Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine,
lest they trample them under their feet and turn again and rend you. Ask and it shall be given you,
seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth,
and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there
of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if you ask a fish, will he give him
a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more
shall your Father, which is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him? Therefore all things
whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them, for this is the law and the
prophets. Enter ye in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth
the destruction, and many there be which go in thereat, because straight is the gate and narrow
is the way which leads them unto life, and few there be that find it. Beware of false prophets,
which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know
them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? Even so, every good
tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring
forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not
forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Wherefore, by their fruits ye shall know
them. 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. Many will say to me in that day,
Lord, Lord, have ye not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils,
and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then when I profess unto them, I never knew you,
depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine,
and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock. And the rain
descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not,
for it was founded upon a rock. And everyone that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not,
shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended,
and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the
fall of it. And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished
at his doctrine, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Let's pray.
Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word, Lord. We thank you for this church, Lord,
we pray that you protect it. And Lord, pray that you feel pastor here with your spirit,
allow him to preach boldly and clearly, and give us ears to hear the preaching, Lord, and learn.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
All right, we're in Matthew chapter 7 this evening, and look down at your Bibles at verse 21,
very familiar portion of scripture. A lot of us know this portion of scripture very familiar with
it. Look at it, it says in verse 21, 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. 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? And then will I profess unto them, I never
knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity. What I want to preach on this evening is salvation
or self-deception, salvation or self-deception. It's always good every once in a while just to
kind of reiterate, reinforce what we believe when it comes to this matter of salvation.
And the reason for that is because the Bible specifically tells us that we ought to earnestly
contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. And it's in context of the
salvation that was once delivered unto the saints. God wants us to constantly reinforce, reiterate,
teach doctrine and all types of doctrine that's found in the Bible. But especially when it comes
to this matter of salvation is probably the most important doctrine there is in the Bible, because
it really deals with this matter of a person's eternal soul and where it will spend all of
eternity. Now here's the thing is that you know in this world you either have people who are saved
or people who think they're saved but they're actually self-deceived. You know they think that
they're saved, they think they're going to heaven, they think that they have eternal life, they think
they've received the forgiveness of sins, but the reality is they're just self-deceived. They're not
really saved to begin with. Now let me just start off by saying because you know a lot of people
think well you're saying you're so proud you know you're so proud to say that you're saved that you
know you're going to heaven. Folks the Bible tells us you know that we can know for sure that we have
eternal life. That you may know that you have eternal life you know because of the fact that
we believed on Jesus Christ. This is something that we can know with assurance. This is something
we can know not based upon anything that we do but simply based upon what the Bible says and
placing our faith in him. Now go with me if you would to 2 Corinthians. Now the reason I started
in Matthew chapter 7 it's because of the fact that we have a group of people in Matthew 7
that are self-deceived right. Many will say to me in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in
thy name in thy name have cast out devils and in thy name done many wonderful works the Bible says.
So look are these people coming to God and saying hey I believed on Jesus Christ why am I being
damned? Why am I going to hell? Why am I not allowed to enter into the kingdom of God?
What do they do? Well they list everything that they've done. They don't talk about what Jesus
did. They don't talk about the work on the cross. They don't talk about the fact that they placed
their faith in the finished work of the cross and the fact that he resurrected to justify them.
What do they do? They start listing the things the effort that they placed into serving God
whether that be prophesying preaching casting out devils exorcisms or any type of work.
This is why he tells them I'm going to profess unto them I never knew you depart from me ye
that work iniquity. So notice this that he tells them ye that work iniquity after they just got
finished saying we've prophesied after they just got finished we cast out devils after they just
got finished saying we've done many wonderful works. So here's the thing there's a group of
people out there that think that they're saved they're preaching the Bible or at least they
think that they're preaching the Bible and they think that that's going to justify them in the
eyes of God. God does not consider that a godly work he actually considers it a work of iniquity
and in context Matthew chapter 7 is obviously referring to false prophets but you know you can
apply this to any Christian or excuse me you can apply this to any individual who thinks they're
a Christian who thinks that they're saved and thinks these are the things you have to do in
order to be saved. But we see there that he doesn't know them they go into hell for all
of eternity. Now I was thinking about this today you know when they say many will say to me in that
day what day is he referring to you know when he says many was saying to me that day and most
people think well when they die you know when people die they're gonna meet their maker you
know a lot of people think that right they think you know that's like a common phrase if someone's
gonna you know like in a movie or something someone's about to kill someone get ready to
meet your maker you know kind of thing and what they're saying is basically you're gonna die and
then you're gonna go before God and God's gonna judge you etc but really that's not the way it
works. If you think about it unsaved people do not meet their maker until literally a thousand years
have passed in the millennial reign. You see when an unsaved person dies the Bible tells us
specifically that their soul unsaved person dies their soul descends into hell immediately and the
reason we even know that is because of the fact that we have the example of Luke chapter 16
uh luke chapter 15 excuse me where is it 15 or 16 16 luke chapter 16 where you have the rich man
and Lazarus of course we know that Lazarus dies he is carried into the bosom of Abraham in heaven
and then the rich man he dies and in hell he lifts up his eyes so immediately as soon as he dies his
soul is transferred to the lower parts of the earth to burn forever he's in torment forever
and ever and that's exactly what happens to any person who's not saved who dies as soon as they
die they descend into hell and you know they have what we would call a rude awakening
they die they descend into the hell and they have a rude awakening and they're there
I mean for obviously however long whenever the the millennial reign takes place but even when
the millennial reign the inauguration of the millennial reign you have a thousand years and
then you have the white throne judgment now I had you turn to second corinthians four but let's go
to let's go to revelation chapter 20 just to take a look at that
revelation chapter 20 of course we know that there's going to come a time when jesus comes
back and this is after the tribulation three and a half years into what's known as daniel 70th week
three and a half years thereafter is the wrath I mean during three and a half years thereafter
is what's considered the wrath of god at the end of those seven years you have the inauguration
the beginning of what the bible refers to or we would call the millennial reign the thousand year
reign of christ where jesus christ and his people are ruling and reigning this entire world at the
end of that there is a war of the battle of gog and magog where god allows satan to come out and
to deceive the nations and to basically recruit members to to the war against god they lose that
war obviously and look what it says in verse number verse number 11 let's start at verse 10
it says the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the
beast and the false prophet are and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever
and I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it from whose face the earth and the heaven
fled away and there was found no place for them and I saw the dead small and great stand before
god and the books were open and another book was open which is the book of life and the dead were
judged out of those things which are written in the books according to their works and the sea
gave up the dead which were in it and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in in them
and they were judged every man according to their works and death and hell were cast into the lake
of fire this is the second death and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast
into the lake of fire so what do we see we see that when a person dies they're not saved they
go they go to hell they are relocated to the throne at the white throne judgment to be judged
according to their works so in other words they stand before god and god pulls out the bible which
I believe that's what it says when it says the books because of course this is the bible but
it's composed of 66 books and then he pulls out the book of life so you have two things you have
the book of life to validate whether this person is in the book of life or not and then you have
the bible itself to be judged according to that which the bible says so when people come up and
they're like lord lord we've done all this and it's just like well according to this you never
even believed you've never believed and you committed these crimes you've committed these sins
you've committed these things and because you've never believed these sins these crimes are still
on your account payday someday now it's time to pay and at that point they are cast into
the lake of fire so I believe this is actually when it takes place when he says many was saying
to me in that day lord lord that day is referring to the great white throne judgment which is pretty
crazy to think that these people after spending who knows how long in hell are going to come out
and say you know lord lord and I need to go to heaven and this is why it's just like
you've been in hell this entire time you really think anything else is going to change because
of that you know but it shows you that these people obviously have never placed their faith
in Christ they're still depending on their works and they still think you know you kind of wonder
like are these people in hell like I'm burning right now but just let me talk to God I'm going
to be able to convince them I'm going to be able to show them and do all the things you know all
the things that I've done etcetera go to second Corinthians chapter four
so some people are saved others are self-deceived they think that they're saved but they're not now
why are they deceived well look what the bible says in second Corinthians chapter four
in verse number three it says here but if our gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost
and whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not lest the light of
the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them for we preach not
ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves your servants for Jesus sake so we see that the
reason they're deceived is because of the fact that their minds are blinded they're deceived by
false religion they're deceived by false doctrine false teachers by you know the the ideologies and
the philosophies of this world and therefore because their minds are blinded they can go on
to this world and think yeah I'm saved I'm going to heaven I mean don't you run into people like
that when we're all sony anytime I've gone sony I've always run into someone who says
you know I'm going to heaven because I'm a good person you know I'm going to heaven because
you know I haven't done a whole lot of wrong in my life I'm going to heaven because I grew up in
church I'm going to have because all these things and you think because you know the bible you think
to yourself what in the world how do you how can you believe that these things get you to heaven
but you know what it is is that they're deceived they are self-deceived they've been blinded by the
God of this world to believe that they're saved go with me if you would to Ephesians chapter two if
you would Ephesians chapter two real basic sermon tonight just kind of emphasizing reinforcing a
doctrine that we already understand let me say this number one people are deceived if they
believe that works can save them right people are deceived if they believe that works can save them
just like it said in Matthew 7 they prophesied in his name they cast out devils and in thy name
done many not just works wonderful works most men will proclaim their own goodness but a faithful
man who can find like these are the guys who's like no these aren't just the works that I did
these are the wonderful works that I've done what in the world prideful people right but they're
obviously depending on their works and look this can be said of pretty much everyone in this world
right but like well you know I'm I do this and I feed the poor and you know I
you know have given to the poor I've I walked the grandma across the street or something and you
know I've done all these things therefore God should let me into heaven but that's deception
that's not salvation look at Ephesians 2 verse 8 says for by works are you saved through faith
no for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God
not of works lest any man should boast so what is he specifically saying in verse 10 hey it's not
of works because here's the thing if salvation was of works let's say salvation was of works
you had to do everything got the you know a set of rules that God says these are the works you
need to do at that point when you get to heaven you're going to boast in yourself
you can go up and say I'm the one who got myself here look at the list of works that I've done
I went sowing all day long I went to church this many times I fed this poor person I gave here
I did great works and therefore I'm the one who got myself here but folks that's not what the
Bible's saying and in fact salvation is only can only be granted when it's received as a gift
not of works as any man should boast so the opposite can be said when someone's actually
saved we boast in the Lord we're saved not because of the effort that we put in
we're saved because of the fact that Jesus Christ did all the effort he died on the cross he was
buried his soul went into hell for three days and three nights his soul was not left in hell neither
did his flesh see corruption the Bible says on the third day he resurrected from the grave and
he's in heaven right now making intercessions for the saints his life his death and his resurrection
is all we need for our salvation the works that he did not the works that we do now look folks
after we get saved we should work not to stay saved not to you know deceive ourselves okay
I'm saved because I'm doing these works are we we do works because of the fact that once we get saved
it's like God hires us to do works to reward us in the life to come with eternal life no that's
already given to us as a gift eternal there's rewards awaiting us on the other side why do you
think we're even doing all this why do you think your pastor is even standing up to these sodomites
and fighting against them because I know there's a reward to be have to be happy I know there's
a reward at the end of the tunnel and it's going to be great and in fact God says great is your
reward in heaven not talking about salvation it's talking about the work
in fact look at verse 10 for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus
unto good works which God has before ordained that we should walk in them so one thing that we can
learn from this portion of scripture is that every Christian has a purpose in life
you should never think well you know I have a wasted life and you know I'm nobody I don't have
any talents I'm not gifted you know I've never done anything with my life well folks if you're
saved you have purpose you're created in Christ Jesus unto good works and in fact the Bible says
that God has ordained for you to do works that you should walk in them so as soon as you get
saved he has like a list of things for you to do a will for you to accomplish and what is our job
to find that will and do it right and you know what a great thing that God would not only is
willing to save us but hire us as his servants as his workers as his laborers so that we not only
enjoy eternity to be with God forever but we actually get rewards along with that very gracious
okay the Bible says in Titus 3 5 not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to
his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the holy ghost so again it
emphasizes it's not by works that you're saved don't think that your righteous works are going
to get you into heaven don't be deceived don't think well I've done so many good things I've
grown up in an independent fundamental Baptist church you know God has to let me into heaven I
mean I stood up against the sodomites or whatever you know you guys see my post and done all these
things I've done so many you know these are righteous works yeah but if you're not saved
it means nothing it means absolutely nothing okay and the Bible tells us it's because of his mercy
so aside from the fact that obviously we're saved by grace the Bible says we're saved by mercy
we're saved by the washing and regeneration and renewing of the holy ghost referring to the fact
that when we get saved the holy spirit comes to dwell within us to live within us forever and he
basically quickens our spirit our dead spirit okay you have the quick in the Bible says who
were dead in trespasses and sin so when Jesus when when the holy spirit comes to live within us
he revives our old spirit and at that point we are eternal eternal beings that will live forever
in heaven go to Romans chapter 11 Romans chapter 11
hey if you believe you have to be you have to do works in order to be saved you think your works
are saving you you're dead wrong you're deceived okay no amount of work that you do whatever amount
is ever sufficient you can never purchase salvation you can never earn salvation you can
never be you know worthy of salvation based upon the effort you put in the only reason we're
accepted in the beloved is because of Jesus that's the only work that God accepts
right this is the example that I used to give and I heard one of the guys give this recently
you know when I go out soul winning I often tell people like just to just to illustrate
just because we're like in 2021 now
you know if you get a gift card to Starbucks okay let's say you get a gift card to Starbucks
and someone gives it to you as a gift right you can't go to like coffee bean to go redeem that
right you can't go to McDonald's I don't know why you would want to go to McDonald's period
you can't go to McDonald's you can't go to any coffee shop the only place you can redeem
that gift is at Starbucks well look folks salvation is a gift but the only way you can
get that gift the only way you can be able to redeem that gift of eternal life is through Jesus
Christ you can't do it at coffee bean works you can't do it at you know McDonald's works you can't
do it at any other place that requires any effort on your part you have to get it where it was
purchased and it was purchased on Jesus Christ look at Romans 11 verse 5 even so at this present
time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace and if by grace look what it
says then there's no more of works otherwise grace is no more grace but if it be of works
then there's no more grace otherwise work is no more work so what is God specifically saying
he's saying when it comes to the election of grace when it comes to salvation works and faith works
and grace need to be completely separated they cannot be intermingled one with another and in
fact if you say well I believe in Jesus I believe that it's by grace through faith but you also have
to work then grace is no more grace the Bible says you've actually made grace null and void
it's no longer applicable you can't use it okay you cannot mix the two now go to James chapter
2 because surely there's someone always out there that says yeah faith without works is dead being
alone they always go to James 2 and I'm sure you've been confronted with this passage of
scripture I'm sure people have told you this you know you've seen it on the comments section
with your family or friends yeah but faith without works is dead and to that I say amen
but here's the thing folks when it comes to James chapter 2 James chapter 2 does not is not a
salvation passage has nothing to do with salvation has nothing to do with being justified in the
spirit okay let me turn there myself because we might start a little earlier here
look at James chapter 2 first and foremost look at verse number 1
my brethren have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of glory with respect of persons
so what is he saying hey since you guys have the faith of Jesus Christ make sure you don't attach
we're being a respecter of people with that okay and the reason he's telling them that is because
of the fact that there's people coming into the assembly who have clout you know they're coming
in with their Gucci and they're you know really it's the Pharisees that are coming in here okay
and the reason I even say Gucci or whatever it's not because Gucci's bad it's because they
basically were wearing the gay clothing they were kind of sporting themselves and making themselves
you know portraying themselves to be superior to other people you know and therefore they wanted
people to know like I'm important okay and look it's not bad to have nice clothing we obviously
understand but here's the thing what if someone walks in here with like an Armando's seat I'm
like oh wait everyone I'm gonna have to move you that guy's wearing a really expensive suit that
would obviously be wrong which is actually exactly what they're doing they were being respect our
people because people were coming in with goodly clothing gay clothing you know happy clothing and
these Christians were like okay we'll give them the goodly seat remove the poor guy
and put the goodly person there okay they're having they're being respecter of people
so James is rebuking them for this and he's explaining to them hey don't do that look at verse
number 14 what doth it profit my brethren though a man say he have faith and have not works can
faith save him so what is being stated here well verse number let's see here
so what he's saying here is this so look at verse 15 if a brother or sister be naked and destitute
of daily food and one of you saying to them depart in peace be warmed and filled notwithstanding
you give not them those things which are needful to the body what does the prophet so he's not
saying what does it profit you person who has faith what he's saying is how is it going to
profit your brother if they're naked hungry destitute of these necessities and you say hey
i see that you have need but be warmed and filled i have faith that god's going to provide for you
your faith is obviously not going to help that person because your faith
really when it comes to the necessities of life helps you right you your family so what he's
saying here is this look you need to make sure that your faith is coupled with your works and
if you believe that god can provide then be the instrument of provision for this person don't just
tell him be warmed and filled don't just tell him like hey just order some some pizza or something
you'll be fine or you know put it on the credit card you know charge it up you'll be just fine
no he's actually saying no why don't you go out of your way to be a blessing to that individual
attach your faith with your works look what it says in verse 17 even so faith if it hath not
works is dead being alone now does it say it's non-existent no it says that it's dead
because the goal of the christian should be to have a living faith right that we are reading
the bible we are we are you know being doers of the word not hearers only that we're actually
fulfilling what the word of god actually says that's called a living faith but if a person
is saved but they're just not working they're not soul winning they're not being a blessing to
others what's going to happen well i'm telling you what's going to happen they're going to have
a dead faith it doesn't mean it doesn't exist it just means that it needs to be you know revived
okay it says there in verse 18 yea a man may say thou hast faith and i have works show me thy faith
without thy works and i will show thee my faith by my works thou believes that there is one god
thou doest well the devils also believe and tremble but wilt thou know o vain man that
faith without works is dead now what does it mean to be vain empty so what is he telling
him you're a man of faith but you are empty because you have no works was not abraham our
father justified by works when he had offered isaac his son upon the altar now this is great
that this passage of scripture is here because it's telling us that he was justified by works
not when he believed god and was counted unto him for righteousness
but rather when he did the work of seeking to offer his son when god told him to do it
so who is he being justified before men right he's being justified before men to prove that he has
faith verse 22 see us thou how faith wrought with his works and by works was faith made perfect now
what does the word perfect mean means complete so christians who do not exercise their faith
do not have a mature or complete faith right it hasn't been matured it's not complete it hasn't
reached that final destination not for salvation because here's the thing folks we go from faith to
faith we place our faith in jesus christ but even thereafter we have to exercise our faith that god's
going to protect us that god will provide for us that he's there for us that if we serve him we
know that you know that he's not going to withhold any good thing from them who walk uprightly this
requires faith this requires faith is like a muscle that you have to constantly exercise to
keep it strong and you do that by doing works okay not to be saved it says in verse 23 and the
scripture was fulfilled which uh which saith abraham believed god and was imputed to him for
righteousness and he was called a friend of god you see then how that by works a man is justified
and not by faith only so faith justifies us before man works justify us before excuse me faith
justifies us before god works justifies us before man verse 25 likewise also was not
rahab the harlot justified by works when she had received the messengers and had sent them out
another way so what happened with rahab well the reason that the spies were able to trust her
and deliver her and her family was because of the fact that she worked and received them into the
city that's why she was justified before the spies right the fact that she was willing to
receive them cover them protect them was a display of faith verse 26 for as the body without the
spirit is dead so faith without works is dead also so look folks just you know if if there's a
corpse here okay and we're going to look at that corpse we didn't say this person this this does
not exist i don't see this at all there's no limbs there's no head there's no individual here
we just say it's dead so in like manner an individual who has who's saved and they believed
on jesus christ but they don't have works they're like a corpse because their faith is dead right
okay go to uh go to hebrew chapter six hebrew chapter six so look people are deceived if they
believe you have to do works in order to be saved they are self-deceived today and what our job to
do what our job is is that when we go and preach the gospel unto them we teach them hey it's not
of worse and let me just say this when you teach them that it's like a load off their back because
any individual who wants to work their way to heaven obviously they understand it's an arduous
thing it's very difficult every human being in this world knows that they're not perfect every
human being in this world knows that they don't do enough that's why they're unsure whether they're
going to heaven even when if they tell you i am going to heaven they'll say because i think i do
a lot of you know it's just like well you're not really sure then okay people are deceived that
they believe that works will save them people are deceived that they believe that repenting of your
sins can save you that's my point number two that repenting of your sins can save you now
repenting of sin folks is a work according to the bible no matter which way you cut it
now look folks when people used to preach repentance in the bible not a single one of
them thought oh they mean they mean of my sin for salvation anytime john the baptist you know
preached the baptism of repentance no one took that message and they said oh man now i gotta
make sure i gotta clean up my life in order to be saved no one did that's more recent
you know i preached a sermon a couple weeks ago called negative connotations in the bible that
was one of them that's why when we go out and preach you know the gospel we don't say repent
and believe the gospel because of the fact that it has an association that you have to turn from
your sin it'll confuse individuals it'll confuse people when people say repent of your sins they
basically mean turn from your wicked ways you gotta stop drinking you gotta stop smoking you
gotta stop being a sodomite you gotta stop doing those things or whatever and i don't
care if they give them the wrong gospel i mean that's fine with me but think about this proverbs
20 verse 9 tells us who can say i have made my heart clean i am pure for my sin who in this
world can actually say other than those who've placed their faith in christ i am pure for my sin
no one can and look folks even those who have placed their faith in christ even though we are
pure from our sin for the wages of sin we still have sin every single day that we need to be
cleansed of but just to prove to you the fact that repenting is a work jonah chapter 3 verse
10 says this and god saw their works that they turn from their evil way and god repented of the
evil that he said that he would do unto them and he did it not so god specifically said i saw your
works and that those words being described as turning from your evil ways so anytime when the
bible talks about you know repenting of your evil ways repenting of your evil works god considers
that a work now look other individuals look at repenting and they say well it's always about
sin but that's not true because then you have god repenting in the bible as well
and we know that god can't sin he repented of the evil that he was going to do unto israel
and look when it says he repented of the evil it's not saying he repented of the sin
he's repenting of the judgment that he was going to do unto them so obviously there's times when
repent does mean turn from your wicked ways but i promise you 100 of the time when it's referring
to salvation it's never talking about repenting of your sin never look at hebrew 6 verse 1
therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of christ let us go on into perfection not laying
again the foundation of repentance from dead works and a faith toward god so what god is saying here
with what the apostle paul is actually saying here inspired by the holy ghost is that a foundational
doctrine is salvation obviously right having faith toward god more specifically jesus christ
and in order to have faith toward god you have to repent of what
what you're trusting in to get you to heaven and in this case from dead works
but you know what folks there's plenty of people out there i guarantee you some of these people
who are out here today they believe some of them i guarantee they believe they're saved
because they're repenting of their sin guaranteed and most of these so-called christians who fight
against us because of what we preach all repent of your sins they all say well you know there's
hope for them because they just have to repent of that sin they just got to stop being a sodomite
they just got to stop doing those things and they can be saved wrong reference the sermon from this
morning it's not that they can't be saved it's just that god has removed their ability to believe
and don't feel bad about that because they don't want to believe to begin with
so don't don't cry over it don't cry over spilled milk
why would god remove their ability to believe because they didn't want to believe them to begin
with okay god is a gentleman god's not going to force salvation upon any individual and if you
reject god you reject the salvation then guess what god says well you know what i see your
rejection i'll give you a reprobate mind just to make it easy for you to reject me all the
days of your life okay but we have to repent of our dead works and place our faith in christ go
to first peter chapter three first peter chapter number three we're talking about salvation or
self-deception salvation or self-deception and look people who go to these repenting your sins
churches they're not all bad the people who go to those churches they're not necessarily bad
some of them are just deceived some of them maybe that's just what they were taught you know that's
how they're reached so to speak you know someone reads them to come to that church and that's what
they learn that's what they believe they're deceived they're blinded okay and we hope and
pray that they would come across a video like this they would come across a soul winner with
the right gospel they would come across a content that has the right way of salvation
and that they would get that right and look i'm sure there's people in here you believe
they're repenting your sins prior to getting saved you're like yeah that's what i thought
until i saw a video from pastor anderson or you know gospel presentation somewhere and you know
what i got that right okay i didn't know but now i know okay well like man there's individuals in
those churches who are the same way and look i'm not saying that all of them okay but i'm sure
there's even pastors out there who are sincere who are preaching this and they're not bad people
now some of them are some of them are false prophets they have a bad agenda they're wicked
people they're workers of iniquity but i guarantee you there's someone out there who just thought that
this is what real doctrine is and they're deceived but here's the thing once you show them the right
way and they're just like no it's my repentance okay you're just a false teacher then yeah
you're a false prophet false teacher because the fact that we've shown you from the bible you
reject it let him be anathema okay so people are deceived when they believe you have to do works
for salvation people are self-deceived if they believe that you have to repent of your sins to
be saved number three people are deceived that they believe that baptizing can save you
okay and this is big okay when people think well all you have to do is be baptized in order to be
saved okay acts 2 38 says this then peter said unto them repent and be baptized every one of you
in the name of jesus christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the holy
ghost now what is he referring to water baptism right and look water baptism is a commandment
in the bible for those who are saved but there's people out there that literally believe and this
is ridiculous well in order to be saved you have to be baptized you have to be immersed in water
in order to be baptized and it's like so do you think that you still sin after that if they say
yes then it's like so do you get baptized every single time right because they think baptizing
themselves will wash away their sins they're washing away the the sin all they're washing
away is the dirt and whatever is on their skin okay but that's it look at first peter chapter
three and this is a scripture that they'll commonly use to try to prove this false doctrine okay
don't worry the police are out there all right as you can plainly see out there the sirens or
whatever the lights verse 19 says by which also he went and preached into the
spirits in prison which sometimes were disobedient when once the long suffering of god waited in the
days of noah while the ark was a preparing wherein few that his eight souls were saved by water
the like figure where unto even baptism doth also now save us let's just stop right there there you
go baptism saves us right there but folks let's keep reading not the putting away of the filth of
the flesh but of the answer of a good conscience toward god by the resurrection of jesus christ so
notice that we have some parentheses here right so it's a thought within a thought okay so if we
were to just ignore that middle part and just read the sentence through because that is grammatically
how it's written we would read like this the like figure where into even baptism doth also now save
us by what the resurrection of jesus christ because he was delivered for our offenses but he was
raised again for our justification and the baptism that jesus christ went through is actually what
saves us not the physical baptism when the bible talks about him being baptized it's actually
referring to the fact that he was baptized in fire because you remember he specifically said
i have a baptism to be baptized with and how am i straightened it is fulfilled that wasn't
referring to his water baptism because he made that statement after he got physically baptized
he's referring to the fact that he was going to bear the sins of the whole world and that one day
when he died on the cross that his soul was going to descend into hell and he was going to be
baptized in fire to pay for our sins okay so that's what saves us not just his life
not just his death not just him going to hell but guess what even his resurrection saves us
everything everything from jesus saves us everything his blood everything
don't be like one of these people i was like well no it has to be only one it could only be his blood
it could only be his death it can only be his resurrected no it's it's all of it
we are saved by his life the bible says okay so the like figure one to even baptism
doth also now save us now look we're baptists and because we're baptists we believe that we should
baptize people after salvation okay never has a means to be saved or to cleanse away your sins
or anything like that it's not biblical it's not what the bible teaches go to roman chapter number
three roman chapter number three people are deceived because they think works can save them
people are deceived because they think the repenting of your sins can save you people
are deceived because they think baptism can save you people are deceived if they believe that
keeping the law can save you i mean you have people like this today okay where they think
well we just got to make sure we obey god's commandments we obey the laws of god the ten
commandments if you could just keep the ten commandments you could be saved folks first
and foremost there's more than ten commandments in the bible hundreds of commandments
but let's just say if there's only ten you still haven't kept those ten
still haven't even done those ten look at romans 3 verse 19
now we know that what things so ever the law sayeth it say to them who are under the law that
mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before god so what is the bible telling us
it's telling us that the law is there to shut your mouth right so basically to show you that
you're guilty it's not there too as a checklist the law is not there to say okay i did that one
right there for sure i did that one well i messed that one up though but i did that one
it's not a checklist what it is is to show you oh man i violated all these
and in fact the bible says in james chapter 2 verse 10 whosoever keepeth the whole law
yet offended one point he is guilty of all so yeah if you want to keep the law if you want
can you tell the police that they're banging on the side of the of the of the building here
or maybe maybe it's not them maybe it's not them maybe it's the children
yeah i falsely accused them
um here's the thing yeah you know what the law can save you if you can keep the whole thing
but folks there's not a one single individual in this world who has ever been able to keep the
entire law that's why god says look if you've keep the whole law if you kept 99 of the law
but you didn't keep one then you're guilty of those 99 that you did keep
supposedly there's no individual that's ever done that except for jesus christ who fulfilled the
entire law look what it says in verse 20 just to further reinforce this thought therefore by the
deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight for by the law is the knowledge of
sin so god brought the law to show you not how to be saved but to show you that you've
sinned that's what it's there for it's to show us man i can't save myself i'm not righteous there's
none righteous no not one i can't justify myself because i've broken all these laws well that's
what the law is there for it's there to spiritually kill you as roman chapter 7 says you know because
in roman chapter 7 it tells us that the law came and revived and i died paul saying that
paul saying that the law slew him he saw the law he saw the requirements of the bible and you know
what at that point it slayed him he became accountable he understood that he sinned against
god at which point he recognized he was a sinner okay look at verse 26
it says to declare i say at this time his righteousness that he might be just in the
justifier of him which believeth in jesus where is boasting then it is excluded by what law of works
nay by the law of faith therefore we conclude so this is the conclusion of the matter that a man is
justified by faith without the deeds of the law although these are great verses to show a catholic
when you're preaching the gospel to catholics because they think you have to keep the law you
got to obey god's commandments well here it says that the conclusion of the matter is that
salvation is given to those people who are justified who basically placed their faith
in jesus without the deeds of the law okay go to galatians chapter 3 galatians chapter 3
to further reinforce this point look at verse 23 of galatians 3
it says but before faith came we were kept under the law shut up unto the faith which should
afterwards be revealed wherefore the law was our school master to bring us unto christ that we
might be justified by faith but after that faith has come we are no longer under school master for
you're all the children of god by faith in christ jesus so what does it mean when it says when faith
came well this is just another way of saying when you got saved it's not like okay now we're in a
dispensation of faith and now faith came and now it's only by faith it's not by works it's saying
hey now that you've placed your faith in christ you have that faith to believe on jesus christ
okay you're no longer under that school master so god describes the law as a school master why
because it teaches you that you need a savior that's what it's there for it's there to show
you and look we could say the ceremonial laws to a certain extent was like a school master
why because those ceremonial laws picture jesus christ foreshadow jesus christ and spoke of the
the messiah to come but what it's really talking about is that moral law that taught us that we're
sinners that we need a savior okay now go to go to first john chapter two first john chapter two
this is going to improve my preaching focus
oh you gotta look at the bright side and everything man look at the silver lining and
everything because you know if the tribulation comes in my time i got to be able to preach
through all that stuff you know all the all the crazy stuff that's happening the four horsemen
of the apocalypse and you know all these things i gotta be able to like focus when i'm preaching
you know so look people are deceived today it's either you're saved or you're or you're deceived
you're deceived because you think you're saved by works you're deceived because you think you
the repenting of your sins save you you're deceived because you think baptism can save you
you're deceived because you think the law can save you not only that you're deceived people are
deceived if they believe that they have to persevere into the end to be saved which is
a calvinistic doctrine right because you know these other ones that we gave yeah there's some
christians that can fall into those categories there but there's some christians that actually
believe this you know or people who claim to be christian that will say well yeah salvation is
not by works no works can't save you keeping the law can't save you but you do have to endure until
the end you have to stick it out in your christian life all the way to the end in order to be saved
and you can see how uh uh just a simple person who doesn't really know the bible
can get caught up and believe something like this you know because the bible says in matthew 24 verse
13 but he that shall endure until the end the same shall be saved and you see someone's like whoa
yeah i guess we do have to endure the end in order to be saved now i preached on sermons like this
various times in fact i preached recently a sermon called salvation in the book of first and second
timothy where i explained this how when the bible talks about saved it's not always in reference to
being justified in the spirit it's also in reference to saving the flesh being delivered
we would consider what happened this morning and even what's going to happen today as god delivering
us saving us from the hand of the wicked right our flesh now it's like oh i need to be i need
to go to heaven for that no it's more like god rescue my flesh deliver my flesh save my flesh
and matthew 24 is referring to that and he's saying look during the great tribulation
if you're able to persevere all the way into the end your flesh will be saved he said why would i
want my flesh to be saved during that time if there's so many horrible things going on well
because at the end of that great tribulation is the second coming of christ and what a glorious
sight to see right to be able to see with your own two eyes your god descending from heaven
rapturing you it's a wonderful sight and that's why he says look if you're enduring to the end
you don't die man you get to see with your own eyes the second coming of christ and to be
raptured etc but here's another verse they like to use look at first john chapter 2
and verse number 18 little children it is the last time well look at verse 19 excuse me
they went out from us we've heard this before but they were not of us for if they had been of us they
would no doubt have continued with us but they went out that they might be made manifest that
they were not all of us and people would try to use this to say that's why you got to make sure
that you endure until the end because this proves that you're saved if you could just endure into
the end but is this really what this is teaching look at verse 18 little children it is the last
time as you have heard that antichrist shall come even now are there many antichrists whereby we
know that it is the last time they referring to who the antichrists went out from us but they
were not of us so look who's the writer of this book here john when he says they went out from us
who is he talking about specifically judas and in fact judas is a picture of the antichrist
he's actually called the son of perdition just as you know they refer to the antichrist in the
end times as the center perdition as well and he's specifically saying here hey judas went out
from us because he was not of us yeah he didn't persevere he did something wrong he did something
extremely wicked he betrayed our savior and it just manifested the fact that this guy was never
safe to begin with he was a devil from the beginning he didn't believe from the beginning
and let me just say this is that spiritual leaders are held to a higher standard
that's why it says he shall know them by their fruits and it's referring to
teachers of god's word so if you have an individual out there who's preaching the
preaching the word of god and they're teaching false doctrine and again you go to them and say
hey you're wrong it actually says this and they just double down and say well that this is what
i believe repent of your sins all this nonsense that at that point they made themselves an enemy
of god because because they're a false teacher so it's not like oh you have to you have to endure
into the end in order to be saved you don't have to persevere in order to be saved from your sins
yeah it's good to persevere it's good to endure it's good to you know wait it out to the very end
but you know what it has nothing to do with your salvation okay look at chapter five
now who's the person that's not to see the person who's not deceived is the person who overcomes
now again people want to use that scripture to say well yeah overcome you have to overcome sin
overcome all these things you know overcome you know your words you have to overcome all these
things in order to be saved but the bible actually has a different definition of overcoming than what
the world has all these false christians look at first john chapter 5 verse 1 whosoever believeth
that jesus is the christ is born of god and everyone that loveth him that begat loveth him
also that has begotten of him by this we know that we love the children of god when we love
god and keep his commandments for this is the love of god that we keep his commandments and
his commandments are not grievous for whatsoever is born of god overcometh the world and this is
the victory that overcometh the world even our works no even our faith so verse 5 who is he
that overcometh the world but he that believeth that jesus is the son of god pretty simple he's
saying look yeah you have to overcome what you're trusting in to get you to heaven and if you really
want to be an overcomer it's not an overcomer of sin it's not an overcomer of your works you have
to overcome whatever you're trusting in by your faith in jesus christ and at that point you become
an overcomer that's the only thing you have to do it's like when they ask what must we do to work
the works of god and he's like here's the work of god that you believe on him whom he hath sent
and the facetious way is just like you really want to do the work where here's the work place
your faith in christ it's the only thing you have to do so what's the message today the message is
simply this is that you're either saved you either have salvation or you're self-deceived if you
believe any of these things that were listed here other than the very last one according to the
bible you're deceived place your faith in christ amen aspire heads and have a word of prayer father
we thank you so much for your word and lord continue to be with us god and we know that
your enemies are outside these doors lord but god we know that you prepare a table before us
in the presence of our enemies and though we walk to the valley of the shadow of death we will fear
no evil we know that you're with us your rod and your staff they comfort us lord we know that we
have you and i pray god lord that you would uh confound them that you would cause them to be
dismayed and confused that you'd make them be ashamed lord and i pray god that you bless us
as we go on our way in jesus name we pray amen