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

Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Good singing, let's open up in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you for this evening. Thank you for our church. Just pray that you would bless the singing and worshipping of your name this evening. Pray that you would help us to sing with understanding in our hearts and love for you. And bless our pastor as he gives us the message tonight. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Alright, for our second song, let's go to number 15, lead me to Calvary. Number 15, lead me to Calvary. Song 1-5, lead me to Calvary. King of my life, I crown thee now. Thine shall the glory be. Lest I forget thy warm brown brow. Lead me to Calvary. Lest I forget Gethsemane. Lest I forget Thine agony. Lest I forget Thy love for me. Lead me to Calvary. Show me the tomb where Thou wast laid. Tenderly morn and wept. Angels and rogues of light arrayed. Gardeny miles now slept. Lest I forget Gethsemane. Lest I forget Thine agony. Lest I forget Thy love for me. Lead me to Calvary. Let me, like Mary, through the gloom, Come with a gift to thee. Show to me now the empty tomb. Lead me to Calvary. Lest I forget Gethsemane. Lest I forget Thy agony. Lest I forget Thy love for me. Lead me to Calvary. May I be willing more to bear daily my cross for thee. Even my cup of grief to share Thou hast borne all for me. Lest I forget Gethsemane. Lest I forget Thine agony. Lest I forget Thy love for me. Lead me to Calvary. Our church stats down below. On the right, a list of several expecting ladies. And then we also have our prayer list. If you'd like to be added, you can always e-mail us. Upcoming events, February 24th, there is the next preaching class. And then April 9th through 10th is the Verdi Baptist Church Next Generation Youth Rally. There is one other event that's on the horizon that I did want to mention. I guess there's going to be kind of a mini Shreveport Sewing Marathon that we're going to be doing March 23rd. And Brother Malcolm was saying something about having some kind of a crawfish boil or something. So I don't know what that is exactly. It sounds scary to me, so no, I'm just kidding. But yeah, if it doesn't moo, it's probably not good. No, I'm just kidding. I was like, you're really from Louisiana, you can tell. You know what I mean? Man, crawfish. But no, that's just something I want to throw out there. We'll probably put it in the next bulletin and we'll have a sign-up sheet if people want to participate. That is Saturday. It's about a little over a month from now. And Shreveport's just a great opportunity to go soul winning. It's about three hours from here, so it's not even that bad. You can do it as a day trip. Get out there in the morning, come back by the evening. There's also places to stay if you'd like to stay out in that part of the world, but it's definitely, for the United States, it's got to be one of the more receptive places to go soul winning. And so just throwing that out there. And on the back, we have the announcement about the Chamley baby, Phoebe Henrietta, born on the 17th, 5.29 a.m., weighing 10 pounds, 12 ounces, and measuring 21 and three-quarters inches long. Also, yeah. Also, Titus Judah Warner was born on the 17th, 8 pounds, 9 ounces, and 21 inches long. Congratulations to them. I know we also have some of our church members in the Philippines right now. They have a soul winning marathon, I believe, with Pastor Stuckey and his church and his group. And so just be in prayer for our soul winners that are over there in the Philippines and just all our other brethren. Definitely a lot of work is being accomplished over there, and we just want to pray that everything goes smoothly for them. That's pretty much all I have as far as announcements this evening. We'll go ahead and sing our Psalm of the Week, Psalm 147, there in your special handout, Psalm 147. All right, Psalm 147. Praise ye the Lord, for it is good to sing praises unto our God. For it is pleasant and praises complete, the Lord doth build up Jerusalem. He gathereth together the outcasts of Israel. He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds. He telleth the number of the stars. He calleth them all, He calleth them all by their names. Great is our Lord, and of great power, His understanding is infinite. The Lord lifteth up the meek, He casteth the wicked down to the ground. Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving, sing praise upon the heart, but to our God who covereth the heaven with cloud, who prepareth rain for the earth, who make it grass, grass to grow upon the mountains. He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry, be the light not in the strength, but the force be taken, not pleasure in the legs of a man, the Lord take him, pleasure in them that fear him, and those that hope in his mercy. Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem, praise thy God, O Zion, praise the Lord, O Jerusalem, for he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates he hath blessed. High children within thee, he maketh peace in thy borders, and in filth with thee. With the finest of the least, and in forth is no bad wind, up on earth is word, but in very swimming he giveth. Snow-like jewelry, scattered with the poor frost, like ashes, scattered in the poor frost, like ashes, he cast it forth, his eyes like warm, souls who can stand before his cold. He sendeth out his word, andounteth, then he causeeth his wind to blow, and the waters flow, we show with his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation, and ask for his judgments, they have not known them, praise he the Lord. As the offering plate is being passed around, please turn your Bibles to John chapter 3. John chapter number 3. piano plays softly piano plays softly John chapter 3, 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 flashes, 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 everyone 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 hated 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 testifyeth, and no man receiveth his testimony. He that hath received his testimony hath set 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, I pray, Lord, that you would open ears in the room and soften hearts as well to receive the preaching of your word. I pray that you would bless the sermon this evening and enable Pastor Shelley to preach with boldness and with clarity of mind. And we also pray for safety as we go our separate ways afterwards. We love you, and in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. So I wanted to do a sermon that's kind of based on a series idea. I don't know that I'll necessarily preach them every single week, but I'll kind of come back to this series concept. And the series concept is the idea of throwing out the baby with the bathwater. And so it's kind of a series just on throwing out the baby. And what I kind of want to talk about is some controversial or really bad doctrines, but then how sometimes I feel like we end up throwing the baby out with the bathwater. And what I want to talk about this evening is the false doctrine of lordship salvation, of lordship salvation. And here's the thing. Lordship salvation, I believe, is a satanic doctrine. It is a false doctrine. It's not true. But what I feel like sometimes happens as a response to lordship salvation is we sometimes maybe throw the baby out with the garbage bathwater of lordship salvation. And so what I think is important is to address some of the claims and some of the verses and some of the passages that may be brought up by someone who believes in lordship salvation and maybe get a better understanding of where they're coming from. Now I say this because whether you're really coming to this idea from a lordship salvation perspective or a repent of your sins perspective, I find that it's basically the same. I feel like these people are using the same verses, the same talking points, the same illustrations. And I think that there's a lot of people who are saved but have bad doctrine on these issues or are mixed up on these issues. And I think that sometimes it's easier for us to just think that anybody who uses the wrong phrase just automatically unsaved or something. But I think that that's unfortunately not fair because we live in a very confusing time. We have a lot of false doctrine, a lot of false teachers, a lot of bad churches. And as a result of that, I think it's confused a lot of people. It's caused a lot of bad teaching to arise. And for us, we have to be the ones who do the hard work, the dirty work of essentially separating the babies from the dirty bathwater and trying to help people grow on these issues and not necessarily fall victim to the satanic tool or device called lordship salvation. So I give a little bit of an intro. I want to go to this passage here, this pretty famous passage, verse 18. The Bible says, 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 loved 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. So here in the text, the Bible makes it clear that salvation is by faith. I mean, John 3.16, John 3.15, John 3.18, I mean, it's just faith by faith. But then it kind of gives an explanation here about people not getting saved. And notice what it says in verse number 19 again. It says that men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. So this shows that there are some people who love darkness. It shows that some people who love sin, who love evil, who love things that are wrong and wicked, and as a result of that, according to the text, they decide not to come to the light, that they hate the light, and the main goal, the main purpose of them not coming to the light is what? Lest their deeds should be reproved, meaning that they don't want to understand what they're doing is wrong. They don't want to hear that what they're doing is wrong. They don't want to be corrected on their sin issues. So I think as a result of a passage like this, and there's a few others that I want to go to this evening, but I think as a result of a passage like this, people will then kind of come up with this idea of lordship salvation or a repent of your sins type salvation, where they say, oh, see, these people, they weren't willing to give up their sins, therefore they're not saved. And this is where I come to the idea of throwing out the baby with the bathwater because, number one, you don't have to give up anything to be saved. The Bible's crystal clear that salvation is a free gift. The Bible makes it clear in Romans chapter number four, but to him that worketh not, but believeth. His faith is counted unto him for righteousness. The Bible's crystal clear that salvation is not having anything to do with our works. But here in the text, it's saying there's some people that they're afraid of having to repent of their sins or give up sin or being told that they're doing something wrong, and as a result of that, they don't get saved. So how can both of these be true? Well, we want to actually reconcile the text. You know, the night's more of a Bible study night. You know, Sunday nights where we want to dig into the text a little bit more. We don't want to be intellectually lazy and then just not necessarily reconciling what the Bible says on these issues. We want to do the hard work of understanding them and then making them simple to then apply to other people and to teach other people really good truths in the scripture, okay? Now, I want to go to some more passages before I really explain this, but go to 2 Thessalonians chapter number two, 2 Thessalonians chapter number two. I think we all, for the most part, can understand just what the text is saying. We might not understand what it means or how to reconcile it, but the text seemed pretty clear that there's some people that they don't like the light. The Bible says they hate the light. The Bible says that these individuals love darkness. The Bible says that these individuals don't want to be reproved for their sins. Now, this kind of makes me think of another passage, 2 Thessalonians chapter number two. The context of this particular passage is very clearly about the Antichrist and the return of Christ. Now, again, we have to be fair here because John 3 is for sure one of the clearest and most consistent passages of its context being about salvation. I mean, it is a go-to passage for salvation. Verses 15, 16, and 18 I use almost every single time when I go soul winning. So it's not fair to say, oh, you're taking these passages out of context. They're not really about salvation. It was about salvation. I mean, we can't say that what we read wasn't about salvation because it absolutely was about salvation. And 2 Thessalonians chapter number two, while the main context of this passage is about the return of Christ and the coming Antichrist and end times, I believe a certain section of it is dealing with salvation too. And I want to talk about these verses. Look at verse 8. And then shall that wicked be revealed, talking about the Antichrist inhabited by the devil, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming, even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and science and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness and them that perish because they received not the love of the truth, but saved. So this is definitely, while the main context isn't about salvation, it's at least talking about salvation here. And it's talking about some individuals choosing not to be saved. What was the reason why they didn't get saved? According to the Bible, it's because they didn't have a love of the truth. They didn't love the truth. And as a result of that, they didn't receive the truth. They didn't believe the gospel. And because they didn't believe the gospel, they didn't get saved. Verse 11. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie. Notice the reason why they didn't get saved is because they didn't believe the truth. And then if God wants someone to not get saved, what does he do to them to cause them to not get saved? He makes them deluded in their mind. He makes them believe dumb things. He makes them believe lies, okay? This is very consistent for us that understand the reprobate doctrine, that that's what God does to people when he reprobates them, is that he warps their mind, that their mind becomes deluded and they start being delusional, like thinking that they're literally a woman in a man's body. There's nothing more delusional than that. I mean, there's nothing more delusional than a man chopping off his most special privy member in the thought that he's literally a woman to then be taken advantage of by men and acts as sodomy. There's nothing more delusional than that, folks. I mean, that is the epitome of delusion. And the only reason someone does that is because they hate God so much in their heart that God gave them a delusional mind. It's a punishment for having rejected the basic truths that God gave them. They now become so delusional that they are just a reprobate brute beast as the Bible describes. So there's no way, like, it's just incredibly, how many pastors will get up and say like, oh, it's normal and we've got to love these people. It's like that person is destroying themselves. Like, there's an obvious manifestation of the wrath of God in that person's life. And we, of course, are going to avoid those individuals, okay? But the same is applying here. Notice, you know, it didn't say, like, to make sure that they don't get saved, God made sure that they would just keep sinning a lot or something. You know, it's not like, well, the reason why they didn't get saved is because they were just sinning too much or God was making them sin too much. It's because they can't believe right. It's because their mind isn't right. Because your mind has to be right. It has to love the truth. Now, it says that they believe a lie, verse 12, that they all might be damned, notice this, who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Now, we all, again, agree that salvation is by believing the truth. It's by believing the gospel. Notice what the Bible itself contrasts the person who does not believe with. He says very clearly that there's a group that doesn't believe. Why? Because they had pleasure in unrighteousness. You know what would be another word? How about loving darkness? How about loving evil? How about loving sin? So isn't it fair if someone were to say, I think the Bible teaches that people won't get saved because they love sin too much. Well, haven't we read two passages that pretty much, like, point blank said that? I mean, I'm not getting up here and trying to be dishonest with the text. I want to be honest with the text, and you can see how people then get confused. And it's not even like we're going to obscure, like, Zachariah or something. We're not, like, going to Ezekiel and trying to figure out how salvation is something by works or something. These are passages dealing with salvation and saying very clearly that there are individuals who are not believing the truth because of a love for sin, okay? I'm just telling you what the Bible says. Now, I want to go to a few more places. Go to Luke chapter number six. Go to Luke chapter number six. Lordship salvation. Now, again, I want to make it clear. It's a satanic doctrine to teach what a lot of lordship salvation people will teach. And they essentially teach that in order to be saved, you have to, quote, make Jesus Lord of your life, okay? Or they basically will insinuate that salvation is a process by which you have to follow all the commandments or repent of all your sins or do all these works, essentially. And it's so confusing. And they'll say, well, I'm not teaching works salvation, but if you don't have works, you're not saved. But wait a minute. Have we read a passage that said that if you don't have works, you're not saved? No, we didn't read any passage like that. All we've read is that people who love sin a ton, a lot of times they won't get saved. Or a reason why people don't believe the truth is because they love sin too much or they love the darkness too much. That's all we've read so far. It hasn't taught that those who are saved just have an abundance of works or something. That was never even mentioned. That was never even brought up, okay? It's just simply saying a big reason, or even, you could argue, the main reason why people are not getting saved as a result of loving sin, okay? Now, it says in Luke chapter 6, verse 46, this is often a passage that's brought up by lordship proponents, and why call you me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Now, this is true. This is true. Like, why in the world would someone call Jesus Christ the Lord and then not do the things that he says? But here's what a lot of people will say. Oh, because you have to make Jesus the Lord of your life in order to be saved, and then they'll go to a passage like this. But what is this context? Let's study this context for a moment, okay? Let's look at verse number 43. The Bible says, For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit, neither does 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 of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh, and why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? So what Jesus is saying is, essentially, when it's a good tree, it can only produce good fruit, and if it's an evil tree, it can only produce evil fruit. And then he kind of brings up this perplexity. So then why in the world would you call me Lord, and then not do the things that I say? Well, let me explain that really easy. They're a hypocrite, okay? That's how easy it is. The Pharisees loved to give lip service unto God, but they didn't do the things that he said. Okay? And look what it says in verse 47. Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will show you to whom he is like. He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation, built an house upon the earth, against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great. Now, let's think about this, because we're saying, well, what's the context of this passage? What is this actually meaning? Think about it this way. When we think about a foundation, and I'm not going to go into all the passages, but what does the Bible often refer to as the foundation? The foundation is Jesus Christ. The foundation is believing the gospel and getting saved. So he contrasts the people who do what he said with the people who don't. The people who do what he said, what did he say? They're built on a foundation. The people who do not do what he said, what are they built on? No foundation. So when he says the people that are not doing what he said, you know who those people are? People who do not believe the gospel at all, who are never even saved. And then as a result of not being saved, what happens? They're destroyed, meaning their lives are ruined, meaning their lives are worthless and meaningless and there's no benefit for them. Whereas the person who builds his house on the rock, he's saved and nothing's going to ever destroy him. Now, if you build a tiki hut on the rock, you're still saved, you just kind of have a garbage house. Or if you build a mansion on the rock, you're still saved, but then you have a nice house, right? And the Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 3 that some people are just going to build wood, hay, and stubble on their foundation, but they're still saved. And then there's people who, you know what, built a really nice eternal reward structure on that rock and of course they're going to reap the benefits of building on that particular rock. But I think what he's trying to really get across, I mean think about it, this is the early part of Luke, he's trying to help people understand that the Pharisees aren't saved. He's trying to help them realize that the Jews aren't saved. And what is the big controversy? They say, Lord, Lord, they say good things, but they're not really saved. And ultimately, a good tree is going to produce good fruit and an evil tree is going to produce evil fruit. Of course, that's saying, from the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh, meaning someone who's saved will only ever give the right gospel. And someone who's not saved will only ever give the wrong gospel. And it's impossible for this to ever mix. The person who's saved is never going to become a Mormon and teach you Mormonism. And the person who's not saved is not going to accidentally get you saved. He's not going to just accidentally teach salvation by faith alone as a free gift and here's how you believe in Jesus Christ. He's just not going to accidentally do that. The Mormons don't just randomly, every other door, switch up their gospel presentation and start giving the right gospel or something. They're always going to only ever preach a corrupt fruit. And those who are good will only ever go out and preach the gospel and get people saved. Like, no matter how sinful all of the soul winners are in this room, I mean, even if people start getting divorced and doing drugs and doing whatever and they get thrown in prison, their prison mate's going to be like, do you know how to go to heaven? I mean, that's what's going to happen. And no matter what happens, no matter how nice the Mormon guy is, he's just never going to tell you how to go to heaven by what the Bible says. But here's what I will say. Both will say this, I love Jesus. The Mormon will say I love Jesus. The Baptist will say I love Jesus. And they'll say that he's their Lord, right? But then why do you not do the things that he says? Right? I mean, if Jesus is your Lord, wouldn't you think you would have gotten the most basic, simple, believing in Jesus Christ right? I mean, you would have gotten that one right. So here's the thing. This passage does not prove lordship salvation, because no passage proves lordship of this, all right? But it doesn't really lend itself to anything that we've even talked about so far. I believe when you understand this passage in context, it just really isn't in play. But again, a lot of lordship salvations are kind of just cherry picking all these verses. So I'm just trying to be fair. Let's just go to some of these passages. Go to Matthew 25. Go to Matthew 25, and then we'll kind of explain this. Matthew chapter 25. Now, if we take, though, what we learned from Luke 6, what is one thing that we learned? A good tree is only going to produce good fruit. And that a corrupt tree is only going to produce corrupt fruit. I believe this extends itself beyond the gospel to the point of also in the essence of those who are saved are going to do godly, righteous things, and those who are not saved are not going to do godly and righteous things. And we'll look at a few more passages on that later, but that's just the reality. Of course, those who are saved and understand the truth and have the light, they're going to walk in the light. And the people that don't have the light and are in darkness, they're going to keep walking in darkness. They're not going to, again, do the right things. So then you get a parable like Matthew 25, and it often gets twisted. But look at verse 31. The Bible says, When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with them, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory. And before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divided the sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the king say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, for I was hungered, and ye gave me meat, I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink. I was a stranger, and ye took me in, naked, and ye clothed me. I was sick, and ye visited me. I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee and hungered, and fed thee, or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in, or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the king shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, and as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Then it says in verse 41, Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, cursed in everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels, for I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat. I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink. I was a stranger, and ye took me not in, naked, and ye clothed me not, sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or a thirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, and as much as ye did it not, to one of the least of these ye did it not to me. And thee shall go away into everlasting punishment with the righteous and to eternal life. Now again, I even remember as a child reading these passages and thinking like, oh man, do I have to like visit people in prison and like do these things or I'm not gonna go to heaven? Because you can kinda see how just on the surface it kinda sounds like that. But I think what we have to do is we have to be careful because number one, he's not talking to an individual. He's not talking to an individual. He's talking to two large groups of people. And as a whole, one did a certain group of tasks, and as a whole, another group did not do a certain group of tasks. Now here's the thing. Do you really expect me to believe if you just took all the people in the world, you took every single person, and you took all of us that believe salvation by faith and you put us in a group, and then you put all the people that are not saved in a group, that we would see like these people that are not saved have never gone to prison ever. They've never visited a single person in prison. They've never given food to a single person. They've never clothed a single person. That would, of course, not be true. There's lots of people that are going and visiting their girlfriend and boyfriend and whoever in prison all the time. There's mafia bosses visiting. There are people in prison. It's not like they just never make prison visits or something. This is the key to understanding this passage is when he's explaining who he did it to, verse 40, And as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, you know what he's saying is that all you that are not saved, you never visited one of those people. And you know what? Those people are going to say, hey, when did we visit you? And you're like, you didn't visit me, but you visited him. And he's like, well, yeah, I visited him. I visited some of my saved brothers and sisters. So it's like, here's the thing. The people who are saved are going to minister unto the saved. And the people who are not saved don't minister to the saved. Meaning, you know, the people that give money to our church, it's not a bunch of atheists and the alphabet mafia that are donating money to our church. You know, when I go out soul winning and I knock on doors, it's usually not the rainbow flag door that offers me water. You know what I mean? It's usually not the weirdos and the freaks. It's the saved people that are the ones that are wanting to offer you water and do good unto you and to help you and to bless you. And of course, why would they do that? Because you're coming in the name of Jesus. Right? If I just randomly go and knock on people's door, Christians aren't going to just necessarily offer me water or do whatever. If I just go out there and just say, hey, I'm selling roofs. They're going to be like, hit the road, Jack. Right? But if I come and I say, hey, I'm here with the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm here with the Bible. We're Christians. We're Baptists. And they're like, oh, let me bless you. Let me do good unto you. You know what they're trying to do? They're trying to bless whom? Jesus. That's who they're trying to do. That's what this passage is saying. He's saying, hey, there was a group of people that were trying to bless Jesus Christ, and those are the ones that are, you know what, the saved, and the ones who are not trying to bless Jesus Christ that never did any good. They are going to go to hell. Why? Because, of course, one group does things by faith. The other group does things by sight. Right? Hey, if I had seen Jesus, I would have helped him. If I had just known that I was supposed to help him, I would have done it by obligation. But the people who are saved, they were just helping people because they knew that was right. They were just blessing people. They're walking and living by faith. And then, of course, Jesus Christ is saying like, hey, I take that personal. You know, in the book of Acts, when the apostle Paul is encountered by Jesus Christ, he says, why persecutest thou me? He didn't, you know, here's the thing. Paul, or Saul, you know, whichever one, it's the same guy, okay? Saul didn't, you know, ever hurt Jesus. He never did anything to Jesus. But you know what he was doing? He was persecuting Christians. And Jesus takes it personal. Jesus takes everything personal. Isn't that cool? Like, hey, if you bless a Christian, Jesus takes it personally. If you hurt a Christian, Jesus takes it personally. And you know, when he talks about little children, the ones that believe in him, he gets really upset when you hurt a child that believes in Jesus Christ. Or when you offend a Jesus Christ believer, you know what, he wishes that person had a millstone tied around their neck and they were cast in the depth of the sea. That's what the Bible says. So again, what we're learning from this passage is not necessarily that you have to do works to be saved, but let's just be honest, the people who are saved are the ones doing the works, and the people who are not saved are not doing works, okay? Generally speaking, this doesn't mean that all of us went to prison and all of us fed somebody and all of us gave a water bottle. You know, it's just basically saying that in general, us as a group, we're the ones that were doing these type of activities, those of us that were really saved. Now, I want to go to Acts, chapter number three, go to Acts chapter number three. So, just to kind of summarize what we've learned, we've learned that essentially those who get saved, they do truth, the people who don't, they hate truth. They love darkness. In 2 Thessalonians, we learned that the reason why people don't believe the truth is because they had pleasure and unrighteousness. In Luke chapter number six, we learned that people that are not saved are hypocrites and they may give lip service to the things of God, but in reality, they're not believing, they're not doing the works, and then specifically in Matthew 25, the people who are not saved aren't doing the works, the people who are saved are doing the works. That's been pretty consistent so far. Now, some people would say, oh, well, here's the thing, you have to repent of your sins in order to acquire salvation. You have to give up sin. And I think that some people, if not a lot of people, are just really confused on this doctrine and so they label it repenting of your sins. And they're trying to teach that there's some different, there's like when you read John chapter three, 18 through 20, that that's somehow repenting of your sins, like you have to give up a love of sin or something. But first of all, the Bible doesn't use the phrase repent of your sins, nor when it uses the word repentance is it really bringing that concept up. And so I think it's also important to understand what repentance is before we kind of address these issues. But in Acts chapter number three, look at verse 17, it's gonna bring up the word repent a lot in the book of Acts. And look what it says in verse 17. And now, brethren, I woteth that through ignorance ye did it as did all your rulers. He's talking to Jews saying that they killed Jesus. Verse 18, but those things which God before had showed by the mouth of all his prophets that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. Verse 19, repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord, and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before you was preached unto you, whom the heaven must receive until the time of restitution of all things. So here in this passage, he's saying you guys crucified Jesus, you rejected Jesus. So you know what, I know you did it in what? Ignorance. But now, verse 19, repent therefore, meaning change your mind on who Jesus was, realize he really was the Messiah and the Christ, and if you change your mind, you know what will happen? Your sins will be blotted out. Okay. Does he say here, hey, you guys need to quit drinking. You guys need to quit fornicating. You guys need to quit avoiding church. You need to tithe more. You need to quit having bad thoughts. He doesn't bring that up. He's simply saying you've got to repent and be converted by what? Changing your mind about Jesus, because that's what saves you, is changing your mind about Jesus, and specifically the gospel, because that's what he's bringing up. Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. You have to change your mind about the gospel and believe the gospel, and that's what saves you. That's the moment of salvation. It's consistent in the book of Acts. Go to chapter 11. Go to chapter number 11. Consistently they bring up this word repent, and this is what I'll hear preachers get up and yell and scream, Jesus preached repentance, and Paul preached repentance, and Peter preached repentance, and they just keep saying that. I'm like, okay. I'm not against the word repent, and it is in the Bible a lot, but what does it mean, and what does it say when it's brought up in these passages? You know, it's like, Jesus said repent and believe the gospel, and I'm thinking like, yeah. Yeah, change your mind and believe what Jesus said, you know? It's like, do it, okay? He didn't say, like, give up drinking. Plus, you know, think about that verse in the Bible where you have to say repent and then all the sins that you would have to repent of. That's a long list, right? And you'd think, like, well, it's just all sin or sins. It's like, well, then why didn't one time the Bible just say that? Like, wouldn't you think if God wanted us to be saved and it was necessary to repent of your sins to be saved, God would have at least said it once? Like, wouldn't there be at least one time? I mean, if this is the most important doctrine you have that your church and your eternal salvation is hinged on, wouldn't you think the phrase you would use would be found in the Bible itself? But then it's just not there, right? Acts chapter number 11, look at verse 17. For as much then as God gave them the light gift as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, what was I that I could withstand God? When they heard these things, they held their peace and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life. Now, here's the thing. The context of Acts chapter number 11 is how the Apostle Peter went unto Gentiles who are considered unclean and it's against the law to be around them. And in fact, most of the time, especially in the Bible when it talks about Gentiles, it just calls them sinners. Like, he's like, the sinners of the Gentiles, or we're not like the sinners. It just often just refers to Gentiles as just sinners. Now, if someone needed to repent, in the Bible, it was Gentiles because they're sinners. They didn't have a problem admitting we're sinners, okay? It's the biggest sin field that we have out there, okay? It's a sinful group. But notice, he's saying, you know what? They did the exact same thing that we did. What was the exact same thing that we did? Well, in verse 17, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, that is what's contrasted with the repentance unto life. Repentance unto life is believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. He's saying, hey, just like we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and that gave us salvation, we're glad that these Gentiles did the exact same thing. And the reason why they concluded that they had been saved is because they had spake with tongues as they were given utterance by the Holy Ghost. And they're saying, well, if they're speaking tongues by the Holy Ghost, then they have to be saved. Why? Because a good tree can only produce good fruit. So if someone's preaching the Gospel in a foreign language by the power of the Holy Ghost, they're saved! Right? I mean, how could you look at these people glorifying God and preaching a Gospel in their own language through the power of the Holy Ghost and not say that they were saved? So they're identifying that the people that are saved are what? Producing good fruit, that fruit is evidencing that they got saved. But you know what it doesn't say is that, hey, these people gave up drinking. They're obviously saved. These people gave up this wicked sin so they're saved. No, no. It was the fact that they were able to preach the Word of God through the power of the Holy Ghost and they're preaching the right Gospel. That's why they were saved, because they believed in Jesus Christ. That's why they were saved. Go to Acts 19 and look at verse 4. Now, it gets even clearer here. This is another passage on repentance. Acts 19 and verse 4. I don't know what's going on. The devil doesn't like this message. No, I'm just kidding. I don't know. All right. I might have to change channels after this sermon. Acts 19, look at verse 4. Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people that they should believe on him which should come after him. That is, on Christ Jesus. And when they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. So again, notice that repentance, this is the clearest one. It's defined as believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. There's nothing in the Bible that teaches that you have to repent of your sins to be saved. That's number one impossible. If you have to repent of your sins to be saved, you might as well just accept and embrace hell. I mean, that's the reality. If you really have to... Like, according to the Southern Baptist Convention's doctrinal statement, it says that you have to genuinely turn away from sin. I'm just thinking, like, wow. How prideful of a person do you have to be to say that you literally did that. That you've literally turned away from sin. And not just turned away. Genuinely turned away from sin. So does that mean that your church has zero sinners in it? Like, how does that even work? Like, what does that even mean? So, obviously, that's not true at all. Go to one more place. Go to Acts chapter 26. I want to look at one more here. Acts chapter 26. So, you know, we need to confront people on this and help them realize that if they believe in lordship and salvation, they're wrong. Like, it's not even a questionable doctrine. It's not even, like, maybe it's true. I mean, it's definitely not true. Acts chapter 26. Look at verse 20. The Bible says, But shewed first unto them of Damascus and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance. Now, here's the thing. Of course, we want people to repent and turn to God, meaning that they get saved and they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then, after that, what do we want? We want them to do works meet for repentance. What is the word meet? Suitable or appropriate? Meaning that now that you are saved, now that you have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, we want you to then do works. But why would you be commanded to do works after you've gotten saved if it's automatic? No. And why is it considered appropriate? Because you could do inappropriate works after getting saved, too. You could have works that are not meet for repentance, meaning people who get saved and they still live a wicked lifestyle, or still do wrong. And you know what? That's what the Bible is constantly, you know, hammering in the epistles of the churches is people that do works meet for repentance and not doing the bad works, not giving Christ's name and embarrassing shame for your sin. Okay? Because, of course, we can be a bad example for Christ. We can bring embarrassment to the cause of Christ. Through our sin and through doing bad works. That's why we should have works meet for repentance, meaning that they are appropriate. This would make no sense if you automatically do the works. Or if you had to start already doing all the works before you even got saved, that would mean there would be just like, well, duh, we're going to do meets. You know, works meet repentance, we're already doing them. You know, we've already been doing them. That's what God has saved, you know. No, you do the works for repentance afterwards because, of course, that is appropriate. That's what we're supposed to do. Go if you would to 1 John 3. So, I just have some simple points or simple ideas or simple thoughts about what we've talked about that I want us to not throw out, okay? When we talk about lordship salvation. We want to throw lordship salvation in the trash. We have to get rid of the dirty bathwater. But let's not throw a certain baby out with it. And that baby is the fact that people who are saved love the truth. People who are saved love the truth. I believe that you have to have at least some kernel, some little something inside of you that loves truth enough to get saved. Those who don't love truth will not get saved, okay? And that's what we saw consistently in these other passages saying the reason why they're not getting saved is because they loved darkness or because they loved evil or because they had pleasure in unrighteousness and they don't want to believe the truth because they don't love truth. And 1 John 3 is kind of a more difficult passage in the Bible. It's arguably one of the more difficult passages of scripture. But I think when you kind of slow down, it makes it pretty clear. Look what it says in verse 7. Little children, let no man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. Now isn't that consistent with what we've taught? People who are doing righteousness are saved and they're the righteous, okay? What does it say? He that committh sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was 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. So, number one, if you're saved and you're righteous, you know, it could be evidenced through you doing righteousness. And of course that person does love the truth. They accepted the truth. They got saved. But then it contrasts this idea of someone who's sinning is of the devil. Now, again, this is where work salvationists and false teachers and everything love passages like this, especially in modern versions, because they're going to try and make this distinction between all of us that some of us are sinners and some of us are not. That's not true. There is a distinction in Matthew 25. What was the distinction in Matthew 25? What was he saying? You guys don't sin. You guys sinned. Nope. It was you guys are doing righteous acts, loving the saved and blessing the saved. You guys aren't blessing the saved. This is two different distinctions. You know what he would have said to the sheep, though? You still guys sinned. You guys still didn't deserve heaven. You guys still broke the commandments, because everybody broke the commandments. The distinction in Matthew 25 is not you guys stopped sinning and you guys just kept on sinning. No. One group is doing righteousness. The other group has never done righteousness. Okay? So then what does he mean here when he says he that committed sin is of the devil? Because that would be everybody. Well, notice what it says in verse 9. Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin. Here's the thing. Not everybody is born of God. How do you become born of God? By believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. You know what that also references? We're not talking about your flesh, because your flesh was not born of God. You had to be born again. And what was born again when you believed in Jesus Christ, that new man inside of you, he cannot sin. So this is what it means in Romans 7 because Paul says it's no longer I that sinneth, but it's sin that dwelleth in me. He's saying like I'm not the one doing wrong. I'm not the one sinning anymore because the real Paul inside is born of God and he cannot sin. It's impossible to sin. He's never sinned. He never will sin. But the old man that sinned inside of him in his flesh, he sins all the time. That guy's wretched. Oh, wretched man that I am. That's what the Apostle Paul says about himself. But at the same time, he also says that he can't sin. How does that work? Because when you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you have the new man and then you have the old man. But this is where the Lordship Salvationists get even worse. I'm going to use my phone for a second because I don't carry all these wicked versions around with me. Let me read for you verse 8 from the ESV for a moment. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil. Now, here's what's stupid about this. I've never practiced sin a single time in my life because you know what? I just sinned. I didn't ever like, you know, go home and be like, nah, I want to lie today so I'm going to practice on this lying. You know what? When the chance came, I just lied. Right? I wasn't like, I'm going to practice trying to have a bad thought. I just had bad thoughts. You know, I just stole. I just did wrong. I just did evil. I wasn't trying to practice it or trying to see how. I just sinned. What a stupid doctrine to say that there's people practicing sin and there's people not practicing sin. Okay? Because I've never practiced sin. I don't think anybody practices sin. We just sin. Okay? We don't need practice. No one needed any practice. We're really good at it without any practice. Okay? But that's what the modern versions want to say because then they want to try and teach this lordship salvation, that there's this group of people that are not practicing sin and then this group that's practicing sin. Look, you're all sinning. We're all sinning. That is not what the passage is saying. What the King James is saying is accurate when it's saying, hey, when you're born of God, you cannot sin, meaning there's no way to sin whatsoever because you've been born of God, because you have that new birth. That's what the passage is really saying. So it gets twisted into a false ideology. Well, the Bible's really clear here, though, that people who essentially are of the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest. Look at verse 10. 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. So it's really clear who's of the devil and who's of God because those who are God, they love the truth and they're doing righteousness. The ones that are never doing righteousness and don't love the truth, they're not of God. And notice what the passage says, though. In this, the children of God are manifest. What does manifest mean? Obvious. It should be obvious who's saved. It's not always obvious, you know, when we talk about unsaved people that are the hypocrites and stuff like that, but the people that we just have a lot of confidence in that are saved, it should be obvious that they're saved because they have the right gospel, they're soul-winning, they're getting people saved. I mean, it just becomes just so obvious, like this person, it's manifest that this person's a person of God because look at his works. You know, someone like this would be like, Pastor Steven Anderson. It's manifest the guy saved. Why? Because I literally run into people all the time that tell me he got them saved. Right? Pastor Roger Jimenez. It's manifest that the guy is saved because he's doing righteousness, he's getting people saved, he's baptizing people. You know, and then it's obvious that T.D. Jakes is an unsaved faggot, okay? You know why? Because he's gay. That's why. The guy looks gay. It's been caught. I mean, two of his sons are like open sodomites, and then another son, the other son got caught by the police, an undercover police officer for soliciting a police officer for sodomite acts. Not only that, there's all these rumors of him with P. Diddy and all this stuff, plus he's changed his doctrine on it, plus he sounds like a faggot, plus he believes in oneness theology. I mean, the dude's a fag! It's obvious! If you hung out around T.D. Jakes for more than five minutes, you'd realize the guy's a faggot. He's a flaming queer. You were gonna share this sermon with someone and then you're just like, I can't, I'm just kidding. But it should be obvious, okay? It's super clear who's of God and who's not of God. But then there's so many people that think that T.D. Jakes is good. Why? Because they're in darkness. Because they're in darkness with those who are also in darkness, and they believe in a lordship salvation. And this is where I want to kind of just, you know, kind of tie this together and help you make sense of these passages that we brought up then, okay? Because here's what I believe the Bible is trying to say in John chapter three, just go back there, you know, we'll kind of go back to land this plane, is that by loving sin, you become resistant to the gospel, okay? Now, think of it this way. Many of us, you know, we have a lot of experience soul winning, and when you go soul winning, you'll knock on a door and someone will open the door, and as soon as they realize you're there for church, or you're a Baptist or whatever, they just slam the door, they're not interested, they don't want to hear anything that you have to say. I mean, who experiences that when you go soul winning? Oh yeah, everybody, okay? That is the person we're talking about in John chapter number three that does not want to what? Have his sins reproved. He's afraid of hearing what you're going to say, and he doesn't want to hear how what he's doing is wrong. He doesn't want to hear that his lifestyle is sinful. He doesn't want to make a change in his life, and as a result of that, he ends up just slamming the door, not being interested. If you think about it, who were the most resistant to the gospel? It was the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Why? Because they would have to realize and learn that what they've been doing is wrong. The apostle Paul was a very humble man and being willing to recognize everything I've done is dung, it's all trash, and I have to count it dung that I may win Christ. So he had to sacrifice a lot of pride and he had to recognize that his past was worthless when it came to salvation. Why do a lot of Catholics not get saved? Because they'd have to recognize that all the time they spent being a Catholic was wasted. And they'd have to recognize that a lot of the actions they do are sinful, because Catholics live very sinful lives. They really embrace a lot of sin, and as Baptists, we don't. Catholics, you can be a Catholic and be a raging alcoholic. I mean, in fact, they'll drink alcohol in their services. I've been to a Catholic church twice in my life that I can remember. One of the times, it was a kegger, okay? It was bizarre. I'm just thinking, I'm at a Catholic church? What are they doing here? I just couldn't even believe it that they just have kegs of beer everywhere in their fellowship hall. It wasn't even like maybe people are getting drunk, it's like everybody's drunk. And I'm thinking, why are we at church, the Church of Jesus Christ, and everybody's drunk? And then, of course, what happens when people get drunk? They get drunk, way worse sins. All kinds of other things are said and done and experienced and everything else. I mean, Catholicism is a wicked religion that leads people down a dark path, okay? And why do a lot of people not want to talk to you? Because they don't want to hear how Catholicism's wrong. They don't want to hear about how their family's wrong. They don't want to hear, they don't want to know that what they're doing is bad. They don't want the light to be exposed and shined on their lifestyle. And again, it's not so much that they have to make any changes to be saved, it's just they don't want to hear about it. They don't want to know, they don't want to be exposed to what's the truth. Because when they get exposed to the truth, oh, I guess I'm wrong. I guess I'm wrong on this issue. I guess my lifestyle's wrong. I guess these things that I've been doing are wrong. And so by loving sin, it makes you more resistant to the gospel. Notice what it says in verse 20. Meaning, people who are very sinful are just not going to just say, you know what, I think on Sunday morning I'm going to go to Steadfast Baptist Church. It's just not going to happen. It just doesn't happen. The people that usually come here are drug here, okay. Sometimes physically, you know. They say it's a cult, I'm just kidding. It's like people are just, you know, knocking the door open. And of course there are institutions, there are churches where people will just stumble into, but it's because they've been lured in there thinking it's not going to be church at all and they've been told it's not church and it's not church. You know, it's a Super Bowl party or whatever. They're going to go watch Taylor Swift or something. You know, it's like, that's not church, okay. So I get it that, you know, they weren't afraid to show up there because it's a nightclub. They're just going to club and drink beers at the Catholic Church, right? So there's an element of this that's true. But what it doesn't say, and what I don't believe this text is saying, is that someone who loves sin can't get saved. I don't think that's what it's saying. What I believe it's saying is it's saying someone who's loving their sin and in their sin is not going to seek out the truth. They're not going to seek out the light. They're not interested in the light. They're kind of afraid of the light. They're afraid of the light being shined on them. They're nervous about what's going to happen. And so as a result of that, they basically withdraw themselves, okay. I'll go over to Romans, chapter number 10 now. Go to Romans, chapter number 10. So here's the thing. Where lordship salvation is wrong is in the fact that you have to be willing to give up sin or stop sinning in order to be saved. Neither of those are true. But what is true is that a lot of times people are not wanting to have their sins exposed, and as a result of that, they just don't hear the gospel message. They kind of are afraid of church or they're afraid of what someone would say at church or they're afraid of these things, okay. And a lot of them will literally slam the door when you knock on their door or you try to talk to them because they're just afraid of hearing what the Bible's going to say, what God's going to say. They're afraid of having to be confronted with the truth because they just don't love the truth. But you know there are some people who really like sinning, but somewhere inside of them they have a love for truth. Just somewhere in there they still just want to know what's true even though they struggle with sin a lot and they like sin a lot and they even like the darkness, okay. And these are the people that we can still go after and win. Look what it says in Romans chapter 10, verse number 20, But Isaiah is very bold and saith I was found of them that sought me not. I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me. But to Israel he saith all day long I stretch forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people. So here's the thing. In Romans chapter number 10, the Bible says that the Gospels found a people, notice number one, did not seek out God, and number two, did not even ask for it. Meaning what? They were loving the darkness, they were hiding in the darkness, they were afraid of the light. But you know what? The light just came on their doorstep and just confronted them anyways and then they said, well, that's true. So I'm going to believe it. And they got saved. It's called the Gentiles, folks. The Gentiles weren't beaten down The Gentiles weren't beaten down Israel's door. The Gentiles weren't begging Israel how to be saved. You know what? The apostles had to go into those areas and into those cities and into the highways and the hedges and had to compel them to believe the gospel and you know what? That's what got people saved. You know, when I read John 3.18, it's not telling me, oh, you know, we just need to have people repent of their sins to get saved. You know what it's telling me? I need to get off my rear and go out there and bring the light to someone that's afraid of it. And you know why they're afraid of it? Because they don't understand it. Go if you went to John chapter 1. Go to John chapter number 1. John chapter number 1. This is where, again, people are confused on this and it's important for us to understand these passages. Look at John chapter 1 and look at verse number 5. And the light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehended it not. Let me ask this question. Do you have to repent of any of your sins to be saved? No. Do you have to give up any sin to be saved? No. But here's the thing. The unsaved don't know that. The unsaved don't comprehend the light. They don't understand the light and they're afraid of the light and they're nervous of the light. And so you know what we have to do is we have to come and bring the light into the people. Think about it. Someone that lives in darkness doesn't know what light looks like. They don't understand the light. And there's so many teachers and so many churches out there that are not sending out the light and they just keep puffing themselves up with this lordship salvation and it makes people not get saved. Lordship salvation is a satanic doctrine to stop people from getting saved because it's saying, you know what? We need people that are in the dark to clean themselves up in the dark before they can come to the light. No, no, no. We go to someone that's in the dark with the light and say, hey, do you want to see what you look like? And of course, some people are just going to say no, right? But a lot of people, they were afraid. They were like, I didn't know if I should even go over there. But since you're here, yeah, I do want to know the truth. Yeah, I do want to see what the light says. And then they get saved. You know, when I understand this doctrine, when I understand John 3.18, it doesn't make me want to go soul wanting less. It makes me want to go soul wanting more. It makes me want to bring the light to people, and it makes me want to empathize with people that are confused on salvation because of course they're confused. They're in darkness because they went to the Catholic church and they've been taught that they have to clean up their life to be saved because they went to a false teacher or a false church or a bad church that's constantly telling them lies and telling them they have to give up all their sin to be saved. And you know what? They're so confused and jaded and they hate that that they don't want to hear the gospel. And you know what we need to do is we need to have the boldness to confront people on salvation. That's why we believe in confrontational soul winning. Of course, we're not trying to be mean. We're not doing anything illegal. We're not doing anything to be an annoyance. But we are willing to have an uncomfortable conversation with someone and say, if you die today, are you sure you go to heaven? And then the more important, more confrontational of that, why do you believe that? Or what do you think is going to take you to heaven? Or hey, do you think it's by faith or faith in works? And they say works, and you say, well, you're not saved. That's confrontational. But you know, it's beneficial to tell someone in the darkness, you're in darkness, bro. Come to the light. Come to the glorious light of the gospel. And of course, those who then come into the light and recognize, hey, I've got dirt all over me. Well, God willing, they'll start taking some, they'll try to get some of that dirt off of their life, right? They'll actually have works meet for repentance. But I'm not going to expect someone to clean themselves up in the dark. I am going to expect you in the light to start cleaning yourselves up and to try and get better. And you know, that's why we have church where we preach really hard against sin. But you know, when we go out and preach the gospel out there, we're not going out and these repent of your sins preachers on the street corner, these lordship salvationists on the street corner screaming at people about how sinful they are. They got it. We need to bring them the light. We need to bring them the gospel. And of course, this lordship of salvation, it of course is catered to false teachers, right? I mean, obviously the satanic, the unsaved, infiltrators, bad people. But I think that there's a lot of saved pastors and a lot of saved Christians who are getting sucked into this doctrine. And the reason why people get sucked into this doctrine is because of laziness, two lazinesses. Number one, pastors and people are too lazy to read the Bible and understand hard passages. Instead of just trying to understand the hard passages and reconcile the Bible, they just end up giving into a false doctrine. They end up just catering to bad language and they'll use terms like repent of your sins and lordship salvation and make them the lord of your life and use confusing language. And you know what? It's because they're intellectually lazy. It's because they're spiritually lazy and they don't want to actually use biblical language. And as a result of that, it also caters to the laziness of just not wanting to go out and preach the gospel. And so those who are too lazy to read the Bible and too lazy to actually go out and preach the gospel, they often get sucked into a lordship salvation or repent of your sins gospel. And you know what? We need to help those people wake up and realize, hey, you know what? That's not a right doctrine. And I think what I hope to accomplish with this sermon is to equip you with how to understand a few of these passages because there are sincere people out there that will say, yeah, but what about this passage? What about the fact that they don't love these things? Yeah, here's the thing. I believe everybody who's saved loves the truth. And I believe those who are doing righteousness are righteous. But I even hear King James only people being like, what about practicing sin? Well, that's not in your Bible. That's in the extremely satanic version, okay? That is not in the King James Bible, okay? No king authorized that, all right? The God of this world is behind that version, okay? And I also hope to motivate you to realize we need to be bringing the gospel to people and confronting them on the light because a lot of times they're too nervous or too scared to hear what the Bible says on these issues. I don't think that someone who loves their sin can't be saved. I hear preachers get up and say, you can't love your sin and get saved. I don't believe that. I believe you can. But you know what I don't think? I don't think someone who loves sin will knock down your door and ask you how to get saved. I don't think someone who loves sin is gonna stumble into our church. I don't think someone who loves sin is gonna be the easiest salvation. But I do think they can get saved. And you know what? Lordship Salvation is saying, don't even minister to those people because they love sin too much. Don't even try to tell them how to be saved by the gospel because they have to stop loving their sin before they're gonna be willing to get saved. You know, I went soul-winding with a church and they said, we won't even give them the whole gospel. We'll just kind of give them a sampler and then if they come to church, then we'll give them the gospel. And I'm like, that's wicked. Hey, give the harlot the gospel. Give the drunkard the gospel. Give the sinful people the gospel when you're out there and get them saved. Then help them to clean up their lives later. Don't try to do it the other way. But you know, let's be honest. This Lordship Salvation, there's nothing wrong with then after getting saved trying to have the Lord rule your life, not being a hypocrite. I mean, we sang this song earlier this evening, Lead Me to Calvary, and one of the lines, it says, King of my life, I crown thee now. That sounds like making Jesus the Lord or the King of your life, doesn't it? But you know what? That's because we're saved and we want him to rule in our hearts and our minds and our lives. So you know, there is some terminology and language that's thrown out there with Lordship Salvation. There's passages that they throw out and you know, there's some truth in there. We want to make sure to try to rescue the baby and believe the Bible, believe the sections of the scripture, understand them, and then get rid of all the dirty bathwater and say, hey, you're right. A lot of people do love sin and they're not going to get saved. But it's not because they didn't repent of their sins. It's because you didn't bring them the gospel, you lazy jerk. That's why. It's because you didn't open up your mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. It's because you as a light bearer were covering the light and not showing the light to those people. That's the reason why they're not going to heaven. It's not because they just love sin too much. It's because you're too much of a coward to preach the gospel. And you know what? I'm not trying to excuse people like John MacArthur. That guy's a devil. That guy doesn't get up and just use confusing language. That guy explains that salvation's a hard, lifelong process and is damning people to hell, okay? But I do think there are people that are getting sucked into his language and his heresies, and they need to be called out and brought back into the right gospel. And you know what? We need to emphasize soul winning. Of course, every doctrine of the devil is going to want to do something, destroy soul winning. And what we need to do is get the right doctrines because every right doctrine will lead back to soul winning. Hey, I'm not afraid of John 3.18. I'm not afraid of 1 John 3. I'm not afraid of Matthew 25. Hey, I love the difficult passages in the Bible. And when you have the correct understanding, it'll confirm the right doctrines. It'll confirm salvation by faith alone. It'll confirm eternal security. It'll confirm the fact that salvation was a free gift and you had nothing to earn it. But there is the truth that many people love sin a lot, they love darkness, and they don't want to hear it on their own. You have to go and confront them. You have to go out there and make it known to them that they didn't even ask for it. They didn't seek for it. You know, the people who seek for it, praise God for them. The people that just love the truth and they just sought God and they just got saved, they're going to stumble through the door and they just want to hear it. And you know what? God bless those people. But I also want to reach the people that don't want to be reached, that aren't that interested, that aren't going to necessarily realize the goodness of God's grace and the goodness that's being offered to them. Don't expect someone who's in darkness to understand the light. And let us that have a bright and shining light, this King James Bible, let us go out there and educate our friends and family members and try to win people over on the right doctrines because this Lordship of Salvation is stopping soul winning. Not just us, but like other people. They're not going soul winning because they're sucked into this. Let us help them get out of it. Let's close in prayer. Thank you Heavenly Father so much for our church and for the Gospel. Thank you for giving us so much light. I pray that we wouldn't take for granted the light that you've given us. I pray that we wouldn't get a heart at heart towards those who are not saved. I pray that we would realize that at one point we all walked in darkness. At one point we were all confused. At one point we all misunderstood. And we're so grateful for those who brought us light. I pray that we too would have a love for others and we would go out and preach the Gospel. We would send the light. And that you would help us to reach many people and get them saved. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Alright, let's finish out the evening with song 45, When I Can Read My Title Clear. Song 45, When I Can Read My Title Clear. Song 45, When I Can Read My Title Clear. Sing it out together. When I can read my title clear to mansions in the skies I'll bid farewell to every fear and wipe my weeping eyes and wipe my weeping eyes and wipe my weeping eyes I'll bid farewell to every fear and wipe my weeping eyes Should earth against my soul engage and my regards be heard Then I can smile at Satan's rate and face a frowning world and face a frowning world and face a frowning world Then I can smile at Satan's rate and face a frowning world That cares like a wild deluge command storms of sorrow fall May I but safely reach my home My God, my heaven, my all My God, my heaven, my all My God, my heaven, my all May I but safely reach my home My God, my heaven, my all There shall I bathe my weary soul in seas of heavenly rest And not a wing of trouble broke across my peaceful breast Across my peaceful breast Across my peaceful breast And not a wing of trouble broke across my peaceful breast Thank you all for coming. God bless. You are dismissed. .