everyone welcome to steadfast baptist church if you could please turn in your
hymnals to 196 I will sing the wondrous story 196 I will sing the wondrous story
196 I will sing the wondrous story and sing it together
let's open up in a word of family father thank you for this evening thank you for
our church just pray that you had blessed the singing and worshiping of
name this evening pray that she would help us to sing with understanding in
our hearts and love for you and bless our pastor as he gives us the message
tonight in Jesus name we pray amen right for our second song let's go to number
15 lead me to Calvary number 15 lead me to Calvary on one five Calvary you for
coming to set fast Baptist Church if you didn't already get a bulletin or you
just like another one lift your hand up real quick just can come by get you a
bulletin on the front again Bible Mary passage Proverbs 31 verse 22 on the
inside we have our service and so many times our church stats down below on the
right list of several expecting ladies and then we also have our prayer list if
you'd like to be added you can always email us upcoming events February 24th
there is a the next preaching class and then April 9th through 10th is the Very
Baptist Church next generation youth rally there is one other event that's
on the horizon that I did want to mention I guess there's gonna be kind of
a mini Shreveport soul winning marathon that we're gonna be doing March 23rd and
Brother Malcolm was saying something about having some kind of a crawfish
boil or something so I don't know what that is exactly it sounds scary to me so
that's kidding but yeah if it doesn't move it's probably not good and I'm just
kidding but yeah I was like you're really from Louisiana you can tell you
know I mean man crawfish but no that's that's just something I want to throw
out there we'll probably put it in the bulletin next next bulletin and we'll
have a sign-up sheet if people want to participate that is a Saturday it's
about a little over a month from now and Streetport's just a great opportunity to
go soul-winning it's about three hours from here so it's not even that bad you
can do as a day trip go out there the morning come back by the evening there's
also places to stay if you'd like to stay out in that part of the world but
it's definitely for the United States it's got to be one of the more receptive
places to go soul-winning and so just throwing that out there and on the back
we have the announcement about the Chamley baby Phoebe Henrietta
born on the 17th 529 a.m. weighing 10 pounds 12 ounces and measuring 21 and
three-quarters inches long also also Titus Judah Warner was born on the
17th eight pounds nine ounces and 21 inches long congratulations I know we
also have some of our church members in the Philippines right now just have a
soul-winning marathon I believe with pastor Stuckey at his church and his
group and so just be in prayer for our soul winners that are over there in the
Philippines and just all our other brethren definitely a lot of work is
being accomplished over there that we just want to pray that everything goes
smoothly for them that's pretty much all I have as far as announcements this
evening we'll go ahead and sing our psalm of the week Psalm 147 there in
your special handout Psalm 147 it's Psalm 147 the offering plates being
passed around please turn your Bibles to John chapter 3 John chapter number 3 the
Bible reads there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus a ruler of
the Jews the same came to Jesus by night and said unto him rabbi we know that
thou art a teacher come from God for no man can do these miracles that thou do
except God be with him Jesus answered and said unto him verily verily I say
unto thee except the man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God
Nicodemus saith unto him how can a man be born when he is old can he enter the
second time into his mother's womb and be born Jesus answered verily verily I
say unto thee except the man be born of water and of the spirit he cannot enter
into the kingdom of God that which is born of the flashes flash 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 and thou hearest the sound
thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth so is
everyone that is born of the spirit Nicodemus answered and said unto him how
can these things be Jesus answered and said unto him art thou a master of
Israel and knowest not these things verily verily I say unto thee we speak
that we do know and testify that we have seen and you receive not our witness if I
have told you earthly things and you believe not how shall you believe if I
tell you of heavenly things and no man hath ascended up to heaven but he that
came down from heaven even the Son of Man which is in heaven and as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted
up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but eternal life for
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life for God sent not
his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him
might be saved he that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth
not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only
begotten Son of God and this is the condemnation that light is come into the
world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil for
everyone that doeth evil hated the light neither cometh to the light list his
deeds should be reproved but he that doeth truth cometh to the light that
his deeds may be made manifest that they are rot in God after these things came
Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judea and there he tarried with them and
baptized and John also was baptizing in Enon near to Salem because there was
much water there and they came and were baptized for John was not yet cast into
prison then there arose a question between some of John's disciples and the
Jews about purifying and they came unto John and said unto him Rabbi he that was
with thee beyond Jordan to whom thou bearest witness behold the same
baptize it then all men come to him John answered and said a man can receive
nothing except it be given him from heaven ye yourselves bear me witness
that I said I am not the Christ but that I am sent before him he that hath the
bride is the bridegroom but the friend of the bridegroom which standeth and
heareth them rejoice it greatly because of the bridegroom's voice this my joy
therefore is fulfilled he must increase but I must decrease he that cometh from
above is above all he that is of the earth is earthly and speaketh of the
earth he that cometh from heaven is above all and what he hath seen and
heard that he testifieth and no man receiveth his testimony he that hath
received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true for he whom God
hath sent speaketh the words of God for God giveth not the Spirit by measure
unto him the Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into his hand he
that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and he that believeth
not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him let's bow
our heads for a word of prayer Father in heaven I pray Lord that you would open
ears in the room and soften hearts as well to receive the preaching of your
word I pray that you would bless the sermon this evening and enable pastor
Shelley to preach with boldness and with clarity of mind and we also pray for
safety as we go our separate ways afterwards we love you and in Jesus name
I pray amen amen so I wanted to do a sermon that's kind of based on a series
idea I don't know that I'll necessarily preach them every single week but I'll
kind of come back to this this series concept and the serious concept is the
idea of throwing out the baby with the bathwater and so that it's kind of a
series it's on throwing out the baby and what I what I kind of want to talk
about is some controversial or really bad doctrines but then how sometimes I
feel like we end up throwing the baby out with the bathwater and and what I
want to talk about this evening is the the false doctrine of lordship salvation
of lordship salvation and here's the thing lordship salvation I believe is a
satanic doctrine it is a false doctrine it's not true but what I I feel like
sometimes happens as a response to lordship salvation is we sometimes maybe
throw the baby out with the garbage bathwater of lordship salvation and so
what I think is important is to address some of the claims and some of the
verses and some of the passages that may be brought up by someone who believes
in lordship salvation and maybe get a better understanding of where they're
coming from now I say this because whether you're really coming to this
idea from a lordship salvation perspective or a repent of your sins
perspective I find that it's basically the same I feel like these people are
using the same verses the same talking points the same illustrations and I
think that there's a lot of people who are saved but have bad doctrine on
these issues or mixed up on these issues and I think that sometimes it's
easier for us to just think that anybody who uses the wrong phrase just
automatically I'm saved or something but I think that that's unfortunately not
fair because we live in a very confusing time we have a lot of false
doctrine a lot of false teachers a lot of bad churches and as a result of that
I think it's confused a lot of people it's caused a lot of bad teaching to
arise and for us we have to be the ones who do the hard work the dirty work of
essentially separating the babies from the dirty bathwater and trying to help
people grow on these issues and not necessarily fall victim to the satanic
tool or device called lordship salvation okay so I give a little bit of an intro
I want to go to this passage here this pretty famous passage verse 18 the Bible
says he that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is
condemned already because he have not believed in the name of the only
begotten Son of God and this is the condemnation that light has come into
the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil
for everyone that doeth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest
his deeds should be reproved so here in the text the Bible makes it clear that
salvation is by faith I mean John 3 16 John 3 15 John 3 18 I mean it's just
faith a faith but then it kind of gives an explanation here about people not
getting saved and notice what it says in verse number 19 again it says that men
loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil so this shows
that there are some people who love darkness it shows that some people who
love sin who love evil who love things that are wrong and wicked and as a
result of that according to the text they decide not to come to the light
that they hate the light and the main goal the main purpose of them not coming
to the light is what less their deeds should be reproved meaning that they
don't want to understand what they're doing is wrong they don't want to hear
that what they're doing is wrong they don't want to be corrected on their sin
issues so I think as a result of a passage like this and there's a few
other that I want to go to this evening but I think as a result of a passage
like this people then kind of come up with this idea of lordship salvation or
a repent of your sins type salvation where they say oh see these people they
weren't willing to give up their sins therefore they're not saved and this is
where I come to the idea of throwing out the baby with the bathwater because
number one you don't have to give up anything to be saved the Bible is
crystal clear that salvation is a free gift the Bible makes it clear in Romans
chapter number four but to him that worketh not but believeth you know his
faith is counted unto him for righteousness the Bible is crystal clear
that salvation is not having anything to do with our works but here in the text
it's saying there's some people that they are afraid of having to repent of
their sins or give up sin or or being told that they're doing something wrong
and as a result of that they don't get saved so how can both of these be true
well we want to actually reconcile the text you know the nights more of a Bible
study night you know Sunday nights where we want to dig into the text a little
bit more we don't want to be intellectually lazy and then just not
necessarily reconciling what the Bible says on these issues we want to do the
hard work of understanding them and then making them simple to then apply to
other people and to teach other people really good truths in the scripture okay
now I want to go to some more passages before I really explain this but go to
second Thessalonians chapter number two second Thessalonians chapter number two
I think we all for the most part can understand just what the text is saying
we might not understand what it means or or how to reconcile it but the text
seemed pretty clear that there's some people that they don't like the light
Bible says they hate the light the Bible says that these individuals love
darkness the Bible says that these individuals don't want to be approved
for their sins now this kind of makes me think of another passage second
Thessalonians chapter number two the context of this particular passage is
very clearly about the Antichrist and the return of Christ now again you have
to we have to be fair here because John 3 is for sure one of the clearest and
most consistent passages of its context being about salvation I mean it is a go
to passage for salvation versus 15 16 and 18 I use almost every single time
when I go soul winning so it it's not fair to say oh you're taking these
passages out of context they're not really about salvation it was about
salvation I mean we can't say that what we read wasn't about salvation because
absolutely was about salvation okay and second Thessalonians chapter number two
while the main context of this passage is about the return of Christ and the
coming Antichrist and in times I believe a certain section of it is dealing with
salvation too and and I want to talk about these verses look at verse 8 and
then shall that wicked be revealed talking about the Antichrist inhabited
by the devil whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall
destroy with the brightness of his coming even him is coming is after the
working of Satan with all power and science and lying wonders and with all
deceivableness of unrighteousness and them that perish because they received
not the love of the truth saved so this is definitely while the main context is
in about salvation it's at least talking about salvation here and it's talking
about some individuals choosing not to be saved what was the reason why they
didn't get saved according to the Bible it's because they didn't have a love of
the truth they didn't love the truth and as a result of that they didn't receive
the truth they didn't believe the gospel and because they didn't believe the
gospel they didn't get saved verse 11 and for this cause God shall send them
strong delusion that they should believe a lie notice the the reason why they
didn't get saved is because they didn't believe the truth and then with God
wants someone to not get saved what does he do to them to cause them to not get
saved he makes them diluted in their mind he makes them believe dumb things
he makes them believe lies okay this is very consistent for us that understand
the reprobate doctrine but that's what God does to people when he reprobates
them is that he warps their mind that their mind becomes diluted and they
start being delusional like thinking that they're literally a woman and a
man's body there's nothing there's nothing more delusional than that I
mean there's nothing more the delusional than a man chopping off his most special
privy member in the thought that he's literally a woman to then be taken
advantage of by men and acts of sodomy there's nothing more delusional than
that folks I mean that is the epitome of delusion and the only reason someone
does that is because they hate God so much in their heart that God gave them a
delusional mind it's a punishment for having rejected the basic truths that
God gave them they now become so delusional that they are just a
reprobate brute beast as the Bible describes so there's no there's no way
like it's just an it's just incredibly how many pastors would get up and say
like oh it's normal and we got to love these people it's like that person is
destroying themselves like it's there it's a there's an obvious manifestation
of the wrath of God on that person's life and we of course are gonna avoid
those individuals okay but the same is applying here notice you know it didn't
say like to make sure that they don't get saved God made sure that they would
just keep sinning a lot or something you know it's not like well the reason why
they didn't get saved is because they were just sinning too much or God was
making them sin too much it's because they can't believe right it's because their mind
isn't right because your mind has to be right it has to love the truth now it
says they believe a lie verse 12 that they all might be damned notice this who
believed not the truth but had pleasure and unrighteousness now we all again
agree that salvation is by believing the truth it's by believing the gospel
notice what the Bible itself contrasts the person who does not believe with he
says very clearly that there's a group that doesn't believe why because they
had pleasure in unrighteousness you know it'd be another word how about loving
darkness how about loving evil how about loving sin so isn't it fair if
someone were to say I think the Bible teaches that people won't get saved
because they love sin too much well haven't we read two passages that
pretty much like point-blank said that I mean I'm not I'm not getting up here
and trying to be dishonest with the text I want to be honest with the text and
you can see how people then get confused and it's not even like we're going to
obscure like Zechariah or something we're not like going to Ezekiel and
trying to figure out how salvation is is something by works or something these
are passages dealing with salvation and saying very clearly that there are
individuals who are not believing the truth because of a love for sin okay I'm
just telling you what the Bible says now I want to go to a few more places go to
Luke chapter number six go to Luke chapter number six Lordship salvation
again I want to make clear it's a satanic doctrine to teach what a lot of
Lordship salvation people will teach it and they essentially teach that in order
to be saved you have to quote make Jesus Lord of your life okay and or they they
basically will insinuate that salvation is a process by which you have to follow
all the commandments or repent of all your sins or do all these works
essentially and it's so confusing and they'll say well I'm not teaching work
salvation but if you don't have works you're not saved but wait a minute have
we read a passage that said that if you don't have works you're not saved no we
didn't read any passage like that all we've read is that people who love sin a
ton a lot of times they won't get saved or a reason why people don't believe the
truth is because they love sin too much or they love the darkness too much
that's that's all we've read so far it hasn't taught that those who are saved
just have an abundance of works or something that was never even mentioned
that was never even brought up okay it's just simply saying a big reason or even
you could argue the main reason why people are not getting saved as a
result of loving sin okay now it says in Luke chapter 6 verse 46 this is often a
passage that's brought up by lordship proponents and why call you me Lord Lord
and do not the things which I say now this is this is true this is true like
why in the world would someone call Jesus Christ the Lord and then not do
the things that he says but but here's what a lot of people say oh because you
have to make Jesus the Lord of your life in order to be saved and then they'll go
to a passage like this but what is what is this context let's let's study this
context for a moment okay let's look at verse number 43 the Bible says for a
good tree bringeth forth or bringeth not forth corrupt fruit neither doth the
corrupt tree bring forth good fruit for every tree is known by his own fruit
for of thorns men do not gather figs nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes a
good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good
and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which
is evil for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh and why call ye
me Lord Lord and do not the things which I say so what Jesus is saying is
essentially when it's a good tree it can only produce good fruit and if it's an
evil tree it can only produce evil fruit and then he he kind of brings up
this perplexity so then why in the world would you call me Lord and then not do
the things that I say well let me explain that really easy they're a
hypocrite okay that's that's how easy it is the Pharisees loved to give lip
service unto God but they didn't do the things that he said okay and look what
it says in verse 47 whosoever cometh to me and heareth my sayings and doeth them
I will show you to whom he is like he is like a man which built in house and
digged deep and laid the foundation on a rock and when the flood arose the
stream beat vehemently upon that house and could not shake it for it was
founded upon a rock but he that heareth and doeth not is like a man that without
a foundation built an house upon the earth against which the stream did beat
vehemently and immediately it fell and the ruin of that house is great now
let's let's think about this because we're saying well what's the context of
this passage what is this actually meaning think about it this way when we
think about a foundation and I'm not going to go to the passages but what is
the Bible often referred to as the foundation the foundation is Jesus
Christ the foundation is believing the gospel and getting saved so he
contrasts the people who do what he said with the people who don't the people
who do what he said what did he say they're built on a foundation the
people who do not do what he said what are they built on no foundation so when
he says the people that are not doing what he said you know those people are
people who do not believe the gospel at all who were never even saved and then
as a result of not being saved what happens they're destroyed meaning their
lives are ruined meaning their lives are worthless and meaningless and there's no
benefit for them whereas the person who builds his house on the rock he's saved
and nothing's gonna ever destroy him okay now if you build a tiki hut on the
rock you're still saved you just kind of have a garbage house or if you build a
mansion on the rock you're still saved but then you have a nice house right and
the Bible tells us in 1st Corinthians chapter number 3 that some people are
just gonna build wood hay and stubble on their foundation but they're still
saved and then there's people who you know what build a really nice eternal
ward structure on that rock and of course they're gonna reap the benefits
of building on that particular rock but I think what he's trying to really get
across I mean think about this is the early part of Luke he's trying to help
people understand that the Pharisees aren't saved he's trying to help them
realize that the Jews aren't saved and what is the the big controversy they say
Lord Lord they say good things but they're not really saved and ultimately a
good tree is gonna produce good fruit and an evil tree is gonna produce evil
fruit of course that's saying from the abundance of the heart the mouth speak
if meaning someone who saved will only ever give the right gospel and someone
who's not saved will only ever give the wrong gospel and it's impossible for
this to ever mix the person who saved is never gonna become a Mormon and teach
you Mormonism and the person who's not saved is not gonna accidentally get you
saved he's not gonna just accidentally teach salvation by faith alone it's a
free gift and here's how you believe in Jesus Christ he's just not gonna
accidentally do that okay the Mormons don't just randomly every other door
switch up their gospel presentation and start giving the right gospel or
something they're always gonna only ever preach a corrupt fruit and those who are
good will only ever go out and preach the gospel and get people saved like no
matter how sinful all of the soul winners are in this room I mean even if
people start getting divorced and doing drugs and doing whatever and they get
thrown in prison their prison mates gonna be like do you know how to go to
heaven and be like yeah it's a free gift by faith in Jesus I mean that's what's
gonna happen and no matter what happened no matter how nice the Mormon guy is he
just never gonna tell you how to go to heaven by what the Bible says okay but
here's what I will say both will say this I love Jesus the Mormon will say I
love Jesus the bad doesn't say I love Jesus and they'll say that he's their
Lord right but then why do you not do the things that he says right I mean if
Jesus is your Lord wouldn't you think you would have gotten the the most basic
simple believing in Jesus Christ right I mean you would have gotten that one
right so so here's the thing this passage does not prove Lordship
salvation because no passage proves Lordship salvation all right but it doesn't
really lend itself to anything that we've even talked about so far I believe
when you understand this passage in context it just really isn't in play but
again a lot of Lordship salvations are kind of just cherry-picking all these
verses I'm just trying to be fair let's just go to some of these passages go to
Matthew 25 go to Matthew 25 and then we'll kind of explain this Matthew
chapter 25 now if we take though what we learned from Luke 6 what is one one
thing that we learned a good tree is only going to produce good fruit and
that a corrupt tree is only gonna produce corrupt fruit I believe this
extends itself beyond the gospel to the point of also in the essence of those
who are saved are gonna do godly righteous things and those who are not
saved are not gonna do godly and righteous things and we'll look at a
few more passages on that later but that's just the reality of course those
who are saved and understand the truth and have the light they're gonna walk in
the light and the people that don't have the light and are in darkness they're
gonna keep walking in darkness they're not gonna again do the right things so
then you get a parable like Matthew 25 and it often gets twisted but look at
verse 31 the Bible says when the Son of Man shall come in his glory and all the
holy angels with them. Then shall they sit upon the throne of his glory and before him
shall be gathered all nations and he shall separate them one from another as a shepherd
divided the sheep from the goats and he shall set the sheep on his right hand but the goats
on the left. Then shall the king say unto them on his right hand, Come ye blessed of
my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For
I was hungered and he gave me meat. I was thirsty and he gave me drink. I was a stranger
and he took me in. Naked and he clothed me. I was sick and he visited me. I was in prison
and he came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him saying, Lord, when saw we thee
and hungered and fed thee or thirsty and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger and
took thee in or naked and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick or in prison and came
unto thee? And the king shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, as much
as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren ye have done it unto me.
Then it says in verse 41, Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Apart from
me, he cursed in everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels, for I was and
hungered and ye gave me no meat, I was thirsty and ye gave me no drink, I was a stranger
and ye took me not in, naked and ye clothed me not, sick and in prison and ye visited
me not, then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee and hungered or a thirst
or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister unto thee?
Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, and as much as ye did it not,
to one of the least of these ye did it not to me, and these shall go away into everlasting
punishment but the righteous into eternal life.
Now again, I even remember as a child reading these passages and thinking like, oh man,
do I have to like visit people in prison and like do these things or I'm not going to go
to heaven because you can kind of see how just on the surface it kind of sounds like
that but I think what we have to do is we have to be careful because number one he's
not talking to an individual he's not talking to an individual he's talking to two large
groups of people and as a whole one did a certain group of tasks and as a whole another
group did not do a certain group of tasks.
Now here's the thing, do you really expect me to believe if you just took all the people
in the world, you took every single person, and you took all of us that believe salvation
by faith and you put us in a group, and then you put all the people that are not saved
in a group, that we would see like, these people that are not saved have never gone
to prison ever.
They've never visited a single person in prison.
They've never given food to a single person.
They've never clothed a single person.
That would not, that would of course not be true, okay?
There's lots of people that are going and visiting their girlfriend and boyfriend and
whoever in prison all the time.
There's mafia bosses visiting their people in prison.
It's not like they just never make prison visits or something, okay?
This is the key to understanding this passage is when he's explaining who he did it to,
verse 40, "And as much as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren,"
you know what he's saying, "is that all you that are not saved, you never visited one
of those people."
And you know what, those people are going to say, "Hey, when did we visit you?"
And you're like, "You didn't visit me, but you visited him."
And he's like, "Well, yeah, I visited him.
I visited some of my saved brothers in Jesus Christ."
So it's like, here's the thing, the people who are saved are going to minister unto the
saved.
And the people who are not saved don't minister to the saved, meaning, you know, the people
that give money to our church, it's not a bunch of atheists and the alphabet mafia that
are donating money to our church.
You know, when I go out soul winning and I knock on doors, it's usually not the rainbow
flag door that offers me water.
You know what I mean?
It's usually not the weirdos and the freaks.
It's the saved people that are the ones that are wanting to offer you water and do good
unto you and to help you and to bless you.
And of course, why would they do that?
Because you're coming in the name of Jesus, right?
If I just randomly go and knock on people's door, Christians aren't going to just necessarily
offer me water or do whatever.
If I just go out there and just say, "Hey, I'm selling roofs," they're going to be like,
"Hit the road, Jack."
Right?
But if I come and I say, "Hey, I'm here with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I'm here with the Bible.
We're Christians.
We're Baptists."
And they're like, "Oh, let me bless you.
Let me do good unto you."
You know what they're trying to do?
They're trying to bless whom?
Jesus.
That's what they're trying to do.
That's what this passage is saying.
He's saying, "Hey, there was a group of people that were trying to bless Jesus Christ, and
those are the ones that are, you know what, the saved, and the ones who are not trying
to bless Jesus Christ, that never did any good, they are going to go to hell.
Why?
Because, of course, one group does things by faith, the other group does things by sight.
Right?
Hey, if I'd seen Jesus, I would have helped him.
If I had just known that I was supposed to help him, I would have done it by obligation.
But the people who are saved, they were just helping people because they knew that was
right.
They're just blessing people.
They're walking and living by faith.
And then, of course, Jesus Christ is saying like, "Hey, I take that personal."
You know, in the book of Acts, when the apostle Paul is encountered by Jesus Christ, he says,
"Why persecutest thou me?"
He didn't, you know, here's the thing, Paul or Saul, you know, whichever one, he's the
same guy.
Okay.
Saul didn't, you know, ever hurt Jesus.
He never did anything to Jesus, but you know what he was doing?
He was persecuting Christians.
And Jesus takes it personal.
Jesus takes everything personal.
Isn't that cool?
Like, hey, if you bless a Christian, Jesus takes it personally.
If you hurt a Christian, Jesus takes it personally.
And you know, when he talks about little children, the ones that believe in him, he gets really
upset when you hurt a child that believes in Jesus Christ.
Or when you offend a Jesus Christ believer, you know what?
He wishes that person had a millstone tied around their neck and they were cast in the
depth of the sea.
That's what the Bible says.
So again, what we're learning from this passage is not necessarily that you have to do work
works to be saved, but let's just be honest, the people who are saved are the ones doing
the works and the people who are not saved are not doing works.
Okay?
Generally speaking, this doesn't mean that all of us went to prison and all of us fed
somebody and all of us gave a water bottle.
You know, it's just basically saying that in general, us as a group, we're the ones
that were doing these type of activities, those of us that were really saved.
Now I want to go to Acts chapter number three, go to Acts chapter number three.
So just to kind of summarize what we've learned.
We've learned that essentially those who get saved, they do truth.
The people who don't, they hate truth.
They love darkness.
In second Thessalonians, we learned that the reason why people don't believe the truth
is because they had pleasure and unrighteousness.
In Luke chapter number six, we learned that people that are not saved are hypocrites and
they may give lip service to the things of God, but in reality, they're not believing,
they're not doing the works.
And then specifically in Matthew 25, the people are not saved aren't doing the works, the
people are saved are doing the works.
That's been pretty consistent so far.
Now some people would say, "Oh, well, here's the thing.
You have to repent of your sins in order to acquire salvation.
You have to give up sin."
And I think that some people, if not a lot of people, are just really confused on this
doctrine.
And so they label it "repenting of your sins," and they're trying to teach that there's some
different, there's like when you read John chapter 3, 18-20, that that's somehow repenting
of your sins.
Like you have to give up a love of sin or something.
But first of all, the Bible doesn't use the phrase "repent of your sins," nor when it
uses the word "repentance," is it really bringing that concept up.
And so I think it's also important to understand what repentance is before we kind of address
these issues.
But in Acts chapter number three, look at verse 17.
It's going to bring up the word "repent" a lot in the book of Acts.
And look what it says in verse 17, "And now, brethren, I wote that through ignorance ye
did it as did all the rulers."
He's talking to Jews saying that they killed Jesus.
Verse 18, "But those things which God before had showed by the mouth of all his prophets
that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled."
Verse 19, "Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the
times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord and he shall send Jesus Christ
which before you was preached unto you whom the heaven must receive until the time of
restitution of all things."
So here in this passage he's saying you guys crucified Jesus, you rejected Jesus.
So you know what?
I know you did it in what?
Ignorance.
But now, verse 19, "Repent therefore," meaning change your mind on who Jesus was, realize
he really was the Messiah and the Christ, and if you change your mind, you know what
will happen?
Your sins will be blotted out.
Does he say here, "Hey, you guys need to quit drinking.
You guys need to quit fornicating.
You guys need to quit avoiding church.
You need to tithe more.
You need to quit having bad thoughts."
He doesn't bring that up.
He's simply saying you've got to repent and be converted by what?
Changing your mind about Jesus because that's what saves you is changing your mind about
Jesus and specifically the gospel because that's what he's bringing up.
Christ's death, burial, and resurrection.
You have to change your mind about the gospel and believe the gospel and that's what saves
you.
That's the moment of salvation.
It's consistent in the book of Acts.
Go to chapter 11.
Go to chapter number 11.
Consistently they bring up this word repent and this is what I'll hear preachers get
up and yell and scream Jesus preach repentance and Paul preach repentance and Peter preach
repentance and they just keep saying that and I'm like okay I'm not against the word
repent and it is in the Bible a lot but what does it mean and what does it say when it's
brought up in these passages?
You know it's like Jesus said repent believe the gospel and I'm thinking like yeah yeah
change your mind and believe what Jesus said.
You know it's like do it okay that didn't he didn't say like give up drinking plus you
know think about it that think about that verse in the Bible where you have to say repent
and then all the sins that you would have to repent of that's a long list right and
you think like well it's just it's just all sin or sins it's like well then why didn't
one time the Bible just say that like when do you think if God wanted us to be saved
and it was necessary to repent of your sins to be saved God would have at least said it
once like wouldn't there be at least one time I mean if this is the most important doctrine
you have that your church and your your eternal salvation is hinged on wouldn't you think
the phrase you would use would be found in the Bible itself but then it's just not there
right Acts chapter number 11 look at verse 17 for as much then as God gave them the light
gift as he did unto us who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ what was I that I could
withstand God when they heard these things they held their peace and glorified God saying
then God then have God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life now here's the
thing the context of Acts chapter number 11 is how the Apostle Peter went unto Gentiles
who are considered unclean and it's against the law to be around them and in fact most
of the time especially in the Bible when it talks about Gentiles it just calls them sinners
like he's like the sinners of the Gentiles or we're not like the sinners you know it
just often just refers to Gentiles as just sinners now if someone needed to repent in
the Bible it was Gentiles because they're sinners they didn't have a problem admitting
we're sinners okay it's the it's the biggest sin field that we have out there okay it's
a sinful group but notice he's saying you know what they did the exact same thing that
we did what was the exact same thing that we did well in verse number 8 verse 17 who
believed on the Lord Jesus Christ that is what's contrasted with the repentance unto
life repentance unto life is believing on the Lord Jesus Christ he's saying hey just
like we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and that gave us salvation we're glad that
these Gentiles did the exact same thing and the reason why they concluded that they had
been saved is because they had spake with tongues as they were given utterance by the
Holy Ghost and they're saying well if they're speaking tongues by the Holy Ghost then they
have to be saved why because a good tree can only produce good fruit so if someone's
preaching the gospel in a foreign language by the power of the Holy Ghost they're saved
right I mean how could you look at these people glorifying God and preaching a gospel in their
own language through the power of the Holy Ghost and not say that they were saved so
they're identifying that the people that are saved are what producing good fruit that fruit
is evidencing that they got saved but you know what it doesn't say is that hey these
people gave up drinking they're obviously saved these people you know you know gave
up this wicked sin so they're either saved no no it was the fact that they were able
to preach the word of God through the power of the Holy Ghost and they're preaching the
right gospel that's why they were saved because they believed in Jesus Christ that's why they
were saved.
Good Acts chapter number 19 and look at verse number 4.
Now it gets even clearer here this is another passage on repentance Acts 19.4 the devil
doesn't like this message no I'm just kidding might have to change channels after this sermon.
Acts chapter 19 look at verse number 4 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 and when they heard this they were baptized in the
name of Lord Jesus.
So again notice that repentance this is the clearest one it's defined as believing on
the Lord Jesus Christ there's nothing in the Bible that teaches that you have to repent
of your sins to be saved that's number one impossible if you have to repent of your sins
to be saved you might as well just accept and embrace hell I mean that's the reality
if you really have to like according to the Southern Baptist Convention's doctrinal statement
it says that you have to genuinely turn away from sin and I'm just thinking like wow how
prideful of a person you have to be to say that you literally did that that you've literally
turned away from sin and not just turned away genuinely turned away from sin so does that
mean that your church has zero sinners in it like how does that even work like what
does that even mean so obviously that's not true at all go to one more place go to Acts
chapter 26 I want to look at one more here Acts chapter 26 so you know we need to we
need to confront people on this and help them realize that if they believe in Lordship salvation
they're wrong like it's not even it's not even a questionable doctrine it's not even
like maybe it's true I mean it's definitely not true Acts chapter 26 look at verse 20
the Bible says but showed first unto them of Damascus and at Jerusalem and throughout
all the coasts of Judea and then to the Gentiles that they should repent and turn to God and
do works meet for repentance now here's the thing of course we want people to repent and
turn to God meaning that they get saved and they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and
then after that what do we want we want them to do works meet for repentance what is the
word meet suitable or appropriate meaning that now that you are saved now that you have
believed on the Lord Jesus Christ we want you to then do works why would you be commanded
to do works after you've gotten saved if it's automatic no and why is it considered
appropriate because you could do inappropriate works after getting saved too you could have
works that are not meet for repentance meaning people who get saved and they still live
a wicked lifestyle or still do wrong and you know what that's what the Bible is constantly
you know hammering in the epistles of the churches is people that do works meet for
repentance and not doing the bad works not giving Christ name and embarrassing shame
for your sin okay because of course we can be a bad example for Christ we can bring embarrassment
to the cause of Christ through our sin and through doing bad works that's why we should
have works meet for repentance meaning that they are appropriate this would make no sense
if you automatically do the works or if you had to start already doing all the works before
you even got saved that would mean there would be just like well duh we're going to do meets
you know works meet repentance we're already doing them you know we've already been doing
them that's what got us saved you know no you do the works for repentance afterwards
because of course that is appropriate that's what we're supposed to do go if you had the
first John chapter number three so I just have some simple points or simple ideas or
simple thoughts about what we've talked about that I want us to not throw out okay when
we talk about Lordship salvation we want to throw Lordship salvation in the trash we have
to get rid of the dirty bath water let's not throw a certain baby out with it and that
baby is the fact that people who are saved love the truth people who are saved love the
truth I believe that you have to have at least some kernel some little something inside of
you that loves truth enough to get saved those who don't love truth will not get saved okay
and that's what we saw consistently in these other passages saying the reason why they're
not getting saved is because they love darkness or because they love evil or because they
had pleasure and unrighteousness and they don't want to believe the truth because they
don't love truth and first john chapter number three is a really it's kind of a more difficult
passage in the bible it's arguably one of the more difficult passages of scripture but
i think you know when you kind of slow down it makes it pretty pretty clear look what
it says in verse seven little children let no man deceive you he that doeth righteousness
is righteous even as he is righteous now isn't that consistent with what we've taught
people are doing righteousness are saved and they're the righteous okay what does it say
he that commit a sin is of the devil for the devil sin is from the beginning for this purpose
the son of god was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil whosoever is
born of god does not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because
he is born of god so number one if you're saved and you're righteous you know it could
be evidenced through you doing righteousness and of course that person does love the truth
they accepted the truth they got saved but then it contrasts this idea of someone who's
sinning is of the devil now again this is where work salvationists and false teachers
and everything love passages like this especially in modern versions because they're going to
try and make this distinction between all of us that some of us are sinners and some
of us are not that's not true there are there is a distinction in Matthew 25 what was the
distinction in Matthew 25 was he saying you guys don't sin you guys sinned nope it was
you guys are doing righteous acts loving the saved and blessing the saved you guys aren't
blessing the saved this is two different distinctions you know what he would have said to the sheep
though you still guys sinned you guys still didn't deserve heaven you guys still broke
the commandments because everybody broke the commandments the distinction in Matthew 25
if it's not you guys stop sinning and you guys just kept on sinning no one group is
doing righteousness the other group's never done righteousness okay so then what does
he mean here when he says he that committed sin is of the devil because that would be
everybody well notice what it says in verse 9 whose server is born of God does not commit
sin here's the thing not everybody's born of God how do you become born of God by believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ you know that also references we're not talking about your flesh
because your flesh was not born of God you had to be born again and what was born again
when you believe in Jesus Christ that new man inside of you he cannot sin so this is
what it means in Romans chapter number 7 when the apostle Paul says it's no longer I that
sinned but it's sin that dwells in me he's saying like I'm not the one doing wrong I'm
not the one sinning anymore because the real Paul inside is born of God and he cannot sin
it's impossible to sin he's never sinned he never will sin but the old man that sin inside
of him in his flesh he sins all the time that guy's that guy's wretched oh wretched man
that I am you know that's what the apostle Paul says about himself but at the same time
he also says that he can't sin how does that work because when you believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ you have the new man and then you have the old man but this is where the
Lordship salvationists get even worse and I'm gonna use my phone for a second just because
I don't carry all these wicked versions around with me but let me read for you verse eight
from the ESV for a moment okay whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil now
here's what's stupid about this I've never practiced sin a single time in my life because
you know what I just sinned I didn't ever like you know go home and be like now I want
to lie today so I'm gonna practice on this lying you know what when the chance came I
just lied right I wasn't like I'm going to practice trying to have a bad thought I just
had bad thoughts you know I just stole I just did wrong I just did evil I wasn't trying
to practice it or trying to see how I just sinned you know what a stupid doctrine to
say that there's people practicing sin and there's people not practicing sin okay because
I've never practiced sin I don't think anybody practices sin we just sin okay we don't need
practice no one needed any practice we're really good at it without any practice okay
but that's what the modern versions want to say because then they want to try and teach
this lordship salvation that there's this group of people that are not practicing sin
and then this group that's practicing sin look you're all sinning we're all sinning
that is not what the passage is saying what the King James is saying is accurate when
it's saying hey when you're born of God you cannot sin meaning there's no way to sin
whatsoever because you've been born of God because you have that new birth that's what
the passage is really saying so it gets twisted into a false ideology well the Bible is really
clear here though that people who essentially are of the children of God and the children
of the devil are manifest look at verse 10 in this the children of God are manifest and
the children of the devil whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God neither he
that loveth not his brother so it's really clear who's of the devil and who's of not
who's of God because those who are God they love the truth and they're doing righteousness
the ones that are never doing righteousness and don't love the truth they're not of God
and notice what the passage says though in this the children of God are manifest what
does manifest mean obvious it should be obvious who's saved it's not always obvious you know
when we talk about unsaved people that are the hypocrites and stuff like that but the
people that we just have a lot of confidence and they're saved it should be obvious that
they're saved because they have the right gospel they're soul winning they're getting
people saved I mean it just becomes just so obviously this person it's manifest that this
person's a person of God because look at his works you know someone like this would be
like Pastor Stephen Anderson it's manifest the guy saved why because I literally run
into people all the time that tell me he got them saved right Pastor Roger Amenas it's
manifest that the guy is saved because he's doing righteousness he's getting people saved
he's baptizing people you know and then it's obvious that TD Jakes is an unsaved faggot
okay you know why because he's gay that's why the guy looks gay it's been caught I
mean two of his sons are like open sodomites and then another son the other son got caught
by the police an undercover police officer for soliciting a police officer for sodomite
acts not only that there's all these rumors of him with P. Diddy and all this stuff plus
he's changed his doctrine on it plus he sounds like a faggot plus he believes in oneness
theology I mean the dude's a fag it's obvious if you hung out round TD Jakes for more than
five minutes you'd realize the guy's a faggot he's a flaming queer you were going to share
this sermon with someone and then you're just like no I can't but it should be obvious okay
it's super clear who's of God and who's not of God but then there's so many people that
think that TD Jakes is good why because they're in darkness because they're in darkness with
those who are also in darkness and they believe in a lordship salvation and this is where
I want to kind of just you know kind of tie this together and help you make sense of these
passages that we brought up then okay because here's what I believe the Bible is trying
to say in John chapter 3 just go back there you know we'll kind of go back to land this
plane is that by loving sin you become resistant to the gospel okay now think of it this way
many of us you know we have a lot of experience soul winning and when you go soul winning
you'll knock on a door and someone will open the door and when as soon as they realize
you're there for church or your baptist or whatever they just slam the door they're not
interested they don't want to hear anything that you have to say I mean who experiences
that when you go sewing oh yeah everybody okay that is the person we're talking about
in John chapter number three that does not want to what have his sins are proved he's
afraid of hearing what you're going to say and he doesn't want to hear how what he's
doing is wrong he doesn't want to hear that his lifestyle is sinful he doesn't want to
make a change in his life and as a result of that he ends up just slamming the door
not being interested if you think about it who are the most resistant to the gospel it
was the Pharisees and the Sadducees why because they would have to realize and learn that
what they've been doing is wrong the Apostle Paul was a very humble man and being willing
to recognize everything I've done is dung it's all trash and I have to count it dung
that I may win Christ so he had to sacrifice a lot of pride and he had to recognize that
his past was worthless when it came to salvation why do a lot of Catholics not get saved because
they'd have to recognize that all the time they spent being a Catholic was wasted and
they'd have to recognize that a lot of the actions they do are sinful because Catholics
live very sinful lives they really embrace a lot of sin and you know as Baptists we don't
you know Catholics you can be a Catholic and be a raging alcoholic I mean in fact they'll
drink alcohol in their services okay I've been a like a Catholic church twice in my
life that I can remember one of the times it was a kegger okay it was bizarre I'm just
like thinking like I'm at a Catholic church like what what are they doing here and I just
couldn't even believe it that they just have kegs of beer everywhere in their fellowship
hall and people are just I mean it wasn't even like maybe people are getting drunk it's
like everybody's drunk and I'm thinking like why are we at church the Church of Jesus Christ
and everybody's drunk, and then, of course,
what happens when people get drunk?
Way worse sins.
All kinds of other things are said and done
and experienced and everything else.
I mean, Catholicism is a wicked religion
that leads people down a dark path, okay?
And why do a lot of people not wanna talk to you?
Because they don't wanna hear how Catholicism's wrong.
They don't wanna hear about how their family's wrong.
They don't wanna hear, they don't wanna know
that what they're doing is bad.
They don't want the light to be exposed
and shined on their lifestyle.
And again, it's not so much
that they have to make any changes to be saved.
It's just they don't wanna hear about it.
They don't wanna know.
They don't wanna be exposed to what's the truth.
Because when they get exposed to the truth,
oh, I guess I'm wrong.
I guess I'm wrong on this issue.
I guess my lifestyle's wrong.
I guess these things that I've been doing are wrong.
And so by loving sin,
it makes you more resistant to the gospel.
Notice what it says in verse 20.
For everyone that doeth evil,
hateth the light,
neither cometh to the light,
less is each root.
Meaning, people who are very sinful
are just not gonna just say, you know what?
I think on Sunday morning,
I'm gonna go to Steadfast Baptist Church.
It's just not gonna happen.
It just doesn't happen.
The people that usually come here are drug here, okay?
Sometimes physically, you know?
They say it's a cult, I'm just kidding.
It's like, people are just, you know, knocking the door open.
And of course, there are institutions,
there are churches where people will just stumble into,
but it's because they've been lured in there
thinking it's not gonna be church at all,
and they've been told it's not church and it's not church.
You know, it's a Super Bowl party or whatever.
They're gonna go watch Taylor Swift or something, you know?
It's like, that's not church, okay?
So I get it that, you know,
they weren't afraid to show up there
because it's a nightclub.
They're just going to club and drink beers
at the Catholic church, right?
So there's an element of this that's true.
But what it doesn't say,
and what I don't believe this text is saying,
is that someone who loves sin can't get saved.
I don't think that's what it's saying.
What I believe it's saying is it's saying
someone who's loving their sin and in their sin
is not going to seek out the truth.
They're not going to seek out the light.
They're not interested in the light.
They're a kind of afraid of the light.
They're afraid of the light being shined on them.
They're nervous about what's going to happen.
And so as a result of that,
they basically withdraw themselves, okay?
Go through to Romans chapter number 10 now.
Go to Romans chapter number 10.
So here's the thing, where Lordship salvation is wrong
is in the fact that you have to be willing to give up sin
or stop sinning in order to be saved.
Neither of those are true.
But what is true is that a lot of times
people are not wanting to have their sins exposed
and as a result of that,
they just don't hear the gospel message.
They kind of are afraid of church
or they're afraid of what someone would say at church
or they're afraid of these things, okay.
But not, and a lot of them will literally slam the door
when you knock on their door or you try to talk to them
'cause they're just afraid of hearing
what the Bible's gonna say, what God's gonna say.
They're afraid of having to be confronted with the truth
because they just don't love the truth.
But you know, there are some people who really like sinning
but somewhere inside of them, they have a love for truth.
Just somewhere in there,
they still just wanna know what's true
even though they struggle with sin a lot
and they like sin a lot and they even like the darkness, okay?
And these are the people that we can still go after and win.
Look what it says in Romans chapter 10, verse number 20,
"But Isaias is very bold and saith,
"I was found of them that sought me not.
"I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me.
"But to Israel he saith, all day long I stretched forth
"my hands unto a disobedient, gainsaying people."
So here's the thing, in Romans chapter number 10,
the Bible says that the gospels found of people,
notice number one, did not seek out God,
and number two, did not even ask for it.
Meaning what?
They were loving the darkness,
they were hiding in the darkness,
they were afraid of the light.
But you know what?
The light just came on their doorstep
and just confronted them anyways.
And then they said, well, that's true.
So I'm gonna believe it.
And they got saved.
It's called the Gentiles, folks.
The Gentiles weren't beating down Israel's door.
The Gentiles weren't begging Israel how to be saved.
You know what, the apostles had to go into those areas
and into those cities and into the highways and the hedges
and had to compel them to believe the gospel.
And you know what, that's what got people saved.
You know, when I read John 3, 18, it's not telling me,
oh, you know, we just need to have people
repent of their sins to get saved.
You know what it's telling me?
I need to get off my rear and go out there
and bring the light to someone that's afraid of it.
And you know why they're afraid of it?
Because they don't understand it.
Go to John chapter one, go to John chapter number one.
John chapter number one.
This is where again people are confused on this
and it's important for us to understand these passages.
Look at John chapter one and look at verse number five.
And the light shineth in darkness
and the darkness comprehended it not.
Let me ask this question.
Do you have to repent of any of your sins to be saved?
No.
Do you have to give up any sin to be saved?
No.
But here's the thing, the unsaved don't know that.
The unsaved don't comprehend the light.
They don't understand the light.
And they're afraid of the light.
And they're nervous of the light.
And so you know what we have to do is we have to come
and bring the light into the people.
Think about it.
Someone that lives in darkness
doesn't know what light looks like.
They don't understand the light.
And there's so many teachers and so many churches out there
that are not sending out the light
and they just keep puffing themselves up
with this lordship salvation.
And it makes people not get saved.
Lordship salvation is a satanic doctrine
to stop people from getting saved.
Because it's saying, you know what?
We need people that are in the dark
to clean themselves up in the dark
before they can come to the light.
No, no, no.
We go to someone that's in the dark with the light
and say, hey, do you wanna see what you look like?
And of course, some people are just gonna say no, right?
But a lot of people, they were afraid.
They were like, I didn't know if I should even go over there.
But since you're here, yeah, I do wanna know the truth.
Yeah, I do wanna see what the light says, and then they get saved.
You know, when I understand this doctrine, when I understand John 3, 18, it doesn't make
me wanna go so wanting less, it makes me wanna go so wanting more.
It makes me wanna bring the light to people.
And it makes me wanna empathize with people that are confused on salvation, because of
course they're confused, they're in darkness.
Because they went to the Catholic church and they've been taught that they have to clean
up their life to be saved.
Because they went to a false teacher or a false church or a bad church that's constantly
telling them lies and telling them they have to give up all their sin to be saved.
And you know what?
They're so confused and jaded and they hate that that they don't wanna hear the gospel.
And you know what we need to do is we need to have the boldness to confront people on
salvation.
That's why we believe in confrontational soul winning.
Of course, we're not trying to be mean, we're not doing anything illegal, we're not doing
anything to be an annoyance, but we are willing to have an uncomfortable conversation with
someone and say, "If you die today, are you sure you go to heaven?"
And then more important, more confrontational than that, why do you believe that?
Or what do you think is going to take you to heaven?
Or hey, do you think it's my faith or faith in works?
And they say works and you say, "Well, you're not saved."
That's confrontational.
But you know, it's beneficial to tell someone in the darkness, "You're in darkness, bro.
Come to the light.
Come to the glorious light of the gospel."
And of course, those who then come into the light and recognize, "Hey, I've got dirt all
over me."
Well, God willing, they'll start taking some, they'll try to get some of that dirt off of
their life, right?
They'll actually have works meet for repentance.
But I'm not going to expect someone to clean themselves up in the dark.
I am going to expect you in the light to start cleaning yourselves up and to try and get
better.
And you know, that's why we have church where we preach really hard against sin.
But you know, when we go out and preach the gospel out there, we're not going out and
these repent of your sins preachers on the street corner.
These lordship salvationists on the street corner screaming at people about how sinful
they are.
They got it.
We need to bring them the light.
We need to bring them the gospel.
And of course, this lordship salvation, it of course is catered to false teachers, right?
I mean, obviously the satanic, the unsaved infiltrators, bad people.
I think that there's a lot of saved pastors and a lot of saved Christians who are getting
sucked into this doctrine.
And the reason why people get sucked into this doctrine is because of laziness.
Two lazinesses.
Number one, pastors and people are too lazy to read the Bible and understand hard passages.
Instead of just trying to understand the hard passages and reconcile the Bible, they just
end up giving into a false doctrine.
They end up just catering to bad language and they'll use terms like repent of your
sins and lordship salvation and make them the Lord of your life and use confusing language.
And you know what?
It's because they're intellectually lazy.
It's because they're spiritually lazy and they don't want to actually use biblical
language.
And as a result of that, it also caters to the laziness of just not wanting to go out
and preach the Gospel.
And so those who are too lazy to read the Bible and too lazy to actually go out and
preach the Gospel, they often get sucked into a lordship salvation or a pen of your
sins Gospel.
And you know what?
We need to help those people wake up and realize, hey, you know what?
That's not a right doctrine.
And I think that, I think what I hope to accomplish with the sermon is to equip you with how to
understand a few of these passages because there are sincere people out there that will
say, yeah, but what is this?
What about this passage?
What about the fact that they don't love these things?
Yeah.
Here's the thing.
I believe everybody who saved loves the truth and I believe those who are doing righteousness
are righteous.
I even hear King James only people being like, "What about practicing sin?"
Well, that's not in your Bible.
That's in the extremely satanic version, okay?
That's not in the King James Bible, okay?
No king authorized that, right?
The God of this world is behind that version, okay?
And I also hope to motivate you to realize we need to be bringing the gospel to people
and confronting them on the light because a lot of times they're too nervous or too
scared to hear what the Bible says on these issues.
I don't think that someone who loves their sin can't be saved.
I hear preachers get up and say, "You can't love your sin and get saved."
I don't believe that.
I believe you can.
But you know what I don't think?
I don't think someone who loves sin will knock down your door and ask you how to get saved.
I don't think someone who loves sin is going to stumble into our church.
I don't think someone who loves sin is going to be the easiest salvation.
But I do think they can get saved.
And you know what?
Lordship Salvation is saying don't even minister to those people because they love sin too
much.
Don't even try to tell them how to be saved by the gospel because they have to stop loving
their sin before they're going to be willing to get saved.
You know I went soul hunting with a church and they said we won't even give them the
whole gospel.
We'll just kind of give them a sampler and then if they come to church then we'll give
them the gospel.
And I'm like that's wicked.
Hey give the harlot the gospel.
Give the drunkard the gospel.
Give the sinful people the gospel when you're out there and get them saved.
Then help them to clean up their lives later.
Don't try to do it the other way.
But you know, let's be honest, this Lordship salvation, there's nothing wrong with it after
getting saved, trying to have the Lord rule your life, not being a hypocrite.
I mean we sang this song earlier this evening, "Leave Me to Calvary" and one of the lines
is this, "King of my life, I crown thee now."
That sounds like making Jesus the Lord or the King of your life, doesn't it?
You know what?
That's because we're saved and we want him to rule in our hearts, in our minds, in our
lives.
There is some terminology and language that's thrown out there with Lordship salvation.
There's passages that they throw out, and you know, there's some truth in there.
We want to make sure to try to rescue the baby, believe the Bible, believe the sections
of scripture, understand them, and then get rid of all the dirty bathwater and say, "Hey,
you're right.
A lot of people do love sin and they're not going to get saved, but it's not because
they didn't repent of their sins.
It's because you didn't bring them the gospel, you lazy jerk.
That's why.
It's because you didn't open up your mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel.
It's because you as a light bear were covering the light and not showing the light to those
people.
That's the reason why they're not going to heaven.
It's not because they just love sin too much.
It's because you're too much of a coward to preach the gospel.
And you know what?
I'm not trying to excuse people like John MacArthur.
That guy's a devil.
That guy doesn't get up and just use confusing language.
That guy explains that salvation is a hard lifelong process and is damning people to
hell.
Okay?
But I do think there are people that are getting sucked into his language and his heresies
and they need to be called out and brought back into the right gospel.
And you know what?
We need to emphasize soul winning.
Of course, every doctrine of the devil is going to want to do something, destroy soul
winning.
And what we need to do is get the right doctrines because every right doctrine will lead back
to soul winning.
Hey, I'm not afraid of John 3, 18.
I'm not afraid of 1 John 3.
I'm not afraid of Matthew 25.
Hey, I love the difficult passages in the Bible.
And when you have the correct understanding, it'll confirm the right doctrines.
It'll confirm salvation by faith alone.
It'll confirm eternal security.
It'll confirm the fact that salvation was a free gift and you did nothing to earn it.
But there is the truth that many people love sin a lot.
They love darkness and they don't want to hear it on their own.
You have to go and confront them.
You have to go out there and make it known to them that they didn't even ask for it.
They didn't seek for it.
You know, the people who seek for it, praise God for them.
There are some people that just love the truth and they just sought God and they just got
saved.
They're going to stumble through the door and they just want to hear it.
You know what?
God bless those people.
But I also want to reach the people that don't want to be reached, that aren't that interested,
that aren't going to necessarily realize the goodness of God's grace and the goodness that's
being offered to them.
Don't expect someone who's in darkness to understand the light.
And let us that have a bright and shining light, this King James Bible, let us go out
there and educate our friends and family members and try to win people over on the right doctrines
because this Lordship salvation is stopping soul winning, not just us, but like other
people.
They're not going soul winning because they're sucked into this.
Let us help them get out of it.
All right, let's go to prayer.
Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for our church and for the gospel.
Thank you for giving us so much light.
I pray that we wouldn't take for granted the light that you've given us.
I pray that we wouldn't get a hearted heart towards those who are not saved.
I pray that we would realize that at one point we all walked in darkness, at one point we
were all confused, at one point we all misunderstood, and we're so grateful for those who brought
us light, I pray that we too would have a love for others and we would go out and preach
the gospel, we would send the light, and that you would help us to reach many people and
get them saved.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Alright, let's finish out the evening with song 45, "When I Can Read My Title Clear."
Song 45, "When I Can Read My Title Clear."
Sing it out together.
When I can read my title clear to mansions in the sky.