Contrition Over Sin Is Not Part Of The Gospel

by David J. Stewart | June 2021

       Dear reader, the Devil has crept into most churches today. I love the Bob Jones University crowd very much, God knows my heart, but they are pulling on the same rope as the Devil. The Harvest Baptist Church on Guam has MUCH blood on their hands, including mine. 2013-2014 was one of the happiest years of my life, and I felt loved. I thought Pastor Marty Herron was my friend, but he wasn't. I was only his friend. As Dr. Tom Ferrell says: “A friend helps a friend to see.” I did just that, helping my beloved friends to see. In response, Marty Herron in an e-mail (which I still have) called me the church's “enemy.” Galatians 4:16, “Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?”

For taking a faithful stand for THE TRUTH, I lost everything! I lost my church family. I lost Kris, who I know would have married me. I lost what happiness I had in my life. And sadly, for the past seven lonely years I have had no church family. Kris is long gone. My soul is in prison, all because of Marty Herron's hatred of me and rejection of the truth of God's Word. Psalms 142:7, “Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name: the righteous shall compass me about; for thou shalt deal bountifully with me.” The new pastor of Harvest since 2018, Gary Walton, is a devil, no better, bidding Godspeed to the same doctrines of devils at Bob Jones University. 2nd John 1:11, “For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.”

Dear friend, God authored one Holy Bible, not two, not thirty-nine! Harvest Baptist Church on Guam and the Bob Jones crowd use, sell and promote umpteen Bible versions. It is wickedness! This is the insanity that they are sanctioning! Pastor Jack Hyles is 100% correct that: “The King James Bible crowd is going to come out on top!” You can hear Brother Hyles say that yourself in his classic needful 1994 sermon called: 'The Battle Of The Ages.'

God made two great divisions of His Word into the Old Testament and New Testament; or respectively, LAW and CHRIST. The Old Testament shows a person that they are a guilty sinner (Romans 3:19-20). The LAW brings us to CHRIST, to be saved by grace through faith alone (Galatians 3:24-26).

“Salvation is not our doing, but it is something that the Lord does. We put our trust in Christ, He is the One that saves us. And again I repeat: He rescues us, He ransoms us, He redeems us, He regenerates us. All of that we find out, simply by reading the Bible.” —Pastor Sheldon Smith, Making A Difference radio broadcast; May 14, 2021; 'The Distinguishing Difference in the Christian Life - Part 10'

Contrition (or being sorry and feeling remorse with intent to reform) is not a part of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Old Testament shows a man that he is a guilty sinner, and brings him to Christ to be saved by faith alone. Romans 3:19-20, “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” The ONLY thing that God requires and permits to be saved is the KNOWLEDGE (THE TRUTH) that you are a guilty sinner in need of redemption. The LAW brings us to Christ to be saved by grace. Galatians 3:24-26, “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” Dear friend, the Bible is speaks so plain and simple, if we will just leave it alone and believe it as written.

Unfortunately, wicked men like Marty Herron, Steve Pettit, Chuck Phelps, John Piper, John MacArthur, Ray Comfort, Gary Walton, Paul Washer and other Calvinist-minded fools, pervert the Gospel of free grace, requiring MORE than faith to be saved. It is VERY important that the JUSTIFICATION of the believer without by the man Jesus Christ, and the SANCTIFICATION within the believer by the Spirit of Christ (Romans 8:9), be kept separate. The famous Gospel preacher John Bunyan fully understood this truth:

“If you do not put a difference between justification wrought by the man Christ without and sanctification wrought by the Spirit of Christ within, you are not able to divide the Word aright; but contrariwise, you corrupt the Word of God, and cast stumbling blocks before the people.” [emphasis added] —Evangelist John Bunyan

This is the woeful theological error of Calvinists and the Lordship Salvation crowd, particlarly the Bob Jones University camp today. Few followers of John Calvin (1509-1564) care to pay attention to the historical fact that Calvin brutally murdered 58 people for merely disagreeing with his perverse theology. So much for living a changed life! Was Jesus the Lord of Calvin's life when he murdered all those 58 innocent people? You'll never get a Calvinist preacher like Steve Pettit to talk about these things? I guess were all sinners, right? Dear friend, nobody has ever faithfully followed Jesus as “Lord.” Steve Pettit is no less of a sinner, nor any more righteous, than the next unsaved heathen. Yes, I KNOW that Steve Pettit is not saved, by the direct testimony of his own froward mouth concerning Christ.

In God's simple plan of salvation as taught in the inspired King James Bible, the LAW shows a person that they are a guilty sinner (Romans 3:19-20). Hence, seeing their hopeless sinnership and deserved penalty of Hell (Romans 5:9, 6:23; Revelation 20:15, 21:8), they are brought by the LAW to Jesus Christ, the Author and Finisher of our faith. Hebrews 12:2, “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” That is how you get saved dear reader, by LOOKING TO JESUS. Pastor Curtis Hutson (1934-1995) beautifully explains this precious Bible truth in his wonderful sermon called: “The One Thing That Determines Salvation.”

I feel sorry for liars like Pastor Marty Herron, who go around telling people that they must “repent of your sin” to be saved. Ken Ham does the same thing, lying to people! You cannot show me any place in the King James Bible where it says to “repent of your sin” to be saved! What does the Bible say? Acts 20:21, “Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2nd Timothy 2:25, “In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;” So we see that the Bible does speak of REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD, and of REPENTANCE TO THE ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THE TRUTH. But there is no mention of turning away from your sins to be saved. I triple dog dare you to find it, you cannot! Repentance is simply acknowledging THE TRUTH that you are a dirty guilty sinner, deserving of Hell, so that you will see your need to trust the blessed Savior. It is as simple as: LAW and CHRIST! Jesus paid your debt of sin my friend, and mine too! Christ bled and died on the cross in our place, paying a debt that He did not owe, because we owed a debt that we could not pay (2nd Corinthians 5:21).

Friend, this is no trifle matter to God! When I visited Pensacola, Florida in 2019, I attended the First Baptist Church in downtown Pensacola. I was saddened not to see a King James Bible anywhere, except the one that I held in my lap. They only had NIV's in every pew. I went to their church website and read that the church adheres to Calvinism. I was heartbroken, and knew in my heart of hearts that I could never attend a cesspool of iniquity like that.

I have been diligently praying for years, asking God where to move. It has been no easy journey. The Harvest Baptist Church on Guam stabbed me in the heart, back and tossed me like a bag of garbage, simply because I loved them enough to tell the THE TRUTH (the very truths that I am sharing with you in this very important article). Harvest's pastors are pig-headed, afraid to go against cult headquarters at Bob Jones University. God's curse is upon all of them for perverting the Gospel (Galatians 1:6-9; 3:1-3; 5:4; 6:7). My soul has been in prison since Harvest cast me out in 2014, and has cruelly ostracized me since as their enemy. All I did was love them, being faithful to God to tell THE TRUTH (Galatians 4:16). The Lord has promised to avenge me, and I pray for it night and day (Romans 12:19-21; Luke 18:7-8).

Kindly said, Harvest Baptist Church on Guam is so stupid and spiritually blind that they foolishly think they are being persecuted, but they are naked and wretched and don't even realize their horrible condition. Revelation 3:16-17, “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:” I have done no evil to tell THE TRUTH!

I recently considered moving to Amarillo, Texas. I found the First Baptist Church of Amarillo. I was saddened when I went to read the church's Statement of Faith on their website. I had to click through about five different layers to finally get to what they believe. It turns out that the church adheres to the official Statement of Faith of the corrupt Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), which was established in the 19th century. The SBC's official position is that to be saved a person must TURN AWAY FROM SIN WITH ALL YOUR HEART. Folks, that is NOT the Gospel, not even close. You don't get saved by turning from anything, you get saved by turning to Jesus Christ.

Carefully notice what the Bible says in Acts 26:20, “But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance.” Do you see that turning to God (repentance) is NOT the same as doing works? We are commanded to do works “meet” (or fitting) for someone who is saved. As believers we “SHOULD” (Titus 2:12) live godly in Christ Jesus. Notice the word: SHOULD, not MUST (that is works); not WILL (that is Calvinism). A believer should live for Christ. But what if we choose not to? Then God's saving grace will much more abound (Romans 5:20). A believer falls IN GRACE, never FROM GRACE! We stand to lose rewards at the Judgment Seat Of Christ, as will many saints, “saved; yet so as by fire” (1st Corinthians 3:15b). I am so sick and tired of reading Baptist church websites that corrupt the Gospel, by adding additional requirements that God does not. The BIGGEST mistake that you will ever make is to follow the damnable teachings of men (Mark 7:7-13; Matthew 15:8-9).

Lord willing I plan to move soon. I am planning on moving to Tennessee. Finding an apartment has been a nightmare! It has taken much longer than I anticipated, and I still have to wait for one to become available, but God willing I will be in Tennessee by the fall. I haven't even started on my medical yet. I need to find a doctor for my pain medications for my neck. Once I get to Tennessee I will need to buy a used car. My life will be upside down for a few months. I have a definite solid church in mind, so Lord willing I will finally have a church family. I cry just thinking about it. Harvest Baptist Church on Guam will never know how much they hurt me, and abandoned the most caring man who ever stepped foot into their damned church cult. All I ever humbly requested from them was the need to attend church services. God will deal with them, cruelly as they have dealt with me for the past seven years. There is no love at Harvest!

I feel overwhelmed with everything right now. I have already set an automatic response for my e-mails. I need a break. I am burned out in my soul. I am so lonely, and hope to find a woman to marry down the road. I need a caring gal to love and share my life with, someone who won't abandon me. I wish I could just get on an airplane now and leave. I think about it every day. David felt that way too! Psalms55:6, “And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest.”

I kindly ask for patience from all my web visitors in the several months ahead, it is going to be difficult for me. Due to my neck pain, doing anything goes against the grain. I have little patience, get irritated easily, and after two hours need to lay down and rest. I have burning throughout my nervous system. It literally feels like I'm on fire. That is related to the stenosis and radiculopathy in my neck. Being in the sun feels good. There is a steam room where I plan move, at a YMCA, which would be helpful. But life is what happens to us when we're making big plans. I feel overwhelmed right now, like I'll never get to where I want to be in my life, but all I can do is take BABY STEPS! By the inch it's a cinch, by the yard it's hard! So one day at a time. Forward ever, backward never!

Please remember me in your prayers, as I do you. I am losing weight well. I've lost 17 true pounds in the past few months. I plan to lose a bunch more, Lord willing. I am eating a healthy low calorie density diet, which is the key. Yogurt, cottage cheese, oatmeal, chicken, fish, avocadoes (in moderation), salads, beans, protein shakes, sweet potatoes, et cetera. I bake everything and fry nothing. I only drink water, except for maybe a club soda or flavored water a couple times a week. I love mineral water! I have been losing weight without doing a lot of walking, which is quite different from the way I lost weight in 2017, torturing myself. Now I am eating properly to get to my ideal weight.

Anyway, I deliberately share my plans about moving and my private life at the end of articles, so only those web visitors who truly read my articles will know what's going on in my life. Thank you for reading this far! I love you whoever you are with God's unconditional love. I am just a humble sinner, a nobody, who feels so unworthy. God is so good. I have no complaints. So many people have it MUCH worse than I do, so I praise the Lord for all my blessings!!! Thank you Lord, for saving my soul. Thank you Lord, for making me whole. Thank you Lord, for dying for me. Thy great salvation, so rich and free!!! Amen!

I always have so much I want to say. I feel like an emotional fool sometimes, but this is who I am, by God's grace. I don't claim to be a good Christian, but I work hard on the ministry day and night which God has entrusted to me, and I genuinely care about the truth and people. I simply cannot do all that I wish I could do. Preachers get tired and suffer pain too, and I desperately need a church family. I have received thousands of emails over the years from hurting people. I hear nightmare stories of what people are going through. The one common denominator in nearly all of their situations is that they refuse to attend a Bible-believing church. They are going it alone. I have been forced to go it alone for the past seven years, not by choice, but because the largest independent Baptist church on Guam despises me as their enemy, because I am right about them being wrong on the Bible, the Gospel and repentance. I love them with all my heart, which I have proven by my constant friendliness, gifts and persistence to tell the truth. 2nd Corinthians 11:6, “But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge; but we have been throughly made manifest among you in all things.”

I am hurting right now (both in body and in soul), so please bear with me in my valley of darkness. I dread moving, because of my life being shaken up completely, but it is the only way out of my situation. My life has been hopelessly stuck in a ditch for many years. If I stay on Guam, nothing will change. I need a church that will allow me to attend, where I won't be banned and ostracized for being human. Even my apologies weren't good enough for Harvest Baptist Church on Guam. They hold grudges and are respecters of persons (James 2:1; Romans 14:10-12). And so, I hope to find a church family to fit in, when I am able to attend a good church and love people again, and hopefully be loved back. My only goal is to love. I never expect to be loved. That is what Jesus would do. But I cannot love people if a local church refuses to let me be a part of their family. So I have loved Harvest from a distance. They hate my rude preaching, because they don't have any spiritual discernment. Unsaved people cannot figure it out (1st Corinthians 2:14-16).

Pastor Bob Gray Sr. (one of my mentors) is so right that most churches today are pathetic! Yes, they sure are! I am a fool for Christ. 2nd Corinthians 11:23, “Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.” I rejoice that, like the Apostle Paul, I am suffering for my faithful stand for THE TRUTH. God only authored ONE BOOK (Matthew 4:4). There is only ONE SAVIOR (1st Timothy 2:5). There is only ONE GOSPEL (Galatians 1:6-9). There is only one Bible meaning of TRUE REPENTANCE (Acts 20:21). It is for defending these truths that I am called into question, abused and ostracized by Harvest Baptist Church on Guam. It may not be a big deal to them, as they go on their merry ways like I don't exist, but God will be their Judge (Galatians 1:6-9: 3:1-3; 5:4; 6:7).

My preaching and my personal life are one and the same, which is why my writings interweave between them. I cannot separate who I am from what I believe. My entire life has been shaped and defined over the past eight years by the Harvest Baptist Church on Guam. They became my beloved family in 2013, and I loved them so much. But when I raised a flag of truth for the Lord, Harvest's proud members and pastors killed the prophet, running me out of town in late 2014. In desperation and loneliness I begged with apologies to come back in 2017 and beyond, only to be mistreated further by their cruel hatred and continued rejection of me and the truth of God's Word. It is a big deal to God!

Harvest has no excuses! My words of truth were instantly rejected and shot down as enemy propaganda! It will take me time to heal from years of spiritual and mental abuse at the hands of Harvest's incompetent tyrant, uncompassionate, formal and thug bully pastors. Their arrogant yuppie style of impotent Christianity wreaks of apostasy, theological stupidity and doctrines of devils! Worse, the very mention of my name brings laughter to their wicked mouths, as they chuckle at the “nut” down the street! God will burn them in Hell (Matthew 7:21-23). If I am a born-again believer, then the Bob Jones crowd who follow the garbage Steve Pettit preaches will burn in Hell! Their damnable John MacArthur type of Lordship Salvation is NOT the Gospel, and I will never stop preaching the truth. Sadly, Harvest has a lifetime enemy in God, because they didn't reject my word, they rejected God's Word. Romans 3:4, “God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.”

I titled this article, “Contrition Of Sin Is Not The Gospel,” so I will end with that. We've got a bunch of theologically stupid preachers today who don't know the difference between penitence, penance, reformation and repentance. Here is the truth:

Repentance is simply the acknowledgment that you are a guilty sinner, which brings you to Christ to be saved by faith alone. I know that is true because JESUS PAID IT ALL!!! I am going to Heaven ONLY because of GOD'S RIGHTEOUSNESS, and not mine (Philippians 3:9; Romans 10:3-4). I do not need to turn from any sin to be saved. I do not need to be sorry for my sin. I do not need to feel contrition or remorse for my sin. I do not need to stop committing deliberate sin to be saved. I do not need to intend to reform or better myself to be saved. When God saved me, then the indwelling Holy Spirit (Whom God sealed me with at the time I believed) started changing me (Philippians 2:13). To be saved, I didn't need to do anything, nor give up any sin. All I needed to know is that I am a needy sinner, so that I would trust (rest in) Jesus' sacrifice on the cross as payment for my sins. Christ was buried. Three days layer He resurrected from the dead. I trusted in the risen Christ as a 13 year old boy, and God gloriously saved me forever!!! Nothing more has ever been required. I received God's gift of eternal life by faith alone, without works!!! (Romans 4:4-6).

After I got saved, the Holy Spirit (NOT ME) started convicting me about the sins in my life. I experienced penitence (a feeling of sorrow) for my sins. I remember that the Holy Spirit started convicting me not to do certain sins anymore. I experienced reform. These things followed getting saved, NOT as a requirement to be saved. That is where Calvinists, Lordship Salvationists and the Wrong Repentance crowd go astray. They are requiring of a person what ONLY the Holy Spirit can do! Anybody who tells you that you must 'repent of your sin' to be saved is requiring something of YOU!

“The true Gospel always points you to Christ; a false gospel always points to you.”
Pastor Dennis Rokser

I don't care if that harelips every dog in the country, that is what the King James Bible teaches. So Dr. Steve Pettit and his damnable circus at Bob Jones University, Faith Baptist Bible College And Theological Seminary, and Harvest Baptist Church on Guam can go straight to Hell, where they are assuredly going (Matthew 7:21-23; Luke 13:23-24; Acts 15:1, 24; Galatians 3:1-3), with their counterfeit plan of salvation. I've rambled on enough. I love you all. Please keep me in your earnest prayers, in the months ahead, as I move, Lord willing. Blessed be the name of our precious Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!!!

The Gift Of Eternal Life Is Wrapped In The Wonderful Package Of Jesus

END OF ARTICLE

“Faith is the only righteous thing that I can do!”
—Pastor Jack Hyles, a quote from the MP3 sermon titled: God's Reversal Of Psalm 51

1st Corinthians 16:24, “My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen.”


Souls Are Dying!

How Permanent Is Your Salvation?
(an excellent MP3 sermon by Pastor Hank Lindstrom, 1940-2008)

Mark 1:15, “...repent ye, and believe the gospel.”

“The mark of the child of God is that he loves everybody!”
(a quote from Pastor Jack Hyles' classic MP3 sermon, “FORGIVENESS”)

Mark 11:22, And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.


Ye Must Be Born Again! | You Need HIS Righteousness!