Apologia Church Live - Evangelism and Mormonism

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Jeff Durbin prepares Apologia Church for the coming outreach to Mormons in Mesa.

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All right, you guys can open your Bibles to Galatians chapter 1. We've been there many, many times before, but it'll serve as kind of a starting text for today.
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And I hope today, for those of you guys that have been a part of our body for a long period of time, that we talk about some new things and some more helpful things that will sort of relate, not necessarily strictly to Mormonism and reaching our
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Latter -day Saint friends and neighbors and family, but it also relates to other issues and other religions and movements that ape
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Christianity or borrow our terminology, whether it be Islam, whether it be the
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Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, whether it be Roman Catholicism, whatever it might be, I hope this today will be very helpful.
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So go ahead and get to Galatians. Very short letter by the Apostle Paul. While many argue, would argue that the letter of Paul to the
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Galatians is probably one of the earliest letters of the Apostle Paul, probably the earliest, which is significant because it means that one of, if it is true that it's the earliest, it means that the
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Apostle Paul chose as one of his first things to write about and circulate in this way under divine inspiration, he chose an issue related to how a person is justified before God, how does a person have peace with God?
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Even a person that professes all of those essential things like Jesus is God, he was in the flesh, he died for sinners and rose from the dead physically, there's nothing in the letter that would show that these people in Galatia were denying any of those essential kinds of things of the faith.
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This is an issue where people were adding to the gospel, they were adding essentially to the idea of justification, works or a work added to faith in Jesus in order to be declared righteous before God and the
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Apostle Paul calls that a false gospel and he says that anybody who believes that, anybody who teaches that is lost and Christ has become of no effect to you, he says in Galatians 5, when you add to the gospel in that way, the work of Christ in that way.
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So this is the letter of Paul to the Galatians, Galatians chapter 1, I'm actually gonna start from verse 1, it's not far into it which is significant that Paul begins to address it directly,
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Galatians chapter 1, hear now the words of the living and holy God, Paul, an apostle not from men nor through man but through Jesus Christ and God the
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Father who raised him from the dead and all the brothers who are with me, to the churches of Galatia, grace to you and peace from God our
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Father and the Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age according to the will of our
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God and Father to whom be the glory forever and ever, amen.
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I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel, not that there's another one but there are some who are trouble, who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ but even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be anathema, accursed.
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As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed for am
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I now seeking the approval of man or of God or am I seeking to please man? If I were still trying to please man,
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I would not be a servant, a slave of Christ. As far as the reading of God's word, let's pray.
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Father, I want to pray that you would bless today God as we, God, enter into your holy word, as we open it and we,
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Lord, listen. I pray that you would bless us by your spirit, teach, God, get me out of the way.
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I pray that you would use, Lord, what is said from your word to ignite within us a passion for the gospel,
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Lord, to remove from us, Lord, any indifference but to actually, Lord, bring to our own minds understanding so we would see,
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Lord, how important it is to understand your word and to get it right.
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I pray that you would put, Lord, this good news on our lips and that you would,
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Lord, cause it to go forth into our families, into our businesses, into our communities that you would use it,
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God, to transform the world and, Lord, get to the ends that all the families of the earth return and worship you as you promise.
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Just pray, God, that you would use this church to bring this good news into the world.
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In Jesus' name, amen. This is big because, like I said, if Galatians is the earliest letter written by the
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Apostle Paul into the churches, he's fighting over an issue of justification. Now, some people today,
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I think in the modern church, would look at the Apostle Paul and would want to pull him aside, right? Want to pull him aside for being a little too mean -spirited, being a little too dogmatic, right?
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I mean, when we put up a few things, I think this week, we put up some stuff confronting things even within the
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Christian community and the first thing is responses, not just from atheists. We get lots and lots of those and the language is always very, very colorful and interesting.
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Believe me. By the way, don't read the YouTube comments. Trust me. But we also get resistance from within the church and the resistance is not, you're wrong.
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The resistance is not, that's not biblical. The resistance is you ought not to act that way towards another believer.
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You ought not be so prideful that you believe that it's true so you should actually tell somebody because it might hurt their feelings.
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It might cause friction within the church. What's interesting here is the Apostle Paul wrote this and listen, this would have been read in the church service.
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Hey guys, come on. We got a letter from the Apostle Paul. There's a letter from Paul. Let's read the letter and they read the letter and it's like, grace and peace and they're like, oh
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Paul, you're so wonderful. You always bring so much joy to my heart. I love letters from Paul, grace and peace and yes, you're an apostle and this is awesome and then he says,
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I'm amazed that you are so quickly deserting him who called you by the grace of Christ.
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That's what's at stake by the way, grace and the gospel. He says that there's not another gospel.
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You're turning to a different one but there is only one and these people who are troubling you want to distort the gospel and he leaps right in to just horror saying,
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I can't believe essentially that you're deserting grace. You're losing Christ.
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The Apostle Paul is confronting a church who was essentially allowing this thing to take place and if you look in the next chapter, chapter two, you see actually a conflict between the
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Apostle Paul and Peter. Can you imagine how uncomfortable that would be? Think about it for a second.
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Oftentimes, we take ourselves out of the reality of the scriptures that these are real people in the real world and it's like a real church service.
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Imagine Koinonia. We're having Koinonia, everyone's having a great time.
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It's awesome. We're playing. Kids are smashing their faces against each other and falling out. There are kids crying. We're picking them up again and we're eating food and maybe there's a little food poisoning the next day.
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We're having a good time nonetheless, at least for now. All of a sudden,
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I stand up and I get in Pastor Luke's face. Everyone's like, it's uncomfortable.
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I'm in his face and I'm confronting him over behavior that's denying the gospel.
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Well, that's what takes place in the church while they're hanging out together.
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Read the text, Galatians chapter two. In verse one, you see after 14 years, he went up again to Jerusalem at Barnabas taking
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Titus along with me. Now, if you move to verse 11, you can see now where Paul has a confrontation with Peter.
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But when, and the word that's Peter there, came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face.
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He didn't pull him aside privately and get out of the room with him, right? Like, let's come here,
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I've got to talk to you about something you're doing. He actually opposes him to his face in front of everybody because he stood condemned.
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For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles. But when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party.
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And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.
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What does the Apostle Paul do when he sees hypocrisy within the church? He calls it what it is.
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It's hypocrisy. Your behavior is not consistent with the gospel.
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What you're doing is not consistent with what you say. And so he confronts it.
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He says, but when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel,
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I said to Cephas, Cephas, before them all, if you, though a
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Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?
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Now listen, this is table fellowship stuff. You got to catch this. For us, we'd be like, what's the big deal? For them it was a big deal.
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Now after being Jewish their whole lives, after having kosher laws and dietary restrictions and dress codes and things that separated them from Gentile people, now
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Gentiles worship and love the Lord God of Israel. They're children of Abraham, just like the
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Jews. And now these people got to get together and hang out, right? They got to get together and hitch up, become bedfellows, right?
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Hang out together. And that was a weird situation in the first century because they weren't used to it. They worshiped different.
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Even their worship smelled different. They ate things that were different, dressed different. Everything was different.
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And now Jews and Gentiles are together and it got weird. It's sort of like that very awkward
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Christmas party you have to go to every year, right? You don't want to go, but you kind of have to.
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And there's the conflicts that take place within those family gatherings. Well this is that, but like uber level, right?
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And Peter is acting like a hypocrite because he's separating himself from Gentiles while these other
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Jews are around. But then he gets around them when they're gone and acts differently. And Paul sees it.
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And he sees that he's creating two churches, two distinct churches instead of one church united by faith.
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And the issue was they were adding circumcision to the work of the gospel saying that, well, in order to really be in, you have to be circumcised.
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You got to at least keep that one part of the law, circumcision, and you got to at least have that. And so they were separating themselves and they were seeing people as like lower class citizens in the church.
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Now watch what he says here in verse 15. We ourselves are Jews by birth and not
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Gentile sinners, yet we know, listen, this is big and this applies, name it, name it,
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Roman Catholicism, Mormonism, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, Christian scientists, and you name the movement that adds works of any kind to faith in order to be declared righteous.
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He says this, yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but their faith in Jesus Christ.
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In order to be justified by faith in Christ, sorry, and we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law.
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Because by works of the law, no one will be justified. But if we endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners.
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Is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not. For I rebuild, for if I rebuild what
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I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law, I died to the law so that I might live to God.
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I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
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And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
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I do not nullify, big one, mark it down, highlight it, put stuff around it, circle it.
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I do not nullify the grace of God, void it. For if righteousness were through the law, then
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Christ died in vain. That's big. And it's over an issue that people would say, come on,
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Paul. They say Jesus is God. They say he's the Son of God. They say that he came in the flesh.
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They say that he died. They say that he rose again. They say that he's ascended. They believe in the communion of the saints, the fellowship.
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They believe in the word of God. Come on, they're just saying. You gotta at least keep this part of the law.
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And Paul says this, when you do that, when you add a work of the law to faith in Jesus in order to be declared righteous, he says you have now voided, voided the grace of God.
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You've voided the gospel. You've nullified the whole thing. Because you see, we are only in Christ by faith.
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We're joined together with him by faith apart from any work of law. And Paul is so concerned about the truthfulness of the gospel that he says this in Galatians 1, look, if I come back and if I say any other gospel, if I tell you anything different than I've already told you about the gospel, he says let
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God condemn me to hell forever. Anathema, accursed, is eternal separation from God forever.
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It's the strongest word Paul could have used in the Greek probably to express the idea that it's eternal damnation.
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And he says, look, even if an angel comes from heaven and preaches a different gospel, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if it looks good, it doesn't matter if it sounds
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Christian. He says you have to see that as anathema. That's Galatians chapters 1 and 2.
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So this issue is so huge because we're talking about people's souls. We're talking about their eternity.
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It's just one of those things, like I think this week and seeing the conflict that has happened even in the situation, not directly related to this, but the situation with abortion in Oklahoma.
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It starts to draw out of you whether or not we believe what we say.
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Come with me for a second because this is big, this is big, just as a related issue. So Oklahoma this week has a bill proposed that would call abortion what
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God calls it, right? So murder, first degree murder. And Christians, we say it all the time, so we tell people for 40 years we've been telling people that, like that's an image bearer of God.
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You can't kill that baby, that's murder. God sees it as murder. You have to protect that baby. Don't kill that baby. And then a bill gets passed and then you begin to see there are people who are within the pro -life movement that won't stand for a bill like that.
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And you ask yourself the question, wait, wait, do we really believe what we say? Or is it just something we say because we're
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Christians? Are we just speaking the ghetto language, this is what Christians are supposed to say, it's how we're supposed to behave, we check the box, like I'm pro -life,
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I'm pro -family and marriage, I'm da -da -da, go down the list, I've checked the box so I'm in the in crowd, right?
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You ask yourself the question, do we believe what we even say? Because some of the greatest resistance this week to that bill wasn't necessarily from the unbelievers, it was from within those who were in the pro -life movement.
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So you ask yourself the question, do we believe what we say? And in light of that, when you think about what the
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Bible says about justification by faith in Christ alone, apart from any work of law, and you see people who are preaching a false gospel, one that is not the gospel, when we treat them like, well, it's no big deal,
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I ask again, do we believe what we say? When I see somebody that's lost, believing a false gospel, having a false message of life, and I don't do what it takes to reach them with love and compassion and humility and grace,
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I don't do what it takes to lay myself down for their good, I have to ask myself the question, do
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I believe what I say? Is it just words? Because the Apostle Paul says it's so serious that somebody who does it is damned.
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So it matters. It matters. In Dr. White's book, The God Who Justifies, he has this part in the book where he talks about how important this issue is.
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I think it was actually here in Galatians when he did so. By the way, get the book, it's really, really good. If you haven't read The God Who Justifies, it's all about justification, it's worth its weight in gold, so get that, get that to study this issue.
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But he actually talks about the people who drive by on their bicycles with their white shirts and their ties and the black name tag,
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Elder Snow, Elder such and such, and he says that when these people drive by on their bicycles and they go door to door, he says that it's a message of death.
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He said that these people are soul killers. He says to preach a false gospel is to commit eternal murder, because you're giving somebody a message that is not a message of life, it's a message of death.
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It does not bring peace with God. And so it's important. So when
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I first moved here in 1996, 1996, I had long hair, slicked back in a ponytail.
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Yeah, it's the same year that I was Johnny Cage in Mortal Kombat. And so I used to wear like skin tight, like shirts, yes, it was,
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I had like a belt buckle that was like a car seat belt that like clicked, and it had like, it had soda bottle caps that went all the way around,
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Pastor Luke, it was awesome. I'm so glad that you didn't see that, because I would never, ever hear the end of it.
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But so I was here, and I think you guys have heard the story before where I was driving around town, and I saw ward after ward after ward after ward, and it was like, wow,
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I didn't even know that was out here, and now I know why God brought me here. And so I was driving one day, and I saw a billboard for the
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Mesa Easter pageant, and I thought, what is this? Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day
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Saints, Easter pageant, open to the public. I thought, I know where they're at.
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I get to go where they're at. So imagine you're fishing, and someone says, hey, all the fish are over here.
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You're like, that's fantastic. I don't have to waste any time. I hate fishing, by the way, for that very reason.
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Jason's like, okay, Jason gets up, he now relinquishes his membership. So imagine that, like, there's the fish, you can just go there and cast the net, and you get all the fish, they're right there.
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Well, so I go, and I didn't really know anybody, and so I had like a backpack, and I had my
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Bible, and I had all kinds of different works from like Gerald and Sandra Tanner's Lighthouse Ministry and this back in the day before Google and internets, and so like you had to carry the stuff, and there were big fat books, and all kinds of documents, and I wanted to bring it so I can have a conversation.
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I get out there, and there are thousands and thousands and thousands of people. And I get out on the sidewalk, and there are a limited number of Christians on that sidewalk to reach them.
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Alpha and Omega Ministries was there, Dr. James White, Rich Pierce, I think Summer was actually there that first night.
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Jerry was there that first night, a little, like, think maybe, how old were you, Jerry, 14? Yeah, you were a little boy, okay?
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Little Jerry, skinny little Jerry, and so I'm there, and I got to see all these conversations take place, and it was an amazing thing.
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You saw Mormon missionaries, return missionaries, Mormon bishops, state presidents, and the average
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Mormon just there surrounding people, and they're just engaging in, like, combat, right, getting into the text, and it was just an amazing experience, and I got to preach the gospel.
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That's where Jerry and I first met. We tag -teamed and witnessed to this guy. It was just incredible, and it firmed me up that night that this work must be done.
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Here are all these people who need the gospel, who are believing in a false gospel, and it wasn't that we were out there, and they were saying, well, that's just your interpretation, and it wasn't clear.
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It was vividly clear. This is a false gospel. This is a false
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God. They saw it. They heard it, and you would send them home with the scriptures, and since 1996,
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I've been going, and at this point, I've lost count as to how many Mormons have come to Christ as a result of that ministry out there.
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A Mormon missionary on his mission came to Christ, and at the very next day, he was out at the temple with us, handing out our tracts, witnessing to the
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Mormon missionaries. I'd preach the gospel to somebody, and they would go away in tears, and I'd meet them a year later.
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They were now in Christ, at a good, solid biblical church, reaching their Mormon friends and neighbors. I'd tell the story many times before where we handed out tracts, and some nights you go out, you hand out tracts, and there's nothing, no response, no response.
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People just get mad, and they're maybe yelling at you, and you think, is this really worth it?
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And one day, I get a phone call at 7 .30 or 8 o 'clock in the morning. I'm meeting with a pastor at Starbucks, hanging out, right?
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My phone rings, and it's a woman I don't know, and she says, hey, I got this tract, and I wanted to know, can
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I make copies of it? I have a business where I work with lots of Mormons, and I want to give it out to them.
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If I give it out to them, can they call you? And I said, well, of course. I said, but real fast, quick question.
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We haven't handed that out in months. Where'd you get the tract? She said, oh, I didn't.
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A sister in Christ, she got it. She was a Mormon. Somebody handed it to her while she was at the
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Easter pageant. She came to Christ, and then she gave it to me, and then this woman is now making copies of the tract and handing it out to her
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Mormon friends and family. That's the kind of stuff that God does. This ministry is so very important, not just at the temple, but in your daily lives, with the people around you that you know in your neighborhoods that need
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Christ. This is a conversation that we can have, and I want to actually say this today as we enter into the text.
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I want to say what I said on Thursday to everybody. I believe that we are at such a unique time now as a church in terms of our witness to the
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Mormon community. It's such a unique time. You see, back in 1996, when I first started studying
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Mormonism, and I'm getting into it trying to reach them, when I first started this, there was so much information that I couldn't believe that Mormonism still existed, because there was so much information in terms of Joseph Smith's false prophecies, in terms of the history of the church, and so much documentation.
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I had a library full of stuff, but nobody knew, and it was so hard to get into their hands because they were told that's anti -Mormon, and they wouldn't take it from your hands.
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But after Google, things have changed dramatically. I believe
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God has raised up Google for this very purpose, because now the average
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Latter -day Saint can go online, and if they type in Mormon, Mormonism, in YouTube, it is video after video after video after video exposing
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Mormonism, the false teachings, and the false prophecies, the history of the Mormon church.
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Lots of videos from us come up on there, and if you type in Mormonism, the average
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Mormon can get all the history right there at their fingertips in private, where nobody can see them, and so they can really get into this.
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So the Mormon church is experiencing now, in a way, an exodus out.
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But here's the important thing, listen closely. It is not good that Mormonism collapses without those people knowing
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Jesus. You got to understand that. Many people are fleeing Mormonism, and they're going off into agnosticism or atheism because they believe if I was lied to about Joseph, if it was all a charade, if it was all false and a con, then
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I can't follow Jesus because it's probably the same thing. They don't realize the difference between those two is that Joseph Smith used
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Jesus and his gospel and his name to destroy people's lives. He was a false teacher and a false prophet.
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So we are at an amazing time in history where we can speak the truth of the gospel into the
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Mormon community, and we can see those people come to Jesus Christ and experience life. That's where we're at.
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But we have to know the truth, amen, and we have to be willing to engage. So here's the thing, Mormonism has experienced so much of a change.
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I remember, I'll just say this briefly, 1996, in 1996, when I was out there,
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Dr. White was there, surrounded by people, and he was probably in four conversations at once.
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He was answering one, then answering another, then answering another, then answering another. He was like all around them, one after the other, and then when
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I got into it, same thing. One after the other, after the other, and they wanted to go with you to the
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Bible. They would open it up, they'd say, look what that says, you can become a God, see? And they were ready to come into Christ, and what happens?
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First thing, Acts chapter 9, after he comes to Christ, you can read the story later, he gets knocked off his high horse, he comes to Jesus, his eyes are open, and look.
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And taking food, he was strengthened. For some days, he was with the disciples at Damascus, and immediately, he proclaimed
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Jesus in the synagogues, saying, He is the Son of God.
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And all who heard him were amazed, and said, Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem and those, of those who called upon his name?
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And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests? But Saul increased all the more in strength and, watch, confounded the
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Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the
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Messiah. Okay, so the Apostle Paul goes into a religious context, they don't agree, and so he goes into a religious context and refutes them in their own synagogues, proving
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Jesus was the Messiah. You might be tempted to say, if you're a 21st century evangelific, that that's disrespectful, that he ought not do that, because it's not very friendly.
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Apostle Paul, you should engage in more friendship evangelism, right? And that's, you know, make friends with somebody, have barbecues with them, and maybe after five years, earn the right to preach the gospel to them.
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How many of you guys have heard that? Or the popular, very squishy, torn out of context, preach the gospel, if necessary, use words.
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That's like saying, feed the poor, if necessary, use food. Doesn't work, does it?
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And it doesn't work with the gospel. It's a message you must preach, right? But watch what happens.
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In verse 26, no, sorry, verse 23, when many days had passed, the
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Jews plotted to kill him. But their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him.
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But his disciples took him by night and led him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.
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Okay, they so hate his guts. He has so ticked them off that their response to him refuting them in the synagogues is to kill him.
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And so the church has to have him escape by lowering him in a basket, right, so that his life is preserved.
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That's the result of the apostle Paul preaching the gospel. And brothers and sisters, let me say this. If we truly want to get back to the kind of revival, the kind of transformation that took place in the first century, we are not lacking the same spirit of God that they had.
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We have the same message, same God, same power. What's wrong? It's us.
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The gospel is the power of God for salvation. These apostles, these early church pastors and leaders, they went into the culture at large, the marketplace, the place of greatest philosophical debate.
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They went into where everyone was, including their religious institutions, and they preached the gospel. And they did it in such a way that it actually caused a fight.
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Somebody might say to Paul, Paul, I think maybe like your method is off because you preach the gospel, but every time you preach it, people want to kill you.
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Think about it. That's how we respond these days to any time there's trouble or controversy. We say there's trouble, there's controversy, so that must mean that something is off in how you approach it.
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But they preached the gospel. I'm not arguing, by the way, for you to act like a punk. But they preached the gospel in such a faithful and loving, gracious, but firm and direct way that people's response was,
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I want him dead. And so when he had come to Jerusalem and he attempted to join the disciples and they were afraid of him for they did not believe that he was a disciple,
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I wish that I was there for that part, right? He's really saved and he starts trying to come to church and they're like, ah,
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I don't think so. That's crazy. Paul is saved and these
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Christians don't believe the power of the gospel. They're like, no, no, no, no, God doesn't save Paul, right?
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Not him. But he comes to Jesus, he's saved now, his life's transformed, he's trying to come to worship and come to church and they're like, no, no, no, this is our thing, you're not going to screw it up,
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Paul, right? And so now he has to have someone vouch for him, I love it. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the
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Lord who spoke to him and now and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus.
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So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem preaching boldly in the name of the Lord and he spoke and argued.
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He spoke and argued against the Hellenists but they were seeking to kill him. So now listen,
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I hope that's all I need to do. Is this kind of ministry engaging the culture, engaging somebody at where they worship and they have a false message, is it biblical, is it right?
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I'm going to show you God by His Spirit through the apostle Paul sent these men and women into the culture and they created a godly ruckus.
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They brought the gospel into the culture in such a way they were bold and they argued and they loved people.
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The result was sometimes people wanted them dead but it says in the text, the result was the church was built up, they experienced peace and they were multiplied.
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The church grew, they had peace and they were built up because they were fired up and bold about the gospel.
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And brothers and sisters, I can't put that in you and I can't put it in me but I can do this, I can say to you this, pray for that kind of boldness, pray for that kind of heart and life and commitment to the lost that you sacrifice everything for them, that you give up comfort, that you give up being liked even for the sake of the lost.
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One more thing on this, how? How do you get that in you?
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How do you get within you the kind of boldness that's willing to say the truth despite the consequences?
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It's in Galatians, the very same text where he tells them that's a false gospel, don't believe it. Even if an angel comes and tells it to you, don't believe it.
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He says this, am I still seeking to please men or God?
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If I was still seeking to please men, he says this, I would not be the slave of Jesus.
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And so there it is, I think with my whole heart I believe this, I think that one of the things that stops us from telling people the truth is that we are still slaves to other people's passions and how they feel about us.
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We're not slaves to Jesus, we're not submitted completely to Him, we don't want to be owned by Him. We're not seeking for His pleasure in what we do with our hands and what we say with our mouths.
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And so we want so much for the world to like us, to be pleased with what we say. And so we say, I can't say that,
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I can't do that because they're not going to like it. And as a result, we become their slave and not
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Christ's. Know this, brothers and sisters, with a humble heart I say this to you, every crossroads you come to in a conflict where you have the opportunity to speak the truth and love, every crossroads, that's the decision.
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Am I a slave right now to men or to Jesus? That's where it's at.
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And so I want to encourage you with our hope. Our hope in this is pretty awesome.
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This is why it helps to be a Calvinist in a culture that's so hostile to God.
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Jesus says, and I hope it's our anchor verse for our church, I've been preaching it since the very beginning.
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For you guys that were here since the very start, you know I've been saying this to you for many years now. Jesus says in John chapter 6, 44, no man can come to me unless the
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Father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up. Jesus raises up the him the
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Father draws. Jesus raises up the him the Father draws, the one that couldn't come. And so when we go out and preach the gospel, which is
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Romans 1 .16, the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, we go tell people sometimes it's not the result we want.
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Sometimes they want to kill us. Sometimes they hate us. Sometimes they want us out of their communities, whatever it might be.
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We preach the gospel. We know they can't come on their own. So God in his love, it reaches down into the heart and soul of a sinner and he draws them to himself by his grace.
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And so when we go out and preach the gospel to 100 ,000 people next week, I know that God in his grace has the power to knock somebody off their high horse.
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I know that God has his own power to take somebody that's dead and to raise them to life and to take their eyes and to peel them back so they can see finally.
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And Jesus says, I've come down from heaven not to do my will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who has sent me that I lose nothing of all that he has given to me.
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Nothing. And so you might say to yourself about your Mormon neighbor, about the
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Mormon missionaries that have come to your door, to your Mormon dad or mom or friend or whatever, you might say,
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I don't know, they seem completely beyond hope. They seem completely like it's a worthless task.
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Some of you guys know what I'm talking about. You started engaging in evangelism to your Mormon neighbors and you heard from even a church leader or a friend in church that that's worthless.
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You shouldn't do that. That's a lost cause. You shouldn't do that. That's not how it's done.
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But you know what? When we think like that, what does it say about what we think about ourselves?
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When I think that the gospel is too far to reach a person over here, it means that what
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I truly believe in my heart of hearts is that there was something in me that was different, smarter, wiser, more spiritual than them.
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And that's why I believe in Jesus. Because something about me was different than them and so I believe and they don't and won't because they're not like me.
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The truth is though, you're Paul. Your conversion is as dramatic and explosive as the apostle
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Paul. It's as big. If you believe in Jesus, you say, I was raised in a Christian home,
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I don't have a crazy testimony, I didn't do drugs and alcohol, I wasn't engaged in all this craziness, I wasn't in gangs, I don't have those really cool testimonies, right?
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I was just raised in church. How awful is that? That God loved you so much that he didn't let you go off into that darkness, he just gave you grace early.
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Aw. Think about it. But still, it says from the womb we go astray and it says in sin our mother conceives us.
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We are in Adam dead and it says in Ephesians 2, what? Children of wrath.
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But God, who is rich in mercy, he says, we were dead but God made us alive together with him by grace you've been saved.
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Do you know what that means? You were dead, God made you alive, that's the grace you've been saved.
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That's Paul's definition. And so what it means is you go out, you preach the gospel to hostile, resistant people who need
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Jesus and need to know this savior, this lover of your soul, and you preach the gospel to people who are dead and God makes them alive, and when it happens you go, only
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God. Only God. It happened in your life, it happened in my life, and it's going to happen in theirs, but what's it going to take?
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What's it going to take? It's going to take your lips opening. Romans 10, how are they going to hear?
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Unless somebody has sent, unless somebody preaches, and so people tell me, and they've told me for many years, don't go to that temple, that's not how you reach those people, you need to make friends with those people, don't do that,
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I say this, there's 100 ,000 people there, how are they going to hear unless they are hearing from us?
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They're all there. I say preach the gospel. And I've got to say this, when
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I answer these verses here, real fast, two things, that maybe this is selfish, but I think it's relevant, maybe it's selfish.
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I think that, one, my commitment, our commitment to go to the
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Mormon community, not only do I believe it's fully, and completely, and thoroughly biblical, maybe there's a bit of it that's hung up on the fact that I've seen
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Jesus save those people, and maybe there's a bit of it in me that's connected to it and committed to it because I've sat and prayed with the
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Mormons that have come to Christ and are now believers, and I see their eyes open and I'm in love with Jesus, maybe that's it, and maybe a lot of people don't go out because they've never experienced something like that, to see it,
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I wish you would see it, I wish you would experience it, and maybe it's the same way, for example, with like a ministry to an abortion clinic, a lot of people say you shouldn't do that, you shouldn't go out there, that's not how you're going to reach those women, but maybe they haven't experienced what we've experienced, where we've held those babies in our arms that were saved seconds before they were slaughtered, and I do think that something happens when you see a
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Mormon saved by Jesus, something changes inside you, something snaps, where you realize
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I have to, no matter the cost, and something changes in you at the same time when you go out to the abortion clinic and you see a baby saved from death, and you see a mom come out in tears and turn away from what she was going to do seconds before it happened, and then you, months later, you hold that baby in your arms, something snaps, and you realize no matter the cost, it's worth it, and brothers and sisters, not only is it biblical, it's worth it, it's worth your whole life.
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Okay, for those of you guys that came and you thought maybe you'd get an entire lesson today on Mormonism, I've already done enough.
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If you want more, go to Apologyatradio .com, listen to the episodes, go to YouTube, listen to the sermons
43:51
I've given on it, there's plenty there, here's what I'm going to tell you, when you reach your Mormon friends and family, you need to talk about God, and you need to talk about the gospel, not the other non -essential issues,
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God and the gospel. Mormonism teaches there are many gods before God, you can become one one day,
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Jesus Christ is not the eternal God, he became God one day, he's Lucifer's brother, as are we all.
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Salvation is through the work of Christ, Satan's brother, according to them, and obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel.
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The goal of Mormonism is exaltation, it's not reconciliation and peace with God, eternal life with God, peace with God, it is becoming a god and goddess of your own planet one day.
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You focus on those issues, there's only one God, God is triune, Father, Son, Holy Spirit.
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Salvation is by grace through faith in Christ alone, stick to those issues. Now, let's talk about some specifics, some things that they say, if you come with us this week, this is what you're going to hear, and you may have heard this when you talk to your
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Mormon friends and family. First thing, what's the first thing you hear when the missionaries come to your door? Besides, hi,
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I'm from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints, okay. Besides that, when they come to your door, the first thing they want to go through with you is the first vision,
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Joseph Smith's first vision, and in Joseph Smith's first vision, if you don't know the history, there are numerous accounts of the first vision, there are differences, there were at least five first vision accounts, and they are not all the same.
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Mormonism when it first started wasn't based off the first vision, that's changed over time, but now when they come to your door, they tell you that Joseph Smith was a young man who was confused about which church to join, and so he went to James chapter one, and he saw it say, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God.
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He took that to mean, wrongly, that he could ask God a question, and God would give him an answer.
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That's not what the text says, or what wisdom means to a Jew, but that's what he did. He went into the woods to pray, and asked
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God which church to join, and then he was overcome by a great darkness, and he says that above him a bright light, and he saw
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Elohim, a resurrected God -man, and Jesus Christ, a separate being and God above him, and he says that God told him,
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Elohim, join none of the churches, they're all wrong. He says all their creeds are an abomination, all their professors, that would be us, are all corrupt.
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They draw near to him with their lips, but their hearts are far from him, he claims.
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What Joseph Smith taught was that the church fell away, that it was essentially gone.
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It didn't need reformation, it needed restoration, and the church had a falling away, and he was coming to restore it.
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You have the story of the golden plates, the Book of Mormon published in 1830, the angel
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Moroni, and off we go. Here's the problem, the moment the
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Mormon opens the door, and they say, this is what's true, the church fell away, you immediately see the importance of eschatology, amen?
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Dr. White says, theology matters, I borrowed that, turned it around, and now
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I say, eschatology matters, it matters a lot, because when Joseph Smith said the church fell away, the problem with that is that the
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Bible teaches that when the Messiah came with his kingdom, it would never pass away, and never be destroyed, amen?
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So Matthew 16, powerful verse to show you Mormon friends and family, when they say the church fell away,
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Matthew 16, just go to it later, you know the scene, Peter's there, and Peter says, you are the
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Christ, the son of the living God, and then Jesus says, blessed are you, and then he explains to him what?
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He says, I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it, again,
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Jesus said he would build his church, and the gates of hell would not prevail against it, Joseph came along and said, they did prevail against it,
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I'm here to restore it, so immediately you have Joseph versus Jesus, who do
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I believe? Another one is Daniel 7, 13 through 14, Daniel's looking in the night visions, and he sees one like a son of man coming on the clouds of heaven, this son of man came up to the ancient of days, and was presented before him, and he says that this
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Jesus was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and languages might serve him, his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which will not pass away, and his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed,
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Jesus brought that kingdom, he said that he was the king, and he brought the kingdom, it would never be destroyed, ever,
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Isaiah chapter 9, verses 6 through 7, another text that talks about the Messiah's kingdom, and its increase having no end, that he was going to be the
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Messiah with a kingdom that would never be destroyed, when Joseph comes and says it fell away, it was destroyed, he is immediately demonstrating that he is a false prophet, it would never pass away.
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Another verse that would be important to share with your Mormon friends, when they say the church fell away, is Jude verse 3, don't go looking for a chapter, because it's only one,
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Jude verse 3 says, to earnestly contend for the faith, that's you, that's me, earnestly contend for the faith, which was once for all delivered to the saints, once for all, when
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Joseph comes along 2 ,000 years later, and says that he's coming to restore the church, he demonstrates without question that he is not from Christ, next, how about this, the most common thing that they say to us out there is this, tell me if you've heard this, but we're
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Christians too, but we're Christians too, my son has been coming with me,
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Sage, since he was five, I don't know how many times he's heard that, we're
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Christians too, look it says, Jeff, it says right here, if you would just read, if you would stop being so full of hate, if you would stop being such a bigot, and a racist, and a xenophobe, or whatever, that's how it happens today, right, it's all those things, cover your bases, if you would stop hating us, you would see that on our sign, it says, we are the church of Jesus Christ, of Latter -day
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Saints, it's in our name, Jeff, what we need to point out to them, is that more
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Muslims say they believe in Jesus, but ask your Mormon friends, do you believe that Jesus is not the divine son of God, they'll say, no, he is, you say to your
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Mormon friend, well, do you believe that Jesus didn't die on a cross, and that he didn't rise from the dead, they'll say, no, of course he died on a cross, he rose from the dead, well,
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Muslims believe in Jesus Christ, but they believe that he's not the divine son of God, that he did not die for sins, he did not rise from the dead, are they
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Christians, and generally speaking, if your Mormon friend is honest, they'll say, well, no, that's not Jesus, right,
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Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Jesus Christ is Mikael the Archangel, the first and greatest creation of Jehovah God, do you believe that,
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Mormons will say, absolutely not, and say, well, they believe in Jesus Christ too, and they say things like Heavenly Father and Jesus and Bible, is that Christian, and honest
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Mormon will say, no, and so what we need to demonstrate to our Mormon friends and neighbors is that using
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Christian terminology does not make you Christian, what we need to demonstrate to them is saying
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Jesus Christ does not make you a Christian, the question is, are your beliefs consistent with the scriptures,
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I'll give you a text to go to, I want you to see it for yourselves, if you go to 2nd John verse 9, not only do you have
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Galatians, guys, to work with, you've already seen that today, Galatians chapter 1, but in 2nd
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John verse 9, you see that, look how small this is, first of all, go to your, do you have your Bibles, go to your
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Bible real fast, I want you guys to go to it, 2nd John verse 9, for those of you guys that are on your tablets, it's usually like barely a flick of your finger and you're through it, okay, plus if you have your tablets, you're cheating, so stop it, okay, okay, 2nd
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John verse 9, it's right near Revelation, okay, now watch, look how small that is, that's the inspired
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Word of God, this was a four paragraphs, that's it, inspiration, one itty -bitty letter, it's barely a
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Facebook message, barely, and look what it says,
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John is writing to a church who's dealing with false teachings, the Gnostics were coming in and they were saying that Jesus Christ did not take on flesh, still believe in Him, still say
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Jesus, but He didn't take on flesh, God did not take on flesh, flesh is evil,
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Gnostics aren't down with that, they won't go that way, and so what He says about the
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Gnostics, actually go to verse 6, and this is love that we walk according to His commandments, this is the commandment just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it, for many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh, they didn't, they said
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He didn't take on flesh, He says this, such one is the deceiver and the
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Antichrist, hey by the way, I have a book idea and we will make millions, people always want to write books, prophecy people want to write books, they go who's the
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Antichrist, who's the Antichrist, I know it's George Bush, I had someone tell me that, it's
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George Bush, Henry Kissinger, right, or they'd say who's the
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Antichrist, who's the, it's the Pope, he's the Antichrist, I will write a book that I guarantee 100 % biblical accuracy,
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I guarantee it, I know who the Antichrist is, it says in the text, that anyone who denies that God has come in the flesh is the
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Antichrist, there are a lot of Antichrists, a lot, someone says who do you think the
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Antichrist is, who do you think the Antichrist is, I say did
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God become in the flesh, because whoever denies that is the Antichrist, watch yourself so that you may not lose what we have worked for but may win a full reward, everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have
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God, there's your answer for who's a Christian, whoever does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have
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God, you're not a Christian, if you deny the teachings of Christ about himself, if you deny what the
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Bible says about Jesus Christ, you do not have God, you're not a Christian, the line is drawn, the
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Apostle Paul whittles it down to the gospel, he says we preach a different gospel, you're anathema, you're not a
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Christian, and so yes, the lines are drawn so clearly and distinctly that we can say this but not that, in terms of who's a believer and who's a
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Christian, people struggle often with Rome, Roman Catholicism, they say well look, they have a long history, a long pedigree, they use our language, they're
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Trinitarian, they have 40 days for life, they go out and they try to reach people in the pro -life movement, they do all that work, they talk about Jesus, that he's
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God in the flesh, that he rose from the dead, they believe that he's ascended, they believe in the triune God for goodness sakes, they say things like grace and faith, but what's important to realize is the
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Council of Trent declared anathema on anybody that preaches that salvation is by grace through faith alone, the
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Roman Catholic Church declared anathema on the Apostle Paul, so Rome officially demonstrated herself to be outside of the faith when they denied the gospel,
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Roman Catholics need our love and they need the gospel, there's an example, okay, let me give you an example of what you hear oftentimes, say you quote a text that says there's only one
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God, give me one, let's test you guys now, I made a text that says there's only one God, okay, so Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 4, here
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O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, what else we have over here, Isaiah 43 10, before me there was no
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God formed, neither shall there be after me, I'm looking for one more that you ought to know, it's, there you go, see, oh here you go, right there, good, so Daniela got it, it's in your catechism y 'all, see
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I have very devious plans with our catechism, I'm preparing you, right, okay, so Isaiah 44 6 says,
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I am the first, I am the last, besides me there is no
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God, so what do Mormons say when you bring up text from the Bible that say there's only one
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God, none before, none after, what's their response, that's for this earth, that's of this earth, what you can show them is
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Deuteronomy chapter 4 verses 35 and 39, where God addresses that specifically, he says he is
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God alone in the heavens above and on the earth below, there is no other, there's an important text, they'll also say to text saying there's only one
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God, oh he's talking about idols, he's talking about false gods, so let's try it, are you ready, let's do it with Isaiah 43 10, before me there was no idol formed, neither shall there be after me, does it work, it doesn't work, even when you let them explain the text, let them come with you and put it into the text and ask them, does that work, before me there was no false
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God formed, neither shall there be any false gods after me, ask them the question, are there any false gods running around today,
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Mormons have to admit, yeah there's lots of idolatry, lots of false gods, amen, that doesn't work, there are no gods formed before God, none after him,
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Mormons oftentimes go to James chapter 2, when you say salvation is by grace through faith apart from any work of law, what do they always say, every single time out of the gate, faith without works is dead,
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James chapter 2, if you listen to one video we have up online, I'm talking to a Mormon missionary, he's at my dinner table and I always want to do my best to show respect and love to them, it was the one time
59:55
I think in that conversation I kind of lost it for a second, talking to the Mormon missionary, I've had probably five conversations with him at this point, he was finally lost in frustration and just said he didn't care anymore and so we're preaching to him, he said his gospel was like Paul's gospel and I said,
01:00:12
Paul says it's by faith apart from works of law and he says this, faith without works is dead,
01:00:18
I said amen, do you know the context of that, he says does it matter, I said you can hear me at the table,
01:00:26
I said yes, yes it matters, the context matters, James chapter 2, faith without works is dead and to that we all say what, amen, in James chapter 2 verse 10 it says this, whosoever so keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point he's guilty of all of it, how you like them apples for someone who's trying to use
01:00:53
James 2 to say that it's faith plus works for salvation, James says if you kept it all and you blew it in one part, you've broken the whole thing, that's the impossible gospel, right, it doesn't work but if you look at the text of James chapter 2, you see that James is not talking about what
01:01:16
Paul's talking about because in James chapter 2, James uses as his reference point,
01:01:22
Genesis after Abraham is credited righteousness in Genesis 15 6, about 20 years later, who does he offer up on the altar, tell me,
01:01:37
Isaac, James is talking about when Isaac was on the altar but Paul is talking about in Romans 4 about when
01:01:44
Abraham was justified before God 20 years prior and in Paul, Paul says he was justified apart from any work of law before he did anything by faith, 20 years later you have
01:01:59
James using the example of Isaac 20 years later, Paul is talking about how we're justified before God, James is talking about how we are vindicated before man, faith without works is dead, his conversation is between living faith and dead faith and brothers and sisters what kind of faith saves, living faith or dead faith?
01:02:23
Living faith, James says can dead faith save? No, only real faith, only living faith can save and faith apart from any work of law or sorry apart from works is dead, it's not real, it's not alive,
01:02:42
James is not teaching that you are justified by works of law, he's showing you that living faith produces works and the only way for you and me to see whether somebody has faith is by what they do.
01:02:57
How do you know Abraham was justified by faith guys? Because he offered his son
01:03:02
Isaac on the altar, that's how you know he had faith. One last thing and we're done.
01:03:10
One of the most common objections is what? When you preach faith in Christ for salvation to a
01:03:16
Mormon and you preach grace and it's all God and it's to His glory and it has nothing to do with you, what do they always say?
01:03:23
They say, oh so I could just sin all that I want and I'm still saved.
01:03:31
Brothers and sisters, it's really important to explain something. In Romans chapter 6,
01:03:38
Paul addresses that argument completely and fully. He says this, after he talks about grace and faith and salvation in Christ alone, he says this, what shall we say then?
01:03:48
Shall we continue in sin so that grace may abound? What's he say? No, by no means.
01:03:57
He says, how shall we who died to sin continue to live in it? And then he says this, the same thing he says in Galatians 2, if you're in Christ, you've died with Christ and been raised with Him.
01:04:07
You've been crucified with Jesus. So he says, you are to count yourselves dead to sin like Jesus is dead to sin once for all and you're alive to God.
01:04:19
Now watch, this is crazy. This was one of the most disheartening things that ever happened to me. I got to share this with you.
01:04:25
It was seriously frustrating and embarrassing. I got a phone call after I preached at Cornerstone years ago, like five services.
01:04:34
It was insane, something like that. I preached there and then I got a phone call from somebody.
01:04:40
I don't know how he got my number, but he called me. He said, hey, my daughter's been visited by some Mormon missionaries and they're coming over again tonight and I'm really worried about her.
01:04:51
He goes, can you come over and help her and help me? I actually had time and I said, yeah,
01:04:59
I'll do that. I'll come preach the gospel to these guys and I'll talk. And so I show up,
01:05:05
I come into this apartment and there's this girl about 20 some -odd years old, her father, and there's like two missionaries and like three or four other
01:05:16
Mormons that were with the missionaries. And so I'm preaching the gospel to these guys and I'm like, it's faith apart from works of law and they're seeing it and they're seeing it and they're like, yeah.
01:05:26
And they're arguing, but then seeing it. And then I'm preaching grace and Christ and they're seeing it.
01:05:31
And then they brought up the arguments. So what you're saying is, is it's all
01:05:36
God's grace and faith and we could just keep sinning? I said, it's amazing that you fell on the same argument that Paul addresses after he preaches the message that I preached to you.
01:05:47
Grace, faith, Christ, glory to God, nothing in you. It's all Jesus. Romans 6, what shall we say then?
01:05:54
Shall we continue in sin so that grace may increase? And Paul says, no.
01:06:00
And Christians die to sin. And I'm preaching like Charles Haddon Spurgeon, right? Minus the cigar.
01:06:06
I'm like, new hearts and regeneration and there's a new birth and you're alive in Jesus and you want to live for God and not your sin.
01:06:13
And you're changed and you still sin, but you love God and you don't want to live in your sin. And I'm preaching all about regeneration and new life in Jesus and you're crucified with Christ, raised with God.
01:06:23
And they're like, oh I get it. I understand. I think I understand what you're saying. And all of a sudden, as soon as I finish, the door opens.
01:06:34
I turn my head. I'm always trying to watch my back. I turn my head and there's a guy who comes in and he comes in.
01:06:44
He goes, oh, hi everybody. Hello. And he starts to walk behind me and he comes up to the girl and he kisses her and he goes into the other room.
01:06:55
He puts stuff down and he comes back in the room and kind of sits on the edge of the chair. He's like, what's going on?
01:07:01
How's everyone doing? They're like, oh hello. And we all kind of were like, who's this?
01:07:07
And then we all at the same time look down at their hands. They're not married.
01:07:18
They're single and they're living together in that apartment. And it was all at once, guys.
01:07:26
At once. As if on cue. As we all realize at the same time of what's happening here, these people professing faith in Christ and I just preached a sermon to them on regeneration and a new heart.
01:07:40
These Mormon missionaries, they went, they just looked at me like, yeah, right.
01:07:52
Which is a good place to end. Our message is a dud and it's seen as hypocrisy if we don't live consistently with what's coming out of our mouths.
01:08:06
And all the work that I put in to preaching the gospel to these people, God is still sovereign over it. But what ruined that moment was that all of the preaching about Christ and new life in Him fell on deaf ears at that moment because they realized that it was nothing but hypocrisy.
01:08:23
Mormons need to see from Christians a consistent message of salvation by grace through faith alone and a life that proves it.
01:08:30
Amen? Let's pray. Father, thank you for this time we had together. I pray that you just bless it.
01:08:37
Use us this week to reach our Mormon friends, family, and neighbors. I pray that you would ignite within us a passion to do it.