 Amen. So keep your place in John chapter 3. John chapter 3, a great chapter in the Bible. The Gospel is repeated in John chapter 3 many times, especially in the last verse. One of my favorite verses in the entire Bible, John 3, 36. He that believeth on the sun hath everlasting life. That's a strong statement right there, saying that he that believeth on the sun, it takes believing on the sun and you hath, you have it, you currently possess everlasting life at that point. You're not getting it, you're not gaining it, you're not, you know, maintaining it. It's just you have it. You have it just like that. This morning I'm preaching a little bit of a special sermon this morning. I can't believe I've actually not preached a whole sermon on this, but I've actually received a request through email and I got this request through email and I got the thinking I've never preached directly on this subject. I've mentioned it a few times here and there, but I'm going to do something a little bit different and a little bit, you know, off what I usually do this morning and I'm going to preach a sermon that is mainly based and directed at people that are not sitting in the church this morning. I'm going to preach a sermon on the Lutheran church this morning, but this sermon that I'm preaching this morning is going to be preached for Lutherans. So if you're listening to this on YouTube, I invite you to go and you're a Lutheran, I invite you to go get your Bible. Go get a Bible, whatever version it is. If you're the Lutheran church from Missouri Synod that I grew up in, you probably have an ESV, which is the English standard version of the Bible. Go get that Bible. I'm going to show you some things in the Bible, in even that version of the Bible that will be important this morning. But I'm going to preach a sermon this morning on the Lutheran religion. And everything that I use doctrinally is going to be from the Lutheran church Missouri Synod, which is the most conservative, it's the most conservative largest denomination of the Lutheran church. So all the doctrine that I read you this morning and that we go over this morning on the Lutheran church is going to be from the Lutheran church Missouri Synod. There's many liberal wings of the Lutheran church today that resemble more of a non-denominational church where they just kind of don't really have any solid doctrinal beliefs. They've kind of thrown out the Bible altogether. So everything I'm going to use for you this morning, talking about the Lutheran religion is going to be from the Lutheran church Missouri Synod information. So Lutheranism. What is it? What's it about? Of course, Martin Luther is the founder of the Lutheran church. He was born in 1483. He lived through the 16th century, died in the 1540s, 1546, I believe. But Martin Luther, he was actually a Catholic priest. He was a Catholic priest. He was a Augustinian monk in the 16th century. He became a central figure in what we know now as the Reformation. So Reformation, the Reformation of the 16th century, Martin Luther was a central figure in that Reformation. He's best known for posting the 95 thesis on the door of a church. He wrote the 95 thesis. The 95 thesis, if you read them, he basically, he revolted against what was going on in the Catholic church in his day. And the 95 thesis themselves are largely against indulgences that the Catholic church was pushing at that time. The Catholic church in the time of Martin Luther was raising money for a lot of building projects, does it sound familiar, with what churches even do today. And they were selling what they would call indulgences. So Martin Luther was kind of pushing back against the corruption of the Catholic church at that time. One of the quotes that Martin Luther said during this time was, why does not the Pope whose wealth today is greater than the wealth of the richest crassus build the Basilica of St. Peter with his own money, rather than with the money of poor believers? So that just shows you what really triggered Martin Luther was just this corruption within the Catholic church. If you read the 95 thesis, you will see that he was not, Martin Luther was not, at least at this point, even against purgatory. He was not preaching against confession of sins for salvation or the sacraments, which we're going to talk a lot about. He was really making three main points against indulgences. And the three points were this. If you want to boil down the 95 points that he made in that document, he was against, number one, selling indulgences to finance the building of St. Peter's Basilica is what he was against. Number two, the Pope has no power over purgatory. Notice how Martin Luther did not mention that purgatory is not in the Bible. I'm against purgatory. It's unbiblical. He just says that the Pope has no power over purgatory. Because of course, people, what are indulgences? Indulgences where the Catholic church was selling, it was selling the freedom to sin. You know, if you want to go and sin, you can pay money and you can be forgiven of that sin. They were selling the idea of getting your relatives out of purgatory. This place where you go, it's like a mini hell before you end up getting released to go to heaven. You know, you could pay money to get a dead relative, your mother, your father, your grandparents out of purgatory. They were selling that type of thing. And then number three, buying indulgences. This is Luther's third point in the 95 thesis. Buying indulgences gives people a false sense of security and endangers their salvation. So hopefully this morning, if you know the Gospel and you know that we are eternally secured through the Gospel, we are sealed by the Holy Spirit. You already see the problems here. You can already hear the problems here. But the point of being is that this point, when he wrote the 95 thesis, he was mainly just against the corruption of the Catholic Church. And another thing is he never meant at this point to leave the Catholic Church. There's a reason that it's called the Reformation, folks. He was trying to reform the Catholic Church. And reform it, he did. He was actually excommunicated from the Catholic Church, which we'll get to that in a minute, but he actually did cause reform within the Church. At the Council of Trent, a few years later, after Martin Luther started causing trouble, they actually, they pared down their definitions of indulgences. The Catholic Church backed off the liberal use of indulgences. They still use them. They just defined it better. They still use them today, by the way, the Catholic Church. They just clarified them a little bit better. So he did reform them in that sense. Luther had many other writings, other than the 95 Theses. He wrote the Book of Concord, many other writings. But the point I want to make about Luther this morning, and we're going to look at his doctrines in detail and how they differ from the Bible this morning. But Luther never left the Catholic Church. He was excommunicated. Okay? He was trying to reform the Catholic Church. That is a very important point, because in Galatians chapter 1, Paul tells us, he tells us twice in verse number 8 and verse number 9, he tells us that if any man have another Gospel, it says, let them be accursed. This is why when we go out and we preach the Gospel and we meet some Catholic priest at the door, or some Lutheran pastor at the door, or some other spiritual leader of a false religion at the door, this is why we don't argue with them. We don't try to reform them, because the Bible says if somebody is teaching another Gospel, let them, that means leave them alone. It says, let them be accursed. Who accurses people? God accurses people. So Paul is saying in Galatians chapter 1, he's saying if somebody has another Gospel, which the Catholic Church clearly has another Gospel this morning, many conservative Lutherans would agree with that statement, that the Catholic Church clearly has another Gospel. Luther, if he was on the right track, he should have let them be accursed. He should have left the Catholic Church and just let them be accursed. You know, Luther, the point I'm trying to make and the point I'm going to show you this morning is that Luther, Martin Luther, he never came to the true Gospel. He never got there. He never got there. He may have recognized corruption, but he was still very much Catholic. That's what I want to show you this morning. Luther also, you know, another thing that he was against is Luther also wanted to get married. And he noticed in the Bible, but he argued it this way. He argued that allowing priests to marry would prevent cases of sexual immorality amongst priests, which tells you where things were at then. You know, the more things change, the more things stay the same. So it's pretty clear in the Bible that, you know, a pastor, a bishop, you know, the husband of one wife, it's pretty clear that the Bible is okay, pretty much it's a requirement for a pastor to be married. If I have to be the husband of one wife to be qualified to be a pastor, that seems like I need to be married, is what the Bible says. Then it goes into family and raising children, which you see why that marriage is a requirement. But all that to say this, let's look at what the Lutherans believe on salvation on the Gospel itself. Here is Martin Luther on salvation. Here is Martin Luther on salvation. Jesus Christ. And we just read John chapter three, which just repeats the Gospel again and again and again, verse after verse after verse. Martin Luther on salvation quote Jesus Christ, our God and Lord died for our sins and was raised again for our justification. Romans 3, 24 through 25. He alone is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, John 1 29. These are the references that the church uses. And God has laid on him the iniquity of us all, Isaiah 53, 6. All have sinned and are justified freely without their own works and merits by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. His blood Romans 3, 23 through 25. This is necessary to believe. This cannot be otherwise acquired or grasped by any work, law or merit. Therefore it is clear and certain that this faith alone justifies us. Nothing of this article can be yielded or surrendered even though heaven and earth and everything else falls. Sounds pretty good. Sounds pretty good. The Lutheran reading this or the Baptist reading this is like, there's nothing there that I disagree with. Sounds pretty good. Now let me drill into the doctrine of the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod and what Martin Luther actually believed. And the key is in this statement without their own merits by his grace. So Martin Luther taught that it is by God's grace by his grace alone that we are saved that we are justified. Sounds good. Now let me explain. We're going to explain how twisted and tricky this gets when you actually read Lutheran doctrine and the things that Martin Luther wrote. This quote on its own sounds pretty good. Now everything that I read for you this morning is going to be from the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod. This is the church that I grew up in. This is the conservative, there's 40 different denominations of the Lutheran Church in the United States. They can really be broken up into two, maybe even you could argue three big denominations. The liberal denomination is the evangelical Lutheran Church of America, the ELCA. If you ever see a big Lutheran church in a small town, it's going to be the ELCA. The smaller church, the next biggest church will be the LCMS, the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod. In the small town that I grew up in, there was four different Lutheran churches. And I remember as a child, I remember this distinct question coming in my mind just on the Lutheran churches. There was four different Lutheran churches. There was a Catholic church. There was a Baptist church. There was an assembly of God Pentecostal church. And I think one other type of church, but there was all these different churches, but just on the idea of the Lutheran church, I went to the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod in this town, which was 104. I remember having the question, what are the odds I grew up in the right one? What are the odds that our church, because they didn't fellowship with each other. They did not, they were, it was not ecumenical, especially the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod. They're not an ecumenical organization. They hold to their doctrines and they do not fellowship with Lutheran churches that have, that don't hold to the same lines that they hold to. So everything that we use as far as doctrine goes, because the other Lutheran church, the evangelical Lutheran church has just gone liberal. They have female pastors, homosexual pastors. They've just, they've basically taken the Bible and thrown it to the wind. And that's what they've done. We'll talk about that this evening. But everything that we look at this morning is going to be from the Lutheran church I grew up in the LCMS. Okay. So let's look at this. Let's look at salvation from the Lutheran church, Missouri Synod. And in order to understand this and how this is, is tucked into salvation and explain how what Luther actually felt, I need to explain this term to you called the means of grace. So we are justified. According to Martin Luther, we are justified freely through God's grace. And if you look at the front of your bulletin, the verse of the week is Ephesians 2.8, for by grace are you saved through faith? Hey, we're with you. We're justified freely through God's grace, which is grace means unmerited favor. It means, you know, you've been, if you're given grace by somebody, you're given something that you don't deserve. You know, in the Bible, it talks about salvation as the gift of God. This gift you didn't deserve, it's just purely through God's grace that you were given this grace. So let me explain to you, from the LCMS, the means of grace and the definition of what this phrase means. From the LCMS, the Lutheran church is very sinned. The means of grace are God's instruments by which all spiritual blessing are bestowed upon sinners. Lutheran churches teach that the means of grace are the ways that the Holy Spirit creates faith in the hearts of Christians, forgives their sins and gives them eternal salvation. The efficacy of these means does not depend on the faith, strength, status or good works of those who proclaim the Word of God or administer God's sacraments. Rather, the efficacy of these means rests in God alone who has promised to work through God's gift of these means to God's church. For Lutherans, the means of grace include, meaning these, this is me talking now, meaning the tools that God uses to give you the grace. The means of grace include, listen very carefully, the gospel, okay, good, I'm with you, as well as the sacrament of holy baptism and the sacrament of the Eucharist. So right there we have bolted, we have the gospel and we have bolted baptism and we have bolted the Lord's Supper or the Eucharist as the Catholic Church teaches it onto salvation. You see how, through the means of grace. So from the LCMS, again, the term means of grace denotes the divinely instituted means by which God offers bestows and seals men to forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. Why don't they just say salvation? First of all, properly speaking there is but one means of grace, the gospel of Christ. Now if it would end there, I would be fine. I would still think it's a weird way to put it, but I would be fine if it would end there. But it doesn't end there. It says, properly speaking, let me read it again, there's but one means of grace, the gospel of Christ. But since in the sacraments, the gospel appears as the verbom visible. And then it says in parentheses, visible word, you know, section eight, volume number five of Augustine of Hippo. It's referencing St. Augustine of Hippo, tract 80. His basically his commentary on John chapter 15 and verse number three, see also paragraph six below. In distinction from the verbom audible, it is rightly said that the means of grace are the gospel and the sacraments. Now you'll see a lot of this type of wording in their writing, you know, just this, there's certain people that teach, you know, a really good teacher can take a complicated subject and explain it simply to people. But you will find these people, especially in academia, I've worked with these people for 20 years, where they will literally, their goal is to not teach you, their goal is to speak in a way where you think they're really smart. So you just trust what they say. And you're going to see a lot of this type of language that we're going to use today, the verbom visible. It means the visible word. All right. And you know, the verbom, the verbom audible, the audible word. So basically, you know, the spoken word and the written word. Why didn't they just say spoken word and written word if they're trying to teach people doctrine? But anyway, let me get back to the point of the means of grace. It is rightly said that the means of grace are the gospel and the sacraments. Here's the problem. Here's the problem. We can, first of all, we can already start to see the extra biblical references that they are using to justify their doctrine. Writings by Augustine of Hippo. St. Augustine was a Catholic priest in the fourth century who literally forced Christians, murdered Christians that would not accept that basically baptism was the first one. The first attack on the gospel was the addition of baptism into salvation. And it was the Christians, the Baptists of the time that said no. No, we did not go to the Council of Nicaea. The Baptists were never Protestant because they were never part of it. They were the ones being hunted by St. Augustine of Hippo. He was a Catholic priest. He's a saint of the Catholic Church. He persecuted early Christians using Luke 14.23. Go ahead and turn there if you have your Bible. Luke 14.23. He was a persecutor of early Christians using Luke 14.23. Amongst other verses in the Bible, let me just show you how he misunderstood a simple verse in the Bible. The Bible is talking about now this man, this householder. He went out and he had this great feast and he wanted people to come. It's a, it's a parable. It's talking about salvation. Look at Luke 14.23. And the Lord said to the servant, after, after people wouldn't come, they wouldn't come to the feast. They were all making excuses. They wouldn't come to the feast. It's a picture of, you know, Jesus' own people rejecting him. You know, he's like, go, go out and just preach it to everybody then. But what, what the Bible says, and the Lord said to the servant, go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in that my house may be filled. Now this is what St. Augustine of Hippo used to murder those Christians refusing to join the Catholic Church. He's like, well the Bible says compel them to come in. You know, so let's torture them and burn their villages and, and kill them to get them to accept the Catholic Church. But here's the point. You know, a Christian reads 14, Luke 14.23 and says, I need to go out and preach the Gospel. I need to go out with my Bible and preach to the lost and compel people and, and literally just plead for people's souls. St. Augustine of Hippo used that to murder people. Soul-winning murder. So look, you must Lutheran today. If you want to know the truth, you must stick to the Bible. You cannot allow extra biblical references because you see how bad this can get. You can see how bad this can get. Now let's look at the first means of grace. Look, this whole means of grace thing and the sacraments, what are the sacraments of the Church? Let's go back to it. It is rightly said that the means of grace are the Gospel and the sacraments. There's the works right there, folks, attached to, attached to salvation. What are the sacraments of the Church? Let me just explain this in the simplest way I possibly can. In the Catholic Church, there are seven sacraments. In the Lutheran Church, there are two. In the Lutheran Church, it's baptism and the Lord's Supper. Those are the two sacraments. In the Catholic Church, there's many others. Matrimony, Confession of Sands, I think Holy Rites is one of them. There's, there's a few more. But the point is, sacraments are man's fingers, are man's strings, a tide that are tied to salvation. And this is what the early Christians rejected. They rejected it. They said, no, there are, there is no man's strings attached to salvation. This is why I used to joke. So basically you see how Lutherans are actually still very Catholic. They just, I used to joke when I was a Lutheran and I was trying to explain Lutheranism to people. I used to say, we're like diet Catholic. You know, we're like Catholic light. Because they have seven sacraments, we have two. We still have sacraments though. We still have sacraments. So they are, they are strings that man attaches to his own salvation. That is the best way you can explain what sacraments are. Now let's go back to the means of grace, where the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod is teaching that you are saved through the gospel and the means of grace, which is the sacraments, which is in their case, baptism and the Lord's suffer. Let me explain this from their own words. On the basis of means of grace from the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod. There are means of grace because there is first Christ objective, Christ's objective justification, Christ's institution. In other words, there is forgiveness for all through Christ, active and passive obedience. Christ wants this forgiveness to be offered and conveyed to all men through the gospel and the sacraments. Three, the twofold power of the means of grace. The means of grace have an offering or conferring power by which God offers to all men forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. An operative or effective power by which the Holy Spirit works strengthens and preserves saving faith. See, the means of grace help preserve your faith. You see, there's the ties into salvation. Number four, the importance of the means of grace. The doctrine of the means of grace, part of the doctrine of the word, is a fundamental doctrine. God bestows his saving grace only through the word and with the external and preceding word. Therefore, the Bible inculcates. Now, why not just say, teaches? Okay, I mean, therefore the Bible inculcates faithful adherents to the gospel. See, they use big words. They're trying to, they're not trying to get you to understand. They're trying to get you to read enough to where you're just like, okay, you must be right. The Bible inculcates faithful adherents to the gospel and the sacraments administered according to Christ's institution because of the strong emphasis on the word in the Lutheran confessions. This is the book of Concord, basically, that Luther wrote. Holy Scripture has rightly been called the formal principle of the Reformation. There's more, so I mean, again, more extra biblical references, which is why I am reading that to you. You know, to summarize, to summarize, you are preserved, you are saved and you are preserved through the gospel and the sacraments. This is Luther's teaching right here. Go to Ephesians chapter one, Ephesians chapter one. You are saved and preserved through the gospel and the sacraments. The end the sacraments is where Christians have always had a problem right here. And it's the same problem. It's the same fundamental disagreement that they have with the Catholic Church. It's just there's two instead of seven. Look at Ephesians chapter one. Look at verse 13. Look what the Bible says. It says, in whom ye also trusted. So look, notice how it says you trusted, ye trusted. It's something you did after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel. You heard the gospel of your salvation in whom that also after ye believed. So look, you heard it, you believed it. That's what the Bible is saying. And then guess what? Ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. Where are the sacraments there? Where are the sacraments there? Let's look at them individually. The Bible teaches that it is you that trusts which is believed on. If we read in John chapter three, you hear believed on, believed on, believed on. He that believeth on the Son, hath everlasting life. No, it's believing on the Son and you are sealed by the Holy Spirit. And it's, and believing on means it's you trusting. It is conditional on you trusting on Christ. That's it. No sacraments there. It's made up. It's man-made. Let's look at baptism individually. Baptism by the Lutheran Church is completely misunderstood. Completely misunderstood. I am bringing you now to a question and answer, a frequently asked questions on the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod website. Here's the question. Can you please clarify the Lutheran view of baptism and its purpose? Does the child become a Christian when baptized? This is somebody asking, and you will just, from personal experience, I'm going to tell you that you will hardly find a Lutheran say, use the word saved and unsaved. That is not a Lutheran phrase that they throw around a lot. When this person is saying, does the child become a Christian? They are saying, does the child get saved? That's translating it into biblical terminology. Does the child become a Christian when baptized? They're saying, does the child get salvation through baptism? And we're talking about infant baptism, of course. Here's the answer. Lutherans believe that the Bible teaches that a person is saved by God's grace alone through faith in Jesus Christ alone. Sounds good. Sounds good. But they continue. The Bible tells us that such faith comes by hearing. Romans 10, 17. Jesus himself commands baptism. That's not false. And tells us that baptism is water used together with the Word of God. Matthew 28, 19 through 20. So I just preached an entire sermon on Matthew 28, verse 19, talking about salvation, then baptism, then discipleship in verse 20. That is how those verses are properly understood. Continuing with the Lutheran church right now, this is still their quote on baptism. Because of this, we believe that baptism is one of the miraculous means of grace. Another is God's Word as it is written or spoken, through which God creates and or strengthens the gift of faith in a person's heart. Then they list a bunch of singular Bible verses out there. And they actually, I'm going to take you to a couple of them. Again quoting, terms the Bible uses to talk about the beginning of faith include conversion and regeneration. Although we do not claim to understand fully how this happens, we believe that when an infant is baptized, God creates faith in the heart of that infant. We believe this because the Bible says that infants can believe. Matthew 8, 6, turn to Matthew 8, 6. The Bible says that infants can believe. Well, I mean, let's go to there. I've never heard that in the Bible before, but let's go there. We believe this because the Bible says that infants can believe. Matthew 18, verse number 6. And that new birth, quote, regeneration happens in baptism. John 3, Titus 3, and we'll go there as well. Let's go to Matthew 18 and verse number 6. Matthew 18 and verse number 6. Let's see what the Bible says. The Bible says in Matthew 18 and verse number 6. But who so shall offend one of these little ones? These are red words. This is Jesus's words. We better listen here. But who so shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me? It were better for him that a millstone were hanging about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. I don't doubt that these children right here are saved. These children, they believe in Jesus. They are saved. These are saved children. Go back up to verse number 2. This was about the disciples wanting to push away the children and Jesus uses this as an example of the type of faith that we need to have in order to be saved. Jesus is saying what we all know as true as soul winners is that it's easier to get a child saved than to get an 80-year-old person saved. Jesus is demonstrating that. But look at verse number 2. And Jesus called a little child unto him and set him in the midst of them. This is the child that Jesus is talking about. Jesus literally said, hey kid, get over here or hey child, come over here. Jesus gave a command to a child and said come here, meaning that child was old enough to understand the English language. To understand a command given by an adult. And it was a child. This could have been a seven, eight, nine-year-old child, five, six-year-old child. Who knows? This was a young child. This was clearly not an infant. This was clearly not an infant. Let's go back to, so right there we see that, and in Jesus in verse number 6, he's saying who shall ever offend any of these that believe in me. So he's basically talking about anybody that would hurt a child, all these types of things. But basically, this child believed in Jesus, meaning he understood Jesus' command. We can there deduct from that that this was not a baby. Okay? This doesn't take a lot of logic to understand that. But here's the thing. Although we do not claim to fully understand, we have to also recognize that you will see this many times in LCMS doctrine. It says, we don't understand this. It's a paradox. They will actually use that word paradox. I'll show you later. Look, the Bible is very easy to understand. The gospel is simple. The gospel is simple. So when someone starts teaching you doctrine and just says, look, you just can't understand this, you must run from that as well. Go back to, go to John chapter 3, because they say that new birth happens in baptism. New birth regeneration they put in quotes, happens in baptism. That is wrong. Regeneration means being born again. Regeneration is that spiritual born again, that spiritual birth that you go through, that Jesus is talking about to Nicodemus in John chapter 3. Look at John chapter 3 and verse number, they quoted verses 5 through 7. I'm going to take you back to verse number 3. Now this will, if you are Lutheran and you are listening to this, listen very closely, because this will make everything make sense to you. Because this is just a huge misunderstanding of the Lutheran church of this passage. Look at verse number 3. Jesus answered and said to him, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. You must be born again to be saved. That is very clear. Jesus is teaching that here. Look at verse 4. Nicodemus doesn't understand. He's thinking of everything Jesus is saying literally. And he doesn't understand what Jesus is teaching here. Nicodemus said unto him, how can a man be born when he is old? He can enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born. Jesus is thinking, or Nicodemus is thinking Jesus is literally saying you need to go back into your mom and be born again. You know, and Jesus says, verily, verily, I say unto you, verse 5, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit. Meaning Nicodemus, there's a physical birth. You know, have you ever heard of a mom's water breaking? You are physically born of water. He is speaking here. And you also need to be born again of the Spirit. So he is talking about two births. The one is of water, not baptism. Physical birth, because what was Nicodemus confused about? He was confused about the physical birth. He was confused about having to be physically born a second time. And Jesus says, no, no, no. You have to be born of water physically and spiritually. Jesus is saying you need to be born physically and spiritually. Nicodemus. Look at verse 6 for further clarification. In verse 6, Jesus clarifies even more. He says, that which is born of flesh is flesh. So here we see again the two births, the physical birth, the flesh birth. And that which is born of Spirit is Spirit. So the two births that Jesus is talking about are clearly your physical birth and your spiritual birth. When you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and as I read for you in Ephesians 1.13, you are sealed. You have everlasting life and you are sealed by God. Marvel, not that I said under the, he must be born again. That is what Jesus was talking about. He's not talking about baptism here. Baptism has nothing to do with this. It is a complete misunderstanding. And then they quote Titus chapter 3 and verse 5. Go to Titus 3.5. Go to Titus 3.5. This leads, folks, men who have gone to seminary for eight years and are doctors of whatever, misunderstand this verse that I just explained to you in three minutes. It shows you the spiritual discernment that they don't have. Look at Titus chapter 3 and verse number 5. Not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. That's just talking about salvation. That's just talking about being regenerated by just being saved. But they say washing, so it must be baptism because baptism has water in it. No, no, absolutely not. It's just talking about being born again. It's talking about being saved in Titus 3.5. But it is all based on John 3 verses 3 through 7 and a complete misunderstanding of that verse, of that passage where Jesus is explaining the physical birth, but then you must be physically born, but you also must be spiritually born again because it's the second time that you're born. But one is physical and one is spiritual. It's very simple and everything makes sense when you see it that way. Look at, now go to Acts chapter 8. Acts chapter 8. Because they actually use, they actually quote the book of Acts, but they don't go to Acts chapter 8. Go to Acts chapter 8. Now whatever Bible version you have is a Lutheran, go get it. You probably have an ESV, if you're an LCMS Lutheran this morning, but go get your ESV and go to Acts chapter 8. And let's look at the truth of baptism. What does the Bible actually teach? Because it is very clear in the Bible. Acts chapter 8, we see a man who gets the gospel preached to him and he wants to be baptized and we see the man who preached the gospel to him tell him what is required before he must get baptized. Look at Acts chapter 8 and verse 35. Then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus. Here we had a man reading the Bible and he didn't understand what he was reading. And he asked Philip, could you explain this to me? Is this talking about Jesus? Is this talking about somebody who's already come? Who is this talking about? He's reading Isaiah and he's sitting there and he's like, I don't understand who this is talking about. Has this person already been here and not? And so Philip opened his mouth and he preached unto him Jesus who Isaiah was talking about. And he preached to him Jesus is the Messiah. He preaches him the gospel. And as they went on their way, so between Acts chapter 8 and verse 35 and 36, the gospel has been preached. As they went on their way, they came onto a certain water and the eunuch said, see here is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? The eunuch, he goes up to the water. He's had the gospel preached to him. And he's like, here's water. And he's like, I'd like to be baptized. And he's saying, is there anything that would stop me from getting baptized? What would hinder me from getting baptized? Look at verse 37. If you're a Lutheran and you have an ESV, you're like, what verse 37? Now listen to me Lutheran. Why would they take this verse out of the Bible? This is why we are King James only. Because yes, God's word is perfect. God's word is preserved. But God's word has been changed. God's word has had omissions. Why? Can you imagine why people would take verse 37? This man says, why can't I get baptized? What is stopping me from getting baptized? Look at verse 37. And literally, the funny thing is, they don't even renumber the verses. They literally go from verse 36 to verse 38. I mean you would think someone would be like, what's going on here? Look at verse 37. Let me read it to you from the King James Bible. And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. You know why that means? Because when you believe with all your heart, what happens? You hath everlasting life. When you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, when you trust, you have it right now. You're not getting it. You're not keeping it. You're not hanging onto it. You have it. And it's everlasting forever. John 10.28, Jesus says, I hold it. He says, I, he's like, I keep, I will, I will, it's in my hands, your salvation. There's nothing you can do to lose it. Because God holds it for you. And what does he say? And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He confessed his faith. Verse 38. And he commanded the chariot to stand still and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized. And they went into the water, by the way. He didn't throw some stuff on his forehead. I'm not going to get into the whole immersion thing, but the point is that he said, what would stop me to get baptized? He says, you must believe. You must be saved. You must have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. You must trust, then you get baptized. It's very simple. And that's why they take that one verse. Out of the Bible. Because it says, what must hinder? And they just go straight to the baptism. Nothing, apparently. But you must believe. You must believe. After salvation, you can be baptized. And after you believe, you have it. You have it. It's yours. Go to, it's an ordinance, folks. It's simply a command. Romans 6.4 explains it clearly. It says, therefore, we are buried with him by baptism into death. That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. That is Romans right there. You should walk. You should walk. You're saved. You should walk. Baptism is a picture of you identifying with Christ. Identifying with the gospel. Identifying by raising up and walking the walk. You should do that. You're not going to lose your salvation if you don't. We'll get into that later. But you should. That's why Romans says you should. That's why in Matthew 3.6, when John the Baptist was baptizing people, and many, they were baptized of him in the Jordan, confessing their sins. These people are coming out of the water and they're just, they're getting right with God. They're, they're, they're walking. They're walking. They should walk. They want to walk in newness of life. After they've been saved. You will find no verse in the Bible that says baptism is necessary for salvation. You can read all the doctrinal statements you want from the Lutheran church, the Catholic church, whatever. But it simply is something that you are commanded to do, just like the eunuch was commanded after you are saved. After you have believed on or trusted in Christ, you are commanded to be baptized after that. Now, can a baby do that? We're going to do it. Like all our young babies are out on vacation today. So we're going to use little Naomi, who's two years old. And I'm going to just do, I'm going to do a little example here. Can a baby believe the gospel? I'm going to do a little object lesson with little Naomi. So I have some markers here. I came up with a simpler test than the gospel. The gospel is simple. This is even simpler. Okay. So Naomi, hi Naomi. How are you doing? Naomi, on my left, I'm going to start from my left and move to my right. Naomi, there's a yellow marker, a green marker, a pink marker, a black marker, a brown marker, a red marker, a purple marker, and an orange marker. Naomi, could you grab me the purple marker? Could you grab the purple marker for me? Okay. Purple, Naomi. Purple. Could you grab another one? Grab me the purple one. You see, it's simple. It's simple. Thank you. Thank you, favorite church member. It's simple. She is a child. She is a small child. Think of a baby now. Now, the gospel is simple. But here's the thing. A baby doesn't even understand the English language. We're to go and preach and teach the word. They can't even read. Here's the little, I'm going to read for you a Lutheran service when a child is being baptized. You say, how do they even go through a service when a baby is being baptized? At this point in the Lutheran service, the child will be held by the pastor of the church, the Lutheran pastor, and the church will chant, and it's the same words every time. It's a page you turn to, and it says P for what the pastor says, and it says C for the congregation, what they say. Okay. This is going to seem odd to you if you're not Lutheran. But here is a Lutheran service on infant baptism. P, do you this day in the presence of God and this congregation acknowledge the gifts that God gave you in your baptism? C, yes I do. This is the congregation answering for the child. P, do you renounce the devil? C, yes I renounce him. Do you renounce all his works? C, yes I renounce him. The whole church, I've done this hundreds of times. P, do you renounce all his ways? Yes I renounce them. P, do you believe in God the Father Almighty? Yes I believe. C, yes I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth. Clearly the baby can't do this. So we will do it for him or her. P, do you believe in Jesus Christ's only Son our Lord? C, yes I believe in Jesus Christ's only Son our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. That's he will come to judge the living and the dead. Clearly the baby could not say that. Nicene Creed. P, do you believe in the Holy Spirit? Yes I believe in the Holy Spirit. See I think I've got the Trinity right. But look folks, I'm not going to go through the rest of it. You know it ends P, peace be with you. C, amen. Sprinkle the baby and that's it. It's done. But the point is this, look the point is this, you will find nowhere in the Bible where the gospel is somebody else believing for you. I mean that is so odd that it's nowhere in the Bible. It's weird. Look folks, here's what I'm saying. You must use your head folks. The Bible makes sense. The gospel is simple. The gospel is simple. Do not accept these paradoxes. Babies can have faith. We do not understand how God does it. Look they don't even understand English or colors. How are they going to understand the gospel itself? You say well what about these babies? It seems mean. I'm going to show you that this teaching is what's mean. This teaching is what's wicked. Turn to Romans chapter 7. Say what about these children? What about these children? There must be an answer for them. Think of this if you believe that a child, because this is what the Lutherans believe. Let me recap it for you. That until a child is old enough to believe, it's like a baton. The baptism saves them. And when they're old enough to believe, that belief is on them at this point, which they must carry and hold on to themselves until they die. However, I've never been to a Lutheran funeral where anyone's gone to hell. They always refer back to the baptism of the person. Here's a guy that died. He never went to church for 25 years. We remember Bob's baptism today is what the pastor will always say. So they always backfall or backfill on the baptism. Go to Romans chapter 7. What about all these babies you say? You baptize your children? How terrible. But look at what the Bible says in Romans 7 and verse number 6. But now we are delivered from the law that being dead we're in, we were held that we should serve in newness of spirit. There's that should again and not on the oldness of letter. What should we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law. For had I not known lust, except the law said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence, for whom the law from without the law sin was dead. Paul is talking about in Romans, in these chapters in Romans, this war of the flesh and this war against the spirit, even though he's saved. He's like, we, look, we still are going to fight the flesh. We still are going to sin. And sometimes we're going to do what we don't want to do, that sin, he's like, but we should walk in newness of spirit. But look at verse number nine where he says, For I was alive without the law once. What? But when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. Paul said at one point in his life, he was alive without the law. Does a child understand the law? Does an infant understand the law? No, they don't understand the law or the gospel. And the Bible says, Paul says, I was alive at that point. You were not condemned by God until the conscience in your heart. You start to understand the law and it matches the conscience that God gave you in your heart. And then at that point, you must, you must turn to Jesus. Because Paul was alive without the law once. But when the commandment came, when he understood the law, even the law, as the Bible says in Romans 2.15, the law that is even written in the Gentiles' hearts that didn't even have the Bible, when they understood that law, then they died. Then they needed salvation. And the commandment which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. The commandment is to drive us to the cross. The law is to drive us to the cross. To show us. That's why when we preach the gospel, we start with everyone's a sinner. Romans chapter 3, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Because if you don't know that you've broken the law and you don't know that you're a sinner, why do you need Jesus? So people must understand that they have broken the law. And look, here's another thing. You know that when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. We see that with people every day. You go up to someone who's never been to church. You go up to someone who's never read the Bible and you tell them you're a sinner. Do you know that? Everyone agrees. Everyone knows. Why Romans 2.15? That's why. Because God wrote that law. It's almost like God knew people wouldn't read the Bible on their own. He wrote it in their heart. He wrote the law. People just know that they're a sinner. It is the easiest thing out soul winning that people accept. They just know that they're a sinner. Then verse number nine. Look, the actual wicked teaching is this, that unbaptized babies go to hell. That's the wicked teaching. This was another thing, the Catholic Church. We know people in our very families that have had children die unbaptized and the Catholic Church wouldn't bury them. Because they're in hell. I have had Lutheran pastor. Look, if you follow this doctrine logically through, you can teach that aborted babies are in hell. Where did they, there's no, they didn't have any sacraments. There's nothing there. That's not what Romans 7 says. Romans 7 says that you are not condemned until you understand the law. And at that point, you need to be saved. I have had Lutheran pastors tell me that. That aborted babies are in hell. And look, as wicked as that sounds, it matches the doctrine that they believe. It's at least logically consistent. For a Lutheran pastor to say, well, you know, in abortion's case, you know, okay, well, you're not following your own doctrine because a child is kept by their baptism until they can believe on their own. That's the Lutheran teaching. This is why our children were baptized in the hospital, baptized. Why would you wait? What if there's a car accident on the way home? Our two children. What if there's a car accident on the way home? I'm on a risk eternal hell for my children. Are you kidding me? I've had Lutheran pastors come up to me and say, why are you baptizing them in the hospital? Don't you want to get a nice dress and have your family come in and I'm like, are you crazy, man? Do you not believe this stuff? This doctrine. If you believe that doctrine, as soon as they're born, you get them baptized. I mean, if that saves them, why would you not do that? I'm the only one that I've ever known that did that. Look, I was in it. When I'm in it, I'm in it to win it. Thank God that someone showed me the truth. Let's look at the second means of grace, which is the Lord's Supper or the Eucharist. We call it the Lord's Supper. From the Lutheran Church of Missouri Synod, the Lutherans hold that the Eucharist, also referred to as the Lord's Supper, the true body and blood of Christ are truly present in, with and under the forms of the consecrated bread and wine for all those who eat and drink it. Lutheranism teaches that as Christians receive his body and blood, they also receive the forgiveness of sins. You have to understand from the Lutheran's perspective, from the confessional Lutheran's perspective, the forgiveness of sins is keeping you saved. That's what they mean by that. Matthew 26, 28, and the comfort and assurance that they are truly his own. Now, the big argument between the Lutherans and the Catholics, turn to John chapter 6, on the Lord's Supper is the Catholics believe that the bread and the wine, and it's wine, it's alcoholic wine in both churches. The bread and the wine actually turns into the flesh, this is what the Catholics believe, it turns into the flesh and the blood of Jesus. That's what they believe. Every Catholic that you know that goes to mass and takes the Lord's Supper, they believe that they're eating Jesus's real flesh and drinking his actual blood. Now, the Lutherans are like, whoa, that's a little strange. So they're like, no, it's present. See diet Catholic, Catholic light. They're like, it's present. But it doesn't actually turn into that. And what they misunderstand is John chapter 6. Let me explain it to you. John chapter 6, look at verse 48. John chapter 6 verse 48. Verily, verily I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. There's the gospel right there in that one verse. Then Jesus says, I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. Now, Jesus is going to go into a comparison here. Once again, a spiritual comparison. He is comparing himself, he is comparing himself, being able to give people everlasting life to the manna that just kept people alive until the next day when they needed more bread. Jesus here is not saying, okay, Jesus is not saying here that I am literal bread. He is not saying that I am bread. He is saying I am the bread of life. And then he goes into the comparison of the manna in the wilderness. It's a wonderful passage. Let's read on. This is the bread. He's talking about the manna now. This is the bread which come down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die. This he's talking about himself. I'm sorry. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If many men eat of this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The Jews, therefore, strove amongst themselves saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? They're literally thinking he's saying he's bread and that you have to eat him. Then Jesus said under them, verily, verily I said unto you, accept that ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Now they use this to say that you must do the Lord's supper to be saved. See that? When he is just comparing it to, he is the eternal way. He's the eternal way. He's not this way that you have to keep doing every day. You've got to keep going out and getting manna more again and again. It only lasted one day for a reason, so they had to go get more and more and more. He's saying one time, he's teaching eternal security here, is what he is teaching. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life, and I'll raise him up the last day, for my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father has sent me, and I live by my Father, so ye eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is the bread, verse 58 is the answer. This is the bread which came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat, manna, and are dead. He's saying, when you get saved, when you believe on me, look at verse 47 where it all began. When you believe on me, you hath everlasting life. And then he explains this analogy, but he's spoken a way that he didn't want them to understand. Remember when he said that to the disciples? Why speak ye in parables? Because I only want you to get it. That's what he said. Look, the disciples were not eating Jesus' body after he died. That's what this would imply. It's ridiculous. Okay, it's ridiculous. Go to, let's go back to the means of grace. Let's go back to the LCMS Q&A session. So Jesus is completely comparing himself to the bread and the wilderness and you can make that comparison about the sacrifices in the temple. You know, they had to do them. Again, every year, every year they had to atone. But it was just a, it was just a what? It was just a picture. It was just a picture. Jesus came. One sacrifice. That's it. That's, that's Hebrews right there, right there. Now go back to, let's go back. You turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 11. Let's go back to the Q&A. What does the, here's the question. What does the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod teach regarding the sacrament of communion? And who can partake in this sacrament? Answer. The LCMS believes Scripture teaches the Lord supper is a precious gift of God in which Christ gives us his true body and blood in a miraculous way. We don't understand it is what they're saying. Together with the bread and wine for the forgiveness of our sins. They mean salvation by that. And the strengthening of our faith. They also mean keeping your salvation by that. Okay. So the means of grace folks, there it is. You must remember when the Lutheran says strengthening faith, they mean keeping salvation. They mean it's something you're doing to keep your salvation. 1 Corinthians chapter 11, let's look at the truth of it. The truth of the Lord's Supper. The truth of the Lord's Supper is very, very simple. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 11. It is a command. Again, Jesus tells us to do this. We're not against the Lord's Supper. We do the Lord's Supper. We're going to do the Lord's Supper. And when they had given thanks and break it. And said, verse number 24, Take, eat. This is my body which is broken for you. Why should we do this, Jesus? Sorry. Why should we do this, Jesus? He says, This do, in remembrance of me. After the same manner also, he took the cup, verse 25. And when he had stopped saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood. This do ye, as often as you drink it, to be saved? No, in remembrance of me. We do the Lord's Supper before Easter. Why? So we can remember the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. That's why. It's to remember what Jesus did for us as we get going through our lives. And we've been all given this gift of salvation that we can never lose. Isn't it possible that we could, it would be useful to have something in our lives that would help us to remember what Christ did for us? That is the Lord's Supper. It's not to strengthen faith or to stay saved. Or anything like that. Or to eat or drink Jesus's blood, which is just really odd and weird. You have to grow up in it to think that it's not weird. Okay? So that is the means of grace, folks. The Lutheran will say that you're saved by grace through faith. But there's attachments to the grace that you must do. And that is where they tie the works. It's through the sacraments where they tie the works to salvation. It's not the gospel. It is not the gospel. Now let's continue on predestination, on Calvinism, from the Lutheran Church question and answer site. On predestination, how does the church, here's the question, how does the church feel about the theological tension between the universal offer of salvation and divine election? Meaning, everyone can be saved. And they quote John 3.16, John 6.40, and divine election. And they quote some other verses here. Ephesians 1.4. Go ahead and go there. Witness one that they quote for divine election. If God already predetermined who was saved, what is the point of witnessing? Well, Lutherans don't witness. First of all, I can attest to that. I was a conservative Lutheran. I went to church. I believed all this doctrine. And Lutherans did not go out and give the gospel to people. So they're saying, first, if God predetermined some and not others, you know, here's the thing. If God predetermined some people and not others, if you're a Calvinist, the Bible has contradictions. And I'm going to show you that this morning. The Bible has contradictions. But here's the answer. Here's the answer. They're saying, how do we reconcile these verses that make it sound like God chose some, but then how He wants others to all be saved? How do we reconcile that? And here's the answer from the LCMS. Both are true is basically what they say. From the standpoint, this is the answer. From the standpoint of human reason, the scriptural teachings that God has objectively justified, objective justification means it's not specific to one person, meaning, you know, anybody could be saved. Quote, continuing, justified the whole world through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ and wants all people to be saved through faith in Him. And that, and that He elected by grace from eternity, those who are saved cannot be resolved. The Lutheran Church of Missouri, St. Etihad teaches that these Bible verses, Matthew 8, 28, John 3, 16, and Ephesians 1, 4, and Acts 3, 48, they can't be resolved. Do you know what they're saying there? They're saying that the Bible has contradictions. The Bible does not have contradictions. Did you turn to Acts or Ephesians chapter 1 and verse number 4? I'm going to read for you John 3, 16, which you all know very well, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Whosoever means anybody. How do we resolve that with Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 4? I'm going to start you at verse 3, because anybody that just starts dropping Bible verses on you, one verse at a time, that's an issue. Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 3, Blessed be the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, who had blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Here's the verse that can't be resolved with John 3, 16. According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated us onto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will. He has chosen us in what? In what sense? In Him. He has chosen us in Jesus Christ. The plan for Jesus Christ to come and die for the sins of whosoever was from the beginning. This is telling us here that it was always the plan. God did not decide 2,000 years ago, I think I got to go down there and do it myself. It was always the plan. It was always the plan that the word would become flesh. It was always the plan that Jesus would come and live a perfect life and do all sorts of miracles on this earth. It was always the plan that He would die on the cross and He would shed His blood that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have everlasting life. That was always the plan. It was predestinated. It's for whosoever wants it, but the plan was always there. Turn to 1 Timothy chapter 2. 1 Timothy chapter 2. It doesn't contradict. It was always the plan. It is whosoever believes it's on Him. Is everyone going to believe though? If you believe, you are the elect. If you believe, it was predestined for you because it was always the plan. But guess what? 1 Timothy chapter 2, look at verse number 3. For this is good and acceptable in the light and the sight of God our Savior who will have all men to be saved. You know what that means? It doesn't mean He will. Like He's going to make them. It means His will. It is God's desire that all men be saved. God, if God, God is up there, but guess what? God gave us free will. And this is the difference. The Lutheran church believes that God chooses you. It's like, no, God gave us free will. Some will not choose. Some will reject. Turn to Romans chapter 1. And the Bible tells us this. The salvation, the gift of His Son was always the plan. And it is a gift that is provided for anyone who will believe and trust on Him. That is it. There's no contradictions here. But in Romans chapter 1, look at verse 21. Because that when they knew God, look, they knew God. It's talking about the people here. The people knew God. And they did what? They glorified Him not as God. It's something, it's a choice they made. Romans chapter 1 is talking about people. They glorified Him not. Neither were thankful. But became vain in their imagination as their foolish heart was dark and professing themselves to be wise. They became fools. And then we see how God gave them up. God gave them over. And we see that they became the worst. But look, the point being here in Romans 121 is that they chose to not glorify God. They. It's just like John 111, where He said He came unto His own and His own received Him not. They chose it. His own chose to not receive Him. The Jews in large part, especially the religious leaders, they chose not to receive Christ as the Messiah. They chose it. They received Him not. They rejected Him. It is our rejection of Jesus if we end up not being part of the chosen. The plan works for anyone. The plan works for whosoever. And it is God's will that all be saved. But we have free will. God didn't create a bunch of robots down here. It's the third chapter in the Bible where we see the first decision where the devil subtly tricks Eve. She chose that. She chose that decision. We have free will. Look, if you believe in Calvinism, the Bible contradicts itself all over the place. If you believe we just cannot reason an answer or both are true, it's another paradox. Which is what the LCMS teaches. It's just a paradox. Look, folks, you must reject this when people tell you that it's a paradox that can't be. No, the Bible does not contradict. The Bible, when you believe right, it all just fits together perfectly. On eternal security, question. One of your frequently answered questions states that it's possible for one to lose his salvation. However, in your thesis on justification, they're asking the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod this, in 1983 on this website, it says plainly that believers have eternal assurance in paragraph 58. Which is it? So this person is asking, you say you can lose your salvation, but you say you can have assurance in your salvation. Which is it? Answer. Lutherans believe both are true and scriptural. It is possible for a believer to, this is still the quote, it is possible for a believer to fall from faith and lose salvation. And it is possible for a believer to have complete assurance of eternal salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. You must get away. You must get away. Then they say this, if this seems paradoxal to human reason, then Lutherans say, turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 11 while I continue reading. This is only because the teaching of Scripture itself on this issue appears paradoxal to human reason. They're saying that the gospel is a paradox. They're saying that human, they are literally saying in this paragraph that the gospel itself cannot be understood by human reason. Now let's just logically think about this for a second. Would God make the path for salvation? And when it is His will that I just read you, it is God's will that all men on earth be saved. Would He make it impossible to understand through human reason? Come on. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 11. Look at what the Bible says. Folks, you must reject this. 2 Corinthians chapter 11, look at verse number 3. But I fear Paul is begging these people, but I fear lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety. You see how subtle this stuff that I'm teaching you is? It sounds right. It sounds right. And tell you, dig into what they actually believe. As the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. Going to heaven is simple. Being saved is simple. The truth is that the gospel is the simplest thing in the Bible to understand. You believe on Jesus, you're sealed. God does the sealing. You trust in Him, He seals you. Think about it. Think about it. Would God make the path to heaven so complicated that only the smartest people could get it? Does that sound right in your heart? In the conscience that God gave you, does that seem right in your heart? Does it seem right that God would make salvation? It's even worse than that according to the LCMS because they believe that it's a paradox and can't be understood by human reason. And that ultimately is what drove me to the true gospel because I thought to myself, why can't I understand it? Why can't I be assured? I didn't know. What if I go and I confess my sins and then I do something an hour later and I get hit by a car? What? It doesn't match up. How do I know I'm going to heaven? I was worried and you should be worried. Salvation is not a paradox, folks. You trust on Jesus and it's done like that. We have free will. Some, not everybody is going to trust on Jesus Christ. We go to the door and we see that unfortunately most people are not going to trust on Jesus Christ because this idea that I have to get myself to heaven is so ingrained in the pride of mankind and it is just another path to work salvation but it is very, very subtle through these means of grace. Now look, that's the gospel. That's the gospel. And I'll be, I know I'm going along here. Let me just finish up. Let me just give you something. I mean, let's talk about the practice of Lutheranism. Here's, look, God sent me to Texas for 10 years for a reason because I got out of the culture of North Dakota and of the Catholics and the Lutherans and I went to Texas and I went down to the Bible Belt where there was Baptist everywhere. There was Baptist everywhere. You couldn't go to a restaurant and they didn't serve alcohol unless you had some certain special card because they had done all the, I mean, the culture, the Baptist culture had ingrained the society in the Bible Belt. It was, I mean, it was very different from where we came from. But here's the point. The Lutheran culture, there is no separation from the world in the Lutheran culture. There's no separation from alcohol. The priests of the Catholic Church drink. The pastors of the Lutheran Church drink. We had a pastor of our Lutheran Church. He brewed his own alcohol. And here's the thing, the Lutheran culture, I will tell you this from experience, the Lutheran culture, in the Lutheran culture, they don't read the Bible. They don't read the Bible. Now look, they may read a Bible verse of the day or they're big into devotionals and things like this, but the average Lutheran, when I say, when I say they don't read the Bible, I'm saying they're not cover to cover reading through their Bible. I tried it several times in my life as a Lutheran. I couldn't get through it because I didn't understand it because with these doctrines, and without the Holy Spirit, but especially even just with these doctrines, you read through it and it is completely confusing. Romans chapter 7, if you were a Lutheran, it's got to be one of the most confusing chapters in the entire Bible. Because you're like Paul saved, he's not, he's not doing what's wrong. He's not, save, save, you're like, what in the world? It doesn't make any sense. I tried several times and it just, it can't make sense with this doctrine, but here's the confessional Lutheran life right here. Most Lutherans, and let me tell you this, most Lutherans have no clue about this doctrine, you know what I'm telling you this morning. I did because I was just super studied and super into it, but here's what they're doing. They're living the confessional life is what they're living. They go to church every now and then, maybe they go to church every Sunday, whatever. They confess their sins every Sunday morning through a vain repetition. It's the same paragraph every single morning, and the divine services, they go and they just chant the divine services, and they're just living this confessional life. Look, church was like torture for me as a kid. When we didn't have to go to church, I was like, yes! Yes, we don't have to go to church. It was like torture. You just repeat the same thing. If I told my kids today, we're not going to church today, I have a revolt on my hands. I'd have an insurrection in my house if I said we're not going to church today. But church was torture, but you know what? You felt better after you went. After you went and you got through it and you confessed your sins, you felt like, ah, I wiped the slate clean. Look, if you're a Lutheran and you're listening, you know exactly what I'm talking about. But here's another paradox that I saw when I lived in Texas. Here's a true paradox that I saw, the Baptist that we knew in Texas. I'm just like, I never one time thought that there was the Baptist that we knew that were our neighbors and that I worked with and that were our friends. I never one time thought that they weren't going to heaven, not once. I just thought that they were boring because you know what they were doing? They were living these separated lives. I didn't understand it. It's like they're not going to movies. They're not watching all the TV shows everybody else is watching. They don't drink. You're like, watch! They don't drink. That's like a Lutheran culture. That's like a Catholic culture, alcohol. But the Baptist, they didn't do it because, but here's the paradox. They're the ones that believed in true faith alone and I knew they believed in eternal security and I knew I didn't. But I'm like, you would think that the people that think that once saved, always saved, you know, why are they living separated lives? Turn to Hebrews 12. Why aren't they the ones going out? We can do whatever we want! We can't lose our salvation! Why weren't they the ones doing it? Why was it us that believed you could lose your salvation that were going out and just not separating from anything? Look, I mean, you know, you just like, it was a paradox. But here's why. First of all, they love the Savior that saved them and gave them the free gift of eternal salvation. They understand what they've been given. Now I know this. Look at Hebrews 12.6. For whom the Lord loveeth, He chastened it and scored just every son whom He received it. They've been adopted, the Bible says. You're adopted when you're saved, into God's family. If you endure chastening, God dealeth with you as sons. For what son is he whom the Father chastened as not? So number one, if you're saved, you're not going to lose your salvation, but you understand, if you understand the Bible, that God is going to beat you on this earth. God is going to chastise you on this earth. So there's one reason. But if you be without chastisement, where of all are partakers, then you're bastards and not sons. Furthermore, we've had fathers of our flesh with corrected us and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits and live? For they for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. So they're trying to live a life that they can be profitable to other people. And if you're saved and you take your salvation, you separate from nothing, you don't want to become holy, you don't want to do anything, you will do nothing that profits other people and the Baptist understands this. And I'm not saying there's not Baptist that don't separate from anything. I'm sure we all know those people. But as a large culture of the Baptist versus the culture of the Lutherans, I noticed this. It was like a flag in my face. And I even asked my pastor about this several times. Why aren't we going out knocking doors like these guys do? It seems pretty simple that we're supposed to go out and preach the gospel. Why aren't we doing that? And the answer was just always, don't get me wrong. I'm glad that they're not. But that's the paradox, folks. You have a bunch of people that believe in works-based salvation that aren't doing any works. They're not preaching the gospel. Thank goodness. When's the last time you ran into a Lutheran walking down the street with a Bible soul winning? Never. You'll never see it because they don't believe in faith alone. They believe. They'll try to get you to come to church because that's what it's all about, see? But when you have a Bible-believing Baptist who is trying to separate, who's trying to live a wholly acceptable life towards Christ, trying to preach the gospel to the lost, not to get to heaven. You have to wonder about the paradox, shouldn't it be the Baptist going nuts and partying according, you know, but he's not. That's not what I observed. That's a paradox. But it's not when you look at the reasons for it. We're trying to be profitable to other people. We're not trying to do good to get ourselves to heaven. I want to be profitable in this life. I want my friends and my family to go to heaven. I want my friends and my family to turn from this extra-biblical doctrine and this subtle doctrine and just get saved and just trust on Jesus. And that's it. Most Lutherans are just 1 John 1 9 in it. They're just confessing their sins and they're hoping that's going to get them to heaven. It's works. It's works. And I want you to understand that it's worse than the Catholic faith because it sounds like faith alone. When I started the sermon, it sounds like faith alone at first glance. But look at the fruit. I have an example for you this morning just to end the sermon. This is the Lutheran Rose that is the, I guess you could call it the emblem of the LCMS Lutheran Church. And I want you to look at what this says right here. It says word alone, faith alone, grace alone around the emblem of the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod. Is that what they believe? It's not what they believe. The Reformation was Satan's plan B. The Catholic Church was getting too stupid. The Catholic Church, when they're charging you money so you can sin and they're charging you money so they can build their big cathedrals and they're charging you money so you can get your dead relatives out of hell or purgatory or whatever else they made up. Look, the devil's like, this isn't subtle. The Pope quit working for Satan and started working for himself, which is Satan. But I mean, when you think about it, it, so he had to come up with something more subtle. Luther never left the false gospel of the Catholic Church. He just covered it. He covered it better. He covered it better, folks. The Reformers never really left and actually just a little bit of a 32nd testimony. The moment I got saved, the first thought that came into my mind because I was reading the Bible and I was determined to listen to preaching and to get through the Bible and every time I came to a contradiction, I went and I studied it and I listened to a Baptist preacher, it was Pastor Anderson. And I listened to a Baptist preacher explain it to me and I was like, oh, like John 3 was a huge one right there. And I had that explained and I just kept reading and I kept reading and I kept reading and I was going back and I was asking my Lutheran pastor at the time, what about this? And what about this? And what about this? And he had no answers for me. He would just give me another book. And I would read the book. And the last book he gave me, I was sitting there with the book open and it was on eternal security. And I had that book open and I looked at the Lutheran reasons you could lose your salvation, which it's the paradox and all this and I won't get into the details there. But I finally looked at that book and I looked at that book and I said, this book is wrong. And I sat back in my chair, I can remember exactly where I was. I leaned back in my chair in my office and as a conservative Lutheran, I was so against the Catholic Church. We, I heard, good conservative Lutheran will be against the Catholic Church. They will not be in fellowship with the Catholic Church. And I leaned back in my chair in my office and I said to myself, said, my goodness, I'm Catholic because that's exactly what it is. It's Catholic. And the next, the next thought I had was, that was close. Thank you God for not letting me go. How many more decisions could I have made in my life where maybe I wouldn't have had that interest in looking for the truth? If you're Lutheran today, think about these doctrines and just pray to God to show you the truth and listen to only what the Bible says. The gospel is simple. Look, the Bible makes sense, folks. There are some things in the Bible that are complicated, prophecy, the end times things. The Bible says that we're looking through when it comes to those things, we're looking through a glass darkly. You don't have to understand everything in Revelation or Daniel. But the gospel is simple. It's simple and there's no works attached to it. You just have to trust on Jesus. That's it and it's done. You hath everlasting life. Let's borrow our heads and have a word of prayer.