"Genuine Faith" | Christian Controversies | Sunday School Service

Calvary Community Church of Tampa Sunday PM Service with Trent Dudley

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you can take your Bible I told some of you in the audience already take your Bible and go to Romans chapter four that's where we will begin
in our new Christian controversy we're going to start there As We Lay the foundation
in Romans 4. good morning good morning come on in and uh as you're training in
Romans chapter 4 I did want to open up and say since it's Sunday School uh I
will accept questions during after any time someone in the crowd raised her hand
last week and I I was in the middle of something I stuttered and I was like oh oh no but if you have a question raise
your hand I'll finish what I was talking about and I'll answer the question right here now because we're in Sunday school I want it to be a more relaxed format so
if you have a question far away a little recap on the screen remember last week last two weeks really we talked about
our first one was saved the word saved the idea of being saved we looked at
um acts 27 and we gave kind of the silly example of you know abide in the ship and you'll be saved we don't literally
have to abide in a in a boat in a yacht and a little little Tugboat or something like that to be saved and then we looked
at a real example in Matthew 24 where people like to use the phrase endure
unto the end and you'll be saved but they take it completely out of what the context is speaking about and they they
turn it into a Salvation passage when really it's a it's a tribulation end times passage about people surviving
through the tribulation um and so we can't do that with certain
scriptures we can't just make them say what we want them to say we looked at some of the the hermeneutical principles
I'll reiterate things that you when you're reading the scripture you need to make sure that you're you're not just
pushing your own thoughts into it you're not just making it say what you want it to say some principles we've been trying
to go by as we study the scripture which are good to go by is remember we we take it literally for what it says we read it
in its context we look at what's around it we look at who's it talking to you
know who wrote the book um you know maybe maybe you're looking at the ninth chapter of something say Romans but you have to go back and look
at the first chapter of Romans and and work your way through because Romans is a it builds up and it goes along and it
lays a foundation um you know who wrote it who's the audience he's talking to is he talking
to unsaved people is he talking to saved people is he talking to a Jewish
audience is he talking to a gentile audience is there important things to understand when you read the Bible most
of the Bible is referring to it
from what has he saved to is this about salvation into eternal life or is this
about salvation from some sort of circumstance you know and and what other
scriptures can we look at that help us to interpret this passage perhaps it's it's kind of a difficult passage like
when we looked at Matthew 24 you remember it helps to look at Daniel chapter 9 10
11 and 12. it helps to look at Revelation because both of those books talk about that
so as we go on into our study when we get into our next Christian controversy we're going to try to keep these
practices these good practices in mind properly interpreting the Bible
because a lot of the Christian controversies come about from uh
misinterpretation or misapplying the what the Bible is trying to say and people teach it falsely
and some of it comes from Satan himself deceiving and flooding the thoughts of
of people with uh things that aren't clear about what the Bible actually says you remember in the beginning
Satan asked Eve you know has God really said are you really gonna die just
subtle questions and it made Eve begin to doubt and then she decided to Cave into sin
and eat of the fruit and so as we study the Bible we have to be very careful very very careful that we don't just
heed to the words of men that we don't interject our own thoughts we let the Bible speak for itself we read the
context and study it properly and we we discovered that with the word saved that was
by no means an exhaustive study on that term because that's that's the pretty
much the main focus of what we could go into in the whole Bible about being saved right but we're going to talk about number two today
is this term genuine Faith genuine Faith
I'll go ahead and right off the bat I do not support this term so please do not misunderstand me and you'll see that I
do not support this term this is a term used by many a preacher today very very
um popular preachers today I'm going to name some names today in just a disclaimer I'm not attacking these
people I don't desire to attack these people I've had conversations with Pastor Jesse over this and you know it
it really does come down to these preachers unless they're being deliberate and they know better they're
deceived they don't a lot of them they don't know they probably don't know the truth or maybe they did know the truth
and something LED them astray right and so I'll name some names today we're going to look at some quotes today from
famous preachers names you will know and we're going to see what they say how
they use this this term this idea and we're going to break it down and look at the scriptures that they look at and
show how this idea is very dangerous very dangerous and it leads to lack of
assurance lack of knowing we're saved people looking at the way they live
rather than looking at what Christ has done okay so genuine Faith this idea but
first let's let's just get a little preface in Romans chapter four a little
I want to give you a a stronghold foundational powerful uh one could say
an iron-clad scripture um one of my teachers in college liked to use that term Ironclad so let's look
at Romans chapter four look at verse one with me let's lay a foundation and then we'll dive into genuine Faith Romans 4
verse 1 says what shall we say then that Abraham our father as pertaining to the flesh hath
found what did Abraham find out Abraham the Abraham Isaac's daddy Abraham verse
2. for If Abraham were Justified means declared righteous declared righteous
justified by works he hath whereof to Glory but not before
God for what saith the scripture Abraham believed God and it was counted on him
for righteousness okay so Abraham believed in the promise God had given
we're not going to look at it if you desire if you're taking notes look at Genesis 12 through 15 you can see part
of the promise given to Abraham um but he believed what God had said
and we know it was referring to a future Messiah and it was counted to him for righteousness he believed and he
received righteousness this was before the law was ever given I
love how Paul uses the example of Abraham because it's before Moses before the law before the 12 tribes
verse 4 now to him he opens it up to anyone him that worketh is the reward
not reckoned of Grace but of debt this verse automatically makes me think of Romans 11 6 if it's by works then it's
not by Grace if it's by Grace it's not by works otherwise work is no more work otherwise Grace is no more grace the
point is the two are different it's either by Grace or it's either by work which is it and he says if it's work
then you're owed you you're owed a debt if I work for FedEx which I do part-time
when I work for FedEx they owe me money it is written in the paperwork that I signed when I was hired they owe me I
work for the church I work for them they owe me a debt it's what it is it's a good thing to work and and get uh paid
for it but when it's Grace Grace is the idea of something that's unmerited
um you don't earn it it's an unmerited favor it's getting something you don't deserve when I work I do deserve pay and
that's okay but when it's Grace it's something I don't deserve okay we don't
deserve to be saved we don't deserve to go to heaven we don't deserve God's love
but he by Grace showed us those things it's a free gift you see the difference
so Paul is laying the case look at verse 5. but to him anyone that worketh not but
believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for
righteousness what comes to mind is Ephesians 2 8 for by grace are you saved
Grace are you saved through faith he says the same thing here worketh not but
believeth faith believeth on him that justifies the ungodly his faith is
counted for righteousness so he gave the example in Abraham as we look at what
Abraham did what did Abraham do he had faith in the promise of God he believed
in the promise of God what did he receive righteousness imputation is the
fancy word it was put to his account God's righteousness was put to Abraham's
account it was applied to him and he has it what happens to him he or she the
individual that believes in Jesus Christ believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly who Justified the ungodly Jesus
Christ by his death on the cross he who believes in him not by works believe you
receive righteousness I don't know if it gets more clear than this I love Romans chapter 4. it I mean
it's it's so plain it's so plain and so another principle that will will keep in
the back of our minds today as is when you study scripture you have to remember it's not going to contradict itself if
it really is God's word he's not going to contradict himself so if you have something super clear in
Romans chapter 4 then when we look at scriptures such as First John 3 or James 2. we can't just
put these two in in the air and say well they don't really say uh James and Paul
don't really agree John and Paul don't really agree then then we get a
can of worms we get a big problem okay they agreed with each other we saw that
in Acts 15. Paul James and John they all agree God did not contradict himself
so when Paul is writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit he is writing clearly the truth here that
you're saved by Believing on Jesus Christ and what you received is you receive the righteousness of God the
moment you believe look at verse six even as David also describeth the
blessedness of the man anyone the man anyone unto whom God hears that word
imputeth righteousness without works I
enunciated that like I would talk to my son imputeth righteousness without works
emphasis on those words impute means to put to your account God puts to your
account to your person the righteousness of himself when you believe in Jesus Christ you get
his righteousness how clear is that and he says it's without works without works
before during after you believe without works it's out of the equation okay
Faith plus zero equals salvation okay Jesus Christ faith in Jesus Christ
nothing else equals salvation verse 7. saying blessed are they whose iniquities
are forgiven and whose sins are covered blessed is the man to whom the Lord will
not impute sin so when you have the righteousness of God imputed to your
account when you have believed in Jesus you have his righteousness God will no
longer impute sin to your account okay it's as if you have a bank account tied
to your to your spirit okay you have this bank account and before you believed you were in the
negative and there was no getting out you're in the negative you're a negative a million dollars I don't know how it happened it doesn't work like that
necessarily your credit card is negative a million oh and there's no getting out but someone
paid that debt for you they're like here's 2 million 2 million and you're now positive 1 million right
you're a negative a million now you're positive a million I paid that credit card off they gave you some more you got a million dollars in the bank now they
put that in your account except they tell you well now you can't spend
it you have it in there and you can't even spend it anymore okay silly example but when God puts the righteousness to
your account you have it and it's there and even if you uh try to do something
foolish try to sin the righteousness is not removed it's like you can't spend that money okay so you have his
righteousness the moment you believe it is put to your account and even if you sin the sin is no longer put to your
account that sin is paid the debt is paid okay so we see in
Romans 4 1 through 8 a very strong example and clear example of what the
Bible says it takes to have righteousness with God it takes to have salvation
to have eternal life so on the screen here as we dive into genuine faith
uh here's some terms associated with this idea if it's small I apologize I'll
read them off but the the white says terms associated with this idea
pardon me so I can read it better uh some are that and these could all be in
quotations these are what people say they associate genuine Faith with these words fruit as proof that you're saved
right you have fruit in your life to prove you're saved you have a genuine faith
perseverance you think of uh the p in tulip as the calvinist would say
persevere to the end your life is going to be persevering you're going to have a genuine faith that way persevering to
the end attitude of repentance this idea that after you believe you'll have a
continual attitude of repentance your your belief your faith is genuine in that way uh the idea that you are a quote true
Christian or a True Believer right they put the emphasis on these words on the
front or truly saved or really saved right
well I might just say epically saved at that rate or true faith
or the idea of you're not practicing sin after you've believed your faith is
genuine in that way or perhaps it's the idea of a true or false Assurance right or you're a true
convert or you're a false convert a very famous preacher likes to say those words
or you have evidence of a changed life these all have the idea basically like this okay so a lot of the preachers that
I'm about to name will tell you yeah it's by faith in Jesus Christ but then they say you believed but now your life
will produce good works your life will be in
constant repentance toward God you may sin but you will therefore have a
changed life even if it's a little by little gradual it will happen and they'll say if it does not happen then
you did not have a genuine faith do you see the problem do you see the
thoughts that come into the mind of the person who maybe doesn't study the Scripture A Lot the danger when someone
hears this they're like well I believe in Jesus Christ um
how do I know I'm saved well let's let's look at my life I love God I try to keep his Commandments I tried I I I I I I I I
I and so they look at themselves and say well do I really have a genuine Faith though I mean am I am I doing enough and
you see they begin to doubt people uh listen to these pastors and preachers
I pray they find the truth and but they they get doubts in their mind and lack of assurance that they had this genuine
faith in the beginning and and so then they try to produce more and more Works in their life to show or prove that
their faith was actually genuine do you see the problem do you see the error first thing I want you to notice is all
the words that are added that the Bible does not say on the screen does it say fruit yes does it say proof no
perseverance um not the idea as which they interpret it this attitude of repentance this
continual idea of repentance that's not what it says the idea of being a True Believer it never says true it says
believer if you believe the idea of being truly or really saved no it just says saved it just says you have eternal
life the idea of a true Faith no it just says faith in the Bible
uh practicing sin now the Bible is against practicing sin we're going to look at that one some more it's not used
in the way that these pastors interpret it uh true or false Assurance no
the Bible just says it wants you to have Assurance verily verily I've written I I
want you to know that you have eternal life when uh John 6 47 really rarely I say unto you he that believeth on me
hath everlasting life verily verily has the idea that truthfully truthfully I want you to have Assurance have this
assurance I I say to you he that believeth on me has everlasting life
that's Jesus's words he doesn't say uh truthfully truthfully verily verily I
say unto you he that genuinely Believes In Me has eternal life he that believes
in me plus has a genuinely repentant life as eternal life it's not found in the
pages of scripture and we're going to look at some of the scriptures that these preachers and teachers like to use
to illustrate this idea of having a genuine faith again if you have a question raise your
hand please stop me we'll we'll address it on the screen it says um my title is a typical proof
text for genuine faith is this and this is what almost all of them use this verse right
here they rip it right out it's second Corinthians 13 5. you can go ahead and turn there
we'll look at the context go ahead and turn in second Corinthians 13.
second Corinthians 13 and we'll look at verse 5 what it says
first it says examine yourselves whether ye be
in the faith this is the King James prove your own selves know ye not that
your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except you be reprobates some of them instead of reprobate as you
see on the screen they'll translate this word as failed the test it's very interesting I looked at um I
was looking on e-Sword and looking at the concordance and the word reprobate does not have the idea of failing a test
um it says therefore you can conclude unless you have failed the test so like
you're testing to see if you're really saved is what they take this passage to say examine yourselves they're taking it
to say you're examining your salvation you're checking out the way you're living your life to see if you're really
saved you're examining your life now Paul was talking to the Corinthian audience let's look at the screen I'll
go on with that um before I go into that reprobates this
word uh is uh Greek word adakomos and it simply means the idea of
being disapproved disapproved let's look at the context of chapter 13
verse 12 or chapter 12 really quick before we look at the screen chapter 12 of second Corinthians look at verse 20.
for I fear lest when I come I shall not find you such as I would and
that I shall be found unto you such as you would not lest there be debates envyings wraths
strifes backbitings whisperings swellings tumults pause there yeah I
mean you realize throughout first and second Corinthians Paul addressed these things the Corinthian audience they had
a lot of problems but in the beginning of First Corinthians verse chapter 1 verses one
through six we see that the Corinthians were saved and very clearly it shows that they had faith that they are called
Saints in spite of everything he's about to talk about afterwards the Corinthians
were saved Paul never afterwards doubts
the fact that those who believed are saved sometimes he has some questions for him like he's he's banging his head
on the wall I mean wouldn't you if you knew a person that was just like totally defiant of everything he had just learned about
Jesus Christ and then walking just completely in the flesh and you're trying to come alongside and help I mean
you're banging your head on the wall but they're not listening they're continually sinning but just because they're continually
sinning doesn't mean that they didn't have faith to begin with continuing in chapter 12 verse 21
all the things they were doing in verse 20 and he didn't want to come to them again and see that they were doing those
things verse 21 and lest when I come again my God will humble me among you and that I shall be well many which have
sinned already and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed
Chapter 13 Verse one ignore the chapter break this is the third time I'm coming to you
in the mouth of two or three Witnesses shall every word be established I told you before and foretell you as if I were
present the second time and being absent now I write to them which heretofore have sinned to those that have sinned
and to all other that if I come again I will not spare so Paul is clearly not happy with them but he's writing saying
like I'm going to write this to you but I'm afraid if I come to you you know he'll he'll use sharpness of words and so on
and so forth we see in another spot verse 3 says since you seek a proof of Christ
speaking in me which to you word is not weak but is mighty in you they were questioning Paul
like they had gotten to the point so deep entrenched in their sin that they were just ignoring what he had said
and and they were questioning him verse 4 for though he was crucified
through weakness yet he liveth by the power of God for we also are weaken him but we shall live with him by the power
of God toward you all right there's no Paul is not building this up in doubt of
his faith or their faith okay we live by the power of God we put our
faith in Jesus Christ therefore we live verse 5 says examine yourselves what is he saying to examine what did he just
get through saying in uh verse 20 and 21 of chapter 12. they're sinning they are
believers who are sinning examine your life you sinner right repent of the sin
in your life not to be saved stop doing it he's saying I don't want to come to you and see you doing this he's saying
I'm writing this to you unless I should come to you and and yelling almost almost yell in your face about your sin
Corinth you're sinning stop sinning examine yourselves verse 5 continued whether you be in the
faith prove your own selves I and he says no you not or no you're not
your own selves how did Jesus Christ is in you except you be reprobates he's not saying this about their salvation unless
you're disapproved are you letting Jesus Christ live in your life believer or are you going to
continue committing this sin the whole point of first and second Corinthians
is Paul telling a believing audience remember those who have the
righteousness of God a believing audience on all the sins they've been committing to stop doing them but rather
walk in the light they've been given Walk With Jesus Christ that's the whole point of the entire book so he's
culminating in second Corinthians 13 examine your life lest I gotta come to
you and smack you over the head right the figurative language he doesn't want
to rail on them when he comes back to him he's saying examine your life unless you're going to be disapproved
verse 6 but I trust that you shall know that we are not reprobates
so on and so forth uh look on the screen remember the word reprobate it's not saying like you're just not saved it
means disapproved disapproved for service in other places
we don't like First Corinthians 9 Paul says I bring my body into subjection
lest I should be a Castaway that word Castaway means disapprove like running the race if you have a runner who is not
disciplined he's not examining what he eats examining his life and practicing
running the race and training for it if he's not watching his life then he's not going to be a good runner
in the same way Paul if he's not disciplining himself spiritually even physically then he's not going to be
approved and ready to run the race for Jesus Christ it's the idea you're
examining your life so that you're serving the lord correctly but we know
like in Romans 4 examining your life to serve the Lord correctly is not for salvation
that's for service serving God so that we are approved for the service
on the screen the idea is not referencing a test of our salvation but rather the disapproval of the individual
based on their actions the disapproval for service right God's not going to use uh a Believer for his service who is
just flooding his life with sin and Corinth was a big example of believers who were just flooded with sin okay
and so Paul is finishing off like examine your life get it right like in chapter 11 when you take of the Lord's
Supper examine yourself confess to the Lord your sin get it out
not to be saved but because we're going to look at what Jesus Christ did we take of the the communion cup right and its
example it's to remember him you're not going to be in the right frame of mind to take of the Lord's cup
of communion if you don't examine yourself and and confess those things to
the Lord right uh how can we prove this we looked at the context the test the last line uh to
examine is regarding their walk with God because we know they're already saved like in First Corinthians chapter one if
you want to take note of that verses one through six Paul makes it very clear that his audience they are believers
very very clear they are believers the consequences that they receive and we're
receiving for their sin was not loss of Salvation or Paul looking at them and
saying you were never saved to begin with but he was saying get your life
together because of what Jesus has done for you why are you just pushing him away why
are you spinning in his face with your face with your sin why don't you get it together clean your life up and continue
walking with him Lester disapproved or lest he kill you he might just take you out
because you're being unfaithful next slide we're not going to finish this in time
that's okay here's a quote from our first Pastor you'll know this guy the late RC sprole RC Sproul now again I'm
not attacking the man I'm attacking the words that came from his mouth okay I
I don't know I God sees if R.C Sproul is in heaven or hell I praise in heaven he may have very well understood the
clarity of the Gospel but here's a quote he said that led people to have lack of
assurance of their salvation I'll read it if you can't see it because of the small print
says because I know quote because I know an unregenerate person unsaved has no
affection for Jesus and can't possibly have any affection for Jesus so if I
have RC sprawl if I have any affection for Jesus that tells me I'm regenerate
did you catch that and if I'm regenerate I have true faith
and if I have true faith I'm numbered among the elect and can have full
assurance that's why you know Peter talks about that we should make our election and
calling sure did you catch what he said what was his basis for him being regenerate or saved
regenerate means regenerated by the Holy Spirit you have the spirit you're saved it says if I have any affection for
Jesus that was his test to see if he was truly regenerate his affection that he's
showing toward God I heard him say it multiple times again not attacking the Man attacking his
words this is what he I saw YouTube videos of him saying um the test to see that you're really
saved to see to see you can know you have eternal life you'll you have Assurance is this is what he would say
do you love God he would bend over and say do you love God do you do you um or do you love God
perfectly and the answer is like no do you seek to love him perfectly
um are you are you living a life to show your love toward God these are
the questions he would ask and so if you answer yes to a couple of those and he'll say well you you sir are saved are
you ma'am are saved based upon the affection you have toward God based upon your genuineness of Love toward God
do you see the danger are the gears clicking in your mind the danger of this because
As Romans says the only thing that saves and our assurance that we are saved is
by our faith in Jesus Christ so my examination to see if I'm saved
if I could use it that way my test to see if I'm saved is all I have to do is look back at the cross and say I
believed that yes I'm saved but this individual RC Sproul said my
test is my affection for Jesus so he is looking to see if he's truly saved based
upon what he is doing based upon his works that he is doing do you see the problem with that if we
look at what we're doing to see if we're saved then we'll never know we'll be we'll be like a ship tossed to and fro
we'll be back and forth I might be going to hell today I might be going to heaven today I'm not really sure though do I love Jesus am I affectionate toward do
you see the problem do you see the doubts it's very very dangerous he uses uh II Peter 1 10 on the screen
it says second Peter 1 10 his quote was calling an election sure on the screen it says in verse 10
wherefore the rather Brethren give diligence to make your calling and election sure for if you do these things
you shall never fall go there please second Peter 1 second Peter chapter one
I hope this is a beneficial study to you because I I'm on YouTube and I even hear
people and I read what people say and they they hear what these pastors say and they'll still comment and be like
I'm not sure if I'm saved can you help me
and what these gentlemen are saying doesn't help them because they have to
look at their life their works to see if they're saved but we're still going to sin till the day we die
uh second Peter 1 look at verse one with me Peter
uh I'm sorry in first oops second Peter Simon Peter he adds Simon
to this one Simon Peter a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ to them that
have obtained like Precious Faith with us why did I slow down read it again to
them that have obtained what like Precious Faith with us through the what
righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ where do we hear those terms Romans 4 you believe you have
faith you obtain righteousness verse two Grace and peace be multiplied
unto you through the knowledge of God in our and and of Jesus our lord according to his divine power hath given unto us
all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him that have called us to glory and virtue
notice obtained like Precious faith and we receive some blessings notice
what he says in the last part of verse 3 hath called us to glory and virtue
you're called to something as a believer but first come first comes faith
verse 4 whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of
the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust and he's going to name a list here
from verse 5 uh to verse 7. add to your faith these things virtue knowledge
Temperance I'm skipping a little bit patience godliness brotherly kindness and then charity Okay add to your faith
he's saying you're a Believer you have faith but add to this faith not to be saved as we shall see add to your faith
not to know you're saved just add to your faith because it's the right thing to do and you'll profit from it look at
verse 8. four if these things be in you
and abound they make you what that you shall neither be Barren nor
unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ if this was about salvation what P what
should have Peter said he should have said if these things abound in you they make you that you're saved that's what the preachers are saying
with this passage but what's Peter is saying is add to your faith because it's going to help
you to abound in Fruit I think of John chapter 15. I just talked about this in my youth group John chapter 15 you have
the vine Jesus is the vine you have the husbandman and the father and so we're the branches we want to be a branch for
example if my arms could be branches we want to be a branch that has a lot of fruit hanging down with all this fruit we don't want to be a branch with no
fruit because it gets cut off let him grow back and hopefully he gets some more fruit right we don't
we want to be a branch with a lot of fruit so that you know others can come by and pick off that fruit or you know
we we help others through that fruit we're still all part of the Vine but we want to have fruit and so what
Peter is saying you want to have fruit the only way to have fruit is you've believed but now add to that Faith these
things verse 9. but he that lacketh does not have these
things the things he just named is blind and cannot see afar off and have forgotten
that he was purged from his old sins so
what does he say here he does not say that this individual is no longer saved
it just says he's blind he's missing the point he's not adding to his faith and maybe
he's even gone so far as to have forgotten that he was ever say to begin with can a person do that
they can absolutely but this is not a test from Peter to see
that we're actually saved so with the basis of verses one through nine look at
verse 10 now wherefore what's it there for everything you just said before wherefore the rather
brethren give diligence hard effort put forth the
effort to make your calling an election sure for if you do these things you
shall never fall it doesn't say if you do these things you'll stay saved or if you don't do these things you'll never
be you you were never saved to begin with you're calling an election you're calling an election as a Believer
as we saw in verse 4 he's called us to glory and virtue so one of your callings
is to add to your faith one of your callings is to serve the Lord and uh Ephesians 2 10 he calls us to
Good Works Romans chapter 8 we're predestined and
recalled to be conformed to the image of his son it means as a Believer we are
called to produce good works but it's not automatic
but God still wants us to do those things why to bear fruit
to profit others for example let's make it real okay
uh Saturday night Soul winning all right let's say I'm a Believer in Jesus Christ and I
want to go Saturday night's Soul winning but I go there and keep my mouth shut
how would you like to have someone like that Louie just goes they know how to share the gospel do you really want that
person tag along just not saying anything
you might want them there maybe they'd learn from you to actually do it right but there's just someone who goes Saturday night soul and he's just
I'm saved but I'm not going to tell anybody else not bearing fruit
still save not bearing fruit they're like this branch no fruit okay so he's saying do these things
so that you don't become like the person who's forgotten who is blind who is Fallen like the idea of fallen from
Grace doesn't mean you're not saved but it means you're a Believer and you're
going back and you're looking like a Corinthian believer right now okay verse 11. for so an entrance shall be
ministered unto you abundantly into the Everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ for the believer who adds to his faith who abides in Jesus Christ as John 15
would say who bears fruit who fulfills the calling in election it
doesn't mean you're saved but you have I love this you have an abundant entrance
into the kingdom you apparently you can enter into heaven into the Kingdom at whatever point this
happens you can enter but it won't be abundant whatever that means you can enter with
no Rewards or you can have a lot of Rewards is either way you're entering okay
I hope this makes sense so when when RC Sproul used this passage
it's not um he's not using it correctly look at Key was second Peter 1 1-9 we've
just read that Peter is admonishing and encouraging them to add to their faith not to be saved but to having a bunch of
abundant entrance into heaven as we saw in verses 1 through 11.
we'll have to look at the rest of the quotes next week I put tons of information and tons of verses just
because of um there's so much of this out there preachers saying you know have a genuine
Faith do you have a life filled with good deeds or good works are you continually
um repenting of your sin are you trying to be better and that's the test to see see if you're really saved to begin with
but what we need to remember is as it says in Romans chapter 4 is we are saved
by one thing our faith in Jesus Christ if you believe that Jesus Christ died to pay for your
sin you have eternal life you have it you have the righteousness of God put to
your account once you believe we need to remember that
and if if we stray from that then it leads to all forms of doctrinal error that's
where we get the false teaching and the false preaching and if we if we look at verses such as second Peter 1 10 and we
just rip it right out we can make it say anything we want it to say we cannot do that
so I encourage you um if you're on the live stream or the audience if you haven't believed in Jesus Christ do that trust in Jesus
Christ as your savior he died for your sins he was buried he rose from the dead and if you believe in him you can have
everlasting life if you have done that well you have eternal life you're a
believer in Jesus Christ we don't have to look at the way we live now to see if we really ever believed
it's it's Faith it's not genuine faith I mean it's good it'd be great if I had a
faith that was added to but that's not what I look at to see if I was really saved to begin
with see the difference so if you have believed that you're saved but then now the call is to
therefore add to that Faith to bear fruit and to have an abundant entrance
to and to profit others we'll look at that next week as we glance at James chapter 2 being profitable to other
people by adding to our faith good works not to be saved but to profit
others so I hope that was good and uh as as I like uh Dr Gilbert as he
usually ends his Sunday school first John 5 13. these things have I written unto you they believe on the name of the
son of God that you may know that you have eternal life how do we know we have
eternal life you believe it on the name of the son of God how do you know we're going to heaven you believed in Jesus Christ let's pray
together and we'll close it on out and get ready for the service uh heavenly father thank you for uh your
word thank you that we can see what it says clearly um I do pray for these gentlemen who
preach in high places and are popular or even just preachers all across the world
we want them to know that they're saved but it's simply by faith in Jesus Christ so I
pray that our Arceus probably has passed but these other preachers who are still alive I pray that they would understand
the truth that they would preach the truth I pray for those of our YouTube audience
that if they have not believed in Jesus Christ they would they can know they have eternal life by
trusting in Him and I pray for the service today that you would help Pastor Jesse as he brings the word speak through him and I pray
that the audience would be prepared to hear what your word has to say um in Jesus name we pray these things amen
all right