A Different Jesus | Brad Straarup

How many of you have ever played Two Truths and a Lie?

Anyone ever played Two Truths and a Lie?

Okay.

It's a game that we would play so often as kids, and the whole point of the game was to see how well you truly knew someone.

Okay, so we're gonna play this game right now.

I'm gonna give you two truths and an untruth, a non-truth.

Now it's for a sermon illustration, so it's fine.

You know, no one's supposed to lie in church, but here we go.

Two truths and an untruth.

Here's the first one.

First one is this I have been chased by elephants.

Okay?

Second one is this, that I played drums for a hardcore band.

And the third one is this my real name is Brad.

Okay?

So here we go.

How many of you would say the first one is a lie, that I have not been chased by elephants?

You are wrong.

I 100% have.

I'm from South Africa.

So what happens in South Africa?

You get chased, okay?

How many of you would say that I've never played drums for a hardcore band?

Okay.

I 100% have.

Like if you go online, you'll see I had the hair, I had the gauges, I had everything.

The lie is that my name is Brad.

My name, my name is not Brad, my name is actually Bradley.

Okay, okay, okay.

Y'all are gonna fight me on this, but no no no.

Here's what you need to know, here's what you need to know.

Is the most dangerous lie doesn't sound like a lie.

The most dangerous lie sounds like the truth.

We started a series last week called Cults and Counterfeits, and what we're looking is we're looking at what the gospel truly is, and then some of the religions that will come around and distort it.

Was last week helpful.

We looked at what the gospel is, what the gospel is really.

And today what we're gonna do is we're gonna start looking at some of the counterfeits.

But let me just explain about what we shared last week.

We talked about counterfeits, and I told you about the Secret Service, who in 1865 was created in order to stop to spot counterfeit currencies.

And we said the way that they were trained was not by learning to spot the fake, it was by learning to spot the real.

And if you know the real well enough, then all of a sudden you can start to see all the counterfeits.

If you look at the color shifting ink, if you take a look at the the watermark that's supposed to appear, if you take a look at the security serial numbers, and what we said is the same way that there are ways that you can tell if currency is counterfeit.

There are ways that you can tell whether a gospel is counterfeit.

We talked about a detector, and we said there are three questions that we have to be able to ask.

The first one is this What is your final authority?

Second question is this, who do you say Jesus is?

And the third question is this, how are you saved?

Those are the three questions, the security questions we can ask of any religion to determine whether or not it is a true religion.

And today what we're gonna do is we're gonna be studying Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses.

Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses.

And if you're here and you are a part of any of that, we're glad that you're here.

Welcome to Spiritures.

Can you all give everyone just a round of applause?

We're gonna be flying today.

So um, as we did last week, if you want to take notes, you can tap the tap disc right in front of you.

There's a place right at the bottom where all of the scriptures, everything I'm gonna read is gonna be right there.

First thing I need you to know is this counterfeits are not new.

Can I get a good amen?

They have been around from the beginning of time.

Jesus said this, Matthew 7 15.

Watch out for false prophets because they come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves, and by their fruit you will recognize them.

Counterfeits isn't something that we need to be afraid of.

What it is, is something we need to guard against.

Peter says it this way, 2 Peter 2, he says, But there was also false prophets in Israel, just as there will be false teachers among you.

They will cleverly teach destructive heresies and deny the master who brought them.

In this way, they will bring sudden destruction on themselves.

Even when the disciples were alive, there were cults and there were counterfeits.

The heresies aren't new, even though the religions are.

If I was a shepherd, I'm not gonna be like, it's a cute wolf.

Like when you see a wolf, what do you do?

You call it out.

That's the entire focus.

Uh, Paul talking to pastors, he says this, Titus 1 verse 9, that they must hold firm the trustworthy word as taught, that they'll be able to rebuke those who contradict it.

Titus 1:9

So you're like, well, can we rebuke it without mentioning names?

Well, here's what Jesus says: Revelation 2.20.

Nevertheless, I have this against you.

You tolerate that woman, Jezebel.

There's a name, who calls herself a prophet.

By her teaching, she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.

And there's about five other verses that I can give you where Paul and Jesus they're all calling out specific people, specific things.

And I want you to notice what Jesus is saying.

His big issue is not only that Jezebel exists, it's that the church tolerates it.

And he says you need to do something about it.

Okay?

So that's what we're gonna do today.

We're gonna study so that we can help.

We're gonna study so that we can reach.

I believe this that God is calling us to be a missional church, and we can't reach people when we don't even understand what they believe.

Okay, the Bible says in 2 Timothy 2 verse 15, study to show yourself approved, able to discern rightly the word.

2 Timothy 2:15

1 Peter 3, 15.

And this is as I was praying this morning, I don't even have this in my notes.

I just felt this.

But in your hearts, revere Christ as Lord, and always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you for the reason of the hope that you have.

That's what we're doing.

We're studying approved that we can go ahead and give an answer.

Like I'm thinking of Saint, like if Saint was gonna be going and running into a road, how many of you know that I'm not gonna be like, oh, look at him, he's so cute, running into the road.

Look at that traffic, so cute.

What do you do?

You grab him, you pull him, because you don't want to be, you don't want him to be harmed.

What we're doing today is we want to understand these things so that we can reach people, that we're not just like, oh, they're playing in traffic and this is awesome.

No, we want to do whatever we can to pull them in, to be able to share the gospel with them.

So today we're talking about Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses, and I think it's actually super interesting that we're studying this this week because what happened this week is the Pentagon actually released uh a document that had a bunch of religions.

And one of the on the document, one of the things that they said is they defined who were Christians.

In fact, I have a picture of that very document, and you can go look it up.

What's interesting is they had all these classifications of Christian, Jehovah's Witnesses they listed as Christian.

So we're gonna study that today because I believe that it is not Christian, it is counterfeit.

But then also you'll see right at the bottom, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, that's Mormonism, it did not list them as Christian.

So this week there was this upheaval among LDS because they were like, no, no, no, no, no, we're Christian.

That's what we really are, we're Christian.

You need to know this.

Let's get some definitions together.

What is a counterfeit?

A counterfeit is this.

A counterfeit is anything that claims to be Christian but denies foundational Christian doctrine.

Okay?

What is a cult?

Any group that claims to be Christian but trades God's final word for someone else's.

And it's always gonna be a person or an organization that what they say trumps what the Bible says.

It's crazy that all of this is happening, so we're gonna study it.

What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna give you some history, some scale that you can understand these different religions, and then what we're gonna do is we're gonna hold them up to the detector.

And we're gonna see what the Bible really says.

So, first, I'm gonna talk about this.

Who are Mormons?

Who are Mormons?

Now that's really hard, because you can ask who are Christians?

How many of you know Christians believe different things?

Just as Christians believe different things, Mormons believe different things.

And you can even meet a Mormon and you don't even understand what it is that they believe, and they don't even understand what it is that they believe.

But what's different from Christianity and Mormonism is you can't go to Christian.org.

And there is a website that definitively says this is what Christians believe.

For Mormonism, you can.

For Jehovah's Witnesses, you can.

For Catholicism, you can.

There is a tradition, there is someone who's able to speak authoritatively for that religion, very different than what we believe as Christians.

So let me give you some history about the Mormon church.

Who are they?

They're known as the Church of Latter-day Saints.

Why Latter-day Saints?

In the New Testament, uh, the New Testament calls Christians saints, so they get saints.

The reason they call it Latter-day is because they believe that after the disciples died, the gospel was lost.

For like 1700 years, it disappeared.

And they believe that Joseph Smith actually restored the gospel.

That's why they called it Latter-day Saints.

And I'm gonna read some stuff straight from their website.

It says this following the death of Jesus Christ, wicked people persecuted and killed many church members.

Other church members drifted from the principles taught by Jesus Christ and his apostles.

The apostles were killed, and the priesthood authority, including the keys to direct and receive revelation from the church, was taken from the earth.

Because the church was no longer led by that authority, error crept in, good people and truth remained, but the gospel, as established by Jesus Christ, was lost.

So it's on their website.

This period is called the Great Apostasy.

But in 1820, as God had done throughout history, Father in heaven gave a prophet to restore the gospel and the priesthood to earth, and that prophet's name was Joseph Smith.

Again, key point of a cult is you're always going to see that singular leader.

So what happens is Joseph Smith, he's young, he's learning about Christianity, he doesn't know who to join.

So he prays James 1, verse 5, whoever of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God who gives generously to all.

James 1:5

He goes into the woods, he's 14 years old, God the Father and God the Son apparently appear to him, and then he says, Which one should I join?

And they're like, Neither, they're all wrong.

And what they do, what he says, is that God then uses him to actually bring about the restoration of the gospel.

Three years after that moment, the angel Moroni appears to him, tells him about some golden plates with hieroglyphics in it, and those are buried in a mountain.

He goes and finds it.

He uses he uses sear crystals to translate the hieroglyphics, and that's how you get the Book of Mormon.

In 1829, John the Baptist appears to him and gives him Aaronic priesthood, and then Peter, James, and John appear to him and gives him the Melchizedek priesthood.

And then it says this as God had done with Adam, Noah, Abraham, and Moses, and other prophets, he called Joseph Smith to be a prophet through whom the complete gospel will be restored.

Starts the church, starts LDS, starts Mormonism, they start traveling to all these different places.

Eventually, he takes a bunch of wives, about 30 wives, he is sealed with 30 women.

What happens is he gets put into jail, a mob storms the jail and kills him.

Okay.

The next president of the LDS moves them to Salt Lake, Utah, where they build Salt Lake.

Okay?

That's why there's such a huge Mormonism population over there.

Now I tell you all of that because you're just like, wait, what did you just say?

Sear crystals?

Stones?

Hieroglyphic gold stuff.

Like, what are you even?

The angel Morone?

Like, who is Moroney?

Like, you're you're looking at that and you're like, this is crazy.

Like, why are we even studying this?

This makes no sense.

I need you to get the impact.

Because this isn't just Salt Lake, this is worldwide.

Worldwide, there is 18 million members.

It sounds crazy to us, but 18 million people believe this.

Last year they they baptized 400,000 people.

And get this outside of Salt Lake Provo area in Utah, the next highest Mormon population population is Phoenix, Arizona.

There's temples in Gilbert, in Phoenix, in Mesa.

There's one just announced in Queen Creek.

This isn't just some far-off land of people that we don't know how to reach.

No, this is our back door.

And they're more devout than you could ever imagine.

Regular church attendance, Mormonism, 68%.

Protestants, 48%.

73% pray daily, 59% read their Bible outside of church.

Let me give you some of their beliefs.

97% say Mormonism is a Christian religion.

So they'll say, you'll say I'm Christian, they'll say I'm Christian too.

91% believe the Book of Mormon was written by ancient prophets and translated by Joseph Smith.

94% says the president of the LDS church is a prophet of God.

95% believe that families can be bound together for eternity.

And here's a huge one.

Which denies the Trinity.

Foundational truth.

The gospel doesn't even make sense without that.

Okay?

It's a little background on Mormonism.

Let me give you some background on Jehovah's Witnesses, and you're gonna see that they make some of the common mistakes, which is why we're studying both of them.

Jehovah's Witnesses, they claim they're the only true form of Christianity, but they deny the Trinity.

They believe that Jesus is a created being.

They believe that God's name was Jehovah, which we see that in the Bible, which is why they call themselves Jehovah's Witnesses.

They believe that Jesus was created just like the archangel Michael, and the Holy Spirit is an impersonal force rather than a divine person.

So it was founded by Charles Tay Russell in 1870.

He had big problems with the Trinity and hell, so he created a religion that rejects those two things.

He started writing in a magazine that got eventually renamed to the Watchtower.

And if you go into doctors' offices, you have seen them and you haven't even realized it.

Okay?

It is all over the place.

There are over 8 million Jehovah's Witnesses worldwide, and that only includes active people who preach.

If you don't preach, you can't be a Jehovah's Witness.

So for all of you who are afraid of speaking, apparently you would never qualify, even though it's false.

So there we go.

They are best known by their door-to-door visits, their literature distribution, and their use of their own Bible that they have put their own words to.

This is not a translation that we would ever receive, called the New World Translation.

Okay?

Let me show you some of the literature that you'll often see.

You'll see Awake, that's one of their magazines.

Awake, a world in turmoil, how can you cope?

And you're like, that looks interesting.

That looks like something I would want to read.

Awake, coping with rising prices.

Can I get a good amen?

How many of you are like, I need that help?

Yeah, you would pick that up.

The Watchtower, an end to war.

How?

Is life worth living?

And then you read it and it shows you how life is worth living.

And at the end, they always present their version of the gospel.

Okay?

Get the impact of this.

At its peak, a hundred thousand books were created, eight hundred thousand per day.

Forty-two million copies per issue.

And then when the world moved online, they did too, and they now have the number one most translated website in the world.

1,123 languages.

To put that into context, the next highest is Wikipedia with 329 a quarter.

Google Translate, 250.

And that challenges me because they are doing everything they can to translate their false version of the gospel that people can understand it.

And it makes me say, as a Christian, what are we doing?

If they are so desperate to get their false version to us, what are we doing to get our true version to others?

Some unique claims.

They don't do blood transfusions.

They don't celebrate Easter or Resurrection Sunday because they believe that Jesus said we need to remember his death.

They believe only 144,000 will reign with Christ.

They believe people don't go to hell.

You just stop existing.

They believe Jesus became king in heaven in 1914.

So when he raised, it didn't quite happen.

It happened in 1914.

I'm not going to tell you how they got there.

You can research that and praise God for that.

Okay.

They believe the Trinity is unbiblical and they struggled with hell, so they said hell is not a place of eternal suffering.

The dead are unconscious, so they can't feel pain.

God has set death, not torment, in fiery hell as penalty for sin.

And the idea of eternal torment is repungent to God.

Okay?

That's what they believe.

So that's a bit about Mormonism, it's a bit about Jehovah's Witnesses.

Two religions.

One has temples in Mesa and Gilbert, the other one is knocking on your doors this Saturday.

Both call themselves Christian, both use your vocabulary.

They say Jesus, they say the gospel, they salvation, they say grace.

So what do you do?

You don't argue about magazines, you take what they believe and you hold it up to the light.

Which is what we're gonna do.

First question: what is your final authority?

Remember, every counterfeit will start here.

Because before they can give you a different Jesus and a different salvation, they have to give you a different authority.

Because if you read this, there is only one that will lead you to Jesus.

They give you a different authority.

Mormonism has five sources of authority.

The living prophet, who they believe can correct scripture.

It says this in their doctrine that the Lord will never permit the president of the LDS Church to lead the church astray, which is why they can change their beliefs all the time.

So if you're like, well, you used to believe, they're like, Yeah, but you know, we spoke about that and we we decided to change that.

Ezra T Benson said this the living prophet is more vital than the standard works, which would include the Bible, and more important than any dead prophet.

Okay?

The living prophet is the most important, then the Book of Mormon, then their doctrines and the covenants, then the Pearl of Great Price, which is the translations of Joseph Smith and his writings, and the King James Bible lost.

And that Bible is footnoted to make sure that it lines up with all of their beliefs.

Those are their sources of authority.

And they would mock us for having the Bible.

Says, Thou fool, thou shalt say, A Bible, we have got a Bible, we need no more Bible.

So what they're saying is, because we believe that the Bible is the word of God and we don't need anything else, we're fools.

What do they believe about the gospel?

It was lost for 1700 years.

So if you're talking to a Mormon, show them Matthew 16, 18, which says this, and I tell you that, I tell you to Peter, this is Jesus speaking, on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it.

What do you mean we lost the gospel for 1700 years?

This is in your Bible.

So they don't deny the Bible, what they do is they demote it.

Okay.

Jehovah's Witnesses, what is their source of authority?

It's called the New World Translation, which they have changed to match up with their own doctrine.

I'm not going to read it, but Charles Taze Russell, he has this quote where he's written a bunch of books, and he says, if you read my books and you do not read the Bible, you will come into the light.

And he says this, but if you put my books down, even after reading them for ten years, and read the Bible alone, in two years you will go into darkness.

Two years you will go into darkness.

So he says, Don't even read the Bible.

He says, All you have to do is read my writings.

This is not a Christian religion, even though the Pentagon labeled it as such.

So, what do Christians believe?

We believe this.

Who has the final authority?

The Bible and the Bible alone.

Can I get a good amen?

The Bible and the Bible alone.

2 Timothy 3.16.

All scripture, say all scripture.

All scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God might be complete.

Say complete, equipped for every good work.

Even their translation, the New World Translation, says eat completely equipped.

So if you're a Jehovah's Witness, if you're talking to them, if the Bible says, if their Bible says that you're complete with every good work in the Bible, why do we need your prophet's writings in order not to fall into darkness?

It is a contradiction.

It is a contradiction in plain sight.

Mormonism, King James Version, the Bible that they read says the same thing.

So why do we need Joseph Smith's writings?

1700 years later, if the Bible is complete, you see what they don't do is they don't subtract the Bible because that will be unwise and it would be obvious.

What they do is they add to the Bible and they say every addition is more important than the Bible.

So the additions become the ones that is holding the pin.

That is not the gospel, and that is not Christianity.

So they both fail on the first test.

What is the authority that we hold to?

Jude 3 says this for faith was delivered once and for all.

Say delivered.

Cost tense.

It was delivered.

It's already happened.

We don't need anything extra.

This is complete.

Can I get a good amen?

It is complete.

It is everything that we need.

They both fail there, which means that now we lead to what do you say?

Who do you say Jesus is?

We believe this.

Jesus is fully God and fully man, one of three persons of the one true God, uncreated, not a second God, crucified in our place.

The Bible warns that people are gonna come and they're gonna tell you about a different kind of Jesus.

2 Corinthians 11 3.

But I fear that some of your pure and undivided devotion to Christ will become corrupted just as Eve was deceived.

You happily put up with whatever anyone is telling you, even if they preach a different Jesus than the one that you preached.

We can't tolerate that, we can't put up with that, or a different kind of spirit than the one that you have received.

Both of them will use the word Jesus, but it means different things.

Let me read it.

Exactly what Mormonism believes, who they believe Jesus is.

And watch this, it's correct.

Jesus was born to Mary at Bethlehem.

Correct?

Okay.

He lived a sinless life and made a perfect atonement for sins of all mankind by the shedding of his blood and giving his life on the cross.

Okay.

He rose from the dead.

Okay.

That's assuring of the eventual resurrection of mankind.

Yeah.

Through Jesus' atonement and resurrection, those who repent of their sins and obey God's commands can live eternally with Jesus as the Father.

Does that sound right?

Watch it.

That's how careful we have to be.

We believe that we're resurrected, but we believe that we are resurrected to be judged, and that those who are with God will go to heaven, and those who are not won't.

They believe in unconditional salvation.

That no matter who you are, you're going to go to some form of heaven.

They use the same words, but their definitions are different.

Also, watch what is missing.

Faith.

In their definition of how you become saved, faith is not there.

What is present?

Obedience as the condition.

You have to repent and obey.

Works.

Laws.

Not a gospel at all.

If you keep reading on that webpage, it will say that Jesus Christ is the firstborn of the Father in spirit.

They believe that Jesus is the firstborn spirit child, secondary to God, under God the Father, our older spirit brother, who is up further the ladder than we are.

It is a different Jesus.

It is not Jesus at all.

What do they believe about God?

They believe that God the Father was once a man and progressed into Godhood.

I don't know how they get around Genesis 1.1 that says, in the beginning, God.

Like four words in.

God already was, he didn't progress.

So I don't know how we progressed.

In the beginning, God, that's in their Bible.

God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are three distinct gods.

They teach prior to creation there were many planets and many gods, so polytheism.

And how did we appear?

A council of gods got together, they used the physical matter that already existed, and they were like, okay, kids, you're all gonna have to go down in your spirit bodies, you know, be tested and all that good stuff, and then you can somehow get saved and go into one of the three kingdoms that exist.

About man and sin, they believe that we have seeds of divinity in us, and we can become like God.

Which is the lie in Genesis 3.

That you can become like that.

Is how sin came to being.

The very thing that they are pushing towards is the thing that caused sin ultimately to come.

Okay?

They use the same word, but it's different.

Jehovah's Witnesses, completely different.

They do not believe in the Trinity, they believe that there is one God, Jesus was a created, lesser God, and the Holy Spirit is a force.

They also believe that Jesus is not equal to the Father.

Okay?

Here's what it says: we follow the teachings and example of Jesus Christ and honor Him as our Savior and as the Son of God.

Thus we are Christians.

However, we have learned from the Bible that Jesus is not Almighty God, and that there is no scriptural basis for the doctrine of the Trinity.

Who is Jesus?

A powerful spirit who lives in heaven.

He was created by Jehovah before anything else.

The Bible refers to Jesus as God's begotten Son because Jesus was directly created by God.

So Jesus wasn't always there and didn't always exist.

And you might be like, that sounds crazy.

Like, how is that?

Get this.

I want you, I want to read their version of the Bible.

John 1.1, in our version, says this in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.

Okay?

Let me read their translation, not a translation, not scripture.

In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was a God.

Lowercase G.

A God.

That is not Jesus of the Bible.

What do we believe?

We believe in one God.

I talked about this last week.

One God, Deuteronomy 6, verse 4.

Deuteronomy 6:4

In three distinct persons.

Plural pronouns.

Let us make mankind in our image.

Genesis 1.26.

We see a separation in Jesus' baptism.

You see God the Father, God the Spirit, you see God the Son.

Jesus is distinguished from the Father.

John 1.1.

The Spirit is distinguished from the Son.

John 14, 26.

The Father is distinguished from the Spirit.

Romans 8.26.

They are all different.

But they are all God.

They are one.

They are distinguished, sorry, not different.

God the Father is God, 1 Corinthians 8.6.

God the Son is God.

Titus 2.13.

God the Spirit is God.

Acts 5.3.

So if you're talking to them, you're like, what do I say?

Okay?

Here's what you do.

To Jehovah's Witness, John 20, 28, Thomas says to Jesus, my Lord and my God.

In their Bible.

Thomas calls Jesus Lord and God.

Isaiah 43, 10 for Mormons, that says we can become like gods.

Before me, this is in the Bible that they read.

Before me, the King James Version, before me, there was no God that has been formed, neither will there be anyone after me.

Two different Jesuses.

One pulls Jesus down into creature, the other one pulls God down and pulls us up.

And ignores Isaiah 43.

Before me there is no God, nor shall there be anyone after me.

The final question is this how are you saved?

And y'all, this is where it gets wild and exhausting and tiring.

For Mormonism?

For you to be saved, you gotta keep climbing.

They believe to be saved, you need to have faith.

You have to repent.

You have to be baptized.

That is a requirement for salvation into the celestial kingdom.

And that's a problem because you know, what if I died and I wasn't baptized?

Well, they're like, well, then you can just get baptized by proxy from those who were living.

That's why they practice baptism for the dead.

Because they believe that you can accept God in the afterlife.

They believe that you have to do various works straight from the website.

In 1921, the Lord inspired President Herbert J.

Grant to require all saints to abstain from alcohol, tobacco, coffee, and tea.

Y'all have heard about that, I'm sure.

In order to obtain a temple recommend.

Here's what's crazy to get a temple recommend, that's where all their saving ordinances happen.

So if you drink coffee, you can't get into the temple.

If you can't get into the temple, you can't be part of all the saving ordinances, therefore, you will never get to the highest level of heaven.

Y'all, that is crazy.

That is crazy.

And then you're like, okay, wait, what do they even believe about heaven?

Y'all, they have three heavens.

It's like an apartment building.

Like the top floor is where God is.

It's called the celestial kingdom.

And only married Mormons who have like gone through all the saving ordinances can get to that top floor.

Like, or Christians who have never heard about Mormonism.

So I'm sorry, we just ruined all of that for any of us here because you now know about Mormonism, apparently.

Those are the only people that can get there.

Then they have a second level called the terrestrial glory.

That is literally the word.

And that's for lukewarm Mormons and for Christians who heard about Mormonism but didn't accept it.

So in their theology, this is where we will be.

And then they have the celestial glory, which is the bottom floor, still a kingdom of glory, still beautiful.

And who goes there is wicked people and those who reject Mormonism after death.

And they even believe hell is purgatory in a way that you go to hell, you pay the sin because you didn't accept Jesus, and when you suffer long enough, you pay your own price and you get to go to the third level of glory.

Y'all, it is a distortion.

And 18 million people.

I can't believe that.

Our neighbors.

Our city.

Jehovah's Witnesses are no different.

You have to have faith in Jesus.

You actually have to learn what the Bible really teaches in order to be saved.

You have to get baptized as a Jehovah's Witness.

You have to do salvation through works.

You have to preach publicly.

You have to have called God Jehovah at least once.

And you need to attend church.

And you can keep climbing till the end.

What do we believe?

Ephesians 2.8.

For it is by grace.

Aren't y'all thankful for the grace of God?

It is by grace that you have been saved.

It is a gift, not of works, lest any man should boast.

That is in both of their Bibles.

Someone comes to my door, I'm like, Can I have your Bible?

Can I take you to Ephesians 2.8?

Can we talk about that?

Neither system will ever be able to say it is finished.

Mormonism is always about climbing, and the witnesses are always about enduring.

One of them gives you a ladder and the other one gives you a treadmill.

So how do we reach them?

First thing is, I need you to love them.

I need you to love them, not argue with them, but love them.

Think of Luke 15.

Lost coin, lost son, lost sheep.

Jesus will do whatever he can to reach people who are far from him.

And that just challenges me.

Am I just the person who doesn't open the door?

Or am the person who's like, hey, I'll give you 10 minutes if you give me 10.

Like, let's talk about this.

You gotta love them.

Second thing I want you to do is ask them.

Use the detector as a tool.

Who do you say Jesus is?

Who do you believe God is?

Who's your final authority?

And then finally, I need you to show them.

For Mormonism, when they say the gospel is lost, show them Matthew 16, 18, that the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

Explain who God is.

Explain the gospel respectfully.

Share it with grace.

They believe, second Nephi, that we are saved after all we can do.

Have you ever met a person who has done all they can do?

No, we believe Ephesians 2.

By grace we have been saved, not a result of our works.

Have to share with them that we can't be God.

Jeremiah 10, 6.

No one is like you.

You are great.

Your name is in mighty power.

The goal is not equality with God.

That's what God Satan kicked out of heaven.

It's not equality with God, it's reconciliation to God.

For Jehovah's Witness, show them logic in their own Bible.

Talk about grace through faith by works.

Ephesians 2 8, we talked about that.

That's in their Bible.

Talk about eternity.

Matthew 13, 42.

It says that we'll be thrown away where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth for those who don't follow God.

How do you get around that?

Matthew 25, 41.

It says that those who do not follow God, God will say, Go away from me, you have been cursed into the everlasting fire.

What does that mean if there is no hell?

And final thing is talk about Jesus.

Okay.

If you have a Jehovah's Witness, knock on your door, okay?

Here's what I want you to do.

John 1 1 in their Bible says this in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a God.

Okay, so they don't believe Jesus is God.

So do this.

Everyone do this.

Hold up a circle.

Okay.

They believe that Jesus was created by God.

So if in the circle is everything that was created, where is God?

Outside the circle.

Does that make sense?

Where is Jesus?

In the circle, according to them.

Because he was created by God.

Everything created by God is in the circle.

Okay?

That's what they believe.

So they translated John 1.1, but they forgot to translate John 1.2.

Which says this this one in the beginning was with God.

All things, say all things, all things came into existence through him.

And apart from him, not even one thing came into existence.

Based on your verse, where can you put Jesus?

You can no longer put him in the circle.

So you don't need to argue theology.

You don't need to be like, okay, where's my notes?

Circle.

Their version of their Bible.

We have to reach them, show them, love them, give them the gospel.

Can I get a good amen?

Amen.

Amen.

A different Jesus.

I know there may be some people here today, and maybe you don't even know this Jesus.

And if that's you, we want to give you that opportunity.

Can ask everyone, can close your eyes and bow your heads.

Let me tell you the gospel.

The gospel is that every single one of us fell short of the glory of God.

But God sent his son Jesus to come onto this earth.

He died on a cross and he was raised that we can have life.

And the Bible says in Romans that if you declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, that you will be saved, there is nothing you need to do.

All you need to do is give your life and trust in Jesus.

There is no works that can save you, so that no one can boast, the Bible says.

And if you're here and you've never taken that step to follow Jesus, we're gonna pray a prayer.

And we're all gonna pray for the benefit of those praying for the first time.

Just repeat off to me.

Say, Dear Jesus, I believe that you're the Son of God and the Savior of the world.

I believe you came to this earth, you died on a cross, and you were raised, that I can have life.

I make you my Lord.

I make you my Savior.

In Jesus' name.

In Jesus' name.

With every head bowed and eyes closed, if you're here and you pray there for the very first time, I'm gonna ask you to do something bold.

On the counter three, I just want you to wave at me and say, Brad, that's me.

I'd love to celebrate with you.

Here we go.

One, two, three.

I already see that hand.

Thank you.

Thank you if that's you.

Thank you, sir.

I appreciate that.

Praise God, praise God.

Hey Church, can you do me a favor?

Can you put your hands together?

Come up for everyone that said that for the first time.

We love you, Church.

And if you just said yes to Jesus, that is the best decision you could ever make.

We are so proud of you, but you do have a next step.

We want you to text the word Jesus to 480-485-3405.

Because we have a gift we would love to give you, because you were not meant to walk this journey alone.

We have something called You Said Yes, a 21-day written devotional we want to get in your hands.

And hey, if you do call Spirit Home, we have a couple things we would love for you to pray about.

The first, we would love for you to pray about sharing this message.

You never know how much a simple share could impact someone's life.

And second, we would love for you to pray about partnering with us financially because your giving enables us to get messages just like this with people like you and all around the world.

So thank you so much for what you do and how you give.

You can do that by going to spiritchurch.co forward slash give.

Well, hey, we love you, church.

We'll see you right back here next week.

And remember that with God, there is more.