look at quite a few verses here
as the Lord directs and if we have the time to do so. And if my voice holds up. Been
on a coughing fit for the last 1 Timothy chapter 4, I'm going
to read a few verses here, but before I do, one of the reasons I chose that last
song is because it talks about the importance of whenever the
church gathers together, when it assembles, the word church
Greek word ekklesia actually means a gathered assembly. Okay, that's what the word church
means. So if it's not a gathered assembly,
it's not a church, right? As the word means, right? So
whenever we're talking about the church, we're talking about
a gathered assembly. And that gathered assembly gathers
together for a specific reason, for a specific purpose. There's
all kinds of things that happen whenever a church gathers, but
if it's a biblical church, there are only certain things that
they gather for because Christ, who is the head of the church,
has dictated how the worship in his church is to be conducted.
And so we call that gospel order. What is the gospel order of the
church? So there's certain things that
the church is supposed to do or the church is supposed to
be. And so whenever we look at those things
and we see what did Christ teach? What was it that Christ did? What did Christ give for the
church to do? What was the instructions that
He gives to carry out after He leaves whenever we meet together? Well, the main focus of us meeting
together is primarily, first and foremost, is for the worship
of God. We're here to worship God together,
because we have been made like-minded by the new birth. In the new
birth, when one is born again, the Holy Spirit of God now opens
up the mind and the understanding to spiritual things, and God
begins to, as in His time period, begins to convey truth to those
people. And as he begins to convey truth
to his people, those people then begin to believe the truth that
is being revealed to them. And in believing that truth,
the Spirit also bears weight upon their conscience to not
only believe that truth, but to stand in that truth and to
defend that truth And whenever that happens, whenever a child
of grace begins to hear the truth, understand the truth, believe
the truth, those places or those things that are not of the truth
now become to be offensive to them. Now become to be things
that they want to separate from. They want to move themselves
out of that because Christ has commanded them to come out and
be separate of doctrine, the world system
of religion, that they are to separate themselves and to come
out from among those things that the heathen do, and I'm not talking
about everyday life, I'm just talking about in our worship.
Our mind begins to change. Basically, that's primarily what
repentance is. Whenever the Bible talks about
repentance, it's talking about us turning from our old way of
thinking about salvation and righteousness and religion and
how we please God or are accepted by God. And so our minds change
from that and it changes over to what Christ has revealed to
us, what Christ is teaching us, what Christ has said. Now, Christ
as the head of the church again has laid forth some things In
his church, to be observed, we have the Lord's Supper, we have
baptism. Those are to be observed. In
those things in particular, He's given us the baptism, and that
baptism is to be observed the way that Christ has ordered it
to be administered. It needs to be administered by
a church of Jesus Christ. It has to be a New Testament
church, because they're the only ones that's been authorized to
baptize in His name. It has to be in water because
baptism is in water. Jesus was baptized in water.
Everybody that was baptized in that first church was baptized
in water and they were fully immersed in water. Okay, they
weren't sprinkled, they weren't, you know, poured on, they weren't
waved a wet fly, a wet hanky at. They were fully immersed
and it was only believers. It wasn't babies. It wasn't children
that didn't understand the gospel. It was only believers that were
baptized. Now that's not saying that young
children can't be baptized if they believe the gospel, if God's
given them to believe the gospel, then they're to be baptized.
But they have to believe the gospel to be baptized. That's
what baptism is. So if you haven't been baptized
by a true New Testament church, If you haven't been baptized
in water, full immersion as a believer, then that's invalid baptism.
That's not the baptism at Christ Institute. Okay? Christ also
instituted the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is a time where
the church comes together and its membership comes together
to remember Christ and His death and His resurrection for them.
And in that death, specifically His death, in that death that
is conveyed through the bread and the wine that is to be taken. And it is unleavened bread and
it is actual wine. It's not grape juice, it's not
crackers, it's not Twinkies and Coke or whatever your youth group
wants to give you. It's wine and unleavened bread
because Jesus gives those symbols for specific things. And so if
you're not doing the Lord's Supper the way Christ has commanded
it, you're not doing what Christ has said. You're doing something
else. So you do what Christ said. Well there's another thing that
Christ also give to the church and that is his doctrine. Christ
has given His doctrine to the Church, His teachings about salvation,
about who He is, His relationship as the advocate of the Father. He is the Father manifested in
flesh. He is the Holy Spirit Comforter
who comes back to comfort us and to teach us and to convict
us of sin. He tells us about Him So the
doctrine of Christ is everything that Christ taught about salvation,
about himself, about his kingdom, about God, about eternity, about
our sinfulness. Those are the things that Christ
has taught. So Christ has given a body of
doctrine to the church. He's given ordinances to the
church. And whenever the church comes
together to worship God, the Bible says we must worship Him
in spirit and in truth. So we come and we worship Him
in the truth. We worship Him the way He has
commanded us to worship Him. And we worship Him in the spirit
because that is the only way we can worship Him. Our flesh
can't do that. So you have to be a believer to actually be
able to do that. You have to be a believer to
actually bring forth worship to God. So, Christ has given
us a set of doctrines. The question is, is that doctrine
important or is it just something that we can just, you know, as
long as we get along, that's what's most important. Let's
get together and sing our songs to Jesus. hug everybody's neck,
make sure everybody feels good when they go out. Is that what
church is about? It's church about coming to church and making
everybody feel good about themselves and about what's happened to
them so they can go out and have a nice week that week. Well,
I hope that whenever we come to church, that whenever church
is going on and church is over, that we do feel good, that we
do come and have a sense of rejoicing, a sense of joy, a sense of love,
a sense of friendship and a bond and a unity with each other because
of the truth that we're coming around. We're coming here to
worship a God that has been taught by a certain doctrine. We're
coming here to worship a God that has been revealed in scripture. Whenever the Lions Club meets,
they get together and they celebrate something that whatever the Lions
Club focuses on. The Eagles Club, whatever they
focus on. The Masons, they go and worship
all their little false gods. The Jehovah's Witness goes and,
well, they're false to Jesus. The Armenians go worship their
false Jesus. The Hindus go and they worship
all their 10,000 gods. Whenever they come together,
what do they do? They focus and center upon the
doctrine that they have been brought to think is the truth.
Right? Well, there is only one truth. There's not many truths out there
as far as it pertains to Christ Jesus. There's one truth. And
that one truth was not only given by Christ, but embodied in Christ.
And that truth came and gave Himself to the church, not only
physically, but in a spiritual way in His teaching, in His giving
them and revealing Himself to them, and to understand not only
the written Word, but the taught Word by the Holy Spirit in our
hearts. They're not separate, they come together. Whatever
the Spirit teaches you is always going to be in accordance to
this. If the Spirit is teaching you something outside of this,
that's not the Spirit teaching you, that's something else. So,
a body of doctrine is what we come together and we worship
around. Now, every one of us knows I
can throw a rock from my yard here and just about hit three
or four churches. There's a church down the road
there. There's a church down the road there. There's a church
down the road there. You know, there's churches all over the
place that call themselves churches, and they say they're churches
of Jesus. But how do you know that? Because
whenever you go to this church, these people are saying one thing
and doing one thing. You go to a church over here
and these people are doing one thing and saying one thing and
observing things a different way. And then you go over here
to a church and it's just having a rip-roaring time. So how do
you know which church is what? How do you know which church
is a true church of Jesus Christ? By its doctrine. by its practice. That's how you know whether a
church is a true church and not a false church. Just because
someone claims to have a church or be a church does not mean
that they are one. Now, the reason I say this is
because you hear out there a lot about the people of God just
need to be in unity and they need to put away all these divisions. I even heard a gentleman this
week say that division is not of God. God isn't one who divides. God is the one who unites. It's
Satan who divides, and it is God who unites. Now, in the context
that I think he was talking, I believe he is incorrect and
unbiblical in what he was saying. But I will say this, there is
an aspect to that that is true if you keep it within its context. In a true New Testament church,
with the doctrine of Jesus Christ and the ordinances that Christ
has given, we are to be unified and we are to be in unity. Whether
it's our church that Christ has brought us to here, or whether
it's a church down in Goaty Bow Junction, That also is preaching the true
gospel that is carrying out the ordinances of Christ that too
would be a true New Testament Church and Anytime we get together
there ought to be unity between us Okay, there should be unity
around the gospel and around the ordinances of the Lord Jesus
That's the kind of unity that the Bible teaches however The
Bible does not teach that anybody who claims the name of Jesus
we should just unite with and be hunky-dory with and hold hands
and everybody say we're worshiping the same God and we're achieving
the same goal. The Bible is very clear that
that is not true. Second of all, division. This
gentleman said, that division is not of God, it's of the devil. Well, in one case, that would
be true. The Bible also teaches that there
will be ravening wolves that come into the church and they
will cause division within the church, that there will be people
that rise up within the church that have differing thoughts
about things and there will be divisions that will be caused.
And in that case, yes, Satan is to bring division within the
church, but Satan only works at the end of the leash that
God gives him to walk on. Okay? But division, to say division
is not of God and is of the devil and that there is no division
is absurd because the Bible clearly says, Jesus said, I did not come to bring peace, but to bring
a sword. And he said, my doctrine, if
you follow me and you follow my doctrine and you follow the
things that I've told you to do, if you follow me, that it
is gonna cause division. Matter of fact, it said it would
cause division that father and son will be separated, mother
and daughter will be separated, brothers and sisters will be
separated. There will be division because the doctrine of Jesus
Christ is completely and totally absurd in the eyes of the carnal
man. Those who are the reprobate and
those who are still looking at things in the carnal mind and
the carnal nature, looks at the things of God and the things
of Christ and the gospel of Jesus Christ and the righteousness
that's found therein, they look at that as foolishness. And so
it's going to break division. Especially if you live within
a religious family who believes that they are serving God, but
yet they're serving God not according to his gospel, not according
to his ordinances, there's going to be division. At that point,
division, though it is hard, though it is sad in the eyes
of many, that division God has brought because he is bringing
his people out of the influences of these false religions. And
so this gentleman said, it doesn't matter whether you go to this
church or whether you go to that church or go to this church,
we all ought to be able to get together and to praise his name. Well, my question to that fellow
is, is under what system of doctrine are you getting together to praise
him? Because if I go down here to this church over here, this
church over here has a set of beliefs that I believe is contrary
to the Word of God. So I can't hold hands with the
church that I believe is functioning and working and preaching a gospel
that is not found here. And they should not be coming
and preaching here because God has told us That we are to watch
our lives and our doctrine closely. That we are not to bring into
membership those who have opposite doctrine than we do. So I thought
we would look at this a little bit and see what does the Bible
teach. Is doctrine important? Because I haven't heard it much
lately because I don't associate much with a lot of stuff that's
out there anymore. I used to hear a lot that doctrine
divides. If we would just preach good
things and not dwell on doctrine, if you start getting into doctrine,
everybody's going to divide because everybody has their own idea
about the different doctrines. Well, is that biblical? Is that
even biblical? Well, look with me if you would
at 1 Timothy chapter 4. Now, remember, Timothy was a
young preacher. that came up under the ministry
of the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul was his, kind
of what you would call his mentor, his father in the spirit, although
I don't like to use that terminology, but he referred to him sometimes
as his son in the ministry, meaning that The Lord opened up the mind
and the understanding of Timothy underneath the preaching of the
Apostle Paul. And Timothy came underneath him
and began to learn from him and to begin to become a preacher
under him, was ordained as a preacher under the Apostle Paul. And Paul is writing 1st and 2nd
Timothy, these letters to exhort and to instruct Timothy in his
pastoral ministry. So even though this is a personal
letter written to Timothy, and the context of this is Paul instructing
Timothy, I think anybody who is a pastor who has been called
by God, and in that calling to pastor and to preach, The church
then recognizes that calling, that God has called this man
and has gifted this man to do such. Then that church lays on
hands and prays on that man, examines that man, and ultimately
will ordain that man to the ministry of gospel preaching. And then
that man, duly ordained, one of God and one of the church,
then begins the ministry of preaching and heralding the gospel. Pastoring
a church. And so Timothy has undergone
all this. And I believe that the instruction
that Paul gives to Timothy is good instructions for all preachers
and pastors. And I believe also there's some
other things that we can learn for those who are not preachers
and pastors. Mainly that number one, when
you're a preacher and pastor, is harboring on doctrine pretty
hard all the time. When you're a pastor, is diligently
trying to study and to hear from God and preach the doctrine that
Christ has given to us, that the Spirit has taught to us,
that this man is doing and exercising the gift that God has given him
to do and everything, that people ought to recognize and know and
be supportive of that. A lot of times I see in churches,
men that are up there and they're fighting battles with the world,
they're fighting battles with the city, they're fighting battles
with people coming into their church and trying to cause division. And whenever they stand in the
truth, a lot of times the members of the church don't stand behind
their pastor. And so I think these things are good for us
to know, not only as a church, but also as a pastor, as a preacher. We need to know what the preacher
is supposed to be like. We need to know what the duty
of the preacher is whenever he comes into the meeting and he
begins to talk to the congregation. The church needs to know what
a biblical preacher is. How is a biblical preacher? We
know the Bible has a lot of things to teach about who a preacher
is. It has to be a man. It has to
be a man that's not too young in the faith. It has to be a
man who has his life in order and his family in order. It's
a man who has to be gifted by God to do that, called by God
to do that. There's some things that the
Bible says that to be a pastor, to be a preacher, this is what
you have to be. And so I think if the church
understands that and knows that, then whenever a true pastor is
doing those things, they will recognize that. And there will
be a lot of unity within the church because the people of
God will love and honor and recognize the work that he is doing. And
then the pastor will have the heart and the gift and the move
of the Spirit within him to be able to minister to the people
of God as an under-shepherd, under Christ, in preaching and
teaching to them. And so this is what's going on
here with the Pastor Timothy, and Paul is about to give him
some things. Now, there's a lot of things that Paul has talked
to him about leading up to where we're at, but I want to just
read this right here specifically. Starting in verse 11, these things
command and teach. Let no man despise thy youth,
but be thou an example of the believers in word and conversation
and charity and in spirit and faith and purity. Till I come,
and here's what I want you to understand. Till I come, give
attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Neglect not the
gift that is in thee which was given thee by prophecy with the
laying on of the hands of the presbytery. Meditate upon these
things. Give thyself wholly to them,
that thy profiting may appear to all. Take heed unto thyself
and to the doctrine. continue in them, for in doing
this thou wilt both save thyself and them that hear thee." Now
look, that doesn't mean eternal salvation there. That's talking
about that's going to save yourself from incorrect doctrine. If you
give yourself diligently to studying doctrine, and you give yourself
diligently to preach doctrine, then you will save yourself from
false doctrine, and you will save those that are under your
ministry from hearing false doctrine, okay? So that's my prayer every
Sunday morning before I come up here. I get up and I pray,
Lord, give me the things that you would want me to say this
morning. Keep me from error. Keep me from preaching my own
concepts, my own thoughts, my own wisdom. Let me preach what's true. Let
me understand what this word is saying and be able to convey
that to your people. And if I do preach something
that is false, I pray that you would keep your children from
falling into that error as well and everything. That's what Paul's
telling Timothy to do. He's saying, watch your doctrine.
Well, why? Because that's important. The
teaching about Christ is important. Let me put it in another term. If I had my son here and somebody
came up and started talking about Cademan and everything that they
were saying about Cademan and how Cademan was and operated. Let's just say how he works at
Jersey Mike. Somebody came up and said that
Cademan, he's very disrespectful and that he is a lazy worker. He doesn't do his job right.
Matter of fact, don't even look like he likes his job. Well,
anybody that knows Cademan knows that that's not true. Cademan's
very respectful. He loves his job. He does a very
good thing at work, okay? We know he's a Jersey Mike's
guy to the very core, right? We would know that that is not
true. But let me ask you, if you're
the parent of Cademan, and you stand there and you hear somebody
saying something that is not true, about your son or your
daughter, and they are giving a false witness about that person,
how's that going to make you as a parent feel? It's not going
to make you feel very good, right? You're going to say, well, that's
not my son at all. You're going to get a little irritated. You
might step in and say, well, wait a minute. I know my son. I know my kid. That's not how
my kid is. My kid does not do that. My kid
is not that way. Why? Because that's not the truth
about your kid. Well, let's put that into a spiritual
perspective. Christ is given a doctrine, and
in that doctrine he has come to teach us what God is like,
and he's done that through himself. And he told us, he said, if you
want to know the Father, look at me. Me and the Father are
one. If you've seen me, you've seen
the Father. If you've heard of the Father, it's because you've
heard it through me. Everything that you know of God, you know
because of me. Why do I get upset if someone
says something about Him? Because not only is his character,
not what is being taught, but how he is, how this boy acts,
how this boy respects people and works and things like that,
is also a reflection upon me and how I raised him. See, this boy is reflecting the
things that I have taught him, and the things that I have conveyed
to him, and the example that I've set before him. And so it
is with every child. A child should be a reflection
and a testimony of their parent. And you don't want to be a bad
testimony to your parent, especially if your parent is a good parent.
You don't want to be a bad testimony to that. Well, that's what Jesus
is saying here. He says, watch your life and
doctrine closely because the doctrine that I've given you
is the doctrine of myself. And the doctrine of myself is
the doctrine that the Father has given me. the doctrine of
Him because we're one. I'm God manifested in the flesh. So I'm coming to tell you what
God is like and what God has done, what God has said. And
if you say something different than that, you're bearing false
witness about that. So that would be if somebody
came and said something bad about Cateman and all like that, that
would be bearing false witness against Cateman. And ultimately,
it would be bearing false witness against the one who raised him,
who didn't raise him to be that way. Now, Jesus said, take heed
unto thyself and unto the doctrine. Continue in them. Continue in
them. This isn't something that we
just read and say, okay, and go on. It's just continue in
them. Over and over and over we go through that. Let's look
at a few other verses, and I'm going to read quite a few verses
here, but follow along with me, because I want you to see the
importance of doctrine. Again, I'm going back to the
question. Is there a place where we must divide? Is there a place
where we must separate ourselves from others who are claiming
to be Christians, but yet have another doctrine? Because, see,
people look at people like us and other churches who preach
the doctrine that we hold, they look at us and say, you're sectarian.
You're segregating yourself from everybody. You're a sectarian.
And you're being a sectarianist, and you should be unified. The
Bible teaches that the body of Christ should be unified. Well,
that's true. The body of Christ should be
unified. The body of Christ is right here and it should be unified.
Those who profess Christ here at this church, we should be
unified. We should be unified in the doctrine
and the ordinances. We should be unified in that.
The point is, is it's the body of Christ should be unified. But what's happening is, is you're
gathering people who are actually not the body of Christ and trying
to bring them together. And when you bring them together,
if you harbor on doctrine, it will divide, because they do
not have spiritual teaching. They have carnal wisdom. And
guess what? Avonlea has carnal wisdom different
than I do. Zach has carnal wisdom different
than Avonlea. Daniel has carnal wisdom different
than Cayman does. My wife has carnal wisdom different
than Heather does, than Kaylin does. Every one of us have different
ideas about things. So how do you unite? And I'm posing this as a very
serious question. And I want you to think about
what I'm saying. How do you unite when everybody has their own
ideas about something and how it's interpreted? The Bible says
that the Word of God doesn't come by private interpretation. That means you don't have your
own interpretation. You don't have your own interpretation.
You don't have your own interpretation. There's one interpretation, and
that's the interpretation that Christ has given us. So how can
we, as bunches of people, come together and be unified when
we all have different ideas about how something should be interpreted? You can't. That's why I keep harboring on
this very thing, that this is a spiritual kingdom. It comes
by spiritual learning by the Holy Spirit who teaches us. And
when the Holy Spirit teaches us, the Holy Spirit brings us
out and causes us. Listen, if you believe the true
gospel, you preach the true gospel, and you stand on the true gospel,
you really don't have to worry about leaving everybody else. They will leave you. They will
leave you. It will bring division. But the
people of God, guess what? Whenever you preach and teach
and defend the Word of God, you know what that does? That attracts
the people. Jesus said, My sheep hear My
voice, and they follow Me. Another's voice they will not
follow. So if there's a preacher out
there whose voice is a strange voice, that is saying things
that is contrary to what the Spirit is teaching, they're not
going to follow that. They're going to come away from
that. They're going to run away from that. Whenever my dog is
outside, that person across the street can call my dog, my dog's
going to come back over here. If I call my dog, my dog will
come to me. Why? Because my dog knows me,
don't know them. It's going to bark at them, but
it's going to come to me. Jesus said, my sheep hear my
voice and they follow me. Well, his voice has given us
a doctrine. That voice of doctrine that he
has given about himself, his righteousness, the gospel, that
voice is a true sound. It is a clear sound. It's not
clanging cymbals. It's not banging toms. It is
a clear gospel. And the people of God hear that. And they're drawn to that. And
they love that. And therefore, when they come
together, they come together and they love to hear the old,
old story. I love to tell the story. Why? Because those who love it
best seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest. The
same old song. I've had people say, that's listened
to some of my messages and everything, has said, as a matter of fact,
someone told me this week that this was actually said about
me. They keep preaching the same
thing. They preach the same thing every
week. All they preach is God's sovereignty, election, you're
no good. That's all they preach. That's
all they preach. Well, to the ones who's not a child of God,
that is not a good sound. That is not something that they
love. Why? Because it takes salvation out
of their hands. It takes righteousness out of
their hands. It takes Christ out of their
hands. It takes the church out of their
hands. And it tells them that they are
worthless, they can't do anything. Now, there ain't too many people
that like to hear that message over and over and over again.
but to the child of grace who has been born from above, who
the Spirit of God has given them to know their depravity, to know
their inability, and their excessive need for a foreign righteousness."
Listen, that's a lovely story that they are drawn to. Tell
it to me again, preacher. They don't ever get tired of
it. And that's the doctrine of Christ. And Christ says, continue
in this doctrine. So as a pastor, I'm exhorted
to continue in doctrine, to preach you in the doctrine. You say,
well, what doctrine have you preached? Well, when I get up
here, I don't say, well, today I'm going to teach the doctrine
of security. Or I get up here and preach,
I'm going to preach the doctrine of justification, the doctrine
of sanctification. I don't get up here and do that.
I preach the Word of God. That's the teachings of Christ.
I expound the Word of God. If the Spirit is with me to preach
the truth, He's going to convey what Christ has said. And in
that is going to be those doctrines, the doctrine of justification.
Well, what does that mean? What does the Bible teach about
how you are justified? Well, if how you are justified,
according to the Scripture, is contrary to how Joe Blow's church
down the street there is telling people how they're justified,
Why would I go over and hold hands with Joe Blow and say,
we're preaching the same Jesus, the same gospel, and we're worshiping
the same God? Because the Bible here says,
if you love me, you're gonna keep my commands. And he said
right here that this commandment that he has given is to preach
his doctrine. Matter of fact, look with me
if you would. This is a, Before we depart from there,
look with me at John. I want you to see that Jesus'
doctrine is the doctrine of God. John chapter 7. John chapter 7, look with me
if you would at verse 16. So Jesus answered them and said,
well let me back up. I'm going to go back to verse
9. It said, When he had said these words unto them, he abode
still in Galilee. But when his brethren were gone
up, there he went up also unto the feast, not openly, but as
it were in secret. Then the Jews sought him at the
feast and said, Where is he? And there was much murmuring
among the people concerning him. For some said, He is a good man.
Others said, Nay, but he deceiveth the people. Howbeit, no man spake
openly of him for fear of the Jews. Now about the midst of
the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and taught. And the
Jews marveled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never
learned? Jesus answered them and said,
My doctrine is not mine, but him that sent me. If any man will do his will,
He shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether
I speak of myself. He that speaketh of himself seeketh
his own glory, but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the
same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him. So Jesus here is saying, listen,
the doctrine that I'm giving to you is not something new. That's not my doctrine that I'm
coming out of some left field preaching. No, this is the doctrine
of God. My father gave this to me to tell you. And I'm delivering
it to you. And it would be good for you
to continue to follow this, because if any man will do his will,
if you're wanting to do the will of the father, you're going to
believe his doctrine. You're going to follow in his
doctrine. Now, look with me if you would at 2 John, back to
the epistle of John, 2 John chapter 1. The purpose for bringing this
is to discuss the question that goes on from people on the outside
that looks at us as sectarian that says that you need to just
be unified with all the people that claim to be Christians and
everything and that there is not supposed to be division.
There's not supposed to be division among Christians. Well, the reason
that there is is because the umbrella of Christianity is spread
too far. There are people that are saying
they're Christians that aren't really Christians. 2 John, look if you would at
verse one, or chapter one, and I'm gonna start reading at verse,
let me get to 2 John first. 2 John, chapter one, only chapter,
verse nine. It says, whosoever transgresseth,
and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ." Now let me just stop
there. We've just seen that Jesus said that whoever wants to do
the will of the Father needs to follow His doctrine. Okay? So the command that Jesus gives
is to follow His doctrine. Here it says, whoever transgresses
and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ. So that would be that
if I don't abide in the doctrine of Christ, if I don't believe
the doctrine of Christ, if I don't preach the doctrine of Christ,
if I don't stand on the doctrine of Christ, or if I compromise,
listen to me, if I compromise and go and worship other things
that are being said about Christ, then I'm transgressing and abiding
not in the doctrine of Christ. He says, whosoever transgresseth
and abides not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. That's a pretty bold statement.
That's a pretty stern statement. Now do you see why we are so
incessant upon not worshiping with people of not like doctrine
and faith? Because God has told us that
we are not to go outside of His doctrine. That if we do transgress
and abide not in the doctrine of God, that shows forth that
we are not of Him. Look at what it says there. He that abided in the doctrine
of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son, naturally, because
the Son is the embodiment of the Father. Verse 10, if there
come any unto you and bring not this doctrine. Receive him not
into your house, neither bid him Godspeed. This happened to me just the
other day. Jehovah's Witnesses came up. Kids were out there
playing in the yard. They approached them out in the
street. They were walking in the street, approached them in
the street. I seen that someone was walking down the street and
stopped to talk to the kids that was out there playing. I got
up just to find out, hey, who are you? Talking to these kids,
who are you? As soon as they turned to me,
I seen their little badges. I knew that they were Jehovah's
Witnesses walking down the street. Hey, we want to invite you to
come to church. Sorry, can't do it. I've had them come up here on
the porch and ask if they could come in and visit. Wouldn't let
them. Wouldn't even let them discuss with me what they believe.
Those guys that was out there in the street the other day,
They said, well, all right, brother, well, we will see you later,
and we hope you have a good day. May you be blessed of God. I
didn't return that and say, God bless you. I didn't respond and
say, hope you have a good day either. Why? Because the Bible
says that right there. Receive them not into your house,
neither bid him Godspeed. That's how serious God is. Whenever
somebody is openly preaching a different doctrine than what
Christ has given us, we are not to acknowledge that as the truth.
We are not to compromise and say, okay, well, we're all right
in the same. No, we're to separate ourselves
from that. We're not to wish them Godspeed.
We're not to bring them in and let them preach in our house.
I believe that that's what this is talking about. I don't think
it just means don't let them come in through your doorway
necessarily, although I don't let them come in my doorway because
if I'm letting them in my doorway, why am I bringing them in other
than to discuss doctrine with them? No, you can stand right
there and I can tell you what I believe, and if you believe
that, then come on in. We'll start talking, but otherwise
there ain't no sense coming in. But I believe mainly this is
talking about coming in to the house of the Lord. Whenever we
come into the house of the Lord to preach and to pray and to
sing and to worship the Lord, that we're not to invite those
people in to let them preach in our pulpits. But what's happening
out there in all these churches is all these denominations and
all these different belief systems are getting together and singing
kumbaya to some God that they've devised in their own mind and
they're thinking because of the unity and love and the ooey gooey
feeling that they're getting from the Holy Spirit of God that's
coming down. That they think that they have
come together to worship and to praise and they've built unity. But they've not. All they've
done is had a gathering of heathen paganistic beliefs under a false
Christian umbrella. If they don't preach God, you're
not to bring them into your church. They're having free will baptists
going over to the Church of God, the Church of God's going over
to the Assembly of God, the Assembly of God's going over to the Catholics
and all this kind of... Everybody's just kind of getting
together and doing whatever they want. Jesus said to come out
from among them and be saved. You say, well, I don't know where
that says that. Where are you saying that preacher? Where does
it say that? Well, let me show you. Turn your wood over to Revelation. I believe it's in chapter 17. Maybe it's 18. Yes, 18. Revelation chapter 18. Let me start reading verse 1 now. Follow
along with me because I want you to pay close attention. Remember,
Revelation is an apocalyptic book. It's written in symbols. It's been signified, so there's
a lot of symbology here. But let's see what it's talking
about. It says, After these things, I saw another angel come down
from heaven, having the great power, and the earth was lightened
with his glory. And he cried mightily with a
strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen,
and has become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every
foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. Now
Babylon, if you remember Babylon, is just the name. Now Babylon
was a true place and Babylon was an idolatrous place. The
Jews, whenever they went into captivity into Babylon, was influenced
by that and that influence has stayed with them on down through
even today. The history of them clear down
to the day. today with their Kabbalah and their Talmud and
all this kind of stuff, it's still within that Jewish belief
system. However, Babylon is the symbol of just false religion.
It doesn't matter what it is. I mean, we put them in categories
like a Hindu is different than a Buddhist in their doctrines.
But they're still the same because they're still a false religion.
All false religions are one false religion, even though they may
be separated in their names and their leaders but Babylon is
false religion so whether that be a Hindu or a Muslim or a Buddhist
or a Christian it says this for all nations
have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication and
the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her and the
merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of
her delicacy." Now you think about that, brother. You think
about that. Whether it's the Catholic Church,
which I think is probably one of the biggest harlot churches,
Babylonian churches. You think kings have drunk from
her. Presidents have drunk from them. Whether it's them or whether
it's from the source, which is that Babylonian Jewish Belief
that has come out of Babylon Because that is what controls
the Catholic Church. That's what controls just about
everything Everybody is drunk from her fornication
Now there's a lot that I can teach on that and that's for
another day but it says in verse 4 and I heard another voice from
heaven say Come out of her My people, that ye be not partaker
of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." So here
we see that within all these false churches that are out there,
there are people that are God's people. I was in a false church. I was under a false belief system,
under a false religion. And God has His people in all
these places. But whenever the Spirit of God
comes and begins to teach you His doctrine, one of the things
that the Spirit of God is going to tell you to do is come out
from among her, my people. Be ye separate and partake not
of her sins that you receive not of her plagues. So if I go to those places, if
I go back to the churches that I used to go to, If I go back
to some other religion, if I go to some other place like that,
that is not preaching the doctrine of Christ, then I am going to
be partaking of her sins. And I am going to receive of
her plagues. Brethren, that's a harsh warning
for us to know these things. So we're not to do that. While
you're back there, go back to 1 John. Go to 1 John chapter 2, look at
verse 23. It says, Whosoever denieth the
Son, the same hath not the Father. But he that acknowledgeth the
Son hath the Father also. Let that therefore abide in you
which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have
heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye shall continue
in the Son and the Father." There again we see that that Word that
is abiding in us, that doctrine that is abiding in us from God
is going to stay there. But if you don't abide in that,
that shows that you're not of God, that you're a denying Christ.
If I go to another place and compromise and start worshiping
with them and saying what they're saying, I can get along with
that. I can go over to that church and
I can get along with all those people that are saying things.
Whenever I'm over here preaching, that the Bible is saying that
God has chosen from the foundation of the world a people and has
given them to Christ Jesus, whom He has embodied with all of His
fullness, and has become the advocate for them, the surety
for them, and that all of their sins have been imputed unto Him,
and that all of His righteousness has been imputed to them, and
that Christ has come and lived the law perfectly, and has fulfilled
all righteousness, and so that righteousness is laid to every
one of those children's account, and those children will be born
of God, and that they will come to Him, and that He will give
them faith, and that they will believe upon Him, and that they
will begin to understand spiritual things, and that at the end they
will be preserved until the very end, and in the very end they
will go to be with Him, and they will not be under wrath, they
will be brought in and given all the reward of Christ Jesus.
Now if I preach that gospel that God has chosen to do that, but
He's not chosen to do it for other people. If I preach that,
but then I go over here where it says that Jesus loves everybody
and Jesus died for everybody and that anybody can be saved
if they just will come to Him and believe Him. And that you could lose your
salvation or you could get saved again and then lose your salvation
and then get saved again and then lose your salvation. If
I go hold hands with somebody like that, what am I doing? I'm
doing what the Bible says. I'm not abiding in the doctrine
of Christ. Look at Hebrews chapter 2, verse 3. See, I think one of the reasons
why, well, the main reason why is because the Spirit hasn't
taught people. But the other reason is because churches are
filled with preachers who every Sunday morning, they get up and
they preach a good life lesson. They preach a good field story.
They get up there and preach some sort of a self-help to help
you through your week, to tell you how good you are, how great
you are, and if you'll just do this, then you're going to be
accepted of God. That's why most people can't
handle being sent here today. That's why most people can't
sit inside a true New Testament church and listen to the preaching
week after week after week, because it's not food that they love.
They don't like that food. They can't stand it. It doesn't
feed their soul. Why? Because their soul is fed
on self-righteousness, not on Christ's righteousness. See,
they go about to establish their own righteousness and establishing
their own righteousness, they're always going to fall short because
their righteousness never exceeds or meets the standard that God
has given. And therefore, they must always
be pumped up. We must all, listen, I don't
go to the gym anymore. I haven't been in the gym in
a long time. But you know what? If I got somebody beside me,
come on, let's go to the gym. Come on, you can do it. Come
on, don't eat that, don't eat that, don't eat that. You know
what, I can probably stay on a diet a little longer. I need pumped up, I need pumped
up, I need pumped up, I need pumped up. Why? Because it's
not my nature and it's not what I like to do. Well, same thing. If somebody comes in who's not
a true child of God, they're not going to like the message
of the Bible because it's foolishness to them. Their self-righteousness
doesn't meet the standard So every week they realize I keep
sinning, I keep sinning, I keep sinning. They keep telling me
I have to be perfect, I have to obey, I have to obey, I have
to obey. I have to obey or God's gonna
strike me down. God's not gonna let me into heaven.
God's gonna send me to hell if I don't keep up all these laws.
And what happens? You have to tell somebody, keep
at it, keep at it, keep at it, keep at it, keep at it. They're
slave mongers. They're Egyptians over you, taskmasters
over you, trying to get you to keep working, keep working, keep
working. That's not the gospel. How can
I go hold hands with somebody that is doing that to God's sheep
if they're His sheep? You come out from among them,
be separate. Hebrews 2.3. How shall we escape if we neglect
so great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the
Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him? So again,
this gospel or this doctrine of salvation is the doctrine
of Christ, the doctrine of God, that has been given to us and
He has commanded us to walk in this doctrine. He has commanded
us to believe upon this doctrine, to walk in this doctrine, and
to not associate with anybody outside of that doctrine when
it comes to fellowship, when it comes to worship. We're not
to fellowship with that. So what do we see here? How shall
we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? Well, that
salvation is the heart of what Jesus gave in his doctrine. Look,
if you would, with me at John chapter 18. John chapter 18, verse 19. It says, the high priest then asked
Jesus of his disciples and of his doctrine. So here again we see Jesus has
a doctrine. Jesus said unto them, I speak
openly to the world. I ever taught in the synagogue
and in the temple whether the Jews always resort, and in secret
have I said nothing. Why askest thou me? Ask them
which heard me what I have said unto them. Behold, they know
what I said. So here we see that Christ has
conveyed that doctrine to them, and they understood the doctrine.
They knew the doctrine, and they stood in the doctrine, and Jesus
said, hey, go ask them. what I've told you. They know.
Why? Because they stand in that doctrine.
Now, we've kind of established that doctrine is important. We've
established that there is only one true doctrine, and that's
what Christ has given us, and that it is important for us to
stand in that doctrine, not associate outside of that doctrine, and
that if we do associate outside of that doctrine, that could
show that we are not His children, and that This doctrine is the
doctrine of Christ, but let me read some other scriptures specifically
as it pertains to this dividing issue, okay? Is division part
of God's plan? Is churches dividing part of
God's plan? Well, you guys know what I believe.
I believe everything has been predestined of God, so if a church
does split or divides, I believe that that was purpose by God
from the beginning, okay? But is there grounds or is there
a reason to divide? Look with me, if you would, over
to 1 Corinthians chapter 11. As I've already said, the Bible
says that they're going to creep in wolves in sheep's clothing. He's going to preach damnable
heresies in the church. There are going to be those who
come up from within the church who are seduced and move away
to false doctrines that are going to lead people away. But is that
something that happens? Is God in that matter is the
question. Does God intend for there to
be divisions? Well, in 1 Corinthians 11, verse
19, Let me back up, verse 17. Now in this I declare unto you,
I praise you not, that ye come together, not for the better,
but for the worse. See, the Corinthian church was
having all kinds of problems. There's all kinds of divisions
in the Corinthian church. So Paul wrote the first letter
of the Corinthians to them to correct them and instruct them
in the things they were doing wrong. He said, verse 18, for
first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear there be
divisions among you, and I partly believe it. Now look at verse
19, follow along with me here, read along with me. For there
must be also heresies among you. Now that word heresies there,
guys, if you'll look at that, that word heresy there, it means
divisions. A lot of times whenever we talk
about heresies, we're just talking about false teachers. A heretic
is a false teacher. Or a heresy is something that
is false teaching. While that's necessarily true,
the main understanding of heresies is
divisions. And this context bears it out
because Paul's dealing with divisions. I hear that there be divisions
among you, and I partly believe it, for there must be also heresies,
divisions, sects. That word heresy means a sect. S-E-C-T. A sect. You know? You got a little sect,
a little group of people here, a little group of people here,
a little group of people here, a little group of people here.
He said, there must be also heresies among you, but that's for a reason. Read with me. What's the reason
that God sends heresies within a local church? That they which
are approved may be made manifest among you. See, one of the reasons that
God has purposed that heresies arise within a church or divisions
within a church over doctrine is that those who are approved
of God might be made manifest. It becomes clear whenever doctrine
is talked about, doctrine is discussed, and then all of a
sudden there's doctrine that is disagreed upon, that is to
manifest those who are approved of God, those who are believing
the Word of God, and those who have their own thoughts about
things. So what happens? Those who are disagreeing with
the Word of God will then be, either they will leave on their
own because they don't want to keep hearing what they're hearing,
or if they continue to stay and try to cause more division by
their unbelief, then they are to be removed from the church.
You mean, actually tell somebody they can't come to church? Absolutely. It's called church discipline. You don't see that very often.
Church discipline is whenever a church is to keep itself pure
of its doctrine, and whenever there are those who are divisive
within the church, who are holding other beliefs than what the church
believes, and those people continue to try to bring division among
those who are believing, those people are to be put out of the
church. You say, well that's harsh, that's bad, that's hateful,
that's unloving. No, actually that is very loving.
You say, well, how's that loving to tell somebody you can't come
to church no more? Well, for one, a lot of people blow it
out of proportion on how church discipline is done. Church discipline
is to be done in love. First, you're to go to those
brothers who are in error, and you're to try to convince them
by the word of God that they're in error, and for them to repent
of that. If they don't repent of that,
you go to them again. And if they don't listen to you,
then you bring them before the church. And then you sit down
and by the Word of God, not by opinions, by the Word of God,
you say what you're saying and what you're believing is not
in accordance to God's Word. If it's not in accordance to
God's Word, you must cease from preaching that and trying to
spread that belief within the church. And if they fail to listen
to you or fail to listen to the church, then you are to put them
out. in hopes that putting them out,
they will repent and come back. See, if I go to church, I love
the church. I want to be at church. I want
to be around the people of God and to worship God with those
people. And if they were to come to me
and tell me, you can't come, that is going to break my heart.
It's going to hurt. I don't want that. And if I'm
believing something, they're saying, listen, you can't worship
with us as long as you are holding that false belief. That's going
to hurt me dearly. And so what am I going to do?
I'm going to go back and I'm going to reconsider what I'm
saying. I'm going to go back. I say it
here all the time. Does anybody have any corrections,
any rebukes, reproofs? Even the preacher can be wrong
sometimes. But if a church would come and
tell me, hey, the way that you're living or the way that you're
holding this doctrine is not in accordance to the Scripture,
and if you keep trying to spread that among the people, we're
going to have to ask you to leave. We don't want you to leave. We
love you. We want you to repent. But if
they don't, you have to turn them out. You don't let them
come back until they repent. But you continue to encourage
them. Listen, brother, we want you to come back in, but you
need to repent of this. And if they don't, then you don't
bring them back. And most of the time, what happens is they
say, well, fine, I'll go. And then what they do, they begin
to compromise other doctrinal things, and they go find a church
where they can fit in. But see, doctrine divides, and
even Jesus here, through the Apostle Paul, said that one of
the reasons that these divisions come is so that it manifests
those who are true believers in Christ Jesus, because that
doctrine will divide and it will cull out the chaff from the wheat. So heresies must come. Look with me, if you would, at
Titus 1-9. Titus 1-9. This is Paul writing to Titus and here
is some of the qualifications to be a pastor. It says, verse 6, If any be blameless, the husband
of one wife, having faithful children, not accursed of riot
or unruly. For a bishop must be blameless
as the steward of God, not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to
wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre. It doesn't mean
that he's not going to have that once in a while. It doesn't mean
that he's not always like that, that he's not given to that.
It says, but a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just,
holy, temperate, holding fast the faithful word as he had been
taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort
and to convince the gainsayers. For there are many unruly and
vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision, whose
mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things
which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake. So here we see
that this heresies might come, there's gonna be divisions, but
whenever you have a faithful pastor who is preaching doctrine,
see that's why you always want, whenever you look for a church,
if you're not coming here and everything, and of course someone
here may say that they don't think I'm preaching doctrine
or whatever, they may not like what I'm doing, But for anybody
who's listening, watching, whatever, and you're looking for a church,
and you're going out there to all these churches, and you're
here and preaching, and it's not resonating with you, the
true gospel of Jesus Christ, the origins of Jesus Christ,
and you think, I gotta go to church just to go to church.
The Bible says not to forsake the assembling of yourselves
together. I don't know how many fundamentalists I've heard pound
the pulpit telling and trying to browbeat every one of their
members to make sure that they're in church every Sunday, Wednesday,
and Sunday night with that verse. And they say, well, if you're
not going to church somewhere, then you're forsaking the assembling
of yourselves together. If God has you somewhere and
there's not a church that's preaching the true doctrine of Jesus Christ
and the ordinance of Jesus Christ, You're not forsaking the assembly
because there is no place to assemble there. And to go down
the street and to wedge yourself to the adulteress who is preaching
another Jesus, who is married to another Christ, that's spiritual
fornication. You're going back to the harlot,
and in going to the harlot again, you're partaking of her sins
and will receive of her plagues. It's better to stay at home than
to go to a church that is preaching a false doctrine. But there again,
on the other hand, when you're looking for a church and you
find a church where a pastor in the church is holding to correct
doctrine, be thankful. The Lord has brought you to a
place where His Word abides, where His people abide. And there
is a place for you to worship and to be faithful to that place. to be faithful to those people,
to love them, and to cherish them, and to honor them, and
to worship with them, and to pray for them, and to weep with
those who weep, and to rejoice with those who rejoice, and for
that pastor, for you to support that pastor, and for you to honor
him. And I don't mean honor him as
like bow down, kiss the ring, call me reverend or anything
like that. I'm not talking about that. I'm
talking about acknowledge the fact that this man is laboring
in the Word of God for your welfare, for your care, that he loves
you and he prays for you and he preaches to you the truth
that you might hear the truth and be edified and to be built
up, not for his glory, not for his pat on the back, but that
Christ might be honored. I'm not looking for notoriety
or anything. That's on you. That admonition
is for you in your honoring of the pastor, the preacher of God's
Word. That's for you. It's not for
my benefit. It's for you. Now, I receive
benefit for that because when people do that, guess what? They're not talking bad about
me. They're not hating me. They're not coming wanting to
fight with me, you know. They're not all the time upset
with me. There is some benefit for me, but it's not for my backpack. It's not that I am owed anything,
that I am the pastor and you must bow down before me. There's
a lot of churches that are like that. Oh, don't touch God's anointing. That's not how it is, brethren. But here we see in Titus, it
says that the pastor preacher is to hold to sound doctrine
and he's to exhort and to convince the gainsayer. Why is it that
I get up here and spend an hour and a half or an hour or more
or whatever every Sunday to teach you and to open God's Word and
expound it to you and sometimes raise my voice and flail my arms
around and do all that? It's because I'm trying by God
enabling me to bring forth the truth to feed you, to edify you. And any preacher that is a gospel
preacher, he's up there to feed and to exhort and to what? To convince the gainsayers. Now,
the gainsayers aren't going to be convinced without the Holy
Spirit of God giving them understanding. And it's not going to be done
unless somebody's preaching this. You've got to be preaching God's
Word. It's to change your mind about
the wrong thinking about the Word of God. I used to think
that the Lord's Supper was something that just anybody could take.
It didn't matter who you was. Then it was just like, well,
as long as you say you're a Christian, it's not on us to say otherwise.
You take the Lord's Supper. It wasn't until I had faithful
preachers who took me to the Word of God and showed me that
this is an ordinance of the church. It's to be observed within the
membership of the local church. And it's only for baptized, scripturally
baptized believers. And it's only to be given this
way with leavened bread and wine. It's not for everybody. I had to be taught that. Now I
have to teach that. And now I stand on that truth.
And I hold to that truth. We've made that a thing here
at the church. We hold to those things. We've
got people that's come. Wonderful people. Really wonderful
people that we loved dearly. But they refused to be baptized
scripturally. And therefore we couldn't let
them partake of the Lord's Supper. And they loved us. We loved them. And listen, they had good thoughts
of scriptural things and things like that. And listen, they ended
up leaving. They wouldn't compromise their
beliefs and we wouldn't compromise ours. And division had to come. And it did come. But that's what
happens whenever you stand on the Word of God. Everybody's
not going to sing Kumbaya and hold hands. There's going to
be division whenever the doctrine of Christ is held to and is preached. Whenever someone tells you that,
well, that church is just sectarian, they believe that they're the
only ones who exist. We don't believe we're the only ones exist.
We do believe we're the only kind that exists. There's a difference
in that. You understand the difference?
Whenever I say that, y'all understand what I mean by that? We don't
believe that Sovereign Grace Baptist Church of Joplin is the
only church that exists. We believe that we're the only
kind of church that exists. The kind of church that prays,
preaches, sings, fellowships on the true gospel of Jesus Christ
and holds forth His ordinances. If a person does that, that is
a church of Jesus Christ. And I would commend anyone to
one of those churches. Now what is the gospel? I believe
the gospel is sovereign grace. Nothing less. Sovereign grace
is God's sovereign choice to save who He decides to save and
Christ accomplishing that salvation completely and that no man chooses
to take that or not take that. That God will save everyone that
He has been given. That predestination from the
beginning to the end is all by God's purpose and nothing happens
that God hasn't ordained. I believe that's the gospel.
That's what the Bible teaches. And so if a church is preaching
that gospel and that church is holding those ordinances, that's
a New Testament church. And that doctrine is going to
divide because there are going to be people that are going to
come among them. That's going to be more than they can handle.
They're not going to believe that. And it may be because they're
not saved. It may be because they're saved
but yet not have been converted. The Lord hasn't opened up their
mind and understanding yet. Like Cornelius, you know, Cornelius
exhibited all the signs of one who had been born again but had
not believed the gospel. When Peter came to him and preached
the gospel to Cornelius, Cornelius repented of what he was believing
about how God was and righteousness, and he began to believe the right
things about that. It was the doctrine that changed
his mind. It was the doctrine that caused the point of unity.
every place in scripture where you see these brethren. Matter
of fact, I didn't even read it. Let me read this. This will be the last one that
I read. It's in Acts chapter 2. Here we go, Acts chapter 2, verse
42. Actually, let's move up. This is right after Peter preached
on the day of Pentecost. He said, Therefore let all the
house of Israel know surely that God hath made this same Jesus
whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they had
heard this, they were pricked in their heart and they said
unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren,
what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, repent
and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ
for, not in order to get it, but because of the remission
of sins. And ye shall receive the gift
of the Holy Ghost. for the promises unto you and
to your children and to all of them that are far off, even as
many as the Lord God shall call. And with many other words did
he testify and exhort, saying, save yourselves from this untoward
generation. Verse 41, that they that gladly
received his word were baptized, and the same day were added unto
them about 3,000 souls, and they continued steadfastly in the
apostles' doctrine, and the apostles' doctrine was Christ's doctrine. In Matthew 28, Jesus said, Go
ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
I have commanded, my doctrine, teaching them my doctrine. And
so they that continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and
fellowship and in the breaking of bread and in prayer, And so
we see also later in Acts, you'll see that they continued in prayer
and from house to house and they continued in the doctrine of
the apostles. So doctrine is important, brethren.
Doctrine will divide. But brethren, to the children
of grace, doctrine will bring unity. And in every place where
you see the doctrine of Christ, there are unity being talked
about in the Scriptures. It's unity around the doctrine,
not unity around the love. The love comes because there
is a unified theme that we all believe, right? I mean, I like
to hang out with people that think the same way I think, okay? I'm not a woke liberal. I don't
like woke liberal things. I don't hang around with a lot
of woke liberal people. I don't go to conventions where
woke liberal stuff is being talked about. I don't like that stuff. So I like to congregate with
people that speak my language that talks about no government
and, you know, every man being free for themselves. Do away
with all this junk, you know. More conservatism or whatever. I'm not going to go over here
and listen to this message and hold hands with these people
that I disagree with. I want to stick with the people
I do. So what brought the unity? Well,
the unity wasn't because I wanted to just hold hands with this
group. It's because I wanted to hold hands with this group
who has the same thought pattern that I do. That's what church
is all about. Church is finding a church where
what's being preached is bringing the unity. Now, all those people
out there, they can go and hold hands because they don't have
a doctrine. They have a ooey-gooey love feeling. And guess what? When one of them
crosses the other, that ooey-gooey love feeling goes out the door.
In the church, our flesh might rise up against each other, and
we may part ways for a few days or a few weeks from each other,
but because of our love for the truth... I'll tell you a good
example of this. Brother Larry's not here to defend
himself or anything like that. I don't think he would necessarily
mind me saying that, and if he does, I'm going to apologize
to him if he watches this and hears this. Brother Larry and his family
came to our church before times. There was some disagreements
that we had. We parted ways, and him and his family left,
and they were gone from us for two or three years and everything. But at one point, Brother Larry
reached out to me, said, hey, you know, I don't know why we
should be apart. We believe everything the same.
We love the word of God that's being taught at this church,
You know, is there any way that we can reconcile and come together
in fellowship again? So I met with Brother Larry and
we talked about some things, forgave each other, hugged each
other's neck. Larry and his family started
coming back to church again, and here they are. Now, they're
not here today because they're sick, but they're here with us
again. What was it? What brought that
unity here? Was it because Larry thinks I'm
an awesome guy? Well, I don't know, but I know that we have
some differences, and we still do. We still, me and Larry, still
have some differences on a few different little things. Things
that I don't think is paramount to dividing over. The gospel
we do believe on. The church ordinances we believe
on. We believe on all those things. But what was it that drew the
unity back together? What is it that causes those
people to come back together even though there may have been
some tiffs between each other? The love for the truth. Larry
has a love for the truth of God and he doesn't compromise on
that. And he loves the fact that our church loves the truth and
doesn't compromise on that. And so that is what brought the
unity is the doctrine. Christ being the center of that.
doctrine. But the doctrine of those churches
that are out there isn't necessarily Christ. Christ is in the sidecar
next to self who's driving the motorcycle. You just hope it
doesn't run into a tree, right? Jesus is in the sidecar. He's
the subtext, but he's not the main text. The main text is you. The main text is your righteousness,
getting at it out there in front of everybody. But see, the doctrine
that unites the true children of God is the doctrine of Jesus
Christ. And the doctrine of Jesus Christ
will be a doctrine that will divide the true children of God
from the gamesayers, from the lit professors. All right, so
I got interviewed this morning. Anybody got any questions? Comments? Corrections? Concerns? All right. Well, everybody watching
and listening, continue to pray. We've all been sick off and on,
this nonstop nagging, cough, respiratory, mucus junk has got
all of us, It just keeps going back and forth. The Phillips
are out today because of that. Pray for Sister Rosette. For those who know Brother Lynn
Terry, continue to remember Lynn Terry. They ended up having to,
they took his foot last week and they ended up having to take
his leg off all the way up to his knee this week. The gangrene
was still up at his leg. and it was starting to make its
way to his brain. So they ended up just taking
his leg off from the knee down. So he's going to be in a rehab
hospital over in Mountain Home, Arkansas for a few weeks. Then he'll get a prosthetic and
then he'll be going home. And if I'm not mistaken, I think
Brother Larry is going to be helping him in that endeavor
for a little while until he gets back up and able to move around. So be in prayer for Brother Len
Terry of Harrison, Arkansas. Be in prayer for the Phillips
family. Be in prayer for our household here. We got a lot of people in this house
and we keep just passing things around to each other and hopefully
it'll make its way out of here and knock that back. Anyway,
all right, anybody got anything? Nope, all right. Father, we thank you for the
day. We thank you for your grace and your mercy and we thank you
for your love and salvation that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And Father, we are so grateful for the Holy Spirit of God that
comes and teaches us, and directs us, guides us, comforts us, but
also, Lord, that it brings us to the knowledge and understanding
of the doctrine of Christ, by which we become united with the
other people of God. Lord, we've all experienced at
times that we've went even to the other side of the country,
meeting people that we've never met before, and because of the
doctrine of Jesus Christ, It feels that we've known those
brethren for years and years and years. And there's a bondage
and a kindred, a love for each other that comes. And it's all
because it's based upon the Lord Jesus Christ. We are focused
upon him and what he has given for us to know about God. And
so, Father, I pray this morning that each and every one of these
brethren here finds comfort in the doctrine of Christ, that
they love it, they cherish it, They desire to fellowship within
it. Father, Lord, we pray that they might follow you and all
the things that you say according to that doctrine, that they might
believe upon you. Lord, I pray that if they have
believed upon you and they are believing upon you for their
salvation, if they've not been scripturally baptized, that they
might come forth to receive baptism. Lord, we pray that if that time
comes, Lord, We might, as a church, rejoice with them in that. We might bring them into the
membership and fellowship of the church, or they might be
able to partake in the Lord's Supper with us. Lord, we pray
for all those who are sick. We ask, Lord, that you might
continue to bring healing to them. Lord, we ask that you would
comfort them, give them some relief. We pray for Brother Lynn,
that you might be with him in his rehab. as he goes through
this time with his leg being off. Lord, we don't know why
you do all these things and bring us through all these, but we
know that it's for our good. We know that you're right in
doing it and that you're holy and just in all your ways. And
so, Father, we just pray that you would give us an understanding
and wisdom to see what you're doing in all of it. And even
if you choose not to do that, Lord, that your grace might be
sufficient for all of us. Father, we do love you and we
praise you. We thank you again for this day. May you be with
us until we meet again. In your name we pray. Amen.