. You know, because if you just walk in and just start
criticizing their religion, a lot of times they'll just shut you down. They're not even
going to hear what you have to say. So I think it works well to just start out by just presenting
the gospel. But you know what? Whenever I finish presenting the gospel to, say, a Roman
Catholic, when I finish presenting the gospel to that person, then I'll say something like
this. I'll say to them, now you mentioned when I got here that you're a Roman Catholic.
And then I say to them, you know, the Roman Catholic Church teaches something completely
different about salvation. They teach that you do have to go to church. You do have to
perform the sacraments. You have to confess to the priest. But I showed you from the Bible
how we're saved by faith alone. Which one do you believe? And here's the thing. Most
of the time, if I've gone through the gospel with that person and they were accepting it
and believing it, then that person will say, well, I believe what the Bible says. Then
great. Then I'll lead that person in prayer to receive Christ. But every once in a while
you'll get one who says, well, I'm going to stick with what the church teaches. And that
shows that what? The gospel went over their head. Or they didn't accept it. Maybe they
were just going along with you to be polite. Because when the rubber meets the road, all
of a sudden they're like, well, I'm still Catholic. I'm still going to stick with that.
Or whatever. So you can do it kindly and gently. But you've got to address that. Because
a lot of Catholics will just think that they're just adding another chant or another prayer.
Like, oh, I pray this every day. Please save me. Take me to heaven. Or whatever. They're
not actually changing anything about what they believe and putting their trust in Christ.
There's no salvation there. So that's what I do. And when I talk to the Native Americans,
one of the things that I'll bring up is just I'll go through the whole plan of salvation
with them. And I usually don't really go into their traditions or their religion because
I don't think most of them are really that into it or really believe in it that much
or even really know all the teachings. But I always just say to them, hey, do you believe
that Jesus is the only way to heaven? Or do you think that you could go to heaven without
believing in Christ? Because if they believe, well, yeah, there's other ways. You can go
through the peyote religion or you can go through these others. No. It's either Christ
or hell. Those are the choices. It's Jesus Christ or it's hell. And so we need to make
sure that people understand that salvation is through Christ alone, faith in Christ alone.
You cannot mix Buddhism and Christianity or Hinduism and Christianity or paganism and
Christianity. Now look down at your Bible there in Acts 17. The Bible says in Acts 17
24, God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven
and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands, neither is worship with men's hands,
as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things, and
hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on the face of the earth, and
hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation, that they
should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him and find him, though he be
not far from every one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being, as certain
also of your poets have said, for we are also his offspring. For as much then as we are
the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold or silver
or stone, graven by art and man's device. In the times of this ignorance God winked
at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent, because he hath appointed a day
in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof
he hath given assurance unto all men, and that he hath raised him from the dead.
So here we have the Apostle Paul talking to some people that have their own traditions,
the Greeks. These are white people, and they've got their goddesses and gods of gold and silver
and stone, and he tells them, look, God is commanding all men everywhere to repent. This
is not just a Jews religion that I'm teaching to you right now. This isn't just the religion
of Israel. No, he's commanding you to repent, and you to turn from idols to serve the living
and true God. See, repentance in regard to salvation is turning to Jesus Christ away
from false religion, turning from idols that are not God to the real true God, turning
from a works-based salvation to a faith-based salvation, turning from the Native American
church to Christianity of the Bible, turning from the Great Spirit to the Holy Spirit,
turning from great-grandfather to God the Father. That's what repentance is in regard
to salvation. And he says here, and this is a beautiful passage because he says here
in verse number 26, he's made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on the face
of the earth. Watch this. And hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds
of their habitation. So what God's saying is that he providentially ordained times and
places when people would be in various areas. Times and places, why? That they should seek
the Lord if haply they might feel after him and find him. So what the Bible is saying
is that God set the bounds of man's habitation, and he appointed different times and places
for different groups of people so that if anybody would seek the Lord, they would find
him. Meaning that it would always be possible, no matter where people live or in what time
they live, that if they would seek the Lord, they could find the Lord. What does that mean?
It means that the whole world's without excuse today. It means that no matter who, when,
or where people can find the truth. Now sadly, most people are not seeking after the Lord.
And that's why we need to go bring it to them. And as we go bring it to them, God can lead
us to the people who are seeking. Right? And that's why we pray. Whenever we go sewing,
God lead us to the doors of the people that are prepared. And here's the thing, when we
travel, say, three or four hours to one of these reservations to go soul winning, you
know, we believe God's leading us. We pray that God will lead us, and we know that he
hears us whatsoever we ask. We know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
We know that if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us. And so we pray
that God would lead us. Because there are people there that want to hear the gospel,
that are going to be receptive, that are going to listen, and we want those people to be
home. And we want to find them at the right time and the right place. And you know, God
works in people's lives providentially to set the bounds of their habitations and the
times and the places so that if we go out looking for them, we'll find them. And if
they're seeking for the truth, and if they really want to know for the truth, then God
makes it possible that they might find the truth. But that doesn't mean we just sit back
and let it happen, because you know what? If our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that
are lost. We've got it. God can't lead you if you're not going anywhere. Think about
that. I mean, God can't pilot, you can't pilot a plane that's parked in the hangar.
Right? You can't drive a car that's in the garage with the garage door shut. You know,
oh God, direct my steps. I mean, think about it. It's like many Christians are sitting
in an armchair, spiritually, with their legs up on the coffee table. Direct my steps, Lord.
Please direct my steps. He's like, what steps? You're not going anywhere. You know, if you
want God to direct your steps, you've got to take some steps. And look, I believe God
will lead us, but we've got to start walking. We've got to start going somewhere. And God
can lead us to win many people to Christ, and to reach many, and we've already reached
hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of Native Americans with the gospel. And God willing,
we're going to continue to reach many more hundreds, and pull them out of this delusion,
this demonic lie of their so-called traditional religion, and to get them all the way over
to the true gospel of Jesus Christ. And we need to do that for all men, starting here
at home, and all over the world, to the uttermost part of the earth. Let's bow our heads and
have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for our church, Lord, and for all
the great workers, and soul winners, and people who love the lost, and they want to get the
gospel to every creature, Lord. And I thank you so much for a church that really is in
one accord, and one spirit about reaching the lost, and that really loves people, and
wants to see people saved. But Lord, help us to understand that in order to get people
saved, we have to tell them the truth, and we need boldness, Lord. We need to get rid
of the political correctness that says to respect all religions, Lord, and we need to
rebuke false religion, and preach that there's only one way, Jesus. And thank you so much
for providing that way of salvation for us, Lord. And we ask that you bless us now as
we go our separate ways. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.