["Pomp and Circumstance"]
Amen. Thank you all for being here at First Works Baptist Church.
Let's all stand together. Song number 210 as you find your seats.
Song number 210 there in your hymnals. Wonderful grace of Jesus.
Song number 210. Let's all stand together.
Song number 210. Sing it on that verse.
Wonderful grace of Jesus. Greater than all my sin.
How shall my tongue describe it? Where shall its praise begin?
Taking away my burden. Setting my spirit free.
For the wonderful grace of Jesus returns me.
Wonderful the matchless grace of Jesus.
Deeper than the mighty rolling sea.
Wonderful grace, how sufficient for me.
More broader than the scope of my transgression.
Greater than all my sin and shame.
O magnify the precious name of Jesus. Praise His name.
Wonderful grace of Jesus. Reaching to all the lost.
I have been pardoned. Saved to the utter most.
Chains have been torn asunder. Giving me liberty.
And the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me.
Wonderful the matchless grace of Jesus.
Deeper than the mighty rolling sea. Higher than a mountain.
Sparkly like a mountain. All sufficient grace for even me.
Greater than the scope of my transgression. Greater than all my sin and shame.
O magnify the precious name of Jesus. Praise His name.
Wonderful grace of Jesus. Reaching the most He found.
By His transforming power. Making Him God's dear child.
Purchasing peace and heaven for all eternity.
And the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me.
Wonderful the matchless grace of Jesus. Deeper than the mighty rolling sea.
Higher than a mountain. Sparkly like a mountain. All sufficient grace for even me.
Greater than the scope of my transgression. Greater than all my sin and shame.
O magnify the precious name of Jesus. Praise His name.
Amen. Wonderful scene. Let's start off our service with a word of prayer.
Dear God, how may Father help you to thank you so much for just allowing us to be here in your house this morning.
We do pray, Lord God, that you would please just bless every aspect of the service.
I pray that you would please just bless the singing unto you, Lord God.
And most of all, please bless the preaching of your word, Lord Heavenly Father.
Please be with Pastor Mejia as he preaches your word.
That you would please fill in with your Holy Spirit.
And also be with us in the congregation that we may have open ears, Lord God.
And also, Lord God, that we will leave here changed as well because of your word being preached unto us.
I pray now these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
You may be seated. Song number 419. Sound the battle cry.
Song number 419. Sound the battle cry.
Sing on that verse.
Sound the battle cry.
See the foe is life. Raise the standard high.
For the Lord, gird your armor on.
Stand firm, everyone.
For it's true, cause the Lord is holy.
Word, vows and soldiers.
See long, live men. Stand free.
For, oh, my God, it compound me.
Amazing Lord, how can it be
That thou, my God, shouldst die?
On that third, at the chorus of the third verse, we're going to slow it down a little bit.
So make sure you breathe in nice and deep for the chorus.
Finish nice and strong. On that last verse, sing it together.
Long my prison spirit lay.
Fast, round, day, and scene, and nature's light.
By our deep pools of green, we pray.
Our hope, the time, gently with thy light.
My chains fell off, my heart lost free.
I rose before and followed thee.
Amazing Lord, how can it be
That thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
Great singing. At this time, the ushers are going to take the offering.
Good morning. We're in the Book of Luke, chapter 20.
Luke, chapter 20. And the chapter reads,
And it came to pass that on one of those days, as he taught the people in the temple and preached the gospel,
the chief priests and the scribes came upon him with the elders and spake unto him, saying,
Tell us by what authority doest thou these things? Or who is he that gave thee this authority?
And he answered and said unto them, I will also ask you one thing and answer me.
The baptism of John, was it from heaven or of men?
And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say from heaven, he will say, Why then believe ye him not?
But and if we say of men, all the people will stone us.
For they were persuaded that John was a prophet.
And they answered that they could not tell whence it was.
And Jesus said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things.
Then began he to speak to the people this parable.
A certain man planted a vineyard and led it forth to husbandmen and went into a far country for a long time.
At the season he sent a servant to the husbandmen, that they should give him of the fruit of the vineyard.
But the husbandmen beat him and sent him away empty.
And again he sent another servant, and they beat him also, and entreated him shamefully and sent him away empty.
And again he sent a third, and they wounded him also and cast him out.
Then said the lord of the vineyard, What shall I do? I will send my beloved son.
It may be they will reverence him when they see him.
But when the husbandmen saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, This is the heir, come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.
So they cast him out of the vineyard and killed him.
What therefore shall the lord of the vineyard do unto them?
He shall come and destroy these husbandmen, and shall give the vineyard to others.
And when they heard it, they said, God forbid.
And he beheld them and said, What is this then is written?
The stone which the builders rejected, the same has become the head of the corner.
Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.
And the chief priests and the scribes of the same hour sought to lay hands on him.
And they feared the people, for they perceived that he had spoken this parable against them.
And they washed them and sent forth spies, who should feign themselves just men,
that they may take hold of his words, that so they might deliver him unto the power and authority of the governor.
And they asked them, saying, Master, we know that thou sayest and teacheth rightly,
neither acceptest thou the person of any, but teacheth the way of God truly.
Is it lawful for us to give tribute unto Caesar, or no?
But he perceived their craftiness and said unto them, Why tempt ye me?
Show me a penny. Whose image and superscription hath it?
They answered and said, Caesar's.
And he said unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar's, and unto God the thing which be God's.
And they could not take hold of his words before the people, and they marvelled at his answer and held their peace.
Then came to him certain of the Sadducees, which deny that there is any resurrection.
And they asked them, saying, Master, Moses wrote unto us, If any man's brother die having a wife,
and he die without children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.
There were therefore seven brethren, and the first took a wife and died without children,
and the second took her to wife, and he died childless, and the third took her, and in like manner the seven also,
and they left no children and died.
Last of all the woman died also, therefore in the resurrection, whose wife of them is she?
For seven had her to wife.
And Jesus answering said unto them, The children of this world marry and are given in marriage,
but they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world and resurrection from the dead,
neither marry nor are given in marriage, neither can they die any more,
for they are equal unto the angels, and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.
Now that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he called the Lord the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
For he is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all live unto him.
Then certain of the scribes answering said, Master, thou is well said.
And after that they durst not ask him any questions at all.
And he said unto them, How say they that Christ is David's son?
And David himself saith in the book of Psalms, The Lord said unto my Lord,
Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool.
David therefore calleth him Lord. How is he then his son?
Then in the audience of all the people he said unto the disciples,
Beware of the scribes, whose desire to walk in long robes,
and love greetings in the markets and the highest seats in the synagogues,
and the chief rooms at feasts, which devour widows' houses, and for a show make long prayers,
the same shall receive greater damnation.
We thank you, Heavenly Father, for your precious words.
Dear God, we thank you for this church, and for dear brothers and sisters, and for our pastor.
Please bless him as he preaches your word this morning. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen.
All right, we're in Luke chapter number 20.
And look down at your Bibles at verse number 19.
Thank you for being here this morning.
Look at verse number 19. It says,
And the chief priests and scribes of the same hour sought to lay hands on him,
and they feared the people, for they perceived that he had spoken this parable against them.
And they watched him and sent forth spies, which should feign themselves just men,
that they might take hold of his words, that so they might deliver him unto the power and authority of the governor.
And what I want to preach on this morning is the scheme against Biblical preaching.
The scheme against Biblical preaching.
Now, throughout Jesus' ministry, we see that Jesus encounters various groups of people, right?
And really they can be categorized into three different bodies.
Person number one would be the individual that basically gladly receives the word of God, right?
You see Jesus going about, you know, doing good, doing miracles, healing people left and right,
but also preaching the word of God.
And you'll often run into people who gladly accept the miracle.
They gladly accept the preaching of God's word.
They gladly accept the gospel.
They get saved, they have their lives changed, they live happily ever after, amen?
That's the first individual.
The second person is the individual that just rejects it, right?
I mean, this is basically what we run into when we go out sowing.
It's just someone who's just not interested, they don't care what he has to say.
Not that they're wicked people, they're just not interested in the gospel.
They don't want to get saved, they want to go about living their normal lives,
they don't want Jesus Christ interfering with their life, right?
And they just completely reject the word of God.
Now, person number three is the individual that conveys the impression that they want the truth, right?
But in actuality, they actually have an underlying motive against the truth, okay?
And this is what we see in Luke chapter number 20, where the Bible says that the Pharisees and the scribes,
they basically, they're watching Jesus and they send forth spies which should feign themselves to be just men.
You know, they're feigning, they're acting like they're righteous people, interested people,
that they might take hold of his words.
What does it mean to feign oneself?
Well, to feign oneself simply means to represent themselves fictitious, right?
They want to have an appearance of being a just person in order to deceive the recipient.
They do it in order to take hold of their words.
They want to catch Jesus contradicting himself, right?
So they go there and they act like they're interested and they often start with flattery, do they not?
They say, oh, we know that thou are, you know, a teacher sent from God and no man can do these miracles except God be with him.
And they often try to flatter and butter up the people in order so the recipient lets down their guard
and then they try to catch that individual in their words.
They want to breach in the wording so that they might have something to accuse them of.
And this is obviously very wicked and deceitful, right?
You see, we as Christians, we use great plainness of speech.
When someone talks to us and they ask us, do you agree with this doctrine?
We don't beat around the bush.
We don't say, well, you know, you know, some homosexuals, you know, or, you know, I kind of agree.
No, we just say no.
Yes or no?
Yes, I do believe that.
No, I don't.
And I can't tell you how many times people have asked me this week, did you say this about John MacArthur?
Look at this post.
Did you say this X, Y, and Z?
And I respond by saying, absolutely, period.
Yes, period.
What they want is like, oh, well, you know, I just got, I mean, I said it, but that's not actually what I meant.
No, I said what I meant and I meant what I said.
Okay.
Now go with me to 2 Corinthians chapter number 4, 2 Corinthians chapter 4.
But you know what, deceitful people are the ones who use that type of tactic, do they not?
You know, they use flattery.
They try to feign themselves to be a Christian.
They try to feign themselves to be a just person.
They even feign themselves to be sincere in their question, right?
Hey, I'm not trying to, I don't want to start an argument.
I don't want to, I'm not trying to debate.
I'm sincerely asking you this question.
I really want to know what you think about this.
And then as soon as you tell them what you believe, then the fangs come out.
You know, they take off the mask and you see them for who they really are, a wolf in sheep's clothing.
Now the Bible says, you're in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, the Bible tells us this,
the heart of the righteous studieth to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pourth out evil things.
So the Bible actually teaches us in Proverbs 15, 28 that we as Christians, the reason we study the word of God
is so that we can be ready to give an answer to every man that asketh of the hope that is in us with meekness and fear.
You see, we don't want to put our light under a bushel, right?
We don't want to just say, well, we're Christians, but don't ask me about any controversial beliefs.
We want to expound what we believe.
The Bible says that we should shout it from the housetops and we ought not to be ashamed of the testimony of Jesus Christ.
You know, if someone asks us, don't blush and say, well, yeah, this is what the Bible says.
No, yeah, I believe that.
I agree with Jesus. I agree with the Bible.
And it's important that the Christian studies to answer, right?
It goes on to say in Proverbs 16, 23, the heart of the wise teacheth his mouth and addeth learning to his lips.
I quoted this already, but I'm going to read to you.
1 Peter 3, 15 says, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.
So look, folks, you know, we as Christians ought to be ready at all times to expound the doctrines that we believe when people ask us, right?
Whether it's a wicked person or it's a sincere individual, we should be ready to say, this is what I believe.
We don't want to be, you know, deceitful.
We don't want to be crafty.
That is the way of Satan.
That's not in the Christian way at all.
Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse number 1.
It says here, therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not.
Look what it says, but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully,
but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.
Now, this is very important here because, you know, Paul the apostle was a Pharisee of the Pharisees, circumcised the eighth day of the tribe of Benjamin.
He was zealous of the law of God.
He thought he was doing God's work, but even he recognizes after his salvation, we see here, that he was walking in craftiness at one time.
He did handle the word of God deceitfully, and that's why he says, I've renounced the hidden things of dishonesty.
I'm not going to walk in craftiness.
This is showing us that the Pharisees, that is their ploy.
This is their stratagem.
This is their method is that they walk in craftiness.
They're deceitful.
They're dishonest.
They can't give a plain answer.
And look, maybe you came from some false religion, whether maybe you came from a Pentecostal type church or a church that just believes in a workspace salvation, whatever it may be.
But you know what?
As soon as you get saved, you need to renounce the things of dishonesty and not say, well, you know, they have some things, right?
Well, look, if they don't have the right gospel, they probably not right on anything else.
Renounce the hidden things of dishonesty.
Don't walk in craftiness.
We don't have to be skillful in being dishonest.
All we have to do is know the truth and expound the truth.
And the Bible says we can do nothing against the truth but for the truth.
Okay?
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians chapter 2, go to Ephesians chapter number 4, if you would.
Ephesians chapter number 4, I'm going to read to you from 2 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 17.
Paul the apostle speaking here again says, for we are not as many which corrupt the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God.
In the sight of God, speak we in Christ.
So when we're speaking to individuals, whether that's in the sowing arena or just discipling someone or even here in church when we're speaking, we're speaking as of sincerity.
What does that mean?
We're preaching purely.
We want you to know what we clearly believe.
We're not trying to catch you in your words.
We're not trying to hold your word so we can have something to accuse you of.
We're just going to preach the complete, unadulterated, unfiltered word of God, which is a sincere thing to do.
We're not corrupting God's word.
Okay?
Look what it says in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 11.
By the way, Ephesians 4 verse 11 really is teaching us the importance of being in church.
Amen?
You know, obviously you can learn the word of God by yourself when you're reading the Bible, but a supplement to that is that you come to the local assembly, you hear the preaching of God's word, and you augment your knowledge in God's word.
Amen?
You know, there's going to be things that you learn in church that you'll probably understand later on in its completion, in its perfection, but, you know, the reality is that church is here to perfect the saints, and not just in doctrine.
You know, church is here to perfect the saints in their marriage, in their child rearing, as an employee, as just a citizen of the world, or should I say, just an earthly citizen of this world.
We need to learn how to behave ourselves in this world, and the church is here to do that, to help you to do that.
Look at verse 11, it says,
Now let me stop here and say that verse 13 where it says,
This isn't referring to a sinless man, right?
Because it's impossible to be sinless, this side of eternity.
When it refers to a perfect man, it's referring to a complete, mature man, okay?
Why?
Look at verse 14.
So a perfect man is the opposite of being a spiritual child, right?
It says,
So what is the Bible teaching us?
It's saying that there's individuals out here in this world, that their, you know, agenda, their motive is to deceive you.
Now they're not going to come out and flat out just tell you a deception, what they're going to do is they're going to be crafty in how they word their sentences.
You know, because if they just flat out tell you a lie, because you have the spirit of truth dwelling within you, you know, if you're a babe in Christ, even if you're a babe in Christ, you're going to see that deception if it's just a full blown lie.
So they got to mix a little bit of truth in there.
They got to be crafty, right?
And how they word what they actually believe in order to deceive you.
It says it's the sleight of man, referring to a sleight of hand, trying to deceive you, deception, cunning craftiness, and what they really want to do is just deceive you, okay?
They want to gain an advantage.
Now go with me if you would to 2 Peter chapter 1, actually go to 2 Timothy chapter 4, 2 Timothy chapter 4.
And the reason I'm preaching this is because this week, boy oh boy, have I run into some men who have feigned themselves to be just men, just to try to catch me in my words.
You say, well why is that?
Well there's a sermon that I preached last week called Why John MacArthur is an Abomination.
And I thought everyone was going to love that sermon.
I thought the whole world would understand why.
You know, I thought people were just going to be like, great sermon, this is great.
I thought the Calvinists were going to wake up.
You know, these reformed theology people were just going to say, oh man, this guy's right.
But you know what, that's not the way it works.
You know, when we go out soul winning, we're not going to win every single individual that we knock the door of.
We can knock 100 doors and maybe 5 to 10, 15 people might get saved, if that, right?
It's the law of numbers.
You'll always reach a smaller amount of people than the individuals that you have put in the effort to reach, okay?
And I'm glad I preached that sermon.
I take nothing back when I preach that sermon.
And look, I've gotten people, by the way, the anti-vax community who follows me, most of them are Calvinists.
And you know what, not a single one of them has contacted me saying, hey, this is wrong.
You say, why is that?
Well, here's my theory on that.
You know, they've seen the anti-vax sermons.
They've seen the doctrine that I've been preaching.
And they agree with those things, even in regards to salvation.
So when I preach something as controversial as this, they're like, well, he was right about those other things.
Maybe he's right about this too.
You know, the only people I have contacted me is these people who feign themselves to be just men.
I can't tell you how many people contacted me and say, hey, brother, been watching your stuff lately pretty good.
I got a question for you though.
I'm not trying to argue.
I'm being really sincere here.
And by the way, if you have to say that, it's a red flag.
You know, people who have their name as faith alone, right?
I'm faith alone and Christ alone, plus nothing, minus nothing.
And what is it?
It's basically a ploy.
They're lying to you.
They're deceiving.
Because when you read the fine print, you come to realize, oh, he doesn't believe that it's by faith alone.
I say it's faith alone, but faith works.
It's like, why don't you put that in your biography then?
Why do you have to make yourself to be a just man?
Why do you have to act like you're a just man?
Why do you have to, you know, put these titles?
Why?
Because to deceive.
That's why.
Okay.
I'm going to read to you from Acts chapter 13.
But Alimus the sorcerer, for so is his name by interpretation, withstood them, seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith.
Then Saul, who also was called Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him and said,
O full of all subtlety and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness,
will thou not cease to pervert the white rays of the Lord?
He's like, stop trying to pervert the word of God.
Now look, you know, when it comes to these individuals, the reason I want to preach this is because I want to make you aware that these individuals exist.
And it's easy for a Christian to get caught up in debating and arguing when really we should have nothing to do with that.
Amen?
You know, and look, these people, I had a guy contact me and they put it on their stories or whatever, and they made a post, right?
And it was a post of my quote that I said, where I want John MacArthur to die and all these things.
And I was like, man, this is a great post.
And I hit the heart.
And I said, I was like, this guy sounds like a righteous man.
And then tons of people, I think Brother Chevy was one of them, I was like, hey, are you selling these as shirts?
Okay.
And by the way, this individual who made this post against me because he hates my guts, he said, well, yeah,
well, it just depends on the price.
What do you want?
Oh, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.
Through covetousness shall he, you know, with faint words, make merchandise up of you.
So is it the truth that he wants to hear?
No, because as soon as someone says, hey, I'll buy that for me, he's like, oh, how much?
What do you want?
I'll sell that to you.
You know?
Buy the truth and sell it not.
And that post is truth, amen?
But they do this to try to like instill fear.
Like, oh, man, can you take that post down, please?
I'm like, man, share it, like it, share it to all your friends.
This is great.
The Bible says in 2 Peter 1 16, for we have not followed cunningly devised fables.
When we may known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we're eyewitnesses of his majesty.
You see, when we preach Christ, we preach Christ crucified, right?
When we go out and sow in, we don't try to get into this apologetic type conversation with people.
We want people to just plainly know, hey, we witness to the Buddhist, the way we witness to the Catholic,
the way we witness to the Pentecostal, the way we witness to the Jehovah's Witness, right?
Because it's the gospel that's the power of God and it's the salvation to everyone that believe it.
Now look at 2 Timothy chapter 4.
You know, oh, this isn't proper preaching.
You don't have the right spirit.
Actually, this is the kind of preaching that God wants us to do, okay?
He wants preaching that is specific.
He wants preaching that is filled with scripture.
And he wants preaching that yells and screams, and yes, he does.
You know, interpret, exit Jesus for me, what it means to cry out loud and spare not.
That means to scream.
And that's the command that God gave to Isaiah, okay?
And in various other prophets as well.
I mean, he told Ezekiel, stamp thy foot and, you know, slap your thigh and all these things.
He's like, make a big deal about the doctrines that I'm giving.
Look what it says in 2 Timothy 4, 1, I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ,
who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom.
Preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke.
Now, folks, can someone define for me what it means to rebuke someone?
Don't do that.
Is it, hey, that's wrong?
No, rebuke is to correct very sharply, okay?
Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
Why, Paul?
Why should we preach in such a way, in such a manner?
I'll tell you why.
Verse 3, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.
But after their own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears,
and they shall turn away the ears from the truth and shall be turned into fables.
I guarantee you, every single one of you can attest to a time when you gave the word of God to someone,
you gave them clear scripture, and they're just like, I don't want it.
It's like, why can't you understand what I'm trying to teach you here?
Salvation is so simple.
It's by faith alone.
It's not by repenting of your sins.
Here are the scriptures, and they're just like, no, you're taken out of context.
No, that's the wrong interpretation.
Is it that they just can't understand?
No, according to this, they don't want to understand.
They're trying to turn away their ears from the truth.
They want to believe fables, okay?
They want to have this Narnia Christianity, okay?
It's a fable.
Folks, I like reality.
I like reality.
I like what the Bible actually teaches.
No matter how controversial it is, it's wonderful.
The words of the Lord are pure words.
It's great.
2 Peter 3.16 says, and also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things in which are some things hard to be understood,
which they that are unlearned and unstable rest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
So the Bible's telling us here that there are people in the New Testament who would rest the scriptures.
What does it mean to rest the scriptures?
When you think of the word wrestle, when it's twisting, you know, you're wrestling, you're twisted.
You know, you're twisting your body.
This is what that's referring to.
So there's people out there who will get the truth of God's word, and they'll completely twist it to make it mean what they want it to mean, okay?
This morning, I want to show you some of the tactics that these people use against biblical preaching.
And again, I'm not showing you this so that you can go out and get into debates and arguments,
because I don't believe we as Christians should ever debate or argue.
We should never get into a debate with someone.
Well, why don't you meet me at this place, and we'll debate.
What for? I'm not going to convince you.
And I'm not trying to convince you.
I'm trying to rebuke you.
That's what I'm trying to do, right?
And in fact, the Bible says a man that is inherited after the first and second admonition, reject.
Knowing that such is subverted and sin is condemned of himself, the Bible says.
So look, when you preach the word of God, and they just don't want to listen, you give them a second admonition, they don't want to listen, he's a heretic, according to the Bible.
You don't have the authority to do that, according to the Bible I do.
You know, they've subverted. What does that mean?
They have undermined the Bible is what they're doing.
They're undermining the word of God.
They can care less what the Bible says, okay?
And that's why we shouldn't argue with people.
You know, that's why we shouldn't debate anybody.
You know, when people tell me something, I just correct them, I rebuke them, and I move on.
The Bible also says, give not thou which is holy unto the dogs, and cast not your pearls before swine, the Bible says, lest they trample them under their feet and turn again and rend you.
God says, look, the word of God, it's like pearls.
And you don't want to take pearls and give them to a bunch of dogs.
You don't want to take pearls and give them to swine, to pigs.
Why? Because they're not going to appreciate it.
They're just going to trample the word of God under their feet, and they're going to turn around again and try to rend you.
They're going to try to destroy you.
So it's not worth it, you know?
And people say, well, you know, I'm into apologetics.
You know, I like to just, this is how we earnestly contend for the faith.
No, we earnestly contend for the faith from the pulpit.
We earnestly contend for the faith when we're out there preaching the gospel, okay?
I'm not looking to get on a stage with someone with two barstools and a little bell and a referee, okay?
Now, go with me, if you would, to Acts chapter 17, Acts chapter 17.
Let me give you the ploy against biblical preaching.
What are the strategies that these people try to use, you know?
And again, this is not to argue, this is not to debate.
Rather, it's so you can identify when this is happening.
Because I guarantee you, some of you maybe have gotten into an argument
and you felt like you came out losing, you know?
You're like, man, I know I'm right.
I know what I said was true, but somehow this guy was just able to word something in such a way,
in such a crafty manner, that I kind of just gave in to whatever he was saying, you know?
So this is to show you, to help you to identify when people are trying to do this, okay?
So strategy number one is this, attack a position that we do not have.
You say, what's the strategy of someone who's fainting themselves to be a just person
but they're just trying to catch me in my words, they're trying to get hold of my words.
Strategy number one is this, attack the position of the person that that person doesn't even hold, okay?
This is what's known as the straw man argument.
How many of you have ever heard of the straw man argument?
What does that mean? A straw man is basically a lifeless effigy, right?
It doesn't exist. It doesn't really have life.
So what they'll do is they'll attack a meaningless point to try to make themselves look good
in the conversation or the argument, the debate, whatever it is, okay?
It's completely irrelevant to the subject at hand.
But in order for them to gain the advantage in the conversation,
they need to impose a belief on you that you don't even have, okay?
Now, let me give you a really immature example of this, all right?
Let me just put the cookie on the bottom shelf, and this example kept coming to my mind.
I remember when I was in elementary school, the students would do this, okay?
They would often say this, and tell me if you know what I'm talking about.
They would say, they would tell their friends, hey, are you gay?
How many know what I'm talking about?
Okay, they would say, are you gay? And they're like, no.
And they would say this, oh, does your mom know you're gay?
How many of you have ever heard that before, okay?
Use it sometime. No, I'm just kidding.
That's a straw man.
Because he just said no, so the follow-up question has the assumption that you said yes.
And the answer that you give to that second question doesn't leave room for you to deny it again.
It only leaves room for you to deny, right?
And if you deny it and say, well, she doesn't know, it's like, okay, so you are gay.
You see what I'm saying?
This is what's known as a straw man argument, okay?
They're imposing a belief upon you that you don't even have in the first place.
And this is very cunning, this is crafty, it's very deceitful, but it's done on purpose
in order for them to gain an advantage on you and in the conversation so they can add to their points, okay?
Now, look at Acts 17.
Look at what it says in verse 5, it says, but the Jews, here we go again.
But the Jews, which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort,
and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason,
and sought to bring them out to the people.
And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city,
crying that these have turned the world upside down and are come hither also, whom Jason hath received.
And these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus.
Now, what are they doing? They're setting up a straw man.
The reason they are gathering a company of people against Jason
is to try to convince them that Jason is basically this rebel who's trying to cause an uprising
because he's teaching things contrary to the decrees of Caesar.
Now, what do they say? How do they follow up? Because they say there's one king, Jesus.
So based upon his statement, saying that there's one king, which is Jesus,
they build up a straw man saying, well, because he thinks there's only one king, then he's going against Caesar.
You understand? Now, is that what we see in the book of Acts?
No, in fact, throughout the Gospels, throughout the book of Acts, throughout the New Testament,
we see the Bible teaching us and people exercising, you know, submitting unto governmental authorities.
In fact, that's what Jesus did, right? Jesus did that under Caesar's rule.
He never tried to cause some uprising or upheaval or tried to go against the government,
bear arms against the government, but you know, that's what he was accused of, right?
And so that's what they're doing here. They're building up a straw man, and unfortunately, it actually works
because then the crowd, the mob here takes that straw man, and they believe it,
and in turn, they attack the man of God, okay?
Now, go to Luke chapter 20, if you would, Luke chapter 20.
The Bible says in 1 Timothy chapter 6 and verse number 3,
If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and to the doctrine which is according to godliness, he is proud, the Bible says.
Now, you've run into these people. I know you have, where it's like you feel like you're talking to a brick wall,
and they don't seem to consent to wholesome words.
They can't seem to understand just the basics of what you're teaching them.
What does the Bible say? Is it because they're without understanding? Not necessarily.
It's actually first and foremost because they're proud, and a proud person is completely absent of humility
that says, well I guess I was wrong, you're right, I want to believe the truth.
Because wouldn't you say it takes humility to believe the truth?
A proud person says, no, I'm going to believe it anyways.
He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strives of words,
wherewith cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds,
and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness, watch this,
from such withdraw thyself.
So look, when you perceive that the words of wisdom are not in this person's mouth,
the Bible says, withdraw yourself from that individual.
They're just trying to catch you in your words, they're feigning themselves to be just men,
they're a bunch of fakes and phonies, okay?
Look what it says in Luke chapter 20 verse 21, where we started, it says,
And they asked him, saying, Master, we know that thou sayest and teacheth rightly.
What do we see here, flattery?
Neither acceptest thou the person of any, but teacheth the way of God truly.
Oh man, just caking on that butter, right?
Is it lawful for us to give tribute unto Caesar or no?
Verse 23, But he perceived their craftiness, and said unto them, Why tempt thee me?
And obviously Jesus is the Son of God, and He's the source of all wisdom.
He can see a person's heart, He can read their thoughts, and He's just like, you guys are crafty.
You guys are trying to catch me in my words.
And look, they can catch His words all He wants, because Jesus Christ is truth, you know?
In hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised before the world began.
So they can try to catch Him in His words, try to catch Him contradicting Himself,
it's not going to happen, because He's the source of all truth.
But here He sees that He perceives their craftiness.
Verse 24, Show me a penny, whose image and superscription hath it?
They answered and said, Caesar's.
And He said unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar's,
and unto God the things which be God's.
Now that's funny, because later on, He was accused of going against Caesar.
Whereas here, He's actually reinforcing the law of the land, is He not?
He's saying, hey, pay unto Caesar what Caesar deserves,
but make sure you pay unto God what He deserves as well, right?
And they could not take hold of His words before the people,
and they marveled at His answer, and held their peace.
Now let me tell you the modern way of saying this, they shut their mouths.
Okay, they closed their mouths because they can't say anything against it.
Now let me give you some modern day examples of this, okay?
You know, sometimes if you get in a conversation with someone who believes in repenting your sins,
which happens quite often.
These people who contacted me and they're like,
how are you going to say that you don't have to repent of your sins to be saved?
The Bible says you have to repent.
And I'm just like, where does it say you have to repent of your sins to be saved?
And they say to me, Mark 1.15, repent and believe the gospel.
There you go, right?
And I say, repent of your sin and believe the gospel?
I'm sorry, I missed that part, right?
Or they'll quote Mark 1.15 and they'll say this,
oh, so what you're saying is that Jesus is a liar, right?
What are they doing? They're building up a straw man, right?
Because they're insinuating, they're imposing this belief that I'm saying that Jesus is a liar.
So this is how I respond.
Okay, why don't you go ahead and send me the quote where I said Jesus is a liar, right?
And they're like, well, I didn't say, I mean, you didn't say that verbatim.
Yeah, but you just said that I said.
You stated that I made this claim that Jesus Christ is a liar, right?
You're quoting me, so show me the quote.
No response.
You know, and then I told them this, well,
he that believeth on the Son of God hath to witness in himself,
and he that believeth not God hath made him a liar.
You know who the real liar is? You, my friend.
You're the liar because you believe you have to, by your own effort,
keep God's commandments in order to prove your salvation and persevere into the end.
It's false. You're actually the liar.
You're the one who's making God a liar, okay?
So what's the number one thing that they like to do?
They like to build up a straw man, try to impose a belief upon you that you don't really have.
So this is what you do when they do that.
Oh, so, you know, this is what you believe?
Oh, so does your mom know you're gay?
Don't answer yes or no, just say, when did I ever say that?
Quote me.
Well, I mean, you didn't say it, but it's what you mean.
Also, now you're telling me what I mean.
You know, I've had people tell me this, they'll say,
like, how can you pray for the death of a person?
That's not biblical.
You know, and I said, the Bible teaches it.
Nowhere in the Bible teaches about that, and I'll send them multiple verses,
and they'll say, well, that's not what that means.
Well, hold on a second.
Just a minute ago, you didn't even know this verse existed.
That's what I told them, I was like, a minute ago, you didn't even know these verses existed,
and now that you know they exist, now you're going to tell me the interpretation thereof?
Clown?
The Bible doesn't teach that. Show me in the Bible where it says that.
Show them. Well, that's not what it means.
Well, we've got a bigger problem for you.
You need to know that this verse exists, period.
First of all, you need to know that these verses in the Bible actually exist,
and don't tell me how to interpret the Bible if you didn't even know these verses in the Bible were even there to begin with.
You know, not my fault that you go to some watered down liberal church
where they give you one verse out of the book of John, one verse out of the book of Proverbs and Psalm,
and then the rest of the sermon is just an opinion.
They don't saturate their sermons with Bible verses.
It's not my fault that you don't know the Bible.
It's not my fault that your pastor doesn't teach the Bible.
And it's not my fault that you go to a church where your pastor's not even saved.
You know.
But this is the straw man argument.
Folks, don't get trapped by these people who feign themselves to be just men,
and they try to say, well, you know, they try to impose some sort of ideology or belief upon you.
Don't fall into that trap.
Ploy number two.
So go with me, if you would, to John chapter four, John chapter four.
So the strategy, the first strategy is this.
Attack a position that we do not hold, and this is a really cheap shot.
This is basically showing you that they don't really have an argument against what we believe.
They have to make up an argument that you don't have and attack that position in order to gain an advantage in the conversation.
Strategy number one, attack a position that we do not hold.
Strategy number two, distract you from the essential subject at hand.
This is what's known as the red herring.
How many of you have ever heard of something like this?
The red herring.
It's a tactic used to mislead the audience or the argument by presenting itself as plausible.
Okay.
Now what does that mean?
You know, you're talking about salvation.
You're discussing salvation with someone, and they just veer off into a different subject because you've proven them wrong.
And I'll give you an example of this.
How many times have you gotten into a conversation with someone about salvation, not being of works, and people will say,
well, you do have to work because faith works, right?
And they'll say, James chapter number two.
And you're like, oh, you messed up.
Because we're all pretty educated on James chapter two.
I mean, that's like hook, line, and sinker once people bring that up, you know.
And don't it feel good?
When you as a new Christian, you learn these truths, and someone comes at you with that, you're like, mmm, mmm, mmm.
This conversation is going to go well, right?
You expound onto them.
You teach them what James chapter two is teaching, and then they just move on to the next scripture, right?
They try to bring up some other issue.
Well, you can't believe it. You don't believe that homeless can be saved.
They say, hold on a second. You're right about that, but hold on a second.
Don't try to distract the conversation from the original point that you have made,
which is that James two is teaching that we have to have works in order to be saved in tandem with faith.
I just proved you wrong.
This is what the Bible says, and you're trying to move on to the, what is that?
That's basically a distraction, okay?
Now, let me say this is that sometimes people do it unintentionally.
There's times when people do it intentionally, but also unintentionally.
Let me give you an example of someone who does it unintentionally, okay?
Look at John chapter four, verse 17.
Let's look at an unintentional red herring.
It says in verse 17, the woman answered and said, I have no husband.
Jesus said unto her, thou is well said, I have no husband, for thou has had five husbands.
This is like the Elizabeth Taylor of those days, right?
For thou has had five husbands, and he whom thou hast is not thy husband, and that sayest thou truly.
The woman saith unto him, sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.
Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
What's she doing? She's just veering off into a completely different subject, right?
She's like, wow, you must be a prophet.
You know, speaking of prophets, speaking of spiritual things, my father used to say that this is where we should worship,
but you say we should, just completely ignoring the subject at hand, right?
Jesus said unto her, verse 21, woman, believe me. I like how he talks.
Woman? He's like, woman, believe me.
The hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father.
Ye worship, ye know not what, we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.
So what is he saying? He basically brought her back to the subject at hand, which is salvation, okay?
Now she did it unintentionally, and the reason we know she did it unintentionally is because she ended up getting saved.
She wanted the truth, but it's in a person's nature that when they are confronted with the truth,
they may rub them the wrong way, you know, the natural propensity of the individual is just to go onto a different subject.
This is uncomfortable.
A lot of Christians do this sometimes too, okay?
You know, you try to confront someone with something they're guilty of, they're just like,
well, you know, this person, you know, also does this, and it's just like, hold on a second,
I'm not talking about so-and-so. You know, my son does this.
You know, we get in trouble for something and it's like, yeah, but Kyla, she did something else.
It's like, we're not talking about Kyla right now. We're talking about you.
Don't try to distract me from, you know, chastising you, son, okay?
So that's an unintentional red herring.
Let's look at an intentional one. Go to Acts chapter 6.
Acts chapter 6, if you would.
Actually, we studied Acts chapter 6 two weeks ago, and so most of you are very much familiar with this story here.
Now, why do people bring up a red herring intentionally?
I'll tell you why, because they can't resist what you're saying, right?
You know, people make a good case for James chapter 2 in our church.
We can make a very good case for James chapter 2. We know how to expound the word of God.
And so when you have someone who knows the Bible, and they know how to defend scripture using scripture,
they defend Matthew 7, they defend James chapter 2 using it in tandem with Romans chapter number 4,
you know, a person can do nothing against the truth.
So what do they do? They resist the truth.
Like, well, we can't do nothing against the truth, so let's just move on to the next topic at hand.
And this is what we see here. Look at verse number 9 with Stephen.
Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines and Cyrenians and Alexandrians,
and of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen.
They're arguing with him.
And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake.
So all these guys, there's a lot of people.
They're the synagogue of the Libertines, Cyrenians, Alexandrians, of them of Cilicia and Asia.
I mean, they brought out all the mob to argue with him, right?
But even then, this one individual basically showed them up, and they couldn't resist the wisdom,
they couldn't resist the power and the spirit by which he spake.
So what do they do then? Verse 11.
Then they suborn men.
What does that mean?
They hired people, which said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses, against God.
And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes and came upon him and caught him and brought him to the council.
So what do they have to do?
They have to hire some people to just completely lie against Stephen, okay?
Just distract everyone from the fact that he was telling the truth, he's filled with the spirit,
he's a man sent from God, so let's just, okay, we can't resist this, so let's just lie about him, okay?
Let's just bring people with us, reinforcements, to try to attack this guy.
Now, let me give you a couple examples of this from modern days.
So, Brother Rasmussen, okay, from Faith Baptist Church, Canoga Park,
I mean, you know who I'm talking about, he's the voice of, you know, the beginning and the introduction of after the tribulation.
You know what I'm talking about?
He passed away a couple weeks ago, okay?
And yesterday was his funeral.
He had a funeral, about 400 people showed up, and here's the interesting thing is, like, Paul Chapel was there.
Okay, you guys know what I'm talking about?
Paul Chapel, who basically was praising who? John MacArthur, right?
So he's there, and all of these, so they're doing this funeral, and these men of God, okay, these older men of God,
they're getting up to basically talk about Brother Rasmussen, and Brother Rasmussen was just a very godly man.
He was extremely intelligent, okay?
The man was just, had a lot of knowledge, a lot of wisdom, studied the word of God,
New Greek, just very intelligent person.
And so every single pastor that got up would say, you know, Brother Rasmussen, man, he fought for the faith,
he fought against Calvinism, he fought against the Freemasons,
and in fact, he took a famous pastor to town who denied the blood of Christ.
While Paul Chapel's sitting there, right?
Because Paul Chapel's the one who posted on his Twitter a picture with him and John MacArthur,
I'll pray for this guy, you know, stuff, a little compromiser.
This pastor got up and he was just like, yeah, he took him to town.
Second pastor got up, yeah, this guy, he was just earnestly contending for the faith.
He called out a pastor who was denying the blood of a famous pastor in this area, John MacArthur.
Third pastor gets up, says the same exact thing.
I mean, how uncomfortable Paul Chapel would have been at that time, like, oh, man, you know?
But there's actually a story, because he did call out John MacArthur multiple times.
See, people think it's weird that I'm doing it.
Oh, man, there's people who've been doing it for a long time.
And as long as the devil's around, they need to be called out, okay?
Well, back in their heyday, because I think Brother Rasmussen was about 90, 91,
the devil is about 81 years old, okay?
And he was just taking him to town, because people esteem John MacArthur as being an intelligent person,
and he may have the wisdom of this world, but we don't want the wisdom of this world.
We want the wisdom of God, okay?
Which is exactly what Brother Rasmussen had.
He took him to town, and John MacArthur actually came to Faith Baptist Church to confront him about it.
Oh, but he suborned someone to come with him, though.
He brought some professor from some Calvinist university to kind of defend John MacArthur to Brother Rasmussen,
a little weenie, can't even do it himself.
And Rasmussen took that guy to town, too, just destroyed the guy.
Why? Because you can do nothing against the truth, that's why.
He took him to town.
And then, finally, MacArthur was just like, well, we're just going to have to agree to disagree, you know?
Rasmussen was just like, well, you're just wrong.
That's it.
You know, you can suborn men, you can bring people with you, you can do whatever you want.
You can bring as many professors, you can bring as many people from the synagogue of Satan as you want.
You know what I mean? We have the word of God.
If God before us, who can be against us?
Okay?
So this is what people do to try to distract from the actual issue at hand.
And what was the issue at hand with John MacArthur?
He's denying the blood of Christ.
And by the way, oh, yeah, you guys are just quoting that old video from him.
He still believes it today. What are you talking about?
Go ask him.
He'll tell you the same exact thing today as he said, whatever, how many years ago that was.
He still believes that.
And I find it hypocritical that people say, well, show me a video where he says that.
And I say, all right, here it is.
Well, that's, I mean, it's not what he meant.
He says it's not the blood that saves you.
I mean, do you want me to quote it for you? Do you want me to clip it for you?
That's what he says.
But these are the kind of distractions that people will use.
You know, here's a distraction that people will often use.
You bring up, they'll say, well, how can you say it's not by repenting of your sins?
And you say, well, because the Bible says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
This is what they say, that's not proper exegesis.
How many of you have heard that? How many of you have been told that?
I can't count how many times this week I was told that.
That's not proper exegesis.
Now, how is that distracting?
Because, you know what, the common man who just reads his Bible may not know what that means.
To them, it's just like, oh, man, what's this guy talking about?
I never heard that before.
Proper exegesis.
That gives you what exegesis means.
It means to explain.
That's it.
Now, they have these two terms, right?
They have this term called exegesis, which means to draw out the truth, the interpretation.
And what we're doing is isegesis, which we're drawing in our own interpretation of the Bible.
So when this guy told me, hey, Mark 1.15, repent and believe the gospel.
And I said, well, that means to repent from what you're trusting in to believe in the gospel.
That's isegesis. You're doing isegesis.
Because you're drawing in sin after repent.
When it doesn't even say that.
So you're actually guilty of your isegesis, which I'd rather just say you're a heretic.
People know what that means.
You know?
You're teaching false doctrine. That's what that means.
But they try to use these, oh, that's not proper hermeneutical teaching here.
That's not proper hermeneutics.
But yours is.
And look, they try to use these ESV verses, NASB verses.
And I'm like, don't bring that nonsense around me.
I deal with pearls, not rocks.
You know, my Bible is a pearl.
It's not a little pebble.
Okay?
Exegesis, isegesis, hermeneutics, homiletics, soteriology.
What are these words for?
They're to distract you.
To make you think like, well, maybe I don't know what I'm talking about.
Folks, this is a study to show that self-approved unto God.
Don't rest the scriptures.
Not soteriology, salvation.
Jesus Christ, heaven, eternal life.
Use the words which the Holy Ghost teaches.
Comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
And don't think, well, you know, they might think I'm dumb.
Well, here's the thing, you're a fool for Christ's sake, amen?
Amen.
The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God, according to the Bible.
You know, when they hear them talk about isegesis, exegesis, all these things,
God's just like, you sound like complete idiots.
Stick with my words.
This is the strategy of those who seek to, you know, have a ploy against biblical preaching.
Attack a position that we do not hold.
Distract you from the essential subject at hand.
I'm going to skip one right here.
Go to John chapter eight, if you would, because we're running out of time.
I'll just briefly tell you strategy number three.
Make ambiguous statements.
That's what they'll do.
They'll just make an ambiguous statement.
It's like, so is it by faith alone without repenting of your sins?
I just believe the Bible.
All right, so can you answer the question, though?
So do you have to repent of your sins?
If you don't repent of your sins, are you still saved?
It's by faith alone.
I know that.
What I'm asking you is do you believe you have to repent of your sins to be saved?
The Bible teaches repentance.
It's like, you're wicked.
You're crafty.
When you can't give a plain answer, there's something wrong with you.
Actually, I just remembered a time when there was a gentleman that Chevy and I were confronting, right?
And this gentleman who was in our church believed charismatic doctrine, okay?
I'm talking about healing and serpents and drinking things, you know, poison and nothing like that.
And it's just like, I confronted him.
I said, do you believe this doctrine?
He's like, I believe Mark 16.
I'm like, me too.
Let's move on.
Do you believe that we, that apostles still exist?
Do you believe that we can do these types of miracles today?
Where we can raise up the dead, we can drink poison and nothing will ever happen to us?
Let me show you Mark 16.
I know what Mark 16 says.
You don't have to show me.
He's like, well, I just believe the Bible.
And I'm like, you're being crafty right now.
You're not answering plainly.
You see, a person who has nothing to hide says, no, I don't believe that.
Stupid. I don't believe that.
Or a person who does believe in it is not ashamed of it and says, yeah, I believe that.
At which point, there's the door, right?
The Bible says, seeing that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech.
Okay?
Here's my last point.
Strategy number four.
And this is typically what they do when it's just their house is just falling apart.
Where you just took the AK-47 of God's word and just sprayed them up, okay?
And they're just like, you know, this is the last tactic they use.
Use ad hominem.
What is that?
Attack.
This is an attack on the person rather than the position that they're actually taking.
Okay?
And boy, oh, boy, did I hear some ad hominem this week.
Oh, you're just this new IFP Anderson Knight.
I'm just like, well, yeah, but what does that have to do with what I'm telling you?
What does that have to do with what the Bible says?
Okay?
And this is the last tactic that they'll try to use if they just can't refute you.
They'll just call you names.
Oh, you're little Brucie.
Oh, hey, little Brucie.
I'm like, hey, you know, if that's what you want to call me, if that's like your nickname for me,
does that change the truth?
Does that change the conversation?
No, they try to attack your character and who you are or make up things about who you are.
By the way, the straw man argument and ad hominem, they kind of work hand in hand sometimes.
Okay?
In order to basically try to, it's like someone trying to sucker punch you and just running.
It doesn't really do much.
It's like that was just annoying.
Look at John 8, 39, the kings of ad hominem were the Pharisees.
Look at verse 39, they answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father.
Jesus said unto him, if he were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham.
But now you seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God, this did not Abraham.
Ye do the deeds of your father.
Then said they to him, we be not born of fornication.
We have one father, even God.
Oh, so what are they doing?
They're attacking Jesus, saying that he was born of fornication.
So the insinuation that we be not born of fornication is basically this, you were.
You know, we're not born of fornication.
We have one father, even God.
This is called ad hominem, where they attack the person, even if it's a lie, they're willing to do this.
Look, I had someone literally this week make like 15 posts about me.
15, saying Bruce Mejia is the pastor of First Waco Church in Long Beach, California.
And they're like, he was a youth pastor who abused children and all these things.
It's just like, what in the world are you talking about?
But this is the kind of rhetoric that they use.
And people are like, do you have evidence?
I just know this.
You know, by the way, folks, be careful with listening to these YouTube, you know, the Raisin Files.
Oh, the Raisin, he has so, you know, oh, the scandal at FWBC continues on.
It's like, what are you talking about? No, it doesn't.
What are you talking about?
These are the nonsensical rhetoric phrases, terminologies that they use because they've lost the fight.
They can't use the truth.
They don't know how to use the truth.
They handle the word of God deceitfully, they're cunning, they're crafty.
They're not interested in the truth, folks.
You know, the Jews said this, one of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said the Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.
What is that? It's ad hominis, what is this?
You know, if they really cared about those in Crete, they would win them to Christ, amen.
Go to 2 Timothy chapter 2 and we're done here.
So what do they use? They use the straw man argument.
They use the red herring where they try to distract you from the truth.
They use ambiguous statements to try to cloud up the conversation so you're not focused on what's most important.
They use ad hominem in order to attack your character because they don't have a leg to stand on.
That's why.
So how do we apply this to ourselves?
Look at 2 Timothy 2 24.
The servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient in meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves,
if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth,
that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him at his will.
Now, I don't believe this is referring to the individuals that I just discussed this morning.
What I believe this is referring to are those who are taken captive at their will.
Because there are simpletons out there that will believe anything, right?
Gullible people who when these tactics are used, they give in, they believe these wicked people.
And you know what? We want to make sure that these people come to the knowledge of the truth, right?
And so well it says if God peradventure will give them repentance, it's God who gives them repentance.
Actually it says it's God who gives them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.
You know when the Bible talks about the Holy Spirit enlightening the eyes?
Helping us to come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ to understand what the word of God says about salvation?
This is what that's referring to, okay?
But we want to recover those people out of the snare of the devil.
And look, I've got another group of people who have been following me after this all happened
and they started following me and they kind of like what I'm saying.
Reform theology, Calvinist types, they're probably waking up.
You know what? They probably say, well, you know, he didn't use the Bible.
He did use scripture. There must be some validity to what he's saying.
And thank God for that.
You know, I hope there's a lot of Calvinists out there, reform theology type people,
who just wake up and stop following this devil off the cliff.
You know, these people who love John MacArthur, they idolize a man.
They're not looking towards the word of God, okay?
This is how you know it's true.
When you attack the man, they just jump all over you.
Whereas a person who studies himself, shows himself, approves them to God by studying the word of God,
you know, they prove all things, hold fast to that which is good, they're going to go with the Bible.
Phooey is what a man teaches.
But if the man is teaching the Bible, go with that. Amen?
Spire heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word.
And Lord, thank you for the example of Jesus Christ
and how he dealt with these people who feigned themselves to be just men in order to catch him in his words.
Help us, Lord, to not get involved in debates and strives.
Help us to sharply rebuke these people and move on.
Not cast our pearls before swine or before dogs.
Help us to recognize the value of the knowledge that we have,
that we may impart it into those who actually want it.
And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Song number 244.
Song number 244, Amazing Grace.
Song number 244 is our last song.
Let's see it on that first.
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me.
Our words was lost, but now I'm found.
T'was blind, but now I see.
T'was grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved.
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed.
Through many dangers, foes and snares
I have already gone.
T'was grace that brought me safe thus far
And grace will lead me home.
When we've been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun
We know best days to see God's grace
And when we first begun.
Amen. Wonderful scene. You are dismissed.