Now, Matthew chapter 16, verse 5, our Lord had just had an encounter with the Pharisees in the first four verses here. Let's read them. The Pharisees also, with the Sadducees, came and, tempting, desired him that he would show them a sign from heaven. he answered and said unto them when it is evening you say it will be fair weather for the sky is red in the morning it will be foul weather today for the sky is red and lowering and you hypocrites you can discern the face of the sky but can you not but can you not discern the signs of the times a wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign and there shall be no sign given unto it but the sign of the prophet jonah's and he left them and departed.

And we talked about the story of Jonah when we examined those four verses particularly, but the essential distillation of the whole story of Jonah is when Jonah, having experienced the Lord's salvation, testified that salvation is of the Lord. In other words, he was helpless, he was hopeless, he could do nothing for himself, and the Lord saved him. He just saved him because he wanted to, and so he declared that salvation's of the Lord. It's not a cooperative effort, it's not something that we choose, it is an act of God's grace and mercy upon a sinner. And that's what, the Lord is referring the Pharisees to, he's pointing them to himself and not a sign that he might do.

He said, you're looking for an earthly sign and you can read the signs of earthly manifestations. You can observe things and the results of those things over time and predict what will happen. based on those signs because of what has happened, right? The sky is a certain way. It's gonna be this kind of weather at a certain time. But what you can't see is what's standing right in front of you. Another physical sign is not gonna help you. It's the truth of Christ and that salvation is Christ to give that is essential. And religion is all about outward show and signs, too.

And so, when the disciples were with the Lord, and the Pharisees had gone away for a while, it seems, his disciples would come to the other side with him, and they forgot to bring any lunch with them or dinner. And the Lord said unto them, having just had that encounter with the Pharisees and Sadducees, He said unto them, take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. And they weren't any better than the Pharisees and Sadducees because when they heard him say leaven, they immediately thought of the physical. They thought of the leaven of bread. And so they were just as earthbound and creatures of sense as the Pharisees were. We're no different. There's no difference among men. It's Christ that makes the difference. Christ makes a difference. And so he taught his disciples that it's not about what you eat or even whether or not you eat. He's talking about spiritual leaven. Beware the spiritual leaven. And then they understood that.

And it's beautiful the way that the Lord You know, so with such a long suffering, he said, oh you of little faith, why reason you among yourselves because you have brought no bread? And look at verse nine, do you not yet understand neither remember the five lows of the 5,000? And think about that question. The Lord had before their very eyes created something out of nothing. He took small portions of food and broke them and kept breaking them until it was able to feed an entire multitude. And he doesn't just say, do you not remember that? He says, do you not understand and remember that? It's one thing to remember.

It's another thing to get the spiritual truth that was taught there. that we think that what we need is physical things, a physical sign will cause us to believe. Luke chapter 16, again, the rich man said, if you'll send Lazarus back from the dead, then my brothers will believe. And Abraham said, no, they won't. You're not gonna believe because of some physical sign. How are you gonna believe then?

They have the scriptures, the scriptures. So we're just as prone. Look at this world's religion, all of it. It's all about the outward. Even salvation is reduced to walking down an aisle and making a decision. No, no. The lesson is that Christ is all that we need.

When he did feed those thousands of people out of nothing, he created food where there was no food. And they saw that, but did they understand that? I'm sure they remembered it, but did they understand when the Lord, when they were worried about the people and said, they're hungry and they're weak and we're out here in the middle of the desert, we better send them away now so they can get some food. And the Lord said, they don't need to go anywhere.

Do we understand that? Do we understand that what we need is a person and not things, not signs, not physical? We don't worship. God is not worshipped, the Lord Jesus said, with men's hands. He's not worshipped by our works. He's not worshipped by religious symbols that we make. that we come up in our imagination but he never said to do that he's not worship that way we have the word of god we have the scriptures if we don't believe the scriptures we won't believe even if somebody came back from the dead and told us hell is horrible you see so it's it's about that the whole this whole thing is about that but It's about spiritual versus physical and earthly and temporal. Our Lord, by the way, we learned something from the offense here, from the bluntness of our Savior's words.

He said, beware the doctrine of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. He points them out. He calls them by name. And to sort of kind of translate that into our own experience, what if I told you this morning to beware, beware, be careful and stay away from? Everybody knew who the Pharisees were. They knew who the Sadducees were. What if I told you, don't you dare to listen to Treat it like the plague, the doctrine of the Methodists and the Baptists and the Catholics and the Presbyterians. Don't you dare listen to them.

Beware what they're saying. That would probably offend some people these days, don't you reckon? If I said that online and people heard that, beware them. Oh, you shouldn't be specific. That's offensive. We don't want to offend anybody. Yes, we do. That's exactly what we want to do. And because you're not being nice to people by kind of going along with error. The Lord was blunt about it, wasn't it?

Don't listen to them. And you think about what all he told them about the Pharisees and the Sadducees. He told them, don't pray like them. He said, you see how they're doing? Don't you do that. Don't pray in public. Get into your closet when you need to speak with God. You're not putting on a show for men.

It's not about the outward. It's a spiritual relationship between your Savior and yourself. Do it that way. Same lesson of our text. It's not an outward show. Religion is all about the outward show. their buildings, the way they dress, the little ritualistic symbols that they have, and the ceremonies that they go through that aren't in the Bible. We have the scriptures. We know better. What are we doing worshiping God with our hands when we must? If he's going to be worshipped, he's going to be worshipped in spirit and in truth.

Easter, the Easter holiday, you know, I love all these things that You know, in a lot of places of worship, you could walk in there this morning and you'd know it was Easter. If you just woke up from a 10-year coma, you'd say, oh, it's Easter. Everybody, look around, it's Easter. The resurrection of our Savior He was raised for our justification, not so that we could, and again, you know how I feel about holidays.

I love Christmas, I enjoy Christmas, but it's not a religious holy day, and neither is Easter. Go on Easter egg hunts. We won't have one here this morning, but go on Easter egg, now if you hit $100 bills in some of them, we might have one here, that'd be fun. But no, we're not going to do that. It's not a religious holiday, but go have fun with the kids. What's wrong with that? Get a picture taken with the Easter Bunny. What difference does any of that make?

Just don't make religion an outward show, a holy day of some kind. Because all of religion, all of salvation, all of our hope as sinners is bound up in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he has specifically warned us against the outward show. If your hope is in a decision, if your hope is in walking an owl, if your hope is hanging around your neck in the form of a golden cross, if your hope is a statue, you have a false hope. And of course we have to talk about the doctrine, don't we? Because that's what our Lord specifically, not only the whole general idea of this passage points us to the heart, to the inward, to the spiritual, and away from outward show. But also, he said, beware their doctrine, beware of their teaching. And I'm sure that was offensive. I'm sure the word got around. He did it right to their face. He said, you hypocrites. And we're not to be afraid to call people on it. Beware of the evil, blasphemous, satanic doctrine of the Methodists, the Baptists, the Catholics, and all the rest of them.

I looked up, you know, because I don't make myself an expert on false doctrine, because I don't care. If it's not Christ, it's false. So let's just see what the Lord's doctrine is, and then we'll recognize what's not that. We don't need to be experts on all the false doctrine.

But I looked up anyway, kind of, what do Methodists believe? And it's just what we always say. And I'm not going to do today what I often do, is sort of like, give you a laundry list of all the things that they say that's blasphemous, because we do that a lot. We don't need to do that again today. But let's talk about the true doctrine and how that everything else, and if you have any experience with false religion, you will know.

But again, our Lord told us not to pray like them. He told us don't give like them. Don't give like they did. Don't make a show of it. Don't say, I pledge this much, the way, you know, a lot of Baptists and Methodists do. You know, stand up and make a pledge, you know. No, he said, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.

Is that complicated? That means do it in secret. It's between you and God. It's spiritual worship is what it is. And nobody needs to know about that. In fact, if they do, if you do it to be seen of men, that's your reward. And that's it. There's no spiritual benefit to it whatsoever. So the Lord said, stay away from them. Stay away from that person.

The apostle Paul identified people by name, didn't he? And said, don't you have anything to do with him? 1 John 4, 1, Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Do they preach the word of God, or do they preach the doctrines of men? Look at Titus chapter 1 with me. in verse 5.

Titus 1.5 For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had Appointed thee, if any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused 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, but a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate, holding fast the faithful word. as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.

For there are many unruly..." Notice he doesn't say there that by denouncing false doctrine, he'll convince the gainsayers. He'll convince the... If God's going to turn the light on for somebody, it's going to be through the teaching of sound doctrine. You see that? That's important. Because a lot of people spend their whole, what they call their ministry, denouncing false religion, specifics about false religion.

No, no. Listen to it again, that you may be able by sound doctrine, both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. You're not going to convince them of their error by sitting there saying, what you teach is error. This is error. This is error. This is error. This is error.

Specifics. You're going to convince If Christ said, if I be lifted up, I'll draw, I'll draw men to me. And we lift him up in the sound doctrine of Christ. We preach him, we teach him, not by arguing with people, but just sound teaching concerning God's son.

So that's important right there. Verse 10, for there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, especially the Jews, in other words, the religious, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake.

It's always about what's the root of all evil and what good is money. People just love the pictures of the presidents on there, and they like that little pyramid on there. Ooh, that's cool. No, it's about what it can do for me. It's about making me God. It's about making me able to do whatever I want to do.

One of themselves, verse 12, even a prophet of their own said, the Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. And this witness is true, wherefore rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith. He just named a whole, the Cretans and spoke very, not very complimentary of them. And Paul said, it's true, that's true. They are that way.

It's one thing to be just, prejudice against everybody that's not like you. It's another thing to be able to make observations about people like the Methodists and people like that and say, if you call yourself a Methodist, that means something. And what it happens to mean is that you don't know God. Unless you're lying about being a Methodist, you don't know God. Not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men that turn from the truth. Another key phrase, that turn from the truth. It's not that they just came up with that without knowing the truth. They turn to that because they hate the truth.

The truth is preached concerning Christ being God and saving who he wants to save and redeeming everybody that he died to redeem. And they see that in the scriptures and they turn from that to fables. You see that? That's important. They're not just making up stuff for no reason. The reason they're making it up is because they hate God's son.

And they're going to have to come up with an alternative. So they pervert the truth. Unto the pure all things are pure, but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure, but even their mind and conscience is defiled. They profess that they know God, but in works they deny him, being abominable and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobates." So the scriptures are blunt, they are offensive when it comes to the importance of doctrine. Why? Because you're not doing somebody a favor when they spout blasphemy and you just kind of go along with it. You don't say anything. And we're not trying to correct everybody either. But if we have an opportunity to tell somebody the truth, the truth will set you free. The Lord said, if the Son shall make you free, you'll be free indeed.

And we have to learn again from the disciples' mistake as well, 7 through 11 of our text. We're not as smart as we think we are. We think that we look at these disciples and we go, oh, there they go again. No, there we go again. That's us. The Lord had to open their understanding that they might understand what he said. And he'll have to do that for us or we're not going to get it. we're going to fall right back into the same stuff. Our tendency, like theirs, is to focus on the temporal, to focus on that which impresses us, our senses.

Here's something, too, to think about. The Lord rebuked them He said, oh, you have little faith. You've got a faith problem. You don't believe. You don't believe me. You don't believe what I said. Or you wouldn't say that. You wouldn't think that way. Don't you believe? Where's your faith? How is it that you have no faith? He said to them on the ship. They had been with the Lord long enough to know who He is, and yet when the storm came up, we're gonna die. Not with the Lord Jesus Christ on the ship with you, you're not.

Safety is not a condition of the universe. Safety is a person. Filling of need is not going to town to get food because, oh no, these people are starving. No, no. Fulfillment of every need is a person. That's what the Lord made them to understand, finally, to understand. And doctrine. It's not just better teaching as opposed to bad teaching. Doctrine is a person. True doctrine is a person. Our doctrine is a person. And notice this, when the disciples did get something right, the Lord made sure that they knew where that came from. When Simon said, You're the Son of God. You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. That's what we believe. Remember the Lord said, flesh and blood didn't reveal this to you, but my Father, which is in heaven.

So when they got something wrong, He rebuked them soundly and taught them better, taught them better in our text and everywhere. But even when they got something right, He made sure they knew, you didn't figure that out. You didn't figure that out on your own. No wonder he said to us, beware, because look at us. Without him, we can do nothing, we know nothing, we are nothing, and we have nothing.

That's salvation. Christ is all of that for me. He's all of that for me. He's my wisdom, my righteousness, my sanctification, and my redemption. He's all I know. He's all I have. I am who I am in relation to him. John said, I'm the disciple whom Jesus loved. That's all you need to know about me. The Lord loves me. That's my identity.

Beware! The doctrine is so subtle and we're so stupid. Beware! Beware! And how do we beware? We seek wisdom from Him. We study to show ourselves approved, because Satan is as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. We're slow of heart. Remember in Luke 24, I'm pretty sure, when they saw the Lord, And he spoke to them and he eventually made himself known to them, but then he said this to them, you're old fools and so slow of heart to believe. Slow of heart.

They weren't stupid mentally as far as the things of the world, but when it comes to spiritual things, and I want to make that clear when I say we're stupid, we're stupid. We're intelligent people, but we're stupid. Right? Y'all are the smartest people I know. But when it comes to spiritual things, we don't know ABCs or one plus one is two.

When it comes to spiritual things, the Lord has to show it to us. And he has to show it to us over and over and over again. Or we'll get to thinking something else before long. Beware. We that are slow of heart to believe all that the scriptures have taught concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, carried about with every wind of doctrine, unless the Lord is our anchor, our foundation, our rock and our fortress, unless he keeps us. And the way that he keeps us is to teach us through the preaching of the gospel, to cause us to seek him in his word, but also to warn us, to warn us, beware, beware.

And you know, I want us to notice this about this. The Lord didn't say beware murders. He didn't say beware the drug dealers, beware the harlots. His most solemn warning was directed toward religious, blasphemous, anti-Christ, free will, works, religion. We just said Wednesday night, the meanest, nastiest, most evil creature on God's earth is a man, a sinner.

Beware, beware of them. Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing. They're not going to look like what they are. They're not going to look like what they are. If you have discernment, they do. Can you tell a wolf? Can you tell a wolf from a sheep? When you look at these characters that reduce the son of God to a beggar, and elevate man to Godhood. You recognize that?

They say it real nice. They've even got some logic behind them, you know. They'll find portions of scripture that seem to say what they want to say to you. We're not to believe portions of scripture taken out of context, we're supposed to believe the whole word of God. Paul said, I haven't shunned to declare unto you the whole Bible. The whole Bible.

Again, he said, don't pray like they pray, don't give like they give, don't worship like they do, don't live for the things of this world like they do, Covet, don't judge other men like they do. Don't trust in your works like they do. Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and thy name done many wonderful works? Depart from me, I never knew you. And don't listen to what they say. Beware their doctrine.

A little leaven leavens the whole. Again, it's an illustration. He used the word leaven for a reason, but not the leaven of bread, although that's the type or the analogy. A little bit of leaven, a little bit of untruth, one little lie ruins the whole message. I had somebody tell me one time, I believe the five points. It's not about the five points, it's about the truth. But what they couldn't believe is in what we call limited atonement. Can't believe limited atonement.

Well, if you lie about that, what good is anything you say? If Christ didn't save who he came to save, then what good is anything you say? Your Jesus is a false God. He said, my hand's not shortened that it can't save. He said, if I want to save somebody, if I want to have mercy on somebody, I'll have mercy on them. That's a different God than you're preaching. Beware the leaven, beware the doctrinal, just a little bit, just a little lie.

You can't take part of it in a bread recipe In a bread recipe, and this is one example, you could extrapolate this out, six and a half cups of flour, two and a half cups of water, a cup of sugar, a half cup of oil, some salt, and about a teaspoon of yeast. A teaspoon. And it affects the whole bread.

That's the illustration that our Lord has given. It permeates. One lie about who Christ is. In other words, he did his best rather than he did what he came to do. Big difference. But you may preach for an hour and then just have that one little teaspoon of a lie about who God is, who Christ is, what he accomplished on Calvary. It permeates everything else you say. Because everything else you said is based upon a Christ that can't save a sinner, and you're a sinner that needs to be saved. I've heard a lot of men preach about 45 minutes of truth, and then about two minutes of completely destroying the truth.

Paul says they have a form of godliness, 2 Timothy 3.5, they have a form of godliness. They use the word God and heaven and hell and Jesus and cross and he died on the cross to save sinners. They have a form of godliness, but what's the problem? This is key.

I would have had you turn there to look at it, but listen, this is a short, short verse, 2 Timothy 3.5. They have a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof. They deny God's authority in it. Jesus died on the cross. Well, what's wrong with saying that?

Nothing, as long as you don't deny the authority and power of God in that. Because if Jesus, if the Son of God, God the Son, died on the cross to save sinners, then what did he do? If he has all power and all authority, then he saved them. Whoever He died to save, He saved them. If you can't acknowledge that, then you're denying the power of God. It's not complicated. He said, I'll have mercy on whom I will have mercy. Who did He go to the cross to have mercy on? They have mercy from God, sooner or later.

Maybe you and you don't know it yet. You may not know it yet. If you don't have a powerful God, if you don't have a sovereign God, then you don't have a God. You don't have a God. If you don't preach the truth concerning Him, then you don't preach the truth. Because our religion, our doctrine, our hope is in Christ and Christ alone.

You've heard this illustration many of you before, but this is a good one to remember too. Rat poison is almost completely good food for rats. Just 99% of it will make a rat happy, healthy, and fat. But the problem is that 1%. 1%. It's the end of them. It's the same with false doctrine. It's the end of you. It's the end of your soul. It's the damnation of your soul.

And again, I'm trying not to use all the phrases that they use that are just blasphemous, but understand this, that God's love, that in the Scriptures that the Lord love sinners and that he hates sinners. It's clear in the scriptures. He said flat out that he hated Esau. He loved Jacob and he hated Esau. Psalm 5 says that the Lord God hateth all workers of iniquity. Anybody that's found with any sin, when this is all over with, Think of the ramifications of saying that God loves everybody, for example. So God's going to himself throw you in hell. The Lord Jesus said, I have the keys of hell and of death. Nobody gets in without me. I'm the one with the key.

Now, if he loves you and he's loved you with an everlasting love, to say that he would open the doors of hell and throw you in means that there's some kind of a condition outside of him that he can't do anything about. He can't help it. There's some rule of the universe that you've got to go to hell if you live a certain way, if you are a certain way that he can't overcome. No, no, he is the rule. He is the law. He is the one that calls the shots. There's not something outside of him that he can't overcome or change. There's nothing outside of him. He is all. He made him. Why did he make a him to begin with, if he wasn't going to throw somebody in it?

That's why we so earnestly plead with you. We, we contend And we, as ambassadors of Jesus Christ, we implore you to look to Christ, to be reconciled with God on the basis of the Lord Jesus being our substitute for our sin on Calvary. Be ye reconciled to God.

We exhort you, we beseech you, and that's why Because we're not dealing with a God that just loves you so much and wants the best for you, and then, well, He's got to throw you in hell because He just can't help it. No, no. No, God's love is in Christ. And once we understand that, we'll flee to Christ. So you need to understand that because you need to flee to Christ. Because I don't care how religious you are, and how good you think you are, and how much you think your good has outweighed your bad. If you're not in Christ, God made a hell for you, and He's going to put you in it.

He's going to do it on purpose. God's love is in His Son, and when the Lord Jesus Christ died on Calvary, He said, I lay down my life for my sheep, and they never perish. That's not complicated, that's simple truth, but what does that say to false religion?

If all of His sheep, if He died for His sheep, and His sheep shall never perish, that's just a simple doctrine that when Christ shed his blood to redeem somebody, they're redeemed. They're redeemed. If the Lord Jesus Christ died to redeem Judas, the same as he died to redeem Simon Peter, then what does his blood have to do with salvation? If he loved Judas the same as he loved Simon Peter, then what does his love have to do with salvation?

No, the truth regarding the death, the blood of the Savior, is what Paul preached in Romans chapter 8. He was able to confess gladly from his heart that nobody can charge me with sin. I am justified before God. When God looks at me, he finds no fault in me. Why? It is Christ that died. Not that he died and then I did something to supplement that. Just the death of my Savior for me on Calvary means that I'm spotless in the sight of God. That's not complicated. Beware any doctrine that's contrary to that. Beware any of it, all of it.

Listen to this doctrine, Daniel 4.35, he doeth according to his will, God, he does what he wants to, in other words, in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of this earth, and none can stay his hand, nobody can stop him from doing it, or saying to him, what doest thou? Nobody can stop him from doing what he wants to do and nobody can even question him. You don't have the right to question, why me? Why did God do that? Here we go again, this bad happened or that bad happened. You can't even question him, he's God, he's God.

Any doctrine contrary to that, God wants to or God's trying. Beware, careful. You're stupid enough to believe it, apart from His grace. Psalm 135, 6, whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did He. Is that complicated doctrine? Oh, we don't believe. That doctrine of election and all that, and God's sovereignty, that's too complicated. Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did He.

That's the sovereignty of God. It pleased Him to save sinners, so He saved sinners, every one of them, every one that He was pleased to save. Everybody He wanted to have mercy on, He had mercy on, in Calvary, in Christ. Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did He in heaven, in earth, in the seas, and in all deep places. You can't hide from God. He sees everything, he knows everything, he does everything. God is sovereign in the saving of sinners, Romans 9 18. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardeneth. Any doctrine contrary to that is false. Beware.

John 5 21 for as the father raises up the dead and quickeneth them even so the son quickeneth whom he will to quicken means to give life to to make alive didn't he say i have power on earth to forgive sins luke 5 23 whether it is easier to say that sins be forgiven thee or to say rise up and walk Lord said, look, if I say, rise up and walk, somebody's going to fix him to rise up and walk. Right?

You ever see an example of somebody that said, well, I just don't want to rise up and walk. I'm going to exercise my free will and say, no, I'm not going to walk. No. When God says, let there be light, there's light. And when he says, rise up and walk, somebody rises up and walks. He said, I could have said that. But what he did say is, thy sins be forgiven thee. To a man that couldn't walk, paralyzed man. Why did he say that in particular? That you may know that the Son of God has power on earth to forgive sins.

Do we understand that? We remember that verse, don't you remember? But do we understand it? Do we understand that salvation is a person? Do we see that the Lord Jesus Christ, if he wants to forgive your sins, through the preaching of the gospel, he'll say, thy sins be forgiven thee.

They're gone, they're gone. I don't pray, I hope my loved ones get smart and figure this thing out. I pray God save them, have mercy on their wretched soul. That's not complicated. That's the power that those who have a form of Godliness deny. that Christ has the power to forgive sins. To them, he can want it, he can desire it, but he doesn't have the power to just do it. Don't deny that power. Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

And when he says, your sins are gone, that's when they will be gone. We're bound to give thanks all the way to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. Of course, God is sovereign. You know why we have to say God is sovereign? Because of false religion. Otherwise, we could just say he's God. We'd understand that.

The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. Even the trivial things that take place on this earth, things that we call chance, it's the Lord. It's the Lord. A pair of dice, the lot, lots or a pair of dice is rolled, and it says the whole disposing. You look that word up, it means the act of deciding the matter. It's of the Lord.

And he also turns the hearts of kings in his hand as the rivers of water wither so ever he will. Now this is important because when we believe on the Lord, That means something. David said, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. If the false Lord of religion is your shepherd, you may or may not want. He'll try, but he may not be able to get it done. But he said, the Lord is my shepherd. The one who's calling the shots is taking care of me. I'm never gonna lack anything. Is that our confidence? I pray so. This truth is so precious to the sheep. Paul said, I fear lest by any means the serpent beguile Eve through his subtleties.

So your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. That word simplicity is all-inclusiveness. When you begin to think that, well, There's Christ, but then there's this too. I've heard people say there's a whole lot more in the Bible besides Christ. You've been beguiled. Satan has beguiled you.

And Paul is saying, I pray to God that you'll never be, you'll never stray or be taken away from the simple truth that Christ is all. And may that be true. of us beware the doctrine. Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. Amen.