Regaining Lost Ground

Pastor Shane Idleman: There are so many things that are off. You can go back—I don't remember what council it was—but it says, "There is no salvation outside the Catholic Church." Blasphemy. Complete blasphemy. You don't have to go be punished for your sins in purgatory for a while. Can't we call this stuff out in love?

Guys, this is urgent. Everybody wants to be quiet while people are on the way to hell. I have a problem with that, and so should you. Shoot them straight and tell them, "No, no, no, do business with the Lord. Seek Him, let Him open the eyes of your understanding. Let Him show you."

Guest (Male): Thank you for joining us here at Westside Christian Fellowship, located in Leona Valley, California, one hour north of Los Angeles. Today on Regaining Lost Ground, we hear part one of this life-transforming message titled "The Day Death Bowed in Death."

First Corinthians 15:55-57 exclaims, "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

Listen now as Pastor Shane shares this life-giving sermon that only through Jesus can we find eternal hope after death in this special Easter message here on Regaining Lost Ground. You can hear the whole message at Pastor Shane's YouTube and Rumble channels. Make sure to subscribe today.

For more information, visit us online at westsidechristianfellowship.org. We also encourage you to hear more truth from Pastor Shane with the Idleman Unplugged weekly podcast. And now from Westside Christian Fellowship in Leona Valley, California, here is Pastor Shane Idleman.

Pastor Shane Idleman: The title is "The Day Death Bowed in Defeat." I came across a song. I just want to read the lyrics real quick that really set the stage, talking about Friday into Sunday.

It says: Stone cold tomb, silence and fear / Mourning voices, death drawing near / But he calls the name, he breaks through the night / Grave clothes fall in the morning light / Not just words, not just a preacher's claim / When he speaks, even death bows in shame.

And that's why we are here. There are so many theological ramifications of what happened with the resurrection. And how Jesus—and I believe when he talked about John the Baptist when Jesus was preaching—he said, "From John the Baptist until now, the kingdom suffers violence, and the violent take it by force." And it was a spiritual upheaval that occurred.

Think about the Old Testament; the demons weren't worried. Now, "Please cast us—don't cast us into the abyss. Let us go into these pigs." And the demons would always submit to Jesus. And then so the resurrection really is to prove who he said he was—that spiritual life that now he gives to those who believe.

But what I wanted to do the last couple of days is just look at Scripture. There is so much there beginning in Matthew 27. I talked on Friday—make sure you hear that message—and Saturday; it kind of builds up to this. And so Matthew 27, we're talking about after the cross.

When evening had come, there was a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. You don't find that too often: a rich man becoming a disciple of Jesus. The reason is, Jesus said it's hard for a rich man to enter heaven. It's not wealth necessarily that makes it hard; it's the love of money, and that becomes their god.

And when you have that—look at the billionaires right now—do they really think they need God? No, they can just fix it with this and that. And that's why it's really hard for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of heaven, because you have to see your spiritual poverty.

And so this man went to Pilate—remember Pontius Pilate, the one who washed his hands of Jesus's death, but still he was the one who allowed the crucifixion—and they said, "Can we have Jesus's body?" And then Pilate said, "Go ahead and give it to him." And Joseph took the body, and he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and he laid it in this new tomb which he had hewn out of the rock.

They would go into the rock and they would make this tomb. It was for a rich man, but they laid Jesus in that tomb. And he rolled a large stone against the door of the tomb and departed. We don't know exactly the details. The rock was probably somewhat easy to move and circular, but it probably took some men and some mechanisms to move this and to block that tomb.

And then it goes on to say this is when Pilate sets a guard. I kind of laugh at this every time I read it. You're going to guard God? Okay. But on the next day, which followed, the chief priests, the Pharisees, they gathered together. Now this is very interesting.

See, those of you maybe who don't believe, or you're agnostic or atheist, or you just think that the story was kind of—maybe it's real, I don't know—I want you to think about this for a minute. The chief priests, the Pharisees, the religious leaders of Jesus's day said, "Hey, we remember when Jesus was still alive how that deceiver said—Jesus is the deceiver—that deceiver said, 'In three days I will rise again.'"

So they acknowledged that he said that. They were worried about that, that they would come and take the body and now there's some conspiracy theory. So my challenge is—and I run into people a lot, and so do you—that say, "Well, yeah, he was a good teacher. Man, he was a good teacher." If that's all he was, guys, he was actually a terrible teacher.

He was a liar, he was a fraud, he was a lunatic if he didn't rise from the dead. Because he said, "In three days I'll rise from the dead." That's not a good teacher. That's a lunatic, it's a liar. All this would be false. But of course we know, as C.S. Lewis said, a lunatic, a liar, or the Lord Jesus Christ.

And I only challenge that because those are your options. You cannot say he was a good teacher. Drop that language. If anybody says that, you have to challenge them. No, he wasn't, if that's all he was. Again, understand what I'm saying. Of course he's a good teacher, he's the best teacher. But he's also a fulfillment of Scripture in that he is the Messiah.

He can't just be a good teacher—"I think he just got rebellious and they killed him." No, that's actually not an option. A great prophet, I hear that from different religions sometimes. Islam thinks he's a great prophet. Oh, he was a great prophet. That's all he was? No, that would be incorrect because he said he is going to rise again after three days.

And so because of this, go ahead and put a guard around this entire tomb. Command that tomb to be secure. And you know it was. Remember these Roman soldiers are tough guys. They don't mess around. They actually, if they lose this body, they will be killed.

They're not going to fall asleep. They probably worked the night shift anyway and they were, I'm sure, walking around. Here's a tomb right there, probably. And there's just a lot of soldiers guarding it to make sure that what they're worried about doesn't happen, that he's risen from the dead.

And they said something interesting: "So the last deception will be worse than the first deception." So the Pharisees thought the last deception would be that he rose from the dead; the first deception to the people is that he is the Messiah. See how they have this all backwards? They mention deception twice: "He will deceive us. He will deceive the people."

So I have to bring this up to you this morning: what is deception? Deception is the act of causing someone to accept as true what is false. That's why there are deceptive pulpits. There are wolves in sheep's clothing. There are deceptive religions. They are trying to convince you—Satan's been doing it since day one—they're trying to convince you that that which is false is true.

What do I do then? Well, what do we always talk about? You get in the Word. You bury your face in the Word. You understand the Word. You learn the Word. That's your gauge for truth. Yeah, but men wrote it. How do you know if that's your way? Your way is right. How about all these other ways? I'm sure these people are good as well.

And that would take a sermon series to unpack the archaeological accuracy of the Bible, the historical accuracy of the Bible, the scientific accuracy of the Bible, the prophetic accuracy of the Bible, the confirmation of Scripture, the witness of the Holy Spirit, how there are so many different manuscripts and the testing of... if you truly... here's a problem: people truly don't want answers.

If they did, they would ask God, "Show me. What is your truth?" And they would evidence it. *Evidence That Demands a Verdict* is a great book. There are other new books out there that talk about... look, there's just so much. God didn't just tell you to believe in pie in the sky. It is evidence. It's just clear that these places existed, these kings ruled.

This happens when a person believes. All millions and millions and millions of people testify: "I was lost, but now I'm found. I was blind, but now I see. My sins have been forgiven. That weight has been lifted." What do you do with that? No other religion has that.

What they're doing is they're following moral codes and they think this is how they're going to get to God. But there's no change. Now, they might change temporarily and apply discipline to certain areas—"Oh, when I became a such-and-such, now I don't drink anymore." Well, you can be sober but not saved. Deception, deception.

Let me talk about four deceptions since I won't see many of you again. You'll get that on your way home. I'm trying to be nice, I'm trying to like... but it's true. We want to see you every Sunday. We want to see you every Wednesday.

Big deception number one that's out there: you can sin and still be saved. Now, I'm going to let that sink in for a minute because we'd all be saying, "Oh, I'm in trouble." Yesterday I... but here is the missing link to that: Paul, even Jesus says, "Those who practice lawlessness will not inherit the kingdom of heaven."

It's not those who struggle, those who fall and they say, "Lord, help me. I want to be... I repent." There's a clear difference. That's the difference between night and day, light and darkness, truth and error, right and wrong, heaven and hell. Those who practice—like, you know what, that's just who I am.

I repented when I was, I think I went to some crusade when I was 12. And I'm going to heaven, I think, and yeah, but I'm not going to give up that lifestyle. That's who I am. I cheat on my wife—okay, big deal. Or I like to get drunk on a regular basis, man, it's fun.

See, there's a big difference between somebody heartbroken over their sin and wrestling through it and seeking God and repentant, than someone who is just blazing about it and in your face—"It doesn't, you know what, I'm not going to change; it's who I am."

And that's why I believe the Bible gives so many different incidents or actually struggles or lifestyles. He goes down, right: adulterers—by the way, pornography is adultery, in case you—"Oh Shane, I just wanted to hear about the empty tomb today, I didn't want to get too convicted." Well, I got you here and I might not get you back, so you're going to have to hear it while you're here. So I committed to tell the truth, not tickle the ears. Take it up with the Lord.

So it says neither adulterers nor fornicators—so don't get too comfortable if you're shacking up and you're going out hitting the club scene. You're not married yet. Adulterers, fornicators. What else does it say? YouTube might ban me again. Homosexuality, liars, thieves, covetous, idolaters... all these things. Why? Because it's a lifestyle.

So when somebody says, "I was born this way," well, I was born to sin too. It doesn't make it right. I was born to be a lying, thieving adulterer at heart. That's how I was born. That's why I need a Savior. That's the point of salvation. But people think they can still embrace a sinful lifestyle that is so clear in Scripture, and they think they're still good with God. That's living in deception.

And that's why it said, "Be here—don't just be hearers of the Word, but be doers also, or else you live in deception." And that is in the church, big deception right now, that you can embrace what the Bible clearly calls sin and still be saved. Now, hope for the struggler. I'm not trying to beat you up. I'm trying to encourage you.

If you are repentant and you confess, that's a lot different than embracing the lifestyle because you're acknowledging that that is wrong. That's the difference. That's what repentance is. It's a change of mind that leads to a change of action. And that's why repentance for salvation is so powerful and profound because you're changing your mind about the way you think of sin.

And we have to encourage people who are caught, don't we? We have to encourage them and let them know, hey, get back up. You don't have to sin. You don't have to. "Oh, woe is me, I'm going to sin." No, no, no, that's not the right approach either. The right approach is to follow God, to seek God, to live for Him.

Another big deception. Are you ready for number two? I don't know, this one's going to be tough. All religions lead to God. I might say something to wake you up. All religions will lead to God. Well, let me finish before you get upset. Because they will stand before the great white throne judgment someday.

Here's what you need to say: all religions do not lead to salvation. Any religion, you will stand before God someday, and if you reject Jesus Christ, there is no sacrifice for your sin. So yeah, all religions will lead to God, but many will be on the broad road to destruction and few on the narrow road that leads to eternal life.

All religions can be wrong, but they cannot all be right. Shouldn't that give us a reason to think a little bit? And those maybe who aren't following God, you can't say all these religions—they all contradict each other. Go ask a practicing Muslim if we're on the same page. Go ask Mormons to unpack the *Watchtower*—no, that's Jehovah's Witnesses—the *Book of Mormon*. Are we on the same page here?

But here's the thing many of them don't want to talk about. That's just the truth. Be quiet. Don't say anything. Leave me alone. And here's why: Christians love... I mean, I would love for a Mormon or Jehovah's Witness to say, "Hey, can we sit down and talk about the Bible?" Absolutely, when?

But you go to them and say, "Can we talk about the differences according to Scripture?" "Nope. Nope, you're judgmental. You're arrogant, you're mean-spirited. You're just causing division." Why? Because when you don't have the truth, you don't want to be exposed.

All religions do not lead to salvation. Jesus was crystal clear: there is no other way. No other way. You have to come directly to the Father through the Son. And you look—you've got to go deep because they'll say the right thing. I mean, they say the right thing, you start to dig a little deeper and you find out, oh no, we're not on the same page. We are not on the same page.

You will not be like God someday, and God was not like us. Jesus and Lucifer were not brothers and they offered their plan of salvation. Jesus was not a prophet, a good teacher, but we really are saved by following these moral codes outlined in our religion.

There's no salvation. Actually, you can press... if you go deep, even the teachings—and I know people leave every time I talk about this, but I've got to deal with it, you know, that's between me and God, not other people—but if you look at what Roman Catholicism actually teaches, I was an altar boy. I know.

There are so many things that are off scripturally. You can go back—I don't remember what council it was—but it says, "There is no salvation outside the Catholic Church." Blasphemy. Complete blasphemy. You don't have to go be punished for your sins in purgatory for a while.

Can't we call this stuff out in love? Guys, this is urgent. Everybody wants to be quiet while people are on the way to hell. I have a problem with that, and so should you. Shoot them straight and tell them, "No, no, no, do business with the Lord. Seek Him, let Him open the eyes of your understanding. Let Him show you."

I remember somebody set up this interview. It was painful. A big priest in Valencia, 4,000 member church. We're sitting in there and I said, "But what's the point of purgatory?" I'll never forget, I almost started crying. He said, "Well Shane, how do you deal with your sin and guilt?"

I said, "Well, I already dealt with my sin and guilt. What are you talking about? What are you talking about? You haven't dealt with yours? Are you saved? I don't think so." You don't put a 12-foot statue of Mary out front and say, "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women." Pray to Mary. You want to get to Jesus, go to his mom.

That's blasphemy. That's blasphemy. Shouldn't we say? I don't like to say things, I don't like to get mean emails and this and that, and I'm being used of the devil to cause division. No, I'm being used of God to bring light to the darkness. That's a big difference. And if you're so right, let's sit down with the Word and see what the Word says.

I remember how many years ago was this now, seven years? It was exhausting. I invited a Jehovah's Witness into my house and he brought his elder, whatever that is. That was tough. I knew within a minute. "Can I just open in prayer and pray to Jesus?" "No, we don't pray to Jesus." Oh well, I don't know where this is going to go.

And you start to unpack, it just gets so frustrated because they're so like, "No, no, that's not—don't use the *Watchtower* to interpret the Bible." See, that's the problem. Use the Bible to interpret the Bible. Because I can take this and say whatever it says.

And was it just yesterday? My daughter's like, "Hey, there's Jehovah's Witnesses at the door." And I'm like, "I don't have time. I'm exhausted." But I prayed, "Lord, have them come back if you want me to talk to them." But I don't—sometimes you can't, you're just... they're not there yet. They're brainwashed into the *Watchtower*. The *Watchtower* is their book, and that's how they interpret the Bible.

Mormons use the *Book of Mormon* to interpret the Bible. What did Joseph Smith say? What did Brigham Young say? And a lot of things they said were wonky. It's like, people, open up your eyes to this. But it's hard every time you talk to people; they don't want to talk to you.

I'm like, if you have the truth, don't you want to talk to me? If you have the truth, come and set me straight. Please, tell me. But when you bring the truth, no. Why? Because the truth is open for scrutiny. The truth says, "Bring it. Let's open the Word." It's a big deception. Countless, countless millions are being led astray because of false religion.