Mormonism's Impossible Gospel - Getting Them Saved

how many of you have heard the impossible gospel before okay let me do it the other way how many of you have not heard it before alright just a few well this is going to be a little bit different than what I've done in the past what we've done in the past is we really focus on the impossible gospel and the way that I like to explain it to our team is you've got to get them lost before you can get them saved and we spend so much time getting them lost that you know the hour that I have to speak I don't end up having a whole lot of time to get into the gospel so what I'm doing now is I'm calling it the impossible gospel of Mormonism verses the sufficiency of Christ so I'm going to touch on the impossible gospel I'm going to hit a couple of real key points and then I'm going to transition and explain how you can really use biblical passages and examples to get the Mormon to understand grace to get the Mormon to understand their need for Christ and how to come to him so this sounds really funny saying this in church but if you have your books of Mormon with you I ask you to open up to second Nephi 25 23 normally I start off with Alma or excuse me with Moroni 1032 but you'll understand why I'm doing it this way with the flow of things but open up to second Nephi 25 23 and when you're out there speaking with with the Mormons people often ask me you know how do you actually start the conversation we've we've had team members in the past who were little not scared but just kind of wondering how is this going to happen and the simple thing that we do we've got a little track called the pearl of great price and all it does is that explains the gospel in terms that the Mormon can understand we use some of their language celestial kingdom that kind of Heavenly Father those kinds of terms so when someone comes by I just asked them if they would like something to read before the pageant and if they look semi interested but yet kind of fearful I'll quickly add it's not anti-mormon because it doesn't say anything about Mormonism it's just a a modern-day parable that talks about how to have forgiveness of sins and they'll ask me that question well what is it no I'll say that in a modern-day parable and they'll take it and if they stop I kid you not I do this I start counting in my head one thousand one one thousand two one thousand three if they are still there I will ask them do you have forgiveness of sins and most Mormons will kind of go oh wow what a question no I can't really say I have or even some Mormons will say yeah yeah I do if that's the case I'll ask them well how were you forgiven if they say that they that they're not forgiven well then that's great that there's they're already starting to see their need so you can kind of kind of go in a different direction but one of the passages that I like to use with them is second Nephi 25 23 part of it sounds biblical this is for we labor diligently to write to persuade our children and also our brethren to believe in Christ and be reconciled to God it sounds like it could be right out of the book of Romans this is for we know that it is by grace that we are saved , you know the rest after all we can do okay now that that brings up a question really what is all you can do my wife likes to ask Mormons sometimes well did you pray this morning well sure I did well how long did you pray was it 5 or 10 minutes you know could you have prayed for 6 or 11 you know really what kind of a question is that how much can you really do and then to recognize that the grace only comes after all you can do now when I point that out to Mormons sometimes Mormons will say you know you keep focusing on that word after your you're inserting a time element here inserting a time element after the word after so I like to give them this illustration my daughter I can picture her she thinks like me so we are really in trouble when she gets a little older but I can picture her sitting you know at the table and saying you have to finish your vegetables before you can get your your dessert so you don't get your dessert till after you're done and I can picture her in her little brain going daddy you keep focusing on that word after you're putting a time element here well yes I am you only get your dessert after your fill after you're done with your vegetables that is what the text says you only get the grace after ok now let's go on to Moroni 10:30 - this is the one that a lot of you like to start with first and there's one thing I want to mention about this approach there is nothing magical in the approach it's it's and to be honest with you it's not even really Maya my approach I kind of borrowed it from other guys like Bill McKeever and Timothy Oliver and Tim Martin and some unknown dude that stayed in the park with us eight years ago he kind of showed us a bunch of these things and so what I did was I took bits and pieces of it and kind of put it together and then I named it the impossible gospel well that's kind of a catchy phrase so now everybody's calling it the impossible gospel and then once it got put in chips book that's what everybody calls it so I'm not the originator and I just I just named it but Moroni 10:32 is usually where folks like to start yay coming to Christ and be perfected in him and did not yourselves of all ungodliness if you shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness and love God with all your might mind and strength Venice is grace sufficient for you that by his grace he may be perfect in Christ and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ you can in no wise to deny the power of God now I know everyone here caught that if then statement they don't always catch that on the streets so you have to ask them I don't like to tell them what it says I don't want to start preaching at this point I want to ask them what it says because what I like to do is is use the words that they say and then remind them that that is their interpretation that's not something that I came up with there have been times when I read them when I just read a verse and they'll say well that's your interpretation and I remind them that I didn't say anything I just read the verse so whose interpretation is that that's their interpretation so ask them did you see the if-then statement there what does that mean what are the four things you have to do you have to deny yourself of all ungodliness and love God with all your might all your mind and all your strength that is the requirement when does the grace come in there's that word after again after how much didn't how much ungodliness do you have to deny oh now I had some some kids one time they asked me what does that mean ungodliness the word what does ungodliness mean and I just said well you know godliness and they said yeah I said it's not that it's ungodliness it's everything bad about you and how much of it do you have to deny all ungodliness now sometimes Mormons like to treat this like you only have to deny some ungodliness but you know I looked up the word all in the reformed Egyptian and and you know what that word means that means all what yeah what a quickie dink right it means all so the question I like to ask at this point is let's assume that you have denied yourself of all ungodliness how much more ungodliness do you have in your life to deny none what would that mean what would you be there they're saying this see I'm asking the questions they're telling me so now I can remind them that that's the standard that you came up with by reading this verse I didn't say that you have to be perfect before you're going to get the grace of Christ because you have to do all you can do and you have to deny yourself of all ungodliness and love God with all your might mind and strength now I've got a t-shirt that looks very similar to this it's one of the it's the first team shirt I made I got this idea from actually from Randy sweet he was working at a temple opening in Montana I believe it was and he put the little sign that says have you stopped alma 1137 says the Mormons are driving by they'd see the stop sign and they'd stop and he'd give them literature and then they'd see the verse you know so they're grabbing their books of Mormon to the Quadra whatever and they're looking up all 1137 what does it say what does it say well let's go there let's find out what does alma 1137 say in fact one of the police officers I wore that shirt two days ago and one of the police officers came up and said all right what's it mean and I'm like give me a context what are you talking about this is your shirt alma 1137 what is it he says I get the stop sign but what is alma 1137 say so I paraphrase it but we're gonna read it here it says and I say unto you that he cannot save them in their sins for I cannot deny his word and he had said that no unclean thing can inherit the kingdom of heaven therefore how can you be saved except you inherit the kingdom of heaven where did I go therefore you cannot be saved in your sins every Mormon in the world will agree with this you cannot be saved in your sins they hate the idea of a death bed repentance if you're you know you're dying you're still in your sins you don't have a chance to prove by works what you say with your mouth that doesn't count they want to see it so you're not going to be saved in your sins obvious question if you're not gonna be saved in your sins what condition do you need to be in before he'll save you oh what's the opposite of in oh you've got to be out of your sins how are you going to do that now I've had many Mormons at this point tell me well if I can do that what do I need Jesus for and I say you know that's a great question and if my church taught that I'd be asking more questions if I can get out of my sins what do I need Jesus for now theologically speaking within Mormonism you still would need Jesus to pay for your past sins okay that's when the atonement kicks in is when you stop you become perfected the atonement pays for your past sins doesn't pay for your future ones because you shouldn't be committing them right because you have been out you are now out of your sins now some Mormons will tell me you've all heard this nobody's nobody's perfect I don't understand that response okay do you know why nobody's perfect because you keep breaking the commandments what is the commandment okay what are were the two greatest Commandments I love the Lord your God neighbor is yourself right if you did that you'd be perfect that's right but the Mormon will then say but nobody's perfect so imagine this they use Matthew 5:48 they rip it out of its context and they'll say be therefore perfect and they'll go exactly and I'll say well how you doing with that and they'll go but nobody's perfect be perfect but nobody's perfect well why do you think he told you to be perfect because you're not okay so they have this mental gymnastics going on in their mind here's the question can you do it well nobody's perfect okay well let me let me share another verse with you we'll go to will go to first Nephi 37 and this is one of the scripture mastery verses and I'd like to do this especially when I have a crowd of teenagers like I did a couple of nights ago I'll tell them this is a scripture master reverse you should have this memorized right and if they don't then what they haven't done all they can do right first Nephi three seven and it came to pass that I knew if I said unto my father I will go and do the things which the LORD hath commanded for I know that the Lord giveth no Commandments unto the children of men save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth him my next question what does that mean they will tell me God's not going to give you a commandment that you can't keep really how are you doing with that well nobody's perfect I know that but he he just said that he's not going to give you a commandment that you can't keep I asked one of the teens I says how many of the Commandments do you have to keep he said how often do you have to keep them all the time so you have to keep all the commandments all the time again how are you doing with that now they're starting to be faced with their sin okay because this actually the impossible gospel is really focused on two thoughts you've got the thought of Moroni 10:30 to deny yourself of all ungodliness and then first Nephi thirty-seven this is something that you can do why because God is not going to give you a commandment that you can't keep by the very fact that he gave it tells you what you can keep it you can do it so you have to do this otherwise and I like to ask this question did he give you a commandment that you can't keep and if you don't keep it whose fault that God's forgiving it to you when he knows you can do it or yours for not doing it that's your fault because you're not doing what God said you can do now who should who who do you believe am i gonna believe me when I say I can't do it or am I gonna believe God when he says I can now a lot of times Mormons at this point don't say well what about you how are you doing and I'll quickly remind them this is not my standard this is your standard this is what the LDS Church teaches you sometimes Mormons will say what you're judging me you know you're judging me in and out shalt not judge right you know they miss misses quote those verses and I just like to tell them that that I'm I'm not judging them I'm really just a speed limit sign or in this case a stop sign but but I'm the sign that reminds them of the law and I will ask them you know if you're doing 80 down i-15 and you see the speed limit sign that says you're only supposed to be doing 70 do you roll down the window as you're driving by and yell stop judging me it's reminding you of what the law is that's all I'm doing I'm just reminding you of what the law is now Mormons at this point will talk about repentance oh but I can repent now again Mormonism has a completely different definition of that word then we as Christians understand go to doctrine Covenants section 58 and we're gonna look at verses 42 and 43 behold he who has repented of his sins the same is forgiven and I the LORD remember them no more that's great I've got no problem with this until they define repentance in verse 43 by this you may know if a man repented of his sins behold he will confess them and forsake them forsake your sins that's the only way you can know if you have truly repented now this year's been kind of different it's like God kind of gives you different themes every year of the different people that are you're speaking with and I've heard over and over oh but that's true repentance true repentance is not keeping is it's not doing the same sin over and over to which I ask is got interested in repentance or true repentance he's interested in true repentance which is not doing the same sin over to which they'll reply well then I'll just repent again repent again that doesn't make sense there is no such phrase as repent again and what I like to do to prove that is to use this little track it's called repentance brings forgiveness I think chips got some out there in the foyer but this is an unnumbered track but if you open it up to the very center you look at number two and this is abandonment for sin for sake of time I'm not going to read the whole part that I normally read but if you look at the second and third paragraph under that section it says and the Lord said by this you may know if a man repenteth of his sins behold he will forsake them dnc 5843 we just read that now here is the Apostles explanation of that verse he's going to interpret it for us and tell us what it means the forsaking of sin must be a permanent one true repentance does not permit making the same mistake again with that definition in mind is there such phrase as repent again no because if you repented the first time what does that mean you don't have to repent of that same sin because you are no longer committing it because you have forsaken that sin now the miracle of forgiveness there's a great quote in here as well this is on page 354 a lot of Mormons hate this book and I understand why because it is not comforting it is not comforting at all pages 354 and 355 says this pass it indicates an attitude which is basic to the sanctification we should all be seeking and thus to the repentance which merits forgiveness you have to merit forgiveness house repentance hears repentance it is that the former transgressor former transgressor what does that mean because you're a former okay former transgressor much tat must have reached a point of no return to sin where and there is not merely a renunciation but also a deep abhorrence of the sin where the sin becomes distasteful to him and where the desire or urge to sin is cleared out of his life how many of you had no longer have the urge to sin am I the only one I am lying yes okay the desire or urge completely cleared out of your life how how many people can do that no one's perfect yeah that's right I only know of one a couple of days ago I was talking with a lady out on the street and and and she had the idea that you're right you know everything that you're saying here it makes sense and and this is something that I really need to strive to do and her name was Betsy and I said Betsy I want to ask you a question and I this might come out wrong I don't want to offend you please listen to my heart when I ask you this question and she says okay it's fine and I says how many people you know have really done this and she said none and I said well now here's the part that's gonna be kind of sticky that I've got to ask you if you don't know anyone who's done that not your Bishop not your parents not the prophet of the earliest church why do you think you can do it she didn't have an answer no answer in other words what was so special about this girl that she can do something that no one else on earth can accomplish I mean if you really think those kinds of things about yourself that's another sin you got to work on pride but she was understanding that and and I kept giving her little little tidbits of saying you know but I know I'm forgiven I know I'm gonna live with Heavenly Father and she didn't she didn't bite she didn't ask how do you know so I didn't tell her because she still needed to come face-to-face with her sin and her inability to stop she still needed to do that so so I pray for her and I pray that wherever Betsy is today that God is working on her heart and showing her that she is a sinner by Nature and if you are something by Nature that's what you do what do apple trees do they grow pears right no they grow apples because they are apple trees now there was a lady who how many of us stay in the Park City Park okay there's a lot of us so you guys know that the Christians traditionally we camp in the northwest corner of the park affectionately called the Christian ghetto and the Mormons like to be everywhere else well evidently this one Mormon family they didn't they didn't get to notice and they pitched their tents right amongst ours and normally people stay for one night they see the pageant they're gone in the morning well this family was different because they were they were doing a family reunion so they were there a couple of nights and it didn't take long for them to figure out who we were crosses t-shirts you know I think it's so funny Mormons Mormons will get all upset right and they'll say I'm a Christian just like Oh My heck he's wearing across well this family figured it out you know and I'm sitting there under their pavilion and I'm working on my my journal I'm working away on my laptop and I want to be able to journal something so I could email it to my mom so that she can send it to the people who were praying for us and in this one older lady she was probably in her late 70s early 80s she starts barking at her adult daughter but don't they know about James chapter 2 faith without works is dead and she just kept going at it with with her daughter and her daughter just got sick of listening to her and went into the tent so she marches right over to where I'm sitting and plops down right in front of my laptop and I'm thinking Lord I'm on this mission trip I'm trying to get some things done he keeps sending me these Mormons to talk to so close the laptop you know and I got into a three-hour conversation with her I kid you not it was three hours and about two hours into the conversation she told me this she said when I got baptized in the Mormon Church I stopped sinning for a year now there's normally two responses to that one what you are all thinking now Yeah right or it's your LDS and you believe her right Wow well I had I had a different response I've been accused of thinking outside the box sometimes I don't know what box they're referring to but I had a completely different response and I just looked at her and I said ma'am that's horrible and she said what I said ma'am that's got to be the worst thing I've ever heard in my life she says you've got to be kidding me I just told you I didn't stop saying I didn't send for a year and I said I heard you I know what you mad I know what you said but I've just got to tell you that that's horrible she says what are you getting at and I said ma'am why'd you start again now what I said next I knew I could get away with because we had we had developed a pretty robust relationship at that point and and I said ma'am not only do you have to stop sinning for a year but you have to stop all your sins before you die and you don't have a whole lot of time left she was not offended okay because she knew that I loved her and that I was concerned for her so she didn't take it the way that all of you sinners did she understood my heart okay so she got the point she really got the point last week I was talking with the guy and and he kept going over the same thing you know well I can just repent I can I can repent I can repent and it's like when you say I can repent either you misunderstand and think that you are repenting again or you're really creative and you keep coming up with new sins to repent for what is it and he just kind of looked at me and I said let me ask you a question I said this is a personal question you don't have to answer it if you don't want to and he said no go for it that's fine I said can you please name me one sin that you have totally repented of thirty seconds of silence before he looked at me and said no and I said you know what according to LDS doctrine you're not going to be forgiven until you repent and you haven't repented of anything which means what you're guilty of everything everything you've ever done in your life you are guilty because only repentance brings forgiveness within Mormonism and you haven't done it gave him some things to think about I've kind of coined a new phrase I don't know why I've never thought of it before but it's it's either repeat or repent but it's not both if you are repeating you are not repenting or you have not repented if you have repented you are not repeating you guys all understand that make sense it's a difficult concept for the LDS because they don't want to be faced with their sin they don't want to be faced with that standard that they have to keep so at this point Mormons are saying you know well I try to repent or unrepented all the time that's that's where this t-shirt came in into mind I came up with this t-shirt last year had forgot about it and then like two weeks before our trip I remembered what the idea was and and you know as you can see from the from the shirt for those of you listening on the internet who can't see me it says stop repenting it's a big stop sign it's in big bold letters stop repenting in smaller letters and keep the commandments and then it's got a quote from Joseph Smith which you can find in teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith page 148 but I found it in a conference edition inside magazine so I put that reference on there because that holds more weight for the Mormon because it was spoken in conference and you know what that quote is it says daily repentance is not that which is pleasing in the sight of the Lord you ask the question are you repenting I repent every day what does that imply you're sinning every day daily repentance is not that which is pleasing in the sight of the Lord now an interesting thing happened about these church by the way if you want to get into a conversation wear one of these shirts I almost guarantee you will get into a conversation I didn't expect however that some Mormons look at the t-shirt and think that I'm LDS I didn't realize that until we were at the ten plate pasta place down the street and this girl looks at my disturbances hey that's a great shirt I was like well thank you do you know what it means and she said stop sinning and I was like yes that's exactly what it means so we got into a pretty good conversation we talked for about 10 20 minutes and Becky snuck behind my back and bought their lunch I didn't even know it but I saw them out on the street the other day and you know they came up to me and and they brought me some cookies you know so that was kind of cool but you know for those of you who think that our our type of ministry is just too bold and too confrontational and and you know we're just doing it the wrong way I've got cookies that tell you otherwise these people like me right but they understood they understood what the shirt meant and a lot of Mormons are getting it and then when you start to explain it a little more now they start to do a little bit more deep thinking now the thing that really hangs them is a lot of Mormons will say you know but I can repent in the afterlife I can't be perfect here I can do it later so go to Alma chapter 34 this is a passage that Aaron had me read last night he had a pretty good crowd going and this guy was there mocking him and and Aaron made the statement that that something something to the effect of eternity that if you didn't stop repenting you know your eternity was already set and the guy didn't believe us so so we read Alma chapter 34 verses 35 no normally if I've got a lot of time i'll read verses 32 all the way up through 36 but just for this morning we're gonna look at verse 35 says for behold if you've procrastinated the day of your repentance even until death we hold you if we become subjected to the spirit of the devil and he does seal you his therefore the Spirit of the Lord hath withdrawn from you and hath no place in you and the devil hath all power over you and this is the and I like to stop and point right there what does it say this is the final stage of the wicked is there any repentance in the afterlife this is the temporary state of the wicked do you see the difference this is the final state of the wicked now I didn't relied entirely on me this actually just a couple of days ago but a miracle of forgiveness page 313 again this is Spencer W Kimball who at the time was an apostle when he wrote this book he says make sure I'm on the right page 3:13 I was looking at 312 it says repent in mortality I have referred previously to the significance of this life in the application of repentance but we'll emphasize it here in relation to the eventual judgment one cannot delay repentance until the next life the spirit world and there prepare properly for the Day of Judgment while the ordinance work is done for him vicariously on earth it must be remembered that vicarious work for the dead is for those who could not do the work for themselves men and women who live in mortality and who have heard the gospel here and have had their day their 70 years to put their lives in harmony to perform ordinance and to repent is to perfect their lives you've got to do that now that's in this day there is no repentance in the afterlife so again you have to stop sinning before you draw your last breath and a lot of times Mormons will say you know I'll get around to it or I'm working on it and I'll tell them I mean if you're standing there out on the streets you see all the all the vehicles that still drive through there you know somebody could come through there and wipe out the whole crowd you're not guaranteed your next five minutes standing out there on that street and you know what the difference is between you and me you're not forgiven I am and it doesn't have anything to do with my performance so that is not an arrogant statement for me to say the first time I ever heard that as a Christian I didn't fully understand things when somebody told me that they knew they were gonna go to heaven I thought that was the most arrogant thing I've ever heard but yet when you understand grace and you understand what is bestowed on you and that it has nothing to do with you that's not an arrogant statement now most Mormons they're hung up on this and in fact I was talking with a guy last night and he was saying but I'm okay I feel I'm okay here's my question for you if your feelings are going contrary to you what your your church teaches as true doctrine who's giving you those feelings who's leading you astray into thinking that you're okay when you haven't repented of anything now they're starting to think a little bit deeper and that's what we want to do at this point hopefully if you're dealing with someone who's interested in truth you can get into the standards for the biblical gospel and I like to start with Romans 11 in verse 6 because this shows us something about grace Mormons have no concept for grace they don't understand what it means they either look at it as a synonym for mercy or they see it as something that's that's bestowed on them through a you know priesthood power kind of almost like the Catholic view Romans 11:6 and if by grace then it is no more of works otherwise grace is no more grace but if it be of works then it is no more grace otherwise work is no more work you see grace and works are mutually exclusive it's not both it's one or the other it cannot be both if something is given to you you didn't what you didn't earn it if it is earned than what it wasn't given I was speaking with a police officer two nights ago and he clearly understood this Mormons for the most part have a wonderful work ethic so you can use this example and you can ask them you ever had a job sure I've got a job you work for your paycheck right right why does your employer give you a paycheck because I earned it what if he came up to you handed you your paycheck and said here's a gift for me to you what would you say No thank you I earned that now if my employer said that to me I'd probably take that as a derogatory comment about my performance you didn't turn this Keith I'm giving it to you right but Mormons have that very strong work ethic and you can show them in Romans chapter 4 verses 4 and 5 it says now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt but to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness that's right by the way I love what the Christians are starting to do this year when you know at the beginning of the pageant where Robert and Mary are going on to the different pictures and the one preacher says for it is by faith alone that we are saved brethren and we all say Amen I don't want that tradition to stop they can change the pageant we'll find something else to say amen to I don't have a problem with that but seriously that is a great part of the pageant it's about like the only part yeah all right I don't want to go there so you see the gift versus the reward right it's one or the other it's either a gift or to reward you either earned it or it's given now a lot of times Mormons will say this well if that's the case then I can just go on sinning right rum let me explain something to you a lot of times people will immediately want to jump into some big long theological discussion on why they they should not sin when they're under grace I found a really quick way to just get to the point of the issue if they say well then hey I can go party all I want I just look at him and say would you if God forgave all your sin and said I forgive you all your past all your present all your future sins would you really look at God and say party on dude is that what you're gonna do you're spitting in the face of God and you're taking his grace as license why would he do that you see God knows the future right he knows what you're gonna do with the grace you know I'll tell that to the Mormon and I like to tell them this story number of years ago my wife and I were moving from an apartment to a rental house and I went and rented this big Ryder truck I've got a lot of books and I needed the biggest truck that they can get or that I could get that they had and and the guy says well do you want to get the insurance with that I said no thanks I've got my insurance he says well your insurance will cover it if somebody else hits you but if you hit them then you're responsible for that and your rates are probably going to go up but if you buy my insurance that's not going to happen it's $20 I looked at the truck and I thought I could do a lot of damage with that sure I said fine 20 bucks it's worth it so I jumped in the truck I got out onto the under the road and I was turning onto the highway and this is a true story turning onto the highway and this guy runs a red light now this is just to let you in a little bit on my sin and you know kind of things I don't I hate idiot drivers and you know what went through my mind I can cream this guy and I've got the insurance to pay for it true story then you know what else went through my mind yeah but I could kill him and I don't want to live with that so instead of hitting the gas I hit the brake and this guy had no idea how close he was a death as he drove by and instantly it hit me that's great I don't have grace so that I can misuse it okay I don't have grace so that I can sin it's there in case I do so that if I would have gone for the brake and slipped and hit the accelerator and hit this car it's paid for it's paid for that's grace so if they hear you correctly and they say oh but I can go right out in sin let me let me tell you something that's gonna open your eyes they have heard your gospel presentation do you know how I know that because they are giving you an objection that Paul answers in Romans chapter 6 which means you're saying the same thing Paul said because you have to answer the same objection so go to Romans chapter 6 look at verse 1 verse 1 says what shall we say then shall we continue in sin that grace about hey if I get more grace because I sin and God covers my sin because of his grace then the more sin I do the more grace I get and Paul says no no look at verse 15 what then shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace god forbid and then he goes on and explains why we were saved you know a lot of us like to quote Ephesians 2:8 9 and you forget verse 10 you are saved unto good works you are not saved for license so those who have been bought by the precious blood of Christ that is not the life we are to live we are not to take God and and use his grace as license that's not what it's there for now when it comes to grace like I said they don't understand what it is so I like to I like to compare it to two other things I like to compare grace to judgment and mercy judgment is getting what you deserve mercy is not getting what you deserve grace is getting what you don't deserve you guys follow that I'll say it one more time judgment is getting what you deserve mercy is not getting what you deserve and grace is getting what you don't deserve none of us deserve grace deserved Grace is a misnomer for justice if you deserved it you earned it let's look at Ephesians real quick Ephesians chapter 2 a lot of Mormons think that Ephesians chapter 2 is the saved by grace after all you can do they haven't seen it in the Bible or have misread it verse 8 for by grace you have been saved through faith and it's not of yourselves it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast verse 10 for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them what comes first then see it's not faith plus works equals salvation it's faith equals salvation plus works those works come later those works come out of gratitude not because of something I have to do you see this is a contradiction of 2nd Nephi 2523 grace after all you can do verses grace no works and people I've heard Christians sometimes tell me well there isn't much difference between the Book of Mormon in the Bible you haven't read 2nd Nephi 25 23 there's another passage you haven't read either I'll remind you of it in a second but first let's go back to Romans and look at verse or chapter 5 in verse 8 the judgment mercy grace thing judgment is getting what you deserve mercy is not getting what you deserve and grace is getting what you do not deserve ok Romans 5:8 but God commendeth his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us what verse is that in direct contradiction tune the Book of Mormon I'm 1137 he will not save you in your sins versus while you're yet sinners he died for you which kind of a savoury do you want you want the Savior that stands back and watches for you to stop or do you want the Savior who jumps in because you can't stop what really is a savior someone who does for you something that you cannot do for yourself that's what a savior is Mormons have the idea when they say Jesus is my personal Savior you know that's a very Christian thing to say what they really mean by that is if I do what he does then I get what he has he's an example he's not a savior they don't understand that flip over to Hebrews chapter 10 this is my yeah you can hear my wife after woo this is her favorite book in the Bible she thinks it's more inspired than any other but Hebrews 10:14 for by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified perfected forever so I've had Mormons ask me well are you perfect and I say yeah I am but it's got nothing to do with me or my performance it has everything to do with what Christ has done for me he bought perfection and gave it to me and that is mine as a present and forever possession so that when I stand before Heavenly Father he doesn't see my sin he sees the righteousness of his son and now we all know that Jesus is accepted by God right what's the proof of that the bodily resurrection that's right I have that same approval that exact same approval now a number of you who were here last week you guys met a friend of mine is a mormon friend of mine we've been meeting here for eight years his name is dale and the first time I met Dale in 2001 we got into this discussion on the gospel and he got to a point to where he understood what I was saying he wasn't totally buying it he understood what I was saying and he asked an honest question he said well what's the difference between your faith and Jesus in my faith because I have faith in Jesus too so in all I'm doing is adding you're saying it's only faith alone but you see I do I have the same faith but then I I kind of add other things along to it and I said well well Dale let me ask you this question is Jesus one of many necessary things that you need for forgiveness to be with God or is he alone sufficient and he said Jesus is sufficient I replied if that's the case and then I pointed to the Manti Templeman I said then that building is unnecessary if Jesus is sufficient everything else is unnecessary his response shocked me he said no that temple is necessary every stone of that temple is Jesus to me and again because of the relationship I had built with him I knew that I could say what I was going to say next without terribly offending him I just looked at him and I said Dale that's blasphemy what does it what does a temple look like dying on the cross for your sins God didn't send the building he didn't send an organization and he didn't send a temple and he certainly didn't send ourselves he sent his son Jesus and he said oh okay wait a minute wait a minute all right I meant that Jesus is one of many necessary things I said all right if Jesus is just one of many necessary things than what you're telling me is Jesus is insufficient and I want to hear you say that he thought it but he could not verbalize it you know because it just doesn't sound right to say Jesus is insufficient yet that is what Mormonism teaches you know I mean can you imagine a Mormon youth group walking through the streets of Manti Jesus isn't sufficient he needs my help I got to stop sinning before he'll be sufficient in effect that is what Mormonism teaches now every Mormon in the world would completely disagree with what I just said but when you look at the core doctrine and you look at what is required of you that is what it says that is what they teach you see we have to righteousnesses that we can trust our own or the righteousness of Christ go back to Romans Romans chapter 10 verses 1 through 3 brethren and and Paul is talking about the Israelites we could say this to the Mormons forever and my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel for Mormon them is that they might be saved for I bear witness or excuse me for I bear them record that they have a zeal for God but not in according to knowledge for they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth whose righteousness do you want to trust yours or his I want the righteousness that is provided for me why is it provided for me because not mine is not good enough mine is not good enough my wife and I were meeting with some Mormon missionaries because they were in my mother's church in Indiana proselytizing between services oh but we don't go in front of your temples and do this no you'll just go inside the building and tell people why they shouldn't you know to this church so we met with these guys in the pastor's office and we went through a lot of this stuff and we explained it to them and you know what this one missionary said he looked at me and says what is this they all about Jesus show I almost jumped in my flesh but my anger was righteous and I wanted to grab his little neck but I didn't and I just looked at him and I said it certainly ain't about you he shut up it's either all about Jesus or Jesus plus you the emphasis must be on you because Jesus already did his work so who's it really about you if that's what if that's what you're trusting then it's all about you but it's not all about you it's all about Jesus I want to close with this one example and then I want to do something a little bit different speaking with a couple of LDS missionaries at someone's house and and this guy told me he says you know Christians they misunderstand Mormons all the time it's kind of like this it's kind of like it if you're in a swimming hole and and the current is really bad and it's about ready to take you under and the Christian is there and he says that he's saved by grace so he's not gonna put forth any effort whatsoever and he's not going to try to swim to save himself and he dies you know but you Christians you think that the other man in the water is the man who tries to swim and try to do it on his own and tries to get to the bank and and he just can't he just can't do it so he drowns he says that's not what we believe at all because there isn't just two men in the water there's a third man in the water and the third man tries as hard as he can and he gets up to the edge and Jesus is there with the stick on the on the bank and he reaches out as far as he can and you grab that stick and you gotta hold on to it this pulls you out of the water you see it's not grace where you just drown because you're not doing anything and you can't do it yourself because the currents too strong it's both you do your best and Jesus does the rest and I says well you know that's really interesting because there's a fourth man in that water and he's on the bottom and he's dead no let me ask you what can a dead man do to save himself nothing so my Jesus puts down the silly stick dives into the water grabs me brings me up takes me to the bank lays me out and gives me mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and I am Alive that's my Jesus he had nothing to say nothing to say you see coming to Christ it's a personal relationship you can't have a personal relationship with an organization it's coming to a personal being it is coming to someone who loves you and it's just as simple as this now for because of the recording I want to do something here I I want to pray the prayer and I want you all to to follow after me so that if someone is listening online that they can understand just how simple it is so if you'll pray with me Lord Jesus thank you for loving me enough to die for my sin by faith I give you my sin and accept your righteousness thank you for saving me and help me to live in a way that pleases you in your name Amen now Mormons listening to this may think that's too simple that's too easy let me ask you a question how hard is it to get married you've got two words you gotta say I do and in the Bible Christians we are called the Bride of Christ and I encourage you to come to Jesus and say I do thank you

Channel: Aaron Shafovaloff

Views: 21,340

Rating: 3.7254238 out of 5

Keywords: impossible, gospel, lds, mormon, mormonism, keith, walker, repentance, forgiveness

Id: NzdIgOO4Pp8

Length: 58min 24sec (3504 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 12 2008