Hey everyone, this is Brother Mejia here from Faith Ward Baptist Church in Omani, California.
I just want to make a quick video to talk about my sermon that I preached on Sunday
night entitled, If We Believe Not, from 2 Timothy 2.13.
The purpose of the sermon was twofold.
Number one, it was to prove that it's impossible for someone who is saved, someone who believes
on Jesus Christ for salvation, to just stop believing in Jesus Christ for salvation.
You know, it's impossible for someone who is saved to just become an atheist, or for
someone who believes in the right Jesus, to later on believe in the Jesus of the Jehovah's
Witnesses, or the Jesus of the Mormons, or even the Jesus of the oneness crowd.
A safe person will never do that.
And the second part of the sermon was to basically show that although someone can believe on
Jesus Christ for salvation, it is possible for them to have a relapse in faith for everything
else.
You know, they can have a relapse in faith and maybe stop believing that God can provide
for them, that He can protect them.
They can start questioning His provisions, His presence.
They can have a relapse in faith.
They can stagger in faith.
And that was basically the gist of the sermon there, those two points there.
The reason I preached that was because a couple weeks ago we threw out a heretic from our
church who made a video railing against yours truly and railing on other pastors for claiming
that people like Tyler Baker are not saved.
You know, he wasn't happy with the fact that we call Tyler Baker a reprobate, that he's
not saved, that he's a false prophet.
And in this video that he made against us, he was basically saying, hey, if someone claims
to believe in Jesus and then later on believes in a different Jesus, it doesn't mean they're
not saved.
It just means they got into false doctrine, which is completely false.
And he uses 2 Timothy 2.13 to prop up his false doctrine because the Bible says if we
believe not, yet he abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself.
And the way he applies that to Tyler Baker is he says, well, you know, Tyler Baker believed
on the right Jesus before, but now he doesn't.
But guess what?
God still abides faithful.
He cannot deny himself.
And that's a foolish doctrine.
That's stupid.
And what a lot of people don't understand is that, you know, someone who believes in
a different Jesus, even though they claim to have believed in the right Jesus before
is simply lying.
They never believed in the right Jesus.
You know, the Bible says they went out from us for they were not of us, for if they had
been of us, they would have no doubt continued with us.
And that's in regards to Antichrist and false prophets.
And so he used that verse to basically state that Tyler Baker is saved.
He just got into false doctrine.
But that's not what 2 Timothy 2.13 is teaching at all.
You know, 2 Timothy 2.13 is not talking about salvation at all.
In fact, it's in reference to just believing that God can deliver us from afflictions,
that he can deliver us from persecutions.
In fact, the theme of 2 Timothy is afflictions.
It's enduring hardness as a good soldier.
It's being a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel.
And the apostle Paul is using his own example to show that, you know, he went through persecutions
and afflictions, but out of them all, the Lord delivered me.
And in fact, in 2 Timothy chapter 2, he states,
This is all in reference to afflictions and persecutions of life.
And so, you know, it's not talking about if we just stop believing in God, you know, we're
still saved.
No, it's impossible for someone to just stop believing in God.
It's impossible for someone to just stop believing in Jesus and just become an atheist and not
trusting him for salvation.
Now, another reason that I wanted to make this video was to talk about a statement that
I made in the video in the sermon where I said, you know, if you doubt your salvation,
you're probably not saved.
Now, one of the reasons that I didn't clarify what I meant by that was because doubting
your salvation was a subject that was outside of the scope of the sermon.
And in fact, the reason I said it was because in context of what I was preaching, I was
talking about people who at one point say they believe, and then they no longer believe,
you know, that person is not saved.
So if a person comes up to me and says, hey, I'm doubting my salvation, and I say, why
is that?
And they say, well, because I believed at one point on Jesus Christ for salvation, but
now I no longer believe, you know, I'm an atheist, or I just don't believe at all in
salvation.
I don't believe it's by faith.
You know, I would say that that person is not saved, according to the Bible.
And that was basically where I was getting at in that sermon.
Now there are times where I'm hasty in speech, or I'm hasty in my words, and maybe I don't
clarify something.
So that's my fault.
I make mistakes.
And I didn't clarify what I meant by that.
But I wanted to also talk about what do I say, or what do I do, when someone comes to
me and they say that they doubt their salvation?
And I want to give you some points in regards to this.
Because the fact is, even within the last couple of weeks, I've had people come talk
to me, people that have visited our church, people I've talked to over the phone, who
have told me that they doubt their salvation, and I want to tell you what I told them.
For example, I had a guy in my church who was doubting his salvation, and he came to
me and he basically said, hey, I'm, you know, I'm doubting my salvation.
And I basically asked him, I said, well, why are you doubting?
And he gave me some reasons.
He said, well, because, you know, I don't know if when I thought I believed on Christ,
if I really believed on him.
I don't know if I really thought that it was eternal security back then.
And I basically gave him some verses from the Bible.
I showed him from the Bible how you can never lose your salvation and how it's by faith
alone.
And he looked at me and he said, well, I believe that.
And I said, well, great.
That means you're saved.
Now, I can't say for sure if that's when you got saved.
I can't say that you got saved years ago when you're doubting that.
I don't know when it is that you got saved.
But I do know this, that if you believe this now, then you're saved.
And he was content with that answer, and he understood.
And he basically said, well, I'm thankful that I came to talk to you.
And I know, I don't know when I got saved.
I don't know if it was a couple of years ago.
I don't know if it was a couple of months ago.
But I do know for a fact now that I'm saved, because this is what I believe.
Another example is a person who came to our church during Spanish night.
And I had just finished preaching a sermon.
I was talking about how the commandments can't save us.
And I was preaching on the fact that the Bible tells us, therefore, we conclude that a man
is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
And a lady came up to me and began to talk to me and asked me some questions.
And I asked her, I said, are you 100% sure that if you die today?
You go to heaven?
And she said, yes, I'm 100% sure.
And I said, well, what would you say someone has to do in order to get to heaven?
And they said, well, you just have to believe on Christ.
And I basically asked her, well, can you do anything to lose your salvation?
And she said, no, I don't believe there's anything you can do.
And I said, you know, what if you sin or you get saved and you just get involved in sin
and you do all kinds of crazy stuff that the Bible strictly commands you not to do?
Would you say that you're still saved?
And she said, yeah, I'm still saved because I believed on Christ.
He's forgiven me of all my sins.
You know, I wouldn't write that person off as not being saved because they had questions
because this person sincerely had questions.
And she said, I don't doubt my salvation, she said.
But I do have questions in regards to the Bible that people bring to my attention.
And sometimes I don't know necessarily how to how to answer them.
I know that it's by faith.
I know you can't lose your salvation, but I'm not very, you know, well at explaining
from the Bible why that is.
You know, that person is saved.
Now, if a person came up to me and said, hey, brother, I'm doubting my salvation.
I would have basically further investigate them and ask them, well, why are you doubting
your salvation?
And if they said, well, because I'm involved in really deep sin, you know, I'm away from
God.
I'm involved in deep sin.
At that point, I would ask them, so what do you what is it do you think you have to do
in order to be saved?
And if they said, well, I believe it's by faith alone.
I believe you just have to trust Christ as your savior.
I'm just involved in really deep sin.
And, you know, I'm questioning whether I'm saved or not because of it.
I would basically show them from the Bible how even though someone sins, if they're saved,
they're still saved no matter what, even if they're involved in deep sin.
And I would go over a lot of scripture with them just to show them what the Bible says
about that.
Now, if after I show them those scriptures, they look at me and they say, well, I don't
believe that.
You know, if you're in sin, then you're not saved.
Then at that point, at that point, I would write that person off as not being saved.
But if that person looks at the scriptures and it resonates with them and they say, well,
I believe that, then I will tell that person, well, then you're saved.
You know, there's no reason to doubt your salvation.
You know, you're saved if this is what you believe.
Now, obviously, we can't see a person's heart.
We can just basically prove and try what they say out of their mouths.
And if that person says that they believe the scriptures that I'm showing them, you
know, I would rest assured that that person is saved.
And I would basically confirm to them that they're saved because they believe what I'm
showing them.
So the gist of the video that I wanted to make is just to basically show that, you know,
if someone says they doubt their salvation because they no longer believe in God, you
know, that person is not saved, okay?
Or even if someone like Eric who says, hey, you know, I believe, you know, that Tyler
Baker is saved because even though he believes in a wrong Jesus now and he claims to have
believed in the right Jesus before, you know, that that person is still saved, no, I would
say that that person is not saved.
In fact, I know that person is not saved.
So that's pretty much it.
I wanted to make that video just to clarify that.
You know, there are times in my life that, you know, I'm not perfect.
I make mistakes and maybe I'm hasty in speech and maybe I could have spent a little more
time explaining what I meant by that.
But again, you know, the subject of doubting your salvation was outside of the scope of
my sermon of what I was talking about.
But that's why I wanted to make this video.
And so be sure to listen.
Be sure to watch the video.
Watch the sermon entitled If We Believe Not from Second Timothy 2 13.
I hope you enjoy that.
All right.
God bless and have a great one.