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Amen, we're in Romans chapter 4, some great truths there, Romans 4, we're going to look at just the first several verses again in Romans 4, Romans 4 verse 1 said this, What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, have found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath way off to glory, but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is a reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness, even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is a man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. The title of my sermon this morning is The False Gospel of Potter's House versus Grace Through Faith Alone. The False Gospel of Potter's House versus Grace Through Faith Alone. I'd like to pray before we get going with a message. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you, Lord, for the gospel. Thank you for how clear the gospel is, Lord. And Lord, just how amazing the gospel is, how it's grace through faith alone, Lord. It's the only way anyone will ever be able to be saved. Lord, it's grace through faith. There's nothing else that anyone could do to earn salvation. Lord, it's just putting their trust in you. Lord, please help me to preach this message that I've been thinking about for a little bit now in a clear and accurate way. Help me to do it in the right way, Lord, and in a way that people will just be reminded, assured, you know, have their strength, their faith strengthened, Lord, by this truth. In Jesus' name, prolly this. Amen. OK, so keep a finger here and turn over to 2 Timothy chapter two. So keep a finger here, turn over to 2 Timothy two. If you've been out soul winning in Southend for any length of time, you're likely to have run into people that go to a church called Potter's House. And you might have even run into them in other areas as well. There's a few of them around. This isn't to be confused with the Potter's House, which is TD Jakes's church in Dallas. You might have heard of that. Potter's House Christian Center, they call themselves in Southend, is one of a group of churches known as Christian Fellowship Ministries or CFM. OK, they're a Pentecostal type church. The founder originally break away from a Pentecostal denomination called the Foursquare Church. There seem to be, I had a little count up, 132 listings of the CFM churches in the UK alone. 132 of these guys. Many are called Potter's House. Some are called The Door or CFM churches with various names as well. There's over 700 in the US, a ton in Africa and all over the world. There are a lot, I counted something like 600 or in the Philippines. I mean, there's a lot of these churches. By the middle of last year, the number was apparently 3460 of the CFM churches worldwide. So it's a pretty big denomination. It's apparently one of those pyramid structures. If you're wondering why there's so many, this is how these things work, where the individual church, they tithe 10 percent of their income. And what they do is they give 5 percent to the church which planted them. So that encourages them to want to plant churches, right? And to do the, put the effort in the plant church because they get richer from it. And then another 5 percent of its income goes to the head church, which is in Prescott, Arizona. So if you ever wondered how these things work, this is what these guys, it's basically just a pyramid scheme, right? OK, well, why am I talking about this church today? Well, firstly, because God tells us to expose false teachers and false teachings. OK, we're told to expose that, to make that clear. If we're not doing that for the pulpit, who else is going to do that? OK, in 2 Timothy 2, Paul gives us an example of this where he says in verse 15 of 2 Timothy 2, he said, Study to show thyself approved under God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth, but shun profane and vain babblings, for they will increase unto more ungodliness. And their word will eat another canker of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus, who concerning the truth of earth, saying that the resurrection is past already and overthrow the faith of some. That's some named and shamed guys there, isn't it? Named and shamed for eternity. Named and shamed, Hymenaeus and Philetus, sometimes false teachers and their false teachings. He mentioned a false teaching here as well. They said that the resurrection is past already. Sometimes these things need calling out. But why Potter's House? Why am I calling out Potter's House today and not the tons of other false churches around? Because there's a lot of false churches around, aren't there? A lot of false churches in this town alone. In fact, pretty much most of the churches in this town alone seem to be false churches. Well, so why am I calling out Potter's House? Well, turn to Matthew 23. Turn to Matthew 23, because these guys are a lot more militant in their false gospel than the other churches around. Even the average member, and I've come across quite a few average members so far of Potter's House, are so often proud and haughty about their works that they think are keeping them saved. We've had them being aggressive and abusive to our church members, to various church members who have dealt with these guys, aggressive about their works of resurrection, aggressive about the gospel and the true gospel in terms of what they perceive it to be. One of their members who previously tried to infiltrate our church was trying to prevent salvation recently in the high street on a couple of occasions. One where he actually just had a loudspeaker, he had some sort of microphone, and was shouting out, they're teaching a false gospel, they're teaching it and trying to stop someone getting saved while we're trying to preach to people. He came over to try and stop me while I was preaching to someone. I mean, these guys are pretty militant, and that's one of them, but there are others as well that people have got in rows with. He's not the only one as well that goes out to evangelise their false gospel, so he stands in the town centre evangelising. So this is a lot more than, you know, a lot of churches that kind of believe a false gospel, no one really does much with it, right? These guys are out really trying to push it, trying to promote it. By the way, he claimed to repent of their false gospel twice in our church before getting baptised, but apparently he's now gone back to their false gospel, so, well, 2 Timothy 3 says of people that are ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth, right? He strikes me as one of those. But here in Matthew chapter 23, the Lord Jesus Christ called out these types of false prophets, and here it's the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew chapter 23. Did you turn to Matthew 23, yeah? Yeah, Matthew 23 says in verse 12, For ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. So these guys are active in trying to make proselytes, disciples, basically, and it needs exposing. OK, that needs exposing. These guys are active, they're out there, they're in not just the town centre, they're around, trying to preach, they do all these outreach events, try and get the kids in, try and get the teens in to teach them their false lies. It needs exposing, right? Now maybe some on the fringe there might see this sermon, you never know, I don't really preach to YouTube, right, but you never know, they might see this sermon and get out there just in time, OK, you never know. Some maybe who have kind of got involved with them might hear something like this, might see it, and maybe like when Job said in Job 29, 17, where he said, And I break the jaws of the wicked and pluck the spore out of his teeth. Maybe we're going to pluck a few out of their teeth, you never know, maybe with time to come as well. But aside from that, OK, for our people here, this should be a good reminder of why we believe what we do, OK? And sometimes we just need reminding, why is it that we believe what we do here? Why am I assured of my salvation here? And we're going to look at that as well. And it should help deal with any of the doubts that can arise from false teachings like this. So false teachings, you know, part of the goal, of course, to just damn the unsaved to hell, there's that, but part of the goal of false teaching is to put doubts in the minds that save people. So they're not as confident in explaining the Gospel, not as confident in approaching other people, because they're not sure how to deal with some of the kind of the the attempts to discredit it, some of the ways that they try and, you know, fight against it. So that hopefully that that will help you be a bit stronger, a bit bolder at the end of this sermon. The title is The False Gospel of Potter's House versus Grace Through Faith Alone. And point number one, and it's only a two point sermon, point number one is what is the false gospel of Potter's House? Now, this church and their statement of faith, here's another good lesson out of the sermon today. It's a good lesson in the guile that these people use to avoid being too obvious with their heresies. So you notice that because a lot of people go, whoa, they seem fine, their statement of faith is not that bad, is it? They must be all right, because we just want to think everyone's all right. We just want to hope and pray that there's more saved people out there, there's more, you know, there's not as many false teachers as there are, because it's not a very nice thought. And this is one of those statements of faith where they're quite clever with it, OK? So what they want to do is they want to attract as many people as possible so they remain vague, OK? They're vague in what they claim to believe, to appease then as many people as possible and get as many people involved without it being just, without making clear statements. The Southend branch has a collection of statements from head office statement of faith. I looked at both of them and it's, but what they've done is they've taken these statements, they've made them into these nice little sort of info boxes. They look kind of pretty on their website, OK? So it's not just a statement of faith, right? They've got one of them says about spirituality and then you hover over it and then it kind of shows this little statement of what they claim to believe. And like I said, it's from head office, it's from the one in Prescott, Arizona. They all seem to therefore believe the same thing. It's not just a copy and paste, they're putting them into these little sections and stuff. And obviously being part of this pyramid scheme, they claim to believe the same thing. So about spirituality, it says the baptism in the Holy Spirit with evidence of speaking in tongues, subsequent conversion releases the fullness of the Spirit and is evidenced by the fruits and gifts of the Holy Spirit. Now when you see this tongues nonsense, OK, you know that salvation is going to be off. Let's be honest. When you see tongues, you're like, OK, what's the issue with salvation then? And there's a key point there, OK, tongues isn't the battleground with these people. So don't get pulled into the tongues debate. Don't get pulled in, if only I could show them that tongues is a load of nonsense. Because rather than evidence of salvation, which is what these guys often believe, OK, their version of tongues for me is usually evidence of a false gospel. OK, teaching that God has put the seal of approval on their own salvation by making them speak in some unintelligible, made up gibberish language is either the product of a compulsive liar teaching that or it's the product of a devil. OK, there's one or the other for me. You're either a compulsive liar who knows full well that you're literally just talking made up gibberish or you're a devil. OK, because it's got a lot of similarities to all sorts of voodoo chanting and other weird stuff. It's pretty wicked stuff, OK. Tongues are languages. OK, we know that, OK, and I'm not going to go off on that today. That's not the topic of the sermon. Tongues are languages. You show me a Pentecostal that can miraculously, instantaneously, speak a language or languages that they've never spent a day learning before and I'd be impressed. That would be impressive. It'd be, wow, OK, that's a miracle. But speak your made up language that no one understands, OK. That's not miraculous. That's the epitome of foolishness, OK, let alone it somehow proves you're saved. I mean, what on earth? But where there's a devil's version of tongues, and what it is, is they want this tangible so-called evidence of someone's salvation. Oh, well, they must be saved because now they're not talking made up language, OK. And where there's that, it's worth looking at salvation. So let's look at salvation. In their little info box about salvation, it says salvation is a free gift of God. Sounds good, doesn't it? OK, great, they must believe the gospel. They said it's a free gift based on the merits of the death of his son and is appropriated by faith. Sounds pretty good. Salvation is affected by personal repentance, belief in the Lord Jesus, justification, and personal acceptance of him into one's life as Lord and Saviour, regeneration. So to the untrained eye, they didn't say repent of your sins. They didn't say work to make him Lord of your life. But there's definitely a subtle insinuation. What's the difference between repentance and personal repentance? I mean, what is the difference? What's the personal repentance? As a side to the other repentance? Who knows? But whoever wrote this surely must know to some degree. There's some difference apparently. And it leaves the definition a little bit open, doesn't it? Then there's the personal acceptance of him into one's life as Lord and Saviour. Is Christ the Lord? Yes. Is he the Saviour? Yes. Do they believe that you have to make him Lord of your whole life to be saved? Who knows? Who knows? About holiness, they've got another box about holiness. The Christian life is to be one of consecration, devotion and holiness. The shortcomings of the individual are due to the still progressing sanctification of the saints. The Christian life is filled with trials, tests and warfare against the spiritual enemy. For those abiding in Christ until their deaths or his return, the promise of eternal blessing in the presence of God are assured. Do they mean that those that believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, is that what I mean? Abiding in Christ, someone that's put their faith in Christ, or those still living up to their standards of holiness? It's not clear, is it? Who knows? About the return. Hopefully they'll make it clearer somewhere else. About the return. In the bodily personal second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the saints, the millennium and the final judgment. The final judgment will determine the eternal status of both the saints and the unbelievers, determined by their relationship to Jesus Christ. Do they mean whether or not they believed in him? Thus having a relationship? Or is the relationship being judged? How do you know? So you might go, well, how do you know they're preaching false gospel then, pastor? How do you know? Maybe, maybe they're just a little bit on the fence. It's just a bit ambiguous. But they probably are. Come on, let's just give them the benefit of the doubt. I'll tell you why. Because every single church member from Pontus South that I've spoken to, and that everyone else in this church has spoken to, believes in works-based salvation. Every single one. They believe that you have to work to keep your salvation. Everyone we've ever spoken to believes that. They all believe you have to work to keep your salvation. And in fact, that's what this guy was preaching or shouting down his loud ailer that we believe in a false gospel that says that you can't lose your salvation. Because they believe you have to work to keep your salvation. And it's usually a combination of not sinning anymore and or repenting if and when you do sin. OK, that's usually what they seem to come out with when you talk to these guys. You've just got to not sin in the future, but if you do sin, as long as you repent of that sin, then you'll keep your salvation. Otherwise, you'll lose your salvation, you'll go to hell. And when pointing out the impossibility of that, for example, we looked last week at Proverbs 24.9 says that even the mere thought of foolishness is sin. And they repent of every time they have a foolish thought. Are they remembering to repent of every time they have? Is it just a general repentance at the end of the day or is it the end of the day? Have they lost their salvation when they had the foolish thought until they remembered to repent or just did a sort of blanket, I just repent of anything I might have done today that was wrong? And then does salvation come back? And when you point out this sort of stuff, especially when you show them clear scripture, like Romans 4 where we've just read and many others, the answer is usually anger and rejection of scripture before either door slams or insults or storming away or something similar, right? Don't know Ephesians chapter two. Ephesians chapter two, the title is The False Gospel of Potter's House versus Grace Through Faith Alone. Point number one was a very quick point. What is the false gospel of Potter's house? That you can lose your salvation. That's every one I've ever spoken to that's come out of Potter's house, that goes to Potter's house, believes you can lose your salvation. Point number two, what is grace through faith alone then? Because the title is, it's verses, Grace Through Faith Alone. So what is grace through faith alone? Now grace through faith is the gospel according to the Bible, okay? That we are saved by God's grace, which is undeserved, unmerited favor, and that's what grace is, due to our faith, which is our believing in, our trusting in Jesus Christ, death penalty and resurrection as payment for all our sins. And the key point is alone. Nothing else added to it, nothing else before, during or after it. It's grace through faith alone. And Ephesians two and verse four says it like this from verse four. Ephesians two and from verse four says, But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace ye are saved. So it's all of God's love for us, isn't it? Not our love for God. Some people go, well, if you love God, you'll keep his commandments. Yeah, but I'm not saved because I love God. I'm saved because God loved me so much that he died from my sins. He quickened or made us alive. That means along with Christ's resurrection. And notice how it was when we were dead in sins, even when we were dead in sins, okay? There was no stopping sinning required for salvation. And some of these guys will believe some sort of repent of sins and stuff, obviously, as well, before, during and after salvation. But it's his grace, not our efforts, right? Verse six says, And has raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. Again, it's solely through Christ Jesus. Yeah, through Christ Jesus, not through Christ Jesus and your efforts. For by grace are ye saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God. That's what grace through faith alone is. It's not of yourselves. It's alone. It's got nothing to do with your efforts, your work, your work in keeping salvation, your work on earning salvation, your work on keep getting re-saved. It's not of yourselves. It's a gift and a gift is free. Okay, a gift is free. A Potter's House member once said to me, But you can give the gift back. Yeah, you've heard this one. We might have had other people say this. This is like, you know, classic, you know, work salvation. Who claim to believe the Bible. So they'll go, yeah, but you could give a gift back. Now, that sounds great, but how does that actually really look? How does that look? How do you give a gift? How do you give the gift back? I don't want to go to heaven anymore. Here you go. Because what what's that code word for? That's code word for you're giving it back if you don't work to keep it. If you don't work to keep salvation, then you're giving the gift back. Basically, you still need to work. That's what she's saying. You still need to work. Just make it sound a bit kind of nice about going, but you can give the gift back. Well, verse nine said it's not of works, not of works, lest any man should boast. And everyone that I come across, apart from the young kids, I once preached a gospel to a few kids from Potter's House. Their parents just kind of let me preach. I think it was a mum, just auntie, maybe let me preach to three kids. And they were humble because kids are humble, aren't they? That's why I love preaching to kids, because they're just humble. They're just like, yeah, well, I hope I'm good enough. I don't know, you know, I've got to be good enough to know. And they, like everyone in Potter's House, believed in a work salvation. Well, apart from them, everyone else I've come across from there claims that they know they're going to heaven. They always go, yep, no, I'm going to heaven. This goes through faith. And because I'm keeping my salvation, it's their pride. They're boasting. They believe that they're good enough to hold on by their works to their salvation, which is why they're going to heaven. But it's not of works, it's any match of both. You say, well, no, I'll tell you what they say. I hope no one here says this. They say, you're giving people a license to sin. I had a lady a couple of weeks ago say that on her door from Potter's House. She said, well, it sounds like you're just giving people a license. You're just telling people they can do what they want. No, because we teach and preach very clearly that after salvation, after salvation, God does want us to work, doesn't he? God does want us to work. He does want us to do things after salvation. Verse 10 says, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them. God wants us to work for sure, but not for our salvation. That's not what we're trusting for our salvation. The work is to result in what, ultimately, other people getting saved. That's what the works are for, is to get other people saved. That's what he wants us to do. We created in Christ Jesus unto good works. We were created in Christ Jesus, faith alone in Christ, but it's unto good works. He wants us to now go out and work, but not to get saved. And things like getting sin out of our lives, because their works are always, you know, their amazing holiness that they seem to think that they possess and, you know, whatever else. Getting sin out of our lives, OK, it ultimately results in us working towards getting people saved, doesn't it? OK, because sin will drag you down, it will pull you down, it will stop you getting in church, reading your Bible, getting out preaching the gospel, it will make you a bad testimony, etc. People are less likely to hear the gospel from you when you've got all this just open sin in your life. However, we know that's not what's getting us to heaven. We know that it's not of works. We know that after salvation, he wants us to work, but it's got nothing to do with getting saved. And we also know that for our own good, with that in mind, therefore, because there's nothing more fulfilling, is there, than going out and working for God and going out and getting people saved and trying to live for God, then trying to get through each day and do the best you can and try and get your heart right with God and trying not to sin and trying to avoid all those different pitfalls and sins in life. That's an amazing life. You can get that right. So for our own good, because he loves us, because he wants us to live that, he wants us to earn rewards when we get to heaven, he wants us to avoid all that sin and not destroy our lives, and he wants us to go out and get other people saved, he chastises us. And he chastises us as a loving father should for whom the Lord loveth, he chasteth, and scourges every son whom he receiveth. So if those sins were taking me to hell, why is God chastising me in a loving way in life? Well, I'm not even going to go into the chastisement bit today, because let me tell you what the exact opposite of those good works are. Damning people to hell with a false gospel. That's the exact opposite. So the opposite of the good works that he wants us to do is damning people to hell with a false gospel. Forget your, well, you know, I manage not to say any swear words, or I manage not to say I'm doing all these great works, that's why I'm making my way to heaven. Yeah, but you're preaching, you're teaching a false gospel. And if you're out teaching, preach that false gospel, that is pretty, pretty thin ice that you're standing on, isn't it? That's, well, Galatians 1.9 says it's not semantics, as we said before, so say now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. Let him be accursed. And just to make it clear again, okay, if you're trusting any continued works to maintain your salvation, that is not grace through faith. And you can't have both. Turn back to Romans 4 while I read Romans 11.6. You turn back to Romans 4. Romans 11.6 says, and if by grace, then is it no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace, otherwise work is no more work. You can't have both. You can't combine them. You add any works to salvation, you add any works, it's no more grace. Romans 4 says it like this from verse one. What shall we say then that Abraham, our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath way off to glory, but not before God. So Abraham did some great works. He was willing to sacrifice his son to God. But that wasn't why he was saved, was it? That's not why Abraham was saved. For what saith the scripture, Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. It was his faith. It was his trust in the Lord, which resulted in that righteousness being imputed unto him. It says in verse four, now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of death. So if you want to try to add some works to salvation, you're a debtor to the whole law. Good luck to you. You want to add your works, your little while keeping your salvation works, your little just, well, as long as I repent of each sin I do, right? Whatever you want to add, good luck to you because now you're a debtor to the whole law. And when I say now, because you were never saved, because that's what you're trusting. Verse five says, but to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. So no works, just believing on the Lord who justifies not the godly who's working to keep the gift, does he? That's not what he justifies, not what he's justifying, those godly people that are just working so hard to not give back the gift or whatever that even means. No, he justifies the ungodly, the ungodly. It's that faith, that trust, that belief on the Lord that's counted for righteousness, isn't it? So it says, and it wasn't just Abraham, OK? The only way has ever been grace through faith alone in Christ. That's the only way anyone's ever been saved. Acts 10 43, that says to him, give all the prophets witness that through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. Whosoever believeth shall receive remission of sins. And one of those is David, who is the author of Psalm 32. Excuse me, we're not going to go there, which is what Paul is referring to here, though, where he says this in verse six of Romans four. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works. Now, some will say, well, that's before salvation, but you can't just abuse grace. Are you abusing God's grace? They come out with this sort of stuff. It sounds, yeah, I mean, who would abuse God's grace? Well, it says here, saying blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. They're covered by the blood of Christ. They've been paid for already. They were paid before you committed them, which is why verse eight says blessed is a man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. They went on Christ's account the second you put your faith in him. Every single sin you ever did and every single sin you will ever do was put on Christ's account. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Those sins are covered. They're covered by the blood of Christ. Look, if someone wants to believe that they can lose their salvation, OK, then please explain these verses to me. How do you explain those? How do they even, do these people even attempt to explain these verses? Anyone ever heard anyone try and explain these verses just out of interest? I mean, anyone ever heard these sorts of churches just go through these verses? I mean, what do they even, what do they say? What can you say? And I'll tell you what I've, what's happened every time I've ever shown verses like this and tons of others to these sorts of people. Shall I tell you what usually the response is? Well, Paul said, you know, God forbid that you would abuse grace. Or, well, are you just saying that you, it's like, no, what's the Bible saying? What does the Bible say? And usually this is around the point where the door slam or the I'm done with this or, you know, or something else. They cannot explain these verses. And you know what? Those random verses that they like to use are pretty easily explained. Okay, usually. Okay, they're pretty easily explained. Sometimes it takes a bit of study and a bit of explanation and you need to look at a few things. But usually if you take into account the context of the passage that the so-called work salvation, one verse that they've got out of the whole Bible or a couple of verses they got that they think somehow proof works. Usually when you look at the context or maybe you look at it and you say, okay, he's actually talking about, and this is what they don't get a lot of the time. A lot of the time it's talking about a reprobate. It's about someone that's maybe had that taste, like they've had some knowledge of God and even maybe the gospel to some degree and they've rejected it. And without understanding reprobates, yeah, I could see people coming away going, well, that does seem a bit worksy, but here's the thing. These are just clear salvation verses. And those verses, whatever verses it is that people try and take, because here's the thing, right? God gives them enough rope to hang themselves on. You have a choice in life. And even if you claim to believe the Bible, there's still enough rope there for you to reject grace through faith and go, okay, but I want to cling to this verse, which kind of isn't really about salvation, but it sounds like perhaps maybe someone could lose their salvation. So I'm going to go with that apart from just the tons of clear verses, right? Because basically you get to choose life or choose death. However, once you study it out, once you study to show that self-approved, the workman needeth not to be ashamed. That's not what you need to do to get saved. You know what you need to do to get saved. You need to be humble enough to go, yeah, I'm a sinner. Yeah, I can't earn heaven. Amen. There's a saviour. I need the saviour. Now, once you're saved, then you start to look at all these things. Actually, that's quite easy, but you've got to be willing to hear the gospel. You've got to be willing to accept what those clear verses on salvation actually say, don't you? But passages like Romans 3, Romans 4, Ephesians 2 and many others are just so clear about salvation, aren't they? So clear. Let's look at some more, though, because God doesn't leave something as important as salvation at just a few verses. So, like I said, look, there's the odd verse that people try and take out of context and go, oh, well, this seems to teach work salvation. Well, when it comes to salvation, God's very clear and he gives us loads and loads of different ways to help us understand it. Turn to John chapter 10. He puts it across in various ways, OK, that it's a gift we've seen, OK, that it's no works at all, that it's faith alone. But to him that worketh not, but believes on him that justifiably ungodly, his faith is kind of a righteousness. He gives us all these different ways and then he gives us some vivid imagery, too, to really hammer it home. So he even gives us some imagery to help us to really understand it, because knowing that the whole world, the whole world, every religion in the world pretty much teaches work salvation, teaches a God which is the work of men's hands. And then you've got the gospel, which is that straight, that narrow way, which is so just contrary to the rest of the world, that he really gives us some some different ways to help us just to really accept it, understand it, to strengthen our faith with it. In John 10, Jesus is in Jerusalem, OK, there's a division between the Jews about him. It said in verse 24 of John 10, John 10, 24 says, Then came the Jews round about him and said unto him, How long does thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believe not. The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. But ye believe not because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. So it's as simple as that. They won't believe him because they're not saved. They're not of his sheep. They just won't believe. He said, My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. So they're never going to go to hell. They shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Now, would that surely, therefore, include yourself as well? You can't pluck you, you can't give the gift back because no one, including yourself, can take you out of Jesus' hand because he holds you. And he doesn't drop you off if he fancies it either, by the way. He doesn't just like, he holds you until like, oh no, you're winding me up now. See you later. You don't have to turn there. John 6, 37 says, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me, I will in no way cast out. He's not casting you out. Verse 29, where you are said, My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I am my Father of one. He said he holds you. He said, basically, God's holds you, holds you. And however much you twist and turn, however much you twist and turn scripture. Someone twists and turns that scripture and it's all over the place and everything else. He's too strong. You think someone's strong enough to pull you out of God's hand? Who is that? Do you think you're strong enough to pull you out? Once you're held, you're held. He's given you eternal life. He holds you in his hand. That's to help you understand that. Once you're saved, you're held. Look, you can kick and scream. You can act like an idiot. He might give you a bit of a squeeze sometimes, a little slap. He might hold you in one hand and give you a beating with the other. Happens, doesn't it, right? He could hold you like that, you know, getting away while he's slapping you with everything, you know. Like kung fu fingers and just, you know, you're not getting away. He holds you. Here's another piece of imagery to help you get your head around it, OK? Go to John 3, where there's a famous term about being born again. John chapter 3, John 3 and verse 1. John 3, 1 says this, There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, the 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, said unto him, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again and again and again and again and again. And he didn't say that. He didn't say that. He said, except a man be born again. Once he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said unto him, 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? Now Nicodemus just doesn't get it, OK? So Jesus breaks those two births down for him. It says in verse 5, Jesus answered, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Two births in life, right? The physical birth, which is of water, and the spiritual birth, which is of the Spirit. You say, how do we know that the water is talking about the physical birth of a baby? Well, look at verse 6, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Pretty clear, right? Pretty obvious. And over in chapter 5, on the same subject, he's talking about that spiritual rebirth again. John chapter 5 and verse 24, he said it like this, John 5, 24 says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. That's that rebirth. And just like the physical birth, the spiritual birth happens once in life. You pass from death unto life. Once you put your trust, your faith in Christ alone. You don't keep passing. You don't keep getting reborn and reborn and reborn every time you, what? Every time you sin and then you do ask for repentance, or as long as you ask for repentance, sorry, as long as you repent, as long as you ask for forgiveness at some point. How does it even work? And you know what, they can never really explain how it works. Look, how's really the law encapsulated? To love the Lord thy God with thy heart, mind, soul and strength, and to love thy neighbour as thyself. Do you know today, probably every single one of us has already failed at some of that? Did you all repent for that? Did everyone down at Potter's house repent for not loving their neighbour as theirself when maybe they got up in the morning and maybe they had a bad thought about someone or maybe they were a bit irritated by someone or whatever it was and maybe it wasn't really that, whether it was justified or not, right? And there's so many ways. Did they repent of every single foolish thought they had? Did they repent of every time they saw something and they maybe coveted it or maybe they got a bit prideful? Maybe they just started to rely on themselves a bit too much and not on God. Every time something became a little bit more important than God for a bit. Like, there's just, there's so many ways we sin. So many ways we do. And all this, well, as long as I remember to repent of each one, what a load of... So then you got unborn, did you? Oh, then you were back to being dead. Then you became alive. I mean, it sounds a bit tiring at the least, doesn't it? What a load of nonsense. What a load of old nonsense. Two births in life, physical and spiritual. But don't miss as well. I always love this verse, right? Because it just, it gives you three different angles here. Maybe even four, right? It says this, it says a little, maybe three, let's go with three. It says, He that heareth my word and believeth in him that sent me hath everlasting life. How long's everlasting? It's forever. How could you have something that's forever and then lose it? It therefore wasn't everlasting. You never had it. You never had everlasting life if you could ever lose everlasting life. I mean that, and there's verse after verse that says it's... Very, very last sentence. He that believeth in me hath everlasting life. John 6, 47. I mean, that's the gospel in a nutshell. You believe, you have it, it's done. And it's everlasting, it's forever. He said, he didn't just say, hath everlasting life, he said, and shall not come into condemnation. He said, you will never be condemned to hell. It's never happening. You've put your faith in him, you've put your trust in him. It's done. You shall not come into condemnation. Or was he lying? No, he's lying because apparently Potters House no better and so do all these other false prophets. I mean, it's not just them. You could just replace Potters House with pretty much any Pentecostal church out there. Replace Potters House with pretty much any false church out there and there's a lot of them out there. It's all about their ongoing works, their previous. It's all about trying to take some credit for salvation. That's what it comes down to. And if that's spiritually reborn, doesn't do it. Okay, maybe you're still, you know, just, well, turn to Ephesians one. Ephesians chapter one, where he gives another piece of imagery along with another truth. Ephesians chapter one. Okay, we're told through the apostle Paul, and this time it's in Ephesians one, okay? It's the apostle Paul talking Ephesians one here. He said in verse 12 of Ephesians chapter one, that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. In whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. He said that after you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ in him alone, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit. Sealed, okay? So you have to turn to 2 Corinthians 1 22, says the same thing. It says, of God who has also sealed us and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. Talking about that Holy Spirit sealing us. Think of how a letter is sealed. Okay, when is that sealing until? Okay, well, it's until it gets to the recipient, right? How long do we have the Holy Spirit indwelling us? How long are we sealed with the Holy Spirit for? Well, it says in verse 14, which is the earnest that we might say the pledge or token of our inheritance until the redemption until the redemption of the purchase possession unto the praise of his glory. We are the purchase possession. It's until we're with the Lord. Not until we sin. And it didn't say that, did it? Until you sin, then you're unsealed, then you have to get resealed. Then you keep getting resealed. Then you get unsealed again, then you get resealed, unsealed, resealed. And it's just the kind of daily occurrence. And let's hope that you die when you've been resealed and not when you're unsealed. And praise God that Jesus did all that for you. I mean, it's absolute nonsense, isn't it? So sealing, you're sealed. That's it, done. Tight, done. The Holy Spirit's in you, sealed. Again, is that helping? Does that help for these people? I don't know, go back to Romans 4. Because aside from the imagery, and like that's some pretty clear imagery for me, okay? That's like to help us see that sealed, born again. A lot of people say they're born again. And some of these guys will even say like similar guys will say things like, yep, I'm born again. I put my trust in Christ. You go, okay, great. What if you did a bad sin? Well, as long as I repent. What if you didn't? Then I'm going to hell. Oh, so you have to keep getting reborn, do you? Well, so what is this? But what exactly is this born again? Oh, no, no, it's all right. Because the old sins were done away with, now I've just got to be sinless for the rest of my life. Well, you know what? You might've been better to have got saved right at the end of your life then. Because it sounds like that's a bit of a raw deal. Because you're stuffed if you get saved any earlier, because now every single sin you do, you've got to either avoid or you've got to somehow keep repenting of just in time. I mean, how does that, how does it? I don't think they think, well, they don't think this way. They're just desperately holding to some work, something. Please let me do something for myself. Please just let me do something for my salvation. I want to take some credit. Please just tell me I'm better than those guys next door. Please, I just want to know I'm better. I want to be better. I want to be better than other people. I can't just accept a free gift. That's really what it comes down to, doesn't it? You've gone back to Romans 4, haven't you? Well, there are just, there's just verses and verses and verses that show it's once saved, always saved, okay? And these are just some that I could just think of when I wrote these. Look, there are tons all over the Bible, okay? I'm sure many people have their favorites. I'm just going to reel a few off for you. First John 5, 13 says, "'These things that I have written unto you "'that believe in the name of the Son of God, "'that ye may know that ye have eternal, "'how could I know I have eternal life "'if I keep losing it and gaining it "'and losing it and gaining it.'" He said that you may believe in the name of the Son of God. Acts 16, 31 said, "'Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, "'and thou might be saved.'" If you're good enough, no, thou shalt be saved. Thou shalt be saved on how you put your trust in Jesus Christ, you're saved. Romans chapter eight says, "'For I am persuaded that neither death nor life "'nor angels nor principalities nor powers "'nor things present nor things to come "'nor height nor depth nor any other creature "'shall be able to separate us from the love of God.'" Which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Nothing can separate you, nothing. Hebrews 10, 14 says, "'For by one offering he hath perfected forever "'them that are sanctified.'" One offering forever. Hebrews 10, 17 says, "'And their sins and iniquities will I remember.'" No more, done. John 11, 25 said, "'Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection of life. "'He that believeth in me, though he were dead, "'yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth "'and keeps for penny of all their sins in the future, "'now whosoever liveth in me shall never die, "'believeth thou this.'" Do you believe this? I think the vast majority of our church believes this. Or do you want to find some way to try and take some credit for your salvation? Because that's what it comes down to, doesn't it? And Romans four says that even Abraham couldn't take any credit for his salvation. Even Abraham couldn't take any credit for his salvation. James two shows that he was justified in other people's eyes, but not before God. Because Romans four says in verse one, "'What shall we say then, that Abraham our father "'as pertaining to the flesh hath found? "'For if Abraham were justified by works, "'he hath whereof to glory, but not before God.' "'For what saith the scripture? "'Abraham believed God, and it,'" that's that belief, that's that faith, "'was counted unto him for righteousness.' "'Now to him that worketh is a reward "'not reckoned of grace, but of debt. "'But to him that worketh not, "'but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, "'his faith is counted for righteousness.' "'Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, "'unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, "'saying, blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, "'and whose sins are covered. "'Blessed is a man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.'" That's, for me, one of the clearest passages in the Bible, isn't it, that show that it's faith alone, you cannot lose your salvation. God will not impute sin onto your eternal account if you've put your faith, your trust, in the Lord Jesus Christ. Death, battle, and resurrection is painful for your sins. You wanna add works? You wanna add some sort of amount of works to your, you know, to that faith, and trust in that for your salvation? Well, God gives you the choice to do that. He lets you, you can do what you want, right? But you're a destiny, the whole law, and you're going to hell. And sadly, really, what does it come down to? With that church and many others, and like I said, there's a lot of these churches around, is ultimately it just comes back to work salvation. And it is a big deal. We don't just say, well, one tried to say to you, well, we're all just, you know, we're all Christians, one of these people said, like, quite early on. Oh, we're just, you know, we're not here to fight or something like this. You know, when I said, oh, well, can I show you the Bible? There's something slightly different, because they don't want to hear the Bible, right? And it's, but you know what? No, we're not here to fight, in terms of that's not our goal. Our goal is to get people saved. But you know what? We're in a spiritual war. And in that spiritual war, there's a lot of false prophets all over the place. And the result of those false prophets, like those poor kids. I preached to three kids. I don't know how somehow it worked out. Their parents let me just stand there in the street and preach to them, going to that church. But I think of all the other kids coming through places like that. And yeah, they're their parents' responsibility. They choose to take them to the places like that, to just be taught a false gospel. But then it gets to the point where they get so hard-hearted that then they're like the adults that we speak to out there. Not even, I mean, some of them are quite young, right? Some of those lads that some of these guys bumped into, not far from the church, who started then almost getting physical and getting really leery and, you know, and calling us false prophets and King James cult and all this sort of stuff. I mean, it didn't take them long to get to that point. I mean, that's a pretty wicked church, right? Look, when you go to a lot of false churches, you talk to people from false churches, when you preach to people from false churches, a lot of the time, they're just a bit kind of wishy-washy, and sometimes they're just not that interested. These guys are aggressive with it. These guys are very out there with it. They're preaching their false gospel out and about. This is a bit of a different flavour, hence they need a sermon on them, right? I don't think anyone here is probably tempted to go down to Potter's House. Maybe for other reasons, don't do anything like that, right? But however, look, maybe there'll be people in the future, maybe people in the future who can point to this and just say, look, maybe you need to just learn about what it is they believe there and what the Bible actually says. The false gospel of Potter's House versus grace through faith alone. Number one, what is the false gospel of Potter's House? That you can lose your salvation. Every single one I've ever spoken to believes you can lose your salvation. The guy that we had come here, I mean, let's just quickly talk about him for a second, okay? Just because we're still running into this guy out there, okay, so he came to this church, sat in a Wednesday night sermon. I thought something was a bit up when he burst into a round of applause after the sermon. Everyone else sitting goes, do we join in? It's a bit upset everyone didn't join in, actually. I thought it was a good sermon, no, I'm kidding, okay? Okay, so he burst into a round of applause. I thought, this is a little bit strange. And then I thought, well, he's quite a young lad. He's obviously enjoyed the preaching. This should be an easy salvation. So I went and sat next to him after the sermon, started opening the Bible, asked him, you know, he thought you could lose your salvation. And then suddenly he's coming out with like, you know, just like the false prophet textbook. And so I end up, I'm talking to this kid for a long time and refuting it, showing him like why all his different arguments are in error and showing him verse after verse after verse, till eventually I got to buy. I remember coming away and saying to someone, I feel like I potentially just beat him into submission. I was like, I don't know if he really believed. I just felt like he just couldn't argue anymore because you can't argue with the word of God, can you? And if you know, like, you know, and like anyone else here who's been sold to him for a while, you know where to go. You know how to deal with these arguments. So you're just showing him, showing him, showing him. And then eventually he just conceded. So then he pretends, because he did pretend to get saved. Yeah, so then he was like, okay. And he claimed to believe, claimed to get saved, disappeared, and then we didn't see him again. And I thought, oh, that's a shame because, you know, it would have been nice to have seen him again and seen. And then he came back a few months later and a few months later he comes back and suddenly he still believes you could lose your salvation. It's like, we went, I mean, we went through this. It wasn't one of those, like, cause you think, oh, was it just like a sort of, you just gave him a quick few verse and then play. I mean, I was talking, I was kind of borderline debating with this kid for an hour to get him to accept that, yeah, I was wrong. I was damned on my way to hell. Took me a long time, yeah. But he comes back several months later and he's just back to, you know, you've got to repent of your sins and all of this stuff. And you've got to keep repenting, keep repenting. You can lose your salvation. So again, he, I think he got the gospel for maybe, was it you, brother? So Huna then preached the gospel to him. Then I spoke to him after, was like, well, what happened? You know, do you remember I showed you this before? So he's kind of like claiming he agrees, but not went through the gospel again with him. Comes back another night and he says, okay, I went away and I called on the name of the Lord. No, you're right. Yeah, I got saved. I said, okay, so asked him, checked with him. Yeah, definitely. I want to get baptised. Okay, great. You know, so brought this kid, he came the next time, got baptised. And then suddenly he's just got this real issue with the reprobate doctrine. And he's just beelining different people in the church to try and debate the reprobate doctrine with them. And so, you know, look, people think we're just on a hair trigger to kick people out. No, like, you know, I said to him, look, man, you know, just to help you understand, maybe you should look through this series, you know, like, you know, and try and understand what we think is okay or not. You know, that sort of thing. You got any questions with doctrine like that? Just come and see me, okay? You know, going up to different people in the churches and okay, that's not cool. So, and he'd done this with a few people. And by the way, this is on the back of me, explaining it to him on two different occasions and sending him a couple of different emails. He'd been sending me emails about it. Just make it really clear what the reprobate doctrine is and isn't. Very clear, and he's just trying to find people in the church to basically try and disprove it to them. Instead of coming to me, he couldn't reply to me. He couldn't reply to the clear verses from the Bible. So instead, he's just trying to find people to shake their faith in it. So I said to him, look, you know what? Got to stop doing that. Talked a bit more. So he said, okay, okay, fine, I won't. Next week, he turns up with a flaming sodomite. Just, it messages me in the morning before going, oh, just to say, just, you know, I'm bringing a friend, but, you know, I hope that it's not going to be a problem. And I went, doo, doo, doo, doo, okay. Considering this is all he's been talking about for ages. So I said, okay, so what's the issue here? You know, didn't reply. Suddenly, there's a bit of a commotion at the door because he's got this, like, I mean, when I say flaming sodomite, no one looked at that person. Went, oh, is it not? I mean, like, they skipped him. They skipped it in, like, a blouse, but it was a guy. But they also had, like, this girl with, like, purple, or whatever, green, purple hair or something, if I remember right, you know, like, you know, like the sort of, I think I once did a sermon once on Jewish feminism. The thumbnail I chose of that woman just screaming at the camera. He was, like, one of those, right? The angriest, liberal, feminist, God-hater. I was like, what? He, like, brought, like, the enemies of God to the house of God, yeah? So we just turned around and kicked him out, yeah? I said to him, look, we're done with this, okay? Because I've given him chance after chance that he's going around people now, he's just bringing sodomite in. So I just said, look, you'd be better off at one of these churches that believes, like you do, that these people can repent of that. And the issue was, was that really, because he was a sodomite, okay? And I won't go into all of that, but basically, that's what came to light, okay? So, and he was trying to justify, trying to find a way, and then just thought, I'm just going to bring him in and, you know, and cause a lot of havoc. So we kicked him out. And then next thing you know, we're bumping into him in the high street and he's then shouting on the loudspeaker that they preach don't listen to them while one of our brothers is preaching the gospel to someone. Don't listen to them, they preach a false gospel that you can lose your salvation. I'm sorry, that you can't lose your salvation. So how did you go from that, getting baptised, claiming to get saved twice, claiming to accept and believe that it's basically faith alone to now you're trying to stop people getting saved. Then he came up to me the other week while I was preaching to someone and fortunately I was, and I'm like wafting him away. I'm just going to get out of here while I'm trying to preach to these two guys in the high street and he's there on his bike and eventually he goes off and it's, I'm sure we'll be seeing him again. Point being though, that this is a guy from Potter's house. Now he's back there. Now he's back with him because I've seen it. I said, oh, we have one of your guys come to us. Oh yeah, Mickey, you know. So he's like, he's part of the gang there and sodomites that believe that you can lose your salvation. That's the fruit of Potter's house. And why is it? Because they want to believe, really for him, he just wants to believe that if he repents of that sin, he might be able to, because he knows deep down that this is vile wickedness. If I can repent of that and that's, and then when the recreate doctrine is just clear, like really that those people they're done, you know, and again, we're not doing about people that have experimented, things like that. We give the benefit of the doubt there, but people that are just full blown, burning in their last. That's a symptom of a reparative mind, isn't it? Well, what is grace through faith alone? It's a straight and narrow way. It's not because it's hard because it's so easy and they just cannot accept it. And that's Potter's house. That's sadly so many other places in a similar way. That was the false gospel of Potter's house versus grace through faith alone. And on that, we're going to finish in the Word of God. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the gospel, Lord. Thank you that it is grace through faith alone, that it is just so easy to get saved, Lord, that you've done all the work for us. We don't have to do work to go to heaven, Lord. It's not of works for by the works of the Lord shall no flesh be justified. Lord, there's just so much in your word which makes that clear. And I'll probably only just scratch the surface of it today in the space of this sermon, but help us to just be strengthened in our faith, Lord, not because we need strengthening to go to heaven, just because we want to be bold in what we believe. We want to be confident in what we believe. We want to go out there and preach it clearly, boldly and accurately to the unsaved, Lord, to the lost, to help them to understand this faith alone in Christ alone is what gets someone saved, Lord. Help us to explain that clearly as we go out this afternoon and preach the gospel. Lord, help us to, you know, if we find people from that church that are willing and able to listen, Lord, help us to just explain it to them in the right way, Lord, in a way that will, you know, get through to that hard exterior of sadly so many works salvationists, but when it comes to those that are given over, Lord, just protect us from them. Just keep us safe from them, Lord, and help us to know when it's just a waste of time and help us to use our time wisely, Lord, to find those that are receptive to the gospel. Lord, please help everyone to get back for the evening service to hear, you know, the wisdom that you've got for us from the Book of Proverbs this evening. In Jesus' name, pray all this. Amen.