place in chapter 1 the verse that I want to emphasize here is a 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 a purse 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 I'm gonna say
it again that if anyone preaches it any other gospel on you that once you
proceed let it be a curse 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 talked 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
belief 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 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 it how many times it
says believe I mean just even in the book of John alone it mentions it 90
times and all the Romans and Galatians and all throughout the New Testament
it's just hammering that over and over again believe believe believe that tells
me that when we talk about the gospel when we talk about salvation we can
emphasize the fact it's my faith alone and we can emphasize that word believe
that is 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 inviting 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're on so many
days with the brother Shawn 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 the 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 yeah he's 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 it's all of a 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 trying to get in there and work oh but look at all the work I've
done yeah is the car fixed no I don't care how hard you're working I don't
care how much you spend 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 oh I've been around
cars all my life yeah 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 freaking 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 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 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
makes the car but I'm gonna go out and buy a bunch of mechanical tools and I'm
gonna read much 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 under the day of redemption and
it's all based on one thing we believe in it we have to believe it we have to
rely on it we have to let him do it all we have to make that decision 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 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 is 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 in
the book of Acts what do we see in the book of Acts so winning so winning so
winning it's all about a missionary Paul traveling from place to place winning
people to Christ bringing the gospel to people so many 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 so
when he's on the back burner they're busy but they're not emphasizing what
God emphasizes they're emphasizing past 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 so what in the church do the first works
at 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 big 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 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 pass so I'm going 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 at the one 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 again and then
listen to 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 work 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
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 putting any souls to Christ you know that tells me that's not a good church
because they're failing the first test the works and remove the candlestick I
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 Bible is an essential having salvation by faith
that's non negotiable but I'm talking about other doctrine 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 you know the first thing I
would look at is do they practice soul because I'd rather go to a church that
was a little off on minor doctrines that was a strong soul winning church then a
church that just crosses every T dots every I they're just get on on Bible
prophecy but there's no soul 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 our right here no let's get out there
with somebody right because what God emphasizes is the work that we're doing
that's what God ever says can everybody hear me all right tonight the back
everything not only that but when we think about what the Bible emphasizes
what does the Bible talk a lot about your 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 so positive type sermons and
they're getting the most Bible from Hallmark reading cards that they
received 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 Easter or something
like that and so those are really positive uplifting part the most Bible
they gain is on a calendar that they read in the office with a picture of
nature and a Bible but when you actually read the whole Bible you know what
you're going to 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 gotta be the most
negative book in the whole Bible 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
and we're through the major prophets then you get to the minor and it just
gets more negative it's just negative negative negative negative are we just
gonna ignore all that and just preach sweetness in life 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 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 hell what 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 them 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 wheat meat there's gnashing of teeth there's no
rest they're not if we had 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 an
emphasize what God emphasizes and so we need some help fire and damnation
preaching all over the world whether it's the United States or Canada hard
preaching is what God done in the Old Testament hard preaching is what God
done in the ministry of Jesus Christ hard preaching got it done in the book
of Acts we need to preach the whole counsel of God we need to emphasize what
guys emphasize salvation by faith yes we need to emphasize so many yes we need
to emphasize getting out there and do some work for the Lord after we're safe
yes but we also need to bring some negative sounds what 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 I mean we brought up constantly when it's on
your mind you'll see the symbolism ever 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 all event 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 the pastor who he
doesn't want to take a stand on this issue because half of this church is
pre-trib and half of this church is post-trib it's a big church and it's
half half this church believes like us and the other half of the church is
pre-trib so Paul Whitmer 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 listen to me there are
a lot of pastors who've seen after the tribulation they know that that
pre-trib raps 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 decide 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
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 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 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
believe 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 who 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 have this problem I
believe is that we have de-emphasized the fact that Jesus is the Son of God and
we have overemphasized 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 it 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 Baptists even myself included for the last few decades is we
talk 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 overemphasizing 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 now 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 God he's God in the flesh there's only one God the deity of
Christ and we've gone 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 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
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 would
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 lay 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 just being
willing to sacrifice Isaac his son and that's a picture of God the Father be
willing to sacrifice his son for us on the cross that's the gospel we don't
talk about that we don't emphasize that and then these crazy doctrines come in
oh you know the oneness of God 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 you say why does it matter I'll tell you why matters because
when Jesus was on the cross he said my God my God why is that forsaken me who
is he talking to see if you believe in the Trinity that's the son saying to the
father my God my God why is that 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 say my God my God why is that
forsaken 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 because
that's what they distinguish between the man Christ Jesus and Jesus is God well
that's just a man that's just a man that's being forsaken by God well then
you have a man there so this is like that 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
teaches 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 time 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
ever said you know just just on Wednesday night I was preaching from
Luke chapter 2 the famous Christmas passage and this is that one chapter it
said that Jesus is a Savior which is Christ the Lord and then 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
1-1-1 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 nor the fact he was with God yes he's Christ
the Lord but he's also the Lord's Christ 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
going to preach against sin we should emphasize the sins that God emphasizes
so what are the sins that God talks about the most one of the sins that he
preaches against the most of the Bible well if you read the New Testament it's
fornication it 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 based 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 know
you're a lot of preaching against drunkenness it's on every page of a lot
of the epistles we need to go through our New Testament and look at all the
sins and see what are the sins that he brings up over and over again that's
what we are harp on that's what we ought to preach about other things that are
barely even brought up barely even mentioned at all and creatures want to
harp on those things 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 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 the same 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 thing that God brings up over and over and over again and really
harp on that and not major on the minor so let's major on the major and let's
minor on the minor you know I was talking to someone that I love who was
smoking cigarettes they quit now but I was talking to somebody that I knew who
smoked cigarettes and I told them I said you know if you're gonna smoke cigarettes
you at least need to get something organic you know because of the fact that
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 is
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 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 I mean today literally in
Baptist churches there people are living together in sin and it's never
even addressed they're teaching Sunday school or they're there 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 then would
even pass such out of the church if they won't repent of that fornication we'd
emphasize what God emphasizes but instead of emphasizing what God
emphasizes what we do is have this cute little doctorable all sins evil 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 better ain't Mary don't forget to worship Mary
don't forget to make us trying to marry 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 gone that's who they're bound to that's
who they have an offer to that's who they say their prayers to that's what
they emphasize today we have we had a guy today we're also only today we
talked to guys 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 he's not alone there's 1 billion
other people just like the Roman Catholics say even if they don't admit
it like this guy has admitted it hey Mary's more important than Jesus Mary's
more important than God about 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
think she was when you drove by the houses of Catholics and you see Mary
Mary the Pope the boat 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 everybody Jesus is the seed of Abraham
Jesus is the elect Jesus is the one who's gonna hear it all day Jesus is the
chosen Jesus is gonna rule the world not Israel ruling the world of the
wildfire but today we have people emphasizing married there's a group of
months 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 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
this book well the seventh day well it depends on when you start counting you
met 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
and 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
been mentioned Saturday really never been to Europe because in the whole
continent of Europe the days start though the week starts on Monday and
ends on Sunday 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 don't you base your whole ministry on something that
the Bible does not emphasize is that what the Bible saying over and over again
in the New Testament hey make sure you have church on the right hand I'd rather
go to a godly soul-winning righteous church that meets on a Tuesday right
then they go to some dead as a doornail liberal church that meets on Sunday I'd
rather go on Tuesday I go to the one that meets on Thursday if they're
emphasizing what God you know what people are getting hung up the seventh
day happiness 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 resurrection well wait a minute turn to Psalm 83
wait a minute what day of the week do you go to church and then you're the
one this Pentecostal wait a minute were you baptized in the name of the father
the son of 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
got somebody called 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
and I asked the guy 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 different thing close and close I mean I know there's a
people where they just want to make a huge deal about this church has a
different view on communion and this church look communion is barely
mentioned in the Bible let's not emphasize it and 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 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 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 it 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 a curse why don't we pretty tardy and
say well you don't know it's emphasized it's emphasized music you know music is
not something that's emphasized in the New Testament it's now look music is
important music is a part of our lives the longest book in the Bible by some
measurement Psalms right it's right there with Jeremiah is 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 he's got 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
that I've used it to the church of Smyrna I know that I'm using the church
of Thyatira I know thy worship service to the church at Sardis I know your
lighting look we have a bunch of churches today that have built a whole
movement on music look when I hear about this hill song church what do I think of
do I think of preaching oh when you hear a hill song 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 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 I'm not going to take a church based on music I'd rather go to the
rock-and-roll dam for Jesus Church that's all winning I haven't seen one
yet 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 so now the perfect world will see
holy holy holy and then go so it will say 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 gotta 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 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 when you read this book yourself and you say so
negative but then I read the Bible it was morning 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 in life
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 same 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 building
fun it's what's all about and they measure their success in buildings bigger
building equals success cheap building you have arrived keep on trying whereas
I would measure the way God measured it I know that it works he didn't tell you
I know my facilities right okay here's another thing you go to a lot of churches
what's it all about the Christian school it's not what the New Testament
emphasizes not even one engine but if you look at the budgets today of
churches and we actually looked at their bank statement where the money's going
huge amounts of money are going to the Christian school and they wonder how do
you afford giving away CDs giving away DVDs you know how do you afford to do
these so many marathons and and take all these trips to Indian reservations and
buy hotels and buy meals and and have a hundred people out so winning and
furnish them and equip them and feed them and live them and do a great work
for God on the mission field in Arizona or 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's coming from the same place the other churches money's coming from
except we didn't spend it on the window we didn't spend it on a building we didn't spend it on bale shafts up on top of our building we didn't spend it on a Christian
school we spent it on stolen 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 would 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 here God's building he doesn't say get building
I pastor told me this 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
get another building program you know you know what why don't you take a
favorite book that talks about Jesus it's sad today when it's just all about
the building the building the building and Nehemiah is my favorite book you
know my favorite books are Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and 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 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 for me and
putting up another thermometer and let's build build build no I want to build the
kingdom of God I want to build a kingdom on this earth yes look I'm not trying to
build a wall around Jerusalem I'm not I mean okay I like that part of Nehemiah
too where he's chasing people and ripping their hair look I like the part
where he rips 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 going to 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 or neither for the gospel ministry of it
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 going
to emphasize that because you know what we ought to emphasize what God
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 so many let's emphasize the 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 school not
a window not a steeple we need to emphasize what God emphasizes because
all that stuff's gonna burn some day the sanctuary is gonna burn as people get a
bar 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 your soul and the
souls of every person we win Christ that's all we take with us 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 you
know I don't have a great but you know what let me get back to you on that meet
me in heaven and I'll show you 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 Maui or souls that are being saved all over the world through through
hearing the preaching from me for God I don't know 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 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 things of God versus meditating upon the things in 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 three of us 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 and when we sit down and eat our food we
have 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 thank
God just be thankful for it and just be thankful for your wife or your husband
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 men to give into our wisdom does he have the
emphasis in our lives do we emphasize what he emphasizes if you want to know
what he emphasizes you gotta read this book cover to cover figure out what he
talks about over and over again and make that the right word make that the big
thing father we thank you so much lower for the whole Bible or 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 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 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
the Toronto to worship you Lord to gather with your people and to do a
great work for you Lord I pray that you 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
raise up men of God and stir in the hearts of even men that are even in this
auditorium today Lord and stir up some great deliverers and men that would rise
up and build and restore the old ways paces and shake Canada with the Word of
God and reach the lost with the gospel Lord we pray that you 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 all right let's go ahead