LDS Evangelism 101
I am a Ex-LDS member who is now a Christian Pastor. I taught this class on 9/19/2021 to a couple different local churches regarding evangelism to our mormon neighbors. My hope is that this video will Glorify God, call the LDS to repentance and faith in the Gospel, and equip Christians to take the message of Jesus to the world.
Transcript
Well, it is an absolute blessing to be able to come here tonight and to not only preach the gospel
But to have the opportunity to refresh on these things and also to teach you
So I just want to thank you guys for being willing to come here tonight to learn as well as I Hope if you're coming here to learn that you really want the opportunity to take the gospel message to your neighbor
Whether they be near or far So before we begin I do want to offer a prayer real fast before we get into tonight's teaching on evangelism to the
LDS So let's pray Lord God, we just want to be praying
And thanks thankfulness Lord for this opportunity. That's coming to us in the manner of two temples
That are to follow that are is a false religion Lord We thank you for the opportunity to take your gospel out to those that don't know you
Lord and we just want to be in specific prayer for those that are Considered a part of the
LDS faith those that are Mormon Lord, we just pray that they might be converted and that you might use willing vessels like ourselves or that you might fit us together for that opportunity
God I would just pray that as these opportunities present themselves and give us strength and courage to preach and to teach and to Evangelize your gospel message the death and resurrection of our
Lord Jesus Christ God I would just pray that you might encourage us and remembering that conversion does not come about by us
And God I would just pray that we would just do all these things into your glory and according to your will
And I say this in your name Jesus Christ Amen So I think
I recognize everyone. Yeah, everybody in here for the most part knows me but I just want to introduce myself just a little bit and kind of give a little bit of a maybe a
Testimony might be the best word to use Like I like Pastor Paul said my name is
Brayden Patterson I have the fortunate blessed opportunity to pastor Valley Baptist Church in Hagerman Like I said, it's an absolute privilege and blessing to do that to be underneath the
Lordship and and sovereign Lord Jesus Christ and doing those things But tonight is going to be on Evangelism as you know evangelism specifically to the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints And this might be a 101 classic crash course for for tonight
So just a couple expectations of what I'm planning on doing tonight It's it's going through a couple different definitions that might help us as Christians as we approach the
Mormon Church as well as a Just a quick go -to guide on how we might be willing to share the gospel to them issue of Mormonism and Christianity and Method and if there's any questions that you have regarding What is being taught tonight or anything that has been maybe in the last six months a year or something like that that?
Member of the Church of Jesus Christ has come to you and you don't know how to talk to them or you don't know how To confront what they brought to you now is your opportunity.
I would do my best to answer that So just to give you a little bit of history about myself
I think most of us know but I was raised in LDS Church for 19 years of my life
And when I say church, I mean a religious organization when I say that LDS Church I do not think that they are a part of the
Church of Christ They are not a part of the members of the body of Christ. They don't know who
Jesus is Let me be clear in saying that so I was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ Of Latter -day
Saints for 19 years of my life and in those 19 years. I was baptized I held the priesthood that they had
According to themselves and I believed in the Book of Mormon And I went to seminary and I graduated all with all four years and I was getting ready to go on a mission
And I was having the opportunity to share the restored gospel as they would call it plan of salvation
Joseph Smith with a lovely lady Who's now my wife and after dating it for a month and sharing that message with her for two hours in her driveway of her parents
She sat very quietly and listened and when I was done bearing my testimony and whatnot
She looked over at me and she said that's stupid And I think that's really funny because I think oftentimes when
Evangelist teachers come and tell a church or a group of people on how to evangelize to another group of people
I think that they get very much as the way that you should do it very much in the methodology
And I think this is wrong because I think that evangelism can take many many different methods and modes
And they're reaching a loss and I think that ultimately and I know that this is the truth according to John chapter 3
And I know that us as this church goes we would believe and confirm this that it's all according to the will of God And it's going to be upon the
Holy Spirit to draw those that are going to have faith in Jesus Christ And so we just get the opportunity to be vessels and glorify
God in those ways So speaking of the methods of doing this so because this is geared towards Evangelism at the temple whether it be in Pocatello or in Burley here soon, which
I'm very very excited about I'm saddened by the fact that it is sin and I know it's going to be taking place
But I'm excited for the opportunity to have something a little closer by that I can travel to even more readily and vividly
But some of the modes that you might see It's people that are handing out gospel tracts you might see people that are holding signs
You might be seeing people that are singing hymns at the church There might be groups of people that are praying there and you might even see
One or two individuals that are old enough to do open -air witnessing. And so that's what I am expecting myself to be doing
Tomorrow the 19th the 20th of September as well as October 7th and 8th
So I plan on doing a lot of open -air preaching and hopefully to get into some good one -on -one or one -on
Hopefully 50 or however many LDS people are there Conversations so that they can hear the gospel message.
Do I need to scoot this down a little bit? Is it good? Did I get quieter?
Okay, good to know. I appreciate that So I wanted to find a couple things for us
Better prepared to preach the gospel to those that are our neighbors, right? So we have a commandment in the
Bible to love our neighbors as we love ourselves And it is a loving message if you have hold to the gospel message and you understand who
Jesus Christ is You should be wanting to tell everybody that you come across about There's no way around this to walk by somebody not telling the gospel
Even though I and I know that we all do it It is one of the most evil and hateful things that we could do to somebody to not tell them about how you would have been
Saved is truly shameful It's sad and it hurts me to think about how many people
I do not Evangelize to and so it's important for us to be doing this.
So what is a definition of an evangelist? What is an evangelist? We use this word quite often as Christians, and I know pastor
Paul talks about it quite often Putting on your gospel shoes and there's a meaning and a reason behind that evangelists are a proclaimer of the gospel a proclaimer of the gospel that is what evangelism is so I like like I said, there are many different modes and methods that we can do this by a
Gospel track can easily introduce somebody to the biblical Jesus that you and I know as much as a person that is holding a sign
Is doing a Bible study at their next -door neighbor's house or knocking on their neighbor's house or so on and so forth
That is what it is It's proclaiming the gospel message that which we know and we hold to and love so dearly the thing that saved us
It is us taking that to the next person. That's what the evangelist is What is
Mormonism? What is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints? There might be many different ways that we can go about defining this
I think a biblical way of defining it would be a false heretical religion I think that would be the most biblical way that we could define it, but maybe in a more general sense
What is LDS? Like I said LDS stands for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day
Saints LDS. It came about by a gentleman named Joseph Smith as many of us,
I'm assuming all of us know, in the 1800s after growing up in a
Presbyterian church with his mother He supposedly, as the story goes, went into the woods after thinking to himself
How can all these different denominations all be saying that they have truth yet they disagree with each other?
And so in his opinion, according to his story, he went out to the woods one day
He prayed and he saw, depending on the story you're reading, he saw two distinct beings
Whom he claimed and whom they claimed to him supposedly were God the
Father and the Son Being two separate beings. And right then and there it should be throwing up red lights in the back of your head
I hope that you wait. If it doesn't, you need to learn a little bit more about the trinity, a little bit more about the biblical definition of the
Father But right then and there it should tell you that this has gone far away from what biblical
Christianity teaches So that is the initiating of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints. From there, Joseph Smith claimed to have received revelation about how to restore the gospel, restore the
Church according to how Jesus Christ added 2 ,000 years later Because the Mormon Church fundamentally teaches that truth, the true church
Prophets, the gospel itself was lost at the departure and death of the
Apostles, that when they died There was no continuation of the true church Which I hope that all of us know our church history and know that there have been faithful men and women that have been proclaiming the gospel
Of Jesus Christ ever since his ascension, which is according to his promise that He would build his church upon the rock
And that it would never fall and that the gates of hell would never ever prevail against it It's that promise that Jesus Christ made to the church, us
That we would take confidence in what he built So that would be my working definition of Mormonism is a false church that is founded upon a fourteen -year -old boy's testimony of seeing something that is completely contradictory to what the
Bible ever has taught us about who God is And not only that, but it was a thief, a liar, and went on to do many, many atrocious things
Distorting truth and distorting the Bible as well in the process It's truly worrying that there's so many people that have come to the conclusion that it is true, but for us
Preaching and sharing and going out and telling our Mormon friends. So who in here knows somebody that's
LDS? I hope everybody's arms up. All the kids better be raising up their hands because I guarantee even they know somebody that's
LDS We have the opportunity to live in Twin Falls in the Magic Valley area of Idaho And guess what?
There should be a Mormon on every single street of your town No matter where you go in Idaho, there will be
Mormons that are around you And this gives us the opportunity to go and share the gospel
So What is in my opinion the right way to share the gospel?
I'm not going to tell you not to tell them that it's stupid because that was something that was said to me And actually really helped.
It really, really did. I'm not going to tell you that you should go and do that Maybe on every door that you knock on.
Don't do that necessarily Unless maybe you feel led to do so But I want to talk about the methodology that I go about approaching the issue of Mormonism versus Christianity Many people, and there might be even some of us here in this congregation, in this church tonight, that think and feel necessary, feel it necessary to approach
Confronting Mormonism by bringing up church history, and by church history I mean their church history
By bringing up the black, the stains, the evil, the wrongdoings that they had done in their past And while this has been effective for many, many, many people throughout the years of getting somebody out of Mormonism this usually results in them going to atheism or agnosticism
And the reason that is, is because they have so much trust and faith in their false
God When you tell them that their church is wrong, and you show them the evidence for it, they lose any possibility of trusting in anything other than their church.
They've been scarred so severely from it And so what I think as Christians we have failed to do is give the
Mormon a true Jesus of the Bible process That would be my opinion of most evangelists to Mormons so some of the
Contradictory things that in their church history that people might bring up. I brought just a few examples to show us so this is a book that was done by Sandra Tanner, a woman in Utah who exposed throughout the
Years of Mormonism, the changes that were made in the Book of Mormon, and as you can see from the title of this, this is the 3913 changes of the
Book of Mormon They claim that the Book of Mormon is the most true book in the world, including over the
Bible. This right here is a stain upon them. I want to share with you what happens when you show this to a
Mormon. They do this They don't listen to you, they ignore you, they might even close their eyes
Because what they associate is your attempt of trying to love them With what they would call an anti -Mormon
And I'm quick to tell them I'm not anti -Mormon, I'm anti -Mormon doctrine.
I love Mormons. I love you guys I absolutely love them, and so I do not prefer to do this method.
I really don't Because this is not the heart of the issue Let me show you another stain that is upon the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints And the only reason I do this is to show how easy it is to expose these kind of things to those that are
LDS It's another thing to get them to listen So this book right here is the seventh volume of a long series of volumes of what's called the journal discourses
They're different articles and sermons, or they don't call them sermons, talks and messages
That throughout the years of Joseph Smith, Gregory Milne, and some other people that were recorded Looked through by the current prophet, said it was doctrine, and then published.
It is the journal discourses This book was published by the Desert Industry News, or Desert Industries, so the
DI, right? It was produced by them, and it was once Mormon doctrine They've realized how much of a stain it is, and so if you were to go onto their website
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints, they would say that this is not doctrine Even though Brigham Young, in one of the journals of discourses, said that what he has signed off on in this book is as good as scripture
As good as what you and I are reading in the Bible, is what he said this was So, just to show us two different stains in this journal of discourse, journal 7, on page 289
I don't expect you to remember this by any means, but just to show us how easy it is to do
In here, it is said Joseph Smith holds the keys of this last dispensation, and is now engaged behind the veil in the great work of the last days
I can tell our beloved brethren Christians, this is speaking to us Who have slain the prophets and butchered and otherwise caused the death of thousands of Latter -day
Saints The priests who have thanked God in their prayers and thanksgiving from the pulpit
That we have plundered, driven, and slain, and the deacons under the pulpit
And their brethren and sisters in their closets, who have thanked
God, thinking that the Latter -day Saints would waste away Something that no doubt would mortify them, something that to say, the least is the matter of deep regret to them
Namely, that no man or woman in this dispensation will ever enter into the celestial kingdom of God without the consent of Joseph Smith I hear laughs, rightfully so That is a stain on the
Church of Jesus Christ This is a doctrine that they would still believe, but not hold openly before you
I want to read one more, this is just the very next page, 290 in the same book
Let me read here this And some of us might be familiar with this, this is shameful and I even hate reading it
It says this, you see some classes of the human family that are black, uncouth, uncommonly, disagreeable
And low in their habits, wild and seemingly deprived of nearly all the blessings of intelligence
That is generally bestowed upon mankind The first man that committed the odious crime of killing one of his brethren would be cursed the longest of any one of the children of Adam Cain slew his brother,
Cain might have been killed, and that would have put a termination to that line of human beings
This was not to be as the Lord, and the Lord put a mark upon him, which is the flat nose and black skin
Trace mankind down to after the flood, and then another curse is pronounced upon the same race
That they should be the least, or the servants of servants, and they would be until the curse is removed
And the abolitionists cannot help it, nor in the least alter the decree
How long is that race to endure the dreadful curse that is upon them, that curse will reign and remain upon them
And they never can hold the priesthood, or share in it, until the other descendants of Adam have received the promise
And endure the blessings of the priesthood and the keys thereof This is another stain of Mormonism, absolutely wrong
Like I said, bring this up to a Mormon, and their instinct is to immediately run away and denounce you as saying anything good for them
In fact, I would argue by bringing this up to them, they will completely shut out any conversation about Jesus Christ And if anything, if they heard anything that you said, their first go -to is going to be atheism
It's going to be them going to the internet and researching more and more and more evil that their churches know
Undoubtedly admitted, very clearly, and they're going to be driven to another way to hell, atheism
I think we're failing when we're doing this to Mormons Like I said, if you feel led to show a
Mormon this kind of stuff, I'm not here to tell you not to I'm here to tell you, tell them about Jesus Christ Preach the cross
Tell it to them Make sure they understand that they don't know it currently Because they think they do
What I go about sharing the gospel with a Mormon It's very simple, I have a book here, and I'm going to hand it out, and let everybody look through it if you'd like to This was my first with a
Mormon, and when I was saved and became a Christian I ran into some missionaries, and my very first encounter with them,
I wanted to tell them about Jesus Christ And so, I found that if you ask a Mormon missionary to get a book of Mormon from them
They will listen to you a little bit longer than if you didn't ask them for a book of Mormon You see what
I'm saying? And I think that if you take a book from them, it's one less book they have the opportunity to hand out to another person that might not know it
That's my opinion, you can do this if you would like to But, I took this book from them, and I quickly wanted to go through that which
I remember And what I could find that was quickly false, so I could go back to it and show them
So you can finger through the pages if you'd like I have some tabs on there with different things that are a reference to it
But, I have right here, just as evidence that I used to be Mormon I have what I would call my quad in the day
This is my quad, this is my Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Thrill of the
Great Christ That I was using in preparation to go on a mission As you can see, it says
Elder Braden Roger Patterson That's my name, I was getting ready to go on a mission as you can tell
But, in here I want to show us a couple different examples that you can look through when this book comes around to you
About how I approach the Mormon about the issue of Jesus Christ I first ask them,
I ask them for a Book of Mormon I say, hey, can I get a Book of Mormon from you? And they'll give it to me I immediately go and tell them,
I see that on your name tag that you are a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints And you're telling me that you have a restored
Gospel of that nature And they say, yes, that is my message for you today And I tell them,
I ask them, okay, if you knew all things, you knew I was going to die in 30 seconds How would you tell me the
Gospel of Jesus Christ is? How would you tell me to repent and believe in the
Gospel? How would you convince me to believe in your message? And so I ask them to tell me this in 30 seconds or less
And I think for a Christian, I think we should all be prepared to give that kind of a message to somebody I would encourage you to at least go home and maybe study that Or be ready to do that and give them the case to be able to But they might say,
I guarantee you right now If you ask one missionary one day and a missionary the next day and a missionary the next day
You will get three different answers You will never get a consistent answer from the
Mormon missionary So be prepared for that But many of them will come close to saying something along what they call their third and fourth article of faith
This is something that they're taught when they're very young in what they would call the primary
When they're very young in their church, they're taught the 13 articles of faith
And the third and fourth article of faith can say this The third We believe that through the atonement all mankind may be saved by obedience
By obedience, sorry, excuse me By obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel
That's how they think that they will be saved Article of faith four says this We believe that the first principle and ordinances of the gospel are
Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ Second, repentance Third, baptism By immersion through remission of sins
Fourth, the laying on of hands For the gift of the Holy Ghost They believe all these things to be essential to being what they would call the celestial kingdom of God They would believe that this is a necessary step for you to do
In other words, this is a works -based salvation And if you don't know what that term means,
I'll break it down for you Works being something that you have to do And because, based off that, you then get salvation
And it doesn't take us very long in the Bible, I'll just open up real quick one Galatians chapter 2
To confront this false idea that you are saved by works Galatians chapter 2, verse 16, 20, and 21 say this
Nevertheless, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Christ Jesus Even we have believed in Christ Jesus That we may be justified by faith in Christ And not by the works of the law
Since by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified Verse 20 and 21 is a real showing to the
Mormon if they bring this up I have been crucified with Christ And it is no longer
I who live, but Christ lives in me In the life which I now live with flesh, I live by faith in the
Son of God who loved me And delivered himself for me I do not nullify the grace of God For if righteousness comes through the law
Then Christ died needlessly If you believe, even here today, and you are not elder yet That you are saved upon the one thing that you have done in your life
Christ died needlessly according to this Abandon that, have faith in Jesus Christ and you will be found
I would encourage you that today and I would also encourage you to tell the Mormons That they must abandon all hopes in their works
In order to have a true faith in Jesus Christ So what would a
Mormon say is their gospel message? They would allude to something that has to do with faith in Jesus Christ They will mention something along those lines
They will say that you have to be baptized That you have to have proper authority
That you have to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints And they might mention something about believing in Joseph Smith Believing in the
Book of Mormon Believing in their modern prophet today Which is Russell M. Nelson They would say that these things are a necessary fact
In you having salvation Now we just talked about how that means
Christ died needlessly So how then do we address this issue? This is usually how
I do it I go about and I say, tell me your gospel message in 30 seconds They tell me almost exactly what I just told you in some way or another
And I'll say, well, that's not the gospel I tell them the truth
That is not the gospel And I go on and I say, you see, there's a Bible verse that tells me something
That I think you need to be aware of That I think you should be very scared of actually
See, Galatians chapter 1, verses 8 and 9 And church, if you have your
Bible with you and you don't know this verse I would encourage you to turn there And even if you do know it, please turn there Galatians chapter 1, 8 through 9
This is very important Galatians chapter 1, 8 through 9
And just as a precursor, the LDS church believes that the King James Version Is the only closest inspired version to the original
So if you're going to do evangelism to a Mormon It's a good idea to try to do so out of the
King James Version I'm reading from my 1977 NASB tonight But just know, if you're going to be talking to a
Mormon It's helpful to have a King James Version Because that just keeps their ears open and their minds open
If that makes sense Galatians chapter 1, 8 and 9 says this
But even though we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel
Contrary to that which we have preached to you Let it be a curse As we've said before, so I say again now
If any man is preaching to you a gospel Contrary to that which you receive Let it be a curse
And I make a note to the person I say, you see, it says another one
Other than the one that you have yet received Meaning that the church of Galatia Have received the gospel message already
It was a message that had already gone out to them They already understood what it was And Paul's earnest telling to the church
In his earnest letter he says If I, if we, or an angel
Doesn't matter who it is Doesn't matter what authority they proclaim to have If they tell you a different gospel
To let them be accursed And so I tell them this, I say According to your gospel definition
It is a false gospel And according to Galatians 1, 8 and 9 Not only should you be accursed
But your church should be accursed too If you're telling me this is the message Of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day
Saints And I ask, do you want to know What the true gospel is? And so they usually will ask me
They'll usually say, well what do you say the gospel is? And I say, well, let's turn to the Bible And let's look at it
If I only had 30 seconds to tell you What the gospel message is I would go to 1 Corinthians 15, 1 -4
And I quickly tell them, I say In verses 1 and 2, Paul describes The church of Corinth That if you have faith in this gospel message
You are saved, and if your faith is in vain You are not, it is that simple Paul puts it that way
And he says in verses 3 and 4 The gospel message that saves is this That Jesus Christ Died for your sins
According to scriptures That he was buried, and he rose again On the third day according to scriptures
It is the death, burial, and resurrection Of Jesus Christ that is the simple message Of the gospel And I say to them, if you want
To have a longer than a 30 second conversation Now we can go to what it says in there According to the scriptures
According to the scriptures According to the scriptures Jesus Christ In Mark chapter 1
Verse 14 through 15 Is doing the work of evangelism I want to turn us to it real fast
Mark chapter 1 Verse 14 through 15 It says this And after John Had been taken into custom
This is after Jesus' baptism The very first thing that Jesus did After making his public entry
Into his public ministry This is it Jesus came
Into Galilee Preaching the gospel Of God That is evangelism right there
Verse 15 Goes on to say And saying The time is to fill
The kingdom of God is at hand Repent And believe in the gospel
Jesus Christ Himself Was doing the very same thing That we are told to do in the bible
And that is to take the gospel message forth And once again church, what is the simplest form That we have to define the gospel down to Just a couple, one sentence
The death, burial, and resurrection Of Jesus Christ according to scriptures According to 1 Corinthians 15 1 through 4, that is the smallest
And shortest way I know how to describe it And I'd argue that's the shortest and smallest way That the bible can describe it for us
And so I explain to them, you see Jesus himself is doing this And if I had 30 more seconds to talk to you
Or maybe even a couple more minutes This is what I would say You being LDS You most likely say it's good for me to have faith
In Jesus Christ, and they shake their heads Yes, that is what we believe, that you should have faith In Jesus Christ And I go on to say, well what happens if I told you
That the Jesus I was having my faith put in Sometimes goes by Jesus And he's my cashier down at Fred Meyer Down at my local grocery store
And their eyes open up And they see, oh no That's not what you should put your faith in And I say, yeah that is good
I want to put my faith in him, that's absolutely right Amen Don't put your faith in the person that is the cashier
Faith is only as good As the object that we are putting it into If I put my faith in this chair
Right here to get me home tonight It's not going to get me there It's faith in an improper thing
If I put faith in my vehicle Outside with no gas in it It's still not going to get me home
Faith is only as good As the thing that you are putting it into And so I ask them,
I say You think that you're a Christian And they say, yeah I do And they say, it's not on our name tag
It's on our church building It says, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints And I say
Well, I have a question for you If I Didn't believe in Joseph Smith I didn't believe in the
Book of Mormon I didn't believe in your temples I do things that you would think
Are wrong for me to do That would put me outside of your church If I did all these things
Would it be fair for me to say I'm a Mormon Would it be fair to say I'm a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints And they say, no you can't say that And so I then tell them
Deeply in loving me Because I absolutely love them And this is the message I tell them That is why you can't claim to be a
Christian You deny the deity of Jesus Christ You deny
What He did on the cross You deny the grace That is freely bestowed on those that have faith in Him You deny the essentials
Of Christianity And therefore you can't be a Christian I make it clear to them
That there are two Jesuses That are in this equation One is true and one is false
One can save and one cannot They will try to Harm you if you choose to know that they have faith
In Jesus' Bible And they don't And it is very clearly shown If you have that book passing around And you're looking through it
I have a couple of verses that I would love to show you In the Book of Mormon and in the Doctrine and Covenants That I think make this very clear
That they have a different Jesus Christ More so than what you already know 2 Nephi chapter 24 23 says this
And I'll turn to it here in my own Quad As I told you what the name of it was 2
Nephi 25 23 says this For we labor diligently To write, to persuade our children
And also our brethren To believe in Christ And to be reconciled to God For we
Know that it is by grace That you are saved After all you can do
That's works -based salvation Ask the Mormon Have you done all you can do
No, that's what this life is for Have you ever watched a movie in your whole life Well yeah I have watched a movie
Could you have been serving God Could you have been praying to Him You are a violator of your own
Book of Mormon and you're condemned by your own Theology, very very clearly Moroni Chapter 10
Verse 32 I believe it is Says this It is Moroni 10
Chapter 32 says this Yea, come unto Christ and be perfected
In Him and deny Yourself all ungodliness And if you shall deny
Yourself all of All ungodliness and love God With all your might, mind and strength
Then His grace Is sufficient for you That by His grace
You may be perfect in Christ And by the grace of God Ye are perfect in Christ Ye can in no ways
Deny the power of God And I don't know if you caught that but let me read it one more time The very important part of this verse
And if ye Shall deny yourself of all ungodliness Then His grace is sufficient for you
Let me read it one more time And deny yourself of all ungodliness And if ye deny yourself of all ungodliness
And love God with all your heart Or your might, mind and strength Then His grace
Is sufficient for you And the question to the Mormon is Have you denied yourself of all ungodliness And if they say yes, it's pride
And they haven't denied themselves of all ungodliness It isn't So Those are quick two chapters
I want to show you one in Doctrine and Covenants real fast Doctrine and Covenants Chapter 82
The Doctrine and Covenants Was written by Joseph Smith and Brigham Young During their time
Of teaching And incarceration and so on and so forth But in Doctrine and Covenants 82 82 82
Verse 7 says this And this is terrifying This is the depression that's behind the
Mormon church Let's read it And now verily I say unto you
I the Lord Will not lay any sin to your charge Go your ways
And sin no more But unto that soul Who sinneth
Shall the former sins return Sayeth the Lord Your God They believe
That once you repent If you sin again Your former sins return
It is now That I want to remind us What that gospel message truly means
Good news This Is terrible Awful Bad news
There is nothing good about it They think they're saved by their works And they're condemned by it
They make Christ's atonement His penile Substitutionary propitiational atonement
I love big words When I can pronounce them right They make it void They make it needless by that They think that because Their continuation in their sins
Which I say amen You are continually sinning They think that their former sins That they thought they were once forgiven of Return back to them
Being LDS If they are Either they're delusional Or they're depressed
They really are Either they think that they have it all good And that they are a good Mormon Or they realize that they are continually breaking
Their own commandments and the commandments of God In the Bible and they know That the law has been written on their heart
And they are condemned by it And they have no outlook other than themselves To go to It is only after you do all you can do
That Christ then is the Rescuer That's not a true savior He only comes to meet you halfway
He doesn't come all the way as we see What the Bible tells us Church, once again
This is the clearness That they are a false gospel They are a false church
They are a false teaching They are false prophets They are wolves in sheep's clothing And you might be thinking to yourself
It's something that comes across on everybody's mind At one point or another They are good people
They do X, Y, and Z And they are They are in our communities and they are doing things
They are serving one another They are doing it They gotta be good people Be reminded of what scripture says
No one is good No not one Why are they doing those services?
Why are they doing those works? Are they doing it to serve God Almighty? Are trying to be
God As we have in the Bible? Or are they doing it to serve their idols? If the man is serving his idol
He is not doing good works He is far from it And that's the fact of the matter
So the issue of sharing the gospel with the Mormon I would highly encourage you Not to go to the doctrine
That the Mormon would say Is anti -Mormon Stick to Jesus Christ Stick to Him Stick to Him crucified
Stick to His death, burial, and resurrection Always pointing to Christ Be like the Old Testament Types of shadows pointing to Jesus Christ Be like the apostles
Always pointing back Always doing that When they say to you
Well then why get baptized? Well it's because I've been saved Well why do good works? Well it's because I've been saved
Why do anything? Well it's because I've been saved God deserves worship He deserves us to do good works
He deserves us to do fruits For His glory Not for my salvation
Because I know that my works are nothing But filthy rags before the eyes of the Lord Amen? Church, this would be an opportunity
Right now for any sorts of Questions before we go through a couple Different verses about evangelism
In the Bible. Does anybody have any Questions specifically regarding Mormonism? And I hope that this is educational
So if you're planning on Coming to evangelize with myself And some other people tomorrow
Or on Tuesday Or on October 7th and 8th I hope that this is educational and puts us
On the right mindset of Making sure Christ is preached Truly and rightfully so As the
Bible tells us to I've been to temples Before and done evangelism I've been to Temple Square in Utah And you will find people
That are out there preaching The anti -Mormon stuff The things that make them close their hot ears And like I said, it has its
Ways of doing what God wants it to do It really does And if you are led to do that kind of witnessing
To a Mormon, do it I'm not here to tell you to do it I just want you to preach Christ I want you to tell them the alternative
The only way John 14, right? That Jesus is the only way
The life of the truth is the only way To everlasting life In fact, I want to read that one real fast to us
John 14 And notice
The Exclusive nature that is in this text John 14, verse 6
Jesus said to him, I am the way The truth and the life No one comes to the
Father But through me John 17, I had the privilege Of preaching from this text earlier today
But focusing Verse 2 through 5 In fact, let's read verses 1 through 5
These things Jesus spoke And lifting up his eyes to heaven He said, Father, the hour has come
Glorify thy Son That the Son may glorify thee Even as thou gavest him authority
Over all mankind That to all whom thou hast given him He may give eternal life
And this is eternal life That they may know thee The only true
God And Jesus Christ who now has sent I glorify thee on earth How thee accomplished the work which thou hast given me to do
And now glorify thou me Together with thyself, Father With the glory which I had with thee
Before the world was Verse 3 one more time And this is eternal life That they may know thee
The only true God And Jesus Christ who now has sent It is imperative
For us to know who Jesus Christ is I remind The church in Valley Baptist Church in Hagerman Once again,
I absolutely love Being able to preach the gospel there And to come to corporate worship With fellow believers in that way
But I remind people all the time And I do this with evangelism to Mormons I tell them, this is the most terrifying
Verse in the whole Bible The most terrifying Thing I have heard
And it should make each one of us shake To our very core and hope And pray to God we never hear
These words uttered to us Matthew 7 Verses 21 -23 say this
Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven But he who does the will of my
Father Who is in heaven Many will say to me on that day Lord, Lord Did we not prophesy in your name
And in your name cast out demons And in your name perform many mighty miracles If you have the King James Version That's what it would say
What does that sound like? I look at that and I say those are good deeds I look at that and say
I've never cast out Demons or Prophesied or performed miracles that I know of I've never done those things
But there are people that will say they have They will have a testimony Of doing them and they will proclaim
The Jesus that is before them Is their Lord, Lord This is a terrifying verse
That comes out And then I will declare to them I, heaven knew you
Depart from me You who practice lawlessness Or if you have your
King James Version it will say Depart from me ye workers Of iniquity and I love quoting that To the
LDS person Because what did their testimony They just wore up do? They told me of their works
Depart from me Ye workers of iniquity I never knew you
That's terrifying If you hear this word uttered to you You have no second chance
Your fate Your eternal State has been determined And there is nothing you can do about it
It is too late And eternity is a very Very long time to be wrong
Where you place your faith in So once again this is An opportunity church for you
To ask any questions to an XLDS person Praise God for this I've been out of the church now seven years
And honestly some things I've been having trouble remembering them And I praise
God for that Because there the first couple years It was hard to get rid of some of that stuff I shivered every time
I heard Somebody say Godhead It's like oh that's too Mormon for me We're going to only say Trinity from now on I'm never going to say
Godhead ever again Or things along those lines I had a hard time saying Holy Ghost Because it's the
Holy Spirit I'm not going to say Holy Ghost And now those things are long gone in my mind So I might have a hard time remembering stuff
But please ask any questions Okay There's no other questions
I want to just read a couple of verses That have to do with evangelism I want to turn to Obviously We're talking about evangelism
Matthew 28 Verse 17 -20
And this is good This is really really good 17 -20 says this
And if anybody thinks of a question In between now and when I'm done Reading these verses Please just raise your hand
And I'll be glad to answer them If there's a personal or a question That you don't want to have me follow Please talk to me after So on and so forth
But Matthew 28 17 -20 says this And when they saw him speaking of Jesus They worshipped him
Now The book of Revelation says Don't worship anybody but God Very good to know this
They worshipped him And why did they worship him Because he was God And I agree with that Don't worship anybody but God alone
Worship Jesus But some were doubtful
And Jesus came up and spoke to them Saying All authority has been given
To me in heaven and on earth Go therefore and make disciples Of all the nations baptizing them
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit Teaching them to observe All that I command of you
And lo, I am with you always Even to the end of the age It was a blessing, I saw that we had a baptism scheduled
For the other day, but it got cancelled And it'll be next week Praise God, whoever that is, that's awesome to hear
That makes me very excited Very clear in there It says singular name
Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit Just something that keeps in the back of your mind Baptizing them in the singular name Because they're in the singular means
Singular essence Let us turn now to Mark Chapter 1, 14 -15
We already read this one today I think this one is one of my favorite ones For evangelism After John If you're on Matthew 28, it's going to be one page over on the right
Most likely Mark chapter 1, 14 -15 And after John had been taken
Into custody, Jesus came to Galilee Preaching the gospel of God And saying that time is fulfilled
And the kingdom of God is at hand Repent and believe in the gospel Very clear
Jesus says to repent And believe in the gospel Even after the reasons we talked about earlier 2
Timothy 2 Timothy 4, 1 -2
Says this 2 Timothy 4, 1 -2
I solemnly charge you In the presence of God And of Christ Jesus Who is to judge the living
And the dead And by his appearing in his kingdom Preach the word
Be ready in season and out of season Reprove, rebuke Exhort with great patience
And instruction Church, it is in season right now that you have an opportunity To preach to Mormons that are openly
Going and Worshipping a false idol, a false god This is in season right now
I hope you're First Peter 3 -15
Says this First Peter 3 -15 says
But sanctify Christ as Lord in your Hearts, always being ready
To make a defense to everyone Who asks you to give an account For the hope that is in you
Yet with gentleness And reverence Yet with gentleness And reverence
Church It is such a privilege To be saved, is it not?
It is a privilege to know About the Triune God that we worship Is it not? It is
If you love your neighbor I hope that they know The God that you worship We have neighbors that are
Mormons I can only encourage you Tell them that they are lost If Jesus was to come back
Right here, right now To that I say, come quickly, Lord They would hear
Depart from you The workers of the vineyard They are not
Christian They cannot Be saved in their own religion If a
Mormon was to be Saved, they wouldn't stay Mormon for long And they would soon realize what it Spells about church
And they would go to the body of the Believers that worship the Triune Church, let's read just One more verse,
I put down A plethora of verses in here that I'll be Cutting on through the night, and Obviously, I read a lot here right now
A plethora, I mean, a lot But I want to turn to John real fast, of course we have to go to John I believe,
John Chapter 19 Verse 30 John chapter 19
Verse 30, and actually let's Go to verse Yeah, we'll go to one more
When Jesus therefore had received The sour wine, he said It is
Finished And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit It is
Finished The Mormon church, they don't think it's finished Right? They're continuing to do what they think
Is the right thing They're trying their best But they're failing miserably to do the right thing in their own minds
And church, I'll be honest With you, when I was LDS It was depressing It was depressing, it was hard to try to Obey that which you can't
Obey, Romans 3 tells us this That the law was given to hold us accountable Before God, James 2 .10
Says that if you've broken a single Single of the laws, the least of them Least of the commandments, you're guilty of them all
It's supposed to be Condemning, that's what it is It's a command from God that you
Cannot, nor will not keep It is To be condemning to us
It is, and so Being a Mormon, you felt the weight Of that on your shoulders
You felt it It wasn't finished for you You had to keep on doing it
You felt that weight, in Matthew Chapter 11 Matthew chapter 11 28
Verse 30, I'll read on this Matthew 11 28
Matthew 11, 28
Verse 30 says this Come to me, all who are weary And heavy laden
I will give you rest Take my yoke upon you And learn from me
For I am gentle and humble in heart And you shall find Your You will find rest for your souls
For my yoke is easy And my yoke is light Church, Jesus Christ John 8,
John 10, John 12 John 13, John 15 So on and so forth
Keeps on saying the same thing I am John 8, he says, unless you believe
I am You shall die in your sins The Mormons don't know that They don't know
Jesus As the one and only God The second person of the Trinity They don't worship him as that They have a different Jesus They don't know
Jesus, even though they think they do They do not know Jesus, the Bible And therefore if they die
They are dying in their sins They are dying heavy laden Burdened With no rest
Worship God today by thinking of ways That you can take that gospel message
And tell people the rest That you have entered into That you have been drawn into That was secured for you on the cross
With the exclamation of it is finished That is rest That is something that shall cause us to worship
Jesus Christ The object of our worship Church, let us lead in a
I'm assuming Pastor Paul will come up here after I'm done Let me just lead this Wonderful pulpit with prayer
Lord God Once again Lord what a privilege it is to know you To have been brought to you
To have been changed By the Holy Spirit It is truly a privilege to be conformed to you
To be sanctified by you Lord And God I would just pray that this message The Bible Might be clear in all minds
That we might be ready to give a defense For that hope And that hope might be ready in season And out of season
And I would just pray that you might provide those opportunities Of evangelism to our minds Let us be evangelists
And proclaiming the good news The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ And let this all be done according to your will