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

All right, the title of this message this morning is a dog returning back to his vomit. The book of Proverbs is a book of wisdom, right? The book of Proverbs teaches us ways in our lives to help instruct us to better ourselves and know this, understand this, right? The book of Proverbs was written by a man, Solomon, and he was a man who was full of wisdom, right? He asked the Lord, when the Lord came to him and said, what is it that you want? He said, I'd like to have wisdom to know how to instruct these people. And in his writings, notice what it says in verse 11, as a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly. So we've all seen a dog puke, right? I'm sure we have. And understand this, we've puked when we're sick, right? I've puked and we say in Hawaiian, we throw up, we throw back, it's a natural defense that our body has when something poisonous or something bad is in us that we throw it out. And it's disgusting. It's gross. It's not fun to go through. But nevertheless, what's even worse than that is seeing a dog go back to his vomit and eat it because you got to understand there is a difference between us and animals. Now I know the rest of the world out there likes to believe in evolution and think that we are nothing more than glorified monkeys, but that's not what the Bible says. The Bible says that we were made in the image of God. We are special as humans. We're not animals like the world wants you to think. Dogs, animals do not have a sense of, you know, self preservation, so to say. They may be trained to not die and things like that and to avoid things, but animals, specifically dogs, will do some pretty nasty and gross things like go back to his vomit and eat it. Now understand this, in the sight of God, when a person who is saved puts their faith in Christ, understands salvation, is born again by faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ, and then chooses to go live a horrible life and be an idiot and go back to his folly. In the sight of God, he's saying he's looking down and it looks like to him a dog that would eat his vomit. So those are harsh words, right? This is something that we need to understand. We believe, as the Bible clearly teaches, to be saved from all of our sins, not just the sins of our past, but also the sins of our future, that we will do is alone by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, by belief on his death, burial, and resurrection. That's it. The Bible says, whosoever believeth shall receive remissions of sins, for whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. He that believeth on the sun has everlasting life. He that believeth not the sun shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. So the Bible is clear and I can point out hundreds of verses that say to be saved, all we have to do is believe, but after salvation, it is possible for a true child of God, born again believer, to choose to live a stupid, degenerate life. Now praise the Lord, lots of you here are raised in a good, godly Christian home. Not everyone has. I was not. My mother was saved and she tried to in ways bestow upon us important values of Christianity. But you got to remember, and I'm not going to go deep into my testimony, but you know, I'm one of six kids. And as we mentioned before in Suffer the Children, that message, kids fight. And when you got three boys in a house and you know, everyone's just constantly at war with each other, my mother did the best what she did. And honestly, I am very appreciative for a lot of the things that my mother has taught me. Nevertheless, we were as kids running amuck, doing a bunch of bad things. And I'm not going to sit here and sugarcoat that, you know, I was raised in this good, godly family. You guys who are here that were raised in a good, godly family got to understand unto whom much is given of Him should much be required. You are held to a higher standard if you were raised in a godly home. You know better, you know the scriptures, you've heard preaching that warned you of your sin and the problems that it would bring with it. So with that being said, if you understand salvation as a kid, more than ever, the world out there wants you to be destroyed. Your parents have rules for you. The Lord has rules for us as children of God to follow in them. Why? Because He wants to be just this fuddy duddy? No, because He knows that the end of the commandment is peace. You know the Bible says, great peace have they which love thy law and nothing shall offend them. So remember, what is the title of this message? A dog returning back to his vomit. In Proverbs 26, if we look at it, go back if you went to verse 1, there's a context that is being given to us. But I wanted to specifically talk on this subject of someone who'd be willing to go back to their stupidity. Because look, like I said unto whom much is given, of him should much be required. But we all have different backgrounds and we all have different upbringings and we all have different scenarios that we can go through. But notice the common denominator that this chapter keeps pointing out. Look what it says in verse 1, as snow and summer and as rain and harvest. So honor is not seenly for a fool. Pause. So it's saying foolish people do not like to receive instruction. People who are stupid, the parallel to our modern vocabulary for the word fool would be an idiot or someone who's stupid. And notice what it says in verse 2, as the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse costless shall not come, a whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass and a rod for the fool's back. So basically the Bible is saying, like when you control a horse, my wife does lots of horse training, horseback riding, and she's very good with what we would call breaking in an animal. We have dogs and you have to teach your dogs how to sit and be listening and stuff like that. Just the same way we teach animals to move and sit and do these things, according to the Bible, it's easier to do that than to give a fool instruction. Because a fool does not want to be corrected. And this is a problem in our society today. The world out there does not want to be corrected. We need to be different, you guys. We are children of God. We need to know when the Bible says something and I disagree with it, I am wrong. I need to change my ways. We need to change our ways, not for salvation, but to be pleasing unto our Father, which is in heaven. Because it is better for us to do what is instructed of us. How can I, the clay, say to the potter, what has thou made me thus? Obviously God can form and fashion us if we allow Him to. But if we choose to be stupid, foolish people and say, no, I know better, this is wrong, this is old, not applicable anymore, you are the fool. It's not the Word of God. The Word of God never changes. No one here is above 50. So all this has been here before any of us were a twinkle and our grandparents die. So the Bible is very clearly explaining foolish people are not willing to be corrected. Let us not be like that. And take Christianity out of the equation in our job, in our families, in social interactions with people. I mean I go around and you know in today's social media friendly world, a lot of people seem to be professionals in everything, right? You get up to someone and let's just say you mention any random subject, you know? Horse training for instance and you're explaining how to break in a horse and then some guy's like, yeah, I saw a Pinterest thing talking about how you're supposed to do horse training or I saw on a Facebook post and blah, blah, blah. It's like, have you ever trained a horse once in your life? No? Then shut up. You don't know what you're talking about. It's okay not to know things. Our world wants to be, like we mentioned the other service, you know, masters of all the trades but they want to be a jack of all trades but masters and none. So I don't pretend to know everything and I don't know everything. That's very clearly found out when you talk to me for a short period of time that I'm not trying to stay in ignorance. I grew up in ignorance. A lot of times the apostle Paul mentions how he did a lot of his persecution to the saints in ignorance but when he knew the truth, as the Bible says, know the truth and it'll make you free. So obviously in our lives, whether it's work, family or other things, let's be willing to be corrected. I mean, sometimes my wife and I will get into arguments about, you know, petty stupid stuff that don't really matter and neither her or I really know what we're talking about. We're just kind of going with like lines of logic and there will be times where I'm incorrect and she'll say something and I'll be like, wait a second, do I really know what I'm talking about or am I just kind of shooting from the hip hoping that I land on something? And my wife is very respectful into when we have a disagreeance, she will assume me to be innocent. She will assume that my husband must be telling me the truth, but I'm not infallible. So nevertheless, when we have a disagreeance and we fact check ourselves on Google usually or other sources, I'm found to be wrong. I'm the first to be like, I was wrong, sorry, my bad. Now I know and knowing is half the battle as GI Joe once said, but let's keep going on and reading. Notice what it says in verse seven, the legs of the lame are not equal. So is the parable in the mouth of fools. What is a parable? A parable, Jesus Christ spoke in parables, right? He spoke to the masses in parables, but he spoke specifically to his disciples clearly and he says, it's given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. It is not given unto them. The Bible is a spiritual book and it is for us, the saved born again believers to understand it. You know, the Bible says very clearly for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us, which are saved, it is the power of God. So we need to understand that the natural man cannot understand the things of God, but we need to have sympathy with them and know that there was a time in our lives when we were unsaved and we didn't know the scriptures and we didn't know the things of God, but praise the Lord. He decided to save us from our sins by sending us a soul winner. This is why when we go around soul winning, we need to make sure that we have empathy for the person. But as the Bible does say clearly after the first and second admonition, reject, move on. We're not there to argue and debate with people because once again, like I mentioned, everyone seems to be a professional in everything nowadays. So when you go around and someone's like, well actually the Bible says this, just simply say chapter and verse. Do you know where it says that? No I don't. Well maybe it's because it's not in the Bible. Maybe it's something you were taught that's not in the Bible. And it blows my mind how you know and I know that when we go preaching the gospel, a lot of people say the Bible says, and then anything comes out of their mouth is not even in the Bible. And then you tell them, can you show me that? Or you show them they're misphrasing something and it's like, well let me show you what it actually means. They're like, oh yeah, and you know exactly where it's in the Bible and it's context and everything and they're just like, well, you know what I mean? It's kind of the same thing and it's like, no, what you said was incorrect and that's fine, but are you willing to be corrected? You know, it's more likely that I can beat someone on the back and they'll understand than a fool will gain wisdom. And as it says right here, the legs of the lame, the Bible lame doesn't mean like you're uncool. It only means like you're crippled. You don't have, you can't walk. The legs of the lame are not equal. So like think about a guy who's crippled and me and him are going to race. It's like, okay, ready, go. It's not fair. So the unsaved, a parable in the mouth of the unsaved, it's not, they're not even on the same level because they're not saved. When they get saved, they're still not necessarily on the same level because we need to grow in our faith. And me included, I'm not reached perfection. Is anyone here reached perfection? Well, in that case, then we can all continue growing and we will always grow in our faith. But let's keep going on and reading. It says in verse eight, as he that bindeth the stone in a sling, so is he that giveth honor to a fool. Has a thorn goeth up in the hand of a drunkard, so is a parable in the mouth of fools. The great God that formed all things, both rewardeth of the fool and rewardeth transgressors. As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth through his folly. Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? There is more hope of a fool than of him. Now notice this part. The slothful man saith, there is a lion in the way. A lion is in the streets. As the door turneth upon his hinges, so does a slothful man upon his bed. Second time, the slothful hideth his hand in his bosom. It grieveth him to bring it again to his mouth. The sluggard is wise in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason. Look, like I was mentioning earlier, if I am going around trying to explain something and I don't know what I'm talking about and I have seven professionals coming up to me, explaining to me where I'm wrong, how I'm wrong, the reasonings of my incorrectness and all of that, and I'm like, no, you guys don't know what you're talking about. I'm the fool. I mean, am I about to walk up to an astrophysicist and explain to him the concepts of parallax trigonometry? I'd be a stupid idiot to try to explain that to someone who does that for a living, let alone seven consensus people who understand that truth. So let's not us be caught in this. What I'm trying to point out is the context of this passage. It keeps pointing out the sluggard, the slothful. So the Bible, I believe, is equating the folly of the old sinful man to sluggard slothfulness. Did you know that being lazy is a sin? Because people don't understand this. They think that sins are like lying and stealing, which they are. But doing nothing gets nothing done. As we've explained, doing something gets something done. So being lazy is a sin. Look, there's not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sineth not. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. The Bible says that the thought of foolishness is sin, like your folly. I'm guilty of being lazy from time to time. But ask my wife, ask her, when I am not doing something, I agonize to think I'm supposed to be learning something. I'm supposed to be doing something. I'm supposed to be educating myself, physically doing something or taking on a task because as the, not the Bible, but as you've heard, you know, an idle mind is the devil's workshop. If you are idle and lazy and are not filling your mind with the things of God, the devil will fill your mind with things that are not of God and you will in your life be confused on what's the right and wrong way. This is why the psalmist David says we must meditate on his word day and night. Have you find yourself in empty space in your life? Just beg the Lord for wisdom. Beg the Lord for understanding. Beg the Lord to have good judgment. Beg the Lord for whatever it is that you need and meditate on his word. Start memorizing more of your Bible. Stop memorizing the most modern hip song and stop memorizing movie quotes and start memorizing the words of God that will guide you into all wisdom and understanding. And like I said from the beginning, we have different backgrounds and we all have different handicaps and I'm going to profess knowledge and information was not my strong suit growing up. I mean, I got saved six years or almost six years ago, six years ago, and I could barely even read until the sixth grade and that's a shameful thing. And I'm trying to get you guys to understand that if you as a kid went to whom much is given of him should much be required. And I know that if you're raised in a good godly home, your parents are bestowing upon you the importance of education, of learning, of growing. But like I said, sin in light of laziness is something we all got to be careful of. Me included. Notice what it said in verse 14, as the door turneth upon his hinges, so does the slawful upon his bed. So you know when you open a door and the hinges kind of goes up and down, it's saying that the lazy guy goes from on his stomach to on his back, to on his stomach, to on his back. And he's wondering why he has no food because he's lazy. And I wish someone would tell these degenerates out here in Waikiki, the Bible clearly teaches if a man doesn't work, neither shall he eat. And if we stop incentivizing people and feeding them and giving them handouts and things like that, you know what they find themselves doing really quickly? Working. Oh, but we don't make enough minimum wage here. Get two jobs then. Get a third job. I mean, I had three jobs at one time in my life. Are you above working? No, none of us are. And obviously we have people who have had challenges and problems in their life. And back to the concept of the lame person, someone who's a cripple, and I've told people this in my life, if I ever break my leg or I bonk my head and I get amnesia or I come, you know, very, you know, challenged, so to say handicapped, just put me in front of Walmart and I'll greet people with a smile, you know, because I need to do something. I need to be working. And it makes men happy to work. Did you know that, that when you work at the end of the day, the Bible says that the sleep of a laboring man availeth much or is sweet unto him, that when I go to bed, I sleep like a baby. I don't know about you guys, but when I go out and work hard and I mentally strain myself and I physically strain myself, I knock out. I'm dead to the world when I hit that pillow, I'm muy muy, just done, you know what I mean? So the same applies for us and even ladies, look, some ladies, you know, the Bible very clearly teaches that women are to keep their homes. You know, ladies, your job is to help provide for your family. But nevertheless, there are scenarios where some women are at work, a physical, secular job. And what I'm trying to get at is let us not follow the world's pattern of being lazy because the Bible, it's a sin to be in lazy, very clearly teaches that throughout, let alone all the Proverbs, specifically Proverbs 26, because what are we talking about? A dog returning to his folly because a saved person who chooses to go back to his sinful life. Remember in the sight of God, it looks like a dog eating his vomit. Well, let's go on. I'm going to turn to you, if you would, to Romans chapter five. This is something that I'm sick of hearing. And if you go soul winning enough, you hear this more than times and you could probably count. And specifically when it comes to churches and preachers who are saying that if I don't see you change your life after you believed you were never saved, that is a lie from the pit of hell. Listen carefully. If someone ever tries to, as a pastor, preacher, evangelist, or anyone explained to you and teach you that if I don't see you living in righteousness or you never physically change your life ever when you believed you were never saved because you living like the devil. That is a lie. The Bible clearly teaches, as we saw earlier, it's our faith that saves us. He didn't just die for some of our sins. He died for all of our sins and every sin that I'm going to do, which mind you, you guys, I will sin. Do you not realize that you will sin tomorrow, the next day? Virtually, I believe every single one of us sins every day. As we said a moment ago, thus the Bible clearly teaches that the thought of foolishness is sin. Have you never thought a foolish thought throughout your day? Of course we have. But there are preachers who are going around telling people, Ray Comfort's known for this. He'll go around, preach his false gospel, saying you need to repent of your sins, even though that phrase is never found in the Bible, and say, if I don't see you change your life, then you must never believe. And this is the unfortunate thing within the Christian state today, that they've created this left-right paradigm. Just like in the secular world, right? They want you to believe it's a Republican or Democrat. Well, in the Christian world, they want you to think you're either a Calvinist or you're an Arminian or you're a Catholic or you're a Christian. But here's the problem. Both the Calvinist and the Arminian are incorrect. What is Calvinism? It's clearly a guy who went around teaching people about what's known as predestination. Now, it is true that the Bible uses that word, predestinate, because God knows the beginning from the end. So he knows who will be saved. He, in his foreknowledge, knows who is going to put their faith in him. But he didn't, like a puppet master, make them believe in him. God gave us free will to choose him. I mean, for crying out loud, if God were in heaven puppeteering us and making us believe in him, then we never had free will. And in his foreknowledge, he chooses these guys to be saved and these guys not to be saved. Why? Because the way he felt that day when he made them. That's a false doctrine. Calvinism is incorrect. But the Arminian will say something else. He'll go around saying that if I see someone living an incorrect life, they lost their salvation. God took their salvation from them. And the Bible very clearly says, He that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. My Father which gave to me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. In reference to the Trinity. So the Bible is very clearly teaching that when you believe, when you have faith in Jesus, you are sealed under the day of redemption. With that being said, unto whom much is given of him should much be required. So, though you are saved, should you live a life of degeneracy? No. But you don't need to stop that to maintain your salvation. What do I mean? Look at Romans chapter 5 verse 1. It reads, Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into the grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. Look down if you would at verse 17. For if by one man's offense death reigned by one, much more they which received abundance of grace, the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ. Therefore, this is a good rule of Bible interpretation. Whenever you see the word therefore or wherefore, look what it's there for. So we just explained the story of how sin entered into the world. Adam and Eve took of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they transgressed the law of God, they broke the commandment, and because of that, sin entered into the world. And by one man, can we be made righteous, Jesus Christ, he came and lived the perfect sinless life that none of us can ever live. And it says, Therefore, as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abound, what? Grace did much more abound, that as sin hath reign unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Look, Romans pushes salvation by faith alone. In every verse, not every verse, every chapter, it's your faith, it's your belief. Romans 4, right before this said, you know, what shall we say then? That Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found. For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God. For what saith the scriptures? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Romans keeps pushing this point. The Bible keeps emphasizing your faith as all that saves you. But in the early manuscripts that were handed down to us, right? This is why, you know, as King James, only as we believed in the preserved text, right? And the Texas Receptus that was handed down didn't have before chapter divisions. And notice we're about to go into chapter six, right? But remember, this is one giant letter from Paul to the Romans. And we just saw that justification was by faith. So what does chapter six verse one say? What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? So this is a famous passage that false prophets like to use to muster up their doctrine. So if you believe, should you continue in sin? God forbid. See, you were never saved to begin with because your life never changed. Funny that Romans chapter six, seven, and eight are all following a same theme. And let's see what it says. Know ye not that so many of us as we're baptized into Jesus Christ, we're baptized into his death? Therefore, remember, what is it there for? The justification. We are buried with him and by baptism into death. That like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also, what should walk in newness of life? For if we have been planted together in likeness of his death, we shall also in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. So this is the problem with lots of Christians today. When someone believes in Christ, they are born again. The dead spirit of the unsaved person is quickened or brought back to life. They are born again, a child of God, believe alone on Christ. Now that they are saved, they think that the old man is dead and gone. The Bible is not saying that when your new man is made, that the old man is gone. My grandfather, my step-grandfather told me something a long time ago, and this is a worldly parable to explain this to, but it kind of follows a biblical theme. And you've all known the like stereotypical conscience where you have like an angel and a demon on your shoulder, right? One's telling you to do good things and one's telling you to do bad things. Well, here's the thing. My grandpa once told me that every single person has two wolves on their shoulders. You have your evil wolf and your good wolf. The thing is, every decision you make is their food, whether it's good or bad. One of them is going to eat. And if you feed the good wolf and you keep feeding the good wolf, you keep eating, you're doing righteousness, you're continuing righteousness, you're doing these good things, your bad wolf is going to do everything in its power to get food, to get you to make a bad decision. Or let's say someone who makes a bad decision or let's say someone who makes a bunch of bad decisions in their life and keeps feeding their bad wolf, their good wolf will become malnourished and make it its life goal to get the food, to get a good decision in there. This is why in the hearts of believer, there's a war struggling between the flesh and the spirit. Always, every day as born again believers, we can choose to deny ourselves, pick up our cross and follow after Christ. We can choose this day whom we will serve. The unsaved can't do that. I'm not saying the unsaved cannot be good. Look, I know people who are unsaved that do good things, like feed the poor, like, you know, help an old lady across the street, like, you know, do nice things. But in the sight of God, those are considered dead works. Why? Because their sin is still on them. And if they think they're going to present all those good things that they've done to God and that'll help them to get to heaven, righteousnesses are as filthy rags in the sight of the Lord. You present to God your good works and he sees a dirty rag. He sees a dog returning to his vomit. And he's like, not good enough. The only way you could be made good enough is by your faith in Christ because Christ's righteousness will be imputed unto you. All the good things that Jesus Christ has done, his fulfilling of the law, his perfect sinless life is put onto our account because when that new creature is born, right, we also get the Holy Spirit that comes and dwells inside of our hearts. And the Holy Spirit, the Son of God, and the Father are one God. I am not God, you are not God, but God lives in us and we are able to consciously choose to know what to do. The Bible talks about that the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, will guide us into all truth and understanding. So, notice what it says in turn, if you would, to chapter 7. Chapter 7, verse 1. Know ye not, brethren, for I speak to them that know the law, how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? Look at verse 13. Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid, but sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good, that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual, notice the words of the Apostle Paul, but I am carnaled, sold under sin. What's another word for carnal? Carnal, fleshly, worldly. Think about the Spanish word carnitas, right? It's like the meat of an animal that you're eating, right? And carnal is just saying that Paul consciously, at that moment in his life, had problems. And if the Apostle Paul has problems, guess what? You got problems. Because the great godly man that he was and the amazing things that he did for the Lord Jesus Christ was still having issues. How do you know that, David? Well, notice what it says in verse 15. For that which I do, I allow not. For what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that do I. If I then do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me. But how to perform that which is good? I find not. For the good that I would, I do not. But the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then Allah, that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. So try to explain this to one of those pastors that I was mentioning earlier, right? They judge people's salvation on their actions, not their belief, what they believe. I judge, as the Bible says, as we are to do, judge righteous judgment, a person's salvation on what comes out of their mouth, out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak. But anyone can lie to us, right? So that doesn't mean anyone who says they believe is truly saved. At the end of the day we can only know who's truly saved by what they tell us. But nevertheless, if I go around in my life and there's a guy named John and John says he believes in Jesus and I see John being an idiot, smoking crack, going to strip clubs, hanging out with harlots, robbing banks, being a degenerate, I would not say he's not saved. Why? Because it's not what he does that makes him saved, it's what he believes. Should we continue in sin that grace did much more abound? God forbid. But nevertheless, he is saved, yet so is by fire as it says in 1 Corinthians chapter 3. And this is irritating to me because like I said, if you've gone out soul winning enough, you hear people mention this time and time again. Can you explain? Can you show them? Can you show them? And you keep showing them these things. And it's one thing that the layman, the average person, the church goer, doesn't get this or is confused by this, the pastors going around saying this, then that's to me a sign of a false prophet. Because if you think you need to continue in righteousness to maintain your salvation, that just tells me you don't understand faith or grace. For by grace are ye saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God and it's not of works, lest any man should boast. So we need to remember the importance of when we go out preaching the gospel to emphasize this point. The Bible keeps emphasizing it. Let us make sure people know that when they believe alone on Christ, they have been given the gift of eternal life. The eternal security of the believer, that doctrine is under attack. And so is the doctrine of faith alone. But today we're talking about a Christian who chooses to live a degenerate life. And I know people in my personal life who have chose to do this. I know people who came from drug abuse and incarceration and they're truly safe, they truly believe, but they wind up back in jail, but they wind up destroying their lives, but they wind up being idiots. I don't then go around saying, well, that means they were never saved. Because I saw them being an idiot. No, what I would tell myself is that person's stupid. They just don't know the things of God. And it's not that they couldn't. It's not that they don't have ability to. They're just as the quintessential, hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. They're just trying to go around their life with their head in the sand, thinking that they won't be judged for their actions. The Bible says, you know, whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth and scourges every son whom he receiveth. So because God loves us, because God has received us into His family, He will crack our rear ends more than your parents ever did. You think you got lickings from your parents? Think again, God's going to crack you way harder than your parents ever would. Because you've got to think about it. Think about the character Job, right? Job was the most righteous man in his day, did nothing wrong in light of what happened to him. Yet God allowed Satan to destroy his life, took his health, took his wealth, took his family from him. But what did Job say? Naked came I into this world and naked shall I return, for the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Job understood that, and elsewhere you can see in his writings, that he understood salvation by faith alone. So Job's friends are coming to him saying, well you must have done something wrong, that's why you're being destroyed. You must have failed in your life, you're lying to us, you may try to be convincing me you've not done nothing wrong, but obviously God's destroying you. So what's up Job? And Job truly didn't do anything wrong. And then we see God come and correct the friends, and he comes in hot, and that's a very amazing passage of the Bible of God, correcting let alone Job but his friends as well. So what is going on? There is a war going on for this word repent. There is a war going on you guys for the word repent. We are being dumbed down as a society. I am sure you understand that by now. And the word repent simply means to rethink, change your mind, or to turn. But like I mentioned earlier, people like great comfort and others, are going around telling people that to repent means you need to stop your sin, you need to turn from your sin. And ask people simply, not the great comforts, but when you go around preaching, ask them simply when they tell you that you need to repent of your sins to be saved, just say, can you show me that in the Bible where it says that you don't need to be rude and rough and grouch, just say hey, you believe it, you need to repent of your sins, can you show me that? Obviously they can't because it's not in there. The word repent is used a lot. But repent of your sins is never mentioned. The concept of that is mentioned, but not in reference to salvation. So, Matthew chapter 3 verse 1, it says, in those days came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And in Mark chapter 1 verse 14 it says, now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, so we just said John the Baptist, and now Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ye and believe the gospel. So when you see it coupled like that, repent and believe, what that means is you need to change your mind, rethink, turn from unbelief to belief. Because if you believed, you wouldn't need to turn from that. And if you needed to turn from your sins to be saved, then you are earning your spot in heaven. So basically the Bible is clearly teaching, John the Baptist, Jesus Christ himself. And some would say, well no, because remember elsewhere in John's ministry, John the Baptist, you know, the disciples came to him and said, hey, they're following Jesus, why aren't they following you? Is there like a difference in what you guys are teaching? No! John preached the same message of salvation as Paul did, as all the prophets did, to him gave ye witness that whosoever believeth in him shall receive remissions of sins. But go if you would to Acts chapter 19, the book of Acts chapter 19. This is proof that John was preaching the same message of salvation. Acts chapter 19 verse 1, it reads, And it came to pass that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coast, came to Ephesus, and finding certain disciples, he said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since he believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said unto John's baptism. So these people are trying to separate John and Jesus Christ's teachings. But then notice what Paul says, Then said Paul in verse 4, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people that they should believe on him, that should come after him, that is on Christ Jesus. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. So get the picture. There's these people, right? Paul comes to them and he says, Did you guys receive the Holy Ghost when you believed? And they're like, Who's the Holy Ghost? What's that? What are you talking about? And then John's like, What were you baptized unto? Paul was saying, What were you baptized unto? And they're like, Well, John's baptism. He's like, Did you not understand John the Baptist? He was saying you need to believe on him, which is to come as it says elsewhere in the gospel, that behold the Lamb of God, which should take away the sins of the world. They had the same message. Then they understood this and they put their faith in Jesus and understood that he is the Son of God. He's God manifested in the flesh. In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. So when they put their faith in that, then they could be baptized. That's why we believe in believers baptism. You need to believe that Jesus Christ, yes, is the propitiation for our sins, but that he is God manifested in the flesh. And this one God is made up of three people, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. And these three are one. Remember when the Pharisees come to Jesus and say, You cast out devils by Beelzebub. And he says, You have just done the unpardonable sin and you blaspheme the Holy Ghost. All manners of blasphemy shall be forgiven, but blasphemy of the Holy Ghost shall never be forgiven, neither in this world nor in the world to come. And basically Jesus is telling them that you calling me, the Son of God, have an unclean spirit in me. You have just blasphemed the Holy Ghost. So when someone stubs their toe and they yell OMG, they're blaspheming God, right? But that can be forgiven unto someone because all manners of blasphemy can be forgiven, but blasphemy of the Holy Ghost will never be forgiven. So what am I talking about? You Christians who are choosing to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, put your faith alone in him. Are you now going to take it upon yourself to go be an idiot and destroy your life? Is that what you want to do? Is that the testimony you want in your life? Do you want people to look at you because we are ambassadors, right, in Christ's stead. We represent Jesus Christ on this earth. Jesus says, I am the light of the world, for when I am gone, you are the light of the world, and unto whom much is given of him shall much be required. So we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, our dead body quickened, and we're going around living a bad life, and we profess to be followers or believers in Jesus. People are going to look at you and say, I don't want nothing to do with this Jesus because it seems like you guys are just a bunch of idiots doing a bunch of bad things. Yes, you're truly saved, but that is a bad testimony unto Jesus Christ, and we don't want to give our Lord and Savior a bad testimony in the world. We want people to be saved, but just so they don't understand, just so they don't get mixed up on this subject, they need to know that yes, you're saved by your faith, but that's it. If you choose to live a horrible life, that's on you, and God will destroy you for your wrongdoing, and that's the last point I want to go into. Turn, if you would, to Hebrews chapter 10. The last point I want to go into is, you need to take heed lest ye fall. Even I standing here today can choose to live a life of sin. I can choose to mess up my life. I can choose to not deny myself, to not pick up my cross daily, and to not follow after the Lord Jesus Christ, and so can any, every one of us, and if you don't think that, then you need to question your own salvation because there is a change that happens in the hearts of believers when they get saved, but it's not an exterior thing. It's something that's in the heart. The heart of stone will be made into a heart of flesh, so therefore, the change happens inside of the person, the new man. The old man's still there. He can choose to be an idiot, but if you sin, it is no longer you that do it, but sin that dwells in you. The flesh, the body, will one day hit the ground, and if we're the generation that's going to see the Lord Jesus Christ come, our bodies are going to be changed in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, just like a seed, when it brings forth the plant, has to strip its layer of shell, and then it comes into a new plant. The Bible likens salvation unto plants, as we saw in the announcement sheets, right? What so ever man sows, that's what he will reap, but notice what it says in Hebrews chapter 10, verse 19. It reads, Having therefore, brethren, boldness, to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say his flesh, and having an high priest over the house of God, let us draw nearer with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith, without wavering, for he is faithful that promised, and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more, as you see the day of approaching. For if we sin willfully, after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking-for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despises Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace. For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord, and again the Lord shall judge his people. So what's going on in this passage? Notice in verse 24 it says, And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works. What is our jobs as brothers and sisters? We need to, when we see a brother or sister doing something wrong, going bad in their life, take it upon ourselves to go up to them and say, hey, you're going south. We need to compel them to get closer to God. And like I mentioned before, it's not where you are on the spectrum, it's which way you're facing. Because there could be a brother who's far away on their Christian life, but he's facing the right direction. And then there could be a brother or sister who's been saved for 20 years, but is looking back at the world. We need to bring that new brother, if they're facing the right direction, let's keep pulling them in that direction. And your brother or sister who's facing the wrong direction, we need to turn them around. We need to preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. If I see someone going south, I am going to reprove them, tell them they are wrong. You need to stop doing this because I love you. If they keep doing that, I'm going to rebuke them and tell them sharply that you're an idiot and you will destroy your life if you don't stop this. But at the end, when they do right, we need to exhort them and tell them, great, you got sin out of your life. You're choosing to live for God. Let's pull each other in the right direction as iron sharpens iron. We are here as family members of the kingdom of heaven to be there to help pull us into perfection. Why do we have preachers, teachers and evangelists and deacons for the perfecting of the same, for the work of the ministry? So that's what is first being mentioned, but notice what it says in verse 25, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching. The Bible is saying if people are not willing to come together to go to church, they are in sin. I know like people don't get that, but if you're not willing to congregate to come together as brothers and sisters, you have a fearful looking of a fiery indignation and a lot of people use the next couple passages to prop up their doctrine of saying, see if you sin willfully or you're knowingly sinning, you're going to be judged and go to hell because they see the word fire there and they equate that to hell. But let's take a careful look at it. Notice what it says in verse 26, Pause. You will be judged, period. We are children of God. If we choose to sin willfully, we're going to be disciplined, but notice what it says, so that is in reference to hell. The unsaved will go to hell. We will never go to hell and the child father analogy that we give to people in light of the gospel, I try to explain to people after they've believed and they understood salvation, I ask them, did you ever have your parents growing up? And they're like, yeah, and my parents are sometimes not and I said, okay, when you did something wrong, what did they do? Well, they gave me lickings, you know, I got my rear end handed to me and I tell them, okay, well, now you're a child of God. Did your parents ever throw you in the oven when you were bad? No, that's ridiculous. That's crazy. Yeah, exactly. We are children of God. God will never leave us nor forsake us. He's not going to throw us in the oven, but the unsaved is different. They are not his children and that's why we're trying to go and share the message of salvation, you know, whom he loveth and chasteneth these scourges, whom he's received, if he's received you into his family, but as many as received him to them gave you power to become the sons of God, even in them that believe on his name. So when you are brought into God's family, then you are held to a higher standard and if you are willing to take it upon yourself to go live a stupid life, to not listen to your parents, to not listen to the preacher, to not go and read your Bible and do these things, take this to the bank. Look what it says in verse 30, For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me. I will recompense, saith the Lord, and again the Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God. I don't know about you, but I don't want my rear end to be cracked. I want to be on God's good graces. I want God to be pleased with me. I want God to look down from heaven and say, Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter thou into the kingdom of thy Lord. I want to be pleasing unto God. I want to be pleasing unto the Lord Jesus Christ, but I can choose not to and so can every and every one of us. So let us not act like the world acts or like we used to if you ever were not raised in a good godly family and if you are raised in a good godly family, don't look at the world and envy them and their stupid actions. I mean, for crying out loud, we don't believe that it's better to have a bad testimony and then come to Christ in your life, but it's better to be raised in a good godly home and have understood salvation and lived a good life your whole life. Nevertheless, I do think it's appropriate sometimes for people to explain their bad testimonies to let people know that, Look, I messed up my life. I screwed up over here. I failed as a person, but praise the Lord, he had mercy on me and this is why when we go out preaching the gospel, we need to have mercy on the lost because they didn't know Christ throughout their life and look, there are sins that follow you for the rest of your life. Tattoos is one of them. I have a tattoo. I have lots of tattoos, but you can't see them because I consciously when I got them wanting to make sure if I put on a shirt, you couldn't see them. I wish I never got them. I wish somebody would have grabbed me and shook me and said, Don't get a tattoo. That's stupid. That's something that the world can look at and be like, well, there's a problem that he made in his life. So let me go out and get a tattoo tomorrow, right? Because I know it's wrong to do it, but I didn't finish it. My sleeve still needs to be finished. I mean, I want to put a little bit. No, stop it. It's wrong. And if you want to act like a dog that's willing to go eat, it's vomit. Understand, it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God. This is not a game. God looks down in our hearts and knows what we're thinking. His mercies are new every day. He wants to bless, but he will come down like a ton of bricks and correct because he loves. Let's us not emulate. Let's let us make sure. Brothers and sisters know that we will not tolerate sin, not in this church, that even though we all fall short of the glory of God, gruesome sins like fornication, drunkenness, extortion, these things, we want to make sure are far from us as the Bible clearly teaches that will get you kicked out of a church because we believe in church discipline, that the church, like I mentioned earlier, is a place for born-again believers. And when we are willing to deny ourselves and follow Christ, then we will not look like a dog that is going to go back to his vomit. Spire our heads and have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this day. Thank you so much for all my brothers and sisters in Christ. Thank you so much for your word and salvation. Please help any of our brothers and sisters who are struggling and having, even myself, and I know I need to take heedless life all but if we're willing to go live after the world that you'd be willing to correct us. I know we want your mercy and I know we want you to be soft with us but we're also ready for correction and help us to always be ready to get right with you. And when people do get right with you, let us as brothers and sisters remember to forgive and forget as you have forgiven us. And in Jesus Christ's name we pray. Amen.