“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.”

“Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in you hindered.”

-Jesus

Woe to you false teachers, purveyors of false hope who make a career of telling people they are saved when they are not.  This is not a local problem, it is an epidemic.  These false teachers say many “bible” words, even with great conviction.  So does the enemy.  They appear to be angels of light.  So does Satan.  The lie that precipitated the fall was an assurance that everything would be okay when in fact the opposite was true, “You will not surely die…” he said.  The wages of sin is death.  If you continue in sin, even supposing that Christ’s righteousness is imputed to you, you will surely die.

“If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him.”  1 John 2:29

To ease the perhaps conflicted minds of their passive pew sitters, these false teaches, no doubt viewed as “spiritual giants” in the eyes of the deceived, speak great, swelling words of false humility, even declaring themselves still to be wretched sinners.  I’m sure you can image the appeal of such words coming from a “mature believer” to the lowly one still struggling with and in bondage to sin.  Know for certain though that no wretched sinners exist in Christ.

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”  Ephesians 2:10

“This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.  But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”  Ephesians 4:17-24

These “wretched sinners” are themselves not entering into the kingdom and they hinder those who would enter by teaching them that everything is okay, but it isn’t.  They say things like, “If you have believed with your heart and confessed with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, then you are saved.”  Sure, that sounds great and is even straight out of the bible.  But what about the rest of the words that are in the bible that tell the rest of the story?  They avoid those because itching ears don’t like to hear that they have to give up their lives of sensual indulgence and sin to also express their belief in Jesus as the raised Son of God.  James was almost kicked out of the bible for saying such.

“You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.”  James 2:24

Notice that he says “works”, plural.  Mouthing the words is not just it.  “Believing with your heart” may first manifest itself in words but will certainly always further be manifested in the form of a laid down life.  “Wretched sinners”, by their own admission, do not have such fruit.  All they have is the sin that they are still bound to.  Because they believe that their bondage to sin is an inescapable reality, they teach that Christ came to free us from the penalty of sin rather than it’s bondage.  They teach about “imputed righteousness” rather than the practical righteousness that them that were with Jesus knew and taught.  They teach about eternal security on the basis of a “decision to accept Christ” rather than what it means to abide in Christ.  They give men a false sense of eternal security and thus encourage others to remain dead with them under the pretense of “being saved”.  This is a part of the statement of faith of a church in my area that teaches these very things.

“J.  Eternal Security

We believe that all believers are kept by God in their position of

acceptance before Him for eternity and that believers do sin and that God will

lovingly chastise His children for disobedience.

1. All believers are kept by God in their position of acceptance before Him for

all time and eternity.  John 5:24; John 10:28.

2. Believers do sin, and God will lovingly chastise His children for their

disobedience.  Hebrews 12:5-6.

3. The sin of believers does not change their spiritual position or standing before God.“

Though the words above may seem a little gray, maybe even okay to the ignorant (liars thrive on the ignorant in the gray areas they create), the full force of these words’ destructive potency can be seen in their practical application.  The view and teaching of this church should easily be understood from the above statement, that once a person has “accepted Jesus”, they are in for life, eternally, no matter what.  This is how deep the rabbit hole goes…

I recently spoke with the leaders at at this church, Grace Community.  In our conversation some alarming things came to light.  They believe and teach that a person can deny Christ, walk away from the Lord, commit suicide and still receive eternal life.  It has happened that a troubled young man who was once an active part of their congregation took his own life after he approached Head Pastor, Jay Lucas, and plainly declared that he denied Christ.  Even at the young man’s funeral, Jay stated his belief that he was certain that this young man was in heaven with Jesus.  Though I was not personally at the service, knowing nothing of the events at the time, I am certain that this report is true, having heard the same opinion directly from his lips.  His opinion is no doubt based upon the doctrine of eternal security that he teaches in keeping painfully consistent with the church’s statement of faith.  The application of their teaching concerning this matter is revealed in the video testimony of this young man’s mother, Denise.   As she was no doubt counseled, the mother says that she now knows that her son is safe in the Lord’s arms.  Pastor Jay, when questioned by me, stated that she might be misled (by whom!?) and in the same breath defended his position; that he too believes that the young man is with the Lord.  Grace Community no doubt approves of her “misled” view as they have published her testimony to demonstrate the fruit of their ministry.

When I told Jay that he had a 50/50 shot at guessing which case the young man’s corresponded to, Judas or Peter, I told him that he guessed the wrong one.  Both Judas and Peter denied the Lord, but Peter received repentance leading to life where as Judas, without repentance, reaped death at his own hands and is known as the son of perdition.  Do you know Jay’s response to this?  He said, “As David was a man after God’s own heart and his sin didn’t disqualify him from eternal life, I don’t believe that this young man’s sin disqualifies him either.  Based upon 1 Corinthians 11, I believe that sometimes God chastens His children, even by a premature death, so they can be in heaven with Him.”  Wait.  God chastens His children, even by a premature death so they can be in heaven with Him?!  The purpose of chastening is training.  If I want my child to be potty trained, it defeats the purpose to beat him to death to train him.  Case specific, what Jay said in other words is this (and please do correct me if I am wrong!), “God chastened this young man by having him kill himself so he could go to heaven.”  Understand, in order to keep consistent with the false doctrine he preaches, he certainly had to say something like that to justify his position.

The words of them that knew the Lord and were led by His Spirit are clear:

“For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.  For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”  Romans 8:13-14

Suicide is not a fruit of the Spirit, it is murder, a work of the flesh.  It is not the fruit of repentance, it is a work of an unrepentant, hopeless heart.  Concerning the fate of them that deny the Lord without repentance, the scripture is clear:

“But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 10:33

And also:

“For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.” Hebrews 6:4-6

So why would a person go to such great lengths to ignore and twist the truth as did Jay specifically and as do so many others like him?  Because that’s what itching ears want to hear.  Telling the truth is hard, and wretched sinners can do nothing but shrink back when push comes to shove.  Imagine the difficulty in admitting to a grieving mother that, “your deceased son is in danger of the lake of fire because of my false teaching.”  It is quite a bit more soothing to the ears and sweet to the taste to say that everything is okay, even though it isn’t.  You know, I bet that fruit in the garden was sweet too…Surely you wont’ die…or will you?