Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
i want everyone to just bow your heads close your eyes for a minute and just tell jesus just tell jesus something from your heart this morning that you love him or just declare his goodness or he that he is holy just take a few moments and really in your own words sometimes we just sing songs but you just need to worship jesus from your heart so lord this morning i just worship you lord i thank you lord you're holy you're holy holy holy you are good lord there is none like you lord we worship you this morning we thank you we thank you lord god that this the blood of jesus was shed when we didn't deserve it the blood of jesus was shed to cleanse our sins and wash them away and to make us holy in your presence to give us a hope that we can be in heaven with you one day lord and and that we can live with some power on this earth and that we don't have to be like everybody else we don't have to live in the sin and the evil and the wickedness we don't have to be like the world lord we can be like you want us to be god we thank you for the power and the grace and the help to live the christian life lord to walk with you in intimacy to know you to hear your voice to be led by the spirit to have the gifts of the spirit flowing in our lives father we thank you for every good and precious gift that comes from heaven god i pray in the name of jesus that this morning as we get into your word as we look at the bible as we study it god i pray that you would open our eyes that you would give us ears to hear lord jesus you said many people would have ears but they would not hear and so lord we pray that you give us ears to hear and hearts to understand so that we can understand your word and be saved and be delivered and be sure that we are ready to go to heaven when we die father we thank you we worship you this morning we give you the glory it's in jesus name we pray amen and amen amen praise god we take your bibles this morning every i hope everybody brought a bible you're going to need it today or look on with somebody um anyway i hope this is not too loud out there but well we'll knock it down a little bit as long as we get it recording good um just want you to start off we're going to turn to acts chapter 20. we're going to be in quite a few places in the word this morning some things i want you to learn here and i've kind of some of these things i've touched on over the last year you know that this is um this sunday is our one year since we
started this church one year ago first service was january 11th last year and of course it's january 10th but uh one year we've had our ups and downs we've seen people come and go and uh you know the bottom line is that some of you i know have been growing in the truth you have been growing in the word of god you've been growing spiritually some of you've been filled with the holy spirit some of you have been brought out of some some sins and habits that you didn't really realize how god felt about him and god uh revealed it to you through his word and changed your life and there's some things i believe i believe everyone in here one day we're gonna have a testimony service and i believe everybody will get to to share some way that that god's touched you this last year we've seen people healed miraculously healed we've seen people delivered from demons we've seen some god do some things so you know i'll tell you what [Applause] anything good that you can get from god's a good thing right there's a lot of people out there asking and not receiving so anything good that we can get but i told you acts chapter 20 and i don't really know what i'm going to call this this morning i don't know if we're going to talk call it uh doctrine or what but we're going to look at some of the things that you have to believe that you need to know that you need to be settled on um i guess one of the things that came to me when i was in prayer and the lord started showing me this was just the issue of of how you cannot separate jesus from his word and y'all heard me say that over this last year that that you cannot separate jesus from what he taught if you say you love jesus or you follow jesus but you deny or reject or teach things contrary to what he taught then you have denied him and you have rejected him and i think the word i'm going to get in to show you the scriptures make that very clear but something we have to understand that when i say the word doctrine some people think now that doctrine that's a bad word but all that means is basically a system of instruction or teachings or beliefs and for us for christian for christians there are certain fundamental doctrines that you don't stray from you don't you don't get away from because if you do stray from certain fundamental doctrines then you have strayed from jesus and you are in danger now if that wasn't true there wouldn't be so many warnings by the apostles and by jesus himself not to stray from the word of god not to stray from the truth okay now like let me give you an example of of an essential or fundamental doctrine that we can't stray from one of the fundamental doctrines of christianity would be the deity of jesus that jesus is not just the son of god
he's not just a good man he's not just a prophet he is god manifested in the flesh now that doctrine is clearly established by looking at old testament scriptures and new testament scriptures and understanding fully from genesis to revelation that jesus christ is god manifested in the flesh now if anyone comes along and says that they follow jesus and yet they deny that jesus christ is god manifested in the flesh they have denied jesus no matter how many times they say they follow jesus do you understand some of those people would that would fall into that category would be jehovah witnesses mormons um muslims uh you know even muslims say that jesus was a prophet of god it says in the quran that jesus was the son of god but the problem is is they don't believe that he is the one true god who created the heavens and the earth so they have denied jesus christ coming in the flesh just the term christ and you've heard me say that christ or messiah means that god came in the flesh but so that's a fundamental doctrine now let's look at a doctrine that's not necessarily fundamental or would necessarily mean that you were departing from jesus now there are a lot of different views in the church world about when the end times are coming when the raptures come now i believe we're very close to jesus second coming but whether a person believes that the rapture is at the beginning of the tribulation or the middle of the tribulation or at the end or somewhere near the end or whatever you know people have different beliefs on that but that's not an essential doctrine i mean the essential doctrine of jesus coming again is but of when and how all that's going to play out we're just doing the best we can to study out when there are things that aren't clear or they're symbolic we just do the best we can but it's not going to determine whether you believe the rapture is at the beginning of the seven year tribulation or you believe it's at the end or middle or whatever that's not going to determine your eternal salvation but what you believe about some of these the fundamental doctrines that we're going to look at this morning what you believe about these things will determine where you stand jesus said if you're ashamed of me and of my words i will be ashamed of you and this is real simple you don't separate god from his word right i'm going to show you where paul warned so acts 20 we'll start here about the this these serious issues about departing from from christian teaching sound doctrine christian teaching fundamental foundational truths of christianity and this is paul went to the to the city of ephesus and the church was started there with just 12 people paul started out with 12 okay and he was there for three years now i don't we don't know how many it grew to in the three year period but paul was only in ephesus for three years okay and bef when he got ready to leave
ephesus this is what he said to them now we're going to go to acts 20 and go down to verse 17 and it says and from my leaders he sent uh to ephesus and called the elders of the church and when they were come to him he said you know that from the first day that i came into unto asia after what manner i have been with you at all seasons serving the lord with all humility of mind and with many tears and my temptations or trials which befell me by the lying and weight of the jews and how that i kept back nothing that was profitable to you but have showed you and have taught publicly and from house to house testifying both to the jews and also to the greeks repentance toward god and faith toward our lord jesus christ and now i go bound in the spirit unto jerusalem not knowing the things that shall befall me there say that the holy ghost witnesses that in in every city saying that bonds and afflictions will abide in me how would you like that prophecy from the lord knowing that every city you go into bonds and afflictions are going to happen to you but that was paul's prophetic word he said but none of these things move me neither count i my life dear unto myself so that i might finish my course with joy and the ministry which i received of the lord jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of god and now behold i know you all among whom i have gone preaching the the kingdom of god shall see my face no more so he's telling the the the church at ephesus and the people he pastored and people that he you know that he led to the lord he said you're not going to see my face anymore he said wherefore i take unto you record this day that i am pure from the blood of all men. he said no blood's on my hands why for i have not shunned or i have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of god take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over which the holy ghost has made you overseers to feed the church of god which he has purchased with his own blood for i know this that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you not sparing the flock and also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years i ceased not to warn everyone night and day with tears so paul's final words to the church of ephesus was i have declared unto you the whole gospel i have declared unto you the truth about repentance toward god faith toward the lord jesus christ and he even gives another little thing about jesus being god when he says the church that he purchased that god purchased with his own blood and he says but beware he says after my departing they're going to come in wolves among you that are going to twist they're going to speak perverse things and that word means twisted things they're going to twist the scriptures
now if i took a uh how many of you seen you know those little aluminum roasting pans you know they work pretty good right but if i took one of those aluminum roasting pans i could take it in my hands and i could twist it right now it would still be an aluminum roasting pan but it would not be fit for use it would not be able to accomplish its purpose and this is what some people have done with the scriptures is that they come in sometimes and they take the word but they twist things enough to where it's not profitable anymore for anybody okay it's still the word of god but it's been twisted just like recently i had a lady send me an email okay because she saw me post something on somebody's facebook page and she sent me an email and went on to tell me how that the only books of the bible we should listen to are the epistles of paul that grace took care of everything that her sins were taken care of two thousand years ago and that there is no need in the believer's life ever for the confession of sin or for repentance that that doesn't even apply to us anymore so what she believes is that because of what jesus did on the cross 2000 years ago that it's automatic and then immediately when she said no confession of sin is needed immediately what's my mind do my mind knows the scriptures because i spent time in it so my mind goes to if we say first john 1 8 if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us and the next verse says if we and if the apostle john said we he's including himself so he said if we christians confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness so immediately she spouts off her twisted theology her twisted christian it sounds christian jesus took care of my sins 2 000 years ago yes he did when jesus died on the cross my sins were taken care of there in the sense that jesus paid the price for them but somebody going out and say buying me a car paying for it versus handing me the keys is two different things and if that person who bought me the car says that for me to get the keys to the car i have to ask then guess what i'm going to do i'm going to ask and if jesus says that to get the forgiveness of sins i have to confess my sins and turn from them repent then i'm going to do what he says to get what he paid for right so what i'm saying is people take things and they twist them and they come up with doctrines that make them comfortable in their compromise and their sin okay they take the grace of god and turn it into lasciviousness and we'll talk about
that in a minute maybe but i just wanted you to see that he said they twist the word of god peter warned that people would take paul's teachings it's interesting in second peter 3 there was a warning that peter gave said people would take paul's teachings and twist them because paul talked about being justified by faith okay but you have to balance that between yes what is faith and what is believing and what is these things you got to define these things some people think believing in jesus is just believing that he exists but the bible word believe means to rely on to trust in to cling to and to be constant in that and and that your life shows that you've given your life over that's that's the biblical definition of belief but the english and the modern understanding of belief is just oh i just believe jesus is there well the devil believes too but that's not helping him at all okay so it's more than believing um i want you to look at that i want to look at some of just some of the scriptures real quick about about the word of god go to uh go to second timothy second timothy chapter three somebody you know we need to say this that the word of god the bible you know it's proven by and we've gone through this i've mentioned this it's proven by archaeology it's proven by by the sheer mountain of manuscript evidence it is proven by the fact that it is the only religious book in writing in in history that that spans thousands of years and has prophecies that were hundreds and even some thousands of years before they happened in great detail that have come to pass there's no other religious book there's no other rank so so we know the bible is unique but the the bible says of itself the prophets the apostles said that the bible the written word is not just ink on paper they said these words are like a living organism they have life they have power they have strength this is where christians have to understand god and his word are one whatever attribute you attribute to god you must attribute to the word of god they are one and the same that's why it says in in the gospel of john in the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was god see no separating god's word and what jesus taught from who he is the moment we change what jesus taught and we don't teach it and yet we say we're following jesus we
have created another jesus another gospel and we are moving into operating in another spirit and it's not the spirit of god it's dangerous to depart from the scriptures look at what paul told the young pastor timothy here ii timothy ii timothy chapter 3. in verse 13 he says but talking about the end times too especially he said but evil men and seducers will wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived but here what he tells timothy but continue you in the things which you have learned and has been assured of knowing of whom you have learned them and that from a child you have known the holy scriptures which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in jesus christ all scripture is given by inspiration of god and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness that the man of god may be perfect or mature thoroughly furnished unto all good works somebody say with me all scripture is given by the inspiration of god does that mean just paul's scriptures these people are psycho god says all scripture is given by inspiration of god and is what profitable for doctrine for instruction for correction right all scripture now let me ask you something at the time paul said this to timothy was the new testament finished or even close to being finished no what scriptures was he referring to the old testament my goodness there are nuts out there that say the old testament doesn't apply to us at all right i even got called an old testament gangster for quoting an old testament verse yeah i've been called everything this past year man something in the water around here in auburn old testament gangster i'm like good grief pure i've been called all kind of stuff pure evil and false prophet and all this stuff and i'm like good lord just read the word folks all scripture is given by so the scriptures he said are able to make you what wise unto salvation what happens if you what is the connotation there if you get away from the scriptures you're foolish and you're endangering your salvation you're endangering others boy anybody i'm going to tell you any christian and especially any christian called to teach or preach or minister who boy you better make sure
that you teach the foundational doctrines of jesus that you stick to the word of god i'll show you the danger of not doing it let's skip where i'm going to skip ahead a little bit as we're going to go back and i'm going to show you what the word being more about it being a living organism that it's alive and powerful but go go to the the epistles of john go back to ii john near the back of the new testament here and folks if you don't think you can get off let me let me just tell you years ago when i pastored in montgomery um i took quite some time probably several years before i ordained elders okay because i had to see their lives i had to see that they were faithful i had to see that they knew the word that they were grounded in the scriptures and all those requirements you know it says about elders and i finally ordained some elders and and one of my elders i mean he loved the word of god and and he loved uh my book that i wrote about grace the whole grace abuse book he loved that he was with me the day we picked it up that it got shipped into montgomery on june 22nd 1999 i believe it actually got shipped to us in montgomery on your birthday we were getting ready to have your birthday party caitlyn's birthday is on june 22 and um i remember he just loved it this guy financed when when god uh began to open doors my book went into charisma magazine and then it went i started getting orders for it all over the world and then i started getting invitations to go preach all over the world and um you know you don't just just because somebody invites you you doesn't mean you go automatically you gotta pray and ask god for direction and so i got i got invitations from kenya australia new zealand um ghana just all over the place but one came in from the island of mauritius and i remember the moment i saw that i didn't even know where mauritius was then okay and but the spirit of god hit me and i knew i was supposed to go there well long story short i just mentioned this in a sunday morning service right that i feel like i'm supposed to go to the island of mauritius this guy this elder walks up to me and hands me a check for twenty five hundred dollars and says go you're supposed to go go i mean you talking about being led by the spirit knew the word of god i mean just a just a blessing to me recently we found each other after a few years on facebook and he's off into this error of paul only he's gone he's gone from walking in the truth being led by the spirit to now so far off base that i don't even want to talk
to him anymore i've removed him and blocked him because i don't want to hear his garbage anymore okay don't think you can't get off you move from the scriptures you open yourself up to the devil and anything else but let's look at this this is probably one of the strongest warnings in the bible about getting off of the word of god and getting away from it okay second john only one chapter we might just read it so y'all can't say i'm taking it out of context or twisting it or anything all right though i know you guys wouldn't do that y'all learning something this morning i hope so all right let's let's let's look at what let's look at what the apostle of love john was rejoicing in okay let's look at what he was rejoicing in verse 1 the elder unto the elect lady and her children now the elect lady he's just referring to the church the bride of christ he says the elder unto the elect lady and her children whom i love what in the truth and not i only but also all they that have known the what oh yeah for the true sake which dwelleth in uh which dwells in us and shall be with us forever grace be with you mercy and peace from god and the father from the lord jesus christ the son of the father in what in truth and love somebody say truth and love not just love truth and love we got a lot of christian hippies out there you know what a christian hippie is christian hippie is they say they follow jesus but they think all we need is love right that's a christian hippie no truth and love and sometimes the truth doesn't sound like love but let me tell you it's always love to preach the truth that jesus preached amen you know this is what's blowing my mind lately i talk about hell on the campus or on a youtube video or in a sermon sometimes i talk about hell and about eternal judgment and eternal damnation right now this is something jesus preached quite a bit on the the doctrine of eternal judgment and the reality of hell and flames that burn forever and worms that never die and jesus didn't want anybody to go there and said if you got to cut your hand off cut your foot off cut pull your eye out whatever you got to do don't go to hell right but i mentioned hell and i am accused of preaching hate i just got that email from the youtube videos that i preach hate and not love that jesus was about love and i'm like what have i said
that jesus didn't say and jesus is god in the flesh and the bible says god is love therefore jesus is love in the flesh and if he taught on hell and warned people about hell and didn't want and to try to get people to turn from their sin and follow god so they wouldn't go to hell then that's love but see the christian hippies out there think all we need is love and they think that they just want to talk about you know helping the poor and and helping your neighbor and and and being involved in in charities and all that's good but if you think you're going to substitute some type of human love and neglect or or teach something that's not true you're not walking in love okay just had to say that this morning that one was free all right can we keep going all right i had to say where were we all right i rejoiced greatly that i found of thy children walking in truth why did paul why did john greatly rejoice because the the people in the church he was writing here we're walking in the truth all right he says as we have received commandment of the father now i beseech you lady not as though i wrote a new commandment unto you but that which you have had from the beginning that we love one another now he says again let's love one another that's a good thing right love one another forgive one another be patient with one another right those are true good things but what is he going to say but this is love if you want a definition of biblical love here it is because the apostle john gives it right here he says this is love that we walk after his commandments oh okay homosexual here's love you want to walk in love stop your homosexuality and obey god and it'll show that you love god and you love people around you because you'll be trying to influence people the right way not the wrong way see this is love that we walk after his commandments and this is the commandment that as you have heard from the beginning that you should walk in it for many deceivers are into the world who confess not that jesus christ has come in the flesh this is a deceiver and an antichrist look to yourself now here's the warning look to yourselves christians that you lose not the things which you have wrought but that you receive a full reward now look at verse nine scary verse nine scary it says whosoever transgresses now the word transgress here in the greek is the word parabeno and it means to fall from to lose one station or office by transgression to go or to step aside to violate
to a willful stepping out of line of god's word a willful stepping in transgression just just disobedience wickedness right so he says whosoever transgresses now y'all got to keep up with me here present tense greek verb here too all right what does that mean present tense greek verb is an ongoing continuous action that's taking place in the present so he said somebody who decides to live a lifestyle a habitual lifestyle of transgression disobedience and wickedness and they abide not in the doctrine of christ the word abide means to live in to dwell in to remain in it says if they do not abide in the doctrine of christ they do not have god is that what your bible says y'all give me a episcopalian nod or something that was a little too much it would be more like real subtle all right whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of christ does not have god let me just illustrate this jesus taught that we should repent mean turn from sin and live a holy life right if you say you follow jesus and you don't teach that or you teach against that you've departed from the doctrine of christ jesus taught about hell and about heaven if you teach that those things don't exist either one of them you have denied the doctrine of christ if you deny that jesus is god in the flesh you have denied the doctrine of christ i mean because he looked at the pharisees in john 8 and said before abraham was i am what did he tell what i am isn't that the name that god said when moses said who are you he said i am jesus declared himself to be god right you get what i'm getting at here you don't get to deny reject twist anything jesus taught and still claim jesus no he takes that very seriously he says if you do if you transgress and you don't abide or remain in the doctrine of christ you do not have god and let's keep reading he that abides in the doctrine of christ or remains or stays in the doctrine of christ he has both the father and the son now listen how strong this is he says if there come any unto you and bring not this doctrine receive him not into your house neither bid him god speed for he that bids him godspeed is partaker of his evil deeds
man that means don't bless don't help people who are teaching wrong christian doctrine this is pretty serious isn't it all right let's keep going a little bit here i want you to go back with me let's let's go to hebrews real quick hebrews chapter 6. we got plenty of time plenty of time hebrew six i want you to see this i still got a whole baptist church service right there 30 minutes i got one remember we're pentecostals we can stadle two right i'm kidding all right just joking around a little bit i love baptists huh oh yeah i like that saying steve hill says there won't be any baptists in heaven there won't be any methodists in heaven there won't be any presbyterians in heaven there won't be any episcopals in heaven there won't be any catholics in heaven no there won't be any of that there'll be people who follow jesus and obey him and there'll be people you know who didn't that don't make it that's as simple as that there's not going to be any denominations there right all right where did i say turn hebrews i think i went too far hebrew 6. let's look at this real quick here this is something that's uh real important let's look at let's back up chapter five real quick to verse 12. well verse 11. paul was talking to i believe these jewish believers and i believe paul wrote hebrews but it says here he says of whom we have many things to say speaking of jesus they had many things to say and hard to be uttered he says seeing that you are dull of hearing for when the time you ought to be teachers you need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of god and are become such as have need of milk and not strong meat for everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness for he is a babe but strong meat belongs to those who are of full age even to those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil so paul talks about the first principles of christ the basic foundation and then he's going to define it he says therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of christ let us go on to perfection now the word perfection there means just spiritual maturity but he says leaving the principles of the doctrine of christ meaning we should get these fundamental things down pat and be able to move on to some more deeper things okay but right now satan and deceivers and
false teachers and prophets are trying to destroy the foundations of christianity especially in america so now preachers like me are having to go back and reestablish foundations again okay and he says let us go on to perfection not laying again and he's going to give us some foundational doctrines not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works y'all don't like that that's one doctrine the foundation of repentance from dead works um kevin and patrick what do you have to do before you build a building what's the first thing you got to do you got to have a foundation guess what the foundation of god is repentance do you know that repentance the foundation not laying again he said the foundation of repentance from dead works we'll look at that in a second he said and of faith toward god that's a second doctrine faith toward god let's look here of the doctrine of baptisms is that in your bible plural if it's not you need to get another bible because every translation in the greek language i've looked at it's plural the doctrine of baptisms do you know how that there's many baptisms baptism in water bible talks about being baptized into the body of christ the baptism of repentance the baptism of fire the baptism of the holy spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues all those are in the scriptures so the doctrine of baptisms more than one right look at here he says the doctrine of what the laying on of hands well we could talk about the doctrine of laying on of hands the bible says that that believers will lay hands on the sick and they shall recover the bible says that elders lay hands on on others to ordain to ministry we also lay hands on people to transfer gifts okay now we again i'm not trying to teach all these doctrines but i want you to see he says the doctrine of laying on of hands and then he says of the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead all right and then what's the last one eternal judgment now these are some of the foundational doctrines he lists out here right repentance faith toward god doctrine of baptisms laying out of hands resurrection of the dead that there's going to be a resurrection of the body and that there's going to be a judgment and there will be eternal judgment for some right are y'all you're lost aren't you hebrews 6 1 through 6 there kind of a list of not an exhaustive list but kind of a basic rundown of the foundational doctrines now i want to put up something here let's
put up we're just going to look at this the definition of repentance okay because i want y'all to see this there are people saying that repentance just means to change your mind about something just change the way you think all right the word repentance in the greek language there it is written in greek and there is the pronunciation of it metanoia all right this is from the strong's concordance the greek dictionary and this is what it means it means compunction for guilt including reformation we're going to define these words by implication the reversal of another's decision or repentance now let's look at what compunction means you can go to the next one the word compunction is defined by the webster's dictionary means this anxiety arising from awareness of guilt compunctions of conscience would be an example when your conscience feels distressed over the fact that you have done something wrong against god okay and let's look at the word reformation or reform the word reform means to put or change into an improved form or condition to amend or improve by change of form or removal of faults or abuses to put an end to an evil by enforcing or introducing a better method or course of action to induce or cause or to abandon evil ways i.e reform a drunkard so the greek definition of repentance all right is compunction feeling the anxiety and guilt of your sin and that that causes you to cause a reformation you begin to change things in your life that are necessary to change and that's where the word reform there okay now this is the greek definition this is the word that paul wrote when he wrote the word repentance when his pen on that papres and dipping that feather in the ink and he wrote that out that's what he wrote that word repentance doesn't just mean to change your mind there's a lot of people who change their mind about jesus they may or about god they say you know maybe they were atheists but then they see something supernatural happen or they see they see you know some thing that seems you know odd and they go well yeah you know or they look at some of the evidence for creation and they see you know the order in the universe and they say well i believe there's a god out there but they never quit their premarital sex or they never quit their drunkenness so they never turn they never you know they they change their mind about god or who he is
or that may be that he exists but they don't change any of their ways right let's look at the word faith here because these are just two important issues the word faith it's up there but this is again from the greek dictionary and it's the word it sounds terrible doesn't it pistus but that's the greek pronunciation of the word faith in the bible whenever you see the word faith like here it's in this passage this is what it says persuasion credence moral conviction of religious truth or the truthfulness of god so so let's just stop right there that means you are persuaded you are morally convicted of the truth and the truthfulness of god that you believe what god says okay and then he says look especially this word means reliance upon christ for salvation and constancy in such profession the system of religious gospel truth itself assurance belief faith and fidelity and the word fidelity again is that word constancy it means to be faithful to be continuous right so the word faith here faith toward god means you are completely persuaded you are morally convicted of the truth of god's word of god and you you accept what god says and what god expects and you change your life you rep rely on jesus for salvation and you stay constant in that profession and in that life right so what's the first foundation he said repentance and faith oh boy the reason i'm focusing in on those two is because if you don't have those you're in trouble and i'm finding a lot of so-called christians are departing from these basic fundamental truths that it does not take a rocket scientist to look these words up i studied this when i was 19 years old and just brand new christians just came back to jesus right serious here let's look at something we're going to go through a list if you're taking notes i'm not going to have you turn to all these scriptures because i'm going to be brief okay i still got 15 minutes what's the bible say about the word of god first peter 2 first peter 2 verse 2. this is an important one as i would just have a little baby bible says as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby
that's first peter 2 2 as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby let me tell you something if that baby right there doesn't get milk it's not just about growth if if little faith doesn't get the milk she needs what happens to her she dies it's that simple it's not just about growth it's about survival and he talks about if you're a newborn babe in christ what do you need you need to desire long for hunger go after the milk of the word the sincere milk of the word it's interesting the true word uncorrupted undefiled no deceit in it what that word sincere mean so desire the sincere milk of the word so the milk so the word of god to you and i are as important to us as the milk to a newborn baby you know and i was going to go into some other stuff but you know faith was a little jaundice when she was born you know a few days afterwards well you know what what that is you know the the the the body's not getting rid of the excess you know the red blood cells the breakdown of red blood cells so it's not getting rid of it and it's starting to pile up and i find this very interesting that it's common in a lot of newborns but here here's the interesting factor do you know what it takes to get rid of it two things sunlight and frequent feedings more milk to wash it out of their system isn't it interesting light which would represent god's presence spending time in prayer and god's presence in prayer and worship time and milk more milk more time in the word more time in the word now here's what happens to the baby if that bilirubin count gets too high brain damage can happen cerebral palsy deafness and death boy do we have some brain damaged christians because they don't even feed anymore on the basic doctrines of the word of god the milk of the word they don't spend time in god's presence because they're too busy sinning and living in sin and living in guilt because they never get out of it so they live in darkness they walk in darkness and boy i could read what what what cerebral palsy does to you boy we got some christians that look i mean the description of it let's just look at listen to this the po what palsy does to you i don't even look at causes stiffness and movement difficulties a bunch of christians that just sit on pews and do nothing
leads to involuntary and uncontrolled movements meaning they do stuff they have no self-control and just out of control doing whatever they want and another thing causes disturbed sense of balance and depth perception isn't that interesting no vision no correct vision and no balance understanding the balances of the world balancing grace and law in the bible balancing the old testament the new testament together balancing god's love in god's wrath and judgment no sense of balance i mean i could just go on about that but that's enough so he says his newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word the scriptures are able to make you wise unto salvation right jesus said man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of god so we have the word being milk we have the word of god being bred we have the word of god being meat it is food job said you can write this down job 23 job said that his word the words of his mouth were more important to me than my necessary food the written word and the words that god speaks more important than than necessary food right let's keep going i'm gonna go on down through this hebrew six says it's our foundation as we saw psalm one says staying in the word will make us like a tree beside the rivers of water with deep roots unmovable and bearing fruit i mean he said i meditate in the word of god day and night the man that does that will be like a tree planted beside rivers of water and think about that unmovable bearing fruit leaves that never fade but it's for the person who meditates in the word of god it's the person that stays in the word of god right let's just keep going jesus said in the gospel of john the word sanctifies us and washes us it says that it allows jesus to manifest himself to us the word strengthens us and gives us hope the word helps us resist temptation it puts satan to flight we are able to know sound doctrine by the word we are able to recognize deceivers we are able to stay saved and make it to heaven and in hebrews 4 says that the word of god is alive and powerful folks you've got to stay in the word and you have got to be grounded in the fundamentals of christianity no matter if it makes the homosexuals mad or the the deceived emerging church mad or the roman catholics man or anybody else that it may make mad family members friends are as more and more as we go down these this road to these last days you're going to be persecuted for simple
faith and simple beliefs in truths in the word of god you everybody will love you if you just walked around and said jesus loves you but the moment you say jesus said repent or jesus said that there's a hell and that many people are going there you are enemy number one have we not learned that this year more than probably any other time times have changed foundational doctrines you are not saved unless you turn from sin you are not saved unless you obey hebrews 5 if we backed up a few verses you know what it says to in hebrews 5 that jesus became the author of eternal salvation to those who obey him my god it sounds a little bit more than believing he exists right obey him wow you mean i gotta obey god whoa yeah the lie of the serpent has always been this what did what did satan do to eve god said don't eat of this tree you eat of it you die he comes along what did god really say did god really mean that god didn't mean you're gonna die if you disobey you know you just don't understand what he means let me instruct you god knows that if you eat this you'll be like him you'll know good and evil and that you know he got her to eat well what did he have to do he had to get her away from god's commandment and let me just i'm going to close with this let me just say this the moment and i've seen this over and over and over in 23 years of being a christian and being a minister the moment you step away from any commandment of god is the moment you deceive yourself and it's the moment you're headed down the wrong road i've seen people do it what seemingly like simple things right i know people well you know what god says about divorce there's only certain reasons you can get it people go do it anyway you've just departed from the scriptures god says about sexual purity he's clear about that no sex before you get married real simple right you start departing from that you open yourself up to deception and demons and all kinds of stuff he made it very clear no sex with the opposite sex
i mean i could go on down the list the bible says this in james in the book of james chapter 1 verse 22 he said if we hear the word of god and we don't do it we deceive ourselves the moment you say i know what god says about something but i'm gonna go do this you have just stepped into the most dangerous territory of your life and especially if you are a born-again christian and know better this is not a game i know of people you know girl i led to the lord you know maybe some of y'all remember this but a girl i led to the lord she got gloriously saved on fire for god in the it got saved in montgomery then i found her again up at the university of monteville and we started a ministry there and and i mean it was awesome she was on fire for god that was about 1994 early 95 five years later i'm preaching at tuttweiler state prison for women i went there once a month last sunday of every month and preached to about 120 women and this girl walks in and walks up to me before the service starts she says you don't recognize me do you and her hair was cut different she looked a little different i said you look familiar and i said but but no because i hadn't seen her in five years and she said my name's sandy i said sandy what are you doing here you don't go to state prison for nothing right and she said i drifted away from god and i started drinking again i started partying again and i drifted away from god and i know what you said and i know what the word says and i know what i was supposed to do but i drifted away from god and she drifted away from god and she was out drinking one night and riding around and she was drunk and she was driving her car and she hit somebody and killed him and she was in the hospital for four months she nearly died and she's in the hospital for four months and when she woke up they put handcuffs on her and they took her to prison and she sat on the front row of that chapel at tutwiler and she cried the whole time i preach i'm not i'm talking about cried boohoo agony right and before i left all i can remember hearing her say was i should have listened to you i should
have listened to you i should have listened to you i'm sure that night she thought she was going to go out and drink and have a good time and partying it was going to be no big deal no she put someone in their grave and she's got to live not only not only i mean yes can she be forgiven absolutely can she get her life right thank god she lived and has the opportunity to repent and be forgiven of her sins but she killed somebody she devastated a family that person was somebody's child somebody's grandchild somebody's brother somebody sister what you get what i'm saying people just don't understand sometimes people lie on the job and get somebody fired or something and don't realize that they're hurting that that wife or or that their children or or maybe that person's on the on the edge of a nervous breakdown and goes and kills himself because they lost their job and they're losing everything and it's just because somebody told a lie on them at work we just we we don't understand there's a chain reaction to disobedience oh and sometimes we get away with it sometimes we do stuff and we don't ever see the results of it but god is keeping up with it that's the difference he's keeping up with it because let me let me just get this truth into you this is a truth that god's been stirred in my soul for some time and that is you when you sin or you disobey god you it's never just affecting you never ever ever even if you don't have any children yet the bible says that those sins are stored up and will visit even to the third and fourth generation of your children listen this there is no little disobedience amen so just know that though god sometimes it seems like it's tough to obey god or he's got some pretty strong ways about him it's always for your best you know i didn't let caitlyn and bethany play in the street when they were little not because i wanted to rob fun from them get my point i knew what was best for them them at at two and three and four years old they don't understand that they don't understand the danger but we got a bunch of baby christians that don't understand the dangers
of sin and disobedience and deception and we we just we we need some people to rise up and be christian spiritual christian parents anyway let's pray heavenly father we thank you lord that your word is true and that your word is there lord to make us wise unto salvation it's there god not to steal fun from us but it's there to protect us from harm it's there to protect us from danger it's there to protect us from an eternity away from you god and i'm just grateful god that you gave the bible to us you said you would give us your word and you would preserve it forever and you have and jesus i am thankful that when we do fall and and and sin and make a mistake or disobey there is i thank you for the opportunities that we have to confess and be forgiven and god that is truly grace because we don't deserve it but lord help us to take these things seriously to be grounded in the true doctrine of jesus christ to be grounded in a relationship with you to understand holiness and obedience and to help us lord to lead others to you whether it's a friend or a family member or a neighbor or a schoolmate or a co a co-worker with us or a boss or on a foreign mission field help us lord preach the truth live the truth preach the truth and bring other people into the true gospel of jesus christ ah thank you for your presence here today god more and more i ask you to establish your people in your word father i pray this in jesus name amen you