Galatians 3:1-3, “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?”
Salvation is a free gift. Service is what you choose to do with the gift. A popular preacher of our time is Pastor John Barnett. Not surprisingly Barnett has studied at Bob Jones University (BJU), a cesspool of theological error and apostasy in recent decades. I wouldn't give you a dime for BJU today! Sadly, Mr. Barnett preaches another gospel of Lordship Salvation. The following heretical video sermon by Pastor Barnett is titled: “DID YOU KNOW THAT JESUS SAID—ONLY TRUE DISCIPLES CAN GO TO HEAVEN?”
“If you do not put a difference between justification wrought by the man Christ without and sanctification wrought by the Spirit of Christ within, you are not able to divide the Word aright; but contrariwise, you corrupt the Word of God, and cast stumbling blocks before the people.” [emphasis added] —Evangelist John Bunyan
Salvation is not doing your best, it is having Christ's best put to your account through receiving Him by faith. Pastor Barnett quotes passages from Matthew, misinterpreting them to apply to salvation. Barnett cherry-picks the word “repent” from Matthew, while totally ignoring the fact that John never mentions repentance one time. Matthew 4:17, “From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The learned Bible student understands that repentance and faith are inseparable and refer to the same act.
This is why the Apostle Peter said in Act 2:28, “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” Peter doesn't mention “believing” to be saved. Peter says to repent. But notice what we read in Acts 2:44, “And all that believed were together, and had all things common;” Dr. John R. Rice gets it 100% right:
There are those hyper-dispensationalists who think that John the Baptist preached a different Gospel from Christ when he commanded repentance (Matt. 3:2). But it is the same repentance Jesus commanded in Matthew 4:17, in Luke 13:3 and 5, and the same repentance that Paul preached in Athens that God “now commandeth all men every where to repent” (Acts 17:30 31). Repentance is not a different plan of salvation from having faith: it is part of the same plan of salvation. Or rather repentance is simply another way of describing or looking at the plan of salvation. One who turns from sin to God has done so by trusting in Jesus Christ. A change of mind toward sin is necessarily involved in saving faith.Everyone who genuinely repented under the preaching of John the Baptist put his trust in the Saviour John the Baptist preached, and was regenerated. There is no such thing as being “a disciple of John the Baptist” in any honest sense without being a disciple of Jesus, that is, without trusting Christ for salvation. [emphasis added]SOURCE: Evangelist John R. Rice, “Acts: Filled With The Spirit,” pp. 250-252; Sword Of The Lord, Murfreesboro, Tennessee; ©1963
I hope you see that Pastor John Barnett is an unsaved man, a false teacher. No one is saved who attacks and perverts the grace of God. The Bible plainly says that salvation is without works; yet Barnett says only disciples go to Heaven. You must choose dear reader who is right, John Barnett or the inspired and infallible Word of God. Please read the following excellent theological quote by Pastor M. R. DeHaan (1891-1965):
"There is a vast difference between coming to Jesus for salvation and coming after Jesus for service. Coming to Christ makes one a believer, while coming after Christ makes one a disciple. All believers are not disciples. To become a believer one accepts the invitation of the Gospel, to be a disciple one obeys the challenge to a life of dedicated service and separation. Salvation comes through the sacrifice of Christ; discipleship comes only by sacrifice of self and surrender to His call for devoted service. Salvation is free, but discipleship involves paying the price of a separated walk. Salvation can't be lost because it depends upon God's faithfulness, but discipleship can be lost because it depends upon our faithfulness." DeHaan, M. R. Hebrews. Zondervan Publishing House, 1959 (p. 117).
It is hard for me to grasp, with the abundance of helpful theological resources today, that any preacher could be so corrupt in his theology as the Lordship Salvation crowd. I mean, the King James Bible is all we need for sound doctrine (2nd Timothy 3:15-17). But even if someone were ignorant of the Bible and wanted some help to understand it, we have excellent resources available today, like never before in history. The Lordship Salvation crowd aren't even in the ballpark theologically! John Barnett is guilty of teaching the same junk theology as Gary Walton, Marty Herron, Steve Pettit, Sam Horn, John MacArthur, John Piper, R.C. Sproul, Charles Lawson and William Lane Craig. Here are some more helpful quotes differentiating between salvation and service:
"Discipleship is frequently equated with salvation and often erroneously made a condition for becoming a Christian". Pentecost, J. Dwight. Design for Discipleship. Zondervan Publishing House, 1971 (p. 11)."Certainly discipleship is a most important aspect of our relation to Christ, but it belongs to the sphere of Christian life rather than entrance upon that life... One does not become a disciple in order to become a Christian, but because he has become a Christian by faith in the Savior, it is fitting that he embark upon a life of discipleship". Harrison, Everett F. "Must Christ be Lord to Be Savior?-No." Eternity, September 1959 (p. 14)."There is no more piously subtle abrogation of the Gospel than to tell a Sinner that he must not only believe in the Savior, but dedicate himself to do God's will, crown the Savior Lord of his life, etc., etc. Obviously, dedication and service are highly desirable, but they are the privilege and the duty of the saved, never a condition of salvation for the unsaved (cf. Romans 12:1, 2)." Unger, Merrill F. God is Waiting to Meet You. Moody Press, 1975 (p. 117, 118)."People are sometimes led to believe that there is saving value in some public confession of Christ, or profession of a decision. "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness." This is salvation. "With the mouth confession is made unto salvation." This is the voice of the newborn child speaking to and of its father. The only condition on which one may be saved is to believe." Chafer, Lewis Sperry. Salvation. Dunham Publishing Company, 1917 (p. 46).
Those are great quotes, which will help you dear friend to see the difference between salvation versus service. Proof of what I say is found in 1st Corinthians 3:15, “If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.” Notice that the unfaithful man in this Bible verse suffers loss of everything, barely escaping the fires of Hell, but he is saved nonetheless. If John Barnett is correct (which he is not), then this man couldn't be saved, because he was not a disciple.
You see, John Barnett is guilty of doing what all Gospel perverts do, they cherry-pick the Scriptures, taking what they need from various passages to bolster up their strawman argument. But friend, a good rule to follow when interpreting the Bible is to never use an obscure passage to contradict a clear one. The Gospel of John, the Epistle of Romans, the Epistle of Ephesians and the Epistle of Galatians, are abundantly clear that salvation is by grace through faith alone. Romans 4:4-5, “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.” is absolutely NOTHING in the aforementioned books of the Bible that requires following Christ as Lord, forsaking all, exchanging all that you are for all that Christ is, to be saved. If it were so, then God would owe you and me salvation, which cannot be grace.
I plead with you friend to avoid these false teachers from Bob Jones University! They preach another gospel that is not what the King James Bible plainly teaches. Galatians 3:2, “This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” The Apostle Paul only wanted to know ONE THING, how did they get saved? How did they become indwelt with the Holy Spirit? Was it by works or by placing their faith in the Gospel when they heard it preached? We are saved simply by believing. That is why so many people miss Heaven, because men make salvation so complicated.
“Everything that's hard and complicated about salvation is God's side of it!” —Pastor Jack Hyles, a precious quote from the MP3 sermon, “Yea, Yea, And Nay, Nay!”
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