#oncesavedalwayssaved #salvation #parableofthewheatandtares #CranfieldBaptistChurch #Jesus #bibleteaching #history #christianity #christian #PastorSteveLloyd #rapture #harpazo #God #doctrine #ChartridgeMissionChurch #chesham #thefriendliestfellowship
Steve Lloyd, Pastor of Cranfield Baptist Church in Bedford, once again blesses Chartridge Mission Church with another sermon. This time, we are on the controversial topic of 'once saved, always saved'. Pastor Steve uses The Bible's parable of the Wheat and the Tares to illustrate his viewpoint on the debate. Whatever your view, this is a thought-provoking presentation on salvation and what it means to walk God's narrow path.
Pastor Steve Lloyd is also the President of the Bible Prophecy Foundation. https://www.bibleprophecyfoundation.org/
Chartridge Mission Church was founded in 1844 and is still located in the village of Chartridge, just outside of Chesham, in the beautiful Chiltern Hills of Buckinghamshire, England, UK.
Filmed on Sunday, 13th April 2025.
Join us for our Sunday service at 18:00.
www.Chartridge.UK
The Friendliest Fellowship.
Steve Lloyd, Pastor of Cranfield Baptist Church in Bedford, once again blesses Chartridge Mission Church with another sermon. This time, we are on the controversial topic of 'once saved, always saved'. Pastor Steve uses The Bible's parable of the Wheat and the Tares to illustrate his viewpoint on the debate. Whatever your view, this is a thought-provoking presentation on salvation and what it means to walk God's narrow path.
Pastor Steve Lloyd is also the President of the Bible Prophecy Foundation. https://www.bibleprophecyfoundation.org/
Chartridge Mission Church was founded in 1844 and is still located in the village of Chartridge, just outside of Chesham, in the beautiful Chiltern Hills of Buckinghamshire, England, UK.
Filmed on Sunday, 13th April 2025.
Join us for our Sunday service at 18:00.
www.Chartridge.UK
The Friendliest Fellowship.
Category
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LearningTranscript
00:00Glory to the Holy Spirit, found from love and sanctity.
00:16Alleluia, alleluia, to the joy of majesty.
00:30Alleluia, alleluia, to the joy of majesty.
01:00Unfortunately, but it is quite small when you think of it.
01:04But anyway, the Lord is working there and that's good.
01:07And so I'm involved in that ministry.
01:10I'm going to read from the word of God.
01:12I'm going to read from Matthew chapter 13 and starting at verse 24 to start with.
01:20And we're looking this evening at the parable, if you like, of the wheat and the tares.
01:28And for those of you who know that I'm into prophecy in terms of end times prophecy,
01:35there is a direct link to end times prophecy in this particular parable.
01:41And so that's where we're going this evening.
01:45So I'm going to start reading from verse 24 through to 30.
01:49And then I'm going to jump over to 36 and read through to 43.
01:54So verse 24 says,
01:56Jesus told them another parable.
01:59The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.
02:04But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away.
02:11When the wheat sprouted and formed ears, then the weeds also appeared.
02:18The owner's servants came to him and said,
02:20Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field?
02:24Where then did the weeds come from?
02:27An enemy has done this, he replied.
02:30The servants asked him, do you want us to go and pull them up?
02:34No, he answered, because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them.
02:41Let them both grow together until the harvest.
02:45At that time, I will tell the harvesters, first collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned.
02:51Then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.
02:56And then down to verse 36.
02:58Then he left the crowd and went into the house.
03:01His disciples came to him and said, explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.
03:07He answered, the one who sowed the good seed is the son of man.
03:12The field is the world and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom.
03:18The weeds are the sons of the evil one and the enemy who sows them is the devil.
03:25The harvest is the end of the age and the harvesters are angels.
03:31As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age.
03:39The son of man will send out his angels and they will weed out out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil.
03:50They will throw them into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
03:56Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father.
04:01He who has ears, let him hear.
04:06May the Lord bless that scripture to us this evening.
04:10You know, I think that the parable that we have read today is often overlooked by many preachers.
04:16I can't remember the last time that I heard a preacher actually preach on this.
04:21And yet it is one that we should not miss out because it is one that has very much, if you like, an important message for the days in which we're in.
04:31It is, if you like, a last days message to the church.
04:36And so I believe that the Lord would have me speak on this this evening.
04:41But let me start by, first of all, not going into this, but going to Matthew chapter 25.
04:47I'm sure that you will recall that in Matthew 24, Jesus was confronted by the disciples who asked them a question about when all these things would be.
05:00Jesus having said that the wars and the things they see around him, them would come down.
05:06And they said, well, when will all this happen?
05:07And then he goes through a whole list of things that we, if you like, cling on to as end times things.
05:15You know, these things must happen as we go through.
05:19And, of course, we we latch on to the wars and the rumors of the wars.
05:22And we see this so much today, but they've always been there.
05:26And so we see these things as birth pangs coming on.
05:30But he then goes on into chapter 25 to to to to give us a picture of a Jewish wedding.
05:39And we know it probably as the ten wise and foolish virgins.
05:44But it's all about the wedding scene and what would happen.
05:48And I don't know whether you know much about a wedding in Israel,
05:52but it was the done thing for a lad when he wanted to marry a woman to go and see the dad, as you might say,
06:01which still happens for us today, doesn't it?
06:03But he would go there and he would ask to marry the daughter and they would seal it with a cup of wine.
06:10And when they'd had that cup of wine, the guy would go off and the bride wouldn't see him again
06:17until he was ready to return to collect her.
06:22And while he was away, he would be building usually an add on room type thing at his father's house
06:29and a place for them both to live together.
06:33And when the father of the bridegroom said that everything was ready,
06:38then he could come back and he could go and grab his bride and take her back with him.
06:44And that was that's the scenario that we're actually seeing.
06:46And while they're waiting now, the bride's job was quite easy.
06:50She just had to keep herself ready.
06:53No shopping, nothing like that.
06:55Just get yourself ready because you just don't know when the bridegroom is coming back.
07:01And so she would wait.
07:02And these virgins were there waiting with her.
07:08And it's quite clear from chapter 24 that Jesus is is talking about the church.
07:15He's not he's not talking about a Jewish wedding as in for the Jews.
07:20He's talking about the church, but he's doing it in the setting of a Jewish wedding.
07:24And so these 10 virgins, five of which are wise and we're told five foolish,
07:30show us that they were waiting for the bridegroom in exactly the same way as today.
07:37We as the church are waiting for the bridegroom.
07:40This is why Jesus said to the disciples, I'm going.
07:44Don't be sad that I'm going away because I'm going away to prepare a place for you.
07:49And when I've prepared the place for you, I will come back to take you to be where I am.
07:54And that's where we are today.
07:56We are waiting for Jesus to come back and take us to be with himself.
08:00Now, we have these five wise, five foolish virgins, and they're doing exactly the same thing at the very beginning.
08:10They've gone, they're there, they all fall asleep.
08:13But five of them have got extra oil.
08:16And when the shout goes out to say the bridegroom has arrived, they all go to trim their wicks and get themselves ready.
08:27And five were OK.
08:28And the other five, oh, dear, we're now in trouble.
08:32Our lights have gone out and we haven't got any more oil.
08:34Can you give us some of your oil?
08:35No, no, no.
08:36Go and get your own.
08:38And while they've gone to get their own oil, the bridegroom actually arrives.
08:43And everyone goes into the the bridal party arrangements and the door is shut.
08:50And then these five foolish ones come back and they knock on the door.
08:54They want to come in.
08:55But this is the reply in verse 12 of chapter 25.
08:59He says this.
09:00But he answered and said, verily, I say unto you, I know you not.
09:06I know you not.
09:08And there is a link between this chapter, chapter 24, and the chapter that we've just read in chapter 13, because the context is the kingdom of heaven is like.
09:20You're talking about the same thing.
09:24The kingdom of heaven is like.
09:26And in chapter 13, we see that the first parable, which is entitled The kingdom of heaven is like, is a parable about a sower going out to sow his seed.
09:38And he sows it on different types of soil.
09:41And then he gives an explanation as to what that's all about.
09:44And then he moves on to the parable of the weeds.
09:49And we often call it the wheat and the tares.
09:52Same thing.
09:53It doesn't really matter.
09:54The fact is that the farmer has gone out and he sowed his field with good seed.
10:00And the devil comes along and he sows bad seed in there.
10:05And for us to understand this parable, we have to really know what Jesus was talking about.
10:12Now, he gives us this indication.
10:14He gives us an explanation of what it is.
10:17And it's about the end times.
10:18It's about the days in which we live, where he has allowed the church, the field, the church to grow up with both good believers in it and tares.
10:31And he allows them to come together.
10:33In the very beginning, you would probably not notice the difference between the two.
10:37And that's an important part here as well.
10:40But he allows them to grow together.
10:42And then in the end of time, there is this separation.
10:48One that will be thrown into the fire and the other one that will be into heaven.
10:55And so the parable that we're looking at in Matthew chapter 13, verse 24, it says,
10:59The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field.
11:06The good seed then grows.
11:08It germinates.
11:09It produces fruit.
11:11You know, remember, we too are called to produce fruit.
11:14And then in Matthew chapter 7, we read, Wherefore, by their fruits, ye shall know them.
11:24What we do shows whether we are a Christian or not.
11:28And I'm not talking about doing works for salvation.
11:31I'm doing the fact that if we are saved, we want to do good things for the Lord.
11:35And there's a total difference there.
11:37And I'm sure you get that.
11:40And so the field is Jesus's field and it's full of good seed.
11:44But while the men, the servants of Christ, were sleeping.
11:50Then someone came in and put in bad seed.
11:56Well, if the field is Jesus's field full of good seed, that, of course, must represent the fact that it's talking about the church of Christ.
12:04The servants who have slept have got to be, I believe, church leaders.
12:11They've got to be the evangelists.
12:13They've got to be the teachers who have allowed the enemy.
12:17To come in, whether they knew it or not, they have allowed the enemy to come in and sow these weeds or these tares.
12:26Now, the word tares in the Hebrew is zizanion.
12:32It's a kind of darnel.
12:33Now, I'm not much of a guy that knows about these things, but I'm told that the darnel was one of the commonest of the four species of weeds that would have grown in the area where Jesus was.
12:46And it grew especially in the fields of wheat.
12:50They grow as tall as wheat.
12:55And at the beginning, they look like wheat.
12:58And so the Jews would have called it degenerate wheat.
13:03In other words, wheat that's gone wrong.
13:05But I won't tell you what the rabbis called it, because that's not good from the pulpit.
13:10But anyway, it was not right.
13:12So we'll use the word tares.
13:13It was wrong.
13:14It was, if you like, poisonous to both man and to animals.
13:20So if you allowed an animal into it and it ate one of these tares, there's a good chance that it would die.
13:25It was wrong.
13:26So what are these tares?
13:32That's obviously the physical side of it, what naturally grows.
13:35But what does Jesus mean by these tares?
13:37Or should I say, who does he mean by these tares?
13:43Firstly, let me just say that the Lord says, let them grow together.
13:47Let them grow together.
13:48And so we see here that we've got both good wheat growing and we've got tares growing together.
13:54And in exactly the same way that in Matthew 25, we have the wise and we have the foolish virgins.
14:00It's the same thing.
14:02The picture is very similar.
14:05If you go to the book of Jude, that gives us another clear picture of the situation.
14:11And he says this in verse three.
14:13He says, beloved, when I give or gave all diligence to write unto me,
14:18of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should
14:26earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
14:33Why do we need to contend for the faith?
14:38He goes on to say in verse four.
14:39For there are certain men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation
14:47ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God
14:55and our Lord Jesus Christ.
14:58These men are the tares that have got into our churches of today.
15:04And just listen, he goes on to what Jude says about these people in verse eight.
15:08He says, likewise, also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion and speak
15:16evil of dignitaries.
15:17And he goes on even further from verse 10.
15:20Let me read you right down to verse 19.
15:22He says, but these speak evil of those which they know not.
15:27But what they know naturally as brute beasts in those things, they corrupt themselves.
15:35Woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain and ran greedily after the errors of Balaam
15:41for reward and perished in the gainsayings of Cor.
15:45They are spots in your feasts of charity when they feast with you, feeding themselves without
15:51fear, clouds they are without water, carried about of winds, trees whose fruit wither without
16:00fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots, raging waves of the sea, foaming out of their
16:05own shame, wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackest of darkness forever.
16:12There are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts, and their mouth speaks
16:18great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage.
16:25But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord
16:29Jesus Christ, how that they told you that there would be mockers in the last time, who should
16:36walk after their own ungodly lusts.
16:40These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the spirit.
16:45I think Jude sums it up quite well of what a tear is.
16:50It's this type of person.
16:52It's this person that has got into the church and is causing havoc.
16:57And we see it in the church today.
17:00This behaviour would be what would come under the teachings and practices of the Nicolaitans,
17:07which we read about in Revelations chapter 2.
17:10The church at Ephesus, despite the judgment against it for leaving its first love, which
17:16was, of course, Jesus, and how soon they left that first love.
17:22They were against the Nicolaitans.
17:25Verse 6 of Revelation 2 said,
17:28But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
17:33The church at Pergamos also, in verse 14 and 15, says,
17:38But I have a few things against you, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine
17:44of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast the stumbling block before the children of Israel,
17:50to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.
17:54So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.
18:00But names are quite interesting in Scripture, and Bible names in particular have particular
18:10meanings.
18:12Now, it's widely held that the Nicolaitans originated with a man called Nicholas.
18:17Makes sense after all, doesn't it?
18:20And it is thought that he is the one that's mentioned in the book of Acts, in Acts chapter
18:246, where it says,
18:26But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word, and
18:30this saying pleased the whole multitude.
18:33And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith, and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus,
18:38and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch, whom they set
18:45before the apostles, and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them.
18:50So it's believed that this Nicholas was the one who started this group that was known as
18:56the Nicolaitans.
18:58He wasn't a Jewish person.
18:59He was a proselyte from Antioch.
19:03And obviously, at some time, he has converted to Judaism, and now he is part of the faith
19:11and believing in Christ.
19:12And so at some stage, he's had a pagan background, then he's had a Judaism background, and now
19:21he's got a Christian background.
19:22In other words, he's a mixed up fella.
19:24There's no other word for it, really, is he?
19:26He's quite mixed up.
19:27But he was a believer, and he was set apart for the work.
19:33Yet it appears that Nicholas went off the rails.
19:37It appears that he started this sect that we know as the Nicolaitans.
19:41Now, the name Nicholas actually means compromise.
19:46How strange that it might be that.
19:49But that's what's happening in the church today, is the practice of the Nicolaitans that
19:53causes havoc is a practice of compromise.
20:00And when you read into this sect, although there is quite a lot of mystery about them,
20:05there's not a lot known really about them.
20:07They promoted the eating of meat offered to idols.
20:11They promoted sexual immorality and a number of other things.
20:15And this was during a hard period for the early church.
20:22Persecution was going on and all sorts.
20:24And it is quite probable that the meat offered to idols may have been the only thing that
20:29was available for them to eat at that time.
20:32And so, therefore, they compromised themselves with a little bit of encouragement.
20:40Well, you might sort of say, well, surely that's OK, isn't it?
20:43I mean, after all, an idol is nothing.
20:47The scripture itself says an idol is just a piece of man's imagination.
20:50It's just a piece of wood or metal or stone.
20:53It cannot do anything.
20:54It cannot walk.
20:55It cannot speak.
20:57Whatever.
20:57So what's the point?
20:59Well, the point is that they had been told not to eat the meat that had been offered to an idol.
21:12You see, part of the problem there was that in order to get the meat that had been offered to the idol,
21:18you had to go into the temple of that idol.
21:20Can you see a picture of what's happening in our churches today?
21:28We are going in to places where the church should not be going.
21:32We think it's great.
21:33Oh, it's really good for us, of course.
21:35And it's making us relevant to the world outside today because we're having all these things coming into the church
21:40and we're going into them and everything's great, isn't it?
21:44But it's not.
21:45You see, because the church has got into idol worship in many ways.
21:52And, of course, Jesus's words in Matthew 6, verse 24 says,
21:55No man can serve two masters.
21:58For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other.
22:03He cannot serve God and mammon.
22:05And one of the devil's tricks today is to tell the church it's OK.
22:09You can do both.
22:15But you can't.
22:24We have a number of things going on in the church today that point to exactly what the wheat and the tares is all about.
22:33No one can serve two masters is one thing.
22:37No one can do the things and go against scripture is another.
22:41But we have these people coming in and they change what the scripture says.
22:47And one of those things that is quite prevalent at the moment is this teaching that once saved, always saved.
22:55Now, perhaps some of you will fall out with me at this point, but there is a teaching that goes on.
23:02If you've made a statement of faith, if you've confessed your sin and become a Christian, that's it.
23:07It's a once and for all salvation.
23:09And no matter what you do, no matter what you do, you will never lose that salvation.
23:17I don't see that in scripture.
23:19I don't see a once saved, always saved teaching in scripture.
23:26I'm not saying that if you do something wrong, you've lost your salvation.
23:30Don't get me wrong.
23:31But what I'm saying is that when you are saved, you are to act in a way that shows that you are saved,
23:39which means staying away from sin as much as you can.
23:41But when you go out and you deliberately do the things that go against scripture,
23:46then you're not doing what the Lord tells you to do.
23:53And the teaching of the Nicolaitans is all part of this.
23:58The church has gone off the rails and by church, I'm talking umbrella church here, not individual churches.
24:04But on the whole, the church has gone off the rails.
24:06It's got itself into all sorts of things.
24:08You know, there was a church over in Norwich that had got a helter-skelter in the main church,
24:13you know, and they thought that was brilliant because it got people in.
24:17We've got churches that are opening themselves up and allowing Muslims to come and worship in their churches.
24:24And they think it's wonderful because we're all inclusive.
24:27But do they not realize that if you allow them in, they are claiming that place for their idol?
24:34They might not call him an idol, but that's exactly what he is.
24:37And they don't see it.
24:39It's all about being inclusive.
24:41And they think that if we do it that way, then they'll allow us to go into theirs.
24:45I'm sure you've all heard of Chrislam.
24:48Chrislam is a mixture of Christianity and Islam.
24:51And it was brought about by a guy from the States whose name I can't remember at this moment in time.
24:56But he basically came up with the idea that Christians could go into the pulpits of an Islamic mosque and preach the gospel.
25:05And then the imams could come into the church and they could preach whatever it is they preach.
25:09And it would be lovely, except it never worked that way.
25:12Not that it ever should.
25:14But of course, the imams were invited into the churches and they preached their message in the churches.
25:18But the Christian preachers were never allowed the other way.
25:23Not that it would have been good, even if it had happened, because we shouldn't have been getting involved with idols.
25:28It's the teething of the Nicolaitans.
25:32And Jesus says in John chapter 10,
25:35My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.
25:41And I give them eternal life and they shall never perish.
25:45Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
25:47And you'll say that you shot yourself in the foot there then, Steve, haven't you?
25:51Because if no one can pluck them out of my hand, surely it is a once saved, always saved.
25:56But that's not what Jesus is saying here.
26:00My father, which gave them me, is great at all.
26:02And no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hand.
26:06You know, if you are in Christ and you are walking in Christ, no man can pluck you out of his hand.
26:13But if you turn your back and you jump, if you like, you can get out of his hand.
26:19If you go the wrong way, then you can lose your salvation, I believe.
26:25And I'll gladly spend hours afterwards explaining that a bit more because I'm sure there will be someone that goes,
26:31Hang on a minute, Steve, I'm not with you.
26:34But you see, it says here quite clearly, if you hear my voice and follow me, it's in the present tense.
26:41They're not past tense.
26:42If you have, if you did, it's when you hear my voice and follow me.
26:48And the pluck, the word pluck is the same word that actually is used for the rapture.
26:54What he's saying is that no one can snatch you by force out of my hand.
27:01No one can snatch us by force out of the hand of the Lord.
27:06But you can turn your back on him.
27:08You can jump.
27:09As bad as that may be, but we'll come to that in a moment.
27:19There would be those that would come and say, well, what about the thief on the cross?
27:24The thief on the cross was not a doer of the word.
27:27And he didn't follow Jesus.
27:30Because he died straight away.
27:32But Jesus said, today, thou will be with me in paradise.
27:38Why? Because he believed in Jesus.
27:41In that cross, he believed in Jesus.
27:45Romans 10 verses 9 and 10 says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus
27:50and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
27:55For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
28:00I think that's exactly what the guy did on that cross.
28:04He confessed that Jesus was who he said he was and he believed.
28:10Luke 23 says, and one of the male factors which was hanged railed on him, saying,
28:16if thou be Christ, save yourself and us.
28:19But the other answering rebuked him, saying, does thou not fear God,
28:23seeing thou art in the same condemnation?
28:26And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds.
28:30But this man hath done nothing amiss.
28:34And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.
28:39And Jesus said unto him, verily I say unto you, today you will be with me in paradise.
28:46He confessed, he believed, and he was saved.
28:50But he is a one-off.
28:53We don't often see that.
28:54But people do have deathbed confessions where they confess Christ.
28:58But these verses still do not suggest a once saved, always saved type conversion.
29:03A very basic summary of once saved, always saved, is that the law of God no longer applies
29:14because of Christ's death and resurrection.
29:17In other words, once I'm saved, I can do as I like.
29:19It doesn't matter.
29:21The law is gone.
29:21I've heard Christians say, and I say this from a police officer's point of view,
29:28you know, it doesn't matter.
29:29Now, I can go through the village that says 30 mile an hour and I can speed because the
29:33law does not apply to me because I'm a believer.
29:36Utter rubbish.
29:38Utter rubbish.
29:39The law does apply to you.
29:40And you are expected to keep the law if you want to honour Jesus.
29:45But the law does not save you.
29:48That's the difference.
29:49The law does not save you.
29:51It's all about grace.
29:54And grace nowadays with many people is a cover all grace.
29:58It doesn't matter what I do.
30:00His grace will cover me.
30:04So I can live how I like.
30:05That's the once saved, always saved view.
30:08But friends, it's wrong.
30:10It's wrong.
30:11You cannot take the grace of God and smear it in the dirt because of the way you want to live.
30:17Galatians 6 verse 7 and 8 says,
30:23Do not be deceived.
30:24God is not mocked.
30:25For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
30:29For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption.
30:34And he that soweth of the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting.
30:39Romans 6 verse 14 and 15 says,
30:43For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law, but under grace.
30:49What then?
30:50Shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace?
30:54And Paul says, God forbid.
30:57Paul says, no, we don't sin because we're under grace.
31:01The grace of God is not an excuse to sin.
31:08But that's the way the once saved, always saved movement treats it.
31:13It is a practice of the Nicolaitans.
31:16It is a tear in the church that is growing up amongst the wheat.
31:23And so now in the church, we have the same thing today going on.
31:26We have false teachers who twist the word of God and teach the people that God is love and that you are under this grace.
31:35And therefore, once you've repented, you can do what you like.
31:40What an amazing work of the devil that is.
31:45I'm sure that those five foolish virgins, as we've come to know them,
31:50didn't expect the person on the other side of the door to say, go away, I never knew you.
31:58But that's exactly what happened.
32:05The devil is planting people who appear on the outside to look like Christians in the church, but they're not Christians.
32:14They are followers of another way.
32:16They may say the right things.
32:18They may come across with all the cliches that one would expect.
32:22They may be able to quote Bible verses, but they are not saved.
32:27And they are in places of church leadership.
32:30I know one church near me that has a deacon on its diaconate that is not saved.
32:36How can that be?
32:39How can that be?
32:40If you put someone who does not know Christ on the leadership team of a church, where is that church going to go?
32:48It's going to go worldly.
32:51It cannot go anywhere else.
32:54Because that person and that leadership will go away from Christ.
33:00The difference between wheat and tares is this.
33:04The wheat is good.
33:06The wheat is what it should be.
33:07It is sown by Jesus and it has the spirit living within it and it has the will to bear fruit.
33:16Each one of us who knows Christ has the spirit of God within us and wants to do what God wants us to do.
33:23We want to do good things.
33:26But the tare is a weed that is good for nothing.
33:30It starts out looking like the wheat, but after a while it shows its true colours.
33:40Because it doesn't have the spirit of God.
33:43And it cannot bear fruit.
33:46It would be obvious, I think, to most of us that if we were in a place where at Christmas time they rock up for the annual communion midnight service.
33:57It would be obvious to most of us that the person that has just come out of the pub, who never sets foot in a church all year round, and yet finds himself at the head of the queue for the communion.
34:09We would all look at that person and go, hmm, definitely not a Christian.
34:14Definitely not a saved person.
34:16And if they were all like that, that came into our churches, life would be easy.
34:20But unfortunately, it's not the way.
34:23Is a Christian who is regular at church, who has made a confession of faith in Christ, yet leads a life of adultery and gets involved in sexual acts outside of marriage, he gets drunk, etc.
34:35Is he any better than the person that would come in once a year?
34:40What about the one who is truly converted and he follows the Lord for years and then turns their back on him and gives it all up?
34:57Are they still saved?
34:58The once saved, ordinary, always saved camp would say, well, yes, he can.
35:06Yes, of course he can, because they cannot be taken out of God's hand.
35:10But a person who has turned his back and gone away has not been snatched out.
35:13He has jumped.
35:14The New Testament is full of the letters to the churches to show them how they should behave, how they are to live.
35:33If there was no need to live that way, there would be no need for more than the Gospels and the Book of Revelation in our New Testament, because we wouldn't need to worry about it, would we?
35:47But Paul and Peter and then they write to the churches to say, this is how you must behave.
35:53This is how you must live because of Christ.
35:55Let me give you a type of analogy to sort of show what I'm trying to say here, because it's always difficult, but it's a little bit like going on a bus.
36:04I know we probably don't go on buses very much these days, but if you think about you're at the bus stop and you're waiting for the bus and the driver of the bus is the Lord Jesus himself.
36:13And he comes to your bus stop and you see it's Jesus.
36:17And so you get on and you're on his bus and you're driving on his route and his route leads to heaven.
36:23But you see, as we're going along this route, and that route is life, of course, there are many stops because at each stop, there are people that are going to try and get on the bus.
36:34But there are also people that will get off the bus before they should.
36:40And it's a little bit like that.
36:42We have to stay on the bus.
36:45We have to stay walking with the Lord Jesus Christ.
36:49We will be tempted to go after other things.
36:51We will be tempted to get off the bus.
36:56And perhaps it's because we fall out with people in church or the church isn't doing things the way we want them to do.
37:02And you think, you know, I need to get out of this or whatever, you know, because we lose the love that we should have for one another.
37:09I've been talking recently to a guy who, he said, oh, Steve, he just phoned me up out of the blue.
37:16I didn't know him from Adam, but he just asked, Steve, I'm not going to church.
37:19I can't find a church I'm going to.
37:20All the churches I go to, they're full of demons.
37:24And I've come across this sort of person before.
37:26And I'm thinking, oh, please, here we go.
37:28But anyway, you know, so they what they do is they don't go to church because everybody in that church to them is demonized.
37:39Now, I'm not saying that there aren't demons in churches.
37:42I'm sure there are.
37:44But not everybody is demonized.
37:46And if you look upon everyone as being demonized, you're always going to be on your own.
37:50But the thing is, the church is Jesus's instigation.
37:56He formed the church and the church is on his bus.
38:00And if you don't want to be in the church and don't want to be part of the church and part of his way, you get off the bus.
38:06And so, therefore, you haven't been snatched off the bus.
38:09You've walked off the bus.
38:10When we repent and give our lives to Christ, we are at the beginning of that journey.
38:26That's where it starts.
38:29But we have to stay on the bus until we arrive at the other end.
38:33When we get to our destination.
38:35And while we're doing that, we remain close to him because he's the driver.
38:43And therefore, we can't be taken off out of his hand.
38:48Philippians chapter 2, verse 12 says,
38:49Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence,
38:55continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
39:00He's not talking about working for your salvation.
39:03He's talking about every day of your life, you are living for Christ.
39:11And so within the church, there are not only the tares who are not real Christians.
39:19And who will lead people astray.
39:22But there are also people, perhaps in the church, who think they are saved, but are not.
39:27They have once repented of their sin, but they have now walked away.
39:34Romans 6, verse 15 says,
39:36What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace?
39:40By no means.
39:42Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves to the one you obey?
39:48Whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience that leads to righteousness.
39:55As a believer, we are to live a life of obedience.
40:03The writer to the Hebrews, I think, puts it quite concisely.
40:08In Hebrews 6, verse 4, he says this,
40:12It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift,
40:20who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age,
40:27and who have fallen away to be brought back to repentance.
40:31To their loss, they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.
40:43Well, if that's not clear, I don't know what is.
40:47He goes on to say in Hebrews 10, verse 19,
40:51Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus,
40:57by a new and living way opened up to us through the curtain, that is his body,
41:01and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart
41:07and with the full assurance that faith brings.
41:11Having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water,
41:19let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess for he who promised is faithful.
41:26And let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds,
41:34not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another,
41:39and all the more as we see the day approaching.
41:43Verse 26 of that chapter says,
41:45How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished,
42:10who has trampled the Son of God underfoot,
42:13who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them,
42:18and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?
42:22If you think that you can make a confession of faith in Christ and then walk your own way and do your own thing,
42:33no matter what it is, then I suggest you read this again and again and again,
42:38because you will heap judgment upon yourself.
42:42And that's the teaching we're getting in our churches in these last days,
42:46is that people can do what they want, and it doesn't matter.
42:52But it does.
42:54It does.
42:56In Revelation 2 and 3, we have the letters to the churches.
43:00They are letters of commendation and condemnation.
43:05Before God brings his wrath upon the world, he will judge the church.
43:10Do you remember it says in Scripture that judgment begins with the house of God.
43:15And I believe he's doing that right now.
43:21I believe in the last couple of years, he has been shaking the church.
43:25And he is almost, as it were, I'll use the word that most people use these days.
43:30There is now a remnant church, it would seem, that is apart from an apostate church.
43:38And an apostate church is one that does what it wants, but it has this church about it.
43:45But it denies the power thereof.
43:49We are in a time when the tares are coming up.
43:56But you know what?
44:01The Lord says, when the time is right, we will come and the angels of God will bundle up those tares.
44:07And they will get them ready for the very last harvest.
44:12Now, I believe that harvest he's talking about is the end of time when Christ comes at the end of that tribulation period.
44:18And he comes to claim the world back, if you like, and he comes to bring judgment.
44:24And those people that have been in our churches that were left behind at the rapture, because they won't be there.
44:31The church, the true church, the remnant church is gone.
44:34They will be bundled up and along with all of the other anti-Christ things will be thrown into the lake of fire.
44:47We see them all the time, don't we, on our televisions.
44:50These TV evangelists and stuff like that who are tares in our churches.
44:55But you don't even have to go that far.
44:58There are tares in many churches.
45:00I just want to warn you today, friends, and I'm sure you're well aware of this, because wherever you go, you know,
45:09I know that whatever I preach about, people already know these things, but it's always good to have it verified sometimes.
45:18If we are trying to serve the Lord in this world.
45:23And we're trying to serve Jesus, but we compromise.
45:27It won't work.
45:28We cannot compromise the word of God.
45:34There are many in the church who will cry, Lord, Lord, on that day.
45:38People who think that they've done great things for God.
45:42There will be those in the church who have never committed their lives to Christ, never followed him.
45:49Or perhaps they started, but their oil ran out.
45:52They gave up.
45:53And the Lord's going to say to all of those people, away from me.
45:59I never knew you.
46:03Where are you this evening?
46:06Are you walking closely with the Lord?
46:08Do you have that assurance, that peace that comes from following him?
46:13If not, then I plead with you to give your life to Christ, to repent of your sins and follow him.
46:21Because the time is short.
46:27The rapture could come at any time.
46:30And I really mean that.
46:32It could come at any time.
46:33And I'm looking forward to that day.
46:34But I don't want people left behind either.
46:38I want people to come to know Christ so that when that trumpet sounds and Christ comes, we will be with him in the air.
46:50Don't let compromise.
46:51Don't let the tears put you off or take you away from Jesus.
46:57Stay close, no matter what the cost.
47:01Don't compromise.
47:03Because we want to hear Jesus say, well done, good and faithful servant.
47:10Amen.
47:11Amen.
47:11Amen.
47:13Amen.
47:14Amen.
47:15Amen.
47:41Amen.
47:42Amen.
47:43Amen.
47:45Amen.
48:11Amen.
48:12Amen.
48:13Amen.
48:14Amen.
48:15Amen.
48:16Amen.
48:17Amen.
48:18Amen.
48:19Amen.
48:20Amen.
48:21Amen.
48:22Amen.
48:23Amen.
48:24Amen.
48:25Amen.
48:26Amen.
48:27Amen.
48:28Amen.
48:29Amen.
48:30Amen.
48:31Amen.
48:32Amen.
48:33Amen.
48:34Amen.
48:35Amen.
48:36Amen.
48:37Amen.
48:38Amen.
48:39Amen.
48:40Amen.
48:41Lord from sight received Him
48:45when the Lord detains the Lord.
48:52Shall our hearts forget His promise?
49:00I am with you evermore.
49:08Alleluia, bread of heaven,
49:16the water, the fruit of stain.
49:26Alleluia, hear the sinful feed to thee
49:34from day to day.
49:38Intercessant, friend of sinners,
49:46earth's redeemed people be.
49:54Where the songs of all the sinners
50:00sweep across the crystal sea.
50:08Alleluia, alleluia, glory to God on high.
50:23To the Father and the Savior,
50:31who has gained the victory.
50:37Glory to the Holy Spirit,
50:45comes from love and sanctity.
50:52Alleluia, alleluia, to the Son of your majesty.
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