Amen. Alright, well we're there in 2 Timothy chapter number 3.
And I'd like you to look down at verse number 16.
2 Timothy 3, 16 is a very famous passage in Scripture.
2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 16 says this,
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God,
and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
And this morning, I began the first of a two-part series here on the subject of separation.
And this morning, we kind of laid the foundation for separation and we learned about the doctrine of separation.
And when we ended this morning's sermon, I just want to remind you,
because we're going to pick up this afternoon's sermon just right where we left off this morning's sermon.
And if you remember, I had the guys come up here and we talked about how separation is not a distance from the world.
Because the problem with considering or thinking of separation as a distance is that the world is waxing worse and worse.
They're getting worse as they go along.
And if we simply keep our distance from the world, we will eventually, you know, be where the world used to be.
So separation is not a distance from the world.
It's not like as long as we're not as bad as the world, we're okay.
Separation should come out of conviction in regards to what we believe and where we stand.
And then we should have standards that guide those convictions.
So what I want to do tonight is help you understand and teach you how to develop some personal standards and convictions for your life.
Personal standards and convictions for your life and for your family.
And I want to begin by just kind of defining some terms and giving you some things.
And if you're able to write notes, I'd love for you to write some of these things down.
But I want to begin with number one and the first kind of point tonight is this.
Let's talk about scriptural principles.
Whenever we begin as Bible-believing Christians and as Baptists—and by the way, a Baptist is a biblicist.
You're in a Baptist church tonight, you know, and you say, why are we Baptists?
Because as Baptists, we are biblicists.
What that means is that the Bible is our authority.
I used to have a pastor who would tell—he used to teach us, you know, when the Bible is your boss, you're a Baptist.
And that's, you know, how it should be.
Now, unfortunately, not all Baptists are doing that, but that's what our foundation—that's where we came from.
So everything we believe must come from the Bible.
And when it comes to separation, we should learn from scriptural principles, principles gathered from biblical teaching.
And that's what we see here in this passage.
If you look at verse 16 again, he says,
All Scripture, all of the Bible, all of the Word of God is given by inspiration of God.
He tells us the things that are profitable for him.
We're going to talk about those here in a minute.
But I want you to notice the result of those things.
Verse 17, that the man of God may be perfect.
The word perfect in our King James Bible is not the same as how we use it today.
Today we talk about something perfect as it's being, you know, excellent or flawless.
But the word perfect in our Bible simply means it's complete, it's entire, it's whole.
The Bible says that all Scripture is profitable to make us, the men of God, the people of God, the women of God, you know, perfect, complete, mature.
Notice what he says, throughly furnished.
The word furnished means supplied or equipped unto all good works.
And we need to understand that where we lay the foundation is the Word of God.
We must be very careful about not trusting our ways or the ways of the world or the ways of men.
Proverbs 14, 12, you don't have to turn there, but the Bible says this,
There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
And if you just simply allow your mind and your life to be guided by what seems good to man,
you know, you're going to end up destroying your life.
And you know, I'm not preaching about this tonight, but a great illustration of this if you want to study it out,
because you know, as a pastor, I've been pastoring now for over eight years,
and I've dealt with a lot of people, you know, tried to help a lot of people and counsel people.
And often I hear people saying like, well, I just think this is right, or I just think this is what God wants me to do,
or I just believe this is how the Lord is leading.
And it's like, yeah, but I'm showing you a verse here that says the exact opposite.
I'm showing you what the Bible says, and it's the exact opposite.
Well, I just think this is what God has for me.
And here's what's interesting.
If you want to learn, you know, how things go when men do that, which is right in their own eyes,
study the book of Judges, and specifically the end of the book of Judges.
Because if you read the book of Judges, you know, you begin most of the book from the beginning till close to the end.
It's just a chronology, a history of the book of Judges.
But once you get towards the end of the book of Judges, you find these two statements.
It's one statement that's repeated twice, you know.
And it says in the book of Judges that in those days there was no king in Israel,
and every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
The first time you see that statement in the book of Judges, I can't remember,
I want to say it's chapter 18 or somewhere around there towards the end, you see that statement.
Then you see the statement again at the end of the book of Judges.
And those two statements kind of are bookends to the end of the book there,
where it's not giving you a chronological history anymore.
It's just kind of giving you some, you know, it's like an appendix.
It's giving you some extra stories about the times of the book of Judges.
And here's what's interesting.
When you start at, you know, in those days there was no king in Israel,
and every man did that which was right in his own eyes, in the book of Judges, when you first see that statement,
and you just start reading from there to the end of the book of Judges where you see the statement again,
you know that you will find the craziest stories in the entire Bible.
I mean, you'll find the most insane stories in the entire Bible, including the Judges 19 story,
which is probably the most violent and, you know, just story that you'll ever read about in the entire Bible, you know.
But all of those stories, you know, every story in between those two terms,
it's just some of the craziest, weirdest, you know, just off-the-wall things.
And you say, why would God do that?
Why would God put that in Scripture?
And I think God just put that little section of the book of Judges in there for us,
and He kind of just book-ended it with those statements,
because He wants us to know, when men do that which is right in their own eyes, this is the result.
There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
So we need to just decide that our guiding principles for life will come from the Bible.
Because here's what you need to understand.
The Bible has the answer for every question you have.
The Bible has the answers for everything you need to know.
I mean, do you believe that?
Do you believe that the Bible will direct you in every area of your life?
Notice there in 2 Timothy 3.16 again, he says,
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable.
Notice number one, for doctrine.
Someone said this, doctrine is what is right.
You know, here we're told that it's given by inspiration of God and it's profitable for doctrine.
It'll tell you what is right for reproof.
Reproof is what is not right.
Reproof is telling you what's not right.
So you got doctrine, that's telling you what is right.
You got reproof telling you what is not right for correction.
That's telling you how to get right.
And then he says for instruction in righteousness, that's telling you how to do right.
And the Bible is telling us here that God can give you whatever you need.
If you need to know what is right, He's got doctrine.
If you need to know what is not right, He's got reproof.
If you need to know how to get right, He'll give you correction.
If you need to know how to do right, He'll give you instruction.
So here's what we need to understand.
When it comes to separation, we begin with scriptural principles.
We begin with understanding the Word of God.
And here's what you need to understand.
This is probably one of the reasons why this movement we call the New Ivy Movement is as successful as it has been.
And this is also probably one of the reasons why the old IFB movement is failing and dying.
You say, why?
Because, you know, the old IFB, I grew up old IFB.
I've been an independent final Baptist my whole life.
And, you know, a lot of the old IFB preaching, not anymore, but back in the days of Curtis Hudson and Jack Hiles and those guys,
a lot of their preaching was good preaching.
Obviously, there's things that we disagree with today.
But a lot of the things that they said were good things.
They said good things.
But you know what I believe is where they failed is they failed to teach the Bible.
If you listen to preaching from the old IFB, I was just, we were just caught a little bit of the preaching from Sacramento this morning.
And Brother Stuckey was preaching.
He was bringing this up.
So, Brother Oliver, it's funny he's bringing that up because I was going to bring it up in my sermon tonight.
But if you listen to the preaching of the old IFB, you know, the Jack Hiles, the Curtis Hudson, those guys, you know, great preaching.
Lee Roberson, those guys, great preaching.
But you know, they're real shallow on the Word of God.
There's not a lot of Bible in their preaching.
And I believe that that's where they failed because they preached a lot of good standards.
But they failed to attach those standards to scriptural principles.
You know, we need to teach our people as pastors and moms and dads need to teach their children, you know, not only what to do, but why we do it.
Not only what our stand is, but where we get that from the Word of God and attach every standard to a conviction and attach every conviction to a scriptural pattern.
That's why at Verity Baptist Church and churches like ours, you know, we give you the Word of God in heavy doses.
We give you a lot of Bible in the sermons because of the fact that we want to attach everything to a scriptural principle.
Now, do me a favor and keep your finger there or put a ribbon or a bookmark there in 2 Timothy.
We're going to come back to that area of the Bible.
But go with me to the book of Daniel in the Old Testament towards the end of the Old Testament.
You find those major prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel.
Right after that, you've got the book of Daniel.
And go to Daniel chapter number 1.
So I'm just defining some terms for you.
We begin with scriptural principles.
Scriptural principles.
You need to make sure that you understand not only what you believe, but why you believe it.
Daniel chapter number 1.
And I want you to look down at verse number 8.
Daniel chapter number 1.
And look down at verse number 8, the Bible says this.
But Daniel, purpose in his heart.
Now in this story, we have Daniel who's been kidnapped from the nation of Judah.
And he's now in Babylon.
And he's there with the rest of the children that were chosen in the captivity.
And they're being forced or they're going to be forced to eat certain things that is prohibited by the Old Testament law.
And I want you to notice what the Bible says here about Daniel.
It says that he purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank.
Therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.
So I want you to understand, we talked about number 1, you know scriptural principles.
But I want you to notice secondly that we must also have solid convictions.
Not only should we have scriptural principles, but we should also have solid convictions.
And here's what I want you to understand.
A conviction is something that grows out of a scriptural principle.
We have a biblical principle as to something that should be done and then we grow out of that.
We bring out of that a conviction, a solid conviction for our lives.
See, Daniel was taught as a young child and obviously he's living during the Old Testament time when they're following the Old Testament Mosaic law.
And he was taught that the law of Moses says, here's the scriptural principle.
The law of Moses teaches that there's certain things you shouldn't eat and certain things you shouldn't drink.
And certain things that should not go into the mouth of a believer.
And Daniel was taught that from the law of Moses.
And out of that scriptural principle, he grew a conviction which told him, I am not going to defile myself with the king's meat.
Now I want you to understand some things about convictions.
Look, in my life and in your life, we better have some convictions that have grown out of some scriptural principles.
We learn the Bible, we learn what the Bible says, but then we develop.
We have some scriptural patterns and we develop some solid convictions for our life.
Now again, I'm just kind of defining some terms for you this afternoon.
But let me give you some thoughts in regards to some solid convictions.
First of all, convictions are not subject to consideration.
A conviction is not something that you put up for questioning.
Notice what it says here for Daniel.
It says that he purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat.
This was not up for debate.
This was not up for question.
This was not up for consideration.
It wasn't like Daniel was there now with Nebuchadnezzar.
Nebuchadnezzar was saying, you're going to eat these things, you're going to drink this wine, you're going to do these things.
And Daniel said, hmm, let me think about that.
See, once you develop, and let me just warn you, not only teach you but warn you,
once you develop a conviction, you need to understand that a conviction is not something that is up for consideration.
It's not something that we kind of just decide on a, you know, basis, you know, just on a, you know,
today might be different than tomorrow, which might be different than yesterday.
A conviction is something that once it's decided, it's done.
We don't bring it up for debate.
We don't bring it up for questioning.
We don't bring it up for consideration.
Again, let me give you an example.
For myself, for me, maybe you, hopefully you, but maybe not you,
but for me, I am a soul winner out of conviction.
Because from a scriptural principle, I can tell you that from the Word of God that God has commanded me to be a soul winner.
I have been commanded by God to go out and preach the gospel.
But you know, for me, that's, for some people, it's just something exciting they do.
You know, because it's just kind of this cool thing.
I'm going to go to this marathon.
There's going to be a hundred people there.
I'm going to go to the Philippines or I'm going to go to Malawi or I'm going to go do this and I'm going to go do that.
And it's an exciting thing.
It's a fun thing.
It seems like everybody else is doing it.
Might as well try it.
But you know, when you do something out of excitement, you may not do it a year later or two years later when it's not exciting anymore.
But you know, for me, I'm just telling you for me, I'm a soul winner out of conviction.
I've just decided this is a scriptural principle and I'm going to go solely because God told me to and it's not up for debate.
So you say, well Pastor Jimenez, what are you going to do when they outlaw soul winning?
Well, here's what I'm going to do when they outlaw soul winning.
I'm going to keep soul winning.
You say, why?
Because I'm a soul winner out of conviction.
So when in the book of Acts, the apostles were told to no longer preach in the name of Jesus and then they were brought before the council and they said,
did not we straightly command you to not to preach in his name and behold he had filled Jerusalem with his doctrine?
Peter stood up and said, hey, we ought to obey God rather than men.
Why?
Because it was a conviction that was not up for consideration.
It's not something we consider.
I'll give you another example and I'll get more into this later in the sermon.
But I go to church out of conviction.
I decided a long time ago, I'm going to go to church when the doors are open in the house of God, I'm going to be there out of conviction.
So you know what?
I don't wake up on Sunday morning and I just, you know, I think to myself, I got to go to church today.
I don't get up on Sunday and my kids don't get up on Sunday and they're like, dad, are we going to church today?
You say, oh, well, that's because you're a pastor.
Yeah, but you know what?
I had that conviction before I was a pastor.
I just do it out of conviction.
So a conviction is something that we don't question.
A conviction is something that is not up for debate.
A conviction is something that has been purposed in our heart and it's not up for consideration.
Now let me just give you an example.
You know, I was talking with some of the guys, we were talking about some of the things that we're doing in Sacramento.
And something we're doing in Sacramento that I'm really excited about is we are going to be broadcasting the preaching of our church on a TV channel down in Sacramento.
I know that makes me a TV preacher.
So I'm sorry about that.
We'll see how long it lasts, right?
But there's a Christian public access channel that is allowing us because, you know, I don't know why, the Lord blinded their eyes, I guess.
But they're allowing us to put our preaching on TV and it's a local thing.
It's a pretty big thing.
I mean, it goes, if you're familiar with Northern California, it goes from Fresno all the way up to the Oregon border.
There's a range where there's a potential of reaching up to 1.5 million homes.
And we're going to be putting our preaching on TV for one hour a week every Tuesday at 7 p.m.
Here's a commercial for you.
Tuesday at 7 p.m. starting this coming Tuesday, the first Tuesday in November.
Now we're excited about that.
And I'm praying that the Lord will allow that to continue and that the Lord will use that in a mighty way.
But you know what?
If they came to me two weeks from now and said, you know what?
You can't be on TV saying the things you say.
You need to compromise your preaching or we're going to take you off TV.
You know what I would do?
I'd just tell them to take me off TV.
Because it's something that, it's a preference I have.
It's something that I think would be nice or good or cool, but I'm not doing that out of conviction.
Do you understand what I'm saying?
I'm not doing that out of conviction.
I'll do it if they let me do it, but it's not a conviction for me.
But there's some things, see, because nowhere in the Bible did God tell me that I have to put my preaching on TV.
But God told me that I better go out soul winning.
So convictions are brought out of, they are grown out of scriptural principles and convictions are not up for consideration.
But there's a second thing.
Well actually, you're there in Daniel.
Go to Daniel chapter 3.
Let me show you another example of this.
Another example of convictions.
In Daniel chapter 3, you have the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
And this is of course the story where Nebuchadnezzar raised up the idol and he's having everybody worship the idol.
Look at verse 12.
It says there are certain Jews whom thou hast set over the affairs of the providence of Babylon.
They're being, you know, snitched on because they didn't bow down.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
These men, O king, have not regarded thee, they serve not by God, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.
And this was their personal conviction.
They weren't going to worship this idol.
Then Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury commanded to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
Then they brought these men before the king.
Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them,
Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?
Do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up?
Now notice Nebuchadnezzar is going to give them another chance.
Verse 15.
Now if ye be ready, he said, go ahead and get ready.
I'm going to give you another chance that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dolcimer, and all kind of music.
He said, the music is going to start back up.
And when you hear the music, he said, get ready because if you fall down and worship the image which I have made, well.
But if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.
And who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?
So here you have Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
They decided they are not going to worship the image.
Why did they decide that?
Well they decided that off of a scriptural principle.
Because the Bible says that we should worship only the Lord.
That we should not worship idols.
So they had a conviction that they're not going to worship this idol.
So when the music started playing, everybody bowed to the idol, they stayed up.
The people go to the king and say, hey Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they're not worshiping your idol.
They're not worshiping your gods.
The Nebuchadnezzar says, I'm going to give you another chance, we're going to have the music play again.
You better bow when it does or I'm going to throw you into the fiery furnace.
I love the answer that comes from Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
Look at verse 16.
They said, the Bible says this, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king,
O Nebuchadnezzar, I love this, they said, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.
They said, we don't have to think about it.
We don't have to pray about it.
We don't have to consider it.
This is a conviction that was drawn from a biblical principle.
It's a scriptural principle and we've developed a solid conviction.
We don't have to think about it.
We're not careful.
We're not mincing our words.
We're not going to worship your idol.
Why?
Because convictions are not subject to consideration.
But let me say secondly, this about convictions, not only are convictions not subject to consideration,
but convictions are not subject to compromise.
Look at verse 17.
Notice what they said, if it be so, and I love the words that they use, our God whom
we serve is able to deliver us.
That song we sing in the hymn book, he's able, he's able, our Lord is able.
It comes from this verse here, but it says, they said, look, our God, because he said
to them, you know, who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hand?
And they said, well, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fire
furnace and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
But then they said this in verse 18, but if not, they said, if God has a different plan,
if God chooses not to deliver us out of your hand, they said, but if not, be it known unto
thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods nor worship the golden image which thou hast
set out.
I just want you to understand this.
Here you say, why does Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego make such a great impact for
God in their culture, in their society?
Why did Daniel make such a great impact for God in his culture, in his society?
Why does any Christian ever make a big impact for God?
It's Christians who live their lives out of conviction.
A conviction is something that's not up for consideration.
We don't think about it.
We make the decision and once it's done, it's done.
Once I decided to be a soul winner out of conviction, that means I'll die being a soul
winner.
Once I decided to tithe out of conviction, that means I'll tithe till I die.
Once I decided certain things out of conviction, once I decided certain things out of conviction,
they're not up for consideration, but they're not up for compromise.
We're not going to compromise on it.
We're not careful about it.
Here's what I'm saying.
There's some things you ought to be willing to die for.
There's some things you ought to be willing to go to prison over.
Now there's some things that are stupid to go to prison over.
There's some things that are not worth us dying over.
You know, I believe that as Baptists, you know, and as fundamental as Baptists, you
know, I believe that we ought to dress nice for church, you know, we ought to dress as
nice as possible.
We have a rule in Sacramento, I'm not talking about the church people, we don't have rules
for the church people, but for people that are on staff or people that stand up behind
the pulpit, you know, we have a rule that when they stand behind the pulpit, if they're
going to read the Bible, if they're going to lead music, if they're going to preach,
that they should wear a shirt and tie.
That's my preference.
I think it's a good preference.
You say, well, why can you prove that from the Bible?
I can't tell you from the Bible where it says that you better wear a shirt and tie.
You say, well, then why do you guys do that?
Why is your preference?
Here's why it's my preference.
Because when you look at every preacher that preaches casually, they're all idiots.
They're all preaching heresy.
And I'm not saying that everybody has a tie on is preaching truth.
I'm just saying, you know, you look at preachers that wear a suit and tie, and you've got some
that are good, you got some that are bad.
But you look at the preacher that has a Hawaiian shirt on and flip-flops on, there's not one
of them that's preaching right.
They're all preaching stupid.
They're all preaching heresy.
That's my preference.
You say, Pastor Meredith, what if they made a law that said you can't preach wearing a
tie?
I'd take the tie off.
It's not worth dying over.
Not worth going to prison over.
Pastor Meredith, what if they made a rule saying you're only allowed to preach out of
the NIV?
Then I'd go to prison over that.
And I'm going to keep preaching out of the King James.
You say, why?
Because some things are a conviction, nothing wrong with preferences.
We ought to have preferences, you got to decide, you know, I like this, I don't like this,
I think this is a good idea, I think that's not a good idea.
But when it comes to convictions, is there anything in your life that is not up for consideration
and you're not willing to compromise on?
They say we're not going to serve the other gods.
Go to Daniel chapter 6.
Let me give you a third thought on conviction.
Not only is it not subject to consideration.
Not only are they not subject to compromise.
But lastly, they're not subject to circumstances.
Our convictions don't change based on circumstances.
We don't believe in, you know, circumstantial ethics, where something might be right in
one circumstance and be wrong in another circumstance.
You know, when it comes to convictions, it's either right or it's wrong, period.
Let me give you an example of this and we find a lot of this in Daniel.
Look at Daniel chapter 6, this of course, Daniel himself, when they passed the law that
he wasn't allowed to pray, verse 6, notice what it says,
Then the president and princes assembled together to the king and said, Thus unto him king Darius
lived forever.
All the presidents of the kingdom, the governors, the princes, the counselors, and the captains
have consulted together to establish a royal statute to make a firm decree that whosoever
shall ask a petition of any god or man for thirty days, save of thee, O king, he shall
be cast into the dead of line.
So they made a law saying, you're only allowed to pray to King Darius.
You can't pray to any other god.
Verse 8, Now, O king, establish the decree and sign the writing that it may be not changed
according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which altereth not.
And of course, we don't have time to go through the whole thing.
The reason they made the law is because they were envious of Daniel.
And they had seen Daniel, remember we talked about this morning, they had seen Daniel,
his testimony, that he was a man of prayer.
And they said, I know what we'll do, we'll pass a law against prayer.
And that'll teach Daniel.
Notice verse 9, Wherefore King Darius signed the writing and the decree.
Verse 10, Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house, and his
windows being opened in his chamber toward Jerusalem, notice what it says, he kneeled
upon his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God.
There were some things in Daniel's life that were not going to be reconsidered or were
not going to be compromised and it didn't matter what the circumstances were.
See, you say, oh, well he prayed when it was legal to pray, but when it wasn't legal
to pray anymore, he didn't change it.
He kept doing what he was doing.
And you know, some people look at the story and say, well, isn't Daniel, you know, why
has he got to open the window and make such a show of it, you know?
But here's what I want you to understand.
Look at the last part of verse 10, As he did a fourth time.
See Daniel did exactly what he had been doing before.
See before when it was legal, before when nobody cared, before when it didn't matter,
he used to open up his windows and pray.
In fact, he did that so much and so consistently that people knew that if they passed a law
against it, that they would be hurting Daniel.
So imagine if Daniel would have all of a sudden now he's closing his curtains, you know, he
wanted to tell people, he wanted to show people, hey, I'm not changing anything.
This is a conviction I have and it's not going to change based on circumstances.
It's not going to change based on, you know, I'm not going to reconsider it.
I'm not going to compromise on it.
Here they outlawed prayer.
The circumstances changed and he said, I'm just going to keep doing what I've been doing.
Go to 2 Thessalonians chapter number 3.
If you kept your place in 2 Timothy, if you head backwards, you go past 1 Timothy into
2 Timothy, 2 Thessalonians chapter number 3, 2 Thessalonians chapter 3.
So we've been talking about these things, we've been talking about scriptural principles.
The Bible says this, but sanctify the Lord God in your heart and be ready always to give
an answer to every man that asketh of you the reason of the hope that is in you with
meekness and fear.
We need to have a scriptural principle for everything that we believe.
And out of those scriptural principles we grow out some solid convictions.
Some things that we say, this is a conviction in my life, I'm not going to reconsider it,
I'm not going to compromise on it, I don't care if the circumstances change, I don't
care what anybody says, this is what I'm going to do and it grows out of a scriptural principle.
But I want to give you a third definition tonight, and that is steering standards.
We have scriptural principles, we have solid convictions, and we have steering standards.
Now what is a steering standard?
A standard is something that regulates your convictions.
A steering standard is something that kind of steers your convictions.
So you have a conviction, but then you set up some standards to help you regulate those
convictions.
For example, I mentioned to you earlier, I am a soul winner out of conviction.
I think there are some of you that are soul winners out of conviction.
You know, it is my conviction to go soul winning.
But then I've set up some standards to make sure that I'm regulating or I'm enforcing
or I'm applying my convictions.
You know, I have a standard that I go soul winning on Saturday mornings.
On Saturday mornings at 10 a.m. we have soul winning at Verde Baptist Church of Sacramento,
and that's my soul winning time.
I also try to go soul winning on Thursdays at 2 p.m. we have another soul winning time
on Thursday, and you know, for myself and for the staff, you know, we want to be there
for Thursday at 2, and then we want to be there for Saturday at 10.
You know, I regulate my conviction of being a soul winner by having a standard that I
go soul winning on Saturdays.
Now look, do I think it's the same to go soul winning on Sunday?
No.
Do I go soul winning on Sunday?
No.
You say, why don't you go soul winning on Sunday?
You know, I preach two times a week on Sunday.
I like to keep my afternoons just kind of open to be able to fellowship with church
people that I see only once a week, and then to kind of review my notes and get ready for
the evening service.
So I choose to not go soul winning on Sundays.
We have about 30 or 35 soul winners on Sunday down in Sacramento every week.
That works for them.
Praise the Lord for them.
I go on Saturday.
They go on Sunday.
Some other people go other days, whatever.
That's fine.
That's fine and good.
Now I think people ought to go soul winning.
When they go soul winning doesn't really matter, but you ought to have a plan to regulate those
convictions.
I go soul winning out of conviction, and I've got some standards for my personal life.
Saturday morning is my time.
Thursday afternoon is my time.
You've got some standards that kind of steer your life or guide your life to help you regulate
and enforce and apply those convictions.
Second Thessalonians chapter three, look at verse six.
Now we command you brethren in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you withdraw yourselves
from every brother that walketh disorderly, notice what it says here, and not after the
traditions which he received of us.
See there are some things that are not a conviction.
They're just maybe a tradition.
And Jesus spoke negatively of the traditions of men, and we'll talk about that here in
a minute.
In this verse we're told there are some traditions that aren't bad traditions.
You say, you know, Lord willing this church you don't have a full time guy who's in charge
of running the services, but one day when you have a pastor that's here full time for
you, you know, hopefully he's going to set up a midweek service, a Wednesday night service,
and a Sunday morning service, a Sunday night service, a Wednesday night service.
I would encourage you to go to all three services.
You say, well, can you show me in the Bible where it says we have to go to church on Wednesday
night?
Okay then do it on Thursday.
You know, I don't know.
You know, can you show me in the Bible where it says to go?
No, you know, but here's what I know.
It's a tradition of independent Baptist to go to church, you know, midweek to have a
midweek Bible study.
I think it's a good tradition.
I don't think it's a bad tradition.
I think there's something to be said for upholding the traditions.
I can tell you this, the people that are saying let's have less church are the liberals.
You know, so there are some things that are not a conviction.
Maybe they're just a tradition, but it's a good tradition.
You should keep it up.
You should keep it going.
It's great.
There's nothing wrong with some good tradition, some standards to help you guide your life,
to steer you in the right direction.
So we talked about scriptural principles.
We've talked about solid convictions.
We've talked about steering standards.
Now let me sort of apply this, you know, and give you some real life applications to
help you gather this.
Go to Hebrews chapter 10.
If you're there in 2 Thessalonians, you're going to go past 1 Timothy, Titus, Philemon,
Hebrews.
I want to give you some, I want to give you just a couple of examples of this.
You say, Pastor Jimenez, why are you preaching this?
Here's why I'm preaching this.
I'm teaching you about principles, scriptural principles, biblical principles.
You learn the Bible.
You grow out of the biblical principles a solid conviction, a conviction is something
unreal.
You say, how do I know if it's a conviction?
You know it's a conviction if it's something that you know you should not reconsider, you
should not compromise on, and it doesn't change based on circumstances.
Once you have those solid convictions, you develop some standards to help you regulate
those, to help you enforce those, to help you make sure you're applying those in your
life.
I believe each and every one of you needs to develop, if you haven't already, develop
some convictions and standards.
Every husband and wife ought to have a talk about these things.
How do you want to raise your children?
How do you want to leave your home for the husband?
You know, as a pastor, you know, I try to have some, definitely preach some convictions
from the Word of God and teach some standards and things like that.
And if you haven't developed some standards in your life, I want you to do that.
So what I want to do is I want to just give you some examples of standards that I have
in my life.
So you know, how does it start?
Well, it starts with a biblical principle, right?
It begins with a scriptural principle.
So let me give you some scriptural principles, all right?
Hebrews chapter 10 verse 25, notice what the Bible says.
Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 25 says this, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves
together.
Now the word assembling there is talking about the church service.
Because a church is not a building, a church is a congregation.
A church is a congregation or an assembly of believers.
In fact, in the Bible, you can see the word church being used synonymously with the word
congregation and also with the word assembly.
And here we're told not forsaking, we're told not to forsake the assembling of ourselves
together.
Here we have a scriptural principle where the Bible says that we should not forsake
the assembling.
I believe the Bible is teaching in this verse that it is a sin and it is wrong to skip out
on church.
Now you know, let me just say this, obviously if you're sick, okay, you know, I don't think
God wants you coming over here and spreading your disease everywhere either, you know.
Obviously if you're sick, you know, use common sense or you know, things happen like that.
But just to decide, I'm just not going to go to church, you know, I believe this verse
is teaching against that.
Now some people will argue that, just, I'll play the devil's advocate.
Some people argue that because I'll say, look, this verse says you shouldn't be skipping
out on the church service.
And people will say, no, no, that verse is not about skipping out on the church services.
That verse is about just quitting church altogether.
So if somebody's getting mad at church and saying, I'm just going to forsake church altogether
and I'm just going to quit on church, you know.
So the question is, is it about skipping out on church services or is it about quitting
church altogether?
I believe it's about skipping out on church services.
Now you can definitely apply it to quitting church altogether.
But here's why I believe it's about church services because notice what it says, not
forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is.
The word manner means custom or habit.
Here's what he's saying.
He's saying some people have the manner, some people have the habit, some people have the
custom of just skipping out on church.
You can't really have a habit of quitting on church because like once you quit on church
altogether, you just do it one time and it's done.
You see what I'm saying?
So here's what he's saying, he's saying some people, they have this habit where they're
just not real consistent to church.
They're just kind of hit and miss.
They just go one week, then you won't see them for a couple weeks.
They go another week, then you won't see them for six weeks.
They go another week, then three months might go by, then they might go one or two times
in a row, and then you won't see them again for a year.
And here he says, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some
is, but exhorting one another and so much the more, so much the more, so much the more.
You know what that means?
That means as you see the day approaching, he's talking about the day of judgment.
God's saying this, as we get closer to the end times, because remember, evil men and
seducers are waxing worse and worse.
What he's saying, as we get closer to the end, we need church so much the more.
We don't need less church, we need more church.
We don't need less fellowship with God's people, we need more fellowship with God's people.
We don't need less preaching on the Word of God, we need more preaching of the Word of
God so much the more as we get closer to the end.
He says not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together.
So here's the scriptural principle, don't skip out on church.
And I'm not talking about you're sick, okay?
I'm not talking about you were on your way to church and, you know, the tire blew out
and you were caught in a blizzard and, you know, whatever, and a bear attacked you.
Okay, whatever.
You know, if it's just like, you know, you were trying to get there and it just didn't
work, you know, if God providentially kept you away, whatever, okay?
But I'm talking about just people who just for no reason, they're just like, I'm not
going to go to church.
I'm just going to skip out Sunday.
You know, here's the scriptural principle, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves
together as a matter of summits.
Let me give you another scriptural principle.
Go to Colossians chapter one.
Colossians chapter one.
Colossians chapter one, if you kept your place in Second Thessalonians, you're just going
backwards from Second Thessalonians, you got First Thessalonians, then you got Colossians
right before that.
Colossians chapter one.
Here's another scriptural principle.
And he is the head of the body, the church who is the beginning, the firstborn from the
dead that in all things, he, talking about Jesus, might have the preeminence.
He might have the preeminence.
The word preeminence means imminent above or before others, superior or surpassing anything
else.
The Bible says here that he, talking about Jesus, is the head of the body, the church
who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things, not some things,
not most things, not, you know, main things, he says that in all things, he might have
the preeminence.
So according to the Bible, here's the scriptural principle.
We should put God first above anything else.
You don't have to turn there, Matthew 633 says this, but seek ye first the kingdom of
God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.
So let's put all this together.
We have some biblical principles here that in all things, he might have the preeminence,
that we should seek first the kingdom of God, that God and Jesus Christ and God's word and
the things of God should come first in our lives.
We have another scriptural principle, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together,
that we shouldn't skip out on church and we shouldn't have the manner or the custom or
the habit of skipping out of the church, you know.
So here's the scriptural principle.
Honestly, I didn't come up with this principle.
This is a principle that was handed down to me from my mom and my dad.
I told you I grew up old IFB.
I've been in fundamental baptism my whole life.
And in our home when I was growing up, in our home we were taught, and this is something
that my parents taught us in their home, and as I grew up and I got married and we had
children, we, you know, took this on in our home now, but you know, something I was taught
growing up is that we don't skip out on church for any reason.
We don't skip out on church for any reason.
We put God first every time.
My parents, I remember as children, they would sit us down and they would teach us, kids,
we put God first in everything.
There's nothing more important than God.
There's nothing that takes priority over God.
And you know, we were taught we don't skip church for any reason.
When I was growing up, we used to play baseball.
We were in Little League when we were growing up.
And you know, I remember being in Little League as a kid.
And you know, we would have a Wednesday night, we were Baptist, so we had Wednesday night
Bible study.
I remember that we would have these Wednesday night games.
And our Bible study on Wednesday night started at 7 PM, and our Little League games started
at 6 PM, and they would go two hours, two and a half hours, or whatever it might be.
And on Wednesday night, we would go down to the park, you know, at 545, and we'd stretch
with the rest of the team, and we'd warm up with the rest of the team, and the game would
start at 6 PM, and we'd play with the rest of the team.
And when it was about 645, we were about halfway through the game.
I remember my dad would say, pack up your bags, let's go, we're going to church.
Did you like that as a kid?
You know, when I was a kid, I didn't really like it that much.
When I was a kid, the other kids would ask me, why do you always leave in the middle
of the game on Wednesday nights?
When I was a kid, you know, pack up, let's go.
And sometimes we'd complain on the car wall, why can't we stay and finish the game?
Well son, we put God first.
Baseball's not more important than God, son.
Not more important than God, son.
See people sometimes, they look at people like me or Pastor Aaron and say, wow, you
guys are making such an impact in your life.
And people often say to me, and I thank God for it, people will say, man, Pastor Jimenez,
you're so young, and you're doing such great things for God, and Pastor Anderson, he's
so young, and you're accomplishing so many things for God.
I wonder if part of that was because we had parents that taught us to put God first.
I wonder if there's something that happened in the mind of an eight year old, and a nine
year old, and a ten year old that had parents that say, hey son, there's nothing more important
than God.
I remember being out on vacation, and we'd go somewhere, and you'd say, we're on vacation,
and we'd get up, and we'd find a church in our area, and we'd go to church on Sunday.
You say, on vacation?
I remember my dad telling me this, we don't take a vacation from God, son.
We may take a vacation from work.
We may take a vacation from school.
We may take a vacation, and look, I think it's good for people to go on vacation.
You gotta go to vacation.
I tell our church people, get away, go on vacation.
But when you go on vacation, go to church somewhere.
Find a church in your area.
I love it when our people go to church on vacation, because they go to some old IFB
church, and they come back, and they're like, I love our church so much.
I'm like, yeah, you remember that.
But here's what I'm saying, you say pastor, and now you're stepping on my toes.
You know, I never understood this idea where people want to come to church, and they just
want to have the pastor agree with everything they say, or everything they do.
They never want to be challenged or rebuked.
Look, if you want that, go to the liberal church down the street.
You want a positive only sermon every week?
Here's what I'm telling you, is I develop, and you say, what do you teach your kids?
I teach my kids.
We put God first in everything.
There's nothing more important than God.
There's no game.
People tell me, oh, pastor, I'm not going to make it to church on Sunday night, because
the Emmys are on.
I mean, they don't send me that anymore.
But I'm like, here's what I think to myself, okay, so the Emmys are more important than
God?
I mean, ask yourself this question.
Ask yourself this question.
When you're trying to decide, should I skip out on church, ask yourself this question.
What would God want me to do?
Does God want me to stay home and watch the Grammys or the Emmys or the Super Bowl?
Or does God want me to go be under the preaching of His word with fellowshipping with His people?
I'm just telling you, these are my convictions.
These are passed down to me from my parents, and I'm passing them down to my children.
I'm just telling you, there are some, and you say, pastor, what if they outlawed church?
I'd go to church.
You say, I'd go to church.
I'd die for that.
It's a conviction.
It's not up for compromise.
It's not up for consideration.
It's not up for debate.
It's not going to change with circumstances.
We're going to go, and look, something we just, I remember growing up, but this is a
phrase that we were told just growing up, not just my family, but other families, when
the doors are open in the house of God, we're going to be there.
And we just do that.
Even if it's not a church service, harvest party, whatever's going on, hey, let's just,
there's something going on at church, let's be there.
Why?
Because Christ, who is our life.
Because the things of God ought to be our life, our life ought to be surrounded by those
things.
So, you know, here's scriptural principle, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves
together, scriptural principles, and all things, he should have the preeminence.
So the conviction that grows out of that is we're going to make the house of God and the
things of God a priority, and we're not going to allow anything to get before that.
And then here are the standards, we choose to go to church whenever the church doors
are open.
It's a conviction.
I'm willing to die for it.
I'm willing to go to prison for it.
Now there's some things I'm not going to go to prison for.
You can't wear a tie.
I'll get rid of the tie.
Maybe I'll get one of those like cowboy ties, you know, with the little string, he'll say,
is this allowed?
You know, I'll get a bow tie, you know.
But there's some things that we're going to die over.
Go to Deuteronomy.
Deuteronomy chapter 22, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.
Deuteronomy 22.
Let me give you another example of this.
And I don't want to overwhelm you with too many things, but let me just kind of give
you another example of this.
Because I want you to understand.
And here's all I'm saying, look, you don't have to take my convictions and my standards
and I don't have to necessarily take your convictions and your standards, but here's
all I'm telling you.
Do you have convictions that have been drawn out of and grown out of scriptural patterns?
Do you have standards in your life?
Do you have standards that help you regulate those things?
Our standard was you don't play ball during church time growing up.
You know, there's certain things we don't do.
We're on vacation where we're not going to take a vacation from God.
You know, what I like about the new IFB movement is, you know, the new IFB movement has taken
it a step further, you know.
Our people, their vacations are like going to the Red Hot Preaching Conference, you know.
So it's like, not only are we not going to take a vacation from God, we're going to make
God our vacation, you know.
So that's even better.
Praise the Lord for it.
Deuteronomy 22, look at verse 5.
Here's a biblical principle.
Let me give you another example.
Here's a scriptural principle.
The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's
garment.
For all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God.
Here's a scriptural principle from the Word of God.
A woman should not wear that which pertains to a man, and a man should not put on a woman's
garment.
God says that there are some things that women wear that men ought not wear.
There are some things that men wear that women ought not wear.
And I don't have time to develop this whole thought, but you know, if you study the rest
of the Bible, it's very clear that in the Bible, men wore pants.
They wore britches, is what the Bible says.
You can look up this in the Bible, if you want to look it up in your King James Bible.
And the King James Bible is not spelled B-R-I, but it's spelled B-R-E-E-C-H-E-S, britches.
But it's britches, talking about pants, you know.
It's also called hosen, which is kind of a Germanic type word, talking about pants.
In the Bible, you only see men wearing pants, and of course, for centuries, you know, even
in the United States of America for a long time, men wore pants, women wore dresses,
and that was based off of this principle right here.
This biblical scripture right here.
Women shall not wear that which pertains unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's
garment, for all that do so are abominations of the Lord thy God.
Okay?
This is what the Bible says.
The biblical principle, women should wear pants, men should wear dresses.
Good night.
Not that.
The opposite of that.
It's a TV preaching, it's already, it's already started.
The opposite of that.
Good night.
Go to Exodus 28.
Women should wear, what did I say, dresses.
There you go.
And men should wear pants.
Exodus 28.
Man, I'm already becoming a liberal.
Exodus 28.
You're there in Deuteronomy, just head back Numbers, Leviticus, Exodus.
Exodus 28, look at verse 42.
Here's another scriptural principle.
Exodus 28, verse 32.
And thou shalt make them linen breeches.
Right?
That's what I was telling you.
Only men wear breeches in the Bible.
And thou shalt make them linen breeches to cover their nakedness.
Now, don't you notice what the Bible calls nakedness?
From the loins even unto the thighs they shall reach.
Now the loins, without getting too descriptive, is your, is basically your reproductive organs.
Okay?
And it says that God wants you to cover that from your loins to your thighs.
Now it's saying to cover all of that.
From the top of your loins to the end of your thighs, that is considered your nakedness.
In Isaiah 47 and verse 2, you don't have to turn there, but in verses 2 and 3 it says
this, take the millstone and grind meal, uncover thy logs, make bare the lake, uncover thy
thigh, pass over the rivers, verse 3, thy nakedness shall be uncovered.
So he said your nakedness is going to be uncovered when you uncover your thigh.
So here's what I want you to understand.
In the Bible, your thigh is your nakedness.
God says that when you show your thigh, you're showing your nakedness.
So what can we learn from that?
Well, what you learn from that is that when you're wearing a miniskirt, ladies, or shorts,
you know, ladies and in the culture unfortunately we live in, men, you know, too, you know,
when you're showing your thigh, you're showing your nakedness.
That's what the Bible says.
So here's a scriptural principle.
Men should dress different than women.
Women should wear dresses.
Men should wear pants.
And here's another scriptural principle.
Your thigh is your nakedness.
So from those scriptural principles, out of that grows a solid conviction.
This is a conviction that I have, that my wife has, that we have for our daughters is
that they ought to wear dresses that cover their thigh.
Dresses down to cover their entire thigh.
You say, where do you get that from?
I get that from the Word of God.
It's a scriptural principle that was developed into a solid conviction.
Now let me tell you something.
For me, ladies wearing dresses, and for my wife, and by the way, my wife was saved when
she was 17 years old.
When my wife, you know, I met my wife, I gave her the gospel and she got saved.
When I met my wife, we were 17 years old, working at Subway, she was an atheist.
She was in college.
She graduated early.
She was in college.
She was an atheist.
It took me about three months to get her saved, give her the gospel many, many times.
And when my wife got saved, this was before we ever dated or anything like that, she started
reading the Bible, started going to church.
She developed all these convictions on her own.
She gave up her pants on her own.
She started soul winning on her own, all those things, and eventually we got married and
things like that.
But you know, we have a conviction, and I'm saying that to say this, that it's not me
imposing on her.
This is her own conviction.
Now as a leader in the home, I don't think anything wrong with a man making a decision
and posing it on his wife and children if needed.
I'm just telling you in my home, that's not the case.
This is her own conviction that she has held from 17 years old when she got saved.
You know, we don't believe women should wear pants.
That's not up for debate.
Because people will say to us like, oh well, women shouldn't wear pants unless you go to
the snow.
Well, going to the snow, that's nice when you live in California and you don't have
any snow.
Okay?
But like in Boise, you don't go to the snow, the snow comes to you.
You know what I'm saying?
So like, oh, well when you're in the snow, do you, you know, they wear leggings or whatever,
you know, they figure it out.
They put something on.
Here's what I'm saying, everything we do, everything we do, my wife and my daughters
do it with skirts and dresses.
What if you go horseback riding?
They used to go horseback riding with dresses back in the 1800s.
You can do it now.
What if you ride a motorcycle?
You can do, look, where there's a will, there's a way.
What if your wife, you know, what if she's working out?
My wife works out in dresses and skirts, you know, and like, you know, there's like a certain
material she goes on the treadmill and she's dressed properly and she's dressed modestly.
That's not, and you say, well what if there's something, look, we have not found an activity
that my wife could not do without a dress on, but if we find it, you know, here's what
I believe, if there's an activity she can't put, she cannot do in a dress, then it's just
an activity that a lady should not do.
If there's something that she can't do, then she just won't do it.
But we have found that there's nothing.
We go swimming in, she goes swimming in dresses, we go, you know, we've done everything.
It's been fine.
But that's a conviction that we've developed in our life.
It's not up for consideration.
It's not up for compromise.
It doesn't change with circumstances.
And we've got standards, you know, we've got standards.
And let me just kind of explain this to you and then I'll finish up.
Go to Matthew chapter 15, Matthew 15.
This is a standard we have.
In our home we've chosen, in our home we've chosen that a standard for our girls and,
you know, what my wife does is she wears skirts that go to her, at least to her mid-calf.
She wears skirts that go to her mid-calf.
Now that's just a standard we've chosen in our home.
That's something we're comfortable with.
You know, our girls wear skirts that go to their mid-calf.
You know, they can wear skirts that go down to their ankle.
We don't have a problem with that.
But we don't allow them, and my wife chooses not to wear skirts that go above her mid-calf.
Now that's our standard.
What does the Bible say?
The Bible says that you're supposed to cover your thigh.
So if your skirt, or in your home you decide, your daughters or whatever, to wear skirts
that go down to their knee, then, you know, if that's how you feel comfortable, that's
fine.
You know, let me give you some things to think about.
You're supposed to cover your thigh.
So sometimes you see these ladies, you know, they're like, well I've got it down to my
knee, so it's covering my thigh.
Yeah, but then you sit down and it's like, whoop!
And you're uncovering half your thigh.
Or they've got some slit that comes halfway up, and we can see your thigh.
We can see your nakedness.
Okay?
So, you know, we've chosen to have skirts that go down to their mid-calf.
That's our standard.
Now, you say, well I don't agree with that, I think it needs to go down to the thigh.
Look, the Bible says cover your thigh.
As long as you're covering your thigh, you're following God's Word.
I'm just telling you, we've decided to have you standard.
Our standard may be a little higher than your standard.
That's fine.
You may have standards that are a little higher than our standards in different areas.
That's fine.
My question is this.
Do you have standards?
Do you have things that you can go to and say, from a scriptural principle, we have
grown this solid conviction and we have these steering standards that steer, that guide
the way we dress, the places we go, the things we do.
I don't drive in vehicles with ladies, you know, with my wife or a lady that I'm not,
you know, I'll drive in a vehicle with my mom, you know, I'm driving a vehicle with
my sister or my niece or whatever.
I don't drive in vehicles with ladies I'm not married to, you know, or not related to.
You say, well why is that?
Can you find a verse in the Bible?
You know, I can't find a verse in the Bible that will tell you that, but I can look at
the story of Joseph when he was in the house with Potiphar's wife and the Bible says nobody
else was there.
And then he was accused of something he didn't do.
And I can learn from that and say, man, this is, maybe this is something that as a pastor
at the very least I should be careful about not meeting with ladies without having somebody
else there.
You see what I'm saying?
You say, well that's a little extreme.
Well, you may think it's extreme, I think it's safe.
You say, well pastor, what if you're driving down the street and you see one of the ladies
of your church and her car is broken down and a bear is chasing her, no I'm just kidding.
And she's there, you know, are you just going to leave her there?
I'll call Uber, okay, I'll call a taxi, how about I throw her my keys and I walk the rest
of the way, you know, whatever.
Here's what I'm saying, there's a will, where there's a will there's a way.
People are always trying to throw these, what about this, what about this?
You know, I'll go out there, I'll fight the bear, and I'll just tell her to take the car,
okay, or whatever, you know, I don't know where this bear came from.
I think it's a Boise thing, isn't it like, would it here or something?
Here's what I'm saying is, you ought to have standards in your life and, you know, you
have to go home and develop some convictions and standards.
Some things you'd be willing to die for, that's a conviction, and some things that will guide
what you do, what you do, where you go, what you say, the way you live your life.
Because look, this is how we live a separated life, this is how we live a separated life.
It's something that we purpose in our heart, remember Daniel, he purposed in his heart
not to defile himself with the portion the kings meet.
These are decisions that are made before the circumstances come.
We make the decisions in advance.
You know, you teenagers, you want to be pure, you want to get to the altar of your wedding
day and be able to say that you're pure before God, that you kept yourself pure for your
husband or for your wife, you know, you make that decision right now.
You decide that right now.
You don't decide that when you're in the back seat of a car and things have already gotten
a little heated.
You make the decision that you don't get in the back seat of the car to abstain from the
appearance of evil, to not make provision to the flesh, to make sure that you're not
putting yourself in that bad situation.
Do you understand what I'm saying?
This is how you guide your life through standards that regulate your convictions that are grown
out of scriptural patterns.
Let me just say this.
When it comes to standards, remember we saw the verse in 2 Thessalonians about traditions?
Okay, here's a negative verse on traditions.
Matthew 15 verse 2.
Why do thy disciples transgress the traditions of the elders?
For they wash not their hands when they eat bread.
And He answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandments of God
by your tradition?
Let me just say one thing about standards because we as fundamental Baptists and something
I've noticed even in the new IFB movement is we are very, you know, there's something
about us that we just, we love to fight I guess.
We like to, you know, and nothing wrong with fighting for the things of God, right?
Earnestly content for the faith.
But sometimes we think that contending and being contentious are the same thing and they're
not.
Right.
And you know, something we need to be careful about is about, you know, don't fight over
standards and don't allow your standards, again, not something, not a conviction that
comes out of the Word of God, but something just, you know, like I said, my wife and I,
we decided in our home, our girls are going to wear a dress to mid-cap.
But you know, when we go to church and there's other girls there, little girls there or whatever
and they've got skirts up to their knee, we don't like look down on them and look how
worldly they are.
You know, just be careful about keeping your heart right.
Okay, that's our standard.
That's what we're, that's what we decided.
Someone else may decide to do something else, that's between them and God.
You know, I'm never going to look down at somebody for having a higher standard than
we do.
I'm never going to look down on somebody for having a lower standard than we do.
You know, as long as they're following a conviction, praise the Lord for it.
Now I'm going to preach convictions, I'm going to teach standards, I'm going to give people
examples of standards, I'm going to encourage them to have standards, but you know, just
be careful of not becoming this type of Christian that says, well, we do this and they don't
do that and we have this standard and they don't have, well, you know, just be, that's
between you and God.
It's between you and God.
Make sure you keep your heart right and make sure that we don't, because some people get
to a point where they actually start, like the Pharisees here, transgressing the commandments
of God by their traditions and they start actually committing sin.
When God tells you to love your neighbor, when God tells you to speak evil of no man,
but you're going to break those commandments because you've got these standards.
Nothing wrong with standards, just don't get a little too hyped about your standards.
But I just want you to understand, especially as a new church kind of getting started and
getting settled, you've got to develop some convictions.
And you know, when your pastor shows up here and he starts preaching some convictions and
starts preaching some standards and trying to help you grow, you know, embrace that.
And realize that he's trying to help you and we're all trying to help you to live a separated
life.
Why?
Because God wants to have a relationship with you, God wants you to draw closer to Him and
God wants you to be holy for I am holy, sayeth the Lord.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.