Alright, 2 Timothy chapter 4, the part of the chapter I want to focus on there is starting
in verse 2, the Bible reads, Preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove,
rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own
lusts shall heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and they shall turn away their
ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables.
Let's pray real quick.
Dear God, thank you for this day and this opportunity to preach, Lord.
You know it's been a long week.
I pray that you just be with me.
Help fill me with boldness and with your spirit, Lord.
And I pray that you just help me to say something that's edifying to your people today, in Jesus'
name, amen.
Alright, so this chapter, I absolutely love this chapter because to me, every time I read
this chapter, it totally characterizes the day in which we're living in.
You go to any church and these verses right here are going to characterize the vast majority
of churches that you walk into in this country.
Why?
Because most churches today are not doing the things listed in these verses.
They're not reproving.
They're not rebuking.
They're not exhorting.
They're not even usually preaching the Bible.
Usually it's a few stories, a few poems, a few news articles.
They're not preaching themselves to the Bible and the reason why is because they're men-pleasers.
Because us as people as a country, we want to heap to ourselves teachers having itching
ears.
And so the preachers have responded to that and they want to feed that desire for people
and they're just giving it to them.
They're not obeying the word of God, what God said.
They're just doing it.
Go ahead and turn to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 real quick.
In case you didn't realize, in case you're new to this church, most churches in America
are not like the church you're sitting in right now.
And if you always grew up or since you've been saved, if you've always been in Verity
Baptist Church, whether that's Sacramento or here in Vancouver, then you really have
no clue how bad it is out there right now and you really have a misconception of what
it's like.
2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 1, the Bible reads, Now we beseech you, brethren, by the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto him, that ye be not
soon shaken in mind or be troubled, neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as from
us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come except there come
a falling away first and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.
So the Bible teaches us here that before the rapture, before the day of Christ happens,
two things need to happen.
Number one, there has to be a great falling away.
What's that?
It's a great apostasy.
It's when churches, when Christians stop preaching the truth, they fall away from the truth and
what do they do?
They're given unto fables.
They have teachers having, you know, they desire teachers having itching ears, right?
And there has to be a big, big falling away before the man of sin is revealed.
Then the man of sin is revealed and then, of course, then is the day of Christ.
So the Bible teaches that that must happen first and I believe that we're living in the
very beginning or maybe even farther into the beginning of that great falling away.
And the reason why is because, you know, what Baptists used to preach and wear was just
uniform.
All Baptists believe this.
You know, all saved Christians believe certain things.
You know, now it's very few number of people that are actually standing in the gap and
that are still preaching hard on these things.
You know, most Christians now, churches are softening everything they preach on.
You think about alcohol.
Even Baptists, we've always been against alcohol.
Even some Baptists now are saying it's okay to drink in moderation, you know, as long
as you don't get drunk.
You know, a lot of Baptists now, they're not, they're afraid to execute church discipline.
You know, they say they believe 1 Corinthians chapter 5 but then when it comes time to kick
someone out of church for one of the things listed on there, you know, they've got a couple
in church.
It's an open fornication.
We know about it.
It's the pastor's daughter even.
You know, nothing happens.
That actually happened, you know, to a church that we know of recently.
You know, nothing's done about it.
Why?
Because churches are falling away.
Churches are falling away from preaching sound doctrine.
You know, the Baptist stance on the homos.
In the 1990s, every single church believed like what we do about them.
Every single church believed that they're vile, that God says that they've been given
over to a reprobate mind, that they're beyond hope of salvation.
You know, the Bible says that God's hard in their heart.
All Baptists used to believe that when it was popular in the 1990s but as soon as the
culture started to change, Christians started to change with them.
Pastors started to change with them.
You know, even abortion, something as simple as abortion, straight up murder.
How can you ever justify abortion?
You even have Christians, you know, disciples of Peter Ruckman that want to defend abortion
even in some cases.
Bapt even wanting to defend abortion.
You know, it's sick.
You have Andrew Sluder who recently taught that it may be possible to wash off the mark
of the beast.
You know, it's absolutely idiotic and false doctrine is just running rampant right now.
It's running rampant.
And go ahead and turn to Matthew chapter 24.
That's why I believe that right now we're at the very beginning of this falling away.
Matthew chapter 24.
Matthew chapter 24, Brother Timo brought this up to me yesterday and, you know, it's a really
good point.
Matthew 24.
Look there at verse 14.
Here's another reason why I think we're at the beginning of this time.
Matthew 24 verse 14, the Bible reads, and this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached
in all the world for a witness unto all nations and then shall the end come.
So, you know, before the end, you know, the gospel will be preached around the whole world.
And although there's a great falling away happening right now, the remnant, the few
churches that are still standing in the gap, you see that they're doing more soul winning
than ever before.
And every single year you think, you know, I don't understand how we could do any more
every single year.
It blows my mind how much soul winning is being done.
You know, Faithful Word having over 10,000 salvation is just door-to-door soul winning.
You know, it's amazing what's happening right now.
People always want to say we're living in the Laodicean church age.
But, you know, we don't have to live in the Laodicean church age here.
Our friends don't have to live in the Laodicean church age.
If we just obey the Bible and do what God tells us to do, we could have the same result
that the book of Acts saw today in 2017.
And, you know, the Bible says that the gospel of this kingdom shall be preached again throughout
all the world for a witness unto all nations and then shall the end come.
You know, there may be a falling away happening right now, but every single year we do more
and more for the Lord.
And, you know, it's not because we're special, it's just because we actually obey the Bible.
We actually believe the Word of God and we're going to hearken to it.
You know, we got, this is a small church, this is a new church, we've only been around
for a little bit over a year, yet we have soul winning every single day of the week
in this church.
There's not a day of this week where somebody is not out preaching the gospel to the lost.
You know, it's a sad thing because how many churches are in the Portland area?
How many churches are in the Vancouver area?
How many lost souls are there that are dying every day?
And there's a handful of soul winners every day that's out doing the work.
Why?
That's a sad thing today, you know.
But even though, even though we're a small church, you see that we're doing soul winning
seven days a week.
We have 100% soul winning participation in this church, 100% people who attend this church
faithfully go soul winning.
And you know, it's not to praise ourselves or to say that we're anything great.
Like I said, it's just because we're obeying the Bible.
Any church can have these type of effects on the community, you know.
We have missions trips going on.
We're going to the Philippines in the month of April.
Mega soul winning marathon happening on March 31st.
You know, there's great things happening for God right now.
And even though that the great falling away is probably happening right now, you know,
we don't have to go along with them.
We do not have to go along with them.
And in case you're wondering, you're not sitting in a church that's like most churches today.
You're in a special place today.
And the inspiration for my sermon comes actually from our church invitation.
You know, Brother Aaron asked me if I could preach yesterday.
I hadn't had anything.
I was a lot of soul winning.
I was kind of freaking out.
What the heck am I going to preach on?
But I looked down at this and you know, our church invite says we do not offer shallow
entertainment, but we do offer profound biblical preaching.
And I think that's a really cool invitation.
So the title of my sermon this morning is what Verity Baptist Church has to offer.
What Verity Baptist Church has to offer because, you know, we may not have shallow entertainment
to offer you, but this church does have a lot to offer you.
And you know, this isn't going to be like a very big rah rah sermon, but I just want
to, you know, maybe introduce those families who are a little more new to our church just
to give them an idea to get to better know Verity Baptist Church, just to see what we're
all about.
And even for those who call Verity Baptist Church your home, just so you could be put
in remembrance of some things on why we believe the things that we believe.
So like I said, the title of my sermon is what Verity Baptist Church has to offer.
Go ahead and turn to Ephesians chapter 4, Ephesians chapter 4.
Ephesians chapter 4 gives us an outline of what God expects a church to be like, what
God wants to see in a church.
Let's start there in verse 11.
Verse 11 of Ephesians chapter 4.
And he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and
teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying
of the body of Christ, till we all come in unity of the faith and of the knowledge of
the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of
Christ.
Verse 14, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro carried about with every
wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait
to deceive but speaking the truth in love that may grow up into him all things which
is the head, even Christ.
So we see here this passage, this portion of Ephesians chapter 4 gives a perfect outline
of what God wants to see in a church.
And looking down there at verse 11, the Bible says he gave some apostles, some prophets,
some evangelists, some pastors, and God's given us all those things here.
Pastor Jimenez is there for us, God has placed Pastor Jimenez there for us and it tells us
what they're there for.
But not only has he given us Pastor Jimenez, he's given us teachers.
That's Brother Aaron.
He may not be a pastor right now, but Brother Aaron knows the Bible, Brother Aaron teaches
us the Bible.
And it says profound biblical preaching, I'm a guest today so you may not get that today,
but any other time you come to church you'll get profound biblical preaching from Brother
Aaron.
That's just a fact.
But the Bible tells us what God gives us those people for.
Why does he give us those prophets and pastors and evangelists and teachers?
Looking down there at verse 12 it says, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work
of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.
See, God didn't give us these people just to make us feel good every Sunday.
God didn't give us these people just to tell us that, hey, you're already doing everything
right, you don't need to change anything at all, come as you are, leave as you came.
But that's how most churches are laid out today.
We may not offer shallow entertainment, but we do offer profound biblical preaching that's
meant to change you, that's meant to affect a change in your life and to teach you doctrine
for the perfecting of the saints.
You see, church is not supposed to be a seeker sensitive church.
Church is not to bring all sorts of loss and heathen in here and try to get them saved
here.
Now, if they do come here, we obviously will preach them the gospel and we do it every
time, but the church, the New Testament churches are for the saints and they're for the perfecting
of the saints for the work of the ministry, not for coming here, drinking a Starbucks
coffee in the lobby and leaving.
That's one thing that makes our church a lot different.
You come to this church, don't expect to just have your feelings coddled every sermon, expect
to hear what the Bible says, what the truth of God's word is, that's what you should expect
to hear.
And our verse text, our text verse, I'll just read it to you, 2 Timothy 4, it tells preachers
to preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with
all longsuffering and doctrine.
And that just comes down to whether the pastor of a church is going to obey the Bible or
not.
That's what makes us different.
Again, is our pastor, he sees that and just obeys the Bible.
But so many pastors today are just too scared to do that.
They're too scared to reprove, they're too scared to rebuke, you know, what are those
things?
Reprove is just telling people that they're wrong.
They just don't want to tell you that you're wrong anymore.
And that's why they're falling away from doctrine.
I don't believe, I don't buy this that all of a sudden all of Christians just flipped
a switch and now they just believe nothing that the Bible says anymore.
I don't believe that that just happened.
You know, I believe it's just fear.
It's just fear.
They don't want to reprove.
They don't want to rebuke.
You know, all they want to do is exhort.
And we need exhorting, we need the positive, but positive only preaching will not help
you get the sin out of your life.
Positive preaching is great.
I want to know every good thing in this book, but there's a lot more negative in this Bible
than there is positive.
And you say, wow, that's a horrible thing to say.
No, read the Bible cover to cover and you'll find out there's a lot more negative in this
book than positive.
Why?
Because we live in a sinful world.
There's sin in this world.
We'll never be perfect.
And you know, sin has serious consequences and it ruins every aspect of life.
That's why we need the good and the bad so that we could just learn the bad from the
Bible and not have to learn it ourselves.
But pastors don't love their people because when they won't tell them the truth, when
they won't tell them what the Bible actually says, they're just going to let their people
find out for themselves what the Bible says about all sin, all matter of sin.
When they won't preach against alcohol because they're afraid of sending people out the door,
because they're afraid of losing the tithe money, they just hate their people because
they're just going to let their people's lives get destroyed by alcohol.
They're just going to let their people get drunk and commit fornication and adultery
and lose their health and all these things and get the judgment of God on their life
just because they're too afraid to preach the Bible, you know.
It's a really sad thing.
You know, God commands preachers to preach both.
Look at verse 13 here.
Till we all come.
Here's another effect of biblical preaching.
Till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto
a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature and fullness of Christ.
You see, another reason why we need to be preaching the Bible is to come in the unity
of the faith.
We want to have the right kind of unity in this church.
We want to be one in hope and doctrine.
You know, the world wants to unify us through apathy.
Let's just all be apathetic about everything.
The world wants to unify us by just saying, hey, all religions are great.
The world just wants to unify us by saying, hey, you know, there's multiple ways to heaven.
But we need to make a clear stand on everything we believe.
We need to have a clear stance on salvation and on every doctrine we have.
Why?
So that we can all come in the unity of the faith.
Like I said, it's going to be, you know, simple things like that this morning.
But these are just things we need to be kept in remembrance of.
Verse 14, here's another effect.
That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind
of doctrine by the slight of men, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.
You know, when you're not preaching the Bible, you're going to get deceived by all sorts
of false doctrine, especially today when we are having the great falling away, when you're
not in your Bible, when you're not having someone preach you every word of God, you
will be deceived.
It's just that simple.
There's no way that you could get through this world without the guidance of God's word.
Go ahead and turn to 1 Corinthians, chapter 14.
First Corinthians, chapter 14, 1 Corinthians 14, verse 7, the Bible reads, and even things
without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the
sounds, how shall it be known what is pipe or harp?
For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to battle?
So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words, easy to be understood.
How shall it be known what is spoken?
For ye shall speak into the air.
So another principle we get from the Bible is that preaching should be very clear.
And I don't understand why this is so hard for churches today, because you would think,
you know, when they have their statement of faith, that they would just preach what they
believe.
You know, you're a church, you believe something, right?
But they're so afraid to preach it.
You know, I'll give you an example.
I used to go to a church a few years ago, I went there for three years, and it was like
this, where people believed a lot of different things in the pew, and they would never really
take a clear stance on doctrine, and they literally had two statements of faith on their
website.
You know, that's a big red flag for you when your church has two statements of faith.
Depending on where you click on the website, one said salvation is by faith alone, not
of works, you don't need to repent of your sins, there's nothing you can do to lose your
faith.
Another one said you need to repent of your sins to be saved.
Wow.
That's a Baptist church in Idaho, it ran over a thousand people, you know, a church where
Sam Gipp is the president of the Bible college, and you know what, if you think I'm lying,
I've got the screenshots on my phone, you know, that's what churches are doing today.
They're not making a clear stance even on salvation.
You can't even make a clear stance on salvation.
Look at this church, you're not going to wonder what we believe about salvation.
It should be 100% clear, listen, salvation is by faith alone, not of works, unless any
man should boast, okay?
You don't need to repent of your sins, you don't need to feel sorry for your sin, it
doesn't matter if you never do anything for God, if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
thou shalt be saved.
The Bible says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.
You won't have to wonder what we believe, do we have to call upon the name of the Lord?
Yes.
You must call upon the name of the Lord.
Not you should, not it's a good practice, not it's great to do out soul winning, you
know, to end it in prayer, no, you have to.
And if you believe and you don't call, then you probably didn't believe.
And if you don't call on the name of the Lord, you're not saved.
You are not saved.
The Bible says whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
We need to be clear on that.
Why is that so hard for churches today?
You know, if you love God, you love Jesus Christ that died on the cross for you and
that gave you that salvation, and you can't even make a stand on salvation, that's a sad
thing.
You know what?
Why do you believe your church because of the stance on salvation?
Why do you care?
You know, why do churches care about something like that when it's so important as salvation?
It blows my mind today.
But you know what?
Not only should preaching just be clear about salvation, you should just be clear in every
area of what you believe.
But today what makes our church different is because when you go to most Baptist churches
today, what you're going to hear is you're going to hear a lot of stories, you're going
to hear a poem from Spurgeon, you're going to hear a few Fox News articles, you know,
you're going to hear some ranting about Republicans and Democrats and Donald Trump, but you know
what you're not going to hear?
More than about five Bible verses, the whole sermon.
You're not going to hear more than about five Bible verses.
Why?
Because people are falling away from the word of God today.
Because men just want their ears tickled, they're just heaping to themselves, teachers
having itching ears, they want to be told what they want to hear instead of wanting
the truth.
And if you're going to come to this church, you need to learn to love the truth.
Because you're going to hear it whether it hurts or not.
And you know what?
It will end up hurting.
Hard preaching always will end up hurting.
You will eventually get your face ripped off by some area here.
But I want to show you a verse that's going to help you to handle hard preaching.
Turn to Proverbs chapter three.
This is my favorite verse in the whole Bible, Proverbs chapter three.
Proverbs chapter three verse five.
Pay attention closely to this verse.
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding.
Now is that a command?
That's a command out of the word of God.
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths.
And the reason this is my favorite verse in the whole Bible is because it can apply to
every single area of your life.
When you hear hard preaching and it hurts you and you're wondering, man, is that right?
You know, is that really the truth?
You know, if you just trust in the Lord with all your heart and you don't lean on your
own understanding, it's a lot easier to overcome that pain that you're feeling when you're
getting hurt.
And when you're, you know, when you're reading the Bible and you're like, man, I never knew
that before.
I've always been taught something different.
You know what?
Are you going to trust in your own heart?
Are you going to trust in yourself or are you going to trust in the Lord?
You know, when you can just let go of your own opinions and your own thoughts and just
let the Bible be the God of your life, let the Bible, you know, be the boss in your life
in all areas, you know, then you're going to be able to lean not until I know understanding.
You know what?
Acknowledge him in all thy ways and he shall direct thy paths.
But you have to do those things first.
And it's going to help you when hard preaching comes your way and, you know, you don't know
how to react to it.
But here's why most churches aren't offering this.
Go to Proverbs chapter 28, a few pages over.
Proverbs chapter 28.
Proverbs chapter 28 verse 1, the wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous are
as bold as a lion.
And the reason why churches are not preaching the full counsel of God anymore is the reason
why they're lacking boldness is because they're lacking righteousness.
You know, it's kind of hard to preach soul winning.
It's kind of hard to exhort your people, kind of hard to exhort your people to go soul winning
when you yourself are not soul winning.
You know, that same church I told you about that had the two doctrinal statements.
You know, when I got saved, I started listening to Pastor Anderson and, you know, I was being
exhorted, go soul winning, go soul winning, go soul winning, go soul winning.
They didn't have a soul winning program.
And so I went and just asked the pastor, hey, can you teach me how to go soul winning?
And he literally said that it's too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter.
You know, it's kind of hard to preach soul winning.
It's kind of hard to preach the Bible when you yourself are not even soul winning.
You know, the wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous are as bold as a lion.
Why aren't these churches bold?
Because they're not righteous.
Because they're not even believing the Bible.
You know, it's hard to preach against TV when you're the pastor and you have a television
and you're watching cable, you're going home and you're watching all the talk shows and
the sports shows.
You're filling your mind with the things of this world.
It's going to be kind of hard.
It's going to be kind of hypocritical when you stand up behind the pulpit and say, hey,
you need to meditate on the things of God and not on the things of the world.
You know what I'm saying?
It doesn't work that way.
You know, it's kind of hard to preach against, it's kind of hard to preach on modesty or
it's kind of hard to preach what the Bible says about cross-dressing when the pastor's
wife is wearing pants.
You know, when he can't even have his own house in order.
He can't even rule his house well.
That's going to be kind of awkward to preach about, don't you think?
That's why the churches are lacking boldness these days is because they're lacking righteousness.
And also, if you want to turn there, I'll just read it for you though.
Another reason why is because they're lacking love for Jesus.
Because in John 14 verse 15, the Bible says, if you love me, keep my commandments.
So they're lacking boldness and they're lacking love for God.
You know, they love to talk about how much they love God, but when they don't keep Jesus's
commandments, when they don't preach every word of God, it shows me that they don't love
God, that they love themselves.
They don't love their people, they love themselves.
You know, God commands us throughout the whole Bible to preach every word of God, the good
and the bad, and we just need to obey that as preachers.
Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 32, Deuteronomy chapter 32.
Looking at there at verse 30, let's see here, okay.
How should one chase a thousand and two put ten thousand to flight except their rock had
sold them and the Lord had shut them up, for their rock is not as our rock.
Even our enemies themselves being judges.
And what I just don't understand is that, you know, even churches that aren't preaching
hard that are saved, they know that our rock is not as their rock.
They know that our God will follow through on his promises.
You know, he told us that if we just preach the word, you know, he commanded us to preach
the word.
And you know what?
When we do that, we could chase a thousand and two of us can chase ten thousand.
It doesn't matter how many people give up on the word of God.
It doesn't matter how unpopular the Bible becomes.
You know, the word of God has power and you know, churches need to get back to just believing
that again.
And us at Verity Baptist Church, you know, we may not offer shallow entertainment but
we believe the word of God and we're going to preach it, we're going to preach the full
counsel of God without apologizing for any of it and we're going to send ten thousand
to flight, you know, because of our God.
Not because we're anything special but because God is something special.
So number one, we don't offer shallow entertainment but we do offer profound biblical preaching.
Go to Mark chapter 16.
Number two, we don't offer shallow entertainment but we do offer an aggressive soul winning
program.
Mark chapter 16.
Mark chapter 16 verse 15, verse 14, afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at
meet and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart because they believed
not them which had seen him after he was risen and he said unto them, go ye into all the
world and preach the gospel to every creature.
Look, this is the first thing Jesus commanded his disciples to do.
This is the last thing he commanded us to do when he left.
This has to always be the most important focus of our church.
You get this area out of whack, everything will get out of whack.
You know, the preaching aside, if we ever lose our soul winning, we'll lose everything
at this church.
What do most churches offer you?
Let me read to you a list of ministries that was at that church where my pastor told me
that it was too cold to go soul winning.
Here's a list of the ministries that that church did have.
Bearing Precious Seed, which if anyone knows anything about that ministry, they are repent
of your sins.
Those people are not even saved.
Sure, they hand out King James Bibles and that's great but the sending church of that
ministry preaches heresy on salvation.
But so many Baptists don't even know that and they're yoked up with Bearing Precious
Seed.
You know, okay, Bearing Precious Seed, Bible Institute, Bookstore Ministries, Brother Aaron
preached about selling in church recently, you know that that's wicked as hell.
You know, Bookstore Ministries, Bus Ministries where they pick up kids, give them candy,
sing songs and go home, Homeschool Ministries, which not all these are bad, you know, but
when you don't have soul winning, it's like what is going on?
Fair Booth Ministry, Jail Ministry, Master Club Ministry, Newlywed Ministry, Music Ministry,
Nursing Home Ministry, Outdoorsman Ministry, Outdoorsman Ministry, I don't understand where
that was in the Bible but okay, Pastors School, Rescue Mission, Sign Ministry, Street Preaching
Ministry, Women of Faith Ministry, but you don't know, you know what is not there?
The one ministry that Jesus Christ commanded us to keep, to preach the gospel to every
creature.
How is it that you can have these 10 plus ministries, you can have a shooting club at
your church, an outdoors ministry, you know, you can have a newlyweds ministry, but you
don't even love the lost enough to have the one ministry Jesus Christ told you to have.
It blows my mind and it's sick.
Turn to Revelation Chapter 2, Revelation Chapter 2, I don't know why it's so hard for churches
just to obey the one thing Jesus Christ told us to do before he left, just to preach the
word of God to the lost and to get them saved.
Revelation Chapter 2 verse 1, unto the angel of the church of Evisit right, these things
saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand who walketh in the midst of the
seven golden candlesticks.
I know thy works and thy labor and thy patience and how thou canst not bear them which are
evil and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not and hast found them
liars and hast borne and hast patience and for my name's sake hast labored and hast
not fainted.
Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love.
Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works or else
I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of this place except thou
repent.
Jesus Christ, he says he has somewhat against thee.
Churches that don't have soul winning, they don't have their first love, they don't have
their first works, Jesus Christ has something against you today.
Jesus Christ loves you, you're his child, but he has something against your church.
He has something against you when you're not winning souls for the lost.
Look what it says there.
It says, remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works
or else I will come unto thee quickly.
I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of this place except thou
repent.
Jesus Christ, this is not an area where he wants to be super long suffering.
This is not an area where he wants to be super patient with us.
He said, hey, repent or I will come quickly and take away your candlestick.
We ever get this out of our church, Jesus Christ is coming for us quickly and I'm afraid
of that.
We need to be afraid of God.
Not only do we just need to love the lost and preach them because we don't want them
to go to hell, we need to be afraid of God.
Bible says he'll come for us quickly and these churches that are playing around with this,
scaling back their soul winning, getting rid of their soul winning, they don't have a lot
of time before God takes their candlestick away.
Not only are you just falling away preaching heresy up one side down the other, you're
forgetting soul winning, God's coming quickly for you.
It's not good.
First works Jesus commanded his disciples to do was to start fishing for men.
Like I said, he said, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.
So if you're following Christ, you're fishing for men.
Churches that claim to be Christian, that claim to be following Christ, that aren't
soul winning, they're not following Christ.
They don't love Christ because they're not keeping his commandments.
They don't love their people because they're not teaching them to go out soul winning.
They love themselves and that's a great characteristic of the end times, isn't it?
One of the biggest characteristics is that men shall be lovers of their own selves, even
Christians.
And that's what we see today.
You know, even though there's more, more, more, more soul hunting being done every single
year, it's being done by fewer and fewer people.
You know, and that's great for us, right, because our church is still doing it.
But the thing is, I don't want my brothers in Christ to be destroyed like this.
You know, I don't want our church to be the only church in the greater Portland area to
actually be out winning souls every night.
I'd love to see all these churches repent and just to start preaching the gospel and
let's turn this world upside down for Christ.
Let's get people saved.
I don't know, you know, it's not like I desire Jesus Christ to come unto them quickly, but
it is going to happen to them.
And he'll do the same thing to us if we ever forget our focus.
The number one most important thing that very Baptist church could ever offer you is a aggressive
soul winning program.
So here's what we do offer you.
Go to Acts chapter 5.
Acts chapter 5 verse 42, and daily in the temple and in every house they cease not to
teach and preach Jesus Christ.
So at Verity Baptist Church we offer you an aggressive soul winning program that's going
to go out to the lost and preach them the gospel, not one that brings them in.
It's an aggressive program where you're going to get real on the job training, just like
a real job.
Jesus said, occupy till I come.
Our job is to win people to the Lord.
And if you're a new soul winner, there's plenty of people in this church that can take you
out and teach you how to become an effective soul winner.
And I encourage every single person here no matter how good of a soul winner you may think
you are, you know, maybe people came from different backgrounds or you're just a new
soul winner.
You know, Pastor Jimenez is an amazing soul winner, amen.
And he made a great soul winning seminar that I believe every single person in this church
should watch because it doesn't matter how good of a soul winner you are, you can never
not learn something new, you know.
So everyone here, we need to sharpen up our skills, soul winning.
Why?
Because we're the only ones standing in the gap.
You know, and it's like when you are the only chance for this person's eternity at the door,
you want to be doing a good job.
You don't want to be using stupid methods.
And there's stupid methods out there that people are using.
Just things that are making them not effective soul winners.
And you know, that's why we have the soul winning sermons every weekend.
You know, we have a huge emphasis on soul winning, because it's what the Bible emphasizes.
It's what the Bible tells us to emphasize, you know, and right now, thank God that everyone
here loves soul winning.
Thank God we have 100% soul winning participation, you know, but that doesn't happen by accident.
That happens because our leadership is pushing those things.
And we obviously all have, you know, stuff to learn.
None of us are perfect soul winners in here.
So we need to always be constantly working on becoming better soul winners.
You know what this comes down to?
Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 13.
First Corinthians chapter 13.
This is a beautiful chapter.
What this comes down to really, you know, we may not offer shallow entertainment.
The one thing that we do offer that other churches are not offering comes down to one
word and that's love.
First Corinthians chapter 13 says, though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels
and have not charity, I am become a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.
And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge
and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not charity, I am
nothing.
I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and though I give my body to be burned and have
not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
You know, I think that's one of the scariest verses in the entire Bible that you could
literally give your body to be burned.
You could give everything you have, but when you don't have charity, when you don't have
love, you're nothing in the sight of God.
You know, you could have your outdoorsmen ministry and your newlyweds ministry and your
homeschool ministry, but if you don't have a soul winning ministry because you don't
love the lost and because you don't love God, you are nothing.
You as a church are nothing, straight from the Word of God.
God tells you Himself, you are nothing.
Go to James chapter 2, please, James chapter 2.
You know, churches love to criticize us because we take a hard stance on the homos and because
we do say that there's some people in this world we hate because the Bible says there's
a time to love and a time to hate.
You know, at Verity Baptist Church, we offer you the love and the hate, so they say, oh,
you know, those guys are so hateful, they don't love people, yet they themselves won't
even preach the gospel to the lost.
They're total hypocrites.
They're total and utter hypocrites.
James chapter 2, I'm going to the faith without works chapter, you know, where Baptist's going
to James chapter 2, verse 16.
Verse 16, if a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food and one of you
say unto them, depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled notwithstanding, ye give them not
those things which are needful to the body.
What doth it profit?
Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
Yea, a man may say, thou hast faith and I have works.
Show me thy faith without thy works and I will show thee my faith by my works.
You know what?
These churches are not showing their faith at all.
You know, this obviously is not talking about salvation because the Bible says, but to him
that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted
for righteousness.
But listen, faith without works is dead and, you know, these churches are dead.
They're letting their whole communities die.
They don't love the lost and they're being hypocrites for it.
They're being total hypocrites for it.
You know, Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verse 1, I'll read it for you.
Like they said, they love to criticize us because we, you know, we do hate some people.
But here's what the Bible says in Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verse 1, to everything there is
a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven, a time to love and a time to hate,
a time of war and a time of peace.
Okay?
And you know what?
We hate sodomites.
We hate predators and child molesters.
So you know what?
We're going to show you our faith by our works.
We're going to not allow them into this church ever.
That's our works.
They're not allowed here.
They're not allowed to be around our children.
They're not ever allowed here.
And, you know, we're going to show you our faith by our works for our love as well because
we love the lost.
So we're actually going to go out and preach them the gospel.
So how about you just show me your faith by your works?
Stop talking about how much you love and, oh, those guys don't love, but we just love
our community so much, and this church is just about hospitality, and we just want to
be so welcoming.
And, you know, here, pay 25 cents for your water because we're so hospitable, you know.
You know what?
You have no love.
You have no love at all.
You know what?
And I'll just bring this up.
This is a side note.
You ever hear how people call us homophobes?
People call us homophobes, right, saying, oh, all those people over there, they're just
homophobes and, you know, they just hate everyone.
They think everybody's a reprobate.
I'm so sick of hearing this thrown at us because they don't even realize what that word means.
Phobia means fear.
Okay, listen, we're not afraid of homos.
Do you know who's afraid of homosexuals?
Most Baptists that are out there.
Most churches that are afraid to preach against the homos, they're the homophobes.
I'm not a homophobe.
You know what?
We're going to show you our faith by our works by not letting these homos come in here while
you're so afraid of them that you let them destroy your churches.
You're going to let them come into your churches and rape your children and you're just going
to roll over and let these faggots destroy our country and destroy our churches.
You know what?
You're the homophobe.
We're the ones that hate them.
We're going to show you our faith by our works.
We're the ones that love the lost.
We're going to show you our faith by our works.
You're a hypocrite.
You're a liar.
You need to repent.
And Timothy chapter 1 verse 7, For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power
and of love and of a sound mind.
Look, we should not be afraid of running every person out of our churches when we preach
the Bible.
If we're preaching the truth, we should not be afraid of turning people away from our
church because we have an effective, old-fashioned, aggressive, soul-winning program.
We should not be afraid of any consequences of doing what God commanded us to do.
And you know what?
I pray to God we never do.
I pray to God that Pastor Jimenez and Brother Aaron stand fast and that all the men and
families in this church, that they would stand fast and not be afraid because God hath not
given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love, real love, love that hates, love
that loves as well, of course, and of a sound mind.
The Bible says, so people can criticize us all they want, but they can see our love by
our actions.
They could actually see that we're real.
When we say, I love you, we mean it.
And when we say, I hate you, we mean that too.
So we don't offer shallow entertainment, but we do offer profound biblical preaching.
We don't offer shallow entertainment here, but we do offer an aggressive, soul-winning
program.
Number three, we don't offer shallow entertainment here, but we do offer a safe place for your
children.
Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 31.
Deuteronomy chapter 31.
So real quickly here, I'll give you what most churches offer.
So we offer a safe place for your children.
Here's what most churches offer today.
Most churches will offer you a daycare at church.
Most churches will offer you a youth group at church.
Most churches will offer you the bus route and the kids' church with all sorts of popcorn
and soda and candy, as much as you can imagine.
You know, churches today will offer you a Baptist elementary school and a Baptist middle
school and a Baptist high school and a Baptist college, but you know what they're not offering?
They're not offering a safe place for your children, and they're not offering a place
where children can learn the Word of God and grow up to be lovers and servers of the Lord
Jesus Christ.
Deuteronomy chapter 31, verse 11, you know, this church, we do offer a family integrated
church, and what that means is that the children, the entire family, is welcome to be together
in the service.
We never separate families for any reason.
Children will always be with their parents.
They're not going to be with some stranger in a youth class.
You know, we just talked about that church in Bellingham where the youth pastor was violently
raping kids there.
You know, you're an idiot if you don't think that stuff happens.
What do you think the Catholic church is?
That's what the entire Catholic church is.
It's just kids getting molested and raped by pedophiles.
You know what?
Us as Baptists should not be allowing that crap in here.
Deuteronomy chapter 31, verse 11, when all Israel is come to appear before the Lord,
thy God in the place where he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel
in their hearing.
Gather the people together, men and women and children and thy stranger that is within
thy gates that they may hear and that they may learn and fear the Lord your God and observe
to do all the words of this law and that their children 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 to Jordan to possess it.
You know, the Bible, God wanted all the people together.
God wanted the women.
God wanted the children.
Why?
That they may hear, that they may learn to fear the Lord your God and observe to do all
the words of this law.
Isn't that what you want for your children?
Don't you want your children to fear and love God?
You know what?
And all that these youth churches are doing is teaching people, teaching kids an example
of what bad church looks like because when you grow up in a youth church and all you
ever hear is the silly songs and the one Bible verse, you're not hearing what hard preaching
sounds like, you're not learning what it's like to be well behaved, you know, sitting
down and listening to preaching like these young kids are doing right now, that doesn't
exist in other churches.
Why?
Because they're in a Baptist church where they're actually hearing big boy preaching,
where they're actually hearing real preaching.
You know, I'd imagine when Moses was in the wilderness, he was probably preaching pretty
hard and those kids needed it.
But you know, it says here, where is it at?
Oh yeah, that their children which have not known anything may hear and learn to fear
the Lord your God.
You know, when a child is born, they don't know anything.
They're an empty slate and it's up to you how they're raised.
It's up to you what goes into that empty slate and you want to know why there's two-year-olds
in this church that can quote to you John 3.16?
Do you know why there's 12-year-olds here that has read the Bible more through cover
to cover than most pastors in this country?
You want to know why there's 12-year-olds in this church that can preach the gospel
effectively?
They're like little apostle Pauls.
It's because they grew up hearing the real preaching of God's word because they're not
singing somewhere in outer space, God has prepared a place.
They're here learning the real hymns, learning the real word of God.
They're seeing what it's like to actually grow up and serve God.
They're learning to do what 99% of adult Christians are failing to do today.
You know what?
That is a huge benefit of being a family-integrated church, not only does it just keep you safe.
You know what?
You're going to raise kids that love God.
The Bible says in Proverbs chapter 22 verse 6, train up a child in the way he should go
and when he is old he will not depart from it.
God's telling us the point is to train the child up in the way he should go.
The point is not to keep a child in a perpetual state of childhood.
It's to train them up in the way they should go.
The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 11 and 10, therefore remove sorrow from my heart and
put away evil from my flesh for childhood and youth are vanity.
The point is not to keep Christians, not to keep kids in a perpetual state of childhood
both spiritually and emotionally.
We have the snowflake generation.
The point is to raise them up in the way he should go so when they're old they will not
depart from it.
When they grow up hearing hard preaching and someday maybe they get backslidden and they
go to the rock and roll NIV church, they're going to be like, what is this?
This isn't real church.
But when they grow up in the stupid youth classes where everything is watered down and
made just dumbed down for the kids, when they grow up that's all they're going to know.
And don't be mistaken, kids can learn the Bible.
Kids can learn the Bible.
Like I said, there's two year olds that can quote John 3.16.
There's young kids here that know the Bible stories and they can repeat to you what they
learn at church.
It's an amazing, beautiful thing and every church could have these benefits if they would
have a family integrated church.
But because they're lovers of their own selves and because they don't want to be bothered
to hear a few crying children during the service, they're willing to just throw kids' future
down the toilet.
They're just ready to ruin kids' lives and have them not grow up to be servants of God
so that they can be comfortable in the service so that they don't have to hear a baby crying.
God forbid that they would have to hear that.
That's why we have the mother baby rooms and the dad baby rooms so that when the baby gets
too out of control, you can take them in there and discipline or feed or whatever you have
to do.
But you're with, the baby's with their parents.
It's safe.
They'll grow up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
That's what we need to keep doing.
Turn to Joshua chapter 8, Joshua chapter 8, verse 34.
We'll get another instance of this.
And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings and cursings according
to all that is written in the book of the law.
There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not before all the congregation
of Israel with the women and the little ones and the strangers that were conversant among
them.
And you know, people are always like, well, kids don't need to be hearing about adultery.
Kids don't need to be learning about the horrors of fornication.
Kids don't need to be learning about alcohol or the certain parts of the Bible that kids
shouldn't hear.
But you just saw there that he said he read all the words of the law, everything that's
written in the book of the law.
There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not before the congregation
of Israel.
You know, and we want children to grow up knowing all the words of the law.
We don't want anything to be hid back from them.
Why?
Because thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.
And when kids grow up and they have the word of God in their hearts and they know the truth,
you know, and they know what sin really will do to them and they have that in their heart,
they're going to be able to shine it on their steps.
You know, when life gets tough for them and when you're going through your teenage years,
when you have all the temptations and everything like that, that's going to be pounded into
their heads so hard when they're young that it's going to guide them through that time.
And that's what you want children, right, to grow up and have is to have a pure life
and a real love for God.
You know, Jesus himself in Matthew chapter 19 said, suffer the, Matthew 19 and 14 says,
but Jesus said, suffer the little children and forbid them not to come unto me for of
such is the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus himself commanded us to suffer the children to come into him and you know what, just like
Baptists are disobeying God when it comes to preaching the full word of God, just when
it comes to how Baptists are disobeying God when he said go out and preach the gospel
to every creature, Baptists today are disobeying the direct command of Jesus Christ to suffer
the children to come unto him.
They're not allowing them to hear what they need to hear.
You know, these pastors are probably so puffed up thinking, I have something from the Lord
today that my people need and they're probably right.
You know, that's why God gave us pastors, but why don't the kids need it?
You know, why don't the kids need the preaching of God's word?
It's just the adults that need it.
You're just going to let them go off and, and learn all the, you know, vanity and waste
of youth.
It doesn't make any sense to me.
You know, we may not offer at Verity Baptist Church a fancy playground, you know, and,
and well, we do offer cookies and ice cream.
I was gonna say, we don't offer cookies.
We're Baptists.
We do offer that.
But you know what, we also are going to offer a safe place for children and a place where
they can actually grow and actually learn the Bible and actually learn how to love God.
You know, just real quickly here, Verity Baptist Church, they also, we also offer a great place
for fellowship.
This is going to be a real quick point, but go ahead and go to Hebrews chapter 10, Hebrews
chapter 10.
This is super important also in a Christian's life is fellowship.
Hebrews chapter 10 verse 24, and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and unto
good works.
You know, the great thing about going to a church like this where we're like-minded,
you know, we all believe the same thing is that when you start to get a little backslidden
or you start to lose your zeal a little bit, you know, people here are, are here to consider
you and they're going to provoke you to love and to good works.
You know, the Bible says, you know, woe unto him that is alone when he falleth for he hath
not another to help him up.
You know, as a church, when we're together and you fall, there's people to help you up.
As a church, when we're together and you lose your zeal a little bit, you get backslidden
a little bit, there's here people to provoke you unto love and to good works.
Fellowship is not something that needs to be, you know, understated how important it
is.
You know, when you're not in church, you're not getting those blessings of fellowship.
And that's what's so awesome.
And that's why it's so important to be unified, you know, around the right things.
Like I said in my first point, when you're unified by the preaching of God's word, when
we're all one in hope and doctrine, then we're able even more so to, to provoke each other
to love and to good works because we all believe the same thing, right?
Proverbs chapter 20 verse 17, iron sharpeneth iron, so amount, sorry, so a man sharpeneth
the countenance of his friend.
You know, even just when you get down, you know, when you get sad, we're here, we all
love each other.
You know, this is a, this is a church of real love.
Like I said, you know, our love is not just simulated here.
Our love is real.
Our hate is real.
And I love every single person here.
I love my brothers and sisters in Christ and, you know, we need to be sharpening each other.
Iron sharpeneth iron.
We need to help each other sharpen the countenance of our friends.
And that's exactly what fellowship is going to do.
So in conclusion here, go to Isaiah chapter 55, Isaiah chapter 55.
Isaiah chapter 55 verse 8, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways
my ways, saith the Lord, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways
higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
And our church is without a doubt, if you haven't learned by now, different than most
churches in this world, in this country.
You know, you're sitting in a place that is a lot different.
Why?
Because unlike most churches, we don't offer shallow entertainment, but we offer you profound
biblical preaching.
Why?
Because unlike most churches, we don't offer you shallow entertainment, but we offer you
an aggressive soul winning program.
Why?
Because we offer you a safe place for your children.
Why?
Because we offer you a place where your children can grow and learn and love God.
Why?
Because we offer a place where you can have real friends that really care about you and
that really want the best for you, that really going to help you, you know, learn the Bible.
Our church is different not because we're special, not because we're anything, it's
just because we obey the Word of God.
You know, the Bible says, my thoughts are not as your thoughts, and that's why Proverbs
3, 5 is my favorite verse.
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understandings.
In all thy way acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.
If we just trust in God, if we just acknowledge Him as a church in all our ways, He's going
to direct our paths, and He's going to direct our paths by the Word of God.
Every area of this, you saw that every area that our church does offer, there's a biblical
reason behind it.
You know, Pastor Jimenez didn't just put these things into place because he thought it was
cool.
You know, it's because he trusts God, and he actually believes what the Bible says,
and we need to keep that going.
You know, when the cord is cut and Brother Aaron takes charge, I know he's going to do
the same thing, and we need to just be following that.
You know, I hope that this sermon helped maybe people who are new to our churches to help
get them to better know our church and our philosophy and what we believe, and hopefully
for those of you that call this place home, you can at least have some things to put in
remembrance.
And just that we would always remember especially to keep soul winning, you know, our number
one focus.
You know, we don't want Jesus Christ to have something against us as a church.
We don't want Jesus Christ to come quickly, you know, and if we do keep these things,
we can still be used great by God, and us as, you know, the last day believers, we can
do greater works, you know, like Jesus said, greater works shall He do.
And we could be used in an amazing way for God.
We can stay fired up and keep the work of God the number one focus of our lives, not
get carried about, you know, with the things of this world, but to just keep, you know,
the real love of God first in our lives.
So let's continue to just let our light shine also to other churches, that we could just
be a good example to them, because we don't hate them, you know, we want what's best for
them, and so I hope we can continue as individuals and as a church to be a good example to them
too.
So with that, let's pray.
Dear Lord, thank you so much for this day.
Thank you so much for this church, God, and all that you do for us.
I thank you for Pastor Jimenez and Brother Aaron, the leadership we have at this church,
that, you know, they're bold and that they actually do love you, Lord, that we're willing
to follow your commandments and willing to trust in you and not in our own hearts, and
that, you know, regardless of what we may think sometimes, God, I pray that you just
help us always to just let your word be our final authority in all manners of faith and
in practice.
In Jesus' name I pray.
Amen.