for the honor and privilege to come to church
and to sing praises to your pray
that you would bless past word this morning,
safely to us and bless the service in Jesus name we pray.
Song number four, ice cream named Servaging
at Faithful Word Baptist.
Be sure to check out his sermon if you can.
So hopefully it's easier to find content of Faithful Word.
I think also if you just go to the preaching.com,
you could find a sermon as well there.
We have our service times on the left there.
Our church-wide soul winning times,
which those meet at the building here
and are led by Pastor Shelley.
And then our regional soul winning times,
led by a variety of people
in all sorts of different areas of the DFW.
So anywhere you live in DFW,
there's probably a soul winning time
that's pretty close to you.
So get with those respective leaders
if you'd like to attend one of those.
Make sure to please turn in your soul winning maps
to the bin at the front of the church over there.
If it's complete, put it in the completed bin.
If you win in the van, put it in the van bin.
Otherwise, put it in the single bin.
That's how that system works.
We have there our July stats and our year-to-date stats for Salvation and Baptisms.
Also, we have our prayer on the right, please be in prayer for our expecting ladies there.
That list is definitely full, so there's lots to pray for there for sure.
Also, our weekly prayer list, and just remember, if you'd like to keep your prayer request
in the bulletin every week, please send an email weekly to me, so I know that you still
want that on the bulletin.
The only other time, I mean, sometimes people just say, "Hey, please keep this on until
ex-date," and that's fine too, but otherwise, please just send that in weekly.
One pretty serious prayer that we have on there is for the Rudari family at Verdi Baptist
Church.
There is an update on that.
Unfortunately, the baby has been diagnosed with leukemia and is going to be receiving
chemotherapy for weeks and weeks and weeks, so that is an extremely serious situation.
Please definitely be praying for them fervently and faithfully.
We have our upcoming events this upcoming Wednesday, July 12th.
We're having Pastor Steven Anderson preaching for us.
We're very excited for that.
Invite your family and friends.
That's going to be a great time.
We're hoping to pack this place out and support Pastor Anderson.
Also August 17th through 19th is our Mighty Men's Conference.
There is a signup sheet on the front over there if you plan on going.
I know some people from other churches are going to be attending this as well, so we're
definitely looking forward to that.
Hopefully we don't have to drink warm cokes if we have like, you know, men's competition.
That sounds awful.
So, also, October 12th through the 15th we have a fire-breathing Baptist Fellowship here
at Steadfast Baptist Church.
We're definitely looking forward to that.
Also just take a look at those church reminders, familiarize yourself with them.
The only one that's kind of new is our church has a quiet time between two and four every
Sunday, so usually half the auditorium is dimmed.
That way families with young children can have their kids nap, so you just want to treat
that time like you're in a library basically during that time.
If you want to party, there's parks around and stuff like that, but that is supposed
to be a quiet time.
And with that, we'll go ahead and go to our third song, Psalm 148, in your white handouts.
Psalm 148.
"Jude," the Bible reads, "Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to them
that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called, Mercy
unto you and peace and love be multiplied.
Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was
needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for
the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
For there are certain men crept in, unawares, who were before of old ordained this condemnation,
ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only
Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having
saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believe not;
and the angels which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation, he hath
reserved an everlasting chains under darkness under the judgment of the great day.
And as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves
over to fornication and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering
the vengeance of eternal fire.
Likewise, also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil
of dignities.
Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body
of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.
But these speak evil of those things which they know not, but what they know naturally,
as brute beasts in those things, they corrupt themselves.
Woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error
of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Kori.
These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves
without fear, clouds they are without water, carried about of winds, trees whose fruit
withereth without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots, raging waves of the sea,
foaming out their own shame, wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness
forever.
And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, "Behold, the Lord cometh
with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that
are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and
of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him."
These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts, and their mouths speak
at great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage.
But beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord
Jesus Christ, how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should
walk after their own ungodly lusts.
These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.
But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy
Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ
unto eternal life; and of some, have compassion, making a difference; and others, save with
fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.
Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before
the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God, our Savior, be glory
and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever.
Amen.
Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.
Father, in heaven, we thank you, Lord, for our church, and I pray that you fill brother
Dylan Oz with the Holy Spirit now and just enable him to preach his sermon with boldness
and give him clarity of mind as he delivers the message to us, Lord, and help us to listen
carefully, Lord, and apply the message to our lives so that we can be more complete
Christians.
We love you, and it is in Jesus' name that I pray.
Amen.
Thank you to Pastor Shelley for allowing me to preach this morning.
It is an honor and privilege to preach to you guys.
We are here in the book of Jude, and let's go ahead and read again in Jude, verse number
3, where it says, "Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common
salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that ye should earnestly
contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints."
You know, God teaches that it's very important for us to contend for the faith of Jesus Christ,
that God cares about what we believe, God cares about the doctrine that a church teaches.
So it's always important for a church to be shirring up good doctrine and preaching against
bad doctrine that we could earnestly contend for the faith.
And this morning, my sermon title is "Tulip Debunked, Tulip Debunked."
This is an acronym used by people that call themselves Calvinists to basically describe
what Reformed theology believers hold to as far as doctrine, what people who believe in
tulip actually believe.
So I want to go through each of these letters of this acronym, tulip, and debunk false teachings
that's held by many people in our community and many people in America.
Many churches in our country would fall under a Reformed type theology and believe in this
acronym, tulip.
And so this morning is going to be kind of a little bit of a Bible study.
We're going to be reading a lot of quotes.
I want to make sure that I'm not, you know, just creating any straw men here of what they
believe.
I'm going to just take their own quotes and show you exactly what they believe and then
show what the Bible actually teaches.
So most of the quotes I'm going to be reading from this morning is from a guy named R.C.
Sproul, or Sproul, however you say his last name.
Do you guys know who I'm talking about?
R.C.
Sproul.
You ever heard of this guy?
This guy's a very famous Calvinist.
He runs Ligonier Ministries.
And basically he gives a summary of what Reformed theology is.
And this is his summary of what Reformed theology is.
He says, "The next point we make by way of negation is that Reformed theology is not
anthropocentric."
Now, already you're getting the idea of what Calvinists are like.
They're really haughty.
They like to use great, swelling words of vanity because they're not really interested
in reaching the common man with the word of God.
They're interested just having their own little intellectual clubs, making themselves feel
really smart, patting each other on the back.
And so they use words like this, "anthropocentric."
So he says, "Reformed theology is not anthropocentric.
That is to say, Reformed theology is not centered on human beings.
The central focal point of Reformed theology is God.
And it's the doctrine of God that permeates the whole of the substance of Reformed thought.
Thus, Reformed theology, by way of affirmation, can be called theocentric."
So let me just summarize what he said here.
He's saying, "When it comes to Reformed theology, here's what we believe.
We don't believe in a man-centered theology.
We believe in a God-centered theology."
But right off the bat, I find that pretty funny considering that they're not King
James only.
So what does that mean?
They're original manuscript only, which at the end of the day, who's the authority when
you believe in original manuscript onlyism?
Man is.
So actually, they are a man-centered ideology.
They are a man-centered doctrine.
And they don't actually get their beliefs from the Word of God.
They get it from preachers of the past that injected their false ideology into the text.
So right off the bat, I just find it hilarious that that's his summary of Reformed theology.
But number one, T in TULIP stands for total depravity.
And this guy, R.C.
Sproul, he gives his summary of what total depravity means and try to stay with me as
I read these explanations this morning.
He says, "Virtually every church historically that has a creed or a confession has agreed
that something very serious happened to the human race as a result of the first sin.
That first sin resulted in original sin.
That is, as a result of the sin of Adam and Eve, the entire human race fell.
And our nature as human beings since the fall has been influenced by the power of evil.
As David declared in the Old Testament, and I'm going to insert the King James here,
he doesn't use the King James, in Psalm 51.5, "Behold, I was shaping in iniquity, and in
sin did my mother conceive me."
He was not saying that it was sinful for his mother to have born children, neither was
he saying that he had done something evil by being born.
Rather, he was acknowledging the human condition of fallenness, that condition that was part
of the experience of his parents, a condition that he himself brought into this world.
Therefore, original sin has to do with the fallen nature of mankind.
Now, this is the important statement in this.
He says, "The idea is that we are not sinners because we sin, but that we sin because we
are sinners."
Now, that's pretty semantic, and they like to use word games like this, but he's basically
saying, "You're not a sinner by virtue of the fact that you've sinned.
Rather, you sin by virtue of the fact that you are a sinner."
Now, here's the thing.
Like most lies, there's some truth mixed in, right?
And let me just start off the bat of where I agree with him on this statement is that,
of course, the general condition of mankind is sinful.
Everyone believes that.
That's obvious, right?
Of course, the general condition of mankind is sinful.
Go to Romans chapter 3 and I'll read for you.
Jeremiah 17, 9 says this, "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
Who can know it?"
So that's a pretty extreme statement that the Bible is making, right?
Saying, "Hey, your heart is desperately wicked.
It's deceitful above all things.
Who can know it?"
Right?
Man's heart is wicked.
Man's heart is deceitful.
We've been going through Romans.
You're turning to Romans 3.
Let me read for you one more verse.
He quoted Psalm 51, 5, where it says, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my
mother conceive me."
You have to keep in mind that this is a song.
This is a psalm, and oftentimes in the Psalms hyperbole is used, meaning exaggeration.
Same thing with the book of Job, where Job's saying like, "Man, I'm just praying that
the day in which my mom conceived me could be blotted out."
That's not possible, right?
But he's being hyperbolic.
He's being exaggerated to just explain the level of despair that he's feeling in his
heart.
And David is feeling like such a sinner, like such a horrible person for his sins that he's
committed and he's saying, "Man, I was just shaping in iniquity and in sin did my mother
conceive me."
This doesn't mean that when David came out of the womb, he was breaking God's commandments.
That's not what the Bible teaches.
Romans chapter 3, we went through this recently, look at verse 9, it says, "What then?
Are we better than they?
No in no wise, for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under
sin."
And listen to the language that the Bible gives describing mankind, it's not pretty.
As it is written, "There is none righteous, no not one.
There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable, there is none
that doeth good, no not one.
Their throat is an open sepulcher, with their tongues they have used deceit.
The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.
Their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way
of peace have they not known.
There is no fear of God before their eyes.
It doesn't matter if you're a Jew or a Gentile, the Bible's very clear that the default condition
of mankind, of course, is sinful, and very sinful at that.
I mean, that doesn't, God's not pulling any punches there.
I mean, He's saying that mankind is very wicked.
That is true.
You know, there's kind of a modern way of thinking that says, like, all people are basically
good and they kind of have to be coached to do bad.
That's not true.
That's not what the Bible teaches.
All people are default bad.
Kids have to be taught to tell the truth because they'll naturally lie.
Kids have to be taught not to steal because they will naturally steal, right?
Mankind naturally wants to break God's commandments and we have to subject our flesh, we have
to obey God's commandments in order to not sin.
Now, where did sin come from?
Flip over to Romans chapter 5.
Romans chapter number 5, the Bible tells us how we got our sin nature in Romans chapter
5 verse 12.
It says, "Wherefore, as by one man," who's that?
Adam.
"Sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men."
Why?
"For that all have sinned."
Why is it that death passes upon you?
It's because you've sinned.
But has death passed upon you before you sinned?
No.
Absolutely not.
Here's another.
Let me just rephrase his quote here or repeat his quote.
He said, "Therefore, original sin has to do with the fallen nature of mankind.
The idea is that we are not sinners because we sin, but that we sin because we are sinners."
Now, of course, it is true that man's sin nature is passed from Adam, but that does
not mean that we're sinners out of the womb.
It doesn't mean that we've broken God's commandments just when we're born by virtue
of being born.
You know, a baby, a child that comes out of the womb is not sinful.
It's not fallen.
It's not in the condition of death spiritually.
It's just, it hasn't sinned yet.
Now, because this logic of saying that you're just a sinner right away, you know, as soon
as you're born, you're a sinner, it leads one to ask, "Well, what about babies?
What about if a baby dies?
Would a baby go to heaven or would a baby go to hell?"
Now, I did some research on this and I've never heard this quote that I'm about to
read you, but this was absolutely shocking to me.
And who has heard of Jonathan Edwards?
In school, a lot of us probably learned about this guy.
We were taught that this guy just led a great revival in America.
He wrote this doctrinal treatise that's several hundred pages long called The Miscellanies.
And in this Miscellanies, he has part N and the title is Damnation of Infants, Damnation
of Infants.
So I'm not using a straw man this morning.
This is what Calvinists believe if they were honest, okay?
Pay attention to what he said.
Jonathan Edwards said this.
He says, "One of these two things are certainly true, and self-evidently so, either that it
is most just, exceeding just, that God should take the soul of a newborn infant and cast
it into eternal torments, or else that those infants that are saved are not saved by the
death of Christ, for none are saved by the death of Christ from damnation that have not
deserved damnation.
Wherefore, if it be very just, it is but a foolish piece of nonsense to cry out it as
blasphemous to suppose that it ever is just, because they say it is contrary to His mercy.
So here's what he's saying, he's saying you have two options, one of these things
is true, either babies go to hell and God is just in damning their soul to hell when
they die, or babies are saved but they're not saved by the death of Christ.
Because obviously a baby can't put their faith in Jesus Christ, a baby can't understand
the gospel, a baby can't call upon the name of the Lord.
So Jonathan Edwards is saying hey, one of two is true, either God is justly sending
these babies to hell or they're somehow saved by another means of salvation.
Now can you be saved by any other way than Jesus Christ?
No, absolutely not.
Let's go on to see what he says, he says, "Now such I ask whether it is contrary to
his mercy to inflict punishment upon any according to their deserts.
And whether it was contrary to God's mercy to damn the fallen angels, there was no mercy
showed to them at all.
And why is it blasphemous to suppose that God should inflict upon infants so much as
they have deserved without mercy as well as upon them?
If you say they have not deserved it so much, I answer, they certainly have deserved what
they have deserved as much as the fallen angels."
Wow.
So, he's saying, "Oh, you have all these scoffers saying babies don't deserve to go to hell?"
And he's saying, "Yeah, they do deserve it."
Wow.
What a perverted, sick mind.
And this is what Calvinism teaches, this perverted teaching that, you know, men are just so totally
depraved that even an infant, if it dies in its infancy, God is just in damning that baby
to hell.
That's not the God of the Bible.
That is a different God.
That is a sick, perverted, twisted God, and anyone that believes that is a sick person.
It's disgusting.
Go to John, or I'm sorry, go to Romans chapter number seven.
What is sin?
Because if we're going to ask, are babies sinners?
Can babies be sinful?
Well, what even is sin?
Let me read for you 1 John 3, 4, it says this, "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth
also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law."
Can a baby sin?
Well, can a baby break God's commandments?
Can a baby lie?
No.
Baby's just drinking milk and just cooing and doing nothing.
It's not sinning.
It's not stealing.
It's not blaspheming.
It's not committing fornication.
It's not committing any sin.
It's a baby.
And so, by virtue of the definition of what sin is, a baby cannot sin.
A baby cannot transgress God's law.
Now, you're in Romans chapter 7, let's read verse 5, it says, "For when we were in the
flesh," this is a reference to being unsaved, "the motions of sins which were by the law
did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death."
But now we are delivered from the law, so once we're saved, we're not under the dominion
of the law, because in Romans chapter 7, he's using this analogy of a woman that's married
to a husband, how when her husband's alive, her husband has dominion over her, and even
according to the law, her husband has dominion over her, but as soon as the husband's dead,
she's loosed from that law and the husband no longer has dominion over her.
Same thing with salvation, before we're saved, the law has dominion over us, it has us captive,
it's bringing forth death, we're subject to the law of God.
But as soon as we're saved, we're no longer under that dominion, why?
Because grace is always going to cover our sin.
Now let's keep reading, it says that being dead wherein we were held, that we should
serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
So he's saying, look, we were dead, the law did have dominion over us, but now it doesn't.
So what we should do is we should serve God with our spirit.
We're not going to be like the Mormons saying, "Hey, let's follow God's laws because if
we don't we're going to go to hell."
Rather we should want to follow God's laws because we love Him and we want to serve Him
in our spirits.
Verse 7, "What shall we say then?"
So this is leading to a question in Paul's mind, he's going to answer a question that
a scoffer would say, "Is the law sin?"
He's saying, look, if the law is what brought dominion over us and if the law is what brought
death to us, does that mean that the law is bad, does that mean that the law is sinful?
What does he say?
"God forbid," notice this, he says, "Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law."
How is it that you know sin?
You have to know the law of God.
So can a baby know the law of God?
Absolutely not.
The baby doesn't even know it's ABCs.
The baby doesn't even speak English.
Of course the baby does not know the law of God.
For I had not known lust, except that the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.
But sin, and I love the personification in the King James Bible, it's beautiful.
But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence,
for without the law, sin was dead.
Notice this in verse 9.
It says, "For I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived
and I died."
Notice that Paul said that he was alive once.
In order for that statement to be true, there had to have been a point in Paul's life where
he was sinless.
And what time is that?
When you're a baby, when you are a child, you are not dead, you are alive.
Why?
Because you're without the law.
"For I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, when he got the
law of God, when he understood the law of God, when he received the law of God, what
happened?
Sin revived and I died.
And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.
For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me."
So Jonathan Edwards says there's two options, either babies go to hell and it's just that
that happens, which is what he believes, or he says babies are saved, but they're saved
by a different means of salvation.
Neither of those is true, because babies are neither damned nor are they saved, because
in order to be saved, you need to be saved from something.
And us, we have to be saved from our sin.
We have to be saved from the punishment of our sin, which is hell.
But what if you have no sin?
You have nothing to be saved from.
They're born in a state in which they are not fallen, and if they die in that state,
they will go to heaven.
People use this term, it's called the age of accountability.
People use that, and that's not a phrase that's specifically found in your Bible or anything
like that, but I believe that that is a true thing.
That there comes an age in a child's life where, okay, they can understand right and
wrong, they can understand God's laws, they can understand that they've broken those
laws, and at that point a child needs to believe on Christ and get saved.
They need to receive the gift of eternal life and get saved from their sin.
But before that time, no child is going to hell, no baby is going to hell.
Go to 2 Samuel chapter number 12, 2 Samuel chapter number 12.
And in 2 Samuel chapter number 12, in this context, King David's child had just died.
He was fasting for the child, trying to get God to have mercy on him, and for the child
not to die, but the child did die.
Notice what the Bible says in verse 22, it says, "And he said, 'While the child was
yet alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, 'Who can tell whether God will be gracious
to me that the child may live?'
But now he is dead.
Wherefore should I fast?
Can I bring him back again?'"
Notice this, he says, "I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me."
What's the implication here?
David's saying, "I'm saved, and when I die, I'm going to go to my child in heaven.
I'm going to be reunited with my son in heaven.
He's not coming back to me.
He's dead.
He is in heaven, but David will see his son in heaven."
And that's a great comfort, because there's many people in this world that lose children,
either by miscarriage or a tragic accident when the child is young or health problems.
Praise God that we can take comfort, that God is a loving and a just God and is never
going to send a baby to hell.
The baby will always be in heaven, and that is something we can look forward to.
And Calvinism, right off the bat, you can see is a perverted ideology that would teach
that a baby is just and going to hell.
And a lot of them will lie and not want to face that fact, but if they're honest, that
is what they believe.
They do believe that babies could go to hell.
So we talked about T in TULIP, total depravity.
What's the U?
It's unconditional election, go to Romans chapter number four, unconditional election.
Now I'm going to read for you R.C.
Sproul, his basically summary of what unconditional election is.
He said, "The reformed view of election known as unconditional election means that God does
not foresee an action or condition on our part that induces Him to save us.
Rather, election rests on God's sovereign decision to save whomever He is pleased to
save."
So he's basically just saying that God is just picking and choosing whoever is going
to get saved.
Unconditional election is another term that I think can be a bit misleading.
So I prefer to use the term sovereign election.
If God chooses sovereignly to bestow His grace on some sinners and withhold His grace from
other sinners, is there any violation of justice in this?
Do those who do not receive this gift receive something they do not deserve?
Of course not.
If God allows these sinners to perish, is He treating them unjustly?
Of course not.
One group receives grace, the other receives justice.
No one receives injustice.
So basically, summing up what he teaches, he teaches that unconditional election is
God arbitrarily picking and choosing who goes to heaven and who goes to hell.
Not by any virtue of our own choice, not by any opportunity that we had to get saved,
but rather God is just unconditionally choosing people for heaven and hell.
But what does this do?
It ignores God's foreknowledge.
It ignores God's omniscience.
And go to Romans chapter 4 like I said, look what it says, it says in verse 17, "As it
is written, 'I have made thee a father of many nations, before him whom he believed,
and God, who quickeneth the dead,'" and notice this last phrase, "and calleth those things
which be not, as though they were."
What does that mean?
God talks about things that haven't even happened yet, things that are in the future.
He talks about those things as if they already had happened.
Why?
Because God is all-knowing and God has foreknowledge.
He knows the beginning to the end, He knows every single decision that will be made by
every human being throughout all of history, He knows all the events that are going to
happen and so He could talk about things that be not as though they were.
What's a great example of this?
How about the gospel of Jesus Christ?
All the way from the beginning of creation, God knew that mankind would be redeemed by
Jesus Christ.
I'll read for you a verse.
Revelation 13, 8 says, "And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship Him, whose names
are not written in the book of life, of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."
Now was Jesus Christ physically in His human body killed on day one of creation?
Absolutely not.
But God calls those things which be not as though they were.
So on day one of creation, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ was just as valid to save anyone
as it was that the day that He literally physically shed His body and was buried and went to hell,
because God calls those things which be not as though they were.
So God has foreknowledge, but God is not arbitrarily picking and choosing and forcing people to
believe on Him or forcing people to go to hell.
Let's go to Ephesians chapter number one, Ephesians chapter one.
This is a pretty, this is a favorite chapter of Calvinists to try to teach this point,
but it doesn't teach what they think it teaches.
Ephesians chapter one, let's start reading verse three, it says, "Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in
heavenly places in Christ, according as He hath chosen us."
So God has chosen us, right?
What did He choose?
"According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world," notice this,
"that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love."
God has chosen us.
And they'll say, "Oh, see right there.
That says that God just chose who went to heaven and chose who went to hell."
No, it actually said that God chose us to be holy and without blame before Him in love,
is what it says.
God chose that His people would be holy.
Why?
Because we have the sacrifice of Christ imputed to us, and our new man is completely holy.
It's completely without reproach in the sight of God.
That's what God chose for us, verse 5, "Having predestinated us," there's the word that
they love.
See, God predestined.
Who goes to heaven and who goes to hell?
Hold on a second.
"Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according
to the good pleasure of His will."
No, actually, God predestined, according to His will, that people that get saved are adopted
as children of God.
That's what God predestined.
He predetermined, "Hey, people that get saved will be my sons and my daughters."
That's what He predetermined.
They're adding things into the text saying, "Oh, this is teaching that God predetermined
who's going to heaven and who's going to hell."
Absolutely not.
Verse 6, "To the praise of the glory of His grace wherein He hath made us accepted and
the beloved, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according
to the riches of His grace."
Of course, salvation is only by grace.
It's not by our works, right?
And Calvinists pride themselves in saying that they only believe in salvation by grace,
but we'll see later on in the sermon if that's actually true.
Verse 8, "Wherein He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made
known unto us the mystery of His will according to the good pleasure which He hath purpose
in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together
in one all things in Christ which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him, in whom
also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of Him
who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will, that we should be to the praise
of His glory who first trusted in Christ."
Again, we see that word predestined.
What did He predestinate?
He predestinated the fact that we would be to the praise of the glory of Christ, that
our salvation, what is it?
It's a testimony to the glory of God.
We didn't save ourselves, we didn't work our way to heaven, it's Jesus Christ that did
the hard part.
He lived the perfect life, He died on the cross, He went to hell, He resurrected from
the dead.
So our salvation, what is it?
It's to the praise and to the glory of God.
That's what God predestined, that He would get glory by our salvation.
He didn't just predestinate who goes to heaven and who goes to hell.
Verse 13, "In whom ye also trusted after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of
your salvation, in whom also after that ye believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit
of promise."
Notice, this is a choice.
It's saying after you believed, you got saved.
Not after God just sprinkled pixie dust on you and just declared you to be saved.
No.
After you willingly, your own choice, you recognized you were a sinner, you believed
in the gospel of Jesus Christ, you called out to Him in faith and asked Him to save
you, you made that choice and you're saved as a result of making that choice.
Here's another passage they love to use, Romans chapter number eight.
Romans chapter eight, flip over to Romans chapter number eight.
I wasn't really convinced with Ephesians one on what they're trying to say there.
Let's see if Romans chapter eight is any different.
Verse 28, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to
them who are the called according to His purpose, for whom He did foreknow," so God had some
sort of foreknowledge, right?
"He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be
the firstborn among many brethren."
There you go, God predestinated who goes to heaven and who goes to hell.
That's what they'll say.
No, actually, God had foreknowledge of who was going to be saved and who was not going
to be saved, and He predestinated something.
He made a decision in advance about those people that are going to be saved.
What was the decision that He made?
Those that would be saved would someday be conformed to the image of His Son.
When does that happen?
At the rapture.
When we get our new bodies, we're glorified, we're put in our glorified bodies, and we're
conformed to the image of Christ.
That's what God predestinated, verse 30, "Moreover, whom He did predestinate," so those people
that He predestinated to be conformed to the image of Christ, "them He also called, and
whom He called, them He also justified, whom He justified, them He also glorified."
Now, of course, all the people who get saved and who will get saved are in the category
of called.
Why is that?
Because every human being is in the category of called.
Let me prove that to you.
You can stay there.
John 12, 32 says, Jesus said, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all
men unto me."
God is calling everyone.
God has sent out the call to the whole world, to the ends of the earth, Romans chapter
10 says, of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and every single human being is called.
But does that mean every single person gets saved?
No.
Here's a great example.
I invited the entire church to a July 4th celebration in Hearst, and those of you that
were my friends that like me, you came.
Those of you that don't like me, you didn't come.
But all of you were called.
You're all called, regardless of whether or not you came.
Now, if you came, you were glorified, because you got to see that awesome, that awesome
July 4th party.
Okay?
But you were all called.
This idea of unconditional election, it makes God's command to believe on him completely
meaningless.
Why would God command someone to believe on him if God is just picking and choosing who
goes to heaven and who goes to hell?
It's like, "Hey, Ben, come to the Fourth of July party."
Psych!
You can't come because you're not elect.
What?
What kind of God is this?
This is bizarre.
I'll read for you.
You can stay there.
Mark 1, 14 says, "Now, after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching
the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of
God is at hand.
Repent ye and believe the gospel.'"
Jesus Christ gave the command to believe the gospel.
Oh, but no one could actually follow that command.
That command wasn't actually given in sincerity by Jesus Christ to all of humanity.
No, it was actually God just picking and choosing who goes to heaven and who goes to hell.
What a pointless statement this would be in our Bible then, of God commanding us to believe
the gospel.
And think about this, if you believed this doctrine, doesn't that disincentivize you
from wanting to preach the gospel to someone?
Because here's the thing, God's already predetermined everything according to them.
God's already decided who's going to hell and who's going to heaven, so why in the
world would we go out in 1000 degree Texas summer and preach someone the gospel if God
has already chosen if that person's going to hell or not?
No, the reason we do it is because we believe that we're presenting people with a real choice
that really affects their destiny for all of eternity.
That if they choose of their own free will to put their faith in Jesus Christ, to not
trust in themselves, to not trust in their works, to not trust in their religion, but
to trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ, that they will go to heaven.
And that if they choose to reject that, that they will spend eternity in hell.
But God is just, and He gave us all the opportunity and the choice to make that decision.
He didn't just predetermine who is going to heaven and who is going to hell.
Titus chapter 2 verse 11 says, "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared
to all men."
You know, at the beginning Sproul is like, "So what if God decides to give His grace
to some people and some not?
Either He's giving them grace or He's giving them justice."
No, no, no, the Bible says that the grace of God that bring salvation has appeared to
all men.
All men have seen the grace of God through the gospel of Jesus Christ.
That was His grace to us by giving His Son.
"But God commandeth His love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us."
That was His grace to us.
So the U of Tulip, unconditional election, damnable heresy, damnable heresy.
And so is number three here, the L of Tulip.
This is also damnable heresy, limited atonement, limited atonement.
Go ahead and go to 2 Timothy chapter number two and I'll read for you what he defines,
R.C.
Sproul defines as limited atonement.
It says, "The doctrine of limited atonement, also known as definite atonement or particular
redemption, says that the atonement or death of Christ," he uses those two words interchangeably
just so you know what he's saying, "the atonement or death of Christ was limited in its scope
and aim to the elect."
Jesus did not atone for the sins of everybody in the world.
So he is just openly saying, "Jesus Christ did not die for the world."
He's literally denying the most famous verse in the whole Bible, and we'll go there in
a second.
He's saying, "Jesus did not die for the world."
That is damnable heresy.
That is twisting the nature of God.
That is twisting the doctrine of who Jesus Christ is.
That is twisting His atonement.
That is twisting the death of Christ.
That is damnable heresy.
He said the Reformed view says that God, from all eternity, devised a plan that was not
provisional.
Under this plan, God decreed that He would save a certain number of people out of fallen
humanity, people whom the Bible calls elect.
So we just talked about that.
The people that God just chose to be saved, He's only going to die for them.
In order for that plan of election to work out in history, He sent His Son into the world
with a specific aim and design to accomplish redemption for the elect.
This was accomplished perfectly without a drop of the blood of Christ being wasted.
"Everyone whom the Father chose for salvation will be saved through the atonement."
What a wicked person this guy is.
Just basically saying that Jesus didn't die for all.
Jesus went on a rescue mission and He only took certain people that He predetermined
out and just left everyone else behind.
He wasn't going to waste His blood on the rest of humanity.
No, Jesus shed His blood for all of humanity and God's love was so deep and so much more
profound than the type of love that any in us could show that He knew that people would
reject Him and He still died for them.
God the Father gave His Son to die for people that He knew would not believe on Him.
That's actually how much love that God has and honestly they're just trying to take
away from the love of God by teaching limited atonement.
And think about this, if that was true, if it was true that Jesus Christ did not die
for everyone, He just died for a certain number of people, that would mean that the untold
multitudes that are in hell right now and the untold multitudes that will be in hell
someday, that they never even had a Savior.
They never even had a chance.
It's not like they are there justly because they rejected God's free gift because God
said, "Hey, here's a free ticket to heaven, do you want it?" and they said, "No."
No, rather, they never even had a chance.
So according to them, God is just creating people that He's going to choose to go to
hell and He's going to give them no hope and no chance ever to be saved.
That is wicked as hell.
That is disgusting.
That is not Christianity.
People that believe this are not saved.
Absolutely not.
Second Timothy chapter number 2 verse 3 says, "For this is good and acceptable in the sight
of God, our Savior, who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge
of the truth.
For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave
himself a ransom for all."
What do you not understand about that Calvinist?
He gave himself a ransom for all.
What's a ransom?
Think about it like a payment.
You know, some terrorist group captures someone and they've got someone captive.
They've got someone under their dominion and people pay a ransom to get them out.
It's like, "Okay, sin had us captive.
Sin had dominion over us and it required a ransom.
It required a payment to allow us to be free."
And who was that?
Jesus Christ.
And what does it say?
"He's the ransom for all."
All of humanity had Jesus Christ as their ransom.
Go to John chapter number three, John chapter number three.
Sad, we even have to prove things like this, but there's tons of churches in America that
believe in reformed theology.
Tons.
Most people that read the ESV subscribe to some level of Tulip, if not all five points.
John chapter number three, "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."
Jesus didn't die for the world.
Have you ever read John 3:16?
It's on signs at football games.
It's on signs at baseball games.
People have it tattooed on their body.
Everyone has seen John 3:16, and you're going to say that Jesus didn't die for the world.
Wicked.
Verse 17, "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the
world through him might be saved.
He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already
because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."
Why is someone condemned?
Because they didn't believe in Christ.
Oh, they didn't believe in someone that was never there for them.
No, they actually rejected something.
It was the gospel of Jesus Christ.
It's not like there was this nothing that they had to choose to reject or accept.
No, they rejected Jesus.
They don't believe in Jesus.
That's why they're condemned.
And that's why it is just for God to send people to hell.
It is just for God to send people to hell because He gave them a free gift.
He gave them Jesus Christ.
He didn't say, "Be perfect and you'll get to heaven."
He says, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved."
And so if someone chooses of their own will to reject the free gift, then at that point
God is just in sending them to hell.
But how would God be just in sending someone to hell for all of eternity when they never
even had a choice?
They never even had a Savior.
It's a lie.
Verse 19, "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and man
loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
For everyone that doeth evil, hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds
should be reproved."
It doesn't say, "Hey, they don't come to the light because they never had a chance
and Jesus never died for them."
No, they didn't come to the light because they didn't want their deeds to be reproved.
A lot of people don't want to hear the gospel or hear anything about God because they don't
even want to admit the fact that they're a sinner.
They don't want to even acknowledge the fact that they've broken God's commandments.
They don't want their deeds to be reproved.
That's why some people don't come to the light.
It's not because, "Oh, they just never had a chance," so that's why they didn't come.
That's not true.
John chapter number 4, let's go to a few verses quickly here.
We'll go to John chapter number 4, Acts chapter 17.
After that, John chapter number 4 and Acts chapter number 17.
In John chapter number 4, verse 42, it says this, "And said unto the woman, 'Now we believe,
not because of thy saying, for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed
the Christ, the Savior of the world.'"
What a beautiful statement that is, that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world.
Praise God for that.
Thank God that God is merciful and loving and gave Jesus Christ to be the Savior of
the world.
Acts chapter number 17, verse 30, "And the times of this ignorance God winked at, but
now commandeth all men everywhere to repent, because he hath appointed a day in the 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."
Hud says he's going to judge all men someday based off of what?
That man, Jesus Christ.
All men are going to be judged on what they did with Jesus.
Did they believe in him or did they reject him?
Every single person's fate is resting on that and God is sending people to heaven for believing
in him or sending them to hell for not believing in him.
It's not that, oh, everyone's going to be judged by God someday and some people just
never had a choice, never had an option.
That's not true.
It's not what the Bible teaches.
Go to 1 Timothy chapter number 4, 1 Timothy chapter number 4, and I'll read for you,
2 Corinthians 5 14 says this, "For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus
judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead, and that he died for all, that they
which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them
and rose again."
How are Calvinists getting this idea that Jesus didn't die for all?
When the Bible says he died for all, he died for all, he died for all, it's because they're
reading commentaries of unsaved men like Charles Spurgeon, you know, these false prophets from
the past, and letting them teach what the Bible says rather than just listening to the
Word of God.
That's where they're coming from.
First Timothy chapter number 4 verse 10.
This is the coup d'etat right here, "For therefore we both labor and suffer reproach
because we trust in the living God," notice this, "who is the Savior of all men, especially
of those that believe," meaning that Jesus Christ is the Savior of those that believe
and the Savior of those that don't.
Because over and over we've already seen He's the Savior of the whole world, the whole world,
He died for the whole world, He's the Savior for the whole world, He loved the whole world,
He came into the world to give them life.
And what does it say?
He's the Savior of all men, especially of those that believe.
Jesus Christ is truly the Savior of all of humanity, past, present, and future.
Every single human being will be judged by what they did with Jesus Christ.
And like Jonathan Edwards and Charles Spurgeon believe in damnable heresy and are sending
people to hell by teaching this.
So here's the "I" in TULIP.
I'll have you turn to John chapter number 6.
The "I" in TULIP, and some of these are pretty similar, so just keep that in mind.
But the "I" in TULIP is called Irresistible Grace.
This is what he taught about it, R.C. Sproul, says, "In historic Reformation thought, the
notion is that salvation precedes faith."
So, according to Irresistible Grace, you get saved, then you get faith, which makes absolutely
no sense.
We're going to debunk that.
But that's what he's saying.
This isn't a straw man.
This is what he's saying.
Salvation precedes faith.
We also believe that regeneration is "monergistic."
Now that's a $3 word.
It means essentially that the divine operation called rebirth or regeneration is the work
of God alone.
Monergism.
Not by His 50% and man's 50% or even 99% God and 1% man.
It is 100% the work of God.
He and He alone has the power to change the disposition of the soul and the human heart
to bring us to faith.
And here's what they do to cover their false doctrine is they try to be just like overly
humble about it.
Like, "We're just giving God all the glory.
God is 100% responsible for your faith.
You had no choice in the matter.
You're being prideful by saying that you believed in God.
No, no, no.
If He gave you salvation, then you got the faith.
It's all God."
But that's a false doctrine.
That's what He said.
"In addition, when He exercises this grace in the soul, He brings about the effect that
He intends to bring about.
When God created you, He brought you into existence.
You didn't help Him.
It was His sovereign work that brought you to life biologically.
Likewise, it is His work and His alone that brings you into the state of rebirth and of
renewed creation."
So it just uses this false logic saying, "Well, God created you physically, so that means
that everything having to do with salvation is 100% God and nothing to do with you."
So this is my summary, just to help you give a summary.
In my own words, this is a summary of what irresistible grace is.
God's forcible bringing about of salvation in a person, regardless of that person's will
or cooperation.
This is God, He's like, "I'm forcing you to be saved, regardless of your will, regardless
of your cooperation.
God is just putting faith into you, God is just putting salvation into you, regardless
of your desire to be saved or not."
Irresistible grace, you can't resist it, it's just irresistible.
Well, let's go to, you're there in John 6, let me read for you Ephesians 2, which Calvinists
always misinterpret this passage, they always use this passage to teach lies.
We all know these verses, Ephesians 2, 8 says, "For by grace are ye saved through faith,
and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God."
Let's stop for a minute, "For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves."
What's not of ourselves?
I would relate that to the word "saved."
Salvation is not of ourselves.
It, what's the "it" there?
Salvation is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
Here's how Calvinists interpret this, they say, "For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves," they say, "faith is not of yourself."
You can't have faith of your own will.
You can't decide to believe or not to believe based on your own decision.
No, faith is not of yourself.
Faith is the gift of God.
That's what they teach, that God as a gift decides to just force you to have faith.
You will have faith.
You will follow this irresistible grace, not of works, lest any man should boast.
Oh, you're saying you believed in Jesus Christ?
Why don't you stop boasting?
Why don't you stop bragging?
That's what they think.
That's what they teach.
They somehow are teaching a works salvation by saying that we chose, we believed in God.
They say that that's a works salvation.
No, folks, believing in Jesus Christ is not a work.
God compares being saved like eating a piece of bread.
You're there in John chapter number six.
This is what it says, "Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses
gave you not that bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.
Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread."
Why are you asking for the bread?
I thought it was irresistible.
I thought God was going to force you to eat it.
Verse 35, "And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life.
He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst."
Look, salvation is easy.
It's like eating a piece of bread, but God is not going to pin you down by the neck,
open your mouth and shove the bread into your mouth, chew it for you, grab your jaw and
chew it up for you, cover your mouth and make you swallow it.
That's not salvation.
It's like, "Hey, here's a piece of bread.
Do you want it?
Yes, Lord, save me.
Eat the bread."
That's salvation.
It's your choice.
Go to John chapter number four.
Salvation also is like drinking a glass of water.
John chapter number four, the story of Jesus and the woman at the well, look at verse 10.
"Jesus answered and said unto her, Thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that sayeth
to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee
living water.
The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep.
From whence then hast thou that living water?
Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us this well, and drank thereof himself,
and his children, and his cattle?"
She's thinking carnally, she doesn't understand the spiritual yet.
Verse 13, "Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst
again, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst,
but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into
everlasting."
Jesus compares salvation here, it's like drinking water.
And this water that you drink, once you drink it, you're satisfied for forever, picturing
the fact that Jesus' sacrifice for you is good for all your sins, past, present, and
future.
You're not going to lose your salvation and get thirsty again in the future.
You're not going to lose your salvation and get hungry again in the future.
God just offered you a glass of water and all you have to do is drink it.
But the God of Calvinism is like some CIA officer in Guantanamo Bay interrogating terrorists
and waterboarding them.
It's like, "Salvation!
You will drink the water!
Yeah!"
What is that?
That's not salvation.
God's not going to force you to drink the water.
He just offers it to you freely.
It's a free choice.
Man has free will.
Go to John chapter number 11, flip over to John chapter number 11, John chapter number
11 verse 25.
John 11 verse 25 says, "Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life, he that
believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.
And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
Believest thou this?"
Why would Jesus ask this question to anyone?
If not only did God already predetermine who's going to get saved, He's going to pick and
choose who gets saved, only some people had a Savior, some people don't, and those that
will get saved, God's forcing them to believe on Him.
Why would Jesus then need to ask someone, "Hey, do you believe what I just told you?"
That makes no sense.
It would be a complete waste of the breath of Jesus Christ to ask that question if He
already was going to force this woman to believe, if He was going to force anyone to believe.
He asked this question in sincerity.
He actually wants to know, "Do you believe that if you put your faith in me that you'll
never die?
Do you believe that I am the resurrection and the life?"
And that is the most important question that every single soul that's ever been created
will have to answer, "Believest thou this?"
And guess what?
It's your choice.
You actually have a real choice to believe on Jesus Christ.
God's not going to force you to do it.
He's not going to force feed you the bread.
He's not going to waterboard you.
No.
The choice is yours.
Believe-est thou this?
That is a real question that He asked.
Go to Ephesians chapter number one, and you know, the dumbest part about that statement
that R.C.
Sproul gave about, you know, what he believes about this, is saying that salvation precedes
faith.
I mean, that is such a ridiculous concept to believe that you're saved before you have
faith.
Okay?
But look at what Ephesians chapter number one verse 13 says.
It says, "In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of
your salvation, in whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit
of promise."
So when did salvation come about?
After you believed.
When did you get sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise?
After you believed.
To say that salvation precedes belief is a complete rejection of what God teaches.
Here's the last one of Tulip and it is "preserverance of the saints."
Preserverance of the saints.
Go ahead and turn to John chapter number five and I'll read for you what R.C.
Sproul teaches about perseverance of the saints.
It says, "The old axiom in Reformed theology about the perseverance of the saints is this.
If you have it," that is to say, if you have genuine faith and are in a state of
saving grace, you will never lose it.
If you lose it, you never had it.
Now here's the thing.
I don't really have a huge problem with this statement in and of itself because I can interpret
what he's saying to mean that he's teaching you can never lose your salvation.
And so I can't really attack this specific statement unless I were to talk more with
him and what he believes on this.
But here's the thing.
Not all Calvinists are as vague about what they believe about this because I've known
Calvinists personally in my life that tell me that perseverance of the saints does not
just mean you can never lose your salvation, but rather it means that once you're saved,
you're always going to be doing the works, you're always going to be doing what's right,
you're always going to be living a good life, and you're going to persevere in that good
life all the way to the end of your life.
Now I'll prove this because I have a quote from another Calvinist that definitely believes
like I just described.
Paul Washer.
This is what he said.
He said, and man he has the most annoying voice, I'm not even going to impersonate
it.
"Now men today are trusting in the fact that at least one time in their life they prayed
a prayer."
Amen.
I am trusting that one time in my life I prayed a prayer, but guess what?
That prayer wasn't, you know, Lord give me money, Lord give me whatever.
That prayer was, Lord I believe in your son Jesus Christ, please give me eternal life.
I am trusting that one time in my life I prayed that prayer.
Amen.
He says, "And someone told them that they were saved because they were sincere enough.
And so in their salvation if you ask them, are you saved?
Which if someone asked us, are you saved?
What would you say?
Yes, because I've put my faith in Jesus Christ.
Yes, because I called upon Him."
He says, "If you ask these people, are you saved?
They don't say, 'Yes, I am because I am looking unto Jesus, and there's mighty evidence giving
me assurance of being born again.'
These people aren't saying, 'Of course I'm saved.
I have such mighty evidence of good works in my life, and I'm such a good person, and
I've turned over a new leaf, and I go to church, and I save cats out of trees, and I help old
ladies walk across the street, and I feed ham sandwiches to the homeless, and I give
out Christian tattoos for free. We don't list all these mighty works that we've had. No,
we say we believe in Jesus. No, they say, "One time in my life I prayed a prayer, and
they live like devils." So what is Paul Washer's issue with someone giving their salvation
testimony? He's saying, "I have an issue with someone that says that they've prayed a prayer,
that they've believed in Jesus Christ, that they've asked Him to save him, but they live
like devils." What is he saying? He's saying that he's upset that they're claiming to
be saved, but they don't have the works to match. They haven't persevered until the end.
And that's what perseverance of the saints is for many Calvinists, is teaching that,
"Hey, if you truly believe..." And man, Russians are like this. When I lived in Vancouver,
if you truly believe, it's like there's a belief that's not true. If you are in saving
state of grace, you will have the works. That's what they teach. That's what Calvinists believe.
And when I was giving the gospel to a Russian friend of mine, we'd always get hung up on
eternal security. And he's like, "You're Armenian." And I'm like, "I'm American. What are you
talking about?" But really, he's just basically saying that he's a Calvinist, okay, and not
an Armenian. What does the Bible say? John chapter number 5 verse 24, "Verily, verily,
I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting
life." How long does everlasting last for? Forever. He says, "If you have faith, right
now," present tense, "you have life that lasts for forever." But not only that, it
says, "and shall not come into condemnation." So if you believe, not only do you, present
tense, have eternal life, but you'll also never come into condemnation, meaning you'll
never go to hell. Not only that, he says, "but is passed from death unto life." Not
only if you believe do you have everlasting life, not only will you never come into condemnation,
but he says that you are passed, right now, present tense, is passed from death unto life.
He doesn't say someday you'll pass from death unto life if you persevere to the end, someday
you'll pass from death unto life if you live a good life all the way to the end of your
life. No, he says right now, you put your faith in Christ, you are passed from death
unto life. It doesn't matter what your works are, good or bad, after that. Now, of course,
we all know in here that if you live a wicked life after you get saved, that God's going
to punish us for that, that there's a punishment that's on this earth for your sin after you
get saved. But when it comes to salvation, God is not taking away people's salvation
because of their sin, because if He were, we would all lose it every day of our lives,
including these prideful, arrogant Calvinists whose sin of pride is on open display for
everyone because they think, "Oh, I'm in a current saving state of grace because I have
mighty evidence declaring that I've been saved." You're going straight to hell, Paul
Washer. You're teaching a false gospel, and you're a prideful, arrogant jerk that's twisting
salvation taught in the Bible. And that should make you upset. But is it any wonder that
Calvinists believe this doctrine when they use the ESV, the extreme soy version, which
is why these men are so effeminate all the time. Let me read for you out of this extreme
soy version, John 3.36. This is what their version says. It says, "Whoever believes in
the Son has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath
of God remains on him." Now, I understand you could interpret this verse in a way to
say, "Well, believing the gospel is a command from God, and so you have to obey that command
to be saved." I get that, but that's not often how Calvinists interpret this verse.
They're saying, "Well, right here, I mean, it's basically saying that if you believe
in him, you're going to obey him. You're going to persevere with good works to the
end, and if you don't, well, then the wrath of God remains on you." Here's another verse
out of the extreme soy version. 1 Corinthians 15 says, "Now I would remind you, brothers,
of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which
you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you have believed
in vain." Keep in mind, when Calvinists here believe, they're connecting obeying God's
commandments with belief. So they're saying, "Hey, if you're really believing, if you're
truly saved through salvation, then you're being saved," is what they're saying, which
we just read, John 5, 24, it says, "Hath everlasting life shall not come into condemnation." You
are passed from death unto life. You're not in a process of salvation. Salvation is done.
You believed in Him, boom, you're saved forever. You can never lose Him. Go to the King James
in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 1. Let's read that in the King James. He says, "Moreover, brethren,
I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received and
wherein ye stand, by which also ye are saved." Notice the difference there? It's important
to be King James only. There's a big difference between salvation being a process and saying,
"Hey, you are saved." That's a huge difference. Man, if you go out soul-winding, you run into
someone with the ESV, that's a good verse to show them right there. It says, "If you
keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain." Now go to Galatians
chapter number 2. Probably have to be the last place I have you turn. What does it mean
to believe in vain? Does it mean that you didn't have mighty evidence of works accompanying
your salvation? Galatians chapter number 2 verse 16 says, "Knowing that 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 shall no flesh be justified." I think Paul wants
to get a point across there. I don't know how many times he has to repeat it. We're
saved by faith, not by works, not by the works of the law. The works of the law isn't going
to justify everyone. It's all by faith. Faith, faith, faith. Skip down to verse 21. It says,
"I do not frustrate the grace of God. If righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain."
Christ's death would be meaningless if salvation could be obtained by the law of God. And believing
in vain, it would be vain to believe in Jesus Christ if you believe that you had to work
your way to heaven. If you had to do good works to get to heaven, then why are you even
believing on Jesus? You've got it all figured out. You've got it handled, buddy. You're
so righteous, you've got such mighty evidence of salvation. It's vain to believe on Jesus
Christ if you think that you need to help Him out. If you think that you have to live
such a righteous life to the end. No, look, we should live a righteous life. We should
follow God's commandments to the best of our ability. We teach that at this church.
But look, if you don't persevere in good works to the end of your life, if you've put your
trust on Jesus Christ, you are saved. End of story. Look at Lot. Did he persevere to
the end? But the Bible calls him just Lot. Okay, what about King Saul? Did he persevere
to the end? What was the last act of his life? Suicide. You can't really ask for forgiveness
after that one. It's over. You committed suicide, yet the Bible is pretty damn clear that Saul
is in heaven. I believe 100% with all my being that Saul is in heaven that he was saved.
He didn't persevere in good works to the end. Because it's not about his works. It's not
about our works. It's about what Jesus Christ did for us. It's about him and for a system
of ideology to pride themselves of being theocentric. We do not want to be anthropocentric. They're
saying, "Well, we don't want to be man-centered. We want to be God-centered." It's pretty funny
how your method of salvation at the end of the day is man-centered. You better persevere
to the end if you're truly in real faith. No, guess what? We're all going to persevere
to the end because we're saved, because we believe in Jesus Christ. And so it's a facade
they're claiming to be a God-centered theology. It's a man-centered theology. I can understand
how maybe people can misunderstand total depravity a little bit and maybe still be saved. I'm not
saying I know anyone like that, and I don't know, maybe there's some people that believe
that you're just inherently sinner, but they don't believe the part about babies going to hell.
But I'm telling you, a lot of this is damnable heresy. And I personally believe that 99.99%
of Calvinists are all unsaved. That is what I believe. Could there be an exception out there?
Yeah, I think that there could be an exception. Maybe they don't believe all of these points.
But just know, if you're out soul winning and you run into a Calvinist, you're probably dealing
with someone that's unsaved, because they probably don't even understand the nature of God. They
probably don't even understand the atonement of Christ and who He died for and the fact that we
have free will and that we could choose to believe in Jesus Christ or not. Look, these are people
that we need to contend against, because Calvinists are pretty influential and they like to trick people
and they like to snow people because they appear really smart and really intelligent because they
use words like "anthropocentric" that many people without a dictionary wouldn't know what that means,
but that's what they just try to do. They try to trick you by using fancy words, but when you
actually open up the Bible, everything they believe is stupid. Everything they believe is wrong and
it's like we didn't go very deep this morning. We didn't go to some obscure passages of the Bible
to prove them wrong. We went to John chapter 3 for crying out loud. Like it is not hard to disprove
these people, but you need to be armed and you need to be ready to fight against these people
because these people are enemies of Christianity. They're teaching damnable heresy, they're not our
friends, and we need to contend against Calvinism and realize that it's a false doctrine. And also,
we need to read the Bible without commentary because these beliefs would not exist without
someone opening up a commentary and listening to some false prophet teach that to them. No one is
going to read John chapter 3 and tell me that Jesus didn't die for the world. Where are they
getting it from? False prophets. Turn off the false prophets on YouTube, turn off the false prophets
on CBN, turn off the false prophets in your commentary, and just read the pure, unadulterated
King James Bible, the Holy Word of God, and let the Holy Spirit of God teach you in all things.
With that, let's have a word of prayer. Lord, thank you so much for this day, and thank you for the
King James Bible. Thank you that you are truly a loving, merciful, and a just God, that you've
given everyone on this earth the chance to be saved and the chance to truly accept or reject
your free gift. I just pray that if there's anyone in here this morning that is not saved,
that they would talk to someone before they leave so that they can know for sure that they're going
to heaven. And I pray that you bless Pastor Shelley as he's preaching this morning and evening at
faithful word. Please bring him home safely to us. We love you in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
All right, let's go ahead and go to our last song. 402, our best. 402, our best. 402, our best.