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Jesus will sing and shout for me While we walk the new and glad way How still the woods spread the sky The floodgates round the plains are open How the shadows shine When we all live together For many are rejoicing at the way When we all see Jesus We'll sing and shout for me To let us stand be true and grateful Trust we serve every day As one lives a living For we will not trust what we've made When we all live together For many are rejoicing at the way When we all see Jesus We'll sing and shout for me We're all blessed now Onward to the Christ Before us Soon and soon We will be whole To the world we gaze We'll open We shall trace To the throne When we all live together For many are rejoicing at the way When we all see Jesus We'll sing and shout for him The sweeter he grows The longer I serve him The sweeter he grows Oh Lord that I love him Your love he restores Each day is like heaven My heart Oh God The longer I serve him The sweeter he grows Every knee is supplying Let his grace be destroyed Every day I think is brighter The longer I serve him The sweeter he grows The longer I serve him The sweeter he grows Oh Lord that I love him Your love he restores Each day is like heaven My heart Oh God The longer I serve him The sweeter he grows Oh they tell me of a home Far beyond the skies Oh they tell me of a home Far away Oh they tell me of a home Where the storm clouds rise Oh they tell me of an unclouded day Oh the land of cloudless day Oh the land of an unclouded day Oh they tell me of a home Where the storm clouds rise Oh they tell me of an unclouded day Oh they tell me of a home Where my friends have gone Oh they tell me of a land far away Far away Where the stream of life In eternal time Sheds its fragrance Through the unclouded day Oh the land of cloudless day Oh the land of an unclouded day Oh they tell me of a home Where the storm clouds rise Good morning everybody and welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. It's great to see everybody here this morning. We can go ahead and find our seats. We will get started. And once you find a seat, grab a hymnal and we will start this morning in song number 432. Angels from the Realms of Glory, song number 432. Song number 432. Everybody sing it out together real loud on the first. Angels from the Realms of Glory, Queen, your fire, all the earth. Ye who sang creation's story, now proclaim Messiah's birth. Come and worship, come and worship. Worship Christ the newborn King. Shepherds in the field abiding, watching o'er your fox by night. God with menace thou residing, yonder shines the end with light. Come and worship, come and worship. Worship Christ the newborn King. Sages, lead your contemplation, brighter visions be by far. Seek the great desire of nations, ye have seen His fatal star. Come and worship, come and worship. Worship Christ the newborn King. Saints before the altar bending, watching long in hope and fear. Sadly, they our Lord descending, and His temple shall appear. Come and worship, come and worship. Worship Christ the newborn King. Great singing everybody, let's open up the service now with a word of prayer. Lord we love you, and we just thank you again for this month. We get to celebrate the birth of your son. For this great church we get to celebrate it in. Lord we just ask that you fill us with your spirit and bless this church and everything we do. And it's in Jesus' name, Amen. Alright for our next song, let's go to song number 433, just a page over. Song number 433, Away in a Manger. Song 433, everybody sing it out together on the first. Away in a manger, no crib for a bed. The little Lord Jesus laid down His sweet head. The stars in the sky looked down where He lay. The little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay. The cattle are lowing, the baby awakes. But little Lord Jesus, no crying He made. I love Thee Lord Jesus, look down from the sky. And stay by my cradle till morning is nigh. Be near me Lord Jesus, I ask Thee to stay. Close by me forever and love me I pray. Bless all the dear children in my tender care. And take us to heaven to live with Thee there. Good morning, thank you for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you did not already get a bullets in, you would like one, just please lift up your hand nice and high. And last Sunday, last Sunday I didn't necessarily have all the prizes to hand out for the soul winning. For the Jonah chapter 2, so just come see me immediately after the service and I'll get you that prize. We are working on Matthew chapter 28 verse number 3. On the inside we have our service and soul winning times. And then also we have the church stats. Please make sure you're turning in any soul winning maps or information to our soul winning captains. On the right we have a list of several expecting ladies as well as a prayer list. And so if you have any additional prayer requests that you'd like, you can email us or you can fill out a communication card and put that in. On the back we have the note about the update because we were going to have a turkey bowl this past Saturday. However, it was raining so much that we decided to shift that. And so we're going to try this Saturday from 9 to 11 and there's the address there. If you have questions, see Brother Marcel and he can help you with that. Also, we are doing a, this is kind of just a one time event, but a cleaning volunteer luncheon. So all of those who have been already cleaning the church, we would like to welcome you to a luncheon. And then additionally, if there's anybody that is interested in just learning about the cleaning and would potentially like to become a new volunteer, you can stick around and we'll have a free luncheon for those December 22nd. It's just immediately following the morning service. And so if you'd like to stick around for that. Then also, my wife had brought some little bags that you can take if you're planning on coming caroling with us tomorrow night. If you could just take a hand, you could take like six, you know, three bags, five bags, whatever is easiest for you. And if you just want to fill them with about six to eight cookies and then just bring them to the caroling. And we're just going to hand them out with the church invite. So we just have a couple church invites and some cookies and we're just going to hand them out when we go caroling. The address for the caroling I posted in our group chat. If you aren't sure you have any questions about the caroling specifically, please just ask me or one of the ushers and we'll try to make sure to get you in there. Probably I'm going to put in the chat kind of like two or three groups as far as who's kind of paired up. So you can have an idea of where you're going to be going and who's going to be leading you in that. Also, December 25th is our Christmas cookie bake off. So this is where we're going to have a competition. And this is the one time our church votes every year. And so if you'd like to vote, you can come to the Christmas cookie bake off. And we usually do best tasting, best decorated. And what's the other one? Most creative. Yeah, thank you. Most creative. So we got a couple different categories there. And honestly, every year it's always been extremely impressive, especially from the creative perspective, what people have been able to create. And so I'm really looking forward to this year. January 1st is a men's preaching night and pizza. We do have an extra. Our bulletin was full this month and so we have an extra special handout. And on one side, we have the congratulations to the Milsteads on the birth of Preston Phillip. He was born on Tuesday, the third at one forty one p.m. Seven pounds, four ounces, nineteen and seven five inches long. And on the back, we have the congratulations to the Smiths on the birth of Peter Johannes. He was born on the fifth at four fifty four a.m. weighing eight pounds, six ounces and twenty point two four inches long. Congratulations to both of them. And there should be potentially some meal train information for that in our group chats and stuff, if you'd like to help bless those two families. That's pretty much all I have as far as announcements are. We're going to go ahead and seeing our in our song booklets, a special him that I had written where the spirit blows, where the spirit blows. So if you can get your song booklets, there's an extra him there that we have where the spirit blows. All right. That was where the spirit blows. As most of you know, on that last go, let's shout it out real loud. Not the first, but the second one where the spirit blows. Singing out very loud on the first. Jesus told me over land and sea, red, black and white. Speed in his side where the spirit blows, we will go, go, go, go where the spirit blows, we will go, yellow and brown to every town. Not just the Jews, let's go and choose where the spirit blows, we will go, go, go, go where the spirit blows, we will go. Father, Spirit, Son, these three are one. Holy Trinity, always with me, where the spirit blows, we will go, go, go, go where the spirit blows, we will go. We by sin fell, sin cries to hell, but he arose, crushing our foes, where the spirit blows, we will go, go, go, go where the spirit blows, we will go. He heals the lame, call on his name, faith the Lord saves, empties the graves, where the spirit blows, we will go, go, go, go where the spirit blows, we will go. Great job everybody. Let's go ahead and open up our Bibles to the book of John chapter 3 as the offering plates are being passed around. That's the book of John chapter 3. John chapter 3 will read the entire chapter. As is our custom, John chapter number 3. Follow along silently starting in verse number 1 where the Bible reads, There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except the man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except the man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born of the spirit. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen, and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judea, and there he tarried with them and baptized. And John also was baptizing in Enon near to Salem, because there was much water there, and they came and were baptized, for John was not yet cast into prison. Then there arose a question between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purifying. And they came unto John, and said unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou barest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come to him. John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven. Ye yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him. He that hath the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth them, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. This my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease. He that cometh from above is above all. He that is of the earth is earthly and speaketh of the earth. He that cometh from heaven is above all. And what he hath seen and heard, that he testifieth, and no man receiveth his testimony. He that hath received his testimony hath sent to his seal that God is true. For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God, for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him. The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Father in heaven, we thank you for this day and for our church. I pray that you fill Pastor Shelley with your spirit now, enable him to preach the sermon you've laid on his heart with boldness and clarity of mind, and help us to apply the message to our lives and serve you better every single day. We love you, and in Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen. I want to look back at verse 3. The Bible says, Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. According to the Bible, the Lord Jesus Christ makes it clear that you can't see the kingdom of God unless something happens. You have to be born again. We're talking about being born again spiritually. That's later discussed in this particular chapter to Nicodemus, and the Lord Jesus Christ explains to him that he has to be born of the Spirit in order to be able to see the kingdom of God. Being born of water is that first birth that we all experience when we were born of our mother, and being born of the Spirit is talking about being saved, where you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you are born again. That is the context of John, chapter number 3. That's where you get the most famous verse in the Bible for God to love the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. So the Bible makes it clear that salvation is by believing in Jesus Christ. Not only is it by believing, it is a one-time event. It's a one-time special event upon which someone changes and they become a child of God, as described in John, chapter number 1. And this is what Jesus Christ is alluding to here in John, chapter number 3, that you have to be born again in order to see the kingdom of God. Now, the kingdom of God is kind of a blanket term for a few different things, but generally speaking, I kind of understand the kingdom of God as just being a part of the spiritual family of God. Now, there is a couple other ways in which this phrase is used because there is going to be a literal kingdom of God where the Lord Jesus Christ rules and reigns from Jerusalem on the earth physically. Now, in order to be a part of that kingdom, though, and that particular event, you have to be a part of the spiritual family of God. And so in many ways, kind of understanding that the kingdom of God just simply means that you're part of the spiritual family of God will help you kind of understand what the Bible is saying in a lot of the different passages that bring up the kingdom of God. There's another phrase mentioned in the Bible, the kingdom of heaven, and there is not a special kingdom of heaven and a special kingdom of God. It's the same thing, okay? Some people try to make these distinct or completely different ideas, and I'm not going to prove that for sake of time, but you can find places where they're used interchangeably, and they're meaning the same thing. So being part of the kingdom of heaven, being a part of the kingdom of God, is that you're part of the spiritual family of God, and how do you get into someone's family? You're born. Just like I'm born into my physical family, I'm born into my spiritual family, and that's how you get into it. But what's unique about this is the Bible is saying you can't even see it. I can see someone's family that I'm not in. I can see your family, and I'm not part of your family. I've never been born into your family, but according to the Bible, there's something special about the spiritual family of God in the sense that only those who are saved, only those who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, can see things that people that are not part of this family cannot see. There's a special sight. There's a special understanding. There's a special revelation to those who have been born again, who have become saved, that the unsaved do not have. Now, I want to prove this a little bit further, and then we're going to elaborate on this. Go to Mark 1. Go to Mark 1. That being born again and becoming a part of the spiritual kingdom of God is something that is limited to those who are saved. It's limited to those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the Bible says in Mark 1, verse 15, and saying, this is Jesus again preaching, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, you can believe the gospel. What is something that's at hand? It's close. It's readily available. Meaning that those people that he's preaching to, they could enter into the kingdom of God right now. It's right there. All they have to do is what? Repent and believe the gospel. So that's actually explaining to you how to be born again. That's explaining to you how to enter into the kingdom of God. Now, the kingdom of God is not just salvation. The kingdom of God is not saying it's only about being saved. Being saved is how you enter into the kingdom of God. That's how you become a part of the kingdom of God is by believing in Jesus Christ. That is your doorway. That is your pathway into the kingdom of God. Additionally, it's the only way for you to see the kingdom of God. If you do not believe, you will not have this. Go to Mark, chapter number 10. Go to Mark, chapter number 10. Of course, the spiritual kingdom of God is something that is complex and there's a lot of different aspects to it. There's a lot of different timelines to the kingdom of God in the sense that when people believed in the Lord Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago, they entered into the spiritual kingdom of God by being saved. But they're not going to be a part of the physical kingdom yet for a long time. That physical kingdom is not about to happen. And sometimes the Jews got confused about what Jesus was talking about. And I want to look at a couple other places in the Bible when we talk about the kingdom of God. Look at Mark, chapter 10, verse 24 specifically. And the disciples are astonished at his words, but Jesus answered again and saith unto them, Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God? So in a particular story where the Lord Jesus Christ is interacting with a young rich ruler, asking what's the good thing that he has to do in order to inherit eternal life, Jesus Christ first asks him, like, why cause thou me good? Then he tells him to keep the commandments. Then the guy goes away sorrowful because he has great riches. And Jesus Christ is explaining to his disciples what's really going on in this particular story. It's not just a surface level understanding. It's explaining that this young rich ruler, this young man, was trusting in his riches to be saved. He was trusting in his money to get him to heaven. And so therefore, because he wasn't willing to give up his money, and he thought that salvation was by works, he went away sorrowful. Number one, because he recognizes he's not good enough. Number two, because he's not saved. And number three, because he's not willing to give up money. Because at the end of the day, if getting saved was based on giving something up, we would all have something that we're not willing to give up. There would all be something that we would all fall short on. There would all be something that we couldn't quite get right. There would always be something that we'd keep stumbling at. Why? Because for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Because there's not adjustment upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. Because salvation is not by works. And the only way to enter into the kingdom of God is by believing in Jesus Christ. But those who are trusting in riches cannot enter into the kingdom of God. They believe, again, that through their works they are going to be saved. Whereas the Bible makes it clear that it doesn't matter what kind of money you have. It's by believing in Jesus Christ that gets you saved. Now, again, a lot of people do think and they believe that their works are going to save them. They think because they give money to their church, because they work really hard, because they're not a criminal, that they are going to be saved. But the Bible makes it abundantly clear it's not by being good, it's not by working hard, it's not by making money, it's not by giving money, it's by believing in Jesus Christ that's what saves you. And that's how you notice, specifically, in here, in verse 25, enter into the kingdom of God. You cannot enter another way. Verse 25 says this, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. Why is it so hard for rich people to enter the kingdom of God? It's not talking about it being physically hard. It's about the sense that many rich people are very prideful. And they've worked very hard in their lives to achieve everything that they have. And so it's very difficult for them to accept a free gift. They don't want things that are free. I mean, think about it this way. How likely is a rich person to go to some shelter somewhere that's handing out free soup to get in line to have lunch? I mean, is there anything wrong with getting a free lunch? Technically, no. But at the same time, the rich guy's not going to go down there. He's going to go somewhere where he can buy something expensive, have something catered, have something served. He wants to not necessarily stand in line, be with all the poor people, go and humbly accept a free meal. He's very unlikely to do such a thing. And in the same way, rich people are very unlikely to recognize they're a sinful person in need of a Savior. When Donald Trump has been asked questions about, have you ever asked for forgiveness, or questions about Christianity, he says, like, well, I'd ask for it if I needed it. Yeah, Donald Trump's not sinful. Donald Trump doesn't have any issues, right? He hasn't committed any kind of sins of adultery, owning casinos. I'm sure that that's just on the surface. I'm sure he's never lied before. I'm sure he's never stolen. I'm sure he's never said anything dumb. I'm sure he's never had a foolish thought. I mean, what kind of a preposterous idea of, well, if I needed to ask forgiveness, I would do it. Of course you need to ask for forgiveness. But because he's a rich man, because he has people catering to him and serving him constantly, it's going to be very hard for someone like him to get saved. Now, that doesn't mean that we shouldn't still preach the gospel to those people. It doesn't mean that we don't go to the rich neighborhoods occasionally and give the gospel out. But you and I both know that when we go out preaching the gospel, if we knock on a rich man's door, he is way less likely to want to hear what you have to say. And it's very sad. And so we understand that the entrance into the kingdom of God is through believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. Go to Luke chapter 17. Go to Luke chapter number 17. And rich people can't see the kingdom of God when they're not saved. No one can see the kingdom of God if they're not saved. We see the kingdom of God through spiritual eyes, and those spiritual eyes are only enlightened and opened once you've gotten saved, once you've humbled yourself and entered into the kingdom of God through faith in Jesus Christ. There's no way to enter other than faith. You cannot enter through repenting of your sins, through baptism, through catechism, through some special work. It is only by trusting in the finished work of Jesus Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. Now Luke chapter 17 verse 20 says, And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, When the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation. Neither shall they say, Lo here, or lo there, for behold, the kingdom of God is within you. So in a sense, the Lord Jesus Christ is going around saying that the kingdom of God is at hand, and I repeat, he didn't believe the gospel. What he was not alluding to is that Jesus Christ was about to start ruling and reigning physically in Jerusalem and setting up a physical kingdom. What he was trying to describe to people was the spiritual kingdom of God that does exist in the hearts of the saved. Why? Because they are the spiritual family of God. It doesn't come with something that you can see. When I preach the gospel and I pray with someone and they get saved, there's nothing that my eyes can see that's different about this person. When I first knocked on their door and they weren't saved, and then after I walk away and they are saved, they look the same. They look 15 minutes older, whatever that is. But they don't look any physically different. I can't see the kingdom of God. There's nothing really there to see carnally. There's nothing there to see with my eyes. What I can see, though, is the fact that when they testify of what they believe, that that's different. What I know is different is I first asked them what they have to do to be saved, and they said be a good person. And now they're saying, putting their faith in Jesus Christ. And so there's a spiritual change. Inwardly, something has changed. And now they are capable of seeing the kingdom of God. Whereas before, they could not understand the kingdom of God, they could not see the kingdom of God. It was just not a part of their life whatsoever. So I want to go to some different places of the Bible to actually explain this now. Go to 1 Corinthians 2. So we've kind of set up a foundation. We kind of see a few different mentions. Again, other passages. If we go through the New Testament, if we go through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we'll see different mentions of the kingdom of God in the context of the Lord Jesus Christ literally ruling and reigning from Jerusalem in the millennial reign. And so, yes, the kingdom of God can have a few different meanings. But think about it. Who is going to be at that thousand year millennial reign? The saved. The spiritual family of God. Only those who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ are going to be there, and they're going to be with Him. And so sometimes when Jesus Christ is alluding to that timeline, He's just still, again, alluding to the spiritual family of God. And of course, the kingdom of God is something that's going to happen physically as well. Not only is it a spiritual manifestation of those who are saved, but it's also going to have a physical manifestation. But what's going to be different, again, is how all Israel shall be saved. As it says in Romans 11, famously. And what does that mean? That the physical nation of Israel is going to be 100% the saved nation of Israel. It's going to be a one for one, and that is the kingdom of God. And only the saved are allowed to even enter into that physical area of the kingdom. He's not letting unsaved people come into that kingdom, enter into the city, enter into the gates. Only the saved are going to be able to go into that particular kingdom and have entrance into that kingdom. So it's almost like a physical manifestation of what salvation is like, where only those who are spiritually saved get to enter into a spiritual kingdom, in the same way that those who are spiritually saved are only the ones who get to enter into a physical kingdom, when we talk about the millennial reign of Jesus Christ. But one thing is really clear, they cannot see it. So what does the Bible then teach? What are some conclusions that we can draw? What are some other passages that bring up this concept? Well, number one is the fact that people who are not saved, people who have not believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, they haven't trusted him as their savior, they cannot see the kingdom of God in the sense that they can't understand the Bible. Now, I want to be careful when I say this. They can understand the carnal truths of the Bible. What they can't understand is the kingdom of God in the Bible. They can't understand the spiritual aspects of the Bible. They can't understand the spiritual family part of the Bible. Because there's plenty of wisdom in the Bible that is just on the surface carnal understanding, carnal wisdom, because God gives us just limitless carnal truths in the Bible. And yes, the carnal man can understand the carnal truths of the Bible. The importance of having a godly wife, the importance of having children obey their parents, the importance of working hard, the importance of not being lazy, the importance of not breaking the law. The law is carnal truth, and man can understand, hey, I shouldn't steal, I shouldn't lie. In fact, the law is written on our hearts. So the unsaved can understand these things if they read the Bible. But what they can't understand is the spiritual layer that is attached to all of these carnal truths. They cannot understand the true meaning and the true spirit of the Bible. It goes over their head. It does not click. It doesn't make sense to them. Just like a child often cannot understand adult things, it kind of goes over their head. In the same way, unsaved people, things just go over their head. Now, 1 Corinthians 2 explains this. Look at verse 7. Notice this phrase, the hidden wisdom. What is the hidden wisdom? It is the things in the Bible that we understand only because we're saved and only because we're spiritual. It's right there. It's something that they can read the words on the page, but for some reason it's hidden to them. They just somehow can't see it at the same time. It's like we have special glasses on or something where the Bible shows to us information that the unsaved can't see. It says in verse 8, Here's another thing. When Peter saw Jesus, who did he see? He saw the Son of God. He saw the Messiah. He saw God manifest in the flesh. Who did the Jews see? A malefactor. Who did Pilate see? Just some guy. He doesn't know that this is the Son of God. Because if he knew it was the Son of God, he would have never crucified him. He would have never allowed him to go through that punishment. So we're all looking at Jesus, and they were all looking at Jesus in the exact same way. He didn't look different physically to them. Only at the Mount Transfiguration did you really have a physical distinction between who Jesus was and another person. But for the most part of his ministry, they're all looking at the exact same thing. But what is it about Jesus that's different than their understanding of who Jesus is? So in the same way, when we read verses in the Bible, we're all reading the exact same words in the same text, but it has completely different meanings to us. We'll read a verse that says salvation is by faith, and you know what we think that that means? That it's by faith. You know what we'll think that that means? It means to believe in Jesus. You know what we think that means? Confidence and trust in Jesus Christ. You know what unsaved people will see when they see the word faith? Works. And look, it'll blow your mind. If you go so inconsistently, it'll blow your mind how you'll read verses to people, and then they just completely say something opposite of what the text just said. I mean, I can't even count how many times, especially even in foreign mission fields, it's crazy. I would read John 3.16 to people and say, now what did that say you have to do to be saved? And they say, go to church. And I'm just thinking like, wow, I mean, really? They say repent of your sins because it just doesn't make sense to them. Or when they see the word faith, because they've listened to a false prophet teach them over and over that that means works, they have a twisted idea of what faith means. They think that faith means following the commandments. They literally believe that. They literally see that when they see the word faith that's substituted in their mind. And I kind of had wondered about this for a long time because when we're born, someone just points to us a color. Like, you know, we just look at the Texas flag. Someone just points to us and says, this is red. And someone just says, this is blue. But I always wondered, like, if this is actually was this was actually blue and someone just called it red. Would I ever know? I mean, think about it. This is going to blow your mind for a second. But think about this. If blue and red, if people had taught you that they were different colors and everybody else went along with that, would you know any different? You would have no idea because you just really have no idea. So when you come to a word like faith and you're a young person and no one's ever explained to you what this word means, and you go to a church and they just teach you the word faith means do works, then you could just have your mind rotten and just completely confused and think it literally means works. And until you actually read the Bible and compare all the places that faith is used and all the places that believers use, you don't realize what a contradiction it would mean to say that faith means works. But there's plenty of passages in the Bible like Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, like Romans, when it talks about if it be by grace, then it is no more works, where faith cannot mean works, otherwise the Bible is just a complete book of nonsense and filled with contradictions. But the Bible's not. It's a cohesive narrative, and the word faith really means faith. It really means believe. But to the unsaved mind, they can think all kinds of weird things about the word believe. You talk to a Mormon, you say, I believe in Jesus. They'll say, I believe in Jesus. But it's completely different. Their Jesus is a created being. Their Jesus is brothers with Satan. Their Jesus is not God manifest in the flesh, but was rather someone who became a god and is an example unto us how we can become gods. This is not the same Jesus. And so we have to understand that the unsaved person can look at these verses and see these words, but in many cases it just goes over their head. They have different definitions for words. They don't understand what they're saying. That's why when you go out soul winning, sometimes it's important to use examples, stories, use different kinds of explanations to understand if this person believes the same thing as you. Because many people say, I believe in Jesus. But what does that mean to them? What do they actually understand by that? And it's often very different because the unsaved cannot see the kingdom of God. They can't make sense of the wisdom, the hidden wisdom of the Bible. Now it says in verse 9, but as it is written, I have not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered in the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that love him, but God has revealed them unto us by his spirit. Did you notice what the Bible said? It says, I has not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered in the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that love him, but God hath revealed them unto us by his spirit. Meaning what? People that are not saved have not seen, have not heard nor understood the things of God, but we have understood them. We have received them. They honestly have no idea what it means to be saved, what heaven is going to be like, what hell is going to be like, because if they understood these things, they would believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. If they understood these concepts in the way that they are supposed to be understood, what the Bible is really teaching, well, then they would believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. They would accept the love of God. In fact, many unsaved people think that God is not loving because hell exists. Many unsaved people criticize God for the fact that hell exists or the fact that pain exists. And, you know, for me, it's really kind of a silly argument. And I've heard atheists and unsaved people constantly repeat this idea of, well, I don't think that God exists. I don't think hell exists because of all the suffering in the world. And I was thinking about this and kind of meditating upon this concept for a minute. And in some ways what they're trying to argue is that they think it's just unfair. And that's kind of like one of their ideas. But in another way, they're trying to say, well, I think if God did exist, then there wouldn't be suffering. But the reality is, if we think about it, God could be whoever he wants. Like, there's nothing saying that the God of the Bible has to be the God of the Bible. There could be a bad God or there could be a negative God. But if he even existed, okay, even if there was a God that you didn't think was as fair, which I'm not saying that of God because God truly is fair, just holy and righteous and it's great, but even if he was a, quote, mean God or something like that, then you would still want to do what he said. Right? I mean, think about it this way. What if in the Bible he said you have to actually go to this church to be saved? Wouldn't we still, a lot of us, try to do that? I mean, I'm not saying that that's what the Bible teaches because it doesn't. I'm just saying, if there was a verse that said, hey, you have to move to America to go to heaven, it'd be like, I'm moving to America. You know what I mean? Like, whatever it was, if the God of the Bible was the God of Islam, Allah, and he says you have to blow yourself up to go to heaven, give me some explosives. You know what I mean? Like, I'm just saying, like, if I have to do that, then I would do that. But this is what's funny to me. They say hell doesn't exist because suffering exists in the world. And I'm thinking, like, wait a minute. You're admitting that there's suffering. So no matter what, if you believe that there's a God in any context, in any way, you recognize that suffering exists. So then why would that be proof that there won't be more suffering later? I mean, did you think about that? Did you think about the fact that, hey, I know you're suffering, I know that there's suffering on the earth, I know that there's bad things, so how would that prove that there couldn't be more suffering in the future? In fact, you know what that does prove? It proves that suffering exists. You know what that does prove? That suffering's not fun. And let me explain something. It's because God created suffering. And you think that the earth is hell, you have never been to hell. Hell's suffering is way worse than the suffering you'd ever experience on this earth. And the reality is that should motivate you to actually believe on the Lord Jesus Christ if you've ever experienced pain in your life. Why is it that the Bible says that the rod and reproof is going to give wisdom? Why is it that if thou shalt beatest him with the rod, he shall not die, but thou shalt deliver his soul from hell? Why? Because pain teaches there's a consequence, and the biggest consequence ever is hell. And that's why we punish our children, that's why physical suffering exists. It's to warn you about the real physical suffering, about the real pain that no one wants to experience, which is hell. And honestly, you know why I got saved? Because hell exists. That's why. I mean, you know what really motivated me as a young child? Thinking I could die at any moment, and I could go to hell. Let me explain something to you. I didn't want to go to hell. I still don't want to go to hell, and praise God, I never will go to hell because of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for me. But you know what? We need more preachers to preach about hell and to preach about the consequence of not believing on the Lord Jesus Christ because they're going to die and go to hell. And let me explain something to you. The unsaved cannot see hell. And you know what? You and I can't physically see it, but we can see it through the Scripture, we can see it through what God's Word says, and we need to go out there and warn people about hell. Because you know what? If we don't warn people about hell, they're going to go there. I don't know. Why do I have to care? You don't have to care. But man, you are not a loving person. And you must not really believe much about hell because when you realize it's constant suffering, constant torment, constant pain, there's no rest day or night, there's no escape, there's no water, they can't see anything, they're in just perpetual outer darkness, there's weeping and gnashing of teeth, constant regret, they're going to have to stand before God one more time and they're going to have to give account for all of their sins, they're going to stand at the judgment seat of the great white throne judgment, I'm sorry, of God the Father, and they're going to have to be judged according to their works. The books are going to be open and they're going to be judged according to their works, and they're going to be found guilty, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burned with fire and brimstone. The Bible makes it abundantly clear that God is going to have to wipe away our tears from our eyes after this. Why do you think that is? It's because we are crying for all the people going to hell that you didn't warn about going to hell. And let me explain something the unsaved can't see. Can you imagine what it would be like if we lived in a world where there's this giant hole that people are just falling in this pit and dying every single second and you can see it and everybody else is blind just walking into it constantly. What kind of an evil person just watches people just constantly walk into this giant hole and kill themselves and you don't say anything? You don't say, hey, there's a hole over there. Yeah, I can't see it. Yeah, I know. Let me help you. Let me explain to you how to avoid this giant pit, this giant hole that goes straight into hell and where you die and where your worm never dies and where the fire is not quenched. You know, we need to warn people about hell. Because if you don't, you know who is not going to warn them about hell? Everyone else. In fact, many churches today won't even warn about hell. They just say, well, if you don't get saved, you'll be separated from God. What does that even mean? I mean, the Bible tells us about the Lord Jesus Christ that you're going to be in the presence of the Lamb and the holy angels when you're in hell. And the Bible says that the wrath of God specifically is what kindles hell. The Bible says if I dig down into hell, behold, thou art there. So what is this separation you keep talking about? I mean, OK, maybe I'm separated from His goodness. Maybe I'm separated from the light. Maybe I'm separated in the sense that I'm blind and I can't see. But you know what? God is everywhere, according to the Bible. What a weird way to explain hell. Of all the things in hell, I mean, can you imagine interviewing somebody in hell and saying, like, if you were to describe to somebody the worst things about hell, what do you think is the worst? I'm separated from God, man. It's not that I'm on constant pain and suffering and torment and on fire. I mean, what is the rich guy that goes to hell? What is he complaining about? I'm just so sad I'm not hanging out with God right now. Or is he wanting some water? Or is he just hoping for a drop of water to cool his tongue? Or is he in constant torment and constant suffering? What do you think the weeping and gnashing of teeth is for? And the outer darkness? I mean, this place is evil. This place is horrible. And the people that are not saved can't see it. You have to tell them. You have to explain it to them. You have to give them this understanding of what hell is like. In fact, many Bibles today will take the word hell out of their Bible. Sheol, Hades, Gehenna. What does that even mean? It doesn't have the same power. It doesn't have the same emphasis to an English-speaking person when you use words like this. Look, if you are in Greece and you're reading a Greek New Testament and you want to use a Greek word to explain to them and communicate to them what the Bible says, go for it. But why in the world would I do such a thing to somebody in English? Why would I do something to somebody in America? I mean, it doesn't have the same ring. Obviously, there's a lot of Spanish-speaking people. But if I go to English-speaking people in this world and say, like, you don't want to go to Infierno. They're like, Inferno? What are you talking about? Is this like a Mexican restaurant? They might not even know what you're saying. It doesn't have the same ring. It doesn't have the same emphasis as hell. It's hell fire. You know what? We can see hell through spiritual eyes. We can see hell on all kinds of places in the Bible. When we see Joseph thrown into the pit, when we see Jonah thrown into the whale's belly, out of the belly of hell, cry die is what Jonah says. So many people don't want to talk about that because it emphasizes the fact that Jesus went to hell, so they don't want to bring it up. The fact that Jesus Christ says that, for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. They don't want to bring that up. They don't want to bring up Acts 2.31 where the Lord Jesus Christ is basically saying that the only thing that gave his flesh hope and rest was the fact that his soul would not be left in hell. I mean, they're just not emphasizing hell. They're not emphasizing eternal, everlasting destruction. They're not emphasizing the fact that most people are going there. And so so many people are just dying going to hell because nobody will warn them. But we can see it, we can understand it, we know it, so we ought to be the people to open our mouths boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel and get people saved. You know what motivates me to preach the gospel? Hell. That's what motivates me. I mean, there's other things that are good. Obviously it's nice to be right with God and then be pleased with you. Yeah, it's nice to get rewards in heaven. Yeah, it's nice to even sometimes just have fellowship with the brethren and hang out. Sometimes it's just fun. It's just kind of fun hanging out with people. It's kind of nice. But you know what? All of that is not nearly as motivating. It's just the fact that these people are going to literally burn in hell for all of eternity. And I just can't fathom hating people so much that you would never warn them about hell. It means that you need to start seeing a little bit more clearly. You need to be looking at the right things here. And God's revealed these things unto us. Look at verse 10 again. For the Spirit surges all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God, which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. So what the Bible says is when we want to understand the Bible, we don't go to man's wisdom, man's vocabulary, man's understanding. We just compare a spiritual thing with something that's spiritual. What's something spiritual? The word of God. So then what are we comparing it that's spiritual with? The word of God. We compare verses with verses. And that's how we understand the Bible. Nothing else. If you want to understand the Bible, you compare the Bible with the Bible. And it's like its own self-ruler. It's its own self-check. It's its own balancing system. Because if we were to rely on anything else, everything else is corrupt, everything else is inferior, everything else is not perfect, and so it causes problems. But because the Bible's perfect, it can point to itself. Just like the Father gives witness to the Son, the Son gives witness to the Father, they give witness to the Spirit, the Spirit gives witness to them. So we have a perfect system of witnesses where they can all testify one of another and the word of God testifies of itself. Genesis testifies of the New Testament, the New Testament testifies of Genesis, and all over the place so that we know this is the word of God and we can understand these things because they're locked in time. They're locked into the word of God, they're locked into the Scripture. But the unsaved can't do this, they can't understand, they use man's wisdom to teach things. Genesis verse 14, But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. So the unsaved can't understand this, and so when the unsaved looks at the Bible, yes, they can see the words, yes, they speak English, yes, they can look all these words up in a dictionary, yes, they can derive carnal truths and carnal understanding of the Bible, but they really can't understand it from a spiritual perspective. So what they end up doing is they end up running to a commentary. There's so many people running to a commentary today, why? Because they can't understand the Bible. So instead of comparing spiritual with spiritual, they go and ask some carnal person, they ask some unsaved mind, well, what did St. Augustine believe about this passage? What did Origen believe about this passage? What did St. so-and-so believe about this passage? What did John Calvin teach about this passage? What did Matthew Henry teach about this passage? And they go run to these commentaries that are just filled with man's wisdom, man's understanding, so they can think that they understand the Bible, and they still don't understand it. Why? Because the only understanding comes from comparing spiritual to spiritual. Not only that, they can't understand this King James Bible, so you know what they do? They get an NIV. They get one of these modern versions which is really like a modern paraphrase. And what you'll understand is when you come to a passage that's a little bit difficult to understand, or it could be interpreted a couple different ways ambiguously, what these modern versions will do, the NIV, is they just pick whichever one they thought was right. They'll just kind of pick a phrase or they'll pick a particular understanding or wording because they have to understand it and they need it broken down to them in some simplistic way to try and understand it. But yet they end up not understanding it. It still goes over their head. We don't want the NIV understanding of the Bible. We don't want some kind of a paraphrase. We don't want the message. And you know what? We don't want a commentary to understand the Bible. We want to use spiritual with spiritual. That is how we understand the Bible. You'll notice something about steadfast preaching that I'm not bringing up a lot of commentaries. And when I do, it's usually in a negative sense. I'm not bringing up a lot of what the NIV says. We're using the King James by itself and we can understand what the King James is saying. Now does that mean that we all understand every single word in every single place? No. We'll study the Bible our entire lifetime and we'll never understand everything. But we can understand a lot of things in the Bible and we can get a lot of wisdom. And the only thing that's keeping us from that is that we're still carnal and we're still flesh and we don't always fully walk in the Spirit and we're not always fully led of the Lord Jesus Christ and we don't study enough and we don't read enough and we haven't had enough time. Plus we're not God. So we're not going to understand everything in this infinite wisdom. But we can still understand a lot of things. And we understand them through spiritual eyes that were given to us when we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now why do they use these commentaries? Well, again, because they can't understand. And the Bible says that they use man's wisdom. It says the words which man's wisdom teacheth. What are words that man's wisdom teacheth? Theology. Systematic theology. Practical theology. I heard this one. Exegetical theology. You have to understand the exegesis and the eisegesis of this passage. Or they use terms like Calvinism or Arminianism, which both are wrong. It's so funny. It's like, well, it's either Calvinism or Arminianism. It's like where they say it's either Democrat or Republican. It's like, no. They're both wrong. Now, there's some truth in both of them, but they're both mixed with a lot of error. And even within Calvinism, when they try to get really sophisticated and try to pontificate in front of you, people like James White, they'll start talking about the inner workings of Calvinism. They'll be like, oh, are we talking about superlapsarianism or supla-lapsarianism? And you're like, this is not the words which God's teaching. This is the words which man's wisdom teaches. And they'll try to explain to you divine simplicity or prolegomena. What are you even talking about? It's like this is the foundation for understanding, eschatology. It's just end times. They try to use these fancy words, all this fancy theology, fancy wording, all the church fathers. But you know what? They don't actually understand the Bible still. Don't let people fool you into thinking that if they understood the words that I said here and you don't, that they're smarter than you. Because many times it's an unsaved person, and guess what? They haven't even understood the first line yet. They haven't even understood how to get saved yet. They're like a Nicodemus where Jesus is kind of saying, art thou a master of Israel and know it's not these things? How can you not understand salvation and you've studied the Bible this much? You've studied this so much. But they didn't really study the Bible. They studied man's wisdom. They studied theology. They studied commentaries. They studied the paraphrases. And the paraphrases were wrong. The commentaries were wrong. The systematic theology was wrong. Sorry. You're studying things that are flawed and error-prone and filled with carnal, unsaved minds. You need to get the wisdom that comes from God, the hidden wisdom from comparing spiritual with spiritual. And if you want to grow in the Lord, put the commentary down and read your Bible. Hey, you want to know what hell's like? Don't go look on some YouTube video. Read the Bible. You want to understand what it's like to get someone saved? Read the Bible. You want to know why there's family problems in this world? Read the Bible. You want to know why this world's so dark? Read the Bible. You want to know what politicians are really like? Read the Bible. You want to know why there's so many false prophets in this world? Read the Bible. You want to understand heaven and hell and the end times? Read the Bible. Instead of getting a stupid pre-trib chart that's wrong. Now look, I'm not against charts. I'm not against extra accoutrements to the things of God to help us understand. But you know what? I've made a few charts. And you'll notice when you look at the chart, it's like here's this verse and this verse and this verse and this verse and this verse. You go look them up. That's what a chart should look like if you're even going to use one. But you know what? Let us compare spiritual with spiritual. And what you'll notice about a pre-trib chart is there's not a single verse on that chart that shows you that there's a pre-trib rapture. It actually says after the tribulation consistently in the Bible, which has got to be just a dagger into their heart. I'll tell you what. Go to 1 John 4. Go to 1 John 4. Let me say something. Unsaved people don't understand the Bible. Quit asking them what they think. Quit caring. Quit telling me about church fathers so and so. Because many of them are in hell right now. And I guarantee they don't want me to hear what they have to say. Even the rich man was like hoping people wouldn't go to hell. He was hoping his brethren wouldn't go there. He'd be like, man, what an idiot I was. What a fool I was. I didn't understand. They're probably still not sure what's going on. 1 John 4, look at verse 1. Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God, because many false prophets are gone in the world. The Bible just basically says most people that are preaching are just not saved. Most preachers are unsaved. Most pastors are unsaved. Most churches are bad. Don't ask them what they think about the Bible. Test them. Try them. Know them. Verse 2, hereby know you the spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is that spirit of antichrist. Where have you heard that it should come, and even now already is it in the world? You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. Therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are of God. He that knoweth God heareth us. He that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. The Bible says that saved people have a spirit of truth, and people that are unsaved have a spirit of error. Why? Because they cannot see the kingdom of God. And so those who are saved are going to like what we have to say, and those who are unsaved are not going to like what we have to say. And the unsaved people are going to attract more unsaved people, and the saved person is going to attract more saved people. So you know often you can know the tree bites fruit. Boy, when you are in a church and everybody virtually in that church isn't saved, that is a scary place to be in. That is not a preacher or pastor you probably want to listen to. You want to go to a church where the vast majority of the congregation is saved, and the only people that aren't are young children and Judases, because we don't know that you are a Judas yet. It is hard to catch those people. Go to 2 Corinthians 3. But you know what? You should go to a church where the whole congregation has a King James Bible in their lap. You should go to a church where everybody is saved. Whereas there are a lot of saved people. Go into a church this morning where it is a mixed Bible club. I mean they all have their own different Bible version. Why? Because many of them cannot see the kingdom of God. Many of them are not saved, so they cannot understand the King James Bible. They are begging for some mom and pop store Bible that is just a paraphrase that is going to just basically make things plain to them, but they still won't even understand it. I could read all kinds of books that aren't the Bible and understand them. That doesn't help me. And I could take the Bible and water it down and paraphrase it and change it to all kinds of stuff that you can understand. Red fish, two fish, blue fish, red fish, green fish, eggs and ham. I mean how does that even make sense anyways? I don't know. But the carnal mind thinks that they can understand the NIV, but it is still confusing anyways. But at the end of the day, why are they even using it? Because they don't understand the King James because they are not saved. But you know, this is what is even funnier to me. Go find someone that reads the NIV consistently and ask them and they will say, oh the Bible is really confusing, it is hard to be understood. They still won't even tell you, yeah I got the NIV, I understand everything now. I mean you would think if the NIV is just so great, then wouldn't the people that get it be like, yeah I understand everything. They still would admit, I don't know anything. It is still super difficult. It is still confusing. Why? Because the NIV didn't make it easier, it made it even more confusing. But in their mind, because they got to a particular passage that they couldn't understand, and the NIV spoon fed them a lie that was easier to understand, they thought, oh this is easier. But they didn't realize that there is plenty of places where it is more confusing and in fact it is just wrong. And we have to understand that the unsaved cannot understand the Bible. So what is the conclusion of this talking point that I am making? Because point one was this, they are going to use commentaries and paraphrases, but here is the reality, we shouldn't argue with unsaved people about Bible doctrine. You are not unsaved. So you don't have to worry about not understanding the Bible. You have the capability of understanding the Bible. You still have to put the work, the effort, you still have to pray, you still have to compare spiritual to spiritual. So what do you need to do? Get rid of the commentary, get rid of the paraphrases, use the King James Bible. But when you are talking to someone that is not saved, don't get caught up trying to explain to them the Kingdom of God. Don't get caught up trying to explain to them all the deep things of God. Don't get caught up trying to explain to them anything other than the entrance into the Kingdom of God. I am not going to explain to you what is going on inside the Kingdom until you come inside. In fact, I would say it this way. Words don't do it justice. I can't even explain what it looks like inside the building. Why don't you just walk into the building with me and you can see it for yourself? Because you will never really understand what it looks like inside the building until you just walk in and I know where the door is. I know how to open the door and I can help you even walk in. I will hold your hand while we walk in together. Okay, because I know where it is. I got a key. I know how to put the key in the lock. I know how to open it. I know how to open the door and I can get you in there, but it doesn't count if I pick you up and throw you. So you have to walk yourself. That's basically as close as where we're going to get you. I can drive you to the door. I can get you real close, but you just have to decide to just walk in. But again, most of us, we get a little bit of pride, I think, all of us, and we want to diss on people that are not saved or trump them or prove that they're wrong or explain how things don't make sense. You're dunking on a kid at this point. You're dunking on a blind kid, not even just a kid. It's a blind kid. Can you imagine a cringe video? Like somebody's out there playing basketball and they just dunk on a blind kid. You'd be like, whoa, that was weird. That was cringey. I hope that was done as a joke and not seriously. In the same way, it's like dunking on unsaved people isn't necessarily making that much sense. Now, Jesus did this, and some of the apostles and prophets did this, in a public setting with really prideful people to make an example to warn people. So yeah, is there a time and a place to have a debate and have a public forum and dunk on a few of these people occasionally? Yeah. But at the end of the day, that shouldn't be these private, one-on-one conversations. We shouldn't be going around arguing with people. Your family members, friends, people at the door, hey, we want to talk about the inner workings of the Bible, get saved first. And we should focus on preaching them the gospel because they won't understand. In fact, if someone's not King James only, I take it a step further. I typically won't even argue that point either, even if they're saved. I'll first be like, you have to get the King James Bible before we're going to have a conversation about doctrine because every time I show you how you're wrong, you're going to say, well, that's not what my Bible says. And I just don't want to have that conversation 50 times. Let's just have that conversation now. Let me explain to you why your Bible's wrong. Then I can explain to you what's in the King James Bible. So there's kind of layers. First, salvation. Second, which Bible? Now I can explain to you what the Bible says. Before that, it's usually just a waste of time unless you're going to expose a Pharisee to the public and try to get people saved. Here's point number two, though, is since they're not saved, you'll notice something really obvious to us is they don't evangelize. Have you ever noticed that? The unsaved, not only do they run to commentaries and paraphrases to understand the Bible, they're not evangelists. When's the last time you had a Catholic knock on your door and explained you had to go to heaven? I mean, wouldn't you think Catholics believe in hell? I mean, I don't know. I mean, some of them do, I think. Some of them believe all kinds of weird stuff. I get that, too. But I'm just saying in general, if you're some variation of Christian, don't they all in theory kind of believe in hell apart from the universalist crowd? And it's like, yet they never seem to knock on my door. It's not just the Catholics, folks. You know who also doesn't knock on my door? Calvinists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Episcopalians, the nom, the nom. I mean, Gateway is the biggest church in America. Wouldn't you think if anybody was going to knock on your door, there'd be somebody from Gateway? But Gateway is the broad way which leads to the destruction, and many there be which go in there at, because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leads unto life, and few there be that find it. Jesus Christ said, Truly the harvest is plenteous, but the labors be few. And isn't it interesting that the unsaved, they don't evangelize? Now, we have exceptions to this in the sense that we have Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses who are trying. But let me explain something. They're still not evangelizing because I've never had a Jehovah's Witness knock on my door and say, hey, if you die today, are you sure you go to heaven? Because they don't even believe in heaven. They believe in soul sleep. And Mormons don't want to talk about that. Mormons say, I want to have a private Bible study with you. Because, look, I've had Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses knock on my door. And the Mormons want to have a private Bible study with me so I can wear special underwear and go to their temple, okay? They didn't want to talk to me about how to go to heaven or believing in Jesus. And the Jehovah's Witnesses don't even believe in heaven. They're just so sad and pathetic looking all the time. I don't even know what they want to say. I mean, if you even are just kind of an alpha male, you'll over-talk them in the conversation. I mean, even beta males might over-talk them in the conversation. It's like alpha males, beta males, Jehovah's Witnesses. They're so weak and pathetic, they can't even celebrate a birthday. You know what I mean? They can't even celebrate anything because their life is so sad and pathetic. And look, the rest of the Christianity, they're not even trying. They're not even out there giving you a false gospel, let alone the real gospel. I mean, I have had people knock on my door. I had a guy recently, a Baptist pastor, an independent, fundamental Baptist pastor knock on my door trying to get me saved. And praise God, that was like the first time that has ever happened. I was excited about it. And you know what's funny? This guy's church is like on a Sunday morning. He told me sometimes they have five. Sometimes they have ten, sometimes they have fifteen. Think about it. This guy knocked on my door. Gateway running 10,000 never knocks on my door ever. Why? Because the unsaved don't see the kingdom of God. They're not going out preaching the gospel. They're not trying to get anybody saved. And you know what? They can sit here and criticize us all day long. But you know what doesn't get people saved? Doing nothing. Right? Isn't it so funny? People want to criticize your soul winning or criticize our evangelism or criticize how we get people saved. And I'm like, I'm pretty sure you're doing absolutely nothing. Is it working? Why don't you try something and then explain to me how that's better? You know what? They're trying absolutely nothing. When the Bible literally says, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Yet they haven't preached to one creature. They're not even preaching to their children. Modern Evangelicalism today is not even teaching parents to get their kids saved. And yet they want to explain to me how to get people saved. It's weird. And you know why? Because most of them are not even saved themselves. I grew up in a church where the pastor got up and said that his dad prayed to get saved at every service. And I'm thinking like, what in the world? They try to get their whole congregation saved every single week because they're all unsaved and they don't understand it. Now look, there's plenty of saved people that go to these churches that are just lazy Christians and they don't want to have to do anything and so they just go blend in in the non-Evangelical crowd. That's what I call them because they don't go evangelizing. I mean, they really don't. And soul winning just doesn't make sense to them because they don't see the spiritual thing. Like to an unsaved person, us going and knocking on doors is a waste of time. So the Calvinists is a waste of time. And they'll always say, they'll be like, oh, where are they then? Where are the nine? Hmm? And I'm thinking like, well, where is your ten? Because you didn't even talk to anybody. Like at least we get a few people every once in a while. And yeah, is it the vast minority of people? Sure. When someone at the door says, yeah, I'm going to come visit your church after you get them saved, it's like one out of a thousand. Sorry to burst your bubble for you new soul winners. You're going to be a new soul winner. You get someone saying like, I'm coming to church. You're like, yeah. Unless you pick them up and put them in your car physically, they're not coming to church. OK, this is telling you how it works. I mean, I had people I have people like sitting here swearing like Peter, like, I'm going to be a church. I swear on everything. I'm going to get there. And I'm just like, no, stop. OK, because I know that you're not. I want you to. You know, the Bible is so clear about preaching the gospel. And yet they say, no, no, no, we have missionaries. We have mission strips. I went on one. Oh, really? Yeah. World changers. We went out there. We all got on a roof and we put shingles on a roof for a week. And then we came back. You think I'm joking? Oh, we all went down there and we all we all like dug a well. And they're like, what do you mean you dug a well? Well, I got a shovel and I dug like, you know, for 10 seconds. And then the next guy grabbed the shovel. He dug for 10 seconds. And then a bulldozer came out of nowhere and actually digged it up. And then we all felt really good because we dug a well, even though you really did absolutely nothing. I mean, do you really think when you go down into Mexico to put a roof on a house like the Mexicans down there couldn't have done a better job than you? Have you ever seen a construction crew? I'm like, do you think they really need privileged white women to come down into Mexico to put shingles on their roof? Or do you think it's a special area blocked off only for American tourists to come and go on a missions trip? I went on a missions trip. I helped so many Hispanic people get a roof on their head. You're stupid. That wasn't evangelism. And then a couple of times we sang songs to them or whatever. We sang a little bit. Look, and I'm not saying there aren't real missionaries in Mexico. I'm not trying to undermine helping people. But I'm just telling you that there is a lot of missions programs today where they literally don't preach anything ever. They don't even open their mouth. They don't even try to get them saved, let alone get them saved. Now there are some where maybe they try a little bit but they're not doing confrontational soul winning. They're not really checking. They're not trying to make sure that they repented of whatever false religion they had and they're just not being effective. And let me tell you something. It's vanity. It's vanity to go build buildings in Mexico. It's vanity to go into Africa and dig wells. Mr. Beast already beat you, buddy. Mr. Beast on YouTube, who's kind of like the Beast in the Bible, he dug a hundred wells in Africa already. I guess he's the most evangelistic, godly person ever, right? I mean, is it interesting that the unsaid carnal mind can do that? Because doesn't the Bible say that the unsaid can't understand the kingdom of God? If the kingdom of God is building wells in poor countries, then how come Mr. Beast is beating you at it? But let me tell you something. You know what Mr. Beast is not beating me at, is not beating you at? Getting anybody saved ever. Because he can't see the kingdom of God. He doesn't understand it. They don't understand what it's like to actually open the Bible and preach someone John 3.16 and explain to them how their works aren't going to get them to heaven and have them change their mind and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That is what we do. We don't go out building wells physically. We go out and build spiritual wells by getting someone saved and now that they're saved, having them go out and preach the gospel. And now they're a spring of living water that can get even more people saved. Because what's more important? A bunch of African people drinking clean water or drinking the clear gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ? Now look, I'm all for both. Hey, if you want to give somebody some fresh water, if you want to build a well, if you want to build someone's house, go for it. I'm not against you, but don't tell me that that's evangelism. Don't tell me that that's preaching the gospel. Don't tell me that that's what Jesus Christ commanded you to go out and do. He commanded you to preach the gospel. And you know how you preach with your mouth, not hammering nails and shingles into a roof. Go if you would to 1 John 2. Wait, wait, stop. You're in 2 Corinthians 3. Let's read a few passages of this passage here. It says in verse 12, Seeing that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech, and not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished. But their minds were blinded, for until this day remained of the same veil, untaken away as in the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away in Christ, but even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. Now the Lord is that spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. What is the liberty that's being mentioned here? Liberty from being in the bondage of sin, and not being saved, and not understanding the kingdom of God, to then understanding the kingdom of God, not being in bondage to the law, not having to face the consequences of the law, meaning hell, but being libertized, being liberated. Sorry, I don't know if that's a word, but the man's wisdom was teaching me there for a moment. But hey, you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you've been given liberty, you've been made free from the law, and you're saved. Now, what does it say in chapter 4 here? Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not, but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, and in 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, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants, for Jesus' sake. We need to go out and preach the gospel, because if we don't, the lost will not get saved. No well, no shingle on a roof, nothing like that is going to help them get saved. It's by preaching the gospel. They can't see it. They have a veil on their heart. It doesn't make sense. We have to take away the veil. We have to take away the veil through Christ, and they can understand. Go to 1 John 2. So point one was, they can't understand the Bible, so they're going to go to commentaries and paraphrases. Therefore, we don't want to argue with them. Number two, they don't evangelize. So you don't get backslidden, because if you get backslidden and stop evangelizing, people are going to die and go to hell. Because if our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are lost. We have to understand, they can't see the kingdom of God. So if you don't get people saved, no one's getting them saved. They can't understand the Bible. They can't evangelize. So we need to not argue with them about the Bible. We need to just preach them the gospel. Don't get backslidden. Because if we all get backslidden, well, then the world's in bad shape. If the light goes out. 1 John 2, verse 29, the Bible says, If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of him. Here's the third thing that they can't do, is they can't be righteous. I'm not going to belabor this point. I want to show you a couple more verses here. Look at chapter 3, verse 6. It says, Whosoever biteth in him sinneth not, whosoever sinneth not seen him, neither known him. Little children, let no man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. He that comitteth sin is of the devil, for the devil sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God has manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God. In this, the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. The Bible makes it clear that, because they're unsaved, they can't understand the Bible. Because they're unsaved, they obviously couldn't evangelize to get someone saved. And because they're unsaved, they can't actually do true righteousness. And they're not going to live in true righteousness. They're not going to ever have true charity. They're not going to have true love. They're not going to have a godly love. And, you know, one thing that's for sure not going to happen, you're not going to see transformed lives. You're not going to see transformed lives. A lot of people in this church didn't grow up independent from the Baptist. And after getting saved, they ended up changing quite a bit in their lives. And I'm not going to ask for a raise of hands because I don't want to shame anybody, but many of us are probably embarrassed about things that we've done in our past. Maybe some of our upbringing, some of our youth, some of our college, some of our after college, some of us still being in college, you know, all that era of time, because that's usually the worst. Go over to 2 Peter chapter 2, 2 Peter chapter 2. Unsaved people cannot truly clean themselves up. And even if they do, it won't stick. It won't last. It can't, because they don't have the Spirit of God. The way that we actually don't break the law is when we walk in the Spirit. An unsaved person doesn't even have access to that. They can't even do that. So, of course, is there some carnal truths in the Bible that an unsaved person could implement? Yeah. Could an unsaved person see, like, oh, drinking's bad, I'm just going to stop drinking? Sure. Could they stop doing certain things, fornicating or whatever? They can clean up themselves in a sense, but they're not going to have a transformed life, and they're not going to be a godly righteous person, and they're not going to start going to a church like ours and start understanding the Bible and start preaching the Gospel and producing good fruit. It's just never going to happen. Only saved people will make these changes. Only saved people will act this way. And, unfortunately, some Christians almost think you have to do that to be saved. You don't have to have a transformed life. You don't have to evidence fruit. You don't have to get people saved in order to be saved. But, if you do those things, it is evidence that you're saved. I mean, it's a manifestation that this is a child of God. I mean, you want to know, like, what does a child of God look like? It looks like someone that's in church reading the Bible, understanding it, preaching the Gospel, that God baptized, and is living a separated life. Yeah, that's a manifestation of a child of God. Absolutely. And what's the manifestation of the children of the devil? It's called Congress. Okay? It's called Hollywood. I mean, it's a pretty clear manifestation of the two different things here. 2 Peter chapter 2 tells us, it says, and I'm not going to, I would love to go through this whole passage, because some people get a confuse on this, for sake of time on this, though, because it says that's false prophets, promising them, that's just unsaved people or saved people, both, really. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption, for of whom a man is overcome, are the same as he brought into bondage. So, false prophets will tell you, oh, I've been liberated in Christ, but because they're not saved, they've never actually been liberated. So, they're still in this bondage to all kinds of grievous sin, which is mentioned in the passage. Things like having eyes full of adultery that cannot cease from sin. Okay, that's an example of what they're saying. Oh, I've been delivered! There's funny videos like this, like, I've been delivered! You know, they're like, I've been delivered from all my sins, or whatever. And a lot of times, they'll say they've been delivered from grievous sin. Like Robert Morris saying he was delivered from pedophilia. Sorry, you weren't delivered. There's a different kind of deliverance program that should have happened for you. Delivered unto Satan. Okay? But, you know, there's some things that, you know, there's some things you should never be delivered from, but even the things that you can be, the unsaved prophet hasn't. But he's trying to convince other people, like, this is how you do it. And what do they do? Walk down the aisle, I'll smack you on the forehead, and you'll be delivered from alcoholism. That's not how you get delivered from alcohol, buddy. Come down the aisle, and I'll explain that. Use this drug, use this quick fix. They always use a carnal thing to try and fix people, instead of a motivation of love through the spirit to actually clean up their lives. Walking in the spirit to overcome sin. It's always a carnal thing that they try to do. And so they're teaching other people this. It says, verse 20, For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. So I believe that verse 20, you have to understand, it's still talking about the false prophet, and it's saying even if, after reading the Bible, he realized, like, adultery is bad, and fornication is bad, and drinking is bad, and all this stuff, and he kind of separated himself through that knowledge, he's going to get entangled again, and it's going to be even worse. And you can see this. You can see people like Rabbi Zacharias, boy, he had some extreme adultery in the latter portions of his life. And a lot of these false prophets are super wicked. Look at the Pharisees. Jesus is constantly rebuking them. Verse 21, For it had been better for them to not know the way of righteousness than after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it has happened unto them, according to the true proverb, the dog has turned to his own vomit again in the sow, that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. So, the unsaved person, even when they learn about the Bible, and they may make a few changes, it won't stick, and they'll be like a dog returning to his own vomit. He'll be like a sow that returns to her wallowing in the mire. Some people try to tell me this is to save people, but okay, show me a passage in the Bible where a dog is a saved person. Never happened. Or a sow. Never happened. Never happened. And again, this whole context of chapter 2 is about false prophets specifically. And consistently, this is not a passage taught only in 2 Peter chapter 2. This is everywhere in the Bible, where the Pharisees are way worse than anybody else that's walking around. You see this consistently in anecdotal evidence. What about Catholic priests that learn about the knowledge of Jesus? They end up becoming the worst reprobates, the worst people. When you look at the top of these cults and these false religions, you'll notice these people are the worst with the worst sins and the most grievous problems, even though they're claiming, oh, I've been delivered from sin, oh, I'm separated, oh, I don't do these things anymore, while really they end up being the worst examples of almost anybody. Some of the worst sins, the worst examples. And so it's the true proverb that a dog is a dog. No amount of washing it will stop it from being a dog. A sow is a sow. No matter how much you wash that pig, it's a pig. And it loves filth. And it's going to go back to the filth. And no matter how much you feed dogs steak, and no matter how much you feed it good food, and things that are nice and pleasant and comely and bread, as soon as he throws it up, he's going to eat that too. And it's basically saying no matter how much you clean up the false prophet, no matter how much you clean up the unsaved person, no matter how much you try to explain to them, they're going to eventually go back to that because that's all they know, that's who they are. There wasn't a change on the inside. What does Christianity do? It changes you on the inside so that the outside can be clean also. But you know what? You can't clean up the inside through the outside. And many unsaved people, they're rotten to the core. And the only thing that they could ever change is if they got saved. That's the only way they would really change. Many of them that are reprobate will never, obviously. But we need to make sure that because the unsaved is a dog, because the unsaved is a sow, that we're not close friends with these people. The Bible says to be separate from them. We're supposed to come out from among them and be separate, sayeth the Lord. We're not supposed to be friends with the unrighteous and with the wicked and with the idolaters. We're not supposed to have fellowship with these type of people. I'm not going to go there for the sake of time. I'm not going to turn anywhere else, but I just want to recap. You can see the kingdom of God. They can't. I'm not going to talk with them about doctrine. I don't care what they have to say. I don't care what they think about how someone goes to heaven, because they're not evangelizing, and they're not going to evangelize, and they never will evangelize. And thirdly, they're never going to actually live a transformed life. Therefore, I don't want to be close friends with the unsaved. I'm not saying that you can't be friendly. I'm not saying that you can't form relationships. I'm not saying that you don't have business associates or relationships that you have to deal with, with unsaved people. And look, there's been people that I've talked to, been friendly with, done things with that are not saved, and I know they're not saved. But you know what? Often when I get a chance, that same person, I'm like, hey, let me tell you about how salvation is by believing. Hey, let me explain to you how Catholicism is not right. Hey, why don't you watch this video? Hey, I'm trying to win them over to our side. So I don't hate Catholic people. I don't hate unsaved people. I don't despise them. In fact, I love them, and I want them to be saved. But they're not going to be my closest friends. And this holiday season, you're probably going to go home, and you're going to go, I mean, some people, not all of us, sometimes you're going to go home, and you're going to hang out with people that are not saved. Catholics, Presbyterians, Lutherans, whatever family. You know what I'm not going to do? I'm not going to get a long argument with them about what the Bible means. They can't understand it. I'm not going to take any tips and advice about how to get people saved. And I'm not going to have the closest relationship with those people, because at the end of the day, they're not going to live the transformed life, and oftentimes, evil communications corrupt good manners. They're going to drag you down. You're not going to drag them up. And so we have to make sure that we're keeping ourselves separated, that we're comparing spiritual with spiritual, and that we realize that we're the ones that have the gospel, and if our gospel will be hid, it's hid to them that are lost. People are dying going to hell every second. You're the only thing that can stop it. You're the only thing that can stop it for some people. There's somebody today that would die and go to hell if it wasn't for us going out and preaching the gospel. Don't be in heaven with a tear on your eye saying, I could have preached the gospel to that person. Rejoice with us with all the shes that we bring with us. All right, let's close in prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for giving us this understanding and wisdom and this sight through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray that we wouldn't be selfish with it. I pray that we would search the deep things of God, that we would compare spiritual with spiritual when we want to know the Bible. We wouldn't go to man. I pray that you would help motivate us to stay red-hot and fiery for the gospel, realizing that the real hot is the fire and hell, and that we don't want people to go there. I pray that you would motivate us to deliver people and pull people out of the fire. I pray that also when we're around unsaved people, whether that be family, friends, co-workers, whoever, that we would be careful and we wouldn't form close relationships and close bonds with them, but rather we would try to get them saved, and that we would keep ourselves pure and we would keep ourselves separated so that we can continually be used by you. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, for our last song, let's go to our handouts if you still have one. I know after a full service kids may have destroyed it or whatnot, but if you do not have a handout with angels we have heard on high, raise your hand and we can get one to you. We have a few more left. Once again, if you need a handout for the song, just keep your hand up and we'll get one to you. Angels, we have heard on high. Angels, we have heard on high. And we sing it out real loud together on the first. Angels, we have heard on high. And we sing it out real loud together on the first. Angels, we have heard on high. Sweetly singing o'er the plains And the mountains in reply Echo back their joyous strains Gloria In excelsis Deo In excelsis Deo Shepherds, why this jubilee Why your joyous strains prolong What the glansome tidings be Which inspire your heavenly songs Gloria In excelsis Deo Gloria In excelsis Deo Come to Bethlehem and sing Him whose birth the angels sing Come, adored on bended knee Christ the Lord, the newborn King Gloria In excelsis Deo Gloria In excelsis Deo See Him in a manger laid Jesus, Lord of heaven and earth Mary, Joseph, when you're ate Sing with us your Savior's birth Gloria In excelsis Deo Gloria In excelsis Deo Two quick reminders. If you didn't get your Jonah prize, come see me right now. And then additionally, this evening after the service, we're getting rid of everything in our fridges and freezers. It's a clean out. So if you have left anything in there, either take it or we're going to throw it away. And we're going to get rid of all the ice cream we have. So if you kids want some ice cream, come tonight. All right, God bless you. Have a good day.