Opening Prayer - Heavenly Father we thank You for this opportunity to worship You and study Your Word. We're eternally thankful that the Holy Spirit has given us a knowledge about Your Word, the Bible, so that we can help lead other people to Your Son. We're especially thankful for the opportunity to do this series on false teachings. Please help us to not be deceived by these teachings. We pray that everyone who reads or listens to these sermons who are not a Christian will become a Christian. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
Worship music - Please click the links and sing along if you know the words (You can also click skip ad to go straight to the songs) -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Do1NUSPdgaM&list=RDkIEEz9yaukA&index=3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU7DSCkEdY0&index=15&list=RDkIEEz9yaukA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWk9gvzcE94&index=32&list=RDkIEEz9yaukA
False Teachings
The Lord has led me to do a Sunday evening series on popular teaching in churches that has literally sent people to hell. The unfortunate thing is that these pastors and teachers refuse to admit that they are wrong and change their views. However, not all of these pastors and teachers are trying to trick people, but it is very important for you to learn about these unbiblical views and warn others so they will not be deceived by these false teachings. Therefore, please pass these sermons on to others.
Before I begin to warn you about teachings that are false, the Bible actually instructs members of a church to remove people from their church who claim to be Christians, but they refuse to stop their evil ways. This definitely includes proven false teachers who are pastors and Sunday school teachers. 1 Corinthians 5:12,13; 2 John 1: 9-11; 1 Corinthians 5:2,7; 2 Corinthians 6:14-16; 2 Corinthians 11:3-6,12-15; 1 Timothy 1:3; 3:1-10; and Titus 1:6-9 support this.
False Teaching # 24 -
Come forward and get your "get out of hell" card, and once you recieve it, you will go to heaven no matter what.
The Bible's Teaching -
Being saved by grace means that we deserve to go to hell for sinning against God, but instead of sending us to hell, God offers us eternal life in heaven if we are consciously or unconsciously willing to repent (turn from) of our sins, and if we are willing to live that way "from that moment on and for the rest of our lives", then we need to ask Jesus into our heart, believe that He is the Savior, or pray or make a decision to trust Jesus' death on the cross and His shed blood to erase our sins and let us into Heaven, etc.
But the concept that we can take a "get out of hell" card from a pastor's hand and live any way we want to live, is wrong. Several years ago I was witnessing to a guy, and he basically said that he wasn't living the Christian life, but he had a "get out of hell" card. He had the right idea about grace, in that it is a free gift that can't be earned, but he wasn't willing to repent, follow Jesus, and allow Jesus to become the Lord of his life "from that moment on and for the rest of his life" before he trusted Jesus to save him - Please read these websites - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/theanswer and http://chriswaug5.wix.com/nocontridiction to see that being willing to repent, follow Jesus, and allow Jesus to become the Lord of your life "from this moment on and for the rest of your life" basically mean the same thing, and you need to be consciously or unconsciously willing to live this way before you ask Jesus into your heart, believe that He is the Savior, or pray or make a decision to trust Jesus' death on the cross and His shed blood to erase your sins and let you into Heaven, etc.
Also, someone can believe in Jesus, but if that belief doesn’t result in good works (with the exception of those who get saved but don’t live long after that or people who are in bad health and can’t get out and do much) and a changed life, they aren’t saved because they have a dead faith. This is explained in James 2:26 which says, "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." A similar verse is Titus 1:16 which says, "They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate."
Of course it takes time for a new Christian to grow and follow Jesus (For instructions on how to begin to follow Jesus, see this website - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/howtogotoheaven), and many people pray or make a decision to get saved shortly before they pass on, they may pass on without warning after they have been a Christian for a short amount of time, or they may be in bad health conditions and don't have a lot of opportunities to do good works. In situations like these, there may not be enough evidence for that person's friends or family to know if the person made it to heaven.
In conclusion, if you have asked Jesus into your heart, believed that He is the Savior, or prayed or made a decision to trust Jesus' death on the cross and His shed blood to erase your sins and let you into Heaven, etc., but you haven't given up your old lifestyle and began to live the Christian life, please follow this website - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/makingsure
If you have prayed or made a decision to become a Christian, but you are not sure that you are really a Christian (Hebrews 11:6, Matthew 21:18-22, 1 John 5:14, and Hebrews 11:1), you need to be sure - please follow this website - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/howtogotoheaven
If you have never prayed or made a decision to trust Jesus' death on the cross and His shed blood to erase your sins and let you into Heaven, please follow this website - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/howtogotoheaven