Alright, turn with your Bibles to 2 Timothy chapter 1.
We'll begin reading verse 9. The Bible says,
"...who hath saved us, and called us within holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace,
which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ,
who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel."
Let's pray. Father, thank you for your time.
It has given us to teach the Word, Lord, preach the Word of God, and pray you bless me now.
Help me to be able to be filled with the Spirit so I can teach boldly and accurately what the application that makes this passage, Lord,
and help us all to have open ears, and pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
So, right here in 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 10, the Bible says that Jesus Christ hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
Now, what does it mean when he says he abolished death?
Well, you know, you think about the abolitionists in the 19th century America, right, where they did away with slavery.
After that point, slavery became completely illegal.
Well, Jesus Christ, he abolished death. Anyone who believes on Jesus Christ, they can never die after that point,
spiritually speaking, because Jesus Christ said, whosoever liveth and believeth in me, they'll never die.
You know, while their flesh can die, their spirit can never die.
But not only does he do that, he also brings to light, life and immortality through the gospel.
Now, what does it mean when it says life?
Well, it's not talking about the life that we have on this earth in our fleshly sense.
I mean, everybody understands that you're alive, okay? It's just something that's clearly evident.
When he says life, he's referring to eternal life.
He's referring to the life that you receive will never perish.
And he says, and immortality. What's that talking about? The same thing.
Immortality. If someone is immortal, they do not have the ability to die.
And how does he bring this to light? He brings it to light through the gospel.
And this makes sense, you know, because people who are saved, they understand that they're saved forever.
You know, and it's not something that's a hidden fact from their eyes, you know,
because if you believe that Jesus Christ died for your sins, that he paid for every sin you ever have done and ever will do,
then obviously you understand in your mind that you have eternal life, that you can never perish,
which is why he brings it to light through the gospel.
And so that means this, that anybody who believes, you can lose your salvation for any reason.
I don't care what reason you put, they're not saved because they do not have...
Here's the thing, the Bible says if our gospel be hid, it is his or them that are lost.
So if it's hidden in the eyes of someone, the fact that they're saved forever, you know what that means?
That means that they don't understand salvation, they don't understand the gospel, they're not saved.
You know an example like murder, suicide, look, they're not saved.
And obviously we understand they're trusting themselves, but how about stop believing?
If someone thinks, well, if you stop believing, you lose your salvation.
You pin these people down and they always connect stop believing with works.
Because people that think you can lose by stop believing, you ask them, well, how do you know if you're believing?
Well, you're going to church, reading your Bible, doing good things, right, you're not worshiping,
they're always connected to some work or something that they can or cannot do.
And at the end of the day, or how about blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, mark of the beast?
Obviously we understand it's impossible to do these things,
but the fact of the matter is if somebody thinks that doing these things, whether...
Obviously they're impossible, that means that immortality is hid from their eyes,
and that means that they haven't believed, all right?
Now I'm going to preach to a very specific person.
A lot of independent Baptist unfortunately think that eternal security is not essential,
they think it's a secondary issue, they think it's like whether or not Jesus went to hell,
or that's like wondering about the pre-trib or post-trib rapture.
Look, this is not a secondary doctrine, eternal life, eternal security, that is a very specific primary doctrine,
that's a fundamental of our faith right here.
And so obviously here's the thing, people can be wrong on this and be saved,
they can be wrong on whether eternal security is essential or not,
but at the end of the day, you have to believe in eternal security to be saved, okay?
And there's a very specific person, his name is Manly Perry.
Now Manly Perry is a heretic, Manly Perry teaches that Jesus Christ is not fully God,
he's a damnable heretic, but one other thing he preached, and he preaches a lot,
is that denying one saved always saves is not a damnable heresy.
And he preached a whole sermon about this, it was about the Free Will Baptist,
he preaches at Michael Johnson's church over in North Carolina,
and in the sermon he's exonerating the Free Will Baptist.
That's what it is, he's liking the Free Will Baptist and the Southern Baptist.
And let me read you a statement he made.
Now thankfully Michael Johnson was confederate with Manly Perry,
and he went with him and started putting down his sermons too,
but thankfully I was able to copy and paste some of his quotes before he did that.
So let me just read you what he said.
Now let me just be super duper clear, please don't misunderstand me,
let me be duper, duper clear.
Right now I believe very strongly that if a person believes they can lose their salvation,
you know, they can go out and stump, nudge their toe and say a bad word,
you know, go out and slip up and take a drink, you know, whatever.
If somebody believes they can lose their salvation, I don't believe that person is saved,
because the Bible teaches that we're saved by putting our faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ,
and if you believe you can lose your salvation, your trust is not in Jesus, your trust in yourself.
Now that sounds great. I agree with that statement.
I agree, everything he said was right, but then he pulled Rick James,
and then he just goes back and everything he says to the rest of the sermon,
because if you keep listening to his sermon, he starts contradicting himself.
And I'll read what he says in Minimalist 16.
Now I put a difference between the Free Will Baptist and the Pentecostals.
You know, I put a difference between them.
And I also believe, again, that there are a lot of Free Will Baptists that are saved.
And here's why. They got saved, many of them got saved in the pure gospel,
and then months or years down the road they got confused on the issue.
Here's the only difference between Pentecostals and Free Will Baptists.
You know what it is? Tongue speaking, right?
Now obviously the Free Will Baptists, they don't believe in baptism or regeneration either.
But here's the thing. I'll read to you the Free Will Baptist's statement of faith
by the Free Will Baptist National Association, established 1935, updated 2013.
And I'll read to you an appendix they made in 1969, and you tell me if they're saved or not.
This is what they said.
Number one, we believe that salvation is a present possession by faith in the Lord Jesus' Savior,
and that a person's eternal destiny depends on whether he has this possession.
So he's saying that salvation is present tense.
It's a process. You're being saved.
This we hold in distinction from those who teach that salvation depends on human worship and merit.
But then he goes on to say this, we believe that a saved individual may, in freedom of will,
seize the trust in Christ for salvation and once again be lost.
This we hold in distinction from those who believe that a believer may not again be lost.
So basically they're saying this, that if you stop believing, you'll lose your salvation.
But then if you keep reading, it's crystal clear that when they say stop believing,
they're just connecting to stop believing and to stop doing the works because in point three they say,
we believe that any individual living in the practice of sin, whether it be called a backslide or a sinner,
must be judged by that evidence to be lost should he so die in his sins.
We hold this in distinction from those who suggest that pernicious doctrine
that a man may live in sin as he pleases and still claim heaven's eternal home.
So basically what they're saying is this, is that if you're backsliding, you're living in sin,
hey, that person could be lost.
And this is in contrast with people who teach that, hey, you can live in sin and claim as heaven your home.
What are they teaching? They're saying that if you backslide and go into sin, you'll lose your salvation.
I'll read you another thing they say.
The terms of salvation, the condition of salvation are repentance or sincere sorrow or sin and hearty renunciation of.
So they say in order for you to be saved, you have to have a hearty, heartly renunciation.
What does hearty or renunciation mean?
To renounce means to give up.
So they're basically saying you have to give your sins up to go to heaven.
Now that right there is a damnable heresy in itself.
But then they say this, faith or the unreserved committal of one's self to Christ as Savior and Lord
with purpose to love and obey Him in all things.
In the exercise of saving faith, the soul is renewed by the Holy Spirit, free from the dominion of sin and becomes a child of God.
So basically you have to commit your entire life to Christ.
And number 12, perseverance.
All believers in Christ who through grace persevere in holiness to the end of life have the prophecy of eternal salvation.
So in order for you to be saved in the Free Will Baptist Church, you have to persevere into the end.
If you stop persevering, you lose your salvation.
That's work salvation.
I don't know how you could possibly defend this.
So here's the thing, because Manly Perry Slater says this, he actually says that he got assurance of his salvation at a Free Will Baptist Church.
And what he says is, now let me say this, one more time, I do believe that most people who do not believe in one's saved are always saved, like we do.
I do not believe they are saved, with the exception of those who get saved and fear the gospel and get diffused down the road.
So he changes.
So first he says, hey, if you believe in your salvation, you're not saved.
Then he says, well, most people who believe in your salvation are saved.
Which is it?
Is it everybody or is it most people?
It can't be both.
Now why does he do that?
Because it's whatever you want to hear.
If you want to hear that people who believe in your salvation are saved, then just believe the second thing he said.
And if you want to think that everybody who believes in your salvation is not saved, believe the first thing.
Why?
Because he's double-tongued.
He's just pandering to both sides, trying to fit into whatever you want to believe because he's just a false teacher out there trying to tickle your itching ear.
And then later he says he got saved and later confused with thinking he could lose his salvation.
He claims to receive his assurance of salvation at a Free Will Baptist Church.
But here's the thing.
If he received his assurance of salvation at a Free Will Baptist Church, look, if that guy was a Free Will Baptist, that's an assurance by works.
Which tells me that, you know what, he's not saved then.
Obviously we don't understand he's not saved.
But hey, he didn't receive a correct assurance of salvation at church.
Because if someone calls themselves a Free Will Baptist, they believe he can lose their salvation.
If someone does not believe they can lose their salvation, if they believe Jesus Christ when he said,
I get them of their eternal life and they shall never perish, then you know what?
They're not a Free Will Baptist.
They're just not.
That's all there is to it.
Because this is a distinctive that the Free Will Baptists teach.
Now why is this a big deal?
Obviously it's not a damn well heresy.
I get that.
But here's the thing.
If you have someone that they think that eternal security is not an essential document of salvation,
you know what you're doing?
You're putting a stomach block in front of yourself.
Because now they think, well, let's say you had someone that grew up in a Free Will Baptist Church.
And then later they get saved.
They list the pastor and inspiration or whatever the case.
They have someone knocking the door.
But then you teach them, oh, well, it's okay.
You can be messed up in eternal security to be saved.
Now, you know what their big problem is?
Well, after you get saved, you're supposed to get baptized in obedience.
And so they're going to think, well, I was already saved before.
I was just kind of confused and they're thinking that I could lose my salvation by living sin.
So now I'm not going to get baptized.
You're hindering their growth.
Not only that, you're letting other people go to hell.
Because now when you go out soul winning, you're not making sure that you cover that doctrine.
And so if someone says, well, you can lose your salvation, you'll be like, okay, well, they're messed up on that.
But as long as they understand that they're the concept of salvation, even if they think you lose it, they're still saved.
No, they're not saved.
And I've heard personal testimony from people that go to Old Path Baptist Church, that they go out soul winning,
and they had someone pray with them.
And after that, they said that if they lived a wicked life, they'd go to hell.
And they're like, oh, they're saved.
They're just confused.
No, they're not saved.
They're not saved because they're trusting themselves.
They're trusting their works because if they truly believe that Jesus Christ paid it all, that it was a once for all offering,
then they wouldn't think they could lose it.
All right?
So let's just make this very clear.
God brings life and immortality to life through the gospel.
And so if someone denies that, look, they're not saved.
And we need to get them saved, all right?
Let's pray.
Father, thank you for the time you've given me to preach the word of God.
Lord, I pray you bless the next man that preached this film, the Holy Ghost,
so he'd be able to teach the word of God accurately, Lord, in praising the Jesus name, amen.