It's ears to hear and fill Pastor Shelley with your spirit.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Amen.
So the verse I want to look at again was in verse 17
where the Bible reads,
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.
And this sermon this morning is gonna be a lot different
than virtually any other sermon,
so don't expect this to be a normal circumstance, okay?
But what I want to do is,
I kind of had this goal this year
is to kind of preach through all the different religions
of the world and to kind of talk about that,
just so you'd be aware.
And this morning, the title of this morning's sermon
is entitled Christianity, Christianity.
Now, what I want to do is I want to basically give you
my perspective of what does Christianity look like?
Now, first of all,
let's get some ideas from what the Bible says.
What did the Bible just tell us?
It says that there's many which corrupt, what?
Corrupt what?
The word of God, okay?
So, and I could go to dozens of places
in the Bible this morning,
and I could show you tons of scripture
that teach the fact that there's so many adversaries,
there's so many false teachers and false doctrines,
just a constant barrage of false teaching.
And the reality is, if the Bible were true,
which it is, okay, but I'm just saying,
let's just suppose that the Bible is true for a moment,
okay, what would we expect Christianity to look like
if it's constantly warning against false teachers
and false prophets, and it's saying there's many
which corrupt the word of God,
wouldn't we kind of expect to see a lot of that then?
Wouldn't the Bible be pointing us to the direction
of that being the truth,
or that being something that we would observe?
Well, that's actually exactly what we observe today,
but there's many people,
they don't really want to agree to that,
they don't want to believe in that.
And growing up, I grew up
in a very large non-denominational church.
I grew up in a church where we had 10,000-plus people
on a Sunday morning service,
I mean, just tons of people in this church.
And my viewpoint towards Christianity as a child
was I thought everybody that went
to a Christian church was saved.
I thought everybody that basically claimed the name
of Christ was saved, they're on their way to heaven,
they were trusting the death, burial,
and resurrection to save them,
that was my viewpoint towards Christianity.
And over the last several years,
I've realized that that was wrong.
I've realized that that was not an accurate thought,
that was not an accurate statement.
And what I'm gonna do to the best of my ability
is not just preach and kind of show you my opinion,
but just get it from the horse's mouth, okay?
Just give you statements from the horse's mouth
so we get an idea.
But I have some visual aid assistance, okay?
And it's just to kind of, it's kind of fun,
but it's just to give you some kind of idea
of where we're at, all right?
So now, this visual aid assistance, okay,
I've got a few things drawn here.
You might, again, I'm not the best artist, okay?
But there's this evil person in The Little Mermaid
called Ursula, and Ursula is who I decided to represent
as the first church we're gonna talk about, okay?
But the first church we're gonna talk about
is the Catholic Church.
You say, ah, I'm offended already.
Well, buckle up.
The Catholic Church, okay,
is the first church we're gonna talk about,
and again, I was very ignorant.
Now, all I did is I went to these different churches,
I'm gonna go through Christianity,
this is Christianity, okay?
So we're gonna talk about a lot of Christianity,
so-called, okay?
A lot of people consider Catholics Christian.
I don't, a lot of times they don't, I get that,
but we're just going under the big umbrella
of Christianity according to the world, okay?
I just went to their own websites
and just took off statements from what they say,
so then I can preach that to you.
It's not my opinion, this is what they said.
I went to a Catholic website, CatholicAnswers.org, okay?
Huge Catholic apologist.
They say this, they say,
"'Scripture teaches that one's final salvation
"'depends on the state of the soul at death.
"'As Jesus himself tells us,
"'he who endures to the end will be saved,
"'one who dies in the state of friendship with God,
"'the state of grace will go to heaven.'"
Well, that's a weird definition of grace.
He had to be my friend?
I thought grace was unconditional.
I thought grace was unmerited favor.
Why do I have to be God's friend?
Well, I'm not gonna preach,
I'm just gonna give the other statements, okay?
"'The one who dies in the state of enmity
"'and rebellion against God,
"'the state of mortal sin will go to hell.'"
Now, again, what are they teaching?
Let's just, before we preach about it,
let's just, what are they saying?
They're saying that salvation is a constant process.
It's a daily thing.
You have to be in right standing with God every moment.
That's why they constantly have what's known
as the confessional booth, where they're going,
they're confessing their sins to the priest
on a regular basis.
I talked to a Catholic priest one time in person.
I said, are you sure you're going to heaven?
He said, I had a great confessional today.
I feel really good about it this morning.
I mean, they admit it.
It's not like this is a questionable doctrine.
In the same article, it says,
for many fundamentalists, that's us,
and evangelicals, it makes no difference,
as far as salvation is concerned,
how you live or end your life.
That sounds pretty accurate to me, right?
Says, you can announce that you've accepted Jesus
as your personal savior,
and so long as you really believe it, you're set.
From that point on, there is nothing you can do,
no sin you can commit, no matter how heinous
that will forfeit your salvation.
You can't undo your salvation, even if you wanted to.
Amen, right?
Let's go to John chapter 10 for a moment.
John chapter number 10.
Now, the Catholic church,
the first church we're gonna talk about,
they do not deny faith plus works salvation.
They just openly admit,
they say that faith alone's an anathema.
They have so many different doctrinal positions
that make it super clear,
faith alone is not enough to save you.
They attack faith alone.
They're our category of just hardcore works salvation.
There's no question
whether or not they believe in works salvation.
They admit that they believe works salvation.
They deny faith alone, they attack it.
Look at John chapter 10, verse 28.
This is Jesus speaking.
I like what he says more than what they say.
And I give unto them eternal life,
and they shall never perish.
Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
My Father which gave them me is greater than all,
and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.
Now let me explain what he just said.
This is salvation according to the Bible.
My left hand is all the good that I do.
Being a good person, going to church, reading the Bible,
my good works, giving alms to the poor,
everything that I do.
My right hand is what Jesus did.
He died on the cross, he was buried, he rose again,
he sprinkled his blood on the mercy seat,
he's making constant propitiation with God the Father.
This Bible is my faith.
This is what the Catholic believes for salvation, it's both.
The Bible is saying you gotta put your faith in his hand.
And guess what, when you're in Jesus' hand,
he's not gonna let go.
That's how I know I'm going to heaven.
Because it's not based on what I do,
it's not based on what I did,
it's not based on what I will do,
it's based on what he already did.
It's based on what was done.
It is finished, right, is what he said.
He finished the works, I don't have to do the works.
He finished them by going to the cross,
he paid for my sins in hell, he rose again,
and all I have to do is put my faith and trust
in what he did, that is salvation according to the Bible,
for by grace are you saved through faith
and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God,
not of works.
But then the Catholic says it's of works.
That's why we drew Ursula, okay?
That's why they're wicked.
That's why they're evil.
That's why everybody that believes Catholic doctrine
is unsaved and they're on their way to hell.
And if you hate Catholics, then you'll just say,
oh, I think they're saved, I think that they're good.
No, I actually love Catholics this morning
and I want them to come out from among them
and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and get saved.
Now here's the thing, is it possible that this morning
somebody is presently in a Catholic church
and they're saved?
Yeah, I'm sure we got somebody saved in this church
and they decided to go to the Catholic church this morning.
Does that make them unsaved?
No, but let me tell you something,
they don't believe what the Catholics teach.
Therefore, I don't consider them Catholic.
Just like if I stand in my garage,
I don't consider myself a Chevy.
Just like when I stand in the kitchen, I'm not my wife.
Yeah, that's where women are supposed to be
in the kitchen, right?
At least in a Bible believing church.
Now, let's keep going further away
from the Catholic church, okay?
I have another one,
because I looked up the different statistics
and I'll give you an idea.
In Christianity as a whole online,
it says there's 2.4 billion Christians, that's a lot.
That's a huge number.
Now of Catholic persuasion, it's 1.3 billion.
So a little bit more than half of all those people
that's a lot of people, 1.3 billion Catholics.
Now, this is the online version.
They subcategorize people as Catholic, Protestant
or Eastern Orthodox, Anglican and Oriental Orthodox.
Basically the divisions that they kind of make online.
So we go with the next group, Eastern Orthodox.
Now, this is gonna be my personal opinion, okay?
What I'm reading for you is not my personal opinion.
Me putting stuff on this board
is just my personal opinion, okay?
I'm basically gonna draw for you
what I think is from being saved perspective,
who's the furthest away from salvation
and who's most likely has people
in their church that are saved.
The Catholic church has virtually nobody
in the church that's saved.
I mean, it would be an extremely rare circumstance
they have somebody.
So the next group I have is the Russian Orthodox
or it would be Eastern Orthodox
is basically the big brand.
That's kind of right here.
So we got our Russians, all right?
And again, this is not ethnic.
This is religious, okay?
If I talk about Jews, I'm not talking about ethnically.
I'm talking about religiously, right?
I'm talking about the Russian Orthodox.
I'm not talking about them living in Russia.
I'm talking about their beliefs, okay?
Russian Orthodox, this is what they said.
Salvation begins with these three steps.
One, repent, two, be baptized
and three, receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
That's a weird gift.
To repent means to change our mind about how we have been,
to turn from our sin and to commit ourselves to Christ.
That's what it means to repent.
Wow, that's everything.
To be baptized means to be born again
by being joined into union with Christ
and to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit
means to receive the Spirit who empowers us
to enter a new life in Christ,
to be nurtured in the church
and to be conformed to God's image.
Salvation demands faith in Jesus Christ.
People cannot save themselves by their own good works.
Salvation is faith working through love.
That sounds kinda good.
Now, what I wanna do is I have a tentacle here.
This tentacle, what I call this,
is lip service to faith alone.
Every other church we're gonna talk about,
they will say salvation's not of works
or they'll say it's salvation by faith
or they'll give some kind of a lip service to it.
They'll say this, you know,
salvation's by faith but, you know,
that faith's never alone.
Or faith without works is dead
or some other variation of that.
So they kinda said like faith without works is dead
or, you know, they're trying to say,
hey, salvation's just by faith.
This is the next statement.
It's an ongoing lifelong process.
Oh, okay.
It says salvation is past tense in that
through the death and resurrection of Christ
we have been saved this present tense
for we are being saved by our active participation
through faith in our union with Christ
by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Salvation is also future for we must yet be saved
in his glorious second coming.
Now, I agree that there will be a day
when we're resurrected and that's future tense.
But salvation is not a process.
It's a one-time moment that you place your faith
in Jesus Christ, it's crystal clear.
The Bible says now are we the sons of God.
It doesn't say like you're becoming a son of God.
How do you even do that?
You either are somebody's child or you're not.
There's a moment, it's called conception
and in the moment of conception, you know what happens?
You're the child.
You're not like becoming the child in the womb.
You are the child.
Whether you're born or whatever you die, it doesn't matter.
You're the child immediately.
That's why it's called being born again
because it's a moment.
The moment you believe you're born again,
you're a child of God.
It's not a process.
So look, the Russian Orthodox, they're not saved
and they're really just Catholic life at best, okay?
My next one, I have Greek Orthodox.
Not really any different, okay?
So we got our Greek Orthodox over here
and again, I'm just trying to give you an idea
of what Christianity looks like from a world perspective.
We don't deal with Russian Orthodox
or Greek Orthodox in America that much.
It'd be very rare that you'd find these congregations
but if you went into a Russian Orthodox church
and you went to the Catholic church,
it'd be hard for you to figure out
what the differences are, okay?
There's a lot of similarities.
They're very similar in practice and things that they do.
Greek Orthodox says Jesus also demanded good works
to go along with faith.
A man came to him with a question
about eternal salvation.
Teacher, he asked, what good deed
must I do to have eternal life?
Jesus did not send him away or correct him.
What?
He didn't say you're asking the wrong question.
You need only to believe in me and you'll be saved.
Rather, Jesus said to him, keep the commandments.
What a twisting of that parable.
You shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery,
you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness,
honor your father and mother
and love your neighbor as yourself.
I wonder who's kept those.
Oh yeah, the guy that claimed to do that
in the parable, right?
All these have I kept for my youth up.
What lack I yet?
Oh, you self-righteous person, you.
You're so wonderful.
Just enter an eternal life, buddy.
No, then he gives them another commandment
that he can't follow
and then he went away sorrowful.
Look, I've had people point to me as this parable.
Christians, so-called, tell me that that is
the greatest picture of salvation is that parable.
And I said, the guy went away sorrowful
and all the disciples were like, how can anybody be saved?
It doesn't seem like a very good picture
when everybody's wondering how to be saved after seeing it.
They're like, how can you be saved then?
Because it's not of works, because it was by faith.
He was asking the question, you know,
why calls thou me good?
That's why he was asking that question.
He's like, what is your standard of good?
Because if your standard of good is God's standard,
you realize you need a savior.
You're not trying to wonder what good works you need to do.
You realize you're wicked.
He was trying to help them understand he was sinful.
The moment he realized he was sinful and condemned,
he went away sorrowful.
He didn't then ask for a savior.
If he had asked for a savior,
look, Jesus gave Nicodemus the gospel.
He gave him the greatest verses.
Jesus wasn't withholding the gospel from people,
but this person wasn't ready to receive the gospel
because he trusted in riches.
In the same article or whatever,
on their statement of faith from the Greek Orthodox,
they said, the reception of the gift of salvation
is not a one-time event, but a lifetime process.
Saint Paul employs the verb to save in the past tense.
It says in the present tense and in the future tense.
That doesn't sound any different to me
than what the Russians said, right?
They said it's a lifelong process.
The Greek says lifelong process.
The Russian said it was a lifelong process.
What did the Catholics say?
Didn't they say it was like a lifelong process?
He has a constant state of being.
That's why I'm putting them really close to this.
There's a reason why.
And again, this is not my opinion.
If you go to their own website, their own churches,
this is exactly what they say, okay?
How about the Mennonites and the Amish, all right?
Now, some people might get triggered
at what I'm about to draw,
but you know how they're classified?
Anabaptist.
And you say, you say, anabaptist, is that accurate?
Yes.
The anabaptist became the Amish and the Mennonites, okay?
Just so you're aware of history and facts, okay?
So some people wanna act like the anabaptists were saints.
They're Amish, okay?
They're the Mennonites,
and they really didn't change that much, okay?
Just to scare you a little bit with truth.
The Amish statement of faith, all right?
Let's read what the Amish said in 1632,
coming straight out of the Anabaptists, okay?
And reformation of life.
He's saying you have to do everything.
He said even after you do everything,
that's still not a promise of salvation, though.
You just have to do everything perfect
and then just kinda hope to the end.
The problem is he's gonna say,
depart from me, I never knew you,
after they give that whole long list
of all their good works.
Look at all these wonderful works we did.
We had the Clydesdale,
when we were digging up the ground.
We didn't use those wicked flashlights
and incandescent light bulbs.
It's like, if that's what you wanna be, go for it,
but I'm not into it.
It's, again, why am I drawing this?
If you run into a Russian Orthodox person,
they're not saved.
You run into a Greek person, not saved.
Now, I can't draw every single scenario
in this order perfectly,
because Catholics a lot of times
are actually pretty easy to get saved, okay?
But Anabaptists are very hard to get saved, okay?
Orthodox people are super hard to get saved.
So I'm just saying who I think would possibly be saved,
maybe Catholic would be a little bit easier
than some of these.
You can kinda mix them in.
Again, it's just kind of an example
to give you some kind of idea.
Next one I have on my list, Episcopalian, okay?
Episcopalian says, we are made righteous
and justified in Christ,
despite the inadequacy of our works for salvation.
Salvation is deliverance from anything
that threatens to prevent fulfillment and enjoyment
of our relationship with God,
through the Spirit, especially in the life
and sacraments of the church.
We may share in Christ's life, death, and resurrection.
We may participate in a saving process of sanctification
by which the saving life of Christ
becomes increasingly our own reality.
This process is completed and revealed in Christ
as has begun in us through faith in Him,
completed in union with God,
is the end of the saving process.
Now, you may not have picked up
what they're putting down just yet,
but let me explain to you what they believe,
and it's similar to the Catholics.
They basically believe that the better a person you are,
the more saved you are.
They basically equate how many good works you're doing
is evidence of how much you're being saved
and how sanctified you are.
So the more righteous you are,
the more likely you're a saved person.
It's called work salvation.
There's no other way to put it.
It's just a pure 100% work salvation.
It has nothing to do with your reliance
upon what Christ did.
It's your reliance is, you know,
He's just blessed us with the ability to do good works.
And again, it's really similar to Calvinism, okay,
as far as like the philosophy.
Obviously, there's a lot of distinctions there.
Now, I'm gonna give you another one, Anglican.
Anglican, it is God's gracious will
that we as His children called through the gospel
and sharing in the means of grace
should be confident that the gift of eternal life
is assured to each of us.
That kind of sounds good.
Our response to this gift must come from our whole being.
Faith, therefore, not only includes an assent
to the truth of the gospel,
but also involves commitment of our will to God
and repentance and obedience to His call.
Otherwise, faith is dead.
Living faith is inseparable from love,
issues and good works,
and grows deeper in the course of a life of holiness.
Christian assurance does not in any way
remove from Christians the responsibility
of working out their own salvation with fear and trembling.
Now, go ahead and James 2 in your own Bible.
Go to James chapter number 2.
Now, as we travel down this road of confusion,
as we travel down this road of apostasy and false doctrine,
it starts sounding more and more right.
It starts getting closer and closer to the truth.
And a lot of people will pull out James 2
and they try to use this to justify
some level of a works-based salvation.
The Anglican church is pointing to James chapter number 2.
And look, this is not just the Anglican church.
This is a lot of churches, okay?
How many people have heard, you know,
faith without works is dead at the door
when you go and knock on someone's door?
I hear it all the time, right?
From multiple churches.
Now, here's the thing.
That's true.
Faith without works is dead.
It is a true statement.
But here's the question.
Does that faith cease to exist, first of all?
And second of all, what is the context
in which James 2 is even, you know,
mentioning any of this?
Well, let's get that verse, okay?
He says in verse number 17,
Even so, faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
Now, did that prove that faith without works cannot exist?
I'm pretty sure it literally proved that faith is alone.
Right?
Didn't it prove that faith still exists, right?
Okay, so it's saying if faith doesn't have works,
then it's dead being alone.
Let's look at the last verse of James chapter two, okay?
It says, for as the body without the spirit is dead,
so faith without works is dead also.
So again, if I physically die and my spirit goes to heaven,
does my body cease to exist?
No, obviously my body would still be there,
but what benefit is my physical body
gonna be to you when I'm dead?
You're gonna go bury it.
You have nothing, there's nothing to do with it.
Now, what's the point of us believing in Jesus Christ
and then doing nothing for him?
That sounds terrible.
That's a bad idea.
Just like I don't wanna physically die.
So the whole book of James chapter two
is advocating you to have works.
It's teaching you to, you know, do good things
and to serve the Lord and not have a dead faith, absolutely.
But it still actually teaches salvation by faith alone
in this exact chapter, okay?
It says in verse number 21.
Let's back up one more verse, verse 20.
But wilt thou know, O vain man,
that faith without works is dead?
Oh, I've heard that before, I think.
Verse 21, was not Abraham our father justified by works
when he'd offered Isaac his son upon the altar?
Ah, see, it says he was justified by his works.
Let's read a little bit more, okay.
He says, seest thou how faith wrought with his works,
and by works was faith made perfect?
Now, what does perfect mean?
It means complete, an entire faith, okay?
Says in verse 23, and the scripture was fulfilled,
which saith, Abraham believed God,
and it was imputed unto him for righteousness.
Now, what is that teaching?
Is that not just saying that he was saved by his faith?
If we go to Romans chapter number four,
you know what it says, the exact same thing.
Abraham believed God,
and it was accounted unto him for righteousness, okay?
What does it say here?
Abraham believed God,
and it was imputed unto him for righteousness.
But look what it says, colon,
and he was called the friend of God.
So is Abraham just saved?
Did he have a dead faith?
No, he had a very active faith.
He offered his son Isaac upon the altar.
So why is he called the friend of God?
Well, look at the next verse.
You see then how that by works a man is justified,
and not by faith only.
Why was Abraham called God's friend?
Because he had works.
And look, friendship is always dependent upon your action.
It's always dependent upon your works.
I'm not friends with people that are dead.
How many dead friends?
I mean, your friendship ceases at that point, right?
If someone's treating you badly,
if someone's being mean to you,
if someone doesn't wanna hang out with you,
you know what I don't call that person?
Friend.
When Jesus is being betrayed by Judas,
he says friend, but it's kind of like
tongue-in-cheek, isn't it?
He's like, hey, you're betraying me, friend.
Betrayest thou me with a kiss?
It's like, what's going on here?
So what's a friend?
A friend that's doing something good,
he's following your rules, he's treating you well.
That's how God views friendship too.
If you get saved, you're not automatically God's friend.
You can constantly be God's friend,
or enemy, or anywhere in between, okay?
And the more you follow God's commandments,
the more you serve and the more you do good,
you are God's friend.
That's how you're justified by your works.
If you wanna be called God's friend,
it's gonna be with your faith and your works.
If you wanna go to heaven, it's by your faith.
That's crystal clear in James chapter number two.
But then they wanna point to a verse like this,
and then they'll say, well, saving faith always has works.
No, saving faith is just putting it all in Jesus.
And there is no difference between saving faith and not,
you either believe in vain,
because you didn't believe the whole gospel,
or you believe the whole gospel and you're saved, that's it.
Now obviously, faith is something
that is beyond just salvation.
It's our daily walk too, isn't it?
Having faith not just in John 3.16,
but all the verses of the Bible.
And a lot of people, they have no problem
accepting the free gift of eternal life,
but they do have problems accepting the death penalty,
they have problems accepting a separated lifestyle,
they have a problem with hard preaching,
they have a problem with being Baptist,
they have a problem with a lot of other parts of the Bible,
and we're trying to help them increase their faith, okay?
They have a problem with this sermon
because they like Catholics,
and they like the Russian Orthodox,
and they want the Anabaptists to be something
that they're not, but I don't really care.
I only care about what the Bible says, okay?
And this is my final source of authority,
and I don't wanna lie to you
and tell you that your Orthodox friend's saved.
I don't wanna lie to you
and tell you your Anglican friend is saved, okay?
Because they're not.
They're not saved, and they need to get saved.
How about Presbyterian, okay?
Presbyterian, God's work in providing salvation
in Jesus Christ is a work of God's grace.
Grace means God's unmerited favor.
Well, they got that right.
When we receive the grace of God,
we are receiving that which we can never deserve
or merit on our own.
It is a free gift, amen.
Ephesians puts it clearly,
for by grace you have been saved through faith,
and this is not your own doing.
That's like the ESV.
It is the gift of God, not the result of works,
so that no one may boast.
The salvation we receive in Jesus Christ
is provided by God.
Our reception of salvation comes
by the work of the Holy Spirit,
who gives us the gift of faith.
Oops.
I don't remember that one.
The gift of faith?
That's just forcing you to believe something.
That's not a gift, anyway.
That's slavery.
A gift is something you can reject.
How is it a gift if you can't reject it?
Explain that to me.
That's called slavery.
That would be like the government saying,
you know what, we're gonna gift everybody
on April 15th with taxes.
What?
Can I reject that one?
Not interested.
I don't really want that one.
That's not a gift.
They don't understand what a gift is.
God doesn't gift people with faith.
He gifts people with eternal life
when they believe in him,
when they accept his free gift.
That's how you get it.
The nonsense of these people.
And look, Presbyterians are what we know as Calvinists.
They're reformed.
They're a reformed church.
Now, I was looking at my list.
I got a few of these backed up.
Presbyterians are not the next one I'm gonna put here.
I'm gonna put Presbyterians about here.
Presbyterian.
You can kinda just, Presby.
We'll call him Presby, all right?
Next one I had was Lutheran.
Lutheran.
They say, the Bible uses to talk about the beginning
of faith include conversion, regeneration.
Although we do not claim to understand fully
how this happens, we believe that when an infant
is baptized, God creates faith in the heart of that infant.
What?
The Lutherans, you know why they baptize babies?
They say when you baptize a baby,
it gets the faith to believe in Jesus in that moment.
What in the world?
They say some, this is their answer to Calvinism, okay?
And you'll be more confused after I read it.
Some answer this question by, they're talking
about Calvinism, okay, in the context of Calvinism.
They say some answer this question by pointing
to man's free will, because the question's like,
how do we get saved?
Some point to free will, right?
Only those are saved who choose to be saved.
Lutherans reject this answer as unscriptural,
because according to the Bible, even man's will is dead
and powerless to choose God and his grace in Christ.
Now that sounds exactly Calvinist.
That's exactly what they believe, right?
I was confused, I was like, oh, I didn't think
they were Calvinists.
Let me read the next sentence.
Some will say we're not saved, we are not saved
because we choose to be saved, but because
the Holy Spirit works faith in us.
Others answer this question by pointing
to God's sovereign will.
God himself predestines for maternity's son to be saved
and others to be damned.
Lutherans reject this answer as unscriptural,
because according to the Bible, God sincerely desires
all to be saved and has predestined no one to damnation.
So how do Lutherans answer this question?
The answer is that Lutherans do not try to answer it.
I'm reading from their own website, okay?
Their own denomination.
They say some people think you're saved by choosing God.
That's not right.
Some people say that God just chooses for you.
That's not right.
So what's true?
We don't know.
It's like, thanks for letting us know that one, Lutherans.
It's like, what in the world?
I'm gonna put them over here, okay?
They need to get more drunk and read the Bible again,
like their father.
You say, is that a real accusation?
That's exactly how he describes he got saved.
Drinking a beer underneath an apple tree,
reading the Bible, oh, it's my faith.
I don't think he really kept reading, okay?
I don't think that beer was the spirit
he was gonna get him saved.
That's another spirit.
Church of Christ, all right?
What must I do to be saved?
Step one, hear the word of God.
Sounds great.
Step two, believe what we hear.
That sounds great.
I'm liking this.
Step three, we must repent of our sins.
Fail.
That's not the Bible.
Number four, we must confess our faith.
Well, I like that one.
Step five, we must be baptized.
Again, this is in the context of salvation.
And then they give like a whole bunch of verses
about how you have to be baptized.
Like baptism doth now also save us.
That's not what it's talking about.
Step six, uh-oh, there's more steps.
We must remain faithful.
And I've even seen some Church of Christ
that have seven steps.
You gotta like persevere to the end too.
Look, Church of Christ, it is a hardcore work of salvation.
They are not saved, okay?
We'll call it the Church of Christ.
They're also called like the Restoration Movement, okay?
And they came out of Baptist,
you know, a lot of their origins, okay?
How about Seventh-day Adventists?
In infinite love and mercy,
God made Christ, who knew no sin, to be sin for us,
so that in him we might be made the righteousness of God.
Well, that's the Bible, amen.
Led by the Holy Spirit, we sense our need,
acknowledge our sinfulness, repent of our transgressions,
and exercise faith in Jesus as our Savior and Lord.
Substitute an example.
This saving faith comes through the divine power
of the word and is the gift of God's grace.
Again, Calvinist, in the sense that they're saying,
you know, you get the gift of faith,
you know, that saving faith or whatever.
Seventh-day Adventists, they don't even meet on Sunday.
They're weird, all right?
The Church of Christ doesn't use instruments, okay?
Because somehow the book of Psalms
just needs to be ripped out of your Bible or whatever.
Praise him, you know.
It's just, I don't know.
I don't wanna go on that rabbit trail.
I have too much to preach this morning.
Pentecostal, all right?
We find in scripture that salvation is free
to those who believe, but,
but we also see where action is acquired to the believers
for the promise of salvation to be a reality to them.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is a covenant
that we enter into Jesus Christ himself
if we do our part, he is faithful.
And just to do his part, this is the covenant gospel.
Then they quote Ephesians 2, 8, and 9,
and a bunch of other verses.
They say this, we are saved only by grace through faith.
Amen.
Just a few verses, just a few sentences later, sorry.
They say we are to express our faith by calling on him
and obeying the plan of salvation.
This is not optional.
Faith alone will not save unless it is accompanied by action.
Let me just read you again.
We are saved only by grace through faith.
Faith alone will not save.
Like, how do you write that?
How do you sit there and write that,
and that's your doctrinal statement
for, you know, tons of Pentecostals.
And look, Pentecostals are known by Acts 2, 38, okay?
You should just call them Acts 2, 38, basically.
Well, that's what we'll call them, all right?
Acts 2, 38, that's your Pentecostals, all right?
Repent and be baptized.
And it's not even water baptism,
it's the baptism of the Holy Ghost
is what they want to tell you.
Have you been baptized by the Holy Ghost?
Have you received the Spirit?
Have you been talking in other tongues?
Let me tell you, brother, why don't you come on down
and I'll put hands on you right now,
and you'll go, bleh, bleh, bleh, bleh, bleh, bleh.
That's not getting saved, my friend.
He says, oh, you're just exaggerating.
I think that's pretty accurate.
Go to a Pentecostal church.
Aha, you gotta believe in the Lord, ha, yeah!
That's not hard preaching,
that's just being obnoxious, okay?
All right, my next church, non-denominational.
He said, preach the Bible.
Well, come tonight, you'll get as much Bible
as you can possibly imagine, all right?
I promise.
We're gonna learn something this morning.
Faith is Never Alone, article by a non-denominational guy.
And he is the pastor of a non-denominant church
that's planted many other churches.
He's on the International Mission Board
for the Southern Baptist Convention.
You can follow him on Twitter, his name is Doug Ponder.
He says, what is it, my brothers and sisters,
if someone claims to have faith but has no works,
can such faith save him?
Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes
and daily food, if one of you says to them,
go in peace, keep warm and well-fed,
but does nothing about their physical needs,
what good is it?
In the same way, faith by itself,
it is not accompanied by action, works, end quotes, is dead.
So again, we're getting the James 2 argument,
which all of them have.
He says, James shows us that the claim to have faith
in Jesus is demonstrated by actions done in faith.
Those actions or works do not earn us favor with God.
We don't earn the gift of salvation,
but our works do demonstrate our faith
that Jesus has already done all that is necessary
to save us from sin and death.
Now, I do wanna pause for a second and say this.
There are verses in the Bible that do say
that having good works, okay, or having, you know,
doing good things can be an evidence of salvation.
So I'm not attacking that statement particularly,
but what they try to do is they go to an extreme by saying,
if you believe you always will have good works, okay?
If I see someone giving the correct gospel
and getting people saved and having good fruit,
yeah, that is an evidence that they're saved, okay?
Don't hear me, don't take this to a weird extreme, right?
But I'm not gonna say because they're not doing that
that they're unsaved, okay?
And that's where you start getting into heresy
and you start getting into damnable heresy even
when you start looking at someone who claims to believe
the death, burial, and resurrection is their payment
for their sin and that's why they're going to heaven.
But you see, because they don't have some kind of work,
you're calling them unsaved.
That's damnable heresy.
When someone could look at someone who's claiming
to have all their faith in what Jesus did for them
and still say, well, you need to be circumcised still.
Right, is that what Galatians says?
They're looking at people that have all their faith
in what Jesus did and they're calling them unsaved
because of some lack of works in their life.
That's damnable heresy.
And you have to be careful because look,
you're gonna run into people from all these churches
and all kinds of different places and they'll say this.
Well, I just think someone who's saved
is gonna do good works.
Now here's the thing.
First of all, that's their opinion.
Second of all, we should, and it's emphasized in the Bible,
okay, thirdly, in many cases, I think that is true.
I think a lot of people that do get saved do try
to live a little bit different life
or try to do something that's right, okay.
But it is false if you say it's always the case.
That is not true.
The Bible does not teach that.
Go to Romans chapter four.
We'll see that that's not true, okay.
But if I believe this, let me make it clear.
If I think that salvation is just by faith in Jesus Christ,
if I'm trusting his death and resurrection,
but I erroneously believe that everyone who is saved
will probably do good works
or has some kind of good works,
that doesn't invalidate my salvation either though.
And you have to be careful
because sometimes people say something like that,
it's a little mixed up, a little confusing at the door.
And then I watch people preach in the gospel
and they're like, well, I already believe that.
And they're like, no, you were saying
that someone is saved is gonna do good works.
And it's like, that's not a damnable heresy.
That's not technically something that,
now it could point to the fact
that they believe damnable heresy.
Don't hear me wrong.
It is a false statement.
It's bad doctrine.
But you have to kind of shake the person loose
and say, okay, so do you think we're saved by faith alone
or faith plus works?
And then when they're like, well, faith plus works.
Now that's bad.
That's not believing the gospel.
When they say, well, you can't just live however you want,
otherwise you're not really saved.
Now I said, okay, I need to preach this person the gospel.
But just by believing that good works
and inevitably will follow
is not proof that they're unsafe, okay?
You have to ask more questions
or you have to figure out where they stand and other things.
So we have to be careful.
And of course the devil wants to build a bridge
between what?
Hardcore work salvation and faith alone and Jesus Christ.
So he builds this bridge.
It's like, well, if you really believe
wouldn't you have the works?
You know, and it's kind of this question
is this questionable bridge that a lot of people live on.
And you know why the people live on this bridge?
Cause that's where the majority of Christians live.
They want to have a bigger influence, a bigger impact,
a bigger crowd, 1.3 billion.
Okay.
And as we go down these lists,
we see it's huge numbers.
I don't want to preach to 1.3 billion unsaved people lies.
I'd rather preach to a handful of people
that believe the gospel.
And again, I'm gonna go out
and preach the gospel to everybody, okay?
Now I'm gonna keep reading this statement.
You're in Romans four
but I'm gonna read a little bit more, okay?
Where we read that.
He says, according to the New Testament,
the clearest evidence that our heart has been changed
through our faith in Jesus
is that we now find the desire to obey God
and the desire to serve our neighbor
where formally we found only the desire
to rebel and to be selfish.
Well, we should have told Paul that
cause he says he does the things that he hates.
He says that he's still carnal.
He says this, it is no accident that Jesus said
the two greatest commandments were to love God
and love our neighbor.
He intended for us to see our desire
to fulfill these commands as the clearest evidence
that we have come to trust in him as a redeeming Lord.
So following the command, all the law
is illustrated by those two commandments.
He's saying by keeping the law
is your greatest evidence that you're saved.
What are you saying?
My greatest evidence that I'm saved
is that my faith is in what Jesus did.
By the testimony of my lips.
When I say, hey, I'm trusting in Jesus' death
and resurrection and Jesus is the son of God,
the second person of the Trinity, right?
Romans chapter four, look at verse number five.
But to him that worketh not.
How many works did this guy do?
Zero.
But believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness.
Now wouldn't you say that was in James two
and it says faith without works is what?
Dead, being alone.
Well, let's answer that question.
Can that faith save him, right?
I'm taking that out of the context
cause that's not what that was saying.
But let's ask that question here.
Can that faith save him?
His faith is counted for righteousness.
Yes, it can.
Now this would be the stupidity of their argument.
Well, even though it said that, this doesn't exist.
I'm just gonna give you a hypothetical situation
that could never exist.
It's like, what?
Obviously this could possibly exist.
So it's obviously a false doctrine
to say good works are inevitable.
And you know what happens when people preach that?
They start examining their works
to decide if they're saved
rather than deciding if they're trusting
in Jesus' death, burial and resurrection to save them.
Unless they're faith to save them.
And that's bad doctrine.
I don't wanna read more of this article, it's stupid, okay?
Non-denoms, all right?
So we're gonna put non-denoms,
I wanna put them here, all right?
Non-denom is the biggest mixture
of just what I call crap, all right?
It's so, there's so much variation.
And a lot of them came out of Baptist,
a lot of them come out of Pentecostal, kind of mixes.
The church I grew up in was called Bab-decostal, all right?
So figure out what that means.
Number, the next one I have is Methodist.
Methodist, I went from the United Methodist Church,
discipleship.org, their main website,
and they have a major denomination.
Now, I'll say this about the Methodists.
They're currently having a lot of controversy.
They're gonna have a divide.
They've kind of already agreed there's gonna be a split,
like a more traditional version of Methodist
and a less traditional version of Methodist
over the issue of homosexuality.
So again, when we're talking about these general labels,
let me make it clear.
I'm not saying that every single person
in these churches is unsaved.
That's not what I said, and I don't believe that.
But the majority are not.
And I'm getting it from their own mouth.
This is what they say.
Does baptism mean that I'm saved?
No, salvation is a lifelong process.
And look, if you talk to Methodists who are based on whom,
Jacob and Arminius, okay?
They're Arminian in doctrine.
They believe in free will, amen.
I'm more an Arminian than I am a Calvinist
because I actually agree with free will,
but their last point is you have so much free will,
you can jump out of God's hand.
Well, we already read that in John chapter 10, didn't we?
You can't do that.
There's no much, I don't have enough free will
to stop being my parent's child.
I don't have enough free will to stop my wife
from being, you know, to have been married to me.
I could divorce her,
but I would still have been married to her.
Look, there's certain things you just can't change.
I don't have enough free will to stop being a man,
you transgender freaks.
I could glue a bunch of tree branches to my body
and I wouldn't be a tree.
I don't care what you do.
You can mutilate yourself, but you're still a man.
You're just a gross man.
You become a beast, really.
Now this is what they say.
Do I have to be baptized in order to be saved?
No, but baptism is a gift of God's grace
to be received as a part of the journey of salvation.
Hey, do you have to get baptized to be saved?
No, but it's on the road there.
It's like, do I have to pass this street
to get to your house?
No, but if you don't, you won't get to my house.
So I can like jump over it or something, you know?
It's like, technically baptism doesn't save,
but anybody that saves, baptize, all right?
That's what they're just saying, all right.
All right, we'll draw a Methodist here, okay?
I'm actually gonna put Methodists behind non-denom, okay?
I think there's more non-denom people
I find saved than Methodists.
But there's plenty of Methodists that are saved.
I've talked to Methodists that are saved.
Southern Baptist Convention.
Now I call them the Southern Bastard Convention,
and I'm gonna explain why in a minute, but.
Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man
and is offered freely to all except Jesus Christ
as Lord and Savior.
That sounds great.
Now this is from their Baptist Faith and Message 2000,
which is a doctrinal statement they wrote.
Also their 1963 says the exact same thing.
They say repentance is a genuine turning from sin to God.
And their response is salvation.
A genuine turning.
Well that means I'm not saved.
Because you know what, there's still sin in my life
that I haven't genuinely turned away from.
You know, I still struggle with thoughts of pollutionists.
I still struggle with a lot of other worse things
than that too, because I'm not perfect.
And this stupid doctrinal statement
is getting nobody saved.
If you read this, you're gonna be more confused.
That is damnable heresy.
The Bible never says that.
It's not anywhere close to saving faith
or whatever they want to even say.
And the Southern Baptist Convention is honestly
one of the most Calvinistic denominations that exist.
The only thing that beats them is the Presbyterians.
And they're not far behind.
You look at their doctrinal statement,
they have a lot of Calvinism built in.
Like Perseverance of the Saints and a lot of other things.
So I'm gonna put the Southern Baptist right here, all right?
Now here's the thing.
There's a lot of saved people
that are in the Southern Baptist Convention.
There's even saved pastors
in the Southern Baptist Convention.
I'm not trying to damn all of them.
But you know what, what is this drawing representing?
A couple things.
First of all, we're getting closer and closer
to who I think saved, personally.
I'm reading their own statements of faith.
But recently there's been a lot of talk about fellowship.
Who you'll fellowship with, who you'd have relationship with.
You know, I'm only gonna have fellowship
with people that are over here.
I'm not gonna have fellowship with the Catholic Church,
with the Russians, with the Greeks, with the Episcopalians,
with the Lutherans, with the Church of Christ,
with the Pentecostals, with the Presbyterians,
with the Methodists, with the Southern Baptists,
with the non-denominational.
One big reason is they're not King James only.
They don't use the King James Bible exclusively,
nor do they believe that doctrine.
I'm not gonna have fellowship with that person.
Now, over here, we have people that are standing
on the King James Bible,
and they're standing on faith alone.
Who are these people?
Pretty much the independent fundamental Baptists.
The independent fundamental Baptists
have stood historically on faith alone
and the King James Bible.
I mean, if you go to an independent fundamental
Baptist Church, you're more than likely
gonna find a King James Bible.
I mean, that's a true statement, okay?
There is some that are not.
There's some that are only by preference.
There's variation, I get that.
But you know what?
I'll have fellowship with IFB churches.
I like IFB churches.
They actually believe salvation by faith alone,
once saved, always saved.
They stand on the same doctrinal positions that we do
when it comes to getting saved.
Now, there is some differences between our church
and a lot of traditional IFB churches, okay?
Now, some people would use this label, New IFB.
Some people hate this label.
Some people, you know, love it.
I'm kinda just in the middle, right?
I don't hate it.
I don't care if you call me that.
I'll use it.
It is what it is.
Now, what does New IFB mean?
That's a better question, right?
Well, Pastor Anderson actually made a video one time
giving a definition for what he believes New IFB is.
Let me tell you what he's said to New IFB is.
It's against both political parties, check, all right?
It's against birth control, check.
They like a lot of Bible in their preaching.
Well, exclude this sermon, okay?
Number four, they emphasize the local church
over Bible college, amen.
They emphasize homeschooling over public school
in your Christian school, amen.
They're family integrated as opposed to putting
all the kids in a nursery, check.
They're post-trib, pre-wrath, check.
They don't allow LGBT alphabet crew in the trials of God,
check.
They're anti-scientists, check.
And they expose scandal.
They don't cover things up.
Everything's out in the open, it's public.
I don't tell anybody things privately
that isn't ready to be in public.
And look, I don't see, if someone wants to call me New IFB,
well, I don't disagree with any of those.
I'm not against any of these labels, I like them.
Now, here's the thing.
I'm not so New IFB, though,
that that's my test of fellowship.
My test of fellowship is what?
Salvation in the King James Bible.
That's why I like having fellowship
with these type of people, all right?
Now, there's some IFBs that are kind of
jumping off the cliff.
They're your repent of your sins crowd.
I don't want to touch them, all right?
And you have to be careful,
because some people use that phrase,
and that's not what they mean by,
they don't mean like what the Southern Baptist means,
that you have to genuinely turn away from your sins.
So it's a bad phrase that's not biblical,
but you have to be careful
exactly who believes all that, and whatever.
Why am I drawing all this?
Well, I just want to give you a picture.
Now, who are these people?
These are the people that get so New IFB
that they end up walking away
from every single church, mind you,
and you know what they say?
Cult!
They say, oh, y'all are a cult.
It's like, okay, well,
what church are you gonna go to then?
Everybody's a cult.
Look, when everybody's a cult, you're the cult.
Cora, you're the cult, buddy.
Hey, if you have a difference of opinion here, fine, okay?
But I'm just telling you where we stand.
Look, this is where I want to be.
I want to be up here somewhere.
I'm not saying we are.
I just want to be up here screaming at all these people
and telling them how they're unsaved
and come back over this way.
Or tell them, hey, if you are saved,
come out from among them and be separate, sayeth the Lord.
Now, why would you have to say that
if there wasn't saved people intermingling with the unsaved?
They are.
There's tons of Christians today
that are in one of these churches, and by their own mouth,
they don't believe salvation by faith alone.
Now, if there's one doctrine,
if there's like one doctrine that you say,
what's the most important doctrine?
Couldn't it just be salvation?
If we're gonna pick, I think I'm gonna pick that one.
And I mean, King James Bible to me is like at the same level
because faith cometh by hearing
and hearing by the word of God.
If I don't have the word of God,
how am I gonna get anybody saved anyways?
It's not my personal opinion.
It's what God said.
And I want to be friends with all these people.
Now, some of these people that do this, okay,
they fall into this pit where Cora is, die and go to hell.
Some of them just fall here
and they just fall their own destruction.
It doesn't mean they're not saved either.
There's people that get offended, they leave church,
they're backslidden.
Oftentimes they get backslidden
and they just don't want to admit that.
So they're just like,
well, I just think your church is a cult.
I just think blah, blah, blah.
But it doesn't mean they're not saved.
It doesn't mean that they didn't get saved too.
They're like, I just want to be so far away
from all these people.
They start saying, you know, Jack House is unsaved.
They start saying, Pastor Anderson's unsaved.
You know, your church is unsaved.
And then they're just, you know, no one's saved.
It's like, what in the world?
Come on, don't go to such weird extremes.
That's how you get in a cult
and you get people to fall off with you.
Keyboard warriors, they make videos.
Now they don't go to church,
but they watch church all the time
and criticize it, don't they?
Now, I have a couple other people on a draw,
but we have to go to another branch, all right?
We're going over here.
Here we have Oneness Pentecostals.
This is the non-Trinitarian branch.
They're so far from the truth,
they're not even close to getting saved.
Jehovah's Witness and Mormons.
You get a Mormon saved, I'm impressed.
I've tried so hard, so many different times.
It is so difficult.
They're so brainwashed.
They have such another Jesus, another gospel.
They're just so, like, you have to get them, like,
over here just to even start the conversation.
And, you know, Tyler Baker's over here with them, okay?
You don't know who that is, don't worry about it.
It's not important.
Here's the Mormon's plan of salvation.
Step one, faith.
Step two, repentance.
Step three, baptism.
Step four, laying on the hands by a member
of the Melchizedek priesthood.
Step five, ordination as a Melchizedek priest.
Step six, receiving the temple.
Step seven, celestial marriage.
Step eight, observing the word of wisdom.
Step nine, sustain the prophet.
Step 10, tithing.
Y'all are in trouble.
Step 11, sacrament meetings.
Step 12, obedience.
They have 12 steps to salvation from their own sight, okay?
Their plan of salvation, according to the gospel of Mormonism
is not just a gospel of works, it's a gospel of obedience.
That's what they say, okay?
That's their conclusion.
Jehovah's Witness, requirement one, accurate knowledge.
They failed there.
Step two, avoid debauchery.
Step three, watchtower membership.
Oh, we're all in trouble, we gotta join their church.
Step four, proselytizing.
You have to be soul winning to be saved.
Now, I've been actually falsely accused of that.
Someone told me one time that I believe
you have to be soul winning to go to heaven,
and I was like, when did I say that?
That's stupid, okay.
When you're a pastor, you get accused of the weirdest stuff,
all kinds of false accusations.
One is Pentecostals, they believe you have to repent
your sins and water baptism.
Now, I want you to go,
join your Bible to Proverbs chapter six, all right?
And go to Hebrews 12.
We'll go to Hebrews 12 first.
Now, I'm gonna take a slight deviation from this sermon,
but it's in the same context.
And you're gonna have to give me some levity here.
Again, this is not a normal sermon.
But my integrity has been greatly falsely accused
and been attacked, and you're gonna have to give me
some levity to defend it for a moment,
because we don't have just this church,
we have churches that are satellites.
This ministry's extremely important to the cause of Christ,
and I don't want people's minds
to be poisoned against your pastor.
That's gonna only hurt things.
And if I say something that's false or inaccurate,
I will correct it.
And I have done in the past multiple times,
and I will continue to do so,
but I'm gonna correct a few things this morning.
Look at Hebrews chapter 12, verse eight.
But if you be without chastisement,
whereof all are partakers,
then are ye bastards and not sons.
Now, I have nothing wrong with reading that verse out loud.
Some people get really offended, triggered,
by just reading the Bible out loud.
And then just, you know, they're called the New King James.
Yeah, the New King James takes words out like this.
Damn, hell.
Why, they wanna soften the message.
They wanna weaken the preaching of God's word.
They're ashamed of Christ and his words.
I'm not ashamed of Christ's words, okay?
Now, some of you might not know what I'm talking about.
That's great, don't worry about it.
But basically, some people would accuse me
of being really ecumenical, okay?
I'm trying to help you understand where I stand.
What's ecumenical?
Having fellowship with this, this Ursula, okay?
I'm not interested in having relationships with Ursula.
She's not my friend, okay?
I'm not interested in being a part of that.
But I got accused of being ecumenical, okay,
and teaming up with Calvinists, the Presbyterians over here
for sharing a documentary on Facebook, okay,
about the Greek language.
It's called Going Back to the Greek.
And there was a pastor that broke friendship with me
over that issue, and I made it clear in a sermon recently
that that's what happened.
He called me and told me he broke fellowship with me
because I shared this documentary on Facebook,
which had nothing to do with Calvinism,
did not advocate Presbyterians.
It was made by a person over here, okay?
This is the main person doing the documentary
and all control and everything that was done
by my sitting pastor, Steven Anderson.
But then I was told, publicly,
I was called a liar for saying that by this person.
Now let me just read for you, okay,
a text message from this person
saying that that was not true,
saying that I was lying by saying
that he broke fellowship with me over that.
I texted a group of several pastors,
seven pastors, that information, and this is the reply.
No, it's much bigger than that.
I did not say I wouldn't fellowship with you.
I said I would not preach for you, big difference.
I said the lack of discretion.
He said that he broke fellowship with me
for lack of discretion.
My accusation is that I'm teaming up with Calvinists.
I don't remember teaming up with Calvinists.
And the new direction,
so I have a new direction and a lack of discernment.
You know what the accusation of new direction was?
Teaming up with Calvinists again.
I'm teaming up with Calvinists here.
And then it was, and the new doctrine,
specifically your divisive Lord's Supper doctrine.
Now let me say this.
I haven't really taught on Lord's doctrine publicly.
I've made some statements about it in a previous sermon,
which I decided to take down
because I don't wanna cause any contention,
and I've even moderated some of those views,
and I'll preach on that in this year, okay,
and we'll clean that up.
But here's the thing.
This same person knew what I believed
about the Lord's Supper
the day I started Pure Words Baptist Church,
and the whole time.
And when they called me to break friendship with me,
I specifically said,
are you breaking fellowship with the Lord's Supper?
Because I don't think it's a doctrine
to break fellowship with the Lord.
And they said, no.
So if we take that off the table,
what was the only accusation?
Teaming up with a Calvinist.
Now how did I team up with Calvinists?
Oh, because I shared a going back
to the Greek documentary on Facebook,
which is literally what I said.
But then publicly, I'm called a liar for saying that.
And the old person from his own mouth publicly,
from everybody says, well, I did say that.
So I didn't know I was such a liar.
And everybody's just like, amen, amen.
I don't see how I'm lying.
If you can prove to me how I'm teaming up with Calvinists
or whatever, you know, go for it.
But I think that's ridiculous.
Now, in that same conversation, I said,
you know, many Southern Baptist convention people
are Calvinists.
I said, so if someone comes to your church
that's, you know, Southern Baptist and is Calvinist,
would you throw them out?
Yes.
And then when I clarified, he said, well,
I try to show them, you know, one or two ties,
but then, yeah, throw them out.
You know, now I've made that point for a moment.
Keep that in your mind for a second.
I was told I lied four times to you publicly.
And I did not lie to you four times publicly.
The second thing I said is this person
doesn't want to be my friend.
Now, if a pastor calls me up and says,
I will not preach for you.
I can't support your church.
I can't support your ministry.
And we're canceling all the future scheduled
preaching events that we already have with you.
And nobody from my church can come and preach for you.
And I'm going to say things about you in private
that you have no idea about.
And every single person in my church
who is planning on coming to your conference
mysteriously doesn't show up.
And then I say, this person doesn't want to be my friend.
I'm somehow lying.
What's your definition of friendship?
I mean, what do you call that?
I'm publicly lying to people.
Look, if I said, hey, I won't,
you invite me over to dinner and I call you back up
and I say, hi, I won't come to your house.
I'll never come to your house.
I can't have dinner with you,
but I'll see you at church.
Oh, we're friends.
Look, you're not friends with people
you will go to church with necessarily.
That's a stupid test of friendship.
Friendship is much more than just being able
to physically tolerate each other's presence.
That's called a family reunion.
Okay.
If you think that that's being a friend
and that I lied, you're gullible.
You're simple minded.
And you need to learn what friends mean.
A friend must show himself friendly
is what the Bible says.
Secondly, or thirdly, I was called a liar
because I said that this person
railed on Pastor Anderson to me.
Now again, I'll say what this person told me.
They said Pastor Anderson is too prideful
to admit that he's wrong about the Lord's Supper
and he's teaching things he does not believe.
He told me that Pastor Anderson is constantly cussing
by using the word bastard and hell,
which I don't have a problem with that word, or hell.
Number three, because he has a lack of discernment.
Specifically, teaming up with Calvinists.
Number four, that me and Pastor Anderson
are pastoring other people's churches.
What in the world?
But I guess that's not railing.
Because the person called me and said,
I won't preach for you, and I said, why?
And apparently if you ask a clarifying question
of why you won't come preach for me
and you're canceling the scheduling,
you're now allowed to just talk badly
about any one of my friends.
That's not how it works.
That's not asking for clarification.
That is just lying.
That's just railing on somebody.
Now again, I said a statement in my preaching.
I said that this pastor wants to call every other pastor
known to man and talk crap on Pastor Anderson, okay?
I would hope most people would realize
that was an exaggeration.
I do not believe he called John MacArthur.
I do not believe he called John Piper.
I do not believe he called every pastor known to man.
That was an extreme statement,
and I wish I had not said that.
I publicly apologize for that because that was wrong.
And if you're gonna attack somebody or not attack them
or just point out things that are true or just anything,
you need to make sure you have sound speech
that cannot be condemned.
And I wish I had worded it a little bit differently.
So let me change that statement for you.
Let me say what I should have said, okay?
There was a text message group of seven other pastors
where this pastor was talking crap on Pastor Anderson,
all of which were my friends.
Multiple pastors that I talked to on the phone
told me over the phone that he talked crap to them
and railed on them.
Every single person that I communicated with told me
about that issue, told me that he talked crap
or railed on Pastor Anderson,
which was, again, multiple people.
He from his own mouth said that he called pastors
specifically to tell them bad things about Pastor Anderson,
and then that pastor broke fellowship
with Pastor Anderson the next day, okay?
So maybe, just maybe you could understand
why I might've seemingly exaggerated on that statement.
But then this person says,
I dare you to call any new IFB pastor
and ask them if I've ever talked any crap
on Pastor Anderson.
I dare you to, I dare you,
because a lot of people,
either everybody's lying or one person's lying.
I'll let you be the judge on that one.
But again, he also said that he wants to separate
from the new IFB.
He had all of his members pray
to separate from the new IFB.
Now, what was the new IFB?
Didn't I read for you what the new IFB was again?
Does anybody wanna stop being post-trib, pre-wrath?
Does anybody wanna stop using the King James Bible?
Does anybody wanna stop, like what kind of a weird,
how do you even leave the new IFB?
I didn't join.
Look, I'm not gonna leave Baptist
because I just, I believe like Baptist doctrine.
I'm not gonna stop being a Christian
because I believe what the Bible says.
I'm not gonna stop doing things that define who I am.
I'm not gonna stop being a man because I am a man.
Whether I like whatever label's given unto me,
it doesn't matter.
How do I leave something that I didn't join?
That's weird.
Lastly, I was told that I have a potty mouth
behind the pulpit.
Okay, because I use a word like bastard.
Now, specifically a sermon I preached at Pure Words
called Southern Bastard Convention, okay,
was called into question.
Now, why do I say that?
Why would I say such a strong, offensive thing?
Well, then we read right here that if you're not a son
and you're without chastisement, then you're a bastard.
So what's the context?
Someone who's not saved
and someone who's not receiving punishment from God, right?
So am I allowed to use that word in that context?
I would sure hope so.
I mean, am I start accusing God for having a potty mouth?
I thought every word of God was pure, okay?
Now, let's talk about the Southern Baptist Convention
because in a sermon against me and my sending pastor,
mind you, I'm condemned, I'm over here,
Pastor Anderson's condemned, I'm over here,
and the Southern Baptist Convention is exonerated.
Think about that for a moment, okay?
Why was I and this guy excluded fellowship from?
Oh, for being Calvinist.
Wait a minute.
Who's Calvinist?
Oh yeah, 30% of Southern Baptist pastors
admit to being a five-point Calvinist.
And the rest of them are like a one, two, three, four.
Mind you, okay?
I'm gonna call them bastard.
How can you literally say that a Calvinist pastor
is a devil and evil and wicked and a bastard?
But then I call a convention that believes that a bastard
and somehow it's offensive.
It's wrong.
Now, if you know anything
about the Southern Baptist Convention,
I'm gonna preach my sermon in two minutes, okay?
Number one point, it was birthed out of slavery.
You know what I call that?
Illegitimate birth.
You know that an illegitimate birth is a bastard.
Number two, what was their gospel?
Oh yeah, I remember their nocturnal statement.
It said a genuine turning away from sin.
That's a bastard salvation plan.
That doesn't get people saved.
That produces bastards if they believe that.
That's why I said that.
Number three, they don't use the King James Bible.
They attack the King James Bible.
Their home in Christian Standard Bible
is the Bible that they advocate,
which is a corruptible seed.
Now, someone uses corruptible seed.
You know what they produce?
Bastards.
Number four, their leaders,
J.D. Greer and David Platt are bastards.
And J.D. Greer, I publicly preached against him.
He says, hey, do you let the alphabet crew into your church?
And I said, no.
And he says, do you let them into your home?
And I said, hell no.
And I'm gonna still stand by that.
But I guess I'm supposed to walk down those statements.
I'm supposed to say, please no.
Please no, don't.
Nay.
No.
Number five, okay, and again,
both of those are hardcore Calvinist guys too, find you.
Number five, they're without godly chastisement.
The Southern Baptist Convention
is one of the most ecumenical denominations
that exist on the planet, if they're not the most.
Look, I've been to Southern Baptist,
like, I don't know what you call it,
convention, you know, party or whatever.
They have for the youth,
they invite every single one of these churches to it.
And not just the members, they're pastors.
And they all preach to each other,
and they all hold hands, and they all pray together,
and they all have fun together.
That's called ecumenical, my friend.
Okay, so we have a denomination
that is literally ecumenical,
does not use the King James Bible,
has a false plan of salvation, okay, is Calvinist.
And I'm gonna, in a sermon,
say how I'm separating from independent fundamental Baptists
for being too Calvinist,
and exonerate the Southern Baptist Convention.
That's called hypocrite.
Yeah, amen.
All right, see, I don't like this kind of preaching.
Well, come tonight.
But my integrity has been called in question.
And if I do something wrong, I will apologize.
I don't have a problem apologizing when I'm wrong.
You know what, I'm not gonna sit there
and publicly lie to my congregation and feel good about it.
And I'll say this, too.
He said, call any new IFB pastor
and ask him if I was talking crap at railing.
Well, it's interesting,
because I had a new IFB pastor
in a conversation I was talking to.
He said that a person called him called Manly Perry,
and said, can I use you as a public example
of someone that I haven't railed on
to you about Pastor Anderson?
He said, no, because you have.
And this was before the sermon.
Then he stood up behind his pulpit and said,
call any of them, because I've never done it.
It's never happened.
And then attacking me, saying I have no integrity,
saying that I'm just trying to lie to my people.
And he said this, I'm doing a smear campaign.
You know what a smear campaign is?
It's not going public.
It's going public with false information.
That's a smear campaign.
And look, it's sad, it's frustrating.
I'm gonna move on.
But I'm gonna defend those four supposed lies
or whatever that I did.
Because it's crap.
It's garbage.
And if you have a problem with me, call me.
I don't have a problem talking with things
or trying to fix things.
But I'm not teaming up with Calvinists.
What kind of nonsense is that?
I'm not interested in teaming up with Calvinists.
You know, I'll be their friend.
I'll invite them to church.
I'll try to get them off Calvinism.
I have family members who are Calvinists.
And I try to tell them that it's stupid and it's wicked.
I don't hold back.
You know what, I'll still love on them.
I'll still invite them to church.
They'll probably still show up like they have in the past.
You let Calvinists into this church?
Yes, I did.
Southern Baptist Convention Calvinists.
Because I don't have a problem inviting them to church.
But you know, they're not gonna preach behind the pulpit.
Okay.
I'm not gonna give lip service and say,
I'm not gonna exonerate
the Southern Baptist Convention before you.
I'm gonna call them bastards.
And if you don't like that,
you know, you say, what other word?
Hell, right?
Well, use it in the way that Jesus did.
Okay, you're twofold more the child of hell.
Was that real nice when he said that?
Well, I don't want my kids saying that kind of stuff.
Well, then don't read what Jesus said in Matthew 23.
It's a closing prayer.
Thank you, Father, so much for your word.
Thank you for allowing us to have the ability
to test the spirits
and to decide what's right and wrong through your word.
I pray that any word that I said amiss
would just fall by the wayside,
but that you would let your words
just work in people's hearts
and that people would not be offended by the truth,
but rather they would acknowledge
that the truth is more important
than their own personal viewpoints
or their family or their friends.
And I pray that this sermon would help people wake up
that there's a great need to preach the gospel.
There's a lot of people that need to be saved,
even so-called Christians.
You said that many would say, Lord, Lord,
and you're gonna tell them,
depart from me, I never knew you.
I pray that we can affect that number.
I pray that we can bring a lot of people
out of all of these churches and get them saved
and get them to serving you.
In Jesus' name we pray.