I want to invite your attention
to the book of 1 Timothy. I want to talk to you about,
watch your doctrine. It could destroy you and your
whole family. Watch your doctrine. It could
destroy you and your whole family. You say, well, that doesn't sound
very Christmassy. Well, it will. I promise you
it will. 1 Timothy chapter 4, beginning
with verse 1, Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, or plainly,
that in the latter times, Some shall depart from the faith,
giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking
lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot
iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats
which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of
them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of
God is good, and nothing to be refused if it be received with
thanksgiving." What is your doctrine? What is your teaching? What do
you believe? I hear it all the time. The reason
you can't get a crowd over there is because you need to lighten
up on your doctrine. Change your style. Stop your
screaming. Stop wearing a tie. You have
to lay off the Calvinism." And on and on it goes. Really and
truly, I'm not interested in drawing a crowd. I'm interested
in drawing the Holy Spirit here. Because if the Holy Spirit is
here, Jesus said, He, in John 14, He, the Holy Spirit, shall
glorify Me. So, if the Holy Spirit is here,
Really, that's all that matters. Then the Lord Jesus Christ will
be glorified. And quite frankly, I see what's
happening. I'm not against a megachurch,
but I don't care whether it's a megachurch or a church of 30.
Without Christ at the heart of it, it's no good. I know there
are megachurches that conform, and then I know that there are
those who are so radical about certain things that they don't
grow either. Here's what I know. My sheep
hear my voice, Jesus said. I know them. They're out there
and He knows them. And He calls them one by one
through His doctrine, which is the gospel doctrine. He calls
those sheep. And the sheep hear His voice
in the gospel. But if the gospel be hid, it's
hid to them that are lost. Nobody here is going to come
to Christ unless they hear His voice. And they hear His voice
through the Spirit of God in the Gospel. So, if the Gospel
doctrine is not preached, nothing happens. That amounts to anything. So, I wonder if you know your
doctrine. Apostasy. That's what's happening.
It's happening in our day. We have more churches, but less
Gospel. Less doctrine. Now, how does
apostasy take place? Apostasy is departing from the
faith. What faith are you? And by that,
they mean Baptist, Catholic, Methodist, Presbyterian. But
in Scripture, when it talks about departing from the faith, it's
not talking about you leaving the Baptist church and going
to the Catholic church. Or vice versa. It's not talking
about that at all. The Scripture talks about the
faith. You hear talk today, and there
are churches called full gospel churches. And by that, they mean
a different definition than I have of full gospel. But I believe
we ought to be full gospel. I don't believe we ought to be
looking at ourselves and see how far off we are. Well, you
can be this far off or this far off or this far off. I believe
you're either right on or you're off. You say, well, that's kind
of radical. I know. God is a radical God. He sent His Son down here. God's
radical. He came down here. And there
is really no room for compromise with God. God doesn't compromise. on this thing. In fact, the Apostle
Paul would say something like this. If it is by grace, then
it is no more by works. If it's of works, it's no more
by grace. It can't be both. You can't have
it both ways. And I'm telling you, to be off
is dangerous. Hell will be full of people who
went to church, who had their creeds and their doctrine. What's
your doctrine? And here's what the Apostle says
here in the book of Timothy. He said, when this apostasy comes,
it will come through folks giving heed to seducing spirits. Now, that's not talking about
goats. Remember, I told you that the Apostle in the book of Philippians
says, beware of dogs. He's not talking about four-legged
dogs. Right here, seducing spirits. That's crafty preachers who seduce
you in, who suck you in in a religious way with another message. You are seduced in to believing
something that absolutely is not true. You know, the devil
is a great counterfeiter. And he has these preachers. who
are seducers. He uses preachers and deacons
and highly religious folks to seduce. And that's what the Apostle
is talking about here. I hope you have your Bibles because
I want to read some Scripture to you this morning. And I think
you probably, or you might not, probably this is the most important
message I've ever preached to you. Because we are living presently
in the church age. for the most part, very churchy.
And you say, well, Pastor, you know, there's abortion and, you
know, there's just so much going on now, the gay movement and
all of that. But if you look really close,
abortion and the gay rights thing and all of the mess that's going
on, it's still very churchy. You know that 65% of evangelicals
voted for Mr. Obama, who is the most pro-abortion
president that we've ever had. I know you're getting quiet now,
but I told you this is one of the most important messages I'll
ever bring. You cannot say that abortion
is Christian. You cannot say that murdering
babies is right. And you cannot say as a Christian
with a good conscience, I'm going to vote for somebody to rule
this nation who's pro-abortion. Pastor, it's Christmas week. I know. And you know what Christmas
week is all about? God has come to earth and He's
not playing games. And either you is or you ain't. And if you ain't, you're going
to hell. I know. That's not the seeker
church way. You're not going to get people
in here that way. You're going to have to tone that down just
a little bit. when hell freezes over. Look at Acts chapter 20 and verse
28. Now, Paul here is talking to
a bunch of elders. And here's what he says. Acts
20, 28. Take heed therefore unto yourselves. You preachers, watch yourselves.
Men of God have to watch themselves. There's more jealousy in the
ministry than anywhere I know of. Preachers are jealous of
one another. Don't be coming over here and
getting any of my people. But I'll tell you this. If God
leads you to some other church, bye-bye. It will be the right
thing for you and the right thing for us. I'm not worried about
losing people. What I'm concerned about is watching
myself to be true to the Word of God and the Gospel of God.
You see, I have a big investment here. I profit and my investment
by preaching the gospel. When I stop preaching the gospel
and honoring God, this whole shooting match goes down. I mean,
we go down 5.7 million, all of the things that we're planning
and talking about. Do you understand that? That without the power
of God, this place is nothing. We lose the presence of God,
this place is nothing. I compromise the gospel in any
way, shape, or form, this place goes down. That's why you better
pray for me. Take heed therefore unto yourselves
and all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you
an overseer, to feed the church of God." That's my business,
to feed you. For you to go home and say, man,
we had a yummy service today. Wow, what a great meal. We were
fed today. The church which he purchased
with his own blood. Do you see that? He purchased
with his own blood. For I know this, that after my
departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing
the flock." A wolf comes in and starts killing the flock. "...also
of your own self shall men arise, speaking perverse things." That's
preachers. "...to draw away disciples after
them." To draw away disciples after them. I want to say this
to you. Sunday morning religion is a
dangerous thing if that's all you've got. You better have something
Monday through Saturday. Look at Galatians. Let's go over
to the book of Galatians real quick here. In the book of Galatians,
Paul says something like this. While you're turning there, I'll
tell you this story. The Corinthian church, what a messed up church
that was. That was a New Testament church. It was a church much
like ours. They had fornicators and drunks
and all kinds. It was really a New Testament
church. And so they met to take the Lord's Supper. one Sunday,
and they all got drunk on it. Now here's what Paul said. You'd
think he'd really give them a going over, but he said, hey, don't
you have your houses to eat and drink in? I thought he went pretty
light on them for getting drunk when they went to church. But
when it comes to the gospel here in the book of Galatians, he
said, I'm startled that you should have been so soon removed from
him under another gospel, which is not another. And then he said
something like this, I don't care if an angel from heaven
comes preaching another gospel. Let him go to hell. Pretty strong
stuff, right? You get the comparison. One,
they got drunk at church. Paul said, you ought to be doing
that at home, not here. Not that I recommend that. But in comparison
with moving from the gospel, there is no comparison between
getting drunk at church and then apostatizing, leaving the gospel. One other thing, and then I'll
get to Galatians. In the Corinthian letter, Paul said, I've espoused
you to one husband. You are to be single-minded toward
Jesus Christ. What it means is this. If a husband
looks at another woman, he's been unfaithful. If a woman looks
at another man, she has been unfaithful. He said, I want to
present you as a chaste virgin. You haven't been looking anywhere
except where you're supposed to be looking, and that's smack
dab at Jesus Christ. Don't be looking at churchiness.
Don't be looking at the sacraments. Don't be looking at your baptism.
Don't be looking at the Ten Commandments. It's Christ and Christ alone.
In the book of Galatians now, verse 8, chapter 1. But though
we are an angel from heaven preaching any other gospel unto you than
that which we preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said
before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel
unto you than you have received, let him be accursed. Let him
be condemned to hell. There's only one gospel. We don't
mix law and grace. Somebody said, well, you know,
some people, you need to just kind of slip it in on them. No? You don't find that in the Bible.
You don't find that in the Bible. Look at verse 21 of Galatians
2. I do not frustrate the grace
of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ
is dead and vain. I don't frustrate the grace of
God. You need to find yourself a pastor that doesn't twist the
Scriptures. Don't look to see if he's got
a doctor, unless he's got one like Jonah. He got his at Quail's
Belly University, where he said, salvation's of the Lord. Is that
your doctrine? Wherever you are is salvation
of the Lord. Is that what you say? Is that
what you believe? Is that what you preach? Watch
who you sit under. Get yourself a Bible and examine
the preacher, whether it's me or whoever it is. Examine him. And I know that there are some
who have left here because they couldn't hold up under the scrutiny
of Scripture. They believe something But they
couldn't prove it to me from Scripture. Many, many times we've
had discussions at that back door. By the way, set up another
time to do that. People are trying to get out.
But I'll take you like Grant took Richmond. When it comes
to salvation by grace, salvation is by grace. And that's not going
to be compromised. Paul said this, he called these
preachers, the message that they preach, he called it here in
Timothy, doctrines of devils. Doctrines of devils. I can remember
reading these passages as a young preacher, and I thought Paul
was telling this young preacher, you know, out there, way out
there in the world are these kind of men. But he was talking
about pastors. He was talking about preachers
who preach doctrines of devils. Let me make it even plainer.
You know when a man says that you are saved through water baptism,
he's preaching a doctrine of the devil. It is not, there is
a fountain filled with water grown from the city man. It is,
there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. It is not water. Your baptism
is no good. You have heard a doctrine of
a devil. How do you think God sees that?
He sent His own Son down here to shed His blood for the remission
of sin, and some guy wearing his collar backwards says you've
got to be sprinkled and baptized to be saved. How do you think
God feels about that? God said, this is my boy, this
is my son, in whom I am well pleased. He's the apple of my
eye. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Demon doctrine. Keeping the Ten
Commandments. Demon doctrine. You can't keep
them anyway. And most of you in here don't
even know the Ten Commandments. It's demon doctrine. Some of
you all your life have heard what your mom and daddy said
because they went to a church where they had a demon in the
pulpit. Or at least a demon doctrine. The apostle, you know, I didn't
come here to hear this. Maybe not. That's kind of why
I felt so moved. I said they won't be expecting
it today. The apostle talks about cunning doctrines. The devil's
no idiot. And by the way, you and I are
no match for the devil. No. He will kick your rear end. You're no match for the devil.
There is one who is a match. And more, yes. But you aren't. I hear people say this all the
time to me out there. And a lot of folks don't come
here for this reason. You know, Pastor, I really like
you, but I don't believe predestination. Then what do you believe? Let's
say, for whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate. Did
He or didn't He? Well, wait a minute. Y'all aren't
getting into this quite like I want you to get into it. Is
that Romans 8, 28, 29, and 30? Did He say He predestinated? Then He did. You say He didn't. I say He did. I say you're wrong. I say God's right. What is your
doctrine? Well, I don't think, you know,
really that's not the most important thing. What is the most important
thing? The glory of God. How are you going to give God
any glory if He's not the one who took the initiative and is
behind this thing of you being saved? How are you going to give
him all the glory? Where do you come in? What is
your doctrine? Where do you come in? He said,
well, obviously I made my decision for Christ. Well, aren't you
something special? I'll talk about that a little
bit later. But these doctrines of devils, they're hypocrites. That's what he says here. These
preachers are hypocrites. Verse 2, speaking lies and hypocrisy,
having their conscience seared with a hot iron. So I'm telling
you, you have to do this. And you can't do that. And you
can't get married. And you can't eat nothing but
fish on Friday. And you can't. And you can't.
And you can't. And then he's raping little boys.
Oh, I'm talking plain today. I'm talking so you understand
what I'm talking about. I'm going to even say this. I'll even wax bolder than that.
Even this guy, your pastor, I'm so full of hypocrisy. And I'm
talking about mostly my hypocrisy, thank God, is in thought. You may think I'm sparkling pure,
but I've got news for you. I'm a hypocrite. When I say to
you, don't commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? Well, Jesus
said this, if you think in your mind, I want that, You've already
committed adultery in your heart. Well, I preach against adultery.
Am I a hypocrite? Well, kind of. Look at me now. Look at me. Don't be going off
anywhere. I know you want to be in one
of those nice, smooth churches where everything's comfortable.
But it's not real. It's just not real. Somebody, well, you know, you
have to use some tact. Well, where is that found? You
know, I looked for the word tack last night in the Bible. I could
not find the word tack. And besides, I'm 69 years old. It's too late now. And these
preachers have their conscience seared with a hot iron. That
means they have no conscience because their conscience has
been seared. They're hypocrites. Do you think that hypocrites
Don't go to church. Think about your own hypocrisy
and you're doing your best fighting the flesh with the power of God.
What we have to come to is this, oh to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be. Thank You, Lord, for saving my
soul. Thank You, Lord, for saving my
life. You know, Job wrestled with this
thing of doctrine. Man that is born of a woman is
born to trouble like the sparks that fly upward. If a man dies,
can he live again? Who can bring a clean thing out
of an unclean thing? You better have some doctrinal
answers to those questions. Doctrines of demons. You better
get your doctrine right. It's important. Forbidding to
marry. God said, marriage is honorable.
Now, somebody's wrong here. And if I were a young couple
and I was about to get married, I wouldn't go to a man for counseling
who's not married. Because he doesn't have the slightest
idea. And when you go to a man who
is married, he's still confused about it. So, this thing of apostasy, this
is how it happens. Lying teachers come along. Hypocrites. Oh, it looks religious. It's
all so fancy religious. It's syrupy religious to where
you think, wow. I'll tell you where you ought
to see your wow. On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross. The emblem of suffering and shame. At the cross, at the cross, where
I first saw the light and the burden of my heart rolled away,
it was there by faith I received my sight. That's what I'm talking
about. You see Him hanging there, wounded
and bleeding for sinners, bleeding, dying, unheeding, dying for me. Where's the blood in today's
church? That's what I want to know. Where's the cross today?
Where's that gory, sacrificial offering for sin? That's what
I want to know. The less blood, the less gospel. And many have left the faith,
apostatized. Do you know your doctrine, your
teaching, produces your believing? I think about this almost every
day. Almost every day. Thank you, God, for teaching
me this. How you can be just and justifier
of the ungodly. And I measure every preacher
by that. And I measure every church by that. And every message
by that. And when I see a big church going
up, I say, are they preaching that? How God can be just and
justify a slimy sleazebag like me? How can God take me to heaven
and not get Himself dirty? That's what I want to know. And
I know, and I'm happy I know it, and I want to hear it every
day. I want to hear it all the time, how God is just and justifier
of the ungodly. And your doctrine will show you
how to live. You know why I don't do a lot
of things? Let me give you an illustration.
I'm not the greatest, but I'm in love with that woman. And
there's a lot of things I don't do. There's a lot of things I
don't do. Let me say it again. There's
a lot of things that I don't do out of love to her. Now, I'm not bragging all myself. She can tell you a lot of stuff
I do. But what I'm saying is this. When you're in love with
somebody, you don't need all those rules. Because the love
of Christ constrains you. I could cheat. Cheating is in
me. Well, come on now. Don't leave
the pastor up here by himself. Thank you guys. Thank you back
there. Thank you. Thank you. Lord, thank you. I could cheat. But there's a
love that's stronger. It's true. Love to Christ. I'm in love with
Jesus Christ. This is a wondrous, glorious,
awesome thing. This is my doctrine. This is
my creed. This is my message that God has
come to earth to be a Savior and a Redeemer. Amen. And there was no other way. There
was no other way. And there is no other message.
Oh, how easy it is for us to get off track. How easy it is
for us to just kind of shift where we become a very practical
church. We will have divorce recovery
tonight. Say, yeah, but my divorce broke
my heart. And there's only one that can
heal a heart. And that's Jesus Christ. And I'm going to tell
you this. I know some of you are not going
to agree with this, but all the teaching and classes in the world
are not going to heal your heart. Only a powerful move of the Spirit
of God on your inside. Only the Comforter can comfort
you. Only God, who is the Father of
all comfort, and Jesus, who is the Comforter, and the Spirit
of God comforting the triune God, He's the only hope for all
of you who are hurting and turned to crack and, you know, heroin
and whatever, whatever, whatever you've turned to because you
hurt. And the church didn't do it for
you because they were giving you some doctrine that was not
the doctrine of Christ. It was not the gospel. And for
a little while you find substitution by going to divorce class. But
pretty soon, even the best divorce class, Can't take away the ache
and the pain and the mess of sin of life. Only God can do
that. You'd be surprised how when two
people come to fall in love with Jesus Christ, how they can fall
back in love with one another. Yeah. You'd be surprised how Christ
can undo the mess you've made. How are you going to forgive
if you don't know how God's forgiven you? And by the way, somebody is going
to mess on you. And you're going to need to learn
to forgive. And if you don't forgive, even though you're not
the one that committed the act, you're going to get angry. You're
going to need some Mary Jo marijuana. Marijuana! Almost, almost. Mary Jane! Think about this. Doctrines of demons? Doctrines
of devils? What is my doctrine? Does my doctrine rule and reign
in my life. The teaching. What I've come
to know. Who Jesus is. And things like
this. That God chose me. One of the churches Men of Grace
go to is just called a new pastor, and the new pastor was asked
from the audience about the doctrine of election. God gives everybody a chance.
Let me tell you this. You don't need a chance. You've
already had plenty of chances. How many times have you relapsed? How many times have you done
the same stupid thing over and over, always expecting different
results and it turns out the same way? You're just plain stupid.
You don't need a chance. Chances aren't good for you.
You need some grace. You need some unmerited favor. I've asked the Lord to help me,
help me to be true to the day I die, to the message of your
grace, and help me to oppose The doctrines of demons. And
those who preach those doctrines, oppose them to their faith in
kindness, in gentleness. But if you go out of this life
believing that, you will surely perish. That's the truth. Think about this. There's nothing
like this. That God, before I was ever born, chose me, elected
me. And that Christ came and died
for me before I was ever born, and paid my whole debt. And then
I came into the world crying and screaming and lying and with
a sinful nature, and He watched over me all those years. And
He held back death and polio and whooping cough, and He held
them back. And then there came a time when
after, maybe I'd wandered in many churches, and then I came
and heard the gospel somewhere. And He saved me. He let me in
on it. He born me again. He gave me
life. And then He came into me and
indwells me. And I'm going to go all the way
to heaven. I'm such a mess up, but He's carrying me. I'm going
to make it. Heaven is mine for sure. You
will not find this message anywhere else in the world. I don't mean
just here at this place. I mean, nobody else preaches
this message except grace people. People who believe grace. You
either do or you don't. It's either true or it's not.
And so, you know, sometimes this used to be a kind of a thing
that people could use on me. What I face is this. And I don't know whether I can
break this down for you. I'll try to break it down for
you. In religion, in Preacherville, In my running around and hobnobbing
with preachers, there are Calvinistic preachers who believe in predestination
and grace, but they also believe that your church ought to be
tiny and small. If you're going to preach the truth, not many
people ought to come. And you ought to be hated, kind
of. And really, nobody should like you. And your church shouldn't
be growing, really. Because if you're preaching the
truth, people don't like truth, so your church shouldn't be growing.
I don't believe that at all. There are predestination preachers
who are kind of anti-missionary. Not me. Go into all the world
and preach the gospel to every creature. You know what I'm excited
about today? There is somebody here, I don't
know you, but God does. And He knew you were going to
be here. And He put me here to preach the gospel to you. And
today might be your day. And I'm excited about that. God
draw you to His Son, Jesus Christ. See, you may be sitting out there,
and you just smoked pot last night or night before. And you
came in here to the house of God, and something got chugging
on the inside of you. You got the feeling that, you
know, maybe I am a sinner. And then it became harder on
you, you know. You began to realize, hey, I
am a sinner, and I have nothing to pay. And that preacher said
Jesus paid it all. And for some reason, I believe
that. Kind of a joy builds up in your
soul. That's what it's about. God has
His elect, but it's a number that no man can number. And you
don't have an E on your forehead. So, I preach the Gospel to everybody.
Since you don't have the E on your forehead, I can't tell who's
elect and who's not. So, I just go after you with
double barrels. and preach the gospel to you,
and watch the Spirit of God pluck you out. Just pluck you out of
your lody bar. Pluck you out. That's what I'm
talking about. But doctrine is important. Studying your Bible is important. Finding out how God is just and
justifier is important. I don't want this to be a stupid
church. When somebody asks you, listen, if you're saved, can
you tell somebody how to be saved? I mean, it's really very simple
to say the words. Well, are you a sinner? Now,
it takes the power of God to bring it home, but the truth
is, if you're a sinner, Christ came to save sinners, I guess
you qualify. You must qualify. Say, yeah, but I smoke crack
and heroin and I've committed fornication. Oh, you qualify.
You're a bona fide qualifier. You got your certificate. So
come just as you are, without one plea, but that His blood
was shed for thee. O Lamb of God, I come, I come. So that's what we're excited
about here. And doctrine is important. And we're not going to get fancy
here. When we get over in that building, we're not going to
get all fancy. We're not going to tone it down. In fact, I just
feel like God is moving in on me. Like, you know, squeezing
me. Now, don't get big-shoddy, boy. Don't be listening to all that
stuff that they're telling you that you have to get all refined
when you get a big building. You know, God can take the starch
out of us really quick here. It wouldn't take much for God
to take the starch out here. You know, He cut our budget in
half, and half of you are gone because we don't have the money
to feed. We don't have the money to shelter. We don't have the
money to pay the light bill and the gas bill. Amen. We have to get rid of houses
and it wouldn't take much. We just keep praising Him around
here because we know He does it. And when you get your doctrine
right, and you know that you know that you know, and it is
so clear and exciting how God did it, and it's so perfect. That He did it all. That He chose
me and He wasn't counting on me. Have you ever thought about
God counting on you? As bipolar as you are. Oh, Lord. I say this to myself so many
times. God, thank You for not counting
on me. Thank You for not counting on me. I can get up one morning
and Miss Pam say, you need to go back to bed and get up on
the other side. I know none of you do that, though,
because you're not bipolar at all. God keeps me. Think about this. I wanted those
city parking lots. And David Mardigian gave us $40,000
to pay cash for those parking lots. So tomorrow we write a
check for those parking lots. Just think about that. We go into city council. To me,
this is big. It may not be big to you, but
every one of those council members voted yay. Yay. 100% on both issues. I remember 10 years ago when
they voted yay, but it was for hanging me. God has done a wonderful thing
here. So, as we go away today, and
I'll miss next Sunday, but you can be thinking about this. Wow! Christmas is a great time because
it lets the world, reminds the world once again, God came to
earth. That's the doctrine I want to
get a hold of and hang on to. Why did He come to earth? To
save poor sinners. He's ascended back to heaven.
He's making intercession for us. We have a lawyer. And that's
great, isn't it? We have a lawyer. And he's coming
back again for us. I just saw where Canada made
it legal for gay marriage. I see so much happening, just
so much happening in the world. And I think to myself, won't
be long now. Won't be long now. Things are
getting worse. Won't be long now. But things
are getting worse for down here, not up there. All the worst will
be over one day. I mean that, and I look forward
to that. One day, one of these days. All right. Love you all.
Bless you all. Have a merry, merry Christmas,
and we'll start out a happy New Year.