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

The verse I want to focus my sermon on this evening was in verse 19 where the Bible read, Thou believeth that there is one God, thou doest well. The devils also believe and tremble. And in James chapter 2 is probably the most famous verse that people will take out of context to teach that by faith alone you're not saved. And the sermon tonight is not going to be about that, I want to take a second to address that. But the title of the sermon tonight is Why Christian Apologetics is Stupid. Now before I get into my sermon let me just explain to you what James 2 is saying here in this portion. He's basically condemning Christians who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ who do nothing good. They don't follow God's commandments, they're not trying to go out and do any good works, they're not getting anybody saved, and he's saying, look, what is that profiting? What is that profiting you? What is that profiting other people? It's a dead faith. But he's not saying here that you're not saved. He's not saying here that you don't have eternal life, it doesn't even bring that up. And we see the, the, the climax of this verse, I believe, look at verse 22, Seest thou how that faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God. He see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. What does the Bible just say there? Well, first, in verse 23, it says that Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness. Does it say there he did any works? It says, no, he believed, and he had Christ imputed righteousness given unto him. Meaning what? He was seen as righteous in the sight of God, not because of how he lived, but because of how Christ lived, and Christ gave him that righteousness. But not only that, it has a colon there, it says something else, it says, and he was called the friend of God. Now not every Christian is automatically the friend of God, if you wanna be Christ's friend, you gotta follow those commandments. And we see, why was Abraham called the friend of God? Because of his works. That's why it says in verse 24, ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. Meaning what? Your works will justify you to be called the friend of God. But how are you saved? By faith. And that's the most clear thing in the Bible, and that's gonna be my first point. Because you say, well, what is Christian apologetics? Maybe you don't know what that means. Now the word apology can mean two different things. The most common word, or definition that people would think of would be, say, regret or sorrow for one's past actions. Saying, I'm sorry I hurt your feelings. I'm sorry I did something wrong. Making an apology. But another definition of apology would be to make a argument or to provide evidence for something that you believe. You're arguing for some kind of viewpoint. It's usually in a connotation of some philosophical arguing. Philosophical debating. Trying to prove things or showing evidence or bringing logic and reasoning in to argue your points. Now what is Christian apologetics then? Christian apologetics is trying to prove that you should be a Christian based on historical, reasoning and evidential evidence. So saying, look, from things that we can see, taste, touch, you know, records, things just are common sense, that's why you should be a Christian. Now that falls short in the most obvious fact of what? You're saved by faith. Now how in the world if the Bible makes it so clear that you're saved by faith, faith is what saves you, faith is what gives us everything, but I'm going to somehow spend my whole life trying to prove to people that you can believe the Bible without faith. Oh, you can believe it because of history. You can believe God and you can believe in Jesus just because of history. Just because of reasoning. Just because of evidence. Wrong. No. We're saved by faith. Go to Romans chapter 1. Salvation is by faith alone and Jesus Christ. I think Christian apologetics, they're ruining the most essential part of Christianity is by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's look at Romans 1 and see what it has to say about the word faith. Look at verse 16. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Now this is what the Christian apologists need to hear today. Look, I'm not ashamed that it's just by faith in Jesus Christ that I'm saved. I don't have to try and provide all this evidence and all this reasoning to try and make it seem logical to you why I believe in Jesus. No. I believe by faith the Bible. I believe the gospel by faith because it's true, I know that, but I believe it by faith. So all that circular reasoning, that circular logic, of course it is, but I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ by faith, that's the first tenet, that's the first pillar of Christianity. You want to be a Christian? It's got to be by faith. Romans 3, look over to page, look at verse 21. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference. Look at verse 25, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that have passed through the forbearance of God. Look at verse 27, where is boasting then? It is excluded by what law works nay, but by the law of faith. Look at verse 28, therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Look at verse 30, seeing it as one God which will justify the circumcision by faith and uncircumcision through faith. Look at chapter 4 verse 3, for what sayeth the scripture? Abraham believed God and it was counted unto righteousness. Look at verse 5, but then that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Skip down to verse 22. I feel like we're getting a theme here. Look at verse 22, and therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness, not as it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. Look at verse 1 of chapter 5, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Go to chapter 9, maybe a page over. Look at verse 33, as it is written, behold I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Look at chapter 10 verse 4, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Look at verse 9, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath 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 on him shall not be ashamed. Now why in the world am I going to take all these verses and say, hey, you should believe the Bible because of history, because of evidence, because of reasoning. No, it's by faith that someone is saved by believing the gospel. Even apologists, they fail in step one. They're so stupid because they try to argue for God's existence without faith. They get into all these debates and they get all these seminars and they do all these videos trying to tell you, hey, you can believe Jesus and believe God without the Bible, without faith. You can believe it because of evidence and history and all these other reasons and it's all junk. No, you're justified, you're saved by faith. That's what we should be preaching. Don't get carried away with these fancy cool illustrations and all their philosophical talk. You know, there's this one guy, William Lane Craig. This guy is a wicked false teacher. This guy does not believe the Bible. He teaches all kinds of damnable heresy. He teaches that you can lose your salvation. He teaches that hell is not really hell. He's like, well, I don't think hell is, you know, fire. It's not really what people think of. It's just not being around the awesome God. It's not being, you know, in the presence of, you know, the glorious God. No, hell is fire. Hell is torment. Hell is darkness. And it's in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the lamb. You're not going to want to be around that presence of the Lord Jesus Christ where his wrath is kindled in hell, where it's burning hot in the lowest parts of hell for all the most wicked sinners. This guy teaches that you do not have to even know Jesus Christ to be saved. You don't even have to know his name. He says, as long as you just have the light and you respond to that light, God will judge you and you can still go to heaven. He says, look, everybody that's heard the gospel, they're basically responsible with that information, but someone that's never heard the gospel, someone that's never heard of the name Jesus, if they just lived and responded well to the light they were given, the truth that they were given, you know, they'll go to heaven. That's exactly what a Mormon told me. I took one of my coworker Mormons to lunch one day, tried to give him the gospel. I said, hey, what do you have to do to be saved? He's like, well, I think everybody has a different amount of revelation, a different amount of truth and how they respond to that. God's going to judge them based on that and that's going to help them spend their eternity. I mean, that's exactly what he said. He's more like a Mormon than he is a Christian. But then he uses all these extra biblical arguments to try and prove God and it tricks a lot of Christians. It fools a lot of people that are saved into thinking this is a good way to get someone saved. I remember we were going to, it wasn't an independent Baptist church, but it was a Southern Baptist church one time we visited there and they said, we're going to start a new ministry. We're going to bring in all these Christian apologists and we're going to have all these classes and we're going to train people in Christian apologetics because it's so important. It's such a big deal. No! No, we need to go out and preach the gospel. I'm not saying to the gospel of Jesus Christ, I don't have to try and prove to you that the Bible's true. I don't have to prove all these things with extra biblical revelation. No, I'm just going to open my mouth boldly and proclaim the gospel. I'm just going to preach Christ and him crucified. I don't need William Lane Craig's stupid, kalon, cosmological arguments to prove that the Bible is true. Now he borrowed this stupid philosophy from some Muslim. Some Muslim came up with this philosophy called the kalon, cosmological argument. It's basically saying, well, every effect has a cause. So if every effect has a cause, then every single thing has to be generated from something is basically their argument. They would say, like, I have parents and my parents have parents and they have parents and the universe, because it exists, they had to have a cause that caused the universe to exist. And they add a little attachment at the end and they say, so in order for that to happen, anything that's not eternal has to have a cause. So they say, God must be eternal because he does not have a cause and because the universe exists, you would have a constant loop of going back and back and back forever if God didn't exist. Now, they try to use this argument to prove that God exists, which whether it's good philosophy or bad philosophy, I don't really care because it's not going to get anybody saved. It's not faith on the Lord Jesus Christ, you know, and the Bible says that the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. Nobody gets saved from that stupid arguing and debating and logic and guess what? No Muslim preaching their philosophy is going to get somebody saved. I'm not going to borrow some Muslim philosophy and logic to try and get people saved. Christian apologetics is so stupid, it's so foolish today, and I think sometimes Christians after they, you know, learn the gospel, they've learned the basic fundamentals, they get bored. They decide, well, I've got the fundamentals down, I know how to give the gospel, I'm ready to go on the next level. Oh, now I'm ready to go on, you know, the kalam cosmological arguments, now I'm going to go on to the next stages, now I'm going to learn all these extra biblical revelations and I'm going to have all these extra tools in my belt. No, they're worthless. Stick to the fundamentals of the faith, stick to the gospel, stick to the Romans road, don't try to come up with some fancy way to get people saved, don't try to come up with your own new method, no, use the tried and true King James Bible, use the tried and true Romans road, just preach the same gospel, it's the same gospel that's gotten everybody saved, it's got me saved, it gets everybody that I go out preaching the gospel saved. You know what, I'm not saying you can't improve your soul winning, but your gospel should not be radically changing, you should not be radically saying different things, it should still be the death, it should still be the burial, it should be the resurrection of Jesus Christ, it should be faith in his blood, it should just be trusting in him alone, the fact that we're sinners, we can't go to heaven on our own, we need to just believe on Jesus Christ. If you're preaching something radically different every single time you go out, you're in trouble, you shouldn't be trying to prove, oh, the earth is 6,000 years old, oh, dinosaurs and man existed, oh, you know, if there was a painting out in the middle of the forest, there's obviously a painter, so believe on Jesus, that's not, that doesn't make sense to people, people don't, that doesn't have any effect on them because it's man's words, the power comes from God's words, from the gospel, we need to not get tricked and deceived and go off into strange, you know, worldly philosophy and ideas and all this stuff and that's why this guy doesn't even use the Bibles because he's not saved. You want to know why William Lane Craig does not use the Bible to prove why God exists? Because he's not saved, he doesn't understand the Bible, that's why he has to use man's logic, man's reasoning, man's arguments to believe that God exists and all this stupid stuff. We'll go to my second point, go to Mark chapter 16 if you would. My second argument is these Christian apologists, they always seem to evolve their ministries around arguing with atheists. Now this is stupid, we should not spend a majority of our time or really hardly any of our time arguing and debating with atheists. Now if I go and knock on a door and someone tells me they're an atheist, I say the same thing I say to the person that says they're a Christian. Well, if you were to die today, are you a hundred percent sure you go to heaven? Say hey, can I show you? I mean I don't say anything radically different, I'm not trying to prove them, oh, have you heard of kalam, cosmological arguments? Have you heard about the painter out in the forest? Have you heard all these great philosophical reasons why you should, have you gotten a history? Do you understand that most historians believe that Jesus Christ existed? Let me prove to you this from reasoning and logic and science and no, I'm going to preach them the gospel is what I'm going to do. And arguing with atheists is a waste of time, it's not something that a Christian should be spending all his time doing. Look at Mark 16 verse 15, and he said unto them, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Now give me just a second, I'm going to turn there too, let's look at the next verse too because the next verse is important. Doesn't he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. So it says in verse 16 at the very beginning, he that believeth, believeth what? What is it that he's believing? Well go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. So what is the person believing to be saved in verse 16? He's believing the gospel, he's not believing philosophy, he's not believing your stupid argument that you just came up with, he's not believing in some Muslim idea that some Muslim came up with about why God exists. No he's believing the gospel and if we always keep that in our heart, that it's the gospel that saves, then we won't change, then we won't decide to go to something else to try and preach. We need to preach the gospel. What do I need to preach to the atheist? The gospel. I don't need to try and preach them why the Bibles exist or why all these things are true from the Bible. I'm just going to preach them the gospel, that's what they have to believe to be saved. Why would I waste my time preaching them anything else? Go to 1 Timothy chapter 6, the Bible says, the fool hath said in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. The Bible says the person that just admitted that hey there's no God, I don't even believe God exists. This person is a fool, this person is already starting off being very unintelligent, someone that has a lot of foolishness. Now I'm not saying that an atheist can't get saved, I'm not saying that you shouldn't preach the gospel to every creature, you preach the gospel to every creature, but I'm not going to sit here and waste my time with a fool. The Bible says in Proverbs 14 7, go from the presence of a foolish man when thou perceiveth not in him the lips of knowledge. But you know what these Christian apologists do? They get and they have these debates with all these wicked people who hate God that are complete fools. Now I saw a debate aloud, it was a pretty old debate, it was between Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron and these two atheists from, I'm not going to remember the name of their stupid club, but these people were wicked people. They hated Jesus Christ, they had a thing called the blasphemy challenge, they were encouraging people to blaspheme the Holy Ghost on purpose to try and damn their soul to hell. They were so adamant. And they even aired this on television, they're airing people doing this, it's such a wicked idea to be planting in people's heads, just a wicked thought, why in the world would I want to draw attention to that filth, to that garbage? And you know what, they get half the time, so I get to hear half the time these fools give such wicked advice and wicked philosophy. You know the strange thing about it is Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron lost that debate. They lost that debate, it was obvious. I mean they totally didn't use anything from the Bible. They started out the debate, they said well, we'll only debate you if you can't use the Bible. And they said sure. Well you already failed, how in the world are you going to prove anything about the Lord Jesus Christ? He is the Word. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. If you want to talk about the Lord Jesus Christ, you've got to use the Bible, you've got to use His words, otherwise you're using man's words. And they lost that stupid debate because Christian apologetics is stupid. And they're wasting all their time debating with atheists. Look at 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 13. So right there it's saying look, you cannot see, when it's talking about God, you cannot see God the Father. It says in 1 John chapter 4 verse 12, no man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us and His love is perfected in us. John chapter 1 verse 18, no man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared it. According to the Bible, when it uses the word God in these instances, it's talking about God the Father. And it's saying no man has seen God the Father. If they saw His face, they would immediately die. The Bible is saying Jesus Christ though, the expressed image of His person came to this earth and man beheld His glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the Son, full of grace and truth. But the Bible says look, no one's seen the Father. So in order to believe in the Father, it's got to be by faith. You know what? And the atheists, they have no faith. They already admit they have no faith. Look at verse 20, O Timothy, keep thou which are committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called, with some professing of error concerning the faith. Grace be with you. Amen. You need to avoid people that are going to profane the Lord Jesus Christ, that are going to preach vain babblings, speaking things which they know not of. The atheists, all that comes out of their mouth is just babble, it's just vain junk, talking about things they don't understand, oppositions of science falsely so called. I mean they're basically just trying to use all this scientific evidence about why the Bible doesn't exist or why Jesus doesn't exist or justifying all their wicked sin, but we know it's all false. It has no reasoning, it has no logic. So think about this, a person who uses no reasoning, no logic, to try and prove their point. Hey I'm going to use reasoning logic to prove that you're wrong. You're already off on the wrong start. Hey I'm going to preach you faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, that's what the Bible says. Go to 2 Peter chapter 3. You say well what's the, you know why should we not be wasting our time with these atheists? Look, I don't want to hear what they have to say, it's vain junk, the Bible commands me, hey avoid their profane and vain babblings, avoid their oppositions of science falsely so called. It doesn't say hey go and debate with them and have these public debates and give them all this attention and all this recognition, they're a fool. You know most people when you go out and you just knock on doors and you talk to people, they think oh I believe God, I believe there's a God, I believe that you know a God exists, I rarely meet a person that says they're an atheist, it's not that often, it's probably less than 5%. Less than 5% of people even just say that they're an atheist. And many times if you were to pin them down, they probably still wouldn't even really believe that. They're just saying it because they don't like you or they want you to leave or they're just an angry person. Look at 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 1. This second epistle beloved I now write unto you, and both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance, that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior. Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continued as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they are willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water, whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished, but the heavens and the earth, which are now by the same word are kept in store, reserved in fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. The Bible says that these people are willingly ignorant. All the scoffers, all the mockers, why in the world do I want to go and preach to somebody that's willingly ignorant of the truth? This person just says, I know what the truth is, but I don't want to believe it. Why in the world am I going to go and try and preach that person the gospel? You say, hey, do you like enchiladas? No. Will you eat them if I serve them to you? No. Well, let's go get some enchiladas. I mean, it doesn't make any sense. Hey, I already know what the Bible says. I don't want to hear it. I don't want to listen. Hey, move on to the next person. There's a lot of people, there's tons of people, there's millions and billions of people on this earth that will listen to the gospel. Not everyone will get saved, but at least they'll listen. I'm not going to waste my time trying to argue with the people that already said they don't want to hear it. They already said they heard it and they don't believe it. You know, I've talked to atheists, I've preached them the gospel, they said, hey, I get what you're saying. You're saying I'm a sinner, I deserve hell, Jesus Christ died for my sins, if I believe in him I'll go to heaven. You know what? I don't believe that. I get what you're saying. I understand what you're trying to tell me, I don't believe it. Why in the world am I going to sit there and try and use other evidence to try and get that person saved? Look, if they rejected the gospel, that's what's the power to get them saved in the first place. Let's move on to the next person, give them the, let them have a chance. There's a lot of people that don't know the gospel that have never had anybody clearly show them what the gospel is and they would believe it to get saved. Move on. But these Christian apologists, they waste all their time debating with these stupid atheists that hate Jesus Christ, they blaspheme his name, they, many times they're reprobate. I mean, the Bible makes it clear that is not something a Christian should be doing. We should not be going online and just doing all these YouTube online debates with all these stupid heretics and all these, you know, false prophets. No. I'll preach against them. I'll say, hey, get away from that person, but I'm not going to have a public debate with these losers. Let's go to my third point. Go to Matthew 15. My third point though, why Christian apologetics is stupid is because there's so many false Christians. You know, the Christian apologists, he just wants people to become Christian and you know, his term of Christian is not the biblical term of Christian, it's what the world views as Christian. Someone who just kind of likes Jesus. You know, they have their own form of Jesus and they go to a church and they're Christian now. You know what, there's so many false Christians today and Christian apologetics doesn't address that. It's basically just trying to get people to become a form of Christian, a Christian in some way or some shape or some form. It doesn't really matter what specific type of Christian, it's just a Christian. But the problem is if you go through the Bible, that the enemies of the Lord, the enemies of the Christians, oftentimes they're not atheists. Guess what? They're theists. You know, they might even acknowledge who the Lord is. But you know what? They're enemies. They're the people that are persecuting the Christians. They're the people that we should be either getting saved or being warned of or staying away from. Think about Cain and Abel. Now, did Cain know who the Lord was? I mean, do you think Cain was an atheist? Of course not. He literally is talking to the Lord. He's offering sacrifices unto the Lord. But what's his problem? He thinks that by offering his fruits, his vegetables, his works, he's going to be saved. He thinks that it's a works-based righteousness. He's trying to prove himself unto God. He doesn't want to accept the free gift of the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn't want to receive the promise of the Savior coming in the future. He wants to try and earn it. He wants to try and get there on his own. This is what we see most Christians are actually believing. Most Christians are a Cain Christian. They think by their sacrifice, by their willingness to offer unto the Lord, by their righteousness, by their good works, by how good of a person they are, they're going to go to heaven. They're not trusting in the promise of Christ. They're not looking to the cross. They're looking to their fruits and their vegetables. And guess what? They're going to be judged by those fruits and vegetables. You know what? God looks at them. He says they're rotten. They're nothing good on them. I don't like what you offer to me. It's not well pleasing in my sight. We see Cain is not someone that the Christian apologists even goes after. They're just apologizing to all the atheists and the Muslims. They're wasting their time on people that are rejecting the gospel. They're not even trying to get the people that are somewhat receptive. You know, I think honestly, people that are a former Christian are many times the easiest people to get saved. They already believe some level of the gospel. You know, Catholics or, you know, people that go to these non-denominational churches, especially young people, a lot of them, they will get saved. And they're easier people to get saved than a Muslim, than someone that says they're an atheist. Why in the world do I want to focus on the people that are the hardest? Obviously we should preach the gospel to every creature, but if I'm going to focus my efforts, I'm going to focus on the receptive. I'm going to focus on the one that wants to hear the gospel. I'll read for you in 1 John chapter 3, the Bible says, For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who is of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous. We see Cain was an enemy to Abel, why? Not because he was a Christian, because he believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, because these were good, and Cain's were evil. He didn't like that God loved Abel more, that he accepted his sacrifice, that his sacrifice was well pleasing in his sight. Cain didn't like that. And you know what? The same thing happens today. The same thing happens where false Christians, they hate the true Christians, because they see God's blessing on them, because they see them doing good works for God, and it makes their bad works seem even worse. When the light is being shown from all your good works, it makes all the darkness seem even worse. And so they hate. They get a bunch of hatred in their heart and they want to murder their brethren. Hebrews 11 chapter 4 says, By faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts, and by it he being dead, yet speaketh. Abel was not declared righteous because of his goodness, but because of his sacrifice, the fact that it is pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ. His faith, it says by faith, Abel offered unto God. Now we think about the Pharisees, don't we? What about the Pharisees? Were the Pharisees, you know, these atheists, the Pharisees not even think there was a God? No, and before people were even called Christians, you basically just had Jews, and you had Jews that believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you had Jews that didn't. But the Pharisees that did not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, what did they say they believed? Did they say, oh, well, I believe in, you know, the Muslim God? No. They said they believed Moses. They said, hey, we believe in Moses. We believe in the God of Abraham. Abraham's our father. They thought they were worshipping the true God. They were a form of what you would think of Christianity today, back then. Obviously Christianity didn't really exist until Christ, after he died on the cross, was buried and rose again, and people were persecuted for the cause of Christ. But if you think about it, the true religion at that time was of the Jews. The true religion was of Jews, that's what Jesus Christ said to the woman at the well. And we see that the Jews, or the Pharisees at that time, they were not atheists. What were they? They were believing in work salvation. And we see the Christian apologists does not approach this topic at all. They actually many times believe in work salvation, like William Lane Craig. Look at Matthew 15 verse 7. Ye hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, This people draw nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. And he called them multitude, and said unto them, Hear and understand, not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man, but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man. Then came his disciples, and said unto them, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended after they heard the saying? But he answered and said, Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up. Let them alone. They be blind leaders of the blind, and if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into ditch. Now this is what I want to focus on, look at verse 9. But in vain they do worship me. So according to the Bible, you can actually be a false religion to some degree, and still be trying to worship the Lord Jesus Christ. Does it say that they're worshiping, they're trying to worship Bel here? Are they trying to worship the devil? Are they trying to worship a false religion? No. They're trying to worship the Lord Jesus Christ, but they're doing it in vain, because it's not a faith. And the Bible says without faith it's impossible to please them. If you have a belief on the Lord Jesus Christ, if you're not saved, every single one of your works is a dead work, it's not producing any fruit, it's the wages of sin, you can only do good works after you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, through the Lord Jesus Christ, after you've been saved. And it says here they're in vain worshiping him. They are coming out of fain lips. All they'll say is they love the Lord. They say they honor him. I mean if you just listen to what William Lane Craig will say, he says that he honors the Lord Jesus Christ, he says he loves the God of the Bible, he says that he has great honor and respect for Jesus Christ, but it's in vain because he's not saved, he doesn't preach the gospel, he doesn't understand the gospel, he teaches a workspace salvation, the guy's not saved. In vain does he worship him. He is like the Pharisees. He is like the Jews, the unbelieving Jews, and that's what most of these Christian apologists are like. They have to use their other ways to explain the Bible. Why do you think the Jews love the Talmud so much? They don't like the Bible. They love all their writings and all their philosophy and all their reasoning. We see one of the Pharisees and the Sadducees constantly try to do, they use their reasoning and their logic to try and trick Jesus Christ. And what did Jesus do? He just used the Bible to rebuke them. He didn't use his reasoning and his logic, he just used the Bible, he used the Word of God. What did Jesus Christ use to rebuke the devil? The Bible. We need to make sure that we're focused on the Word of God, not on these stupid Christian apologetics. Why? Because there's so many false Christians. And they're really the ones that, you know, are our enemies. We have Korah, Balaam, we have all these people in Jude. The Bible warns about false brethren, it warns about people corrupting the Gospel. The Bible is not a book that's just warning about all these atheists, warning about all these people that have no religion. No, he's constantly warning against false religions and people that have a warped perception of Christianity, a perverted gospel, a perverted form of Christianity, teaching lies, teaching dental heresy, adding to the Gospel, removing from the Gospel, adding to God's Word, removing from God's Word. We see that to try and convert somebody to Christianity is vain. It's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible says to preach the Gospel. You want to cut through all the junk, through all the vain jangling, through all the deception, it's always the Gospel. We always need to stay focused on the Gospel. This is a fundamental Baptist church. We should not think, oh, I already know the Gospel, I need to move on to the cool stuff now. Yeah, I need to learn all the cosmological arguments and I need to be able to prove all the history and all the evidence and all the fossils and all these different writings. Have you seen the shroud of Jesus and the fact that they believe they have the face of Jesus on this shroud from several years ago? Have you seen all these different, you know, old writings? Did Josephus prove that Jesus Christ existed and have you read, you know, there's some famous Jew, Josephus, yeah, Josephus, all these Christian apologists, they love to prove the Bible's true from an unbelieving Jew. They say, hey, this guy didn't believe in Jesus Christ, but he wrote about him, so the Bible's true. What? I mean, if you believe what Josephus wrote, it doesn't mean you're saved. Look, a lot of people convert to Christianity and they're not saved. So if you would to 2 Corinthians chapter 6. So my third point was what? Look, there's a lot of false Christians and the Christian apologists do not address this issue. That's why it's stupid. Probably the biggest issue in the Bible talking about false people is false Christians, false brethren, people perverting the gospel, people preaching another gospel. That's all the warnings in the Bible. He's not warning so much about all these, you know, atheists and all this other junk warning against the Muslims. Look, obviously there's warnings against false religion. Obviously you see worships of Baal. Obviously the Bible explains all manner of situation. We see the Bible explains everything that we see today, but I would say the focus, it's on the Jews perverting the gospel, the Jews perverting, you know, the death, burial, and resurrection, not believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. My fourth point is these Christian apologists, why it's so stupid is they become super ecumenical. They have to become ecumenical to become popular. You say, what does ecumenical mean? It means they want to get popular with everybody. They want everybody to be their friend. They want the Catholic to be their friend. They want the Episcopalian to be their friend. They want the Methodist and the Baptist and the non-denominational and just everybody, anybody that just kind of claims to be Jesus Christ's friend, I'm your friend too. Are you any, oh, you're a Mormon? Nope, doesn't matter. Come on in. Oh, you're Jehovah's Witness? Oh, doesn't matter. Come on in. Church of Science? Doesn't matter. Come on in. Oh, you believe in Bakerism? Come on in. We don't, you know, you don't want a valiant man. Come on in. It doesn't matter to the Christian apologists. He'll bring anybody and everybody to the show. He just wants to get a big crowd so they can hear him debate and argue against his stupid atheist buddy. They go on these traveling tours together, debate his Muslim friend, and he doesn't even use any of the Bible. We see these ecumenical tendencies could even happen to somebody else is saved, someone that does believe the gospel. You know, probably the biggest person I think that this has affected is Kent Hovind with his Creation Science Evangelism. I mean, this guy is super ecumenical. Now it doesn't, I believe that Kent Hovind, you know, he's probably saved. He preaches a lot of things that are right. I like a lot of stuff that he taught over the years. But you know what? This guy has always had the problem of being extremely ecumenical. I mean, he'll preach to any church for any reason, and he won't rebuke anything that they believe. He'll be their buddy. He'll be their friend. He'll sell their book. He'll buy their t-shirt. He'll come and be their best pal, be their best buddy. And even after prison, he's still doing the same junk. In 2015, Kent Hovind went to the Mount Olive Church of Plano. It's a charismatic, non-denominational church that doesn't believe, you know, what we believe. They're not Baptists in any form. These are a bunch of tongue-talking, you know, unsaved Pentecostals, basically. And you know, if you look at their statement of faith, it's, I've never seen a statement of faith like this before, but their statement of faith, it has like eight or nine points. It doesn't mention salvation once. It doesn't even mention salvation. How in the world do you have a statement of faith as a church and you just don't even mention salvation? That tells me a lot about your church. You know what they did mention? They said, we believe that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are still active and operable in some churches today. They want to make sure you understand that they're a bunch of tongue-talkers, that they believe in all the charismatic gifts, but they don't even want to tell you how to get saved. They don't even want to tell you that you can believe on Jesus Christ or anything or repent of your sins or whatever garbage that they believe. We see Ken Hogan will go on there and preach there. He said, was it wrong to go preach in that church? I don't think it is necessarily wrong to go preach in that church, but you know what you should preach? Christ in Him crucified, faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved. You should preach in the Bible and what it says and you rebuke all their false doctrine about the gospel. Hey, I don't have a problem you walking in the Mormon Timer Knuckle and preaching, but you know what you should be preaching? The gospel, the Bible, the Lord Jesus Christ, how to be saved through faith. You know what these apologists do? They go in under the guise of being a Christian and they preach without using the Bible. That's their whole premise. Hey, let me use history and science and reasoning and logic so it doesn't offend anybody and nobody ever gets saved. And you know there's all kinds of people that are atheist or agnostic or they grew up in this weird false religion and they'll hear Ken Hogan's material and they'll say, hey, I guess I'm a Christian now because what he said makes sense or it's right. You know what? They're not saved. They don't actually believe the gospel. They just believe God exists or they believe that the earth is only 6,000 years old or they believe that man and dinosaurs existed, but they're not saved and that's a problem because why? Hey, every single person that believes in a young earth and doesn't believe the gospel is going to hell. How? What does that profit? What does it profit you to know those things are true and to burn in hell for all eternity? It doesn't profit. Even this pastor, Sam Vince Roy, he says he's, he has been prepared, he's been prepared his whole life for the vision of uniting the body of Christ among all nations. His whole life has been about uniting the body of Christ. We see that, I guess that ecumenical spirit just rubs over, doesn't it? We see Christians today. We see the biggest movement today in Christianity is this movement to non-denominationalism towards ecumenicalism. It's accepting anybody and everybody and not wanting to offend anybody. So you know what they moved to instead of preaching the gospel. Now it's about Christian apologetics. Now it's about, hey, let's try and prove the Bible's true with ecumenical reasons. Hey, the Bible's true because of reasoning, because of logic, because of science. We want to use these as evidences. Why? Because it doesn't offend all of these people from all these denominations. It doesn't offend the Catholic when you prove that God exists. It doesn't, you know, reprove the Episcopalian when you say, hey, science proves that the Bible's true. Hey, it doesn't offend all the work salvationists when you use reasoning and logic to prove that the Bible is God's word. It doesn't offend them. But you know what it does? The gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ by faith alone, that's what they need to be preaching. That's what they need to be teaching. I saw a quote that was talking about what the Pope had done recently. It said, Pope Francis has used dramatic words and gestures to show his desire for closer relations with the Islamic world. He has written that authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Quran are opposed to every form of violence. That's a lie. And invited both Muslim and Jewish religious leaders to pray for peace in Vatican gardens. In April 2013, a few weeks before becoming Pope, he famously walked the feet of two Muslims during a Holy Thursday liturgy at a juvenile detention center in Rome. I have another quote from him. He says, the plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator and the first place among whom are the Muslims. These profess to hold the faith of Abraham and together with us, they adore the one mercy of God. Man comes judge on the last day. That sounds like the Pharisees. Hey, they claim they have the faith of Abraham. Oh, they believe in the Creator. I guess they're saved according to the Pope. Wrong. False. And we see the Christian apologists today, they just want everybody to get on this plan. They think we can pretty much defeat atheism. We can defeat it with reasoning and logic. We can defeat it with, you know, all of our science. And once we get everybody to believe that there's a Creator and that it has something loosely to do with the Bible, you know what it's going to do? It's going to prepare people for the Antichrist, for the one world religion where all of them are united together in one ecumenical false religion, worshipping and serving the Antichrist. Look, the Antichrist is not going to come along and say, oh, the whole Bible's false. It's wrong. Bad religion. No, he's going to pervert the Bible. He's going to twist Christianity and he's going to teach that he is Jesus Christ. He's not going to come up with some brand new religion. Look, the Christian apologists, he'd get people on the Antichrist program because it's a form of Christianity to him. He's not preaching the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and that Jesus Christ already came in the flesh. That's what we need to preach. That's why the Christian apologists are stupid. Look at verse 14 where I just turned. Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? For what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God. As God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord. And touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and I will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Look, why in the world am I going to have relationship? Why in the world am I going to yoke up with Catholics, with Episcopalians, with the Methodists, and the Church of Christ, and the Mormons? Look, I'm going to have no fellowship with unbelievers, people that do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as their gospel. I'm not going to go on their church and be their buddy and their pal. Look, I'll go on and preach the gospel anywhere that they'll let me preach the gospel, but guess what? I'm not going to get up and just be best buds with the Catholics. If someone doesn't believe the gospel, if someone doesn't believe right in the Bible, I'm going to make that known. I'm not going to just gallop out around and make it seem like I'm in fellowship with them or I'm yoked up with them. Look, if they're doing something really wrong according to the Bible, it should be known what you believe. Let's go to my last point, let's go to Acts chapter 6. Christian apologists are stupid because they don't suffer godly persecution. Now the Bible says, Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Now when it comes to Christian apologists, you basically have two kinds. You have the guy that the whole world loves, everybody wants to hear him come talk like a William Lane Craig. He's pretty popular, he can pretty much go to Harvard, he can go to Yale, he can go to all these places and get all this adoration, respect. I mean even the atheists and the Muslims that say they don't believe him, they'll still be like, he's his buddy, they'll have dinner, they'll be like best friends. I mean it's like, what in the world? But then there's other Christian apologists where they don't get godly persecution, but they will get persecuted. Who's this? This is the Ray Comforts of the world. They're not going to ever be persecuted for preaching the true gospel. They're never going to be persecuted for living godly. So you know why they get persecuted? Because they're obnoxious, because they're annoying, because they're offensive, because they lie, because they do all kinds of evil and wicked stuff. Why did Ray Comfort lose that debate on the television? Because he just told a bunch of lies and misrepresented all of the atheist positions. So they're just like, this guy's an idiot. This guy doesn't even know what we're saying. He's just a fool and they just make fun of him because of his stupid illustrations with bananas and all kinds of other made-up animals. They put together a duck-billed platypus and like a, like an alligator or something and they made up a new crocodile or something. They made like a crocodile and a duck and put it together and they're like, if atheism or evolution was true, then where's the crocodile? Because if atheism is true, then there has to be a crocodile. And they make this big deal about this stupid made-up animal they made up and the atheists are like, this guy doesn't even understand evolution. This guy's an idiot. This guy's stupid. And they're trying to use man's logic to go against man. It's not going to work. You can't fight fire with fire. Look, you got to use God's word. You got to use the sword. You got to use the power that comes from God, not of man. Look at Acts chapter 6 verse 8. And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people. Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and of them of Sicily and of Asia, disputing with Stephen. And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake. Then they suburned men, which said, we have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God. Now, what happens? He preaches the gospel, he's preaching the power of God, and he gets to a point where they can't even win the argument anymore. They've just completely been destroyed, they've been completely lost. So the only thing left to do is just to kill him, because they just take him out and stone him to death. And they take his life. You know what happens with these Christian apologists? They just keep debating and keep debating and keep debating. Why? Because they can keep destroying their stupid logic and their stupid arguments. They're not preaching the word of God. And look, after you preach the gospel clearly to somebody, they can't argue that they're just going to accept it or reject it. You know who doesn't really like it? The false Christians, the Jews of the day. So what do they have to do? They've tried to murder the Christians. They hate the Christians. They're being persecuted for preaching the gospel. These Christian apologists, they're not being persecuted for anything that they believe. They're being persecuted for either A, being obnoxious, or they're just not persecuted at all. They're loved in the world, which is a proof that they're a false prophet. Look at Acts 13. We're going to see the Jews are the ones that are persecuting the Christians over and over and over. Look at verse 49 of 13. And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region, but the Jews stirred up the devout and honorable women and the chief men of the city and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them out of their coasts. Look at verse 1 of 14. And it came to pass in Iconium that they went both together in the synagogue of the Jews and so spake, that a great multitude of both the Jews and also the Greeks believed, but the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and made their minds evil-affected against the brethren. In Acts chapter 17 verse 13 it says, but when the Jews of Thessalonica acknowledged that the word of the God was preached to Paul of Rhea, they came thither also and stirred up the people. In Acts 21 verse 27 it says, and when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews which were of Asia, when they saw them in the temple, stirred up all the people and laid hands on. Now I think the parallel that we can learn from today is persecution is going to come heavy on the Christians someday. Those that truly believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, this is going to be the worst persecution that we've ever seen in all of humanity. And you know where it's going to come from? It's going to come from the fake Christians. It's going to come from those that have the fake religion, the anti-Christ religion, and all those that think that they're saved, that think they're Christians, they're going to keep on the anti-Christ, and they're going to want to persecute all the real Christians. We see the parallel, look, the Jews, they rejected the Savior, they rejected the Lord Jesus Christ, they thought they had the true religion, they're the ones that are stirring up the people to try and get them killed. It's not the atheists that are going around, it's not the Romans that are persecuting all the Christians all the time, they're getting stirred up by the Jews. The Jews are the ones saying, hey, these guys are liars, these guys are blaspheming, these guys are teaching contrary to the law. You know what, Jesus Christ preaches that there's going to be division. Why would you avoid all this ecumenical garbage trying to get everybody just on Christ's program? Christ said, suppose you that I've come to give peace on earth, I tell you nay, but rather division. I'll just leave this one last verse that says, and for I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Look, Christian apologetics is stupid. You don't even need another point, we're saved by faith. It's not by any other extra biblical revelation. It's stupid to spend all your time arguing with atheists. Try to give them the gospel, if they don't want to hear it, move on. Go to the guy that wants to hear the gospel. Theism is not salvation. Believing that God exists, that'll do us well. You believe there's only one God? You're a monotheist and you're well. That's not salvation. That doesn't mean that you're saved. That doesn't mean that you've believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. That doesn't mean you have eternal life. We should stop trying to get people to be a theist and try to get them to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only that, we should avoid all ecumenical aspects of anything going on with Christianity. Christ brought division. Christ did not come to unite us under the idea that we're all just one creator. And lastly, we should realize that there's going to be persecution to those that truly believe the gospel, that truly go out and preach the word of God. And it's going to be for what they believe, not for being an obnoxious jerk. Not for having a stupid accent and just misrepresenting people's positions and just being a loser. And we need to preach Christ and him crucified. Paul said, look, I'm going to preach Christ and him crucified. He made that clear in multiple different places. We need to make sure to avoid extra biblical revelation and just preach the cross. Let's close in prayer. Thank you Father so much for your word. Thank you so much for dying on the cross and giving us just the power that comes from your word. That it's not by any mind of myself, that it's not by any wisdom that I have, that I can just be made wise by your word. You can make simple the wise. And that I'll just continue to use the tried and true gospel. That I won't just try to come up with my own ideas, my own ways to try and get people saved. No, I'll just use what you've already given me. I'll use the sword that you've given me. And in Jesus' name I pray. Amen.