The song 172, Love Divine, All Loves Excelling.
To earth come down. Fix in us thy humble dwelling.
All thy faithful mercies crown. Jesus thou art all compassion.
Pure unbounded love thou art. Visit us with thy salvation.
Enter every trembling heart. Breathe, oh, breathe thy loving spirit into every troubled breast.
Let us all in thee inherit. Let us find that second rest.
Take away our bent to sinning, Alpha and Omega B.
Beginning, set our hearts at liberty. Come, almighty, to deliver.
Let us all thy life receive. Suddenly return and never, never more thy temples leave.
Thee we would be always blessing. Serve thee as thy hosts above.
Pray and praise thee without ceasing. Glory in thy perfect love.
Finish then thy new creation. Pure and spotless let us be.
Let us see thy great salvation. Perfectly restored in thee.
Change from glory into glory. Till in heaven we take our place.
Till we cast our crowns before thee. Lost in wonder, love and praise.
Good singing. Let's open up in a word of prayer.
Heavenly Father, thank you so much for our church.
Thank you for this beautiful weather today and just all the people that would show up here.
And pray that you would bless this time of singing, that we would worship you from our hearts and sing out with understanding.
And pray that you'd please bless the remainder of this day.
We love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Alright, for our second song, we'll go to 238.
Christ liveth in me.
238 Christ liveth in me.
Once far from God and dead in sin. No light my heart could see.
But in God's word the light I found. Now Christ liveth in me.
Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me.
Oh, what a salvation this, that Christ liveth in me.
As rays of light from yonder sun, the flowers of earth set free.
So life and light and love came forth from Christ living in me.
Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me.
Oh, what a salvation this, that Christ liveth in me.
As lives the flower, as in the comb the tree.
So praise the God of truth and grace. His spirit dwelleth in me.
Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me.
Oh, what a salvation this, that Christ liveth in me.
Sing it out nice and loud on the last.
With longing all my heart is filled, that like Him I may be.
As on the wondrous God I dwell, that Christ liveth in me.
Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me.
Oh, what a salvation this, that Christ liveth in me.
Good morning. Thank you so much for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church.
If you need a bulletin, just lift up your hand nice and high,
and one of our ushers can come by,
and they can sneak a bulletin into your hand.
We have on the front the congratulations to Nicholas and Kimfei Kanairi
on the birth of their daughter, Madeline Castilian.
She was born on October 28th at 4 21 p.m.,
weighing seven pounds, three ounces, and measuring 18 inches long.
So congratulations to them.
That's very exciting.
And we have our Bible memory passage, John 1 verse 50.
We're getting really close to finishing this one.
On the inside, we have our service and sowing times.
Also, we have our church stats.
And then on the right, we have the list of our expecting ladies.
Please continue to pray for all of our expecting ladies.
We have our prayer list as well.
If you'd like to have anything added to our prayer list,
you can email that in.
Or if you need to fill out a communication card,
you can slip that into the offering plate.
We do have a baby shower in honor of Miss Karen Cooley and her baby girl.
It's going to happen November 19th from 12 30 to 2 30.
If you would like to get them a gift, she's registered at Walmart.
Also, please RSVP to Miss Milstead.
That way, she can plan the event accordingly.
And if you'd like to bring a potluck dish or something, you can.
Please communicate that as well.
Just so everything can be anticipated appropriately.
We have our Texas chili cook-off.
That's tomorrow evening.
And so we would like for you, if you'd like to enter the competition,
please be here by 5 30.
So try to bring your chili by 5 30.
That way, we can get everything set up for the judging.
And there will be winners.
There will be losers.
And obviously, everyone that puts beans in their chili is automatically
a loser in the competition.
Don't take it too far.
But I probably will later.
Of course, if you'd like to bring a dish to share, whatever you can,
you don't have to.
But of course, if you want to enter the chili competition,
there is going to be a competition.
We'll have three prizes for our top winners.
And of course, if you want to succeed, you can't have any fillers.
So that's one of the rules.
That's just the Texas chili thing.
And we like to emphasize biblical doctrine.
So, no, I'm just kidding.
Also, we're going to have cornbread and some toppings and everything like that.
If you'd like to bring a game or a dessert, please do that.
So if you'd like to bring a game or dessert, we'll hang out until about 9 p.m.
On the back, we have church reminders.
Please refrain from running in the church like Doug Trowbridge would.
Also, no playing on the stage.
So don't let any children up here playing on the stage.
Also, children should always be under the supervision of their parents at all times.
So we don't want kids just wandering around with no one paying attention to them.
The mother baby room is for birth to two years
as far as allowing your children to kind of just roam in the area.
If you take other children in there, please have them sit with you
and try to allow for the littler children to be able to use the room appropriately.
Also, children should never be in the mother baby room without their parent, without their mother.
Also, children should not be getting an ice machine or refrigerator.
Please, if they do, make sure that they're not getting in there.
Also, gliders are specifically for women that are either pregnant or nursing
or some, even both, you know, they could be both, right?
And that's the goal of them is to try and make it a little more comfortable and easy on them.
If you are not that lady, please definitely don't sit in them.
Also, if you are not married to a lady like that, try not to sit next to one either
so that way other women can use those chairs.
Obviously, we're a little snug in here, and I get that, and it's great to have our church filled,
so just try to be respectful and try to help everybody out as best you can.
And God willing, he'll give us a bigger space sometime.
Also, we have children should just not be roaming during the church service at all.
If anything is not being handled appropriately, I'm just asking our church staff
and ushers to help assist in that and just to remind people about those rules.
Also, we have a note about our soul winning marathon yesterday, our Arlington Soul Winning Blitz.
We had 44 soul winners and 16 salvations, so praise the Lord on that.
That's great.
You don't have to go to a foreign country to get a bunch of people saved.
You just have to offer food to the soul winners.
That's what you have to do, so I figured it out, but you know what?
I'm willing to pay to feed you physically if you feed people spiritually, all right?
And then today, we have our Sunday Sunday, so just the gifts keep on giving.
And also, tomorrow is the November 5th is the music recital.
November 10th to the 12th is the Matamoros Soul Winning Trip.
November 19th is the baby shower we talked about.
November 23rd is the Thanksgiving Desert Fellowship.
December 2nd is the ladies' Christmas party.
And that's pretty much all I have for events.
I am thinking, I have not put this on the calendar yet, so I'm just kind of thinking out loud
that maybe we might try to do a Bahamas missions trip in February of next year.
So I need to still double check my calendar and just kind of see what's going to make sense.
But in just kind of anticipation, brother Conley recently and his wife visited there,
and it was kind of a vacation, but really, they went soul winning so much
that it was almost like a missions trip, and they ended up getting a lot of people saved.
And I asked brother Conley if he wanted to just give us a quick just testimony.
You want to do that real quick and just give us a little bit of a history of what happened?
Absolutely. Thanks, pastor.
The trip was very successful. Like pastor said, we had 41 salvations, very receptive.
I wanted to share a Bible verse this morning in the book of John.
John chapter 4, verse 36. Actually, we'll start in 37.
The Bible says, And herein is that saying true, one soweth and another reapeth.
I sent you to reap that were on you bestowed no labor.
Other men labored and you are entered in other men's labors.
So that verse really describes the spiritual condition of the Bahamas.
You know, they know a ton of Bible verses.
They have a lot of respect for the word of God.
They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
And they actually check the Bible.
They say, hey, you know, what Bible are you using before you preach the gospel,
making sure it's the King James Bible.
And the Jehovah's Witnesses, they made a big push to go out there and try to, you know,
preach their false gospel, and it's been really rejected.
I mean, we talked to a lot of people out there,
and a lot of people didn't even, you know, recognize them,
or they just said, hey, you know, we rejected them as a whole.
If you ask them if they're a Christian, they'll say no, but I'm a Baptist.
So they think that, you know, they have to attain to Christianity.
They think it works, but most of them claim they're Baptist.
But the problem is no one's saved.
I mean, we talked to, I'd say, over 200 people,
and not one person gave us the right gospel.
But the good thing is they did say trust in Jesus,
but also they attached a work of righteousness to that.
I mean, you go so many here, you know, no one claims Jesus, very rarely.
They want to proclaim their own righteousness.
So they just merged faith and works.
So it's really low-hanging fruit there.
I actually had to cut my gospel presentation in half because it was so long,
because it was so easy to get them saved.
And they pay attention to the gospel.
It just really clicks with them when you preach to them.
They're either really receptive or they don't want to hear.
And I'm not saying they're heretics, but most of them didn't argue with you,
but most of the time they were just super receptive.
They do twist the Trinity a little bit.
Not really twist it, but they're weak on the Trinity.
They believe Jesus is the Son of God and God,
but they're just a little mixed up on that.
So once you explain it a little thoroughly,
maybe just show the baptism of Jesus,
how it just clearly shows three people,
three separate people, one God.
It really clicks with them as well.
The best thing, though, is they're anti-sodomite.
Yeah, they hate the homos.
I mean, they say fags have no rights there.
You know, the sodomite deception would win an Academy Award, for sure.
And actually, we were in the plane,
and there was two sodomites in front of us.
They were Americans, and they were Michelangelo.
And Michel and I overheard them talking
how the islander said, get off our island.
You know, we don't want you guys here.
So, amen, right?
Yeah.
The receptive areas there that, you know,
some of the observations that I took down
was the middle-class neighborhoods.
Pastor and I went there.
It was really receptive.
Pastor and I won a guide to the Lord.
His name was Brother Callie.
So we have a contact there to drive us around.
And that was really receptive.
We spent a whole day there.
And then a great story is we went to a college.
Pastor and I went there,
and I think we were there like three hours
and had maybe 13, 14 salvations.
Well, Michel and I went there,
and it's been kind of locked down due to COVID.
And we just kept getting kicked out by the security guards.
And we walked, we snuck through,
and Michel and I and the security guard walked out,
and he's like, what are you guys doing?
And we're like, hey, we want to preach the gospel.
We're missionaries.
And he looked around.
He looked at this, and then he just went.
And he let us in, and we had 17 salvations that day.
And it's like they're so receptive.
So if you're sitting there preaching the gospel to some kids,
they'll come over and sit by you.
They'll overhear you, and they won't say a word.
And then they'll say, hey, can you show me how to go to heaven too?
And it's just like throwing your net out there.
I mean, they were just walking by,
and just every single person you could talk to.
The public beaches, I think that's going to be a very receptive place,
pastor, to go the next time.
We didn't have an opportunity to go there,
but that's all locals.
So you can go out there and preach to them.
And I mean, obviously, if we have pastor there,
we can dunk them right after, which will be great.
Downtown as well, we drove downtown,
and there was a ton of people there.
We didn't go there.
One of the things that we did, though, is we stayed in the hotel.
I mean, we had probably, I'd say, 14 or 15 salvations
just at the hotel.
And pastor and I had a bunch too when we were there.
We won servers to the Lord and some of the workers
because they just stand around and they have time.
And the great thing is we would plant a seed with some of them,
and they would be like, hey, I can't listen right now.
But we would say, hey, why don't you come in the morning
and meet us for coffee or something at 9 a.m.?
And they would show up,
and they would bring one or two more people with them.
So you can work smarter, not harder there.
Just to recap everything,
it's just such a breath of fresh air to go to a country like that
that is so receptive to the Gospel.
My heart goes out to them.
I'm very passionate about the Bahamas.
I think with the right man of God, with the right vision,
I think that country needs a church
and really can be a soul winning machine someday.
I think they're more of a Christian nation than we are
just based on people that we talk to.
But right now is an important time.
I mean, we all can get in the fight.
I mean, pastor, praise God that we have a pastor that is a soul winner,
that goes soul winning,
that he's given us all the resources that we need to be a soul winner.
He's provided tribes, captains.
There's lots of soul winners in this room right now that you can glean from.
And God's given everybody in this room people that they can preach to.
And if you're not prepared and you're not ready,
those people could go to hell.
And God's going to give you who you're ready for.
And if somebody comes up and argues with you,
you get away from it anyway
because you want to find that person who's receptive.
So, you know, this is the time to get in the fight.
I mean, there's countries like the Bahamas, the Philippines.
I mean, we have the missions trip coming in Mexico.
So, you know, these are very receptive countries.
And another thing is if you can't participate in these events,
you can still pray.
I mean, let me introduce everybody to somebody.
This is called the prayer list right here.
Prayer list congregation, congregation prayer list.
There's events in here.
There's so many events.
Like the event yesterday is very receptive.
Those are the events we can pray for.
If you can't make it, you can, you know, your prayers are important.
I mean, lots of battles in the Bible were won by prayer.
Think about Hezekiah, you know.
When Hezekiah went up against Sennacherib and Rapshechi,
who blasphemed the Lord, he prayed to the Lord.
And the Lord smoked 185,000 soldiers.
So, your prayers are important.
I mean, you know, the Mexico soul-wanting trip that's coming up,
you're going to get weary, you're going to get tired.
There's times you want to give up.
Just getting a text from your brother or sister in Christ saying,
hey, we're praying for you, will compel them to go another mile.
So, just think about it.
If you can't contribute and can't be there, you still can pray.
So, that's it.
Thank you so much for that testimony.
And like I said, I'm probably anticipating maybe February or something.
That way, I have enough time for people to kind of plan for something like that.
Yes, I do believe you need a passport.
So, you might work on that.
There's not, I mean, no.
There's probably less of diversity of language there than there is here.
So, yeah, I don't remember meeting a single person that spoke a different language.
The only exception would be a tourist, which you can't control that.
But the people on the island speak English,
and they speak English better than most of the people in our society.
So, you know, the cool thing about, like, some of these Caribbean islands,
you know, I visited Jamaica and some of these other ones,
they're kind of seemingly a little bit more destitute
or a little bit more impoverished than America.
But, like, the Bahamas doesn't feel that way as much.
You know, people are very educated there.
There is some ghetto areas.
Like, we went to a few areas that were kind of ghetto,
but I could take you into Fort Worth right now,
and it would seem like a third-world country, too.
So, it's not entirely different.
The island's not a very big island.
So, it's, you know, really a lot of places you can kind of just walk to.
You could get a cab and stuff like that.
But I don't know what the exact population is.
I'd have to look that up again.
But there's definitely a lot of people there.
And as Brother Connolly has said, you know, I've only been there one time visiting,
but the people there are just Christian in general.
It's kind of similar.
Jamaica's like this as well,
where the school actually has a Bible devotion every morning.
And so, they're reading the Bible every day.
They're hearing the Bible being preached on a regular basis.
And typically, the heretics are the teachers and the leaders in these countries
that the student body and all the other people are very receptive to the gospel
and so, if you get an opportunity to do a foreign trip,
you know, that would be a great one to go on.
It's just as receptive as Mexico, though.
The only drawback is that you have to speak Spanish.
But if you do speak Spanish,
honestly, I don't even know that it's much different than the Bahamas in general.
The thing that I like about the Bahamas is I'm a better soul-wandering English than I am in Spanish.
So, it's just easier to articulate things and to explain things.
But just pray that the Lord will keep the doors open
because we tried to plan this event before
and then, obviously, unleashed the weird COVID nonsense
that happened to our country and the world.
And the midterm's around the corner, so you never know.
But we can just pray that the Lord will just keep the doors open right now
and we'd have an opportunity to go.
And probably after the midterms is when I'll go ahead and confirm
that particular trip just to try and anticipate what could or could not happen.
So, I don't know.
But I do want to go there.
It's kind of my number one target for a missions trip
outside of something like Mexico, which is so easy for us to do on a regular basis.
So, that's pretty much all I have.
Four announcements.
Let's please go to our third song this morning.
And we're going to do a hymn first.
We're going to do a hymn and then we're going to do our third song.
So, we're going to do Psalm 147 and our handouts.
Psalm 147. Try to sing along with Brother Dylan.
All right. So, Psalm 147 first here.
Psalm 147.
Praise ye the Lord, for it is good to sing praises unto our God.
For it is pleasant and praises complete, the Lord doth build up Jerusalem.
He gathereth together the outcasts of Israel.
He healeth the broken, imparted, bindeth of their wounds.
He telleth of number of the stars.
He calleth them all.
He calleth them all by their names.
Great is our Lord and of great power.
His understanding is infinite.
The Lord lifted up the meek, He casteth the wicked down to the ground.
Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving.
Sing praise upon the heart, unto our God,
who covereth the heaven with clouds,
who prepareth rain for the earth,
who maketh grass, grass to grow upon the mountains.
He giveth to the beast his food,
and to the young ravens which cry,
in the strength of the force he taketh not pleasure in.
The legs of a man the Lord taketh pleasure in them,
that fear Him in those that hope in His mercy.
Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem.
Praise thy God, O Zion.
O Jerusalem, for He hath strengthened the bars
of thy gates He hath blessed.
Thy children within thee He maketh peace in thy borders and philanthropy.
With the finest of the wheat He sendeth forth His commandment.
Upon earth His work runneth very swiftly.
He giveth snow like wool.
He scattereth the poor frost like ashes.
Scattereth the poor frost like ashes.
He casteth forth His eyes like more,
souls who can stand before His cold.
He sendeth out His word and melteth them,
because of His wind to blow.
And the waters flow, He showeth His word unto Jacob,
His statutes and His judgments unto Israel.
He hath not dealt so with any nation,
and as for His judgments,
they have not done them.
Praise ye the Lord.
All right, good singing.
We'll go to 248,
Now I Belong to Jesus.
248, Now I Belong to Jesus.
Song 248, Now I Belong to Jesus.
Jesus, my Lord, will love me forever.
From Him no power of evil can sever.
He gave His life to ransom my soul.
Now I Belong to Him.
Now I Belong to Jesus.
Jesus belongs to me.
Not for the years of time alone,
but for eternity.
Once I was lost in sin's degradation,
Jesus came down to bring me salvation,
lifted me up from sorrow and shame.
Now I Belong to Him.
Now I Belong to Jesus.
Jesus belongs to me.
Not for the years of time alone,
but for eternity.
Joy floods my soul, for Jesus has saved me,
freed me from sin that long had enslaved me.
His precious blood He gave to redeem.
Now I Belong to Him.
Now I Belong to Jesus.
Jesus belongs to me.
Not for the years of time alone,
but for eternity.
As the offering plates are passed around,
turn in your Bible to Psalm chapter 3.
Psalm chapter 3.
And we're going to read the whole chapter together.
You can follow along silently, starting at verse 1.
Psalm 3.
The Bible reads there in Psalm chapter 3.
Lord, how are they increased that trouble me?
Many are they that rise up against me.
Many there be which say of my soul
there is no help for him in God, Selah.
But thou, O Lord, art a shield for me,
my glory and the lifter up of mine head.
I cried unto the Lord with my voice
and he heard me out of his holy hill, Selah.
I laid me down and slept.
I awaked, for the Lord sustained me.
I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people
that have set themselves against me round about.
Arise, O Lord, save me, O my God,
for thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheekbone.
Thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly.
Salvation belongeth unto the Lord.
Thy blessing is upon thy people, Selah.
Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.
Father God, just pray now, Lord,
that you would fill Pastor Shelley with your spirit,
give him clarity of mind as he preaches to us
and enable him to preach his sermon with boldness,
and also, Lord, help us to apply the message
so that we can be more complete Christians
and help us also, Lord, to pay attention, Father God,
so that we may be edified by the preaching of your word.
We thank you for our church
and we ask for your hedge of protection over it,
and we love you, and in Jesus' name I pray, amen.
Amen.
The verse I want to look back is verse 8.
The Bible reads,
Salvation belongeth unto the Lord.
And the title of my sermon this morning is this,
Salvation is of God.
Now, in Psalm chapter number 3,
the context is very clear
about a physical salvation from enemies.
And, you know, the Lord in the Bible
always uses carnal truths to expound spiritual truths.
And what you have to realize about the Bible
and about God's word is that you first need to understand
the carnal application
so you can understand the spiritual application,
but when it comes to salvation,
the word can be used in a lot of contexts in the Bible,
and there's plenty of places in the Bible
where it talks about a physical salvation.
What could be more obvious
than someone being thrown into the fiery furnace
and being pulled out,
them being thrown in the lion's den
and coming out unscathed,
no lion even touched you?
What could be more obvious than getting on the ark
and being escaped from a worldwide cataclysmic flood
that kills every living creature that has breath,
that breathes oxygen, essentially,
that all of them were destroyed in this flood?
So God uses a lot of physical pictures
and carnal truths throughout the Bible
to illustrate a spiritual truth,
but in all of these scenarios
when we read about in the Bible,
it's always God that's bringing the salvation.
The salvation just simply belongs to God,
and the salvation is of God.
Now, go to John chapter 1.
Go to John chapter 1.
Why does God do this
so then we can understand the spiritual truth as well?
Because we don't, as a person,
we don't relate to the spiritual world
as well as we do to the carnal world.
The carnal world's easier for us to understand.
We are carnal. We have a flesh.
We deal in the physical reality on a regular basis,
and so God often gives us these carnal physical truths
to help us better understand the spiritual truths
so that we can relate to them
so they make sense to us.
You know, some people, of course, that are unsaved,
they will just only believe the carnal truth.
They'll believe everything is carnal and physical,
and they'll never actually apply the Bible spiritually.
Then there's some people that make another mistake
where they basically only apply it spiritually,
and just everything in the Bible is just not even real.
There'll be people that'll say,
like, oh, Adam and Eve weren't real.
It's just a story to tell us how to live,
and Revelation's not real, and Jesus isn't coming.
It's just a story. No, no, no.
All these are bad ways to interpret the Bible.
You kind of have to understand
that the Bible's giving us both on a regular basis.
He gives us all kinds of different examples
of things that literally happen
so that we can better understand them.
God uses animals in the same way.
You know, Jesus Christ is compared to being a lamb.
You know, he didn't give us the example of a lamb
because it's a fictional animal.
He gave us a lamb because it's a real, living,
breathing animal that we can look at,
we can observe, we can understand.
What is a lamb?
A lamb's a delicate, precious little creature.
I mean, you know, everybody likes a lamb,
and so that's kind of the picture of the Lord Jesus Christ
is just this innocent, perfect little animal,
in a sense, is the metaphor for him,
is him coming to this earth
and being that perfect, spotless lamb for us
and dying on the cross.
He uses oxen to illustrate a preacher
and someone that has to constantly tread
and do a bunch of hard labor
as someone that preaches the word of God.
He uses an ostrich to illustrate dumb feminists, okay?
And, you know, he uses all kinds of different creatures
to illustrate, you know, he uses a snake,
which is a really cunning beast and a clever beast,
to illustrate what the devil's like
and illustrate what demons are like.
It's not that we don't have snakes and lambs
and scorpions and all these different animals.
We do.
They are a physical reality.
That's why I also believe
that there is a real Leviathan, Behemoth.
There's a fire-flying serpent
that things that talk about dragons,
of course, they have to be real
because God isn't just using fictional things
to tell us about the spiritual world.
He's using real carnal truths
to help us understand spiritual truths.
So that's a really important lesson
that is not limited to this sermon.
You have to constantly be reminded of
and anytime you're understanding the Bible
or trying to formulate correct doctrine.
Now, here in John chapter 1, look at verse 12.
The Bible says,
But as many as received him,
talking about the Lord Jesus Christ,
to them gave you power to become the sons of God,
even to them that believe in his name.
Now, the word even means specifically.
That's what that word even means every time.
Every time you see the word even,
just think specifically in your mind.
It'll help you understand the Bible better.
So he's saying specifically,
the people that believe in Jesus
are the ones that received him
and became the sons of God.
Verse 13,
Which were born not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man,
but of God.
And so notice that the salvation is of God.
Salvation is not of birth.
Salvation is not of blood.
I'm sorry, it is a birth.
It's not of blood.
It's not of the will of flesh,
nor is it the will of man.
And really, that's kind of the three points
that I want to make this morning.
And what I like about the Bible
is not only does God tell us what salvation is,
he tells us what salvation is not.
So he wants to even make salvation so clear
to make it understandable
that salvation is not three really big false doctrines.
Now, the first one is that it's not of blood.
So Nicodemus is confused about this
because in John chapter number three
he's asking how does he crawl back
into his mother's womb,
which is a bizarre idea.
But that's what happens when you're unsaved.
You come up with really stupid carnal doctrines
like the Catholic church
who comes up with stupid carnal doctrines
saying you have to literally eat Jesus' body and blood
or you have to drink his blood
and eat his body in order to be saved.
That's a weird, wicked false doctrine
because they never can spiritualize the word of God.
They always have to carnalize it.
Nicodemus carnalizes the Bible
and thinks it's somehow of blood.
Now, what does this mean, of blood?
Keep your finger here in John,
but go, if you would, to 1 John chapter number five.
It's towards the end of your Bible.
Right before the book of Revelation,
we kind of have the first few Johns and Jude.
So you have one, two, three, John and Jude in Revelation.
1 John chapter five, look at verse number six.
The Bible says,
this is he that came by water and blood,
even Jesus Christ,
meaning what specifically Jesus Christ,
not by water only, but by water and blood.
And it is the spirit that beareth witness
because the spirit is truth.
So when the Bible is talking about Jesus' birth
or him coming in the flesh,
it says, hey, this wasn't just by water,
it was by blood too.
Why? Because blood is associated with birth.
And I want to show another verse here.
Go to Leviticus,
go all the way back to Leviticus,
chapter number 12.
Leviticus chapter number 12.
And I want to show you this,
but anybody that's ever had a child
could tell you water and blood
are a part of that situation.
And so that's what you have to realize.
You know, a lot of times women will say,
my water broke.
That's kind of signifying the very beginning stages.
But it could even happen at the time of birth.
You know, sometimes the water doesn't even break
until essentially like right at the birthing process.
But there's also a issue of blood.
And the Bible says in Leviticus 12, look at verse 7.
Who shall offer it before the Lord
and make an atonement for her.
This is talking about a woman that just gave birth.
And she shall be cleansed from the issue of her blood.
This is the law for her
that hath borne a male or a female.
Notice there was only two options for birth,
male or female.
There wasn't two spirit, okay.
There wasn't male left of center,
whatever bizarre nonsense they want to come up with.
No, no, no.
You either gave birth to a male or a female,
or you didn't give birth.
And notice that the birth is an issue of her blood.
And so we see that that blood,
when it's talking about that salvation
when they were born, it's not a blood.
It's talking about it has nothing to do with physical birth.
Salvation has zero to do with who your parents are
or any kind of a physical birth.
Go back to John and just flip the page to chapter 3.
Look at verse number 5.
Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
except a man be born of water
and of the Spirit he cannot enter in the kingdom of God.
So Jesus is saying, hey, there's not just one birth here.
There was a birth that you got from your mother
that was of water and blood,
but that is not what we're talking about in going to heaven.
You also have to be born of the Spirit.
So there's a completely different birth
that has nothing to do with the physical
and everything to do with the spiritual.
He says in verse number 6,
that which is born of the flesh is flesh,
and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again.
The wind bloweth where it listeth.
Now here's the sound thereof,
but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth,
so is everyone that is born of the Spirit.
Now you reap what you sow, here's the thing.
If you do not sow something spiritual,
you're not going to reap something spiritual.
So if I sow something carnal,
I'm going to reap something carnal.
As evidenced by the fact that those who believe
salvation is by physical birth,
they sow this doctrine of physical birth
and they reap a physical birth congregation,
meaning that their congregation
is not a congregation of spiritual beings
but of carnal physical beings
that then become what?
Racist.
If I believe that salvation is a physical birth,
what is that going to lead me to believe?
That some people are better than others
based on their physical birth.
And what is that going to then lead to?
Racism.
Basically just teaching that some people
are better than others based on their physical birth.
But you know, that's not a biblical doctrine.
Obviously people are born with different proclivities,
with more blessings.
Some people are born with a silver spoon in their mouth.
But at the end of the day, according to the Scripture,
no one is born just more special than another person
or saved and another person's not.
That's completely different.
There's a separate birth that describes if you're saved
and of course the people who believe this the most
are the Jews.
Why do you think that they're so racist?
It's because they literally believe
they're better than other people based on birth alone.
They believe just based on
inherently being born into a Jewish family
that they are just automatically God's children,
that they are automatically blessed better than everybody else,
and that the goyim, or as they describe
the Gentiles or the other nations,
are simply inferior,
they're a subhuman race
that is literally just not even worth their spit to spit on,
and that is kind of their ideology
that they have derived, and that's their religion.
Now they still have converts, I believe,
and there's a lot of mixture of beliefs out there
for the Jews, but of course in Jesus' time
it was no different.
They thought because they were the seed of Abraham,
they were saved.
Go to Galatians, chapter number four.
But you know, the Bible makes it abundantly clear
that being born again is a spiritual transaction
that happens the moment you believe.
And I'm just going to read for you,
but in 1 John, chapter number five,
the Bible says,
Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ
is born of God.
So salvation and the birth,
according to the Bible, is unequivocal.
Believing in Jesus, that's how you get the birth.
Whosoever, meaning anyone,
believeth that Jesus is the Christ
is born of God.
So according to the Bible,
those who believed on Jesus,
and of course believing he's the Christ,
has some things attached to it.
You have to believe in his deity.
You have to believe all the things he said about himself.
Being the Christ means he's the Savior and Messiah,
meaning that he's the one that died on the cross
and paid all of your sins.
So ultimately, you have to think about this.
By denying that Jesus paid all of your sins,
you're not even believing he's the Christ,
because being the Christ inherently denotes
that you paid for all of their sins.
You're the one that's going to save them.
Also, by attaching your form of work salvation
or losing your salvation,
you're not believing Jesus is the Christ.
You're thinking you're the Christ.
You're thinking you're the Messiah.
You're thinking that you have some part to play
in this equation.
No, believing that Jesus is the Christ
is what saves you.
What? The one who died on the cross
was buried, rose again, paid all of your sins,
and that salvation's only through him.
That is what salvation is.
And so when it says that you believe that Jesus is the Christ,
it's not just acknowledging
some fact about Jesus here, folks, okay?
Some people would say,
oh, yeah, if I just say this phrase,
Jesus is the Christ, I'm saved.
That doesn't make you saved.
What makes you saved is believing that,
not saying it.
You could say it all day long, and it won't save you.
What saves you is believing in it
and trusting in him alone as your only savior.
That's what seals your fate into heaven.
And in Galatians, chapter number four,
to give you a little bit of context here,
this is a church that's been mixed up into work salvation.
Now, honestly, for someone that comes to our church,
this might seem a little, like, impossible.
But typically why it's impossible,
seeming to a lot of people, is because they go soul winning.
If you go soul winning on a regular basis,
it's hard to feel like you could ever get mixed up
on salvation or the doctrine of salvation.
But here's the thing.
There's a lot of people that are saved,
and they don't go soul winning,
so they end up being a forgetful hearer of the word of God.
They're not a doer of the work,
but they're a forgetful hearer.
And they will start entertaining heretics.
They will start entertaining false doctrine
on the gospel of salvation.
They'll start entertaining weird junk
about, well, but you got to do this extra thing to be saved,
or you got to be willing to do this extra thing.
Or, well, if you didn't get baptized,
are you really saved?
Of course, in this example, it's you didn't get circumcised.
But in the modern context, that's not as relevant of a doctrine.
It's more similar to someone saying, hey, getting baptized,
or going to church, or being sorry enough,
or really repenting your sins.
Just carte blanche, whatever weird junk
you want to attach to the gospel.
But the apostle Paul says, hey, I didn't tolerate that for an hour.
You know what that tells me?
If you showed up at a church,
and they start teaching work salvation,
you would walk out.
You wouldn't even finish the service.
He's saying, hey, I'm not going to subject myself
to false doctrine for one hour.
It's not even possible.
I will not.
And you know what?
We as independent fundamental Baptists,
we need to have zero tolerance
for any corruption of the gospel.
And I'm not saying like just full blown work salvation.
I'm saying even 1%.
Because in Galatians, they're saying, hey,
let me make it clear, even just adding circumcision,
this is a false gospel.
I'm not going to frustrate the grace of God.
In fact, I'm afraid of you.
Because anybody that wants to add even 0.001% to salvation
is tampering with the holy word of God.
It's tampering with salvation.
It damsels to hell.
And you know what?
We should have zero tolerance for it.
None.
There are some things to have tolerance for.
There's times when people preach things behind my pulpit,
and I don't even agree with it.
But I don't feel like I have to just interrupt the service
and scream and yell or anything like that.
I sat in this room and heard things I disagree with.
But it doesn't matter to me because it's not
that big a deal.
But you know what?
I'm not going to run up and teaching work salvation.
I'm going to run down the aisle and pick the guy up
and throw him out of the room.
If he doesn't run away screaming first, OK?
We're not going to tolerate that kind of junk.
And you should never tolerate that kind of junk.
But let me tell you how you're going to not tolerate it
and go soul winning.
When you don't go soul winning,
then you'll show up at Gateway later.
You'll go to whatever weird nom-the-nom, repent
of your sins, whatever kind of junky church,
because you've forgotten what the gospel is.
But look at Galatians chapter 4 verse 21.
Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law,
do you not hear the law?
For it is written that Abraham had two sons,
the one by a bond made and the other by a free one.
But he who was of the bondwoman
was born after the flesh.
But he of the free woman was by promise,
which things are an allegory.
So Abraham had two sons, Isaac and Ishmael.
Ishmael, which is so funny, is actually a picture of something.
It's an allegory.
And you say, what is Ishmael a picture of?
Jews.
Isn't it so funny that the Jews,
they hate the Middle Easterner,
and they hate the Arab,
and they hate the guy that they claim is Ishmael?
But they are actually the real Ishmael.
If you were to understand the Bible,
they are not Isaac.
The real Isaac is you and me.
We believed in Jesus Christ.
Ishmael was born after the flesh,
but Isaac was born of promise,
meaning it was like a spiritual picture,
whereas the other one was a carnal picture.
But notice God gave both,
and we really have physical Ishmael with us.
It's in Israel.
It is who they call the Jews.
The Jews today are Ishmael.
You want to find Ishmael?
Go to Chase Bank.
You want to know where Ishmael is hiding?
He's hiding in the hills of Hollywood.
That's where Ishmael is.
Ishmael is hiding.
Find some smut on the Internet,
and Ishmael is behind it.
Ishmael has got the big nose
and charges interest,
and Ishmael is the one
who is the real evil person in this world.
And he's a fake.
He's an imposter.
He's not a real Jew.
Just like a lot of people
want to pretend to be something that they're not.
That doctrine, that transgender doctrine,
didn't start with the LGBT AIDS community.
No, it started with the Jew trying to pretend to be a Jew.
And it started with the devil
transforming himself into an angel of light.
But we notice that the enemy
always likes to pretend to be something that they're not.
They're not happy with who they are.
They hate who they are,
and they hate their birth.
And, of course,
you know, Ishmael, this birth here,
is not anything special.
You know, being born of Abraham physically is meaningless.
Let me explain something to you.
Ishmael is a son of Abraham.
Let me say this again.
Ishmael is a son of Abraham.
Let me tell you something.
The Middle Easterner,
the ah-la-la-la-la-la,
is a seed of Abraham,
is born of Abraham physically.
You know, they always want to tell you,
those in the Middle East, the Jews, they want to be like,
oh, we're special because we're born of Abraham.
So is your Islamic terrorist brother.
His name is literally Ishmael.
He's Ishmael in every way.
You're a spiritual Ishmael, okay?
But guess what?
Y'all are brothers,
and your false religion is from the same daddy, the devil.
And let me tell you something.
There is nothing special
being physically born of Abraham.
What makes you special
is that you're spiritually born after Abraham.
That's what makes you special.
Because let me tell you something.
Ishmael is thrown out.
Ishmael is kicked out of the family.
And just like all the Jews are going to be kicked out,
they're not going into heaven,
nothing special about them.
He says in verse 24,
which things are an allegory
for these are the two covenants,
the one from the Mount Sinai,
which genderth the bondage,
which is Agar,
for this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia
and answerth to Jerusalem,
which now is,
So he's saying, hey, Jerusalem right now is Agar.
Now, of course, in the context of this chapter,
what he's saying is the Jerusalem
that existed at that point in time.
Now, for us, this applies still
because Jerusalem literally is still
an area filled with a bunch of spiritual Ishmaels.
But, of course, there was a giant Jewish diaspora
and a large portion of our New Testament history
where you couldn't say Jerusalem that now is
and is filled with a bunch of spiritual Ishmael.
That's a modern invention of the devil,
1948, in the modern state of Israel.
But in the context of this chapter,
we're talking about the physical Jews
that live in Jerusalem at this time.
He's saying they're the ones in bondage.
Their birth is after the birth of Agar,
not after the birth of Sarah.
You know, if you really want to figure out
the right lineage that's damning,
it's like, are you born of Sarah
or are you born of Agar?
Because being born of Abraham was not the thing that mattered.
What mattered is if you're born after Sarah
or born after Agar.
But even the Jews were born after Sarah physically.
But that didn't matter.
What you had to be is born after Sarah spiritually.
Now, he says here in verse number 26,
But Jerusalem which is above is free,
which is the mother of us all.
So, also notice this.
Salvation for every person that is saved was from above.
It wasn't from anything down here.
Notice it's the mother of us all.
All of us have the same mother
in the spiritual sense that we're all born from heaven.
We're all born of God.
That salvation that came unto us
had nothing to do with here or what's going on.
It had to come from God specifically.
Verse 27,
You know what I think about that verse is how there's,
I believe, and this is what this verse is saying,
there are more Christians, more saved people
than there are of this physical Jewish nation.
Think about it.
The physical Jews only make up a handful of million people,
15 million people or 20 million people or something like that,
whereas there's hundreds of millions of Christians.
There's hundreds of millions of people that are saved.
So it's saying,
you guys seem like a lot of people physically,
but let me explain something.
The spiritual nation that's going to replace you
is going to have more people than you guys.
There's going to be more people that are saved,
and they shouldn't be upset about that.
And frankly speaking,
no matter how many physical children you have,
you can have way more spiritual children
by preaching the gospel.
And you know what, when you go to heaven,
some people, I'm going to just say this, it's sad,
but some people are going to go to heaven,
and they're physical children or not.
You know, and that would be sad.
I want all of your physical children to go to heaven,
and that's why it's important to preach them the gospel.
But you know what?
There's going to be some people that had one child
or two child or no children,
and they're going to have hundreds of children in heaven spiritually,
and there's going to be people that had 10 children physically,
and they have zero children in heaven, physically or spiritually.
So, you know, the thing that really matters,
and the thing that you're going to really rejoice in,
and the thing that's going to really be impactful
for all of eternity is the people that you got saved in this life.
You know, the Bible's saying, like, those that were married,
it's going to be like you weren't even married in heaven,
and those that had children, it's going to be like you didn't even have children,
because none of the physical even matters.
None of it matters.
You know what matters is the spiritual.
You know what matters is going out
and travailing spiritually and birthing people spiritually
by preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And you know what?
There's no cap.
And let me tell you this.
It's way less painful.
I've watched it, okay?
I've never seen someone get saved spiritually,
and it looked anywhere close to as painful as physical birth, all right?
Nor does it take nearly as long, all right?
Usually it's way quicker, all right,
which is a blessing in every single category.
And think about this.
The Bible says that, in verse 28,
Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.
What does the Bible say?
And this is the promise that he hath promised us even eternal life.
Hey, you know what birthed us?
Eternal life.
Hey, we're the children of promise.
We're the children of eternal life.
You know what saved me?
A promise.
You know what saved me?
Spiritual birth.
You know what saved me?
Something from heaven.
You know what saved me?
God.
Salvation is of God.
There's nothing about me physically that matters at all.
Zero, okay?
Let's go to our another point.
Go to John chapter 6.
What was the second thing that salvation was not of?
It was not of the will of the flesh.
Now, interestingly enough,
it has a will of the flesh and a will of man,
and I believe that there is a distinction
that we could try to make here
in this particular phraseology,
but what does the word will mean?
It can mean a lot of different things.
Typically, it kind of means desire or a wish
or something kind of related to that.
What is the will of the flesh?
What is the desire of the flesh?
Or what is what your flesh wants?
A lot of things, right?
But ultimately, what does your flesh want?
It wants something carnal.
The flesh is a carnal thing.
There's nothing about it.
You know, God is not going to redeem our flesh
in the sense that he's not going to take this flesh
and redeem it.
This flesh has to die,
and then he's going to remake it, okay?
And he even talks about it with Noah.
He's like, my spirit can't dwell with flesh.
He's like, it's terrible.
You know, it's junky or whatever.
So he has to kind of renew or remake our flesh,
and what's really being redeemed is our soul inside
was made new when we believed in him,
but there was nothing of our flesh.
And you know, another way that I liken this point
is that salvation was nothing of our physical strength
or physical capacity,
because the will of the flesh would be something
desires of the flesh,
but then what's going to make that happen
is the strength that you have, right?
My strength to do something
or make something happen or whatever.
But look what it says in John 6, verse 63.
It is the spirit that quickeneth.
The flesh profited nothing.
Well, but I think you still have to do this to be saved.
No.
Baptism.
It profited you nothing as far as going to heaven.
In the context of salvation,
your flesh, no matter what you did,
it profited you nothing when it came to salvation,
because it is the spirit that quickeneth.
He said, the words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life.
But what really gave us salvation? This.
The salvations of God.
There was nothing about me or physical,
you know, the transaction to get someone saved,
it's a spiritual birth, has nothing to do with physically,
and also it's not the will of the flesh,
it's the will of this book.
It's the strength of this book,
it's the power of God's word,
it's not your human power.
It's not your human effort.
It's nothing that you can do of your flesh.
Go to Romans chapter number 2.
And look at verse 28.
The Bible says,
for he is not a Jew,
which is one outwardly,
neither is that circumcision,
notice this,
which is outward in the flesh.
So, chopping off your flesh doesn't get you saved.
Chopping off your flesh doesn't make you a Jew.
Chopping off your flesh doesn't make you a girl.
Okay?
It doesn't change anything,
it's just chopping off flesh.
And, of course here, you know who's not a Jew,
is Goldstein.
Weinberg.
Steinberg.
Spielberg.
What?
Berg.
You know, I don't know.
It's all the same, right?
That's not what makes you a Jew.
What does it say?
Verse 29.
But he is a Jew,
which is one inwardly,
and circumcision is that of the heart and the spirit,
and not in the letter,
whose praise is not of men,
but of God.
So, notice how,
where is salvation coming from?
Of God.
Salvation is of God,
as the Bible describes it.
It's not an outward transformation.
It's not an outward change.
It wasn't some kind of effort or energy
or something that I did.
No, no, no.
There was something inside.
It was a spiritual transaction that saves someone,
and it was of God.
Look at chapter 3, verse 20.
Chapter 3, verse 20.
Therefore, by the deeds of the law,
there shall no flesh be justified in his sight.
For by the law is the knowledge of sin.
So, saying, look, your deeds,
what you do,
your physical strength
is never going to give you any kind of justification.
There is zero justification
through the will of the flesh,
through what you can do.
Well, I'm going to commit myself to the Lord more.
You know, I preached the gospel in Houston,
and I was explaining to this young lady,
I said, look, salvation is a gift.
You receive it.
I said, you don't surrender to the Lord.
You don't give your life to the Lord.
And as soon as I said this,
it was like this giant light bulb just went off on her head,
and she's just like, wow.
She's like, you're right.
We're not giving.
We're receiving.
And then she just said it audibly.
She's like, that was like a giant aha moment.
And it was just like, yeah,
because look, what did the language use
by so many churches this morning?
Give your life to Christ.
Surrender your life to Christ.
Be willing to commit to Christ.
Who's going to come down and lay their heart on the altar?
But here's the thing.
I don't lay down my heart.
Jesus laid down his life, and I received it.
Jesus surrendered his life, and I received it.
Jesus committed unto the cross, and I received it.
I didn't commit, surrender, give, lay down.
All I did was receive salvation,
because it's a gift, folks.
It wasn't anything I could do.
There was no, I just, I'm going to get saved.
I can't do it.
All I can do is receive it.
It's not how strong I am.
It's not like, well, I gave up drinking.
Okay, good, but that didn't save you.
Well, I gave up lying.
No, you didn't.
Liar.
Well, I gave up sin.
No, you didn't.
Oh, I repented of my sin.
Liar.
You're still sinful.
I gave up this sin.
You probably still didn't give up that sin,
but even if you did, what about the 9,000 other sins
that you have in your life?
I mean, it's such a weird exchange
that people think in their mind like,
well, if I give up drinking, that'll get me saved.
No, it won't.
And there are many people.
I've talked to people.
I said, hey, do you want to go to heaven?
They're like, well, I'm not ready to give up drinking.
Okay, do you want to get saved?
Well, I'm not ready.
You know, I'm not on my deathbed.
You don't have to be on your deathbed.
Well, look, salvation's not an exchange.
It's not something you give up.
By the deeds of the law, no flesh shall be justified.
Didn't we just read that?
Look at verse 1 of chapter 4.
What shall we say then?
That Abraham our father, notice this,
as pertaining to the flesh hath found.
So it's saying, hey, what did Abraham find
in pertaining to the flesh?
Verse 2.
For if Abraham were justified by works,
he hath where after glory, but not before God.
So he's saying, hey, what did Abraham find
according to the flesh?
And then what does it relate that flesh word to?
Works.
So what are we talking,
what's the will of the flesh?
Works.
Why is it the will of the flesh is works?
It's because your flesh is prideful.
And what is the desire of your flesh?
It's to save itself.
It's to save its own skin.
It is to do some work or to do something
in order to achieve salvation.
But you know what?
Abraham didn't find anything pertaining to the flesh.
Abraham didn't find any kind of salvation
according to works.
Look at verse number 3.
For what sayeth the scripture?
Abraham believed God,
and it was accounted unto righteousness.
So notice, Abraham didn't find anything pertaining to the flesh
because then works would have saved him.
No, he believed, and that's what gave him his righteousness.
That's what makes him Father Abraham.
That's what makes him the spiritual being he is.
Go to Romans 9 and look at verse number 7.
Look at Romans 9, verse 7.
Neither because are the seed of Abraham are they all children.
So just because you're a seed of Abraham
doesn't make you a child.
But in Isaac shall thy seed be called,
that is, they which are the children,
notice this, of the flesh.
These are not the children of God.
Well, how dare you say that Jews aren't the children of God?
I didn't. Paul did.
Oh, you're so mean.
Well, then Paul's mean.
Oh, Paul's mean.
Okay, then I'm going to be mean.
You know what?
It's like, I don't think you should be mean.
Well, is this statement mean?
They're not the children of God.
They're like, yes.
Well, then Paul's mean.
And if Paul's mean, then you know who's going to be mean?
I'm going to be mean.
Because I'm going to preach whatever the Bible says.
Mean, nice, happy, ugly, whatever it is,
I want to say it.
Because you know what?
I'm commanded to preach whatever God said
and whatever the Bible says, not however you think.
Well, I like what you said.
I just don't like how you said it.
Okay, well, read the Bible.
And then maybe you'll start liking how I said it too.
Because you know what?
I'm trying to say it exactly like the Bible's saying it.
And you know what?
The apostle Paul said some things that I think were mean.
But you know what?
Sometimes the truth is mean.
You know, it's mean to liars.
It's mean to rapists.
You know, the Bible's really mean to sodomite disgusting pervert freaks.
The Bible's really mean to all the people who are going to split hell wide open.
I mean, hey, yeah, it's mean.
But you know what?
That's reality.
Because guess what?
They're mean too.
Oh, you're so hateful.
You're hateful.
You're mean.
It's like, oh, okay, this is a fun game.
It's like, show me the person that's never been mean in their life.
You know, sometimes people are mean and it's good for you.
You know, the Bible talks about how an angry countenance is going to drive away a backbiting tongue.
Oh, that was a mean look.
Praise God, because it stopped the backbiting tongue.
You know what?
We need more people to scold people for doing dumb things.
Let me tell you something.
If you come up to me like, hey, do you think they're this flat?
You're going to get a mean look, answer, and rebuke.
But it's because I love you and I don't want you to be the dumbest person ever.
Okay?
So mean can be actually nice.
Mean's actually helpful.
Mean's actually good.
And you know what's mean?
To tell someone that they're the child of God when they're not.
That's what's really mean.
And allow people to just split hell wide open and not even warn them of the danger
of hell fire.
That's what's really mean.
What's not mean is telling someone that they're not a child of God
when they're not a child of God.
That's just called truth.
And if you want to call it mean, call it whatever you want.
But let me tell you, it's Bible.
And it's not of the will of the flesh.
These are the children of flesh, but that doesn't help you.
But the children of the promise are counted for their seed,
for this is the word of promise at this time I come,
and Sarah shall have a son.
And notice that it's not a physical birth, it's the spiritual birth.
And notice that those of the physical birth are of the flesh
and going for what?
The will of the flesh, the desires of the flesh.
Look at Romans 10.
It says in verse number 3,
For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness,
and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves in the righteousness of God.
So according to the Bible, hey, they're going after their own will,
their own desire, what?
The will of the flesh to find some kind of a work salvation,
to be like their father Cain.
Cain, who offered of the fruits of the ground,
and all of his work, and all of his labor,
and said, here's my fruits and vegetables.
And God said, well, you know what?
It's meat only diet.
We're not putting beans in the chili.
I can't believe he keeps bringing that up.
Well, it keeps fitting in the Bible, so there you go.
I'm not like Cain.
I'm not putting beans in the chili.
You know what?
It's meat only, right?
And God had not respect unto Cain's offering.
And you know what?
I have not respect unto the chili with beans in it.
All right, there you go.
Doesn't mean God didn't create beans, all right?
It's just we don't put them in our chili,
so we're not heretics.
Now, go over to Galatians chapter 2.
Galatians chapter 2.
You say, well, every other state does.
Yeah, they're not Texas.
Duh.
There's a reason why we're in Texas, OK, folks?
Galatians chapter 2, look at verse 16.
Knowing.
I love this word, just knowing.
Well, how do you know it?
How do you know you're saved?
I just know.
Yeah, no one can know if they're saved.
I know.
Well, no one knows how to get to heaven.
I know.
Knowing.
Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law,
but by the faith of Jesus Christ,
even we believe in Jesus Christ
that we might be justified by the faith of Christ
and not by the works of the law,
for by the works of the law shall no flesh be saved.
Hey, let me tell you something.
Your will of the flesh is meaningless.
And if you think that the will of the flesh
is getting you to heaven, you're not saved.
If you don't know that you're saved,
you're probably not saved.
Because those who are saved know.
That's why I like to say, hey, do you know
for sure you go to heaven?
Now, here's the problem.
In America, 90% of people think they know and they don't.
So then you have to be mean
and tell them that they actually don't know.
But you know what's really mean?
It's just saying, oh, you're good, bye.
Don't a lot of independent,
don't a lot of Baptist do that?
Oh, you're a Christian?
Okay, bye.
Oh, you don't want to talk to me?
I can't confront your gospel.
I can't confront what you believe
because that would be mean.
No, no, no, let me tell you something.
What's mean is not confronting people on their salvation.
That's what's really mean.
How dare you ask me that question?
Well, I'm not a mean person.
I don't feel like we should bring up this conversation.
I feel like we should.
Well, that's a really deep question.
Great, let's talk about it.
It's the most important one.
I'm not afraid to confront you about the gospel
because that's the one thing that matters in this life
and we need people that are bold
that are gonna confront people with the gospel.
We have confrontational soul winning.
You say, what does that mean?
I don't get up in people's faces like, you're not saved.
But I will get in their faces and say,
hey, what do you think you have to do to go to heaven?
I'm gonna confront them about the gospel.
Now, I'm not trying to do it in a mean-spirited,
over-the-top way, but at the same time,
I'm not gonna be such a coward
to be afraid to even ask people what they believe
or to trivial about doctrine.
They're like, oh, well, who cares about this
or why does it even matter?
It's like, it matters
because you're only saved by what you believe anyways.
You're only saved by the word of God.
Salvation is of God.
It's not of the will of the flesh
and so many churches in this area
are teaching salvation by works,
teaching salvation by the will of the flesh,
and it will save no one.
Go to Matthew chapter 19.
Even in Jesus' time,
with the word of God in their physical presence,
people were still believing in work salvation.
People were trying to teach Him work salvation.
Matthew chapter 19, look at verse 16.
"'And behold, one came and said in him,
"'Good Master, what good thing shall I do
"'that I may have eternal life?'
"'And he said in him,
"'Why cause thou me good?'"
Now, notice what this guy wants.
He wants to do some good thing,
the will of the flesh.
Hey, what do I have to do to get saved?
What good thing do I have to do?
And then he's like, well, why are you calling me good?
There is none good.
There is none good but one.
That is God.
But if thou wilt enter into life,
keep the commandments.
Oh, you want it?
Okay, here's your alternative.
You want to be saved by the will of flesh?
Be perfect.
Now, for every other person in this room,
except for the guy in the book,
we're all like, oh, okay, well, I'm screwed then.
You know, it's like, can't do that, right?
But here's the most, here's Jesse Peterson,
or whatever, Jesse Lee Peterson.
And he's saying, which?
Jesus said, thou shalt do no murder,
thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal.
And if you've done all that,
thou shalt not bear false witness.
Oh, yeah, and honor thy father and thy mother.
Oh, and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
The young man saith unto him,
all these things that I kept from my youth up,
what lack I yet?
What a prideful jerk.
Let's bring your mom and dad around.
I want to get a witness.
I want to get a witness on this, right?
And let's get all of your neighbors.
Let's get everybody that's ever met you
in their entire life,
and let's have them just all go down the line.
Has this guy ever sinned?
Nope.
Who believes that?
No one.
You have to be the most prideful person
to think that you've never sinned,
even from your youth.
From my youth.
He says just every single second.
He didn't just say like I didn't sin today.
He says from my youth, I haven't sinned.
I haven't sinned.
What a liar.
Jesus saith unto him,
if thou wilt be perfect,
go and sell that thou hast and give to the poor,
and thou shalt have treasure in heaven,
and come and follow me.
Now here's the thing.
This guy has a facade of how righteous he is,
but Jesus knew, hey, here's an outward thing
that you can't fake.
Okay, you want to be perfect?
Okay, sell everything you have,
and then come follow me.
And he's like, ooh.
But you know what's so funny?
He asked for a good thing to do.
Didn't Jesus even give him a good thing to do?
What is he trying to say?
If there was a way to get saved by doing something,
then Jesus would give it to us,
and we would just do it,
but you know what?
We can't.
It's impossible,
and Jesus will always find something that you can't do
or that you won't do.
You know, the commandments,
it's not like, well, I did 70% of them.
Yeah, but that 30% is what's going to kill you.
That 1% is what's going to kill you.
You know, you could keep every law in America perfect,
but then if you commit murder,
you're going to prison.
Just like, hey, you commit every,
you do everything perfect in the Bible,
but you commit one sin,
you're worthy of hell.
And this person wants to do what?
They want to be saved by the will of the flesh.
Go to Mark chapter 10.
Go to Mark chapter number 10.
You know, Jesus, when he's answering his disciples,
because they said, who then can be saved?
And he said, with men, this is impossible.
But with God, all things are possible.
Let me explain to you.
Can you get saved by the will of flesh?
No, it's impossible.
Why?
Because the flesh isn't possible of being sinless.
You know, so you have to understand that technically speaking,
yes, of course, if you could be sinless,
God has no reason to send you into hell.
He can't send you into hell for being sinless,
but the problem is for all sin.
The problem is it's impossible through flesh.
Flesh is incapable of saving itself, okay?
Just like you, you know, walking to Pluto and back.
You can't do it.
It's just not physically possible.
Just like it's not physically possible for us to be sinless.
Now, this is a parallel passage,
but I want to point out two verses here,
because he said, good master.
Look at verse 20.
And he answered and said to the master.
So Jesus is saying, hey, why cause thou me good?
There's none good but one that's God.
And so when he ended up replying,
and Mark, it explains, he's just like, oh, okay, master.
So he drops the good.
Meaning what?
He didn't believe the deity of Jesus Christ.
This guy doesn't believe anything right.
Oh, okay, master.
Why?
It's funny that the only person
that actually did live a good life,
he can't give him the title.
He wants to take the title of Jesus
and then give it to himself.
And you know what?
That's what work salvation does,
is they take the salvation that God offers
and they try to give it to themselves
by I turned from this.
I surrendered this.
I gave my life.
No, no, no.
He gave his life.
You heretic.
I mean, how prideful a person to take
the title that Jesus has of the one
that laid down his life
and said that I laid down my life.
You unsaved person, you.
You fool.
You didn't lay anything down.
He laid it down.
You're not good.
He's good.
You didn't save yourself.
He saved you.
You didn't repent of your sins.
He had no sin.
You know, everything they wanted,
all the work salvationists want to take
and give it to themselves.
But let me tell you something.
It's not yours for the taking.
You can only receive it.
You can only receive it
until they try to steal his glory,
steal his title, steal his salvation.
But you can't steal it.
You know, that's the guy that shows up in heaven
and it's like, how'd you get in here?
It's like you didn't come in through the door.
You know, and if you don't come in through the door,
you don't get to stay in the party.
Go if you would to 2 Peter chapter 1.
Go to 2 Peter chapter 1.
Last point I have is the will of the man,
will of man.
Salvation's of God.
It's not of blood.
It's not of the will of the flesh,
nor is it the will of man.
Now, what's the distinction here
between will of the flesh and the will of man?
Well, I believe the will of the flesh
is kind of a picture of your strength
and what your flesh desires
and the things your flesh are capable of doing.
But the will of man is a little bit different.
It's like the internal desires of a person, okay?
And how that's different is, you know,
people will say salvation's of repenting of your sins.
That's the will of the flesh.
Baptism, that's the will of the flesh.
They'll say, you gotta show up at church.
You gotta be faithful.
That's all the works of the flesh
and the will of the flesh,
and that's not salvation.
But then there's this even trickier,
more subtle work salvation out there
that says, well, okay, it's not of the flesh.
You gotta be willing to repent of your sins.
You gotta be sorry for your sin.
You gotta have some intrinsic, internal,
just like desire or something like that,
and that's what really saves you.
You know, you gotta really want it, right?
Those people that don't come to church,
they didn't really want Jesus.
They didn't really want a savior.
Maybe they just didn't like you.
Maybe they didn't really wanna go to your church, okay?
Maybe they didn't wanna fight
through a bunch of protesters or something, you know,
show up at church.
Why do you think that someone
who's gonna believe on Jesus Christ
has to wanna go to your church
and has to wanna get on your bus program
and has to wanna get dunked by you?
You know, that's kind of a prideful attitude.
It's one that's more concerned about how they look
than someone going to heaven.
Well, as long as they have big numbers
and big baptism totals and whatever,
they don't really care about the other person.
2 Peter 1 brings up this phrase.
Look at verse 21.
So what does the will of man mean in this context?
It's the same thing in the sense that, you know,
this Bible that I have on my hands,
it didn't come out of the heart of a man.
It didn't come out of his imagination.
He didn't dream it up.
He didn't just want it to happen.
He didn't just say it.
No, no, God's spirit came upon a holy man
and he's giving him all the desire
to wanna speak these words
and he, through the moving of the holy spirit,
is inspired to speak the word of God
and that's how we get the word of God.
You know, the inspiration was not them stubbing their toe.
The inspiration was not just the circumstances of their life.
The inspiration was not just something they dreamed up.
It wasn't what they watched on television the night before.
No, no, no.
The holy spirit came upon them
and that's the thing that moved them.
That's the thing that caused them
to end up speaking the words of God.
So the opposite would be internal man's,
the man deciding things, the man's will,
the man's wanting to do whatever,
but you know what?
The word of God didn't come that way.
The word of God was inspired by the holy spirit.
It was inspired by the holy ghost
which moved these men to speak.
Go to Luke chapter 13.
Let me explain this.
There is a lot of people that want to be saved
that are gonna go to hell.
It is not just desiring salvation that saves you
and there's a lot of people
that do incredible feats and tasks
to try and be saved and they will not be saved.
There's a group of weird cult Christians
in like Latin America and South America.
They'll beat themselves
and they'll mock put themselves on a cross
and they'll do all kinds of weird, bizarre things
like trying to be Christian and trying to be saved,
but that is not what saves you
is a desire for salvation.
Look at Luke chapter 13 and look at verse 23.
Then said one unto him, Lord,
are there few that be saved?
And he said unto them,
strive to enter in at the straight gate,
for many, I say unto you,
will seek to enter in and shall not be able.
That is scary words for some people.
There are people wanting to be saved this morning
and they are going to the church across the street
and they're not gonna enter in.
There are people wanting to be saved today
and they go to the Catholic church,
but they're not going to enter into the kingdom of heaven.
There are people that want to be saved this morning
and they're turning on the TV
and Joel Osteen's popping up
and they want to know how to go to heaven
and they want to be saved
and they're not getting there.
There are people all over this planet this morning
that woke up this morning as I speak right now
that want to be saved,
that have a desire to be saved and they don't know how.
But you know what?
That desire is not gonna be enough to save them.
I'm just telling you what Jesus said, okay?
He said that many, I say unto you,
will seek to enter in.
Look at verse 25.
When once the mass of the house has risen up
and has shut to the door
and you begin to stand without
and to knock at the door saying,
Lord, Lord, open unto us
and he shall answer and say unto you,
I know you not whence ye are.
Then shall you begin to say,
we have eaten and drunk in thy presence
and thou hast taught in our streets.
But he shall say, I tell you,
I know you not whence ye are to part me
all ye workers of the nicotine.
Now this is a sad verse for America.
Why?
Because there is a lot of people
that go to church every week
and they've seen soul winners walking up and down the street
and they think they're saved and they're not.
And they have a desire to be saved and they're not.
Now let me explain this.
When I'm preaching the gospel to someone at the door
and they're not interested,
I walk away as soon as possible.
But someone that is interested,
they are wanting to be saved.
They have a desire to be saved.
And then they say, oh, so and so showed up,
I gotta go.
Or whatever.
That is the person that I compel.
The person that has a desire
but then they bring up this excuse
as to why they're not gonna listen at that moment,
that is the person that I put a lot of pressure on to hear
because some of them are gonna decide
to walk away in that moment
and they will literally go to hell.
They desire to be saved.
They went to church.
They heard it preaching up and down the streets.
But you know what?
They didn't get saved when the right time came along
and they are not going to be saved.
That also tells me this.
You know, the stupid Calvinist doctrine
of everybody that wants to get saved is gonna get saved
is a lie from the pit of hell.
And it's an excuse for lazy people to be lazy.
For them to say, oh, well, of course,
if this person didn't want to listen to me today
then they didn't want to be saved.
No, no, no.
You're a lazy jerk is what it is.
You're a selfish jerk.
No, no, no.
There are people that want to be saved
and they don't even really know what to say
and they don't even really know what to do
and they may even blow it off
and, you know, you have to force them to get saved.
You know, others saved with fear
pulling them out of the fire.
You know, pulling someone out of a fire
doesn't sound like they did much effort.
And I'll tell you, there are times
when I've gotten people saved
and I've seen other people get people saved
and it felt like they didn't really want to do it.
Okay?
Like, you know, they kind of want to go...
They want to be saved
but they just, like, also kind of just want to get away
or they're uncomfortable or whatever.
And it's like, okay, yeah, maybe you don't want me
to drag you through this building
out of this burning, fiery building.
But you know what?
It's better than I do it.
And you know what?
Sometimes people, they're not that, like,
jazzed about getting saved
but they still believe in Jesus
and they change their mind
and they believe on Jesus
and let me tell you something.
I believe they're still going to heaven
as opposed to the guy that's kneeling and weeping
and just like, this is the greatest news ever!
It doesn't happen, okay?
But you know what's going to be sad?
All the people that are standing at Judgment Day
and they wanted to be saved
and they had the opportunity to be saved
and their soul winner was just too lazy
to make them get saved.
That's going to be a sad day.
It's going to be a sad day if you remember that person
and been like, you know what?
I could have tried a little harder with that person.
With grandma, with my cousin,
with my neighbor, with the person out here,
whatever it is, that kid or whatever.
You know, we need to try to make sure
that people are getting saved.
Go to Matthew chapter 7, Matthew chapter 7
because it's not a will of man that saves you.
Most people want to be saved.
What gets you saved is believing on Jesus Christ,
is having a soul winner preach you the right gospel
and you change your mind, you repent,
humble yourself and believe on Jesus Christ.
Matthew 7, look at verse 21.
Not everyone that saith unto 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 cast out devils
and thy name done many wonderful works?
And then when I profess in them,
I never knew you.
Depart from me, ye that work in equity.
Notice again, it's not like this group of people
didn't want to be saved, folks.
It's not like in the will of man
they didn't have a desire for the Lord
or a desire to be saved.
It's they did it the wrong way.
They didn't believe on Jesus Christ.
They believe in their works.
They believe the wrong thing,
and they think that's what's going to save them.
Go to Acts 16.
You know, the Bible says,
as cold waters to a thirsty soul,
so is good news from a far country.
Now, I've heard this from so many different people,
and you hear all these weird reasons
why people, these weird excuses about work salvation,
but I hear this one, and it's like,
oh, well, you have to be really sorry.
I've even had a family member tell me,
oh, well, kids can't get saved until they get a little older
and they feel sorry enough for their sins.
And I'm like, where is that doctrine coming from?
Because let me explain something.
It's not found in the Bible.
The word sorry is found very few times in the Bible,
and yet it is biblical to be sorry for sin.
I get that.
You know what?
That's not the emotion required for salvation.
The only emotion that I can think of
that's required for salvation is humility.
You have to be willing to humble yourself
and admit you need a savior.
That's like the only emotion required for salvation.
But think about the logic here for just a second.
If you have to be sorry to be saved,
that's the requirement.
Let's just say you have to be sorry.
Why is it called good news?
Why is it called glad tidings?
Hey, I want to make you feel really sorry.
I'm going to give you some good news.
What? No, no, no, no.
The gospel is glad tidings.
The Bible says it has cold waters to a thirsty soul,
so is good news from a far country.
These people are damned to hell,
and I'm coming and giving them good news that they can be saved.
They already are sorry.
They're already just screwed up and beat down or whatever.
It's not like I'm coming to them and it's like,
you've got to feel even worse, buddy.
Grovel!
And then I'll give you the gospel.
How sorry are you going to feel?
And these stupid preachers get up and be like,
you've got to get under that Holy Spirit conviction,
and you've got to really want it.
It's like, no.
It's a free gift.
Oh, but if you don't say sorry, you're not going to get saved.
Let me tell you something.
You could be mean to me and not sorry about it,
and I can still give you a gift.
It's called a gift.
There are people in my life, ask Dylan,
that are mean to me, not sorry about it,
and I'm going to give them a gift soon.
Okay?
Oh, but you have to be sorry to get that gift.
It's not a gift then.
Look, it's a gift.
We love him because he first loved us.
I didn't offer him my sorrow to get saved.
You know what?
I offered him nothing.
If you offered him something, you're not saved.
You have to receive.
But, oh, you've got to be sorry.
How about this guy?
Let's see how sorry he was, all right?
Acts 16, verse 30, and he brought them out and said,
Sir, what must I do to be saved?
And they said, be really, really sorry, brother.
How sorry?
Real sorry.
Oh, I'm real sorry.
No, no, that's not how the conversation went.
And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved in thy house.
He's like, well, that's just one verse.
Yeah, because that's all that's needed.
Well, that's really simple, because it's really simple.
Well, there's no works here, because there's no works.
Well, there's no baptism here, because there's no baptism.
Well, there's no repentance here,
because there's no repentance.
In fact, this guy didn't even repent.
You know, if you skip forward a little bit further,
it says in verse number 33,
And he took them the same hour of the night,
and washed their stripes, and was baptized,
he in all his straight way.
And when he had brought them into his house,
he set meat before them,
and joyous believing God in Paul's house.
And when it was day.
So it's fast forwarding time.
It's like at night, salvation, baptism, they eat.
Fast forward, now it's day.
Okay, where are they at?
Did they sleep over?
Well, let's see.
The magistrate sent the surgeon, saying,
Let those men go.
And the keeper of the prison told this saying to Paul,
The magistrate was sent to let you go.
Now, therefore, depart and go in peace.
But Paul said unto them,
They have beaten us, openly uncondimmed, being Romans,
and have cast us into prison.
And now do they thrust us out, privily, nay, verily,
but let them come themselves and fetch us out.
So where is Paul at?
He's in prison.
What did this jailer even do?
Like, of all the sins that we know about this jailer,
the only thing we even know about this guy
is he's in prison.
Paul and Silas were preaching the gospel.
That's the only sin I know about this guy.
And he gets saved the next day.
Less than 24 hours.
This is probably like five hours later.
Salvation, five hours later.
Same sin.
Paul and them are still in the prison.
How could you say this guy was sorry
for putting Paul and Silas in prison?
He'd just fallen down moments later,
saying, sirs, what must I do to be saved?
He was so afraid for having imprisoned these people.
And then five hours later,
they're still in shackles in prison.
Okay.
How could you then say,
oh, well, this guy turned missing.
This guy got, you know.
No, no, no.
He got saved the moment he believed in Jesus.
He could have died five seconds later,
and he would have still gone to heaven.
In fact, we don't even know.
Where do you have a picture of this guy
even serving God with his life?
But you know what?
This guy's in heaven.
I'm gonna meet him.
I'm gonna shake his hand.
And you know what?
It doesn't matter to me
that he wasn't sorry enough
when it is the context of salvation.
Yeah, should he have just been like,
well, I'm not putting you back in prison.
Yeah, of course, right?
That was dumb.
But at the same time,
this guy admittedly didn't repent of any sin,
and he's saved.
Why?
Because you can find that all over the Bible.
In fact, most of the people
that are saved in the Bible,
most of the godly men,
they commit the worst sins at the end of their life.
I mean, when does David commit his worst sins?
At the beginning of his life or the end of his life?
When does Solomon commit his worst sins?
At the beginning of his life or the end of his life?
When does Samson commit the worst sins?
I mean, it's just like,
when does Saul commit the worst sins?
In fact, it's more common
that godly people have their worst sins
when they get older in life.
And that should be a scary thing for us.
If you think like,
well, I'm doing good now,
what are you gonna be like in 30 years?
What are you gonna be like in 15 years?
What are you gonna be like tomorrow?
Hey, I'm good today.
What are you gonna be like on Monday?
Are you gonna go worship the devil
for Halloween and celebrate death?
Or are you gonna still be godly
and come to church without beans,
or beans without beanless chili, okay?
There you go.
But we have to realize that salvation
is not of the blood.
It's not birth, some physical birth.
It's not of the will of the flesh.
It's not the will of man.
Salvation's of God.
I didn't do anything to get saved
except for believing on Jesus.
And I'm gonna do nothing
to keep my salvation.
And we need to go out and preach the free gospel
and remind people that salvation is not of man.
It's of God.
Let's go to prayer.
Thank you, Heavenly Father,
for this great truth.
Thank you for giving us
salvation so freely.
Thank you for what your son did for us.
I pray that we wouldn't steal away
the title of your son,
that we wouldn't steal away
the works of your son,
we wouldn't steal away
the gospel from your son,
that we wouldn't allow heretics
to teach us weird junk about the gospel.
And I thank you for making
the gospel so free and so easy
and making it so clear and so simple.
I pray that we would never depart
from that truth
and that we would constantly preach
the gospel to the lost
and try to pull as many people
out of the fire as possible.
In Jesus' name I pray.
Amen.
For our final song this morning,
we'll go to song number two,
Glory to His Name.
Song two,
Glory to His Name.
Song number two,
Glory to His Name.
Down at the cross
where my Savior died,
down where for cleansing
from sin I cried,
there to my heart
was the blood applied,
glory to His name,
there to my heart
was the blood applied,
glory to His name.
I am so wondrously saved
from sin,
Jesus so sweetly abides within,
there at the cross
where He took me in,
glory to His name,
there to my heart
was the blood applied,
glory to His name,
glory to His name.
O precious fountain
that saves from sin,
I am so glad
I have entered in,
there Jesus saves me
and keeps me clean,
glory to His name,
there to my heart
was the blood applied,
glory to His name.
Come to this fountain
so rich and sweet,
cast thy poor soul
at the Savior's feet,
plunge into day
and be made complete,
glory to His name,
there to my heart
was the blood applied,
glory to His name.
God bless. Thank you all for coming.
You are dismissed.