get started this evening. Welcome to Anchor Baptist Church. I would go ahead and find
a seat in the first hymn this evening, number 188. Time will open with a word of prayer
as with me. Heavenly Father, we just thank you again for another day to gather together,
that we can just freely gather, that we have your word available to us very easily. I just
pray that you would fill us with your Spirit, that you would open our ears to the message,
and that you would just fill the pastor with your Spirit, that you would embolden him to
preach the message that you've laid on his heart. These things we pray in Jesus' name,
Amen.
For our next hymn this evening, 140, "We Have an Anchor." If there's ever a song to sing
out at Anchor Baptist Church, 140, "We Have an Anchor." Lift your voice up to the Lord
this evening. 140, "We Have an Anchor" on the 1st. Please raise your hand and in memory
path of the Wetians chapter number 1, verse 15. On the inside you'll see our service times
are listed, Sunday mornings at 10.30, Sunday evenings at 4.30, and our Wednesday evening
Bible studies, of course, at 7 o'clock. Soul winning times are all listed there below.
And just as a note, remember no Saturday rally this upcoming weekend for the soul winning
marathon. Nursing home ministry schedule listed below that, as well as our year to date soul
winning statistics. Like I mentioned this Saturday is the Easter soul winning marathon
and it's actually a big mega marathon because several other churches across America in the
world are celebrating or are participating in soul winning this day. So we're definitely
going to do the same. We're excited for it. Now it is supposed to rain on Saturday and
you know, you have an excuse. There you go. You have an excuse. If you don't want to go
soul winning, there's your excuse, but or you could just, you know, be tough. You won't
melt. Go soul winning. You know, hell is a lot worse than standing out in the rain. So
we're going to preach the gospel anyways. We're meeting at nine o'clock at Frederick
Douglas Park for some donuts and coffee. And we'll start soul winning at 10 o'clock. We'll
come back at noon for lunch. We're having Panera Bread catered for that. It's going to be a
good lunch. And then we'll go soul winning again at two o'clock. The next day I'm really
excited is Easter this Sunday and we are catering a big lunch in between services. You know,
Easter is a great time to invite people to church. Of course, at our church we believe
that the preaching should be geared towards the saved, towards God's people. We don't
want to hear a salvation message every single Sunday. But, you know, Easter is definitely
the time of year to bring a visitor and they're going to hear gospel related sermons. They're
going to be hearing about Jesus Christ, Death Barrel, and of course His resurrection. So
it's a great time to bring visitors plus you've got barbecue to give them. I mean, they're
going to have a good time. They're going to love it. And then in the evening we're going
to be taking the Lord's Supper after the evening service as a church family, looking forward
to that. May 16th through the 18th is the King James Conference at Sure Foundation Baptist
Church. May 31st is the Durant, Oklahoma, soul winning marathon with Steadfast. June
28th Tinker Air Show Fellowship event followed by Brother Ben Naim preaching for us the next
day, both services. Really looking forward to hearing him preach for us. August 27th
through the 31st Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship at Steadfast Baptist Church and October 6th
through the 11th is the Bahamas Mission Trip. Really looking forward to those events. It's
going to be a packed year of soul winning. On the back we do have our prayer list. We
have an updated prayer request from Brother Travis who's asking us to keep him in prayers.
He's going to be taking a test for his job soon so he's just praying that he would retain
the information and do well on his test if you keep him in prayer for that. As well as
our other prayer requests that have been on there, keep everyone in prayer. As always
if you have any requests please do email the church and I can add them to the list. Or
if you have a private request I'll pray for you myself. But at this time let's go ahead
and go to the Lord in prayer as a church family. Lord we thank you for this evening. We thank
you for Anchor Baptist Church and just for the blessings that you've given us. The word
of God, the institution of the church, our friends here. I pray that you bless this service
Lord that you bless the people in our church and that you answer their requests according
to your will. We pray for Brother Travis for his upcoming test at his job. That he would
do well, that he would pass it if it's your will Lord. That he would get into this new
industry he's desiring to get into. You should help him to retain the information he needs
to. That you just help him succeed in his career Lord. We also want to pray for the
Howesburg family. For Miss Rhea just for her strength and also for Miles for his health
Lord. We pray that she bless them and their family. And we also pray for Brother Alex
who's been dealing with illness. We pray that you please help him to feel better. I also
want to pray for my father-in-law Pastor Thompson that she would help him with his mouth pain
that he's been having. That she please bless him especially in time for Easter weekend
that he be able to preach mightily this weekend Lord. We pray for Miss Remy for her traveling
process that she'd have a good time over there that she'd be safe and that she would return
her to us safely Lord. We also pray for Miss Whitney for her brother Coles salvation for
brother Zach for his family members salvation and Lord just pray that you would bless this
upcoming weekend that we would see many souls saved this Saturday and Sunday. Pray that
we would see baptisms this weekend Lord that we would see people just get on fire for you
that you would make a difference in people's hearts through the preaching of the word of
God and that we would honor the death barrel and resurrection of your son this upcoming
week. We love you and thank you for all that you do in Jesus name we pray. Amen. It's gonna
be it for announcements this evening we'll go ahead and go to our third Psalm. Right
in your white handouts Psalm 150 in your white handout Psalm 150 150 Psalm 150 there on the
first. The offering plates are being passed turn if you would to Proverbs chapter number
four Proverbs chapter number four. Good evening Proverbs for the Bible reads here you children
the instruction of a father and attend to no understanding for I give you good doctrine
forsake you not my law for I was my father's son tender and only beloved in the sight of
my mother he taught me also and said unto me let thine heart retain my words keep my
commandments and live get wisdom get understanding forget it not neither decline from the words
of my mouth forsake her not and she shall preserve thee love her and she shall keep
thee wisdom is the principle thing therefore get wisdom and with all thy understanding
and with all thy getting get understanding exalt her and she shall promote thee she shall
bring thee to honor when thou dost embrace her she shall give to thine head an ornament
of grace a crown of glory she shall deliver to thee hear my son and receive my sayings
and the years of thy life shall be many I have taught thee in the way of wisdom I have
led thee in right paths when thou goest thy steps shall not be straightened and when thou
runnest thou shalt not stumble take fast hold of instruction let her not go keep her for
she is thy life enter not into the path of the wicked and go not in the way of evil men
avoid it pass not by it turn from it and pass away for they sleep not except they have done
mischief and their sleep is taken away unless they cause some to fall for they eat the bread
of wickedness and drink the wine of violence but the path of the just is as the shining
light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day the way of the wicked is as darkness
they know not at what they stumble my son attend to my words and climb thine ear unto
my sayings let them not depart from thine eyes let them keep them in the midst of thine
heart for they are life unto those that find them and health to all their flesh keep thy
heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life put away from thee a froward
mouth and perverse lips put far from thee let thine eyes look right on and let thine
eyelids look straight before thee ponder the path of thy feet and let all thy ways
be established turn not to the right hand nor to the left remove thy foot from evil
let's bow our heads for a prayer father in heaven we thank you for this day and we thank
you for our church our pastor and his family we ask you to bless them and let them live
in peace and let them live in peace and let them live in peace and let them live in peace.
Amen.
All right.
Where we are in Proverbs chapter four.
Let's read verse number one.
The Bible says here each children the instruction of a father and attend to no understanding.
And when you look at Proverbs chapter four the whole chapter is basically a father's instruction
to his son.
So you know this chapter is definitely very applicable to those of you who are parents
and those of you who are children.
So really this sermon is going to apply to everyone because God is our father and God
gives us lots of instruction.
Number one if you're taking notes this evening, fatherly instruction.
Let's read that again verse one it says, "Hear ye children, notice the instruction of a father
and attend to no understanding."
You know first I want to point out how it's nice that this father is giving their child
instruction.
You know we need dads in this world today that are actually going to love and care about
their children enough to give them instruction.
And you know what I love about God our father is that God has given us a lot of instruction.
You know he's not just left us hanging here to dry trying to figure out how to navigate
through life, how you know through this world, through our own wisdom, no he's given us a
lot of instruction.
And that instruction is going to make us successful, it's going to keep us safe and you know it's
good to have fathers today that are not just paying the bills, though that's great, not
just giving food to their children, but are actually instructing them in wisdom of this
life and most importantly the wisdom of the Bible.
You could stay there, I want to read for you Ephesians chapter 6 verse 4.
The Bible says, "Any fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in
the nurture and admonition of the Lord."
So children, they need both nurture and admonition from their fathers.
You know a godly father is going to make sure that they show love towards their children,
that their children know, hey dad loves me, dad spends time with me when he can, you know
he says he loves me, you know us as fathers we should tell our children I love you, simple
things like that.
But also we should raise them in the admonition of the Lord, meaning that we should be teaching
them the ways of the Bible.
And we need to remember every once in a while that we're not here as parents just to simply
fill our children's belly with food and just pay their bills and just take care of their
needs.
Those are good things to do, but really God gave you a human soul, God gave you a child
to take care of, to raise up in the ways of God.
And just because you do your carnal duties as a father does not necessarily mean that
you're doing everything that you should.
We as parents should be giving our children biblical instruction.
And notice verse two, it says, "For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law."
So notice dad here knows, "Hey, I'm teaching you what's right.
I'm teaching you what is good."
And from the parent's perspective, we need to make sure that we're giving our kids good
things, that we're teaching them the Bible.
And looking at this from a child's perspective, you need to realize that your parents have
your best interests at heart.
And when your parents are telling you something, when your parents are opening the Bible and
trying to counsel you and show you something, they want you to listen to them and you should
listen to them.
Because notice what he says, "I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law."
You know, it's important for everyone, whether you're a child, adult, to consider the source
of information that you receive.
And you know, as you grow up, as you get more mature, you become better at parsing good information
from bad.
As you grow up, hopefully you've read the Bible through cover to cover a couple times,
your living life, your gaining wisdom.
You're going to be better the older you get, hopefully, at parsing good information from
bad.
But you know, you have to have somewhere to start.
And you know where you start?
You start, your default should be trusting your mom and dad.
A good source of information for you children is mom and dad.
Yet today we have so many rebellious children and they're being helped by rebellious teachers
and all sorts of bad influences that want to just cast doubt on mom and dad, make the
home something that should be mocked or ridiculed or don't listen to your fuddy duddy parents
or grandparents or anything like that.
But you got to realize that your parents, if they go to Anchor Baptist Church, they're
giving you good doctrine and you would be wise not to forsake their law.
Go to 2nd Timothy chapter number 3, 2nd Timothy chapter number 3, 2nd Timothy chapter 3, notice
what it says in verse 14, "But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and
hast been assured of," notice, "knowing of whom thou hast learned them."
Even when you get older children, your whole life, our whole life we're going through and
we're deciding who we're going to listen to, what information we're going to allow into
our hearts, who we are going to trust, and even as adults we ought to consider holding
fast the things that we've been taught and considering the source of where we learn things.
You know what's a good source?
Kids, your parents are a good source.
Hey, you know what's a good source?
The Bible is a good source.
See, there needs to be just some starting points in your life, parents, Bible, but as
you get older, you still need to consider the source of things that you hear.
There is a million, probably more, there's probably more than a million preachers online
that want to teach you the Bible.
But you know what?
There's many false prophets in this world and you would be wise not just because someone
says they're a pastor or someone has a platform to just think this person's automatically
telling me the truth, everything that they say is good.
You know, when you read a book, I love reading books, you ought to pick up that book with
a critical mind and thinking how things jive with the Bible, not just soaking everything
up, believing everything you hear, the simple believe it every word.
You need to get some discernment and realize, hey, I need to consider the source of information
that I'm learning.
Look at verse 15.
It says that from a child that was known, the holy scriptures, which are able to make
the wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus, all scripture is given
by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for
instruction in righteousness.
So of course, when Solomon here as the father is saying, I give you good doctrine forsaking
not my law, that's also a picture of God and how God has given us the Bible.
The Bible says that every word of it is inspired by God and is profitable to us.
And you know what, we need to trust in the word of God.
We need to not forsake the word of God, not forsake the law of God, not forsake the commandments
of God, realize that these are good things.
The Bible is always true.
It's the best thing that you can rely on.
You know, when you, when you consider sources, you ought to realize like, Hey, is this person
a known liar?
That would be a bad source.
Or how about a false prophet?
This would be a bad source to listen to.
How about Jewish news media?
This would be something that if I'm listening to anything from the Jewish news media, I'm
going to approach that with a heavily critical ear.
It doesn't mean that 100% of everything they're going to say is a lie, but you know what?
Everything that the Jewish news media is telling me, I'm going to approach very critically.
Atheists, these are people that I'm going to approach very critically.
Why?
Because we need to consider the sources that are going into our hearts.
Go back to Proverbs chapter number four, Proverbs chapter number four.
So he's telling his son, hey, don't forsake what I'm telling you.
Then he says in verse three, four, meaning because I was my father's son, tender and
only beloved in the sight of my mother.
He taught me also and said unto me, let thine heart retain my words, keep my commandments
and live.
So Solomon, he grew up to be a great man of God, and it's not a coincidence that he had
a father and a mother that loved him greatly.
You know, he was secure in his parents' love, says that he was only beloved in the sight
of his mother, and his father what?
Taught him.
His father said, hey, let your hearts retain my words, keep my commandments and live.
You know, if we want to give kids the best chance at serving God, you know, getting saved,
loving God, living a successful life, it's going to be from having a mom singular and
a dad singular in that child's life their whole life.
You know what harms kids?
Multi-family homes.
Having two dads, having two moms in two different situations that believe different things that
are teaching you conflicting ideas, this is going to be damaging to a child.
The best situation where hey, Solomon grew up to be a great man of God, he had a father
that loved him and that taught him God's word, and he had a mother that loved him too.
That is a recipe for success.
I want to quote for you these statistics, in 2023, about 26% of children under 18 years
old in the United States lived in single parent households.
That is crazy to think about.
One out of every four child children that are under the age of 18 are growing up with
just one parent in the home.
This comes from the Census Bureau data, with roughly 21.5% living with a single mother
and 4.6% with a single father.
So of that 26%, the vast majority of that is kids just being raised by a single mother.
And you know what?
That causes a lot of problems in life.
God created marriage that he can seek a godly seed.
God wants both a father and a mother in a child's life and of course sometimes tragedies
happen and dad dies or mom dies and sometimes things are just unavoidable.
And that sucks.
That's terrible.
But you know a lot of the harm that's being done to young children in the United States
is just inflicted by selfishness, is inflicted by parents not considering their children's
future, not loving them enough to stay married.
And sometimes people scoff at the idea of staying married just for the children.
Hey, that's a good enough reason to stay married right there.
Because you should care and love for your child deeply, care for them a lot, and stay
married.
And of course you should stay married for other reasons too.
I hope you love your spouse.
I hope you have a great marriage.
I hope no one's ever considering divorce.
But if you ever are considering in your heart, first of all, know it's a sin that God hates
it.
But second, know that you're going to cause serious damage to your children.
You're going to harm them.
When you look at the statistics of kids that get involved in drugs, alcohol, gangs, kids
that get arrested very early in life, it almost always comes from single parent homes.
It's a serious problem in America, and it needs to be talked about more.
Verse number five says, "Get wisdom, get understanding, forget it not, neither decline from the words
of my mouth."
Notice how this father, Solomon here, he's deeply concerned with the growth of his child.
Not just the physical growth of his child, but his child getting wisdom, getting understanding.
And you know, we ought to be concerned about the education of the next generation.
This is a good reason why you should be free to thrive, is because notice the heart of
this father.
He wants his son to get wisdom, to get understanding, to not forget it, to not decline from the
words of his mouth.
Look, going to church every time the doors are open, not only is it going to benefit
you, it's going to benefit your children.
And foolishness is bound in the heart of a child.
The Bible says that you need to make sure that you're getting as much opportunity for
your kids to get wisdom as possible.
You want to make sure that you're taking homeschooling seriously, that you're giving them a real education,
that they're reading the Bible, they're learning to do these things on their own, and that
they're in church as much as possible.
Wisdom is super, super important.
Go to Deuteronomy chapter number 31, Deuteronomy 31, and of course, this is also one of the
reasons why I just love the family integrated church model, because we want kids to be getting
wisdom as early in life as humanly possible.
Deuteronomy 31, 11 says, "When all Israel has come to appear before the Lord thy God
in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing.
Gather the people together, men and women, notice, and children, and thy stranger that
is within thy gates, that they may hear, that they may learn, notice, and fear the Lord
your God, and observe to do all the words of this law."
We want our children to hear the word of God, to learn the word of God, and most importantly
to fear God.
I don't know about you, I want my kids to fear the Lord.
I want them to have a healthy fear of God instilled in them at a young age so that when
they get to their teenage years and their hormones are going off and their brain isn't
working properly, there's hopefully some fear to prevent them from sinning, from doing wickedly.
Notice verse 13, "And that their children," notice, "which have not known anything, may
hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as you live in the land, whether you
go over Jordan to possess it."
You know these kids are born into this world, and you know how much they know?
Nothing.
They know absolutely nothing, and they are this little empty sponge that you could play
a huge part into molding and shaping your children's future.
And while we're not Calvinists here, I don't think you could guarantee the outcome of your
children's spiritual life.
You know, you can do a lot of influence in their life, though.
And you know one of the greatest ways to do that?
Teach them the Bible, read the Bible with them at home, take them to church.
Notice so that they may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God.
Go back to Proverbs chapter number four.
Proverbs chapter number four.
Notice verse number six, it says, "Forsake her not and she shall preserve thee.
Love her and she shall keep thee."
So by not forsaking God's word, by not forsaking God's commandments and the wisdom of God,
it's supposed to have an effect on your life.
What is that effect?
That it is going to preserve you.
This is why hard preaching is loving.
This is why preaching God's commandments is the loving thing to do because when someone
is taught, "Hey, don't forsake God's wisdom.
Don't forsake the Bible.
Don't forsake the commandments of God."
It's going to do something for you.
It's going to preserve you.
You know what it's going to preserve you from?
It can preserve you from a lot of things.
It can preserve you from a life long, you know, miserable existence from the consequences
of sin.
Because guess what?
Sin harms people, folks.
And of course, that's not the only reason sin is bad.
The most important reason is that it offends God and that God is angry at you when you
sin.
Do you know that?
The Bible says that God is angry with the wicked every day, you know?
But also on top of that, sin hurts you.
Sin hurts each other.
Sin hurts our families.
Sin hurts our communities and our churches.
And you know what, the loving thing to do is to preach super hard against sin.
You know, I think about a few weeks ago I was soul winning and this young lady opened
the door.
She looks like she was maybe between the ages of 18 and 21.
Young lady just starting off her life and she's got this child with her.
She's in this extremely run down apartment.
And we just got done talking to his neighbor and her neighbor and her neighbor was like
some false prophet who was saying that like he's a prophet, he's an apostle, he's God.
Like she's living in a rough place.
But here's like this pretty young girl who had everything going for her.
I hear some little baby crying in the background.
I'm just thinking, oh, this woman ruined her life by committing fornication.
And that's my assumption.
I think I'm right on that.
She's alone in a run down apartment, no man supporting her.
Here she is just ruining her life at a young age.
You know what?
That's terrible.
My heart breaks for that.
Why did this young lady's life get destroyed so early?
You know, her value to other men are going to be diminished by the fact that she's been
a whore, that she has a bastard child, you know, there's not going to be a line of virgin
independent fundamental Baptist young men that want to marry that young lady.
I hate to say it.
But you know, people want to criticize us for preaching hard against fornication, saying
that we're judgemental, saying that we're unloving because I use the word whore, because
I use the word bastard.
Well what about that young lady whose life was destroyed, wouldn't it have been loving
for her to have grown up hearing hard preaching and being told to not forsake God's commandments?
Then maybe she could have gotten married as a virgin to a good, honorable, decent man and
had lots of children and been blessed by God.
But here she is in a run down, dirty, roach filled apartment across from God himself apparently,
some delusional freak.
That's sad.
That's terrible.
So that's why hard preaching is the loving preaching.
Hateful preaching is the preaching that tones down the severity of sin.
Hateful preaching is the preaching that says God's never mad at you.
You can never be, you know, God can never be upset with you in any way.
You know, this hyper grace mentality that just because you're saved and just because
salvation is by faith alone, that therefore your works don't really matter.
God's not going to be angry at you if you're not doing good works.
God's not going to be angry at you if you're breaking God's commandments.
Look, that is actual hateful preaching.
That's the bad spirit preaching.
Real love is going to shoot straight with you with what the Bible actually says.
And that's why it says in verse 7, "Notice wisdom is the principal thing.
Therefore get wisdom, and with all thy getting, get understanding."
We want to be instilling into the hearts of our children.
Look, you need to get wisdom.
You need to get understanding.
Why?
Because it will preserve you.
It will keep you.
It will bless your life, and I don't care what anyone says.
I don't care who wants to put the false accusation against me or my fellow preachers that we
are hate preachers.
No, you know what?
We are the biggest preachers of love on this planet, because we will actually tell people
the consequences of their sin.
We're not going to shirk from it.
We're not going to hide from it.
We're going to tell people, "Hey, wisdom is the principal thing.
With all thy getting, get it."
That's why I literally said, "Hey, you don't have time to read the Bible.
You should literally skip breakfast then because wisdom is more important.
Oh, you don't have time to read the Bible?
It's literally better for you to miss hours of sleep than to not get the Bible because
God's word is going to keep you safe.
God's commandments are going to bless you and keep you safe and bless you in great ways.
Look at verse 8.
"Exalt her wisdom and she shall promote thee.
She shall bring thee to honor when thou dost embrace her."
So there's a direct correlation between those who get the wisdom of God, knowledge, understanding,
fear God, keep His commandments.
There's a direct correlation to those who promote those things and then what happens?
The fruit of those things promote them.
And you see people who are successful in life, even people who are unsaved, they often have
leveraged the wisdom of the Bible.
You want to know why your boss is your boss 99% of the time is because your boss is not
a slugger and because your boss is educated because your boss is smart and works hard.
And that's why he's the boss.
That is the 99% rule of our world.
Why?
Because those that exalt wisdom, it says that they will be promoted, exalt her and she shall
promote thee.
She shall bring thee to honor when thou dost embrace her wisdom, knowledge, understanding
is important in business and in church too.
You could stay there.
I'll read for you 1 Timothy 3,6 about a pastor, it says, "Not a novice, lest being filled
up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil."
We don't need someone being in the office of a pastor who is a novice, someone who has
not attained to wisdom and understanding and knowledge and hasn't studied the word of God.
Why?
Because that person's going to be filled with pride and it's going to be condemned of the
devil, that person's going to fail.
The exact opposite of what wisdom does, exalt wisdom, wisdom exalts you.
You don't exalt wisdom, you don't care about wisdom and truth and the word of God.
Well, you're going to fail, you're going to be cast down, you're going to become a shame.
Look at verse number nine, it says, "She," wisdom, "shall give to thine head an ornament
of grace, a crown of glory, she shall deliver to thee."
So again, I've talked about this recently, what is an ornament?
It's something that goes on something else to make it look better, right?
It makes you look better, makes you look prettier, makes things look nice.
That's what an ornament is, a crown of glory that's going to be put on a king's head and
it's going to exude strength and glory and kingship and might.
So by exalting wisdom, you know what this is saying is that you're going to make Christianity
look good.
You're going to be an ornament and a crown and it's going to make the things of God look
good.
Go to Titus chapter number two, Titus chapter number two, "God's people being wise, God's
people having understanding, God's people keeping God's commandments, these things are going
to make Christianity look good."
You know what makes Christianity look dumb?
People who are Christians and believe in a flat earth.
This makes Christianity a shame.
This makes things look bad.
Notice Titus chapter number two, verse six, "Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded
in all things showing thyself a pattern of good works, in doctrine showing uncorruptness,
gravity, sincerity, sound speech that cannot be condemned.
That he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed having no evil thing to say of you."
So what is our goal as Christians and especially the goal of preachers?
It's to have sound doctrine.
It's to have sound words that are in accordance with the Bible, with God's teaching, with
correct doctrine, so that our enemies, those that are of the contrary part, are not able to speak against us.
What does that imply?
When you have bad doctrine, when you teach false doctrine, when you lie, when you have
sloppy preaching, what does it do?
It gives people an occasion to make Christianity look bad.
You do right?
You exalt wisdom?
Makes Christianity look good.
Why?
Because the Bible's good.
Because God is good.
Because His Word is good.
And as long as we're in line with that, Christianity's always going to look good.
But you show me an example of someone that the world scoffs at, who's a Christian, that
says, "Oh, look at this hypocrite."
I'll show you someone that is not in alignment with God's Word, right?
People who get into all these sexual scandals and stuff like that, and they'll blame Christianity
for that, when the truth is, like, okay, someone committed adultery?
Well, good news.
The Bible actually says that adulterers should be put to death.
That's not the Bible's fault.
That's that wicked person's fault.
But still, just to the world, it's going to make Christianity look bad, right?
That's why we want to make sure we're exalting wisdom, exalting good doctrine.
Notice verse number nine.
Here's an example, "Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters and to please
them well in all things, not answering again."
So here is an example of one of the commandments of God.
This is a commandment here that servants, or we could think of in our modern vernacular
as like employees at the job, that servants, exhort servants to be obedient unto their
own masters.
You know the Bible teaches that a good Christian godly employee, they should be obedient, submissive
and subservient to their boss at work.
You should be respectful to your boss, you should speak kindly to him, you should obey
everything that he tells you to do, you should seek to please him on the job, and guess what,
that's God's commandment, that's what God is telling you to do.
And guess what, if you do that, there's a result.
Notice the end of, or look at verse number 10, "Not purloining, but showing all good
fidelity," notice, "that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things."
See, by you keeping the commandment to obey your boss, to be a good employee, it makes
the doctrine of Jesus Christ look good.
And you know what?
The opposite is true.
If you go to work and you backtalk your boss, and you talk crap about him, and you don't
obey him, and you don't do a good job at work, and people know you're a Christian, you know
what they're going to think?
"Christianity sucks.
Anchor Baptist Church sucks.
Oh, King James Olenius, they suck.
Oh, Independent Fundamental Baptists, don't hire those people.
They won't work hard."
There's a direct correlation with these things.
And so it's like, look, if God's telling us to do this, to be good employees, and that
if we do it, we're going to make Jesus look good.
Don't you think that God's angry with you if you're a bad worker and you're making Christianity
look bad?
Don't you think God's mad at you?
Now, would it be so loving for me to tell you, "Oh, you could just be a crappy employee,
no worries.
God's never going to be upset.
God's never going to be mad at you.
He doesn't care that you're making the doctrine of Christ look bad?"
Or should I tell you like, "Hey, do you want to avoid God being pissed off at you?
Be a good worker on the job."
I mean, I don't really care which one motivates you.
Like you just love God so much and you just want Christianity to look good, or you're
just scared of breaking God's commandments that he's going to come down on you.
I don't care which one motivates you, do the right thing.
Because regardless of which one motivates you, it's still true that if you do good,
you make Christianity look good, you do bad, you make it look bad.
It doesn't really matter what your motivation is there.
Go to Proverbs chapter number three.
Proverbs chapter number three, exalt wisdom, you get exalted, but what happens when you
don't do that?
Proverbs three verse 35, the wise shall inherit glory, but shame shall be the promotion of
fools.
You bring shame to Christianity when you are a fool.
You bring shame children to your parents when you grow up and you don't listen to any of
their things that you were taught.
You bring shame to the name Baptist when you act like a fool.
You bring shame to the name Baptist when you preach foolish things.
When we do anything outside of God's word, we're bringing shame to the cause of Christ.
We should care about that.
That should motivate us to some extent.
Look at verse number 10 of Proverbs 4.
"Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings," notice, "and the years of thy life shall be many."
See, it's loving to teach God's commandments because sometimes it can literally translate
to longer life span.
Like how about, "Honor your mother and your father, that thy days may be long upon the
earth."
That is a promise from God.
And you know what?
We should preach hard against kids rebelling against their parents and disrespecting their
parents or cursing their parents.
Why?
Because those kids are hurting themselves at the end of the day.
I mean, if you honor your mother and father, you'll live a long life.
If you don't, God can literally take you home early.
That is what the Bible is teaching.
You know what's not good is making light of God's commandments.
You know what's not good is teaching people that God's not really angry at you when you
sin.
These type of things is actually not loving preaching.
It's hateful.
And you know, it hurts me that I have to call out someone tonight who I love for a long
time and have been friends with, but is teaching doctrine so bad and so harmful.
And I'm just worried about people being influenced this that I have to do that.
But that's Pastor Joe Jones.
And let me make it clear.
I don't hate this guy.
I love him.
I want his church to succeed.
I don't want people to leave his church.
I want his ministry to do well.
But you know, some of the things that he's preached lately has been extreme heresy and
I would say even blasphemous.
And so as a pastor, I find it my job and my duty to warn you about it this evening.
He preached a sermon on Romans chapter six and he starts off kind of like mocking the
idea of a preacher preaching that you should be free to thrive.
He said this, he says, we always push this, you know, you got to be three times a week
to thrive and you got to do all these things and that if you don't, God's going to come
down on you and really put the boots to you.
He's going to make you pay the price.
I'm going to expose the fact that that is not true whatsoever.
Now go to Hebrews chapter number 10, Hebrews chapter number 10.
Now I will grant nowhere in the Bible does it say thou shalt go to church three times
a week.
But why as a pastor, why as a Christian would I try to downplay the importance of going
to the house of God or trying to act like hey, it's not a big deal if you're not going
to church.
Like I want us to esteem church very highly.
And is that because of just my personal opinion or that I just personally like church?
No, I actually get it from the Bible.
Look at Hebrews chapter number 10 verse 25.
Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting
one another notice and so much the more as you see the day approaching.
See I will grant you the Bible does not say thou shalt go to church three times a week,
but you know what it does say is that we should not forsake the assembling of ourselves together
as the manner of some is, but so much the more should we gather, so much the more should
we assemble in church as we see the day of Christ approaching.
And as we see the day of Christ approaching, I want to not downplay church, not make people
feel like, "Hey, no big deal, if you just skip church on a whim, I want to make church
as reverent and as held up in esteem as possible."
I'm trying to wake people up constantly telling them, "Look, hey, serving God is all that
matters in life.
There is nothing else to live for."
The Bible literally says that this is the whole duty of man is to fear God and keep
his commandments.
It's the whole duty of man, okay?
So forgive me if I try to tell people you should be in the house of God every time the
doors are open.
And you know what?
I'm not trying to just make people feel as comfortable as they can for skipping church
on a whim.
You know what I want you to feel when you skip church on a whim?
Ashamed of yourself.
Why?
Because Jesus Christ died for the church.
He shed his blood for it.
He gave us this great institution, and why would I, as a pastor, sit here and downplay
it?
It's insanity.
It's ridiculous.
And here's what the Bible says.
So the Bible just got done telling us, "Don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together."
Then it says, "For if we sin willfully."
So you know what you're doing when you're forsaking church?
You're sinning willfully.
It says, "For if we sin willfully, after that we have received the knowledge of the truth,
there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins."
Here's the thing.
In Leviticus, when someone sinned, the Bible prescribed, here's what happens if one of
the common people sin.
Here's the offering that they need to offer.
Here's the offering when the congregation sins.
Here's the offering when the priest sins.
And you know, the priest offering was more than the common person because that person
had more responsibility, but they were doing these offerings, you know, not to be absolved
of their sin.
Obviously, salvation's never been by works, it's never been by sacrifices, it's always
been by trusting in Jesus Christ, but you know, this sacrifice would kind of restore
fellowship with God, would restore the relationship that they had, and it was an important thing
to do in that process, it was God's word.
But in the New Testament, notice what it says, it says, "For if we sin willfully after that
we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins."
If you sin, if you don't go to church, you don't get to get out of punishment by just
offering a lamb, offering a goat, offering something like that, there are no more sacrifices
for your sins.
You know what you have to look forward to if you do that?
Keep reading, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation.
Now I didn't write the Bible.
That is God's word.
What someone has to look forward to when they sin willfully, which shall devour the adversaries.
Then he gives an example.
He that despised Moses's law died without mercy under two or three witnesses of how
and here's the thing, that verse isn't given to you to think like, oh man, it was so much
more severe than the Old Testament.
God was so much more judgmental in the Old Testament.
He judged people so much harsher.
No, notice what it says in verse 29, "Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye shall
he be thought worthy, who hath trod and underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood
of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto
the spirit of grace."
I mean, someone who just has zero regard for God's commandments, doesn't fear God whatsoever,
is using grace as a cover for lasciviousness and wickedness and sin, I mean, they're just
doing despite under God's grace, right?
We shouldn't just take God's grace and just abuse the fact that God gave us grace.
Now, where we sin, grace abounds every single time, but we shouldn't just take that and
just abuse God's love, abuse God's grace.
No, that is wicked.
And then it says in verse 30, "For we know Him that hath said, 'Vengeance belongeth unto
me.
I will recompense, save the Lord, and again the Lord shall judge his people.'"
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Does it sound like we should fear God?
Does it sound like we should be afraid of God?
Well, I read you those verses because this is what Pastor Jones said.
He said this, "It's time that we stop scaring people into obedience."
He said, "God does not do that to us, nor should we do that to God's people."
Well, it's weird because when I open my Bible, like every single page is making me fear God.
I'm just constantly seeing God's judgment in the Old Testament.
I'm reading New Testament verses about how it's fearful to fall into the hands of the
living God, how we're going to be of a sore punishment when we just do despite unto the
grace of God, and then we have fundamental Baptist pastors saying it's time that we stop
scaring people.
No, it's time we start scaring people.
I wish someone would have scared that young lady that ruined her life by committing fornication.
You know, I wish those drunk drivers that went into Lake Overholzer a few months ago
would have been scared straight by a fundamental Baptist preacher screaming about drinking alcohol.
I wish they would have been scared so they're not dead and in hell right now.
Oh but it's just so hateful, it's so bad, these Baptist pastors that cause people to
fear God.
You know what?
Fear God and keep His commandments for this is the whole duty of man.
Why are we sitting here making light of making people fear God?
Why are we preaching false doctrine that says that God doesn't scare people into obedience?
I'm reading Hebrews 10 and I'm like, I'm pretty scared.
It's a fearful thing to fall into the hand of the living God.
Don't forsake the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is.
And you know what?
It's like, Oh, you're going to make people feel guilty.
Good.
Maybe you need to feel guilty every once in a while because I feel guilty every once in
a while.
I read the Bible.
I'm just like, yeah, I'm guilty.
I need to change.
Right.
Or should we just give people excuses for everything and just let them off the hook?
You know, you could give them excuses.
You can make them feel better about themselves, but that doesn't change the consequences of
ruining their life from sin.
People go out and drink alcohol, they commit adultery, they bastard children, they get
in drunk driving accidents, they get divorced, they go through all these terrible things.
You know what?
The consequences of those sins are way more painful to them than hearing a hard sermon
about those subjects.
Way more painful to them than reading the Bible, you know, condemning those subjects.
And this is why hard preaching is loving.
And this type of preaching of toning down sin, saying that God doesn't really get mad,
God's not trying to scare people into obedience.
This is not a good spirit, folks.
This is not a loving spirit.
This is not biblical.
This is going to cause people harm.
Okay.
Then it gets worse.
He starts off in this quote and what he starts saying, you know, starts good.
It says we spend a lot of time exposing work salvation.
We know the gospel is free.
We get that.
That's crystal clear.
We understand that.
No works involved.
Amen.
Salvation is by faith alone.
Praise God.
Only by faith.
He says this, okay, but where the enemy comes in, now who's the enemy?
Satan.
So he's saying where Satan comes in, where the enemy comes in and says, okay, yeah, that's
true, but we need works.
You know, we got to have some works if you're going to be accepted with him, if you're going
to be one of God's disciples.
Now, there's a couple of serious problems with this quote.
First of all, he says that the devil is going to whisper in your ear, agreeing that salvation
is by faith alone.
No, folks, the devil's not whispering in people's ear saying, yeah, you're right.
Salvation is by faith alone.
Yeah, you're right.
It's grace through faith.
No, the devil is giving us the Catholic church telling us that salvation is by works.
The devil's giving us Hinduism.
The devil's giving us Mormonism.
The devil is not whispering in people's ear saying salvation is by faith alone, by trusting
in Jesus Christ, that he died for your sins and rose again and if you only put your trust
in him, you'll have eternal life.
First of all, the devil's just not doing that.
So already this is just not true, okay?
But then he says that the devil is going to tell you that you have to do good works to
be a disciple of Jesus Christ.
He's saying that it's a doctrine of devils to say that doing good works is necessary
to be a disciple.
Guess what?
What the Lord Jesus Christ taught that you need to do good works not to be saved, but
to follow Him, to be a disciple.
And that's why I say that this false doctrine has crossed into blasphemy because he's saying
that the devil, that Satan, is whispering in people's ears saying that salvation is
by faith alone and that you have to do good works to be a disciple.
Well, let's look at some Bible.
Go to John chapter number 14, John chapter number 14.
And look, I don't want to preach this.
I don't want to talk about this.
I've liked Pastor Jones for a long time.
We're not friends anymore because he made it really clear in his preaching that anyone
that didn't stand up for him against Pastor Anderson is not his friend anymore.
And, you know, the Bible says can two walk together except they be agreed.
Pastor Jones thinks that my friend is some wife-abusing, child-abusing maniac, and he
preaches that.
I think that my friend Pastor Anderson is a great man of God.
Obviously, we just don't agree.
It is what it is.
You know, I don't hate Pastor Jones.
I want his ministry to succeed.
I want him to do well.
I never repent of this stuff because this type of teaching is going to hurt people.
John 14 verse 15, it says this, "If you love me, keep my commandments."
See, Jesus taught that if we love him, we should keep, or we must, excuse me, we must
keep his commandments.
So downplaying works to be a disciple of Christ and to say that the devil is actually telling
you, "Oh, Satan's telling you, you've got to do works to be accepted with him and to
be a disciple."
Jesus said, "If you love me, keep my commandments."
Go to John chapter 15 verse 12.
John chapter 15 verse number 12, it says, "This is my commandment, that ye love one
another as I have loved you.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you."
How do you become the friend of Jesus Christ?
Is it by getting saved?
Nope, because in James it says that if you are a friend of the world, you are an enemy
of God.
You could actually be saved and be an enemy of Jesus Christ.
How do you become Jesus' friend?
It's not just by being saved, it's by doing whatsoever he commands.
And you know what?
I want God's people to be friends with Jesus.
I want us to be disciples of Jesus, and you know what that's going to take?
That's going to take work.
That's going to take doing work.
And notice how it says in verse number 12 that his commandment is to love one another.
Some liberal preachers would say, "Hey, no big deal, don't worry about the commandments,
it's just love, love, love."
Okay, but what does the Bible actually say that love is?
Go to Romans chapter number 13.
Let's let the Bible define for us what it means to love.
Romans chapter number 13 verse 8, it says this, "Oh, no man, anything but to love one
another, for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
For this thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal,
thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet."
And if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely
"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."
Notice verse number 10, "Love worketh no ill to his neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling
of the law."
See, salvation is by faith alone.
But if you want to be a loving Christian, you know what you're going to have to do?
You're going to have to keep God's commandments.
If you want to love Jesus Christ, you're going to have to keep God's commandments.
If you want to be the friend of Jesus Christ, you're going to have to keep God's commandments.
We're not going to downplay keeping God's commandments.
We're not going to act like God isn't angry, God isn't upset at people, and go listen to
his sermon in context and come tell me that I'm preaching him out of context, I'm not.
Go to Luke chapter number 14.
Let's talk about some specific instances where Jesus talks about the requirements to be his
disciple.
Luke chapter number 14, Luke 14 verse 26, it says, "If any man come to me and hate not
his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own
life also, he cannot be my disciple."
That is a lot of work.
That is a tall order that Jesus is demanding for someone to be his disciple because sometimes
that word hate in the Bible could mean to esteem something higher than something else
or esteem something lower than something else.
Right?
So you can't love God and mammon.
You have to hold to the one or hate the other.
It's not saying that you have to rip up your paycheck or anything like that when you get
paid, but it's supposed to be that obviously God is esteemed way higher than money.
And here the Bible is saying that you have to hate your mother, father, all these different
people.
You know, most people do not prioritize God over their family.
Most people use family as an excuse to not serve God.
I mean, they're always busy on the weekend, they're busy on Sunday because they're hanging
out with their family.
Oh, can't go swimming on Saturday because they're out to barbecue with their family,
right?
I mean, people, or they just can't take a stand for God because it would make their
family mad.
Their family's been Catholic their whole life.
They don't want to piss them off.
They don't want to make that stand.
Many people do not do this.
Why?
Because it's actually hard work to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.
And it's not the devil that's whispering in your ear that says, "You have to prioritize
God over your family."
It's Jesus telling you that.
This is the words of Jesus.
Look at verse 27, "Tell me if this sounds like hard work and whosoever does not bear
his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple."
I'm pretty sure bearing the cross was extremely difficult.
I mean, it's supposed to be a picture of like the hardest thing ever, and the Bible says
that we're supposed to take our cross and follow him to be disciples.
The Bible says, "Endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ."
Look, being a disciple is hard.
That's why few people do it.
It's hard to just be sold out for God, but you know what?
It's what you should do.
It's what Jesus is telling you to do.
It's not what Satan is telling you to do.
It is what Jesus is telling you to do.
"For which of you intending to build a tower siteth not down first and counteth the cost
whether he hath sufficient to finish it, lest, happily, after he hath laid the foundation
and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, saying, This man began
to build and was not able to finish.
"For what king going to make war against another king siteth not down first and consulteth
whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand,
or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he senteth an embassage and desireth
conditions of peace.
So likewise, whosoever he be of you, notice that forsaketh not all that he hath.
He cannot be my disciple.
You know what?
Salvation, it's all faith.
But being a disciple, it's all about the works.
It's all about the works.
And you know what?
I want to emphasize to the unsaved, I want to emphasize to them, grace, grace, grace,
faith, faith, faith.
No works.
That's what I go to the door, that's what I emphasize.
So you want to know what I want to emphasize to God's people, work, work, work, why?
Because hey, you don't need that anymore, you're already saved, you can't lose your
salvation, you're eternally secure, I don't need to preach you the gospel again, I need
to preach you to get your butt in church, I need to preach for you to get your butt
out soul winning, I need to preach for you to start keeping God's commandments and to
fear God so you don't destroy your life, so you don't destroy your children's life, so
you don't destroy your marriage, so you don't destroy our country, you know what it's serious
and you know what I love you, I love God's people and so that's why I preach hard on
sin, that's why I'm not going to sit here and tell you like oh it's not a big deal don't
do the works it's stupid folks, go to if you would Proverbs chapter number four, Proverbs
chapter number four and look it's not just like a minor interpretation of you know an
obscure doctrine this is a serious doctrine and it's crossed into blasphemy teaching that
Satan is whispering things in people's ears that really Jesus taught it's wicked it needs
to be called out I don't mark people lightly I don't like preaching this it's not fun hasn't
been a fun afternoon thinking about this I want his church to be blessed I want him to
change I want him to repent I want him to stop preaching this stuff just because it's
wrong and it's hurting people but you know I feel like it needed to be said Proverbs 4 verse 11
says I have taught thee in the way of wisdom I have led thee in right paths the father kind of
continues his exhortation to his son and there's kind of a two-fold approach to his leadership and
it's a something that everyone who's a leader should follow he taught his son in the way of
wisdom and notice he also led in right paths and this is good leadership well no matter what position
of leadership you are in whether you are just a mother or a boss at work or a pastor whatever
you know it's important to make sure that you're teaching what's right that you're giving good
doctrine good instructions and you're also showing a good example people often like to focus on one or
the other and really emphasize one or the other but you really need both in leadership it's not
enough for me to get up here and just tell you guys to go soul winning if i never go soul winning
that would be bad leadership right and you know jesus he was a perfect leader because everything
he said was right and everything that he did was right we're obviously not going to be perfect
leaders but we should look to that example as our pattern for leadership that we need to make sure
that we're teaching what's right and doing what's right go to luke chapter number 24 as you're
turning there first corinthians 11 verse 1 says be ye followers of me even as i also am of christ you
know paul was able with a clear conscience with all honesty to look at his followers and say be ye
followers of me and you know if you are a leader that should be your goal is with a clear sincere
heart to look at the people you are leading and say be like me follow me believe the things that
i'm teaching you do the things that i'm doing not just you have one or the other but you've got both
going for you luke 24 verse 17 says and he said unto them what matter of communications are these
that you have one to another as he walk and are sad and the one of them whose name was kleopas
answering said unto him art thou only a stranger in jerusalem and has not known the things which
are come to pass there in these days and he said unto them what things and they said unto him
concerning jesus of nazareth which was a prophet mighty notice indeed and word before god and all
the people i love that phrase there that jesus was mighty in his deeds his miracles the way he
was living his life and also in his words and you know that's what we need to strive for is
being a good example of what we say and what we do go back to proverbs chapter four then it says
in verse 12 it says when thou goest thy steps shall not be straightened that word straightened
means constricted confined or hindered and when thou runnest thou shalt not stumble so notice by
following wisdom by following god's commandments it's not going to constrain you and confine you
like the world likes to say that the bible is so restrictive it's actually going to give you the
most freedom the most liberty when you have the word of god when you're on the right trail you're
not going off into the bushes that hasn't been you know taken care of or anything like that you're on
the straight and narrow path that is the safest way to run you've got the most freedom you're not
going to be stumbling all over stuff your steps aren't like constrained and taking these little
tiny steps like you could just sprint ahead knowing what you're doing is right knowing that it's safe
to go in the direction that you're going it's the best way to live your life following god's
commandments i mean think about this people will do drugs right people just take drugs for an
example people that take drugs they experience a very short term high that's what it's called a high
right a dopamine rush they're having all this pleasure flooding to their brain they're having
a great time they're feeling good they feel free there's a reason people do drugs and it's probably
because it just makes them feel really good that's why they do it right but if they continue down
that life do are they living a life of freedom or are they living a life of slavery look addiction
is just a life of slavery you look at the homeless population of okc you look at the people where
their jaw is like up to their nose they got no teeth from all the meth that they smoked
those people are not living a life full of freedom and happiness and blessing their steps are
constrained they are you know refined they are being or confined rather when they're running
they're stumbling literally when they're walking they're stumbling i mean it's crazy it's so sad
seeing the life that these people live every single day i go to work i pass several homeless
people asleep on the side of the road it's like 6 30 a.m i'm walking past them and it's 3 45 in
the evening i'm walking past them and they've been sleeping there all day just asleep when i get to
work asleep when i leave it's like that is sad that's a rough life but you know what the real
path to freedom where the spirit of the lord is there is liberty living according to god's
commandments is the best way that you can live verse 13 that's why it says take fast hold of
instruction and let her not go keep her for she is thy life number two this evening a warning
against bad company a warning against bad company verse 14 the bible says enter not into the path of
the wicked and go not in the way of evil men you know solomon wants to make sure that his son stays
away from wicked people why because again just like all of god's commandments when you break this
commandment it's going to bring you harm in your life stay there first corinthians 1533
says be not deceived evil communications corrupt good manners if your friends are a bunch of super
wicked people doing a bunch of dumb stuff you know what you're going to end up doing the same dumb
stuff that they are you're going to start saying and believing and acting like the dumb people that
you're around so that's why you should not enter into the path of the wicked the bible actually
gives us several people that we are supposed to avoid that we are supposed to stay away from and
shun let me give you a couple of examples go to roman 16 roman 16 you know the first example i
could think of that the bible tells us to avoid to not enter their path to stay far away from is
people that preach false doctrine people that teach lies these are people that you should be aware of
verse 17 of roman 16 the bible says now i beseech you brethren mark them that means make it known who
they are which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned
notice and avoid them for they that are such serve not our lord jesus christ but their own
belly and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple you know we as christians
need to avoid false teachers avoid people that preach false doctrine and i strive to do my best
to preach the truth every time i get behind this pulpit and i believe i'm doing that but obviously
i'm a human being i can make mistakes i probably have and probably will in the future say things
that are not totally correct and that's why you yourself need to make sure you're searching the
scriptures daily and you just have to have this idea in your mind because who knows someday if
you move if you go to another church you need to remember that the bible tells you to avoid those
that preach false doctrine so you're going to some church and the pastor starts preaching that you
got to repent of your sins to be saved realize that's a church you should leave you should not
attend a church that is not clear on salvation you need to make sure you're attending a church that
has the right doctrine here's another group of people that we should avoid second thessalonians
chapter three those who refuse to work look those who refuse to work should be marked and avoided
people are not welcome men are not welcome to attend anchor baptist church if they just want
to be homeless and not work perpetually i'm not saying someone's going through a hard time
financially someone who just refuses to work refuses to get a job is not welcome here you'd
have to get a job why second thessalonians three verse 10 for when we were yet with you this we
commanded you that if any would not work neither should he eat for we hear that there are some which
walk among you disorderly working not at all but our busy bodies now them that are such we command
and exhort by our lord jesus christ that with quietness they work and eat their own bread but
ye brethren be not weary and well-doing and if any man obey not our word by this epistol notice note
that man and have no company with him why that he may be ashamed see it's good when people feel
ashamed about their sin so that it could drive them to change we want people to feel that way
but verse 15 says yet count him not as an enemy but admonish him as a brother think about it if
someone is in a situation where they're perpetually not working they're just getting money from who
knows what asking random people for money maybe doing crime however they're getting money but
they're not working they're not doing an honest job what would be the loving thing to do to that
brother would it be just to coddle him say it's totally okay god's not mad at you no judgment is
a judgment-free zone no if you actually care about him if you don't view him as an enemy you're gonna
do what the bible says to mark him to note that man and have no company with him that's actually
the loving thing to do but people have just a twisted view of love today like people conflate
not offending people as being loving but sometimes offending someone if they're in a
terrible life situation that's causing them harm that's offending god that's getting god angry at
them offending that person though it could be harsh is actually the loving thing to do sometimes
to cause them to change and get back into living according to what god said to get the blessing of
god back on that person's life to be able to be received back into fellowship and it's not like
i'm saying hey if you've ever been homeless you're not allowed to anchor baptist church
if you've ever been unemployed you're not allowed to anchor baptist church that's not what i'm saying
because that person got it right and when someone gets anything right in their life what are we
supposed to do forgive that person and let them live it down never bring it up again not shame
them anymore it's gone don't worry about it right when someone repents when someone apologizes when
someone changes let it go let them live those things down but until then the loving thing to
do is to note him and have no company with him that is our policy here's another group of people
we should avoid go to first Corinthians chapter 5 are people involved in grievous sin yes we should
avoid people that are involved in grievous sin we should not go down the path of the wicked like
proverbs 4 talks about what are some examples of that it says in verse 10 yet not all together with
the fornicators of this world or with the covetous or extortioners or with idolaters for then musty
needs go out of the world but i've written unto you not to keep company if any man that is called a
brother be a fornicator or covetous or an idolater or a railer or a drunkard or an extortioner with
such in one no not to eat so again the bible is giving us another time where we should mark people
not company with people not fellowship with them not go down their path and again many people have
the same exact criticism saying it's so hateful that you kick out fornicators it's so hateful
that you kick out these people but again i submit to you that it is loving why because these sins
right here will destroy your life and you know what if i love kids at this church i'm going to
make it so clear that fornication is not allowed why because if they do that they're going to
grow up and ruin their life and if i as a pastor we just have couples in here that are just living
together they're not married they're fornicating the message i'm sending to everyone is that this
sin is not a big deal. It's no big deal. We're not going to judge it. You know, God doesn't
even get that angry about it. No, God gets very angry about it. You will destroy your
life by it. And so we're not even going to let people infect other people with their
bad example. The Bible isn't saying separate from all sinners. We're all jacked up. We're
all sinners. But you know what? We're not all fornicators. We're not all idolaters.
We're not all railers. No, we're not all those things. And those things will not be tolerated
Why? Because of love, that's why. Because of love for the truth, love for God, and love
for God's people. Go back to Proverbs chapter 4. Verse number 15 says, "Avoid it, pass not
by it. Turn from it and pass away, for they sleep not, except they've done mischief, and
their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall." You know, it'd be a mistake
to hang out with these people because whether you intend to or not, these people's hearts
are intent on mischief, and they're planning mischief, and they're not even going to sleep
until they've done something wicked, and so if you're with them, you're likely going
to get carried away with their stuff. It says in verse 17, "For they eat the bread of wickedness
and drink the wine of violence." Now, this is some interesting phraseology here where
it says the bread of wickedness and the wine of violence. I think what this could be referring
to is sustenance or gain gotten by sinful means, right? The bread of wickedness. What's
funny is this is even kind of a slang term where it's like a gang term where people say,
go get that bread, go earn that bread. What they're referring to is money. These rap artists,
they're talking about getting that bread. What are they talking about? They're talking about
the bread of wickedness. They're talking about getting money by being a drug dealer, by stealing
from people, by doing wickedness, prostitution, gangs, all these things. This is the bread
of wickedness. This is the wine of wickedness. And the Bible's saying stay away from these
people because they're going to get all these ill-gotten gains. They're going to be involved
in crimes. They're going to be involved in all these types of sins. Verse 18 says, "But
the path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect
day. The way of the wicked is as darkness. They know not at what they stumble. My son,
attend to my words. Incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine
eyes. Keep them in the midst of thine heart for their life unto those that find them and
health to all their flesh." Number three, if you're taking notes, protecting your heart.
Protecting your heart. Look at verse 23. It says, "Keep thy heart with all diligence for
out of it are the issues of life." It's kind of giving his son here some practical application
to the warnings that he's been given, the warnings to make sure he continues accepting
his law, that he doesn't forsake the instruction of his father, and that he doesn't go down
the path of the wicked. And how is it that we do that? How is it that we live a life
where we're consistently being steadfast, following God's commandments, doing what he
wants us to do, and avoiding these pitfalls? Well, it's through keeping your heart. What
I think that means is protecting your heart, being careful of the things that you're allowing
into your heart, the influences that you're listening to, the people, just all of the
worldly influences coming into your heart. And notice it says with all diligence. So
you're supposed to give a lot of attention and a lot of heed to protecting your heart.
Why it says for out of it are the issues of life. What I think that's saying is your whole
life depends on having a good heart. The trajectory of your life, how your life is going to go
is going to be dependent upon whether your heart is in tune with the things of God, following
God's commandments, reading His word, or if your heart is going to follow after the wicked
and the path that they're going down. Go to Luke chapter number six. Luke chapter number
six. We're almost done this evening. Luke chapter number six, verse 45. Jesus said,
"A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good. And
an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil. For
of the abundance of the heart, mouth speaketh." So notice what you put into your heart, what
you allow into your heart is going to become who you are. It's going to become the things
that you say. And out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. We got to be
careful of what's entering into our heart. How can we do that? Go back to Proverbs chapter
number four. It kind of gives us some practical application of how we can keep our heart.
How can we protect our heart? It says in verse 24, "Put away from thee a froward mouth and
perverse lips put far from thee." Someone who is froward, someone who is contrarian,
someone who's a scorner, someone who's just like this person always has bad judgment.
They're always on the wrong side of every issue. They're always preaching false doctrine.
They've always got some bad take on things. It's like put that person far away from you.
Put that person far away from you. And perverse lips, put far from me.
We live in a day and age where people just want to tickle their pride inside of their
heart and they want to go on Facebook and they want to go on X and they want to go on
YouTube and they just want to argue with every fool and every froward person and every idiot
just to show how much smarter they are and how much better they are and how much godlier
they are. You know what you need to do? You need to put away from you the froward mouth
and perverse lips put far from you. You know, some people want to act like blocking someone
on social media. It's like, oh, you're a coward, man. You blocked me. If you were a real man,
you'd engage with me and spend hours of your night arguing with me instead of, I don't
know, hanging out with your wife, talking to your kids, reading the Bible, working out,
doing something. No, no, if you're a real man, you sit on the internet all night and
argue with me. You know what? No, an idiot does that. A prideful person does that. It's
not like you're so tough because you refuse to block people. No, you're just foolish.
You're just showing poor judgment because if you actually want to keep your heart, you
know what I want to do? I want to get people that believe stupid things and lies and false
doctrines and people that lie about me and my family, that hate our church, that hate
you. I want all their poison out of my mind. I want all their poison out of my heart and
out of being not even able to influence me in any way or influencing my family. And so
boy, thank God for the block button. I love it. And you know what? Fine. You're, you're
a better man than me. You're just, you're just a tougher guy. Okay. There you go. I'll
give it to you. You would just beat me up. You're a greater guy. You're a tougher guy.
Okay. I'll just grant it to you. Okay. Are you happy now? Now, how about you just spend
some time with your wife? How about you, you know, go for a walk? How about you touch grass,
man? How about you lift some freaking weights? How about you read a book? How about you learn
something, but you're tougher. It's fine. All right. You're cool. Here's another thing
you could do. Verse 25, "Let thine eyes look right on and let thine eyelids look straight before you."
You know what else affects your heart? The Bible says, "Mine eye affecteth mine heart."
What you let in your ears, what you let into your eyes, these are things that will affect you.
Don't think that you're immune to it. You sit there and listen to garbage and crap long enough,
it will affect you. You know, you need to make sure that you're guarding your heart. You need to,
and here's the best way to guard your heart because we live in a sinful world and we're
going to have bad influences come into our heart. Here's the best way though that you could guard
your heart is just get it chock full with this. Why? Because out of the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speaketh. Get it filled with the Bible. Get it filled with good preaching.
Lastly, this evening, number four, consider your steps. Verse 26 says, "Ponder the path of thy
feet and let all thy ways be established. Turn not to the right hand nor to the left. Remove thy foot
from evil." You know, the chapter kind of ends with a call to action for us to ponder the path
of our feet. What does that mean? Look at where you are in life. Take inventory of how you're
doing spiritually. How are you doing retaining God's words? Are you straying away from the law? Are
you straying away from the commandments? Are you straying away from what your parents are telling
you to do, children? You know what you need to do? Ponder the path of your feet. Say, "Where am I
right now? And let me ponder this path. Where is this path going to lead me someday?" You know, man,
you've got a lot of important decisions to make in your life, especially the youth, especially the
teens. You've got so many important decisions to make in your life, and you would just do well to
right now in your life, look at where you are, take inventory of your heart, consider where you want
to go, ask yourself, "Am I actually on the path to get there?" You know, we're all going to have to
constantly do this all the time in our life. Ponder the path of your feet. Check where you are. Check
where your path is. We want to make sure that we're setting a good example, both giving our kids the
right words, giving them the right doctrine, and also showing them the way. And that's what we need
to do for God's people. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this day. We thank you for Proverbs chapter
number four. We thank you for your commandments, but they're not grievous. They're there to keep
us safe. Lord, I pray that we as a church, we as individuals would fear you, would fear your judgment,
would honor you, would respect you, and would love you, Lord. And I just pray that you help us all to
ponder the path of our feet, help us to correct issues in our lives. I love you, and Jesus, let me
pray. Amen. We'll grab your hymnals, our last hymn this evening, number 156, 156, 156. Jesus is the
sweetest name I know. 156 on the 1st, there have been names that I have loved to be, but there have been a Jesus name, a precious name, a Jesus name, a Jesus is the sweetest name I know, just the same as his lovely name, that's the reason, so this is the sweetest name I know.
No name on earth or had no father, gives such honor and such love, as the blessed name,
sweet as the saintly name, that's the reason, is the sweetest name I shall see him face to face,
to thank and praise him for his wondrous grace, which he gave, the sweetest the reason why,
"This is the sweetest thing I know"