🎵Music🎵
Good evening and welcome to Verity Baptist Church. Can I please have everyone find their seats and grab their songbooks and turn to page number 410.
Please find your seat and grab your songbook and turn to page number 410. We're going to start the service off singing, Faith is the Victory.
Page 410, Faith is the Victory, and let's go ahead and sing it out on the first.
And camped along the hills of light, ye Christian soldiers rise, and press the battle where the night shall veil the glowing skies.
Against the foe in vales below, let all our strength be hurled. Faith is the victory we know that overcomes the world.
Faith is the victory, faith is the victory, all glorious victory that overcomes the world.
Page 410, let's sing it out on the second.
His banner over us, his love, our sword, the word of God. We tread the road, the saints of love, with shouts of triumph trod.
By faith they like a whirlwind's breath, swept on our every field. The faith by which they conquered death is still our shining shield.
Faith is the victory, faith is the victory, all glorious victory that overcomes the world.
On every hand the foe we find, drawn up in dread array. Let tens of years be left behind, and onward to the fray.
Salvation's helmet on each head, with truthful gird about. The earth shall tremble neath our tread, and echo with our shout.
Faith is the victory, faith is the victory, all glorious victory that overcomes the world.
Let's finish it strong on the last.
To him that overcomes the foe, white raiment shall be given. Before the angels he shall know, his name confessed in heaven.
Then onward from the hills of white, our hearts will love a flame. We'll vanquish all the hosts of night in Jesus' conquering name.
Faith is the victory, faith is the victory, all glorious victory that overcomes the world.
Great singing. Welcome to Verity Baptist Church and the Wednesday evening Bible study. Let's open up on a word of prayer.
Father God, thank you so much for this church, Lord. Thank you for these people coming out here on a Wednesday evening to serve you.
I pray that our singing would glorify you, Lord. I pray that you would bless the service and the preaching to come. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
All right, turn to your song books, page number 433. Page 433, we're going to sing Away in a Manger.
Now, we only have two more Christmas songs left for the year that are scheduled, so we've got to sing these out, like we really mean it, because we're not going to sing it for a while.
Page 433, Away in a Manger, and let's go ahead and sing it out on the first.
The little Lord Jesus, asleep on the hay,
The cattle are lowing, the baby awakes,
But little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes,
I love thee, Lord Jesus, look down from the sky,
And say, but my cradle till morning is nigh,
On the last, be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask thee to stay,
Close by me forever and love me, I pray.
Bless all the dear children in thy tender care,
And take us to heaven to live with thee there.
Great singing.
Amen. We want to welcome you to the midweek service here at Ready Baptist Church.
We are glad that you are with us and we appreciate your faithfulness.
I know that the rain sometimes keeps people from coming to church.
We appreciate you being here tonight.
Let's go ahead and take our bulletins. We'll look at some announcements real quickly.
If you do not have a bulletin, just raise your hand and one of our ushers can get one for you.
If you need a bulletin, just put your hand up and we'll get one for you.
And we'll get one for you. The verse this week, Luke 2-11,
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.
And that's a good verse there.
We like that if you open up your bulletin, you'll see our service time Sunday morning service 10 30 a.m.
And of course, we invite you to be with us on Sunday morning on the Lord's day for church.
And we want to encourage you to be here this coming Sunday.
Of course, it's the last day of the year.
And this year we started the first day of the year in church.
And we'll end the last day of the year in church.
So I encourage you to be here, of course, in honor of the Lord with that.
Sunday evening service is usually at 6 p.m. this Sunday.
The schedule will change a little bit. We'll talk about that in a minute.
And of course, our Wednesday evening Bible study.
If you look at our soul winning times, our main soul winning times on Saturday mornings at 10 a.m.
And then we have additional soul winning times on Thursdays and Fridays and Sundays at 2 p.m.
Thursday and Friday for now is postponed.
But the Sunday soul winning time will be back on regular schedule this Sunday.
And we, of course, are a family integrated church.
What that means is that children and infants are always welcome in the church service.
We do not separate children from their parents for any reason.
We do have mother baby rooms and daddy rooms available for your convenience.
So make sure that you use those rooms.
Let's not allow the children to be a distraction during the service.
If you have a child that's been distracting, just get up promptly and move to one of those rooms.
We have, of course, comfortable seating for you and monitors so you can still watch the service and listen to it.
If you look at the announcements and upcoming events, of course, we've got the workdays coming up this weekend.
Thursday, Friday, Saturday, three days, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. three shifts.
We've got clipboards in the back if you'd like to sign up.
And really all we need right now is guys that can mud and texture.
And it's very possible that the mudding and texturing can be done in the auditorium this weekend.
But we need, of course, you guys to show up if you are able to do that.
We'd appreciate your help so you can go by and look at those clipboards there.
And, of course, we had our Christmas services on Sunday morning, Sunday night.
And we want to just let you know that this coming weekend, we've got a special Christmas schedule, or not Christmas, but New Year's schedule.
Of course, 1030 a.m., our Sunday morning service is going to be like it normally is.
But the Sunday night service is going to be one hour later.
So not 6 p.m., but 7 p.m.
And we want you to be aware of that.
7 p.m., we'll start an hour later.
And we'll have our normal Sunday evening service like we normally do.
But afterwards we're going to have a potluck.
And then we'll have a popcorn machine.
We'll watch a film and pray in the New Year if you stay all the way till midnight.
So just be aware of that.
And, of course, want to encourage you.
You don't have to stay till midnight.
You can just come to church and leave afterwards like you normally do.
You can come to church and stay for the potluck if you'd like.
You can come to church and stay as long as you'd like.
But if you stay till midnight, there'll be a group, of course, that stays till midnight.
We'll pray in the New Year together.
And I want to, of course, encourage our church family to make sure that you participate in the potluck
and that you bring food to share.
It's the only way a potluck works if you bring food to share.
If you bring your whole family with nothing, then I don't know.
We'll have to figure that one out.
We'll send somebody for pizza, I guess.
Nine Chapters a Day Challenge starts in January.
So we want you to be aware of that.
You should have one of these charts there in your bulletin.
So make sure that you are planning on doing Nine Chapters a Day this year with us.
And of course, if you read Nine Chapters every day in the month of January,
then you will read the New Testament in the month of January.
Excuse me.
And you'll notice there that you have two grace period days.
You've got two options to do it.
You can read straight through, which you just go, you know, Matthew 1 through 9,
Matthew 10 through 18, all the way through Revelation 15, 22.
Or there's a split up version as well where we kind of split it up
so you have some longer chapters and shorter chapters, whichever way you want to do it.
But make sure that you start the year off in the Word of God.
And then, of course, we've got other things there for you to look at.
Please don't forget to turn your cell phones off or place them on silent during the service.
I don't have distractions for anybody.
You should have the Christmas gifts for Jesus still there for you.
And you're welcome to do that through the end of the year.
So make sure that you take a look at that and participate with that if you haven't already.
If you look at the back of the bulletin, birthdays and anniversaries for the month of December,
we have Miss Johnny and tomorrow's anniversary was on December 26th.
And then today is Nami Hur's birthday, December 27th,
where the Ron and Christina Kolak have an anniversary and Malia has a birthday as well.
Later this week, we have Penelope Pompa and Miss Diane DiPasquale have a birthday on December 30th.
Praise Report, Money Matters, all of those things are there for you to look at.
And I do have one baptism certificate to hand out quickly tonight.
So I'll go ahead and read this. It says certificate of baptism.
This certificate is awarded to Everly Usher in recognition of her baptism on the 24th day of December of the year 2023,
presented by Verity Baptist Church with the verse there.
Romans 6, for therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death,
not like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of Father, even so we should walk in newness of life.
We have pictures here for Everly to remember the day of her baptism.
And let's go ahead and give her a round of applause.
All right, good. Let's go ahead and take our song books tonight.
We're going to go to page number 356. Page number 356.
And we're going to sing I Must Tell Jesus as we prepare to receive the offering this evening.
I must tell Jesus all of my trials.
And let's go ahead and sing it out on the first.
I must tell Jesus all of my trials.
I cannot bear these burdens alone.
In my distress he kindly will help me.
He ever loves and cares for his own.
I must tell Jesus.
I cannot bear my burdens alone.
I must tell Jesus.
Jesus can help me, Jesus alone.
Good. Page number 356. Sing it out on the second.
I must tell Jesus all of my troubles.
He is a kind, compassionate friend.
If I but ask him, he will deliver.
Think of my troubles, quickly and end.
I must tell Jesus.
I cannot bear my burdens alone.
I must tell Jesus.
Jesus can help me, Jesus alone.
356. Sing it out on the third.
Tended and tried, I meet a great Savior.
One who can help my burdens to bear.
I must tell Jesus.
Be all my cares and sorrows will share.
I must tell Jesus.
I cannot bear my burdens alone.
I must tell Jesus.
Jesus can help me, Jesus alone.
Oh, how the world to live all abhors me.
Oh, how my heart is tempted to sing.
I must tell Jesus.
And he will help me.
Over the world, the victory to win.
I must tell Jesus.
I cannot bear my burdens alone.
I must tell Jesus.
Jesus can help me, Jesus alone.
Amen. Good singing.
I hope the guys come up and help us with the offering at this time.
And let's go ahead and bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Heavenly Father, Lord, we do love you.
We thank you for allowing us to gather together on a Wednesday night.
Lord, we pray that you bless the offering, the gift, and the giver.
We pray that you bless the time set aside for prayer and, of course, for the preaching of your word.
In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
We pray.
Amen.
Amen. All right. Well, let's go ahead and take our prayer sheet tonight.
We'll take some time to go through our prayer list.
If you did not receive a prayer sheet on your way in, raise your hand, and one of our ushers can get one for you.
If you need a prayer sheet, just put your hand up, and we will get one for you.
And, of course, I want to remind you that the way you add a request to the prayer sheet is through your communication card.
On the back of the card, there's a place for you to write down a request.
Make sure you mark whether it's private or public.
If you mark private, then only I will see it. If you mark public, we'll put it on the prayer sheet.
If you don't mark it, we'll do our best to figure it out. We usually don't add those.
The prayer requests are added in the order that they are received, and they are removed after a couple of weeks.
So if you'd like for it to be there longer, you'll have to fill out another communication card.
And let's go ahead and take these requests through the Lord in prayer.
I'll pray out loud, and I ask that you would pray along in your mind and your heart with me.
Let's pray together.
Heavenly Father, Lord, we come to you tonight with these requests from our church family.
Lord, we begin with these requests regarding friends and family.
We pray for Brother Mike praying for his family, and Miss Denise also praying for her nephew, Stephen,
and Miss Teresa praying for her family to get back in church and that you would restore her family,
and Brother Salvador praying for his family as well.
Lord, we ask for all these individuals. We pray that you would help their families and be with them.
Lord, we ask that you would guide them and that you would minister to them in their lives.
Then, Lord, we pray for these that have requests regarding salvation.
Miss Natalie praying for the salvation of her husband and family.
Brother Ron praying for his mom and his family's salvation as well.
Miss Janice praying that her family would get saved.
Miss Christine Ortiz praying for her family's salvation as well.
Miss Docma praying for her daughter and her family's salvation.
Lord, we ask for these individuals. Lord, we pray that you would help them and be with them.
We ask that your Holy Spirit would work in the lives of these people, Lord, that you would draw them to you.
And, Lord, we pray that a soul winner would be able to communicate the gospel clearly to them, Lord,
and we ask that these individuals, that whatever can be done would be done, that they might be saved, Lord.
We also pray for these that have health requests.
Miss Michelle Scott praying for her coworker, Devin, and for his positive results from medical testing,
and Miss Christine Ortiz praying for her sister, Judy's health, and also for her healing as well.
Brother Salvador praying for his health. Miss Docma praying for her pain.
Brother Edgar, Miss Selena, of course, continuing to pray for Yaretsi to be healthy and happy.
We're praying for our missionary, Dave Gomantella's wife, Miss Angel, who's praying for her as she's dealing with breast cancer.
Lord, we ask for these individuals. We pray that you would be with them, Lord.
We ask that you would put your healing hand over them.
We ask that you would give wisdom to the doctors and nurses that are dealing with them, Lord.
We ask that if they're receiving medicine, if they're receiving care, that it would be effective, that it would work.
Lord, we ask that you would heal and that your will be done in the lives of these individuals.
We also pray, Lord, for the ladies in our church that are expecting Miss Victoria, Miss Julissa, Miss Ruby, Miss Taylor, Miss Esther.
We need to give them all healthy pregnancies with no issues and no complications.
Lord, we also pray for these that are praying for their faith and walk with you.
Miss Christina Ortiz, Brother Salvador, asking for their walk with you.
Also, Brother Salvador, for his finances and work.
Lord, ask that you would help him and bless him.
And then, Lord, we pray for these that have unspoken requests.
Miss Denise Anderson and Miss Natalie and Miss Michelle Scott, Miss Kimmy, Miss Victoria,
Brother George, Brother Salvador, and Miss Docma, all having unspoken requests.
And, Lord, you know what they're asking for. You know what their petitions are.
We ask that you would answer according to your will.
And, Lord, we pray for our church as well, for our prison ministry and the families that are being affected with that.
Lord, we pray that you would allow that ministry to grow, help us reach more people that are in prison, Lord, every month.
There are inmates that get sermons from our church, from the ministry here, Lord.
And we just pray that you would help those to be effective and that they would help them to be ministered and to be discipled.
Lord, of course, we pray for the workdays.
We ask that you would help us to be able to get everything done that we need to get done.
Lord, help us to be able to move into the new property soon.
We pray for our missions work in the Philippines and Manila from Pongan Bikol.
And we pray, of course, for Pastor Stuckey and his family that you continue to bless them and help them in their ministry there.
And we ask for our church here in Sacramento.
Lord, we pray that you would continue to bless our church and help our church.
Lord, we pray that you would guide us and strengthen us, that you would provide for us.
And then, of course, Lord, we pray that you would meet with us tonight as we take another portion of scripture and as we look at it together and study it together.
Help us to draw close to you. Help us to learn from your word.
Help us, Lord, to be able to mature in our Christianity.
We love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Please open up to Hebrews 6.
Hebrews chapter 6.
If you do not have a Bible, please raise your hand and Anashe will bring you a Bible.
Hebrews chapter 6. Just keep your hand up and Anashe will come by.
Hebrews 6. We'll read the entire chapter as our custom.
Hebrews 6 being verse number 1.
Therefore, relieving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection,
not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
And this will we do, if God permit.
For it is impossible for those who are once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift,
and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
and have tasted of the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come.
If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance,
seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
For the earth which drinketh in the rain, that cometh oft upon it,
and bringeth forth herbs, meat for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God.
But that which bear thorns and briars is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned.
But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.
For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which you have showed toward his name,
and that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister.
And we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end,
that he be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, saying,
Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.
And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
For men rarely swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.
Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel,
confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie,
we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.
Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil.
Whether the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, meet an high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this evening. God, I thank you for your word, and for our church.
I say please meet with us tonight. I say we other pastors to strengthen them, and from your spirit.
We love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen. Alright, we're there in Hebrews chapter number six.
And Hebrews chapter six is a little bit of a controversial chapter.
It's a chapter that I probably get more questions about Hebrews six than almost any other chapter.
And I hate to disappoint you, but I'm not going to get to this part of the chapter that you want me to get to.
The controversial part starts in verse number four, and I'm going to cover that next week.
We're going to deal with the first three verses tonight.
And the reason for that is just because I want to make sure you get the thorough teaching and context
before we get into something as deep as that.
And not only that, but it's my way of making sure that you're here on the first week of the year.
So I might not even live stream it. You just might have to show up for it and post it later or something.
But we'll get to that next week.
I do want us to cover the first three verses that are foundational for the context of verse four and so on.
I want you to notice there in Hebrews six and verse one, I want you to just notice the first word.
It says therefore. And the word therefore means for this reason.
I want you to understand that this is a connecting word.
This word therefore connects us actually back to chapter number five, which we dealt with last week.
And of course when the Apostle Paul, and I believe Paul wrote the book of Hebrews,
but when the writer of the book of Hebrews wrote Hebrews as the rest of scripture,
there were no chapter divisions. There were no verse divisions.
We're thankful for the chapter divisions and the verse divisions. They're there for our benefit.
But when he was writing to the Hebrews, he was just writing.
It's not like he ended chapter five and said, okay, this is chapter five. Now I'm starting chapter six.
This is all one letter, one epistle that's being written to them.
And the word therefore is connecting us back to chapter five.
So to really get the context, I'd like you to go back to chapter five just real quickly.
Look at verse number 11. And I want you to notice what the writer of Hebrews says here in Hebrews chapter five and verse 11.
He says, of whom we have many things to say. And I'm not going to take the time to go through.
We spent several weeks in chapter five, but I will just remind you that he is speaking about Melchizedek.
And I'm going to preach. We're going to go through and learn everything that there is to learn about Melchizedek in chapter seven and so on.
But he's brought up Melchizedek as the high priest and as connected to Jesus being a high priest.
And he's talking about Melchizedek, but he's talking about the priesthood.
And he's telling these individuals, and if you've been with us on Wednesday nights as we've been studying the book of Hebrews,
you know that the book is written to Jewish believers, first century Jewish believers,
people who were ethnically descendants of Abraham.
And the purpose of the book is to help them transition from the Old Testament into the New Testament,
to help them understand how to correlate the Old Testament and the New Testament.
And he's about to explain to them some deep things regarding the high priest and the high priest system
and how to transition out of the Old Testament high priest system into the New Testament high priest system.
And that's what he's referring to in verse 11 when he says,
of whom we have many things to say and hard to be uttered.
He said, I've got some difficult things to explain to you.
I've got some things that are going to be hard for you to hear, seeing you are dull of hearing.
Now we dealt with these verses last week, but I just want you to see them for context.
He says to them, for when the time ye ought to be teachers,
ye have need that one teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God.
He said, you are to the place in your Christian life where you ought to be a teacher,
but instead you've reverted, you've backslid,
and you are in the place where you need someone to teach you again,
the first principles of the oracles of God.
He said the first basic things, you need somebody to teach you these things,
and are become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat,
for everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.
But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age,
even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
Now we dealt with all that last week, but I just want you to be reminded of that,
because that is a context in which we then go into verse number one of Hebrews chapter six.
He said, based off all that, based off the fact that I have many things to say,
and they are hard to be uttered, based off the fact that you ought to be teachers,
but you have need that one teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God,
based off the fact that you are using milk because you are unskillful in the word of righteousness,
and you need to develop yourself and by reason of use begin to feast on the strong meat of the word,
having your senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
He says, based off all that, verse one, therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ,
let us go on to perfection.
Now that word there, perfection, or to perfect in our King James Bible,
does not mean to be without sin or to be sinless.
It means to be complete. It means to be whole, to become mature.
And he says, he's saying, because of these things, he says,
therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on to perfection.
He said, I want you to mature, and I want you to go on to perfection,
not laying again, notice these words, the foundation of.
Now in verse one, he said, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ.
In Hebrews 5-12, he said, the first principles of the oracles of God.
And then in verse one, he also says, not laying again the foundation of.
And then what he does is he lists six different things,
which he is listing off as, these are just foundational,
first principles of the oracles of God, principles of the doctrine of Christ.
He said, these are just the foundational milk of the word things.
And he said, I want you to understand those,
and then we're going to leave those together, and go on to perfection.
Now notice what he says there in verse one.
He says, not laying again the foundation of.
Then he gives us these six different foundational truths.
He says, repentance from dead works, and faith towards God,
of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying of hands,
and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
Then he says there in verse three, and this will we do if God permit.
Now the writer of Hebrews felt the need to say, look, you need to be secure.
You need to understand these six things.
These are the foundational things, and if you understand this,
then we'll be ready to move on to the meat of the word,
and to deeper things, and the things he begins to talk about in Hebrews 6,
and verse number four, and so on.
And I thought, instead of just going through these quickly,
that we would spend one night going through these in a thorough way,
because he says you need to understand these things if you're going to move on.
And what all the YouTube Christian out there want is to just move on to the controversial part,
and don't want to take the time to lay these foundational truths.
I think it's good for us to be reminded over and over again,
just what we believe and what the Bible teaches.
And he gives us these six foundational truths, and he actually pairs them for us.
There's six of them, but they are in three different pairs.
I want you to notice them there in verse one.
Repentance from dead works, and of faith towards God.
Those are connected as dealing with one thing.
Those are one pair.
Then we have another pair there in verse two,
of the doctrine of baptisms, and of the laying on of hands.
Those are connected together.
Those are paired together.
And of the resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
Again, these are connected together, because they have to do with each other.
And what I'd like to do tonight is for us to go through these as quickly as possible,
and talk about these six things, because here's what I worry about.
What I worry about is that one day you're going to die and go to heaven,
and you're going to have a conversation with Paul or whoever wrote the book of Hebrews,
and you're going to be discussing Hebrews chapter six,
and you're going to want to get to verse four, and he's going to say,
what about verse one?
And he's going to ask you, what do you think about these doctrines of the baptisms?
Or what do you think about this repentance from dead works and faith towards God?
And you're not going to know what he's talking about.
And then he's going to ask you the question, the question that keeps me up at night.
He's going to ask, well, what church did you go to?
And so I want to make sure you understand these things.
I want you to be the most educated church in this town.
So keep your place there in Hebrews chapter number six,
and I'd like you to find 1 Kings chapter number eight.
In the Old Testament, if you can find the one and two books,
they're all clustered together, 1 Samuel, 1 Kings, 1 Chronicles.
We're going to look at a lot of scripture tonight,
so I want you to be ready to move quickly.
It's Wednesday night, it's Bible study night, so we're going to have to study the Bible, all right?
1 Kings chapter eight, and let's talk about these foundational doctrines.
I know you want to get to the Hebrew six, the controversial part, and we'll get to it.
Don't worry.
But before we get there, we need to make sure you understand these things.
So let's look at pair number one, repentance from dead works and faith towards God.
Now, this is something that we actually talk about a lot,
and it's good, but it's good for us to be reminded.
And also, in a church like ours, there's always new converts and new believers and people.
We should not just assume that everyone here knows everything
because everyone is at different stages of their Christian life,
so it's good not only for you that are maybe mature to be reminded of these things,
but we also have to remember that there may be newer people amongst us,
and they need to hear these things maybe for the first time.
And here, the writer of Hebrews says, look, these are foundational truths.
These are principles of the doctrine of Christ.
These are principles of the oracles of God.
He says the first is repentance from dead works and faith toward God.
So let's talk about these foundational doctrines, repentance from dead works and faith towards God.
And I want to begin by just biblically defining for you the word repentance.
The Bible tells us that repentance, and look, any one of these things we could spend a whole sermon on,
and I'm not going to do that, of course.
I've done that. We've done that in the past.
Tonight, we're going to go through these as quickly as we can.
But the Bible is very clear about the fact that the word repentance means to change your mind.
And the reason I'm having you go to 1 Kings chapter 8 is because I think here's a great just proof verse.
We could look at a lot of passages and look at a lot of different verses on it.
I don't want to take the time to do that.
But here's a verse that just proves this quickly, 1 Kings 8 and verse 47, 1 Kings chapter 8 verse 47.
The Bible says this,
Yet if they shall, I want you to notice this word, bethink, bethink.
The word bethink is an older word. We don't use it a lot today.
But it means to reflect upon or to reconsider.
When somebody bethinks something or is bethinking someone something,
it means that they are reconsidering. They are reevaluating.
They are reflecting upon it and looking at it again.
And here's what the Bible says. It says,
Yet if they shall bethink themselves in the land, whether they were carried captive.
And he's talking about the children of Israel being carried captive, of course, as the judgment of God.
And God is saying, but if they bethink, if they reflect upon,
if they reconsider themselves in the land, whether they were carried away, and repent.
I want you to notice that these words are being used interchangeably, repent and bethink. Why?
Because the Bible is clear about the fact that the word repent simply means to change your mind.
That's what the word means.
Now, in our day and age, people will add these definitions to words in the Bible that are not in Scripture.
For example, today, most churches teach that the word repent means to turn away from sin.
But the Bible does not teach that.
In fact, you can never find, nowhere in the Bible can you find this phrase, repent of your sins.
Now, do we as Christians, should we repent of our sins? Absolutely.
But the word repent simply by itself does not mean to repent of your sins.
And here's the biggest proof of that, is that the person who repents the most in the Bible is God himself.
Over and over and over, we're told that God repented and God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way.
And God repented of the evil that he said that he would do unto them, and he did it not.
Now, did God repent of sin? No, God is not a sinner.
But oftentimes, God changes his mind.
He's going to do something, judge someone, kill someone, do some sort of judgment upon someone.
And then, because maybe they repent, then he repents.
And the word repent simply means to bethink, to reconsider, to look at something and reevaluate it and say,
Now, I'm going to change my mind. Repentance is a change of mind, not necessarily having to do with sin.
Now, can it be applied to sin? Absolutely.
But it doesn't always have to do with sin.
And of course, here specifically, go to Matthew, if you would, Matthew chapter 21.
First book in the New Testament, should be fairly easy to find, Matthew 21.
Do me a favor, when you get to Matthew, put a ribbon or a bookmark or something there,
because we're going to leave Matthew and we're going to come back to it throughout the sermon,
and I want you to be able to get to it quickly, Matthew chapter 21.
And once you find that, go back to Hebrews chapter 6,
because I want you to notice what the writer of Hebrews says there at the end of verse 1.
He says, Repentance from sin. Is that what he said?
It says, Repentance from dead works.
So here, in this specific example, we're not talking about repenting from your sin,
we're talking about repenting from works.
And he calls them dead works.
Now, he says repentance, which we know is to be think, to reconsider, to reflect upon.
And look, you cannot argue that.
If you look up every time the word repentance comes up in the Bible,
you cannot get away from the fact that the word repent means to reconsider, to change your mind.
If you look at the underlying Greek word, it means to change your mind.
That's what the word means. People have added this definition.
Every time you see the word repent, it means repent of your sins, but that's not true.
Now, the Bible uses this term repentance, and then this is what the writer of Hebrews says.
He says, from dead works, and of faith towards God.
And of course, what we're talking about here specifically is repentance for salvation.
And he says, when it comes to, because remember, this is milk of the word.
This is foundational, just first principles of the oracles of God.
What can be more first principles than salvation?
He says, look, we need to make sure we understand repentance from dead works and of faith towards God.
So we know that repentance is a change of mind.
And then he's telling us it's from dead works to faith towards God.
What is he saying?
He's telling us that when it comes to salvation, what is the role that repentance plays in salvation?
And this is what I think is interesting, that pastors like myself or churches like ours who teach
what the Bible teaches about repentance, and we, look, I'll just clearly state it to you.
We do not teach and we do not believe that anyone has to repent of their sins in order to be saved.
If you are trusting in the fact that you stop sinning to go to heaven, let me let you in on a little secret.
You're not saved.
You're trusting in your works.
And it's interesting to me that my believing Christians will say, or supposed my believing Christians will say,
oh, I don't believe in works.
I don't believe you have to work your way to heaven.
And then you ask them, well, what are you trusting in to get to heaven?
Why repent of my sin? Why stop sinning? I stop drinking.
I stop doing this or I stop doing that.
And it's like, well, look, you're not trusting in Jesus.
You're trusting in yourself.
Here he's telling us this is what repentance is regarding salvation.
Now let's look at it in Matthew 21.
Here's how Jesus said it.
Matthew 21 verse 32.
For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye, notice this word, believed him not.
Whenever we're talking about salvation, that is the key word, believe.
Faith.
That's the key. That's salvation.
What must I do to be saved?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness.
For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not.
This is Jesus talking to the Pharisees who did not believe, right?
Ye believed him not is what Jesus is telling the Pharisees.
He says, but, he's going to compare and contrast, but the publicans and the harlots,
the publicans and the harlots did something that the Pharisees did not do.
What did the Pharisees not do?
They believed him not.
What did the publicans and the harlots do?
They believed him.
Look at the verse.
For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not.
But the publicans and the harlots believed him, and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not.
Now Jesus is telling the Pharisees, you should have repented.
Is he telling them, you need to stop drinking.
Now look, I'm against drinking.
I don't believe in drinking at all.
I don't think it's right for a Christian to drink at all, period.
Not even one drop, not even wine.
But I don't think someone has to stop drinking to be saved.
You say, what do you think somebody needs to do to be saved?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ!
So Jesus says, look Pharisees, you should have repented.
Now notice what he says, Matthew 21, 32.
For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not.
But the publicans and the harlots believed, and ye, when ye had seen it, when ye had seen what?
That the publicans and the harlots believed, he said, and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward.
Notice, that ye might believe him.
So according to Jesus, he's telling the Pharisees, you should have repented.
You didn't believe, and you should have repented, but ye repented not afterward, that ye might stop drinking.
Is that what he says?
That you might stop smoking. Is that what he says?
No, he says, if you would have repented, you would have gone from believing not to believing.
You know why? Because repent means to change your mind.
He said, you didn't believe, and if you would have repented, you would have believed.
When ye had seen it, ye repented not afterward, that ye might believe him.
When you see the word repent associated with salvation, that is the only thing you will ever see.
So what is the role that repentance plays in salvation?
You're there in Matthew, go to Mark chapter 1.
Matthew, then the book of Mark, Mark chapter 1.
It is this, because people will hear me preach, and they'll say, you guys don't believe in repentance.
And it's like, no, you're a liar, and you're not paying attention.
We just don't believe you have to repent of your sins to be saved.
We actually believe the Bible when it says it's not of works, it's a free gift.
It's by grace, through faith, not of works, lest any man should boast.
We actually believe that.
What role does repentance play in salvation?
Well, here's the role that it plays.
Somebody who does not believe goes from not believing to believing.
They change their mind about what they're trusting in, that's repentance.
And the writer of Hebrews says, repentance from dead works and of faith toward God.
You go from dead works to faith.
It's interesting because today, the religion tells you, you go from repenting of your sins to salvation.
But the writer of Hebrews says, no, you go from religion, from the works.
Look, what is the average so-called Christian out there that's not saved, what are they trusting in?
Their works.
They're trusting in the fact that they got baptized.
They're trusting in the fact that they turned over a new leaf.
They're trusting in the fact that they repented of their sins.
They're trusting in the fact that they did something to earn salvation.
And the writer of Hebrews is saying, you need to repent from those dead works,
and you need to repent and have faith towards God.
Mark 1.15, look at what it says. Mark chapter 1, verse 15.
And saying, this is Jesus speaking, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ye.
Now this is something that's often brought up because people will say, well, look,
the Bible says you have to repent of your sins.
And when people say that to me, I often respond to them, where?
Show me in the Bible.
Show me a verse in the Bible that says repent of your sins.
And then they'll, usually they don't know anything, so they don't take me anywhere.
And if they do happen to have something, they'll take me to a verse,
and there'll be a verse that says, repent ye.
And I'll be like, well, I see the word repent, I see the word ye, but what does it say of your sins?
Well, repent means repent of your sins. No, no, you said that, not the Bible.
Here the Bible says, and saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand,
repent ye and quit smoking. Is that what it says?
Repent ye and stop cursing. Is that what it says? I'm against cursing.
I think if you curse, you should read books and develop your vocabulary and learn some better adjectives.
But I don't think you have to quit cursing to be saved.
And saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent ye, notice it, and believe the gospel.
Because that's all anyone ever has to do to be saved, is put their faith, their trust in Jesus Christ, period, end of story.
Let's look at another one, Acts 19.
I know that you believe this, I hope you believe this,
but these are foundational truths that we have to earnestly contend for the faith.
Acts 19 verse 4, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Mark, Luke, John, Acts.
Acts 19 verse 4, then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance.
I love it when the Bible is its own commentary.
Because people say, whoa, John preached baptism of repentance, or John the Baptist, he preached repentance.
Okay, well Acts 19 is going to tell us what it is that John was preaching.
When John preached, repent, because you can't find a verse where John says repent of your sins.
Then what did he mean by that, when he used the word repent?
Well Acts 19, 4, is the Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost,
giving us a commentary, a heavenly Holy Spirit commentary on what it is that John meant by that.
Acts 19, 4, then said Paul, Paul the Apostle.
Here's what Paul said, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people.
So now Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, is going to tell us what John was telling the people
when John was preaching the baptism of repentance.
What was he saying to the people? That they should quit smoking.
Is that what it says? That they need to clean up their lives.
Now you know what John was saying? John was saying what every preacher of the gospel that's actually saved would say,
that they should believe on him, which should come after him, that is on Christ Jesus.
What was John preaching? That people should believe on Christ.
But he was preaching the baptism of repentance. Yeah, he was telling them,
you need to stop trusting in your Judaism and your works to save you,
and you need to change your mind and put your faith on Christ.
Say, pastor, do you believe that repentance plays a role in salvation? Absolutely.
If someone, look, if a Muslim is trusting in Allah to save them,
they can't trust in Allah and the Lord Jesus Christ.
What do they have to do? They have to repent of trusting in Islam and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
What about an atheist? Can they be an atheist and believe on Jesus,
put their confidence to trust their faith in Jesus at the same time? No, they cannot.
So what do they have to do? They have to stop trusting or stop believing in atheism
and start believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.
What about a Hindu? Can they believe in their Hindu religion and so believe on Jesus,
just add Jesus to the pantheon of God? No, they cannot.
They have to stop believing in that false religion and start believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now we understand that when it comes to the heathen religious,
but let me tell you something, the Catholic who's trusting in their communion
and in their confessional booth to get them saved, they have to stop trusting in their dead works
and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Acts 20, verse 21. You're there in Acts 19. Look at Acts 20, verse 21.
Testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks.
Acts 20, 21. Look at it. Repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
That's what repentance regarding salvation produces.
You turn away from whatever you are believing in and look, when it says dead works,
it's talking about religious works. It's talking about things that people do
trying to get their way to heaven, get themselves to heaven.
They have to repent of trusting that and you say, why is it called dead works?
Well, James tells us that faith without works is dead
and now Hebrews is telling us that works without faith are also dead.
So look, these religious people out there who do a lot of good things,
you know, Mormons do a lot of good things.
Mormons are very honest, charitable, stand-up people.
You know, all those works, those two years they spent on their little mission strip,
all those things they do, they're dead works.
Mother Teresa was probably one of the nicest, most charitable humans that ever lived,
but she was a Catholic and none of those works are going to help her
because salvation is not of works. Those were dead works.
Look, any work you did before you were saved, they're dead works.
They're not going to help you.
And if you're trusting in your works to save you, here's step one.
Repent from trusting in your dead works and put your faith in God.
That's what the writer of Hebrews says.
He says, look, this is foundational.
He said, we got to go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of
repentance from dead works and of faith towards God.
Repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ.
Saying unto the people that they should believe on him which should come after him,
that is, on Christ Jesus.
Repent ye and believe the gospel.
Ye believed him not, but the public in the holidays believed him,
and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterwards, that ye might believe him.
So that's foundational. That's the milk of the word.
Look, if you're trusting in something you've done, then your faith is not in Jesus.
It's still on you.
Well, I'm trusting the fact that I repented of my sin. Then you're trusting in yourself.
And look, Jesus isn't going to share salvation with you.
It's 100% Jesus or it's 100% you. It's not a mixture.
That's why Paul said, if it be of faith, he said, if it be of grace, then it is not of works.
Otherwise, grace is no more grace.
And if it be of works, then it is no more grace.
Otherwise, work is no more work.
Here's what he's saying. If salvation's free, then you can't pay for it.
It's either free or not.
You either get it because he paid for it or you paid for it, but you can't have it both ways.
So he says repentance from dead works and faith towards God. That's foundational.
Milk of the word. You have to have that.
You won't even get to heaven if you're trusting in your works.
Now, what I think is funny is that people will then attack and say,
all right, you're giving people a license to sin.
There's not a church in this city that preaches hard against sin in this church.
We preach hard against sin.
And we probably have the most righteous people living in this city.
But yet, we believe that salvation's free.
And I don't try to keep the commandments of God because I'm trying to earn my way to heaven.
I just love God and I keep the commandments of God because I love Him.
The love of Christ constraineth us.
So we see that repentance from dead works, faith towards God.
Go back to Hebrews chapter six. Keep your place there in Matthew.
And also keep your place in Acts, if you would.
Keep your place in Acts and Matthew. We're going to go back and forth between those two books.
Then here's pair number two. So pair number one, repentance from dead works, faith towards God.
You see how those are connected?
You turn from trusting in your dead works and you have your faith, you put your faith in God.
That's salvation.
Then you got pair number two.
These are not regarding salvation anymore.
Look at Hebrews six verse two.
Of, so it's pair number two, doctrines three and four if you're following that.
Of the doctrine of baptisms and of the laying on of hands.
Now the first pair have to do with us to God word.
Our salvation with God. Repentance of dead works, faith towards God.
The second two have to do with our relationship as Christians amongst ourselves and our walk here on earth.
And the first thing he says, he says of the doctrine of baptisms.
Now do you see the S there at the end of the word baptism?
It says the doctrine of baptisms, plural.
Why does he say baptisms? Because there's more than one baptism.
And these are things you have to cover. These are just foundational.
So what are the different baptisms?
Well let's cover them quickly. Go to Acts chapter number eight.
Acts chapter number eight.
There are three baptisms in the Bible that the Bible talks about.
And I'll try to cover them as quickly as we can tonight.
The first baptism is the most well-known baptism which is the baptism of water.
Baptism of water.
Obviously you know we're a Baptist church. We baptize people.
But water baptism is when an individual steps, if you've seen us baptize here, they'll step into the water.
And it's a ritual. It's a religious ritual. It's an ordinance. It's symbolic.
When an individual steps into the water and the water crosses their body, that is a picture of the cross.
When they are then taken under the water, that is a picture of the death.
When they come up out of the water, that is a picture of the resurrection.
Baptism pictures the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now water baptism, there's a couple of, and I can preach a whole sermon on this.
I'm not going to do that but let me just give you a couple of important things.
Number one, water baptism has to happen after salvation.
This is what the Bible teaches.
Acts 8, 35.
Then Philip, and I don't have the time to give you the context,
Philip has joined himself to the chariot of the Ethiopian eunuch.
The Ethiopian eunuch is reading Isaiah the prophet.
He asked him to understand his vow with Aretas.
He said, how can I accept the man who should guide me?
Philip gets in the chariot and now he's going to start preaching the gospel to him.
Then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus.
And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water.
And the eunuch said, see, here is water.
Now notice the eunuch asks a very specific question.
He says, what doth hinder me to be baptized?
He said, here's some water, what's hindering me?
The word hinder means to stop or to delay, to be an obstacle.
What's stopping me, the eunuch asked Philip, from getting baptized?
Here's the answer, verse 37.
And Philip said, if thou believeth,
if thou believeth with all thine heart, thou mayest.
So according to the Bible, what hinders somebody from scripturally getting baptized?
They have to believe.
Baptism happens after salvation because it pictures the fact that the individual being baptized,
it's a public way of them saying, I believe that Jesus died on the cross,
was buried and he rose from the dead as a payment for my sin.
And I believe, as a result of being saved, that one day when I die and I'm buried, Jesus will resurrect me.
So Philip says, if thou believeth with all thine heart, thou mayest.
And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, verse 38.
And he commanded the church to stand still, and they went down both into the water,
both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized them.
So according to the Bible, when does somebody get baptized? After salvation.
Now let me say this. If you have a modern Bible version, verse 37 is missing in your Bible.
I mean your Bible can't count. It goes verse 35, 36, 38. They don't even change the numbers.
If you've got a modern Bible version, you're looking down at it, you know what I'm telling you is true.
Isn't it interesting that a modern Bible version would have it read this way,
what does hinder me to be baptized, and then apparently nothing because the next verse,
he went down both into the water and he baptized them.
Well no, there's a reason for that. The devil is messing with your modern Bible.
That's why we're King James only, by the way.
Because Philip said, if thou believeth with all thine heart, thou mayest.
Somebody has to believe in order to be saved.
So here's what the Bible teaches about water baptism. It happens after salvation.
There goes your infant baptism. Infant baptism is not scriptural.
If you were baptized as an infant, God bless you, but that doesn't count.
When you were a baby, you weren't saved. When you were a baby, you weren't even condemned.
You have to get baptized after you believe.
Now that can happen at a very young age, especially in a church like ours.
We have very young people get baptized because they get saved young in life,
but it has to happen after salvation.
They have to be able to express the fact that they believe and put their faith on Christ.
So we see that water baptism is after salvation.
But I want you to notice that water baptism is also by immersion.
Verse 38, they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized them.
There goes your sprinkling. There goes your pouring.
That's not scriptural.
The Bible says you have to be immersed into the water.
Go to Matthew chapter number 3. Why is that?
Because sprinkling or pouring messes up the picture.
The picture is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
He was supposed to go down into the water.
He went down into the water.
Matthew chapter 3. Here we have Jesus when he was baptized as an example for us.
Matthew chapter 3 verse 16.
And Jesus, when he was baptized, notice these words, went up straightway out of the water.
Well look, in order to come up straightway out of the water, you first have to go down into the water.
And though the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him,
and lo a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved son in whom I am well placed.
So we see that water baptism happens after salvation, and it's by immersion.
Now that's not the only baptism mentioned in the Bible.
In fact, right here in Matthew 3, we have other baptisms mentioned.
Look at verse 11. This is John the Baptist.
He was called John the Baptist because he came baptizing.
And here's what John the Baptist said.
He said, I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance.
Now we know what that means. We saw that in Acts 19.
Saying unto the people that they should believe on him and should come after him, that is on Christ Jesus.
We literally just saw that.
Here's what John said. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance.
And what he meant by that is, once you repent from your dead works and you put your faith in Jesus Christ, then I baptize you.
Which is what Acts 8 teaches.
But then he says this, But he that cometh after me, referring to Jesus, is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear.
He says, I baptize you with water, but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.
So he said, I'm going to baptize you with water, but Jesus is going to baptize you with the Holy Ghost and he's going to baptize you with water.
So we see the second baptism mentioned in the Bible, because remember the writer of Hebrews says the doctrine of baptisms, plural.
First one, water baptism.
Second one, baptism of the Holy Ghost.
Now what is that? What is the baptism of the Holy Ghost?
Well, go to Acts chapter 1. Keep your place there in Matthew. Go to Acts. Remember we're going to go back and forth between Matthew and Acts.
So maybe you can do that.
Acts chapter 1, verse 4.
And being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem.
But, this is the instructions given to the early church when Jesus ascended.
He told them that, he commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father.
He told them, I want you to wait for the promise of the Father, which saith he, ye have heard of me.
He says, I want you to wait for the promise of the Father. What is the promise of the Father?
Verse 5, for John truly baptized with water. Didn't we just read that?
But ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many days hence.
So Jesus told them, I'm going to ascend to the Father, but I want you to go wait in Jerusalem and wait for the promise of the Father, because John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost.
Now what is this referring to? This is not referring to the fact that we are indwelled by the Holy Spirit of God.
Because I don't have time to take you there. I'm already running out of time.
But Jesus already, after his resurrection, he appeared to his disciples. The Bible says he breathed on them and he said, receive ye the Holy Ghost.
So they already were indwelled by the Holy Spirit of God at this point.
But what they're going to receive now is something different than the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It is the empowering of the Holy Spirit.
Because look, every Christian has the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. They are sealed with the Holy Spirit of God.
But let me let you in on a secret. Not every Christian has the filling of the Holy Spirit.
Every Christian has the sealing of the Holy Spirit. Very few Christians have the filling of the Holy Spirit.
And he said, John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many days hence.
So he said, look, go to Jerusalem. And he says, not many days hence. It's going to happen soon.
Well where does it happen? It happens in the very next chapter, Acts chapter 2. Look at verse 1, Acts 2, 1.
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, and I don't have time to preach on Pentecost, you know, the charismatic out there try to act like this is a bunch of jibber-jabbing or whatever, I don't know.
And obviously the Bible doesn't teach that. The Bible is very clear about that. I don't have time to get into that. I preach entire sermons on it.
When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all one accord in one place.
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it, notice these words, filled all the house where they were sitting.
And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like it was a fire, and it sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost,
and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
So we see here that Jesus told them in Acts 1, 5, I'm going to baptize you with the Holy Ghost. You're going to receive the promise of the Father, not many days hence.
You're going to be baptized with the Holy Ghost. Then we see in Acts chapter 2 that they were filled with the Holy Ghost.
So the baptism of the Holy Ghost is when a Christian is filled with the Spirit of God.
And again, I preach the entire sermons on this. I'm not going to take the time to deal with it now.
But how do you get filled with the Holy Spirit of God? Number one, you ask for it.
Number two, you memorize Scripture. You meditate upon Scripture.
Number three, you sing songs.
Number four, you live a separated life. Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit.
You know, number four, you preach the Word of God.
And of course, the filling of the Holy Spirit, and it's called different things throughout the Bible.
In the Old Testament, it's called the Holy Spirit coming upon an individual.
But it's when the Holy Spirit of God is upon an individual, when the Holy Spirit comes upon them and fills them, and He uses them mightily.
And look, you can tell when a preacher stands up and they're filled with the Holy Spirit of God.
And when another preacher stands up and he's up here talking, you know, Acts 2 or something.
So you have the baptism of the Holy Ghost.
Then there's a third baptism. Let me show it to you quickly. Go to Matthew chapter 3.
And look, it's not some mystical thing. It's just that you are yielding yourself to the Holy Spirit of God.
You're allowing the Holy Spirit to walk with you, and you are being led by the Spirit of God.
That's what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
And most Christians don't have that.
And it's something that you can have and not have. You can lose it. You can get it back.
I preach to whole sermons on that.
Then there's this third baptism, which is the baptism of fire.
Matthew chapter 3, look at verse 11.
I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but he that cometh after me mightier than I, whose shoes I'm not worthy to bear,
he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.
Look at verse 12, whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor.
Notice the purpose of the fire is to purge, to purge his floor and gather his wheat into the garden,
but he will burn up the chaff with unquestionable fire.
Now let me just say this. The baptism of fire is one of these things that is highly debated,
and people have different thoughts on what the baptism of fire is.
Which is interesting to me because the writer of Hebrews says this is basic.
But I think that, you know, we don't talk about it a lot or people don't understand it a lot.
So there's different things, and even over the years I've thought different things about the baptism of fire,
but I'll tell you what I believe about it and what I believe is being spoken of here
when it says that he will baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire,
and he says he's going to purge his floor.
Go to Matthew chapter 20. You're there in Matthew chapter 3. Go to Matthew 20.
And here's what I believe. Well, let me just show you Matthew 20. Look at verse 21.
Matthew chapter 20, verse 21. Matthew 20, 21.
And he, Jesus, said unto her, the mother of Zebedee's children.
I don't have time to get you caught up on the story.
Mother of Zebedee's children comes to Jesus. She says, I want to make a request.
He said, What wilt thou? She said unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit,
the one on the right hand and the other on the left hand, in thy kingdom.
That's a good mom right there. You know, shameless. I mean, just said,
I want my sons to sit on the right hand and one on the right hand and one on the left, in your kingdom.
That's what she, that's her request.
Here's how Jesus responds, 22. But Jesus answered and said,
You know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of?
Now we know that this is a reference to his death because in the Garden of Gethsemane
he said, Let this cup pass from me. Matthew 26, 39.
He says, Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of?
And be baptized with the baptism that I'm baptized with?
They say unto him, We are able.
Now they said, We are able. And notice Jesus says in verse 33,
And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup,
and be baptized with the baptism that I baptized with.
He said, You're right. You're going to drink of my cup
and you're going to be baptized with the baptism that I'm baptized with
but to sit on my right hand or on my left is not mine to give,
but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared to my Father.
He said, You're right, but I can't fulfill your request
because that's not mine to give. God the Father will decide that.
Here's what's interesting. He said, Can you drink of the cup that I will drink of?
Can you be baptized with the baptism that I'll be baptized with?
And they said, We can. We are able.
And he says, Ye shall drink of my cup and be baptized with the baptism that I'm baptized with.
So what is being said here?
Go to John chapter 15, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John.
John chapter 15. I believe that what's being said here is that the baptism of fire
is when God takes an individual and he tries them by fire.
He heats up things in their life.
He tries them with fire. Why? To purge them.
To thoroughly purge his floor.
Remember what Job said? You go to John 15.
Job said this in Job 23, 10, But he knoweth the way that I take.
When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
And of course, Job went through a baptism by fire.
He was tried of God, but it made him better.
The way that you purge or purify precious metals like gold
is you heat it up to remove the impurities.
And Job said, When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
And though the disciples did not go to the cross with Jesus,
we know that they were martyred. History tells us they were martyred.
Jesus seems to indicate that these two brothers are going to be martyred.
And he says, You are going to be tried by fire.
And look, we're talking about spiritual maturity, right?
The idea is that we are to go on to perfection, to maturity.
And this makes sense when you consider these baptisms
because what's the first thing that a baby Christian is supposed to do?
Get water baptized. That's what they're supposed to do.
But then as they grow, what do we want for every Christian?
That they be filled with the Holy Spirit of God.
But then what happens after you get filled with the Holy Spirit of God?
Because what's the purpose of being filled with the Holy Spirit of God?
Why were they filled with the Holy Spirit of God in the Day of Pentecost?
Why were they, every time that the Bible mentions being filled with the Holy Spirit of God in the book of Acts, what did they do?
They preached the gospel.
But right then and there you're like, I wonder, am I filled with the Spirit of God?
Are you a soul winner?
Because if you're not a soul winner, you're not filled with the Holy Spirit of God.
I mean, you're not even right with God.
Much less filled with the Spirit of God.
Jesus said, Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.
So don't tell me that you're following Christ while not being a fisher of men.
John 15, 1. Notice what Jesus said.
I am the true vine and my father is the husbandman.
Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away.
And every branch that beareth fruit, notice, every branch that beareth fruit.
That's a good branch.
The bad branch that beareth not fruit he taketh away.
But every branch that beareth fruit, that's the branch that's filled with the Spirit of God.
It's bearing fruit. What's he going to do with that branch?
He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
So when somebody's filled with the Spirit of God and they start producing things for God, God says, I want to make them better.
So this is the progression of the Christian life.
You're baptized by water physically after salvation.
Then you are baptized, Lord willing, by the Holy Spirit of God as you get right with God and you allow the Holy Spirit to lead you and you walk with God.
You're filled with the Spirit of God.
And then there's the baptism of fire where God purges you that you may bring forth more fruit.
And you, like Job, and I, like Job, can say, when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
So we see this doctrine of baptisms, plural.
But then there's a connection here, and I apologize. I'm going to go a little bit over my time, but I don't know.
If you've got to be somewhere, go.
Hebrews 6, look at verse 2.
Of the doctrine of baptisms and of, notice these words, laying on of hands.
So these are connected, the doctrine of baptisms and the doctrine of laying on of hands.
So he connects these. Now why are these connected? They're connected for a few reasons.
The first reason, go back to Acts chapter 8, is because laying on of hands is associated with empowering of the Holy Spirit.
Or being, or receiving the Holy Ghost.
Acts 8, 17.
Then laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost.
Now let me just say this.
Not every time in the book of Acts did people lay hands on someone for them to receive the Holy Ghost.
We saw Acts 2. Nobody laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost.
We recently saw Cornelius in Acts chapter 10. Nobody laid hands on him, and he received the Holy Ghost.
So it's not like every time someone receives the Holy Ghost in the Bible, they laid hands on them.
But there definitely is a connection between the laying on of hands and receiving of the Holy Ghost.
We see that in Acts 8.
Also, there is a connection with laying on of hands to be healed.
You don't have to turn here. Mark 16, 18 says, they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
Of course, that's something the apostles did.
The laying on of hands for the Holy Ghost, that's something the apostles did.
But there's also the laying on of hands for ordination.
You're there in Acts 8. Look at Acts 13. Look at verse 1.
Acts 13, verse 1.
Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers, and Barnabas and Simeon, that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Menean,
which had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch and Saul.
Verse 2, Acts 13, 2.
And they ministered to the Lord and fasted.
The Holy Ghost said, separate me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work that I have called them.
And when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.
So notice that there's a connection there.
And of course, we've ordained people into the ministry here at our church.
Thirteen years ago, we started Verity Baptist Church.
Since then, we started a church in Vancouver, started a church in Boise, started a church in Fresno, started three churches in the Philippines,
and Lord willing, we'll start more churches over the years.
And whenever we ordain someone into the ministry, I lay hands on them because that's what the Bible teaches.
And there's a connection there, of course, because when we lay hands on someone to ordain them,
we are letting the church congregation know that we are giving my authority and my credibility as an ordained minister of the Word of God to this individual,
but we're also praying that this individual is filled with the Holy Spirit of God as they lead in ministry.
So we see the doctrines of baptisms and laying on of hands.
Then there's the third pair, Hebrews chapter 6. Let's just do this as quickly as we can.
We've got to do this tonight because I want to get to the other thing next week and so do you.
Hebrews 6, look at verse 2.
Of the doctrines of baptisms and of the laying on of hands and, here's pair number 3, of resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.
So here's pair number 3, resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.
Pair number 1, repentance from dead works, faith towards God.
Pair number 2, doctrine of baptisms and laying on of hands.
And then pair number 3, resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.
So let's look at this quickly. Go to John chapter 5.
If you kept your place in Matthew, I know I'm talking quickly. I just have a lot to say.
The average pastor talks really slow because he has nothing to say.
John 5, verse 28. Matthew, and I try not to talk quickly, but I have a lot to cover. I just want to cover this.
Look, you might die tonight. Hopefully not.
If you die tonight, are you sure you're on your way?
But if you get to heaven, I want you to be able to tell Paul, hey Paul, let's talk about these baptisms.
You know, the fire one. I want you to be caught up on these things.
John 5, verse 28. The resurrection of the dead, eternal judgment.
Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming in the way, this is Jesus speaking,
that all that are in the grave shall hear his voice and shall come forth. This is resurrection.
Now notice, he says all. All that are in the grave.
This is one thing that gets overseen sometimes. Everyone's getting resurrected.
All that are in the grave shall hear his voice and shall come forth.
And you're like, oh that's good, everyone's getting resurrected.
Now keep reading. They that have done good unto the resurrection of life, that's the good one, that's the rapture,
and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation.
So the resurrection of the dead is something we need to be aware of because of the fact that everyone is going to be resurrected,
some to the resurrection of life and some to the resurrection of damnation.
Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. In fact, just go to Revelation. I'll just read these for you. Revelation chapter 20.
Let me read these for you. The resurrection of life.
1 Thessalonians 4 16. The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout,
with the voice of the archangel, with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first.
And we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
So shall we ever be with the Lord. That is the resurrection of life.
Now he says the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. Why?
Because after the resurrection comes judgment, and as it is appointed unto men, wants to die, and after this, the judgment.
What is the judgment for believers? 2 Corinthians 5 10. We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.
Every believer is going to stand at the judgment seat of Christ.
Now you're not going to be judged for your salvation. You're not going to be there to figure out whether you should go to heaven or not.
If you're at the judgment seat of Christ, you're in heaven.
But God is going to judge your life. He's not going to judge your sins, but you know what he is going to judge? He's going to judge your works.
Now you just said that I didn't have to do works. You're not paying attention. You're already in heaven.
If you're at the judgment seat of Christ, you're already in heaven.
Then what's the works for? Rewards.
Because God wants to acknowledge those who served him.
And I think he wants to publicly shame those who were bums.
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.
That everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he had done, whether they be good or bad.
So we have the resurrection of life and the judgment seat of Christ.
But then there's the resurrection of damnation. They have an eternal judgment as well. It's called the great white throne.
Revelation 20 verse 11. And look, I can preach a whole sermon on any of these subjects.
I don't know. Sorry. Revelation 20 verse 11.
And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heavens fled away, and there was found no place for them.
And I saw the dead. Safe people are never referred to as dead.
And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God.
And the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life.
And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works.
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it. This is the resurrection.
And death and hell delivered up the dead that were in them.
Now why does this happen? It happens because of the fact, remember, we die as believers.
Our bodies go to the grave. Our soul goes to heaven.
Why is there a rapture? Why is there a resurrection?
Because we will spend eternity in a glorified physical body.
So at the resurrection, the body has to come up out of the grave, and we are reunited with our body.
And then this mortal puts on immortality. This corruption puts on incorruption.
And we are changed. We are transformed in the twinkling of an eye, and we are made like Christ.
For the unsaved, when they die, their body gets buried in this earth, ends up in the ocean,
and then also their soul goes to hell.
But at the great white throne, they're going to be resurrected body and soul.
Because remember, the Bible says to fear Him which can destroy both body and soul in hell.
So this is their resurrection. The sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell were delivered up the dead which were in them,
and they were judged. Look at it. Look at it. Notice how this takes us all the way back.
They were judged every man according to their works.
I think I'll take my chances. I'll just trust in my works and see if that gets me to heaven.
If you want to get judged by your works, God says no problem. I can judge your works.
I'll do it at the great white throne judgment.
But every single religious person that ends up at the great white throne and says, did we not prophesy in thy name?
Did we not cast out devils? Did we not do many wonderful works?
He's going to say, depart from me. I never knew you.
Because look, if you think you're going to get yourself into heaven based off your works,
you know what you're going to hear is, there is none righteous, no, not one.
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
You're going to be found wanting.
You're not good enough to get yourself to heaven. I don't care how many sins you repent of.
The only way to get to heaven is to put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, period.
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell were delivered up the dead which were in them,
and they were judged every man according to their works, verse 14,
and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
And whose sword was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
Let's go back to Hebrews chapter 6. Are you caught up now? I hope you're caught up if you weren't.
Foundational, first principles of the oracles of God, repentance from dead works, faith towards God.
Doctrine of baptisms, it's the Christian life. You need to get baptized by water.
Baby Christian, that's the first step. Then you need to get filled with the Holy Spirit of God.
You need to get baptized in the Holy Ghost. Many Christians have never experienced that. I hope you do one day.
And then if you're filled with the Spirit of God, then God might take a liking to you,
and He might purge you that you bring forth more fruit, and He might baptize you with fire.
Those are the trials of life, where He does that to make us better, to make us stronger.
Then there's the lying on of hands, ordination, the empowering of the Holy Ghost, the healing.
And then look, look. You say, the resurrection of the dead, that's foundational? It's foundational, and here's why.
Because you and I need to wake up every day living for the judgment seat of Christ.
We need to wake up every day realizing that this temporal, this physical life, is just temporary.
And I need to live for eternity. There's a judgment day coming. It's called the judgment seat of Christ for the saved.
And this should motivate you to be a soul winner. There's a great white throne coming for the unsaved.
The resurrection of light and the judgment seat of Christ, the resurrection of that mansion and the great white throne.
These are foundational. We need to understand these. We need to believe these.
Now look at Hebrews 6. Look at verse 1. Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on to perfection,
maturity, completeness. Not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith towards God.
He said, look, get this covered and let's not talk about it again.
Now we need to talk about it again because we'll always have new Christians coming in.
But you need to just know what you believe about this, settle it in your mind, and move on.
And of the doctrine of baptisms and on the laying on of hands and of the resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment.
And then I love this little phrase, verse 3. And this will we do. I believe you can be mature.
He said we're going to leave the first principles of the oracles of God if God permit.
And if God permit, don't get all Calvinist on that. That's just, he's just saying Lord willing.
He's saying by God's grace, we're going to move on. And by God's grace, we are going to move on next week.
And we're going to get into some deeper things, some harder things. So make sure you're caught up on these foundational things.
And let us go on unto perfection.
And Lord we pray that you'd help us to be a church that loves the Bible, that loves the word of God, that is loyal to the Bible.
Oftentimes the problem with individuals is that they become loyal to doctrines they've been taught even if they're not biblical.
Things they've been taught even though they're not in the Bible.
And Lord help us to look at our King James Bible and realize that it is the inerrant, inspired word of God.
And help us to just decide if the Bible says it, we believe it. Period. End of story.
And Lord I pray that you'd help us to be these types of Christians. We love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
We're going to have Brother Moses come up and lead us in a final song.
I just want to remind you of course that we've got the workdays, Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
If you can help us with mudding or texturing we would really appreciate your help.
We really think it can all be done. The mudding and texturing, not all, just the mudding and texturing can be done this weekend and that would be great.
That would really help us. So if you can give us your time we would really appreciate it.
And also just don't forget that of course this Sunday is New Year's Eve.
It's the last day of the year so give it to God. Be in church Sunday morning and Sunday night we'll have a special New Year's Eve service.
And you don't have to come to the New Year's Eve service but at least bring some potluck, some food for us and that would be great.
And if there's anything we can do for you please let us know. We'll have Moses come up and lead us in a final song.
Please enter song books page 427.
Page 427. We're going to sing We Three Kings of Orientar.
It's the last Christmas song of the year so sing it out good.
Page 427. Let's sing it out on the first.
We three kings of Orientar
Bearing gifts we traverse afar
Tilled in fountain moor
In mountain following yonder star
Oh, star of wonder, star of night
Star with loyal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to thy perfect light
Page 427 on the second.
Born a king on Bethlehem's plain
Gold I bring to crown him again
King forever, ceasing ever
Over us all to reign
Oh, star of wonder, star of night
Star with loyal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to thy perfect light
Frankincense to offer have I
Incense owns a deity I
Prayer and praising, home and raising
Worshiping God on high
Oh, star of wonder, star of night
Star with loyal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to thy perfect light
Sing it out on the fourth.
Mur is mine, it's bitter perfume
Breathes a life of gathering gloom
Starring, sighing, fleeing, dying
Sealed in the stone cold tomb
Oh, star of wonder, star of night
Star with loyal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to thy perfect light
Sing it out on the last.
Glorious now, behold him arise
King and God in sacrifice
Alleluia, alleluia
Fills through the earth and skies
Oh, star of wonder, star of night
Star with loyal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to thy perfect light
Great singing. Can I please have Brother Luke close us in a word of prayer?
Amen.