Don't watch my videos.
413, stand up, stand up for Jesus.
Page 413, stand up, stand up for Jesus.
Attending this morning, let's open up with a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father,
thank you for everything this morning. Thank you for getting everyone here safely.
Pray that you bless the singing, the fellowship, the soul winning, and the preaching,
and that you'd fill pastor with the Holy Ghost. Limit the distractions this morning
and help us to apply the message to our lives. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen. Our second song
Anywhere with Jesus.
Page 126
Good morning. Thank you so much for coming to that fast Baptist church.
If you need a bulletin, you can lift your hand real quick.
One of our ushers can come by and get you guys a bulletin.
On the front, we have our Bible memory passage.
We're working on Matthew 28.
If you can quote the entire chapter, you can receive a prize.
On the inside is our service and soul winning times.
Make sure that you are turning in your soul winning maps into our bin
when you get done with your soul winning.
We've been doing really, really well on our soul winning so far this year.
On the right, we have a list of expecting ladies.
We have our upcoming events, kids choir practice.
We've been continuing doing that on Sundays at 2 p.m.
And we're looking forward to hearing them perform for us
on Easter.
So Easter morning services, they're gonna be singing,
there's two different age groups
are gonna be singing a different song for us.
And so I'm looking forward to that.
This Friday is going to be the wedding for the Foley's and it's going to be at 6 p.m.
And if you have not RSVP'd, please do so
Brother Sam has provided that in some of our group chats and everything
But if you need to ask him after the service or you can ask one of us and we can help you get that RSVP
We look forward to that celebration. It's been a long time prayer request. So we're excited about that
Also, there's a spring swap April 13th
Then there's a Mansfield soul winning marathon the 19th. That's just across the pond
It's a Joe pool Lake over here
so it's just kind of on the other side of that and
We'll look forward to doing a marathon over there
Easter Sunday services April 20th, and then we have a ladies
It's a ladies tea on May 10th, but I think it might be a little bit different than we have done before
But my wife will have that organized
We have some church reminders down there on the back.
We have our prayer list.
That's really all I have as far as announcements.
We'll go ahead and sing.
Our Psalm of the Week is Psalm 67 and our special binders.
So if you can pull out your binders, Psalm 67.
And Brother Brandon is going to lead us.
Again, that's Psalm 67.
Come on, come on.
Bibles 2 Ephesians chapter 5. Again that's Ephesians chapter 5.
Ephesians 5 the Bible reads, Be he therefore followers of God as dear children and walk
in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice
to God for a sweet smelling savor.
But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not be once named among you as become
Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient, but rather giving of thanks.
For this ye know that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who was an idolater,
hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
Let no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things come at the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.
Be not ye therefore partakers with them.
For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord, walk as children of
light.
For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth, proving what
is acceptable unto the Lord, and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but
rather reprove them.
For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.
But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light, for whatsoever doth
Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Wherefore be he not on wise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is, and be not drunk with wine, wherein his excess
But be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.
Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.
Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the savior of the body.
Therefore, as the Church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands
in everything.
Husbands love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church and gave himself for it,
that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he
might present it to himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing.
but that it should be holy and without blemish.
So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies.
He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
For no man ever yet hated his own flesh,
but newershith and cherisheth it,
even as the Lord the church.
For we are members of his body, of his flesh,
and of his bones.
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother,
and shall be joined unto his wife,
and they too shall be one flesh.
This is a great mystery,
but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular, so love his wife even as himself, and the
wife see that she reverence her husband.
Let's bow our heads forward to prayer.
Father in heaven, I pray, Lord God, that you would bless the sermon this morning.
Fill Pastor Shelley with your spirit and help him to preach the message you've laid on
his heart.
Minimize distractions in the room, Lord God, and help us to apply the sermon to our lives
We love you and in Jesus' name I pray, amen.
Amen.
Before I get started, I also want to mention
Evangelist or Banach is going to be with us today,
but he's traveling back tomorrow.
And so please make sure to say thank you to him
for the work he's doing, encourage him before he leaves.
And of course pray for the work that they're doing
in the Philippines.
And it's great to have them here at church.
But we know that we're sending them out on the field
to do an important work as well.
And so please, please be in prayer for them.
encourage them. So I want to look here in Ephesians 5
towards the end of this chapter. I want to look at verse 24
again. The Bible says, therefore as the church is
subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own
husbands in everything. Now, what's interesting about
Ephesians chapter 5 is the Bible is using two different
scenarios or situations to compare them to each other
to illustrate a very important point. The Bible is talking about marriage,
specifically how a husband and a wife relationship is similar
to how the church is supposed to operate with Christ
being its leader and with Christ being the one that is in charge
and the church is completely subject to Christ
and how a wife is completely subject to her husband.
I've read passages about this or I go through this chapter.
I'm usually thinking about this from a marriage perspective and I'm kind of
focusing in a lot of those verses but the Bible's also making
a very important point here about church specifically and I'm really wanting to
kind of think about the church aspect that's being brought up
in this particular passage. Notice again the church is subject
unto Christ. Church is not a free-for-all.
Church does not have just unlimited opportunity to do whatever it wants.
The Bible tells us that church is subject unto Christ.
And that church has a master, it has a Lord, it has a chief shepherd, which is Christ.
And we are to subject ourselves unto Christ.
Now, because Christ is not physically with us, He is still here though.
It is this book right here that holds my hand is the King James Bible and this is Christ and we are to be subject unto it.
So we don't get to make the rules.
We don't get to determine how churches run.
The church is going to be run by the word of God, by the Bible, and that is us being subject unto Christ.
And so if anybody wants to know how our church runs, here is the instruction manual.
And we make it very clear that that's how we want the church to be.
If someone can point out areas where any of us
are not abiding by this, then we need to adapt, we need to change, we need to be
subject.
Just like a wife, if her husband said
I want you to make this change, she's supposed to just say yes sir and do it.
Now I know all the obedient wives in here are like, of course, we do that, you know, no problem.
But we also are supposed to be like that as a church.
We are supposed to just say yes, sir, and do it and make the changes and adapt to the Bible.
Now it says in verse 25,
husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the church
and gave himself for it,
that he might sanctify and cleanse it
with the washing of water by the word,
that he might present it to himself a glorious church,
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
but that it should be holy and without blemish.
So if you get the analogy being portrayed here,
the Bible is telling us that the way that Christ
is trying to keep us
without spot and without wrinkle.
And notice to be holy and not blemishes,
how husbands are supposed to also take care of their wives
and they're supposed to also have similar attributes.
But specifically the one that I wanna point out
is that church should be holy.
Church should be holy.
And the title of my sermon is coming from this
and my title is simple, church is holy.
Church is a holy institution, and it should be holy,
and we should be striving for holiness as a church.
When you read Ephesians chapter five, notice verse 32.
This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ
and the church.
Now, of course, we draw great.
Marriage tips and advice from Ephesians 5,
but you have to understand that the Bible is really emphasizing
the church aspect of this passage
and saying the most important aspect that we should...
the wisdom that we should glean from this chapter
is about the church.
The church needs to be subject unto Christ.
And I think the more that a church is subject unto Christ,
the more it'll help women to also be subject
unto their husbands because they see that reverence,
they see that respect, and they see that example,
and they say, okay, the way that we treat Christ
in the church is the way I'm supposed
to treat my husband at home.
But how many churches today just throw this out the window?
And then, of course, those women are a bunch of feminists
who also tell their husbands what to do.
You know, as men, we need to elevate the word of God
and we need to subject ourselves to the word of God
so that our wives can see that example
and then they'll be subject unto us.
And in many ways, we have to lead by example of being subject.
You know, it's often thought like, oh, of course,
you know, you like a church that's misogynistic
and the men get to decide what to do.
You know, okay, in marriage, I am the leader,
I am the boss, but that doesn't mean
that I don't have bosses in my life.
I have plenty of bosses in my life.
We have our work bosses.
We have the government that's in control of us.
We have police officers and law enforcement
that's in control of us.
And specifically in the church,
we have this that's over us.
Nobody is without bosses.
Nobody's without leaders.
Nobody's without authority over their head.
And of course, we need to make sure
that we are subject under the authorities in our lives
as an example under those that are under our authority
to see, oh wow, he actually takes authority seriously.
And when people don't take authority seriously,
people under you will also not take it seriously.
We need to take authority seriously,
and we need to make sure that church is holy.
Go to Acts chapter 20.
Did you notice what it said
about how Christ gave himself for it?
What does that mean?
Christ gave his body for the church.
That's what is being meant by the pronouns.
And
We want to make sure that we understand why would we make church holy well because it was purchased with an invaluable price
With an unspeakable price axe chapter 20 verse 28
Take heed therefore and yourselves into all the flock over which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers to feed the church of God
Which you have purchased with his own blood
What is the price tag on the blood of Jesus Christ?
It's priceless. It's invaluable. You can't put a price on it.
So the institution that we're in right now has been bought with a price that is something that could never be afforded.
It's an immeasurable price, it's priceless, and so we should therefore then make it something that's special and something holy.
Just like the blood of Christ is special and holy, then we need to make the institution that was purchased with this blood special and holy.
Go up to 1 Peter chapter 1, go to 1 Peter chapter 1, and let's get some more information on this.
And then I'm going to define for you what holy even means in the Bible, but the Bible is clear that it should be holy.
We should be holy first Peter chapter 1 look at verse 15
But as he which hath called you is holy
So be ye holy and all manner of conversation because it is written be holy for I am holy
So the Bible just makes it explicit that we're supposed to be holy
Church is supposed to be holy. It was purchased with the blood of Jesus Christ. Therefore it needs to be holy now
This is quoting
in the Old Testament Leviticus, chapter number 20.
Let's go to Leviticus chapter number 20
and see where the Bible is referencing the word holy.
I think that sometimes the word holy
is just used very loosely in society
and that it ends up having not very much meaning anymore.
Holy is a very specific word with a specific meaning.
And to make it really simple,
to be holy is to be set apart.
That's what it means.
Now, it's kind of a state of being.
Holy is that you are set apart to sanctify or to set apart is the process of becoming holy, okay?
So if you are holy then it means you are set apart if you are trying to become holy then you're setting yourself apart or you're
Sanctifying yourself and the Bible uses these three terms in a very congruent manner because it's describing the same process
It says in of liticus chapter 20 verse 7
sanctify yourselves therefore
be holy. So notice you're sanctifying yourself to become a
particular state. What is that state holiness? So you're
trying to be holy by sanctifying yourself. What is
sanctifying? It's setting yourself apart. And we're
going to keep proving this.
Frying the Lord your God and he shall keep my statutes and do them. I am the Lord which
Sanctify you how do how do we set ourselves apart? Well, God sets us apart
God sanctifies us and how does he sanctify us? He sanctifies us through his truth
This is the truth and this is what sanctifies us. This is what separates us. This is what allows us to become
Holy go good to exes chapter 13 go to exes chapter number 13
It's important that we prove these points and you know, I love preaching, but we also need to understand
Why we believe the things we believe and we understand when people get up and preach the things that they preach
Why are they preaching them? We preach things because the Bible is telling us to be holy
Why would a preacher get up and talk about holiness standards
and separating yourself and talking about the importance
of getting away from sin?
Because he's wanting you to be holy
because church is supposed to be holy.
And this institution that we have this morning
is a holy institution and we need to try and make it holy.
We need to be a holy institution.
Okay, just being here today isn't going to make it special.
Us sanctifying ourselves and setting ourselves apart,
that is what's going to make it holy,
and God wants his institution of church to be holy.
Now it says in Exodus 13, look at verse 2.
Sanctify unto me all the firstborn.
What's ever open to the womb among the children of Israel,
both of man and of beast, it is mine.
Now I'm using this to help you understand the words
that are used in the Bible.
We had in Leviticus 20, it tells us that
we're supposed to sanctify ourselves to be holy,
so we see that connection.
Here it tells us to sanctify all the firstborn.
Look at verse 12, let's skip down.
He said that you're supposed to sanctify
unto me all the firstborn.
Then notice in verse 12, that thou shalt set apart
unto the Lord, all that open at the matrix,
and every first thing that come of the beast,
which thou hast, the males shall be the lords.
So in one way, he words it sanctify,
and another way he words it set apart,
because those are the exact same.
Sanctify and set apart are the exact same,
they mean the exact same thing,
and they're the process of how you become holy.
So then they're related and linked to holiness.
self-define these words through the Bible.
Go to Second Corinthians, chapter number six.
So we understand now from the biblical texts
that we're supposed to be holy,
church is supposed to be holy.
What does that look like?
How do we separate ourselves?
How do we set ourselves apart?
How do we sanctify ourselves?
Well, number one, the Bible teaches
that we are not allowed to fellowship
and have worship together with false religion.
You know our church is not supposed to be ecumenical now this word gets just thrown around where it almost has no meaning anymore
But true ecumenicalism is the idea the concept of mixing multiple religions together
So it would be like if we just had a Hindu section and we have a Buddhist section
And we have a Jewish section and we have just an atheist section and then we have the Christian section
And we're just all gonna sit here and sing kumbaya
That would be ecumenical by definition.
Now of course, there's certain layers of ecumenicalism
because you could even be accused of being ecumenical
within a Christian context, right?
Maybe you have a Presbyterian section
and you have a Lutheran section
and you have a Methodist section.
You have a Baptist section.
Some people would call that ecumenical
and I still think that that applies.
But it's not necessarily as ecumenical.
as having all of the false religions of the world.
Then some people would go even beyond that.
They would say, oh, you have Southern Baptist,
Missionary Baptist, Old IFB, New IFB,
and then they would say you're ecumenical.
Then there would be people that go beyond that and say, hey, you're not my exact flavor of new IVB and
You're ecumenical. Okay at some point it's absurd and you're gonna be on an island by yourself
Okay, so we have to understand if we're gonna take the true definition of ecumenicalism
It's mixing multiple religions now where you exactly draw that line. We're not there yet
But we know for sure that we have to skim off all false religions.
We're not allowed to come to church with all other kinds of religions.
Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, the flying spaghetti monster.
No, we're not. We're not obviously going to mix with that.
We are going to be separate from that.
And the Bible tells us to be that way.
Now, in 2nd Corinthians, chapter number six,
I just want to point out a few verses
before we get to the end of this chapter.
But notice that verse one,
the Bible says,
We then as workers together with them beseech you,
also that you receive not the grace of God in vain.
Now...
The whole context of chapter six is trying to tell us that,
okay, you're saved great, but don't just receive that grace,
the fact that you're going to heaven and do nothing with it.
We need to be workers with Christ.
We need to do something with the fact that we've been saved.
And in verse three, it says,
giving no offense in anything that the ministry be not blamed.
So God has given us grace and that grace will cover our sin.
And if you're saved by faith, you could never lose your salvation.
It doesn't matter how you live your life.
It doesn't matter if you walk away from Christianity.
It doesn't matter if you're a bad Christian.
You're saved and you're going to heaven.
But then, if you're a bad Christian,
if you don't go to church, if you don't get baptized,
if you don't actually do anything, what is that going to do?
Well, verse 3, you're going to cause the ministry to be blamed.
It's gonna make Christianity look bad and it's gonna make the ministry look bad and it makes Jesus look bad
And you know what? We shouldn't receive the grace of God in vain to where God gave us all this grace to extend unto us
So that we could serve him and then we don't serve him. He's giving us that grace
So we'll serve him think about it this way if you're late on your rent payment if you're late on a bill and
The company says hey, we'll give you a 10-day grace period. What are they hoping you're gonna do with that grace period?
pay your bill
They're not just giving you grace just for fun.
They're giving you the grace so that you'll end up paying the bill or making it right.
And they're just trying to kind of extend an olive branch towards you.
But imagine they extend that olive branch and then you never pay.
Wouldn't they say, well, that grace was kind of in vain then, wasn't it?
It didn't really accomplish much.
And in the same way, many of us especially.
especially first-time Christians,
maybe our past or decisions we've made in our past
were not that great, or we've made bad decisions,
or we've not lived the best lives that we could.
But you know what, God gave us some grace
and didn't punish us as we deserve.
Maybe we got away with things that we shouldn't have gotten away with,
and God gave us that long-suffering grace.
But you know what, we shouldn't just allow that
To end up doing nothing, we should take advantage of that grace
and actually serve Him and work for Him and do something with that.
Okay? That's the whole context.
So then, how do we do this?
God's given us this grace, then what do we do?
Verse 14,
For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness and what communion hath light with darkness and what concord of Christ with
Belial or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel and what agreement at the temple of God with idols for year
The temple of the living God has God has said I will dwell in them and walk in them
And I will be their God and they shall be my people
Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate say the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you
and will be a father unto you,
and you should be my sons and daughters,
sayeth the Lord Almighty."
So notice that the Bible is telling us
that we're supposed to come out from among them
and be separate.
So many people, they grow up in a false religion.
Maybe they grow up in just a completely different religion than Christianity.
Maybe they grew up in a Hindu home.
They grow up in a Muslim home.
They grow up in a Buddhist home.
And if they end up getting saved later in life,
well, they need to then come and join a Christian church.
And then God can give them that grace that,
hey, I know you were in this false religion.
You may have worshipped a false religion in the past,
but now it's time to switch.
Now it's time to actually serve me,
and it's time to join my kind of institution.
I believe Catholics fall in this category because they're idolaters and they're not saved and many
people that were Catholic in the past, God's giving you grace for all that Mary worship.
God's giving you grace for balling down on the idols.
God's giving you grace for eating a cracker and thinking you're eating the body of Jesus Christ.
God's giving you grace for calling some man a father that's wearing a dress.
God's giving you grace for all these weird things so that then you can actually get plugged into a real church and serve God.
Just like when the apostle Paul goes out into all the heathen,
And he's preaching the gospel.
Many of them, they were all kinds of pagan idolaters
and doing weird things, eating things with blood
and just all kinds of false demonic religion,
worshiping stones.
Well, God was giving them grace
so that once they got saved,
they could then join a good church
and actually serve God with their life.
Now, I want to show you that this is connected to what I've been talking about of holiness,
because look at just the next verse.
We usually stop in chapter 6 because of chapter divisions, but you don't want to stop.
You want to read the next verse, because notice what it says,
Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness
of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
Notice by separating ourselves, what are we doing?
We're perfecting holiness.
We're becoming more holy.
So the more we get rid of false religion,
the more we separate ourselves from unbelievers
and people that are not Christian,
the more holy that we become.
And as a church, we should be a holy institution
where we're not allowing false religion, unbelievers,
idolatry, and all these kinds of nonsense to creep into the church and to bevert and
change the culture of the church.
Whereas many non-denominational churches today, they're bringing in the Catholics.
They're bringing in all kinds of different false religion.
I went to church at a non-denominational church my whole life, basically growing up, and we
would have people that are Hindu.
We'd have people that are Catholic.
We'd have people that aren't even Christian at all coming and joining our services and
Now, look, obviously we can't know if someone just wanted to visit one time, that's fine,
but they're going to probably be upset pretty quickly because our doctrine and our religion
is not compatible with their beliefs.
It's not compatible with their situation, and of course they're going to be confronted
probably before or after service on changing what they believe because our church is full
of soul winners.
I mean, you can't hardly walk in here without getting just
the gospel slashed at you in every single way.
I mean, you got people coming up.
In fact, someone that comes and not saved,
you might have like 10 people try to get you saved.
And if they don't even like the person
that was giving the gospel,
they'll come and give it to you too.
They're like, hey, I wanna check, you know.
I mean, you are gonna get saved.
You show up and they're gonna confront you on the gospel.
Whereas you go to these other churches,
you could go there for 20 years
and no one will ever ask you how to get saved.
Hey, I'd rather go to a church where I'm asked 20 times
how to go to heaven the first time I visit,
then go for 20 years and never be asked.
And the one time I am asked,
it's not even the right gospel anyways.
It's like a repent of your sins
or have you given your life or surrendered your life
or accepted and then you're like,
what does that mean?
They're like, I don't know.
Well, then why are you talking to me?
Why are you even trying to show me how to be saved
when you can't even tell me how to be saved?
Okay, and so we want to go to a church that's actually separated and trying to be holy and we're not gonna mix in false religion
Look Catholics, they're not the same religion
We were doing a sporting event some of us men and after the event these Catholics wanted to pray with us and
Brother Jason was you know, I guess the person that they were trying to convince was just not the right person to try and convince
But they're like trying to get us over there to pray with them and this is like no
We don't believe like you. We're not gonna pray with you. We're not we're separating ourselves. We're gonna be holy
We're not gonna mix with you and do this.
Why?
Because they're idolaters, folks.
They have idolatry all in their buildings.
They have idolatry at home.
They're worshiping a woman statue.
You talk about feminism problems in America.
How about having a woman statue that you're praying to?
You know what? We don't pray to women.
We don't pray to women's statues.
We pray to the man Lord Jesus Christ.
We pray to God the Father.
And you know what? We don't pray to some father so-and-so.
We don't pray to some dead saint
that we don't even know if he was saved anyways.
He probably isn't a saint. He's probably a Diablo.
And you know what? We don't pray to those people.
We pray to God the Father
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And you know what? Mary is just a woman.
And Mary is not a virgin.
Sorry, Mary is not a virgin.
And you know what? Catholics are not saved.
The Bible said to not have fellowship with unbelievers.
Catholics are unbelievers.
They do not believe the gospel.
They accept it as a historical fact, yet they reject it
and they actually believe in their works.
They believe in their church.
They believe in their catechism.
They believe in their own personal sanctification
as means to go to heaven.
And you know what? They're not saved
and they have a false religion.
I'm not gonna mix with them.
I don't wanna mix with them.
You know what, they can join our team,
they can quit their team and they can convert,
but they are not welcome to come as is.
You know, there's all these signs out there
like come as you are, not here.
This is not a come as you are, this is come as we are.
And it's really come as he is.
That's what it should say.
Come to church as Christ is.
Be holy.
That's the type of church that we have.
And that's the type of church that I want
is one that's striving to be holy.
It's not one that's just saying,
hey, I know you're filthy and disgusting
and abominable, just come on in.
No, you're not welcome.
And you know what, we don't want to bring in
the abominations into our church.
We don't want to bring in the weirdos.
We don't want to bring in people
that want to worship a false God.
I want to bring in people that want to be holy.
And you know, when you approach church,
you should think about it as,
hey, am I coming holy today to serve the Lord Jesus Christ?
Go to 1 Corinthians chapter five.
So point one is this, we need to separate from unbelievers.
We need to separate from false religion.
We can't have fellowship with if we're gonna have a church
We have to be holy enough to say hey, we can't just welcome all religions
We have our religion and this is the one way we're gonna separate ourselves
How's another way that we're gonna set ourselves apart? Well, the Bible tells us in verse Corinthians chapter number five that we are to exercise
What's known as church discipline now? This is probably the most famous
a passage on church discipline,
but it's not the only passage on church discipline.
There's many passages on church discipline.
But what I like about this passage is
kind of the reality of the situation.
Now it says in verse 6,
your glorying is not good.
Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump, purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened, for even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us, therefore let us keep the feasts not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Now this is the phrase that I think we need to like get in our hearts and minds for a second for then
Must you needs go out of the world?
Okay, number one if our church is not gonna have fellowship with false religion if we're not gonna allow
Hinduism and Buddhism and Catholicism and all these other religions to join up with us
Well, we've already scraped off just like a huge percentage of the world
I mean, we're talking about like a huge amount of people
that fall into that category.
I don't even know what the exact percentage would be,
but we're talking about huge, huge numbers here.
We're talking about at least three quarters of the world,
if not 90%, you know, something just a huge number
that we just already said we're not gonna fellowship
with them, we're separating ourselves.
But then we go to another layer.
It's called church discipline.
And what is this layer?
What is the Bible basically saying?
It's saying if you're not gonna have fellowship,
if you're not gonna allow these people into your church,
you're excluding everyone else.
Do you understand what it's trying to say?
For then must he needs to go out of the world.
If you're gonna be in a situation
where you're not around any fornicator,
anybody that's covetous, anybody that's an extortioner,
or anybody that's an idolater,
well you're gonna be on an island by yourself
is what it's basically trying to say.
And you know what, that's kind of what church really is,
is it's kind of like an island
where you separate it from the rest of the world.
Because most people are not willing to fall
in this category of saying no fornication.
And here's another one that's not in this specific verse.
but is in this context, is being a drunkard.
Boy, if you were gonna say,
hey, we're gonna not fellowship
with drunkards and fornicators,
good luck being around anybody in America.
And of course we live in America,
so that's what I'm preaching about.
Look up statistics on this, and boy, virtually everyone has committed fornication.
Almost the whole world loves drinking and getting drunk, let alone the other ones on this list,
just covetous and extortioner and whatever.
But you know, church is supposed to be separate.
And you know why a lot of people don't want to come to a church like ours?
Because they don't want to be holy.
They don't want to separate themselves.
They want to be in fornication.
They want to be around fornicators.
They want to get drunk.
They want to be around drunkards
and everything else on this list.
And so they refuse to actually clean up their lives.
They refuse to separate themselves.
They refuse to sanctify themselves.
And therefore they have to be like the world
and act like the world and dress like the world
and have a sign that says come as you are.
But you know what, this is not a church where we just say,
come as you are, we say, hey, drop the booze,
no fornication, no extortion, no railing,
and you know what, get right with God before you show up.
That's the type of institution.
And you know why?
Because it's supposed to be a clean, without spot,
without blemish, holy institution.
That's what the church is supposed to be like.
Saying, eh, I don't like that.
Well, you know what, you don't like Christ.
I am supposed to be subject unto Christ.
And this is Christ. Welcome to the Word of God here.
Did you notice what it said here in verse number eight?
It said at the end of this,
but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
I want to go to church with people that are sincere
and care about one thing and it's the truth.
This is supposed to be the pillar and ground of the truth.
So, point one of how we're going to make ourselves holy is we got to get rid of all false religion.
Secondly, we need to exercise church discipline, which is virtually everybody else.
Let's just be honest, it really is.
People that don't go to a church like ours pretty much fall in one of those categories, typically,
or they're not willing to separate for themselves from the people that do fall in that category in their life.
I mean, it's almost everybody that's not willing to do that.
Pretty much you got other independent funnel of abdice
and maybe a few fringe groups
that are willing to live lives like that.
But the vast majority of the world are drunkards,
fornicators, railers, just everything else on this list.
And of course a railer is someone
that doesn't love the truth, they lie.
They spread lies.
Now go to Ephesians chapter 4, here's the third thing that I want to bring up, and I'm going to kind of dwell on this point for the rest of my sermon is that if we're going to have a holy institution, we have to separate ourselves from lying and from liars.
We have to separate ourselves from lying and lying.
I mean, how are you going to have sincerity and truth?
How are you going to be away from railers?
And how are you going to have an institution that's known for truth when you're filled
with liars, when you're filled with people that are lying and railing and doing these
kind of things?
You know, we can't have that.
We have to have a holy institution that's built on certain principles.
No false religion.
What is that?
Lies.
I mean, think about it.
What is false religion at its core?
It's just lies.
It's lies about the truth, it's lies about God,
it's lies about salvation, it's lies and I don't want lies.
Then when you look at this group of people that are sinning,
one of them specifically is all about lying, it's called railing.
And you have to separate yourself from that.
And then of course the Bible is making it clear
as a holy institution trying to be holy,
we need to get away from lying and spreading false information.
Look at Ephesians chapter 4 verse 3.
endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
There's one body, and one Spirit, even as you're called in one hope of your calling,
one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is above all and through all,
and in you all. Look, there's only one church.
There's only one God, there's only one Bible, there's only one Holy Spirit,
there's only one baptism.
There's not multiple options.
There's not multiple roads that lead to heaven.
There's not multiple ways that lead to God.
There's just one, okay?
We have the one Bible.
We have the one God.
We have the one baptism.
And we have the one right church, okay?
We're right.
Sorry if you don't like it.
Yes, you can be right.
Two plus two is four.
It's that simple, okay?
Now in this passage he brings up the need for teachers and pastors and these things he gave as gifts unto men
So that they wouldn't be tossed to and fro and they wouldn't believe all kinds of weird doctrine
That's the whole point. Skip down to verse 23
be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that you put on the new man which after God has created in righteousness and
true
holiness
Notice that we need to put on our new man when we come to church and we try to live the Christian life
We're supposed to be putting on our new man and what is it? It's true holiness
What is true holiness? Well, we've already learned it's getting away from false religion.
We've already learned it's separating ourselves from wicked sins mentioned in 1 Corinthians chapter 5.
Now, let's read the next verse. What's another way? Verse 25.
Wherefore, meaning this is the reason why, if we're going to strive for true holiness, wherefore, putting away
lying,
speak every man truth with his neighbor if we are members one of another.
What is one of the most important and crucial steps of separating ourselves and being a holy institution is just putting away
lying?
People just lie to us so much.
Can we have one place in the world
where we don't lie to each other?
Can we just have one place where we put away lying?
Can we just have one place where we're just truthful
and we're honest with one another
and we actually are trying to strive for what's right?
I mean, the lies are just so frustrating this world today.
It's so frustrating when you go out into the world
and you order food, there could be deceit there.
People changing prices, you want to buy a car, you want to buy a house,
you want to get in business, people lying. You get a job and it's not what they told you.
They don't give you the wages you thought you were going to get.
There's all kinds of gimmicks. You try to go buy a product and it's faulty,
it fails, it doesn't work. You go to a college, you're supposed to get a degree so you can get a job
and it's all lies.
You actually look up the source information for that college course and you realize it's lies and you realize the the author of the
Books a liar and you realize that everybody's just lying to you
You go and you get a degree in finance and economics at a university and you realize that's not how finance and economics work
You realize that all our government does is just lobbying and cheat at the stock market
And it's just filled with lies and you realize oh we need inflation. It's good for us
And then you realize it's just lies
to siphon off all of our money.
I mean, right now there's so many lies being uncovered
by our department of government efficiency.
This whole Dodge thing or Dodge,
I don't know how you wanna pronounce it.
Dodge coin or Dodge, however you wanna say it.
Okay.
They're just showing just so much money of inefficiency,
just so much lies in our government.
I saw some guy that's supposed to audit our IRS.
and they are trying to upgrade some of their software for our IRS, okay?
And they were saying typically, you know, banks that are a medium-sized bank
have to go through this process, and many of them have already done this.
He said a bank typically has anywhere from 1 to 100 software developers, IT personnel on staff.
And he said, our government has 8,000.
So they have 8,000 people on staff.
He said, usually you spend about $30 to $50 million
on this particular process or this department.
He says, our government's been spending 3.5 billion a year.
He said, usually it takes a couple years to transition.
He says, our government's been doing it for 35 years.
It's like, what in the world is going on?
Okay, I mean, and that's just one small example.
I think that Donald Trump and some other people had shared
our social security numbers and information.
There is like millions and millions of people
on social security over the age of like 140.
I think there was some people like, there were 200.
You know, but there was just like millions.
It'd be like a million people are between the age ranges
of 140 and 150 collecting social security.
That's just not real, okay?
And how do you have any trust in our government?
In fact, the trust is so low in our world today
that people believe stupid conspiracy theories.
Because there's so many conspiracy theories
that are true at this point
that some people, they just hit the yes to all of them.
It's like accept all, okay?
But here's the problem, when you do the accept all,
there's some Trojan horses
and some bad ones that are coming in with that mix.
Do not accept all conspiracy theories, okay?
And I get it, there's a lot that are true
and there's a lot of deception.
And I think they've released more information on JFK
and of course Epstein is a big controversy right now.
So like just trust in general is just so low in the world,
so low in our government, so low in our economy,
so low in sales and business and education.
I mean, the trust factor is just so low today.
Can we at least allow the church to not go down the same road and have the same type of just
no standards, just a bunch of liars and scumbags like Robert Morris or something? No, no, we should
have a higher standard and say, hey, you know what, we don't lie around here. We could be rough
around the edges. We could say things you don't like, but at least we won't lie to you.
And boy, people get so offended about preaching today,
but always ask yourself this question
before you get offended, is it true?
Yeah, yeah.
Because it just bothers me so much
that people get so offended at things that are true.
You have 99.99% of people lying to you today,
and then you get offended at a truth
that wasn't very palatable.
Or maybe it wasn't said super nice or something like that.
Instead of worrying about the truth being presented in a way that you like it,
why don't you just be refreshed by truth in a general?
And we need to get to a point where a church is just going to be truthful.
Now, I'm not saying, hey, be as blunt as possible and mean when you're telling the truth.
Obviously, we should learn out of grace and be seasoned with salt.
But at the end of the day, if you're just a liar, just start with truth.
I mean, even if it's raw and uncut, just start there.
And then we'll grow towards the fact that you can share the truth with grace.
But at least just give us the truth.
And people need to hear truth today.
Yes.
How can we be unified around the same God and the same Bible and the same salvation if we just bring in false religion?
You know, that's going to tear away the fabric of this institution, this church.
And, you know, people, they get mad about our church or church's like ours.
And I heard this accusation, and it's just absurd,
absurd accusation.
But they said, oh, some people, they don't want a church,
they just want a soul-winning club.
And I was thinking about it, and I'm like,
I do want a soul-winning club.
Like, what's wrong with a soul-winning club?
And like, if we're gonna have it,
like what institution do you think
should be running the soul-winning club?
Like, do you want Costco to start running a soul-winning club?
Like, do you want the university on the street
to run the soul-winning club?
Or do you think church should be the one
where we're running a soul-winning club?
But you know at the end of the day a soul winning club is not going to be effective when it's filled with drunkards
When it's filled with railers when it's filled with idolaters when it's filled with all these wicked evil things
That's gonna also destroy your little soul winning club that you have
You're not gonna have unity when you have false religion
You're not gonna have unity when you have the wrong Bible
You're not gonna have unity when everybody's drunk off of their mind when everybody's a fornicator
Look, if you just allow fornication to go rampant in the church, then everybody's committed
commit fornication.
And what do you think you're going to be thinking about when they show up at church?
Fornication.
What are they going to want to do when they get out of these walls?
Go commit fornication and get drunk and commit extortion and do all these evil things.
Whereas when you're not allowing that, maybe we could actually focus on doing something.
Soul winning.
I mean, of all the accusations you could hurl towards our church, soul winning club's a
great one.
I mean, I'll take it.
Man, they're just a glorified soul winning club.
Okay, sure.
What's wrong with that?
At least we're not a bunch of drunkards.
At least we're not a bunch of fornicators.
At least we're not a bunch of railers.
You know, why would I want to go to church with that?
You know, God is meeting with us here today
to have fellowship with us.
And the Holy Ghost is trying to guide us into all truth.
How are you going to be guided into all truth
when you're drunk sitting in the pew?
How are you going to be guided in all truth when you're just focused in on all this other kind of sin?
You know, we're supposed to be motivated and keep growing in grace and knowledge over Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
Why why would we want to grow in grace and a knowledge so that we'll keep going soul winning?
We have to keep the morale up of one another and we have to have the right price
You know, I've noticed that men who have good jobs that make good money have wives have lots of children
For some reason they're also great soul winners
I mean, you know, some people I think like,
oh, that'll take away from the soul winning,
but I see people that are having it all
and still doing it all in many cases.
And look, there's also people that are young,
single guys that don't have much going for them,
and they're doing a lot of soul winning
and praise God for them too.
You don't have to have those things,
but I'll tell you this, there's a lot of guys
that have all those things
and are still doing great soul winning.
So don't think that they're gonna take away from you.
And honestly, you're gonna not sustain yourself
if we were just all a bunch of single dudes.
If we're just a whole bunch of single dudes,
well, pretty much we're not gonna be able to pass it on
to the next generation.
Our fellowships aren't gonna be as good.
The food isn't gonna be as good, okay?
It's not gonna, it's gonna be ugly in here, okay?
Real, real ugly and stinky and smelly.
And you know what?
Women bring a great added element to the institution.
And the children bring in just a sweet spirit.
You want the sweet spirit, it's the children, okay?
I don't have that, they have it, okay?
And if you have a sweet spirit as a pastor,
you need to grow up and become a man, okay?
Because at the end of the day,
you know, we all bring something to the table.
I don't need to bring the sweet spirit.
There's ladies and children to bring that.
I can bring the rough round the edges leadership.
And we need some men that are going to be leaders.
We need men that are going to say the truth
whether you like it or not.
We need men to throw people out of the church.
We need some men to go out and fight the hard battles.
We need men to go out in the workplace
where there's a bunch of snakes out there
and make a good, honest, hard living out there
so we can pay for these institutions.
We need some real men out there, okay?
You know, have a sweet spirit in the business world today
and you'll get ripped off, taken advantage of,
and nothing will be accomplished.
I don't think David had a sweet spirit
when he told Goliath that he was gonna take his head off
and he was gonna feed it to the birds of the air.
That wasn't very sweet, but you know what, I liked it.
And at the end of the day, you know,
there's nothing wrong with having a soul winning club.
We need more soul winning clubs in this world, not less.
And we need to be separate from false religion
to keep our club, and we need to be separate
from fornicators, covetous, idolaters,
railers, drunkers, extortioners.
I looked up statistics about this,
70% of people cohabitate now before marriage in America.
70%, 95% of people are not pure on their wedding night.
95% of people so I can see those statistics when the Bible saying hey you
must need to go out of the world yeah if you're gonna be a church that doesn't
separate from fornicators well then you know what you're just not separating
yourself
And if you do, of course, people are gonna be like,
oh man, y'all are so different, you're so unique,
oh, there's all these standards, there's all these rules.
There's not even that many rules, if you think about it.
It's just you don't like them
because the whole world's participating
in these wicked sins and focused on the wrong thing.
You know, evil dictators and communists have basically said,
hey, give them bread and circuses,
give them fornication and food and drunkenness,
and they'll never revolt,
they'll just be focused on that the whole time.
The devil is the same devil, folks.
He knows if he just gives you booze and some food
and throws some entertainment your way,
you'll never do anything.
Because we're all just lazy and the flesh is lazy
and the flesh loves to just overindulge
and we could just sit there and just eat, drink and be merry
and just live our lives doing nothing.
You know what?
Church is not that institution.
We are a soul winning club.
We're not just here to get drunk and be merry.
We're here to do some work.
and where to work for the Lord Jesus Christ,
and we need an institution to be the truth.
Go if you went to 1 Timothy chapter number three.
There is rules around here,
and we have to behave ourselves.
We're not allowed to be liars.
Lying is not tolerated at church.
And when you just allow a little bit of lies
to creep into church, just a little bit,
you're gonna bring a truckload of lies.
And when the pastor is bringing in lies,
when the pastor's soft on railing,
you're gonna just bring in just a truckload of railing,
a truckload of lies, a truckload of deception,
all kinds of weirdos.
You know, we need leadership to be an example
of telling the truth and having a high commitment for truth
and having a high standard for truth
because everything rises and falls on leadership.
And when the leadership doesn't care about truth,
well, the lower ranks, it's gonna be a mess.
You know, we need a high standard for truth just so even the lower ranks can be somewhat
organized and somewhat truthful.
Because lies are just rampant in this world.
First Timothy chapter 3 verse 15, but if I tarry long, though may as know how the oddest
to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar
and ground of the truth.
You know why you're supposed to behave?
Church is not a rule-less situation.
It's not anarchy.
There are rules and you are supposed to behave in church.
Go backwards to verse 10.
Here's a major rule.
Here's a major rule for women in the Bible.
Verse 10, and let these also first be proved.
Then let them use the office of a deacon being found blameless.
Even so, their wives must be grave, not slanderers.
You know why it brings this up?
Because it's just a common temptation.
And look, men can be slanderers, men slander too,
but we all have our own proclivities.
And for women, being a slanderer
is just really easy for some reason.
It's just a major temptation for them.
What is grave serious?
We need women that are serious, not slanderers.
Meaning they're taking church seriously
and they're trying to behave themselves.
You know, here's my rule of thumb.
If you say everything you think, you're in grievous sin.
We should not be saying everything that we think we need to be holding our tongue holding things in and it's very easy to
Just repeat false accusations go if you had to Matthew 18 go to Matthew chapter 18
I want to look at a lot more Bible this morning
because the Bible is just really sharp on this issue
and we need to always make sure
that we're sharpening ourselves and being holy.
If we want to have a great church,
we're going to have to always kind of work on getting
the lies and the slander and the gossip
and the railing out because this is a big deal.
It's mentioned so much in the Bible
and it's just a common temptation for people
to easily get into lying again.
And then our institution is not very holy anymore.
What makes our institution holy and special is that we're getting away from lying.
We already separated ourselves in false religion.
I mean, how many Hindus are here today?
Okay, yeah, I mean, there's not any Hindus, okay?
There might be some former Catholics, but there's no practicing Catholics in here.
You know, there's no drunkards that I'm aware of.
There's no fornicators that I'm aware of.
Otherwise, we would deal with those issues.
So we've cut those things.
But aren't we all possibly, you know,
tempted with some lying or some slander or some rail?
I mean, that's just, that's always there on the surface.
Some of we have to always get at
and make sure that we're being careful with.
Look at Matthew 18 verse 15 more of thy brother shall trespass against thee go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone
If he shall hear thee thou's gain thy brother
But if you'll not hear thee then take with thee one or two more that on the mouth of two or three witnesses
Every word may be established and if he shall neglect to hear them tell it unto the church
But if he neglect to hear the church let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican notice again here's separation
We have the church and if there was an issue between people that can't be resolved and one person just clearly in the wrong, everybody's siding against them, well then that person has to repent or they're kicked out of church.
The church has the authority to basically say this one individual is not right so this person needs to get right or he has to leave. He can't stay with us.
and a publican.
It doesn't say as best friends.
It doesn't say go hang out with them.
It doesn't see be their gal pal.
It doesn't say have a bunch of chat groups with them.
It says treat them as a heathen man and as a publican.
And it's all of us treating them the same way.
We're all treating them the same way.
Now look.
If there's a heathen man, let's say I just run into somebody out and the public I'll still be I'll greet them
I'll be nice to them. I'll invite them to church or whatever, but I'm not gonna invite them to my birthday party
I'm not gonna invite them to hang out with my kids. I'm not gonna let them watch my kids
I'm not gonna go do a bunch of fun stuff with them because they're heathen
Okay, so I'm separating myself obviously if I work with the person, you know, I got to work with the person, right?
I mean, I can't necessarily I work with he then we all work with he then right?
So we can't necessarily stop from working with them, but that doesn't mean that you're going to the bar with them
That doesn't mean you're going and hanging out with them. They're not your best friend
You're staying away from this person until they fix their issue
You know if you don't
Think about it this way in a church our size
Who in here is friends with literally everyone your best friends with everyone?
It doesn't happen.
No one in here is best friends with everyone, okay?
So you have your own little friend group, right?
So think about it this way.
What if we exercise church discipline
and everybody that was not friends with them already
exercises church discipline?
But then their own little friend group doesn't,
because they were like, well, we were friends with them.
Well, then nothing changed.
Literally, you're making church discipline of none effect
because you won't exercise church discipline.
You know, if you are actually friends with somebody
in church discipline, you're the most important person
to actually exercise it.
Because when you don't exercise church discipline,
you're just letting them get away with everything.
I mean, how many of us go to the store
and we see the kid kicking and screaming
on the ground crying for candy.
And you're like, you're thinking like,
punish them, punish them, punish them.
And then they just hand them candy.
You're like, no.
That's how we feel when church discipline is exercised and then you go hand them candy
You know, I mean
You're you're the pertincent that needs to say no and if you actually are a real friend faithful or the wounds of a friend
It doesn't mean that you're not gonna be friendly towards them. It means you're just not gonna be friends with them
You say hey, I love you. I want to hang out. You need to get right
You need to fix this and give them some motivation to actually change because if you don't then they won't
If you don't then they won't just like your children
If you don't give them a reason to obey then they won't obey you have to give them a reason even when you do
It doesn't mean they will but you have to at least give them the opportunity
Maybe you don't like that point, but that's just what the Bible teaches
Look what it says in verse 20 for where two or three are gathered together in my name there
Am I in the midst of them? You know, we love to quote that verse, but what's the context?
You know what the context is we just kick somebody out of church and
Then who is God with the people that were in the church not the person that got kicked out
Hey, you didn't want to listen get out and then God's meeting with us because this is a holy institution and churches to be holy
And you know we love it's so funny
We go knock on someone's door and they're like hey, we're two or three together. You know he's there in the midst
And it's like, bro, you're church discipline.
Like no one, you don't even understand
the whole point of this passage.
Like this isn't church.
You need to clean yourself up and come with me to church
and then that verse will actually apply to you.
But that verse is not applied with you on the front porch
when you're holding a beer in your hand, okay?
That is not what that verse is bringing up.
Go over to Psalm 12, go to Psalm 12.
Let's look at a lot of verses here on lying for a moment.
Cause when you're a liar and multiple people in the church
are like you're lying, you better fix it or you're out.
We can't just let lying just go rampant in the church.
It's the pillar and ground of the truth.
It was purchased the blood of Jesus Christ.
We're not supposed to be practicing with the unleavened bread
or with the leavened bread of insincerity.
We need to be with the unleavened bread
of sincerity and truth.
We need some truth around here.
Psalm 12, look at verse three.
and the tongue that speaketh proud things.
God doesn't like liars.
Liars, deceitful people.
Go over to Psalm 15.
We're gonna skip through a lot, so be ready to turn.
Psalm 15, look at verse one.
Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle?
Who shall dwell in thy holy hill?
He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness,
and speaketh the truth in his heart.
He that biteeth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbor, nor takeeth her approach against his neighbor.
Notice again, the person in church is the person that speaketh truth in his heart.
He's not the person that backbites with his tongue, or takes up her approach against his neighbor.
Go to Psalm 78. Go to Psalm 78.
Church is not a hospital. It's not an institution for the sick.
It's an institution for the people that are willing to clean themselves up.
I hear this all the time, church is a hospital, wrong.
Wrong.
No, you went to the hospital, wasn't the Bible?
Without the camp, go without the camp, get clean,
then you can come back in.
It was not like, hey, let's bring every disease person
into church.
It was like, get every disease person out,
get all the leaven out, get all the insincerity out.
We don't, how is a church gonna be successful
if we're all insincere?
We need to be sincere we need to love the truth if you're not sincere you can go join any non-denom church whenever you want
They are very insincere. Yeah
It's it's it's fake. It's Wells Fargo fake. Okay?
Wells Fargo, they're not happy to see you. They don't like their job. They're smiling so you won't
write them up and they get fired and
For some reason you go to these other churches and it's all fake. It's all hey, how are you?
And then as soon as you turn around, they'll be like,
oh, she's so ugly, I hate her.
I can't stand her.
That, you're like, is that real?
That's every church that I was a part of and grew up in.
Boy, the women were just so mean.
And I'm just thinking like, wow, that's a disgusting attitude.
That's a gross attitude.
Do you really want to go to church where everybody's kind of smiling at you and then as soon as
you turn around, they're just gnashing on you with their teeth, and they're texting
about you behind your back, and they're just gossiping and lying about you?
You know, hey, if we find that out, you're going to have to fix that.
We don't tolerate that in that church.
Now, of course, there's a temptation to do it.
You might have those thoughts, but you better just say, buy to those thoughts and change,
right, repent.
Don't be like that.
Don't have that attitude.
We're supposed to love one another.
and they remembered that God was their rock
and the high God, they were demer.
Nevertheless, they did flatter him with their mouth
and they lied on them with their tongues.
For their heart was not right with him.
Neither were they steadfast in his covenant.
Now, I want to bring this verse out because
Some of these passages people say like oh, that's wicked people. I'm not a wicked person. Oh, that's workers of iniquity
I'm not workers of iniquity
But notice here in Psalm 78 and they remembered that God was their rock and the high God they're anymore
This is people that know this is God's my God. Yeah, these people that remembered God
Hey, they believe hey, this is my God. I'm a Christian
He's my God, but what does the Bible say nevertheless? They did flatter him with their mouth. They flatter God
They go to church somewhere and they sing all these praises to God, but they don't actually mean it
They'll sit there and they're not the non-church is saying I surrender
I
Surrender I
Surrender sorry, that's what it sounds like without the music
Okay, the music sounds really good, but it's just like this droning on for 15 minutes
Dude the hymns are like two minutes. It's like we sing four verses of him
It's like two and a half minutes. You go to there. It's like ten minute songs of just the same jiz
Or you can get Jira, you know, it's just like you are enough
He is enough. I am enough. It is enough
for ten minutes
Okay
But think about it. They're literally saying I surrender for ten minutes, and then as soon as church is over
They're gonna go get drunk on the lake
As soon as church is over they're gonna go commit fornication
As soon as church is over they're gonna go back to the world and do nothing for God have the wrong Bible
Not even read it not serve him and go lie to everybody
They just flatter him with their tongue. They just flatter him with their mouth
and they lied unto them with their tongues.
Why?
For their heart is not right with them.
Neither were they steadfast in his covenant.
Problem was they weren't steadfast about his church.
You know what I mean?
They weren't even trying to do it right.
Now again, it doesn't mean that we couldn't be insincere too.
There's people that come in here insincere.
Lie, flatter, they're not real.
Go over to Psalm 120.
I wanted to do a little bit more preaching here,
so I might just fast forward a lot of these verses,
but the Bible is just hammering this point
of getting away from line.
The Bible says in Psalm 109 verse 1,
hold not thy peace, O God of my praise.
For the mouth of the wicked,
the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me.
They have spoken against me with a lying tongue.
They compass me about also with words of hatred
and fought against me without a cause.
For my love, they are my adversaries.
But I give myself unto prayer
and they've rewarded me evil for good and hatred
for my love.
Go if you went to the book of Proverbs for a moment Psalms 120 says in my distress
I cried on the Lord and you heard me deliver my soul Lord from lying lips and from a deceitful tongue
What shall be given unto thee or what shall be done unto thee thou false tongue?
The Bible says I am for peace but when I speak there for war you know the Bible's constantly saying deliver me from liars
Deliver me from liars go to Psalm. I'm sorry Proverbs 6 Proverbs 6 the Bible is telling us to get away from lying
that God's going to punish lying, that God doesn't like lying,
then why would I want to be filled with a church of liars?
Now, of course, obviously we've all lied before,
and we probably still lie somewhat on a somewhat regular basis.
But, you know, when we lie, we need to say sorry,
we need to get it right, we need to fix it,
and we need to try our best to avoid lying
and get away from lying.
And we need to be careful that we're not lying about other people
and we're not being deceitful.
Why?
Proverbs 6, verse 16,
these six things that the Lord hate,
yea, seven or abomination,
If you look at verse 19, a false witness that speak of lies.
I mean, he just hates lying.
Go to Proverbs 19.
Proverbs 19.
Notice how God feels about false witnesses.
Proverbs 19 verse 5, a false witness shall not be unpunished.
I don't want to be around you because you're going to be punished.
And I don't want to be punished with you.
If you're going to just bear false witness, you need to be dealt with.
I want nothing to do with you.
Notice this, and he that speaketh lies shall not escape.
That's a scary verse for you liars.
That's a scary verse for railers.
The Bible says you're not going to escape.
You will be punished.
That's why I want to get away from you.
Look at verse nine.
A false witness shall not be unpunished.
How many times do you see in the book of Proverbs
the exact same phrase in the exact same proverb?
Must be pretty important.
Hey a false witness shall not be unpunished and he that speak his lies shall perish
That's dangerous good. It's Proverbs 21 verse 28
Proverbs 21 verse 28
A false witness shall perish,
but the man that heareth speaketh constantly."
Now that's kind of a hard proverb by itself,
but when you compare with others, it becomes clear.
What did we already read?
False witnesses are not going to be unpunished.
They will be punished.
So what is that punishment?
Parishing.
He said that in Proverbs 19,
that he that speaketh lies shall perish.
You know, if you just live this life full of lying
and railing and saying evil things,
you know what? God will destroy you.
What is the person that heareth?
Well, if you read the book of Proverbs,
you'll know this instantly because the whole book
of Proverbs is all about hearing.
In fact, Proverbs 1, 5, a wise man will hear
and will increase learning.
Proverbs 1, 8, my son hear the instruction of thy father.
Proverbs 1, 33, but whoso hearkeneth unto me
shall dwell safely and shall be quiet from fear of evil.
Look at Proverbs 12, verse 15 for a moment.
The Bible says why is men lay up knowledge but the mouth of the foolish is near destruction?
So the person that heareth is going to speak constantly, what is it saying?
Well Proverbs 12 verse 15, the wave of fools write in his own eyes,
but he that hearken to the counsel is wise.
If you are just constantly spewing lies, you're going to be destroyed.
What's the opposite?
Listening, hearing, gaining wisdom.
What happens when you gain a lot of wisdom?
When you're just learning constantly and you're just being filled with wisdom and knowledge and understanding,
what's going to happen, you're going to have a lot to say.
You're going to have a lot to say.
Here's the second thing that that means is you're going to stay alive and you get to keep saying it.
Look when you don't have anything to say well, then you don't usually say anything and when you're not alive
You can't say anything
So here's the thing the person that's constantly listening and hearing and growing and getting more wisdom and knowledge is going to be
Constantly speaking because he has all the time in the world and he has all the wisdom and knowledge to actually discern and disperse that
You know you want to be a great preacher just hear
Hear this read a lot study a lot you want to be better at preaching the word of God. It's about learning
You want to be someone that speaks with wisdom,
you've got to get some wisdom.
You know, you say, I don't read anything,
I don't read my Bible,
you will never be a good preacher.
Great preachers read the Bible a ton,
and they just learn in general.
They're always willing to learn.
They're a lifelong learner.
That's what makes someone a great preacher.
And the preachers that I have great respect for
are very wise.
They have so much to say.
They have more to say than they have time for.
Whereas the fool,
he doesn't have anything to say,
so he just lies.
Think about it someone that lives an interesting life and knows a lot when you hang around with them
They're just telling you school stories and things they read and stuff
They find interesting someone that has a boring life that all they do is watch TV
They have nothing interesting to say so they just make up stories
They just lie about things and they spread gossip and rumor
because they have nothing interesting to say,
so they just have to make stuff up
and spread lies and false information.
Because you know what, someone that has interesting things
to say will say interesting things.
Someone that has nothing interesting to say
will just rail all the time.
And so when you're around railers,
just know this is someone that doesn't learn,
it's someone that doesn't study,
it's someone that doesn't know anything,
and is a false witness,
and is not the person you wanna learn from.
You wanna learn from someone that's wise.
You want to be careful who you're listening to,
and you know what, someone that's constantly railing
and lying is not someone you want to learn from.
They have nothing to say that's good.
Go to Proverbs 25 and look at verse 18.
Go to Proverbs 25 verse 18.
You know, good sermons, and I can do this for myself,
are often where I learn 10 hours worth of content
and then I have to deliver it in an hour.
It's not, I have five minutes worth of content
and I have to stretch it to an hour.
You know, that is not the kind of preaching that you want.
And there's a lot of people out there that they're doing that.
You go to non, why do they have 15 minute sermons?
Why do they have 20 minute sermons?
They have nothing to say.
Why is it that the traveling evangelist
has the exact same sermon that he preaches
every single church service?
I mean, I would only change sermons just for myself,
let alone the congregation.
I can't imagine getting up and doing a song
and dance for everybody often.
I remember when I had to preach four sermons a week
for three years when I was going to Pure Words every week.
Tons of people were telling me like,
just preach the same sermon, preach the same sermon.
I was like, no, it's like I don't want to do that.
Number one, I don't want to phone it in.
Number two, I have enough to say.
And number three, I'm just doing it for myself.
I don't want to sit here and preach the same thing.
It becomes stale.
It breeds worms and becomes stale.
You know, I don't want that.
I want something fresh.
There's so much in this.
You can't preach all of this.
You could never preach all of this.
And then even then when you preach it all,
you got to re-preach it in a different light.
with more wisdom Proverbs 25 verse 18 a man that bear false witness against his neighbors a mall
A mall is not a place where you go shopping that's like hell, okay?
A mall here is like an axe, okay?
That's what I'm talking about.
Sometimes you think about mall like being mauled by a bear.
That's one way you can use this word, but another definition of the word maul is like
an axe type object, okay?
So you got like the axe, you got a sword, and you got a sharp arrow.
You know the Bible saying lying about someone is like physically assaulting them.
That's what the Bible is painting this picture as because it really is and so that's why our church, you know
We want to get away from these things. We want to get away from false religion and all the lies of that
You don't think about this the lies of the Catholic Church are like a mall and an arrow
Destroying people's souls and sending them to hell
And how many people have been drugged down by fornication,
drunkenness, railing, extortion,
to where they just aren't interested in the things of God,
get so jaded against church by hypocrites and false things in the church
that they end up not wanting to go.
I mean, I can't tell you how many times I've knocked on a door and they say,
I don't want to go to church because everybody's a hypocrite there.
They say they want to serve God and then they're getting drunk
and they're committing fornication and adultery and doing all these weird things
and then it turns them off towards Christianity. And it was just a Pentecostal
church is what they're really going to, okay?
Because Pentecostal churches are fake and they don't have the real spirit and
they're not saved and so they don't actually clean up their lives.
And that's why they're always saying everybody's a hypocrite here because they are
giant hypocrites. They're not trying to be holy.
And at the end of the day there's a lot of lying
Typically, lying is never a sin by itself.
It's used to cover up other sins.
I mean, if you think about it, lying is usually somehow in coordination with other sins.
You know, let's talk about some liars for a moment, okay?
How about kids making up stories about their parents and trash them?
That's evil, because it's not just lying.
It's also dishonoring your parents.
It's not honoring your father and your mother.
And let me tell you something.
Our society, for some reason,
just has an attitude of just trashing their parents
and it's wrong.
I know that the stereotype and supposedly the rule
is that when you're a teenager,
you have to have this rebellious spirit
and you have to hate your parents.
But let me tell you something,
I never had that spirit and I never want that spirit.
You don't have to have that spirit.
I as a teenager loved my parents.
I hung out with my parents all the time.
I had a great relationship with my parents.
It was them that kicked me out.
I didn't want to leave.
They were wanting to be empty nesters, so they were just like, get out.
And not because I did anything wrong, they just simply wanted to be alone.
They loved me, it was a great relationship, but they just wanted me to not be near them
in a close proximity, okay?
They were just done.
And I get it, it's okay.
But at the end of the day, hey, you don't have to have a rebellious spirit, kids.
You don't have to go along with the world and be like the breakfast club
Where the only reason y'all are friends is because y'all trash your parents together
Some stupid movie from the 80s where everybody has to say like their parents are bad or something
You know what don't get this attitude. Don't act like that. Don't be a liar
You don't even know what most of your the things your parents did for you because as kids you're just kind of oblivious
You're kind of oblivious to the first five years of your life that were really hard
Tying your shoes and doing your diapers and sleepless nights and you vomiting all over yourself
I mean just this week Ellie's coming in here to my I'm working and she just comes in and she's just got like poop all
Over her hand and her body and she's like help like I'm like I want to run away
But my wife was not there, so I'm just like, oh man.
I don't want to have to deal with that.
Who wants to deal with that?
No one, okay?
But she'll never remember that.
She doesn't even know it happened.
I could bring it up to her,
and she wouldn't even remember that it happened already.
And then let alone, just all the things your parents
is praying for you, feeding you, clothing you,
sacrificing for you, putting you in sports,
educating you, all the different things.
I mean, most of our parents just threw us
into public school and did nothing.
And many of the moms in here are sacrificing greatly
for home school education, home cooked meals.
They're sacrificing, they're doing breastfeeding.
You know, hey, you're not one of those formula fed kids.
You're a breastfed kid.
There's benefits.
Hey, you're not one of those kids that was just laid
on the floor mat all the time in some nursery
and you have this really flat back of your head.
Like if you ever see kids where the back of their heads
is as flat as this paper.
I'm there could be an exception, but I'm just saying most of the time it's because they were just laid on their back their entire
baby like their entire childhood
Because you know when you go to the nursery there's 20 kids and two workers
I mean they can't hold all the kids it's not fair for them and so you know what they get neglected
They don't get to be in mom's arms all the time. They don't get as much love
They don't have their brothers and sisters to hold them and take care of them and do good of them
And you know what, we need to be appreciative of what our parents have done for us.
The Bible says to honor thy father and thy mother.
We shouldn't be lying about our parents.
We should be the last person we should lie about.
Here's some other people that are liars.
Are people that get divorced.
What a liar.
What a liar to stand before God and everybody else
and say till death do us part and then get divorced.
It's scummy. It's gross. And you know what? It's an approach to Christ.
It's like, how dare you're making divorced people uncomfortable? Good.
You know what? How many nights are your kids gonna cry because you got divorced?
How many times are you gonna put all this trauma and inconvenience on your children and confuse them and ruin their lives
Permanently because of your selfish actions of getting divorced
You know what you deserve to be uncomfortable because divorce is ugly and you're a liar
You're a disgusting liar, and you know what you should be ashamed of yourself
And you know what if you got divorced and you can fix it get remarried to your wife
If you can't, well, you know what?
God's not gonna continue being mad at you,
but you better not ever justify divorce in my presence,
because it's gross and it's disgusting and it's evil
and it's wicked and it's lying.
You're a liar.
How dare you?
There's some people that just get divorce remarried
and then divorce remarried and then divorce remarried.
You know what the Bible says?
False witness shall be...
They're not gonna be unpunished.
False witness shall perish.
That's a bad lifestyle to live.
breaking your oath and you know not all of our oaths are made to God that's an
oath that most people are making to God they're standing there before their
spouse and God promise you make hey if you want to get married you better mean
it till death do us part and not be a liar you know it makes church look bad
and it makes me mad it makes God mad God hate is putting away here's another
liar is people that commit adultery because typically when they're doing it
What a lying piece of scum you know what adultery is evil. It's wicked according to the Bible. It's punishable by death
And you know what if I was the king of the land, I would pass that law right now. I just pressed the button right now
You know what God said that a false witness
Shall perish and even though man may not punish you God could punish you. I mean think about Samson
He's just living his little fornication life and just thinks he's gonna get away with it. Well pretty soon. He's just dead
People commit fornication in the Old Testament, dead.
The Bible says in the New Testament about Jezebel,
she committed adultery, and you know what?
God gave her a little bit of space to repent of that,
but then when she didn't kill, not just her,
didn't just kill Jezebel, killed her and her children
with death is what the Bible says.
All them that commit adultery with her,
he's gonna throw them into a bed with her children
and he's gonna kill her with death.
And we need to be afraid of God.
God will destroy people.
Hey, here's one.
Lying about your feelings about church to get ordained.
What a liar.
You know, filling out a pastor test
and on it where it says, where do you disagree with me?
You say nothing.
And then afterwards you preach all these things
about how you disagree on stuff.
You're a liar.
And you know what, you're not gonna go unpunished.
God will punish you.
Don't think, it's so stupid to think
that you can be deceitful about getting ordained
and they'll be blessed.
Because you know what, God can see through that.
Why would you get ordained to be blessed by God?
Because any of us could go just start a church
down the street at any point.
We could all just go find five people off the street
to call us pastor and just start a little house church.
Why would no one do that because they actually want legitimate ordination and they want to be blessed by God?
But when you're fake, you're not gonna be blessed by God anyways
What's the point of seeking legitimate ordination when you're deceitful about it? It's the dumbest move
Because it doesn't work
Because I can't hand you anything great. All I can give you is a special, you know spiritual blessing
But if you're fake God's like hot didn't work
I mean, I could sit here and pray,
I could lay all my hands and feet and toes on you,
and God won't give you that special blessing
because you're fake.
You know what?
God will destroy you.
And you know what?
There have been people that were ordained
as evangelists and pastors and stuff
that were fake and insincere.
And you know what?
Their work was destroyed
and they themselves are being destroyed.
All kinds of diseases are going on them and they deserve that how about other liars that commit fraud and deception to get money
But you know what they end up losing money
Hey, you want to take God's money God will take so much money away from you won't even be funny
God will bring you all kinds of medical bills and all kinds of other
Judgments and leans and all kinds of extortioners let the extortioner catch all that he half is what the Bible says
and just let all kinds of other grifters,
you know, some people don't realize
that the medical industry is filled of grifters
and extortioners too.
All these specialty doctors with their specialty things,
many times you go to the doctor and they make you worse
and they give you a $100,000 bill on top of it.
They're an extortioner, folks.
Okay, they'll just take advantage of you.
I mean, there's a woman in the Bible
that spent all of the money that she had on physicians
and didn't get better, she only grew worse.
And it's just justice, it's just poetic justice
to fraudsters to go get ripped off by another fraudster.
One of these fake doctors that's going out there
on some experimental medication
to try and hurt you and harm you even more.
You know, it's so funny, I was reading about somebody
that did this, they were like,
they're suffering all this pain
and their health's really low.
And they said that they went to the hospital.
And this is what it said, the first thing that happened
is they drew 20 vials of blood.
And you know, it's funny because like George Washington
and his lifetime, when he was sick,
they believed in this thing called bloodletting,
where they would literally just like cut you
and allow your blood to be poured out
and then they'd try to give you more blood
because they thought you had like bad blood or something.
But honestly, it just makes you worse, of course,
because the life is in the blood.
Okay, think about this.
You're not doing well, you're not healthy,
and then you go to the hospital, what do they do?
They extract all your blood.
They're like making it worse on you.
It's insane.
It's so weird that you go to the hospital,
and look, I'm not saying if you go to the hospital
for a birth, you're doing something wrong,
but this is what I really don't like.
I don't understand how we can't change this.
Why would I go to the hospital with my wife,
and they're worried about her hemorrhaging,
meaning losing a lot of blood during pregnancy,
and what they're gonna do is
they're gonna draw all this blood from her.
I'm thinking like what,
if you're worried about her having not enough blood,
why would you then draw all this blood for tests?
Like it's like the worst time like what's the absolute worst time to draw blood?
Let's draw more blood and
They just have all these people because you're just a guinea pig hooked up to a machine and they don't actually care about you
They don't even think about what they're doing. They think about hey
I can draw more blood and run another four hundred dollar test and charge you later
and
They don't they they're not actually thinking about how does this even make sense?
Yeah, I mean think about it if you were out there in the medical field and you saw someone in a car accident and they're bleeding
No, we need to stop the bleeding.
Like, isn't that just common sense?
Isn't it just common sense of someone's losing blood
to not draw more blood from them on top of that?
To not try to extract more?
And of course they think like, well,
we need this to run tests
because we don't wanna inject them with all this medication
and do all these things to like harm them.
But at the end of the day, it's like,
are you really even, is it a net positive?
I mean, how many people are you actually hurting
by taking more blood from them
as opposed to actually just leaving it alone?
And look, I'm not a doctor.
You get advice from doctors.
You get advice from hospitals and do whatever.
I'm just telling you from a common sense perspective,
it makes no sense to just go to the hospital
and say like, I'm really sick and dying.
And they're like, we're gonna draw 20 vials of blood.
And then they said the person's like veins were just like,
so sucked dry and just like inflamed
and they were just feeling even worse
and just thinking like, of course,
cause you just drew 20 vials of blood.
My wife, when she was younger, she had donated blood
and she told me, she's like struggled with me passing out
because you take too much blood, you'll pass out.
Here's the thing, if you lose all your blood,
something will happen.
It's called death.
You die. You need blood.
It's not a good idea to just extract all this blood.
But you know what? You're a lying fraudster.
Well, go to a hospital where they'll just treat you like a guinea pig
and they'll do experimental procedures on you
and you won't even know what's going on.
That's what's going to happen when you're a liar.
Go to Proverbs 17 and we'll finish the Bible says he that covered the transgressions seek of love
But he that repeated the matter separated very friends
There's one last thing I want to say and and how our church needs to be holy
Look, we need to get away from false religion
We need to have church discipline and we need to make sure that we're getting away from lying
But I heard this stupid stupid statement from multiple people even pastors this idea of well
If I'm repeating someone else's lie, I'm not gonna be guilty
Like I said, it's not it's not my fault if someone lies to me and then I just repeat these lies or something
This is dumb logic. It is not biblical. You will be held accountable for repeating lies
and think about the verse I just quoted for you,
he that repeated the matter separated very friends.
You know, when you're just repeating stuff
and it's not firsthand account, it's not verified,
you don't know, you could be spreading lies.
And of course, you know who also believes
this exact same principle?
Your Jewish media because you know what your Jewish media does the Associated Press puts out some piece of information
And then every other newspaper will just repeat what they said and then if they get sued they'll say oh
I was just saying what they said
and then it's somehow a loophole to get out of it.
But you know what?
It's still wicked and it's still evil and it's wrong
and you will be punished.
You cannot just go around just repeating lies
and think like, well, I'm just saying what they said.
You know what?
Then there would be no one ever held accountable for gossip
because we'd have to find the first person
never think that that's the only person that gets punished.
How does that even make sense?
Like that doesn't even make sense. Look anybody that repeats a lie is a liar
It doesn't matter if it was good intentions or not
And look if I lie about somebody and I thought it was true, you know what I should still do
I'm sorry and get it right and fear God and ask him not punish me for spreading that lie
I shouldn't sit here and think like oh, well, I didn't do anything wrong. I just repeated what they said
Now again, obviously, you could just quote somebody.
So-and-so said this.
I'm not saying you're gonna be punished for that,
but when you're repeating what they're saying
as a statement of fact, or you believe it, or whatever,
you are gonna be held responsible for saying that.
Proverbs 10, I'm just reading a few verses for you.
He that hideth hate with lying lips,
and he that uttereth a slander is a fool.
Hey, you utter a slander, you're a fool.
It doesn't say, well, oh, exception
if you were just repeating another slanderer.
No.
If you're repeating slander, you're a full period.
A tail bearer reveal a secret,
but he that is a faithful spirit can seal it the matter.
Look, you're gonna hear stuff all the time
about people that's unverified, you don't know,
you can't necessarily know for sure if it's right,
and you know what you do?
You don't repeat it.
You don't say it. You don't even believe it.
I mean the Bible says against an elder receive not an accusation but before two or three witnesses.
Meaning you're not even allowed to receive it. Let alone believe it.
When it's just one. And look it's not just an elder, it's everybody.
Like if someone comes up to you and says hey
did you hear about Brother Tanner? Don't believe it.
Hey did you hear about this?
Don't believe anything in fact, you know often. I just say how do you know and
This is what's so funny to me most of the time. They're like so and so told me. I'm like, so you're not even a witness
You count as zero you count as nothing
I have to completely reject every single thing that you're saying right now
You know if you're a witness well, then we can give some credence
But at the end of the day, I need multiple to even start receiving things and even doing anything with it
And let me explain something, one witness is not enough for any sinner iniquities, as the Bible says.
You know what a witness is? They saw it. They witnessed it.
If you didn't see it, you're not a witness.
So if you have multiple witnesses, it's multiple people that witnessed something.
Okay, and think about this logic because this is what people will do
They'll say like oh, I have five witnesses the pastor Shelley's a liar a bad person or something
And you're like, okay, who are they?
Well here it was somebody you kicked out in 2018 and then someone you kicked out in 2019
and then someone you kicked out in 2020 and then someone you kicked out in 2022 and then someone you kicked out six weeks ago
We know that's not five witnesses
That's one witness per event
You have to have multiple witnesses to the same event
before you can even try to deal with it.
You could still have multiple unreliable witnesses.
But think about that logic.
If that was true, then we would all be bad people
because I guarantee you there's more than one person
that dislikes you in the world.
And all you need is two people to dislike you
and now you have multiple witnesses?
Like, we're just making these words of none effect.
Okay?
What does the Bible say in Proverbs 17 verse 4?
A wicked doer giveth he defalse lips,
and a liar giveth ear to a naughty tongue.
You know, we need to be careful who we're listening to,
and we need to be thinking about this
because someone that's bad,
when someone comes to you and says something,
instead of asking, are you a witness, did you hear it?
Thinking about how many witnesses, they just receive it.
Bad people just receive information from a singular source all the time and it's a proof that they're bad.
Look, we can all get tricked, we can all get deceived, we can all be wrong about something.
No one is perfect, but someone that receives one witness testimony or one person's word as just truth, that person's a bad person.
That's what the Bible is saying.
The Bible is basically saying, when you see someone
and they're like, hey, I have one witness
and I believe this is true,
just know this is a bad person.
Because a good person would say, well, it's only one
and I don't know if it's true.
That's a good person, that's a good heart.
A wicked doer will give heed to false lips
because when you don't have these kind of principles,
you're gonna constantly receive all kinds of lies
with some truth.
Whereas someone that says, you know what?
I need multiple witnesses.
I need to verify this.
I need to check it.
They won't end up giving heed to a bunch of false lips.
They won't allow a bunch of people to lie to them and take advantage of them.
You have to understand this verse is very important.
It's very powerful.
If someone gets up and publicly admits, I'm believing the testimony of one witness, they're
almost just saying like, I'm a bad person.
You should be very careful with that individual, okay?
We need to make sure that we're not those type of people,
and we don't want a church like that.
Cause think about it, if we were like that,
we would all be hating each other pretty soon.
Cause all you need is literally one person in this room
to complain about you and they'll believe it.
How would you like it if after the service,
someone comes up to me in this church and just says,
hey, so and so, they're a bad person,
they're a rep or bait, throw them out of church.
What more do we need?
What more testimony do we need?
And I just walk up to you and say, hey, you're out.
You're like, based on what?
Witness testimony, how many?
One, what did they say?
They said you're a bad person.
Okay, case closed.
I mean, bye.
I mean, you want that to happen?
You want your adversary in church?
You want just one person to just make up?
Look, there's been so many times
where people have made up the most insane crazy accusations
about people in this room.
I can't just accept that,
but a bad person will do that.
And sometimes there are a specter of persons.
It depends on which person it's their friend
or someone they like or their wife.
Oh, well, if my wife says it's just automatically true,
that is not how it works.
Hey, even my wife is only one witness.
I can't just believe everything that she says.
Now, of course, my wife's very trustworthy
and I do respect her opinion,
but at the end of the day,
I'm not gonna come against you as a church member
because of one person's testimony,
even if it was my wife,
even if it was my staff member.
Hey, we're gonna give people the benefit of the doubt.
We should always do so,
and we wanna have a church that's holy.
We don't want to have a church where we're just listening to all the lies and the gossip and the railing
and we make the church just a meaningless institution again.
If you want to have a long-sustained church, we have to make sure that we're avoiding false religion.
We're avoiding these church discipline issues and we're avoiding lies.
Let's close in prayer.
Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for the Word of God
and for giving us an opportunity to be holy.
I pray that you would just help protect our church
from false religion.
You would help us be protected from serious sin issues
and church discipline issues.
And I pray that you'd help protect us from lies
and listening to lies.
I pray that you'd help bless this church
so that we could be holy
and that you could be pleased with our church
and that we could just continue doing
the important work of soul winning.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
On page 49, meet me there.