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[0:00] Amen. You can take a seat. I want to once again welcome our sixth graders. If you're in sixth grade, raise your hand. Yes. Yes. Welcome. Sixth grade's been the best three years of Luca's life. He's a sixth grader as well, I guess. So welcome sixth graders. We love you guys. Are glad you're here for your first Wednesday night. You do considerably lower our average height, but that's okay. We love you. We love you dearly. And so we are, yeah, Luca is the anomaly of that. His fourth time through sixth grade, he's quite tall now. But just want to give you guys some reminders as we embark on a new school year together. You guys do such a good job listening to preaching, listening to sermons, listening to teaching from God's word. I just want to encourage you and remind you that that is the goal. So we don't want to be a distraction to those around us. You don't want to distract yourself from hearing from God's word. So I'd encourage you tonight and this year to listen well, to not be a distraction to those around you. Because as is our normal course, we'll be studying God's word and things that he has said to us. And so you don't want to be responsible for distracting someone else from hearing what the Lord says to his church through his word. So you guys do a great job of that. Just want to encourage you in that task to be good listeners this tonight and this year.

[1:27] And also during the preaching and during the singing, we don't want you up and down out of the room a whole lot. So that's why we provide that countdown for you at the beginning. So unless there's an emergency or something urgent you need to get up and leave the room for, please refrain from doing that or do it during that countdown time we give to you.

[1:45] So again, you guys do a great job of that. Just want to get some housekeeping things out of the way and remind you of those as we start a new school year. So speaking of a new school year, we're starting a series tonight called Denominations, Doctrines, and the Deceived.

[2:01] And we did this about five or six years ago, about six or seven years ago. And thank you. Thank you. Hey, I just got to start this new year off with like a good dad joke.

[2:12] So there it is. I'm done now. I'm done for the rest of the year. I promise. So starting this new series, we're going to be looking at what different denominations around the city of Mustang believe.

[2:24] So we're going to be looking at tonight Methodism. We're going to be looking at Nazarenes, Pentecostals. We'll also get into some cults that are in Mustang towards the end of this series. And so I want this to be a help to you guys.

[2:36] It'll be a little bit different than our normal diet where we just start in chapter one, verse one of a book and work our way through it until there's no more text. But I hope this will be helpful for you, even though it's a little bit different from what we usually do.

[2:49] I want it to be helpful for you and equip you for people you'll run into in Mustang, people you'll run into the rest of your lives as you go off to college or whatever's next for you. And I want you to be able to have an intelligent conversation with them.

[3:02] So after tonight, if you bump into a Methodist, I would hope you'd be able to ask some good questions of them and have some background information about where they came from, what they believe, what they understand the Bible to teach.

[3:14] And especially as we get into false religions, into the cults, into the deceived category, I want you to be able to know what they believe. And we don't need to know everything about what everyone believes in order to share the gospel with them.

[3:26] But I hope to give you enough to where it's helpful that you know where the pressure points are, you know where they contradict scripture, and you're able to have a good conversation with them, sharing the gospel with them.

[3:37] So my aim, as always, is to be a servant to you, to be a help to you. And even during this series, I hope that I'm able to accomplish that and be helpful to you.

[3:48] And I want to make a couple promises to you for this series. I promise, to the best of my ability, to accurately represent what these people believe. My goal isn't to just kind of caricature them, kind of cartoon-ish presentation of them, and then just make fun of them.

[4:08] I want to accurately depict what they believe the Bible teaches so that you know what they believe and where they're getting that. And I also promise, though, to speak openly when there are disagreements.

[4:20] My goal, I'm not going to hide if there are differences in what we believe or what we think. I want to speak openly and honestly about those things as well. So because of that, this series may be a little spicy at times, but hopefully it'll be helpful.

[4:34] And I want to give you a little outline for each week. This is roughly what we'll be doing. So generally, we're going to give a background of this denomination or of this cult, some historical background, where this came from, who started it, who the most popular people are, who are a part of that.

[4:51] We'll then look at some positives in most cases, some positives. These people believe, these people practice. And then we'll get into, thirdly, some specific beliefs that they have.

[5:02] And so be ready to turn in your Bibles as we'll go to different places looking at what they believe about the church, about salvation, about God, about human beings. So be ready to turn in your Bibles. That'll be a rough outline of what we do each week.

[5:16] And along the way, especially in the specific beliefs category, we'll also be sprinkling in some of what we believe as well. So if they believe something that we agree with, I'll say we agree with it.

[5:28] If they believe something we disagree with, I'll say we disagree with it and show you from the Bible why we believe what we believe. And then, the Wednesday before fall break, we're going to do one sermon on why we're Baptists.

[5:41] So we're going to kind of end this by looking at what we teach, just a holistic view of what we teach about the New Covenant and the church and the individual believer as Baptists. So firstly, we're going to see the background of Methodism.

[5:55] The background of Methodism. The most famous Methodists in history are John Wesley and his brother Charles.

[6:05] They are the founders of Methodism. So John and Charles Wesley, also Anna Wynne. She's the best Methodist because she's now a Baptist. So you were Methodist, right?

[6:18] Reformed. Okay, there we go. There we go. So she's one of the most famous Methodists you'll ever meet because everyone here knows her. So she's famous. But John and Charles Wesley are two of the most famous Methodists in history.

[6:30] And so I want to give you just kind of a little bit of a bio about John Wesley. And as we look at his life, we'll kind of see the birth of Methodism because he's the founder of it in many ways.

[6:40] John Wesley was a renowned preacher and theologian in the 1700s. He was in England. That's where he's from. But he also spent a lot of time in America before it was the United States, back when it was the colonies.

[6:53] So he was originally part of the Church of England, or we'd call he was an Anglican. So he was a famous preacher and a really good theologian in many respects.

[7:04] His brother Charles Wesley was a great hymn writer. And we sing many of his hymns in our church. He's written a lot of famous hymns. He wrote Hark the Herald Angels Sing, which is my favorite Christmas song, even before last Christmas.

[7:19] He wrote Oh for a Thousand Tongues to Sing. He wrote Christ the Lord is Risen Today. And Shake It Off. Oh, no, that's T-Swift. Okay. So he wrote a lot of famous hymns.

[7:32] And that was his contribution to Methodist belief and even singing some of his stuff in our church. It's really, really good. So John and Charles Wesley, along with George Whitefield, began a group Bible study when they were in college.

[7:48] They were in college at Augsford. You have to say it Augsford, not an X, like double G. Augsford. And they were very methodical in this Bible study.

[8:00] They had a small group Bible study. They met together. And they were so methodical, which is where the term Methodist came from, that many of their classmates started to make fun of them and call them different names because they were so serious about this.

[8:12] And so they called them the Holy Club. They called them Bible moths, which just sounds like a 1700s burn. Like it doesn't land the same way now, but Bible moths. And then the one that stuck was Methodist.

[8:26] They were so methodical, so precise in what they did and believed and practiced that they got the term Methodist. So what were they known for? Well, they were known for starting exactly on time.

[8:39] And Michael Staten said, amen. They started exactly on time. They were intense and exact in their Bible reading in terms of the amount that they read and how well they read it out loud.

[8:51] They participated in regular fasting, regular and regimented visiting of the sick and the poor. And they devoted themselves to prayer.

[9:02] They were devout in prayer, steadfast in their prayers. And the three of these men ended up at different times taking mission trips to America. And so they would preach in open fields to anyone who would listen to them.

[9:15] They were here in about the mid-1700s. And they would preach the Bible off the back of a stagecoach or in a shop or in a field, anywhere people would gather to listen to God's word.

[9:26] And they were very effective in what they did. They were very faithful communicators of the gospel. But John Wesley, on his first trip, it didn't go so well. And part of the problem was he wasn't actually saved.

[9:38] He wasn't converted until after he left the United States and went back to England. And it was there in England after his first missionary trip to America. He was gathered with a church there who had sent out several missionaries.

[9:51] It was a really faithful church. And it was there they were reading Martin Luther's introduction to the book of Romans. They were reading about this introduction to the book the Apostle Paul wrote to the Romans.

[10:05] And it was when someone was reading this introduction that he first truly understood what the gospel was. He first understood how sinful he was. He truly understood how gracious God was in forgiving his sin, paying for his sin, and considering him righteous.

[10:26] And so John Wesley says that while Luther was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed.

[10:37] I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation. And an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.

[10:53] And so it was here that he first understood what the gospel truly was. And from this point on, he became an even more faithful preacher, an even more precise theologian.

[11:05] And he was incredibly well trained in theology and in literature and would use these gifts in preaching God's word to people. And he had this to say about his own ministry. He said, I have no design but to promote the glory of God.

[11:21] And I have no desire but to save souls from death. And so John Wesley's view of his own ministry is, my goal is to glorify God and to save souls from death.

[11:35] And amen to that. That was his heart's desire. He was, as I mentioned, greatly trained in theology and literature. He was fiercely anti-Roman Catholic.

[11:47] And he also believed that there was one core body of truth that Christians everywhere must believe in order to be Christians. You have to believe that Jesus was sinless in order to be a Christian.

[12:00] You have to believe that he died on the cross for your sins to be saved. So he believed there was a core body of truth that you needed to believe and that Christians everywhere did agree upon.

[12:11] And these early Methodist churches that met together, they were small when they first started, but they were faithful to each other. They would meet together. They would support each other.

[12:22] They held each other accountable. They would share their sins with each other. They would pray for each other to stay in the faith. They would study God's word together. And they would sing. And today, Methodism has split into a lot of different flavors.

[12:35] The two most prominent would be the United Methodist Church and the Global Methodist Church. We'll talk more about the difference between the two later because the Global Methodists are very, very new.

[12:48] But the two most prominent ones are United Methodists and Global Methodists. And they're very different in distinction from each other, but historically, they share a lot of commonality.

[12:59] And in what they believe, they're very similar as well. So Methodist churches in Mustang. We've got Crossroads in Mustang. It's the one right over there on 152, like a mile from our church.

[13:09] It's called Crossroads Mustang. It's a Wesleyan fellowship. Wesleyan coming from Wesley. And then there's also Church of the Good Shepherd over by Mustang North. Anyone go to Mustang North?

[13:21] My people. I went to North. So it's just right across the street from Mustang North. They're a United Methodist church. And also, surprisingly, a church with Methodist connections is Life Church.

[13:33] So they're not Methodist. They belong to a different group. But Craig Groeschel was Methodist. He's the pastor celebrity guy there, the preacher.

[13:44] So he was a Methodist and then was seeking ordination with the Methodist church. And they actually rejected him. And he started Life Church. True story. So they have Methodist connections, but they're not Methodist themselves.

[13:57] They belong to a different group of churches. So that's the background of Methodism. So secondly, let's look at some positives of Methodism. Positives of Methodism.

[14:10] Number one, it embraces Orthodox Christianity. It embraces Orthodox Christianity. And by Orthodox Christianity, I mean they embrace what the Bible teaches about Christ.

[14:29] They embrace what the Bible teaches about who God is and what salvation is. And so when you think about what is Orthodox Christianity, think like the Nicene Creed we studied at Falls Creek.

[14:41] Think the deity of Christ. He is the Son of God. He became flesh. He became the Son of Man. He died in our place. God is a trinity. He's one God who exists eternally in three persons.

[14:54] Father, Son, and Spirit. And so because of that, we're not talking about a group of people who are outside the kingdom necessarily. We're talking about a group that historically has proclaimed the faith that we hold to.

[15:10] Has historically proclaimed the same gospel that we preach. And there have been some departures from that. And we'll look at those deviances and those errors tonight.

[15:20] But generally speaking, we're not talking about people who are outside the kingdom of God. These are people who embrace the historic Christian faith as we would. Number two, they're focused on repentance and faith in Christ.

[15:37] John Wesley was a very fervent preacher of the gospel.

[15:50] And especially historically, Methodist churches have also faithfully preached the gospel. And it's been a faithful message of you need to repent of your sins and believe in Christ and his death on the cross for you and his resurrection.

[16:06] There is no other hope. There is no other message that the church has. And Wesley himself and Methodism would have some different theological views from us. But nothing that clouds their understanding of the gospel historically.

[16:20] They've been a faithful gospel preaching denomination for a long time. And there's been some deviance from that as of late. But historically, there's been a focus on repentance and faith in Christ.

[16:32] So they embrace Orthodox Christianity. They're focused on repentance and faith in Christ. And number three, they're focused on personal holiness. Focused on personal holiness.

[16:43] In Hebrews 12, 14, the author of Hebrews says to pursue holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

[16:54] And so what the author of Hebrews is saying is that if you aren't righteous in this life, if you don't have righteousness, you will not see the Lord. And ultimately, our righteousness comes from the Lord.

[17:06] But that has to bear fruit in our lives. And so historically, Methodism has taken this very seriously. And this might be the biggest contribution they've made to Christianity in the United States.

[17:19] This is part of the reason they earned the name Methodist. They take personal holiness very seriously. They're very disciplined in this regard. They emphasize holiness and they pursue it in their own lives.

[17:32] And so on the whole, I'm thankful for gospel preaching Methodists. So thirdly, let's get into specific beliefs they have. Specific beliefs. And we're going to cover a lot of ground here.

[17:46] So be ready to open in your Bibles. And you can go ahead and open with me now to Acts chapter 2. So I want to give you about nine or ten things that they believe specifically about the church or about God or about the Christian life, about the gospel.

[18:09] And as we go, if there is any deviance, I want to call that out from what we would believe. I want to point that out and explain what we would believe from the scriptures. But I want to give you about nine or ten things that they believe specifically.

[18:24] And so the first one would be church structure. Church structure. We, as Baptists, would call Methodists a different denomination.

[18:39] They wouldn't necessarily call themselves a denomination. They would call themselves a conference. A conference of churches. And interestingly, the Methodist conference or denomination, whatever you'd like to call it, they actually hold all the power over individual congregations.

[18:57] So for our church, the congregation votes on the budget. The congregation owns the building. The congregation owns the land. The congregation votes yay or nay on hiring new pastors, on approving expenses, on making decisions that are business related.

[19:12] In Methodism, the individual churches don't make any of those decisions. They're not even in charge of who their pastor is or isn't. And so the conference, the denomination owns the church building, owns the church property, in some sense even owns the pastors.

[19:30] Because the denomination itself will say, okay, you're going to spend two years here in Mustang, then we're going to move you on to Florida or wherever. And the congregation can't say, we want to keep him longer, or you should have moved him sooner.

[19:42] They don't have any say in that. The denomination controls all of that. I met the pastor at the, what's now Crossroads Mustang. It used to be the United Methodist Church of Mustang.

[19:55] He had been there a couple of years. His last name was Tiger. Tiger, I don't remember his first name. Because the last name like that, like, it was just so distracting. And when I met him, he was wearing a black and orange striped tie.

[20:07] And I was like, that's not really your name, man. But it was, so that was awkward. But anyway, he's gone now. Probably they moved him somewhere else. But we as Baptists believe congregation has the final human authority in the life of the church in terms of decisions the church needs to make.

[20:25] And so that would be a difference we have there. And just one example of that. When the Apostle Paul has a problem with a church, what does he do?

[20:38] He writes a letter. But who does he write this letter to? Does he write it to the pastors? Does he write it to some authoritative body who's over the church in this area?

[20:50] He writes it to the church. And so he's got problems with the church in Corinth. He writes a letter to the Corinthian church. Implying that this church as a gathered body has the authority to make decisions for itself.

[21:06] Has the authority to deal with sin in its midst. Has authority to make corrections to its own life. So that's just one quick note on their church structure. is the denomination has the authority over local churches.

[21:20] Second thing we want to look at in specific beliefs would be their belief of foreknowledge. Foreknowledge. And this is in regard to what God knows before it happens.

[21:34] This is God's knowledge in advance. Knowledge of something before it actually takes place. And so we would agree God has foreknowledge. He knows things in advance.

[21:46] Methodists would agree that God has foreknowledge. There are things that he knows in advance. The question is, how does God know these things? How does God have this prior knowledge?

[21:59] How does he have this foreknowledge? And so Methodists would teach that God has foreknowledge. God knows things in advance simply because he knows all things.

[22:09] So he knows things before they happen just because he knows everything. He can see the future. He knows what's coming down the pipe. And that's how he has foreknowledge. We would say, and I think scripture would say, God has foreknowledge not just because he knows all things, but because he has planned all things.

[22:29] So he doesn't just see things happening in the future. He knows they're going to happen in the future because he's planned them to happen in the future. And this Methodist understanding of foreknowledge, I think they have good motives.

[22:47] They have good intentions in believing this because they're trying to get God off the hook for evil. So they're saying, okay, there's evil things that happen and God knows about them before they happen and he doesn't stop them.

[23:00] And so in their minds, if they say God planned all things, then God would be responsible for evil. And so I think, well-intentioned as they are, I think they're trying to get God off the hook for bad things that happen.

[23:15] 9-11, the flooding in Texas, any tragedy you want. They're trying to get God off the hook for evil things that take place. But I want to look at one particular instance of evil and ask about God's foreknowledge of that event.

[23:34] Well, what's the most evil event in history? The murder of Christ. That has to be the most evil event in history. Never was there a more innocent man punished for a crime he didn't commit.

[23:46] If you or I got the death penalty one day for something we didn't do, we would be innocent. That would be a wrongful conviction. But we've done plenty of stuff that's wrong. We've done plenty of stuff that's sinful.

[23:57] We wouldn't be perfectly innocent. But with Christ, he got the death penalty and had never committed a single sin even in his thought life. This was the greatest act of injustice that's ever taken place on earth or ever will take place in the future.

[24:14] And what was God's knowledge of that event? Let's read in Acts chapter two, looking at verse 23. The apostle Paul, or I'm sorry, the apostle Peter is preaching.

[24:30] In verse 23, he says, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

[24:43] And so what Peter is saying is that Jesus was given over to death. He was delivered up according to the definite plan and the foreknowledge of God.

[24:56] Let's go one more place in Acts four. Flip over just a page or two to Acts chapter four. verse 27. Verse 27.

[25:07] The believers are praying and asking God for boldness and they're recapping what took place when Jesus was put to death. They say in verse 27, for truly in this city they were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel.

[25:31] Look at verse 28. To do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

[25:43] Here's the most evil act in the history of humanity and the Bible looks at that and says God didn't just know about it, he planned it.

[25:55] God didn't just see that happening in the future, this was according to his particular plan for his son. So how did Jesus, or how did God know about the crucifixion of Jesus?

[26:07] Was it because he just saw it would happen in the future? Or was it because he planned for it to happen in the future? The Bible's answer very clearly in Acts 2 and Acts 4 is that God knew about this because God planned it.

[26:23] And so there would be a difference in how we think about foreknowledge. Another doctrinal point would be salvation. Salvation. How does someone get saved?

[26:39] Methodists believe the same gospel that we do. They believe that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, was buried, was raised again on the third day, is seated at the right hand of the Father.

[26:50] They believe the same gospel that we do. But how does that salvation come home to someone? How does, what takes place when someone believes that?

[27:00] What happens when someone repents of their sins and receives the grace of God in Christ? We would agree with Methodists that salvation is not by our works. It's not by anything we do.

[27:11] We can't contribute to God favoring us or God loving us in any way. It's not by our works but by Christ's work on the cross that someone is saved. And Methodists would agree with us that the way someone is saved is through repentance and faith.

[27:26] That's what the fruit of salvation is. That's what the fruit of God's work in someone's heart is. They confess their sins and they believe in Christ. And if you want to write down Ephesians 2, 8 and 9 it says by grace you've been saved through faith.

[27:42] This is not your own doing. It's the gift of God so that no one may boast. But there are a couple of ways to understand how that salvation works and how it comes to someone.

[27:58] And there are Baptists who will even disagree with what I'm about to say but this is a distinguishing mark of Methodists. They would be classified as Armenians.

[28:09] And if you don't know how to spell that just get close. Just sound it out. You'll be kind of close. You might think they're from Armenia the country but there's no relation. So they would be classified as Armenians and here's what Arminianism teaches about salvation.

[28:23] Just two things. Number one your salvation wasn't planned and orchestrated by God. God. Your individual salvation was not planned and orchestrated by God.

[28:37] So kind of borrowing from the foreknowledge discussion God knew you would be saved but he did not plan for you to be saved.

[28:49] Again this is according to Methodist doctrine. God knew you would be saved but he didn't plan for you to be saved. And this is kind of like me when I go fishing.

[28:59] Anyone like to go fishing in here? A few of you. Yeah. I like to go fishing. I don't do it a lot anymore but when I go fishing I've got a pretty good idea that I'm gonna catch a fish or two.

[29:11] Very rarely have I gone out and just caught nothing. It has happened before. Anyone else? Same woes? Yeah. Yeah that's like the worst day of your life. Like I'm never fishing again. This is stupid. I have a pretty good idea though that I'm going to catch some fish but I don't have any plans of meeting a particular fish there.

[29:32] Fish can't talk. So I don't have a plan of catching a particular fish. And this is kind of how Methodists view salvation. God has extended the gospel offer to all and he doesn't have a plan for any particular individual to receive that but he knows that in general people will respond because he knows what the future holds.

[29:53] So God extends salvation to all but doesn't do anything to draw particular people to himself. And so ultimately they would say salvation is a choice of the individual.

[30:05] Salvation is a choice of the individual. And we would in principle agree with that. Like we don't think anyone's getting saved against their will. There's a choice to be made for sure but the question is what is the ultimate cause of salvation in someone's life?

[30:22] What's the ultimate cause of your salvation? Your faith in Christ. Is the ultimate cause your decision or is the ultimate cause the work of God? And Methodists would say the ultimate cause of your particular salvation is your choice to believe in Christ.

[30:40] Whereas we would say it's God's work in us. So your salvation wasn't planned and orchestrated by God. Number two thing that Methodists would teach about individual salvation is that you can lose your salvation.

[30:53] You can lose your salvation. And so they would say that it's possible to sin away the grace that you've received at salvation.

[31:04] And so since you choose to be saved you can also choose to be unsaved. You can go in and out of salvation. Saved, unsaved through sin, you can get re-saved again.

[31:17] And I don't think they have bad motives here. I think they're trying to explain what they've observed in their experience. And so a question for us. How would we explain it if there's someone we know who claims to follow Christ and seems to be a believer who walks away from the faith?

[31:36] How would we explain that? Methodists would look at that event and say this person was saved and they lost their salvation by walking away from Christ. And so they would say you can lose your salvation.

[31:51] And if that's the case eternal life doesn't really sound that eternal. It's kind of temporary. If you can get eternal life then lose it. It's not really eternal life to begin with.

[32:02] And ultimately this means that your ability to be saved is dependent on your ability to obey. And what this results in is there's absolutely no peace in your life.

[32:15] If I could send away my salvation I would have at this point. Like there's no chance. And so salvation is really not only just the human choice ultimately but it's also dependent on the human's ability to obey to keep themselves in salvation.

[32:35] And so what Baptists historically would teach would be classified as Calvinism as opposed to Arminianism. And this just teaches the opposite that your salvation was planned and orchestrated by God and that you cannot lose your salvation.

[32:50] Go with me to John chapter 10. Just a book to your left. Jesus is speaking and he speaks very clearly about the nature of his salvation.

[33:14] In John 10 verse 27 my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.

[33:26] I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of the father's hand.

[33:39] I and the father are one. And so here's Jesus' statement. The sheep that I save are mine forever. The sheep that I save I give them eternal life and I'm not going to let anyone hurt them.

[33:53] I'm not going to let anyone steal them away from me. They are mine for eternity because I have paid for them. I am their shepherd. And so what would we say if there's someone who claims to be a Christian appears to be a Christian and then walks away from the faith?

[34:11] We wouldn't say they had salvation and lost it. We would say they were never saved in the first place. They may have associated with the church. They may have said some right things. They may have seemed to be growing at one point.

[34:24] But because of what Jesus says in John 10 no one can lose their salvation because Jesus is the almighty and he says no one can take them from my hand. And so that's how we would explain that unfortunate situation and it does happen quite often.

[34:38] Okay number well whatever is next. I didn't write numbers down. Next is their view of grace. Their view of grace. They would view the Bible as teaching there are three different kinds of grace.

[34:55] Three different kinds of grace. They would teach that there is prevenient grace which we'll talk about mostly. They would say there's saving grace and sanctifying grace.

[35:07] So they view these as three distinct categories of God's grace. And we'll spend most of the time talking about prevenient grace. Again just get the spelling close.

[35:18] It's like convenient but with pre instead of con. And so they think that this kind of pre grace this grace that precedes salvation is given to all men everywhere of all time.

[35:32] And so they think that by Jesus' death on the cross he gave grace to all of humanity. And this grace what it does is it removes Adam's guilt that we've inherited.

[35:43] And so all of us are sinners after Adam and Eve rebelled in the garden because we descend from Adam. And they would view Jesus' death giving this prevenient grace that washes that guilt away.

[35:55] And so now we stand before God just in our own sin not in the sin of Adam. And so they view this prevenient grace as restoring free will to humanity. So now they can freely choose to worship God or freely choose to disobey God.

[36:10] And they view that this grace as a result of Jesus' death was given to all of humanity for all time. And so they would think that in our sinful state we're free creatures who can choose to serve Christ or choose to rebel against him.

[36:28] And on the surface this seems to cohere with reality like that seems reasonable to us because there's no one holding a gun to our head when we come to faith in Christ. It seems like we're completely free creatures but I don't think that's an accurate view of humanity.

[36:44] Now we do have a certain degree of freedom. If there's an unbeliever they can choose to go to McDonald's or Wendy's for lunch. They're free to make that choice. And if they're a really bad sinner they'll choose Wendy's.

[36:55] But they're free to make their choice in that instance. But what the Bible teaches is that we are slaves to our sin. And slavery does not end voluntarily.

[37:09] You cannot just walk away from something you're enslaved to for free. And so what the Bible teaches is we need something radically powerful to save us.

[37:20] We need the grace of God to save us. We're not strong enough on our own to just make a decision to walk away from what we're enslaved to.

[37:33] And then we'll touch briefly on their sanctifying grace. They would hold to what's called perfectionism. And John Wesley taught this that the believer through obedience could become sinless in this life.

[37:51] That if you obey long enough if you repent of your sin enough eventually you'll get to a point in this life where you don't sin anymore. Now John Wesley to his credit said I don't think anyone's ever attained it but hypothetically it's possible.

[38:06] So I don't know why he has this category but this is what he taught and most Methodist churches have some degree of teaching on this. And so they would say that you can become perfect in this life.

[38:19] Not meaning without sin completely but not adding to the amount of sins you've already committed. you would stop sinning at some point. And go with me to the book of Romans chapter 8.

[38:30] That's two books to your right from John. And so Methodists would say that it's possible to receive God's grace, to be sanctified, and then ultimately to end up in hell.

[38:47] You could gain salvation and then at some point lose it. And what the Apostle Paul says here in Romans 8 verse 30 is critically important for us on this point.

[39:04] Paul says, talking about believers, those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified.

[39:18] And those whom he justified, he also glorified. Now Methodists would teach that someone could be called, someone could be justified, and then not end up being glorified.

[39:33] They could be saved, and then they could be unsaved through their sin, and die in that situation and go to hell. But what the Apostle Paul teaches here is that this is an unbreakable sequence of events.

[39:47] God predestines people, God calls them to salvation, God justifies them, and everyone who experiences that grace will be glorified in heaven.

[39:59] No one will fall away from this train of grace that's extended to sinners here in Romans 8 verse 30. And then look down with me also at verse 38 of Romans 8.

[40:13] Paul says, for I'm sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

[40:29] The Bible is clear on this point. The person that God saves he will not lose. The person that God saves cannot walk away from him. The person that God saves will end up in heaven with him.

[40:43] Not because we're worthy, not because we're strong enough to keep ourselves there, but because God is a good shepherd who keeps his sheep. The next thing they teach regarding the church would be baptism.

[41:00] They're teaching on baptism. They would say that baptism is for anyone. And so whether you're a baby or a youth student or an adult, you can be baptized.

[41:12] And they accept any form of baptism. So in our church, we would only baptize someone by immersion, by putting them underneath water. They will practice sprinkling, you know, think just salt bay, like, you know, throw water on people.

[41:29] They'll pour just a bottle of water or something on your head. They'll pour and call that baptism. Or they'll do immersion as well. So any form of baptism will be accepted in the Methodist church.

[41:40] And they're thinking about baptism is fairly accurate. They don't think it's required for salvation. So they don't view it as a work in order to go to heaven. They think this is something you do as a result of being saved.

[41:53] And they think it marks the beginning of your journey with Christ. And if it's a baby that they're sprinkling, they would say that this is a symbol of the parent's commitment to raise their kids to follow Christ.

[42:06] So they wouldn't view it as the baby's faith, because babies don't have faith, but they would view it as a sign of the parent's commitment to raise them in Christ. So it's kind of like our baby dedication, except there's water, which isn't right.

[42:19] And we would believe that baptism is just for believers, and should only be by immersion, and we'll cover that in our last sermon on why we're Baptist more fully.

[42:31] Next to last thing is they do allow women in pastoral ministry, so they would allow women to be pastors in their churches, be the senior pastor, or be an associate pastor of some kind.

[42:44] And so women in the Methodist church can serve in all positions of church leadership. And this isn't unique to Methodist churches, but this is a distinguishing mark of them.

[42:56] And pretty much anyone you run into who is a proponent of women pastors, if you ask them, how do you support that from the Bible? example, they're going to point you to three places, or three people, rather.

[43:12] They're going to say Deborah was a prophetess in Judges 4. They're going to say Anna was a prophetess in Luke 2. And they're going to say Philip's daughters prophesied in Acts something, I can't remember.

[43:27] But in the book of Acts, Philip's daughters prophesied. And so they'll point you to those three examples of women being prophetesses in scripture. as some proof for women pastors.

[43:39] And my response to that is, okay, like, where in scripture are you seeing that prophets are the same thing as pastors? The Bible doesn't make that equation.

[43:52] And so, yes, there were some women prophets in the Old Testament. There's no one-to-one correspondence between prophets and pastors in the New Testament. And then secondly, the Bible actually, very clearly addresses this issue.

[44:06] So if you'll go with me to 1 Timothy, chapter 2. 2. The Apostle Paul says very clearly to this church in Ephesus, 1 Timothy 2, verse 12, And so what Paul is saying here is that women cannot serve in the role of pastor.

[44:53] Now, when he says they're to remain quiet, he doesn't mean, like, you can't talk to your friends in church at all. You go in the door, mouth goes shut. But what he's saying is that when the teaching of the word is going on, women are not to be the ones doing that teaching.

[45:08] The office of pastor is reserved for men in the New Testament. And so there is no justification for having a woman pastor in churches. And Paul gives his reasoning in verse 13, for Adam was formed first, then Eve.

[45:26] And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. And so by creation, Adam was created first, and by sin entering the world, women are not to be in leadership of the church in terms of teaching men.

[45:42] Women are free to teach other women. Women are free to teach children. Women are free to disciple other women in small group settings, but women are not to serve as pastors according to the clear teaching of the New Testament.

[45:56] Whereas Methodists would say women can be in all positions of church leadership. And then lastly, last specific belief, last thing in terms of what their church teaches would be regarding homosexuality.

[46:09] Homosexuality. And here we want to make a clear distinction between united Methodists and global Methodists. United Methodists Christians, they openly allow homosexuality and any LGBTQIA, whatever other letters, they allow that stuff to go unchecked in their churches.

[46:33] They don't think that is a sin. And in the United Methodist Church in particular, they will allow homosexuals to serve as pastors in their churches.

[46:46] So they're not only allowing this, but this is something they're promoting and celebrating as well. And I mentioned earlier that global Methodists are a very new group of Methodists.

[46:57] They actually started on May 1st, 2022. So they're only three years old and they're still one of the biggest Methodist groups. They were originally part of the United Methodist Church and they actually left and started their own group based on this issue itself.

[47:15] And so Crossroads Mustang used to be Mustang United Methodist Church and they left the United Methodist over this issue of homosexuality and approving of it.

[47:26] So praise God that they took a biblical stand on this. But just thinking through what the New Testament teaches regarding this subject, the Bible outrightly and clearly condemns homosexuality.

[47:40] The Bible condemns it as a sin. And the Bible gives hope to those who are snared in that sin. So the Bible condemns that sin and the Bible gives hope to those who are caught in that sin.

[47:56] And so last place I'll ask you to turn tonight is 1 Corinthians chapter 6. So the Bible condemns this sin.

[48:16] The Bible also gives hope to those who are caught in this sin. And we need to do the same. We should condemn this sin while also extending hope to those participating in this sin.

[48:30] And so Paul says 1 Corinthians 6 verse 9, Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? So in other words, sinners will not be in heaven based on their works.

[48:45] They won't inherit the kingdom of God because they're unrighteous. He says, Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

[49:05] So there, in very plain language, the sin of homosexuality is condemned. But look at what he says in verse 11. And such were some of you. And so in other words, you Corinthians used to participate in these sins.

[49:22] There were Christians in Corinth who formerly lived a homosexual lifestyle. But look at what happened to them. You were washed. You were sanctified.

[49:32] You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of our God. And so this is what I mean when the Bible condemns this sin while also extending hope to the sinner.

[49:45] Because this sin is condemned and yet Paul is saying the gospel is powerful enough to set you free from your sin, including homosexuality. The gospel is powerful enough to liberate you from this, to set you free from this sin.

[50:00] And Paul freely acknowledges some of you used to live this lifestyle and yet you were washed. You were brought to repentance through faith in Christ. You were set free from this.

[50:13] And so just to address one application of this, there's, this is becoming a growing trend in our culture and I suspect as you guys go into adulthood this will be an ethical issue you guys will have to face.

[50:26] Should we go to these type of weddings? Should we go to the homosexual weddings, weddings involving transgenderism, things of that nature?

[50:37] So if you were invited to one of these weddings, you should not go. You should not go there. And that may sound harsh, but what weddings are is a celebration.

[50:51] celebration. And if you go to a wedding like that, you are celebrating something that God hates. You are celebrating something that God condemns.

[51:04] And so it would be easy to think that this is a loving step to take to support someone, whether it's in your family or a friend group, but really this will bring a lot of confusion to them if you as a Christian go and show up to this celebration.

[51:20] And so they would be better served. By you faithfully preaching the gospel to them. That's the way you love them. You point them to Christ because Christ alone has power to overcome our sin and to set us free from the bonds that hold us in sin.

[51:38] And so kind of pulling back, thinking about Methodism in general, we have much to be thankful for when it comes to the Methodist denomination. Historically, they've had a strong emphasis on preaching the gospel and on personal holiness and on living the Christian life through faith in Christ.

[51:54] There are many differences in our theology and the United Methodist Church has really gone off the rails in the last few years, but I do think historically we've preached the same gospel message.

[52:07] And so while United Methodists have gone off the rails in terms of what they believe and what they preach, I'm thankful for the global Methodists or like the Crossroads Fellowship and Mustang for continuing to uphold the truth of God's word where our culture is putting pressure on the church.

[52:23] So let me pray for us and we'll be finished for tonight. Our Father, we thank you for the people you've raised up in Methodism to be faithful witnesses to your gospel.

[52:36] Thank you for men like John Wesley and Charles Wesley who have faithfully proclaimed the message of the gospel to sinners and have borne much fruit in their ministry of the gospel.

[52:50] So we pray for the Methodist Church. We pray for the global Methodists that would continue to stand firm on the gospel, continue to proclaim the message of the gospel, even in Mustang and wherever else those churches may be represented.

[53:03] I pray for our own church that we would be faithful in preaching the gospel to our people and to those who are outside the walls of our church so that we would be faithful representatives of you and of the grace that you've given to us.

[53:16]  And it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.