In the time to examine the doctrine
of another church that one of our members want to attend and whether or not we want to
commend that person to that or not is because the Bible, as
we've looked at the last few weeks, there are people that
preach and teach other gospels other than what Christ has taught
and By that, the apostles laid as a foundation within the church,
that first church, and then the subsequent churches that came
out of that as those people were made disciples. Now remember,
the commission that Christ gave to the church kind of their marching
order, so to speak, was to take the gospel that Christ had taught
them, and then they are to go out and to preach that gospel.
And as disciples are being made, and if you remember on our study
on the local church, and specifically the commission, a disciple is
one who is a follower of Jesus Christ. Okay, so to be considered
a disciple of Jesus Christ, you are one who follows the teachings
of Jesus Christ. And so to be considered a disciple,
one must believe and follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. And
if somebody does not believe and follow the teachings of Jesus
Christ, but something else, then they're not a disciple, even
though they may look like a disciple, okay? They may be religious,
they may be zealous for religious things. They may use the word
God and Jesus and faith, and they might use the word church
and holy and righteous and all this stuff. They might use the
terminology. They might use the outward appearance
of these things But if they do not hold and believe the teachings
of Jesus, then they're not a disciple. And if they've not been made
a disciple, a believer and a follower of the teachings of Jesus, then
they are not qualified to be baptized or immersed. and then added to the church.
Okay, so the commission was to make disciples with the gospel
and then those who are disciples or followers or believers, those
who profess to believe and follow the teachings of Jesus, then
they are to be baptized and then added to the church teaching
them all things whatsoever Christ has commanded. Not just the gospel,
but everything else that Christ had commanded them. So the commission
isn't just preaching the gospel, okay? And if you remember on
our study on that back at last year at some point, we seen that
the gospel was a threefold thing. It was made disciples, baptized
the disciples, catechize the disciples or teach them all things
whatsoever Christ has commanded. Okay. And if you're not doing
those three, then you've not carried out the commission. There's
a lot of people out there that's running around thinking, you
know, Hey, we're evangelicals and we're being evangelical by
going out and preaching the gospel. That's the only part of it. Whenever
you make the disciple, you're to baptize the disciple, and
you're bringing them back into the congregation, and that's
where they are to be taught all things whatsoever Christ has
commanded. Now, whenever you make a disciple,
Jesus said to go with the gospel and preach the gospel and that's
how disciples are made. So whenever they hear the gospel,
we need to be careful on what gospel are we preaching. Because
if we're preaching a gospel that is not the gospel that Jesus
preached, then we're preaching a gospel not that Jesus preached. So thus we are not making disciples
of Christ, we are making disciples of something else. Okay? And a lot of times people think,
well, as long as we just get somebody to make a profession
of faith to Jesus Christ, then we're good. No, Jesus said that
we're to go with the gospel. And I know a lot of people, there's
questions on whether or not what gospel you gotta know, how much
of the gospel do you gotta know before, you know, is it just
that Jesus died and was buried and was resurrected? Of course,
we know in Corinthians, the Bible says that Even though Paul used
that phrase that he had taught in the gospel that Christ had
died and was buried and was resurrected, but he said that how he died
according to the scriptures. See, we have to preach about
Christ's death according to the scriptures. Did Christ's death
actually accomplish anything? Was it efficacious? Was it a
vicarious? uh... there wasn't a uh... efficacious
there and i mean when i say by here instead i mean a substitution
area did he actually died in the place of somebody else And
if he did, then everything that was required of that person was
put on Christ Jesus. And if Jesus paid the full price
for that person, then that person doesn't owe a price anymore.
That person has been saved. That's vicarious. And then when
we speak of Christ's efficacious redemption or work of atonement,
then we speak of the fact that what Christ did actually effects
all those for whom he died. And we see that in Isaiah, the
Bible speaks that by Christ's death, many are justified. The many that he died for is
justified, meaning that their debt is canceled out, it's removed,
that they no longer have that debt laid to their account. So the debt that we owe was death,
because the wages of sin is death. So in the gospel, whenever we
preach that every man, every woman is a sinner against God,
and that the wages of sin is death, and that we are unable
to do anything towards God, and that we need a Redeemer, we need
a Savior. Whenever we preach that gospel,
if we don't include in that message the fact that Jesus died and
secured that salvation, and so that everyone for whom he died
is effectually saved, meaning that they will be given the new
birth. They will be called to Christ
Jesus. They will be given faith to believe. They will understand God's word
as the Holy Spirit teaches them throughout their life and gives
them faith in measure. That's all part of the gospel.
But see, the problem with so many evangelicals today is they
want to reduce the gospel into a three or four sentence little
saying to just go out onto the streets or go out into the, you
know, youth camps or to go, you know, into the restaurants and
the buildings and throw a few tracks out and stuff like this.
And all they want to do is reduce it to the ABCs and one, two,
threes of the gospel. But the gospel is something that
is to be taught and a person is to be made a disciple by that
gospel, meaning that they are to come to believe on the teachings
of Jesus by what Jesus said. And we know that Jesus taught
in John chapter six that the Father has given a people to
the Son. That's election. And we also
know that Jesus said that no man can come to me except the
Father draw him. That's a total depravity. Okay, so Jesus preached total
depravity. Jesus preached unconditional
election. All that the Father gave to me
shall come to me and all that come to me, I will know why it's
cast out and I will raise him up at the last day. That's unconditional
election. Jesus taught that he came to
die for his sheep. He said that he also came and
he prays for his people that was given to him by the Father
and he didn't pray for the world. So Jesus taught depravity. He
taught unconditional election. He taught irresistible grace.
No man can come except he be drawn by the Father. That's irresistible
grace. He taught that he had only died
for the sheep. That's limited atonement or particular redemption. And he said that he would sustain
them and keep them. All the Father gave me shall
come to me and I will raise them up at the last day. Jesus made
all the promises that he would send a comforter into them and
that he would guide them and he would lead them, convict them
of sin and that he would keep them in the faith. And that perseverance
that they were supposed to do was all because of his preservation
by the Spirit of God. So Jesus taught all those five
points of the doctrines of grace. And so if that's what Jesus taught,
for someone to be made a disciple of Jesus Christ and to follow
the teachings of Jesus Christ, they must be presented with the
teachings of Jesus Christ, and Jesus taught those things. And
so the gospel isn't just this little quip of, you know, Jesus
loves you and died for you, just believe on him. That's not the
gospel. Okay, the gospel is teaching
that you have an inability. You have a spiritual deadness.
There is no spiritual life. There is nothing that you can
do for God and God has given us a law and that law is something
that we cannot keep. Therefore, we need somebody outside
of us who is righteous in and of himself to give to us a righteousness
that we do not have so that we can be acceptable to God. And so the gospel entails justification. It entails Christ sanctifying
us and setting us apart as his people and being unto us wisdom
and righteousness for us. See, the gospel is more than
just a little quip. It's more than just a little
track. It's more than just telling people that Jesus loves them
and give your heart to Jesus. That is not preaching the gospel. And so many today want to reduce
the gospel to just that so that their hearers can easily understand
and make some profession of faith. But brethren, if you're making
a profession of faith based upon false gospel awareness, then
you're not doing anything for that person. And that person
is not doing anything before God, okay? So the gospel is about
what Christ has done and not what you do. And so much of evangelicalism
is telling people what you must do to be saved. But that's not
the gospel. The gospel is going out and declaring
what Christ did to save his people. And so the reason that so many
people have a problem with people like us who says that Arminianism
or the teaching of decision salvation, that it's your decision to make
for Christ or free will or things such as that, that we are making
too much, that, you know, that, yeah, somebody could still be
believing those Arminian beliefs and be a converted Christian. Brethren, I'm not saying that
a person who is believing Arminian beliefs is not an elect of God. They might be an elect of God,
they've just not been converted and repented. Because someone
who has been converted and repent of the dead works of Arminianism,
and forget the word Arminianism, repent of the dead works of self-righteousness
is what it is, until that person's done that, they've not been converted.
To be converted means to convert from thinking, I'm being saved
by either my decision, my free will, my self-righteous works,
by something that I have to do, Jesus has done all that he has
done and is providing that gift, but I have to reach out and I
gotta do something for it. Any kind of gospel that says
do is not the gospel. The gospel is it's done already,
okay? And so whenever Peter preached
on the day of Pentecost, and those people said, what must
we do to be saved? Peter said, repent. Quit thinking
about what you must do. He said, repent, be baptized
for the remission of your sin. Repent and then be baptized because
you've already had your sins remitted. You've already been
saved. Repent of the thinking that you
have to do something to do the works of God. but you have to
do some sort of activity to make yourself saved or to get saved
or for God to give you his salvation. See, God gives us his salvation and he doesn't ask for any condition
to get it, okay? So that's the gospel. And so
I'm gonna say, well, there may be some men out there that's
preaching and teaching that You know, they don't know the doctrines
of grace. And do you think that we ought to, you know, that we
should call them brothers and sisters in Christ? And, you know,
they're faithful preachers, faithful church members, and all this
kind of stuff. They live a holy life. Brethren,
it doesn't matter how constrained your life is by rule keeping. It doesn't matter what you go
out and do as far as preaching and studying the scriptures and
all that sort of stuff. It is, are you believing on Christ?
Are you believing on Christ alone? If you're still believing that
it takes your faith, or you're still thinking that it takes
your commitment to Christ for your salvation, then you've not
learned of the gospel. You've learned another gospel.
Now, why do I say all that? Well, because there is this notion
among those in Christianity, quote-unquote Christianity, and
even among sovereign grace believers, that long as you know some gospel,
that's enough to save you. Well, first and foremost, I think
we need to define some things. Number one, believing the gospel
doesn't save anybody in the sense of making them right before God,
or causing God to give them salvation. What believing on Christ does
is save them from wrong thinking about the gospel, wrong thinking
about the doctrine of Christ. It saves them from error, but
it doesn't save them legally before God. It doesn't even save
them practically before men. What it does is it shows forth
that you have been saved. Whenever we speak of justification,
we can speak of justification in its legal term, meaning justified
before God. And that is by the faith of Christ. Christ's actual faith in submitting
himself to God and following and doing all the things that
was required by God for him to do as the substitute and the
surety for his people. And Christ did that. He was subservient. He came and did all that the
Father had asked for him to do or sent him to do. And he did
that completely, fully. Okay, and by that faithfulness,
we were justified. But then we speak of justification
as it pertains to whenever we begin to believe that is the
justification that we have been already saved by Jesus Christ. Because only those who Christ
has saved will receive his faith. So that faith is given to us
in the new birth. And so in measure, we reach out
and believe upon Christ. We trust upon him. We look to
him solely for all of our salvation, whether it be legal or whether
it be practical, we look to him for all of it, okay? And then
there's a justification that comes by words. We justify ourselves
to other people that we have been saved. by the good works
that Christ does in and through us. And so that shows that other
people see that and can know that we are his. But brethren,
the act of salvation in its legal ramifications has nothing to
do with any conditions of men. And the false gospel of Arminianism
is that Jesus has died for everybody, which is also against the doctrine
of Christ, but they say Jesus died for everybody and is offering
this gift to everybody, also against what Jesus taught. And
then if you will reach out by faith and receive it, then you
will be saved by Jesus. So Jesus didn't actually save
anybody on the cross. He just made salvation possible
on the cross for anybody who by their faith will enact it,
okay? Now, again, why am I saying all
this? I'm saying this because whenever
we're examining the doctrine of churches, especially in the
light of what we're doing here with one of our dear members
who is considering this church and the membership into this
church, and whether or not we would commend them to that church,
we need to test their doctrine, specifically their gospel, with
that of Christ. And if it doesn't line up with
the doctrine of Christ, then we have no place to commend our
dear member to that place, okay? Now in Galatians chapter one,
And we've done this, I've preached on this several times since I've
been at this church. And you're very familiar with
it. You know what Paul is dealing with here with the churches at
Galatia. If you will remember, the churches
at Galatia, Paul had come and established these churches and
he established them with the doctrine of Christ. He established
them with the gospel of Jesus Christ, okay? And then he gave
them that, and then it wasn't long after that that the Judaizers
began to come in, and they began to confuse and to bewilder the
Galatian believers by saying, yeah, we agree with Paul. We
are saved by grace, but then we're kept by our works. We gotta
continue in good works. If you don't keep up the good
works, if you don't keep up the law-keeping, then you're not
really saved. And so Paul has come back with
this letter saying, listen, that's not what I taught you. They're twisting the gospel. That's not
what was given. And so Paul begins the letter
this way, says, Paul an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but
by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead. So Paul here is establishing
the fact before he even gets into the letter, that remember,
I'm an apostle. And he's not saying this to boast
in himself or to puff himself up, but to remind them that the
gospel that they were established in whenever they were constituted
into churches, whenever they were formed into churches, As
Paul preached this gospel, they began to believe this gospel.
They showed forth signs of being disciples of Jesus Christ and
believing upon him and were baptized and brought into a congregation
who was established there in that region, Paul said, remember
that I'm not doing this just as willy-nilly, that I am an
apostle. There was something about an
apostle that was different than everybody else. An apostle was
someone who directly received the doctrine of Jesus Christ
by Jesus Christ. It wasn't hearsay from men. See,
I've received the gospel through the teachings of men. You know,
I hear men teach, but see, you don't ever believe nothing until
the Holy Spirit teaches you. The Holy Spirit has to teach
you those things. Well, that's how we receive things
now. We hear men teach things and we take God's word and we
look at God's word and we line it up and see whether or not
that's to be true. And then the Holy Spirit leads us into truth.
But here with the apostle, They actually had Jesus in person
say, here's the gospel that I want you to go preach. This is what
I want you to go say to people right here. This is the order
that you are to, when these churches come together, this is how they
are to conduct themselves in the worship service. This is
what you can and can't do. These are the laws within the
kingdom of God that are to be kept within the church, okay? And so Christ, Give that directly
to the apostle. So whenever Paul here is saying
an apostle, he's wanting them to be clear. I wasn't an appointed
apostle by men. See, I'm appointed as an ordained
pastor by the church, which by the way, that's how God calls
and does things. He's told us that's how we do
things, okay? We are ordained in that fashion,
okay? But an apostle wasn't ordained
by men. He wasn't appointed by men. He
was appointed by Jesus Christ himself. So Paul is laying down
the authority here of saying, listen, these religious leaders
that are coming in here and feeding you all this nonsense, remember,
they were not directly taught by Jesus Christ. So the message
that they come, if it's contrary to the message that I give you,
which was directly given to me by Jesus Christ, Don't be listening
to it. See, I'm the apostle, not them.
And so he's not bragging. He's not boasting. He's not trying
to get patted on the back. He's establishing the firm concrete
grounds in which that gospel that was given to them and the
gospel that was expected to be held and defended and perpetuated
came from Jesus Christ and shouldn't be messed with. See, we don't
have any right to change the message. Even though Christ,
who is the head of the church, has given us delegated authority
to carry out the works of the kingdom as the church, we have
no right to change the message or the method that Christ has
laid down. We are to deliver the message
as Christ gives it. We are to do it in the way that
Christ has commanded, okay? So although we may have some
delegated authority as the custodians of the kingdom, we do not have
the right as the head of the kingdom to change the message
or the methods in the kingdom. So Paul is establishing the fact
of I am the apostle. The message I brought to you
came from the established source, Jesus Christ. Paul, an apostle,
not of man, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father
who raised him from the dead. And all the brethren which are
with me under the churches of Galatia. Grace be to you and
peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who
gave himself for our sins. that he might deliver us from
the present evil world according to the will of God and our Father,
to whom be glory forever and ever, amen. Now here he gets
into the crux of it. I marvel that ye are so soon
removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ
unto another gospel. So here he's saying, I'm surprised
that in just this short amount of time, that I established you
in the gospel, that you are already being moved away out of the grace
of God, what was being taught to you, into another gospel. See, God called you into the
grace gospel, the gospel of grace. The good news that salvation
is by grace. Why is that good news? Why do
we call it the gospel of grace? And why is grace a good sound? That's what the word gospel means,
right? Good news. Why is grace a good
news to the true child of grace, to the true child of God? Well,
the reason because of that is because the true child of God,
whenever they are born from above and they have spiritual understanding
given to them, they see what the Bible teaches in the fact
that God's law is to be kept 100% and they can't do it. There is absolutely no way they
can attain the righteousness that is demanded in the law. and so they see a Redeemer who
has done it for them. The reason that the gospel of
grace is good news is because we know there's no hope for us
to be made righteous by anything that we do ourselves. Even our
faith to Christ is tainted by our flesh. We cannot believe
100% in full faith to Jesus Christ. So see, even our faith, If people
are preaching that you've got to have faith to be saved, listen,
our faith is sullied by our flesh. Do you have 100% faith all the
time? No, I don't. I think anybody
that says that they do are liars. Do we have belief all the time?
No, we have doubts, don't we? We have doubts. We have misunderstanding. We have limited knowledge. We
have limited understanding. We have limited wisdom. We have
limited ability. Why? Because we are still in
this body of flesh. This flesh cannot please God.
It can't do anything to please God at all. And so while we are
in this flesh, we still have those deeds. And so that, as
the Bible says, at the very best, we are unprofitable servants.
Okay? And so Paul here is saying, listen,
the reason that we, you were called into grace is so that
you might understand that everything over here is pretty dismal. You
can't, you're in the flesh. Those who are in the flesh cannot
please God, that you have no spiritual understanding. So you
can't understand the things of God. You don't have the faith
of Christ given to you in the new birth, so you can't believe
upon Christ. You can't trust Christ. You can't
hope in Christ. You can't do anything. You can't
love God. You can't love your brethren.
You can't love the word of God. You can't understand the word
of God. All these spiritual things that we do, apart from Christ
and salvation that Christ gives us, We can't do that. And then
we have this law that's over us saying that if you don't do
this, you're going to die. And we realized we can't keep
the law that whenever we break the law, at one point we've broken
every law that God has ever given. We're guilty of every one of
them. And so that there, that leaves us hopeless. It leaves
us crushed under the hammer of condemnation. unless we're saved. But whenever we hear there is
good news, there is a salvation that's out there that doesn't
require you to keep anything faithfully, to do anything faithfully. Now, that's not meaning, I'm
not saying go out and live that sin might abound, okay? I'm not saying go out there and
live like hell. What I'm saying is, is to know
that there is a salvation that is given to God's people that
doesn't require perfection on their part for it to be enacted. Doesn't require anything on their
part for it to be enacted. But God gives it to them and
then he becomes in them the source of strength that they need to
persevere in faith. And this is what Paul says, I
am marveled that you have moved if you have known anything of
your sinfulness, if you have learned anything from God's word
that was preached to you about your inability and your total
depravity, that why in the world would you move from a gospel
that teaches full grace to one that requires you to do something
when you have been completely and totally taught that there's
nothing that you can do? But see, therein is the problem,
brethren. In churches today, all across this country, all
across this world, In churches today, there are preachers and
teachers that are standing up that are telling their congregations
that they can do something, that there is something that they
can do, that they are telling them that there is a little good
in them, telling them that they have a free will to be able to
choose Christ whenever they want to choose Christ, that are telling
them that it's your decision. You're the one who decides your
own destiny. that you can, that God has given
you a human responsibility to be able to choose or to choose
otherwise, and that he's a gentleman and he won't force himself upon
you. I've heard that in my whole entire
life. I heard Adrian Rogers preach
that time and time again. God is a gentleman and he'll
never force himself upon you. He wants you to love him. And
so he gives you a free will so that you'll love him willingly
because a forced love is not true love. Listen, brethren,
God doesn't force us to love him. He actually releases our
heart, gives us a new heart so that it's released to love him.
Our heart is bound up by our nature that hates God, the God
of the Bible that is. Our heart is constricted by the
nature that we have and that nature can't love him. at all. But God frees us up in that he
gives us a new heart. And in giving us a new heart,
we are now able to love him. So it's not a forced love. God
doesn't force us to love him against our will. He just gives
us a whole new understanding of things. Now, he says here,
I am marveled that you are so soon removed from him that called
you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel. Now, if we just stop right there,
we say, okay, well, then there is another gospel. And long as
we believe a gospel, we're all right. Okay. Long as we believe a gospel,
we're okay. We're just might be misguided.
And one of these days we'll be, you know, moved over into the
right lane and, and, and be looking at the right gospel. Okay. Now,
what does Paul say, verse eight, or excuse me, verse seven, which
is not another. See, if you're not believing
the gospel of free and sovereign grace that Christ Jesus taught,
that was delivered to the apostles, Paul being one of them, who established
the churches in that gospel, in that gospel, See, they were
established in that gospel. People are thinking that churches
back then were established in this weak, watered-down, pink-pale
imitation gospel that's being preached out there, and that
doctrines of grace is just something that we taught them after the
fact to the more mature Christians. No, no, no, no. That was what
was being taught to those people. That was the gospel of Jesus
Christ. Whenever Paul was talking to
the Romans and he explained to them in very clear terms that
not all who are Israel are of Israel. And it's not the children
of the flesh who are the children of the promise. He said that God has the right
to choose one and not the other. That God loves Jacob and hates
Esau. That God makes one a vessel of
honor, one a vessel of dishonor. Do you think that he is preserving
that for just a mature? No, that is part of the gospel
that he is preaching. The God freely and sovereignly
has done the saving through Christ Jesus and him alone. It's not through a religious
system. It's not through law keeping. It's not through coming
to church, all that kind of stuff. No, it was by the grace of God
in Christ Jesus. So anything else is another gospel. And Paul says here, and any other
gospel is actually not another gospel. He said, which is not
another, but they be some that trouble you and would pervert
the gospel of Christ. So anybody that comes in and
teaches a gospel that doesn't include that vicarious substitution
of Jesus Christ. doesn't teach that efficacious
work of the Holy Spirit and salvation. That doesn't teach the fact that
Christ has saved not everybody, but only those whom the Father
has given him. And that those people will be
kept until the very end. See, if they're not preaching
those doctrines of grace, they're not preaching the gospel. They're
preaching something else. They're preaching something else.
And matter of fact, according to verse seven, they're preaching
a perverted gospel. Verse eight, but though we, us
apostles, preachers, teachers, churches, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto
you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. You see that? Do you think Paul's
serious about what gospel we should be preaching? Is it important that Sovereign
Grace Baptist Church be preaching the gospel and not just a gospel,
which is not a gospel? Is it really important? I mean,
he says here, if anybody else, even an angel from God, comes
and preaches another gospel than the gospel that Jesus Christ
give and we established you in. If they preach any other gospel,
he says, let them be accursed. That word accursed is anathema.
Let them be rejected. Let them be put away. Now that
could mean a couple of things. It could say, let them be put
out of the church, okay, let them be rejected and excommunicated
out of the church, the membership of the church. If we have anybody
that's a member of the church that begins to preach another
gospel, they need to be dealt with. If they don't repent from
that, then they need to be rejected of the church. The Bible teaches
us that. A little leaven will leaven the
whole lump so that we get rid of that so that it doesn't affect
the whole group. But it can also mean that anybody
who is preaching that perverted gospel, let them be damned. Let them go into condemnation
before Christ Jesus at the end time, whenever he judges all
things, let that preacher of the perverted gospel be condemned. Matter of fact, we know that
that's true and that's gonna happen, right? There will be many that
say on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not in your name cast
out many devils and demons and didn't we do miracles and didn't
do many great and wonderful works in your name. Paraphrasing. And what did Jesus say? Depart from me, you workers of
iniquity, I never knew you. Let them be anathema. So that
tells me that there are people who are religious under the umbrella
of Christianity, under the umbrella of evangelical, under the umbrella
of gospel preacher, gospel teacher, that is going to be workers of
iniquity. That Christ is going to say, depart from me. I never
knew you. See, we think it's all about
Satanism, witchcraft, all about, you know, atheism, you know,
the masons. All these cultic groups that's
out there, you know, the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Buddhists and
the, you know, all these false religions. We think that, but
brother, listen, it's right in here under Christianity as well. Paul was going back to a Christian
church that he had established himself by Christ Jesus. with
the correct gospel, and they were being led astray by some
people into another gospel. And he's saying, listen, it is
of utmost importance that you turn from that, because anyone
who is preaching another gospel than what I delivered unto you
is not a gospel, and let them be rejected. Let them be cursed. Let them be anathema. Brethren,
to me, that tells us it's an important thing. So whenever
we are looking at commending a brother or sister to another
church that is preaching another gospel, we need to have as much
consideration for that as we have right here, for Paul looking
at, this wasn't his church. The Galatian church wasn't his
church. None of the churches was his church. He was the apostle
that was sent to establish those churches and to teach those churches
but they were not his, they were Christ's church. And then if
there was churches that were not preaching the gospel and
continued in that and didn't repent from that, what does Revelation
tells us? When the church continues to
do those things, then God removes the lampstand. God removes the
candlestick. God removes the light of their
witness. God considers them to be Ichabod
and he removes his presence from them. And they are no longer
a church, even though they might be gathering and talking about
religious things. They're no longer a church. They
no longer have his presence. They move and function by their
own emotions and desires and whatever they want to do. They
don't follow after Christ. And so Paul here is saying, listen,
it is of utmost importance. Verse nine. As we said before, so say I now
again, if any man preach another gospel unto you, then that ye
have received, let him be a curse. So Paul said it twice. just in case you thought he was
kind of getting wound up. You know, I just, I just kind
of was getting wound up a minute ago. Sometimes whenever I get
wound up, I might misspeak or I might say something, uh, overboard
for effect maybe. You know, we might exaggerate
the situation, okay? We might exaggerate the situation
when we're in the heat of it. You know, have you ever had an
argument with somebody? In the heat of the argument, we each
said something that you really didn't mean, but you over-exaggerated
the issue to some degree? Well, we've all done that. Well,
just in case, the Holy Spirit had Paul write this down, just
in case anybody thought that he was over-exaggerating the
issue. Well, surely Paul, surely Paul
don't mean if you're preaching another gospel that y'all to
be cursed. cut out, condemned, thrown away. I mean, that's what
that word means. The word anathema means to be
cut off, removed, cast out, cursed, condemned. Surely Paul didn't mean that.
I mean, you know, we gotta be loving to our brothers and sisters
who are pre, they just don't know enough. They still need
to be learned. They still need to know and learn.
Well, brethren, the reason that you cut somebody out or the reason
that someone's rejected, why do we exercise church discipline? If you go to somebody and you
try to correct them when they err in scripture, and you correct
them and they don't listen to you, and then you bring them
before another witness and they don't listen, and then you bring
them before the church and they don't listen, and then the Bible
says that if they don't listen at that point, than you are to
put them out of the church? What is the purpose of putting
them out of the church? Two things right off the bat, and there's
probably a lot more. Number one, actually three things.
Number one, you put them out of the church because that's
gonna infect, like I said a while ago, other people. If they continue in bringing
that stuff up, it will work its way in the rest of the congregation. Number two, the reason why you
put people out is because they are to be, number one, disciplined.
It's for disciplinary purposes. We can't have you in here and
you did not repent of that, so you need to be put out because
what's in here is only gonna be what Christ has commanded.
and you're preaching something else. It's for reconciliation,
because if you put a child of grace outside of the church,
that discipline in and of itself is gonna be the method in which
God draws that person to see their error. That person is not
gonna, because of the love of Christ that's in them, the love
of the brethren that's in them by the new birth, that person
is gonna hate being put out of the church. I won't use any names
or anything, but I know a man who was having some marital issues,
and the church had, and this man loves the Lord, has, I mean,
a tremendous love for Christ and the Bible and things like
that, but was having some marital problems. And whenever confronted
by the church and said, hey, you're gonna have to stop this
in what you're doing at home, you know, then, you know, if
you don't repent of that and turn from that, we're gonna have
to put you out of the church. This man, the thought of being
put out of the church and away from the preaching and the fellowship
of God's people and everything, broke that man up where he came
before the church, repented in tears, begged the church not
to exclude him from the membership or from the fellowship of the
church. That's what church discipline
is for. For those who really are people of God, it causes
us, it is a shocking thing, and causes us to realize, listen,
the church as a whole sees this as error, and I have been deceived
in myself, and maybe I need to repent, and I don't wanna be
cast out from underneath the preaching of the gospel. I don't
wanna be cast away from the fellowship of the brethren. And so that
causes us to repent, and to be reconciled back into the church.
And Paul here is saying, listen, that's why the gospel is so important. And if someone is preaching something
else, cast them out, get rid of it. Because it's a cancer
inside the church, but it's also a medicine for the child of grace
outside the church. If any man preach any other gospel
unto you than that you have received, let him be accursed. Now he goes
into verse 10 and says, for do I now persuade men or God? Or
do I seek to please men? See, the purpose of us coming
and worshiping here and the preaching of the gospel, okay, is not to
be man pleasers. You know, I'm not here to please
you. Now, I wanna be liked. That's, I mean, that's just a,
that's just human nature. Everybody wants to be liked and
to be accepted by other people, you know? I wanna be liked. I wanna have friends. I wanna have people that wanna
hang around me and talk with me and visit and all that kind
of stuff. I wanna have that. I wanna please other people. But whenever it comes to the
preaching of the gospel, we do not preach the gospel so that
we are to please men, but we're to preach the gospel to please
God, to preach what he said. See, whenever we preach and teach,
it's to say what God said. That's why I said we don't have
any authority to change the message or the method. We continue in
that because that's God's way of doing things. And so Paul here is saying, am
I to go out and preach a gospel so that it will persuade men?
No. He says, for if I yet pleased
men, I should not be the servant of Christ. Listen, if you've
got a preacher that's preaching a gospel so that it will attract
people, you better get rid of that preacher. He's not preaching
the gospel. If you've got a preacher that's
out there trying to dumb everything down to get more people to please
men, so that it doesn't offend them. See, that's what we're
seeing in all these, especially in these liberal churches out
there today. You know, you're saying, well,
you know, I've got to change with the times. You know, we
ought to start letting women be preachers and pastors now,
you know, to keep up with the times. Oh, well, it's all right. We ought to start letting the
sodomites be members of the church. How are they ever going to be
saved in here if we don't let them be members of the church? Well, if we let them to be members
of the church, if they're in the church, then surely they
need to have representation in the church. So we ought to be
able to let the sodomized be preachers, pastors. And we was watching the show
Blue Bloods the other night, of course, they're Catholic.
So it doesn't make a difference. That's a, that's a, uh, antichrist,
uh, religion anyway. But, uh, the mentality was there. And, uh, the police commissioner
was talking with the priest and how the police commissioner thought
that, uh, that, uh, you ought to, you know, not have any kind
of problem with sodomize and that the church is behind the
times in that situation. And see the mentality is, is
that we changed the word of God and the church of Jesus Christ
to fit the generation in which we live in and to fit the times.
No, no, no, no. We are to preach and teach what
Christ has commanded. And no matter what happens on
the outside and the changes of time and the way things are done,
the gospel doesn't change. It doesn't change to suit the
atmosphere and the generation of the day, okay? Matter of fact,
whenever the times change like it is now, we should be preaching
it even harder. Matter of fact, that's what this
country should have been doing all along, with all this sodomite
rising up, demanding all their rights and things such as that,
that, listen, you can have the fundamental rights that this
country affords, but don't press on us your acceptance as who
you are, okay? The Bible says that that is a
sin, that that is a perversion and that God hates that stuff.
And so, you know, that lifestyle is not acceptable to God. And it is a sin. Now, sure, everything
else is a sin too. But if you're gonna be a Christian
and call yourself a Christian, you're not gonna continue in
that, continuing to do that. You're gonna repent of those
things and turn from that. You're not gonna continue to
live in that sinful degradation. And our country has failed to
do that. It didn't remove it. It didn't stop it. It didn't
silence it. It didn't believe that God's word was changing. Oh, we should change God's word
to fit our society today. Well, God's word is just as much
today about sodomy as it was whenever he destroyed Sodom and
Gomorrah. Nothing has changed in that. Well, brother, sodomy doesn't even begin to
rank inequality with the gospel. The gospel is more. The gospel
is more important than even that. See, we have churches that are
standing for abortion, going out and preaching in front of
abortion clinics. Hey, that's great if they want
to do that and everything. You know, that message needs
to be heard. Abortion is killing babies. It's
murder. Okay? You want to go out and
preach against the sodomites? Hey, that's what... But listen,
the gospel is so much higher than all of that. It's the preaching
of the gospel, not the preaching against abortion or the preaching
against sodomy. It's the preaching of the gospel
that we are called to do. And if we preach the gospel,
we'll make disciples as God brings them in to spiritual life, they'll
be made and they will follow God's word. And Paul here is
saying, but if you start preaching another gospel, if your gospel
is the gospel of let's quit killing babies, and that's what you're
preaching for the gospel, then you're preaching another gospel.
As good as that is to do, we should be doing that and be against
that stuff. But brethren, that's not the
gospel. Preaching against sodomy is not
the gospel. Preaching the work of Christ
to save his people from those sins is the gospel. And so we are to preach those
things that please God and not man. Matter of fact, he says
here that if you are preaching to please men, then you are not
a servant of Christ. He said, I can't be a servant
of Christ. Verse 11, but I certify you, brethren, that the gospel
which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received
it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of
Jesus Christ. So Jesus is the one who taught
Paul that gospel. And so the gospel is of utmost
importance. He says in, give me just a second here, let me find
it and mark it. Verse 16. Knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ,
even we have believed in Jesus Christ. I'm sorry, chapter two,
verse 16. That we might be justified by
the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law. For by
the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. There is absolutely no work of
the law, even if you could keep the law. If you could keep the
law 100% in every aspect, God never designed justification
to be by law keeping. Never. By the deeds of the law
shall no flesh be justified. Your flesh is just flesh and
it cannot please God. Therefore, it is not going to
be justified in it doing works. The works that is done in the
flesh cannot justify you before God. And if you're not justified
before God, you will be condemned in your sin and you will be cast
in the lake of fire. But if while we seek to be justified
by Christ, we ourselves are found sinners, is therefore Christ
the minister of sin? God forbid. For if I build again
the things which I have destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
For I through the law am dead to the law that I might live
unto God. See, the fact that we are dead
to the law means that we are alive. If you wanna be alive
to Christ, it's not gonna be by the law. Matter of fact, we're
gonna be dead to the law. Love's not gonna be any of our
concern for acceptance with God. He said, I am crucified with
Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me in the life which I now live in
the flesh. I live by the faith of the Son
of God who loved me and gave himself for me, and I do not
frustrate the grace of God. For if righteousness comes by
the law, then Christ is dead in vain. See, salvation isn't
about what you do and keeping some law. Some will say God has
commanded all men to repent and then unless you repent, you cannot
be saved. Is that a deed of the law? Would that be the deed of the
law? Sounds like it to me. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
that thou shalt be saved. That sounds like a command of
God. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Some people say that's
an imperative, that's a command. If you don't follow that command,
then you won't be saved. But it says here, by the deeds
of the law, no man will be justified. And he says that if we preach
that, if we preach a salvation by anything that we do and keeping
a command or keeping something, you know, keeping a law or an
imperative, if we do anything, then Christ's death was in vain. There was no purpose in Christ's
coming if Christ doesn't actually be the one that saves you. See,
if you can just reform yourself and do good, If you can make
a decision to not follow your own self, but follow Jesus, then
that's all that's needed. Okay, well, turn yourself right
around and follow Jesus. But see, that's the problem,
is that we can't. We won't. And even if we try,
we'll eventually fail. See, just like with Adam, Although
Adam had not yet sinned, it was inevitable that Adam would sin. Why? Because of his nature. Because of his nature. God give
him a law that he could not keep. And just like with all of us,
we're born into this world. And at some point, our flesh
is going to show itself. Our flesh is going to reveal
that we cannot keep God's law. And so we will be left hopeless
because the wages of sin is death. As soon as you transgress God, your sentence is death. There's no way you can go back
and make up for it. So even if right now, you even right now,
if you could, from now until the day that you die, stop sinning
in word and deed, it's impossible, nobody can do that. But even
if you could, there's no way that you can go back and make
up for all the sins that you've already committed. You're without hope. You need
Christ. But see, if we're not preaching
that type of gospel, that Christ has done it, and applies it without
free will, without choice, without all that stuff. He applies that
to his people. Then we're not preaching the
gospel. and we're frustrating the grace of God. That doesn't
mean we're stopping the grace of God. Whenever he says here,
I do not frustrate the grace of God, what Paul is saying is,
listen, I'm not mixing the gospel with something else. And people
that are out there that are preaching Arminianism is mixing the gospel
with something else. They're taking that Christ died,
was buried, was resurrected, and they're trying to harmonize
that with man given a free choice, a free will, and a decision to
make, and an ability to exercise a faith that he does not have.
That is antithetical. Therefore, that's why Paul says,
even though they might be preaching something that sounds like grace,
it's not grace. Unless it's full, free grace,
it's not grace. It's worse. Therefore, in verse
one of chapter three says, O foolish Galatians, who have bewitched
you that ye should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus
Christ has been evidently set forth, crucified among you. This
only would I learn of you. Receive ye the spirit by the
works of the law or by the hearing of faith. Are he so foolish having
begun in the Spirit? Are ye now made perfect in the
flesh? The answer's no. You aren't made
perfect in the flesh. Have ye suffered so many things
in vain, if it yet be in vain? He therefore that ministered
to you the Spirit and worketh miracles among you, doth he,
if, Doeth he it by the works of the law or by the hearing
of faith? Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted unto
him for righteousness, know ye therefore that they which are
of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. The scripture foreseeing
that God would justify the heathen through faith preached before
the gospel unto Abraham saying, in thee shall all nations be
blessed. So then they which are of faith are blessed with faithful
Abraham. For as many as are under the
works of the law are under the curse. For it is written, cursed
is everyone that continues not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do." See, if you want to be saved
by keeping a commandment or by the law, guess what? You have
to continue in all things that are written in the book of the
law to do. There's roughly 700 and something commands in the
Old Testament in the law. Let me ask you, Can you take
that piece of paper there that's in front of you and write down
every law that's in the book right now by memory? If you can't do that, then how
in the world are you going to keep all of them laws if you don't
even know them? Our works are becoming... Light is beginning to be shed
on our works, right? It's futile. It's futile to think
that we can be righteous or be saved by our deeds. See, God
is saying that if you choose to do it by your choice, by your
actions, by your work, by your law keeping, by your faith. See, man has a natural faith.
But that natural faith is not the faith of Christ. I hear the
illustration all the time. Someone says, God's given all
men faith. You know, I have this chair and
I have faith that that chair is going to hold me up when I
sit down in it. So every time I sit down in that chair, I'm
having faith that that Faith is just changing the object in
who you believe in instead of from yourself to God. That is
not the faith of Christ. The faith of Christ is a gift
of God, and the Bible says not all men have faith, but that God gives faith in measure.
Christ does. And it's only those who are of
faith that are the children of Abraham. No man is justified by the law
in the sight of God, it is evident, for the just shall live by faith. The law is not of faith. The
law is not of faith. And so many people want to prove
their faith by keeping the law. But the Bible says the law is
not of faith. But the man that doeth them shall
live in them. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law
being made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham
might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive
the promise of the Spirit through faith. Brethren, I speak after
the man or men, though it be but a man's covenant, yet if
it be confirmed, no man disannulleth or addeth thereto. Now to Abraham and his seed were
the promises made. He said, not unto seeds of many,
but as one, and to thy seed, which is Christ, and this I say,
that the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the
law which was 430 years after, cannot disannul that it should
make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of
the law, it is no more of promise, but God gave it to Abraham by
promise. Wherefore then serveth the law,
it was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come, to
whom the promise was made and it was ordained by angels in
the hand of a mediator. So see, brethren, it's all about
the work of Christ. The law was given to us. The
commands were given to us to show us our need for Christ. Christ came and did all the work
of the law on our behalf. And God takes that and applies
that to us. The gospel is a free grace. It's given to us without our
response. It's given to us without our
conditions. It's given to us without our
works. And if anybody is preaching the
gospel other than that, they're preaching a false, perverted
gospel, and they should be anathema. In 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and
verse 14, or 13, excuse me. It says, now we have
received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit, which
is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given
to us. Not given to us on exchange for
our faith or our belief or our faithfulness. Commitment. God doesn't give us salvation
because we stay committed to Him. Okay? These are false gospels. Now,
with that being said, in your papers that I've given you and
what we've been looking at, the doctrine of this church,
for the sake of the live stream, I will not give a record of who
we're talking about which church, but. On the page that at the top it
says 452 at the top of the page. One of the statements that this
preacher makes is this, if you'll look kind
of in the middle of the page, it says, we are totally depraved. There
is no good in us. And I would agree with that.
He says, we are completely and totally tainted by sin. Our hearts
are set against God and the payment for such sin is dead. This is
both physical death and spiritual death. But the good news, so
now, so he's started saying, well, here's the gospel then.
The gospel is good news, right? He says, but the good news is
that Jesus came and paid that price of sin for us. He gave
his life on the cross and made the once for all final payment
for sin. Now, stop right there. I would
say, amen. Now, if he's saying for us, meaning
the whole entire world universally, I would have to disagree with
that. But if he's just talking about to us, the believers, the
brethren, I would say amen. But now look what he says. He
has said everything right. He has given you the gospel.
We are totally depraved. We cannot do anything. Christ
died for us. Christ became sin and died and
paid the price and made a once for all final payment for sin,
and then he says this, in order for that payment for sin to be
actuated in our life, we must by faith receive God's gift of
salvation given to us through Jesus Christ. See, Christ's work can't be actuated. until you believe, by faith receive. So it wasn't the payment, the final payment
of sin, Jesus died on the cross. The final payment for sin is
you believing on Christ because that's what actuates it. Let me give you, a homespun redneck
illustration. My car out there, we have a back
hatch on that vehicle, and it's a electronic hatch, and it has
two little gas-powered pistons in there, okay? And whenever those pistons are
engaged, It opens that trunk all on its own and it just opens
up all three by itself. I don't have to go and open up
the trunk and lift it up just by either push of a button on
my remote or in my car. That thing will come up and those
pistons will actuate and that's a free opening mechanism. But it won't open and actuate
until I push that button. I can stare at that all day long
and it won't open. I can holler at it. Hey, open
up. It won't open up. I can dance
a jig in front of it and it's not gonna open up. What opens it up? Well, someone will say, well,
it's the pistons. The pistons open it up. I mean, it is a free
opening car. You don't have to touch it. It
opens up on its own because the pistons push that back hatch
up. Yeah, but the pistons can't do
its work unless you push the button and actuate the pistons
to work. So it's not the pistons that's
opening the trunk. It's me opening the trunk by
actuating the pistons. Well, that's no different than
what this guy's saying. Jesus has all the power and all the
ability to save you, but it's not actuated unless you, by faith,
receive him as your Lord and Savior. Then he can get into
action, just like those pistons in my car. They're ready and
willing to open that back trunk, but until I actuate it, they
can't do anything. That's what this is saying. That
is grace mixed with words. That's what the Galatians were
being preached. That's what any religion that preaches that grace
can't be given to you unless you do something. That is a worse
salvation. It's not grace. And to mix and
mingle that is a perverted gospel. And for us to receive people
who believe that, we have not received a disciple. We have
received a non-believer. for a preacher to preach that
is not someone who's just mixed up on the gospel or not fully
trained in the gospel. No, he's an unbeliever. If there
are preachers out there that are being sent out and they're
preaching an Arminian gospel, they have been in a church that
is not a church and they shouldn't have been sent to preach because
they have no authority to preach because they are not preaching
what Christ preached. That's what Paul said. I'm not
the persuader of men If I am preaching things that Christ
didn't give me, I'm not the servant of Christ, I should say. Look what he says. Just as we
chose sin, which leads to death, we must choose to accept Jesus
by faith, which leads to life. So it's us choosing Jesus by
faith that we receive life. He says, God is perfectly just
in his condemnation of sinners. Amen, I believe he is. At the
same time, God is full of grace and love in his acceptance of
the sinner that comes to repentance. Now, he can might mean this in
a different way, but because of what he just said, that we
have to do to get that it means that he has not accepted the
sinner until they come to repentance. But yet, isn't the Bible saying
that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us? Doesn't Ephesians
say that he has made us accepted in the beloved before the foundation
of the world? We're not accepted. God isn't
waiting to accept us upon our faith. God has already accepted
us. in Christ Jesus before the foundation
of the world. See, this man is completely upside
down in his doctrine. He's completely backwards and
work-mongering in the fact that he is putting a condition on
salvation. Christ has done all he can, now you've got to do
what you have to do. He says the righteous is the
one that may not be righteous, but is declared righteous. Amen,
I agree to that. Every one of God's children are
not righteous because they're righteous, it's because they've
been declared righteous because of Christ. But what he says.
right after that. See, he says something good.
This is what's so deceiving about these brethren, and this is why
we are doing what we're doing, is because a brother and sister
in Christ, they might be listening a little bit, and they might
be hearing, yep, they're hearing the phrases, they're hearing
the phrases, I'm hearing the phrases, oh, we're saved by grace,
we're saved by grace, God is sovereign, all this stuff, but
what are they saying? What are they teaching about
God's sovereignty? What are they teaching about
saved by grace? Is it saved by grace if you do
this? Okay, that's not grace then.
Look what he says. He goes right from a perfectly
good statement, the righteous is the one that may not be righteous,
but is declared as righteous, to saying this, it is the one
who has come to Jesus by faith and has thus been justified. That means that they are justified
because they came to Jesus by faith. Then he says, the wicked
is the one who has failed to come to Jesus by faith and is
thus remaining in condemnation unto death. Unless the wicked
repent while they still have opportunity, they will die in
their sin. Well, number one, it isn't about
opportunity. They're either gonna be given
repentance or they're not gonna be given repentance. There is
no one that is going to hell because something didn't happen
as far as their condition or somebody else, you know, they
didn't go to hell because they missed out on their opportunity.
They didn't go to hell because somebody else didn't get to them
with the gospel, okay? God has determined all things
and everybody is given the habitation where they are at and under what
they hear, under what they know, whether or not a gospel preacher
gets to them or not, that's all by God. That's not what is determining
things. God has determined these things.
And so here it's saying that people are justified because
they have come to Jesus, and those who don't come to Jesus,
they're missing out on their opportunity, and they're gonna
end up staying in their condemnation. Look on the next page. Now, the first part of that page
is from the page before, but look down where it says, unless
the wicked repent, while they still have opportunity, they
will die in their sin and will be separated from God for all
eternity. That's kind of right in the middle. Look below that.
It says, the question to consider is simply, are you one of the
righteous or one of the wicked? See, this is where this guy's
mentality is. Are you the one who's coming
to Christ by faith? thus getting justified for doing
so, or are you the one who's refusing to come to Christ by
faith and thus staying in your just condemnation? So it's a
choice that you gotta make. Have you accepted God's gift
of salvation for you by faith? See, it's about you accepting.
It's not about being accepted in the beloved by God, it's about
you accepting God and becoming a beloved. It's backwards of
the gospel. May we all examine ourselves
and make sure that we are truly in the faith. Well, I would say,
amen. You need to go back and make
sure that you're in the faith, because the faith that you're teaching
is not the faith of Jesus Christ. What is God saying to me? He
says, I love you, and because I love you, I have, look here,
look at the phrase, I have provided a way of salvation for you. Because I love you, I have provided
a way of salvation He didn't say, because I love you, I saved
you. Now, John 3, 16 says, for God
so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish. See, there was an effect to his
love. Here, there's no effect to God's
love. God has made a provision, but
it's not effected anybody. It's not caused anybody to do
anything. It's just there, it's a possibility. It says, because of your sin,
you stand before me condemned. In Jesus, you stand before me
righteous. Now, I would agree to that. The
next page. Starting at the top, it says,
a lesson that we all need to learn is that God does not compartmentalize
our lives. In other words, there's no distinction
between the physical and the spiritual. Now, I would disagree
with that. There is a difference between
the physical and the spiritual. Matter of fact, it's the physical
that has us in the shape that we're in. We're in the flesh. And because we're in the flesh,
we cannot please God. But there is a spiritual aspect,
whenever the Holy Spirit of God comes within us, now there is
a spiritual aspect that is perfect and cannot sin, living inside
of a vessel that is imperfect and can only sin, and thus there
is a consternation. There is a struggle Paul talks about it in Romans
7, the struggle between the flesh and the spirit. So there is,
the flesh and the spirit is made distinguished in the gospels, in the Bible. He said, this is
why Paul said that we are to glorify God both in our body
and in our spirit. Now I would agree with that.
You know, the physical things we do as an effect has an effect
on the spiritual. The spiritual things we do has
an effect on the physical. If we live with this perspective,
we will be well on our way to living a life that brings glory
to God. Brethren, we're gonna bring glory to God the way that
God has designed us to bring him glory no matter what. Whether
it's to bring him glory in good works or whether it's to bring
him glory in non-good works. All things are bringing glory
to God in its perspective way, the way that God has determined
it. Didn't God say that He has made the wicked for the day of
evil and that all things were created by Him and for Him? That
He said that even the wicked, the wrath of man shall praise
Him. The remainder of wrath He shall
restrain. See, even the wrath of man praises
God. Now, some people say, well, that's not glorifying God. It
may not be honoring to God, But it does glorify him. It does
bring him glory. What is God saying to me? He
says you are a whole person. There is no distinction or compartments
of your life. You are to serve me and love
me with all of you, not just part of you. What should I do
today? Glorify God in my body and in
my spirit. And so you know he believes that
you are able to glorify God in the physical as much as you can
in the spiritual but yet the bible tells us that we are not
able to glorify God or we are not able to please God in the
physical in the flesh all right look on the next page this this
section here is taken out of the He does a class, a theology class,
okay? And it's a systematic theology
class. And so this is on his section on soteriology or the
doctrine of salvation. It says, soteriology is the doctrine
of salvation. This doctrine is most essential.
This is one doctrine that we must get right. Hey, I agree. The gospel is something that
we must get right. Why? Because Paul said anything other
than the right gospel is anathema. And anyone that preaches that
other gospel is anathema, should be anathema. He says, we are
all sinners and we are all in need of salvation. That's true.
Every one of us are sinners. He says, the simple truth is
that faith in the Lord Jesus is the only way in which we can
be saved from the condemnation of sin and reconciled to God. Wait a minute, I thought it was,
by Christ's death that we're reconciled to God. I thought
it was by Christ's death that the condemnation of sin, that there's no condemnation
to those who are in Christ Jesus, not to those who have faith in the Lord Jesus.
There's no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. Now look, the means of salvation. See that right there in and of
itself ought to be an affront to anybody who knows the gospel.
There are no means of salvation. Salvation is a work outside of
anything that we do. Therefore, there are no means
to keep or to do, to get. But he says here, the means of
salvation, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. It must be understood that
salvation is a work of God. Amen, I agree to that. There
is nothing that we can do to earn or merit our salvation.
Amen, I agree to that. But here's where the deceit comes
in. Here's where the twist of scripture comes in. Here's where
Satan subtly takes the skin of the truth and wraps it around
the full lie. He says, the only way for this
gift to become ours is by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh,
so it's not a free gift. It requires me to do something.
Oh, so I can't merit salvation, but my faith can merit salvation. See, it's meritorious faith.
And brethren, listen, meritorious faith is being preached by reformed
Calvinist today. They believe that we are not
justified until we exercise that God-given faith. Then God justifies
us. That's nothing more than the
Arminian gospel with a flip spin of Calvinism put on it. He says, Jesus is the only way
of salvation. You cannot be saved by any other
means. Salvation is found only in Jesus. But yet he just said
that this gift cannot become ours unless we have faith in
the Lord. He won't give us that faith unless we believe him first.
It says to the steps of salvation. The first step in salvation is
conviction. Wait a minute, shouldn't the
first step in salvation be the death of the Lord Jesus Christ?
But he says the first step of salvation is conviction. Conviction
is the work of the Holy Spirit and drawing us to Christ. Wouldn't it be? The Gospel. The Holy Spirit works
to convict and convince sinners of their need for the Savior.
You cannot be saved apart from such conviction. Still again, it's not salvation
by Christ alone, it's salvation by the work of you internally,
or you and the Holy Spirit doing something. Now look at the next
page, the nature of salvation. Saving faith. Now, before I read all the rest
of this stuff, there is a problem with that. Saving faith. I hear preachers talk about,
well, that might be faith, but it's not saving faith. Well,
what faith saves? There's only one person's faith
that saves, and that's Jesus. It's the faith of Christ that
saves. Not your faith, naturally, nor your spiritually given faith,
exercised. It is the faith of Christ, his
faithfulness that saved us. Are we imparted with the faith
of Christ? Yes, in the new birth, we are given that supernatural
spiritual faith that is a gift of God, but it's given in measure. And it surely isn't what saved
us. But here it says, saving faith is intellectual. Faith
in Jesus is not a blind faith. Saving faith is emotional. Salvation involves the whole
person. Then it says here, and here's
the part that makes me wanna gag. Saving faith is volitional. Salvation involves the human
will. A choice must be made. Brethren, is that the gospel?
That is not the gospel. And what did Paul say? If it's
not the gospel, then it's no gospel. And anyone who preaches
another gospel, let them be rejected. Let them be accursed. We're coming
up next page. In the In the commission, what is the first step in the
commission? In the Great Commission, what
was the first step? Remember, there's three steps. What was the first one? We are to go and make disciples. Meaning that we are to go and
to teach with the gospel and those who believe and follow the teachings of Christ,
they're considered a disciple, okay? One who follows the teachings
of Christ. So that means that they have
to believe on Christ. They have to believe what Christ
said, okay? So it seems to me that the first
thing we do is make disciples by the gospel, meaning that they
become believers by the gospel, meaning that God has quickened
them, given them life, otherwise they couldn't believe and they
couldn't understand the gospel. So they've been quickened, and
then through the preaching of the gospel and the reading of
the gospel, the hearing of the gospel, they hear what the truth
is, and they believe that because of the Holy Spirit inside them
teaching them that that is the truth, and then they believe
the gospel, right? That was first. But here it says,
baptism is the first act of obedience for the believer. It is an outward
sign of an inward change. Well, the first act of a believer
in obedience is to believe. Now, they don't get anything
for believing, because salvation was already given to them in
Christ. Quickening, the new birth, was already given to them by
the Holy Spirit before this. But the first act of obedience
of the believer is not baptism, it's belief. The first act of
obedience is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter, on that day of Pentecost,
he said, repent, believe the gospel, or repent, and be baptized. See, if there's not a repentance
or a turning of belief from dead words to Christ alone, see, that's
the first act of obedience to the quickened child of grace,
is to believe the gospel, to believe the gospel. Not a false gospel, but believe
the gospel. So I would say that, you know,
while somewhat this is a minor thing, and I've heard it said
that baptism is the first act of obedience, meaning that, you
know, once you're a believer and you've received Jesus Christ
as your Lord and Savior, he calls you to be baptized. I will say
that's true, but actually the first act of obedience for a
person that's been born again or a believer that's converted
is believing. Now, I won't, you know, I'm not
going to split hairs too much on that, but because of what
he has said in other things on how Christ has made salvation
possible, but you have to actuate it, then, you know, I can only
take you for what he's saying, that baptism is the first act
of obedience. Now whether or not he believes in baptismal
regeneration, I don't know, I doubt it. This is a Southern Baptist
church. I know the Southern Baptists
don't necessarily believe in baptismal regeneration. But hey,
there can be weird people within different denominations that
believe different things. Anyway, all right, look at this
last, is this the last page? I think this is the last page.
No, we got another page after this. Okay, now this is one where,
I think it's very, very important if we're commending a member
to a church that they have the right understanding of the church,
but it's not a deal breaker, I don't think, because that can
be something that is taught as we go. But this, it says, the
church is defined as the called out ones. It is those who are
born again, the body of Christ, the bride of Christ. Now, the
word ekklesia doesn't just mean the called out ones, okay? The
word has more meaning to that if you remember from our study
on the church, the nature of the church. But look what he
says here. There's different kinds of church. He says there's the universal
church. This is something that we reject. We reject the notion
of a universal church. He says here, the universal church
is all born again believers united as the body of Christ. The universal
church has no denominational barriers. It is strictly in reference
to all believers in Christ. That is false. That is not what
the Bible teaches about the church. The church is a local, visible,
gathered congregation of people who have believed and have been
baptized and have been gathered into a congregation and that
congregation in and of itself is the body of Christ at that
location. Okay, that is church. Every place that the word ekklesia
is used throughout scripture is all connected with a local,
visible assembly, not talking about everyone everywhere. It's
always in the context of a local, visible church. So we reject
the notion of a universal church. Now, is there a term for all
the people of God everywhere? Yeah, that's the family of God.
You have the family of God, you have the kingdom of God, you
have the church. Now, he says there that the local
church is a group of Baptist believers who are actively worshiping
Christ, walking with Christ and working for Christ together.
It is in the local church where we are instructed to use our
spiritual gifts for the edifying of the body. God is carrying
out his mission in the world today through local churches.
Hey, I would agree with all of that. Every born again believer
should be actively involved in a local church. Hey, I believe
that as well. That's truthful. And he says that it's a believer's
church. You cannot be part of the church unless you are born
again. Hey, I believe that to be true
as well. That is correct. And you know,
I hope he continues on in that train of thought, but unfortunately
he doesn't. Now. I think I left the paper
out. There's a paper must have not
printed it. I did. I missed the page. There was
a page where he goes into talking about our need for conventions
and mission boards and all this kind of stuff, and that we need
to have those to be able to carry out God's mission. So he says
that God is carrying out his mission in the world today through
local churches. Then on the other hand, he says that we need to
have denominational conventions and mission boards and extra
parachurch organizations to carry this out. But the church doesn't
have the ability by itself because some churches are too small or
isn't equipped or doesn't have the people in it to do all these
things. And that is completely opposite
of what the Bible says, that we are sufficient in and of ourselves. It just may be the fact that
God isn't calling every church everywhere to do the exact same
thing. Has anybody ever considered that God has not called a missionary
out of this church? Well, men would call a missionary
an evangelist. The biblical term would be one
who has the office or the, not the office, the gift of evangelist,
to go out and to preach and to get other people into churches
and other places and everything, that, anybody wonder? Well, then you're not a church
if you don't do that. So if we can't have one in our
deal, then we need to join forces with someone else who's doing
that. Therefore, now we are considered to be doing that because we are
sending our money to that church for them to do it. Are we still
doing it? No, all we're doing is paying
somebody to go do it. That's not what it is. If God
doesn't raise up, maybe God is not doing that within a certain
church. I'm not doubting people that
want to participate and help and support men who goes and
preaches abroad. you know, in helping for their
expenses and things like that. I'm not against that. But what
I'm saying is, is the mentality is, is that if you're an evangelical
church, then you should be involved in missions and that you should
be sending people out across the world because the gospel
has to be getting, get out to all the nations of the world. And if you're not, then you're
not doing the great commission. That's not what the Bible doesn't
say nothing about that. Now, this last page here is taking,
they talk about the different views of eschatology or end times. And if you'll notice here, he says amillennialism. This church that is in view here,
it says, it is the position of most Baptist churches, including
this particular church, that premillennialism and pre-tribulational
rapture is the view that is most consistent with Scripture. Now,
I teach otherwise here. I've never made that a point
of fellowship, of membership. You know, I have several brothers
and sisters in Christ, preacher friends that hold a different
eschatology view than me, and I don't make that a view, and
I wouldn't make that a view for anybody committed then to a church.
However, looking at some of the things that are being taught
in churches that hold to a premillennial, pre-tribulational church, especially
if it's dispensational, I would have issue with that if they
believe that the Old Testament saints were saved different than
the New Testament saints, if they believe that the Holy Spirit
didn't indwell the Old Testament believers, if they believe that
the church began at Pentecost, and that this dispensational
look of things, I would probably disagree with that and think
that that is a harmful teaching. But this isn't something to get
wound up about. I teach and believe, and it's
not an official position of this church necessarily, but of me
as the pastor, what I preach and teach is that of the gospel
millennialist or the all-millennialist view, meaning that there's not
a literal thousand-year reign that's gonna come after Christ
comes, and raptures the church out, then there's a seven-year
tribulation, and then there's a thousand-year reign of Christ
that's gonna take care of the place, and then after that, then
the judgment and the eternal state. I believe that the thousand-year
reign is a symbolic thing of the age between Christ's resurrection
and Christ's coming again, that we are in that time period now,
and Christ is ruling and reigning, now that he's not going to come
back on the Mount of Olives with an iron rod, sit in the throne
there and rule for a thousand years. And Israel is going to
be set upon thrones and judge the nations and rule the nations
as a nation. I don't believe that that's what
the Bible is teaching. So I would take issue with that eschatological
position, although it's not a deal breaker. I don't think that's
worthy to not commend our sister. However, there is more than ample
enough in their gospel that I would have a problem commending our
sister to this church. And so with that being said,
I pray that you guys, members of this church, will take this
and pray about this as we will soon vote on this very thing,
whether or not we will send her a commendation for this church
or not. But I would highly dissuade that
if it's just left to me. But we need to do this as a church
and not just me. You have the information in front
of you. The website for this church is easily found. You'll
see the name of the church is in the paper at the end there.
You can look that up on the internet. You can go and look at the videos
just like I have. Anyway, be praying about this. And like I said, I will share
these papers and all this with Sister Beth since she's been
gone on vacation and not been here. But I'll give all this
to her as well. But anyway, that's for you to
think. But as we talked about this morning
in Galatians, you know, friend, it's not about being pleasing
to man. We're not here to please men, but to please God. And so
our decisions that we make as a church and as it pertains to
the gospel should be in accordance with the truth and in accordance
with God's word and not in accordance with our feelings, our emotions. You know, to make somebody happy,
to make somebody not be mad, then it should be in accordance
to God's word. And if that makes somebody mad,
if that makes somebody not happy with us, then that's just going
to have to how it needs to be. And that is gonna be the account
that they give before the Lord and that's between them and God.
But we are called to be faithful to the gospel, faithful to perpetuate
that faith once delivered to the saints. And we are to defend
and stand fast in that and not to pervert the gospel. So I pray
that in doing this, that's exactly what we are doing as God helps
us. So, does anybody have any questions
or any comments? All right. Let's see, is it next
week? Not next week? The 14th. Just so you guys know, ahead
of time on January the, or February the 14th, I will not be here
Uh, I'll be taking a turn to fill in the pulpit over at Delaware,
Oklahoma, uh, that morning. Uh, and then I'll be, uh, that
evening preaching at, uh, Coita Baptist church that evening.
So if you don't mind, remember me in prayer for that, continue
to remember, uh, uh, first Baptist church in Delaware, Oklahoma,
as they continue looking for a pastor, uh, be praying for
them that God will bring them the man that he desires for them
and everything. But I will be filling, that's
on the 14th, so not next Sunday, but the Sunday after that is
when I'll be filling in. So we'll not have
services here that morning, okay? Anybody got any questions or
anything before we dismiss? I have you to remember my grandmother.
She has come up back up to Joplin and is going to stay. She's seeing
how things are going and possibly going to move in with us permanently. And so there's going to be a
lot of lifestyle changes, things going to happen with us, you
know, the way we operate around the house and everything with
her and possibly even need to sell our house and get another
house. It's gonna have a little bit more room and things. So
be praying for us and that, but also be praying for my grandma.
She's 90 years old and she's kind of just getting to where
she's not able to get around as well as she used to. Her legs
are kind of weak and she's dealing with all that. But 90 years old,
I guess she can She can do that because she's spent 90 years
on them legs. They're probably not worn out.
Anyway, be praying for my granny. Be praying for us as we hopefully
make things easy for her and comfortable for her as she stays
with us. You know, it's nice when people
come and visit for a while, but sometimes it's not easy living
together. I'm sure we'll probably get on her nerves. But the Lord, may the Lord bless
the time that we have together. And I'm thankful that we have
the opportunity to get to take care of her. It's always a blessing
for children to be able to give back to their family for the
life that they, you know, took care of them. And the Bible calls
us and tells us that we're to that we're responsible to take
care of. There may be a day that, you know, my mom and dad also
need to be taken care of as well. I told my mom and dad to wait
their turn, though. Don't get down so much, you know,
because of my house, until we have room in the house. But anyway,
be praying for us and for my granny. It's a blessing to have
her with us. She's really a joyful person
to be around, and we enjoy all the time we have with her. Don't
know if that's going to be permanent or not, but at least for another
few weeks, she's come back to stay with us. So be praying for
her and for the rest of the family and everything's going to be
an adjustment for them too as well. But we're glad she's up
here with us. We can keep our eye on her and
help her out as she needs. All right, let's bow and have
a word of prayer. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you
for this day, and we thank you for your grace and mercy. And
Father, we thank you for all that you have done for us. We
thank you for the gospel that has been given and preserved
for us to preach and to teach the great news of Christ Jesus
and his salvation. And Father, we just thank you.
And we ask, Lord, that by your Spirit, you might help us to
stay faithful in preaching this gospel, standing in this gospel.
Father, I pray for those who are out there, Lord, that are
your children that have yet been brought into conversion to believe
the gospel and to be baptized. Lord, I pray that you might call
them, that you might draw them by your spirit. Lord, I pray
that their ears might be open to hear and their eyes open to
see. And Father, that they might follow you and obedience, not
only to believe, but to be baptized and to be part of the church.
And so, Father, I just ask now that you just might give grace
and all of that. We do thank you for the time
that we have together and we ask you to bless this food that
we're about to eat to the nourishment of our bodies. In Jesus name
that we pray. Amen.