In Titus chapter 2, let's start at verse number 1, and the name of this sermon is God's Word is for All.
God's Word is for All.
That's kind of the theme in this chapter when it talks about every different group of people,
and God's Word is not just for people that are adults, or just that are children, or just that are men, or that are women.
God's Word, every single word in this Bible, is for everybody, and that's what we see here in Titus 2.
But in verse number 1, the Bible says,
But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine.
And so in verse number 1, the Bible speaks about becoming sound doctrine, okay?
Now when it says become, that means it's going to take some time for it to become sound doctrine.
It's not immediate, but it's going to take a little bit of time.
What the Bible's trying to show you is that when the preaching of the Word of God goes forth,
and people are hearing it for the first time,
although they're understanding it, it doesn't become sound doctrine yet to them.
See, when you think of the word sound, it has a lot of different meanings.
But basically when you say something is sound, you're saying,
That's reasonable, that makes sense, that clicks, I know that it's true.
What am I saying?
I'm saying that when people have a background in different churches,
maybe they hear repentance of sins,
when they first hear the preaching of the Word that is by faith alone,
they might get saved and it might make sense,
but it still takes them a little bit of time to completely reject repentance of sins.
Now when you get saved, you must put all your faith in Jesus Christ,
but at the same time, you can be deceived by false teachers
when you aren't nailed down in church of exactly what you believe.
And see, that's why the same things get preached,
and eventually it becomes sound doctrine,
where you hear a sermon and you say,
That's sound, that makes sense.
Where you hear another sermon, you say,
Man, that didn't sound very right.
I mean, the preacher just said, You got to turn from your sins.
That certainly isn't right.
But when people first get saved, they don't fully have these things rasped down.
Look, when I got saved, I didn't know what repentance of sins meant.
I don't even think I knew what the word repent meant.
I already had even heard of it, because it was all new to me.
And so the first time I heard a preacher preaching heresy,
I didn't register with me.
I didn't realize that, because I just didn't know enough about the Bible.
And so these things need to be preached over and over and over again,
so it becomes sound doctrine to everybody.
And as new people are joining the church,
it's going to take them some time before they understand all these things.
I'll go back to Titus 1, Titus 1.
And so one lesson we need to know is,
we need to be patient with people that are new to our church.
If people are new, then every once in a while, they might say something cool.
They might hand you a Billy Graham book and say,
Man, this is a really encouraging book.
It's a great read.
It's like you don't have to rip their head off and say,
Man, you're a devil.
You're a heretic. Get out of our church.
It's like, well, maybe they just got saved.
They don't realize any better.
I read a lot of stupid books when I first got sick.
I read books like The Case for Faith and The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel,
who doesn't even believe there's a hell.
I mean, he obviously isn't even saved.
I read a book by John MacArthur when I first got sick.
I read a lot of bad stuff when I first got sick.
But I didn't realize.
I read books by John Pike and all these crazy cowards.
But I didn't understand this stuff at the beginning.
So we need to be patient with people,
especially if they come from a Catholic background.
They're going to have a lot of Catholicism left in them.
Or if they come from a non-denominational fun center like Victory or CCF.
Look, a lot of this stuff,
they're not going to know necessarily right off the bat.
And it's going to take some time before it becomes sound doctrine.
Now in Titus 1, verse 9, what the Bible reads is this.
Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught,
that he may be able by sound doctrine,
both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.
And so in verse number 9, the Bible says you need to be taught what sound doctrine is.
And so the application, because remember in Titus 1,
it's all about the ordination of elders, getting churches started.
So if you want to start a good church,
you need to be taught what's right and what's wrong.
And really the strong application is you need to come out of a good church.
If you want to start a church like Verity Baptist Church Manila,
you need to come out of a church like Verity Baptist Church Manila.
Or out of Verity Baptist Church.
There's a reason why this church is pretty similar to Verity Baptist Church.
Because I came from Verity Baptist Church.
And there's also a reason why when people come from churches that are sort of questionable,
how their churches are kind of like halfway like us.
And look, I'm not trying to say that in any way,
I'm just saying that quite honestly that if you don't come out of a church like this,
then the church you start is probably not going to be exactly like this.
And you might not realize why some of the things you're doing are not quite biblical.
But you know, they're probably not going to all be biblical.
And so honestly, when it comes to the idea of getting churches started,
which is what Titus 1 is about,
if you want good churches to get started,
honestly it's going to have to be a church like ours,
or it's churches that are dead similar,
to start churches like this.
When people are coming out of the Bible Baptist denomination,
quite honestly they're probably not going to be exactly like us.
Now I'm not saying they can't become exactly like us,
and we'll try to help them if there's an ability to do that.
But quite honestly, if you get ordained by someone who's not saved,
do you really think that that church is just going to be a fire-breathing church?
You know, that's King James only, soul-winning, very solid on doctrine.
Probably not.
Because honestly, something that's going to rub off on you,
even if you don't realize it.
And I understand that in the past,
there weren't really options for people that wanted to get ordained and start good churches.
Honestly, I don't even know what advice I could have given them years ago.
But honestly, if you're within this area,
I believe this is probably the best church to go to,
where you can get trained, and we can get new churches started,
and go back to Titus 2.
Titus 2.
You say, why do you say that?
Well, because in Titus 2, verse 1, it says,
become sound doctrine.
And so you need to hear this stuff over and over and over and over and over and over again
before it really becomes sound doctrine to you.
And you can spot easily, hey, this is work salvation.
This is faith alone.
Not this, well, you know, I don't know.
I think we just kind of believe the same thing.
It's kind of, we just word it differently.
No, we don't just word it differently.
There are different doctrines, there are different beliefs.
They're not the same things.
And so you need to be hearing the right preaching over and over and over again
so you know what sound doctrine is.
Because if you're hearing both, what's going to happen,
you're going to be a little bit confused.
And you know, it just is what it is.
And so that's why we need to make sure the doctrine is being preached
and is pure in its sound.
And everybody in this room, you need to read the Bible for yourself
so when you hear a sermon, you can decide, is this sound or is this off?
Quite honestly, if you're at this church for years,
there should be times where you hear me preach something
and you say, I'm not sure about that.
I need to read it for myself to double check.
I'm not sure if what Brother Seif was saying was right.
Because I am fallible, I'm just a person, I will make some mistakes.
And quite honestly, if I'm preaching on some of the deeper things,
it might be something you need to be like the gradients and search whether it's so or not.
Look, I've heard a lot of things in sermons online that I'm like, that is not right.
And you know, it makes sense why if such weird things were being said,
you know, someone who ended up being a heretic at the so many conference
or the prophecy conference or whatever,
you know, he preached some really weird thing from the Old Testament
and immediately when I heard that, I was like, that's not right.
I was like, what's he talking about?
And he ended up being a devil, came out like six months later, whatever.
But it's like, you know, people are a little bit too trusting in preaching things.
They just assume, well, of course, that he's right on this.
Well, they can't always be right when different.
Preachers have some different opinions and some stuff.
So you can't just say, well, I heard this, it must be right.
I heard this, it must be right.
I mean, honestly, you need to search the Bible for yourself
and you need to know whether it's sound doctrine or not.
Not just rely on me, not just rely on Pastor Mendez or Pastor Anderson.
Find out for yourself what you believe.
Read the Bible so you know.
Now it says in Titus chapter 2, verse 2,
that the aged men be sober, brave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience.
And so here it highlights the aged men.
Now it really only gets to two groups.
It mentions the aged men and the young men when it comes to God.
So I don't think when it says aged men, this is like they're 90 years old.
Okay, now they could be 90 years old.
That's definitely aged.
But I don't think you have to be that old.
I think basically, you know, someone who's an aged man,
it's probably somebody in general who's married, has kids, they have that sort of experience.
I don't think it's necessarily an age, but also the sort of experience, you know, you have.
But what I want you to realize is that aged men can be affected by the Word of God.
Because the Bible says this becomes sound doctrine.
And so what we're seeing is that aged men can hear the Word of God preached
and it eventually becomes sound doctrine to them,
even if when they first came to this church, they didn't know this stuff.
And so look, if somebody's in their 40s or 50s, they can still learn the Word of God.
It is not too late for them, okay?
The Word of God can affect anybody of any age.
It says the aged men.
Now there's a few things you can look at.
Like it says sober, and if you're sober, that means there's no alcohol whatsoever.
The Bible also talks about being sober-minded, so basically having a clear mind.
Any mind-altering thing is going to affect that, even if it's something smaller.
But I want you to notice how it says grave, okay?
When you think of a grave, you're thinking of something that's very serious.
When somebody dies and you're at a funeral, it's not the time to tell jokes.
It's not the time to show up in a t-shirt and shorts and just say,
no, I mean, it's a very serious occasion.
You're going to offend some people if you don't take it seriously.
And so the Bible's saying, grave, what it's saying is being a little bit more serious.
Now this is something that when people are young, they're just not that serious.
And that's just the way it is in life.
I mean, you look at young kids and they don't take anything seriously.
And as you get older, you have more things you're responsible for,
and it requires you to be more serious.
Now I'm not saying that when you're young it's wrong to joke around and have fun and laugh,
but as you get older, it's expected that you're going to change a little
and you're going to be more serious.
And one thing we have a problem in our world is that people don't take anything seriously.
Their lives, they just don't take seriously.
It's just not very important to them.
And, you know, honestly, when it comes to, as it's referencing age and men,
as men in this room, we want to reach that point where we take life a little bit more seriously.
Because when you're young, it's no big deal.
You're out pulling basketball and just playing soccer, whatever.
But as you get older, you have responsibilities, and life is pretty serious.
And life's very important.
And we shouldn't just make a joke of it.
We should reach the point where we're an age and men.
We're not just the young man that's being taught by the age and men,
but where people actually come to you because they look at you as being someone who takes life seriously,
you can actually help them out with life, okay?
This is something that we should be striving to be as an age and man early in life.
Not where we wait until we're 60, until people, whatever, come close.
But know that you're mature, that at a young age, you reach that point where you're more mature.
You don't want to wait in life for this because life is too important.
To just think it's a joke and not take it seriously, it's going to catch up with you eventually.
And it mentions, great, why?
Because it should be serious.
Look, church is certainly a time where you take stuff seriously.
There is a time to have fun and to play games after church.
After our soul winning's done, you know, we take church seriously, soul winning seriously,
and then we have fun with games and fellowship.
There's nothing wrong with that.
But you know, church is not a time to joke around.
And I've seen people in church that they just are joking around, having fun on their cell phones like, what are we dealing with?
I mean, it's time to learn the word of God.
It's time to sing praises to God and to learn the word of God.
Otherwise, you know, why are you even here?
It's time, it's meant to be taken seriously.
Soul winning time, you've got to take it seriously.
You say, what?
Because you've got to be paying attention to somebody walking down the street to stop them and give them the gospel.
You need to be paying attention to what's going on with your soul winning.
It's like, you can have fun two hours later from now, but during soul winning time, we take it very seriously.
Because it's something that's very important.
We're talking about heaven and hell.
But a problem in our world is that young men just don't take life very seriously.
Now, I mentioned in verse number 3, the aged women, likewise, that they be in behavior as become a holiness.
Not false accusers, not giving them much wine, teachers of good things.
Now, on both the aged men and women, you can honestly do a series on each of these things that it's talking about.
I'm just hitting some highlights.
You know, obviously with aged women, it mentions not false accusers.
And so, what you can take from that is, since it doesn't mention the age of men, is that women are more likely to be false accusers.
Now, there are sins that guys would struggle with more than women.
I would say the lust of the eyes and things like that, or even pride probably.
But, you know, this mentions not false accusers.
And so, it's something, when it comes to the sins of the tongue and gossip and things like that, that women do tend to struggle with.
It also mentions not giving too much wine, okay?
Now, this phrase in Titus 2, 3, alone has been used to justify drinking.
And people use this and they say, well, not giving too much wine.
So, that means you can have, you know, the Jeff Durbin strategy of a little bit of wine.
You have a little bit of wine, as long as it's not much wine, okay?
Well, there's a lot of problems with that.
One problem is that in verse 2, it says to be sober, to the age of men.
Be sober means what?
It means you have zero alcohol.
Look, if you have just a little bit of beer, you're not drunk, but you're not sober, even.
And so, apparently, according to Jeff Durbin and people standing in, pretty much all capitalists, they're all a bunch of drunks.
According to them, the age of men are not allowed to drink any alcohol, but their wives are allowed to just, you know, just drink.
It's like the husband, no, I'm the designated driver.
I'm the guy, I have to be the one doing the driving, so I can't drink anything, but my wife, you know, here's a beer for her.
I mean, if you want to try to take this one phrase, why don't you look at the verse before, where it commands you to be sober.
You have to understand what the commandments of God.
It's not like one thing's wrong for guys and one thing's okay for girls.
Look, if it's wrong for a guy to get drunk, it's wrong for a girl to get drunk.
If it's right for a guy to read the Bible, it's right for a lady to read the Bible.
Look, there's not different standards of right or wrong.
If it's wrong for you to tell a lie, then it's wrong for me to tell a lie.
It's the same thing.
And if it tells the age of men that they're allowed to have zero alcohol, then the age of women are allowed to have zero alcohol as well.
Now, turn to 1 Timothy 3.
1 Timothy 3.
Now, you say, Brother Stuckey, I don't know if I understand that.
Why does it say much whining?
Well, I'll show you here in 1 Timothy 3, and I actually mentioned this recently in a sermon, and I'll mention it again.
But in 1 Timothy 3, it says, not given to wine, talking to the bishop or pastor, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre.
Notice how it says, not given to wine and not greedy of filthy lucre, right near each other.
Verse number 8 with the deacons.
Likewise must the deacons be grave, not double tongue, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre.
Then you see, not given to much wine and not greedy of filthy lucre, right near each other, okay?
Now, these two things are near each other because, honestly, there's similar thoughts that are being expressed.
When it says, not given to wine or not given to much wine, I don't think it's specifically referring to alcohol.
I believe it's referring to things that are costly, because when you look at wine and oil throughout the Bible, they represent very costly things.
So I think when he's saying, not given to much wine, what he's saying is, you should not be given to just things that are extravagant,
and that's why it's linked with not greedy of filthy lucre, because aren't a lot of pastors really covetous and greedy of filthy lucre?
They're very given to nice things.
They have everything in life. I mean, they all have cars, they've got all fancy clothes and everything.
They're very given to expensive, extravagant things.
And so what I believe it's referring to is not referring to permanent alcohol, but I believe what it's referring to is extravagant things.
Now, if you don't take that interpretation, though, that's fine, because if you go back to Titus chapter 2, it does not change the fact that it's still wrong to drink any alcohol, according to the Be Sober with the ancient men.
And quite honestly, Be Sober is mentioned throughout the Bible. He commands you, Be Sober.
And so he's commanding you to be sober, and he's saying, I don't want you to have any alcohol, even if it just affects you a little bit.
He doesn't want you to have any alcohol. That's their alcohol. So turn back to Titus 2.
And so I think the difference between bishops and deacons, I don't believe it's referring to permanent alcohol, because if you were going to think that's referring to permanent alcohol, what you're saying, what people that endorse drinking would say is,
well, see, you know, bishops, they're not allowed to drink any alcohol, but deacons are allowed to drink a little bit of alcohol.
That is basically the interpretation you would have to take.
Now, the interpretation, if you don't believe it's referring to permanent alcohol, which I don't, is the fact that you're basically saying, you know, with pastors, it's very important that you're not giving to extravagant things,
because if you're given to really nice things and you need a really nice life, it's going to be very easy to start pocketing money like Catholic priests.
Right.
Like they always do, and start stealing money and things such as that. It's going to, and if you're the one leading the church, it's very important you're not a covetous person.
Throughout the Bible, when it talks about leaders in the Old Testament, it will say, not covetous.
Why? Because if they're covetous, then honestly, that's going to affect the entire church.
And so I believe that's what it's referring to, but if you think it's referring to permanent alcohol, it doesn't change the fact, throughout the Bible, there's a command to be sober.
So it still doesn't justify drinking, no matter what they try to say.
Now, in Titus 2, verse 3, I want you to notice the end where it says,
Teachers of good things.
You say, this is referring to aged women, and the Bible says that the aged women are teachers of good things.
Brother Stuckey, are you going liberal? Are you going to have Ms. Tan fill in for you when you're in the U.S.?
She's drowning, she's your angel.
No, you know, the Bible says that the aged women are teachers of good things.
Okay.
Now, who are they teaching?
Well, they're teaching the young women, the Bible says.
Titus chapter 2, verse 4.
So the aged women are not teaching men, they're teaching young women.
Okay.
Now, what are they teaching young women?
Well, it doesn't say they're teaching them the rapture.
It doesn't say that they're teaching them about, you know, the recreate doctrine.
Now, I'm not saying that they can never mention anything about doctrine or anything,
but basically the thing that they're teaching is on how to be a mom, how to be a wife.
Okay.
It says that, you know, that they may teach young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children.
So basically they're showing them basically how to be a good wife, how to be a good mom, and things such as this.
They're saying, why are they doing the teaching, Brother Stuckey, and you're not?
I don't know how to be a good wife.
I don't know how to be a good mom.
Look, if my son's sick in the middle of the night, I don't know what sort of medicine he should pay.
How would I know that stuff?
They say, well, how does a new mom learn that stuff?
They ask godly ways at the church that embrace kids.
Look, you don't want to get your advice from Google and YouTube, right?
Because they're going to give you a very slanted perspective.
You do not know if it's accurate.
They might suggest some medicine that can be very dangerous.
Okay?
And so where do you get that advice?
You get it from ladies at the church that are a little bit older that embrace kids, and they can give you the proper advice or other godly people.
Obviously we know YouTube channels from godly ladies that are giving this sort of advice, and that's also a good source.
But it should be from people that are godly ladies that have learned this stuff.
Look, when something's new to you, you're not going to be an expert at it.
When my son was born, I asked other men at our church questions about being a father.
Why?
Because even though I might have read the Bible more than those people, it doesn't mean that I have any experience at being a father.
And so if you're wise, what you will do is you'll get godly advice from people that have already been down that road.
Okay?
And so you see the aged women, they're teaching the young.
But what you're also seeing is that if they're teaching the young women, this is something that actually needs to be taught.
It's not something that's automatic.
They're teaching the young women to love their husbands.
You say, wouldn't it be just automatically easy to love your husbands?
Well, I mean, that's what they're teaching young women to do.
How to be better wives, how to love their husbands more.
Wouldn't it just be easy?
You know, of course you're going to love your children.
Well, you have to understand that when your children are always crying and you don't know what to do, sometimes it can frustrate you.
And so quite honestly, the aged women at the church that are godly are passing on that information.
Now, we do have a pretty young church.
You know, me and my wife are some of the older people at our church.
But we do have other people that have raised kids and people that are older, people that are godly, and they are good people to get advice from.
Because they have experience of a lot of different questions that I don't know the answers to and my wife doesn't know the answers to.
Because when it's new to you, you really don't know.
For the first time, you know, I remember our son was having trouble breathing in the middle of the night.
When you're a new parent, you're very scared because you don't know what to do.
You know, you're like, oh, man, I don't know what to do.
You know, he's crying.
And then, you know, you ask other godly ladies and they know exactly what to do.
And it can help fix the problem.
And so when it comes to aged women at church, obviously they're teaching the gospel to people.
And it's always right to teach the gospel to anyone you can.
But also they're passing on information to the young.
That is why it's important to be part of a good church where you can actually learn these things, okay?
And so it says to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their husbands.
And so the Bible says, you know, to be obedient to your husband.
And this is something that you can actually learn from older ladies that are at church that are godly people.
You say, why do you have to learn that?
Because, you know, it's not easy to obey people if you don't really like what they're saying.
And look, it doesn't matter who's married. From time to time, husbands and wives are going to disagree about something.
And quite honestly, it's not easy for anyone to just listen to the authority.
But the Bible has set the system of men being the head of the household.
And so if the guy makes the decision, then the wife is supposed to go along with that decision.
But look, it's not that easy to do, though.
I mean, you're not going to want to do that if you disagree with it.
You're saying, well, man, I've been around for, you know, 30 years.
I did this this way and now my husband is telling me I've got to change this.
Now, if you're a smart husband, you're not just going to order your wife on every single thing in the agenda.
But, you know, there are going to be times when you just disagree about something.
And when you disagree, according to the Bible, the wives are supposed to obey their husbands.
But it's not something that's easy for ladies to do.
It's not easy for anybody to obey stuff when you disagree with it.
If you have a boss at work and you just disagree with what he's saying, it's hard to obey it.
But I know the Bible says that the older ladies are supposed to teach the younger women to be obedient to their own husband.
That the word of God be not blasphemed.
Look, it has a big impact on people when they see households where basically the lady loves her husband.
And basically it's a good partnership there where the husband, you know, basically is just ahead of that household.
And the wife just really respects and loves her husband.
And it needs to work both ways though.
Because some guys get this perspective, well, you know, I'm the head of the household so you have to just do what I want you to do.
You can try that philosophy if you want once, but it's not going to work that well.
And it's going to cause you not to have a very happy marriage even if your wife is willing to just do it because it's what the Bible says.
No, if you're smart, you're actually going to love her wife and lay down your life for your wife.
The Bible also teaches that.
Yes, wives are supposed to be obedient to their husbands, but husbands are supposed to lay down their wives for their wives.
Now it says here in Titus chapter 2 verse 6, and it says,
Young men likewise may sort to be sober minded.
And so once again this idea of being sober minded.
And so here's where we see that being sober is not simply meaning alcohol.
It's just really having a clear mind.
Obviously alcohol is like the number one thing that's going to affect your mind.
Alcohol and drugs.
But anything that's going to inhibit basically being sober minded.
And you know, one thing that will inhibit your ability to be sober minded is when you sit around late at night and watch YouTube.
And then you wake up exhausted because you didn't get much sleep and you're not very clear headed.
And so honestly, you know, we should take care of our bodies because if we don't, we're not going to be that clear minded, sober minded.
A good test for me of whether or not we're doing a good job at this is when I'm reading the Bible if I'm really paying attention or if my mind's just all over the place.
And when my mind's all over the place, it kind of shows, you know, well, I'm not being very sober minded right now.
Probably because I either was eating unhealthy or I stayed up late or whatever.
But we all know that when you're really tired and you try to read the Bible, you get to the end of the chapter and you're like, man, what did I even read?
Now you missed everything.
And look, that's not what you want to do.
If you're going to set aside 30 minutes of your day to read the Bible, you want to be as clear minded as possible so you actually learn something.
I hate the times when I read the Bible and I feel like I didn't learn anything because my mind was just not there.
And so you want to be sober minded.
And so obviously that means don't get drunk.
But in terms of a church where people are godly people, let's think that up a notch.
Let's try to make sure that you're taking care of your body so you can be as sober minded as possible.
You do your Bible reading where you're not tired, you're okay and things such as that.
Otherwise, you know what, honestly you're not going to get that much out of your Bible reading.
But not just referring to that, but basically young men likewise exhort to be sober minded.
It goes back to the thing of taking life very seriously.
And quite honestly it's something that young men tend to struggle with.
Now look at verse number seven.
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.
So at the end of verse eight we see that the goal is that those people are not going to be able to say something evil about you.
And so in order for that to happen, you need to be brave, sincere, have sound speech,
and have doctrine that does not show uncorruptness, a pattern of good works.
Otherwise the enemy is going to be able to mock you or criticize you or something such as that.
Notice how it says a pattern of good works in verse number seven.
Our entire lives we've got to be doing a good job at everything.
And so if you're an employee at work, they ought to consider you a good employee.
I've told this story before how somehow my whole job in Maryland they found out that I hate women and sodomites.
That's what they said, that we found out you hate women and sodomites pretty much.
And I was called down to the office and everything like that.
And basically what they told me was that they asked co-workers, and all the co-workers said we've never had a problem with him.
He's a hard worker, he's respectful, he's nice, he does a good job.
But if their perspective had been, well, he's not that good of a worker, look, I wouldn't have been fired.
They didn't fire me though because I was good at my job.
And look, you need to have a pattern of good works where they move into your life and say, hey, you're doing well at everything.
You're looking hard, you're a good individual.
And we need to take this not just in the spiritual side but in our entire lives as a pattern of good works.
As people we need to be respectful to our parents.
We need to be good employees.
We need to be good at all of these things.
And one mistake people make is they only look at the spiritual side and they say, well, I'm in church and I'm soul winning.
So obviously that means I'm right with God and I'm doing everything right.
Well, not when the Bible said to have a pattern of good works.
If God said to have a pattern of good works that means it's not just in church, not just soul winning, but in your entire life to take it very seriously.
When you're in school you do very well in school.
You work very hard.
You take everything in life very seriously.
It also says in doctrine showing uncorruptness.
A good example of showing corruptness in doctrine is, for example, if you get up and you preach a sermon and it's something you haven't really studied out, it's kind of a new thought, and you just get up there and kind of wing it.
It's like, no, you ought to make sure you take your doctrine very seriously, that you know what you're talking about.
And look, you will see people sometimes when they get up and they preach something, they don't even know what you're talking about.
I heard somebody, and this was someone who at least used to be in the movement, I don't know if they are anymore, the sermon used to be on YouTube, it's not now.
But it was in the middle of the sermon, he was preaching on Luke 16 with the story of Lazarus and the rich man and Abraham.
And in the middle of the sermon, he asked Pastor Anderson, he's like, this isn't a parable, is it?
I mean, he literally asked, is Luke 16 a parable in the middle of preaching on Luke 16?
It's like, you should have figured that out before you were preaching on it.
It's like, what in the world?
The reaction was great.
He's like, no, it's not a parable.
And so then he says right after that, he's like, that's right, it's not a parable.
But even if it is a parable, it's like, what in the world?
It's like, you don't get up here and preach something, you don't know what you're talking about.
You better make sure you know what you're talking about.
Otherwise, in doctrine, you're showing a lot of progress.
And you're not showing gravity as it is right after that, or sincerity.
You're getting up and trying to preach a cool sermon and you don't know what you're doing.
And so one big test that I notice and other people at Pastored will look for
is when people get a chance to preach, how seriously do they take it?
And honestly, you can usually tell how seriously they take it.
And I'm not saying whether or not it's a really dynamic sermon,
but I'm saying whether or not they've actually studied the topic and whether or not they've spent time on it.
I remember somebody came up to me one time and he was ragging about that he had spent 15 minutes preparing a sermon.
That was not at a, it's not at this church, it was at a preaching night that I was at.
But he was basically bragging about it. He said, man, I only spent 15 minutes on this sermon.
And when he preached it, I was thinking, I can tell you only spent 15 minutes.
Because you were fumbling around, you were all over the place, you kept looking down at your notes.
And it's like, you probably shouldn't be bragging about how little time you took to prepare your sermon.
When I preached 15 minute sermons at Verity preaching nights where they were never published on YouTube,
I spent multiple hours on them.
Because it was my chance to preach a sermon, I was like, man, I'm going to study and prepare, try to memorize the verses.
I spent a lot of time on that.
I don't know why you would brag about, I only spent 15 minutes.
It's like, why would you brag about that?
And honestly, when you're doing something like that, you're not trying to get approval from it,
you're trying to get approval from God, especially if you say you want to be a pastor.
And so honestly, God's going to look down at the work that you put in,
and if he can trust you with something small, he'll give you an opportunity at something bigger.
That's what the Bible teaches.
And so when it comes to doctrine, you've got to take that very seriously.
It also says sound speech in Titus 2 verse 8.
Now, this is something that young men ought to take heed to, especially in the days of social media.
Where basically you have sound speech that the enemy cannot criticize you or rebuke you for the words that have come out of your mouth.
And so we ought to be very careful with the things that we say,
and not just try to cause lots of problems and stuff like that,
because what's going to end up happening is people are going to look at you and look down at you.
You'd be better off just not saying anything.
And honestly, if this is something that you struggle with, these college guests just don't even have Facebook.
Now, in the world we live in, it's going to come to the point where employers are going to look at things you've said on Facebook
when they're deciding who to hire, and it's already happening.
And they can see, wait a minute, here you put some picture of sodomites saying whatever and hoping they die.
Look, you're not going to get hired for jobs, will you?
You have that history on Facebook.
And on social media, they look up that stuff.
And so if you have a habit of saying things like that, you can get in real trouble.
I'm not telling you to be watered down, but I also don't want you to have the opportunity to go online.
I want you to actually be able to be hired at a professional company if you have the work experience,
where they're not, when they look up your Facebook, they're not going to see, well, wait a minute,
this guy is mocking Catholics, he's mocking this call, he's mocking this call.
I'm just saying it's not the wisest thing to do.
And I'll tell you what, I know people that have gotten in trouble on social media in the U.S.,
and I don't think we're there right now in the Philippines, but I do believe it's going to come to a point
where when they interview you, they basically quickly scan everything that you put out.
Look, if you delete something from Facebook, you post it and one minute later you delete it.
It's not deleted.
There are companies that keep track of every single thing that's ever been said,
and the reason why they do that is because employers will pay them money.
And they say, well, here's all the information on these candidates.
And look, if you put up a post and say, you know, I hope our president dies today and delete it,
five seconds later they can easily pull that up and say, well, in 2017 you said this,
and they're not going to hire you.
This is not a conspiracy.
This is reality.
There are companies that track everything.
It's not deleted.
You could delete everything you've ever put on Facebook.
It's still out there on the Web, and companies literally keep track of that stuff,
and they will bring it up.
Now, my personal opinion, and look, I've changed over the years because obviously I've grown and gotten older.
I want you to realize that for me, I don't have to worry about losing my job for saying something on social media
because I work for a very Baptist church, and they're obviously not going to fire me for anything I say.
And I believe that if you're going to be the pastor or evangelist or leader, you have to be willing to put yourself out.
You have to step out in faith and be willing to do that.
But look, just because you remember the church doesn't mean that you have to do the same thing and put your jobs in jeopardy.
I will never ask you guys to say, well, you're watered down unless you...
Look, you could honestly put your career in jeopardy with some of the things that you say.
And so honestly I think the best thing you could do is just either share a sermon, you could share it publicly,
or just share it privately to people you know.
But honestly, you've got to be careful about what you say because it is out there permanently.
And the thing that scares me is people that are very young and zealous can destroy their futures.
When they love God, they're just a little bit overly zealous.
And that's why I preach sometimes about don't be overly zealous because I do not want people to put their careers in jeopardy.
But the honest truth is that professional companies will pull up everything you've ever said.
And honestly, if you make some comment...
And you see it in national news with athletes and stuff where there's an athlete who ends up getting fired
because he said something like 10 years ago.
But that's becoming more common.
I think I mentioned this in a story earlier that's coming up in a sermon,
but I had a friend of mine who worked at Best Buy in the United States.
And he worked at Best Buy and he had made some joke about Barack Obama dying or something like that.
But anyways, somebody came into Best Buy.
And I can't remember if he said this on the phone with someone.
I think it might have just been on a phone call.
Someone came into Best Buy the next day or two days later.
And he was a salesperson who worked for Best Buy.
And he came up to him and he was telling him what he did.
And he said he worked for the government.
They basically tracked the messages of everything that's said.
They listened for a few words.
Like if you were to threaten someone.
He goes on and on basically about his job.
You know if you were to threaten the president, blah, blah, blah, and everything.
Basically I would track those phone calls to see what's said and investigate it.
He's like, so by the way, never do that.
And he just walked out of Best Buy.
He basically just told him, hey, I heard what you said threatening to kill our president.
And he's like, don't ever do that again.
Now that was 10 years ago.
Now I understand that's the United States, but honestly,
even though we might be a little bit behind on that, we're going to catch up on that.
And so you need to be careful with some of the things you say
because honestly, it is being tracked.
You do need to be careful about what you say.
Now look at Titus 2, verse number 9.
And so this just goes back to having sound speech.
You've got to be careful about some of the things you say,
especially in the world that we live in today.
I'm not asking you to be watered down.
I'm just saying you choose your battles wisely.
I don't want you to put your careers in jeopardy
because you're trying to be fired up and you don't want to be watered down.
I would not ask people to do that.
Titus 2, verse 9, about reason.
Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters
and to please them well in all things, not answering again.
So we talk about young women, young men, aged men, aged women.
Then it talks about servants.
And the theme you're seeing is that it's addressing pretty much everything,
every group of people.
You have to understand the preaching of God's word is for everybody, including my son.
So what is your son going to learn?
My son's going to learn the pattern of what church is like.
Basically, I'm up here and I'm preaching loud.
I'm preaching with authority.
And he's going to see that I take this very seriously
because at home, guess what I do?
I play with my son.
I have fun with my son.
But in church, during the preaching, guess what?
I'm preaching a sermon.
I'm taking it seriously.
And everybody in church is taking it seriously.
So he's going to understand the pattern of what church is supposed to be like.
So people of all ages.
It says to exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters.
This is something people need to hear.
Because quite honestly, a lot of times people have trouble playing their bosses at work.
Now this can literally be referring to someone who's in servitude with a master,
but it also would apply to your boss at work.
Now the reason why it says exhort servants is because not everybody's got a nice boss.
Some people have a boss that's going to yell at them.
Some people have a boss that is a jerk.
And you say, well, what do I do if my boss is a jerk?
You obey them.
You do what the Bible says.
You obey and listen to what they have to say.
Look, I've had bosses that were good bosses,
and I've had bosses that would yell at me several times a week for something very small.
I had a boss because for about eight weeks I worked at a car wash
because I was going to start a new job, but it took eight weeks for me to actually start it.
So I just picked up a job to make a little bit of extra money.
And it was during the summertime in Arizona.
It was really hot.
In Celsius it would be over 40 degrees Celsius,
probably about 45 degrees Celsius during that time of year.
And I was basically up on a tall ladder painting.
And so I'd have sweat pouring down, and a few drops of paint fell into the ground.
And he just starts screaming at me for it.
I'm like, good night, man.
I'm sweating like crazy and everything.
But you know what I did is I just said, yes, sir.
You just obey your boss.
Now, when you have a nice boss, it's not going to be hard to obey them,
but if you have a boss that you do not like very well, it's going to be a little bit more difficult.
But what you have to understand is that if you learn to obey bosses that aren't the nicest,
maybe God's going to bless you with a better boss,
and maybe God's going to basically make you very thankful when you have a new job.
If you have a job that's just terrible and it's garbage,
the good thing about it is when you start a new job, you're very thankful for it.
You're very happy that, wow, you know, God allowed me to go through that.
I've had jobs that weren't that good.
And it makes you very thankful with your next job even if it's not perfect.
Look, when you see people in the Philippines growing up that have everything life has to offer
and they're rich, they usually grow up and they're very unthankful for everything
because everything was perfect from day one.
Now, they started and they had to go through trials in their life.
Once they had better things in life, they'd actually appreciate it.
And so it's not a bad thing if your boss is not the nicest person
because it's going to make you more thankful in the future,
and maybe God is allowing you to have a bad boss.
That way, you will be more thankful in the future.
And so it says to be obedient under their own masters
and to please them well in all things, not answering again.
Basically, you do not talk back to the boss.
If the boss tells you something, you say, yes, sir.
If the boss tells you something and he's wrong about it, you say, yes, sir.
You say, what if he's wrong?
Look, I've had bosses that said things that were wrong.
Like, I was working on a Microsoft Excel project
and my boss did not know about the situation.
He was confused.
You still say, yes, sir, and you're respectful.
You just do what you have to say.
Because, you know, honestly, if they're the one making the rules,
then you have to listen to them, okay?
Now, it says in Titus chapter 2 verse 10,
not purloining, but showing all good fidelity.
What does it mean, not purloining?
It basically means not stealing, okay?
Now, I would hope that nobody in this room would just outright steal from somebody.
That would be pretty bad.
But at work, you know, when you have a job where you clock in and clock out,
you know, you have the ability at jobs to be dishonest with how often you're there.
And, you know, you ought to clock in and say, I was here.
If your job starts at 8 a.m., guess what time you need to be there?
7.50 something at the latest.
Not 8.05.
You say, why?
Because if you're there at 8.05, you're stealing from your boss.
You say, but everybody else shows up 20 minutes late.
Yeah, you're a Christian.
You're supposed to be different.
This chapter says be a peculiar person at the end.
You're supposed to be different.
If everybody shows up late, you show up early.
Quite honestly, it's going to benefit you because that's honestly how you get a raise.
When they see that you're always the one who's early.
Look, when I worked at an office job, there were a lot of people that took like eight smoke breaks a day for 15 minutes.
They were gone for two hours.
We had our defined benefit and defined contribution groups.
Defined benefit were like kind of the math geeks, you know, Microsoft Excel all day.
Then there's the people that were more doing the answering on the call to find contribution.
And there were times where they had like ten workers and they're all smoking.
They're all gone and it's just like we're answering the calls for them.
It's just like, I don't know anything about this.
I know how to crunch numbers.
I know how to do math.
I don't know how to, you know, whatever they do.
But they weren't even there.
And that's the reality in a lot of offices where people just take lots of breaks and they're goofing off.
No, I mean, if you're being paid, you're being paid to do something.
It does not matter how lazy everybody else is, you need to work harder.
The difference is their boss is the one at work, but your boss is way up above.
God's the one who's going to promote you or not promote you.
And he's the one who's going to look down at how seriously you think your job is.
And so you should not be trying to clock in late or take breaks that are not allowed.
You're basically stealing from your boss, even if everybody else is doing it.
And I know when you work at an office, people take lots of breaks and they're basically just stealing from the company.
But you know what, you've got to be different as a Christian.
You've got to take it very seriously.
And it says that they may endure the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.
And so as a result of basically being a good employee, it's going to have them have positive opinions about the God that you worship.
And you never know, you might actually be able to get people to visit church from time to time because they see that you're a little bit different than everybody else.
Now the sermon's going to take a little bit of a turn here, verse number 11.
Now it's time to rip on Calvin for about 20 minutes.
And in Titus chapter 2, verse 11, the Bible reads.
Now realize that this whole chapter has been focusing on every group of people.
The aged men, the young men, the aged women, the young women, the servants.
Basically he's hitting every single person because the word of God is for everybody.
And then in Titus 2 11 it says,
For the grace of God, the bread of salvation hath appeared to all men.
Now here this verse alone destroys Calvinism because it says to all men,
which means that he died for everybody.
But realize the context of the chapter.
The whole chapter has been about how the word of God is for everybody.
And so the word of God is for everybody.
And look, it's a shame that people don't get saved and they can't apply the word of God.
But the word of God's still for everybody.
That's what the whole chapter's been about.
And then in verse 11 it's clear that Jesus died for every single person.
God's grace appears to everybody, not to some men.
See, a Calvinist is going to look at this verse and they say,
Well, all there doesn't really mean all.
All there basically just means the elect.
All just means some.
And so it's like, well, why doesn't it say something?
Because to me it's not that confusing.
And look, if you were to show a Calvinist Titus 2 11,
or someone who says they're a Calvinist or whatever,
and you just explain to them briefly,
Hey, God's salvation appears to everybody, to all men.
And they walk away and say, well, I don't believe it.
I believe he only died for some people.
You know, I don't believe that person's saved.
Why? Because he that is of God hears God's word.
And if you can see a verse that is this crystal clear in your Bible,
where it says all men and say, well, I think that's just some men.
Look, that person's not saved.
Now, could somebody get a little bit confused on doctrines?
Yeah, people can get a little bit confused,
but that's more than a little bit confused.
See, I mean, a lot of you used to go to Calvinist churches,
and you might have been confused on some stuff in the past
because your pastor's lying to you and saying things that weren't true.
But that confusion's only going to go a little ways if you're a saved person,
because when you're saved, you're involved with the spirit of truth.
And so if you have the Holy Spirit inside of you,
didn't we see earlier about sound doctrine?
If you're saved, you're only going to get so confused.
Now, it is possible to get somewhat confused,
but it's only going to reach a certain level.
Look, if you preach the gospel to someone,
let's say I preached the gospel once to someone,
and my sowing partner had told me he got this person saved afterwards,
like a couple months earlier.
I preached the gospel to this person
and argued with him about eternal security for 20 minutes.
And then the person I was with said,
I got that guy saved a few months ago.
And I'm just thinking, I mean, how do I even respond to that?
If they were saved, they wouldn't have been arguing with me for 20 minutes
about whether or not you could lose your salvation.
They might have prayed it prayer because your gospel presentation is a joke,
but they obviously didn't get saved if they're arguing with me.
Look, if you're saved, you have the Spirit of Truth inside
that's going to tell you what's true and what's not.
And when there's a verse that's this crystal clear
and it's explained, you still say, well, I don't believe Jesus died for all of it.
It's because the person's not saved.
The key that is of God is here at God's quarters.
And look, I'm preaching to the choir here
because all of you guys know that already.
My position has never changed in this church
that when it comes to Calvinism, Calvinists are not saved.
They preach a work of salvation.
Look, lordship of salvation is not the same as repentance of sins.
And people are confused about this.
Sometimes Calvinists will tell you,
why don't we get up to repent of your sins?
That's because lordship of salvation is actually a million times worse.
Listen to John MacArthur's testimony on YouTube.
He talks about how he was in a vehicle when he was a teenager
and there was this massive wreck. He got thrown from the vehicle.
And at that moment, he just dedicated his entire life
and body and soul to the Lord.
And see, when a Calvinist, their moment of conversion
is like half Pentecostal.
And they just dedicate their entire...
It's not just they feel bad for their sins.
No, they dedicate their entire life
and they're never going to be a bad person ever again.
It's like repentance of sins on steroids.
It's 50 times worse.
Don't tell me that person's saved.
John MacArthur, especially with that testimony.
But the bottom line is that when people don't understand the Bible,
it's a good sign that person is not saved.
Now, there are deep things in the Bible.
And as I randomly term Ezekiel,
because I'm reading that right now in the Old Testament,
I'm sure we could look at things in this chapter
and have a different opinion.
But we're not going to have a different opinion
on whether or not you have to be baptized in heaven.
We're not going to have a different opinion on the key things,
especially as they relate to salvation,
because that is a salvation issue,
whether or not Jesus died for everyone
or whether he didn't die for everyone.
And it's just crystal clear here in verse number 11.
This is not the only word, though.
I mean, the only verse, there's a hundred verses
that say the same thing, that Jesus died for everybody.
But limited atonement is such a big joke.
I don't understand how anyone,
even if they said they were a Calvinist,
how do you get around every single verse
that says that he died for everybody?
You could look at John 3.16 where it says,
For God so loved the world,
not just some people, he loved the world.
Oh, the world doesn't really mean the world there.
It just means, you know, the elect.
I mean, how do you even respond to stuff like that?
I mean, it has to refer to everybody because of the fact
it makes a distinction between those that believe
in John 3.16 and the world.
So he died for the world and whosoever believeth,
implying some believe and some don't believe.
How could he be confused on that?
There's so many verses here that make it very clear.
It makes a distinction where, hey, he's a Savior of all men,
especially of those that believe.
Look, when you see so many verses like that
that say Jesus died, who will have all men to be saved
and to come on to the knowledge of the truth?
Look, when you see all those verses that he wants
everybody to be saved, and you walk away from seeing
a clear verse like this, you say, well, you know,
I think God wants people to burn in hell.
I don't think he really loves them.
I don't think he died for them.
Look, they just don't understand the Bible.
Now, you can obviously preach in the gospel
and try to get them saved, but quite honestly,
they just don't understand the Bible.
There's a reason why every Bible Baptist here in the Philippines
is the Calvinist case.
Now, some Bible Baptist pastors in the Philippines are saved,
not the Calvinists.
See, some are saved, and they're watered down
because they're linked up with the Calvinists.
But the ones that are the five-point Calvinists,
they're not saved.
And so I'm not going to get up here and say that none of them are saved
because I do believe some that are actually even ordained,
not just the ones that we consider our friends
that have never been ordained.
But honestly, I do believe that some of them are saved,
but honestly, not most of them.
And the ones that are Calvinists are not saved.
You know, those guys are heretics.
They don't love the same God.
They don't worship the same God that we do.
Now, in Titus 2, verse 12,
I want you to notice that a distinction is made
between Titus 2, verse 11 and Titus 2, verse 12
because in verse 11, it said,
The grace of God, the bringeth the salvation,
hath appeared to all men.
But then it says, teaching us.
There is a distinction there
when you look at the first two words of Titus 2, 12 and Titus 2, 11
because us means it's only some people that he's referring to.
So the grace of God, the bringeth the salvation,
hath appeared to all men, teaching us.
That destroys Calvin.
Will you just look at that?
It appeared to all men, but it teaches us.
There's a distinction.
There's no way around that grammatically.
So it teaches us.
Who's he saying that it teaches us?
It teaches us that are saved.
Yes, Jesus died for everyone,
but it teaches people that are saved something,
teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust,
we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world.
Now, it makes it very clear we should live.
It doesn't say you will live, right?
When you get saved, there's no guarantee you're going to change your life.
When you get saved, and if you're a drunk, you're still a drunk,
you get saved.
If somebody is a drug addict right now
and we preach the gospel to them
and they get saved, they're still a drunk addict.
You say, why?
Because your desires don't change what you get saved.
You still have the same fleshly desires that you've always had.
You still desire what's wrong, even though the Spirit desires what's right.
And so you have the good side.
You have basically the good angel and the bad angel.
You see with the cartoons as a kid.
Where basically your flesh wants to do what's wrong,
and the Spirit wants to do what's right.
There's no guarantee that you're going to start doing what's right.
Because if you don't start reading the Bible
and you don't start praying and you don't start going to church,
what's going to change in your life?
Probably nothing.
But when you do get saved,
it does teach you that you should live sober.
Say, let me give you an example of what I'm talking about.
When you get saved,
all of a sudden you start understanding that you should live sober.
You shouldn't drink. You shouldn't get drunk.
People that are unsafe people that go out to the bars and get drunk all the time,
a lot of them don't even realize what they're doing is wrong.
They don't even understand why there's something wrong with it
or why they should quit.
They don't understand why we would live a separated life and not drink alcohol.
But when you get saved, you realize,
wait a minute, there's more to life in this party.
When you get saved, you realize,
wait a minute, I should try to be obeying God's rules.
That doesn't mean you're going to change anything.
Because you still have the same sinful flesh that you always have.
Now I will say that oftentimes when people get saved,
I would say that they're going to get more guilty
when they're afraid of things that they know that the Bible says.
Because they know what God's rules are.
Now I don't like to say things definitely for sure,
just because it happened in my life.
But I know that when I got saved,
I started to feel guilty about things that I wouldn't have before.
I started to actually think of things kind of in a spiritual level.
But it didn't mean that when I first got saved, I just changed my lifestyle.
I didn't start reading the Bible when I first got saved.
You know, Calvinists would say,
well, if you're really saved, you're going to walk the walk
and your lifestyle is going to change.
No, when I got saved, I didn't just start opening up the Bible
and just get down on my knees and pray
and just dedicate my life to God.
That didn't happen for me.
Look, when you start growing as a Christian,
it's a slow process.
It doesn't happen overnight.
And there's no guarantee you're going to grow at all.
You can live the same sinful life,
but when you get saved, you can do things that you've never done
that are worse.
You can be someone to where before you're saved,
you never did anything really bad,
and then after you're saved, you fall into sin
and you go down further than you ever have.
That's very possible. Why?
Because you still have the same flesh.
Your flesh has not changed,
and until we go to heaven one day
and eventually get our new bodies,
your body is going to desire what is wrong.
It's not going to desire what is right.
It's going to desire the same sinful things.
But when you get saved,
the grace of God does teach us that we should live so brilliantly.
We should live righteously,
but it does not say that you will live so brilliantly.
You will live righteously.
Now, in verse number 13, the Bible reads,
looking for that blessed hope
and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ.
And so in verse number 13, it mentions that
Jesus Christ is our Savior,
but it says that the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ,
earlier in the chapter I believe it said God our Savior,
and this is something that's throughout the book of Titus.
And so it's not possible to read the Bible
and walk away and say that Jesus is not God,
because throughout the Bible it says Jesus is our Savior,
God is our Savior, Jesus is God.
It's throughout the Bible.
Verse 14, who gave himself for us
that he might redeem us from all iniquity
and purify unto himself a peculiar people,
zealous of good works.
And see, the Bible says that we are to be a
peculiar people.
What does that mean?
It does not mean that we're weird on purpose.
It doesn't mean that you just dress like an Amish person
and just stand out in public.
It doesn't mean that you dress like a Buddhist monk,
what, half orange, half brown, you know,
robe or whatever, just stand out, shave your head bald,
and then just stand out in public.
You know, it doesn't mean that.
I mean, they are intentionally being peculiar
to draw attention to themselves,
because they're not very humble,
and they're dressing immodestly,
because being modest means you're not drawing
attention to yourself.
When you dress in an orange dress with a shaved head,
you're drawing attention to yourself.
And so, but what it says to be a peculiar people,
you have to understand that it's linked with
zealous of good works, and when you are serving God,
people are not going to understand
why you do the things that you do.
People are not going to understand why many people
in this room on National Heroes Day
are going to go all the way to Bullockon
to just preach the gospel.
They're like, that's what you're doing on your day off.
You know, your coworkers are asking,
what are you doing on National Heroes Day?
Well, you know, we're going to drive a couple hours,
and we're just going to preach the gospel all day to people,
and if it's really raining, we're just going to have
this one new contest or something.
But they're not going to understand that.
They think it's weird.
Now, I don't think it's weird.
We don't think it's weird.
We love so many.
But the things that we enjoy,
they ought to be different than the things that we enjoy.
And God intended us to be able to enjoy things
that are different than the things
that the world's going to enjoy.
Now, I'm not saying we should never have fun,
because honestly, you know, we should try to relax
and have fun from time to time.
But you know, stuff like Bible reading,
the world's going to think that's strange.
What percentage of people in the Philippines
have actually read the Bible?
I mean, from reports I've heard, in the Baptist churches,
no one's read the Bible.
Do you really think the Catholics have really read the Bible?
Because if they're really dedicated to religion,
they're going to realize that it's a sin
for them to read the Bible.
But there's no Catholic that's ever even read the Bible,
because they're taught that they should not read the Bible
because you have to trust the authority of the pope
and the church.
And so quite honestly, there's probably no Catholic
that's ever even read the Bible,
because they believe if they're dedicated,
that, you know, you're not supposed to read it,
and if you're not dedicated,
well, you're not even going to read it.
So unless you're someone who's not really a Catholic,
you're not even going to read it.
What percentage of people in this country
have actually read the Bible?
Very few.
And so if you spend an hour reading the Bible
in the mornings, they're going to think that's strange.
Your coworker gets to work, and you're reading the Bible,
you're not going to deal with it.
They don't get it.
Why?
Because what the world enjoys and what we enjoy,
they ought to be different.
Now, if you're walking in the flesh,
unfortunately, you're inside of the same heaven.
If you're walking in the flesh,
you might think that vice-pondent's funny.
If you're walking in the flesh,
you might be doing the same things that the world's doing.
It shouldn't be that way,
because God's people are supposed to be
zealous of good works and peculiar people.
Verse 15.
These things speak and exhort and rebuke.
With all authority, let no man despise them.
And so in verse number 15, it says,
these things should be spoken and rebuked with authority.
Basically, we're not afraid of the word God.
And so, look, if you're someone who's a leader or a preacher,
you've got to preach the word of God with authority
and not be afraid, because let no man despise thee.
Don't allow anyone to look down on you
when you're preaching the word of God
and saying what you're going to preach.
No, you preach the word of God with authority.
And so when it comes to authority,
well, it talks about preaching to the aged men,
the aged women, the young women, the young men,
the servants, everybody.
And so no matter what the topic is,
if you believe it's what the Bible says,
you ought to preach it with authority.
Now, obviously, I'm not saying to preach and be a jerk,
because you ought to be in the fruits of the Spirit.
It talks about being gentle.
And so there's a way to approach certain topics,
but you still should be preaching with authority
and not holding anything back.
And you're not going to find too many Baptist churches
here in the Philippines that actually follow that.
And look, when you're seeing a pastor or someone
who basically is just not preaching anything,
he's basically just intentionally not saying anything.
It's because he's scared.
He's not filled with the Spirit,
and he's not obeying what this says when it says,
let no man despise thee.
That's command from God.
Preach an award that should be done with grace.
Let's go to the word of prayer.