Hello and welcome to another broadcast. We call it plain and simple. Plain means easy to understand, and simple is to emphasize the fundamental, straightforward nature of something. We try to make the broadcast plain and simple. Stay tuned for our broadcast today. Well, in our last broadcast, we were looking at the fact that Jude was warning us about the common salvation that was going to creep in, a salvation that was unholy. It was profane. It's the salvation that we spread today that says you don't need to repent in order to be saved. That's a damnable heresy. Some years ago, I had a well-known soul wedding evangelist come to our church. If not most listening to this broadcast would know who I was talking about if I mentioned his name. We knocked at the door of a man in the area and this soul winning evangelist started his sales pitch. He rhymed off his presentation like he had probably hundreds of times before and ended up with the question, do you know any reason why you couldn't get saved right now? The man answered, I have done this twice before. The soul winner evangelist, probably not even hearing the man's response said, well, good then let's pray. The man prayed, we headed back to the church, and the man we talked to headed on his path to hell. That is what Jude was talking about when he talked about the common salvation. It is what Peter was talking about when he talked about a damnable heresy that would be brought in by Christians. Well, we're living in an age, too, when salvation is being presented as what I call an incentive salvation. Just like the business world, we offer an incentive to get people to say yes to our sales pitch. We offer the incentive of heaven to all who would pray a prayer. We ask the question, would you like to know for sure if you died today that you would go to heaven? Well, who wouldn't? Jesus never offered heaven as an incentive for people to get saved, and neither did any of his followers. Heaven is a tremendous byproduct of salvation. However, salvation deals with our repenting of our sin against God. Man needs to understand that we need to fall on our faces and repent of our sin before God, even if there was no heaven. Now, there is a heaven, and it's a tremendous byproduct, but it should not be presented as an incentive. Jesus never did that. As a matter of fact, Jesus promised a hard life in Matthew 8, 19, 20. We read a certain scribe came and said unto him, Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. Jesus didn't say, well, great, let's just pray a little forgiveness prayer and help us make our group larger and maybe we can build a big church here in Jerusalem. What did he say? Jesus said, the foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man hath nowhere to lay his head. Luke 9, 58. You still want to follow me? We read no more about that man. who said he would follow him wherever he went. In Luke 9 and 59, Christ asked another man if he'd like to follow him, and his response was, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. In verse 61, we read of another who also said, I will follow thee, but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at my father's house. Christ's answer to these me first seekers of common salvation was they were not fit for the kingdom of God, verse 52. Over a hundred years ago, Gypsy Smith mourned us about this present-day common salvation. Gypsy Smith won thousands of people to the Lord under the power of the Holy Spirit. However, he never used a slick, no-repentance sales pitch that says, let's just pray a little prayer. Gypsy Smith said Christ never made it easy, and the man who makes it easy to be a Christian preaches a mongrel gospel. You can download that whole message on our website. Gypsy Smith, repent ye. Another man who understood what was going on in his day was A.W. Tozer back in the sixties. He warned about our common salvation. A.W. Tozer said that crowds at any price, mania has taken a firm grip on Christianity as is the motivating power back of a shockingly high percentage of all religious activity. Tozer continued, in our eagerness to make converts, I am afraid, We have lately been guilty of using the technique of modern salesmanship. That's exactly what we've been doing, and Jude called that a common, unholy, corrupted salvation. No common salvation is preached in the Word of God. Jesus said, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Matthew 4, 17. John the Baptist graces that bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance. Matthew 13. Bible preachers did not focus on attracting a large crowd. They just preached. John preached in Matthew 23, 33. He said, ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? That's straightforward preaching. Did John not realize he would never build a church in Jerusalem preaching that way? No, he didn't build a church because his head cut off. Jesus preached in Matthew 7 and 5. He said, thou hypocrite, Mark 7 and 6, you hypocrites. John 8 and 44, ye are all but fathers of the devil. Matthew 23, 27, woe unto you hypocrites. Did he not realize that kind of preaching would drive people away? Yeah, he's God, he realized it. James 3 and James 4 and 4 said ye adulterers and adulteresses. James was preaching to Christians. Did not James realize that kind of preaching might cause some people to quit tithing and leave the church? Paul preached in Romans 2 and 3, he said, and thankest thou that thou shalt escape the judgment of God. Paul's focus was on the truth, not on pampering Christians. 1 Corinthians 3.11, Paul preached, he said, I, brethren, could not speak unto you as spiritual, but as unto carnal. Did not Paul realize that he might lose some members if he preached like that? In 1 Timothy 2.9, Paul preached that women adorn themselves in modest apparel. Did Paul not realize that getting women upset in the church could cause them to get their husbands upset and they might leave? Well, when dealing with immature Christians at Ephesus, Paul straight out told them to grow up. Ephesians 4.15. Grow up? You mean Paul preached straightforward messages telling people, church members, to grow up? Yes, he did. It's right there in Ephesians 4.15. In Colossians 3.5, Paul was speaking to Christians And he talked to them about fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Over a dozen times Paul warned Christians about lust. Paul rebuked the Christians at Corinth because of their attitude toward fornication, idolatry, adulterers, effeminate, and abusers of themselves with mankind. Referring to Christians, Paul said that they were becoming lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient parents, unholy, unthankful, without natural affection, truth breakers, false accusers, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness and denying the power thereof, 2 Timothy 3, 2-5. He was talking to Christians when he said all that. To the Galatians Paul said, Are ye so foolish? Galatians 3, 3. The difference concerning Paul and most of our so-called fundamental preaching today is Paul was obviously more concerned about preaching the truth than drawing crowds and keeping the crowds or building a new auditorium. Paul said he could honestly say in Acts 20, 20, I have kept back nothing that was profitable for you. He said in Acts 20, 27, I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Well, in conclusion to this series, you need to understand that God does have some large congregations. Psalm 42, 4 said, I had gone with a multitude. I went with them into the house of God. And sometimes the Bible tells us very plainly that God gives the increase in 1 Corinthians 3, 7. And once in a while, He'll have a large church. But most of our churches, at least, at least 99% of our churches in North America are small churches. And we didn't understand that. Proverbs 15, 16 says, better is little with the fear of the Lord than great treasures with trouble therein. Proverbs 16 and 8 says, better is little with righteousness than great revenues without right. So success cannot be determined by size. The Bible says that in Titus 1 and 9, that we are to be holding fast the faithful word as he had been taught. that we may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convince the Gainesians. There's a sample of success. Now what we need to learn to do in this age of apostasy and festivity, if you're a part of that remnant, it's going to hold true to the Word of God. God's small remnant in Malachi's day enjoyed the company of the fellowship of the believers. In Psalm 122 and 1, David said, I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord. Getting together with God's people should be more than a duty, it should be a delight. A church service should be more than sitting in a crowded room watching a production and hoping it gets over in time for you to get out and beat the Pentecostals to the restaurant. What we need to do is realize that it is great joy, a great privilege to have a church that we can fellowship with. 1 John 1.7 says, if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship. one with another. The Bible says, Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. Psalm 133, 1. At Philippi, Paul referred to their fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. Philippians 1 and 5. The Colossians, his goal was that their heart might be comforted being knit together in love. Colossians 2 and verse number 2. We need also in our local church 6, 7 speaks of God's people being joyful in the house of prayer. Three times it is recorded that Jesus said, My house shall be called a house of prayer. In Acts 12, 12 we read many were gathered together praying. In Acts 3 and 43 they continued steadfastly in prayer. God never intended prayer in the local church to be a time when we get the congregation to close their eyes so the performers can line up behind the something very special in our churches. And then we need to stay true to the doctrine. Titus 1.9, God's mandate is that we are faithful, holding fast the faithful word. to the pastors and the people in churches who are continuing in sound doctrine year after year, we need to be encouraged. Jesus said, well done thou good and faithful servant, thou has been faithful over a few. To be faithful, that is what is required. Little is much when God is in it. The songwriter has said, does the place you're called to labor seem so small and little known? It is great if God is in it and he'll not forget his own. When the conflict here is ended and our race on earth is run, he will say, if we are faithful, welcome home, my child, well done. We need to be found faithful. Again, 1 Corinthians 4 and 1 says, moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. When our life work is ended, we need to be sure that we can stand before God and say, I have finished the work which thou has given me to do. In conclusion, I want to repeat something that was said earlier. The fundamental movement is not and never will be the answer. God's local church is the only plan that we have been given today. The local church, as pictured in the Word of God, is a company of believers meeting together in the name of the Lord Jesus, standing in a bold moral contradiction to the modernism and liberalism of the world today. We need to keep in mind that as long as we are standing true to the Lord, no one in our area will be able to stand before the Lord and say they had no opportunity to trust in Jesus Christ. And then we need to be teaching all the counsel of God, Acts 20, 27. If those of us who are pastors will teach our people as commanded, and the parents make sure their families line up with the Scriptures, The job will be done. It is plain and it is simple. We never needed a movement. All we need to do is have pastors preaching the whole counsel of God, the parents going home, sitting down and having devotions every day concerning what they heard in church last week and making sure that everybody understands it. It is so plain and it is so simple. And finally, we need to keep on witnessing for the Lord. We are under orders to witness for our Lord until the end of the world, Matthew 28, 19. Let us be faithful to that command. It is a difficult day. Not too many want to hear, but the world hasn't ended yet, so we need to just keep going. In the day of Israel's apostasy, they had a very small remnant, determined to be a part of that remnant today, for there is no restraint for the Lord to save by many or by few. Tune in again tomorrow for another broadcast where we'll try to make it plain and simple. You.