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you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you I need baptize with water into repentance but he that cometh out from me is mightier than I whose shoes I am not worthy to bear he shall baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire whose fan is in his hand and he will thoroughly purge his floor and gather his wheat into the garden but he will burn up the shaft with unquenchable fire bless the ring of God's word let us pray Lord God in heaven we thank you Lord for the state that is given to us and God the truth please bless God for this day give us good weather for our soul winning and our fellowship later on and for the truth peace bless the preacher the preacher of your word for this day we love you Jesus name we pray amen John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea now you wouldn't really think that if you're trying to reach a lot of people you'd start in the wilderness but that is where John the Baptist started he started kind of away from the crowds and people came to him to hear him preach verse number two and saying repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand now this word repent is a very important word and there's a lot of opinions about it and we can see here that John the Baptist preached repentance what exactly does that mean turn to Acts chapter 19 Acts 19 Acts chapter 19 and in Acts 19 we're going to see this story where Paul the Apostle runs into people that got baptized but they're not actually saved right and it says here in Acts 19 verse 1 and it came to pass that while Apollos was at Corinth Paul having passed through the upper coast came to Ephesus and finding certain disciples he said unto them have ye received the Holy Ghost since he believed and they said unto him we have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost and so Paul's running into people and you know what he's just kind of assuming that they're probably saved because they're disciples they're followers and he asks them a very basic question and they're like you know what's the Holy Ghost you know what are you talking about and then Paul's kind of wondering it's like are these people really saved they seem like they're kind of confused verse 3 and he said unto them unto what then were ye baptized and they said unto John's baptism now look John the Baptist baptized a lot of people right and here's what I would say if you're baptizing a lot of people you're not really going to stop and individually ask everybody about their salvation and of course people are coming to hear John the Baptist preach so there's people that he hasn't even met and there's like 20 people lined up it's kind of like you're going to baptize some people that maybe just got emotional they didn't really believe they're confused it's going to happen right and it says here in verse 4 then said Paul John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance now what does that mean saying unto the people that they should believe on him which should come after him that is on Christ Jesus so when John the Baptist was preaching repentance what he's saying to the people is they should believe on the one coming after which is Jesus Christ and so when it comes to salvation when we talk about the word repentance you don't have to change your lifestyle to be saved you don't have to quit lying and quit every vice to be saved what you've got to do is change your belief so for example if you're a Muslim you've got to change what you believe to be saved you cannot believe on Muhammad you can't believe in Jesus and still believe in Muhammad you've got to make a choice and if you grow up Roman Catholic and you believe in a work salvation like the Roman Catholic Church teaches you've got to change what you believe in order to be saved I'm sure probably over half of this room grew up Roman Catholic and you rejected that and when you got saved you were making a choice weren't you saying you know what I'm no longer going to believe in the pope and the sacraments and the last rites and confession and baptism and all these things I'm just going to believe on Jesus Christ for salvation and John the Baptist had people from different backgrounds and what is he saying quit trusting in what you used to trust in quit believing what you used to believe in and believe on Jesus Christ for salvation even outside of that there's a lot of people in this room that were Bible Baptist before because probably over half of you grew up Catholic and probably over half of you came from Bible Baptist more recently and many of you would tell me that yeah you know what I was Bible Baptist and I wasn't even saved right and you had to reject the ideas and the false teachings you were learning and realize hey it's not what I do it's not my lifestyle change I'm not going to heaven simply because I'm not Catholic look I didn't grow up Catholic that wasn't getting me to heaven though not being Catholic is not the same as salvation you've got to change your mind about what you believe and put all your faith on Jesus Christ to be saved and that's what John the Baptist was preaching to people go in your Bible to Matthew 3 Matthew chapter 3 Matthew 3 so as the Baptist repents he wasn't saying to people that they should quit smoking nope he didn't say that they should quit drinking no he's saying that they should believe right now when it comes to repentance and I do believe that's what it's referring to with John the Baptist here but John the Baptist also preached another type of repentance as well because when you look at a spiritual sense there's kind of two types of repentance now here's the thing what repent means is to change to change, to turn but the context is going to tell you what you're repenting of what you're turning from right so in a spiritual sense we think of changing our belief or turning from our sins are kind of the two things that you think about when it comes to salvation what you've got to change is your belief not your lifestyle however if you're already saved there's another type of repentance that is preached to you because in church I don't usually preach on salvation that much you know why? because most everybody if not everybody in this room is saved you believe you need to hear more in your life than just salvation every single week and there are churches where every sermon is about salvation you said brother Seki what's the problem with that there's a lot more in this book than just salvation I mean when you first get saved that's all you can think about you're excited but then after a little while because I went to a church where every sermon was on salvation for the first couple of months I'm thinking this is great and then I was thinking is there anything else? right? you know I've heard the same sermon on salvation every single week right? and the primary thing in a church like this you hear is quit doing that, quit doing that repent of that, repent of that you say why? because I'm trying to get you to change your life at a church like ours I tell you quit listening to that music right? change the way you're dressed quit watching that now here's the thing you have free will to do whatever you want but as a man of God I'm going to stand up here and tell you what the Bible says and John the Baptist when he's going soul winning or preaching to people about salvation he's saying believe on the Lord Jesus Christ but what do you really preach in a sermon? repent of your sins change your life because I'm trying to get you to live a godly and holy life look when a person first gets saved unless they grow up in a church like this they've got a lot of things in their life they need to change they need to change what they listen to what they watch the friends they hang out with the places they go the vices that they might be attached to I mean there's a lot they need to change they don't have to change any of that to be saved all they've got to change is their belief repent of their belief however after you get saved it's time to start serving God it's time to enlist for the fight it's time to sign up for the spiritual warfare and you know what that means? that no man entangles himself with the affairs of this life if you're going to sign up for that warfare meaning it's time to make some changes in your life don't get mad at me when I preach against the sins that you're attached to because maybe God wants you to hear it maybe God wants you to make those changes in your life and so we see this about repentance and it says here in verse 3 for this is he referring to John the Baptist that was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah saying the voice of one crying in the wilderness prepare ye the way of the Lord make his path straight now it's interesting how the Bible says prepare ye the way of the Lord and then it says make his paths straight what is the Bible saying make his path straight prepare ye the way of the Lord go to Isaiah chapter 40 where this is quoted from Isaiah chapter 40 Isaiah chapter 40 verse 3 and John the Baptist was prophesied in the Old Testament here in Isaiah chapter 40 Isaiah 40 verse 3 the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness and by the way when it says crieth in the wilderness it's not referring to shedding tears you know there are some emotional usually Pentecostal preachers that will try to you know shed some tears to get the emotion going when it's saying crying it's like cry loud spare not lift up thy voice like a trumpet that's what the Bible is saying when cry loud right and it says the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness prepare ye the way of the Lord make straight in the desert a highway for our God now what does it mean make straight in the desert a highway for our God there's a lot of symbolism that's being mentioned here in our modern day when you're trying to travel somewhere I mean if you've got a car you just drive on a road that's paved for you or you can book a grab on your phone get a tricycle I mean I'm gonna be flying to the US here in September and it's like well it's like I just hop on a plane and it's like you just go and you know exactly you know when you make a flight it's gonna tell you okay it's this many hours it's gonna take this long in our modern day we use the expression you know ETA estimated time of arrival right that's probably not something that they had 2000 years ago when they're going on a trip but it's like hey I'm gonna arrive in 11 minutes and you send a text out and the path they're going on is a well-paid path that you know has been traveling on a million times but here's the thing 2000 years ago when somebody would be going on a journey they didn't necessarily know where they're going and what it said to us that in times past when you would have kings that would go on journeys what would take place is they'd send a group ahead of time to prepare the way to figure out what direction are we going to make sure I mean make a path in the desert and literally they would make a path for the king to travel because you're not gonna expect the king to go on a path and pave his own way out you're gonna send the servants are gonna go and they carve out a path and so then he's gonna come back and say okay this is what you need to do this is what we need to bring this is how long it's gonna take and they are basically preparing the way for the king right and so here's the thing why does this relate to John the Baptist and Jesus because Jesus is the king and when the Bible is saying John the Baptist is preparing the way I mean he was kind of smoothing out the rough spots because here's the thing make no mistake about it regardless of what movies or TV shows you've seen with Jesus with long hair and preaching these soft you know sermons I mean Jesus preached some really radical stuff that offended people they tried to get mad I mean they got mad at him many times I mean obviously they ultimately crucified him but his first sermon they tried to throw him off a cliff now here's the thing John the Baptist kind of prepared the way before though by laying down the hammer and it's like whoa and then the shock waves were kind of less when Jesus came because like yeah it's pretty similar to what John the Baptist was doing now it's interesting because in modern day movies John the Baptist is really like rugged and tough he's got short hair you know he's got you know camel skin and everything like that and then all of a sudden you've got Jesus that comes to get baptized and he's got long hair and he's talking in a soft way you hypocrites right and it's like whenever you see this comparison it's like John the Baptist and Jesus it's like they're completely different from one another now here make no mistake about it John the Baptist is a normal man that's a sinner and Jesus Jesus Christ is the Son of God is perfect but here's the thing the preaching of Jesus was similar to John the Baptist and it's not just John the Baptist or in our modern day you go back to the prophets of the Old Testament Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel I mean they're saying pretty radical things I mean Zephaniah is probably the meanest prophet in the Old Testament why'd you name your son Zephaniah I mean he's like the meanest prophet in the Old Testament right preaching against this and this and this right and so John the Baptist he's preparing the way by preaching very hard obviously they started baptism and things such as that go back to Matthew 3 Matthew chapter 3 now we just came from the book of Isaiah and the book of Isaiah is referred to by some people as the mini Bible who's heard of Isaiah being called the mini Bible before some hands in this room and Isaiah is a book with 66 chapters now our Bible is made up of 66 books now if your Bible is not made up out of 66 books you've got a lot of problems with your Bible but 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament right now the reason why people call the book of Isaiah the mini Bible is because if you look at the first chapter of Isaiah there's a lot of symbolism and things that line up with the first book of the Bible Genesis you go to the second chapter of Isaiah a lot of things line up with the second book of the Bible if you go to the last the 66th book of the Bible or the 66th book of Revelation you see a lot of things that line up with the 66th chapter in Isaiah and myself I've seen it I do believe that yeah there is definitely a correlation between the chapter of Isaiah and the book of the Bible and one of the clearest ones is what we just looked at Isaiah chapter 40 how many books are in the Old Testament? 39 so the book of Matthew would be the first book of the New Testament it is the 40th book of the Bible and so it's interesting the 40th chapter of Isaiah talks about John the Baptist and then you see Matthew where it's like John the Baptist I don't think that's a coincidence personally now here's the thing when the Bible was first written there were not chapters and verses now the chapters and verses are very helpful for us from my understanding they first came in with the Geneva Bible and you know these things are very helpful for us I would say this so where they make the breaks in the chapters I don't really understand I think it's kind of an odd place and I'm not necessarily saying every chapter or verse is inspired the way they did that so for example you get to the book of Ephesians Ephesians chapter 5 and I think it's starting at verse 20 it talks about husbands and wives to the end of the chapter but here's the thing the first verse of that is submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God and some people take that well husbands and wives submit themselves one to another well that kind of contradicts the rest of what Ephesians 5 is talking about with wives submitting to husbands but here's the thing what it's saying is submitting yourselves one to another because in chapter 5 we see the example of husbands and wives then at the beginning of chapter 6 what do you have? children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right then what's after that? servants obey your masters so if you're in a position of having someone as the authority you submit yourself to that authority so in my mind it would make sense to make it Ephesians 5-20 to Ephesians 6-9 would be kind of the logical break other examples are the first word of chapter sometimes is therefore so the thought is not over right? so you've got to be very careful when you're reading the Bible to assume it's the end of the chapter now we're on to something brand new sometimes the thought continues with the book of Isaiah though it's interesting because you do see a correlation of the 66 chapters in the 66 books of the Bible in the book of Isaiah there are a lot of very logical chapter breaks so maybe somebody was aware of this and then they kind of made those breaks at the very obvious spots I'm not really for sure and this would not be my number one proof of why the Bible is inspired by God but I do think it's interesting if ever I preach through the book of Isaiah I'll show you a lot of those correlations and one of them that's very clear is Isaiah 40 with Matthew the 40th book and it talks about John the Baptist but go back to Matthew 3 Matthew 3 and it says in Matthew 3 verse 4 and the same John had his raiment of camel's hair and a leathern girdle about his loins and his meat was locusts and wild honey now the word meat in the Bible is not necessarily referring to chicken, steak, beef and things like that meat is like it's just your food and so like in the Bible sometimes it says making a meat offering that doesn't mean it's an animal sacrifice it could be referring to bread or whatever but it says his meat is locusts and wild honey now I think everybody in the world loves honey I'm pretty sure I mean honey tastes awesome here's the reason why people don't eat honey right? I mean if honey was not expensive you would probably eat it every day right? I mean it tastes great at least that's my opinion I mean honey is awesome so that part of this diet is pretty cool locusts I don't know because I've never really tried locusts I've eaten crickets before and I thought they tasted tamalang that was my opinion right? it required a lot of deep frying to make them at that level but I don't know maybe you can try this out tell me how it tastes dip a locust in honey or whatever but what you're seeing is that John the Baptist is willing to make some sacrifices in his personal life in order to be used by God I'm sure that in his flesh he would have loved to have a bed to sleep on at night and then just come out and preach and look I'm not saying you've got to sell your house now and live in the wilderness especially if you're married and you have a family that's probably not a good idea but what I'm saying is there are sacrifices to serving God though and quite honestly I don't think any of us are going to make a sacrifice like this and have to live out on the streets to be used by God I mean God has given probably all of us a place to stay at night and here's the thing God says if you have food and raiment be content here's the thing all of us have food and raiment we also have a place to stay and so whatever place you have you ought to be thankful and happy for that the Bible says actually go to Matthew 11 Matthew chapter 11 Matthew chapter 11 verse 7 Matthew 11 verse 7 and as they departed Jesus began to say on the multitudes concerning John what went ye out in the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind? Now what does he mean by a reed shaken with the wind? Well look if you are standing in a field around grass and flowers and stuff like that and the wind is blowing what are you going to see? You're going to see the flowers and the grass just shake with the wind right? If the wind's blowing if it's not very heavy it's going to be moved right? And the Bible's saying John the Baptist was not someone that got moved or shaken very easily the Bible says be stable I mean the Bible says we ought to be stable in our lives not just you're bouncing back and forth so for example one week hey I'm excited to be at church so next week you're not hey one day you're reading the Bible and next week the next day you're not but we need to be stable in our lives your visibility is being grounded in church and settled in church but part of it is just your daily walk with God and the Bible also uses this example not being tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine I had a friend of mine in college and I got saved as a freshman and you know my friend I also thought got saved at the time it turns out he never actually believed you know now he's maybe Islam's correct he doesn't really know but I remember though it's a great example though because we'd be talking about the Bible me and my friends and he'd go home from college on the weekend to see his family he'd come back and say you know what my dad had a good point maybe you do have to be baptized to go to heaven and we're like what's wrong with you? and literally every single time he went home that's the way it was then he'd come back the next time and say hey you know my dad had a good point maybe you can lose your salvation we're like hey what's wrong with you what are you talking about it's eternal life and then all of a sudden he'd go home on another weekend he'd come back and he's like yeah you know actually you know my dad he's really studied Greek a lot and he says the King James has errors I mean literally every single week he went home it's like you know one time he went home and his mom was a big Joel Osteen fan he comes back and says yeah you know what Joel Osteen's a really good preacher you're like it's like Brian what's wrong with you? yes that was his name right? but it's just like what's wrong with you? now of course in hindsight he never actually believed himself but it's just kind of like you don't want to be someone though who's saved that bounces back and forth you need to study your bible to know what you believe don't just take my word for it say well how do you know this? well brother Stuckey said it really is that your reason for why you believe things? now look if you have a preacher if you hear good things preached in sermons then yeah you know you ought to respect the person who's preaching and believe that they're led by God but they're also a sinful fallible person and look I promise you I'm not right about everything nobody's right about everything so you ought to know what you believe yourself the bible speaks about the Bereans were more noble than those in Thessalonica and that they received the word with all readiness of mind so yeah receive the word of God with all readiness of mind and search the scriptures daily whether those things were so in fact what we're going to look at in Matthew 3 there are actually several verses that good people have different opinions on I'll tell you what I believe about these verses but at the end of the day you decide for yourself because if you're saved you have a much better teacher on the inside of you than brother Stuckey you've got the Holy Spirit of God the Holy Spirit of Truth I'll show you both sides on these things and then you decide for yourself with the Holy Spirit of God you decide not don't make this well it's like you know I have all these preachers that I like well four of them say this and two say this that means they're right because they've got majority is that how you decide stuff decide it with the Holy Spirit of God on the inside of yourself if you're saved that's how you know what's true what's not true because look all of us make mistakes all of us can be wrong all of us are fallible it's like the reason why you believe stuff should not be well brother Stuckey said it because look the Catholic church why do they believe things well that's what the Pope said and he's the vicar of Christ on earth that's what you call a cult you decide what you believe based on what does the Word of God say we don't live in the dark ages you've been given a Bible that you can read for yourself so as I preach through Matthew 3 in your free time this week search the scriptures whether those things are so why is it I try to encourage people to memorize the Bible because I want you to know what the Bible says I'm not afraid oh no the people are going to read the Bible then they're going to quit the church it's like look I want you to read the Bible I encourage you I encourage you to memorize it in fact this memorization this week is the shortest it's ever going to be five verses I'm not afraid well you're going to memorize it and then next week oh no you're going to hear my sermon and then you're going to quit the church or whatever look because here's the thing if you have the Holy Spirit of truth inside of you we're going to arrive at the same conclusion on 99% of things because it's the same teacher the Holy Spirit of God right and so the Bible says that John the Baptist was not a reed shaking with the wind bouncing back and forth and then notice what it says in verse 11 verily I say in you among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he and Jesus says there hasn't been someone who is better than John the Baptist now here's the thing of course Jesus Christ he is better than John the Baptist but he's kind of the exception to everything because he's God in the flesh the other thing is this Paul the Apostle comes after John the Baptist so if you want to like do your comparison let's put these in order of the greatest characters ever you know it's like well I don't know whether Paul was greater than John the Baptist or not but John the Baptist was a great man of God go back to Matthew 3 Matthew 3 then it says in Matthew 3 verse 5 then went out to him Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region round about Jordan and were baptized of him in Jordan confessing their sins now this is a verse that is very debated where it says they are baptized of him in Jordan confessing their sins so I'm going to tell you what I believe it's referring to when it says confessing their sins when a person comes to a spiritual event in their life like getting baptized like taking the Lord's Supper these are things that cause you to contemplate eternity and think of spiritual and heavenly things when a person gets baptized you know you know what usually goes through their mind I want to draw closer to God I want to make changes I want to read the Bible more I mean nobody when they're getting baptized is thinking man what's the score in the sports game right it's like let me see what you're thinking about is spiritual and heavenly things at least for me when I got baptized that's what was going through my mind and I was confessing my sins inside of my own mind thinking man I want to draw close to God I believe these people have already gotten saved so when they're confessing their sins it's kind of like just getting right with God and it's not a thing of well you got a Catholic priest that you confess your sins to I am not a Catholic priest I don't want you to confess your sins to me right as I've said before you know when we've had you know kids that have visited our church and then sometimes they call me Father it's like whoa wait a minute you can call me a lot of things but don't call me Father I am not Father Stuckey right I'm not a Catholic priest nor was John the Baptist but I believe when they're confessing their sins I don't think they're getting saved at this moment I don't think this is them confessing with their mouth the Lord Jesus I believe what it is is they're getting right with God because they're doing something spiritual that's my opinion you can have a different opinion and that's fine right often when people are coming to church you know at the end of sermons maybe the sermon kind of hits your heart and you're thinking inside your head I want to draw close to God you might confess your sins to God inside your head but that's not your salvation you've been saved for a long time it's just a matter of getting right with God so I think that's what they're doing here I don't think John the Baptist is requiring them to confess every sin in order to get baptized I think it's just them drawing close to God as they're doing something spiritual says in verse 7 but when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism he said unto them hello generation of vipers who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come and so a lot of Pharisees and Sadducees come up to his baptism the question is why that's a good question now obviously John the Baptist doesn't trust them it's very obvious from that are they lining up to get baptized are they there to try to cause trouble I think they're probably there to try to cause trouble I'm not really sure what they're trying to do exactly but he's saying wait wait a minute if you're here if you're planning to get baptized hold on one second right what he says is oh generation of vipers here's the thing Pharisees and Sadducees they weren't believing on Christ for their salvation here's the thing some of the Pharisees believed on Jesus we do see some of them believing on it in the New Testament now with the Sadducees they denied a pretty important part of the gospel what did they deny? they denied the resurrection in fact I've heard it said in Baptist churches this is why they were sad you see because you're of all men most miserable if you deny the resurrection that's why they were sad you see they're Sadducees but anyways they denied the resurrection so the Sadducees can't be saved because you must believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus to be saved but here's the thing he says oh generation of vipers let's say for example somebody visited church with you know a bunch of Hindus you know they're Hindu and they visit with a bunch of Hindus and you can tell they're Hindu because you see a lot of red dots so let's say five ladies show up with red dots on their head that are Hindu and then they say hey they want to get baptized and I'm like oh generation of vipers right here's the thing if you had actually denied Hinduism and you believed on Jesus you wouldn't actually be offended by that you'd be like you know what you're right Hinduism is wicked it's false I am denying Hinduism it's like I just couldn't get this scrubbed off you know it's like but I believe on Jesus and I brought my lost friends for you to preach the gospel to right you wouldn't be offended I grew up Protestant and I was taught to work salvation do you think I get offended when people you know criticize the Protestants and women pastors and all no say why cause I'm not Protestant anymore I mean when I preach against Catholicism if that offends you I don't know what to tell you because if you're saved it's not going to offend you so the statement oh generation of vipers is very strong but if someone in that midst is actually saved it's not really going to offend them cause like you know what you're right you can't be saved denying the resurrection I reject that I'm showing up to this baptism I do believe don't let me in with those people the other thing he says is this who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come what is John the Baptist literally saying in those words who gave you the gospel right because when we preach the gospel to people we warn them about the fires of hell and what he said is who hath warned you so if someone were to say that hey brother Schuckey who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come Michael Milutich that's the answer to the question that's the person who gave me the gospel my friend in college gave me the gospel if you're saved you're saved because somebody warned you to flee from the wrath to come right so what he's saying is who gave you the gospel if you're like well you know I'm a Pharisee I was born a child of God I'm automatically going to heaven because of my blood it's like somebody had to give you the gospel you have to be born again I mean except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God you've got to be born again so what he's saying is who gave you the gospel and look if someone's going to get baptized and they say well I've always been saved it's like whoa wait a minute who gave you the gospel again because you go from being lost to saved right you're not born saved you're born safe meaning a baby that dies goes to heaven because they're not held accountable but as you become an older age and you learn to comprehend these things you've got to be born again and how do you do that do you just do it yourself no somebody gives you the gospel and so you know I remember hearing the gospel it warns you to flee from the wrath to come go to John 3 I'll show you one verse in this John 3 John 3 and the Bible says and here's the thing so if you do not grow up in a fundamental Baptist home it's almost a guarantee you're going to be born believing a work of salvation a false system of the gospel there are other Baptist churches that are right on salvation so you could have parents that are saved themselves but you know most people in this world they grow up with a false gospel a false understanding and the average person if you ask them do you know for sure you're going to go to heaven what are they going to say no and if you ask them what percent are you they're going to say 80% 90% they're not sure why aren't they sure because they believe in a work of salvation how could you ever be sure if you're good enough and you can't so they've got to hear the gospel and get saved what if somebody grows up in a church like this well if you grow up in a church like this you're still going to hear the gospel from someone now you're probably going to hear the gospel from me in bits and pieces through sermons a lot but honestly you're still more likely to get saved by your mom or your dad as they just explain these things very clearly and you can ask them questions so you're hearing the gospel from someone I mean when people grow up in fundamental Baptist homes they still got saved because their dad gave them the gospel when they were a kid or their mom gave them the gospel when they were a kid they were warned about the wrath to come from somebody John 3 verse 36 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 now there are two types of people those that believe on the son and those that do not believe on the son now we understand that babies that die as I said they go to heaven because they haven't reached what we would call the age of accountability they cannot fully comprehend this but once you reach that age the Bible says you must be born again right is there anybody that has reached the age of accountability where they can understand this but they don't believe on Jesus but they go to heaven anyway no he that believeth not the son shall not see life you say well brother Stuckey what about somebody who grows up in you know some deep dark jungle somewhere they never hear about Jesus number one everybody has heard about Jesus his name is gone to the ends of the world the Bible says but number two they still have to believe on Jesus they must hear the gospel and believe granted it is easier in this country to get saved than if you grow up in a Muslim country no doubt about that but somebody who grows up Muslim they must be born again they must hear the gospel from someone and believe on Jesus Christ for salvation right somebody who grows up in some native tribe they must hear the gospel and get saved anyway this idea that that half the world has never heard about Jesus I watched a documentary here in from the Philippines one time and it wasn't the Ida's but it was one of the groups that kind of lives up on the mountains some of the natives and one of the parts of the not Philistines right and they were going to these people that supposedly were 100% isolated from the world and they were showing them major events and asking them have you heard of this and so they brought in a video for these people to hear out of the woman who is a very famous reporter here that does these documentaries in the Philippines and so she is showing them these things it's like have you heard about going to the moon and then there would be a few people that raise their hands supposedly 100% isolated how did you hear about the moon landing right and yet there were some that raised their hands and they went through a lot of various famous events and then they got to one of Michael Jackson every single one raised their hands every single one knew who Michael Jackson was don't tell me everybody knows about this famous pedophile but they've never heard of Jesus everybody knows who Jesus Christ is everybody's heard of Jesus before that doesn't mean that everybody's heard a clear presentation of the gospel but look the name of Jesus has spread to the ends of the world they'll say here in the Philippines that there was no Christianity until Ferdinand Magellan really why don't you go on the Wikipedia page for how Christianity was introduced into the Philippines oh actually it was like right after the time of Christ and I know that's commonly reported by the Catholics but not according to Wikipedia Wikipedia says actually sailors and merchants were bringing the message of Jesus over right after the resurrection of Jesus Christ so there's a lot of things you hear from people that doesn't mean it's true but what I'm saying is you must believe in the son to be saved regardless of how you're raised or where you're raised go back to Matthew 3 Matthew 3 and I'm going to talk more about that in verse number 9 but I want to take kind of a rabbit show in verse 8 for a little while where it says this statement bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance now there are a lot of opinions from good people that have different opinions what is this referring to there's no doubt that John the Baptist is asking for evidence of what that salvation is but here's the thing going to church is not really an evidence of salvation because plenty of safe people don't go to church my opinion of the fruits is that he's actually asking for converts of the Pharisees and Sadducees and here's the thing the Bible is recording what John the Baptist said I don't know if I would word it like this obviously he's filled with the Spirit of God so he's probably more right than me it seems kind of a bit odd for him to say that but you have to realize the Pharisees and Sadducees are religious leaders not just people that go to a church there is a difference between someone who grows up Catholic and somebody that's a Catholic priest I mean if somebody came to our church today and they said yeah you know what I grew up Catholic I'm here to be baptized and they said they believed on Jesus I'd be like great if a Catholic priest came here today to get baptized by me I'd be like wait a second you're a Catholic priest it's like yes? and you want me to baptize something doesn't make sense do you understand what I'm saying? The Pharisees and Sadducees were religious leaders and so I believe what he's saying is okay you've been teaching false things about salvation I want to see proof that you're actually teaching the right thing you've converted a lot of people to damnable heresy I want to see proof that you're converting people to the truth right? Now I do want to make a quick statement though on this the fruit of the Spirit versus the fruit of the Christian these are different things notice what it says in Galatians 5 turn to Galatians chapter 5 and the Bible says in Galatians 5 verse 22 Galatians 5 verse 22 but the fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace long suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance against such there is no law and people sometimes say well if you're going to be saved you must have fruit therefore you must have love joy peace long suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance well hold on a second don't unsaved people have love sometimes don't unsaved people have joy sometimes unsaved people exhibit all of those nine things sometimes now if you're filled with the Spirit of God then you're really going to exhibit the fruits of the Spirit now here's the thing these are the fruits of the Holy Spirit that's not the fruit of the Christian so when the Bible says the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life and he that winneth souls is wise we're talking about winning souls or as we would say soul winning and that's linked with the fruit of the righteous that is the fruit of the Christian that's not the fruit of the Spirit so the fruit of the Christian is getting other people saved just as an apple tree produces apples the goal of every Christian should be to win souls of the Lord right? get people saved go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature and when you get somebody saved that is your fruit that is your spiritual fruit it's the fruit of the Christian and let me ask you a question does every saved person win other people to the Lord? absolutely not in fact very few people do soul winning in 2023 I mean when sin abounds the love of many shall wax cold right? I mean one thing that makes us unique as a church is we are a soul winning church and we don't apologize for it it's like hey there's this new holiday on Wednesday soul winning marathon right? it's like we do soul winning that's what we believe in getting people saved because we know they're not going to get themselves saved they got to hear the gospel and we're thankful that somebody gave us the gospel and we want to repay that by giving other people the gospel right? that's not the fruit of the Spirit though that's the fruit of the Christian so for someone to say well you got to have fruit to be saved well what do you mean by that? because if you're saying the fruit of the Spirit everybody has love and joy sometimes if you're saying getting people saved well most people actually don't have that that are saved go back to Matthew 3 Matthew 3 so I believe he's literally asking for converts of theirs in the verse in verse 8 because they're religious teachers if a Mormon elder showed up here today right? I mean if two Mormon elders were sitting in our church because they always travel in packs of twos right? cockroach never travels alone right? if two Mormon elders showed up here today and they're like man I'm so moved by that sermon I want you to baptize me now here's the thing I would allow a Mormon elder to show up to church and listen to the sermon I would allow that as long as they're not causing problems that's fine but here's the thing if they want to be baptized I would actually want to talk to them or have someone at our church spend some time talking to them saying well wait a minute you realize if you're getting baptized you are rejecting Mormonism otherwise like we're not going to baptize you if you just got emotional and you're like hey I just want to get baptized to cover all my bases right? I got baptized in this church and this church just in case there's something you know about salvation without baptism we would want to make sure that they're actually saved so with John the Baptist what I believe he's saying to this you religious leaders is I want to see some evidence and I think what he's saying about evidence is I want to see your converts that you're actually preaching the truth or at least evidence that you're preaching the truth and you deny what you used to believe I mean if you're a Sadducee do you believe that Jesus rose again? right? because literally if a Jehovah's witness came here today because they do not believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus I would literally ask them do you believe that Jesus bodily rose from the rose again from the dead because they're going to say Jesus rose again but what they mean is a spiritual resurrection no no no do you believe that Jesus his body rose again from the dead and if they're unwilling to answer that well I'm unwilling to baptize you because I need to see proof that you no longer believe what you used to believe right? I believe that's what he's saying there in verse 8 verse 9 and think not to say within yourselves we have Abraham to our father for I say in you that God is able of these stones to raise up children onto Abraham and what John the Baptist is saying in Matthew 3 verse 9 is this he's saying you Pharisees and Sadducees because here's the thing this is a religion that became corrupted I mean Judaism in the Old Testament when you're looking at characters from the Old Testament like Daniel like Mordecai Esther any characters from the Old Testament they believe in the same God that we do Moses believe in the same God that we do Abraham believe in the same God that we do God has not changed God is not a man that he should change right? I'm the Lord I change not the Bible says they believe in the same God but wait a minute Judaism became corrupt along the way because modern day Judaism does not believe that Jesus Christ died because when the Messiah came what took place is some believed on Jesus and some didn't and the religion that's left over of Judaism those are the ones that did not believe on Jesus Christ and these Pharisees and Sadducees they seem to think according to John the Baptist that you know what I've got Abraham to my father physically so I'm good to go it does not matter who your mom or your dad is that does not help you get to heaven sometimes you go soul winning and it's like do you know for sure you're going to heaven? yes I do how do you know that? my dad's a preacher what? what does that have to do with you? I've literally heard before at the door my grandmother is a preacher it's like my grandmother is a preacher and it's like and look you know what it might be tempting to make jokes out soul winning but we don't do that right? now inside I'm thinking well that's not going to prevent you from going to heaven it's certainly not going to help you though right? but it doesn't matter who your parents are look if your father was the godliest person in the world is that going to get you saved? I mean here's the thing what about Eli's kids? I mean Eli's a man of God our father well that didn't help them get saved they didn't get saved just because your mom or your dad is saved that doesn't help you and on the contrary for many people in this room your family is primarily Catholic right? that doesn't prevent you from getting saved either but your parents being Baptist and let me say this many people grow up in Christian homes and churches just like this and they grow up and they never believe on Jesus Christ it's one of the saddest things you see and you know the thing is some parents get this idea well if they grow up in a church like this they're automatically going to get saved because they're hearing it preached now they're going to get saved if their mom or their dad takes the time to spend time with them and give them the gospel that is how your kids are going to get saved 95% of the time is because you preach the gospel to them you teach those things to them I'm here to help reinforce you as a mom or a dad but you should be doing most of the teaching to your kids not me I'm just preaching a few sermons a week that your kids hear but you as the mom and the dad you can teach your kids these things that we learn from the word of God so it doesn't matter who your mom or your dad is that doesn't affect whether you go to heaven it's what do you believe about Jesus Christ verse number 10 and now also the axe is laid under the root of the trees therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire this is another verse that is disputed I don't normally preach sermons where I say good people have different opinions about this but people have different opinions how to interpret this verse what I would say is this there are three types of trees in a spiritual sense one is a tree which produces good fruit another tree is a tree that produces bad fruit another tree is a tree that produces nothing most trees produce what? nothing most people are not soul winners and most people are not false prophets so they produce nothing what do you do with the tree that produces nothing? I visited the house of one of our family members in Pampanga just this past week after soul winning and their backyard they have a lot of trees that have various types of fruit and he had to chop down some trees that were not doing their job because what happens they just get in the way of the other trees right and it's the same thing in a spiritual sense if you are a Christian that is not producing anything for God you're basically useless to God it's like what are you doing if you're not furthering the kingdom of God you're just cumbering the ground as the Bible says now here's the thing in this verse what I think he's saying is trees that are producing a type of fruit but it's not a good fruit like a false prophet it's like they're going to spend forever being cast into the lake of fire that's what I believe it's referring to and so in my opinion then in John 15 you don't have to turn there John 15 is different it's not referring to hell though in John 15 in that parable that is my opinion what I would say is there's a lot of examples in the Bible and you know sometimes with symbolism and examples people can interpret them differently what's the main point he's trying to get across I do believe in verse 10 it's referring to hell what I would say is you can't cross reference that to John 15 though because in John 15 it is certainly not referring to hell but it is a similar type of example that he's giving that's why I think it's referring to hell is he's speaking to the Pharisees and Sadducees so I think that is the context but anyways verse number 11 now there are two primary opinions from Bible believing Christians on this verse of what is the baptism with fire go to Acts chapter 2 I'll give you one of the opinions and as I said this is a sermon I encourage you search the scriptures and see whether these things are so you might interpret some of these verses differently I will explain what I believe Acts 2 is talking about or what Matthew 3.11 is talking about but I'm going to show you the other side as well here in Acts 2 Acts 2 verse 1 and when the day of Pentecost was fully come they were all with one accord in one place and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the Holy Ghost where they were sitting and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire and it sat upon each of them and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance and so you can certainly see why in Matthew 3.11 when it says the baptism with the Holy Ghost and with fire that it could be referring to what it talks about in Acts 2 go back to Matthew 3 that is not my opinion though I do not believe what Matthew 3.11 is referring to is the same as Acts chapter 2 now I could be wrong this is something where I'm willing to admit I've heard good people that have different opinions it's not my opinion but there's people that are good people that might be your opinion it's a valid opinion there's obviously a cross reference that you're turning to in Acts 2 of baptism of fire baptism of the Holy Ghost okay in my opinion the fire is referring to hell and what I think is being said is this that the baptism of the Holy Ghost mentioned in this specific example is someone who's saved and the baptism of fire is someone who's baptized in fire for all eternity baptism what it literally means is to be immersed and so in a symbolic sense you know when you're baptized with the Holy Ghost what I would say in this example is that you're indwelled with the Holy Ghost forever you're not 99% indwelled or you're partially indwelled with the Holy Ghost you are 100% indwelled with the Holy Ghost forever someone that goes to hell obviously the baptism of fire is symbolic whatever it's referring to I think what he's symbolically saying is you're going to be baptized in a lake of fire for all eternity now the reason why I believe that is because of the next verse Matthew 3.12 whose fan is in his hand and he will thoroughly purge his floor and gather his wheat into the garner but it will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire there is no doubt that in verse 12 he's making a comparison between the saved and the lost right? Nobody disputes that what people would say when they say the baptism of fire is referencing Acts 2 what they would say is verse 11 and verse 12 are unrelated I don't think that because I think it would be a bit confusing I don't think the Bible would word it that way there certainly in my opinion seems a link between verse 11 and verse 12 where basically it's kind of giving more information where it's like basically gathering the wheat those are the saved people or the chaff, the unsaved will be baptized in the lake of fire for all eternity you also see at the end of verse 11 at the end of the word fire is a colon and so I don't think the thought is over I think we're crossing over to verse 12 as well so I think there's a clear link between verse 11 and 12 but I also understand the argument people make because Acts 2 does mention baptism of fire it's just not what I would hold but I would say I'm not against you if that's your thought I understand where you're coming from now verse 12 it's a pretty confusing verse if you're not familiar with some of these terms I have a group chat to help explain and I have this picture here to help explain what we're talking about because the word fan you're thinking of is like maybe pa my pie or you're thinking of that that's not what the Bible is referring to it's referring to a winnowing fan and so winnowing is a process to separate the wheat from the chaff or here in the Philippines you're probably thinking of separating the rice and it's a very similar process and it's really fascinating if you haven't seen this that if you watch a slow motion of the process because in fast motion you don't really see what's going on as well but when you see it in slow motion it's pretty fascinating how basically as it's wheat or rice or whatever it is it's a heavier object so it drops to the ground and you see the other parts the chaff, the part that's not useful just blows away and you don't really see that at least from what I saw on a fast play or just normal speed but if you slow motion see it it's like there's a lot of chaff that is blowing away the word garner here is referring to the object of collecting the wheat but the idea that he's expressing is obviously in a culture that understands this we don't really live in an agricultural society today as much so a lot of examples found in the word of God can go over our heads because we're not familiar with it I myself didn't grow up in a culture like this when I first read it whose fan is in his hand I'm thinking of like a fan where it's like I'm just cooling myself off it's not actually what they're and actually if you look at pictures on Google of this verse there are pictures of him holding a fan because they don't understand what it's referring to either but the fan is a winnowing fan where basically some processes to do this they might use a fan like this to help from the winnowing fan they throw it up in the air and it kind of blows away or whatever and it blows away very easily because it's not very heavy but the analogy is with saved and lost and basically how the unsaved are just going to blow away and in my opinion be baptized in a lake of fire for all eternity and here's the thing with a normal baptism you get out after a couple seconds right? with the baptism of fire it's like that is for all eternity there's no turning back from that it's like you have a chance to believe on Christ while you're here in this life we don't believe in being prayed out of purgatory or like the Mormons like you can baptize somebody for the dead or these weird things now what the Bible says is he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life he that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him and when you die unsaved it's too late you never have a second chance so what does that tell us as soul winners? preach the gospel now and you know think to yourself about your lost loved ones and friends and relatives everybody in this room has unsaved Catholic relatives pretty much I don't actually have any unsaved Catholic relatives but I'm married into you know my wife has she was raised Catholic so most of her family is Catholic probably everybody in this room pretty much has unsaved Catholic relatives and sometimes you know you can put off preaching the gospel oh maybe it's not the right time I'll do it later and the years go by and then all of a sudden it's going to be too late you could lose your opportunity and what's going to happen? well they're going to be baptized in the lake of fire for all eternity you are their hope as a saved person and you know the sad thing is because the Bible says everybody's been given a soul winner to preach the gospel to them you know the sad thing is a lot of people never hear the gospel because the people that are meant to give them the gospel they never do it they never do it now here's the thing when we go soul winning door to door and talk to people in the parks it's usually one chance one chance if they reject it it's like I hope someone at our church gets a chance in the future or I get another chance but probably not it's different with your family I've seen unsaved family that heard the gospel and they did not accept it and several years later they did believe on Christ and they got saved don't give up on your family because he gave the gospel once or twice or three times I mean if the opportunity to give the gospel is gone it ought to be because they're just so upset at you telling them that basically they cut it off not that you cut it off don't ever cut off your family from the gospel until it is permanently too late for them let's close the word of prayer your heavenly father thank you for allowing us to be here today and getting to see this man John the Baptist that was filled with the spirit and did all these mighty things God and help us to use him as an example to try to serve you and to be zealous for you and help us preach the gospel to people before it is too late we pray these things in Jesus name amen and we do have a baptism here today and if anybody else wants to get baptized as long as you're not a Pharisee or a Sadducee if you believe on Christ you're welcome to we'd love to have you also get baptized alright we'll have Rapha lead us in a song one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six one zero six