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

Great singing everybody, let's open up the service with a word of prayer. Lord, we love you and we just thank you again for Steadfast Baptist Church and we thank you for allowing us to gather here and sing unto you Lord, we just ask you to help us lift up our voices and sing unto you Lord and fill this church with your spirit and it's in Jesus name we ask it, amen. Alright for our next song let's go to song number 183, song number 183. Oh how I love Jesus, song number 183. Everybody sing it out together on the first. There is a name I love to hear, I love to sing it's word. It sounds like music in my ear, the sweetest thing on earth. Oh how I love Jesus, oh how I love Jesus. Oh how I love Jesus because he first loved me. It tells me of a savior's love who died to set me free. It tells me of his precious blood who stood in his perfect bridge. Oh how I love Jesus, oh how I love Jesus. Oh how I love Jesus because he first loved me. It tells me God my father had in store for every day. And though I tread a darksome path, he'll sunshine all the way. Oh how I love Jesus, oh how I love Jesus. Oh how I love Jesus because he first loved me. It tells of one whose loving heart will not be his own. Who in his sorrow bears a part that none can bear below. Oh how I love Jesus, oh how I love Jesus. Oh how I love Jesus because he first loved me. Good morning. Thank you so much for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you need a bulletin, lift up your hand nice and high and our ushers can come by. Get you guys a bulletin on the front. We have our Bible memory passage. We're working on Psalm 59. On the inside we have our service soul winning times. Church stats down below. On the right is a list of several expecting ladies. Please keep them in your prayers. Also we have a weekly prayer request list that we go through on Wednesday nights. And also we just put them in our bulletin so the church family can be praying for various prayers. If you would like to add anything to our prayer list, you can always email that into us. Just put prayer request at the top of your email. And if it is private, do indicate that. Otherwise we assume it's added to our prayer list down below. Upcoming events. So I guess it's wedding fever. And so we have another wedding that's going to be in honor of Elijah Scott and Olivia Hunley at 6.30 pm. And they actually did want to invite everybody from the church. And they do have a RSVP though. So it was emailed out in our church email. If you are planning on going, please, please RSVP just because since it is an evening wedding, they did want to provide some food and so they want to make sure that they have enough food. And so please do RSVP. If you have a question about that or you didn't get that email or something, you can talk to me or Brother Oz or you can email us and we'll make sure to get you that information. But please, please do RSVP if you are planning on attending the wedding. We had a wedding yesterday and everything went really well for Brother Joshua Garcia and his new wife Miss Cynthia. And so congratulations to them. Also June 21st to the 23rd is the Red Hot Preaching Conference, which is a conference put on by one of our pastor friends, Pastor Menes in Sacramento, California. And so just put that out there. I pray that the event goes smoothly. I'm going to be preaching out there on Friday evening and so I'm excited to get to see their new building. This has definitely been a long time coming. They've had a lot of building issues as well and jerked around. And so to have a new building and more space to grow is just a huge answer to prayer for Verity Baptist Church. And I believe that God is definitely blessing them for having been friendly towards us and even helping us when we needed a property. And so it's definitely great to see them thriving and having this new building. I've never been out there and so I'm excited to see it in person. July 6th is going to be a soul winning marathon hosted by Pure Words Baptist Church and evangelist Salvador Alvarez. He's going to be leading this in San Antonio, Texas. So if you are interested, that's out there. When we maybe get a little bit closer, I might give you a little bit more detail if you want some of the specifics. We might even provide a church group van or something like that for people that want to participate. But that's going to be in San Antonio. I know Austin's about three hours from here and I know that San Antonio is about an hour from there. So I don't know if it's four or if you cut a little bit of time if you go straight there or not, but it's probably about four hours is pretty safe estimate if you'd like to drive from here down into San Antonio. But I'm sure that it would be a really receptive soul winning marathon. So just throwing that out there. Also, we'll be singing our Psalm next. Psalm 15. So if you want to get your special handouts, we'll be singing that Psalm 15. All right. Psalm 15. Psalm chapter 15. Everybody sing it out together on the first. Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh up rightly and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that walketh up rightly and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that bideth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbor, nor taketh the both approach against his neighbor. He that bideth not with his tongue, in whose eyes a vile person is content, but he honoureth them that fear the Lord. In whose eyes a vile person is content, but he honoureth them that fear the Lord. He that swearth to his own word and change it not, he that putteth not out his money to use drinks, he that swearth to his own word and change it not, he that putteth not out his money to use drinks, nor taketh reward against the innocent, he that doeth these things shall never remove. But with reward against the innocent, he that doeth these things shall never remove. Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy room? All right, great singing everybody. Now as the offering plates are being passed around, go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 7. That's the book of Matthew chapter number 7. . . . . . Matthew 7, the Bible reads, Judge not that ye be not judged, for with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged, and with what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the moat that is in thy brother's eye, but consider'st not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the moat out of thine eye, and behold, a beam is in thine own eye. Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the moat out of thy brother's eye. Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again, and rend you. Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your father, which is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him? Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them, for this is the law and the prophets. Enter ye in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat, because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then while I profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it. And it came to pass when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Father in heaven, we thank you so much for this day, for our church, and for Matthew chapter 7. I pray, Lord, that you would fill Pastor Shelley with the fullness and power of the Holy Spirit now as he preaches the message to us. Give him clarity of mind, and give us ears to hear the preaching of your word, Lord, so that we may apply the message and live a more complete Christian life. We love you, and in Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen. We're finishing our series on the Sermon on the Mount, and previously we had gone through chapters 5 and 6. Now, as we enter into chapter number 7, we're concluding Jesus' famous sermon called the Sermon on the Mount, and this has been a teaching sermon, the context as he's talking to his disciples, but I don't want you to be confused about the word disciple because we're not talking about strictly the 12 who later become apostles. We're really, when we say disciple, talking about anybody that was following Jesus at that time, and so there was a large group, there was a lot of people following Jesus Christ, and they were just generally described as his disciples because they were following him, and so not everybody in this group is saved, not everybody in this group. Of course, we know Judas, but I'm saying even apart from people like Judas, there's just a lot of people here that are just not even saved yet, and so when Jesus Christ is teaching through this sermon, some of the advice that he's giving is to save people. Some of the advice he's giving is to an unsaved crowd trying to help them understand the importance of getting saved, and so it's kind of interwoven here when you consider both of these audiences, but primarily, you know, the Sermon on the Mount is for those who are saved, for Christians, for those who have already accepted Christ. Now, it starts here in verse number 1, Judge not that ye be not judged. This is a little bit of a transition. You can see why there's a chapter division put here from the previous idea in chapter 6 because the chapter 6 was bringing up the idea of seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and really, if we were to summarize chapters 5 and 6 really briefly, chapter 5 really emphasized the idea of humbling ourselves and striving for perfection, and in chapter 6, it really describes ideas of being spiritual and seeking the Lord, talking about the idea of praying and giving alms, and of course, here are the most famous, probably portion of scripture, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and so chapter 6 is really emphasizing the idea of trying to draw closer to the Lord and being sincerely spiritual, not a fake type of spirituality. As we transition in chapter number 7, he's giving another idea here of being careful when judging. It says in verse 1 again, Judge not that ye be not judged. Now, a lot of people would love to just stop here and just basically say we should never make any judgments or that judging is wrong, but what the Bible is really trying to emphasize here is a warning about judging. It says in verse 2, For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged, and with what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again. So really, the main concept that's being taught in Matthew 7 is that you should be willing to be judged by the same judgments you make. So if you're not willing to right now be judged in the same way that you would judge others, then you're being a hypocrite. And that's a warning from the Lord Jesus Christ that God will often hold you accountable for the ways that you judge other people. So if you have a high standard for other people, you should be prepared that God is going to hold you to a high standard. And at the same time, there's nothing wrong with having standards. There's nothing wrong with even judging. What's wrong is being a hypocrite about it. It's simply saying, you know what, you shouldn't drink alcohol, but I'm going to drink alcohol. You know, you shouldn't steal, but I'm going to steal. And of course, this is famously understood as the Pharisees constantly putting rules and burdens on the people, but they themselves are actually doing exactly what they're preaching against, speaking against, and holding people accountable for minor grievances when they're actually guilty of major, major grievances. I actually saw something online that kind of made me think of this, and there's this famous YouTube power couple or something like that that they put themselves forward as some Christian blog posters or whatever. And for some reason, their stupid YouTube handle escapes my name because I don't like them so much. But it's like Sam and Nia or something like that. Who knows what I'm talking about? Does anybody even know who I'm talking about? Okay, they're not that popular apparently. I think they have like a couple million subscribers on YouTube, so it's not like just a nobody. But they've been making just huge impact on the media newsroom as of late. And forgive me if I got her name wrong. You can look it up. I know the guy's name is Sam. And essentially what I saw is I saw this guy criticizing Infowars. He was basically on some show, and he's just talking negatively about Alex Jones and Infowars saying they're so unchristian and they're getting people off track and they're going to cause people to commit marital infidelity by going down that road. And whether or not that's true or not, I don't really care. But this is what's so interesting about this guy publicly criticizing Infowars is a new Netflix movie just came out called Ashley Madison and then it has the subtitle. And it's all about this guy specifically, how he was on Ashley Madison and his name got leaked a few years ago. So this guy is super going viral on the fact that he was a Christian podcaster literally caught on adultery websites. He admitted to going to parlors, to going to gentlemen's clubs, to just basically doing all kinds of stuff. And then he's getting off by calling other people out. He was on a podcast show combating Owen Schroyer on air and he's just talking trash on Owen Schroyer and Infowars and saying how horrible they are and how unchristian they are while he himself is right now major headlines about how he was literally on the Ashley Madison website and just saying how much better of a Christian he is or something. And it's just like this is just insane. It's just insane how somebody who's literally gotten caught with his hand in the cookie jar is going to go around and then pretend how so much better of a Christian he is than other people. Like this is the case of exactly what this is talking about. How hey, when you got caught doing that, go ahead and not call other people out for that kind of stuff. Now again, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with calling people out for committing adultery because you know what, if I got caught committing adultery, I would hope someone would expose me, okay. And again, that's never going to happen and I'm not going to ever do that but I'm willing to judge other people based on that standard because I would want to be held to that exact same standard. But you know, I don't want to necessarily go so far to say it's like hey, if you ever sinned, you're wicked as hell because uh oh, I definitely sin. I definitely have issues. I definitely have areas where I'm not going to be successful either and is it really reasonable to hold other people accountable for just even sinning ever when you yourself are going to be a sinner. And so what the Bible is really trying to emphasize here is just not being a giant hypocrite when it comes to judging. Saying hey, this is our standard and you're not personally violating it yourself. Imagine in 1 Corinthians 5, the Bible brings up several sins on that list that would potentially get someone thrown out of church. Being a drunkard, being a railer, being an extortioner, being an idolater. And imagine someone is literally guilty of one of those things and then calling other people out for something else on that list. And you know, sometimes the hypocrisy isn't necessarily a one for one. Maybe perhaps you're a drunkard but they're an idolater and it's like I want this guy thrown out of church for being an idolater. Well you know what, that's hypocritical because you yourself should be thrown out for being a drunkard. And so that's another aspect of what is being taught here. And Jesus gives kind of this analogy or metaphor to kind of symbolize what he's talking about. It says in verse 3, And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but consider'st not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye, and behold a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. So here Christ is giving an example of many times people that want to nitpick other people's sins have bigger issues than the sin that they're trying to fix in their brother. And again it's like you're committing adultery literally and then you want to criticize other people for the fact that they might go down a bad path potentially. It's like maybe that's true but that seems like the mote when you've got a giant adultery Ashley Madison beam in your eye. Now here's the thing. The Bible is saying though, and I believe it's teaching, just because you've had big sins in your past doesn't mean you can't even judge though. Because notice it didn't say because you had a beam in your eye in the past, now you can't tell anybody what's right or wrong or you couldn't potentially judge someone or fix them. It's saying you need to just first fix it though, right? So that means someone that committed adultery, someone that got divorced and remarried, someone that was a drunkard, someone that was a railer, someone that was ungodly, someone that did have children out of wedlock, someone that did commit horrible sins, someone that did have a Batman tattoo on their chest, okay? I had a friend, he literally had the Batman symbol on his chest, okay? I use the word friend loosely, but it's kind of insane when you think about it. But it's like, okay, is it right for that guy to tell other people not to get tattoos? I mean if you literally are covered in tattoos, can you tell other people not to get tattoos? Well, if you're not actively getting them and you don't want to get them anymore, yeah, I think that it's reasonable and still possible for that person to say, hey, I know I screwed up in this area in the past, but now it's wrong and I want to advise you not to get a tattoo. Hey, yeah, I did get a divorce and I am remarried and I shouldn't have done that, but you know what? I realize it's wrong. I'm going to tell people that what I did was wrong. I'm not going to say what I did was right. And you know what? I'm not going to encourage you to get the same, go down the same road as me, right? And so this is okay to have had beams in your eye, to have taken them out and then now helping your brother. But what the Bible really wants you to do is first work on yourself. First get the beams out of your own eyes and out of your own life way before you ever want to correct other people or judge other people and that's the main emphasis that's being described here and I think many people unfortunately want to fix everyone but themselves. And we should be more concerned with fixing ourselves than fixing other people. Another thing that I find is just part of human nature is it's often easy to spot faults in other people that you're actually guilty of. Like for some reason, like typically when you have a serious problem in an area, that particular sin in other people drives you nuts. And I don't know why but it's just, I'm just trying to explain to you this is typically how it happens. So it's like when you start noticing hey this, I just am really frustrated this person, you know, being impatient. It's like but are you impatient? You know, oftentimes, many times people when they get irritated with other individuals it's a sin or it's an issue that they themselves are guilty of. Of course I'm not going to take this to some random extreme. Obviously I'm not guilty of being an atheist or something like that because I dislike atheism. I'm not a secret Calvinist because I preach against Calvinism. We don't want to take this to some weird unhealthy extreme. I'm just saying certain vices and certain just pet peeves, oftentimes we're kind of projecting on other people our own issues, our own faults when it comes to some of these areas. Being lazy, sometimes people that are lazy they get really irritated when other people are lazy. Sometimes people that are late, they get really mad at other people when they're late and you're just kind of thinking like aren't you the one that's usually really late? You know, the person that complains all the time for some reason they hate complainers. And I think what's going on is subconsciously and in your heart God's constantly provoking you on that sin and you just won't address it with yourself but it really sticks out on other people. And so you need to be careful that when you're thinking about someone else, when judgments arrive in your brain, when you're thinking oh wow, that's something I don't like, first assess yourself and say wait a minute, if I were to look at them the same way, if I were to look at myself the same way I'm looking at them, how would I measure up? How would I be judged? What would I say about myself first? And first, fix yourself. First, get the big issues dealt with before you consider helping other individuals and doing service for them. Now, we kind of make another transition here in verse number six, the Bible says, Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine lest they trample them under their feet and turn again and rend you. So I guess you don't give steak to dogs, you have to give them kibble, right? It was a joke. But, obviously the dogs here is not, we're not really talking about animals. We're talking about something else. Now, I have strong opinions on what this is saying, but when it comes to the word dog, there's a couple different ways the word dog can be interpreted in the Bible. And honestly, I think that all of the ways that dog can be interpreted could apply in this passage and are true, are good doctrines anyways. So, you know, I want to go to a couple places and let's talk about what this verse is potentially meaning here. Go if you went to Deuteronomy chapter 23 first, and I just want to say in Mark 7, when Jesus Christ was confronted by an outsider, not someone that was from the children of Israel, I believe she's described as a Syrophoenician specifically, and she is wanting Jesus Christ to heal her daughter, that this is what Jesus said unto her. Let the children first be filled, for it is not meet to take the children's bread and cast it unto dogs. So, when a Gentile, a heathen, came to Jesus Christ, asked for healing, Jesus literally called her a dog. Like, that's what he described her as, and even said it's not appropriate for me to take food that would be given to children and give it to a dog. And that's just a carnal truth that's illustrating a spiritual truth, right? When you prepare a really nice meal for your family, you're not just then taking that plate of food and just dropping it down and giving it to the dogs. No, you prepare really nice, healthy, skillfully-propelled meals for your children, because they're of more value than a dog. Yet, we all know kids, and Jesus even knew kids, they're going to spill, aren't they, right? They're going to drop things on the ground, some crumbs are going to come off the table, and who's always there just loving it? It's dogs. And of course, I know this a lot because of my wife's side of the family, they're very much dog enthusiasts, so we always had dogs. And what I noticed is dogs always love children, and I think it's because of dinner time specifically, okay? Because as soon as they knew, like as soon as the toddler, the children are going to eat, the dog is right there, and it is ready to catch whatever goodies are coming. And I always make a joke because not only the children, even my father-in-law ever once saw, he would just give the dog like a whole slice of pizza. And I'd always joke because I would like talk like the animals or something, just as comedic relief for the family, and I would just be like, ooh, I love Papa because he gives me whole pieces of pizza. You know, it's like, but that wasn't meat, okay? We don't give the whole slice to the dog, right? We give just the crumbs, okay? And it's not even purposeful necessarily. Many cases before the crumb can even hit the floor, the dog has already caught that, okay? And you never, ever take food away from a dog that's in its mouth, right, children? Once they've got a hold of it, don't even try to take it away because they might bite, all right? But what is the principle that's being taught in Mark 7? The principle is the idea that the children are saved, the dogs are not saved. So it's saying, what is the thing that we're feeding? Well, what we feed is the Word of God. So the Word of God is primarily for the saved, not for the unsaved. And that is what is holy, what is set apart. So church is not geared towards the unsaved, church is geared towards the saved. And we're not supposed to be going around trying to preach the whole Bible to the lost, to the unsaved. And just as a general tip and a general advice, you know, whenever I'm talking with unsaved people, especially when you have to talk to family, friends, whoever, I try my best not to argue doctrine with unsaved people. With an unsaved family member, with relatives, co-workers, all that kind of stuff, I'm not going to probably take them to Leviticus 27 and explain to them how women should be paid less according to the law. Like I'm not going to go into my meeting at work with all these women and say like, hey, FYI, are you paying them only 60 cents on the dollar? Because that's what the Bible says. I just wanted to make sure. And in fact, they're not supposed to usurp the authority of the man. So can you demote all the women managers in our company immediately? And in fact, really they're not supposed to forsake staying at home. Many of them are turning aside after Satan. Would you please make sure that they'll go back into the kitchen and make sandwiches for their husband? And oh, by the way, divorce and remarriage is adultery. So you're an adulterer and you're an adulterer and you're an adulterer. He's definitely an adulterer. I mean, this is not what you want to do in the business meeting. OK. And you definitely don't want. Oh, here's our investor, Goldstein. Let me tell you what the Bible says about you. Right. I mean, like this is just not this is casting your pearls before swine. This is giving that which is holy under the dogs. Like it's not a little sermonette every time you're out in the world. OK. Oh, let's go to Deuteronomy 22 and let's talk about dress code for a second. Right. I mean, that's just not really how you want to handle yourself as a Christian. You know, when someone wants to talk about things in the Bible. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to skirt around the issue. You know, if someone asked me something controversial in the Bible, I just say stuff like, yeah, that's what the Bible says. But you know what? You don't have to do any of that to go to heaven. Would you like to hear how to go to heaven? It's like, yeah, the Bible. And again, most of the time when people bring these things up, they're not even quoting the King James or even real issues. They're bringing up fake stuff that's in like the modern versions. They'll be like, well, doesn't the Bible say you can't even wear like a polyester cotton blend? No, it doesn't say that. Doesn't the Bible say to like hate the sin and love the sinner? No, it doesn't say that. It's just like they just bring up all this stuff that's not even in the Bible. So it's just like, yeah, it doesn't say that. Do you want me to show you what it does say? John 3 16, you know, Romans Chapter three. I'm probably not going to take them to the most extreme portions of the scripture as a mini little Bible study. In fact, I even had an opportunity one time, the CEO of our entire company knew, I guess just kind of was aware I was a Christian. And so he just randomly like comes into my cubicle area and just sits down right in front of me. He's like, give me a Bible verse right now. Well, the biggest 2013. Come on. I mean, really, it's like that's not really what we should try to do, you know, in the workplace. I also probably wouldn't take them to the passage of scripture I'm taking to you right now. OK, Deuteronomy Chapter 23, look at verse 17. There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel. Thou shall not bring the hire of a whore or the price of a dog into the house of the Lord thy God for any vow, for even both these are abomination of the Lord thy God. So the Bible uses the word here in 17 verse 17 whore and whore. And then it says sodomite and then dog. So one definition, one usage of the word dog in the Bible is a sodomite. Now, again, I don't believe that Matthew chapter number seven is limited to sodomites as an interpretation. I think it's just part of the interpretation. So I think one of the interpretations, one of the groups, I think personally that the dogs there is just unsaved people. But if we want to get really specific, some of the worst people to cast that which is holy under the dogs would be sodomites. And they are dogs and they are more likely what the Bible is referencing, the people that would turn again and rend you if you actually did bring up these passages. And where they would actually be very furious with you and get mad at you if you started preaching the Bible to them. This is evidenced by what I call fake Christians going in street preaching at pride events. You know, it's pride month or whatever which is disgusting. But we have fake Christians who believe in a workspace salvation going to quote pride events, defiling their eyes, minds and ears because I don't even want to describe what's going on there. And they're sitting there screaming and yelling with a bull horn, with a shofar. We went to the Texas Rangers game and we're leaving. There's this guy blowing this like 10-foot shofar. It's just like... That does not make me want to get saved by the way, okay. I'm like thinking this guy is a weirdo, you know. I'm embarrassed. Like as a Christian I'm embarrassed that that's what Christianity is today. Or that's what people think Christianity is today. Is someone blowing this weird looking horn at everybody, screaming at them or something. You know, and it's going to the pride parades and screaming at these people and trying to, you know, convert them or whatever. But you know what, many times they literally get hit, stuff thrown at them, their signs torn, people get mad at them. And then of course that's the only reason they're doing it. So then they can put up a video like, Christian persecution. That's not persecution. When you're doing literally the opposite of what Jesus told you to do. Jesus is saying, give not that which is holy unto the dogs, lest you get beat up. And then they're like, look at me I'm getting beat up, according to the Bible. Right, but that was Jesus telling you what not to do. You can't rejoice and go home happy that you got punched by a sodomite because you were getting in his face screaming about how disgusting he is. And how perverted he is. Okay, that doesn't really win you any points. So, you know, when we've had protests and we've had individuals coming and you're screaming and yelling, I'm not going to go over there and try to educate them on the Bible. I'm not going to give that which is holy unto the dogs. That's not really what Jesus is saying. And of course by doing it, I'm potentially putting myself in a little bit of danger of the fact that they're going to get all upset and angry. It's like trying to take food away from a dog. You just don't want to do it. It's a dangerous animal. It's unpredictable. It has no conscience. And so you want to make sure that you're careful with these individuals. Go to 2 Peter chapter 2. I want to go to another explanation of this. Well, how dare you? How are they going to get saved? Well, they're not. So I'm not even worried about it, number one. But number two, you know, when's the last time you even met anybody that was like, you know, I was just walking down the street and someone started screaming at me about the Bible and I just got saved. Like when was the last time that ever even happened? You know how people get saved? Is someone walks up to them and opens the Bible and just shows them gracefully how to be saved from the Bible. Or they come and visit a church service and the preacher preaches a message and they hear about the gospel and they choose to get saved in the service. Or they go to a church and someone after the service shows them the Bible. I mean, apart from those, I don't know very many times when people are getting saved. I mean, I guess you could say like someone watching a video of someone presenting the gospel. But it's pretty much someone just presenting the gospel to you in person, presenting it to you online, preaching a sermon, church service. Show me people that are saved outside of those methods. I mean, there really isn't. It's not like just hordes of people are getting saved from street preaching and yelling and screaming and going around and just making a literal fool of yourself. And the Bible is saying not to do that. Jesus didn't do that. Jesus is not even doing it now. He's going off into a mountain by himself and just the people that followed him get to hear him, get to have to listen to what he has to say. He wasn't forcing anybody to hear the message, folks. He doesn't want to force people to hear the message because we're not supposed to give that which is holy under the dogs. Now, in 2 Peter chapter 2, I think for sake of time I'm not going to necessarily go through this as much as I wanted. But there's something really important you have to understand about 2 Peter chapter 2 is that the context of who we're talking to doesn't change. So in verse 1, it says, But there were false prophets also among the people, even, meaning specifically, as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. So in chapter 2 when we bring up this concept of a false prophet or a false teacher, we never leave this context. This context. And so when you notice in chapter 2 is it will constantly say things like, they, their, them. And of course that's accurate to describe these disgusting freaks because they usually call themselves they and them. But we're still talking about these false prophets. You'll look in verse 2. And many shall follow their pernicious ways. Who are we talking about? Those false prophets. Verse 3. And through covetousness shall they with fainters. Who are we talking about? The false prophets. Now when you get to verse 4, notice it starts with the word for. For for for. That's saying because. And then it gives a little bit of a parenthetical explanation as to what it's talking about that goes all the way down into verse number 9 I believe. I'm sorry. Basically to 10. So 10, if you'll notice in verse 10 there is a period just right in the middle of that verse. That's basically just like some commentary on what we've been talking about. But notice even after, immediately when you're done with the period in verse 10, it says presumptuous are they. Now we're back to those false prophets again. And then it's just going to sit here and hammer just over and over. And I'd love to go through this a little bit more slowly, but you do it yourself. You check it out yourself. Be a breed. Read it yourself. But it's like self-will. They're not afraid to speak evil dignities. Verse 12. But these, as natural as who are these? The false prophets. Verse 12. They understand not. Verse 12. Their own corruption. They're going to perish in their own corruption. That's important. The word corruption there. Verse 13. As they that count it pleasure to riot in the daytime, they are spots and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings, while they, these would be verse 14, they have exercised with covetous practices. So just they, they, them, they, there. Okay. And if we look at verse 17, these are wells without water. Who's the these again? The false prophets, the false teachers. Verse 18. They speak great swelling words of vanity. Who are we talking about? False prophets, false teachers. They allure through much of the lust of the flesh. And it says, they allure through the lust of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them. So this is where sometimes the Bible gets confusing because you start getting all these pronouns. And if you kind of lost the context, you kind of forget. It's kind of like you see those magicians or they have three hats and they put a ball under the hat and then they start moving them around. And if you ever stopped paying attention, then you just forget like where the ball is under the hat. Well, that's sometimes what happened in the Bible. It's like, you know, if you, if you don't pay attention, you kind of lose context where that ball was going with all the theys and the thems. But in verse 18 again, it's those that were clean. This is people that are not false prophets. These are people that are not engaged in their horrible acts. Are saying people who were, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. Meaning people that are actually serving God can sometimes get away from these false prophets. But then verse 19, while they promised them liberty, who's the they and the them? While they, while the false prophets promise those who have escaped them liberty, they, meaning the false prophets themselves, are the servants of corruption. Verse 20, for if after they have escaped through 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. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after they have known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. So in verse 19, while they promised them liberty, that's the false prophets. While the prophets promised other people, promised their congregation liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption. While Steven Furtick promises his congregation liberty, he himself is a servant of corruption. While this Sam YouTube false prophet promises people liberty, he himself is a servant of Ashley Madison and adultery and corruption. While Kenneth Copeland, while T.D. Jakes, while Michael Todd promises liberty, while Joel Osteen promises liberty to his congregation, they themselves are the servants of corruption. While Jimmy Baker, Jim Baker and Tammy Fay, while they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption. This is what the Bible is saying here, okay. And verse 20, for 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. Meaning what? Many of these false prophets like Isaiah Saldivar, I always say Saldivar because he's just so dumb, it's hard to say his name. This false prophet will talk to you about how horrible he was before like getting radically saved. And how he was just a servant of corruption of the world. And through the Bible and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they became free, they became liberty, liberated. Todd White, he'll tell you how horrible he was and how evil he was. And through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, he's become no longer entangled. That's what they'll say, that's what they'll tell you. But what does the Bible say? It says they are again entangled therein and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. Meaning whatever sins they temporarily got away from, they're going to end up being worse in the future. For it had been better for them, than any of these false prophets, to have not even known the way of righteousness, than after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment and deliver it on them. Here's the thing, how do you genuinely get away from wicked sin? How can you be sanctified truly? How can you actually overcome evil in your life? There's only one way, it's actually getting saved. Because when you get saved, you have something transform you from the inside out. And again, that doesn't mean that you ever stop sinning, it doesn't mean that you won't struggle with sin. But if someone were to truly have genuine success over a sin in their life, or to actually have true transformation that's going to last a lifetime, they have to first get saved and actually be a child of God. And so what the Bible is teaching here, is they didn't get saved, they didn't actually get that true transformation, they just recognized, oh drinking is bad, so I'll just stop drinking. Or fornication is a little bit bad, so I'll kind of stop doing fornication. But instead of actually getting saved, they turn from the holy commandment, and now they're going to be even worse. There's this idea like, I can transform my life without Christ. Okay? Wrong. You know what's the evidence of this? Every other religion. Because other religions teach strict adherence to, you know, certain morality. Of like, not lying, or not committing fornication, or not drinking. There's other religions that teach things that are found in the Bible. Even Islam. Islam is very strict on certain things. Specifically, they don't drink alcohol, most of them by practice. They're very anti-whoredom. I mean, they literally have to cover their women in tents, okay? But I'm supposed to believe, then, that Muslim men don't struggle in that area, or don't commit fornication, or don't commit adultery. It's like, if we actually lifted up the tent, we would realize there's a lot of adultery going on there. A lot of fornication going on there. And the reality is, that these false religions are not producing moral, righteous people. Because the only way to have genuinely righteous, moral, kind people filled with charity and love, is a Christian. Only Christians have those true attributes. Everyone else is faking it. And the false prophets are also faking it. And, what does the Bible say? Well, it would have been better if they had never even heard about Christianity. Because, since they heard about the antidote and rejected it, God's going to make it even worse, and punish them even worse. Verse 22, But it happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again, and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. So, the Bible is, and I took a little while to explain that. But, the Bible is basically saying, a dog and a pig are in reference to false prophets and false teachers. So, what I should not be doing is giving that which is holy unto false prophets and false teachers. And, I want to give an application to this as well. Go back to Matthew, chapter 7. Because, I think most people are thinking, well, I haven't tried to get Kenneth Copeland saved recently. And, I get that. But, this is what I see a lot, and I hear honestly quite a bit, is how people will kind of hear about our church, or they'll watch a video, or whatever, and they'll get saved. And, they're going to a Presbyterian church. They're going to a Methodist church. They're going to a Catholic church. And, they're like, man, I've been going around, and I've been trying to talk to my Sunday school teacher, and all the assistant pastors, and I'm trying to win them over and show them how they're wrong on salvation. And, it's like, you're not going to convert the Catholic church. You're not going to convert your Methodist church. You're not going to convert your false prophet and false teacher. You need to get away from them and get into a fundamental Baptist church. Stop trying to waste time converting that which is already reprobate. Why are you wasting time giving that which is holy unto the dogs and unto the swine? You know what? You need to get away from that institution. Now, again, I'm not saying don't try to draw other people with you out of that wicked institution. I'm not saying don't address salvation with people you care about. What I'm saying is some people genuinely think that they're going to turn a Methodist church into a fundamental Baptist church or something. Or that they're going to get their Catholic priest saved or something like that. And it's just like, no, you need to get away from these individuals. And recognize Jesus is saying give not that which is holy unto the dogs. Neither cast you pearls before swine. Lest they trample them under their feet and turn again and rend you. If you start going into a church like that and you're really teaching what the Bible says, they'll pick you up and throw you out of there. They're going to say, like, they're going to excommunicate you, put you on blacklist, whatever. Even, sadly enough, even some other Baptist churches will do this to you. And you're not even trying. They'll say you're horrible and a heretic and you're bringing in false doctrine and how dare you. People say, literally, get people saved, bring them to church to get them baptized and they don't want to baptize them just because they've heard of the new IAB or something. And it's like, they'll email, like, what do I do? How do I fix my church? You leave. I mean, they don't like that answer. But it's just like, sorry. You know, if they're that vitriolic, if they're that, you know, obstinate. You know, my pastor preaches repent of your sins. How do I fix that? Leave. You know, it's just like, I've showed them all the videos and all the things. Like, how am I going to convince them? You're just not going to convince them. You know, and it's sad. It's not like I want that person to be stuck on stupid. It's not like I want this person to believe in a wicked, false religion. But the reality is, if someone's dedicating their life to studying the Bible and they've already seen these verses, you're not going to change them. You got to just be humble enough to move on and say, hey, that person, you know, is wicked. I'm just going to let them alone. Let them be filthy still. Let them be unjust still. You know, a man that is an heretic after the first and second ammunition, reject knowing that he that has subverted and senteth being condemned of himself. He's condemned. Oh, well, don't you want to say they're condemned? Well, Jesus is saying for me to get away from that person. And this is what I find really frustrating about this chapter. I find that while people get mad at me specifically, and I've heard this, like you don't preach on the Sermon on the Mount or you don't preach the nice parts of the Bible or whatever. I'm like, OK, well, I'm preaching the Sermon on the Mount. I would love to hear your sermon on the Sermon on the Mount where you explained what group we're supposed to stay away from. Because you don't like what I said. OK, I would love to hear any of these pastors or preachers get up and explain to me who the dogs are that we're supposed to be staying away from because they usually don't even tell you to stay away from anyone. I believe that the passage is generally about unsaved people, but then specifically we really want to stay away from sodomites and false prophets. And we want to not give them that which is holy, not waste their time with them, not trying to convert them, but just basically saying bye. And that is what Jesus Christ is giving us instruction to do. Now it says in verse seven, Ask and it shall be given you. Seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you? Whom of his son ask bread? Will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your father, which is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him? You know what I like about Jesus? He has no problem just gathering all the disciples together and just being like, hey, you guys are evil. Did you read what I just read? He says, how then can you, being evil, he didn't give a caveat. He didn't say like, well, I know you're not. He just said, hey, all of you guys, you're evil. That's what he said. It's like, you're so mean. Well, what Jesus are you reading? I mean, the Jesus that I'm reading, he's literally calling people dogs. This is the Sermon on the Mount, the one that you think is so beloved and so precious and so sweet and kind, right? He's calling people dogs. He's saying, you're all evil. But, of course, he's saying, how can you even being evil, you're an evil person, but you still have love towards your children. Then how much more does God the Father who's not evil love you? So when your children ask for things and you're giving them good gifts, how much more is it likely that God the Father will give you good gifts? Also, it brings up this idea of asking it should be given you. God, I believe, likes ambition. God likes passion. God likes people with vision. God likes people that want to get something done, that want stuff, that are going to do stuff. And many times he's only holding back, using us and giving us things because we just simply aren't asking, we're not seeking, we don't have a vision. And you know what? People in general even like this. You know, you want to advance in the company, you want to advance in the workplace, you want to advance in your career. Many times the reason you don't have it is because you're not asking for it. You say, hey boss, I want to move up into management. Boss, I want more responsibility. Boss, I want to work more. Boss, I want to get more sales. Boss, I want more of these things. You know what? Many times the only reason you don't have it is because you didn't ask for it. Hey, I want to work my way up. I want to move into this department. I want to do this great thing. You know what? That's how you get up in this world and that's how you get up in the kingdom of God is you ask for it. God, I want to be used. God, I want to do these things. I want children. I want a wife. You know, so many young single men are frustrated by not finding a wife. But here's my question. How many days are you asking God for a wife? And can he give that to you? Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing and obtaineth favor from the Lord. Maybe it's a miracle, but ask for it. I mean, I've looked at some of you. It might be a miracle, okay? I'm just saying, but. But you know what? Here's some good things. A spouse. You know, ask for a good church. Ask for a good job. Ask for a good place to live. Ask for wisdom. Ask for courage. Ask for strength. Ask for patience. In some cases, ask for miracles. In many cases, the reason why we don't have the things that we want is because we're not asking for it. Or, here's another thing. We're not seeking it. It's like I'm over in Timbuktu, hid under a tree, asking for a fundamental Baptist church to be five minutes from my house. Well, that's not going to happen, bucko. But you might have to go seek it. You might actually have to go find it. But you know what? If you really want one, you can find one. If you really want something, you can get there. Hey, you really want the Bible? You can find a King James Bible if you really want one. You can find the Word of God if you really want it. You can find how to get saved. You can find the things that you want, the things that you need. And so it's important that we have desire, ambition that we seek. And again, the latter portion of this is not so much emphasizing anything to us other than the fact of how willing God is to give us good things. If you give your children good food, how much more does God want to give you all the things that you need? Food, clothing, housing, a good place to live, everything that you could possibly want, God wants to give it to you right now. Verse 12 says, Therefore all things whatsoever you would that men should do unto you, should do to you, do ye even so to them, for this is the law and the prophets. This is kind of that, quote, golden rule. I also think you have to be careful here. I don't even think that verse 12 is just in response to the previous few verses. I believe that verse 12 is all the way back to chapter number five. He's giving a conclusory statement. He's concluding an idea. What is the idea? Therefore, in conclusion, all things whatsoever you would do that men should do to you, do ye even so to them, for this is the law and the prophets. Jesus Christ is concluding everything he taught. Think about Matthew, chapter number five. What did he teach? Hey, if someone wants to go one mile, go two with them. If someone wants your coat, give them your cloak also. If someone smites you on the cheek, turn them the other also. What is the concept? Whatever you want people to do to you, you know, you do to them. Right? Being forgiving, being kind, being gracious, letting your light shine. Chapter number six, praying, giving alms, fasting, you know, seeking the Lord. Chapter number seven, not being a hypocrite, not judging people falsely, helping your brother after you've helped yourself and fixed yourself first. Seeking God and getting gifts from God and using those as blessings to other people and he's saying, hey, every single thing that you want from people, you should be giving to other people and doing for other people. This is what Jesus is teaching, the quote, golden rule, do unto others as you'd have them do unto you. Verse 13, enter ye into the straight gate, for white is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth the destruction, and many there be which go in there at, because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. I think it makes sense that in verse 12, he kind of concluded everything he previously taught and now in the end of his sermon, he's kind of addressing the unsaved crowd again. Hey, you want to know what the Bible says? You want to know what Jesus is saying? Love people, love your neighbor as yourself, love God. This is the law and the prophets. I mean, that's basically what he taught, and now he's saying, make sure you're entering into the straight gate. He's really trying to get into this people that are not saved. Hey, you need to understand how to get saved here. And notice that salvation is a few things. Number one, it's exclusive. Salvation is not for everybody. It's exclusive to only those who've entered the straight gate. Number two, it's specific. Salvation is specific. There is not many ways to heaven, but there is only one way. It's a narrow way, and there's only one opportunity to get into life. So salvation has to be exclusive. It has to be specific. And here's the last one that's unfortunate. It has to be not popular. If your salvation message doesn't meet those three criterion, then it's not even the right message. It can't be the right kind of salvation because the salvation, according to the Bible, is exclusive, it's specific, and it's not common. It's not widely accepted. And so universalism, which is an idea of Christianity that kind of generally teaches almost everybody saved in the whole world can't be true. Additionally, there's other views that are similar that kind of almost think like every Christian is saved or everybody that names the name of Christ is saved. But again, that wouldn't really meet this criteria either, would it? Not being in the context of here being the few. Few there be that find it. So in order to be accurate when it comes to salvation, we have to understand that there is only one way, a narrow way, that is exclusive and is not very popular. Verse 15, Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. You should know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire, wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. This is an interesting passage, and I do want to kind of emphasize this while we finish here, but I want to go to a couple of places just to help you understand this passage a little bit better. Keep your finger and go to Matthew 12 for a moment. He makes it abundantly clear that a good tree cannot produce corrupt fruit, neither could a corrupt tree produce good fruit. That's important to understanding what we're talking about because there's a lot of strange interpretations of this passage or misapplied interpretations of this passage, but I believe when you look at a couple other portions of Scripture that talk about the exact same thing, bring up the exact same concept, it's a little bit clearer what we're talking about. Matthew 12 verse 33 says, Either make the tree good and his fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt, for the tree is known by his fruit. O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things. An evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment, for by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. How will you judge someone? You can judge someone by their what? By their words. Why? Because what do the words indicate? What's going on in their heart? Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. And notice in this passage, he even says in verse 34, How can ye, notice this, being evil speak good things? Meaning how could a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit? It's impossible. It's impossible for a corrupt tree to bring forth good fruit. Go to Luke chapter number 6. Go to Luke chapter number 6. So when we look at this in Matthew chapter number 7, I think the Bible's really clear when you study this in all the passages that we're talking about is what people say, is the words that they use, okay? And what they teach, what they believe, okay? And it also emphasizes again in Luke chapter 6, look at verse 43, For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit, neither doth the corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. For every tree is known by his own fruit, for of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh. So again, if we just let the Bible kind of speak for itself here, it's describing that the good tree has a good heart, an evil tree has an evil heart, and what comes out of the heart is the things that the person says, and so how we can identify the good trees is what comes out of their mouth, and how we can identify the bad trees is what comes out of their mouth. Now go back to Matthew chapter 7, here's the thing. This is already accepted by all of us because 99% of all false prophets that we believe is based on what they teach. I mean if you were just to say like, hey, do you think that this Catholic priest is saved? You would say no, and it's like you've never even met the person, you don't even know their name, you don't know what street they've lived on, you know nothing about their personal life, and I would say why? Well he teaches work salvation, and you'd say yeah, but you know what? That Catholic may be very conservative, he may have a nice wife, they may have several children, they, on an outward appearance, may seem to be very conservative and kind and nice, he may be a good neighbor, and he comes to you and presents himself as a sheep, and he has sheep's clothing, but here's the problem. Inside, if you were to say how do I go to heaven? Well then you're going to have all this corrupt fruit coming out of his mouth, and you're going to recognize this person's not saved, and the vast majority of our world is not new I.B. I don't know if you know this. The vast majority of people in this planet are not fundamental Baptists, and the vast majority of people that are sincere and decent people are being misled and being deceived by false prophets, by the Catholic Church, by the Protestants, by Joel Osteen, Kenneth Copeland, I mean 99% of all people, even higher than that, we all recognize this person's not saved based on only one criterion, one thing, what do they teach about salvation? I mean that is how we identify 99% of all false prophets. Now there is of course this special canine, special breed of dog named Judas, where they can parrot the right thing. They can lie and say the right things about salvation, but that's not the vast majority of false prophets in this world. That is a rare special breed, and the most people in this world are not being misled by a Judas. The vast majority of our world is being misled and going to hell because of the Pope, because of Kenneth Copeland and T.D. Jakes and Joel Osteen and all these other wicked false teachers. So in Matthew chapter number 7, what Jesus is addressing is the Pharisees and the Sadducees and your Catholics and all these other people out there that are teaching work salvation, teaching damnable heresy, teaching works as a means of salvation, Calvinism, whatever other junk and garbage you want to label out there, that's what he's warning. And he's saying these people will look good on the outside, but you know what, they're actually wicked on the inside. That is what Matthew chapter number 7 is really warning about. Now again, I think sometimes because of our history or some of the things that have happened where we've just had an anomaly of Judases or we've had like a bunch of crazy weirdos try to infiltrate our churches, we sometimes try to interpret every passage in that light, like where we just think every passage is about Judas Iscariot or something like that, but that's just not really what is in view of Matthew chapter number 7. It's not really addressing the Judases. That's more 2 Peter chapter number 2. That's more Jude. That's other passages of the Bible that address what a Judas is like because here's what a Judas is like. A Judas, you say, how do you go to heaven? Oh, it's just by faith. Can you do salvation? Nope. You're like, okay. And then you start talking to this person a little bit more. And they're like, yeah, actually there's a difference between someone who believes in Jesus and someone who believes on Jesus. You're like, what? Yeah, I mean, have you not seen? And in fact, if you read the Bible, the Bible says, do you see this passage where it says the disciples didn't believe on Jesus? All of them were unsaved. I'm like, that's not what believe means. Here's the thing. Even the Judas, when you start listening to him and you let him explain to you how salvation actually works and a lot of the passage of the Bible, you'll start recognizing this guy's not saved either. So I think all of the people that are unsaved, you could find out with their words. That's why it's important for them to be quiet. And almost every one of these infiltrators that has ever come into one of our churches or we've exposed later, how did we end up recognizing they were bad? They end up starting slipping up and saying weird stuff. And they started saying that you're just like, that's not what the Bible says here. And they start teaching weird things and they're mixing stuff. Why? Because they're not actually saved. They don't actually really understand the Bible. All they learned was just, probably want a cracker. Selfish my faith. But they don't actually believe it. They don't understand it. They don't have the Holy Ghost. And so whenever they have to get up and teach, it's really dangerous. And you'll also notice this about false prophets and Judas Iscariots. They will have meticulous notes. And they just like read them like a script. Because they're terrified of just extemporaneously speaking because they don't actually understand what they're saying. So they have to use a detailed, like there's a guy named Gerrit Kirsch where they used to go to Favourite Baptist Church. This guy, he would refuse to preach unless he had like a full 24 hours to prepare. And he would say like, he'd have to sit there and, he'd like preach a sermon like four or five times before he'd actually preach it. Because he just wanted to make sure he knew what he was saying. And it's like, I wonder why. I wonder why. It's because these people don't know what they're talking about. Imagine if I brought you and I said, hey, you get an opportunity tomorrow. You're going to speak in front of NASA on how rockets are put together. Would you want to have some meticulous notes? Yeah, because you wouldn't know what you're talking about. And the only way to even fake it would be for you to do a ton of research and cram and study and just use a bunch of buzz words and just kind of put a lot of word salads together and then just get up there and just kind of, this is why most of the false prophets, their sermons just sound like word salads. It's like, God's going to open a door in your life and you've just been sitting there with that door closed and you need to realize that he's knocking and if you would just turn the knob, he'd be there to turn the other side of the knob and then he would just open unto you and then it would just be the experience of a lifetime. Wow. You know, applause. This is like, it's like great swelling words of vanity. And isn't that what it said in Second Peterchap number two is how we identify one of these bad people? Is they just say stuff and it's meaningless. You're like, you didn't even say anything. You didn't communicate anything. It was a complete uncertain sound. And so I believe it's very clear that in Matthew chapter seven, when we talk about verses 15 through 20, we're talking about identifying a false prophet based on what they say. Now, what would be a direct application of this? Well, if I can't preach the gospel successfully because I don't understand it, if I'm teaching work salvation, how many people do you think I'm going to get saved? Zero. It's never going to happen. It's impossible, isn't it? Isn't that what it's saying? That a corrupt tree cannot produce good fruit, meaning that no one's going to go into the Catholic Church and the Catholic priest is going to accidentally teach salvation by faith that day and accidentally get a bunch of people saved and be like, wow, it's just in the Catholic Church and then I just realized it was salvation by free and it was just by faith and you can't lose it. It's like that never happens. It never will happen. And here's another thing that won't ever happen is you, as a saved person, you're not going to go around and teach people about Kolob. It doesn't matter how backslidden you get. It doesn't matter how much into sin you get. You're not going to go around and start teaching people how to become a Mormon. You're not going to just slip and teach people how to become a Catholic. You're not like, well, I was on John 3.16 and I got nervous and then I was just like, salvation is my works. What does it say? It's the same thing. It's like a good tree cannot produce corrupt fruit. Okay. And this is an important concept because this is what people teach about Matthew 7 is they'll say, oh, well, if you're not cleaning up your life then you're a false prophet because a good tree cannot produce corrupt fruit. But wait a minute. Can't every saved person sin? I can sin. If you don't think you can sin, you can leave, all right? I mean, in no way what the Bible's teaching here that the fruit is your actions or how much sin you have in your life or something like that because that's impossible. That's an impossible standard. But what makes sense is how you as a saved person you'll never teach work salvation. And someone who's not saved is never going to accidentally teach how to get saved. Okay. Now, again, if we draw that out and we put that into real life application what would we notice about people that are saved? They're getting people saved. And what would we notice about people that are not saved? They're never getting anybody saved. And so another way to extrapolate from this passage would be the idea or the concept that those who are the true genuine preachers of the Bible they're going to have converts. And the people who are not preaching what the Bible says and are preaching false doctrine they're not going to have converts. And you can even do this sometimes. You could go to a church and when everybody in the congregation is teaching work salvation you can just basically put it in the bank the preacher is preaching work salvation. And when you're going and you're knocking on doors and every single person at that church is saved you can pretty much just put it in the bank that pastor is saved. You know, at least the one that was the most influential. Obviously if they just got a brand new pastor we don't know about him yet. He could be a bozo. He could be a jack scop, right? But it's like, hey, if literally everybody going to Hyles Anderson is saved and believes salvation by faith alone it means that Jack Hyles was a good guy. I mean, just case closed. And if you go and you knock on the doors of everybody that goes to John MacArthur's church and they all believe in work salvation well it's just case closed. John MacArthur's not saved. Now again, I believe that and I believe that from this passage you can teach that. But I also want you to understand that I believe this passage is the primary understanding what it's really emphasizing is what people say. And then from there we can draw out other conclusions and make clear statements and good doctrine from that. Saved people are getting saved people saved and unsaved people are not getting anybody saved, right? Why? Because they don't ever preach the right gospel and that's what Matthew 7 is bringing up. And then of course look at verse 21 to even further confirm what we're talking about. Not everyone that sayeth unto me. Think about what he did. He just brought up these false prophets identifying them and then he's saying, wink, wink, nod, nod, let me explain something to you. Not everybody that sayeth unto me Lord, Lord shall enter in the kingdom of heaven but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. So what is it saying? There's many people that use the name of Jesus and Lord and God and the Father and they're not saved. Which is what he just warned you about. There's many Catholics, Protestants, Methodists, Presbyterians and sadly even Baptists that say Lord, Lord and they're not entering in the kingdom of heaven. Why? Because they've not done the will of my Father which is in heaven. And then it gives an example of what these people are like. Verse 22. Many will say to me in that day Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name have cast out devils and in thy name done many wonderful works and then will I profess unto them I never knew you depart from me ye that work iniquity. Let me ask you this question. How did you determine whether these people were going to go to heaven or hell? Did you visit their church? Did you visit them in their life? Did you check their converts? What is it that you use, what information did you use to determine the people that we just read about whether they were saved or unsaved? Is it what they said? It is exactly how we determine who's right and who's wrong is based on what they said just like he was explaining in the previous passage of scripture about verses 15 through 20 hey, we're determining people based on their fruit what's their fruit? The fruit of their lips what's coming out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh and what are they saying? We've done many wonderful works and this is a great test to check someone's salvation. It's not my number one or anything like that whenever I'm confused about somebody and they can't seem to really give me a clear answer and I've been talking to them a while sometimes I just take them to a passage like this and I'll just say why is it that these people aren't saved? and they're well, they didn't have enough works well, they didn't live a good enough life then the whole passage just went over like this and they might not be saved because it just seems like they don't understand whereas someone that says well, they were trusting in their works and it's like, oh this person actually understands what salvation is then they actually get it this is where you can kind of catch the Judases sometimes because they don't understand these kind of passages and so oh, this person was trusting in their works they never trusted in Christ that's why Christ said and then I will present them, I never knew you depart from me, ye that work in equity it's kind of like celebrities everybody knows a celebrity but the celebrity doesn't always know you and when it comes to Jesus Christ yeah, a lot of people know Jesus but he doesn't know everybody else he doesn't know in reciprocation every other person and so those who have not believed in Jesus he doesn't know them they're not his sheep, they're not his children, they're not of his fold and they'll be cast in the lake of fire in fact, they're literally not in his book in the Lamb's Book of Life you're not on the list, bro you show up to the event, sorry you're not getting in Jesus is exclusive, remember there's a straight gate and in order to get in that gate, you gotta get your name on the book and the only way to get your name on the book is to believe in Jesus Christ salvation is by faith alone it's not by being good he just explained in the last few chapters how you're not good enough how you don't have enough righteousness the only way to go to heaven is through him and the only way to go through him is to believe in Jesus Christ now, he gives us another great passage here for the sake of time, I'm not gonna preach it but I'll just read through it it says therefore whosoever heareth these things of mine and doeth them I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock and the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell not for it was founded upon a rock and everyone that heareth these things of mine and doeth them not shall be likened unto a foolish man which built his house upon the sand and the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and the rain descended on that house and it fell and great was the fall of it and it came to pass when Jesus did any of these sayings the people were astonished at his doctrine for he taught them as one having authority and not as a scribe now, verses 24 through 27 can be a whole sermon in itself, of course but, let's revisit one concept I already brought up previously remember how in 2 Peter chapter number 2 the false prophets they kinda cleaned up their lives a little bit but then they ended up being worse off that was them building their house on sand and they didn't really get the rock which is salvation by Jesus Christ and so whenever there's any kind of pressure or any kind of really strong temptation they just crater because their house is built on sand their Christianity is built on sand it's a fake Christianity whereas when you build it on the rock it doesn't matter what comes against you you can keep standing against all of the evils of this world all the protesters all the protesters all the persecution all the threats and so that's why it's important to truly be built on Christ and of course at the end of this it makes a really important statement as well that it says when Jesus taught he taught the people in a way that astonished them why? because he taught as having authority and not as the scribes what does it mean he taught them as one having authority I think that we could misunderstand this very easily and think well Jesus is of course God so he has ultimate authority so he gets to teach these things the way he did because he's God and a lot of people have this attitude well Jesus can say that but I'm not Jesus or well that's what Jesus said but you're not Jesus and they basically try to strip authority away from the preacher or the power of God's word because you're just not Jesus and what this is emphasizing is him teaching them as one having authority notice what it says it doesn't say for he taught them having authority for he taught them as one having authority meaning what? just the way he spoke that's what's being emphasized not the fact that he has authority but the way that he taught being dogmatic, being specific being clear being a certain sound and not being like the Scribes and the Pharisees which gave an uncertain sound like Michael Todd getting up and saying well I don't know about gender I don't know if there's A, B, C, D, or E or whatever as opposed to just saying thus saith the Lord God created them male and female teaching as one having authority meaning what? when someone gets up to preach the Bible they shouldn't give an uncertain sound how can you be prepared for the battle when someone's giving an uncertain sound and you know what? we're in a battle Ephesians tells us that we have armor of God what do you need armor for if you're not in a battle? we're in a raging battle for the culture of this country we're in a raging battle for the spiritual direction of our nation we're in a spiritual battle for the souls of men right now and we need people to get up and preach as one having authority and not sitting up here and saying I don't know what the Bible says I don't know what dogs means me and all my college friends we just sat around and read Leviticus 2013 and we're just not sure what it's saying and I've just wondered for so long what does it mean? it's like you faggot it means put fags to death that's what it means how dare you say like that you're not solving America's problems are you? and you know what? there's two kinds of people there's people that are offended by the word fag and there's people that hate fags and you know what? I know which one I am and the reality is we're not going to save our nation by this milk toast fake watered down type of Christianity we need preachers to get up and preach with authority and not their own authority, the authority is saying this is right you know what? I'm getting mad about this phrase I'm sorry I'm going to preach for another minute I get mad about this phrase elections have consequences you know why I'm mad about that stupid phrase? is people in America genuinely think the problem with our country is that we voted Biden into office and I'm thinking like, no the problem with our country is not that we voted Biden into office, the problem with our country is that we don't say this is true that's the problem with our nation Biden is a symptom our country is in decline as a symptom of the fact that we won't adhere to the King James Bible that we as God's people aren't saying this is right because if you want to fix America it's not putting the right person in office it's all of us just saying this is right and we're going to do what this says that's the starting point and then when we start opening passages like Leviticus then we can be like, well we already decided this was right we're not arguing whether or not this is right that was established this is right and you know what, you see throughout history you read the Bible you recognize when nations actually fix themselves it's when they started there and said, you know what, this is right when King Josiah said you know what, this is right and we're going to do whatever it said about all of our problems because right now, we're doing what democracy says about our problems democracy will never fix our nation democracy is evil democracy is allowing the devil to tell us what to do we have to get rid of democracy and say this is right because right now it's like, well what does the vast majority of the people want does the vast majority of the people want men in women's locker rooms? okay, no we don't, so okay we'll get men out of women's locker rooms what about gay marriage? oh well, you know, they're not hurting anybody we'll keep that one what about, you know, just sodomites existing? well, you know, that's okay I mean, 51% of America says that's okay well I don't care if 99% of America says that's okay this says put them to death and everybody's kind of wondering how do we fix our nation? how do we fix all these problems? what do we do about, you know, drag queens and all the child molestation and what do we do with all the things that are going on? it's like, we just say this is right this is right this is right what do we do about AIPAC? this you say, how's that going to fix this? well it says get rid of usury that'll get rid of a lot of them fast you know, maybe just clean out the sewers every once in a while that'll get rid of a lot of them you know, I mean it's just so frustrating to me how so many people, they just think like, the symptom is the cause and not recognize the reason why our country is being flushed down the toilet in every way possible is because people don't like this well, I think if we get Biden out of office and we get Trump in office, our nation will be better okay are Southern Baptists going to like what this says now? are Methodists going to like what this says now? are Catholics going to do what this says? I mean, Donald Trump who said Caitlyn Jenner can use whatever bathroom it wants that's the kind of nation you like? that's the kind of country? I mean, you think that our country is going to be blessed by God just because we put Donald Trump in office? I mean, you're just you're just deluded you don't even have the right mindset and again, I'm not saying like, let's go vote for Biden people get confused and they're thinking like, well how are we going to fix our country? how are we going to fix our nation? well you know what, this is the only way it'd be like, well how are you going to get to heaven? can't we try just doing the rosary? it's not going to help what if I give up some sins? still not going to help you get into heaven there's only one way to get to heaven and look, there's only one way to fix a nation there is one way well what if we compromise and just vote the lesser of two evils in? that's not going to fix our nation the only thing that will fix our nation is us being salt and light and for God's people to get back to the word of God and to trust what it said and to say hey, let's be built on a rock instead of the shifting sands of this wicked leftist communist satanic agenda and our country is so much more communist than you really can perceive and it's not just because of democrats republicans are communists too buddy Thomas Massey did an interview with Tucker Carlson and he said every republican has a buddy at the AIPAC that tells them what to do every republican well I think if we get the republicans in there we'll do what AIPAC wants how is that going to help? like you're just you're just down the wrong tunnel buddy this is the only tunnel this is the only path forward this is the only light Jesus Christ already thought, and you know what this nation is trying to build itself on sand we need to be built on a rock unshifting this or we'll crumble, or we'll be destroyed and you know what, I think that's what's going to probably happen because people don't want this but you know what, I'm not going to hide behind the real solution this is the only solution let's close in prayer thank you Heavenly Father so much for giving us the rock for giving us the Lord Jesus Christ thank you for the motivation so simple and so easy thank you for also giving us the word of God so that we could understand how to live our lives I pray that we would let the words of Christ sink deep down into our ears that we would be motivated to go out and preach the gospel and to get many people saved that we wouldn't waste their time giving that which is holy under the dogs and that we wouldn't turn to we wouldn't turn to solutions that are never going to actually make a difference in this world I pray that you would actually motivate people's hearts, minds, and energies and efforts towards getting people back to being saved using the King James Bible trusting it to pointing to the only real solution for any nation for any country, for any state for any church and I pray that you could help use us as a bright and shining light to get other people to trust the Bible and to turn back to you and in Jesus' name we pray, amen Alright, in closing, let's go to song number 133 Song number 133 Safe Wherever I Go We're going to sing it twice together Song number 133 Everybody sing it out together Safe wherever I go Peace the world may not know Sin's all forgiven in heaven my home I'm safe wherever I go Safe wherever I go Peace the world may not know Sin's all forgiven in heaven my home I'm safe wherever I go Great singing everybody, we're all dismissed