Number 210, Wonderful Grace of Jesus.
Sing it out nice and loud this morning
and don't forget in the chorus, the parts.
You have a men's part on the lower end
and a women's on the upper.
Just give it the best you can.
210, Wonderful Grace of Jesus.
210, singing there starting on the first.
♪ Wonderful grace of Jesus ♪
♪ Great fountain of vision ♪
♪ Grace for even me ♪
♪ Dope of my transgress ♪
- Singing this morning.
Let's open with a heavenly father.
We thank you for this day.
Pray as always Lord,
that you would just be with us for the service.
We thank you for the opportunity to gather here,
to sing praises and learn from your word.
And I just pray that that's something
that we do not take for granted.
I pray that everything for this service
would be done decently in an order.
Pray that you'd open our ears to the message
and that you'd fill pastor with your spirit
as he preaches your word without compromise.
These things we pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Our next hymn, number 56, when we all get to heaven.
(clears throat)
Hymn number 56, five, six, when we all get to heaven.
56.
56 there on the first.
♪ Sing the Lord's name ♪
- Memory verse of the Genesis chapter number one.
That one's nice and short for you kids,
so everyone should get some ice cream on Wednesday
if we do that verse.
Genesis one, verse three.
On the inside, our service times are listed.
Sunday morning at 10.30, Sunday evening at 4.30,
and our Wednesday Bible study through Proverbs
at seven o'clock.
We have all of our soul winning times listed there,
and of course all of those meet here at the church building.
Then we go out into the community preaching the gospel.
We have our updated salvation totals.
Got some new numbers from our soul winners
in the Philippines this week.
So our year to date salvations are now 1,188 salvations,
so praise the Lord for that.
Keep praying for the guys over there.
Upcoming events, July 27th is our next men's preaching night
followed by a potluck and game night.
So join us for that.
Be sure to stick around and hang out.
On August 2nd is our next soul winning marathon
and that's in Anadarko, Oklahoma.
August 27th, coming up real soon through the 31st
is the Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship.
And like I'd said a few times,
Pastor Shelley's released the full itinerary for this.
There is going to be a pickleball tournament.
And so if you wanna participate in that,
make sure you get your partner squared away
and you have to email Steadfast Baptist Church
to get that locked in for you.
I'm sorry, October 6th through the 11th
is the Bahamas Mission Trip.
Make sure if you have not already gotten your passports
and your logistics all scheduled,
now is definitely the time you want to take care of that.
On the right, you'll see we have our prayer list.
Make sure you're keeping for the Eric and Theodore
in prayer in the Philippines.
And of course, if you have any requests,
please email the church.
And we also have some information there
about a visitor card and online giving
if you'd like to do that.
That's gonna be it for announcements this morning.
We'll go ahead and go to our third song.
All right, our third song this morning,
number 40, "No Disappointment in Heaven."
And number 40, four zero, "No Disappointment in Heaven."
40 there, starting on the first.
♪ There's no dis- ♪
Or being turn number, except for 15.
And certain men which came down from Judea
taught the brethren and said,
"Except he be circumcised after the manner of Moses,
ye cannot be saved."
When therefore Paul and Barnabas
had no small dissension and disputation with them,
they determined that Paul and Barnabas
and certain other of them should go up to Jerusalem
unto the apostles and elders about this question.
And being brought on their way
by the church, they passed through Phenice and Samaria,
declaring the conversation of the Gentiles,
and they caused great joy unto all the brethren.
And when they were come to Jerusalem,
they were received of the church
and of the apostles and elders,
and they declared all things that God had done with them.
But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees,
which believed, saying that it was needful
to circumcise them and to command them
to keep the law of Moses.
And the apostles and elders came together
for to consider of this matter.
And when there had been much disputing,
Peter rose up and said unto them,
Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago
God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth
should hear the word of the gospel and believe,
and God, which knoweth the hearts, bear them witness,
giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us.
And put no difference between us and them,
purifying their hearts by faith.
Now therefore, why tempt ye God,
to put a yoke on the neck of the disciples,
which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?
But we believe that through the grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved, even as they.
Then all the multitude kept silence
and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul,
declaring what miracles and wonders God hath wrought
among them the Gentiles by them.
And after they had held their peace,
James answered, saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me.
Simeon hath declared how God at the first
did visit the Gentiles to take out of them
a people for his name, and to disagree the words
of the prophets as it is written.
After this I will return and will build again
the tabernacle of David which has fallen down,
and I will build again the ruins thereof,
and I will set it up that the residue of men
might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles
upon whom my name is called saith the Lord,
who doeth all these things.
Known unto God are all his works
from the beginning of the world.
Wherefore my sentence is that we trouble not them,
which from among the Gentiles are turned to God,
but that we write unto them that they abstain
from pollutions of idols, and from fornication,
and from things strangled, and from blood.
For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him,
being read in the synagogues every Sabbath day.
Then pleased it the apostles and elders with the whole church
to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul
and Barnabas, namely Judas, surname Barsavus,
and Silas, chief men among the brethren.
And they wrote letters by them after this manner,
the apostles and elders and brethren sent greetings
unto the brethren, which are of the Gentiles in Antioch
and Syria and Cilicia.
For as much as we have heard that certain which went out
from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls,
saying, ye must be circumcised and keep the law,
through whom we gave no such commandment,
it seemed good unto us being assembled with one accord
to send chosen men unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,
men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ.
We have sent, therefore, Judas and Silas,
who shall also tell you the same things by my mouth,
for it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us
to lay upon you no greater burden
than these necessary things, that ye abstain from meats
offered to idols, and from blood,
and from things strangled, and from fornication,
from which, if ye keep yourselves,
ye shall do well, very well.
For when they were dismissed, they came to Antioch,
and when they had gathered the multitude together,
they delivered the epistle, which when they had read,
they rejoiced for the consolation.
And Judas and Silas, being prophets also themselves,
exhorted the brethren with many words, and confirmed them.
And after they had tarried there a space,
they were let go in peace from the brethren
and unto the apostles, notwithstanding it pleased Silas
to abide there still.
Paul also and Barnabas continued in Antioch,
teaching and preaching the word of the Lord
with many others also.
And some days after Paul said unto Barnabas,
let us go again and visit our brethren in every city
where we have preached the word of the Lord
and see how they do.
And Barnabas determined to take with him John,
whose surname was Mark, and Paul thought no good
to take with him him with them,
who departed from them in Pamphylia
and went not with them to the work.
And the contention was so sharp between them
that they departed asunder one from the other.
And so Barnabas took Mark, sailed unto Cyprus,
and Paul chose Silas and departed being recommended
by the brethren under the grace of God.
And he went through Syria and Cilicia
confirming the churches, let's pray.
Grace of the Lord, thank you so much for this person
who gathered here today for a beautiful weather.
Pray, Lord, for the time and for the pathology
and the spirit, Lord, of a tender heart to the message,
more about your word, more about your Jesus name.
Amen.
This morning is legalism in light of the Bible.
And just out of curiosity, raise your hand
if you've ever heard a legalist,
the term legalist in regards to Christianity.
Yeah, this is a term that usually is used
by watered down, liberal, new evangelical type churches.
And we often get labeled as legalists.
But this is a misapplication of the term.
And I wanna preach a whole sermon
about legalism this morning.
But before we get into it,
let me just define what I'm talking about.
This definition is from gotquestions.org,
which is a Christian website that just talks
about all sorts of different doctrines
and Christian ideologies.
And it says here, the word legalism
does not occur in the Bible.
It is a term Christians use
to describe a doctrinal position,
emphasizing a system of rules and regulations
for achieving both salvation and spiritual growth.
So what is a legalist?
It's someone who wants to have a very strict adherence
to the law of God, not just to walk in newness of life
and have a good relationship with the Lord,
but to achieve salvation and spiritual growth.
That's what a legalist is.
So we are not a legalist.
Don't let people put that label on us.
We are not legalists.
It says legalists believe in and demand
a strict literal adherence to rules and regulations.
Now, keep that sentence in mind in the context
of what they just said for achieving salvation
and spiritual growth.
Doctrinally, it is a position essentially opposed to grace.
Those who hold a legalistic position
often fail to see the real purpose for law,
especially the purpose of the Old Testament law of Moses,
which is to be our schoolmaster or tutor
to bring us to Christ.
So again, legalists,
they're people that believe in work salvation
on top of keeping the law to grow spiritually.
And they often reject like the spirit of the law,
they just focus on the letter of the law.
And so let's talk about this.
Number one, legalists teach works salvation.
Why are we not legalists?
Because number one, legalists teach works salvation.
Look at Acts 15 verse one, the Bible says,
"And certain men which came down from Judea
"taught the brethren and said,
"'Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses,
"'ye cannot be saved.'"
This is what a legalist is,
is they wanna point you to some commandment
or some law in the Bible,
and they'll say, "Hey, unless you do these commandments,
"you cannot be saved."
Now, that is not what Anchor Baptist Church teaches.
That is not what the new IFB teaches.
And it is crazy to me, of all the accusations that we get,
and of all the lies that are gonna be told about us,
it's so funny how some people will accuse us
of teaching works salvation.
It's so funny how guys like Pastor Joe Jones
will say that the new IFB is no longer the new IFB,
we are the Jew IFB.
I didn't think we'd get accused
of being Jew worshipers over here, following Judaism,
but just like the Jews hate the grace of God,
and they despise the grace of God,
they wanna keep the commandments to be saved,
that is now the accusation being thrown towards us
that we are somehow legalists.
But legalists, let me remind you, teach works salvation.
Now, that is not what we believe.
Go to Ephesians chapter two.
So this is from our doctrinal statement.
Our doctrinal statement on our website says this,
salvation is a free gift purchased by Jesus Christ's life,
death, burial, and resurrection,
and is offered to all who believe in Him.
Salvation can only be obtained
when a sinner places all of their faith and trust
in Jesus Christ alone to take them to heaven.
We vehemently reject all forms of works-based salvation.
One does not need to be baptized, repent of sins,
or follow the commandments to go to heaven.
No amount of doing good or refraining from evil
can pardon your sins and give you eternal life.
I was just trying to be as long-winded
and specific as possible saying,
hey, we reject works salvation.
We are not going to point to any commandment in the law
and say, well, you have to keep this commandment to be saved.
No, salvation is by faith.
Ephesians 2, verse 8, the Bible says,
for by grace are ye saved through faith,
and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God,
not of works, lest any man should boast.
So salvation is a gift.
And some people twist this verse
and say that the gift of God is faith.
But no, the gift of God is eternal life.
It's very clear what this verse is saying.
It's not of works, lest any man should boast.
See, what were the Jews constantly doing
is they were constantly bragging or boasting
about their adherence to the law.
Like, oh yeah, we're circumcised.
We're God's chosen people.
We follow the commandments.
We have the Torah.
We have all this stuff.
And they're basically boasting in their works
and trusting in that to get them to heaven.
We're saying, hey, there's nothing that we do
that can earn our salvation.
We're giving all the glory to Jesus.
We're saying, hey, he died for our sins.
He was buried.
He rose again, and we're only trusting in him
to take us to heaven.
So that's why we are not legalists.
Look at verse number two of Acts 15.
I should've told you to keep your place there.
Acts chapter 15, verse number two.
It says, when therefore Paul and Barnabas
had no small dissension and disputation with them,
they determined that Paul and Barnabas
and certain other of them should go up to Jerusalem
unto the apostles and elders about this question.
So Paul and Barnabas, they didn't have some small issue
with the doctrine of salvation.
They're not saying like, yeah, we can kind of agree
to disagree on this, it's not really worth our fight
and our energy and our effort.
He's saying, no, salvation's a big deal.
And of all the things to make a big deal about,
isn't salvation like one of the top priorities
that we fight over?
You know, we're not gonna have fellowship
with anyone who believes that you have to repent
of your sins to be saved.
We're not gonna yoke up with a church
and be friends with a church that says,
oh yeah, salvation's by faith,
but you have to do the works.
I mean, how many people say that stupid statement?
Well, they'll give lip service to salvation being by faith,
but they're like, oh, of course, it's just by faith.
It's a totally free gift.
But I mean, you can't just live however you want.
I mean, you can't just ignore the commandments.
You have to be baptized.
You have to go to church.
You have to repent of your sins.
I mean, I ran into a woman like this yesterday
when we were soul winning,
and it took a long time to break her down
and to humble her and to make her realize,
hey, you're actually trusting in yourself by saying this.
What you're saying is that you have to do all these works
to get to heaven, but the truth is,
is that you are a sinner.
And even if you do some good in your life,
there's still that sin that has to be paid for.
Jesus paid for it.
The only way you can be forgiven of your sins
is by believing in Jesus Christ.
Look at verse three.
In being brought on their way by the church,
they passed through Venus and Samaria,
declaring the conversion of the Gentiles,
and they caused great joy unto all the brethren.
And when they were come to Jerusalem,
they were received of the church
and of the apostles and elders,
and they declared all things that God had done with them.
But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees,
which believed, saying that it was needful
to circumcise them and to command them
to keep the law of Moses.
So sometimes you even have these Christian-type Judaizers,
people who will give lip service to Christianity,
to the gospel, but then they'll try to teach
"Well, you also have to have works.
You also need to fulfill the law."
And that's what these Pharisees are saying.
They're saying, "Oh, it's needful to be circumcised.
It's needful to keep the law of Moses."
Now, keep your place there and go to Genesis 17,
Genesis chapter 17.
Now, hopefully you know that there's a difference
in the Old Testament between the moral law
and the ceremonial law.
You have moral laws like, "Thou shall not kill.
Thou shall not steal.
Thou shall not commit adultery."
These laws are absolutely timeless
and are still in effect today.
Jesus dying on the cross did not change the fact
that God does not want us to commit adultery
and does not want us murdering people, right?
But then there's things in the Old Testament
that were ceremonial laws,
that were a picture of things to come,
and circumcision is one of those ceremonial laws.
Look at Genesis 17, verse 10.
It says, "This is my covenant, which ye shall keep
between me and you, and thy seed after thee.
Every man child among you shall be circumcised,
and ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin,
and it shall be," notice, a what?
"Token of the covenant betwixt me and you."
Notice, circumcision was not the covenant itself.
Circumcision did not take someone to heaven.
Circumcision did not make someone, you know,
saved in the eyes of God.
Circumcision was a token, or what?
A picture of the covenant between God and his people.
Now here's the question.
Does that mean that we need to be circumcised today
in the New Testament?
The answer is absolutely not.
We do not need to be circumcised today.
And I'll show you that in Romans chapter two.
Romans chapter number two.
Now here's the thing.
Should we not kill today?
Of course we should not kill today.
Should we not steal?
Of course we should not steal today.
But circumcision is not important whatsoever
in the New Testament.
Romans two verse 25.
Notice what it says,
"For circumcision verily profiteth if thou keep the law,
but if thou be a breaker of the law,
thy circumcision is made uncircumcision."
This is what Paul is saying.
He's saying, hey, if you wanna try to be justified
in the eyes of God and try to earn your way to heaven
by perfectly keeping all the commandments,
then yes, circumcision will profit you.
If you could just never sin
and keep all the commandments perfectly,
then yeah, you need to be circumcised.
But he's being kind of tongue in cheek here
because obviously we know
that we can't keep God's law perfectly,
that we have sin, and so that's why he says hey,
but if thou be a breaker of the law,
which that's exactly 100% of the people he's talking to,
he says thy circumcision is made uncircumcision.
So he's saying hey,
even if you've kept this one portion of the law,
you're counted as if you didn't because you're a sinner
and you can't be justified by your works.
Therefore, verse 26, therefore,
if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law,
shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision?
So if someone does not get circumcised
according to the letter of the law of Moses,
but they put all their faith in Jesus Christ
and all of his righteousness is imputed to us,
we have all of his righteousness on our account,
well, then God looks at us
and it's like we've kept every single law perfectly.
He looks at our new man and our new man has never sinned.
It's never transgressed God's commandments.
So even if we're uncircumcised, he looks at us,
he's like, hey, it's like you've been circumcised
spiritually. That's why it says in verse number 27,
and shall not uncircumcision, which is by nature,
if it fulfill the law, judge thee,
who by the letter and circumcision
dust transgress the law.
It's saying like, hey, these Gentiles,
they're actually fulfilling the law
through faith in Jesus Christ.
And they weren't even the ones that were given
the commandments and the law of Moses
and the oracles of God.
And they're somehow keeping the law perfectly.
How? Through faith in Jesus Christ.
Don't you think that's gonna judge you
who's transgressing the law?
And that's what the Jews do.
What do they do?
They constantly boast in their works,
boast in their flesh,
boast in them keeping the law,
yet the law is actually condemning them.
The law is actually judging them
because they've broken the law.
Go to Romans chapter four.
Romans chapter four.
Let's look at some more on this
when it comes to circumcision.
Do we need to keep this today?
Romans chapter four verse six.
Even as David also described it,
the blessedness of the man
unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works.
Now, is circumcision work?
Yeah, that's a lot of work.
That's a work that I want no part of, okay?
That's a lot of pain
and you have to go through a lot to do that.
But yet David's describing how the man is blessed
when God imputes righteousness to him without works.
I mean, how do work salvationists get around this
where we see that God is giving righteousness to someone
who's not doing any work.
They're not keeping the commandment.
They're not repenting of their sins.
Verse seven, saying blessed are they
whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered.
See, that's the great thing about salvation
is that when you get saved,
God did not just forgive us of our past sins.
He's forgiven us of our current and future sins as well.
Verse number eight, blessed is the man
to whom the Lord will not impute sin.
Come with this blessedness then upon the notice,
circumcision only or upon the uncircumcision also.
For we say that faith was reckoned
to Abraham for righteousness.
So he's saying, does this salvation only apply
to the Jews, to the circumcision,
or to the Gentiles, the uncircumcision?
Hey, faith was counted to Abraham for righteousness,
not his circumcision.
How was it then reckoned?
When he was in circumcision or in uncircumcision?
Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.
So even in the Old Testament,
the New Testament here is giving us some commentary
on how Abraham got his righteousness,
and Paul's asking this question.
Was it that physical act of getting circumcised
that gave Abraham any righteousness whatsoever?
He's saying no, it was actually rendered to him
in uncircumcision.
Why?
Verse 11, and he received the notice,
sign of circumcision,
a seal of the righteousness of the faith,
which he had yet being uncircumcised.
So he had that faith when he was uncircumcised,
that he might be the father of all them that believe,
though they be not circumcised,
that righteousness might be imputed unto them also.
What does the Old Testament say circumcision is?
It's a token.
What does the New Testament say circumcision was?
It's a sign.
It is a picture.
That's why circumcision is simply just a ceremonial law.
It's not a moral law.
Therefore, it is not something that is in effect today.
And even in the Old Testament, when it was in effect,
that token or that sign did not actually give anyone righteousness.
And, you know, a lot of dispensationalists will get confused on this.
And they'll think like, well, in the Old Testament,
salvation was a mix of faith and works.
But that's not true, according to this passage, because the work that he did
of getting circumcised, that's not when that righteousness was imputed to him.
It was the faith that was imputed righteousness to him.
Go back to Acts, Chapter 15.
So these Pharisees, are they right or wrong when they're saying, hey,
it's needful for us to be circumcised and to keep the law of Moses?
They're absolutely wrong.
OK, it's not needful today to do that.
And then verse six, it says, and the apostles and elders came together
for to consider of this matter.
And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up and said unto them,
men and brethren, you know how that a good while ago, God made choice among us
that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel and believe.
And God, which knoweth the hearts, bear them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost,
even as he did unto us, and put no difference between us and them,
purifying their hearts by faith.
Now, therefore, why tempt God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples,
which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?
He's saying, look, why is it that you're trying to get people to keep the law,
to be saved or to get circumcised, to get saved when our fathers couldn't bear that?
Our fathers weren't saved by that.
Why do you think that these Gentiles who weren't even given circumcision,
who weren't even given the law, why are you trying to put that yoke of bondage upon their neck?
Let me tell you who the real legalists today are.
They're all the new evangelical churches that teach that salvation is by works and faith.
Those are the real legalists.
And it's so funny how us who, yeah, we preach hard.
Yeah, we preach that we should keep God's commandments to be pleasing in His sight,
to have a good relationship with Him, to just live a good life.
They'll look at us and say, "Oh, you guys are like the Pharisees.
You guys are the legalists."
It's like, "No, no, no.
You're like the Pharisees because you're the one that's saying that we have to do
works to be saved.
You're the one that's saying that God's grace isn't enough.
His death on the cross wasn't enough.
We have to help Jesus with our meager, dirty, rag, good works to earn our way to heaven.
No, you are the legalists, my friend.
It's the most liberal, watered down churches who are such hypocrites today, they're the
real legalists.
And so don't let people put this false accusation on us that we're somehow legalists because
guess what?
Legalists believe in work salvation and that is something that we vehemently reject.
Look at verse number 11, here's what we believe.
But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even
as they.
You want to know how Jews can be saved today?
Through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
How do they receive that grace?
Well, they actually have to put their faith in him.
They actually have to reject their Babylonian, Talmudic, false religion of Judaism, and they
need to say, "Hey, you know what?
Jesus actually is the Messiah, and we're not going to get ourselves to heaven by getting
circumcised or by putting a flaktery on our head or by bobbing our head against the wall
in Jerusalem.
You're going to get saved by putting your faith in Jesus Christ."
And if you don't do that, you're going to hell.
And you know what?
Those that reject Jesus as the Messiah are going to the exact same hell as the New Evangelicals
who believe that Jesus is the Messiah, but they also believe that they have to do works
to be saved.
They're going to the same exact hell.
Legalists are not saved, folks.
Go to Matthew chapter number seven, Matthew chapter number seven.
Now, let's look at some more verses that just prove that you cannot be saved by keeping
the commandments.
And you know, it's really sad that this false gospel has been crept in even to a lot of
fundamental Baptist churches today.
Not just because someone is a fundamental Baptist, are they going to for sure be right
on salvation?
Now, here's the thing, if you're just picking random churches, your best bet is obviously
going to be a fundamental Baptist church to find someone who's saved.
But there are fundamental Baptists as well that believe in this repent of your sins,
false gospel.
You know, a guy like Stacey Shifflett, he is a fundamental Baptist, but let me tell
you something, that guy's a legalist and he's going to split hell wide open.
In Matthew chapter 7 verse 21, Jesus said, "Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord,
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which
is in heaven."
And people say, "Oh, see, Jesus is saying you've got to do works to be saved.
He's saying you've got to do the will of the Father to be saved.
Doesn't that disprove salvation by faith alone?"
No, no, no.
Keep reading.
Notice what these people are trusting in to get them to 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 done many wonderful works."
You know what a lot of people are going to do?
They're going to be shocked when they get to hell.
They're going to say, "Oh, wasn't I a Jew?
Wasn't I circumcised?
Didn't I keep the law?
Didn't I keep the Talmud?
Didn't I do all these great things?"
A lot of unsaved Baptists are going to say, "Didn't I repent of all my sins?"
The answer is no, you didn't.
It's impossible to repent of all your sins.
Didn't I just keep the law perfectly from my youth up?
No.
No, you didn't.
No one has.
They're going to be shocked when they go to hell and they're going to say, "Haven't we
done many wonderful works?"
What are they doing?
They're trusting in their works to save them.
It's so funny.
People will go to this verse to disprove salvation by faith in Jesus Christ when these people
are going to hell because they're trusting in their works.
Then Jesus says right here in verse 23, "And then will I profess unto them, I never knew
you.
Depart from me, ye that work iniquity."
He's saying, "No, you weren't doing many wonderful works.
You're a sinner.
You worked iniquity, is what you did."
And notice he doesn't say, "I used to know you, but then you lost your salvation.
Oh, you didn't ask for forgiveness enough times.
You didn't repent of enough sins, so then I took your salvation away."
No, no, no.
You can't lose your salvation.
Once you have it, you have it forever.
The fact is, Jesus never knew these people, and let me tell you something.
If you believe in a salvation that is a mix of faith and works, you've never been saved.
Jesus has never known you.
It's not that you've lost your salvation, you've just never been saved.
And we have to explain this to people out soul winning because they're kind of surprised.
They're like, what do you mean I was never saved?
I went to church.
What do you mean I was never saved?
I know the gospel.
I know who the Lord Jesus Christ is.
I know he died on the cross.
I know he rose from the dead.
And they're kind of like stuck in this prideful state of thinking that they've got everything
figured out.
And we have to tell them, no, no, no, you were trusting in yourself and you were never
saved.
The gospel says that it's by faith alone and you have to realize, hey, I was believing
something wrong before.
You have to actually change your mind and decide to put all of your faith in Jesus Christ.
That's what real repentance is.
That's what it means to repent.
It means you are believing something to take you to heaven and you change your mind and
you put all your faith in him.
You know, I got a Hindu saved a few weeks ago.
That guy repented for salvation.
Why?
Because he was trusting in his billions of gods and his karma and his due goodism to
get him to heaven.
And he realized, Hey, Jesus is the Messiah.
Jesus is God.
He's the only God.
And he decided to put all of his faith in Jesus.
And that Hindu, that former Hindu is now a Christian and he's going to heaven while
the legalists, fake Christians are going to be going to hell.
Let's go to John three, John chapter number three, one of the most famous passages here
in all of history, yet so many people don't understand it.
And I was soul winning with brother Matt and brother chase yesterday and we were preaching
to this woman and she literally quoted John three, 16 in the King James version to us
perfectly.
And she was all smug and kind of smiling about how smart she is that she knew it.
But yet she was unsaved.
Yet she thought that salvation was by works.
And it was one of those salvations that just took a lot of patience because I'm trying
to instruct her and give her knowledge.
She just wanted to, oh yeah, oh yeah, I know, but I mean, you can't just live however you
want.
Oh, I mean, there's no free passes.
It's not like a free gift or anything.
Uh, yeah, it is just like be quiet for a minute.
Let me help you.
You're, you're about to be burning.
Let me pull you out of the fire here.
And finally it broke through, but you know, she was quoting these verses.
Look at John three 15 that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal
life.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
The most famous verse in the Bible that everyone can quote, it doesn't say whosoever lives
a good life.
It doesn't say whosoever repents of their sins, goes to church, follows the commandments,
gets circumcised, it's whosoever believe it.
And what do we know believe means?
Of course we know it means to trust.
If you read Ephesians chapter 1, it makes that very, very clear.
To believe in Jesus does not simply mean that you believe he's real, that you have some
sort of head knowledge about the facts of Jesus Christ.
It means that you're trusting in what he did for you to take you to heaven.
It's not enough just to believe that Jesus is real, and this is the straw man that people
level against us, is, "Oh, you're just saying that you could just say words with your mouth
and go to heaven."
No, no, you have to truly believe that Jesus Christ is God, that he is the Messiah, that
he lived a perfect life, that he paid the price for your sins by dying on the cross,
going to hell, raising again from the dead.
The whole thing, you have to believe all of that about him to be saved.
Now, I understand that some people who don't believe Jesus went to hell, but they do believe
Jesus paid for their sins.
You do have to believe that to be saved.
Verse number 18, notice this, "He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth
not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten
Son of God."
You can see how the gospel of John is definitely written with the purpose of preaching the
gospel and getting people to faith in Jesus Christ, because it's just so clear on what
is the issue with someone that's going to hell.
It's the fact that they haven't believed.
That's why they're condemned, and why is someone going to heaven?
Verse 36, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not
the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him."
You know, one of the reasons why people who believe in work salvation are just so wrong,
and really there's a thousand reasons we could talk about, but one of the reasons that you
just know your argument is wrong is they can never go to the gospel of John to prove their
doctrine on salvation, which the gospel of John specifically says that it was written
for the purpose that you might believe in Jesus Christ and have life through his name.
So the Bible is telling you, here's why John was written, so that you could believe in
Christ so that you could be saved and go to heaven.
Now why is it that the whole book that is written to get people saved, why doesn't
it say repent anywhere?
If we had to repent of our sins to be saved, why doesn't it say that in the book of John?
You know what they want to do?
They want to take you to James 2, which usually they don't even know where that is in the
Bible.
They'll just quote to you, "Well, faith without works is dead."
They don't know the context of James 2.
They can't explain to you anything about the chapter.
They don't even know where it is in the Bible, but let's just ignore the entire Gospel of
John.
I mean, isn't John in Romans?
That's what a lot of people read.
Sometimes, you know, plenty of Baptist churches throughout history, they produce pamphlets
where it's just like John in Romans.
They go out soul-winding, they just give people John in Romans.
It's some of the most famous scripture ever.
Why?
Because it teaches you about salvation.
And you know what you're not going to find anywhere in the entire Bible is work salvation.
But especially you're not going to find it in John and Romans.
Go to Galatians chapter 2, Galatians chapter 2.
You know the apostle Paul, his whole ministry, he was fighting against these Judaizers.
And that's what the whole book of Galatians really is about, is Judaizers are creeping
in and trying to teach this false gospel that it's not a completely different gospel he
talks about in chapter 1, but it's a perversion of the gospel that teaches works.
But notice what he says in Galatians 2.16, and I know I've pointed this out before, but
you can kind of tell that Paul is just banging his head against the wall trying to fight
against this doctrine.
Because it's not some small disputation or dissension that he has with people that believe
in works.
So that's why he says in Galatians 2.16, knowing that a man is not justified by the
works of the law.
You know what that means?
You are not going to heaven by getting circumcised.
You are not going to heaven by, you know, not stealing or any of the laws of the word
of God.
A man is not justified by the works of the law but by the faith of Jesus Christ.
Even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ
and not by the works of the law for by the works of the law, notice, shall no flesh be
justified.
See, it's not like the Jews have some special covenant and for them, oh, it's a mix of faith
and works with them or it's not that the people in the Old Testament had a different covenant
and it's not that people in the future will have a different covenant like the dispensationalist
teach.
No, it's just no flesh will ever be justified by the law, past, present, and future, no
one.
Look at verse 21, "I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness come by
the law, then Christ is dead in vain."
Notice he's saying, if righteousness come by the law, you know what that means?
It means it doesn't come by the law, which he just got done explaining, but he's saying
let's play a thought experiment here, if salvation could come by keeping the commandments, keeping
the law of God, well then Christ is dead in vain.
Why is it that God had to sacrifice his only begotten son?
Why is it Jesus Christ had to endure the spitting in his face, the mocking, the tearing of his
beard, the whipping, the scourging, the terrible drink he was given, the six agonizing hours
dying on the cross, three days, three nights, burning in hell.
Why would Jesus have to do that if I could just earn my own way to heaven?
Why would God give his son to go through all that torture and pain, and just the humili...
I can't even speak right now, what am I trying to say?
Humiliation of the cross, excuse me.
Why would God allow Jesus Christ to go through that humiliation if I could just keep the
law and be saved?
It doesn't make any sense.
And you know what work salvation is?
It is so blasphemous to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Because what you're saying is like, "Oh Jesus, I don't need your sacrifice.
You died on the cross for no reason because guess what, I could get myself there."
That's what work salvationists actually believe at the end of the day.
They may not verbalize that to you, but that is what they believe and that's what Paul
is explaining.
He's saying this is actually what's happening is, "Hey, Christ is dead in vain if salvation
were by works."
Go to Galatians 5, Galatians chapter number 5.
Look at verse number 2, Galatians 5 verse 2, "Behold, I, Paul, say unto you that if
ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing."
Oh, okay Pharisees, you want to sit here and say that it's needful to be circumcised
and to keep the law of Moses?
Okay, guess what?
Then Christ profits you nothing.
If you want to be justified by circumcision or keeping the law, well then you have to
keep all of it perfectly and Christ's sacrifice is not going to be applied to you because
you're trying to be justified of your own works.
Verse 3, "For I testify again to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to
do the whole law."
And you know, that's the thing that works salvationists don't understand, it's like
if you have to keep one portion of the law to be saved, then you have to keep all of
it.
And you know, sometimes you even get people that are so prideful that you say, "Hey,
have you ever sinned before?"
"No, I've never sinned."
"No, I've never lied before."
You're an idiot.
And it's just like stop being so stupid because that pride and stupidity is going to send
you to an eternal hell where you will be burning for all of eternity in suffering
and anguish.
And man, sometimes this just hits me like I'll walk away from the door when I just try
to get someone saved and they said something to me like that and I walk away and I'm just
like, wow, that person is going to hell and that person is probably not going to change
their mind.
If you're that prideful, if you're that entrenched in stupidity and bad ideas, chances are you're
probably sealed at that point.
And it's just sometimes I walk away from doors being like, wow, I just looked at the face
of someone who's going to be spending eternity in hell.
That's the truth.
You know, people need to humble themselves today and realize salvation's a gift by Christ.
Look at verse number four.
Christ has become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law, you're fallen
from grace.
Verse four is a great verse to underline and memorize, to use out soul winning, because
this is a great verse to prove that it's not just if you get circumcised, Christ will profit
you nothing.
If you're trusting in any type of work whatsoever and Jesus, you're going to hell.
If you're trusting in 99% Jesus' sacrifice, 1% your own good works, well then Christ profits
you nothing.
None of it goes on your account and you will go to hell.
Go to Romans 11.
Romans chapter 11.
You know, this is just the foundational doctrines of the faith we're talking about here today.
And it's one of the things that we believe most strongly as a church.
And it's just asinine that someone would compare us to Jews, to Pharisees, and call us the
Jew IFB.
You want to talk about a railer.
You want to talk about a person who's confounded.
You want to talk about a person who makes me doubt their salvation, that they can't
understand anything in the Bible.
It's a guy like Pastor Jones.
You know, obviously I hope everyone knows this.
This guy is wicked and you shouldn't listen to this guy.
You shouldn't promote this guy.
I don't think anyone is.
But man, oh man, Romans chapter 11 verse 6, "And if by grace, then is it no more of works."
Hey, we believe in salvation by grace.
You know what that means?
We believe that no works have anything to do with your salvation.
Otherwise, grace is no more grace.
But if it be of works, then it is no more grace.
Otherwise, work is no more work.
Paul just wants to say it both ways, flip upside down, spin you around, show you every
single angle of how faith does not equal works.
And this is important because sometimes people just get messed up on their terminology.
And when they hear salvation is by faith, what they're actually hearing is salvation
is by being faithful, by doing good, by being a good person, keeping the commandments.
This is what a lot of people believe.
And so it's so important out soul winning that you define what it means to believe in
Jesus, that you tell them, hey, believing in Jesus does not just mean that you believe
he's real and believing in Jesus does not just mean that you're doing good works because
these things are opposed to each other.
Romans 11 six teaches, go to first Corinthians chapter number one, first Corinthians chapter
number one.
You know, we talked about circumcision, the law, the commandments, good works.
Let's talk about one more specific good work that a lot of people teach you have to do
to be saved.
And that's baptism.
And the Church of Christ teaches this, this idea of baptismal regeneration, that you have
to go through the physical process of being baptized in water to go to heaven.
Is this true?
Everything I just showed you is that the Bible's teaching that it's by faith, not of works.
Is getting baptized a work?
Yes it is.
So they're already debunked.
But here's another good verse to prove this, 1 Corinthians 1, verse 14.
Paul said, "I thank God that I baptized none of you but Crispus and Gaius."
Now that's a pretty weird thing to say if baptism is required for salvation.
Like what if I just said, "Man, I thank God that I didn't get anyone saved except for
two people."
Hey guys, I went out soul winning.
I just thank God that in all my soul winning career, I've gotten two people saved.
I thank God for that.
It's like, why would you be thanking God for such a small number?
I mean, He's the Apostle Paul.
The guy is turning the world upside down with the gospel.
He's starting churches in all these different countries and it's like, "Alright Paul, here's
your missionary letter."
It's like the old IFB.
He's like, "Yeah, two salvations."
You really think that Paul had two salvations?
That's what you'd have to believe if you think that salvation is by getting baptized.
He said, "Lest any should say that I had baptized in my own name, and I baptized also the household
of Stephanas."
He's like, "I missed one.
All right, it's actually three.
Let me update the letter.
I got the household of Stephanas.
Besides, I know not whether I baptized any other."
So he can't even remember because this isn't even what's really on his mind.
This isn't his main mission in life is to go baptize people.
He can't even remember how many people he's really done it to.
Why?
Four, meaning because Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel.
Not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ shall be made of none effect.
The apostle Paul, he had a special mission from the Lord Jesus Christ.
He was the apostle to the Gentiles.
He went out and did a great work for the Lord, getting Christianity kickstarted in the New
Testament, and his primary focus of his ministry was not to get people baptized.
Now, did he baptize some people?
Yeah, he did.
But the thing is, what was the priority of his ministry?
It was preaching the gospel.
What does that mean?
That means that baptism has nothing to do with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
If you're going to say that baptism saves, well, then you're going to have to say that
the gospel isn't what saves you then, because the gospel is not baptism, according to First
Corinthians chapter number one.
Go to Romans two, Romans chapter number two.
So number one, what do we talk about?
Legalists believe in work salvation.
This is why we're not legalists, because they believe in works salvation.
Number two, legalists miss the spirit of the law.
Here's the problem with legalists.
Number one, they're not saved.
They believe in work salvation.
Also, legalists, they focus only on the letter of the law and they completely ignore the
spirit of the law.
And guess what?
I think you should focus on both.
We actually emphasize both as Baptists, but they miss the spirit of the law.
Romans 2 verse 27, "And shall not uncircumcision, which is by nature, if it fulfill the law,
judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision, dost transgress the law.
For he is not a Jew, which is one inwardly, neither is that circumcision, which is outward
in the flesh; but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the
heart," notice, "in the spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but
of God."
So notice, legalists, they focus on the letter of the law and miss the spirit of the law.
And this is what a lot of people do today when they talk about God's chosen people and
who the Jews are today.
They don't look at things through a spiritual lens.
They don't try to look at scripture and understand what it means to be a Jew spiritually or what
it means to be circumcised spiritually by putting our faith in Christ.
They only want to focus on the letter.
So they'll say, "Hey, the physical descendants of Abraham and the people who physically get
circumcised and the people who physically bang their head on the wall in Israel, these
are God's chosen people.
And they discount Christians who, according to this verse, we're the true Israel, we're
the true Jews through the Spirit.
I'll read for you 1 John 2 22, "Who is a liar, but he that denyeth that Jesus is the
Christ.
He is anti-Christ that denyeth the Father and the Son.
Whosoever denyeth the Son, the same hath not the Father.
He that acknowledgeeth the Son, hath the Father also."
So think about this, legalists, they are completely willing to ignore and swallow this giant camel
called Jews hate Jesus Christ.
Jews rejected Jesus as the Messiah.
The Bible says that the Jews are anti-Christ.
The Bible says that the Jews are contrary to all men, that they please not God, that
they are the synagogue of Satan.
They'll swallow that camel and just completely ignore that and strain at a gnat by saying,
but they're circumcised though.
What is that?
They're focusing on the letter of the law and ignoring the spirit of the law, and you
will get into trouble in Bible interpretation if you only focus on the letter of the law
and not the spirit of the law as well.
We want both.
You know, for example, in the Old Testament, it talks about how, hey, if you've got this
ox and it was known to push in times past, it was known to be aggressive, and you did
not restrain that beast, you did not take care of that beast, and that ox went out and
killed someone, that there would be a punishment for that.
Now, if we just say, "Letter of the law only," okay, only if an ox kills you can we have
this prosecuted in the criminal justice system.
That's stupid.
That is dumb.
That's a legalistic way of thinking, looking at it as if it only says an ox, whereas if
you understand the spirit of the law, you should realize that just about every pit bull
should be lined up against the wall and shot in the back of the head, because pit bulls
are a bunch of super aggressive, terrible animals, and go out and constantly eat and
kill children.
It's just an aggressive breed and it's like, if you've got a pit bull and it's aggressive
and it goes and kills a child, that should be prosecuted in our criminal justice system.
But the pious, pharisaical legalist will say, "No, it says an ox only."
Well, you know, I've heard this.
Well, Leviticus 20.13 says, "If a man shall lie with mankind as he lied with a woman."
It's only talking about men there.
It doesn't say anything about lesbians.
And I've literally heard Christians try to say, "No, lesbianism's different.
God's not as upset with lesbianism.
He doesn't deserve the death penalty."
Because they're looking at things with the letter of the law only.
Same thing, oftentimes with laws with adultery.
Some people will try to use the laws of adultery and say, "No, this only applies to the man.
Only the man that commits adultery is going to be put to death."
It's like, no, why don't we look at the spirit of the law as well, okay?
Or we could look at laws like Deuteronomy 22.5, where God condemns cross-dressing.
He's saying, "Hey, man's not supposed to put on a woman's garment.
A woman is not supposed to put on a man's garment."
That's the letter of the law.
But what is the spirit of the law?
What is it that God wants us to learn from that is that God wants women to look like
women.
And God wants men to look like men.
And sometimes the legalistic, farasacal types will be like, "Well, this is a woman's pair
of car hearts.
This is the woman's car heart section.
See, this is a woman's garment.
You're an idiot.
You're a legalist.
You're someone that does not understand the difference between the letter and the spirit
of the law.
We should focus on both."
That's what we as Christians believe is focusing on both.
Let's go to Romans chapter 2 again.
Now Romans chapter 2, the primary audience of this chapter is the Jews and you know that
because Paul keeps addressing the Jews in this chapter.
Notice what it says in verse 17, "Behold, thou art called a Jew," so very clear who
he's talking to here, "and restest in the law and makest thy boast of God."
So Jews, they're resting their salvation, they're putting the hope of their salvation
in the law, in the commandments of God, and they're boasting, right?
They're making their boast, "Oh, we're God's chosen people, we're special, we're not like
you goyim cattle," and Jews have this same exact attitude today.
Verse 18, "And knowest his will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being
instructed out of the law."
So notice, they'll give their stamp of approval to the law of God, that doesn't mean that
they understand it, that doesn't mean that they apply it correctly, but they'll lip service
give to the letter of the law, "and art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind,
a light of them which are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes,
which has the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law."
So the Jews are all puffed up saying, "We've got the law, we're the teachers of God's word
here, we're the instructors of the foolish and the babes."
But notice, they're the real fools, because in 21 it says, "Thou therefore which teachest
another, teachest thou not thyself?
Thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal?
Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery?
Thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?"
So notice the Jews, they'll give you lip service to the law of God, but they're constantly
breaking the law of God and blaspheming God through their works all the time.
An example of this is in the Talmud.
The Talmud gives all these different specifications for when certain "sins" are okay for them.
You know, it talks about all sorts of gross stuff like underage girls and stuff like that.
It's horrific.
I'm not even going to read that kind of stuff.
But, you know, another example like in the New Testament is where the Bible teaches us
to honor our father and mother.
And what does that mean?
It means to take care of them financially in their old age.
But the Jews, they have this rule saying like, "Well, if you just give that money to church,
if you just say it's a gift, if you just say it's korban, then you'll be free from honoring
your mother and father."
And Jesus rebuked them for that.
He's saying, "Hey, you're making void the commandments of God through your traditions,
through your man-made laws."
So it's like, you got all these Jews that, yeah, they'll say, "Don't steal," but then
the Talmud's like, "Well, you could steal from Gentiles."
And it's like, they'll sit there and say, "Thou shall not steal," but they're just
only focusing on that letter of the law, then they mess it all up in their Talmud because
they don't follow the spirit of the law.
Notice verse 23, "Thou that makest thy boast of the law through breaking the law dishonorous
thou God, for the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you," as it is
written.
Man, a lot of people would think that's a pretty anti-Semitic statement there, where
Paul's saying, "Look, the Gentiles are looking at you guys.
The Gentile is looking at the religious Jews and the Pharisees, and they're seeing how
wicked they are.
They're seeing what hypocrites they are, how they're saying don't steal, don't blaspheme,
don't commit adultery, don't worship idols, and then they're watching them break God's
law and constantly dishonor God through breaking law, and the Gentiles are doing what?
Blaspheming God because of the Jews.
They're saying, "Is this the real God?
Is this the real religion?
Is this the real Bible?"
Because they're looking at how hypocritical and disgusting the religious Jews were.
That's what Paul's saying.
"For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you," as it is written.
Go to Matthew 23.
Matthew chapter 23.
Now here's the thing.
Jesus is not against us keeping the letter of the law.
He wants us to keep the law, but he also wants us to understand the spirit of the law as
well.
Matthew 23 verse 23, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye pay tithe
of mint and anise and cumin," so is there anything wrong with doing that?
No.
"You have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith.
These ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone."
He's not saying, "Hey, I'm mad at you because you tithed."
No, he's saying you ought to have done that.
And they were even very, very meticulous in their tithing.
Their tithing of their spices, they're really, you know, being really according to the letter
of the law, tithing, and Jesus says, "Hey, those ought you to have done, but you shouldn't
have left off mercy.
You shouldn't have left off judgment.
You shouldn't have left off faith."
And here's the thing, God wants us to keep His commandments, God wants us to keep the
letter of the law, but He wants us to be doing it out of a pure heart.
He wants us to be doing things for the right reason.
He doesn't want us to be keeping the law thinking that's going to take us to heaven.
You know, He doesn't want you, you know, refraining from cross dressing because you think that's
going to take you to heaven.
He wants you to do it because you want to please the Lord and not be an abomination in
His sight.
That's the difference there between the law and the spirit.
Verse 24, He says this, "You blind guides, which strain at a gnat and swallow a camel,
woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
For you make clean the outside of the cup of the platter, but within they are full of
extortion and excess."
So, you know, the type of stuff that the Pharisees are doing, they're like, oh, look at how special
we are.
Look at how godly we are.
We are tithing everything perfectly.
Have you seen my long flowing garments and how righteous I am?
Have you seen my public prayers that I'm praying in the marketplace?
Have you seen me blow the trumpet when I gave alms to that person?
And they're just like showcasing their righteousness.
Look at how good we are keeping the letter of the law.
But then behind closed doors, they're wicked as hell.
Behind closed doors, they're making people twofold more the child of hell than themselves.
Behind closed doors, they're committing all sorts of rampant adultery, rampant, you know,
just wicked sins.
It's like God doesn't want you to sit here and keep these meticulous letters of the law
as you're extremely hypocritical and wicked behind closed doors.
That's what he's saying.
And that's why he says in verse 26, "Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is
within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also."
So first of all, they're not even saved, right?
So they have a wicked heart, they don't have a regenerate spirit, they don't have the regenerate
heart.
So they need to cleanse the inside of the cup first, and then sanctification usually
works from the inside out, right?
You believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you get the fear of God in your life, you get
the love of God in your life, and that should motivate us to clean up our lives and to start
keeping God's commandments to the best of our ability.
But it's not about just making the outside of the cup super shiny and clean while you're
full of wickedness and hypocrisy within.
Go to Matthew 27, Matthew 27, here's another example of this, it's when Judas betrayed
the Lord Jesus Christ and he gave the 30 pieces of silver to the Jews, to the Pharisees.
In verse number three it says, "Then Judas which had betrayed him, when he saw that he
was condemned, repented himself and brought again the 30 pieces of silver to the chief
priests and elders."
So he got paid those 30 pieces of silver, I might have misspoke there, and then he repented
himself and he went back to give it back to them because he felt bad that he betrayed
the Lord Jesus Christ, verse 4 saying, "I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent
blood."
And then he said, "What is that to us?
See thou to that."
And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, went and hanged himself.
So you know, he's so just remorseful and eaten up about this situation that he's like, "Hey,
you're not taking this money back."
He just throws it at them, runs out and commits suicide out of grief.
And it says in verse number six, this is the part I want to highlight, "And the chief priest
took the silver pieces and said, 'It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury because
it is the price of blood.'"
So notice, oh, we got to follow the letter of the law.
We can't take this money that was, you know, gotten by ill gains here.
We can't put it into the treasury because that would be transgressing the letter of
the law.
And they're so focused on the letter of law.
Meanwhile, they're killing Jesus Christ.
This is what a legalist does.
They're just so focused on the letter of the law.
Oh, we can't put this money in the treasury.
It's the price of blood.
No, but you know, killing the Lord.
No big deal.
Lying about Jesus, delivering him up to be crucified.
No big deal.
This is what a legalist does.
They focus on the letter of the law, ignoring completely the spirit of the law.
Go to John five.
Let's show another example of this, John chapter number five.
And you know, what's funny is like the absolute epitome of a legalist is a Jew.
Like that's really what a legalist is.
It's a Jew because Jews believe in work salvation and Jews focus on the letter of the law, ignoring
the spirit of the law.
And unfortunately, a lot of Christians have been Judaized and follow some of these same
doctrines.
But John five verse 15 says this, the man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus
which had made him whole.
So Jesus had just healed a man verse 16 and therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus and
sought to slay him because he had done these things on the Sabbath day.
What are they focused on?
The letter of the law.
They're like, Oh, Jesus healed someone.
Well you transgress the Sabbath.
You did it on the Sabbath.
What have they done?
They've left off mercy, truth, faith, judgment.
Oh, you're so focused on the tithing things correctly.
You're so focused on keeping the Sabbath perfectly that you're going to sit here and condemn
the Lord Jesus Christ for doing good.
And you know what?
Jesus explains, hey, it's not a sin to do good on the Sabbath day.
The spirit of the law, we understand that the Sabbath day was not given to man to be
some sort of hindrance or burden to him.
It was given to him as a day of rest.
It's a blessing to mankind.
And also, the Old Testament even says this, that the Sabbath was a picture.
It's a token.
It's a ceremonial law that existed that was picturing, by the way, salvation.
Why?
Because salvation is resting in the finished work of Jesus Christ.
Not us are doing our own labors to get to heaven.
Verse 17 says, "But Jesus answered them, 'My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.'"
Therefore, the Jews sought the more to kill him because he had not only broken the Sabbath
but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.
You want to see a seventh-day Adventist's head explode, read them that verse where the
narrator of the Bible says that Jesus had broken the Sabbath.
Why?
Because that is not something that is needed to be abided by in the New Testament.
Go to 1 Timothy chapter 1, 1 Timothy chapter number 1.
You know, what a wicked heart to see Jesus do something good, to see him heal someone
and you just want to kill him for it.
And legalists, you know, they're always persecuting real Christians.
1 Timothy 1 verse 5, notice this, "Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a
pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfeigned."
What does it mean, the end of something?
It's saying, hey, the end goal, what you're trying to arrive at with the commandments
of God, the end goal of it is charity, love out of a pure heart and of a good conscience
and of faith unfeigned.
"Love worketh no ill to his neighbor."
You know, the greatest commandment is to love God and to love your neighbor.
That is all the law and the prophets.
That is the spirit of the law.
Here's the spirit of all of the law in one word, love.
That's the spirit of the law is love.
Verse six, "From which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling, desiring
to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm."
So people, these legalists, they don't know what they're saying.
They don't know how they came to those conclusions.
They're desiring to be teachers of the law, but they're clueless.
But verse eight, notice, "But we know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully."
That brings me to my third and last point this morning.
Though we are saved by faith, God still wants us to keep His commandments.
And here's like the grain of truth that people tried, you know, people are mislabeling us
when they call us legalists, but here's the grain of truth in this idea is that after
we're saved, we know we're saved 100% by faith, through grace, but after we're saved, God
still wants us to keep His commandments.
Not to get to heaven, but to be pleasing in His sight, to avoid chastisement, to live
the best possible life that we can live, and to be the best possible people we can be in
reference to others also.
Because if I live a super wicked life, that doesn't just affect me, that's going to affect
my kids, that's going to affect my wife, that's going to affect all of you, and that's all
of us.
You know, living a good life and keeping God's commandments is still super important, but
just not for salvation.
Go to Romans chapter 3, Romans chapter number 3, Romans chapter 3 verse 28, notice Paul's
statement verse 28, "Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the
deeds of the law.
Is he the God of the Jews only?
Is he not also of the Gentiles?
Yes, of the Gentiles also, seeing it as one God which shall justify the circumcision
by faith and uncircumcision through faith."
So he's saying, "Hey, we're saved by faith," and then this begs this question, verse 31,
"Do we then make void the law through faith?"
He's saying, "Am I just getting rid of the law of God?
Are we just going to throw out all the commandments?"
What does he say?
"God forbid, yea, we establish the law."
And here is the irony of the false accusation against us that we're legalists, is that
people will sit there and say that we're legalists, and people will criticize us for preaching
that salvation is completely free, that you're just saying you can do whatever you want,
you're saying you don't have to repent of your sins, you're saying you don't have to
keep the commandments.
We're like, "Yep, that's exactly what we're saying."
But then on the other side, what's funny is that when it comes to living the Christian
life, you know what we do?
We establish the law.
And what work salvationists have to do in order to be saved by their works is they have
to lower the bar of righteousness down to whatever level they're at.
And that's why when you ask people who believe in work salvation, if they're 100% sure that
they're saved, they'll say yes.
Oh, because of course, they haven't done anything that bad.
And they're living a pretty good life.
And they're a pretty good person.
And so what they do is they're the ones that actually abolish the law.
They actually just scrap the law.
They're the ones who just bring the level of righteousness of God way down to their
level whereas we establish the law.
And we say, "Hey, all the statutes of the Lord are right.
All of His commandments are right.
And boy, oh boy, are we so far below them."
We know that we're not righteous.
We're not under some sort of delusion thinking that we're actually righteous in our own works.
We know that for all of sin and come short of the glory of God.
We know that the thought of foolishness is sin.
If someone lived, this is theoretical because this would never happen, but if someone lived
their whole life and they never committed any other sin, other than having a foolish
thought.
You know where they would go when they die?
Hell.
That's where they would go.
You know what that is?
That's having a very high standard of righteousness.
That's exalting God's commandments and God's law and saying, "Hey, we establish the law,
but we just know that the law isn't what is justifying us and taking us to heaven."
That begs another question.
Go to Romans chapter 6.
We know we're saved by fate.
We know we can never lose our salvation.
Yes, theoretically, you can do whatever you want after being saved and still go to heaven,
but that begs the question, Romans 6 verse 1, "What shall we say then?
Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?"
He's asking this question, "Hey, should we just, because we're saved, go on living a
wicked life, sinning with impunity, just so that God's grace may abound?"
Because here's the thing, technically, that's what would happen.
If you go out and sin, God's grace is going to abound.
If we just disregard God's commandments after being saved, you're still saved, once saved,
always saved.
God's grace will abound.
But should you do that is the question.
Notice what he says, "God forbid.
How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?"
And it's just ironic that us as independent fundamental Baptists, especially the new IFB,
we preach the freest salvation according to the scriptures.
We preach the freest salvation, but we also preach the hardest against sin, and we also
strive to have high standards as composed to these new evangelical churches where they'll,
with their lips, they have a higher standard of salvation than us, because they'll say
it's by works and faith.
That is a higher standard.
It's an unachievable standard.
But then when it comes to righteous living, their standards are way below us, and they'll
condone things like drinking alcohol, and their churches are full of women wearing pants,
and they've got women pastors on staff, and they allow fags in the congregation, and they're
not really preaching hard against marijuana, they're not really preaching hard about teenagers
living together, shacked up in fornication, meanwhile, we preach super hard against all
those things, yet we say you don't have to keep any of the commandments to be saved.
You can be a fornicator and be saved.
You can be a drunk and be saved.
You can be an adulterer and be saved.
All you have to do to be saved is put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, but hey, how
shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?
Why would we just take the grace of God?
Why would we just realize that we're saved and that God has done so much for us and have
such little reverence and respect and love and appreciation for God that we would not
offer our bodies as a living sacrifice to him?
You know, it just doesn't make any sense to live your life that way.
Now, Pastor Jones reads this, he says, what shall we say then?
Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
He's saying that Paul is saying it's literally impossible to keep sinning.
He said, that's what Paul is saying.
It's literally impossible to keep sinning.
No, that's not what it's saying.
Otherwise, he wouldn't be asking this question.
If we just automatically stop sinning, then this question wouldn't even have to be asked.
This question is being asked because some people can and do choose to just take the
grace of God and just continue living a wicked life.
And obviously, we're all sinners.
None of us are just completely without sin.
But some people, it's like they don't care at all.
They don't even try to read their Bible.
They don't even try to pray.
They don't even try to come to church.
They don't even try to repent of sins in their life.
And that is what Paul is rebuking.
Hey, salvation's by faith, but after that, we should live a good life.
Go to Hebrews 9.
Hebrews 9.
As you're turning there, Hebrews 7-12, the Bible says, "For the priesthood being changed,
there is made of necessity a change of the law also."
So Paul said we establish the law, but we understand that in the New Testament there
has been a change made to the law.
What is that?
Hebrews 9 verse 6.
"Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle,
accomplishing the service of God.
But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which
he offered for himself and for the heirs of the people.
The Holy Ghost, this signifying that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest,
while as the first tabernacle was yet standing, which was a figure for the time then present,
in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that could not make him that did the service
perfect as pertaining to the conscience.
So hey, in the Old Testament we had the Levitical priesthood, we had sacrifices, they had the
high priest that went into the holiest of holies once a year to make an atonement for
the people.
And he's saying, hey, all these things stood in the Old Testament, but they were what?
A figure, meaning a picture of something.
It says in verse number 10, which stood only in meats and drinks and diverse washings and
cardinal ordinances, imposed on them, very important word, until the time of reformation.
You know what that time is?
It's the time where Jesus Christ came on this earth, fulfilled his ministry, died on the
cross and rose again from the dead.
Those carnal washings, the carnal ordinances that existed in the Old Testament, they were
imposed until Christ came.
You know, it's like if there's a state of martial law and the governor says, hey, there's
a curfew that's being imposed until July 30th.
You know what that means?
That July 30th comes around and that curfew no longer is valid.
No longer is in effect.
And it's like, hey, the meats and the drinks, right?
So the dietary laws, the holy days, the divers washings, the carnal ordinances, what was
that talking about?
Circumcision, the Sabbath, all of these things, they are no longer in effect.
So hey, we established the law, and what do we mean by that?
We're establishing God's moral law.
We're establishing God's criminal law.
Hey, what to God that the United States of America would adopt the criminal law that
the Bible gives?
We would live in a much better country, and our country was a better place when we put
pedophiles to death, murderers to death, kidnappers to death, rapists to death.
These people should be exterminated from our society by the government.
Hey, we established the law, but we're not going to sit here and say, "Oh, hey, blow
up the trumpet in the new moon in our time appointed on our solemn feast days."
We're not going to be doing that.
Don't bring out the shofar.
I don't want to see you out looking at the moon with your Jewish blanket over your head,
and you don't need to circumcise your kids, and you don't need to keep the Sabbath, and
you don't need to abstain from certain meats, praise God.
You could eat that bacon in the New Testament.
Don't Judaize Christianity.
But guess what, we will establish the law, specifically the law that has not been changed.
And here's just a good principle of Bible interpretation is that if it hasn't been specifically
changed in the New Testament, just assume it still stands.
Don't think, "Oh, Deuteronomy 22.5, that's thousands of years ago.
You think God cares about a woman dressing like a man?"
Yes!
You know how God views a cross dresser as an abomination?
"Oh, Leviticus 20.13, you think that God cares about that?"
He sure does.
He backs it up in Romans chapter 1, it's 2 Peter 2, and Jude, you know, he sure does
care about these things.
"Oh, man, you want to bring the law of God back?
Well, you're going to have to bring adultery punishment back too, amen?
You're not going to scare me with that?"
It's so funny how the world would be like, "Oh, you don't want to bring God's criminal
justice system back because you're going to have to put adulterers to death."
It's like, "Hey, are you projecting or something?
Because not everyone is a stinking adulterer!
Not everyone is cheating on their spouse, you wicked person!"
And look, would to God we pass that law today, we'd get rid of like almost all of our Congress.
We'd get rid of the wicked people in our government.
It's insane.
Go to Matthew chapter 5, Matthew chapter number 5.
Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater.
And you know, that's what these legalists do.
They want to tell you, "Oh, Leviticus 2013 doesn't matter today.
Oh, God's commandments, God's law, the Old Testament, that doesn't apply to us whatsoever."
As they sit there and tell you, you have to keep God's commandments to be saved.
This idea of legalism just goes to prove that people who are not saved cannot understand
the Bible because they're just wrong about every single doctrine.
Matthew 5 verse 17, look what Jesus said, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law
or the prophets.
I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.
For verily I say unto you, 'Til heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in
no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.'
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."
See, he doesn't say, "Ah, the least commandments, let's throw them out, it's not a big deal.
Who cares about them?"
No, he says, "Hey, if you are breaking the least commandments and teaching men to do
that, you're going to be the least in the kingdom of heaven.
You're not going to lose your salvation because salvation is by faith, but if you're doing
that you're going to be very, very poor in heaven."
But then on the flip side he says, "But whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be
called great in the kingdom of heaven."
You know what that means?
God wants us to do and teach the least of God's commandments.
We should take God's word seriously.
You know, it is not in vain for us to read the Old Testament today.
It is not in vain for us to preach and study and learn from the Old Testament law of God.
A lot of churches they've just forsaken the Old Testament, forsaken the law of God, and
Jesus is saying, "Look, if you do and teach the least of those commandments, you're going
to be great in the kingdom of heaven."
And you know, a lot of people who, maybe they're saved, but they're kind of mixed up on this
stuff, you know, they're going to be in for a rude awakening at the judgment seat of Christ
when they thought, "Oh, living a good life doesn't matter, keeping God's commandments
doesn't matter whatsoever," and they have nothing to show for their lives.
Go to Matthew 5, 21, a few verses down there.
Let's see if Jesus lowered the bar of righteousness in the New Testament.
Verse 21, "You have heard that it was said of them of old time, 'Thou shalt not kill,
and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment.'
But I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be
in danger of the judgment."
So Jesus, not only does He just back up that killing is wrong, He says, "Hey, people in
time past, they said it's wrong to kill.
But I say to you, it's wrong to be angry in your heart to your brother without a cause."
Now that's actually raising the bar of righteousness, not lowering it.
Same thing in verse 27, "You have heard that it was said by them of old time, 'Thou shalt
not commit adultery.'
But I say unto you that adultery is fine.'"
Is that what he says?
"No, but I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed
adultery with her already in his heart."
Sounds like that would convict exactly 100% of men who've ever lived, right?
So yeah, not all of us have committed physical adultery, but God is trying to cause us to
humble ourselves here and realize, hey, we're not super righteous because He wants us to
not even look after a woman with lust in our hearts.
Not just adultery being wrong, even just looking after another woman, lust is wicked.
Go to, if you would, Titus chapter number two, Titus chapter number two.
So just in conclusion here, we are not legalists.
I don't want to adopt this term.
I don't think you should accept when people level this term against us.
Why?
Because legalists teach works salvation, legalists ignore the spirit of the law, and of course
we know that though we're saved by faith, God wants us to still live a good life after
that.
We're going to live a good life after that.
Now this guy, Pastor Jones, he said another thing.
He says that the new IFB hates grace, that we hate the doctrine of grace, we hate the
idea of grace, and that we're just like the Jews because the Jews hate the doctrine of
grace.
And he keeps quoting this verse in Titus and he's acting like he's kind of dropping bars,
like it's backing up his point, but it is absolutely destroying his point of hyper grace,
of this idea that like God's not going to be mad at you and God's not going to punish
you.
God's not going to chastise you because grace, grace, grace, right?
And this idea from a lot of hyper grace preachers is that we're in the age of grace, bro.
So living a good life isn't that big of a deal.
You know, we're in the great, we're in the age of grace, bro.
So don't worry about the law of God.
Don't worry about preaching hard against sin.
Don't worry about having that culture in church because we're in grace, right?
And who's heard these types of ideas before in churches?
All of us, right?
Now here's the thing, Titus chapter two, notice this verse 11 for the grace of God
that bring it salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us.
What is it going to teach us?
Living a good life isn't important, keeping God's commandments isn't a big deal.
What does the grace of God teach us?
Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously
and godly in this present world.
You know what the grace of God teaches us?
Hey, we should be preaching hard against alcohol.
That's what the grace of God teaches us.
It's just so funny how hyper-grace preachers will quote this verse like it's backing them
up their idea of watering down righteousness, not preaching hard against sin, not preaching
about God punishing us when he's saying, hey, the grace of God teaches us that we should
live, live soberly.
The grace of God teaches me that I should preach hard against alcohol, that I should
preach hard against marijuana, righteously.
So just anything that's righteous, all of God's commandments, that should be taught.
Why?
Because of the grace of God.
Denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly
in this present world.
Hey, I love the grace of God.
I love the grace of God and I'm not gonna let someone tell me and rail against me and
say that I hate the grace of God.
What a wicked, lying, railing accusation that is.
I love the grace of God and I'm so thankful for the fact that though I am a rotten sinner,
that there's nothing righteous about my flesh, I am saved through faith of the Lord Jesus
Christ.
And I will spend eternity in heaven not because of anything righteous that I've ever done
in my entire life, but because I've trusted in His sacrifice.
That's the grace of God.
I thank God for that.
You know what?
I love grace so much that I don't want to just stop and just take the grace that God
has given me and say, "Thanks a lot, Lord.
Thank you for the free gift of salvation.
Now I'm going to go ahead and just do whatever I want, not care about the things of God,
not go to church, not read my Bible, drink alcohol, live a wicked life because the grace
of God, bro."
No, you know what I'm going to do?
I'm going to actually walk in newness of life because that is what God deserves from us
because of the grace that He's given to us.
Let's actually finish in Romans chapter number 12 because Romans is just such a great study
and it's like one long thought.
It's all connected, but this idea of grace, what should it lead us to?
Verse number 12, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God," so by His
grace, by His mercy, "that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable
unto God, which is your reasonable service."
Hey, at Anchor Baptist Church, we will always preach the freest salvation that the Bible
teaches, which is that it's not of works, it's by faith in Jesus Christ, but you know
what?
After you get saved, you know what you should do?
You should present your body a living sacrifice.
That is a very high level of righteousness.
That is a high bar that God has set for our lives, and we should not bring God's Word
down to our earthly levels to tickle our flesh, to make us feel better about ourselves.
No, salvation's free, but after that, let's actually strive to keep God's commandments.
Let's pray.
Lord, thank You for this day, and thank You for Your Word.
I pray that no one in here would be confused about this idea of legalism.
Lord, I pray that Anchor Baptist Church would be a bright and shining light in Oklahoma
City, preaching the freeness of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We thank You for Your grace and for Your mercy for us, but I pray that as Christians, after
we get saved, we wouldn't just become selfish and ungrateful for the grace that You've bestowed
upon us.
I pray that we would strive to be living sacrifices for You, and I pray that You would
shut the mouths of all false teachers, confusing people on this issue.
In Jesus' name, we pray.
Amen.
The last hymn this morning will be number 452, All I Need, hymn number 452, 452, All
I Need.
452, we'll sing there starting on the first.