The Christian Grace Gospel, as it is taught in the American churches at the pulpits, is a huge lie from Satan. It is taking people to hell every day when they believe it.
This lie is that you are saved by grace and grace alone—that there are no works you can do that are righteous or that please God; that His salvation through His death and resurrection is all you need to believe in and that if you just believe in that, you will be saved.
These pastors say that if you add anything else to the gospel, such as works or baptism, then you are a dog,you are a liar, you are a hypocrite, and you are prideful. But what these pastors leave out is the part of the Gospel that Jesus taught about denying yourself, picking up your cross, and doing the work to follow Him.
Jesus taught this. This is not my opinion; these are not my words or my thoughts. But this is what Jesus taught. I want to read it to you.
This is what Jesus said in Matthew 16, starting in verse 24:
Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself"—which is work—"and take up his cross"—which is work—"and follow Me"—which is work.
"For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?"
What will it help you if you look like a good Christian in church, keep up your church attendance, pay your 10% tithe every week, and adhere to biblical teachings?
What will that help you if, at the end of your life, Jesus says, "Away from Me, you who commit sin; I don’t know you"?
It won’t matter if you believed your pastor’s lie at that moment what will matter is what you did with the words of Jesus.
Did you believe His words right here in Matthew 16? Or did you deny His words to receive the lying pastor’s words?
Then Jesus goes on to say this:
"For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works"—not his belief, not what just he thought Jesus did in Bible times, but according to his works.
If your works are done in righteousness, then you will receive the reward of righteous deeds.
But if you had unrighteous deeds—if you were working the works of wickedness—then you will be rewarded with hell and damnation. You will be punished.
So don’t believe the devil’s lie that is preached from the pulpits in the church—that all you have to do is believe, but you don’t have to deny yourself, you don’t have to pick up your cross, and you don’t have to leave worldliness behind. All you have to do, according to them, is go to church, pay your 10%, believe the pastor, and you’ll be saved.
Where is your faith today?
Do you really believe in the words of Jesus?
Or do you believe in the lying pastor and these gatherings that are full of hypocrisy?
We'll praise Jesus today, everyone. We know that when we come to Jesus, we renew our mind. We have a new tongue and a new mind and a new heart. Now there are a lot of Christians, Pentecostal Christians, that think the new tongue just means speaking in a tongue that no one understands, but that their English tongue doesn't change, which is ridiculous, because if you actually come into the household of the faith and you're walking in the kingdom of God, then you will have a new tongue that edifies others as well. You'll be changed, that your mind will not be thinking like the world or how you used to think like other people in the world, and your heart will certainly be different. I want to read to you what the Apostle Paul says about this in Ephesians chapter 4. This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, and the futility of their mind.
You could say here, if you have really come to Jesus, you should not walk as the rest of your fellow Americans, or whatever country you live in. You shouldn't be just pursuing what they're pursuing in the world. Having the understanding of darkness, being alienated from the life of God, because the ignorance that is in them, because of their blindness of their heart, who being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But you have not so learned Christ, meaning you have not learned that sort of Jesus. You haven't learned Jesus with greed, with hatred, with malice. So why are we thinking like Christians in the world, if we have really received the new tongue and the mind of Jesus? If indeed you have heard from Him, and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus, that you put off concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in spirit and in mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
This is something many Christians have not put on, because they haven't been renewed in their mind or in their heart. They're not taking communion with Jesus. They're not eating His flesh and drinking His blood. They're eating and drinking the world, and because they're eating and drinking the world, they can't possibly have the mind of Christ. This is why they're still cursing, blasphemous thoughts are coming into their mind. They are exactly like the world. We need to put on righteousness and holiness, true righteousness. Therefore, putting away lying, let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor. We need to be speaking in our new tongue with our neighbor. Whoever we come across, we need to be the light of the world. This doesn't mean that we're just speaking gibberish. This doesn't mean that we're just speaking in a prayer language.
This means that we have the new tongue, which comes from a renewed heart and mind, and now we're speaking the mysteries of God, just as they spoke in Acts, when the Holy Spirit came on them, and they were speaking to all these different nations of people in their own tongue, and they understood, and some of those people repented, and were added to the number of the new Christians. So let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil. Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.
We always want to be praying and asking Jesus, that whatever we say is edifying to others, not tearing others down, not blasphemous of course, not gossipy, not envious words, but words that are building each other up, and helpful to the body of Christ, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. You know a lot of Christians, they are grieving the Holy Spirit, especially with the TV, with movies, with their entertainment. They're grieving the Holy Spirit, because they say, well I don't say those words, I don't think those things, but they allow those things to play on their TV, and they're paying their money to watch these movies that are blaspheming God, speaking evil continually, and because they allow this stuff into their household, they themselves are no longer holy or pure as well. They are allowing that into their mind, that garbage, instead of allowing holiness and righteousness to shine through them. So we need to make sure that we don't grieve the Holy Spirit, by listening or acting like the devil.
Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice, and be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. In some place, Jesus says that He will forgive, the same way that we forgive others. And that is a word, because if we have bitterness in our heart towards others, we can know that God will not forgive us. So we need to make sure that if we have hatred in our heart, or bitterness towards others, or seeds of unforgiveness, that we make sure that we forgive before the sun goes down, that we can have communion, and not be eating and drinking judgment on ourselves. So what tongue and what mind have you received? Have you really received the mind of Christ? Have you received the tongue that comes from Jesus when we receive the Holy Spirit? Or do you still have a tongue of envy, and bitterness, and hatred? Are you still thinking like the world? Are you thinking racist thoughts, or thoughts that put others down? Make sure that you're not thinking yourself better than others. A lot of Christians just hope that judgment comes on the world.
They want to see other people hurting. But Jesus said that He came to save people, not to destroy them. Remember when the disciples asked about the Pharisees, should we just call fire out of heaven and kill them all? And Jesus didn't say, yes Peter, send fire out of heaven. But what did Jesus say? If we remember what Jesus said, He said He came not to destroy people's lives, but He came to save them. We need to be praying that people repent, and that they come to the Lord, and are saved by His grace and His mercy. Of course God's judgment is going to come on the wicked. God's judgment is already here. But we as Christians, who want to be fruitful, are to be calling others to repent. We always want to be hopeful. Love hopes all things. It wishes for repentance. It hopes that people come into the household of the faith. We want to make sure that we're no longer conformed to the world, or acting like worldly Christians, but that we are conformed to the likeness of Jesus, and that we really receive the Holy Spirit, that baptism of the Holy Spirit, that we know happens when we have a transformed tongue, and a transformed mind. So I want to pray for those of you that want true repentance, that want to be part of the household of the faith.
"Lord Jesus, I pray for those that are here today listening, and they know that they have sin in their life. They know that they have messed up. They know that they have had thoughts and words in them that are not pure, but they know that they want your righteousness. They want to eat your flesh, and drink your blood. So I pray for someone who is listening today that wants to be pure, that wants to be purged and purified, that you would purify their heart and their mind, that they would be renewed, that they could have communion with you Lord Jesus, that they would eat your flesh, and drink your blood, and come part of your new covenant. I pray that we would be lights to others, that your Holy Spirit would be shining through us, that more people would be added to our number, that they would see our good works, and that they would glorify our Father in Heaven. In your name I pray, Lord Jesus. Amen."
Well, praise Jesus today, everyone. I just had a short message that I wanted to share, and it's about practicing righteousness and not practicing ungodliness. See, of course we get better at what we practice, and even if we are dedicated to the Lord Jesus, if we don't continue to practice our new tongue, if we don't practice speaking to others about the truth, then we will get out of practice, and we'll be more timid to share the truth, and then suddenly we'll find ourselves just thinking and saying worldly things, and we need to make sure that we're always in practice for what we really know is important.
The other day, I had a good friend come over, and he noticed that I had a large pile of wood that needed to be burned, and I plan to one day do it, but I don't just burn large piles every day, although I do it maybe a few times a season, but my friend, he has a business, and he is always doing burn piles, always brushing, always cleaning stuff up, and he quickly that day asked me if I wanted to light up that burn pile, and it was a burn day, so I said, sure, let's do it, and he jumped right on, you know, right on it, and we lit up that burn pile, and we cleaned up the area, and made the property look really good around my house, and that was really a blessing to me, it was a blessing from the Lord that that friend had that on his heart to do, but I thought to myself, he's doing this all the time, and he's excited to do it, he's excited to help a brother, he's in practice for things that are good, and we want to be in practice for things that are good, and not practicing things that are unrighteous, a lot of people have addictions, and they're practicing things that are ungodly, and because they have a habit of looking at pornography, or a habit of cursing, or a habit of taking the Lord's name in vain, or gossiping about others, they practice those things constantly, and instead of being a light to the world, and being helpful, and quick to do work that is righteousness, they are quick to do things that are evil, and perverted, and hateful, so if we are the children of the light, we need to be quick to do what is right, and we need to practice what is right, and of course we will get better at doing what is right, and we'll get better at resisting what is evil, see there are some Christians that think that once you put your faith in Jesus, you will no longer be tested, and you will automatically do what's right, that's not true, you will know right from wrong when you come to Jesus, but you have to practice good, and you have to refrain from evil, and as temptations continue to come at you, you will get better at resisting temptation when you choose to stand with Jesus, the more that you resist that temptation, the more you make a pattern of righteousness, but the more that you fall into temptation, the more you'll make the pattern of ungodliness, so we want to have patterns that encourage others to follow the Lord, that are edifying to ourselves, so we need to make patterns that each day when we wake up, we give our life to the Lord, we pray and say, Lord have your way with me, and let me be an encouragement to others, we need to make the pattern of guarding our hearts against evil, guarding our eyes and our ears, that we're not listening to music or watching things that are ungodly, and getting all the things out of our life that cause us to stumble, so the areas that cause us to stumble, and the things that cause us to do wickedness, and then we need to actively be pursuing righteousness, because it's not enough just to not be sinning, just to be avoiding things in the world that are ungodly, but Jesus calls us to bear good fruit, so how do we do that? Well in the morning we pray and we say, Lord make our lives fruitful for you, let me be a vessel of honor that can be used for you, and whoever I come into contact with, let me be salt and light that I can bear good fruit for you, that there may be more people that enter into the light of the truth, and there may be some days that the Lord has someone in your life, that then you can be a witness to, and then maybe other days there won't be anyone in that aspect, but in other aspects of your life you'll be able to grow, but in everything we need to live as unto the Lord, and practice righteousness, and not practice ungodliness. I see far too many people that are practicing ungodliness, and they think themselves to be Christians. I see people with shirts, and they're Christian shirts, and they have Bible verses on them, and these people are supposed to be Christians, they're supposed to be the children of God, but they're cursing, they're disrespectful to others, they don't have the light of the true God in them, they're not living the gospel, so practice what you preach, live for the Lord Jesus, and you will get better at what you do, you'll get better at encouraging others, you'll get better at resisting the devil, because whatever we practice we get better at, and as we make those habits we'll want to do those things more.
I've given the example before, if you have never run in your life, or if you've never jogged, you probably don't want to just go out and jog a mile. If you have run when you're say in junior high, and they had you do the mile, it was all that you could do in junior high to make that mile, and then maybe you haven't run another mile in 10-20 years, and it would be like pulling teeth to get you to jog a mile, but if you start yourself in an area where you can, maybe jogging a lap, and then working yourself up to that, and you're getting back in shape, then you will enjoy jogging a mile. So what we practice we get better at, and what we practice we start to enjoy, and then the things that we don't practice, we tend to put those things on the back burner, because we start to get a mental block against those things.
This is also a big reason why people procrastinate on the things that they know they should do. It's because they're out of practice for those things, and they continue to put those things on the back burner. When I was in college, I often was a procrastinator on my work, because I really wanted to think about other things, and so if I had some kind of assignment, essay due, or test, I would often put it off until the very last night in order to do it, and then I would be so rushed to get that done, and it's because I was out of practice for studying, and that's a really bad thing guys, as if you're in college, or if you're in the workplace, and you're expected to get things done on a schedule, you should be quick to do what's right.
You shouldn't be a procrastinator, and now that I follow Jesus, I want to do everything as under the Lord. So even things like if it's a test that I'm going to turn in, if it's something for school, I want to be there on time, I want to be prepared, because I want to live as under the Lord, and be well practiced up, so that I have a performance that demonstrates the King that I am performing for. If we are Christians, we're not performing for the world, we're not just performing for a worldly boss, but we are doing our performance for the Lord Jesus, if in fact He is your King and your Lord.
You should be doing everything as unto the Lord. So don't be a procrastinator on doing what you need to do, don't be a procrastinator on doing what is right. Of course be slow to anger, but be quick to forgive, be quick to reconcile with a brother or sister that you need reconciliation with, be quick to repent of the things that you need to repent from, but don't put these things on the back burner, because far too many Christians have these mental blocks, and then they can't push through and do the things that they need to do, so instead they're trying to just appease themselves, or appease a guilty conscience, with doing worldly good works.
So we need to make sure that we actually are getting our life in order before the Lord, living holy and pure, and practicing righteousness. So that's all I have for today, I want to encourage those of you that do want to practice righteousness, so I want to pray for those of you that want to put your faith in Jesus, and live for Him, and not practice the things of the world. "Lord Jesus, I pray for my fellow brothers and sisters who are listening today, that want to practice righteousness, and who want to put off ungodliness. We want to be dedicated to your truth, we want to be filled with your Holy Spirit, and not with the thoughts of the world, or the desires of the flesh. So fill us with your righteousness, and with your truth, let us feast on your words, let us have the words of life in us, and let us meditate on your truth, and on your righteousness. May we resist evil, may we resist temptation, and continue to overcome in your name. Amen."
Well praise Jesus everyone, I see your comments coming in. Yeah praise Jesus, it's always good to be thankful. We've been getting some rain here in California, which I'm very thankful for. It's good to start the day right, and be praising the Lord, worshiping Him, and encouraging others to also follow and obey the Lord. I think we'll end this live stream here this morning, but continue to resist evil, and do good before Jesus.
He loves us, He cares for us, but He wants us to live the holy life. So let us keep our eyes on the prize, which is Jesus Christ, and keep enduring on the straight and narrow path. Yes we have to pray continually, pray continually without ceasing. If you pray and ask Jesus to fill you with His Holy Spirit, and to give you His new tongue, He will teach you how to pray without ceasing, like it says in the scripture. We want to always have the heart and mind of the Lord, and praying in His will. Alright that's it for today guys. Go in the Spirit of the Lord Jesus, honor Him, and please Him with your life, and be a light for Him.
