Galatians chapter 1 the verse that I want to emphasize here is in verse number 9 where the Bible reads as we said before
So say I now again if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that you have received
Let him be accursed and what I want to preach on tonight is
emphasizing what God
emphasizes
emphasizing what God
Emphasizes now in this verse he says the same thing again
He says it twice and the reason that he repeats it is for emphasis
He could have just said it one time
But the reason he says well, I've already said it before but now I'm gonna say it again
That if anyone preaches it any other gospel unto you than what you've received let him be accursed
repeating things is a way of emphasizing the importance of something and so things that the Bible repeats over and over and over again are
Important things and God is repeating them for emphasis
So let me put it to you this way if I'm a preacher and I'm preaching the Bible
and if we were to take all the things that I talk about and sort of make a pie graph and
Show what I spend time talking about and then if we looked at what the Bible spends time talking about
You know those two things shouldn't be
Dramatically different from one another if God is emphasizing something in the Bible and he's talking about it over and over again
Then we should emphasize that and talk about that over and over again
And if there's something that the Bible just barely even touches on then we shouldn't make that our main
Thing that we just go on and on about if it's something that's barely even mentioned. We should emphasize what God
Emphasizes now the first point that I want to make is that when it comes to salvation
The thing that God emphasizes is the word believe that's the thing that he emphasizes over and over again
And this is why it's so important that we read the whole Bible for ourselves
Listening to a lot of preaching is great
But at the end of the day you need to get in the Bible on your own by yourself
You need to be reading it cover to cover on your own and I recommend even if you're just a babe in Christ
Even if you're just a beginner
Make sure you read through the Bible cover to cover at least once a year
Just as a starting point as a basis
It only takes about 15 minutes a day to get through once a year and if you read through the Bible
You will get the big picture
instead of somebody just
cherry-picking
Certain parts of the Bible to show you the parts that they want to emphasize if you actually read the whole Bible yourself
You can figure out what God emphasizes by getting the big
Picture and when I started reading the Bible cover to cover when I was 16 17 years old
I started noticing
Certain patterns and certain things that God really emphasized and brought up over and over again
And one of the things that really jumped out at me reading the New Testament was at how many times it says believe
I mean just even in the book of John alone
It mentions it 90 times and all through Romans and Galatians and all throughout the New Testament
It's just hammering that over and over again
Just believe believe believe that tells me that when we talk about the gospel when we talk about salvation
We need to emphasize the fact that it's by faith
Alone and we need to emphasize that word
Believe that's the best word to use when talking about the gospel if you can boil it down to one
Important word one verb it's believe
There are a lot of other things that people will say. Oh, you know
repent or or
Make a commitment to Christ or have a personal relationship or invite him into your heart
But why don't we emphasize what God emphasizes and really just dwell on that word believe and hammer that you know
What does it mean to believe?
Well, we were out soul winning today
I was with brother Sean jolly and he used an illustration that he just kind of barely touched on
He said hey if I believe in my mechanic
Then that means that I'm trusting that he can fix the car, you know that he says he can fix it
I'm relying on him to fix it. I believe in you. You're gonna get it done
You're gonna do what you've said you will do and that's what it means to believe in Christ
We're trusting him to do what he has said
He will do that. He will save us that he will get us to heaven
But as we walked away from the door, I thought about that illustration that he used and I thought to myself
You know, you could take that a step further that illustration about the mechanic, you know
Jesus is our friend the mechanic our great mechanic the great friend that we have
Think about this if I have a friend who's a mechanic and I really believe in him and I'm fully
Trusting him to fix my car. You know what? That means I don't need to get out my own tools
I don't need to put on coveralls. I don't need to get under the car and start tinkering around
Hey, I just need to back off and let him fix the car. He's the great mechanic. He will get it done
I fully trust him that he's capable to do what he said he would do
I don't need to get in there and do it and what we have today are a lot of people that are not saved
They're in the coveralls. They're covered in a lot of grease. They're working hard
They're sweating. They're toiling and they're spending a lot of money
They keep driving back and forth to the auto parts store and they're buying parts and they can't get the thing fixed
Right because no matter how hard you work no matter what parts you use you will not be saved by your own works
Because all of sin that comes short of the glory of God, it's only Jesus that can save us
It's only his death his burial and his resurrection
so our friend our great mechanic Jesus Christ, we have to fully trust him to fix the car and
Not try to get in there and work. Oh, but look at all the work I've done. Yeah, but is the car fixed
No, I don't care how hard you're working. I don't care how much you've spent
I don't care if you got this expert advice and don't take some mechanic degree off the wall and say well look at this degree
I've got or my dad's a mechanic. My grandpa's a mechanic, you know, or oh, I've been around cars all my life
I've worked on cars. Yeah, but your car is broken down. There's only one person who can fix it. That's Jesus
He can fix it. But here's the thing about
Jesus's mechanic shop
Okay, he's got this little line on the ground between the lobby and the garage and he tells you look I'll fix your car
I'll do it for free out of love for you. It's a free gift. I'll fix it, but I have this one rule
You wait in the lobby. You let me get it done. I don't want you in my garage
I don't want you messing with my tools. I don't want you getting under the car
I don't want you looking over my shoulder and why no no you let me do it
Let me do it all and if you come over across this line, I'm not fixing it and that's how it is with Christ
You have to put all of your faith and trust in him
and that's why the Bible says we have to cease from our own works as
God did from his and we have to rest in the finished work of Jesus Christ and here's the great thing about this mechanic
Jesus is that he has a lifetime warranty
Actually, it's an eternal eternal lifetime warranty. So when he fixes the car not only that he'll maintain it
He will keep that thing running he will always have the parts in stock he will always have it fixed
He will always have it ready to go so we don't have to sit there and say well, you know
Okay, Jesus fixed the car
But I'm gonna go out and buy a bunch of mechanical tools and I'm gonna read a bunch of manuals so that I can keep
It right? No, no
He does it all
He fixes it and he keeps it fixed
he saves us and he keeps us saved and he will never leave us or forsake us and we are sealed unto the day of
Redemption and it's all based on one thing. Do we believe in him?
We have to believe in him we have to rely on him
We have to let him do it all
We have to make that decision to put all of our faith and trust in Christ and then we're saved forever. We're saved
Eternally, but the Bible emphasizes a lot more than just believing in Christ
One of the things that you'll see emphasized in the Bible is the idea of soul winning the idea of preaching the gospel
The idea of going out and winning other people to Christ you say well
Are you sure that's something the Bible emphasizes?
Well, the first thing Jesus does after he gets through his baptism and gets through the temptation
Where the devil is trying to tempt him and everything is then he goes out and starts recruiting his soul winners
Right right after he finishes that because in Matthew chapter 3, he's baptized Matthew chapter 4
He's tempted of the devil and then what does he do at the end of Matthew 4? He goes out and he finds
Fishermen and he says to them follow me and I'll make you fishers of men
So when he starts his ministry, the first thing he does he starts recruiting soul winners
He starts recruiting fishers of men and then not only that but what's the last thing he says before he ascends up into heaven
Is that we're to be witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Samaria and under the uttermost parts of the earth
He starts out talking about reaching the lost winning people to Christ. That's how he ends his ministry
Then we get into the book of Acts. What do we see in the book of Acts soul-winning soul-winning soul-winning?
It's all about a missionary Paul
Traveling from place to place winning people to Christ bringing the gospel to people
Soul-winning is emphasized in the four Gospels. It's emphasized in the book of Acts and then when we get into the epistles
It's brought up again and again. God wants us to be a soul winner. That's something that the Bible
Emphasizes now there are a lot of churches today soul-winnings on the backburn
They're busy
But they're not emphasizing what God emphasizes
They're emphasizing patch the pirate or they're emphasizing the choir or they're emphasizing
door hangers or they're emphasizing whatever other
Ministries that they think are more important or the drama team or the orchestra or whatever
They're emphasizing listen to me. We need to emphasize what God emphasizes
emphasize soul-winning in the church
do the first works have the first love and
Emphasize what God emphasizes when it comes to what church we go to
we think about the pros and cons of this church or that church because we don't have a perfect church and
Especially in certain areas that you might live in there could be a shortage of good churches
So you have to decide what your priorities are you have to decide what's the best option, right?
Where am I going to go to church and when we evaluate churches do we emphasize what God emphasizes?
Well, if we want to know what God thinks about churches
All we have to do is look at Revelation chapters 2 & 3 and in Revelation chapters 2 & 3
He has a message to seven different churches and he evaluates them
He talks about the pros and he talks about the cons and you know what every single one of them
He starts out by saying I know thy works
That's the most repeated thing in that passage. And if you would flip over to that passage
I want to show you something in particular look at chapter 2 of
Revelation
The fact that God brings it up first
That's emphasis I know thy works the fact that he repeats it seven times that's emphasis
I know thy works the fact that he said do the first works
But look down if you would at Revelation chapter number two the message to Thyatira
it says in verse 19, I know thy works and charity and
Service and faith and thy patience and thy works. He already said works
He brings up the works at the beginning and then he brings up the works at the end and then listen what he says
And the last to be more than the first
So the first thing he mentioned is works
The last thing he mentioned is the works and he says the last is more than the first
I think what he means by that is you're increasing in your works
That's on the good side for this church
Look if God is just repeating works and bringing up their works all the time
That tells me that when God looks at a church one of the things he's looking at first and foremost
Paramount is the works
So that tells me that if a church
Crosses every doctrinal T and dots every doctrinal I but they're not doing the works, but they're dead
They're not reaching the city for the gospel. They're not knocking any doors. They're not winning any souls to Christ
You know that tells me that's not a good church because they're failing the first test
the works
He'll remove the candlestick
I'd rather go to a church. That was a little off doctrinally and I'm not talking about
doctrines that are deal-breakers like the gospel or you know having obviously having the King James Bibles and essential
Having salvation by faith that's non-negotiable
But I'm talking about other doctrines secondary doctrines, you know Bible prophecy
Interpretations or just other issues about you know, the music or the you know
The style of the church or it, you know, the first thing I would look at is do they practice soul-winning?
Because I'd rather go to a church that was a little off on minor doctrines
That was a strong soul-winning Church than a church that just crosses every T dots every I
They're just dead on on Bible prophecy, but there's no soul-winning
There's no work being done they just sit around being right
Just they just sit around just man we're so right we got our doctrine perfect. Let's just talk about how right we are
No, let's get out there and win somebody to Christ because what God emphasizes is the work that we're doing
That's what God emphasized. Can everybody hear me? All right tonight in the back and everything
Not only that but when we think about what the Bible emphasizes
What does the Bible talk a lot about you know, he talks a lot about the wrath and judgment of God
Now people who don't read the whole Bible they don't know this
Because they're listening to a lot of soft
Soap positive type sermons and they're getting the most Bible from Hallmark greeting cards that they receive in the mail
Because they're not reading the Bible
So the most Bible they read is on a greeting card at Christmas or their birthday or or Easter or something like that
And so those are really positive uplifting cards
The most Bible they get is on a calendar that they read in the office with a picture of nature and a Bible verse
But when you actually read the whole Bible, you know what?
You're gonna find page after page after page of the wrath and judgment of God
Look at the longest books in the Bible. What's the longest book in the Old Testament Jeremiah, right?
Slightly longer than Psalms, even though Psalms has 150 short chapters Jeremiah has 52 long chapters
That's got to be the most negative book in the whole Bible is the book of Jeremiah and you just read page after page in Isaiah
Jeremiah
Ezekiel of the wrath of God the punishment of God the justice of God
It just goes on and on and on and then you finally think man. We're through the major prophets then you get to the minor prophets
And it just gets more negative. It's just negative negative negative negative
Are we just gonna ignore all that and just preach sweetness and light
Look, how much of the Bible is negative versus how much of the Bible is positive?
And then now let's go to the average church today and see how much of the preaching is positive
Versus how much of the preaching is negative. Does it match today? I don't think it matches
I think churches today are preaching way too much positivity and the Bible has got a lot of
Negativity and the fact of the matter is that Jesus talked a lot more about hell than he did about heaven
Why because he didn't want anybody to go there
And he brought it up and he brought it up. Hell is look if I asked you to describe hell
You would be able to do a pretty good job if I asked any Christian to describe hell
They'd probably be able to do a pretty good job. It's pretty easy for us to describe because the Bible talks a lot about it
We've got all kinds of words that would roll off our tongue. Well, it's the lake of fire. It's darkness. There's weeping
There's gnashing of teeth. There's no rest day or night if we if we were asked to describe heaven
We might have to think a little bit we'd struggle because the Bible doesn't tell us as much
We don't have as much detail, but let me tell you something
We need to emphasize what God emphasizes and so we need some hellfire and damnation preaching
All over the world whether it's the United States or Canada hard preaching is what God had done in the Old Testament
Hard preaching is what God had done in the ministry of Jesus Christ hard preaching got it done in the book of Acts
We need to preach the whole council of God and we need to emphasize what God emphasizes
You need to emphasize salvation by faith, yes, we need to emphasize soul winning
Yes, we need to emphasize getting out there and doing some work for the Lord after we're saved
Yes, but we also need to preach some negative sermons
Why because the Bible is filled with chapters about the wrath of God if it's being emphasized in the Bible
Let's emphasize it
Another thing that the Bible emphasizes the second coming of Jesus Christ
The second coming of Jesus Christ in the New Testament is a major emphasis
I mean when you're when you're thinking about it, you'll see it in every chapter being brought up constantly
When it's on your mind, you'll see the symbolism everywhere
But even just explicit references think about the books of the Thessalonians
first and second Thessalonians eight chapters
All eight chapters talk about the second coming of Christ all eight chapters
We have a whole book the book of Revelation
Jesus did a whole sermon where he brings it into focus in the Olivet Discourse Matthew 24
Mark 13 Luke 21 then there's Luke 17
Even when Jesus is about to go to the cross in the book of Luke, he brings up his second coming
He talks about the second coming the epistles of Paul all throughout the New Testament
You'll find reference after reference to Christ's second coming. That means it's an important subject that we should emphasize
We should talk about it. You know, I know of a pastor who he doesn't want to take a stand on this issue
Because half of his church is pre-trib and half of his church is post-trib. It's a big church and
It's half and half his church believes like us and the other half of the church is is pre-trib
so Paul Wittenberger walked up to this pastor and he asked him he said are you pre-trib and
The pastor said I don't know
And this guy's been pastoring for over a decade and he just never
Preaches on that subject because he knows well, you know half my church
believes one way the other half the church believes the other way so I'm just gonna shy away from that and
Just not talk about it for the sake of unity, but how can we de-emphasize?
That which God emphasizes
We need to talk about the second coming of Christ now if people believe differently on it
It doesn't make them horrible people
It doesn't mean that they can't do a great work for God in other areas of life
But folks we need to keep it in perspective that the second coming of Christ is important
It's a big subject and for a pastor to just not talk about it and let me listen to me
There are a lot of pastors who've seen after the tribulation. They know that that pre-trib rapture is a joke
But they're afraid to get up and preach right about it
So what they've done now is just they just decided not to say anything about it
because they can't preach pre-trib anymore now that they know it's a lie and
they can't preach post-trib if they don't want to lose all their friends and
Be hated and be lumped in with that crazy fanatic down from Arizona that they're gonna be lumped in with
So basically they just shy away from it
We can't shy away from it
The second coming of Jesus Christ is an emphasized doctrine in the Bible and we ought to emphasize
What God emphasizes?
Now here's another one that we need to emphasize that has really been on my mind lately
Because of events that happened at our church recently over the last several months
One thing that we must emphasize is that Jesus is the Son of God
Now that comes as a shock to me because I thought that that's just kind of a no-brainer
The Trinity the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost and that's something that we we grew up just assuming
That every Christian knows that every Christian believes that we took that doctrine for granted
But let me tell you something. We have made a mistake over the years
We believed right on the Trinity
But we did not emphasize what God emphasized and by not emphasizing what God emphasized
We actually made an opening for the devil to get in because listen the devil is looking for a weakness
That's why we need the whole armor of God he's looking for a weakness he wants to seek whom he may devour
He's looking for that chink in the armor
He's looking for that gap where he can get in there and we need to stand in the gap and we need to make up
The hedge and keep false doctrine at bay because the devil is looking for a weakness and he's ready to exploit it
Now here's why
We had this problem. I believe is that we have
De-emphasized the fact that Jesus is the Son of God and we have over emphasized the fact that Jesus is God now
Listen, of course. Jesus is God. We believe in the deity of Christ. Jesus Christ was God
Manifest in the flesh. He's 100% God
There are plenty of scriptures that make it crystal clear that Jesus was God in the flesh, but you know what the Bible
Actually says that Jesus is the Son of God
Way more than it talks about him being God
Now it tells us both we believe both they're both true. But which one does the Bible emphasize more?
There are way way more verses
Emphasizing that Jesus is the Son of God. That's what's being emphasized over and over in Scripture
But what have we done as fundamental Baptist even myself included for the last few decades is
We talked about how Jesus is God ten times as much as we mentioned Jesus being the Son of God
Probably a hundred times as much we probably say that Jesus is God a hundred times as much as we say that Jesus is the Son
of God
Whereas the Bible does the exact opposite by saying over and over again that he's the Son of God Son of God Son of God
Son of God and so we were not emphasizing what God emphasized and then we opened ourselves
Up to people coming in with this lie that says oh, you know, there's not a Trinity
It's just the oneness of God
The Father is Jesus and there's only just one person there that manifests in these three different modes
And that's where this modalist teaching comes in
It's a heresy and a false doctrine and I don't want to preach a whole sermon about that right now
But I will say this
We need to get back to emphasizing what God emphasizes and we need to emphasize the Trinity by
Emphasizing the fact that Jesus is the Son of God now
Here's why?
Here's why we're over emphasizing the deity of Christ and not talking enough about the fact that he's the Son of God
The reason why is because there are three people who knock doors
right Baptist Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses, I
Mean who else really does any serious door knocking?
The cults the Mormons the Jehovah's Witnesses and then amongst true evangelical Christians is pretty much the Baptist knocking doors
So because we're the ones knocking doors and they're knocking doors
We're constantly trying to fight against them because they're the ones that were in competition with right of coming to people's doors
They're teaching all the lies and we're trying to undo the lies that they've done
So because they deny the deity of Christ as
Jehovah's Witnesses because they deny the deity of Christ as Mormons then we're constantly
Reacting to that and wanting to just go on and on. No, he's he's God. He's God in the flesh
There's only one God the deity of Christ and we've we've gone on and on about that but folks in the process
We've stopped emphasizing
Something that needs to be emphasized that Jesus Christ is the Son of God you say why does it matter?
Well, there's a lot of reasons why it matters
But first of all, the Bible says that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son
Now, let me ask you this
What would show greater love if I sacrifice my own life?
For you or if I sacrifice my son's life for you
You know what? There are a lot of all the mothers piped up right away
Why because they you look a mother knows she would she would give her life in a heartbeat if it would save her her son's
life
every mother at least should and
Every mother will immediately say, you know, I value my son's life
Far more than my own life if I had to choose to die or my son died
I would lay down my life before I laid down my son's life
See God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son
You know that beautiful story in the Old Testament with Abraham being willing to sacrifice
Isaac his son and that's a picture of God the Father
Being willing to sacrifice his son for us on the cross. That's the gospel, but we don't talk about that
We don't emphasize that and then these crazy doctrines come in of oh
You know the oneness of God and and it's just one person and and the name of the Father's Jesus and God the Father
Died on the cross for us and and all this crazy stuff and and you say why does it matter? I'll tell you why it matters
Because when Jesus was on the cross, he said my god my god. Why is thou forsaken me?
Who's he talking to
See if you believe in the Trinity, that's the son saying to the father my god my god
Why is thou forsaken me and that makes sense?
But if you don't believe in the Trinity if you believe in this modalism garbage this oneness doctrine
Then when you have Jesus saying my god my god, why is thou forsaken me?
You know what?
You have you have a human being on the cross being forsaken by God and then you have a Jesus dying on the cross for you
Who's not God who's just a man who's just a human because God is forsaken him
Because
That's what they distinguish between the man Christ Jesus and Jesus is God. Oh, that's just the man
That's just the man that's being forsaken by God. Well, then you have a man there. So this is like a
Underhanded attack on the deity of Christ anyway
Once you really flesh it all out and it leads to a lot of other dark places when you go down that path
But all that to say this
We need to emphasize the fact that Jesus Christ is the Son of God because that's something that you find
Hundreds of times in the New Testament are there verses that teach? He's God
Absolutely plenty, but there are ten times as many that say he's the Son of God
So why don't we let that start rolling off our tongue more?
That way our children and our converts and people don't get carried about
With every wind of false doctrine and carried off into these lies and heresies of the oneness Pentecostal movement
Modalism other end times heresies. Let's emphasize what God emphasized, you know, just just on Wednesday night
I was preaching from Luke chapter 2 the famous Christmas passage and just in that one chapter
It said that Jesus is a Savior which is Christ the Lord and in the same passage
It said the Lord's Christ
You see that the Lord's Christ and Christ the Lord
Why because it's the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost these three
Witnesses the Father Son the Holy Ghost make up one God and we need to make sure that we teach that
Hey, John 1 1 brings it up right away. He was with God and he was God
Let's not just go on and on about he was God and ignore the fact that he was with God
Yes, he's Christ the Lord, but he's also the Lord's Christ
We need to teach the Trinity. We need to believe that we need to emphasize what God
Emphasizes what about sins in the Bible? We believe in hard preaching. Amen hard preaching against sin and
If we're gonna preach against sin, we should emphasize the sins that God emphasizes
So what are the sins that God talks about the most? What are the sins that he preaches against the most in the Bible?
Well, if you read the New Testament, it's fornication that just comes up over and over again
That means we need hard preaching about fornication coming across the pulpits of America
What else drunkenness drunkenness is brought up all the time in the New Testament when you see lists of sins
Drunkenness makes it on that list. We better emphasize hard preaching against drunkenness hard preaching against adultery
Hard preaching against stealing hard preaching against murder. Let's emphasize what God
Emphasizes and make that the big sins that we harp on and preach hard on but today we have
shying away from preaching on fornication
Even though it should be a big emphasis based on how much the Bible talks about it
You don't hear a lot of preaching against drunkenness
It's on every page of a lot of the epistles
We need to go through our New
Testaments and look at all the sins and see what are the sins that he brings up over and over again
That's what we ought to harp on. That's what we ought to preach about other sins that are barely even brought up
Barely even mentioned at all and preachers want to harp on those sins
Things that are that are not even brought up, you know, like for example smoking
I mean preachers preach against smoking all the time and look I'm against smoking. I'm talking about cigarettes now
Not talking about smoking pot that would be along the lines of getting drunk, you know when you're taking mind-altering drugs
But I'm talking about, you know preaching against cigarettes, you know, I'm against cigarettes
I believe it's a sin to just intentionally mess with your body and put all this toxic junk into your body
But you know, the Bible doesn't talk about smoking. So, you know just go on and on about smoking. No, why don't we talk about
Fornication, why don't we talk about adultery? Why don't we talk about drunkenness?
Why don't we get on theft and murder and preach hard against the things that God brings up over and over and over?
Again and really harp on that and not major on the miners. Let's major on the major and let's minor on the minor
You know, I was talking to a someone that I love who was smoking cigarettes
They've quit now, but I was talking to somebody that I knew who smoked cigarettes and I told him I said, you know
If you're gonna smoke cigarettes
You at least need to get something organic, you know because of the fact if you look at the junk that's in cigarettes
I mean they're filled with poisonous chemicals
They put flame retardant
chemical flame retardant in a cigarette you're lighting the thing on fire and they put a flame retardant in there and
It's filled with just all these poisonous chemicals and garbage and I say you at least need to get some kind of organic
Tobacco and roll that I said you shouldn't smoke at all
But it's but look if you're gonna smoke that stuff it's poison. It's garbage. But you know what?
I'm not just gonna preach sermon after sermon after sermon against cigarettes
when there's people in the church that are committing fornication and
Nobody talks about it
I mean today literally in Baptist churches, there are people who are living together in sin and it's never even addressed
They're teaching Sunday school or they're they're they're they're just considered normal members of the church as they live together
Unmarried there needs to be a preacher that would get up and say flee fornication
And that would even cast such out of the church if they won't repent of that fornication
We'd emphasize what God emphasized
But instead of emphasizing what God emphasizes what we do is have this cute little doctrine of will all sins equal
No, it's not equal
Smoking a cigarette is not like fornication
Stealing a pencil is not like robbing a bank
You know
There are there are varying degrees of sin and we need to emphasize what God emphasizes and look if God put a punishment of death
On something that's a big sin
And
If he put a punishment of many stripes, that's a big sin. And if it's few stripes, it's a smaller sin
We need to emphasize what God
emphasizes
That's what we should spend the most time talking about. That's what we should go on about
What are some things in the Bible that are not emphasized? Here's one. How about the Virgin Mary? I
Mean is Mary really emphasized in the Bible is Paul and his epistles just going on and on
Hey, you better make sure to venerate Mary. Don't forget to worship Mary. Don't forget to make that shrine to Mary
Don't forget to light a candle for Mary, you know, you read through the New Testament and Mary is barely mentioned
She's better look we believe that Mary was a great lady we believe she was a virgin
She gave birth to the Lord Jesus Christ. We're thankful for her life and testimony, but she is not
Emphasized but you know what if you go to Mexico today you would swear that you know Mary's God
That's who they're bowing down to that's who they have an altar to that's who they say their prayers to that's who they emphasize today
We had we had a guy today. We were out so many today
We talked to a guy who's a Roman Catholic and he told us he said well
You know as a human being our mother's way more important than our father
What
And I said to him I said well are you implying that
Mary is more important than God the father
And he just said well, I mean, yeah
Right, I mean he's just like well, yeah, that's how we feel
He's not alone
There's 1 billion other people just like him
The Roman Catholics say even if they don't admit it like this guy just admitted it
Hey, Mary's more important than Jesus. Mary's more important than God the Father, you know
Don't let it bother you that the Lord Jehovah God is mentioned by name over 7,000 times in the Old Testament and
The name of Jesus is on every page in the New Testament, you know little kids
They get a Bible and they just highlight every time it says Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus, right? It's everywhere. It's every page
Mary's not on every page
But you'd think she was when you drove by the houses of Catholics and just see Mary Mary the Pope the Pope
Hey, the Bible didn't emphasize Mary. I'm not gonna emphasize Mary
You shouldn't emphasize Mary and a religion that emphasizes Mary is a false religion
We need to emphasize what God emphasizes. We need to emphasize who God emphasizes God
emphasizes Jesus
What does God emphasize in the New Testament the physical nation of Israel or Jesus
But today you have people who want to make the physical nation of Israel the fulfillment of every Bible prophecy
No, Jesus fulfilled every Bible prophecy. Jesus is the seed of Abraham
Jesus is the elect. Jesus is the one who's gonna inherit all things. Jesus is the chosen
Jesus is gonna rule the world not Israel ruling the world with a rod of iron
But today
We have people emphasizing Mary
there's a group amongst independent Baptist called the Baptist brighter and
What you'll notice about these Baptist writers is that that's all they want to talk about
All they want to talk about is just the Baptist bride and they take something that the Bible
barely mentions the bride of Christ the term bride and they want to just go on and on and on and on and
Make that the big thing think about when you talk to Seventh-day Adventists. All they want to talk about is what?
Saturday Saturday Saturday. Hey, I got news for you Seventh-day Adventists. The word Saturday does not exist in this book
The word Saturday is not even mentioned one time
Can somebody show me the word Saturday in this book? Well the seventh day. Well, it depends on when you start counting. Amen
If
You start counting on Monday then Sunday's the seventh day if that makes you feel better
I'm fine with Sunday being the first day
Amen, the disciples met on the first day of the week
but you know what if you're so worked up about the seventh day just start counting on Monday and
Shut up and go soul-winning and go to church and quit emphasizing something that's never even mentioned
All right Saturday really have you ever been to Europe
because in the whole continent of Europe the day start though the week starts on Monday and
Ends on Sunday. I don't know. How is it in Canada? Does it start on Sunday or does it start on Monday?
Sunday to Saturday, that's how we are in the US Sunday to Saturday in Germany. It's Monday to Sunday
the weekend
But the point is why would you base your whole life
Why would you base your whole ministry on something that the Bible does not emphasize?
Is that what the Bible is saying over and over again in the New Testament?
Hey, make sure you have church on the right day of the week
I'd rather go to a godly soul-winning righteous church that meets on a Tuesday
Right then to go to some dead as a doornail liberal church that meets on Sunday. I'd rather go on Tuesday
I'd go to the one that meets on Thursday if they're emphasizing what God emphasizes
You know, but people are getting hung up the Seventh-day Adventist
They're hung up on a day of the week
The Catholics are hung up on Mary the Jehovah's Witnesses are hung up on one of God's names Jehovah
That's all they want to talk about. Hey, let me talk to you about Jesus
Let me talk to you about his death his burial and resurrection. Well, wait a minute
Turn to Psalm 83
Just
Totally, you know, wait a minute
What day of the week do you go to church and then you the oneness Pentecostal?
Wait a minute. Were you baptized in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost or Jesus only?
Look, we have people getting obsessed with and emphasizing things the Baptist pride or these things that aren't emphasized
Let's emphasize what God emphasizes and make that our big thing. Let's make that our push
Let's make that our emphasis. Let's emphasize what he emphasizes
I've seen people emphasize communion to the point of ridiculous
I've had somebody call the church and they said I just want to know one thing about your church
Is your communion open communion close communion or closed up communion?
And I asked the guy said is that really the biggest issue? He said yeah that that's my most important issue when choosing a church
I want closed communion
And I'm like, what is the difference between close and closed? I mean, I know there's a D but what does it mean?
But today we have people where they just want to make a huge deal about
This church has a different view on communion than this church. Look communion is barely mentioned in the Bible
Let's not emphasize it
Now the Roman Catholics emphasize it
Perverted twisted and tied up with salvation
But let me tell you something we ought to emphasize what God
Emphasizes and not get hung up on things that are minor things in the Bible
Let's get hung up on the big things and let's spend the most look don't get me wrong
I want to preach the whole Bible if something's mentioned only once in the Bible. I'm gonna preach about it
I'm gonna talk about it. I'm gonna cover communion. I'm gonna cover the bride of Christ. I'm gonna cover the Virgin Mary
I'm not saying that these things don't matter don't get me wrong
But I'm telling you that if the Bible talks ten times as much about something else
I'm gonna spend ten times as much on that and if it only spends a little bit of time on something
I'm gonna spend a little bit of time on it because I want to emphasize what God emphasizes
You know what God emphasized in Galatians 1 at the start of the sermon. Hey, if somebody preaches another gospel
Let him be a curse and I'm gonna say it again to make sure that it's emphasized. Why don't we emphasize that?
Why don't we get mad at the false prophets? Why don't we let them be accursed?
Why don't we preach hard against themselves saying well, you know, no, no, it's emphasized
It's emphasized
Music you know music is not something that's emphasized in the New Testament
It's now now look music is important
Music is a part of our lives
The longest book in the Bible by some measurements Psalms right is right there with Jeremiah as being one of the longest is a song
Book, but it's also filled with a lot of other doctrine
So the New Testament is not just going on and on about our music is it?
But yet you go to a lot of churches today. And what do you get an hour of music?
20 minutes of preaching
Is that what God emphasizes?
I mean is God just emphasizing the music the music the music and he's telling the Romans about the music and the
Corinthians about the music and the Galatians about the music and the Ephesians about the music and the Colossians about the music and the
Thessalonians chapter after chapter and revelation is about the music. I
Know thy music. Is that what he told Ephesus to the church of Smyrna? I know thy music
To the church of Thyatira. I know thy worship service to the church at Sardis. I know your lighting
That thou hast purple lights and a barstool
I know that look we have a bunch of churches today that have built a whole movement on music
Look when I hear about this Hillsong Church, what do I think of do I think of preaching? Oh
When you hear Hillsong, do you think about the doctrine do you think about the preaching?
Do you think about the soul winning? Do you think about what they're doing with the Word of God? No, it's just all about the music
wrong emphasis
Music is important music is critical music has its place but it is not the emphasis in our churches
It's not the emphasis in our religion
It's the preaching. It's the Word of God. It's the soul winning. It's not just all about the music
But a lot of churches have made it all about the music haven't they?
I'm not gonna pick a church based on music
I'd rather go to the rock and roll jam for Jesus Church. That's soul winning. I haven't seen one yet. I haven't
I'd
Rather go to a church that has the wrong music with soul winning
Then sing holy holy holy with those who don't go soul winning now in a perfect world
We'll sing holy holy holy and then go soul winning. Amen
We'll sing to God be the glory and blessed assurance and then go soul winning
But I'm not gonna pick a church based on the music. That is not the emphasis
Let's emphasize what God
Emphasizes and let's de-emphasize that which God does not put a lot of emphasis on you say
How do I know pastor what to put the emphasis on?
You got to read the whole Bible cover to cover. It's the only way
You say well, I listen to a lot of preaching from you Pastor Anderson. Aren't you giving me a balanced diet?
Well, I sure hope so. I hope so. But how do you know? I'm not emphasizing a bunch of stuff
That I want to emphasize and how do you know, I'm not
De-emphasizing some things that God really emphasizes, you know how you're gonna know if I've got the right balance by reading this book yourself
And when you read this book yourself, and you say man, it seems like pastor has it's so negative
But then I read the Bible and it was more negative
So I think pastor Anderson needs to get a little more negative
But but the bottom line is you don't know until you've read it
And the thing that changed my life more than anything else was reading this whole book
The King James Bible the whole book every word of it changed my life
Because I realized what's being emphasized in church is not what God is emphasizing
The church is all sweetness and light
The church is all about the music
The church is all about the decorations and the building. Let me tell you something in the New Testament. The emphasis is not on the building
It's not on the windows
It's not on the stained glass. It's not on the artwork
It's not on the facilities
The emphasis is on the preaching and the spirit and the work and God's people not a building
But we have churches today where what do they emphasize the building program the building fund? That's what it's all about and
They measure their success in buildings
bigger building equals success
Cheap building
You haven't arrived keep on trying
Whereas I would measure up the way God measures it. I know thy works. He didn't say I know thy building. I
know thy facilities I
Know thy building. I know thy campus
Right. Okay. Here's another thing you go to a lot of churches. What's it all about the Christian school?
Is that what the New Testament emphasizes not even one mention?
But if we look at the budgets today of
Churches if we actually looked at their bank statement where the money's going
Huge amounts of money are going to the Christian school and people wonder how do you afford?
Giving away CDs giving away DVDs, you know
How do you afford to do these soul-winning marathons and and take all these trips to Indian?
reservations and and buy hotels and buy meals and and have a hundred people out soul-winning and and
Furnish them and equip them and feed them and lodge them and do a great work for God on the mission field in
Arizona or in the uttermost parts of the earth. Where does the money come from? Are you being funded by Hamas?
Are you being funded by you know?
Where's the money coming from and you know where the money is coming from?
The same place the other churches money is coming from except we didn't spend it on a window
We didn't spend it on a building. We didn't spend it on bale shaft upon top of our building
We didn't spend it on a Christian school. We spent it on
soul-winning
We just have a different priority of spending our money. It's that simple
We didn't dump a bunch of money into this black hole called a Christian school
We didn't dump a bunch of money into a black hole called building a building from scratch
We didn't dump a bunch of money into artwork so that our church could look like an art gallery or a palace
No, we have a building that's functional
And it's all about the work
It's all about getting the job done
Why because we want to emphasize what God emphasizes and God says ye are God's building. He doesn't say get building
He doesn't you know, I a pastor told me that his favorite book was Nehemiah and I found that disturbing
And look, I love the Word of God. I love the whole Bible
I love all of God's Word
Obviously, I would never be down on a portion of God's Word
But I found it disturbing that this pastor said oh my favorite book of the Bible is Nehemiah
Because you know
I just love building and our church is in this multi-million dollar building program and we were in a building program before
And we're gonna be in another building program, but you know, you know what? Why don't you pick a favorite book that talks about Jesus?
It's
Sad today when it's just all about the building the building the building and and Nehemiah is my favorite book
You know, my favorite books are Matthew Mark Luke and John and I'm not I'm not criticizing you
Whatever your favorite book is if your favorite books Genesis great
Great find Jesus in Genesis, you know, he's there. He's ever. Hey if your favorite books Revelation great
It's all about Christ
but it's pretty sad today when somebody's favorite book is Nehemiah because they just love pulling another building permit and
Putting up another thermometer and let's build build build. No, I want to build the kingdom of God
I don't want to build a kingdom on this earth
Look I'm not trying to build a wall around Jerusalem
I'm not I mean, okay
I like that part of Nehemiah to where he's chasing people and ripping their hair out. That's a good. I do like that part
Look, I like the part where he rips the pit the hair off their head. I like it where he's chasing them
I like it where he says hey come back one more time and I'll lay hands on you. I
Like that too, but you know what? I'm not gonna emphasize that
You know why because God didn't call me to rip the hair off anybody's head
God didn't call me to lay hands on anybody except to ordain them for the gospel ministry. Amen
God didn't call me to curse people for speaking
You know the wrong language or or for lodging outside the wall of Jerusalem. You know what? I'm not gonna emphasize that
Because you know what? We ought to emphasize what God emphasizes and it's not a physical battle. It's not a physical wall
you know what it is, it's a spiritual battle and
It's Jesus
Let's emphasize Jesus. Let's emphasize the gospel. Let's emphasize soul winning. Let's emphasize his second coming
Why don't we emphasize the importance of having every word of God?
that's something the Bible talks a lot about and
We need to emphasize not a building not a school
Not a window not a steeple. We need to emphasize what God
Emphasizes because all that stuff's gonna burn someday
The sanctuary is gonna burn
That steeples gonna burn
That church building is gonna burn all of its gonna burn
It's all gonna become nothing
But you know what's not gonna burn is my soul and your soul and the souls of every person that we win to Christ
That's all we can take with us. It's the only thing that we can take with us. There's nothing else
Everything you see here one day will be gone because everything that we see is temporal
Including our own bodies
It's the things that are not seen
That are eternal and people constantly want to look at us and they want us to show them show us
your success
Well, I you know, I don't have a great building
to show you
But you know what
Let me get back to you on that meet me in heaven and I'll show you
What I've accomplished I can't show you now
I mean, I can't I can't show you
The souls that were saved in Guyana or the souls that were saved in Botswana or Malawi or souls that are being saved all over
The world through through hearing the preaching from faith forward back. I don't mean I haven't even seen it
But it's there
But they can show us a building pretty easily and
You know what people that are carnal
They emphasize that which is seen and people that are spiritual emphasize that which is not seen
Because the things that are seen are temporal and the things that are not seen are eternal. Let me ask you today
What do you emphasize in your life?
What is emphasized in your life? How much of a pie graph does the Lord take up in your life?
How much time is spent reading the Bible versus reading other things?
How much time is spent
Meditating upon the Lord and the things of God versus meditating upon the things of this world
What's your priority? What's the most important thing? What's the thing that just matters to you more than anything else?
Because it ought to be him in all things. He must have the preeminence
He must have the emphasis in our lives
We ought to give him all the glory and you know when we wake up in the morning, he should be on our mind
And when we go to bed at night, he should be on our mind and when we sit down and eat our food
We ought to thank him for it. And I'm not talking about just going through a ritual
I'm talking about in your heart when nobody's looking when nobody's listening when it's not even public
how about just in your own heart just thanking God just being thankful for your food and
Just being thankful for your wife or your husband your children and just giving him all the glory and when you the first thing that
You think when you get a bonus or a raise or or you get a gift in the mail or someone hands you a gift
You know, I even if someone gives me a gift. I just thank the Lord
Because every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and even if he used a human instrument to provide us with that gift
We should be thankful to that person
But ultimately it's God who's really blessing us because God said that he'll cause man to give into our bosom
Does
He have the emphasis in our lives do we emphasize what he emphasizes?
If you want to know what he emphasizes you got to read this book cover to cover
Figure out what he talks about over and over again and make that the priority make that the big thing
In your life, let's borrow eyes and have a word of prayer father. We thank you so much Lord for
The whole Bible Lord there. There are people in this world who they live in a place where they don't have the entire Bible in their
language
They might only have one or two books or maybe just the New Testament Lord
thank you for letting us have the whole Bible so that we can figure out everything that you emphasize and
help us to keep the main thing the main thing and
Help us to prioritize what you prioritize and to repeat what you repeat Lord
I pray that you'd bless every single person who came here Lord and people that drove a long way and sacrificed
Financially to put gas in the tank and and to buy that expensive hotel room and to buy meals on the road Lord
I pray that you would send them some good gifts over the next few weeks to help
Offset the cost of coming here to serve you Lord and I thank you for people that love you so much that they will travel
Just as your people in the Old Testament used to travel to Jerusalem to worship you Lord
Thank you for people who drove to Toronto to worship you Lord to gather with your people and to do a great work for you
Lord I pray that you'd bless every single person and Lord
I pray that you bless the nation of Canada with some fire-breathing preaching Lord with some men of God Lord you Lord
Canada needs leadership. I pray that you'd raise up men of God and
Stir in the hearts of even men that are even in this
auditorium today Lord and and stir up
some great deliverers and
Men that would rise up and build and and restore the old waist paces and and and and
Shake Canada with the Word of God and reach the lost with the gospel Lord
we pray that you'd bless the rest of this weekend Lord as we as we have baptisms and as we
See the film tomorrow Babylon USA Lord. Just pray that people would be edified and strengthened and in Jesus name we pray. Amen