The inspired Holy Bible teaches that in God's sight there is no such thing as good works when it comes to salvation. Even our best efforts, sacrifices and service means absolutely nothing to God if we rely upon it to get us to Heaven. This is what is wrong with 99% of the world's religions, they trust in too much. Religion wants to fit us with glasses, but the Lord wants to open our eyes. There are two types of religion in the world—DO and DONE.
“More people will die and burn in Hell, because they're trusting too much!”—Pastor Jack Hyles, “Yea, Yea, And Nay, Nay!”
“Everything that's hard and complicated about salvation is God's side of it!”—Pastor Jack Hyles, “Yea, Yea, And Nay, Nay!”
There is a popular false teaching that has unfortunately crept into most Baptist churches today, which says that God won't save you unless you are first willing to turn away from your sins. Cartoon evangelist Jack Chick (1924-2016) teaches this damnable heresy in all of his Chick Tracts. Some preachers will word it as turning from a lifestyle of sinning, which is what I heard Pastor Marty Herron foolishly preach at the Harvest Baptist Church on Guam years ago. Kindly said, these are incompetent pastors.
Dear reader, every sinner who has ever been born again has continued living a lifestyle of sinning! Pastor Jack Hyles (1926-2001) makes this truth clear in this needful sermon excerpt in which he boldly says: “I'm Sick Of This Lordship Salvation Mess!” And so am I, so am I. What exactly is Lordship Salvation? In short, Lordship Salvation is combining Christian service (discipleship) with salvation (sonship). Pilgrim's Progress author said it best, I humbly think...
“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.” —John Bunyan (1628-1688)
Bravo John Bunyan! If we do not always keep service and salvation separate, we corrupt God's inspired Word and confuse people, complicating God's simple plan of salvation. I have heard Billy Graham and other preachers cite passages from the book of Matthew about discipleship (i.e., carrying your cross), applying it to salvation. That is false teaching!
God specifically authored the Gospel of John to show us how to go to Heaven. John 20:31, “But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.” In the book of John we find the word “believe” mentioned 85 times, without any mention of the word “repent.” We are saved by believing, not by repenting; but no one has ever believed who didn't repent. “Repentance” is the Greek noun metanoia, which simply means “a change of mind.” You get saved by changing your mind to BELIEVE the Gospel (the GOOD NEWS that Jesus died on a cross, was buried and three days later He physically resurrected from the dead). This is the only Gospel according to 1st Corinthians 15:1-6.
It is very important to understand that we repent TO believe, we do not repent AND believe. Sadly, Evangelist Tom Farrell (1952-2021) got this wrong! I was listening to Tom Farrell preach one day on KHMG 88.1 FM radio station, which is aired by the Harvest Baptist Church on Guam throughout the Micronesian islands. Dr. Farrell said you don't repent TO believe, you repent AND believe. Sadly, and tragically, he got it 100% backwards. I sincerely doubt if Tom went to Heaven, since he believed that more than faith is required to be saved. Faith is the only righteous thing that I can do. Salvation is not doing your best, it is having Christ's best put to your account through receiving Him by faith.
Tens of thousands of Baptist churches today across America are preaching a counterfeit plan of salvation. They were lied to by Satan. Christian author Michael Bowen rightly states...
“I have been both an atheist and a victim of today’s false plans of salvation. I am at eternal odds with the false, counterfeit messages of salvation-by-works that are taught from virtually every pulpit today, on every television channel, and on every Christian radio station; however, I am not at eternal odds with the individuals who preach these counterfeit messages.” —Michael P. Bowen, “I Never Knew You,” p. 17
I totally concur. A counterfeit plan of salvation is being preached from nearly every church and Bible college pulpit today. Satan is the author of confusion, not God (1st Corinthians 14:33). Satan is “the god of this world” who deliberately obscures, changes and corrupts the Gospel of free grace to “blind the minds” of his victims (2nd Corinthians 4:3-4).
You don't have to turn from your sins to be saved. You turn from your unbelief to believe the Gospel. Nowhere in the inspired King James Bible (which is the only trustworthy Bible in the English language today) will you find the phrases “repent of your sins” or “turn from your sins” to get to Heaven. Sincere but ignorant men wickedly added those words to God's simple plan of salvation, perverting it (Proverbs 30:5-6),. Galatians 1:7b, “but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.”
According to our text passage from Isaiah 64:6, there is no such thing as “good works.” There are only DEAD WORKS!!! Hebrews 6:1, “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God.” I cannot warn you enough to avoid the Devil's modern Bible revisions. Case in point, look at what the ERV changed this passage to read...
EASY-TO-READ VERSION (ERV) - Hebrews 6:1, “So we should be finished with the beginning lessons about Christ. We should not have to keep going back to where we started. We began our new life by turning away from the evil we did in the past and by believing in God.”
Oh my! Whereas the inspired King James Bible rightly teaches simply to repent from your DEAD WORKS (which includes good and bad works alike) to be saved; the ERV wrongly teaches to turn away from your past sinful ways to be saved (which is works).
The King James Bible (KJB) simply teaches to change your mind from relying upon your DEAD WORKS (trusting in idols, turning from your sins, turning over a new leaf, living a lifestyle of repentance, being willing to turn from your sins, et cetera) to trusting in the GOOD NEWS of Jesus crucified, buried and risen to be saved.
The Easy-To-Read Version (ERV) teaches something completely different, that to be saved you must forsake your sinful bad habits. How is that not works? This is a perversion of God's grace. Granted, the requirement for someone to turn away from their sinning to get to Heaven is appealing to our carnal flesh. It makes sense to the heathen man that you cannot reasonably expect God to pardon your sins when you have no intention of forsaking them. But dear reader, that is not how God's plan of redemption works.
God is offering humanity eternal life as a free gift, just for the taking. Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Nothing is free in this world. Somebody always has to pay. Salvation is a free gift because Jesus paid for it with His precious blood (1st Peter 1:18-19). If salvation is truly by grace, then you don't need to start or stop anything to be saved. Eternal life is a free gift from God (Romans 6:23).
A gift is a TAKE proposition, not a GIVE proposition. So, why would God expect someone to give up their sinful ways to receive His free gift that Christ already paid for in full? Those unlearned pastors and clergy who preach that you must be willing to forsake your sinful ways to get to Heaven do not understand (or else refuse to acknowledge) the true nature of a gift. The true Gospel always points you to CHRIST; a false gospel always points to YOU.
Isaiah 64:6, “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” Our best self-righteousness is like filthy rags to God. ...
“You know why good works can't save you, 'cause there's no such thing as good works. ...The Bible says in Isaiah 64:6, even our righteousness is like filthy rags in the sight of God.” —Dr. Jack Hyles, “God's Memorial Day” (1990)
Dear friend, have you been trusting in DEAD WORKS that cannot save? Turning from your sins will prevent you from going to Heaven, if that is what you've been trusting in to save you. You don't get saved by doing good works, and you cannot be lost by doing bad works. Nor can you be saved by forsaking bad works, which is effectively the same as keeping the law to be saved. Romans 3:20, “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” If you're trying not to violate God's law to get to Heaven (i.e., turning away from your sins), then you are not saved.
To be genuinely born again you must completely REST in Christ's sacrifice on the cross as full payment for your sins, believing that He was buried, but then raised up from the dead three days later. This is the Gospel (Good News) that is “the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth” (Romans 1:16b). This Gospel is THE POWER of God that will save any sinner who BELIEVES IT! The Gospel + Faith = Eternal Life (Hebrews 4:2).
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