Thank you very much.
Thank you.
You
All right, good morning, it's good to see everybody this morning welcome to pure words Baptist Church
We'll go ahead and get started
Go ahead and pull your hymnals out and open to your first song. It'll be song number 19
Song number 19. There is a fountain
Song number 19
We're gonna be singing this one acapella so nice and loud we'll start there on the first there is a
fountain filled with blood drawn from
Emmanuel's veins
and
Sinners plunge beneath that blood lose all their guilty
stains
Lose all their guilty stains
And
Sinners plunge beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains
The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day
And there may I the vilest he wash all my sins away
Wash all
my sins away
Wash all my sins away
And there may I the vilest he wash all my sins away
Dear dying
Lamb thy precious blood shall never lose its power
Till all the
Ransom Church of God be safe to sin no more
Be safe to sin no more
Till all the
Ransom Church of God be safe to sin no more
E'er since by faith I saw the stream thy
flowing wounds supply
I
Redeeming love has been my theme and shall be till I die
And shall be till I die
Redeeming love has been my theme and shall be till I die
Then in a nobler sweeter song I'll sing thy power to save
When this poor lisping
Stemmering tongue lies
Silent in the grave
Lies
Silent in the grave
Lies
Silent in the grave
When this poor lisping
Stemmering tongue lies silent in the grave
Man brother Edward want to pray for us this morning brother Edward
I
And all right go ahead and flip your second song
161
161 our great Savior
Number 161
We'll start there on the first
Jesus what a friend for sinners Jesus
Lover of my soul
Friends may fail me
Foes
Assail me he my Savior makes me whole
Hallelujah what a Savior hallelujah
What a friend
Saving helping keeping loving he
Is with me to the end
Jesus what a strength in weakness
Let me hide myself
in him
Tempted tried and some times failing
he my strength my
Big tree wins
Hallelujah what a Savior hallelujah
What a friend
Saving helping keeping loving he
Is with me to the end?
He's us what a help in sorrow
while the billows
Or me roll
Even when my heart is breaking he my
Comfort helps my soul
Hallelujah what
a Savior
Hallelujah what a
friend
saving
helping keeping
Loving he is with me to the end
Jesus what a
Guiding keeper while the tempest
is high
Storms about me night or take me he my
pilot
Here's my cry
Hallelujah what a Savior hallelujah
What a friend
Say
Thinking loving he is with me to the end
Jesus I do now
Receive him more than all in him. I find
Me
Did me
Forgiveness I am his and he is mine
Say
What a friend
saving
helping keeping
He is with me to the end
Good morning, thank you so much for coming up your words Baptist Church
And it's good to see some of the Sunday morning onlys
So, you know, I don't see you always here on Thursdays
but it's great to be here and I'm really excited to preach two sermons to you guys in the morning in the
Evening as well. And also we have our church soul winning times. They're listed a regional soul winning
Church stats. I
Didn't remember to put this in the bulletin, but I want to give stats from yesterday
And I want to pull it up my phone so I don't get it wrong. But yesterday we had
55 soul winners come out and we ended up having 18 salvations for the day. So praise the Lord on that
Thanks to everybody that participated
I'm gonna put that in there and then also on the right we have our expecting ladies. We have miss Sarah Gomez
So continue to pray for her. I guess she was supposed to get in yesterday potentially, but it's delayed for a couple weeks
But as for the Nick and I'm sure that's why he's a little bit sad today. Okay, but it's alright
You know
We'll keep him family today and we'll try to keep him up spirits and pray that she'll have a safe return
Also, we also have another guest preacher coming right up pastor. Aaron Thompson from Sher foundation Baptist Church is coming
October 3rd, and so
He's he's planning on being in Texas for a while and just experienced the promised land for a little bit
You know about a week or so see what it's like and nobody's coming out here. He's gonna go so winning on Saturday
So he's planning on coming out Friday night. He wants to be here all day Saturday and hang out and go so winning on Saturday
So I'd encourage you to show up to Saturday time, you know this week
If you don't normally just so you can you know fellowship with pastor Thompson
Also, they're gonna be here reaching both services and fellowshipping and everything like that
So, please try to come out and thank him and his wife for traveling and they've been doing a lot of traveling
They actually took on a church plant in the UK
And they went out there and they had a lot of people saved
I don't remember the exact number you can look at on Facebook. It was like 88 people
So and
You know in talking with him, he said that the UK is actually really receptive
He was kind of thinking it was gonna be really difficult or really hard
But it's actually really receptive and they have a great spirit over there a lot of really dedicated
Christians and you know, we take for granted Christianity in America where it's real easy, you know
But over there and in other countries, you know
they have all kinds of laws against hate speech and they try to persecute churches and all kinds of different ways and so
You know, it's funny people can't even come to church when it's easy and they take for granted what we have over here
But you know a lot of other Christians in the world are suffering for the cause of Christ and going through difficulty
so keep them in your prayers and
Definitely, I'd encourage you to be coming out here. We have a couple upcoming events as well
Pastor Thomas is coming down to preach here
But he's also gonna be preaching on Wednesday night at steadfast Baptist Church for the fire-breathing Baptist fellowship
We're gonna kick it off Wednesday night at 7 p.m
Which is our normal service time and then we're gonna have scheduled preaching throughout the week. We're gonna have special events
It's definitely fellowship on purpose. We try to have some fun events Thursday from a 10 to 12
We're gonna have ice skating and so it's a lot of fun
We're gonna have soul winning an afternoon both Thursday and Friday from 2 to 4 Friday mornings gonna be a ladies coffee
Time and and pastries and they're gonna be meeting at the church in the morning
Thursday night and Friday night. We're gonna have preaching kickoff at 6 p.m
Thursday night is pastor Bruce Mihia from first works Baptist Church and it used to be El Monte, California
But now it's like somewhere in Orange County
I need to get the exact town, right, but it's somewhere in Orange County and
that's because his churches is blowing up, you know, and
also we have
On Friday at 6 p.m. Pastor David Burson is gonna preach for us, but we're having a double service Friday night
So in between services, we're gonna pizza for everyone and then we're gonna have pastor Roger Menes from Verity Baptist Church
They're gonna he's gonna be up there preaching and then Saturday
We have a kid spelling bee all kids ages 5 to 17 to participate
I put a list online of all the words we're gonna use but it's gonna be exclusive to the King James Bible
so we're using the King James Bible spelling bee and
I'm hoping to make this a continual event. I think it'd be a lot of fun and
Encourage the kids to memorize and spell Bible words and get more used to the vocabulary
And so it's a lot of fun. I enjoy this boat who participate in a spelling bee when they're growing up for in school anybody
Yeah, a couple people so I enjoyed it that's kind of fun and
So we just want to have a fun event
Also, we have a singles event for anybody that's 18 or older that is biblically allowed to get married
Then they can show up and I'm really hoping we get a lot of good turnout from both guys and girls
And we have a cool thing scheduled for them
It's gonna be a lunch too and then also in the afternoon. We'll have a console one
I'll be preaching both services Sunday for the English services and we have pastor Enrique Reyes
Who's actually a Houston native?
He's that spring crest Baptist Church. It's just kind of on the northern side of the Houston area
He's gonna be coming preaching our Spanish service. So that's really exciting. He's a really good Spanish speaker
I've actually gone soloing with him in Spanish by more than English because we went we went to Mexico together
He went with me the emory's I went with faith for Baptist Church. They went down there in the Sonora area and
We preach the gospel down there
he's gone down me to the McAllen rain OSA so winning trips that we've taken with steadfast and pure words a couple different times and
Really really nice guy real humble guy
And so I'm excited to have him come and preach for the Spanish services and everything in the Spanish service is Spanish, you know singing
Preaching the fellowship and everything like that and they've been going really well
Got a lot of church members just step up and kind of preach and do a really good job
And so if you have people that only speak Spanish that you know of, you know
You could always just tune them into our YouTube channel for steadfast and they could pay attention to some good preaching in Spanish
And so we're trying to get more Spanish material as we grow we have Spanish New Testaments though
We like to hand out in the back
There's a really good plan of salvation and a QR code that takes us straight to a Spanish
Gospel video and so we're trying to work on getting as much material as possible. We're looking at making another documentary
I I had kind of started a couple documentary series and then things got crazy
And then I ended up making this out of my deception first or whatever
I still intend on making the pure words soul winning documentary, but
Before I get there before I finish that I'm planning on doing a King James Bible
documentary and
I'm planning on you know, it's really in coordination with steadfast and pure words
I'm kind of planning it being like a pure words, you know documentary and
Putting a lot of effort energy into this one and we have some cool stuff lined up for this
So hopefully we'll get that project done
Schedule some interviews and things like that. So we're gonna start filming pretty soon in October. And so I'm really excited about that project
Hopefully we can get that one out and be a good resource. I've been working on a preaching a series and it's steadfast
Called fundamentals and I'm planning on trying to write a book that just has like a real short simple explanation on seven seven different
fundamentals that our churches, you know focus and emphasize on like salvation by faith and
Baptism and soul winning and King James Bible and just the emphasis of on hard preaching just some real nice
Fundamentals and make it a nice little book we can hand out for soul winning and stuff
So we have a lot of cool things that hopefully we can make we used to use a lot of like I was making like
Sermon CDs and stuff like that, but it seems like nobody
Can use that technology anymore. I'm trying to come up with newer ways and better technology
I think we might make some sermon cards eventually or something like that
But a lot of cool stuff is down the pike as far as material that we're going to use
Also, October 31st. We have our chili cook-off emphasis on the Texas style. Okay, because otherwise it's not a chili cook-off
It's just a random stew
Like Esau cook-off or something like that. We don't want Esau cook-off
We want a Jacob, you know, we want the strong meat of the word
And so we don't allow fillers in our chili, you know, like the real stuff, you know, it's pure words
We want a pure chili
Okay, and people get mad at me and they say oh that's a silly doesn't like beans because he doesn't put it in his chili
It's like well, let's use that logic with something else. You know, I don't put chocolate in my chili either
That doesn't mean I don't like chocolate, you know, I
Don't put all kinds of things in my chili. That doesn't mean I don't like them
It's just I don't put things that aren't chili and chili, right?
You just put the strong meat into the chili you make it and you know, Samson makes mean chili
All right, so and it's some strong competition in this room
All right, so I encourage you to come and participate instead of worshiping the devil
You can you know, celebrate the strong meat of the word. All right and good doctrine, okay
Tuesday is gonna be our Thanksgiving service November 23rd instead of having to actually on that Thursday
and so I'd encourage you to participate we'll probably have
Like a pie fellowship or something or dessert fellowship Thursday, December 23rd. Well a candlelight service. So
That's kind of the the horizon for the next several
Weeks and months and I wanted to go over a lot of those details just because I don't get to see y'all every Sunday
Necessarily just so that you're kind of aware one other thing I need to bring to attention
I've made a video and put it just on our steadfast channel currently, but
unfortunately, the steadfast Baptist Church has experienced business identity theft and fraud and
because of that
People are not I don't want any donations to that church via like check or
Online and I don't know if anybody did that but if somebody was trying to donate online
It's just gonna get rejected because all of our accounts have been closed
Not on my account not because I wanted to but they just happen to be closed
And so anything would be rejected any checks
I'm not cashing at this moment because the identity theft is really severe. And so it's really hard to like
Untangle that web just yet, but we're planning on getting that rectified as soon as possible
But pure words is completely unaffected and and it's fine. So you should feel totally safe and secure
You know as much as humanly possible. You never know what's gonna happen, but as we speak, you know
There's nothing wrong with giving money to pure words Baptist Church and everything should be as secure as humanly possible
on our end and you know, honestly this lesson for all of us because identity theft is rampant and
You know when I was speaking with the bank they said this is a common occurrence right now
especially with COVID a lot of people are trying to commit theft and a lot of identity theft and a lot of crime has
Escalated during this time, you know the Bible warns in the last days of me perilous times
So, you know make sure do you pay attention to things that are going on?
Keep your information as secure and private as possible
Even when you do people can do all kinds of crazy stuff to you
So I just wanted to put that out there is just a warning
Details will come out eventually
But right now I don't want to unleash any information that I don't need to but just if you make sure to pay attention
I'll be releasing details about that. And so I'm really excited about today though
And I'm really excited about preaching both this morning and this evening
I have my family with me and we got miss little Ellie
And so this is your time if you want to you know, check them out and she's a really gorgeous little girl over there
So, thank you so much for being here this morning. Let's go to our third song
162 to God be the glory
Start there on the first to God be the glory great things he have done
so love he the world that he gave us his son who
Yielded his life and atonement
for sin and
Open the life gate that all may go in
praise the Lord
Praise the Lord
Let the earth hear his voice
Praise the Lord praise the Lord. Let the people rejoice
Oh come
to the father through Jesus the son and
Give him the glory
Great things he hath done. Oh
Perfect redemption the purchase of blood
To every
Believer the promise of God the
vilest
offender who truly
believes that
moment from Jesus
Pardon receives
praise the Lord
Praise the Lord
Let the earth hear his voice
Praise the Lord praise the Lord. Let the people rejoice
Oh come
to the father through Jesus the son
Give him the glory great things he hath done
Great things
he hath taught us great things he hath done and
great are
rejoicing through
Jesus the son
but purer
and higher and greater
Will be our wonder our
transport when
Jesus we see
praise the Lord
Praise the Lord. Let the earth hear his voice
praise the Lord
Praise the Lord. Let the people
Rejoice Oh
To the father through Jesus the son and give him the glory
great things he hath done
Then great singing
So at this time if you go ahead and pull out your Bibles and turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter number seven
Romans chapter number seven, we'll have brother Sampson come read for us. We'll go ahead and pass the offering plate
Alright again, we're here together and as always we're gonna read this chapter together
So if everyone would find their places follow along with me
Romans chapter 7 verse 1 where the Bible read
Now you know you not brethren for I speak to them that know the law
Now that the law had dominion over a man as long as he live it
But a woman which has an husband is bound by the law of her husband so long as she live it
But if the husband be dead, she is loose from the law of her husband
So then if our husband live it he be married to another man. He should be called an adult
But if her husband be dead, he is free from that law
She is no adulterous. So she'd be married to another man
Wherefore my brother he also become dead to the law by the body of Christ
That you should be married to another even to him who is raised from the dead that we should bring forth fruit unto God
But when we were in the flesh the motions of sin
Which were by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death
But now we are delivered from the law that being dead wherein we were held that we should serve in newness of spirit
Not in the oneness of the letter
What shall we say then is the law sin God forbid nay had not known sin
But by the law Brad not known lust except the loss it said thou shalt not covet
But sin taken occasion by commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence
Or with or without the law sin was dead
Was I was alive without the law once but when commandment came sin revived and I died
And the commandment which was ordained to life I found to be unto death for sin taking occasion by the commandment
Deceived me and by it slew me
Wherefore the law is holy the commandment holy and just and good
Was then that which is good made death unto me God forbid
But sin that it might appear sin work at death in me by that which is good
That sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful
We know that the law is spiritual, but I am Cornell sold under sin for that which I do
I'll I'll allow not that what I would that I do not but that I hate that I do
If then I do that with I would not I consent unto the law that it is good
Now then it is no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me
For I know that in me that is in my flesh dwell is no good thing
But the will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good. I find not
Good that I would I do not for the evil which I would not that I do
Now if I do that, I would not it is no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me
I find then a law that when I would do good evil is present with me for a delight in the law of God
after the inward man
But I see another law in my members
Warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members
Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord
So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God with the flesh the law of sin
Amen
We're here in verse or chapter 7 of Romans
And it's a really interesting chapter in the Bible where the Apostle Paul is explaining the reality of Christianity the reality of Christianity
And I really like this verse in verse 14 where it says for we know the law is spiritual
But I am carnal sold under sin and the Apostle Paul who's arguably one of the greatest Christians in the New Testament
Makes a pretty bold statement about himself
he says that he's carnal and
this is just the reality of the world that we live in that Christians are not perfect that we all have problems and
The Apostle Paul is actually bringing up some pretty extreme
Concepts and some extreme statements about himself to illustrate the fact that while we should strive for
Perfection and we should strive to be as godly as humanly possible
And we're supposed to follow all of God's commandments that this flesh is just it's incapable of doing it
you know, we're just sinners and we have a lot of problems and no one's perfect and
Ultimately, we're just all carnal, you know, if Paul's carnal, I'm carnal
You know if we're gonna sit here and say that we're better than the Apostle Paul
we also have the issue of pride on top of the fact that we're carnal, okay, and
the the title of my sermon though this morning is
lifestyle evangelism exposed
Lifestyle evangelism exposed and I want to define some terms before I get into the depth of my sermon, but
What is lifestyle evangelism? Well, I call it heresy
Okay, because if you think about it and you combine these two terms, there's no way it could be true
Evangelism is preaching the gospel. That's simply what evangelism is
Lifestyles what you do your works, but here's the thing your works
Cannot preach the gospel if it's the gospel of Jesus Christ because the gospel of Jesus Christ is not of works
Lest any man should boast is what the Bible makes very clear
So if anybody got saved by me just living my life
That would be a wrong gospel if they thought how I live my life is
Illustrating for them a way to get to heaven then they would believe in a workspace salvation. Therefore they wouldn't even be saved
Therefore I completely reject the idea of lifestyle evangelism
It is not biblical
it has no precedent in the Bible and I'm gonna prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that lifestyle evangelism is not a biblical concept and
Really? I believe it's an attack on the real gospel of Jesus Christ
Okay. Now I have three simple points of why I do not accept lifestyle evangelism and point one's real easy
We're all sinners
Wasn't that pretty easy? I mean the possible sound carnal he didn't say I'm perfect
Because here's the thing there's only two ways in heaven according to Jesus being perfect or
Having faith in Jesus Christ now because no one's perfect. There's actually only one way
It was only a theory, okay, I'm not saying there's actually two ways in heaven
There's only one because only theoretically would someone make it to heaven be by being perfect. But since no one is perfect
There's only one way in heaven. That's Jesus Christ. He said I'm the way the truth and the life
No, man cometh under the father
But by me the only way someone gets into heaven is by putting their faith and the blood of Jesus Christ
His death, burial and resurrection as their only payment for sin someone that's adding anything to that saying well also my baptism
Well also my church attendance. Well also my faithfulness
Oh, well also my willingness to go and and do that which is right
They're ultimately corrupting the gospel gospel by adding their lifestyle by adding their works
And really as sinners we cannot have enough good works to get through the door
We can't get into heaven by the things that we've done
It's by what he did, but I'm getting a little ahead of myself point one again. We're sinners
Let's keep reading in this chapter verse 15
For that which I do I allow not for what I would that do I not but what I hate that
Do I now this is kind of a mouthful, but if you slow down, it's what he's saying is it's credible
He says that the things that he does not allow like the things he would teach that people should not do and he would never
Allow someone to do he says I'm doing those things
So it's like you know I would never allow someone to lie
But then he finds himself lying or you know I would never let someone steal
But then he finds himself stealing or I would never allow someone to say this or do this or act this way
But then he finds himself
violating his own
personal standards his own personal
Convictions and ultimately even God's law he's saying you know there's things in the Bible that are real clear that we're not supposed to be
Doing but I keep finding myself
Breaking those I keep finding myself as a sinner. I'm carnal. He's just admitting it
Hi, my name is Paul, and I have a problem. I'm carnal. You know welcome to
Sinners anonymous right separate. It's not anonymous as we're all sinners says for what I would so the things he wants to do
He says that do I not he's like I made all these plans
I have this great idea to do something really good, and then I failed he's like you know what today
I'm not gonna sin, and he's like sin. You know he looks at the bet
He looks at the day, and he was like why did I do that? Why did I make that mistake?
Why did I end up screwing up?
Listen to this, but what I hate
That do I not only is he just failing he's saying there's certain things. There's certain sins. There's certain temptations
There's certain
Problems that the Apostle Paul deals with that he just hates he does not want to do it and discuss him
He's revolted by it. He knows it's wrong
It's evil to him
But then he does he doesn't and you say well
Why in the world does someone do that because we're sent we're incapable of being perfect
You know this side of heaven we can't just be perfect all the time
We're gonna end up finding ourselves doing wrong and the only people that would get up and say well
I don't do that. They're just ignorant of what the Bible actually says they don't realize
There's things that you should hate they don't realize there are Commandments that you should be following and so by their ignorance
They're just committing all kinds of atrocities and feeling really good about it
But someone that knows the Bible well and someone that's you know studying the Word of God and knowing all of God's Commandments
They're gonna feel greed. They're gonna feel sad. They're gonna feel you know
Convicted when they break God's commandments. They're gonna say man. I hate that, but I did it
Verse 16 if then I do that which I would not I can send the law that is good
So he's saying even though. I'm not doing it. It's not like I have decided. It's now wrong
It's not that he said you know well sinning is good now all of a sudden or breaking this commandment's good
He's saying no. It's still that the law is right. I'm wrong even though. I'm not doing it even though
I'm failing verse 17 now. Then there's no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me, so he's saying now
There's a complexity to this chapter
Seeing somehow
While I'm doing this it's not really me
And this is where you you get the the dual nature of a Christian the dual nature of a Christian is you have your flesh
And you have your spirit okay once you believe in Jesus Christ your spirit becomes new inside
But you still have that old flesh you're still the same person on the outside, okay?
And so all the same temptations you had your face looks the same
Okay, you know you're still the same height. You're still the same weight, okay?
Still got the same hair or not hair, okay, you know all the things about you're kind of the same
But there's something different inside your spirits different and so as a Christian goes through his life
He's struggling between which person is he gonna obey every single moment am I gonna walk in the spirit?
Am I gonna walk in the flesh, and he says every time I fail
It's not actually the real me that's doing that it's not the real spirit man. It's not the new man
It's just that old that the old Jonathan. That's deep down in there. It's not the new Jonathan
It's not the spiritual Jonathan. It's the carnal Jonathan
That's always existed and so he's saying that sin is just in me
And that's why you have this battle you have this war he says in verse 18 for I know that in me
That is in my flesh
He clarifies well of no good thing
For the will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good
I find not so they saying my flesh
There's nothing good about it verse 19 for the good that I would I do not but the evil which I would not that I
Do he says it again? Hey? I'm doing a lot of stuff wrong here, okay?
I screw up. I'm mad at myself verse 20 now if I do that
I would not is no more I that do it, but sin that twelfth in me
I find that a law
When I would do good evil is present with me for I delighted in the law of God after the inward man
But I see another law on my members
Warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity the law of sin, which is in my members
Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of his death. He sees this warring
He wants to do right and he fails
He he believes he's gonna do right and he fails in
His mind he wants to serve God, but then he fails and then he looks at himself
He's a wretched man that I am he says you know what I'm just a sinner
Who's gonna who's gonna?
You know help me with this problem, and you know what we get it through salvation through Jesus Christ eventually one day
Our body will redeemed and we won't have this flesh dragging us down. We won't have that old man
Where we can listen to him anymore
He's gonna be gone, and then we're just gonna serve God the way God has intended
You know in perfection in holiness in righteousness. We're gonna be clothed with a new body, okay?
So it's like it's like Iron Man
You know Iron Man's incapable of doing a lot of things in his in his flesh
But you know when he puts on that suit now
He's capable doing all kinds of things right he can fly and bullets bounce off of him or whatever so like in this body
I'm really limited with this body. You know I can only serve God so good, but once I get that new body
It's gonna be perfect. It's gonna be perfection. I'm gonna be you know a
Top-notch marine for the Lord you know right now. I'm just in the army. Okay, and I'm just kidding
That was a military joke. I haven't even been in the military. I just know the jokes, okay
Go to 1st Timothy chapter 1 go to 1st Timothy chapter 1, but look lifestyle evangelism
Just can't make sense because while we're still trapped in this old body while we still have that flesh
We're just never gonna really be perfect. Okay, so anybody that teaches a lifestyle evangelism
Doctrine or tries to emphasize this here's my question
Well, what's the grading scale for how sinful is the good version of this and the bad version right?
I mean because if no one's perfect
Then you're saying like well
I just said a little bit and that little bit of sin is the right type of lifestyle
You know or where's that?
Where's the line of like how sinful you can be or not or whatever as far as preaching the gospel through your lifestyle?
But anybody that looks at the apostle Paul's lifestyle according to his own witness isn't gonna start thinking like that's how you get saved
I mean this guy screwed up this guy says he's wretched this guy has problems
You're not gonna get this you're not gonna look at someone living their life and just realize how to go to heaven
It's just not gonna happen and you're gonna see no matter who it is who you follow
Problems you you take the guy that you have the most respect for in this world
And if you follow him around and you hang out with him long enough, you'll feel the same way
His family does is write a prophets not without honor saving his own house and his own land his own country and you say well
Why is that the case? It's because they know the real you they know the old person
They hang out with the old person that's you know
Sinful and does dumb things and says dumb things as annoying and has issues and isn't perfect and screws up and whatever
So it's a lot harder to fool that person into thinking that you're this perfect little angel
But you know come to church you dress real nice you sing real nice and it's like oh man that guy's got it all together
It's like you're only fooling people that don't really know you. Okay, because no one's perfect
No one is perfect. You can find fault with anybody
So if you're looking for perfection on how to get to heaven, you'll never find it just doesn't exist
It's just not a reality now the Apostle Paul look at more
Descriptions that he gives for himself first time in chapter 1 verse 15
This is a faithful saying and worthy of all exceptation that Christ came into the world to save
sinners
Of whom I am chief. Oh
Wow, the greatest evangelist to ever live said he had the worst lifestyle
Riddle me this if lifestyle evangelism is the best way to go then why did the worst sinner?
Get the most people saved and do the most for God. How does that make sense?
It must not have a correlation then in the way that you think it does. Okay
Go to Acts chapter number nine. Go to Acts chapter nine. Now. Look the Apostle Paul after
Converting to Christianity after having his walk, you know
Where he was blinded he was on his way and
He ends up getting blinded goes Damascus ends up getting saved after his conversion
I guarantee probably still lived a pretty separated life compared to most people I guarantee
He was still doing right and comparison other people better than most everyone
But he realizes that the measuring stick is not other people as Jesus Christ and when you measure yourself to Jesus Christ you start realizing
Oh wretched man that I am
You start realizing how sinful you really are and look I believe that the Apostle Paul is using hyperbole in first Timothy
Look, I don't think that the Apostle Paul is a worse sinner than Judas Iscariot. Okay, Judas Iscariot was worse, right?
Caiaphas was worse right Pharaoh was worse. It's not like there weren't theoretically worse scum on the planet
He's just hyperbolizing the idea of like man
I just feel though as if I'm the worst sinner because he persecuted the church because he had you know been
Complicit under the death of
Stephen okay, and he had done evil. He was dragging Christians out of their houses hauling them to jail
He was like the chief persecutor against Christians at one point in his life
And so because of that grievousness because of that sin he felt like he was the worst sinner, okay?
Whether he is or not. I think he's kind of being high
He's he's using a little bit of hyperbole and his statement but nevertheless
He definitely was committing some really wicked sins by persecuting Christians
He certainly was a proponent of a false religion at some degree now obviously at that point in time
It's a little bit different. He wasn't going around preaching a false gospel. He was just mixed up with the wrong people
Okay, just like someone that goes to a Catholic Church isn't a wicked false reprobate, but the Pope is okay
You know the leaders of these institutions are but there could be really dedicated church member to the Catholic Church that ends up getting saved
There could be really dedicated church member at you know the Pentecostal Church that gets saved
There could be a dedicated church member at all kinds of places and in fact most of the people
That are really dedicated in a false church when they get saved. They're dedicated to the next church
You know and then that's a great testimony. It's better to be dedicated to the wrong thing than to just be apathetic towards life
but look at Acts chapter 9 verse 18 and
immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales talking about the conversion of Paul and he received sight for with and rose and
Was baptized and when he had received me he was strengthened
Then was all certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus and straightway
He preached Christ in the synagogues that he is the Son of God now stop for a moment
the Apostle Paul
Obviously his life, you know sins gonna ebb and flow as far as like what condition you're in or how sinful you're being
But his journey that he was on right before this was to literally take Christians to jail and to pursue
So I'd say he's almost at the climax of his sinful condition the most sinful
He's ever been in his entire life is probably at a climax right now in this week
This is like one of the most sinful weeks. He's ever had in his life. He gets saved
Hey, you know what? He does straightway preaches Christ
He didn't say well, let me cool down on my sin for a little bit before I start preaching the gospel
No, he just immediately started preaching the gospel and look he was he a sinner sure
Was he gonna sin in the future beyond that?
Yeah, you know Paul gets mixed up and all kinds of weird Judaizing in the future and he still makes other mistakes
And he has other kinds of problems. He doesn't listen to the Holy Ghost
He goes to Jerusalem against what the Holy Ghost told him
It's not like he's sinless, but you know what he straightway preached Christ, and you know what I'll tell you this
There's never a bad time to preach the gospel
Never a bad time and you say well, I'm a sinner. Okay. Well preach the gospel you say when straightway just right away
You say well, I don't feel very good about my lifestyle, okay
We'll just start preaching the gospel why I feel good about my lifestyle preach the gospel. Hey, I don't care how you feel
I don't care what you've done. There's never a bad time to preach the gospel. I mean, how about this?
How about the guy that's nailed on the cross next to Jesus Christ? He was trying to get his buddy saved
He wasn't in a very good position and sinful, you know, he's pretty much at the epitome of like scum
He starts out there both kind of like making fun of Jesus
But then he starts changing his tune and he starts trying to get his buddy saved and he's like, hey
We're justly condemned here buddy, and he's innocent. Why you know, why are you saying this about him and he at least gets saved
But I almost feel like he's kind of preaching the gospel his buddy a little bit over there, you know
And I'm like look if you find yourself in jail for the worst crime preach your jailmate the gospel
There's never gonna be it's not like well, I'm gonna wait until I get out of prison to start preaching the gospel
You know preach the gospel wherever you find yourself, you know and look
I'm not trying to justify any sin. I'm not trying to say go out and sin as much as you possibly can
I'm not trying to say commit atrocities that somehow that's gonna bring glory to Jesus Christ
What I'm saying is at any moment of soberness in your mind preach the gospel of Jesus Christ
there's never a bad time to open your mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel and
He's straightway preached Christ. Look what it says verse 21, but all they heard him were amazed and said it's not this
He that destroyed them what's called on this name in Jerusalem and came hither for that intent
It might bring them bound under the chief priest. Did he have a good testimony? I
Mean he walks in he starts preaching the gospel like isn't this the guy that hates Christianity
isn't this the guy that's hauling people to prison and
Think about this at that time. You don't know what Paul's intentions are. Maybe they're thinking this
Well, maybe he's coming in pretending to be like us just to get us to all come and show him up show up
And then he's gonna rest us and then he's gonna haul us off to jail because think about it
You have that story all over the Bible
You have G you saying like a observe bail little G also serve G who shall serve him much and he tricked all the prophets
Of bail to come in the house of God or the house of bail. Sorry, and then he just killed them
All right
So you see all kinds of trickery and deceit and they know that wicked people will just lie
They know Judas Iscariot lied about being a Christian they know that there's false brethren constantly in the Bible
So, how are they gonna know that the Apostle Paul's not lying to them?
How are they gonna know the Apostle Paul's not trying to get a bunch of people to show up and then start arresting them or?
Killing them or persecuting them. So if you could have the worst testimony imaginable, I
believe it's Paul
Because wouldn't the worst part lately the last person you want to hear about the gospel is the guy you think might be tricking you
To try and help take you off to jail, right?
I mean, what am I knocking on the door and said I might be using all this information against you to take you to jail
It's like well, I'm gonna close the door, you know, whenever you go into the Spanish neighborhoods
Don't be yelling la migra when you're trying to give them the gospel, you know, they don't want to hear from the the immigration
You know if you're walking around looking like a cop, you know into the neighborhood that's not documented
They're not interested in hearing the gospel from that person probably right? It's like the worst lifestyle
But yet he did it anyways didn't he did he stop doing it
No
He preached the gospel of Jesus Christ because even though he had a screwed up testimony
Even though it is screwed up lifestyle, even though people probably wouldn't want to hear it from him. You know what?
He just did. Anyways, he's preached the gospel
Anyways, and it says in verse 22, but Saul increased the more in strength and confounded the Jews
Which as well as Damascus proving that this very Christ hey, even though he had a screwed up testimony
And even though he was you know all kinds of problems
You know what the truth prevails the truth. There's no investigation
The truth is powerful and you know what the Word of God can overcome go to John chapter number four
Go to John chapter four. Let me prove this further to you this morning
What's point number one of why lifestyle evangelism is fake because we're all sinners
The Apostle Paul didn't start preaching the gospel when he stopped being a sinner. He started preaching the gospel when he got saved
Started preaching the gospel when he knew what the right doctrine was
You
John chapter 4 look at verse number 13
Jesus answered and said in her who serve a drink of this water shall thirst again
But is there a drink of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst
But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water spring up in the everlasting life
The woman say then him sir
Give me this water that I thirst not neither come hither to draw and this woman to the well
He's asking for water and there's kind of this exchange and then he's basically explaining to her a different concept
He's not talking about physical water anymore
He's talking about everlasting life and he's saying hey if you really knew who I am
Son of God right and you really knew what I had that I could give you you would ask me
For a water that will make you never thirst again
Everlasting life and notice what she says she give me this water that I thirst not so what happened she got saved
She asked Jesus to save her and you know some people get mad like oh
Why do you pray with people whenever you show them the gospel?
Because the Bible says for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved
You have not because you ask not and you receive not because you ask him this so hey you pray
Wrong meaning you don't have the right faith in your heart. You don't receive it. You don't pray you don't receive it
You call upon the name of the Lord in faith
You know that's why Romans 10 9 and 10 really make it clear that you have to both call and believe at the same time
Because it's a combined effort, and you know he's preaching to the gospel. He's explaining to her life everlasting
He's explaining eternal security because if someone believes they can lose their salvation. They're not safe
If you think you can lose your salvation by committing some sin, you're just not safe. Just like by drinking water
No one's fooled today by thinking that if I drink some of this water. I'll never need water again in my life
Okay, but here's the thing what he's explaining is that when you take the drink of
Spiritual water the salvation water you never thirst again. That's evidence back. You can never lose your salvation
You never thirst again. You never need it again. You don't need to get saved daily
You don't need this saved and saved and saved and saved and you lost and you get saved and saved and saved
No, you get saved one time. Just like you were born one time
Just like the blood of Jesus Christ washed away all of your sins one time, and then once you're saved you're saved forever
And
She's saying hey, give me this this water. Now. Let's learn some more information about this woman. Okay verse 16
Jesus brings us up right away
Jesus say there go call thy husband and come hither
No one answered and said I have no husband
Jesus said under thou as well said I have no husband that was at five husbands and he whom thou now past is
Not my husband and that saidest thou truly. So this lady was from like Hollywood, California or something
She's had five husbands and then she just shacked up with a dude and
He's like, I guess you don't have a husband now do you?
Now, is this a good lifestyle?
No
Obviously, this woman is committed a lot of sin, you know
And according to Jesus Christ if you marry and divorce and then remarry that's adultery
So she's committed adultery five times at least that's just what we that we've come bare minimum then on top of that
You know, she's kind of in this weird situation where she's like killing fornication and adultery in a sense
You know by just chap shacking up with some other random stranger that she's not even married to and so this woman's very very very sinful
It's not even a question
Extremely sinful, but you know what extremely simple people get saved
Notice that she was real interested in the gospel. She got saved and
Jesus brings us up, but you know, it's really weird. I
Don't even see where Jesus then tells her like to stop sinning
Now into other places he does and of course he would it's not like Jesus went but he brings us up and he doesn't he
Doesn't he's not like condemning her. He's not like oh you wicked woman
She what does he say in verse like what does she say the woman say that?
I'm sure I perceive that out of profit now. Also. She doesn't get offended by getting called out
He says hey, you're right. You don't have a husband and she's like you must be a man of God
You know, she wasn't offended by what happened and
Then they go through a long exchange. I'm for sake of time. I don't want to read everything necessarily
Let's skip down to verse 39 because eventually she leaves
After this confrontation, she was there to get water
She runs back to tap the town that she's from Samaria
Says in verse 39 many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman which testified
He told me all that ever I did. So the woman runs back to town. She tells all the men in the city
She says hey, this is Christ
We found the Messiah. Here's our Savior and they're like, how how do you know that? He told everybody I was a whore
He knew I was a whore and he'd never met me and like well everybody knows you're a whore
He's like, yeah, but he's not from Samaria. He's from Judea and they're like, whoa
He must be a prophet then and they're like everybody knows you're a whore here
but I mean they don't have any they don't have any information about you there and
By telling these people what happened people got saved
How can you she literally got people saved by telling them about her sinful lifestyle?
Am I not am I not wrong. I mean am I wrong here?
She said hey, he told me all that I ever did
so she's saying hey because I'm sinful you need to believe on Jesus Christ and
Then people get up and say oh by your lifestyle you're gonna get people saved
Well, I guess in this case, it's having a sinful lifestyle to get people saved, isn't it?
It's just a ridiculous nonsense to get up and to try and teach you have to live this perfect chase life in order to get
People saved and it's not by actually opening your mouth and telling people about Christ. It's rather just living this pious life
Well, if that's true, then the Pharisees would have been getting people saved left and right because from men's opinion about them
They appeared righteous
Jesus said it. He said that the Pharisees appear righteous. They look like they're doing good
So if lifestyle ventures if you just living a good-looking life to the outside
World would get people saved and the Pharisees get people saved left and right, but here's the problem
salvation is from faith to faith and
Salvation comes by faith. Now the Bible defines faith faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God
It doesn't come by seeing someone's lifestyle. It doesn't come by experiencing someone's lifestyle
It comes by hearing, you know, someone has to just open the Bible
Explain the gospel to someone and then someone decides you know what? I believe that I do believe that Jesus paid for all my sins
I do believe that salvation is eternal gift
I do believe that I can just trust in him and go to heaven for free and that's how someone gets saved
It's that simple, but you know people get
Really confused on this side this this this doctrine because there's so much false preaching
So many false preachers so many false churches so many false doctrines about
Salvation so many preachers get up and teach you have to repent of all your sins in order to go to heaven
How could you even do that repent of all of them?
Every you know the Bible says the thought of foolishness is sin
Are you gonna tell me you thought every single foolish thought you've ever had you've completely
Asked forgiveness for and you're never gonna do it again
You're never gonna if you think you're never gonna have a foolish thought again. That was a foolish thought
So you still haven't repented of it
You know the Bible says if you look upon a woman to lust after you've committed adultery in your heart, okay?
What man what straight man could get up and testify that I don't do that anymore
If you came and told me that I would think you're a faggot I
Don't think I never have bad thoughts about you know an attractive woman ever again
You know it's like you're just a fag. Okay get away from me
That's the only way that could be impossible, and you're damned to hell. You know if you're a fag
So if you would to John chapter 15, I want to prove this even further point what we're sinners
And you know what you know it gets people saved
sinners
Sinful people no one's perfect
You know the only person that has that exception is Jesus obviously Jesus is the only person to go around and got people saved
And he was perfect okay, but all the rest of us all the rest of our soul winners
We're all sorry sinners, and you know in James chapter 2 it says whosoever keepeth the whole law yet offended than one point
He's guilty of all
So you come and riddle me you come tell me how great you are and I'll tell you you're guilty of all
Well, I'm not like these other people
Yeah, you are because you're guilty of all they're guilty of all and you're guilty of all
You want to sit here and compare sin?
That's a foolish way to live your life as comparing sin comparing yourselves among yourselves
Thinking that you're somehow better than other people and trying to sit trying to condemn somebody for preaching the gospel
Because you perceive in your heart that you're less sinful than them
And look I've seen this I've heard this where people get up and condemn people for preaching the right gospel
Getting people say because they happen to have sin in their life or because their sins real obvious
Or because their sin is worse than in theirs in their life or whatever. That's a wicked person
Why would you ever want to stop someone reaching the gospel?
And why do you want to sit here and pretend like you're this great person and everybody else is this wicked sinner look?
we're all sinners and
Yeah, obviously some people sin more than others some people sin worse than others
Some people are more righteous than other people and a humanly speaking, you know connotation
But at the end of the day, you know what the people that are producing fruit are sinners
And let me prove that to you John chapter 15 verse 1. I am the true vine and my father is the husbandman
Every branch in me that beareth not fruit. He taketh away and every branch that beareth fruit
He purges it that it may bring forth more fruit
So the Jesus is saying the only way to get someone saved
The only way to bring forth fruit is to be plugged into the vine and now he's the vine. I'm the true vine
Okay, so you have to be saved you have to have the right gospel
You have to be preaching Jesus Christ to get someone saved. Okay, but hey if you're saved
You're preaching the right gospel of Jesus Christ. You're capable bringing forth fruit. That's all it takes
It's not like you have to have a certain level of non sinfulness or something to get saved get someone safe, but notice
The evidence of the person that's bringing forth fruit has sin. He says in verse number two. He purgeth it
What are you purging if there's no sin in the guy's life?
You're purging the sin in the guy's life
He say well, why would Jesus purge the sin so then he can bring forth more fruit
but notice the guy that sinful can still bring forth fruit and
Then the guy that's cleaning up his life
The guy that's going to church three times a week the guy that's actually memorizing scores of scriptures
The guy that's trying to get you know, right with God. He brings forth more fruit
You know what the guy that's super sinful that's just preaching the right gospel. He can bring forth fruit
But you know is not bringing forth any fruit is the guy that believes in works-based salvation. I
Don't care how clean he thinks he is. I don't clear how righteous he believes he is
You know what the people that get people saved are sinners go to Romans chapter 3 Romans chapter 3
You know the Bible says a just man falls seven times and rises up again, but the wicked shall fall into mischief
You know, it doesn't say the just man lives. Perfect. It says the just man falleth and
You say he falls. Yes seven times
Rises up again. That sounds like Paul also. I'm kind of I keep screwing up
you know what made Paul different than a lot of other Christians he didn't quit and
And I'll say this it's better
To have been more sinful in your life and not quit
Than to have been less sinful and quit
It's
Better to be have been more sinful and not quit
Than to have been less sinful and quit. You know what because the Christian life it's about making it to the finish line
It's not about how you did it
You know, you took a bunch of weird trails and you stumbled a lot and you fell and whatever
It's more about just being faithful to the end. You know, that's why when you read the Bible
I mean what perfect people are we reading in the Bible about?
Abraham oh the guy that shacked up with the the Hagar and
then Keturah
That guy the guy that lied about his wife
Being his wife and tries trying like entice her to commit adultery with other men that Abraham is that the guy that you think so
Great. Oh
How about Noah the guy that got drunk and had his son take advantage of him? How about lot?
Was he a pretty good example? I mean like what kind of people you're reading about David
Oh the guy that committed adultery and then killed the guy's husband or her husband
that was a pretty good deal wasn't it whose son literally raped his own sister and
Then he had another son. It was a reprobate that took the kingdom away from him and his son slept with his own wives. I
Mean, this is like Jerry Springer type stuff here
Okay. I mean what what people are you reading about in the Bible?
I read about a bunch of screwed-up sinners
And you know, I'm so glad that God included all these stories so that I can realize that the reality is none of us are perfect
Because wouldn't it be kind of depressing if you read in the Bible and everybody's just perfect all the time and they're doing right?
You just feel so ashamed that you're even a Christian you'd be like
Suck like I'm not I can't do anything right and these guys are just perfect, you know all the time
They never screw up. I mean the guys are reading in the Bible have like thousands of wives
Thousand thousand
That's a lot of divorce. That's a lot of merit. That's crazy. I
Mean Solomon's just getting married every day
He's got an anniversary every day. He's getting married that same day. I think he's got three birthdays every day
That's gonna screw up I mean, how are you gonna manage all that?
You're gonna forget someone's birthday someone's anniversary and just think about all the other look like the the first time we met anniversaries
And the first time I wore my pink sweater anniversaries
And the first time we hated this restaurant universe. I mean, man, you're in trouble
I mean, I could see why Solomon's life was Bex. I can see why I said I hated life
You know, it's like it sounded good and then it happened. It was like whoa, you know, the honeymoon's over. I
Don't even know how you enjoy that. That's insane
What's the point? We're sinners. We're sinners. It's that simple lifestyle evangelism's joke. It's a fraud
It's a false doctrine because you know what salvation is only about Jesus about Jesus. It's all about him
It's his testimony not our testimony people get up in church and they'll give their testimony
You know how I got saved. I believe in Jesus and you know what if everybody in our church came and gave their testimony
It should sound the exact same. I believe in Jesus another person. I believe in Jesus and people like oh, that's a powerful testimony, brother
It's like it's all about him
You know people go I quit drinking and smoking and I got cleaned up and I did this right and I did that right
Look you cleaning up your life isn't getting anybody saved
Because it can't get anybody saved and didn't get you saved. You know, I got you saved believing in Jesus. That's it first
Romans chapter 3 look at verse number
7 for a moment for if the truth of God hath more bounded through my lion his glory
Why yet am I also judged as a sinner and not rather as we be?
Slanderously reported and some affirm that we say let us do evil that good may come whose damnation is just
so the apostle Paul saying, you know by me going out preaching a free gospel and
Explaining how no matter how sinful you are you're going to heaven people will slanderously
Lie about us and say that we're teaching do evil that good can come and you know, I could see the same accusation
with
Rejecting lifestyle evangelism where someone would get up and say pastor Shelley
Are you literally telling me you I can live however I want
But if I preach the right gospel I can get someone saved and I'm like, yes, they'll say
Oh, so you're teaching us to live however we want. No, I didn't say that
You're asking me a hypothetical question. I gave you an answer
I'm saying lift the most righteous life you can you know what if you're honest with yourself, we realize you suck
Just like Paul did just like we all should for wretched men wretched women. We all sin on a regular basis
We're not perfect and by realizing we're not perfect it should lead us to the cross of Jesus Christ
And realize that we're not here. We're not gonna go to heaven by anything that we did
Which one says in verse 22 even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ
unto all and upon all them that believe
But there's no difference the righteousness of God is to those who believe verse 23
Why for all of sin and come short of the glory of God verse 24 being justified notice this word freely
By his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus
Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood the word propitiation means payment to pay for something
so we were paid for and
We get that payment through faith in Jesus Christ blood now
This is an important phrase to declare his righteousness
For the remission of sins that are past the forbearance of God notice. What gets us the forgiveness of sins his
Righteousness not my righteousness, so if someone comes around and said well, you're not living righteous enough to get someone saved
Okay, you're right
Because no one is the only one living righteous enough to get anybody saved with Jesus
And you know what when I preach the gospel
I'm not gonna declare my righteousness because I don't have any look what it said in verse 10 skip back as is written
There's none righteous. No. No what I don't have righteousness, so it's not about me being righteous
It's not me like trying to be righteous. It's not me appearing righteous
No, it's about his righteousness and declaring his righteousness that gets a safe
Let's keep reading. He says in verse 26 to declare. I say at this time
His righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus
Notice the only person that's right with God is the person that's trusted in Jesus alone for salvation
You believe salvation is cleaning up your life. You're not saved you believe you can lose your salvation
You're not safe
Well, you have to do is you have to put all of your faith and what Jesus did his righteousness will save you
That's it. You say well, then how can I brag is that what it says verse where it's boasting then notice this it is excluded
By what law of works nay by the law of faith
Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law notice
It's nothing you did it's nothing you will do so lifestyle evangelism is really and a complete attack on the true gospel
Because it's not my lifestyle. It's what Jesus did that gets someone safe. So no matter how sinful the person is
It doesn't matter what gets someone saved is what Jesus did for them
Okay, that's why you know the the Pharisees and the Sadducees and all the chief priests and the lawyers
They were constantly incredulous at all the sinners
Following Jesus, you know and Jesus is saying hey the sinners and publicans are going in the kingdom God before you
Meaning what the simple people were getting saved and you know what they didn't get saved by looking at how?
Righteous all the Pharisees and everybody was you know, you know what got them saved was hearing the gospel from Jesus Christ
That's what got them saved by hearing the fact that they were a sinner and realizing that they needed to be saved
Go go to Galatians chapter 1
There's so many other verses I could I could show you
You know one verse or one parable or one story that I'm thinking of in the Bibles
There was a woman who's wiping Jesus feet with her hair and this this
Publican this Pharisee or whatever not public in this Pharisee. He's looking at Jesus like oh this guy were a prophet
He wouldn't let this woman touch his feet. She's so sinful and Jesus just knows what he's thinking
This is Jesus. Okay, and and he's just like he gives them this parable
About two guys that had debts and one has a small debt one has a large debt and he's basically like if they were
both forgiven, you know, which one would end up loving the
creditor or the most and
Simon in this context thing Simon answered and said I suppose that he to whom he forgave most
And she's like you've rightly judge. So then he looks at the woman
He's saying like this woman's loving me more because she has anointed me with oil
She's you know, not cease to you know, wipe my feet with her hair. I mean, he's just kissing it
I mean this woman's just like loving me. You're doing nothing. You don't care about
me at all and
He makes this statement
He says wherefore I say unto thee her sins, which are many are forgiven for she loved much
But to him little is forgiven the same
Loveth little and so, you know some people look at well, I have this horrible lifestyle
I can't serve Christ, you know, oftentimes people that lived really sinful end up being the the biggest proponents of Christianity later in their life
Because they realize what Jesus did for them
They end up loving him even more than people that may have had a more squeaky clean lifestyle the Apostle Paul
Perfect example someone that says he was chief of sinners, you know, what the latter portion of his life
He loved the Lord a lot, you know and the people that you know
They feel like well, I was pretty close to getting to heaven on my own
Jesus just kind of came in there and just you know added a little extra or whatever
That person doesn't really end up serving God that much or loving the Lord as much as the person that's like wow
I really needed salvation. You know, I really needed grace
Grace covered a lot of sins for me
Look at Galatians chapter number one
Let's see how the Apostle Paul
Dealt with people, you know preaching a false gospel and coming and basically, you know attacking him
Verse 20 it says now the things which I write unto you
Behold before God I lie not afterwards
They came into the region of Syria and Cilicia and was unknown by faith in the churches of Judea which were in Christ
But they had heard only that he which persecuted us in times past now preached at the faith
Which once he destroyed and they glorify God in me now
He's bringing up in Galatians chapter 1 a couple different concepts
But I skipped to this passage first because I want to point out the fact that he's saying look
Even though they realize I was real sinful because that's the whole point. He's making I was way more sinful and worse than they are
But then when they figured out that I'm actually preaching the right gospel
They were glad that I was they weren't like, you know what?
You need to start cleaning your life up a little bit more before you start preaching or you you have too bad of a testimony
To go out and preach the gospel. No, they were glad that he was preaching the gospel
They didn't care that his testimony sucked that his lifestyle was bad that he had a bad rap or whatever
They were glad he was preaching it and in the first part of this passage look what he had said in verse number seven
I'm gonna do six to I marvel that you're so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ
unto another gospel
It's not another
But there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ
Though we are an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you
Let him be accursed as we said before so say I now again if any man
Preach any other gospel unto you than that which you have received. Let him be accursed
Do I now persuade men or God or do I seek the please men or if I yet please men?
I should not be the servant of Christ. Now the Apostle Paul has a zero tolerance policy on false gospels
Okay, not gonna allow it to happen. It's never gonna happen. It's it's wicked as hell and
Yet I heard a pastor get up and this is what he said
This is just this is a direct quote
Preaching there's a lot of soul winners that are preaching a false gospel with their life
And he said if you're living sinful you're preaching a false gospel
And I'm like well then
You know the Apostle Paul who's admitting in Romans chapter 7 he's carnal
He's sinful and he's screwing up is he gonna now a curse himself because he said if you're preaching a false gospel
I mean let that guy be a curse, you know, let this guy go straight into hell
I mean when he's going around and encountering the Simon
Sorry, sir bar Jesus. He let a lioness. I mean he just curses the guy we're trying to pull someone away from the faith
I'm just pulling them away from the race if me living a simple life is even pulling them away from the faith
I mean look if if living sinful is preaching a false gospel. We're all damn no heretics
We're all cursed. We're all screwed. I mean no one's gonna get to heaven
I mean, why would you get up and try to claim that preaching a false gospel is somehow being sinful?
It's like then everybody's a false preacher of the god. I mean that just makes no sense
Trying to draw people away from soul winning because they're sinful or something
I mean, this is just to me
It's basically teaching that we'd all be Daniel heretics and it makes it sound like you believe it works based salvation then
Or you're mixed up and works in some way or you think that works prove salvation or something bizarre
But how could you literally say that by living sinful you're preaching a false gospel?
That just means you don't even believe the gospel or you don't understand the gospel. There's something really wrong with your heart. I
Mean look at relations chapter 2 verse 14
But when I saw that they walk not uprightly according the truth of the gospel
I said in a Peter before them all if thou being a Jew
Live is after the man of Gentiles and not as do the Jews
Why compel us thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?
We who are Jews by nature and not sinners of the Gentiles knowing that a man is not
Justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ
even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and
Not by the works of the law or by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified the Apostle Paul saying hey Peter
You separating from Gentiles because you think they're more sinful or they're not living the lifestyle that you think that they should
You're attacking the gospel by attacking people's lifestyle. It's not about the lifestyle. It never was about the lifestyle
He's saying look
It's not by works of the law. It says by works the law shall no flesh be justified
We preach the free gospel meaning that I can sit next to the most sinful person on the planet
That's believed in Christ and feel good about it
I'm not going to sit here and look at someone. That's more sinful than me theoretically
If that's the thing and be like I can't sit by you you're more sinful than me or something
You know all of our sins are washed in the blood
Obviously you know there's doctrines like church discipline where people get involved in a certain sin
They need to be excommunicated in the church. You're not supposed to have fellowship with them. You're supposed to rebuke them
You're supposed to help them correct that particular issue
You know what if they've got it corrected no matter what the issue was in the past
I'm not going to sit here and pretend like I can't be your buddy
You know even if you had a bad rep even if the whole church knew that you were a screwed up person
Even if the whole church thought like that guy's really sinful
I mean, I know he cleaned it up and all but did he you know or what?
You know whatever and think like you're coming so winning
You remember last week, buddy
What about the week before that oh, you're really gonna do that, and then just go so winning look
Why would you want to make someone feel bad for so winning oh?
Did you sin today can't go so winning
Look after listening to this stupid sermon from this pastor
You know what the thought was that came across my mind if anybody sins in that church
They can't feel like they go so winning that week
Like I wouldn't want to go so winning if I if I sinned oh no
But you know what that's such a stupid doctrine
Because I don't care if you sin five seconds ago. You can preach the gospel
You know at verse 21. I do not frustrate the grace of God for if righteousness come by the law then Christ is dead in vain
We don't tolerate you know a false gospel around here for even one iota
But here's the thing a false gospel is preaching the wrong doctrine now
I I'm gonna use a parable this morning for you. Okay, because I want you to understand. This is my purple
This is why I liken unto it go to Romans chapter number 10 for a moment
I'm almost I mean in my third point, but just a few verses, okay?
By saying that living a sinful lifestyles preaching a false gospel
It it really perverts
What true salvation looks like and I want to use this parable to illustrate?
What we do and what salvation is like and how what they're teaching is a wicked false doctrine, but imagine
You've got a bunch of people that are in an area holding cell. That's waiting for hell. They're waiting to be destroyed and
Then you have a doctor who can heal them or save them or you got someone that can basically rescue them
But they can't get there
They don't have a transport they haven't they don't have the transportation to get there
So you're gonna pick them up in your car and drive them to that guy. Okay. This is like preaching the gospel
All right, they're on their way to hell
The only one that can save them is Jesus and you're gonna take them there in your car. Okay, your car is your old man
All right, and you know what your old man's a little dirty
Now here's the thing if you say hey I can take you to the guy that's gonna save you
You could argue that someone would be more enticed to get into a brand new Escalade on that way
You know, they're like, it's real clean. It's real sharp. It's real nice looking
They're like, I'd rather get in the nice Escalade then a then a beat-up Ford Taurus
You know where there's a bunch of crumbs in the floorboard or whatever
but at the end of the day if my choice is to get in the Ford Taurus with a bunch of crumbs and
And go to the guy that's gonna save me from hell or just go to hell I'm jumping that Ford Taurus, you know
Like who cares?
What kind of vehicle I mean, what's the point of the vehicle it gets you from point A to B how nice it is
How how fast necessarily it doesn't matter as much, you know, maybe someone's got a souped up
You know v12 Corvette or something like that or the supercharged vehicle and they're gonna get you rather, you know
They can preach the gospel in eight minutes, you know, and it's the best gospel you ever heard
Whereas somebody else is gonna be bumbling and fumbling it takes them 20 minutes. It's a little dirty
You know, it's a little weird. The person's kind of awkward. You know what if you get to the destination who cares?
It doesn't matter
now look
We can argue all day long that having the cleanest nicest car you have is the best because it may entice more people
You know some people genuinely
may feel like that's too nice for me, but they'll jump in a little bit dirty or a
Lower level car because they just feel more comfortable that and when it comes to soul-winning
Some of us are gonna have an opportunity to reach different people, you know
Sometimes people get mad at me for wearing a suit when I go out someone, you know
They rather talk to some guy looking, you know, like he's from the hood or something. That's like
The essay way or whatever, you know, it's like I I don't care. It doesn't matter. You know what I'm not gonna do
I'm not gonna look at the guy driving the dirty beat-up Ford Taurus
Where his back bumper is hanging off and you know, he's got dice
Hanging from the rearview menu, you know mirror or whatever and the the leather is really, you know
Cracked and it's got a lot of problems or whatever
I'm not gonna look at him and say stop taking people to the right doctor
Because your car is too dirty
Hey, I'll tell him to clean it up all day long
But I'm never gonna discourage him from taking people from point A to B
And you know when you get to heaven, you're not gonna care, you know, it's not like okay
Here's all the people that came in the Escalade part of heaven
And here's all the people that came in the Ford Taurus and here's all the people that came in a Subaru
Wasn't very many of those, okay
Here's that coming the mini coupe it's like once you get to the destination you're there, you know, you get out of the car
You're like, I'm glad I got out of that car, but I'm here, you know
And then there may somebody that got you saved and you're like, I don't really like that person
But I'm glad they got me saved
Who cares it's so stupid but by saying Oh living a sinful lifestyle is preaching a false gospel
Here, you know, what's preaching a false gospel getting someone in your car and driving him to the wrong guy
Driving him to John MacArthur
Driving him to Joel Osteen driving him to the Pope driving to the Catholic Church down the street
That's what's preaching a false gospel not how dirty the car is because you know
You can have the cleanest car in the world. You can have the nicest Land Rover
You could have a Ford GT you could have whatever you want a nice h3
Whatever it is. What's the nice card Samson's truck? I mean that thing's sweet
If you drive Samson's truck to the wrong guy you are a wicked false prophet
You know what you hop in my truck not looking for pretty okay
And I drive you to the right guy it's great now somebody get up and say ah, you're teaching people they should be sinful
No clean up your car
Have a nice car have the best vehicle get a 15 passenger van
Okay, take as many people with you as possible
But what I'm telling you is if you only got a moped pick people up put them on your moped and take them to Jesus Christ
Okay, I don't care how dirty that vehicle looks smells or what?
look, they can hold their nose while they get to heaven and
I'm I'm just sick and tired of people putting wet blankets on soul winters today and
Preaching false doctrine and you know what lifestyle evangelism is a joke. It's a lie. It's false doc
I want nothing to do with it
Look at Romans chapter 10 verse 15
You know what evangelism is it's preaching. So I have three points this morning. You know, I've it
Evangelism lifestyle engines false number one. We're all sinners number two. It's his testimony and
number three because evangelism is preaching
It's not lifestyle. So it's contradictory to say lifestyle evangelism
Angelism is preaching you look it up in the dictionary. You know what it says zealous preaching
Evangelism dictionary definition zealous preaching. Oh, it's lifestyle. Look are you you can't do that?
Through your lifestyle number two fervent advocacy of a cause number three the promulgation of the gospel
evangelic
evangelical preaching
Specifically earnest effort for the spread of the gospel. What's the gospel the death burial and resurrection of Jesus?
It didn't say pastor Shelley buying corn nuts at the store
Pastor Shelley wearing a suit and tie pastor Shelley
You know helping old ladies across the street
No
It's the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ that gets people into heaven and it's preaching that that gets people say
Not me going around knocking on doors. Hey, I just want to let you know I helped lady across the street the other day
Have you seen this suit
Nor the baby stains. Okay
You know, it's like what that's not gonna get anybody saved. That doesn't help anybody
You know
There's churches all over the city where pastors and preachers are getting up telling everybody how many sins they repented of trying to convince people
That's how they go to heaven. They're lying false prophets and I don't care how clean the cars that they drive
It's interesting a lot of these phony preachers drive the nicest cars you've ever seen
rolls Royce
Because you know what's in their heart they're after money good to 1st Corinthians 3 I have two places
I want to go 1st Corinthians 3 and Philippians 1 will be finished this morning
This is important sermon
You have to realize that there's never a bad time to preach the gospel if you if you forget everything
I said just let these you know words ring in your ears. There's never a bad time to preach the gospel
It's never a bad time to preach the gospel and you say well, I just feel really crappy about my life
You know what make you feel a little bit better preaching the gospel because you'll be reminded of God's grace
You're reminded that it your lifestyle wasn't great anyways
Okay, and when we compare ourselves and I'm not saying don't clean up your life
I'm not saying don't feel convicted for sin
I'm not saying don't you know go to church and do all the right things
Of course, we want to do all that and there's a time to preach against all that
I look if you come to our church
No one is confused on if we think that you should live for God or not
Okay, nobody's sitting here thinking that pastor Shelley's getting up preaching lasciviousness and preaching in an antinomianism
Doctrine where it means the law doesn't matter anymore
And we can just live however we want and do whatever we want and Christ is not mad at us
But God gets mad at us when we sin and you know what God's gonna use those who are the most
Right with him the best just like in the in the parable. He purges some so he can bring forth more fruit. Okay
Amen, but don't tell me that the guy that just started out can't bring forth fruit because he can too
Don't tell me the guy that's sinned and then got right again can't preach the gospel again first Corinthians chapter number three
Like a verse for
While one says I'm a Paul and on and another I am of Apollos
Are yet are you not carnal who then is Paul and who the Paulist with ministers by whom he believed even as the Lord gave
to every man
So he's saying look who cares who got you say who cares if he showed up in the show the Chevy Impala?
Paul you know or you know, so I don't know that there's no Paul's cars
What's the a car and the cord right, you know the Honda Accord or the Chevy Impala doesn't matter
You showed up. You made it to the party. You're here
It doesn't matter if it's an uber you walked a taxi
Camelback horseback skateboard you made it
You know and anybody that cares about how you got there is
carnal
Okay, I have planted a Paulist water but God gave increase the neither is he that planted anything neither
He that water the God that give it the increase now
Planet and he that water at their one and every man should receive his own reward according to his labor
We are laborers together with God your God's husbandry your God's building now if God wanted perfect people to get
The gospel out then why did he choose us?
Why did you use Paul
Chief of sinners because it's not about that
Why do you let the woman at the well get a bunch of people safe?
Why do you let I mean look?
Peter when he's confronted with Christ he says depart Lord. I'm a simple man
He didn't say oh, I found the most righteous guy ever you know now some of the disciples
You know Jesus said here's an Israelite in whom indeed is no guile. You know so some of them were obviously probably better than others I
Don't think Matthew the tax collector. You know I don't know that he was probably the best probably had a bad rep
No one likes the IRS
Anybody here love IRS agents I
Didn't see any hands okay, no one got saved. I guess no just kidding go to Philippians chapter 1. We'll finish
Look I mean it's just a fraud
Believing that somehow your lifestyle is gonna. Just get people magically saved
You know where show me the evidence show me the fruit of that show me where people are just falling down at your lifestyle
Man the way you bought the that milk at the store. I now believe in Jesus
I've never seen someone buy milk like that before
This is incredible the way that you drive no one's gonna look the way I Drive and start believing on Jesus
Now it might encourage them to do it quicker. They might think like wow my time short
I need to get saved, but you know what they're not gonna look and be like I've never seen someone drive so great
I mean look I do get to places quickly though. You have to admit that all right
But I'm just saying this no one's looking at how you live
Man the way you walk and just made me believe you know I'm a believer now. You know you know makes people believe
Show just open your Bible say look Jesus died all your sins John 3 16 for God to love the world
Romans 3 23 Romans 6 23 you say well that if that's true than anybody that saved could do that you're right
Exactly that's the point and you know what I've noticed some people that in my opinion
They didn't seem to be the best Christian, but you know what they went out and got someone saved, and I'm thinking great
I'm not sitting here thinking like why did you get someone say yeah?
I don't like you did that you know you're you're more sinful than me
You have bigger problems in your life than me. You know what kind of wicked person are you?
You should be excited when someone gets someone say period that's the end of the discussion
Philippians 1 let me prove it verse 15 some indeed preach Christ of Envy
Even of Envy and strife and some also of goodwill one preached Christ's contention not sincerely supposing that affliction of my God who my bonds
The other of love knowing that I'm set for the defense of the gospel what then?
Notwithstanding every way whether in pretense or in truth crisis preach, and I therein do rejoice
Yay, and will rejoice notice the apostle Paul's attitude. Hey, I don't care who's preaching the right gospel
I just want people to preach the right gospel
And you know what there's a lot of people a lot of wicked pastors that will get up and say well
I know the guy is driving people to the wrong doctor, but he's doing it in a Rolls-Royce
I know this pastor. I mean yeah, he preaches repent of your sins for salvation, but if you see how nice is church lunch
Have you seen how clean a life it looks like he's living have you seen how many kids he has and they all look sharp
And they look clean-cut and they look like they're serving God
I don't care how nice he looks if he's driving people to the wrong doctor
I want nothing to do with him, and then the look of the guy that's on a skateboard
Taking people to Jesus and get mad at him
Well you have something wrong in your heart
Something wicked about you, and you should repent of that wicked false teaching is look lifestyle evangelism
It's a fraud because we're all sinners
It's about his testimony and number one and the most important point probably is evangelism is preaching
Christ sent us out to preach the gospel. He didn't tell us to go live a perfect life
You know to get people saved. He told us be holy
But you know what the most important thing you could ever do is preaching the gospel because you'll never be perfectly
Holy you can get lots of people say let's close in prayer. Thank you Heavenly Father for this these great truths in the Bible
Thank you for giving us realistic
Examples in the Bible of men who struggled with sin
And we're not perfect so that we would realize that we too will struggle and we'll have problems
And while we understand it's not an excuse and that we should try to live the most separated and Godly life
We can I pray that people would never be discouraged about preaching the gospel. They would never
Be ashamed of opening their mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel
They would never feel like there's a time when they should stop preaching the gospel that no matter what struggles
They go through no matter what evil they've done no matter. What problems may arise that they can always
Come back to the Lord they can always
Preach the gospel they can always
testify of your righteousness as
Account we have none anyways, and we just thank you for the free gift of salvation that you've given us all in Jesus name we pray
Amen
You
Right with that go ahead and pull out your hymnals we'll sing our last song for the morning. It's number 169
169
Start there on the first thing nice and loud come thou fount of every blessing
To my heart to sing thy grace
Streams of mercy
never
ceasing call for songs of loudest praise
teach me some
Melodious on it sung by flaming
tongues above
Praise the mount I'm fixed up on it mount of thy
Redeeming love
Here I raise mine
Ebenezer
hither by thy
help I'm come
And I know by thy good pleasure
Safely I'll
arrive at home
Jesus sought me when a stranger
Wandering from the
fold of God
Heed to
rescue me from danger
Interpose his
precious blood oh
to grace how
great a debtor
daily I'm
constrained to be
Let thy goodness
like a better
By my wandering
heart to thee
To wonder Lord I feel it prone to leave
God I love
Here's my heart
Take and seal it seal it for thy courts above
Amen you are dismissed you have a blessed day