Mo said he's going to be running late.
So that's where Mo is.
He's running late.
3rd, 3-41, right?
Yes.
Well, I think 10-26, you can give him a little more minutes.
Well, no, that one's behind.
Oh, OK.
It's 10-29, it's 10-30.
OK, all right.
We, uh, Lucy?
When I say when I give the first thing will you press start streaming says brother heat disappeared also no
I'll go check it's just either start or stop
All right, well, let's turn our handle door to page 341
Great, I just threw Brother Moa, I mean Brother Heath under the bus.
And there you go, that's what we do online.
Let's go to 341.
This is that kind of morning, so.
bulletin just raise your hand and brother Gentry will get you a bulletin
brother Gentry is the young kid who's almost as tall as I am so you can't miss
him but today is July 27th 2025 welcome to Springcrest Baptist Church right
there on the left we have the
Uh, service times, service, uh, Sunday morning, 10 30 AM, Sunday evening or afternoon, 4 30
PM, Wednesday service is 5 30 PM.
And then we have our Sunday soul winning time, 2 PM.
And then we have the memory chapter, which is Hebrews one, and we're on verse number
two.
Now, I know for a fact, my son quoted the verse to Pastor Cobb as Mr. Linda.
But if any of the other kids quote the verse to somebody that's a non-family member,
the reward is an ice cream, as long as the parents are okay with it.
But the verse that we have for today is hath in verse number two
Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son who whom he hath appointed heir of all things by whom also
He made the world and that's a great verse, right?
I mean that proves that Jesus Christ made the entire world
So because speaking of Jesus Christ souls one to date we have a hundred and sixty four souls
for the year and so it's been going well and we have a
just so you guys know just putting your calendars probably the third week of the of the of every
month we for sure do have a soul winning marathon every every month what we don't have is other
events but i'll bring those up so if you look right there we have all the birthdays obry's
birthday was yesterday today's my daughter lucy tomorrow is victor and kevin and then uh right
On August 22nd, I just ironed the details out on Wednesday.
We have Pastor Stephen Anderson from Faithful Word Baptist Church coming to preach for us that Friday night.
So, you know, make sure we get the word out and just pass the word along.
What we'll probably do, I haven't worked out those details.
Once he gives me his itinerary, then we'll figure out when we should have...
I know people like to hang out.
We'll either do something before or after, depending on...
That and I think we're shooting. I'm shooting for the time of 7 p.m.
But I mean like I said, I'll get those details to you as we get closer to the event and then August 23rd
We have the soul winning marathon. I don't know why I forgot the H there, but
It's probably because I was thinking in Spanish. I don't know so August 23rd
We the next day that Saturday we have a soul in a marathon
Of course, we have church on the 24th and then we have other events coming up
We have the men's retreat with steadfast August 14th through the 16th
the Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship August 27th through 31st. And then just by happen chance I'm
preaching both a Spanish service that Sunday morning and then an evening service that same Sunday.
and then right there we have the Mexico City Soul Winning Missionist Trip September 8th through 12th.
I know there's actually a couple guys from our church that are looking to either be there or go
so just pray for that. We were as a matter of fact I hadn't announced it but this Thursday will be
redoing or
Reigniting that's the word I was looking for the podcast that I used to have a Spanish podcast a couple of years ago
We're talking about just doctrine and brother Diego who's actually leading the charge on behalf of steadfast
And he preaches regularly in Spanish will be joining me for that podcast on Thursday
So check that out and then we have the prayer requests there in the back. We've got a couple that have been added
So just pray for everybody there
I know sister Millie. I don't remember my days are all up in the air, but I think it was this week
Either this week or last week. She went to get more shots. So just check in on her
For her back pain and I've had back pain. So I know that's pretty serious
Other than that a couple of things I do want to I see sister Sylvia here and she did quote last
The last chapter and so I want to go ahead and just I'm gonna just gonna come and hand that to you
Two more my kids did do it. I wish other kids would do it and just jump in
They're not getting as big as a as big as gift card as the adults because there's no need for kids to have that much money
But I have those here for them and if anybody quotes it to an adult
you know we can do that um I'm still I just want you guys to learn it so if somebody quotes song
23 to an adult and your kids do it even after I mean I don't have that timeline as long as it's done
and it's legit uh I'll get you guys a reward so I'm not concerned about that the gift cards off
for the adults are 25 and for the children 10 dollars I figured uh I know inflation's gone up
If you can't, then I don't know what's going on as well.
And then the only other thing I just don't want to forget,
Lucy, if you want to stand up, we'll all sing
Happy Birthday to my daughter.
I forget a lot, but if I forget my own daughter,
then I'm just going to make it in heat.
But everybody sing Happy Birthday on the first.
Happy Birthday to you.
Happy Birthday.
you'll turn your oh and then the other thing I'm telling you we have brother
James visiting us brother James is a missionary to the Philippines so he
spends most of the year in the Philippines and on Wednesday he came in to
visit
He's like a regular member of United States churches.
That's the best way I can do it,
because his job makes him travel more.
So wherever he's at, he's going to a church there.
So like if he's in Dallas, or in the Dallas area,
he's going to like Steadfast.
If he says he has family in Oklahoma,
he's going to be at Anchor Baptist.
So different things.
But I've known him for a while now.
And we were talking on Wednesday after...
Dinner and he was just telling me about all his wonderful experiences
The soul winning over there is just totally different than what we experienced here
And I said you know why don't you preach for us?
So he's gonna preach the morning service for us to just bring a good word
About his experiences and or whatever the Lord laid on him. I didn't tell him he had to preach anything specific yet
I mean obviously no heresy
So but turn over to what is it 167
wait no uh 270 i'm sorry 269 269 yeah that's a different oh 269 okay yeah let's turn over to 269
269
mentioned we do also have one more for her sister Sheena but she's not here today so if she doesn't
we'll get it to her somehow turn here is it with 139 yeah turn your binders to song 139
and we're seeing the latter part of that song so if you don't have a binder you can just open to
I've never really sang this from the congregational I've never let it so you guys just have to bear with me
This was you know, this was Mo's idea, which is a great idea. Just I'm not necessarily the one that's familiar with all these so
take up the tithes and the offerings. James 1, and brother James if you want you can actually
just put this on and just click it. James 1, the Bible says there, James a servant of God
and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad reading.
my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations, knowing this is the
trine of your faith, work, and patience, but let patience have a perfect work that ye may
be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God
that giveth to all men liberally, and uprighteth not, and it shall be given him. But let him
ask in faith, nothing wavering, for he that wavereth is like the wave of the sea driven
For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.
A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways,
that the brother of low degree rejoicing that he is exalted,
but the rich in that he is made low.
Because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away for the sun,
is no sooner risen with the burning heat,
but it whithereth the grass and the flower thereof fallen,
and the grace of the fashion of it, for it perisheth.
Blessed is the man that endures temptation, for when he is tried, he shall receive the
criminal life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
Let no man say it when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted
with evil, neither tempted he any man.
but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed,
then when lust has conceived to bringeth forth sin, and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death.
Do not err, my beloved brethren, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,
and cometh down from the father of life with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
Of his own will he begateth us, with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first
fruit of his creatures.
Wherefore, my beloved, brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow
to rap.
For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God, wherefore lay apart all filthiness
and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive the meekness of the engrafted word, which
is able to save your soul.
But be doers of the word, not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
For if any man be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding
his natural face in a glass.
For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgeteth what manner of man
he was.
But whoso loatheth into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being
not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the word, this man should be blessed in his deed.
seem to be religious and bridal if not as tongue, but to see with his own heart, this man's religion is vain.
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the fathers of this to visit the fatherless and widows and their affliction
And to keep himself unspotted from the world. Let us pray. Heavenly Father Lord
Thank you so much for today. Thank you for opportunity to be here Lord. Thank you that we have a visitor
That has done so much soul winning and just is able to just spend the time
Redeeming the time forever for those of us who got saved as adults. We know what that what that's like
Lord, thank you for all those here in attendance and just give Brother James the words to thunder through and to bring us a message that will edify and improve and rebuke us in your word.
In his name we pray. Amen.
I'm just going to press record. Is it on mute?
It's good.
Alright.
Let me put it wherever you want or in your side pocket.
those of you that don't know me my name is James Perry and a little bit about me
is I did get saved later in life as Pastor Reyes was talking about and so it
took me a little bit longer than some people but
I really just want to thank God for his mercy, his grace, and how kind he's been to me.
He's allowed me to do some good works for him.
And like he said, I've been over in the Philippines.
And I kind of just decided to go over there and spend more time over there after Pastor
Jonathan Shelley from Steadfast Baptist Church up in North Texas in the Dallas-Fort Worth
Um, he, he invited me on a trip up there and I saw how receptive it was in the Philippines
and, and so I had decided to, uh, to just spend my own time and, and my own money to
just live there kind of on and off and I traveled back and forth.
So I've been over there for a year and a half or so.
I guess, first of all, you know, that's a little bit about me, but I was going to Pure
Words Baptist Church here in Houston, so that's how I've kind of got some ties here.
And in 2023, it was probably my best year in church at Pure Words Baptist Church.
That kind of went away and I went to the Philippines and so I still have a house here in Richmond
I still kind of have a little bit of
My feet are still here, but a lot of times like pastor was saying I go up to Dallas, Fort Worth
I go up to okc anchor Baptist Church up there
Where I grew up around Oklahoma City between Oklahoma City and still water and so that's a little bit about me
I want to thank Pastor Cobb and Pastor Reyes for allowing me to preach this morning and just talking a little bit with Pastor Cobb this morning.
48 years of this church. I mean that is a great thing that not a lot of people can say that and you know what it tells me is that he loves the truth.
And so a lot of the great men of God that I have in my life,
I notice that about them. They love the truth.
And so I just, again, I wanted to say thank you.
Thank you very much for letting me be here. And so we'll just get started.
If you guys would, please head to Revelation
Revelation 20 verse 3 and so in Revelation 23 it says and cast
him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal upon
him that he should deceive the nations no more till the
thousand years should be fulfilled and after that he
And so what I want to focus on this verse, and before I get you the title, I'm going to have a little bit of an intro,
but I want to focus on this verse that he had deceived the nation.
Satan had deceived the nations.
That's the point.
That's his whole job is deceiving the nations.
So that's what Satan is doing.
He wants to take as many people to hell with him as possible.
How is he deceived the nations? It's with lies. If you if you go down to
I'm gonna read from John 844
It says, you are of your father, the devil, and the lust of your father, ye will do.
He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth
in him.
When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it.
The Satan, his job is to deceive the nations, to take as many people to hell as possible.
And he does that by attacking the truth.
And how does he attack the truth? It's always through lies.
Like, look at the world today. The world has no truth.
The world doesn't even know, can't even define what a woman is.
right? You hear that all the time. It's like people are debating on what a woman is or who
should use the men's room or the the women's room. This world has been deceived. You know,
Pastor Shelley, the sodomite deception, it's a great it's a great documentary about how people
have been deceived about the reprobate doctrine. And so, you know, this world, it doesn't have any
Think about that. If you don't love the truth, if your country, your nation, does not love the truth,
then it's a nation like India that has like Hinduism, that totally shuns God, that doesn't care about
God's truth, that doesn't lift up the name of Jesus Christ, has nothing to do with it. India is one
of the worst countries in this world. It has been labeled the murder capital of the world, the rape
You know it's a horrible wicked country why because it doesn't have God because it does not love the truth
And you can look at any country like that you can look at any place on this map on on the world and
The places that don't have the truth that don't preach the gospel that don't have a reverence for
Jesus Christ they are the worst places in this world and you just take a pic of any of them any communist nation like North Korea China
They love Shintoism there. That's like 80% of the people and they have no regard for Jesus Christ
And so these are the worst places in the world and unfortunately, you know this nation
It was built on the truth of Jesus Christ.
This nation was built on truth, on the Bible.
And so this nation has done very well because of that,
but it's in a steady decline.
because it's getting further and further and further away from the truth. It's being deceived.
And Satan has done a great job in deceiving the leadership of this nation. And really,
the biggest leadership that determines where a nation goes is good pastors. And when pastors
get away from the truth, preaching the truth, like the reprobate doctrine, like other doctrines in the
nation that does not care about the truth. And so, you know, the whole point of him,
of Satan, is to deceive the nations.
It says, be sober and vigilant because the adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion walk
about, seeking whom he may devour.
And so Satan does a really good job of figuring out, how can I deceive people?
How can I deceive the politicians, the so-called pastors out there, the false prophets?
How can I get people to start believing lies and not the truth?
If you would, please go to 2nd Peter 2.1 and so loving the truth is very important and I don't
know how you get somebody to love the truth in their heart, but
Hopefully, with a lot of the stuff that we see in the Bible here in this sermon, it will
help you understand that we all must be diligent and we all must love the truth.
And so in 2 Peter 2,1, before we read that, I do want to read 2 Timothy 3,13, but evil
man and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
You know the the enemy Satan he has deceived people and then really they're their children of the devil is what they are
They're false prophets and then they're deceiving the multitudes
So he's just using these false prophets, but look at 2 Peter 2 1
But there were false prophets also among the people
even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies,
even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction."
So the Bible is clear about we're going to have false teachers creep in
privily. We're going to have people that want to infiltrate the church. Look at the Southern
Baptist churches, the Southern Baptist Convention as teaching repent of your sins to be saved.
Who would ever have guessed that? How did that happen?
Well, because Satan is trying to deceive the nations,
and this is the nation that is number one on his target, because this is
one of the strongest Christian nations in the last several hundred years.
So what he's done is he has infiltrated, he has sent his children
the children of the devil, these reprobates that hate God, and they have masked themselves as
wolves and sheep's clothing, and they've gotten into good Baptist churches or just started churches
and slapped Baptist on the name and are teaching false doctrines.
And so these minions that work for Satan, they attack the truth.
That's why the truth is so important.
That's why we should take great care in discovering the truth, keeping the truth,
holding on to that truth, and passing that down to our children.
And so, you know, somebody that just died that's a false prophet is John MacArthur.
And a lot of people were vexed and confused by him.
A lot of saved people because he did, he did say a lot of right things.
But here's the problem with these false prophets is they also mix in lies.
And so when you're listening to this person and they say faith alone once saved, always saved.
And then in another part.
They say something different than that that you do have to do it by works
You know, that is a false prophet that person hates God in their heart. We should not listen to them
We should understand that they don't love the truth and so there's more than John MacArthur
There's so many in Texas Kenneth Copeland. There's there's so many false prophets out there
and we really should be guarding our ears and
and our family on what we let go inside
And so there's a lot of stuff on internet,
you know, on social media that we should not be listening to.
And a lot of people, especially those that really don't go to church,
they don't really have that love for church.
They are saved, but they are listening to garbage.
And it will affect their life.
Yeah, they're going to heaven.
You know, we're all that have believed on Jesus, we're all going to heaven.
But while we're here in this life, the truth is something that we should be guarding, we
should be finding, and we should be keeping inside of ourselves for us and our families.
So you have to be careful what you listen to.
And if you're not sure what I need to be listening to,
this sounds good, but I'm not quite sure.
You know, dig into it deeper,
try to find, you know, more content
on what that person is saying,
or come and just ask your pastor,
hey, what do you think about this person?
In the Philippines, I, there's this one convert.
He's, he's, he's, he got saved.
He started coming to church.
He got baptized a few days later.
and the guy is doing a lot of good stuff and he loves the truth and it's evident by what he's doing.
But he comes to me one day and he says, what do you think of Billy Graham?
Like, he's a good one, right? Because his family, you know, was listening to Billy Graham,
knows Billy Graham, and so they'd been talking about it. And I said, well, no, he's a false
once saved, always saved, he preached faith alone.
I said, yeah, those words came out of his mouth a lot.
But also he preached that if you had any light if you had anything any name
You could call on that that would take you to heaven and so you know
He did say a lot of right things
But he also he spoke to damn double heresy and that makes him a false prophet
You can't say out of one side of your mouth faith alone once saved always saved and the other side
But you have to repent of your sins, but if you really are saved you'll do the works
That's like a backdoor way into work salvation and it's lies and that's what Satan does
is he attacks the truth with lies just like he started in the Garden of Eden.
He said thou shalt not surely die and that was a lie.
And what did he do? He used the Bible, the Word of God. He used the truth and twisted it,
and he made it something that it's not, and that's how deceptive these people are.
And so his children, the children of the devil, these false prophets,
they do exactly what their daddy does, is they take the truth and they twist it, and then they get us.
off track. They get us confused. They get us vexed. You know, there's a lot of people
in this world that they just got saved. They don't know anything about the Bible. They
don't know, you know, that the King James Bible is what they should have in their hand.
They don't have, you know, maybe the advantage that some people that have been saved and
they know a lot of these things. They've been going to church. They've been doing the right
Not everybody has that. And so, you know, the
the deception of the devil and his minions, his false prophets can really affect those new Christians or somebody that got saved early and
just never read the Bible, never did anything. And then some people that are in church doing the right thing, these lies, these
these deceptions can get us off track too, confuse us, vex us.
And then the guy that's really advanced
And he has served God with the majority of his life.
He may be a pastor even.
He may be a deacon.
He may be somebody in leadership
and has been for years and years.
Lies and deception can hurt that person too.
We always need to be guarding our heart
and loving the truth.
And so I want you guys to go to Ephesians 611 please.
Ephesians 611.
It says in Ephesians 6, 11, it says,
put on the whole armor of God
that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
Stand therefore, I'm sorry, go down to 6, 14, verse 14.
Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth
and having on the breastplate of righteousness.
So, you know, we know,
That Satan is out to deceive the nations. We know that he has false prophets helping him do that and
What God has said is look?
All these attacks they're gonna hit you
It's never gonna stop. It doesn't matter
Where you're at in life who you are how old you are how young you are
how much knowledge you have of the Bible, how much you don't.
You're always going to be attacked, but God is giving us the truth.
And the truth will always help us out in all of these attacks.
And that really is the sermon title.
I should have said it earlier, but the sermon title is Love the Truth.
And so the truth is what helps us fight these battles.
Do you love the truth? I think all of us is going to put up our hand, right? It's like, yes
I I read my Bible. I I want to know the truth. I don't want to be deceived
But let's take a look a closer look at ourselves and see what we find, okay
Where do we find the truth
So we all we all love the truth. We all want the truth. Where do we find the truth?
Obviously, it's it's right here. God has left us the truth and the Bible and
So God's word is the truth if you want to know what God says about something you open up the Bible and you read it
You know, so, you know, how do how do we talk to God today? We pray
We pray and we talk to him that way. How does he talk to us?
He doesn't talk to us with a physical audible voice, you know, maybe to the Pentecostals, you know
A devil talks to them to their ears, but God talks to us through the Bible
So if you want to hear from God, you have to be reading your Bible
This is the truth of God and and which Bible is
Which Bible is the right one because there's a lot of them out there, so please go to Psalms 12 verse 6
And I will read to you in
John 17 17
Sanctify them through thy word
Thy word is truth
Psalms 119, 142, thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is truth.
Psalms 119, 151, thou art near, O Lord, and all thy commandments are truth.
And so the Word of God is the truth.
This is what we need to battle, what we need to not be deceived.
Everything hangs on this as far as our our life here on earth before we go to heaven and in Psalms 12 6
You know, how do we know?
How do we know that we have the Word of God today?
Because in Psalms 12-6, it says,
the words of the Lord are pure words
as silver tried in a furnace of earth purified seven times.
And look at this, in verse seven,
thou shalt keep them, O Lord,
thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever.
So,
God promised us that he would preserve his word forever,
that we could have his truth so that we don't get deceived.
And...
So it brings to this question, so is any Bible the truth? Is any Bible God's word?
No
It's not because if you mix lies into something. It's not true
If you add or take away to to God's word, it's not true. So how do we know?
What is the true Bible? What is the version that we should be reading?
Well, it's the King James Bible and and all this is the argument I'll make, you know
Satan he is deceiving and the truth is being attacked in one way that Satan
He is deceiving the nations that he is attacking the truth God said he would preserve his word for ever
And God cannot lie and Satan cannot stop his word. It's preserved forever
So what does Satan do? He comes up with hundreds of other versions from different critical texts that
teach lies, that teach false doctrine. They actually change what the word of God says,
what the King James Bible says. Why is it that of all the versions out there, they always alter
and change the King James version, but the King James version never changes?
Why is this the only thing being attacked? This is why.
Corinthians first Corinthians 1 18 please
Are you guys there? I want you guys to read this
First Corinthians 1 18
for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved,
it is the power of God." So why is this important? Because if you look up this verse
in the New King James Version, you know what it says?
So is a person saved or are they being saved when they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ where they're saved?
There's nobody is being saved
Okay, that that is a process of time. That is something that happens over time is being
But saved with the D on the end right now means you are saved the moment that you believe on Jesus the NLT
The ESV the NIV they all read being saved. I stopped looking up false versions after that
It's just like first four right out of the gate is just telling us lies. So
You know go to John 5 24
And the Bible says, but as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons
of God, even to them that believe on his name.
When somebody is saved, it's instant, it's one time because it's forever.
You you only get saved one time because it's forever. You can't get saved over and over and over
You're not getting saved over a process of time
It it takes one instance of somebody that puts all of their faith and their trust on
Jesus' death burial and resurrection and
Understands that it's forever that person is saved. They will go to heaven whenever they die this this
John 1-12, but as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his name
It is proof because we see this example in our own lives
We all have been born into a family and when you are born into your parents family. It's instant
It's one time because it's for
ever. So these false versions that say you're being saved, that you're not born instantly into
the family of God once you believe, you know why they're saying that? Because they teach that you
have to do works to go to heaven.
And if you have to do works to go to heaven, then yeah, I can see why they would say it's
being saved, but you don't have to do works to go to heaven. The Bible says not of works,
lest any man should boast. The Bible says that, you know, therefore we conclude that a man is
justified by faith without the deeds of the works of the law. The Bible says, but to him
that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifyeth the ungodly, his faith is counted
you know, it's not a process. It's not works. It's just faith. It's instant. And it's one time.
You are not being saved. You are saved when you believe on Jesus. That is a major, major,
major, damnable heresy out of these false versions. That's a big deal. So anybody that has
a Bible that is not King James, I would just throw it in the trash.
It don't don't let somebody get ahold of that thing. It's a bunch of lies that Satan is trying to deceive the nations
He's trying to take us all down and he cannot stop the word of God
So he just he just convoluted it as much as he can with all these false versions if somebody gets saved and
They don't have a good church. They're going to or a friend to guide them
I talked to a lot of people in the Philippines hundreds of people a week
and some of them get saved, some of them don't, and I don't see them again.
And what happens when they go to the store and they're looking at all the different Bible versions
and they're just like, somebody told me to get the NIV because I can read it easier.
they have no idea they're they're getting themselves into a problem here.
And so the Satan has done this, these false prophets preach out of these things.
And you know, that's how you can know that somebody doesn't love the truth is,
is these false prophets, they hate the truth, they hate God, and they use...
these false versions to make their points.
And I think even the worst false prophets out there,
the ones that are just the most wicked and horrible
are the ones that do use the King James
and masquerade behind that and just twist the verses.
Now, what's another thing that Satan does to...
to deceive people and twist the truth
and get people to not love the truth,
it's infiltrating those churches.
And so how do you find a good church?
Where can you find a good church?
Of all the places in this world
that you should be able to find the truth,
it should be inside of a church building and a pastor.
Unfortunately,
the vast majority of pastors are not saved and the churches are not good and
it is it is a hellhole it might as well be a synagogue and so how do you know how
to find a good church how do you know if you're in a good church well I'm gonna
give you a few things that this is what I use
And, you know, I was taught and trained these principles and I love it because all of these
things support loving the truth. So, this is how you know that you're in a good church.
Do they have the right gospel? I mean, that's number one. If they don't have the right gospel,
if they tell you that you're being saved, that you have to do works, that you have to repent of
turned from their evil way. That is repenting of sin. That is a work, God says right there.
And so if I go to a new church, I talk to the pastor and I ask them, hey, you know,
what do you believe on how to go to heaven? And a lot of times I'll get right answers.
And I just assume that that person is saved until I hear them say some damnable heresy.
A lot of times I get wrong answers.
I've talked to pastors before and they're just like,
I don't know about eternal security. I've never really thought about it.
And I'm like, oh, wow.
You know, I try to just show them gently.
Okay, I'm not trying to be rude to them or mistreat them.
I just, hey, here's what eternal security is.
You know, at that point, I just call him a false prophet and get out of there.
Right.
And so, you know, how do you know if you're in a good church, what do they preach on
the gospel?
Do you go to a church and it's like, they're really vague on the preaching and the gospel?
Like you walk out and you're like, I don't, what was he kind of, what was his point?
What was he trying to say in that sermon?
You know, that's usually not a good sign.
Okay.
Okay. And if somebody is preaching a different gospel, that is a false profit. Get out of that church immediately.
Thank God!
With with so much respect to God that we have for spring crest Baptist Church
Because talking to pastor earlier for 48 years. He's been preaching the truth
Why do you think spring crest is here after all of these years because they love the truth?
They hate the lies. They've been preaching against the lies. They've been telling the truth
They've been telling people how to go to heaven what the Bible says. So I'm very happy
That spring crest is here that I'm able to come here when I'm in the Houston area, and I thank God for this church
What's another?
Thing that we can use to test a church to see where they're at. Is this a good church?
Do they use a King James Bible? Not just the pastor
But does the pastor tell the congregation don't bring in another Bible you bring in a King James Bible only?
We're not reading out of anything else right that that's a good church
Okay, that is a pastor that loves his flock if a pastor is like hey
I'm King James only because it's the truth, but you guys can bring whatever you want that tells me the pastor doesn't really love them
The pastor is okay with them believing lies. So
You know, that's one way you can find out. Are you in a good church?
Am I visiting a good church is do they use a King James Bible?
Does the pastor make the congregation use a King James Bible?
The last thing that I use to to kind of as a litmus test
Does this church preach the gospel right because there's a lot of churches out there that
They are right on salvation.
They use a King James Bible, but they don't do soul winning.
And, you know, the Bible says in Revelations 2 that if you don't do the first works, the first love,
then God will take the candle away from that church.
And so a church can be the buildings there, the pastors there.
He's saved. He's using a King James Bible.
But God's not really looking at that like it's it's a church getting any works done
And so if I'm gonna go to a church, I want to go to a church where soul winning is important
We're keeping that that that candle stick that lit up with that candle is important to the pastor
And so I'm very very happy again with spring press
Spring Crest Baptist Church because how many salvations do we have now almost 200 salvations for the year?
That is amazing. A lot of churches don't get that in their lifetime because they're not going
out and doing the first works. And so, you know, the truth says have the right gospel. The truth says
be King James only. The truth says go out and preach the gospel, get other people saved.
That's how you can know for sure that you're in a good church.
Go to Proverbs chapter one verse two.
Why should we love the truth?
It kind of sounds like a silly question,
but we're still trying to answer that first question.
You know, if I said, hey, who here loves the truth,
we would all put up our hand.
So why should we love the truth?
And,
And third John verse four says,
I have no greater joy than to hear
that my children walk in truth.
And those of you that are parents, you love it.
You love it when you tell your child what to do
and they do it.
And they're, yes, sir.
Yes ma'am, and they went and took out the trash without even having to be told.
I don't know why that brings such joy in your heart when your children just do the right thing,
but it does the same thing for God.
That father-son relationship
That that image or that example
Can show us so many things and this is one thing is that it brings God joy when his children walk in truth
Think about that God the creator of the heavens and the earth you can bring him joy
By walking in the truth by loving the truth so
What are the benefits of walking in the truth?
Because yeah, we want to bring God joy.
We want to love the truth just for no other reason
than just God said so.
He just says, do this, don't do that.
It's our reasonable service just to follow the commandments
and do what we're doing.
But this is God we're talking about he always puts a little extra on it
All right, he saves you for free, but if you go out and do the works you get rewards in heaven
So he pays you for the works which again proves that going to heaven is free because if you do the work you get paid
The salvation is the free part. It's the gift. So in Proverbs 1 to what do you get?
What are the benefits the extra stuff that God just blesses you with because you love the truth?
It says in verse 2 to know wisdom and instruction
To know what to do
That's very helpful in your life
Knowing what to do because all of the lies and deception that's out there to perceive the words of understanding to have discernment
Okay, so it's it's nice to be able to look at a situation and say hey
This is not a person. I want to be around. I
Don't like this guy. He's doing a lot of weird stuff
Maybe he's on drugs or this or that you should have the discernment to say this is a bad guy
I don't want to be around. Yeah, I can preach him the gospel, but this is not somebody that I want to be friends with
That's called discernment
you can perceive the words of understanding.
In verse three, to receive the instruction of wisdom,
justice and judgment and equity.
So someone that loves the truth, they love wisdom.
They love justice.
They love judgment and equity, fairness.
So this guy, you know,
they're not going to be cheating people.
They love when things are fair.
and they're going to be for the death penalty because they love justice and the Bible says
if you murder somebody you should be murdered if you commit adultery you should be or if you
commit murder you should be executed by the government if if you commit adultery you should
be executed by the government and so another deception that the devil has done is he's gotten
our country away from the death penalty away from the truth the word of God and so
Verse number four, to give subtlety to the simple,
to the young man knowledge and discretion.
So we all start out simple, like we're just little kids
and we grow up, but even a young person can know
how to behave himself, how by knowing the truth,
the word of God, by at a young age,
getting into the word of God, by having a parent
that teaches them that.
And a lot of us didn't get that good example,
but some of us have.
And so, it doesn't matter how young you are, like all the younger people in here,
it doesn't matter how young you are. We have a birthday today, a nine-year-old.
It doesn't even matter that if you're nine years old, you still can know how to behave yourself
and walk in wisdom. And so, that's what the truth will do for you. These are kind of just
Verse five, a wise man will hear and increase learning,
and a man of understanding shall attain
unto wise counsels.
So a man can always increase his understanding.
It doesn't matter how old you get,
if you're a hundred years old,
you can increase your understanding how
with the truth, the word of God.
And that should be something that we should all be doing
every day for the rest of our lives.
I love it when I hear that this church has been here
for 48 years, and Pastor Cobb has been pastoring for how,
long? 48 here and so to me that I love that he is he has it's the longevity it's
it's increasing his understanding all of these years keeping things on the side
of truth
Verse number six to understand a proverb and the interpretation the words of the wise and their dark sayings
So those that love the truth they get a deeper understanding of the truth those parables that are kind of like man
What does that mean or some dark saying where you're just like, you know, I know the Bible is true
I don't quite understand this verse
I'm just gonna study this or get some help till I understand it
Well, loving the truth and searching for it like that, you'll get a deeper understanding.
You'll get more truth.
You'll have more discernment, more wisdom, and this will just layer and layer and layer
upon you your entire life.
So these are things that happen whenever we love the truth.
Now there's a flip side to this too.
because, you know, God says to follow my commandments,
but if we don't, what happens?
Well, in verse seven, it says,
the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
So we do need to fear the Lord in the sense of just like we fear our parents when we disobey our parents.
You know, God loves us, but he will chastise those that are his sons, and so we should fear his chastisement.
That should motivate us to love the truth. It says in the last half of that verse,
but fools despise wisdom and instruction. So what are the consequences of hating the truth?
you know, we want to love the truth. We all would raise up our hand and say, I love the truth,
but do we really? Proverbs chapter one, move down to verse 25.
But you have set at not all my counsel and would none of my reproof.
I also will laugh at your calamity.
I will mock when your fear cometh.
Wow, what about all those churches that preach this deceiving lie that God is all love
and He's not mad at you?
You know, go send all you want, He's not mad at you. That's a lie.
It says right here, God will laugh at your calamity when you don't listen to Him.
When you don't love the truth, He will mock when your fear cometh.
He'll just be like I told you so, right? That's what this is saying. Yeah
So why should we fear God?
Because he will chastise us. Yeah, we're going to heaven
But he will get punished on this earth
In verse 27,
This is God Almighty talking to his child that he loves,
that will not listen to him, that will not love the truth,
but has spurned his reproof,
spurned his correction, doesn't want to listen.
This is what happens.
For that they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the Lord
They would none of my counsel they despised all my reproof
Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way and be filled with their own devices
So how do we fail in this life?
How do we succumb to these deceptions that the enemy is taught is is sending towards us and
infiltrating our lives with
By we fail by hating the truth
That's the problem is that we're sinners we are deceiving ourselves when we refuse to walk in the truth
And this is the big thing is yeah Satan his job is to see the nations. He's doing a great job
And he has false prophets out there helping him and they're infiltrating into the the churches even good churches
They're causing church splits. They're doing all these things, but here's the biggest thing with deception and being deceived
Go to James 122 as you're going there.
Let's just recap real quick again.
Satan's deceiving the nations, taking people to hell.
His God-hating children, the false prophets,
are bringing damnable heresies into the church,
sneaking in privily.
You know, a newer old Christian, not in church,
not reading the Bible, not praying.
It's easy for the enemy to deceive them.
Why? Because they're just not loving the truth.
They're not getting the truth in themselves.
And so it's really easy for the world to deceive them.
A new Christian starting to learn the Bible, trying to find a good church, loves a truth.
You know, a false prophet can deceive them and kind of stunt their growth, get them off track
because they're just not learned yet. And they're trying, they're seeking after the truth, but
it will slow us down if we get a little...
discouraged because as a new believer you know we we don't really understand
things yet we don't understand how everything is how everything works but
A person that's taking the Christian life more seriously, they're like three to thrive,
they read their Bible every day, they pray, they're going out soul winning, they're doing
all of these great things, they're loving the truth, they're doing a lot of good things.
Even that person can be deceived, and even that person can get off track and it can totally
destroy their life, even though they're this great Christian.
Well, let's read together James 1.22
But be ye doers of the word and not hearers only
deceiving yourselves
So we can even deceive ourselves. It's bad enough that Satan is trying to deceive us
It's bad enough that his minions these false prophets are trying to deceive us, but we can even deceive ourselves
So this this Christian that is doing great. He's he's been doing great for a long time
What if he gets bitter in his heart towards another Christian?
and that bitterness grows and grows and grows.
He's deceiving himself by not loving his enemy.
He's deceiving himself by not loving the truth.
And that can happen.
And we've seen it happen.
And we don't want that to happen to ourselves.
So how do we deal with that?
Well, if you get bitterness in your heart towards somebody,
you need to stop it immediately
and you need to pray for that person.
You need to ask God for help.
and just loving that person and doing good under that person.
And every time a bad thought comes into your mind
about that person, you need to just put it down.
And don't get bitter in your heart toward,
that's just one example.
There's just name the sin.
And when you deal with that sin,
maybe you have a problem with gossip.
And if you're around other people that want to gossip,
you just have to move on down the road
and say, I'm sorry, I don't want to hear this.
Don't let that stuff enter in. Don't let those things deceive you and get you off track.
It says to be doers of the Word and not hearers only.
So I don't care if you've gone to church for a hundred years and you've listened to sermon after sermon after sermon
and you've just heard all of this great truth, but if you're not doing it, you will get off track.
You will falter. You will be deceived.
maybe by Satan, maybe by his minions of false prophets, maybe by yourself, by just not loving the truth.
And so, in John 14-15, it says,
if you love me, keep my commandments. I think we've all heard that one. And third John,
verse 4, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in the truth. You know,
We all have areas where we're not walking in the truth, nobody is perfect and I'm not, you know, I'm not trying to beat up anybody.
And you really, you should be taking stock of yourself and be thinking, you know, where am I faltering? Where am I deceiving myself? Where am I not loving the truth?
How do we stop deceiving ourselves?
What can we do to fix this, to get this taken care of?
Let's go to Psalms 1,1959.
Psalms 119 verse 59
This is how you fix
The problems the the self-deception. This is how you fix the lack of love and your heart for the truth
This is how you you get
Through these these problems that we all have it says right here in verse 59
1959 I thought
my ways and turned my feet unto thy testimonies." In verse 60, I made haste
and delayed not to keep thy commandments. When you find yourself like
getting bitter in your heart, listening to the gossip you don't want to hear,
When you have to work on these areas of your life, do it quickly, do it immediately, get
it fixed immediately.
And look, it's not one of those things like it's one and done, you've got to carry
you across daily.
You know, I'm not going to go out and fornicate, I'm not going to go out and be a drunkard.
But you know what, Sam, I do deal with sometimes pride.
And then the next day, guess what happens?
I have to end it immediately.
I have to get out of that immediately.
If you have something that you deal with all the time,
and, you know, this is just the way it goes,
is a person sins, and they do wrong,
and they feel bad in their heart.
They should feel bad in their heart anyway.
And if they haven't hardened their heart,
Help me please help me figure this out. I don't want to be like this and then next week
They do it again, and the next week they do it again, and the next week they do it again
This will help with that as soon as you're dealing with this
immediately
Stomp it out
Immediately get rid of it, and then next week when that comes again, you know, it says here. I thought on my ways
This person is not just like drifting through life,
not thinking about what they're doing.
They're actually taking the care
and paying attention to their actions.
Does anybody here maybe ever just like
at the end of the day take stock of your day and say,
hey, this is where I kind of did some good things.
This is where I kind of did some bad things.
That's what this is saying.
I thought on my ways and I turned my feet.
And, you know, when feet are mentioned in the Bible...
It's it's a it's a picture of doing it's a picture of action
And so it's saying that he did something he turned his feet unto thy
Testimonies he loved the truth. He went to the truth. He ran to the truth. So how do we fix ourselves?
We have to we have to
We have to purposely think about these things where we're we're getting it wrong, but we have to want to do that
don't know how to make somebody want to do that. So we need to run to God, be a
doer of the Word. We need to love the truth, make the correction immediately.
You know, if you're not in church, that's a real easy fix.
go find a good church and get into church, you know?
If you stop going to church, then you go back to church.
That's a real easy fix.
These are simple, practical things that we can do
to love the truth, you know,
forsake not the assembly of ourselves together.
That is a commandment.
If there's bitterness in your heart, again, you know,
don't let those thoughts sit in your mind.
Do not get bitter against your brother and pray for that person, love on that person and do whatever you can to just fight that and just say, you know what, I'm going to do the opposite of what my flesh wants to do.
I don't want to get them back. I want to give them a present.
want to talk kindly about them even if they're not a nice guy you just you just
be nice to them okay and so these are practical things that we can do you know
whatever the issue is that's keeping you from being a do-over-the-word that's
what we have to focus on and it's different for everybody but this will
help us do that so what is the what is the issue that you're focusing on
What is it that you need to focus on? That's your homework assignment from this from God is to think about it take stock and
What do you need to do?
To turn your feet to those testimonies. So if I have a problem with pride, I need to be memorizing verses about pride
If I have a problem about getting bitter in my heart and I, you know, if somebody does me wrong,
oh man, I want to get them back, then I need to get verses memorized about loving my neighbor.
And so these are practical things that we can do. And, you know,
that's the application is just to examine yourself, be a doer of the word,
Psalm 139-23
We need we need God's help
You know everything in our life. It's it's it hinges on God and
Anytime that I'm the happiest in my life. It's
Because I'm the closest to God and when I'm not as close to God
I'm not as happy everything should hinge on God and so in Psalm 139 23 it says search me
Oh God and know my heart
Try me and know my thoughts in
24 and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting
so
This is a good prayer. This is a good
mental thing to have you know every every day every time we're dealing with
these things is get on your knees and ask God and just say hey you know you know
my heart you know where I'm at help me turn me to your ways go to Psalm 119 one
In James 1.5, it says if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upgradeeth not, and it shall be given him.
So if you need help, you need to ask God.
And you know, in Psalms 1.19, starting in verse 1, you know, the Bible says that David is a man after God's own heart.
Why why was David a man after God's own heart because David loved the truth?
You remember when David committed adultery with Bathsheba and the prophet came and said thou art the man and
David just crumbled
You know why yeah, he did that wicked sin and I'm not justifying that God hated that but
It he he loved the truth. He turned towards the truth. And so
let's just take a look and
Psalm 119 it says blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord
So if you love the truth
You're going to be loving the Lord
It says right here in verse two,
blessed are they that keep his testimonies
and that seek him with the whole heart.
Verse three, they also do no iniquity,
they walk in his ways.
These people love the truth.
Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently.
Oh.
that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes. Then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect
unto all thy commandments. I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned
thy righteous judgments. I will keep thy statutes. O forsake not me utterly. Wherewith all shall a
With my whole heart, have I sought thee? Oh, let me not wander from thy commandments."
Do you see a pattern here? This person loves the truth. King David loved the truth. He wasn't
perfect. He's just like us. But he always turned to God. He ran to God. God was his strong tower,
That's what we need to do is when we're having issues inside when we're deceiving ourselves
We need to run to God not from God. We need to go to the word
We need to get on our knees and we need to ask him for wisdom and how to deal with this and
It's it's right here. It's inside here somewhere the answers to all of our life problems are here somewhere
And again, this is why we need to be in a good church
Because in a good church, the pastor is preaching the whole Bible cover to cover.
He's not just focusing on one thing and he's helping us understand life's issues and how to deal with them.
And that's really the job of a pastor. It's his full-time job to...
to be searching the scriptures daily just like the rest of us but he should have more time to do
that to help us accelerate our learning and that's why this has been a good church is because the
pastor here loves the truth and the pastor here wants you to love the truth so he delivers that to
you weekend and week out and he spends his time searching the scriptures because not all of us
Don't be deceived.
Walk in the truth.
With that, we'll just close in prayer.
Father God in heaven, thank you so much for this church.
Thank you for your word,
that is the only truth in this world,
that we can lean on it, that we can have it,
and it's everything that you want to say to us.
It's perfect without error.
And thank you so much for spring press.
Springcrest Baptist Church and the pastor here,
Pastor Cobb and Pastor Reyes,
and just strengthen these men and keep them safe,
protect their families,
and help them protect their flock
from the deceptions of the devil,
the deceptions of false prophets out there,
and deceiving ourselves.
In Jesus' name, I pray, amen.
I'll get one more hand and we'll close out.
Thank you, Brother James.
You're welcome.
You can take it. Okay.
Turn your handles over to page 311.
And I didn't forget one announcement.
I just wanted to thank everybody that showed up yesterday to search work today.
It was really fruitful, and I really appreciate all the hard work that everybody put in.
From the adults to the children, everybody that will chip in is really appreciated.
I'm not talking to the people that are waiting for us.
Rescue the character, rescue the character.