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Week 14: JW's and the Fundamentals of the Faith | September 14, 2025 Sunday School

Sermon Podcast—LBC Easton

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  1. Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.

  2. The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist

  3. Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us

  4. or contact us at mylibertybaptist.org or just

  5. look us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this

  6. message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.

  7. Grab my notes right here and we are going to talk today.

  8. Oh, hello. If you're watching online, we're

  9. glad to be able to see you and we'll be talking about the JW's

  10. and the fundamentals of the faith.

  11. Now we talked about the fundamentals of the Jehovah

  12. Witnesses a couple of weeks ago, but I want to go deeper, just as

  13. we did with Islam and not just talk about their fundamentals,

  14. but how do their fundamentals match with the fundamentals of,

  15. well, the word of God. Because as we often say, the

  16. Bible says let God be true and every man a liar.

  17. Listen, it's not about being a Baptist, being a Jehovah

  18. Witness, being a Mormon, being a Muslim, being a Catholic.

  19. Listen, it's about being a biblicist.

  20. Now again, I'm a Baptist because I believe being a Baptist is the

  21. way to follow the Bible. But at the same time, I'm not a

  22. Baptist. And then follow the Bible.

  23. I follow the Bible, and that makes me a Baptist.

  24. A real following this morning. All right, I'm on decaf this

  25. morning. Man, imagine if I had caffeine.

  26. All right, boy, I would be like out of here.

  27. All right. But anyway, someone might have

  28. spiked it. John.

  29. Thank you. I can.

  30. I can still hear John. All right, so I'm feeling frisky

  31. this morning. All right, so let's let's go.

  32. No, but no, all joking aside, it's good to be a Baptist, but

  33. we're Baptist, not out of tradition or because our parents

  34. were or because it's just something cultural.

  35. We're Baptist, I believe, because we want to follow the

  36. Word of God, and that takes us to that logical conclusion.

  37. So as biblical believers, how do we compare what the Bible says

  38. about key doctrines to what the Jehovah Witnesses teach?

  39. Now we're going to look at 5 different areas this morning, by

  40. God's grace as the time allows, to be able to look at what the

  41. Jehovah Witnesses believe and how it applies the Word of God.

  42. Now you can see some commonalities with some things

  43. because obviously we talked about the Muslims and how they

  44. don't believe in the deity of Christ.

  45. And well, the Jehovah Witnesses aren't going to believe in the

  46. deity of Christ either. And so there'll be some overlap

  47. of what the Word of God says. And I will be able to take for

  48. granted a little bit that we've gone over some of those things

  49. before. But we do want to compare and

  50. contrast the truth and error. And we'll do that here this

  51. morning. And the 1st place that we're

  52. going to do that is in the issue of creation and evolution.

  53. Creation and evolution and the Jehovah Witnesses reject

  54. atheistic evolution. You say, what is atheistic

  55. evolution? Atheistic evolution means that

  56. there is no God and that there was a Big Bang and from that Big

  57. Bang came everything that we see around us.

  58. Theistic evolution, however, is a way that there are some groups

  59. that try to marry 2 completely different thought processes that

  60. there's God and there's evolution, theistic God

  61. evolution, the evolutionary process that normally we think

  62. of and try to marry the two together.

  63. The Jehovah Witnesses very much believe in theistic evolution,

  64. and you're going to see that in just a moment by God's grace in

  65. a video that I want to show. You have three different ones

  66. today that and not from my perspective, but from their own

  67. perspective from jw.org. And if we have any problems

  68. showing the videos, and I know that we're still working on

  69. getting that fixed, you can always turn around and watch.

  70. And if you're online, you'll have no problem watching that

  71. which we're about to show. But in the meantime.

  72. But then let's see if we can queue up the first video.

  73. The universe is vast and awe inspiring.

  74. Earth and life on it are amazingly complex.

  75. How did it all get here? The Bible book of Genesis says

  76. that there is a creator, but the account is often misunderstood

  77. or even dismissed as a myth. Is what the Bible says about the

  78. origin of the universe plausible?

  79. Scientists estimate that the universe is 14 billion years

  80. old. This implies that the universe,

  81. including Earth, had a beginning.

  82. The Bible agrees, Genesis 11 reads.

  83. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

  84. The account does not say when or how the universe began.

  85. Rather, it focuses on the creative process that took place

  86. on earth over six periods of time, which the Bible calls

  87. days. Were these 624 hour days as many

  88. believe? No.

  89. The Hebrew word used in the Bible for day can refer to

  90. various lengths of time. Genesis even summarizes the six

  91. days of creation as one day, the day that Jehovah God made earth

  92. and heaven. Each day in Genesis chapter 1

    Genesis 1 chapter mention

  93. must have spanned extremely long periods of time.

  94. The accounts perspective is also important.

  95. The writer describes the creative periods as they would

  96. have appeared to an observer on the Earth had someone been

  97. there. He would have seen events that

  98. started in one period and then progress into the following

  99. periods. Light penetrates the atmosphere

  100. to reveal alternating day and night.

  101. Earth was covered with water and vapour filled the air.

  102. The dense clouds lifted from the waters that covered the earth,

  103. forming an expansive sky between them.

  104. Water receded to uncover dry ground and the first plants

  105. appeared. The atmosphere cleared further

  106. to reveal the sun and the moon. God created living creatures in

  107. the sea and flying creatures above, and in the last period

  108. God created land, animals and humans in harmony with the

  109. Genesis account. The Bible says Of course every

  110. house is constructed by someone, but the one who constructed all

  111. things is God. The Bible does not speak in

  112. scientific detail, but it's account of creation is logical

  113. and reasonable. The Bible also offers logical

  114. and reasonable answers to other important questions.

  115. Does our planet exist for a purpose?

  116. What is the meaning of life? What does the future hold?

  117. To see the Bible's answers, go to jw.org or fill out the online

  118. request for one of Jehovah's Witnesses to visit at a time and

  119. place convenient for you. All right.

  120. Yeah. So it's made pretty clear that

  121. they believe in the biblical account.

  122. However, they dismiss the very literal biblical account of

  123. which they are claiming to hold on to in saying that each day is

  124. not an actual day, a 24 hour literal period, but rather a

  125. longer period of time. And this goes all the way back

  126. to Charles Tays Russell. And it was Charles Tays Russell,

  127. yes, the founder of the Jehovah Witnesses, who said in the

  128. beginning we have merely the physical forces out of which the

  129. grand structure is made by a gradually unfolding, or if one

  130. prefers to say so, an evolutionary process that there

  131. is a divine plan of evolution appears on the face of the whole

  132. chapter saying Genesis chapter 1 to say that.

    Genesis 1 chapter mention

  133. Listen, if you have a plain and honest reading of Genesis

    Genesis 1 chapter mention

  134. chapter 1, you find evolution. And the answer to that is nobody

  135. for thousands of years thought that to be the case until

  136. Charles Darwin really codified some who were atheists who

  137. wanted to find a way that God was not the creator of all, but

  138. really created what is popularized now as the theory of

  139. evolution. So Jehovah Witnesses believe

  140. that the six days are actually 6 epochs of time, each one lasting

  141. around a period of 7000 years. So a day is not really a day,

  142. each one is 7000 years beyond that before day one that the

  143. earth was formed. But yet was uninhabited and void

  144. for those 13 or so billion years that were mentioned.

  145. And so it is the Jehovah Witnesses way of trying to be

  146. able to say we believe the Bible, but we also believe in

  147. the evolutionary process as well.

  148. Which two thoughts do not harmonize at all.

  149. Excuse me? The March 2014 Awake magazine

  150. states the Bible does not support fundamentalists and

  151. creationists who claim that the creative days were literal 24

  152. hour days. They say the Bible does not

  153. support that. In another Awake magazine just

  154. recently, they said this God created the universe, including

  155. the earth in the indefinite past in the beginning.

  156. As Genesis 11 says, modern science agrees that the universe

  157. has a beginning. A recent scientific model

  158. suggests that it's almost 14 billion years old.

  159. And the same article speaks of the false ideas of creationists

  160. that could lead one to dismiss the Bible altogether.

  161. And basically they're saying this, we have to embrace

  162. evolution because if not, nobody will believe us, they won't take

  163. us seriously. And the fact of the matter is,

  164. we embrace the truth for what it is, and we leave the

  165. consequences to the Lord. And so, sure, if a biblical

  166. account of creation is what the Bible says, which it does, then

  167. we embrace it. And what?

  168. Well, we just let the chips fall where they may.

  169. We believe God and we don't believe what we believe out of

  170. the Bible, depending on what the consequences might be and how

  171. we're perceived in public. That's certainly not belief.

  172. That's certainly not faith. Now we understand that the world

  173. was created in six literal days. Now, contrasting to what the

  174. Bible says, what do we find? We find that in the evening in

  175. the morning we're the first day Genesis chapter one in the

  176. evening in the morning we're the second day that over and over it

  177. is reiterated that these days are literal morning and evening

  178. days, literal 24 hour cycles in the way that we would know them

  179. today. Exodus 20 verse 11 when the 10

    Exodus 20:11

  180. commandments were given, it was said for in six days the Lord

  181. made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is and

  182. rested the 7th day wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and

  183. hallowed it. So they're very in the very Ten

  184. Commandments is shown that the earth was created and all around

  185. us in those six days, including the fact that Romans chapter 5

    Romans 5:12

  186. verse 12 says there was no death before sin.

  187. Can you imagine animals living in those epochs of time they

  188. would have had to continue to live and to procreate.

  189. Romans 512 states wherefore is by one man.

  190. Sin entered in the world and death by sin and so death passed

  191. upon all men for that all have sinned.

  192. We know there was no death before the fall of creation.

  193. So again, there's just really no way that you can harmonize what

  194. we see in the Word of God and also the Jehovah Witness view of

  195. evolution. Now, they did make a point that

  196. the word day as it's rendered in the Hebrew doesn't have to be an

  197. actual day. And I would concede that that is

  198. true. The word Yom, that's what it is

  199. in the Hebrew. The word Yom can often mean or

  200. maybe not often, but occasionally mean a day in the

  201. sense of an epoch and era and age.

  202. And we mean that today too, don't we?

  203. So times we use the word day and we don't mean it in a 24 hour

  204. cycle. We live in the day of AI right

  205. now, don't we? I mean, everything's AI right

  206. now. You turn on the news, you turn

  207. on a television show, a movie, everybody's talking about AI.

  208. Where I mean, it's not like it wasn't around before people

  209. would talk about it, but we're, it's everywhere right now.

  210. AI. We live in the day of AI, but

  211. nobody thinks, well for the next 24 hours people are going to be

  212. dealing with AI. It's very understood in the

  213. context of the way that you use it that it's talking about not

  214. just a 24 hour period, but something much longer.

  215. So while the word Yom in Genesis chapter one could be referring

  216. to a longer age than 24 hours, the very essence of the chapter,

  217. the evening and the morning or the first day, the context makes

  218. it clear what's being spoken of. It's not using one of those

  219. occasional references to something as the day of AI or

  220. the day of Christianity or the day of whatever you would want

  221. to speak. You know, we're talking about

  222. back in the day. That's a great illustration of

  223. that. No, no, what are we looking at?

  224. No, we're looking at a 24 hour period that's found in the word

  225. of God. And so that's the first contrast

  226. that we would make with Jehovah Witnesses.

  227. And again, there are many more that we're going to be able to

  228. cover this morning. Understand that, but we'll give

  229. you some of the highlights here today.

  230. The second deals with the character of God, the character

  231. of God. The Jehovah Witnesses deny the

  232. truth of the Trinity, focusing on the Father alone, in which

  233. they call Jehovah. And again, we would call Jehovah

  234. God Jehovah as well. Jehovah is his name.

  235. There is no doubt about that whatsoever.

  236. However, they focus on Jehovah. In fact, we'll look at this next

  237. week, Lord willing, as we get into how to converse with a

  238. Jehovah Witness in the right way.

  239. They will want to have a conversation with about this.

  240. What's God's name? And they will probably get most

  241. people off on a tangent of which they normally don't think of.

  242. And really, we're having a conversation right before

  243. church. The one of the greatest things

  244. you can do is is to be able to take that say.

  245. Well, before I answer that, let me ask you this.

  246. Who do you believe Jesus Christ is?

  247. And really, that gets them onto a whole different track that

  248. they probably don't want to be discussing at that moment.

  249. The Jehovah Witnesses fixate on the name of Jehovah to the point

  250. that they say we are commanded to be able to call him Jehovah.

  251. Now Jehovah is his name. In our King James Bible, when

  252. you see capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, the King

  253. James translators have done that to us in their wisdom to be able

  254. to help us to understand where the name of Jehovah is the Lord.

  255. However, we find nowhere in Scriptures where we are

  256. commanded or we are in sin. If we do not call him Jehovah,

  257. there's nowhere found in the Bible.

  258. As I mentioned last week, in the New World translation, the New

  259. Testament, the name of Jehovah is added multiple times,

  260. hundreds of times where it's never even found in the Greek

  261. text. And so the Jehovah Witnesses

  262. have made this a very core belief.

  263. And I'll, I'll take this as an aside for just a moment too.

  264. They, they, they believe that if you do not use the name of

  265. Jehovah properly, that again is a grave error.

  266. But I do find it interesting that they call themselves JW's

  267. because it would seem like that's a very flippant way to be

  268. able to use the name of Jehovah. For somebody who fixates on the

  269. name of Jehovah. What was that yet, JW Jim

  270. Weather. But I've been using your name in

  271. vain for the last several weeks. Boy, no wonder.

  272. No wonder if you look so agitated, Jim.

  273. But everybody's feeling good this morning, aren't we?

  274. All right, this is good. But Ralph, you know, we're all

  275. we're all set, man. This is good.

  276. Yeah, he's good. He's good.

  277. But the JWS, they will do this. And, and again, this isn't me

  278. saying that they call themselves JW, jw.org.

  279. We just talked about that. It would seem like if you have

  280. this high reverence for the name of Jehovah, you wouldn't just

  281. call him J. So I, I just, that's just a side

  282. of something that I've been kind of chewing on the last few days.

  283. Now the Jehovah Witnesses do believe that God is a loving and

  284. merciful God, which I hope no one here today would argue with,

  285. because certainly we believe the same, that our God is loving,

  286. our God is merciful. However, they believe that

  287. Jehovah is so loving that there is no punishment for sin and

  288. there would be no punishment for sin whatsoever.

  289. But however, this does run contrary to the very nature of

  290. God itself, because while God is merciful and while God is

  291. loving, he is also a God who is just as well.

  292. Why do you think Jesus Christ needed to go to the cross for

  293. our sins to fulfill the penalty of which we could not, We would

  294. have had to pay ourselves that Jesus Christ took that upon

  295. himself. But they believe that God is so

  296. loving that he could not be just and that he could not be someone

  297. who could make people to be able to answer for their sins.

  298. And this goes so far and we'll look at this in just a moment

  299. that their belief of life after death has been skewed quite a

  300. bit because there could not be a literal place called hell

  301. because God would never quote send anyone there.

  302. We'll be showing you a pretty powerful but also very, very

  303. manipulative video about that in just a couple of moments.

  304. Why I'm so passionate about showing these videos, not

  305. necessarily because it's, you know, fill in time and I have

  306. less to teach, you know, but it's because I really want you

  307. to see these things from their own mouths.

  308. Not just me saying it, but also to be able to maybe understand

  309. propaganda, to be able to understand how to spot it and to

  310. be able to identify when verses are being used improperly, those

  311. types of things as well. The Jehovah Witnesses also

  312. refused to acknowledge that God is omniscient going so far.

  313. You know when we say omniscient that God knows everything, right

  314. Omni? Everything That God is all

  315. knowing? In fact, they believe that God

  316. had no idea that Adam and Eve were going to sin.

  317. If Adam and Eve were going to sin, then God and his omniscient

  318. should not have created them. And so God selectively decided

  319. not to know what would happen with Adam and Eve after they

  320. sin. And again, there's no biblical

  321. foundation for this whatsoever. Our God is all knowing.

  322. He knows the beginning from the end because he is the beginning

  323. and the end, the alpha and Omega.

  324. And in case you're curious, he was before the beginning and

  325. he'll be after the end because in the beginning God created the

  326. heaven and the earth. And I love the fact that even

  327. Genesis 11 doesn't make the plea to believe that God was.

  328. It just states that he already was.

  329. There's no longwell, let me explain to you why God really

  330. did exist. You know, it's just like you

  331. already know He exists, right? So let's get right to it.

  332. And that's the beautiful opening to the Word of God.

  333. It couldn't be. It just could not be that God

  334. had no idea. By the way, if He didn't know

  335. about that, what else does he know about?

  336. I'll tell you this, not a comforting thought that God

  337. wouldn't have known that they were going to send.

  338. Does that mean that He doesn't know when we're going to send?

  339. What selective foreknowledge does he have?

  340. When does he take it? And again, when you get away

  341. from the moorings of the Word of God, you can go anywhere and no

  342. one can argue with you. And so when the faithful and

  343. discreet slave, which again is what they would call themselves,

  344. decides on a new doctrine or changes a doctrine when it's not

  345. connected to the Word of God, you can't really argue with it.

  346. You just have to keep following along where they have taken you.

  347. And so the character of God is this.

  348. And we'll look more at Jesus Christ specifically in a few

  349. moments, but the character of God in general, there is no

  350. Trinity. God is not all knowing.

  351. God is loving and merciful, but He truly is not just, and He is

  352. certainly not the God of the Bible.

  353. Well, third goes hand in hand with #2 which I just alluded to

  354. a moment ago, which is life after death.

  355. The witnesses believe that the dead simply cease to exist.

  356. Of those who have died without being part of their quote UN

  357. quote elect, of those who are the quote UN quote redeemed,

  358. they just simply cease to exist. Death acquits a person from

  359. their own personal sin. Some will be resurrected, yet

  360. others won't. Now turn your Bibles to Romans

    Romans 6 chapter mention

  361. chapter 6. And I want you to do that to

  362. kind of get you ready for what we're about to see, because I do

  363. want you to see if you can spot several places of error and

  364. again, an emotional manipulation as well in the video that we're

  365. going to see. So go ahead and turn to Roman 6.

  366. I'll give you just a moment to be able to do that.

  367. And then they'll be queuing up the second video.

  368. We'll show that just a moment, but I want to make sure

  369. everyone's got the pages where they are.

  370. And we'll look at Roman 6 in just a moment.

  371. But in the meantime, let's roll that second piece of footage.

  372. Many religions teach that God condemns the wicked to eternal

  373. torment after they die and hope that this fear of torment

  374. prevents them from doing bad. Does God really punish people

  375. after they die? The Bible reassures us that the

  376. dead are unconscious and that they know nothing at all.

  377. If the dead are unconscious, they cannot suffer.

  378. Does that mean God does not punish wicked people at all?

  379. No, God explained to the first human couple how they would be

  380. punished if they rebelled against Him.

  381. God said nothing about torment or hell.

  382. He simply said you will certainly die.

  383. And after being expelled from the Garden of Eden, that is

  384. exactly what happened to wicked Adam and Eve.

  385. They passed away and became dust.

  386. The Bible says that after death one is no longer accountable for

  387. past mistakes because the one who has died has been acquitted

  388. from his sin. But there is an even greater

  389. reason why a hell of torment could never exist.

  390. The Bible tells us God is love. Would a loving God command that

  391. sinners be tormented not just for minutes, but for all

  392. eternity? Consider the following.

  393. In Bible times, God condemned the practice of sacrificing

  394. children in the fire to false gods.

  395. He said that such a cruel deed never even entered his heart.

  396. We hate the idea of such brutality because we are made in

  397. the image of a loving, merciful God.

  398. Clearly, we do not need to worry that our dead loved ones might

  399. be suffering punishment somewhere.

  400. The Bible tells us that they are at peace, at rest.

  401. But why do good people die? What happens to them when they

  402. die? What hope is there for our dead

  403. loved ones? To learn more, go to jw.org and

  404. search for these topics or fill in the online request for one of

  405. Jehovah's Witnesses to contact you.

  406. Again, the emotional manipulation of the video with

  407. the small child, with the flames, with the music swelling

  408. at the right times is very, very high.

  409. But what we also see was there was a lot of of mistruth, I

  410. mean, from beginning to end, from the point of being able to

  411. say the verse from Ecclesiastes that the dead know nothing.

  412. And, and really that was contrasting the idea.

  413. And Ecclesiastes don't have time to turn there, but we could.

  414. And I would encourage you to look up any of these verses on

  415. your own. Again, there's certainly nothing

  416. to be hidden here whatsoever. The way to debunk these types of

  417. false doctrines is we will go straight to the word of God.

  418. But the idea was, what's the book of Ecclesiastes about the

  419. vanity of life, that you just keep going and going and doing

  420. and doing. But Solomon, for the more he

  421. got, the more he did, he realized, I still feel

  422. unfulfilled. But really the idea was, listen,

  423. what you're going to do, you do it in this life because the

  424. decisions that you make in this life affect the life to come,

  425. but not the fact that there was no life to come whatsoever.

  426. That just wasn't taught. It says those who are dead were

  427. acquitted from sin. That was the big one to me.

  428. Romans chapter 6, like, you know, basically saying that

    Romans 6 chapter mention

  429. look, so when you die, you are found not guilty anymore for

  430. everything that you ever did. The question would be then why

  431. would Jesus need to die on the cross then if there was a full

  432. acquittal and if they were acquitted of those sins when you

  433. die, then why couldn't you also be one of the elect as well?

  434. Well, what does Romans chapter 6 actually say?

    Romans 6 chapter mention

  435. Well, again, it's important to go to the word of God says this.

  436. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that

  437. grace may abound? Now is this being talked to

  438. about to believers or unbelievers?

  439. This is talking to believers here.

  440. God forbid. How shall we that are dead to

  441. sin live any longer therein, though he not?

  442. That so many of us that were baptized into Jesus Christ were

  443. baptized into His death, therefore we are buried with him

  444. by baptism into death. That like as Christ was raised

  445. up from the dead by the glory of the Father, Even so we also

  446. should walk a newness of life. For if we have been planted

  447. together in the likeness of His death, we shall also be in the

  448. likeness of His resurrection. Knowing this, that our old man

  449. is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed,

  450. that henceforth we should not serve sin, For he that is dead

  451. is freed from sin. What is it talking about that

  452. once you are saved, you're free from the sin you used to live

  453. in? It's not talking about, it's

  454. talking about a completely different that video talks about

  455. something completely different than what is being mentioned

  456. there at all. I mean, absolutely to be able to

  457. take something over here and say no, no, look over here, don't

  458. look at that. And what they are hoping and

  459. praying that people will do is not open a Bible and not look at

  460. these verses and say, well, well, I mean, that's what it

  461. says. It says it in the Bible, but not

  462. realize, well, it says that in the Bible, but it's taken and

  463. twisted so much that that's out of context, that that's not at

  464. all what's being said. And that's certainly not just

  465. being said here. Is God love?

  466. Absolutely that God would condemn people to hell.

  467. No, when Jesus Christ came to seek and to save that which is

  468. lost, the desire was that all come to repentance.

  469. That was the desire of Jesus Christ at the heart of God.

  470. Even today that he finds no pleasure in the death of the

  471. wicked. He makes that very clear in the

  472. word of God. You know, it's not God that

  473. condemns. Remember, the hell was prepared

  474. for Satan and his angels. But at the same time, there are

  475. those who continue to rebuff the advances of Jesus Christ.

  476. They rebuff the gospel. They do not want it.

  477. It's not that Christ desires that again, that's why he died

  478. on the cross for his sins. But yet they say this place does

  479. not exist. The Bible makes it clear it

  480. does. And no one talked about it more

  481. than Jesus did. Jesus talked about it quite a

  482. bit. You can go to Revelation chapter

    Revelation 20 chapter mention

  483. 20, Revelation chapter #21 it's a place, a lake of fire, of

  484. torment, of smoke. You can talk about the rich man

  485. and Lazarus, all of these things.

  486. The rich man and Lazarus isn't a parable, I believe, because

  487. parables don't name people. So here's Lazarus, who's in hell

  488. and torments. The Bible says no, no, these are

  489. very, very real things. And then to try to equate the

  490. children going to hell with those who are being sacrificed.

  491. And again, the the absolute disingenuineness and the

  492. dishonesty of the Jehovah Witnesses in that video.

  493. Because many Christians believe, as I do as well, that those

  494. before an age of accountability, those who don't know how to

  495. accept Jesus Christ their Savior, are safe with the Lord.

  496. That a child who was one or two years old or even older who

  497. could never call upon Christ to save them are safe with the

  498. Lord. Just as David said when his

  499. newborn baby died. He says that I will go to him.

  500. I will be where he is someday. In indicating that that David

  501. would see that child in heaven, you say, well pastor, how does

  502. all of that work? I don't know how all of that

  503. works other than the Bible says so.

  504. And so I don't need to know all the insurance and outs of it

  505. other than to just trust what the Bible says.

  506. And just so try to equate children being sacrificed to

  507. false gods like Molech. And to say that, well, that we

  508. would be saying that's what God is doing is is again, so

  509. dishonest on its face. And so you could see a great

  510. difference between what the the leadership of the Jehovah

  511. Witness would say about life after death and what the Bible

  512. says. But then we also see the 4th and

  513. perhaps even the biggest difference would be in the deity

  514. of Christ. Now we've used the word deity of

  515. Christ. What do we mean?

  516. We're talking about that Christ is God right now.

  517. Jesus made it very clear over and over and over again that he

  518. was God. He was accused of that at his

  519. trials. He was attempted to be stoned

  520. when he said I and the Father are one.

  521. Everyone knew as time went on of who he was.

  522. He was very quiet about it at first to allow people to come to

  523. their own conclusions at their own time.

  524. But when times allowed it, and when Jesus in his perfect wisdom

  525. sought the need to, he made very clear who he was.

  526. And there was no doubt by the time he was on the cross who he

  527. was. And people had to make that

  528. decision, each and everyone on their own.

  529. But yet the Jehovah Witnesses would say that Jesus is not God.

  530. He is the Son of God, but not God the Son.

  531. Say that that sounds kind of confusing, no?

  532. Well, that he is literally a son of God.

  533. Like I am the Son of Victor, but I am not Victor, right?

  534. I am the son of Victor. We would say that God is not

  535. just the Son of God, but he's also God the Son, meaning that

  536. he is the Son of God, but he's also God himself because he's 3

  537. and he's one. Say, pastor, how is all that for

  538. the Trinity? We don't understand all of that

  539. other than to say the Bible makes it clear that's what it

  540. is. We're not worshipping 3 gods.

  541. We worship one God and three persons and the Godhead.

  542. So what do they believe about the deity of Christ?

  543. Well, we have our third and final video and it hasn't been

  544. going good this morning. Man, this is great.

  545. We hadn't had to crane our necks or, you know, get back pain

  546. today to watch it. This is good.

  547. So thank you for fixing that, Brother Anthony.

  548. So let's watch this last video. Many people regard Jesus as the

  549. most influential person in history, but is he Almighty God

  550. himself, or was he simply a good man?

  551. Many people personally met Jesus and some of their accounts are

  552. found in the Bible revealing who Jesus really is.

  553. For instance, an Angel spoke to Jesus mother about her unborn

  554. son and said this one will be great and will be called Son of

  555. the Most High. When Jesus was being baptized,

  556. God's own voice confirmed Jesus identity.

  557. This is my Son, the Beloved, whom whom I have approved.

  558. What did his followers believe? When Jesus asked who they

  559. thought he was? Peter responded.

  560. You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

  561. What did Jesus enemies say? Those wanting to kill him

  562. explained why, according to the law, he ought to die because he

  563. made himself God's son. What did Jesus himself say about

  564. his identity and relationship to God?

  565. He told his followers, The Father is greater than I am.

  566. Even after his death in resurrection, Jesus said this

  567. about his future. I am ascending to my Father and

  568. your Father and to my God and your God.

  569. The biblical record makes it clear that Jesus is a distinct

  570. person separate from God Almighty.

  571. In fact, the Bible teaches that although Jesus is a powerful

  572. spirit creature in heaven, he is still subject to his God and

  573. Father. Still, God has given a special

  574. assignment to his Son to bring everlasting life and happiness

  575. to all humankind, just as God originally purposed.

  576. What else does the Bible say about Jesus?

  577. Did Jesus really perform miracles?

  578. Why did Jesus die? Will Jesus return?

  579. To learn more, search for [email protected] or fill out

  580. the online request for one of Jehovah's Witnesses to visit

  581. all. Right, you can have you can have

  582. wonderful graphics and good music blasphemy still blasphemy.

  583. And what we just watched was blasphemy of the highest order.

  584. It's interesting that they use the verse that I had just

  585. mentioned to you about the Jesus calling himself the Son of God

  586. and and they're being upset the Pharisees and such at that.

  587. What will they were upset because they understood that

  588. that term Son of God meant that he was deity that if you go to

  589. the book of Daniel and you find the term the son of God and see

  590. that that was made very clear in Daniel Chapter 7.

    Daniel 7 chapter mention

  591. I believe that that yes, that the Son of God was God, that not

  592. just a, a relationship of God and a lesser form of God or some

  593. other spirit. No, no, they understood.

  594. And for them to use that very verse, I thought was quite

  595. ironic that they didn't explain why they would have been so

  596. upset. And certainly that would be the

  597. case. The person of Christ is the

  598. single most important issue of Christianity.

  599. Now Jesus is the cornerstone of the faith as it says in

  600. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 20. You get the truth about Jesus

    Ephesians 2:20

  601. Christ wrong and everything else is wrong.

  602. Jesus Christ, he is the chief cornerstone.

  603. He is our foundation. We must get this information

  604. right. Jehovah Witnesses believe that

  605. Jehovah created the pre human Jesus as a spirit creature.

  606. Did you get that term? That spirit creature manifest

  607. himself as the Angel Michael, and that contradicts what the

  608. Bible says about angels and about of all kinds of other

  609. things, particularly Hebrews chapter 1.

    Hebrews 1 chapter mention

  610. After the Virgin Mary was with child, the spirit of Michael the

  611. Archangel then entered Jesus the Teacher.

  612. Jesus lived a perfect life, although he always could have

  613. sinned and failed in his mid. He's always been subordinate to

  614. his heavenly Father and he must not be worshipped or prayed to.

  615. They teach that the cross is not called a cross.

  616. He died on a what they call a torture stake.

  617. But they refused to use the term cross.

  618. They refused to show a cross. You will not find one in a

  619. Kingdom hall. And although Jesus did die, his

  620. body simply disappeared, was never to be found, and that he

  621. is now again a spirit creature. And again, that was referenced

  622. in that video. Although Jehovah Witnesses say

  623. that Jesus is the Son of God, they deny that he was fully man,

  624. that he was fully God, and they deny his resurrection.

  625. They do not believe that he was the true Savior.

  626. And so because of that, really nothing else on this list even

  627. matters. You could just get to this point

  628. alone and say, well, there's nothing here because they don't

  629. believe in who Jesus isn't. A reminder, we identify cults

  630. oftentimes 1 by usually a charismatic leader or group of

  631. leaders that require a total allegiance and following.

  632. But also we identify Christian cults by the fact that they use

  633. the name and terms of Jesus. But yet at the same time, the

  634. Jesus that they speak of is not the Jesus of the Bible.

  635. We look at that Jehovah witnesses.

  636. We'll be looking at that in the Mormons not too long as well.

  637. And so they believe that the deity of Christ is not the case.

  638. And 5th and finally, I don't want to, I want to just, we

  639. don't have a video for this, but I do want to go over this

  640. quickly. How are you saved as Jehovah

  641. Witness? All right, we understand that.

  642. Well, you accept Jesus Christ your Savior to be saved, don't

  643. you, That you realize that you're a Sinner, only Jesus can

  644. save you. You repent of those sins, you

  645. call on Christ, you become a believer.

  646. That's the way that it works. It's pretty cut and dry.

  647. You understand what the Bible says.

  648. You call upon Christ. Many of us remember the date,

  649. the time we know where we were. And even if you don't know the

  650. date and time, you remember what Jesus Christ did in your life

  651. because it was a transformative moment in your life when you

  652. pass from death unto life. Now the Bible says salvation's

  653. deliverance by the grace of God from eternal punishment for sin

  654. granted to those who accept by faith the message of the gospel.

  655. It's the result of Jesus substitutionary death because of

  656. his precious blood. It is undeserved on our behalf.

  657. It's a gracious gift given to us by God through faith.

  658. It involves repentance and calling upon the name of the

  659. Lord. Now the Jehovah Witnesses have a

  660. different view of salvation, one that relies on human works and

  661. careful obedience. In fact, it's interesting that I

  662. could not find a video on how to be saved.

  663. It's interesting, you know, you go to most churches websites.

  664. Our church has a page, my libertybaptist.org/jesus and you

  665. find out about Jesus and how you can be saved.

  666. Some churches have a video where the pastor will explain how you

  667. can be saved. You know, you can search high

  668. and low on the Jehovah Witnesses website, jw.org, All right, And

  669. you can find out that there's no video that you can find like

  670. that just to explain to somebody, how do I become a

  671. Jehovah Witness? It's not that easy.

  672. Well, deep in the murky recesses of the Jehovah Witness website,

  673. I did find this page. And so I actually took a

  674. screenshot to be able to show you this, and I'm not going to

  675. break it all down for you here today, but this is a screenshot

  676. that I just took this week from jw.org.

  677. What must I do to be saved? You must believe that Jesus

  678. sacrificed his life for our sins.

  679. You must learn what the Bible really teaches.

  680. Now may I remind you, that means that you must use a New World

  681. translation, that you must follow the not just the New

  682. World translation, but the Watchtower, the Awake magazines

  683. and all of their publications because only those will show you

  684. the true way of life. Because remember, the Christian

  685. Church has been corrupted. It's been corrupted for

  686. thousands of years. That couple 1000 years repent.

  687. Of course we wouldn't argue with that in and of itself.

  688. How do you be saved? You got to be baptized and of

  689. course the word of God doesn't say that salvation is part of

  690. baptism, does it? We'll see this morning.

  691. Acts chapter 2. They were saved, were baptized

    Acts 2 chapter mention

  692. and they were added under the church that salvation comes

  693. first. Baptism is a picture.

  694. Maybe we're just looking at Romans chapter 6.

    Romans 6 chapter mention

  695. Death, burial, resurrection, the picture of what it is then you

  696. must obey Jesus instructions. What does that mean?

  697. Follow the Watchtower, you must do what they say.

  698. There is total obedience without any questioning whatsoever.

  699. Now, some of their directives uphold the moral stands of the

  700. Bible. They forbid the lying, sexual

  701. immorality, gambling in those areas.

  702. The Witnesses are acting biblically.

  703. But others, such as the prohibition against celebrating

  704. birthdays, holidays, you cannot salute the fat flag.

  705. These there's no basis in Scripture for these whatsoever.

  706. You cannot take an oath in a court of law.

  707. These are the types of things you cannot have a blood

  708. transfusion. Remember we talked about this a

  709. few weeks ago and how that changed over a dozen times that

  710. edict changed a dozen times over the years.

  711. And so obey Jesus instructions is not just well, first of all,

  712. we don't obey Jesus instructions to get saved.

  713. We get saved and then follow his instructions, but we follow his

  714. instructions, not those of man putting words in Jesus's mouth.

  715. And that's what the Jehovah Witnesses do.

  716. And then you got to endure the end meaning this and get this.

  717. If you get nothing else from this point right here, that you

  718. can live your life as a good Jehovah Witness your entire

  719. life, and you cannot know for sure that you will make it to

  720. the end. There is no hope.

  721. And that's why they continue to go to the Kingdom Hall.

  722. That's why they continue to go to the meetings.

  723. That's why they continue to stand by those communication

  724. racks, and that's why they go door to door.

  725. Why? Because they got to keep doing

  726. it. And if you stop, you may not

  727. endure to the end. There is no way that you can

  728. truly know. Not a single Jehovah Witness has

  729. assurance of salvation. They must remain faithful and

  730. obedient until they die. Any witness could stumble and

  731. fall and thereby lose hope of living forever in the restored

  732. earthly paradise. Paradise.

  733. Even the quote UN quote anointed remnant do not have any

  734. assurance of salvation because they too could fail to cross the

  735. finish line. Which means this salvation is

  736. all up to you, but also through the organization, the faithful

  737. and discreet slave. There is not a lot of comfort in

  738. that friend. You know where there is comfort

  739. to be able to be in the hands of Jesus Christ and know that He

  740. holds you safe till eternity and that eternal life starts now and

  741. last for, well, eternity. What a blessing that is, isn't

  742. it? So how do we breakthrough, I'll

  743. be honest with you, it's difficult, isn't it?

  744. Because when they have their own Bible that have erased many of

  745. the proof texts that we would use to be able to show someone

  746. what it means to be safe. How do we communicate with them?

  747. How do we help them? How do we talk to them, by the

  748. way, how do we do so in a loving manner without mocking them and

  749. making fun of them? Can you imagine how many of them

  750. stand on those St. corners and already mocked and made fun of

  751. and and they're already bracing themselves for you to come up

  752. and do the same? How do we, in a loving and

  753. compassionate way, show them Jesus Christ?

  754. Well, we can find that out next week.

  755. Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of

  756. Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing

  757. to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us

  758. know by contacting us at [email protected].

  759. Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,

  760. MA. May the Lord bless you as you

  761. grow in His Word.