🎵Music🎵
147, Leaning on the Everlasting Arms.
Song 147, Leaning on the Everlasting Arms.
🎵Music🎵
We're gonna go ahead and go to song 105, All That Thrills My Soul.
105, All That Thrills My Soul.
Song 105, All That Thrills My Soul.
🎵Music🎵
Song 105 on the second here.
🎵Music🎵
Also again if you are here fellowshipping and they start cleaning up you know don't
don't get in their way or anything like that okay just try to help them out with that so
but I'm really looking forward to this make sure to make new friends and to greet all of our guests
make sure to thank all the pastors that come in to the conference that are preaching for us and
we really love for you to be here for all the services if you can Friday night please if you
can reminder just to bring a dessert to share and I think that's pretty much it the only other
thing that's kind of just as a schedule that the preaching is going to start on seven on Thursday
six on Friday so it's a little bit more elevated but Friday we are going to feed you in between the
services and then Sunday it's the regular 10 30 but instead of having a 5 30 service next Sunday
we're going to have a 4 30 so we're just going to basically replace the Spanish service with
the with the English service that way we can get out of here a little bit sooner that evening
and people can have um the voice of one crying in the wilderness prepare ye the way of the lord
make his path straight and the same john had his raiment of camel's hair and a leather and girdle
about his loins and his meat was locusts and wild honey then went out to him Jerusalem and all
Judea and all the region round about Jordan and were baptized of them in Jordan confessing their
sins but when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism he said unto them
oh generation of vipers who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come bring forth therefore
fruits meat for repentance and think not to say within yourselves we have Abraham to our father
for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham
and now also the axe is laid under the root of the trees therefore every tree which bringeth not
forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire I indeed baptize you with water under
repentance but he that cometh after me is mightier than I whose shoes I am not worthy to bear he shall
baptize you with the holy ghost and with fire whose fan is in his hand and he will thoroughly
purge his floor and gather his wheat into the garner but he will burn up the chaff with
unquenchable fire then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him but John
forbade him saying I have need to be baptized of thee and comest thou to me and Jesus answering
sent unto him suffer it to be so now for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness
then he suffered him and Jesus when he was baptized went up straight way out of the water
and lo the heavens were opened unto him and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and
lighting upon him and lo a voice from heaven saying this is my beloved son in whom I am well
pleased let's bow our heads for a word of prayer father in heaven I pray lord that you fill pastor
Shelley with your spirit and give him clarity of mind as he preaches the message to us and also I
pray lord that you would bless our soul winning time to come and help us to continue to reach
people with the gospel of Jesus Christ we love you and in Jesus name I pray amen amen
so I kind of want to start here at the very beginning of this chapter the Bible says in
those days came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying repent ye for the
kingdom of heaven is at hand and what I want to preach on is kind of a little bit different
style sermon but I've always heard this idea that in the synoptic gospels you can't really
find salvation by faith or I've heard people say that faith alone is not taught in the
synoptic gospels now synoptic gospels is simply a reference to Matthew Mark and Luke those are
considered the synoptic gospels because they're kind of like all the same they have that kind
of the same structure same style they're detailing a lot of parallel passages and John's just a
little bit different style of a gospel so I guess it's not included in the synoptic gospels it's
just kind of a fancy term that you'll find in the seminary or cemetery some one of those
but at the end of the day you know even if that were true that you couldn't really find the
teaching on salvation in Matthew Mark and Luke that wouldn't discount the fact that it's really
clear in John and Romans okay and there's obviously a reason why when people are translating the Bible
into a foreign language they often translate John and Romans as one of the first two books because
the gospel's so clear in those particular chapters or I'm sorry specific books of the Bible
but I also believe you can find salvation by faith in the synoptic gospels and this morning I'm not
even going to do all three I'm just going to focus on Matthew so the title of my sermon this morning
is this salvation by faith in Matthew salvation by faith in Matthew now I am going to go to other
books just so we still compare things with one another but I want to show that Matthew is still
teaching the exact same salvation plan and in fact you can find many verses in the gospel of
Matthew that make it clear salvation's also by faith and give a lot of allusion to how salvation
is by faith in this particular book of the Bible as well now a lot of people say oh John the
Baptist came and preached repentance it's like yes he did but that doesn't tell you what he was
preaching it just tells you his preaching change if you realize what repent means it means to turn
or change that doesn't tell you what you're turning or changing from or to it just says
change right if if John the Baptist let's just take the Bible here and of course I love the
word repent there's nothing wrong with it but what if John the Baptist was just preaching change
does that prove what he's preaching or is he just saying something needs to change
turn you like what would be the most logical question turn to what or from what or what do
you what are you saying right because repent by itself doesn't really have enough context to tell
you what we're really talking about okay and additionally we see in the Bible God repents a lot
so if God's repenting a lot we have to create a definition for the word repent
that wouldn't go against the character of God now if I look up in a dictionary today
what the word repent means many times it'll say to be sorry for your sin or remorse over your sin
or to give up sin or to stop sinning but here's the question is God needing to be sorry for sin
or give up sin or turn from sin never that's not ever of course that's the violation of
God's character I don't think any serious Christian believes that whatsoever so then that
makes it to where we have to understand that repentance is always defined by its context
now he's saying that the kingdom of heaven is at hand okay now as you keep reading this chapter
it doesn't really in this context give you an idea of what the repentance is but let's keep
our finger here and let's go to acts chapter number 19 for a moment go to acts chapter number
19 and let's get a commentary on what John the Baptist actually preached to see what he was
preaching here when he said repent acts chapter number 19 we're coming back to Matthew but look
at verse number three it says and he said unto them unto what then were you baptized and they
said unto John's baptism the apostle Paul runs into a couple guys ask them if they've received
the holy ghost they say we haven't even heard so much there be a holy ghost and he's kind of he's
kind of puzzled thinking like well then what were you baptized unto and why that makes a lot of
sense is because you know anybody that gets baptized at our church we baptize the name of
the father the son and the holy ghost so wouldn't it be awkward if you've been baptized in the name
of the father son holy ghost and you say I've never even heard of the holy ghost in my entire
life like that seems like a pretty obvious contradiction right and so then that's why
he asked the obvious question so then what about your baptism and they said well we had John's
baptism here's the thing John came before Jesus Christ and he came before Matthew 28 when Jesus
gave the instruction to baptize in the name of the father son holy ghost so John was very likely not
using that formula verbally that was not what he was saying necessarily whenever he was baptizing
people but he's thinking well wait a minute though even if you got baptized by John there's still a
problem here why well he says in verse four then said Paul John verily baptized with the baptism
of repentance saying unto the people that they should believe on him which should come after him
that is on Christ Jesus so John the Baptist was preaching for people to repent what does that mean
what does it mean what was it that John meant whenever he was saying repent he was saying
that you needed to believe on him and who's the him that would come after him that's clearly
Jesus Christ okay so obviously when John the Baptist is going out and preaching repentance
he's telling people to what change and believe in Jesus Christ turn from trusting in the works of
the law and believe in Jesus Christ now who's the main competitor to Jesus Christ at the time of
John the Baptist it's the Pharisees and Sadducees what are they teaching for salvation the law
following the commandments doing works you know what that's not getting anyone saved and so what
John the Baptist is trying to say is hey you need to repent from dead works and put your faith
towards the Lord Jesus Christ the one that's going to come towards the Messiah towards the Christ
that's coming and John the Baptist was to prepare a way for the Lord Jesus Christ to already get
people saved before Jesus Christ shows up on the on the on the picture to get a lot of people's
hearts and minds and gears working towards that Messiah that's coming and be ready to accept Jesus
when he comes or or just identify him you know John the Baptist when he sees Jesus Christ he
says behold the lamb of God right he was already saved it's not like John the Baptist needed to get
saved at some point he was already saved but what he's doing is he's recognizing that the person he
had already trusted in was now standing before them and really it's no different than for us
because if you think you've seen Jesus there's another church down the street you can go to
all right but for all of us that are saved and normal we've never seen Jesus but you know what
I believe in my heart as soon as I see him I'm going to recognize him right and my recognition
of who he is and believing that's the Messiah that I believed in doesn't change the fact that
I'm all I'm still saved right now and the same would be applied in the Old Testament that
many people were saved before they'd even encountered Jesus Christ at this time
but when they they see Jesus and they believe that he's the Messiah that wasn't necessarily
the moment of salvation for every single person for some it was absolutely right but for some
it was just connecting the dots of this is the guy that I've already trusted in this is the Messiah
this is the Christ that I had already put my faith in now I'm recognizing that it's actually
this person that's walking around which is a pretty big like moment to recognize a person
in flesh as God in flesh as the son of God as the Savior I mean that's a big deal to recognize that
you can see at the beginning of his birth you know even prophets like Simeon wanting to hold
the baby Lord Jesus Christ and look at salvation in the flesh that wasn't the moment he got saved
okay that was the moment of him connecting the dots of who his Savior was so when the John the
Baptist is preaching he's preaching and getting people saved before Christ has even shown up
in the picture and you say what was the message that John the Baptist was preaching believe in
Jesus Christ so right here in Matthew if we go back to Matthew chapter 3 we're just barely on
the surface of the book of Matthew and it's already teaching salvation by faith this isn't
teaching some new message it didn't say repent of your sins give up your sins stop sinning
don't do any more sin anymore it just says repent but when we let Paul be our commentator on this
particular passage which I think he's a little closer you know people always want to say let's
let's go back to antiquity and see what the church fathers believe how about the church
father of the apostle Paul is that a good enough church father for you is that old enough for you
and the apostle Paul I mean do you really think the apostle Paul is going to be off
on the commentary of the new testament itself and frankly speaking he's not even necessarily
commentating on the book of Matthew he's commentating on what really happened he's
just commentating on the experiences that were actually had and he knows what John the Baptist
was saying and it helps us to interpret the Bible correctly and realize that Matthew is teaching
salvation by faith right here right at the beginning go to chapter number five and go to
verse number 19 that's a big point that we already have salvation by faith established
John the Baptist is preaching this getting people saved baptizing them
and again it was the baptism of repentance think about it what is baptism represent
you know and a lot of our children have been getting baptized and stuff and always try to
explain this to them it's that you're trusting that in Christ's gospel right that he died
was buried and rose again and it's really if you think about it the Sadducees could never get
baptized because they don't even believe in the resurrection so the whole symbol in and of itself
is a rebuke to that Sadducee false doctrine teaching that there is no resurrection
the the resurrection is inherent to that additionally because you're doing it it's showing
your desire to walk in newness of life to now say I want to follow Christ and I want to be obedient
to him and I want to follow his commandments and so there's a lot of elements to baptism
but those are probably the two most important is recognizing that it pictures you trusted in him
not yourself and that you do want to walk in newness of life okay so when it's the baptism
repentance what he's trying to do is he's trying to get people to trust in Christ and then they
what they get baptized and of course they should walk in newness of life that's that's the whole
goal Jesus Christ wants us to do that of course but but think about it you know the way for people
to actually have true reform in their life is not to quote repent of their sins it's to get saved
because what's the difference just think with me logically for a moment what's the difference
between the person that doesn't get saved and tries to clean up their life and the person that's
saved and tries to clean up their life one saved right there's a pretty obvious difference and when
you're saved you have what like you said the holy spirit inside of you that can help you guide you
comfort you lead you you now actually have the scales removed from your eyes so you're going
to understand the bible whereas you couldn't understand it the same way before so why would
i ever think that i have to start cleaning up my life before i'm going to actually get saved
you know how can a blind person actually take anything out of their eye or or fix themselves
you know how can you know what's wrong with your face when you don't have a mirror to look into
right when you don't even have eyes to look and the same goes with salvation in the sense that
god wants you to be cleaned up no one's disagreeing with that but you trying to
clean yourself up will never work that's why you have to first cleanse that which is inside the
platter you have to cleanse what's inside the heart get saved and then the outward parts of the
platter will start to end up getting more clean as time goes on being saved isn't going to stop
you from repenting from your sins more than those catholics out there that are trying to get for
salvation it's not like because i'm saved i have less motivation to clean up my life than the
catholics that are trying to earn their way to heaven and if it was true then we would notice
that all these other churches and denominations are living much cleaner lives than saved fundamental
baptists but you know what it never seems like that's the case is it of course there could be
exceptions but generally speaking those who are actually leaving the most cleaned up lives and
actually care the most about getting sent out of their life always seem to people that believe it
was a free gift and then the people that think that it's hardcore works usually are living the
most worldly type lives because again it sounds counterintuitive that you don't need to do
anything to clean yourself up but that's really the answer is you have to let jesus christ clean
you up and so of course you're going to still see john the baptist and jesus and other prophets and
other apostles mentioning the importance of cleaning up your life and getting sent out of
your life and doing right but you know what the key to that was getting saved the key to that
was being born again and getting the holy spirit that's what was going to help you clean up your
life look at matthew chapter 5 and look at verse 19 whosoever therefore shall break one of these
least commandments and shall teach men so he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven
but whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven
you know what i noticed about these two people they're contrasted by one thing
one keeps commandments better than the other one but notice that they're both in heaven
you know that tells me their salvation was not based on their works was it
good so if your salvation is not based on your works what's the other option
it's based on your faith so here's another clear verse teaching and insinuating that
salvation's actually by faith because if it were by works this one guy wouldn't even be in the
kingdom of heaven at all because he's breaking the commandments he's not just breaking the
commandments he's teaching people to break the commandments wouldn't that be a false teacher
like if someone's teaching you to break god's commandments wouldn't you say like you're a false
teacher and again i think that saved people can be a false teacher to some degree now that doesn't
i don't i usually try to reserve the idea of a false prophet to those who are just not even
saved whatsoever but i do believe that there's many people who are saved the day teaching lies
and you know what it really matches the bible have you not seen there's there's times where the old
the old prophet will come to the young prophet and say hey come to my house no god told me it's okay
and then later the young prophet leaves and a lion comes and kills him
what and it says really clearly the old prophet lied unto him so you know what it's not that
good men or saved men can't lie they of course can it doesn't mean that saved people can't get
hooked into some heresy some false doctrine some problems of course we're all carnal we all have
the flesh and of course we can but praise god that me going to heaven has nothing to do with
what i've taught or me keeping the commandments it was just salvation by faith which again this
is referencing it doesn't determine where you're going to go it determines how great you're going
to be your works don't determine where you're going to go your works determine how great you're
going to be okay and so there's very clear instruction here that the greatest in the kingdom
of heaven didn't just get saved he also had the works the least in heaven did nothing for god
actually he kind of did worse than nothing he was going against god think about this you know you
could be lazy and that's one thing but you could actually just be teaching people to break
commandments too that's even worse and he's saying that person's the actual least one in heaven it
wasn't that he had no works he had bad works okay he was lying about the bible which is a pretty
bad thing to do go if you went to matthew chapter seven go to matthew chapter seven
so you know and again i don't think that uh i think that the vast majority of people that
teach doctrines like calvinism or dispensationalism a lot of these things are probably not even saved
but even if they are they're probably going to be the least in the kingdom of heaven just for
all the lies that they were teaching about the bible so why would i want to have anything to do
with them matthew chapter seven look at verse 21 not everyone that saith to me lord lord shall
enter the kingdom of heaven but he that doeth the will of my father which is in heaven many will say
to me in that day lord lord have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name have cast out devils
and in thy name have done many wonderful works and then will i profess unto them i never knew you
depart from me ye that work iniquity now so funny is a lot of unsaved people if not most every
single one will interpret this as saying see they didn't have enough works or they were too sinful
that's why god is kicking them out of heaven now it is true that they're too sinful okay
but the problem is is it's not that these people were much more sinful than everybody else
it's the fact they had any sin at all because anyone who hasn't been cleansed by the righteous
blood of jesus christ is too sinful to get into heaven okay and they thought by their works they
had cleaned themselves up notice that's what they keep mentioning they they mentioned their works
and then jesus is like sorry you you're not clean enough you're actually full of iniquity
and that's the reality anybody that would want to brag to god about how cleaned up they are
he would look at them and say hey you're full of iniquity that's the type of person and of course
many times those are these self-righteous people are some of the worst too they're the ones that
are working some of the worst iniquity but they would have to be deceived wouldn't you are wouldn't
you agree with me this person sounds deceived like it sounds like they genuinely thought that
what they were doing was right and they were confused or deceived and doesn't it sound like
this is someone that was teaching the commandments so if we actually compare this with matthew chap
number five we actually have a story of a guy breaking and teaching to break the commandments
in heaven and then we have here a group of somebody who's teaching the commandments wrong
and not going to heaven okay so then what's the difference between these two because they sound
like they're the same on the surface right both teaching falsely about the bible okay well what
does it say in verse 21 but he that do it the will of my father is in heaven so that's the key
is figuring out what the will of the father really is now wouldn't you think in one context the will
of the father is to like keep the commandments sure but they both failed that okay so so that
must not be what's in reference or in view here now i want you to go to another place go to matthew
chapter 12 for a moment and look at verse number 50 so it's like one of the last verses here
matthew chapter 12 and look at verse number 50 the bible mentions the will of the father in a couple
places in the bible so let's just look up all the places that we have a clear answer to what
the will of the father even is last verse matthew chapter 12 for whosoever shall do the will of my
father which is in heaven the same as my brother and sister and mother now think about what Jesus
actually says here he's saying that he is related to every single person that does the will of his
father there is there is relative in some sense right now what if this was saying keep the
commandments what if the will of the father was keep the command does that mean that every single
person that's ever kept a single commandment of god is now Jesus's brother and mother
that would be everybody everybody's kept at least one commandment right and yet no one's
kept them perfectly so if the will of the father here was just to keep the commandments then you
know that doesn't that seems meaningless at that point right what if the will of the father though
means to believe in Jesus and get saved well wouldn't it be true that every single person
that got saved is now related to Jesus is now their brother and his sister and his mother
in a spiritual context and it's not even it doesn't say like some of them it's like any of them
whoever did the will of the father is now related to Jesus Christ just like that well that makes
perfect sense with it being by faith right go to john chapter six now go to john chapter number six
and we'll keep comparing this will of the father here for a moment john chapter number six and look
at verse 39 so when we have the will of the father mentioned in chapter 21 of matthew seven it
doesn't really give us an idea of what that means it's kind of vague but then when we look at it in
chapter 12 it gives us a little bit of indication everybody that does whatever this is
ends up being Jesus Christ's brother or sister or mother in a spiritual context
look at what it says in john chapter number six verse 39 and this is the father's will which
hath sent me that of all which he hath given me i should lose nothing but should raise it up again
at the last day and verse 40 and this is the will of him that sent me that everyone which seeth the
son and believeth on him may have everlasting life and i will raise him up at the last day
so again here in the bible it's telling us the will of father is to believe on Jesus Christ so
that you can be risen again from the dead and notice it says in verse 30 that he wouldn't lose
any of them meaning that every single one is going to be related to Jesus not be lost and be
saved so why is it that two guys breaking the commandments and teaching people to break their
commandments one goes to heaven one doesn't because one believed in Jesus obviously the
other one didn't and when you didn't you know what you're too sinful so again matthew chapter
seven is teaching salvation by faith alone again very clearly go if you would to matthew chapter
nine go to matthew chapter number nine
look at verse number two the bible says and behold they brought to him a man sick of the palsy
lying on a bed and jesus seeing their faith said unto the sake of the palsy son be of good cheer
thy sins be forgiven thee so in matthew chapter number nine verse two this is where we start
getting a lot of the miracles of jesus christ a lot of the healings what was it that motivated
jesus christ to forgive this person's sins what does the text actually say does it say and they
saw somebody repenting of their sin and he saw people giving up their sin he saw people throwing
their cigarettes in the trash he saw people you know getting right with god and getting out they're
sober finally what does it say in verse number two it says in jesus seeing their faith so what
was it that gave this person forgiveness of sins faith now what could be a clearer picture
of the forgiveness of sins by faith alone when jesus is saying the reason why i forgave this
guy's sins was because of faith and then be like oh show me faith alone and the book of matthew
well what what else did it say it didn't say in jesus seeing their faith and other things and
their works and the repenting of their sin and doing all the no no seeing their faith he decided
hey i'm just going to forgive this guy's sins just like us all we did was put our faith in jesus and
jesus seeing our faith forgave us of our sins in that moment because salvation is a one-time
seeing of our faith that has nothing to do with repenting we don't even know what any of these
people's sins were or that they cared they weren't even mentioning their sin they're just going to
find a savior they're just like hey this guy's sick and needs help will you just save him will
you heal him seeing their faith bam now go to chapter i'm sorry go to verse 22 we're in the
same chapter here look at 22 but jesus turned him about and when he saw her he said daughter
be of good comfort thy repenting of thy sin hath made thee whole oh wait no that's not what it
says that's that's like the message or something thy faith hath made thee whole and the woman was
made whole from that hour just immediate notice also some other good doctrine here that salvation
is an immediate one-time process isn't it as soon as she had the faith just bam
look at uh verse 27 and when jesus departed then two blind men followed him crying and saying
thou son of david have mercy on us and when he was coming to the house the blind men came to him
and jesus saith unto them can you repent of your sins no no what is it believe ye that i am able
to do this they said on him yay lord then touched to you their eyes saying according to your faith
be it unto you and their eyes are open and jesus straightly charged them saying see that no man
know it so notice again why did these two guys get saved faith why do you think it is that in
this book and consistently in the bible it's like this person's healed faith this person's
healed because of their faith this person's healed by their faith but salvation is by works
no that doesn't even make any sense also notice that he said believe you that i'm able to do this
and they said yay lord and then he then he touched their eyes he didn't say according to your prayer
it's going to save you according to you saying these words is going to save you it was according
their faith right so them calling on the lord or acknowledging the lord or asking for salvation
didn't negate that they were saved by faith did it just like the bible clearly teaches
for whosoever to call upon the name of the lord shall be saved we don't have a physical
jesus to go into and say son of david have mercy on me but you know what i could do that in my
prayer closet being an unsaved person and i would be saved if i had the right faith in my heart
right because if i have the faith in my heart now there's probably plenty of people that have
prayed this prayer and they're not saved why because they never had the faith so it's not
a special wording it's not like if you say all the right words jesus is going to save you it's
him seeing your faith that's going to save you but notice everybody that gets saved in the bible
they're always asking for it aren't they son of david have mercy on me you know that then then
he's like hey do you believe do you believe this and they're like yay lord yes of course i believe
this he's but what do you say are you guys going to start living a better life now are you guys
willing to commit are you guys willing to surrender are you guys going to lay down your life
are you guys going to sell all that you have and give to the poor are you guys willing to forget
forgive your brother as i've forgiven you are you but you go to churches today and that's the
message isn't it come down the aisle if you're ready to commit to jesus if you're willing to
surrender your life to jesus if you're willing to give it your all but what is jesus saying are you
do you believe that i can do it do you actually trust me who are you trusting and to save you
and if you're trusting in christ then you're saved and you know i i think that what god
wants us to illustrate to understand is that what he's looking for is someone who's broken
believing he will save them he's finding people that are broken so that he can
save them and in this chapter in verse 13 it says and as jesus passed forth from thins he saw a man
i'm sorry i'm looking at the wrong verse here which one am i trying yeah he he came not to
call the righteous but sinners to repentance i don't know i brando wrote in that down run
but he didn't come to heal people that are already healed he came to heal people that are broken and
of course most of the time we see physical ailments being delivered in the new testament
but at the end of the day that's just to represent or illustrate the spiritual condition of people
that are sinners we as sinners are broken and he didn't come to force us to clean our lives up
he came to heal us of that brokenness to save us from that brokenness because if i repent of my sin
and clean myself up that doesn't give the glory to jesus christ
that's me fixing myself i i saw um or there's some pretty famous sculpture and i saw someone like
commenting about it but it was talking about strong men and it was it was like strong men
have to realize that they're both the sculpture and the sculptor and you know there's these famous
i don't know if you've seen these statues but it's like this guy and he's got like a
hammer and he's got the chisel and he's chiseling but only like the upper portion of his body is
visible and the rest is like this block still and it's kind of represent the guys like chiseling out
himself from this big block and it's kind of representing like building yourself up making
yourself better turning yourself into a man and look there's an application of that that i agree
with we should work on ourselves and try to build ourselves up you know in the context of salvation
that guy's going to hell because you can't chisel yourself into enough perfection no no you have to
let jesus christ chisel you out you have to let jesus christ be the one that gives you that renewed
spirit makes you new is the one that is the potter and you're the clay you can't be both the potter
and the clay okay and so it's important to understand that these spirit these these physical
pictures of salvation or illustrate the spiritual picture of salvation that we as being broken need
a savior this is why people who don't believe they deserve hell can't get saved when you run
into people they don't believe in hell they don't believe in the bible they don't believe in god
like how are you going to get them convinced to then believe in a savior they don't think they
need a savior you have to first help people understand that they need a savior to want a
savior and of course when you hear about hell and that's where you're going period then you start
thinking like i'm the savior okay but then still many people are still trusting in themselves to
be that savior out of hell and you know these are catholics and they're not saved look at chapter
11 matthew chapter 11 look at verse 5 and you know it's funny i saw a debate between two unsaved
people um and uh it was a calvinist and a catholic and uh something with the c's you know as the b's
that were the best right baptists okay and uh the catholic at every you know he's he's basically
teaching that you can lose your salvation you know like every single passage he used to prove
his point was always a parable and i'm just thinking like man why would you you know it's
just so funny how the pharisees are so blinded and people are so blinded in the bible days and they're
just they're all obsessed with the parables and it's like it's no different today that the catholic
ignores all the clear verses in the bible and just points to all the parables and you know matthew
mark and luke are filled with a lot more parables than john because this is kind of to illustrate
how jesus was preaching to certain crowds right matthew's kind of geared towards the jews and the
people the religious leaders of that day and so a lot of the stories in there are parables to
illustrate how they're going to be replaced how they're how god's done with them how they're not
saved and a lot of times they're perceiving it's about them but they don't understand why
it's like when someone makes a joke about you and everybody laughs and you kind of laugh but you're
thinking like that was about me wasn't i don't know what they said but you know or or you know
ladies when you go to the nail salon and all the asian ladies are like she says she's so pretty
you know it's like she didn't say that okay you know she said something else all right and it's
like you perceive it's about you but you don't really know what was said necessarily and if i
said something in chinese it was on accident right so but i'm sure i didn't matthew chapter
11 look at verse number five the bible says the blame the blind receive their sight and the lame
walk the lepers are cleansed and the death here the dead are raised up and the poor have the
gospel preached to them that's kind of an interesting list because you know a lot of people
when they when they try to teach on the word gospel they start including things like what
was mentioned previously in this list the blind receiving their sight or lame walking or like
all these different miracles healings and they say that's the gospel in fact you'll drive by
churches not that far from here that'll say full gospel right and and so sometimes they're
including all kinds of other things they're including acts 238 and they're including
miracles and signs and wonders they a lot of these churches are pentecostal charismatic
and they think that they have to have all these other things as part of the gospel but notice it's
kind of making a delineation between all the healings and then the gospels being preached
okay now you say well what what what was the gospel that was being preached was jesus going
around saying let's feed the poor let's feed the hungry let's heal people let's do miracles
was that what he was preaching when he was preaching the gospel and you know some of us
might take it for granted that that's not what we believe but let's just prove it from the bible
because i guarantee there's a lot of people when they hear the word gospel they're thinking giving
money to the poor they're thinking feeding the poor they think that their outreach ministry is
the gospel they think that going to africa and building a hut is the gospel they think they'll
say all kinds of they'll just say like hey i gave some clothes to goodwill so i'm living the gospel
and i'm like when did jesus give his garments to goodwill he had basically none anyways right he
kind of just gave like the romans got it was that his charity at the end of his life when they parted
his vesture that was his goodwill charity giving or something he write that off on his taxes or
something no no that that's not what the bible is talking about when it's talking about the gospel
and i want to prove this so let's go to a couple other places i want to go first to john chapter
number three okay to john chapter number three now in matthew chapter 11 we have an actual idea of
when we're talking about because he said it was when it was john the baptist sending disciples
to jesus christ asking him if he's the one that was supposed to come that's when we get that
answer of this question of the gospel being preached on and it's saying that he'd already
done this so before john the baptist ever went to prison jesus was preaching the gospel okay now
we know from certain passages of scripture things that happened before john went to prison because
the bible just tells us kind of in that timeline of events john chapter number three look at verse
24 for a moment for john was not yet cast into prison so what we're reading about in john chapter
number three happened before john the baptist was in prison before jesus made this statement
of the gospels being preached so if we're trying to figure out what jesus was preaching before he
made that statement let's find some passages that are before that right well john chapter
three is before that let's see what jesus was preaching to people look at verse 14
and as moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the son of man be lifted
up that whosoever believe in him should not perish but everlasting life for god so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believe in him should not perish but everlasting
life sounds like that's the gospel that we preach isn't it sounds like what jesus was preaching was
this now let's prove this even more because some people i've even heard this weird idea that john
three is not jesus speaking it's the narrator okay go to mark chapter number eight that person
doesn't have the the the isn't doesn't have the holy spirit because he doesn't hear the voice of
the shepherd all right that's a weird interpretation but even for that gainsayer we have more
verses to look to okay now i want to look at mark chapter eight verse
uh 31 now i i do want to make something clear in the gospel of mark in chapter six this is when
john the baptist was put in prison so mark chapter eight's technically a little bit in front of that
as far as time it's a little more in the future but let's just get a clear definition of the
gospel here verse 31 and he began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many things and
be rejected of the elders and of the chief priests and scribes and be killed and after
three days rise again that was pretty clear on what the gospel was isn't it i mean sometimes you
forget how plain jesus was saying like hey all the chief priests and all the pharisees they're
gonna they're gonna reject me they're not gonna believe that i'm the son of god like i'm saying
then they're gonna kill me and then i'm gonna rise again in three days and they're sitting here
thinking like what does that mean it's like it literally means that okay but look at verse 35
and whosoever will save his life shall lose it but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake
and the gospels the same shall save it so in the same breath when he says hey the gospel
what did he mean by that that he was going to be rejected killed and rise again isn't that the
same gospel that we preach so when mark when it actually preaches what the gospel is or what
jesus calls the gospel when did jesus say in this passage um the son of man is going to give
some food to some poor people and give some coats to goodwill and he's going to go build some huts
in africa and no no what did he say he was going to do he was going to be rejected crucified
and rise again from the dead and then he said this is the gospel now why that's important is
we've got a definition of gospel in the same gospel of mark look at chapter one now this is
obviously before john the baptist went to prison what was jesus preaching mark chapter number one
look at verse one the beginning of the gospel of jesus christ the son of god okay look at verse 14
now after that john was put in prison jesus came into galley preaching the gospel of the kingdom
of god and saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of god is at hand repent ye and believe
the gospel so what is he wanting people to believe that he's going to go and the chief
priests and pharisees are going to reject them kill them crucify them through the hands of the
romans and that he's going to rise again the third day how do you know he's going to be crucified well
didn't he already say as the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness what is that a reference to
that's a clear reference to the cross because that's the a method of death that would that
could not represent being stoned to death so he'd already known how he was even going to die
before it even happened he knew that he was going to die on the cross and the cross was always in
view everything was already known to jesus christ and now of course it says that he was in prison
but this is you know pretty clearly before the timeline of when john the baptist asked that
question so when jesus was preaching the gospel of the poor what was he preaching
that he was going to die and then rise again that he was going to be rejected killed and crucified
and rise again and so there was a huge contention between him and the pharisees since he already
called them out to everyone and said look these people are going to reject me and then what do
they do they reject him it's kind of like the devil you know you just tell him what he's going
to do and then he does it anyways go back to matthew chapter number 13 go back to matthew
chapter number 13 but again another clear reference to the fact that jesus christ
when he was preaching the gospel was not trying to convince people to give up sin to give money
to the poor to do good deeds to do alms he was trying to convince them to do what believe that
his death burial and resurrection that's what he was preaching that's what he wanted the poor to do
that's what he wanted everybody to do was to believe the gospel of jesus christ that's the
whole point that's what the i mean it's so funny what is what do you think the book of matthew is
about folks the death burial and resurrection of jesus christ it's not a big dissertation on like
all the good alms deeds that he was doing and all i mean it doesn't even mention that when is jesus
giving money to the poor in fact he gets rebuked by judas for having a poor person give him an
alabaster jar right and it wasn't because judas actually cared for the poor but because he was
a thief and bear was put in the bag so it's like why are people so concerned with giving money to
charities from their church rather than preaching the gospel it's not because they care for the poor
folks it's because they're a thief and they bear what was put in the bag all these charities you
know they love to funnel millions and millions of dollars through those charities why because
they're skimming 10 20 off the top maybe even more so they're thinking like give even more
and you know what that's not the tithe because they got maxed out on the tithe and they're like
all right we got to have a new gimmick this charity and missions and this other thing and
you know all these other different programs that they can just kind of skim from every single
different financial program of the church now again there's nothing wrong with raising money
but i'm just telling you that many times the heart of these people is not for the actual
poor they care they're just simply taking what was put in the bag but matthew's very clearly
about the gospel of jesus christ the death burn resurrection it's clearly about faith alone and
it just keeps illustrating this point consistently through the text look at chapter 13 and look at
verse 58 chapter 13 and look at verse 58 it's towards the end and he did not many mighty works
there because of their unbelief why is it that he does lots of great works well what did we read
previously seeing their faith be it according to your faith do you believe that i'm able to do this
and they said what yay lord what if jesus had said those songs guys son of david have mercy on me
do you believe that i'm able to do this no what do you think he would have done he would have
done his many mighty works there because of their what unbelief so why is it that he's doing great
works faith why is he not doing great works a lack of faith is it mentioning well the people here
were just really sinful the people here just wanted to keep sinning the people here just had
so many problems with with drinking alcohol or fornication or whatever that's why he couldn't
do many mighty works what was the reason why he couldn't do mighty works for these people
is because of their unbelief because it's related to belief it's related to faith look at chapter
15 verse 28 chapter 15 verse 28 then jesus answered and said unto her oh woman great is thy
faith be it unto thee even as thou wilt and her daughter was made whole from that very hour
we have gentiles coming and seeking jesus christ and it's a foreshadowing of what's to come with
the gospel of how many gentiles are going to seek after jesus and if there's anybody if there's
anyone in the bible who needs to repent of their sins it's this person okay this is easily one of
the most sinful people on the planet at this time i mean she's a syrophoenician and these
people are in a very wicked area i mean think about it her daughter was vexed with the devil
do you think she was living a pretty holy and righteous life and then devils are entering into
her daughter she was probably in a false religion worshiping idols worshiping the devil through
idolatry and through that pagan religion devils are entering into her family causing them all
kinds of problems but then she hears about a savior and what is it that causes jesus to end
up giving her salvation not a repenting of sins but rather her faith her faith that jesus could
save her and you know there's people in false religion doing a lot of bad things and if they
would just simply believe in christ he would save them he doesn't require them to clean themselves
up and start coming to church first he requires them to have faith first and you know they may
never even come to church i don't did this lady ever go to church i mean do you think that she
went to church or did she just go back home she probably went home because first of all she wants
to check on her daughter she's not even in the children of israel they wouldn't have accepted
her in the temple ever she would have never been allowed to ever go to the temple ever but maybe
you know after the churches started getting planted in the new testament maybe she was able
to go to one of those i don't know but let me tell you something she wasn't necessarily going
to church but she was safe and you know what there's gonna be a lot of people that we've
gotten saved and soul winning that are never going to go to church but you know it will still
see them in heaven and you say how do you know that they didn't change their life because they
had faith right because it was under their faith that saved them it wasn't their works okay they
may even preach bad doctrine and they're still going to be in heaven those be called the least
all right go to chapter 16 and look at verse 21
from that time forth began jesus to show unto disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem
and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised
again the third day okay i mean isn't that clear this is another time i mean how many times jesus
think about how crazy it is how many times he told him this and they were still kind of confused
about it you know that also tells me is that there's plenty of times where you're going to
read things in the bible and you won't get it the first second third fourth fifth even tenth time
this is the benefit of reading the bible over and over is that you're actually going to learn things
you know well into the future of having read it and and there's going to be times at least for
me where i've read something and then it clicked and then i'm kind of like why did i never see this
before it was just so obvious like it's kind of it's kind of frustrating you just feel kind of
dumb okay at least i did so let's get let's lay off them a little bit right because i'm sure
there's plenty of times where we have those dumb moments or we kind of were like thinking like
how in the world did i not see that and it's like how in the world did they not see it okay but we
obviously have hindsight we have the bible where you know it's a lot easier for us to see some of
these things not all of them okay now look at chapter 17 and look at verse 22 chapter 17
verse 22 and while they abode in galley jesus said unto them the son of man shall be betrayed
into the hands of men and they shall kill him and the third day he shall be raised again and they
are exceeding sorry doesn't i'm noticing a theme here it seems like jesus keeps preaching the
gospel and what is it that he's keeps preaching uh give money to the poor give alms now look does
he say that in matthew chapter number six yes he does but is he are we seeing a theme in the bible
of give alms give alms give alms give alms give alms are we seeing a theme gospel gospel gospel
gospel faith faith faith faith faith yeah is there admonitions to do right in the book of
matthew absolutely is there admonitions to give alms of the poor sure but you know what they're
supposed to be done in secret and it's mentioned like once this is mentioned a lot so far let's
keep going okay look at chapter 20 and look at verse number 18 chapter 20 verse number 18
behold we go up to jerusalem and the son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and
unto the scribes and they shall condemn him to death and shall deliver him to the gentiles to
mock and discourage and to crucify him and the third day he shall rise again you know if they
didn't figure out that whole like serpent in the wilderness thing he literally says they're going
to crucify him i mean how could you like be shocked that this is going to happen and think
about this i can see now and you know like in we're not going there but at the end of luke when
you have these two guys on the walk to a mass jesus rips on them he's like oh you fools and
slow of heart to believe and i'm thinking you know you kind of think like and he says like all the
scriptures or whatever and i'm thinking like well maybe they just weren't studying very well or
whatever i'm like think about how many times he just plainly told them like wouldn't it be kind
of frustrating if you're just like hey bring a chocolate dessert on friday bring a chocolate
dessert on friday bring a chocolate dessert on friday and then you show up with some vegan
gluten-free chocolate-free dessert and i'm like oh you fools and slow of heart to believe what's
wrong with you okay you know you'd be kind of like i told you like 20 times and and you just
kind of get a little frustrated by it right you parents you mothers how many times you tell your
children the same thing over and over and over eventually get pretty frustrated with them about
and think about how many times the bible is telling us jesus preached this let alone how
many times he actually did we don't even know how many times he really told them this and how long
those conversations were and just how in depth it was i mean because he's teaching them for years
over and over saying messages and most of the things they're doing is soul-winning think about
how many times you've heard the gospel from your your soul-winning partner right and then to sit
here and be like i wonder what's going to happen after he was you know rejected of the chief priests
and pharisees they scourged him they delivered him to pilot they delivered in the romans they mocked
him they crucified him i wonder what's going to happen three days later how about everything else
he said i mean think about the the exactness of his prophecy here of what's going to happen in
just a few days and then i mean literally they're going to have the lord's supper and he's going to
literally be like hey this is my blood this is the new testament in my blood you know this is my body
which is broken for you and then he's like telling them when they're in the garden like hey pray with
me and like just like everything is just right there and yet they just still have problems
you know digesting that spiritual truth or understanding that spiritual nugget you know
and it should give us a little bit of a break for people that are unsaved not getting saved right
away you know i mean like if saved disciples are having a problem figuring these things out
the first time like how much more an unsaved person needs lots of layers needs lots of
opportunities needs lots of that seed being sown lots of it watered before it finally sprouts
before it finally has that that birth okay as it were and same as with seeds you know when you get
a seed and you plant in the ground it doesn't just sprout takes days takes weeks you got to water it
you got to just wait and then eventually it'll just sprout you know at the right timing and i
think that's you know what we have to do is we have to be patient going out there preaching the
gospel sometimes we just sow sometimes we water sometimes we reap right and we can't always expect
reaping because we live in such a receptive area it's it's sometimes it's almost like anticipated
that you're going to have multiple salvations every time you go out but you know that might
not always be the case and that's okay we're still working for the master and we're still doing his
work and you know some people are going to break up fallow ground some are going to be planting
seeds some are going to be watering some are going to be reaping but we're all working together
and you know he's going to reward us for our works it's not our fault if the door we got was
unreceptive right it's not our fault if we were at what person we were in that process because
they're all important okay look at chapter 21 and look at verse 31 chapter 21 look at verse 31
whether them twain did the will of his father they say in him the first jesus saith and then
verily i say unto you that the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of god before you
for john came unto you in the way of righteousness and ye believed him not but the publicans and the
harlots believed him and he when he had seen it repented not afterward that he might believe him
now if you didn't believe me about what the word repent meant from the book of acts let's look at
this passage and notice what he's saying the most sinful people in our society the absolute worst
people in society didn't say well when john came they repented of their sins they decided to not
send anymore they gave up everything they gave they surrendered their life they gave her the
no what does it say that the publicans and the harlots did they believed him they believed but
what did the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the chief priests what did they do they did not
believe but he's saying even after they saw other people believing and getting saved and arguably
many of these publicans and harlots did clean up their lives so they like got saved which is by
believing it was nothing about that but then they did stop being a prostitute then mary magdalene
stopped having seven devils inside of her and started ministering unto jesus then matthew the
guy sitting at the receipt of custom did give that up and start following jesus and ministering the
gospel so not only did the Pharisees witness people believe in christ they saw them make
radical transformations and think about it if you were a sincere Pharisee what have you been wanting
the publicans and the harlots to do stop charging taxes and stop being a whore okay and then this
jesus guy comes around and he gets those people to stop doing that he literally gets tax collectors
to quit he literally gets whores to quit he literally gets people that are deemed possessed
to be completely restored and so it's like everything that they're preaching and teaching
is happening but just not by their message by his message and he's like why is it that they didn't
want to believe because they're envious because if that guy is doing it and we're not then he gets
all the credit and the glory and we get none and we're wrong and we're a master of israel and we
don't know these things meaning that's that harlot that's been saved for 10 days is further along in
the faith than i am and that's way too offensive for them to think like i'm i'm a Pharisee of
course i know the bible better than you and it's like the harlot knows is actually more spiritually
mature than the Pharisee and you know what they don't want to start over they don't want to humble
themselves they don't want jesus to get all the honor and the glory they don't want to be put out
of the synagogue because you know what they're going to lose their status in life you know and
it's funny the the the whore she's willing for people to realize that she needs to get out of
that life and her life was bad but you know what the Pharisee is not willing to let people know
that his life was wrong but there was one paul and he counted it but dung he said you know what
i'm gonna count my life done because at the end of the day that's what it was being a Pharisee is
done it's really not all attractive to me of course you get a lot of praise of men being a
Pharisee that's you know what people like they look at that and they love the pope the pope gets
celebrated and worshiped and kisses all the babies and whatever and he lives in a palace
and they have unlimited money and then they do circus acts in front of them you know i don't i
don't even get it okay it's like a literal circus but at the end of the day you know no matter what
life we have to leave behind we have to make that choice of just accepting christ that's why the
rich young man the rich young rich ruler didn't get saved is because in his mind he had to lose
his lifestyle and he wasn't willing to do that illustrating hey he's never going to be like
giving up enough sin but at the end of the day the bible says he was willing to trust himself
you know he was trusting in his riches he's trusting his money and a lot of rich people
they want to earn their way to heaven they want to they want to be different than the publicans
and the harlots whereas the rich man would have to say you know what i got saved by grace just
like this whore did and i know better than them i know different than them and by believing this
gospel it's going to put my riches at risk it's going to put my life in a position where i don't
want to be in i can't brag about anything in my life and so many people that are rich are too
prideful to get saved look there's nothing there's nothing wrong with being rich the problem is that
riches just steal the person's heart many times and cause them to care more about their money
than doing what's right and and of course getting saved by faith because it proves that you didn't
do anything and rich people often are rich because they work very hard i mean some people just get it
by inheritance but they usually squander it very quickly most of the people that have riches for a
long period of time it's because they worked really hard they're really diligent they're
really smart they're putting a lot of effort they're putting a lot of energy and they take
pride in that i mean rich people are proud i don't know if you know this but they're they're really
proud of their look at look how many bugatti's i've got you know it's like you brokies you don't
even know a bugatti you know it's like i don't care he's not going around saying like look at
my honda civic have you seen i got one car garage i have mcdonald's okay like he's not going around
saying those things they say these things because they're bragging about themselves
and rich people love it's like look at this fancy coat i have and look at this fancy car and look
at this fancy dog that's in my purse you know it's like and look at look at all these things look at
my 18 car garage with my 18 cars and it's like when do you drive all of those you know like i
have three and i can only drive two you know it's like and one's broken that's part of the reason
but you know it's just like you know how are you going to drive 18 cars and it just becomes an
insurance waste you're just giving more money to the insurance company you know it's it doesn't
make any sense but you know that's what prideful people do is they just they're all about themselves
this is what the Pharisees and Sadducees were is they were prideful people they're prideful people
that thought by their keeping the law they were saved and go to heaven that's so funny because
i get accused of being a Pharisee all the time and i'm thinking like well first of all the
Pharisees didn't actually believe the law i believe the law the Pharisees thought they were
going to heaven because they kept the law when they didn't i try to keep the law and i know it
has nothing to do with me getting to heaven it's like there's nothing in the bible that teaches
i'm a Pharisee or that you're a Pharisee you know who the real Pharisees are today
jews i don't know if that's a shock or anything but it's like they think they're better than other
people they're the richest of society and guess what if someone in israel today decides you know
what i actually believe in jesus christ they'll be mocked and spit and kicked out of the synagogue
and rejected of their brethren pushed out of society but today who is just automatically
respected in society a jew with a little tiny hat on i mean he's got the little tiny hat on and
just everybody just is all fawning over them and they're so wonderful and they're so great but
what if he said you know what i'm going to take the stupid little funny hat off and you know what
i just go to a fundamental baptist church they'd be like we don't want to hear from you again
we don't want we don't want nothing to do with you but you know you got little tassels you got
your little talmud you know you got your bank and and everybody loves you now okay and the same is
it's not like a completely radical different society back then it's like hey who's in control
of the money uh the pharisees and satchets i mean where do they go to even make currency exchange
the temple and who is ripping them off with unjust scales and unjust weights oh yeah the
pharisees and the jews in the temple and jesus is getting really mad about that you know that's no
different today it's called the federal reserve it's inflation it's all these different things
and of course these religious jews are the pharisees today and really if you want to
understand society you basically have the religious jews or the pharisees and then the
non-religious jews today are the sadducees now the sadducees they don't believe any of the bible
the pharisees kind of kind of in lip service believe the bible and then don't really
the sadducees just really don't and they hate everyone and they're the most wicked people
and you look at the non-religious jews of our society they're the elites and the worst people
society these are your george soros these are the ones that are the presidential cabinet
for biden these are the people that are influencing all the banks in hollywood and
all these different businesses the non-religious jews and you know what they hate jews too
they'll sell they're out there brother they'll go arm palestinians to go blow up israel
just so they can get an extra few bucks because again they'll just siphon more money they'll
give money to them and take a little bit off the top and then they'll give money to israel
and take some money off the top and you know what they want there to be conflict in israel
you know why because then the government will give financial aid and you know get those that
financial aid the non-religious jews the religious jews are there you know you know going to the
temple it's like you know with their little tassels and doing all kinds of weird stuff and you know
many of them are probably not even reprobate especially their children and stuff like that
they're not necessarily reprobate they're just in a bad false religion they're just growing up
being learning an anti-christ false religion the worst of the people that were grown up to believe
that and then they even rejected that and became like these atheist reprobates that are just just
pure satanic evil and they say they're jews they're not even a jew religiously they're none
of they're just like they're not jews at all they're just literally the synagogue of satan
they just literally worship the devil and practice all kinds of super satanic practices behind
scenes sometimes they just even admit it out loud but it's the same people and you know what
it's the same as when ezekiel had to be picked up by the hare and taken the temple and was like hey
look at these guys worshiping satan that's what's happening behind closed doors and it's like you
know what's happening behind closed doors in america people are worshiping the devil they
might not even know that it's the devil that they're worshiping because back then they were
worshiping the sun which is the devil and today they they just they like worship the devil thinking
it's not real real not realizing they're still literally worshiping the devil you know it's like
it's weird but that's just kind of how society is but the religious jews these are the pharisees of
the day you go to the orthodox church down here you find some rabbi these are your pharisees today
and these people would lose their life if they believed in christ that's why they don't want to
do it they're too prideful they're too arrogant and they get really mad that we can go into a
ghetto and find some thug and preach him the gospel today and get him saved by faith and they
would be like well but is he following the 613 commandments you don't either
you have long hair you're you're you know it's like what are you doing buddy you don't even
believe the bible it's like it's so funny how the pharisees want to want to tell us
how much better people they are and it's like they're usually the worst okay and there was
no different that's why in matthew 23 he just starts ripping on them really hard look at
chapter 22 verse 10 for a moment look at chapter 22 verse 10 and we're almost finished i i really
at first thought about doing matthew mark and luke and i was like well this is way too much
i mean so far have we really been seeing works in matthew are we seeing a lot of faith
okay now i like this and this is again this is kind of a parable but i just like this verse
because it's talking about the wedding that jesus is inviting us all to look at verse 10 so those
servants went out in the highways and gathered together all as many as they found both bad and
good you know who's going to heaven good and bad people but you know why they're going to heaven
not because some were good and some were bad or going to hell no it's because they believed
good and bad whether they believe they're safe and you know what we can go outside
we can go out these walls and find good and bad and if they believe they're going to heaven
and those who don't believe those good and bad are going to hell and of course in context of
god everyone's bad so he doesn't really we're all the same in that context look at chapter 26
verse 2 chapter 26 verse 2
the bible says he know that after two days is the feast of the passover and the son of man is
betrayed to be crucified there's your gospel again look at chapter 27 chapter 27 verse 63
saying sirs we remember that this deceiver said while he was yet alive after three days
i will rise again command therefore that the sepulcher be made sure until the third day lest
his disciples come by night and steal him away and say unto the people he has risen from the dead
so the last error shall be worse than the first this is just funny to me that literally the
unsaved people are more anticipating the resurrection than his own disciples were
isn't that crazy they're like hey we better make sure to seal up this tomb because he said he was
going to rise from the dead and then the disciples are just waiting around mourning like he's not
going to be risen from the dead isn't that funny but i think it's just to help illustrate that like
the disciples had nothing to do with his resurrection because again isn't that the
kind of implication that they're going to pretend and act like he's biden walking around or
something you know that he's still alive but at the end of the day you know it just to really
confirm that the way that jesus christ rose again from the dead could not have been explained by
human means was it it was a sealed tomb none of his disciples were going there for that reason
none of them even tried none of them they were basically they didn't care because they're just
kind of like distraught and distressed and sorry and upset i mean thomas didn't even believe it
after all the other disciples told him jesus told him the romans believed it all the disciples have
now heard it and are saying it and thomas is still doubting that's an incredible amount of
doubt that's pretty stubborn how thomas was being there okay look at chapter 28 and look at verse
number five and the angel answered and said unto the women fear not fear not ye for i know that
ye seek jesus whom was crucified he is not here for he has risen has he said come see the place
where the lord laid now i love this phrase as he said notice what it's like hey he has risen as he
said you know who said that jesus would rise from the dead jesus said that he would rise from the
dead okay i want to show you one more point we'll finish go to matthew 23 go backwards
i have no problem with the book of matthew you know it's like oh man you know if you believe
salvations by faith alone what do you do with matthew believe it i don't even like
what passage do you want me to flip to i mean man yeah is there other great teaching in the
book of matthew yes there is replacement theology is all over it all right you want me to show you
that um there's some moral teaching that you can find in matthew there's some genealogies
matthew 23 is like one of my favorite chapters in the bible i just love him ripping on the
pharisees and the sadducees i mean this is great but you know there's an interesting point
in kind of thinking about this topic in this passage look at matthew 23 verse 13
but woe when you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men
for you neither go in yourselves neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in this is what
i find a little bit fascinating when you compare with another place go back to matthew 5 as well
he said that the pharisees and the scribes are not going to go to heaven that was really clear
he's making it clear you guys are not entering in you're not going in okay well if we compare
this with what he said previously it's going to make something click look at matthew chapter
five verse 20 for i say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of
the scribes and pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven now this is
what's interesting about this is the pharisees and the sadducees are proverbially speaking
the most righteous of society and in some cases they were giant hypocrites but think about the
apostle paul himself the apostle paul when he described himself a pharisee he said as touching
the law blameless meaning that he had been keeping the law as perfectly as one could
that doesn't mean that he was sinless what that means is like when he did sin he would go and
offer the appropriate sacrifice every single time so like if you were to try and examine paul's life
there wasn't really anything out of place in a human righteousness perspective the apostle paul
was arguably one of the most righteous men to live humanly speaking apart from salvation
meaning if we were going to find who is the most cleaned up the most repentant of their sins the
most just trying to keep the law to the best of their ability who is doing the absolute best of
the best it was paul and then christ said hey accept your righteousness exceed their righteousness
you can't get in so you know what that means no one can get in by their righteousness
no one can get in by repenting of their sins no one is possibly because the pharisees were the
most righteous and they're not getting in and even the most righteous person to ever walk this planet
will not enter in the kingdom of heaven on his righteousness it's by christ's imputed righteousness
that gets us into heaven and that alone that's what romans chapter 3 is all about it's about
him that justify it okay it's about his righteousness and him being the justifier
of him that has faith in his righteousness okay and so we get saved by christ not our works not
what we do and people who think that matthew teaches a different gospel are not saved
people who think that it's by works or that you you can't you can lose your salvation they're
just not saved because they're just not trusting in jesus and we shouldn't be afraid of that
we shouldn't you know there are passages in matthew that are parables that are difficult
to understand and i get it and i didn't focus on those today but i want to show you isn't it really
clear that salvation by faith is still taught in matthew and that the gospels emphasized in matthew
and you know god willing maybe we'll look at mark and luke in a little bit more detail too because
you know i think it's important to remind ourselves how clear the gospel really is when you
try to teach that on purpose all right let's close in prayer thank you heavenly father so much for
giving us such a clear gospel in the book of matthew and i thank you so much for what your son
did for us that we're broken and diseased and lame and blind and and unable to save ourselves
spiritually and that you gave us your son jesus christ so that we could be healed by our faith
the free gift of salvation i pray that we would continue to champion that truth of
salvation by faith in every book of the bible and that as we go out and reach a
loss and dying world that we would give them many chances realizing that many people don't
get things the first time that sometimes we can be a little dense sometimes we're dense ourselves
and i pray that we would just continue to study the bible continue to try and reach the loss and
those hard cases out there we wouldn't give up on them but rather we'd keep preaching keep
loving them keep praying for them and that we could see many of the hard cases get saved as
well in jesus name we pray amen all right we're going to close this morning by singing 310
footprints of jesus 310 footprints of jesus
song 310 footprints of jesus
sweetly lord we have heard
and we see where the footprints
falling
he will follow the steps of
speaking
day
through the
he will follow the steps of Jesus
then at last when I he will rest where
the steps of Jesus
great singing thank you all for coming
this morning God bless you are dismissed