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

So the reason I had you go to Jude is I wanted you to look at chapter or verse 12 there. Verse 12 is where it's talking about false teachers and the last part there it says trees whose fruit withereth without fruit twice dead plucked up by the roots and my sermon tonight is called plucking up the tulip by the roots. Now what we're going to preach about tonight or what I'm going to preach about tonight is the doctrine of Calvinism. If you understand Calvinism, what Calvinism entails is this tulip doctrine and tulip is just an acronym for what they believe. So just to kind of give you those five points, the five points of Calvinism, okay? And we're just going to destroy that doctrine tonight using the Bible and we're just going to show that that's not scriptural. So tulip, T-U-L-I-P, is just an acronym that they use and it's this cute little word, you know, like a little flower or something like that. But to me it's a disgusting doctrine and it needs to be plucked up from the root. You need to pluck up those petals. And T stands for total depravity, U stands for unconditional election, L stands for limited atonement, I stands for irresistible grace, and P stands for perseverance of the saints. So we're going to go through each point of this and it's not going to be necessarily like a motivational sermon here tonight, but this is going to be more of a doctrinal sermon where we're just teaching what this false doctrine teaches and then what the Bible has to say about it. So let's start with total depravity. So that's what this whole doctrine is, is depraved, is what it is. And so what total depravity teaches, and what I did is I kind of went on the Calvinist websites and tried to figure out what do they believe exactly. And Calvinism, if you look at the roots of it, a lot of times it goes back to the Presbyterians and John Callum was a Catholic himself and then you go into the Presbyterian church which was a Protestant church. But then it stems into Reformed Baptists as well. So you have the Presbyterians but then you have the Reformed Baptists. So that's why this is such a damnable heresy is because the Baptists a lot of times claim this Calvinism. So it's something we need to understand, it's something that you need to have a little ammunition for when it comes to fighting this doctrine because it is something that's very thinly veiled. Each point is thinly veiled to sound like it's right, it sounds like it's what the Bible says but it's not. And so total depravity, what they say, total depravity teaches that someone that is unsafe cannot do anything good, that they can't even put their faith in Christ. And they teach that God would have to give them that faith to be saved. So someone that's totally depraved, basically, they can't do anything good. They can't do anything right and they can't even believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. So that's, on the cuff, when they say this though, they'll say, well, we're all sinners, we all come short of the glory of God, or they'll say fall short because they're not using the King James Bible out of time, but they'll say, well, we're all sinners, we all come short of the glory of God, and it's like, amen to that. We're all depraved in the fact that we're all sinners, but they take it to a new extreme to where I can't even put my faith in Christ. I'm so depraved that I can't even believe on somebody. And so all these pieces of this tulip are interlocked, so it's kind of hard to really pin it, like this is one thing and this is another, because they all kind of interlock into each other with the unconditional election and the irresistible grace. It's all kind of the same doctrine, and they just wanted to make it into a cute little saying, I think. And so, but go to Romans chapter 2, and this is a false doctrine I think a lot of people misunderstand, even people that aren't even into Calvinism, is that unsaved people can do things that are right. They can not murder somebody and keep that commandment, that not every unsaved person is this mass murdering serial killer, or they break every single commandment on there. Now, yes, is every unsaved person a sinner, yeah, but it's a straw man. What they do is say, well, everybody's a sinner ergo, no one can believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and they're so depraved that they can't even put faith in God, right? So it's a false argument. So go to Romans chapter 2 and verse 14, Romans chapter 2 and verse 14. So this destroys this idea of being totally depraved as an unsaved person. Notice what it says here. It says, for when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law are a law unto themselves, which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts, and meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel. So notice what it says here. It says, when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, right? By nature, we're talking about unsaved people. When they're talking about the Gentiles here, they're talking about people that don't have the law, they're lost, and it says they don't have the law, but they do by nature the things contained in the law because it's the law written in their hearts. You know that everybody's born with a conscience? And even these people that are out on the island somewhere, where we have like the Pygmies and just other people that are on other islands or the Native Americans that were here when they came over and we settled this land, they all had God's laws written in their hearts and the fact of in their conscience, they knew that murder was wrong. They didn't necessarily have the Bible in front of them to show them that, but they had it in their hearts and they knew in their conscience that that was wrong and that they shouldn't do it. And so this idea that, and sometimes we get caught up in this when we talk to an atheist and be like, well, if you don't have God, then you don't have any standards. Well, if that's true, they make their own standards, but an atheist is semi-right in the fact that they do good things sometimes, right? Not every atheist is like this murdering, adulterating, wicked person. Sometimes they're just normal people that don't believe in God. Now they're a fool, right, because a fool has said in his heart there is no God, but here's the thing. They can still do by nature the things that are contained in the law, right? So this whole idea of total depravity is just a false doctrine. It's not true. And then this couples into the fact of faith is a gift and it's something that God gives you, right? And this is based off ignorance and grammar, okay? If you'll turn to Ephesians chapter 2, Ephesians chapter 2, I know you all know this verse, but I want you to see it because we're going to look at the grammar of this verse. Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 8, very familiar verse, but notice what they do to this and maybe you guys haven't seen this before or have heard of this, but it says, for by grace are you saved through faith and not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. But what a Calvinist does here is they'll say the gift of God is the faith. Now I remember reading the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, but here's the thing. If you just grammatically look at this, the saved is the subject that the it is referring to. It's the antecedent to the it. The pronoun that's talking there is talking about the saved, right? So what's the gift of salvation? Not faith. And it says if you want some proof that we have our own faith that we put in Christ, it's not just something that God gives us. It says in Luke chapter 7 verse 50, it says He said unto the woman thy faith hath saved thee. And a lot of times He's saying believe only and thou shalt be saved, right? And believe only and she shall be made whole. And it's talking about, you know, I've seen, He said to the centurion, you know, I have not seen so great faith in all Israel, right? Well, He's saying, why would He say that? You know, He's talking about the faith of that person, right? The faith that they have. If you have faith in the grain of the mustard seed, you can remove mountains, right? So this idea that, and it all goes back to the fact that God chooses who goes to heaven. He predestinates who goes to hell and who goes to heaven, which is a false doctrine straight out of hell. And so the total depravity is a false doctrine and you'll find this on the statement of faith of a lot of Baptist churches. Now what you need to understand about Calvinism is it's a spectrum. It's a spectrum just like the repentance crowd is a spectrum. So in the repentance crowd you have the terminal ill repentance crowd where you've got a term from your sins that stops sinning to be safe and then you have the ones that are just getting diagnosed with it a little bit to where it's okay, when I say repent of sin, I really just mean you've got to acknowledge you're a sinner, right? So there's a spectrum there of people that are just kind of, they're saying the wrong things but they believe right, you know, and they're using the wrong words and they need to just clean that up and then you've got the other side where they're just heretics straight out of hell that are teaching a false doctrine, right? So you'll find this out soul winning when you have someone that will say, well, you know, they'll talk about these points and then you're really nailing down on it and then they're like, yeah, you're right, you know, that's, maybe I should have worded that differently or whatever, I don't really believe that, that extreme, right? And so, but then you'll have the hardcore five point Calvinist that just holds these to the T and those are the guys that are the false teachers that are twice dead plucked up by the roots. So total depravity, knock that one off the list, T's gone. So yes, an unsaved person can keep the law without the Holy Ghost. Now they're going to go to hell, right, because no one can keep the law, you know, if you offend them one point, you're guilty of all, right? The whole law crumbles once you've broken them one point. So if they're trying to get to heaven by keeping the law, they're never going to make it. But the whole point is, is that, yeah, when I was unsaved, before I got saved, I wasn't totally depraved to where I didn't do anything right ever, right? And so it's a false doctrine. Yes, I was a sinner, just like everybody else, but it's just a false doctrine. The Bible clearly states that they do by nature the things contained in the law. Unconditional election. Unconditional election teaches that there is no condition for salvation and that God chooses who goes to heaven and who goes to hell, predestination of the believer, okay? So what this teaches is basically that you don't have a choice, right? The election, if you understand, you know, the election is those that are saved. The elect, right, not the Jews, but those that are saved, right, a Jew or Gentile, right? Those who put their faith in Christ are the elect. So when we talk about the election, the election by grace, right, that it might be by grace, not of works, but of him that calleth, right, and so we know that the election is talking about the saved, so what they're saying is that it's unconditional, meaning that you don't have a choice and that there's no condition to be saved, right? Well, I seem to remember that there is a condition to being saved, but I want to touch on the predestination, okay? And I remember preaching a whole little sermon on this one time about predestination, and we're not going to go too deep into that, but there's only two passages in the Bible that even mentions the word predestinate. That's Ephesians 1 and Romans chapter 8. Well, turn to Romans chapter 8 because this is the clearest passage, and Romans 1 is super clear, or Ephesians 1, I'm sorry, and we'll go to that right after we get to this too, but Romans 8 and chapter 29. Romans 8 chapter 29, and I know this is more kind of like a Bible study tonight, but I want you to have some ammunition for this doctrine, so if you have one verse at least for each one of these points, it's going to be easy to annihilate it. Romans chapter 2, they do by nature the things that are contained in the law as Gentiles, therefore total depravity is just completely false. Unconditional election, which teaches predestination of who's going to believe, right, that basically God predestinates who's going to put their faith in Him. Now that's a false doctrine, okay? Now notice what it says here in verse 29 of Romans chapter 8. The Bible says, for whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate, then He also called, and whom He called, then He also justified, and whom He justified, then He also glorified. So what were they predestinated for? To be conformed to His image, right? Does it say that they were predestined to believe? Predestinated to call upon the name of the Lord? They were predestinated to be conformed to the image. Now notice what it says here in 1 Peter, you don't have to turn there, 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 2, elect according to the foreknowledge of God, sprinkling the blood of Jesus Christ, the Bible says that we're elect according to the foreknowledge of God. God knew and He foreordained that those that believe will be conformed to His image. Does that make sense? We can't blame God for foreknowing who's going to believe. Does that make sense? So God knows who's going to reject the Gospel and who's going to believe the Gospel, therefore He predestinated those that would believe to be conformed to His image. Notice what it says in Ephesians chapter 1. This is another place, Romans 8 and Ephesians chapter 1 are the only places in the Bible that predestination is even mentioned and it's clear if you just read the whole passage. Now if you just take one verse out of context in Ephesians on predestination you could probably try to make it say whatever you want it to say, but Ephesians chapter 1 verse 11, notice what it says, Ephesians chapter 1 verse 11, it says in whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will that we should be to the praise of His glory who first trusted in Christ. Notice He predestined those to be conformed to His image, to be the praise of His glory for the redemption of the body. It gets on about the purchased possession later on. He predestined us to be like Him who first trusted in Christ. There is a condition. The Bible says, I think I remember this in Romans chapter 10, that if, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. If you don't mind underlining in your Bibles, underline that if. And anybody that does computer programming, and that's not me, but I do use Excel every once in a while, what is that called, an if-then statement, what's that called? A conditional statement, math, science, right? So a conditional statement is if you do this, then this happens, right? If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. It's condition. The condition is faith, and faith is not something, it's your own faith, it's something that you have, and that's the only requirement for salvation. It's the only condition for salvation is faith, and it's not something that God predestinates because that would make God, this wicked God that basically is, is basically foreordaining people to be damned to hell. God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. How would that make sense if God is predestinating people not to believe? How would that make any sense when it says that he's not willing that any should perish and that he will have all men to be saved in coming to the knowledge of the truth? It wouldn't make any sense at all, it would contradict scripture, and guess what, it doesn't make sense even in the passages that they say this is here. God foreknew who was gonna be saved. We can't blame God for being all-knowing, from knowing the beginning, from the ending from the beginning of the world to the foundation of the world. So he knew who was gonna trust in him. He knew that I was gonna trust in him before the foundation of the world, right? He knew that Christ was gonna die on the cross before the foundation of the world. He's the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. That's right. Jesus Christ was as if he was slain from the foundation of the world, and so when people died in the Old Testament, the blood was applied to them just as much as it's applied to me, and they went to heaven just as much as I would go to heaven, and so God is outside of time. God is eternal, and so we can't blame God for being God, for knowing who He was going to believe and predestinating those that believe to be conformed to His image, to be the praise of His glory, and so it doesn't say that He predestinated them to believe. That's what they're trying to say. That's the false doctrine. Unconditional election. There's no condition. There is a condition. You've got to believe. And so salvation's not hard, but there is a condition. There's something we have to do. What must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and I shall be saved. So this false doctrine, what it comes down to, you know what, I never met a Calvinist that wasn't one of the elect. Show me a Calvinist that wasn't one of the elect. And so here's the thing. What it comes down to is that the people that believe in this are either just wicked themselves, but it comes down to laziness. They want to believe that it's all going to be fine and dandy, and God is just up there pulling the strings, and He's just doing everything that He does. Do you understand how wicked that would be if God was controlling every single person because of all the wicked, child molestation, the rape, the murder, all the wickedness that's in the world, how could you even imagine that God's the one puppeting that? And that's what they believe. The hardcore Calvinists believe that God's up there and He's the one that's doing everything. No, God created man upright, and He sought out wicked inventions, and He gave us free will. And that gets into the next point. No, that's not the next point. That's the one after that. I'm getting ahead of myself. We've got to get to the limited atonement before we get to the irresistible grace. So limited atonement is one of the most wicked ones in my opinion. I hate the limited atonement and just the aspect of limiting what God did on the cross or what Jesus did on the cross, right? And so what limited atonement teaches is that Jesus only died for the elect, and He didn't die for everyone. Now, that alone, just saying that should make you like, what in the world? That Jesus didn't die for everybody? But it's right in the statement, limited atonement. So basically, He only died for those that would get saved. No, no, that's not true, obviously. The Bible says, and go to 1 John chapter 2. This is probably one of the easiest ones to annihilate. I'll just tell you that right now. This was not one I really had to study into too much to try to figure out how I was going to answer this one. This is one that's so easy, and I just don't understand how they can get around this. And they use semantical games, they use these mental gymnastics, and it's this logic game of all this philosophy and logic and like, well, if God knew who was going to be saved, then why would He die for that person who's, you know, it's all this garbage logic. You know what? I don't believe that homosexuals can be saved. I believe the reprobate. But do I think that God died for their sins? Yes, I do. Yes. Amen. Because God is a just God, and they are without excuse. They had eternal life waiting for them. All their sins were paid for, and God paid for them all, and they chose to reject Him. So this whole notion of, oh, He only paid for the people that He knew were going to, that He chose to believe, it's just this crazy, I mean, if God is willing that all should be saved, and He's choosing people, predestinating people to be saved, then the whole world should be saved. Right. So, and obviously it's not, because the Bible says that few there be that find it. Right. So go to 1 John chapter 2, 1 John chapter 2 and verse 2, I know we're kind of blowing through this, but I did kind of go long this morning, so maybe I'll get out a little early tonight. So 1 John chapter 2, verse 2, it says, and He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. Not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. So this clearly states that He didn't just die for our sins. You know the Bible says that for this is a good and acceptable, I'm sorry, not in 1 Timothy chapter 4, it says we trust in the living God who is the savior of all men, especially of those that believe. Now how can He be, how can you separate that and say, well there's a group that believe, but He's the savior of all men, but especially of those that believe. That's a subset of that, right? So that means in all, that means there's people in there that don't believe, right? So He's the savior of all men, especially those that believe, because those that believe are going to go to heaven, right? But He was the savior for all men. He's the savior for every single person that went to hell, that's in hell right now, He was their savior, but they rejected Him. And so this limited atonement is straight out of the pit of hell, and we already covered those verses where, you know, that He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance, He'll have all men to be saved and come unto the knowledge of the truth. And if you want those references, 2 Peter chapter 3, 9 is where that's at, where He's not willing that any should perish, and 1 Timothy 2, 3 and 4 where it says He will have all men to be saved. So I'm going to try to give you references. So if you're trying to write down anything as far as references for this, those are those references, and I can always still give you the outline that I have too. So I just want you to have some ammunition as far as how to tackle this doctrine, because this is something that's creeping in the churches. This is something that's on, I looked up all the Baptist churches in the area, and one of these is on like most of the churches that you run into. Now some people just copy and paste, so you know, I give them a little bit of grace in the fact that they may have just copy and pasted, you know, like down the line all these different doctrinal statements, instead of just putting their own doctrinal statement up there, but you know, the total depravity is one that I see all the time on there, and these different aspects of this doctrine. So again, this whole doctrine is to bolster the fact that they don't want to go soul winning. They want to say, well, everybody's already, you know, God already knows who's going to be saved and who's not going to be saved, and it doesn't have to do with what I do, right? So that's what this whole doctrine's about, it's about laziness, and you've got Dr. Fatbottom sitting up in his ivory tower with his glasses, I can always see, you know, I see these theologians with their glasses like down here, like looking at you, son, when you've been saved as long as I have, you know, that's what I think of, these people that are like looking down on the soul winners that are doing the work and putting a wet blanket on soul winning, and that's why I hate this doctrine so much, is because those are the people that are putting a wet blanket on soul winning that are saying, oh, you don't get anybody saved. Well, that's what Paul said, I made all things, all men, that I by all means might save some, right? That, and we just read in Jude, you know, and of some have compassion making a difference, and others, what? Saved with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garments spotted by the flesh. So that's a biblical thing to say that we're saving people, because he's given us the ministry of reconciliation, we are ambassadors for Christ, in Christ's stead, we are to tell the world to be reconciled to God, and they are forsaking that because they're lazy, because they don't want to do the work, and because they just want to get their kudos from just being this theologian, and go deep, go down deep, come up dry, and going into all this philosophy and trying to figure out how the Bible can twist all this stuff into saying that God chooses who's going to be saved and who's not going to be saved. And so it's just a false doctrine. Now go to Romans chapter five, Romans chapter five, and honestly you can destroy these doctrines just sticking in Romans, but I want to show you all these different verses. Romans chapter five, this right here, I want them to answer this, because what they say is that all doesn't really mean all. When he died for all the world, and for all our sins, all doesn't mean all, it just means all of this subset, right? And so that's what I'm telling you, they use these mental acrobats when it comes to the words that we use, right? And so when you use all, they'll say, well that's just talking about all the elect, right? Well let's see if we can do that with this verse right here. Romans chapter five, verse 18, the Bible reads, therefore as by the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. Now who is that? Is that just a subset of people, or is that every single person that's ever lived or ever would live? Yeah, we've all sinned, we're all condemned, right? Well let's keep going. Even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. Now what they want to say is that the free gift is on all the elect only. Now how in the world did the word all change within one sentence, right? So you've got to be consistent here. Either condemnation came upon all as far as every single person that ever lived, because they can't say, well it's just all the people that don't get saved. Well we were all condemned, right? We were all condemned before we got saved. So this just annihilates that whole all argument. All doesn't mean all. No, all means all. And so all here means all people were condemned by our sin, but all people were forgiven by the free gift if they accepted, right? Condition. There's a condition. You have to accept that gift. So they try to say that God only calls certain people to be saved. So this is easy to refute as well, but what they'll say is they'll go to John chapter 6. So I'm just going to show you what they say. John chapter 6 and verse 44. So go to John chapter 6 and then we'll stick in John to answer that question. But I just wanted to show you, I just wanted to give you some of the stuff they try to throw at you, right? They're going to try to throw some verses at you and try to trip you up. They're going to try to twist some stuff, but they didn't make it through the rest of John apparently. So that's usually what happens. It's funny. Sometimes they don't even make it to the end of the chapter because the end of the chapter will give you the answer. So John chapter 6 and verse 44. No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him and I will raise him up at the last day. So what they say here is no man can come unto me except the Father draw him. Amen. I believe that verse. But what they say with that is that he doesn't draw everybody. So do you see they're adding something there? Does it say that my Father only draws certain people? But it says that, and go to John chapter 12, so if they would have just kept reading through John instead of stopping there, John chapter 12 verse 32. John chapter 12 verse 32, and this is Jesus talking again. John chapter 12 verse 32, and I, if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me. So the Father has to draw, and Jesus draws, but he draws all men unto him. And again we can play this game with the all doesn't mean all and it only means the elect, but that's just garbage. I mean that's just something. They're making up. They're using these philosophy of words. It doesn't line up with scripture at all. It's just their false doctrine that they're trying to prop up. But Jesus said I will draw all men unto me. So and we're going to get into this. This kind of goes right into the next point of, this will be kind of the segue where they'll say well he only draws certain people. Well let me ask you how this verse would make sense in that doctrine, in that weird world of Calvinism. In Matthew chapter 22 verse 14 it says, for many are called, but few are chosen. Many are called, but few are chosen. And so this will go right into the irresistible grace, but they'll say well you have to be called and then you're automatically going to be elect when you're called, but how would that make sense if many are called, but few are chosen? That means that there's less people chosen than that are called, right? So it doesn't make any sense for them to say, you know, all the people that God draws to them, you know, they're going to be saved, but he doesn't draw everybody. But over here it says well he draws, he calls many people, but only few of them get saved, right? Few of them are chosen. They're chosen is just another word for elect, right? So and this segues right into the irresistible grace. So we've knocked off the total depravity, right? Romans 2, they do by nature, the Gentiles do by nature the things that are contained in the law. We know that an unsaved person can do something right. Faith is not a gift. It's not, salvation itself is a gift. Eternal life is a gift, but the faith is the requirement for that. And then unconditional election, we saw that that doesn't hold the water when it comes to the predestination. There is a condition. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth to the Lord Jesus and thou shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. There is a condition, right? That God doesn't predestinate us to believe, he predestined us after we believed to be conformed to his image. And he foreknew that we'd believe, therefore he predestinated us from the foundation of the world. So you've got to understand that you've got to, it's like the people that miss, they take out, they skip over a word or something, I don't understand, they just don't read the grammar of it when it says predestinated to do this, and then they just put another word in there. They put in believe and all this other garbage. So irresistible grace. So the T is gone, the U is gone, the L is gone, what are we left with? We've got the I and the P. Irresistible grace and perseverance of the saints. Irresistible grace. Now this goes right into, for many are called but few are chosen, what we were just talking about, right? This teaches that the elect cannot resist God's call to the gospel and that they are forced to be saved. No free will. Now when we just read that, we just read that many are called but few are chosen. Now if no one can resist God's calling, how in the world are only few chosen? That doesn't make any sense. It falls flat on its head, it doesn't make any sense at all, for many are called but few are chosen to completely annihilate this irresistible grace that if you're called by God, then you'll get saved. So the whole world is called to be saved. He calls out to the whole world, look unto me, all the earth, and be ye saved. So he calls the whole earth to be saved but few are going to actually be saved. Few are going to be elect because few are going to believe. Few are going to be predestined to conform to his image because few are going to first believe in Christ. Few there be that find it, the Bible says. So in Acts chapter 7, look at this, and this is really where it just annihilates this whole irresistible grace. Acts chapter 7, this is in verse 51 is where we're going to go to. So this is the famous sermon by Stephen. This is the famous sermon where he gets stoned at the end of it, and this is where he really just starts laying into him, right? So he's really just preaching this sermon, just showing his Bible knowledge. I mean you've got to imagine this guy's doing this off the top of his head, telling the whole story from the beginning up to where they're at, right? And they start gnashing on them with their teeth and they end up stoning him, but this is where he really starts ripping into them, the people there that he's talking to, right? And so Acts chapter 7, verse 51, it says, ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost. As your fathers did, so do ye. Not only do they resist the Holy Ghost, they're saying their fathers resisted the Holy Ghost as well. How can you tell me that you can't resist God's calling? You know that the Holy Ghost is convincing the world of sin, and the Holy Ghost is the one that is working through a soul winner to win someone to Christ, right? It says, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us by the washing, regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost. Now if it's irresistible, how are they resisting here? How did their fathers resist? So it completely annihilates it. This whole no free will is just a bunch of garbage. I mean, I don't understand where they come up with this stuff, especially since there's free will offerings in the Bible. So what in the world is a free will offering if it's not free will? So Psalm chapter 119, and I'm not going to go into all the Levitical, we're not going to go into Leviticus tonight and just dig deep into all the free will offerings, but here's the thing, Psalm 119, and Psalm 119 and verse 108, the Bible reads here, Psalm 119 and verse 108, it says, except I beseech thee the free will offerings of my mouth, O Lord, and teach me thy judgments. So we have the free will offerings that were actual sacrifices, right? And what was a free will offering? It was an offering that they were doing by their own free will that was not prompted by God, right? It's exactly what it is. I mean, I don't know how much you can get away from that is the fact that a free will offering is something that you're just like, you know what, I want to give to God something. It's not something that he's requiring. It's just something I just want to do out of my own free will, right? And notice what it says in Ezra chapter 7. So this falls flat on your face. And you know what this comes down to is people don't know their Bible, and these people just play on that. And they're like, oh, you know, there's no free will, and God's just doing this and that. It's like maybe, I think maybe this is what it is. They're looking up an e-sword, and they don't realize that free will is one word in the Bible. And they look it up, and it's not there, and they're like, oh, free will isn't in the Bible. But let me give you a little secret. When you look it up, it's one word in the King James Bible. So see, Ezra chapter 7 verse 13, it says, I make a decree that all they of the people of Israel and of his priests and Levites in my realm, which are minded of their own free will to go up to Jerusalem, go with thee. So it's just anathema to me that the people that don't understand this, you know, of their own free will. This wasn't even a free will offering. He's just saying, hey, of your own free will, if you want to go with them, you can go with them. Right? You're not forced. The free will, you know, whosoever will, let them come unto the water of life freely, right? So I mean, so many times in the Bible this is mentioned, and I'm not going to belabor this point, irresistible grace is just such a foolish, foolish doctrine. And this one's just off the cuff, but turn to 2 Timothy. Just thinking about this one here, actually, 2 Timothy chapter 3. Speaking of reprobates, let's go to 2 Timothy chapter 3. 2 Timothy chapter 3. Start in verse 6 there. We'll just start off and get some context here. 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 6, it says, For of this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive, silly women laden with sins, led away with diverse lusts, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so did these also resist the truth. Men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith. Aren't there a lot of people that know God and glorify Him not as God, you know, neither were thankful? I mean, the whole, hey, stay tuned for Wednesday night, we're going to get into that when we go to Romans chapter 1. But people resist the truth all the time. While someoneing, they resist the truth all the time. But you know there's a lot of people that resist the truth but then end up getting saved? Not everybody's a reprobate, you know? But here's the thing, there's a lot of people that resist it, resist it, resist it, resist it, and then eventually they soften their hearts and they get saved. Many people I know that were like that, that it wasn't the one time that they heard the gospel, it was over and over and over and over again, and they finally caved into it. And they finally gave into it and they sweetly got saved. And so this notion of this irresistible grace is just a false doctrine, falls flat on its head. So the last one, now here's this one right here, is the one that basically is the most thinly veiled piece of this pull-up doctrine. But this is the one that literally is, to me, the most damnable one because it's so, it's so deceiving and it's so like, it's so hard to try to pin somebody on this doctrine right here, right? Because the last one is perseverance of the saints. So perseverance of the saints, what do they teach? So when you go onto these sites or whatever, when you try to look at what, you know, these people believe, obviously they're going to try to tailor it to make it sound like they're Baptist and like they're, you know, once saved, always saved, right? So when they say perseverance is saved, that's what they'll say. Once saved, always saved, can't lose your salvation, all that, right? Amen. Right? Obviously I believe in that. But then they go on. This teaches that a believer will continue in the faith and produce works, fruits as evidence of their salvation. And so this is a quote from one of their sites. It says, those who will never fall away are saints. They are holy and they are given power to live holy lives. They continue in well-doing. Now this is what you would call a thinly veiled work salvation. Now this is where you really pin someone down on whether they're terminally ill when it comes to this Calvinistic doctrine or whether they're just, you know, tiptoeing into it, tiptoeing into the tulips so to speak, right? So they're tiptoeing into this doctrine and basically you can kind of get them out of that real quick once you just show them some scripture, right? And so this perseverance of the saints, this is where you'll run into a hardcore Calvinist and they'll try to be, oh no brother, we believe the same thing. Once saved, always saved, you know, but that's only the elect, you know. And so when someone says that, I automatically go straight to this doctrine because this right here will kind of open those floodgates as far as where they really lie as far as salvation. What they really believe with perseverance of the saints is a thinly veiled work salvation, that someone that's saved has to do the good works that are not saved. And so what they do is instead of, most people when you talk to them about salvation they'll say, well you've got to do good works to be saved, right? Well what they teach is if you don't do the good works after you get saved, you aren't really saved. And what that teaches is that basically you have to do the good works in order to be saved, right? And so it's thin, right? It's really thin, it's deceiving. It's something that's very wicked, very deceiving, right? And the Bible never teaches that someone that's saved is automatically going to do the good works. It says we should walk in them, right? Ephesians 2, 8, 9 says, you know, for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves is the gift of God. Not a work so the sin of man should boast. But it says, but we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus under good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them, right? These things I will affirm that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. But these things are good and profitable under man. So yeah, I mean, we should be doing good works. We should walk in newness of life, like it says in Romans chapter 6, right? But does it say you will? Well let's see what it says about Paul in Romans chapter 7. Now this is where you get into a lot of people that believe that a Christian can't be carnal. This is where you get your Paul washers, you know? There's no such thing as a carnal Christian, you know, and this is where you really get into the hardcore Calvinist, but what they really teach is that you have to do good works to be saved. And it's thinly veiled, like I said. Because most people, when you go to a church that believes that you do works to go to heaven, they're not going to come out and say that. They're going to be like, you've got to do good works to go to heaven. Now they're going to say you're saved by grace, through faith by Jesus, right? But then they're going to push it, well of course you can't do anything you want, you know? And so they're not just going to come out and say that because how could they? You know, and save face when the Bible says not of works how many times, right? So they obviously are going to say, well it's not of works, but you've got to live a good life. It's like, well you just said what? You know, so you're just kind of trying to really figure out what they're trying to say. So go to Romans chapter seven, verse seventeen, I'm going to go there myself just to make sure I've got it copied right here, Romans chapter seven and verse fourteen, we're going to start there. And let's see what Paul has to say about this. Now would anybody doubt that Paul's a Christian, that Paul was saved when he wrote this, right? Called to be, Paul, not Paul Washer, Paul Washer's definitely not, definitely not saved. The apostle Paul, right, we've got to clear that up, right? So Romans chapter seventeen, or seven, verse fourteen, Paul's saved. He's called to be, called to be an apostle, he's a saint, you know, no one would doubt that, right? Well what's the Bible say in verse fourteen, it says, for we know that the law is spiritual but I am carnal, sold under sin. So what did Paul say? He said he's carnal. Guess what? There's such a thing as a carnal Christian because here's the thing, you have the flesh that's carnal and you have the spirit that's not, right? And we have the choice to walk in the flesh of the spirit and that's exactly what this chapter's talking about. Go to the, or stay in there, we're going to go to the next verse here. It says in verse fifteen, for that which I do I allow not, for what I would that I do not, but what I hate that do I, if then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that is good. So we see here that Paul is saying, you know, what I want to do, I don't do. And what I don't want to do, that I do, right? And someone can maybe look at this and say, you know, well, and try to twist it to say, well, what he wants to do is this and that, but it really clarifies it when you go down here. And it says, for I know that in my flesh, that in me, that is in my flesh dwells no good thing, for to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. So what is he saying? He's saying, you know, I want to do good and it goes on and says the will is, and we'll just read on here, it says, 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 dwells within me. I find then a law 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 this is a huge doctrine and we'll cover this when we get to Romans chapter 7 on the inner man and outer man, but what this shows here is that yes, a Christian can be carnal. A Christian, you know, someone can get saved and never walk in the Spirit, but does that mean that they're not saved? That's why it's a foolish notion to look at somebody based on what they do as far as, if they have sin in their lives, to where we can look at that and say, well because they're doing that, therefore they're not really a Christian, they're not really saved. If someone's drinking, I can't look at somebody and they're drinking a beer, therefore they're not saved because they're not following, they're not doing what they should be doing. No, we can all follow, there's no temptation taking you, but such is as common to man. Now we're not talking about pedophilia and homosexuality and all that stuff, that's not common to man, that's not natural sins, so if you see someone do that, yeah you can judge that because the Bible says in Romans 1 you're going to know them, you're going to know these people by these unnatural things they do, but things that are common to man, drinking, fornication, all these different things that are just natural desires, natural sins, natural things that anybody can be tempted by. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. Anybody can fall unto those types of sins, adultery, all these different things, that's why we've got to guard ourselves, that's why we've got to put up those hedges and make sure that we all just are careful on those type of issues, and because we can all fall into that carnal side, we can all fall into the flesh. And Paul is warning about that, he's basically saying, and everybody, this is the key with perseverance, well, they won't desire it. They won't desire to do wrong. When you get saved, you don't desire to ever do anything wrong, yeah right, who are you kidding me? I mean, people that say that, I'm like, who are you kidding? When you get saved, it's not like all your pleasures, all your desires just fleet away, you still have those carnal desires, and you always have those carnal desires, but you have to starve those. Paul here, who was a great man of God, right, he's a great man of God, but when he's writing this, he's saying, the things that I allow not, it says, for that which I do, I allow not, for what I would, that do I not, for what I hate, that do I. So there's a lot of things he wanted to do, but then he didn't do it, so his flesh wants to do one thing, and his spirit wants to do another, so yeah, you may desire to want to do right, I'm not saying that you're not going to have that desire, I think we all do have that desire, and it's like, hey, we know what we should be doing, right, but the thing is, the flesh will overpower that sometimes, where it doesn't matter, if you have that deep down in you, like, I know I need to be doing right, no, I really want to do this, because sin is pleasurable for a season, right, and if it wasn't, then we'd be good, we wouldn't have to worry about sinning anymore, if it wasn't appealing, we'd all be sinless right now, but the Bible says, whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God, that's talking about the inner man, it says the inner man, it's talking about the inner man, and the mind, I myself serve the law of God, I vote the flesh the law of sin, and this is a battle that we have to choose every day, are we going to walk in the spirit, or are we going to walk in the flesh, and yes, I could be a carnal Christian, but I want to choose to be a spiritual Christian, right, I want to be doing the right things, and not the wrong things, and so this perseverance of saints is a false doctrine, and it's just a thinly veiled work of salvation, that what they teach is that a Christian will persevere until the end, they won't fall, they won't, you know, they'll continue in well doing, they're faithful until the end, and one of the places that they go to, I didn't have this down but I was thinking of, I guess one of the passages that they would bring up, go to Matthew chapter 24, Matthew chapter 24, again, if they just would have read the rest of the chapter, they would get their answer, but Matthew 24, and we'll end with this, Matthew chapter 24, maybe just some closing remarks about this damnable doctrine here, but Matthew 24, and I'm just doing this off the cuff, so I want to see where I'm at here, as far as, I know where the answer is, but I'm trying to find where the, he that endureth unto the end, the same shall be saved, okay verse 13, verse 13, the Bible reads here, and I'm going to read it out of context, I'm just going to read that verse, don't look at anything else, okay, because it's what they do, verse 13, but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved, case closed, you've got to endure unto the end to be saved, I'm glad we went to end times prophecy passage here to find out what we must do to be saved, now here's the thing, you've got to read the whole chapter, and if they just would have kept going, they'd understand what this is talking about, go down to verse 22, and obviously if you read the whole chapter from the beginning, we know we're talking about the tribulation, we're talking about hard times, people are dying, wars, right, so we're not talking about eternal salvation here, and this proves it, verse 22, it says, and except those days should be shortened, there shall know what flesh be saved, but for the elect's sake, those days shall be shortened, so what we see here is, is yeah, those that endure through the tribulation, they'll be saved because guess who's coming, Jesus, he's coming in the clouds in verse 29, right, immediately after the tribulation, Jesus is going to come in the clouds, and he's going to gather his elect from one end of heaven to the other, right, and for the elect's sake, those days are shortened, meaning that we're not going to be here for that whole seven year period, he's going to come before that, and then he's going to pour out his wrath on this wicked world, right, but those days are shortened, therefore, and if they didn't, if we would have had to been here for that whole period of the 42 months of the antichrist, and that's a whole other sermon on the timeline here, we wouldn't, no one would be saved, and what he's saying is that every single Christian would have died, or would die, but for the elect's sake, those days were shortened, and that's, he's going to save because what's going to happen? When he comes, we're going to be caught up together with him in the clouds, we're going to be saved, it says look up for your redemption draw at nigh in Luke chapter 21, so what I'm saying, and I'm not giving you all the stupid little doctrine, the stupid little verses they twist and stuff like that, but I want you to have the ammunition, the ammunition, when they say, you know, total depravity, you know, no one that's unsaved can do anything good, well, Romans chapter 2 says they can, by nature they do the things that are contained in the law, when they say that salvation's unconditional, you're predestinated to believe, that's not what the Bible teaches, the Bible says there is a condition, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth, right, and also predestination is to be conformed to his image, who first trusted in Christ, not predestinated to believe. Limited atonement, well that's an easy one, right, that he's a propitiation for our sins, not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world, right, so that one's easy to put to bed, so limited atonement's just retarded, and then you have irresistible grace, no free will, we put that, there's free will offerings, goodnight, I mean there's all these different cases of free will acts, whosoever will, we kind of annihilated that, that there are people that resist the Holy Ghost, and so we saw that, and then the perseverance of the saints I believe is the most damnable one, it's the one that basically is very thinly veiled, it's the one that they try to like, oh, we're on the same page, and soul wonders know that that's what people are constantly trying to do, oh, we're on the same page, we believe the same thing, but it's completely false, and it's just that little bit of poison in there that's sending people to hell, and so I hope this sermon helps, I hope this helps you to have some ammunition for this false doctrine, for this damnable tool, and it's twice dead, it's plucked up by the roots, and you know what, these are wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever, and these heretics, these Calvinists that are sitting up in their high tower, that are, you know, with their glasses down, looking down on the soul wonders that are doing the work, trying to put a wet blanket on them, let them be accursed, they're preaching a false gospel, and they're teaching that you have to do works to be saved, they're teaching that God didn't die for everybody, and that there's no condition to be saved, and that God's a puppet master up there basically telling people what to do, causing people to sin, and it's just a false doctrine, it's wicked, every single point of that tulip is straight out of hell, and don't tell me because I believe in eternal security that I believe in perseverance of the saints, because I don't, I don't believe in one point of that Calvinistic garbage, I'm not an Arminian, and I'm not a Calvinist, I'm a Bible-believing Baptist, let's end with a word of prayer, dear heavenly father, Lord we thank you for today, and Lord we thank you for this church, we thank you for the people that came out, and Lord we just pray that you'd be with us as we go home, and Lord just with the fellowship, and Lord we just love you, and Lord we just pray that you'd be with us throughout this week as we go to work, and Lord we just thank you for your word, thank you for salvation, and thank you for just everything that you do for us, Lord we love you, and we pray all this in Jesus Christ's name, amen.