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

Men, so we're in Romans, chapter number 12. And I wanted to kind of look at verse number one and two. Again, the Bible reads, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Now, why I bring up this passage is the Bible teaches us that the word of God itself is a recalibration of what is normal. The Bible is actually what is normal, is reasonable. Notice what it said in verse number one, your reasonable service. It talks about a transformation, it talks about a renewing. And in the world that we live in today, there's a lot of what we would call echo chambers. Now, an echo chamber is this idea or a concept in which you and a group of people that all share the exact same ideas kind of separate yourself from the rest of society. And you end up becoming weirder and stranger, and you get further and further away from that, which is normal, because you're only listening to each other talk. You don't actually have any new ideas. All of your ideas are never challenged. There's nothing fresh coming in from the respective. And the echo aspect is the fact that all you're doing is hearing yourself talk. So whatever ideas you already have, you just surround yourself with people that have the exact same opinion, and you just parrot it back and forth, parrot it back and forth. But the danger of this, the problem with a situation like this is that you can become weirder and weirder and weirder. Because of the internet specifically, this has become a major problem, because there is someone out there that's just like you. I mean, there is someone out there that believes just like you, acts just like you. And in past, times past, you wouldn't necessarily be able to find this person in just your local area, because there may not be a bunch of you in that local area. But when you go online, you can end up finding a whole bunch of people that are exactly like you, think exactly like you. And of course, it's normal or natural to wanna become friends with these people because you already think so much alike. But the danger with this is when you only surround yourself with people that have the exact same viewpoints and ideas, is you can end up even getting weirder and weirder than you already were, okay? Now, I believe that the Bible is the tool though that keeps us grounded, because the Bible is not gonna change. The Word of God is the exact same. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. So no matter how weird society gets, the Bible always brings you back to reality. The Bible always brings you back to that which is normal. It is our standard to understand what is normal, okay? And sometimes the Bible is viewed as being this extremist book, or it's over the top, or that it's somehow crazy or something like that. But that's only because society has gotten really crazy. That's only because the world has gone to some far extreme and they don't realize that the Bible is actually in the middle. There's extremes on both sides. And so I wanna preach a whole series on this subject and I wanna kinda cover different topics. But the series is gonna be extreme views, extreme views, okay? But specifically this morning, I wanna cover one topic at a time and it's extreme views on evangelism, extreme views on evangelism. Now the Bible is always right, it's there in the middle. It has the normal approach, but there is certain groups of people that have gotten so extreme when it comes to evangelism that it's bizarre, okay? And it's due partly to these echo chambers where people are surrounding themselves with all these other like-minded weirdos, and then they end up getting these strange views. Now, even though I'm saying this is strange, it's not that it's not popular. In fact, the two views that I want to present to you this morning on the extremes of evangelism are probably the two most popular opinions when it comes to evangelism. It's just that they're both radically extreme away from what the Bible actually teaches, okay? And we have to constantly transform ourselves or new ourselves. In fact, if you look up the word recalibrate in the dictionary, you look at synonyms, synonyms for recalibration are transformed and readjusting, right? So you have that transform right here in the Bible. Renewing, of course, is another great word that the Bible uses to kind of give us this idea of we don't want to believe the way we were taught, we want to believe the way the Bible teaches because the Bible makes us normal. It takes away the extremes. The word extreme in your dictionary says going to great exaggerated links, radical, exceeding the ordinary, usual, or expected. And I would present to you that the Bible is not extreme on evangelism. No, no, no, the Bible is ordinary, usual, and expected. It's that weird groups of Christians, so-called, will go off onto these extremes of evangelism that make no sense, have nothing to do with the Bible. Now, go to Hebrews chapter 13. Just turn to the right in your Bible for a moment, Hebrews chapter number 13, and I want to read a verse here that's kind of a warning. But just because something is a strange view does not mean that it's popular or unpopular. In fact, that's a completely separate issue, whether or not it's widely adopted or not widely adopted. So there's gonna be strange views that are super popular, and there's gonna be strange views that are not popular. So don't think of, well, if everybody's doing it, then it can't be strange. That's not true. There's plenty of things that people do that everyone's doing that's really strange. Look at what it says in Hebrews chapter 13, verse nine. Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. So notice the Bible's warning you there's a lot of weird doctrines out there that you could be carried away with. Go to Ephesians chapter four. Go to Ephesians, go back. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians. Look at Ephesians chapter number four. I want to show you another verse here. But notice he said, be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. The word divers is alluding to the fact that there's many. And sometimes people get frustrated with Christianity because they'll say, oh, there's all these different churches, and there's all the different views, and there's all these different doctrines. How do I know what's right? How does God expect me to know all the differences in Baptist, Methodist, Catholic? How am I supposed to know all this? Well, here's the thing, you don't. All you're responsible for knowing is what the Bible said. And whenever you understand the Bible, you're not going to be carried away with diverse and strange doctrines. The doctrines are not going to constantly get weirder and weirder. They're going to get more normal the more you know the Bible. In fact, the further you get away from the Bible, the weirder your views get, okay? Ephesians chapter four, look at verse 14. That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive. Now, it's interesting the analogy the Bible uses here. It says, be no more children. Why children? Children believe everything. Let's just be honest. I mean, children, you could tell them anything that's kind of bizarre or weird, and even if they don't immediately believe it, they kind of half believe it. Sometimes it's not fair, me and my wife, we'll kind of tease our children a little bit. We'll tell them stuff that's obviously not true. It's something that we would never do, but they kind of are worried about it. They kind of believe it. You know, one of the things you sometimes are tempted to do is be like, hey, we're going to leave you, bye. You know, because they're taking too long to get in the car or something like that. It's like, see you later. And they freak out, they're like, don't leave me, ah! It's like, we would never leave them, okay? But because they're a child, they don't really have enough of a grasp on reality to realize something like that. You know, children, whatever they're told in school, whatever they're told by their teacher, whatever they're told by people in positions of authority, often they just believe it's the truth because why would an adult lie to them? Why would someone tell them something that's not real? And so children are very gullible. Children believe virtually everything that they hear. And the Bible's saying that we should not be children. What does that mean? You cannot believe everything you hear. You cannot just believe everything that you're told. And notice children are constantly tossed back and forth, believing contradictory viewpoints, contradictory opinions. It makes me think of liberals today because liberals will literally, they'll put forth a particular opinion and then they'll completely change their mind and not even realize they changed their mind. They'll just be a complete hypocrite. They'll contradict everything they say and they don't even realize what they're doing because they have no real core. They have no real views, no real standards to believe upon. And notice wicked people want you to fall victim to this. The sleight of men and cunning craftiness, meaning that they put a lot of effort, a lot of energy in deceiving you. And the doctrines that I want to expound on this morning, I have to be honest with you, they are cunning craftiness. They are something that people put a lot of effort, a lot of energy into, and they try to package it up as nice as they can to try and get you to believe it, but it's not true, okay? Now, I've showed you a lot of Bible verses so that I can take a break for a moment. I want to kind of explain the doctrine for a moment that I want to defeat, but one extreme when it comes to evangelism is the doctrine of Calvinism. The doctrine of Calvinism is an extreme view on evangelism. And when it comes to Calvinism, there is a breadth of what Calvinism teaches, but I wanted to go into main primary sources on Calvinism so that way we are not just defeating a straw man here, okay? I typed in, and specifically, if you know anything about Calvinism, they kind of have five main doctrines of grace. The second one is called unconditional election. So they have this really cute little flower, this satanic flower called tulip or whatever, and essentially the second point of the graces of, the doctrines of grace, quote, unquote, is the unconditional election, okay? So I just typed in Calvinism, unconditional election, and I want to get someone that actually believes this to tell me what they believe. It says on one of the websites, it was the top website result, gotquestions.org. This is how they define unconditional election. It says unconditional election is a phrase that is used to summarize what the Bible teaches about the predestination or the election of people for salvation. It represents the second letter of the acronym, tulip. So gotquestions.org is probably one of the most popular websites on the internet. If you type in any kind of Bible question, they're usually one of the top results on any search engine. But one thing you have to understand about this group is they are heavily Calvinistic. They believe in the doctrines of Calvinism and specifically the doctrine of unconditional election. He goes on to further elaborate what that means. He says the doctrine summarizes what the Bible teaches about election and predestination. So he's saying in this article, whoever the author is, is that it's a biblical doctrine, unconditional election. So then he is gonna elaborate what the controversy is. He says the debate over unconditional election is not whether or not God elects or predestines people to salvation, but upon what basis he elects them. Now I agree with this. He's saying when it comes to the fact that God is foreordained who's gonna be saved, everyone agrees that believes in the Bible, okay? Calvinists and non-Calvinists all agree that God has foreordained the saved. He knew the saved were before he even created the world. The question is why are they saved? That's really what we're arguing about. And on one side, Calvinism, their proposition is that God elects them based on nothing to do with the person and only to do with what God's will is, his sovereign will. And they say it's a mystery. We don't know why he did it. We just know he did it because that's what he wanted to do, but it has absolutely nothing to do with the person, not what they look like, did, acted like, their beliefs, just nothing about them whatsoever. That's why it's called unconditional, okay? That's why they come up with that phrase. The other side, which is what we believe and what the Bible clearly teaches, is that God knew those who would believe in Jesus Christ in their life, those who would choose him, and so he knew that they were gonna get saved. Why? Because God knows everything. God is outside of time, so of course, God could tell you everything that was gonna happen. He knew the beginning before the ending, okay? He is the beginning and the ending. Therefore, because of God's foreknowledge, he has this great understanding. So we believe clearly that God knows who would choose him, but it was still based on our choice. They believe just absolutely nothing gets someone saved, except for God just picks who he wants to be saved. Now, in their explanation, he says this. Is election based upon, is that election based upon foreknowledge those individuals will have faith in Christ, or is it based upon God's sovereign choice to save them? As the word unconditional implies, this view believes that God's election of people to salvation is done with no conditions attached, either foreseen or otherwise. So again, he's putting forth this idea that there's no conditions. Now, go in your Bible to John chapter one. That's where I wanna go next, John chapter one. I already read for you kind of just in a summary. First Peter one says elect according to the foreknowledge of God, the father. So we understand that there is a election of God's people before it ever happened, okay? We understand that that's a truth, but notice that the Bible says foreknowledge. Think about this. What is this root word foreknowledge? Fore means before, right? That's kind of something before it happened. Knowledge is something that you know, right? If I'm elected based according to God's foreknowledge, then it has to be conditional. Why? Because otherwise that's a meaningless statement. Why would I be elect according to future knowledge if that knowledge has no impact on whether or not I should be saved or not? That the fact that it based on foreknowledge proves that there's something that God knows and that's why he chose you. Now, of course, we can then further labor and argue about what that knowledge is or what it is that he's basing it on, but the fact that it says foreknowledge just proves beyond any shadow of a doubt that it's conditional because it was based on his knowledge of what was gonna happen, right? Now, we know that that knowledge is based on who's gonna believe in Jesus Christ and who is not, okay? That's what the foreknowledge is based on, but just the word foreknowledge in and of itself proves that it cannot be unconditional. Now, in their article, they further present the idea that God elects people to salvation by his own sovereign choice and not because of some future action they will perform or condition they will meet. Those who come to Christ become his children by his will, not by theirs. They were not God's children by nature or because of any human desires. God himself was the one who made them his children. So again, he doubles down and he says it's not based on any future knowledge, any future decision, anything that they do, right? And then he puts John chapter one, verse 13. And of course, that's a verse that I would assume that they would go to to try and twist this. What does it say in the King James Bible? It says, which were born, not of blood, nor the will of flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. Now they're using the English standard version and I looked it up, it says the same thing, okay? So it's basically saying the same thing. So it's not a version issue here that we're really arguing. It's a contextual issue that we're having a problem with. Okay, and of course, they're going to one verse in John chapter number one. Think about the logic here in John chapter number 20 at the very end of the book of John, he's saying, hey, these things are written that you might believe. It's like, oh, but this whole book is telling you that you had no choice. You know, that kind of, it just completely just falls flat on the surface, right? But what does this even mean when it says not a blood, right? Well, it's saying that salvation is not a physical birth. That's all it's saying. It's not saying that it isn't a birth though, okay? Because of course it's the second birth, of course it's a spiritual birth. You know, Jesus said that a man must be born again. Did Jesus not even read this verse? It says, which were born, not of blood, meaning it's not a blood physical birth, it's a spiritual birth that happens that gets you saved, right? So we're contrasting the fact that going to heaven has nothing to do with a physical birth. It has nothing to do with your DNA. It has nothing to do with your blood type. It doesn't matter what nationality you are. It doesn't matter who your parents are. It's no physical characteristic that gets someone saved. It's a spiritual birth. Notice he also says, nor the will of the flesh. Now, what is the will of the flesh? The flesh is, you know, what we do in this life. And I would present that really a simple way where this just works. You don't get born again by your works. It's nothing that you did. It's nothing that you will do, okay? So of course we believe that salvation and our birth was not something that I just, I can do. I can't just sit here and just kind of like, yeah. You know, I can't do some physical act that's gonna get me birth. You know, think about Nicodemus in the book of John. He says, hey, do I have to go and enter my mother's womb the second time? Now, that would be the will of the flesh, right? To be born again, he's like, hey, you have to go into your mother's womb again. It also says, nor the will of man. Now, the will of man would be, you know, it's kind of really where they're coming from, this Calvinistic doctrine. But what I'll present to you is the fact that it's actually desire. And when it comes to the phrase here, it's only used twice in the Bible, will of man. But when it comes to the will of man, we have physical desires to be saved. But let me tell you something, desiring to be saved does not save you. And I can prove that. Go if you would to Matthew chapter 19 for a moment. Go to Matthew chapter number 19. And the Bible has lots of verses on this that prove the fact that your desire to be saved will not save you, okay? And I can show you a lot of people that they wanna go to heaven. Some people have this idea that everyone that goes to hell wants to go to hell. I would say that no one wants to go to hell. You say, oh, these atheists, these people that get up and they're like, I wanna go to hell. It's like, no, they don't. They just say that. Think about this, even the demons, okay? Even the demons, when confronted with Jesus Christ, they said, hey, don't send us down there before the time. Okay? No one wants to go to hell. It's called hell. Okay, it's fire. It's burning. The Bible says there's torment, okay? No one wants to go to hell. No one desires to go to hell. Everyone would desire to go to heaven. Now, of course, that doesn't mean that they're gonna go. That doesn't mean they're gonna try, but most people are trying to get to heaven. Why do you think we have so much religion? Why do you have so many people that are trying to figure out how to get there? It's because they have a desire, but the desire will not get you there. Look at Matthew 19, verse 16. And behold, one came and said on them, good master, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? Now, let me ask you this question. Does this guy wanna go to heaven? Yeah, but here's the parable. Does the guy actually end up figuring out how to get saved? No, because Jesus Christ tells him to sell all of his money, give to the poor and come and follow him. He doesn't wanna do that, which really, it wasn't that Jesus was telling him how to get to heaven that way. He was showing the guy that he's not perfect. And because he's not perfect, he needs salvation. And notice, he wants to do something to get to heaven. But you know what? It's not the will of the flesh, nor the will of man that gets you born. It's all of what God already did, okay? And he rejected who God was. This has nothing to do with the fact of like, well, I guess salvation is not a choice. No, it's still a choice. In fact, go back to John chapter one, let me prove that to you. But in Luke chapter 13, there's another place in the scriptures where it says, strive to enter into the straight gate. For many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in and shall not be able. The Bible expressly states that many people are trying to get into heaven and they just won't be able to do it. Why? Because they don't have the right key. It's kind of like the picture in Sodom and Gomorrah, when all of these Sodomite freaks are trying to get into the door, but they can't find it. They can't figure out how to get in. And that's how a lot of unsaved people are, is they're striving to find that door handle. They're striving to try and get into heaven, but they're never gonna be able to do it because they're blinded, okay? And they're not using the right key. There's only one key into heaven and it's belief in Jesus Christ. Now, think about a Calvinist viewpoint. There is no condition upon which saves you, right? Well, let's read the few verses before of John chapter number one, verse 13. What does it say in verse number 11? He came unto his own and his own received him not. Verse 12, but as many as received him. Isn't this like a difference between these two people? One group receives him, another group doesn't receive him, right? To them gave you power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. So notice that the Bible's telling you there was a condition upon which those who were born again, and what was that condition? That condition was faith in Jesus Christ. It was those who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, of course, we understand that God did all the works. We only supply the faith. Therefore, it's not a blood or the will of the flesh or the will of man. But you know what? That does not mean that we don't place our faith in Jesus Christ. So according to God questions, I first wanna establish this fact, it cannot be unconditional election because the Bible made it clear right here that there was a condition, wasn't it? Faith. There is no way you could ever read the Bible and come to the conclusion that salvation is unconditional. It is not possible. Anybody that says that honestly has no idea what the word unconditional even means. Because for it to be unconditional, you could not have one group that doesn't believe that doesn't make it, and one group that does believe and makes it, that's your condition. These people have never done computer programming in their life, okay? Because if you said it was unconditional, it would just say, here's a group of people that don't believe some are going to heaven, some are not. Here's a group that does believe some are going to heaven and some are not. But when it says, hey, all the people that are going believe and all the ones that didn't, it's because there's a condition, it's called faith. Now, I looked up another article because I don't wanna just pick on one person. I wanna pick on as many as I can. John Piper, he has a website called Desiring God. And this website almost always pops up as a top internet result. So I'm really just picking on the ones that are the top results when it comes to this doctrine. He has an article called Five Reasons to Embrace Unconditional Election. Five reasons to embrace unconditional election. And his number one point is, we embrace unconditional election because it is true. Well, that's a pretty strong argument. Well, I'm already right, so believe me, okay? Now, if it was true, I agree, let's believe it. Why would we not wanna believe the truth, right? So he's kind of putting you in an awkward position like, why would you not believe something that's true? And it's like, well, I wouldn't. But it proved to me that it's true, right? So here's where he starts the article. All my objections to unconditional election collapsed when I could no longer explain away Romans nine, okay? So Romans nine just proves unconditional. Go to Romans chapter nine, all right? And of course, they have to kind of put a lot of language before they actually get to the verses because the verses never say what they actually want them to say, okay? So they never have a clear verse that says it's based on nothing. Where is your clear verse? Where is your verse that says going to heaven is based on nothing but God's will, God's sovereign will? That's weird because the King James Bible, you never hear God being called sovereign. Everything they have is just not really found in the Bible anywhere. He says, so to illustrate the point of God's unconditional election, Paul uses the analogy of Jacob and Esau, though they were not yet born and had done nothing, either good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works, but because of him who calls. Rebecca was told the older will serve the younger. So in the book of Romans, it brings up two children, Jacob and Esau, and it says before they were even born, before they had done any works, and it's not even of works, God ended up picking Jacob and rejecting Esau. In fact, the Bible even says that he loves Jacob and he hates Esau, okay? And you would say, well, that doesn't seem fair. I mean, how does God hate someone before they were even born? He doesn't, okay? Number one. Now, of course, what is this passage alluding to? Well, first of all, it's alluding to the fact of how he feels about them from an eternity perspective. And that's one thing that a lot of people don't understand, is that when God's speaking here, he already knows who he hates, you know, from an eternity perspective. But the Bible teaches that God loved the whole world, okay? So there is a point in time where God loves every single person, and the Bible teaches that God loves every single child. But those who end up rejecting God and hating God and end up dying and going to hell, God doesn't love those people, okay? God hates those people. Now, of course, in Romans chapter nine, he's not even really focusing on the people, he's focusing on the nations that are represented by Jacob and Esau as well. But of course, you know, hate also in the Bible sometimes picks, or sometimes is describing how you behave towards someone, okay? If I pick someone and I don't pick another person, somebody will say like, oh, you love this one and you hate this one, okay? But that hate can be a lot of different things, right? If I say I hate ranch dressing, you know, that's not the same as me saying I hate pedophiles, okay? Those are two completely different things, right? Because I don't want all the ranch dressing to be destroyed in America. My wife loves ranch dressing. But you know what? I would love every pedophile to be destroyed in America. So there's even differences of hatred, okay? When we understand what the Bible teaches here. But to say that Romans nine teaches unconditional election is really just ignore the latter portion of the chapter. I'm not gonna explain all of Romans nine this morning because that's out of the scope of the sermon. I have preached the entire chapter and I have explained this passage. You can go listen to that sermon. But let's just think about this. He's saying Romans nine proves that there's no condition for salvation, okay? Well, let's look at Romans nine verse number 30. What shall we say then? That the Gentiles which followed not after righteousness have attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. Now let me slow down for a second. How come they're righteous? It's of faith. You know what that is? That's a condition. It's based on something. What is it based on? Faith. You know, it's like you have to talk slow to these people. Hey, why are they righteous? Because of faith. Not because of nothing. Notice it's not saying which were righteous based on nothing. No, based on faith. But look at verse 31. But Israel which followed after the law of righteousness had not attained the law of righteousness. Notice this, wherefore. Now the word wherefore is just a fancy word for why. Why? Because they sought it not by faith. You know what that sounds like? A condition. Hey, why is this guy not going to heaven? Because of God's sovereign will. Oh wait, what does the Bible say? Because they sought it not by faith. But notice where they sought it by. But as it were, by the works of the law. Oh, so they sought it by what? The will of the flesh, by the will of man. But you know what? Salvation's not by the will of the flesh. It's not by the will of man. It's not being borne by blood. So you know what? The Jews didn't get saved. Why? Because they thought they were going to heaven because they're a Jew. But you're not borne by blood. They thought they were going to heaven because they follow the law. But it's not by the works of the flesh. They thought they were going to get to heaven because they wanted to be saved when the Gentiles didn't. But guess what? It's not a will of man. It's of God. It's by faith in Jesus Christ. And they rejected Christ. They didn't seek it by faith. Therefore, they were damned and went to hell. Now the Bible actually makes sense, doesn't it? He says, for they stumbled at that stumbling stone as it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion, a stumbling stone, a rock of offense. And notice this phrase, and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Now how could you read this and then say there is no condition upon which gets you into heaven? You're just an idiot. You're a fool. Okay, and these people, why do they have this view? Because they just sit around and talk to other Calvinists and they read Calvinists and they talk about Calvinism and they read books like Pilgrim's Progress about Calvinism and they read blog posts about Calvinism and they just get weirder and weirder and weirder and weirder to the point where they're like, I don't even think anything gets you saved. These idiots will literally say that faith is works. They'll say God gives you the faith and that's works and that gets you saved. It's like, what are you even talking about? They get so weird and bizarre in their viewpoints. And look, hyper-Calvinism is a religion for idiots. It's a religion for prideful morons. And of course, unconditional election cannot be true, my friend. Look, I don't care if you believe in Calvinism or not in the sense of this argument, because unconditional election cannot be true. Why? Because there is a condition to going to heaven and it's faith. Now this is what they're actually arguing for and they can't even articulate their argument correctly. What they really believe in is dominion election. They don't believe in unconditional election. They believe in dominion election. And what do I mean by that? Everything you could think of. There is a company in America called Dominion Election Systems, voting systems. And you know what they do? You vote for Biden and your vote comes out for Biden. You vote for Trump, your vote comes out for Biden, okay? You don't vote, your vote comes out for Biden. You're dead. You're in the grave, your vote comes out for Biden. Okay, why? Because dominion controls everything. Dominion chooses what you are going to do and it's based on nothing, okay? It's not based on whether you wanted to vote or you didn't wanna vote or who you wanna vote. It's just, here's your vote, okay? This is my parable. But guess what? This is what Calvinism teaches. That whether you believe in Jesus or you didn't believe in Jesus or you go to church, you do that, it doesn't matter. You just turn out a Christian or not based on God's will. And they really don't believe in unconditional election because here's the fact, you have to believe to be saved. So what they say is those that are saved, God forces that belief onto them. Just like if you were to go in the voting machine and basically you like click somebody other than Biden and it just switches to Biden. Or they come in and they grab your hand and they like force it down and it's like Biden. And you're just like, ah, whether you wanted to or not. I mean, that's what they're saying. But here's the thing, it's still conditional. They don't believe in unconditional election. They say, in fact, most of them teach a very hardcore workspace salvation because they believe those that are going to heaven have full repentance and belief, don't they? They'll say, oh man, you turned from all your sins and you started believing, you're going to church, you're turning from all your sins. And of course, that's the grand mark, the fact that you're saved. And if you don't have the repentance and the belief, then you're not saved. Well, it sounds like you have a condition then to getting into heaven, don't you? The question is not whether or not you believe there's a condition or not. The question is, how did they believe? Was it forced upon them by God, just making them believe? Or did they choose to believe in Jesus Christ? And let me tell you something, salvation is by choosing to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. God will not force you to believe in Jesus. God doesn't want a bunch of robots. God is not the dominion election system. You really have a choice. You really can cast your vote as it were, heaven or hell. But guess what? He gives you that choice. And why do so many people go to hell? Let me tell you something. It's because they choose not to believe in Jesus Christ. And of course, we wanna give them as many opportunities as possible. Think about this word. This word can make no sense in a Calvinistic viewpoint, long suffering, long suffering. The Bible constantly tells us that God is long suffering. Now think about this. If God is really pulling all the strings, everything that I say, everything that I do, okay, what is long suffering? Long suffering is allowing someone to basically reject you or do wrong and you're not giving them the consequences that they deserve. Well, if he's in control of me, who's he waiting on to choose to believe in him? He's waiting on himself. So it'd be like he's patient with himself if you believe in this Calvinist foolishness. But why is the Bible teach that he's long suffering? It's because he's wanting us to believe in him and he's giving us day after day after day to reject and to be sinful and to be wicked. And look, so many people are wicked for a long portion of their life and they get saved later in life. Why? Because of the long suffering of God. Because God is long suffering and merciful and he wants people to believe in him. That's why he gives us so many opportunities. That's why he allows us to live in this earth for 70, 80, 90, even 100 years. And you would say, why is this person still alive? It's because God wants to give him an opportunity to believe in him. From a Calvinistic perspective, it makes no sense. In fact, our whole world would be just an anticlimactic charade, a puppet skin that has no point, it's all vanity. Why? Because he's just controlling everything and just. Look, Calvinism is a wicked extreme to evangelism. And in fact, how in the world, if I told you someone's gonna go to heaven based on absolutely nothing, would you ever be motivated to share the gospel? You say, well, if I go and I preach to this person, are they gonna be more likely to get saved? No, because it has no impact. What if I drag them into church? Will that have an impact on them getting saved? No. What if I live a clean and holy righteous life? Will that have an impact on them getting saved? No. How is that motivating you? If I say everything you do is pointless. In fact, this is why there's so much animosity towards voting in America. Why so many people don't wanna vote is because they feel like it doesn't matter. You know what does not encourage people voting? When you say it's already decided. We've already picked who you voted for. You could go in and write in a vote for anybody you want. It doesn't matter, because you're gonna still come out who we pick for. I mean, that's not gonna encourage voting. That's gonna discourage a lot of people from wanting to actually cast a vote. And the same is with going out and preaching the gospel. Also, if it was already decided, how much campaign dollars would you wanna spend on advocating for your person? Say like, hey, I wanna put a sign up, I wanna put a billboard up, even though it's already been decided. I mean, you're basically, it's just complete fraud. This is the God of Calvinism. No matter how many billboards you put up, no matter how many posters and signs and videos and things you've cast out there, bumper stickers you have, it doesn't matter because there's no impact on someone getting to heaven, then why do it? What's the point in doing it? It's stupid. But you know what's so silly about this? In John Piper's article, the fifth point says this. We embrace unconditional election because it is a powerful incentive in our evangelism. Powerful, so powerful to help unbelievers who are great sinners not despair. So it helps people not despair the fact that it's already been decided you have no impact on getting saved. Let me read this. When you offer Christ freely, how can you offer Christ freely? Think about that. Everything they say makes no sense. Hey, I wanna freely offer you something that you may not be available to get. It makes me think of fiber internet in my area, okay? There is a literal billboard, like less than a half a mile from my house, saying, get fiber in your area. And I'm like, yes. And I like type it in, it's like, it's not available in your area. I'm like, no! I'm like, you told me it was available. I remember there was a, I always got these ads. There was a mortgage company that I was working with and they would send me personal advertisements in the mail. And they say, you are already pre-approved for a cash refi mortgage of this amount. And I was like, that's exactly what I want. So I call and I say, hey, I like you guys. I'm already working with you. I already have a loan with you. Can you just refinance this, do a cash refi? We don't offer cash refis in Texas. I'm like, what? That wasn't, that was a fake offering, right? How can I freely offer the gospel to all these people when they have no impact on getting saved? And in fact, many of them are not gonna get saved. That makes no sense. How can I even offer something that's free when you can't even take it? Hey, everything in the store is free, but you can't have any of it. What? The store manager will decide if he's gonna give it to you or not. Well, based on what? Nothing. Isn't that exciting? Isn't that encouraging? This is what they're saying. He says, when you offer Christ freely to all unbelievers, suppose one says, I have sinned too terribly. God could never choose to save me. The most ultimate despair destroying thing you can say is this. So he's saying, if someone thinks they're too sinful to get saved, this is how you just eradicate all despair from them. They will no longer have despair ever again in their lives. Do you realize that God chose before the foundation of the world whom he will save? And he did it based on absolutely nothing in you? Before you were born or had done anything good or bad, God chose whether to save you or not. Despair destroyed! I mean, what kind of nonsense is this? Hey, I don't think God would ever save me. Well, let me tell you something. God already picked way before you were even born. And? That just begs more questions. That wouldn't help anybody. That doesn't overcome despair. In fact, it would feel more like, oh, so there's nothing I can do? I can't make up for it? There's no option? There's no door? Yeah, it's already been decided. You know, all that'll make you do is feel more anxious. That wouldn't make you feel like less despair. You'd be like, okay, well, which door is it? What did he choose? Does he love me or does he love me not, right? Therefore, you dare not get in God's face and tell him what qualifications you lack in order to be chosen. There were no qualifications for being chosen. What then should I do, he asks. That seems like a pretty logical question. And this is what John Piper says in the article. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved. Now think about this. He just went and explained to us for like 20 minutes there's no condition, right? Then why did he say that? Sounds like there's a condition to him. Why, because they don't even believe their own doctrine. They're so stupid and so foolish and they know that that question's literally asked in the Bible. Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. They didn't say, do nothing, nothing matters. What must I do to be saved? You can't do anything. You're completely powerless. God is all supreme and sovereign. No, they didn't say that. That's a weird comic book that you were watching or something, okay? No, it said, hey, what do I do? I believe. I believe like it's a conditional, it's conditional based on what? Your faith in Jesus Christ that saves you. He says, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved. He says this, that, and he puts Acts 16, 31. That's how you begin to confirm your calling and election. So he says, as long as you believe and then you start doing all the works and you have all the repentance, then you can kind of prove that you're probably one of the elect. Dude, that destroys all despair, doesn't it? This is nonsense. You know what destroys despair? Saying, hey, all you have to do is believe in Jesus and after that, you can never lose it. That'll destroy all despair. That'll give you that good hope. He says, if you embrace the Savior, you will confirm that you are elect and you will be saved. But I've also seen John Piper say in a video, literally, believing's not enough. Why? Because if you think about it, if God's in control of every single one of my actions, why would God ever stop at me believing in Jesus and then doing nothing for him? That's kind of bizarre, isn't it? The only reason that is actually true is because God doesn't force you to do anything. So of course, tons of people take free gifts and then don't say thanks back. Just like the nine lepers, where are they? Where are the nine? They didn't come back to give glory to God. They didn't come back to serve the Lord. Look, the Bible makes it clear that there's tons of people that are saved that do nothing for God. How do you explain that? It's because it's a free gift. That's how you explain that. Just like me and my wife, we went to this coffee place, yes, or two days ago, Friday. They just opened. Friday, free coffee. We showed up, it was just lines everywhere, just tons of people. It's hopping. We come back the next day, it's not free coffee, it's buy one, get one free. And all the workers are just kind of like. And I was like, how's it going? And they're like, not great, boring or whatever. He's like, not a lot of people want to come today. And I was like, why? And he's like, because it's not free. And I'm like, that's so true. You know, when something's not free, people aren't that interested in it. Why? Because we're selfish. Because we have the flesh. And we have the war with that flesh, right? Getting saved is easy, serving God's heart. Choosing to serve God every single day is a completely different topic that we're not talking about. We're talking about salvation. So of course, that's why we see all this apathy. That's why we see backslidden Christianity. But you know what? Their explanation is that none of those people are saved. They say there is no person who believes in Jesus and doesn't have repentance of sin every single day and is serving God. In fact, they also teach if you get out of church, it was a proof that you weren't saved. Just a backslidden, you know, instead of, backslidden doesn't even exist in their vocabulary. You know, Francis Chan was in an interview on TV, and he literally said that in the book of Revelation, when it talks about the church, the lukewarm church that spit out of his mouth, he said none of those people were saved. Why? They have no concept of basically any Christian in the middle. They only have one of two extremes, perfect Christianity and ungodly reprobates. That is their doctrine. That is their theology, my friend. Why? Because Calvinism is a doctrine of extremism, whereas the Bible is based on reality and things that are normal, like a condition to get saved, not making God this psychopathic dictator, this dominion election voting machine that just forces his will upon everyone, that makes no sense. It's not consistent with the character of the Bible or what we see in reality, because I'm never forced to do anything. You're never forced to do anything. To deny free will is just to deny the physical reality you live in. It makes no sense. Now, I want you to go in your Bible another place. Go to Luke chapter seven, go to Luke chapter number seven. I have even more. I looked at another article from Stephen Lawson, who had written a book called The Gospel Focus of Charles Spurgeon. And again, these Calvinists can do nothing but quote Calvinists, because they can't quote the Bible, because if they quote the Bible, they'll constantly sound like the idiots that they are. Every time John Piper ended up quoting the Bible, made him look like an idiot. Hey, what do I have to do to be safe, believe? And it's like, that was his proof text on the fact that there's nothing you have to do. Think about that. Like, that's so insane. That's because these people are just hypocrites. They don't even know what they're saying. They understand neither what they say nor wherever they affirm is what the Bible teaches. You know, I think of verses in the Bible that say, choose life. Choose life. Wait a minute, you don't have any choice. How does that even work? Or the Bible says, the spirit and the bride say come, and let him that heareth say come, and let him that is a thirst come, and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. Oh, just joking, you don't really have a will. Oh, just joking, you don't have any choices. Oh, just joking, nothing, just everything just happens for a reason. I've seen young people fall victim of this stupid doctrine, and they commit horrible sin. And then they say, well, God wanted me to. I'm just thinking like, what kind of logic is that? What kind of logic? I mean, to literally say, you know what? That's to deny the fact that you have any kind of sinful desire. And you know what you do? You shift all your sinful desires to God. God is not the author of evil wickedness. And when you take the logic of Calvinism to its extreme, where it lives, you have to believe that all the rape, all the child molestation, all the abortion, just every evil thing, all the satanic rituals, what these devil worshiping freaks do in secret, is God's will. God wanted that to happen. God is not only wanting it to happen, God is literally doing it. God is causing this evil to happen. This is satanic, my friend, because we know what's really happening is Satan is influencing men, and out of their own wicked desires and hearts, they're doing it. And then of course, the devil wants to then accuse God of being the one that did that. Calvinism is one of the most satanic doctrines there is. Now, Steve Lawson quotes a lot of Spurgeon. Spurgeon says, he that perishes chooses to perish, but he that is saved is saved because God has chosen to save him. So it's like, you chose to rebel, so go to hell, but apparently you can't choose to be saved. That's interesting how you have a one way choice. Choose to do wickedness, okay? That's not even consistent. Charles Spurgeon also says others will say, God elected them on the foresight of their faith. Now, God gives faith, therefore he could not have elected them on account of faith, which he foresaw. So, even though it's not foresight of faith, God gave the faith. God gives you every decision that you make. Charles Spurgeon said, God gave me this great book to preach from, and if he has put anything in it, you think is not fit, go and complain to him, not to me. I am simply his servant, and if his errand that I am to tell is objectionable, I cannot help it. Now, I agree with that sentiment. Look, I'm just here to tell you what the Bible says, and if you don't like it, you can go anywhere else. You can go do anything else that you want. I'm just supposed to tell you what the Bible says. But here's the problem, then he doesn't tell you what the Bible says. He says, let me tell you, the reason why many of our churches are declining is just because this doctrine has not been preached. So he says the reason why churches are not growing is because they're not teaching unconditional election. Wow. Wow. I mean, just think about the floodgates of people coming in when I tell them, do nothing and go to heaven. Come to church. Why? Will it get me into heaven? No. Then I'm not going. In fact, everything you do, God already ordained. So when I skipped church and go to the lake, God wanted me to do that, didn't he? And it's like, yes. It's like, this is so stupid. Why would I want to quote Spurgeon? Look, so many Baptists quote Spurgeon as being some great champion of the faith, teaching unconditional election. From a positive perspective, Spurgeon boldly declared that preaching unconditional election is evangelistic. He said, I've never preached this doctrine without seeing conversions. And I believe I never shall. So apparently he gets up and says, you get saved based on nothing. Saved, whoa. Absolutely nothing saved. Oh, whoa. It's just every time you tell people that no one gets saved based on nothing, just popped up and people just start getting saved. It's just crazy. But this is insanity, my friend. People actually believe this. These are books. These are the top websites. These are giant churches. I mean, one of the biggest churches of this, John MacArthur in California. John Piper was a giant church up north. You have other major Calvinistic leaning people. Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill, which he got thrown out of his own church. Then he started a church in Phoenix, Arizona area. Scottsdale. Other major Calvinistic viewpoints are creeping into the Southern Baptist Convention. I mean, the Southern Baptist Convention is filled with Calvinism. You have whole universities pumping out Calvinists after Calvinists after Calvinists. Spurgeon also said this. While all in heaven are there by God's choice, Spurgeon said those in hell are there by their own choice. He testified from the word of God. I gather that damnation is all of man from top to bottom and salvation is all of grace from first to last. He that perishes chooses to perish, but he that is saved is saved because God has chosen to save him. In other words, salvation is possible only when God's will liberates the human will from its bondage. So it says the only way for someone to be saved is when God just wills it. And of course, then you have clear verses of the Bible that says that God's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come under repentance. How do you reconcile that verse? Oh yeah, they can't. So they end up changing the word will in the Bible to constantly mean two different wills. Oh, there's this, you know, permissive will and there's this determinative will. And you know, they basically have to add all these adjectives to the word will because it just plainly contradicts the Bible, clearly. Now I've given you one extreme. I wanna give you the other extreme and I'm not gonna take as much time on this one. But think about this. God wants us to go out and preach the gospel. What would be one of the worst things you could tell someone to discourage them about going out and preach the gospel? Everything you do has no impact. What you do will do nothing. I don't care if you preach the gospel until you're blue in the face. I don't care if you show them the gospel. I don't care if you're the most articulate preacher ever. It has no impact on people going to heaven. That's never gonna encourage anybody to preach the gospel. That is the most giant wet blanket on soul winning you could ever put. So then what would be the extreme of that, right? And let me just give you the idea. We have one extreme says nothing counts, nothing matters, nothing will impact it. We believe preaching the gospel gets people saved, okay. What would be the other extreme? Every single thing that you do gets people saved. Lifestyle evangelism. I mean, think about this. You have one extreme saying nothing you do gets people saved. Then you have another extreme saying everything you do has an impact on people getting saved. And when I mean everything, yes, when you blew your nose, that could get people saved, the way you blew your nose. And if you said God bless you, when someone sneezes, that could have gotten someone saved. And when you go to Taco Bell and you're ordering at the checkout line, you could just say Jesus is Lord and that could get people saved. Don't tell them your name. Don't say I'm an idiot. Say, hey, Jesus is Lord and yell that over the loudspeaker. That's gonna get people saved. Okay, or I saw a car, there's this van and it literally just had like Bible verses tattooed all over the entire car. That's gonna get people saved, my friend. When you cut them off in traffic, flip them off, and then they see John 3.16 right there on the bumper sticker, I mean, saved. Touching your Bible, that's gonna be, I mean, look, this lifestyle evangelism gets to such a weird extreme. And they end up saying that you gotta live the gospel. Well, there's a problem with that phrasing. You know what the gospel is? The death, barren resurrection of Jesus Christ. How do I live that? You know, are you saying I have to get crucified? Are you saying I have to die and be buried and rose again? Because I can't live the gospel and what you're actually meaning, okay? My life is not the gospel. The gospel is about Jesus Christ's life. Okay, it's not my testimony. It's not what I do. It's not what I will do. And in fact, if you believe in lifestyle evangelism, I question even if you're saved. Because your lifestyle has no impact on getting saved. So how could I then say, based on how you live, it's gonna impact, you know, salvation. It shouldn't. How can it, in fact, some of the greatest soul winners in the Bible had terrible lives. I mean, let's think, the greatest soul winner to ever live in the Bible, that's not Jesus. How about the apostle Paul? What did he say? Didn't he say he's chief of sinners? Oops, how did that work? How about the woman in the well? She seemed like a pretty great woman. Five husbands, and the one that she's with now, she's just committing fornication. And then, of course, you know, it's, you know, her lifestyle that got people saved. Yeah, you know how she got people saved? She ran to the town and said, hey, that guy knew I was a whore. And they're like, that must be Christ. You know, at first they're thinking, like, everybody knows that, okay? But then he was like, but he's not a Samaritan, and he's from Judea, and they're like, wow, it must be Christ, you know? How does he know that you're such a whore, okay? I mean, how is that lifestyle evangelism? It makes no sense. But of course, these people wanna say, hey, you just go around and you just pray for people, you tip really big, you know, you say thank you, you're really polite, and people are just gonna, you'll be sucked into the laser beam of Christianity, right? Because you're just so much nicer than everybody else. But don't the Gentiles love the Gentiles? Aren't they kind unto people? Is that getting people saved? Oh, you're so nice. Oh, you're so godly. I mean, if the outward appearance mattered so much, if outward appearance could get people saved, then the Pharisees would have gotten everybody saved. Because from people's perspective, the Pharisees were super righteous. Now, we know they weren't, but most of the time when Jesus rebuked them, he was rebuking them because of what they were doing in secret. The fact that they would say one thing and they were hypocrites about it, behind closed doors. They gave lip service to God, but in their heart, they hated him. They would say, give money, they don't wanna give, they steal money. They would say, don't commit adultery, they're committing adultery. They say one thing and they don't do the other. But most people didn't know that. They thought they were righteous. And if they thought they were righteous, look, how many people did the Pharisees lead to heaven? Zero. Because it's not a lifestyle evangelism. It's a preaching of the gospel to get someone saved. Now look at Luke chapter seven, verse 22. I know I heard you turn there a long time ago. Let me prove to you that you're not living the gospel by doing good works. Luke chapter seven, verse 22. Then Jesus answering said unto them, go your way and tell John what things you have seen and heard how the blind see, the lame walk, the leopards are cleansed, the death here, the dead are raised, to the poor, the gospel is preached. Now, why do I bring up this verse? Because notice that he delineates between all the things he just did and what? Preaching the gospel because they're separate items. Healing people is not preaching the gospel. That's why he brings it up in coordination, saying I'm doing all of these different things, right? But then there's all these people that go out and they say, hey, we go out and live the gospel by healing people. You know, there's a famous guy like this that I didn't even know lived around here. It looks like a freak. He looks like if the predator and Joyce Meyer had a bastard child. His name is Todd White. Who knows what I'm talking about? This freak, okay? He skipped every legs day that ever happened, okay? And I mean, of course he's got some chests, but you know what, he's so effeminate, queer, and soft, it takes away from the fact that you would even think this guy is like a real man. It's like my child could probably push you over, dude. You're so top-heavy. Or he could just grab you by your girly hair or rip it out. I mean, this guy is just a bizarre freak. And you know how he knows he's a false prophet? Look at his hair! I didn't even have to hear him speak. You say, oh, I don't know about that. Yeah, have you read 1 Corinthians 11? It makes it clear that men are supposed to have short hair. How could you claim to be a man of God going around in that freaking weird head-beating thing? He's going, it looks like he's just, basically you could just tie him up by his hair. You could probably kill himself with his hair just by hanging himself up. He could tie a millstone to his head by his hair. And he should. And let me say something about Todd White. He is not saved. He is not of God. There is no question about it. And he goes around and says he's living the gospel by healing people. So he just walks up to random strangers, puts his hands on them and says, let me pray for you. First of all, I'd be like, let me run away first. It's gotta be the most intimidating, scary thing ever. And because he's so weird looking, it's probably why people lie to him constantly and say they got healed. Because they don't want him to pray again. You know, he probably puts his hands on him. He's like, in the name of Jesus, you're healed! And it's like, nothing happened. He's like, did it happen or should I pray again? Oh, it happened. Oh, yeah, please, you know. Rhino's too close to the car, mommy, you know. Get it away. I mean, there's no way anybody wants to be near this freak. He's bizarre. But then this is the other extreme. Instead of saying nothing gets people saved, everything gets people saved. I mean, this guy just walks around, he's like, oh, I just, he just walks around just giving like $100 bills to people. I was listening to this testimony, he's like, he just walks into like a pet store and he's just like, God told me you need some bills to be paid, here's $100. And I'm like, what person wouldn't agree with that? Oh, actually, I have no bills. So I'm good, you know. It's like, that's so stupid. And of course, you're going to a poor area in a poor town in some beat down pet store. I think God told me you had some bills that need to be paid, here's $100. You know, this is so fake. That's not God telling you this person needs money. That's bizarre. And you know what, that's not preaching the gospel. Because if giving money away was going to get people saved, then the Democrats would get people saved all the time. And it's not like he's giving his money away. He's giving away the church money. He's just like the Democrats that love to give other people's money away, right? Oh, I'm so, look how wonderful I am, how much charity I give. And then you look how much money they personally give, and it's like $5. It's like $10, or it's a tax write off. It's not real. But they love to give away government money. Huge government grants and everything like that. And they have this fake charismatic healing. But let me say something. I do not care if Todd White walked in this room, laid hands on someone that was sick, and they miraculously were not sick anymore. Miraculously healed. He's still a false prophet. And it has no impact on that person going to heaven. Zero. You say, how do you know that? Because Jesus Christ walked into every single town and healed every single person of every single disease, every single illness, every single problem, every single issue. He gave them food. He gave them everything they could possibly need, carnally speaking, and they still crucified him and died and went to hell, my friend. Why? Because healing someone doesn't get them into heaven. Giving them money doesn't get them into heaven. Giving them lunch doesn't get them into heaven. And of course, all these churches, what do they wanna do? They wanna have a Bethesda outreach. They wanna give money and food to the poor. They wanna go around and pontificate about how great they are by how many people they heal, this lifestyle evangelism. But you know what they never do? Open up their mouth and preach the gospel. You know what I cannot find? A video of Todd White saying, let me explain to you how to go to heaven from the Bible. You know why? Because he doesn't preach the gospel. But of course, it's lifestyle evangelism, lifestyle gospel. That doesn't get anybody saved. No one got saved from that. Go to 2 Corinthians chapter number six, go to 2 Corinthians number six. So these guys are just fake. Now, there is another form of lifestyle evangelism that I wanna expose. Todd White's a real weird extreme, but here's another extreme that's not as extreme or weird, but a lot of people fall victim to it. And it's this idea that getting people saved is not about approaching strangers with the gospel, but rather it's building relationships and warming them up to where you can eventually preach them the gospel. And this is a stupid extreme. It's a stupid extreme that does not exist in the scripture. Philip the evangelist, if we think about the evangelist, one of the only people in the Bible, I mean, the only person named as an evangelist, how many relationships did he build before he got people saved? Or did he just walk up to a eunuch that he's never met in his entire life and just preach and get him saved? And as soon as he got him saved, he was whisked away. They had zero relationship. I mean, it couldn't be further from not having a relationship. I mean, it's the most minimal relationship you could possibly humanly have and have gotten someone saved. It's just like, hey, what are you reading? I don't even know if he got his name. Did you realize we just call him the eunuch? We don't even know what his name is. Does Philip know his name? In fact, I bet you, how many people in here have got someone saved and you never asked their name? All over the room. You forget. Or, as I do, I ask their name and I forget anyways. So I don't have a relationship with these people. But you know what, when I get into heaven, I can be like, hey, what's your name? And they're like, then I'll maybe remember, because they'll be perfect at that point, right? But why does it matter if I know their name or not if they go to hell? Why does it matter if I invited them over for dinner? Why does it matter if I had them over for a barbecue, if I pet their dog, if I watch their dog, if I mowed their yard, if I washed their car, if I delivered them groceries, and they're burning in hell? Imagine running into your neighbors, and this is a hypothetical, you can't do it. You're in heaven, and you get a glimpse from one of your neighbors in hell. Thanks for mowing my yard, bro! Thanks for delivering the groceries, man! I know I'm burning in hell! I mean, I wish you'd given me the gospel, but don't worry, I'm having a good time down here, burning in hell for all of eternity, because you wouldn't actually preach me the gospel. You are too afraid to preach the gospel. All you wanna do is play checkers with me, or chess with me, or Korean ping-pong. Watch movies together, talk about politics. You know, that has no impact on eternity. Zero, why would it matter? And why would the most important decision you ever make have any impact? Well, you know, you really gotta go swimming with the guy, you really gotta go play basketball with the guy, you really gotta go, you know, buy him lunch. Look, and I'm for anything to get someone saved, but I'm telling you, there is no substitute than to open your mouth and preach me the gospel. There is zero. But think about the logic. If you say, the way we get people saved is you just form relationships with unsaved people, to hopefully one day give them the gospel, how could you ever apply this verse? Look at 2nd Corinthians chapter six, verse 14. Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. You don't even know if this guy's gonna get saved, and you have to become best buddies with them before you can give them the gospel? That's completely antithetical to what this verse literally teaches. We're not supposed to have friendships with people that aren't even saved. You know, my friendship building requirements, hey, are you saved? Step one, you know, I don't care what color you are, what age you are. In fact, most of my friends aren't my age. They're not my color. We probably really disagree on hobbies and interests. I mean, you know, there's lots of weirdos that like things like baseball. People that like ranch dressing. People that eat In-N-Out fries and like them. I'm just like, I understand if you eat them, because you're just like, I just want fries, but they suck. But I'm saying like, you eat them, and then you said like, that was good. You know, I want more. You know, and this is what they say, it's the animal fries, bro. And it's like, you can't cover up that grossness, okay? Of course, you know, if it was based on all of our personal interests, I mean, I love golf. I bet most everyone in this room doesn't play golf or is not good at golf at all. Okay, and I'll just be real honest. Like, I only like playing golf with people that are really good at golf. Okay, now I'm not against going and like hanging out with friends and I'll do it and I'll suffer through, but I'm just saying from a personal enjoyment factor, I don't want to go play with someone that can't even hit the golf ball. You know what I mean? Like, it doesn't really make any sense. I like to be challenged by people that are even better than me, you know, rather than going around. So it's like, if that was my criterion for friends, I would have no friends. You know, if you had to have all the exact same, you know, and this is what happens. Because people have this idea, they can only find friends online. They go to their echo chambers and they become even weirder and weirder and weirder and weirder. And let me tell you something, there's a normalizing effect that happens when you read this book. You stop getting stupid ideas and weird ideas and it crushes your weird ideas. It makes you think like, oh wow, I'm actually kind of an idiot for believing that. Thinking like, oh, nothing I do gets people saved or thinking everything I do gets people saved. How about this? How about just preaching the gospel's what get people saved? Go if you would to 2 Corinthians 4. You know, and then people look at us and say, y'all are crazy. Y'all go out and preach the gospel to people? Like you knock on the door to a stranger's door and you just show them right from the Bible how to get saved? You don't even buy them lunch first? And it's like, yeah bro, have you ever read the Bible? Did you ever see what Philip actually did? Did you know that Jesus walked into towns and just preached the gospel? Do you realize Paul just walked into towns and just preached the gospel? How about what the Bible says? And daily in the temple and in every house they cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. How about what the Bible says? For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory up for necessity is laid upon me. Yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. How about Jesus when he said, go ye in all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. How are you gonna build a relationship with every creature? That is impossible, my friend. But you know what? We together can go and preach to every creature. If every saved person just went soul winning for one hour every week, we would literally evangelize the entire world in like a year or less. I mean, it'd be instant. Instantaneous, the whole world would get the gospel. The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labors befuse what the Bible warns. Now, if it's this lifestyle of angelism, it's never plugged in the game. But if it's actually opening your mouth and preaching the gospel, there's very few people doing that, aren't there? Well, that's weird. No, you're weird for not doing it. You're weird for thinking that anything else will get someone saved. You know why? Because I'll ask you, how did you get saved? Someone told me the gospel. Okay, so how do you think other people might get saved? Mm, buying them a burger. Nothing. I mean, that's insanity if you think that, right? What would be normal to say, I guess I have to tell people about it, you know? And of course, people love being an evangelist. Have you ever seen a social media site? They evangelize everything that they love. They evangelize all their favorite food and clothes and restaurants. I mean, have you ever heard of Yelp? I mean, it's literally just an evangelistic app. Go to this business, do this, this is great, this is wonderful, blah, blah, blah. Trying to put forth their idea. Why would we not think that the gospel is the same way? It's because the Bible's so clear. If you wanna get someone saved, you have to open your mouth and preach in the gospel. Oh, I hope someone gets saved. Well, I hope you open your mouth. I mean, it's that simple. The Bible says, and when they had been much disputing, Peter rose up and said to the men and brethren, you know that a good while ago, God made choice among us that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel and believe. Notice that Peter didn't say, oh, God decided that me living such a holy life is gonna get people saved. God decided by me doing absolutely nothing, Gentiles would get saved. No, he said, hey, Peter is gonna go and preach the gospel and people are gonna believe and that's how they get saved. Acts chapter 20, but none of those things move me, neither count on my life dear unto myself. So I might finish my course with joy and ministry and the ministry, which I received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God. Paul said, as so much as with me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God and salvation to everyone that believeth to the Jew first and also the Greek. Look, every single one of these verses destroys every false doctrine I've laid out this morning. The condition of belief, the fact that what gets people saved is the gospel, the fact that we're supposed to preach, the fact that we're not supposed to be ashamed of it. Now, why would someone think lifestyle evangelism? Because they're ashamed to preach the gospel. The Bible says, how shall they preach except they be sent? But the Bible says faith come up by hearing and hearing by the word of God. I remember going to a independent fundamental Baptist church they didn't have a soul winning program. The preacher never plugged soul winning, never plugged personal evangelism. In fact, some of his stories were like, I didn't have enough courage to give an invite to my hairdresser that I see every week until she asked me for it. I'm thinking like, wow, talk about a wet blanket on personal evangelism. He didn't get her saved, he didn't preach the gospel. It's just an invitation to church. He was so afraid to invite her to his church. The person that cuts your hair every week. And look, let me tell you something, the more you get to know someone, the harder it is to preach the gospel to them anyways. So by saying it's doing nothing, that's gonna cause people to not wanna preach the gospel. By getting close to people and then trying to preach to them that's gonna make it even harder to preach to them. It's basically destroying personal evangelism. But I took this one kid from my church, I would go soul winning on Saturdays by myself. And I hated going by myself. So I wanna drag somebody out here with me. And I took this young guy, he seemed real zealous for church and stuff like that, took him to lunch. And then at the end I'm like, hey, I go soul winning on Saturdays. I would love for you to come with me, I'll buy you lunch again. And he's like, well, I'm more like the lifestyle evangelism type. I was like, what do you mean? He's like, yeah, I try to get to know people and just try to live godly and then hopefully one day they'll wanna get saved. And this is not, I'm telling you this story because real people believe this. I couldn't even believe what I was hearing. This guy goes to church with me three times a week and he's explaining to me how someone's gonna get saved without actually hearing the gospel being preached to them. He's gonna build relationships with these people. And I said, look, I'll take you whenever you want. I said, if Saturday doesn't work, you tell me when and we'll go. He's like, no, just will not go soul winning because of this lifestyle evangelism false doctrine, this stupid extreme view that thinks that how you live your life is getting people saved. How's that working for you, buddy? You know how many people have looked at me and thought like, hey, you come here. How do I get saved? I've had zero experiences like that in my life. How many have you had? I mean, even if you had one, I mean, is that how many people are gonna get to heaven? I mean, we wanna get one person that randomly just tackles you down and be like, dude, you look so awesome and saved, please tell me how. You know what, that appeals to the person that is so prideful to think that your lifestyle is so much better than everybody else. Or the Calvinist that's so prideful and thinks that his lifestyle is so much better than other people's that proves he's elect. Or the guy that thinks he's so great and so wonderful and so separated that's gonna just cause people to fall down. I mean, if lifestyle evangelism was true, everyone would have gotten saved as soon as Jesus entered into this world. Cause he was perfect. But you know what they did to someone that was perfect? They crucified him. They didn't say like, please get me saved. He just looked so wonderful. His own brethren didn't believe in him. Oh, the personal relationship if they got to know him. Look, you don't think that Jesus' own brothers knew him? They didn't believe in him. I don't care how separated life you live. I don't care how clean and godly you look. That's not getting anybody saved. In fact, the one time we have recorded in the Bible that happening, it was two guys that got thrown in jail. Lifestyle evangelism. Asking these two guys that are chained up, hey, what do I have to do to be saved? That wasn't based on their lifestyle. He knew that they had the gospel and they opened their mouth boldly and preached them the gospel and they got them saved. Go to Jude, 2 Corinthians 4, look at verse three. But if our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are lost. And whom the God of this world is blind to the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, just shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. Notice I don't preach myself. I don't go, you know, these Todd White types. Let me tell you my testimony. That's not getting anybody saved. Go to Jude, chapter one. And of course, when they give their testimony, you know what it never has in it? The death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And you know what that is? The gospel. I don't know why, I suffer a little bit, okay. I didn't know much about Todd White, unless I've watched a couple of his videos. Don't watch them, they're bad, okay. He did this interview with this other guy he calls a prophet and he's like, you have to share your testimony. And he's like, okay. And he's like, when I was a young kid, I tried to commit suicide and the rope broke. And he's like, and then I used my parents' gun and the gun didn't go off right. And then he tried it a second time and it didn't happen. And then he said he tried to drive off a cliff. And then he said he took 250 pills to try and overdose and kill himself. And then he said he had a vision. He said he took the 250 pills, tried to kill himself, didn't work, someone just dropped him off somewhere on like concrete, had a vision. Jesus showed up and he said to Jesus, if you love me, then I'll serve you. And then this Jesus figure said, I'm gonna make you a mouthpiece to share the gospel of the whole world. And then that's when he became a Christian. And I'm like, dude, let me help you. You are possessed by demons. Because the people in the Bible are constantly trying to kill themselves are possessed with devils. And then some demon showed up and claimed he was Jesus and told you to go out and preach a false gospel of your whole life. You know what he didn't mention? The death, the burial resurrection. He didn't mention he believed in Jesus. He didn't mention the forgiveness of sins. He didn't mention he was a sinner. You know, he said, I'm afflicted by demons, but now I'm not. Yeah, because the demons are using you to afflict other people now. They think that salvation is not going to heaven, but salvation is relief from the demons. Think about it. What was his problem? His problem wasn't that he was a sinner on his way to hell. His problem is that demons are trying to cause him to kill himself, right? What was the solution? Now I'm no longer wanting to kill myself. That's not you going to heaven. Think about this. These people are so deluded. And then people listen to this and they think it's great. Todd White has one of the most giant churches in all of the area. In fact, I was looking, because we're looking at this area in Watauga, I was looking at church buildings in this area. And essentially, Watauga has like the top 10 employers. One is a church. It's Todd White's church. The top employers. They have a university. You can get a degree from his church, okay? And I looked up the degree. His classes are in worship, life groups. I'm like, what are the life groups 101? Invite people over, you know, to your house, teach them false doctrines, send them home. You know, it's like, how do you have a class on that? How do you have a class on worship? All right, when you lift up your hands, not like 100%, you know, kind of like 75%, you know, kind of get in there and just, you know, feel the music. It's like, what does that even look like? These people are freaks. And yet thousands and thousands of people are filling into the churches. You know, he has a musician coming to one of his big conferences, Kerry Jobe. Huge popular Christian artist. Used to be at Gateway. I guess Gateway wasn't weird enough for her, okay? So she has to go to lifestyle. His church is called Lifestyle Christianity. That's his church's name. Lifestyle Christianity. Tell me you believe in works without telling me you believe in works. I mean, think about what most churches are named. Grace. Why? Because we're talking about God's grace, okay? Lifestyle Christianity. And look, this guy's not Christian at all. The guy goes around and performs seances on people, calling it healing miracles. This is bizarre, my friend. If you're going to a Calvinist church or a lifestyle Christian church, you need to run away screaming and get into a normal church. Look what the Bible says in Jude 1, verse 22. In some churches, you need to run away screaming. And some have compassion, making a difference, and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire. Now, you want to know how Calvinism is not true? Others save with fear. Those who save with nothing, they save with something. How did they save somebody? With fear. You know how lifestyle Christianity is not true? Others save with fear. They're not going around saying like, I saved you with my great lifestyle. They saved you with the fear of hell. By preaching the fact that you're a sinner on your way to hell, you need to believe in Jesus, or you're going to burden hell for all of eternity. Oh, I can't believe you got there and preached that condemnation. Yeah, I'm trying to save people with fear, my friend. And you want to know why I got saved? Because I didn't want to go to hell. You know, John Piper in his stupid article, he said, hey, when you get into heaven and God asks you this question, why did you believe in me? I'm like, what kind of nonsense is this? Why did you believe in me? He's like, you're not going to say because I was smarter. You're going to say, because you chose me. Think about, how's that a good answer? Why did you believe me? I was forced to. You know, how about I believe in you because it's the truth. Because I didn't want to go to hell. Because of the free gift you were offering me. Because I didn't want to deny the record that you gave of your son. Because I wanted to accept Jesus Christ's love. Okay, there's lots of good reasons why you believe in Jesus Christ. But let me tell you something, you must believe in Jesus to be saved. And if you want to get someone saved, you have to preach Jesus. It's that simple. Don't go to these weird extremes. And I'm hoping to cover other topics. But look how we get to these extremes by people getting these echo chambers, not by reading the Bible. You keep reading the Bible so we don't get into these weird extremes. And you know, going out and preaching the gospel is not extreme. It's normal. Let's close in prayer. Thank you Heavenly Father so much for giving us the gospel. Thank you for giving us a Bible so that we can not be carried away with strange and diverse doctrines. That we don't get to these weird ideas that what we do has no impact on this world. That you just damn people for no reason. That what we do actually has value. I pray that we'd also realize though that while the things that we do have value, they only have value because of the word of God. The things that we do of ourself have no impact. They're just vanity. I pray that we'd realize that you gave us the clear, crystal way to get people saved is by preaching the gospel. I pray that we wouldn't be ashamed of that. That we wouldn't try to invent other clever ways to try and get people saved because there is no good way to get someone saved apart from preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. I pray that we'd have the humility to just do the tried and true, preach the Romans road, to go out and be filled with the Holy Spirit and to preach Jesus and not ourselves. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.