(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

2 Samuel chapter 22 the Bible reads in verse number 1 David spake unto the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord had deliver him out of the hand of all his enemies and out of the hand of Saul this song this this same teaching is found in the book of Psalms also but this chapter is just packed with a lot of great teaching and one thing that I love about the book of Psalms is that the songs in the book of Psalms really teach a lot of great doctrine and they cover such a range of topics you know sometimes I feel like the songs that we sing don't cover the whole range of biblical subject matter whereas the book of Psalms it has a lot of really positive songs it has some negative songs it has songs that tell all kinds of Bible stories and and so the book of Psalms really is a great book this song in particular it says David spake this unto the Lord in the day that the Lord had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies and out of the hand of Saul so this is much earlier in his life you know this is like 40 some years before the end of his life look at the Bible says in verse number 2 and he said the Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer the God of my rock in him will I trust now this is a theme of this song where he keeps coming back to the fact that God is the rock but it's interesting because he says the Lord with the all capital you know capital L capital O capital R capital D he says the Lord is my rock but then a second later he says the God of my rock now what is that rock well we know that that rock is the Word of God you know Jesus Christ said that whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them shall be likened unto a wise man that built his house upon a rock and the rain descended the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell not for it was founded upon a rock he said everyone that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them not shall be likened unto a foolish man that built his house upon the sand and the rain descended the floods came the wind blew beat upon that house and it fell and great was the fall of it so the wise man builds his house upon the rock of God's Word he said that's the one that hears these sayings of mine and doeth them and then the one who is a foolish man is basically one who's hearing the Word of God and not doing it he's building his house on the sand so what's the rock then it's the sayings of Jesus Christ it's the Word of God and of course the famous verse says in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God so it's kinda interesting that that God is the rock but then he's also the God of the rock okay because you know the Word is God and the Word is with God because of course there's the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one so it says the God of my rock in him will I trust here's another theme that comes up over and over again he is my shield okay now jump down if you would to verse number 31 and the Bible says in verse 31 as for God his way is perfect the Word of the Lord is tried he is a buckler to all them that trust in him now buckler is another word for shield so this is again talking about the fact that God is a shield another verse in Proverbs said that you know the words the words of the Lord I'm sorry every word of God is pure he's a shield unto them that put their trust in him add thou not unto his words lest he reprove thee and thou be found a liar look what it says there in verse 31 as for God his way is perfect the Word of the Lord is tried so not only is the Word of God a rock but the Bible says it's tried now what does it mean to be tried well if we talked about the tried and the true what would we be talking about something that has been tested and something that has shown itself to be faithful over and over again it's not some new thing that we're we're gonna give it a shot no it's been tried it's tested it's true even the very name of our church is faithful word Baptist Church meaning the word that you can trust that's what faithful word means it means that God's Word is faithful means that we can trust it it's a rock it never changes it doesn't shift like the sand where it's gonna say something different a few years from now than what it says right now no it never changes it always says the same thing it's the rock of our salvation it's the god of the rock it is the rock and if we build our life on it we know that we're building on a firm foundation it shields us from all the fiery darts of the wicked all the garbage that comes our way people trying to tell us all kinds of lies and get us to believe false things this shields us from all that and this is a foundation that never changes you know it's amazing just how things change in our society I was speaking at the Community College today in South Phoenix and when I was speaking at the Community College the teacher brought out the fact because you know of course all the students are all pro-homosexual because that's you know that's all the propaganda and and the teacher he flat-out said to the students he said you know eight years ago when I started teaching he said he said there was almost nobody in the class that was okay with homosexuality back then even just eight years ago and this is in a secular school this at South Mountain College because he would have these discussions in philosophy because it was philosophy 101 was the class that I was speaking in and in philosophy 101 they had these discussions where people put forth different ideas and and they you know basically debate different ideas and so forth he said you know he would have a hard time finding anybody that would represent the side of hey it's okay because even eight years ago they're saying it's gross, it's disgusting, it's false, it's wicked you know whereas nowadays pretty much everybody in the class was was aligned against me you know that that they're okay with it and so forth so that just shows you how time changed just in eight years there's been a shift just at that college okay I know there's I've witnessed a huge shift amongst the independent Baptists even in the last 20 years where they've just changed their stance on these things and I just want to say to them you know are you guys founded on the rock or what what are you changing? What are these shifting sands here that you're building you're preaching on if you're not preaching the same stuff that you're preaching 20 years ago now it's okay to change your preaching if you learn more from the Bible sharpen it up a little bit from the word but to be changing with the world where you're changing the same way the world's changing something's wrong with that picture God is the rock he never changes and somebody literally when I was preaching today at the community college somebody literally said to me were you sure that maybe God hasn't just changed his mind thousands of years later are you sure God never changed his mind? I said the Bible says Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever and I said that it also says in Malachi I am the Lord I change not therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed and so to sit there and say well maybe God changes well no maybe he's God he never changes he is immutable unchangeable and he's a rock every you know the wind and the rain and they can huff and puff and blow the house down but it's founded on the rock it's not going anywhere but those that are founded on the shifting sands of you know what's popular they're going to be constantly changed I mean if you're going to go with what's popular you would have had a dramatic shift in the last twenty years on some of these subjects as our country becomes a modern day Sodom and Gomorrah but the Bible says here the God of my rock in him will I trust verse three he is my shield and the horn of my salvation my high tower and my refuge my savior thou savest me from violence I will call on the Lord who is worthy to be praised so shall I be saved from mine enemies when the waves of death compass me the floods of ungodly men made me afraid the sorrows of hell compass me about the snares of death prevented me in my distress I called upon the Lord and cried to my God and he did hear my voice out of his temple and my cry did enter into his ears so he's talking about crying out unto the Lord for help against physical enemies in this song a lot of times in the song he's talking about you know physical battle and you know people attacking him and he's fighting back and so forth now when the Bible says saved it's not always talk about going you know to heaven versus going to hell sometimes it's just talking about physically being saved where you know you call out to the Lord to save you from a physical circumstance now some people will mistakenly look at scriptures where David's calling upon the name of the Lord for physical deliverance and they'll say well hey that's always what calling upon the name of the Lord is and they'll try to disassociate calling upon the name of the Lord from salvation in the sense of going to heaven but we know that calling upon the name of the Lord is relevant to salvation because of Romans chapter 10 because Romans chapter 10 says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation for the scripture saith whosoever believeth in him shall not be ashamed for there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved so all of those verses start with the word for which is a conjunction meaning because so it says that if thou shalt confess thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved then it has these series of for's for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation for the scripture saith you know for there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved so to disconnect whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved to disconnect that from that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus makes absolutely no sense it's all one thought you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead you shall be saved because whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved because Jesus is the name of the Lord that you're calling upon that's what the confessing your mouth the Lord Jesus is it's the calling upon the name of the Lord those two things are connected in Romans chapter 10 so when the Bible used the term calling upon the name of the Lord that could be salvation from any set of circumstances you could call upon the name of the Lord to deliver you from a bad situation on this earth but the most important time that you call upon the name of the Lord is when you call upon the name of the Lord to be saved but then after you're saved you'd call upon the name of the Lord just to save you out of bad situations or to save you from physical enemies that are trying to attack you or kill you or harm you or whatever so that's where people get confused but calling upon the name of the Lord is associated with salvation and of course in the New Testament the Bible says neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved and in that context they said hey this is in the name of Jesus of Nazareth so the name that we call upon to be saved in the New Testament is the name of Jesus now the Bible talks about how Abraham called on the name of the Lord but the name that he called upon was the name God Almighty because in Exodus 6 3 it says I appeared unto Abraham, Isaac and Jacob by the name of God Almighty but by my name Jehovah was I not known unto them so the main name that God used in the time of the patriarchs was God Almighty then in the days of Moses and afterward the main name that he went by was the name of Jehovah or what we have in the King James Bible as the Lord with the all capital L-O-R-D and then in the New Testament the main name is Jesus okay so you know God has multiple names he doesn't just have one name you know people make a mistake when they think he just has one name you know he goes by different names okay but the one name that's above any other name and the one name that's associated with salvation in the New Testament now that it's been revealed is the name of Jesus you know people in the Old Testament didn't need to know the name of Jesus to be saved it hadn't been revealed yet they called upon God Almighty for salvation they called upon Jehovah for salvation but now that we're in the New Testament and the son of God has come and has given us an understanding you know that we may know him that is true we are in him that is true even in his son Jesus Christ this is the true God and eternal life the Bible says in first John chapter 5 verse 20 so you know right here we see calling upon the name of the Lord to save from physical circumstances that he's in but then there's also an underlying symbolism here of being saved from hell also symbolically but the Bible says in verse number eight then the earth shook and trembled the foundations of heaven moved and shook because he was wroth wroth means very angry it's like the word wrath so it says because he was wroth there went up a smoke out of his nostrils now keep in mind who are we talking about here who's got smoke coming out of his nostrils this is God this is the Lord and it says he had a smoke coming out of his nostrils and fire out of his mouth devoured coals were kindled by it he bowed the heavens also and came down and darkness was under his feet and he rode upon a cherub and did fly and was seen upon the wings of the wind and he made darkness pavilions round about him dark waters and thick clouds of the skies through the brightness before him were coals of fire kindled the Lord thundered from heaven and the Most High uttered his voice he sent out arrows and scattered them lightning and discomforted them and the channels of the sea appeared the foundations of the world were discovered at the rebuking of the Lord at the blast of the breath of his nostrils so this is using very poetic language just to talk about basically the terrible aspect of the Lord the fearsome aspect of who God is and a lot of people today in 2015 have forgotten this aspect of God they basically focus on the scriptures that say God is love or they'll focus on the still small voice or they'll focus on you know the rainbow that's above his head and the sea of glass and the throne and the angels singing and those are all legitimate images of who God is but we don't want to just get half the picture here there is a lot of scripture like this we're looking at one passage this isn't the only passage like this there are a lot of scriptures that talk about the wrath of God and that portray God as vengeful and wrathful I mean the Bible says vengeance belongeth unto me sayeth the Lord I will recompense so there are a lot of scripture that show the wrath of God the vengeance of God that say that God is terrible and fearsome and that he is you know one that's going to judge and bring punishment and a lot of people just don't eat they've never even been exposed to this I don't think Joel Osteen's preaching on this passage tonight I don't think he's ever preached on this passage and I don't think he ever will it's like it doesn't exist unto him let alone all the other passages that are like it now let me show you a similar passage because this says here in verse 9 there went up a smoke out of his nostrils and fire out of his mouth devoured coals were kindled by it go to Isaiah and go to chapter number 30 Isaiah 30 this is an interesting verse in Isaiah 30 and look at the last verse of the chapter verse 33 Isaiah 30 33 the Bible says for tophat is ordained of old yea for the king it is prepared he hath made it deep and large the pile thereof is fire and much wood the breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it now this place tophat is also known in the Bible as the valley of the son of Hinam or Gehenna okay and this is a place that represents hell it was a physical place yes on this earth but it represents hell it's used as a picture of hell because there's a place of fire and brimstone and so when the Bible says here tophat is ordained of old yea for the king it is prepared he's made it deep and large the pile thereof is fire and much wood the breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it this is talking about hell okay that's what the symbolism is here when we see tophat or Gehenna that's that's it's being used to refer to hell and so when he says here it's kindled with a stream of fire and brimstone from the Lord's mouth we have to understand that God is the one who created hell you know the Bible says in Matthew 25 depart from ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels you know who prepared hell it wasn't the devil that prepared it it was prepared by God to punish the devil and his angels as a place of punishment when the devil goes to hell he's not going to be ruling and reigning with a pitchfork you know he's going to be down there being punished and suffered it's not going to be raining he's going to suffer and be punished in hell okay it's the Lord who is the one who rules over hell who is the one who created hell who has all the power over he said I have the keys of hell and of death okay and even the one who is known as the angel of the bottomless pit is not Satan it is one of the Lord's angels and that angel of the bottomless pit will one day throw Satan into hell in the book of Revelation and that angel of the bottomless pit is known as Abaddon or Apollyon but that's not Satan okay see Satan doesn't have any power over hell hell is going to be a punishment for Satan okay so it's not like the porky pig cartoon where he's ruling and reigning and even a saying amongst Satanists this is the Satanist mantra they say well it's better to rule in hell than to serve in heaven but they're not going to be ruling in hell they're going to be punished and tormented and suffering in hell so it's they're very misguided indeed but it's God's wrath the bible says it's God's wrath that kindles the fires of hell and that's why the bible says he that believeth on the sun hath everlasting life and he that believeth not the sun shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him you know it's God's wrath that culminates in hell itself and so this is an image of God that we need to be aware of yes he's the God of heaven but he's also the God of hell yes he's a God of love but he's also a God of wrath and vengeance now this song actually kind of explains that difference as well when it says in verse are you there in second Samuel go back to second Samuel 22 because there's a statement in second Samuel 22 that explains this it says in verse number 26 it says with the merciful thou wilt show thyself merciful and with the upright man thou wilt show thyself upright with the pure that will show thyself pure and with the froward thou wilt show thyself unsavory that's in verses 26 and 27 so we see in that scripture that you know how God deals with us is based on us you know how which side of God do we want to be on you know do we want to be on the side of God's love and affection or do we want to be on the side of his wrath and vengeance you know obviously the primary thing is whether or not we're in Christ you know if we believe on Jesus Christ and we're saved then basically we shall be saved from wrath through him and we are you know in God's love because of that where and nothing can separate us from the love of God the Bible says but those that are not saved they're going to face his wrath so it's really up to mankind which God they face you know the God of love or the God of wrath and it's one God it's just two different aspects of his personality God is complex he's not just this simple put him in a box and he's just all love all the time no he has more attributes so to just say well God is love and then just end it there is to misrepresent who God is and to give a very one-dimensional view of who God is instead of showing all the teaching of the Bible to get a complete picture of God you really don't have a complete picture of God unless you read the Bible cover to cover from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22 then you know who God is if you read one chapter you don't really know everything about God's personality you have to get the whole Bible to give you all the different aspects of who God is it's sort of like where the Bible says in Romans 1 even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient so it's a reaction to man man doesn't want to retain God in his knowledge well then he'll turn that man over to a reprobate mind you know and the Bible says to the pure God will show himself pure to the froward or wicked God will show himself unsavory it's based on man you know it's based on the free will of man man's choice of whether or not to accept Jesus Christ as their savior or whether or not to you know walk in his ways and and be blessed by him or to you know get on the get on his bad side as it were so the Bible says back up in verse number 16 it says the channels of the sea appeared the foundations of the world were discovered discovered there means uncovered it's an old most time when the Bible uses the word discover it's an old meaning of being uncovered or being being exposed so it says that the foundations of the world were discovered at the rebuking of the Lord at the blast of the breath of his nostrils he sent from above he took me he drew me out of many waters he delivered me from my strong enemy and from them that hated me for they were too strong for me they prevented me in the day of my calamity but the Lord was my state so what's he saying he's talking about being in physical battle I mean this is David he's fighting against physical enemies with the sword and he's giving God all the glory for his victories and this is part of why he was a man after God's own heart he's humble and he's giving God the glory you know he could have said hey you know what I went out there and I tore them up I mean they I did I beat them as small as powder which he's going to say later but but you know what he says first though he says you know what they were too strong for me they prevented me they got the better of me but the Lord delivered them in it so basically he's giving God all the glory saying I could not have won the battle without the Lord because the enemy was too strong for me it was only by his power and might that I was able to win the battle and God wants us to give him the glory for the victories and successes in our lives and not to just kind of you know yeah I know I did a pretty good job no he wants us to be humble and say you know what it's all through God's grace and God's might that anything was accomplished he says in verse number 19 at the end there but the Lord was my stay meaning you know he relied upon the Lord he brought me forth also into a large place he delivered me because he delighted in me the Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness according to the cleanness of my hands that he recompense me for I've kept the ways of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God for all his judgments were before me and as for his statutes I did not depart from them I was also upright before him and have kept myself from mine iniquity therefore the Lord hath recompensed me according to my righteousness according to my cleanness in his eyesight and then of course the verses that we read with the merciful thou wilt show thyself merciful so all these verses are saying that you know what if you do what's right God's going to bless you and if you do wrong you're not going to be blessed I mean that's what the Bible teaches from cover to cover but it says in verse 28 and the afflicted people thou wilt save but thine eyes are upon the haughty haughty means prideful that thou mayest bring them down for thou art my lamp oh Lord and the Lord will lighten my darkness for by thee I have run through a troop by my God have I leaped over a wall as for God his way is perfect the word of the Lord is tried he is a buckler to all them that trust in him the way the way of the Lord is perfect meaning that God's way of doing things is the right way of doing things you know when it comes to marriage the way of the Lord's perfect when it comes to child rearing it's the Lord's way that's the perfect way you know what is the right way to to run your business or to do anything the way of the Lord is perfect what about running the government you know different people have different ideas and and they'll point to different things in the constitution or you know different political parties but really his way is perfect you know if if lawmakers were wise they'd go to Deuteronomy and figure out how to run a government because his way is perfect that was the law of the Lord is perfect his way is perfect so sometimes we think we know better though we have better idea better ways of doing things but no God's way is perfect we should trust on the way the Lord see a lot of people have all kinds of ideas about how to do things but the word of the Lord is tried that's the tried and the true when you're following biblical principles you don't have to worry about experimenting you know when with marriage or child rearing or whatever because if you're doing it God's way it's tried you know when it comes to preaching or pastoring a church or soul winning you know there's the tried and the true and then there's the new fangled you know flavor of the month that comes out the tried methods of the bible you know when you when you start going against what the bible teaches and doing things your way that are completely different from God's way you know it's a jungle out there you're going into uncharted waters and you can't really be sure that you're going to succeed okay but with God's way is perfect it's tried it's tested it's a shield who is it God who is God the bible says in verse 32 save the Lord he's saying there is no God other than the Lord and it says and who is a rock save our God there's no one else that you can trust and really rely on and anchor your soul to God is my strength and power and he maketh my way perfect he maketh my feet like hind's feet and says me upon my high places hinds are like deer and so the reason he says he makes my feet like hind's feet is because deer are very light on their feet and very quick can dart around you know and especially in like a hilly or mountainous terrain so that's why the bible often talks about you know God making our feet like hind's feet upon his high places or it talks about how as a hell David's brother-in-law was was as light a foot as a young roe you know another similar animal that he ran really quickly and was agile and so forth so he says he makes my feet like hind's feet and said of me upon my high places he teaches my hands to war so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms so he's talking about you know in battle speed agility strength now we're not fighting a physical battle as David was we're fighting a spiritual battle and yes there is a spiritual it is a fight it's not just hey you know we just we just serve the lord and just and we basically just it's all happy and smiles and fun no the bible says fight the good fight the bible says we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers so we it's not that we don't wrestle it's just that we don't wrestle a physical battle we wrestle spiritual battle against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high places the bible says the weapons of our warfare are not carnal or physical but they are spiritual and mighty through god for the pulling down of strongholds and so forth so the bible teaches that we are in a fight we are in a spiritual battle you know having our our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace you know our high our feet being like hind's feet and upon high places would be you know how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things you know that's being quick and ready to go out and preach the gospel and and to give the gospel into every creature obviously the strength and the fight and the battle you know in the new testament would be you know knowing god's word and and being ready to preach it with boldness you know that's the sword of the spirit that we would use to fight the spiritual battle and so you have to be able to apply these things to that you know when you read this and understand the spiritual application because we're not in a physical fight i mean i've never been in a real sword fight you know and i've never i've never broken a bow of steel with my bare arms you know so i you know that you have to be able to look at the spiritual application of this obviously because those things are probably never going to happen to us in our life i mean you know maybe someday i might end up breaking some steel with my arm but probably not so obviously there's a spiritual fight so you know don't just read over that and just glaze over but think to think to yourself you know i need to be strong in the lord and in the power of his might put on the whole armor of god take that shield of faith and the sword of the spirit and the feet shod with the preparation of the gospel you know you might not be as song of solomon says leaping upon the mountains and skipping upon the hills physically but spiritually you know if you come to mount humphries with us you know later this month you know we're going to be you know i know we're all going to be running to the top but uh but this is obviously talking about spiritual things it says in verse number 36 it says thou has also given me the shield of thy salvation and thy gentleness hath made me great now one of the fruit of the spirit is gentleness right when it lists off love joy peace uh long suffering is one of them is gentleness okay now what does it mean to be gentle well you know being gentle is when you're not being abrasive now there's a time and a place to be abrasive the bible talks about some people he says hey rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith you know those of the circumcision who are teaching lies and subverting whole households rebuke them sharply titus one but you know what though there's also a lot of time when we need to be gentle and there are a lot of times when people are abrasive when they should be being gentle and god you know david says here of the lord thy gentleness has made me great and we know that gentleness is one of the fruit of the spirit so god does want us to be gentle in situations where gentleness is called for and the bible says let your speech be always with grace seasoned with salt okay and the bible talks about you know speaking the truth in love and so forth now obviously when you come to church the preacher gets up and preaches hard because first of all you know we're preaching to the choir as it were i mean basically virtually everyone here is saved the vast 90 some percent of the people here are saved okay so we're talking to fellow christians and what we need to hear in church as fellow christians the bible says we need preaching that will reprove rebuke and exhort with all long suffering and doctrine so we do need a swift kick in the pants sometimes through preaching we need that rebuke from preaching we need that reprove from preaching but remember when the apostle paul talked about going out amongst the unsaved he said i determined not to know anything among them save jesus christ and him crucified so the when he's going out soul winning to the unsaved he's talking about jesus he's talking about the gospel he's talking about being saved he's talking about the death barrel and resurrection the hard preaching against sin is is for the saved because honestly the unsaved getting sin out of their life isn't really going to help them very much because the bible says when the unclean spirit has gone out of a man he walketh through dry places seeking rest and findeth none then he sayeth i'll return to my house from whence i came out and when he's come he findeth it empty swept and garnished then go with he and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked themselves and they enter in and dwell there and the last state of that man is worse than the first so shall it be also under this wicked generation what's he saying you know the person who cleans up their life but without jesus without being saved you know it's not it's not necessarily even going to do them any good in this life and we know it's going to do nothing for them as far as heaven and hell because cleaning up your life doesn't get you to heaven it's believing on the lord jesus christ it gets you to heaven and so when we go out soul winning the goal should be to preach jesus christ and him crucified and to try to get people saved preaching the gospel to every creature which is the good news that jesus paid for all of our sins he died was buried and rose again and all we have to do is just believe in him we just have to accept him by faith and we shall be saved that's the good news that's the god that's the message that we bring when we go out soul winning amongst the unsaved now a lot of people have have been deceived by this false teacher and i'm just going to call out these false teachers by name because in the new testament the the apostles were constantly calling out false teachers by name and and warning people and saying look this guy is a false teacher he's preaching lies and you know let him be accursed i've delivered him unto satan you know they made lord not to blaspheme and one of the biggest false prophets that has deceived many many people for decades now is ray comfort and ray comfort is a horrible false teacher and don't tell me oh he's a brother in christ he's a little mixed up no he's not a little mixed up he's preaching lies and he has deceived thousands and thousands of people and he's been corrupting god's word and corrupting the gospel for decades with his living waters publications and his buddy kirk cameron that helps him spread his lies and ray comfort has changed the gospel from being the good news that jesus died for his sins to just going out and badgering people about their sins and badgering them and being obnoxious and going on and on about your sins your sins you say repent of your sins you say you know with this little new zealand accent no offense to people from new zealand but you know oh you got to repent of your sins but here's the thing i'm not even doing it right but anyway but here's the thing it's not about your sins that's going to get you saved badgering you about your sins isn't going to get you saved and they take this verse that says the law is our schoolmaster to bring us to christ they totally twist the meaning of that whole passage twist the whole thing no the bible says the gospel is the power of god unto salvation see i'm not ashamed of the gospel of jesus christ which the good news the glad tidings i'm not ashamed of the gospel of jesus christ which is the death barrel and resurrection he said for it is the power of god unto salvation to everyone that believeth but see what he thinks is badgering people about their sins is the power of god unto salvation to everyone that repenteth of their sins i mean that's what he teaches he teaches the law the law is the power of god unto salvation to everyone that repenteth of their sins that's not what the bible says hey look if salvation comes by the law then christ is dead in vain salvation does not come by the law okay the law was our schoolmaster bring us christ that's talking about the old testament hello read the chapter it's talking about the old testament versus the new testament okay but what they want to do is they want to spend a very extended period of time preaching to people about how wicked they are and just going on about how sinful and how wicked they are and badgering people about their sins and then almost as an afterthought it's like oh by the way jesus died for your sins but that's not where the emphasis is at all the emphasis is all on the sin very little emphasis on the gospel of jesus and then when it comes time to be saved it's an it's a false gospel because instead of being salvation by believing it's salvation by turning from your sins so it's say it's all about your sins you're wicked you're sinful you're a rotten person and how do you be saved by turning from your sins and then at the end of it he'll ask people so when are you going to turn from your sins when are you going to repent you know what i want to ask you ray comfort when did you turn from your sins that's right and you're a liar because every single person's a sinner i'm a sinner you're a sinner you know i i'll say it right now i probably sin every day and you know people can look down on me for saying that but you know what it's the truth because the bible says the thought of foolishness is sin and to him that knoweth to do good and do it that not to him it is sin and to sit there and say oh i haven't sinned in weeks or i you know i've repented of all my sins or every time i sin i ask forgiveness that's a bunch of baloney salvations by grace through faith and we are all sinners there's none good but one and that's god so this thing of badgering people it's obnoxious it doesn't work that's why ray comfort uploads all his uh soul winning videos you'll notice that almost never does the person even profess to get saved have you noticed that i mean his channel should be called how to fail at soul winning because he'll just show him badgering people and arguing with people and the people don't get saved not that they would ever get saved since he's not even preaching the true salvation by faith he'll say believing's not enough faith's not enough okay well i guess john 316 is a lie then whosoever believeth no no you have to turn from your sins it's all about your sin now look honestly it's obnoxious this whole mentality of the street preaching holding up signs bullhorning you know what it's not the right way to go soul winning and you know what it is a way that people use that don't love people and don't care about getting people saved because look if you cared about getting people saved you know what you would do about getting people saved you know what you would do use methods that get people saved i mean where's your heart tonight when it comes to soul when i why do you go soul winning i i know why i go soul winning why do you go soul winning somebody tell me why do you go soul winning what makes you to get someone say and why do you want to get someone saved because we love people i mean isn't that why we go so i mean think about it isn't that why you go soul winning tonight i mean otherwise why would you go i mean my goal when i go soul winning is to get someone saved and the reason i want to get someone saved is because i love people and as i'm giving someone the gospel i love that person and i want them to be saved and so here's the thing how i talk to them is gonna is gonna be impacted by what's in my heart so if my goal is to get them saved am i just gonna go and badger them and be obnoxious and you know if that that's not gonna work so why would i do it and here's the thing a lot of these people and then they get on youtube and they upload videos of them being obnoxious where they go to some or they'll go to some queer pride parade and scream and yell at a bunch of sodomites they're casting their pearls before swine the bible says give not that which is holy unto the dogs neither cast your pearls before swine lest they trample them under their feet and turn again and rend you and then they get rended they get rended and then they're like oh we're suffering to produce no jesus told you not to do stupid stuff like that or you're gonna get rended okay the goal and and they or they'll go outside a movie theater and just scream at everybody who's going to the movies or scream at everybody who's going into the strip club or scream at everybody who's going into the bar oh it's so wicked but here's what those people need the gospel of jesus i mean what what do you of course they're going to a movie theater and a bar and a strip club they're not even saved what do you expect from these people get them the gospel get them saved but this bullhorning screaming repent or perish preaching it doesn't work i'm even i'm a saved believer and i'm embarrassed by it when i'm walking through downtown phoenix or downtown tempe and i see one of these screaming foaming at the mouth repent of your sins preachers i'm embarrassed and i'm saved and i don't even understand what they're saying and i'm saved i don't understand the message and it just comes off as just obnoxious and annoying and it honestly just gives christianity a bad name and you know it's funny because we're later this month we're doing a soul-winning marathon in um dearborn michigan paul and i are going to go out there and then we're meeting up with a bunch of people who listen to my sermons in in michigan and we're going soul winning in dearborn who's heard of dearborn michigan before put up your hand yeah lots of people and here's the thing about dearborn it's it's the it's the biggest concentration of arab muslims in america you know it's it's a town where almost 50 of the residents are arab muslims and and we're going to go to the part of dearborn where it's it's the the just solid concentration of just this is where the the muslims are and here's the thing we're going to go there and we're going to go soul-winning and we're going to knock on doors and you know what we're going to do we're going to give the gospel and we're going to be gentle you know what what's the point to love people to get i don't hate the muslims i want them to be saved you know i i don't hate the jews i want them to be saved i don't hate mormons or are Catholics. I want them to be saved. So we're going to go and we're going to preach the gospel, the good news. We're going to tell them about Jesus, that he's the son of God. We're going to tell them that Islam is a false religion, but we're going to do it nicely. And we're going to show them the way, the truth, and the life through the Lord Jesus Christ. Now here's what's funny. People are like, oh man, that's really dangerous. You're going to need a lot of prayer, brother, going to Dearborn, because they're like, you're entering Sharia law. Like they think that we're just entering Sharia law and we're all going to be beheaded by the Muslims or something. But you know what? It's honestly, it's not true. I talked to a guy who lives three miles from there. He said it's not dangerous at all. But the reason why people think it's dangerous is because this is what will happen. They have a big Muslim festival once a year where they have their big Muslim festival parade and whatever. And then here's what Christians will go to their Muslim festival with the bullhorn and with the obnoxious signs of, hey, Mohammed's a pedophile, you know, and they're walking through their Muslim festival with a big sign that says that Mohammed's a pedophile. Is there any doubt about it? But here's the thing, what's the point, what's the point of going to their Muslim festival and walking through there with a big crowd of people with obnoxious signs and bullhorns and all this and just go in there to pick a fight so you can put it on YouTube. And you know what? And then these videos, then they put these videos on YouTube and everybody's like afraid to go there because like, oh, look, the Arabs are cussing and throwing stuff at them. It's like, well, yeah, of course, look what you're doing though. Is that really a biblical soul winning method? Just to go to their thing and just hold up a, I mean, if you look at the Apostle Paul in his soul winning, is that how he did it? To the Jews? I mean, he went to the Jews, which are false religion, and he went in there and preached Christ unto them, you know, and then even when he talked to the idolaters on Mars Hill in Athens, he told them that their religion was wrong. As long as you're reading a King James, he told them, you guys are too superstitious, you know. So he's criticizing their religion in the sense that he says, hey, you're too superstitious. You're worshiping all these idols and gods. Let me tell you about the true God. So he tells them the truth, but if you read that passage, he does it nicely and he wins people to Christ. People believe him. Some of the people believe him, okay, where, you know, in the NIV, he's like, oh, you guys are very religious. You know, he's like praising them for being religious. In the King James, he's like, you guys are too superstitious. But the thing is, though, when we see Jesus Christ, when we see the apostles, you know, yeah, they rebuked false prophets and false teachers, but hold on a second. When they go out amongst the people, the goal is to get people saved and to talk to them and be nice to them and love them and give them the gospel. And so that's the goal. And, you know, somebody sent me this video on YouTube that said, like, Christians are, Christians being stoned in Dearborn. They're stoned. You know where they throw rocks at people until you die? Christians stoned in Dearborn while the police just stand back and just let it happen. I click on the video. This is what the stoning was. The Muslims are throwing empty plastic water bottles at them. Okay, that's not exactly a stoning. When somebody throws an empty plastic water bottle at you, yeah, sticks and stones may break my bones, but plastic water bottles will never hurt me. All right, so it's just, but then they just get on these videos, they get just so many thousands and thousands of views, and everybody's like, oh, man, they're being stoned. It's surreal. We've entered surreal law. We need to go in there with the military and take back Dearborn for the United States and everything. It's been completely taken over by the Muslims. You know, it's a fraud, folks. Like I said, I talked to the guy that lives there, the fundamental Baptist that lives near there said, hey, it's fine. He said it's a middle class area. Now, there are other parts of Detroit. Look, you want to go to a scary part of Detroit, it's out there, but it's not Dearborn. It's another part of Detroit that's a scary place for other reasons, okay? And look, I went soloing every weekend for two years in the worst ghetto in America, okay, which was South Chicago, which is like Detroit. And I can say with authority that it's the worst ghetto in America because of the fact that the year that I was there doing the soul winning, there were 599 people murdered in South Chicago that year, and it was the murder capital. Now, I know Detroit wins that prize often as well, but that year it was Chicago. We ruled. But in Chicago, it was 599 murders, and let me tell you this. I was there when people were murdered because when I was soul winning one time, I heard the gunshots, and I saw them load up the bodies, you know. But God can protect us, you know, if we're going and preaching the gospel and everything. But obviously I'm not saying, hey, just put yourself in harm's way. But you know what, God can protect you when you're trying to bring the gospel to the poor. You know, God can protect you. You got to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. But here's the thing, you know, people who are scared to go talk to the Muslims, like every Muslim's just out to behead you, you know, you're listening to too much conservative talk radio, okay, because there's one point, and look, are there wicked, evil Muslims out there? Oh yeah, of course. There are a lot of Muslims out there that are closet sodomites. You know, there are wicked Muslims, and there are Muslims out there that are murdering people. I mean, there's no question about that. But do you really, but I've heard a lot of people say this, just like, all of these Muslims should all be killed. They're all wicked. But wait a minute, do you really think that 1.6 billion people on this planet are just these bloodthirsty, raving lunatics? It isn't true, folks. Your average Muslim that you talk to is a nice person that's deceived by a false religion. And you know what, the Bible says, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, not repentance from their sins, but repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. Repentance from Islam unto the Son of God, Jesus Christ. What's the goal? What's the goal of going to Dearborn? Why go to Dearborn? So I can make a cool YouTube video of getting stoned, get a lot of views, get all the neo-cons all fired up for the next war? No. You know what? I want to go to Dearborn for one reason. Get people saved. Get the Gospel to people. Get them saved. That's the goal. That's the objective, is to basically show them the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And any other objective when you're out soul winning is a wrong objective. When you're just going out to just make a show about how tough you are. And these bunch of repent of your sins idiots, these street preaching obnoxious buffoons, they've often said to me, you don't have the guts to go to one of these gay pride parades. It's like, you know what, you're right, I don't. If that's the definition of guts, I don't have it. You don't have the guts to go preach at the gay bar with me. It's like, no, no I don't. I'm homophobic. Who wants to look at all that filth? Who wants to be, you know, ask Lot if he was homophobic when he was surrounded by these raving sodomites around his door. I mean, look, why in the world would I go to that freak show of sodomy and cast my pearls before swine? But just the fact that they'll come at a soul winning church with that accusation of, you don't have the guts to go to the, you know, go bullhorn the queer pride parade with us. You don't have the guts. You know what that shows, what they're doing, what their goal is with going to that parade is to show how tough they are. Show that we have the guts. Yeah! But you know what, God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Why would I glorify myself how bold I am and how much guts I have that I have the guts to go and bullhorn the sodomite parade and I have the guts to go into the Islamic neighborhood with a severed pig's head on a stick. That's what these guys do. They took a severed, you're like, oh, Dearborn, it's so scary. Well, yeah, because you're going there with a severed pig's head. You're carrying around a bloody pig's head at their annual Muslim parade and then you wonder why they're mad at you. I mean, is this, look, I'm not preaching the gospel of pork. I mean, look, I love pork as much as anybody. I just went, you know, we just went to Whole Foods and cleaned out all the ground pork that they had and we took all of it. So if you went there and couldn't find any ground pork, yeah, it was because we were there. You know, I praise God for the New Testament and I love pork as much as the next guy, but I'm not preaching the gospel of pork. I'm not out there to go carry around a dead pig's head and say, hey, you bunch of Muslims are missing, you're missing out on bacon. You know, the fact that Muslims don't eat bacon is the least of their problems. They're going to go to hell because they don't believe that Jesus is the Son of God, not because they didn't eat enough bacon. Now they're missing out on some of the pleasures of this life by not eating bacon. I'll admit, I'll be the first to admit that. But folks, you've got to keep the gentleness in perspective. You know, just as God has different sides and God is love, but he also has wrath. But you know what? We also should understand that to everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven, a time to love and a time to hate. And you know what? When we're going out amongst the lost, it ought to be with a tear in the eye. It ought to be with gentleness. It ought to be in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves. The goal should be to be nice to people and get them saved. That should be the goal. Not just go out there and I showed them. But what does that accomplish? And it shows that you don't love people. Because if you love people, all you'd really care about is like, are they getting saved? Now obviously we love God more than we love people, so we're not going to trim the message or we're not going to do anything sinful to somehow think, oh, this is going to get more people saved if I drink a beer with them or whatever. But Paul said, I've become all things to all men, that by all means I would save some. So he loved people. He's like, you know what, I just want to reach people and I'll become what I need to become to get them the gospel. And so we need to keep that in perspective when it comes to soul winning. Don't be one of these people that's obnoxious about soul winning. And just going out and real obnoxious and picking a fight with everybody, that's not the goal. And there's a difference between preaching in church and preaching at the door. Two different things. Because there's preaching to the saved. And then there's preaching to the unsaved where it's like, you know what, it's just about telling them about Jesus. The other stuff, they don't need the gospel of don't go to the movie theater. They don't need the gospel of don't go to the strip club. They need the gospel of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. And Ray comforts a fraud. And we need to quit following any of his methods as Christians. No one should listen to anything that that guy has to say. He's preaching works based salvation, thinly veiled as repent of your sins, turn from your sinful life. And his whole method of badgering people about their sins and making that the emphasis is taking the emphasis off of where it should be. The love of God, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much that your gentleness has made us great, Lord. We thank you for the gospel and we pray that you would just fill us with your spirit, Lord, and help us to get as many people saved as we can, Lord. Help us to also live a godly life, Lord, and be a good testimony to those who we're trying to reach, Lord, and help us to not only get people saved, but also get them baptized. And not only get them baptized, but also to teach them to observe all things whatsoever you have commanded us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.